Ahead of their performance at Electric Picnic next month, New Young Pony Club will be mixing things up at Transmission in The Button Factory this Saturday. Their own music is a hybrid of supposed nu-rave and a more pop-based sensibility, and a recent blog post on Myspace suggests that they’re currently into everything from Vampire Weekend and Lykke Li to Yellow Magic Orchestra and Frankie Goes To Hollywood. With all of that in mind, I imagine it will be a suitably eclectic and interesting set.
I recently had a dream in which NYPC’s Tahita Bulmer was, together with her aged grandparents, living in my house. As I was trying to walk up the stairs, her grandmother began to tell me in a bizarre language about a soldier she danced with during “the war”. I’ve absolutely no idea what all of this means, so the two people with the most interesting interpretations of this dream get themselves on the guestlist for Saturday’s event.
With the show looming, the first two to post below will get on Saturday’s guestlist.
For that headline, I can only apologise. Moving swiftly along…
One of my favourite singles of 2008 is Gabriella Cilmi’s “Sweet About Me“, which on first listen might have sounded like just another post-Winehouse piece of whimsy, but with repeated listens it reveals itself to be what a musicologist might call an “earworm”. Her album is co-written and produced by Xenomania and her next single is a Saint Etienne co-write. Pop is in good hands so there is good cause to be happy. This contentment with the healthy state of pop - something I might otherwise lie awake at night worrying about - was interrupted slightly when I perused the latest issue of Hot Press. The contents page of the current issue introduces the Aussie popster thus: “She has more in common with Nina Simone or Janis Joplin than any of this year’s production line pop moppets. Thank God for her parents’ record collection.” Now while I have a lot of time for old Nina, I must say that to mine ears Janis Joplin has always sounded like a gravel-gargling, caterwauling bag-lady. Taste is such a subjective thing, eh? But leaving aside the rock snobbery implicit in the Hot Press quote - and it’s difficult to leave aside because it gets my goat let me tell you - what is this about “this year’s production-line pop moppets”? Surely in 2008, it is production line indie which plagues us. Westlife are not the enemy any more. The Enemy are.
(”What’s this shit?” - Andrew Collins) Scouting For Girls “She’s So Lovely”
Today’s Independent On Sunday has a great article on this point, so I thought I’d alert Analogue readers to it now in case they want to nip around to the shops before closing time to buy themselves a copy. It’s the cover feature of the New Review section which grabbed my attention - a parody of the Conservative Party’s 1979 “Labour Isn’t Working” election campaign posters. Here the dole queue has been replaced by a series of current-day indie musicians queuing for a band audition. Tim Walker’s article also mulls over the current state of the NME, features good insights from Simon Reynolds and Andrew Collins, and contains a sort of quiz where the reader is invited to identify a bunch of “landfill indie” bands. It is easy to sneer at the utterly pedestrian so-called indie scene these days what with all of the generic music it produces, all of those generic band names…they might as well be called The Thises, The Thats or The Others (oh hang on, they do exist…). But at heart what is at issue here is the freeing up of youth imagination. The suggestion that the guitar pop of 2008 is so mired because the musicians and songwriters involved grew up with the fag-end britpop - Shed Seven, Sleeper and Gene - is persuasive. If there is a genuine spirit of independent music at the moment, perhaps it is to be found in the genre-hopping gender bending torch pop of Antony and the Johnsons, or the global pop of M.I.A. or the psychedelic disco of MGMT. All of those acts are fairly close to the mainstream though. A cursory glance at this week’s Independent Singles Chart makes it feel like a lifetime has passed since the days when you could see videos by Nurse With Wound, Half Man Half Biscuit and Scraping Foetus Off The Wheel on The Chart Show.
