Memory Tapes coming to London

Continuing with gigs at The Luminaire, here’s another exciting one… The fabulous Memory Tapes will play the Kilburn venue on Wednesday 20 January, with Fitness Club Fiasco in support.  Details and tickets here.

Memory Tapes is New Jersey producer Dayve Hawk, and makes flirty little singles, prolific amounts of remixes and longer, mixtape-style adventures for various blogs.  All of it’s dreamy, drenched in imagination and often enhanced with earnest-sounding vocals, and all of it sounds cosy and warm, ideal for these Arctic times we’ve entered (more in these previous blogs) – although a girl-group record is coming next!  I’m not sure what to expect from the gig: whether it’ll be a series of the catchy, shorter songs like Plain Material, or much longer, DJ-like segments as with the Magic Sequence below.  Probably a bit of both.  But who cares, maybe - everything old Memory does is brazenly catchy, so we’ll basically be dancing our mittens off whatever goes down.

MySpace | Website | Buy |
MP3: Memory Tapes – Magic Sequence

The mysterious jj to play Luminaire

Ooh you’ve gotta love a little mystery.  jj are… well, that’s just it, hardly anyone knows who jj are.  The only facts in print are that they are Swedish, come from the Sincerely Yours label (home to Air France), released an EP (jj n°1) and an album (jj n°2) in 2009 and make woozy concept pop rich in mellow moments and beguiling rhythms.  Some of it’s original, some minimalist covers (check out Ecstacy, below, built around the beats of Lil’ Wayne’s Lollipop.

Intrigued?  Good news, then: there’s now the chance to find out more: jj are playing the excellent Luminaire in Kilburn on Wednesday 17 February.  Details and tickets here.

MP3: jj – Things Will Never Be The Same Again

Music Tips for 2010

It’s nearly the end of the year, the decade in fact, and that means one thing – it’s time for Some Of It Was True! to try and name next year’s big things.  There’s one rule: I’ve limited myself to acts with 5,000 friends or less on MySpace – no Marina & The Diamonds for me.   It’s more exciting for you, and more exciting for me.  Here are my 10, then:

Moonlight Bride
I’m not sure which came first, the hairs on the back of my neck or this fourpiece from Chattanooga, Tennessee – but they sure as hell were made for each other.  This is lustrous pop-rock: sometimes woozy and woodsmoke, others euphoric and Saturday night.  When Justin Wilcox’s voice fully purrs, as on Young Guns, I close my eyes, and I’m in the car, heading south, sun on my back, carefree and happy, knowing it’ll all be okay soon.  Then the chorus kicks in, and I gun it like never before…
MySpace (796 friends) | MP3: Moonlight Bride – Young Guns

Valentina
I blogged about this London soulstress just recently, and I’m so enthused I’m doing it again.  A satin voice belying her tender years, Valentina makes warm, fuzzy music over piano tinkles or Ally McBeal-style choirs.  Where Heart of Glass is the dreamy stuff of Sunday night strolls and red wine, Dulcimer Sound is a bit folkier and less polished.  That’s okay, though: you get to come across all Simon Cowell, and tell friends that once the kinks are ironed out, this one’s got it…
MySpace (2348 friends) | MP3: Valentina – Heart of Glass

The Sweet Serenades
I’ve had to stop playing ‘On My Way’ while out listening to my iPod as it’s dangerous: last time I was doing a silly dance involving stiff shoulders, hip shakes and exaggerated paces on Brick Lane when I almost walked into a bemused Big Issue seller.  In short, The Sweet Serenades’ extrovert rock-pop, glam and gleeful in equal measure, is irresistible.  Of all the 57,283 cool Swedish acts out there right now, this duo – Martin and Matthias, no less – are right up there with the best.
MySpace (1102 friends) | MP3: The Sweet Serenades – On My Way

Freelance Whales
“I get up early just to start cranking the generator”.  It shouldn’t be brilliant, but somehow it is: a joyous simple high in a joyously simple song.  That’s Generator ^ First Floor, all ragtag-guitar intro and echoey folk; listen to that and then the more layered Generator ^ Second Floor and you’ll be in a dozy pop-folk swoon that a quintuple espresso couldn’t interrupt.  Based in NYC , this is a band makking elegant music for dog days when rain taps on the windowpanes and you never take off your pajamas.
MySpace (1232 friends) | MP3: Freelance Whales – Generator ^ Second Floor

Fool’s Gold
The purveyors of 2009′s finest slice of trop-rock heaven: Sunrise Hotel.  Already the beneficiary of numerous remixes, from Micachu to Phaseone, this was a tinkling, relentless belter, full of inaudible but exotic-sounding vocals and slaloming, whistle-pitched guitars.  Other songs like Nadine are just as seductive, but with a classier, brassier edge.  A January date at Madame JoJo’s is written in my diary with the inky excitement normally reserved only for the end of my girlfriend’s period.
MySpace (3578 friends) | MP3: Fool’s Gold – Surprise Hotel

