After several mentions on “the Independent Ethos” about the work of Reading, England’s Pete and the Pirates and progress on the band’s sophomore album (Pete and the Pirates release new single; Pete and the Pirates offer free mp3s), the album is complete and already streaming live in its entirety. You can hear all of One Thousand Pictures on NME.com.
The album will have its official release on May 24, and so far seems to lack US distribution, as Amazon.com lists it as an import (Support the Independent Ethos: buy the album on Amazon via this link). Too bad for Americans who will have to pay import prices on this album, as the band has long deserved more exposure. The band’s first album, Little Death (Support the Independent Ethos: buy the vinyl on Amazon via this link), came out in 2008. Since hearing, P&P’s first album, I always thought the group had the rough edge of Clap Your Hands Say Yeah blended with the brashness of Franz Ferdinand and the catchiness of both. Now, the band seems to be growing into its own sound.
Nearly three years after Little Death, the passage of time between the two album shows, as One Thousand Pictures reveals a more developed sound. They enlisted producer Brendan Lynch, who, according to the NME link above, has worked with Paul Weller, Primal Scream and Ocean Colour Scene. The result is a more bombastic, polished sound that also has the band diving into some heavy effects, adding a dynamism lacking from Little Death.
What does remain, however, is the band’s knack for crafting catchy, clever hooks. The band’s first official single from the album, “Come to the Bar” features a luscious, loud synth line, and “Winter 1,” which follows “Come to the Bar” on the album, bounces along on a rubbery bass hook filled with reverb. A savvy sense of the post-punk influence also shows in the final product, from a reference to Blondie in the lyrics of “Come to the Bar” (“1979 and ‘Heart of Glass’ is playing.”) to the amorphous shifts in tone of “Things That Go Bump” that recalls Magazine, which I wished lasted longer.
One Thousand Pictures is one of those rare albums by an English band deeply rooted in both the rebellion that spawned a characteristic sound out of the UK in the late seventies that also looks forward to the alternative rock sounds of today.
There is a limited edition vinyl version of the album, which you can purchase direct from the band’s UK-based record company, Stolen Recordings (Buy it here– they take Paypal, which makes it easy to US-based customers). But, as it sometimes plagues vinyl versions, the manufacturing of the record has been delayed, and no definitive ship date has been provided, as of the publication of this post.
Pete and the Pirates have already released three videos for songs on the new album. Most recently, they issued a call out for cat videos from fans to come up with the video for “United,” the most recent official video from the album (you can find the prior two videos for “Winter 1″ and “Come to the Bar” in the P&P links above on the Independent Ethos). Here’s the result of the cat video compilation, which seems to beg for the attention of those cat video lovers that prowl YouTube:
Finally, animals seem to be a recurring theme in P&Ps videos, as can be seen by the appearance of a chicken in this early video for “Mr. Understanding,” the catchy single off Little Death:
My Awesome Mix Disc Vol. III
August 3, 2010
Wait a minute? Isn’t it supposed to be Vol. II? Well, I did create that disc, but it wasn’t as cool as my more recently created Vol. III. And today, with the release of Arcade Fire’s The Suburbs, all songs on Volume III are now officially available.
I am a strong believer of balance on a mix tape/disc/playlist or what have you. You can’t just slap together the hippest or most popular tracks of the day and call that a mix. It has to have flow, and it’s not just in the songs you pick, but in how you arrange them. Another thing you have to account for is the technical sound quality when you are mixing tracks from an array of sources, across many years of mastering techniques. CDs have simply grown louder over the years.
That said here is the ideal track list for this compilation, which spans the late 60s to today:
Pete and the Pirates – Jennifer
Broken Social Scene – Texico Bitches
The Clean – Drawing to a Hole
Stereolab – Jenny Ondioline (single edit)
Radiohead – Bodysnatchers
Broadcast and the Focus Group – How Do You Get Along Sir?
Mercury Rev – Senses On Fire
Pulp – Like A Friend
Broadcast and the Focus Group – The Be Colony
The Jesus and Mary Chain (Featuring Hope Sandoval) – Sometimes Always
Serge Gainsbourg with Brigitte Bardot – Bonnie and Clyde
Portishead – The Rip
The National – Bloodbuzz Ohio
Charlotte Gainsbourg with Beck – Heaven Can Wait
Grizzly Bear – Fix It
Arcade Fire – Ready To Start
Fanfarlo – Luna
Trans Am – Television Eyes
Starflyer 59 – First Heart Attack (Old Album Version)
Stereolab – Narco Martenot
And here is where you can download it all.
Some thoughts on the song order:
When I started this mix, it sprang from where all my mixes come from: catchy songs. The first five tracks definitely fulfill that. But then something magical happened as I continued to arrange the songs. I slipped in a strange, angular piece from Broadcast and the Focus Group, only because of a brief musical bit that appears and slips away before you hardly notice. The din then gives way to the dreamy swell of Mercury Rev’s “Senses On Fire,” which really lifts the compilation to a more interesting realm of music.
Randomness does account for an important springboard to creativity, no matter what you are sculpting. When creating a mix, I begin with that, throwing certain songs I like into a folder and seeing how my computer arranges them. That was the starting point here, but I almost threw out the late sixties era track from Serge Gainsbourg with Brigitte Bardot, “Bonnie and Clyde” because the mix was so weak next to some tracks, it killed the flow, but it sounded just right behind the low 90s-mixed era song– another duet– this one from the Jesus and Mary Chain featuring Hope Sandoval, “Sometimes Always.” That song also appeared behind another Broadcast and the Focus Group track, this time with vocals, “The Be Colony,” which had an appropriate retro vibe and faded quite softly, though suddenly.
The Gainsbourg duet went on to inspire the inclusion of his daughter’s new song featuring Beck. So, indeed, there is a good mix of new songs in here too, some very buzzy like “Bloodbuzz Ohio” from the National and Arcade Fire’s “Ready To Start” (which sounds amazing in the context of their new album as well, as it swells out of the fade out from the opening title track). In this mix, Fanfarlo appears right after the Arcade Fire song because they definitely provided the cure for the three-year wait between Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible and the Suburbs. Then I also chose the obscure single “Fix It” from Grizzly Bear ‘s first full-length. I think in some ways it is a better song than what they have composed recently, some of which has been whored out to sell stuff on TV, including an original new song for Canada’s lottery.
The mix ends with the quiet noise of what sounds like an operating room that closes Starflyer 59′s “First Heart Attack (Old Album Version),” which suddenly cuts to the swooshing layers of more old school Stereolab on “Narco Martenot,” which seems to capture what it might sound like to slip away into the after world.
OK, so I’m proud of this mix, as I am most proud of the musicians who came up with this music, so download the tracks and follow the playlist order. Also, don’t hesitate to follow-up on the appropriate albums where some of these tracks came from. Finally, let me know if the track listing really flows or not.
