Another seasonal question special. This time I asked recent interviewees some festive questions for a Native.tv Christmas special.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in December 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
CHRISTMAS 2007
Greg Gilbert (vocals, guitar) - Delays
Where were you last Christmas?
In Southampton. It’s a total family time for me. I just love it. I love doing the whole cliché thing, I love being with my family eating dinner and getting drunk and sitting in front of crap TV falling asleep, paper hat on my head.
What’s the best present you received?
I got the James Bond DVD set one Christmas. The trouble is with DVDs is I have to be in the right frame of mind. I channelsurf endlessly. Sometimes I put a DVD on and think oh there must be something great on, but Bond is great comfort on lonely nights.
What’s your best and worst Christmas songs?
Best Christmas song is either Roy Wood or Slade, I’m a big fan of all those glammy Christmas, Life On Mars kind of era. I didn’t like Paul McCartney’s Christmas song. That’s not one of my favourites.
What’s your New Year’s resolution? Or have you not got one yet because we’re asking you this on November 1st?
Let me think of one. My New Year’s resolution is to try and find as many things funny as possible. I think when you find something so funny you belly laugh, there’s absolutely nothing better.
Tom Baxter
What are your favourite and least favourite Christmas songs?
You know what, I really like that George Michael song ‘Last Christmas’, I think that’s a really good song. I always feel sorry for the guys in Slade because they’re just labelled a Christmas band. The Cliff Richard stuff I don’t really like, that just drives me up the wall a little. It’s all a little bit insipid and milky for me.
How did you celebrate New Year last year?
Oh God, where was I? For the life of me, I can’t remember. The last Christmas I did, I had a house party so I was very drunk and then I had to go to Argentina the following day so I was a bit worse for wear.
What’s the worse thing about Christmas?
It’s just like a false sense of family sometimes, and I think that’s a real shame. I think sometimes particularly in this country we don’t make enough effort to just be a family. It’s all so split up. So I think that it can be quite a lonely time for people can’t it, if you haven’t got family and if you don’t get on with your family.
Do you have a New Year’s resolution?
My New Year’s resolution is just like everyone else’s, to get fit actually. I just haven’t been to the gym for so long.
Matt Bowman (vocals) and Oli Main (guitar) – The Pigeon Detectives
Best Christmas present you’ve got?
Oli: A guitar.
Matt: Pair of rollerskates.
What’s your New Year’s resolution?
Matt: Mine’s going to be smoke more. Just to say ‘Fuck you’ to those that are trying to ban it.
Oli: Smoke indoors more.
Matt: That’s for both of us, that.
What’s the worst thing about Christmas?
Matt: Buying Christmas presents. Not made of money.
Oli: I fucking hate Christmas, everything about it.
Best and worst Christmas songs?
Matt: Worst one was that Darkness effort.
Oli: Slade’s is the best one.
Matt: Yeah, obviously Slade.
What did you do last New Year?
Matt: Played a gig at the Faversham in Leeds. It was excellent. Drank lots of beer, got paid, and…
Oli: Fell over a wall.
Matt: Fell over a wall. Probably. [thinks] No, that weren’t then...
Stine Bramson – Alphabeat
Best and worst Christmas songs?
[Favourite] Wham! ‘Last Christmas’. That’s always good. I love that, I love Wham! in general. [Least favourite] That’s probably mostly Danish ones. The silly ones that don’t really have a good melody and sung by kids always.
What do you eat at your Christmas meal?
We have duck at home with everything that comes with that.
Where were you last New Year?
I actually had dinner with the friend who’s over at my place right now. Then we went to a big private party at a friend’s house in Copenhagen.
Greg Churchouse – Scouting For Girls
Where did you spend last Christmas?
Last Christmas, I was pretty much working most of it. Myself and Roy both worked in shops, so Christmas time was always the busiest time of the year. We literally got Christmas Day off, and it was working til 10, 11pm on Christmas Eve and then back to work on Boxing Day. This is going to be the first Christmas we’ve both not been working since we left school which is going to be absolutely lovely stuff.
What’s the best present you received?
Blimey. That’s a tricky one. I’d say when I was like 14 Roy persuaded to get an acoustic guitar for Christmas instead of a Megadrive. Quite lucky he did otherwise who knows what would have happened, I’d have been sitting at home, being a computer geek, as opposed to sitting in the back of a freezing cold tour bus somewhere in Scotland!
