Music section

March 2010

MUSIC SPOTLIGHT FILM TV GAMES BOOKS CULTURE LISTINGS

LIFE is looking far from purrfect (sorry, I have to fulfill my pun quota) for the Pussycat Dolls this week as two mem-bers announce they are leaving.

Kimberly Wyatt (the one with short hair) and Ashley Rob-erts (the blonde one) have proven that its not just moody indie blokes who have been getting itchy feet re-

cently by confirming that they will no longer be performing with the charttopping former burlesque troop. Rob-erts commented via

twitter (surprise, surprise) that she had had an 'amazing ride' but now intended to pursue a solo career

and continue with acting projects. Wyatt was less positive stat-ing that 'money and fame can't buy happi-ness' and adding fuel to rumours of tension with lead singer Nicola Scherzinger over her increasing dominance. Meow.

Music News... RACHEL PRONGER reveals all the latest news and gossip from the music industry

LADY GAGA has sur-prised some by prov-ing to be an outspo-ken ambassador for safe sex.

Speaking at a lip-stick launch for Mac Cosmetics , Gaga (real name Stefani German-otta) argued that sex education was the most important weapon against HIV and AIDs.

The singer, also suggested that girls

should not rush into sex and instead save themselves for soemo-ne special. The com-ments are a challenge

to conservative com-mentators who have crticised Lady Gaga's provaocative routines and revealing outfits and accused her of be-ing part of the oversex-ualisation of teens.

Its always more interesting to get sex education from some-one wearing a high cut sequinned leotards and absurdly huge shoul-ders.

BLUFFIN' WITH HER MUFFIN?

ANOTHER week, an-other moody, eyelin-er wearing bassist quits an alternative band.

Eric Avery, a founding member of experimental heavy metallers Jane's Addiction, has an-nounced that he is leaving the group after 25 years.

Avery announced

his intentions to leave on the unbiquitous Twitter stating 'with equal parts regret and relief, the Jane's Ad-diction experiment is at its end'.

The group have been a mainstay ofA-merican alternative rock since 1988, when their debut album, was certified two times multi-platinum.Relations between Av-ery and the group have often been strained however with the bassist first leaving in 1991. After a high-profile 2008 reunion and recent tour of aus-trailia it appears Av-ery is finally quitting for good, hinting that he plans to pursue solo work.

The rest of the band can console themselves with newly confirmed plans to col-laborate with former Guns and Roses bass-ist Duff McKagen.

YOU'RE SO DAVEAS anyone

who has ever ven-tured into Little John's on kara-oke night will know, 'You're So Vain' is an infu-riatingly catchy disco classic. Now for the first time Carly Simon, the song's writer and performer, has revealed the iden-tity of the song's subject.

For years spec-ulation over the song's central na-cissicist has yield-ed nothing, with everyone from Mick Jagger to Cat

Stevens being sug-gested. Now, in an interveiw with Un-cut Magazine Si-mon has revealed that in a new acoustic version she whispers (re-corde backwards to add to the mystery) the name of her ob-ject of scorn : his name is David.

Whilst this new evidence is hardly decisive it narrows the search to ego-inflated Daves of the era: could it be David Bowie? Dav-id Cassidy? David Hasselhoff ? The search continues....

3 ANTHONY KIEDIS: LYRIC ALL SORTS

The Red Hot Chilli Pepper's frontman is the author of such lyrical gems as “When my best friend died I couldn't get my car port clean”, or “Intercourse with a porpoise is a dream for me”. In this insightful docu-mentary Kiedis discusses the writing process and the influence that come to bare on his lyrical writing. The DVD is scheduled for release in March with plans to give away exclusive replica copies of Kiedis' notebook, complete with ample space for personal use.

4On his band's smash 2008 hit 'Human' Brandon Flowers in a display of Ivy League contemplation asked: Are we human? Or are we dancer?. In this sure fire hit Flow-ers teams up with The Biological Research Council to finally resolve whether Homo Erectus are predomi-nantly human, or indeed predominantly dancer. Using cutting edge technology Flowers analyses the brains of well known Humans and well known dancers in order to find which of them dominates. This film is more No-bel prize than it is Golden Globe. Fascinating.

BRANDON FLOWERS & THE HUMAN CONDITION

2Following hot on the heels of the untempered hedon-ism of the Glastonbury and Woodstock documentaries comes V Festival. Fearne Cotton's directorial debut captures the Staffordshire bash's most decadent mo-ments. Shooting the pictures on Cotton's LG proves an inspired decision as it provides an intimate yet con-temporary feel to a series of outrageous incidents in-cluding a man “buzzing” off red bull, a pillow fight and a backstage party hosted by Scouting for Girls.

