Cougar Microbes

You know that thing when you hear a song on TV or film and you think: ‘Fuck that sounds good‘! Then you go out and buy it and it sounds like a goose farting in the fog?

This isn’t one of them. It happens to me frequently, but I can safely say with or without the effective medium of moving image, Deaf Club‘s ‘Lull EP‘ sounds as epic and evocative by itself, even without gaping landscapes or raucous lovemaking.

‘Forest/Shore‘, although clearly lending itself to images of forests and shores, takes you to the peak of emotion through it’s subtle use of Sigur Ros style guitar and Foals off-high-hat energies.

‘Hana‘ is as apocalyptic as it is a dramatic dawn, it’s rimshots like a tribal dance to a sparse use of bass and relentless twinkling guitar.

‘It, She‘ darkens the mood slightly to a hypnotic drone, reminiscant of Joy Division’s ‘Transmission‘ before a more melodic and couragous chorus kicks in, and the fantastic backing vocals scream from a distant continant.

With or without a David Attenborough TV advert for awesome wildlife, ‘Lull EP‘ will shake your booty whilst you either ball into your jack and coke in ecstasy or give you the unshakable urge to make passionate sexy time to whoever is shaking their fist in the air like a lunatic too.

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Post by TR Wicks

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TRACKS:
Deaf Club – Hana

Deaf Club – “Forest/Shore”

Having featured their video for ‘Music Is Dead‘ back in May we caught up with The Computer‘s Aidan to disucss ping pong championships, gigs in his mother’s bedroom and telling Ian Curtis to chill out.

It went a little something like this:

Cougar Microbes: What time did you wake up today? Was it out of choice or necessity?

Aidan Computers: Today I woke up at 9:30am, I was on a friend’s couch – not really through choice. One of those mornings when the sunlight shines through a crack in the curtain, right on the face, well annoying.

CM: Describe The Computers to the uninitiated?

Aidan: garage-soul-punk n roll

CM: How have you been killing time on the road when on the road, any hobbies?

Aidan: Well not a lot of people know this but we are not only a rock’n'roll band, we are also a very succesfull ping pong team. We represented Exeter in the Devon Nationals and came first. So to stay that good, any free time we get we set up our travelling ping pong table and practice. Sometimes we put our bats down to make a sandwich, drink, smoke and catch up on the latest tweets.

CM: What have been your favourite venues to play? Any Venues you hated?

Aidan: A really good venue is the Cluny in Newcastle, a really bad venue was my Mum’s bedroom, she can’t do sound very well and the lighting was terrible.

CM: Is there a song you are getting sick of playing?

Aidan:  There’s no songs we are sick of playing but there are songs we don’t play sometimes just to keep the set fresh.

CM: What is the songwriting process like for The Computers.  you able to write on the road or do you do this in your off time?

Aidan: We rarely write on the road. Screaming Al has always got something going through his head and when we get home me and him will start jamming out his idea, then over a few more practices the song will form naturally. Then a few tweaks here and there and….. voila, a song.

CM: Favourite The Computers track and why?

Aidan: I personaly like playing ‘Group Identity’, It’s got a good sweaty groove. I also love ‘Teenage Tourettes Camp‘. It sounds like the music I like to listen to, which is the point I guess.

CM: If you could record any cover what would it be?

Aidan: AHHH We’ve covered loads of songs. Elvis‘ ‘Burning Love‘ and ‘Train In Vain‘ by The Clash are both b-sides to our last two singles. We have also covered  ’Rebel Girl‘ by Bikini Kill, ‘Welcome To The Working Week‘ by the other king Costello. And there’s plenty more where they came from. I suppose if i had to cover one song I reckon we could do a great version of ‘I Want To Break Free‘ by Queen. It’s got some great parts and recreating that video would be fun.

CM: Do your songs go through many revisions via demo recordings?

Aidan: Yeah, there’s always plenty of fine tuning before we lay down a demo. And sometimes we change things after hearing it back, that’s the idea of demoing, bloody fun aswell.

CM: What came first, the lyrics or the melody?

Aidan: It varies, I think… its words first, then chords and melody. Or maybe melody and words then chords, I dont know you’d have to ask the Screamer. I just handle the beat.

CM: What are your views on auto tune?

Aidan: Don’t do it. Unless you want to sound like Sesame Street songs. Dont do it. What the fuck is Ke$ha all about? it’s awful, truly awful. I don’t care how many of your girls it gets on the dance floor shaking their thang, it sounds dreadful. Dont do it!

CM: Any other band/bands from your local scene we really should know about?

Aidan: Royals are the newest cats from our parts, they are very cool. They have badges and patches available and a recording coming soon (probably).

CM: Most flattering thing you’ve read about yourselves?

