Thursday August 26
Eels
It may be nine years since Mark Everett last troubled the UK
single charts when Souljacker stalled at No 30, but he’s
sustained a large, loyal following that’s seen every one of
his albums enter the Top 40, right up to last year’s Hombre
Lobo and follow up End Times, the first two parts of his
concept album trilogy.
The first, a largely uptempo pop coloured rocker with numbers
like Prizefighter, My Timing Is Off and the crunchy Fresh
Blood and Tremendous Dynamite, dealt with desire while the
second was a darker, introspective and more stripped back
affair dealing with divorce and ageing through such songs as
In My Younger Days, I Need A Mother and A Line In The Dirt.
He arrives now on his first tour since 2007 to complete the
picture with Tomorrow
Morning (E Works), still reflective but, informed
by new love, altogether rather sunnier with titles like In
Gratitude For This Magnificent Day, I’m A Hummingbird, the
jaunty fuzz blues My Baby Love Me, a gently cascading
Spectacular Girl and the gospel handclapper single Looking Up.
If that doesn’t convince he’s a cheerier puppy, then how about
the drum beats driving This Is Where It Gets Good, a sun
bursting Oh So Lovely and the simple strummed folksy pleasures
of I Like The Way This Is Going.
There may not be anything to repeat the infectious singalong
success of Mr E’s Beautiful Blues, but with a set list likely
to focus on the three albums you’ll still be going home
thinking goddamn what a beautiful day.
7.30pm.
£20. O2 Academy
Thursday August 26
I Blame Coco
Sting’s daughter steps out on her first headliner in advance
of her debut album, The Constant and following the recent
release of electro rock single Strange Machine. Past releases
Quicker and Caesar both suggest she’s assimilated her father’s
staccato rhythms and world music interests but fed them
through a dance haze. An energetic, physical performer,
doubtless she’ll be showcasing album tracks like In Spirit
Golden, Party Bag and Tourn Your Back on Love though whether
Only Love Can Break Your Heart is a Neil Young cover or not
remains to be seen.
8pm.
£5. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath
Friday August 27
Caitlin Rose
Releasing her debut EP, Dead Flowers, earlier this year, the
Nashville singer-songwriter’s being hailed as one of the
brightest new stars on the Americana scene. She rides into
town astride Own Side Now (Names), a debut album that finds
her giving old school country a contemporary eye while
brushing hands with blues and soul.
Beguilingly simple folk-country opening track Learnin’ To Ride
shows Iris DeMent comparisons are not misplaced while her
keening tones on the similarly old school bruised broken heart
ballad Sinful Wishing Well also hint at a young Loretta.
Elsewhere the obvious comparison is with the coy little girl
purity of Zooey Deschanel, notably so on soulful 50s waltzing
torch ballad For The Rabbits (written when she was just 16)
and the handclapping, brass backed uptempo rocker Shanghai
Cigarettes.
That bouncy side of her comes out too on clomping saloon bar
boogie New York City, the choppy harp blowing Nashville
country of Spare Me, loping cathouse blues Coming Up and a
country twanged cover of Fleetwood Mac’s That’s All right.
However, it’s on the wearier numbers she shines best, the
vulnerable slow waltzing country rock title track mining the
spirit of Patsy Cline to tug at the heartstrings between sips
from the beer glass. It’s early days yet, but with a
playfulness and lack of front to go with the voice,
fingerpicking guitar and songwriting abilities, this Rose
looks like proving a remarkable and enduring bloom.
8pm.
£6. Glee Club
Wednesday September 1
The Depreciation Guild
While it may feature The Pains of Being Pure at Heart members
Kurt Feldman and Christoph Hochheim, this isn’t a new side
project. Rather the Brooklyn band was formed prior to their
current day job and, with Hochheim’s brother Anton on drums,
has been taken out of mothballs between Pain activities.
