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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Classic album: David Bowie’s Lodger

Bowie's Lodger

By 1977, the collaboration between David Bowie and Brian Eno was running out of steam, which is fair enough when the last two years had each produced a genuine masterpiece of ambition and invention. Their final work together, Lodger, a more blurred musical vision than either of the previous two, is seen to represent the duo veering away from each others musical trajectories. After it, Bowie would lunge again at the mainstream, at first cautiously with Scary Monsters, and then without abandon with Let’s Dance. Eno, on the other hand, was busy hitching his wagon to David Byrne’s jerky star, making albums every bit as experimental and impressive as Low and Heroes.

Lodger is indeed noticeably distinct from the duo’s previous efforts. The first track hints at it – an epic ballad, ‘Fantastic Voyage’, is driven entirely by a piano and Bowie’s beautiful vocal, crooning a lyric which has a clear narrative of Cold War-era paranoia (it even contains a clear threat, that Bowie would ‘never sing anything nice again’ if bombs were dropped. The Cold War ended a mere ten years after this song – coincidence?). Its coherence and traditionalism would not have got anywhere near the preceding albums. Nor would the three chart-friendly singles, ‘DJ’, ‘Boys Keep Swinging’, and ‘Look Back in Anger’, all placed next to each other in the centre of the album for ease of picking. And following these, there are simply more songs  – no more long ambient tracks of harsh, isolated piano stabs. There are in fact no instrumentals on this album, and without Adrian Belew’s coruscating guitar continually turning songs on their head with layers of noise, it would be Bowie’s most accessible album for some years.

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Benjy Ferree – Come Back to the Five and Dime, Bobby Dee Bobby Dee

Benjy Ferree

Benjy Ferree’s second album is an ambitious attempt to tell the ultimate Hollywood story, the grimly totemic life and death of child star Bobby Driscoll, the original Peter Pan. Driscoll, known as Bobby Dee, played Peter Pan in the Disney film when he was 16. It proved to be the high point of a hitherto unstoppable child star career, and the rest has a relentless inevitability: the roles drying up, drugs, guns, assault charges, Warhol’s Factory, rehab, more drugs, and finally a lonely, down-and-out death at 31 in a derelict East Village tenement.

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The Blackout – I Don’t Care (This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things)

The Blackout

Ah, emo, I’ve missed you. Only kidding. You might hide behind a lie of being “post-hardcore”, but I can spot you a mile off. The preposterous band name, the pretentious song title, the dumbness of having yet another heavy rock outfit from Wales (we already have to put up with Lostprophets, what have we done to deserve this?), it’s just not possible to take it seriously.

That said, this The Blackout song’s not all bad, it crunches along happily enough for a bunch of depressed kids, Sean Smith has the perfect voice for the band and it all seems harmless enough. It’s disposable, mass produced commercial fast-food mush. You won’t be “begging for more”, as Smith hopefully claims. … Continue Reading

Plastiscines – Barcelona

Plasticines

If you’re not familiar with the Parisian rock chicks that are Plastiscines then strap yourselves in and prepare to go on an exciting musical journey.….

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Bloc Party, Bournemouth BIC

Bloc Party

October 31st 2009

Bloctober comes to an end.

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Girls – Album

Girls

Like me, the heartless bastards among you probably hate it when you’re made to endure the lamentations of a friend who’s just split with their partner. For a while they maintain a semblance of composure, momentarily joining in with the banter as if nothing’s happened. Hell, they even seem quite jovial. However, before long it all starts to go horribly wrong, and soon you find them blubbing into the remnants of their beer like a great clunking pansy.

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Spiral Stairs – The Real Feel

Spiral Stairs

Moving sideways from Preston School of Industry and in advance of the much hyped reformation of the mighty Pavement, Scott Kannberg has created his first solo album under his stage monicker of Spiral Stairs. What else he’s been working on for the last five years I’ve no idea, but the time spent on this mixed bag of 11 songs has generally been well used although I found my attention wandering at around the halfway point.

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Lord Auch – To The Shithouse EP

Lord Auch

A few years ago those in the infamous Leeds music “scene” were all buzzing about one band in particular. Their dark, post-punk sound and energetic yet unruly gigs meant their name was on just about everyone’s lips. One fellow Leeds band even wrote a song documenting one of those infamous nights, indeed, riots were predicted. Their name? Black Wire. Sadly, Black Wire disbanded in 2007, but fear not, from their ashes rise a whole new beast. Former members Si McCabe and Danny Prescott moved on to form Lord Auch. Alongside Liam Wade, Stelios Kurunis and Nicholas Jones they release the delightfully titled ‘To The Shithouse EP’.

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Cosmo Jarvis – Humasyouhitch/Sonofabitch

Cosmo Jarvis

It’s hard not to listen to Cosmo Jarvis and find yourself mulling on how things used to be better, way back when. When Kate Bush was signed aged 16, she spent most of her advance, and most of the following two years, taking interpretive dance classes and mime training. EMI, the theory goes, were happy waiting for her creative talents to mature (and her education to be completed) rather than forcing her into a substandard early release that would inevitably frame the remainder of her career.

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