N-E-W: Grass Widow, White Denim, British Sea Power ...and some indie tourism!

I'm off today and tomorrow. So today is London exploration to the max. I'll be taking a trip to Rough Trade East and investing in a very small amount of music because I've returned to first year college levels of poverty. Rent is extortionate and on top of paying tax (which I thought was supposed to cover, ah, I dunno, things like roads, schools, water, upkeep of areas etc.) there's also corporation tax, water tax and other pain in the arse bits and bobs. That'll do on bitching about my new country for the moment.

There's a bowling alley down the road from Rough Trade I'm told and since I haven't bowled since I left home I'm getting rather excited. Regular readers may remember how much I enjoy bowling.

Then off to The Old Blue Last, the pub run by Vice Magazine, meeting a mate for a pint, and on checking the listings I'll be sticking about for this band:

Grass Widow are from San Francisco and are touring around the UK at the moment. They're part of a growing list of brilliant girl bands making dirty, spooky, 60's-ish rock n' roll (oh have I mentioned that I like Warpaint yet? Have I?). Have a listen and if you're in the East London area well I'll see you there!

Grass Widow - Shadow Alt

Other than that I've listened to the new White Denim album, it's a pay what you want album, but it's not the actual album. It's an inbetween-records-record of tracks left over from sessions, expect it sounds like it should be the actual album cos it's very good indeed. It took a while for me to get over the disappointment at it not being a snarling, thundering monster like Workout Holiday but after a few listens I like it. It's everything from country to experimental to toe-tappin' funky goodness. I've a big long review written up you can read here if you're interested.

White Denim - Our Get Alt

And the band behind one of my favourite indie albums of 2008, British Sea Power, are back with an E.P. They also had an album out last year, The Man Of Aran, which was a soundtrack to the DVD release of a 1977 documentary about the making of a fabricated documentary in 1934 about life on the Aran Islands ...which I'm going to watch soon and write about for the Book & Movie club. For the moment, here's the title track from their forthcoming (Oct. 4th) E.P. Enjoy!

British Sea Power - Zeus Alt

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