What’s your New Years resolution?
I would say I’d like to get fitter. But as I’ve never ever stuck to a New Years resolution in my life for more than, say, a day, I doubt it’s really going to happen.
What are you best and worst Christmas songs?
Best Christmas song would be ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham! I don’t know what the worst Christmas song would be actually. [laughs] Roy just said ‘Last Christmas’ by Wham! It’s a double-edge sword. I was personally going to go for ‘Mistletoe & Wine’ by Cliff Richard.
David Guetta
I’m going to ask you some cheesy Christmas questions, if that’s all right.
Bring on the cheese!
Where were you last New Year?
I was in Dubai.
How do you celebrate Christmas?
Really classic, you know family, tree, my wife is totally into that, she’s like really excited and we have a boy, he’s three and a half years, so we’re gonna wait for Father Christmas to come and say hello and everything.
What are your best and worst Christmas songs?
I think that is more of a UK thing because we don’t have that so much in France. I’ve seen that you have a lot of that here and it’s all a big deal but we don’t really. ‘Baby When The Light’ is number one on the airplay and it will be for Christmas. We don’t have special Christmas music. I think it’s a good thing!
Have you got a New Year’s resolution?
Yes I do. I’m going to go back to the gym, I’m going to eat healthy, I’m going to start some proper music lessons – harmony, piano lessons, percussion lessons, guitar lessons. Today I’ve done this today, it was a great experience, I’ve done this show for Channel 4 called ‘Freshly Squeezed’ and we’ve done an acoustic version of ‘Baby When The Light’. It was really exciting, I was like I wanna do this more, I need to come back home. I programme so I can play keyboard but not that good, and I want to learn how to play the real thing. That’s my resolution for next year.
Showing posts with label scouting for girls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scouting for girls. Show all posts
Wednesday, 11 June 2008
Interview - Scouting For Girls
This interview was delayed by a week or so after the PR originally phoned me when I was on a train. Attempting to put the dictaphone next to my mobile while trying to shut the carriage up wouldn't have been successful, so we agreed I would speak to Roy Stride later on. Imagine my surprise when I didn't speak to him at all. This involved some frantic question rewrites...
Be Prepared – The motto of The Scouts
That’s not the motto of this website though, although perhaps it should be. Having originally been told we’d be speaking to Roy Stride, we answered the phone with “Hello Roy,” only to find that a rescheduled interview date had also given us an entirely different band member, ie Greg Churchouse. Apologies and brief panic flowed from our end of the phone line. Luckily he didn’t sound offended.
There are currently few bands more cheerful-sounding than Scouting For Girls. Made up of childhood friends Roy Stride (vocals/keyboards), Greg Churchouse (bass and vocals) and Peter Ellard (drums). Making charmingly friendly and cheeky, catchy pop, they give off an air of being incredibly nice and polite in general. The sort of band you could invite out for a drink and they’d talk to all your friends, share their crisps and even join in a game of darts, unlike other musicians who would steal your pint before drunkenly relieving themselves on the snooker table. That’s not Scouting For Girls’ style. They’re too well-behaved for that. Or so they sound.
How are you, Greg?
“Not too bad. Please excuse me if the phone goes a bit funny, we’re currently driving from Inverness to Edinburgh. The phone coverage isn’t the greatest.”
How was the gig last night?
“The gig in Inverness was amazing. One of our managers actually comes from Inverness so I think half the crowd was probably made up of his family.”
So long as they all paid to get in.
“Oh yes. The guestlist was rather short surprisingly.”
Scouting For Girls picked up their name partly on the cheeky wordplay, partly on their love of innocent childhood times spent with their Scout chums. Dib dib dib and all that. Surprisingly – nay, shockingly – Greg was not a member of the Scouts. He was however in the supremely cooler Air Cadets “because it was much more fun to fly planes and stuff.”
Did you actually get to fly planes in the Air Cadets?
“Yeah, we used to go gliding every other weekend. And every now and then we got to go and fly those little Chipmunk planes which was quite good fun. But Roy and Pete actually met when they were six at Cubs.”
So they were building their campfires and you were flying overhead laughing at them?
“Yeah exactly. They were camping out in their tents and I’m flying round, having lots of japes and larks.”
