Stand aside Shania, Ryan, the Be Good Tanyas are looking to pass. Well, maybe they won't but it is mildly amazing to them at No.3 in the UK country music chart...

As predicted:
"Ultimately, this year's SXSW belonged to a Dallas band called The Polyphonic Spree." (Raleigh News & Observer)
"Highlights were many and varied. Here are my picks for the 10 Best Bands of SXSW, in order of preference: 1. The Polyphonic Spree... (Chicago Sun-Times)
"Offering a purposeful burst of optimism, the two dozen musicians and singers, wearing white robes and broad smiles..revived the blissful, elaborate pop of ''Penny Lane,'' ''Pet Sounds'' and ''Happy Together.'" (New York Times)
"The Polyphonic Spree were the closest thing to the stars of SXSW, impressing all who saw them." (Dallas Observer)

Except maybe the LA NewTimes for whom "the whole thing sounded like side 4 of The Wall as performed by the Flaming Lips".

Back in Feb '01, Q published one of the more scathing reviews of recent memory in the course of awarding Mass romantic, the debut by Neko Case side-project the New Pornographers, a damning 1 star out of 5. Fast-forward to the latest (April 2002) ed. of the increasingly non-essential mag, page 119 to be precise: "The New Pornographers / Mass romantic - Canadian indie rockers unleash hyperactive debut...It's hard not to be taken in by [their] poppy charm...3 stars."
Give it another year and it'll be a 5/5 pop classic. (reallyrather verdict: don't.)

Stirrings over at Nadine Towers. St Louis' finest have a lined up a few local shows roadtesting songs from a new album, tentatively titled "Strange Seasons," due in May. Guitarist Steve Rauner tells SLTtoday.com: "We're always categorized as Americana, but I think [first album] 'Lit Up' is more of a pop record, and our new record is more of a rock record. It's pretty massive." Same source lists the new band line-up with Merv Schrock (drums), Ryan Greis (keyboards) joining...

Lost Highway Records boss Luke Wood tells the New York Times, "A few radio programmers said to the record labels after the Grammys: `Don't get any ideas: we're not going to start playing Alison Krauss and Nickel Creek because of this'" - 'The Country Music Country Radio Ignores' puts the Oh Brother Grammy euphoria into perspective...

Theme for Today: The creeping influence of The Cure in '02 US Americana/Pop releases. Pete Yorn grew up trying to sound like Robert Smith and it shows in his bittersweet, brooding rock. Under cold blue stars, the latest from Josh Rouse wears it's Cure influence with pride (and Rouse encored with A Forest at Dingwalls last month). Now comes Wilco who use a 'borrow' of Oasis proportions to underpin Pot Kettle Black on the upcoming album. Still, Inbetween days always was a cracking little pop song...

Someone over at Americana-UK says all the right things about the latest Gingersol release. And just caught up with this from Feb: 'Variously evocative of David Bowie, Neil Young, Califone, Eels...The Worst You Can Do Is Harm is a stunning, unexpected intersection of lovely sentimentality, fucked-up strangeness, hopelessness, hope..' - Rockbites loves The Long Winters...

reallyrather is vaguely interested in news that the Radar Bros. bring their langurous (somnolent?) rootsiness to the Barfly May 9 in support of new album And the surrounding mountains on Chemikal Underground...

Guess the Mojo/Uncut 'Best of '02' list - hours of fun for all the family! (Not that they're hugely predictable and keen to be seen covering all the 'right' bases or anything.) So far:
Cornershop - Handcream for a generation
Wilco - Yankee Hotel whatever
The Streets - Original pirate material
Lambchop - Is a woman
Boards of Canada - Geoggaddi
(Subs bench: Gomez - In our gun / BeGoodTanyas - Blue Horse) tbc

Totally gratuitous: our Miranda...

