Tag Archive: The Go! Team


The Best Albums of 2011 – 50-26

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December 11, 2011

Yes, it’s that time of year again – absolute heaven for list writers as we try to assemble our favourite albums of the year into a single, ordered list.

We’ve gone for 50 this time rather than 25, although last year we did name our ‘next 25′ (unordered) as well as a further ten that we’d hoped to have listened to more.

We’ve not done that this time, although we appreciate the futily/ridiculousness of a single man assembling no fewer than 50 pieces of listening pleasure into an order of preference; also the fact that if it had been a different day and different mood, the make-up of this list could have been radically different. But sod it.

Here’s a blast through 50-26 with audiovisual context for all these great albums. The next five days will cover 25-1 with a bit more on why the Tidal Wave of Indifference thinks they’re so good. Here we go….

50. The Douglas Firs – Happy As a Windless Flag

A fine effort from the Edinburgh act, exemplified by key songs I Will Kill Again and The Shadow Line.

49. The Phoenix Foundation – Buffalo

Who said Kiwis couldn’t do dreamy indie?

48. Explosions in the Sky – Take Care, Take Care, Take Care

Perhaps not their best, but their always interesting and epic.

47. Friendly Fires – Pala

A decent fist of following up 2008′s debut. Simple pop songs crammed with hooks.

46. The Antlers – Burst Apart

Again, not in the same league as their amazing debut Hospice, but we’ve a lot of time for Peter Silberman and his squad.

45. Driver Drive Faster – Open House

Polytechnic weren’t great but their key figures regrouped for this lovely slab of indie pop, championed by Marc Riley

44. The Field – Looping State of Mind

Mind-warping German shoegaze techno. Nice.

43. Sparrow and the Workshop – Spitting Daggers

Increased momentum from Jill O’Sullivan and co. Every bit as good as their brace of mini-albums from the past few years.

42. The Kills – Blood Pressures

Their best yet? Unlike Jack White, Alison Mosshart hasn’t let the distraction of the Dead Weather get to her.

41. Bibio – Mind Bokeh

Good stuff this, a freaky eclectic album that defied all genres.

40. Dutch Uncles – Cadenza

A more than reasonable attempt at XTC-aping wonk-pop from a young Manchester troupe.

39. United Fruit – Fault Lines

Scotland does Fugazi/Trail of Dead noise. And does it damn well.

38. The Go! Team – Rolling Blackouts

A return to form after a lengthy absence with help from Bethany Best Coast.

37. Elbow – Build A Rocket Boys

They’ll never recapture the magic of Asleep in the Back but it was a darned sight better than their dreary 2008 Mercury winner.

36. Mazes – A Thousand Heys

Joyous, scuzzy indie pop that does exactly what it says on the tin.

35. And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead – The Tao of the Dead

A fresh line-up and fresh ambition from the Texans. Big rock songs and proggy madness. 

34. Wye Oak – Civilian

Built mainly on two songs – Holy Holy and Dog’s Eyes – what songs they were.

33. Lykke Li – Wounded Rhymes

Former pop ingenue took on Jonsí-esque levels of lunacy and created a stunning record of massive tunes.

32. Come on Gang! – Strike a Match

Already much-missed Edinburgh indie-pop three-piece’s first – and last – album.

31. Trips and Falls – People Have to Be Told

Tongue-in-cheek pop from Song, by Toad’s American imports.

30. Adam Stafford – Build A Harbour Immediately

Very much a slow burner. We were unconvinced after his album launch but repeated listens saw this shoot up in our opinion and we’re now converts to his live show too.

29. Kurt Vile – Smoke Ring for My Halo

Sleepy, stoned stuff from the prolific singer-songwriter.

28. Kate Bush – Fifty Words for Snow

Utterly, utterly baffling. Stephen Fry naming (oh yes) fifty words for snow, a song about shagging a snowman and a rare occasion where an Elton John guest appearance enhances, rather than ruins, a song.

27. The Horrors – Skying

The NME still love them, and this is some rare common ground for ourseleves and the increasingly childish music weekly. Where shoegaze meets garage meets dream pop.

26. Low – C’mon

Probably their best album in three years, this was short, sharp and bloody great.

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The Go! Team/The Phoenix Foundation, Edinburgh Liquid Room, February 4, 2011

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February 5, 2011

The Go! Team have always been a frightening live proposition and after a three year absence, their return to gigging is most welcome.

In tow for this leg of a lengthy UK tour are New Zealander labelmates the Phoenix Foundation – a very different style of band. Six beardy thirty/forty-something Kiwis may have looked an odd match for the headliners on paper but they give it a good shot after a slow start.

On record, Eventually’s languid melodies are a perfect way to open new album Buffalo, but it doesn’t quite work here. Put simply, it’s too slow and the lack of interest from the audience is obvious.

