Billy Boy On Poison - Standing Still

(Muso's Guide, Apr 20th, 2009)

Single review

The ballad of Billy Boy On Poison is a familiar one.

Some might call it the alternative rock’n'roll dream - five teens got the calling from the God of Rawk and decided that they were one day going to own the stage like Van Halen.

Oh, that’s a tad unfair, actually.

BBOP’s singer and architect Los Angelean Davis cites David Bowie and Robert Plant as chief influences, and the band themselves take their name from Anthony Burgess’ revered literary hoopla A Clockwork Orange, so their credentials are actually not in question. It’s just the execution that is a little less Thin White Duke and a little more, well, David Lee Roth.

A thrusting rock riff draws blood before melting into a meat-and-potatoes rock verse with vocals that sound like they’ve been filtered through a loud hailer. There are various points of musical concern - incongruous guitar breaks and out-of-kilter middle eights - but generally it’s all just a bit try-hard.

It’s not that you can’t rock out young, but these guys - four guys and a girl, to be exact - are referencing too much music from the days before they were born and showing precious little understanding of why those legends became so, well, legendary.

The spectre of rock liggers like Little Barry hovers over Billy Boy On Poison like a decidedly pongy reminder of style-over-substance bands, and the aping of American rock vocalists is quite shameless. Even clocking in at just three minutes, ‘Standing Still’ honestly struggles to hold the attention for that long.

Sarah Whatmore: “I wasn’t allowed to move my eyebrows”

(Muso's Guide, April 15, 2009)

Interview

Who knows what will happen next in the music business?

It doesn’t look good, with the reality show format that plagues our television schedules with its Cowells and Coles sitting in judgement on musical hopefuls.

For one thing, watching it is pretty soul destroying. There are people who have dreamed of winning, of getting their mythical 15 minutes and making it work for them - and then suffering the ignominy of spilling their disappointed guts to Kate Thornton or Zoe Salmon after their first encounter with “the panel”.

And then there’s the vast amounts of musical bile spilt by these programmes - past participants include, but are not limited to The Cheeky Girls, Hear’Say, Michelle McManus and Steve Brookstein.

So not exactly a breeding ground for musical brilliance.

Except… every so often someone walks in and sings and just… has it. It might be a look, or something in their quavering voice, but even when they’re voted off, you can smell the talent.

Enter Sarah Whatmore.

In many ways, it seems a shame that someone as talented and beautiful as Sarah should have been forced to go begging to Cowell et al for a record deal and a chance at stardom.

A common sense Mancunian, Sarah has grown up knowing that she wanted to make it in showbiz somehow.

“I didn’t start singing until I was about 12. I always wanted to be an actress, and then my mum and dad got me a karaoke machine and I was singing, “It must have been love, but it’s all over now…” every night!”

When her mum packed her off for lessons was when Sarah really got to understand the power of her voice - but she never felt able to use it even then.

“I was classically trained for three years, but I was never allowed to move my shoulders or my eyebrows or be expressive. It was very sort of staged, and I was a little bit like the rebellious child who didn’t want to be taught anything, I went the opposite way because I wanted to be more creative.”

After time spent writing and learning about music in a specialist school in Manchester, Sarah really got into creating her own sound.

“I was about 15 when I started writing music and lyrics - then I went to a performing arts college, the Ben Kingsley Theatre.”

For two years, Sarah honed her skills as a writer and performer and then… She went running for Cowell’s schill? Not yet, darling - not even close.

“I just gigged loads! I had a little Honda Civic, got my PA system in the back, and went to loads of different pubs to play, just to build up my confidence.”

That’s right - she worked her backside off, just like indie bands we know and love.

Sarah was determined to make it, because she believed she was truly great.

And great she was, but she just couldn’t get a witness. When Pop Idol came along, Sarah went because it was “just another audition” - a way to get her music made and heard. And after she appeared on TV rejecting Simon Cowell’s marriage proposal? How did she feel about what came next?

“I don’t mind it, it’s part of my history. While it was nice to be recognised, I didn’t expect anything huge. Then it turned into this franchise like McDonald’s where they bang out a different artist, or a bunch of different artists every year, and it kind of swamps the market. It takes away something special about people, but I think that’s the way the culture is - taking away the magic and seeing what goes on, seeing people that haven’t done so well and have done so well.”

