About 6 months ago I saw pig magazines photo shoot with Uffie. That day, I came as close to falling in love as you possibly can via some coloured dots on a screen.
I listened to a few of her songs and wasn't overly impressed, so I resigned her to my large scrap heap of female artists who's music I don't like but I quite fancy. I'm not really in to the whole internet stalking thing, so I didn't anticipate ever thinking about Uffie again. This plan was going well until recently, when it seems that wherever I turned I was greeted by Uffie enthusiasts. Music bloggers, a girl in a bar, and a random guy in the street, all plugged her to me within a week.
All of this praise sent me scuttling back to the headphones... and back to the Pig photo shoot (purely for research purposes). I have to admit, it did sound a bit better second time around, but I'm still not entirely convinced that my eyes aren't trying to trick my ears!
I'm in a hurry and needed a quick post, so there's not many words today. Sorry! In order to create a rapid post, I took a a trip down memory lane. The songs below were all on the first tape I made for my car when I passed my driving test 4 and a bit years ago. The tape has sadly gone missing and I can't remember all the tracks, so there may be more of these posts to follow if my memory allows!
Above: Nine Days - 'Absolutely (Story Of A Girl)' Below: Lifehouse - 'Hanging by a moment'
Below: Yellowcard - 'Everywhere' (Michelle Branch cover) Sorry there's no video, it's just audio.
Last summer I toured Europe and the only country which I didn't like was Belgium (although I do like Tin Tin). It was just so dull. However, my opinion of Belgium went up this week when I saw the following piece of news. UEFA are set to investigate allegations that Belgium goalkeeper Stijn Stijnen threatened to deliberately injure Portugal's Cristiano Ronaldo a in a qualifier. Usually I would be very against deliberate malice in football, but lets face it, nobody has liked the winking step-over monkey since his world cup antics.
Anyway, this got me thinking about Belgium and reminded me of K's Choice. Sadly the band split up in 2003; but they were a 5 piece rock band from Antwerp. I'm leaving for a gig in about 20 minutes so can't say much more... have a watch of the videos.
Above: Not an Addict Below: Believe
Sarah and Gert are now both working on Solo projects.
I love SoKo. She has a very Bjork-esque innocent voice. If you could heard her voice without understanding the words you would assume she was singing about naive kittens wrapped in candy floss. The fact that she’s actually singing about a cold blooded revenge killing is what makes this song so great. She's like an acoustic Frankee!
Above: SoKo - I’ll kill her. (Only 23 views at the time of writing!)
I couldn't mention the impish Icelander and not show one of her amazing music videos.
I was having a debate with an American recently about who has better music industry, the UK or the US. I argued that all of the best indie and rock in the last few years has come from the UK. Just think of all the recent buzz bands from the UK that have got fans in a frenzy. America still has a long way to go to catch up with British music at the moment. We agreed to disagree on the matter until I said "of course I would put Sweden in second ahead of the US". It was a rash statement I know. I don't even really believe it; but it annoyed an American so it was worth saying!
There is a lot of good music coming out of Sweden at the moment though. Hello Saferide, I'm From Barcelona, Suburban Kids With Biblical Names, Love Is All and The Sounds, just to name a few. My latest Swedish pet is David And The Citizens. It's happy pop rock in places and melancholy in others. It sounds like Bright Eyes would if he ever woke up and decided to take a happy pill! I won't say too much more as I have a load of work to be getting on with. Have a listen and enjoy.
I have a soft spot for girls with guitars, and voices that make you melt. Often these artists lack musical substance and are guilty pleasures in my music collection. However, on this occasion I feel justified in my love for Hello Saferide. Following in the footsteps of ‘I’m From Barcelona’, this band are the latest twee exports from Sweden. So what makes this charmingly upbeat indie-pop band so different from the rest?
Every song exhibits clever observations on love and life. The lyrical content of the songs is at times funny, sometimes in a subtly dark way. There is also a serious side though, with the comedy often fronting an emotionally explicit narrative on relationships. Annika Norlin certainly isn't afraid of sharing her vulnerabilities and insecurities with the audience, as seen in the video for ‘2006’. Below is the short for ‘My Best Friend’, a video which is as quaint as the band themselves.
You can catch the band in the UK on the following dates.
May 14: The Monto/Water Rats, London. Also playing: Maia Hirasawa. May 15: The Monto/Water Rats, London. Also playing: Maia Hirasawa. May 17: The Great Escape Festival, Brighton.
