Song Of The Day 14/05/2011: Help Stamp Out Loneliness - The Ghost With A Hammer In His Hand

I've been waiting for the release of HSOL's debut album for what seems like an age. Ever since I first became aware of them back at Indietracks 2009, I've had to survive on a disc of 5 demos and very little else. They have gradualy been leaking songs for most of the year, but the album was only finally released this week. It's even better than I expected. Unlike a lot of their contemporaries, they have managing to draw the warped, synthy indiepop of their early songs to a full album that never feels tired or stale. Despite some of their songs being among my most-played of the last few years, the old ones are nowhere near their best songs - The opener (Cottonopolis + Promises) and the closer (Split Infintives) are two of the best indiepop songs I've heard this year, only bettered by my favourite on the album, 'The Ghost With A Hammer In His Hand'.

Song Of The Day 16/04/2011: Help Stamp Out Loneliness - Record Shop

Today is Record Store Day. Thousands of people (including me) are descending on independent record shops around the world, with many bands releasing exclusive 7"s and EPs to mark the occasion. There's a lot of talk on Twitter about how many of the shops that struggle for business for much of the year have queues around the block - this yearly event is clearly a very good thing for underground music of all types.

In the words of this excellent HSOL song, 'stroll on down to the record shop, come on'.

Help Stamp Out Loneliness - Record Shop

Song Of The Day 08/03/2011: Help Stamp Out Loneliness - Torvill & Dean

Help Stamp Out Loneliness' debut album has been a long time coming, with them not having released any new tracks at all since I first saw them back in Summer 2009, but apparently they were selling copies of it at the London Popfest last week (although I couldn't go, due to being too slow at buying tickets). They're also gradually working their way through all of the tracks on their BandCamp. It's shaping up to be a classic. They offer something vastly different to most bands in the indiepop scene, in that their lead singer, D. Lucille Campbell, sounds more like Nico than anything remotely C86y. I know this comparison has been made a thousand times before, but it really is applicable.

This track was one of their first singles, released a couple of years ago. I have to say I don't really understand the title - any figure skating references must be oblique at best, and I haven't detected any. Lyrically, it's a regret-tinged love song. Musically is where it really shines, with the opening jangley chords setting the scene perfectly.

Help Stamp Out Loneliness – Torvill and Dean

Big day for exciting release announcements

I've only just logged onto my computer this evening, and have already seen two announcements I've been waiting for for a while. Firstly, there's more news on the forthcoming POBPAH record, with a new song available to stream. Read the interview and listen to 'Belong' here. They have quite a good long interview, even mentioning my 'Song Of The Day' from a week or so ago, 'Gothenburg Handshake'. The song didn't have much subtlety, admittedly, but now they've confirmed my suspicions as to what it was about. Hmm.

To be honest I don't think the new song is their best, but most of what they've released has grown massively on me, and all the other songs I've heard from the new record have been brilliant, so I'm not worried. Here's the soundcloud player for 'Belong'.

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart "Belong" by Slumberland Records

The other good thing was that Help Stamp Out Loneliness finally have a release date for their debut (May 2011). With them having been around for what feels like forever, it'll be great to finally hear proper versions of the demos that have been circulating for a while. Of the three songs streaming on their Bandcamp, I only know the last, 'Record Shop', which has been in heavy rotation on my stereo ever since I got their demo CD back at Indietracks 2009, and was one of the songs that fuelled my transformation from indiepop fan to indiepop obsessive. The other two are equally good - 'Cottonopolis and Promises' is exactly the kind of thing I'd expect from HSOL's previous output, and takes full advantage of D. Lucille Campbell's Nico-esque vocals, and 'Angelyne' is slightly more twee and jangly than most of their stuff, which is a good (if fairly unsurprising) transition, and suits them well.