You didn’t have to do badges or tasks or anything like that did you?
“We had little exams and tests and things but they were just about performing the basics like about planes stay in the air and how to polish your boots.”
One of the things setting Scouting For Girls apart from their contemporaries is their fanbase in the Wolfcub Club. Greg explains it began as a way of enticing people onto their mailing list “by giving away a little badge and a membership card, much like the Dennis The Menace fan club when we were kids. We were all members of that, and it’s just a really great way of keeping in touch with people, and giving a little bit back and starting a little club and it took off really well.”
Members now also receive a special CD, a handy handbook, and a secret code to write in. “Apparently it’s a lot easier to decipher than it is to write things in the code. It takes us absolutely forever to actually write anything down and then people have figured it out within a couple of minutes [laughs].”
Were you in any band fan clubs when you were younger?
“Not really, I just preferred just listening to the music. Most of my favourite bands I probably couldn’t name half the people in them you know, and yet I can name the songs and the albums. I think Roy was in the REM fan club, he’s a huge REM fan.”
It’s been an incredibly hectic year for the band. Since signing to their record label on Valentine’s Day, their EP ‘It’s Not About You’ managed to become the highest charting limited edition EP – not bad, considering ‘limited edition’ generally means there aren’t that many of them. They’ve been given strong radio support (“Huw Stephens on Radio 1 gave us a Maida Vale session before we got signed, Marsha and John Kennedy on XFM have just been absolutely amazing,”) which can't have hurt matters.
Scouting For Girls are currently busying themselves on tour, from the middle of November to December, across the length of the UK. Most of this tour has sold out, so if you didn’t get tickets, consider yourselves lucky there are plenty more dates around the corner. ”The crowds have been absolutely amazing every night, we’ve been very very well received and we most definitely appreciate it.”
Scotland has been a particular high, with Glasgow seeing the best fans. “Pretty much anywhere in Glasgow, you’re always onto a winner. The crowds are always just phenomenal, I thought my ears were going to start bleeding at one point because of the crowd screaming. And I’m really looking forward to playing KOKO in London, ‘cause that’s like coming back to your home crowd, which is always lovely.”
Support this time round is from The Sonic Hearts, who Greg describes as “a lovely bunch of guys and girls. Nice melodies, nice jangly guitars, which really complements us, and they’ve been well received which is always wicked.”On this tour it’s been really weird because people have been singing along to pretty much every song, and they seem to know the words better than Roy does. Just listening to the guys singing it back to you; you can’t describe the feeling, it’s just amazing.”The newer dates will take in much larger venues. Greg says “I can’t wait it’s going to be wicked.”
The band recently played their first show abroad, at London Calling in Amsterdam. “It was absolutely amazing. We were on tenterhooks as to how the crowd would take to us, but they seemed to really enjoy it. Can’t wait to hopefully get out there and do it again. Hopefully early next year we’re going to get over and do a few dates in Ireland, and then if we’re lucky, we’re still waiting to hear back on South By Southwest in Texas, which would be absolutely awesome. I’ve never been to the States so it’ll be an adventure. Oh God I can tell you, we could do with some sun. It’s absolutely freezing in Scotland. It’s really quite sunny out there but absolutely freezing.”
Scouting For Girls debut album is cleverly titled ‘Scouting For Girls’. This is so as not to confuse people. I once asked my mum to buy me Ocean Colour Scene ‘Moseley Shoals’ and she nearly bought me ‘Ocean Drive’ by the Lighthouse Family. Anyway…
Are you pleased at how successful it’s been?
“Yeah we’ve all been bedazzled by how well it’s been going. We’ve been in bands together since we were at school, and we’re so proud of the album and so glad that people seem to really like it.”
How long was it in the making for, has it been sort of kicking around for a while?
“Some of the songs on there are like a year old and another couple of tracks are like ten years old. It’s been a long hard process but we picked the songs that work quite nicely in the album and we were just so happy with the way it turned out, I can’t tell you [laughs].
“I’m still finding it quite hard to figure out which one my favourite track is, I mean I love ‘James Bond’ but anything which mention James Bond is always a winner with me. I do quite like the secret track ‘Michaela Strachan’.”
Would you be offended if I said ‘She’s So Lovely’ was getting slightly overplayed on the radio?
