Drift Records

Darnmon Drift.. 09?

Drift — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 13:30:35 +0000

January started off well, it tailed off through February and March but picked up again in April. Things took a turn for the worse in May before perking up through June and July. There was a noticeable slump in August, a dramatic nose-dive in September. October rose like a phoenix from the flames. November plateaued. We’ve eased into Dec on a gentle ascent. I’m going into 2010, not so much down as up.

Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca (listen)
The record of the year by a country mile. Temecula Sunrise blew my ever more cynical mind.

lush - Bright Penny
Too sickly sweet for many. For the rest of us Liam Hayes delivers the year’s premium slab of 70’s style MOR.

Wilco - Wilco (The Album) (listen)
While this isn’t quite SkyBlueSky or A Ghost Is Born, it has jockeyed for space on my stereo consistently throughout the year and is another fine addition to the Wilco discography.

Jim O’Rourke - The Visitor
The anticipation! Jim! You’re back! 38 minutes, one track, more twists and turns than any of us rightly deserve. Demanding, baffling, joyous.

Brakes - Touchdown (listen)
Another fine outing from Brakes with many a glorious, shiny pop nugget held within. “Worry About It Later” is a particular fave.

Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs (listen)
They haven’t put a foot wrong in years. “I’m On My Way” is another James McNew classic that again raises the question: wherefore art thou Dump?

Lambchop - OH (Ohio) (listen)
A 2008 record in my 2009 list. I’m getting slow. Another reliably enjoyable band and a great collection of songs.

Adam Green - Sixes and Sevens (listen)
And another from 2008. This is an unimpeachable, peach of a record. Wry wordsmith-ery of the highest calibre (no clumsy punning for Mr Green, no sir).

Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
Worth the price of admission for Faith/Void alone but, it just so happens, that the rest of the record is also fantastic.

Jamie Lidell - Jim, and it’s actually from last year. It’s great. Really, it is.

Jonathan Richman @ Bush Hall in March. The best bit? Lesbian Bar? Springtime In New York? Pablo Picasso? Or… Was it… Standing on the kerb with Hat and Malice after the show, grinning like idiots, waving in unison as Jonathan pulls away in a cab. Jonathan waves back. Cherry, icing, cake.

Close second? Holger Czukay @ The Roundhouse. Career retrospective with the man himself as our tour guide, taking in all manner of lesser-heard Can cuts, the vaudevillian-disco prankster shapes of his 80’s material, right up to the drum and bass excursions of the late ’90’s/’00’s. Brilliant.

Close third? Sebastien Tellier @ Shepherds Bush Empire. He had us, all of us: hook, line and sinker. Glorious. Similar to what I imagine a live Derren Brown show to be like; if it were that Derren Brown was an inexplicably attractive, latex-trouser wearing, onetime French Eurovision contender, with a talent for slinky, synth-dripping disco.

Close fourth? Wilco @ The Troxy. Guitars at twenty paces. Draw!

Bing & Bowie - Little Drummer Boy. Mainly for Bowie’s pre-veneer gnashers in the video. (listen)

Vin chaud avec Amaretto: Brussels style.

Stockpile water, tinned food, and weaponry. Knit a jumper from my own hair.

Lucy SBL, all well?

Drift — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 12:22:14 +0000

What a busy old year! It feels like only yesterday I did one of these about 08!
Its been fun, putting some singles out there and trying to play as much as poss.
Mastering the album and finishing it all up has been good to do, artwork eventually done too thank goodness!
Sang at the barbican! Worked my arse off at sweaty gigs as per.. Lost 2 jobs.. Gained 3, made some dresses and cakes and moved back in with a friend of mine which equates to more alcohol consumption and video games till the wee hours, but tremendous fun!
Jen and Jon bought a house!
Went on an ace holiday with me fella where I helped him make a documentary/ short film about two great teenage accordion players in Portugal.
I swam in a big lake and slept in a tent in 40-degree heat.
Got to hang out more with my bury street massive, dressed up as: a builder, a garden, a housewife, a witch and a hotdog.

Graham Coxon – The spinning top (Listen)

This year I have thoroughly enjoyed singing for graham. I was a lucky lady recording with him last year, but I never dreamed that I would be on the record, singing bums too! Jen and I have been singing bv’s for him, we played a magical show at the barbican with Robyn Hitchcock and the lovely martin Carthy too! The band was full of amazingly lovely folks, it was a joy to be on a bus with them and play some lovely shows.

This is my record of the year because its ace and we had such fun playing it with him!

Bob Dylan’s Christmas record….. Who’d have thunk it!

Neil Young – Hyde Park… bit of a weepy over whelmingness, never thought I’d be lucky enough to see that!
David Byrne – new oxford theatre, leapfrogging guitar-playing genius!
Bob Dylan – o2 arena… (Venue is a bit like being at the doctors but bob was ace)
Bruce Springsteen – Hyde Park… man he still got it

Feela woola (do they know its xmas)
Reminds me of my sisters singing all the wrong words when they were wee, after all it IS a world of dragon fear.

