I haven't posted about Laura Marling for a while after a prolific period in April / May - since then we've had a glorious performance at Glastonbury, a Mercury Music Prize nomination and news of new limited 7" covers single coming out on Jack White's label (order).
I think only The National have had more plays in my library in 2010 than Laura, it's not difficult to see why with just one listen to her. She certainly appears on the verge of even more recognition and mainstream success to eclipse what she has already received, and still only 20. These talented young folk make us oldsters feel sick!!!
Here is another lovely video, this time a wonderful live version of her second album's title track 'I Speak Because I Can'
I really thought I'd posted about John and Jehn after The Great Escape, but it appears I haven't, I saw them at The Hope late one evening, I'd never heard of them going into the gig but their write up in the TGE book made them sounds interesting, I am glad I went because their set was one of the highlights of the festival for me.
French husband and wife duo John & Jehn (with expanded live band) released their second album this year Time For The Devil (Buy) Apparently it's inspired by a short parable called ‘La Hora del Diablo’ by the Portugese writer and poet Fernando Pessoa - John explains: “It’s a beautiful reflection on the Devil who's described as a gentleman who would never intentionally harm a human; not a symbol of evil or an enemy of God. He feeds our emotions and inspires in us a love of art and of love itself, and the emotions tempt us and this turns to desire and frustration in our souls. The sentiments inspired many of the lyrics on the album, a desire to explore the darker side of the psyche.”! - What I think it means is ’80s-inspired atmospherics combined with dark-moody pop songs that all add up to a great album.
John & Jehn play:
4 Sep 2010 Secret forest festival, UNITED KINGDOM
5 Sep 2010 Offset Festival London, UNITED KINGDOM
8 Sep 2010 @the luminaire for THE BRUTE CHORUS album party london, uk, UNITED KINGDOM
More lo-fi / shoegaze / reverb-a-plenty piece coming up...
Trailer Trash Tracys are probably more last years new band news and have been surprisingly slow and releasing any follow up material since the release of Candy Girl last year (now sold out), but hopefully that won't be the case for much longer, the debut single was fantastic and it was released on a lovely red 7" too.
You can download a demo of Candy Girl and an older track Strangling Good Guys demo from their website here.
One of the albums of last year the self titled Pains of Being Pure at Heart LP (buy it here) was a joy from start to finish. It's fuzzy melodic pop songs were a treat and This Love is Fucking Right just a fantastic song. I finally saw them live last week at was impressed with their performance, if a little on the short side.
Hopefully that will soon change with their second album due out late this year I believe...
Their latest and fantastic single "Say no to Love" video:
Holly Miranda is a joy and you should go purchase her music - thanks to the magic of the Internet you can listen to it in full below and buy it here with a Rough Trade bonus CD (which is equally brilliant too) or from amazon. Holly is Brooklyn-based like it seems the rest of the world is!
The name of her album is The Magician’s Private Library and it came out about Feb time, so I am a bit slow to the party with this post, but better late than not at all... I was meant to see her a few weeks back, but something came up, next time she is in the UK I will try my hardest, there are definite TV on the Radio sounds throughout which is clear with the involvement of Dave Sitek as producer.
You can get a complete set download from NYCTaper. She plays for an hour and the track list goes like this: A gorgeous voice and a wonderous sound:
01 No One Just Is
02 Waves
03 Mark My Words [new song]
04 No One Can See Me Like You Do (Yoko Ono)
05 High Tide
06 Forest Green, Oh Forest Green
07 Everytime I Go To Sleep
08 Joints
09 I’d Rather Go Blind (Etta James)
10 Slow Burn Treason
11 Sleep on Fire
12 [banter]
13 Pelican Rapids
14 [encore break]
15 Singular Acceptance
16 Secret Identity
17 Hymnal
Anyway here is a group that's been getting a bit of buzz recently, 2:54 are a sister duo, Hannah and Colette Thurlow.
They've been annouced as support to Blood Red Shoes at their Electric Ballroom show in October, so that will be a chance for me to see what they are like live, which will be good as the three songs off their myspace are all rather good, Creeping is especially brooding and excellent.
Take a listen above, or on soundcloud below...
. Holly is Brooklyn-based like it seems the rest of the world is! 