A highly obvious list

2006 was a pretty fun year. I got to meet some fun pop stars, I got to warmup for the Scissor Sisters for the 2nd time, I got to write about music and showbiz for people, and  I got to play lots of music to people and expect them to dance.

Every year I claim I'm going to keep a text document with my favourite music in it, so when I come to the end of the year, it's not HELL ON EARTH trying to figure out my end of year list. Of course I haven't done this, but 2007 will be the year.

The Top 3

Amy Winehouse - Back To Black - an instant classic. I never liked/paid any attention to La Winehouse and her current image didn't make me warm to her either. But the moment I heard Back to Black (the song) I was hooked. She was great live at Koko in November and also takes home the Karinski award for television moment of the year.
Must-hear tracks: I'm No Good, Back To Black, Me & Mr Jones, Love is A Losing Game

Metric - Live it Out - Jesus Christ this band are AMAZING. There seems to be some dispute as to whether it came out in 2005 or 2006, but it's the 2nd album from the Canadian indie kids who also form part of Broken Social Scene and stars. Brilliant live in Hammersmith in October, they'll be supporting Bloc Party at The Astoria on 31 Jan and I'll be doing everything I can to get a ticket.


Must-hear tracks: Monster Hospital (ignore the hipsters and their MSTRKRAFT remix, just do the original), Poster of A Girl and Handshakes. Then find their first album and wet your pants at Dead Disco and Combat Baby.

The Knife - Silent Shout:
The Knife are Scandavian sibling weirdos. They make bleepy, glitchy
dance music that both disturbs and makes me want to go dancing mental
all at the same time. Kat made me go and see them live at The Scala back in March and the show was spectacular. I took James and Rik to see them a couple of months ago at The Forum and two new fans were born.
Must-hear tracks: Marble House, Silent Shout, Like A Pen

Best of the rest (in no particular order)

Jarvis - Jarvis - He came back and he conquered on record and live. Fat Children should be on your must-hear list for life.

Robbie Williams - Rudebox - Critics and long time fans might have wrinkled their noses up at it, but Rudebox gave us the first really interesting Robbie album sing I've Been Expecting You. Ignore the slightly hit and miss title track and move straight to Lovelight, possibly the most underrated single of the year.  Giggle at Lily Allen on Bongo Bong, robodance to Never Touch That Switch, and squee continually at She's Madonna and We're The Pet Shop Boys.

CSS - Cansei De Ser Sexy: Music is my bitch-house. Yes it is. If you've not heard of this band then you need to know that they are frightningly hip, but in a spectacularly accessible way. They were on Subpop but have just been signed to Warners who are making them a major priority for 2007. It's poppy, glitchy, disco-indie fun (oh how many words can I use!).  They'll be playing at Popstarz on Feb 2nd. How excited am I?

Boy Kill Boy - Civilian - I went through a phase of having a major crush on the lead singer of this band after going to see The Organ with Kim and him. Now I am over that, but I feel like I must have some loyalty to this album (even though I've not really listened to it very much). As far as massive indie hooks BKB are professionals. They've not done as well as I expected they might though despite Suzie and Civil Sin making me race to the dancefloor whenever I hear them.

Nelly Furtado - Loose : Er, hello? Where did the floaty, boring hippie go? Whatever Timberland put in her drinks made the lovely Nelly the pop artist of the year. Yes, Maneater was insanely brilliant at the time, but it's All Good Things that makes me float into a state of bliss every time.

Lily Allen - Alright Still : Slag her off all you want. What? Now she's successful she's no longer cool? Bite me. Lily rocked 2006. Alright Still is the perfect album to sing along to word-perfect in practically any occasion. Plus she was rather ace at Notting Hill and Bestival.

Long Blondes - Somebody to Drive You Home : I wouldn't have heard of the Long Blondes as early as I did if Shazam didn't exist. In November 2005 we had Le Tigre's JD Samson playing at Miss-Shapes and she played the fabulous Giddy Stratospheres. I in turn played it to lots of people from a record label who told me they thought it was shit. Losers. Anyway taking forever to get signed, finally Sheffield's current best band released their debut album on Rough Trade. It's bitchy and very sing-a-longy. See them at Popstarz on 9 Feb.

Gallant runners up would be The Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes (which would probably be right up there if I hadn't heard all the songs about a million times before the album came out) Pet Shop Boys - Fundamental, Morningwood - Morningwood (although god knows if that actually came out in 2006), Shiny Toy Guns - We Are Pilots (again 2006?), Teddybears - Cobrastyle, Frank - Devil's Got Your Gold, Linda Sundblad - Oh My God and Beyonce - B'Day.

And I'm not saying that my list is better than albums from The Gossip, The Fratellis, Dangerous Muse, The Presets, Broken Social Scene, Bat For Lashes, Peter Bjorn and John, and  The Young Knives, as they are all CDs I'd like to hear but haven't got round to yet. There is so much music to consume that I haven't that just thinking about it makes me upset. Boo hoo.

REVIEW: Gwen Stefani - The Sweet Escape

I really liked Love Angel Music Baby as soon as I heard it. What U Waitin' For was a spectacular debut single, and the brilliant Bubble Pop Electric made me bounce round my room for weeks.

So, now, here comes The Sweet Escape, and I'm immediately put off it by her hair. Once again we see here the importance of proper popstar hair. I'm curious as to see how No Doubt fans will accept Gwen back. Hasn't she just about lost all credibility?

The dreary 'Orange County Girl' send us reaching for the skip button as a whiny Gwen sings "I'm just an Orange County girl, living in an extraordinary world." Give us 'Jenny from The Block' anyday.

Read my review in full at Entertainment Wise .

This is A-mazing.

It's also my taxi journey home. Why don't I get cabbies like this

2006: The most evil woman on television

Congratulations Clare Cunningham. 2. Jessica Jane Clement 3. Honey Mitchell

Bargain Bin: I Made A Stupid Mistake

HAIRSTYLE #1

I hated Gareth Gates when he was on Pop Idol. Like properly full out hated him. But this snivelling, stupid haired child from Bradford had captured the ££ signs in Simon Cowell's eyes and swiftly became the nation's sweetheart. Of course Gareth lost, but a record deal was merrily handed out. Boring covers  followed, but his 2nd single Anyone of Us, although now sounding quite outdated, has to be one of the most perfectly constructed pop songs of the last 5 years.

HAIRSTYLE #2

Gareth went away for a couple of weeks and came back with some new songs and most importantly a really good new hairstyle. The importance of his hairstyle should not be underestimated. It was a proper popstar mop. It was hair that made popstar king of hair Dougie's hair look like the hair of a dustman. But the album... well the album was interesting. For starters, who ever told Gareth that his 2nd album should be a double CD with one cd for 'day' and one for 'night'. A double CD is pushing it even if you're an established artist (see Back to Basics, Suit/Sweat), but when you're a disposable pop artist - never attempt it.

Go Your Own Way's first release used the trademarked Charity will get me a No.1 single approach, with a cover of Spirit In The Sky being released as the Official 2003 Comic Release song. Then came the rather wonderful Sunshine, cruelly dismissed by tabloids as a failure because it only reached no. 3.  Originally planned to be Lemar's first single, it made Gareth sound like he'd grown up and even a little George Michael-y.  While the 'Day' album can unceremoniously be tossed into the bin and set alight,  'Night' is full of grinding dancefloor could-be singles. I can't seem to find my copy so am basing this on memories alone, but Absolutely was the highlight.

Then came the fall from grace. Jordan revealed Gareth had slept with her when she was 6 months pregnant. Gareth denied but later admitted the relationship. But it was too late, Jordan had already started using phrases like 'poked the baby's head' and his label and fans had fallen out of love with him.

HAIRSTYLE #3

Finding out that Gareth Gates did a intimate gig in late November has got me worried. I knew nothing about this until tonight having spent far too long over the past couple of weeks solely trying to figure out which Alesha single goes in my Top 10 of 06. Anyway, yes, he had a secret gig and there were screams all round in Paradise when an advert for a documentary called "Whatever Happened To Gareth Gates" aired after X Factor last week. This show will air on ITV1 this Saturday night at 7.30. The press release uses phrases such as sparked near riots ... speaking fluently .. cautionary and brave. Brilliant.

