Olivia Swash

TheLineOfBestFit.com Review: Kate Bush - 50 Words For Snow

2011-12-26T14:57:00.000Z

by Olivia Swash on December 22, 2011 in Record Reviews

To deem the second installation of Kate Bush‘s 2011 comeback a “Christmas album” would be more than a little off-target. Perhaps it’s Scrooge-like to deny its festive merit, but the seven-track collection is far from the novelty ‘I Wish It Could Be A Wombling Merry Christmas Every Day’ approach to a Christmas release. After all, there isn’t a jingle bell nor a flashing Santa hat in sight.

After Bush’s release of re-recordings earlier this year, 50 Words For Snow marks her tenth studio album after a six year hiatus. Whilst clearly standing its ground as a winter-influenced album, any of the more jovially twee aspects of the chilly months are firmly wrapped away. Every song, whether overtly or subtly, seems to tell a solemn tale with a lonely and melancholic ambiance running throughout. Nevertheless the record is anything but frigid; and drifts effortlessly in and out of a twinkly piano-based backdrop, its delicate vocals complemented by jazz-flecked drums.

Supporting vocals come from Kate’s son Albert “Bertie” on ‘Snowflake’, his celestially clear The Snowman-esque vocals contrasting with his mother’s breathy tones. Elton John and Stephen Fry also make foolproof cameos in ‘Snowed In at Wheeler Street’ and ’50 Words for Snow’ respectively; although the latter does come across as a little too predictable. Although comfortable on a bed of tribal beats, the track simply does what it says on the tin and little more. Ranging from the ordinary (“white-out”) to the graceful (“Wenceslas air”), the count-down of increasingly surreal terms seems to exist principally for the sake of justifying the album’s title.

The highlight of the album, ‘Lake Tahoe’ opens with a luscious operatic duet and sails off into beautiful lulling waves of warm, soft piano and sustained strings. This spacious tranquility contrasts with the song’s tale of a ghostly woman rising from the depths of the Californian lake “wearing Victorian dress”. Myth has it that Tahoe’s depths are lined with illicitly dumped bodies, perfectly preserved due to its extreme temperature.

A yellow spot in the more-or-less unblemished whole picture rears its head in the 13 minute long ‘Misty’. Whilst Bush’s vocal is refreshingly raw and gritty, a distinct awkwardness meets these slightly-too-literal depictions of a night of passion with a snowman. She leaves us no clues as to the reasoning behind the surreal fantasy, describing his mouth as “full of dead leaves / and bits of twisted branches / and frozen garden”. Prudishness aside, Bush doesn’t leave much to the imagination with this bizarre narrative, concluding with the universally-dismal lines of ”Sunday morning / I can’t find him / the sheets are soaking”… It could almost be the subject of a French & Saunders Christmas Special spoof, perhaps accompanied by a censored music video.

While the rest of the album fails to rise to the complexities of ‘Lake Tahoe’, 50 Words For Snow is another stepping stone away from the interpretive-dancing-in-a-field Kate Bush of yore. It proves her credentials of distinct maturity as well as exhibiting her ability to experiment successfully with deep-set and sombre but thoroughly captivating music.

Review for TLOBF: Tubelord – R O M A N C E

2011-10-16T15:30:00.001+01:00

thelineofbestfit.com Record Review Tubelord - R O M A N C E

Happy-go-lucky Kingston-based rockers Tubelord return with their second studio full-length, along with a fourth band member and a newly honed rhythmic maturity that last year’s Aztec-inspired EP Tezcatlipōca narrowly lacked. R O M A N C E is a collection of jittery noise-pop ditties brimming with a sprightly energy, neatly encapsulating early Biffy riffs with the childlike optimism of Dananananaykroyd.

The growth from a twee fidgety trio through to a fledged and tangible electro foursome is reflected through the concept behind the album. Not that R O M A N C E can be described as a ‘concept album’ per say: there is no overt mystical vein or grand operatic tale running throughout, but the album’s methodical compilation is subtly intriguing. Lead vocalist Joseph Prendergast has rejected a conventionally emotive writing stimulus in favour of a complete lack of personal attachment to the lyrics. Rather than using egocentric references to relationships or even vague abstract depictions of events that hold meaning to him, the words are a hotchpotch of borrowed and adopted references from female poets throughout history. Prendergast defines this emotional disconnectedness as putting himself in the position of reader rather than writer.

But although it could be considered a lazy method of penning lyrics, the words as an essentially meaningless device means that Prendergast’s distinctive voice plays the part of just another instrumental layer in the unpredictable swoops of spacious intervals. The jigsaw of words, sometimes ‘re-wind and double-check that’s what he actually said’ phrases drawing you in (“Sun-tusk haze of golden / east will swallow your Comic Sans lover” – These lines alone cite the works of 6 poets over 3 decades, in case you wondered).

tubelord ≈ my first castle by tubelord

The new presence of fourth member and producer James Elliot Field is clear throughout, as the zany and sometimes theramin-reminiscent synths (‘My First Castle’ bordering on Clangers-esque blips and bloops) add a woozy Nintendo level, distinctly separating the sound from their debut Our First American Friends.

For the Poirot wannabes amongst you, the band have created a secret password-protected online index citing the references of dozens of writers from Sylvia Plath to Carol Ann Duffy alongside the lyrics. Only the eagle-eyed fans who spot the details hidden amongst the album artwork will be able to access the expansive appendix and figure out just where those odd lyrics you thought you heard have come from.

While edgy and chipper for the most part with a few deliciously dreamy lulls (’4T3′), the album is never boring. With the help of fans trusting enough to preorder so that the band could afford to create the album, it is the first release from Pink Mist – a collaborative music group made up of Scary Monsters, Holy Roar Records and Blood & Biscuits.

(Oooo!)

Tracey Emin confirmed for Durham’s Lumiere light festival

2011-09-14T12:00:00.004+01:00

Palatinate 13 Sept 2011

By Olivia Swash

Turner Prize nominee and controversial leading member of the Young British Artist movement Tracey Emin will be the highlight of this year’s Lumiere festival. Emin’s neon work will star amongst 30 installations by local, national and international artists and light designers using light art to illuminate the nooks, crannies, bridges and buildings of Durham‘s historical city centre.

The light festival, organised by Artichoke, returns for 4 nights in November at the cordial invite of Durham County Council after their previous successes enticed 75,000 people to the city to witness the unique illuminations.

