Paris Motel at Good Ship, Kilburn (26/07/07)

(Yeah, I finished the blog entry and got there in time for the support acts too)

First up, as featured today in one free paper's Glen Hansard-led feature on buskers, the unfortunately named Rod Thomas. Playing solo, he puts thoughts of Matchbox 20 to the back of our minds soon enough with some agreeable folk-pop, in Stephen Fretwell/Liam Frost style but constructed in the Final Fantasy style by recording bits of himself playing different instruments and looping them round and round. This has clear benefits in fleshing out his simple melodies, but eventually begins to feel a little constricting. Almost every song goes minimal keyboard melody-minimal electronic beat-handclaps-minimal strum before finally getting to the point, and there's not much freedom for them to breathe when tightly constrained by the lengths of loops. Ultimately, it feels like he's just not doing much with the cool technology that couldn't be replicated by even an average backing band.

Better by far still than Kaiko. Jetlag may have been lingering, and I don't usually go to gigs on my own, but the fact that there was absolutely nothing remarkable or interesting whatsoever about their trebly, vaguly post-punky indie proably still had something to do with my dozing off during their set.

No such risk with Paris Motel. The sinister fairytale crack and thud of "Mr. Splitfoot", magnified by proximity in cramped quarters, makes sure of that very quickly even before technical problems kick in and we're assaulted with feedback screeches. With Amy May tonight backed by 6 band members, including violin, clarinet and a new double bass player, the very crowded nature of the set up on the venue's tiny stage does have a large impact, both in a few such technical problems and that seeing the band here feels such a treat.

'We are the disasterous Paris Motel,' proclaims an elegant Amy May brightly as an introduction after those screeches, 'home to broken strings. And maybe broken bra straps too'. Gulp. A lot of eyes were surely following her as she regularly pulled up her strapless dress even before that point, though the band make for no shortage of other visuals. Their intense playing sometimes conjuring a bit of an Arcade Fire feel, especially apparent in the a capella group singing of "I Lost My Heart".

Later on there's sadly no "Static Song" but "071" is as sumptuous as on record and "Oh" even more bittersweet. A short set doesn't allow for too many new songs, but they are without exception great, especially "After Wanda" which winds its way through multiple dramatic turns with expertly handled ease. After which hearing a long delayed defintie release date for the album (September 26th) is music to the ears too.

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Hard-Fi's Stars Of CCTV definitely had one of the best album covers of recent years. A really striking image that (in the UK at least) was instantly recognisable but something that is so commonplace that you didn't normally give it any thought at all before presented in this different context. Which is probably the answer to why no-one thought of it earlier.

So how do they follow it up? Well, with something that's already got people writing dramatic articles about the death of the album cover:



Which is definitely a great idea, but it should have been even bolder - why bother with the band name or album title at all? They could always have gone for the better cop-out of putting them on a sticker. And the bright yellow colour, as part of what made the debut's cover so striking, has become representative of them to a certain extent as well. It seems like even when trying to remove image, they're just a little too brand-conscious to go the whole way.

Paris Motel - Static Song

One of the very best things about living in London is being able to look up a band's website for gigs at 5:30, see one, realise that it's today, and be able to go. And still have time to write the blog entry that you were looking it up for to boot.

So, I'll report back on Paris Motel live very soon, but for now this is about the 071 EP, especially one song on it, which is the best thing by a new band I've heard this year by far (lets not let the fact that it came out in 2005 and that the album is all new stuff get in the way here). It appeals to much the same bits of me that fell head-over-heels for Guillemots I guess - their eclecticism and tendency to drench songs in strings and do it well is pleasingly similar, though Amy May's songs assured, layered songs are not exactly cut from the same cloth.

"Static Song" is their (/her?) tender pop at its most romantic. It takes a simple recieved premise (that the infinite shifting disorder of an untuned TV screen is a bit like that of the universe) and retells it as a thing of fantastical wonder, slowly assembling its own glistening world along the way of xylophone and humming strings and May's enchanting voice. It's warm and thick with nostalgia but remains alive and urgent, like opening a dusty old book in front of a crackling fire and still being enthralled by the stories within.

