I was obsessed with this song a few years ago – when I was 19 and had just broken up with my boyfriend

O tempo passa diferente no mundo da música. Bandas como o Nirvana acabam no auge e outras, como os Rolling Stones, parecem que nunca vão acabar. E tem até aquelas que acabam e voltam, como o Queen e o Guns. Mas já parou para pensar naquelas que viram seu fim mesmo antes de começarem propriamente dito? Bolamos uma lista pra você relembrar e conhecer.

Long Blondes
Essa durou de 2003 a 2008 e é uma pena mesmo ter acabado. O principal motivo foi o derrame de Dorian Cox, o guitarrista. Os britânicos lançaram dois álbuns, sendo “Someone To Drive You Home” o primeiro, com boas músicas como “Giddy Stratosphere” e “You Could Have Both”.

New Radicals
A banda de rock alternativo durou apenas três anos, tendo lançado apenas um CD, “Maybe You’ve Been Brainwashed Too”. O que pegou? Bom, a banda tinha apenas um membro fixo! Alexander produzia, escrevia e tocava vários instrumentos. O troca-troca de funções fez com que a banda não tivesse base e terminasse.

Elastica
Amigos de outras bandas se reuniram a formaram o Elastica, que tocou britpop de 1991 a 2001. Foram dez anos, mas apenas dois discos – o primeiro teve participação de Damon Albarn, do Blur. Problemas com drogas, membros que abandonavam projetos no meio, brigas, confusões amorosas e até LER foram motivos que se somaram para o fim do grupo.

Eagle-Eye Cherry
Responda rápido: o Eagle-Eye Cherry se aposentou? É, talvez nem ele saiba bem a resposta. O último álbum de inéditas do músico sueco-americano saiu em 2003. Ele até lançou um DVD três anos atrás, “Live and Kicking”, mas ninguém viu.

Morphine
Com bateria, baixo, sax e voz ,a banda Morphine começou em 1989. O sucesso modesto rendeu cinco álbuns de estúdio. Mas acontece que o baixista, Mark Sandman, teve um ataque do coração em 1999. Atualmente, os membros restantes rodam o mundo com a Orquestra Morphine, relembrando as músicas do grupo.

Libertines
Com algumas críticas nas costas e manchas nas roupas, o Libertines durou três anos, entre 2001 e 2004, pegando onda no novo rock lançado pelo Strokes. Foi daqui que surgiu Pete Doherty, figura marcada das confusões recentes da música. A banda lançou dois CDs e ficou conhecida pelo hits “Can’t Stand Me Now” e “Don’t Be Shy”.

Jellyfish
Já ouviu falar nessa banda? Ela existiu de 1990 a 1994 e é dona de músicas geniais, como “New Mistake”, “I Wanna Stay Home” e “That Is Why”. Como não é raro no mundo da música, a separação aconteceu por causa do que os membros chamaram de diferenças artísticas, ou seja, brigas!

Lembra mais alguma?

One of the trendier corners of East London played host to the first ever Topman CTRL  event on Wednesday night.

Acclaimed electro popsters Metronomy acted as curators and their handpicked line up ensured the crowd, packed into The Hoxton Bar and Grill, were thoroughly entertained.

Koko Von Napoo

Parisian electro-synth four piece Koko Von Napoo opened the evening.  While their name doesn’t exactly trip off the tongue, their music certainly lingers in the memory.

The band overcame their early out-of-town nerves and visibly grew in confidence as the set progressed. 

This is well crafted electro-pop, with an intelligently used palate of synth sounds. Think of a New Young Pony Club / Those Dancing Days hybrid with a colder, more considered delivery and you’re not far off the mark.

Lead singer, Toupie, sings in a brittle style reminiscent of former Long Blonde, Kate Jackson and although the rhythm section strayed a little at times, a decent run of gigs should soon iron out any creases.

Perhaps still a killer single short, on tonight’s evidence Koko Von Napoo are a band well worth keeping an eye out for.

Your Twenties

Irresistible singles, however, are certainly something Your Twenties are no strangers to.

Fronted by Metronomy’s Gabriel Stebbing, the five-piece (although tonight only four) make sun drenched, guitar driven music to lose yourself in.

Most of the allure stems from Stebbing’s relaxed, almost crooned vocals, one part Morrissey to one part Brian Wilson.  Flowing melodic lines are elegantly accented with tight harmonies and a surprisingly good falsetto.

The song writing is bulletproof in places and echoes the economy of Vampire Weekend and early Strokes with a nod to The Beatles never far below the surface.

A relatively short set included, recently re-released single, ‘Caught Wheel’ and crowd favourite ‘Gold’ before closing with the extraordinarily catchy ‘Billionaires’.

During an endearing performance, Stebbing appeared a little nervous and cringed as he fluffed a keyboard line, but rather than detracting from the set, as you’d imagine, it was refreshing to see a distinct lack of posturing.

Admittedly, this was not their best gig, more job like, with Metronomy’s Joseph Mount deputising on the drums.  They were also missing a keyboard player since the last time I saw them, most noticeably absent during the chorus of ‘Caught Wheel’.

It remains to be seen whether Stebbing can balance his two bands and devote the time required to get Your Twenties firmly in to the public domain.  The songs certainly deserve it.

Kamerakino

Following the crowd favourites was always going to be a hard task, but German six-piece, Kamerakino , took to the task with aplomb.

One of the most individual bands in recent years, they create rousing, violin-led gypsy punk over disco bass lines.

Lead singer Pico-B staggers around the stage, spitting his lyrics into the microphone and looking the crowd directly in the eyes.  He’s an absorbing performer and seems to be the perfect frontman for the brilliant lunacy that surrounds him.

The heavily pregnant bassist holds down a contagious groove, whilst the keyboard player seems content dancing as if no one’s looking throughout the duration of the set.

Kamerakino operate completely in their own world and that’s what makes them so charming. It’s an attitude that has certainly won them fans, including Franz Ferdinand’s Nick McCarthy, who played bass on their debut ‘Paradiso’.

The thought of a corporate clothes shop sponsoring gigs may leave a slightly nasty taste in the mouth, but if the first event is anything to go by they could soon create a devoted following of their own. 

The success of the Topman CTRL events will depend on the quality of the curators and their connections with upcoming bands sitting just below the radar.

Dia 201, sábado:

Músicas:

• Across the Night, Silverchair
• You Could Have Both, The Long Blondes

Comentários:

1. sometimes the past screams so loud it hurts my ears and explodes my insides.
2. the dark gift is different for each one of us.
3. enlouquecedor. quero dormir, porra!!!!! *já entendi como nascem os serial killers e psycho snipers*
4. eu quero que o antonio carlos morra. hoje. agora.
5. what I am to you is not real… and what I am to you, you do not need… and what I am to you is not what you mean to me..
6. ho trovato me quando ho perso te.
7. I’m a lost soul from medieval times.

Expectations.
I have been in love with the Howling Bells since their 2006 self titled debut. A wonderful album.
For some unknown circumstances, astral coincidences, Pluto’s role or simply a quite busy schedule I missed all their concerts in the last three years with the single exception of a thirty minutes slot in a side stage of a festival. Not enough.

I am quite excited for this London appearance. They are presenting for the first time the new material from the highly expected (by me at least), Radio Waves, the second LP.

I am a bit worried too. They left the coolest UK label, Bella Union, home of Fleet Foxes, Beach House, Explosions in the Sky and the Dirty Three just to name a few, for Independiente record who host… erm… Travis, Gomez and Embrace.

Worse, a quick visit to their myspace to listen to the new single Into The Chaos makes me realize those sumptuous guitar songs of the beginning left space to an upbeat pop tune floating on a synth-etic sea.

Challenging a freezing rainstorm I arrive to the Islington Academy well covered by all my prejudices.

It’s early, I cannot do much more than waiting impatiently. Chatting over a Guinnes with a friend I learn about D.A.F. german electro-punk. He just read a poster saying they play Islington Academy at the end of March. I don’t know them. I don’t digest any meal with some kind of “electro” starter. The last famous words, be ready.

Juanita Stein leads the band to the stage. She competes with The Long Blondes’ Kate Jackson for the sexiest, foxiest role of the indie scene. It is her voice, a sort of PJ Harvey that discovered sensuality after a long psychotherapy, to make the “Howling Belle” win my personal poll with “the long brunette”.

Ms Stein dark magnetism is the essence of this night. Photographing Ms Jackson was much easier, though.

The concert opens with Blessed Night I hope it is a premonitory title, it will not.
Cities Burning Down follows, musically is the closest thing to a 80s U2 song I heard in ages. In the positive sense.
Tresure Hunt opens the upcoming album. I am busy following Juanita eyelashes and irritated by guitarist’s back vocals to get distracted, the song passes without leaving any sign.

The security must be distracted by her too. The fourth song starts and we are left shooting in the pit. It is Wishing Stone, from the debut. A song that would have closed the best side A of a 12” vinyl, if that vinyl had ever been pressed.

So far not so good. The band looks a bit tired (just back from Australia), nervous (first gig in London for a long time), insecure (new songs being played for the first time).

Some good reason, I am still optimistic. The concert is entering is core, I hope this ping-pong of new-old songs will warm up the atmosphere. I have never been so wrong.

I understand the setlist of a gig promoting a new album is mainly based on new material, but 6 new songs in a row in the middle of the set is a bit too much.

