Little Victories

2010 - 2011 LVFC x

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 07:50:03 -0400

2010 - 2011

LVFC x

Curse

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:01:24 -0400

Kate Bush is being played on the radio right now. I once said an amusing comment about the re-recorded version of “Deeper Understanding” but I can’t remember what it was.

I’m getting old. We all are.

There are some LV shows coming up. They’re all listed above and take place over the next few weeks. In an ideal world, there is distance between performances in order to encourage you to part with your hard-earned money more readily. If they’re all bunched together, the story goes, one is more inclined to think “I’ll give this week a miss and go to the one in a fortnight”. Maybe that’s true.

After these are done, so are we.

I’m getting old.

There’s something beautiful about a Pavement video being uploaded by someone called “WeezerFan4Ever”.

Maybe there still is good in the world.

DB x

Dispersal

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 07:06:00 -0400

Whilst I was in the shower this morning, I started thinking of answers to questions no-one had asked:

“That’s very kind of you to say so, Jonathan. Well, you’re right but I’ve always liked to call it ‘English approximation of Scottish rock music’”

I had a similar thing last week as I tried to sleep off some jet-lag. I thought it would be a good idea to invite some members of the crowd up to clap along to our last song. But then when we did play to an audience last Friday, as the particular moment in question came and went, I thought that the song was a wee bit sombre for crowd participation. Despite the best (and appreciated) efforts of those in the front row.

Maybe we need a Motown song: “Clap on the 2 and the 4!” We did try a Motown beat once but it didn’t quite work and morphed into the Smashing Pumpkins instead. Our white, distinctly non-soulful roots always betray us.

After spending so many months writing about an impending recording schedule, we finally came through on our promises but we’ve somehow now found ourselves at a slight junction. In the hope of making it sound more interesting than it would be if I simply told you, I can’t go into specifics about either of these roads. Rest assured that, very shortly, you will know about something. And hopefully it will be worth getting excited about.

Still, the more eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed a change around the place which bears secret fruit. New visitors won’t notice this change but benefit all the same. It’s a bit like The Great Escape. I am David McCallum as Ashley-Pitt and I have come up with an ingenious way of getting sensitive materials out under the watchful gaze of those in charge.

Until “very shortly” then, we’re playing a few more shows around the local area. Some late festival things and support performances, that sort of thing. We made our first concerted effort last week for the live show and I think it was a positive response, at least on stage. It’s always nice to feel like everything is a bit more busy and it’s not just you standing in front of a microphone.

The house is starting to get a little bit cold in the evenings now. Previous winters have tested the limits of human and feline endurance so hopefully this one will be a bit more bearable. Somehow, every house we’ve lived in has operated on a gas card.

Even when it is directly uncomfortable, our nostalgia knows no bounds.

DB x

Entente

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 01:22:23 -0400

I quite like the new LC! track. I really hope that the reason I don’t love it is due to a musical divergence rather than a residual personal bitterness. That’d be really shitty of my subconscious.

We have also recorded stuff. Said ‘stuff’ will probably be available in an undetermined format, within an undetermined time frame.

Apparently we now sound like a Celtic REM/Pulp. Go Figure

Hiatus

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 07:27:24 -0400

Not really. Thank you to everyone who came to our last two shows. We enjoyed both of them.

Now we’re away to record something so we’re not selling ourselves on year-old songs we don’t play anymore. In the meantime, I’ve been listening to this so much all weekend.

“All I want to know is why is he dressed like Roddy Piper?”

Oh man.

DB x

Ritournelle

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 06:59:00 -0400

LD came back so it’s time to start working [full-time] again. That’s a double entendre seeing as Curb Your Enthusiasm is back on US screens. Just another insight into the personal world of LV. Well, at east one sixth of it.

We’re playing two shows next week as you can see from the “Forthcoming Shows” above. One is our “first” performance aboard the Thekla with Babeshadow and the other is under the guise of the Bristol Harbour Festival. We’re on at 7PM for the latter and entry is free. Those take us up to the end of July and I think we’re going to be recording shortly afterwards which means no performances for a while. I have said that before but this time I mean it.

