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Amelia’s Magazine | Cherry Ghost: Thirst For Romance

Aided in no uncertain terms by a show stopping performance at Texas’ recent South By Southwest festival, order case Portland three-piece Menomena present their debut UK release. This is in fact the bands third release – with their two previous albums available in the US exclusively. School friends Danny Seim, mind Justin Harris and Brent Knopf have derived a creative process of much interest that has resulted in a work that is both experimental and forward thinking without being inaccessible.

The bands sound is essentially a combination of looped sounds which are selected from a computer programme called Deeler. The Deeler Sessions culminate in the layering of these looped sounds and vocal addition. The good news is that for the most part this results in songs of sonic density that are out of left field but rich in melody. It is a combination that makes ‘Friend and Foe’ a compelling listen.

Often the fragmented nature of the songs will result in a messy, disjointed sound to begin with. But cohesion arises from moments of inspiration that morph abstract noises into quasi – pop melodies. It maybe a gorgeous piano line, delicate vocal harmony or obscure drum loop. Whatever, these songs keep you guessing, and aside from the odd ill judged inclusion (notably at the tail end of the album) they are nothing less than enthralling.

There are echoes of Mercury Rev on the defiant ‘Rotten Hell’, whilst howling guitars and brooding Saxophone characterise ‘Weird’. Elsewhere Menomena take ‘Up’ era REM as a reference point on ‘My My’- A brilliantly structured song defined by its paradoxical use of warm keyboards and choppy, industrial beats. It is one of many gems.

It’s a shame that the record falls away so badly in its last quarter. The final three songs appear to be an afterthought – lumped on at the end to pad things out when there really is no need for their presence. It leaves a slightly bitter taste in the mouth, but spin straight back to the start and all is forgotten. Friend and Foe deserves attention.

It’s always a danger to be overly vocal about your influences, ambulance it invariably leads people to compare you to those you have cited as inspiration, more about and with a band name taken from a Wilco song, dosage Cherry Ghost have set the bar a little too high. Thirst for Romance is positioned firmly in the folk/country influenced indie rock category and despite not being a spectacular record it has some nice moments, even if they are a little bit uninspired.

Amelia’s Magazine | Dent May : Howard : Single Review

The summer festival season built to a crescendo for Dent May – Mississippi’s finest export since the eponymous mud pie – with Green Man and Bestival on his itinery. His last single release petered under the radar a little, sales so we thought here at Amelia’s Magazine that we’d give the underrated band a belated shout out. Released on the Animal Collective imprint, Paw Tracks, Howard is an ode to a man coming to terms with his new life after his band split up: ‘He’s been down since the band broke up, singing them songs got him all choked up’. Howard’s a victim of time, bless the ol’ codger. He’s grown up, gone bald and has to face life after the band, but at least he’s still got his show.

An all-round showman, May has an uncanny ability to take bittersweet stories and turn them into shimmy inducing party pieces, Howard is the perfect example of this. His unique vocal style takes influence from a massively diverse ball pool –Prince, Serge Gainsbourg, and Lee Hazlewood to name a few. Once put to a background of his Magnificent Uke and some delicate Slide Guitar it’s just impossible not to fall in love with it.

Animal Collective spotted the charms of May and after one look at him applying chapstick in this retro DIY style video we can see why:

Written by Simon Edgar Lord on Wednesday September 23rd, 2009 2:43 pm

Categories ,Animal Collective, ,bestival, ,dent may and his magnificent ukelele, ,folk, ,Green Man, ,Indie, ,lee hazlewood, ,pop, ,prince, ,serge gainsbourg

Amelia’s Magazine | Make a date with DD/MM/YYYY – Live Review

I have no idea how this fella’s haircut works. I don’t know what bit of hair is attached to what bit of scalp. But I do know that you and I and the whole of London will soon be sporting this very style upon our heads because this… chap… is… the guy from… DD/MM/YYYY, and they are easily in the top three things ever to happen in Canada. Ever!

