The Tallest Man On Earth ‘I Won’t Be Found’

Krist Novoselic and Andy Cato – the two tallest men in music I’ve ever met.

Krist was in his post-Nirvana band Sweet 75, and after refusing to play darts for Melody Maker I met him for brief interview. He was a massive 6’7″. Andy, I went to university with before he formed Groove Armada. He is an even massiver 6’8″.

The Tallest Man On Earth claims on his MySpace to be ‘so tall I have a feeling that my funeral will be expensive, they’ll have to saw my body in half and put the two parts in separate graves. I guess some people will mourn the top part, some the bottom.’

For someone with such a wonky moniker, and such a line in wacky humour – he cuts a very earnest dash on mp3.

TTMOE sings like a man abandoned as a child – in an abandoned farmhouse wherever it is in Sweden he’s from, probably – who learnt language from a collection of scratchy Bob Dylan records (nasal croaking? Check. Atonal tuning? Check. Adenoidal vowels? Check).

But, in the most unlikely fashion it is the most touchingly, lovely sound. The track has the soaring, melancholy ring of Antony & The Johnson’s ‘Hope There’s Someone’. With Nick Drake on acoustic guitar. And his voice removes any saccharine edge from the ringing country folk.

Single ‘I Won’t Be Found’ is just brilliant. If all a little beard-strokey.

Not that you can tell if TTMOE has got a beard from is MySpace pic, reproduced here, above, up there. He’s so tall, you see… they’ve had to miss his head off. Sigh.

Hilarious those Swedes. The long, long nights must fly by.

More hear:
- Erm, the old, watchamacallit for four tracks. And more tall pics.
- and here for the video to equally ace track, ‘It Will Follow The Rain’. Which features a giant playing a tiny guitar.

The Ting Tings ‘Great DJ (Calvin Harris Remix)’

While going about War Child business last week, I had the pleasure of Mike Smith’s company. A doubly good thing. First he’s a top chap, but also his company happens to be Columbia Records.

As well as his evident and infectious enthusiasm for Mark Ronson to get his deserved nod at the following night’s Brit Awards – he was effusive in the recommendation of his new recruits, Salford duo The Ting Tings. He was clearly excited.

His previous latest loves take up much space on my CD shelves. Mike signed Blur, The White Stripes, Teenage Fanclub, Arcade Fire, to name a few.

Add in that The Ting Tings are a group already so hotly tipped they rank somewhere between a mid-drag Marlboro Light and a rocket re-entering earth’s atmosphere.

And this post has a disappointingly, twist-free conclusion: They really are great.

Great fun. Great image. Great tunes. And ‘Great DJ’ is their new single.
Oz Clarke would swill it around, and say ‘I’m getting hints of Girls Aloud, mmm, a slight aroma of Blondie. Then there’s a clear top note of Gossip disco, with a bottom note of Supergrass chorus. Very nice, with only slight aftertaste of Republica.’

I’ll wager that this time next year, The Tings Tings will be the onomatopoeic sound Mike’s champagne glass at the 2009 Brit Awards.

More hear…

- Watch the proper not remixed version of the single now… and aswrexham0emma comments: ‘OMG i forgot to say people that don’t like this song are jus smelly old people that obviously don’t understand new music.’
- Usual tracks and info at ver MySpace. Will all band names from now on be chosen to ensure your MySpace url is available? Discuss.

Apes & Androids ‘Nights Of The Week’

I sometimes find myself Romo-niscing – thinking wistfully of the most OTT, ridiculous Melody Maker days.

The Maker’s risk-taking verve pandered to my teenage years – unlike NME trainspotters, it was very much in touch with its feminine side.

It loved Liam for his eyes and Kurt for his lips. It was quicker to passionately embrace the glamorous, the pop, the effete… the different. And often with tongues. Shameless.

It allowed the likes of Daniel Booth to write within its pages. And it invented Romo. I daydream what it would have made of Emo? Heck, Julian Casablancas? Robyn? Klaxons? Scissor Sisters? X Factor? Buy me a pint sometime, there’s bigger discussion here about…
a) was Romo when Melody Maker “jumped the shark” and…
b) does any of this matter post-web? Did it matter pre-web?

The world’s oldest music weekly probably found its niche during those death throe years (there is yet another pint to be had as to when that actually began). Looking at what’s going on with music today (the internet and all that), it’s a shame the sages at IPC didn’t think it was worth throwing a lifeline to, keep it ticking over.

