The plot, as they say, ...

It remains one the great mysteries of the modern age: just how did engaging D-I-Y'ers and rarely-gigging, counter-(musicbiz)-cultural popstrels The Boy Least Likely To end up landing what was presumably one of the most sought-after 'support act' slots of the year opening for Jimmy Blunt on his first major headlining UK tour? Well, an answer of sorts (the double-eyebrow-raising sort, to be precise) was to be found on p.14 of last Tuesday's edition of that well-regarded chronicle of all things 'alt', the Daily Star (I know, I know...):

'Spice Girls svengali Simon Fuller, 44, is turning his back on pop to focus on indie singer songwriters. Simon, who's currently the guiding force behind the likes of Rachel Stevens, 27, and Will Young, 26, has signed up credible outfit The Boy Least Likely To, to his 19 Management stable. Folky duo Jof and Peter mark a radical departure for the man who made millions from sugar-coated pop.'

[..Pause for expressions of disbelieving apoplexy..]

Well, it's in the papers so it must be true. But reallyrather is keeping the faith: cakes and bubbles all round at the Water Rats on Thursday...

To the Shepherd's Bush Empire last week for Sufjan Stevens. Back in August '03 this blog was among a dozen or so who caught Stevens' turn at the 12 Bar, sitting on a chair with his banjo and accompanied part of the time by a Scandinavian friend on guitar [see rr 13/07/03]. He seemed pretty nervous, not exactly a natural showman, but the dry-mouthed intensity only added to the atmosphere of humble trepidation on songs like Romulus and Seven swans. A few months later it was down to the Rough Trade basement store in Covent Garden where, before a capacity crowd (30 or so), Stevens' performed a short in-store set standing in a corner atop his banjo case. Phew, etc...
And now look! How many does the Empire hold? 2000 maybe? And it was sold out inside a week. reallyrather surveyed the throng from the highest point far back in gods with no little joy and wonder. And then the music started!
With live shows it's more usually not the case but reallyrather can confirm that with Sufjan bigger is definitely best. Aided by his six-piece troupe of Illinoisemakers in matching cheerleaders garb Stevens cloaked his meticulous music in a team-spirited 'lets-do-the-show-right-here' ethic. There were cartwheels, rubbish non-death-defying human pyramids and any amount of ra-ra-ra's none of which you'd imagine sitting easy with the rather deadpan literate earnestness of Stevens' recorded persona. But it was great. Sticking mostly to this year's Illinois, this blog was fairly amazed at how the music's complexities were pulled off and it's subtleties preserved.
A one-man brass section, bass and drummer dudes, girls on glock and guitar and Sufjan alternating between piano and acoustic guitar - was that really all there was up there? Bathing in the glistening sonic magnificence of something like Chicago it was slightly hard to believe. That all-hands-to-the-pump cracker closed the show on the same high as it had begun with (the unreleased?) 50 states. The set seemed designed to gently descend from full-on exuberance to the pivotal stripped down solemnity of Stevens' faith-avowing To be alone with you, and then gradually wind back up again. In it's own way, quite masterly.
Probably somewhat to his own surprise Stevens finds himself sitting at some kind of peak in contemporary musicmaking. In other hands his evolving style of songwriting - empathetic extrapolations from random source material - might seems gimmicky. But Stevens' respectful instincts radiate a quietly reassuring intelligence and a modesty underpins these belting tunes. Standing on the steps outside watching the out-spilling throng, rarely has a crowd appeared so collectively gratified and pleased with their decision to have foregone the telly, got off their backsides and been there...

'T'would seem there's nothing Jenny Lewis likes more than licking the nuts off a large Neapolitan. Rilo Kiley's ineffably gorgeous siren poses here with the Watson twins ahead of her solo release, Rabbit fur coat; scroll down for loads of promo blurb for this record which is due on...

...Jan 24 next year, only the same day as The Weepies first ever label release, Say I am you, on Nettwerk Records. And the way things are going The Tyde will probably go and decide that that's a good day to drop their new one, Three's Co, which promises another surf-eit (g-g-geddit?) of SoCal goodness, just the thing for an English midwinter. The band played their first show in ages last week in Los Angeles and were, apparently, really quite rad..dude...

Kevin Tihista plays Brixton Windmill Nov 17 where, last Friday, this blog caught The Spinto Band's UK debut. Their's is an instantly accessible brand of kinetic alt-pop with lashings of harmonies and old-fashioned Beatle-y diminished chords. Even tho' the Windmill's stage has been extended a foot or so it was still a tight squeeze for six guys robotically a-jerkin' and this blog feared a mass slacker excursion to the local A&E might be imminent. But these kids have their wits about them and, for anyone vaguely inclining towards, say, that new New Pornographers' record this blog suggests The Spintos debut Nice and nicely done as a rather better option...

