A brief history of the twentieth century.

It is amazing to what levels I am willing to procrastinate in order to avoid doing any revision for my exam next week. Of course, there is far too much on the internet designed to help divert my attentions. One of my favourite past-times is to read up on little tidbits of history on wikipedia. Sad, I know, but I've always had a love of history, and it's pretty interesting stuff, honest!

One of my favourite things to do is combine this "hobby" with music, as in, find out what it is that so-and-so band are singing about. Now, there are only a couple of groups I have come across who do this to quite an extent, one of which I have never really given much time of day until earlier, when I heard they were releasing their third full-length. British Sea Power, Brightons's eccentric quartet, release Do You Like Rock Music? on January 14th, and from what I have heard of it so far, it sounds like a rather amazing record. Several years ago my good friend Robert lent me their debut, The Decline of British Sea Power, which I never got around to listening to, and until this very moment is still sat on my shelves back at home. God knows why I never gave it a spin, for they had so much going in their favour of me liking them: for example, their rather interesting stage shows which included dragging in folliage, stuffed birds, and a 10ft bear which the group would shoo of stage. Then theres the name, harking back to a nostalgic time in history when Britania ruled the waves. If that wasn't enough, they used history in their songs! Awesome! I feel stupid for never giving them a chance, but I can honestly say after hearing the majority of DYLRM? I am pretty much a fully fleged convert. They remind me a lot of Hope of the States, who split up some time ago, but released two brilliant records during their career, both of which take great influence from the past. My picks of the pack would be 'Canvey Island', a song about the flooding that hit the island in 1953 and left 58 dead (you can read more about it on wikipedia). Seriously, the song sounds massive, and clearly the band's answer to the question posed in the album title is a resounding "yes!" In 'No Lucifer' the assault continues, a track which sounds heavily influenced by Arcade Fire (ex-Arcade Fire drummer, Howard Bilerman was a contributor to the record), but none the less spectacular, with singer Yan informing the listener they "...can always just say no to the anti-aircraft crew, the boys in the Hitler-Youth".

British Sea Power's new record, Do You Like Rock Music?, is released on January 14th through Rough Trade, and can be pre-ordered here.

mp3: British Sea Power - Canvey Island
mp3: British Sea Power - No Lucifer

This neatly leads me on to my favourite band of last year, and one of my albums of the year, in the form of iLiKETRAiNS. The Leeds . The term 'library rock' has been banded around the group quite a bit, and this is a fair description of their blend of post-rock and wry, intelligent lyrics, which explore a whole host of topics from the ill-fated journey of Scott to the Antarctic in 1912 ('Terra Nova'), the great fire of London ('25 Sins') and the black death ('We All Fall Down'), the Salem witch trials ('We Go Hunting'), and a protest song at the results of Dr Richard Beeching's 1960s report into the railways, which reulted in the closure of many branch lines and the loss of thousands of jobs ('The Beeching Report'). As you can imagine, it's not your conventional topics of songwriting when in comparison with the majority of bands in the indie charts. But then again, that's what makes iLiKETRAiNS so special. In October they released their debut full-length, Elegies To Lessons Learnt, on Beggars Banquet, which is easily the most macabre and bleak album of the 2007: if it's happy-go-lucky indie-by-numbers you are after it's probably best to keep clear, but if you want to think about what you are listening to, and get a history lesson in the process then they could be the band for you.

And on the subject of wikipedia hunting, iLiKETRAiNS saved most of that bother by providing a "text book" with the album which gives information on the subjects they portray in their music. If only the history curiculum in schools was taught by iLiKETRAiNS!

iLiKETRAiNS's debut album is available now from Beggars Banquet, and can be ordered here, whilst their next single is released on vinyl/download only in February.

mp3: iLiKETRAiNS - We Go Hunting

mp3: iLiKETRAiNS - Terra Nova (taken from Progress Reform, 2006)

mp3: iLiKETRAiNS - TiNSLEYViADUCT (2005 demo)

2005 Version 2.0

If I have not said it before I shall say it here and now: 2005 was the greatest year for music ever. Well, for me it certainly was as it produced the most amazing albums in my living memory and it has always been albums that really make my pussy moist.

And now all those amazing artists are now coming out with their follow up albums and all helping to bring 2007 closer to the bench mark 2005 has set. We've already had Arcades Fire's follow up to Funeral, the excellent Neon Bible, LCD Soundsystem's Sound of Silver, Bloc Party's A Weekend In the City and quite a few other notable artists. Over a series of blogs I would like to draw attention to a few more acts that are following up their 2005 albums with produce of a similar high grade.

First up is New York based The National. Their 2005 album Alligator was the reason why I have bought their entire back catalouge, why I am willing to pay silly money to see them play in November, why I bum them hard and why I bought their new album, Boxer, without hearing a note.

The Album does not dissapoint and while I do love the format of albums I find it very hard to review them. But Huzzah! I live in blogland where the mp3s roll like mighty semi-legal rivers of music down the to estuary of your ears and trickling into your mind tanks the knowledge of how amazingly good albums can be sans the need for me describe the indescribable.

Here are two tracks from Boxer, Fake Empire and Mistaken For Strangers and since I know you're curious here's one of my favourite tracks from their Alligator album, Mr. November.

PS For me the National are a warm blanket that I like to wrap myself up in even when its hot, if you are cosying up to them too then I suggest starting with Alligator and moving on to Boxer from there. Also if you have a nosy round the blogs you may be able to lay your hands on their Black Session that did in Paris a while back - a truly magical recording. x