This time last year I was on a private Bahamian beach with Sky Ferreira next to me, watching Weezer playing Pinkerton. Right now, I am currently writing this at RAK studios, waiting for ASH to reveal new songs from the album they announced today (ASH WEDNESDAY!). So what I have come to understand is that February is the best. The last throes of winter, trying it’s damn best to make scarves a “thing” and the final days of being able to breath mist onto a bus window and draw a treasure map for passengers to follow. I like it. And when I hear a track that insta-recalls my ears back to Weezer, I tend to hang onto it for dear life. That’s where RECORD/START comes in.
“Rock From Afar” is a love song to the music you forgot you adored. There’s more than a little of Rivers Cuomo’s in this tape, but Record/Start adds unique UK sensibility that sets it apart from the American college college set. If I was going to pinpoint a direct influence, it would definitely be The Blue Album, with it’s effortlessly catchy nuances and an undying love for a chorus.
Recently I made a mental note to make an effort to release more music from UK bands. It wasn’t that I was neglecting the UK, I just thought I could do more to promote bands locally. “You can’t start a scene if you spread yourself too thin, Jed” I said to myself in the mirror. I had the best damn intentions, but then I heard JUDE and though they had American affectations to their accents I crossed my fingers that they weren’t from New York. I wanted this band to be from Scunthorpe. “Florida” I noted to myself, nodding slowly. “Close enough”.
Like most people, I hate Manchester United. They make it really easy to hate them. So it came as a complete shock to me how much I love a song about the former United player, Paul Tierney. I want to hate that song as much as I do the team he formally played for, but its impossible. If a track can make me renege on my very firm belief system, then it’s got to be something bloody special. and it is.
“I like a boy in uniform, school uniform…” Thankfully, not my words, but the words of Gwenno Saunders in her guise as part of one of my favourite pop bands ever, THE PIPETTES. Yes, they went through numerous line-up changes, but that did little to hide the fact that there was something supremely fantastic going on. Song after song of incredible pop, each album like a ‘Best Of’, threatening to overshadow every other chorus you’ve ever heard. Yes, its safe to say, that I HEART THE PIPETTES ( and always will). So what next for Gwenno? Well if you had answered ” An album called ‘Y Dydd Olaf’ which is sci-fi inspired Krautrock, sung completely in Welsh… obviously” I would have called you a damn liar.
