JIM CARROLLon music
DADA TRASH COLLAGEObviously followers of the Animal Collective creed, Minneapolis duo Billy Freed and Richard Gill are daydream believers with a hankering for sunny, spacey psychedelic pop grooves. Check out current calling card, In Season, for more. myspace.com/ dadatrashcollage
BETTY & THE WEREWOLVES
Three girls and a boy from London and Cambridge ready to step into the arena with a debut album Teatime Favouritesfor Damaged Goods full of howling pop tunes, scruffy punk guitars and bittersweet melodies. myspace.com/betty andthe werewolves
PURE ECSTASY
Music for that early-morning comedown, Nate Grace and his Austin, Texas friends are top of the class when it comes to crafting woozy, ghostly, alien tunes. Both Easy and Voices, for instance, are perfect examples of the Pure Ecstasy trip.
myspace.com/gracenate
Monarchy Love Get out of My Way (Holy Ghost! remix) This is what you call a remix. Holy Ghost! recast Monarchy’s new single as a discotastic walk on the wild side. You’ll feel like dancing.
Skibunny Walk Don’t Walk (Smalltown America) Taster for forthcoming debut album Hugs from Mark Gordon and Tanya Mellotte, long-standing Belfast indie DJs/producers/remixers turned ace electro-pop duo.
Josh Ritter The Curse (Independent) The standout track from the Idaho troubadour’s latest album So Runs the World now comes with a magical video from drummer and marionette puppeteer Liam Hurley.
Keith Jarrett/Charlie Haden Jasmine (ECM) In this recent Ticket CD of the Week, the great pianist and bassist produce peerless, delicate sounds for the small hours.
Beach House Teen Dreams (Bella Union) “Something that brings me back to the days of My Bloody Valentine and Cocteau Twins. A really well-constructed album”
– selected by R.S.A.G.
Thurston Moore once said that not breaking up was Sonic Youth’s “biggest career faux pas”.
Moore was probably joshing a little when he talked about reunions with Spin magazine back in 2007. “What would have happened if we did break up after Daydream Nation or even after Dirty and had gotten back together two years ago?” he mused. “We probably would have made so much money.” There’s a lot of truth to that throwaway comment, as the reunion bandwagon continues to roll. At last weekend’s Primavera festival in Barcelona, it was obvious that a lot of bands were enjoying a decent pay day by forgetting past differences and putting the show on the road again. Reunited acts on the bill included Pavement, Pixies, Orbital, Mission of Burma, Liquid Liquid, The Slits and Sunny Day Real Estate.
Arguments for and against reunions were there in abundance. Pavement’s temporary return to live action, a reunion that percussionist Bob Nastanovich says is partly to help him pay off gambling debts, has been the hit of the season, with the band performing arguably far better than they ever did the first time around.
It’s another matter, however, with Pixies, a band who have spent six years on the lucrative reunion trail and now resemble a karaoke act pretending to be the band they once were. The lack of any new material to date, bar a one-off single, may be a blessing in disguise.
But there’s little doubt why Pixies and everyone else are still on the bandwagon. When large cheques are dangled in front of you, it would be rude to say no. You can be sure that any band calling it a day any time soon will probably have the dates for the reunion tour already in mind.