They’re not entirely world aparts, but The Spirit Youth (Kanine)
has a slightly heavier edge to its reverb drenched dreamlike
power pop as evidenced by such tracks as the pounding Through
The Snow, a pulsing November, the psychedelic colours of the
title track and the shoegaze bliss of My Chariot. Drawing on
such influences as Bill Nelson, Yellow Magic Orchestra,
Cocteau Twins and Pale Saints, they perform backed by a
Nintendo Entertainment System, the saturated sound enveloped
by the 8-bit sound chip which, in layman’s terms, basically
means you’ll feel the music as much as you hear it.
8pm. £7. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath
Friday September 3-Sunday September 5
Moseley Folk Festival
Another year and, even if they’ve again passed over
Birmingham’s superlative Red Shoes, another star-studdedly
impressive line up of folk in its various hues. Whatever the
weather, the sun’s shining from these stages.
Fri:
Among
those over at the Lunar stage you’ll find Tyneside’s
Beth Jeans Houghton who, with country inflected pop folk somewhere
between The Boothill Footappers and Joanna Newsome, deserves
promotion to the main event next year, while Static Caravan
label-mates Starless & Bible Black
will be showcasing the psychedelic 70s folk-rock of current
album Shape Of The Shape.
A
solid opening day on the Main Stage gets underway with
Ben Calvert, followed by
Glasgow’s Sparrow And The Workshop’s
psychedelic rock, grunge and trad folk and
Erland and The
Carnival’s retro psych-folk.
Then local (though not exactly folk) lad
Fyfe Dangerfield provides a
taster for his upcoming solo tour with music from the current
album and inevitable calls for She’s Always A Woman To Me. You
can safely catch up on sleep while
Turin Brakes doodle through their pleasantly
undemanding soft rock then wake up for headliner
The Divine Comedy.
Having had a bit of a chart dip with 2006’s underrated
Victory For The Comic Muse, an album reminiscent of early
Scott Walker that saw the end of his EMI deal, Neil Hannon’s
finally back in action with the own label Bang Goes The
Knighthood, still trading in English ennui, Noel Coward wit
and orchestral chamber pop, nudging
sexual innuendo with the lyrics of Assume The Perpendicular
but also finding touching melancholy on Down On The Street’s
reflection on stagnant domesticity and sharpening the
satirical knife for The Complete Banker, a cabaret ditty for
our times that rhymes the titular profession with ‘malignant
cancer’. He adopts the same cabaret pose for the title track,
the tale of some establishment type indulging his scandal
risking addiction to S&M while The Lost Art Of Conversation
offers a jaunty Newman-esque lament for our inability and
disinclination to talk to one another.
The whimsy can get a little irritating at times (check out Can
You Stand On One Leg and At The Indie Disco), but when he gets
in direct touch with the heart, as on the 40s flavoured piano
skip of Have You Ever Been In Love or the meditation of
masculine vulnerability that is When A Man Cries, he surely
deserves that gong. Rather depressingly though, it’ll still be
National Express the crowds will be calling for.
Sat:
Highlights of the Lunar Stage today come in contrasting form.
Kings Heath’s Malpas make
tinkling folktronica, Jo Hamilton
serves up chilled jazz-folk poise while headliners
Goodnight Lenin will be in
banjo strumming rumbustious mood following the launch of their
debut single.
Across on the Main Stage, Lisa Knapp
and Gerry Driver get the day underway, followed by the
new saviour of Scottish trad Alasdair
Roberts and, now in his 70s, making his first UK tour
in 30 years, 60s folk-blues legend
Spider John Koerner.
Then
it’s the turn of Johnny Flynn,
the once much heralded Mercury Music Prize nominee who got
dumped from his major label when that failed to propel the
debut album into the charts. Now back with Transgressive, he’s
recently released Been Listening which, apparently, has an
African influence. However, since promo copies were scarce,
it’s impossible to say much more.
