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PLAYING OUT LOUD!
ARTICLES
Richmond Fontaine - Talking Heads,
Southampton - Sunday May 20.
 Fans
of alt country music have a treat at Southampton’s Talking Heads music venue
this month. The band Richmond Fontaine from Portland, Oregon have a date there
on Sunday May 20.
Their latest album “Thirteen Cities” saw the band experiencing the dry desert
climate of Tucson, Arizona to produce and record at the Wavelab Studios.
Calexico and Giant Sand, whose members contribute to “Thirteen Cities” record
there, as have Neko Case, Steve Wynn, and The Sadies. Their inspirations and the
soul of the South West of America are found throughout the album.
”Thirteen Cities” follows on from the sparse, stripped down, “The Fitzgerald”
(2005) and the alt country classic “Post To Wire” (2004). The album was produced
once again by JD Foster (Calexico, Richard Buckner, Laura Cantrell), who was at
the helm for the last two albums. Working with Foster and the Wavelab studios
the band were finally able to get everything in place to realize their vision of
a perfect album. Multi-instrumentalist Paul Brainard again steps in for pedal
steel and piano and the core line up of Willy Vlautin (guitars, vocals), Sean
Oldham (drums, vocals), Dave Harding (Bass) and Dan Eccles (guitars) remains.
While exploring the blurred edges of society, the music has evolved sonically
and has added a diverse array of instrumentation and arrangements. Joey Burn’s
accordions on the stirringly beautiful instrumental “El Tiradito”, a Calexico
horn section on the opener “Moving Back Home # 2”, organs, mandolins,
glockenspiel, pedal steel, dobro and vibes feature across the album. The sheer
range of the record, from the sparse Dylanesque of “I Fell Into Painting
Houses…” to the climaxing theatrical rocker of “Four Walls”, makes “Thirteen
Cities” the bands most ambitious album to date.
Vlautin’s literate lyrical style also landed him a publishing deal last year
with Faber & Faber which saw the publication of his first novel “The Motel Life”
- already on its second print run. “The Motel Life” is being published in
Australia, France, Holland, Germany and Spain.
Nicola Benedetti - Turner Sims,
Southampton - Thursday May 24.
 Named
BBC’s Young Musician of the Year in 2004, violinist Nicola Benedetti performs at
the Turner Sims Concert Hall on Southampton University campus on Thursday May
24. She will be playing Bach - Partita No 2 in D minor, Beethoven Sonata No 3 in
Eb, Op 12/3 and Debussy, Sonata in G minor.
Born in Scotland of Italian heritage, Nicola began violin lessons at the age of
five. In 1997, she entered the Yehudi Menuhin School, where she studied with
Natasha Boyarskaya. Nicola left the Yehudi Menuhin School at the end of 2002 and
has since been studying privately with Maciej Rakowski, whilst living in London
and enjoying her busy schedule.
Nicola has captivated audiences and critics with her performances and poise,
leading the Independent to say of her, “Benedetti has the gift of communication
in spades: an ability to make the music seem larger than life by sheer eagerness
of musical personality.”
An exclusive Universal/Deutsche Grammophon artist, Nicola recently released her
second album, featuring Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and a piece written for
her by James MacMillan called From Ayrshire. The album has received a
unanimously positive response, reaching No 1 on the BBC Music charts and named
“Disc of the Month” by Classic FM. Her debut album, recorded with Daniel Harding
and the London Symphony Orchestra, features a commissioned piece by John Tavener
and Szymanowski’s Violin Concerto No. 1, the same work which catapulted her to
nationwide fame after she performed it to win Britain’s coveted title of BBC
Young Musician of the Year.
During the 2006-2007 season, Nicola’s highlights in North America included
performances with the Vancouver Symphony and recitals in Boston, Milwaukee and
Kansas City (at William Jewell College). She will also continue her many
performances in the UK and throughout the world, headlining BBC Proms in the
Park in a televised concert in Ulster, performing with Paavo Jarvi and the
Philharmonia Orchestra, playing her debut with the Deutsche Symphony Orchestra
in Berlin, on a tour of China with the City of London Sinfonia, and many others.
