Suffolk 'n' Cool: SnC 193 - Wed 11 November 2009

SnC 193 - Wed 11 November 2009

Nov 12, 2009

Some frankly remarkable music this week from Oxford and Leamington Spa in the UK, New York and Detroit in the USA, Montpellier and Rodez in France, Stockholm in Sweden
I had to go over to the former Bentwaters USAF airbase near Woodbridge this afternoon. It has been a grey cold day after the 2 minute silence this morning on Armistice Day (Veteran's Day in USA). The base was active during a whole series of "real" wars until it closed 15 years ago after the mercifully non-violent Cold War.
It is easy to loose sight of the fact that the soldiers and airmen at that base may all have looked alike but they were each individuals with their own families, hopes and fears, doing a job that they had no say in after joining up.
Bentwaters is a pretty bleak spot at the best of times but I caught sight of this wall near the former aircraft refueling facility. The writing on the wall reads " POW [Prisoners of War] MIA [Missing in Action] "You are not forgotten". Indeed not.

Darling Dear - Little Fish (Oxford, UK)
I played Little Fish ages ago on SnC 117 back in May of last year (2008). Now everyone seems to be playing them, which is thoroughly good news, and they seem to be breaking into the USA.

Once in a very long while a band comes along with a sound that is more than just music; it is raw seductive impulse revealed through mesmerising vocals, raucous guitars and driving drums; this band is Little Fish. Hailing from Oxford, England, Little Fish is comprised of vocalist/guitarist/principal songwriter JuJu, a rail-thin force of nature (think Patti Smith meets PJ Harvey meets Chrissie Hynde), and drummer Nez, the propulsive undercurrent of the band, backed by a Hammond player in their live performance. Little Fish's sound is at once sensual and urgent, yet intimate and haunting.
Recently signed to Linda Perry's Custard label via Universal Motown Records, Little Fish's debut album BAFFLED AND BEAT is set for an early 2010 release. The album was produced by Perry herself, in her Los Angeles studio.

www.myspace.com/littlefishmusic

Harry - Marc Farre (Piermont, NY, USA)

Indie artist Marc Farre delivers cinematic pop/rock songs shot through with a raw, poetic energy. His voice is deep, intimate, intense. (Critics have called it "mesmerizing.") Equal parts open-hearted and hallucinatory, his music pulls you in like an art-house film.
Though he is based in New York, Marc Farre’s French background imbues his music with a European, art-house feel — a seductive ambiance perfectly paired with his driving rhythms, otherworldly lyrics and magnetic melodies.

While his past association with 20th-century giants Merce Cunningham (whose dance company he managed during the 1980s) and John Cage continues to drive Farre's creative vision toward the new, it is his visceral, open-hearted singing that really carries you out onto a tightrope — and leaves you there.
After a label contract, he went on to release his recordings on his own All Weather label, starting with Unsafe songs in 1998 and Man on the Sun in 2000. His third full-length CD, Secret Symphony, was released in June 2008. His Facebook Fan Page is at http://tinyurl.com/yfb9s9b
http://marcfarre.com
www.myspace.com/marcfarre

"Greens, Greys, and Nordics (I Am Robot And Proud Remix)" - Deastro (Detroit, Michigan, USA)
Detroit wunderkind Randolph Chabot has been touring relentlessly since the release of Moondagger, Deastro 's full-length debut on Ghostly International. Having just completed a sizeable UK tour with Hockey, the madness continues as Deastro unveiled a new single ("Tone Adventure #3") on September 29th, and is now embarking upon a fall co-headlining tour with Domino Records' Max Tundra.

First, a bit about the single:
"Tone Adventure #3" is an archetypal Deastro song, as Randolph Chabot sprints through catchy, melodic passages with maniacal conviction, howling about feet being “strapped to cannon balls” from behind a wall of electronically conjured atmosphere. Glockenspiels, spy-movie guitars, orchestral stabs, and alien ray guns all make appearances—as they should in any good adventure.
Next, the tour:
After a few dates at New York City's CMJ festival follow, Deastro hits the road in November, co-headlining a monthlong tour with oddball electronic genius Max Tundra.

