THE SIGNAL

So Duffy is at Number 1. Great news you would think – if it was 1995. Or 1985. Or in fact any year pre-2008. Because in 2008 the moniker Duffy was stolen from one of the great songwriters of the past 20-odd years and taken by a tedious, souless, cabaret singer to front a charmless, meandering, faux-soul sound which has somehow managed to be hyped to death over the past 3 months, resulting in a Number One single.

I’ll explain – at Signal Towers we are lucky to enough to receive copies of some of our favourite records ahead of release. It’s always exciting to rip open an envelope to find a new single from Nick Cave or the debut album by the Teenagers. So it was with great joy and abandon that I opened such an envelope late last year to find a new single on Rough Trade (great label) produced by Bernard Butler (great producer) performed by Duffy – one of my true heroes and leader of The Lilac Time, as well as being sometime member of The Devils and recording under various names including Stephen “TinTin” Duffy.

So I put the single on, and seeping from my speakers like pus from a sore is a limp MOR ballad soppily sung by a wailing banshee bereft of any personality. I think the modern parlance for my reaction is WTF.

So I read the little sticker that tells you the release date and I discover the Duffy in question is not the singer- songwriter I’ve admired across a host of albums and stylings (yes even during the Robbie Williams period), but “a brand new Welsh talent” who apprarently is going to sweep all before her in 2008.

Well the little sticker writing people were right. Over the past few weeks we’ve all had to endure the mantra that Duffy is the great discovery of 2008, invoking the spirit of Dusty Springfield in voice, and heart and soul of everyone else we can think of with a great voice from Al Green to Aretha. As with her similarly boring chum Adele, we’ve all been told this by the makers and shakers in the know, so it must be true and we’d better start buying her record or we’ll miss out and look like people who are so unhip their bums are about to fall off.

Well the rot stops here – Duffy is NOT Duffy. Duffy is the moniker used by Stephen Duffy for two of the great lost pop albums of the 90s. The eponymous Duffy from 1995 (he can do that cos he’s actually called Duffy and didn’t steal his name from someone else) and I Love My Friends from 1998. Seek them out, play them to death and realise “You Are” is today’s greatest song you’ve ever heard.

As Duffy (the real Duffy, not the fake one) sings on She Freak “To be yourself, your true self, is the hardest thing to do and to do right”. Listen up Miss Not-Duffy!

In order to rescue the untarnished name of Duffy (the real Duffy, not the fake one), I’ll be playing a song from Duffy (the 1995 album by the real Duffy, not the fake one) at the top of the next show!

The next edition of The Signal is almost finished and should be online in the next few days. This time out we have an interview with Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse about the recent album Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain.

Meantime I went to see the amazing Von Bondies on the first night of the European tour. It’s been 3 years since the band’s last tour dates in Europe and four years since the last album Pawn Shoppe Heart. That album remains my favourite of this decade – I must have played it more than any other record over the past 4 years. Plus the last time I saw the VBs play was at the London Astoria in 2005, so to say this show was highly anticipated would be something of a smidgen of a hint of a whiff of an understatement!

There are been a few changes in Camp Von Bondies since 2005 – Marcie and Carrie have now left to do other things (Carrie’s last show was that Astoria gig), and the band have expanded to a five piece. They’ve also left their label and gone independent again, which mean the T-Shirts now pay for the tourbus petrol!

The gig was sensational – the band gave their all at full pelt, basically playing a greatest hits set with the very best selections from the previous albums and a few new tracks. Two of these – Pale Bride and I Don’t Wanna – can be found on the brand new EP We Are Kamikazes Aiming Straight For Your Heart. Pale Bride is a fizzing pop bomb with a holy hand grenade of a chorus at its centre, and sits perfectly with other VB classics such as Lack Of Communication and Tell Me What You See. It felt a bit weird hearing Not That Social without Carrie, but after opening with the old favourite It Came From Japan, the band had fans and newbies right in the palm of their hands until they finished up with a blasting double bill of Rock n’ Roll Nurse and Broken Man.

But the highlight of the night for me was meeting the great gentleman rocker of Detroit, Jason Von Bondie himself!! Jason was at the merchie stall and sold us a copy of the new EP so I genuinely feel I have added a little something to the Von Bondies’ efforts to stay on the road. Plus after the show he met up with us outside the venue, and was in a seriously good mood! Jason is a supercool guy – it’s such a relief when your heroes turn out to be truly cool!

Check out the new EP now – only available from the Von Bondies myspace, and hear the lead track on the next Signal!

Some excellent news on the Long Blondes front – the album is ready and will be released on November 6th! It’s called “Someone To Drive You Home” – no word on tracklisting yet, but I expect there’ll be some familiar favourites on there from the 4 pre-Rough Trade singles.
The preceding single “Once And Never Again” is out on October 23rd. I haven’t seen the video for it yet, but I expect it’ll be on MTV2 pretty soon. If the B-Sides are up to the standard of “Weekend Without Make-Up” it’ll be a terrific package.
Plus plus plus the band are going on their first headline tour in October! Can’t wait to see them play in Belfast.
To celebrate here’s a couple of shots we took of The Long Blondes back in June. One was taken at the in-store they did at Camden’s Fopp on the day of release of “Weekend..”, and then there’s a candid shot of Kate Jackson enjoying herself at a Love Is All gig!