V FESTIVAL 5 AT HOME WITH THE LEWIS'

Shot in the scorching summer 1958, this intimate film documents the idyllic home life of Jerry Lee Lewis and thirteen year old wife Myra Brown, who is also Jerry's cousin. In many ways the pre cursor to The Osbournes, this warts and all documentary reveals Jerry to be a loving husband, if a little kinky. Watch the smitten cou-ple joke about the incestuous nature of their marriage, play with their web footed son and become excessively experimental in the bedroom

...Rock Biopics that should be scheduled for release this year

Having gone from Southern upstarts to Globetrotting superstars in a matter of years, the Followill clan give film-maker Joe Swash unadulterated access to their private lives. Having watched the band struggle to form a sentence, Swash makes the inspired decision to shift the focus of the documentary to the band's possessions. The film will give fans a rare insight into the band's choice of socks, the contents of their fridge and even their collection of vintage thimbles. With the expecta-tion to gross in excess of £73 at the Box Office plans are already in place for a similar film focussing on crick-eter Phil Tuffnell- working title Phil Stuffnell.

1 THINGS OF LEON

REGAN'S TOP FIVE

AVERY KICKS JANE'S ADDICTION

PUSSY OUT

SINGLES

Scouting for Girls, the band that sold 850,000 CDs off the back of one good riff, are back. This time, they don’t sing about their desires

to be Britain’s favourite 007 spy, but more origi-nally, about saying goodbye to a failed relation-ship. Maybe she wasn’t so lovely after all.

The single has initial hints of Manic Street Preachers as it opens with driving guitars and vio-lins, however the piano plonk style still remains their signature. Stride’s Leona-esque wailing mixed with emotional strings during the bridge is reminiscent of Robbie’s early songs, but without the depth that has proven so successful.

To be honest, as with Kaiser Chiefs, there’s a lim-it to how many ooo-ing and arr-ing vocals we can stand, so give up the game, lads – this is goodbye.

jaImE

rEvIEwS thISwEEk'S...

rILEy

Goldfrapp

Rocket

Out 8th March

Recently, I was introduced to Goldfrapp’s Seventh Tree. It’s a truly beautiful album. The opener, Clowns, is a warm rush of

acoustic charm with gorgeous, gentle vocals. It’s about the closest a song can get to wrapping you up and giving you a hug, if you discount Elbow’s Seldom Seen Kid.

Consequently, I was really excited to hear Gold-frapp’s latest single, 'Rocket'. I wondered if they’d revert to electro-dance or remain more down tem-po. As it turns out, it’s definitely electro. The sin-gle begins with stabbing synths, a relief to those who found their last album slightly dull. The pro-gression is very Van Halen and very 80s and it’s all very carefree.. but it just doesn’t go anywhere. The chorus is pretty catchy but nothing special. Sadly, it’s forgettable, as it doesn’t quite fall into the mainstream or niche bracket. Sorry, Alison.

The first Geordie WAG, Cheryl Cole, rose to fame back in 2002 as one fifth of the super-star fivesome, Girls Aloud. Now she’s on

our screens at least once a day, advertising prod-ucts that give your hair a sun-like shine, judging reality television, winning BRIT awards and just generally looking stunningly beautiful. Is there anything this girl can’t do?!

Seemingly not. Cheryl’s 'Parachute', although not as strong as 'Fight For This Love', is pretty much everything you want in a pop song. It’s a bit lacklustre but after further listening, will likely progress onto your iTunes favourites. Well, if you’re into slightly slow, reflective pop music.

Scouting For Girls

This Ain't a Love Song

Out 28th March

Cheryl Cole

Parachute

Out 15th March

MUSIC SPOTLIGHT FILM TV GAMES BOOKS CULTURE LISTINGS

Bands nowadays are forever pi-geon holed into a specific genre. No longer can we define music by

pop, dance, or alternative, Songs now have to be narrowed down until they are summarised by a couple of descrip-tive words. Most bands shun the labels, but The Whip's Nathan Sudders is more than happy to provide his own, describ-ing their sound as "Electronic sweat music".

Hailing from Manchester, the band comprises of Danny Saville, Fiona 'Lil Fee' Daniel, Nathan Sudders and Bruce Carter. After forming in 2006, The Whip became lumped with the nu-rave lot alongside Klaxons et al. But, instead of going global with their peers, they released their first album X Marks Des-tination to a more muted reception in March 2008.

Success came in singles 'trash' and 'Divebomb', which were featured on the Kitsune Maison Compilations 3 and 4. Their track 'Muzzle No.1' appears on the soundtrack for the FIFA 2009 vid-eo game and 'Trash' must surely have bought in healthy royalties after it be-came a familiar sound on adverts and soundtracks.

It's not only marketing execs who love the Whip, Peter Hook, of new wave 80’s band New Order, has claimed to be a big fan of the band. Unsurprising really, as The Whip have often been likened to Hook's band. Nathan under-stands the obvious comparison, and ad-mits "we're a live band from Manches-ter doing dance music the same as they

were". Yet, he continues; "whilst New Or-

der can definitely be described as an influence, a band of that success in the genre cannot be ignored, but we didn’t set out to sound like them." Instead, Nathan cites a far broader spectrum of influences - from recent house hold names such as Daft Punk, Felix Da House Cat and Soulwax, to past greats such as Fleetwood Mac, Supertramp and the Beach Boys.