I have already blogged about good shoes so wasn't planning on blogging about last nights gig. However, I was so impressed by support act Vincent Vincent and the Villains, I feel I have to. I have listened to the band before but only got hooked after last nights gig. They simply offer good old fashioned rock and roll.
The video above for the song 'Johnny Two Bands' which is about Charlie Waller who left the band to form the Rumble Strips.
Advertising other peoples sites is probably a bad move from a marketing point of view, but this is just too good not to share. Many thanks to Stu for pointing me in the direction of La Blogotheque's YouTube profile. They have their own site at blogotheque.net but it's probably best to stick to the videos unless you can read French. Basically they film great bands doing secret gigs in the streets and put them on the internet for free.
Above is the Guillemots using a lamppost as a drum. Tapes 'n Tapes, Spinto Band and I'm From Barcelona are amongst the other highlights. I live in the hope that one day I will stop to listen to a street artist and it will turn out to be Fyfe Dangerfield / Ben Gibbard / Chris Carrabba or someone similar.
The recipients of praise in Charlie’s last post were The Horrors. It seems that most people either love them or hate them. We can see from Charlie’s review that he likes them; however I’m far from impressed. I’ve listened to the album and have tried to like it, but to no avail. I was left struggling to see how they have gained so much positive attention in certain magazines. I couldn’t help asking myself how they had managed to get on the front cover of NME last year, without having released an album, and only having five songs at the time (of which only three were original material).
As a cynic, I would suggest that they have achieved this because they have been able to infiltrate the pretentious London scene with sickening ease. The band has successfully created an image to make them the 'band of the moment'. It’s amazing that all those skinny jeans haven’t hindered people from jumping on the bandwagon. The clique has spoken and it has said that it’s just too unfashionable to dislike The Horrors. This attitude of musical elitism means that a copy of their debut 7” single will cost you around £50 on EBay. Incase you don’t know it; the title is Sheena is a Parasite. The chorus goes like this:
Sheena is a Parasite Sheena is a Parasite Sheena is a Parasite Sheena is a Parasite
Charlie argues that lyrical simplicity isn’t always a bad thing. Dumb is the word here, hard-wired to a part of the brain that bypasses normality – and the Horrors are a celebration of that. The sheer ridiculousness of rock and roll. Let’s compare their words to Little Richard’s Tutti Frutti, arguably one of the most vital records in the history of rock n roll:
A Wop-bop-a-loo-mop alop-bam-boom Tutti Frutti, on rootie Tutti Frutti, on rootie Tutti Frutti, on rootie Tutti Frutti, on rootie Tutti Frutti, on rootie Awop-bop-a-loo-mop alop bam boom
You see there isn’t much difference here in terms of meaningful content or repetition. The words are nothing more than another instrument on the one hand, and a celebration of sheer exuberance on the other.
I don’t think it’s an accident that legendary director Chris Cunningham chose to break a seven year hiatus in directing music vids to direct the promo for Sheena. He said that he had become somewhat obsessed with the song.
There is a strong PR machine attached to every single band that comes along. Every single artist today has the backing of a PR machine that tries to market that band to a particular demographic. The Horrors visual identity is particularly striking, and I think is just sharper and more ‘obvious’ than many other bands. I don’t even think theirs is an image that is particularly trendy at the moment, just really different. (No-one has used that organ sound since the Inspiral Carpets in the early 1990s) And in a sea of samey bands, many of whom still have that chingchingching Strokes kinda sound, it just really makes them stand out.
I have to agree that there have been many great songs which have been founded upon a simple chorus and often ridiculous lyrics. Similarly, many great bands have relied on PR and image to thrive. The reason I specifically dislike The Horrors is because they get excessive media attention for very little musical talent. If you like the music then the marketing machine is simply good promotion. If you don't like the music, then all of the other stuff appears to be their only merit. It's the people who fall for the marketing (NME readers must be especially singled out here) who create the popular bands with no musical substance to justify their media hype.
The reason they got on the cover of the NME last year was probably because they had the best haircuts. To underestimate the power of the haircut in pop is a dangerous thing. The haircut is the single most iconic part of image, and it is image that drove mersey-beat, glam, punk, new-romanticism, brit-pop etc etc. No-one took any notice of the Beatles lyrics until Revolver, but their image sold them to the world four years before that. I’m not comparing the Horrors to the Beatles, but you get my point?
It is certainly true that image drove all of those genres, but the engine was still good music. The Horrors lack this engine and are currently freewheeling, having being given a push start by the music press.
