Two of the most blogged about US female artists of the moment have joined forces for a three date mini UK tour that began at London’s Heaven last Wednesday.
South Dakota born Erika M. Anderson, better known as EMA, was formerly part of folk-rock band Gowns, but decided to go solo and explore a rawer guitar-rock side. She practically played in full her debut ‘Past Life Martyred Saint’, a strong contender to feature high in many best of 2011 lists, with confident manner that brought to mind the style of contemporary rock icons such as Karen O or girl-fronted grunge bands of the 90’s.The album’s standout track, ‘California’, was the encore in a set that more than satisfied all her fans in the English capital.
But it was Russian-American vocalist Nika Roza Danilova the one that seemed to have attracted a larger part of the audience and ultimately stole the show with her intense and atmospheric Goth-pop. Zola Jesus has been in the hipster’s radar for the last three years. Her recent third studio album, ‘Conatus’, has taken her career to new heights. Live, she surrounds herself by two synth players and an electric drummer, adding a noticeable 80’s touch to her atmospheric sounds and intensely emotional vocals. ‘Night’; ‘Vessel’ and ‘Collapse’, in the middle of which the singer descended from the stage and wandered among the public, were among the show’s highlights.
Alltogether, they offered two interesting and diverse musical propositions making an excellent night of live music.
American lo-fi producer John Maus has been putting out music for the past 20 years. His third solo studio album ‘We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves’ (Ribbon) sees the former Ariel Pink and Animal Collective collaborator come up with some of his most accessible material to date.
Here Maus creates lush arrangements of swirling synthesisers, primitive drum patterns and seductive melody lines, sewn together with ethereal tape-echo vocals. His love of analogue production is certainly comparable with former partner Pink’searlier material – both fusing elements of 60’s psychedelia, 70’s P-funk and 80’s electronica.
Tonight he takes to the stage with only a microphone in his hand and a laptop (providing only a backing track) on the floor. As he launches into opening track ‘Quantum Leap’ his body starts to convulse and shake as if performing some sort of shamanic ritual. The crowd reciprocate and start to mirror Maus, air punching and head banging their way through the set that includes new favourites ‘Believer’ and ‘Cop Killer’.
While there’s no doubt Maus is a unique talent and a captivating performer, tonight’s performance left us wondering how much better it would have sounded with a full line up of musicians. In the case of Maus & Pink, the latter’s live band Haunted Graffiti has been a welcome progression, with their refinement of Pink’s earlier work. Here Maus seems to be trying to convey something more primal, but currently this live show doesn’t give his latest release the justice it deserves.
It seems fitting that Metronomy play London’s prestigious Royal Albert on an unseasonably warm October evening in the country’s capital. Like the bizarre weather, few would have predicted the band, which started as a solo bedroom project for Joe Mount, would ever get to the level where they’d be headlining a venue as auspicious as this.
However, after expanding to a foursome and dropping the laptop aided rhythm section, Metronomy have now morphed into a fully functioning pop unit. While the band have always attracted their fair share of attention, they’ve steadily progressed and developed; rather than buckling under the pressure of second album syndrome. The jump from their, largely instrumental, debut ‘Pip Paine (Pay The £5,000 You Owe) to its follow up ‘Nights Out’ showed that Mount could write vocal hooks as catchy his synth lines. Now on their latest album ‘The English Riviera’, the band are enjoying quite the purple patch, and if PJ Harvey hadn’t recently made one the albums of her life, you would imagine they would’ve won this year’s Mercury Prize.
Tonight the band tear through an extended set, which largely consisted of tracks from ‘The English Riviera’ and ‘Nights Out’. It was clear from the off that the Albert Hall stewards would have a tough time, with the all seated crowd quickly abandoning their chairs to congregate near the stage. Huge applause was saved for recent singles ‘The Bay’ and ‘The Look’; which saw keyboard player Oscar Cash fulfill a “lifelong dream” by playing whilst being pulled across the stage on a wheeled platform.
So where next for Metronomy? While they might not yet be fully functioning stadium fillers, you wouldn’t bet against them getting there.
