Peter, Bjorn and John - Lay It Down

(Muso's Guide, January 29, 2009)

Single review

Everyone has a light side and a dark side. No one is as angelic as Doris Day - not even Doris Day, by some accounts - and no one can be as dastardly as Sir Oswald Mosley.

And so it is with the Swedish Peter, Bjorn and John. They’re on the fifth lovely album of their recording career, spanning seven wondrous years, and heralded for the deliciously sweet slice of Sweet’n'Low-pop that is their 2006 single ‘Young Folks’.

A cute, accessible and eminently tuneful cut, the record - and, for the most part, that recognisable whistle - has been harvested ad naseum since its release. Stripped from its natural music habitat, this fragile beast has soundtracked TV shows, stings, trailers, adverts - probably everything including Match of the Day.

And yet, here is ‘Lay It Down’ - a tune so confirmedly non-Radio 2 that it includes two four letter expletives inside the first 10 seconds. At first glance, the single, trailing the forthcoming Living Thing record, is as far from the band’s pop roots as is thinkable, glittering like a dark jewel in their musical crown.

“Hey shut the fuck up, boy - you’re starting to piss me off” it menaces, and goes on to speak about a guy who, not to put too fine a point on it, is cosying up to the young ladies in a non-too-subtle way. Peter, Bjorn and John are none too pleased - it seems “you have already had enough”. The repetitive lyric is a real grabber, enticing hum-alongs for the rest of the day.

Like a prison-dweller’s fightface, ‘Lay It Down’ is nasty, putrid and wrong - it’s Peter, Bjorn and John’s dark side, armed with a shiv. The video, too, is a little slice of hellish fun - a brightly-lit ‘disco’ filled with people wearing masks of their own faces. It doesn’t get much more twisted than that

Teddy Thompson

(Musos's Guide, January 28, 2009)

Gig Reviews

Cardiff Glee Club, January 20

The atmosphere at the Glee Club in Cardiff is shot through with stars and stripes on this most momentous of days.

Multi-instrumentalist Tift Merritt comes onstage with ‘A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall’ alone on guitar and delivers a blistering version, following it with a breathless tale of her own part in history - a meeting with newly-inaugurated U.S. President Barack Obama.

Dispensing with the mic altogether, tiny Tift’s towering moment comes with ‘Supposed To Make You Happy’. Unfiltered by an electronic amplifier, her plaintive voice and mournful mouth organ bring heartache home to everyone here, and, after a rousing piano-led ‘A Good-Hearted Man’, she leaves an audience in no doubt as to her skill.

In the rarefied world of folk country, Teddy Thompson is king of the road. Born to folk luminaries Linda and Richard Thompson, he joins Rufus and Martha Wainwright as famed offspring of former musical heroes.

Although now in his 30s, with four albums under his belt, Teddy still brings out the old guard - of the 300-strong crowd at Cardiff’s bijou Glee Club tonight are certainly of the requisite vintage to have seen Fairport Convention back in the day.

An artist who is as confident as he is charming, Teddy’s stage presence is intoxicating. As the quiet crowd respectfully nod along to ‘Johnathan’s Book’, it’s clear that this slightly built artist has cast a huge spell over music fans.

Although the songs are nothing new to Teddy’s lips, he sings each one with grace and precision, his voice cracking on “I’ve figured it out, I need you - don’t know why I didn’t know it then” in ‘Don’t Know What I Was Thinking’.

His good humour in between songs is in direct opposition to the emotionally wrecked man who thinks up the lyrics, and it’s a real moment when he picks up a note onstage and reads that they will be playing a request for an audience member Chris’ birthday. A touching rendition of ‘Slippery Slope (Easier)’ - “I’ve been on this road alone so long, travelling down this slippery slope alone” is followed by his own wry observation - “It’s not a very cheery one, is it?” he says, before recommending to Chris, “Have a bit of cake, even it out.”

The proverbial pin would have a deafening roar when the rest of the band vacate the stage for his solo, acoustic performance of four haunting songs, but the mood is only ever sombre for a few minutes before he’s laughing and joking again.

