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Month: June 2013

Festival: Y Not?

Now in its ninth year, ‘Y Not Festival’ promises to be ‘small, fresh and loud’.  With past headliners including Maximo Park and Frank Turner, ‘Y Not’, though comparatively much smaller than Glastonbury, Reading and Leeds et al, has a penchant for attracting large names to the less  known and less commercialised location of the Derbyshire countryside.  This has meant that the festival has endeared itself to people who enjoy great music, and want to avoid the harangues of mainstream culture.

From the 2nd-4th of August, the likes of The Mystery Jets, The Horrors and The Cribs will be headlining at the Pikehall site in Derbyshire along with eternal crowd pleasers, The Darkness and Electric Six. The festival has also attracted bands and musicians who have cult followings such as 65DaysOfStatic and Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip, as well as up-coming collectives such as We Were Promised Jetpacks and The 1975, both of whom have enjoyed huge attention and airplay in recent months.  The whole weekend costs a pocket friendly £83, including the booking fee, and with this type of line up, promises to be extremely good value for money.  So, we have a beautiful Peak District setting, a great line up and an un-extortionate ticket price?  The question you have to ask yourself is – ‘why the hell not?’

Interview: New Order

“It was pretty nerve-wracking – playing your hometown usually is – but I’d always, always wanted to play there. I’ve seen so many great gigs there down the years.”

Tom Chapman is recalling last year’s two-night stand at the Apollo with New Order, for whom he’s now playing bass after Peter Hook’s acrimonious departure back in 2007. The shows came as part of an exhaustive touring schedule that the band have undertaken since reforming in late 2011, with Bad Lieutenant – the group launched in the interim by Bernard Sumner and Stephen Morris – being put on hold.

“It was really just pure luck,” says Chapman of his introduction to New Order. “Myself and (guitarist) Phil Cunningham have a mutual friend, and they told me that Bad Lieutenant might end up needing a new bass player, because it wasn’t working out with Alex James, who was based down south and starting to play with Blur again. As soon as it was clear that Alex was going to have to bow out, I got a phone call, went to audition and the rest is history, I suppose. The thing is, when you meet other musicians for the first time, it either works or it doesn’t. I clicked with the guys straight away, and we found ourselves very much on the same wavelength, musically speaking.”

The decision to revive New Order was effectively forced by circumstance, with Chapman insisting that the kind of lengthy tours that they went on to play were never on the table to begin with. “There was never any masterplan to reform,” he says. “We got a call from a long-time friend of the band called Michael Shamberg, who was involved with directing a lot of New Order music videos back in the eighties. He’s quite ill, and he’s been living in the States, where he needs money to pay for his treatment. He asked if we could do something to help with his medical bills, so we basically decided to do two concerts; one in Brussels, and one in Paris.”

“No word of a lie, that was genuinely all we ever intended to do as New Order. We just didn’t know how it was going to be received, especially with me involved on bass. It went really well, well enough that we started to get offers coming in that snowballed, and before we knew it, we were on this world tour, that’s still ongoing. But there was never any intention to be focusing mainly on this, to be leaving Bad Lieutenant on the back burner.”

The early shows served as a baptism of fire for Chapman, who admits to having wrestled with nerves as the New Order machine began to whir into motion again. “I was quite confident in the respect that I knew I was a good enough bass player,” he says,  “but I’d be a liar if I said I thought I’d be able to breeze in and have it all be a complete walk in the park. I think I managed to harness some of that nervous energy, and I do play those basslines like I wrote them. I try to respect the originals as much as possible, but I want to inject some of my own personality into them as well. I’m certainly not a session player, which is what a lot of people seem to assume.”

With such an impressive back catalogue to choose from – even if a certain, now-defunct local venue saw to it that it never made the band much money – you have to assume that compiling a setlist is something of an exact science. “It’s always going to be at least seventy percent made up of the songs that the public want to hear,” says Chapman. “It has to be that way because it’s not going to go down particularly well if we suddenly decide we’re going to drop ‘True Faith’ or ‘Blue Monday’. The other thirty percent is where we get to play around with what we fancy doing ourselves, whether it’s songs from old albums that haven’t been played before or some of the more recent stuff; we’ve just started playing ‘I’ll Stay with You’ from (2013 compilation) Lost Sirens, for example.”