A successful combination in terms of success, as The Whip have toured across the world. "We've been very lucky to travel the world, playing many venues", he explains, "the best to date being Tokyo, Japan, where the audi-

ence’s are unbelievable - they go crazy!” Which songs are best to play live?

"I love playing 'Blackout' and 'Fire', and we do a remix of a Black Ghosts song called 'Anyway' that gets everyone go-ing".

Having played to 27,000 people on the Other Stage at Glastonbury last year - an experience Nathan describes as "indescribable" - the band have de-veloped a thirst for adventure. Keen to travel, The Whip are hoping to head to Thailand and Russia, "they really like to party over there!"

Are the exotic locations better than here in rainy England? “The weather is better and they give you more booze to drink!", Nathan cheekily explains.

The Whip are currently touring with fellow Mancunians The Cour-teeners. "We've become good friends with them over the last two years", says Nathan, and adds "they're a great band and Liam Fray (vocals/guitar) is a great lyricist".

However, the busy touring schedule has not stopped them getting round to writing new tunes. The Whip are begin-ning work on a new album. "We're work-ing with different producers to get the sound as good as possible, it's impor-tant to get this right. We have 20 songs to record and the best 12-15 will end up on the album."

So far, the album is coming along well explains Nathan, "it's definitely something to look forward to!" We will have to wait and see what genre they come up with next.

Photos: Natalka Talka

electronic

sweat

music

Nu-Rave is dead - so what next for THE WHIP? Katy Roberts chats to Nathan Sudders about the Manchester band's future.

From the 14th to 18th of June the UK’s biggest student music festival ‘Beach-break Live’ will be gracing the shores of Wales. What’s more – we have 2 tick-ets to give away – so get onto the Vision website and enter.

This year’s festival has with smooth sounding, synth-pop maestro Calvin Harris as one of the headliners. Ellie Goulding's weightless Tracy Thorne-esque vocals and glistening pop beats will be making the tripto Wales .

Also on the line-up are dub-step leg-ends and Vision favourites Scratch Perverts, who will grace the stage with Yorkshire’s electro big bass ragamuffin Toddla T!

Growing from just 1000 students in its first year to 5000 in its second and 10,000 in its third, Beachbreak this year will see a whopping 17,500 UK students flock to Wales for tonnes of sun (hopefully), sea, sand, surf and music.

At just £89 for a ticket (www.beach-breaklive.com) for three nights of mu-sical mentalism, the festival will be accompanied by some rather random activities. These include skiing (on the onsite dry ski slope), wakeboarding, coasteering and for the more tame – horse riding.

The best thing for us Yorkies is that Beachbreak have organised an optional extra of buses from York straight to the

festival.

ADVERTORIAL

Win tickets at:www.yorkvision.co.uk

Albums...

lights

The Horrors cunning method of releasing a rubbish debut al-

bum to lower expectations for their second worked wonders. Surprised critics mistook a distinctly average album to be a masterpiece because it wasn't quite as shit as the first.

After the abysmal first Courteeners album, St Jude, it seemed the Manchester band had the same idea. The critical reception of Falcon has been impressive - four stars from Q and eight out of ten from NME. These sup-posed purveryors of good taste actually enjoyed listen-ing to it.

So is Falcon actually a de-cent record or were expecta-tions so low that even a fart would have been an improve-ment on the debut?

It seems to be the latter. It says everything when

the main problem with an al-bum is the lead singer. Gobby frontman Liam Fray mur-murs and drones over every

song like a hobo in the corner. It's excruciat-ing how flat and life-less he sounds.

It's true that Bob Dylan doesn't have the strongest voice either,

but he has the lyrics. Fray doesn't. The 'every-

man' social observation style lyrics sound like he's read-ing a 16 year old's diary, but instead of a funny and sweet Adrian Mole style character, he's a pretentious irritating git.

And that is pretty much all there is to the album. It is devoid of melody, personality, originality, everything that an album needs. The drums and bass play the same thing over and over again. The pro-duction drenches everything in echo in an attempt to cre-ate an anthemic quality, but instead drowns out anything that could be more than av-erage. The only good thing about Falcon is that it is in-stantly forgettable.

It's a boring album, with boring songs, singing boring lyrics about boring things, with boring bass, boring drums, and boring guitar. It's boring and it saps hap-piness.If people think the X Factor is ruining the music industry, listen to this.

If the album is a falcon, Liam Fray is a tit and The Courteeners are a dirty smelly pigeon - the rodent of the music industry.

Right, review over, I can go delete this dross off my iTunes.

Jim Norton

ellie goulding

Out Now

Until recently my view of country music was pretty much restricted to Dolly Parton and Billy Ray Cyrus singing

'Achey Breaky Heart'. Whilst I don't think many people can argue that the apparently age defying Parton is pretty fabulous, it is easy to see how Cyrus, and his worryingly precocious perma-tanned offspring could turn you off the whole genre. In Britain country music has often been a figure of fun, hampered by prejudices such as mine and forever associated with republican rednecks and plaid clad lumberjacks.

