WAYNE COYNE: 'I WOULD SAY WE ARE ABSURDIST'

For Student Direct.

INTERVIEW: THE FLAMING LIPS

NAKED BICYCLE RIDES, confetti and a surreal past, present and future; The Flaming Lips burst back into town hot off the summer release of their twelfth studio album Embryonic. Regarded as both dynamic and controversial in his opinions of other musicians, Wayne Coyne challenges the boundaries of traditional rock without being a brag or a bore. When they played in Manchester, I met and sounded out the voice, mastermind, luminary and legend behind Oklahoma’s finest psychedelic rock band. In other words, the uncle we’d all love to have.

This latest tour involves much of the show and experimental theatricality that The Flaming Lips have become renowned for displaying live. Is there a starting point when planning a new tour and its updatability?

I’d say this show has been evolving since about 1999; the balloons, the confetti, the suits. Forming a new show always makes us think, what can we incorporate into what we have established already in our live act? I know there’s a certain amount of sustainability involved in the Flaming Lips identity. We saw Kiss play a couple of weeks ago and without some elements of their show, they wouldn’t be Kiss. This time we have a wonderful cosmic mother-queen who gives birth to us all onstage. She spreads her legs and we enter out of her and I roll onto the crowd in the blow-up ball. Great! And of course we get to do new songs! With all the old songs, we love the sing-a-longs like ‘She Don’t Use Jelly,’ ‘Yoshimi,’ and ‘Race for the Prize’; we love making the big songs precise and dynamic and a great experience for everyone.

Let’s talk about your new video for ‘Watching the Planets.’

The naked video! A great video! It was shot in Portland, Oregon. I’d heard a story on the radio about assembled groups of naked cyclists, and so we got in touch with them. I think we had literally a thousand people wanting to get involved with this. I came up with the concept, the whole big fur vaginal bubble thing that guys are pulled out of in the beginning, and as the storyboard went along, I thought, I guess I should get naked now. Everyone was comfortable with it. Apart from Cliff (roadie, who laughs nervously across the room).

Was it scary?

Oh yeah, there’s that horrible moment just before you get naked and all the fear and anxiety bubbles up. But then you’re naked! You’re all in it together! Luckily there was a lot of healthy, fun, enthusiastic weirdos there; there was no ‘your butt looks better than mine, your dick is bigger’ etc.

The Flaming Lips have been going for over twenty years now! Does the industry still interest you in terms of new music, and are you influenced by it?

Since 1984! When were you born? Isn’t that weird?? We’ve been around since before you were born! I was just talking to Zane (Lowe) and he asked about new stuff, and of course yeah, I love MGMT, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the new Portishead record. There’s some wonderful things happening today.

I saw your ‘fight’ with Bradford Cox on the ATP backstage video. Do you think you’d ever collaborate with him?

No, I mean, not after our falling out…I’m just kidding, wow he is great, Atlas Sound is great. Deerhunter are awesome. Probably the best thing I saw at ATP this year. The thing about Bradford is that he just real relaxed, so laid back and that’s why it works well. He’d rock to work with…

Your nephew’s band Stardeath and the White Dwarfs are on the road with you as your support. What advice would you give him?

I’m not gonna lie, he’s had it lucky that he’s seen first hand what we do from when he came into the world. But he was a roadie for us for years; he enjoys all aspects of the industry. There is no music industry unless you’re successful enough. You do your music, make your art, and make pitfalls day to day. I think he knows not to believe the hype crap, and the importance of having a contract with a label that understand you.

You made a film, Christmas On Mars. Would you recommend watching it with the family on Christmas Day or no?

It’s hopeful, funny and fantastical. It depends on the liberalness of your family I guess… for little kids, they don’t know what’s happening but a little older, like over five, it may disturb or terrify them. It looks like a whole bunch of druggie weirdness but really it isn’t that at all. It’s a Flaming Lips movie! It’s a happy one, no specific message, it’s just fun. You should watch it. It plays on cable channels on Christmas Day everywhere obviously.