BT has got into British Sea Power in a big way. Further proof that I don’t just talk about songs I like merely to seem knowledgeable. I’m trying to enrich your life.

Until a month ago, I knew The Sundays because of “Here’s Where The Story Ends”, which I had always considered nothing more than an artifact of the 1990s alternative rock scene. File next to Elastica, that sort of thing. Despite this, I bought Reading, Writing And Arithmetic on an impulse last week and found out I was wrong. Seriously, this album is amazing. I read a description of their sound that was absolutely perfect: the music of The Smiths and the voice of:

Another impulse purchase. I’d heard “Pearly Dewdrops’ Drops” on the radio and had grown to like it well enough that I thought I may as well buy an album. The vocals are less unintelligible than on other Twins releases apparently. Liz Fraser does the whole “emotion in her tone” way of singing whereby I have no idea what she’s saying but I can absolutely feel it.

And here’s something different from female-fronted late 80s alternative rock. LD and I have discussed before about how we’d love to be in a position where we could pick the artists we play with (Lena, Vanessa Carlton). Have I mentioned this before? Anyway, Hall & Oates did this before in 1985 and played some songs with Eddie Hendricks and David Ruffin from the “Classic Five” era of The Temptations.

I got into the solo work of David Ruffin a couple of years ago and consider his version of “I Want You Back” to be untouchable. Lots of people have said that he had one of the best voices in music history and sometimes lots of people are right.

DB x

Cord

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 15:56:00 -0400

LD has gone on holiday to the mythical West Coast of America so, as seems to be the way that we’ve operated for the past few years, we’ve taken the summer off. You might think that some of our songs are probably best listened to during the months where there is some sunshine but we like to take the opposite tack wherever possible. It’s best to play songs about summer in the winter so that everyone thinks how nice it would be to spend a couple of days doing little in parks. It rained today anyway.

When I was at work earlier, feeling down, knowing the endless, shifting rain stood between me and the relative comforts of home, I wanted nothing more than to be riding a bus through San Diego. But now it’s raining outside and I am resolutely inside and I just want to listen to The Sundays and watch the rain drum against the pavement.

You’ll have to forgive me for using this as an actual diary rather than an effervescent news post. I’ve been reading The Celestial Café by Stuart Murdoch, you see, and it’s giving me nostalgia for when I was fifteen. Back then, blogs and the suchlike were the realms of the Internet-savvy but socially off-centre. Not so much people living in their parents’ basements (as the cliché goes) but university students who listened to Belle & Sebastian and wore corduroy.

I somehow found a group of people that all read and commented on each other’s blogs and I pretty much idolised them. Sadly my frequent attempts to ingratiate into their group just made me seem a bit of a dick but it set my tastes in good stead for when I did enter my twenties. Of course by that point the Internet had gone mainstream and blogs became a series of embedded YouTube videos and pictures of cats (I’m aware of the hypocrisy in this complaint).

For all the good the Internet has given us, that change is something that I’ll have to accept, but there’s a large proportion of people who will never know the pleasure of messing around with PERL and cgi-bins in order to install Greymatter. Anyway, reading that book has made me think about (re)starting a diary blog about life in LV. When we’re off vacation, you understand.

I’ve been using my time off to try and write songs, something I’ve not managed to do properly in 6 years or so. It’s odd to consider song writing as something that you have to practice but I would say it definitely is. Only when you’ve forced a song to completion do ideas start tumbling out. A bit like a blocked tap, I suppose. Probably because of my recent obsession, I’ve not managed to progress far beyond writing songs in major keys and leaning heavily on the chord of A. Sometimes you just have to wake up to the fact that your vocal range is one note.

DB x

Big

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 06:10:34 -0400

Hey guys.

How was your weekend?

We bucked our recent trend by actually playing a show we said we were going to play and had a good time of it. Thanks to everyone who came out and to [The] Goodness and My Friend Friday. We wanted to play some of the new songs we’ve been rehearsing but decided to play it safe and stick to what we know, which led to a fun but slightly unpolished show.