The sequence Nightingale, Let’s Be Kids, Digital Hearts, It ain’t you, Radio Wars theme, Miss Bell Song one after the other doesn’t catch me. Some are better than other, overall they sound more upbeat, more pop-ish than the oldies.

Joel Stein (the guitarist is in a no-night) is distracted by his own myths. He plays the guitar with a bow, he plays another 12 strings guitar that look as the Beatle-Höfner-bass but his mind seems to be somewhere else.

He moves to the keyboards. I move upstair to the balcony. Coincidences.

There is a beautiful view onto the stage from there, which includes a surprise.
My friend notices the presence of some yellow post-it on the keyboard keys. What the fuck?!
In a while I see Mr Stein fingers looking for the post-it to play the right notes.
In a Proustian reverie I remember myself looking at the numbers on the keys of my toy organ I got for Christmas 3 decades ago. I feel embarrassed for him.

At the end of the endless list of new song, at last, arrives on stage a goldie… hand in hand with a wave of bad luck.

Setting Sun would be a perfect song, if Juanita’s guitar worked. It doesn’t. She changes it, start again, five more seconds and the new guitar strap fails. It isn’t fixed!

Plause to her nerves. She fixes it, she plays it, she sings as she knows. I am thrilled by the peak of the night. The best song out of a tense moment. (My) Howling Bells are back and I hope to be pleased by a glorious ending.

In vain. Glenn Moule, the drummer, leaves his kit to reach the second synth on stage. He pushes a button and a drum machine takes his place so he can dedicate to the keys.

Golden Web is the most annoying song I have listened to in 2009. As annoying as My Morning Jacket’s Highly Suspicious. That topped 2008 annoying chart. This ranks high for 2009, I know it’s just early february but it’ll be difficult to match that.

Golden Web is even more annoying, because it comes from a band I (used to) love so much. Immensely annoying because I waited three years to listen to something new to get some plastic-pop, electro-wave, synth-whatever, call it as you like, it is annoying.

The trick to sandwich Golden Web between Setting Sun and the wonderful Low Happiness, which came next, doesn’t work. It does not for the same reason you wouldn’t like a sandwich made with two slices of the best bread with no filling in it.

Into the Chaos closes the main set. I must admit, live it is better than the myspace version. My pre-concert doubts vanish, this is probably the best song of the new era and would be better without the back ch-oh-oh-oh-oh-rus. It wins my prejudice, but the rest is a problem.

I have read the setlist so I know there is one song left for the encore. I also remember the title: Toxic.
What I didn’t (want to) know is that it is the cover of the Britney Spears’ hit.
What the fuck?! (Reprise).

If I didn’t want to accept that the Howling Bells are turning into pop, drum machine and the trendy synth that is the must-have bit of any record issued this year, after this song I could not escape.

They’ll found new fans because some press will love it, they love Lady Gaga after all.
My friend following the cover tells me he missed Britney. I simply missed the Howling Bells.
Expectations.

Know more about the Howling Bells on their [myspace] and [website]

Photo tip

I had never been to the Islington Academy before.
I will definitely check its “What’s Up” page in the future because this is one of the best kept-secret venues in London.

The smaller of the once-Carling-now-O2 circuit, joined to Brixton Academy, Sheperd Bush Empire and something else, Islington Academy is a cosy place hidden in a shopping mall just off Angel tube station.

Built on two levels it is nice and neat as only simple things can be.
The lower floor is a classic concert space hosting a bar and few hundreds people. On the balcony upstair you can relax on the many sofas, (chat about D.A.F. on a Guinnes), and have a wonderful view over the stage.
It remembered me a tiny version of the (R.I.P.) Astoria.
From up there the perspective on the band is brilliant. Unfortunately upstairs the acoustic is not as good as downstair.

From a photographic perspective the pit is small but there is one, which is nice for such a venue size.
The stage is quite high which gives the images an angled perspective that you can minimize using longer lenses or emphasize with wider angles.

The lights tonight were not very good but I am convinced that the lights are up to the band settings more than a venue thing. Correct me if I am wrong.

Unfortunately I didn’t take B&W shots from the balcony because I finished all my films on Juanita’s close-ups but if you bring a medium telephoto lens you can get a very nice angle from there. A long telephoto would isolate the artist for some very unusual shots.

My pocket digital camera provided to be a handy gadget. It gives you an idea of what I am talking and its sharp lens implacably recorded those yellow post-it on the keyboards keys.

Well with Christmas almost upon us the new releases have been “patchy” at best. Our team look into the open fire of pop and attempt to discover if there are any musical chestnuts worth roasting, or otherwise…

THE PANEL

Dogwood (presenter of Cheambeat Communication Musical Memories)
Modern music gives Dogwood a pain in the crack, but he does like to tell the young folk where they are going wrong. Listen and learn kids.

Paisley & Charlie (Detox Cute and The Beauty Junkies )Purveyors of perfect pop, St Etienne meet Dubstar at the disco at the end of the universe.

William Emms (The Bookhouse Boys) The VPME love The Bookhouse Boys and tip them for big things in 2009.  Pop Trivia factoid: William has the longest beard in the band. So now you know.

Guy Henderson (The Molotovs) Guy plays in The Molotovs, they will be releasing a single soon, and it should do very very well and see them feted as gods … if theres any justice ..

Darren (Thee Sheffield Phonographic Corporation)Darren oversees   Sheffield  based Indie label Thee SPC which is one of the most influential labels in the Yorkshire  area, and gave early breaks to the likes of Arctic Monkeys and The Long Blondes.

Neal Zetter (Poet)Neal likes to pass the time,
talking to strangers via rhyme.

Reenie Hollis (Long Blondes, Bon-Bon Club) Reenie was a member of  the now defunct Long Blondes and is the  driving force behind the ace  Bon -Bon Club.

Von Pip- Because he’s worth it.

Grace Jones – Williams’ Blood

WILLIAM: Great bass line, beautiful strings, cool little rock out section and Grace Jones making no excuses on the top. Like some long lost awesome disco number produced by massive attack. Amazing Grace indeed.

REENIE: I can imagine listening to this on a high-end wireless home entertainment system. Though I actually heard this on Radio 2, on my mini-digi-radio, and thought it was the new Bond Theme. It’s BIG.

DOGWOOD: Let’s get one bloody thing straight – I don’t “do” Grace Jones, I found her a confusing proposition in the eighties not helped that she appeared in one of the worst Bonds of all time.  I don’t know what she’s meant to be, an Amazonian piece of feist – all snarls and classic cheekbones, or a man hating he-she.  I remember she gave Russell Harty a bit of a slapping but then he generally deserved that sort of treatment.  So I come to this song utterly perplexed and I leave this song utterly perplexed.  It left absolutely no impression on me this song, no, honestly it finished not 30 seconds ago and I’ve completely forgotten it.  I’ll play it again…..hang on…..no, no good I’m thinking of what wallpaper paste I’m going to use to wallpaper the spare room.  I might go for B&Q’s, that’s usually reliable.  Oh sorry, I should be reviewing the song.  Wait there, I’ll play it a third time….yes, it’s started….now what time is Little Dorrit on?  No, I simply can’t do this – it’s like white noise.  Dogwood says this song is neither good or bad, it’s just a vacuous void in which all life and animation seems to have disappeared…..(eight hours late, a dozing Dogwood abruptly awakes)….What?

GUY: This track has grown on me and it has a certain charm you can’t get away from. The overall production and sound puts me in mind of the 90’s Bristol scene from the likes of Massive Attack, particularly the subtle percussive interjections. The track has a lush melody with uplifting backing vocals and this fits well with the lyrical mood. Her vocal quality is the main strength in the track. This is underpinned and complemented well by the hypnotic bassline running through. However I do feel certain elements have spoilt the track. The melange of sweeping synths has a cheap feel to them and the drum groove seems an afterthought, which doesn’t sit well with the track. Although dynamically interesting at times, the overall structure is a little weak and the track is topped and tailed with some very questionable vocal decisions.

DARREN: When I was a kid, I assumed the type of people who listened to Grace Jones worked in advertising, wore black rollneck tops & lived in one of those posh London Flats overlooking the docks. Nothing here changes my assumption.

VP: I bet all these folk who bang on about the 80’s being great even though they were still in nappies, will call Ms Jones a “legend,” everyone’s a “ledge” these days.  A big breasted lass in a reality show is a “ledge,” Cheryl Cole is a “ledge,” the milkman who delivers milk on time is a “ledge”. Have our expectations of excellence really fallen so low?  That said I must confess I rather like this, it’s like a Toni Morrison or Maya Angelou novel set to music, erm, but shorter.  I  was never  keen on  Ms Jones’ stuff in the 80’s,  her androgynous look just added to my confusion , and  I spent much  of the decade  trying to work out which were the girls and which were the  boys. It was so perplexing in those days, there was a pretty girl called Boy George who,  it transpired was actually a fat, unattractive chap with a heroin habit,  we had a fat bloke dressed in a tent called Alf, who turned out to be a lass called Alison. There was a lass  called Marilyn who was in fact a hod carrier from Stourbridge called Peter , whilst  Annie Lennox looked disturbingly like David Bowie’s anemic little brother, it was a bloody nightmare after a couple of Diamond Whites. ( I never did  work out exactly what Pete Burns is)  But back to Ms Jones, songs like “Slave to the Rhythm” became a source of much irritation and appeared to be the only music played in “River Island” in the 80’s.  It was, I suspect, designed to annoy me into buying an absurd pair of puce Tukka boots, as the shop assistant held me hostage “Yes, yes,  I’ll take them, anything to get away from that bloody song.” I also found the fact that her head appeared to be the exact same shape as a Rubik’s cube a trifle unsettling, and I shudder when I  recall  her “acting” performances. If I tell you that she made Sofia Coppella’s acting appear on a par with Meryl Streep’s, you may get the picture. In summation – I like this.

