Midlake at Amsterdam's Paradiso

Last night Texan classic rock revivalists Midlake (interview below) rolled into town. With the band running late, a few of us lucky early ones snuck in and caught their sound-check just before the doors actually opened. It was interesting to watch with the lights on - kinda like sex, there's definitely something missing - and I'm pretty sure they hadn't applied their onstage-beards yet.

A sold out show at the Paradiso promised an enthusiastic crowd while an album just released, The Courage of Others suggested there'd be a mix of new and old songs, for better or for worse.

Midlake came to prominence with 2006's The Trials of Van Occupanther (was he Dutch?) an instant indie classic for both you and yer old man, conjuring the spirits of Crosby Stills & Nash, Neil Young's Harvest-era, Fleetwood Mac and a touch, dare I say, of the Eagles - 'forrest rock' as my girlfriend, Liz calls it.

Last night, the shows' standouts came from said first album, the likes of 'Young Bride', 'Head Home' and the gem 'Roscoe' were all crowd favourites with a rocking end to 'Head Home' courtesy of drummer McKenzie Smith. Likewise, their encore 'Branches' was from Van Occupanther, and a mellow closure to the evening.
At the end of the show the band were openly blown away when the house lights went on to reveal three tiers of fans in rapturous applause.

Maybe that's because the band knew what I knew; where the old songs rocked, the new songs felt awash in sameness. Since Van Occupanther we've seen a swag of fellow vintage rockers lathered with smooth folk vocals and harmonies, check shirts and beards. None derivative, all bring something new to the table (or take away) - the likes of Fleet Foxes, Bon Ivor and Local Natives.
Understandably, in an attempt to distance themselves from the sound, or more appropriately, three more years of touring the same style of songs, Midlake have moved from forrest rock to druid-folk, especially if we're going off their album covers; American woodland the former, robes and celtic symbolism the latter.

The move to British folk territory on The Courage of Others seems to have payed off as well as Michael Jordan's to baseball. Instead of my Dad's Neil Young records I hear my mum's Steeleye Span records. Fair play, they give it ago and have mastered the sound but at what point might one think 'maybe four guitars are too many?' There's also more flute than you can chuck an Enya at. Plus, on the night, Tim's voice was too low in the mix, his mellow tones too easily washed away.

With the best seats in the house (for those in the know, front and centre on the balcony, that almost box-seat part) we were hoping to be blown away, and for the songs from the first album we were by their weaving tapestry and texture. Songs from the second instead blanketed us in druid drone with not enough melodies or rich harmonies. Shame really.

An Interview with Midlake

With their 70s folk-rock, Midlake will swoon you back to simpler times. Colin Delaney chats to the band’s drummer, McKenzie Smith, about life in Texas, their new record and Jason Lee. 

While the UK and US indie music scenes have been wallowing in the stagnant waters of an 80s revival, drowning in Morrissey and Gang Of Four wannabes, a little-known band from Texas has been diving deeper into the rock ‘n’ roll gene pool. Midlake’s second record, The Trials Of Van Occupanther, evokes the 70s spirit of artists like Fleetwood Mac, America, and Crosby Stills Nash and Young. Drummer McKenzie Smith has just got himself a haircut and is driving back to the band’s hometown of Denton,TX. 



Has Texas and its great outdoors influenced your sound?

Yes, but not like you might expect. People might assume that because you’re from Texas you must be into country music - that’s the majority of the music here and obviously there is a large fanbase for that kinda music, but we’re not exactly influenced by it. Texas is an interesting place to live. There’s lots of cool things about Texas, and not so cool, and I’d say we’re affected by that. But I wouldn’t say that we’re affected by country music. The places we live, the people in Texas and our backgrounds, they all play a part in our development as a band. I’ve heard it’s very similar to Australia. Texas is huge, with everything from dense forest with huge pine trees to the tropics down south and desert, and up north it gets cold. Our singer Tim got influenced by nature in general. I guess you could say it’s Texas but it’s also anything with a pastoral setting.



Your album is a breath of fresh air. It seems very sincere, a throwback to the great folk rock artists of the 70s. 

We worked really hard on that album so I’m glad you liked it. The first album has lots of influences, from The Flaming Lips and Granddaddy to the Beatles psychedelic kinda stuff. And then after we made that album we started checking out the 70s stuff like Neil Young and Fleetwood Mac, America and Bread, Joni Mitchell, Jethro Tull. One thing leads to another and before you know it, Tim, our singer became so engulfed with this and it really affected him and he loved it so much that it started coming out of him naturally. And we just said, ‘We really like what you’re working on and the direction you’re taking.’ It was a long process to eventually evolve into that but I think we’re ready for that. Everyone compares this album to a 70s album and I think they’re right. It hopefully hasn’t come across as contrived, it was just a very natural thing. We just said these albums are timeless and classic and how good would it be to make a record that feels the same kind of way.



There’s no sense of irony to what you’re doing...

That was the plan, we didn’t want to make something that seemed like we were just ripping them off, like it was a throwback, kinda ‘look what they’re doing’ thing. I think you could put on Neil Young’s Harvest right now and it would sound like a great record. You’re not going to put this on in 10 years and go ‘Oh, I can’t believe I was ever into that.’



So who is Van Occupanther?

Well, Van Occupanther is actually only in one song but everyone thinks he’s a recurring character, that he’s the guy in every story. There’s a lot of ideas about going back to a simpler time when things weren’t so complicated - you have your wife, and your land and your job and you make an honest living without all the complications.



Jason Lee (of My Name Is Earl, Almost Famous and Chasing Amy) has been championing your work, and spreading the word. How did that come about?

Jason knew Simon Raymonde (of Cocteau Twins), who runs our label. He was a huge Cocteau Twins fan and had written Simon years ago and Simon wrote him back and they became friends. Simon started sending Jason records and he sent him our first album and Jason flipped out. He did a top 10 records in Entertainment Weekly and we were number two on his list. When we met him in Austin at South by South West we thought we were the ones that were supposed to be bowing down to him and he was like, ‘Let me buy you a drink, I can’t believe I’m talking to you guys, I love you guys.’ Since then he came to Denton and filmed a video for us. He’s just a really great guy to have on your team. We’re very thankful for his friendship.



*Midlake’s The Trial of Van Occupanther is out through Speak n Spell.

Speak n Spell

I stopped using myspace for all the old pedophiles requesting pictures of me nude – "more back hair" they demanded, but nah-huh I wouldn't give it to them. Well I signed in today and something caught my eye, something that turned me on more than old men. A Speak n Spell mix on imeem. What's one more profile/account/presence/thingy after signing up all over the place, so I got me an imeem account. Still don't know what I can do with it but I get to listen to these songs which is nice.
Anyway, Speak n Spell are a label from Australia who's A&R peeps have the best taste in the biz when it comes to indie. I'm talking Midlake, The Walkmen, The Horrors (before some major stole 'em), Dandy Warhols, The Mystery jets, The Datsuns, The Black Lips, The Dears, Lo-Fi Fink, My Latest Novel, The Duke Spirit and the Great Lake Swimmers plus Antipodean acts like Dappled Cities, Cut Off Your Hands, Die Die Die and plenty more. Logging into myspace I discovered they'd put together this little mix. Good for them. I hope you enjoy.

Speak n Spell