DD/MM/YYYY at the Old Blue Last DD/MM/YYYY

They also write music that is pretty much unreviewable. It’s not that they don’t ever sound like any other band, but when you do clutch at a glimmer of sound overlap, that’s not where these mighty chaps are coming from.
So here is a list of the irrelevant comparisons I thought I could hear: Deerhoof, but less songy. Battles, but more songy. Early Foals, but tighter and more complex. Six Finger Satellite, but less clownish. Boards Of Canada, blatantly… for about three seconds. Tortoise with charisma. Perry Farrell in the bath. Squarepusher with the munchies. Forward Russia having attacks of Chik Budo. Zoogz Rift puppeteering Purple Stag on the grave of Truly (did I just make all that up?). Gong molesting The Mars Volta for the amusement of King Crimson.

DD/MM/YYYY at the Old Blue Last DD/MM/YYYY

All of it completely irrelevant since, as I had been warned, DD/MM/YYYY have a “no-style” approach to music-craft. I didn’t believe it, but it’s not far off as a description. The one idea I did have which stuck was that the whole band was synchro-hallucinating Frank Zappa wielding conductor’s baton above the audience’s heads. And they have practised really hard for a million years. In the rhythm of N/N. Most of these songs seem to exist to prove how bouncably groovy any time signature can be. Higher maths. One tune calculated Pi to 1000000 decimal places. But it comes out more as autistic space-jazz than math rock. Almost every song is rhythm-based, there are no solos, not too many motifs even, just additions to the groove, and instrument-interplay key-changes. The drums dominate, followed by guitar detail and big fat synths. Solid basslines and the variety-guy (sax/spare snare and beaten-up crash cymbal) fill the rest of the space, with cartoonish zero-ego vocals sitting on top..
Enough analysis. How did I feel? Did it work? Well… I felt entranced. It worked stunningly well. Nobody knows what any of the songs were supposed to be about, but I was so deeply cuddled up in their slipper of sound, and amazed by how thoroughly well they chugged. There was no attempt to tug at a emotional heartstring, just to uplift your tantric verve with hypno-intensity and complex brain-shuffling. Like I said, they’re nearly unreviewable. Go and listen to them.

Hymns at the Old Blue Last Hymns.

Support on the night came from two equally noisy but quite different sources. Hymns are a very sharp two-piece (guitarist vs. drummer) from the midlands. Without any notion of enjoying themselves, they martyred themselves upon their instruments, in precise fits of religious agony. “More bile, please” chanted one reveller as a song came to an end. “May the Lord have mercy on your soul” came the answer for the next three minutes. These beautiful, but perfectly serious, joyless songs of Apocalypse rely on the vocals of the guitarist, who screams as convincingly and genuinely as I ever heard. He surely watches the Exorcist every night. No smile or thank you after a song, just a swig of beer and twang-brap-”Wrrrrraugh!” again. Well worth a pilgrimage to get preached at with enough vitriol to fuel a thousand Death Metal acts. All with a dirty, bluesy, bruising Dave Gahan staring you out kind of menace.

Hymns at the Old Blue Last Hymns.

Opening the night were Part Dinosaur, who are insanely ambitious and courageous, winning them my coveted “one-to-watch” medal. If you, like me, feel a deep sense of loss at the passing of Youthmovies, perhaps you used to be in Youthmovies or were touched by the music they made, you will want to follow the trajectory of Part Dinosaur. It’s the same approach to rocking out with neglected time signatures, dynamic changes and instruments filling each others’ gaps. I’ll review them properly someday. It wouldn’t be fair now, as they were a man down, and were a little plagued by techie trouble (an out-of-tune guitar moment/a broken monitor failing to guide a vocal part). But I will come back for them, and I know it will be good. A first-rate drummer commands the other fellas through a strangely sensitive landscape of out-of-nowhere jolty emotion. Attention to detail and a very obvious excitable rapture in playing interlocking segments of thrilling musical action define a band that is part dinosaur, part hope, all rock!

Part Dinosaur at Old Blue Last Part Of A Dinosaur.

DD/MM/YYYY have many music units available on their site. Part Dinosaur have a 4-track CD on theirs. We pray that Hymns will record themselves properly soon.

All Illustration by Gackland in an inspired and hurried flourish.