“Not at all. I heartily apologise!”
It’s not your fault, you don’t do the playlists.
“I don’t listen to the radio too much so it hasn’t annoyed me yet but yeah we have heard a couple of comments [laughs] Hopefully they won’t do the same thing to ‘Elvis [Ain’t Dead]’. We were really surprised at the success and how well ‘She’s So Lovely’ did, we weren’t expecting Top 10 at all. Top 40 would have been nice but to get it up into the Top 10 for six weeks, it was amazing.”
The band are currently doing the rounds to promote new single ‘Elvis Ain’t Dead’, which obviously is not really about Elvis.
“No, it’s a common misconception. It’s actually about unrequited love, when someone leaves you and you think they’re going to come back but you’re just deluding yourself. Roy was reading an article in the newspaper about some Elvis fans in America who kind of believed The King wasn’t dead and he was kicking around somewhere in Idaho working in a burger bar, and no matter if you showed them the corpse of Elvis they’d still go ‘No, he’s still alive’. It’s a really nice kind of metaphor for a kind of first love and first loss.
“I think with a lot of our songs sometimes the subject matter can be heavy, but it’s always wrapped up in a nice bouncy sound. We’re a feelgood kind of band.”
Back to Elvis: “It would be really nice if he was [alive] you know. But if you were going to fake your own death, dying on the toilet, you’d pick something a bit more glamorous than that. He’ll always live on in his music because it’s just phenomenal. I think Elvis will carry on being huge for years and years.”
Time will tell if Scouting For Girls do the same, but they’ve certainly made an encouraging start.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in December 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
Be Prepared – The motto of The Scouts
That’s not the motto of this website though, although perhaps it should be. Having originally been told we’d be speaking to Roy Stride, we answered the phone with “Hello Roy,” only to find that a rescheduled interview date had also given us an entirely different band member, ie Greg Churchouse. Apologies and brief panic flowed from our end of the phone line. Luckily he didn’t sound offended.
There are currently few bands more cheerful-sounding than Scouting For Girls. Made up of childhood friends Roy Stride (vocals/keyboards), Greg Churchouse (bass and vocals) and Peter Ellard (drums). Making charmingly friendly and cheeky, catchy pop, they give off an air of being incredibly nice and polite in general. The sort of band you could invite out for a drink and they’d talk to all your friends, share their crisps and even join in a game of darts, unlike other musicians who would steal your pint before drunkenly relieving themselves on the snooker table. That’s not Scouting For Girls’ style. They’re too well-behaved for that. Or so they sound.
How are you, Greg?
“Not too bad. Please excuse me if the phone goes a bit funny, we’re currently driving from Inverness to Edinburgh. The phone coverage isn’t the greatest.”
How was the gig last night?
“The gig in Inverness was amazing. One of our managers actually comes from Inverness so I think half the crowd was probably made up of his family.”
So long as they all paid to get in.
“Oh yes. The guestlist was rather short surprisingly.”
Scouting For Girls picked up their name partly on the cheeky wordplay, partly on their love of innocent childhood times spent with their Scout chums. Dib dib dib and all that. Surprisingly – nay, shockingly – Greg was not a member of the Scouts. He was however in the supremely cooler Air Cadets “because it was much more fun to fly planes and stuff.”
Did you actually get to fly planes in the Air Cadets?
“Yeah, we used to go gliding every other weekend. And every now and then we got to go and fly those little Chipmunk planes which was quite good fun. But Roy and Pete actually met when they were six at Cubs.”
So they were building their campfires and you were flying overhead laughing at them?
“Yeah exactly. They were camping out in their tents and I’m flying round, having lots of japes and larks.”
You didn’t have to do badges or tasks or anything like that did you?
“We had little exams and tests and things but they were just about performing the basics like about planes stay in the air and how to polish your boots.”
One of the things setting Scouting For Girls apart from their contemporaries is their fanbase in the Wolfcub Club. Greg explains it began as a way of enticing people onto their mailing list “by giving away a little badge and a membership card, much like the Dennis The Menace fan club when we were kids. We were all members of that, and it’s just a really great way of keeping in touch with people, and giving a little bit back and starting a little club and it took off really well.”
Members now also receive a special CD, a handy handbook, and a secret code to write in. “Apparently it’s a lot easier to decipher than it is to write things in the code. It takes us absolutely forever to actually write anything down and then people have figured it out within a couple of minutes [laughs].”
