Frightened Rabbit - Academy Birmingham

Up to Brum with the Lad and his lady, sadly without IDS again despite this being a gig for one of his favs – Frightened Rabbit. Once again lined up in a tiny queue for our show this time next to a humungous line for Dave Matthews – pretty sure we made the right choice

An early show and so we weren’t expecting a second support, tonight in the shape of local Brummie band Goodnight Lenin. Despite being shamefully young ,the band knocked out some good stuff and got the crowd rolling along. In the mould of the current Mumford & Sons, Stornoway, stylee - they were rightly very well received put out some jolly banter good banter and would be well worth a second visit to one of their own shows – details on the Myspace site of course.

The publicised support Airship have been on my radar for a while and this was the second time of trying to see them. They were the first support for the Death Cab gig in Bristol last year, but who we missed by arriving too late. Their EP, Spirit of the Beehive, has a strong set of songs, but on the night they had a slightly distracted mein, and were woefully let down by the sound, particularly in the vocal department, overall sounding way to bass heavy and muddy. A disappointment but still worth trying a again – they are out on the road again with the wonderful Joy Formidable

Frabbit were also support for the aforementioned Bristol Death cab gig and so a headline show was much anticipated. Their sound was better but still too visceral in the bass area with a loss of treble and consequently much of the detail of the songs. None the less they delivered a good mix of new and older songs – interestingly some of the newer songs that felt least good on cd come over strongly live. So an enjoyable gig but not quite as great as I had hoped for due in the main part because of the rotten sound quality – why can’t sound engineers give as much attention to the top of the range as they do to the bass...sigh

Frightened Rabbit – The Winter of Mixed Drinks

The follow up to Frightened Rabbits The Midnight Organ Fight was going to be difficult with it its near cult status in some quarters, going down especially well in the US. Equally since MOF there have been numerous other Caledonian bands achieving success, Twilight Sad, There Will be Fireworks, We Were Promised Jetpacks to name but three, and maybe the thrill of the Scots approach might have palled.

Maybe it was because it came along with a clutch of other new cd’s but Mixed Drinks didn’t make the instant connection that MOF did for me, a couple of plays and I felt vaguely disappointed. But with a show on the horizon I felt compelled to give it more time, and thank goodness I did. This is a fine piece of work, retaining the Frabbit feel and character, but with perhaps more finely judged songs. True the bitterness of a failed relationship has been softened and with it some of the raw edge to some tracks. But overall this set works well together – Things is a great opener and what I think was the ‘single’ Swim Until You Can’t See Land drives along in a similar vein.

The sound-scape has broadened, more instruments but without cluttering the sounds. You can hear this as a live set, and there are enough crowd-pleasing chant opportunities to go around. Having only seen them once in support of Death Cab, a full headline show should be a thing of joy. So Mixed Drinks is a resounding success despite my initial misgivings, well done them

The Twilight Sad - Forget the Night Ahead

The second full length offering from the Twilight Sad sees them, if anything, darker and more unsettled than on Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters or the intervening EP's. Titles like I Became a Prostitute, The Neighbours Can't Breathe are testament to that. So too are the snatched lyrics - 'There's people downstairs', 'You're the bearer of a womb without love', ' They put up no fight.. we'll bury them all' - all lay down an underpinning but still opaque sense of threat and foreboding.

All sounds pretty gloomy stuff but there is something I can't stop listening to here. James Graham's vocals are in a heavy Glaswegian brogue that adds an urgency and directness to the already oddly threatening lyrics, Andy MacFarlanes sundry noises, accordion and signature guitar sound (reminiscent of the Kitchens of Distinction sound) are under scored by the bass lines and squelchy drum sounds from Craig Orzel and Mark Devine. Given the uncompromisingly miserabilist lyrics you do feel that a night out with Mr Graham might be quite a depressing affair.

Although so far it seems to be the early tracks of the album that have burned their way into the memory - especially I Became a Prostitute and Seven Years of Letters, I am sure that the later tracks will inveigle their way in, perhaps That Birthday Present for example (that really does sound like a very grumpy and miserable Kitchens of Distinction somehow)

Well really surely the clutch of Scottish bands must be complete now? Twilight Sad, Frightened Rabbit, We Were Promised Jetpacks and There Will be Fireworks - to a man all with enigmatic band names. Worth a mention too that on the day of this new Twilight Sad album comes the official release of those other Scottish heroes Idlewild's latest and self released album, Post Electric Blues

Twilight Sad website

Twilight Sad Myspace

Idlewild website

Idelwild Myspace

Kitchens of Distinction Myspace

Stephen Hero/Kitchens of Distinction website

We Were Promised Jetpacks - These Four Walls

Another rather late set of comments on this Scottish bunch of lads. The debut album, out on Brighton based Fat Cat Records has been with me a while and has earned a nice little warm corner in my heart.