This week, “Mamma Mia!” has been on the receiving end of a deserved critical mauling. ABBA songs crow-barred into a ropey, wafer-thin – and dubiously misogynistic - “story”. Pierce Brosnan’s useless “singing”. Who needs it? As if “ABBA: The Movie” wasn’t shoddy enough. That 1977 film plumbed the depths of dullness, following the misfortunes of a journalist as he chases the Swedes around Australia hoping to secure an interview. Like so many rock biopics, it is confused, and lacking confidence in its subject. It’s only with the recent achievements of “Dig!” and “Control” that rock biopics have really found their feet, and Don Letts deserves some credit here for having been an innovator in this area. Let’s have a look then, at some other celluloid approaches to rock and pop. It’s rare that a rock film manages to be wholeheartedly entertaining, but this doesn’t seem to dissuade studios from bankrolling them all the same. Back in the mid fifties, aged rocker Bill Haley featured in “Rock Around The Clock”, but that was really a long-form music promo. It was “The Girl Can’t Help It” which really ushered in the rock flick era. Its plot was too flimsy and downright stupid to be worth relating here but it did feature performances by Fats Domino, Gene Vincent, Julie London, Little Richard and Eddie Cochran all in glorious colour. Its use of cinemascope also made it something of an “event” picture. Remember, this is fifty-two years ago, when Sarah Jessica-Parker was only…well about fifteen years old, probably. Oddly the English rock and roll film efforts, which followed in its wake, now seem more compelling and exciting. “Expresso Bongo” (1959), which featured a youthful Cliff Richard, is tremendous. Cliff plays a teen singer called Bert Rudge who listens to the advice of his manager, realises he’ll never have a hit with a name like that, and changes it to erm, Bongo Herbert. The mood, feel and soundtrack of the film are terrific though – you can almost smell the Brillcreem. It’s easily the best of Cliff’s films, and it is in fact better than any of Elvis’ better-known movie efforts. It captures pre-Beatles British pop beautifully.
“Play It Cool” (1962)
Almost as good is the Billy Fury vehicle “Play It Cool” (1962). Once again “plot” is an irrelevance here, see it for evidence that Fury was the greatest British rock ‘n’ roller of them all. It was directed by Michael Winner and the musical direction was by Norrie Paramor – the man behind hits by Cliff Richard, Frank Ifield, Helen Shapiro, Billy Fury and Shane Fenton (later Alvin Stardust) some of whom appear in the film. It might be a footnote to pop history now, but that just makes it all the more intriguing. Enough has probably already been written about The Beatles’ excellent filmic endeavours so we’ll pass over them here. Without them however, we certainly wouldn’t have had The Monkee’s TV series, and thus would have been robbed of the superb 1968 film “Head” – wherein the boys roam through a deeply surreal and unsettling world created by Jack Nicholson (yes that one) and director Bob Rafelson. Aside from some truly gorgeous music (Goffin and King’s head-spinning “Porpoise Song” and “As We Go Along” being perhaps the highlights), it has lots of self-deprecating humour (“Well whaddayaknow! If it isn’t God’s gift to the eight year olds!”), dark references to the Vietnam war and a cameo by Frank Zappa with a talking cow. It’s a long way from Cliff Richard and Una Stubbs on a double-decker bus.
“Head” (1968)
Some people admire Pete Townsend’s forays into rock opera. The Who’s film “Tommy” is perennially popular, but any “deep’n’meaningful” message which may lurk in there is cancelled out by some moments of supreme daftness. Which takes us to Led Zeppelin’s “The Song Remains The Same”. I appreciate that Led “Zep” are considered to be about the most important and influential rock band to ever have refused to release a single, but I must admit I find their supposed “mysticism”, leather breeches and curly strutting to be faintly pathetic. The concert footage, filmed during their time touring “Houses Of The Holy” is alright if you like that sort of thing, but the “fantasy” sequences are rather hilarious. Robert Plant, in soft focus, on horseback! John Paul Jones, also in soft focus and on horseback!! Jimmy Page, in soft focus, on a rugged, snowy, mountain!!! John Bonham, in soft focus (what was the problem here, wrinkles? Surely not…), larking about his country estate in a vintage car!!!! All palpable nonsense of course, but hey, that’s showbiz.
