Lissie- Catching A Tiger

Lissie seems to have been an artist that came out of nowhere. With her November 2009 release ‘Why You Runnin’ barely heard of in England, Lissie’s managed to become the word on everybody’s lips with the aid of an exceptional Gaga cover and an ITunes single of the week, entitled ‘In Sleep.’

She’s been playing many of the UK Festivals and her set at Brighton’s Great Escape Festival was not only one of her first but the one that proved her phenomenal talent to those watching. Videos of her set were up on youtube within hours, scoring thousands of hits by journalists and muso’s. The stand out of this set being her collaboration with Hereford’s finest, Ellie Goulding. Having formed a swift friendship with her, they performed a spine tingling version of Lissie’s ‘Everywhere I go’ together. This set sent alarms bells ringing in its spectators; this girl really is talented, her voice angelic yet edgily raw.

Lissie’s debut, ‘Catching A Tiger’ starts with, ‘Record Collector’ a sinister, progressive folk affair that gets increasingly intense as it goes along. “When I swore God, she spoke to me and she told me, oh yes, she told me of all the wonder that she could bring” Lissie sings as if she’s just been having a conversation with a phantom. This is followed by current single ‘When I’m Alone’, a more upbeat pop song and an honest account of her feelings.

Throughout the course of the album Lissie displays her soul to her listeners, from the urgent and naively dreamy fixation she showcases in the previous single ‘In Sleep’ to her adoration of The Mississippi River in her album closer ‘Oh Mississippi’ (co-written by Ed Harcourt), something which feels like it should be sung by a black servant in 1920’s America, or maybe that’s just me and my vast imagination. It certainly possesses gospel vibes anyway. That’s not to say her music sounds dated. In fact, her music is rather refreshing to the ear in an era where a band can consist of one man and his laptop.

Lissie exposes her feminist voice in ‘Stranger’ and offers extreme commercial potential in songs like ‘Loosen the Knot’ and ‘Cuckoo.’ I think that as soon as the rest of the world hears this album, Lissie will be repaid for her album efforts in huge ways. We get the impression that music has always been something firmly lodged in a place close to her heart as she seems to be one of those grounded, passionate American musicians (let’s not forgot she’s a competent guitarist too) that still possess a romantic imagination. In this album, Lissie blends pop music and American country folk in a blissful union, which will be heading through the airwaves of Britain very soon; Lissie will find her way off radio ‘C’ playlists and straight onto the A lists. The pop aspect makes her music radio friendly and the folk adds soul and warmth. It’s impossible not to fall in love with her honesty and charm as well as her captivating hooks. Expect big things from Lissie in the next few months.

Topshop Bandstand Picnics for The Teenage Cancer Trust

Yesterday I attended the Topshop Bandstand Picnic at Birmingham University. Playing were: Eliza Doolittle, Summer Camp (fresh from a tour with Slow Club), I Blame Coco (if you read my blog you should know a lot about her by now, I've mentioned her a lot) and Cardiff's Los Campesinos! It was a free event but the proceeds from the food, drink and competetions (raffels, sack races etc.) all went to The Teenage Cancer Trust.

It was the perfect day for it. It was hot,sunny and the end of university/school/college/exams etc... I unfortunately missed Eliza Doolittle and Summer Camp, the latter very regrettably, but I only found out about the event about 30 minutes before it started and Birmingham is an hour journey from Stoke and I then had to hop into a the first taxi I saw from the train station as well, for which I was ripped off £7 for.

T4's Mequita Oliver hosted the event and the DJ sets inbetween acoustic bandstand sets came from 'Broken Hearts' and 'Blonde Ambition,' both dj's doing an excellent job.

Coco Sumner and her band took to the bandstand at around 3 o clock. They played a beautiful acoustic set which included a divine cover of Fleetwood Mac's 'The Chain', very topical considering they're playing at Glasto next weekend. It was interesting to see what she would play, as these days, technology is involved a lot in her music, this contrasts to her earlier reggae/ska tinged sounds.

Later, came Los Campesinos! With it being an acoustic set, there was only four of them. They played even more stripped down versions of their more lo-fi songs. They played a lot of songs of their most recent album which came out at the start of this year, 'Romance is Boring' and then a couple of songs from earlier albums, including 'We are all Accelerated Readers' from their glorious début 'Hold on now, youngster!' Their set went down well, especially as there seemed to be a few young Los Campesinos! fans in the audience, rather than people that just seemed to find themselves there.

I think it's safe to say that everyone there enjoyed it, as it was the perfect thing to do on such a lovely day. I hope that The Teenage Cancer Trust host more events like this in the future.

Over and out,

Katie
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M.I.A album sampler is out!

