Drowned In Sound |  |
- God Help the Girl at King's Cross Scala, Islington, Sat 21 Nov
- Watch: Paramore - 'Brick By Boring Brick'
- Joanna Newsom models for Armani, looks quite pretty, possibly finishes new album
- LCD Soundsystem: 10 Questions for 2010
- Watch: The Temper Trap - 'Fader'
- New Xiu Xiu record details released into the wild
- Akron/Family, Wolf People at Highbury Garage, Islington, Tue 17 Nov
- Royal Bangs - Let it Beep
- Twinkranes - Spektrumtheatresnakes
- 50 Cent - Before I Self Destruct
| God Help the Girl at King's Cross Scala, Islington, Sat 21 Nov Posted: 24 Nov 2009 04:23 AM PST  But, as you'll know if you're even vaguely aware of this eccentric pop project, the B&S singer doesn't take centre stage. God Help The Girl's one album, penned as the soundtrack to a film that's still in pre-production, uses a rotating line-up of singers including Neil Hannon and Smoosh's Asya, as well as Catherine Ireton, Celia Garcia and Alex Klobouk, the three women with devastating smiles and shiny brunette hair who handle vocal duties tonight – while Murdoch himself writes, and then confines himself mostly to the piano and guitar. Everyone's palpably nervous and while the music – close harmonies, Motown swells, and a bookish tendency to rhyme words like "incarceration", "emancipation" and "elucidation" – is as perfectly polished as the singers, the inter-song banter is awkward. No-one quite sure if it's Murdoch or "the girls" who should be thanking the crowd and explaining the songs, so sometimes interrupt each other and ramble a bit. At one point, Murdoch comes across all Peter Stringfellow: "Can you see the girls?" (Cheer.) "Okay, you got your money's worth then." (Embarrassed pause.) "Is that sexist? (Another one.) There's nothing wrong with being sexy." (Group cringe.) The songs have the same wry narrative drive as the best Belle and Sebastian tracks, documenting the details of a woman's life: obsessing over a boy while washing up, having a bad hair day (in Perfection as a Hipster: the one song which Murdoch himself sings, filling in for Hannon), dancing with friends at a club. "The girls" act out the emotions as they sing, running a hand through their hair, grinning at the jokey lines, and doing a few synchronised dance moves, Pipettes-style. It's cute, and the songs are pretty, but the kitsch nature of it all creates a certain amount of distance, which might be exacerbated by the nerves. If Murdoch's track record is anything to go by, it could be a while before we get to see God Help The Girl again, and when we do there might be a warmer, more spontaneous feel. But on the basis of this gig, I'm predicting the film will be positively dreamy. |
| Watch: Paramore - 'Brick By Boring Brick' Posted: 24 Nov 2009 03:44 AM PST  Lead woman Hayley Williams says, of the song:
Here it is then: They'll be popping over to the UK to entertain their fans on the following dates: December: |
| Joanna Newsom models for Armani, looks quite pretty, possibly finishes new album Posted: 24 Nov 2009 03:46 AM PST  HOWEVER, thought it won't be released THIS year, it'll probably be released some time next year, as the rumours state (and this is as good as fact), that she's recently finished work on her new album (via Exclaim and Sterogum). It was recorded in Tokyo, where collaborator Jim O'Rourke resides. So that's something to look forward to in the new decade, which is yet to be named. Elsewhere, she's been filling her time with various other escapades, including modelling for Armani, as part of their campaign for United Artists, where they get creative type people to wear their clothes, just like real models do. Lykke Li is also involved. Songstressness. Here's what J-No looked like, all dolled up in a seemingly physically impossible pose:  Here it is in video format. Newsom pops up at about 1:20, and practices her modelling look whilst being blasted by a fan. AND I bet you want to know what she's wearing, right? Well, if Alex Petridis can bang on about fashion then so can I. For a bit.