NEAL: Long time no see. Despite the square suited shoulder padded lady’s rather obvious oddness I’ve always liked her hypno disco sound. Love her or hate her she is an icon, albeit a smaller one than she may think. Er – not sure about the Amazing Grace intro and outro – since the Royal Guardsmen murdered the tune in the 70s I cringe at the strains of it – but the rest of the song rolls on nicely in a style we have come to expect from her Graceness. Not perhaps as memorable as some of her bigger hits but I liked it enough to want to dig out my old GJ tracks and give her new album a spin. Good ‘un.

PAISLEY: I know the wonderful woman behind this song from celebrity chat shows and she seems a bit scary – but this song is really uplifting. It’s not what  I’d have  expected of  the mad Ms Jones from the chat show sofa’s and showing a soft side too. This is a slick song, but maybe not one I’d  particularly want to sing along with or dance to. But don’t tell her or she’ll slap me – ouch!

CHARLIE : Well, she’s completely bonkers, of course, but this is such a fabulous record – big choruses, ballsy production, weirdly wondrous, story-telling lyrics and, naturally, a fantastically scary vocal.  They’ve thrown the kitchen sink at this one, and then chucked in last night’s greasy washing up for good measure – there’s a gospel-esque ending with handclaps, harmonies, melodies and counter-melodies galore.  It’s like the 1990s and 2000s never happened and we’re back in 1985 all over again. Which, aside from ozone-busting hairspray and Phil Collins’ performance at Live Aid, is no bad thing.

Razor@!&te – Hostage of Love

CHARLIE : This, however … oh dear!

WILLIAM: It is all very pleasant while you listen to it but what’s left when it finishes? A feeling that Johnny Borrell’s messiah complex has reached new heights? When you hear Nick Cave getting all biblical you believe him, but as a character in a song. Here you get the feeling Johnny is singing from his heart, as himself and that he believes it. Maybe I don’t credit him with enough imagination. I’m sure it will be massive.

PAISLEY: Guitar – tick. Singing – tick. Singing like you mean it – possibly tick. Do I like it? Cross. Maybe I am biased because I read those free London papers and the front man is often papped looking floppy. Which is how I feel about the song really. Just a bit floppy for me, but sure to be a big hit nonetheless!

VP: Johnny is upset; he says people don’t judge his music on its own merits, he says they are prejudiced against him because of what they read in the press. You see the problem is, the press portray poor Johnny as somebody whose huge ego far outweighs his slim talent. This is rather unfair, I mean you wouldn’t catch Johnny saying things like “I wasn’t always a genius” or presenting himself as a Christ like figure in his songs would you?  He wouldn’t sing lines like “I am salvation” or “like a hero, I forsake my trophies for you” or sing about being “crucified” for his beliefs would he? That would be silly, that would be asking for trouble. In this song he’s rather like a modern day minstrel, a storyteller, relating his tale of woe, informing anybody who will listen just how great he is.  But hang on it reminds me of something…now what is it …. “I’m a storyteller, and my stories must be told/ I have many stories, tales for both the young and old?” In Russia I am Ivan, in England I am John/In Germany I’m Johan, In Sweden I am Jan”. Eureka ! I knew I’d heard this song before, check this  video HERE...
But hey, we should judge his music on its own merits. Before I realised this was Razorlight I merely thought this was sh*t , when I realised it was Johnny I thought it was really sh*t, so I guess  he’s right ….in a way.

REENIE: Christ! Nauseating. I feel like I’m losing blood listening to this. The lyrics are pretty funny, Johnny B must have been watching a low budget costume drama when he got his pen out.

DOGWOOD: In my meanderings with the young folk I often come across the word ‘Razorlight’, it seems that amongst a certain type of 28 year old – career minded, HR professional, newly married, no kids, newly bought flat, crippling mortgage etc – that buying a Razorlight CD is making a statement of sorts.  It says: “Hey look, yes, I maybe a Corporate whore but I can still shake my fist at the ‘man’, look I’ve got a Razorlight album, and a Coldplay album and a Snore Patrol album etc, I’m a bloody bohemian, me, and it has pride of place on my coffee table”.  Well that maybe the case but Razorlight being considered revolutionary is as likely as me being invited to that mansion where Take This and the M&S crumpet are seemingly spending Christmas Day.  As if.  I found all this guff about ‘Hostage of Love’ mildly insipid, the tune listless and Johnny Bovril a kind of Matt Monroe for the O2 generation.  I then became mildly distressed to discover that the songs are invariably written by the drummer feller, y’know the one who looks like Lance Percival, or a beatnik version of him.  I don’t really care if Razorlight exist or not, they’re fairly endemic of the general anaemia that currently infests the UK music scene.  Suffice to say the song is a load of pointless tosh but against the notion of Simon Cowell swiping Leonard Cohen’s ‘Hallelujah’ to use it as the X Factor single and thus make it the property of chavopolis, there are lesser crimes.  I say let Razorlight pontificate in the same cosmos of Bonio and Gordon Sumner and just turn the volume down and quietly ignore them.   You’ll only encourage them to further exaltations if they think your paying attention. Dogwood pointedly looking away and humming a tuneless tune to block out the racket.

DARREN: Good god. This just makes me feel incredibly alienated. It’s like a visit to Matalan.

NEAL: Damn Razorlight! I really want to hate them as I generally hate this kinda overblown pseudo-US middle of the road rock but I can’t deny that they do what they do well. Catchy stuff and well put together. I will no doubt be tapping my foot to it and humming it during my Christmas dinner and beyond but – please – it’s not on my list for Santa.

GUY: A very simple ditty, which relies on a strong melody and lyrics to hold our interest. Sadly, neither can be found here. It seems Borrell is trying to recount some profound experience of inner feeling to us and I’m not sure whose ears this will fall upon that can relate. The whole thing feels very contrived and unoriginal.

Ladyhawke – My Delirium

DOGWOOD: This song stars Kevin Bacon, has large hair, the maintenance of which has cost the planet 0.002% of its ozone layer and naffs me off ‘big time’ as the yoof of Preston might utter.  “My Delirium?” My Aunt Sandra, this certainly makes me delirious and light headed because it’s a disco clutch bag full of nothingness, not because it moves me.  Like the man-eating he-she Jones, this girl is quite content to knock up another 3 minutes of eighties footloose preposterousness.  I can visualise Tom Cruise in Top Gun gadding about in a disco whilst chatting up some big haired crumpet whilst rustling up a cocktail in the Breakfast Club admiring the St Elmos Fire in the car park where his Delorean is parked.  Back to the eighties – again – you weren’t even born then girl, or certainly not old enough to remember anything other than John Leslie in Blue Peter.  I’ll say this again – the eighties were only enjoyed by those who didn’t live through them.  Dogwood tuts and sighs because we’ve been here before.

DARREN: Hmm.. I’m told Ladyhawke are quite fashionable. I dunno, it’s hardly cutting edge is it? I just sounds like average chart music, really…forgettable.

REENIE: Ladyhawke’s got hugs for you if you were born in the 80’s. I like this one the best, very Josie and the Pussycats! It’s pretty tightly-wound, production wise, though I did read that the girl has Aspergers, which might explain that.

VP: I take my hat off to Mrs Hawke, after her last single my interest in her became limp, but like musical vi*gra “My Delirium” has put lead in the pencil of  my enthusiasm, rendering my interest vigorously aroused and  standing proud once more. It’s a cracking good pop song, slickly produced and as catchy as that there virus in BBC’s “Survivors “series, but without the mucous and vomit. Why I’ll wager this would even get my Uncle Dave dancing, which is some feat, as he hasn’t got any.

NEAL: I am chuffed to be reviewing My Delirium by Ladyhawke as it’s an amazing track that I have already danced around the living room to many times in the last few weeks. It’s not just because they come from New Zealand and have the same initials as me but the throbbing rhythm, splendidly sassy vocal and a chorus that’s as catchy as Chlamydia in a Thai brothel makes this everything a pop song should be. Yes, `pop’ – nothing to be ashamed of as a label when it’s done as well as this. Fab.

WILLIAM: I’ve heard this song a few times now and I can’t work out where the yeah yeah yeah bit is nicked from? For some reason Roxette keeps popping into my head. Oh, pre-teen, innocent, small town days. Also an opening montage from Hollyoaks forms in my imagination as I hear it, centred around some argument at a student union, followed by tears in front of a dressing table. That guitar line too. Where does that come from? Man I wish I’d patented the use of that keyboard sound. I’d be a rich man.

GUY: Ladyhawke has have gone straight for the jugular with unashamedly poptastic single material here. Its simplicity is commendable and makes it a very accessible and instant dancefloor filler yet it still has a full and dense quality to it. The verse melody is a little weak and doesn’t seem to go anywhere but the chorus has one of those instant hooks that’ll be buzzing round your head endlessly after inevitable over-play on the radio. The drum sound packs a lot of punch and has a very similar sound to that used by Drum & Bass collective Pendulum from the same corner of the world, as do the rising synth sounds. I wonder if they’ve been comparing notes.