And then we woke up to the news that Clarence Clemons had died and it sucked. No other group has had as much of an impact on Lewis, Ben and I in recent times as that of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. Back in my hedonistic days, Ben and I bonded over the Boss and alcohol, whilst Ben used Jungleland as an example when trying to tell Lewis we should have a long song.

Lewis thought the song was boring at the time but changed his mind after seeing them live and now we write songs that try to rip them off. Later in the day, I did some DIY with my dad to celebrate his status in my life. It was pretty much what men do.

Of more interesting note is that, over the course of the two days, I finally watched the Belle & Sebastian documentary that has been sitting on my shelf for 6 or so years. For as long as I can remember, people have always said we’re like Belle & Sebastian and I’ve been left bewildered by the suggestion.

But then I watched the documentary and, hey, they’re actually one of my favourite ever bands, even though I hadn’t realised it. This epiphany also helped answer my own question from weeks ago about describing LV in one sentence: the punk Belle & Sebastian.

It’s funny how things can happen like that.

The only negative aspect is that I could have made Isobel Campbell my teenage crush instead of my early twenties one. What a wasted opportunity.

Due to Glastonbury/business, we’ve not got anything planned for a couple of weeks again so use yr time off wisely.

DB x

Falling

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 06:55:00 -0400

So now we’re actually playing two shows this month. I like to keep you on yr toes by saying we’re not doing one thing and then promptly doing just that. The show on the 18th is very much the standard full-strength squad performing with electricity, under the guise of “hottest new band”. The show on the 14th is a more subdued, 5-a-side affair with LD alone; playing a selection of old, current and new songs on an acoustic guitar in support of Trevor Moss and Hannah-Lou.

Elsewhere, we [finally] got a review from 247 Magazine about our Dot To Dot performance. It was positive. Maybe we’re not so bad.

Here’s a song dump of stuff I’ve been listening to in the past week.

The biggest wonder of the past few years is where Sons And Daughters went. The first time I saw them was supporting Franz Ferdinand and I bought some of their merchandise that very night. The second time, Adele liked my Bright Eyes t-shirt. Heady days.

I have become obsessed by Twin Peaks. I watched both seasons a month or so ago as quickly as I could get through them. Best show. It turns shit for a while but the rest is so perfect in every way that it doesn’t matter.

I spent my free weekend enjoying my video game sabbatical and watching classic films (The Red Shoes, North By Northwest) and documentaries I’ve owned for a while but never watched (King Of Kong, Instrument). The ethos of Fugazi is so admirable but it seems like such an American thing to be able to do. The UK is a different beast and, especially in 2011, I just don’t see it being easily emulated.

BT has earned a degree in English Literature. As anyone who has been to a show can attest, his dedication to playing gigs instead of doing work was a valuable asset.

Slowly my life decisions are proving to have been ill-advised.

DB x

Why even bother playing live? You’re not Fugazi. DB x

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 08:44:04 -0400

Why even bother playing live? You’re not Fugazi.

DB x

Aged

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 12:47:14 -0400

You should probably take note: we’re no longer playing on Saturday with Sparrow And The Workshop. Sadly this is not because we have been considered too radical for the event (which we are) nor has our recent behaviour been too ungentlemanly for polite company (it most certainly has). This leaves the month of June currently clear for us to rewrite, rehearse and record existing and new material.

Thank you to the promoters and patrons of the Bristol leg of the Dot To Dot Festival. It was a little sloppy but we hope you enjoyed it. If you weren’t there, then you missed our latest retort in the ongoing beef with Gareth from Los Campesinos and the return of a summer hit.

LD turned 24 last week. He received the Eurovision 2011 album from yrs truly and we have taken great enjoyment in hearing the entries for Denmark and Germany again.

And that is everything that there is to say right now.

I genuinely felt the urge to get a “No Future” tattoo yesterday.

DB x

kænədə

Mon, 23 May 2011 12:35:31 -0400

It’s nice to know that Canada is still making great bands after the big indie explosion of the early 00s.

Bravestation were excellent last week. Local Natives with less harmonies but more samples, possibly even an SP-404. You know a band is going to be good if they use(d) a Dr. Sample.

