Wanna help make the next Giant Drag album?

It’s undeniable that the vast majority of record companies are neck-deep in shit at the moment, largely because of their failure to embrace (or at least find a workable way of coping with) the download explosion until it was far too late. Nowadays no fucker wants to pay for anything. So, in an age when you can just download a record for free, going to the store to buy a CD seems to have become a thing of the past.

While there have been attempts to combat the mp3 generation’s devil-may-care approach to downloading illegally (such as Laura Marling giving away free gig tickets with her recent CD), the sad truth is that a whole host of musicians are being dropped from their labels like hot potatoes. Record companies don’t take risks anymore. If you can’t guarantee shifting a truckload of units and getting plenty of radio play, then your ass is out the door faster than you can say: “Rick Rubin’s having a clearout at Columbia.”

For instance, over at Interscope, one of the most exciting independent artists to come out of America since forever was recently dropped. Annie Hardy, aka Giant Drag, made one of the most outstanding albums so far this Millennium with her debut, Hearts and Unicorns. The record was greeted with critical acclaim pretty much universally (indeed, it was my number 1 album in that particular year’s Drum Media poll – not bad considering there were also releases from Regina Spektor, Kimya Dawson…. and even my own vocal, ahem, talents on David Ford’s debut) and it still sounds as fresh, exhilarating and relevant now as it did upon release.

Yet in 2008, like so many other independent bands and musicians, Hardy finds herself without the financial clout of a label to support her as she prepares to record her follow-up with a brand new band (after multi-tasking drummer/keyboardist Micah quit last year – yep, these have been tough times for Giant Drag). With labels growing increasingly wary of inviting new acts onto their sinking ships, Hardy is proposing a novel way of funding the recording/release of her sophomore long-player. She is going to do it with the help of her loyal fan-base.“Many people have suggested I take donations to wrangle up enough money to get this new album recorded and release it on my very own record label,” Hardy (pictured above) states on her website. “Finally today this dream has become a reality. Well, not the dream of the money to pay for the album, the dream of putting up a Paypal donation button. With your help my broke ass can get things a-movin’ and give you some new music.”

On top of this, fans will be able to get their hands on some Giant Drag rarities that Hardy is selling to raise funds. “I will also be putting up an Ebay store where you can buy my stuff. Like all of my stuff that won’t fit in my car - which is where I might be living if I don’t make this dang record soon. It's been sitting stagnant inside me like a constipated BM and if I don’t push this record out soon I’m afraid of breaking my toilet brain with the immense volume of my musical turd. Not that the album is going to be crappy… you know what I mean.”

Hardy suggests that there may be rewards for those who choose to donate extra generously; from a mention in the “thank you” section of the album’s liner notes to some, as yet unspecified, extra special treats for anyone who is particularly philanthropic. “It’s been brought to my attention that Jill Sobule did this but I’d like to believe it was my idea first and I just needed help to do the dang thing. I’m told she has prizes like: ‘For X amount you get to have your name in a song and maybe even have it rhyme with something.’ Sorry, I’m not going to do that, unless someone donates 75 grand in which case I will name the whole album after you. But hopefully my rewards will be just as fulfilling without being so…uh… not my style.”

Giant Drag fans have greeted this fund-raising scheme very positively, and Hardy is clearly grateful to them. “I thank you all very much for your support. Donations or not, with your kind words of encouragement, you have kept me from turning in applications at Cheetah’s and other fine exotic dancing facilities.”

I’m sure Annie Hardy will be overjoyed when she can finally stop fielding the interminable question: “When is your new album coming out?” So, if you are one of those cheeky kids who downloads music without paying a penny for it or, if you simply want to support great art, or show some solidarity for someone trying to make the best of shitty times in the music world, then why not throw Giant Drag a few bucks? It’ll make you feel good and it’ll aid the creation of an album that I am positively shitting myself with excitement about.

Wanna donate a few quid? Well, you can dip into your pockets via the link on Giant Drag's myspace page

Cat Power at The Enmore Theatre

On Sunday night I saw Cat Power at the Enmore Theatre. here's the scoop:CAT POWER
MICK TURNER
The Enmore Theatre, Enmore
09/03/08

The task of entertaining a crowd eager for the arrival of the highly-anticipated main act fell to the brooding instrumentalism of Dirty Three’s Mick Turner, who used loop pedals and occasionally played his guitar with a bow, all the while ably backed up on drums by band-mate Jim White to create an intense, uninterrupted sound, embellished with projected visuals of Turner’s art.

