15: Time to dig out my travellin' socks...

Hello everyone, my computer is sort of back from the dead but I have lost about 11,000 songs unless I can get them off my iPod onto my computer. I think that is possible though.

Still, I have a lost a lot of good stuff. All my photos have gone but I think I managed to back up most of them before the trojans took them. Time will tell...

So yeah, better late than never here is the Retribution Gospel Choir setlist...

Workin' Hard
White Wolf
What She Turned Into
Breaker
For Her Blood
Hideaway
They Knew You Well
Your Bird
Easy Prey
Poor Man's Memory
Kids
Electric Guitar
Take Your Time
----------------
Destroyer

The new stuff sounded good, more out and out rock n roll than the old stuff. The version of Poor Man's Daughter was mind expanding stuff and Destroyer was always going to be a treat. I had a video of Easy Prey, might still have it somewhere... Also some pictures with Ste and Eric but I'll spare them any shame by not posting them. That and I look stupid on them.


Jarvis Cocker played a good show at Rough Trade for his album release. All songs were new, here is the setlist (roughly) in order.

Further Complications
Leftovers
Hold Still
Caucasian Blues
I Never Said I Was Deep
Homewrecker!
Slush
Angela

Short but sweet. According to what he wrote on my record, "It's Official". What he means I don't know, but one thing that is official is that he's still the coolest man to come out of Sheffield.


Expect updates about Primavera when I return a week tomorrow. Spain will be sunny and I will come back with a sexy tan... I'll try and post some RGC photos before I leave on Wednesday. Enjoy your Bank Holiday, England! Enjoy your week, ROW! x

14: So, sorry for the delay?

Long time no speak. My computer has given up on me... I was trying to listen to Silly Love Songs by Wings and all of a sudden I have trojan horses grazing all over the fucking thing.

RGC in Manchester was a great show! Hope some of you caught them on this tour. On Saturday I went to see Jarvis Cocker in London, got to meet him, what a great guy he is!

Obviously, this is very brief and doesn't tell you too much, all the photos and stuff I had are saved on my broken computer, a virus scan has been working its way through all that for about 5 hours and still hasn't stopped. I'll update again as soon as I can and let y'all know the fakts about the gigz.

Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona next week, look forward to that!

(Hi Steve!)

13: Unlucky for some?

The weekend is here unless you work weekends, I don't at the moment.

I've been checking my stats and there's a lot of people reading, particularly you Australians this week. Seems a shame there's only 1 follower and so many readers... maybe you don't want people to know you're reading! Don't worry, I can't see you or anything, just a little dot on a map telling me how many people in that city have been on here.

I'm listening to Deja Vu by CSNY, it's good Saturday afternoon music. The calm before the storm or something.

Hoping to have some new interviews to share soon. Like I said, there is a Retribution Gospel Choir gig on Tuesday in Manchester so i will get back to you about that. Can't make it to the London show on Wednesday anymore (poor me), Graham Coxon is playing The Lexington too that night so make your choice! The Lexington is a great little venue, saw The Thermals there a few months back. RGC is at Water Rats, so, not too far from each other if you wanna dart between?

If you go to any gig ever, please remember not to talk all the way through it.

If you're a youtube user, there is a fantastic Low show from The Knitting Factory up on there, all pro-shot from the Curtain Hits The Cast you... enjoy!

12: This week

Hello! Sorry I've been slack this last few days, I've started a new job so I just go to bed if I'm not there...

Quick mention to Kadman. I got sent their album (sing to me slower) last week... Finally... someone wants my opinion! It's a good record, especially considering what little they probably had to work with. It's minimal but melodic, great low-fi and acoustic with clear influence from the likes of Mark Kozelek, Alan Sparhawk, Leonard Cohen and even some hints of early Death Cab For Cutie. There's a lot of positives to take from this record, but at times the drums let it down and sound very programmed. Still, great little album!

Thursday night is One Step More... at Tiger Lounge so you can hear me play lots of great tunes from the sorts of bands I'm talking about on here. If you're not in Manchester don't worry, I'll play Wish You Were Here just for you.