“Take It Or Leave It” (1981)
Madness’ 1981 biopic “Take It Or Leave It” is more fun. It recounts the story of how the band emerged from the primordial slime of the Dublin Castle in Camden to become perhaps the UK’s biggest pop group. The plot unfolds via a canny combination of some truly terrible “acting” and studio and concert footage. What it does do, though, is vividly capture something of youth culture in 1981. It’s uncannily like those early British rock and roll films in that regard – and a world away from “The Song Remains The Same”. If you’ve been intrigued by all this talk of rubbish acting, plotlessness, surreal whimsy and pretentious claptrap, then Pet Shop Boys’ 1988 flop film “It Couldn’t Happen Here” is a must. I’d tell you what it’s about but even having seen it umpteen times I’m afraid I’m none the wiser. Perversely though, it is rather good. Chris Lowe apparently wanted the film’s tagline to be “A Wank Of Epic Proportions”. That’s a concise enough description. It’s available in full through Google Video so you can judge for yourself.
“Stardust” (1974)
Finally, a word about the greatest film about rock ever, which is “Stardust”, a film from 1974, and sequel to the almost as good “That’ll Be The Day”, starring David Essex as a wannabe rock star whose life is in disarray. He goes through every rock star cliché going – groupies, drugs, relationship strains, dodgy business deals, bad advice and financial ruin. Just look at the cast; David Essex, Adam Faith, Keith Moon, Marty Wilde, Dave Edmunds, Nick Lowe – even JR out of Dallas, Larry Hagman, turns up as a horrid manager. It’s a very dark film, touching on the industry’s sexism (women, in this film, are usually groupies) and it’s one of the few rock films that seems to be eager to make a point. Its message: the music business is sleazy, wretched and morally corrupt and preys on those dreamers who want so much to make the leap from fandom to having a piece of the action for themselves. Steve Brookstein probably watches it and cries. This film is wholeheartedly entertaining, and even sort of profound.
Continuing Analogue’s loveaffair the the American indie elite, and proof, if proof were needed that Pitchfork.tv was the greatest thing to happen to indie music since Kurt Cobain wore a Daniel Johnston t-shirt for a year, here’s a double treat. Above, the stunning new video for the equally incomparable song from the best band I’ve heard this year - the instantly classic Fleet Foxes, with White Winter Hymnal. Below, an interview the Foxes, recorded by the pitched fork at this years South by Southwest Festival.
We have some photo’s and a teeny video from the intimate Dublin gig knocking about, which Andy really must get to posting *cough*. Almost forgot, credit to the ever excellent Pop Culture Will Eat Itself for the link.
Our lovely friends at the plex are kindly hosting Radioheads new video, for the In Rainbows track ‘House of Cards‘. Rather stunningly, the video is neither entirely CG, nor does it use any conventional cameras, but rather Geometric Informatics (’structured light’) and Velodyne LIDAR (a sort of hyper advanced speed camera). The result is reminiscent of early experiments in computer animation, a flickering varicolour oscilloscoped DOB trip.
There’s a mini documentary on the site to show how it was done, as well as a savage viewer application to play around with the 3D visualisations in your browser. The raw data has also been made available, so the mathematically inclined among you can immediately go remix crazy.
Here is a video from the excellent Record Store Day in-store fest in Road Records in April. I had written a blog post all about it in my mind, but I forgot to actually post it, and it’s way too late now. However, I would like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that Mumblin’ Deaf Ro exists. People search far and wide for their slightly unusual folk, from the Mission to the icy fjords of Scandinavia (never forget), but they will find it hard to do better than this.
The Herring And The Brine is one of the most intelligent, thought provoking, vaguely humorous and quietly catchy albums going. It’s been spinning regularly in my CD player since I got it. Ireland has rarely produced anything as good. Root it out if you have it, or find it if you don’t.
I don’t know whether it was the spectacle of playboy peasants being harassed by Stalin zombies or the sight of a stripped down – balsam saturated Mikhail Gorbachev shooting lasers from his eyes, but I felt compelled to post this music video from the metal band ANJ.
