Live Review: Ladyhawke at the Academy

Ladyhawke at The Academy 5th February 2009

Wearing a man’s t-shirt with rolled up sleeves, men’s jeans, fuck-off biker boots and a bandana, Ladyhawke looks like Axl Rose. It’s a pity she hasn’t got his stage presence. Ladyhawke is literally the shiest pop star that ever was. Any time that she looks at the crowd, a glaze of terror and panic comes into her eyes. Deer in the headlights? Nah, more like being asked to do a quadratic equation in front of the class, when not only do you have no idea what’s going on, you’ve also wet your trousers. There’s no support band, and the set opens with ‘Professional Suicide’ which segues straight into ‘Manipulating Woman’. She does a fine line in pouting and power-chords (though, naturally, not at the audience, preferring to focus on the drummer instead), but when the backing track breaks mid-way through ‘Dusk Til Dawn’, she stalls, and her only banter with the crowd is a muttered ‘fucking technology’. The song is abandoned, for ‘Magic’ and ‘Another Runaway’. During the latter, it seems as if she wishes she was anywhere else but onstage at the Academy. The lines ‘it’s too late, it’s too late, I’m just another runaway’ take on an air of terror and desperation. A b-side- ‘Danny and Jenny’- is introduced, to a crowd who have no clue as to what a b-side is. She may as well have promoted her latest minidisc.
The set closes with ‘Paris is Burning’. The middle 8 is earnest, and Ladyhawke launches into another rock pout solo. But wait! What’s this? A smile? It’s the last song of her set and she manages to actually wink at a crowd member. Is she actually flirting? The last drum beat strikes, and she shuffles quickly and embarrassedly offstage, only to return 5 seconds later to play ‘Dusk Til Dawn’ once more, ‘because it didn’t work the first time’. Girl’s got the tunes, no doubt, but she needs some swagger, stat.

We Have Band- Live Review 15th January

We Have Band- Live at Crawdaddy.

We Have Band romped through their half-hour set at a breakneck speed on Thursday night. Dede WP plays tambourine like an Egyptian and looks like Margot Tennenbaum, crossed with Edie Sedgwick. Husband Thomas WP sings not unlike Jemaine Clement. Percussionist Darren Bancroft brings 80’s buzz cuts and spot-on offbeats. Current single, ‘Oh’ is a frenetic Korg-fuelled battle call to the dancefloor, while ‘Hear it in the Cans’ is Human League crossed with a bored Neanderthal beat. The group form a triangle around a drum machine, exhorting a half-empty room to dance. The unexpected whistling in ‘You Came Out’ breaks through the hipster cool, exposing the pop song roots. The room dances. This is what Hot Chip wished they sounded like live. A cover of the Pet Shop Boys’ ‘West End Girls’ closes the show. It was a fitting note to end on- a clever, hooky, synthy pop song, both knowing and insouciant at the same time. We Have Band are, as yet, unsigned. If they keep up at this rate, I can’t see that lasting long, at all.

Support on the night came in the form of Dublin Duck Dispensary – Bobby Aherne’s homage to Phil Spektor and mic hiss. Like the kid at school who pulls your hair then kisses you and runs away, D.D.D’s songs are short noisy bursts of pop distortion, each no longer than 3 minutes long, each 3 minutes too short.

Oh Hai Humble Pie, Yeahs, I’ll Eat You Lolz

Here at Analogue, we’re not afraid to change our minds. Nor are we afraid to say that we, perhaps, might have been wrong. Case in point: Brightly lauded newcomer Florence and the Machine.

When I heard her debut single for the first time last summer, I began to Hulk out. Everything was wrong with it, from the constant constant constant radio airplay, to the psuedo-quirky video, to the furore over whether or not it was about domestic violence or not.

Florence and the Machine - Kiss With a Fist

My mind began to change a little - only a little-mind you, when I saw her and her band play live in London last October. They were, I muttered quietly to myself, not as annoying as I’d previously thought. This track in particular, was actually quite good.

