ClaireLim is from our Filipino arm of Shout4Music.com and helps Chewie with the upkeep of the website. Tags: Alex Turner, Arctic Monkeys, Little Noise Sessions, Mencap, Richard Hawley
Arctic Monkeys‘ Alex Turner played a surprise set tonight (November 19) at the Mencap Little Noise Sessions.
Taking place at Islington Union Chapel the Arctic Monkeys man performed a seven-song set which featured two new songs – ‘Joining The Dots’ and an untitled track.
Turner’s set also included the Arctic Monkeys tracks ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’, ‘Secret Door’ and current single ‘Cornerstone’. He also performed two covers – The Ink Spots’ ‘I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire’ and ‘Only You Know’, which appeared on Dion’s 1975 album ‘Born To Be With You’, and was co-written by the album’s producer Phil Spector.
Accompanied by a keyboardist, Turner was also joined on stage by his bandmate Jamie Cook who played guitar on ‘Secret Door’ and ‘Cornerstone’.
Alex Turner played:
‘I Don’t Want To Set The The World On Fire’
‘Joining The Dots’
‘Flourescent Adolescent’
‘Only You Know’
‘Secret Door’
‘Cornerstone’
‘Untitled New Song’
Headlining the event was Richard Hawley whose set featured the songs a cover of Elvis Presley’s ‘Crawfish’ and ‘Hushabye Mountain’ from the 1968 film ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’.
Later in the set Hawley then brought back on Alex Turner introducing him as “the lizard of lounge”, before the pair played the Arctic Monkeys song ‘Only Ones Who Know’.
Richard Hawley played:
‘Born Under A Bad Sign’
‘Ashes On The Fire’
‘Lady Solitude’
‘For Your Lover, Give Some Time’
‘Serious’
‘I’m On Nights’
‘Only Ones Who Know’
‘Crawfish’
‘Hushabye Mountain’
‘Run To Me’
‘Open Up The Door’
The Mencap Little Noise Sessions gigs continue tomorrow night (November 20) with Lostprophets taking on the headline slot.
Los Angeles based 5 piece Iglu & Hartly return with a brand new single ‘Dedication’ on November 23rd 2009. Last year the band embarked on a full assault of the UK, with 2 sold out tours (which saw the band play 130 gigs in 150 days across 17 countries), and a top 5 hit single ‘In This City’, which has sold over 150k copies in the UK alone. The single scored them A-list plays on Radio One, Capital and Radio 2; receiving over 8000 plays on UK radio to date, as well as a shirtless performance on the Jonathan Ross show. The band headlined two NME Brats dates, and were listed in the NME’s ‘25 Bands making America cool again’ feature.
BIFFY CLYRO ANNOUNCE MUSE SUPPORT DATES
‘Fever Ray’ is the debut solo album from Karin Dreijer Andersson, one half of Swedish brother & sister act ‘The Knife’. With minimalist electronica, hypnotic rhythms and 80’s pop sensibilities, ‘Fever Ray’ creates a magnificent, brooding, dystopian soundscape that is both accessible and challenging. Opening track ‘If I Had A Heart’ rumbles in with a menacing bassline, grasping your attention from the offset, as you enter into Anderson’s dark netherworld. Imaginative arrangements bring in elements of Eastern mysticism, Navajo- style ethereal chants and South American pan-pipes add to the dreamy effect on tracks like ‘Triangle Walks’, ‘Keep the Streets Empty For Me’ and the outstanding ‘Coconut’. Anderson’s natural voice is similar to the impish Bjork’s, though distorted vocals are used on a couple of tracks, which, despite sounding a bit like Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs, actually work surprisingly well. The striking cover art also expresses the atmosphere of Anderson’s twilight dreamscape; the overall effect is like being transported to the forest in children’s favourite ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ with Kraftwerk’s ‘Radioactivity’ playing in the background. ‘Fever Ray’ can be gloomy and uplifting, yet always compelling. It could well be the most surprisingly inventive album you will hear all year.
Funerals are not always that depressing, I mean, I agree as nights out go, they’re not your first choice, but on April 4th a funeral is where I found myself, watching the last ever Captain Black gig at the Borderline. Captain Black, a band that have sailed the tumultuous waves of the indie ocean for a fair few years now, have chosen this night to launch their album and to coincide it with their break up as a band. Captain Black come out of the once feted and much maligned Camden Town boozer the Hawley Arms. Their record company Bumpman are ran out the back of the pub and most of the band have served time behind the bar at various times.
Reaction to this debut will spark debate for centuries to come, nay millennia. That name; is it ingenious or gimmicky? Is childlike singer, Megan Thomas, the band’s finest asset, or their downfall? Is their music as zingy as a Refresher or as annoying as a packet of sour cola bottles? Let it be said that, in my humble opinion, the name is great and aforementioned singer sounds a bit like a delinquent pixie (or Sleeper front-woman, Louise Wener, on helium.) Comparisons to those Brit-pop has-beens don’t end there either. Thomas Tantrum’s songs are layered with a similar smattering of nonchalance and romantic cool, but delivered with a hyperactive zeal. `What What What` is like the Long Blondes grinding into a waltz, whilst `Work It` is the band’s stuttering pop masterpiece. If you’re a fan of infectious, catchy pop then allow it to career, hand-jiving, into your life straight away. There is a fair amount of variety on show in the Tantrum set; `Shake It! Shake It!` is a lightweight, wiry ode to feeling lonely and unheard, whilst `Why The English Are Rubbish` is a saucy, French-talking, catwalk-strutting indie delight. Sometimes Thomas sounds like the precocious, know-it-all kid sister of Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ sex-rock queen, Karen O. Or a St Trinians extra. But, for the cynical among us though, much of this album will skirt that fine line between loveable and irritating as, like a budgie in a cage, Thomas’ voice struggles to escape its somewhat restrictive range.