Were you in any band fan clubs when you were younger?
“Not really, I just preferred just listening to the music. Most of my favourite bands I probably couldn’t name half the people in them you know, and yet I can name the songs and the albums. I think Roy was in the REM fan club, he’s a huge REM fan.”
It’s been an incredibly hectic year for the band. Since signing to their record label on Valentine’s Day, their EP ‘It’s Not About You’ managed to become the highest charting limited edition EP – not bad, considering ‘limited edition’ generally means there aren’t that many of them. They’ve been given strong radio support (“Huw Stephens on Radio 1 gave us a Maida Vale session before we got signed, Marsha and John Kennedy on XFM have just been absolutely amazing,”) which can't have hurt matters.
Scouting For Girls are currently busying themselves on tour, from the middle of November to December, across the length of the UK. Most of this tour has sold out, so if you didn’t get tickets, consider yourselves lucky there are plenty more dates around the corner. ”The crowds have been absolutely amazing every night, we’ve been very very well received and we most definitely appreciate it.”
Scotland has been a particular high, with Glasgow seeing the best fans. “Pretty much anywhere in Glasgow, you’re always onto a winner. The crowds are always just phenomenal, I thought my ears were going to start bleeding at one point because of the crowd screaming. And I’m really looking forward to playing KOKO in London, ‘cause that’s like coming back to your home crowd, which is always lovely.”
Support this time round is from The Sonic Hearts, who Greg describes as “a lovely bunch of guys and girls. Nice melodies, nice jangly guitars, which really complements us, and they’ve been well received which is always wicked.”On this tour it’s been really weird because people have been singing along to pretty much every song, and they seem to know the words better than Roy does. Just listening to the guys singing it back to you; you can’t describe the feeling, it’s just amazing.”The newer dates will take in much larger venues. Greg says “I can’t wait it’s going to be wicked.”
The band recently played their first show abroad, at London Calling in Amsterdam. “It was absolutely amazing. We were on tenterhooks as to how the crowd would take to us, but they seemed to really enjoy it. Can’t wait to hopefully get out there and do it again. Hopefully early next year we’re going to get over and do a few dates in Ireland, and then if we’re lucky, we’re still waiting to hear back on South By Southwest in Texas, which would be absolutely awesome. I’ve never been to the States so it’ll be an adventure. Oh God I can tell you, we could do with some sun. It’s absolutely freezing in Scotland. It’s really quite sunny out there but absolutely freezing.”
Scouting For Girls debut album is cleverly titled ‘Scouting For Girls’. This is so as not to confuse people. I once asked my mum to buy me Ocean Colour Scene ‘Moseley Shoals’ and she nearly bought me ‘Ocean Drive’ by the Lighthouse Family. Anyway…
Are you pleased at how successful it’s been?
“Yeah we’ve all been bedazzled by how well it’s been going. We’ve been in bands together since we were at school, and we’re so proud of the album and so glad that people seem to really like it.”
How long was it in the making for, has it been sort of kicking around for a while?
“Some of the songs on there are like a year old and another couple of tracks are like ten years old. It’s been a long hard process but we picked the songs that work quite nicely in the album and we were just so happy with the way it turned out, I can’t tell you [laughs].
“I’m still finding it quite hard to figure out which one my favourite track is, I mean I love ‘James Bond’ but anything which mention James Bond is always a winner with me. I do quite like the secret track ‘Michaela Strachan’.”
Would you be offended if I said ‘She’s So Lovely’ was getting slightly overplayed on the radio?
“Not at all. I heartily apologise!”
It’s not your fault, you don’t do the playlists.
“I don’t listen to the radio too much so it hasn’t annoyed me yet but yeah we have heard a couple of comments [laughs] Hopefully they won’t do the same thing to ‘Elvis [Ain’t Dead]’. We were really surprised at the success and how well ‘She’s So Lovely’ did, we weren’t expecting Top 10 at all. Top 40 would have been nice but to get it up into the Top 10 for six weeks, it was amazing.”
The band are currently doing the rounds to promote new single ‘Elvis Ain’t Dead’, which obviously is not really about Elvis.