Ah, words cannot express my excitement about this! SO EXCITED about this album! I'm a massive M.I.A fan, I have been for a long time. This new album seems to have turned a couple of fans as it comes across as more mainstream than her older stuff but I think that her and producer Rusko's attempts to make the album hyperactive and exciting prove this theory wrong. M.I.A's back and she's just as strong as ever.

M.I.A. "/\/\/\Y/\" Snippets from RS on Vimeo.

Katie x

Johnny Flynn- Been Listening

Johnny Flynn is back with his new album 'Been Listening' but this time without the help of his Sussex Wit following his 2008 debut ' A Larum' which captured the hearts of music lovers. On listening to his debut, my own mother once said to me that she wants me to marry Johnny Flynn.

Opener, 'Kentucky Pill', although a brilliant track does not really sum up the entire album, though it is clearly still a folk track, here Flynn seems to shy away from the 'folk-rock' label and delves more into a 'folk-pop' reinvention. The brass instruments add bright, subtle pop vibes. A lot of brass is found on this album in comparison to Flynn's debut. The album is scattered with little pop sounding gems like this, for example 'Barnacled Warship' begins in this manner, though more Belle & Sebastian than Madonna. Violin riffs neutralising the pop and reinforcing Flynn's folk roots.

That said,there are many songs, for example, 'Lost and Found' which could have easily came from 'A Larum' with their simple folk tone and sinister lyrics. Typical Flynn lyrics include " will you put down your fiddle, young Willie, will you put down your fiddle and pray that the world has begun with the birth of the sun and its death the very same day" as found in 'Sweet William Part 2' which opens with a haunting violin riff.


Johnny Flynn has definitely been more experimental with this album, this is represented in the opening of the song 'Churlish May' with it's hip-hop style drum beat. More electric guitar is found in this album too, such is seen in the lo-fi title track with the solo riffs which come and go in waves, often complimented by violins, an odd musical combination, which undeniably works.

'The Water' features his long term friend Laura Marling, it's a slow and seemingly medieval folk type affair, with a waltz rhythm, which is reflective of Marling's follow up album which was released in March. Clearly more of a collaboration than solely a song with guest vocals.

It's obvious that Mr Flynn has been a little more experimental on this album but his signature sound is not lost as it's clearly present throughout, even on the brighter, more poppy numbers.

7/10

The Creators Project meets Mark Ronson

With the release of his third album just around the corner, Mark Ronson talks to The Creators Project about the making of all three albums and how he became a musician and a DJ in the first place.







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The Drums- The Drums

The Drums have received some very harsh criticism, which was probably produced due to the large amount of hype that surrounded them in late 2009 - early 2010. There is far too much focus on people questioning whether this hype is justifiable. For me, the truth seems to be that The Drums are a great band, they're a band which I could genuinely listen to at any time of the day, as was tested out the other day by my friend's boyfriend who decided to play 'Forever and Ever Amen' really loudly at about half past 6 in the morning the other day, just half an hour after I'd nodded off to sleep (it was a very long and heavy night) and I actually didn't mind, in fact, I enjoyed it!

The Drums were definitely worth getting excited about. The long awaited album finally dropped this week and it's brilliant. Some people say that they try too hard to be cool and 'hipster' but I couldn't disagree more. The album is bursting with heart felt lyrics and simple riffs. In this album we are given a deeper incite into the life of the lead singer, Jonathon Pierce, than you would have ever imagined from a band that have a song about surfing. The way that he intertwines sorrowful lyrics with bright, repetitive hooks and lightly distorted guitar is phenomenal, something which I don't think has been done really to such an extent since The Smiths. The Drums clearly have far more depth and troubles to them than we first thought when 'Let's Go Surfing' and 'I feel Stupid' were thrust into our faces by every radio DJ on the airwaves. What's more is there's nothing wrong with the irony used in their lyrics, it works well for them and adds strength, it's surely a positive thing. Occasionally, the repetition can get slightly irritating, for example, in the song 'I need fun in my Life', but most of the time their use of repetition compliments their chilled out scuzzy, indie pop style and adds commercial potential. Having seen them live too, I also know how well it all translates on stage. This album is filled with songs that can't help but make you joyful, yet their frequent sinister lyrics mean than their music, thankfully, lacks cheese and you can enjoy it guilt free. This album could well be the soundtrack to your Summer 2010 and you should certainly try and see them live at a festival this summer.

9/10









Katie x

Shot by Kern Part 2, in Barcelona!

For those of you who enjoyed the last episode of Shot by Kern in London, here's the next episode, this is when he went to Barcelona and shot some spanish girls:




Katie
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ps. I will do a review of Dot-to-Dot festival that I went to in Manchester soooon!