Kubla Khan – London Indigo2

Kubla Khan

February 19th 2010

Kubla Khan have transformed over the last few months.  Their last London gig, at 229 Great Portland in November, showcased a good band but lacked a decent frontman.  That’s not to say singer Matt Heanes was bad – far from it, in fact.  He just lacked that showmanship quality that a nine-piece band needs.

Fast forward to February, then, and how things have changed. Matt was visibly more relaxed, and interacted much better with the audience. Wandering about the stage and shouting “How you doing?… I said how you doing?!” it was evident his confidence has grown since the last time they were in London, and rightly so.

Heanes has a great voice, and Kubla Khan are a very tight band musically. Funk should be something you can move to, and the band as a whole seemed to be juxtaposed between chilled out and high on adrenalin. ‘Karma Comes Around’ is a catchy song which I still find myself humming to a week after the gig, and it was good to see the band having fun on stage whilst they played; the horn section were rocking out when they weren’t playing, laughing and joking with each other.

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Yeasayer – London Heaven

Yeasayer

February 23, 2010

In Heaven, not everything is fine. The beer tastes like ass, and the men’s toilets smell worse than ass. But ass isn’t important here, not tonight anyway, because the sound at least is near divine.

There’s a hell of a lot of people, a varied grouping at that. Not surprising given the fervent hysteria Yeasayer’s Odd Blood is currently stirring among the music press. If All Hour Cymbals was Dad’s little folk secret, Odd Blood is the electro-psychedelic party music for da yoof, and all have gathered this evening.

Yeasayer’s support comes from fellow Brooklyn twosome Javelin. Their set is accompanied by an ’80s movie montage of assorted promo videos featuring Casio keyboard demos, tennis lessons with a mulleted Andre Agassi and BMX biker clips. Javelin’s synth and drum pad shtick provides quite the novelty soundtrack, and while I’m sure this ironic gimmickry goes down a storm in Brooklyn, here the 80s was an achromatic time, and the two dimensional songs do little to stir an attentive audience now cramming into the vault of Heaven. It’s the curse of the support act. In their defence, Javelin play with genuine moxie that keeps the audience captivated. But that’s not why we’re here.

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Daisy Dares You and The Plasticines – London Borderline

The Plasticines

February 8th 2009

Daisy Dares You walked on to the stage, more or less unnoticed.  All of a sudden she launched into the first track, her long blonde hair flailing around as she shook her head manically. 

The 16 year old doesn’t look particularly like a rock chick; indeed her debut single ‘Number One Enemy’ features Chipmunk – hardly known for his rock tendencies – but she was soon brandishing a guitar and rocking out like the best of them.  She looked slightly out of place amongst her band mates (who are all quite a bit older than her) but held her own throughout the show, struggling only to fully engage the audience, who were an older than average crowd lacking the teenybopper energy you’d expect at a gig like this.

Daisy reminded me of the UK’s answer to Ashley Simpson, or perhaps our very own Pixie Lott gone wrong.  Toward the end of the set, she broke into a punk-pop version of the Oliver! song ‘Who Will Buy?’  I couldn’t decide if it was sheer genius or completely awful, particularly as the middle section turned into a head banging competition between her and her guitarist.  Perhaps if I were 10 years younger, I might have appreciated her style a bit more, but, whilst I can’t fault her enthusiasm and energy on stage, felt she had a lot to learn about actual stage presence.   

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Our Lost Infantry announce tour

Our Lost Infantry

Muso’s Guide favourites Our Lost Infantry, who opened our last spectacular show at The Lexington at the tail end of January, have announced details of an upcoming tour.

You should go.

Also, there’s a date not on there – they’ll be supporting Grammatics on March 12 at, once again, The Lexington.

They’ll be hitting the cities of London, Blackburn, Accrington, Leeds, Bracknell, Southampton and their home-town of Aldershot.

(it’s a well pretty poster too) … Continue Reading

Muso’s Guide presents… woo.: Queen of Hoxton, February 18th, FREE!

We’re launching a brand-new free-entry clubnight called woo. at the Queen of Hoxton in London on Thursday February 18th [Gmap], featuring The Power Trio DJs (ooh, mysterious!) on the decks, playing:

My Bloody Valentine, Air France, Yo La Tengo, Memory Tapes, The Ronettes, Air, New Order, The Shangri-Las, Neon Indian, Vivian Girls, The Velvet Underground, Sonic Youth, The Cure, Summer Camp, Beach House, TV On The Radio, M83, The Knife, Iggy and The Stooges, Sonic Youth, Jimi Hendrix, The Radio Dept, No Age and more.

