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Noisettes are offering unsigned bands the chance to support them on their upcoming UK tour.
The band will select one band per night to join them on each of the gigs. The only condition is that the bands Don't Upset The Rhythm.
I jest. Seriously though, bands must have no more than three members, so it might be time to think about sacking that redundant second guitarist.
For more details, check out the band's MySpace page at www.myspace.com/noisettesuk
The tour kicks off in Glasgow on 11 Oct and ends up with two nights at the Shepherds Bush Empire on 26-27 Oct
Wednesday 26 August 2009
Monday 24 August 2009
Athlete - Black Swan
Album Review
Released: 24.08.09
Label: Polydor
Rating: 2/5
Athlete need to find their balls.
When they first started getting name checked back in 2002 there was a genuine excitement that ensconced the Deptford four-piece. They ticked a lot of the right boxes. They were suitable for mass consumption, boasting elements of a one-size-fits-all daytime radio pop that was inescapably promising. But they also had a quirky side to them, something leftfield that put them in a league above those who were simply peddling lifeless guff to try and receive radio airplay and chart success.
Indeed, 2003’s Vehicles And Animals is a perfect illustration of Athlete’s ability to craft FM friendly pop-monsters that still had enough bite, experimentation, and decent ideas to be attractive to more discerning music fans.
But since then, their form has been questionable. Wires, taken from 2005’s Tourist album, was an achingly profound, and deeply poignant song that saw Athlete propelled to the top of the charts for the first time in their career. It was unchartered territory, and they reached it with a song that dropped the tempo, minimalised the instrumentation, and fashioned a sound that was far more introspective.
Since then, the bands experimental side (the side that made them good) has suffered, as if Wires was the new blueprint on how to write successful songs. And unfortunately that makes for a band who are becoming more toothless and pallid with every release.
Black Swan takes flight with Superhuman Touch. Built around throbbing synths, it resurrects the heady days of when Athlete were cool. But the inescapable fear and blatant conclusion is that Athlete have only reappointed such an instrument because 2009’s radio playlist has forgotten that any other instruments exist.
Musically, it sounds like MGMT, and it portends a great start. But the travails of the verse are undone by the chorus, which scrounges its vocal melody from Get What You Give by New Radicals, and is just too contrived.
Light The Way is a highlight of sorts, with rustic guitars and a careening rhythm section, but it takes two minutes to really start and is let down by a horrible snare sound, comparable to stamping on a packet of Hula Hoops. And why would anyone do that?
Don’t Hold Your Breath is made a lot better by an endearingly passionate, desperate delivery. But it still pales in comparison to the Athlete of old, while Awkward Goodbyes is precisely what the members of Athlete five years ago would immediately force themselves to conduct if they heard the cringingly wet, vomit-coaxing guff of said future track.
The Getaway sounds like the sickeningly trite worship music that defines Sunday mornings (no offence, Christian Rock), while Black Swan Song is bland and languid. In fact, bland and languid are two apt adjectives to summarise the whole album.
“This is so obvious” moans Joel Pott on Awkward Goodbyes, as if he’s already appraised his latest uninventive output. Why oh why did Athlete start ploughing the faux-introspective pop anthem furrow into which Snow Patrol have long been defecating?
Released: 24.08.09
Label: Polydor
Rating: 2/5
Athlete need to find their balls.
When they first started getting name checked back in 2002 there was a genuine excitement that ensconced the Deptford four-piece. They ticked a lot of the right boxes. They were suitable for mass consumption, boasting elements of a one-size-fits-all daytime radio pop that was inescapably promising. But they also had a quirky side to them, something leftfield that put them in a league above those who were simply peddling lifeless guff to try and receive radio airplay and chart success.
Indeed, 2003’s Vehicles And Animals is a perfect illustration of Athlete’s ability to craft FM friendly pop-monsters that still had enough bite, experimentation, and decent ideas to be attractive to more discerning music fans.
But since then, their form has been questionable. Wires, taken from 2005’s Tourist album, was an achingly profound, and deeply poignant song that saw Athlete propelled to the top of the charts for the first time in their career. It was unchartered territory, and they reached it with a song that dropped the tempo, minimalised the instrumentation, and fashioned a sound that was far more introspective.
