Unknown Mortal Orchestra were back in town this evening to play the Rockfeedback night at XOYO in London’s bustling Shoreditch. The New Zealand / Portland three piece weren’t without their share of technical difficulties (broken strings, malfunctioning pedals, etc) but the ramshackle nature of the show did nothing to hide the brilliance of this band, as they tore through tracks from their self-titled, Fat Possum released, debut album.

Frontman Ruban channelled his inner Led Zeppelin for some immense shredding, this combined with Beatles vs. Ween psychedelic vocals, hip hop beats courtesy of prodigal teenage drummer Julien and Krautrock bass lines from producer come bassist Jake. Sound like too much to get your head around? You  need look no further than their two recent singles ‘Ffunny Friends’ and ‘How Can You Luv Me?’ for enlightenment. There’s a lot more to them than just those tracks though, so do delve deeper. Take a gander at this live version of ‘Thought Ballune’, shot with this unsteady Mule hand, for a start.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjG6oowdO_I

As we’re not going to Worthy Farm this year we thought we’d rub salt in our own gushing, open wounds of disappointment by making a little Glastonbury 2011 Spotify playlist for you all to tantalise your musical taste buds with. Let the self-flagellation begin!

San Francisco four-piece The Mantles finished a two week European tour with an Upset The Rhythm hosted gig at what was supposed to be Marquis of Ladndsdowne but ended up being the Shacklewell Arms, just round the corner in the heart of Dalston’s cool (London). The Mantles first caught our attention with the PHENOMENAL ‘Dont Lie’ single from their 2009 self-titled debut album, one of our tracks of that year.

Tonight they rip through a forty minute set and perform “their first encore ever… oh no maybe our second”. Either way it’s an impressive dual guitared garage surf-rock affair this eve. Aside from the aforementioned ‘Dont Lie’ it’s the faster numbers, like ‘Cascades’, with driving rhythm section and head to head riffing that draw the greatest reactions along with new gloriously titled new single ‘Raspberry Thighs’ out now through French label SDZ Records. That rare encore comes in shape of debut album track ‘Samantha’ and it’s the icing on the muddy chocolate cake.

Cascades – The Mantles from The Mantles on Vimeo.

So we’ve literally just got back from La Sera‘s first ever show outside the U.S. of A. They themselves only got off a plane something silly like four hours earlier! For those who haven’t come across them yet, La Sera, is the new side project of busy bee Katy Goodman, otherwise known as the flowing red head who adds bass and woozy vocal harmonies to Brooklyn’s excellent Vivian Girls. In La Sera it’s all about Katy though, well almost all.

Katy on impressive lead vocals and her now staple bass is joined by Jenn Prince (guitar, vox) and Jonathan Weinberg (drums, vox). A swirling mix of surfy guitar tones and 50s ethereal pop is the result and is quite a palpable one at that.

‘Never Come Around’, the band’s first and current single (video below), goes some way into summing up the charms of this band. Warm guitar, dreamy female vocals and a steady head-nodding rhythm. B-side ‘Behind Your Eyes’ is another treat making their 7″ a small coup.

There are some faster numbers too which get the blood pumping but our lack of knowledge of material at this stage in their fledgling existence and our need to catch up on sleep prevent us sharing any more detail aside from - go see them at Brixton Windmill tomorrow night (23.11.10). Thanks to Upset The Rhythm for another stormer.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKwZSoIrAnY

It’s that time of year again for the Welsh South By South West that is Swn Festival. The new music festival curated by Radio 1 new music champion Huw Stevens and John Rostron this evening kicked off across the pubs and clubs of Cardiff. There’s a myriad of local talent and more including a SWALEC sponsored  Plugged In Find A DJ competition judged by the big H Dog himself!

Some of our tips to look out for over the three days in no particular order are:

Chad Valley

Spectrals

Sweet Baboo

Sun Drums

Becoming Real

Visions Of Trees

O Children

Truckers Of Husk

Dry The River – FREE EP DOWNLOAD

Stricken City

Dog Is Dead

Wilder

Still Corners

Perfume Genius

The Vaccines

Egyptian Hip Hop

Veronica Falls

Happy Birthday

Let’s Wrestle

Beach Fossils

Get your full festival lineup and information from the Swn site including that all important ticket info.

Plugged in is SWALEC’s creative initiative to encourage and support local communities with their interest in the arts by offering bands, DJs, writers and photographers the chance to see what it’s like to work in the music industry.

Despite being fans of Here We Go Magic since picking up a promo of ‘Fangela’ from the band’s 2009 eponymous debut, we’d annoyingly managed to miss the bands numerous live performances rather prolifically up until yesterday. Last night though all was finally set right in Hoxton Bar & Grill, a regular haunt for us and Spectrals (who also opened up for Harlem) of late. So, how would Here We Go Magic fare with the weight of their new Thom Yorke seal of approval on their shoulders?