CHARLIE: Wow! How good is this! Hey, it’s okay everyone, Simon Cowell hasn’t yet destroyed pop music. Quick, someone ring up Cowell and play this to him down the phone – his sadly demented brain won’t be able to cope and maybe his head will explode. Ladyhawke may just well be the antidote needed to the poison Cowell is inflicting into the ears of the public. Did I mention how good this is? Wow!

PAISLEY: Wowzer – can I be like Lady H when I grow up? Lovely vocals – music is boss, love it! Well done to her, and all who sail in her!

Kings Of Leon – Use Somebody

DARREN: If this is what passes for grand emotion these days, then I must be an extremely cold fish. I expect this’ll be heard over a lot of sports montages on Sky.

REENIE: I can see why people like this. Did you see the cross-dressing dude from Hollyoaks do this acoustic on ‘Oaks Later? Now that was emotional!

CHARLIE: The lead singer sounds like he needs the toilet but apart from that, this is a pretty, if innocuous tune that all the Camden Leisure Pirates and devoted disciples of Noel Fielding will love.  I’m not sure if Kings Of Leon fans will be happy with how ‘commercial’ it sounds but god forbid someone makes a record that people actually want to buy!

DOGWOOD: Continuing this month’s theme of non-tunes.  Listless, apathetic, a bunch of hillbillies playing rock somewhere in the Appalachians I imagine to a crowd of 8 in the Dew Drop Inn.  However, a sort of curious frontier charm pervades and I can’t despise it too much, after all I remember this lot when they looked like a load of lecturers from the Open University circa 1973.  But then again I can’t really exercise any excitement on this one either, it’s there and that’s the best you can say for it really.  The trouble with Americans these days is that they watch too much Extreme Makeover and think that all the solutions lie in the TV.  With that credo, they can’t move their arses to do anything meaningful.  God knows how Barak Obama got in.   This song has that kind of hopeless acceptance about it.  I think the Kings of Leon are less regal than of yore and wherever Leon is ( Mexico ?), the palaces are crumbling, the peasants are revolting and the corgis have turned into Chihuahuas .   Their crown has slipped to reveal a bit of a bald patch I’m afraid.  Dogwood offers a flat cap to cover up the follicle embarrassment.

PAISLEY: Ooowayoooowwaayoooooo – and then his great voice kicks in! Yes, I reckon this is singing like you mean it. I mean Charlie thinks the KoL singer needs the toilet, which could well be true. But maybe that is the trick, and I should try this in the future. I like it and might want to fall asleep to it, which is no bad thing. I mean I can’t really dance to this kind of song but I could lazily nod off….in a nice way….zzzzz.

VP: KOL or AOR ?  The Kings Of Leon are walking a thin line between commercial rock and  an embarrassing REO Speedwagon cheese fest, but they just about get away with it, due to the fact that this is a solid, if rather clichéd song.  Peter Cetera wishes he’d written it, so does  Klaus Meine, meanwhile Robbie Williams is beside himself as he can see this one making inroads into his royalties for “Angels” .  It’s not so much a song as a pension plan and is a million miles away from “Molly’s Chamber.” It would probably be right at home on your local radio stations  “Peaceful Hour For Lovers -Request Show” presented by some syrupy voiced chap called Alan  Thirkettle,  or  something.  Eagle’s fans will love it.  Still in these uncertain times  every band needs to plan for the future and release their very own “Angels” don’t they ?………..Ooooooh look a UFO ………..

GUY: One of the better tracks from a disappointing 4th album and still far short of the brilliance they’ve produced from earlier work. This song seems to reveal itself within the first 30 seconds and goes nowhere of any interest from there – the dropped down middle 8 section of particular pointlessness. Production-wise it is beautiful; everything sits tightly in place and serves the song well, adding to the strong dynamics, which are a great feature. They seem to have had a big shift with the material on this album – they’ve gone for an arena filling sound from a band that you’d always have found most delight from seeing in a barn in Tennessee. Frustratingly they get away with this weaker material as Caleb’s voice is just too damn sexy.

NEAL: Didn’t like them with long hair, Don’t like them with short. Two dimensional rock circa 1974 USA. Shoot me please Mum.

WILLIAM: I really want to hear the vocal of this put over the outro to Layla, the piano bit. I’ve really loved the last two Kings of Leon records but haven’t felt the need to get my mitts on this one yet. It seems they’ve gone stadium rock. I heard somewhere that they wrote the songs for this new album so they’d have some new material to play at Glastonbury last year. You can almost feel the size of the arena this is supposed to be played to. Maybe it’s the whoas in the back there in the reverb. This number is a fairly classic Kings of Leon number though, catchy non-chorus chorus, fists punching the air material. Had me humming it to myself.

Metronomy – A Thing For Me

REENIE: Ugh, messy. More than one person has told me they think I’d like Metronomy, but I guess they don’t know me AT ALL.

GUY: An enchanting little duet, this track has a sense of fun that really draws you in to the Metronomy world. Its intense and jumpy grove is a little hard to get your head around at first but reveals a lot of poly-rhythmical layers to be enjoyed. The stripped back male vocal verse parts are really rather pretty and flow into the female vocal chorus sections well. They are strong yet simple melodies with some lovely harmony lines and some are left as almost acapella which works well. I feel they may have gone a little overboard on the cyberspace bass sound but the drums are mapped well and the snare breakdown sections are particularly interesting in giving the grove a jolt and adding great dynamics. A very original and English sound.

VP: Oh dear GOD!  No, no and thrice no! This reminds me of  the TV show  “Prison Break”, a  good idea, which went horribly wrong.  Metronomy play the role of oafish, thuggish prison guard Brad Bellick and the tune takes on the part of Michael Schofield. The very second you think the melody is about to escape and spring forth  blinking into the sun, the  Metronomy boys pounce and  ruthlessly  batter it into submission, before dragging it  back to the solitary darkness of “tuneless dirge.” As if to mirror the TV show, the song starts well, but rapidly descends into farce and within no time you stop caring where this song is going  (which, like the TV show, is precisely nowhere.)  Is the singer pretending to be a female at times here? What’s all that about? Whoever it is they sound like a strangled parrot with a nasty bout of tonsillitis who’s been gargling razorblades and eating sandpaper drizzled in lemon….I saw this lot supporting CRASS, no wait it may have been The Slits, or The Au-Pairs, no hang on my mistake, it was The Pipettes, they were rubbish then too. It’s a bit crap isn’t it ? There was probably a good idea in there at one time, but Metronomy come across as fancying themselves as a bit of a gang of  Nob twiddling clever clogs. Adhering to the rules of pop by doing the straightforward such as writing a song that actually contains something as simplistic as a  tune???…Well that just isn’t clever enough is it ? … All in all this pushes the boundaries of pop about as much as Les Dennis has pushed the boundaries of comedy. Cobblers

PAISLEY : You’ve got a thing for me, I’ve got a thing for you……ouch! It hurt my eyes a bit (induced a bit of a migraine) but I like the words very much! In fact I like it all…one to wake up with after Kings of Leon.

CHARLIE : Sounding like the b*stard children of John Foxx, (one for the teenage readers, there), this could easily have been made circa 1979. And if I’d been a geeky, floppy-fringed kid with huge baggy trousers and a penchant for wearing my older sister’s eyeliner I’d have definitely ‘thrown some shapes’ at this down the youth club disco.  Kids today will probably do the same. Apart from the ones wearing hats. Who are probably still listening to Johnny Borrell and The Razorlite. Sadly.!

DOGWOOD : I’ve seen this lot you know, saw them playing with my favourite band Make Model in Camden Town of all places.  The curious thing is that they’ve all got light bulbs attached to their chests, a kind of low budget alien from early seventies Dr Who.  They sound robotic and repetitive which I suppose is in keeping with their lo-fi ET image.  Now, you know me, I like things kept simple and I suppose that Metronomy do have a Play School kind of plinkety-plonk simplicity to them.  It’s like a load of 5 year olds having been let loose in the BBC Radiophonic workshop and they’ve recorded bits of it, looped it and released it.  This is Thomas Dolby recorded on a Fisher Price keyboard that is programmed to play nursery rhymes for stressed out executives who once had a fleeting notion of possessing a Flock of Seagulls haircut.  I don’t know what that means really, but that’s because I don’t really understand Metronomy but then again I didn’t really understand Ker-plunk and yet I didn’t picket the local Woolies because of it.  I’m going to let this one go, given the choice between sitting through a Metronomy set and flicking through a Hattie Jacques lace brassiere gazetteer from 1957, I’d probably prefer eyeing up Hattie’s ample dumplings.  Nothing personal Metronomy, you just confuse me and don’t look as fulsome in a lace brassiere.

WILLIAM: Someone please make a version of this song with a Japanese marching band. I’ve seen them practicing out in East London . It would be brilliant, especially the snare and accordion breakdown section. It’s a bit of a grower I’d say. I can even forgive the southern Human League thing and the Jamie T/Reverend and the Makers type lyrics. Just.

DARREN: Best of a bad bunch, I reckon, yet lacking a spark somehow. The arrangement’s pretty exciting, but melodically and vocally it feels disconnected.