Despite my disdain, I do believe that someone in The Horrors has considerable talent. Sadly, I believe that it’s is the guy who runs their PR machine. It is said that any publicity is good publicity. Never is this truer than right now. I should stop writing. I can’t though. The overwhelming sense of the unfairness of popular, fashionable bands fuels my ranting.
The fact that we are having this conversation says much about this band. I wouldn’t be having this discussion over Coldplay, put it that way!
Pop has always depended heavily on the dealings of management. Sex Pistols with Malcom McLaren, The Clash with Bernie Rhodes, Elvis Presley with Tom Parker, The Beatles with Brian Epstein, Kit Lambert with The Who – all are unforgettable artists whose image was just as important, if not more so, than the music. One of my biggest problems with so much modern music is the lack of theatricality that surrounds it. There seems to be so much emphasis on ‘cool’ these days that people seem to forget how much power is derived from the frivolous and the downright silly. I’m not talking about The Darkness here, or any other sort of piss-take music. Every band I mentioned above were deadly serious about their intentions, but never forgot that rock n roll is primarily about entertainment, about forgetting the shit world we inhabit and the day to day drudgery. Pure escapism. Pure rock and roll!
So yeah, musical talent be damned! I never mentioned anything like that in my piece, and I dare say that much of the ‘inventiveness’ I discussed was brought to the table by the producer anyway. It’s only the end result I was listening to. Those are my feelings.
Charlie and I have decided that we respectively do & don't like their music. Having made these judgments we then see the surrounding hype very differently; as a good promotion / as a poor substitute for talent. I take solace in the knowledge that Charlie has made his decision using his ears not a copy of NME. However, many people are not so wise. These people are the ones who see the hype and decide they like a band because it's cool to do so, regardless of the music. Don’t be one of them, throw away your pre-conceptions, click the link below, close your eyes, sit back and make your decisions based on musical talent; or the lack of it.
Before you peruse these next few sentences, please be aware of one thing. In my perhaps twisted opinion, any band which features a Vox/Farfisa organ in their instrumental line-up is automatically in the front ranks of music-making. Forget the brain-bending guitar antics of yer Hendrix, just give me that Vox Continental tone every time; there’s nothing like it.
That said, the much-anticipated debut album ‘Strange House’ from Junk Club impresarios The Horrors doesn’t just excite me in its use of cutting edge 1960s keyboard technology. It is nothing less than a short, sharp assault on the senses. My vinyl copy has been spinning away on the turntable here all day, with me happily turning it over every few minutes for another fix.
Some writers seem to have missed the point of this album. “It’s not serious enough” is one criticism I have seen leveled at the album. Sorry, but if you want to misunderstand the point of rock n roll in all of it’s glorious stupidity and joyous theatricality then you might as well give up and become a Tool fan. The Horrors aren’t doing social commentary. They weren’t borne from the confines of or meant for bedroom analysis, but in a club. They are meant to be good fun. If they get laid lots in the process, then everybody wins, right?
That’s not to say there isn’t plenty of intelligence hidden behind those bowl-cut fringes. The eleven short tracks here roar by with a real ferocity, but they are welded together with something else entirely. Their now infamous 60s garage sound is used here as a basis. Whereas so many bands are purely retro-copyists aping a sound they love with no further creativity, The Horrors use that sound as a basis and then layer it with endless invention. Whether that be in use of feedback, distortion, arrangement, time-signature changes or just general tone, they make each song a sheer thrill to listen to over and over. Unlike many new bands, The Horrors know how to use light and dark in their music, it gives their songs momentum and drive. It’s exciting like a good scary movie; you kinda expect what’s coming next, but it’s the subtle changes to the formula that get you in the end.
’Strange House’ isn’t a mission statement. If we indulge in The Horrors rules and take rock n roll at its most primitive and visceral level, then there can be nothing as pretentious as a mission statement. It’s just a fucking good debut album, with a Vox organ.
Quick, run to the shops now and get yourself a copy of the album 'A Tale of Two Cities' by Mr Hudson & the Library.
The quieter tracks on the album are melodic masterpieces. However this is much more than an album for a rainy Sunday morning. Mr. Hudson’s silky vocals are a soulful delight. If you like something a little more upbeat, this week’s release ‘Too Late, Too Late’ might make its way to the dance floor, if the mood suits.
Straight talking lyrics have drawn comparisons to The Streets and Plan B. My personal favourite is the lyrically astute Bread & Roses. The half spoken, half sung lyrics sit comfortably along side a tune of gorgeous simplicity.
Everyting about this band exudes class, cool and charisma. You would think it would get boring, being so flash. The album is in record shops today.
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