“The records we’ve got at our disposal to delve into just give us incredible scope for the gigs. Plus, I know it’s always important to Bernard, Steve and Gillian (Gilbert, keyboardist) to put some Joy Division stuff in there. If you’ve got the opportunity to finish your set with ‘Love Will Tear Us Apart’, then you do it. There’s just no way you can leave it out.”

Lost Sirens was made up entirely of unused material from sessions for the last New Order studio album with Peter Hook, 2005’s Waiting for the Siren’s Call. Chapman confirmed, though, that the current lineup are set to record tracks of their own. “We went straight back into the studio when we got back from the US tour last year. We had ideas for at least six or seven new songs, and we worked with Tom Rowlands from The Chemical Brothers for a little bit, so it’s all happening. I can’t say much more, other than watch this space.”

Given the messy nature of Hook’s exit from the band – he subtly told The Guardian that “Bernard’s a twat, and he always has been” – it was never likely that he was going to keep his opinions to himself when the reunion was announced, and he has indeed had plenty to say, including claims last year that Chapman had been miming to his bass parts. “You know, the best advice I had on that was actually from Bernard. He was under no illusions how much criticism I was going to come in for, but basically said that I needed to ignore the reactions – good and bad. As long as I feel like I’m doing a good job, that’s all I need to worry about. I don’t think I’ve ever paid attention to any of that shit. It’s just complete bollocks, petty stuff in the press that’s got nothing to do with music. I’m just not interested.”

Chapman had been making music in Manchester for a good while before New Order ever came calling; his understanding of, and admiration for, the city’s music scene means that the importance of playing in one of its greatest exports is certainly not lost on him. “I’ve spent a long time here as a local musician. I was born and grew up in France, but I moved here a long time ago with the specific goal of pursuing music. It’s just been so consistent musically, and there’s a real continuity here; we’ve still got the lies of Doves, Elbow and I Am Kloot making incredible records today. When you’re lucky enough to travel around the world and see how different musicians operate in different environments, you realise that Manchester is genuinely one of the great cities to make music in; it’s such a hospitable environment for young bands. I don’t think that’ll ever change.”

Next month, the band will headline at one of the most exciting new outdoor venues in the country; they’ll play in the shadow of the giant Lovell Telescope at the university-owned Jodrell Bank Observatory, with another local legend, Johnny Marr, also on the bill. “We were actually asked to do it last year, but we couldn’t make it work, schedule-wise,” reveals Chapman. “Obviously, we were really keen to come back and make it happen this summer, and we’ve managed to put together a lineup we’re really pleased with, especially with Johnny playing. We actually just had a meeting yesterday about what we’ve got planned (previous performances have involved spectacular projections onto the telescope). I don’t really want to give the game away, but it’s going to be special. I think it’s the sort of place that has a lot of resonance for anyone who’s grown up around here. I just hope it doesn’t piss it down!”

New Order headline Live from Jodrell Bank on July 7

Interview: Spectrals

“We worked it out the other day, that it’s like…what year are we on now? 2013? That makes it about five years.” Louis Jones is waiting on food in the Deaf Institute’s main bar. These are hardly unfamiliar surroundings for him; he’s played more support slots here, under his Spectrals moniker, than he’d care to mention. Tonight, he’s opening for Frankie and the Heartstrings, but he’s made the short journey from Leeds to share the stage here with the likes of Woods, Mazes and Bear in Heaven, too; in fact, an older incarnation of Spectrals, opening for Girls back in March of 2010, was the first band I saw play here.

A little over a year later, he’d share the bill with long-time tourmates Best Coast down the road at Club Academy, and the live band’s swift progression into such a tight, poppy unit was genuinely remarkable; debut full-length Bad Penny, released later that same year via the perennially excellent Wichita Recordings, cemented Jones’ position as one of the country’s premier purveyors of nostalgic pop.

