song of the week 33: white label - todd

I've just come across "Stolen Voices", an interesting "bootleg remix album featuring rare or unreleased tracks and long-lost demos" from Norman Records.

It features originals by the likes of the Supremes, Harry Nilsson, Billy MacKenzie, David Bowie, Dennis Wilson, John Lennon... (If you're interested there are more details of the original sources here.)

My favourite track is this Todd Rundgren song recorded from a live performance in 1971. An interestingly angular melody which puts me in mind of another band I mention from time to time. The backing track is a bit X-Files, but I think it works quite well.

And can you spot the part where he forgets the lyric?


 

song of the week 16: high llamas - fly baby fly

Got a three-minute attention span? Then you'll hate the High Llamas. Need a sing-along chorus to jump out and grab you by the ears? Ain't gonna happen with these boys.

In my experience listening to a new High Llamas album--as I've been doing in the last hour or so, to Talahomi Way (out today, pop fans!)--usually works something like this:

1st listen: you can pick up all the familiar elements of the band's sound (Sean O'Hagan vocalising and plucking nylon-string guitar in a bossa-nova kinda style, Bacharach-type trumpets, string quartet/vibes/harps, percussive electric piano accompaniment...) but you find it all a bit disjointed. These key changes are a bit radical, there are hardly any noticeable hooks and no musical idea seems to last for more than three or four bars. It's all a bit too clever-clever.

2nd listen: It begins to fit together a bit better. You can see how one idea develops from another, that actually there is a kind of verse/verse/chorus-type song structure. The instrumental noodling isn't just that. It all fits in, echoing and counterpointing the melody.

3rd/4th listen: Actually, these melodies are genius. They go off in all sorts of directions but they're what hold each song together. Getting the hang of this now...

5th/6th listen: Reach for lyric sheet. Sing-along chorus ahoy. Altogether now: "Fly Baby Fly" etc etc...

small beer

High Llamas @ The Luminaire, 12th February

Last night I went to see the High Llamas, for something like the eighth time. I sometimes wonder what it says about me that while other people follow million-selling acts like U2, R.E.M. or Radiohead, I go along every year to see a band who's YouTube hits number no more than eight (I've just counted them) and wouldn't know a top twenty album placing if it was brought up to them on a plate by Brian Wilson himself.

Although we heard were a couple of songs which they hadn't played for a while, there weren't really any big surprises (which is good). I did discover a good new young band and a groovy new venue though:

• Soy Un Caballo are Belgian apparently. Gentle, wistful, and sounding a bit like a French language cross between Fleet Foxes and the Kings Of Convenience. Nice.


• The Luminaire, in swinging downtown Kilburn, is an "intimate" venue with a crowd capacity of a whopping 300. Bands play on a small stage in front of a red velvet curtain which put me slighltly in mind of Twin Peaks. As an indication of where they're coming from, there's also a seating area out of sight of the stage where a notice wards off noisy punters: "We're a live venue, not a pub. If you've come to chat with your friends while the bands are on, you're in the wrong place". My sentiments entirely...

One of YouTube's top eight High Llamas songs of all time then:



Mary Hansen, former member of Stereolab, sang on this track. It was recorded two or three years before her untimely death. I think she does a good job. R.I.P.

where's hoops?

High Llamas at Whitechapel Art Gallery, 4th July

I think the High Llamas are my favourite band currently recording/performing. (Thankfully rumours of their live demise appear to have be exaggerated.) As far as I'm concerned I'm not sure that anyone can match Sean O'Hagan's gift for quirky melody and harmony. And he's a great arranger too. (Although maybe those lyrics could be a little less obscure eh Sean? What's that again about the House of Leaf and Lime?)

Anyway, the Llamas' "annual London gig" didn't disappoint. Talk about intimate venues though. I calculate that the six band members and their instruments/gear (Sean himself had three guitars and a banjo) took up approximately 1/3 of the room at the Whitechapel Art Gallery. The Albert Hall this ain't.

And great to hear old favourites "Nomads" and "Checking In and Checking Out" for the first time in ages. No sign of Hoops Hooley though...

Stuff:

junkmedia interview with Sean

vallejonocturno interview with Sean

"The Musical Painting" (collaboration between Sean O'Hagan and Jean-Pierre Muller)

There's not much on youtube from the Llamas. But here are a couple of interesting curiosities:

- "My First Motion Picture" by Padraig Trehy with music by Sean

- a High Llamas cover of the Smiths' "Frankly Mr Shankly", and

- "Bach Ze" is a good illustration of those unpredictable melodies and harmonies. Great stuff:

september of their years

Looking at the latest postings on respective websites the other day, it seems that two of my musical heroes are hanging up their boots as far as live performances are concerned.