Move over Ryan Adams and Pete Yorn, here's the real deal says The Independent's Tim Perry today in the course of awarding the new Damien Jurado album 5 out of 5. "Tim, get out more,"says reallyrather. Not that I break chairs is rubbish, it's just not inspired; if it's worth top marks, Mr Perry will maybe have, a la Spinal Tap, to push his scale to 6 next month as another Seattle melancholic folk-popster David Barzan (aka Pedro the Lion) has also decided to crank up the amp...

Day jobs of the stars No.1: Damien Jurado, pre-school teacher...

On a whim, saw Tift Merritt at The Borderline Thurs. Now that pure Nashville 'big hats 'n' game gals' thing isn't something reallyrather ever wants to get too close to. In other hands, many of Tift's songs would sit well at the Opry but happily she dips most of them in a barrell of r'n'b, slinging out a lusty roots-rocking set. Apart from her own wielding of a mean rhythm guitar, what helps lifts the sound over onto the right side of the Music City tracks are the organ of Greg Readling and economical attack of drummer Zeke Hutchins (a dead ringer for Shaggy from Scooby Doo). She's got a great voice and no small amount of magnetic presence. There were about 100 or so souls there - word-of-mouth will likely make the place comfortably full next time round...

For some of the evening, reallyrather was standing a handshake away from beady pop mogul, Alan McGee. Feeble lack of bottle (or the contents thereof) stopped your hero from bearding the man over the puzzlingly half-cocked launch of one the best UK albums of last year, Arnold's Bahama. Surely the label & band could've made a bit more effort to promote this pretty damned fine collection of shimmering guitar pop/rock? A re-launch is, however, being mooted - watch this blog...

The steam continues to rise in anticipation of Float Away With the Friday Night Gods, the third album from Marah (featuring guest vocals from one B. Springsteen). "A shiny high-decibel beast," according to the latest Philadelphia Weekly which carries an interview with a gung-ho Dave Bielanko: "I understand the backlash but I would be doing everyone a disservice by paying any attention to it," says Dave. "I can't slow down for them. They want us in a broken-down van, poor and spewing some street-corner prophet bullshit. We already did that." Two nights sold out The Borderline next month, a third added - not bad for a band hardly anyone's heard of, let alone actually heard...

"Loose, sprawling, stoned-sounding country/folk/slacker-pop." Another reviewer attempts to nail the new one from The Mendoza Line. Go on, it's Spring, the daffs are up, the clocks are going forward - time to get Lost in Revelry...

And when (if?) the Summer finally hits, the baton should be ably taken up by Chapel Hill's finest: "The new Mayflies USA cd is finished!". Their exclaimation not mine but trebles all round, surely? Debut album Summertown is positively awash with sparky, jaw-slackening jangly pop-rock and remains a 'must' for Fanclub types. For reallyrather follow-up The Pity List didn't quite hit those peaks but others disagree. Still, Walking in a Straight Line will be an automatic purchase. Tracklisting, production details here. OK guys, its in the can, nice big smile now...

Not a million miles away is the sound of Champale whose debut Simple Days was one that got away in '01. They're on David 'Cracker' Lowery's Pitch-a-tent label which reckons they "play a glistening, literate kind of American alt-pop...think Big Star's Third woven into Dusty in Memphis, or a citified Lambchop". It's half a good album - reallyrather plays about six of the tracks fairly regularly. Motel California could have come straight off either of the last two Teenage Fanclub albums, an uncanny replication. Low-key, langurous horns take it away from pure jangle country, down a more urban soul alley. Worth a detour...

"There's so much detachment in music. Rock "artists" are so conscious of being watched, and of being pretty, that at best they muster up some fake, soft-core swagger. Indie-rockers try to counter this by inhabiting their detachment and, for the most part, they've all earned a good slap." Unpop talks to big John Roderick of The Long Winters...

