The Hoosiers & The Illusion Of Safety

I dislike pop music. The charts are depressing place, and it's seldom anything good comes from them. This wasn't always the case, of course. Many years ago, the charts actually contained decent music, albeit not always to my taste. Then came boybands, autotune and barely comprehensible hip hop influences with ridiculous names. But in this mire of overprocessed, overhyped and overbearing identipop, a gem can occassionally come along.

With last month's release of Arcade Fire's new record, this summer started looking up. And now The Hoosiers, whose debut reached number 1 in the charts back in the heady days of 2007, have released their sophomore effort. Shunning the "me too" attitude of so many current artists, they have dragged their music kicking and screaming back in time to the 80s and early 90s. A simpler time, a time before the internet and media force-feeding of their latest cash cow. But more importantly, a fun time.

The very first thing that struck me when I put on The Illusion Of Safety was that it reminded me very much of the music of my childhood. Not the music of my youth, mind you. Sadly Oasis, Take That (sorry 23inertia) and Destiny's Child were forced upon us at that time. I'm talking about Erasure, Men At Work, Dire Straits, Billy Joel, Bowie and Queen. You know. Good pop bands.

Opening with their most recent single, Choices, the early 90s are very much in evidence. The staccato synths make for a toe tapping beat and the lyrics are easy enough to pick up that you should only need to hear it once. Going straight through into Bumpy Ride, the infectious pop hooks and simple, almost bordering on trite, lyrics make for an upbeat and uplifting chorus. While the beat and melody may not be the most complex, the lyrics don't always match these bubblegum pop wrappers. The influences of The Trick To Life on lyrical themes is more than evident. Love found, love lost, unrequited, painful and ever poignant.

The album seems to slide slowly backward to the 80s as the songs progress. Unlikely Hero and Lovers In My Head remind me of watching Top Of The Pops on our black and white telly. Even the slower, less bouncy tracks like Devil's In The Detail and Sarajevo are heartwarming in a way that is a rarity in commercial music. Sarajevo in particular is a sophisticated, smoothly produced song with political overtones. Think Sunday, Bloody Sunday or Winds Of Change.

The album peaks around track 8 with the stomping, overblown synth-laden behemoth of a song that is Glorious. Like Unlikely Hero before it, I could easily see Scissor Sisters covering it. The layered vocals, 80s style synth-twiddling, the ridiculous beepy hook after every line of the chorus. It's a mindworm of a track, embedding itself in your brain and never letting go. The following track, Made To Measure, is much simpler in production, but is catchy enough to fit perfectly and maintains the energy of the former long enough that there is no feeling of disappointment when it finishes.

Perhaps "peak" is not the right word to describe the placement of Glorious. Instead, it perhaps marks the most frenetic part of the album. The tracks surrounding it are slower, and more reminiscient of The Trick To Life. The final two tracks, the aforementioned Sarajevo and Little Brutes, could have come straight off the earlier album. Overall, the album is well balanced. It's definitely not a front-loader, but it has a distinct slide toward melancholy as it comes to a rather peaceful close, a million miles from the thumping opener. It leaves the listener satisfied that it was worth listening to the end, and makes the whole album feel like it was designed with purpose, not thrown together. Each song fits its place, and having listened to it a few times now (well, couple of dozen) I can't think of a single way to improve the running order, the energy or the sentiment of any of the songs.

The second album is famously the point where the one hit wonders are separated from the bands that are going places. The Hoosiers are going places. And they'll document every step of the way with their addictive, quirky and romantic take on life.

The A-Team - There is no plan B

Daah dah daaah, dah daah daah, daah da-dah daaah, daah da-dadah daah

The A-Team! Every child of the 80s idea of awesome. Everyone wanted to be a clever as Hannibal, as tough as BA, as smooth as Face and as wacky as Murdoch. Everyone wanted to build a rocket powered go-kart with machine guns in the shed using nothing but two bits of wood and a tin of paint. And now, those children are all grown up and making movies.

The A-Team movie is finally here. After really no wait at all, because nobody actually expected one to be made, it explodes onto our screens with wisecracks, machismo and really, really big explosions. How could it fail?

Well, I'll be honest, I'm not going to say that the film is perfect. Far from it, it's clunky and hard to follow, and the final sequences will bend your eyeballs back into your head just trying to keep up with the Michael Bay style all-over-the-place camera angles. But does it really matter?