Probably quite expensive, but I'm sure you can get some imitations from TK Maxx, Matalan or somewhere like that. TESCO. |
| LCD Soundsystem: 10 Questions for 2010 Posted: 24 Nov 2009 03:59 AM PST  ...but then, if you're reading this intro, you're more than likely aware of all of this and just want us to cut to our ten questions about 2010 that James Murphy took the time to answer. He wrote everything in lowercase and it had a hand-written charm, so we left it as is. Here's what he has to say about the follow-up to Sound of Silver (easily one of DiS' most anticipated new albums due next year!), a new band he's been working with and a soundtrack he's working on... Hello Mr Murphy, you've seemingly had an insanely busy 2009 working on things for 2010, what have you been up to? What music/film/literature/etc has inspired/excited you this year? no remixes... not really had the time nor headspace for them - not to mention that i have to rethink the dance-floor a little bit, as i'm pretty bored by what people are playing right now, as it's often so buzzy and hard, but need to find a way to make what i like and have it crush that stuff. working on the LCD record, and the shit robot record, as well as scoring a movie for noah baumbach, which has been really fun. though totally distracting from the record and some other dfa business i should be attending to. as far as what's inspired me, well, i really like that song "cold turkey" by that kid john lennon right now, and loved reading "the savage detectives" by roberto bolaño, though i don't know how inspirational that is. reading the new sam lipsyte novel "the ask" now, which comes out around the time the lcd record does, so maybe we could have the most absurdly awkward co-headlining tour together... brixton and bookstores??  What can you tell us about the new album? (What stage are you currently at? Any special guests? Any cryptic or broad brush-strokes statements about what it might sound like?) well, i'm on hold with it, really. i worked for 3 months in LA on the thing, and really enjoyed it, then came back to new york and dug into the soundtrack and the shit robot LP, so it's still in that state. i'm driving this weekend in a car to work on it (good for the brain to drive and listen and sing parts/vocals/arrangement stuff into a handheld tape recorder, really). i guess it sounds like LCD, really. i mean, it's different in some ways, maybe the same amount that SOS was different than the first record--maybe more different. had to say until it's done. it sounded more generous when i was in LA, but since i've been back, the few things i've written for it and worked on are more spartan and muscular, the way lcd stuff often is. i think it will be good. i'm really proud of it so far. i just hope i don't ruin it. Which records/genres have influenced or been benchmarks - apart from your own - for how dynamic the record needs to sound/feel? i don't know how to answer that, really. i love music very much, and i listen to stuff all the time--but it's hard to pin that shit down for me. so much of it is about where i feel music is right now, and what i think "my job", such as it is, in music is RIGHT NOW. and that's been the process of all the records i've made, this one included. right now, i'm just not sure what my job is, but that's the way making things works--you make decisions based on the vague idea of what you think your job is, almost illogically, and the decisions themselves further define that definition. a little chicken-and-egg maybe. Are there any lyrical themes or one-liners from the record you're happy to share with us? (is there a song called 'Why Do You Hate Music?' and is it a retort to Annie's 'I Don't Like Your Band'? Has LA had an influence on the record? Is there an 'Lala I Love You but You're Bringing Me Down' kinda track?) there's a theoretical song called "why do you hate music", which has nothing to do with the annie song (haven't heard it), which it probably has a good deal in common with, but not yet an actual song. i often have song titles that guide the record but don't get made. this will likely be one of them. last LP there were several: "british teen", "here comes the backlash", "french riot". i just make them up and it makes us laugh. We hear you're working on a soundtrack, what can you tell us about that? not much. i like the director--we're friends--and we like a lot of the same music, so this has been entirely fun. sounds NOTHING like LCD, really, which cracks us both up. it's made to fit the movie, not be "my record". but i'm really proud of it. Free Energy are bloody brilliant. What drew you to producing them and signing them to DFA? (Were you a Hockey Night fan?) jon galkin. full stop. he found them, not me, and brought them in to dfa. he's a brilliant a+r man, a genius if you ask me, and heard more in them than i did. i didn't get it at first, but he kept pushing