Written by Gareth David on Friday November 19th, 2010 11:21 am

Categories ,Battles, ,DD/MM/YYYY, ,Hymns, ,Jesus Christ, ,math rock, ,Part Dinosaur, ,post-rock, ,Tortoise, ,youthmovies, ,zappa

Amelia’s Magazine | Dungen – 4

While at Climate Camp we decided to get creative with some paint and our fingers to produce a large banner that read, order more about ‘No New Coal.’ We hope it was helpful on the day of action.

Placing some wood boards down so nothing would blow away

Kate tracing the O

Time for finger painting

Mel and her pink fingers

Almost finished

Emma and her green hands

Looking good

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Electro-poppers Morton Valence were headlining at Cargo tonight, viagra 100mg aided and abetted by the amazing Anchorsong and some rockabilly DJing from the Truckin Lauras.

Improvising a soundscape of looped vocal, more about keyboard and percussive samples, Anchorsong (AKA Masaaki Yoshida from Japan) mesmerised the audience with his unique take on old-school electro and dance.

Then, in the words of Flanagan & Allen, taking to the stage “underneath the arches” of Cargo’s main hall, and with keyboards balanced on an old ironing board, Morton Valence launched into their set. Morton Valence’s music slips effortlessly from hushed intimacy into full-on stompers, incorporating tinkling xylophones, trumpets and megaphones along the way. We were treated to their most recent single, the lush Chandelier, as well as Veronica’s Blades, an instrumental which sounds like New Order’s Everything’s Gone Green reworked by Blondie. There was playful vocal interplay on Bob and Veronica Crickets and, of course, probably their most well known song, Sailors (a particular favourite of mine), with its’ synth riff and insistent rhythm.

With a fan-financed debut album in the pipeline and several recent plaudits under their belts, Morton Valence are sure to become a more well-known fixture on the scene, so make sure to check them out when you can!

Climate camp has progressively expanded in numbers from 600 people in 2006 to over 2, treat 000 people in 2007 and this year saw even more supporters. An array of people from all walks of life gathered at Kingsnorth to oppose E.ON and the government’s plans to build the UK’s first coal-fired power station in 30 years, troche and seven more after that. Along with the Amelia’s team, and I rocked up to Climate Camp eager to learn more about a movement that is going from strength to strength.

Monday 4th August
On arrival, what surprised me was the welcoming atmosphere of the camp with fellow campers hailing me a friendly ‘hello! And how are you?’ (well this was a novel concept-after all I am from London where no one even holds eye contact on the tube!)

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With the camp split into different neighbourhoods, I made my way to the London area which was still being put together, with people carrying planks of wood. ‘We need to put up the kitchen!’ I heard an errant voice call. Although eager to help out I thought it best to leave it to those more technically minded. After all I didn’t want to cause any fatalities on my first day!

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Before long we heard calls that the police were inside the camp! People were hollering to come and support a mass action protest. Curious at what all the commotion was about I ran down to see a line of taciturn police staunchly holding shields and batons. I was confused as to why they were there. One campaigner told me that there were already previous police intrusions, with the police even secretly coming in the camp at night. This all seemed a bit like child’s play.

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Having taken part in the peaceful protest, we decided to put our tent up (which was surprisingly easy seeing as I was in the company of two professional tent setters!)

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derv and kate

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kate embracing nature

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umm…

After having a yummy vegan dinner at the London neighbourhood and satisfying some rumbling bellies, we mostly hung out. But not for long as there was another protest going on where yet more police were set on making their presence known. It’s here I met up with afew friendly faces, namely my friends Sam and Nathan who tried to make me sing whilst I played them a tune on guitar (sorry guys I’m just too shy!)

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Tuesday 5th August
On the second day we were all booked up and ready to hit some talks and workshops. We decided to go to the media talk which was in a tiny tent. From photographers, ex-journalists, media students to those just generally interested in the media, the crowd was definitely varied.

