The usual disclaimers apply: we can't pretend to have heard every single new album released in the UK between January 1 and December 31 of 2009, but of those we did, these were the best, and in this precise order.
1. SILENCE IS WILD - FRIDA HYVONEN 2. Fever Ray - Fever Ray 3. Bitte Orca - Dirty Projectors 4. I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose - Bombay Bicycle Club 5. Thunderheist - Thunderheist 6. Veckatimest - Grizzly Bear 7. The xx - The xx 8. Union - The Boxer Rebellion 9. Bird-Brains - Tune-Yards 10. It's Blitz! - Yeah Yeah Yeahs 11. Guns Don't Kill People, Lazers Do - Major Lazer 12. 'Em Are I - Jeffrey Lewis and the Junkyard 13. See Mystery Lights - YACHT 14. Logos - Atlas Sound 15. If You Were Fruit - The Lovely Eggs 16. Farm - Dinosaur Jr 17. Hospice - The Antlers 18. Post-Apocalyptic Love - The Very Sexuals 19. My Maudlin Career - Camera Obscura 20. Still Night Still Light - Au Revoir Simone 21. Blue Roses - Blue Roses 22. The Floodlight Collective - Lotus Plaza 23. Tear Ourselves Away - LoveLikeFire 24. Get Guilty - AC Newman 25. Face Control - Handsome Furs 26. Varshons - The Lemonheads 27. A Man, A Woman Walked By - PJ Harvey and John Parish 28. Survival Strategies In A Modern World - Liechtenstein 29. Me Oh My - Cate Le Bon 30. I'm Going Away - The Fiery Furnaces 31. Embryonic - The Flaming Lips 32. I Feel Cream - Peaches 33. Dance Mother - Telepathe 34. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart 35. Julian Plenti is...Skyscraper - Julian Plenti 36. II - Desire 37. Fight Like Apes And The Mysteries Of The Golden Medallion - Fight Like Apes 38. Polly Scattergood - Polly Scattergood 39. Fine Fascination - Red Light Company 40. Fantasies - Metric
Use the comments box for any gripes, observations and linklove for your own year-end lists. Happy New Year to all our readers, hopefully this site will be slightly more active in 2010!
The new Name The Pet single is a bouncy pop choon more viral than YouTube embeds, while the promo admirably promotes the healthy benefits of physical exercise, although the sheer cheerleader chic of it makes it slightly dubious safety for work.
December is usually tragic in terms of PV updates, but hawk-eyed followers can expect a humongous gig review compendium, a long linkdump and the usual end-of-year lists before 2010 hits!
Ick. Should have been at an indiepop all-dayer but spent all day suspended upside down in a huge vat of Lemsip* instead. Talking of all things medicinal, in case you haven't noticed former PV blogroller Dr Brooke Magnanti has outed herself as Belle de Jour.
During the media storm in the early years of BDJ your bemused blogger was often emailed asking for an opinion on her true identity. In truth, I didn't know for sure, but I did once give a clue to check which blog first linked to BDJ and where they got their lead. The first blog to link to BDJ was in fact this humble blog, Parallax View. And the lead? An email from a fellow blogger casually asking whether I'd noticed on the UK Blogs aggregator a blog by a prostitute. The blogger? Oh, you're ahead of me...Dr Brooke Magnanti.
See? Sometimes Dead Kenny does know how to keep his gob shut (well, just about). Who knew?
Indietracks Festival, Midland Butterly Railway nr. Ripley, Derbyshire, July 24-26 2009.
This was Parallax View's first visit to Indietracks, now in its third year of bringing the best of indiepop to the grounds of a vintage railway station at Midland Railway, Butterly, near Ripley in Derbyshire. It was a sign of the weekend to come that the person we end up sharing a taxi with from Alfreton train station was Ian who runs the How Does If Feel To Be Loved? disco in the marquee at the event. Everything, and indeed, everyone, seemed to be connected.
Even, to some degree, our good selves, as we make re-acquaintance with Dunc from The Autumn Store and badge-bestowing Simon of Sweeping The Nation fame in fairly quick order on entering the grounds, and bump into Liz from The School not long after. And who should we be following on our way to the bar but the unmistakeable derrieres of the girls from Au Revoir Simone? It was very much that kind of festival.
Friday night's fare was entirely on the outdoor stage, with the synths of Modular washing over us pleasantly before Rosay Pipette (hitherto to be referred to, of course, as Rose Elinor Dougall) strutted her new solo stuff to mostly impressive effect. There wasn't too much on show that screamed out 'hit record' but it was all engaging enough to foster the belief that if anyone can sell Stereolab-lite to the masses it's RED.
While waiting for ARS to get into gear, we managed to catch a few words with Alice Hubley from Arthur and Martha as she chatted to Dunc, consoling her on the rather snide NME review of A&M's new album which was excessively sniping with regards to her own vocal contributions. Heads turned immediately with the arrival of Au Revoir Simone, who put on a confident and mesmering show featuring the best from their three albums. There are those that bemoan their lack of stagecraft but with presence like theirs craft is made redundant and superflous, and latest album 'Still Night, Still Light' is arguably their most consistent disc to date.
Thus followed some dancing with Dunc, his gf Debbie, and the rest of the Autumn Store posse in the Lipstick On Your Collar! disco, during which Dead Kenny may or may not have been jumping up and down rather rigorously to The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart's 'Young Adult Friction' chanting 'don't check me out! don't check me out!' to anyone without an option but to listen. All in all, was a Good Friday, if not THE Good Friday, if you see what we mean.
Saturday sees our bleary blogging eyes facing the serious business of catching as many indiepop acts as possible while still remembering to cover the basics of eating, drinking and breathing. We catch the sun somewhat while waiting for Sucrette, who make up for their late appearance with some top-notch breathy J-Pop which would appeal in particular to fans of Annie's 'Anniemal'. We were less seduced by Tender Trap, whose harmonies only really tugged at our heartstrings during their newest number, but at least that means they're heading in the right direction. Also failed to be engaged by Friends on the Indoor Stage (otherwise known as The Loco Shed), while One Happy Island won us over with the sheer persistence of their energy and charm during their set in the same arena.
Danish troubadour Labrador was late finding the festival but provided soothing electro-folk to calm our savage breasts on a hot Saturday evening in The Church (a case of Pew! What A Scorcher! anyone?). This proved the calm before the storm of The Specific Heats at the same location, whose reverb mechanism blew up during the first song, amongst other technical mishaps, which did nothing but add to the feeling that this was one of the festival landmark events, with scorching surf guitar and sun-kissed melodies providing a perversely devilish good time in the 'sanctity' of The Church.
Some fresh air was certainly needed at that point, but a look at the long snaking queue of people waiting to see The Lovely Eggs suggested that we wouldn't be able to get back in a hurry. And so it proved, as we were left to paw at the Church window like poor little orphan boys on Christmas Day, to get a glimpse of the hotly-tipped popsters. From our disadvantaged vantage point, The Lovely Eggs looked and sounded un-beatable, before we whisked ourselves off to see The Frank And Walters, who were still playing mostly the same songs and (if memory serves us correctly) telling mostly the same jokes that they used to back in 1992. Pretty entertaining and endearing stuff, nevertheless.
We only really know one Speedmarket Avenue song, the pretty fantastic 'Way Better Now' so wasn't quite sure what to expect of the Stockholm collective. Perhaps the most surprising aspect was that the vocal duties were fairly evenly shared between the male and female singer, the latter's sheer blue tights certainly scorching themselves on our retinas. It was all rather lovely, much lovelier than the fact that the main toilets were in need of plumbing attention, which certainly challenged punters' temperaments in what was supposed to be the friendliest of festivals.
Our underpants tension was somewhat eased by the always comforting presence of Camera Obscura, with lead singer Tracyann Campbell looking never more glam as the band dispensed a crowd-pleasing set of gems like 'Let's Get Out Of This Country'; 'French Navy' and 'If Looks Could Kill', climaxing beautifully as usual with 'Razzle Dazzle Rose' as the sun set. Met back up with Dunc and Debbie at this stage who pass on the tidbit that Marisa from The Besties is about to do a debut solo set in the Marquee. Right on cue the lead singer from The Specific Heats then pops his head out of said tent and hollers to anything within earshot the very same headline news.
