Jake Mattison – “Lord If I Could” (Live Session)

October 29th, 2012 • News

Jake Mattison filmed this live session of his track “Lord If I Could” before his appearance at Swn Festival in Cardiff recently (18 October). The result is just lovely – and reminds us why we fell in love with him (and his crowd silencing voice) right back at the start of the year. A small number of copies of his debut single, “Sorrow”, are still in stock at LFC HQ – grab one here.

Tags: Cardiff, Jake Mattison, Live session, Lord If I Could, Sorrow, Swn Festival, You’re Too Old

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Article source: http://laissezfaireclub.com/2012/10/jake-mattison-lord-if-i-could-live-session/

Let’s define “Supergroup” as Divine Fits headline Newport Music Hall

Its not very often you have two headlining acts, playing different venues on the same night in the same town, combine forces at the last minute to share a stage and fan bases. Last night Jon Spencer Blues Explosion were set to headline at The Basement and Divine Fits were to do the same at Newport Music Hall. Assuming, due to sluggish sales the folks at Promowest decided to put both bands on the larger stage at Newport bringing each of the opening acts along for the ride. As a result we got four bands on a Wednesday night and the inevitable jockeying for headlining respect… needless to say I never lost sight of the nearest exit.

The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion is obviously a band from another era, playing heavy guitar driven rock n roll impressive for any three piece. Imagine what Green Day would/should sound like if they weren’t awful and refused to perform tracks reminiscent of the dookie days. JSBE did have a large and attentive stage-hugging crowd and I was pleasantly surprised by the overall sound and stage presence displayed by the weathered showmen. Nevertheless, nothing actually exploded (bummer) and the true blues of the evening was probably having to open for Divine Fits, which I suspect is why they took so long getting off the stage. Way to stick it to the man!

True-to-form headliners, Divine Fits (horrible band name) have been referred to as a “supergroup” which absolutely needs to be addressed. What is a supergroup? Well, when interviewed by CD102.5 when the band was in town last August, they scoffed at the idea and referred to themselves as a super, group… as in “its super duper fun to be in Divine Fits.” Now before we get nerdy and crunch some numbers let’s all reflect on the last indie rock supergroup that changed the landscape of popular music forever:

First and foremost, Divine Fits only have 3 official members and despite being from Columbus, drummer Sam Brown’s resume isn’t impressing anyone. Dan Boeckner on the other hand, experienced some success with Wolf Parade though they never had a top 40 album (thiiiis close). Boeckner’s next project, Handsome Furs, really isn’t known for much despite all the provocative half-naked promo pics with his wife and band mate Alexei. GRRRRRR

Britt Daniel, best known for his work with Spoon, is the final member of Divine Fits and obviously the most successful. Spoon’s last release, Transference debuted at #4 on the Billboard charts, but it only moved 54,000 units in its first week… womp womp. However, GA GA GA has sold 300,000+ copies to date and only reached #9. So its official, Brit Daniel would be qualified to join a supergroup, but his pals certainly are not, mystery solved!

Oh, and in regards to their performance, here’s how Divine Fits opened there set last night… cool visuals of the iPod commercial variety.

Jade Hopcroft to release debut single “Saint” on LFC Records on 19 November

October 25th, 2012 • News

What was that saying about London buses? You wait for ages and then two come along at once? Something like that. Well, we can apply this to LFC Records releases. We’ve been locked away for a little while since the summer, but rather than fading slowly into obscurity, we’ve been preparing two amazing singles for you – first, The Divers one, which we announced a week or two back, and now we’re delighted to tell you that we’ll also be putting out Jade Hopcroft‘s wonderful debut single, “Saint”, on Monday 19 November.