In tribute to their homeland, here are some other great Canadien* bands who have nothing to do with Broken Social Scene - which is an excuse to post a video of the 2001 - 2008 DB Best Band, Constantines:

The world never deserved the Cons. Brutal and heartfelt. When yr done crying, they shred yr face. Their last album got the lowest review scores of their career and yet is their second-best album (behind their perfect self-titled début). Isn’t indie rock stupid?

Mogwai are probably the only post-rock band I listen to with any regularity anymore but GY!BE were my gateway into that whole scene and I listened to Skinny Fists all the time.

Will Schaff, the guy who does all the Okkervil River art, did the artwork for this. I once emailed him about something and we shared a laugh. That is one of my indie rock anecdotes. Others anecdotes feature Zak Sally (formerly of Low) and Travis Morrison (of the Dismemberment Plan).

16 minutes into the 2008 Champions League final, I left the bar where I was watching Manchester United play Chelsea, in order to go to the Thekla and watch Sunset Rubdown. There was a girl there who looked like Cat Power but this time I didn’t give her my number. SR were ridiculously good and I walked home, stopping only to see John Terry miss a penalty.

This Saturday, we’re playing Dot To Dot at a time when the 2011 Champions League final (starring Manchester United again) won’t be showing. You can’t just drop football for a life of indie punk. Unless yr offering that life, in which case, we’ll drop anything you want. We’re rehearsing hard to get our stadium songs ready for the masses.

The last two years, LD has played it solo acoustic so it’ll be nice to take amplifiers. Fingers crossed we’ll receive the first critical review since our inception and it will be good. Maybe the journalists have been ignoring us for a reason.

You can buy “cheaper tickets” using this link which may or may not influence our standing in the community. We’re playing at 6PM at the Louisiana.

*this is an intentional ice hockey reference.

DB x

Re: The Anonymous Admirer

Mon, 16 May 2011 09:42:00 -0400

There has been something of a breakdown in band protocol in the response to our lovelorn friend. Whilst DB did a fine job in his response, there is a very clear understanding that myself and Barny are the resident Love Doctors of the LV support group. With that said, I advise you all to ignore DB’s response and take this as the official party line:

Dear Anonymous,

You have to ask yourself ‘what is my long term goal with this girl? What am I hoping will come out of my message to her?’ If you’re just looking for a bit of fun, then I advise you to take up paintballing or go for a long walk. These casual things almost always end badly.

If you’re looking for something a bit more serious, maybe even ‘Love’, then I advise you to go away and listen to your entire music collection. Notice a theme? Yep. Love sucks. Avoid.

Alternatively, if you are just looking for some inspiration for writing your own pop ballad then there are plenty of places you can go to first before resorting to actual relations. I reccomend you visit your local library - with over 1000 years of English Literature to choose from, you can find any number of examples of heartbreak without actually having to experience it yourself

I hope this has been helpful.

Remember - Say NO to Love. Say YES to Pop.

——

Queen

Mon, 16 May 2011 09:00:00 -0400

I’m not sure how many ‘collectives’ would be unaware that they have been booked to play the venerable Dot To Dot (or D2D) Festival at the end of this month but LVFC are certainly one of them. All of our rhetoric about invitations lost in the post seems ill-advised when that is exactly what happened.

The line-up seems strong throughout. Maybe not as good as the Hold Steady/Titus Andronicus year (which I didn’t go to) but there’s some good acts there. Guy I know said the singer of Cults is a cutie so maybe they’ll be good. Either way, you can just crush on her. And hopefully Trail of Dead will play Baudelaire.

None of that is as interesting as Eurovision though, which was definitely watched by the LV guitar corps and was possibly watched by everyone else. Azerbaijan was a fairly good choice for winner with a strong chorus and nice backing vocals but there were two outstanding choices.

I’m disappointed that this isn’t the performance from the final because the Springsteen-esque run into the audience was something to behold. Any time Denmark was mentioned, we’d start singing the chorus. An absolute joy of a song.

This was on a different level from the other songs. An example of wonderfully sophisticated pop that Britain simply doesn’t do. Contrast and compare with Cheryl Cole (whose Three Words and Parachutes are very good) and it’s illuminating. Maybe it’s all will.i.am’s fault.