Liam Neeson pulled off a great Hannibal. His mannerisms were just right, and that trademark glint in his eye as he lit his cuban and grinned at the camera made the 7 year old boy inside me metaphorically jump out of his seat and shout "YAY!" Bradley Cooper as the Faceman was, also, spot on. The right mix of suave lady's man and action hero.

Murdoch was an interesting one. I don't think anyone could pull off Dwight Schultz' version of the character, but Sharlto Copley does a damn fine job at it. Maybe not as completely madcap as Schultz' Murdoch, but exactly the right level of insane to keep everything going without being over the top. I felt the whole way through that the insanity was largely put on to disguise a more cunning plan developing underneath.

Perhaps the weakest character was BA. This is entirely due, I think, to the inability of anyone but Mr T to be BA Barracus. So instead of an unexploded bomb disguised as a one man catchphrase machine, we got a pretty generic tough guy with some odd behaviour. Like being afraid of flying, and instantly calmed by curry. All that being said, though, and given the other changes to the back story, Quinton Jackson did a fine job at it.

What's that though? Changes to the back story? Well, yes. This film is more an origin story than a stand-alone A-Team adventure. It starts with the team initially meeting up at the end of the Iraq war. Hijinks obviously ensue, and the team and formed. Flash forward 80 successful missions later, and they are sent on a highly suspect mission that sees them carted off and dishonourably discharged. This presents the ideal opportunity to find out all about escape from high security prison so often mentioned in the opening credits, but so far never seen. It's hilarious, action packed and completely off the wall. If you like your films realistic (I'm talking to the people who complained that Avatar wasn't realistic enough here) then you're unlikely to enjoy a single second of this film.

In some respects, parts of the film jar a little. It's like the film makers didn't really know if the target audience really knew enough about the A-Team to be able to recognise why things happened the way they did. Little verbal exposés to let people know things that should have been implicit. We don't need a character telling another that the A-Teams plans are crazy. We don't need them telling each other that they are the best at what they do. We don't need them telling each other that they are trying to fly a tank.

Yes, you read that last bit right. Enough of that though. Go see it.

Anyway, changes. One major change is that the team are fighting to clear their names. They are not, yet, soldiers of fortune. They are not championing anyone's cause but their own. That will change in sequels, though. The trademark "nobody ever gets killed" seemed to largely be intact, although there were a few fatalities throughout the film. Including one notable one by a member of the A-Team. Tut tut, film makers. Tut tut indeed.

Oh, and BA stands for Bad Attitude. Everyone knows that. It does not, and never will, stand for Bad Ass. That is final.

There are changes aplenty throughout the film, but one thing I've realised is that many of them I didn't even notice. For instance, the classic A-Team van puts in an appearance, but not for long. At first I was disappointed, but then didn't actually notice it missing until the end of the film. The action cracks on at a good pace, and the between action banter is amusing and to the point. Even the bits that seem out of place soon turn out to be part of the plan.

From the set pieces to the jokes (both in jokes and slapstick), the film is great for fans of the series, and for action film enthusiasts in general. There's really nothing not to like about it, and even the changes are done well. There a quirks and hiccups, but frankly you'll be too busy staring at the screen with your eyelids wide open taking in the spectacle to care. And when I said there were explosions, I meant it. Big explosions.

In 1983, a crack commando unit exploded onto our television screens with crazy stunts, insane plans and explosions everywhere you looked. Today, having been remade into a feature film, they still survive as childhood heroes. If you want to watch a movie, if everything else looks boring, and if you can get a ticket, maybe you should watch ... The A-Team!

Realising My Imagination

Recently I have become increasingly dissatisfied with my photographic equipment. Over the last couple of years, I seem to have lost the spark that I had for a very long time for learning, practicing and enjoying photography. Last week, I think I figured out why. I was using the wrong camera. So out I went and supplemented my Fuji S1 Pro by giving it its own mini-me. A tiny little Fuji S5700.

I've been into photography for quite a long time. I got my first 110 format point+click when I was about 7, by sending off tokens from tins of beans. The strange stacks of single use flash cubes perched precariously on top of the tiny device remind me very much of my childhood. Slightly oddly coloured animals at the zoo, and people with bits cut off and lens flair covering half their bodies. Good times, those. I also had another camera, although I have no idea what it was. I remember it looked something like this Sugaya camera though. I also remember that I loved that camera, although I never had chance to do much with it.

