A GRAVE WITH NO NAME/BANJO OR FREAKOUT/ATLAS SOUND

Photos taken by my good friends Nick and Tom. Thank you both.

BANJO OR FREAKOUT

Banjo Or Freakout is the brainchild of 28-year-old Alessio Natalizia from Turin, although now he resides in London. My friend told me that he used to be in a post-punk band called Disco Drive who are ridiculously popular in Italy, but he jacked it all in when he discovered how to play around with found sound on his girlfriend’s laptop one night and decided it was much more fulfilling sounding like the natural midpoint between Arthur Russell, Animal Collective and High Places and supporting bands like No Age and Atlas Sound - a no brainer really when you look at like that.

Click the link below to hear his cover of Burial’s ‘Archangel’.

BANJO OR FREAKOUT - ARCHANGEL (Burial cover)

There's also loads of other cool tracks on his blog so go figure.

'THE RIVER PATH TO MT. JADE' - A GRAVE WITH NO NAME

I recorded this track over the weekend whilst I was staying at my parents’ house. I had got up super-early for some reason, so made myself a pot of coffee and just played the first chords that came to mind and tracked them along with the vocals and percussion and then added the reverb. It was pretty much done by the end of the pot of coffee. I hope you like it.

'The River Path to Mt. Jade' - A Grave With No Name

Also, I am supporting Atlas Sound next week on Wednesday 17th September at the Sazerac on Pentonville Road. This is a real honour for me, and I hope to see some of you there.

...AND THE FUCK UP OF THE YEAR AWARD GOES TO...

I did something that I’ve never done before today and bought an album off i-Tunes. I will still be the first person in line to buy the CD of ‘Microcastle’ by Deerhunter from the piece of shit record shop that is High Street Kensington Zavvi on the day of its physical release, but I had to hear this record right now.

A couple of days ago Bradford Cox posted a link to a virtual 7” by his solo project Atlas Sound on the band’s excellent blog. It turns out that anyone who clicked the link was directed to an unguarded folder containing demos and finished tracks for ‘Microcastle’ and a surprise amendment album due to be packed with its physical release named ‘Weird Era’ and as if that wasn’t enough of a fuck-up, there were also demos for the new Atlas Sound album ‘Logos’ there for anyone to download.

With the album flying round the internet the band’s labels (Kranky in the U.S.A. and 4AD over here) have made the pretty smart decision to put ‘Microcastle’ for sale on i-Tunes as of now. I’ve always been the guy who waits for physical release dates, but with the physical release over two months away (unless it’s brought forward in light of the leak) I decided that I was going to buy this album twice – once digitally, and once on physical format.

It’s a shame that this has happened, as Bradford Cox has always been keen to share his demos for free and tracks on his blog, and also Kranky and 4AD, two labels I respect the shit out of will be losing out as a result of his mistake. Not to be Mr Judgmental, but part with your money for this music. I’ve just finished listening to ‘Microcastle’ for the first time and it’s worth it.