Florence and the Machine - Dog Days

With the explosion of ‘Best New Band/Group/Cat’s Name of 2008′ Lists, Flo and the Machines’ name was bandied about even more, resulting in me re-treading my hasty decision’s tracks. I’m glad I did though, kid’s got talent. Live, she’s more basic than one’d imagine - no four tracks and looping pedals, a CD’s how she rolls:

Florence and the Machine - Lungs

It’s a typical case of F.S.S - First Single Syndrome: When one can’t stand a band’s first release, but consequently likes most other things that they put out. Off the top of my head (and I wish I could think of a cooler band/song, but it’s early in the morning)- Alien Ant Farm are commonly cited as an example of this. I’m sure there are many better examples though, which is where you lovely readers enter. Ideas in the comments section please.

Au Revoir Simone: Reverse Migration

Au Revoir Simone
Reverse Migration
Our Secret Record Company

‘Reverse Migration’ is a track for track remix of Au Revoir Simone’s debut album- ‘The Bird of Music’. It’s always difficult to review a remix album without referring to the original. Like a teenager on holiday with their parents- should the remix stand awkwardly to one side and pretend that it has nothing to do with its begetter, or should it proudly flaunt its roots, and admire how much it’s grown?

Slow Club’s remix of ‘The Lucky One’ opens up the record. The track begins as a straightforward cover, and then descends into typical Slow Club kids-at-the-playground-eating-lots-of-sweets noisiness. ‘Sad Song’ is remixed twice- once by Pacific, and once by Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor. Both mixes add in a male vocal near the end, turning a solo song of heartache into a Danny/Sandy duet for Brooklynites, and in doing so, kind of miss the point of the original track.

The remixes that work the best are ones that focus on the essence of the originals. Keith Murray destroys ‘Don’t See the Sorrow’- without the regulating drum machine of the original track, and coupled with Murray’s busker schtick, it becomes earnest, instead of sincere. Alexis Taylor’s eight minute remix of ‘Sad Song is detached and clinical, rather than fragile and downbeat. However, Matt Harding’s masterful remix of ‘Night Majestic’ is a sparse, post-punk rendering of one of the poppiest tracks on the original album, while Mark- Anthony Tieuku creates a jerky, disjointed track from ‘The Way to There’- one that Roisín Murphy wouldn’t say no to. The Darkel mix of ‘I Couldn’t Sleep’ is smashing. A heavy synthy bassline coupled with glitchy production, it’s slinky and seductive- a stone thrown at a window, asking for a late-night conversation.

While ‘Reverse Migration’ is not a filler album, per se; it serves as a neat reflection on Au Revoir Simone’s strengths and weaknesses as songwriters. It’s a photograph’s negative- not quite the real thing, only a shadow of it, through which the original can be made out, almost.

Why? Debut Unreleased Material at Secret Gig

Yesterday, at 3pm, Why? played a special secret gig in the Twisted Pepper on Abbey St. The gig was only announced the previous afternoon, and information was spread through email and word of mouth. Analogue was there to film the event exclusively- a video should be making its way online in the next few days.

The band played a pared-down acoustic set of five songs, some of which they had already played at their gig in the A.L.T., and one of which (Eskimo Snow) has yet to be released.

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Here’s the setlist:
1. Fall of Mr Fifths (delivered solo, in spoken word form)
2. Nashville
3. A Torpedo or Crohn’s
4. Fatalist Palmistry
5. Eskimo Snow

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After a brief interval, there was a live Q&A session, fielded by my lovely self. Topics covered included sampling, audience participation, cover versions and the best song ever written. Yoni’s answer to the latter question? ‘Happy Birthday’.

Keep your eyes on the Analogue website in the coming days for more exclusive content from the gig.