However, things are beginning to change. The Oscar nominated ‘Crazy Heart’, starring Jeff Bridges as a washed up country music star, can contribute much of its success to the many scenes of live country music that punctuate the film giving it a sense of au-thenticity and purpose. The success of Taylor Swift, recently nominated for five Academy of Country Music Awards and chief victim of Kanye West-gate at last year’s MTV Video Mu-sic Awards, is significant of country music’s growing international success.

The situation has always been different across the pond. In America, the genre’s birthplace, country music remains serious business, shifting millions and regularly crossing over into the pop charts. For the yanks it is a universal genre with juggernauts such as Parton, Lyle Lovett and Emmylou Harris maintaining chart success alongside younger emerging superstars such as Swift and Carrie Underwood. Now that the new wave of country stars are beginning to enjoy mainstream chart success it seems likely that country music is going to become ever more inescapable even in the UK.

Perhaps the biggest challenge to the coun-try cynics is that the genre has had a stagger-ing influence on popular music on both sides of the Atlantic. For artists such as Bob Dylan, Elvis Presley and The Beatles country music and its many influences and crossovers, such as rhythm and blues and skiffle, was instru-mental in their early musical development. Country influences can be heard from many critically acclaimed artists from the lo-fi acousticism of Cat Power to the bluegrass infused songs of Bright Eyes and Wilco.

As folk enjoys a high profile revival with artists such as Mumford and Sons and Laura Marling, our tolerance for banjos, fiddles and harmonicas is increasing. As we Brits rediscover our penchant for a good hoe down it seems the coast is clear for a country invasion. Watch out, the hillbil-lies are com-ing...

TOWN & COUNTRYRachel Pronger

MUSIC SPOTLIGHT FILM TV GAMES BOOKS CULTURE LISTINGS

The things that spring into mind when think-ing of Wales fall

somewhere along the lines of sheep, strange scary lan-guages, sheep, and music. Wales has produced some great musicians such as Tom Jones, Pete Townshend (The Who), Stereophonics, Lost-prophets, (even Josh Fisher of CHMS’ RENT) and Los Campesinos don't fail to live up to this reputation. Ro-mance is Boring will seem fa-miliar to previous fans with front man Gareth Campesin-os’ lyrics still incorporating your typical melodramatic subjects of life, love, death and sex and still framed by crashing instrumentation.

Though Gareth’s shout at ravaged relationships and ruined romances may sound like perfect conditions for an emo album, the band, formed whilst students at Cardiff University, manage to keep the album uplifting throughout utilising wicked beats and a subtle bass line. This new abum is step for-ward from their twee 'love it or hate it' 2008 debut. The seven-piece group appear to have found their sound.

The overall vibe may be

impressive but it has to be acknowledged that the in-dividual tracks tend to blur into one, hitting you in a wave of sound rather than always being individually distinguishible. Nonethelss this wall of sound is com-pensated for by the sheer excellence of some stand-out tracks. 'In Media Res' opens the album nicely , a good old fashioned anthemic shout-along. 'There are listed Buildings' and the title track 'Romance is Boring' are bril-liantly inspired songs whilst 'We’ve got your Back' twists itself to lead into a well-proportioned, sturdy ballad. Tracks such as these raise the album far above Los Campesinos! previous ef-forts.

This album has a lot to of-fer, stylish and well realised if at times slightly deriva-tive with traces of FOB and MCR emo sentimentalism mixed in with heavier Green Day brand punk. Overall, an uplifting listen despite the typical lost love lyrics. So you broke up last Valen-tines? Romance is Boring!

Dan Chatfield

Out Now

Few could deny that El-lie Goulding, winner of the influential BBC

sound of 2010 poll and the Critics Choice Brit award, is this year’s most hyped act. The problem with all the hype that befalls wom-en breaking through in the current singer/songwriter saturated scene is that it invites comparisons that many can’t live up to. Com-paring any idiosyncratic female who writes their own material with Bjork and Kate Bush, undeniably the queens of quirk but also impressive musicians, seems unfair and reductive. Goulding deserves credit for creating a distinctive sound even if her debut 'Lights' doesn’t quite live up to the expectations placed on her.

On paper at least Gould-ing ticks all the right boxes.

The distinctive voice is there, poppy but delicate, a cross between early Joanna Newsom childlikeness and Lisa Hannigan’s power-ful husk. The early singles seem promising with Un-der The Sheets and Starry Eyed offering infuriat-ingly catchy synth laden vignettes. On repeated lis-tens other tracks also stand out such as This Love (Will Be Your Downfall) which builds upon vocal layers to create a rather gorgeous choral effect.

However, although there’s nothing offensive about Lights there is un-deniably something miss-ing. Goulding has a pleas-ingly distinct sound but at the album lacks sufficient changes in intensity and the relentless waves of pretty electro-noise can make you feel like you’re

being beaten over the head with a Dido album. Gould-ing classifies herself as folk pop crossover but it soon becomes apparent that by folk she means nothing more than the odd acoustic guitar, a relief for anyone fearing an album full of electric fiddles but a little disappointing all the same.