Sunday is Manchester City vs Manchester United, that's nothing to do with music so I wont get too serious about that just yet... blue side for me, by the way.

Tuesday is Retribution Gospel Choir in Manchester, that's a week away so trust I will write again before then! Should be a good one, especially now I've assured my entry. Expect pictures, setlist and maybe even videos (high class entertainment!). Wet your appetite for RGC goodness by checking out some videos on youtube, there's some new tracks on there!


Here's my weekends playlist...
Swans - White Light...
Red House Painters - Songs For A Blue Guitar
The new Mars Volta single
Arab Strap - Philophobia
Blur - CD Single Box Set
Saint Etienne - Foxbase Alpha

11: Interview: MALCOLM MIDDLETON

In preperation for his new album release, I thought I'd dig up a short old Interview from Christmas 2007 where I interviewed Malcolm about 'A Brighter Beat', Arab Strap, the dreaded Xmas number 1 spot he was going for, and what was still to come... This interview was also for cowandfield.co.uk, but like the LOW interview (below), you can't get it on there at the moment, so here it is.

The new single “We're All Going To Die” is now one of the top contenders for the Christmas number 1. How much of that was down to you or was it just a bit of a laugh?
Some asked if I wanted to hold it back for the Christmas stuff and I just said 'aye, let's do it for a laugh'. It kinda just snowballed from there and William Hill started putting odds on it. It would be funny to get it, but it'd not be funny too. I don't really mind.

A Brighter Beat is considerably more upbeat than your first two solo efforts, was this a conscious decision or was it more of a natural progression?
It was both. The first one was so bleak and depressing that it makes me cringe a bit, the second album was a bit like me wearing a mask. I was covering the same themes but through more upbeat tunes so it was a bit less painful for people to listen to. Brighter Beat continued that but I just wanted better production, it's not really about having a brighter beat, it's about not having a brighter beat and not having a good mentality. I think I've done that now so I can;t really go any further with it.

Looking back at your first album, what do you think?
I'm glad people like it because it's honest... but like I said, it tends to make me cringe a bit these days.

Is there any plans for an Arab Strap DVD from the farewell tour or something similar?
We didn't really think about it until it came to the last night of the tour and we thought 'we should've filmed this'. We did record a lot of the concerts so maybe you'll hear some of that some day, we're not really a DVD band I don't think.

I remember setting off to the last Arab Strap gig in Manchester before (stupidly) changing my mind, as a result I never got to catch you guys live
I've done that before too. I had a ticket for Nirvana but went to some shit house party in Falkirk instead. That's what happens, you should always go to the concert, you'll regret it.

Any chance of a reformation?
It's a bit early for that. Never say never. If we went back to it it'd have to be because we enjoyed it, at the moment we're both doing our solo stuff so we're kept pretty busy.

Your new album Sleight of Heart is out in February, are there plans to tour that?
That's the plan yeah but it'll just be an acoustic tour with maybe 2 or 3 others to help out.

Has it been hard to adjust to touring as a full band doing electric shows after your last 2 albums which were pretty stripped down and acoustic?
It's hard because I hate doing it when things are missing like the strings and stuff. You've just gotta make sense of it as it is.

You've had to travel up from London this morning from a Radio session, what was that like for you?
Just a bit shit yunno, 6 hours in a van. We didn't get here til about 6:30

What's the tour been like in comparison to the tour earlier in the year?
It's been good. I was expecting all this Christmas shit to of brought a lot of people here to hear one song but it's been alright, a lot of people seem to know the songs and stuff. I've enjoyed it.

How do you go about sorting the setlists for the shows? Do you vary them a lot or do you tend to stick to the same songs?
We tend to play the stuff we're most comfortable with, we've had to rehearse stuff a bit differently for this tour like Cold Winter and King of Bring but we left them out anyway tonight. I've done King of Bring pretty much every gig since it was released so I decided it needed a rest.