Here We Go Magic @ Hoxton Bar & Grill, Sep 7th 2010.

Luke Temple (guitar/vocals) takes to the stage looking like a Panama hatted, moustached version of Greg Kinnear and is joined under the bright lights by his tight knit band consisting of easy on the eyes pair Kristina Lieberson (keys/synth/backing vocals) and Jennifer Turner (bass/backing vocals), Peter Hale (drums) and Michael Bloch (lead guitar).

Temple immediately informs us that American scientists say the moon is going to drop into the Pacific in the near future! A comforting thought but not even that can stop the warm groove of ‘Moon’ from getting the crowd swaying. Then to our delight the previously mentioned ‘Fangela’ gets an early airing as the New Yawkers begin to slip into their stride.

‘Hibernation’ is the first track to showcase the thicker full band groove of the new album, with Temple’s gorgeous high vocals sitting above an irresistible, finger picked bass line courtesy of the dexterous Turner. ‘Only Pieces’ then serves to cast its creeping hypnotic trance over the unsuspecting audience. The band never look back from there, growing with intensity with every track it would seem and by the time their biggest hit of sorts ‘Collector’ comes around, the crowd are eating out of their Magic hand and surfing the song’s woozy psychedelic wave into a welcome oblivion.

There’s no backstage at Hoxton Bar & Grill so you have to walk through the crowd and out of the front door to leave which doesn’t bode well for the “Will they, wont they?” encore tension we’ve all come to love! So after a thankfully brief faux exit the band respond to the cheers and return to play a beautiful rendition of a beautiful song. Namely a more tender number from album one entitled ‘Everything’s Big’ which thankfully we don’t have to describe as we’ve captured it on video for you at the top of this very post.

A fact you’ll doubtless be hearing again (perhaps right now) is that after seeing Here We Go Magic at Glastonbury Thom Yorke proclaimed them the best band of the festival. On this evidence, who are we to argue? The Bestival crown is the next up for grabs then.

The world needs more bands like Harlem. On Monday the Austin garage-punk 3-piece proved yet again that America is leading the way when it comes to exciting new bands, especially it would seem when it comes to playing live which the yanks seem to relish far more than us spotlight shy Brits. Monday night shows are always tame though right? Not exactly.

Harlem seemed a tad more sober than at The Lexington back in June but were no less energetic and a fair bit tighter for it. On this occasion Harlem turned their set list on its head with O’Mara, who seemingly takes lead vocals a lot more often on latest album Hippies, starting on vocals/guitar, Coomers on drums/backing vocals and linchpin Jose Boyer on bass. O’Mara straight away demands “more dancing” from an often static Hoxton crowd. No such problem tonight though as surf punk assaults like “Faces” and “Friendly Ghost” quickly incite a mosh pit at the front.

One of the great things about Harlem is the different styles of both frontmen in terms of vocals, songwriting and drumming. O’Mara is the more skilled drummer, Coomers is perhaps the more natural frontman but neither falls short at either role and the variety is hugely entertaining.

It’s Coomers turn then as he leads us through some of Harlem’s darker, more gravel throated numbers from the bands debut ‘Free Drugs’ including old favourites ‘Witchgreens’ and ‘South Of France’. ‘Someday Soon’ and ‘Cloud Pleaser’ from ‘Hippies’ increase the bounce factor while ‘Gay Human Bones’ and ‘Psychedelic Tits’ can’t and don’t fail to raise a smile.

If there’s a better night out than a Harlem gig we’ve yet to find it.

The rain stayed away and the time clashes proved only fairly merciless (Atlas Sound/Caribou) for what was all in all a killer day in the sun at Field Day in Victoria Park. Music came courtesy of London’s promoting elite: Eat Your Own Ears, Bugged Out, Bloggers Delight, Village Mentality/Quietus, Adventures In The Beetroot Field, XOYO and The Lock Tavern. Some PICS and words on our PICKS after the jump…

Erland Cooper and former Verve guitarist Simon Tong’s band Erland & The Carnival were our first stop at the Eat Your Own Ears main stage. ‘Trouble In Mind’ boomed out in the sun and the band’s impressive adaptation of ‘Love Is A Killing Thing’ saw drummer David annihilate his drum stick. How much wood could a wood chuck chuck? A lot.

It’s such a damn shame when you fall head-over-feet in love with a record and are left a bit non-plussed when you see it performed live.  This happened to us when we saw Memory Tapes at The Luminaire earlier in the year, and it happened again today.  We try not to whinge too much, but it’s just not possible for Dayve Hawke and a drummer to recreate the brilliance of album ‘Seek Magic’ by themselves.  Nowhere was this more obvious than ‘Graphics’ (one of the songs of the year), which is crying-out for the energy and dynamism of a full band.