Since then, the bands experimental side (the side that made them good) has suffered, as if Wires was the new blueprint on how to write successful songs. And unfortunately that makes for a band who are becoming more toothless and pallid with every release.
Black Swan takes flight with Superhuman Touch. Built around throbbing synths, it resurrects the heady days of when Athlete were cool. But the inescapable fear and blatant conclusion is that Athlete have only reappointed such an instrument because 2009’s radio playlist has forgotten that any other instruments exist.
Musically, it sounds like MGMT, and it portends a great start. But the travails of the verse are undone by the chorus, which scrounges its vocal melody from Get What You Give by New Radicals, and is just too contrived.
Light The Way is a highlight of sorts, with rustic guitars and a careening rhythm section, but it takes two minutes to really start and is let down by a horrible snare sound, comparable to stamping on a packet of Hula Hoops. And why would anyone do that?
Don’t Hold Your Breath is made a lot better by an endearingly passionate, desperate delivery. But it still pales in comparison to the Athlete of old, while Awkward Goodbyes is precisely what the members of Athlete five years ago would immediately force themselves to conduct if they heard the cringingly wet, vomit-coaxing guff of said future track.
The Getaway sounds like the sickeningly trite worship music that defines Sunday mornings (no offence, Christian Rock), while Black Swan Song is bland and languid. In fact, bland and languid are two apt adjectives to summarise the whole album.
“This is so obvious” moans Joel Pott on Awkward Goodbyes, as if he’s already appraised his latest uninventive output. Why oh why did Athlete start ploughing the faux-introspective pop anthem furrow into which Snow Patrol have long been defecating?
Wednesday 12 August 2009
naRa - Serenity
Album Review
Released: 10.08.09
Label: Eslamaphobic
Rating: 0.5/5
In what sort of compromised state of mind must the perpetrator have been enveloped in to make starting an album with a lecture about how the world’s ills can be solved through music possibly seem like a good idea?
“In order for man to gain peace, man must fight his wars with music” parps the cringingly trite message, administered with as solemn and heartfelt a voice as if conducting a reading at a funeral. It concludes with the ground-shaking call to action: “Now sit back and enjoy the groove”, before something musically comparable to haggard 90s dance music tries and fails to reconcile the slip at the starting gate.
Heinous.
The assailant in question is naRa. A singer and dance music enthusiast from Beirut. The Lebanese capital which is apparently a little off-the-pace when it comes to dance music. Serenity was produced by naRa and the humorously titled Tom Dell’Arso, their hackneyed attempts at euro-pop firmly stuck in the very worst traditions of 90s dance.
Alas, on with the album. The second track, Soul Food, sees naRa’s foam-headed cack-ramblings mark a semi-inevitable turn for the worse. A snapshot of her lyrical output: “Come on people let me see you get up”; “Can you feel it coming on so strong?”; and “It’s all about the music”.
Although apparently not. Because this music is shocking. However, when the song thankfully concludes, it does so with a pretty nice, if woefully out of place, piano motif. It’s almost in time and everything.
Genuinely naRa’s lyrics are like she’s reciting from some outlawed manual of lyrics to make blood-boil with their cringingly trite sentiments. “My life is filled with joy!” – Serenity; “I knew it was you, this time it’s true” – Love At First Sight; “Let your feet do all of the walking, let your hips do all of the talking” – Rhythm; and “Tonight is the night, come on people let me see you do it right” – repeated ad infinitum on Tonight.
But such unforgivable lyrical shortcomings mask a greater indiscretion. naRa can’t sing. Her timing is all over the place, her harmonies discordant, and she struggles to hit the right notes. Bad melodies are often overdubbed with worse melodies with catastrophic consequence. Tonight is a fine example.
The song titles too. Can neRa honestly garner nothing more enticing than titles such as Rhythm; Tonight; Stay; or I Am? Half-baked. That’s what You Are.
Her official website unpretentiously proclaims that “any true connoisseur of fine music cannot but help find her approach fascinating” – queer syntax aside, the only approach of neRa’s that could possibly usher any fascination is one into a pool of sharks from a very high diving board.
As far dissevered from serenity as smashing your face into a wall of titanium spikes.