me, like "what do you think they should do in the studio?!?" until i started having answers and spent time with them. that was it. once i spent time with them, i was pretty hooked. i loved making that record. it was so good to record guitars again. i kind of forgot that i used to be really good at that--recording guitars. What can people expect from the album? (i.e. a vague description, your favourite track, musical reference points, etc) shit... an LCD record. i don't know how to answer that. i really like it so far. and i'm filled with fear about it. i put a lot of pressure on myself usually, and the results vary from moment to moment between overthinking and pushing hard enough that i get what i like. it's wonky and maybe a bit more synth-driven, but not necessarily more dancey. i don't know yet. everything might change. it's like that. Stating the self-referentially and annoyingly obvious, was it a refreshing change to swap your 'turntables' for guitars for a while? nope. it's always a mix for me. i never stop with either thing. i got off tour and went in to make the free energy record, where it's all guitars, and i'm playing bass and shit with pat playing drums, and dj'ing the special disco version parties with pat all along. then i went to LA, packed up a nice dj rig with 2 new turntables and a bozak and played records the entire time i was recording. there's no separation for me. What are your top 3 albums and songs of 2009? (a sentence about why for each would be brilliant) i literally have no idea what the fuck came out in 2009, with the possible exception of the dfa shit, so i'll just leave that alone. i'm what you'd call a "late adopter". What are your top 5 albums of the Noughties? i hate lists. nothing personal, but i don't give a shit about the 5 best anything from anytime. it makes no sense to my brain. unless it's the "5 best coffees in nyc", which is, in no particular order, el beit, grumpy, 2nd stop, my house, and dfa's office. Thank you for your time my pleasure!  'Bye Bye Bayou' is out now on DFA records. The currently untitled third album coming Spring 2010 on DFA/Parlophone. He's been blogging on his MySpace and Twittering here. More info at lcdsoundsystem.com |
| Watch: The Temper Trap - 'Fader' Posted: 24 Nov 2009 03:46 AM PST  Do you like this band? Would you be interested in seeing them live? Then you can do so on these dates at these places, listed below: December: $ = w/ Florence + The Machine |
| New Xiu Xiu record details released into the wild Posted: 24 Nov 2009 03:48 AM PST  Some juicy little nuggets of information have been released about their new record, which is called (a relatively self-loathing), Dear God, I Hate Myself. It'll be released on February 15 through Kill Rock Stars, and the tracklisting is below. Some lovely song titles on it, for sure, for sure.
For the album, Stewart is joined by a brand new full time band member in Angela Seo, who plays piano, some synth and a bit of drum programming. The record was produced by Mr Stewart himself and Greg Saunier of Deerhoof semi-fame, who also plays on much of the record, along with cohorts Ches Smith and John Dieterich, a fellow Deerhoofian. There's even a guest appearance from the Immaculata Catholic School Orchestra! Imagine! Anything else interesting? Yes! The title track was composed primarily on a Nintendo DS. How? Not sure. And here is the cover art, with lovely stenography on't.  |
| Akron/Family, Wolf People at Highbury Garage, Islington, Tue 17 Nov Posted: 24 Nov 2009 04:01 AM PST  Then there is the uplifting atmosphere they create. It's practically impossible to leave an Akron/Family gig without joining in a communal hand clap. The band are famous for their riotous singalongs, complete with audience choreography to the nonsensical feelgood of "Circle, triangle, square (yeah, yeah, yeah yeah, yeah)", filmed here spilling onto the street outside Emo's at SXSW 2008: Since Ryan Vanderhoof departed two years ago to join a Buddhist Dharma Centre, the band have performed as a threesome. Drummer Dana Janssen, guitarist Seth Olinsky and bassist Miles Seaton took turns on vocals, and for the final half an hour they were joined by a flautist, saxophonist and trumpet player. With the tie dyed bastardised American flag seen on the cover of their fifth album Set 'Em Wild, Set 'Em Free pinned up behind them, stripey shawls draped over their mixing desks and obligatory sweatbands and beards in place, the scene evoked band practice in a student's bedroom. They played a diverse set moving from the African inflected tribal drumming and township guitars of 'River' and 'Ed is a Portal' to bouncy dance beats, Indian rhythms and various prolonged psychedelic wig outs. Yet things didn't quite descend into the delicious chaos the band are capable of, instead we got protracted noodling. Perhaps the crowd was too sparse and too polite, perhaps it was because the vocals were so low in the mix they were barely audible, maybe 12 dates into a 20 date European and Antipodean tour the band are weary and homesick. Akron/Family still sprinkled their warmth and joy across us frosty Brits, but those who came with the hope of partying on the streets will have been bitterly disappointed when the band left without so much as a goodbye or whiff of an encore. |