“I’d always made music with friends when I was younger, but I knew I could do it easily enough on my own, and I liked the idea of not having to compromise. It just took off in a way that nothing I’d done before had.” Jones’ rapidly-developing live profile soon caught the eye at Wichita: “It was just one of those things, where they came to a show and said hello, and bought a seven-inch; before we knew it, we started seeing them around a lot more, and they were always really positive. I would’ve been happy to sign with them from the get go, so I was obviously pretty chuffed with how eager they seemed when it came to be a reality.”

This month saw the release of the sophomore Spectrals LP, Sob Story, which was produced by former Girls bassist Chet ‘JR’ White, who chose to move behind the desk after Christopher Owens’ departure precipitated his band’s abrupt dissolution last year. “We played with Girls quite a bit and got to be friends with them,” says Jones. “We did an American tour, and when we got to San Francisco, we met up with Chet and he mentioned that he wanted to start doing production work. I said I’d love it if he could do something for us, and he seemed into the idea in a way that maybe I didn’t think he would be. I think we were both a bit surprised at how well it worked.”

Whilst the writing process for Sob Story remained largely true to the band’s roots, Jones was able to do things differently once he reached the studio. “It’s still me writing all the songs, and I record the majority of it myself, minus the drums. I think we were a lot more thorough than we were on Bad Penny. I still like how that record sounds, but we spent a lot more time on this one, just working on each song independently and not trying to rely on one amp or drum kit, or one specific guitar tone. We worked pretty hard on it. We lived out there in San Francisco so there wasn’t much travelling, and we could just work into the early hours –  we’d be up til five in the morning, a lot of the time. The whole thing was just a lot more in depth.”

One of the most obvious signifiers of the progression on Sob Story is the sheer variety evident across its twelve tracks; Bad Penny was almost uniform in its short, snappy pop songs, but Jones has sought to include slower efforts, such as the title track, as well as experiment, as the borderline psychedelic ‘Milky Way’ can attest to. “The thing I was really obsessed with was just the idea of the songs being different. I wanted to have more contrast on this record. Not like a light and a shade type of thing, but just the dynamics on it; having some quiet songs and then a few that were louder and rockier, and some longer tracks as well – I wanted to build it all towards something more nuanced. When I listen back to Bad Penny now, I feel like it just passes you by a little bit and maybe seems a little bit like background music; I wanted this one to be more about the songs.”

That’s not to say, though, that critical reception was something Jones was especially mindful of. “My mind’s made up about it now. I’m really pleased with it. I got it right for me, and anything else is gonna be a bonus at this point; it’s always going to be pretty condescending if you try and make something that you think people will like. There’s no point believing there’s any one formula.”

Such has been their popularity in support slots – Wavves, Real Estate and The Cribs are other outfits they’ve opened for – it does seem as if Spectrals don’t manage too many headline dates of their own, with an appearance at The Castle way back in January of 2011 being their only such show in Manchester so far. “I think we’re kind of limited in that we’re maybe not enough of a draw on our own. We played a headline show in London the other day to launch the record, and that went great. We’re definitely trying to build our own following with this record, but it’s hard, man. I’m not sure how many people would come, and we might not be able to fill this sort of room, but if we can get into a position where we’re playing our own shows, it’d be another step in the right direction.”

Sob Story is out now on Wichita Recordings

Review: The Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams’ most directly autobiographical drama, deals with many of the themes which characterize much of his body of work. However, the play’s plot is relatively uneventful and much of the play’s power is through its use of motif and symbolism.

Presented as a memory play, told retrospectively from protagonist Tom’s memory of mother Amanda and his sister Laura during his life at home, the play has often been seen as a parallel for Williams’ own family, with Laura, particularly, being seen as a parallel to his sister Rose.

Amanda’s obsession to find the shy and reclusive Laura a ‘gentleman caller’ drives the narrative which all takes place in their small apartment, symbolic of the sense of physical and mental claustrophobia which pervades the characters’ lives.

As a play driven by a relatively uneventful plot line I feel The Glass Menagerie takes particular skill to do well.

This is not a drama of epic proportions, in fact, quite the opposite, this is a play about the things which remain unsaid, unseen and hidden from view. It was for that reason that I would like to particularly commend the use of silence throughout David Thacker’s production of the play.