That said, in the latter half of his set, Hawke set about re-arranging a few of his songs, throwing in some top-notch extended solos and intriguing beat changes. This was an interesting move, but not half as interesting as it would be to see him playing with the stage full.

As we darted from Memory Tapes in an attempt to catch a glimpse of Mount Kimbie it became evident that more than a few people had spawned the same idea. The Brigton duo of Kai and Dom had well and truly packed out the Bloggers Delight tent, so much so that even our zoooom could only get us the rather suspect snap above. We were interested to see whether they were more than just clever clicks and beeps and the answer was a resounding YES! Guitars and actual songs you’d be forgiven for thinking.

Beth Jeans Houghton is a likeable Geordie lass, just out of her teens, who was the subject of our first Music Mule interview a while back. Although already impressive then, she’s really come along a lot. It’s also good to see the same faces in her band, the sometimes labelled ‘Hooves Of Destiny’ including bass player Rory Gibson (above left) of Byker Grove fame (yes really!) Anyway Beth’s voice is a delight and the band’s folky harmonies help push the songs to another level live. ‘I Will Return’ and the beautiful ‘Nightswimmer’ proved dreamy highlights.

World-record-rapping, classically-trained piano maestro Chilly Gonzales (Jason Beck), dressed in customary bespoke dressing gown, strode onto the stage to join his two drummers and treated the crowd to his own unique brand of talent and showmanship. The highlight of the set was the breathtaking guest appearance of Cocknbullkid for a cover of Rui Da Silva’s ‘Touch Me’. This was closely followed by a cover of ‘The King of Pain’ by The Police, which Gonzales played with his feet whilst he sang standing atop the piano.

It’s easy to pigeonhole Gonzales as a ‘novelty act’ because of his diversity and the range of styles he dips in and out of, not to mention the regular insanity of his lyrics and antics like a spectacularly smashed white guitar today.  But to do that disregards the considerable talent that backs it all up.

Great to see Sub Poppers No Age, allegedly Bradford Cox’s (Deerhunter/Atlas Sound) favourite band, back in the UK. The drums ‘n’ guitar duo of Ryan and Dean from L.A. caused the biggest crowd reaction of the day as a mosh pit promptly formed in the centre of the A.I.Beetroot Field tent. The likes of ‘Eraser’ and ‘Cappo’ whipped things into a frenzy with drummer Dean having to call for the security to take it easy on the over zealous punters at a couple of points. It’s been a while since we’ve seen a show like this one! Classic.

Yes that’s Yuck drummer Jonny’s real hair. Yes it’s awesome. Thankfully so are Yuck. The four piece turned up the fuzzy Dinosaur Junior guitars to eleven and stormed their way through a tight half hour set. Danny’s lead vocals impressed, Max’s guitar work made us swoon and bassist Yari and hair ball Jonny kept the groove locked in tight. One of the more exciting UK buzz bands of the year. Supporting Modest Mouse soon don’t you know?

So Caribou should have set the main stage alight were it not for the fact that main stages always have shitty sound at festivals. Turn up the VOLUME please! Still the double drumming Canadians did their best to melt our faces with their glorious psychedelic dance onslaught. ‘Leave House’ beckoned us in closer and ‘Odessa’ (tune of the year?) was a predictable show stealer. We didn’t catch all their set as their was a Bull calling us from afar…

Try telling a group of drunk friends they have to leave Caribou and walk 10 minutes through a crowd to go see someone even better that they’ve never heard of? Not an enviable task I assure you. Still it’s great when you’re right as pint sized South Carolinan Chazwick Bundick or Toro Y Moi proved us on Saturday, turning in the set of the day in a sweaty XOYO tent. Despite clunky sound levels the electronic wonder of songs like ‘Minors’, ‘Imprint After’ and ‘Low Shoulder’ shone through. After an overwhelming reaction to his final song Chaz couldn’t believe the tight ship Field Day staff wouldn’t let him on for one more number. Long live king Chaz!

What? Baltimore’s finest export aside from The Wire, Beach House, play their biggest London headline show to date at the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire this November. They’ve spent years slowly building a fan base (remember that?) and supporting the likes of Grizzly Bear, Fleet Foxes and far less impressive bands. Times change though and Beach House’s third album (first for Bella Union in the UK) ‘Teen Dream’ has rightly propelled them into the limelight.

For Fans Of: Air, Grizzly Bear, Holly Miranda.

When? Tuesday, November 23rd 2010.

Where? Shepherds Bush Empire, Shepherds Bush Green (GMap).

How Much? £14

Tickets? ticketweb

www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbGMTL-6AH0