Hey kids, just a quick update on how things are going with the The Signal radio show.  Currently I’m working on two shows simultaneously.  The first will be our regular show with an interview with the Russian Futurists.  Hopefully this will be ready for the Live Circuit presentation of the band’s gig in Glasgow recently which is due to go up on the Radio Magnetic site very soon.

The second show should be something pretty unique – it’s going to be a Swedish Indie Pop special.  I can’t say too much at present as we are working on some cool features for it, but it will feature our interviews with Peter, Bjorn & John and I’m From Barcelona.  Plus I’ll be playing a full two hours of entirely Swedish music – most of it pretty current such as Love Is All and El Perro Del Mar, plus there’ll be classics from the likes of Idha and The Cardigans, as well as a few brand new friends we’ve made via our myspace page.

All pretty exciting stuff (for me anyway!!) and if all goes well, both shows should be finished in the next week or so.

In the meantime I’m going to upload some of the pics I took at the B&S, Camera Obscura and Teenage Fanclub gigs from earlier in the summer.  Plus tonight I’m gonna kick off a new feature at the blog which should hopefully add to your entire Signal experience.  A kinda Signal Video Jukebox.

And if that’s not too much excitement for one blog here’s a few links to 3 Radio Magnetic shows I highly recommend:

SYMMETRY – Matthew Hallam’s show is packed with laid back indie grooves and he regulary features terrific interviews with the likes of Joan As Policewoman and M. Craft.  The latest show showcases the new record from The Album Leaf (on the supercool City Slang Records).  Matthew’s voice is kinda like a warm bath and will help sooth your weary bones at the end of a long day.

REFLECTIONS ON NORTHERN SOUL – Radio Magnetic’s resident Soul Man Frank Murphy cranks up the drums and bass and dips deep into his box of Northern Soul grooves.  This show is pretty much essential listening if you like good music, that sweet soul music…  What I love about Frank’s playlists is that’s he’s not afraid to embrace the poppier side of soul and the Tamla Motown classics – none of snobbishness that has sometime been associated with the NS scene.  Great for listening to before you go out on a Friday night.

VOLCANIC - The Volcanic boys Jamie and Joe never fail to come up with some of the most diverse and ecelectic mixes in radioland.  Where else would you hear the Theme from Bullitt next to Aretha Franklin next to Dinosaur Jr?  Great stuff that is bound to give you loads of new ideas when you’re next updating your Amazon wishlist.

Plenty to be getting along there, and don’t forget Radio Magnetic now has a lovely RSS feed so you find out about new shows as soon as they arrive!

Keep the faith! (in a Northern Soul way, not a Jon Bon Jovi way….)

Erm, no – fortunately the title of this post isn’t what the Radio Magnetic bosses said when they heard the first edition of The Signal.  It just happens to be the Long Blondes song I’m listening to at the minute.  We’re working on a feature on the Sheffield band for Episode 3 of The Signal in future weeks.

In the meantime, Show 2 is online now, featuring an interview with Belle & Sebastian.  More details shortly!

The Signal’s first transmission is now online at the brand new RadioMagnetic site! Woo hoo!

Check out the show page here, and the actual show itself is available via Windows Hi or Windows Lo. There are plans to make all the shows at RadioMagnetic available in Quicktime too.

I’ll be posting the playlist and full details of the programme shortly. In the meantime we’ve been working on future editions – you can expect features and interviews with the likes of Belle & Sebastian, Guillemots, Grandaddy and Camera Obscura, plus loads of cool new music!

I’m still finding my way around the new RM site and seeing which buttons I can press without making it explode!  I’ll know soon about the email address for the show.

In the meantime check out some of the other brilliant shows at RadioMagnetic – there’s a direct link to all the indie/alternative shows here.

Hey cool kids!

So the The Signal blog is up and running! The aim of the blog is to keep you updated with the latest happenings and playlists for The Signal which is a brand new indie & alternative show broadcast on RadioMagnetic.

The Signal features some of the most exciting new alternative music alongside a few classics from the archives. Just a big box of cool tunes, really. We'll be bringing you some interviews with the people who actually make the brilliant music too.

As soon as the first show goes online we'll publish the playlist and more details about the show here. For now though, stay tuned if you're a fan of the Rakes – the first show has a bit of a treat for you!

RadioMagnetic is a unique internet radio station which has been online since 2001. Its quality programming and championing of independent music has led to the station being nominated for the BT Digital Music Awards for the past 3 years. There's a detailed history of the station at the InnerEar website, plus an interview with some of the station's directors at the Ideas Factory website. You can check out more of the shows on RadioMagnetic at the archive.