Also, Lena is the most perfect human being in the world.

In other news, Barny injured himself at the weekend but I don’t think any shows are being cancelled; we’ve got one or two new songs that maybe we’ll play at some point not-soon and we might get some new gear because we’ve been using my brother’s bass stuff for about 4 years and that is no way to live.

DB x

I think I might find this girl attractive. Should I message her and tell her on Facebook?

Anonymous

Mon, 16 May 2011 05:52:01 -0400

Absolutely.

Unfortunately, yr shroud of anonymity will be erased by Facebook’s draconian insistence on using full names. I can pass along the sentiment if you so wish.

DB x

Today I will mostly be listening to ‘Hounds of Love/The...

Wed, 11 May 2011 08:50:13 -0400

Today I will mostly be listening to ‘Hounds of Love/The Ninth Wave’ by Kate Bush (on Vinyl obv.)

BT x

Rock

Tue, 10 May 2011 08:13:00 -0400

This is a serious, “behind the curtain” entry about facets of the music industry so please forgive my self-importance. I have utilised the “read more” feature so those who wish to read it can, and those who do not can listen to the best song of the decade and enjoy the sunshine.

Describe yourself in one sentence. What is your USP?

Selling yourself is not necessarily selling out but it certainly feels like it. Even the BBC ask you to give a description of what you’re “about” when you submit your works to their unsigned Introducing brand. Does the music not speak for itself? I’m not sure it does or ever did.

Even the good guys need a package. That’s the nature of the beast, I’m afraid. But there’s nothing that says you can’t take your approach into that realm too. The Golden Age, the 60s/70s/80s/whatever, that decade you hold in such high-regard - it’s all package. It’s just that it seems so much more credible. “There’s a Wikipedia entry on these guys so it must be legit”. It’s no more legitimate for your 4th album than it should be for you in Year Zero. Just accommodate your perspective.

All of that is a subtle reference to things happening. There’s nothing guaranteed and I even tried to not tell my family anything because hope is a terrible thing, but, behind-the-scenes, there’s been talks. The first thing to come out of whole situation is my questioning the veracity of bands who talk about never intending to attempt success with their music.

It is very easy to not be successful. Believe me.

So back to that first line. It’s quite hard to describe yourself to people you know and even harder to those you don’t. You can try and name the acts you are directly influenced by, but the wider public probably won’t know about them or what that influence precisely means. And talking yourself up to people you know and respect makes you feel like you’re dealing in platitudes.

To make matters worse, there is an unfortunate dichotomy when it comes to niche music: the more open-minded you are to music, the more closed-minded you are. It sounds weird but, in my experience, it is fundamentally true. Those who espouse Autechre or Animal Collective (eg. music that is not conventional and requires a receptive listener) will most likely turn their noses up at Vanessa Carlton or Beyoncé*.

As a group, we’re all varying degrees of open-minded about the spectrum of music. Some of us own multiple Kylie Minogue albums and make a point of being broad-minded but, on the whole, we all recognise a good song is a good song, regardless of who made it. This ideology informs the music we create. Unfortunately, it doesn’t lend itself well to description. When you’re copying a certain million-selling Britpop band, you have your targets: “bringing real music back”, “the saviours of guitar music”. Copy the formula and away you go.

But when you love a little bit of everything, it’s hard to find that narrative to frame yourself in. Even bands who preface their descriptors with “pop” are using the precedent Postcard Records set down 30 years ago. Public perception says we sound like Arcade Fire, Belle & Sebastian and Broken Social Scene. Maybe unrealistically, I’d say British Sea Power and Titus Andronicus too. And what is the common thread with all of these bands? I’m not sure if there is one, beyond they make good music and we enjoy listening to it.

Problems lie in the inability to sell yourself on a line like that and, furthermore, to identify the audience that you will try and sell yourself to. A person who is serious about buying Arcade Fire records most likely does so because, aside from enjoying the music, it represents a defiant “I don’t like the mainstream” attitude.