Thankfully things pick up. Beefier numbers like Orange and Mango get a run out and things are wrapped up with a garage-y older number and Buffalo’s pounding title track. The crowd, which has tripled in size since they strummed their first chord, are now well into it and the send off they get suggests that big UK break could be close.

After a very quick turnaround, the Go! Team slink gradually on stage to building cheers, which turn into an eruption of sound when pintsized MC Ninja bounds on. They’re straight into Rolling Blackouts’ venomous opener T.O.R.N.A.D.O., and waste no time in blasting out Grip Like a Vice and Huddle Formation.

Ninja is a bundle of energy, clad only in what looks like a sports bra and a pair of jeggings, and her bandmates swap instruments as often as she whoops up the crowd (i.e. a lot).

Guitarist Kaori Tsuchida takes the mic for Secretary Song and Buy Nothing Day and delivers a more than passable impressions of the original vocalists Satomi Matsuzaki and Bethany Consentino. Ladyflash is lobbed in early doors and the first half of the set is pure musical euphoria.

There is a dip towards the end. Drummer Chi steps up to front Ready to Go Steady which sadly falls flat. But any sense of the foot easing of the gas is shredded by Bottle Rocket and an encore of Junior Kickstart, Appollo Throwdown and Titanic Vandalism. By this point the whole room is going apeshit.

It’s been a long absence, but the new album’s great and tonight shows that the Go! Team are still massively relevant in 2011.

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Rolling Blackouts

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January 26, 2011

Album of the Week: The Go! Team – Rolling Blackouts

When samples-based Thunder, Lightening, Strike emerged in 2004, the Go! Team were a breath of fresh air for the UK indie music scene.

A mash-up of American cop show themes, jangling guitar and cheerleader chants, they were an incredible live proposition and, if reports are to be believed, came within a whisker of the Mercury Prize.

The criminally underrated Proof of Youth landed in 2007. A more band-based affair, it didn’t quite have the impact of its groundbreaking predecessor, but is every bit its equal.

Fast forward to 2011 and third album Rolling Blackouts is about to drop. Chief Go! Teamer and songwriter Ian Parton must truly believe in the old adage ‘if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ as there are no real deviations in sound here.

You’ll have hopefully heard single Buy Nothing Day on 6 Music – all pop hooks and chugging guitar, given added gravitas by a soothing vocal by Best Coast’s Bethany Cosentino.

She’s not the only one who takes on mic on a record that’s more guest-laden than its predecessor. Pint-sized MC Ninja is back, spitting bullets on fiery opener T.O.R.N.A.D.O., a call to arms and a rousing way to open any album.

Deerhoof’s Satomi Matsuzaki lends her distinctive tones to Secretary Song, the perfect collision of both bands’ styles.

Much of Rolling Blackouts uses similar ticks and tricks to their older material. A feeling of nostalgia runs through the record heavily indebted to early ’80s America – Bust Out Brigade sounds like a High School marching band and old skool hip hop prevails on tracks like T.O.R.N.A.D.O. and much of the breakbeats that run through the album.

Fun from start to finish and even more songwriting and live instrument-based than Proof of Youth, Rolling Blackouts deserves to find a fresh audience for the band. If you’re already a fan you’ll love it anyway but if you’re not then give it a go – it’ll put a huge grin on your miserable face.

I caught up with Ian Parton last week…

Was there a fresh approach to the songwriting this time round?

This album’s definitely driven more by songwriting and features more singing rather than the Double Dutch chants people know us for. I wanted to make strange little pop songs – I’ve always been really into catchiness and melody cos it’s the hardest thing to do, but not to have a hit or get into the charts. So on this record, I was really putting melody first and letting it run the show. When you’ve got something you think is watertight, that’s when you can start fucking it up. The record’s different for a few reasons – it’s more sing-y, more melodic, more panoramic, has more bass, its more eclectic, plus it features a live teenage community brass band!

There’s plenty of guests on the new album. Were those tunes written with a fresh voice in mind?

I would write a song and then think about the kinda voice that would suit the song – so it was back-to-front really. I had one song called Secretary Song which made me think of a ’60s office in Tokyo, and secretaries all typing in time, hating their jobs and it had a melody in the chorus which reminded me a little of Deerhoof. ‘Cos we kind of know Satomi – they asked us to play a festival they were curating in Belgium earlier this year – it was easy for us to ask her and I knew it would work perfectly. With Bethany from Best Coast… I had a song called Buy Nothing Day that had a Californian girl group kind of feel and I discovered Best Coast on Myspace and loved her voice. This was about December 2009, so before all the hype. Maybe I should be an A&R man?

The album title could be open to interpretation – it makes me think of a slightly Dystopian future where electricity is at a premium… am I being too bleak? is there a particularly meaning attached?

No it doesn’t refer to unreasonable fuel bills! In the same way I collect samples, I also have notebooks full of phrases and slogans going back to the early 90s and ‘rolling blackouts’ jumped out. I like the image of a power cut spreading across a city – it has movement….. 