Last weekend 50,000 eager revelers descended on a, usually, sleepy seaside village on the Isle of Wight for a wealth of musical delights. Signaling the end of the UK festival season, each year Bestival ensures that the period is given a suitably lavish finish. Radio 1’s Rob Da Bank has developed the event from a small boutique festival to one that can legitimately claim to be one of the best of its kind. While Bestival cannot compete with Glastonbury in size, its diversity and attention to detail have made it a genuine rival and, arguably, the musical connoisseur’s festival of choice.
There’s a different given theme for each event, with attendees encouraged to devise a suitable costume for Saturday’s fancy dress day. This year it was announced that it would be Rock Stars, Pop Stars and Divas, causing a seemingly never ending wave of Gaga’s and Freddie Mercury’s stumbling across the site. As one can imagine, it certainly made for an interesting spectacle. While weather reports leading up to the event suggested a washout, the sun made a lasting appearance over the weekend; meaning those with more elaborate outfits didn’t have to hide them under waterproof coats.
Headlining the bill were stadium dance/rock lords Pendulum; legendary indie godfathers The Cure and, fresh from making her latest album, Björk. However, as anyone who’s been to Bestival before knows, the weekend is by no means dictated by the headliners. Read on for our roundup of acts performing. Read more…
This week legendary rock hell raisers Motley Crüe announced a string of dates which will already be set in the diaries of thousands of rock fans. Following the news that they will release a Greatest Hits package in November, the Crüe will also join forces with Def Leppard on a co-headline UK tour. It’s the first time the bands have shared a stage and the dates will also see Steel Panther take on support duties.
The Crüe’s Nikki Sixx made this, typically understated, statement. “Motley Crüe is excited to do some destruction with long time peers Def Leppard on tour this holiday season. We have never toured together so hopefully there will be some de-virginizing of each-others fans and, in the end, one wild party together.”
While no announcements have been made for a US leg of the tour, it seems only logical that this rock n roll circus will make its way over the Atlantic soon. The co-headline tour kicks off on 6th December at the LG Arena in Birmingham and will wind up in London’s Wembley Arena on the 14th December. The full list of dates are:
6th December – Birmingham LG Arena 8th December – Nottingham Arena 9th December – Glasgow Secc Hall 4 11th December – Manchester Arena 13th December - Sheffield Arena 14th December – Wembley Arena
Not many bands make it to their tenth studio album so, when they do it’s often a cause for celebration. Red Hot Chili Peppers are marking the release of ‘I’m With You’, their first album in five years, with a two-year world tour and a live gig that will be broadcast in high-definition to movie theaters worldwide.
On August 30, the day the album is released in North America, the Chili Peppers will be performing in Cologne, Germany. This special ‘Red Hot Chili Peppers LIVE: I’m With You’ gig will be beamed via satellite to movie theaters globally. Over 450 theaters in the US will see singer Anthony Kiedis, bassist Flea, drummer Chad Smith and new guitarist Josh Klinghoffer perform the album from beginning to end, plus a number of their greatest hits.
The Chili Peppers, who formed in 1983, are responsible for some of the most recognisable rock songs of recent times. Combine the band’s extensive discography with their masterful stage presence and you have a recipe for greatness.
Tickets are on sale now with screenings starting on Tuesday 30 August. For a list of all the participating movie theaters and to purchase tickets, visit http://www.rhcplivehd.com/
Ibiza is an island know for many things but rap music isn’t one of them. However, all that looks set to change this summer after MTV’s invasion of the notorious party isle for ten weeks. ‘I Want My MTV Ibiza’ is a series of ten events, each taking place in Amnesia, a converted finca that is one of Ibiza’s most iconic nightclubs.
For the opening party in July, ‘I Want My MTV’ kicked off proceedings with the surprise choice of Gangsta Rap superstar, Snoop Dogg. After going down a storm with the 5,000-strong crowd, owing to hits including ‘Snoop Doggy Dogg’ and ‘Regulate’, I Want My MTV have drafted in another US rapper to replace Duran Duran, who pulled out after lead singer Simon Le Bon was diagnosed with a throat condition.
