From Across The Pond 5.13.08: Winehouse, Soulwax and Oxegen
Posted by Sean Reid on 05.13.2008
This week, Seán looks at some of the best news stories to come out of Europe, an Irish music festival and the second band to be put under the looking glass in "Best of Europe".
Welcome to this weeks ‘From Across The Pond.' Big thank you to everyone who emailed asking how my bands big gig went, twas excellent. Despite breaking a bass string and a strap 4 songs in the whole thing went down brilliantly. We should have a DVD of the whole night online within the next few weeks, so I'll make sure to post information about it up here, for those who want to follow up on it.
I dunno if it was worth missing a Glassjaw gig for it though…
Three Best European Music News Stories This Week
Winehouse and Doherty Collaborate
Two of Europe's most trouble stars, Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty, are apparently working on a song to be released this summer. Yeap, two of the most over-rated singers to come out of England over the past decade, are going to give us the, ahem, "pleasure", of hearing what happens when you stick these two in a booth together. If they can stay out of trouble for long enough of course. No doubt that no matter how awful this thing could be, it will sell bucket loads.
Winehouse has a very talented backing band, which could be the only saving grace with this, if they even choose to use them. Hopefully Doherty tells his band to stay at home for this one. I have a little formula that sums up perfectly my view on Pete Doherty's music skills:
The Libertines where ok.
Dirty Pretty Things are brilliant.
Babyshambles are awful.
Can you fill in the blanks there? On a related story, Dirty Pretty Things have released their new single for free online. Check it out at dirtyprettythingsband.com it's called ‘Hippy Son'. It's an excellent track and has gotten me more excited for their next album, ‘Romance at Short Notice', which is due out at the end of June.
Oasis loose another drummer
According to The Sun, Zak Starkey has had a falling out with Noel Gallagher and will not be playing on any future concert dates. Oasis has now firmly taken their place as a modern day Spinal Tap when it comes to drummers. But honestly, how many people will notice the change? Even though Oasis are a brilliant band collectively, it truly is the Noel and Liam show at the end of the day. Ask your friends to name other members of the band and I can imagine them having a hard time doing so. I'm struggling myself right now!
Hot Chip Say ‘No' to Free Downloads
Hot Chip singer Alexis Taylor has spoken out about free music downloads, claiming that they hurt small bands. This comes after Coldplay, Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails began giving away their stuff for free on the internet. He makes a good point that it's ok for these bigger bands to give away tracks for free, but a smaller band cannot do the same, even going as far as to say that a free Hot Chip song would do them no favors.
I can see where Alex is going with this, but I'm inclined to disagree with him. Let's not forget that the Artic Monkeys where nobodies, they gave away a lot of their music for free online, then became one of the globes biggest bands. Besides, it doesn't matter if the band decide to give it away for free or otherwise; if someone wants to get a bands music for free they will get it for free, end of story. However a large number of people will still go out and buy the record. I think that if a smaller band such as Hot Chip gave away a single for free online, it would make alot more people go out and buy the album that it came from than if they made people pay for it. It's a good business idea, give the public a free sample and they'll want the whole thing.
The Best of Europe
Soulwax For Fans of : The Rapture, Death From Above 1979, LCD Soundsystem Stand Out Album : Any Minute Now Stand Out Tracks : NY Excuse, E Talking, Too Many DJs
Alot of acts try to blend indie and dance music together, often with messy results. Sometimes they just don't add enough of either genre in, or they put together something that blends horribly. Belgium's Soulwax, however, get it down perfectly. The act having being ruling dance floors since 1995, and have gotten better and better with each new release.
Their lyrics vary from drug-use, parting (And not in an Andrew WK way), politics and relationships. Their music is played live rather than using samples, but it retains the essence of modern dance in it. Because of this, they have extended their audience so two groups that normally would have nothing to do with one another could come together and enjoy something.
Not content with more-or-less creating a new genre of dance, they also perfected another one with their side-project Too Many DJs. Mash-Up, or Bastard Pop, has been around for years (The act of taking two songs and making them into one), but it was hard to find something that actually sounded good. Too Many DJs have released over 40 mash up tracks and each one is as good as the rest. They have created entirely new tracks from pre-existing ones, and often made them sound better. Only DJ Shadow has come close to doing this as well as these guys.
If you want to know what LCD Soundsystem would sound like if turned up to 11, or what would happen if The Rapture added more and more heavy bass lines, then Soulwax are for you.
More Festival Line-ups
Irelands own Oxegen festival added more top notch bands to their line-up recently. Already joining the excellent line-up of REM, Kings of Leon, The Prodigy, Chemical Brothers, Justice, Aphex Twin, Battles, The Verve, Seasick Steve, Interpol and The Editors are Feeder, UNKLE, Does It Offend You Yeah and Manic Street Preachers.
Already the more-or-less full line up has secured the title of the best one in Europe for this summer. I'm delighted that it's taking place 20 minutes from my house. The festival itself, however, is poorly run and the camp site feels like a Third World country all weekend. You guys in America and main-land Europe know how to run a festival; we know how to get a good line-up. I'm sure if we came up with some sort of collaboration we could create the greatest festival of all time.
Maybe it's time for a 411mania festival? Well of that other music website can do it…
Every time we say goodbye…
That's me this week, cheap plug as always for my bands page, www.bebo.com/bazukiband. Keep your emails and comments coming in; I do read them all and try to respond to everyone. Except for the guys who keep sending stuff along the lines of "Dude, I totally love Tool too they rock." I appreciate you taking the time to let me know that we like the same band, but I don't need to hear it every bloody day, ha!