NEAL: Now I saw Metronomy live supporting the ay-maze-zing Kate Nash some months ago and I know they are the big tip for many people for 09. They didn’t sing when I saw them – just played their electostruments and bopped around the stage looking like Kryton from Red Dwarf. Despite a bright and finger poppy opening to the song and melodic verse the chorus grates more than the Birdie Song. I actually thought the track was stuck when listening to it for the first time and only on checking my computer did I realise this sadly was how it was supposed to sound. Sorry guys – stick to the music.

Kaiser Chiefs – Good Days Bad Days (video)

VP: I quite liked “I Predict A  Diet ” it was daft, but fun, but I’m afraid  Ricky and I only ever got to first base, it was over before it began. I guess most bands love to prove their critics wrong, and I must confess the Kaiser Chiefs have certainly proved me wrong.  Just when I think they’ve extracted all the irritation it is humanly possible for a person to feel towards a band they go and release a song that defies logic.  It took me a full five minutes to collect my jaw from the ground after viewing this load of cock and bull. Then I thought ah, it’s a novelty single, or for charity or something? Was it written as some sort of student prank to see if the label would actually release it?  Or maybe to prove how daft Kaiser Chief fans are perhaps?( normally geography teachers and social workers.)  If not then I simply can’t believe a band  could of submitted this without feeling a deep sense of shame and embarrassment, which may explain Ricky’s florid complexion. Then again I can’t believe the label could actually say, “you know what lads –that’s a single is that.” The only saving grace is it hasn’t got the KC’s trademark “Wooooooooooooooaah”  chant,  which normally gives the impression they’ve recorded the vocals whilst aboard the roller coaster at Blackpool Pleasure beach.  I suppose The Kaiser Chiefs are the musical version of “My Family” bland, puerile, and just inoffensive enough to be popular. (Although both offend me!)  As Linda Hollywood of Rock City Sixteen said in a review last year “Every single one of them looks like a scary ventriloquist’s dummy” and she’s right, they do, the video looks like someday with  no fingers at a Day Centre has carved puppet versions of the Kaiser Chiefs. If any band were asked to write a follow up to Hale and Paces “hilarious” Comic Relief single “The Stonk” that band would  of course be, The Kaiser Chiefs. In short, utterly horrible.

REENIE: This vid is pretty tossed off. And the tune sounds like a kidz TV theme… not figuratively: specifically “Bob the Builder.” Funny how the keyboard has a little sign hanging on it saying ‘Gone to Hospital’. Poor Peanut!

CHARLIE : The first thing that struck me was that I’d heard this tune before. One of those niggly things that keep you awake at night. Was it ‘Frog Chorus’ by Paul McCartney? No. Was it ‘Sultans of Swing’ by Dire Straits? No, of course, the verse melody sounds just like ‘I Am The Chosen One’ from The Mighty Boosh. Oh well, I suppose that’s no bad thing. I mean, it could have been Razorlite, a baffling popular band for no apparent reason whom Noel Fielding seems to be quite fond of.   The video looks as if it was supposed to be a fun shoot – it’s a pity the band appeared to be thoroughly bored, staring at the floor, concentrating hard on the chord changes, still wearing their moody, indie-kid faces instead of enjoying themselves for once. Come on chaps – smile! It won’t kill you!

PAISLEY : Ooooh – feeling a bit sea sick, but I think that is just me and not cos of the vid which I like a lot! The colours are fab, but I felt a bit cheated. For such a colourful vid which took lots of effort, a few more smiles would have been good. Just one or two, maybe from Ricky. Go on, show us your gnashers! Anyway, I liked the bit where they knock his block off at the end, as long as that isn’t real of course. If it’s real then that’s the worst bit.

DOGWOOD: I found this as irritating as those relentless ‘Here Come The Girls’ Boots Christmas adverts where some harridan from accounts buys a willy warmer for Jeff in IT for the Secret Santa.  Yes, that bloody irritating.  The Kaiser Chiefs turn up on what appears to be a giant Twister board dressed all in white.  Now, I don’t do ‘all in white’, that’s a fashion charge of the light brigade best left to the Man from Del Monte and other ex-Nazi War Criminals in hiding working for the South American tropical cordial beverage industry.  Good days and bad days, eh?  This lot give me a bit of both if truth be told.  On some days I’m in the mood for their art school gadding about, yes everything is average nowadays and yes sometimes I predict a riot but too much of a good thing expands the waistline – ask Ricky Wilson.  I notice that he appears to be wearing an elasticated waist pair of white slacks with white plimsolls.  A man of his rotundetry should think twice about white short sleeved shirts, even I know that’s a parking space you don’t reverse into.  Oh, the video, yes, well it meanders into a sub Peter ‘Sledgehammer’ Gabriel affair involving the old Wigan Mexican hat trick and general gurning at the screen.  I suppose some might find that mildly quirky, I myself find it a symptom of Brown’s Britain where people in general think that Girls Aloud are a good idea and that decent TV is a procession of inane idiots doing something that requires you to pick up a phone and vote.  Some of us know different, I suppose the Geezer Chefs do too, but they’re not letting on with this load of sub-Leslie Crowther guff.

NEAL: As a poet I could never forgive a band that rhymed     `policeman’ with `Smeaton’. And – at the risk of being an Xmas Scrooge – certainly cannot forgive them for this dreadful video that looks like Art Attack meets a 1980s Persil ad either. I would have thought the band have enough money in the bank to spend a wee bit more on their videos – sorry guys but after a few good tunes on an average debut album everyday I love you less and less.

WILLIAM: It’s a kind of fun performance video. Nice stop motion stuff. A pinch of Terry Gilliam’s Monty Python animation, a sniff of clockwork orange, a dash of the 60s Adam West Batman series, a touch of Tim Burton, well, a skeleton.. Nice to see the drummer singing. He probably wrote the song eh? The guitar player comes across as a bit dull and I didn’t miss the keyboard player. They’ve sure got their formula down though.

DARREN: It’s an OK video, not as terrible as I assumed it’d be, ha! The visual quirkiness goes with the song, I guess. In typical Kaiser’s fashion, the song is devoid of originality and sounds like a Blur/XTC/Taking Head mash-up. But it’s alright, in a throwaway sense. Nice bongos in the background.

GUY: *has fallen asleep*

So which single came out on top? Buggered if I know! Thanks to the panel for their input.  Go and vist their websites and myspaces, say hello!

So this news about a possibly-bionic hand bringing back the Long Blondes is the best news of the week. Maybe I will be able to see them after all! For those of you who don’t know, the band broke up because their guitarist injured his hand. Lame. And for those of you who don’t know who I’m talking about, shame on you.

Blog stats are always a wonderful and fascinating thing. I’d like to give a warm and hearty welcome to those who found my blog via searches for Luke Haines, The Leisure Society, Emmy The Great and the like, and hope you stay for the duration. And to the large number of people who find this place via searching for pop-metal goons slipknot, I can only hope the revelation that they’re not quite as embarrassing sexual conquests as Brian Molko was the information you were looking for.

I’m reeling from various bits of pop news at the moment: the fact that the Long Blondes’ guitarist now has a steam-punk hand, for one, and the news that old Etonian gimp David Cameron gave Barack Obama pop CDs, for two.

The first bit of news is great, and I wish Dorian both a speedy recovery and the ability to fire lasers with his mind within ten years. But the second… dear sweet Jesus. Cameron’s choice of albums – Gorillaz, The Smiths, Lillian Allen and Radiohead – were so right on, so calculated, so almost-now, so representative of the Britain he epitomises IN HIS MIND, that they were either carefully chosen by a team of Cool Britannia-esque popular culture advisers, or he’s a cyborg and he’s about to malfunction and kill us all.

If it’s the latter, our only hope is that Dorian will be ready to battle him in time.

Although this one has been about for a while, I purposely ignored it. A somewhat strange combination the Long Blondes, a generic indie-pop band, and Henrik (Pantha) who produces music as an art form. I’m guessing he seen this tune as a challenge, something to change peoples’ perception of disposable indie bands.

Maybe you actually can polish a turd!

The remix sees Pantha stamp his ambient deep house sound on things. The twisted moog bass line holds the tune and becomes its most defining factor. I’m rather impressed, probably should have trusted Pantha’s judgment!!

Here is a rapidshare (128kbps sorry) buy the 320 version and support The Long Blondes and their fine work!

The Long Blondes- Guilt (Pantha du Prince Remix)

]]> http://lenewshit.wordpress.com/2008/11/12/apache-beat/ Wed, 12 Nov 2008 22:09:32 +0000 lenewshit http://lenewshit.wordpress.com/2008/11/12/apache-beat/

Apache Beat -  “Tropics”

First single to be released from Apache Beat’s upcoming album is“Tropics.” Here’s a pretty straight forward performance video. APACHE BEAT are five piece New York band formed in mid 2006. They have toured in the US, UK and Europe supporting acts such as Deerhunter, Crystal Castles, The Long Blondes, These New Puritans, Les Savy Fav and We Are Scientists. Their debut album is currently being recorded with legendary New York producer Martin Bisi at BC Studio in Brooklyn and will be released in March 2009. Nice to see they’re not wearing animal skins or neon pants =X

I’m a little saddened this week, because one of my favourite groups, The Long Blondes, have decided to split. I am not sure if you’re aware, but the lead guitarist, Dorian, has had recent health troubles, and he is on the road to recovery, but he doesn’t feel he will be able to play guitar for a while, if ever. For now at least, this is a great loss of a talented musician, not to mention songwriter. I, as well as the other fans, will miss them greatly, as they were unique amongst a lot of indie-rock acts. I sign off with a poem I wrote today. To fellow bloggers, see you later. To the Long Blondes, goodbye, and thankyou…

IN MUSICAL MEMORIAM

I couldn’t quite believe the words there/The words that i read/My thoughts in shades of black and white/In sharp focus, words unsaid/

Still, posterity has a record/In the discs that you left/With the stylus, and the laser/I delay what leaves me bereft…/

And I’m back, in that first concert venue/And you are out on stage/And as you sing the songs, we cheer along/It’s as if time turned back a page/

But memories, and souvenirs/And most of all, facts remain/Whilst time still marches on/All things must come to an end./The last note fades,/And the music is gone.