“No, it’s a common misconception. It’s actually about unrequited love, when someone leaves you and you think they’re going to come back but you’re just deluding yourself. Roy was reading an article in the newspaper about some Elvis fans in America who kind of believed The King wasn’t dead and he was kicking around somewhere in Idaho working in a burger bar, and no matter if you showed them the corpse of Elvis they’d still go ‘No, he’s still alive’. It’s a really nice kind of metaphor for a kind of first love and first loss.
“I think with a lot of our songs sometimes the subject matter can be heavy, but it’s always wrapped up in a nice bouncy sound. We’re a feelgood kind of band.”
Back to Elvis: “It would be really nice if he was [alive] you know. But if you were going to fake your own death, dying on the toilet, you’d pick something a bit more glamorous than that. He’ll always live on in his music because it’s just phenomenal. I think Elvis will carry on being huge for years and years.”
Time will tell if Scouting For Girls do the same, but they’ve certainly made an encouraging start.
Sunday, 17 February 2008
Single Reviews - Jun 07
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in June 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
The Mules - Polly O
Organ Grinder Records / Kartel , 11th June 2007
Now we have a bit of a soft spot for the people we’ve interviewed. But it is easy to have a soft spot for a band whose tunes are razor sharp, spiky to the touch and impossible to hold because they roll around in your hands? Er, yes.
‘Polly O’ is a typical arty thumper where all the individual violent parts fit together like a jigsaw, albeit a jigsaw you have to hammer and splinter into place because it keeps trying to hop off the table and bite your fingers. We like their fury and Ed’s snarling, howling vocals of angst. Not necessarily comfort listening, but we’re interested in playing it at an indie disco to see exactly what jerky movements everyone would come up with. ‘Watching Polly O / I love her so’.
B-side ‘O Grandfather’ was recorded live. ‘O Grandfather untie me from this bed please’. Eh what?? Step away from that scene, thank you very much… It’s unsettling, brooding and dark, yet entirely fascinating.
The Mules
-----
Paramore - Misery Business
Fueled By Ramen, 18th June 2007
Very American-sounding, emo(ish) rock with a crunching guitar bassline and Hayley’s passionate and excitable vocals let loose over the top. ‘It was never my intention to break’. 'Misery Business' isn't too heavy, so it's going to be one for the pop punk kids out there.
It’s got plenty of crisp energy and a soft bit in the middle, so if you have been crowdsurfing / having it / body popping you can have a brief rest before dancing again to the guitar solo. It’s not life changing music but this kind of stuff is good listening and definitely still big chartwise, so Paramore are only onto a good thing.
Paramore
-----
Queens Of The Stone Age - 3's & 7's
Interscope, 4th June 2007
‘3’s & 7’s’ is the first track taken from Queens Of The Stone Age's forthcoming album 'Era Vulgaris'. has a teasing guitar hook and a pleasing rocky sound, especially on the chorus where it darkens. The song pauses shortly before the end – but there’s more to come, a nice jam part for all your rockers to bounce about to. B-side ‘Christian Brothers’ starts off as a gently strummed track ‘No bad dream fucker’s gonna boss me around.’ It’s steady but still with that classic QOTSA powerful presence. A good summer wind down song.
Also available from QOTSA is the download-only 'Sick, Sick, Sick' punching its way through all manner of walls while vocals are casually drawled over the top. It’s fuzzy, with some top, rousing guitar to get the blood pumping, the fists flailing, the head banging etc etc etc. It’s so heavy, you could probably use it to anchor a boat, while it sits fizzing away angrily in the water several feet below. Check out the howling whines and zombie backing vocals halfway though. Sick? Hell, yes. Thank goodness for that. ‘Don’t resist’.
Queens Of The Stone Age
-----
Scott Matthews - Elusive
Island, 25th June 2007
Someone's just won an Ivor Novello Award for 'Best Song Both Musically And Lyrically'. Ooh, get you Scott Matthews! According to the press blurb, he was crowned at a ceremony in Central London. Crowned! For a song! Even Oscar winners only get some sort of plastic child-friendly statuette. Don't chew it.
Anyway, said prizewinning song is 'Elusive', especially re-released for those who missed it last time round. With a dark and soft opening, the song hangs delicately in the air like a wreath of curling cigar smoke (not indoors of course). The other instruments and backing vocals sneak in from underneath quietly and the song loops in and out before gently wafting off. It's a nice experience and a calming, mature song.
