Don't say you weren't told...
Having performed just about every song in her locker, Joanna Newsom meekly exited a packed and stifling 12 Bar Monday to the type of hands-above-the-head acclamation more commonly accorded to yer more conventionally shaped popstar types. But there is nothing conventional about Joanna. A singularly disarming talent, she completely captivated the (admittedly already converted) throng with all the pointedly pretty tunes and fantastical, headspinning literacy to be found on The milk-eyed mender. ['I'm just left stupid and speechless and smiling in the face of the overwhelming beauty' - this week's addition to the growing pile of slavering reviews.]
Taking the tiny stage in a chintzy little number which might easily have been from the first Laura Ashley collection, Newsom began with a short acapella & handclaps statement of intent seemingly designed to scare off any doubters: 'This is what I sound like, get used to it'. In fact, with her voice - an uncontrived clucking sound by turns salty and innocently sweet which apparently drives some folks bonkers - and her, er, fashion sense, imagine the Felicity Kendal character in The Good Life refashioning folksongs on a classical harp and you're getting there.
For the most part Newsom played the songs straight, just as heard on record, the thwacks and pings rendered with a lusty physicality marvellously at odds with the harp's traditionally graceful reputation. Newsom isn't trying to deny her instrument and regularly exploits it's aptitude for prettiness but is pushing it into rhythmically adventurous territory. Not that this blog has ever wanted to encourage such tendencies but The book of right-on, for instance, is positively funky. This side of the blue seemed to feature some extra embellishments; reworked for harp, Inflammatory writ's original harpsichord-driven stridency was agreeable tempered; and Sadie snaffled just about everybody's heart and scampered off to bury them with the pine cones...

And, oh yes, tuning a harp does take as long as you might guess...

Spotted in the crowd that night, low-key Yorkshire troubadour James William Hindle who last week finally got his own website. Last album Prospect Park ranked no7 in this blog's 03 year-end list (reviewed earlier down the page here...)

"Now, I can imagine your readers jumping to the conclusion that for so many people to have once been in the Long Winters, it is probable that I am a total control-maniac jerk. This is absolutely true. But nowadays I know a lot more people who have chosen to make music their life - a small and desperate minority - and so future Long Winterses will hopefully overflow with greatness."
John Broderick answers the questions...

Rilo Kiley called by KCWR the other day for an extended session & chat...

..and on the upcoming US tour to promote More adventurous they'll be supported by Tilly & the Wall which only reinforces reallyrather's suggestion that should RK tour here the natural opener would be Aberfeldy. There's an agreeable sense of scale and lack of attitude about this Scots five-piece and their debut album Young forever twinkles and charms like the memory of an old children's TV programme. Truly, they are the Mary, Mungo & Midge of rock (!).
This is light, bright stuff but not throwaway; too substantial and smart in composition and execution to be dismissed as twee. The record's near-perfect dimensions - 12 songs in 38mins - bears early testimony to Aberfeldy's finely judged pop instincts. And this is backed up by the music, with about seven of these jumping right out of the pit (that's the sandpit in the garden, of course, not the Olympic long-jump one).
A friend like you sets out their stall, bandleader Riley Brigg's slightly whiny vocals (about 'all that rubbish you talk on drugs') bolstered by Sarah & Ruth's clipped, unfussy BVs, all bobbing along on a bed of bass, drums and toy glockenspiel. There's a touch of accordian in there, too, and elsewhere - recent single Vegetarian restaurant and classy pop ditty Love is an arrow - some fiddle, gentle nods to their roots. Blog favourite Slow me down is a great little chugger while Out of love's lazy swing is a change of gear complete with brushwork and faux trumpet solo.
However, apart from a bit of unneeded bolt-on quirkiness, it's hard to know quite what Aberfeldy gain from the way this album was recorded, with all vocals and instruments on one mic apparently. The end product is effectively glorified mono which surely can't do their radioplay prospects much good but may encourage folks to get out and see them live for that slightly fuller effect. Having caught earlier this year at the Arts Cafe, reallyrather recommends that you support their next London show, Sept 6 Upstairs at The Garage...

So then, Tracker. Done very little wrong so far, two out of two with Ames and Polk - but an instrumental soundtrack to a comic book? Hmmm... The Flurry and F is for Filth do sound pretty good though in snippets available here...
Blankets: Recordings for the Illustrated Novel