And so, an absolute age after Turner’s absorbing performance had finished, Georgia’s Chan Marshall, Cat Power to you and me, appeared from the shadows and offered the audience an elaborate bow and a pearly white smile. Much to the joy and surprise of all in the room, it was instantly clear that she was far from the morose character that legend suggested she might be. While one may have expected her to skulk motionlessly in the shadows from start to finish, she instead puckishly prowled the width of the stage, full of animation and gesticulation, looking hot as hell in skinny jeans and a scruffy shirt, while her band - comprised of the aforementioned Jim White, keyboardist Greg Foreman from Delta 72, Blues Explosion guitarist Judah Bauer and bassist Erik Paparazzi – lurked in the dusty red light behind her.The occasion was wonderfully intimate and of course her distinctive vocal, which was equally husky, rich, strained and breathy, was mesmerising, although, other than a delightfully upbeat version of The Tracks of My Tears, the set lacked variety and suffered the occasional lull when a few of the many cover versions missed the mark. However, while her Patsy Cline and Van Morrison covers were limp and directionless, most of her own compositions were magnificent, especially The Greatest, Lived in Bars, Song To Bobby and Where is My Love? which were all extraordinarily beautiful in their pain and fragility.

While her set was lengthy - possibly too lengthy - Marshall simply did not want to go home and, long after the houselights went up as the clock neared midnight, she was still onstage, minus her band, doing a passable Aussie accent, throwing flowers and set-lists into the crowd (below) and humbly saying “thank you” over and over. Eventually she waved a final farewell having demonstrated that, while her cover versions often don’t do her talent justice, Cat Power’s true strength lies in the exquisiteness of her own songs. Oh, and she also proved what a good laugh she is. Who’d have thought it?

KT Tunstall Interview

I recently interviewed KT Tunstall, in anticipation of her trip to Australia. Here is the version that appeared in Inpress, Melbourne:ROB TOWNSEND TALKS TO KT TUNSTALL ABOUT AMERICAN IDOL, TOM WAITS, NORWEGIAN SPAM AND WHY YOU REALLY HAVE TO SEE HER LIVE

While your experience of Scottish singer KT Tunstall may not stretch much further than humming along to her single, Suddenly I See, during Ugly Betty or The Devil Wears Prada, she is absolutely massive the UK. Perfectly bridging the gap between indie (she writes all her own stuff, plays guitar and uses a loop pedal to spectacular effect in her live shows) and pop (her songs are insanely catchy), Tunstall is admired by chin-stroking critics and commercial radio stations alike. So it is with much fanfare that she rolls into town.

Excitingly for anyone who likes what they’ve heard from Tunstall, the vivacious singer reckons you ain’t seen nothin’ until you’ve taken in a live show. “I would say that the live experience is probably far superior to listening to the album (recent release, Drastic Fantastic),” she chuckles. “Making an album can be quite a painful experience for me. I totally do my best but I’m not someone who is particularly interested in the technical side of music in terms of learning how gear works. A gig is a momentary experience though. You can’t sell a gig. You can sell a copy of it, but I love the fact that you can’t touch it; it’s there and then it’s gone. With an album it’s much more calculated and I’m not very fond of that side of it. I’m working more and more at trying to capture on CD what I do live.”

Considering her adroitness in the live arena, I ask her if she tried to bring the gig experience into the studio for the recording of Drastic Fantastic. “I really wanted to but it would have meant a lot of time rehearsing with the band to get the tunes up to scratch. Unfortunately we didn’t really have a chance for the band to get really, really tight. We would have been trying out new stuff at gigs but I like keeping songs back so that the new album is fresh.” Tunstall goes on to explain the difficulties of playing embryonic material live in an era when the entire audience comes to a show armed with digital cameras. “I really like surprises. I like being able to bring out a song that people haven’t already heard for six months, and the thing which is really difficult these days which I wasn’t faced with five years ago is that you can’t play anything without it ending up on Youtube.” So nowadays, in order to prevent a brand new song getting its first exposure thanks to a distorted, blurry video recorded on a camera-phone, Tunstall keeps her cards close to her chest. “You can’t try out new songs now unless you are ready to have them uploaded, whereas I remember gigging for 15 years, trying out new songs to see how they’d go down and realising that maybe a song needed a different middle-eight. You can’t do that anymore because the song is available on the internet as soon as you play it.”Though this is Tunstall’s first Australian tour, a high billing at Bluesfest and sideshows at some sizeable venues, including Hamer Hall, suggests that her reputation as a dynamic live artist precedes her. This leads me wonder whether she is burdened by a weight of expectation. After all, her success in the UK started in a slow burning, word-of-mouth kind of way, whereas here she is diving straight in at the deep end. “It’s cool. I mean, I’d be worried if I was coming over and playing a venue that was only half-full. But for me it is absolutely brilliant that people want to see me play and are up for the gig. I absolutely relish the opportunity to play somewhere different. It should be great.”

