Tag Archives: BC Camplight

Fresh Juice

Fresh Juice 16th June 2025

Ron Sexsmith – Don’t Lose Sight

Canadian songwriter Ron continues to evolve and refine his craft with another new album called ‘Hangover Terrace’ set for release in August. His music can be as laid back and sleepy sounding as that weary expression he seems to perpetually wear on his face but that should not obscure the fact that his stock is song composition of the highest order. Ron can command the channels interlinking the major and minor keys with a melodic stitching that is deceptively advanced and the end result is frequently a song, such as that heard here, that was waiting for the right artist with enough range and dexterity to pull it into existence; don’t lose sight of the great songsmith’s still in our midst.

BC Camplight – Where You Taking My Baby?

BC Camplight is the performing identity of songwriter Brian Christinzio and he has used this platform to heart-wrenching effect in recent times to produce a piano-led style of confessional indie-rock that seems to delve deep into the mental, emotional and psychological core of his very being. That journey is clearly still unfolding on the new, soon to be released on Bella Union, ‘A Sober Conversation’ album in which, as heard here, among other concerns Brian deals with the trauma of re-connecting to loved ones following therapy brought on by fall outs, lost contacts, misunderstanding and hurt. If all this sounds heavy going though do not turn away, for his flare on the piano and ear for a tune in general make the music of BC Camplight a reliably deep, entertaining and ultimately rewarding experience.

Girl Group – Yay! Saturday

This is taken from Girl Group’s debut EP ‘Think They’re Looking, Let’s Perform’ and is buzzing with the same kind of feminist, hook driven pop energy previously heard from Wet Leg or Lily Allen. They are a relatively new five piece who, on this evidence, are alive with ideas and capable of painting vivid audio pictures that present animated versions of the lives they and their peer groups experience, in this case a long night out that gets messy. It is worth noting too that they are all singers and each member contributes to the writing too, so potentially the ideas will never be in short supply with a well of creative energy like this, there is a lot of promise here.

Night Beats – Behind The Green Door

And the beat goes on with another fine release from an ever dependable name in psych-inflected bluesy rock, Danny Lee Blackwell’s rollin’ and tumblin’ electric circus that is the Night Beats. ‘Behind The Green Door’ is the bands latest single and is out digitally now and on limited 7″ vinyl. Even though the backbone of Night Beats music is always retained, the primitive beats and the ubiquitous green fuzz of the guitar, there is always something different to delight in as well, on this occasion a decidedly Lynch-like panorama and a widescreen cinematic sound that could place this in the soundtrack to some obscure sixties b-movie, if not for the fact that it belongs firmly in the here and now as well.

Kathleen Edwards – 6 O’Clock News

The news that Kathleen Edwards is releasing a new album called ‘Billionaire’ on August 22nd produced by Jason Isbell and Gena Johnson, is very welcome indeed. It is described as harking back to her very first album, ‘Failer,’ with razor sharp lyrical observations and relatable real life tales. Two new songs, ‘Save Your Soul’ and ‘Say Goodbye, Tell No One’ are ready to hear online already and I will get to them soon enough but for now, let’s enjoy this recent live performance of the opening track from that aforementioned brilliant 2003 debut release.

Edith Frost – That’s What It’s Like To Be Lonesome

And to finish things off this week, here is another highly rated artist who has made a return in 2025, but this time it is someone who has ushered herself back into the ring with very little fanfare or hullabaloo. Edith Frost was one of the essential American Singer-songwriters around the start of the 2000’s earning herself deserved comparisons to singers like Elliott Smith but her new album ‘In Space’, which I am going to be checking out for the first time this coming week having only just come across it way below the surface, is her first in nineteen years. Here she is posting on her own YouTube channel a cover version of an old Jean Shepard song and it is as lush and moving as I always recalled Edith to be a couple of decades ago, it feels good to come across her once more.

Standard
Fresh Juice

5th June 2023

The Nude Party – Somebody Tryin’ To Hoodoo Me

This weeks half dozen new music selections is taking a slight detour to reflect on some of the best live performances I have seen over the previous two months. In fact this weekend just gone was a highlight of the year thus far having attended the Red Rooster Festival and catching The Nude Party live for the first time and finding the supremacy I have previously raved about on vinyl also translates to the live arena, they surely are one of the best things happening in music today aren’t they? Three albums in and an absolute treasure trove of a catalogue is already building up. None of the clips I highlight today are from the actual gigs I attended (I never stand a gig with my phone held up filming I’m afraid, I get too into the music for that) but they are all good examples of the acts playing live in 2023 so here for starters are the Nude Party playing one of the many stand-outs from new New West Records album ‘Rides On’…

Fantastic Negrito – Oh Betty

This one represents another fresh-in-my-memory joyous experience from Red Rooster Festival, the Friday night main stage headliner Fantastic Negrito. Seen here with a blistering live version of an astounding song on last years Storefront Records released ‘White Jesus Black Problems’ album, he is surely ripe for a favourable comparison to Prince? It is all there in the lane swapping energy he exudes drinking from the deep well of blues, soul and spiritual music whilst firing out a sound and attitude that is wholly his own creation, what a star…

