The Acorn 'Flood Pt1'...

hi again

god i am so IN YER FACE arent i?

i had some very nice tweets about the 'Crooked Legs' video (tho no one could be bothered to leave me a comment and give me even the vaguest notion that this blog is read by anyone) and requests to post the fore-runner to that..this is the first video Christopher Mills directed for the band and is equally stunning.

i will leave the visuals married to one of the best songs ever to do the talking....

The Acorn 'Flood Pt. 1' from the album 'Glory Hope Mountain' from Paper Bag Records on Vimeo.

have a good weekend..

The Acorn 'Crooked Legs'

There's a fair chance you havent seen this yet, and well, you're in for a bit of a treat...! The Acorn are one of my favourite bands in the whole world and also happen to be darlings. The video for Crooked Legs, one of the best songs on the album Glory Hope Mountain, is awesome. Canadian film-makers really do such wonderful stuff. Ambitious and glorious visually, i think you'll agree that it's a stunning piece of work. The Acorn are now recording their follow up to GHM, and we await this with baited breath. (have you ever said to someone '"your breath is baited?)

anyhow. enjoy.

The Acorn 'Crooked Legs' from the album 'Glory Hope Mountain' from Paper Bag Records on Vimeo.

my word there are so many amazing bands out there ....

for the thirty three people that currently read this blog (well it is quite new?), chances are you are a bit like me, a bit of a music freak who cannot stop listening and discovering wonderful stuff out there...? right? ok well hello. arent we amazing? yes i think so too.

i am in my mid to late forties and while i may be missing something here ( i do hope i am), i DONT see alot of other folks of my age as into music as i am. The kids came along, marriage, work too hard, slump in front of xfactor on a weekend and thats it till youre too slow to even get out the chair to piss let alone go to a feckin gig. THAT seems to be the norm from my black-coloured spectacles. but fuck come on....life aint over yet you know. have you any idea ANY IDEA how much incredible music is being made and not even released, just being made?

'when i am doing the weekly shopping at Tesco i look at the music there'
THAT ISNT MUSIC
' well i sometimes go to HMV every month and have a look at whats on offer there '
NOT GOOD ENOUGH
' well i use Genius on iTunes'
A BIT BETTER
' i was going to go to Rough Trade last year '
NOT GOOD ENOUGH. GO THIS WEEKEND

you know what i am on about. invest a bit of time in to your soul, enrich it, trust me when i tell you there is amazing music JUST FOR YOU out there that pisses all over the crap you bought this year in the supermarket trolley dash. picking up cd's and lobbing them into your cart is not really the best way to find music you're gonna love.

try these four today. you'll find them on myspace

mountain man (myspace.com/mountainmansquint)
zun zun egui (myspace.com/zunzunegui)
alessis ark (myspace.com/alessisark)
washed out (myspace.com/thebabeinthewoods)


thats all i am giving you today

(A&R men, go find your own music)

Lucas Renney's 'Strange Glory' album 9/10 NME

it's not often the nme give 9/10 for album reviews, nor is it very frequent for that album to have been produced by ME!!!!!!!! in fact quite a rarity.
the album in question is by Lucas Renney, a quite brilliant songwriter from the North East of England, and said album is now available here through Brille Records, a label run by former XL Records man leo silverman.

