This weekend I am going to be publishing a mammoth post of Broken Records live videos from their Bedlam Theatre gig in March of this year.  The band suggested we get the cameras in and so we’ve got about ten songs, all with top notch audio mixed by Kas, their sound guy, and honestly, I think they look fucking incredible.  I know that’s a bit wanky to say, but in terms of the quality of material that’s been on this site, I think it’s a big step forward, and I am really pleased with how they turned out.  They also give you a really good idea of just why people love this band, and how immense they can be in a live setting, which can often be hard to get across.

Anyhow, at that gig, Jamie and I sat down and discussed some stuff after the show, and I’ve interspersed some of that footage with some teasers of the live stuff to make the above video.  It makes for a really nice ten minute inro to the band and the album and stuff like that, so have a watch, and I expect you all to be waited with bated breath for Sunday’s video extravaganza.

My favourite bit is when we’re discussing lyrics, and more specifically the ones to If Eilert Loevborg Wrote a Song, it Would Sound Like This, and Jamie says…  well, you’ll have to watch it and see, won’t you.

It is a pretty huge pleasure to be able to review two excellent releases in the same week, both released by people you consider to be good friends, and this week brings us both the Broken Records album, and now Sparrow & the Workshop’s debut release.  And guess what?  It’s fucking brilliant.  I have two tiny criticisms, so I’ll get them out of the way first:

Firstly, I think the drums sound somewhat flat on Last Chance, and that the pace of the song is a little quick.  Live, there’s realy sparkle to the cymbals on this song in particular, and there’s more variation between the simmer of the verse and the aggression of the chorus which seems to be slightly missing.  Secondly, the live versions of I Will Break You sound a hell of a lot more punk than the version on this EP, and actually I think that might have given the song more impact, as well as shaking the listener up a little.  See – I can nitpick with the best of them.

Otherwise, this is great.  The Gun is fucking lovely – the tappity-tap of the percussion and the gentle thrum of guitar are as simple and as lovely a device as I’ve heard in a long time.  In fact, Sparrow & the Workshop have a habit of doing things like that – there are a lot of times when the acoustic guitar seems to be doing the job of the rhythm section and the drums actually take the lead.  As well as that, Jill’s voice is, it really must be said, truly gorgeous.  She seems to have the ability to enigmatically flit between fragile and raging in an instant, as well as between idiosyncratic, old-fashioned folk and plain vanilla country.

Sleight of Hand is beautifully sequenced as well.  It starts with a fury, dances around in the middle and then gently takes its leave with Broken Heart, Broken Home.  It doesn’t try too hard, simply introduces itself, A near perfect first release.

Sparrow & the Workshop – The Gun

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

MySpace | More mp3s | Buy from Rough Trade

First things first: I have watched this band since their formative days, I think I gave them their first ever review, they recorded the first Toad Session, and it was promising them that if they didn’t get signed that we would put out their album which led to the birth of Song, by Toad Records.  So, erm, don’t expect me not to be partisan; this is not going to be an objective review.  Then again, why the fuck does it need to be – there’s nothing objective about listening to music in the first place.

The thing about Broken Records, for me, is that they are just plain riotous.  See them live and they just thunder away at you like a bloody tornado, and I think that’s the best way to listen to this album: really fucking loud.  When you do that the album’s grandiosity becomes its greatest asset.  There’s none of your hiding behind layers of post-modern ambiguity and there are no coyly evasive winks at the audience: this album is bold and wears its heart pretty nakedly on its sleeve.

As such, it’s pretty brave actually.  The fashion in music for some time has been to deflect any danger of personal criticism by hiding behind a shield of irony, always implying that if you don’t like something that it’s because you aren’t in on the joke.  Broken Records emphatically do not do that, and this seems to have come across to some reviewers as earnestness, for me it’s rather liberating.  I find myself turning it up loud, letting it barrel out of the speakers at me and just grinning like a fool.  They’ve lowered their barriers in making this album, and to appreciate it I think you kind of have to lower your own, which makes the experience all the more joyful if you can manage it.

Funnily enough, I’ve always been slightly at odds with a a lot of Broken Records fans.  I’ve never had the same preference for songs like If the News Makes You Sad Don’t Watch It, Nearly Home or Slow Parade which a lot of people think are the obvious hits of this album.  Myself I’ve always liked the thundering A Good Reason and Eilert Lovborg, but if anything my favourite song on this record is possibly Wolves.  There’s real venom to the crescendo which I love.  I love non-album tracks like Lies and also Lovers’ Pact – the latter being very evocative of the Waterboys – and I also prod them to play more obscure songs like Out On the Water and Lessons Never Learnt when I get the chance, which leads to the one question I have about this album.

