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.