Artist.......: The Wombats
Album........: Live At Main Square Festival
Label........: Na∩ve
Genre........: Indie
Catnr........: n/a
Source.......: DVBS
Rip.date.....: 2011-04-25
Str.date.....: 2008-07-06
Quality......: 223kbps/48.0kHz/Joint Stereo
Url..........: http://www.thewombats.co.uk/
track title time
1. Live At Main Square Festival 39:26
* Acapella
* Kill The Director
* Lost In The Post
* School Uniforms
* Party In A Forest (Where's Laura)
* Here Comes The Anxiety
* Moving To New-York
* Patricia The Stripper
* Little Miss Pipedream
* Lets Dance To Joy Division
* Backfire At The Disco
Runtime 39:26
Size 63.09
Release Notes:
Within the butterfly-breaking cogs of the music industry, big numbers can bring
big problems. And The WombatsÆ numbers got big, fast. A platinum album with
their 2007 debut æGuide To Love, Loss And DesperationÆ. Over 300,000 combined
sales of their indie dancefloor smashes æKill The DirectorÆ, æLetÆs Dance To Joy
DivisionÆ (winner of the 2008 NME Award for Best Dancefloor Filler), æBackfire
At The DiscoÆ and æMoving To New YorkÆ. A two year tour during which LiverpoolÆs
biggest exports in a decade played to well over a million people, culminating in
a massive homecoming Liverpool Arena show for 10,000 ecstatic local fans of
their dark yet exuberant and infectious alt.pop.
ôIt was such a good way to round it off,ö says drummer Dan Haggis. ôWe had a two
day party after that. Obviously you canÆt help but go æbloody hell, remember a
couple of years ago in Liverpool, weÆd be lucky if we sold out the Academy
downstairs to 500 people. How did we get to this?Æö
Big numbers, big gigs, but for a band with the intense work ethic of The Wombats
(lest we forget, in the build-up to their breakthrough hit æKill The DirectorÆ
in 2007 they played 50 tiny pub and club shows around the UK in almost as many
days) they took their toll. Having continued their breakneck schedule for
eighteen months solid, they came off a mammoth US tour in 2008 ôpretty brokenà
physically and mentally.ö
ôWe did a couple of months too long,ö says Dan. ôI had problems with my arms so
every night going up onstage hurt, so it wasnÆt really that enjoyable. I had a
gig where I didnÆt want anyone to look at me. I sat on the drums at Glasgow and
you start feeling guilty because you think you should be having the best night
of your life but I didnÆt know why I was there.ö
Over the summer of 2008, between festival dates, two more singles were recorded
û the stop-gap classic æMy Circuitboard CityÆ and their sardonic
(anti-)Christmas song æIs This Christmas?Æ before singer Matthew æMurphÆ Murphy
sat down to begin writing new material for album two. But in his new home in
London, Murph found the loneliness, dislocation and routine of being off the
road and writing in a big city difficult to cope with. HeÆd simply become too
accustomed to the adulation of the stage.
ôMy downfall was I got used to it,ö he admits, ôand then when it all stopped it
was a bit of a reality bite-back and I had to level myself out. It was my
general unhappiness of not being on the road and being in a new city.ö
ôEvery night for a couple of years to have always been on your way somewhere,ö
adds Dan, ôalways about to do a gig or an interview or whatever, always people
interested in talking to you about music. Then suddenly stopping and not doing
gigs and not having the adrenalin rush every night, itÆs like hitting a brick
wall.ö
The few gigs that the band did play occasionally ended in near-death
experiences. On his way home from a show in Skegness, Murph almost flipped his
car on an icy motorway but emerged miraculously unscathed (the incident inspired
a new song called æMotorphobiaÆ). And during a trip to Dubai to play Liverpool
Sound City, Dan had his own four-wheeled run-in with the reaper.
ôIt was fun but me and my girlfriend almost had a pretty serious accident,ö he
says. ôWe went dune buggy racing with no insurance, no anything. They just went
æhave you done this before?Æ and we went æno, not reallyÆ and they went ægreat!