A
live appearance by The High Llamas
is always a welcome if unpredictable treat, Sean O’Hagan and
the boys as likely to serve up a set of bossa nova or
electronica as folk-rock; either way it should be perfect for
a summer dusk. Penultimate act of the day is a welcome
festival visit by The Low Anthem
with the folk-hymnal and Cohen-esque pleasures of Oh My God,
Charlie Darwin.
“I was the only big
solo success apart from Dylan, but musically I was the more
creative and influential, and dynamic”. So writes headliner
Donovan in his self-regarding
not to say self-delusional autobiography. Certainly, he was a
60s icon, releasing wistful love songs like Catch The Wind and
Colours, being one of the first of the UK’s folk protest
singers with The War Drags On and his cover of Universal
Soldier, and going on to become a leading figure of the flower
power and hippie movements, recording such classics as Mellow
Yellow, Sunshine Superman, Hurdy Gurdy Man and Goo Goo
Barabajagal. But more influential and dynamic than Dylan?
His fey whimsy swiftly fell from favour and the fact is he’s
not had a chart single since 1969 and his last hit album,
Cosmic Wheels (which contained the juvenile Intergalactic
Laxative), was 33 years ago. Even teaming with Rick Rubin for
1993’s Sutras, hoping to do a Johnny Cash, failed to excite
anyone and he hasn’t released any new material since Beat Cafe
(and some of that was old reworks) flopped six years ago.
Since Donovan’s last chart entry, Dylan, has had 32 Top 40
albums and proven a continuing influence on at least two
generations of musicians and writers.
Still, Mr Leitch remains an entertaining and enjoyable live
performer, especially when he serves up the favourites, and
Catch The Wind remains as haunting now as it was in 1965, and
this rare outdoor performance should make the evening spark.
Sun:
For
the final day it’s worth checking out the Bohemian Jukebox
stage to find out what James
Summerfield’s up to these days, while well worth
attention over at the Lunar platform you’ll find excellent
Worcester based Welsh singer-songwriter
Deborah Hodgson alongside Eva
Cassidy’s fiddle playing brother Dan plus Birmingham’s very
own Be Good Tanyas, Little Sister,
Ashley Hutchings’ current outfit
Rainbow Chasers (featuring Jo Hamilton) and folk dance
rousers Cut A Shine.
Currently featured on the new
David Rotheray album, Bella Hardy
kicks off the final day on the Main Stage, with sets from folk
guitar legends Martin Simpson
and John Renbourn punctuated
by a mazurka knees up with The
Destroyers before things ride off into the sunset with
the jazz tinged Irish trad of Lunasa,
the somewhat more spare tones of The
Unthanks and, bidding another year farewell, the all
strumming footstopping Ukulele
Orchestra of Great Britain with their folked-up takes
on music by Nirvana, the Pistols and Tchaikovsky.
Fri 2pm. Sat/Sun
11am. Fri £28 (12-16s £12), Sat/Sun £37 (12-16s) £15, Fri+Sat £65(kids
25), Sat + Sun £65 (£30), Dri-Sun £77 (£35), Family Fri-Sun
£160).
Moseley
Park
Tuesday September 7
Hugo
Looking a little like Tom Hulce without the beard or Dean
Friedman with it, John Hugo Ungar hails from Chicago and plays
what he calls indie pop piano rock. Roughly translated that
means he sounds a bit like a mix of Billy Joel, Ben Folds and
Elton John. He cites Costello as an influence and you’ll hear
elements of that too. He also mentions Leon Russell and
Michael Jackson, though you’re more likely to hear Gerard
Kenny and Rupert Holmes.
He’s over here promoting the belated UK release of his 2008
album, Uncommon Courtesy (Umm), though the costs of touring
mean it’s probably just him and a piano rather than the full
band.
