Yeti Lane – a few more recordings…

I’ve bought the most recent Yeti Lane record, The Echo Lake and a friend has given me a copy of their first album. And to be honest I’m going a bit Yeti crazy. The more I hear, the more I want of their plush, glowing sounds…

I’ve also been going through the recording I made at End of the Road – it’s great, probably one of my best.

Six slices of warm, intimate electonica.

Fill yer boots…

Wave

The Echo Show

Sparkling Sunbeam

Warning Sensations

Dead Tired

Analogue Wheel

It comes on strong, waits till I’ve gone…

Genuinely can’t decide about this month’s Hot New Act, TOY. Lots of people talking about them, of course, and their record  has just come out to some sort of fanfare all around…

TOY

I’ve seen them play twice this summer and both times were pretty exhilarating affairs, lots of sonic boom and feeding back, liberal amounts of dry ice, great look and all the rest…

The record has its moments… not quite as good as I hoped, not quite as “murky” really; and nowhere near as good as their live performances. I like the mumbled vocals and repetitive rhythm guitar assault. I really like the reedy, Joe Meek-style organ that niggles away through a good few of the tracks. Not so keen on the tone (or tonelessness) of the feller’s voice when it does come through or the slower more ponderous tracks that wind the record down.

Guess it all comes down to whether you associate them with My Bloody Valentine (in which case they’re shamelessly derivative) or whether you listen to them with a psychedelic (or even motorik) helmet on, in which case, they’re bang on…

Here are a couple of tracks recorded over the summer, one at each festival (the two sets were pretty much identical btw…)

Motoring @ Green Man

Strange @ End of the Road

And here’s some video I shot of TOY at Green Man doing “Dead & Gone”:

I’m going for the drones of the Seventies….

End of the Road – a couple of videos

Best two sets of the weekend, I reckon…

 

 

End of the Road ’12 – Best Sets of the Weekend

So that was End of the Road. Lordy!

I had a ball, really, a much brighter experience than Green Man this year. To be honest, I’m not sure if it’s because of the weather (GM = foul; EotR = mostly fine), but for me End of the Road far outshone Green Man in pretty much every respect. I was very impressed with EotR – they just seemed to do everything right.

Hmmm… next year…

Lucky Seven – Best of End of the Road ‘12

I’ve not been entirely idle since then. As usual I have a mountain of recordings, some of which I’ll post about soon, some of which I may never use. But while I’m sorting myself out, I thought I’d put together a Best of… compilation of some of the recordings I have. It’s hardly exhaustive – I saw some great sets and by all accounts missed some great sets too. Also some of the great sets were not unfortunately great recordings (combination of wind on the mic / being surrounded by gibbering ninnies / being a gibbering ninny myself…)

Anyway here goes:

Midlake – “Roscoe”

A combination of a long day and the first rain of the weekend meant I was hanging on a bit when Midlake made their way onto the Garden Stage. Pretty much straight away however, I was woken up by a really accomplished performance, mixing material from The Courage of Others and The Trials of Van Occupanther with a few new songs. Lovely set which the band themselves seemed to really enjoy. All very good mannered too…

 Alt-J – “Tessellate”

Nearly missed this set altogether, drinking and chatting with friends, and when we rolled up at the Big Top, we were met with the biggest crowd I saw in there all weekend. Once we’d elbowed our way in (and I’d lost all the people in was with), Alt-J put on a really tight performance, going through most of their record, in what felt like an absolute sauna. Indeed at times it felt like listening to the recording itself so polished was their performance (I don’t mean that in a bad way…)

Jeffrey Lewis and the Junkyard – “Chelsea Hotel Oral Sex Song”

Didn’t really know anything about Jeffrey Lewis and actually missed his scheduled Garden Stage spot earlier on the Friday. Fortunately, he did a few songs later on that evening in the Tipi Tent. What a character he is! His songs were alternately garage-y, throw-away, poignant and always funny. Another highlight was his PowerPoint presentation on the history of Punk Rock on the Lower East Side 1950-75, all written in limerick form, which really needs YouTubing…

First Aid Kit – “Emmylou”

Another set that was packed out, and which I also nearly missed part of was this one by First Aid Kit. I really didn’t realise they were so popular, but with hindsight there was a bit of a buzz about them for most of the previous day. Just the three of them but they made an enormous noise and went down very well.

I Was Gone – Woods

The reason I was late for First Aid Kit was that I simply couldn’t tear myself away from Woods on the Main Stage, who were a bit geeky at first but really started to cut loose about half way through and by the end were really “wigging out” (I think the term is…). Once I’d got used to Jeremy Earl’s high pitched vocals, it was all good from there…

Analogue Wheel – Yeti Lane

About half way through the weekend I started to feel that I was spending too much time seeing bands I knew, (and in some cases had seen before), and not enough time investigating new bands. So for that reason, I ditched Patti Smith and went to see French psychedelic duo Yeti Lane. Best decision of the weekend, didn’t regret it for a second. The duo consisted of a drummer with electronic noodling duties and another “wigging out” guitarist. Particularly liked their retro, Doctor Who-style electronics desk…

Ghost of St Paul – Gravenhurst

Last set of the weekend was Gravenhurst, who again I didn’t know at all, but was realty impressed by. A really quiet, precise set that finished rather too quickly and prompted me to buy the last two releases.

A lovely weekend altogether…

Best of End of the Road ‘12