In the 2005-2006 season, Nicola performed a list of high profile engagements
including her BBC Prom and Verbier Festival debuts and concerts with the Royal
Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra, and Philharmonia Orchestra. Her USA debut tour began with a
performance for the exclusive Academy of Achievement Summit at New York’s Jazz
at Lincoln Center and continued in recital at New York’s Merkin Hall and with
the La Jolla Music Society. She returned to the United States in Spring 2006 for
a recital on Ravinia’s Rising Stars series and a performance at the Kravis
Center in Florida.
Throughout the 2004-2005 season, Nicola took part in many prestigious
engagements, including her solo recital debut at Wigmore Hall and events in
Windsor Castle and for Her Majesty the Queen and at the Opening Ceremony of the
Scottish Parliament. Further performances included the Royal Philharmonic
Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, London
Mozart Players and the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields.
In addition to her performance and recording activities, Nicola has devoted
herself to humanitarian and educational causes. Since 2005, she has visited
schools throughout the United Kingdom in conjunction with the Sargent Cancer
Care for Children Practice-a-thon, in which she encourages pupils of all ages to
pick up their instruments and enjoy classical music. In early 2006, she
performed for Colin Powell at the Jewish National Fund meetings in Glasgow.
Nicola is also a UNICEF Celebrity Supporter. She has won several awards
including the Young Scot Award for 2006 in the Entertainment category, and was
nominated for two Classical Brit awards.
Nicola plays the Earl Spencer Stradivarius (c 1712) , courtesy of Jonathan
Moulds.
Little Toby Walker- Various Dates
during May.
 A
unique and accomplished fingerstyle guitar virtuoso from the USA plays a quartet
of dates in the South this month. Little Toby Walker plays at West End Centre in
Aldershot on May 9, Forest Arts Centre, New Milton on May 18, Dorchester Arts
Centre on May 19 and the Cellars at Eastney, Southsea on May 20.
Toby is adept at blues, rags, hot country picking, and coaxes more out of a
guitar than anyone can imagine, but the originality doesn't end there. He is
also a skilled singer and songwriter who draws inspiration from traditional and
contemporary music. Toby takes that musical foundation and creates something
uniquely his own and has been eagerly received in various venues including
concert halls, festivals and coffeehouses throughout the U.S., England and
Europe.
Toby’s passion for blues, rag, folk, and other traditional American music drove
him to leave an apartment crammed full of recordings, books and instruments for
the Mississippi Delta, Virginia and the Carolinas where he tracked down some of
the more obscure - but immensely talented - music makers of an earlier era. He
learned directly at the feet of Eugene Powell, James "Son" Thomas, Etta Baker,
and R.L Burnside, among others.
The talent, passion, and soul of a Toby Walker performance reflects these
travels. Whether it is telling the humorous and heartwarming tales of other
masters, talking about his inspirations, or astounding you with his mastery, his
performances are a feast for the senses. The audience is moved in ways that
delight them long after the encores. You can catch a taste of these stories on
his website in the "Blues Travels" section.
The love Toby has for his craft pushes him to share his history and experience
where he has performed in libraries and schools allowing others to share the
sounds, sights, and emotions of his unique abilities. His teaching credits
include, among others, Jorma Kaukonen's Fur Peace Ranch in Ohio. In 2006,
Carnegie Hall acknowledged his rare talents and hired him to augment and teach
in their "American Roots" program aimed at honour level middle school students.
This one-of-a-kind series demonstrates the history of blues music and
traditions, while teaching the history of African Americans as they migrated
from the south into the north.
His mastery of the blues was recognized in Memphis when he won the International
Blues Challenge Award.
Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter -
Railway Inn, Winchester - Saturday May 12.
 The
cosy Railway Inn in Winchester is the place to go if you like alt country music.
Oliver Gray and friends of SXSC have been staging Americana events at the venue
for several years, and this month Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter are the
visitors on Saturday May 12.
The word 'artist' these days is used to refer to pretty much any musician, but
few songwriters or performers approach their musical life with the degree of
intense concern as does Jesse Sykes. Although originally a visual artist (she
holds a degree in photography from the prestigious Rhode Island School of
Design), Sykes sings that "only music sets my soul free.” She's always, however,
brought a deep visual sense to her textually (and texturally) rich songwriting.