The most powerful moment was itself a moment of silence. In the second act Tom brings home a ‘gentleman caller’ for Laura, a friend from school named Jim who we discover is known also to Laura; when Amanda asks Laura if she’s ever liked a boy her response is to show her the picture of Jim in the school yearbook.

Despite her initial paralysing shyness towards Jim the two are left alone and she becomes less shy. It was the tension and nervous excitement of the atmosphere throughout this scene which was particularly powerful. Within the tenseness of the atmosphere was a suggestion of reserved emotion and a slight mutual tenderness which was captivating to watch and highly emotive.

This scene’s most evocative moment for me, was the moment in which Laura entrusted Jim with her glass unicorn, her most treasured of the small glass figurines which she keeps, of ‘the glass menagerie’ to which the title refers.

The act of Laura giving Jim the small glass figurine is highly symbolic, then, a sign of trust and courage, overcoming her protectiveness over the glass figure suggests a metaphorical overcoming of her paralysing anxiety as a result of Jim’s kindness and attention.

Here the silence of the moment as Laura placed the unicorn onto Jim’s outstretched hand, as she placed it carefully with utmost concentration created such a silence I became slightly aware of my own breathing, for a moment. This was, without a doubt the most powerful, poignant moment of the play.

For me, all the symbolism and tension of the drama were held in that moment which made me realise that not only is Williams’ drama itself as much about what is not said but a successful performance is often the result of the way in which the company use moments of silence as much as the speech and action.

 

Five Stars out of Five.

Album: Miles Kane – Don’t Forget Who You Are

Released: 3rd June 2013

Columbia Records

5/10

Don’t Forget Who You Are is the second solo offering from the frontrunner of the mod revival, Miles Kane. The album title is surprisingly fitting, given the cover artwork of Kane looking as sharp as ever in front of his mum’s butcher’s in Liverpool. Indeed, the smartly-dressed musician from the Wirral is unavoidably likable, boasting well-received debut Colour of the Trap and forming half of indie rock’s most endearing bromance alongside Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner. It’s this relationship, however, that casts the only remaining doubt over his credentials; Turner co-fronts The Last Shadow Puppets with Kane and even co-wrote half of his debut album. Does Don’t Forget Who You Are finally establish Kane as an accomplished artist, released from the shackles of that partnership?

In short: no.

The album kicks off promisingly enough, with energetic opening track ‘Taking Over’ sure to be a fan-favourite with its anthemic chorus and prominent guitar riffs. It’s a shame, then, that such lofty heights are never reached again throughout the eleven-song album. The title track features another catchy chorus that’s bound to get your foot tapping, but the repeated “la la la”s hint at a worrying lack of ideas. The descent into mediocrity is completed as early as the third track, ‘Better Than That’, with its genuinely cringe-inducing lyrics that see Kane spell out “L – O – V – E / I’m talking about love”. Even a collaboration with the Modfather himself, Paul Weller, does little to alleviate the boredom on ‘Fire In My Heart’, a track that goes nowhere slowly.

Lead single ‘Give Up’ provides a rare glimpse into what the album could have been; it’s a punchy, in-your-face number that echoes 2011’s ‘Come Closer’ and ‘Inhaler’, but tracks like these are too few and far between on what is a largely forgettable LP. Whether it’s due to second-album syndrome, or simply Kane being ‘found-out’ now that he’s standing on his own two feet, it’s hard to see this album as anything other than a let-down. Like that kid at school who always relied on others for the answers, Kane will need to give best pal Alex Turner a call if he’s to avoid similar disappointments in the future.

Review: ‘Coastal Shelf’

Many of us dream of stepping into the big wide world of filmmaking after uni, but it’s also a daunting prospect. How to tackle it and with whom must seem a mammoth undertaking. The process of sourcing and supplying equipment, money, time, and publicity is not an easy one and it’s no surprise that for many who tentatively say “I’m thinking of going into film” it does, ultimately, prove to be an empty statement.

