Villagers

We had an extra reason to celebrate last nights gig in Colchester, Conor won an Ivor Novello award!
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0520/1224297355078.html

Many congrats to Conor for winning an Ivor!
What an amazing achievement!

Becoming a Jackal is a truly brilliant debut. Excellent, excellent stuff. Textured, intelligent, melodic, hypnotic music and while perhaps somewhat more hyperbolic than Garvey's kitchen-sink-drama approach to lyrics, Conor's are still on the verge of poetry.... he's a young lad still, full of drama and confusion and woe.

Stand out tracks for me are "I Saw The Dead", "Becoming a Jackal", "The Meaning of the Ritual", "Home" and "Set the Tigers Free".

Michele with Conor on guest vocals, from the Shepherds Bush gig
Twas a beautiful moment.
'Invitation To The Blues'
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iGQD0BBcqk&NR=1

Lovely stuff!

A three song live set recorded for NPR last year.

Superb! Conor's talent ooozes from every pore.

They're on Channel 4 tonight 11.55pm
Live from Abbey Road

Yayyyy!!!!!

Well, I've finally downloaded a copy of 'Becoming a Jackal' and apart from 'I Saw The Dead' and it's excellent haunting atmosphere and piano and 'That Day' which I was familiar with, there's no hook or anything else to really draw me within - I'm on it's 3rd listen now and I'm left cold by it.

Anyone else with me, or as I suspect, am I in the minority ? Any one click with it after a lot more listening ?

That's a surprise MBV, we usually like the same stuff

I love it. Bought it the day after I saw them on the 2010 Mercury Awards Show and it's one of my favourite albums of the last few years.

I've seen them 4 times now, twice supporting elbow and twice headlining and they are excellent live.

Keep at it mate. Another 3 or 4 times and you won't be able to sleep at night coz "Home" will be stuck in your head

sparky wrote:

That's a surprise MBV, we usually like the same stuff

I love it. Bought it the day after I saw them on the 2010 Mercury Awards Show and it's one of my favourite albums of the last few years.

I've seen them 4 times now, twice supporting elbow and twice headlining and they are excellent live.

Keep at it mate. Another 3 or 4 times and you won't be able to sleep at night coz "Home" will be stuck in your head

Nice one Sparky - yeah, it's just not happenin' at the moment, I know 3 times to listen to an album aint much to gauge a proper review, but his voice, if you pardon the pub, just doesn't 'sing to me'.....

I'm off to Belfast next month and they are supporting Elbow, maybe by then they might be worth leaving the bar early for !

I'll take out the disappointing new Strokes album and give it another go in the Punto tomorrow morning....

Caitilin and I went to Birmingham to see Villagers yesterday - it was their last date in Britain for the foreseeable, so it just had to be done. They seem to be getting better and better and the intensity of their live performance is extraordinary. A couple of new songs really stood out - The Grateful Song and The Bell. We were lucky enough bump into Conor and Danny, who really are lovely lads (they said hi, Joanie!). Conor told us that the new album should be out next June and, from what I heard, it should be absolutely brilliant. They are without doubt my second favourite band! Keep listening MBV - I'm sure it'll click eventually.

ticky wrote:

We were lucky enough bump into Conor and Danny, who really are lovely lads (they said hi, Joanie!).

Aw lovely!
Saw them do their set in Belfast (brill!) but didn't see them after, -must've been in a different hotel...
Still hoping to catch them do a headliner but it seems they are winding down now to do some more recording (which is good news!)
Souns like it was fab, Ticky!

You can get a free MP3 download of "Cecilia And Her Selfhood" from their website at the moment.
There's also an animated film

How's things mbv? Still not converted?

http://www.wearevillagers.com/

We saw Villagers headlining the Deer Shed Festival last night.

They played quite a few new songs from their forthcoming album (including "The Bell" and "Grateful Song" which are fantastic but seem to have been around for ages).

It all sounded great and I'm really looking forward to the new release now

Great show last night....thanks guys

LP2 is coming out soon? Do you know when, sparky?

I'm really looking forward to the new album - still hoping for some tour dates.

NeonChoir wrote:

LP2 is coming out soon? Do you know when, sparky?

Conor wasnt specific, he said something like "we have a new album coming out and we are going to play you a lot of songs from it tonight"
The festival blurb said "due for release in the summer"
I was talking to someone who said "September"

So its a bit vague but its "soon"

Some of those songs have been knocking about for ages, will be nice to finally hear them in recorded form too.

^^ It would be something if it came out in September. I've already got loads of releases I'm on the lookout for that month. -explodes- Thanks, though, for the update! I'll definitely have my eyes out for it.

New tune from Conor and Co, amazing, as always.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hoha8iET3us&feature=player_embedded#!

Their new album is released on 14th January 2013 , which is later than I was expecting

As everyone has been saying, a few of the tracks have been played at their gigs over the last few years, but it's mainly new stuff

My Lighthouse
Earthly Pleasure
The Waves
Judgement Call
Nothing Arrived
The Bell
{Awayland}
Passing a Message
Grateful Song
In a Newfound Land You Are Free
Rhythm Composer

Not sure why but I hesitated about getting tickets to their Borderline gig in London, and now it's sold out, arrrggghhh!!

Hi Kim
They are supporting Grizzly Bear at the Brixton Academy the night before the Borderline gig.

That should be a double bill worth seeing. I'm going to go to the manchester gig

anyone going to see Villagers during their upcoming tour? I'll be going to their London show, so very excited!