What emerged were concerns about how best to present the movement when it is made from so many different people. Did we have to have a representative leader to present to the media? And wouldn’t that undermine the concept of community and the sense that all voices were equal and valid within the camp? We discussed the representation of campaigners and climate camp and the need to promote them both fairly after all the negative coverage. We also decided that fair coverage would be more achievable through smaller independent journals who were not aiming to sensationalize for profits. Yet despite this being more reliable, this would only foster a small readership. And wasn’t our aim to be widespread and inclusive?

Sitting on the grass and discussing these points felt like having a slightly intellectual conversation with a friend over a coffee session. Although the arguments tended to be cyclical where a clear solution was never in sight, it was refreshing to hear so many young people engaged in debate. These questions needed to be aired and although a conclusion was never reached, by triggering them they were given a headway into a public arena.

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some camps

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charles lookin’ pretty :p

The second workshop I went to was the ‘Sustainable Networks’ where organizing community based networks was on the cards. Included were success stories where communities arranged activities and green sharing programmes. There were projects that ranged from individuals campaigning in their areas for climate change through leafleting, shared gardens, park projects, art groups, political letter making, art and music events. Transition Towns was even mentioned once or twice. T.T aims to create a way of living that’s significantly more connected and in touch with the environment through community building-much of what the workshop and Climate Camp was about!

What I took from the workshop is that campaigning; building links and raising awareness for a more sustainable way of living need not be drab. Instead, a lot of these successful projects were implemented by creativity and spoonfuls of ingenuity. Why not have fun whilst getting informed?

climate%20camp%20image.jpg

All these workshops were making me peckish so I decided to help cut out some cabbages in the kitchen for dinner.

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The moon came out and peeps sat around their neighbourhoods in groups. We were feeling inspired by our day of talks and workshops so many interesting discussions ensued. However after many plastic cupfuls of wine later we felt like a jigg so bee-lined it to Amelia’s Celilidh band. What better way to spend a night being directed by the lovely Amelia into synchronized dance (nb: this is not meant to sound sexual!)? At first I remembered why I was always skipping barn dance practice at primary school. But a few moments later we were all getting into the spirit. Even Charles got in on the act!

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amelia’s band

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dearbhaile busting some groovy moves (girl with pink bow!)

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charles is either camera shy or has drunk a wee too much!

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kate and dearbhaile peeping over the loos to say ‘hello’

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walking back to our tent-all that excitement made us tired.

Bedtime beckoned and sleep looked v good (we were only hoping we could all get in without collapsing into the tent).

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Wednesday 6th August
Time to leave.

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waiting for the train to london

But what exactly had I learnt from my stay? Three points that rang out clear as a bell were-

The media’s depiction of activists/campaigners was far from representative. Here was a combination of passionate and informed people who came from all different backgrounds. You name it, lawyers, lecturers, students, families, the generally interested-they were all there to support the cause through peaceful means. The fundamental activist, the drugged up hippy, the lay-about dreg locked raver-none were to be seen.

climate%20camp%2011.jpg

Also the term Capitalism is always used as a buzzword for evil companies taking over the world. To be against this in the short term is easy but doesn’t that mean blockading economic progress? And doesn’t capitalism breed forth nice shiny stuff that makes us happy? No! First, is capitalism really a synonym for progress?! Abstract labour is the only result of capitalism whereby constant pursuit of profit through labour can never satisfy in the long run. Secondly, understanding a world in terms of profit is a sad way to live, where things makes up our appreciation of ourselves and others too. Of course this is superficial. The only antidote is sustainable living.

Food, climate, oil and financial crisis’. They are all linked and feed off each other. By aiming to make one manageable this will pathe the way for the others to be constant.

Climate Camp definitely opened my eyes to what is happening now. There are concerns that exist and it is sometimes tempting to bury your head under the sand. Ignorance is bliss right? Well maybe to you but who suffers? And it is this unnerving question that continues to permeate. It is great to hear a voice that is unafraid to stand against a government that supports companies like E.ON who perpetuate and aggrevate climate change. The future doesn’t necessarily have to be bleak. By highlighting climate change and taking direct action, we can most definitely cause positive change. We can create sustainable lifestyles and beliefs that strive for thriving environments. Just the belief that we can cause change is as powerful as the concept of change itself.

