oh, hey. it’s been a while, and it’s my birthday too, so what better reason to start blogging again and to give something away? mind, i’m not completely untraditional.. i’m also accepting gifts. i’d like this and this. and maybe this too. please. (thanks xxx)

this bag looks eeeven better in the flesh..

our friends over at young & lost club, a london-based independent label formed in 2005 by best friends sara jade and nadia dahlawi, have always been pretty cool cats. aside from their great taste in music - releasing records by bombay bicycle club, noah and the whale, everything everything and many more - i’ve always had a soft spot for this little label’s merch, too. their latest goodie comes in the form of the adorable kitty cat tote bag (pictured above), and they’ve been kind enough to let us give one away.

we’ll keep it simple. first off, follow us both on twitter.. @goodfolk @YALCRecords.. and then, have a look at the young & lost club mascots below and get your witty kitty cap on.

..like a boss?

we’re curious as to what each of the cats above is thinking about the other. i think the one on the left looks kinda pimp. but it doesn’t matter what i think, so tweet us both with your captions and the one that makes us chuckle the most wins. easy peasy!

we’ll announce the winner around midday tomorrow and the lucky person should have their lovely new bag just in time for the weekend. good luck!

but hey, if you don’t win, join the young & lost digital club to get an exclusive free mp3 download once every fortnight. win-win all round, really x

the first time i heard a song by the black lips it confirmed what my mother enjoyed spending most of her time telling me as a teen: all my friends are bad kids. i’m 24 now, and they still are.

that was back in ‘07, around the time they were still playing parties for free* in basements in hyde park. (*pretty much free. entry was a bottle of corona per person, which made up the band’s “rider”.)

fast-forward four years and the band are ready to release their sixth studio album, arabia mountain, on june 7th. i’ve yet to hear it, but with the press release including “hell-raising”, “digging deep into the roots” and “sean paul” in the same sentence, i literally can’t wait. can you imagine sean paul digging deep into his roots and raising-hell on a black lips track? fuck.

in all seriousness, i’ll let singer-guitarist cole alexander explain.. “we tried to do what we do best, and keep it raw, but we also opened up to working with a producer and experimenting with new sounds. we tried to keep doing what we’re doing, while expanding and growing at the same time.” and that producer is none other than notting hill’s finest mid-atlantic english-accented mark ronson, known of course for his work with the likes of lily allen, duran duran and amy winehouse. and, of course, sean paul. so, if i made you a little bit moist by suggesting the jamaican grammy winning reggae singer & artiste and former lead vocalist of the ‘dutty cup crew’ (thanks wikipedia) was featuring on arabia mountain, good! because he’s not. sorry.

the idea of the lips working with mark ronson, a mainstream pop-producer who’s climbed about as high as anyone possibly could on the commercial ladder, isn’t going to appeal to some of the band’s die-hard fans. black lips are a punk band through and through whose rawness both on stage and in the studio is at core of their “confrontational style”*, but i’m looking forward to it with an open mind. cole says, “we’ve gone in and done a whole album in a week. after our last album, we plateaued with that approach. we decided to spend a lot of time and actually work on this record. it ended up taking a year and a half, which is the longest we’ve ever spent. we had some good pop songs in the past, but they got buried in the swampy production. beefing up the production made a difference. it was a little outside the box for us, and a little outside mark’s box as well.” (*definitely not my phrase. seriously, press releases can’t half be a bit cringe..)

anyway, i’ve been looking forward to this gig for the better part of the past five months and it’s finally come around. here’s the poster for it..

artwork by the lovely kate prior

(prints being sold on the night, too. bring spare pennies.)

support comes from two wounded birds, idiot glee and the carnivores. not a line-up for the faint hearted really, is it? moshhhhiiiiin’.

doors open at 7.30pm and tickets are £11 (plus booking fee) from all the usual spots, as well as your two favourite local record shops crash and jumbo.

black lips at the brudenell social club, sunday 22nd may 2011.

hello, it’s been a while. it’s been a long and silly weekend, too. self-inflicted; sympathy’s uninvited and undeserved. still, in an instant, a boy comes along and makes things just a little bit better. there’s some irony in there, somewhere..

