Over the last few months, via the musical grapevine, the band Fanfarlo has kept reappearing on my radar. But it wasn’t until visiting the UK in October that I actually heard them for the first time. I was able to catch them at the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds, where I was initially only there to catch opening act First Aid Kit. After settling on the fact that I could walk away completely satisfied after their set, Fanfarlo took the stage. While on record they sound a bit harnessed and calculated, their live show illuminates their talent enthusiastically. Created by ex-Swede Simon Balthazar, the six-piece band is based out of London and has been actively touring Europe and the US on their debut record Resevoir throughout 2009. They also just played CMJ and have again been added to the SXSW 2010 roster.

Balthazar sings with a sweet and bold voice (similar to that of Beirut’s Zach Condon) and is backed by an amazing group who each play multiple instruments to form a big full sound, reminding me of the Arcade Fire. Have a listen, but more importantly, check out some live footage.

Fanfarlo has recently been recording a number of “Laptop Sessions” where they perform covers. You can find those here, as well as some music videos.

New album out on May 15th. Now Wilco have been confirmed for the second weekend at this year’s ATP.

I can’t really afford ATP this year – I hope they’re going to do some other UK shows around then.

I guess that the Eurovision Song Contest doesn’t get a lot of coverage in the States. The BBC coverage is drenched in a so-bad-it-must-be good irony, when in actual fact it is a relic of a bygone era, limping into the modern times with phone voting and the like. Naff does not always mean good.

So, how to take the rumours reported in the Guardian that they’re trying to rope in Mozz to help next year ?

“As a result it seems that Moz has been in talks with the BBC, who screen the annual caterwauling competition live and must therefore have some say in what goes on.”

Well, take it firstly with a pinch of salt. It is only a rumour after all, and secondly? Just because he’s (almost) a national icon, it doesn’t mean he’d stand a chance of winning. Eurovision has always been, and surely always will be, a celebration of the mediocre.

Muse yesterday confirmed their final jump into the realms of enormodome Stadium Cock Rockers, with the announcement that they are going to be the first band to play the new Wembley Stadium, if it ever opens, and if nobody books it for the week before.

Bon Jovi and Take That had previously announced headline dates at the new stadium, but the never-ending chronicle of building delays and financial wranglings saw those gigs forced upon the poor burghers of Milton Keynes instead.

For those long-suffering people in the edge of London, it looks like there will be no escape from Matt Bellamy’s fever pitch. Lock up your cats.

It had been a while since I had thought about The Kleptones, and until I was reading a friend’s blog I had sort of forgotten they existed. Sure, their mash-ups of Queen’s A Night At The Opera and The Flaming Lips’ Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots were entertaining, but they were more amusing than revealing. Personally I dig a mash-up that does more than just stick two-songs together. I’m looking for something new to arise out of that marriage in order for it to capture my attention beyond a listen or two. A great example of a successful mash-up, in my opinion, is Aggro1’s “Since U Been Hard 2 Find” since it turns Kelly Clarkson’s triumphant original into a haunting meditation backed by American Analog Set.

Anyway, The Kleptones.

So I revisited their site recently and was met with two pleasant surprises. The first is that they’ve reposted their entire discography in files that are of a uniformly quality bitrate. The second, and biggest pleasure, was the discovery of their latest album of mixes, a two-disc concept album covering a day in the life of an average joe. The mash-ups throughout the disc are strong, inventive, and playful while still managing to convey the feeling of a cohesive storyline.

Download the whole thing here. And, as a sample, here is one of my favorite tunes on the album:

MP3: The Kleptones “1800 – War Of Confusion”

ATP have announced that next year’s UK Event is going to be curated by The Dirty Three, and that the event has indeed shifted from Pontins to Butlins, as per much of the speculation after this year’s event. Farewell Camber Sands, Too-Rye-Ay.

News on the line-up due next week, which in ATP speak usually means around Christmas.

You fall in love. You fall out of love. You move on. You leave things behind. Sometimes, you see a glimpse, a reminder of the past, and you wonder how the hell the two of you drifted apart. Such is my relationship with Mercury Rev. It’s not that I don’t recall how we drifted apart, its just that I’ve been reminded quite how furiously I loved this band, and I can’t believe that we let anything come between us.
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Don’t Look Back is simultaneously joyous and priggish. It’s eclectic, a programme giving equal billing (more or less) to Green On Red and Ennio Morricone. But there’s also a sense of smugness about it with the implicit suggestion that they’re striking a blow against the singles / iPod mentality and restoring the beauty of classic albums to their rightful places. And then there are the Tindersticks.
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England’s oppressive summer cracks still on. “I’m glad to be here,” says Roddy, “Not least because it’s a hundred and ten degrees downstairs and it smells of rotten vegetables.”

Unluckily for the young Scottish fella, the temperature in the venue is much the same, and I doubt whether it smells any more fragrant than backstage. Yes, the Bloomsbury Theatre is a lovely intimate venue. No, it doesn’t have air conditioning.

When word got out that Roddy Woomble was taking time out from Idlewild to record a folk album, it wasn’t exactly earth-shattering news. His band had, after all, moved from shambolic punksters to rocking only slightly harder than Coldplay. Roddy’s solo album, so it seemed, would just carry on moving up the mainstream. But Roddy takes his art seriously, and in conjunction with a load of genuine folk folk, he’s made a tender sofly-spoken album that stays in the memory for far longer than it’s relatively short running time.
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