Explorer 23 For April 10

OK, OK! It's two days late. Winers... be happy it's spring!

01 01 02 These New Puritans - Attack Music
02 05 03 Mumford & Sons - The Cave
03 07 03 She & Him - In The Sun
04 08 04 The Twilight Sad - The Room
05 11 03 Frightened Rabbit - Nothing Like You
06 02 06 Surfer Blood - Swim
07 06 04 Wild Beasts - We Still Got The Taste
08 03 04 The Soft Pack - C'mon
09 17 02 Hold Your Horses - 70 Million
10 -- 01 Titus Andronicus - A More Perfect Union
11 04 05 The XX - VCR
12 18 02 Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - Get Better
13 09 04 Field Music - Them That Do Nothing
14 -- 01 Fang Island - Life Coach
15 10 05 The Antlers - Bear
16 16 03 Tegan & Sara - Alligator
17 23 02 Fanfarlo - Harold T. Wilkins
18 -- 01 Fixkes - Rock 'n Roll
19 -- 01 Stornoway - I Saw You Blink
20 12 06 Blood Red Shoes - Light It Up
21 19 02 Local Natives - Airplanes
22 13 06 OK Go - This Too Shall Pass
23 -- 01 Kate Nash - Do Wah Doosh

Frightened Rabbit - Winter of Mixed Drinks / Live Paradiso April 11th, 2009

What can you do after playing a show at 5:30: you can watch a film or call your mom. Plenty of jokes by Scott Hutchison concerning the early time of the concert in Paradiso’s upstairs room. At least, as he said, the curtains where shut so it was still dark. It’s not a very rock and roll time of day, but that’s what you get with a full Paradiso, at least they didn’t play in Bitterzoet. If the early time was also the reason why it was not completely full… it could be.

Though already having released 2 albums prior to their breakthrough “Winter of Mixed Drinks” this was the first time for the Scottish band in Amsterdam. “WoMD” is getting great reviews and rightly so. Frightened Rabbit have a similar sound to fellow Scotsmen We Were Promised Jetpack and the Twilight Sad. Atmospheric guitar music that is typified by almost minimalist use of chords. One chord would be played for quite a few bars before changing to a different chord. To these chords are then added layers of sound using guitars, keyboards and a score of pedals. Out of this wall of sound then comes the Scottish drawl of Hutchinson. The guitars all sound great and they did as well live. “Winter of Mixed Drinks” has a few highlights, some of which are the excellent singles ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’ and ‘Nothing Like You’ or ‘Living in Colour’ as part of the encore. Impressive was the first song of the encore where Hutchinson sung a song with just acoustic guitar, without the aid of amps and microphones. It was also the only song where the vocals were clear, in the other songs his voice got muddled and his at times great lyrics were unfortunately not heard.

While not yet having reached the elaborate soundscaping genius of the Twilight Sad or the great songwriting of We Were Promised Jetpacks their album will turn up in some end-of-the-year lists and their next show in Amsterdam definitely won’t be at 5:30 on a Sunday in a small room in Amsterdam but a bigger venue with people standing outside trying to get a ticket from someone because it’s sold out.

Explorer 23 for March 20

01 02 04 Surfer Blood - Swim
02 07 02 The Soft Pack - C'mon
03 01 04 OK Go - This Too Shall Pass
04 03 03 The Antlers - Bear
05 04 04 Blood Red Shoes - Light It Up
06 10 02 These New Puritans - We Want War
07 11 03 The XX - VCR
08 12 02 Futureheads - Heartbeat Song
09 14 02 Wild Beasts - We Still Got The Taste
10 16 02 The Twilight Sad - The Room
11 18 02 Field Music - Them That Do Nothing
12 -- 01 She & Him - In The Sun
13 06 03 Beach House - Norway
14 18 03 Girls - Morning Light
15 05 03 Deep Sea Arcade - Don't Be Sorry
16 22 02 Hungry Kids of Hungary - Let You Down
17 09 03 Washington - How To Tame Lions
18 -- 01 Frightened Rabbit - Nothing Like You
19 -- 01 Tegan & Sara - Alligator
20 -- 01 Mumford & Sons - The Cave
21 23 02 Tunng - Hustle
22 -- 01 Liars - Scissor
23 -- 01 Two Door Cinema Club - Undercover Martyn ;)