justin vernon of bon iver

i’ve not had the internet for a little while and i don’t own a radio. so when i overheard the words ‘new’ and ‘bon iver’ uttered in the same breath by somebody somewhere at some point during the gorgeously grotesque animate incubus of an existence i’ve called my life this past few days, i became anxiously excited.

i’ve just listened to calgary for the first time and it’s sheer charm could easily turn this sentence into a saccharine, convoluted mess. instead i’ll say, simply, that it’s a lovely song that has made me look forward to the new album by bon iver a little bit more than i thought possible. and, on a personal level, in the simplest way music so often does, it’s put a smile on my face. you can listen to and download the song below.

for emma’s been played innumerably and blood bank’s in the same boat, not forgetting a certain bit of self-titled solo work too. in fact, anything justin vernon’s made that i’ve been able to get my paws on i’ve listened to a heck of lot. and, without wanting to imply i’ve gotten bored of any of it, i’ve been looking forward to new songs by bon iver for a bit of a minute.

the self-titled new album, bon iver, is released on our shores and in europe on june 20th via 4AD, with the US having to wait a whole day longer for it’s release there on june 21st via jagjaguwar. aww, diddums.

oh, and if you’ve not heard, (i say that like it’s nothing.. icing on the bloody cake or wot!), the band’ll be touring the uk in november too. they play the o2 academy in leeds on november 10th with tickets going on sale this friday at 9am.

support your local independent record shops and buy your tickets from crash and jumbo.

see you there… x

it’s been a busy, busy month for good folk. (if you don’t know, good folk is the name i use to promote these days. good, eh?!) anyway, three of my favourite shows this month all happen to take place over the next week. exciting. read on..

sundays are usually quieter affairs. for me anyway. i like my sundays to revolves around a roast and my bed. but this sunday 21st will be anything but. well, i’m still hoping to find time for a roast, but with a double headline bill with both born ruffians and the acorn on, i doubt i’ll have much time for my bed.

born ruffians‘ first lp red, yellow and blue was one of my favourites waaay back in 2008. it’s just a fun record, and they’re a fun band. i’ve looked forward to seeing them live ever since and i’m really stoked and excited that the first time i catch them is at a show i’m promoting. they’ve got a new record out too, say it, which is equally super. but red just resonates with me. memories and all that..

bella union’s the acorn are hot on the heals of their new album, no ghost, and play at the brudenell for the first time. should be special..

formed in 2003, canadian 5-piece the acorn built up a steady fan base after the release of their 2007 album glory hope mountain. june 2010 saw them release no ghost, their second lp, a record in which the band stray slightly away from the alt-folk sensibilities of their previous album to reveal a more rock-driven diversity in their sound.

support on the night comes from fellow canadians young rival. they’ve been on tour with born ruffians throughout november and sound pretty good. worth getting down early to check them out.

tickets are £8 plus booking fee from crash and jumbo. £10 on the door. doors open at 7.30pm.

more soon..

brainwash festival, leeds’ premier not-for-profit diy music weekender, kicks off tonight to celebrate its fifth year running. read on for details of who’s playing where and when, as well as my pick of the bands in a weekend that’s promising to deliver.

brainwash began back in 2006 in the heart of hyde park, ls6, taking place across the brudenell social club and royal park cellars. with its diverse music policy it has brought a mish-mash of genres together from artists as far apart as adem and oceansize, whilst not forgetting leeds’ famous local music scene and uniting the cream of the city’s crop with their international counterparts. this year promises to be just as good.

opening proceedings tonight, friday 22nd october, is an artist that perhaps epitomises this spirit of brainwash better than anybody else could. jeff t. smith, aka juffage, the one-man machine from chicago that you’ve simply got to see to believe.

juffage, brudenell social club, 7.00pm

jeff moved to leeds about a year ago to study for a masters degree in music of some sort and it wasn’t long before he made a name for himself and was soon the must-see man about town. trust me, everyone was going on about him. it took me a while to catch him live, but when i finally did i was blown away. i remember writing something about mumford and sons on here over a year ago.. something about marcus mumford and his seemingly super-human ability to play a kick drum, shaker, sing and something else all at once. believe: if marcus mumford is doctor octopus, juffage is the juggernaut bitchhh.