50 Cent is hitting Ibiza on Friday August 12 to perform a selection of his musical catalogue, which is sure to include chart smashes, ‘In Da Club’, ‘P.I.M.P’, ’21 Questions’ and ‘Candy Shop’. The American rapper, who was mentored in his early days by Jam Master Jay of Run DMC, could cement rap’s place on the dance-music-orientated island if Fiddy’s performance goes down as well as the Doggfather’s.
Catch 50 Cent on the Amnesia Terrace this Friday with support from Canadian producer, Tiga and a DJ set from Mark Ronson. For those unconvinced about rap music’s place in Ibiza, James Holden, Layo & Bushwacka, Mar-T and Toni Varga, all playing in the Main Room, will be steering clear of Hip Hop.
Released back in 1979, ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ was the second single released by The Cure. While it, strangely, didn’t make the cut for their debut album ‘Three Imaginary Boys’, the track remains a strong favourite from their extensive back catalogue. The foundations for The Cure were laid in 1976, when Robert Smith gathered some friends to form a band called Malice. After a few lineup and name changes, Smith formed The Cure with Lol Tolhurst and Michael Dempsey on drums and bass respectfully. The band have now released thirteen albums, and counting, their latest being 2008’s ‘4:13 Dream’.
‘Boys Don’t Cry’ epitomises everything that’s great about the band, a timeless melody fronted by Robert Smith’s distinctive vocal delivery. While there’s no word on a new album, The Cure are set to steal the show at this year’s Bestival; with their headline performance their only European show of 2011. The event takes place on September 8th-11th on the picturesque Isle Of Wight. With festival organiser Rob Da Bank also pulling in Pendulum, Björk, Primal Scream and PJ Harvey, this year’s event looks set to keep the standard of previous years. For the full line up and ticket info, head to the Bestival website.
While there’s no guarantees over what The Cure will play, with no current album to promote, all signs are pointing to a career spanning greatest hits set. Which will hopefully mean a welcome airing for ‘Boys Don’t Cry’.
It’s been a pretty busy year for UK trip-hop veterans, Portishead. The trio originally formed back in 1991 and, after a hiatus through most of the 2000s, are continuing to push the boundaries of experimental production. Their most recent album ‘Third’ took nearly ten years to make and was released in 2008, to critical acclaim across the board.
This year, the group teamed up with All Tomorrow’s Parties to curate two festivals called I’ll Be Your Mirror, the first of which took place in London last weekend – the second will be taking place in New Jersey in late September/early October, and is also curated by Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel. The festival’s lineup features Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Shellac, A Hawk And A Hacksaw, The Album Leaf, Cults, Ultramagnetic MC’s, The Horrors and Battles (plus many many more). More info on that here. Read more…
Last weekend, legendary Camden venue The Jazz Cafe was taken over by the equally notable Tom Tom Club, with the group playing three dates in the capital. The group was founded by husband and wife duo Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth who were previously members of influential post-punk band Talking Heads. After the demise of said group, the pair gave Tom Tom Club their full time focus; decamping to Compass Point Studios, Bahamas to record their debut album under the eye of Island Records’ Chris Blackwell. The resulting sessions led to their self titled debut, notably spawning the band’s best known singles ‘Wordy Rappinghood’ and ‘Genius Of Love’; which went on to be sampled by Black Eyed Peas; Mariah Carey and Tupac Shakur.
Predictably the night’s biggest cheers were reserved for the aforementioned tracks, but Tom Tom Club held the crowd’s attention throughout an energetic set. ‘Who Feelin’ It’ proved a great opener, instantly showcasing the skills of the band’s DJ, whose seamless scratches blended perfectly with Chris and Tina’s seasoned rhythm section. The set featured tracks from across their discography, including a particularly lively version of ‘The Man With 4-Way Hips’ from 1982’s ‘Close To The Bone’. The band enticed a rapturous applause from a crowd that ranged between their old faithful following and young hipsters eager to see them for the first time.
Not ones to shy away from their past, the band gave a cheeky nod to Talking Heads by performing an encore of their version of ‘Take Me To The River’ and ‘Psycho Killer’; with Weymouth’s imitable bassline giving the show a fitting end.