The PR has this bit of parodial wankery so we’re sticking it in here too:

woo. [wu?]
interj & n & vb
A less sycophantic and more authentic version of its descendent, ‘woo!’.

Do come. … Continue Reading

Mike Doughty – London Relentless Garage

Mike Doughty

February 2nd 2010

“I want to be on you”.  Ron Burgundy’s “immortal words” are those chosen by Mike Doughty to sell himself to the British public.

Doughty, formerly of alt-rock band Soul Coughing, is pretty popular in the States, but relatively unknown here.  My question referred to selling himself to us in the style of a dating ad.  His witty answer, I come to realise, is standard.

The American singer-songwriter is a fairly open book, regularly tweeting (find him @mikedoughtyyeah) and blogging on his website, where he comments honestly on his day to day activities and thoughts on the happenings in the world; two recent tweets include “Lousy night. Crowd couldn’t have cared less” and “Salinger gone – perhaps we’ll at last hear his Rock Opera”.  Is it important for him to keep in touch with fans? “I think it ends up being important, but the reason I do it is just my general obsession with killing time online” he says. “I think my crowd feels pretty close to me because of the access I give to myself, but I don’t think it’s necessarily vital to being a musician these days”.

This openness has extended to a book about his previous life as a drug addict, which he’s in the process of writing.  Mike claims “writing prose is a lot more time consuming than song writing” and that “linear thinking”  is not his strength.  He’s currently struggling to write about his time with Soul Coughing, describing it as “pretty shitty”.
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She Keeps Bees – London Black Heart

She Keeps Bees

Wandering the dark backstreets of Camden is not something I’d normally recommend to anyone but it is the only way you’ll find tonight’s venue. The Black Heart has proved itself to be a hidden gem of Camden Town by simply walking around the corner to find a giant black heart swinging from the wall. It’s the black cherry on the cake that stripped down ranchy blues rock duo She Keeps Bees are joining us tonight courtesy of The Allotment.

The Allotment are treating us to a three-strong line-up of female fronted rock bands this evening. Both Lulu & The Lampshades and surprise guests Peggy Sue & The Pirates smash out sterling sets; filling the room with personality and showing off quirks such as playing a typewriter with drumsticks which is only emphasized by the excellent village fete atmosphere provided by the organizers.

She Keeps Bees are nothing short of their reputation as thumping southern styled blues when they get going with their first song ‘Release’ from one of my album highlights of last year, Nests. There is something about She Keeps Bees which keeps at least one foot tapping . Jessica’s vocals tonight add to Andy’s thump and make them something slow enough to be sultry and gritty enough to be ranchy. The anthemic ‘Gimme’ engulfs this intimate venue with their raw garage groove and heads are nodding involuntarily. They show a slightly more country side to the pair with ‘Wear Red’ a loosely strung song with a belting vocal hook that still has it’s foot firming in the proverbial blues door.

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Owen Pallett, London Union Chapel

January 26, 2010

After seeing him under his former alias Final Fantasy at the very same venue in the summer of 2009, hopes are riding high in the sky for this show. In that night back yonder in May 2009, he shot from an artist I was distantly fascinated by to an untouchable beacon of everything that live music should provide. Skip forward forward a few months and it’s little wonder that I’m left evermore aghast at the purpose of my existence on exiting the Victorian Gothic Union Chapel’s doors… … Continue Reading

Bodebrixen, Our Lost Infantry and The Grave Architects for The Lexington, 31/1!

Muso's Guide Presents...

Time moves quick when there’s great stuff abound, and it’s little wonder why January 31st has skipped up on us so quickly. And we’re very excited about our next Muso’s Guide Presents… show, which is happening at The Lexington in London on Sunday January 31st 2010. Seminal date.

Tickets are available from this link for a bargainous £6: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/68997 … Continue Reading

RAR!, Deptford The Albany

RAR!

On Friday 22nd January this fantastic under-18s event took place at the Albany in Deptford. There were two wicked DJs, Dean & Dex Lutha, keeping the vibe high and alive. This was our second time going. We thoroughly enjoyed it & thought it was even better than the first time we went.

First up at 7:30-8:15 was Artefacts Showcase. They kicked the night off and got the whole crowd going. They used modern songs as their base but rapped over the top of it using their own lyrics.

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