Although your bluffing blogger is aware of The Besties' cult status in indiepop circles, Marisa seems more recently and vividly familiar to us, until it clicks she played keys for The Specific Heats earlier. We just have time to congratulate The Specific Heats singer on his set (he's philosophical about the equipment blowing up as it's the last day of their European tour) before he was required to act as a human mic stand for the slightly embarrassed but genuinely endearing Marisa, who ran through some old Besties tunes and other stuff even though at least one of her keys wasn't working. The whole shebang had so much impromptu charm and bonhomie we swear if we were any more full of ourselves at this point we'd have had to empty ourselves out just for the pleasure of filling ourselves back up again.
This also served to fill the gap while (reputedly) Emmy The Great had to be rescued from some sort of motorway-related fiasco before her set at The Indoor Stage. Better late than never, as we always say here on Parallax View, and while we can't quite re-create the flush of love at first sight we initially felt for Emmy, it's a bold and entertaining show with an impressive cover of The Pixies' 'Where Is My Mind?' thrown into the mix for good measure. Outside, La Casa Azul are in turns bemusing and bewitching with an undeniably odd combination of pigeon English, dancepop and balladry, to a visual backdrop of Mario Brothers, 'virtual backing band' and other random bytes and bobs. It's hit and miss for our tastes, but there's no doubt his version of John Paul Young's 'Love Is In The Air' provides one of the truly joyously unifying moments of the festival weekend.
Night-time saw Ian's 'How Does It Feel To be Loved?' pop-disco ramming the Marquee to its rafters, so we had our hearts and feet stolen by Barcelona's Bonnie & Clyde in the Loco Shed instead. TPOBPAH's 'Young Adult Friction' again gets a showing, and thus also does our crap dancing in a session of hot, sweaty fun. Rumours of ex-NME journo Tim Jonze being on site to do a piece for The Guardian permeated the night air as the contented crowds dispersed.
Sunday morning started with a call from our friend Keef to say he's coming up for the day to catch up with the evening's headliners Teenage Fanclub. After watching the entrancing (but startlingly young) Bonne Idee in the Loco Shed, we meet up with Keef on the steam train where we're completely out of earshot of the drum-and-bass from The Manhattan Love Suicides announcing the band's split. We're back on solid ground in time for The School's afternoon slot on The Outdoor Stage, where Simon from The Loves does his best to steal the show from a stunning set of stellar choons new and old, with his drunken wit and repartee and blatant-lack-of-socks appeal, but it's the impression of a band truly starting to find its feet live that's the lingering impression.
It then began to rain, which probably suited Denmark's Northern Portrait as their efficient Scandinavian remodelling of The Smiths would suggest they're more than comfortable with all things Northern Miserabilism. Happily they're not short of decent tunes and the material seems grounded and heartfelt enough to resonate more deeply than mere pastiche, and they appeared to go down well with a visibly impressed Emma from Pocketbooks who was stood next to us throughout. We wished her well with her set later that day, to which she summarily dismissed us to the merchandise stand. Still, as Confucious might have said, better a girl who only brings her business head to the party than one who doesn't bring any head at all.
Was well and truly chucking it down by this time, but it didn't stop us from heading to see Lucky Soul on the Outdoor Stage to gawp at the singer in her short little mini-dress and to remark on how one of the LS geezers is indecently rocking the Blake Fielder-Civil look, as well as sway about a bit and tap our feet to their pretty fetching pop-soul sound. Meanwhile, it wasn't just the rain that saw people scampering into the merchandise tent, as there was a bit of a Talulah Gosh reunion going on, which was nice, even though we found ourselves distracted by congratulating Liz on her set and introducing Dunc and Simon to each other (the indiepop equivalent of Frost:Nixon, we're sure you'll agree).
Sunday became a bit of a rainy blur from this point on, catching 20 minutes of the always-entertaining The Smittens here and 20 minutes of Hong Kong In The 60s ambient pop there, and a set by the aforementioned Pocketbooks that became increasingly compelling as the show went on, and we're sure Emma (who sports a haircut that makes her look a bit like Helen Marnie from Ladytron) would thank us for pointing out that their excellent album 'Flight Paths' is available for retail and download from all the usual outlets, now.
What else? Ah yes, Stereo Total were something of a rowdy revelation, featuring an impromptu performance from Birmingham's very own David Leach on harmonising, and a vaguely riotous stage invasion providing a feelgood finale. One-man NZ act Disasteradio gurned his way gloriously through a frenetic set of electronic gloopy loopiness, keeping Keef's son Joe suitably fascinated throughout. Some fishcake and chips in Johnson's Cafe later, Art Brut are their usual entertaining selves, even though their rockstar shapes and boisterous, slightly shambolic wit does lose its novelty value after a while. Nice of them to namecheck MJ Hibbett, though.
Which just left us with the minor details of your hustling hack falling flat on his back on the wet grass and a mighty, mighty closing performance from Teenage Fanclub which included a couple of new songs (one was called 'The Falls', we think) and plenty of the best from what we sometimes forget is a splendidly impressive back catalogue. Not only is everything and everybody connected, but, as TFC remind us to a cavalcade of chiming guitars, Everything Flows.
This week's Single Of The Week is on a totally topical tip, so as Britain swelters away in a welcome heatwave, Swedish stunner Name The Pet offers a hymn to sunshine, shimmering pop loveliness given suntan motion by some delightful disco propulsion.
Bombay Bicycle Club/Tantrums, The Rainbow, Digbeth, Birmingham, Saturday April 18 2009, 8.45pm.
In the interests of fairness and accuracy we should report that we attended this gig after a steady day's drinking before and after attendance at the Hammers' valiant draw at Villa Park and thus witnessed the event through an attendant fug of post-match euphoria and stealthily enveloping stupour. So if you're looking for a detailed analysis of chord changes and other such muso musings this review isn't likely to be particularly enlightening. But we enjoyed both bands so some sort of mention of this fact should be recorded, if only to enable the dear reader to look out for the aforementioned groups next time they're in town.
Tantrums are a local Birmingham band and in fact play the This Is Tomorrow all-dayer at The Victoria tomorrow (3rd). They helped stamp out tunelessness with a set drenched in harmonies, sounding a bit Britpop here and there but with vocal stylings perhaps more in keeping with the more radio-friendly end of emo. And yet, as desperate as that reads, it somehow worked, mainly thanks to some better-than-average choons and a healthy down-to-earth attitude ensuring there was no tears before bedtime on this occasion.
Crouch End's Bombay Bicycle Club looked impossibly young for a band who've been knocking around for long enough to be one of our top tips from the beginning of 2008. If theirs has been a slow progress to the point where they're headlining gigs like this, we witnessed first-hand from our unfamiliar stage-front positioning the frenzied excitement they've started eliciting from their peer-group following.
While you couldn't argue that the (lazy acronym alert!) BBC bring anything startlingly original to the table, you can't help but admire the way they mix the ingredients with such confident dexterity they can present a finished product that still feels fresh, vibrant and feelgood. Jack Steadman has the studied cool and easy arrogance to give Alex Turner a run for his money as the bookish fresher's heart-throb of choice, with tremulous vocals that occasionally recall the likes of Brett Anderson and Peter Perrett, while the band even get away with dropping in PV's pet hate (the token laboured ska-inflected song) and just about pulling it off without looking like prats.
Aside from the singles Always Like This and Evening/Morning, our favourites on the night were Ghost and Cancel On Me, and there certainly seemed enough strength in depth to suggest their debut album (due soon, we reckon) will be an impressive calling card. Although future records seemed the last thing on the audience's mind as they lost themselves in the here and now of crowd surges and stage invasions that saw your wobbling webmaster adopt the Bristol Jeff pose of shaking his mane while steadying one hand on the sound monitor throughout. And fashion pundits wouldn't forgive us for not mentioning the drummer's top-notch shiny parka, because surface coating is important, dontcha know.
