New music
Lil B's I'm Gay (I'm Happy): a rap revolution?Friday, 01 July 2011
It's not often you can call pop music revolutionary, but this record is - in more ways than one. Bringing together techniques of engagement that have been honed by Radiohead, Lady Gaga, Lil Wayne and... um... Justin Bieber, the 21-year-old Berkley,... Read more... |
theartsdesk at the Glastonbury Festival 2011Thursday, 30 June 2011
Thursday 23 JuneHaven’t left yet but someone sends me an email saying, "Not going to Glastonbury this year and feeling rather smug about it." What are they feeling smug about? The fact that they’re going to have a forgettable, normal weekend while... Read more... |
Paul Simon, Hammersmith ApolloThursday, 30 June 2011
Paul Simon is now nearly 70 years old and as he walked onto the Hammersmith Apollo stage last night it struck me that he is beginning to look like the little old man he will eventually become: still nimble, enviably trim, but nevertheless, he was... Read more... |
Vetiver, XOYOThursday, 30 June 2011
The prospect of seeing a band seemingly in thrall to peak-popularity Fleetwood Mac in a Shoreditch basement intrigued. Could San Francisco's Vetiver reproduce the glossy sheen of new album The Errant Charm live? The answer was no, and last night’s... Read more... |
CD: Little Dragon – Ritual UnionThursday, 30 June 2011
Gothenburg electro-moodists Little Dragon aren’t short of high-profile cheerleaders. All four members appeared on a couple of tracks on Gorillaz' Plastic Beach, and the band supported Damon Albarn's gang on the subsequent tour. TV on the Radio’s... Read more... |
The Secret Sisters, Pleasance, EdinburghTuesday, 28 June 2011
Emmylou Harris once described to me the sibling harmonies of the Louvin Brothers as sounding like they were “washed in the blood”. The voices of Laura and Lydia Rogers, two twentysomething sisters from Muscle Shoals, Alabama, have that same haunting... Read more... |
CD: Beverley Knight – Soul UKTuesday, 28 June 2011
Most of the arrangements on this collection of covers of Eighties and early-Nineties UK soul tunes actually have more of a mid-Seventies live band feel to them. This proves to be an excellent way of rescuing the material from the often stultifying... Read more... |
Birmingham - Home of MetalTuesday, 28 June 2011
This site has never acknowledged a distinction between high and popular culture. Nor, it seems, does the city of Birmingham. Currently bidding for UK City of Culture 2013, it is also promoting itself as the "Home of (Heavy) Metal". This summer, at... Read more... |
Mick Jagger leads supergroup with Joss Stone, Damian Marley and AR RahmanTuesday, 28 June 2011
Mick Jagger is heading up a band named SuperHeavy. Also in on the project are Joss Stone, AR Rahman (composer of the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack), Dave Stewart (the former Eurythmic) and Damian Marley. It seems outlandish and the product of an... Read more... |
theartsdesk at the Home Festival, DartingtonMonday, 27 June 2011
While Michael Eavis’s fields were colonised by the solstice hordes, transforming a tranquil farmstead into a vibrant (and muddy) drop city, a very different and much smaller crowd assembled in the enchanting grounds of Dartington Hall in south Devon... Read more... |
CD: Gillian Welch - The Harrow and the HarvestSunday, 26 June 2011It has been eight years since Gillian Welch last released an album and her loyal fans – not to mention critics - have been waiting with bated breath. Will she have spent the years honing the delicious Americana and Appalachian-influenced folk that... Read more... |
theartsdesk in New Orleans: How the City Got its Groove BackSunday, 26 June 2011
New Orleans, that most musical city, is back, back, back, everyone told me. The tourist board said that visitor numbers are over eight million again, back to levels before “The Storm” as they refer to the devastation of Hurricane Katrina here. The... Read more... |