Othello Woolf
The latest signing to Young & Lost Club, Woolf is into a sort of retro-neo-soul (only wanky bloggers can make pronouncements like that): starting with soft grooves, he layers in machete-sharp guitars, suave crooner vocals, dashes of dirty blues, quaint bells, digital frolics… whatever he’s inclined towards, basically.  A very modern one man band, Woolf is refrshingly unique but not, thankfully, isolatingly eclectic like many contemporaries.  He’s also good looking and sounds a smidge like Bryan Ferry, and the lord can only be praised for that.
MySpace (197 friends) | MP3: Othello Woolf – Stand

Bruce Peninsula
Named (useless trivia alert) after a Niagara escarpment near their Canada home, this sometime supergroup – members of Timbre Timbre and ohbijou contribute, among others, but the line-up’s never too constant - combine a spiritual zealot sound with funky gospel anthems like Steamroller.  Guitars peal, cymbals tremor, horns honk, cellos swoon and amid it all, chief singer Neil Haverty makes gravelly-voiced pronouncements.
MySpace (1681 friends) | MP3: Bruce Peninsula – Steamroller

A video of the band performing Steamroller:

Real Estate
New Jersey-based purveyors of a slightly burnt-out digipop sound that’s seductively easy on the ears.  On delicate songs like Fake Blues, the vocals are vulnerable and overshadowed by the most sincere of guitars; on the more lucid Beach Comber, they play a more prominent role, supported by calmer strings.   Elsewhere there are drums and electronic effects, but one thing never alters: each song is constructed around a simple, yet impossibly catchy, central rhythm.
MySpace (3167 friends) | MP3: Real Estate – Fake Blues

Avi Buffalo
Has anyone sounded this earnest since Passion Pit broke onto the scene?  What’s In It For is a cuddly, careering rock-pop ballad, punctuated by high-pitched singalongs, aching guitars and cutesy lines like “you know I love it when you put your fingertips around my shoulder”.  Much more subdued and rather pretty is Where’s Your Dirty Mind, minimal vocals around a solemn piano and whisper-quiet guitars.  Vim and variation, then – it’s easy to see why Sub-Pop have recently snapped up the youthful California quartet.  Expect.  Big.  Things.
MySpace (2125 friends) | MP3: Avi Buffalo – What’s In It For? (MP3 removed on request)

O’Spada
The big disco-pop act of 2010?  On the basis of first single Time (beloved of everyone from Monocle to the ever-maddening Annie Mac) and now the follow-up Ten Strikes, it’s very likely.  O’Spada are a Stockholm five-piece – Julia’s falsetto soul-singer vocals and four boys with some drums and a lot of electric - and fuse disco and funk into one high-octane good time.  You’ll possibly love them and probably hate them, but O’Spada seem set to be ubiquitous in 2010.
MySpace (2671 friends) | MP3: O’Spada – Ten Strikes

Theophilus London’s time – now? Or now? Maybe now?

Theophilus London was one of my big tips for 2009 UK ascension.  That hasn’t really happened, but the Brooklyn-based singer/producer/remixer/DJ/deity has remained amazing popular in blogland, and put out the blinding This Charming Mixtape.

Maybe twen-ten is his year though?  Two reasons for this déja-vu logic: one, he has a new single, Humdrum Town, out with free exclusive singles label Green Label Sound, and it’s as stupidly catchy and funky as normal; about as irresistible as a cute cat playing with tinsel.  Talking of which.  Secondly, old Theophilus is due in the town of his surname early next year – he’s playing the Gilles Peterson Worldwide Awards show, where the DJ showcases his favourites, at The Garage, along with Lee Fields & The Expressions and a host of others.  Details and tickets here.

MySpace | MP3: Theophilus London – Humdrum Town

Diplo takes CTRL tomorrow night!

DIPLO.. DIPLO..  I love how Santi White says the producer’s name in previous megamix.  I also love the sound of his latest London mischief-making: he’s the latest cool-as-duck artist in monthly charge of the CTRL project.

What does that demand?  Glad you asked.  Diplo has to edit the CTRL MySpace blog, then curate a live show.  He’s live on the site now, and for his night – at Fabric, tomorrow (16 December) – he has chosen Croydon dubstep leg-end Benga, upcoming digi-gangsters Primary 1 and remix supremo Mumdance.  Unfortunately Dippers has also invited Micachu & The Shapes along, but we all make mistakes.  It still sounds like a great night.  Tickets are £7 and available here. 

MP3: Primary 1 – Foaming  

2009 tips – who was right and who was wrong?