To what extent are you intrigued by imagination and the way the mind works? Are you into Surrealism?

Or to whether the mind really works at all! I like everything that’s done well. What I do like is Salvador Dali. His collections are admirable because there’s so much of it, have you seen how much he did? I think he talks some bullshit but a lot of the time he’s really just painting from his emotional subconscious. He must have painted all day, every day. But people point to Surrealist concepts in terms of dreaming, thinking and designing, but Dali shows us it’s about getting up and doing it, physically making as much as you can.

So do you believe the Flaming Lips live show channels his creative drive?

I would say more Absurdist, and yeah, we do all these things without studying them too intently; I try to bombard you with enough colourful and loud things that make you just surrender and say hey, I don’t have to bestow this a meaning, it is what it is. We just like to obliterate you with the moment!

A lot of rock shows are about being cool, ya know, just about the image. We get rid of all that, there’s no grand meaning, we’re not trying to change the world. It’s a big spectacle. We’re really lucky, Warner Bros totally get what we’re about, we’re not the Beatles or anything. Not that we’re so smart, but twenty-five years on we’re still doing what we love. It’s weird.

Doesn’t time fly! What now after this tour?

IT DOES. Watching bands come and go, negotiations fabricate and fall apart. You see how fast everything turns over. As for this tour, it’s gone so quick. I don’t know that we’ve ever been free here, so to speak. There’s some great mega groups from here right…Stone Roses?

And The Smiths…

Oh god, I knew there was someone! We come here so often we forget where we are, isn’t that terrible? Well, after this - after Embryonic - is the future.

Expect more nudity, robot battles, balloons and brilliance from Wayne Coyne in years to come.

ALEXANDRA PEREIRA

THE DEAD WEATHER

For Student Direct:

I chat with Alison Mosshart as she prepares for their Manchester date.

 INTERVIEW: THE DEAD WEATHER

A DISTINGUISED COLLECTIVE - members from The White Stripes, The Raconteurs, Queens of the Stone Age and The Kills. Surely this equals fast success from day one? Alison Mosshart reveals how a drunken night in Tennessee gave birth to one of the most exciting ‘side-projects’ of the moment; where classic rock goes to expire, The Dead Weather is freed, oozing raw, sexy blues-rock upon us.

‘We were all crashing at Jack (White)’s place and started jamming; just four people in a room, seeing what happens if we hold these instruments and lock the door.’ So like a human-meets-music experiment? ‘Exactly. It started out as just fun, but it’s interesting when you’re all used to playing with other musicians, in other ways. Playing in The Kills, Jamie and I faced only one another other. It was like a conversation you’re having with somebody else; we were just almost psychically linked. The audience saw an intimacy and energy being pulled from one another. I wasn’t really ready to let go of leaning on somebody else, but when I started playing with Jack I suddenly did. I just turned and faced the crowd.’

Once Mosshart faced her crowd fear, The Dead Weather became a serious project. Was the presence of her celebrated on-stage guise VV a help in tackling such feats? ‘VV was created not so much to present another persona as a device to help plug my debut Kills stuff…’she laughs. ‘So long ago, wow…’ she trails, reflectively. ‘It stuck, huh. Between Discount (Alison’s first band when she was 14 – she is now 30) and now, I’ve learnt how to be part of a more traditional set-up definitely.’ But on how it is that something so casual became an album, followed by a tour, it seems Mosshart was as pleasantly surprised as us all.

‘It started off as a conversation between Jack and I wanting to make a 7-inch (featuring their first single ‘Hang You From The Heavens.)’ ‘We really weren’t starting a band! I guess it was a project to put out a single for Jack’s label Third Man Records. But then we found we just couldn’t stop writing. I think it was after playing a surprise show at a party that we decided to carry on playing these new songs live. Everything fell in front of us.’ Did the sudden presence of a real drummer as opposed to a drum machine as used in The Kills influence prove something hard to get used to? ‘Yes, and no. It’s a really different set-up. You can’t always rely on what’s coming next. But… working with Jack, who’s not traditional in any sense really, is always going to be unpredictable and unusual.’