We first came across Jade and her head-turning, haunting folk pop back in May at The Great Escape Festival down in Brighton, and so good was that show we decided we had to get involved to ensure that as many people as possible around the world hear her remarkable voice and nifty way around a pop song. Since then, she’s been cutting her teeth on the live scene with the likes of Matt Corby, Luke Sital-Singh and Rachel Sermanni, and has also found time to record these rather spine-tingling couple of tracks that make up the single. If you haven’t yet heard her, hit play below and think along the lines of Stevie Nicks, First Aid Kit and Laura Marling.

To celebrate the release, Jade will be playing a series of shows in London in the next few weeks – the famous Ronnie Scott’s (Tue 20 November), AAA on High Street Kensington (Thu 29 November) and Metropolis Studios in Chiswick (Tue 4 December). The single “Saint” will be available from all good digital retailers from 19 November, and will be backed with the previously unrecorded “Habit”, which has quickly become a mainstay in Jade’s live sets.

Tags: AAA, Habit, Jade Hopcroft, Laissez Faire Club Records, Metropolis Studios, Ronnie Scott’s, Saint, The Great Escape

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Article source: http://laissezfaireclub.com/2012/10/jade-hopcroft-to-release-debut-single-saint-on-lfc-records-on-19-november/

White Rabbits Impress in Columbus

We recently received a letter written by Stephen stating that White Rabbits had replaced drummer Jamie Levinson with Dave Scalia. However interesting, this didn’t initially appear to have an effect on the dual percussion heavy sound associated with the band and often accredited to influencing the plethora of floor tom banging indie acts… until we read the letter further.

White Rabbits also confirmed that they’d be touring only as a five piece with members taking their turn on bass. We assumed this meant if a track required bass and piano we would be relegated to one man, newest member of the band, playing a single kit on his lonely island. This concept would “frighten” any fan who has seen the band live in recent years and enjoys the big band era vibe of songs such as “Percussion Gun.” We always assumed this specific track to require two full kits or at bare minimum some sort of auxiliary drumming.

We were wrong. Not only did Scalia keep time perfectly, though bass was played facing the drummer, but the overall sound seemed succinct and nothing was noticeably missing. Check out this iPhone video from the show and let us know what you think. The letter from the band in its entirety may be found further below.

hello friends

after searching for a new drummer for a very long couple months, we found dave scalia. he’s a pretty good drummer i guess, but we were mostly impressed by his freakishly long hands and extensive collection of gray cardigans. he’s a young boy so be nice to him.

LFC007: A Little Better by The Divers (out 26 November)

October 8th, 2012 • News

Photo by Xander Lloyd.

We’re delighted to announce that the next release on Laissez Faire Club Records will be The Divers‘ amazing track “A Little Better”, which will be available from all good digital outlets (iTunes / Spotify included) from Monday 26 November.

We first came across a live studio video of the track from the London based quartet back in January, and it’s probably no exaggeration to say we’ve listened to it almost every day since (and whooped loudly when they’ve dropped it in their live shows).

To our ears, it’s as good as US indie referencing rock-pop gets, and as such we decided we had to get this out there for the world at large to hear. If you appreciate the work of people like Band Of Horses, Wilco, Pearl Jam, The Shins, Elliott Smith, Death Cab For Cutie, et al, we’re of the opinion The Divers will be your new favourite band before too long. Just under three minutes, perhaps, if you hit play on the single below. Go on – treat your ears.

As with all these singles we put out, there will of course be a launch party to celebrate. On this occasion, we can reveal that The Divers will be taking to the stage at The Enterprise in Camden on Tuesday 27 November, a day after the release hits the proverbial shelves, which should give you ample time to learn the words in advance. Supports are TBC at the time of writing – so keep checking back to find out what we have in store (and also for ticketing details).

Tags: A Little Better, Bowerman Studios, Diego Belmonte, Hang Around, James Bourne, Julian Bialowas photography, LAISSEZ FAIRE CLUB, Laissez Faire Club Records, LFC007, Mike Elliott, Pete Hickman, The Divers

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Article source: http://laissezfaireclub.com/2012/10/lfc007-a-little-better-by-the-divers/