You can download the debut album by Eindhoven indiepop/shoegaze outfit The Very Sexuals, 'Post-Apocalyptic Love', from the band's website for free, so we'd recommend you do this, not just because it's gratis, but also because it's one of our favourite records of the year to date. Check out their promo to 'Carla' below if you still need convincing not to look a gift horse down its' gobhole!
With light snow forecast for the next 24 hours, the above lyrics are good enough excuse to make Ladytron's 'Tomorrow' Parallax View Single Of The Week. Not that we need an excuse, as the song is ace, the video is beautiful, and 'sides which, it's our website and we rule!
Some gig reviews and a match report imminent, 'til then, keep it PV!
Happy New Year to all our readers, amazingly there's still a few of you out there, despite the sparsity of updates in the last few months. Unsure to what sort of degree that will change in 2009, but here's a few links to get things kickstarted and see where it takes us.
853 describes Ladytron's Velocifero (our favourite album of 2008 lest ye forget) as a damb squib, but gets most other things right reporting from the frontline of south-east London.
I Am The Crime is a cool Swedish music blog run by hot Swedish music blogger Cecilia.
Further apologies for the recent gap in transmission, but to get things moving again here's our rundown of the best albums released in the UK for the first time in 2008. We can't pretend to have heard all of the albums released in the time period, but of those we did these were the best, and in this precise order.
1. VELOCIFERO - LADYTRON 2. Stainless Style - Neon Neon 3. Santogold -Santogold 4. Fed - Plush 5. Stay Positive - The Hold Steady 6. Youth Novels - Lykke Li 7. Alas I Cannot Swim - Laura Marling 8. Hold On Now Youngster - Los Campesinos! 9. Dear Science - TV On The Radio 10. You & Me - The Walkmen 11. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes 12. Seventh Tree - Goldfrapp 13. Alpinisms - School Of Seven Bells 14. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles 15. We Are Beautiful We Are Doomed - Los Campesinos! 16. Only By The Night - Kings Of Leon 17. Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires 18. In Our Spacehero Suits - Those Dancing Days 19. "Couples" - The Long Blondes 20. Kensington Heights - Constantines 21. Neptune - The Duke Spirit 22. Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke 23. Fortress Around My Heart - Ida Maria 24. For Emma Forever Ago - Bon Iver 25. Box Of Secrets - Blood Red Shoes 26. El Rey - The Wedding Present 27. Knowle West Boy - Tricky 28. Blood Looms and Blooms - Leila 29. Thomas Tantrum - Thomas Tantrum 30. Oceans Will Rise - The Stills 31. Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds 32. Oracular Spectacular - MGMT 33. Reality Check - The Teenagers 34. Chemical Chords - Stereolab 35. Waited Up 'Til It Was Light - Johnny Foreigner 36. X Marks Destination - The Whip 37. Nouns - No Age 38. HLLLH - The Mae Shi 39. Rosie and the Goldbug - Rosie and the Goldbug 40. Falling Off The Lavender Bridge - Lightspeed Champion
Feel free to use the comments facility below to vent your spleen or link to your own list(s).
Ladytron/Asobi Seksu, Kasbah, Primrose Hill Street, Coventry, Saturday November 15 2008, 7.30pm.
And so Dead Kenny sent himself to Coventry at the weekend, despite dire warnings of what your electropoppin' eejit might find there, and discovered that twenty-seven years on from The Specials No.1 hit single, this town's still comin' like a Ghost Town. But luckily also found that the Kasbah was a cool, funky oasis cunningly hidden therein, and kept the Aegean theme continuous with a cheeky chow-down beforehand at nearby World Kebab.
Being used to Birmingham's sweltering Academy venues where the bands regularly ruminate on the ghastly heat, it came as something of a cultural shock to see the guitarist from support act Asobi Seksu having to repeatedly blow into his hands before getting the set started. Reassuring that even glacial popsters don't like the air-conditioning set at antarctic levels, don't you think?
Fortunately things warmed up soon enough with Yuki Chikudate's sweet, ethereal but surprisingly robust singing melting hearts while the rest of the band contributed significant power surges to provide the shoegazing post-rock equivalent to global warming. Entrancing stuff, mainly taken from last year's bittersweet confection 'Citrus', given a light dusting of catharsis when Chikudate whipped off her plaid overshirt, muscled the drummer out of the way and pounded the skins for the set coda. Fans of Cocteau Twins and Lush who haven't yet explored Asobi Seksu (Japanese for playful sex, if you believe Wikipedia) should make amends with immediate effect.
By the time headliners, and lest ye forget, Britain's Best Pop Band (Ever?)(TM), Ladytron made the stage, the Turkish-themed club was filling out and a warm glow was starting to radiate amongst the expectant crowd. The girls were dressed in tasteful black satin as they joined Danny and Reuben on stage to the instrumental intro from third album 'Witching Hour', and two distinctive trends emerged very quickly as the set developed. Firstly, it is Mira Aroyo who takes on the role of talking (albeit in soft, quiet tones) between songs, and also the set (perhaps reflecting the balance of latest album Velocifero) sees a much more equal share of vocal chores between her and Helen Marnie than on the 'Witching Hour' shows.
Ladytron even had the confidence to drop in the superlative 'Seventeen' midway through the show rather than saving it for once-inevitable encore (the majestic 'Destroy Everything You Touch' got that honour). 'Seventeen' is still (rightly) a highlight of the show but it blended in better with the entire oeuvre in its central slot, with recent singles Ghosts and Runaway meeting equivalent approval from the mostly sharp and stylish crowd. Not all of the live interpretations particularly worked for your sceptical scribe however, the intricate melody and sentiment of 'International Dateline' near drowned in a drum-heavy treatment, and 'Deep Blue' making a late recovery from a muted, murky intro.
But Mira, Mira, as Dead Kenny is the fairest blogger of 'em all, he'll conclude on the hugely positive note that the snaky hypnotics of 'Black Cat' and 'Season Of Illusions' were the biggest revelations of the night, both in terms of their rendition and reception. The otherness of these songs may be a more difficult sell commercially, but perversely give them an edge over their rivals. Nobody's ever done better what Ladytron do, and doubtless no-one ever will, and how many of their contemporaries can you say that about?
That's The Last Time We Use The Phrase 'Honest, Guv'
Goldfrapp/Eugene McGuinness, Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, Saturday October 25 2008, 8pm. Fleet Foxes, Space2, Custard Factory, Digbeth, Birmingham, Friday October 31 2008, 9pm. Aurora Plastic Monster/StRANGEtIME/The Sweethearts/Sweet Talk, 444 Club downstairs at The Sunflower Lounge, off Queensway, Birmingham, Saturday November 8 2008, 8.30pm. Neon Neon/Yo! Majesty, Glee Club, Hurst Street, Birmingham, Monday November 10 2008, 8.30pm.
Apologies for the recent gap in Parallax View transmission. To get things back started here's a whistlestop runthrough of a few gigs we've been to recently. Starting with Goldfrapp in Wolves, who were supported by Eugene McGuinness who was as personable as his songs were unremarkable, an adequate stopgap mebbe for folk awaiting the new Jeremy Warmsley album, but what's that? There's a new Jeremy Warmsley out? Ah well, Eugene, there's always reality TV. A less modest return is reaped by headliners Goldfrapp, ostensibly here to promote the lovely 'Seventh Tree' collection but mostly getting more reward live from the squelchier dance numbers from their glam stomping mid-period, although 'Caravan Girl' from their latest also travels exceptionally well.
Hallowe'en saw your feeble freak looking pale and ghastly, but we'd left our mask at home, we were just feeling ever so faint from the deadly combination of heavy coat, hot lights and a packed crowd. Bottled water and some fresh air at the back restored our spirits, along with a performance from Fleet Foxes that manage to move less through energy than through a certain transcendence. Overall, they're a bit more jammy, noodly and loquacious compared to their recorded output, but when things click they're genuinely spellbinding.
A week later, a hastily-rearranged line-up sees frequent Parallax View picks StRANGEtIME in lively, rattling form despite arriving with a cymbal short of a drumkit and brandishing some intriguing new songs. Also on the bill were Norwegian rock trio Aurora Plastic Monster who were bold, bruising and Brit-baiting, and The Sweethearts, who perhaps put more effort in their make-up and clothing than in finding genuine musical inspiration. In contrast, local teenagers Sweet Talk were raw and revelatory, with lead singer Amelia proving compulsively watchable working through her range between sex-kitten purr and death-rattle roar, providing perhaps the missing link between Poly Styrene and Courtney Love on songs like 'Pin-Up Girl'.