Download Sunshine // Buy Go Your Own Way // Please send me Absolutely!

[n.b. this post is a bit over the top. He wasn't that good, just Absolutely was amazing and anything that means I can write 'poked the baby' head' y'know]

Happy Chanukah to Me!

Tonight is the night. Yippee!

Who needs The Killers anymore?

This is Young Love - the brainchild of Dan Keyes and Island/Def Jam's hot tip for 2007.  They make disco indie, and have been touring America supporting Lady Sov. Dan, originally a member of post-punkers Recover (who?), is the frontman and there doesn't appear to be a lot of information about the other bandmembers, so I assume they are very much a "we play the instruments but we're not allowed to talk" collective.

Discotech is the first (and so far only) track I've heard by the band. It's immediate, and it makes me want to dance wildly round my room. It oozes New York, or at least what I expect fashionista indie New York sounds like when it's oozing. It starts with a fast bassline and drums before another guitar layers in and the vocal hits. An amazing bridge and euphoric chorus gets me spinning round the room and it's an example of potentially the best use of a vocoder since Victoria Beckham.

The Lindbergh Palace Remix (they did an ace remix of Mr Brightside that you might have heard me play) makes Discotech sound like something directly off Confessions on a Dancefloor. You can download that here and a pretty loyal cover of Standing In The Way Of Control here guilt free. The label have put them out there. Hooray.

Make sure you visit the bands myspace page to hear the superior original. The above video is the 2nd in a series of 3 spots advertising the album. I think it's a great campaign, you can watch the first here .

REVIEW: Emma Bunton - Life In Mono

I'm not sure where Emma Bunton comes in my list of favourite Spice Girls. Obviously the almighty Geri takes the top spot, but Emma, well, maybe third after Victoria. Anyway, dear mekonhead almost caused my ears to explode last week when I had to listen to her terrible new album. Emma darling, when will you realise you're not living in an Austin Powers movie?

Pumping the BBC for all it's worth with almost daily appearances on either Strictly Come Dancing or It Takes Two, you might have thought that the seemingly rush release of third album Life In Mono would be surrounded by masses of publicity. However, that probably wasn't taking into account that on public votes Emma's been the least favourite contentest for the last two weeks. As it is her lazy album charted at about 64. Well done.

"While she may be continuing "Free Me"s Sixties vibe ,
there's nothing that even flirts with the beehive razzamatazz of
"Maybe". Tuneless opener "All I Need to Know" manages to make 4 minutes
feel like they last an hour, while the saccharine "He Loves Me Not" is
enough to make us vomit up the seven donuts we ate for lunch."

Read the rest of me being mean at BBC Music and avoid the album with care.

Shunt It

Another site I write for is the ace London blog - Londonist. It's a professional blog which is part of a worldwide chain covering cities such as Paris, Philadephia, and LA with the New York Branch being pretty massive over there.

Before I started writing for them, I read the site regularly and always heard about thing I'd never have known anything about otherwise. This still remains the same today prompting me into going to bizarre things I'd never heard of. My colleague Hazel writes about culture, events, arts and food - topics far more high brow that my music or entertainment nonsense.

A couple of weeks ago she wrote about the Shunt Lounge at London Bridge. I don't really want to say too much about this, I just want you to trust me and go. It's a bar in a very secret place and I guess it's only through word of mouth that people are going as you couldn't just find it. Going there makes you feel like you've discovered a secret bit of London and I love Hazel for telling me about it.  My old housemate Seldo saw a
production held in the same place a couple of years ago and urged us to
trust him and just go. We weren't too keen not knowing what the hell it
was and sadly didn't. How we regret this now.

The bar is open Wed, Thurs and Friday nights from 6pm until late and located on Joiner Street within London Bridge station. It's free at the moment although membership from Jan - March for £25 for you and a friend is purchasable, otherwise expect to pay £5. What you need to do is come out of the tube station through the ticket hall and that puts you in Joiner Street (which is still part of the whole station complex - it's got a pie shop on it.) Almost directly opposite the ticket hall is a door. Confidentally walk through that door and just keep going. Don't let anything stop you.

I can't find the damn Londonist post on it, but here is Hazel's personal one. Resist reading it if you can - just go there. At the very least don't tell whoever you take with you where you're going, just let it be a surprise. James nearly wet himself at the excitement of it all. Perfect for anything, but particularly to show someone a cool bit of London or to create a very memorable date (you'll at the very least almost certainly be forced to hold hands).

Oi deafo!

As you might know, I write music articles for various websites. One of my favourite sites to write for has a regularly used comments page on album reviews. Every so often I come across a really crap album and fans get mega cross and leave sometimes hilarious comments. I dread to think what the slagging I've given the Emma Bunton album will result in, but I like to look at them sometimes. Here are my latest favourites:

On Sugababes - Taller In More Ways: an album I called disappointing, annoying and dull (ahem)
"i fink sugababes r wiked n if u fink dey r
rubbish den ur rubish urself n u shudnt b aloud to rite on eya u shud
shut up n listen to it aleast dey can sing i bet u dnt like em cuz ur
jelous haha!! love yall.x.x.x.x."
"they are so cool but Kelly clarkon is better if u agree im me or els"
"that is the worst reveiw ever and the guy should
be fired! the babes rock and they are 100000000 times better then the
catty girls 2loud! sugababes are pop queens and thats that."
"this album is brilliant! i think tht the person who reviewed this don't understand music!"
"i like sheep n does any bod no hw 2 get da words
2 sugarbabes ugly ??? bi da way avent read this couldnt b bovered :)bi
the bi if u read this u r gay lol do u lov me ???? bibi XXX" What does that last one even mean??

On Pink - I'm Not Dead,
"Who is this person writing the review is she
deaf?
P!NK FOR LYF"
"I think P!NK is so great i've got her name tattooed on my body how about that for a fan"
"ur just jealous that u dont have pinks success and brains"

LOVE IT! Bring it on Buntonites.

 

Holland: 12 Points!

Remember when Ally McBeal gets herself a theme tune? Whenever she goes, when she needs a boost, she hears her song in her head and off she goes.

Well now, I've found mine. A couple of weeks ago the ace #1 Hits From Another Planet posted The Netherlands winning entry from the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest - Teach In with Ding A Dong. Still remaining as the last time Netherlands won the contest, it beat the UK entry (The Shadows - Let Me Be The One) into our very favourite 2nd place by 14 points. What's more, Teach In were the first act to perform on the night, the first winners under the 12, 10, 8 - 1 point system and only the 2nd band to win the contest.  They also hold a special place, holding the title in the year between ABBA and the UK's Brotherhood of Man wins.

Teach In were Gettie Kaspers, Chris de Wolde, Ard Weenink, Koos Versteeg, John Gassbeek and Ruud Nijhui. Imagine having to announce that!  Ding A Dong was their only UK hit, reaching no. 13 in April 1975 and they split shortly after in 1978. Ding A Dong is also known as Dinge Dong in it's native land. It's almost unbearably upbeat but pulls through particularly with it's fabulous breakdown which sounds a bit like it's gone into the Grandstand Theme Tune (thanks Jack). This is the type of thing Emma Bunton wishes she could come up with. Plus if you can't love a song which goes "Ding-a-dong every hour, when you pick a flower
Even when your lover is gone, gone, gone" then you've got no soul.

Download Teach In - Ding A Dong (English Studio Version)
Watch the performance at The Netherlands selection show in it's native language
Watch the final moments of Eurovision 1975 and marvel at how slow it is, fast forward a bit and watch them reprise their winning song.
Watch Edywn Collins covering the song on Eurotrash

REVIEW: Amy Winehouse Live

I never really used to like Amy Winehouse, but some how she's managed to produce what is perhaps* my favourite album of 2006. When she first came out I probably didn't actually even listen to her, I just foolishly dismissed her as akin to Melua and the like, but now, oh my god, she's amazing.

