Zola Jesus, London, Heaven

Zola Jesus

By Robert Freeman

November 23, 2011

She may look like a little Legolas borrower, but when Nika Danilova sings it’s like watching a hurricane. On new album Conatus, her operatic vocal stylings act as a focal point for the listener, even if at times one could be forgiven for wishing that the style didn’t obscure the content quite so much. As she belts out her vocals they come from the very back of her throat, and at times it’s a wee bit tricky to actually hear what she’s singing. … Continue Reading

Anna Calvi, London, Shepherd’s Bush Empire

Anna Calvi

By Robert Freeman

November 1, 2011

Seriously, you’ve never seen an audience so quiet as when Anna Calvi plucks at her guitar strings. Eyes closed, head up, she looks for all the world like she’s riffing in the desert (and, to be honest, there is a picture of a desert behind her). Considering how quiet she is in between songs and how much she looks like a borrower, Anna Calvi has an impressive ability to open her mouth suddenly and SCARE THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF YOU. Whipping between loud and quiet, the sudden swelling of sultry whispering to a tumescent line of gothic vibrato can be a fairly palpitation-inducing experience. The word ‘rapt’ would be appropriate. … Continue Reading

Vivian Girls – XOYO, London

21 July, 2011

It’s tough to refer to Vivian Girls as ‘Brooklyn-based’ anymore as they seem to pretty much be ALWAYS ON TOUR. Doing over 500 shows in four years will do wonders for your fret-work though (I’d be surprised if they haven’t got RSI) and much has been made of their increased ‘ambitions’ on new album Share the Joy – i.e. wah boo hoo having a song longer than 2 minutes. To be honest though, on the night in question XOYO in London’s Shoreditch it’s probably a good thing, as considering their whole back catalogue lasts a total of about 5 minutes, if they didn’t have some slightly longer songs we’d all get a bit pissed off. … Continue Reading

Thursday – Kings College, London

April 19, 2011

Thursday, proud owners of some of the most earnest fans in the known Universe, walk onstage to LOUD SCREAMING and jump into a massive version of No Devolucion’s ‘Fast To The End’, which, to be fair, has enough component parts to it to make Thursday’s three guitarists (really guys? Come on) not completely superfluous. Geoff Rickley displays the standard microphone-waving, amp-standing histrionics and the band jerks and bounces about in the appropriate manner. Two songs in, however, this happens: ‘Thanks everyone. We’re going to play a couple of more new ones then we’re going to play some Full Collapse.’ The crowd response is a hearty ‘BWAHAAA WOO ARGH!’, indicating approval, and Thursday begin to whip through their 2001 album with obvious relish. The crowd response is borderline epileptic, particularly during riff-nuggets ‘Understanding In A Car Crash’ and ‘Paris In Flames’, curing which the majority of the crowd cry, pass out, cry, scream and cry. … Continue Reading

Dum Dum Girls – London Dingwalls

5 April, 2011

Man, is there anything cooler than chicks with guitars? Sexist? Maybe. Sex-y? DEFINITELY! Fantastic an album as It Will Be is, and much as we’re all into the lo-fi girl group thing, when Dum Dum Girls are playing live without the veneer of Richard Gottehrer’s hairtrigger reverb-finger, you can kind of hear the songs. Despite displaying some of the trappings of the girl group thing – pseudonyms, outfit co-ordination (maybe that’s just a girl thing [more sexism I LOVE IT]) and instrument waving – Dum Dum Girls really are just a badass guitar-pop band, harmonising their way through two minute wonders over a snappy backbeat. … Continue Reading

Clinic – Bubblegum

Clinic - Bubblegum

Whereas difficulty bracketing Clinic in the past has always been a plus (demonstrated by the eclectic mix of genres and adjectives they’ve collected over the course of their ten-year career), in the case of Bubblegum it’s tough to even bracket them as ‘Clinic’ anymore. Their ‘doo-wop voodoo surf-bop mutant stomp’ has been replaced with a kind of oneiric jumble of dulcimers and strings (‘watery pop-psych’ apparently). And wah-wah pedals. For god’s sake – wah wah pedals. Acoustic guitars aren’t really what you’re after with Clinic, and unfortunately, as they’re still fronted by Ade Blackburn, it sounds like a paedophile covering Lemon Jelly songs. At least they aren’t dogged by lazy journalistic clichés though (instead dogged by reviewers making up genres – a very enjoyable pastime fyi). … Continue Reading

James Yuill and Phoenix, London Roundhouse

Phoenix

The iTunes Festival had returned, and for the price of a ‘like’, you too can be subjected to the smooth, double screened, camera-heavy experience of a gig sponsored by Steve Jobs. You even get a voucher for 10 free songs at the end of it (except mine fell out of my pocket on the tube!) The Roundhouse is such a nice little venue that it’s a bit jarring to see it covered in red and black posters, although one shouldn’t be sniffy about such things – pretty sure James Yuill isn’t too upset to be playing to a packed out crowd of people whose usage of the Internet normally extends only as far as Facebook. … Continue Reading

The Books – The Way Out

The Books - The Way Out

The Books are more of an art project than a band, a collection of collage cut-and-paste found objects and a homemade percussion section put together to form songs (in the loosest sense of the word). The result is music that might lack any discernible chorus/verse, but has an odd kind of structure running through it – what member Nick Zammuto describes as the ‘emotional resonance’ of the music, in-between the plonks and beeps layered on top of distorted ‘found sounds’ harvested over the years by both members. The break between The Books’ last album, The Lemon Of Pink, and The Way Out, their first release on the Temporary Residence label (home to Low and Mogwai amongst others) has been five years, time Zammuto and Paul de Jong presumably spent combing through the mountain of weird crap (‘4,000 tapes’) that they had collected. … Continue Reading

Joanna Newsom – London Royal Festival Hall

Joanna Newsom

May 12, 2010

Doe-eyed, Joanna Newsom skips out onto the stage after a very agreeable set from Roy Harper, who is ‘thankful to Joanna for getting me out of retirement’. Cherub-faced and wearing a chequered dress, she looks suspiciously like she’s not in Kansas anymore. Part of her charm, though, is that she is an artist of contradictions – she looks and sounds like a child, but she has the musical dexterity of a seasoned pro.   … Continue Reading

The Pipettes – Earth Vs. The Pipettes

The Pipettes - Earth Vs. The Pipettes

Yeah! Ladystuff! Though one could be forgiven for being wary of any artist describing their foray into genre music as ‘an experiment’, The Pipettes (the name being svengali mastermind, ‘Monster’ Bobby’s sly wink to the ‘meta’ part of the group) were an example of a band that rather than merely putting quote marks round a well-worn sound, managed to reinvigorate the style. … Continue Reading