Some time in the early 90s, my dad got me my first 35mm SLR. It was a Zenit E, made in the USSR (said so on the bottom), and came with a fixed 56mm lens. The thing was entirely mechanical. No batteries except for in the optional flash gun, although it did have a piezo trigger in the hot shoe. The metering, film selection, exposure and focus were all manual, though. It really taught me about what goes into a photograph. What I took for granted in the fixed focus, fixed aperture, fixed speed pointy-clicky cameras of my childhood.

I made the transition to digital in 2001 with a huge Kodak monstrosity that was cheap. It was a 1.3 megapixel thing, but was about 4 times bigger than the Canon compacts that were just coming out (the precursor to the current Ixus range). It had autofocus, but no manual control at all. It did me ok, I guess, but I couldn't really explore my artistic vision. Zoom, for example, was achieved by walking closer to the subject. I got rid of that after a short while and replaced it with another Kodak, this time a Kodak DC-215. It had every shortcoming of the original Kodak but was a bit smaller and had 2x optical zoom.

So I went off Kodak and tried other things. I ended up buying myself a Fuji Finepix S5100 in 2004. That camera is the one that really got me into photography properly. It was small, a bit too light, and the screen was miniscule, but that was okay. It had every configurable option under the sun. Full manual exposure, manual focus or 3 different autofocus options, configurable flash power, auto-bracketting, exposure compensation, and to top it all of, a 10x optical zoom (the equivalent of a 300mm lens on a 35mm SLR). With 4 megapixels and a Fuji SuperCCD, it really was a great little device. I could stick it in P or Auto and let the camera do all the work, or I could take full control of every aspect of the picture.

So far, so good, and I wanted something more! What better option than a digital SLR? I bought the S1 Pro for £100 around 2007 or so. It has a single kit lens, 28-100mm at f3.5-5.6. Not the longest telephoto or the widest wide-angle, and not the fastest lens either, but sufficient for perhaps 70% of photographs. I have used it successfully on many occassions to take some pictures that I'm very proud of. But something was lacking. Well, two things.

Firstly, the thing weighs a ton. It's huge, even compared to other SLRs, and the bag I have to carry full with replacements for each of the seven batteries it takes, in 3 different types (AA, CR-123 and CR-2032) makes it even heavier. It's not a camera you can just take out and about without it being very conspicuous.

Secondly, I have outgrown it in many ways. The occassions that I make best use of the lens I have for it could be adequately covered by a fairly standard compact. Sure, it has a better quality of picture because the sensor is so much larger than that of a compact, but the trade off is not in its favour. To do the best I would like to, I would need three lenses.

• A 35-200mm zoom
• A 56mm or 80mm prime
• An 18mm-50mm zoom

These should, ideally, be faster than the one I have. f2.8 would suffice. Unfortunately, to get these lenses it's looking like I might have to pay up to £1000. Ouch.

A570is - Rubbish at gigs

At the same time, I was growing increasingly frustrated by my new compact, a Canon PowerShot A570is. Not a bad little point-and-shoot if everything you're ever going to photograph is in broad daylight, approximately 2 to 20 metres away. Other than that, you're out of luck. This was most evident in photographs I take at gigs.

S5100 - Great at gigs

I find the PowerShot's pictures to be too noisy/grainy, blurred with soft edges due to its slow lens and low light. More generally, though, they are very much snapshot quality. Point the camera at the stage, try to get the best you can using the kit available to you, don't try anything too fancy. The S5100, on the other hand, allowed me to get better angles, better light control, and cleaner pictures without having to fight with it.

So, the Canon is on eBay. A shiny new Fuji S5700, successor to the venerable S5100 of old, is sat on my table. I look forward to getting back the fun and satisfaction I once had from my photographical expeditions. It'll be fun.

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

After a much-hyped, eagerly observed wait for Arcade Fire's triumphant return, release day finally arrived. Of I went in my comfortable family car from my 3 bedroom terraced house to my local shopping centre to pick up an album about ... exactly that. The Suburbs turns its gaze inward to reflect on the modern life so many of us lived, and live, in our rapidly changing world.

The concept of suburban ennui is neither new nor original. Writing songs, composing articles and delivering speeches about the hardships of growing up in the relatively prosperous cities of the western world has become cliché, and risks sounding somewhat ridiculous. But that is not where this album goes.

Of course, there is a thick layering of malcontent, irritability and misanthropy thrown in, but it is all used to reveal a more subtle subtext. Funeral was a deeply personal album, describing the putting away of childish things, the acceptance of personal change and personal growth. Love, life and loss in equal measure. Neon Bible threatened us with the gaudy, insincere bombast of political and religious fervour, but instead delved headlong into dealing with the pressures and powers of world.

