As time moves on I find myself writing less and less about music, at least from a consumer point of view. I even talk about it in conversation less and less. I still love listening to it and get inspired by it in the same way I did years ago, so don’t get me wrong. I think this act of discussing it less perhaps comes from what I see as an oversaturation of music discussion and journalism on the whole. This last sentence alone is a theoretical crowbar prying open a big jar of worms so perhaps I’ll leave that for another time, or at least until someone drunk at party brings it up and accosts me about the subject having read this.
Over the last year I’ve been on a part time mission, like an on call conscript — I call this mission Operation Vinyl Recapture. You see — and some of you well know — all my vinyl has been in storage for over two years now and some of those records I’ve been having instinctual cravings to listen to. The problem is that some of these records are not easily available in the world of downloadable music although in recent times I’ve managed to find some of these records on a number of fine, interesting, and reputable blogs.
One such record is a 7″ single release of “Hex It Out” by Love Life. I until recently had seemingly forgotten about this record. I listened to it again and was moved. I then re-listened to their final album “Here Is The Night, Brothers. Here The Birds Burn”. I was moved. I still like this band very much although disbanded. Katrina Ford’s voice still gives me massive goosebumps every time I listen to it.
I could insert a description here but the writing of others have done far better. I recommend these two introductory starting points: here and here.
Love Life disbanded somewhere around 2002/2003 and then morphed into Birdland and then into the band Celebration (signed to the influential 4AD label). I had seen Love Life on tour in 2002. There were a lot of candles and the atmosphere was intense and thick. They were on tour with Kill Me Tomorrow. Both bands then stayed at my house at the time after a quest out to a local all night vegetarian restaurant. Some wine was then drank. People were sleeping in their vans and in the common rooms. In the morning I pointed them in the direction of the good coffee in the Italian neighbourhood I was living in.
I then ran into people in that band in Baltimore a couple of years later at some dismal art space I played a show in. The show was pretty substandard but in hindsight hilarious.
I then saw Celebration a year or so later. After the show we went to an all night Chinese restaurant. Someone had tried a dish of fried lotus root. This restaurant was the scene of an epic gang shoot-out about two years later.
I was living in a beautiful large, 1900s era house at the time that was seemingly cursed. The band slept in the living room and I seem to remember them leaving a thank you note regarding a mutual admiration of classic British comedy.
This was a good number of years ago now. I’ll leave you with two pieces of online footage, one from each band. Video of Love Life is hard to find and this clip is a little murky in picture quality (out of focus, etc.) but the sound is quite good. It should be noted that the guitar and organ sounds are coming from the same instrument. The guitar is a guitorgan although I’m not aware of the make or brand.
The other clip is from the first track of Celebration‘s first album.