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dungen%20blog.png

The first few thoughts you have about an album often leave you with a lasting impression. On my first listen of Dungen’s new album I just seemed to have a running commentary through my mind saying things like “Mmmm”, viagra in a voice very much like the M&S advert voiceover lady. Though I was initially worried by this, website like this I decided to take it as a sign that this was indeed a great album.

Every one of their tracks has this instant familiarity quality to it, see much unlike their previous work, which was several curious mushrooms more psychedelic. Gustav Ejstes (who likes to refer to himself as bandleader – a rather fantastic position to hold I should think) would have us believe that this tightening of song structure is due to developments in his hip-hop style of production. I can’t quite grasp the idea behind this though. I thought hip-hop production was about sampling Isaac Hayes, sipping on Gin and Juice and using giant MIDI keyboards, all from the comfort of the backseat of your gargantuous, oversized car.

Saying that though, the production on this album is half of what makes it sound so amazing. ‘Bandhagen’ sounds like Beck making music for a ballet, while the soulful. Saying that though, the cinematic lushness of ‘Fredag’ is a testament to how great Dungen are as musicians.

The album is packed with indulgent pop songs created by exciting, talented musicians. It’s reminiscent of when pop music was simply music that was popular because it was good, and that in itself makes the album worth picking up.

Written by Charles Drakeford on Wednesday August 20th, 2008 3:40 pm

Amelia’s Magazine | Music Listings

With many universities leaning heavily towards womenswear – in some cases wholly – Epsom pleased many with several of its strongest collections coming from menswear designers. One of the running themes throughout the Epsom show seemed to be an obsession with blood, advice buy the body and corporal violence (you’ve got to wonder what’s going on down there) with one dress revealing a Westwood-esque red, cialis 40mg jewelled wound-like gape on its back.

Not pandering to this was Antigone Pavlou, viagra buy who opened the show with loud, bold and funky collection for the streetsmart city boy, with bomber jackets, tracksuits and distressed denim (the latter a phrase that struck fear into my heart when I first read it in the notes, only to be pleasantly surprised). With coloured headphones carelessly slung around the models’ necks, the designer plainly had a clear lifestyle in mind and played to its strengths in all the right ways, combining strong block primary colours with clashing graphic prints.

If some previous designers during GFW have shown a tendency to elevate and romanticise the pastoral, I think Pavlou successfully did the same for the city, offering an attractively laid-back vision of urban life where you pull on some comfortable but sharp threads, plug into your walkman and swagger down the street, content to shut the outside world away for a moment, a sentiment I’ve evidently been drawn to in featuring CTRL and Daniel Palillo in recent weeks. Another menswear designer of note was James E Tutton, whose reversible designs (addressing the issue of functionality in contemporary fashion) we’ll be featuring later in the week.

Soozi Welland’s ‘Geeks Know Style’ penultimate menswear collection was best received by the audience, with an endearing ode to all things geeky: spectacles, anoraks, bobbled hats, bow ties, and socks tucked into trousers. The geek has oft been described as the personification of a roll of duct tape, with functional apparel that will always get you out of a sticky situation, and Welland’s designs seem to celebrate this idea, with an abundance of oversized pockets, accessorising her looks with binoculars and cameras.

By the last look, though, this geek had got himself a makeover, and was now spec-free, with the bow tie sexily hanging loose and sporting a satin and velvet playboy jacket. An endearing and humorous collection that I thought was commercially viable too, and that’s no mean feat.

Amongst the womenswear Stephanie Moran gave us a hard-hitting collection about desire, fabulously quoting Mae West ‘s ‘Ten men waiting for me at the door?…send one of them home I’m tired’, and a vision of the glamorous dominatrix. One of the standout pieces was a cream PVC dress with a cinched feather corset around the waist, and for better or worse, one of the most popular trends during GFW was feathers. This was certainly one of the better examples:

Considering Epsom had given us notes on each designer and their collection, I think it was admirable that Moran’s designs needed no explaining whatsoever, with her models bombing down the runway dressed in all manner of things naughty.

