England vs. Ireland

Děcka, né že bych byl ňákej kouzelník, ale přece jen se mi vobčas i něco povede. Tudle hráli v Prahe ti vogaři z Englandu Her name is Calla a bylo to moc dobrý. Dokonce to bylo i tak dobrý, že zahráli na Moravě, v Brně, to je to jediný město na východ, kde je obchodní středisko a mekdonald. Dokonce byli i v televizi!

Ten Morris, co té grupě šéfuje, teď valí na sólo turné a apačka alias axe alias 220 dalších aliasů mi ho tak nějak přihrála, jestli mu prej nepomůžeme v Prahe vyprat prádlo a tak. Všechno šlo oukej, takže se potkáme někdy koncem června v Café v Lese (není to v lese, aby vás to pražáky nemátlo). Todle jako není to co se mi docela povedlo, to se povedlo spíš apačce, já sem spíš ten slepej s houslema.

Ale jeden večer jsem si dal voraz od masturbace a procházel bandzone (takže prašťjakuhoď, trvá to pět minut, nikdo vás při tom nesmí přistihnout a nakonec se vám z toho chce brečet), jako že najdu nějakej vhodnej support (čti slepou holku s kytarou, kterou bych pak po koncertě mohl zneužít a vohnout), a místo toho jsem narazil na Travise O’Neilla, a to je to, co se mi povedlo, protože kdo by to byl řekl, že se takovej cápek objeví na druhým nejhorším serveru na světě.

Tak nastal ? a pak přišel ! a výsledkem je, že Travis si zahraje v Café v Lese s Morrisem. Takže né jeden kluk s kytarou, ale dva. A bude to skvělý, protože ten jeden je smutnej, hodnej a tak jako britsky nenápadnej, zatímco ten druhej má víc kérek než apačka, je to metlákovej countrista a navíc je to Ir (a navíc jak axe dobře poznamenala, má na zádech vytetovanej pentagram!). Tohle nemůže bejt špatnej večer. To nebudete potřebovat ani krek! Ireland vs. England!

Myslím, že jsme uplácali i nějakej plagát, měl by tu někde bejt, takže tam asi najdete víc info než kolik ho mám ve svým mozku. A protože kluci na kytary fakt umí, tak by ste měli přijít. Protože když nepřijdete, tak tam logicky nebude. Což logicky dává logiku a mezi náma, je to dost nelogický tam logicky nebýt. A jestli nevíte, dole jsou nějaký písničky.

Jo a oba dva maj pěkný péro!

Taky jsme připravili skvělou akci! Kdo nám koupí panáka Jamesona, ten od nás dostane panáka Jamesona – ZADARMO!

Nejlepší promo všech dob? Si myslím.

Tom Morris + Travis O’Neill / 29.6.  20:00 / Café v Lese

Links: Last.fm event / Travis bandzone / Her name is Calla / Café v Lese

Download: Her name is Calla – Maw / Travis O’Neill – My Heart

Her name is Calla – The Quiet Lamb review and interview

• Her name is Calla . The Quiet Lamb
• 2010 . United Kingdom
• post-folk.post-rock.post-everything.art.brilliant.etc
• 90%
• BUY IT HERE  YOU GREEDY BASTARDS!

Pt.1 Nervousness

And I was sitting and thinking. Weeks. Hours. Hunreds of opening lines, phrases which to start with. Like a small child with feet so cold that the anxiety was totally distracting. As a child that is proud and wants to do its best, be perfect, spectacular, impressive, so that his parents could be proud about the home video they make which will interest no-one.A puppy, begging for its treat, because it didnt mess the floor. Putting on the first condom ever. Defibrilation. Her name is Calla fit this equasion. They’re a multiplication of feeling. Division of intimity. A cumulation of all losses in life.

I erased the openings, rewrote them like it was a question of life and death, for the more I was thinking, the more time I had to listen. The more I listened the lower was my self-confidence. I questioned my ability to describe what I heard, what went on, what was the real point of this all. The audience falls into silence, all the chatter stops, the lights dim. And you, standing in the middle of the audience and hopelessly trying to materialise in words a band, whose biggest advantage is that it sounds like your thoughts. So simple, ordinary and, with exceptions, destroying. Because…

Her name is Calla [HNIC in the following] doesnt seek another of those cheap and these days so modern systems of modern music. It doesnt retreat to trying to put in some psycho pseudoonanistic genre overlap or shift the limits of sound. What Im struggling with is the fact, that HNIC is more or less a post folk enssamble, rooting all its success out of honesty. Both human and musical.

