The Lovely Feathers?

THE GORGEOUS COLOURS


For some bizarre reason, my mind always associates the music of The Gorgeous Colours with various bright colours. Perhaps this is due to some masterstroke in subliminal marketing, or it could have something to do with their stage clothing; each member subtley draped in orange/purple/yellow/white/green. Or maybe this is vaguely related to their glittering summertime pop tunes; a type of mellow tropicana indie (could this be a scene? "Nu-mellowtropicanaindie"?) which aurally resembles what we'd hear if we had Nick Thorburn's eccentricities and innovation in front of the melodic assault of Good Shoes or The Spinto Band.

That said, it is clear that each one of their songs is distinctly different from their last and that the band is currently basking in a love of music (guitarist Neil sports his Electric Picnic wristband, seven months later). But they still manage to produce a coherent sound, from the mariachi trumpet and incessant riff of forthcoming single Hunting Something to I Miss You (which sounds like a jangle-pop version of something from Neon Bible). Definitely gorgeous and definitely colourful.

Burning video
Hunting Something (FM104 acoustic session)
I Don't Know (FM104 acoustic session)

Their myspace

The Shiny Army.

THE POLYPHONIC SPREE


Last year, a stripped-down crew of 6 of The Polyphonic Spree contributed a few songs to the soundtrack of a movie called Keeping With The Steins. I presumed that these tunes had been lost forever, due to a limited movie release and non-existent soundtrack release. But the latest episode of Coverville includes the semi-Spree's cover of R.E.M.'s Shiny Happy People.

From The Fragile Army blog:

yes, yes we know...how perfect to have polyphonic sing about shiny, happy people! the original idea was to really strip it down and do an acoustic version at a much slower tempo but...in the end, we stayed true to the track although it only features tim, mark, bryan, audrey, annie and jennifer from the band...

This is a bland radio hit that I've never been quite able to sit through comfortably and I'm certainly not an R.E.M fan, but I'm fanatical enough of a Spree fan to enjoy their version a lot.

Shiny Happy People

A song at least 20 times better than Michael Stipe's is Section 21 (Running Away). There is currently a snippet of it available on their official site and I'm pretty sure that one of the song's lyrics is also a review of their new album:

It's like running away with the wind in our face, it's like flying!

The Fragile Army will be released on TVT Records on June 15th. Buy it and you will have a long, exciting list like this:

Section 1 (Have a Day/Celebratory)
Section 2 (It's the Sun)
Section 3 (Days Like This Keep Me Warm)
Section 4 (La La)
Section 5 (Middle of the Day)
Section 6 (Hanging Around the Day Part 1)
Section 7 (Hanging Around the Day Part 2)
Section 8 (Soldier Girl)
Section 9 (Light & Day/Reach For the Sun)
Section 10 (A Long Day)
Section 11 (A Long Day Continues/We Sound Amazed)
Section 12 (Hold Me Now)
Section 13 (Diamonds/Mild Devotion to Majesty)
Section 14 (Two Thousand Places)
Section 15 (Ensure Your Reservation)
Section 16 (One Man Show)
Section 17 (Suitcase Calling)
Section 18 (Everything Starts at the Seam)
Section 19 (When the Fool Becomes a King)
Section 20 (Together We're Heavy)
Section 21 (Together We're Heavy)
Section 22 (Running Away)
Section 23 (Get Up And Go)
Section 24 (The Fragile Army)
Section 25 (Younger Yesterday)
Section 26 (We Crawl)
Section 27 (Oh I Feel Fine)
Section 28 (Guaranteed Nightlite)
Section 29 (Light To Follow)
Section 30 (Watch Us Explode (Justify))
Section 31 (Overblow Your Nest)
Section 32 (The Championship)

Befriend the Spree to keep up-to-date!

Wren and Stimpy.

THE WRENS


"We'll never be rockstars but we couldn't give a titanic fuck!".

This is an easily believable statement coming from a band with an average age that makes The Hold Steady look like Smoosh. But listen to any of their songs or go to see them live and you'll laugh at how ridiculously untrue and modest this is. They may have 9 to 5 jobs back home working "for the Investment Manager Services division where I sell operation processing outsourcing technology platforms to investment managers", but once they get on a stage and throw out their epic slacker-pop with enough enthusiasm to convice everyone that they've stolen The Spinto Band's sugar, you'll have no reservations in agreeing that their 2003 classic The Meadowlands puts them up there with Pavement and Tripping Daisy and the best of them.

This Boy Is Exhausted
Everyone Choose Sides

The Sordid Truth Behind the Swindie Music Scene

At the check-in gate of a Swedish airport, I'm From Barcelona's Jacob realises that he has forgotten his passport and would have to tell his friends to party on without him in Dublin. Later that day - under lashings of coloured confetti and balloons - Emanual "Wayne Coyne Jr." Lundgren calls him on speakerphone to find out if any way of spending an evening could possibly beat THIS. "What are you doing? Are you watching Seinfeld?!", he asks. The following night, Annika of Hello Saferide sings a song which functions as a questionaire for prospective boyfriends to answer. It is apparant that a certain TV show is of considerable importance to Annika as she quizzes her would-be suitors by singing "do you talk in the middle of Seinfeld?". So having seen five Swedish bands over two nights, is the only thing we've learnt about the country the fact that they all love Seinfeld? No. It is also apparant that every Swedish person - without exception - is a musical genius.

Salem Al-Fakir is a superstar back in his homeland. We know this because he keeps cheekily reminding us. "This song is a big hit in Sweden so when I play it live, people applaud when they recognise it. You should do the same!". The crowd doesn't need much prompting when the songs are as good as Dream Girl and This Is Who I Am, and the frontman veers between expertly playing the piano with a wild grin and jumping into the audience to shake hands with the front row. According to Salem, he doesn't actually listen to music and is entirely influence-free, so it is just a happy coincidence that his tunes come somewhere between the classic guilty pop of Leo Sayer and the more eccentric and modern stylings of Patrick Wolf.

Taxi, Taxi! are the most charming and entrancing band of the festival, quietly delivering their well-crafted heartstopping tunes over piano, accordion, guitar and ukulele to a completely hushed and awe-struck crowd.

I'm From Barcelona make no excuses for being a novelty band, because they are quite simply the best novelty band in the world. It can be difficult to listen to their entire debut in one sitting but the live show is the easiest thing in the world. Delivering a euphoria which seems to be exclusive to just a handful of bands (The Polyphonic Spree, Arcade Fire, Flaming Lips and The Spinto Band, I think!), the evening is filled with throwaway chants ("I have built a treehouse/I have built a treehouse/Nobody can see us/Cos it's a you-and-me house") and never-ending choruses. Two new songs prove that there is actually life beyond Let Me Introduce My Friends, although it doesn't look like the band is going to be getting serious anytime soon. One song features the lyric "Does anybody really care that good old Britney shaved her hair?" and the other is introduced with the statement "I robbed this one from Justin Timberlake". The song's riff is from Cry Me A River. But even if their set was made up of *NSync covers, it'd all be forgiveable when they play the fabulously communal We're From Barcelona after a brilliantly teasing minute-long intro. When they finally transform that repeated note into the song's riff, everything in the world swirls and 700 people are catapulted into the eclipsed moon outside.

They're that good.

I'm From Barcelona - We're From Barcelona
Hello Saferide - The Quiz
Taxi, Taxi! - Old Big Trees
Moneybrother - Reconsider Me

myspaces
Salem Al-Fakir
Moneybrother
Hello Saferide
Taxi, Taxi!
I'm From Barcelona