Monthly Archives: November 2016

11.09.16
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Curse Of Lono – Saturday Night

On balance, it was probably a good thing that the gig I was due to go to on Monday night was cancelled. It’s been a hectic sort of non-stop week, one in which sleep has been at a premium, so another late night watching headliners, Uncle Lucius, and support, Curse Of Lono, might have been pushing these weary bones too far. 

But, there’s no getting away from the disappointment. I was sent a promo copy of the Curse Of Lono EP, Saturday Night, a couple of weeks ago and the four tunes on it have rapidly become favourites when driving in my car. On a recent trip to Liverpool, I listened over and over again to this distinct mix of Americana, siphoned through a seedy London backstreet. Passengers in the car chuckled over the perversities voiced within the title track whilst I was drawn to the skewed sadness and sentiment of ‘He Takes My Place’.

I had some vague knowledge of Hey Negrita, the previous band that the founder of Curse Of Lono, Felix Bechtolsheimer, had spent years being involved with. Back in the day, before I wrote about music, I’d seen them at festivals and gigs. At De Montfort Hall and The Big Session Festival, I’d watched them perform before heading back to the beer tent and nearly missing my own compere duties.

Here was a blog post waiting to happen.

But I held back a bit. I was aware that each of the EP tracks were also being used within a short, accompanying film. The trailer for ‘Saturday Night’, directed by Alex Walker, looked gripping. Cinematic, dramatic and loaded with debauched crime, the indications were that this was going to be a fine vehicle to elevate already great songs to another level.

On staggered release across some fine blogs, each of the videos have now been uploaded to Youtube. Watch carefully and visual clues help you to follow the ongoing plot. Despite the lack of dialogue, you can follow the characters through to a satisfying denouement in the final video. The path mightn’t be linear and the story not always obvious but, for me, that sense of crippling confusion and slow-motion thoughtfulness makes the music crisper.

It’s a bold statement doing things this way. There are no half measures here. Pull up a chair, sit back and open the popcorn. 

I’m sure that, after watching this, you’ll be like me in checking future Curse Of Lono tour dates and desperately hoping they reschedule that gig. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11.07.16
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Wakey Wakey – Lean On

It was a second date. We’d got on well enough during the first and I’d even made rash predictions to friends that this could be ‘the one’. 

We’d talked lots about music as we drank and ate curry. She was obsessed with Morrissey and hilariously tried to justify his more outlandish views as she gingerly cut her Chicken Jalfrezi. It was in the days before I wrote about music. “People who write about music are wankers”, I declared in between bites of Biryani.

We agreed that the next time we met we’d take in a gig. We wouldn’t plan it. This was a city that had fine gigs on every night of the week and we’d go and see something random, something that neither of us knew much about.

That was how I found myself first watching Wakey! Wakey!. I don’t recall much about the gig itself except that it was surprisingly busy with people singing along to every word of every song. At the bar somebody told me that Wakey! Wakey! was essentially the work of Michael Grubbs and that he’d found fame by contributing music and acting skills to One Tree Hill. I was none the wiser.

I took no notes. I didn’t write about music then. I didn’t have to. We dated a few times more but drifted apart as the nights became longer.

 

Fast forward to today and I’m listening to a song that’s been sent my way by a PR company. It’s a cover of ‘Lean On’ by Major Lazer and it’s by Brooklyn’s Wakey Wakey. I smile to myself as I recall how our paths crossed once before. It’s a smile that turns into a beam when I realise just how odd this is. I’m out of the loop with mega-hits (and I’m sure that the original version of ‘Lean On’ was a mega-hit) and so I have nothing to compare this Wakey Wakey version to. Here’s a man I know a little about covering a song I know nothing about. And I’m sure that this isn’t meant to be my listening experience.

I’m supposed to be marvelling at the creative way that Grubbs has taken a pumped-up dance track and made it his own. I’m supposed to note the creative brilliance that has transcribed a synth line in the original into an emotive sounding violin line. But I don’t get these things because my knowledge isn’t up to scratch. I’m reminded again that there’s something quite lovely about not knowing things because that’s the path towards discovery.

For what it’s worth, I do think that Wakey Wakey’s version has more emotional appeal. It stands up to scrutiny and it’s definitely the sort of tune to listen to on a second date.

But what do I know? 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

11.06.16
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The Watanabes – Over Romantic

“There’s no point looking back when it’s an insult to the present. There’s no point looking front when it might never happen.” – The Watanabes – An Insult To The Present – Spoiled And Nostalgic EP – November 2016.

When I started Sonic Breakfast, I had no ambitious, blogging master plan. I never thought that I might travel the world on money made from it, get rich quickly or live happily after. 

I’ve not been disappointed.

But, undeniably, unearthing new acts to write about has given me many pleasurable moments; e-mails of thanks received from bands living all around the world who I might have stumbled across in late-night listening sessions and simply had to feature.

That was definitely the case with The Watanabes. I can’t quite recall when I first saw the video to ‘Yuriko Yuriko’ but I knew I had to write about it (here). I remember how exciting it was that other readers of Sonic Breakfast seemed to agree that this was something special. 

Last week, a new E-mail from Duncan (of The Watanabes) popped into my mailbox. He has a generous writing style and is clearly a very decent human being. I was pleased to discover that The Watanabes are releasing a new EP, Spoiled And Nostalgic, at the end of November. I was even happier to discover that the lead single from it, Over Romantic, is already in circulation and has a video to go alongside it. 

This is a band that can do no wrong in my eyes. Or at least, the only wrong that they can do is to wear their hearts a bit too much on their sleeves and possibly over-complicate their romantic liaisons. And that’s OK in my book. From the opening acoustic flourish that leads into the confession that ‘I’ve got myself into a bit of a fix‘, this is a tune that draws you in and then holds your interest as it builds and builds. It has a beautiful, forlorn resignation within, a positive kind of melancholia and a video that I can’t help but keep watching on repeat.

The other three tracks from the EP grow on you in similar ways. In my favourite, ‘An Insult To The Present’, we find The Watanabes in reminiscent mood, thinking back to days gone by and wondering if the dreams of those times have been achieved. They conclude in the only way possible to live for the moment.

I think Sonic Breakfast readers will like this.