With all this talk of predictions for 2010 (mine coming soon), I thought it would be fun to look back at some big names’ calls for 2009.  Who made it, and who didn’t, and which writers look smug and which have an eggy complexion?  Here goes…

BBC (Sound of 2009 longlist)
The Big Pink, Dan Black, VV Brown, Empire of the Sun, Florence & the Machine, Frankmusik, Kid Cudi, La Roux, Lady GaGa, Little Boots, Master Shortie, Mumford & Sons, Passion Pit, The Temper Trap, White Lies
Pretty much all of these made it big in 2009, although Dan Black, VV Brown, Mumford & Sons and Master Shortie less than the rest.  Then again, the feeling persists that the bands instantly make it big simply by being on the BBC’s hugely-read list.  Which basically means Auntie’s cheating, by suggesting hot tips and therefore at the same time ensuring the accuracy of those tips.  Disgusting.
Verdict: DQ’ed for cheating (Otherwise 87%)

Times Online
La Roux, Broken Records, Empire of the Sun, White Lies, Kid Cudi, Animal Collective, 6 Day Riot, Heartbreak, Pageboy, The Big Pink, Ane Brun, Rumble Strips
Other writes having started with five solid picks, Times music man Pete Paphides dared to dig a little deeper into contemporary pop obscurity, and paid for his audacity.  The Big Pink, yes – everyone else from Animal Collective onwards, no.  Heartbreak for Heartbreak and broken vows for Pageboy – it’s a cruel world.
Verdict: 54% – Pathetic Paphides lets side down

Sunday Times
VV Brown, Florence & The Machine, Karima Francis, Frankmusik, Lady GaGa, LeLe(Speaks), Terry Lynn, Lisa Mitchell, Passion Pit, thecocknbullkid.
One band, one male singer/DJ, and no fewer than eight female solo artists in The Sunday Times’ annual predictathon.  Of those, one band, one male singer/DJ and preicsely two female singers made it.  VV Brown gets a half-mark.  Lisa Mitchell is great, but recently did a UK tour without playing London.  Terry and Lele, much as I love them, are probably a tad too aggressive for the mainstream.
Verdict: 50% – two many women spoilt the broth

Alan McGee in The Guardian
The Grants, Hatcham Social, Panthu du Prince, Jonathan Wilson, Dent May & His Magnificent Ukelele, The Vortex, Wavves, Errors, Ipso Facto, The Sessions
Making reference to his one good pick (Glasvegas) in 2008, McGee boldly foresaw prominence for real unknowns – most of whom stayed really unknown.  Wavves and Errors found some fame: as for the rest, not so much.  I’m not sure the staff in Shoreditch’s Duke of Uke shop will have heard of Dent May; while The Vortex seem ever more inappropriately named.
Verdict: 10% – Last year I scarcely made one good pick

NME
Florence & The Machine, The Virgins, Empire of the Sun, White Lies, The Soft Pack, The xx, The Chapman Family, Little Boots, The Big Pink, Kid Cudi
A very decent effort this – amazingly, no-one else had mentioned The xx, so NME deserves some real credit (and a bonus mark).  God I hate saying that.  Neither The Virgins nor The Soft Pack did much, and I think only Les Dennis knows who the Chapman Family is, but everyone else achieved the infamy NME expected.
Verdict: 80% – New-Music Experts

HMV
Gary Go, White Lies, Lady GaGa, Keri Hilson, Filthy Dukes, The Answer, Red Light Company, Lauren Izibor, Little Boots, Florence & The Machine
HMV’s Rob Watson said there were no stand-out acts for 2009 – complete rubbish, as he then named alll three of them (White Lies, Little Boots and Florence).  This list ended up being a curious list of solid choice and who-the-hell-are-theys?, worrying when even a blogger has to find out.  Happily, records by the maddening Gary Go were bought only by those trying alternative mosquito repellents.
Verdict: 45% – Florence & co get the green light, Red Light Company get the… stop sign?

MTV
Lady GaGa, Julian Peretta, White Lies, Master Shortie, The Virgins, Daniel Merriweather, MC Rut, Little Boots, Kid Cudi
This ‘spanking’ list was ruined by the fact that emteevee picked Mr Merriweather – a man already reasonably famous at the time – and then saw him actually get less popular.  Some morals of some stories are pretty obvious.  Elsewhere, some success but also more failure: MC Rut lived up to his name and Julian Peretta lost out to Julian Plentl in the (imaginary) battle of Julian Ps. 
Verdict: 50% – Merriweather friends’ spanking list fails to kick ass

