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Friday 6th April 2012
All Day BBQ Festival

Sparrow and the Workshop
6 Day Riot
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Singing Adams
Y Niwl
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On Our iPod

Golden Grrrls - New Pop 7”

Chris Devotion & The Expectations - Amalgamation & Capital (album)

Trailer Trash Tracys - Ester (album)

Throwing Up - Mother Knows Best 7”

Howling Wolf - Complete Chess Masters 1951-60

The Ketamines - A Rotten Bond/1 Yr (from Oddbox Singles Club Pt 2)

Cardinal - Hymns (album)

Proper Ornaments - Taking the Gamble Out of Buying 12”

Darren Hayman - January Songs (album)

Various: Marshall Teller EP 12”

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Single/Download Review

The Miserable Rich / Arrows of Love / tUnE-YaRdS / Holly Miranda / Standard Fare
Singles Round-up Various Labels

Article written by Paul M - Nov 15, 2009

A bunch of 45s!

Ah the cover version, the tatty blanket of the divorced bedsit dwelling pub act? Well, with their strings and obvious classical bent, Brighton’s The Miserable Rich are unlikely to have their tinkling cello drowned out by a fat bloke in a Chelsea shirt yelling for “2 lager tops and a bag of cheese and onion, over here, chief”. However, what they should of course be saying with their chamber pop take on four 80s classics is, yes we know you’re familiar with the originals of these tracks but, clever us, we’ve transformed them by using different instruments and slowed them down/sped them up, etc thereby making the exercise worthwhile. Unfortunately, two on here, Golden Brown and Sweet Dreams , are hugely familiar and keyboard hits, and although the strings replace piano the pace remains the same and the re-dressing doesn’t really add any value to the original. Meanwhile Shades merely loses Iggy Pop’s cheeky charm so it’s left to the rather delicate unscuzzed take on Pixies’ Gigantic to rescue things. And fortunately it does. The Covers EP is out on Humble Soul on 16th November.

Also plundering the work of others is Arrows of Love, who redo the 1960s apocalyptic classic In the Year 2525, although apparently it’s all in the name of art. The band, a ‘supergroup’ of musicians who’ve worked with Courtney Love, Loverman, Jamie T, Kid Harpoon, etc, will only release twenty physical copies, each one accompanied by a unique item, ranging from tattoos to sculptures. I’d go onto rehash a lot more of their press release if it wasn’t for the fact that the music is actually pish and therefore the whole exercise, no matter how worthy, is pointless. Out 7th December.

Hatari by tUnE-YaRdS is a right bag of kooky weirdness. The work of New England’s Merrill Garbus, it’s all jarring guitars, African yodelling and clanking great drums. It sounds like it should be a horrible mess but her tribal post punk is actually terribly compelling. Out now on limited 7” on 4AD.

There’s also something very appealing about Holly Miranda and Forest Green Oh Forest Green. It’s not so much the song which seems to float along without an obvious hook but the atmospheric hooting owl effects, pleasant harmonies, cheery brass and backward tape outro sustains interest. I’m not sure I’ll be playing it next week but I’ll certainly be looking out for the young New Yorker’s album. Out now on XL Recordings.

Fifteen by Sheffield’s Standard Fare most definitely does have a hook; a bloody great big one and it’s hauled me in. A terrific galloping slice of jangly indiepop, it even pitches up with a more than decent flipside, the mournful but lush Understand. Out on 7” on Thee SPC on January 11th 2010.

Links:
http://www.theespc.com
http://www.myspace.com/themiserablerich