To give it all I got.
X

Merry Christmas and a very happy new year!
X
Lucy

Gale; how goes it?

Drift — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 08:24:14 +0000

Good thanks, I learnt how to cook a curry from scratch. I also handed over a healthy portion of my debut record ‘Oh, Well’ to be mastered at Durrant Moon Senior’s home studio, all very exciting. Additionally, I completed Age of Empires 3 - Warlords which was a tremendous waste of time, bumped into David ‘Poirot’ Suchet in St Katherines Dock and stepped on the foot of Rick Parfitt’s Dog. Eventful year!

Oh, and I beat RG Morrison at badminton. Yesssssssssssssssss.

Discovering Street Songs by Rick James was monumental. (listen)
The Dirty Projectors Bitta Orca was another good find this year. (listen)

Wilco and Peggy Sue at Greenman were both excellent.

David Bowie and Bing Crosby - Little Drummer Boy. (listen)

Glenmorangie.

Reduce salt intake.

Tandy Hard’s year

Drift — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 12:28:00 +0000

A good year for Tandy Hard – Plenty of writing, plenty of new songs. Some very kind and extremely talented people came together to play some of them, along with some of the older songs. Highlight of the 2009 Tandy calendar was a pair of gigs in summer; a show with old friend and amazing drummer Chris Davis (Spotlight Kid) on drums – he has since been snaffled by Soulsavers to tour with Depeche Mode across the enormo-domes of Europe. I wonder how it is to share a tourbus with Mark Lanegan? Then Thomas White came aboard to play drums at Budstock – a single rehearsal to play 9 songs, which he managed brilliantly (have a look at MySpace for a video montage). Andrew Claridge of course supplied exemplary bass guitar.

“Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle” by Bill Callahan.
“Post-Nothing” by Japandroids (listen)
“Royal Family–Divorce” by Storsveit Nix Noltes

Do you know, I was rather impressed by the riffs in the Manic’s album. Shame about all the shouting. (listen)

Aside from Bruce Springsteen at Hyde Park (best show EVER!!!) where he played Rosalita, consistent gigs of the year have to all go to Clowns, a new band featuring Andrew Claridge, Miles (ex-Poppycocks), Muddy Suzuki and Thomas White – a veritable Drift supergroup! I have seen them several times this year, every gig better than the last, the first putting all these indie-shrimp bands to shame. I cannot recommend this band enough – please listen to their MySpace (although they really need to update it with their new demos). They sound like a really noisy Sparks.

Hmmm. Shakin’ Stevens’ “Merry Christmas Everyone”. It’s certainly the song that evokes my childhood most, and what is Christmas other than an extended exercise in nostalgia. I loved Shaky. (listen)

Ooh. Anything.

Get on with it.

- - - - -

Tandy Hard kindly put together a truly brilliant Christmas Playlist; Wild Billy Childish, Staples Singers, Shaky, John Cale, Sparks, Tom Waits, Merle Haggard, Louis Armstrong, Slow Club and of course David Essex. (listen)

Archie, good year?

Drift — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 08:05:19 +0000

Moved from London to Devon which is proved to be a great move, lots of time at the shop and time with the band. Got my LP mastered, so that will be out (March). I’d give this year a solid 7. It had it’s lows; seems to all be ending well and has plenty of room improvement in the impending 2010. Lots of exciting Drift things on the horizon so very positive about next year. I’d summarize the year 2009 as “Difficult Difficult Lemon Difficult”.
Phantom Band ‘Checkmate Savage’ (listen), White Denim ‘Fits’ (listen), Bill Callahan ‘Sometimes I wish I were an Eagle’, Fuck Buttons ‘Tarot Sport’. I also listened a lot to Dirty Projectors (listen), Yo La Tengo (listen), Vitalic ‘Flash Mob’ (listen) and the Firemen album.

Sadly nothing. Predictable bunch of releases and i’ve been spending far more time looking backwards than forwards.

SBL & Small Gang were phenomenal, Muddy Suzuki in Camden was also brilliant. Saw Neil Young in Hyde Park and it was proper lush.

Christmas Time - Vince Guaraldi Trio (from A Charlie Brown Christmas album) (listen)

Mrs R.G. has been perfecting ’snow balls’ in the last few weeks. Got given a dam fine port, and i’ve been giving some serious time and effort to debate Plymouth Gin versus Bombay Sapphire versus Hendricks… so I think quantity is the name of the game this year.

Play live. otherwise i’m feeling pretty magnificent.

Eaton, all well?

Drift — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 12:04:17 +0000

The year my house finally became a brewery and a recording studio. The year I finally took seriously the need to balance earning money and making music. The year I re-ignorised in order to de-understand myself, hopefully returning myself to the reality of contemporary society a stronger, wiser & more considerate musician.

Euros Childs - Son Of Euros Child. (listen)

Sweet Baboo - Hello Wave. (listen)

Art Brut at Primavera Sound. Men Diamler at Green Man.

The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping (listen)

Elderberry Mead.

I have to give up smoking. Otherwise I won’t be able to sing my favourite notes.