Pt.2 Wikipedia style

As the time passed, HNIC melted from a folk duo into a leading english post rock band – though they hate being called that way. They hate it because, eventhough they use the post rock elements, the stress is still on the “feeling”, a typical feature of folk. And anyhow; Its catchy to cathegorise them, because I could get to talking about art rock, Dylan, honesty or spagetti western soundtracks. This wikipedia style is something that really pisses me off, but it has to be, mainly fot the fact that most of you meet HNIC for the first time. But lets take it very briefly: For starters they released a split with Maybeshewill, which contains the song “Condor and River”; a 16 minut epos, which will later become a milestone, and a guide through their future career. Signed by the british Gizeh, they strolled the country and cumulated fans so quickly like it was a matter of life and death. And it was really working, especially if you selling “The Heritage” after the shows. The Heritage – a first “kind of LP” recieved a very deserved respect, which is mostly due to incredibly skillfully mixed sadness, epicity, agression and forgiving. From the subtle and athmospherical New England to depressively stunning Motherfucker! Its alive and its bleeding. The band members were constantly changing in those times, but todays group constitution was beggining to crystalise out of this bunch of people. The tour with the respected iliketrains (which they said was boring, because the guys had max a tea after the show and then rushed to hit the sack). Then a european tour full of vodka, bitches, sex, violence and coke, sold out Wembley, billions of pounds… Oh, sorry, now I’m a bit ahead of time.. So right here, we could stop the wiki, ok?

Pt.3 Feelings

What Im struggling with, as I hinted above, is how to introduce to you a band which is the strongest in creating a perfect soundtrack for your soul. Really. What about taking it from this point of view; Music, feelings, moments they were always one. And because we people are sheep, left right left right, our musical perception is, with exceptions, the same. To be honest, people who come home after a 12hour shift from a foundry plant and play Merzbow in their headphones are insane. So if we drive in the evening through the drunk city we look for Burial. When we clean our flats, Sepultura could be the choice, and we all listening to Leonard Cohen when we fuck [now, do you know why men fall asleep right after orgasm?]. Saturday evening is punk, Sunday morning jazz. That these conotations are strong and deep under our skin can be illustrated by Ian Curtis trying to use Iggy Pops Idiot on the sountrack to “a perfect suicide” in which he wasnt really successfull, because of Rezső Seress Gloomy sunday. So if you’re asking what HNIC and The Quiet Lamb fit perfectly, then you should put on a jacket, sit on a distant, lonely bench, light a cigarette and watch the sea, meadows, trees [or, in the best case some dying fauna or flora] and think about all the things that you have done wrong in life. All the melancholic memories, reminding about the slowly tightening gyves and shackles of not one, but all of your pasts, that you pull behind like rocks. All the moments when you should’ve said yes, but said no and all the moment when you said yes, eventhough no was the proper answer. In case youre perfectly confident, never made a mistake and your life is going exactly the way you planned and desired, put in some loneliness, homesickness and a lack of such feelings as safety or tenderness. Do you understand? I know that you’d expect me to write how many guitars do they have and what amplyfiers do they use, If they play the with Megastring or Superextrastring, but you should be told a lot more by this. Do you remember how Mr. Miyagy wanted to have the fence painted every day?

Pt.4 The Quiet Lamb

The Quiet Lamb was released by a well known german label Denovali, which has such stallions in its stables, that even Martin Maxa [a supercrappy czech singer] would place a bet. What is important and fair to be written, is that Denovali appreciates and caresses its horses as much as possible. Therefore The quiet lamb could have been created as long as one Axel Rose song [cca two years]. Thanks to such a long time we dont have to be afraid to come across some unfinished semiproduct or musical pell-mell. Everything has its meaning, every tone is three times thougth about, reversed, tossed and rolled so it fits the impressive, flawless dimensional post-art-folk-rock. The opening song – Moss Giant is a very pleasant athmospherical piano instrumental, which reminds of the subtility of Thomas Newman soundtracks [do we hear Revolutionary Road??].

Together with the last tones lets wave goodbye to optimistic feeling, further on its just sorrow. A Blood Promise and the following Pour More Oil are both previously released songs, which evolved from clumsy EP pieces to subtle confessions. Tom Morris‘s vocal is taking the lead, sounding like a mix of the most fragile chinese porcelain on the market and Damian Rice (really, sometimes!).