Two days later, Yo! Majesty nearly have us call the bar staff to get ready with the defribilators when their electronic bass threatens to jumpstart our hearts into the next lifetime. The energy doesn't let up throughout a breakneck set in which they realise their stated intention to get the crowd sweaty and stinky, giving due props to President Elect Obama and exhorting the crowd of anoraked geeks to 'Fuck Dat Shit' to surprisingly little resistance. If they'd have rocked our boat any more we'd have been overboard and swallowing fish.
Main act Neon Neon were relatively sedate, with Gruff Rhys' laconic charm and deadpan placard prompts for 'Applause' easing the audience through a near-chronological rendition of brilliant retro-futurist concept album 'Stainless Style'. Back-projected images of Raquel Welch and cameos from Har Mar Superstar and Yo! Majesty add some kinetic propulsion to the kitsch, with 'Sweat Shop' perhaps working best of all on the night.
In the few months since we last saw Lykke Li at Glee, the seated-only studio has made way for a packed standing-room-only show in the bigger room, the crowd here less through curiousity and more from conviction, and the conversion sees the Swede in noticably more relaxed and engaging form. But before all that, we have Yoav, a tidy, bookish young man born in Israel but brought up in South Africa and New York. His music takes on a similarly hybrid form, folk, blues and R&B fused into intriguing songs enhanced by the singer-songwriter fully utilising plentiful effects pedals to create an atmospheric soundscape high on intrigue but a little short on memorable melody.
There a few people who could get away with making an entrance in a Freddy Parrot hat and shapeless outfit, but Lykke Li is one of the number who can, and it's safe to assume she knows it. The set opens with 'Dance, Dance, Dance' given a louder, squelchier, more 'electro' feel than the recorded version, paving the way for a lively performance aimed at dusting off the 'depression' she senses from the audience. 'I'm Good I'm Gone' and 'Breaking It Up' offer predictably giddy thrills, the soon-to-be-re-released 'Little Bit' is already treated like a greatest hit, the dubby, hypnotic pull of 'Complaints Department' is another winner on the night, and there's even room for a tongue-in-cheek cameo of Duffy's 'Mercy' sneaked into closing cover of 'Can I Kick It?'. There are officially no more excuses left not to invest in her debut album 'Youth Novels'.
Next night, head over to The Rainbow in Digbeth for a special 444 Club gig which sees three local hopefuls supporting touring Kiwi star Pip Brown aka Ladyhawke, here to promote her self-titled debut released the previous week. The cunningly-curated cabaret begins with The Electrilickers who operate at the exact intersection between the homespun lo-fi charm of Kate Nash and the harder-partying nu rave aesthetic, a formula which works on the night for two simple reasons: their tunes are cool and the singer's hot. The ecstasy throes of 'Constant Disco' are a suitable climax to a set that provides more fizz and tingle than licking your way through a battery factory.
Meet up with Kate and Chris from newly-rejuvanated StRANGEtIME as Death Ohh Eff make their entrance. Your crumbling correspondent may be getting old, but do bands have to look so young? These guys don't even look old enough to be policemen, but somewhere along the line they've obviously crammed in some intensive education on how to work a crowd with an energetic, keyboard-led set full of bounce, attitude and harmonies. Tremendous fun, although it was all 'a little bit Nathan Barley' for some.
We haven't seen Deluka for a couple of years, since when they've developed some extra balls, a tune on the soundtrack to Grand Theft Auto IV, and much tippin' and toutin' among the music press. They're tighter and rockier than the preceding acts with a stronger drive towards an anthemic punch, although they only hotwire into our hearts during the closing two numbers before leaving the crowd panting for more.
Headliner Ladyhawke has a different problem, and it's one that similarly affects her debut album. Her songs are consistently strong in terms of memorable tunes and anthemic power, but she operates within such a tight formula and poodle-permed 80s mindset, you feel like you've seen and heard enough about halfway through, even though she saves belters like 'Paris Is Burning' and 'My Delirium' for the concluding double-whammy. Maybe a little more personality in the performance and more depth in the lyrics would help develop a higher-level of emotional engagement to undertow the undoubted heft of the choonage.
With many thanks to Shakeypix for kind permission to use some of his brilliant shots from the night in this review.
How cool would it be for the mighty Moshi Moshi Records to score a really, really big hit single? That weird prospect has become a greater possibility than ever before with the news that Radio One have playlisted 'Beat Control' by Tilly and the Wall (out in stores this week, including on heavy 7" vinyl).
We'd kinda forgotten about TATW and their tap-dancing percussionist since seeing them in quick succession a few years back, but new album O is receiving the best reviews of their career, and Beat Control finds them sufficiently focused on the business of producing a Proper Pop Single to ease them into a position where mainstream recognition is a viable target.
The end result is so delirious with melody it could be Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine resurrecting a neglected Monkees classic, a veritable Wall of Sound that fully deserves the accolade of Parallax View Single Of The Week.
Because the internet would just be boryn without a bit of Robyn, we start off this Monday mini-mitherpiece with some self-styled self-regarding nonsense from the suddenly big and bossy Ms Wilder. Titbits include revelations about wandering through London with her blouse undone to the waist, but it's not just blogging ninja divas who suffer from wardrobe malfunctions, as Rihanna shows in this set of dubious-safety-for-work photos, proving that not even an umbrella (ella, ella, ella) could hide your blushes when it's that nippy out.
Bloggers don't so much fade away as they do diversify, a case in point being Creepy Lesbo's Slash Media (NOT SAFE FOR WORK) in which she samples some of modern pop culture's gashtronomic delights. Skin Flicks is much more safe for work, although as he considers himself to be a very angry man and is found pleading for fallen women to be shown to him, maybe due caution should be shown after all.
Savage Grace, Electric Cinema, Birmingham, Saturday July 26 2008, 4.30pm.
CAUTION: CONTAINS MAJOR PLOT SPOILERS.
This is your intrepid inquisitor's first visit to the Electric Cinema since it was re-opened to much blogging hullabuloo a few years back. It's now touted as the oldest operating cinema in the UK, and it is a grand building, although your long-in-the-tooth loafer remembers it rather differently in its' Tivoli guise in the 80s, when it was considered something of a sleazepit where we made furtive forays to see B-movies like James B Harris' Cop and Craig R Baxley's criminally-under-rated Action Jackson. Visiting the cinema now feels a much more welcoming, middle-brow experience, with plush sofas; pretty, friendly box-office staff and a silver spoon to go with your white chocolate and raspberry ice-cream.
Tom Kalin's Savage Grace is the cinematic fare this afternoon, a film that is apparently attempting to re-construct the events leading up to the savage murder of a socialite by her troubled young son in 1972 London. The film is pretty to look at and mostly watchable, contains some strong performances (notably Moore as the doomed diva) but has too many serious flaws to be considered a success. Any film of such relatively short length is going to suffer from the episodic structure imposed on it here, leaving the viewer to struggle to get their teeth into the filletted fare on offer, and as a psychological study it's a non-starter as we're left none the wiser at the end of the film why the son takes the knife to his mother then calmly orders a Chinese.
Wikipedia's references to the real-life case would suggest that the film has played fast-and-loose with many of the facts of the case, something that would have made more sense if it had made the story more interesting not less. As it is, Kalin has made a film that brings to mind past movies like Mommie Dearest; Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?; The Sheltering Sky and Ma Mere, but only serves to highlight their relative superiority to the shallow showboating on offer here. Although any film that reacquaints us with elfin curveball Elena Anaya from Sex and Lucia ain't all bad so gracias for that.
The Autumn Store Presents A Pre-Indietracks Special: The Smittens/The Zebras/Red Pony Clock, The Sunflower Lounge, off Queensway, Birmingham, Tuesday July 22 2008, 9.30pm.