How does the writing process differ from when you were in Arab Strap? Is it easier for you to do it alone or harder?
Well the main difference is that in Arab Strap I wrote the music and Aidan wrote the lyrics, whereas now I have to do both. Doing my own stuff is more natural for me because I have my own influences. Arab Strap was sometimes hard work because I'd write a song I liked and Aidan would just say 'that's shit'. But that's why Arab Strap worked, just that chemistry between us, a bit of compromise and fighting in the studio. With my own stuff I get total freedom. Some of my own stuff was originally for Arab Strap, the song Devil and The Angel was originally for Philophobia and fight like the night I've had knocking around for about10 years.

Have you taken your solo stuff more seriously since the split from Arab Strap?
I've always taken it seriously. I never wanted it to be a side project because to me that was all of me rather than with Arab Strap it was just half of me because Aidan was there. So, I've always taken it seriously. Sometimes too seriously which is why I miss Arab Strap.

10: Interview: LOW

2 years ago, prior to the release of their latest album 'Drums & Guns', I had the pleasure of interviewing slowcore/low-fi legends Low. Since the interview they HAVE released Destroyer (via Retribution Gospel Choir's self-titled debut) and played Union Chapel once again. You'll see what I mean later... This interview was originally for cowandfield.co.uk but the site is down at the moment so I've decided to post it here! Enjoy...


The new album 'drums & guns' was originally planned to be called 'the violent path'. Was there any reason for the sudden change of heart after already announcing that it would be titled 'the violent path'?
Alan: Drums and Guns was actually the first title we came up with for the new record, we thought about it as we were doing the record and started to come with other ideas...
Mimi: I don't think you're right, the violent path was the first name we came up with
Alan: Oh yeah yeah, that was the potential name for the album then we heard this old Irish folk song “johnny a' hardly new yeee” (In full irish meets pirate accent) and the chorus was like “drums and guns and drums and guns”
Mimi: Yeah, then we though 'well that's a cool name'. We didn't know if the music would be appropriate at first for the name.
Alan: We gave it some thought and decided it was more fitting to what the record was like that 'the violent path'. Errr, We'll use that for something else I think.

[matt joins]

It's the second album you've recorded with Dave Fridman (Alan corrects by saying 'grammy award winning producer dave fridman'), did the process differ the that of when you recorded the great destroyer?
Alan: We approached it very different for sure. Usually in the past we'd record the songs like an extension of how we play them live, with the drums, bass and guitar, so we tried to use some different methods and do different things to what we usually did, whilst still being Low. We approached the great destroyer in a more traditional fashion, but this time having worked with him already we knew we could go in and he could help us with what we were trying to do.

Zak left the band in 2005, was it hard for you (Matt) to come in and learn the older material to play live as well as writing new material with the band?
Matt: Learning the old stuff came pretty easy as I was already familiar with most of the catalogue, and the new stuff kind of similarly went well as I'd played with Alan in the past, so rehearsals went smoothly.
Mimi: Then we just beat him [group laughter]
Alan: It's always a struggle, we're not always on the same page but we tackle things at the same pace and with similar vision. I enjoyed the process of revisiting the old stuff, I think that in itself might of influenced the new record. We weren't necessarily running away from the old style but we looked at things and thought 'yeah, maybe we do do this, but lets see what chances we can take and what changes we can make'

You did a radio 6 session and interview yesterday, the presenter more or less openly admitted he didn't know an awful lot about you and what sort of thing you did, what did you make of that?
Alan: I think he handled that pretty well. There's nothing worse than when you have an interview with a presenter who knows nothing about you, but even worse when they pretend to know stuff they don't. He was honest about it and we had a talk with him before and after it so it wasn't so bad. You could tell he had listened to the new record and paid attention.
Mimi: It's so hard in that profession, you have so much music to get through and stuff to organise, so yeah, he didn't do badly.
Alan: I don't think we've ever been offended by a presenter not knowing much about us, it's to be assumed generally.

Am I right in saying this is the first show of the tour?
Mimi: Yeah I guess, it's a pretty short trip and this is the first show.
Alan: Yeah this is the first one on this record, it's not out yet but I guess the point of this short trip is to present the new material and to talk with people like you.