Raised in the cold damp of upstate New York, Jesse Sykes moved to the cold damp
of the Pacific Northwest and started to make music (described at one time by
Sykes herself as "spooky American music") that feels equally at home during a
drive across the desert as it does next to a cosy fire in the woods. Her first
two critically acclaimed albums “Reckless Burning” [2003], and “Oh, My Girl”
[2004], both recorded with her band The Sweet Hereafter are fragile, sometimes
desolate landscapes, evoking images of damp fields populated with leafless trees
and darkened rural roads smoldering with American folk idiom.
After wrapping up “Oh, My Girl” touring in mid-2005, Sykes wasted no time in
throwing herself back into songwriting, arranging, and expanding her sonic
palette. Perhaps most surprising among the fruits of this work is a
collaboration with respected avant-metal bands Sunn 0))) & Boris on a track on
the groups' 2006 album “Altar” a pigeonhole-defying move that nevertheless felt
perfectly natural in the context of Sykes' sometimes-mystical leanings and
expansive taste.
She also completed a new album with The Sweet Hereafter; produced, recorded and
mixed by Tucker Martine (Decemberists, The Long Winters) and Martin Feveyear
(Mark Lanegan, Kings of Leon), with additional recording and production by
Randall Dunn (Kinski, SunnO)))). Like, Love, Lust & The Open Halls of the Soul
is a musically deep piece of work, addressing themes of love, illusion,
forgiveness, and the universality of the human experience.
Her band (along with guest appearances from Scandinavian cult songwriter Nicolai
Dunger, jazz keyboardist Wayne Horvitz, and avant garde violinist/composer
Eyvind Kang) explore new sounds with a confident ease, from the lilting first
single "You Might Walk Away" to the waltzing sway of "Station Grey" to the
hallucinatory psychedelia of "I Like the Sound". Open Halls' guitar solos and
driving rhythms could easily be lost gems cut by Crazy Horse between takes with
Neil, yet the record retains the atmospheric beauty of much of Sykes' earlier
work as well.
The band's musical growth has been mirrored by the evolution and maturation of
Sykes' distinctive singing voice, which time has saturated with a weathered
wisdom that connects to something beyond the singer and the song. And the visual
aesthetic of Sykes' songwriting has never been more evocative. She says she was
trying with her new songs to capture the vibe of the early years of this new
millennium -- listen closely to Sykes' stark descriptions of isolation,
sometimes-swaggering toughness, fragile human emotion, and the possibilities of
love, and you'll hear a sound that perfectly, tenderly, and surprisingly
captures the sound of the 21st century so far.
Julian Cope - Wedgewood Rooms,
Portsmouth - Tuesday May 15.
 Former
Teardrop Explodes frontman Julian Copes is currently on a short tour to promote
his latest album “You Gotta Problem With Me.” The Wiltshire-based eccentric
stops of at the Wedgewood Rooms in Portsmouth on Tuesday May 15.
Born in Deri, Mid Glamorgan, Julian grew up in Tamworth, Staffordshire. He later
attended City Of Liverpool College Of Higher Education. His musical career began
as bass player with a band known as Crucial Three, which also featured Ian
McCulloch (future guitarist and singer for Echo and the Bunnymen) and Pete
Wylie. The band lasted for little more than six weeks, and disbanded without any
public performances or formal recordings. Cope went on to form other short-lived
bands before first achieving fame and success as the singer, original bassist
and primary songwriter of The Teardrop Explodes. In 1981 he compiled “Fire
Escape in the Sky: The Godlike Genius of Scott Walker” which was released by Zoo
records, and sparked renewed interest in the work of the reclusive singer;
though years later Cope commented that Walker's 'Pale White Intellectual'
outlook on life no longer held any fascination for him.
After The Teardrop Explodes disbanded in late 1982, Cope returned to his
hometown of Tamworth and soon began recording his first solo album, “World Shut
Your Mouth” released in 1984. This was soon followed by “Fried” which featured a
sleeve with Cope clad only in a turtle shell. Cope's third solo album was “Saint
Julian” and produced the single "World Shut Your Mouth", which would become
Cope's biggest solo hit, reaching the UK Top 20.
Cope was extremely displeased with his fourth solo album, “My Nation
Underground,” feeling that he had been pressured by his management into
recording something that did not represent his artistic intentions. He recorded
his next album, “Skellington” in secret during the course of a single weekend.