Nazza and I went down to the ever-pleasant Koko in Camden a couple of weeks to check her out live. We'd both seen her before in first album days - she played at my amazing graduation ball alongside The Scissor Sisters, Spooks, and Ash - but I don't think I paid any attention. This time, I was a bit worried she might show up too drunk to sing, but I was wrong, and she totally delivered.

"With lead single Rehab blasting its way into the charts, Mark Ronson's production has added a glamorous hip-hop beat to most of her Motown-inspired numbers and never is this more obvious than on the glorious second single, You Know I'm No Good, sounding here more Brooklyn than Camden.

Title track, the dark Back to Black is undoubtedly the jewel in the album's crown with its melancholy, staccato piano transporting you to a smoky, dingy soul club in the 60s, the kind that none of us are old enough to actually remember."

I cheekily think my original copy is slightly better than the slightly edited version but still, go read the rest of it at the lovely BBC London.

If you've not heard the album yet, and you like the sound of sixties soul-y girl groups, motown and brass all with a minor hip-hop twist then I totally urge you to check out Back To Black. Rehab even gets played at Miss-Shapes and the amazing Unskinny Bop, and I've no doubt You Know I'm No Good will be going the same way. In fact, everyone's favourite Pop Idol was at Miss-Shapes this week and stood drinking by the bar all night - only when we played Rehab did he dance, complete with a run-to- the-dancefloor -when-he-heard-it-start move. If you want to check out some songs that aren't the singles, then try the title track, Me & Mr Jones (Fuckery) and Tears Dry On Their Own first

I might start hanging out more in Camden, I want Amy to be my Chanukah drinking buddy.

A lot of people have slagged off Robbie's Rudebox album, but I'll happily say it's one of my favourite albums of the year. It's hard to go wrong really when you've got both the Pet Shop Boys and Mark Ronson working on it.

This is a very cute video which is the first in a series of short-films promoting the album. If you hate Robbie, don't worry, he's not in it. It's just very funny and well worth a watch:

Props to Arjan

This Friday at Popstarz

Hot new Pop!

This is Linda Sundblad. She is Swedish and unsurpringly makes fantastic pop music.

I'm late on the case here. The poplogsphere was bubbling with this girl last week with the excellent Sounds of Sweden doing a detailed review of her debut solo album Oh My God. In fact I didn't even like Back In Time, the first song I heard from the album, with it's messy English '16 and still virgin' lyrics. But now, now everything fits.

Linda is the former lead vocalist of Swedish rock outfit Lambretta, who admittedly I've never heard of. But this album is pure pop. Lead single Oh Father glides along simply and makes me childlishly giggle at "oh father i've been touching myself and I'm sorry" every time I hear it. And the true standout of an excellent album is the midtempo Lose You - a light poppy vocal over a very New Order bassy sounding chorus.

This album is so good, I think I'm going to physically purchase it. And if that's not a positive recommendation I don't know what is.

Download - Lose You / Check myspace / Buy Oh My God!

I’m running out of television

I rarely watch television shows I really love live these days. The obvious exception is Torchwood as I'm rarely out on a Sunday evening and it is a nice finish to the weekend; and X-Factor as it's (moderately) fun before partying on Saturdays.

Last week I finished watching downloads of Hotel Babylon. I didn't really know much about the show but was aware of the book on which it was based. But it was perfect TV viewing. Tamzin Outwaite and Max Beesley were great leads and the whole thing was very glossy and perfectly conjured up the images of 5* hotels. Plus having Craig Kelly on screen is never a bad thing. Plus on the go I have Love Film sending me DVDs of Shakespeare and Chaucer Retold as anything with Billie or Sarah Parish in it is good right?

So what to watch now? I'm currently enjoying season 3 of best show evah Veronica Mars (ok possibly 2nd to Angel, I can't decide) and looking forward to the second series of Life On Mars. Plus someone has recommended Bones and the first episode of Jam and Jerusalem was alright. But other than that I'm pretty lost. Can you help?

Shows I like: Angel, Veronica Mars, (new) Doctor Who, Buffy, Torchwood, Life On Mars, Hotel Babylon, Blackpool, Casanova, Peep Show, *cough* Hollyoaks *cough*, Beauty and The Geek (USA s1), Ally McBeal (s1-3), Frasier, Lead Balloon, Red Dwarf, anything involving Gordon Ramsay, X-Files, SatC, Allo Allo, Goodnight Sweetheart, The Brittas Empire (i'm not sure i'd like these last three now i'm not 13 though), Dead Like Me, 3rd Rock from the Sun,  Eerie Indiana, Spooks (s1-2). OK I'm rambling now. 

Shows that have passed me by with little interest: Lost, Desperate Housewives, Dawson's Creek, The OC (I've never watched this, but probably should have - too late now), 24, Party of Five, anything involving fake alien faces

Shows I think I should try: Firefly, Ugly Betty, Alias

So any ideas? I think things like The Wire would be a bit too intense and I don't think I can handle trying to catch up on a decade of The West Wing or Sopranos. Should I watch The L Word, QaF USA, Nip/Tuck, Charmed, Smallville or will these be too hard to catch up to date on? What's the new Matthew Perry show like? Why is Eamonn Holmes presenting a show in America? I'll watch more of How I Met Your Mother if it happens to be on, but what's Till Death like? What about Heroes?

Please help me people of the world, especially you, Jack, Graham and Sizemore. Merci

I am not joking

I am interviewing these two on Monday. Any questions?

EDIT: This has been postponed to the end of next week now.

This Friday at Popstarz

I’m reverting to being a teenager

But he's soooooooo hot. Oh Torchwood, how we love thee!

Superjupiter @ Too 2 Much

Last Thursday was a week off djing (hurrah!) so off we went to the launch party for new electropop compilation Robopop. It was held at Too 2 Much which had inexplicably been renamed the 'Soho Revue Bar' and like our lunch at Ronnie Scott's it was cool to see a venue we'd heard so much about. It's also in one of my favourite bits of Soho where the street goes really narrow and the hookers go hardcore (i'm not sure what that says about me.)

Anyway, the CD contains lots of cool artists like Goldfrapp, Dragonette (yay!), Performance, Temposhark and Soho Dolls. I need to listen to it more to check out the bands I don't know, but it seems pretty ace. Performing live at their launch party were Formatic, Super Jupiter and Matinee Club. Issues at the door meant we only got in just in time to see the end fo Formatic, a London brother/sister duo, but they sounded much squeakier in real life than on myspace.

Super Jupiter are a three piece from Norway and are mates of the astoundingly dreadful Lorraine. In fact two of Lorraine were in the audience and my mind wandered quite a lot trying to figure out a way of destroying them. Anyway we received Super Jupiter's single You Know through a DJ promo list ages and ages ago and really liked it. Again there's an easy Scissor Sisters reference here, but I need to remember that high pitched and camp doesn't always equal SS, but well mainly it does and it's 4am, I can't be bothered to be any more in depth here - you can hear it on their myspace. We had planned to see them before at a showcase at Camden's Barfly but managed to show up as they were packing up. So now was the time to see how they transferred a really produced synthy sounding record to a live performance - and, well, they pulled it off. You can watch their mildly amusing skating video, which Laurie you'll probably love, at youtube.

Then came Matinee Club, which is the unnecessary new name for The Modern. Ditched from their label after a chart rig fiasco and minus one or two members, the band were as tight and as good as ever. But - I was pretty bored. We first caught them live supporting Kaiser Chiefs [argh CDUK is now offline and I've lost all my screengrabs. Argh]  at Ibiza Rocks in 2005 and they sounded right up my street. Female, vaguely Stefani-esque vocal, with a big fat chunk of 80s glampop. But now, well to me it just sounds a bit tired and boring, and honestly I think they looked a bit dishearted. That said if you'd slogged your guts out, finally got signed to a major, and then got sent back to slogging your guts out hell, you'd probably be a bit pissed off too.

We Are Scientists @ Popstarz

Last Friday night Popstarz was host to a show from American geek-rockers We Are Scientists, who bombed it across town via XFM, to play a six song set for us. I was a bit worried about this gig to be honest. Sure people liked WaS but they aren't an absolutely massive Popstarz band. Such worries were unnecessary though as when we arrived at midnight, the club was really full and much busier than I had expected.