Pt. 5 intermezzo – heart

The lyrics are very authobiographical,brief, go to the point and they’re depressively honest. This is going to hurt me more than you/ A wave of endorphins and a cold shoulder / And a mighty blow to the back of the skull / I’m in an aircraft out of control. / Pour more oil on us, pour more oil on us. Tom, the vocalist and the brain of the band, didnt have an easy time in the last few years [and now we're not talking about some fancy, sexy sunday depressions], and we all can only be glad that he was able to benefit from it. His methaphores are so fragile, so subtle that they make you cry. Behind that can be identified a fight between love to oneself, love to others and love of our own doings, which is 0:3 at the moment, and the towel already has been tossed into the ring. Dont be worried about identifying with the contents, we all were in such situations at least once in life, so the impact is: simply massive. Fragility of the vocals and honesty, which radiates miles is a bonus, that drags you into every song, a mini story about hesitations, hindsights and bad decisions. With that comes the next pro of this formation: even when you make your way through very instrumentally complex, epical compositions, you never loose the feeling of facing ordinary humans undergoing the same life struggles as you are. Forget about the discord of post rock heroes playing the card of depersonalisation, only to end up looking like fallen from another planet.

“And I never wanted to be rock’n’roll. My ambitions stretch as far as wanting to have my own flat and be able to put a decent pair of shoes on my daughters feet.”

Tom Morris

Pt.6 The Quiet Lamb again

What else have we got here? Condor and River, the only song with a completely fictional lyrics, which stretches through the whole discography of HNIC. Your body wrapped in vines / Your body covered cuts / Your body surrounded by quiet. And its very good that its also here. At first we are baited with a six minute post rock intro climacting into a metal absolution, only to be dragged through a sad, quiet story of one soul in grief. The rest, because I can tell you are getting tired, can be divided into three parts; Intervals are short, instrumental pieces, functioning like the end/start position on vinyls (but that doesnt mean its tacky). Second part is made of “Long Grass”, “Thief” and “Homecoming”, mostly folk confessions. The album is closed by “The Union”. A 20 minutes long thorough collection of three songs. Probably the most complex and instrumentally extra broad piece which shows 100% of the band potential. And it doesn’t matter if we’re talking about musical buildups or the wide use of instruments. The samples rise over the strings, the strings struggle against mexican trumpets, a spagetti western exceeding the limits of the genre. Welcome to the center of epic.

Pt.7 Mind

The most frequent words in this article are confession, fragility and subtility. I could continue for hours stating the reasons why to listen to HNIC, even if they dont offer any musical revolution, but if we dont understand each other in the meaning of subtility, it would be pointless.

Pt. 8 Interview

My first interview. And its sucks little bit, because questions are stupid as hell! We did this with Thom Corah via email, so theres no space for improvisation and incredibly funny and spontaneous sallies. Also,this is my first version, I didnt correct my questions (yep, lazy) and theyre full of mistakes, so please be patient.

1.Hi Tom. Before we start talking about music, I have to ask the most stupid question – why the hell Her name is Calla? Who is Calla anyway? What does this mean? I heard it’s a name of french porn movie, which doesn’really surprise me, when I take into acoount that you saying one of bands biggest achievements so far is “offers of oral sex from men in Aberdeen” :-))

Hi Lukas. Other Thom here. Good question to open with. The short of it is, that I don’t really know. Way before my time in the band, when HNIC was just a twinkle in an eye, I believe it was the name of a song Tom wrote following an event that he personified or something. It’s quite confusing. Beyond that, there are no answers thatI can give you. I am curious about this French porn movie though. It’s actually called Her Name is Calla? Weird. Also, let’s not talk about Aberdeen. That was a dark night.

2.Overall, you are very funny bunch of people (yours FB posts, answers in interviews), how is it that your music is the complete opposite – an intimate and emotive lyrics wrapped in sad and depressive melodies..is this yours way how to deal with bad mood?

I suppose you could say that. When we’re together we have the best times, we have fun. Maybe it’s that we do that to balance the music, I don’t know. The lyrics and music are very intimate, I think moreso with The Quiet Lamb than ever before, and from that you can maybe get an idea that there have been some bad times, but that doesn’t stop us laughing our tits off.

3.Her name is Calla started as two-piece accoustic duo and after years you developed into complex band with more members than Kelly family using like million and half instruments. Do you feel you’ll still evolve in future or this is finally sound that you really want?

I think in terms of the regular lineup, we’ve found what works now. We are like a family, a little musical family, and it feels strange to think of it being any other way, to think of someone else coming in to that permanantly. As for evolution, I think we’ll continue to evolve musically, pushing ourselves, exploring the music. We’ll also continue to work with other people too, like The Monroe Transfer, and Dave is always welcome on cello.