i initially heard lucas's songs in a very raw form and knew immediately what kind of setting i would like to put these songs. I called paul and mckenzie from Midlake, the best bass and drum team since sly and robbie, and then spoke to the arranger fiona brice who i have known a long time and think is a superb arranger, as well as being a brilliant violinist, and set to work, choosing the 15 or so songs we would work on. Over the next month or so, Fiona got to work on the arrangements, Paul and Mckenzie flew over from Texas and then we all went into rehearsals in London, and a week later all met up at Bryn Derwen in North Wales, home of my favourite studio.
It was a wonderful time, most mornings we'd start with a walk with the dogs along the quarry up to the waterfalls, back for some hearty breakfast and then setting to work around 11am. Paul and Mckenzie are such a wonderful pair to work with, as they really helped with feel and tempo, and they both really care about the work they do. Of course, running Bella Union, i should know how superb they are as musicians but seriously till you see people in the studio, you dont really know. Lucas found the experience to be quite inspiring i felt, as he had only really ever heard these songs in his bedroom on an acoustic guitar, apart from the odd song that was left over from his old band Golden Virgins. The engineer, the unique and quite brilliant Dave Wrench, someone i have now worked with on about 5 albums, was also a tremendous help throughout with his own musicality, and i think between all of us, we created a beautiful moving album. The final icings on the cakes were the backing vocals from Stephanie which added that fairy dust to the whole thing. i was also lucky enough to be able to work on the final stages of the album at my friend Bill's house, and we had some additional cameos like that one from sarah jory on pedal steel. Lucas is a lovely feller, who cares deeply about the songs he writes and his lyrics are dark and brooding, songs of loss and longing, yet there is a romance about his writing that draws you in, as poetry does. Lucas is one of only a few english songwriters whose lyrics could be published as poetry, and i urge you all to take a listen before you decide to buy...there are some songs on lastfm from the album...probably the one i enjoyed working on the most was These Same Stars, as i ended up completely reworking it while mixing as it wasnt working at all. Now i think it's one of the best tracks on the album...


you can hear at http://www.lastfm.com/music/Lucas+Renney

the 'bella union story'...kind of

i am of course much better-looking than this CGI pixar animation of me might suggest,
but i cant deny the filmmakers their little bit o' fun...
this was filmed in june 2009 at cherry red tv and was surprisingly painless!
i almost enjoyed it...almost.





thanks to ian and matt at Cherry Red for caring about the stories of the smaller labels.

the return of aunt agony.....

she's back...to help you in your hour of need.
leaking pipes?
bad body odour?
old lady bothering you?
hair falling out?
always angry?
no clothes sense?
animal problems?
work problems?
aunty steph is here to help

http://www.thelineofbestfit.com/2009/10/stephanie-aunt-agony-dosen-joins-tlobf-full-time-get-your-letters-in/

snowbird

we havent really chatted much about snowbird. i am in a chatty sort of mood, and you are too right?

good.

since cocteau twins broke up 1997 (i was in them see) i havent really felt like being in another band. why would you right?

then i heard stephanie sing. we made a record together well kind of, she sent it me from nashville and i ended up getting all carried away and sticking loads of me all over it!

after a while it was glaringly obvious that we needed to actually write an album together, especially as we live together. thing was, we just couldnt find the time. till she got deported..then we had some time! me on my own and her on her own, in different countries! so then we got offered this tour supporting loney dear, who we love. so we kinda said yes we'll do it. problem was we didnt have any songs, oh well yes we had one that we had recorded a year ago. but one wouldnt have made a very good show. so, with the tour starting in 12 days we thought we better set to it. so i perched the mac on top of the piano, no microphones or anything fancy like that, just the shitty little mac in-built thing, and opened up garageband and recorded some of me noodling on the piano. i emailed one piano piece every day for a week over to stephnie over in the usa, she was staying at her parents looking after her grandma while her parents were away, and every morning i would wake up in london to an email with my piano song back with her vocals all done, again on her mac, with her shitty little in-built mac mic. it was kinda magical and fun. she came back 12 days later and the day she arrived we went on tour. no kidding, no rehearsals or anything. well we rehearsed the morning she arrived, the morning of our first show at the 800 capacity london venue the scala> thats a whole nother story! but anyway...here is one of those garageband recordings exactly as it was done, and here is a little video stephanie made for fun..the song is called 'we carry white mice'





hope you enjoyed it a little bit xx

the cat's been sleeping on the dog's bed...

i am not sure what to deduce from this, but it's got tongues a-wagging around here i can tell you.

in other exciting local news, the neighbours moved out, and in their place.......builders. Builders who are living in a van outside and builders who drill skirting boards into the walls at 10.40pm at night. Nice.

cant wait for the postal strike to start cos i dont like the postman. and i especially dont like all the letters we get from the last 38 people who used to live here. have they not heard of mail redirection?? i dont think i knew about it till i was like 12.