According to the director Tom Stern it’s a ‘half Russian History allegory as told through an old zombie movie made in the Soviet Union, and half animated Soviet Propaganda posters.’
Aint got no ticket. Aint got no hope of going to this years Oxegen Festival? Think again thanks to your friends at Heineken Music. Heineken Music have given us two pair of tickets for Sunday’s Oxegen festival.
To win simply answer the following question: Which Manchester musician is headlining the Green Room stage on Sunday night?
Email your answer and contact details to analoguemagazine@gmail.com. Competition finishes 2pm on Thursday 10th of July. Winners will be notified by email.
At Oxegen, you can also enjoy what the new addition, Heineken Greenspace, has to offer, with its large bar, live action from the main stage, view of the second stage, bluetooth giveaways and much much more. Check out Greenspace at Heineken Music events throughout the year.
So we’re heading deep into the season here. Glasto’s been and gone. The Festival-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is next weekend and the Electric Picnic is still far enough away to seem like a beautiful dream. Many other festivals are reveling right now, indeed roll a dice and wonder into a field and more than likely you’ll find Fat Boy Slim and KISS fighting it out.
All of which leads to the question; Who’s the Greatest festival band?
Here’s my nomination;
Elbow. Always brilliant live, with great lifting melodies and soaring instrumentation. The front man looks like a man you met in the cue for humus and there is always a sing along.
ps, please include, where possible, a youtube link to your incredibly hip/obscure nomination.
I’ve loved all things Scandinavian since I first heard ABBA’s “Greatest Hits Vol. 2” from the comfort of my crib (not in the MTV sense) when I was about three years old, and I’m open to the criticism that my musical taste hasn’t become much more sophisticated since then. “The Name Of The Game” was number one on the day I was born. Perhaps I was a viking in a previous life. It does seem though, that the pop music from that part of Europe is – unlike my efforts to account for my love of Scandinavian pop of all stripes - effortlessly uncomplicated. And so whistleable! Is it a response to the lack of daylight up there? Recently we have seen a wave of new Scandinavian pop groups release a body of amazingly good pop music. In the immediate wake of terrific albums by Annie, The Knife and Robyn, a glut of brilliant Nordic pop has emerged, much of it synthpop. Northern Europe has a long tradition in this regard, think of ABBA’s “The Visitors” as the jump off point. Giving the synths a swerve meanwhile, are The Concretes and Peter, Bjorn and John – the latter gave the world the bothersome or brilliant (depending on your fancy) “Young Folks”. Whatever instruments they employ, or whether they bother to learn an instrument at all (see Pay TV below), from Bergen to Stockholm, from Reykjavik to Silkeborg, the mood is vibrant, colourful, breezy pop. Amen to that.
Pay TV “Fashion Report”
Back in the 1990s of course, there was “Scando-pop”. This was a sort of scene-but-not-really based loosely around the Tambourine studios in Malmo. With producer Tore Johansson at the helm, The Cardigan’s best records were created here, alongside a series of brilliant (although overlooked on these shores) releases by Eggstone. The sound was literally wooden; the antique-pine acoustics of the studio, ancient instruments and brittle sounding drums led to a beautiful, icy sound. The Cardigan’s “Life” LP is a great example of this. It could hardly have been more twee if you’d stuck a slide in its hair and plopped a lollipop in its mouth. These people had obviously spent some time in the company of the back catalogue of “él records”. Operating elsewhere, and missing out on the Tore magic, there were meat ‘n’ potatoes rockers Kent, the practically bipolar Wannadies and Whale, the latter posessing it must be said a rather knockabout sense of humour. Anyone who remembers Whale’s “Hobo Humpin’ Slobo Babe” or “Young Dumb ‘N’ Full Of Cum” will attest to the rather irritating “wackiness” of the duo. If they’d recorded a single called “Look! My Dog Is Wearing The Sunglasses! Hoho!”, you wouldn’t have blinked an eyelid. Iceland’s Emiliana Torrini tried and failed to have hits here, although she did co-write Kylie’s hit “Slow”. Both of her albums are well worth a listen, and “Unemployed In Summertime” is one of the great lost singles of the 1990s. The rather more abstruse Stina Nordenstam could and perhaps should have had proper hits here, but remains a cult figure.
