Un concert à emporter avec The Dodos

Finally! I've always thought The Dodos were such a take-away show-y band and I was terribly dissapointed that they hadn't done one yet. But then I found this today - I don't know how old or new it is, but they've done one in San Francisco and it's just like a good take away show should be. They play in the street, on an underground train (and in the station), are joined by an accordion player and are followed by a bunch of handclapping people. Perfect. It reminds why I still won't forgive myself for not going to their gig in Aarhus last year. Hopefully they'll be back at some point where I won't hesitate the slightest before buying tickets.

Micachu & the Shapes

Here we go again. It really is hard to find time to write when you've got school to go to and both regular work and homework to do. But I'll try to keep the write-ups coming as often as I can without sacrificing too much precious time. So here's today's treat:

Micachu, aka Mica Levi. A playful Londoner who likes to use the vacuum cleaner as a musical instrument and makes 2-3 minute experimental pop songs. I've known about her for a while now and had 'Golden Phone' as my MySpace song for a few months last year. What I really like about her aside from the self-inventing of instruments, is how the majority of the songs I've heard from her sound a bit unfinished - but in a sharp, edgy and poppy kind of way. And often while listening you find yourself thinking about adjusting your headphones or your ears - is it really supposed to sound like that? Think Björk if she was lo-fi, raised in Camden and looked/sang a bit like a boy. With her band the Shapes, Micachu's releasing the debut album 'Jewellery' in March and it's going to be interesting whether the music works in album form.

Myspace:
www.myspace.com/micayomusic
Recommended listening: 'Golden Phone', 'Just In Case' and 'Lips'.

Musical things I like at the moment

I kind of feel like award ceremonies are getting less and less relevant. The good music is rarely awarded and the performers are often boring, not that great or downright talentless. But at this year's Grammy Awards, Radiohead, a band that is indeed real and talented, performed. I can't say anything about the other acts there on the night or the award-giving itself since I haven't seen it, but I think I can safely say that Radiohead must have been brilliant.
The person who got the idea of doing '15 Step' with a marching band should be awarded something. Now I just can't wait for the awards to be shown on Danish television with proper sound quality - the videos on YouTube haven't exactly got crystal clear sound... or, well, hadn't. They've been taken down now, another reason why I hope it won't be long before it's shown on TV overhere.

Okay, I admit. I have yet to really get into and discover the music of Talking Heads, but in the last two weeks or so I've had a bit of a love affair with their song 'This Must Be The Place (Naive Melody)'. There's an old live version of it here, featuring some very fine lamp dancing.


I've mentioned Florence And The Machine, probably one of the most hyped bands for 2009, before. Lots of people seem to have only just heard of her now while I started listening to her in March-April last year, back when her Last.fm description said 'Born in a military tank in Ukraine, Florence eats nothing but tobacco. Rumours have it that she is to be adopted by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.' I searched and searched all over to try and find more of her demos (at this point she hadn't released anything yet), and though I did find some I never managed to get hold of 'Donkey Kosh, 'My Boy Builds Coffins' and 'Ye Old Hope'. It annoyed me quite a lot, because I knew they existed and had been available. Eventually I got to hear both 'Donkey Kosh' and 'My Boy Builds Coffins' and buy them as live mp3s legally.
A few days ago I finally got to hear 'Yo Old Hope' (which is apparently really called 'Tear Out My Tongue') and now it's probably my favourite track of hers. The lyrics are dark and brutal and Florence's vocal is as great as ever. Apparently she wrote it with Johnny Borrell from Razorlight, which is making it surprising that it's such a good song.

You can listen to it at the end of this radio programme:
http://mediaweb.musicradio.com/player/default.asp?s=59&e=77335

I've gotten addicted to listening to music while showering and my favourite thing to listen to is an alternative radio programme called 'Det Elektriske Barometer'. It's not really the programme that usually makes me dance but last Sunday they played Animal Collective's 'My Girls' and I just couldn't help myself. I hadn't heard it before but right away it's brilliance was clear and I danced goofily around in the shower cabinet. My favourite track of 2009 yet, that's for sure. Now I just need to listen to 'Merriweather Post Pavilion' a bit more.