Just get into the venue in time as Red Pony Clock start limbering up, a Tijuana-based octet who sound like a mix between Calexico and all-out chaos. Their van exploded on the way to the venue, but they seem in surprisingly good spirits about it, perhaps because on the plus-side it means you're not short of things to talk about between songs. You know those pictures that look like random dots but if you stare at them for long enough all of a sudden this brilliant 3-D image pops up before your eyes and makes sense of it all? Red Pony Clock are the sonic equivalent, as their seemingly ramshackle material develops into something clever, organic and fun to fully reward the patient, open-minded listener. There's still not enough dancing going on for the band's liking, though, until The Smittens' drummer Holly shows how it's done, leaping around like a frisky kitten ricocheting from furniture, to hugely engaging effect.
The Zebras aren't from South Yorkshire, they're from Rotherham - Rotherham, in Australia, that is, although Northern English influences like The Smiths and The Wedding Present would seem evident in a band with a much more immediate, accessible appeal to an indie crowd than Red Pony Clock. The Zebras are more than the sum of their influences, however, with songs that swoop and soar and stir, destined to go down well with Weddoes fans at this weekend's Indietracks, we feel. Their stage banter needs some work, however, maybe they need to emerge unscathed from a tour vehicle inferno to put some fire in their bellies?
With things running later than planned, your harassed hack needs to make a Last Train to Larksville exit halfway through the headline set from Burlington, Vermont's The Smittens, but what we see/hear is confident, breezy and tuneful, and fully in line with all the good things we've heard about/from them, and we'll look out for them next time they're jingling their jangle back on these shores.
All in all, another fine evening of high-quality indie gathering courtesy of those friendly folk from The Autumn Store!
All three bands featured will be playing at Indietracks this weekend (July 26-27, festival fact fans) in deepest Derbyshire.
To celebrate our beloved West Ham finally making their first major signing of the summer in Valon Behrami, a Kosovan-born Swiss international right back, whose crazy hair and tats should see him fit in well with our long history of 'eccentric' full-backs, Parallax View sees fit to empty our favourites folder for you to pick 'n' mix -
And finally, we did get to a gig last night, review to follow shortly, but here as a taster is one of the bands, Red Pony Clock, and their silly promo for My New Best Friends. If you like what you see/hear, they'll be playing the Indietracks festival in Ripley, Derbyshire this weekend -
The School/Flicklisten/The Puncture Repair Kit, Swiss Concrete @ The Bullingdon Arms, Oxford, Thursday June 19 2008, 8.45pm.
The Bullingdon Arms is a short taxi ride away from Oxford's main rail station, a smallish pub with friendly, fetching bar staff and a big backroom area where the bands play. Ben and your long-distance lurker meet up with a couple of the SWSLer's charming co-workers, and get waylaid watching Germany beat Portugal in the Euro2008 Q-F so only catch the last few songs from The Puncture Repair Kit. Their boisterous, slightly ramshackle take on indie-pop reminds your comparison-crazed correspondent of The Strange Death Of Liberal England, but we hope the rest of the set was less impressive because a) we hate to have missed out on anything and b) we'd just lurve to be able to say The Puncture Repair Kit flat-tyred to deceive.
Flicklisten is a guy who comes from Ohio but has lived in Oxford for four years, a singer/guitarist occasionally accompanied by a young lady who plays a violin shaped like a pair of scissors (a cut above the usual instrument, natch). He has a good voice, knows how to get a meaningful, sombre strum from his guitar, and has a droll line in tinder-dry banter, but his songs, on first listen anyway, are more interesting than truly memorable.
This last charge is certainly something you could never level at our learned friends The School, who've happily mastered the knack of catchy tunes addressing bold sentiments, embellished with 60s girl-pop stylings yet undertowed by savvy indie knowingness. They seem to be a Rosie and at least one Ryan short of the line-up when we last saw them, but Liz is in good, giggly form, describing Oxford as very pretty once you've found it, a reference to the maybe-Multimap-induced mayhem of their journey into the city. Of tonight's set, the songs from last week's Single Of The Week 'Let It Slip' ep prominently feature, there's a mystery cover version that no one gets, and the small matter of a dedication to their 'longest-travelling fan - Ken!' for their closing number 'All I Wanna Do'.
Your marathon-man mitherer hides his blushes for just long enough to grab a few words with Liz at the end of the show, as the band pack away their equipment in readiness for a trip to Spain for a festival performance. She insists the recent departures were amicable and not the result of a Mark E Smith-like hire-em-fire-em ethos, and reveals a new band member is forthcoming who will cover both instruments. Talking of covered instruments, we don't have to get our twelve-inch ruler out as Liz very kindly autographs our copy of the 'Let It Slip' ep before we wave her off to Spain. But not before she reveals an addition to The School timetable: a debut album due early next year!
Ida Maria/Dan Whitehouse, Glee Club, Birmingham, Tuesday May 27 2008, 8.30pm.
There's an urban legend that if you wander the streets of Birmingham for long enough you will invariably chance upon an encounter with the Prykemeister. On the way to Birmingham's Glee Club tonight, our peripheral vision reveals everyone's favourite AI boffin rushing towards your confused correspondent with a bunch of flowers. Fortunately for all concerned, Prykemeister isn't acting on any kind of backcrack-fuelled impulse, and is in fact on his way to present said petals and stems to his girlfriend Huma.
Don't have time to go into detail with him about what he might have done wrong to require flowers (oh come on, they're always a guilt-edged gift, aren't they?) as need to get into Glee before their curfew. Support again tonight comes from Wolverhampton troubadour-type Dan Whitehouse, although unlike his turn before Lykke Li, this time he's unaccompanied by pianist June Mori. Whether it's this, or the fact that, unusually for Glee, it's a standing gig, Dan is strangely subdued between the first few numbers, despite confidently starting the set with his best song 'Somewhere I Don't Want To Go'. Halfway through the set, however, he becomes less preoccupied and refinds his mojo, getting, by the end of the performance, the best crowd reception we've heard for him yet, and plenty of interest at the merch stand after the show, where he's selling sampler CDs ahead of an upcoming album release.
Swedish-based Norwegian Ida Maria acts pretty much the rock star from the outset, wearing a top hat, leather micro-jacket and lairy expression as she wraps her distinctively rasping larynx over a collection of songs that include her three singles to date plus other tasters from her upcoming album (due to ship late June). The standing-only format suits Ida well, because the music is essentially bluesy rock designed to get people moving and having a good time. Few blues-rock outfits have tunes as consistently good as these, however, and the presence and voice of Ida Maria helps the material transcend its' roots in the same way Rod Stewart elevated The Faces four decades ago.
The singles stand out, if on terms of familiarity alone, with the singer giving her all on the desperate denouement to former Parallax View Single Of The Week 'Stella', the feelgood folk fuzz of 'Queen Of The World' ratcheted up a few notches live, and the most punk-rock number 'Oh My God' seeing Ida dive in amongst the moshers for some sweaty catharsis. Of the other songs '(I Like You Better When You're) Naked' may yet be her breakthough hit, given its' catchy refrain complete with saucy sentiment seems destined to be chanted at student discos from here until at least Xmas.
No nearer to clearing the blogging backlog than before, but we interrupt this prevarication to advise that our very favourite Pipette, Rosay by any other name, has left the group to start her own solo career. She's now going by her full name of Rose Elinor Dougall and the first fruits from this venture can be found by having a Rosy Nosey over on her MySpace page which reveals an intriguing new direction of atmospheric, smoky moodpop a la Stereolab, Broadcast and Mazzy Star. Worth keeping an eye on this brand new Rose in town!
Have a bumper batch of gig reviews to catch up with, and some essential computer maintenance issues to contend with, so progress here at Parallax View will be steady and relentless but possibly not at the pell-mell pace you'd prefer. Just time tonight for a quick consideration of the Premiership season just gone, an exciting one for the neutral, and stuck in neutral was exactly how it felt to us West Ham fans, with the Irons forged to tenth spot for the last three months of the season. A term of stability was what was required after last season's legal turmoils and close-run relegation scrapes, but we'd forgotten just how tedious stability can be.