So will there be a good mix of new and old material at these shows? Are you planning on mainly previewing the new album or playing a mix of the older stuff and just dropping a few new tracks in there?
Alan: We're pretty much on the new record.
Mimi: Yeah, we play a lot of the new record.
Alan: We'll probably play most of the new one, but we'll have to do about half of the set older material too.

Will you be playing the new or old version of Murderer on this tour?
Alan: I know a lot of people who like the ay we've always done it live so i think we'll probably just keep doing doing it that way

I was wondering if there's any particular reason that the 2nd tracks of the last 4 records (including the new one) have been the names of places. Whitetail, Canada, California, and Belarus.
Alan: We should of had Missouri 2nd on Secret Name too, could've got a run going.
Mimi: Yeah
Alan: That's actually the first we've heard of it... actually... wait wait wait...Completely deliberate. Yes, yes, if you were to take out a globe and plot those places on it, they would create a 3 dimensional algorithm that we believe is the key to cold fusion... Yeah, that's a good one, very observant.

Makes a change from the Mormon questions?
Mimi: Yeah, we need more questions like that one.
Alan: Now you're putting pressure on us.

On the making of Trust dvd, there's a list of tracks being worked on and Belarus was listed. Was it recorded, unused and then reworked for use on the new record?
Alan: Yeah it's a track we've had kicking around for a while, it was a possible song for trust.

Was it more low-fi back then?
Mimi: Well there was no drum machines
Alan: Yeah and there was a lot more guitar. It's a very very basic song, there's just a couple of things happening, it's almost a 'no-song'. Very simple but a nice track.

Any plans to record the track destroyer?
Alan: It was a track we were working on the great destroyer, we still kick it around a bit. It's one of those songs that's really great live, at the right moment, but if it's not the right moment and especially if you're trying to record it, it just seem doesn't work.

Are the venues on the tour handpicked? Or do the promoters tend to pick where you play?
Alan: We try and get the booking agent to ask the promoter to find somewhere interesting sometimes you're left to what's on offer, we really loved playing union chapel, but they don't do gigs there anymore?

Left a bad impression?
Alan: Oh yeah yeah, all those rowdy Low fans causing a riot, spitting on the floor and stuff. No, that was a really nice venue, I'd love to play there again one day.

Does it frustrate you when the crowd speak through the music when you're playing? I know it annoys me.
Alan: It's kinda a crap-shoot but you realise that some shows are noisy and some aren't.
Mimi: You can't let it get to you, we realised pretty early on that it happened.
Alan: Yeah, if you let it get to you it can destroy you for no reason. Some of the stuff we do it has to be silent for you to hear though, I tend to play louder and with less dynamics if people are speaking loud. They can please themselves really, it's their money.

Are there any plans to reissue the older albums like I could live in hope and long division? They're pretty hard to get hold of this side of the pond.
Alan: Well, the label that owns them aren't traditionally very helpful with allowing people to reissue old records. It's good you mentioned that though cause I forgot we really have to speak to someone about that, they weren't very well distributed outside of the US. We really have to speak to someone about it.

You've covered artists like Pink Floyd and Neil Young? Are these major influences on the music you're still making?
Alan: We've been listening to a lot of Jamaican music over the last couple of years, it's really interesting just to hear the way they make music.

Well I've started to go over the amount of time I was told I had and I've just about got through the questions so I'll let you go and set up and stuff, thanks for the interview
Matt: Thank you very much
Mimi: You're welcome
Alan: Ermm, Cheeerio

9: Did you miss these?

This weeks playlist and discoveries:

John Cale - Music For A New Society
Chad vanGaalen - Soft Airplane
Crippled Black Phoenix - 200 Tons Of Bad Luck
The Cure - Disintergration
Tom Waits - Swordfishtrombones
Sun Kil Moon - April
Sonic Youth - The Eternal (advance)
Isis - Wavering Radiant
Mark Kozelek - Find Me, Ruben Olivares
Manic Street Preachers - Journal For Plague Lovers (advance)