So collaborating with Jack White, a man who’s almost built a musical empire from his name, and giving him prize place of control directing you with his drums - wasn’t daunting? ‘Somehow it wasn’t like stepping into a void; it was exciting knowing everything can change each night.’

White, known for his unabashed and seemingly borderless capacity for invention, has of course been the proverbial backbone to his newest venture; to him the band is perhaps just another outlet of his constant unquenchable need to make music... and direct. The circus-themed video to their latest single ‘I Cut Like A Buffalo’ is directed by White, who also features as a creepy ringmaster. In a circus, the ringmaster exhibits performers, speaks to the audience, and generally keeps the show in motion. White conducts The Dead Weather with his time-perfect and deeply unnerving drumming – and is clearly the power behind the group, with his label and iconic status. Plus, it was at his house where the band came to be. As Mosshart testifies, their dirty, bluesy rock has both a traditional formality and a White-esque contemporary quality to it that speaks to teams of audiences.

Having let debut album Horehound off its leash in July, The Dead Weather are already deep into the creation of record number two. How will it differ to Horehound? ‘I don’t know, but a hell of a lot. We wrote fifteen songs in three days, and because we’ve been playing live a lot, we’ve discovered more and more about each other’s techniques. It feels like family now.’ Well, to feel like family to the guy who claimed his wife was sister must feel pretty close.

ALEXANDRA PEREIRA

CHAIRLIFT

For Student Direct:

LIVE

Chairlift @ Academy 2

27.10.09
4 stars

CHARMING AND INOFFENSIVELY TWEE is on the menu tonight as another Brooklyn band hit our shores, supporting French pop rock act Phoenix. For a drizzly and newly freezing winter night, Chairlift sweep away any chills and play a delectable collection of songs from their second album released by Kanine Records, Columbia. Strangely, Chairlift are put in the same bracket as friends MGMT, and though they sound lands apart, have not hit the popularity mark of those they keep company with back across the pond. Their songs - amongst the best are ‘Garbage,’ ‘Planet Health,’ and radio-familiar ‘Bruises’- include super soundscapes and complicated keyboard and looping effects, not to mention interchangeable instrumentalists in the form of Aaron, Patrick and Caroline. Tonight, a real life drummer replaces their usual drum machine, and is the transmitter of great effect for a band who are sometimes deemed limited live. Beautiful Caroline is delicate, calming and sexually provocative with lyrics like ‘we made love with each other’s eyes…’ and (less romantic but wonderfully honest) ‘our intercourse was well-protected.’ Strange, other-worldly yet down-to-earth romantic lyrics (‘I tried to do handstands for you, I’m permanently black and blue for you’) vocals and slightly post-apocalyptic songs later, my heart is lifted from the dreary outside reality and won by wonderful Chairlift.

ALEXANDRA PEREIRA

NEW SLANG

Our (albeit BEST LATE NIGHT SHOW) award-winning radio show is back!

Listen to NEW SLANG on fusefm.co.uk every Tuesday 10am-12pm with myself, Claire Fraser and Zara Meerza. Old music, new music, in between stuff, interviews and chat.

ANNA BYRNE

One of my best friends is still singing as beautifully as ever. She caused small scandals at school for writing (brilliant) songs about our peers, but one of her best tracks is 'Shakespeare' one she wrote about me and a garden pegola flying over a hedge, and back on her page after popular demand...

She's amazing:

http://www.myspace.com/annalibby

ELLIE GOULDING

for Student Direct.