Lily Allen - 'It's Not Me, It's You'

So, the new Lily Allen album is out. Or, well, almost out - it's streaming on MySpace for everyone to hear, and I decided to give it a listen.

It could probably considered a guilty please, but Lily's debut album 'Alright, Still' has a special place in my heart. It's a great pop record with edge and wit, and it reminds me of the summer '06 where I went to London for the first time. At the time I really liked Lily Allen because she made smart pop music that didn't sound like all the American crap that's still filling pop music nowadays. I'm a bit of an anglophile and couldn't help but be seduced by her British accent and swagger. She seemingly didn't care for the pop clichés and wore a ball gown with a pair of trainers and sang about how fucked up London is under the surface. She was new, different, fresh and wasn't afraid to to say what she thought.

Over the last year or so - and especially the last few months - I've begun to lose my faith in Lily as an anti-popstar popstar (yes, that is most definetely two 'popstar's after each other). She began wearing high heels and Chanel dresses, dyed her hair pink, flashed her boobs (not on purpose, though) and it seemed that every day there was a new story about her oh-so-wild drug-taking, booze-drinking, girl-snogging, blowjob-giving life. Not that there's anything wrong with that - I like Chanel and I really don't care about tabloids or gossip. But god, it's annoying to hear a new story about the celebrity Lily Allen every day followed by her favourite statement of 'I'm not seeking press attention, I wanna be famous for my music'. And I'm not really blaming her for being in the press a lot since she really does seem to be followed by paparazzis everywhere - it's just that entire 'I'm just saying what I think' attitude she has. I can't help but feel like she probably really wants the attention.

But let's skip to the point: her new album 'It's Not Me, It's You' is out and I've heard it. Openers 'Everyone's At It' and 'The Fear' are both solid pop songs. The lyrics rage against drug addicts (who, seemingly, are most of us), tabloids and celebrities. It's not fantastic or groundbreaking, it's just quite nice. But then it all goes a bit downhill. While listening to 'Not Fair' I found myself tempted to hit the 'Next' button. It's all happy electronic beats, cheesy country-guitar and about how somebody's not good in bed. What really bugs me about the songs on this album is the instrumentation (or lack of this). I remember talking with my father about how I found it so lovely to listen to a mainstream pop album with at least some 'real' instruments back when 'Alright, Still' came out. Sadly, on this album, Lily's vocal is accompanied by a wave of electronic beats and some pretty awkward styleshifting. The cheap techno synths of 'Back To The Start', the fake French vibe on 'Never Gonna Happen' and the cheerful piano banging on 'Fuck You'. It's not extremely bad, it just makes me ask myself if I'm listening to the new Katy Perry or Lady Gaga album. 'Who'd Have Known' steals it's chorus from a Take That song which makes it all just a little bit more awkward. The last tracks on the album are, like the first two, pretty nice. 'Him' is a highlight. It sounds like it could be a lost 'Alright, Still' track and features something as charming as lyrics about God.

"Do you think he'd drive in his car without insurance
Now is he interesting or do you think he'd bore us
Do you think his favourite type of human is caucasian
Do you reckon he's ever been done for tax evasion
Do you think he's any good at remembering people's names
Do you think he's ever taken smack or cocaine
I don't imagine he's ever been suicidal
His favourite band is Creedence Clearwater Revival"

To compare I tried listening to 'Alright, Still' and again I found myself loving it. It still sounds like the perfect pop record. On 'It's Not Me, It's You' there's definitely no 'Knock 'Em Out' with cheeky spoken word flow or 'Everything's Just Wonderful' with its genius Kate Moss-weight loss rhymes. The lyrics are still very Lily, I just feel like they sound a bit forced.

Overall it's not the worst album I've ever heard but definitely not the best either. It's a pretty average pop album that I guess a lot of her fans will be pleased with... I tried looking it up on Last.fm and I don't think I've seen any negative comments about the new album yet. Is Lily right? Is it just me? Sadly, it might just be Lily losing the plot.