[Lest I forget, cheers to Eoin, Tom and Yan for helping this run as smoothly as it did]

Why? Special Stripped Down Set

The Trinity Literary Society present a special Why? acoustic set followed by a q&a session in Twisted Pepper (Abbey St) at 3pm on Sunday, 2nd November. Don’t be late. Venez nombreux.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbDqN0qYbk4&feature=related]

Let’s Write Reviews, Like It’s 1995…

I’m following Bobby’s lead here, and posting up a review I did a while ago for the yet-possibly-neverto-be-released Underground Wires. The premise was that all the albums reviewed in the ‘zine were to be from 1995, and the reviews had to be written from the perspective of one living in said year. Riveting? Probably not. Pretentious? Fuck yeah. So, I give you- Alanis Morissette- Jagged Little Pill

Morissette’s debut L.P. covers a large swathe of lyrical territory as yet un-mined by modern female songwriters. Topics such as irony, lifestyle recommendations and domestic maintenance assail the listener’s ears, demanding to be acknowledged and appreciated. However, Morissette’s self-righteousness doesn’t go down easy. Hers is a jagged pill indeed, and the album’s single love song – ‘Head Over Feet’ doesn’t provide enough sugar to coat her noveau-feminist bile.

Side A begins with her list of demands, in the form of ‘All I Really Want’. Ms Morissette wishes for ‘some peace man. A place to find a common ground.’ It would appear that Morissette is unwilling to take responsibility for her own actions, and to take an active role in forming her own destiny. ‘All I Really Want’ is less a manifesto of wants, more a whinge-list of things she wants done. ‘You Oughta Know’ sees Morissette reminding her erstwhile lover that ‘I’m here to remind you/ of the mess you left when you went away’. Presumably her beau didn’t do the dishes before leaving for work in the morning. Why Ms Morissette can’t clean up the mess herself is left unexplained. When Side B opens, Alanis calms down (being angry is very tiring) and concedes that one must learn how to roll with life’s ups, and downs. The mood becomes less angsty, more cod-philosophical. ‘You Learn’ is filled with regrets posing as life lessons. She recommends ‘getting your heart trampled on’, ‘biting off more than you can chew’ and ‘sticking your foot into your mouth’. Fair enough, but when these axioms are placed next to other recommendations such as ‘walking around naked in your living room’ one begins to question their validity. Alanis is adamant though, that life offers ample opportunity for learning. The situations in which can learn are startling in their abundance. One can learn while grieving, choking, laughing, choosing, praying, asking, bleeding, loving, crying, losing, screaming, and most transcendentally of all, one can learn while living. ‘You Learn’ is but the tip of Ms Morissette’s contemplative iceberg, however. ‘Ironic’ is 4 verses, 3 repeated choruses, and an outro of linguistic incompetence. Irony is the outcome of events contrary to what might have been expected. As Perry White said in last week’s episode of ‘Lois and Clark’- ‘a fly in your Chardonnay? That’s not irony, that’s just bad luck.’ Irony is neither ‘a traffic jam when you’re already late’ nor is it ‘rain on your wedding day’. These are examples of bad planning ensuing from passivity, not of irony. One can only presume that the bride and the frustrated motorist had followed Side A’s Alanis’s example of whinging instead of acting, resulting in unhappiness for all. They can always learn from their misfortune though, I’m sure.

The instrumentation on the album is sparse- guitars, harmonicas, drums and organs- and mostly played by Morissette herself. Surprisingly, Dave Navarro and Flea guest on ‘You Oughta Know’, accounting for the heavy guitars and above-average bass line on the track. Glen Ballard’s (credited in the liner notes as being Morissette’s ‘spiritual brother’) production is clean, and allows every one of Morissette’s yodels and yelps to come through clean in the mix. Though the album is lyrically flawed, the few stand-out tracks such as ‘You Oughta Know’ and ‘Head Over Feet’ coupled with the current vogue for disillusioned female singer/songwriters, will surely push Morissette towards mainstream popularity.