 Ellie Goulding @ Night and Day

28.09.09

The name on many girls and boys’ lips (or fellow addicts of with Hype Machine) is Ellie Goulding. Her intensely catchy-sans-monotony tunes have a Coco Rosie lyrical range of soft but strongly sung and intensely beautiful melodies amidst flickering drums and dancey keyboards. Her loyal producer, co-writer and friend Starsmith is present tonight, complimenting her blog-hit ‘Starry Eyed’ with louder than loud electronic percussion and synths. During one or two tracks Ellie bangs a drum in suspiciously Florence-esque fashion, and her performance indeed lacks the confidence of one of her many female counterparts of the present. Notably though is Goulding’s capacity of entertaining an unsure and unknowing crowd, and as the lone Andre 3000-imitating fan at the front would testify, she does not fail to impress considerably for someone relatively new to critical success. Her music and unassuming demeanour has impressed and attracted the attention of the likes of Frankmusik and man of the moment Mark Ronson, and with songs such as debut single ‘Under The Sheets,’ securing without fail pop gold, Ellie Goulding is beginning to make her presence known.

your twenties

 For BBC.

ITC: Your Twenties @ Moho Live

19.10.09

www.myspace.com/yourtwenties

The bassist from electronic dance pop act Metronomy steers a new boat in the form of London quartet Your Twenties. On board joining him are three others masterfully disguising their comparable inexperience, performing track after track of completely lovely songs in the depths of Moho’s basement venue. Their mid-ITC slot is perfectly timed for new music enthusiasts and still fully-charged industry know-hows alike who mill about the place stopping in their tracks to give the ‘curious mix of upbeat, keys-driven alt pop and west coast-styled rock fusion’ a listen. The guys have the handsome looks, charming composure and pretty distinct sound cocktailed for success and the music is reminiscent of Rooney, layered with far more British vocals; Caught Wheel sparked recognition throughout the place perhaps for its superb unmistakably infectious pop-riff. Confusingly, Gold sounded like trippy Death Cab, which is testament to their varied sound from song to song. With their single Billionaires, produced by the legendary Steven ‘Smiths and Blur’ Street, to be put out on up-and-coming hip label Neon Gold Records, their way to some larger degree of success is surely already paved.

Alexandra Pereira

ANOTHER REASON TO LOVE BRADFORD COX

For Student Direct.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE

Karen O and the Kids

Karen Orzolek is back with a sweet vengeance. She and her Kids do something presumably tricky, painting playful yet daunting mystical creatures into a something that resembles music. This soundtrack owns a poignant darkness; something which Spike Jones’ movie adaptation of cartoon Where the Wild Things Are surely epitomises. Lo and behold an unequivocally much-awaited soundtrack to an animation that has entertained adults and children alike for over forty years; the music lives up to the pastime, and inspired by a text consisting of only nine sentences, brilliantly outdoes itself.

‘Capsize’ possesses the chanting, clapping wonderful sounds reminiscent of both Yeah Yeah Yeahs and TV and the Radio collaborated (though sadly Sitek does not appear) and clearly Karen O the writer has not held back her own lingering and unavailing style for this album; it simply fits so neatly with the tone of the film she need hold any artistic expression.

Bradford Cox makes his presence known on this record perhaps not quite as prolifically as anticipated; his vocals are washed away all too often, perhaps stifled and shadowed by Karen who deservedly steals every song’s show from the Kids - consisting of Cox, Jack Lawrence, Brian Chase, Aaron Hemphill, Dean Fertita and the elusive but ever-present Nick Zinner, to name a few. Romantic expression within an otherwise all-attentive collection of songs is explored with ‘Hideway’ - it tugs at the heart strings of the broken-hearted and forlorn, urging the listener/spectator to wonder what scene it is attached to. Building All Is Love is positively cute and the kiddie choir fused with Karen’s vocals and lovely major chords make for a track in some way reminiscent of Arcade Fire’s work.

The album of course owns the tribal sound that resonates about any of O’s work, but does so in a more laid-back nevertheless tyrannical manner. She basically, dare I say hauntingly, hums her way in and out of each track, and this is surely enough to make the record striking and satisfactory enough for WTWTA creator Maurice Sendak himself. Karen and the Kids totally win with this.