another stand-out band for friday are the ever reliable cowtown.

cowtown, brudenell social club, 9.00pm

i mean, you can’t really go wrong with cowtown. they’re ace, each and everytime. i’ve not caught them in a while (i missed their now famous futuresound competition gig, balls!) and i’m pretty excited about catching them at the brude. they’re one of those bands who’ve been about for quite a while and, honestly, i don’t think i’ve ever heard a bad word said about them. get your dancing shoes on, they’re going to be fun. powerblingers!

headlining the festival’s opening night is musician and multi-instrumentalist martin luther king chavez dosh. or just dosh to you and me.

dosh, brudenell social club, 11.00pm

along with his mouthful of a name, the anticon. (home of WHY?) artist comes with an arsenal of musical instruments and ends proceedings a bit like how they started (juffage) - experimental electronica combining live instrumentation with samplers and a lot of loops. i’ve not seen him live before but i’ve been looking forward to this tour of his for a while. actually, i think he’s got quite a bit to live up to what with juffage opening proceedings on the night and him closing them. i wonder if he’ll be a worthy headliner, or if things should have been the other way around..

brudenell social club

19.00-19.30 juffage
20.00-20.30 nedry
21.00-21.30 cowtown
22.00-22.30 trio vd
23.00-close dosh

royal park cellars

19.30-20.00 nope
20.30-21.00 nitkowski
21.30-22.00 talons
22.30-23.00 two minute noodles

saturday 23rd, day 2. still two venues but now a total of three rooms, with the brudenell’s games room being converted into ‘brudenell 2′. from a personal perspective, it’s all about today for me. 26 bands, 1 dj. well, 27 bands actually..

special guests in disguise, brudenell social club, midnight-ish

let’s not forget the special guests. the VERY SPECIAL special guests. it’s been just over a year since i moshed out to them at a sweaty, sweaty brude and i’m super-stoked they’re back. i literally can’t wait! but i’m getting a bit ahead of myself, there’s still 26 bands worth of music to come before them.

sam airey at 3pm sounds about right for me. i reckon old sam’ll be a nice way to break myself in for another day’s worth.

sam airey, brudenell 2, 3.00pm

i’ve read the 23 year old welshman’s vocals described as being like a barrel-soaked aged whisky or something like that. he’s had his hands full of late and his fingers in a lot of pies, supporting i like trains at their album launch in an aquarium and playing in whiskas’ (forward russia, dance to the radio) new band honour before glory. he’s a talented chap and as many times as i’ve seen him play, i still look forward to catching him again. i hope he’s playing with his band because they bring another dimension to his live show, and i’m pretty sure he is. heck, it’s hard being impartial when it’s somebody you know, but that crock of poncy shite of a description at the start is about right. i mean, he makes me swoon and i’m a heterosexual alpha male.

again, it’s hard to seem unbiased when talking about a band i booked only two months ago, but paul thomas saunders is in my top 3 favourite leeds bands. actually, probably in my top 3 unsigned bands in the uk as a whole.

paul thomas saunders, brudenell 2, 5.00pm

london-born paul thomas saunders makes flawless folk-pop that’s effortlessly epic and marvelously melodic. his live show takes his recorded music to another level and if could pick one band over any other on the day, these guys will be very high up in the running. the future’s bright for this bunch and, without wanting to spill the beans before them, i hear they’ve got a three-date tour coming up in support of a pretty amazing band from duluth, minnesota. i’m sure that’ll be a ball for them.

four of the nicest lads in leeds, catch loose talk costs lives straight after paul thomas saunders.

loose talk costs lives, brudenell 1, 5.30pm

the past year’s been a good one for the london-by-leeds 4-piece, opening the main stage for wild beasts at live at leeds and supporting fools gold and maps & atlases amongst others. their angular, tropical chords make you move your feet and a fast-growing confidence in their live show has made them one of the most entertaining acts in leeds.

clashes are inevitable at any festival and 7pm throws up the first crucial clash for me. sketches or black moth?