This is not the case with Fresh Loaf productions, a newly-founded film production company comprised of Manchester-based post-graduates. Working day jobs and filming on the side, this group went out there and sourced support and equipment sufficient to produce thirty minutes of cinema that screams anything but standard student-film. The only thing more inspiring than their professional and enthusiastic approach to the film-making process is the sophistication inherent in the product of all their hard work: their latest short Coastal Shelf is a triumph.

Coastal Shelf is the story of a break up with a somewhat mythical twist. Having been banished from his house by his long-suffering girlfriend, Simon meets a woman he is unable truly to understand, a woman who claims to be a siren. Perplexed yet intrigued and with nowhere else to go, Simon rescues the siren, who in turn teaches him some truths and lessons about his relationship with his ex and her male friend. Can Simon learn from his mistakes? Do we ever find out who the siren is and how she knows so much about Simon?

With a screenplay that presents constant juxtapositions between picturesque seaside and city housing estate, night and day, the mythical and the real, writer Joe McKie draws it all together seamlessly into a narrative that grows in tension, whilst making his sinister storyline sparkle with some witty one-liners and quirky characters. Jade Greyul’s cinematic vision for McKie’s screenplay only enhances its sinister side and the cast act brilliantly producing performances with  intensity which chill to the core. Edited too to a very high standard, the result is an almost hypnotic piece of cinema, as mesmerizing as a siren’s song.

Beautifully shot, professional effects, well acted, great story line. Coastal Shelf is a fantastic effort, and was certainly well received by the large audience at its premiere at The Cornerhouse. My only criticism was its length – thirty minutes? I would have loved more! However, with a captivated audience and a story with a tantalizing cliffhanger, there must be scope for McKie to pen a sequel.

The whole occasion was genuinely inspiring and it was great to see so many there to support writer and director Joe McKie, Jade Greyul (camera) and producer Ollie Kerswell in their first filmmaking venture together. Through this thirty minute short, Fresh Loaf demonstrate what can be achieved on a low budget with student resources. It’s a big and challenging world out there, but Fresh Loaf have got all the ingredients for success  – very professional, very inspiring and very impressive.

Preview: Live from Jodrell Bank

Promoters at Jodrell Bank Observatory are keen to dispel the idea that science is best left for soul-destroying lessons in a dusty old classroom; and after curating critically-acclaimed events featuring The Flaming Lips and Manchester’s own Elbow, they’re doing a pretty good job. You need look no further than astrophysicist-cum-rock-god Brian May to see that the two can go hand-in-hand.

 This year sees performances from Manchester dance icons New Order, the Australian Pink Floyd, and Icelandic post-rock trio Sigur Rós.

Previous events have wowed audiences with spectacular light-shows, the iconic Lovell telescope functioning as a 76-meter projection screen. The spectacle of renowned artists performing in the shadow of the colossal radio telescope is worth the price of admission alone. It’s a unique setting, in perfect harmony with the ethereal music of Sigur Rós. The eccentric Nordic group are sure to play a set loaded with new, darker material, their seventh studio album Kveikur comes out in June.

New Order will be without bassist Peter Hook after their practically-cataclysmic fallout, which frontman Bernard Sumner likened to “opening the gates of hell”, but the reformed group will be in good company. They’re joined by fellow Mancunian luminary Johnny Marr, who will be offering a mix of Smiths classics with new solo effort The Messenger, and hopefully a few songs alongside Sumner from their days as dance supergroup Electronic.

The Australian Pink Floyd show may seem at face value an odd choice of headliner, but anyone who has listened to their laudable renditions of Pink Floyd songs knows that the term “tribute band” is a huge disservice. Having played huge venues like the Manchester Arena, selling over three million tickets in the process, it would be unfair to lump them in with the kind that only half-fill Academy 3. The timeless Dark Side of the Moon will be performed in full to celebrate its 40th anniversary, a fitting tribute beneath a radio telescope that’s explored the depths of outer space itself.

All three days will feature a number of support bands, such as the up-and-coming Daughter and Poliça, and there’ll be a host of creative science experiments on offer in the daytime. Make no mistake though, it’s all about the music. This summer at Jodrell Bank, the real stars will be gracing the stage, not just the night sky.