An adoptive American, he too speaks of pride in his homeland today, saying “What a wonderful day!” and proclaiming himself happy to be “a citizen of the world.” Perhaps even he recognises this to sound a little naff on the more sedate side of the pond, as he tells the crowd that it’s not like him to be so serious, he usually deflects that sort of thing with humour. To illustrate, he uses David Brent’s oft-quoted line “I’m just a chilled out entertainer”.

Playing most of current record A Piece Of What You Need, the show is up-to-date, but there are some great moments from earlier releases. The closer, in the encore, is the obvious ‘In My Arms’, radio-friendly unit shifter and plainly much-beloved track of everyone here, as the audience becomes more animated than they have been all evening.

Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna

(Muso's Guide, January 28, 2009)

Album Reviews

Gang Gang Dance are an experiemental music group.

It’s imperative that anyone who embarks on listening to Saint Dymphna, or indeed, any of Gang Gang Dance’s other three records, understands that fact. Experimental, as in, takes sounds you have never heard the like of before and mixes them with other sounds, to make something wholly unusual and, well, generally speaking, quite taxing.

Hailing from New York, the quartet have produced an audio release which sways from the sublime to the ridiculous. There are flashes of genius at work here and then there are pieces with all the aural appeal of having a cotton bud stuck too far inside the ear - painful, jarring and leaving you with a slightly violated feeling for the rest of the day.

With opener ‘Bebey’, Gang Gang Dance attempt to recreate the sounds of water, as ‘plinky plonky’ keyboard sounds ripple from the speakers. The whirring electronica of ‘First Communion’ puts the listener in mind of incidental music from Play School, which is ungainly at best, but here and elsewhere on the record there is a degree of oriental influence at work within the melody which is refreshing and intriguing.

As for the other accomplished areas, ‘Vacuum’ is a very atmospheric track, building like a lost Boards Of Canada classic and closer ‘Dust’ is grand and delicious. But then a track like ‘Princes’ wrongfoots with its Oxide and Neutrino-style rap and absurd lack of musical focus.

Saint Dymphna shows all the hallmarks of a band on the move. From the more sedate rhythms of some of their earlier work, they have grown, and their fourth record is the result - but the message in between the random notes is clear: there’s still a way to go to reach Gang Gang Dance’s best.

The View’s Kyle Falconer “dinnae give a shite, man”

(Muso's Guide, January 27, 2009)

Interview

Some of rock’s greatest have been entirely unintelligible. Does anyone understand what Lemmy from Motorhead ever says? Is there still a petition running to get Shane McGowan subtitled?

As such, The View are certainly scaling dizzy mythical heights.

Hailing from Dundee’s Dryburgh, the band take the Queen’s english and make it something all their own, as singer Kyle Falconer attests to with near every word spoken.

A thick Scottish accent and a propensity to drop swears every two words make Kyle the most entertaining frontman around. Add to that the tales of drunken debauchery surrounding the quartet and you have the rock legends of the future. If they can get started, that is. Scotland’s bright young hope apologises - “I’ve got a really bad hangover. I’m lying underneath the table and nearly sleeping” - before the storm of expletives.

Having just moved into a London flat with his buddy Marko and The View visionary artwork genius Ryan McPhail, Kyle seems nonplussed by the perks afforded him by his fame - although it’s worth it being out of Dundee. “It’s alright, I miss it, and then as soon as I get back I want to get out again.”

“People either like us there, or want to smash our puses in. Many a times had my pus smashed in, fucking been loadsa times since we got famous. Definitely more since we got famous.”

It’s a good thing they’ve spent the last two years scaling dizzy heights of fame with their platinum-selling debut Hats Off To The Buskers - and getting away from their frankly dangerous-sounding hoods. Oh, ‘pus’ is slang for ‘face’, by the way.

So what of the new material? Two years after their debut, Which Bitch? is hitting the shelves - just as the band hit the road. Kyle’s confident about it in his own inimitable way.

