Interview: Big Scary Monsters, part 1
November 2, 2009 at 9:23 pm | In Features/comment, Interviews | Leave a CommentTags: Record Collector, interview, Big Scary Monsters, record label, Kevin Douch, Label of Love, This Town Needs Guns, Meet Me In St Louis, Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, Yndi Halda, Tubelord
The first half of a Q&A with the founder of Big Scary Monsters records Kevin Douch from the December 2009/30th anniversary issue of Record Collector. BSM have been releasing excellence from the likes of Meet Me In St Louis, This Town Needs Guns (see video below), Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, Tubelord and Yndi Halda since 2002.
Me: Why start a label?
Kev: Girls, glamour and bags and bags of cash [I don’t think this is true].
When and how did it start?
I started while I was in sixth form in Oxford seven years and 70-odd releases ago. Initially, it was just to help a friend’s band. By the time I realised that girls only liked guys in bands, I’d lost all my money on things I didn’t really understand and found out the hard way that there’s no glamour in sitting in front of a computer 24/7, doing the jobs bands don’t want to think about. It was too late, I was hooked. I can’t imagine doing anything else.
Is it a financial struggle?
Yes, quite frankly. Each release dictates how much we can afford to invest in the next. Luxuries such as marketing budgets and expense accounts are a distant dream. On the plus side, it’s taught me how to manage money and I’ve learnt everything from radio plugging to tour booking, thanks to handling these jobs in-house. The company is now more of a one-stop-shop for management, marketing and label services, with an emphasis on creative thinking and budgeting.
What other labels have influence you?
As snotty nosed teenager I was into US punk labels, the likes of Drive-Thru, who were independent,yet funded by majors, and homegrown imprints such as Fierce Panda. As a music fan, I love limited edition, hand-numbered items and have a vast collection of 90s indie releases which had a big influence on our music and packaging.
Who are your competitors?
I don’t think of anyone as a competitor. It’s an attitude I find detrimental to what we’re trying to achieve. All I’m focused on is finding and releasing the best music, and letting as many people as possible know about it in the process.
This Town Needs Guns – ’26 Is Dancier Than 4’
Review: Biffy Clyro – The Captain
October 18, 2009 at 8:33 pm | In Reviews, Single/EP reviews | Leave a CommentTags: review, video, single, Biffy Clyro, The Captain, 14th Floor Records, Simon Neil
‘The Captain’ is the perfect response to all the personal turbulence (the death of singer/guitarist Simon Neil’s mother) that led to Biffy Clyro’s last album Puzzle, and the spiralling success that followed, culminating in supporting The Who, The Rolling Stones and Muse at their Wembley Stadium bombastathon. Much better than the ‘epic’ dullness of ‘Mountains’, ‘The Captain’ is weird, poppy and upbeat – but not incapable of beating you up.
Like previous single ‘That Golden Rule’, ‘The Captain’ a Grohl-influenced math-rock riot, but with added horns that are raging and euphoric. Lyrically, Neil sounds like he’s in a much more positive place than during ‘Puzzle’: “I’m in control, I am the son of God”; “we’re gonna have a ball”; and the closing refrain of “let’s lock death away.” Bring in the chant-along “somebody help me sing!” chorus and ‘The Captain’ surpasses even ‘57’ and ‘Questions And Answers’ for sheer fist and heart pumping rock joy. If Biffy keep this up for the whole of new album Only Revolutions then they’ll really blow us away. Originally posted at Die Shellsuit, Die!
Out: 26 October, Label: 14th Floor
Biffy Clyro – ‘The Captain’
Review: The Broken Family Band – Cinema vs House
October 18, 2009 at 8:19 pm | In Uncategorized | Leave a CommentTags: break up, Broken Family Band, Cinema vs House, I Love How You Love Me cover, live video, review, single
So this is it, the final curtain, the last hurrah and other clichés. After eight years, The Broken Family Band will come to an end after the release of this single and a short, final tour at the end of October, which unfortunately isn’t scheduled to take in their hometown of Cambridge.