When I interviewed Jamie and Rory on my last Fresh Air show the other week I asked them about the Toad Session recordings they did for us.  Basically, I love those recordings and yet I’ve never heard them do anything remotely as stripped down before or since, and I asked them why.  Jamie’s response was something along the lines that all the band make a very important contribution to the Broken Records sound, which makes it almost impossible to leave them off.  That sounds just a little like putting the band before the song, to me, and I would be curious to know what the effect would be of having the odd song here and there with just, say, three or four of them playing.  It would provide a variation of texture as much as anything, and sometimes those contrasts give everything a greater impact – imagine something incredibly quiet and sparse before A Good Reason, for example – Christ, it would pull you onto the punch when they all went mental.

Mind you, I’ve seen a lot of large bands wrestle with this sort of thing, and I suppose that in a way second-guessing in this manner is to sort of miss the point.  To best enjoy this album you really do have to stop worrying about these details and just let yourself go.  It’s a great big juggernaut of a thing – a great big, glistening, swaggering, grandiose sprawl – and I suppose that could be construed as its biggest weakness, but I would say it is its greatest strength also.  Just fire it on, turn it up loud, and get carried away by it, because if you can then you will probably find out what a big, joyous riot this album is.

Broken Records – Wolves

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Broken Records – Lessons Never Learnt

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Broken Records – A Good Reason

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Website | More mp3s | Buy from Rough Trade

Well well well, Saturday was what I think can only be described as a truly epic party.  It started at about two or three in the afternoon when Found came round to record their Toad Session, which sounded absolutely lovely, continued into the back garden for a barbecue, turned into the Honeytrap Toad Session, repaired once more to the garden for further gluttony, returned to the house once night had descended, then turned into some sort of deranged music/cavorting session until the early hours accompanied by some truly heroic feats of drinking.

Quite how the whole house didn’t end up smashed to pieces is beyond me.  And quite what our neighbours made of a gaggle in inebriated imbeciles out in the back garden all evening bellowing salty anecdotes at one another in the most colourful of language is entirely beyond me.  If we are not careful we may end up with something of a ‘reputation’ in the neighbourhood.

Apart from other things, today sees the release of Broken Records’ debut album, which I will review later on this week.  I also have a special treat of some truly excellent live videos from their Bedlam Theatre set which will be published as soon as possible.  I’ll review the album in as objective a manner as I can, but for now, on a personal note, I want to just mention the fact that the lads have become good friends since I first saw them play about two years ago, and I am incredibly proud of them and delighted to see this record out in the shops.  Well done, boys, you deserve it.

Other things happening this week include the first night at the somewhat enigmatic Electric Circus.  This is a new venue whose website, whilst pretty, is sufficiently unfinished as to fail to include an actual address.  It is left to The Skinny to provide us with such trivial details, and a good thing they do, as the first gig to be held there takes place tomorrow, 2nd June, with St. Jude’s Infirmary and White Heath.  Intriguing.

Monday 1st June 2009: Teitur & Emily Scott at Cabaret Voltaire.

Teitur is from the Faroe Islands and has managed a couple of fairly high-profile movie placements for his songs already which, although it brings very important funds to an artist, doesn’t seem quite as useful at increasing name-recognition, because I am still yet to hear all that much talk about the fellow on the digital telegraph wires.  He makes lovely, acoustic pop songs, though, which should result in a state of serene bliss.
Teitur – We Still Drink the Same Water

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Monday 1st June 2009: Trachtenberg Family Sideshow Players at the Bowery.

This lot sound a bit mental.  The clue is entirely in the name – imagine what kind of madness you might expect from a band called that, and that is exactly what you are going to get.  Should be brilliant fun.
Trachtenberg Family Sideshow Players – Mountain Trip to Japan

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Thursday 4th June 2009: Punch & the Apostles & the Stormy Seas play Limbo at the Voodoo Rooms.

More Limbo excellence, with Glasgow band Punch & the Apostles and their raucous sound which veers from hyperactive swing to deranged carnival barking.  Supported by the Stormy Seas’ folk rock and a mystery third guest, who will probably turn out to be someone like Paolo Nutini or someone like that.  Or maybe not.
Punch & the Apostles – I’m a Hobo

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Friday 5th June 2009: My Latest Novel, Copy Haho & Mitchell Museum play the final Black Tape Club night at Sneaky Pete’s.

Black Tape take their final bow by introducing the new My Latest Novel album to the world.  I am listening to their gorgeous debut as I type this, and am genuinely fascinated to hear what they have to say for themselves next.  On record it’s all a bit more craftsmanlike, instrumental and lush, whereas the live sound is a lot more guitary and noisy.  I haven’t actually seen them live for ages, so I’ll definitely be along to this one.
My Latest Novel – Pretty in a Panic

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th June 2009: The Meadows Festival.

What are the chances of the gorgeous weather holding up until this coming Saturday when the Meadows Festival swings into life?  Pretty slim, from the looks of it, but we can hope.  Apart from plenty of splendid hippy shit like crafts stalls and local artists and stuff like that there will also be a good number of local bands playing at various times during the day, including Meursault, Jesus H. Foxx, White Heath, The Byrons, and quite a few others.  Have a look at their MySpace page for a more comprehensive list.