(I understand this is a generalisation but when you’re seriously using a word like “audience” like I have done, generalisations are trading stock.)

Would that same person buy into a band who encompasses large aspects of that ‘indie rock’ image but also presents an attitude of “I do like the mainstream”?

Describe yourself in one sentence.

It would be true and easy to say “We make music that we would want to listen to”. Unfortunately, we are not a large audience and the money men need a large audience.

DB x

*The common term for this is Rockism. It’s a culture I subscribed to during my early teenage years and, whilst I am fairly glad I grew out of it, there is nothing wrong with being a rockist.

Jenna

Wed, 04 May 2011 05:30:00 -0400

An official website EXCLUSIVE. Well, EXCLUSIVE to anyone who didn’t see on Facebook or wasn’t checking YouTube accounts last night. The song once and forever known as ‘Bojangles’ is now known as ‘Future Tides’. I was as upset as anyone to discover that my #1 choice of ‘Moonlight Sinatra’ was already taken by Ol’ Blue Eyes himself.

We’re pretty much playing into those Los Campesinos! comparisons now. A special thanks to Jenna Jameson and the casts of Naughty Vacation 2 and Emmanuelle for providing additional visuals; and Mr Myxxx for recording. SG made a delicious chick pea curry on the day to keep our energy up.

And thanks to everyone who saw us at The Naturals single launch and the Simple Things Festival. We had a blast at both of them. There seems to be a gradual curve when practicing/playing shows where you go from making sure you simply play the songs correctly to being comfortable enough to start thinking about performance more and I feel like we’ve hit the latter stage - now I’m anxious to play more shows, it makes sense that we’re not playing for another couple of weeks.

Game 3 of our indie rock El Clásico takes place later this month, with the scoreline at 1-1. The Naturals were absolutely incredible last time around. We’ve been fortunate to see them play and grow over the past couple of years and that show was on another level entirely so the onus is on us to go one better now.

And at the start of next month, we’re playing with Sparrow And The Workshop. I saw them play at the highest pub in Britain a few years ago when I had the best time of my life watching British Sea Power. Then, I thought they were like Cat Power and the singer was cute and couldn’t tune her guitar but now they sound professional and on point. Their new song is pretty fun.

We recorded another video on the same day as the one at the top, but that is not being pushed right now. It is viewable somewhere on the Internet though. We’ve also named nearly all of our remaining songs so, one day, you’ll be able to request yr favourite by title.

Until then,

DB x

Behind-the-scenes on our day of filming. DB x

Tue, 03 May 2011 14:29:00 -0400

Behind-the-scenes on our day of filming.

DB x

Zombie

Tue, 26 Apr 2011 07:45:00 -0400

I can’t bring myself to write a full match report for last week’s gig so: we played pretty well, got 30 minutes under our belt, had a flat tire, were saved by our hero Joe and met two nice Wales-based bands, including Canadian/Cymru keyboard septet Sleepy Panda Club. Their new stuff sounds like The Sundays.

Here are some songs that I am thinking about right now.

There’s a song on the 6music playlist that absolutely rips this off. I can list on one hand all of the songs written about Winona Ryder and none of them are bad. What a girl.

For years, I had convinced myself that I disliked The Cranberries but then the music channels kept playing this song and I heard another song from their first demo and suddenly they’re a pretty good band.

Undeniable.

Greatest tragedy in my life is that I will never marry Chan Marshall.

We are definitely playing this Thursday with The ‘Nats. Dedication through light. Here’s a Facebook event page for you to say “Attending” out of politeness.

DB x

Little Victories

2010 - 2011 LVFC x

Curse

Dispersal

Entente

Hiatus

Ritournelle

Cord

Big

Falling

Why even bother playing live? You’re not Fugazi. DB x

Aged

kænədə

Re: The Anonymous Admirer

Queen

I think I might find this girl attractive. Should I message her and tell her on Facebook? Anonymous

Today I will mostly be listening to ‘Hounds of Love/The...

Rock

Jenna

Behind-the-scenes on our day of filming. DB x

Zombie

I think I might find this girl attractive. Should I message her and tell her on Facebook?

Anonymous