24/10/08 19:40.

Sad news this morning and in awful circumstances – one of my favourite bands of the past couple of years, The Long Blondes, are calling it a day.

Spiky female-fronted northern pop’s generally going to go down a treat around these parts, and married to sharp lyrics and frontwoman Kate Jackson’s sense of style and humour it became a winning combination for me. I wasn’t sure their second album Couples – produced by club DJ Erol Alkan – quite worked as well as it might have done (single Guilt being the far-and-away highlight), but debut Someone To Drive You Home was a fabulous, raw, statement of intent and contained the brilliant Separated By Motorways, which you’ll find above (albeit in its less punchy single version).

I was lucky enough to see them twice – at Barcelona’s Primavera Sound festival in 2007, where they seemed to surprise themselves at how quickly they won over the crowd on a beautiful day by the Mediterranean, and again this March in front of a much smaller crowd at the Amersham Arms in New Cross, previewing that second album.

But three months after that show, after returning from, guitarist Dorian Cox had a stroke, and he’s still unable to play the guitar – a terrible blow for someone so young. Fingers crossed he’ll go on to make a full recovery. In the meantime the band have split, with Kate Jackson planning solo material. Hopefully she, and the other band members, will soon be able to scale the heights the Long Blondes did – good luck to them.

Sad news from the Long Blondes’ camp.   We will have a solo album to look forward to though.  Good vibes go out to Dorian who continues to recover from the stroke he had this summer!

Para empezar con madre el fin de semana… les dejo dos muy buenas canciones con sus respectivos videos.

Enjoy! =)

The Long Blondes – Guilt

Foals – Balloons

Não sei o que bateu na moda nessa sexta que tudo pareceu tediante. Toda página que eu abria só falavam das mesmas coisas: o figuirino da nova turnê da Madonna, a possível linha do McQueen para Target, campanhas gringas do inverno 2008, as calças baggy de Katie Holmes e o tal Rio Summer. Como há males que vem para o bem, acabei encontrando o momento perfeito para explanar sobre o The Long Blondes, algo que quero fazer tem certo tempo.

Desde março, quando foi lançado o “Couples” que venho protelando escrever sobre. Primeiro pra evitar cair no chavão “banda-estilosa-o-suficiente-para-ganhar-post-em-blog-de-moda”. E segundo para não perder o foco entrando no mérito da música, área que apenas dou umas pinceladas, sem grandes conhecimentos.

Ao contrário do que se pensa, a ânsia de falar do Long Blondes não se originou no figurino dos britânicos e sim da semelhança que os músicos tem com o Pulp. Ambas as bandas vieram de Sheffield, produzem um indie rock de melodias contagiantes com letras não tão coloridas assim e exalam um atmosfera nerd. E por mais que a tecladista Emma Chaplin, a baixista Reenie Hollis e o baterista Screech Louder sejam fãs assumidos do Pulp, o LB não demonstra nenhuma pretensão em fazer nos anos 2000 o que a turma de Jarvis Cocker fez nos 90.

Na verdade, eles foram ofuscados pelo hype Arctic Monkeys (também oriundo de Sheffield) ter largado na frente e virado sucesso logo em 2005. Somente no ano seguinte o LB lançaria Someone To Drive You Home (produzido pelo ex-baixista do Pulp, Steve Mackey), o disco que os colocaria no mapa e na NME, com direito a sitações como “a banda sem contrato mais quente da Inglaterra”.

Diferente do Arctic Monkeys, o Long Blondes conta com liderança de respeito. A personalidade de Kate Jackson dentro e fora dos palcos fala por si só: as performances sutilmente sexies conquistam os rapazes enquanto versos como “Você tem apenas 19, pelo amor de Deus/Oh, você não precisa de um namorado”, de “Once and Never Again”, ou “Mais um fim de semana sem maquiagem, mais uma noite sozinha”, de “Weekend wihtout Make Up” garantem a fidelidade das moças.

No fim das contas, a frontwoman consegue ter a mesma influência que Cocker, pois além do sex appeal e de expressarem nas músicas o que o público gostaria de falar, ambos são complementados pela estética característico. Enquanto nos 90’s Cocker foi responsável pelo estilo weirdly cool (uma mistura sofisticação e estranheza ao mesmo tempo), Kate representa os 2000’s com looks retrô-modernosos.

De tanto aparecer nos shows usando tees com cara de brechó, lenços, scarpin com meia soquete e boina, a vocalista os tornou elementos de auto-referência. Ou seja, daqui pra frente fica difícil dos fãs verem um pedaço de pano turquesa amarrado no pescoço e não lembrar de Kate. Prova de que ela é uma mulher de detalhes está na imagem abaixo que exibe pernas ótimas sustentadas por saltos Louboutin, tatuagem vintage e, claro, unhas turquesas.

Se de fato Kate terá o mesmo poder na música e na moda que Jarvis teve, só vamos saber daqui há uns dez anos. Até lá estaremos supridos com o charme vitoriano-kitsch do video de Guilt, novo single da banda:

]]> http://altosdecibeis.wordpress.com/2008/07/31/live-on-35mm/ Thu, 31 Jul 2008 19:59:52 +0000 gboeing http://altosdecibeis.wordpress.com/2008/07/31/live-on-35mm/

Conheci hoje o site/blog (ele mesmo não decidiu como chamar) do fotógrafo Valerio Berdini. Especializado em música, no Live on 35mm, Valerio resiste ao mundo da tecnologia digital para registrar em filme p&b imagens de shows, principalmente de novos artistas. O trabalho dele é bem bacana e ele escreve também. Abaixo, uma foto feita por Berdini da vocalista Kate Jackson, do The Long Blondes. 

So, I’ve been in a bit of a music funk lately. Not sure why, but nothing caught my attention and I couldn’t really get in the mood to write any new reviews. I suppose this happens to everyone, but I’ve slowly been attempting to reboot and get back on track.

I was going to post a new top 10 from my iPod, but it is a mess right now. I mean, of the Top 20 songs right now, 8 are from the new Girl Talk album, Feed the Animals, which I recommend to everyone, everywhere (heck, you can download for a price of your choosing). I’ve also been quite fond of the new Fleet Foxes album, but it doesn’t even register on my iPod playcount because I listened to the physical CD while working in the lab (a real CD? Go figure). My other recent acquisition that has gotten a lot of playing is the Silver Jews Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea.

Oddly, the late spring releases, on the whole, have sort of disappointed me. I was really looking forward to the new Islands record, Arm’s Way but it fell flat. Death Cab for Cutie’s Narrow Stairs just hasn’t stuck, but then again both Transatlanticism and Plans took a few months to sink in. El Perro Del Mar’s From the Valley to the Stars was just a little too laid back to the point of narcolepsy and the Long Blondes’ “Couples” was a disaster compared to the treat that was their first album. Maybe this has been why I’ve been unable to stay focussed on music lately: too much disappointment.

Top 15 Of 2007
This year was the strongest year for music I can remember since 1997, frankly. I own at least 60 albums released this year, and wish to hear more. As always, these are my favorite albums, not the “best”. I’m not about to insist I listen to the “best” music. Anyhow, here is my lengthly discussion of my

15. Field Music – Tones Of Town: British baroque pop at it’s best. What makes this album stand out for me, and be so listenable, is the inventive song writing. It’s not just that they have strings and pianos, it’s how they’re employed. The strings are often the main part of the melody, not just embellishment, like in “A Gap Has Appeared” or “Kingston”. But, then they can turn around with a song like “Closer At Hand” which is a great guitar-based song. The thing I love the most about this album is the percussion. Lots of interesting bells, tambourine, drum patterns, cymbals, etc. “Sit Tight” is the perfect example, even incorporating beatboxing at the end of the song. The songs are complex, despite constantly clocking in at around three minutes or less. A couple times, like with “A House Is Not A Home” where the song segues seamlessly into “Kingston”, lending the album a unifying progression that is clearly deliberate. And, I must mention the lovely vocals which remind me of the Beach Boys, Crosby, Stills, & Nash or maybe a little Steely Dan.

14. Grinderman – Grinderman: Savage, brutal, and funny. Not 20 seconds goes by in the first song “Get It On” before “motherfucker” is said. “Get It On” primes you for the rest of the album, electric guitar, bongos, and piano with the lyrics creating a lowdown character with “words of wisdom” of “get it on”, drinking panther piss and “fucked the girls you’re probably married to”. This is really a guy’s album, and “No Pussy Blues” is a song only a guy can really understand and it’s one of the best songs Nick Cave has ever written. The verses detail everything he tried to win over a girl. Then the song explodes into a blistering chorus yelling “damn” and “woo” in a way that most guys who have felt frustrated and a little emasculated in life will recognize. Nick Cave knows he’s one of the most charismatic singers in rock, calling “all right, come on Grinderman” during the pulsing outro of “I Don’t Need You (To Set Me Free)”. He uses his ability to tell an engaging story to full effect creating the myth of “Electric Alice” or “Depth Charge Ethel”. There’s balls out garage rock like “Honey Bee (Lets Fly To Mars)” and “Love Bomb” and slow sinister songs like “Grinderman” that use sparse jagged guitar. It all creates a mood of dirty, macho, wild fun. Yet in a serious way this album is Cave’s musical portrayal of the struggles of masculinity.