ALEXANDRA PEREIRA

'Being a popstar, I'm playing myself'

For Student Direct.
INTERVIEW: Pixie Lott

It’s a classy affair as Pixie Lott prepares to take to the landmark stage of…the Arndale Shopping Centre, Manchester. Ok, so not her most glamorous venue to date, but Pixie is, for midday on a Sunday, dressed to kill in trademark and literally ‘less is more’ attire. But on being asked about that FHM cover (the prime reason of a lot of my male associates’ acute jealousy at this interview), Pixie is quick to deny selling her sexuality. How does she feel about being a pin-up? ‘Am I?’ Perhaps a little too unassumingly. Lott is soon a lot more frank about the whole situation, and really very grounded for her eighteen years. ‘I don’t really think about it to be honest. I don’t read all the other lads mags, but in the FHM shoot, in fairness, I wore practically the same thing as in the Mama Do video. It doesn’t really phase me!’

Grilled on her thoughts of the current female presence within the pop music industry, Pixie mentions not the popularised likes of La Roux, Florence and the dastardly Little Boots but reveals a long time penchant for singers, ironically, based less on the image and simply beholding strong, austere voices. ‘I still just love Adele, my favourite UK artist… does she count as new?’ Known for her own anything-but-meek dulcet tones, Lott was designed for the centre stage after being schooled at the famous Italia Conti Theatre School in London. ‘I think it really helped in the way that shows, to me, became like second nature. I don’t get nervous at all. I absolutely always loved acting and I find talking to the crowd really easy. I did a lot of musical theatre and wanted to get away from that really with my live performances.’ So why the pop business? ‘I feel you aren’t like playing a character…I am just there as myself onstage. But I do wanna make my shows massive, bigger and better.’

But not one to be heralded your typical stage school bubblegum popstar- hark Martine McCutcheon, Billie Piper, Posh Spice… Pixie reveals a rougher side with her weakness for bands like Kings of Leon, Arctic Monkeys and (sadly) The Kooks. ‘I saw MGMT when I played at V Festival this summer and it was actually the best thing I’ve ever seen. They make such good music to jump to.’ So it’s not all Les Miserábles ballads dominating Pixie’s iPod then. ‘I listen to and am inspired by everything from show songs to soul.’ Her mix of genres whilst sticking to a mainstream-approved formula of polished looks, catchy choruses and a distinct air of confidence in her work explain Pixie Lott’s rise to commercial success over recent months; fresh from her MTV European New Act nomination, Pixie shows her unaffected excitement at being a part of something so huge. ‘I just can’t wait to be going to the ceremony really!’ The next year holds within it plans to crack the US, and a possible collaboration with a Spanish artist. Does she speak Spanish? ‘Not a word. And I have to sing in it as well!’ Better dust off those theatre school skills and get learning the lines then, Pixie.

dancing in the dark

For Student Direct.

GLASTONBURY

WORTHY FARM’s annual merrymaking needs no description. To virtually every person Glastonbury is acknowledged as the mother of all existing music and arts festivals, one that has prevailing philosophy of ecological respect amidst links with Greenpeace, and the entire country shedding their suits, feigning hippy identities and prancing naked in the mud for four days.

Stepping down onto the spotless pastures of the farm, it’s always refreshing to see what has been done differently each year and whether the real thing lives up to the long held image conjured up in your mind. This year, the irrepressible presence of last year’s newcomers Trash City and Shangri-La was still fully in tact. Glastonbury ’09 was a dramatic affair, bringing warped machinery, The Boss and death; Arcadia, Bruce and Jacko were the words on everyone’s lips.