Scott Matthews
-----
Scouting For Girls - It's Not About You EP
Epic / Sony BMG , 25th June 2007
Just picking up this CD, I had the urge to sing McFly's 'It's All About You' out loud. Just because of the track name, you understand. Nothing else. But I fought the urge and shoved 'It's Not About You' into the player. Turns out I recognise this from constant radio play, I just hadn't realised it was Scouting For Girls. 'She said it's not about you... It's not about you, it's me'. It's got classic piano, a catchy tune and a feeling of sweeping grandeur. 'I don't know how to love you more my friend... I guess we got nothing to say'. The chirpy tune sort of hides the disappointment in the lyrics.
'Keep On Walking' is another upbeat downbeat song which keeps up a pleasantly cheery exterior, but you know that after performing it with smiles the band are just going to sit in a corner nursing a pint and looking miserable. 'I'll keep on walking 'til the sun comes up'.
As far as pop goes, it's quite mature and grown up. 'Mountains of Navaho' has a nice fuzzy, old-fashioned dancing-in-a-pub quality and humour. 'I'll never be a guy like He-Man / I'll never be a girl like She-Ra'.
I feel a bit guilty saying it, but their unhappiness is our pleasure. And I enjoy it.
Scouting For Girls
-----
Trabant - The One
Southern Fried Records, 4th June 2007
'The One' is full of 1980s fizz and fuzz. I'm sure it'll be popular in the indie clubs. "I never wanted to be the one." The melancholy and wistful lyrics are contained within vocals almost whispered over the top of the spitter-spatter of keys and the warm music. It has a slight sense of lost and longing about it. This is the Filthy Dukes Radio Edit...
...while the album version has pretty bells, clashes and clonks throughout. This one's slower yet brimful of charm and synthesisers. The more I hear it, the more beautiful I think it sounds. The album version sounds cheaper but sweeter than the radio edit, and you just want to hold it in your hands and stroke it until everything is better again.
Trabant
-----
UNKLE - Burn My Shadow
Surrender All, 25th June 2007
'Burn My Shadow' is one cool CD, all transparency and distorted skulls. The mournful almost Johnny Cash voice of Ian Astbury intones over a break in the furious, dark and twisting music. It builds into a frenzied whirlwind of drums, vocals trying to be heard above the misty roar, tortured squeals and a bassline so raw it's obviously been barbequed by my mate Darren.
It's brilliant, but thank goodness for the quiet chants in it because otherwise I was going to rise up in inner fury and start tearing at my hair. It's not easy to listen to, but it's worth it.
Unkle
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in June 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
The Mules - Polly O
Organ Grinder Records / Kartel , 11th June 2007
Now we have a bit of a soft spot for the people we’ve interviewed. But it is easy to have a soft spot for a band whose tunes are razor sharp, spiky to the touch and impossible to hold because they roll around in your hands? Er, yes.
‘Polly O’ is a typical arty thumper where all the individual violent parts fit together like a jigsaw, albeit a jigsaw you have to hammer and splinter into place because it keeps trying to hop off the table and bite your fingers. We like their fury and Ed’s snarling, howling vocals of angst. Not necessarily comfort listening, but we’re interested in playing it at an indie disco to see exactly what jerky movements everyone would come up with. ‘Watching Polly O / I love her so’.
B-side ‘O Grandfather’ was recorded live. ‘O Grandfather untie me from this bed please’. Eh what?? Step away from that scene, thank you very much… It’s unsettling, brooding and dark, yet entirely fascinating.
The Mules
-----
Paramore - Misery Business
Fueled By Ramen, 18th June 2007
Very American-sounding, emo(ish) rock with a crunching guitar bassline and Hayley’s passionate and excitable vocals let loose over the top. ‘It was never my intention to break’. 'Misery Business' isn't too heavy, so it's going to be one for the pop punk kids out there.
It’s got plenty of crisp energy and a soft bit in the middle, so if you have been crowdsurfing / having it / body popping you can have a brief rest before dancing again to the guitar solo. It’s not life changing music but this kind of stuff is good listening and definitely still big chartwise, so Paramore are only onto a good thing.