13. Peter Bjorn & John – Writer’s Block: The first of three Scandinavian artists on my list. “Young Folks” is a classic single. Everyone I know who has heard it loves it. It’s warm and romantic in the very best way. A man and a woman who are deciding to trust each other despite being hurt in the past. Who can deny that whistle? They are able to write irresistable pop melodies like “Let’s Call It Off” using hand claps and steel drums over a funky drumbeat. PB&J balance this with the kind of forlorn lyrics about unsuccessful love which makes people fall in love with great pop songs. “Objects Of My Affection” is a jangling rocker that is a kiss off to a former lover. But things are not that simple, as while the singer will “laugh more often now, cries more often now, I am more me” he will on ” some days, lie around and hardly exist”. The song “Up Against The Wall” with a slightly muted slow rock build has further complexity in the lyrics, saying “maybe we could make it work” but feels “almost that I wish we hadn’t met at all.” Clearly, the lyrics often express a sad mature look at love. You might think the whole affair would sound depressing. Yet, the album is not at all depressing. The inventive song writing makes sure of that: the soaring bongo enhanced chorus to “Young Folks”, the whistling in “Objects Of My Affection”, or the pretty acoustic guitar plucking of “Paris 2004″.

12. Faithless – To All New Arrivals: They are really the most consistent electronica act currently recording. Look at how poor the output of The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Underworld, Fatboy Slim, etc has become. Every album by Faithless has been well done and enjoyable from start to finish. They’re able to create politically minded music and emotional music without sounding preachy or detracting from being enjoyable and dancable. This album, a concept album about children, is no exception. “Bombs” is lyrically very political, yet a tremendous sounding dance song. Listen to the title track or “I Hope”, and you’ll hear a great song to dance to with lyrics of concern, hope, and love for children that come from their hearts. That is a rare feat, in my mind. “Bombs”, which starts the album, seems to be their take on the state of the world, putting the rest of the album in context. They’re concerned about what future the world is leaving our children. The song “Music Matters” might just be their mission statement, and there’s nothing cuter than the little kid featured right before it. Last track “Emergency” seems designed to remind you they can still throw down a trance rave-up like few else.

11. Nellie McKay – Obligatory Villagers: I’m waiting for McKay’s full fledged Broadway musical. She is that talented, and she truly shows it here. Her last album, Pretty Little Head was good but did feel too bloated at 21 tracks. This album has 9 tracks at is barely 30 minutes, which is perfect. This album is clearly (the start of) her political commentary on the state of America. We are the villagers who have been obliging the president the past 7 years. “Zombie” is a fun bluesy number with actual grunting zombies. Nellie clearly is blaming the South for putting Bush in office for 8 years, especially in the outro with lines like “torture isn’t that bad” and “they hate our freedom”. The first song, “Mother Of Pearl”, where McKay lists criticisms of feminists, seems to confuse people as to what her intent was. I read one review written by a man that said she is literally making fun of feminists. I think it’s shortsighted to take the song literally, especially given McKay’s flat vocal. I think she wants to make you laugh at how ludicrous the whole situation is, saying “feminists have a tumor in their funny bone” balanced with a man comically saying responses to her lines like “take it off”. Nellie ends the song with an amusing “I am Dennis Kucinich, and I approve this message”. The whole album is filled with complex lyrics where Nellie McKay is expressing her political point of view, and it’ll take many listens to get a complete sense of what she is saying here. I could spend a long time discussing each track. It’s the venue she expresses herself, in the style of Broadway musical, that will keep you listening over and over. And the album quite proudly states “all songs written, arranged and orchestrated by Nellie McKay”

10. Klaxons – Myths Of The Near Future: It’s nice when hype pays off, and this mostly happened with Klaxons. Though, they were hyped as nu-rave, and having listened to rave for 15 years, I can say little on this album is even close to rave. Other than the shouts of “DJ!” and the klaxons in “Atlantis To Interzone” and the bridge of “Forgotten Works”, you need to turn to the remixes like Erol Alkan’s gorgeous remix of “Golden Skans” for the rave. The hype did pay off in that clearly Klaxons are very talented at crafting music that recalls 70’s art punk, 80’s new wave, 90’s electronica, yet retain a sound that is Klaxons and very of the present. As I said, “Atlantis To Interzone” has elements of rave, but when it kicks into the blistering chorus there’s no mistaking that this is a band influenced by Gang Of Four. They even turn 90’s house hit “Not Over Yet” by Grace into a art punk track with new wave vocals. “Golden Skans” takes all this new wave nostalgia and actually does something with it creating an exciting modern version of new wave that betters most classic new wave. The hyper breakbeats in “Magick” are far more fun in an art punk setting. All the mythology and literary references to Allen Ginsberg and Alister Crowley in the lyrics is kind of dorky, but also kind of endearing and it’s nice to hear a band who clearly has a brain. The majority of time when a band is hyped the final product is underwhelming. I actually think Klaxons’ first album is better than the hype suggested it would be. Instead of “nu-rave” you get 11 songs that are each different and exciting to listen to. I’ve read they want to go prog next, and I can’t wait.

9. Amy Winehouse – Back To Black: What has happened to Amy Winehouse is really a shame, because there is no denying her voice, her talent at singing and honest lyric writing. I listened to this album because someone was doubting the authenticity of her lyrics, and I became intrigued. I don’t think any doubt can remain of whether the lyrics in “Rehab”, “You Know I’m No Good”, or “Love Is A Losing Game” are authentic. The title song is an instant classic and about as powerfully emotional as music gets. The song can stand proudly next to classic soul songs of the 50s and 60s. It’s heartbreaking, and anyone who has been heartbroken in a complicated relationship knows Winehouse means every word. I honestly feel there is little else original to say about this album. Musically, the live instrumentation coupled with modern beats breathes new life into classic soul music. Winehouse’s vocals and lyrics aside, it’s a great sounding album and very enjoyable start to finish. Winehouse adds the charisma that makes the music so wonderful.

8. The Raveonettes – Lust Lust Lust: I think they have recorded their perfect album. Romantic, sexy, sad, and beautiful. For example, a song titled “Lust” has lyrics like “nothing much to say” and “everywhere I roam life is one big lie”. They proved with their last album, Pretty In Black, they don’t need feedback. Here they prove they’re worthy of following the tradition started by My Bloody Valentine and Jesus & Mary Chain of making feedback beautiful, as almost every song is awash in it. The production is very specific, with guitars usually playing a surf rock melody up front, their pretty harmonized girl-group vocals somewhere in the middle, and the feedback all around, and a drum machine and bass underneath it all. This causes Lust Lust Lust to be their most cohesive sounding album since the Whip It On Ep. The Raveonettes wear their influences on their sleeve. Their name is half a title of a Buddy Holly song thus creating a bastardization of the name The Ronettes. I think the word bastardization is key, as that is what The Raveonettes do. They mash these styles with the guitar feedback of My Bloody Valentine and dark lyrics about love, lust, and loss. I think with Lust Lust Lust there is no question that they have solidified into a band with their own unique sound. I think one listen to “Aly, Walk With Me” or “Dead Sound” will convince you of that. “You Want The Candy” is a girl-group song on which is added reverb, feedback and lyrics about candy, lollipops and asking for a “dirty treat” and talks of “hearts not meant to last”. There you go.

7. Bat For Lashes – Fur & Gold: While I do like current female songwriters like Feist and Regina Spektor, I can’t help but compare them to Joni Mitchell or Tori Amos and the like. I think Natasha Khan, who is Bat For Lashes, has a witchiness that can be compared to Bjork or Kate Bush. But, I think she has a sound and style all her own. Probably you can tell from her chosen name, there’s a lot of gothic mysticism and a enchanted quality to her sound. Even the faster paced songs like “Horse And I” or “Prescilla” have a particular sparseness to them. Much of the album, with it’s harpsichord, hand claps, and songs about “The Wizard” asking you to “drink his blood and he’s our leader”, evoke Renaissance folk. The throbbing “Trophy” tells of a trophy she made that “everyone who touched it found a heaven on Earth” and how it fell into the wrong hands. Khan’s voice can be beautiful and expressive, as in the quiet harpsichord driven “Tahiti”, or powerful as in the slowly building “I Saw The Light”. In “What’s A Girl To Do?” she takes the classic drum pattern of “Be My Baby” and loosens it up a bit. Lyrically, the song looks down the line of a relationship asking what she’s to do when her “heart grows colder with each day” and her “dreams are on a train to trainwreck town”.Quiet piano ballads like “Sad Eyes” or “Seal Jubilee” lull you into a dream like state. She even makes a Bruce Springsteen song, “I’m On Fire” sound like a Bat For Lashes song. And that tells me Bat For Lashes are already on the road to becoming very much their own artist.

