Review: The Welcome Wagon - Welcome to the Welcome Wagon

The Welcome Wagon are husband and wife duo The Rev. Vito Aiuto and Mrs. Monique Aiuto…that’s right, a pastor and his wife….wait….no wait….come back!  It has to be said that when I have been recommending this album around –  and I have been, to practically everyone I meet – the fact that it is an American album of religious and quasi-religious folk tracks sung by a pastor and his wife has not been an easy sell.  However, see past such fripperies, and there is a fantastic album to be enjoyed.

WTTWW is produced by Sufjan Stevens, who also adds many of the instrumental elements to the album, and released it on his Asthmatic Kitty imprint.  Stevens will be a name well known to anyone with half an interest in the US independent music scene, a veritable folk titan who, amongst writing albums that deal with the Chinese Zodiac and his Christianity, has often spoken of his desire to write an album about every state in the US (so far, only the superb ‘Greetings from Michigan, the Great Lake State’ and ‘Come on Feel the Illinoise’ are extant).  

Stevens’ albums are full of lush orchestration hung around songs and lyrics which feel at the same time both intensely personal and utterly universal.  It is easy to see why SS band member Vito would have jumped at the chance to have such expertise available on production duties.  With Stevens’ presence, however, there is a danger that this album will come across as just another of his many musical side-projects.  Happily,  this is not the case.  Whilst some songs could indeed come straight from his Illionoise off-cuts album ‘The Avalanche’ (notably ‘Sold! To The Rich Man’) he sensibly allows Vito’s songwriting skills more than enough room to speak for themselves.

 

Highlights include delicate covers of the Smiths’ ‘Half a Person’ and ‘Jesus’ by the Velvet Underground, as well as the beautiful album-opener, ‘Up on a Mountain’.  Sung by Monique, it gently lulls you into the right frame of mind to enjoy the rest of what is a wonderful album.  

It would be churlish, however, to try and split tracks from one another.  This cd works best approached as a whole; imagine yourself amongst the youthful population of Vito’s church on a Sunday afternoon, alternately clapping along and listening as the Pastor offers up the fruits of his faith.  Or imagine yourself sat round a campfire in the summer - marshmallows, beer and a guitar.  Any way you imagine it, it's escapism par excellence...

Review: Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes will probably be a name that rings a few bells, three-sheeted, as they have been, all over poster boards and TV/Radio of late.  Winning a place in most critics’ ‘Albums of 2008’ lists, and selling more than 100,000 cds in the UK whilst doing it, you don't seem to be able to get away from these Seattle boys...

Why the delay in writing about them then?  Sadly, they are a band I have always ‘not quite got round to’.  Thankfully, iTunes’ albums for under £5 sale was the remedy to this and, in the midst of a whole wealth of soundtrack purchases (‘Batman’, ‘American Beauty’, ‘Zidane: A 21st Century Portrait’, and ‘Blade Runner’), there was the album -  just waiting to be bought...and am I ever glad I did!

First, a bit of background.  Hailing from Seattle, the Foxes are a five-piece outfit that create, in their own words 'baroque harmonic pop jams'.  Originally going under the forgettable moniker of 'Pineapple', they switched to their more evocative current handle after a name clash with another local band (thank God...Pineapple?!)  The band were formed in 2006 and, building on positive word of mouth reviews as well as strong reactions from the Seattle music press, they released a number of well-received EPs in 06-07, before releasing their eponimous album in June of '08.

The album itself has echoes of Brian Wilson’s magnum opus ‘Smile’.  However, where Wilson’s work had its heart in the surf of California and Hawaii, Fleet Foxes evoke a feel far to the East of their Seattle home; the bluegrass and soft country of Appalachians.  ‘Sun Rises’, the first track on the album, could quite easily be straight out of the soundtrack to ‘O Brother Where Art Thou’, and there are nods to the likes of Old Crow Medicine Show and Chatham County Line.  It would be a mistake, however, to simply file this under 'country' or 'bluegrass'.  There is a country feel, certainly, but there is also folk, baroque, pop, and even shades of the irregular time signatures and sea-shanty guitar lines that indie math kids Hot Club de Paris have made their own.  

Although uniformly superb, when the album is at its best is in its transitions between the delicate and the expansive.  At one second, lead singer Robin Pecknold’s hushed tones interplay with a single guitar; the next, a full orchestra comes crashing in and the chord progression just soars.  Nowhere is this better seen than in the album's standout track 'Blue Ridge Mountains' - a piece which fights it out with Elbow’s ‘Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver’ as the most evocative, achingly beautiful piece of music this reviewer heard last year or this.  