Sarah released two singles off the back of her appearance on the show, even though she wasn’t sure of the direction she was going.

“It’s really hard to get out there, and Pop Idol is a way to get out there, and if you’re talented, you’ll do anything to get out there. The thing that I couldn’t get my head around was the fame - I could have gone down the road of doing all the magazines and being a celebrity, and I’m not saying that there’s anything wrong with that, but I just couldn’t connect with it. There was a dissatisfaction within my heart and if I was going to be honest, I wasn’t really being true to myself.”

Sarah freely admits that saying no to the trappings and success was tough - and she knows that people might find it hard to come back to her this time around.

“Some people probably listen to the first singles and expect me to come up with something that is like that. I can do that, that’s not a problem as a writer, but as an artist it’s completely different.”

Sarah’s the first to admit that her new sound is different - but she feels it’s much more “her” - and it shows in the pride she has when she talks about the album Time To Think.

“It’s not a happy album - it’s very optimistic, but lyrically and melodically and musically it’s quite… I love those melancholy songs that make you feel optimistic - like The Carpenters. There are warm vocals - I always thought that less is more in music, and that’s basically how I got to this point. Once people have heard it, I think they’ll understand why I went away and came back.”

To make her mark afresh is Sarah’s goal now, and with a record this open, it’s hard to see how she’ll fail. But she has her own measure of success - and it might surprise doubters to learn that it’s not the Kylie route Sarah wants to follow.

“I was being pushed as a sexy, Kylie-esque artist, which is in some ways great, but it wasn’t really who I was. I felt like I had more to offer as a musician and a singer. People are going to have their own opinion, but there are so many brilliant female vocalists. I love Joan As Police Woman. I am just obsessed with her. I listen to her every day. I absolutely love her - her music - I love ‘Start Of My Heart’. I love people who get up and don’t care about trying to impress, they just do what they do, go into their own little world, shut their eyes and just lose themselves. It’s so passionate.”

And passion is something that Sarah Whatmore has in spades. She is passionate about her music and her future in the business, and is brimming over with excitement about what might happen next.

Franz Ferdinand - No You Girls

(Muso's Guide, April 11, 2009)

Single review

A handsome bunch of boys making the kind of jagged artpop that fills indie disco floors and makes all the girls swoon, Franz Ferdinand are the H. G. Wells of the British music world. From Alex Kapranos’ effortless style to cheekbones as angular as their riffs, they are a case in point of recycling in music.

After all, artrock was new thirty years ago - but here it is again, skillfully repackaged and as fresh as ever. In fact, like Kapranos himself, Franz’s sound could easily pass for ten years younger. As a perfect example, the singalong pop chorus of ‘No You Girls’ is massively ageless, and radio friendly from the off.

Kapranos’s distinctive Scottish burr takes on a more overt ‘Matinée’-style, drawling a disaffected “Kiss me/Flick your cigarette then kiss me”, smacking of a disaffected youth, before pounding out the flawless chorus, “No you girls never know/How you make a boy feel”.

There’s something special at work in ‘No You Girls’, as there is so often in Franz’s singles - not least because it’s funny and smart, with a nice line in arched eyebrows and barely-concealed lust. As the standout track on Tonight: Franz Ferdinand, it’s a must-download for any fan, but does little to dispel the notion that Franz are visitors from musical history.

Sarah Whatmore - Time To Think

(Muso's Guide, April 1, 2009)

Album review

As easy as it is to dismiss reality pop stars, the law of average says that for every Rik Waller and One True Voice, there is a Will Young.

That is, someone with a discernible talent who is prepared to wait out the glitz and tack of the shows and grab the real prize - that is, the exposure to be able to follow their talent into a career. It’s tough because there are so few positive examples, but in amongst the Popstars/Pop Idol/X Factor litter of Chico and the Cheeky Girls, there are some fantastic examples of how it just… works.

Scoffing? Think the crystal clear pop magnificence of Girls Aloud - from the very first note of ‘Sound Of The Underground’, they have shown followers how not to be ashamed of reality roots, and with grace, style and not a little pizzazz. From a similar reality melting pot sprang Mancunian Sarah Whatmore, way back in the Pop Idol ether of 2001.