The globally-acclaimed and oft misconstrued artist is most famous for her ‘My Bed’ piece, which was presented at the Tate Gallery as it was when she had spent many days within it feeling suicidal because of relationship issues. Her Everyone I Have Ever Slept With 1963–1995 piece also raised eyebrows with an assumed euphemism- a tent with an interior jigsawed together from appliqued names of relatives she has slept next to, sexual partners, and her two aborted children.

Details of Emin’s neon contribution to the festival is still under wraps, although is rumoured to be one of the main pieces exhibited at her major solo retrospective at London’s Hayward Gallery earlier this year. She has previously donated neon work to auction for charity and in 2007 her neon Keep Me Safe reached over £60,000.

Lumiere will catch your eye between 17th – 20th November around Durham city.

Published by NME

2011-09-12T14:44:00.000+01:00

Record Store Day: The Movie raising money for UK cinema release

'Sound It Out' is currently appealing for funding from fans

TRAILER: SOUND IT OUT - A documentary by Jeanie Finlay from Jeanie Finlay on Vimeo.

A film charting the daily goings-on in an independent record shop in the North East of England has been chosen as the official film of Record Store Day 2011.

Sound It Out, which offers a fly-on-the-wall look at the last surviving record shop inTeesside, was originally screened back in March at South By South West festival in Austin, Texas. The people behind the film have launched a crowd-funding campaign in order to fund the nationwide UK cinema release. Click here for more information.

Originally a small project by Jeanie Finlay, the documentary - billed as "High Fidelity with a Northern accent" - portrays not only the vinyl obsessions of punters but also store owner Tom Butchard's personal rapport with a host of regulars.

Despite the slump in physical album sales in the download era, some independent shops have clung on - though Butchard is puzzled as to why his store, also called Sound It Out, has weathered the storm.

"It’s a poor area in Stockton so I don’t really know why it’s the only record shop in the area to have survived," he tells NME. "But people want to come in and see what isn’t in the charts."

Butchard is passionate about only stocking independent and unusual music: "Downloading has killed off a lot of shops. Over the years people have told me to sell chart stuff, but if I’d started I would have closed by now."

Adding to the plucky underdog theme is the fact that Sound It Out is not the product of a Hollywood studio; it is entirely fan-funded. Over 250 members of the public contributed towards getting the documentary to Austin, Texas for its world premiere. "Joe public has paid, and it’s incredible," says Tom.

But the store isn't likely to stray far from its North Eastern roots any time soon. Tom assures us: "I want to carry on as we are. People have been coming here for 20 years so I wouldn’t relocate, Stockton is home!"

BBC 6 Music News Demo

2011-08-17T17:07:00.002+01:00

Just a little somethin' I threw together on my internship at BBC 6 Music. It was my first ever attempt at newsreading so I know it's hardly perfect!

BBC 6 Music News Demo by swashyo

Published in The Guardian, hoo-ray

2011-08-07T17:13:00.002+01:00

Clip joint: Lipstick

This week clip joint focuses on the power of the pout, bringing you five of film's most kissable lipstick scenes

Olivia Swash
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 27 July 2011 09.15 BST

Lipstick and cinema grew up together. Commercially available lipsticks hit the American market in the 1890s, just as Koster and Bial's Music Hall began exhibiting the first moving pictures. Before then lipstick was considered the preserve of the stage actress and the prostitute, a preconception that cinema's luxuriantly lippy-d stars helped to erode.

In the black and white world lipstick provided definition. It helped make great performances ("You know how to whistle, don't you Steve? ...) iconic and later, powered the signature pouts of actors such as Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. Rouged lips came to dominate the silver screen, selling beauty, sex and glamour – the promise of Hollywood applied through the application of a tinted, waxy pigment. Here are five clips that explore the power of that painted pout:

1) The old "look, no hands!" method of application. Demonstrated by Claire (Molly Ringwald) in 1985's The Breakfast Club.

2) Sienna Miller's go-getting Tammy hastily smudges her lipstick in a bid for less blatant sexiness in this scene from Layer Cake.

3) "REDRUM! REDRUM!" Stanley Kubrick's The Shining has a young child (Danny Lloyd) wielding a kitchen knife, a red lipstick and a bowl cut: a deadly combination.

4) Teetering off the surreal end of the B-movie spectrum, Night of the Demons includes a NSFW scene in which a demonically possessed, lipstick-smeared teenage girl ingests the tube through her breast.

5) (3:20) In Black Narcissus (1947), Sister Ruth (Kathleen Byron) revolts against the Sister Superior (Deborah Kerr) and nunhood itself by wearing a taboo red dress and applying lippy.

Everything Everything: Not just another indie band

2011-02-19T14:20:00.014Z

Palatinate Issue #727

indigo chats to the lead singer and guitarist of the genre-defying four-piece at the Newcastle leg of the NME Awards Tour

       Art rock? Convoluted indie? Math pop? You decide. This toe-tappingly jittery and anti-conventional four piece became sick of recycled and stagnant indie, so decided to do something about it.

   After being scouted by Radio 1’s Zane Lowe in their unsigned beginnings, the Manchester-based band site being tipped on BBC’s Sound of 2010 list as their biggest boost to success, despite at the the time having only a handful of singles in their blossoming discography.

   “It was so early on when we got it, it felt like we were the youngest there. Everyone else had albums ready to go!” guitarist Alex Robertshaw tells me as I make myself at home amongst the PS3 controllers and coffee cups in their haven of a tour bus. “Although I think in the UK you can still succeed if you’re not on that list. It’s important abroad, people seem to look at it first to see what’s new over here,” lead singer Jonathan Higgs explains. His suprisingly low-pitched speaking voice only highlights his extensive vocal range, a talent which plays a prominent part in the band’s sound.

   Having been described as ‘genre-defying’ and similar terms in the media since they formed in 2007, their jaunty sound seems fresh and new in comparison with a lot of recent indie bands due to their irregular song structures and fusion of diverse influences. But how do they go about maintaining this different approach? “You gotta keep writing and listening to a lot of music and trying to find new things. If something we write or a demo doesn’t excite us then we change it, and that’s the way we’ve always worked. It’s hard to define how you try and make things “new”... It’s not really as conscious as you might think!” Jonathan tells me modestly.

   Could this be the beginning of some sort of post-indie movement in NME’s history? The magazine itself had refreshingly branched out from the expectations of a line-up awash with guitar bands on this year’s Awards Tour, with Magnetic Man and Crystal Castles unusually starring on the same bill as The Vaccines and Everything Everything for the tour.