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At only 39 minutes, the album should feel short, but in fact the minimal playing time only serves to accentuate how perfectly formed the collection is.  Besides, you'll want to skip straight back to the start and play it all over again anyway, so we're really talking about 1hr20, and I honestly can't think of many better ways to spend an hour and a half.  Stunning.

Live Review - Indiesexual @ Catch, 08.10.08

Catch is an odd venue to be honest.  Downstairs has a bar, background music, pool table and seating booths – think faded Americana and you won’t go far wrong.  Up the narrow spiral staircase, though, and you find yourself in the kind of spit-and-sawdust gig space that is so typical to London – narrow room, low ceiling.  You get the feeling that they could make much better use of the space, but why bother as things are rolling along pretty well as is.  I was there to catch (ahem) Indiesexual, another successful night from the ubiquitous Broccoli Music clan – brother and sister team Mikee and Katie Corcoran (or ‘Broccoli’ as they have, perhaps unfairly, become known).

The night has been running for more than three years now, and is another step in their plans for global domination of the ‘up-and-coming but not signed yet’ bands market.  Going on the evidence of their website, booking policy tends towards the eclectic, with previous acts including the likes of The Krak, Joanna and the Wolf, Hatcham Social, Popular Workshop, and the now sadly defunct Mescalitas.  Tonight’s entertainment came from The Cavaliers, The Supernovas, The Broadcasts, and Miss Davina Lee (‘The’ Miss Davina Lees were obviously not available, or they couldn’t get her to change her name…).  DJing support came from the Broccoli kids themselves, debuting on the one’s and two’s in fine style.

There is something endearingly British about Miss Davina Lee.  She may come on stage dressed like Lovefoxx, all pink leopard prints and gold lame leggings, but she races through her set more like Lovesquirrel – all hopping from one foot to another and self-conscious chatter interspersing the tracks as if Hugh Grant was fronting an indie band.  It’s a winning formula that puts you on-side almost instantly.  There is something particularly wonderful about watching a performer who gets so into the music that she forgets to sing into the microphone.  The music itself was fun – all electro beats underpinned with some nice acoustic guitar work.  Next time give the girl a higher stand for her keyboard though…

Next up were The Broadcasts, peddling poppy, upbeat glam-indie that was hard to resist, and few did.  All driven guitars and witty vocal lines, you can really see why these boys are a firm favourite with the radio powers that be.  Their sound isn’t fully formed as yet, with different songs bringing in occasionally disparate elements, but once they find their balance, perhaps during the album-writing process they are currently going through, they’re going to be a fine prospect.

The Supernovas had brought quite the crowd with them – always a plus as it will endear you to the promoter if nothing else – and proceeded to entertain in the well-worn style of mildly punk indie, sounding like an amalgam of fellow Nambucca-ites The Holloways, Elle Milano (their track ‘City of Smoke’ could just as easily have been ‘Sexy in Latin’), and the Buzzcocks.  Just because it was of a type, though, didn’t mean it wasn’t enjoyable.  The band were obviously into, and true to, what they were doing, and the songs were carried off with a panache that lifts them above the average, and could well ensure that Holy Grail of all acts on the London circuit, label interest.

Finally, we had The Cavaliers to wrap things up.  The Supernovas have previously supported Pete Doherty, The Cavaliers seem to enjoy fearsomely channelling him, if you believe previous press reports on their activities.  I guess the Babyshambles influences were there to be seen, but The Cavaliers have much more in the locker in terms of how to create an interesting chord structure than Doherty et al have ever had.  To this reviewer the style of the songs was rather more reminiscent of a slightly more louche Strokes, but with sweeter melodic lines a la Boy Kill Boy.  Honestly?  It was bloody ripper!  Some excellent music on display, twinned with a bit of a, deserved, swagger.

Verdict:
Strong band line-ups, DJs who are obviously enjoying themselves, and pleasant door staff.  It’s an aptly named venue for this Catch-y night.  You should ‘Catch’ it very soon (that’s enough catch gags…)

Where Next:
Miss Davina Lee - no gig listed
The Broadcasts - @ The Bull & Gate on 28th October
The Supernovas - Abstract Noun all-dayer @ The Ramshackle on 26th October
The Cavaliers - @ 93 Feet East on 15th October
Indiesexual - Indiesexual returns to Catch on 12th November with It's a Trap!, The Hateful, and Burning Pilot