Perhaps best-known at the time for a proposal from Mr Cowell himself, Sarah’s burgeoning pop career didn’t get much further than two singles ‐ ‘When I Lost You’ and ‘Automatic’ - before the album was pulled and she sank without a trace. Eight years later, she’s back to show us what she’s learned - and it’s safe to say that she’s spent the best part of the noughties with her nose firmly stuck in the complete set of Encyclopaedia Reinvention.

Gone are the seedy, Europop rhythms of Sarah’s début single - replaced instead by the sombre, sensitive melodies of a young woman who is comfortable in her own skin. From opener - and lead single - ‘Undefined’, Sarah ploughs a new furrow - a heartfelt piano-led ballad with guitar which complements a rich, mature vocal awash with soulfulness.

‘Smile’ is a natural follower, sweeping in with the scent of the Isley Brothers’ ‘Summer Breeze’ , lazily sexy with California sunshine baked right in, with the lyric, “I’m my own woman, swimming against the stream”. Truer words have seldom been sung. Sarah Whatmore will not be for everyone, of course. There’s nothing here for the rock fan, who likes their riffs ear-bleeding and their vocals raw and screaming - nor for the hard house fan who wants banging beats and nonsensical lyrics.

But for the music fan, who seeks a musician truly enjoying their own skin, Sarah Whatmore is a gift. The minor key melodies of most of the tracks reflect a wonder of heroes like The Carpenters, while the rich, honeyed vocals make the whole album an easy listen with layers of depth to discover.

The Pop Idol days put far behind her, Time To Think shows there’s a lot more to Sarah Whatmore.

Q & A: The Race "We aspire to make music that moves you on the inside."

(AU magazine, April 2009)
Reading quintet The Race recently released their second album In My Head It Works on classic indie label Shifty Disco, and they’ve used some pretty nifty ideas to spread the word. They’ve physically handed a sampler CD to strangers and asked them to pass it on, as well as selling shares in the record, so that if it does well, the fans profit. Lovely. Vocalist Dan Buchanan chatted to us about these issues, their huge sound and why they feel out of step with what else is going on.

Interview by Kirstie McCrum

You’ve got a nice line in Arcade Fire-style elegiac, as on ‘I Get It Wrong’ and ‘Moorwood’. How much do you think this is a result of what you hear from other contemporary artists and how much has always been in your vision?

I’m sure you get influenced subconsciously by what you hear around you when you’re writing an album. We don’t all necessarily have the same taste in music but we do aspire to make music that moves you on the inside and is full of passion. I guess big swirling music often does that for us. We do have a great respect for bands for bands like Broken Social Scene and the whole Arts and Crafts collective of musicians who just get on and make music and don’t seem as concerned about making money and conquering the world. That’s the kind of band we want to be, although it would be nice to have a little cash to spend on essentials.

On the first record, Be Your Alibi, you seem more idealistic, more hyper, and playing with Supergrass and The View really slotted you into that ‘indie’ bracket. With In My Head It Works, do you feel that you made a conscious step forward?

We were really lucky with the first album that we were given free rein to use Courtyard Management’s studio [Radiohead/Supergrass]. We were over the moon and had 12 days to get it down - they were keen for us just to capture where we were at that time quickly and not to think about it too much. It was fun. As for those gigs, we were just grateful to be playing and didn’t think too much about it. With this new album, we had a lot more time to think about how we wanted the album to sound and chose Dave Eringa specifically as he had such a good track record with bands we like. It feels like a more complete album, where Be Your Alibi was perhaps more of a collection of our best songs since we’d started two years earlier.

The Pass It On experiment for In My Head It Works - how did that come together? And are you happy with the result? Did your label not offer a substantial enough marketing budget?!

My friend Rich made a book and used Pass It On to spread it amongst his friends and their friends. I got the idea off him. It worked beautifully as a CD package and ended up all over the world with some very interesting people. Some of whom have given us good help at various times since. It was nothing to do with the label really, we had just got out of the studio and were desperate for people to hear the results having spent the previous year pretty quiet writing. We were given permission by our label and publishers to do it as long as we placed some timely interruptions in some of the tracks. We thought our little overdubs were really funny. I’m not sure what everyone else thought. We have no idea where they are now and that feels good. In these times of everything being a little up in the air we were grateful that our label Shifty Disco gave us the flexibility to be a little creative. Experiments are fun.