Since 2003’s debut album Cold Water Songs, BFB, started by Steven Adams and Jay Williams, have built up a devoted following and much critical kudos with their plucky, Anglicised Americana and lyrics that are at once curmudgeonly, funny and sweet observations of modern life. ‘Cinema vs House’ is no exception, taken from BFB’s fifth, highly praised LP Please & Thank You, about the dilemmas of what to do once our anti-hero’s got the girl (“We could go to the cinema, but that’s two hours without speaking”).
On the other side, a version of Mann & Kolber’s much-covered ‘I Love How You Love Me’ (first sung by ‘60s girl group the Paris Sisters for one of Phil Spector’s earliest singles). Warm, soulful and free of the cynicism that is often a highlight of BFB records; their cover is as a good a swansong to a career as any. Originally posted at Die Shellsuit, Die!
Out: 19 October, Label: Cooking Vinyl
The Broken Family Band – ‘Cinema vs House’ (Live in Leeds)
Review: Steven Wilson – Insurgentes Remixes
October 18, 2009 at 8:04 pm | In Album reviews, Reviews | Leave a CommentTags: album, Dalek, David Sitek, Fear Falls Burning, Insurgentes Remixes, King Crimson, Kscope, Lukasz Lanaga, Pat Mastelotto, Porcupine Tree, review, Steven Wilson
Perhaps inspired by his own remixing of prog rockers King Crimson’s back catalogue, the latest experimental offering from Steven Wilson – best known as the founder of frequently unclassifiable rock band Porcupine Tree and for his work with Opeth – is a six-track remix EP of four songs from his album (the first released under Wilson’s own name) Insurgentes, which came out in March. In fact, King Crimson drummer Pat Mastelotto returns the favour here with a remix of ‘Salvaging’.
Insurgentes was a staggering blend of Kosmische, drone, post-rock and shoegaze, and the six guests here make the most of dismantling and building up Wilson’s intricate building blocks, some more successfully than others. Belgian drone artist Fear Falls Burning’s mix of ‘Get All You Deserve’ is reduced to drones of different volumes, without great texture or dynamism, apart from when Wilson’s original vocal and guitar sneak in snippets. Whereas heavy hip-hop pioneers Dälek’s take on the same track builds upon a subterranean drone with a crisp, sinister beat; machines creaking and whirring and rushes of noise, but still allow enough space for Wilson’s Thom Yorke-like voice to echo in, looping to no clear conclusions.
The highest profile guest is probably TV On The Radio’s David Sitek, whose Magnetized Nebula mix of Insurgentes‘ only single, ‘Harmony Korine’, adds extra layers of foreboding via a dense, metallic synth squelch and pounding fuzz. Fortunately, he allows the original’s surging, shoegaze chorus to break through on a number of occasions.
Both re-versions of ‘Abandoner’ work around a lush, tumbling piano refrain. Engineers ad dreamy washes of noise, while online competition winner Lukasz Langa’s Danse Macabre mix uses very deep trance and monks’ chanting to theatrical rather than cinematic effect. Both are quite sparse though, unlike Mastelotto’s take on ‘Salvaging’ – industrial rock with the springs loose. Fluid bass and scattered drums eventually bounce into a swaggering, squalling groove; accompanied by strings that sound tribal one moment and as sentimental as Disney the next. Unfortunately this tempo isn’t sustained, and things return to a multi-instrument but uneventful drone. No doubt whatever Wilson does with King Crimson’s back catalogue in return will be equally fascinating and frustrating. Originally posted at Die Shellsuit, Die!