The days were filled with Jazzworld, Healing Fields and sun cream application – much to our surprise the weather contrasted drastically with the terrific showers of 2007. Naked prancing was given the go-ahead for old and young. Along with the bustle and bravado of stadium-filling headliners and super wacky amateur dramatics to the Healing Fields and Croissant Neuf, the festival’s capability to capture even the unimpressionable is still absolutely there.

But to the point, it is primarily a music affair, so on with the music. The curtains were kept drawn for a little longer this year on our headliners- Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen and Blur. Each did not disappoint, as Young chugged on with a string of hits that delighted all generations. I was sandwiched between a 65 year old and a 15 year old who both knew the words to Old Man which made me smile. I still kick myself for missing The Boss who cheekily played a superb three-hour set causing Michael Eavis a hefty fine. And it was Blur who brought the weekend to a climax with one of their rumoured last-ever festival performances, including a Weeping Damon Special where he broke down in sheer joy at the 70, 000 strong crowd’s adulation.

For me though, it was all the smaller things that made for a super duper time; The Dead Weather and their secret set cutting up the Park Stage like a buffalo (Jack’s still got it and Mosshart is hotter than ever); Peaches detonating her sexually-charged electronica upon us; Bon Iver’s magnificent twilight performance playing stuff aspiring singer-songwriters can only dream of creating. Higher up on the hype scale was Florence and her swiftly growing Machine killing the John Peel Stage in an extraordinary way, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds drawing a gargantuan crowd and a daytime trip of hip hop glory from the N.E.R.D boys, albeit awash with Jackson tributes and lashings of divalike attitude from Pharrell Williams. I am told by valuable sources that Lady Gaga’s nearly naked show was equally glorious (she even tried to play the drums) and I was personally glad to have caught one of The Maccabees’ finest sets ever before Gaga filthied the Other Stage’s surface – meant in the nicest way possible.

Next year welcomes Glasto’s 40th anniversary together with rumours of The Strokes and The Rolling Stones; even if this is codswallop, I’d go again just to dance in a mini-monsoon with circus freaks on a fire-blasting machine to acid-reggae. Nowhere else in the world…

ALEXANDRA PEREIRA

***

THE BIG CHILL

WE AMBLED ALONG just as the Zombie ‘I Spit On Your Grave’ Rave, let by King of the Dead Noel Fielding, closed. This was sad news for us but after pitching our 95 year old tent (complete with views of beautiful Eastnor Castle) we bounced out and over to the Zombie Drive-In of sound-system-infested car wreckages and onto the Malvern Hills where Toddla T and Mr Scruff played us into the weekend by twilight…

Highlights were copious but without the smallest glimmer of a doubt, Thursday’s instrumental re-scoring of Man of Aran from British Sea Power set the standard high. It was heavy, intense yet serene – reminiscent of Sigur Ros (who played here last year- BC has subtly struck gold before yet still, pleasingly, does not attract the masses) or Mogwai. Chris Cunningham Live competed for most innovative and cutting edge performance of the festival with his mash up of Sheena is a Parasite, film of a couple viciously beating each other up and the notorious Playstation advert starring a strange-craniumed young girl. As he hovered creepily underneath the explicitly exquisite imagery on the screen behind him, Cunningham’s live music juxtapositional mastery was brutal, uncomfortable and nothing short of brilliant. It’s easy to see why fellow peculiars Bjork and Aphex Twin worked with this man.

BSP: One of many Big Chill highlights

It was a pleasure as always to see Friendly Fires take their Jagger-esque hips to the stage and complete a finely perfected set of pop tunes with a harem of Brazilian Samba dancers with a calypso crescendo of Jump in the Pool. More showy pop ensued with Marina and the Diamonds’ performance, whilst Basement Jaxx got everyone dancing in their fiery and celebratory display. Celebrating the satisfaction of extra large glimmering gold lame tracksuits perhaps? They blinded me (in a fun way.)