For Paddy McAloon and his Prefab Sprout cohorts it's no great surprise. McAloon's poor health in recent years has been reasonably well documented but a quite lengthy messageboard posting by a fan apparently "in the know" suggests also a lack of motivation on Paddy's part to carry on with songwriting and recording and gives brother Martin much of the credit for Sprout activities in recent years (most notably the recent "Steve McQueen" reworkings). It's been a Life Of Frustration for Sprout fans ever since Paddy admitted years ago that he'd got a huge number of songs stashed away. Looks like the chances of them ever seeing the light of day now are remoter than ever.

Also deserting the live arena, it seems, are the High Llamas. Main man Sean O'Hagan is something of a workaholic and is constantly involved in musical projects with a wide range of collaborators so it's surely not through lack of energy that they're giving up playing live. Nor is there a lack of material: this year's "Can Cladders" album was their eighth and has only been given a sole UK airing so far. Posting on the Llamas messageboard (as, creditably, he is wont to do from time to time), Sean admits that it's increasingly difficult to get promoters interested in putting the band on and that together with family commitments has pretty much put live performances to bed for the foreseeable future. Not something which can be helped but a shame nonetheless.

On a brighter note, big respect to Edwyn Collins, who steps up to the mic at the Arts Theatre in Soho in a couple of weeks' time to perform the second of three gigs, the first since suffering a massive, life-threatening brain haemorrhage a couple of years ago. Slowly recovering the power of speech and still without the use of his right arm, rumours abound that ex-Postcard stablemate Roddy Frame (back in the early 80s) is standing by for strumming duty. There must be doubts about his future as a songwriter--his recently released album was all in the can before his illness--but it'll be great to see him out and about and making music again.

live stuff: lost ladies of folk at queen elizabeth hall, 23/6/07

One of the last gigs of Jarvis Cocker's "Meltdown" festival was this performance of some little-known women singers given recent exposure on Finders Keepers' "Bearded Ladies" compilation of folk/acoustic music. The first half of the evening featured three U.K.-based artists, Emma Tricca, Cate Le Bon and Jane Weaver, singing to their own acoustic guitar accompaniment. Later, three U.S./Canadian singers sang selections backed by the High Llamas + string quartet, with arrangements by Sean O'Hagan. Most of these songs had not been aired publicly since being recorded on late sixties albums which were either never released or quickly disappeared from view. Consequently all three of the singers--Susan Christie, Wendy Flower (one half of the duo Wendy and Bonnie) and Bonnie Dobson (no relation)--understandably seemed really chuffed to get the opportunity to dust these old songs off and bring them to a new audience nearly forty years after the event. Great credit to Andy Votel and Finders Keepers for uncovering these lost gems.
(Read a blow-by-blow account here: scroll down...)

live stuff: tropicalia remixed at the barbican, 19/5/06

To open the evening Orquestra Imperial (featuring Moreno Veloso, son of Caetano) do an excellent hour-and-a-half-long set with about twenty musicians on stage. More than once they complain that they are not used to people in the audience sitting and listening rather than dancing along. Ironically, in a set of mostly perfectly danceable Brazilian songs, it's an instrumental version of a song by stodgy prog rockers Yes--"Owner of a lonely heart"--which finally gets them to their feet!

The main act is a reworking of "Tropicalia ou Panis et Circensis", the landmark 1968 album which began the Tropicalia movement. Under the direction of Chief High Llama and Spanish guitar maestro Sean O'Hagan, the band is otherwise made up mainly of Brazilian musicians (from Orquestra Imperial, Nacao Zumbi and Moreno +2). Super Furry Animal Gruff Rhys hums along on a couple of numbers and the Bees also join in on some tracks.

The performance of classic albums is very much in vogue at present. I was particularly put in mind of the Brian Wilson's Smile concerts a couple of years ago. The music is similar in many ways, quite melodic with some unusual harmonies, and at times a bit surreal--the odd bicycle bell and an occasional siren. No fireman's helmets this time though...

Other sites:
- More about Brazilian events in the U.K. at www.brazilianartists.net
- A Guardian article on Tropicalia