Still, we finished two places ahead of where Parallax View predicted at the beginning of the season, and finished above 'bigger' clubs like the Tottscum and the Toon Army. To see how well we fared in terms of predictions compare the final table with our pre-season punditry. We got the top two wrong way around, slightly underestimated Wigan and Villa and overestimated Spurs and Newcastle, but got two out of three relegated clubs right (Reading and Derby) and overall we were more right than wrong (particularly regarding the more things change the more they stay the same mantra regarding the likes of Spurs, Newcastle, Citeh and West Ham).
Which begs the question, is the Premiership getting all too predictable?
Dean Harrison v Gary Reid, Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, Wednesday April 30 2008, 8.30pm.
Ever determined to expand his entertainment horizons, your sometimes squeamish scribbler went with Russ to check out some live boxing in Wolverhampton's Civic Hall. Russ had warned that a lot of these fight nights include local scrappers duking it out against jaded journeymen there for the taking, but advised me the main event, Dean Harrison v Gary Reid, looked a tastily-matched bout.
Local light-welterweight prospect Harrison was unbeaten going into the fight, but his opponent Gary Reid, formerly based in Wolverhampton himself although now trained in Stoke, is known as The Body Snatcher due to his trademark body punches, and looked to be no pushover. As indeed it proved during a tense tussle over eight three-minute rounds with both boxers receiving vociferous support from their respective fans. Harrison, the taller and leaner of the two, took time to settle into his style and impose himself on the shorter, stockier Reid, but by the end of the fight had just done enough to justifiably win a points verdict over an opponent who was compact and busy but perhaps didn't show quite enough ambition over the contest as a whole.
A much more knowledgeable account of the fight (with detailed descriptions of the other bouts on the bill) can be found here, which includes some florid Roy Of The Rovers style descriptions which afficionados of Dead Kenny's more overcooked moments will surely enjoy, but the other fight that stood out for your nosy novice on the night was in fact between two girl boxers, another local slugger by the name of Lyndsey Scragg pitted against a Ukrainian girl called Victoria Oleynik.
Must admit wasn't too sure about the prospect of watching two women punching each other's lights out, but for sheer spectacle to the untrained eye this was the best scrap of the night. Scragg's numerous and noisy supporters were clearly expecting an easy victory but before long technical advice on jabs etc. soon gave way to impatient exhortations to 'just fuckin' knock her out!' as Oleynik's combative combination of feral intensity and provocative showboating seemed to fluster Scragg out of her normal comfort zone. Luckily for your careworn correspondent's lugholes the local lass finally won through on points although to the casual observer Oleynik's pluck was admirable and she can feel a little hard done by with the outcome.
As a whole, the event seemed very efficiently run, the crowd were quite intimidating at times although there was only one skirmish (going on underneath our balcony) that troubled the security staff, and Russ and myself had easily enough hair between us than the rest of the male audience members put together, prompting at least one quip within earshot about us being 'like Wayne's World'. Although there weren't really any upsets to report most of the fights seemed quite closely matched and competitive on the night, even though a lumbering heavyweight encounter nearly lost our will to live. Personally, would have preferred fewer fights and bigger intervals between the bouts to allow some liquid refreshment (drinks couldn't be taken into the auditorium) and anticipation, but overall it was a fascinating evening, with many thanks to Russ for the good company and technical input.
New Ladytron material gives us goosebumps at the best of times, so finding that the opening single from new album Velocifero is called Ghosts and can be downloaded right now via the Perpetua inspiration that is Fluxblog has us more than pleasantly spooked. The Liverpool-based foursome, Britain's Best Pop Band Ever? (TM), have had something like three songs make 41 in the charts, so will this spine-tingler have the phantom power to finally break them in to the Top 40?
Not being Nostredamus, we're not sure. But what we do know is that the gorgeous Ghosts has possessed us to enough to earn Parallax View Single Of The Week a good while ahead of its retail release.
StrangeTime, The Rainbow, Digbeth, Birmingham, Friday March 14 2008, 9pm.
This is your bashful blogger's first venture into The Rainbow since staggering in for some much needed grub during the Supersonic Festival back in 2005. It's a longer walk from New Street than remembered, so just as well there's long-suffering Toon Army trouper Ben along for company during the hefty stride to the venue. It's a big sprawling pub that's had something of a makeover in the intervening three years, and the bands play in what clearly used to be a backyard with a new roof, with an adjoining can bar and an open-plan kitchen area where burgers and other hot sundries are being cooked.
It is, of course, not just the beef patties and onion strips sizzling once Kate Finch and StrangeTime arrive on stage in bold, if slightly belated, fashion. Technical issues with distortion pedals are brushed to one side as they launch into 'Profile' (aka their 'MySpace song' with the lines 'so you've guessed/I'm self-obsessed') from their new ep, and yet as technically impressive as some of their new songs are, it's one of their oldest tunes, 'Ex-Boyfriend', given an extra roar of feeling tonight that someone's ears must be burning (and we don't mean from the barbecue smoke, either) that seems to get the neutrals right behind them. Our normally reliable source, the good General Hubbub, advises us the band have won quite a few new friends tonight with no prisoners taken (including John's drumstick at one point) during a feisty, fiery set.
Ben and your hurrying hack then need to make a fairly hasty exit to Wok'n'Roll, a cosy, boutique Chinese restaurant with a karaoke adjunct, to say a boisterous bon voyage to Alison who's escaping her role as occasional gig-going companion to your socially-challenged so-and-so for a new life in Bristol. We hope the local shops have had advance warning to stock up on Haribo!
Now we know what you're thinking, it's all very well for Dead Kenny to go on hobnobbing hi-jinks in intimate, fashionable ethnic eateries, but what about the other bands on the StrangeTime bill that we've casually left in the lurch of potential internet obscurity? Luckily then for your unreliable uberpundit the good Baron has swooped into view to review the whole fandangle and ensure the completists aren't hard up for comprehensive content. Huzzah!
Blood Red Shoes/Lovvers, Little Civic, Wolverhampton, Monday February 4 2008, 8.30pm. Betty & The Id/Liechtenstein/Horowitz , The Autumn Store, Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham, Thursday February 7 2008, 9pm. Los Campesinos!/Johnny Foreigner, Carling Academy 2, Birmingham, Wednesday February 13 2008, 8.45pm.
Worcester-sourced Lovvers offer a grunge-flavoured brand of post-punk with plenty of energy, noise, attitude and charisma, but not much in the way of memorable tunes, though their champions would no doubt argue melodies aren't exactly their point. As for the main band, it's a case of Blood Red A-tishoos rather than Blood Red Shoes as Laura-Mary has a terrible cold and has lost her voice, leaving the drummer Steven to carry out all the vocal chores. Given that a large part of the bands' appeal is the vocal interplay between the two it says a lot for the quality of their pop hooks that the gig remains a success despite this aspect being muted. And rumours that your cold remedy-carrying correspondent was found wandering the backstage area looking for Laura-Mary while lugging a lorryload of Vicks will remain unconfirmed.
Another band who've taken so long to get their debut album out that a backlash has started before it comes out (common factor: the stewardship of V2 Records) are Cardiff's Los Campesinos!. Said record Hold On Now, Youngster! has been slated in some parts for it's one (helter-skelter) pace, but live, that's a big part of the fun, and that criticism seems as harsh as Gareth's new haircut. 'You! Me! Dancing!' remains as exhilarating as ever, although perhaps it's a sign of our increasing old age that as we look on at all the crowdsurfing (Gareth, at one point, included) the security guy looks so much cooler in his disaffected manner than the giddy youths he's trying to control and protect.
Earlier, Johnny Foreigner hardly put a foot wrong musically with scorching guitar and rat-a-tat vocal interplay we've become accustomed to from their brilliant 'Arcs Across The City' mini-album, tonight's show also including the currently-fashionable Pavement cover. But as The Prykemeister has noted, their banter needs a bit of work, with the entreaty to buy enough merchandise to help get them out of Birmingham destined to work anywhere but the Second City itself. Then again, maybe that was their joke.