I'd seen the band before, supporting Editors at Astoria in 2005 and briefly at Benicassim this year, and although I think they're alright, I'm not a massive fan. That said, their performance at Popstarz was actually really good, and their cover of The Ronettes Be My Baby certainly brought it up a notch or two. Also Chris from Editors joined the band on stage to play bass during The Great Escape so let's hope he thought the club was cool and Editors want to play too. We played the 2 - 4 slot after the band and managed to keep people dancing to Mika and CSS. Hooray!

REVIEW: Girls Aloud - The Sound of Girls Aloud

I've discovered it's very hard to write about your favourite band. I am not ashamed, i'll say it loud and proud - Girls Aloud are my favourite group*.

Anyway I like the review I wrote last year of their third album Chemistry, but this time I was writing about the Greatest Hits, songs which I've listened to about a billion times and don't really have much to say about any more. So after a lot of scrambling about, and with some sentences still not flowing as nicely as I'd like this is what I came up with:

When "Biology" rolled round with its jarring bluesy intro and double
chorus, you could almost hear the walls between musical genres being
battered down by Louis Vuitton handbags.

In retrospect, Louis Vuitton should probably read River Island or something.

Read the full review online at BBC Music.

* This does not mean I approve of their Xmas single. Unless they turn it into a double A with something good.
 

I can be brown, I can be blue

Over the last couple of weeks I appear to have seen a huge number of gigs live and not managed to blog about them, so here is a frantic catch-up

If you've not heard of Mika yet, then you probably will be soon.  He's Universal Records big hope for 2007 and has already been signed up to soundtrack an American 'Red' advert as bizarrely as the new face of Paul Smith.

Mika's is originally from Beirut, but now lives in London and is a dead cert for your new favourite pop artist of the year if you like the Scissor Sisters. He's tall, good looking, very colourful and seem to be channelling the voice of Freddie Mercury. I don't know if he's gay or not, but he's certainly fabulous.

Last Wednesday, we headed down to World Famous jazz bar, Ronnie Scott's, in the middle of Soho for the very first time to see Mika get a bunch of press people together at lunch time and sing to them. To make us like him more we were fed some chicken with very salty chips and as much free white wine as we could all guzzle down our ligging throats.

We'd had the amazing dancetastic Cutting Crew-esque Relax - Take It Easy through on a DJ promo list early in summer, but had only just got the album sampler for the forthcoming Life in Colour Motion the week before. This was a good thing, as we knew the songs and could sing along as we all know pretending we are the pop star ourselves at gigs makes them 100% better. But, even if we hadn't this would have been fun as one newbie to Mika declared upon leaving "Bloody Hell, that sounded like a greatest hits set."

Mika sang 5 fabulous songs (and 1 bizarre one), including the aforementioned Relax - a song which is so good that if you'd not heard the rest of his material, you'd expect to be the greatest thing on his album. Amazingly everything is this good. Love Today goes all Beck on our asses with Mika chatting away before it turns into a big stomping chorus, Grace Kelly talks about his love of the great screen legend and features the best Freddie impression we've ever heard; Billy Brown is a cute, tear worthy tale of a man who gets married but has a secret gay lover and the gigantic Big Girl (You Are Beautiful) sings about his love for the non skinnies among us and is getting pummelled, courtesy of us, on the Popstarz dancefloor. His vocal range is incredible and it's very easy to warm to him. The only somewhat strange thing about the gig was his encore - a song called Lollipop which wouldn't seem out of place if sung by Gwen Stefani accompanied by part of a musical.

And as for the venue - well we'd never been to Ronnie Scott's before, but if you ever get the chance, I'd totally recommend you go. It's exactly as you might expect - chairs and tables and lines of seats surrounding the stage as if you were back in the 1940s - it's very like a much smaller version of Blackpool's Funny Girls venue. I'd love to see it on a proper night, but I can imagine it's unbelievably smoky.

Finally, if you're in London, I'd recommend you can catch Mika at Dingwalls next week, otherwise you can catch him on Jools Holland on Friday, or at regional dates round the country next week.

Update:

iTunes have Billy Brown as their free download this week.

Check out his Myspace
Download Relax and  Grace Kelly

and use this funky music player to

listen to two acoustic tracks from forthcoming EP Dodgy Holiday

REVIEW: Jamelia - Walk With Me

This is from a little while ago. After all Popjustice's shouting about the Jamelia album, for me it was totally disappointing. The 'best song ever' was just a lazy rehash of SOS and the lead single was a dreary faux-rock piece. Yes, it may feature Mrs Slocombe but it's all very forgettable. XO London completely disagrees with me.

Slinking back onto the scene after the birth of her second child,
Jamelia describes her third album as "more experimental, more crazy".
In reality it's a continuation of the brilliant singles, mundane albums
routine. In fact, even lead single Something About You doesn't pack its
desired punch, and languishes in Kelly Clarkson b-side territory.

Read my restrained review of its pantsness online at BBC Music.

Tonight @ Ghetto

Tonight join Laurence and myself to dance at Rockstarz while listening to these guys.

You'll probably recognise vocalist Tina from the cute and colourful video to Annie Mac favourite and Crazy Itch Radio highlight Take Me Back To Your House. Frankyl, it's refreshing enough just to see a Jaxx video where you don't have to avert your eyes from some massive breasts.

Just in case you thought my TV viewing had gone to pot recently...

We are all willing Albert to win, yes?  Clicky Clicky for a more 'revealing' look.

Dear o Dear

The ace Knockdown may have only charted at #41 (what is wrong with people?!) but that is the least of the worries for Alesha as The Sun today revealed that her husband Harvey has been boffing Javine. Urgh.

The Sun says:
MC HARVEY and singer JAVINE HYLTON have been rumbled having an affair.

The pair were caught in bed at Javine’s house by her boyfriend KARL “KG” GORDON last week —     and he immediately phoned Harvey’s wife ALESHA DIXON to let her know the sordid news.

Former MIS-TEEQ singer Alesha has now moved out of
the marital home, sickened by her husband’s betrayal with a woman she
had counted as a friend.

Anyway, the main point of this post is because I just went on  Javine's myspace and I'm glad to see real life really does spill over into the world of internet communities. Seriously check these comments

"TWO-FACED HOME-WRECKING BITCH.
FILTHY BITCH.
YOU CANT JUST GOING ROUND SHAGGING SOMEONES HUSBAND. 
I HOPE KARMA SMACKS YOU FULL FORCE IN THE FACE BEFORE I DO.
SLAG!"

"WELL UR A BITCH, I JUST WANT U 2 KNOW THAT! DO U ENJOY TAKING THE FUKIN
PISS OUT OF SUM1 THAT IS CLOSE 2 ME? U A MARRIAGE-WRECKER, AND I CANT
BELIEVE I EVEN SPENT MY MONEY ON U!
I HOPE U SUFFER U BITCH!
DONT EVEN THINK ABOUT SAYIN HELLO 2 ME, COS ILL JUS THROW AN EGG AT U!"

"GET SUM REAL HAIR PLEASE, HORSE HAIR AINT GOOD ENOUGH!"

"YOU ARE A HOME-WRECKING SLUT."

Oh the internet, how I love you.

I Just Want to Make Totally Sure…

... that despite X Factor getting more boring by the week, we are all behind Eton Road to win.

The twinkles in their eyes, the flirty looks, the otherwordly spirit
of Anthony that not even Louis Walsh will ever be able to tame.

Not only is Anthony ripe for a love mauling if he ever sets foot in
Ghetto, but can you really turn down a man who says he wants to win
because he'd "love to buy a chihuahua for company" and unashamably says
his favourite artist is Will Young?

No. Vote Eton Road!

In similar news last weekend (Swing week) we were fortunate enough to get a couple of hospitality tickets to see X Factor be filmed. I'd applied for tickets for the show in the past but now I've learnt people started showing up at 10am I won't try again - once was enough. There was lots of standing up, lots of out of tune clapping, the audience all swaying in different directions etc, but Tony Bennett and Sinitta both said hello to us which is, er, enough.

