Skinny Lister - What Can I Say? (Video)

In the live setting Skinny Lister is probably the most fun you can have with your clothes on, dancing to their rip roaring adrenalin (and rum) fuelled tunes that romp gleefully round the room like a drunken sailor. But with new track What Can I Say? the group offer something a little more tender. With Lorna Thomas taking on lead vocal duties, What Can I Say? is a gentle contemplative acoustic ditty accompanied by a video that takes a simple concept, before adding a sweet and regretful ending.

What Can I Say? is taken from the forthcoming album Down On Deptford Broadway, set for release on 20th April 2015 via Xtra Mile Recordings.

Skinny Lister - What Can I Say (Video)

Skinny Lister - Seventeen Summers (Video)

The single sequence shot film is an ambitious and complicated piece of cinematography. From Alexander Sokurov’s incredible 96 minute master piece Russian Ark to the video for Massive Attack’s Unfinished Sympathy, the unfolding flow of images as the camera moves and rotates through the scenery has a certain mesmerising and hypnotic quality.

So now we can welcome to the fold the rollicking English folk sounds of Skinny Lister and their new video for their song Seventeen Summers from the forthcoming Forty Pound Wedding EP. Ok, it may not have the same high budget treatment of either of the two previously quoted pieces of art but the challenges of getting everything in the right place at the right time remain the same. We bet Sokurov didn’t have to deal with an impatient taxi driver on the streets of Soho for example. Make sure you watch to the end, for the concluding scene made us chuckle a little. (And no that concluding scene isn't one of Lorna's infamous knicker flashing exploits)

Footnote : A couple of days ago we tweeted something about The Unthanks being the best folk band in Britain (not Mumford & Sons) and Bellowhead being the second. Of course as The Unthanks reminded us a few minutes later via 140 characters art isn’t a competition, but if it was then in terms of waist-coated folk types right now we’d put Skinny Lister above the Mumford lot, which by our estimation makes them the third best folk band in Britain; and bronze medal is not to be sniffed at, just ask Beth Tweddle. 

Skinny Lister - Seventeen Seconds (Video)

Skinny Lister - New Waves

Has folk music become the equivalent of what glamping is to camping? Is it now all designer beards, clean acoustic strums, neat waistcoats and frankly just a little bit too comfortable? Have the likes of Bon Iver, Fleet Foxes and Mumford & Sons stolen away the dirty earthiness that this genre of music once possessed?

Well if it has then Skinny Lister, a band who have borrowed their name from the Lister family, pioneers in the use of the anaesthetic, are the band to rum-slam and high-kick it back into place. This is a band to stomp your feet, get a bit flirty, swing your skirt tails and drunkenly holler along to. Skinny Lister make folk music that romps along with a wilful and saucy exuberance that we probably haven’t heard since the Pogues. It’s deep set in old fashioned traditional values, yet seems as fresh and alive as the latest blog buzz band.

Their forthcoming album Forge & Flagon is a brilliantly jubilant piece of work. You can imagine men gulping tankards of ale down on wooden benches and slapping their thighs to the sounds of the jaunty accordion on songs like Forty Pound Wedding and Trawlerman. The new single If The Gaff Don’t Let Us Down is equally body bouncing, although it’s tempered with the more genteel Plough & Orion on the other side. This band would be perfect for a summer festival, which is probably why last summer saw Skinny Lister playing over 30 of the things, travelling hundreds of miles in a Land Rover with a double bass strapped to the roof and more will follow this year including Blissfields, Camp Bestival and Bestival.

To keep up with their hardworking ethic the band played numerous shows at South by South West Festival 2012 in Austin, Texas where they were accommodated at the renowned Berkman House, a 1930 craftsman ranch house. The building is a location for music and film projects and has hosted artists including Liz Green, The Miserable Rich, Rose Elinor Dougall, and Coma. Whilst the band stayed there they committed a number of songs to video, one of which - Rollin’ Over - you can see below. However, to get a real feel for the bands live experience have a look at the clip from a performance at Spyder House at South By South West at the bottom of this post and you’ll see why this year Skinny Lister are the one band you need to see live.

Skinny Lister - If The Gaff Don't Let Us Down

Skinny Lister - Rollin' Over Live At The Berkman House (Video)



Skinny Lister - Live Clip from Spyder House @ South by South West (Video)