Free Stuff Wednesday

Who wants to go to an exclusive Halfset gig on Friday? It’ll include a free cocktail, or five. We’ve got a pair of tickets to give away, right here, right now. Would you like them? If so, leave a comment with your name and email address. If you’re not in luck, then head over to The Hat’s Off and buy yourself a ticket. They only cost 20 quid, and it’s on in the Morrisson Hotel. Swank-ey.

Bo Selecta!

Hot Chip, Air and We Are Scientists are among a host of acts remixing Au Revoir Simone’s first album- ”The Bird of Music”. The record will be called ‘Reverse Migration’ and be released next month. I’ve written about remixes- before, but it’s worth considering a couple of factors inherent in a remix album again.

1. Is ‘Reverse Migration’ going to adhere to the structure of ‘The Bird of Music’? What I mean by this, is whether or not it’s going to attempt to be an actual album, rather than a series of straight remixes. By the looks of things, it’s veering towards being a disparate group of remixed tracks, which could, naturally, lead to swooping dips in quality.

2. Secondly, will the remixes reflect Au Revoir Simone’s sound, or that of the remixer? A.R.S.’s songs are pretty melodic and piano- based, and the remixers are of the same ilk. That said, The Teenagers are also on board, and they did a pretty good remix of ‘Fallen Snow’ a while ago:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lREMYDIPFLc]

3. Finally, will the record stand alone as a cd (like Horn of Plenty: Remixed) or is it just a nifty filler while A.R.S. write and record their new record?

Only time will tell, I suppose, but if it’s all the same, I would have liked to have seen a more varied group of remixers. Dntel, Lykke Li and The Mae-Shi are all on Moshi Moshi (home to Au Revoir Simone, and all the other acts mentioned so far)- and could have contributed more interesting ideas than the ones my speculative imagination is making up as I type.

In the meantime, let’s have a look at some vintage Au Revvy Simmy, as they walk through Brooklyn and confuse locals:

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHEkP2oqD7M]

Teen Drama

For a teen drama to work, it has to be relevant. It doesn’t really matter if the actors are ten years on the wrong side of 18. It doesn’t really matter if their arch, self-aware style of speaking is unlike anything ever heard in a high school. Hell, it doesn’t even matter if they stay in high school for 9 years. What does matter though, is the music. A teen drama needs a credible, realistic soundtrack, more than anything else. Viewers are willing to suspend their disbelief to a certain extent, but not enough to believe that a 17 year-old boy is going to a Hannah Montana concert. Equally, music featured in a teen drama has to change with fashion. It’s no use writing a show about teenaged hipsters who are three months out of the loop in their listening habits. While several studios (Disney in particular) have circumvented this problem by making their teen characters be in fictional/real-life bands, others have learnt to take a more hands-on approach, learning through trial and error that, ultimately, the viewer knows best.

The hit Nickelodeon show, Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996-2003), featured a spunky young witch, growing up in happenin’ Boston at the tail end of the nineties, and therefore had endless scope for credible musical interludes. The first guest musical appearance on the show was by The Violent Femmes (31st January 1997), whose in store record-signing Sabrina fan-girlishly attended. Needless to say, a spell goes wrong, she is still learning, after all, and Gordon Gayno falls in love with Sabrina’s arch nemesis, head-cheerleader Libby Chesler. The writers on the show quickly learnt that one mumbled spell could magic any artist into the script, no matter how strained the connection was. In ‘Dante’s Inferno’ (10th October 1997) an unfortunate dose of ‘Pun-itis’ means that Sabrina’s aunt Hilda can only speak in puns that then, hilariously, come true. Hilda says something about the name ‘Jean’ (by the way, not a pun) and Davy Jones from the Monkees appears, singing ‘Daydream Believer’. He then hangs around for the rest of the episode, giving sage advice, and teaching the characters how to do the Monkees’ walk. An appearance by 10,000 Maniacs on Season 2’s Hallowe’en special is equally shoe-horned into the script. Libby turns up at Sabrina’s impromptu Hallowe’en party, with a withering put-down at the ready: “I thought I’d swing by the biggest gathering of freaks this century.” Sabrina then opens the doors to her kitchen, where 10,000 Maniacs are midway through a surprise set. Teenage Witch- 1, Head Cheerleader- 0.