Aidan:  Nothing stands out. It’s always good to read a good review (of which there are many) where people have really understood our band and our sound. A swami in San Diego once said we were cool dudes, and he’s a swami, they are never wrong. That felt good.

CM: What was the first record/tape/cd you ever bought?

Aidan:  I think the first tape I ever bought with my own money was  ’Save Tonight‘ by Eagle Eye Cherry. Or it could have been the first Spice Girls album. No it wasn’t I’ve just remembered…it was the Grease soundtrack, that makes more sense, yeah me loves the quiffs.

CM: What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

Aidan: WELL  I saw Morrissey last night and I had ‘There Is A Light That Never Goes Out‘ stuck in my head all day. It’s been a good day.

CM: What was the last show you paid and queued up for?

Aidan: Morrissey last night, it was brilliant. A real master at work. I have so much love and respect for that man. Great show.

CM: If you had to bring on artist back from the dead in exchange for sending a living artist down ,which artists would it be and why??

Aidan: I’m not a massive Joy Division fan but if i could bring someone back it would be Ian Curtis. Just to say “listen mate, chill out. turns out people quite like what you’re doing so just keep doing it, things will get better” and I reckon a second album after touring America, could have sounded really good.

If I could get rid of someone I guess Ke$ha could go. There’s no need for her in the music world. I dont think her fans would notice either. Just cover Ian in a load of glitter and give him some cowboy boots and tell them everyone’s doing that dance in the  LA clubs, its awsome man. They would love it.

The album ‘This Is The Computers‘ is out now on One Little Indian

TRACKS:

You don’t have to be a forty year old at their own over blown Birthday party, drunk on gin to sob ‘This song was written all about me!‘

Some songs can just do that to you. The lyrics can echo your own glory or misery and the chord progressions can conjure up those images of the suburban ‘The Wonder Years‘ style Super-8 home movies (If a little gnarlier and less cupcake) or of your first shag in the bushes with the girl who knew some pretty perverted stuff for her age. Or something.

The song I am referring to is ‘Beavis‘, off Boolfight‘s latest effort ‘Multiple Devils‘.

‘Multiple Devils‘ is atmospheric and charming, and turns my listening to it on a warm, picturesque day, lieing in long grass into a hazy and apocolyptic grim fairy tale.

Boolfight‘s mix electro with Smith‘s style rock to perfection. They drop angular guitars and modern synths in the pot, to add to the potency of Kelvin Manu‘s inner monologue of human psychology and a head full of…Well multiple devils. “Behind my eyes, they dance” he dreads.

He has the demeanor of Morrisey with the imagination and manic ravings of Ian Curtis, his mourneful vocals are an authorititive whisper until they can’t take the inner turmoil anymore and wails chorus’ like ‘Knock yourself out, you can switch to the override mode‘ from ‘Override‘.

Manu‘s vocals are perfectly entwined in the mix, encouraging the listener to really pick out the writings of this trio of talented artists.

What’s great about this album is that it could see 50 percent slotted neatly in an 80′s John Carpenter movie but evokes an ear for more modern sounds with the remaining percent that could see it opening a modern indie movie with hip-kids and lots of ‘pondering scenes‘ over night landscapes. I mean this of course, in the best way possible, this album has alot to it not least the optmistic M83-like opener ‘Oh Forget It‘, before we tumble into Boolfight’s eerie and beautfiul world.

Clocking in at a modest 20 odd minutes, the EP closes with the beautifully surreal ‘Everybody Makes The Music‘ summing up what is a fascinating effort that makes an enjoyable task of trying to describe it with phrases like inaccessibly beautiful.

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Post by T.R. Wicks

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TRACKS:

At the tail end of last month I was lucky enough to witness self-described ‘ambient punk‘ band Deerhunter performing live at Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Famous for its use of eclectic genres vacillating between shoegaze, psych-pop, post punk, ‘ambient punk’ is definitely the best way to categorise the band. Indeed, the atmosphere that they create live is exceptional, close to a ‘religious experience’ as Yeah Yeah Yeahs‘ Karen O once stated.

Seeing them live, the first words that came to my mind were eerie, magical, hypnotic, to the point where the enthusiastic crowd seems to gently turn into a trance. Furthermore, Deerhunter is unquestionably punk, with the rawness of their guitars and frontman Bradford Cox‘s pale and scrawny figure that vaguely resembles a young Thurston Moore.

Founded in 2001, the four-piece is well established as one of today’s leading indie bands, but what distinguishes them from others is their unique style and singular use of pain as the essence to their music. Having suffered the loss of a member in 2001 and with Cox‘s illness, Deerhunter is one those bands that manages to turn negative experiences and emotions, into lyrical, powerful and endearing music without ever becoming melodramatic.