4.The Quiet Lamb, yours “debut album” is coming out in september/october. 75 minutes of music, year of recordings in your “home studios”..How do you feel about it? Exhausted, satisfied?

The term debut is a little debateable, even within the band. At the time, The Heritage was a mini album, though it’s bloody long for that. The Quiet Lamb though does feel like something different. We feel very happy with it, with the amount of work that’s gone into it, and with all the contributions from artists and support from Thomas and Timo at Denovali. I think this was the right time for it all to come together. It’s also the first record where the current line-up have been involved from start to finish, and so I think it benefits from that. We’ve grown close as a band. I think this record shows that.

5.Could you describe The Quiet Lamb a little bit? What can fans expect? Heavier stuff like epic Condor and River or more folky songs like Long grass?

Er, yes, both. Actually, maybe a bit cheeky, but Tom did a song by song breakdown for the line of best fit. You can find it here – thelineofbestfit (you should really check this site if you are in love with HNIC)

The Quiet Lamb is two things. As our debut album, and one that we hope will get a lot of attention, we were aware to some extent that it should maybe be like a collection of the best of Calla at the moment. If you think that sounds stupid, please assume I didn’t mean it like that. The overriding feeling however was that we had the opportunity here to produce something substantial. A complete and impressive work. Yes, there’s Condor and River which we wrote years ago, but it’s on there because we feel it fits, it has to be on there. It’s a long record, and while some would argue that there were a few places where cuts could of been made, we respectfully disagree.

6.Few song on Quiet Lamb were released before. Why do you re-recording this stuff again? It’s because these songs are very close to you or you just weren’t satisfied with previous versions?

In the case of Condor and River, we litterally recorded it as soon as we’d written it. It had a couple of minor releases in this form. We became unhappy with that recording, mostly because as we continued to play it live, we became much more familiar with it and knew there was a lot we could do differently with the recording.

The other two tracks that have been released before are A Blood Promise and Pour More Oil. They were included on a CD with the Blood Promise DVD, featuring a video for New England by Ashley Dean. However, as was stated at the time, these were only demos, and so were always going to be re-recorded properly.

7.It seems that the main wave of post-rock is now behind us, do you think that there is still something that was not explored in this genre? How about the post-rock scene in Britain these days? Is there a strong post-rock base? you know, here in europe it looks like british are interested only in Susan Boyle, Take That, tea and Premier League.

I’m the wrong person to answer this. We used to play a lot of post-rock shows, alongside bands that all sounded the same. That seems to happen less. Is that because post-rock is behind us? Or is it because promoters are thinking that actually, maybe we’re not really post-rock at all? I don’t know. To be honest, apart from a few standouts, post-rock as a genre seemed to breed generic music-by-numbers bands, so if it is behind us and only the strong are left standing, that can only be a good thing. As for English interests, it feels like that here sometimes too. I’m a big tea fan. The rest can bugger off.

8.Anyway, you are from Leeds/Leicester, area, where is shitloads of post-punk and indie rock bands, aka Kasabian, Gang of Four, The Wedding Present, Duels, The Sunshine underground etc etc bla bla bla, is there someone who got big influence on you? Or,what’s your main influences? Loads of musicians listening really different kind of music than what they are playing, is this your case?

Crap, our influences? I think I can probably speak for the band when I say that Kasabian probably don’t come into it. We all listen to quite different music, which makes for good stereo times in the van, but I don’t know how much of that actually influences us. This might sound incredibly pretentious, but probably our biggest influence isn’t music, but what happens to us outside of music. We try to convey atmospheres, emotions, ideas and thoughts. These are all non-musical. We just use music to do it. Maybe other people’s music is more inspirational than influencial.

9.I know that you are made a split with maybeshewill and you toured with worriedaboutsatan (I seriously thinking to re-tag this band in my winamp to Sophie’s boyfriend band, she’s saying this in every interview!!:-)), both of them using bit of electronica in their music, what about you? Are there any tastes to try this as well?

I doubt we’ll ever use electronics in the same way those guys do. We like to play to eachother, not a click or a programmed drum beat. We like to have that freedom. We do use the electronics though. On the last tour we hooked the piano into Logic so we had a few more sounds, and found we were tweaking the piano sound for each venue. A couple of spoken samples have crept in too.

On my side of the stage, I actually use less electronics than I used to. I suppose you could think of it as a more refined set-up, but really I’ve been tending more towards the acoustic. The trombone mainly, but also the piano and vocals. That said, simply having a laptop and a couple of effects really does provide a lot of opportunities, and I’ll be exploring these over the next few months. There’s a lot of scope there I think to add to the sound we have, subtly, with details.