Partying like it’s 2001

Last week the Karinski.net homegirls took a trip back to 2001 to see All Saints play live in Shepherd's Bush. We'd already seen them once before when they sang dreadfully out of tune at Blackpool's swanky Winter Gardens but now older and on the comeback tale this, their first gig in 5 years,  was going to be different.

Corporate hosted events are always going to be filled with alcohol, but 3 really pulled out the stops for this. We hadn't even bothered to press it up and just showed up as normal punters only to meet a shedload of free cocktails followed by a free bar, and more mini food then you could imagine. Nothing beat the chicken caesar salad myspace provided at The Cobden Club the other week, but the jam roly poly with custard nearly did!

Just before the band came on, Tamsin Outhwaite, her hubby, Kate Thornton and someone who looked like a third Appleton barged their way to the front positioning themselves almost on top of us. Naomi got to bump and grind with Outhwaite all night while they whooped and screamed "YAY NATALIE! NICOLE!! HI HI HI HI!". The girls looked the same as ever but had much more credible partners skulking at the back watching them then in olden days with both Liams knocking about.

I like new single Rocksteady a lot, and the other 4 new songs they played sounded equally as good. I've not heard them again yet on record so my alcohol blitzed memory can't really comment on them that much other than they were funky and as Shaznay would put it "had a bad-ass groove".

Rockstarz @ Ghetto

So tonight I did my first slot at Rockstarz, in fact my first night at Ghetto which wasn't Miss-Shapes, meaning I didn't have old faithful Girls Aloud to fall back on. Rockstarz is all about guitar music and about live bands. Tonight we had Plastik playing. I was quite nervous about the night - I played by myself (james didn't really wanna go out) and indie stuff isn't my home base. I might play at lots of indie nights now but you got to remember I was a girl who grew up on Billie and the Spice Girls :-) So, I was flapping to extremes spending all day trying to catch up on new music and then all of my first set completely stressed out.

But, despite it being the end to a weird, sad weekend datewise, it was fun, fun, fun and awesome to play songs I love that aren't mainstream and have people dance. Popstarz is very much the indie charty songs, but Rockstarz is a lot more open minded. Plus it was cool to play alongside Laurence.

I didn't write a setlist down but I played ace stuff including Datarock - Fa Fa Fa, Noisettes - Scratch Your Name, Peter Bjorn & John - Young Folk (totally beating Sinclar for whistly song of the year), Veruca Salt - Seether (thanks Kim!), Klaxons - Not Over Yet (hello! Floorclearer!) some Easyworld, Sons and Daughters - Dance Me In, Metric, The Faint, White Rose Movement, plus some other stuff I can't remember right now. Anyway it was ace! Hopefully I'll do it again, but in any case check out this list of bands Rockstarz has coming up and at least make sure Dragonnette goes in your diary.

Oct 23 : Plastik
Oct 30: Joana and the Wolf
Nov 6: Eskimo Disco
Nov 13: Dragonette
Nov 20: The Far Cries
Nov 27: Look Look (Dancing Boys)
Dec 12: Shit Disco
Dec 18: Parka
Jan 8:  DiskoBoy
Jan 15: Fleeing From Finales
Feb 5: The Scha La Las

The rest of the weekend was as good as could be. Friday at Popstarz marked our one year anniversary at the club from when we covered from Sandra's trip away last year and cacked ourselves at the then meant to be one off. Since then i've basically ruined the entire night by convincing the rest of the DJs that Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone was an appropriate thing to play (sorry! i've stopped now!). :-).

Saturday saw me face the dilemma of one of my favourite clubs just down the road from our house or opting to spend some time in a world where I might meet some men who aren't gay. I thought of Clare's words, was strong and took the latter option to party with my Aztec Warrior housemate Naomi and her friends from uni at Rock Garden in Covent Garden which was pretty good fun and contained that element of normality of just dancing to random shit, charty songs that I'd oddly been missing from my hometown days! Alcohol and sickness made homies go home, but 1am was no stopping time for me and I knew Trash Palace would be there for me. 10 mins later and I was on the way to Ghetto (for what? the 7th wigout in 8 weeks maybe???) with Jamie and Nic, before I scarpered off to meet Alex for a bit in Soho House, before dragging him back to Ghetto. We all then got the crazyiest cab in the world back home - I always refuse to get unlicensed cabs but it was 6am and after wandering up and down OCS trying to decide whether to go to Balans for breakfast for 30 mins we just needed to go home.  Anyway said cab did have a licensed sticker, despite trying to pick up randoms on the street and I managed to barter him to £17 for a drop at our house and one in E9. Bargain. The best bit was that the cabbie had made a cd full of total drunk classic songs - I can't even remember what they were, but they were ace and we all sung along really loudly and loutishly all the way home. Huzzah. On Sunday we all woke up feeling mega shit but a trip to the weirdest restaurant I've ever been to which I just had to introduce Alex to, made it all better. The place is LMNT on Queensbridge Road and their Sunday Roasts are ace. I'd recommend that you don't click that link - just trust me, and go without any idea of what it's like. It will blow your mind.

Hmmm, that's a blog taking this back to the self-indulgent days of old wittering about myself. I don't really write anything about myself anymore for fear of odd, psycho cyber stalkers. But, er never mind!

Miss-Shapes: 19 Oct 06

Not done a setlist for a little while so here is what we played last night in our early set. It got very busy, very early and I enjoyed the early set. Nothing exceptionally new or exciting, just fun. Hooray.

The Clash- Rudie can't fail
Rumble Strips - Oh Creole
The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers
Beck - Cellphone's Dead
Teddybears - Yours to Keep [Nenah version]
Giorgio Moroder - Baby Blue
Gwenno - Dance Alone
Shampoo - Cars
Dead Disco - Automatic
Stefy - Chelsea
Protocol - Where's The Pleasure
Presets - Are you The One
Fischerspooner - Happy
LCD Soundsystem - Tribulations
Softcell - Sex Dwarf
Peaches - Boys Wanna Be Her
Gossip - Standing in the way of Control
Portabello - Covered in Punk
Bloc Party - Helicopter
Ashlee Simpson - Boyfriend
CSS - Let's make love
Le Tigre - TKO
Basement Jaxx - Plug it in

Catch us at Popstarz tonight and Rockstarz on Monday!

Spektrum - I’m Not Shy

This is the new video from London dance kids, Spektrum, who you may know from the Zipper hammered Kinda New.

It's called I'm Not Shy, it's in the shops now and it's ripe for some ass-shaking.

Vocalist Lola Olafisoye has the same funk and mischievous voice you may expect to feature on a Basement Jaxx track, but as the lead singer of Spektrum, she gets a bassline with a lot more SQUELCH. You can hear more from them on their myspace page or catch them live at The Great Eastern Hotel on November 24. The album Fun At The Gymkhana Club is out very soon.

Breaking news

Here's some breaking news for you...

After our Scissor Sisters gig earlier in the year, Popstarz will be hosting a short gig by We Are Scientists on November 10th. Book it in now! See you there?

Blogtastic

In case you haven't noticed the Radio Times have introduced three regular blogs on their site, after the success of Grace Dent's Big Brother blog over the summer. Grace returns with the TVOD blog, while various people, including my friend Jack, contribute to the Why We Watch and The Best.... Alongside odd things on lowculture (more so the forum than the main page though to be honest), I've been using these sites to fill my increasing television viewing recently. Off my own steam I've redevloped more than a passing mature re-interest in Hollyoaks but a Radio Times review got me watching Jack Dee's BBC 4 sitcom Lead Balloon which has been providing giggles. If you've missed it then you can handily watch it online!

Another ace blog I've seen recently is Londonelicious. Writen by an American girl living in London, Kristan writes really friendly, detailed reviews of restaurants around the capital which you can handily view by postcode. Ace for checking somewhere out, and also for suggestions when I'm trying to think of somewhere cool to go.

Last night I went to see Fischerspooner play live in London at Koko. They were ace. Turning last year's Odyssey show into something resembling their first year shows, they managed to combine theatre and dramatics with being a proper band.