   “It’s really good that it’s this diverse. I was in two minds when I first saw the line-up!” Alex admits. “It certainly divides crowds, there’ll be people who will come to see The Vaccines who just will never ‘get’ Magnetic Man. But I think we’re quite lucky as we straddle quite a lot of audiences. But those same people who came along thinking “I want guitars!” may come away thinking “that was actually really good... I never would’ve gone to that!"

   “Indie’s had to develop, it’s not really holding the torch anymore which is good. It means there’ll be more of a variety of music from now on,” says Jonathan. “When indie decides to become fashionable again it’ll have to change itself a little bit which is always good. Stagnation is just so boring. No one enjoys that.

Photo: Dan Jeffries

      Whilst being helped along their way by Chew Lips and Bat For Lashes producer David Kosten, the band take pride in the amount of artistic freedom they have had on their debut album Man Alive. On the transition from their few 7” releases in their emerging days to being signed by Universal-owned record label Geffen, Alex explains “You can create a story as you’re going from standalone singles to creating a whole album. It’s a good cross-section of what we sound like.”

   The availability of technology is a key aspect of their chirpy and at times Nintendo-reminiscent tunes (see Photoshop Handsome and Qwerty Finger) “The way we write, it tends to start on a laptop, which for a so-called indie band might not be that normal. But there’s nothing to hold you back, you don’t have to think “oh I can’t make that sound on a guitar”. With a laptop you have free reign, you can even have an oboe!” Jonathan optimistically desribes. “To be defined by what your musical abilities are is sad."

   So with their quirky lyrics and upbeat ditties, will Everything Everything ever turn into a serious band? “A misconception that we’re trying to avoid is that we are this chipper band. There is a lot of serious stuff on the album and the next single will be much more serious. Although it won’t get half as much airtime because it’s not as radio friendly.” Jonathan tells me, somewhat wisened to the ways of mass media. Although with their catchy songs still having an edge with harmonising and perfectly unexpected breaks, this band is anything but a take two of The Hoosiers.

   “Funnily enough both of the re-releases are the most politically-minded on the album,” says Jonathan, “I like that some teenager could listen to MY KZ UR BF and be all “oh your boyfriend, what’s all that about?” and then think about the lyrics and realise that something interesting’s going on... Sneaking in there..."

   His theory seemed to prove true, as the general ‘first-time drunk’ swarm at the O2 Academy that evening showed, exciteably moshing to even Leave The Engine Room- by far the slowest song of the album.

Man Alive is out now on Geffen.

Photo: Dan Jeffries

2011-01-24T01:36:00.001Z

There's a house across the river but alas I cannot swim
and a garden of such beauty that the flowers seem to grin
There's a house across the river but alas I cannot swim
I'll live my life regretting that I never jumped in.

There's a boy across the river with short black curly hair
He wants to be my lover and I want to be his peer
There's a boy across the river but alas I cannot swim
and I never will get to put my arms around him.

There's a life across the river that was meant for me
Instead I live my life in constant misery
There's a life across the river but I do not see
why I should please those who will never be pleased.

There is gold across the river but I don't want none
Gold is fleeting, gold is fickle, gold is fun.

There is gold across the river but I don't want none
I would rather be dry than held up by a golden gun
saying work more, earn more, live more, have more fun.

I set myself a task

2010-10-11T18:05:00.024+01:00

Portraying Durham's music scene in an optimistic light so any newbie freshers wouldn't be too put off...
It was a tricky task... I even squeezed in a promotion for the night I now run at Fishtank...

WHERE IS THE MUSIC SCENE?
Palatinate Issue #711

On embarking upon your years in Durham, you may or may not become aware of the dwindling reputation of an obvious music scene here. The city's odd dubstep night (if you're lucky) being the most avant-garde and diverse it seems to get. This aids in making it almost laughable that it expected to be in with a chance of winning the grand title of 'City of Culture 2010' earlier in the year. Other Universities' student newspapers can't physically cover the amount of the gigs in their city, whereas on the contrary we cheekily have to dip into our neighbouring city of Newcastle's music scene from time-to-time. The University Orchestral Society of course provides fantastic classical concerts, but otherwise how can a city filled with so many sparky and creative young minds be so culturally and musically indiverse? I hear you ask. Well the short version is, it isn't. The long version... If you would, for just a moment, peer past your freshers' handbook regime, toss aside the sweaty innards of Studio, brush past the surreal haze of Klute, you will find a hive of wonderful activity (albeit a small hive, but with very dedicated bees).

Gigs in Durham aren't necessarily of massive proportions. Not everyone who plays has had something produced by Timbaland or duetted with Katy Perry, but it's safely nestled in the city with the help of a handful of student musos and it's here to stay. Fishtank being the main host, with its modestly intimate size and dive-bar atmosphere with retro Blondie and Frank Zappa décor. It's the sort of place where you could wander in one night with a friend, grab a pint, make yourself comfortable at a pew (literally- I told you it's good décor), watch an up-and-coming synth/ukulele act, and finish the night having made at least one new friend. Quite a bit to say about a little bar above a chip shop! Oh and contrary to popular myth- it does not smell of fish and chips.

Fishtank plays host to nights lasting till the wee hours, showcasing a diverse array of live bands as well as regular nights such as electro/indie Grammar on Tuesdays, reggae and breakbeats DJ sets, Absence (the best DJ collective in Durham- trust me) nights, as well as A Deer For Your Lamb sessions with their one-off stunners. Starting this term every Thursday are the new Fishtank Acoustic Sessions, with a 'bring an instrument' vibe, following in the massive success of Strum last year, which we're chuffed to hear is carrying on bigger and better this year every Saturday evening at underground restaurant/bar Cellar Door. Both of these bars are a breath of fresh air after the body-popping sweaty blur of Durham clubs (which, as we all know by now, can be very fun indeed. But when you can predict the next song on the playlist, maybe it's time to try something different!).

