New music
The Killers, RoundhouseWednesday, 12 September 2012
The moment everyone will remember came exactly an hour in: Brandon Flowers was singing “All These Things That I've Done” with the conviction of a man at confession. Behind him a video screen showed a loner carrying a long wooden sign on his... Read more... |
theartsdesk at Bestival 2012: Wild Times Across the WaterWednesday, 12 September 2012
Friday 7th September“Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones famously came to Keith Richards in a dream. Now it haunts mine. Not their classic version, though, oh no. Within an hour of pitching up my tent, setting sausages on the disposable barbecue and... Read more... |
CD: The Killers – Battle BornWednesday, 12 September 2012
The showbiz titibit that has intrigued me more than any other in recent weeks is the story that comedian Jimmy Carr helped to inspire one of the tracks on The Killers’ fourth album. The Lloyd Cole lookalike apparently suggested to Brandon Flowers... Read more... |
theartsdesk at the Berlin Festival and Music WeekTuesday, 11 September 2012
Sometimes, it doesn’t matter who you are. You might be a charismatic performer, or the most energetic band in the world. But some settings can’t be outperformed. Holding Berlin Festival at the city’s astonishing out-of-commission Tempelhof airport... Read more... |
CD: Django Bates' Belovèd - ConfirmationTuesday, 11 September 2012
Django Bates has commented that he probably first heard the music of Charlie Parker while still in the womb. Parker's music has thus been part of his musical make up ab ovo, as it were. This brilliant follow-up to Bates' 2010 Parker tribute Belovèd... Read more... |
Lady Gaga, Twickenham StadiumSunday, 09 September 2012
After Lady Gaga's concert at Twickenham last night, I asked some of the Little Monsters scurrying back to the station the name of the last song she had sung. The song she sang right after declaring that she had to bring the evening to an early end.... Read more... |
CD: Bob Dylan - TempestSunday, 09 September 2012
Like Orpheus, Bob Dylan is familiar with the underworld. As he gets closer to meeting his maker, the tone of his work has become less baroque, increasingly stripped down and almost naïve in its simplicity. His latest album marks another episode,... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Lee "Scratch" Perry, Cud, Taj Mahal, David CassidySunday, 09 September 2012
Lee “Scratch” Perry and Friends: Disco Devil - The Jamaican DiscomixesThomas H GreenAs bass culture conquers the musical universe, with even Justin Bieber diving into dubstep waters and gnarly electro-goth Skrillex one of the biggest earning new... Read more... |
Jeffrey Lewis and the Junkyard, The Haunt, BrightonFriday, 07 September 2012
Astonishment is the emotion that creeps up most often when watching 36-year-old New York singer-songwriter Jeffrey Lewis. The term singer-songwriter does him an injustice, in fact, for these days it summons notions of strummed predictability,... Read more... |
Lady Gaga: Back to the FutureFriday, 07 September 2012
Lady Gaga arrives in the UK this weekend to play two huge shows at Twickenham Stadium, before moving on to Manchester. Today, she is the biggest pop star in the world. Three years ago she was in the final stages of a highly orchestrated campaign... Read more... |
CD: Pet Shop Boys - ElysiumFriday, 07 September 2012
Pet Shop Boys eleventh album leaps sideways into smooth, opulent US FM radio production in a way that will initially give long term fans palpitations. The duo sound… different. They recorded Elysium in Los Angeles with Grammy-winning Kanye West... Read more... |
CD: The xx – CoexistThursday, 06 September 2012
One of the current tropes in stand-up comedy is the way that television appropriates music to manipulate emotions. Sean Hughes employs a flurry of Snow Patrol when he acts out buying some bread, while newcomer David Trent has Sigur Rós on his... Read more... |
