Schönbys 2011 - Best Live Act

The Schönbys are fictional, made-up awards for me to let you know what I've enjoyed listening to during 2011. Winners and nominations are drawn from music I have seen, heard or bought during the preceding 12 months.

The first award is Best Live Act. Here's the list I had to choose from; Goldheart Assembly, Mojave 3, Band of Horses, Oxo Foxo, Laura J Martin, Jonny, Warpaint, Fiction, Metronomy, Yuck, Phosphorescent, Ash, Los Campesinos!, Futureheads, Dananananackroyd, Standard Fare, This Many Boyfriends, Fear of Men, Dutch Uncles, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Ringo Deathstarr and Outfit.

Notable commendations go to:

Band of Horses - Leeds O2 Academy (Town and Country Club)
If there was a sub-award for 'live act that made me shed a little tear' it would have to be Band of Horses. The gig was everything that you would expect from BoH; tight playing and fantastic harmonies, and a bit of humour thrown in for good measure (the "de jour of the day" cover of a Neil Young classic was particularly noteworthy), but the crowning glory was the acoustic rendition of 'Evening Kitchen' played through just one microphone - simply awe-inspiring.

Evening Kitchen by bandofhorses

Laura J Martin - Sheffield Harley
I wasn't expecting to see Laura J Martin. There was no talk of support for Norman Blake and Euros Childs (Jonny) in this small Sheffield venue, and after the fire alarm had gone off a few times before any band came on I was fully expecting any support to be swiftly curtailed. What happened, however, was that the small crowd were treated to not only Oxo Foxo (local looping songstress) but also Laura. I had no idea what to expect, but her command of looping machine, flute, mandolin, and other objects was attention grabbing and very entertaining.

Spy by Laura J Martin

Phosphorescent - Leeds Brudenell Social Club
The venue is small, the band is many. Phosphorescent took to the stage and looked like the video to The Cure's Love Cats - elbows everywhere and moustacheoed axemen ducking and weaving their way out of getting a base guitar enema. The band played for what seemed like all night, the room getting sweatier and sweatier, but each blues/rock number played with feeling and gusto. Even a few issues with feedback on the microphones (they were on top of each other after all) didn't dampen the enthusiasm.

Phosphorescent - The Mermaid Parade by createspark

But the winner is:

Metronomy - Sheffield Leadmill
What can be said about Metronomy that has not already been said? I remember posting on Facebook that 'Metronomy rocked' after this gig. Not the words you would relate to the band, but they were extremely watchable, had excellent timing, and rocked in a sense that is difficult to explain. The best thing is, if you haven't already, is to go see them and make up your mind.

Metronomy - We Broke Free by FranklinP

Next year's thing?

So, the BBC's sounds of 2012 list was released yesterday. I don't understand these lists - they may as well call it the "here's some artists that we know will be releasing material in 2012" list. Conveniently all genres are covered and everyone's happy because there's someone on there that they can root for. Looking at this year's list (naturally) there's not a great deal I know much about. Friends (who I blogged about a few days ago) have made the list, and there's also Dry the River who I've heard of in passing, but the big name in indie guitar band circles is Spector. I became aware of these guys because I heard (incorrectly) that they were from Sheffield - I looked them up and found that they're actually from London. I walked past the stage that they were playing on at the recent Constellations festival in Leeds (on my way to seeing Marc Riley in the queue for a pasty) but didn't really take them in. Anyway, as they've made the list, I'm sure that means that there will be enough record company clout behind them to make sure that we hear more from them. If you don't know of their work, they are described as East London's answer to The Strokes (by the BBC), and this is what they sound like...

Spector - Grey Shirt and Tie by Luv Luv Luv

The Schönbys 2011

If you hadn't noticed, it's December. The Christmas decorations in our shopping malls are already covered in dust, un-easy silences are developing in offices up and down the country after the annual party, and bloggers and journalists alike begin to think about their end of year lists.

I've seen and heard quite a bit of music in 2011 (I set new year's resolutions to make sure I did!) and therefore would like to impart to you the music that has tickled my fancy over the last 12 months, and in order to do that I've devised the Schönbys - a bit like the Grammys but with better music.
I've decided on the following awards; best band, best single, best album, best live act, best new-comer and best international artist. I don't know whether I've got something that qualifies for all these yet, nevermind a winner, but let's have a go anyway!

First up will be best live act. Keep checking the blog for the nominations and winner, but to whet your appetite here's a track from what would have been my 2010 album of the year.

The National - Bloodbuzz Ohio by clubthemammoth

Every little helps

Earlier this month I spent 90 minutes of my life trying to access (and subsequently crashing) the Tesco Clubcard website. Why? Well, they had a deal where £12.50 of your hard-earned points could get you a £25 iTunes voucher. I was so excited I bought two, looks like lots of other people had the same idea because the might of the Tesco website was brought to it's knees under the rush to get one of the 25,000 vouchers on offer.

