Emmy The Great
Emmy The Great was the backup singer for the Debut from Lightspeed Champion, so what was I waiting for? Well, it seems almost possible to find a good collection of her demos. What I have found is pretty impressive though. She has a beautiful voice, and though the instrumental sections are not very interesting, they accompany her voice well.
Perhaps the best example of her work is My Party Is Better Than Yours. Reminiscent of the dark innocence of youth, the simple language is genius. Her dark recollection and spite works extremely well and is complete contrast to her high vocals and charming guitar ostinatos.
Where Is My Mind is one of my favourite songs of all time and is extremely well done. She uses a much faster tempo, which gives the song her very interesting, folksy style. It seems odd using folk for a grunge track, but it works very well. Instead of guitar notes, she uses plucking violins. Instead of female backup vocalist, she uses a male. It’s just a really well put together and interesting take on a fantastic song.
It seems I just keep saying, “it all works really well”. This isn’t a bad thing, it just shows me that her songs are brilliant, because there are no real flaws in her music. Her music just works really well.
Detox Retox
The initial track, Evil Disco is short and snappy and it fuses an incredibly catchy guitar riff, a delicious bass line and cocky lyrics from the singer; “When she licks her lips and raises her hips, I know we are gonna get it on”. They aren’t particularly deep but they fit well with the instrumental part of the song and are interesting enough to keep the attention of the listener. Groovebox uses the same formula as Evil Disco with more emphasis on the bass and dirty guitar chords instead of the single note plucking. Resurrection is a slow early Oasis or Kasabian type of song with sneer and a steady bass. Each line has the bass repeat an easy riff and is accompanied by crashing guitar at the end. The chorus has a steady but pretty awesome solo. They Say has the same feel as Resurrection, with a slightly more interesting guitar sections for the verse. Finally, Too Late is a mix of the two types of sounds, with a normal tempo. Personally I much preferred the first part of the EP to the end, the faster songs were just more interesting.
The faster tracks would easily be at home in an indie disco. Detox Retox bring to the table some really great riffs and stylish lyrics, and though they aren’t very original, they are still very much worth checking out. I will certainly be picking up a ticket if they ever decide to come to Munich.
Buy; Hard Copy, eMusic, itunes
Sorry for the abscence of late, I have been away, but I promise I will be writing more often.
Jokin’ Jay-Z (Remix) – Don Rimini
Just a really, really good track. What more can I say?
Jokin’ Jay-Z (Remix) – Don Rimini
Buy Don Rimini: Amazon
Buy Jay Z: Amazon
Foals – Rarities
Yup, I like Foals a little bit more than last time. I managed to find some of their excellent singles which are not on the album and now I am hooked once again. I much prefer these singles, they are less poppy and there are a lot more things going on within the tracks.
Astronauts And All – Brilliant futuristic sounding song, pounding drums, beeps and bloops and there are some cool lyrics. Yannis talks once again about escapism: “Let’s trade all these types of things, for wings.” Maybe their best song. Just maybe.
Hummer – More of the same, really, but still really fantastic. Be warned this is incredibly catchy.
Mathletics – Their most famous single, pre-album, it has really complicated picking and really smart drum rhythms. I don’t really like the minor verses or the odd distortion on Yannis’ voice.
For once, I am stumped for words. They are just all really, really great. Or is that they are all the same?
Dirty Pretty Things Split
I was sad to hear that Dirty Pretty Things have split up. They were one of my favourite bands in recent years, and though they aren’t an all time great, they ended up as my fourth most played artist on Last.fm.
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The Enemy – Slow beginning with intro vocals from Anthony. Then it’s hard, janky chords to the verse. Probably the best of the Dirty Pretty Things lyrically. I couldn’t mention anything specific because listening to it now, it seems like every part was quotable.
Last Of The Small Town Playboys [Live] [2]- With a basic three chord structure, it uses the Libertines style of adding lots of other parts around it, Anthony’s short sparks of guitar distortion and a funky bass line. The song becomes more and more chaotic and faster, the timing is really great.
A really great album and well worth purchasing for any indie rock enthusiast. According to itunes, my average ratings for the songs gave this album five stars. Buy; Amazon, itunes
Plastic Hearts – “You can’t mix drugs with your politics, but we took and talked and lost the plot”, with a very poppy bass line and chorus, this sounds quite different to the first album, except for the glimpses of distorted guitars. Still a really solid track.
I didn’t enjoy this album as much as the first. It seemed quite mediocre, they had delved into a very britpop sound. Not to say it is bad, just not really good. Get the first album. Buy; Amazon, itunes
Carl Barat is one of my favourite musicians of all time, and so I can’t wait to see what these guys (not just Carl) do next. I am really glad I caught them at Frequency before they are gone forever. It’s Time For Heroes [2]!
The Wombats Live
In the crowded venue, The Wombat’s fanatic fans were out in force, being perhaps better performers than The Wombats themselves. They were far from bad, though. They started off with their a capella opener, Tales of Girls, Boy and Marsupials. A bit wavy, but the audience enjoyed it with everybody, I mean everybody, clapping along to the easy beat. I jumped into the mosh pit that started with my favourite song at the moment, Kill The Director. The fast drum tempo and the breakdown seemed ideal, and I was right. Once again, the whole crowd seemed to be singing along, I could barely hear the singer. I hastily retreated back to the safety of my companions for some pictures and to truly appreciate the unfolding scene. The pace increased with Lost in The Post and The Wombats really seemed to hit their stride with “Go Santa! Go Santa! Go Go Go!” being my favourite lyric from The Womat’s performance that evening. Adding their unexpected Christmas song, the crowd tried to get into the rhythm, but it certainly wasn’t as feverish as the rest of the show. Here Comes The Anxiety had some crowd members singing the song before it had started. Noting this, The Wombats tried again, with some lighters up in the air, and they gave it a great amount of energy. Afterwards, donning an acoustic guitar, the singer introduced us to Duck, who was replacing the old mascot who was lost in an airport. Duck, the rabbit, danced and flapped his ear, through out Little Miss Pipedream’s twee piano dots and catchy lyrics. With an impressive light show, Let’s Dance To Joy Division has certainly become less interesting to me, after listening to it a hundred times or so, but went really well with the crowd. Shouting for the encore, the crowd went insane, everyone chanting “Wombats! Wombats!” One of the loudest calls for encore, I have ever heard. With their quirky humour, the drummer said, “You didn’t have to do that, we were going to come on again anyway. But, it is nice to be appreciated” as the started to play First Wedding, my least favourite Wombats song, The Wombats finally managed to equalthe crowd’s energy. They finished with a well-placed Backfire At The Disco, leaving everyone very content with the gig.
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Setlist:
- Tales of Girls, Boys And Marsupials
- Kill the Director
- Lost In The Post
- My Circuitboard City (?)
- Party In The Forest (Where’s Laura?)
- Moving To New York
- Here Comes The Anxiety
- Little Miss Pipedream
- Let’s Dance To Joy Division
- My First Wedding
- Backfire At The Disco
