There Goes the Fear, a UK/US Music Web site | Live UK gigs, news, and events

(SXSW 2019 flavoured!) Live Gig Video: Joshua Burnside shares acoustic version of ‘Desert Wine’, set to short video clips from his phone

I wasn’t sure where to put this video on TGTF, as it doesn’t fit neatly into any of our normal feature type. Since we often put acoustic live versions in the Live Gig Video section, I’ve decided to stick this here. Now that I’ve got your attention, I’ll tell you more about the video. We all have photos and videos that we’ve taken randomly and saved on our phones, right? But how many of us actually do anything useful – or creative – with them? Northern Irish singer/songwriter Joshua Burnside had been collecting video clips, taking the advice to do so from his friend and fellow artist Emily McIlwaine.

To celebrate the recent release of a new album, he has set one of the album tracks to a collection of his video clips. ‘Wear Bluebells in Your Hat If You’re Goin’ That Way’, available now from Quiet Arch Records, is a 2019 updated version of the 2017 Northern Irish Music Prize winner’s 2013 EP ‘If You’re Going That Way’, which had only five tracks. The ‘Wear Bluebells…’ version now is 10 tracks strong, including an acoustic single version of the previously released studio version of ‘Desert Wine’. Watch and listen to the new version of the song below. Joshua Burnside is scheduled to perform next month at SXSW 2019; to date, his only official appearance on the official SXSW schedule is on Friday night, 15 March, at the Victorian Room at the Driskill. All of our coverage on TGTF on Burnside can be accessed through here.

Video of the Moment #2922: Teleman

I’m pretty opinionated about live videos filmed at gigs that are hawked around as promo videos. I’m a smidge less critical about the karaoke-style lyric videos. Trust Teleman, on the top of my favourite bands of the moment, to make a very special lyric video for ‘Between the Rain’. Resident artist and keyboardist Jonny Sanders must have spent a lot of time coordinating the clips and editing together the unusual lyric video, which you can watch below. The song appears on ‘Family of Aliens’, the third album from Teleman that was released at the start of September 2018. (You can read my thoughts on the LP in my review here. ‘Between the Rain’ is available now as a digital download. ‘Family of Aliens’ is also out now on Moshi Moshi Records. I’ve written quite a lot about Teleman over the years; you can catch up on all my writing on them through this link.

(SXSW 2019 flavoured!) Bands to Watch #413: Elder Island

When I first started blogging 10 years ago, bands with the word ‘bear’ in their name was a thing. Now it seems that the buzz word is ‘island’. (See my review last week of Low Island’s ‘In Person’.) The word ‘island’ conjures up individuality, but at the expense of isolation. Elder Island, named after a real place in Canada, are an electronic-driven trio who prove that isolation used as a means for indie bands to carefully create their art can be successful. The like-minded friends who were all studying art in Bristol have been steadily moving forward with their experimental music side gig over the last 6 years. 2019 is set to be Elder Island’s year, their time in the limelight, and congratulations are in order, and not just for their all-important shout to SXSW 2019. Last Friday, they self-released their debut album ‘The Omnitone Collection’.

They showed early promise on ‘Golden’, appearing on their 2016 ‘Seeds in Sand’ EP. You can understand the track’s origin, used as a transitional, loose point in our set where we could just let go a little”, as you get caught up in its beguiling vibrations. Katy Sargent’s vocals, stretched and echoey, act more like another electronic part layered on top of synthesisers. From the new LP, the first taster revealed to the wild was the rhythmically-mesmerising ‘Don’t Lose’. On it, their ability to pen a catchy tune is written all over it, and Sargent’s vocals have less effects put on it than on the EP, which make them more human. The accompanying promo video is a playful visual of how deft they are in transforming what could be techie electronic elements into parts totally accessible once incorporated into a pop song. Electronics aren’t just for nerds who that love them. These days, those who can use them in tandem with good songwriting are in good position indeed.

Video of the Moment #2921: Julia Jacklin

I can tell I’m really going to love Julia Jacklin‘s new album out later this month. The Aussie singer/songwriter has tapped into feelings that come out strongly following a failed relationship, something we all can relate to. The previously revealed ‘Head Alone’ was an anthem for female empowerment. With ‘Pressure to Party’, Jacklin addresses the inevitable peer pressure you get to go out following a breakup, the kind of pressure levied by well-meaning friends who don’t realise the act of socialising has to be done only when you’re ready. ‘Crushing’, Jacklin’s sophomore effort, will be out on the 22nd of February on Transgressive Records. For all of our past coverage on Julia Jacklin, go here.

(SXSW 2019 flavoured!) Bands to Watch #412: Breathe Panel

I’ve admitted publicly more than a few times here on TGTF that shoegazer slacker rock isn’t my cup of tea. I can appreciate that some find it the music and disaffected vocals great to chill out to, while other gear heads actually like the mechanics behind creating that oozy woozy, lazy sound. I don’t know why it’s taken me so many years to come to this conclusion: As an East Coast American with a Type A, neurotic, impatient personality, the sounds of guitar notes that aren’t played quite that precisely are probably what set me off. I think I could be making major strides here, as when I was going through the bands who were given a shout to SXSW 2019, I actually liked a band from this subgenre of rock! Ladies and gents, I bring you Breathe Panel.

The band use Brighton as their home base, so while their signing to local legendary FatCat Records isn’t entirely unexpected, it is worth applauding since there are so many fledgling artists there. Taking their location into account – being never too far from the soothing sounds of the lapping waves and evocative days and nights by the beach – their choice of swirling guitars and vocals oh so diaphanous that you couldn’t stick a pin in them make total sense. So do their noted influences of American bands Real Estate and Deerhunter, as well as their choice of producer for their debut album, MJ of Hookworms. On said album released last summer, they do their genre contemporaries proud, balancing upbeat, more agile numbers (‘On My Way’, ‘Sunrise / Sunshine’) with slower-moving ones (‘Hue’, ‘Red Wine Glass’). In that way, they’ve proven the name of their band is appropriate: panels are known to be solid and reliable, while ‘breathe’ describes the dreamy nature of their music well. Under the mood lighting found in many venues in Austin come nightfall, there’s sure to be those mesmerised by them.

Video of the Moment #2920: FIDLAR

Punk band FIDLAR released their third album ‘Almost Free’ in January. Strange name for a band of their genre, eh? ‘Can’t You See’ is the latest video to come from the LP, and it’s definitely strange, too. In it, the band from Los Angeles go for a trip in a sweet ride, or so it seems. Watch the video for ‘Can’t You See’ below. You can nab ‘Almost Free’ for yourself from Wichita Recordings (UK), Mom + Pop (America) or Dine Alone (Canada). Our past articles featuring FIDLAR are through this link.