Live: Swim Deep

Deaf Institute  –  May 28th  –  7/10

Swim Deep are the band to follow.  At least, that’s what NME says.  Are they though?  Is there anything in this dreamy beach indie music from Birmingham that’s worth more than a pleasant listen on a sunny afternoon?  I believe so.

As soon as I walked into Deaf Institute I found myself amongst a sea of excitable girls in a pink-lighted room.   Quite a scary situation.  Luckily, the main support – Baby Strange – were well worth a listen.  The three lads from Glasgow have got themselves a strong recipe going on; short songs, dark looks, Ramones-esque music.  The singer’s stage presence is as captivating as his Scottish accent is sharp – that is to say, a lot.   “Do you wanna loosen up?” he asks the crowd.  They are definitely a good band to loosen up to.

Finally, the Birmingham boys arrive on stage.  With their extravagant looks and nerdy haircuts, Swim Deep are well in keeping with their hipsterish image.  They reel off their set properly and efficiently, but Austin’s voice lacks a bit of strength.  But that said, the forthcoming album, Where The Heaven Are We?, does sound promising. ‘Red Lips’ in particular is a track to look out for.  The crowd is pretty well-behaved, no one tries to invade the stage as has happened in previous gigs, despite the sing-along success of ‘Honey’.  But ‘She Changes The Weather’ is far and away their best effort of the night.   Suddenly, band and crowd are in sync.  The gig ends on the rapturous reception of debut single ‘King City’.  By this point, the crowd is enchanted, and the singer ends up jumping in the crowd, driving the army of girls that I mentioned crazy.  It is slightly a case of too little too late though, you can’t help thinking he should have done that from the beginning.

Albeit often compared to other Birmingham-based bands like Peace and Jaws, Swim Deep do seem to have their own thing going.  With their dreamy beachy music heightened by Austins’ unique vocal, you can see why they are considered to a modern indie band to follow.  But I’d say that their live show doesn’t quite match up with the sound of the studio.

Interview: Jurassic 5

Despite the vicious beasts their name inevitably conjures up in the minds of most, Jurassic 5 are a group notorious for their laid-back beats and smooth MCing.  I spoke to the architect of many of these beats, DJ/Producer DJ Nu-Mark (real name Mark Potsic). I spent the afternoon leading up to speaking to Potsic slipping in and out of terrifying daydreams in which I fumbled my words and made a prize donut of myself.  Really I should have been revising.  However the moment came and I was greeted with the most chilled Californian I have ever spoken to, who immediately put me at ease by tha0nking me for calling and referring to me as ‘my man’.

The group formed in 1993 and Potsic seemed keen to reflect on the early days.  ‘When we started in the early 90’s, there were two groups originally. A group called Unity Committee, which was comprised of Chali 2na, Cut Chemist and Mark 7even.  There was another group called Rebels of Rhythm, which was Akil and Shaunie Mac who passed away.  I met both groups rehearsing for a gig called Rat Race, which invited MCs and a live funk band on stage.  So J5 is kinda like two groups as one plus me.  I was the DJ of that live event and I met them there.  We stated rehearsing together and experimenting’.

J5 were a product of the West Coast scene, notable for legends of the genre such as Dr Dre and Snoop Dogg.  I ask Potsic if they were a major influence on him and the group – ‘For me personally, how I cut my teeth and got my start in the music business was DJing house parties,’ he explains, his smooth Californian accent becoming more noticeable as he reminisces, ‘And if you didn’t play NWA or West Coast hip hop in general people would stop dancing.  People would come right up to the booth and tell you whether you were doing your thing or not.’  Making reference to the group, he remembers the influence being less musical.  ‘As a group as a whole I think it did have some influence, not so much as how we wanted to sound, but what was out there, what was relevant in the streets and what the competition was like.  It was just embedded in the culture here on the West Coast,’ he recollects, a smile filtering into his voice.

We go on to discuss the extended discography of J5, from their early EP’s to their fully-fledged LP’s.  Potsic is quick to select a favourite. ‘Power in Numbers! Well the EP was really special too, as it was our first real go at it,’ he admits, citing the lack of stress the group was under in the Power in Numbers era as the main reason behind its enjoyable construction.  He shows his 90s tendencies by using the slightly retro turn of phrase ‘finding the groove’ to describe the group’s harmony.