Alas, Sabrina’s taste in music was subject to popular demand. When the show began, she was into grunge-lite, wearing Doc Martens to school, self-consciously toting a canvas satchel, and secretly going to a Smashing Pumpkins concert (2nd May 1997). However, come Season 2, the Backstreet Boys have performed in her school hall (27th February 1998) and in Season 3, she sneaks out to an *N Sync concert (5th February 1998). ‘Sneaking’ out to an *N Sync concert? Surely a spell has gone awry somewhere? It only gets worse, by the time Sabrina has gone to college and found a job on a magazine, she’s firmly ditched her indie leanings, in favour of Daniel Bedingfield, Ashanti and an unforgivable two guest appearances from Avril Lavigne (Season 7).

It seemed as if music was doomed to play (if Pun-itis can be carried over) second fiddle to the writing on a show, or to falling ratings. However, The O.C. (2003-2007) marked a turning point for music in teen dramas. Previously, musical appearances or references had been mainly incidental, or as part of a special episode. In The O.C., however, creator and producer Josh Schwartz was adamant “that music be a character on the show”. The show utilized the familiar format of a local music club, where local and international bands perform. The Walkmen, Modest Mouse, Tom Vek, The Thrills (!), Death Cab for Cutie and The Subways, to name but a few, coupled with some in-the-know muso characters, who name checked Bright Eyes, The Cramps and The Postal Service. Alexandra Patsavas, The O.C.’s music supervisor, also commissioned several special cover versions for the show: ‘Maybe I’m Amazed’ covered by Jem, ‘If You Leave’ covered by Nada Surf, and ‘Champagne Supernova’ covered by Matt Pond PA.

As the show grew more and more popular, artists chose it as a platform to premier their latest singles. Coldplay’s ‘Fix You’ was played for the first ever time at the end of ‘The O Sea’ (Season 2), as Seth and Ryan apologize to their respective girlfriends at the prom, and Caleb, the pater familias and corrupt mogul, suffers a heart attack next to a swimming pool. Six volumes of Music from the O.C were released, the first in 2004, the last, an album of cover versions, in 2006. Each ‘Mix’ was essentially a soundtrack to the series, featuring indie-alternative artists such as Of Montreal, Stars, Shout Out Louds, Sufjan Stevens and Ben Kweller. While the mixes were hardly cutting edge, Mix 6 got a 1.8 review in Pitchfork, they introduced previously unknown artists to a wide-ranging, and iTunes-happy audience. Imogen Heap, who features on ‘Mix 4’ and ‘Mix 5’, found mainstream success through her connection with The O.C. Her song ‘Hide and Seek’ soundtracked a dramatic rape/shoot-out/crying a lot scene in the finale of Season 2, the next day, it reached number 8 on the download charts. Likewise, Bell X1’s ‘Eve, the Apple of My Eye’ was the tune to which Marissa Cooper (Mischa Barton) shared her first lesbian kiss.

As Paul Noonan’s delicate vocals float in, gliding above clunky teenage romantic dialogue (“Are you in the mood for the beach? It’s almost time. The tide’s about to change. I have this ritual, for whenever something major’s going to change in my life.” “I thought you said no dating on Valentine’s Day.” “Screw it. I’m a huge fan of spontaneous first dates.”) the sun sets on the two young hotties kissing on the beach, beneath the pier. Understandably, the inclusion of the song on the soundtrack brought Bell X1 to the attention of the U.S. Unfortunately, the inclusion of the song on the soundtrack brought Bell X1 to the attention of a lot of angry American Christians, who immediately associated Bell X1 with promoting homosexuality, promoting drug use, promoting The O.C., promoting being Irish, and anything else they could think of. God only knows what would happen if they watched Skins, a teen drama that centres on a crowd of Bristol-based 18 year olds who like to take drugs, party hard and get laid. And study for their A-Levels.