stephanie is out on tour with indigo girls which she's loving, so i have been writing some music for snowbird and i am excited to record soon. more news very soon.

what i really wanted to tell you is that our website www.bellaunion.com is now up and running. we are making changes all the time as we come across things we think arent quite perfect but we're very happy with how it's coming along. we hope you enjoy it too.

i also wanted to tell you that 'memoirs of a geezer' by jah wobble is the book you need to get your mum to buy you for xmas.

i dont really like colin farrell.

i havent got a particularly good reason why i dont like him or why i brought it up, but i just dont like the things his face does. do you know what i mean at all?

i am sure he doesnt like the things my face does. especially when my face is looking at his face. it does some weird shit then!

Denmark and Vincent Moon

Denmark really is a wonderful place. Full of wondrous musicians and home to a fascinating music scene.
Bella Union has been in love with Denmark for some time, since publishing an Under Byen song a few years ago, and in the last few years we signed The Kissaway Trail from Odense, Chimes and Bells from Copenhagen and Our Broken Garden from a small village in the countryside not too far from the capitol.

A wondrous event took place recently involving some of our bands and i will let you have a read all about it here..

The filmmaker Vincent Moon, known for his take away shows flew into Copenhagen in May for a couple of days and this is what he says:

"In May 2009, i flew to Copenhagen, invited there to experiment some recordings. I had gone in search of this « new » Danish scene, mostly following Slaraffenland in their acoustic rendition of their new album, over one day all over Copenhagen. The result, 'Temporary Slaraffenland', is a 40 minute piece, including all their songs in 'Take Away Show' style versions.

Two days later, we brought 9 local bands in one house, for one night, to experiment a certain relationship between music and images, and collaborate on something unique and ephemeral. The result is a 30min sound and visual piece, one take, no cuts, plus a lot of outtakes with each band playing one of their songs. A certain idea of a document on a city and its creative life."

So, you can visit both pages www.temporaryslaraffenland.com and www.temporarycopenhagen.com

If you want to just watch Chimes and Bells (Bella Union) peform their brilliant new song Do The Right, please head here, but you should check out the whole film, it's really worth it..

TEMPORARY COPENHAGEN _ 04 _ CHIMES & BELLS from vincent moon / temporary areas on Vimeo.

At www.temporaryslaraffenland.com Vincent Moon follows Slaraffenland around Copenhagen as they play their latest album from start to finish. A lot of guest musicians from various Copenhagen bands feature the recordings.

At www.temporarycopenhagen.com Vincent Moon has documented 9 Danish bands collaborating in a 30minutes one take session filmed in a cool apartment..

The bands are: Murder, Choir of Young Believers, Efterklang, Slaraffenland, The Sad Lovers, Chimes and Bells, Thulebasen, Jong Pang and Valby Vokalgruppe. You can watch the films and download the audio and there is also individual films with each band performing on of their songs. In the extra material you can also find these three bands: I Got You On Tape, The William Blakes and Taxi Taxi!

i should also mention the very fabulous Efterklang including our very own Peter Broderick who are a band we love very much here at Bella Union...we love you!


Hope you enjoy,

Simon x

Pat Nevin talks to me, & Ashley Cole's wife

i really dont know what all the fuss is about...for those of you from lands afar here it is in a nutshell.. cheryl cole is a judge on X Factor ( a rather popular talent show here in blighty ) and yet she is also a member of the all-girl pop band Girls Aloud. Add the fact that she's married to the odious Ashley Cole ( a premiership footballer ) and there you have it. The apparent fuss is this; all the wannabe winners of X Factor, have to sing live in front of the studio audience and to the millions watching, and this week Cheryl is on the show as a SINGER herself performing her SOLO single and she refuses to sing live. 'Hypocrite' they shout. Fact is Cheryl cant really sing, and i dont want to hear her sing out of tune and then get all wobbly and pull scared-face and look at Simon Cowell and start crying and run off stage, do i? Oh. Yes actually i do want that.

i havent watched any of this X factor series, cos i am very busy on Saturday nights with personal grooming, building a ship in the garden, and quilting. So i am a bit out of touch with who is who, NO i tell i lie i saw that excitable Danyl chap in one of the first live auditions as i walked through the front room with some grey ship paint. Couldnt stand his face or his voice, and havent returned since. But watching lovely Cheryl muff it all up might be worth a brief glance. Then she'll know how Ashley Cole feels every time he plays for England..