Harmony is not always the case when it comes to the music industry, especially with groups.  When I ask Potsic about J5’s inner relations, he immediately laughs off the idea of proper disagreements.  ‘There are always disagreements.  We were like brothers.  It’s actually really healthy.  It’s like six men bringing up a child, the music was our baby.’ So if you’re unconvinced by the idea of polygamistic gay adoption, Jurassic’s music surely shows the benefits.  Potsic appears to think very fondly of his past band mates and current friends, and I become more curious as to why they split and ended something so fruitful.  ‘I think you just reach that time when you want to move on to something else’ he softly muses.  ‘Not everybody wanted to do something different, but a good amount did’.

Jurassic 5 embodied an era when technology was starting to have an affect on society, but nowhere near to the extent of contemporary times.  There were no stars breaking through Youtube or Facebook and much less facile communication.  Potsic seems unhappy with the change and describes to me what has been altered from an insider’s perspective – ‘It doesn’t even share the same complexion as when we started,’ he laments, ‘It’s much tougher now to earn money.  Even when deals are being struck at major labels they’re doing things called 360 deals, where they give you a lump sum up front, but take money from your shows, which really doesn’t have anything to do with the label. It’s gotten a lot trickier. That said, it’s easier to market with the advances of technology, like Youtube.  The 99 cent download hurt us a lot.’ He speaks of a short-term memory loss syndrome among today’s music buying population. ‘Now you have to stay in people’s faces or they forget you.  You have to consistently give them little after little.’

The band is performing at Parklife and various other festivals this coming summer.  I was unaware of their history with regards to UK shows, but Potsic quickly confirms that the UK was a second home to the group.  ‘Oh yeah we played there. We owe a lot of our success and notoriety to the UK.  You embraced us first, gave us our first gold record.  People thought we were British’ he laughs.

Regardless of the stupidity involved in this assumption, it bodes well for Parklife.  The group connects well with the British and the summer weather is certainly suited to a J5 soundtrack.  Potsic is unaware of fellow performers at the festival, simply because they are performing all over the place, and there are too many line-ups to memorize.  However, he does cite Hudson Mohawke, a young Scottish DJ who worked on Kanye West’s Cruel Summer, as one to keep an eye out for.

Although J5 are not officially reforming, you can see them at Parklife and get new, free music at unclenu.

Live: The Postal Service

18th May 2013

Academy

Some reunions are more likely than others. Morrissey once said that the only way to get The Smiths back together would be to “shoot us and drag our bodies into the same room.” Conversely, you’d surely get astronomically long odds on Oasis never dusting off their achingly rusty back catalogue when somebody puts enough money in front of them. Last year, Ben Gibbard used his time off from Death Cab for Cutie to put together a solo record, comprised of odds and ends from the past few years that didn’t really fit with the band dynamic, and swore blind in every interview he gave in support of it that there would be no further activity from his platinum-selling side project, The Postal Service.

Gibbard would probably be at pains to point out that he can get himself off the hook on a technicality; he only ever said there wouldn’t be another album from The Postal Service – their sole long-player, Give Up, is one of the most successful records in the history of the legendary Sub Pop label. It still came as an enormous surprise, though, to learn that the band would head back out on the road this year for shows on both sides of the Atlantic, in celebration of Give Up‘s tenth anniversary, and in support of the obligatory reissue.

Quite why Gibbard chose to reunite with Jimmy Tamborello, who releases music under the name Dntel, might never be clear. The pair have given precious few interviews since January’s announcement, with the most prominent being a seven-minute promotional spot for the label that offered little in the way of new information. Irrespective of whether it was money, profile or a rekindled friendship that convinced them to schedule a run of dates that will surely be their last – a ‘one-time offer’, as Gibbard termed it on Twitter –  the inclusion of shows in Manchester and Brixton provides an opportunity for closure for British fans, the vast majority of whom won’t have made it to the band’s one previous UK gig back in 2003.