Drowned in Sound
Crystal Antlers, Catherine A.D., Grammatics, It Hugs Back, Mumford & Sons, Sky Larkin, Shield Your Eyes, Three Trapped Tigers, Wavves, Women
Credit where it’s due – DIS put together this list in mid-November.  That’s bold.  And possibly regretted now (no 2010 list is yet available).  Crystal Antlers, Mumford, Wavves and Women did okay; TTT’s time is surely coming, just later than expected.  The rest have failed to capitalise on the momentum provided by this most influential music source.
Verdict: 20% – drowning in mediocrity

Gigwise
La Roux, Kid Cudi,  We Have Band, Mumford & Sons, Little Boots, Hockey, Spinnerette, Golden Silvers, Amazing Baby, Everything Everything, Lady GaGa, The Temper Trap, Lissy Trullie, Florence & The Machine, Passion Pit, White Lies, VV Brown, Titus Andronicus, School Of Seven Bells, Dinosaur Pile Up
A whopping 20 tips, many of which came good.  That said, this list came suspiciously late; what’s more, any act on here that wasn’t lauded elsewhere failed to cause much of a ripple.  Lissy Trullie is hot property across the pond but unknown here; Titus Andronicus make lovely noise, but perhaps too constant a racket.
Verdict: 50% (steward’s enquiry) – could be wiser

Music Ally
White Lies, Little Boots, Florence & The Machine, Mumford & Sons, VV Brown, Lady GaGa, thecocknbullkid, Dan Black, Frankmusik, Dinosaur Pile Up, Alessi’s Ark, Passion Pit, La Roux, Master Shortie
A rather generic list: but that’s to be expected: Music Ally aggregated all existing lists at time of going live (Christmas Eve).  Interestingly, most lists that followed included the same artists.  Of them, onlyAlessi’s Ark and DPU remain relatively anonymous, although thecocknbullkid hasn’t picked up fans as everyone (including me) expected.
Verdict: 68% – that’s how much you can trust we music oracles

Now, most of these sonic soothsayers, who dared put their reputations on the line by naming tomorrow’s stars (or by copying from blogs),  have been rather ridiculed here.  But don’t think I’m all high and mighty.  Before this blog began, I wrote annual predictions on my (then personal) MySpace page.  Let’s see how I performed in 2009:

Me
Mumford & Sons, Theophilus London, Violens, Passion Pit, Solid Gold, Amazing Baby, Clues, Tulsa, Marina & The Diamonds, Flosstradamus
Hmm… I still stand by some of these – Marina’s just running a year late, while Violens’ and Theophilus’ time should come soon.  I saw Amazing Baby live after this and didn’t think much of their back catalogue; neither was I that impressed with Clues’ later songs.  The likes of Solid Gold and Flosstradamus are perhaps a bit too niche and meditative, if bloody good. 
Verdict: 20% – Basically, I sucked

Stay outta trouble kids

Rule 1: never blog while drunk.  Oh well, what the hey.  I’ve had a great night at Manor House and here’s a dreamy little treat of a song that was running through my head all the while…

MP3: Mr Gnome – Slow Side (zSHARE)

A tune for a tweet? them:youth offer free MP3

One of this blog’s favourite bands, them:youth, are offering a free MP3 in exchange for a tweet.  Only problem is you’ll be a one-off spammer – the requisite tweet is “Get themyouth’s song In Your Way for free in exchange for one tweet”.  To-the-point yes, but likely to induce tuts from those relying on your normally wise words…

If you’re weighing up the merits of annoying your followers versus getting a free tune, listening to it might help.

Hurts like the 80s

Some songs are heavily 80s-influenced; some are just plain 80s.  I’m never quite sure where the boundary lies between being inspirational and being a rip-off lies, but the music of Manchester duo Hurts flirts painfully close to the latter.  First single Wonderful Life is classically emotional electropop, crying out for a remix, gaudily reminding of Ultravox and Joy Division, and effortless catchy despite syrupy sax sounds and expressionless vocals.  The video’s great, too.

MySpace | Website

Disco Not Disco

After a successful September pilot, the excellent Disco Not Disco mini-festival is back for five nights at The Legion next week (15-19 December) with a killer line up.  Playing live are Wolf Gang, Is Tropical and Fenech Soler (interestingly hailed by Time Out as “white disco”) while Late of the Pier, The Big Pink and Primary 1 (all 18 December) are DJing.  Weds 16 December looks to be the best night, with Django Django and Veronica Falls performing.

It’s free entry on Tuesday and Wednesday too - £5 entry for the rest of the week.  More details here.

Tues 15 December – Wolf Gang, Is Tropical
Weds 16 December – Django Django, Veronica Falls
Thurs 17 December – Fenech Soler, Mothlite
Fri 18 December – The Big Pink (DJ), Late Of The Pier (DJ), Primary 1 (DJ)
Sat 19 December – In Flagranti (DJ), Rory Phillips (DJ)