Tall Ships

Without a doubt my favourite band at the moment, and part of the reason I haven't posted in the last few days - Tall Ships.

I keep reading comments that Tall Ships 'have improved over time'. I've listened to every song since 2011, and it has all been superb. Espcially this song:

Tall Ships' MySpace page

Japanese indie music ~VOCALOID

I'm going to introduce to you Japanese indie music.It's not about rock music but "vocaloid".
I think the vocaloid music scene is independent in the real sense.

This is the CM of Google Chrome appointed Hatsune Miku,the girl with green long hair.
Miku isn't the character of some animation,but virtual singer developed by Crypton Future Media.
It uses Yamaha Corporation's Vocaloid 2 synthesizing technology.

No sooner had it been released in 2007 than many songs using Miku software were made and uploaded to "Nico Nico Douga"which is Japanese movie sharing site like youtube.
The chain of creation has started by people inspired by the music uploaded.
For example, someone made animation video for a song ,and someone who saw that danced like that.
These works and performances were uploaded mainly to Nico Nico Douga.

Crypton Future Media saw the fever,then made guideline to admit the derivative works using the character within the limits of non-profit and gratis.
I think it's great because it made these free creations possible.

But the phenomenon was sometimes a threat for existing music business.
The most of creations are made for fun not for money but sometimes they are better and more popular than professional works.
They don't hit the chart but number of views shows their popularity.
Now vocaloid can't be ignored anymore and not a few are trying to make money from that.
Some creators turned professional.

Miku's live concerts using hologram were held in recent years.
Performed songs were the most popular among more than 30,000 songs made by various amateur artists.

Blood Red Shoes live at The Cockpit, Leeds, 12 May 2012

Last Saturday Leeds welcomed Blood Red Shoes, who played the penultimate set of their current UK tour at the city's Cockpit venue.

Throughout this tour Dublin rockers, The Cast of Cheers, have been supporting BRS and they arrived on stage at 7:40pm, playing a frenetic 30 minute set of songs.

Being a support act can be difficult at times, chances are a good percentage of the audience will be unfamiliar with the songs but the audience seemed to enjoy The Cast of Cheers and I'm sure they picked up a few fans that night.

Then came the wait for the main event as instruments were tuned, sound levels checked and the stage made ready, consisting of, amongst other things, red curtains, a lamp and a tv showing static, mimicking the style of the album cover of In Time To Voices.

Just before 9:00pm the volume of the tv was switched up and Laura-Mary and Steven took to the stage, promptly drowning out the sound of static with the wonderful "It's Getting Boring By The Sea", taken from their first album.

Next up was "Don't Ask" from their second album before they launched into "Cold", the first single from their latest album, from which they would play several tracks.

This included their next single, "Lost Kids", and the titular "In Time To Voices", interspersed with track from their first two albums, amongst which were such gems as "Light It Up", "I Wish I Was Someone Better", "You Bring Me Down" and "Heartsink" to name a few.

After the last song the dynamic duo retired backstage to await the obligatory calls of "Encore!". The pair returned to the stage to play not just one more song but three, ending with the short but sweet "Je Me Perds".

Throughout BRS were certainly on form, despite Laura-Mary suffering from a cold, which I could certainly sympathise with, suffering that week myself also from the same thing.

However, amazingly she still sounded great and her work on guitar was top notch. In fact, one has to wonder at times if these two are superhuman, for if Laura-Mary demonstrated remarkable resiliance by playing and singing with a cold, Steven demonstrated great stamina and lung-capacity by simultaneously laying down some very rapid and heavy drum beats whilst giving a good vocal performance over the course of 17 songs.

At the same time both kept looking into the audience, never becoming lost in their instruments or microphones and all this whilst barely looking like they were breaking a sweat.

A great performance from them both, sounding every bit as good as their studio productions and then some. The acoustics of the venue were spot on and, whilst as loud as one would hope at a live concert, didn't leave an awful persistant ringing in the ears like some venues.

If you ever get the chance to see Blood Red Shoes live you won't be disappointed.

Blood Red Shoes Official Website


The Cast of Cheers Official Website


The Cockpit - Leeds

Explosions in the Sky

Explosions in the Sky have been post-rocking out (see what I did there! :) ) from Austin Texas since 1999. Influenced by bands like Mogwai and Dirty Three, they create emotional soundscapes that are quite completely devoid of vocals.

Last week, Explosions in the Sky released a video for their song 'Postcards from 1952', which features a series of almost-stills and slow motion sequences that capture: the essence of life, being human, young, growing old, and the beauty and conflict in our inter-personal relationships... pretty much all of the things that one might expect from real art.

The video's directors (Peter Simonite and Annie Gunn, according to the Youtube post) cleverly use the song's structure (a slow start, building up over the course of the song to a cathartic crescendo then fade at the end) as a metaphor for life's progress.

The two main time-frames in the video are: the progress of the bubble to the little girl (which takes the almost the length of the video), and the duration of the camera's flash, which corresponds to the duration of the song's climax. These two durations come to an end at the same moment, with the bursting of the bubble, the extinguishing of the camera's flash, marking the beginning of the outtro in which the child's disappointment is turned to curiosity again with the birth of a new bubble and the loving smile of the mother.

It's all good stuff, and I'm going to recommend to you this song - and every song - by Explosions in the Sky :)

Links:
Explosions in the Sky's official website - http://www.explosionsinthesky.com
Bella Union's site - http://bellaunion.com
Bella Union is an awesome record label started by two members of the Cocteau Twins in the 1990s.

A MishMash of Newness

I will preface this by saying I'm not a big fan of non-utilitarian apps. But my all time favorite app is called Band of the Day. If you don't have it - get it! It's free and it's awesome. I have discovered tons of new bands of varying genres from Band of the Day.

That being said, I recently caught up on the days I missed while on vacation a couple of weeks ago, and below is a taste of the ones I really dug. This is a diverse little sampling, so hopefully you enjoy at least one of them!

Elliott Brood -- A three man Canadian folk band that recently released their first non-acoustic album, called Days Into Years. I can't find a non-live session for you to hear the more electric sound, but get a taste of them with the video for their CBCRadio session of "Northern Air".

xoxo

Mac

Kasabian - Man of Simple Pleasures

The fourth single to be released from their rather super album, Velociraptor, came out this week. Another solid tune from the Leicestershire lads. Take a listen below and see what you think.

Kasabian Official Website.

Allah Las

It's hard not to accuse these guys of being unoriginal. The sound is unmistakably 60s surfer/garage rock. Yet the charm with which they pull it off and the comfort with which they do it makes this a rather good listen.

Allah Las Official Website.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fiJYecS0vU0]