Better still, bag the risk-free indie-rock double whammy of the moment, Wolf Parade's Apologies to the Queen Mary and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah's s/t debut. After weeks in rotation this blog is still returning with relish and gives a double thumbs-up to both...

You look like David Bowie
But you've nothing new to tell me

...is a pretty brave line to stick on your debut album. It leaps right out at you during Over and over again by New York 5-piece Clap Your Hands Say Yeah though transposing 'Byrne' for 'Bowie' might be more immediately relevant. There's more than a little Talking Heads suffusing this record (like a few others recently, the Heads having seemingly superceded The Cure as Nth American Indie's influence-of-choice). So do they have anything new to tell us? Well, not a huge amount but there's plenty to enjoy here on it's own terms.
Over and over again is CYHSY at their most clipped, a cool little bass'n'drums groove forming the bed for some light ringing electric guitar and singer Alec Ounsworth's Byrnian croon. At the other end of the scale is the adrenalising superfat-indie-guitar glory of In this house on ice, a track which from it's first keystone chord changes does everything you hope and expect it will. Hitting the visceral bullseye this accurately, reallyrather cares not too much about it's instant familiarity.
Gimme some salt is a brooding pop-rocker which hints at the more mainstream success they could likely nail if they chose while Heavy metal is a rattling good stomper. (The latter is among the half-dozen or so here produced by Adam Lasus who was behind the boards on the woefully underheard perennial reallyrather favourite from 2000, Ephemera for the future by The Trolleyvox.) The skin of my yellow country teeth is probably the most roundly rewarding song of the lot; Ounsworth's queasy smear of a voice is at its most extreme here and if this track doesn't put you off you'll want this record...

...and, in all likelihood, that of Montreal debutantes Wolf Parade. There are definitely overlaps in these bands' respective sounds; if you drew a Venn diagram the common ground would be Arcade Fire-coloured. There's the high, slightly off-the-map whiney vocal, the uncomplicated onwards-we-go drummin' and that hi-hat-on-the-offbeat thing going on. But Apologies to the Queen Mary is a denser, rather more rock affair with less light'n'shade than the CYHSY record.
A song like Dinner bells is as good an example of their sound as any, epic guitar bombast but of the right sort. This track does get a bit pointlessly extended (7mins+!) but it's really the only time this blog is tempted to reach for the skip button. Song titles like Shine a light and Hearts on fire are a bit groan-inducing and indicate a band still finding it's ID. But the former is a very tidy Arcade Fire-ish rocker with obvious radio potential; their compatriots (and tour buddies) also leap immediately to mind on the raspy Modern world.
Grounds for divorce is Wolf Parade's Talking Heads moment but that doesn't stop it being a clockwork cracker, a Heath Robinson-esque set of working parts with a stomping, guitar-drenched chorus. Happy claps, too, rocks in v. satisfactory fashion while the grandiose swishing swoop of Same ghost every night offers a timely change of pace. And I'll believe in anything just feels BIG, with a mighty refrain - 'Nobody know you and nobody gives a damn' - that should sound gorgeously thrilling in the tiny confines of...

...the Camden Barfly Dec 1 when they make their UK debut. It's sold out already, of course, as is the Clap Your Hands.. ULU debut show Nov 22 but hey, if reallyrather ends up being stuck for someone to go with...

And in other news...

::The Spinto Band & The Colony play the Windmill in Brixton Oct 21
'FoW-meets-Pavement' apparently in this touted Delaware 7-piece, with v. interesting UK support
The Spinto Band / The Colony

::Sweden's The Legends play Heavenly Social Mon Oct 24 - bring your guitars, guys
[press release]

::November 26. Autumn handing over the baton to winter. The Last Town Chorus at the 12 Bar. Chilly...
The Last Town Chorus

::while Toytown beatsmiester Kid Carpet pops up back at the Barfly in Camden on Nov 28. To Fisher-Price and beyond...!

Best 'til Last Dept:
::apparently there's a new record on the way from the lovely Shelley Short! Her lower-than-low-key debut on Keep Recordings was an unalloyed delight. No clues yet about the Hush Records follow-up but for a hint of the spot-on artistic sensibilities at work here check out the rather fantastic photo on the front page of her website...