Reasons to be cheerful...

..The Weepies in somebody's kitchen...

Having managed a heroic half-dozen shows last year before retiring, knackered, sparkling Belfast/Manchester/London popsters Language of Flowers could've reconvened just about anywhere in the UK for their first '05 outing. Rather beautifully, they've opted for the Windmill in Brixton, a 15-minute scoot away for this blog - ta v. much! So then, it's official: June 10, first day of Summer...
Language of Flowers / buy / HowDoesItFeel

The Windmill was also where this blog spent the evening of the hottest day of the year so far, last Friday, furthering it's research on.. The Research. It's hard not to love this trio and their smart, bashed out, between-the-eyes pop songs. Presuming he's behind all these top tunes, 'Russell the Disaster' is anything but: True love weighs a ton, Lonely hearts still beat the same, Codename: (something or other).. bruised, Casio-tastic indie thumped home by li'l Sarah's uncomplicated, rigid-armed drummin' and Georgia's rockin' bass. In another context a title like I love you but (I think I'll fuck it up) might suggest yet more lovelorn, 'hopeless case' wimpery but with all hands to the vocal pump The Research quickly undercut any such notions. Do some of your own and soon...
The Research

Not that it takes much doing but the Windmill was sold out that night, local heroes Clor being the main draw. reallyrather left the balmy outdoors and ventured back inside out of respect and mild curiosity.. and was properly rewarded. Hard-boiled Kraut-y electro-dance rock with occasional muso flourishes is what Clor is about. And it's tasty, very tasty. Apart from the recent classy single Love & pain, can't tell you what any of the songs were called but at least half of them demanded your complete attention. Resembling rather a force-fed John Power, the singer/guitarist guy has the ease of someone who knows that he and his serious-faced hombres are onto something...
Clor / Love & pain see hear

..as, it would seem, are Sheffield's Arctic Monkeys at least if recent ebay dealings are any guide. With just the sold-out-in-a-flash first single Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys to their name, a single ticket for these Domino signings' little London show next Monday sold for more than ten times face value...

Atlases out for The Great Trek North: Barden's Boudoir, Stoke Newington High St. June 16: Mirah + I Know I Have No Collar + Francois...

..and, if you have a moment, say hello to Francois...

The lengthy 'underrated albums' feature in the latest edition of Word magazine is mostly a disappointing list of already familiar names. What they should've asked their subjects for were great records by acts they think folks mightn't have heard of (next time, chaps?). reallyrather humbly suggests stuff like: Mother Hips' Green hills of earth [2001]; Denison Witmer's enduring acoustic debut, Safe away; the lovely Eg & Alice's timeless English urban pop one-off, 24 years of hunger [1995]; a superfine pair from last year, matt pond PA's Emblems and Darby & Joan by Gentleman Reg (both still scandalously unreleased over here - if reallyrather was a label, they'd be on it); and James William Hindle's Prospect Park...

...which was excellent in almost every respect [see rr 14/9/03]. And what are we to make of James' new release, Town feeling, just out on Badman? Well, a bit of a fuss, really. Not a great shoulder-shaking hoohah or anything you understand, but a li'l bit of a fuss nevertheless. And reallyrather will.. soon.. ish...

Pop the way it should be...

So, fish & chips on Brighton Pier in the full glow of the setting sun then a stroll down the shingly beach to the venue. Slippin' and crunchin' along, reallyrather soon notices four vaguely familiar dark blobs in the distance. Getting closer, one of them cradles an acoustic guitar; all of them stare out to sea as a photographer flits around. 'Tis The Magic Numbers, fledgling popstars in the wild. But the seaside hasn't been their natural habitat (tho' a certain West Coast breeziness blows through their sound); they've been a London-centred phenom these past 8 months or so. reallyrather was down partly to check out how they're doing amongst the curious who don't yet know the words to all the songs.
And the answer is, pretty damned fine really. They're still a smiley, no frills outfit happy to let the songs do the talking. Not much evidence of EMI moolah being wasted - the only upgrade this blog noticed from last time was Angela's melodica, no longer a toybox item but a proper musical instrument.. with roughly 20 more keys than she needs at present. And she still mostly just stands there, sometimes whipping her hand out of her pocket for the odd handclap. She has a very appealing voice which doesn't get quite enough exposure really (her efforts on I see you you see me had the girl in front dabbing her eyes).
Still, it's a team effort based around the melodies and harmonies of team leader Romeo's confident songwriting which hits the sweet spot time after time. Some numbers take longer to deliver the goods (the choice riffing at the end of The Mule and Hymn for her's surging refrain) but there's about six songs which start well and just don't let up. They mostly didn't know the words but Brighton duly succumbed to the love...
The Magic Numbers / Iseeyouyouseeme

[And they may have just played a sold-out show at The Forum but if you're superquick you can snag tickets for the rather more intimate/claustrophobic environs of the Camden Barfly on June 6]

The other draw for reallyrather that night was the chance to check out hometown heroines The Pipettes' new line-up. How would new girl Gwen shape up? V. nicely indeed is the answer. Wearing a scrap of polka-dot material which only just qualified as a dress, she's throwing herself in molto gusto and giving the lovely Rose some serious competition eyes-wise. They sounded bigger and better than ever and with newer songs like Tell me what you want, Rest your pretty head(?) and It's not love but it's still a feeling sounding so great they could afford to leave belters like Kitchensink in the locker...