A particularly well-crafted collection was April Schmitz’s, who gave us a series of garments with some serious work put into unusual fabrics including hardware, folded leather and metal rings and eyelets. Entitled ‘Visions of the Future’ it gave a throwback to 1930s aviation with leather flight caps, a retro colour palette and the repetition of some swinging circles, with panels ejecting out of the garments providing strange contraption-esque silhouettes that you expected to take off at any moment.

Feathers popped up again, this time from Lucie Vincini with a stunning jacket from an eclectic menswear collection. Mixing embroidered jumpers with carrier bag trousers, basket weave coats with a jacket constructed out of Royal Mail bags, it showed that it is possible to draw from resources across the board and still construct a cohesive collection. A thrifty delight, and with its recycling sensibilities, obviously an Amelia’s Magazine favourite!

Photos: Catwalking.com

Radical Nature: Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet 1969–2009

Barbican Art Gallery
Barbican Centre
Silk Street
London EC2Y 8DS
19 June – 18 October

Daily 11am-8pm except Tue & Wed 11am-6pm
Open until 10pm every Thursday

Tickets: £8/£6 concs, ailment £6 online

A new season of ecologically focused exhibits, talks, events and screenings is taking place over the Summer at the Barbican. Kicking off the proceedings is this fascinating exhibition which deals with land art, environmental activism, experimental architecture, and inspiring ideas about utopian solutions to the urgent matter of climate change.
See the Barbican website for full details of all events over the next few months.

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Sarah Bridgland: In Place- New Collage Works

Man and Eve Gallery
131 Kennington Park Road
London SE11 4JJ
19th June – 1st August

Thursday – Saturday, 12 – 6pm

Bridging the gap between sculpture and collage, Sarah Bridgland’s intricate paper creations combine her own made printed media with junk shop treasure to form nostalgic pieces of meticulous craftsmenship. Simultaneously dreamlike and miniature while remaining technically genius, Bridgland’s collection of new work will transport you to other colourful, playful worlds.

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Various Artists: Two Degrees 2009

Toynbee Studios
28 Commercial Street
London E1 6AB
16-21 June

The opening night of Two Degrees, Artadmin’s week long programme of politically, socially and environmentally charged events, is this Tuesday. Getting it’s name from last month’s report that a hugely damaging global temperature rise of 2C could be a mere 40 years away, the 20 or so artists involved are putting the issue of climate change at the forefront of our concerns.
The opening night features among other things Daniel Gosling’s video installation ‘I Can Feel the Ice Melting’ and the forward thinking London based group Magnificent Revolution generating music for the evening with a live bicycle-powered DJ set.

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R-art assist BASH@The Sustainable Art Awards 2009

BASH STudios
65-71 Scrutton Street
London EC2A 4PJ
June 16th

Open Sailing by Cesar Harada

“The Sustainable Art Awards are open to any UK artist working within on the themes of sustainability, environmental issues, climate change and ecology. R-art will provide the awards for the SAA, these mini eco sculptures are the oscars of eco art! Sustainable Art Awards are a 2 week showcase of eco talent @ BASH Studios.
The Sustainable Art Awards is part of Respond! who aim to engage arts audiences in discussing and questioning environmental change. Respond! highlights how the arts industries are in a unique position to communicate environmental issues. Featuring exhibitions, talks, programmes, workshops and other activities. Respond! is an initiative co-founded by the Arts and Ecology center at The Royal Society of The Arts and BASH Creations.”

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Swapshop

Camden Arts Centre
Arkwright Road
London NW3 6DG
20th June
12:00 – 5:30pm

Current artist in residence Alexandre da Cunha is putting together a Swapshop, which is becoming an ever increasingly popular means for people to get together and shed some of their unwanted belongings in exchange for new. Anything goes at this particular exchange; buttons, furniture- even art. To book your own stall please contact Ben Roberts on 0207 472 5500.

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Out of Range

The Rag Factory
16-18 Heneage Street
London E1 5LJ

12th June 22nd June
12-6pm daily, Saturdays 10-6pm
Free

Tigran Asatrjan

If the extensive material on show at Brick Lane’s Free Range isn’t enough to satisfy your graduate show cravings, hop along to The Rag Factory to catch Out of Range where work from 29 emerging UK and European photographic artists recently set free from the University for the Creative Arts at Rochester is on display. The work promises to be fresh, innovative, exciting and diverse.