Paramore
-----
Queens Of The Stone Age - 3's & 7's
Interscope, 4th June 2007
‘3’s & 7’s’ is the first track taken from Queens Of The Stone Age's forthcoming album 'Era Vulgaris'. has a teasing guitar hook and a pleasing rocky sound, especially on the chorus where it darkens. The song pauses shortly before the end – but there’s more to come, a nice jam part for all your rockers to bounce about to. B-side ‘Christian Brothers’ starts off as a gently strummed track ‘No bad dream fucker’s gonna boss me around.’ It’s steady but still with that classic QOTSA powerful presence. A good summer wind down song.
Also available from QOTSA is the download-only 'Sick, Sick, Sick' punching its way through all manner of walls while vocals are casually drawled over the top. It’s fuzzy, with some top, rousing guitar to get the blood pumping, the fists flailing, the head banging etc etc etc. It’s so heavy, you could probably use it to anchor a boat, while it sits fizzing away angrily in the water several feet below. Check out the howling whines and zombie backing vocals halfway though. Sick? Hell, yes. Thank goodness for that. ‘Don’t resist’.
Queens Of The Stone Age
-----
Scott Matthews - Elusive
Island, 25th June 2007
Someone's just won an Ivor Novello Award for 'Best Song Both Musically And Lyrically'. Ooh, get you Scott Matthews! According to the press blurb, he was crowned at a ceremony in Central London. Crowned! For a song! Even Oscar winners only get some sort of plastic child-friendly statuette. Don't chew it.
Anyway, said prizewinning song is 'Elusive', especially re-released for those who missed it last time round. With a dark and soft opening, the song hangs delicately in the air like a wreath of curling cigar smoke (not indoors of course). The other instruments and backing vocals sneak in from underneath quietly and the song loops in and out before gently wafting off. It's a nice experience and a calming, mature song.
Scott Matthews
-----
Scouting For Girls - It's Not About You EP
Epic / Sony BMG , 25th June 2007
Just picking up this CD, I had the urge to sing McFly's 'It's All About You' out loud. Just because of the track name, you understand. Nothing else. But I fought the urge and shoved 'It's Not About You' into the player. Turns out I recognise this from constant radio play, I just hadn't realised it was Scouting For Girls. 'She said it's not about you... It's not about you, it's me'. It's got classic piano, a catchy tune and a feeling of sweeping grandeur. 'I don't know how to love you more my friend... I guess we got nothing to say'. The chirpy tune sort of hides the disappointment in the lyrics.
'Keep On Walking' is another upbeat downbeat song which keeps up a pleasantly cheery exterior, but you know that after performing it with smiles the band are just going to sit in a corner nursing a pint and looking miserable. 'I'll keep on walking 'til the sun comes up'.
As far as pop goes, it's quite mature and grown up. 'Mountains of Navaho' has a nice fuzzy, old-fashioned dancing-in-a-pub quality and humour. 'I'll never be a guy like He-Man / I'll never be a girl like She-Ra'.
I feel a bit guilty saying it, but their unhappiness is our pleasure. And I enjoy it.
Scouting For Girls
-----
Trabant - The One
Southern Fried Records, 4th June 2007
'The One' is full of 1980s fizz and fuzz. I'm sure it'll be popular in the indie clubs. "I never wanted to be the one." The melancholy and wistful lyrics are contained within vocals almost whispered over the top of the spitter-spatter of keys and the warm music. It has a slight sense of lost and longing about it. This is the Filthy Dukes Radio Edit...
...while the album version has pretty bells, clashes and clonks throughout. This one's slower yet brimful of charm and synthesisers. The more I hear it, the more beautiful I think it sounds. The album version sounds cheaper but sweeter than the radio edit, and you just want to hold it in your hands and stroke it until everything is better again.
Trabant
-----
UNKLE - Burn My Shadow
Surrender All, 25th June 2007
'Burn My Shadow' is one cool CD, all transparency and distorted skulls. The mournful almost Johnny Cash voice of Ian Astbury intones over a break in the furious, dark and twisting music. It builds into a frenzied whirlwind of drums, vocals trying to be heard above the misty roar, tortured squeals and a bassline so raw it's obviously been barbequed by my mate Darren.
It's brilliant, but thank goodness for the quiet chants in it because otherwise I was going to rise up in inner fury and start tearing at my hair. It's not easy to listen to, but it's worth it.
Unkle
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)