The band mostly performed songs from their three biggest albums, ‘Microcastle‘, ‘Cryptograms‘ and the more recent ‘Halcyon Digest‘. The show began with the sorcerous ‘60 Cycle Hum‘ where the guitars slightly resembles those of Joy Division‘s ‘Transmission‘. To the great pleasure of the audience, the band then followed with ‘Desire Lines‘, surely one of their biggest hit, which definitely made us want to “come with [them], far away, everyday”. A few songs later, the band performed a prodigious version of ‘The Light Pours Out of Me‘ by British post-punk band Magazine, confirming where their roots lie.

The most striking aspect of the concert was probably the undeniable mastering of rhythm the members displayed. Seeing Deerhunter live means rediscovering classic songs such as ‘Agoraphobia‘, ‘Helicopter‘ or ‘Fluorescent Grey‘ with a different ear. A personal highlight was when they performed an absolutely breathtaking rendition of Patti Smith‘s ‘Horses‘, probably one of the most powerful and complex songs ever made. These guys absolutely mastered this iconic song and I was extremely pleased to find that same tense anxiety that is present in the original version.

By the end of the show, the crowd had been pummelled into submission. It seems that whatever Bradford Cox creates, he succeeds. His solo project as Atlas Sound is a masterpiece of both delicacy and ingeniosity. The man is from a different planet, with its own sounds, own rhythms, own rules and own feelings/ Every new album makes us leap a little bit more into this magical and bewitching world.

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Post by Olivia

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TRACKS:

With the accessibility of music today, hearing bands and their influences through their music is inevitable and unsurprising. Unfortunately, for every appealing mockery you get 3,000 rip-offs. Robbers On High Street aping Spoon comes to mind and, of course, the popular rip-off artist of the moment Owl City, who practically admitted to copying The Postal Service sound.

Occasionally there are the rare examples where you say to yourself, “Wow, this sounds exactly like , <insert popular, genre defining band> but it’s still great!” and that’s just it; an act can tastefully wear their influences on their sleeves without sounding talentless.

For example, without Joy Division‘s moody, melancholic expression there would be no Interpol. The Brothers Wilson paved the way for the Fleet Foxes with their intricate and lush harmonies. Regardless of how ridiculous it may seem for preppy, educated white kids to dabble in world and afrobeat rhythms, the Talking Heads beat Vampire Weekend to the punch by over 30 years.

Although on a much smaller scale, Daddy Lion fall into the latter category. The unsigned band from Washington D.C sound like all of their influences (listed on their myspace) and they’re all the better for it. A hint of Joy Division can be heard on ‘Falling to Pieces‘, Hüsker Dü can be heard on ‘Just Die Young‘ and ‘Morning‘ could easily be a Dinosaur Jr. B-side slow burner.

According to NPR, it’s a bedroom breakup album by a semi-stalker using the name “Daddy Lion” as a pseudonym… you know… a typical stalker move. But stalker or not, his varying display of songs make for a good listen, and even though it’s a “break-up” album it doesn’t bog down with sadness.

Although they only have a 6-song EP to their credit, they cover a lot of ground in those precious 19 minutes, mining the past 30 years of pop influences. My hope is that they hone in on a specific genre for their follow-up, or risk falling into that previously mentioned latter category.

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This post written by Adam, aka Simon & Cougarfunkel

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Tracks available from http://daddylion.bandcamp.com/

Up until a week ago my house was free from wailing spirits. Not so any more.

The Banshee‘s 80’s Britpop undertones are reminiscent of The Killers and Franz Ferdinand as well as the inevitable Joy Divison reference, their new single ‘Colder‘ is guaranteed to warm you up quickly. Matter of fact, the whole album will. The choruses lift and the verses, well… they keep lifting. These guys differentiate themselves with keyboard textures and effects augmented by soaring riffs and multiple layers of angular sound. They clearly like their 16-beats with a disco hi-hat, and the tracks – although carefully produced – retain a rawness that conveys the band’s energy.

But it’s for better or for worse,that the album never lets up. It feels like a rollercoaster ride without the uphill parts – it’s fast and furious all the way through. By keeping energy levels up and a constant sharpness throughout, there’s not much time to breathe and savour the anticipation of the next rush.

Don’t get me wrong, the good songs are very good indeed. Tremendous choruses, such as the skilled build-up in ‘Kicks Up‘, and ‘People Around’, with it’s deliciously soothing verses that burst into a chant. ‘Cut Me Clear’with it’s guitar riff and disco-beat on the verses, is another one I liked,  and the aforementioned ’Colder‘ is simply a cracker.

These are clever tunes, and The Banshee certainly has potential for the Indie charts, and despite sounding more British than a bacon sarnie for breakfast, the quartet – believe it or not – are Italian. Their début album ‘Your Nice Habits‘ should be out anytime now, and it’s worth keeping an eye out for.

TRACKS:

The Banshee – Your Nice Habits

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Guest post by the mystical Dorian H.

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