9 - Little Man Tate: About What You Know

9
LITTLE MAN TATE: ABOUT WHAT YOU KNOW (2007)

This years' list is gonna give a lot of reference to the time I spent in Britain. Being in the country of music for five months, and spending almost all the time in the city of music (I am talking about Manchester) does of course have some nice effects. I had great experiences there and some of them had loosely or tightly to do with Little Man Tate.

The first time I heard about them was last year, in autumn 2006. Back then I went to a Peter, Björn & John gig in Berlin where they were touring with Little Man Tate. But I had no clue who they were and so we missed the show. But things that are destined to happen simply happen! In Manchester I had lots of opportunities to gain as much from the musical atmosphere there as possible. This included going to clubs and record stores (Manchester's Oldham Street has a larger number of record stores than any other street or area in Britain), namely The Roadhouse (venue) and Picadilly Records (store). And one day on myspace I got a bulletin saying the Little Man Tate were doing a few free gigs in Britain to promote the release of their new single. The gig was in the Eastern holidays, and they were giving out tickets in Picadilly Records on a specific date. By then, I had become very interested in the band because of their great rock music and their smart titles like Man I Hate Your Band. So I rushed to shop right in the morning to make sure I got two tickets - as a special surprise for someone special who was gonna spend the holidays with me. The gig was great. And I mean not only the band, who were rather tired (you could tell by the voice of the singer that they had been touring the continent) but still put on a great show. For me it was also fantastic to observe the audience - lots of Brits, weird guys who were into stage diving and partying hard. And they adored the band. The atmosphere was very much alive.

The record, About What You Know, also brings back lots of memories of things that I experienced, which could only have happened in Britain. I went to a big house party, were two hundred people squeezed themselves into a living room to see Foals play for free, and everything I hear House Party At Boothys I can't help but thinking of that. In most party of the album, the lyrics just refer to specific things I have seen that are part of the British culture. I am failing to properly describe this here, let's just say that it's great Britrock, and with this records I feel like I listened to it from a British point-of-view, not as someone who hears it and has to wonder what it is like to know all this. Cause this time I know!