Head of Steam, just off North Road, is toddling in the footsteps of its big sister in Newcastle for its gig venue reputation as well as amazing choice of Belgian beers. If alternative/metal is more your thing, nip to The Angel behind North Road. It hosts alternative bands regularly, but it's worth going in any time for the friendly traditional pub atmosphere with a punk twist as well as a massive pool table, THE best beer garden in Durham without fail, one of the most well-stocked jukeboxes and best real ale selections I've seen in a long time. This is the most underrated place in Durham.
If you fancy popping outside of the bubble for a change of scene and something more specific, Newcastle is a mere 15 minute train ride away. With its variety of gigs spanning from the English Philharmonic Orchestra (16^thOctober at City Hall) to Tinie Tempah (14^th at O2 Academy) to Robert Plant (20^th at The Sage), our north-eastern big sister has an unbeatable music scene. The intimately cosy Other Rooms hosts less obvious and discreetly advertised gigs, contrary to its neighbour Digital, which showcases massive nights such as Wax:On and sets by Annie Mac (presenting Benga on 6^th October) and one-off performances (Professor Green on 13^thOctober). Newcastle nights are a must for your time in Durham, so why not add a couple of gigs to your to-do list while exams are still a mere far-off haze?
Durham's music scene is modest and needs to be sought out, but once you find it you'll wonder why you'd never tried it before. Although it may be a while before it reaches Newcastle status, it's home!

Oliver Sim's is Lovely, Laura Marling's is Frigid, Conor O'Brien's is Rotund

2010-09-08T03:21:00.012+01:00

Well, there was the surprising amount of already acclaimed acts, the requisite jazz troupe (yeah you remember the others from previous years? Portico Quartet? Basquiat Strings? ....Me neither), veteran Paul Weller (still sporting that bloody hairstyle) and twice previously nominated Dizzee Rascal. Now I know I'm probably not the only one in the world to be seeking the career slash life of Lauren Laverne, but Miranda Sawyer could have been a little more subtle as she mirrored our northern hero's combo of blonde crop, LBD and 9-month bump.

With The XX having swiftly transformed from an act only witnessed in the London indie scene to starring as the background tune to every ITV and BBC drama advert and being described in Grazia as the perfect soundtrack to a ladies' dinner party, they were somewhat an obvious choice. They seemed genuinely surprised to receive the £20,000 award too, Oliver's lovely lovely face beaming with delight. I now regret even more being too shy to go and talk to him when I spotted him a metre away at Shoreditch 1234 festival last month.

Laura Marling is someone I can't seem to trust. How can a girl with a mind profound and deep enough to evoke such gritty and dark lyrics have a pure and doll-like demeanour as hers? When she sings, it's effortless. Her face cracks as little as her voice does. She seems too relaxed to care in her casual thrown-on chunky knits and topknots, all the while presenting her brooding innermost complexities and learnings of womanhood through her songs. I can't comprehend how the two run side by side.

When I saw her perform Goodbye England (Covered In Snow) on Jools Holland earlier this year, I honestly thought she was covering some Dylan bootleg or a folk song of yore. Turns out that's just the maturity of the way she writes. (she looks amazing on this video- I'd kill for that Spice Girls vest) She's now had two nominations, and she is my age. Inadequate just isn't the word.

I want to like Villagers, I really do... With a name like Conor O'Brien he just sounds like a likeable and gentle young chap. But I don't know if it's because he looks as though he sheared his own hair with some ELC rounded-edge safety scissors and then cried when his mum told him off, or how he specifically and carefully pronounces every syllable of each word despite having... not exactly a speech impediment, but just a slightly annoying way of saying “s”... But the rugged and beardy REAL MAN impact of Simon Neil and co. was a welcome break indeed. Biffy were a shock, I wonder why they weren't nominated back in the days of one of their earlier albums. Makes me wonder what boxes are ticked for albums to make the cut.

Oh and was Dizzee even arsed? He didn't perform on the night, and as the winner was announced he was tweeting about some girl who was on X Factor at the weekend...

Hard-hitting Vogue oil spill shoot deemed ‘crude’

2010-08-25T15:55:00.016+01:00

The topical oil-spill themed shoot by Steven Meisel in the August issue of Italian Vogue was subject to an unnecessary amount of scrutiny and a journalistic 'clip round the ear' by many who seem to have concerns about... no, not size 2 models creating unachievable images of beauty... no, not rhino-leather handbags...

Ohh, worries that oil spills are being glamorised and trivialised, of course! By viewing the overwhelming images of lacquered and choked life, depicting a hard-hitting similarity to the effect of trans-national corporations (namely BP) on wildlife through shockingly destructive scenes, we're automatically going to think the oil spill is no biggy?

That's like the things people say about ten-year-olds who play GTA.

Although Vogue Italia editor-in-chief Franca Sozzani claims that 'There is nothing political. There is nothing social. It's only visual', I hope the shoot has had the same effect on others as it had on me. Through the clever usage of rugged, wiry and torn fabrics as well as clear imagery of skinny oil-slicked birds through... well... literal skinny oil-slicked birds, wearing feathered dresses and shoes. I think it's both beautiful and disgusting.

Yeah okay, it does sort of conjur up the Derelicte by Mugatu show in Zoolander... But I think the shoot brings the Gulf of Mexico oil spill to reality.

Maybe this could be a pretty big market for the fashion world, perhaps it will push people to help out aid charities. And the fashion world can show how interested they really are in current world politics! Yay.

Next up- Pakistan flood shoot...?

On Defending the Prosaic

2010-08-23T16:15:00.002+01:00

It occurred to me that too much mass journalism is merely stating facts in a certain order, with not much writing skill involved at all.

I think that writing for a living and getting pretty well paid for it is a shame if it's not original, creative and about something you genuinely care about. If I ever actually make it in the big world of journalism, I'm not sure that I could sell-out into that style, with its lack of opinions, prose and observation, its main objective being to tick the boxes of the sacred Five Ws. But maybe I'm just being a big hippy.

I know for a fact that my writing has been described as horribly pretentious (take this bad boy, for example. I was pretty proud of it but the blatant usage of online Thesauruses definitely shines through, at the wrath of many critical/catty acquaintances).
Art critics and music journalists etc. tend to have their entire industry deemed pretentious and unnecessary. But is this fair? Should showing depth of observation, knowledge, creativity and perhaps a personal approach through writing/broadcasting have this stigma? I know I'd rather read a piece of emotive and opinionated prose than an account of happenings and brief descriptions.

Long live Gonzo journalism, thank you Hunter S. Thompson.

The line between pretentiousness and creativity is something I'll never, ever understand.

Musings on The Capital #1

2010-08-01T03:56:00.005+01:00

Unless you've experienced it personally, it's hard to comprehend how or why what is essentially an urban area of high population density can affect you personally and challenge your assumptions and views. I mean, they all have the same overpriced café chains, the same golden arches and dulling chewing gum merging into the greyish slabs.