In between these gigs, ventured into a packed-out Autumn Store night at the Sunflower Lounge. Stoke-On-Trent's Horowitz are a little odd-looking and have their technical difficulties, but neither factor can detract from the simple pop beauty of their tunes, with an extra layer of guitar fuzz live adding to the lovely warmth of gems like 'Pop Kids Of The World Unite!'. Sweden's Liechtenstein were one of our Music Tips of 2008, and the all-girl group from Gothenburg don't disappoint, entrancing the audience with their shiny-eyed charm and intricate, engaging songcraft. We recommend that you track down debut single 'Stalking Skills' with immediate and stealthy effect. Local band Betty & The Id were late additions to the bill, and not what you might call traditional Autumn Store fayre, but with the drinks starting to kick in, their driven brand of drone-rock gave the evening a happy head-nodding finish.
In which we empty our pockets of loose change. Spend it wisely, readers!
In response to a request from Ben as to where you can get hands on a copy of David Byrne's cover of The Fiery Furnaces' 'Ex-Guru' here's a link to the mp3 and also details on how you can buy a copy of this goofy goodness.
Chris Cleave's excellent novel Incendiary which features a troubled young woman learning to cope with losing her husband and child in a terrorist atrocity at an Arsenal game, has been made into a feature film starring Michelle Williams and Ewan McGregor that premiered at last month's Sundance Film Festival.
Birmingham-based circus artiste Emilia Arata (picture borderline safe for work) supplied the eye candy for last month's Big Brother Celebrity Takeover yawnfest.
A cautious recommendation to What I Killed Today, in which a vet eulogises the animals he's euthanised. (via LMG)
On a much happier note it's full speed ahead for a new Ladytron album, entitled Velocifero, due out on Nettwerks Records on June 3.
And finally, a new music tip for 2008, in the shape of Laura Groves. Missed the 20-year-old Shipley lass's show last night at the Bearded Magazine launch party in Birmingham's Sunflower Lounge, but these songs on her MySpace page are striking and distinctive. The Kate Bush comparisons are inevitable, but, for once, pertinent.
Just as Paul Schrader's tricksy political thriller The Walker (2007, out as of last week on DVD) begins with a genteel game of cards, Ang Lee's erotically-charged spy story Lust, Caution has a lengthy opening scene featuring a game of Mahjong, an inscrutable pastime which seems to be a kind of combination of Yahtzee and Dungeons and Dragons played with small slabs that resemble white chocolate Bendick's Mingles.
Set in Japanese-occupied Shangai during World War Two, nothing is quite what it seems underneath the civilised veneer of small-talk and drawing-room games. The importer's wife introduced to the gentleman of the house Mr Yee (played by Tony Leung) is a poor player of Mahjong for the reason she's too busy concentrating on keeping up her cover to study the nuances of the game, as the film's flashback structure reveals her to be a young actress hired to seduce the high-ranking collaborator and lead him towards his assassination.
Mr Yee, however, is an understandably cautious man, and there's plenty of human chess moves, not to mention betrayal and bloodshed, before the film's well-publicised explicit sex scenes explode upon the screen. The result is a slow-burning pot-boiler with plenty to reward the patient viewer, not least the two lead performances. Relative unknown Tang Wei is bewitching both as the radical student and troubled spy lost in lust with her smouldering prey, while Tony Leung impressively conveys the brooding passion beneath his character's buttoned-up exterior with a quiet, dignified subtlety that helps raise the material above mere melodrama.
On a similar UNSAFE FOR WORK tip here's the list you've really been waiting for: The Top 20 Nude Scenes of 2007 with pictures and movie clips attached to get your boss hot under the collar.
And finally, the first of our music tips for 2008: Ida Maria a Swedish-based Norwegian with a distinctive rockchick rawr, who's playing a couple of gigs in London later this month.
Kings Of Leon become the first act to get the coveted nod of Parallax View Album Of The Year twice (following on from Aha Shake Heartbreak in 2004) in a year which, on reflection, was of pretty solid vintage.
1. Because Of The Times - Kings Of Leon 2. Under The Blacklight - Rilo Kiley 3. Mens Needs, Womens Needs, Whatever - The Cribs 4. In Rainbows - Radiohead 5. Our Love To Admire - Interpol 6. Let's Stay Friends - Les Savy Fav 7. We Can Create - Maps 8. Neon Bible - Arcade Fire 9. The Dreamer Evasive - Apartment 10. The Deep Blue - Charlotte Hatherley 11. The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse - The Besnard Lakes 12. Grinderman - Grinderman 13. Icky Thump - The White Stripes 14. Knives Will Have Your Back - Emily Haines And The Soft Skeleton 15. Without Feathers - The Stills 16. Widow City - The Fiery Furnaces 17. Citrus - Asobi Seksu 18. A Weekend In The City - Bloc Party 19. The Kissaway Trail - The Kissaway Trail 20. An End Has A Start - Editors 21. I'll Sleep When You're Dead - El-P 22. A Brighter Beat - Malcolm Middleton 23. Myths Of The Near Future - Klaxons 24. White Chalk - P J Harvey 25. The Fragile Army - The Polyphonic Spree 26. Love's Miracle - Qui 27. Watch The Fireworks - Emma Pollock 28. Person Pitch - Panda Bear 29. The Bird Of Music - Au Revoir Simone 30. Wincing The Night Away - The Shins 31. Magic - Bruce Springsteen 32. Hey Trouble - The Concretes 33. Cheap Demo Bad Science - Serafina Steer 34. No Shouts No Calls - Electrelane 35. The Body, The Blood, The Machine - The Thermals 36. Sermon From Exposition Boulevard - Rickie Lee Jones 37. Made Of Bricks - Kate Nash 38. Wait For Me - The Pigeon Detectives 39. Late December - Maria McKee 40. The Secret Sickliness - Piskie Sits
Best compilation: Weirdo Rippers by No Age.
Best re-issues: Dead Men Tell No Tales by Monarch! and Eat To The Beat CD/DVD by Blondie.
As ever, use the comments box to vent your spleen, point out the glaring omissions and/or hawk your blog. Then it starts all over again in 2008 with the release of the new British Sea Power record in the second week of the New Year.
The Duke Spirit/Creepy Morons, Barfly, Birmingham, Friday November 16 2007, 8.45pm.
So whatever happened to The Beatings? Seems like some of 'em, at any rate, turned out to be Creepy Morons. But Creepy Morons, nonetheless, who know how to thrash a decent tune from a fashionable two-piece unit of guitar and drums. It's a raw blend of blues and folk infused with a give-a-shit attitude and an instinctive feel for a pleasing groove. Definitely worth checking out.
Headliners The Duke Spirit are also old friends of Parallax View back on the scene, a band we've reviewed and reported on many an occasion since catching them support The Shins three and a half years ago. 'Fret not' advises singer Liela Moss, 'we're back and we've brought some new songs with us' and the band don't look back for the rest of the set, introducing a whole raft of new material (generally more melodic and of more varied pace than debut album Cuts Across The Land) as well as the usual live favourites like 'Red Weather' and 'Love Is An Unfamiliar Name'.
Sometimes you need to meet someone again to realise how much you've missed them, and that's the over-riding sensation your cheerful correspondent feels during a lively and enlivening set ring-led by the shamanic Moss cutting a cool and confident figure upfront to increasing appreciation from the sizeable crowd. 'We'll be back in the spring' advises Moss as they finally depart from the stage, which is yet another reason to wish the winter over with godspeed.
The Fiery Furnaces, Barfly, Birmingham, Friday November 9 2007, 9.15pm.
The last time your crocked correspondent saw The Fiery Furnaces his arm was in a sling in what was then a fashionable wrist fracture. Tonight the limbs are all cosily correct and present, and have the added company of Ben, Jenni, Alison and The Prykemeister, for a gig that's perhaps not been as hotly-anticipated as expected given the sparse attendance which gives the Barfly tonight a cold, cavernous feel.
So maybe there's a touch of sarcasm in singer Eleanor Friedberger's voice when she advises that this could be the best night of her life, though there seems genuine warmth when she invites the collected audience to get right close to the stage so she can see our smiles. Thus the thrill of a packed house is replaced by the sensation of implied intimacy, something that no doubt would appeal to the average Fiery Furnaces fan given their cultish allure.