And my interview? Well all my worries were totally unfounded and Casey and I had a great chat about a lot of things including Dolly Parton, a Fischerspooner perfume and Burt Bacharach. The full interview will be online very soon but it was super fun! Yay. I so need to stop gettting mega nervous before interviews, as they always seem to be fine. Three favourite bands down, one to go.

Tv time travel

I appear to have a thing for time travel. Is this common?

While as a child, I, like well probably pretty much everyone, loved Back To The Future and it's time travelling ways, It's only recently that I've begun to think that if you involve time travel in a TV show, it can't fail but win my heart.

For starters let's take Crime Traveller. This shortlived BBC drama series was the first post-Eastenders outing for Michael French before the doors of Holby called. Also starring Red Dwarf's Chloe Annett, it's eight episodes told the tale of Detective Jeff Slade (French), police scientist Holly (Annett) and her late father's Heath Robinson style time machine. The pair flirt a lot, but mainly travel back in time to help solve crimes. Although I've recently purchased the idea on DVD, I haven't watched it yet, so can't quite remember anything specific other than I loved the show. Unfortunatly it wasn't very popular, and no one I ever mention it to remembers it!

More recently of course, we have the ace new Doctor Who. Admittedly I've only seen Doctor 9 onwards episodes and fell asleep during the only old story I was shown (Robots of Death). But the other great time-travelling success of last year was Life On Mars. Although I didn't watch it live, I caught it a few months ago and loved it's mix of crime and comedy. If you've not seen it, John Simms plays DI Sam Tyler, a police detective in Manchester, who crashes his car, falls into a coma and wakes up in the 1973. Why, is unknown, but we'll no doubt find out. As he struggles to find a way back into his real life, Sam has to get used to the spectacularly different police world of the seventies very quickly with bullying boss DCI Gene Phillips and the only person he's told about his predicament, WPC Annie Cartwright. I'm not really sure what else I've seen John Simm in, but I think he's brilliant in this show. Alongside a great cast is an awesome set with a sense of the smoky, seedy sixties Manchester excellently created.

Today brings news that series 2 of the show will be it's last. While I don't want to spoil series 1 for anyone who hasn't seen it, for me it ended a little unsatisfactory. Although I'll be disappointed there won't be more episodes, perhaps it is best to resolve the mystery in a decent time span rather than dragging it out for years.

Finally, of course, we have new Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood launching on BBC Three on October 22. A bus with the giant Robin Hood advert replaced with Torchwood drove past our house on Friday and we all squealed with excitement. I've no idea what it's going to be like or whether I can get over the memory of John Barrowman snogging lots of girls in ...Maria a few weeks ago, but I enjoyed the character of Captain Jack so am looking forward to it. Will it be the Angel to Doctor Who's Buffy and end up way better than the parent show itself? At time of writing the Torchwood site requires a password to proceed but I don't know what it is. Any ideas?

Bargain Bin: It’s a Girl Thing, with the right swing

In a world post Spice Girls and mid-Steps/S Club, record labels were scrambling about all over the place trying to sign the next big pop group.

Before Girls Aloud came along in 2002, there were two other Girl... groups - who tried their very best to fill the gap, but ultimately failed. Like much good pop that fails, it doesn't mean their songs were the problem.

The first of these were Girl Thing who burst onto the pop scene in 2001. Looking colourful, lively and not afraid to speak their minds, these were girls who were 14 when Geri and co. appeared and were put together by the men who the Spiceys famously quit in their early days - Chris and Bob Herbert. And my couldn't you tell. There was one with blonde bunches and puppy dog eyes, a shouty Yorkshire one and they all had distinct styles and personalities that liked to be looooud.

They were great because:

1. One of their members was Jodi Albert - Hollyoaks brilliant Debbie Dean and superior Nadine-a-like.

2. One of them was from Blackpool and went to Hodgson High.

3. One of them had pink hair.

[I wrote this post in July but never finished it. Now I see Del has posted his own blog about Girl Thing. Seriously, what are the chances someone else I know would both about a random, defunct girl band. Grrrh. If I write anymore it will copy his so just er read his.]

This is the video to their first single - the still ace Last One Standing which charted at #8 in July 2000. Only one more song, Girls On Top, would follow until they were carted off to the dumper after a really, not too bad chart of #25. They would 'famously' go on to be the band who got pissed off when Hear'Say released Pure and Simple as they recorded it first. The other 'Girl...' group I was going to mention was Girls@Play but I can't seem to find anything about them, or even my own Mp3 to mention them. Anyone got them out there?

As if to say, he doesn’t like chocolate

Every year there's some indie bands that make it and some that don't. 2005 was the year of Kaiser chiefs, Bloc Party and Maximo Park while 2006 has been The Automatic, The Fratellis and Boy Kill Boy.

When Bloc Party arrived on the scene, they were lauded by all and sundry including the BBC who declared them second in the sound of 2005 poll (behind The Bravery (snork!)). At first Silent Alarm didn't do that much for me. Sure, it was competant indie but Ricky had gone on about it so much I was expecting a revolution.

Over a year on though and Silent Alarm is totally holding it's own. DJing can leave you bored of some songs - while you love them at first, playing them over and over and over again every week can make them tire really quickly, but not Bloc Party's. Both Banquet and Helicopter fill the dancefloor and get nearly everyone dancing. And the best bit: they still don't bore me! Hooray! (Plus Banquet has an ace ending which makes it sound like you're doing some rad mixing even when you're not)

So, as old as this may be, I was mega excited to hear the Santa Monica mix of Helicopter this week. Produced by a Portugese DJ who I don't know anything about, this takes away all the frantic, rushing urgency from the track, and replaces it with summery acoustic guitars. Perfect to hear alongside the sunset at Mambo.

The Yellow Stereo has a copy if you're yet to hear it. It's ace.

Bargain Bin: Wasted Conversation and Bad TV

If there's one thing my music collection can boast, it's that it's home to lots of pop songs which were brilliant but ended up erroneously consigned to the Woolies bargain bin for 49p. And sure as well I'm going to go on about them, particularly if it means more people are going to hear about them. Yes, I've gone on about the Rachel Stevens album to most people I know probably enough to last them a lifetime, but what about those odd little songs.

The first I'm going to mention is Abs - 7 Ways. Richard Breen was born in dear ol' Hackney and somewhere along the way acquired the nickname Abs (never mind a dubious Jamaican accent) and joined a boyband. 5ive. 5ive were always my favourite boyband, and the brilliant 5ive megamix (complete with dance routines) soundtracked my time at uni, as well as our most recent houseparty. Then Sean got replaced by a cardboard cutout, and eventually the band split - only to announce their reunion last week. Whether the new 5ive will be much cop is yet to be seen, but I'm all of a sudden understanding my old friends love of J.

Abs went on to be the only member of 5ive to launch a solo career and even went as far to release a whole album - Abstract Theory. The Uptown Top Rankin sampling What U Got was a good starting point charting at #4 and other singles did as well before an acrimonious split with his record label. The poptastic PosterGirl has just posted a blog which goes into much more depth about his album and his singles, but I specifically wanted to talk about the dumped before it was ever released 4th single 7 Ways.

Introduced to me by Poptext Abby last year, 7 Ways is produced by Xenomania's Brian Higgins and is a slowy by his standards. Opening with a soft, chiming electro noise, a melancholy beat continues with Abs softly bemoaning a lost love before Eve (not crazy American rapper woman, but a then, new BMG signing who doesn't appear to have reappeared since) joins in with a soft, wilting chorus. It bizarrely reminds me of brilliant dance track 7 Colours by Lost Witness - c'mon you remember it, big trance-y track '7 colours, come across the sky and I remember my last rainbow' 'After the rain, comes the sun' BOSH BOSH BOSH. I presume this is for more of a reason that both tracks begin with the number 7, as despite 7 Colours being a monstrously big dance track, it seems to me to have a similar vocal style and the female voice reminds me of dear, unknown Eve.