Maybe it's the culture, the soundtrack or architecture, the memories or the company. There seems to be some sort of innate divide between those who form emotional attachments to places and those who don't. And by 'attachments' I don't mean never wanting to leave the place you've always lived, I mean having a soft spot almost to the point of melted marshmallow about places. Perhaps the people who don't go away somewhere astounding and return summarising it as “yeah, nice”. I know I could talk for hours about places that mean a lot to me, and I get wanderlust more than is probably healthy, but I don't even know if others are the same!

I used to illustrate my dislike for London whenever the topic came up (fairly often when you're around ambitious budding accountants/bankers/general high flying students) by attempting to explain the feeling that if you, for some reason, suddenly needed some sort of assistance in the smoggy and claustrophobic metropolis (if you fell over or needed help with tubes, whatever), no one would look twice.

I used to see it as being of people rushing from A to B, overweight American sightseers wearing matching anoraks, street urchins, and those who do not fulfil my novel expectations of a suitable jolly cockney ratio. The strange feeling of being surrounded by thousands of people yet lonely and small, better articulated by Henry Canby back in't day in 1926-

'What we are encountering is a panicky, an almost hysterical, attempt to escape from the deadly anonymity of modern life... and the prime cause is not vanity... but the craving of people who feel their personality sinking lower and lower into the whirl of indistinguishable atoms to be lost in a mass civilization.'

…Scary.

But in London a few weeks ago for a fleeting visit, I'm not sure if the Nigerian single mother at the bus stop realised the pleasant surprise she caused by the variety of travel suggestions she kindly offered to us, a couple of slightly clueless northern girls with rucksacks, tents and Tesco value sleeping bags for reaching a rather vaguely described destination.

Nor am I decided if the attendant at the bustling King's Cross information desk picked up on my shock (and relief) that he was chirpy and cockney as he cracked a cocky “two sugars like I asked?” joke as I placed my large black coffee atop the surface to free my hands, looking confused. I felt immediate guilt for half mishearing so assuming he was accusingly asking me did I “push in or did you ask?” in a foreign accent.

I'm not even sure whether it's having someone to just wander round with who knows the places you'll like and who'll deal with the incessantly inquisitive questions about anything and everything that turned me into a lover of London. Even the tube.
Ta for changing my mind.

Don't knock yodelly music with alternating upper and lower cases until you've tried it

2010-05-24T03:03:00.004+01:00

tUnE-yArDs
BiRd-BrAiNs

Yeah she doesn't wear make-up, and yeah she kinda looks like an alcoholic aunt you'd avoid at family parties, but I love the fact that Merrill Garbus hasn't sold out to the sexy post-feminist-or-whatever-it-is-these-days sequinned minidress and trilby, or something else which that Debbie Harry wannabe from the Ting Tings would wear to make up for lack of talent and innovation. Tune-Yards definitely does not need anything of the sort.

You can feel through the soft and powerful DIY layers of yodelling vocals and tribal percussions how much impact other cultures have had on her entirely self-produced and recorded debut album BiRd-BrAiNs. It's like a millefeuille of worldly instrumentals, which leaves me intrigued as to the stories she must have to tell of each song. Some of what she sings is indecipherable, which is a rare aspect that I take joy in, as it seems to unwittingly force the listener to actually focus on the ways she uses her voice and other instruments to create the intended sound.

If she did some sort of collaboration with Bobby McFerrin, I think it would blow my mind. Tune-Yards is 4AD's best investment since Pixies.

Interview with Mumford & Sons

2010-05-11T02:06:00.006+01:00



          After being deemed as 'leading a folk revolution' by press recently, the hype surrounding Mumford & Sons is perhaps surprisingly something they're very defensive against. “Folk music has been going on for ages... It's not a revolution, it's just the press catching onto what already existed, which in a way is a bit annoying for the people who have been doing it all along” frontman Marcus Mumford tells me as we chat pre-soundcheck on the plush sofa area in their tardis of a tour bus. “We don't like overhype. People's expectations are raised through all the exaggeration.” Understandably it would be a slight travesty if this time next year, as part of the emerging London folk scene along with Laura Marling and Johnny Flynn, they were compared with Klaxons' short-lived new-rave fad of a few summers gone.

If these raviator-wearing fluorescent adolescents of yore were asked what one of 2010's rising genres would be, folk would probably be in the dark depths alongside Gregorian chant and acid jazz. “It wasn't really a conscious decision (to go into folk), we all grew up playing our instruments and listening to loads of different genres... It was pretty natural. We all met at school and we were fired in our first gig for not taking our clothes off at the end of a song!” says double bass player Ted Dwane.

Nakedness aside, considering the biological impossibility of the rest of the band actually being (Marcus) Mumford's sons, the question which they must have encountered over and over arose... "The idea is it's like an old family business. If there was a tailor called Smith & Sons it wouldn't mean Smith was the boss, it just means it was founded in a certain way- lots of people run it and own it. Band names are strange... It's weird that you almost get known by your name before you get known by your music."

The four-piece of multi-instrumentalists (I've never appreciated banjos, dobros and mandolins more) have rocketed to success in not just the UK. They have gone twice platinum in Australia and also bagged a number one with their debut album Sigh No More. So is being big in Australia the new 'big in Japan'? “We don't even know how it happened! They just seem to love us over there, we're really excited to go back” says Marcus. Seems it's a similar situation here in Blighty, with their amazingly diverse fan base. Ted tells me “it makes for a really nice atmosphere at gigs. It's like a village fete, everyone's all together!”

This definitely rang true whilst watching their show later in the claustrophobic and dingy underground Newcastle University venue, which had clearly been organised before Mumford & Sons' surge of mainstream popularity. So okay, there were no apple-bobbing contests or tombolas, but the inevitably cheery fluctuations between excitable ditties and smooth-flowing four-part harmonies seemed to regress the whole audience back to some sort of long-forgotten joyous summery roots. If you want proof: I actually witnessed people doing the jig.

Maybe it goes to show folk never should have been "out", and we innately do love the traditional side of modern music.

If you know me at all, you'll know

2010-05-04T16:17:00.010+01:00

I'm a sucker for a female-fronted band... But as I got sick of Florence a long time ago, having appeared as the soundtrack to every single TV advert for the past year, and with probably having to wait quite a while for the next Yeah Yeah Yeahs or The Kills albums, I've kindly scoured for/fallen upon some not-too-effeminate bands that you really should listen to!