sketches, brudenell 2, 7.00pm

i’ve probably mentioned sketches more than any other band on here. good friends, and a great band. they’ve just been on a month long tour supporting i am arrows, kill it kid and sparrow & the workshop, and are currently working hard in the studio on the forthcoming single due january. always a good bet.. but then again i’ve yet to see black moth, a band once known as the bacchae.

black moth, royal park cellars, 7.00pm

harriet and her gang of goths decided they wanted to go dark - i mean, real dark - and so was born black moth. the bacchae were always good fun because they loved what they do, but everytime i’ve spoken to harriet of late you can feel the excitement coming off her whenever you mention the new band. maybe i’ll catch half of each.

local metal’eads chickenhawk have recently announced they’re going on tour in europe and the uk with alexisonfire. big!

chickenhawk, brudenell 1, 8.35pm

before that, though, they’re rocking the shit out of the brudenell in what’ll probably be their last leeds show for a little while. their debut album modern bodies is out on 1st november and can be pre-ordered via the brew records online store here. and, for a limited time, they’re also giving away the new single ’scorpieau’ for free. download it here.

from one end of the spectrum to the other, glissando next..

glissando, brudenell 2, 9.10pm

apart from a european tour in september, there hasn’t been much in the way of glissando news for a little while. i wrote about them back in march: if you want a chuckle, have a read of this because i don’t think i’ve ever chatted so much shit in my life. i’ll summarise my nonsense: glissando are great. i will stand by this, though: “glissando make beautiful, beautiful noise”. you can download a free gizeh records sampler here.

and then… PURE FUCKIN’ POWER! RAD!

brudenell 1, sometime around midnight..

brudenell social club (1 = room 1, 2 = room 2)

1 14.00-14.20 dad rocks!
1 14.30-15.00 shapes
2 15.00-15.30 sam airey
1 15.30-16.00 mimas
2 16.00-16.30 plank!
1 16.30-17.00 himself
2 17.00-17.30 paul thomas saunders
1 17.30-18.00 loose talk costs lives
2 18.00-18.30 invisible cities
1 18.30-19.00 mojo fury
2 19.00-19.30 sketches
1 19.30-20.05 the plight
2 20.05-20.35 howard james kenny
1 20.35-21.10 chickenhawk
2 21.10-21.40 glissando
1 21.40-22.30 shining
2 22.30-23.00 yndi halda
1 23.00-23.30 rival consoles
1 23.30-00.15 SPECIAL GUESTS
1 00-15-close 65daysofstatic (dj set)

royal park cellars

15.00-15.30 canaya
16.00-16.30 yanni montoya
17.00-17.30 wooderson
18.00-18.30 diascorium
19.00-19.30 black moth
20.05-20.35 wot gorilla?
21.10-21.40 youves
22.30-23.00 holy state

sunday 24th. day 3. back to a total of two rooms, but the party’s far from over. milk white white teeth starts things off at the brudenell in the afternoon, an hour later than kick-off on saturday, and probably for the best too.

milk white white teeth, brudenell social club, 3.00pm

they’ve had some line-up changes this year. i think there’s been an addition. i might be wrong, christ, there’s too many of them to keep count. but i do know they’ve been busy in the studio working on a couple of new things. wonder if they’ll be playing any of that today.

leeds is full of multi-talented people. fran rodgers is one of them.

fran rodgers, brudenell social club, 4.00pm

born near nottingham, fran moved to leeds a little under a decade ago and like a lot of people she’s stuck around. it’s a good place for music, and better still for having fran a part of it. fran’s vocals are stunning, always, and her band is a who’s who of the leeds elite. definitely one to watch. and check out her website, she’s giving away her ‘green room ep’ for free.

i’ve already seen them once this week.. yonderboy.

yonderboy, royal park cellars, 4.30pm

they supported three blind wolves on wednesday night, having had a right mare th. they couldn’t get into their practice room and, so, couldn’t get to any of their instruments. considering they played an entire set borrowing the other bands’ stuff, they didn’t do too bad. i wonder if they ever got into that room..

post-rockers and another erased tapes records artist codes in the clouds make a returned welcome to leeds, having played one of our shows in june (with james yuill) and dashing off seconds after.