Watch and hear the song here: (n.b. the video is quite rubbish so don't let that put you off)

Scary shit

I always knew Elmo was evil, but I never expected him to start doing nazi salutes (and generally going apeshit.)

Interviewing Fischerspooner

In 10 days or so (eeeek), I'm going to be interviewing the marvellous Fischerspooner. Emerge has remained a dancefloor classic and despite 2nd album Odyssey not doing very well commerically -  it was my 2nd favourite album of 2005.

So yes, now I'm interviewing them before their performance at Koko as part of Smirnoff and the Electric Cabaret on 12 October. How I'm going to get out of Miss-Shapes that night is a whole other matter and their stage time may leave me shooing James off to DJ while I dance in Camden. So... I might have a free spare ticket to this depending on a few things. Otherwise tickets are still on sale via the koko website if anyone fancies it for the bargain of £6.50!

My dilemma is - Fischerspooner are notoriously not the friendliest of bands. Maybe this is an unfair assumption people make, who knows, but still. I'm a bit shy with interviews anyway but this one is making me cack my pants! How do I talk about the fact that the critics hated Odyssey? And the fact that although I enjoyed their performance at Manumission, not many others knew who they were. All these and many life changing questions are yet to be solved.

But in any case, any fans out there with any questions I can ask the band for you?

Lazy Sunday Links

• "Why, Justin? What are you going to do? Knife me in the spine and rip
  her dress off in front of me? I wouldn't put anything past you by now,
  you hateful, preeping maniac."
  The ever ingenious Charlie Brooker dissects Sexyback.

• Ex Sugababe Siobhan Donaghy goes all Kate Bush on our ass with new song Ghosts.

Alesha - Knockdown

The very lovely Spoony finished a 6 year stint at Radio 1 last week and I've very much enjoyed spending the last two years working with him. I only got round to listening to his last show yesterday (I was out of the country when it was live) before it fell off Radio Player, but with a very funny Mills and Spoon and a couple of guests, I'm glad I did. Hilariously from Oct 3, you can catch him on Strictly Come Dancing, where I expect everyone I know to vote Spoony!

Anyway, that aside, one of his farewell guests was the awesome Alesha. Her brilliant debut single Lipstick charted much lower than it deserved at no.14 and October 16 brings single no.2 Knockdown. Totally different to the in-your-face style of Lipstick, it's reminiscent of Kelis' Trick Me and I guess if I have to say it, of Lily Allen too. The bassline is funky funk and it's pretty immediate. Based on the tracks I've heard, Fired Up, her debut album, is shaping up to be a stonker, and just the two singles alone beat anything on the new Jamelia album. Plus the video version breaks down into an unexpected crazy-voiced Alesha rap to remind us of the good ol' Mis-teeq days. Hooray.

Robbie Williams - Lovelight

This is the video to the new Robbie Williams single Lovelight.

I'm not really sure of Robbie Williams place in the pop world at the moment. His ballads which were once certain top 3's have been getting weaker and weaker, and (excluding Rudebox) when was the last time we had a fun, party tune from the cheeky chapper. To top it off, last album, Intensive Care didn't really go anywhere. Sure, tickets sold out for his tour, but as far as new material went - it was as if he'd suddenly lost his relevance in a world in which he was previously king.

Now less than 12 months after the release of the last album, he's back with new album Rudebox and I can't help but feel it's going to end up a really underrated, forgotten about great album. Above is the video to new single Lovelight and after a few listens I'm gradually getting my head around it. At first it seemed that if I didn't know it was Robbie I'd think it was really cool, but knowing who it is slightly weirds me out. And it's not that I don't like him, Robbie at Knebworth in 2003 is still one of my favourite gigs ever.

Lovelight is a cover of a little known American song and this version is produced by the ever wonderous Mark Ronson. Hearing Robbie falsetto for a whole song is a little strained, but give it a few listens. What do you think? (Could this be any more George Michael by the way)

*sob*

1 single and dropped. :'(

Goodbye Frank. Mr Lampard will now enjoy his own 'Totally Frank'.

Frankly (ha), I'm more than gutted about losing Naomi's celebrity doppleganger.

New Pop - Silya

You know when you find a song that makes you scream WHAT IS THIS and then you listen to it constantly for about an hour on repeat? Well yesterday that happened with Rock With U by new Norwegian artist Silya. Sounding like it could quite easily be an Alesha track (maybe it's the same writers/producers), this makes an immediately MASSIVE impression. Silya's got a really warm, rich soulful voice, particularly for a slim looking blonde Norwegian!

Rock With U is a guaranteed dancefloor filler and features a killer sample from the fabulous Freda  Payne with Unhooked Generation. On her myspace you can also find a gospely duet with man of the moment Cee-Lo, as well as two other tracks from her album hitting America in July 2007. Rock With U is being released over the ocean some time this Autumn but I'm on the case to get a copy for playing at Miss-Shapes very, very soon.

V 2006

Yesterday we trundled along to the Chelmsford side of the V festival. Having failed to apply for press accredidation in time, we had to pay (gasp!) for tickets, but it was well, well worth it.

1. The festival is organised with military precision. Buses carrying punters to and fro the site from the nearest rail station were in abundance, free and very easy to get on. Similarly the train station is much, much better organised than Reading during their festival.

2. We missed the Divine Comedy. *sob*

3. The Magic Numbers sound record-perfect live. Unfortunatly they aren’t quite interesting enough to bother watching for more than 5 minutes.

4. Everyone is on average 10 years older than those at Reading / Leeds. A festival minus the angry rock/emo aspect? Hooray!

5. ‘Reason for going to V no.1’ The Cardigans retained their newly realised place as favourite band ever’ in my heart. A pretty similar set to when I saw them in London earlier in the year, they played three Gran Turismo tracks (Erase/Rewind, Favourite Game and Hanging Around) and filled the rest of their set with tracks from their last two albums.

6. Playing giant Connect4 on the floor of the Oxfam Stall is fun.

7. ‘Reason for going to V no.2’ was Girls Aloud. I whooped with delight when they were added but wondered exactly how a festival crowd would react to our pop princesses. The answer = mentally. The huge JJB tent filled up 20 minutes before the girls were on and was completely full with 20somethings dancing around to Biology, Love Machine and amazingly I Predict A Riot. They even brought dancers. Dancers and dance routines at a festival!!!  I just hope they do another arena tour before splitting so I can see them properly.

8. Editors sounded great from far away, but we were a bit busy playing the new Super Mario in the DS tent. I am totally going to HMV to buy a DS shortly.

9. Radiohead sounded epic but weren’t as enjoyable as the tuna bagel I was eating while watching them. They kind of passed me by while I was growing up, but enjoyed all the big hits including the spine tingling Paranoid Android.

10. Why weren’t Ladytron booked? They would have been perfect.

 

Beyonce - Ring The Alarm

There was a time when I disliked Beyonce Knowles. Second only to Easther Bennett in my chart of ‘evil women in pop’ (now probably overtaken by Nadine Coyle), I hated the way she strutted round Destiny’s Child like the queen bee. Yes B, only you can sing, only you can get the nice outfits, the best dance moves. To be fair, her dad was their manager, but still!

Now though, she has for the first time gone scary. And you know what? I kinda like it.

While fans despair at Deja-Vu’s erratic dancing and haute cauture fashion (DISGRACEFUL!) with their bizarre petition, they are going to be for a even bigger shock when they see the video for her next single Ring the Alarm.

Making great use of an air raid siren, this is Beyonce at her craziest. Taking off bits of Basic Instinct in the video, la Knowles continues in her attempt to become Tina Turner. Watch her crazy eyes as well as her even more erratic dancing. Warning though, if you don’t like the track immediately don’t dismiss it straight away. It’s hard, it’s violent and it’s like Beyonce has lost the plot. She has, but she’s jumped on a completely different one. I hope the rest of B’Day is this interesting. Click through that video to Youtube and check out the comments on the vid. Bonkers.

Morningwood II

Last night I saw Morningwood for the 2nd time. The 1st time was a monster of a gig at Club NME. In one of the largest venues in London, it's probably not ideal for a new band as their first UK gig, because it is *always* going to go down from there. Despite having cancelled two gigs this week, the band finally kicked some ass on a very small scale at Barfly where about twenty very clever people showed up to watch them. What the rest of London was doing that was so much more important than seeing Morningwood I do not know.