Put this on!Æ. We stuck this helmet on and went off over these dunes having a
great time and ended up going too fast over one of them and basically coming off
and crashing quite badly.ö
With so much alienation and vehicular trauma around, itÆs perhaps no wonder the
first batch of songs Murph wrote in London in February 2009 were delivered to
the record label and met with some concern. Lyrically they were the bleakest
tracks Murph had ever written (he doesnÆt expand on their subject matter) and
musically they were heavier than heaven and louder than war.
ôThe initial thought was to do things relatively far away from what youÆd be
known for or what your comfort zone is,ö he says, ôwhich is maybe a good thing,
but the first batch of songs that the label heard, they were like æwho the hell
is this?Æö
Bassist Tord ╪verland-Knudsen chips in. ôThey were much grungier. More like the
90s grungy thing, for those first four songs. We needed to get the energy back,
make heavier music.ö
Or, more accurately, Murph needed to get his Merseyside Mojo back. ôI went back
to my mum and dadÆs house to recapture whatever former glory was once there. It
was kind of miserable being locked away in a room for eight hours every day with
just a little lampshade and piano. You kind of go round the bend, there was no
reality to draw from. So I had to go up to Liverpool and get back to getting
slaughtered and doing recreational things in order to find anything to draw on.ö
Back in Liverpool, The Wombats Mk 2 instantly clicked. They plumped for a
synthier sound, MurphÆs keyboard often replacing the lead guitar, and the tunes
poured forth in ever more innovative and colourful guises. Tracks such as
æPerfect DiseaseÆ (a working title, as they all are at present) took on the
sonorous disco moods of Depeche Mode and Echo & The Bunnymen, lashed to The
KillersÆ arena pop sensibilities. One of the albumÆs ôcurveballsö æFogÆ came out
sounding like nothing more than The Horrors covering Queen. Often only their
intense catchiness marked these songs out as traditionally æWombatsÆ at all: no
matter where the sonics strayed, the tunes were always glint-in-the-sunlight
perfect - better even than the dancefloor killers of their first chart
onslaught.
ôI felt like I was rebelling against what we were as a band,ö Murph explains.
ôSomehow weÆve come back round and amalgamated bits of that into the newer stuff
and itÆll hopefully make it better. There are elements that are so different
from what people will think. ThereÆs songs that are akin to the first album but
it feels like weÆve escalated. IÆm 100 per cent certain that some of the songs
on this album are the best weÆve ever put out.ö
First single æTokyo (Vampires And Wolves)Æ certainly fits that category û an
instant radio hit thatÆs so insanely catchy itÆs impossible not to spin again
the second itÆs finished. An ode to the Neon City? ôItÆs just a bit angsty,ö
says Murph. ôThe new album hasnÆt got anything to do with touring, it just
represents escapism and wanting to run away.ö
This new batch of songs finds MurphÆs lyrics developing a depth and personal
confessional slant thatÆs rare in modern song-writing: take the blunt and
startling theme of æAnti-DÆ for starters, in which Murph likens himself to an
anti-depressant. But fans of his more story-based writing will find much to
enjoy in the synth-rock, disco-destroying brilliance of æI Never Knew I Was A
Techno FanÆ û the tune where æMr BrightsideÆ chats up La Roux in a drug-swamped
Hoxton dive bar. Key line: ôIÆm in debt to you/But donÆt feed me plant foodö.
ôThatÆs more of a story,ö Murph says. ôI went to a minimal techno rave in
Shoreditch with my girlfriend. It was dirty, I didnÆt stay there for long. IÆve
never seen a longer queue for the toilets in my life. People had their hands up
going æI actually need a weeÆ and everyone in the queue would go ægo on thenÆ.ö
The album has been recorded through 2010 over three sessions with three separate
producers, all in LA û first U2 and REM producer Jacknife Lee brought his
precise technological nous to æAnti-DÆ, then Eric Valentine helped them put
together æTokyo (Vampires And Wolves)Æ and æTechno FanÆ. And as we write theyÆre
preparing to return to LA with Muse knob-twiddler Rich Costey to complete a
record that will shock, impress and spin opinion on this most uncompromising of
21st Century pop bands.
ôYou take the electro and you take the grunge and you put it together with what
we used to do on the first album,ö says Tord, ôthen thatÆs what the albumÆs
going to be.ö
Dan nods, a sparkle in his eye. ôItÆs gonna be a whirlwind adventure.ö