www.myspace.com/deastro

Movember and podcrawl
I'm growing a moustache this year for Movember. I have decided to put down my razor for one month (November) and help raise awareness and funds for men’s health – specifically prostate cancer.
What many people don’t appreciate is that one man dies every hour of prostate cancer in the UK, more than 35,000 men will be diagnosed this year and that prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the UK. Facts like these have convinced me I should get involved and I am hoping that you will support me.
To donate to my Mo, you can click this link http://uk.movember.com/mospace/395470/ and donate online using your credit card, debit card or PayPal account.
Details of the podcrawl: www.podcrawl.blogspot.com/

Until the day I die - Bottle up and Go (Brooklyn, NY, USA)
A new genre to me: blues/punk

Currently based out of a basement in Bushwick, Brooklyn, wedged between 99-cent wholesale vendors, BU&G consists of Keenan Mitchell (guitar, vocals), Fareed Sajan (drums) and saxophone accompaniment by either Lucas or his twin Andrew Carrico (alto and tenor respectively). The two-and-a-half piece neo primitive garage rock band is known across NYC for their frantic freak outs, described by various press sources as 'neanderthalic' and 'barbaric'.
There is no doubt that BU&G has a slight obsession with death and bones, taxidermy and bootleg whiskey. Keenan writes lyrics that mix the language of the bible with the spirit of ancient blues hollers, western iconography, murder ballads, drunken dreams, morning tremors, hospital visits, jail time--rhythms that are indisputably alive as they call for their own death. They are narratives that mix their own lives with the myths of their blues forefathers, and that emerge as neither, a new blues form that is as much a Leadbelly song as a noise collage.

www.myspace.com/bottleupandgoband

Let's run - John Garrison (Leamington Spa, UK or New York or London)

The playwright Tennessee Williams once said, “There is a time for departure even when there’s no certain place to go.”
This oddly serene notion is something quite familiar to musician John Garrison, his life having served as the muse to his brilliant new work, aptly titled DEPARTURES. The most notable of these life changes was the transition from an established life in London to starting anew in New York. The City, replete with its clichéd dreams of life and love and open-endings, agreed beautifully with Garrison, even if his leaving London was at first uncertain.
DEPARTURES is as multi-dimensional as New York, a tapestry of song and emotion, its true artistry apparent when experienced as a whole. Garrison’s haunting voice and raw lyrics backed by the equally lingering instrumentals affects each and every listener in some way, everyone being able to relate to loving and losing.
We first heard Garrison's signature vocal quality on his band BUDAPEST's 2002 debut release, TOO BLIND TO HEAR (out through Universal Records in the USA and Sinnamon Records in Spain), and later on their album HEAD TOWARDS THE DAWN (out through Sinnamon Records in Spain). The single “Censored Memories” off of TOO BLIND TO HEAR was the second most played song in all of Spain in 2004, the year the album released.
Despite critical acclaim for his work with BUDAPEST, a new music scene was calling out to Garrison. Heeding that call required great sacrifice – it was during this period Garrison made the decision to uproot himself in favor of New York. “When I first moved to New York, I really left it all behind...my friends, my home country,” he explains. “It was like being a little boy all over again in this big city.”

Departures was released yesterday 10 Nov
www.myspace.com/johngarrisonmusic
www.Garrisonmusic.com

Dream Walking - "Big" Walker (Stockholm, Sweden)

Derrick "Big" Walker was born in Lawton, Oklahoma. He grew up in an artistic family, his mother and aunt both working in theatre, and his Uncle owning a blues club in Cleveland. Walker began to learn harmonica at the age of 7, and over the years has taken lessons in harmonica from Paul Butterfield, and lessons in saxophone from Bobby Forte, known for his work with BB King.   Walker writes and sings his own music and plays harmonica and saxophone in accompaniment. He is extremely versatile, mixing American folk music, blues, country, soul, rock, and funk. Walker played in Albert Collins band as well as Luther Tucker and Michael Bloomfield's bands. Touring with Luther Tucker's band for 10 years he opened for artists that included Lowell Fulson, Percy Mayfield and Big Mama Thornton. He's also recorded on six of Eric Bibb's CDs. Now based in Stokholm Sweden, he tours with his band throughout Europe.

Big Walker
"Dream Walking" (mp3)
from "Still Dream Walking"
(Blue Skunk Music)

Stream from Rhapsody

Buy at iTunes Music Store