Despite having about 980 less people bouncing around to their songs than last time, it was still great fun, and Chantal Claret still kicks ass as the one of the best frontwomen I've seen (in good company with Dead Disco Vicky). This time there was no stripping of a man down to his boxers with her teeth, but CC did enjoy stealing punter's pints and spitting in them, as well as pleasing the lesbian contigent of the audience by rubbing herself up something rotten with a girl in crowd.
Being able to convince us 'quiet London girls' that we should all get down on the floor for N-th Degree also earns her some kick-ass points. If only there had been more people there - I'd have no doubt she could have got a full Barfly to do it. As another CC points out she is indeed an "audience terrorist" and James' face of fear every time Chantal came near the audience is something to be cherished. It's trashy, it's aggressive, it's pop rock filth. Be a clever person next time they're in town.

Download : New York Girls (MP3) // Myspace // Buy : Morningwood

Miss-Shapes August

Coming up at Miss-Shapes in August, we've got Canadian Smiths wannabes, The Organ playing live on the 22nd. We're not djing that date, but we'll be there bopping along.

This is what we played last night:
1030 - 1200
Ashanti - Only U
Lady Sovreign - Hoodie
Estelle - Free
Spice Girls - Step To Me
Pulp - Party Hard
Under The Influence of Giants - Mama's room
Apartment - Taxi
Young Knives - Hot Summer
Suffrajets - Worthy
Sunny Day Sets Fire - Wilderness
The Jam - Eton Rifles
Jamelia - Something About You
Stefy - Chelsea
The Modern - 7 Oceans
Dead Disco - Automatic
Soho Dolls - Pleasures of Soho
Boy Kill Boy - Civil Sin
Editors - Blood
Kasabian - empire
Mystery Jets - You Can't Fool Me Dennis

0100-0200
Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again
Boy Kill Boy - Suzie
Muse - Supermassive Black Hole
Uffie - Hot Chick
Justin Timberlake - Sexyback
Nelly Furtado - Maneater
The Automatic - Monster
Blur - Girls and Boys
Pipettes - Yr Kisses R Wasted On Me
Lily Allen - Smile
Blondie - Call Me
Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been gone
Placebo - Nancy Boy
Justice vs Simian - We Are Your friends
Alesha - Lipstick (THIS SOUNDED AMAAAAAAAZING)
Cansai De Ser Sexy - Let's make love and listen to Death From Above
Puretone - Addicted to Bass
Girls Aloud - The Show
Hole - Celebrity Skin
Strokes - Juicebox

Night off Popstarz tonight. Instead we're off to see Apartment at 333. See you in Brighton.

You should like, totally come dudes

We're playing here on Saturday between 3 and 5.50. Come along, originally uploaded by trixie.

Catch us in the Popstarz tent at Brighton Pride in Preston Park, Brighton between 3 and 5.30pm.

Big Sexy Land

A few months ago James and I were DJing at the launch party for the ace New Young Pony Club's single Get Lucky when we were approched by a very beardy man while playing Los Super Elegantes brilliant cover of ESG's Dance. The beardy man turned out to be one of the Johns from London clubnight Big Sexy Land (sounds dodgy, is not) and he invited us to play a guest slot at one of their nights sometime.

Eventually we got round to doing this last month, and played a rather poppier set than the rest of the night seemed to be. But hey, hurrah for pop! Thanks to Jack & Claire for coming!

This is what we played:

  Metronomy – How Say
  Ural 13 Diktators – Blind Love
  Shiny Toy Guns – Le Disko
  Pet Shop Boys – Minimal
  Bobby Conn – No Revolution
  Pulp – Party Hard
  The Noisettes – Scratch Your Name
  Clor – Good Stuff
  OMD – Waiting For The Man
  Diana Ross – Nathan Jones
  Girls Aloud – Wild Horse
  Lisa ‘Left-Eye’ Lopez – Block Party
  Le Tigre – Phanta
  The Clash – Rudie Can’t Fail
  Annie – The Crush
  Gwenno – Dance Again
  Sarah Nixey – Strangelove
  Robots in Disguise – DJ Got A Gun
  Vitalic – My Friend Dario
  Rachel Stevens – So Good
  Client – Xerox Machine
  Elvis Costello – Pump it Up
  Puffy Yumi Ami – Call Me What U Like
  Delays – Valentine
  Morningwood – Nth Degree
  Los Super Elegantes – Dance
  Mia – Heroes
  Dead Disco – Automatic
  Wire – Dot Dash
  Kitty and the Ks – I Am MF

I could write paragraphs about nearly all of those songs, but I won't. If you want to know any more about any of them, then just ask. And always remember The Hype Machine is your friend.

Beni ‘06

I'd never been to a music festival before last
summer. Yeah sure I'd been to the odd free festival or party in the
park, and hey even a day at Reading Festival in 2004, but last summer
was the start - the biggie.  I guess I'd always been a bit scared of
mud, and of camping. Never having camped as a kid, I didn't understand
how you fit in a tent never mind sleep in one.

Summer 2005 was
to change it all, as we booked tickets for Glastonbury, Reading and
Exit (Serbia), and even toyed with the idea of Bestival. The camping
issue had to be sorted though, and a trip to Argos saw us buying a
moderately expensive (but well worth it) comfy airbed duvet combo bed to go inside our tent. I still scowled mind.

Glastonbury
was incredibly muddy, Reading scary, but Exit? Well Exit was the dream.
Held at the top of a fortress overlooking the Danube, we spent 5 days
in Novi-Sad listening to music, eating meat and drinking very cheap vodka, but admittedly mainly eating meat.  This
year with no Glastonbury, we pondered a return to Exit (if only to eat
at the incredibly good restaurant we ate at on our final night), and
even attempted to figure out if we could afford a trip to America to
Coachella. One year, but not this one.

Instead we, like many other
Brits, plumped for Benicassim a Spanish festival held in Benicassim town, near Valencia.  In past years line-ups have sounded great and this year was to be no exception. Plane tickets were booked many moons ago but we refrained from buying tickets hoping that we might be able to acquire them via a different method. Then, normal tickets sold out, and we were left quite frankly shitting ourselves. Then like a shining beacon from above Melodytrip appeared and asked if we'd like to cover the festival for them. Via complicated accreditation systems, our tickets only got confirmed last week and now we look forward to an early wake-up tomorrow and a lovely flight from Gatwick to Barcelona before checking out whether Spanish trains are any better than their English counterparts.

No worries about camping this year, as we've got a room in a swanky air conditioned bungalow on one of the campsites. Yup we're going to be one of those jammy gits who rock up into a little house, instead of sleeping on the floor. Hooray! Other than camping, I was somewhat afriad of the heat out there but it seems that the UK is going to be even hotter than Spain this week meaning we can't rub it in the
faces of our non-Benicassim-going friends - bah! It doesn't help that
we're writing this in an air conditioned basement in London with no
concept of the weather outside either. I get the feeling I really shouldn't be looking forward to the tube journey home though.

We'll be bringing you all the gossip and news from the festival as well as telling you which bands sucked, which set our little hearts on fire, and how many rock stars we manage to convince Kim to introduce us too. Catch our coverage over here.

Place your bets now

Thoughts on this later maybe, but here's the list of nominees for this year's Mercury Music Prize.

Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Ballad of the Broken Seas
Editors - The Back Room
Guillemots -Through the Windowpane
Richard Hawley - Coles Corner
Hot Chip - The Warning
Muse - Black Holes & Revelations
Zoe Rahman - Melting Pot
Lou Rhodes - Beloved One
Scritti Politti - White Bread Black Beer
Sway - This is My Demo
Thom Yorke - The Eraser

Seriously, could it be much more yawnsome? Admittedly, I've only heard a few of them so I probably shouldn't judge yet - but it does just  look boring, doesn't it? Hooray for Muse and Hot Chip, but where's Come and Get It and Chemistry, for gawds sake!