6. !!! – Myth Takes: This is the album they’ve been promising us since they first started. The first five songs are unstoppable. I’ve never heard another album that has a stronger first half. The swagger of “Myth Takes”, the hectic art punk of “All Our Heroes Are Weirdos”, the hedonistic dance party “Must Be The Moon”, the slinky disco “A New Name”, and the epic funk of “Heart Of Hearts”. This is a band who loves to play, dance and have fun, and the whole album is infectious in its enthusiasm. Sixth song, “Sweet Life” is an all right song, but kills the momentum for me. “Yadnus” brings the funk back with galloping drums reminiscent of “Rock And Roll Pt. 2″ by Gary Glitter (think about it) and that awesome synthy guitar riff that starts things off. “Bend Over Beethoven” is a classic !!! eight minute punk funk workout in the vein of “Intensify” or “Shit Scheisse Merde”. Few bands have !!!’s charisma and the ability to put a big goofy smile on your face. They can write great tunes like “Must Be The Moon” and “Heart Of Hearts”, yet they are capable of big electronic breakdowns like at the end of those songs. I guess !!! feel a need to give you a break with songs like “Sweet Life” and the ending comedown “Infinifold”, but when the rest is the most fun you’ve ever had listening to music…

5. Menomena – Friend And Foe: This album makes me glad I am alive. Three band members who play a wide variety of instruments, record various parts with each instrument, and digitally assemble them into a finished song. Each song is a sound college, yet the album never sounds a mess. The layers of instrumental elements don’t bury each other, instead they are building blocks that create a whole song. In fact, this is album is clearly a cohesive artistic statement. Many of the songs lyrically deal with struggling in relationships and with identity, lending meaning to the title Friend And Foe. Evil Bee talks of “oh to be a machine, oh to be wanted, to be useful”. The soaring epic “My My”, with it’s slashing guitar riff and gorgeous piano asks “what if all my enemies were dead, and I could forget everything they said, could I be then who I really am?’ At times, especially with “Air Aid” the band approach Philip Glass territory with it’s repetitive baritone sax riffs. I won’t really say much more about the music, except to say there are piano, xylophones, horns, organ, bass, drums all cut up and put together. There are seemingly millions of musical ideas started and stopped and yet it never sounds overstuffed. You’re just left with the exciting feeling that original art balanced with emotion is something still possible in music even in the year 2007. Speaking of art, the album cover is simply gorgeous and must be seen.

4. Long Blondes – Someone To Drive You Home: A female Pulp. That I am not saying the Long Blondes “sound like Pulp” says everything I need to about this album. I never thought someone could compare to Jarvis Cocker, but Kate Jackson and the lyrics she sings stands almost shoulder to shoulder with him. So rarely can I find a band or artist who writes songs about relationships whom I can relate to as an adult. This album is almost a concept album of Kate Jackson telling younger women she “knows how it feels to be your age” as she says in “Once And Never Again”. Elsewhere he relates her own stories as a single adult looking for love, often finding herself passed by for boring women, such as in “Giddy Stratospheres”. There’s a weariness that comes with age, such as when she says she “won’t kid myself about happy endings, I’m too old for that now” in the epic “You Could Have Both”. Meanwhile the music not only stands up, but betters the Brit-rock and Post-post punk of the likes of Franz Ferdinand, Arctic Monkeys, Art Brut, etc. Listen to the gallop that starts “You Could Have Both”, and then they dial it down immediately coasting on Jackson’s lovely worldless vocal. By the end it turns into a pounding expression of romantic frustration. Songs like “Lust In The Movies and “Separated By Motorways” have a fun punky flair. Others like “Giddy Stratospheres” and “Weekend Without Makeup” bounce along thanks to a fantastic melodic rhythm section. I could spend a lot of time quoting this album. There’s a great deal of wit. I relate to songs like “Madame Ray” and “Only Lovers Left Alive”, songs about being put on the back burner while your love interest pursues people clearly wrong for them. It’s why I fell in love with it.

3. M.I.A. – Kala: Everyone made such a big fuss over Kanye’s new album because it used more synths and whatever else. To them, I point to M.I.A. She makes anyone else currently making hip hop look lazy and behind the times. Like Arular, this album is the driving album of this year. The beat in “Boys” is absolutely punishing. The synth stabs in “Hussel” are dirty and cool as fuck. The beat on “Paper Planes” built on gunshots, hammer click, and cash register (blam blam blam, click, ch-ching) might be fun to blast but literally might be dangerous in the wrong neighborhood. Though lets face it, we learned on Arular that M.I.A. creates beats on a completely higher level than most out there. On Arular she incorporated styles from all over the world, African, Asian, Brazilian, etc. and she does so again on Kala. On “Bamboo Banga” she samples a Bollywood song. Then later she betters a Bollywood song by covering and rewriting the lyrics on “Jimmy” from the 70’s movie Disco Dancer. On “Jimmy” we also find out she can actually sing and has a nice voice! She uses actual aborigine Australian children on a quiet hip hop song about fishing called “Mango Pickle Down River”. It says a lot that the least radical song might be “Come Around”, the only song produced by Timbaland. Some may say M.I.A. depends on producers, but while Diplo did all of Arular, he only produced three songs on this album. Switch did much of the rest. Yet it sounds like a natural extension of Arular, which tells me M.I.A. is in artistic control.

2. Jens Lekman – Night Falls Over Kortedala: Perfection. On this album Jens Lekman does no wrong. You rarely find a songwriter that can combine sadness, humor, honesty, sweetness, and romance all into one song like he does in “A Postcard To Nina”. He can go from the epic grandeur of “And I Remember Every Kiss” to the naked heartbreak of “I’m Leaving You Because I Don’t Love You” to the sweet dedication to a hairdresser “Sharin”. Lekman can do fun dance pop songs like “Sipping On The Sweet Nectar” or sweet songs like “Your Arms Around Me”. He works mostly on a laptop, and isn’t afraid to show it off. He bends and manipulates the samples he uses. He even samples himself singing when he was a child in “It Was A Strange Time In My Life”, which is really sweet and fun. I should stress that I am discussing sampling with an artist who performs chamber pop music. Not hip hop or dance. Sometimes you can’t tell at first if he’s using real instrumentation or a sample, then he cuts it up like at the end of “Kanske Ar Jag Kar I Dig” . But make no mistake, “The Opposite Of Hallelujah” or “Your Arms Around Me” demonstrate he can write for actual strings. The details he puts into his lyrics are so unique and lends a constant feeling of honesty to his songwriting. He can talk about small town Swedish life in “Friday Night At The Drive-In Bingo” or cutting avocados in the kitchen in “Your Arms Around Me”. In every which way, Jens Lekman is a musical genius and a joy to listen to.

1. LCD Soundsystem – Sound Of Silver: Perfection again. There isn’t a bad song. In fact, there isn’t song that is not worthy of being on a mix CD. Maybe James Murphy, music nerd that he is, wants it that way. Much can be and has been said about how he employs drum machines, live drums, bass, cowbell, etc.. The album’s pacing is perfect, “Get Innocuous!” explodes out of the gate, combining the synth line from Kraftwerk’s “The Robots” and a Bowiesque vocal. Then, he takes it down a peg with funky “Time To Get Away”. The dancefloor filler mid-section of “All My Friends”, “Us V Them”, and “Watch The Tapes” is euphoric and exhilarating. The comedown of the quieter yet still dancable “Sound Of Silver” and the ballad “New York, I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down” is the right way to end the album. It was a lovely, unique experience to hear the instrumental version of “Someone Great” in the 45:33 album (my #4 album last year), and then to hear this album for the first time and recognize it. But, I never would have guessed Murphy would use it to put a complex emotional lyric to. Of course, his social commentary in “North American Scum” and “New York…” is always intelligent and mature, and always welcome. There is not a false note on the entire album. There is a meticulous craft involved in the making of this album, and every layer and detail sounds thought out. This album sounds like James Murphy is beginning to put himself in the same category as the great artists like Bowie, David Byrne, Brian Eno, Mark E. Smith, and the others he so admires.

Look, Radiohead and Bjork Released Albums: In Rainbows and Volta
I do really enjoy both of these albums, but I’m always left with a feeling like nothing will compare to The Bends, OK Computer, Post, and Vespertine…

Best Album You Haven’t Heard: Kathy Diamond – Miss Diamond To You
Modern, classy disco at it’s best, produced by Maurice Fulton. This album has the clearest production I think I’ve ever heard. Somehow he’s able to make the record sound stark yet lush, best shown off in the song “Over”. I had to order it directly from the German label.

Over-rated: Justice / Simian Mobile Disco
I’ve been listening to all forms of dance music since I was 12. I do not get what the fuss is about. We already have a crappy Daft Punk. They’re called Daft Punk. I guarantee the same hipsters listening to Justice and SMD laughed at Fatboy Slim, despite it all sounding like his remix of “I See You Baby” by Groove Armada. I heard “D.A.N.C.E.” spun at a club, and it still wasn’t good to me.

Biggest Disappointments: Arcade Fire – Neon Bible / Air – Pocket Symphony
- Air finally delivered on all the potential they’ve hinted at since their first EP: the potential to be boring. Somehow they made Jarvis Cocker boring. That’s a feat. There are some nice songs, but nothing to stand up to anything in the past.
- The Arcade Fire added a church organ to their bombast and left out actual tunes. I don’t care how much people gush over this album, except for “Keep The Car Running” not one song stands out to me.
LCD