The key problem how-ever is a lack of developed melodies. Goulding has strong ideas and lyrics but at times these feel undevel-oped and aimless. At worst, on tracks such as The Writ-er, Goulding sounds like little more than generic euro-pop. Overall Lights is not a failure but, perhaps inevitably due to the ab-surd build up, it is a slight disappointment. Bjork need not worry.

Rachel Pronger

Los campesinosRomance is

boringOut Now

THE COURTEENERS

FALCON

MUSIC SPOTLIGHT FILM TV GAMES BOOKS CULTURE LISTINGS

So Guys, who came up with the name and why Little Comets?

Rob Coles (Vocals/guitar) - A friend of mine was on MSN and her name was ‘Le Petit Comet’ in French. I wanted to know what it meant so I put it in a translator and it was ‘Little Comets’. Apart from be-ing completely embarrassed that I should have known what it meant I thought it was a good name for a band.

How would you describe your sound and who are your influences?

Matt Hall (Bass) - We try to make it very percussive and melodic. Quite light in a melodic sense and happy but then against that the lyrics are a bit darker. RC - We all have really varied musical tastes, but sometimes we might get influ-enced by a book we’re reading or where we are rehearsing or by a story we hear - anything really! I read an interview with YeaSayer the other day and they said that when you’re growing up you’re just a product of all your influences.

Have you always used the washing line onstage?

MH - We mess around trying to get per-cussion into the live set. When you’re try-ing to play and you’ve got something in your hand it’s really hard to put it down and pick it up. So Rob came up with the idea that instead of smashing it on the floor we would try to hang it from the ceil-ing and me being able to tie ridiculous knots…

RC- Matt’s a sailor so he could tie really good knots.

MH- Not like a naval sailor though, I used to sail boats.

MH- We also thought about a percussion chair. Like a chair on wheels. Mickey is an absolute health and safety pigeon be-cause as soon as we had the idea, he was like ‘you can’t do that because it might fall mid-gig and hit someone in the face…’

RH- (to Mickey Coles, guitar)-You’re quite happy to come up with ideas for dis-turbing the peace in public places but we can’t hang a washing line on stage!

Talking of disturbing the peace in public places you’re famous for your spontaneous gigs (on the Metro and in Marks & Spencer) Do you play them anymore or are you still in trouble with the police?

Mark Harle (Drums) - We can’t do that Marks and Spencer thing again because the last time we did it we got a lifetime ban.

MH- We didn’t realise that many people were going to be there. We were playing a gig in Newcastle and we thought we’ll put on Myspace that we were going to be in Marks and Spencer in the bakery isle.

Then Nihal from Radio 1 found out and mentioned it on Radio 1.

MH,D- People think we don’t eat wheat for health reasons, but it’s actually be-cause we can’t shop there anymore!

So, the NME tour, how has it gone? Are you enjoying being back out on the road?

RC- It’s really weird because this is the last night and it only started on Monday - and all the gigs have been close to New-castle so it hasn’t felt like a tour. We’ve gone home every night which is a shame because we got on well with Frankie and The Heartstrings and The Chapman Fam-ily.

What does 2010 hold in store for Lit-tle Comets?

RC- Some festivals, release the album in June or July, and write a new album. We want to call the album ‘In Search of the Elusive Little Comets’.

Which acts would you recommend our readers check out?

MH- Yeasayer. RC- Animal Collective, Grizzly Bear,

Deastro- he’s mad. We did a tour with him, he’s from America and he came over. Our first gig was in Bristol and he went to Brighton! We had to look after him for the whole tour because his band left him the night before he was due to fly over. So he did all gigs as a one man act with a laptop and he didn’t have anywhere to stay so we adopted him for two weeks.

MH- He’s a Master of Storytelling.

The Chapman Family

Frankie & the heartstrings Little Comets

DATE PLACE Fibbers, York16th February '10

LITTLE COMETS Backed by Radio One and signed by Columbia Records, 2010 seems set to be the year when LITTLE COMETS make it big. Clare Harrison caught up with the band in Leeds as they hit the road on the Club NME Tour.

NME handpicked three of the hottest bands tipped for the top this year and

it’s refreshing to see how differ-ent each band are. The tour came through York in cold February and each band tried their best to warm up the crowd.

First up was The Chapman Family; four Teeside lads deliv-ering dark lyrics and beats deep-ly rooted in Punk rhythms. Steer-ing clear from mainstream Indie, the band are not to everyone’s taste, yet the growing crowd at Fibbers seem to warm to them

and by the end of the set have been won over. It is this awkward Post-Punk style which the boy’s capture that has won them a spot on the famous SXSW festival in America this March.

Frankie and The Heart-strings are up next. Quiffs and spray-on jeans are a-plenty as the quintet takes to the stage; think Orange Juice (the Scottish post-punk band) meets Grease the movie and you’re half way there. Front man Frankie Francis steps it up a notch, killing it with his Elvis-like footwork and effortless

style. With their catchy, lyrical, awkward pop Frankie and The Heartstrings are ones to watch out for.