Emiliana Torrini “Unemployed In Summertime”
Now however, Scandinavian pop doesn’t sound so exotic, it doesn’t sound like it’s being produced in some outpost. Much of the most vital pop music of the past five years has been indebted to the likes of Royksopp and The Knife. Annie’s brilliant 2005 single “Heartbeat” was produced by the former, while The Knife used their royalties from the Sony advert which used Jose Gonzalez’s cover of “Heartbeats” to set up a record label. The UK’s most prolifically brilliant producers and songwriters, Richard X and Xenomania, have obviously been paying attention. Meanwhile Denmark’s Alphabeat are spearheading the so-called Wonky Pop movement, bringing bright brash pop to the sort of grimy sweaty clubs where you imagine a lot of trilbies get handed in to the cloak room. They appear to be going through a critical backlash of sorts at the moment, their album took a bit of a drubbing in the music press, but even dogs in the street know that “Fascination” is one of the best singles of the year so far. In 2008, our Northern European cousins are at the heart of pop.
Alphabeat “Fascination”
As some of our readers will know, Lykke Li’s “Youth Novels” is one of the better LP releases of this year so far. Its pared-back sound has made it a hit on alternative radio, on Radio 2 and at festivals throughout Europe. Bjorn Yttling of Peter, Bjorn and John produced it, and the likes of “I’m Good, I’m Gone” , “Little Bit” and “Handing High” are lovely enough that you probably wouldn’t actually mind them reaching “Young Folks”-level omnipresence. Lykke Li is one of the guests on compatriot Kleerup’s new self-titled album. He collaborated with Robyn on “With Every Heartbeat” – possibly the greatest single of 2007. Elsewhere half-sisters Neneh Cherry and Titiyo guest. The album has already been a top 10 hit in his homeland. Swedish pop is in a particular healthy state at the moment. Even its “melodifestivalen” (the route by which you may become their entry for the Eurovision song contest) displays brilliant imaginative pop. Recent participants Pay TV’s current single “Fashion Report” is incredible, see its disturbing but compelling video here. It’s part “Can’t Get You Out Of My Head”, part “I’d Rather Jack”. With a dollop of KLF style black-humour on top. If you like this you’ll like Bodies Without Organs – formed by ex members of Army Of Lovers, very camp but possibly too clever for their own good on occasion. But what do you expect from a group who name themselves after a concept from Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari? For those of you who miss The Knife (currently on hiatus), Zeigeist’s LP “The Jade Motel” is a like a slightly more cheerful, younger sister to “Silent Shout”.
Lykke Li “I’m Good I’m Gone”
Most exciting of all though is the expected arrival (in October) of Annie’s new album “Don’t Stop”. A megamix of tracks from the album has been on a tour of the internet recently and it sounds completely brilliant. Her extraordinary debut set, “Anniemal”, stalled despite being one of the very best pop albums of the last 10 years. Hopefully this time proper fame will beckon, and to this end she has worked with pop-production gods of our time, Xenomania (as well as her usual collaborators Richard X and Timo Kaukolampi). Last time out, fellow Bergen dwellers Royksopp helped out, this time it’s fellow Bergen dweller Fredrick from Datarock who puts in an appearance (on the energetic “Misery”). Alex Kapranos from Franz Ferdinand contributes guitar to “Loco” and “My Love Is Better” (Girls Aloud also contributed to the latter, but record company politics have seen to it that their vocals have been removed). If what’s been leaked on the internet so far is anything to go by, “Don’t Stop” will be the best pop LP of 2008.
Subscribe
Get Analogue 