Released: 10.08.09
Label: Eslamaphobic
Rating: 0.5/5
In what sort of compromised state of mind must the perpetrator have been enveloped in to make starting an album with a lecture about how the world’s ills can be solved through music possibly seem like a good idea?
“In order for man to gain peace, man must fight his wars with music” parps the cringingly trite message, administered with as solemn and heartfelt a voice as if conducting a reading at a funeral. It concludes with the ground-shaking call to action: “Now sit back and enjoy the groove”, before something musically comparable to haggard 90s dance music tries and fails to reconcile the slip at the starting gate.
Heinous.
The assailant in question is naRa. A singer and dance music enthusiast from Beirut. The Lebanese capital which is apparently a little off-the-pace when it comes to dance music. Serenity was produced by naRa and the humorously titled Tom Dell’Arso, their hackneyed attempts at euro-pop firmly stuck in the very worst traditions of 90s dance.
Alas, on with the album. The second track, Soul Food, sees naRa’s foam-headed cack-ramblings mark a semi-inevitable turn for the worse. A snapshot of her lyrical output: “Come on people let me see you get up”; “Can you feel it coming on so strong?”; and “It’s all about the music”.
Although apparently not. Because this music is shocking. However, when the song thankfully concludes, it does so with a pretty nice, if woefully out of place, piano motif. It’s almost in time and everything.
Genuinely naRa’s lyrics are like she’s reciting from some outlawed manual of lyrics to make blood-boil with their cringingly trite sentiments. “My life is filled with joy!” – Serenity; “I knew it was you, this time it’s true” – Love At First Sight; “Let your feet do all of the walking, let your hips do all of the talking” – Rhythm; and “Tonight is the night, come on people let me see you do it right” – repeated ad infinitum on Tonight.
But such unforgivable lyrical shortcomings mask a greater indiscretion. naRa can’t sing. Her timing is all over the place, her harmonies discordant, and she struggles to hit the right notes. Bad melodies are often overdubbed with worse melodies with catastrophic consequence. Tonight is a fine example.
The song titles too. Can neRa honestly garner nothing more enticing than titles such as Rhythm; Tonight; Stay; or I Am? Half-baked. That’s what You Are.
Her official website unpretentiously proclaims that “any true connoisseur of fine music cannot but help find her approach fascinating” – queer syntax aside, the only approach of neRa’s that could possibly usher any fascination is one into a pool of sharks from a very high diving board.
As far dissevered from serenity as smashing your face into a wall of titanium spikes.
Wednesday 5 August 2009
Michael Jackson; The Last Seat On The Bandwagon; and American Taxpayers’ Dollars
It’s six weeks now since Jacko’s addiction to anaesthesia lulled him into a sleep that was a little too deep. And finally, the kneejerk outpouring of hyperbolic public hysteria is showing some signs of relenting.
Not to miss their spot on the bandwagon before it threatened to career into absurdity, however, North Devon’s modestly titled Steve Tucker All Star Jazz Band recorded a new song as a tribute to The King of Pop.
Curiously, it’s a cover a song by The Everly Brothers (All I Have To Do Is Dream). Quite what the link is to MJ is anyone’s guess, but presumably we’ll have to wait for Don or Phil Everly to meet their maker before The Steve Tucker All Star Jazz Band smash through a rendition of Thriller. Anyway, it’s on their MySpace.
Despite his notoriety, I’m unsure whether the ongoing investigation into Wacko’s death is the most prudent use American taxpayers’ dollars. Surely the resolution as to who or what was culpable is not a contentious point? Just blame it on the boogie.
Not to miss their spot on the bandwagon before it threatened to career into absurdity, however, North Devon’s modestly titled Steve Tucker All Star Jazz Band recorded a new song as a tribute to The King of Pop.
Curiously, it’s a cover a song by The Everly Brothers (All I Have To Do Is Dream). Quite what the link is to MJ is anyone’s guess, but presumably we’ll have to wait for Don or Phil Everly to meet their maker before The Steve Tucker All Star Jazz Band smash through a rendition of Thriller. Anyway, it’s on their MySpace.
Despite his notoriety, I’m unsure whether the ongoing investigation into Wacko’s death is the most prudent use American taxpayers’ dollars. Surely the resolution as to who or what was culpable is not a contentious point? Just blame it on the boogie.
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