It would seem however that tonight everyone that makes up the relatively young Fibbers crowd is here for one band – Lit-tle Comets. Even before they make it to the stage the crowd anticipates their set chanting “this one’s for dancing” (a crowd favourite) at every hush in the music. From the first beats of Mark’s drum the crowd pogo up and down and only grow with en-

ergy as the set progresses. Every one of Little Comets songs is single worthy – each one a mu-sical vignette with contagious up beat melodies. Chanting and dancing is compulsory at a Lit-tle Comets gig as is proven in York tonight. The typical rough ‘mosh pit’ is transformed into a hot bed of ‘whooping’ and jam-ming as the crowd dance along to cautionary tales of girls named ‘Joanna’ and ‘Mathilda’. Amid playing the likes of ingenious ‘One Night in October’ and the single ‘Adultery’, the band occa-

sionally reach up to a washing line strung across the stage, from which percussion instruments hang among the odd kitchen pan. The band are polished yet feel raw, mixing these basic percus-sion sounds with complex riffs. As their set comes to an end it’s safe to say that Little Comets have firmly marked their place on this year’s NME Club Special Tour and with that we excitedly head home for the night in an-ticipation for the next stop on the tour – Leeds.

Clare Harrsion

INTE

RVIE

W

wE'RE quite happy to disturb the peace in public places but we can’t hang a washing line on stage!"

""

MUSIC SPOTLIGHT FILM TV GAMES BOOKS CULTURE LISTINGS

Lives...

A word of warning: it is ill-advised to attend an intimate gig on Val-entine’s Day unless you are ac-

companied by your other half. Fibbers on 14th February was lovely, crammed with beardy men spooning eccentrically dressed girlfriends, but the romantic atmosphere got a little overwhelming for my (definitely platonic) friends, par-ticularly when the couple behind start-

ed enthusiastically getting off in my friend’s hair.

In fairness, the hushed vocals and raw lyrics of opening act Ben-jamin Francis Leftwich were unde-niably conducive to the romantic at-mosphere, with Leftwich successfully channelling the likes of James York-ston to create charming if slightly samey acoustic songs. After an un-comfortable pause spent listening to the couple behind me discussing their sex-life, it was a relief when second support act Danny and the Champi-ons of the World took to the stage and knocked the crowd out of their torpor with their energetic, rootsy country. Pleasingly dressed like 1970s hillbil-lies, a feast of corduroy and checked shirts, and with a suitably grizzled Bruce Springsteen channelling front man, it was a disappointment to dis-cover that they hailed from South Lon-don rather than rural Ohio .

Despite this strong support the night was undeniably Regan’s, who, despite his diminutive height, 1960s bowl cut and endearingly awkward stage presence, had the crowd hooked from the outset. The move from pas-toral folk on his debut to fiery agit-prop on The Shadow of an Empire has prompted comparisons with Bob Dy-lan’s infamous conversion to electric

guitar but there was no one shouting Judas this time. Although the delicacy and elegance of Fionn’s early songs has been lost, there is a liveliness to his new material, with its grinding beats, howl-ing vocals and embittered lyrics that proves captivating, particularly on sin-gles ‘Protection Racket’ and ‘Genocide Matinee’ and the wonderfully sleazy ‘Coat Hook’. Material that can sound a little rough and unsubtle on CD proves captivating live and praise is partly due to tight support from Danny and the Champions with the albums more con-templative songs in particular, such as 'Violent Demeanor', benefitting from a new intensity.

Nonetheless, the highlight of Re-gan’s set is when he dismisses his back-ing band to perform alone. ‘Put a Penny in the Slot’ is a startlingly beautiful highpoint, with a slower tempo drawing attention to wonderfully literate lyrics and adding a layer of introspection and that is a striking contrast to the politi-cised fury on ‘Empire’. The crowd are noticeably disappointed when Regan leaves but are placated by an encore of ‘Be Good or Be Gone’ that has the audi-ence singing in unison. All in all solid proof that Regan has successfully navi-gated a difficult musical U-turn without alienating his loyal devotees.

Rachel Pronger

Fionn reganFibbers 14/02/10

When I walked down the steps into the Basement, hidden underneath the City Screen,

it struck me that this was a venue for grown-ups: no Fibbers-esque Skittles vodka around here. Thankfully, the mu-sic was able to live up to the relaxed candlelit atmosphere and I wasn't left disappointed. Joshua Savage opened the night and did a sterling job despite be-ing the only male on a bill dominated by females. With original covers of Oasis

and Coldplay and interesting lyrics to songs with amusing titles, such as ‘Honk’ he managed to make even the most determined grown-ups break into a smile.

Alice Ostapjuk followed with an-other acoustic set, and despite having only played the guitar since last April, her inexperience didn't show. Her cov-

ers of ‘Halo’ and ‘Russian Roulette’ stood out, although her mash-up of songs didn't quite work out quite as seamlessly as I’d hoped.

