Witness the death of Jay Brannan's kashaka during his a capella version of Blowin' In The Wind
Jay Brannan has the kind of voice you dream of at night. Silky smooth and beautiful. My first voice teacher used to prod me to imagine a string, and while singing you’re slowly pulling the string out of your throat in this smooth never ending line. That’s what Jay Brannan sounds like, that elusive smooth perfect voice flowing on and on into the night. He backs that voice of his up with some great songs, good guitar playing, hilarious stage banter and a whole lot of hotness.
Cut Off Your Hands: great music and easy on the eyes
Cut Off Your Hands live sound like their record turned up to 11. While the record sounds clean and poppy, live they are like madmen, jumping about, playing intensely and not missing a single note (including the four part vocal harmonies). It is wonderful to watch a band who really cares about what they are doing and sees the value in putting on a good show. This was their fourth to last show of their four month American tour, which is where most bands would have phoned it in just thinking of home (they hail from New Zealand); but they played as passionately as they did four months ago at SXSW.
Different show, same craziness. Thanks to joshc on flickr for sharing.
Art Brut is much better live than on record; and their records, particularly 2005’s Bang Bang Rock & Roll, are really good. Front man Eddie Argos’ witty vocals are brilliant on record, but live he is able to take you to another level. There is no other band who can make my cheeks ache from smiling and laughing so much. All there is to say at the end of the evening is “Art Brut: Top of the Pops!”
God Help the Girl is supposed to be the soundtrack for a musical that has yet to be scripted and filmed. It is the brainchild of Stuart Murdoch from Belle & Sebastian. Murdoch said the project was born from material he couldn’t use for for Belle & Sebastian because the songs should be sung by three female characters. The outcome? A Belle & Sebastian record with female vocals and a light sprinkling of musical theater.
I first discovered God Help the Girl because of a message from a friend. “Stuart Murdoch is having an open call for singers! You should try out.” Upon further investigation I discovered it was true; if you logged into imeem.com you could download instrumental versions of two songs: a Belle & Sebastian favourite “Funny Little Frog” and a new song called “The Psychiatrist is In.” The instructions were to choose one and post it up on an imeem message board. I promptly downloaded the songs and started calling around to find someone to help me record them. In the end my friend Cynthia and I, with the help of her husband Russell, spent a fun weekend recording and submitting the songs. Then the obsession really began. I listened to everyone’s entry and made lists of favourites. Weeks later three finalists for each song were chosen to submit a second song (Cynthia and I did not make the cut; we were robbed!) and when the winners were announced I at least took solace in the fact that one of the winners,Brittany Stallings, had been my favourite singer.
I was excited to hear the final product after so much time and obsession, but I was bound to be overly critical of the singing.
Further Complications sounds more like a midlife crisis than a record. There are a couple of great classic Jarvis songs, some really good lyrics, and some really awful hard rock music. I was nervous to hear that Jarvis Cocker was working with producer Steve Albini and my nervousness was founded. There is some Jarvis left in there somewhere, but on some songs the vocals are mixed so low you can barely make out the lyrics; and what is the point of that when you are listening to a record from one of the world’s greatest lyricists!?!
Maria Taylor showing off her one eye hypnosis skills
Admitedly, I was a bit apprehensive about this show. I love Maria Taylor’s albums and singing along to her songs in the car. But her songs are slow and moody, so I was a worried the show would be boring. But Maria Taylor was hypnotic. She has that special charisma or ‘it factor’ where you really can’t take your eyes off her. Or really, it’s that you can’t look away from her eye: big, shining and soulful. It reminds me of love story where a man sees a woman sing and instantly falls in love. The voice, the eye, the giant left handed guitar, she is an indie dream woman.
Once again Graham shows us his many talents, using his own art for the cover.
Graham Coxon’s new solo album The Spinning Top is due to be released on May 11th, a month before his former band Blur reunites for a series of reunion tours. I must admit that I have been in fangirl love with Graham Coxon since I was 16 years old, and The Spinning Top makes this fangirl swoon. Musically, we’re back to a simpler Graham, focusing on him and an acoustic guitar, unlike his last two more rock-tastic albums. Thematically, The Spinning Top is more complex. It is a concept album, following the story of a man from birth to death, but the theme gets a little lost. It comes across more as a way for Graham to expose his deep inner self without having to be held accountable for anything that he reveals.
I am a sucker for actor albums.I have no control of the sick curiosity and need to either further worship (Zooey Deschanel) or further ridicule (everyone else) said actor for their musical exploits.Needless to say when I saw this EP by Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) I HAD to hear it. “Time Well Spent” has been out for about a year, but I just stumbled accross it last week. Little did I know it would have me going “Aw! It’s Draco!” while watching the new Harry Potter trailer.