Either way, his catchy, often wry, whimsical and ever so
slightly cynical songs about the relationships combat zone and
Woody Allen-ish self-deprecation are worth catching. Numbers
like a jaunty Educational Facility, the poppy A Little Piece,
A Little Humiliation with its Benny & The Jets piano chord
borrowings, the funky Boss Man and the surely Randy Newman
modelled Mudsmilin’ are all sprightly, sharply written
melodies perfectly crafted to hold the attention of piano bar
crowds. Only when he tunes down on the brooding vocodered
Cockroach and the somewhat plodding Choke does the attention
likely to wander back to the bar.
I’ve no idea what the earlier two albums are like or whether
any new material has veered in other directions, but as I
suspect he’s probably better live than he is in the studio,
this could be worth checking out. Especially since it’s not
going to cost you anything.
8pm.
Free. Jam House, Jewellery Quarter
Tuesday September 7
Matthews Southern Comfort
Resurrecting his first post-Fairport band name for the first
time in 40 years, albeit with none of the various original
members save himself, Iain Matthews returns with a line up
that features American singer-songwriter Terri Binion sharing
vocals and providing five of the songs.
Given his recent excursions into blues-jazz, it’s little
surprise to find things spilling over into the folk fabric
here, notably so on the Binion-showcasing These Days, and the
keyboard arrangements of the Celtic soul O’Donnell Street and
a gospel tinted Kingfish. It’s actually on Binion’s Seven
Hours and Perfect Love that the country flavours of the early
MSC albums resurface, though, as Dear Richard and Locomotive
show, she’s equally adept at getting the bluesy soul groove
going too.
There are revisitations of three old past Comfort tunes too, a
world weary Southern country blues Road To Ronderlin, trad
shanty Blood Red Roses (the only real folk track on the album)
and, perhaps inevitably, a new version of their chart topping
version of Woodstock, though, delivered with minimal
instrumentation and a speak-sing vocal with gospel chant back
ups, sounding as it might have had Joni Mitchell written in
during her Hissing Of Summer Lawns phase.
It might strike some as touch ironic that, given the band
revival, the album closes with Money, channelling Matthews’
bitterness at the music business’ concern with cash rather
than creativity, but it’s hardly an accusation to be levelled
here.
Support comes from Wolverhampton’s excellent songsmith
Dan Whitehouse and
Birmingham’s fast -if belatedly - rising folk-rock stars
Red Shoes.
8pm.
£14. Robin 2, Brierley Hill
Wednesday September 8
The Like
Formed by singer-guitarist (Eli)Z(abeth) Berg and drummer
Tennessee Thomas (daughter of Cosetllo sticksman Pete) when
they were just 15, augmented by bassist Laena Geronimo and
Annie Monroe on retro organ, the LA based quartet clearly
have a big thing for the 60s British invasion and girl groups.
Listening to new Mark Ronson produced album Release Me
(Downtown), its easy to hear both general and specific
influences, from the My Girl bassline intro to Narcissus In A
Red Dress, the Lesley Gore meets the Shangri-Las of Wishing He
Was Dead and the Spector pop of Don’t Make A Sound to the
Monkees-like He’s Not A Boy, the title track’s Twinkle and In
The End where Spencer Davis’ Keep on Running meets Cliff’s
Don’t Talk To Him sung by Petula Clark. I Can See It In Your
Eyes even images a marriage of The Animals and The Supremes.
The immediate comparison would be to tag them as a rebirth of
The Go Gos, especially given their 60s Vogue cover wardrobe,
but spiced liberally with garage pop, Monroe’s cheesy Farfisa
chords, and boy trouble songs, there’s more of a 60s r&b
flavour bubbling just below the surface. Others like The
Pipettes have been this route in recent years and vanished
into limbo, hopefully this lot have the songs to keep the
retro wheels spinning for a while yet.
8pm.