I don't generally buy electronic music, I rather opt to buy the physical entity that is a CD and then rip the CD to my laptop - this deserves to be the subject of a blog all of it's own, don't you think johnjsills? One thing that does annoy me though is when a track is played on the radio and I think "Wow, I want to own that" and low-and-behold, it's not available for another month or so. This could be the reason why "some people" borrow tracks from the internet, and when they become available (i.e. when the CD comes out) then "they" buy that and "their" conscience is clear.

There are some tracks, however, that cry out to be owned as soon as possible - this is where I'm hoping my fifty quids worth of iTunes credit will come in. I'm sure my purchases may well appear on this blog over the coming year.

The last digital track I bought was a few months ago. I'm his girl by Friends was one such track that made me get off my electronic arse and buy it via iTunes - mainly because they'd done a great job in ensuring that "some people" couldn't get hold of it by any other means. I'm drawn in by the desperation of the need for ownership in the lyrics, and the bass is class. Enjoy.

Friends - I'm His Girl by LuckyNumberMusic

A Manifesto

It's taken me (Schönberg) a while to understand blogs. The ones I read are probably read by thousands of people and they're usually telling me something I didn't know. I kinda feel that normally I don't have anything to say that would be useful or interesting to others, so it puts me off posting. Anyway, I now realise that you don't need thousands of followers, if you're getting through to just a few people then the whole experience can be worthwhile.

Each January I set myself some musical objectives for the coming year, some people may call them resolutions. Last year it was to go to more gigs and buy more albums. This year I want to set an objective that covers both my love of music but also satisfies another objective on embracing social networking. I want to share with the followers of this blog some of my favourite music, mainstream or otherwise.

So here's my pledge to you (yes, YOU. You singular. You, the person reading this). I pledge to post on this blog at least once per week during 2012, starting from next week. Sometimes it might be something really ground-breaking, sometimes it might be something I liked on the radio, sometimes it might simply be my earworm. So, if you're reading this and you want to support me, then why not leave a message to show that there's someone out there listening?

Music bloggers of the world unite, you have nothing to lose but your credibility.

The Smiths - Shoplifters Of The World Unite by EmergencyBroadcastSongs

Alexander - Million Years

A Million Years from Alexander

Alexander, he of Edward Sharpe fame has just released his own album and the stand out track for me is A Million Years plus the video is pretty good too. If you enjoyed the Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros album then check this out. They seem to a have spent a bob or two on the video...

MP3: A Million Years - Alexander

Thank you to his label Vagrant for letting me post this, you can buy the album at iTunes now.

Band of Skulls

With a name like Band of Skulls and a single called The Devil Takes Care of His Own you can already tell where this band are coming from. Heavy rock from the glory days of BRMC or you could even say a UK version of Kings of Leon with PJ Harvey adding extra vocals. This band are taking no prisoners and I'm looking forward to hearing their second album when it is released at the start of next year. Until I can give you more check out the video for the single...

Cocabelle

A while back I mentioned that The Jones were coming back. Well sadly that never materialised by Kris and Kev "Jones" haven't left the industry. They are involved with a bright star who might just go one step further and make it in to our charts. The soul / blues influenced lady named Cocabelle is being co-managed by the former lead singer and guitarist of The Jones as well as them writing for her. I certainly recommend checking our Lion's Den and my apologies go to Kris for not bringing this to your attention sooner.

MP3: Lion's Den - Cocabelle

Sleater-Kinney esq vocals - I think I know someone who might like that

Artists often find their real calling in the studio and can then move on to a career as a producer but every now and then you hear of a producers finally releasing their own material. It's a weird situation, having slaved away on someone else's material you're finally given a free rein, what do you do? Like a music critic you know your peers will listen closely and may not be too kind.

Doctor Rosen Rosen is one such producer turned artist (admittedly not all that famous) and he's giving away his debut EP. Entitled Girls it has four different female vocalists over four different tracks. I thought I'd bring you "Poison" but let the PR guy describe it:

"The EP definitely leans pop, but features a really cool track from a girl named Meg Myers who's voice is reminiscent of Corin Tucker from Sleater-Kinney,"



POISON (feat. Meg Myers) by DOCTOR ROSEN ROSEN

The Rassle

When I originally posted about The Rassle it was part of a larger post and I'm kinda worried you all missed it. I've been enjoying the tracks off their free EP for a while and if you haven't sat up and taken notice of this band yet then you really should. I won't go over old ground again but what I will point out to you is that they have a new free download available. On first listen it sounds pretty damn good, pretty damn good indeed.