The Suburbs takes a step down from that soapbox and delivers an altogether sadder, yet more uplifting message. We all grew up, yet we are all both nostalgic and melancholy about the ways and whys of our upbringing. But the world is a fast changing place. The worlds of our childhoods no longer exist, and we must grow past them, yet not throw them out entirely.

The album opener and title track serves as an introduction or sorts. It lays out what lies ahead, and brings in the themes and background of the album. Following on, Ready To Start is an apt a title as is possible. While we can sit, mourning the lost past and wishing that things had been different, in any small way, it takes a decision to move on. And move on we do.

The album kicks it up a notch here with Modern Man, an introspective on the normal life of an average 9-to-5 man loving his average, 9-to-5 life. He queues up with the rest, waiting for his future to arrive, but is unsettled because something, somehow, seems amiss. It's played with an upbeat melody, incorporating a brilliantly catchy hook line that has me involuntarily snapping my fingers every time.

The pace continues through Rococo, with possibly the most difficult single word chorus I've ever tried to sing along to, and Empty Room before the next stand-out track; City No Children. It ponders the adult world's tendency to forget childlike things, to be entirely far too mature. At this point the album takes a turn toward a more familiar sound, with Half Light I taking on the strings and rich, layered sound that made Funeral so spectacular.

From here on in, the album seems to progress more and more toward 80s stylings, which of course would be the time of the band's childhoods. From the synth heavy bass driven pop of Half Light II through we get the punk rock stylings of Month Of May, which wouldn't have sounded out of place on Neon Bible if the subject matter weren't so positive.

More of Funeral's influence shows up as the album continues, with distinctive introductory riffs and very familiar chord progressions. While not as musically complex as its critically acclaimed predecessor, the soaring emotional punch is still there. In the penultimate double-track pair, Sprawl, the truth of the scale of urban development becomes clear, and the 80s influence comes to a head with Sprawl II, which wouldn't sound out of place on a Blondie compilation.

Bringing the album right down to basics, the mixed feelings of nostalgia and excitement are tempered again by the downbeat closing number, a reprise of the opening track. But this time the sound is lilting, softer, and somehow more positive. It brings the album to a satisfying close, but also prompts the listener to hit play one more time.

This is an impressive third album, sticking solidly with the concept album template, which completes a trilogy of emotions. First hope, then anger, and finally acceptance. From the very first listen I loved this album, and while some tracks are yet to grow on me, and others I struggle to recall at all, it doesn't seem to matter. I know they'll stick, and more to the point, I want them to. At over an hour, and with 16 tracks, this is a very long album, and yet it finishes all too soon. Like the two albums before, The Suburbs deserves to be listened to, and not just heard.

Tramlines 2010

After being rather annoyed a being away for Tramlines 2009, a special effort was made to ensure at least one visit to Sheffield's largest music festival this year. After all, with 50 venues to go at over 3 days, it must be possible to find at least one gig to go to? Well, we did. Several, in fact, although as is the nature of such things, it still didn't feel like quite enough.

Friday

Although originally only intending to go on the Saturday and Sunday, my Tramlines adventure started a day early. 23inertia was out at a hen do, so I met up with a few friends and ex-colleagues for an after work pint. One thing led to another, and we ended up in the Leadmill to watch Focus, a somewhat unusual rock band dating back 31 years.

I'd never even heard of Focus before the night, I'll admit. The gig started a little late, and the room was packed. As a conservative estimate, I'd say 200 people turned out to watch these veterans of psychedelia wow us with their grooves. And wow us they did.

Though plainly instrumental rock, the whole mix is brought to life by the inclusion of some rather non-standard parts. Thijs van Leer, founder and lead, provided much of the entertainment in the form of flute and yodelling. Yes, yodelling.

I'm told that they're most recent hit was a rerelease of Hocus Pocus for use in the Nike world cup adverts. Not being a football fan, or even particularly a TV watcher, I missed that one. Shame, as it's really rather good.

The set went on for around an hour, plus encore, and I was entranced throughout. The musicians were tight, the riffs were strong, the yodelling was irritatingly catchy. If anyone were to be introduced to this band, a gig like this would be the only way to do it.