Peggy Sue
I saw them supporting Local Natives a couple of months ago, and looking back I think it should've been the other way around. I thought, as I watched them swap ukulele after accordion after percussion between songs, it's only a matter of time before they're snapped up by Radio 1, and ahoy they've recently done a live set for Rob Da Bank. I'm glad- the whole “London folk scene” was sorely missing some feminine action. Although they class themselves different from the usual Noah and The Whale sort of new-folk as they listened to a lot of 80s and 90s hip hop growing up, citing Lauryn Hill as one of their main influences. This echoes through their soul-filled two-part harmonies running throughout. They're the sort of band I really want to join... I could play ukulele not very well..?

She Keeps Bees
Her voice has all the soul of Janis Joplin and her stage presence encompasses the thoughts of shock in the late 70s when people heard The Pretenders for the first time and witnessed a woman sounding bloody good with a guitar. She does actually have a drummer, and a pro video. But I prefer just her and her Mustang.

Your Kid Sister
What could possibly ever be wrong about a cute girl with an even cuter voice in a Where The Wild Things Are-esque furry hat doing a Rancid cover on a beach with an accordion? Actually nothing. She does some pretty good short films as well if you check out her YouTube channel.

likely letterman

2010-04-16T01:12:00.002+01:00

I do think the Libertines reunion would be interesting to see... Maybe disappointing. Not that I'd be expecting much from four guys who are about as subtle at being in it for the money as Anna Nicole Smith.
But I'd have a little niggle about buying tickets to one of their reunion shows- You know that feeling when you kinda want to give a tramp a quid, but then you don't because you know he'll just spend it on drugs...? That.

Also... I love the way a seemingly just-rolled-in David Letterman introduces any band on his show, no matter what their genre, as “a terrific rock and roll band” in such a nonchalant and Grandfatherly way as though he's describing a home-made fruit loaf. Then you half expect said band to have had a sudden Bill Haley-esque swerve in artistic focus and appear in matching leather jackets and sporting quiffs.

The XX

2010-04-14T02:47:00.005+01:00

Crystalised

I know it's old news since the days of yore (what, a year ago?) when they were the hype with the all the jaunty Camden kids and eventually music journos, but I just think this song and video are so hauntingly beautiful. A band I'm now gutted I've never seen, and it doesn't look likely that wish will be fulfilled any time soon, as it seems they're only doing one UK date this summer. Shockingly, not in the North East.
I was also impressed how well their music transferred to acoustic unplugged- as per the second video down. It proves how simple and classically-formed the layers of a lot of today's electro-based stuff is. Not to say that The XX are standard modern indie/electro. Their music has a subtle edge on the others, a hushed and modest sincerity. Romy and Oliver's voices drift, effortlessly pure alongside eachother in the most relaxed way. Like a chilling Sonny and Cher, citing late 80s pop throughout.
One small single reason I wish I hadn't watched the video- now I've noticed that Romy has a speech impediment, and now I can't not notice it...

Gap Yah

2010-04-13T01:59:00.006+01:00

I reckon it's funny on two very different levels:

ONE- The things he's saying are actually cleverly written. The ridiculous contrasting scenarios and vast U-turns of the stories. The general audience might not realise that people like this character actually do exist, so they probably think it's a very exaggerated and absurd caricature. On the other hand, it's especially funny also to those who think 'what a LAD' as he's recounting his tales. Which brings me to point...

TWO- (Primarily the intended humour)- It's massively taking the piss out of what's probably a large percentage of the people who find it funny! The ones who genuinely do say “chunder”, “banter” and “lash” in everyday sentences. Let's face it- he probably gained inspiration for the sketch after visiting Durham during term-time. I've honestly heard similar one-sided conversations since living here. I don't know of any other social group that fits the niche!

So when I walked 5 minutes through town on a Wednesday night at the end of Epiphany term, and en-route heard the sketch being quoted 3 times by 3 separate groups of people- all of whom appeared to be either the 'gap yah' kid or stay-in-Fulham Tarquin that the sketch was trying to take the piss out of- I realised how strangely hypocritical the whole response was! So maybe get ready for “vomcano” to get pretty old...

U.S. Girls and Foot Hair

2010-04-04T03:26:00.004+01:00

Weds 24th Feb.
Head of Steam, Newcastle
Drone metal is quite the niche. It's not really a genre which is listed on many of our friends' Facebook profiles. In fact, it's probably down there with skiffle and South African psytrance. Hell you may have even stopped reading when you saw that this is about drone metal. Sticking up for these genre-specific underground metal bands is a standpoint I usually find hard to justify to those who aren't involved in it, unlike any scenario where I am the elaboratee- looking on doe-eyed and habitually intrigued about how preposterously varied this metal world actually is.
If I didn't know the Foot Hair vocalist personally, sporting his pig-head shaped black leather gimp mask, I'd probably have been a smidge scared as he peered from behind the eyeholes around the eager crowd in the characteristic cubby-hole of a venue, growling the lyrics to my new favourite of theirs- 'Casual Rape'. I'm not justifying it very well, I told you.
The feral and ritualistic nature of each individual instrument flows together and evolves through gnarly effects, making you aware of becoming slightly entranced as each song progresses. This five-piece will draw you in with their lack of boundaries and in any way traditional song structure.
Headlining the night was U.S. Girls hailing from Philadelphia, being not remotely plural. She rips and tears apart those old sickly sweet American pop songs and reconstructs them into her own DIY gritty renditions- meaning the potentially awkward stage set of just Megan Remy and her machines (and our two newly acquainted and unrestrained friends after catching an unavoidable glimpse down her baggy top). The vast contrast between grainy noise and pop ditties seems to fuse together using her suprisingly sweet voice as the glue. You could call it a political standpoint, a post-modern take on the stagnant American Dream. But I think it's like having an ice cream named after fish food with little chocolate fish. Why not? It seems wrong, but it just works.

you and i go shopping and fall asleep inside the mattress store

2010-03-27T15:30:00.006Z

Darwin Deez- Radar Detector
I never describe anything as 'lovely'. But this video truly is. The primary coloured regressive charm leaves you sitting back and wondering 'Why can't I do that every day? The world would be a better place!' ...Those of us who still own a Barbie drivable Jammin' Jeep circa 1995, plethora of disposable cameras, a waffle maker and some engineering skills indeed could do so.
Listened to in passing without the aid of the simplistically cute video, the ditty could be mistaken for a Mika-esque vacuous pop tune. But witness the Heath-Ledger-if-he'd-gone-indie puppy haired singer cavorting and bopping about with delightfully gawky moves and a look which you probably last saw on the face of that kid in the playground when he finally got a shiny Charizard.
Watch, and try not to wonder where the nearest plastic fork is...