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Dominic Allan: The Irresistible Lure of Fatty Gingo

Transition Gallery
Unit 25a Regent Studios
8 Andrews Road
London E8 4QN

13th June – 5th July
Fri – Sun, 12-6 pm
Free

With what might just be the best title of an exhibition I’ve ever heard, Allan’s work is self described as ‘a world of rotten teeth, bubble and squeak and uncommon sense.’ With an unhealthy interest in British seaside culture and the bizarre link-ins local holiday getaways have with sugar coated junk we feast on, Allan’s work is repelling, alluring, mysterious and addictive all at once.

Monday 15th June
The Freewheeling Yo La Tengo at the Southbank Centre, sales London.

Tonight’s gig is one not to be missed- The Jonas Brothers at Wembley, health only joking of course. If you like your music a little more deflowered and lots more awesome, then I excitedly announce that Yo La Tengo will be playing the Southbank Centre tonight as part of Ornette Coleman’s Meltdown Festival. Yo La Tengo have shaped what is almost the last 20 years with their beautiful music which moves between eerie girl boy woozy vocals and minimal keyboards, to rocking genre bashing highs. Also ‘I’m Not Afraid of You and I Will Beat Your Ass’ is the best album title ever!

Tuesday 16th June
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs at Pure Groove, London.

I really love dinosaurs, so imagine my delight when I saw that a band called Totally Enormous Extinct Dinousaurs are playing Pure Groove on Tuesday evening. Being a music editor and planing gig going around loving extinct creatures is never the best idea so I checked their myspace and I can conclude my top 3 favourite things about this band, in descending order are:
3. They dress as dinosaurs a lot!
2. They have the longest list of alphabetised dinosaurs listed as their band members (Alphabetisation being my second favourite thing after fore-mentioned dinsosaurs)
1. Their keyboard tinged synthy-fun electro sounds so fun it makes me want to make up all kinds of dances called things like the ‘Triceratops Jive’ and the ‘Stegosaurus Shake’.
What’s your favourite dinosaur?

Wednesday 17th June
Jolie Holland at Dingwalls, London.

When Tom Waits says he likes something you can pretty much tell it’s going to be good and Jolie Holland doesn’t disappoint. This Texan singer has had Waits’ outspoken support since the very beginning of her career, and her fresh take on traditional folk, country, blues and jazz place her as a definite protegée of Waits, as well as a talented musician in her own right.

Thursday 18th June
A Hawk and a Hacksaw at Cecil Sharp House, London.

A Hawk and Hacksaw have skittered and clattered their way into my heart with their Klezmer- Indie hybrid loveable mess music. It sound like if Neutral Milk Hotel (indeed they share a drummer) got lost in the Baltic States for several decades in the early 20th century, armed only with a full brass band and a trusty band of wolves who were also in their own Mariachi band- and quite frankly how could that not sound amazing?

Friday 19th June
Clinic at The Lexington, London.

I was lucky enough to see Clinic play last year and they are terrifying (they wear surgical masks) and brilliant in equal measure- like a melodic nightmare, lots of keyboards, creepy samples, garage-y clatters and wails are a-given, yet they manage to be as enjoyable as they are creepy.

Saturday 20th June
Kitsuné Maison Party at La Scala, London.

We reviewed the Kitsune Maison 7 compilation a while back and liked it, they’re having a party at La Scala featuring Delphic (pictured below underwater), Chew Lips, We Have Band and Autokratz to name but a few. I can’t help but compare it to the Strictly Come Dancing tour that happens after the show ends; with everyone’s favourites appearing live, so maybe it’ll be like that but a very hip, French version.

Written by Roisin Conway on Monday June 15th, 2009 2:24 pm

Categories ,Dinosaurs, ,Electro, ,Folk, ,French, ,Indie, ,Klezmer, ,Listings, ,London, ,Pop, ,Pure Groove

Amelia’s Magazine | Cherry Ghost: Thirst For Romance

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