Oh Miranda, where art thou? No sooner had her debut release slipped out on VirginAmerica six months ago than the delectable Ms Lee Richards sank from view like a Pacific sunset. Unlike fellow LA-based '01 pop-rock debutante Pete Yorn, there was seemingly to be no relentless coast-to-coast touring, no MTV-friendly vids, nada. Over at www.mirandaleerichards.com the wind's blowing through busted shutters, everyone's left town. Hark, is that the patter of collective cold feet?
So the record must be a real stiff, right? Well, reallyrather can report only the tiniest twinge of guilt each time The herethereafter is once again slipped into the player. Words like 'safe', 'generic' and 'winsome' can all be hurled in it's direction with justification. It's glossed-up, vaguely psychedelic folk-pop. Miranda's voice sounds just like you'd guess it might from the 'hippy-chick' cover photo (ie wistful & really rather lovely). It's a guess, but if VirginAmerica had thought to themselves, "Hey, Dido-meets-Sheryl Crow - let's do it!," reallyrather wouldn't be in the least surprised. There are parallels with Shea Seger's debut, Richards having been similarly ill-served by a slick, big-money production: strings, tastefully-rendered street beats and backwards guitar all feature (step forward producer/co-writer/boyfriend Rick Parker). Yet the first half-dozen tracks or so certainly have plenty of obvious appeal (it does admittedly peter out thereafter, save for a decent stab at the Stones' Dandelion). Someone at over BBC Radio2 could earn a few easy points by "discovering" her...

But wait, there she is - every Monday in March at Spaceland, Los Angeles, and it's free! Now, if the old Vespa only had wings...

Splendid ambles around SXSW: "Josh Rouse proved surprisingly likeable; while none of us felt the need to go out and buy Under Cold Blue Stars, neither did we have any inclination to pull Rouse and his band off the stage and beat them to death."

"Their sound did occasionally teeter between diaphanous and insubstantial, while their sometimes overly laid-back stagecraft could do with tightening up. There's no questioning, though, that, as regards songwriting and collective persona, the Tanyas are the real deal." The Independent understands ...

"A more bubblegum Grant Lee Buffalo without half the pretensions." A member of the band Stephen Malkmus put together for his recent solo adventure, John Moen now gets behind his own group's new release. The Maroons ' You're gonna ruin everything can be sampled here...

Slack pop-rock from LA's Phantom Planet , Borderline April 10...

Fine Boston band Lemonpeeler report the departure of bass player Rob Pevitts. Who knows why, but reallyrather for one is less than troubled. An occasionally plodding, rudimentary rhythm section is just about the only jarring aspect of their ace debut album; hopefully a new injection in this department will take the music forward. Anyone into that Jayhawks/Lemonheads/Gingersol/Replacements/Summerteeth kinda thing really ought to chase down The First Time...

Lemonpeeler played a local show Wednesday with support from another rootsy Boston outfit, Fire in the Boathouse , whose only release to date was described in the local press as "the ultimate roots-rock record combining the 'Let it Bleed'-era Stones haze with the melancholic drawl of Neil Young, the dry intellect of Leonard Cohen, and the dark moodswings of Nick Cave, while passing nods to Nick Drake and the infectious songwriting caliber of The Band's 'Music from Big Pink." Tempted? It's available here...

No, reallyrather's not at SXSW either - the Austin Statesman kindly reminds us what we're missing tonight...

"Wow, such a lot of people," exclaimed a poncho-clad Samantha P. as The Be Good Tanyas took the stage last night at the Borderline in front of (yet another) full house. Not sure they can quite figure how the heck this has all happened so quickly (Blue Horse has just entered the UK country music chart at no.7). Must be, in no small part, a testament to the power of radio; despite having a refreshingly casual, non-slick approach to the whole business, they've hardly missed a trick, making 4 or 5 national radio appearances during their UK visit. (Don't tell me, you missed the Woman's Hour interview - worry not, it's here.)
A good-natured London crowd were well-disposed to the Tanyas' light, airy sounds. The set, by turns sombre and joyous, included half-a-dozen songs from Blue Horse and, in addition to the sprinkling of covers/standards, one or two originals not on the album, but sounding just as potent. Much of the album features double bass; without it, their natural sound lacks a little, er, 'bottom'. (The addition of 3 members of Aussie band The Waifs late on beefed the sound up a bit.) Given the runaway success of this trip, maybe the tour budget will stretch to a bass player next time round.
There's a personal take on their Glasgow show over at the Andy Kershaw/Radio3 site ... and this from the Herald: "A neologism enters jurisprudence: Tanyacide."