£7.50. The Rainbow
Thursday September 9
Jonsi
photo Lilja Birgisdottir
Go (Parlophone), the solo debut by the Sigur Ros frontman,
isn’t really a huge departure from the day job, other than the
fact he’s singing in English rather than his vowel dominated
invented Hopelandic. Certainly there’s more of the poppier
element of the band’s last album in evidence on the falsetto
voiced Go Do, a skittering Around Us and the clattery Animal
Arithmetic. But, arranged by Philip Glass protégé Nico Muhly,
you still get the big cinematic orchestral vistas and angelic
choirboy of Tornado, Sinking Friendships, Grow Till Tall and
the cello heavy Hengilas. Not exactly, as the blurb would have
you believe, ‘the sound of an artist trying new things.’ Maybe
the live set will throw in a few surprises.
Meanwhile, those who already love Sigur Ros will adore this
gloriously joyful, bursting with life affair equally. Those
who wondered what the lyrics were about will listen to the
likes of the naive blissful Boy Lilikoki, where he goes on
about being a passion-fruit person, and wish they hadn’t.
7.30pm. £18.50. O2 Academy
Friday September 10
Barenaked Ladies
Photo by David Bergman
Still best known here for ‘novelty’ hit One Week, the
Canadians haven’t troubled the UK charts since that and
accompanying album Stunt, 11 years ago, despite releasing six
further albums (one, just for kids) in the interim.
They have, however, never failed to pull in audiences for
their rare visits to these shores and there’s no reason to
think ticket sales are going to struggle for their first tour
since slimming to a four piece with the departure of founding
member and lead singer Steve Page last year.
They also arrive with a new album, All In Good Time (Raisin’),
a 14 track collection on which co-founder Ed Robertson handles
the bulk of the vocals with Kevin Hearn and Jim Creeggan
taking up the slack. Page’s voice and songwriting strength’s
obviously missed, but his departure’s pushed his former
colleagues into playing to their strengths. As such opener You
Run Away is a sterling example of stadium friendly soft rock
balladeering, Every Subway Car, Golden Boy and How Long are
driving guitar rock while Hearne’s midtempo shuffling 60s
handclap pop Jerome is one of the nagging highlights.
On the downside, they try far too hard to retain their
reputation for quirkiness with Four Seconds, a camel-dance
rhythm that looks to repeat the One Week formula but barely
makes it past the first day. How their fanbase takes to the
new model could determine whether they’ll be back again
anytime soon, but for now they have everything to play for.
7pm.
£25. O2 Academy
Sunday September 12
Jane Taylor
Having packed the place out last time, it’s a welcome return
for the Bristolian singer-songwriter and another chance to
sift through the songs from her two albums to date, Montpelier
and Compass.
If you’ve yet to discover the charms of her girlish voice and
cut to the heart songs, allow me to point you in the direction
of numbers such as the Nick Drake tinged Old Friends, the
achingly plaintive Fall On Me, All Things Change’s summery
breeze and the jazzy-folk of Cracks. She’s currently working
on her third album, so there’s a good chance she’ll be
roadtesting a couple of new numbers tonight, too.
8pm.
£10, Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath
Monday September 13
Willy Mason
It’s
been three years since the
New York
rootsy singer-songwriter toured here on the back of then
current album If The Ocean Gets Rough’s tales of lives bruised
by relationships and politics. Blessed with such songs as The
World That I Wanted’s account of his alcoholic, late father,
melancholic environmental lament When The Leaves Have A Fallen
and the bluesy Simple Town’s observation of small town life,
it more than warranted the Guthrie, Cash, and Dylan references
that have been thrown his way.
Still, a new album’s well overdue and, having taken a stick to
the Bush administration’s domestic policy on Save Myself,
it’ll be interesting to see what he’s got to say about Obama.
Mason’s starting to assemble the follow-up and is likely to be
trying out new material, early throaty acoustic samples of If
It’s The End, Pickup Truck and Shadows In The Dark suggesting
the mood’s going to be sober, downbeat and reflective.
8pm. £11. Glee Club