Check the girls out for free in London on May 30 when they headline a ClubFandango night at The Borderline...
The Pipettes / Club Fandango

..and the band had also originally been slated to support The Go! Team at the Electric Ballroom last week but were outrageously elbowed off in favour of Swedish Zep-alikes Dungen. Bad move all round.. the Pips would've been way more appropriate sandwiched between their Brighton homies and openers - and reallyrather's R-R-Revelations of the Month - The Research. This boy-girl-girl combo from Wakefield scored a resounding hit with their infectiously scewed electro-pop. Lead singer and Casio-abuser-in-chief Russ - the Alan Davies of rock? - knocks out riffs from the keyboard on his lap while as-good-as-they-need-to-be Georgia (bass) and Sarah (drums) regularly pitch in for a full-on trio vocal attack. This blog caught half-dozen or so songs and they were pretty much uniformly glee-inducing. The debut album's expected later in the year and they're back in town May 27 at what's passes as this blog's local venue, The Windmill...
The Research / at the Electric Ballroom / chattin'

Fast-forward to last night: taking The Research's approach to it's almost absurd natural conclusion, it's toybox-meets-beatbox with the probably soon-to-be-slightly-legendary Kid Carpet. Reallyrather had dropped into Islington's Bar Academy initially to catch openers Komakino who turned out to be a quite promising but hardly mould-breaking indie guitar outfit complete with a full set of artfully-slashed-across-face haircuts. (The singer could be Brett Anderson's kid brother and songs like Run through this town(?) are solid enough to get them on Zane Lowe.) But it was raining outside so Kid Carpet got the benefit of the doubt. Bonus! Pushing a range of Fisher-Price toy guitars, Simon games and crap bootsale keyboards through to the outer limits of their creators' imaginings, KC kept a decent Monday night crowd pretty much in thrawl to his beefy rip-off beat samples and punky poetry. And something like Green and pleasant land could give this guy from Bristol an, er, even bigger profile than his recent singles chart peak of no.185 (with Your love). It's entertainingly rubbish, deceptively shambolic stuff and, frankly, not be missed...
Kid Carpet

And oh yes, The Go! Team were slightly surprisingly ace at the Electric Ballroom.. and Arcade Fire fairly tore down the Astoria...but sorry, reallyrather just hasn't the time to add more so here's The Observer's man from last Sunday who also saw them both and came to much the same conclusions..

Probably everyone has bought an album on the strength of just one track, the only one you've heard. reallyrather set a personal precedent not long ago having been seduced into buying a record purely by the title of one of it's tracks, not having heard a note. And hey, sometimes you just get lucky.
Morning kills the dark by Biirdie is shaping as this blog's Spring-into-Summer soundtrack. Track one, Open letter to Jenny, was the song in question - basically a we-are-not-worthy paean to Jenny Lewis of Rilo Kiley, wholly understandable and fitting. The lyric actually drops quotes from RK's Bulletproof while the next, You've got darkness flaunts a musical, er, 'quote' from My slumbering heart. So Rilo fans will be happy here but anyone else? How about The Mendoza Line, Brian Wilson, Flaming Lips, Bright Eyes, Eels...
Biirdie are a Floridian trio relocated to Los Angeles and the record appears to document a personal and musical pilgimage to the wellspring of their favourite kinds of music. They set off to the land of Rilo Kiley and the Beach Boys, of Elliott Smith, Phil Spector and Mark Everett, stopping off en route in Oklahoma to tip the hat at Wayne Coyne and maybe shooting up to Omaha to high-five Conor. And when they finally arrive it's straight off to Silverlake/Echo Park to imbibe and commune, that the tunes might flow. And lo, they do!
Jared Flamm is Biirdie's prime mover and his is (naturally enough) the only voice you really hear on Open letter to Jenny. And it's an OK, archetypal indie-boy croak but the band's trump card is played in the bouncing You've got darkness when - ooooee! - Kala appears. That's Kala Savage whose blissful (and artfully arranged) vocals truly elevate the record.. and this listener to a state of mild delerium.

On the other side of Sunset there's a house where the music never dies..that's where the dreamers go

Phil's place having fallen into baleful disrepute, perhaps it's Brian's house which inspired the gorgeous swirl of The Other side of Sunset. Chamber pop is probably what we're talking about here and in the next, the medium-slow piano pop of Kala Lynne. These are good good tunes with dynamic (but not overblown) arrangements building to terrific climaxes. A minute or so of experimental noise interjects midway through Hotel Piano but the song comes back all the stronger as if asserting the power of melody. Fake static and strings cloak the staccato piano of I got you (on my mind), picking up some glockenspiel twinkle as it goes on it's sweet way. And To know that you need me's simple initial strum quickly becomes a pure Lips-ian boy/girl bliss fest.
Biirdie are following some pretty big footsteps in their seeming Grail-like quest for alt-pop classicism. OK, the relatively stripped-down last track California is waiting sounds just like Conor and Maria, it just does, but ultimately their own prints are distinctive enough. Recommended, basically. Take it away, Biirdie...
Biirdie / at MySpace / Pop Up Records

Ah yes, that Audible debut. 'Sky signal is the real thing.. there is something incredibly special going on here and it's only the first album,' gushes PopMatters. Meanwhile, over at TinyMixTapes: 'This unassuming little package is the most thoroughly mediocre release I have heard in quite some time.' The truth, of course, lies somewhere inbetween...

The sun comes out..
Rumble with the gang, Debs / Tullycraft [mp3]
-twindie-pop from Disenchanted hearts reunite out May 3 [buy]
Tullycraft / Magic Marker Records

..and the sun goes in..
We'll dance / Annelies Monsere [mp3]
-sparse, pensive piano & vocal from this Belgian's latest, Helder
Annelies Monsere / BlueSanct records

Quite, quite marvellously, Norfolk & Western are coming over to back M. Ward on a few regional UK dates:
02 June Bristol, Bonaventure
04 June Reading, South Street
05 June Nottingham, Social
06 June Manchester, Late Room
If you have to, travel...

Who is Sara Culler? Absolutely no idea except that she's an American living in Sweden and has a song out. Just the one. And it's great...