The night began to slow as Rachel Dade took to the stage. With bells on her feet, a banjo and an aversion to using the mike, initially Rachel appeared strange, but the originality of her songs proved mesmerising. Members of the audience described how they felt in a trance-like

state listening to her, as short songs en-titled ‘Following the Geese’ and ‘Yuki Dayo’ floated over us.

Clearly good friends Alessi and Rachel sung a duet and entertainingly reminisced. Alessi reminded me of No-rah Jones in her vocal style, offering a kind of easylistening that has become unfashionable in a scene recently domi-nated by sassy outspoken eccentrics. The expressions she pulled during ‘The Witch’ and her apologies at messing things up in ‘Money’ only endeared us to her. I would definitely recommend seeing her support Laura Marling on her upcoming tour.

For only £5 this gig was a welcome change to a night out in Ziggys. As a purely acoustic female dominated night, this music wouldn’t be suited to standing up in Fibbers, but it was per-fect for the more tranquil Basement, which I would definitely consider visit-ing again.

Jennifer Rose Hammond

The Basement

alessi's ark24/02/10

The past few years have seen Idi-oteque become one of the most forward-thinking club nights in

terms of bringing varied and innovative electro acts to York. And with a line-up featuring up-and-coming deep bass mas-ters L-Vis 1990 and Ikonika this term looked to be no exception.

On a sold-out event, expectations were high, and the warm-up acts rose to the challenge. A creative set blend-ing 2 step and funky from homegrown York talent SimonSays set the tone, while fast-paced dub and grinding elec-tro from SDUK & Contrast and an excit-ing wobble set from Tindall paved the way for L-Vis' York debut. An inspired set combined his signature deep bass and surprisingly subtle vocal cuts, with a balanced blend of new material, his remixes of Diplo and Benga, and crowd favourites 'Pon De Floor' and '128 Trek.'

Rising star Ikonika followed up with a delve into dubble step, and mixing a mind-bending range of genres seamless-ly in the final set of the night to cater for every taste in her exuberant audience.

The reaction from the crowd throughout the night testified to its suc-cess, with one particularly enthusiastic member announcing that "the bass is so good I could eat my own face." In any case, I think it is safe to say that a thor-oughly good time was had by all.

Catherine Sinclair-Jones

idiotequeFibbers 20/02/10

The O2 academy was full to ca-pacity with fans and an almost tangible buzz. Only at a Faith-

less gig would there be such a varied mix of people with old, young, indie kids and hardcore ravers all under one roof. The Faithless sound-system was unrelenting with some of the most exciting DJs of the moment such as John Dahlbeck, Funkagenda and Alex Metric keeping fans on their toes with an eclectic mix of dance, house, electro and techno spread across the two floors.

However the climax of the night came when Maxi Jazz, Sister Bliss stepped out onto the stage filling the room with their presence. They im-mediately broke into their set with obvious confidencem, not pausing for breath. They played songs spanning their entire career including crowd favourites 'Insomnia' and 'We Come 1' but also some off their forthcom-ing LP Calling All the Faithful. The crowd were hooked onto every nuance in the music with Sister Bliss provid-ing the beat, teasing the crowd whilst Maxi Jazz delivered his instantly recognisable vocals, the intensity of music ensuring total focus was on the stage. The night continued until the early hours with other DJs filling the stage delivering only to those strong enough to last!

Stephen Barbagiannis

02 Academy

Faithless26/02/10

’m suddenly hit with an alcoholic head-rush (care of downing an ill-advised pint of York’s own ‘Vi-king Ale’ three minutes prior), and I can’t remem-

ber a single thing I’d planned to ask. Tom Campesino – the band’s chief guitarist – smiles politely from across the table whilst I attempt to banally flick through my notes. Unable to for-mulate a question which draws back the curtain on his deep-est creative process, I vacantly smile and force myself to just say something to get the ball rolling: “So… having fun?”

In retrospect, I think that question had more significance than my dizzied brain realised. Los Campesinos, a band which were previously synonymous with sugar-coated guitar riffs and chanting choruses about literary figures, have been a-changin’; their most recent al-bum, Romance is Boring, marks a pop-rock antithesis of sorts. Words like ‘moody’, ‘discordant’ and ‘dark’ keep being slapped onto it, birthing mixed reactions from critics.

“The main goal was to try and write songs which would be more interesting over a longer period of time; trying to delay the sense of gratification you get with some of the older stuff ” Tom tells me; “We've now delib-erately tried to spread those ac-cessible moments out, instead of trying to force them down the listener's throat.”

Some commentators (Pitch-fork, NME, etc) see this de-layed-gratification approach as advancement into deeper and more interesting textures, while others (smaller music blogs and my personal bible, ‘All Mu-sic Guide’) mourn the death of accessibly bouncy tunes and furthermore chide the band’s newfound ‘maturity’ as a cyni-cal ploy to suit music-industry expectation.