And what about the uptake of stakes in the record - is it bucking the economic trend?

There are still 100 stakes available and the great thing is that people can jump on the bandwagon at any point. We’ve had some pretty nice messages recently along the lines of us being the best investment people have made all year etc. I think at £25 a stake it’s all very sensible and affordable and thought out, so people seem to want to be involved. We had one person buy 60 stakes in one go, that was pretty nuts.

Is the title In My Head It Works a cop out, in case it was a flop? Or do you think that people will hear different things depending on how they listen to the record?

The last couple of years have found me testing and questioning a lot of the stuff I was brought up to believe. I’ve also come to appreciate that everyone is different and for so many different reasons-and its not right for me to impose my beliefs on others. More listening, less talking! The title refers specifically to that and is not some kind of desperate hope that people will like the album. It’s certainly not an apology, although I can understand that is how people could interpret it.

Where do you think you got your musical influences from growing up? Do you think you’re staying true to that?

Good question, there aren’t that many key bands that we can say we all enjoyed when we were younger, we met when we were all attending the same church and probably weren’t so much into hearing new music as we are now. I can remember us all enjoying Radiohead though.

Was working with Dave Eringa beneficial to the chemistry between the band members themselves? Do you feel that he got the best out of you?

Dave Eringa is a very special man both in terms of the production work he does and also his generosity of spirit. The month he spent with us recording and mixing the album was all the more enjoyable for his presence. We felt like we could trust him completely, he had no agenda at all and ended up giving us the fleshed out sound we had hoped for without it all sounding too slick.

What sort of movie do you think that The Race would be best disposed to soundtrack?

A big one, so that we can pay back so many of the kind people who have helped us along the way.

What do you make of the music scene in the UK just now? You’re bucking the prevalent trend for electronica…

I’m not sure that we are all that down with what is going on musically in the UK at the moment so we’re probably not the best people to comment. It was great to see Elbow do so well last year, they are blatantly making music for the right reasons and not just for a bit of hype and an ego trip.

What’s the plan for the future? Do you feel like you have found a niche sound for The Race?

We’re actually just starting to write some new songs hopefully in a different direction. Finding a niche sound gets boring pretty quickly. We’d love to tour this album as far and wide as people want to hear us, we’re hoping to get out to Japan and America this year and of course over to Northern Ireland for the first time too.

IN MY HEAD IT WORKS IS OUT NOW ON SHIFTY DISCO
WWW.THERACEUK.COM

A Plastic Rose - Kids Don't Behave Like This

(AU magazine, April 2009)

A youthful Sligo-raised, Belfast-based four-piece with a confident command of melody, A Plastic Rose have long since ran their influences up the flag pole, and do them proud on this new release. ‘Kids Don’t Behave Like This’ is a swooning, soaring piece of proto-shoegazing glory, vocal rippling with barely-concealed emotion until the last minute, when he explodes with a Vedder-esque roar, drawing a Biffy-tinged veil over proceedings. ‘Superspeed’ is a more tentative, gentle affair, while ‘Skin’ starts with a sniff of the Snow Patrol about it, before kicking into a radio-friendly rocker. Kids should behave like this more often.

Goldie Lookin' Chain - ASBO4Life

(AU magazine, April 2009)

Like Marmite for eardrums, the fourth album from the Newport rappers isn’t going to turn the heads of those dubious of their appeal. Of these 14 tracks, none of them is ‘Guns Don’t Kill People, Rappers Do’, but they keep on an even keel. Mirth-inducing on ‘Everybody Is A DJ’ (sample lyric: “Oh, mate, do you know ‘Synth and Strings’ / Oh, mate, have you got ‘Eye Of The Tiger’?”), the dropout stoner schtick wears by the time ‘Nothing Ever Happens’ arrives. The fact remains that GLC are a comedy band and, with four albums under their belts, they’re officially flogging a dead horse.