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Chartsengrafs - Told you I'll be here forever

When I last did this near the start of June, "Umbrella" was number one. And, well, it still is. Its now in its tenth week on the top and is only the 6th song ever to have its run reach double figures. Now, it's a pretty great song and all, but that still says more about the slowdown of interest (and sales) in the singles chart than anything else. Kate Nash has been hanging around almost as long and goes back up to number two, it looks like her "Foundations", rather than anything newer, is going to block Rihanna from reaching an eleventh week. It still doesn't feel like a song by someone quite ready yet to be thrust into fame, but it'll do.
The Hoosiers go back up two to 8 and I realise that I still haven't heard "Worried About Ray". The video is what I expected (ie. annoyingly wacky) more so than the song, which sounds like a Britpop era band that I can't quite place covering "Happy Together". Enrique Iglesias is at 5 and I'm also wondering how I could have missed that his new single goes under the subtitle "The Ping Pong Song". Mark Ronson avec Lily Allen doing Kaiser Chiefs goes to 8. It's better than "Everybody's Changing" but not as good as "Nan, You're A Window Shopper". And people who say 'could care less' annoy the living shit out of me at 10.

Why does Amy Macdonald's Scottish accented voice make me think of Tim Booth? I'm confused. She's at 12, anyway, and not as bad as 'new Sandi Thom' tags suggest, even after reading the lyrics. Though that was still slightly ill-advised. Patrick Wolf's favourite Mika moves up to 14 with the much more than slightly ill-advised "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)", and Biffy Clyro follow at 18 with the latest product of their new exciting new Foo Fighters direction. No one's even seen High School Musical 2 yet, but they're still at 20.

Further down: Reverand & The Makers have been in the top forty for 11 weeks? R Kelly and Usher and Sunfreaks and Andrea Britton join them (that's two entries, not four) and The Thrills make a triumphant return at 40.

Over in the albums, The Enemy are removed from number one by Paul Potts, winner of Britain's Got Talent. Now, this is probably worth more than anything said band has ever done (although I like their album cover a lot actually) but that's no excuse to give the guy an album. It also makes me think that we're now at the end of July and still no sight of a follow up single for last year's X Factor winner Leona Lewis, someone who shouldn't really be a problem to market further. Cowell et al appear to have completely given up any pretense of being in it for building anyone's careers but their own.

Lisa Brown - What's That Sound?

I've been following Snowfight in the City Centre for nearly three years now, during much of which they've always seemed just on the brink of a much deserved breakthrough. So it's a real shame to find out that they've split up (in May, in fact - I haven't been following that closely obviously).

Here's their finest released moment to commemorate. Under their previous guise as Lisa Brown, it ties icy guitar blasts and heartfelt falsetto vocals to a 80s disco beat and silly backing vocals, with infectiously fun results that beat Delays' "Valentine" by a couple of months back at the end of 2005.

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Hello Saferide - San Francisco

I'm back! And sort of trying out a song a day format as it worked so well for Paraguay And Laos, although this will be much less strictly cotnrolled and lead to rambles about whole albums or other things as often as not. I should be making a couple of other changes too as you'll see soon.

This song followed me round on holiday, at least in my head. Every time I saw a sign of San Francisco this came into my head, not that suprisingly as it's from one of the albums that I've been listening to most for the past nine months or so and is a pretty fine song in its own right. The closing encore highlight the last time that I saw Ms. Norlin, it was given a massively energetic that rather suited it and the thrill of escape that it's all about.
Because there's nothing about San Francisco in it that you won't know without ever going there (Golden Gate? Alcatraz? Closest is 'the only place in North America not too destroyed by the government', which has got to be an ouch for Canada), since the from is always far more important than the to. San Francisco doesn't really have to be the destination, though it serves rather well, when the emphasis is always on escaping from the present surroundings to handclapping excitement.

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(my CD haul out in SF if anyone's interested:
Bargain bin:
Goldrush - Ozona
Goldrush - The Heart Is The Place
The Like - Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking?
The Grates - Gravity Won't Get You High
The Beatles - Rubber Soul
Tori Amos - Under The Pink
Black Box Recorder - England Made Me
Kenickie - At The Club

Cinerama - Torino
Mae - The Everglow (a gift for someone)
The Lodger - Grown-Ups
Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
Rogue Wave - Descended Like Vultures
Puffy Amiyumi - Splurge
Polysics - Now Is The Time!
The Dresden Dolls - Live at the Roundhouse London DVD

I wish I could have spent more!)

Oops

I didn't actually mean for this to die when I started Paraguay And Laos.
But I will definitely be away for the next two weeks, with the proper excuse of being on holiday, and then after then have some non-Bluetones related ideas to work on alongside it. So, see you on July 23rd or so!