Ellie plays in not one, but two ace local bands, contributing to Silver Spurs’ beautiful blues country and to Spirit Level’s shot of the darker stuff. You should see them.
Recorded music highlights of 2008:
I’m afraid I spent the early part of this year obsessively listening to pre-war country blues and it took me until the spring to pay attention to any new releases. A friend passed me a copy of The Drift’s Memory Drawings and the absolute perfection of this record overwhelmed me. A lot of people have been subjected to my Drift enthusiasm this year as a result, but I’ve yet to find anyone who hasn’t instantly fallen under their spell. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy’s Lie Down In The Light was a sweet folky treat, lots of saucy songs about love laced with woozy clarinet and jaunty banjo. It was good to see David Berman upping the wit while keeping his trademark dense literary wordplay on the Silver Jews’ romping Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea. One record I still can’t keep off my speakers is You Are My Home by Rivulets, a collection of noise-washed, hush-sung tunes that out-lonelies Bon Ivor by a factor of ten. Calexico bounded back to true tex-mex form with the excellent Carried To Dust, matched by an extraordinary headlining slot at this year’s End of the Road. Autumn was soundtracked by Mogwai’s melodic and intelligent The Hawk Is Howling, and, like pretty much everyone else, I’ve been repeatedly choosing TV On The Radio’s jawdropping Dear Science, probably because it’s especially good for cooking your tea to.
Live music highlights of 2008:
Cardiff has seen a real plethora of good gigs by local bands this year, Truckers of Husk, Right Hand Left Hand and Zail all being of particular note, often on the same bill. It was a treat to see Plush downstairs in Clwb, one of many ace gigs in my favourite venue in town. Further afield I maxed the folk and saw Pentangle play three times, got some serious nautical melancholy from Low on the Thekla, got spooked by the Handsome Family in St George’s and had my ears pummelled and heart lifted by a career spanning, perfect-in-every-way Mogwai gig in London. My festival of the year was undoubtedly the Explosions In The Sky curated ATP in Minehead. I never thought I’d see Stars of the Lid and Raekwon side by side in a bill, nor a crowd that could love them both equally. Plus The Drift played on Sunday and it was, quite literally, heaven.
2008 was…
The year I finally got off my arse and did a solo project, something I’ve wanted to do for many a year but only recently found the courage to do. Very good fun it turned out to be too. I also planned to leave Cardiff, but this city has a funny way of keeping a hold on you, and I am very happy I tore up my plans and I’m still living here now.
2009 will be…
All about new directions. I am excited that the Handsome Family will be making it back to Wales, I am determined to see the Sadies on their annual jaunt and hopefully Silver Spurs will finally get it together to do some recording before I spend all the money we’ve saved up for it on whisky and catnip.