Back then, Jenny Lewis put duties with Rilo Kiley on hold to help flesh out the live lineup; with no such distractions this time around, she returns to the fold alongside Laura Burhenn, who was part of the Bright Eyes set-up two years ago when they toured The People’s Key extensively. Tonight’s show was originally announced for the nine hundred capacity Academy 2; it proved an underestimation of the group’s pulling power that bordered on the scandalous, as tickets still disappeared in under five minutes, even after the move next door.

Arriving onstage at nine o’clock sharp, following a charming support slot from Liverpudlian trio Stealing Sheep, the decision to kick off with Give Up opener ‘The District Sleeps Alone Tonight’ is predictable; less so is the band’s live setup, with Tamborello’s obligatory laptop rig augmented by dual guitars from Gibbard and Lewis, and a drum kit that both will sit behind before the evening’s out. Herein lies the joy of this Postal Service reunion; the show itself has been wonderfully well thought through. For vast swathes of those gathered – not least the group themselves – tonight’s about little more than nostalgia, but enough deft touches and smart nuances have been worked into the songs to make them feel new again; Lewis’ soothing vocal outro on ‘District’ brings a refreshing humanity to a song so pre-possessed with loneliness and isolation, whilst apocalyptic anthem ‘We Will Become Silhouettes’ is suddenly the spark for an all-out dance party.

Unsurprisingly, Give Up is aired in its entirety, and its live counterparts provide the opportunity to reflect on the subtle nature of its diversity, both lyrically and musically; on ‘Sleeping In’, Gibbard mulls over the abstract signifiers of an idealistic society – “there was never any mystery / of who shot John F Kennedy” – with Tamborello adding a rare backing vocal to his standard palette of skittering electronic beats. ‘Clark Gable’ sees Gibbard channel Woody Allen in Play It Again, Sam as he romanticises about the eponymous hero of the cinema’s golden age, whilst the hazy ‘Recycled Air’ is as tentative as the “teenage lovers between the sheets” that the lyrics allude to.

Beyond the ten-track record, of course, the set needs a little fleshing out; ‘Turn Around’ and ‘A Tattered Line of String’, the only survivors of an aborted attempt at a second album, provide a tantalising hint of what might have been, and excellent b-side ‘Be Still My Heart’ outweighs the inclusion of the trudging ‘There’s Never Enough Time’, which should have been sacrificed in favour of their stirring cover of ‘Against All Odds’. There is, however, an oddly charming take on Beat Happening’s ‘Our Secret’, on which Lewis takes to the drums. Her continued inclusion in the live fold is perhaps the reunion’s great masterstroke, allowing Gibbard – who has responded to being thrown out of his guitar-based comfort zone with some hideous dad-dancing – to divest some of his responsibilities as frontman, and allowing for big hitters like breakup duet ‘Nothing Better’ to be aired in unadulterated form.

The crowd pleasers are all present and correct – ‘Such Great Heights’ sparks a mass singalong – but it’s the care and attention with which the quieter cuts have been treated that really catch the eye tonight; the brooding ‘This Place Is a Prison’, with Gibbard’s whispered tale of a drug-infested Seattle bar floating over squelching beats, is a case in point, as is a gorgeous rendition of the song that started it all for the encore; ‘(This Is) The Dream of Evan and Chan’, the Death Cab-Dntel collaboration that gave birth to The Postal Service, is presented in wonderfully delicate fashion, the scratchy synths of the studio version eschewed in favour of a gentle, guitar-driven introduction.

If for no other reason, it seems a shame that there aren’t likely to be any further Postal Service tours purely because the band themselves seem to be having an awful lot of fun. Gibbard, who bounds across the stage with a permanent grin, is about as far from the intense persona he projects in Death Cab as he can get, and Lewis moves between the raucous and the subtle in a manner not afforded to her since her Rilo Kiley days. The full-throated, overblown singalong on closer ‘Brand New Colony’ is a million miles from the introspective affair many had expected, but it’s certainly fitting; tonight was about the celebration of a record that shouldn’t have taken this long to reach a wide live audience, and rewarding the fans that refused to give up on it.