Out: now, Label: Kscope
Steven Wilson – ‘Harmony Korine’
Review: Howie Beck – How To Fall Down In Public
October 18, 2009 at 7:50 pm | In Album reviews, Reviews | Leave a CommentTags: 13Clouds, album, Fontana North, Gonzales, How To Fall Down In Public, Howie Beck, review
It’s been five years since Torontonian singer-songwriter Howie Beck’s last, self-titled, album, but then again there have always been gaps between his releases. Before Howie Beck in 2004, he hadn’t put an album out since the late 1990s, when his songs were turning up in episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer. Each wait has always been worth it though, and often long-time collaborator Gonzales is to be thanked for spurring Beck back into action. The electro MC-turned-concert pianist appears frequently on How To Fall Down In Public, showing off his skills at the keyboard.
Like former Arab Strab man Malcolm Middleton, Beck has got a reputation for melancholy in his music, but on How To Fall Down at least, he is capable of producing the most positive and uplifting lyrics and melodies. Even if ‘Don’t Put Your Arms Around Me No More’ is not obviously a cheery number (“You stole everything that I had inside, have you given it all to him?”), its lo-fi orchestral flourishes undoubtedly move the spirit. Equally ambiguous but ultimately positive is the dreamy, jazzy folk of ‘Flashover’, wherein Beck’s soft lilt sounds like Damon Albarn on lines such as, “The saddest sunshine was gone at last/She watched her tears slow-burn through her mask.” While before that, ‘Watch Out For The Fuzz’ has an almost Strokes-like thump to it.
After the sweet instrumental ‘Fin’, with Beck and Gonzales on guitar and piano, things do turn more melancholic and even laid back – too laid back on closing brace of ‘If I Ever Come Home’ and ‘Beside This Life’, where Beck’s idiosyncrasies are flattened out into Norah Jones style chill out music. Feist appears on the whimsical ‘La La La’, but it could be anyone. Only the warm, soulful Americana on ‘Over And Under’ really stands out on the second half of How To Fall Down, but this is still a little gem from Beck. Origanally posted at Die Shellsuit, Die!
Out: 26 October Label: Fontana North
Howie Beck – ‘Flashover’
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Interview: Big Scary Monsters, part 2
November 3, 2009 at 10:57 pm | In Features/comment, Interviews | Leave a CommentTags: Big Scary Monsters, Blakfish, House Of Brothers, interview, Kevin Douch, Meet Me In St Louis, Record Collector, Svenkst
Part two of the Q&A with Big Scary Monsters records founder and brain box Kevin Douch. Taken from the December 2009 issue of Record Collector. Part one is here.
Me: Why the name?
Kev: It’s a long, fairly childish story. Unfortunately, I think I’m stuck with it.
What’s your guiding principle?
To work hard, honestly and creatively with bands we love. It’s something I’ve believed in since day one, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
How would you sum up your output?
I’d like to think it’s varied and eclectic. We’ve worked with all sorts, from one-man folk acts to ear-shattering hardcore bands and Scandinavian post-rock acts. Looking at this year’s release schedule, though, ‘daunting’ might be a better way to sum it up.
How do you find new acts?
Mostly through word-of-mouth. It’s an old analogy, but the label is a family and we’re always swapping recommendations and making new friends. It’s been a while since I signed a band from an unsolicited demo.
How important is the look and packaging of your releases?
It’s very important. People can get music whenever they like – often for free – so it’s important that we find ways to add value to our products, not only to satisfy fans’ wishes but also to try and sustain our business. All our vinyl releases are packaged with a free CD-R or download, and the majority of our CD releases this year will come in nice cardboard digipaks, or limited, hand-packaged runs for sale exclusively online.
What are you future plans for expanding the label?
We’ve had a number of albums and EPs out this year and we’ve launched a series of four compilation CDs featuring rare, live and new recordings, demos and remixes. Each is limited to 365 date-stamped copies and people can subscribe, when they’ll receive a free collector’s tin to hold the discs. It’s proving a hit so far and it’s given me something really fun to work on – encouraging the bands to be creative outside the usual limitations of their own recording and touring commitments.
Meet Me In St Louis – ‘All We Need Is A Little Bit Of Energon’