"I never really want to see you when the Sun is shining..."
After some ten years away Danish indie-rockers Moi Caprice have returned with a new single, an homage to a doomed character in Sergio Leone's classic Spaghetti WesternOnce Upon A Time In The West. Unlike Leone's epic, a gorgeous sprawling tale of greed, honour and revenge in the old west, Maureen is five minutes of tight synth, programmed percussion and breathy vocals. This ode to Maureen McBain, whose family's fate acts as a catalyst for an equally bloody chain of events, might not seem a likely topic for a song but Moi Caprice have previous form in taking inspiration from the big screen; the name of their debut album was also inspired by Leone's 1968 epic and their last long player, 2008's We Had Faces Then, both took its title from Sunset Boulevard and included a song paying tribute to Claudia Cardinale.
As a taster for the band's forthcoming fifth album Maureen bodes very well indeed, although we'll have to wait until the Autumn (at least) to hear what other magic the reformed line-up of Michael Møller, Casper Henning Hansen and David Brunsgaard, now joined by touring guitarist Jakob Funch and Fridolin Nordsø on bass (replacing Jakob Millung), have wrought in the studio.
The band haven't exactly been idle in the saddle in the intervening years, individually they've busied themselves as touring musicians or have embarked on solo projects, the most notable of which is Michael Møller's A Month of Unrequited Love. This daily release of love songs grew into a 31 track LP, Denmark's first crowd-funded vinyl release.
I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a fan of the band (I'd have to check Last.FM to find out just how many times I've listened to The Art of Kissing Properly, it's definitely in high double-figures though), I am therefore understandably chuffed that they're back in action. And if
you're wondering what the relevance of the harmonica at the end of the
music video is then, well, you'll just have to watch the film.
My copy of Moi Caprice's latest album, The Art Of Kissing Properly, arrived the other day and has soon become one with my CD deck. It won't budge, it can't be moved, it just demands to be played over and over again.
Part of the reason for this is tracks like this one:
H'mm. They must be putting something in the water in Denmark.
Danish band Mew were recently approached by an advertising company, working for a Norwegian Pay-TV channel, for the use of one of their songs in an upcoming campaign.
"Can we use Comforting Sounds in the new Canal Digital ad?" they asked.
"OK, but you'll have to pay us some money" said Mew.
"Err, we'll get back to you" replied the advertising company, who then proceeded to get someone to knock up a just-different-enough-so-they-won't-sue soundalike tune for their shiny new ad...
If you ask me that's not really different enough at all, it's practically the same. The band thought so to, as did their record company and their lawyers (if your Norwegian is good then you can read more information on the Verdens Gang website).
Following some intense legal banter later a deal was struck so that the ad could be shown this one time, with Mew compensated for the possible copyright exposure. Should the ad campaign be re-run at a later date however the tune in question will be changed to something that really doesn't sound anything at all like Comforting Sounds. Which, by the way, sounds like this...
The Mew Live in Copenhagen DVD arrived on my doorstep this morning. This is Mew's first live DVD, recorded at a packed KB Hallen in Copenhagen last March. Needless to say the disc was out of the jiffy bag and into the player before the cellophane could hit the floor.
The 16 track DVD favours the recent And The Glass Handed Kites album but that's to be expected. There are a couple of gems from earlier albums included in the set, both 156 and Comforting Sounds are accompanied by their mind-bending rear-projected films (you'll believe a cat can play the violin, I'm still not sure what those white things are though). In addition Jonas performs a delicate solo medley of Panda, Mica and Saliva at the piano. Also included on the decidedly minimalist DVD (no fancy menus with music) is a bonus 60 minute "documentary" of the making of ATGHK (or rather a collection of clips of the chaps in various rehearsal rooms and studios).
The only criticism I can muster, given that I'm fairly stoked to get my grubby little mitts on it, is that the footage has been tinkered around with too much in post-production; it's decidedly murky in places (either that or my TV screen is due a clean).
The Region 0 DVD was released in Denmark last December and it's not on general sale elsewhere as yet. It can be purchased from the Mew website via a link to Vibrashop but, thanks to a tip-off on the Mew forum, I pointed my browser to the Irish CDWOW site. There the DVD is available for a bargain €5.99 (someone must have screwed up, it should be €22.00 at least!).
Anyway, enough banter, here's the opening track of the DVD, Special:
As mentioned previously, Danish rockers The Blue Van are one of the supports on the current Jet tour (the other being New Zealand's The Checks). I stumbled across a couple of tracks from their debut album The Art of Rolling on some blog or other awhile back and liked what I heard; a nicely derivative combination of guitars, Hammond organ and thumping drums that appears to have leapfrogged the past 30 years of music without a second glance.
Here's a taster:
OK so it isn't really ground-breaking, but sometimes all you want to do is rock. Or pretend it's 1968.
