SXSW winners (i.e. the ones people went on about the most) Local Natives are heading to London this month for three dates.
Author: Lynn Roberts
Lynn founded For Folk's Sake in 2008. Her favourite artists are Joni Mitchell, The Leisure Society and The Mountain Goats. She plays keyboards in Joe Innes & the Cavalcade.
Wave Machines offer free tickets to Graham Coxon support gig
The Wave Machines have announced that they have 100, yes ONE HUNDRED, pairs of tickets to their iTunes festival gig with Graham Coxon to give away.
FFS Interview: Wise Children
Robin started the band as a solo side project to a much louder band that I was in at the time. It was kind of Biffy-esque. I guess I just wanted to do something that represented the kind of music that I was listening to at the time. I met Jami [Wise Children’s cellist] through recording as the producer and I were desperate to get some cello on the record and Jami was suggested. The results were excellent and so he was recruited full time! The rest of the band has been a little less stable and several members have come and gone. We now have another full-time guitarist called Tim and are basically still recruiting, but it’s always been that way. I started it as a solo project with the idea of people helping out and performing as and when they can and it’s only through time that a more permanent form has developed.
Album: Wave Machines – Wave If You’re Really There
It seems that whenever the economy takes a bad turn electro-pop comes creeping back out of the woodwork. Wave Machines’ debut album ‘Wave If You’re Really There’ is one of many recession-electro releases that we’re to be subjected to this year. Its not all bad news though, this release might just have enough great dance tracks to stand out from the crowd.
Album: Tom Brosseau – Posthumous Success
Posthumous Success is Tom Brosseau’s eighth album in four years and I have not been able to get it out of my head. A prolific songwriter and performer, as well as a writer of stories and other musings on his blog (tombrosseau.com/blog), the North Dakotan clearly has a lot to say, but his music is remarkably uncluttered and beautiful.
Album: Bitte Orca – Dirty Projectors
Caught in the middle of great expectations, Dirty Projectors’ new album could have fallen into the overly neurotic avant-garde and polyrhythmic experimentation patterns. It could definitely have happened, considering the Yale intellectual and artsy character of frontman David Longstreth, prone to fidgety, discordant, shrieking echoes and glitchy tunes. Yet, with Bitte Orca, he has managed to make his music approachable but still challenging, violent but still harmonious, tribal but still classical in layers.
Single: Cass McCombs – Dreams Come True
Near Legendary indie folk troubadour Cass McCombs delivers another catchy, yet still somehow morbid slice of storytelling with the first single off his fourth album, Catacombs. As the song starts, McCombs voice alone is breathtakingly raw and powerful, sounding particularly dark in contrast to the upbeat music it’s laid over.
Album: Thieves Like Us – Play Music
There’s a moment that most of us would have to confess to living at least one point in our lives, when it becomes startlingly apparent that you have pushed the boat out too far with the ‘state-altering’ substances. It’s that incredibly uncomfortable moment where you start to feel disconnected from the world going on around you. You feel as though you have been submerged underwater and all sound has become slightly muffled and distant. The night suddenly feels wrong and all the people around you enjoying themselves are monsters. The worst thing is that you know there is no way out, no quick fix answer to bring yourself back from the brink.
Review: Al Lewis & Sarah Howells – Skin & Bones EP
The five songs on this EP are simple, melodic, gently uplifting, and terribly infectious.
Al Lewis and Sarah Howells met on a tube on their way home from their own solo gigs, or so the story goes. But the pair from Wales might as well have been matched in Heaven. Elsewhere Al Lewis can sound a bit like Jack Johnson, a bit like Damian Rice, but what sets these songs apart is Sarah Howells’ effortless and breathy vocals.
Single: Florence and the Machine – Rabbit Heart (Raise it up)
Florence and the machine have been going from strength to strength and their latest single ‘Rabbit Heart (Raise it up)’ does not disappoint.
Florence opens the door to us with a much softer voice, however once we’re in and settled with a cup of tea she unleashes that wonderful voice onto us. This song proves that we never know where Florence is going next, it’s a beautiful and haunting package wrapped up with an air of mystery, very different from her previous singles.