And you do still double take in the newsagents when you see bands like The Wombats on the cover of the NME. And the point of closing The Maker was..?

Anyway. Apes & Androids. Prince. Gary Numan. Queen. David Bowie. Scissor Sisters. Spandex. Glitter make-up. In an illicit club in New York’s Meat Packing District. But way gayer. What would the Maker have made of them? They are either humiliatingly The Darkness of electro pop, and should be shunned as the new Electric Six.

Or… they are the sexomatic future of pop. As ‘Nights Of The Week’ suggests. Hm.

More hear…
- Total band myspace takeover.
- An album, ‘Blood Moon’, in handy real-life version is available from here, or get the download from iTunes
- And how about a bonus track? Oh go on then…
Apes & Androids ‘Golden Prize’

Port O’Brien ‘I Woke Up Today’

Everything I Know About Port O’Brien

1. The central duo have extra super cool names. Him: Van Pierszalowski. Her: Cambria Goodwin. That’s the first-born sorted if it’s a girl then.

2. Their MySpace biog makes a great deal – and an even bigger extended metaphor – about the importance of the pair’s formative careers on their sound. Him: Salmon fishing in Alaska. Her: Baking.

3. They’re from Oakland, California.

4. Oakland was also home to Sly Stone, Green Day, rap legends Hieroglyphics and rap idiot MC Hammer.

4a. And it’s where The Black Panthers were formed.

5. Erm… She looks quite cute in the pictures.

6. Oh, and their track ‘I Woke Up Today’ is the best thing I’ve heard this year. Unhinged, infectious and destined to be 2008′s rictus-grin-inducing classic. Very much in the mold of Polyphonic Spree’s ‘Soldier Girl’, or Arcade Fire’s ‘Rebellion (Lies)’… with hidden fish and cake influences, naturally.

More hear…
- There’s their MySpace page for that biography, and more tracks from their upcoming debut album.
- An interview with Van. If you’re ever in Oakland he recommends you should go see a movie at the Parkway Theater, where they have couches.
- Oh, and they have a blog. With pics of them baking. And fishing for salmon.

I Was A Cub Scout ‘Pink Squares’

There was an article in the Daily Mail a few weeks back about a set of new scout badges. A plan by Britain’s Chief Scout – ex-Blue Peter presenter Peter Duncan, no really – to bring Baden-Powell’s increasingly unfashionable youth movement saluting and woggling into the 21st century.

In the place of the Knot Tying and Bivouac Building, come Mountain Biking, Technology, Public Relations and Imagination. (“I’m surprised they don’t have a badge for hairdressing,” splutters one outraged Mail reader).

I Was A Cub Scout are Todd and William, a pair of barely-shaving teenagers from the remote wilds of the A1 corridor somewhere between Lincs and Notts. The sort of place you’d imagine the scout movement still holds sway.

And if Peter Duncan’s new badges had included Tying Emo and Electro in Knots or Constructing a passable early New Order sound, then the Long Bennington Scout Hut’s loss may well have never been joyous indie pop’s gain.

Or maybe I’m taking the name too literally?

IWACS have been drip-feeding excellent tracks since late 2006, and release their debut long-player (‘I Want You To Know That There Is Always Hope’) in two weeks. While it’s emotional and sensitive, the album is driven by distinctive beats and rhythms in the way Madchester’s classics were. (and is overseen by production legend Hugh Padman – the man who created the drum sound for Phil Collins’ ‘In The Air Tonight’).

New single ‘Pink Squares’ is a joy; shuffling between Postal Service synth-miserabilism and Klaxon guitar and beat exuberance, but it’s previous single ‘Our Smallest Adventures’ that has worked its way towards the top of the iPod’s 25 Most Played. Gorgeous synths, bleeps and plaintive vocals. Enjoy the YouTube video here… now…

Great stuff. Fresh, new and very exciting. Consider the Imagination badge earned, chaps.

More hear…
- What else? Oh yes, there’s the single, ‘Pink Squares’, out now on XL, and the album, ‘I Want You to Know That There Is Always Hope’ which is out on Monday, February 18, on XL, who as everyone likes to say these days is the home of Radiohead.
- And here’s their MySpace
- Oh and, nah, forgotten what I was going to say.