“We haven’t rehearsed yet. I dinnae ken, we’re maybe gonna try and get some wee quartet on the go and play like strings and shit.” It doesn’t sound like there’s a game plan, but the 21-year-old doesn’t sound like he’s bothered.

Teaming up with esteemed producer Owen Morris again for Which Bitch? has gleaned, in Kyle’s opinion, the best from The View. But their reunion was not without its rougher moments.

“He’s just my best mate, man, he’s fucking brilliant. Any chance I get I go and spend it with him, man, I pure love him. I had to give him a few slaps in the pus this time like. He was pure just caving in. He’s just turned forty, so he’s in a mid-life crisis.”

The title of the record has raised a few eyebrows, but Kyle insists there’s no misogyny afoot. “It’s meant to be like which bitch, but we’re no actually on about burds, we just mean, like, any c*nt, just whoever, bitch disnae mean, like, burds.”

Based on a drawing Kyle did - “D’ken Maleficent off Sleeping Beauty, the witch?” - the title encompasses a collection of strange and entertaining tunes - like “Jimmy’s Crazy Conspiracies” - “That’s my mate Jimmy like just phoning us up, he’s off his fucking trolley and he’s like, he just phones us up at like half seven in the morning and tells us about these conspiracies and saying that he’s dug too deep and he shouldn’t have researched it because people are gonna come and get him and shit.“

Kyle’s favourite track on the record is ‘Realisation’ - “It’s one of my favourites because Owen plays like cello and recorder and shit on it, so it’s cool as hell” - but he’s impressed with the guest appearance from fellow Scot Paolo Nutini.

“I pure used to cry every night listening to ‘These Streets, man. My pal used to call me gay, and I was pure I dinnae give a shite, man, best thing I ever heard.”

And surprise instrument of the album goes to… a popular Hawaiian string instrument. “Johnny from Twisted Wheel come on tour with us for a few days, and we bought ukeleles and wrote loads of songs, and they’re fucking brilliant, they’re awesome.

“There’s a ukelele on ‘Gem of a Burd’. The ukelele’s an obsessive and superior sound, man, to anything in the world. See when I bought Johnny a ukelele, he didn’t put it down for three days! The most addictive thing you could ever touch, cos it’s that simple to play that you think you’re a genius. It’s fucking genius, man. “

And so it is that the lead singer of one of Britain’s brightest young bands spends his hungover days - talking conspiracy theories with his pals and playing ukeleles for fun. It’s a hell of a life - if you manage to understand it - with a hell of a view.

Zion I - The Takeover

(Sup magazine, January 27, 2009)

Album review

Some duos work straight off, while others take time. With the requisite chemistry and a load of talent, producer Amplive and rapper MC Zumbi have really hit their stride on this, their fifth record as Zion I.

Opening with the message, "The system does not work for us, so we must take the system over and make it work for us," there follows a 14-point plan for The Takeover.

Cue Geek To The Beat, the archetypal rap with plenty of comment about the society Zion I see around them. The electro backing makes it a real grower, with MC Zumbi's comment creating the backdrop for an album hungry for change. The title track is a lazily-tempoed classic hiphop number, with the lyrical motif Takeover repeated over a smooth backtrack.

The mix of styles here - hiphop, tribal, house, jazz - is headspinning, but Zion I conquer each with ingenuity. DJ DJ takes tribal beats and forms a homage to Last Night A DJ Saved My Life, while Gumbo melds jazzy New Orleans swagger with electro madness. High points on the record are many, but most striking is the string-laden In The Mornin' (Caged Bird part 2), which shows the growth and musical maturity of Zion I.

New and exciting as their style is, the most impressive part of the Zion I experience is that they don't forget to pay tribute to the roots of their music.

That's really what makes this album such an all-round hit - and Zion I such an electrifying partnership.

Trouble Andrew featuring Diplo - Run Hide

(Musos's Guide, January 26, 2009)

Single review

“Trouble Andrew” sounds like an angry mother’s warning to her errant son after he’s been found peering at the next door neighbour changing. Or perhaps a schoolteacher who has discovered one of his charges smoking behind the bike sheds - “Trouble, Andrew!”