You always go down well in Scotland – excited about your imminent return?

Oh yeah! Without sounding like I’m kissing ass when ever anyone asks us where the crowds are best, we always say Scotland – damn right!

You can have a listen to Buy Nothing Day below…

The Go! Team are on tour throughout February with support in Scotland coming from recent Album of the Week winners the Phoenix Foundation.
February 3, Glasgow Oran Mor

February 4, Edinburgh Liquid Room

February 5, Aberdeen Lemon Tree

February 8, London Heaven

February 9, Cambridge Junction

February 10, Birmingham Institute

February 11, Bristol Anson Rooms

February 13, Falmouth Princess Pavilion

February 14, Bournemouth Old Fire Station

February 15, Oxford O2 Academy 1

February 16, Brighton Concorde 2

February 18, Leeds Cockpit

February 19, Manchester Academy 2

February 20, Liverpool O2 Academy 2

February 21, Nottingham Rescue Rooms

February 24, Norwich Waterfront

February 25, Sheffield O2 Academy 2

February 26, Leicester O2 Academy 2

February 27, Cardiff  Millennium Music Hall

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Buffalo

Filed under: Albums, Interviews — 3 Comments
January 13, 2011

Album of the Week: The Phoenix Foundation – Buffalo

Apparently, the best time to release a summery album is the depths of midwinter.

That’s the evidence being put forward by New Zealand’s Phoenix Foundation, anyway.

Huge in their own country – and I’m talking chart-topping, award-winning huge here – Buffalo is their fourth album, but their first concerted foray into the UK market with a Memphis Industries deal inked and dates with new label mates the Go! Team looming.

It’s been out down under for quite a while but they seem to have missed the memo about it being winter in the northern hemisphere and that the UK being a frozen, snowy wasteland.

This record is all about the beach or having your feet up on the patio with an ice-cold cocktail in your hand.

It’s lovely stuff – melodic and warm-hearted fare with an eye for a catchy lyric (It takes two to tango/like an orange and a mango) and a top tune.

Eventually is a languid, dreamy opener, like struggling to open your eyes with the sun streaming through your window. The title track is weightier and ticks the ‘perfect pop’ box with thundering drums appropriate to its title.

This is a well-written, well produced set of songs that could well see the band make an impact outside their native country and it would be well-deserved.

At the back end of the record is Golden Ship, an epic sweep that Animal Collective would be proud of – and then undoubtedly ruin by tipping unnecessary bleeps and synths into the mix.

It’s a fine way to polish off a record that will be a pleasant surprise to anyone not acquainted with New Zealand’s indie pop scene.

I’d say it’s time for a pina colada and another play. I just need to scrape some more ice off the car first.

I put a few questions to Luke Buda (vocals/guitar) from the band this week…

Sadly whenever I think of modern NZ bands, all that I can conjure up is knuckle dragging rocker types and tongue-in-cheek folktronica. Am I missing something?

By that do you mean The Datsuns and The Ruby Suns [YES! – Ed]? Well you need to hear Lawrence Arabia, Connan Mockasin, and the Mint Chicks. Three of the best. Obviously it’s a very small population but there is a very much alive music scene. Even if there is only the occasional rise above the mediocre.

What’s your approach to lyric-writing? I’m thinking of a certain rhyming couplet that uses tango and mango in particular here!

Well…. Sam wrote most of the lyrics so I should let him answer this but I think he was just making a conscious decision to try and keep the angst at bay, and maybe on a bit of a “let us celebrate the absurd” tip.

By your own admission this is a different sounding record to [2007's] Happy Ending – is there a particular influence that came to the fore this time round?

Basically just realizing that perhaps we weren’t making music that was as errrr… left-leaning or something as what we were loving and listening to, and wanting to push the weird a bit more.  Also, with each of our albums we get better as a band and Lee Prebble our studio warlord gets more flash gear and gets better at manipulating the frequencies.  Also we mostly recorded it at our practice room and so felt a lot less inhibited by budget.  As in, if we wanted to fool around on getting some backwards flange-ing vocal harmony for two or three days, we could!

 Have you played the UK before? Looking forward to getting over?

Ridiculously, we came over about four years ago and played ONE gig at the Islington Academy.  We are MUCH better live now… Mostly I remember that the toilets were four floors below the stage and that caused some problems with the unfortunately too common pre-encore pit stop… Really looking forward to playing some gigs.  Not so sure about leaving behind a lovely summer to come to this so called WINTER OF DOOOOOM.  But we will certainly be enjoying a few pulled pints.

Upcoming dates include:

Feb 3 Glasgow Oran Mor, w/ The Go! Team
Feb 4 Edinburgh Liquid Room w/ The Go! Team
Feb 5 Aberdeen Lemon Tree w/ The Go! Team
Feb 6 Newcastle Cluny w/ The Go! Team

There’s plenty more on the band’s website and you can listen to album track Pot here:

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