BC Camplight – The Last Rotation Of Earth

I wrote a little about my delight in catching BC Camplight live in a very intimate pub venue only a couple of weeks ago in June’s Monthly Playlist article. When I posted that there was very little I could find in the way of filmed performances of this current solo-piano tour he is playing but happily now this recent clip has emerged offering a nice taste of how favourably Brian’s songwriting gift is responding to such close, uncluttered scrutiny; truly one of the best songsmith’s on the current circuit…

Pokey LaFarge – Rotterdam

The Pokey show I caught at the start of his UK visit a few weeks back was a real throwback of the most satisfying kind. Reflecting on what was so wonderful about the show it is hard not to pull similarly vintage compliments like ‘professionalism’ and ‘musicianship’ out of the bag and there is something in that; the style he possesses, the charming panache of his presentation and the natural flair in his bands playing is not down to luck, they have worked at being this good and it shows. This is where I sometimes feel a little out of step with the conventional rock/alt music critics of the UK; yes I like punk and see how it was a welcome grenade on a seventies scene that was in danger of becoming too indulgent and bland, but I have never treated punk as the ‘Year 0’ that some do and neither do I think that being musically eloquent, proficient, knowledgeable or progressive are bad things, especially when used to make fresh sounds in the way an act like Pokey LaFarge does. Hold on too tightly to that (Lamacq endorsed) attitude and you end up believing dross like Fontaines DC and The Murder Capital are where its at and believe me, as much as I acknowledge everything has a place, I would not want to end up there! This is a far better music zone where the sounds are alive with pleasure…

Chuck Prophet – You Did (Bomp Shooby Dooby Bomp)

Now that I have lost the chicken-in-a-bucket yelping landfill indie readers with my previous paragraph, here is another taste of a Red Rooster Festival highlight that I was grooving to as recently as Saturday evening. I thought there was a purity to Chuck Prophet’s set, something nourishingly satisfying about an early evening performer coming to the stage offering “no bullshit, no gimmicks, no backing tapes, just simple entertainment” and making good on his promise. There was a natural confidence in his Nick Cave meets Tom Petty vibe, a seasoned patina that referenced both the electric 21st century Bob Dylan sound and the classic Springsteen rock of the past half century which simultaneously made us happy and feel something real. This is a recent live clip that only gives a glimpse to the Chuck experience but his audience slaying manner does shine bright, especially as he plays straight down the lens of what I assume to be a camera phone capturing this…

The Mock Tudors – Bin Day

Yes I have featured this exact same song once before earlier in the year but again, I am limited to the selection of recent live performance clips I can find online and this band do not have anywhere near enough (thus far). Nevertheless, I cannot miss The Mock Tudrors out of a run down on my stand-out live experiences of 2023 up to today. Yes I had enjoyed what I heard well enough back in the winter months but this band mean so much more when you see them live. Everything about their goofy and droll live show will put a smile on your face and like the other two bands I grinned inanely from ear-to-ear whilst watching this year (Half Man Half Biscuit and Shonen Knife), they have some pretty damn shit hot tunes to go with the irreverence. Catch all of these if you can…

Standard
Monthly Playlists

June 2023 Playlist

I went to see BC Camplight a couple of nights ago, the artist who kicks off this months playlist is touring his wonderful and rather well received new album ‘The Last Rotation Of Earth’ as a solo performer, the BC Camplight live experience reduced to a charismatic if rather troubled singer, a piano and a box of breakfast cereal on a table. I do not know if this is motivated by stringent financing limitations or a more artistic concern? The latter is surely a significant factor as earlier this year the man known to his fans as Brian attributed the lack of conventional videos accompanying this new material to a desire for listeners to focus solely on the music. That seems a wise move to me for these songs are built with real depth, they are many layered beasts pumping with the raw emotion of a recent relationship break up, the existential anxiety thrown up by the modern world and parceled up into a kneading mass of prowling melodies and cascading chord progressions. These are fantastic songs rising from a dark place that the singer still appears to be on first name terms with and they positively sparkle in this stripped back setting.

If that all sounds a bit bleak and heavy going, then think again for Brian is so comfortable on stage slicing open the veins of his music that he can happily make self-lacerating jokes and even cut in mid song to reprimand himself for slipping into a Jools Holland boogie-woogie-like lick on the keys. He shows expert comic timing too when introducing a song by questioning how some people have suggested it is based on an older song before launching into the opening of Elton John’s ‘Your Song.’ He does play the piano really well actually, using it correctly as a proper lead instrument rather than merely holding down basic chords. It turns out that he has not even brought an instrument out on the road, the pianos are either belonging to the particular venue or leant out from a friend. I even spotted him when I arrived at the pub venue, crossing the road in the same direction as me casually looking like a man heading for a night out downing ales and throwing a few darts. It turns out he has booked himself into a room at another pub over the road and the thought occurs, surely a few more musicians could follow this low-cost touring model? Just busk it a bit, take the pressure off and even put the sense of adventure back into the touring experience? There was talk in the crowd tonight of this latest BC Camplight album being his swansong, I sincerely hope that does not come to pass. This is an artist capable of summoning all of music’s honest, brutal magic with his archly detailed, fleetingly funny, sometimes dreamy and always magnetic songs of rage and hurt.

Standard