Skins (2007- ) was created exclusively for E4 and is currently filming its third series. Surprisingly, for a show that centres solely on youth culture, it has yet to lose any of its credibility. This could be due to the innovative use of music in the series. The promo for Series 1 is a panorama of young hedonism. Teenage girls who are prettier than any teenage girls ever were take drugs with teenage boys who are cooler than any teenage boys could ever be. A food fight explodes across the screen, while bikes are ridden inside a family house. All the while, The Gossip’s ‘Standing in the Way of Control’, the series’ unofficial theme, blares out. Needless to say then that the music in the show veers towards the hipper side of zeitgeisty, with a focus on drum and bass. DJ Shadow, Tricky, Root Manuva and The Fall can all be found on the soundtrack to Series 1.

Skins touts itself not as a TV show, but as ‘a lifestyle choice.’ Fitting then, that it had an Official Skins Tour to celebrate the launch of the second series last February. The tour featured bands and DJs which have made guest appearances on the show already, Crystal Castles and Klaxons, and others which haven’t, but might as well have: Mylo, Maximo Park, Annie Mac, Erol Alkan, Kissy Sell Out. Accompanying the tour were a series of “exclusive” and “deeply decadent” Skins after-parties, tickets to which were, erm, free and available through the ever-decadent Myspace. Just as in The O.C., being associated with Skins is enough to propel a long-forgotten song back to the top of the charts. In the finale of Series 1, Sid, one of the main characters on the show, plays an acoustic cover version of Cat Steven’s ‘Wild World’. When the episode was broadcast, the song re-entered the Top 40 for the first time since it was released. Likewise, a heart-felt cover version of Daniel Beddingfield’s ‘If You’re Not the One’ brought Natasha Beddingfield’s less famous brother back into the spotlight.

While the show has a dedicated composer, Fat Segal who wrote the theme song and a lot of the incidental music, much of the music, especially for the later series, is chosen by the viewers themselves, through fansites and message boards. Skinslife, the main fansite, has its own record label, which signs viewer’s bands, and then features the bands in the show. The signings tend to fit in with the ‘sound’ of the show, or music that will (presumably) go with the episode structure. ‘Alex’, a music producer on the show of some sort, left the following message on Skinslife: “As always I’d like to hear everything you’re making but in particular the following genres: Modern chart friendly Indie like Skinslife’s Paper Heroes produce. Funky House type stuff that sounds like DJ NG, Geeneus, Crazy Cousinz, etc. Dark electronic noise like Alva Noto and neo classical ambient soundscapes like the Stars of the Lid. Things that sound like UK Punk acts from the 70s. And finally ANYTHING remotely Disco orientated.”

As recently as three weeks ago, producers were calling out through the fansites for suggestions for the season 3 soundtrack and noting carefully the replies they received. As a result, “Awesome Kompakt-orientated acts (the new Burger/Voigt 12” maybe?)” lie next to “amazing twee Swedish indie pop with bands like Suburban Kids With Biblical Names” in the suggestion box. “Ambient compositions from Summer Night Air to Stars of the Lid to Eluuvium” are also promised to appear in Series 3. By eschewing the middle-man, and going straight to the source, the resulting soundtrack-in-progress becomes both hip and, more importantly, relevant. Instead of talking down to a teen audience, or dictating their tastes, producers are instead listening to them. It seems that the producers, directors and the cast themselves have learnt that if they want the series to be a success, they’re going to have to do more than just keep up with the kids, they’re going to have to out-run them.

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