I think that rather strangely I first heard them via the KEXP posts from Seattle when DJ Shannon got onto them on a trip to the UK. Nothing was available for some time unless you managed to get to one of their gigs, usually north of the border. But the album is now here and well worth geting hold of.

They sit in that clutch of new Scottish bands that includes Frightened Rabbit, Twilight Sad as well as There Will Be Fireworks (of whom more later when their debut hits the mat). In addition to the always alluring Caledonian-ness of the band they have that wonderful energy and immediacy that often gets lost with the passing years. But right now the chaps are young and eager and Adam Thompsons vocals are full throated and uninhibited, in the sort of way that, for example, flamenco singers really let rip, and even if the notes are sometimes not quite nailed, that isn't the point, the point is in the delivery and the gusto behind it.

That said, alongside full ahead stuff like Quiet Little Voices and Ships With Holes Will Sink, there are other sides to the Jetpacks like Conductor and This is My House, This is My Home which is both quieter and stranger.

The chaps are out on tour later this year in the UK (over the summer in the US alongside Frightened Rabbit), and I shall be trekking along tothe dubious delights of The Cooler in Bristol to experience them live and firsthand.

Fat Cat Records website

We Were Promised Jetpacks Myspace

Frightened Rabbit Myspace

Twilight Sad Myspace

There WillBe Fireworks Myspace

Photo credit: Neil Thomas Douglas

DCFC & FRabbit

The Death Cab gig earlier this year in Birmingham had rather left me wondering whether it was wise to see them again quite so soon. But despite the slightly downbeat aspect of a Sunday gig, the disappointment of Brum was forgiven and forgotten.

Having had the time to get to know the Midnight Organ Fight CD from Frightened Rabbit (or Frabbit as it was described on the back of their keyboards) only helped the enjoyment of their solid and energetic opening set. They really do have some fine songs - Modern Leper, Good Arms vs Bad and Keep Yourself Warm being particular favourites.

Rather pleasingly the sense of being recorded in their back room that comes through their CD, was also somehow echoed in the set. They were absolutely together and tight but also managed to sound loose (if that makes any sense). Scott Hutchinson's vocals manage to keep on track despite ocassionally veering to one side or other - all in an endering sort of way, and brother Grant's drumming crashed and walloped away, driving the whole affair along at a good lick. All in all a thoroughly satisfying set and a band with passsion and intelligence. Young Mr Guest would have enjoyed this a lot methinks...

And so to DCFC - well unlike the Brum gig we had a pretty damned good spot three of four people from the front with blessedly short people in front. Opening with a four number chunk, the set fairly sparked along, almost as if they had a train to catch. Again like the Brum gig there was a good mix of new stuff from Narrow Stairs ( a strange combination of some right good tracks and some frankly rather half-arsed numbers), Plans, Transatlantacism and before.

They were right on the money all night, pinpoint sharp; Ben Gibbard in fine vocal form, Nick Harmer putting out some great guitar, Chris Walla with some gut wrenching bass and Jason McGerr as ever rock solid on the drums. For the third time recently a band commented on how attentive a Bristol crowd is - not unenthusiastic or unappreciative but just prepared to listen. Is this a typically Bristolian trait or does it happen elsewhere (certainly not in Wales from my experience...)

All the crowd pleasers were there including a titanic version of I Will Possess Your Heart, a very personal fav, Brothers on Hotel Bed, and a majestic and massive Transatlanticism itself. A great gig (redeeming DCFC in my eyes from a slightly dodgy earlier experience), great support, and a great view (for a change). Hussar!!

Apologies for the rubbish phone cam shots

Frightened Rabbit

A friend of the lad flagged up that the support for the Death Cab gig at the weekened will be Frightened Rabbit.

Although the name ran a bell I know little about them, but a little scratching around suggests that they should be a great, unexpected bonus. Part of that Scotish folk/rock/indie thing that I find so appealing, even a quick listen on MySpace shows that their songs are beautifully constructed , sung with passion and emotion. Excellent tunes combined with strong lyrics and delivered in the Scottish brogue a la Idlewild, James Yorkston, King Creosote vein; sounds like they might become firm favourites