From the Paul Simon/McCartney school of songwriting, David Mead brings his brand of mature, pristine pop to the UK in April:
13 Manchester Hop And Grape
14 Warwick Arts Centre
15 Middlesbrough Cornerhouse
16 Glasgow King Tuts
17 Aberdeen Lava
18 Dundee Westport Bar
21 Bristol Fleece And Firkin
22 Leeds New Roscoe
23 London Dingwalls
24 Leicester Princess Charlotte
25 Cambridge Boat Race
28 Dublin Whelans

Another view of the Be Goods in Birmingham...

...and the Irish Times on Pete Yorn in Dublin. The man was back in London Thurs just a few weeks after his low-key debut at the WaterRats. This time 400+ at The Garage were treated to his economically rocking set. Much as he tries to lay on the gruff moodiness such efforts are constantly undermined by the plain damn catchiness of his material. Whereas at the Rats songs were virtually note-for-note as per the album, this time round quite a few were fruitfully extended. And maybe he'd been reading his earlier UK reviews as he was distinctly more animated, throwing a few rock shapes for the girls and boys. The feeling that the guy needs a break hovered, however. Do a few days growth and an instruction to kill the stage spotlights suggest a certain weariness? Who knows, but its a fact that he's been touring the legs off musicforthemorningafter for a year in the States (sales: 354,000) and is only now starting on other 'territories'. The album finally hits UK stores on April 1, and he's profiled in the April ed. of Arena magazine (p.97 for you newsagent browsers)...

The saga of the third album from the rather magnificent Wheat continues. No sooner had they signed to Nude Records than the UK label folded. Per second, per second, per second, every second remains firmly in the can and the band rather resignedly report that they're currently back at Tarbox Studios with every possibility that they'll complete another whole album before 'Per Second' sees the light of day!

"The album's superb opener stands out as the best song on the disc, and is emblematic of their sound; two parts Westerberg, one part Wilco." - Pitchfork on the latest from The Mendoza Line...

Up the M40 to Birmingham Wednesday for The Be Good Tanyas at the Ceol Castle. "It's a funny thing - we never planned to be a band or put out an album or anything like that. We're still adjusting to the idea of committing ourselves to a career in music. We're still very shy," Samantha Parton told the Birmingham Post in a long feature earlier this week. From reallyrather's vista, Ms Parton is nudging ahead in the race out their collective shell. The strange silence which fell on the packed venue as the applause subsided between numbers exposed the Tanyas' lack of "show"; Frazey and Trish still ooze self-conciousness. But as the night went on Samantha gradually got into her wacky stride with yarns about dog-shaped crepes and Manchester's bracing sea air. And any hesistancy was left firmly at the door when it came to the matter in hand, namely, ye singing of ye songs.
On disc these past months it's been Samantha's affecting huskiness which has always stood out yet the show was definitely led & lifted by Frazey's strong, pure vocal. And the combination, regularly augmented by Trish, is their strongest suit, the harmonies soaring on great originals like Only in the past, Dogsong and the nifty rocker Light enough to travel as well as a liberal sprinkling of country-gospel standards. Instrumentally they're less compelling, tho' Trish's tasteful slide guitar enhanced every tune it touched (more, please?!). Last night's sound was augmented by Ike the percussionist and, for half the set, by the accordian of Martin Green (which leant particularly the waltz-time numbers a cajun air). There was encouraging scrum round the cd-touting artists after the show tho' I'm sure not everyone was convinced. reallyrather, however, remains a true believer - on to the (sold out) Borderline we go...

A couple of 90-second soundclips from the upcoming Marah release have turned up on the web. Not much to go on, but the natives are restless...