| Posted: 24 Nov 2009 01:32 AM PST  Indeed, the move towards realms more electronic was spurred on by front man Ryan Schaefer's hiatus in France where he allegedly 'spent a year… soaking up Euro dance music and entitlement culture'. I'm not sure quite what has been gained from living in a culture of entitlement, but in terms of the at times ravey electronic cameos that pervade the album, particularly in the likes of 'Conquest II', the hiatus was one well worth taking. Having heard that their new direction encompassed two divergent trends, mixing 'spastic, syrup-thick synths' with the Seventies rock of Springsteen and Thin Lizzy, it's not unreasonable to be slightly apprehensive as to what the bastard child of these vastly different genres would sound like. You needed worry too much, as somehow it works. The 8-bit freakouts occasionally seem a bit forced, as if added on as an afterthought, but in general work well with the whiskey soaked lo-fi rawness of their Southern Rock. It would, however, be disingenuous to label the music as merely a hybrid of these two forms. The first two tracks display Royal Bangs' summery indie pop side, pointing the way to acts such as Broken Social Scene - nothing particularly mind blowing but pleasant all the same. It is at track three, with 'My Car is Haunted', that the band truly announce their arrival, a rough round the edges funky offering dripping with hooks. Indie over the last year or so has hit a trough, with a seemingly never ending list of acts that are thoroughly average, not even possessing the redeeming feature of being catchy. Perhaps it is due to this dearth of good guitar pop that makes 'My Car is Haunted' seem like a breath of fresh air, or perhaps it is purely because it's a bloody good song. The first direction change in the album takes place with 'Brainbow', a song which displays their European electro influence, packed full of vocoded vocals and distorted synths that is somehow reminiscent of T.A.T.U., in the best possible way. The other two stand out tracks on the album, 'Tiny Prince of Keytar' and 'Gorilla King' further display the versatility that the band hold in abundance. The former a lovely garage rock ballad, almost shoe-gazey in its wistful and melancholic tone with hints of Ratatat and a recurring chorus of "don't worry, I'll take care of you". The latter is a track that changes twice, with an interlude that any SNES game would be proud of. While the plentiful volte-faces through the album may initially smack of indecisiveness, after a few listens they grow on you, lending a certain charm to the album. Their inability, conscious or not, to find a middle ground, makes Let it Beep sound original, fresh and distinctive. Paradoxically, considering the fact that listening to the record immediately produces a flurry of audible déjà-vu moments, they do manage to hoist themselves off the conveyor belt of copy-cat indie bands and stand on their own two feet. If you manage to stand back from trying to over-analyse and contextualise their sound, you are ultimately left with a record that is catchy, unashamedly self indulgent and in all senses, fun. |
| Twinkranes - Spektrumtheatresnakes Posted: 24 Nov 2009 01:27 AM PST  The way the melting pot of ideas on Spektrumtheatresnakes generally pans out is to take the bpm and energy of trance music, add the repetition of simple patterns and darkness of krautrock, and mix in the incomprehensible lyrical themes of prog, just in case there wasn't enough complexity with the other bits alone. The result is an overpowering wall of sound which hits you but fails to generate any emotion upon impact. The mystique through repetition that the likes of Can and NEU! found to such great effect has no time or space to reveal itself on this record, all the depth and interest is squeezed out like pips from an orange as the musical figures are compressed and thrown helplessly into a furious tempo. Track one, 'High Tekk Train Wreck', is particularly hard going, as if offered up as a fuck-you handshake. Five minutes 42 seconds of endurance music are characterized by twin bass drums battling with ADHD bass runs and the odd space-age synth thrown in on top somewhere. Track two, 'The Market Of The Bizarre', sounds like an extended remix of the music from the parts of the original Star Trek when Kirk would venture on to an alien planet and get slapped around by the natives. The angry fizz of a treated bassline is the only consent to the 21st century on this one. Indeed sci-fi