LifeDeluxe

Methodist Centre

A friend of mine gave me the latest 7" pressing of their new single at a party over the weekend. The band are called Methodist Centre, and specialise in " '72 terrace glam and '82 street punk on a team building session at a paintball range somewhere up the M6. We got Blackberry's tucked in our Crombies instead of Stanleys". Which i'm not sure I completely understand but it sounds suitably sharp and ironic. Anyway, they can be found here on myspace making a fine sound, but interestingly there seems to have been yet another resurgence in the power of vinyl as a way to 'seed' your band credibly and to the right people (myself excepted).

But that isn't why I am writing. The record sleeve itself is moody mod stuff and very lovely and satisfying to hold etc, and inside, one side of the record has been pressed with a rather explicit image of a man about to be.....which is all part of the 'narrative' etc. There was a joke that the pic looked just like someone at the party, and at some point the record was handed to this young guy who was asked to have a look at the record inset and guess who is was.

He was totally bewildered. He literally had no idea how to get the record out of it's sleeve, trying to open it like a CD.

I sudddenly felt very very old and strangely disturbed.

The 5th Wren Project

I must confess that I had not heard of the Wrens, an indie band from New Jersey, until this article in the Guardian introduced me to the '5th Wren Project' which is a peach.

They started this on their site, saying "there are simply too many parts on the recorded versions and we either can’t figure a way around not playing the parts live, can’t cover them with just the four of us or just haven’t gotten around to or felt like rearranging the song yet (like half the other poop we do on-stage).
The solution? ....The 5th wren."

A simple idea: "Your mission, citizen, should you choose to accept it, is to check the ‘Tours’ page and see when we’re playing a stripmall liquor store near you, and email us here to throw your hat in the ring to play one of parts" - just perfect. They posted notated music and took a randon reply from someone in each area, and got them on stage to play.

Leave aside oh it's a beautiful example of collaboration, co creation etc etc,  can you imagine being a fan and getting to play? As the one interviewed in the Guardian said, "Every time you put on a song like Hopeless in your car, and you're thinking, 'I feel the same way!' or 'I wish I could have said it like that!', you're establishing a connection with the song and the band. And this was a chance to jump on stage and play out those feelings and thoughts, and feel that much closer to the source of it all. When I found out I was picked, I was ecstatic. Being on stage with the Wrens pretty much made my year."

Now that is how to win fans and share your music.

Nice

Undersound

 

Really not too sure about this at all, but worth a tag. "undersound is a new type of experience, an interface that is on your mobile phone and in the underground stations you pass through every day. It is part personal, part public and all about the tube. undersound is a way of listening to, distributing and affecting the flow of music in the underground that goes beyond just the music itself. It allows you to see your journeys, the people around you, and the tube itself in a new light".