Eleanor and brother/songwriter/keyboard player Matthew are accompanied by Jason Lohwenstein on guitars and Bob D'Amico on drums and between them they manage a phat and feisty groove that helps propel their perverse and skittish material into the live arena. Eleanor's vocals are a large part of the band's appeal on record even if that isn't always reflected in the production mix, but in the flesh she dominates attention from the word go. All fringe, nose and jaw she's physically a curious combo of Zelda, Ringo Starr and Patti Smith and yet so much more compellingly attractive than that hotch-potch collage might sound. If she's pissed at the turnout it doesn't show in a performance where she seems at once lost in the music and yet passionately embracing every opportunity to connect with the audience through her smiling eyes and bewitching enthusiasm.
The first half of the set is almost exclusively taken from this autumn's Widow City collection, arguably their most consistently pleasing effort since their barnstorming debut Gallowsbird's Bark. Album opener 'The Philadelphia Grand Jury' is also used here to get things going, slowly but surely weaving the listener into their weird and twisted world, while there's also strong showings from 'Navy Nurse', 'Right By Conquest' and 'Restorative Beer'. 'My Egyptian Grammar' puts the high into hieroglyphics, while even the curious omission of the keyboard motif can't put your home-loving hack off his favourite 'Japanese Slippers'. Further into the set there's room for a couple of tracks from the unfairly-neglected 'Rehearsing My Choir', 'Single Again' morphs in and out of 'Don't Dance Me Down' (or is it the other way around?) while a call for requests elicits perhaps their best-known song 'Tropical Iceland' to be extracted from 'Gallowsbird's Bark'.
After the show, Eleanor is in engaging form with the fans that hang by. The Prykemeister tells her she's going to be a big star one day and gets his photo taken with her like the prime schmoozer he is. This just leaves time for a quick pint in The Anchor before catching the train, a brief but memorable Eruption* courtesy of the buxom barmaid giving full and satisfying meaning to the term 'restorative beer'...
*calm down, dear reader, this is simply a guest real ale courtesy of the Salopian Brewery!
StrangeTime/Cellardoor/Sub Rosa, Actress and Bishop, Ludgate Hill, Birmingham, Saturday October 27 2007, 9pm.
Deep into the Jewellery Quarter and just off St Paul's Square, the upstairs venue at the Actress & Bishop is packed with people in various sorts of fancy dress for this hotly-anticipated three-act Hallowe'en show curated by those fine StrangeTime folk. Your discreet diarist decides against fancy dress as such, but dressed in black and with mad, staring eyes intact if fairly boggled, opts for the scary blogger guise that has served him so well over the years.
With Prykemeister and the lovely Bex also in attendance amongst an attractive, knowledgeable crowd, it's a decent turnout for Leicester's Sub Rosa's inaugural live show in the Second City. Bedecked in assorted blood-splattered gear that gives them the appearance of Re-Animator extras the lead singer is at pains to stress that they don't normally look like this. But when they summon a steady succession of blood-curdling riffs savage enough to waken the dead from an eternity of spiritual slumber maybe they protest too much. Very impressive stuff indeed.
There's something a bit different about Andrew from Cellar Door since last time our paths crossed, but your clueless correspondent can't quite put his finger on it. Ah yes, it'll be the wig, glasses, fake boobs and skirt, of course! But it's a quick change from Doubtfire to Surefire as the group's early pretty Mogwai-isms make way for something a little more fluid, woozy and dare we say it, funky, as comparisons to Tortoise and Krautrock become more apparent. The crowd are starting to sway, anyway, and it can't be the alcohol given the under-resourced bar. Andrew's clearly a man who knows how to catch the eye of the barman, however, as he cheerfully announces that he's so drunk he's forgotten the outro to their penultimate number.
Head downstairs in search of readier alcohol and emerge back upstairs to find have just missed the first song in StrangeTime's set. Guitarist/vocalist Kate Finch has her pageboy cut submerged underneath a Cleopatra wig that's fetching enough to tempt your lamebrained lothario to make a damn silly asp of himself, while bassist Chris and drummer John settle for a subtly blood-splattered look. But then the band once described as the scariest in the West Midlands clearly don't need to try too hard to terrify, particularly with songs like 'Personality Disorder' and new song 'Profile' sinister enough to psych out the most laid-back of listeners.
There's something slightly different about the band tonight - maybe it's the fancy dress liberating them from self-consciousness, the headline status at a packed show giving them greater self-esteem, or simply the confidence that comes from playing regularly and the burgeoning inter-band chemistry thus generated - but perhaps it's only appropriate that at a Hallowe'en ball StrangeTime have genuinely arrived.
Maps/Jeremy Warmsley, Carling Academy 2, Birmingham, Saturday October 6 2007, 7.30pm.
In what is becoming something of an increasingly self-referential Parallax View trend your chaotic correspondent arrives at the venue just as the first support act finish the last song of their set. All we can relate is that there are quite a few of them and they made a pleasing post-rock din but due to the on-the-go demands of the weekend (the gig is sandwiched in between the Villa v West Ham game and going to see the Ian Curtis biopic) don't get the chance to do the research to find out who they are. Parallax View is very, very sorry.
There's something naggingly familiar about the second act as he makes his meek but quietly assured way to the stage, and your hapless hack lets his face drop slightly on the realisation it's Jeremy Warmsley again, who we've seen twice before (at Summer Sundae and supporting I'm From Barcelona) in the last seven weeks. Now the problem with the fact that there's a sparse attendance so far at the venue is that you're a little exposed to the artist and embarrassingly Jez seems to clock my aghast expression and keeps a close eye on me for the rest of the show.
If this ensures your busted blogger remains on his best behaviour the same can't be said for a young man at the front who'd obviously started the pre-gig celebrations a little earlier than perhaps he should, and is sadly making a bit of a dickhead of himself. Warmsley asks him to behave himself and then heads to the barrier and has a quiet word in his ear while keeping an eagle eye on your studious scribe at the same time. We called on our lip-reading expertise and can advise with no degree of certainty whatsoever that what he said to the unfortunate young man in question was 'see that bloke over there, you're going to end up in his blog if you're not careful'. These wise words don't appear to do the trick, however, and Jez justifiably drops his calm reasonableness for a marvellously stroppy 'oh, just FUCK OFF!' instead, before finally security takes the matter out of his hands and escorts the nuisance off the premises.
Perhaps it's the distracting circumstances making us more pre-disposed to giving Jezza a fair hearing, but we find ourselves enjoying his show a bit more at the third time of asking. He seems to get the balance right between the slower and jauntier numbers, but does frustrate us with telling us there's a good joke hidden in the lyrics of one of his songs, because your attention-deficited amateur just can't concentrate for long enough to get it.
Troubling eye contact isn't an issue with main act Maps as they make the sort of symphonies that induce your blissed-out blogger to close his eyes and wig-out to the pulsating waves of sonic splendour. There are people who get paid decent money for writing about music who'd have you believe that Maps can't cut it in the relatively uncharted uncharted territories of the live arena, but take it as read from this Parallax Viewer these idiots don't know what they're talking about. If tunes like 'Eloise' and 'It Will Find You' can inspire this unco-ordinated upstart to shake a limb then these rhythms are chancers that will prove that fortune always favours the brave. Top marks for the roadie wearing a Medium 21 t-shirt as well - further proof that not everything coming out of Northampton is cobblers.
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It's a weblog, updated invariably daily, with links and references to music; film; pop culture; pub culture; football (or soccer, if you will); sports; TV/Radio; modern art; sex and gossip. Preferably, all of them at the same time.
That list isn't exclusive though. This is a personal site, so I reserve the right to talk shit about anything/everything I want. Just try stop me.
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About the boy
Although this is a personal site, the point of the project isn't me, it's to refer you to sites/stories/pictures/games etc. of interest. Occasionally, there will be references to my private life but this isn't a diary page. I can't stop you making assumptions about me based on the content of this page, as long as you don't mistake those assumptions for anything remotely resembling fact.
Parallax View is the work of a shadowy, mysterious character by the name of Dead Kenny. That's me. Am I really dead? Take a guess. Why use a pseudonym? I have my reasons. Let's just say that using a doppelganger allows me optimum flexibility in expressing myself.
Pip Matters
Next night, head over to The Rainbow in Digbeth for a special 