10.I read that you had a lot of fun and you did a terrible things on your last european tour, why is that when you English people come to continent you become thirsty, crazy beasts? :-)

It’s because of your beer! It’s fairly inevitable to be honest. It’s a bit like being on holiday, except you’re presented with a fridge full off booze every night. Brilliant. It’s also worth remembering that what we don’t talk about, and you don’t see, is the hours spent just sitting in the van getting from A to B. Then we play an hour show, and like you said above, the music is anything but easy going. The result is quite a concentrated space of time where we can have fun, so why not make the most of it.

11.Final question. Who you support guys? Man U? Chelsea? Arsenal? Liverpool? Leeds? Leicester? (our editor is big sports fan, I need to know :-)

I don’t know if any of us support anyone. Being from Leicester, it’s nice when they do well, but I don’t really follow them. I’d rather they played all their games away though, gets a bit busy on the roads. Bit grouchy? Maybe. I play squash, and me and Michael play badminton a couple of times a week. I’ve put that in to attempt to win back some favour with your editor.

PS:Czech version in Full Moon Magazine n.6.

HNIC – Condor and River/The Heritage

Condor and River EP

The Heritage

Vy co mě znáte (i minimálně), určitě se vám už přihodilo to, že jsem vás kopal k tomu, ať si poslechnete Her name is Calla, se slovy, že je to nejlepší kapela na světě nebo tak něco. Samozřejmě, že není (Maroon5 bumtarata), ale když vám něco nutím, přece nebudu říkat, že je to jen dobrý. To se na to pak všichni vyserou.

S tím, jak moc se mi líbí souviselo i to, že se tu neobjevili, protože kapely, který mám fakt extra mrtě rád, a který navíc potřebují prachy, působí sympaticky a tak nějak vycítíte, že to jsou obyčejní lidi jako já,ty,on,oni,my a vy, prostě nechci šířit mediafajrem, protože vím, že za to vy kundy líné stejně nezaplatíte, i kdyby vám zhnědly gatě blahem.

Jenže…nový/starý-stařenový album The Quiet Lamb bude na konci srpna konečně (!!) v prodeji, a při tý příležitosti tahle parta kosteláckejch myší dala svolení sosat co to jde a to grátis. A to si kuřte, že je o co stát.

Pro ty, kteří se s touhle kapelou ještě nesetkali, tu máme trochu chronologie.2006 – první single pokus Hideous Box. 2007 vychází Condor a River EP. Ten samý šestnáctiminutový epos se pak o rok později objevuje i na splitu s Maybeshewill. Mezi námi – kdyby na světe existoval jen jeden song a byl to zrovna tenhle, vůbec bych si nestěžoval. Post-rockový intro se kolem páté minuty přetavuje do nehorázného metalového běsu, utichá a poprvé si o kladné body říká nebeský/andělský/ouch ouch vokál Toma Morrise. Mezi námi – kdyby byl Tom Morris jediný zpěvák na světě, vůbec bych si nestěžoval.

Your body wrapped in the vines

Your body covered in cuts

Your body surrounded by quiet

Your body surrounded by dark

Uff. Pak tu máme A Moment of Clarity, další dvoupísňičková ochutnávka, ale přeskočíme a jsme u The Heritage. To už Her name is Calla zaparkovala u Gizeh records a tímhle minialbem se konečně pořádně představila. 6 dlouhých songů na pomezí kostel music a post-rocku s folkovými podšlehy.

Já vím, na blozích se denně protočí 300 000 alb s tímhle otravným tagem a většinou je to vata a vata, jenže post-rock v podání HNIC má duši, kouzlo a charisma. New England, Pour more oil, to jsou nadčasovky, jen jim dát čas uzrát. O medaili si pak přímo říká Motherfucker! It’s Alive and it’s bleeding, která z hypnotického úvodu odstartuje k agresivně/utopistické výbušnině.

Post-rock je možná žánr, kterej by potřeboval polejt studenou vodou, ale pokuď jste to s ním ještě nevzdali, HNIC si vaši pozornost zaslouží. Pokuď navíc máte rádi folk, smyčcové nástroje a každou neděli chodíte na mši, přičtěte si k hodnocení plus mínus 900%.

Tohle je nejupřímnější deska široko daleko. Dalo by se toho ještě napsat mraky, ale jelikož už od druhého odstavce nikdo dál nečte, nechám si to na jindy. Třeba na The Quiet Lamb. Do tý doby si přečtěte Bibli, nalejte si vína a buďte připraveni.

PS: Download via cover. Idiots.