There are two albums that I am currently listing to quite frequently.
The first is “Ray Guns Are Not Just The Future” by The Bird And The Bee. I have been listening to their LPs but this is the first full album they have released that I know of. What I love about the duo is the absolutely magical voice of Inara George which is layered all over each of the tracks. Many people would know the duo from their single “Fucking Boyfriend” that was remixed a couple years ago into a dance single. Most recently “Polite Dance Song” has been hitting the airwaves accompanied by a great video clip.
Secondly an album that is just fresh off the press is the new Lily Allen album “It’s Not Me, It’s You” which is the hotly anticipated follow up to her debut “Alright, Still”. I am loving all the songs on this, especially the tracks “Everyone’s At It”, “The Fear”, “22″, “I Could Say” and “Fuck You” which was originally titled “Guess Who Batman” when originally released. As with “Alright, Still”, Lily sings about some depressing subjects but with music and style that sugests otherwise.
There is also a connection with The Bird And The Bee with the new Lily Allen album. Greg Kurstin, the other half of The Bird And The Bee is the producer for most of the songs.
It’s been a whole week since I saw The Ting Tings (28/01/09), man I am one lazy bugger. This gig was at a different venue from the last few I have been to, The Pince Bandroom. It’s been a long time between drinks since I was last at the Prince, the last time I saw M.I.A. (warning to epileptics that there are a lot of flashing colours) in 2006. It’s a nice venue with a balcony allowing you to get some fresh air before the performance, this was important before the bans on smoking came in a few years ago. Now the Ting Tings…
I had a great position at the front of the stage, though occationally pushed out of the way by photographers. Katie and Jules played about 8 songs in the set, made up of:
Great DJ
Be the One
Traffic Light
Fruit Machine
We Walk
We Started Nothing
Shut Up and Let Me Go
That’s Not My Name (encore)
This was most of their album, I’m not sure if they have any songs outside of these. Since they have only been around for the last year when they hit big with “That’s Not My Name” and “Great DJ” it is not suprising. The Performance was short but full of energy with Katie running around the stage leaning over the crowd. The crowd was really into the performance as well with most of the songs accompanied by the sound of the crowd singing along. I took some great videos (if I don’t say so myself) of each of the singles:
Another day another gig at Billboard (god I’m starting to dislike this venue). Camille (Offical Site, wiki), for those who do not know, is a french singer who is quite creative in how she creates her music. My first introduction to her was from her album “Le Fil”, directly translated means “the thread”, and that was represented throughout the album with the constant tone, a “B”, starting at the very beginning to the end. Initially you would suppose that this would be quite limiting, in that all the songs need to be at the same chord, or or annoying but it works. It has been compared to Bjork’s Medulla. This was visible at the gig as the only instruments were a keyboard and a bongo drum I saw used once. Instead she has a group of 5 backup singers and two beat boxers proving the “instrumentation” for each song.
Unfortunately I arrived a little late and was stuck behind a very large crowd so I could not take any good photos, I have some videos however. The first one she is performing “Au Port” and it gets quite funny when she tries to get the mainly English speaking audience to take part, check it out. Hilarious!
See my youtube.com channel to see all the other videos
When she came out for the encore Camille was wearing a black dress with black elbow-length gloves. There was a surprise when she turned around though. Now I have heard of back-less dresses but I have never envisioned a back-less dress with crack showing.
The best thing about the show was the energy of Camille and the back-up singers and I can’t wait for her to visit us down under again.
Here are some photos of the gig by from Flickr (copyright owned by the respective photographers)
Another day another gig. This time I was off to see Santogold at Billboard the Venue. Decided to call ahead to find out when she was going on stage rather than standing for hours waiting especially since I was coming from work.
Billboard is somewhat larger than the Corner Hotel which meant I was able to get nearly to the front of the stage when I got there just as the warm up band “Dead Set” were finishing up. They have a really good sound -- a cross between mashup/punk band. Can’t seem to find anything about them on the Interwebs though.
Santogold’s DJ started the show with a mix of old classic 80s & recent tunes. Santogold wore a very baggy Spacesuit, which was not very flattering and I’m sure she was feeling the heat in it. I’m sure the vigorous dancing did not help either. She performed most of the songs on her current Album “Santogold” and got up a bunch of volunteers from the crowd to help her dance to “Creator”. I’ll be attaching a video of the performances a bit later.
On a more disappointing note however was the crowds reaction to Santogold not performing an encore, which they booed. Personally I thought it was refreshing as I don’t believe an encore should always occur, it should be an exception and part of a memorable performance and when the crowd deserves it. How the crowd reacted showed that they did not deserve an encore.
If you have not heard of Santogold before check out her MySpace page to hear some tracks.
When I saw tickets available for Soko @ The Corner Hotel I immediately grabbed them. I was a little dismayed at that fact that was occurring on New Year’s day. However given that this was the only chance I had to see Soko perform in Australia I did not have to think too hard about it.
A gripe I have with all gigs is that they never tell you when the headline will actually be getting on stage. In Soko’s case even though the doors opened at 2PM she was not going to start until 5PM. Seriously? Do they realise that some people (including myself) have not had the chance to go home since the previous day? Okay, I’ll stop complaining now.
Soko came out to perform and looked quite nervous and unsure, which for someone who has been acting for a number of years now (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1331316/) is a little unusual. The first song she described as a soft lullaby -- indicating that it may put people to sleep, especially after New Year’s, and then people would not realise that she is not very good, awwww. This brings up one of the best things of the gig and that was Soko’s interaction/discussion with the crowd. Early in the gig she asked the engineers to turn down the lights directed at her, once done she responded “Perfect. Now stay that way forever.” Again, awwwww.
Since her singing style is non-traditional, you would never find her played on a commercial station here is Australia. Songs like “I think I’m pregnant”, “I want to look like a tiger” and “Happy Hippie Birthday” are so much fun and struggle to fit into any particular style. Other songs performed “Why don’t you eat me now, you can”, “Goodbye Paris”, “Happiness: When is is going to start” and “I’m scared I’m gonna die alone” show life experiences beyond her years.
Soko was very emotional at her reception in Australia -- her emotion in the songs are also very raw and they feel genuine, not some act as part of the song, or maybe she is a really good actress (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9vKCPHfghM&NR=1). This emotion also affected the audience, or maybe just me, as I found myself getting a little teary at some of her songs especially “I will never love you more”.
All in all it was a fantastic performance and I can only see Soko going from strength to strength. I have put together a compilation of the performance and of “I’ll Kill Her”. Enjoy.
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