Grammatics - Grammatics

(AU magazine, April 2009)

"What if Pulp had QOTSA's rhythm section?" Grammatics reportedly asked themselves during their inception - or so says the press notes for this release. This tale may be an apocryphal one told after the fact, but it's clear that Grammatics have set about concocting a sound made up of other band's parts. Vocally, Owen Brinley channels Panic At The Disco's Brendon Urie like his life depends on it, all histrionics and massive range. Opener 'Shadow Committee' sees Grammatics taking on the overblown pomp of Muse, strings and wall of sound aesthetics in place. 'Inkjet Lakes' owes quite a lot to Bloc Party, but ultimately the mass of influences leaves a listener in confusion over what Grammatics were trying to achieve. Grammatically incorrect.

The Soundcarriers - Harmonium

(AU magazine, April 2009)

Psychedelic and spaced out, the début record from this free-thinking Nottingham four-piece have every idea going about jazz-influenced chilled out instrumental music with a Stereolab vocal after a fashion. 'Caught by the Sun' speaks of 1972 and the lazy days of summer, while 'Calling Me' is tuneful gentle pop. As the alternative soundtrack to The Wicker Man that is 'Volcano' strikes up, it becomes clear that The Soundcarriers are talented indeed, but this recorded output is a little limp. Perhaps they should think less of reverb-heavy harmony and more of making music with impact.

Various Artists - A Psychedelic Guide To Monsterism Island

(AU magazine, April 2009)

Album review

Lo

The unusual imaginings of Welsh artist Pete Fowler will be nothing new to fans of his work, but in case you're none the wiser, here it is: illustrator and, most tellingly "creator of monsters", Fowler makes beautifully drawn creatures who inhabit Monsterism Island, a mythical place where the strange is every day. Who wouldn't want to take a look?
This is the second collection of Monsterism Island's hit, and it is awash with quality musicians - the Super Furries' Gruff Rhys and Jeffrey Dammers from The Specials being the most noteworthy - and soundscapes of the bizarre.
From the waves crashing on the shore in 'Rum Cove' to the holiday atmosphere of 'Final Froog' and the gentle electronica of 'Crystal Hermitage', it forms the magical narrative backdrop for a truly interesting and enchanting trip.

Mongrel - Better Than Heavy

(AU magazine, April 2009)

Album review

Wall of Sound

Supergroups, eh? That's no work at all for PRs - they just sell themselves. Fans of artist #1 meet fans of artist #2 = payday for everyone involved. Well, that is the case, but Mongrel - one part former Arctics, one Babyshambles, two Reverend and The Makers and one Lowkey, from rappers Poisonous Poets - justify their existence on this début.
Politically charged, socially aware and culturally pertinent, the schizophrenia of Mongrel's personnel does impact on the music somewhat, leaving songs with raps and indie guitar choruses loping side by side. A mongrel indeed.

The Mighty Stef - 100 Midnights

(AU magazine, April 2009)

Album review

The Firstborn Is Dead Recordings

With the sleazy swagger of a crew of sailors, The Mighty Stef, aka Dubliner Stefan Murphy, takes on all comers with this second album.
100 Midnights is drenched with the hopelessness of the drunk and the desperate, the hungover and the hellish.
There are notable guest appearances from two former Pogues - Cait O'Riordan on 'Safe At Home', and Shane himself on 'Waitin' Round To Die'. Vocally in line with a Tom Waits drawl, the grimy rock stylings of this offering mark a leap in musical maturity from debut The Sins Of Saint Catherine.

The Race - In My Head It Works

(AU magazine, April 2009)

Album review

Shift Disco

There's been a lot of talk about The Race's second album - it's been put together by a stakeholder fund, don't you know. That means that, if it makes money, the fans win. Crafty releasing.
Anyway, it will make it, because it's really very good. From the standard indie guitars of 'Begin', the elegiac nature of the lyrics and the soaring guitars of the del Rio siblings make this a stadium-friendly unit-shifter which owes to many, from Arcade Fire to Simple Minds. If the race is on for successful rock with balls and brains, then it's already been won.

Blooming marvellous

(Somerfield magazine, April 2009)

Real life: "I had bowel cancer at 32 and beat it"

(Somerfield magazine, April 2009)