Saturday welcomed the dreamy delights of Spiritualized and Orbital who sound tracked the perfect end to the hottest day of the year, whilst the flip flop forest and car boot art fair added to the eclectic beauty of the festival’s charm for daytime wandering. Chrome Hoof played an alarming yet enjoyable set of noise glamour rock and The Invisible duly showed their worth of a Mercury Music Prize nomination. Other contenders for best new material were Noah and the Whale who showcased their second album The First Days of Spring to a wide and impressed audience.

Sunday swelled with heat and Max Romeo played out the last of the sun with his original of Prodigy’s Out of Space. The Rizla tent’s DJ-off, featuring Micachu, entertained us sufficiently until we headed to Sitek-produced Telepathe’s superb tribal-electronica set at the Castle stage. David Byrne closed things up with a string of hits including of course, Once in a Lifetime complete with wacky dancing.

No queues. No large swaying crowds. Friendly as f**k strangers. It was all we could do not to burst into tears at the thought of leaving this metropolis of zombies, castles, lakes and forests. Absolutely an agoraphobic’s wet dream.. .

ALEXANDRA PEREIRA

***

LEEDS FESTIVAL

FLAGRANTLY LACKING a promise to be magical, mythical or pleasant, the Leeds Festival brings with it a very youth-aware crowd of lairy, ket-infested Skins fans, blinding fluoro fashion and, gulp, LADS ON TOUR peeing wherever they are standing. Despite this, the line up of the Reading and Leeds bank holiday shindig forever guarantees a special and varied line up – 2009’s being no exception. Containing my excitement for Thom Yorke and friends’ headline slot on Saturday evening was impractical- so I spent the lead up dashing about catching the very best in this year’s artists (and getting caught in a mass domino effect during Arctic Monkeys.)

The Festival Republic Stage housed some of the finest examples of ‘contemporary’ music to compete with names such as Radiohead and Placebo topping the bill over at the Main Stage. The XX blitzed the tiny tent with brooding, still dark romantic dynamism and are surely destined to get uber popular this year; Black Lips played charmingly wicked rock and roll to please girls and boys alike, and The Temper Trap posed as yet another band to play at least a whole album’s worth of decent songs, amongst them a string of hits – we’ve all seen that summer festival advert; the crowd went crazy for Sweet Disposition, it was quite cute. I later grabbed a chat with Passion Pit who told me their new found success was strangely impact-less as yet, in contrast to the shocking news of which they informed me; the Oasis split. A number of artists seemed saddened by the news, Brooklyn band Bear Hands excepted as they wandered in bewilderment over to me to ask if I’d managed to see their ‘American-looking friends’ around. The band played to a small crowd at the unfortunate time of midday Saturday but exhibited a groovy, tribal set with smooth confidence. Later, Radiohead exuded the same cool confidence with their hit-filled demonstration of professionalism. Whether you like them or not, it highlighted to me the ultimate of live music furore in the most peaceful of manners.

Sunday: I was deeply disappointed when my much-coveted interview with Placebo was cancelled due to Brian Molko’s exhaustion and slightly bewildered at his punchy, energetic performance later in the day. Due to this I abandoned their otherwise tremendous set halfway through to catch cuties Bombay Bicycle Club. The day will come where they are no longer referred to as youngsters, and that day they do deserve as their sound has been honed to near indie-pop flawlessness since they blasted onto the underage scene in 2007.

After Kings of Leon’s shocking behaviour at Reading two days earlier, I was nervous at what mouthful Caleb would hand his northern audience. Not to be proved predictable, the Followills were cheerier than I’ve ever witnessed them… gurning almost. They hurled out classics aplenty and cleverly kept the newer dribble that had caused such Reading fury to a minimum (it was documented that the crowd only knew Sex on Fire). ‘You have already blown Reading to hell,’ Caleb gushed. ‘We love you Leeds.’ Yay for the North. And welcome, freshers.