Well, it sounds more like those than it sounds like the name of a truly creditable music artist, and certainly not one who has the urban music worrld at his feet thanks to his relationship with sassy chanteuse Santogold.

If Trouble Andrew, a former world champion snowboarder who left behind the extreme lifestyle grudgingly thanks to an injury, is aiming to demonstrate his musical versatility, he’s not done his best work here. From the off, Trouble and DJ Diplo make the most of the church organ they’ve hauled into the studio for the occasion. The doomy melody is overlaid with myriad beeps that sound like they’ve been nabbed from an ’80s arcade game.

The lyrics here are rudimentary, and barely offer a window onto romance between Trouble and his beau, if that’s what you’re after. “Run, run, hide, hide… stay ’til the morning, darling” the vocal trills annoyingly. It is grasping desperately for the grandiosity of Kanye West doing ‘Stronger’, but it has invariably fallen short and is more redolent of Trouble and Diplo pottering around the studio together.

Now that Trouble Andrew is falling back on music as his second career, there will doubtless be many more opportunities for him to prove his musical mettle. ‘Run Hide’ has only succeeded in rousing mother - “Trouble, Andrew!”

The Walkmen - In The New Year

(Muso's Guide, January 25, 2009)

Single review

Hailing from the ashes of the magnificent Johnathan Fire*Eater, The Walkmen are no strangers to the mainstream. After all, a star turn in The O.C. brought them to the limelight around the time of their second album Bows + Arrows.


But this single, off fifth record You & Me, shows a different sort of Walkmen. These guys are wearing their heart on their sleeves. The sleeves are familiar - they are woven of love and renewal - but the heart is all new.

Starting with a whisper and building, the chiming guitars exhibit a depth and breadth that would become any indie band, nay, any band. Hamilton Leithauser’s plaintive vocal cuts through with emotion and intrigue. “Oh, I’m still living at the old address,” the story goes, before a full-on backing of grandiose organ and warming percussion make the most of this poetically positive lament.

Belting out the chorus with astounding force, Leithauser’s emotive holler sounds like a Heathcliff calling for his Cathy, albeit in cheerier circumstances; “Out of the darkness - and into the fire, I’ll tell you I love you, and my heart’s in the strangest place”. The accomplished percussion and insistently dense guitars make for a positive journey, as “I know that it’s true - it’s going to be a good year”. With records like this around, it seems so.

The Virgins - The Virgins

(Muso's Guide, January 16, 2009)

Album reviews

It’s a shame for New York’s The Virgins that Josh Schwartz’s career is going so well. The TV wunderkind garnered acclaim in 2003 for his series The O.C., which took as its focus the overprivileged teens of Orange County.

Thanks to The O.C.’s success, Schwartz upgraded his productions, and is currently working on hit comedy spy series Chuck, The O.C. a distant memory.

To clarify…

In Orange County, the characters liked to drink, take drugs and fall into bed with one another - and after all that, they liked hanging out at ‘The Bait Shop’ watching tuneful indie rock. In season two, cool venue of Newport, The Bait Shop, played host to alt. combos such as The Walkmen, Modest Mouse and Death Cab For Cutie… and, if there were any justice in this world, The Virgins would have been there too.

This is no insult - there were some great bands on The O.C.’s soundtracks, who stood to gain a lot of recognition and success thanks to Schwartz’s patronage. Unfortunately, Johnny-Come-Latelys The Virgins formed the year that Schwartz’s pseudo-fictional world was on its way out, and more’s the pity, because here are a band who would pack The Bait Shop wall-to-wall.

It’s easy to imagine doe-eyed little rich girl Marisa bopping along without a sense of irony to tuneful pop rock slice ‘She’s Expensive’, struck by its INXS-style pizzazz and enthusiastic 80s-aping.

With a swift change of camera angle, Marisa’s gaze would settle upon star-crossed boyf Ryan to angular Duran Duran-esque ‘Teen Lovers’, their lingering glances packed with meaning and soundtracked with this delicious new wave tune.