Gareth Campesino, the band’s lead-singer (although he protests the title, “I sing but I'm not a singer!”), looks like he’s dressed for a nuclear winter; he keeps his hands in the pockets of a large puffy coat, wearing a thick hoodie underneath while sporting a hunting-cap. I ask him whether keeping guaran-teed warmth is part of his pre-performance requirements and he replies with a grin, “Nah, just

because I'm a wuss!”Gareth is a little contradic-

tory in explaining how the al-bum’s critical reception has af-fected him. At first he happily recalls the positive responses: “The places where it's important to get good reviews from - or we'd like to get good reviews from - have been incredibly flattering”. After a few moments though, he backtracks to a slightly cautious tone: “We don't put out records unless we have the upmost faith in them, so to a certain extent I can read bad reviews and not re-ally get down about them. This is the record that we wanted to make. And the state that it's in now is perfect. Some person who works part time for a webzine saying ‘I don't like it’ doesn't re-ally matter”. Upon that, he sum-marises: “There's like ten people who I want to hear the record. Just close friends and people whose music I like myself. So as long as they like it, they're the people you care about liking it”.

Tom takes a slightly more light-hearted stance on the mat-ter: “We're sort of a marmite band and we've made a marmite album, so it's obviously not going to be for everyone. Sometimes

PR people will forward you the good reviews saying you've done a good job and quietly forget about the bad reviews. I think me and Gareth both get Google Alerts and both read most re-views. Every now and then we'll be like "Did you read that one?"

Rob Campesino, a York-grad-uate and recent addition to the band’s touring line-up, adds: “I used to do the music reviews for Nouse - and I used to pan bands all the time without any feel-ing. We knew that, although we had a website, there wouldn't be any major repercussions, unless the paper was sent out to press people. But now if anyone says anything bad about you on the internet, you can find it and track it down - which can be de-pressing!”

Still, I was curious about the band’s feelings on the pub-lic’s interpretation of their new direction. Speaking to Tom, I mention that a large selection

of their Youtube commentators seem negative and disappointed with the band’s newly-found pes-simism. “I don't think we ever saw ourselves as a happy or sad band - you hope that things are a little more complex” Tom re-plies, perhaps upping his guard. “We always tried to embrace the paradoxical elements because Gareth’s lyrics were often quite dark and they'd contrast with the upbeat elements of the mu-sic.”

But can we expect an ever-increasing array of misery and despair? “To me, the change just

felt like a more organic, natu-ral development” Tom replies, "It's only when I go back now and listen to the first album I realise how different it sounds. We didn't sit down and decide ‘let's sound like this’, it just hap-pened.”

In the latter part of 2009, Los Campesinos became the latest victims of the internet’s file-sharing community. Their entire album was leaked and promptly posted to a number of torrent websites. “It's really upsetting” Tom says, "Because you want to be in control of how you present your material to other people. But it's got to the point where you're seen as stupidly idealistic to even consider that as a way for it to happen". Gareth shares Tom’s sentiment, adding that the leak was “Incredibly disap-pointing. It's our creation, our thing, and I think we should at least be entitled to choose when people hear it”.

However, that doesn’t neces-sarily mean the band is soured on file-sharing completely. Ga-reth’s statement on the matter seems delicately political: “I think there's a real distinction between downloading generally and leaks. Downloading is a far bigger kettle of fish that I'm no where near intelligent enough to consider.” A handy sentiment; when it comes to filesharing, a musician’s condemnation tends to collectively rally the internet against their favour (Lilly Al-len suffered this fate last year), whereas any acceptance of it threatens to put you on nasty relations with your record la-bel. “Well…” Gareth begins, after I suggest his ambiguity is intentional, “It's a very honest answer. I think an artist entitled to mind filesharing because they invest time and money in mak-ing it so it's only fair that people - if they want to hear it - should be prepared to give something back”.

Tom’s response seems a lit-tle less prepared, albeit still with an agenda of sorts: “I can understand why people do it - if you can have something for free why would you pay for it? It just becomes a charity otherwise. I used to download illegally - but since I've seen the effect of it on bands and the industry, I've made a concerted effort to stop doing it. Once you start paying for music, you make sure that it's something you really want, and you put more effort into enjoying it and listening to it because you've made that com-mitment”.

So, can we expect plenty more activity in the future? Ga-reth responds optimistically: “I hope so. I think we've been go-ing for four years, and had three records, so I'd like to think we're slightly past being a flash in the pan. I think it's exactly the sort of thing we'll stop when we get bored, or when we get boring. As soon as it stops being fun."

Gareth wrapped up for the cold february night A - Gareth Campesino, Lead Singer

rtists are entitled to mind filesharing . They invest time and money making it. it's only fair people are prepared to give some thing back.

Joe Burnham chats to indie darlings Los Campesinos about their new 'mature' sound, bad reviews, and file-sharing...

LOS CAMPESINOSI

MUSIC SPOTLIGHT FILM TV GAMES BOOKS CULTURE LISTINGS

W - Tom Campesino, Guitar

e are a marmite band and we've made a marmite album - it's not going to be for everyone!

Tom and Ollie interviewed next to a bin... classy!

Photo: Jon Bergman