Interview with Bombay Bicycle Club

2010-02-17T16:59:00.003Z

Palatinate Issue # 716 - NME Awards Tour Special

Walking through the breeze-blocked corridors backstage at the O2 Academy with slight apprehension after last minute YouTubeing of past slightly awkward and unresponsive Bombay Bicycle Club interviews, I turned the corner to see a rather chilled scene of four rather mismatched-looking guys sitting around eating takeaways and strumming banjos. Hailing from north London, the NME-acclaimed foursome formed in secondary school and after winning Channel 4 and Virgin Mobile's 'Road to V' competition in 2006, have clambered to international commendation. They are currently working on their follow-up to first album I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose as well as commencing on a tour which is sure to hoist them further up the indie ladder. I had a chat with them pre-gig on the first date of their current tour alongside The Maccabees, The Drums and The Big Pink...

Bombay Bicycle Club, you started out young and your first album was influenced by teenage experiences. What will your second album be influenced by?
Jack: Well it's hard to write songs about being on tour... When we were teenagers we went out and did loads of stuff. Now there's nothing to write about apart from being in a band! (woe is me)

How is it touring with three other bands?
Jack: It's only our first date, but it's the first time we've been on a tour of this size... You can't walk around backstage without any clothes on!

You're young to be successful, do you plan on carry on being musicians for the foreseeable future?
Jack: Yeah. Well Jamie has a place at Cambridge to do Classics.
Jamie: Not sure if I'm gonna go though. But I don't want to do one thing my whole life.

You're releasing 400 limited edition vinyl singles of Evening/Morning as a re-release with hand-painted covers. What made you want to do something so different?
Jack: Our record company said we had to do a re-release, and we hate when bands do re-releases, so said we'd do it under the one condition that we could make it special. I don't think at the time we thought about how much work it was gonna be!
Ed: It took 12 hours!

Are you still releasing an EP of folk songs?
Jack: Yeah, it's turned into an album now though. It's also good cos it kinda buy us more time to write the second album.

Do you think you'll follow the folk route or is it more of a side project?
Jack: Alongside really, but we kinda don't like doing it, we think people think 'oh they've listened to Mumford and Sons on Radio 1 and it's so kooky, I wanna do that!'

So The Big Pink, The Drums, The Maccabees... Kill, marry, shag?
Jamie: I'd definitely shag the Maccabees!
Jack: The Big Pink is the only band with a girl in so maybe them... Shag The Drums, marry The Maccabees, kill The Big Pink, but that's only because we've never met them and we've been in a bit of competition with them.

Are The Maccabees good marriage material then?
Jamie: Yeah I think they'd cook for you and stuff....

What do you have in store for the rest of the NME Awards Tour? Any suprises?
Jack: Suren has a new do-rag he might wear.
Jamie: We've been so rushed, we haven't really thought about it.
Jack: We could do the whole set unplugged on the banjo. Or our guitar tech might come onstage and do a shit.

Fortunately the latter didn't happen.

Rage Rage Roar

2010-01-12T03:16:00.002Z

Palatinate Issue # 715

Well done to you if you have somehow avoided getting involved, one way or another, in a politely heated X Factor VS Rage debate over your port and mince pies this festive season. The minute hundeds of thousands of bored and procrastinating Facebook users logged in and spied their new Group Invitation, I'd bet they thought it was just another 'Petition for bendy buses to make accordion noises as they go around corners' never-going-to-happen-but-let's-make-a-stand-for-the-craic situation. I certainly did. For a fortnight or so, the frenzy seemingly created a mass bisect in the nation more prominent than anything political or religious had in a long time.
The two sides at battle couldn't be more polar opposite. Polished and innocently sappy whippersnapper Joe McElderry seems like the type of granny-friendly theatre school kid typical of bringing out such a standard emotional ITV-cheese Hannah Montana (seriously?) faux-epic single. Most middle aged X Factor devotees you'd ask would pledge loyalty to the 'lovely lad' due to local appeal and his preened grin, not to mention after mass ITV propaganda in the shape of daytime TV presenters highlighting the 'terrible language' and 'lack of christmas spirit' in Rage Against The Machine's classic anthem Killing in the Name. But this battle wasn't about festive joy, it was people proving that we still have control. We can still make a stand against mass media corporations, twattish millionaires and predictability, despite the slight flaw and irony that Rage and Joe are both signed to Epic Records, part of Sony, so essentially the money still goes to the same people, not exactly a triumph over capitalism. But push that to the back of our minds for just a moment.
The slightly demoralising thing that the half of the public tutting over their leftover turkey sandwiches (not to mention protege of Joe, Cheryl Cole- "it's a mean campaign") don't seem to understand, is yes the wee chappy from South Shields may have a certain amount of vocal talent and a sweet smile, but compare this charming insignificance to the iron-willed political standpoints of Rage. Their songs, written with utterly compelling passion, are truly influential and are penned with meaning and a drive to make a difference in the world. Their fame not only brings truly amazing skill, Grammy Award-winning Tom Morello being stated #26 in Rolling Stone's '100 Greatest Guitarists of all Time', but an innovative fusion of genres and shockingly powerful politically-driven lyrics from Zack de la Rocha.
So the battle wasn't a personal attack or "mean" as our talentless geordie chavvy-but-fit friend most profoundly put it, it was people making a stand. Although de la Rocha may not have seen the change he had strived for after tirelessly campaigning for left-wing political causes globally, even testifying on the floor of the UN against the United States' treatment of Mumia Abu-Jamal, it goes to show his strive didn't go unnoticed, and their passionate dedication echos years after its release.
The famous line of the christmas number one 2009 that shocked half of Britain: 'Fuck you I won't do what you tell me'. This seems to have now been forever translated as "Yes Simon Cowell, we're talking to you, you smug twat."

Palatinate Music Review: Florence + The Machine - Lungs

2009-12-23T19:03:00.003Z

Palatinate- October 2009

Olivia Swash takes a look at one of the hottest albums this summer

Unless you have been living under a rock for the whole festival season this year, there is no doubt the strikingly powerful screech of Florence Welch has been nestled amongst your Spotify summer soundtrack. The Mercury Prize nominated ginger banshee has been pushed into the limelight pre and post-debut release thanks to BBC Introducing and Steve Lamacq.