Anyhow, it's Fryday which means i have a fry-up for breakfast. Saturday means i sit about alot and sunday doesnt mean anything (unless youre religious of course). Sunday means going up to Manchester for In The City where i am doing a keynote speech which sounds a lot posher than i think it will be. I am going to chat with my old chum Pat Nevin who used to play for Chelsea and Everton. As a Spurs fan i suppose i will have to explain how i managed to put on a chelsea training kit and went out to train with the first team once. It was hard. Honest. I had an asthma attack actually. And when i say it was hard, i dont mean physically, i just mean mentally.. anyhow, thats what i am doing this weekend. I hope you all have a lovely rest, and for those of you working i hope you get home in time for House on Sunday. x

ps my original title for this was 'Cheryl Cole', but my learned friend at Wichita convinced me that i was shamelessly headline-seeking to get people to my blog so i changed it.. ; )

Lovely Bones with lovely music by lovely me...

well of course not JUST me. this is 'Alice' by Cocteau Twins (my old band) i cant get my voice up that high. but hey check out the piano! it starts playing on this trailer at about 0:54
and heck, the movie this looks so cool.

the chorizo sausage

my girlfriend doesnt like sausages. says it feels like your chewing cartilage. i guess she has a point, but when youre chewing cartilage thats SPICY, it's G-R-E-A-T!

which leads me on to Mexican food. Not TEXMEX but Mexican food.

why arent there hardly any decent mexican restaurants in London? Dont tell me there are cos where i live there arent. and in shoreditch where i work there isnt. (is there?)

i found one nice cheap one but its in Westfield, that big, shiny, new world near Shepherds Bush and i dont live anywhere near there.

i started eating breakfast in the Diner in shoreditch cos it has amazing mexican breakfasts and free wi-fi and decent coffee. sometimes i sit here with my headphones on from 10am till 3pm while having my meetings its THAT nice! If i could get my mail delivered here, I'd stay here longer.

Yesterday on the way home i found a place that had all the original Moomin books. i bought them. There is a museum of moomins in tampere in finland you know.

i think i will find a reason to go to tampere one day.

talking of moomins, i used to love listening to the voice of Peter Jones the football commentator, so evocative. he died a while back but if you like his voice you can hear it again here

http://download.guardian.co.uk/sys-video/Media/video/2007/01/19/PeterJones.mpg

went to see District 9 last night with my sons.

quite a brilliant film. The alien "prawns" are so fabulously dirty and cool. i love them! how do they do that shit? i know it has to be computers, but jeez..how?

and what a brilliant idea giving the brainy alien the name 'Christopher Johnson'.

the other thing that keeps me awake at night is that commercial where the dude is in his garage with pingpong balls and he bounces them on the floor and they all land in different - sized recepticles. he does it really quickly and doesnt miss and there are no edits and i am 99.9% convinced it's real and that he's a genius but stephanie tells me its all done with computers and that it'd be impossible to do. is she right?

i WANT to believe shit like that. tell me it's real. lie to me if you have to.

My mum doesnt like hugh laurie. so she cant watch House. she really is missing out. It's the one show i cannot miss. Well that and Flog It. I dont always watch flog it when it's on. my girlfriend and i just look up when the weird folks come on pretending they're interested in the history of their shit-encrusted teacup when all they want to know is HOW MUCH? we love that bit and then watching the lovely but ever-so-camp Paul Martin tell them he's sure it's going to be a big earner just one minute before it doesnt even make the reserve price.

i bought a fabulous old record player recently off ebay for 10 quid which has changed my life. its one of those all-in-one affairs where its a square-ish box and the speaker's in the front and you lift the lid up and its all cream plasticy..takes up no room and sounds amazing. to be able to buy vinyl again is intense, and to play all my old records feels like i have just unlocked all my teen memories again.