codes in the clouds, royal park cellars, 5.30pm

it was weird. they were late for soundcheck and then couldn’t even stay to finish their dinner after playing. don’t get me wrong, they did have a valid reason, can’t remember what, and all that aside they played a fantastic gig that definitely impressed everyone watching. let’s hope they’re a bit more relaxed this time..!

next, an exciting 3-piece even colonel sanders would be proud of.. castrovalvaaaaa

castrovalva, brudenell social club, 6.00pm

ere, what can i say? band with the best merch in leeds, hands down! and they’ve almost created themselves a new genre. i think they call it noise-hop. it’s a bit grime-y and a bit punk and a bit hip-hop and frankly fucking fun. they’ve not played leeds in a while as they’ve been touring non-stop. but they’re back. can’t wait, yeah!

and some more leeds noise for you, blacklisters baby.

blacklisters, royal park cellars, 10.30pm

billy blacklister and his shouty posse make you take notice. they were one of the five runners-up at this year’s futuresound competition and played both reading and leeds festivals. probably worth checking out if you haven’t already, then. cool t-shirts, too.

and lastly, what better way to finish your sunday than a bit of melt banana.

melt banana, brudenell social club, 11.00pm

i won’t lie, i’m not too up on this band. i know they’re huge though. huge and loud and very, very fast. and i love japanese bands. there’s just something about them. i think i’m in for an education.

brudenell social club

15.00-15.30 milk white white teeth
16.00-16.30 fran rodgers
17.00-17.30 kellermensch
18.00-18.30 castrovalva
19.00-19.30 humanfly
20.00-20.30 gallops
21.00-21.30 tweak bird
22.00-close melt banana

royal park cellars

15.30-16.00 master and the mule
16.30-17.00 yonderboy
17.30-18.00 codes in the clouds
18.30-19.00 traitors
19.30-20.00 dolphins
20.30-21.00 lavotchkin
21.30-22.00 blacklisters

tickets will be available on the door on the day, but save yourself a bit of money and buy them in advance from crash records and jumbo records. weekend tickets are £20, whilst individual saturday/sunday tickets are £10 and friday £5.

we have a few shows coming up next week..

good folk, autumn ‘10 (art by maya hayuk)

]]> http://thegoldenowl.co.uk/blog/?feed=rss2&p=1738 http://thegoldenowl.co.uk/blog/?p=1688 http://thegoldenowl.co.uk/blog/?p=1688#comments Thu, 01 Jul 2010 12:47:27 +0000 felix http://thegoldenowl.co.uk/blog/?p=1688

two of my favourite things, art and music, combine wonderfully to form warmest chord, a new london-based label with a seemingly new take on releasing records. or not quite, as the case may be.

limited screen-print by franz vesolt (edition of 75)

warmest chord’s first release comes in the form of evertide, an ep by jack tatum’s dream-pop project wild nothing, with three songs you won’t find on his beautiful debut lp gemini.

embracing today’s digital age, the label has done away with cds and vinyl and release their first ep strictly digitally with a plan to follow this model for future releases. but, because everybody loves something physical, each release comes with a limited art print designed by an independent illustrator as a personal response to the music. it’s a lovely harmony, and they’ve clearly got a niche, with franz vesolt’s phosphorescent screen-print for wild nothing’s evertide ep selling out in less than a week. hardly out-of-touch as some begrudged vinyl fans might have it; in fact, warmest chord is run by folks from rough trade and make mine records..

it’s all very simple, really, blending the boundaries between art forms is nothing new. i mean, how many people buy vinyl for the artwork? but, when you consider all of the costs that go into a vinyl release, warmest chord’s way of doing things makes sense. many small, independent labels come and go because they’ve banked on a big vinyl release that’s flopped. far from wanting to get into an intellectual debate on the merits of different mediums, i just think it’s clever to put the music first and not what format it comes on, and if mp3s are today’s cheapest and most accessible form then why not champion them?