abounds on Spektrumtheatresnakes, track five 'The Charmer' sounds uncannily like the theme from Eighties helicopter caper Airwolf. There are good points to this record; it's about as far removed from Razorlight as is humanly possible and a significant portion of it feels like there is a good song fighting to make itself heard amidst all the surrounding chaos. The three guys from Dubin who comprise the band obviously have considerably sized testicles to even attempt something like this, but there is no getting away from the fact that the lasting impression of their efforts is that of something designed to batter the senses with little reward offered in return. It is also definitely one for the minus column that listening to Spektrumtheatresnakes causes the mind to drift to challenging albums by groups like Battles or Liars which are immeasurably better than what we have here. Had Twinkranes learned even the limited restraint of those bands, this could have been a much better record. |
| 50 Cent - Before I Self Destruct Posted: 24 Nov 2009 02:27 AM PST  Sadly for him, Machiavelli also knew that when the 'New Prince' leaves poverty behind he loses the necessity to innovate and becomes weak, stale and bored. We all know Fiddy got rich, but on Before I Self Destruct he sounds tired. It's frequently clear that Machiavelli and Greene's amorality is a neat fit with Fiddy's own world view, but his persona is closer still to embodying Hobbe's maxim that life in the state of nature is "nasty, brutish and short." On 'Stretch' he raps about selling cocaine to ten-year-olds before saying, "Look around kid, it's a cold world we're in". In Fiddy's world, the only meaningful relationships to be had are with money and weapons. He brags about his disdain for human kinship on 'Then Days Went By', telling us "Since high school, nigga, I ain't got no friends". There's one moment when he seems to show emotion. On 'Hold Me Down', he begins to rap "I promise to keep you close to me / you give me a sense of security", but inevitability we realise he's talking to a gun. "When we get intimate that's when I get into shit / She 32, I'm 34 / I fuck her raw / She revolves six times / Then I feed her more." While complaining that 50 Cent is misogynistic is a bit like complaining that Jay-Z can sound 'quite pleased with himself', there is an unrelenting portrayal of women as malicious schemers determined to relieve you of your hard-earned wealth. This includes a parallel with a rather unexpected fellow musician. "It's like Paul McCartney stuck in my head / fell in love with a bitch walked away with one leg." A few years ago, Fiddy could at least have been counted on to produce some flashes of humour to distract from the poisonous bile. You couldn't help but smile at lines like "I love you like a fat kid loves cake" or even the absurd bravado of 2005's 'Candy Shop'. But his heart isn't really in this anymore. He tells us he's "put that work in" on 'Gangsta's Paradise', but it's built around the hook "This is Hip-Hop, it go Clip Pop". I'm not even sure whether that's supposed to mean anything. For all his bragging about his riches, he eventually leaves the club for either "the hotel", "motel" or the "Holiday Inn". Not quite the Candy Shop. The production is just as lazy. Dr Dre phones in his three efforts, though persuading Eminem to pop in for 'Psycho' is momentarily diverting. Speaking of guests, R. Kelly is let out of his closet just long enough to croon about sniffing his own shit on 'Could've Been You'. The most cynical moves are on Rockwilder's 'Do You Think About Me' and lead single 'Baby By Me', produced by Polow da Don and featuring chart darling Ne-Yo. They abandon any gangster pretence and head straight for the middle-of-the-radio playlists. If the singles don't shift units, Fiddy calculates, the disses on 'So Disrespectful' will. It's difficult to see his attacks on former G Unit protégés The Game and Young Buck as anything other than attempts to draw the press to carefully stage-managed feuds. In Freakonomics, Steven Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner argued that crack cocaine dealers are attracted not by actual rewards but by the perceived status the guy at the top attains. Fiddy knows that he's an aspirational figure to legions of young men, in suburbs as well as inner cities, and raps on 'Stretch' "I'm supposed to hold the gun / not be stuck in the office". But listening to this album you begin to wonder whether the man himself has grown tired of being 50 Cent. He has nothing to say. This album is his last studio release of his current contract, and perhaps tellingly includes a short film he stars in, wrote and directed under his real name Curtis Jackson. He wants to move on, and so should rap music from an album that's nasty and brutish but will last a short time in the memory. |
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