to get the new Midlake album made on vinyl is going to be wonderful, as it already sounds like a classic 'album' in that way that records just did back then.

was getting all excited about going to see Spurs playing again this weekend after all these hideous internationals but just realised it's away at Portsmouth and i am rapidly tiring of trying to spend saturday afternoons on the internet searching for a stream of the spurs away games that actually work.

see if Peter Jones was still alive i'd be listening to the radio. I dont like alan green's voice at all. Or his opinions.

i am sure he likes my opinions though! i've got loads.

wanna hear some?

ok

"Chorizo should replace the british 'banger'."

there's one.

"Andrei Tarkovsky could not have known that the District Attourney of Syracuse iss also called Andrew Tarkowski".

there's another.

Here's another opinion of mine.

"Richard Nixon was even more of a slimy creep than you knew". Yes. Did you know he had his chief scriptwriter william safire write a speech for him in case the apollo 11 astronauts never made it home. "These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice".

Not cool Dick. Not cool at all.

'i think Wikus from District 9 looks like a south african steve carrell'.

thats my final opinion of the day.

off to slay some trolls now.

the older i get

the older i get the younger i feel.

probably this is a temporary chemical imbalance. when i see 43yr old women wearing the same clothes their 11 year olds are wearing i think 'no.wrong'.

i 'feel' young but i have no desire to wear jeans that dont cover the top of my bottom, or have trainers that smell, nor do i wish to walk with that fake kind of limp to look 'ard., though i do like to sit at the back of the bus, cos there is one seat with more legroom there..

with my shaved head i already look 'ard so i am covered there.

today i bought the jah wobble book. he is an adorable man who i go to football with when i can, and i am looking forward to reading all about the stuff i dont know about him.

made some good plans for the kissaway trail and had an idea about sending some Lawrence Arabia tunage to The Inbetweeners show on Channel 4. Wrote to the producer of The Danish Girl, a film directed by Tomas Alfredson (Let The Right One In) about some ideas i had re the music. I cant stop thinking about that let the right one in film. so poetic and makes twilight and new moon seem all a bit silly.

just saw the trailer for Lovely Bones, the new Peter Jackson movie, and heard the song 'Alice' i co-wrote which was quite a buzz, cos it's a film i think does actually look rather good. Unlike Judge Dredd which we also wrote a song for once! i might not have mentioned that once upon a time, but hey...who's to know what's gonna be good and what isnt? Right?

i put on a new shirt today and thought i looked rather sharp. thats not something i feel very often so i might go and buy another couple the same.

got asked to dj at swn festival today which i am looking forward to, though the last time i dj-ed wasnt memorable. it was in Paris a couple of years ago and first a young girl kept coming up and saying 'house music, house music' to which i just shrugged and shook my head as if to say ' go away youre mental, i am playing a certain ratio, cabaret voltaire, wire, the slits, and no of course i dont have any house records do i!' and then a long-haired, clearly very drunk middle aged man, older than i, came up and said ' pink floyd?' i smiled and shook my head as if to say 'sorry, not a million miles away but sorry i dont have any'. when he kept on repeating 'pink floyd, pink floyd' after every song i played my smile started to wan. an hour later when he stumbled more aggressively over towards me about to undoubtedly ask for 'pink floyd', i beckoned him to the side of the turntables and he put his ear next to my mouth so he could hear me over the strains of miles davis' 'bitches brew' and i shouted ' I DONT HAVE ANY PINK FLOYD. NONE NOT ONE SONG, NO DAVID GILMOUR OR SYD BARRETT, NO PINK FLOYD AT ALL!' He moved back away from me and looked very annoyed and stared at me throughout the rest of miles davis and then as it finished he returned to the desk. " Led Zepelin " he shouted.

god. so moral being, if you see a shaven headed man in cardiff this weekend dj-ing in a club, dont ask for anything cos chances are i wont have it. you'll get what i play and you'll be very happy and if youre not, then call your mum. it feels like friday today.

just saw peter capaldi walking down the street. least i think it was him. legend.