evertide by wild nothing on warmest chord

the soundtrack to my summer so far, wild nothing’s debut gemini and its hoard of dreamy melodies and enchanting instrumentation is one of the nicest records you’ll get into anytime soon. and, if ever there was a more apt name for a label releasing songs by jack tatum, warmest chord have made available three previously unreleased tracks. ‘your rabbit feet’, ‘golden haze’ and ‘take me in’ are as sublime as any of the songs on gemini, anything but b-sides, and you wonder why they didn’t make the album in the first place. too much of a good thing in one go, perhaps.

as planned for all their releases, warmest chord are making two of the tracks on the ep available to buy for a frightfully cheap 50p/$0.75 each, with the third track available exclusively as part of the art-print package. (mind, i’ve just bought the two track digital package, having missed out on the sold-out prints, and i found the third track in my download too. a nice surprise..)

more info on this exciting new label can be found on their website, and you can follow them on both tumblr and twitter.

check out an interview with wild nothing’s jack tatum too.

evertide by wild nothing, available to buy now.

catch wild nothing at the brudenell social club on 27th july.

it’s been two years since mystery jets‘ second album twenty one came out to define the sound of the summer for many people, myself included, and, at last, the boys are back with a new album that’s due out on rough trade in early july. i can’t wait.

serotonin, their forthcoming third album, is out on 5th july and if the new single ‘dreaming of another world’ is anything to go by then we’re in for a treat. will takes up lead vocals, as he’s done in the past on songs like ‘young love’, and it’s a song as typically catchy and lovable as any mystery jets song. having been a bit quiet over the past couple years, i think the wait’s definitely been worth it. check out the video below, directed by yoann lemoine, shot in a glorious 8mm-like style with some brilliant dancing by kapil and snazzy shirts and haircuts all round..

‘dreaming of another world’ by mystery jets

anyway, there’s a bit more to this post than just to shout about new mystery jets music. the band are playing a myspace secret show on next tuesday 22nd june and it’s only happening right here in leeds. lovely! aren’t we a lucky lot.

described as an intimate show in leeds for just a few hundred lucky fans, the band will play songs from soon to be released serotonin as well as a load of old classics. when i heard about this i’d just spent the past week listening to making dens and twenty one, frustratedly wondering why i’d not seen them live since leeds festival ‘08, so you can imagine how excited i was/still am about this.

to be in with a chance of being at the show head on over to myspace.com/secretshowsuk and sign-up. it took me forever to remember my myspace login details (who still uses myspace?!) but i was more than willing to make a new account if i had to.

as for the venue? well, i can’t say, but sign-up and you might find out. except to say it’s my favourite place in the country, let alone ls6.. :)

today, monday 14th, sees one of the most blogged about artists of the minute, ariel pink’s haunted graffiti plays the brudenell social club tonight and i’m a tad excited.

if you’re into ariel pink then his latest album before today probably takes your ariel pink collection into double figures. and i mean into into, because he’s one of those artists who’ve amassed a cult following over the years and like a young daniel johnston he’s recorded an apparently infinite number of songs, many of which have surfaced online on blogs and mixtapes over the years, with fans of pink fervently searching out every recording they can.

an artist and an experimentalist in every sense, his latest offering on 4AD is an infectious blend of sounds both formal and abstract that work in perfect harmony. in ‘beverly kills’, a song that sounds like something churned out by earth, wind & fire, disco bass and keys are intersected with a gorilla’s roar and a tarzan howl, and yet this doesn’t feel as weird as it might read. it feels right. you’ll probably find yourself subconsciously howling along at that point in the song. the first video from the new album, a cover of the rockin’ ramrods’ 1966 song ‘bright lit blue skies’, can be seen below..

by steve hanft on gorilla vs. bear

artwork by kate prior

tickets for tonight’s show are still on sale in-store at crash and jumbo until close at 5.30pm this eve, and available online at seetickets.com. doors about 8pm.

also today is the release of leeds boys pulled apart by horses first single ‘back to the fuck yeah’ off their self-titled debut album that’s due for release a week today on the mighty transgressive records.

photo by danny north

released on digital download and limited-edition 7” vinyl, you can check out the brutal video below..

‘back to the fuck yeah’ out today 14th june

knowing these boys, i wouldn’t be surprised if the blood was real. they kick off their album tour tonight at the deaf insitute in manchester, before hitting the brudenell in leeds this saturday. more on that soon..