Kiss You Off

Finally Scissor Sisters release the best (and least annoying) song on the album. This is the Ana led "Kiss You Off"

On a vaguely related tangent, I'd recommend a listen to Radio 2 documentary "Behind The Velvet Rope", narrated by Boy George all about Studio 54 (which opened 30 years ago this month). The music choices are really ace, it's informative and the memories really bring it to life, particularly the insight from the doorman. You can listen again until Tuesday!!

Review: Melanie C - This Time

I met Melanie a couple of weeks ago and she was much nicer than I expected. It was for an interview and I couldn't really be arsed as post "Northern Star" I'm not really a fan, and I think you'd be hard pushed to find a big Spice Girl fan who doesn't feel any residual anger towards her. But then I stopped myself and thought "er, why are you turning down the opportunity to meet a Spice Girl!" Here is my not that exciting interview on hit40uk. She was very media trained and it was difficult to get anything but a scripted answer. Here is a random soundclip for you though: [audio:http://www.karinski.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/melc.mp3]

From my BBC Music review:

" While you’d expect the dream combination of Guy Chambers and Cathy Dennis to propel “Protected” to stand-out track, that honour actually falls to 2nd single “Carolyna”. Co-written by Chisholm herself, it’s a strong and catchy midtempo pop song that really highlights how emotive Melanie’s voice can be."

Read it here.

Pencil and Eraser

Is this the greatest piece of band merchandise ever? You wouldn't think it, but it's even OFFICIAL merchandise. We went to see Sugababes last week thanks to Dragonette supporting them. The audience didn't really seem to dig the dragons very much, but then again they didn't seem to dig the 'Babes much either. I've been thinking that the Sugababes are a really dull band for some time now. Sure their output might be great but as people / popstars bizarrely only Amelle is of any interest, it's enough to send anyone to sleep, and the atmosphere at this Wembley Arena gig was very, very sleepy. Barely anyone could be bothered to get up and dance, and the biggest cheer of the night came when a tickertape bomb was launched on the finale.

Incidentally we've got a special pop PA at Popstarz tomorrow night from a pop star beginning with M. No, not Madonna, but we can't say who. This is enough of a clue though. It should be pretty good.

The Curse of Patrick Wolf

Last week Gaypop and I fully abused a free bar at the launch party of new music magazine Popworld Pulp. Held at Soho Revue Bar, it involved a very boring set from a band so dreadful I can't even remember their name, and a special appearance from Patrick Wolf. I'd seen him before do a short set at Trash Palace which involved him and Patricia Quinn doing a rather mind-twisting version of the Time Warp but not really a set of any great length. Put up against a bunch of corporate blaggers who didn't really want to pay attention, Patrick launched into an offensive where he kung-fu kicked someone in the chest, stole beer, danced with a broom, knocked a glass of champagne from a hand smashing it onto the floor and telling us all to "fuck off home, have sex and die of aids". Lovely.

Anyway this launch party was last Tuesday. Yesterday (i.e. 8 days later) it was announced that the magazine has been shut down. Conceived as a rival to the NME, its demographic was set as 15 - 24 with a slight male bias but the content was lacking anything very unique or gripping. There were instead just lots of nice photos with not very many words about pretty obscure indie acts. Far away from the original Popworld brand, Pulp was trying to be very, very cool. And what was with the name? I can only imagine the brainstorm went something like "Oh no, Popworld makes us sound like it's a pop magazine. What can we do to make it sound more indie? *thinks of some indie bands* Hey! What about Pulp? Not only is it the name of a band, but it's also what paper is made of - and a magazine is made of paper. OMG. OMG. OMG. Signs it off."

A year in development and only two issues made, I just don't understand how it got to a stage where 14 staff were employed and a load of money was spent on something which to everyone I've spoken to about it seemed blindingly obvious was going to fail. The way music is consumed nowadays by that age group doesn't at all call for a weekly mag - I am just absolutely baffled as to how they thought it was going to work. I can only think someone really wanted to do it and ran away with the idea as their own little baby. Baffling. More about the mag here and about Patrick here.

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Robyn at Cargo

I interviewed Swedish pop star Robyn just before her gig at Cargo the other week and it was pretty good fun. You might remember her from a song called "Show Me Love" from the late 1990s, but now she's back (still with floppy fringe) on her own label releasing whatever she damn well pleases. Two weeks ago out came her first UK single in 10 years - "Konichiwa Bitches" and I hated it. Considering it a bad choice of lead single and something which didn't really make me even slightly want to check out her on her previous two UK dates, I slightly turned my nose up at Adrian's and most of the pop blogospheres pop star worshipping. Now, having properly listened "Robyn" and seen her perkily bouncing at a gig I take it all back. Hell, even "Konichiwa" rocks it live.

And in true karinski style, I take it all back using EXTREME HYPERBOLE:

"There's no time to wipe the tears away with the sublime "With Every Heartbeat" following. Produced by Kleerup (former member of Teddybears and the drummer in Robyn's live band), if we could hear no other song but this for the rest of our life, we would be content."

Read my BBC Music review, wait for me to type up my interview and get your grubby hands on at least "With Every Heartbeat", "Be Mine" and "Cobrastyle". Then get the Teddybears album, wet your pants and give your soul to Sweden.

Yelp!

Should I go? Will I be alone? Is it worth £170 flights? Are there any hotels left? Argh! Yay! Argh?!

Review: CSS - Cansei De Ser Sexy

"Every once in a while a band comes along that really makes you sit up and take notice. So when Subpop records released a free download of a record called "Let's Make Love And Listen To Death From Above", the title alone was nearly enough for us to declare it song of the year without hearing a second."

Read my BBC review of the CSS album