Tunstall’s confidence shouldn’t really come as a surprise, as she has already achieved success in the toughest of all foreign markets, America. For someone who dislikes the more calculated and mercantile side of the industry, her breakthrough Stateside came through an unexpected source, American Idol, when eventual 2006 runner-up Katherine McPhee chose to twice perform Tunstall’s Black Horse and the Cherry Tree. “I’m sure everyone around Katherine McPhee was telling her she should sing Brown Eyed Girl or Like a Virgin, you know, but she sung this weird song that no-one had heard. It felt like a really healthy streak of personality and creative control from her and I was really happy for her to do it.” It was a gift that Tunstall simply couldn’t turn down; while her performance on David Letterman was viewed by two million people, American Idol showcased her songwriting ability to a whopping 40 million. “Apart from anything else, as a new artist who desperately wanted to tour America, I knew that I’d be a fucking idiot to say no.”

Since her organic success in the UK and her American breakthrough, the accessible, melodic nature of Tunstall’s songs has led to her receiving a zillion requests for her music to be used in all manner of adverts and TV shows. In keeping with her wariness of all things commercial, most of them are turned down. “I am incredibly wary of adverts,” she frowns. “The other day I got a request from Norwegian spam, which was just fantastic because I’m a vegetarian. So that was hilarious. I obviously said no. An American high school class said they’d give me $200 if they could use Suddenly I See as the backing track for their yearly DVD. Of course I said yes, but they didn’t have to give me $200.”

During our conversation, Tunstall comes across as quite possibly the nicest person in the whole world ever, making it easy to understand why so many people have fallen for her in such a big way. As we chew the fat about everything from her admiration of Australia’s Howling Bells to whether Tom Waits is better when he is sitting at a piano or “beat-boxing in a wardrobe,” it is clear that, above all, she has an unequivocal love of music, particularly live music, and it is obvious she is never happier than when standing on a stage with a guitar in her hands.

Indeed, given the choice it seems that people seeing her play live is far more important to KT Tunstall than them buying her albums. With a hearty laugh, she says: “If you’re going to do one or the other, I would say definitely buy a ticket to the gig.”

Or maybe you could do yourself a favour and do both.

Laura Marling - Alas I Cannot Swim

My review of the rather lovely debut offering from Laura Marling appeared in this week's Drum Media:LAURA MARLING
Alas, I Cannot Swim
You’re probably thinking that 18-year-old Brit Laura Marling is going to be another Lily Allen-esque character, singing ironic ditties in a cheeky mockney accent. Well, lyrics like: “He wants to die on a lake in Geneva,” suggest that Marling is actually an entirely different entity.

In fact, the teenager takes influence from the likes of Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Diane Cluck and Bonnie Prince Billy, and has created a body of delightful acoustic folk in Alas, I Cannot Swim, which, as much as anything, showcases her ability to pen remarkably worldly lyrics. “Lover please do not fall to your knees, it's not like I believe in everlasting love,” she sings, and you are forced to remind yourself that these are the words of someone who is only just old enough to go to the pub.

Accompanied by gentle guitar and occasional strings and trumpet, Marling’s arresting vocal falls somewhere between Beth Orton, Joni Mitchell and Cat Power, and the combination of her delicate musicianship and the ruminative, downbeat and sometimes foreboding subject-matter creates a pleasing juxtaposition of light and dark.

While Alas I Cannot Swim bursts with the depth and maturity one might expect from someone with twice Marling’s life-experience, it is important to point out that this record is not only impressive because it belies her tender years or because it is her debut offering. Far from it; the genuinely exquisite Alas, I Cannot Swim would be a marvellous achievement for anyone, regardless of whether they were 18 or 80.

Adele - 19

Teenager Adele has been causing a stir in the UK recently. But is her album any good? I gave my opinion in this week's Drum Media: ADELE
19

Don’t you just love the music biz? As soon as an artist becomes successful the hunt immediately begins to find a younger, better version, and consequently a 19-year-old from Brixton called Adele Atkins is currently being hailed as The New Amy Winehouse. Amazingly, the newcomer recently won a hastily invented “Critics Choice” Brit Award before her debut album had even been released, which may seem contrived but certainly got the cash registers ringing, much to the delight of industry bigwigs.

However, hidden beneath such cynical marketing and despite the unfairly elevated expectations that go hand-in-hand with being compared to everyone’s favourite bee-hived trashbag, 19 is an undeniably impressive, soulful record and Adele’s vocal is rich, dexterous and extraordinarily powerful [yet notably different from Winehouse’s].

Current single Chasing Pavements offers a glorious arms-aloft chorus, while My Same gives a nod to Peggy Lee’s Fever. Elsewhere, a cover of Bob Dylan’s Make You Feel My Love is sweet, and Melt My Heart To Stone perfectly showcases Adele’s outstanding vocal.

Generally though, 19 plays it a little too safe. Occasionally it feels lyrically undeveloped and musically M.O.R, yet the sheer magnificence of that voice ensures that things never become too bland.

If age and experience bring an edge to Adele’s lyrics and she avoids being guided down the path of M.O.R. soul blandness [after all, the last thing the world needs is another Joss Stone] then she has the potential to be a truly remarkable artist. As it stands, 19 is certainly a good starting point.