His management had no desire to release “Skellington” and Cope refused to record
any other material while he feuded with them to try to get his new work
released. In the course of this stand-off, Cope began to write his first
autobiographical book, “Head-On” as an alternate creative outlet. “Head-On”
primarily covered the years 1976 to 1982, focusing on Cope's time before and
during the life of The Teardrop Explodes, and ending with the break-up of that
band. This was followed a few years later by “Repossessed” covering the years
1983 to 1989 and the recording of Cope's first series of solo albums, as well as
the writing of “Head-On.
In addition to these two volumes of autobiography, Cope has since written three
other books of nonfictionincluding “The Modern Antiquarian,” a large and
comprehensive work detailing stone circles and other ancient monuments in the
British Isles published in 1998. “The Modern Antiquarian” was followed in 2004
with a study of similar monuments across Europe entitled The Megalithic
European.
Cope has settled into relative obscurity in recent years, preferring to release
and promote his work himself, rather than working with a major record label. He
continues to record new material both under his own name and with regular
collaborators under the band names Brain Donor and Queen Elizabeth.
Due to his responsibilities to his family as well as his discomfort with air
travel, Cope has not toured more widely in several years. In 2005, he dropped
attempts to plan a tour of the United States because a work visa could not be
secured through the INS.
Good Shoes - The Joiners, Southampton -
Friday May 18.
 London
indie pop/rock band Good Shoes who play The Joiners in Southampton on Friday May
18, have drawn comparisons to The Futureheads, The Jam and The Buzzcocks with
their catchy fast-paced riffs.
Good Shoes were formed by lead singer Rhys Jones and guitarist Steve Leach, who
often wrote and played music together as a hobby. Rhys and Steve appeared as a
two piece under the Good Shoes name for a friends charity gig (Tom-Fest) at a
venue in Kingston called The Peel in early January 2004. Eventually, they
decided to formalise their hobby into a fully-fledged band, bringing in Rhys's
brother Tom and then later Joel Cox (who was friends with Rhys and Steve from
secondary school - Raynes Park High School).
The band started looking for gigs in January 2005 and their first gig was staged
by a friend at Fitzwilliam College Cambridge University on February 1 of that
year. Their second was at a secret party on Eel Pie Island with Mystery Jets and
from then on they played as many gigs as possible in and around London. This led
to them playing the Artrocker clubnight in August put on by Artrocker Magazine.
At this gig, the band were recommended to their current label, Brille Records by
a member of the band FC Kahuna, and after playing In The City music festival in
Manchester they signed with Brille in November 2005. John Kennedy (a DJ at
London-based radio station Xfm) started to give the band airtime based on a demo
which was recorded in the bands shed, and a new demo, recorded at Southern
Studios started to get the band recognition from stations like Radio 1, 6 Music
and other mainstream radio stations, with both Steve Lamacq and Zane Lowe
playing the demo.
The band's first single "Small Town Girl" was released in 2005, which garnered
them a session on Xfm. This was released before the band had signed a proper
deal and was released independently through Young And Lost Club Records. 2006
was the band's breakthrough year, with an EP called "We Are Not The Same" and
then their first full single "All In My Head" released to critical acclaim and
an appearance on the Carling Stage at the Reading and Leeds Festivals which led
to their first TV appearance on the BBC2 festival coverage. They set up a
competition for 300 people to get a picture on their next single "The Photos On
My Wall"; this became their first single to enter the UK Singles Chart, entering
at number 48 on 6 January 2007. The latest single by the band managed to get to
number 34 in the U.K Top 40.
The band travelled to Malmö, Sweden to record their first album “Think Before
You Speak,@ with Per Sunding at Tambourine Studios, which was released earlier
this year.
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Featured artists:
see POL Articles
Richmond Fontaine Talking Heads, Southampton
Sunday May 20
Nicola Benedetti Turner Sims, Southampton
Thursday May 24
Little Toby Walker Various Dates
during May
Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter Railway
Inn, Winchester
Saturday May 12
Julian Cope Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth
Tuesday May 15
Good Shoes
The Joiners, Southampton
Friday May 18 |
Southampton's No 1 recording studio
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