Meanwhile, Ryan’s wingman Seth tries not to stare too fervently in the direction of on-off love interest Summer in the arms of another - probably interloper Zach - to the strains of ‘Private Affair’, which owes more than a little to the harmonious guitar vein of Elvis Costello. In fact, influence from Talking Heads, Red Hot Chili Peppers and more is on show throughout the record, the band’s first.

Made to sound like five fellas with a lot more experience than they actually have, “The Virgins” is packed with swagger - ‘Rich Girls’ - and heartache - ‘Love Is Colder Than Death’ - and even a little homicide - ‘Murder’. There’s plenty here to please - great tunes, fantastic lyrics and bags of style.

Santogold - Santogold

(Muso's Guide, January 15, 2009)

Album review

There’s nothing like a good crossover to mix it up a bit in the old reviews bag.

Too often, artists shy away from success, believing that it’ll make them less cool, less credible and, ultimately, less wealthy. So they stay on that straight and narrow route to Nowheresville with their nondescript sound because, hey, it’s them. Happily, Philadelphia-born Santi White holds with no such ideals. After singing with Philly punk band Stiffed, Santogold was unleashed on the world on her own, and she’s made it her mission to incorporate what she knew then into her new sound - which includes, but is not limited to, electro, dub, new wave and ska. That’s the secret of her success.

Despite myriad comparisons to M.I.A., Santogold portrays here the sort of genre-straddling nous that blows the London native out of the water. From the new-wave of ‘L.E.S. Artistes’ that owes more than a passing debit to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs‘ grandiosity - think ‘Gold Lion’ for build-up and emotional pay-off - the album’s off to a flying start.

On ‘You’ll Find A Way’ and ‘Say Aha’, Santogold explores her own vein of ska - mercifully without the high-pitched nasal quality of some similar female-voiced forays - and harks back to the music of Stiffed, but with something altogether different and unique to add. Santogold’s explosive personality is best displayed on ‘Creator’ - best known for persuading you to purchase fashionable haircare - which packs a hell of a punch for a debut single.

As is standard, names of influences and soundalikes have plagued Santogold since the release of this record, but in truth, Santogold doesn’t sound like anyone else. Her lyrical poetry is, for the most part, angular and angrier, but then swathes of vulnerability come through, all the more exaggerated when voiced by this incredibly talented and strident woman.

It is eminently shameful that, as a black female artist, Santogold has been compared to other black female artists. This debut record takes the guts of any artist of any race and gender and makes it a great listen. Pop when it needs to be, stylishly cool and unfeasibly confident, it’s full-on gold.

Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue

(Muso's Guide, January 13, 2009)

Album Reviews

Oh, Jenny Lewis is lovely. Lovely to look at and lovely to listen to. A sweet, smiling girl with flowers in her lovely auburn hair and on her pretty little mind… Wait a minute… Acid Tongue ? With song titles like ‘Bad Man’s World’ and ‘Jack Killed Mom’? Whatever can this mean?

Oh, yeah, the gloves are off with this prime slice of Lewis meat. There’s a nasty streak in this former child actress a mile wide, and she’s displaying it proudly on her second solo record - solo, at least, from Rilo Kiley, Lewis’ long-term musical home.

With Rilo Kiley, frontwoman Lewis nurtured a definite country sound - all harmonious licks and sweetly drawled narratives in her Nevada accent. Progressively over the band’s five records, they have veered from those gentle beginnings into more downbeat indie rock territory, but is is still always underpinned by that exquisitely sweet Lewis delivery.

On 2006’s solo Rabbit Fur Coat - recorded with The Watson Twins and with appearances from Conor Oberst and M. Ward - the soulful mix of country and gospel made the record a deliciously rockabilly jaunt, skilled and delightful on ‘The Big Guns’ and heartbreakingly guileless on ‘You Are What You Love’.

But here on Acid Tongue, Lewis’ introspective bystander is long gone, and she’s replaced it with more of the darkness which featured on Rilo Kiley’s own 2007 Under The Backlight record, released in the interim period between her solo exploits.

