Field Music

New School of Language album is excellent, huge improvement from the debut.

https://soundcloud.com/memphisindustries/field-music-the-noisy-days-are-over-single-version/s-mFgkR

New single. It's awesome. Brass! New album due early next year (Feb) and tour in March.

cool!

was relistening to Measure recently - it's soooo good

Commontime is a really interesting record - so much going on, but in a looser way than on the meticulously edited Plumb. Pretty easily their grooviest album, but with plenty of odd twists as well.

I like these guys groovy. Really looking forward to this based on "Noisy Days."

Really digging Disappointed.

really, really liking this

feels like they've recaptured the spirit of Measure

anyone seem them live? they're coming to town next month .

gf says "seriously very very good, so tight" but that was in 2010

here's the streeeeam http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2016/feb/01/listen-to-field-music-new-album-pre-prelease-commontime-exclusive-album-stream

I am looking forward to seeing them live in Exeter at last.

Haven't heard this yet, but Tones of Town is the one to beat, for me at least.

love their last few records, excited for this

not ashamed to say it was the Steely Dan reference in the pfork article that made me listen. that said, tones of town is terrific in ways I wasn't expecting

i don't think they sound like steely dan at all! have heard XTC comparisons too which are closer but still not quite on the nose

The opener of the new LP is Steely Dan-tastic, IMO.

listening to this now, and it seems more Steely Dan than XTC, and parts of it are Hall and Oates-ish. XTC aren't this laid back even when they play soft songs.

They were great opening for The Clientele in 2010. As polished as the records.

I hear some high llamas/ b Wilson stuff on tones of town and some 80s aor vibes on the new one.

They really don't seem to be recent recordings and I love that.

ok yeah 'disappointed' is great and i def hear the steely dan in it (also some bowie and hall&oates and phil collins like all their previous records)

their weirdo sense of melody/harmony has always been what sets them apart from their influences though. phrases and chord progressions resolve in unexpected ways or are left hanging, etc etc

I am going to try and leave work early to pick this up from the record emporium. Rock n roll.

This is pretty wonderful. The twists and turns of Plumb, which I know some people found a bit irritating, are shorn off, but the whole thing is much more elongated and groovey. There are the same number number of songs as Plumb, but the album's a good 20 minutes longer.

It definitely follows on from the last School Of Language LP, which was very much in thrall to Prince too.

Also their records just sound absolutely beautiful.

yeah this is a stunner

Looking forward to checking this out.

Q for Britishers -- about how popular would you say they are in the UK? I don't feel like many of my friends here in the US know them.

They're very much a cult act here. They're well known enough to a particular group of people, but they're definitely far from "man on the street" well-known.

I think a lot of rock fans who follow new music are at least aware of them. I saw them in magazines fairly often. I first became aware of them when they supported British Sea Power, they were very good and quite funny. Although I was surprised at how small the audience was at one gig.

I think they are really, really good, but I also wonder what the audience is for them. Here I would guess they would (or do) play best to the aging-hipster-to-boomer set, AAA radio (is that still a thing?), Paste magazine (see prior comment), NPR. But in the best way possible.

Agreed that people here in the US don't seem to be aware of them. They're playing what is pretty much my city's smallest proper venue in a couple weeks, and it probably won't even sell out. And tix are only 12 bucks!

But yeah, some hype from the likes of NPR would prob help these guys out. (As you said, in the best way possible!)

I don't remember how I found Tones of Town (I think it was a couple years after it came out), but I remember first thinking it was something from the mid to late 70s, and second thinking "Why has no one ever even mentioned this band's name to me before?"

Yeah, I def came upon them by accident, too. (Uh, to the extent that obsessive-compulsively looking up every band I hear about for the last 20 years is an accident.)

lol otm

I would guess they would (or do) play best to the aging-hipster-to-boomer set

Yeah, that more or less sums up the (small) crowd that showed up for them in DC last night. They were playing with a smaller band than usual; show had an appealing seat-of-the-pants quality. I dug it.

oh yeah they're playing NYC tomorrow, almost forgot, may try to get tix

playing tonight in philly. can't believe the show isn't sold out

Yeah, neither is NYC it seems. Small venue too. Guess whoever promotes them has not figured out how to do it properly. Want to go but I am old and a 9pm show with two openers definitely means a late start time.

there were maybe like 60 or 70 ppl at the show last night. they went on at 10:15.

anti-prog press has poisoned listeners to this type of stuff too

yeah sounding like genesis is not cool in 2016

or roxy music or XTC really, which is way too bad

Which is also super-weird, because my teenage kids and all their friends are really into Roxy Music. You could make a million dollars if you were a young Ferry soundalike right now, I'd-a thought.

The band isn't getting enough attention for this album, which is excellent, but they've never really been a big thing in the US even when they were kinda buzzy a decade ago.

Disappointed is so great and I finally figured out what song it reminds me of: Love at First Sight by XTC

I don't really hear the Roxy Music parallels

roxy music + gentle giant x XTC = fairly solid description imho. they've got the funk

great show! one brother had a huge grin on his face the whole time, playing drums or guitar

I think it's hard to sell a band in their age category to younger fans when the band isn't either pretending to be younger or one of those name-dropped "influential"/cult bands

Show at NYC was really good, love how they kept switching drums and guitar--banter was funny too

i was bummed they didn't do "a new town" in philly to give the bass player a little shine but man, what a show! no fucks to give, just song after great song

I think this band hits a nerve for me because they're roughly the same age as me and sound closer than any band to the band I've had in my head for the past few years.

Album is still so good.