Cabin Fever

Cabin fever has slowly been filtering through various venues the last few days in Jo'burg and Pretoria in a big way! You see the Cape Town duo Cabins in the Forest have been touring in our parts spreading their gospel armed with conviction and acoustic guitars and with more relevance than most of the current neo-folkies contemporaries making their rounds put together...

Inbetween Dave Matthews/Tim Reynolds guitar wizardry and duel Jeff Buckley Devendra Banhart croonings, they resemble a more conscious and rustic (Matthew) Van der Want & (Chris) Letcher. Gary Thomas was classically trained and sports a degree in jazz and hails from Durban. Together with self-taught Cape Town local Andy Jamieson, their playing, virtuosic in nature, is a homegrown brew of Tananas and Peppino D'Agostino with bluesy natures and almost reggae stomping seeping through the woodwork. On Short Sighted there's a definite Leroi Moore-style sax grooving along and with the live Safety Flare you can hear for yourself how even though their technical skill is of the highest calibre, they are still relaxed in their improv jams, making for an appetizing performance every single time.

Their gig last night at my shop was my personal favourite, since the relaxed and intimate setting suited their sound perfectly and I am truly sad to see them leave our side of the world... for now.

Check it out:

Gameshow
Short Sighted
Safety Flare (live)
+ MYSPACE

Spencer Tricker


Student bard and New York to Florida frequent flyer, Spencer Tricker, tries to avoid getting a real job in a most succesful way... Elliott Smith style basement and bedroom recordings shares a lot of common interests in his plaintive yearnings. There is a gentle Jeff Buckley guitar waltz in Sleepwalker while Oblivion reminds me of the mostly underrated James Iha solo stuff. It even comes complete with short outbursts of signature Smashing Pumpkins guitar. It could well be that Mr. Tricker had the softer moments of Pisces Iscariot on repeat too.

There's something striking and beautiful in his simplicity, his arrangements as sparse as they may be at times, accompanies his voice beautifully. He mentions Sondre Lerche as an influence which is definitely evident and I secretly hope he manages to avoid the common rat race so maybe one day in the future he can deliver something with his very own Faces Down Quartet. That would be rather swell...

Altar Boy Blue
Sleepwalker
Oblivion
+ MYSPACE

And play for the day with a slight hint of nostalgia...

Phoenix - Playground Love (cover)

Daydreamer believer
- Ri