Opening with the gentle ‘Black Sand’, the sound gets grittier, and quickly finds its rock feet on the black ‘The Next Messiah’, where even Lewis’ trademark nightingale-sweet voice has gotten darker, and the whole eight-minute extravaganza drips noir like a Fritz Lang movie.

Acid Tongue is a bit of an incestuous affair as far as the music biz goes, with duet and backing vocal duties taken on by as varied - and exciting - a guestlist as Elvis Costello, M. Ward, Jonathan Rice (the current Mr. Lewis, FYI) and Zooey Deschanel (actress, and She & Him chanteuse). But every one of the artists brings something different and exciting to the table, and it speaks highly of Lewis that they have clamoured to be invited to the event.

As far as album highlight goes, it’s tough to choose between Costello’s appearance - and both vocalists’ obvious enjoyment - on the raucous duet ‘Carpetbaggers’ or the way Lewis’ voice breaks in ‘Trying My Best To Love You’, but it’s clear that there’s no shortage of talent and ingenuity throughout.

With more sides than a Rubik’s Cube, Jenny Lewis is one of the truly Great American Singer/Songwriters. She’s been there and done that, but her music is still infused with a charming naivety and, even when she rocks it up, sweetness which even her own Acid Tongue can’t burn out.

Ones to watch

(Morning Star, Friday 02 January 2009)

JOHNNY FOREIGNER

WHERE do musical greats come from? The Smiths were straight outta Salford, all working-class woes and Manc miserabilism.

Radiohead made the trek into rock's back pages from Oxford, with the attendant intellect that that entails.

But what of Johnny Foreigner?

On paper, the raucous trio are from Birmingham, but to chain them to any earthbound landscape, in the Midlands or otherwise, seems to be missing the point.

If 2008 saw anything good, it was the release of Johnny Foreigner's debut record Waited Up 'Til It Was Light.

With a degree of trepidation, fans turned their ears to the three-piece.

After all, what is missing these days, what is the music world yearning for - the new Arctic Monkeys? A revived version of the Kaiser Chiefs?

Johnny Foreigner buck the trend, and everyone's preconceptions, by sounding just out of this world.

Since the band's formation from the ashes of several indie also-rans, singer Alexei Berrow has ploughed himself an astonishingly convincing frontman furrow, complete with handsome swagger and devil-may-care attitude.

But Berrow would be naught without bassist Kelly Southern, the girl vocal to Berrow's boy, delivered with a rock nonchalance guaranteed to whip the smallest crowd into a virtual frenzy.

Drummer Junior Laidley never misses a beat and, more importantly, makes impressive stage shows hit a whole new level with his enduring excitement when playing live.

Johnny Foreigner's exuberant pop thrives on joy, with magnificent songs like Cranes And Cranes And Cranes And Cranes, which samples the theme tune to I Dream Of Jeannie, and The End And Everything After, which examines music fans' reaction to bands and Johnny Foreigner themselves.

For a band so self-aware and postmodern, the icing on the musical cake is DJs Get Doubts, which is shot through with acerbic lyrics, catchy melodies and a violin played by a woman called Megan. They really do have it all.

Waited Up 'Til It Was Light is the sound of yoof and the future of everything, if we're lucky.

Johnny Foreigner are special and intelligent and any listener is challenged to remain stationary during one of their top tunes.

www.myspace.com/johnnyforeigner

HELLO SAFERIDE

AN erudite, intelligent lyricist with a voice to die for and a skewed version of the world to make you laugh and sometimes even cry.

Sounds like a dream? Consider yourself wide awake, because Hello Saferide are about to make it big.

Swedish journalist Annika Norlin released More Modern Short Stories From Hello Saferide in 2008.

With gems like Lund - which is about two too-cool brothers and "Anna," on a daughter who will never be thanks to a break-up - 2009 will see Britain saying Hello with all their hearts. Track down High School Stalker for singalong loveliness.

Real life: "I'm a glamorous granny"

(Somerfield magazine, January 2009)