In some ways eclectic, Lungs is a fusion of animal passion and quirky fairytales fuelled by love and alcohol (Florence maintains that she is at her best state of creative mind when drunk or hungover. There is hope for us all!).

Not dissimilar to a bloodthirsty Kate Bush in her new single Rabbit Heart (Raise it Up), Florence crescendos sky high with a delicate backbone of intertwining, mellifluous harp tones. However, there are some rough edges which have been somewhat disappointingly smoothed over when her record company asked for ‘more upbeat’ tunes.

Florence, on her initial emergence with the kooky but simplistic Kiss With a Fist, was compared to fellow red-headed songstress Kate Nash and a 'rockier Lily Allen'. However this debut establishes her as a respected writer, a lover and a musician, capable of grandiose stage presence and relentlessly thrilling live performances.

Although there are some low points, the lyrics to Girl With One Eye being slightly disturbing rather than charmingly eccentric. The Source ft. Candi Staton classic You Got the Love provides a masterpiece of a cover, transforming her from nothing into a goddess of our musical age.

Lungs is out now through Island.

article on music. this is all.

2009-12-22T21:56:00.000Z

Clarinet with Added Snake
Issue #03, June 2009
Durham Small Press

Mu•sic (f: noun) 'myü-zik'
Middle English musik, from Anglo-French musike, from Latin musica, any art presided over by the Muses, especially music.
1: The science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity. 2: Vocal, instrumental, or mechanical sounds having rhythm, melody, or harmony.

The colossal impact music has on our culture has been subject to scrupulous snubbing by leafy and monochromic turned up noses. Little did the mousikos in the 13th century when the word was coined comprehend that such an art (or arguably a very technical science according to our friends and noble scholars Mr. Merriam and Mr. Webster) would aggrandize to centuries of subcultures spawning and breeding in an amoebic fashion.

If today attitudes to music for the vast majority would be epitomised within a sound, it would be the hazy indifference of white noise, void of importance or monument. I propose a stand on behalf of music, for the philosophies of nonessential fuzz to be questioned. Should music take a back seat in our lives and remain an inconsequential passenger which is solely along for the road trip because it has been forced upon us in a whirlwind of capitalistic cultural domination? If my ridiculous metaphor got slightly too bombastic (yes), I'm hinting at the James Blunts and Girls Alouds, the music which we find ourselves knowing the words to despite having consciously decided to listen to. That which we don't have to seek to find, as it is hammered into our heads by the kibitzer, the cloutish arm of Radio 1.

“I'm into anything, me. I'm well eclectic.” Does this actually mean having a diverse and wide-ranging taste, or is it just an easier way of admitting laziness and surrender? How can we be eclectic if we don't seek to find new and exciting acts to add to our life-long soundtracks, instead bobbing along with what's in the top ten charts in Tesco? Start recommending, start spreading the word, rekindle the damn mixtapes, mix-CDs, mix-Spotify playlists! Fill the void, give people something to look back on in ten years and have that amazing nostalgia trip which still happens every time I listen to pretty much anything by Blink 182. The power which music holds is enormously underrated, it turns out it can be a porous vessel with the subtle potential to latch onto memories and refuse to part with them.

If it's just trying something you wouldn't usually, you never know, you might like it. Make your musical knowledge amplify and mushroom, broader than my brief for this article perhaps ('music, anything and everything you want').

After all, what would life be without diversity? Well, the world would be one big Durham.

You Ain't Born Typical

2009-12-22T21:20:00.001Z

Palatinate - November 2008

The Kills
The Other Rooms, Newcastle

The crammed and unusually box-like venue on the evening of Wednesday 5th November seemed to perfectly complement the anticipation for the grungy, raw preachings of The Kills that we all know and love.

Although they may be criticised for only being famous because the fella is ‘shagging that skinny bird’, the already sweaty crowd were genuinely there for the music rather than a chance of peeking Mossy’s gaunt phizog.

The Kills’ lack of mainstream music coverage and ability to retain their underground sound despite their sudden boom of appearances in Heat is endearing yet somewhat understandable when seeing them perform – their unrefined chaos on stage is a spectacle of theatre and an acquired taste.

The audience must translate their enigmatic and incredibly visual behaviour personally rather than being spoon-fed a rehearsed performance, which seems a rare element in modern music. Jamie Hince and Alison Mosshart (AKA Hotel and VV) have been signed to independent label Domino Records for 5 years, having toured with Primal Scream and Franz Ferdinand as well as having numerous headline tours and summers of festival-hopping. The Baltic art gallery in Gateshead housed 1000 Polaroid photographs and a video by The Kills in 2007 as part of their Andy Warhol vs Dazed and Confused exhibition.

The Kills have an electric presence on stage, emitting soaring levels of sexual chemistry through their dramatic tomfoolery. They tease and physically euphemise each other as props, meaning the experience of seeing them live adds another dimension to merely listening to their gutsy tunes.

The allure of Alison’s voice as it effortlessly dips in and out of Sonic Youth-esque rocky growls is perfectly balanced by Jamie’s hushed and unperturbed accompaniment as The Kills open set with their most recent single, stripped-to-the-bone tune U R A Fever, Hince looking quite the ragamuffin sporting a straw hat, beige cardigan and a black eye. Alison frequently sweeps back her trademark mop of shaggy dark hair to expose a surprisingly calm countenance as she scales the walls and clambers atop speakers.

The pair build anticipation during Tape Song and Last Day of Magic, intertwining the microphones and forcing awkwardly intimate space between the two. The country-influenced Kissy Kissy sees the two seductively singing into the same microphone and feigning head butts at the climaxes.

The crowd was treated to a lingering rendition of Pale Blue Eyes by Velvet Underground, a band which played a major role in forming The Kills back in 2000, as Alison and Jamie had a mutual obsession with the band, amongst other New York 60s and 70s punk bands.

Midnight Boom, the title of the new album, came from their work on song writing, describing their ability to work doubly as hard alone during many nights of nocturnal graft.
The album was influenced by a sixties documentary about sinister songs children sung in American inner-city schools, so Jamie and Alison experimented with an old hip-hop drum sequencer and reeled out what Jamie describes as 'modern-day playground songs'.

The Kills are unpretentious and unadulterated guts, putting to shame most of today’s myopic modern rock music. They encompass the effrontery of the 70s bands which inspired their work, unleashing rusty and unrestrained primal lust. A band such as The Kills comes along but once a decade, so make the most of them.

Midnight Boom is out now on Domino Records.