The LA psych-pop scene continues to swirl. From the same gene pool that threw up the likes of the Beachwood Sparks, off-shoot popsters The Tyde (who recently recruited ex-Velvet Crush-er Rik Menck on drums) and the Brian Jonestown Massacre (whence sprang Miranda Lee Richards), Rough Trade Records have swooped on latest contenders Sunstorm. Expect the Comeongohigher ep pretty soon...

Sir Richard Hawley, Lord Hawley of Croonshire, is opening 3 shows for Gomez, two of which are at Brixton Academy. Don't like Gomez so won't be there but if you're going, don't miss RH (tho' not sure a barn like that will do him justice). Damien Hirst, Jarvis C. & anarcho-comic Chris Morris were all at the Cargo show last week apparently, but happily not in reallyrather line of vision (tall people towards the back, pur-leeze)...

What do they do all day? reallyrather is often given to pondering how some artists on the margins of success, not known for relentless touring nor especially prolific in the recording department, fill their days. Out stalking the woods seeking the muse, it would be nice to imagine. The truth is probably rather more dismal so it's maybe best not to know. Side projects are always handy. Chris Collingwood, one half of the songwriting team behind the Fountains of Wayne, has a country-rock plaything, the magnificently named Gay Potatoes - nothing taped as of yet but some promising live mp3s recorded at their debut gig. Happily, his 'day job' recently convened at Stratosphere Sound in NY to thrash out some new stuff. 18 or so new songs on the go, sessions resume later this month. Chop chop, guys...

Ploughing a similarly uber-melodic furrow, the Gigolo Aunts are apparently a bit further down the recording track. Dave Gibbs and co. are v. probably twiddlin' an' a-fiddlin with tracks for Pacific Ocean Blues as you read this...

VirginRadio is doing everyone a mighty favour with the CaptainAmerica show Sundays 10-12pm. Not sure how long we can expect it to last but hopefully the bandwagon has some way to run. Canada's Songs: Ohia turned up last night which was ok, but reallyrather can't resist pointing you in the direction of compatriot Hayden's stark, melodic folk pop/rock. Mr Besser confesses all in an interview just up at Splendid: "When I was 12 or 13, I was into Top 40 radio stuff. I liked Phil Collins. At the time it wasn’t totally geeky to like Phil Collins. Actually, yes it was."

The Long Winters's album reviewed - don't quite get the GbV association. It's a solid, diverting debut with at least a couple of stand-outs (and, it has to be said, a duff, overlong opener). If you're kicking over whether or not to bother with the new Cracker, give The Worst You Can Do Is Harm a go instead...

Not hitherto noted as an unstoppable gig-machine, LA's finest roots-poppers Gingersol seem to be experiencing an unprecedented outbreak of road fever, fairly stacking up the dates in March. On the 23rd they open for UK ex-pat country-rockers Minibar...

Listening to their mp3s, Chicago's Riviera would be fit very nicely onto a bill like that...

The Green Hills of Earth by SanFran's Mother Hips shot into reallyrather's Top5 of 2001 soon after it's appearance last Spring. The band talk to USC's Daily Trojan about the follow-up: "The next record is already written, recording will begin in March. It's definitely going to pick up from where Green Hills left off, though it won't sound like Green Hills. There's no reason to make the same record twice."

Thanks to GloriousNoise for another informative interview with Bob Andrews of Undertow (roster: Nadine, Centro-matic, Dolly Varden, etc): "Overall, I think the more indie you can do things, the better the results will be in the end ... You can make a decent living doing this without being on MTV. It just takes a little longer to do it."

reallyrather tip no.308: If you're album runs longer than about 40mins you'd better have pretty good excuse. Seems Marah don't need telling. Two years after Kids in Philly, the Owen Morris (Ash, Oasis, etc) produced Float Away With The Friday Night Gods is due May 21 and they've just posted the track details, all ten of them. Ryan Adams please note...

Backscratching: Americana-UK