Easy! Easy! Easy! Easy!

Here's the video for "No Lucifer," the second single from British Sea Power's latest album, Do You Like Rock Music?.




EASY! EASY! EASY! EASY! EASY! EASY!

Hey you, give me the dummy tits,
Forget the rest of the shit
The man with the skull and bones,
You think you know, but you don't.

To Sodom I will go,
Not to Megiddo.
Several Lucifers come,
We can beat them all.

A Carlton Corsair,
A Raleigh Twenty, yeah!
A little lost roe deer,
The wind in your hair.

NO LUCIFER!

Come on, Allons-y let's go,
Can always just say no.
To the anti-aircraft crew,
The boys from the Hitler Youth.

Silk and cyanide,
Six weeks left alive.
Metal, skull and bone,
You think you know but you don't.

To Sodom I will go,
Not to Megiddo.
Several Lucifers come,
We can beat them all.

A Carlton Corsair,
A Raleigh Twenty, yeah!
A little lost roe deer,
The wind in your hair.

NO LUCIFER!

EASY! EASY! EASY!

Is that what the future holds?
Is that what the future holds?
Kevlar or cherry wood,
Malevolence or good.

Is that what the future holds?
Is that what the future holds?
Is that what the future holds?
Is that what the future holds?

NO LUCIFER!

"Waving Flags" - British Sea Power

This is the first single from British Sea Power's latest album, Do You Like Rock Music?. It's been out for a while now, but I think you should all give it a listen, since you probably haven't heard it yet. People have been saying it sounds like Arcade Fire, because it's sort of "epic" sounding and BSP's an indie band, but honestly, it doesn't sound a bit like Arcade Fire, because they're completely awful.

Following the sneering squall of Noble's lead guitar in the intro section, co-frontman Yan bleats, "You are astronomical fans of alcohol, so welcome in," beginning the theme of camaraderie that holds this track together like a close-knit gang of teenagers. In the second verse, it's a similar sentiment. "Are you of legal drinking age? On minimum wage? Well, welcome in!" "Waving Flags" is a song about the joy and sense of invincibility that overtakes you in those flashing moments when you feel as though you've got the whole world at your back. It's not working-class pride, it's something much more--something universal. In the chorus, Yan moves into a lower tone as he sings, "You, you're only here for a while, and it's all a joke," and you know he's right. It's a song that's encouraging even when it’s sober—it’s morbidity with a hearty slap on the back from your mates. It's a song that comes from an understanding that we all need something to take the edge off, and yes, we do like rock music.

"Waving Flags"- British Sea Power
BSP's Official Website
Buy Do You Like Rock Music? from Newbury Comics


Live on Later...with Jools Holland

Download "Atom" Here

Since it's available for free officially on BSP's website. Here's "Atom."

British Sea Power - Atom - from the forthcoming album, Do You Like Rock Music? via Rough Trade Records

I promise this is the last post on British Sea Power until the album comes out, haha.

-ST

British Sea Power @ Maxwell's, NJ 10-15-07

I went to see BSP last night at Maxwell’s over in Hoboken. All in all it was a good show, though the band didn’t seem to be in top form and the sound wasn’t great. Blame it on the hype of pieces like this, I guess. In spite of that, I enjoyed myself, as I was lucky enough to be in the front row and even got a pat on the back and a kind word from Yan after I helped him figure out why he wasn’t getting any sound out of his guitar (it wasn’t plugged in).

“Stay there, man,” he intoned in a high, harsh coastal accent, and I obeyed (he was wearing a Nelson-esque naval officer’s greatcoat), very narrowly avoiding getting smashed in the face by his guitar’s machine heads at various points throughout the course of the set, which included an impassioned, whirlwind rendition of the early EP track “Spirit of St. Louis.” Other highlights included the new songs, “Atom,” “Lucifer,” and “Jet Lag Jimmy Jam,” which all had a real punk feel reminiscent of tunes like “Apologies to Insect Life” and “Favours in the Beetroot Fields” from their debut, Decline of British Sea Power.

I managed to snag the beer-drenched and trodden-on set list, which I’ve attempted to transcribe below:

Set List:
1. Apologies to Insect Life
2. Atom
3. Remember Me
4. Please Stand Up
5. Down on the Ground
6. Pelican
7. Spirit of St. Louis
8. A Wooden Horse
9. Fear of Drowning
10. Larsen B
11. Lucifer
12. How Will I Ever Find My Way Home?
13. Carrion
14. Lights Out F.D.S. (?)
15. Lately / Rock in A
16. Jet Lag Jimmy Jam

Opening act: Star Death from Oklahoma.

-ST

British Sea Power's "Atom"

I feel like over the last year or two I've become a lot more picky about the kind of music I buy. Buzz bands come and go and for whatever reason I just can't seem to tell this month's Cold War Kids from last month's Tapes 'n' Tapes. The creation of billions of blogs just like this one all over the world has created an entirely new way of introducing people to new sounds, but while this is all very well, I can't help but be a little overwhelmed by choice sometimes.

Still, every once in a while all the webcrawling pays off and you come across a band like British Sea Power. I learned about these four uber-literate rockers from Brighton, UK on the AtEase (a Radiohead fansite) message board when I was still in high school. The band's 2003 debut, The Decline of British Sea Power is one of the essential recordings of the decade (the aughts?), featuring a range of material from yelping post-punk ("Apologies to Insect Life") to anthemic histori-pop ("Carrion") that's glued together by a rich helping of effervescent guitar squall and warehouse-rave drumming culminating in a collosal 13-minute requiem for a by-gone era called "Lately."

In 2005 the band released Open Season, which pruned back the textures of the debut, but compensated by delivering up a perfect set of guitar pop in the tradition of bands like Echo & the Bunnymen and The Sound. Some of the standout tracks included "It Ended on an Oily Stage" (one of the best opening tracks I've heard in some time, with lyrics like "All across the eastern board / Languages were being lost / You look so elegantly bored now / Totally at ease with it all") and the single "Please Stand Up," which features a chorus hook that could make Bono weep.

As this year comes to a close, the band has released an online EP (which I believe comes out on CD in stores this November) entitled Krankenhaus?. It features the driving "Atom," which hearkens back to some of their earlier songs. You can download the song for free on British Sea Power's website, linked here.

I'm going to see the band play at Maxwell's in Hoboken tomorrow night, and I'm superexcited. Will be sure to report.

Tracklist for Krankenhaus? EP
1. Atom (4:40)
2. Down on the Ground (4:31)
3. Straight Down the Line (4:06)
4. Hearing Aid (1:56)
5. The Pelican (9:18)