Saturday

The Sex Cow is watching you

After a very long lie in to recover from the beer and the mind-bending music, it was time to embark on Saturday's adventure. Although technically we did attend Tramlines, we were primarily at a stag do (to complement Friday's hen do) to take place within the main arena on Devonshire Green. With our stag suitably attired as a sort of gothic S&M ladybird, we joined the queue.

The queue for the main arena was the length and breadth of Division Street. It was friendly enough, though, with the various queueing parties chatting amongst themselves and with each other. It took about an hour to get in, but the inflatable farm animals provided enough entertainment for our bit of the queue that it flew by.

Much ridiculous behaviour obviously took place, including the theft of an inflatable sex pig by a middle aged woman, and so we only managed to stand and watch a single band that day. Much of the remaining time was spent hiding in the Forum and getting beer from the express bar. A genius notion; pre-pulled pints are lined up. You pays your money, you takes your beer, job done.

The Hoosiers

We ventured out of Forum (affectionately dubbed "the kitchen") to see The Hoosiers who, in spite of popular opinion, I have liked since their debut album, The Trick To Life. They played a brilliant set. Mostly new tracks off their forthcoming album, although one or two crowd pleasers (Worried About Ray and Goodbye Mr A) kept the masses happy.

I have to say that I enjoyed the new material very much. It's a deviation from the quirky "odd pop" stylings of older material, and possibly leaning toward more mainstream pop, but they pulled it off well. Lively songs that I look forward to hearing properly in the not too distant future.

Headliner for the night was Tinchy Stryder. I will hold my hands up and say that I really don't "get" that sort of music, so I barely took notice. The crowd seemed to like it though. Not entirely sure that taking a toddler to a music festival then getting drunk in charge of a minor is a great idea, though.

We took our leave early as the rest of the party went off to do "stag" related things. Yes. Those sort of things.

Sunday

Sunday was the big day for us. The day we could go out and see the bands we wanted, without other commitments. And so it was, although tragically too late to catch Feelix's acoustic set in Lounge. A shame, as we saw them the week before and they were brilliant.

Grammatics

To business, then, and to the Exposed New Music stage on Barkers Pool, grabbing a bit from the Devonshire Chippy on the way. We primarily went to see Grammatics, first known to us as the support for Bloc Party last year. The Tramlines sets are short, so it was straight down to business, playing well known tracks like Shadow Committee amongst unreleased new material.

While the short set did mean that between song banter had to be kept to a minimum, the band performed very well indeed. They looked like they were enjoying it as much as we were. They played a good set in the time allowed, and even came back to play arguably their best song, Relentless Fours.

Sadly, on returning home and looking up Grammatics on MySpace, we discovered that the band are splitting up at the end of August. A farewell EP will be released containing whatever they have already completed from their now cancelled upcoming album. We will definitely have to get a copy of that.

The sound at the Exposed stage was surprisingly good. Even stood a way back out of courtesy (we are both quite tall) we could see and hear perfectly. Well done on the sound engineers who set up the outdoor arenas.

Rolo Tomassi

After a quick coffee at Haha Bar, and with the absent World Music stage not tickling our ear drums, we headed back to watch Rolo Tomassi at the Exposed stage.

I'm not sure what I expected a Sheffield based mathcore band to sound like, but whatever it was, it wasn't that. They seem to have a big following and the crowd was certainly jumping, but it wasn't really our cup of tea. A little too much screaming for my taste. I tend to prefer the deep growls of death metal with the occasional foray into black metal. But I certainly didn't expect sounds like that from such a diminutive lass!

Echo & The Bunnymen

Nearly time for Echo & The Bunnymen, so off we pottered back to the main arena. These are artists with a lot of experience, and it shows. They appeared completely laid back, drinking and smoking on stage and just getting on with the task at hand. Again, between song banter was kept to a minimum, which is reasonable for the time frame allowed but maybe made the performance feel a little impersonal. Fantastic music, though, and it was a great way to introduce 23inertia to this classic band.

The crowd loved it. None more so than an older guy dressed as an extra from Last Of The Summer Wine who was running about and dancing with anyone and everyone who'd let him. And at the end of the day, isn't that what festivals are all about?

Dance!

Sadly this is where our Tramlines ended. I had wanted to see 65DaysOfStatic, but we were both exhausted after a long weekend. In the end, it turned out that electrical problems meant the 65dos gig was cancelled anyway. But at least we left Tramlines on a high note.

We'll definitely be out next year, and will make sure that weekend is free so we can make the absolute most of the weekend. Tramlines is a great event, and proves even more that Sheffield is a great music city. Long may it continue!