ALEXANDRA PEREIRA

***

http://www.student-direct.co.uk/2009/09/dancing-in-the-dark-festival-round-up-special/

BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/manchester/hi/people_and_places/music/newsid_8326000/8326386.stm

GOD IS IN THE TV (ZINE)

...This stuff isn't chronological until I work out how blogs work. Until someone shows me I am clueless.

Telepathe + The XX@ Manchester, Deaf Institute
20.05.09
Alexandra Pereira

I’ve never witnessed such a mass crush on one person whatsoever. Perhaps this is what makes Brooklyn girl duo Telepathe (and broodingly handsome singer Busy Gagnes in particular) so initially striking, for at the forefront of their dark,synth and drums electronica beats a powerful sexual prowess and awareness that entices boys and girls alike.

Opening with their well-known hit Chrome’s on It, Telepathe instantly played up to the avant-garde joke of present Brooklyn and reminded us of Dave Sitek’s influence on the music; his artistic presence is extremely blatant but equally brilliant as his familiar production use of feedback, and ambient synths screech out of the Deaf Institute’s speakers. After personally seeing them at London’s Concrete + Glass in October, where they supported TV on the Radio, Telepathe integrate influences from their previous outfits Wikkid and Ex-Models into the innovative new sonic experimentation that is their debut album Dance Mother. Connections with the elite of New York and London’s music scenes has had both negative and positive impact on the band, whose ‘hipster’ vibe sometimes distracts from what is possibly, one of the best new acts of the past year. Contrastingly, their trendy mingling has served them well in terms of media exposure and it’s clear from the crowd tonight that this is a gig ‘to be seen at.’ A bad thing perhaps, a success in some form nevertheless.

Percussionist/co-synth player Melissa Livaudais was the cuter, bouncier one of the two beating a time-perfect pulse with drum pads on songs such as In Your Line. The songs have a certain 80s dancehall (yet militant) feel to them and the result is fascinatingly like the earliest and best sound of Human League with a dash of Bjork with The March. Lights Go Down sounding startlingly like something Thom Yorke could have worked on. To further intensify the surrealist tone of their live performance and lure in the avant-garde partisan were peppered some spoken word/rap vocals on Devil’s Trident, which nostalgically and outrageously reminded me of both Baz Luhrmann’s Everybody Free (To Wear Sunscreen) and early Destiny’s Child. Visually, the show was simplistic and gaudy at the same time. The beeps and bleats of their extensive equipment (but noticeably cheap keyboard) was loud, overpowering and complicated, but worked brilliantly with the frontwomens’ understated stance and charm. Behind them was a psychedelic makeshift Powerpoint show, it seemed, throwing shapes, colours and patterns across in time with the music.

Amidst the softer-than-soft catchy lyrics are some unusual themes like living on other planets and bizarrely, taking a boy into a forest to perform sexual favours and proceeding to execute him. Wow. You can tell a lot of thought went into the percussion of Telepathe’s music and this really came through in the live show. Undoubtedly a fairly pretentious show that maybe had the potential to have been terrible but worked perfectly due to the blasé approach of Telepathe’s live presence.

catalogue

It is about time I started a blog after many people instructing me to do so.

I shall start by exposing my tiny weeny audience a selection of journalism (mostly music) I have done over the past year. Things I am proud of, some I am not so proud of. Everyone starts somewhere.

And Lexington Pez is a ridiculous but horribly catchy name given to me by my lovely friends this summer. It makes me sound like a hotel, a pornstar and a nineties sweet all rolled into one (the best things in life, surely?)

From last year's radio show with Fras is this.
We are about to embark on a brand new show with Zara Meerza joining New Slang.

01.03.09

Black Lips Interview by Fuse FM

Alex Pereira of 'Lex & Fras New Slang' caught up with Black Lips before their show at the Deaf Institute last week. Hear the interview here

https://fusefm.co.uk/interviews/black-lips-interview-fuse-fm

This show was also filmed, here's a short excerpt. IT WAS AMAZING. The Deaf Institute in Manchester is fast-becoming the city's best live venue by far: