£5 to win

Thanks for the bottle of Tia Maria, Alexander Rybak.

Another gig

On Tuesday night, I went to see a band called Mi Ami in the Static Gallery. That's the sort of person I am. I go to gigs in galleries. (It's more of a studio space, to be honest.)

I was planning to write about my gigging adventure on Wednesday. But I just couldn't think of anything to write. It was a moderately good gig, where I drank a can of Red Stripe and took a photo of my shoe (pictured). Mi Ami were not bad, but they did a lot of screeching. It reminded me of a messy spin painting and PMT combined. Plus they were ridiculously loud.

Today is Thursday, and I finally mentioned this because I really enjoyed the support bands. The first on were called Bagheera, but I can't find their MySpace. They were good, I promise. Second on were Balloons, playing some cheeky electro pop. Also good, and they looked like they were having fun. This means that I have fun, and everybody is happy.

Picture Book were also playing. I've seen them before. They're trying to do high-concept electro, and project visuals from a Macbook. For me, it ends up like The Knife without the gender-bending or sexuality, or early Moloko without the ideas. I do like bands who put "official" at the end of their MySpace profile. That's ambition.

I'm gonna take you out tonight

The video for Little Boots' first-single-proper - New In Town - is here. Not just on the tellybox but also on the internets. Can Little Boots transform all the buzz into unit shifting?
Let's take a look at the video and find out.
We open with Little Boots herself, staring dolefully at the rain-splattered LA streets that pass by her car window. It's a lonely life being a touring artist. But at least she's wearing a spectacular necklace and dress (made by Ashish, if you must know).

Meanwhile, a group of ne'er-do-wells are scrabbling around to survive. They're probably under a railway bridge. In a dubious area called 'downtown'. This chap has a sign that reads 'Need food - spent all my money on judo lessons'.
Being new in town, Little Boots accidentally wanders in and finds herself surrounded by shopping trolleys.

Wait a second - they're not ne'er-do-wells. They're trained dancers!

For the second verse and chorus, she accidentally wanders into a backstreet dance battle. Like I told you, she's new in town. But it's all rather jolly.

For the middle eight, she accidentally wanders into a local dogging spot. Because she is, after all, new in town.

We end with Little Boots staring dolefully out of the car window, as at the start. Meaning that she dreamed the entire thing.

And there you have it. A quite good video. The song itself doesn't really do it for me yet, but I'll give it some more time. It sounds like the Human League, and I love the Human League. So some more time. I don't want to be one of those people who huffs and puffs that "the earlier stuff is better".
But at least I'm not this YouTube commentor:

"i really liked her better with dark brown hair and when she was with dead disco"

Just let it go. Dead Disco were not bad, but the rest of us have moved on.

Five new bands for the bank holiday

Another chance for my irregular feature on new bands. Five of them. For the weekend bank holiday. Enjoy yourself.
1) Blues Roses Acoustic loveliness from the Bradfordian formerly known as Laura Groves (pictured). Album out NOW.
2) Soft Toy Emergency Liverpudlian whippersnappers making bouncy electro pop. I think they rehearse in a studio over the road from my flat. That makes me feel like a weird stalker.
3) The Yeah You's Literally everybody has been going on about these two chaps. Well, I've seen them mentioned in a few places. And now it's my turn. Their pop songs are rather splendid. Somehow, I managed to get through this paragraph without mentioning their lackadaisical approach to grammar. Oh wait. Damnation.
4) The Whiskycats Rabble-rousing Mancunian folksters, featuring trumpet. I'm told they know how to throw a good party. This is a very important component of becoming a good band. However, I'm still waiting for my invitation to arrive.
5) Menya 'Electro crunk' New York trio. A bit like CSS, but fuzzier.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs confusion

Here is the May issue of The Stool Pigeon:

I do enjoy reading The Stool Pigeon. It tells me about all the cool new bands I should be listening to. And don't the Yeah Yeah Yeahs look spanky on the cover? Jonathan Safran-Foer (at right) is looking a bit Photoshopped. The shadow doesn't match his cheekbones, but nevermind. I don't think The Stool Pigeon has demanded he digitally slim down.
The tagline, however, confuses me. I understand that Father Christmas has reindeers called Donner and Blitzen, and the new YYYs album is called It's...
...but what's Donna got to do with it? And why slip in the German connective? Perhaps Karen O and co have gone...
And they sound very...

But come on. It just doesn't quite make sense. Or maybe I just don't get it. Can you explain?