Kitten and The Hip Live Review

Kitten and The Hip Live at Boiller Room
Image © Neil_Mach October 2012

One year ago, Ashley Slater met Kitten Quinn.

Ashley Slater is a UK based trombone player and best known for his work with Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim) in the band Freak Power.  Kitten  is a beautiful and intelligent singer songwriter. Together, they write songs, hang out, and play mischief.

In February, they were having a chat, and Kitten advised Ashley not to worry about something or other. Their dance-floor hit ‘Don’t You Worry About That’ was born the next day.

Live, Kitten and The Hip are usually a quartet, with Kitten singing and Ashley taking to the trombone and providing ‘scat’ style improv vocals. Kitten is a natural front-woman, at once mesmerising and powerfully seductive.

At Guildford’s favourite music venue, The Boiler Room, 4th October 2012,  the band played their debut single “Dont You Worry” ( which has been signed to Hed Kandi and is promised major success in the clubs.)  This song has gleaming vocals with a hint of sexy varnish around the smooth jazz edges. The cheeky trombone adds an impudent spiciness to this swing time Lindy Hop dancing track.

At the Boiler Room, Kitten & the Hip played without drums,  and there was, in my opinion, a slight over-reliance on their prerecorded backing tracks. Songs like ‘Don’t Touch the Kitten’ have a lush “swing era” feel to them.  Kitten’s cleaned out pipes really shine… chromium plated diamond studded style. The lilting ‘Swingle Singers’ sounding backing vocals adds some fine razzmatazz . And the ‘bone rubs up against the cat’s plate-glass voice – creating a heady static electricity to the fizzy pieces.



With their boogie woogiman connections and Manhattan Transfer  style evocations, their material is clubland polished. If you go mad for the “Swing house” thing, this may be for you.

- © Neil_Mach October 2012 -

Link:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kitten-and-The-Hip

First Aid Kit Live Surrey UK

First Aid Kit is a Swedish folk duo composed of sisters Johanna and Klara Söderberg, whose close vocal harmonies and woodsy, folk-influenced songwriting take influence from the likes of Fleet Foxes and Joanna Newsom. Hailing from Enskede, a southern suburb of Stockholm, the siblings began composing songs in 2007.

After playing a concert in Nashville the duo was approached by Jack White who requested them to record a single for his Third Man Records series. In February 2011 the duo collaborated with Bright Eyes during their performance of Lua. In January 2012 the band released their second album, The Lion’s Roar, produced by Mike Mogis. The album was critically acclaimed upon release and went straight to #1 in Sweden on the week of release and #35 in the UK.

First Aid Kit came to the superb Guildford venue The Boiler Room (sold out) with songs like their very special piece  ‘The Lions Roar’.  These have a Dylanesque  quality to them- not only lyrically but also with wallowing, haunting chord structures.  But you can often find a harshness, a grit and a determination  in their exquisitely rendered songs. No matter how sweet the girls look, or how honeyed those immaculate confections are,  this pair are bold and rugged and they have a knowing glint in their eye.

‘The Lions Roar’  is a song that criticizes religion – but empathy is also shown at the ingenuity of the human race. It is recognized that, where we need to seek comfort – we will look for it, and find it. In the best ways that we can. Klara’s voice breaks at unpredictable times – reminiscent of those country and western singers who sometimes you lead to a choke.  And Johanna’s tresses billow and sway like shimmering plumes. You soon realise that these girls are true performance artists. The “Lion’s Roar’ leaves you almost inconsolable, with feelings of isolation, rejection and pain. Yet, somehow you smile. Because life is beautiful. That’s all there is to it.

A similar song that can also be enjoyed as a metaphor for gaining strength in isolation is ‘Hard Believer’,  which was written after reading Richard Dawkins’ book ‘The God Delusion’ and starts out as an explanation – offered to an uncompromising believer- that sets out the sibling’s own belief system. The vocals  are arranged against a soft combing of delicate strings. As the harmonies start, you can almost feel the wind on your face – and see the wild geese flying into a winter moon. Yes, as they say, “time is tough”.  But, as the keys are starting to fall in tone, and notes drop fatally lower – like autumn leaves tainted by an early frost -  the descant becomes even more soulful and less expectant.  It is at this stage that the song can truly be released- into a full and thriving understanding of the nature of life. It’s a position that we can take and we can understand – no matter our belief system or adopted religion.

Two cleverly crafted cover songs were also included in the Boiler Room set. The gently rhythmic ‘When I Grow Up’  (written by The Knife’s  Fever Ray (Karin Dreijer Andersson) and, later,   “America” by Simon & Garfunkel, which the pair performed ( for Paul Simon) at the Polar Music Prize Ceremony 2012 this year.

An amazing, and spiritually uplifting evening of fine performance.

– © Neil_Mach September 2012 –

Link:

http://www.facebook.com/firstaidkitofficial

Alabama Shakes - Live Review

The Alabama Shakes have been heralded as the messianic cotton belt saviours of rock. We were lucky enough to see them playing at the End Of The Road Festival, Larmer Tree Gardens, North Dorset, UK. this weekend.

The current hype has it that the destiny of stadium-sized rock now lays in their hands. Sell out shows and platinum coloured discs, halls of fame and talk-show commotion – everything that we associate with ‘big rock acts’ now depends, rather  unpromisingly, on a large, bespectacled, shabbily dressed lady and her improbable band of startled hill-billy misfit cronies.

But I can now say that, without question, something has at last come along that the oldies can expropriate and call  ‘my music’. It is amazing to think that the future of ‘Dad Rock’ is in the hands of this group of sweaty cotton-picking yokels  -  all the way from the Heart of Dixie – who just started out in 2009.

Dismal quarterly figures have had record company executives sobbing into their mid-morning macchiatos over the last few weeks. It is said that the lack of big-name acts was to blame. Rihanna could not even do it for them. She managed to top the UK chart with sales of only 9,578 CDs and downloads combined. [Talk That Talk]. It was the worst sales performance seen since records (and records)  began.

So now, more than ever, we need a really great band. And a really BIG name. The Alabama Shakes have stepped up to take the baton. Rising from total obscurity, in just over three years they have propelled themselves to the top. They are now ready to assume the role as the Defenders of Rock 

I would not dare to suggest that their singer Brittany Howard is anything other than self deprecating and modest – but she mentioned the type of line-up which she has imagined that her band could play alongside in a year or two -  when she told  EoTR that it would “probably be AC / DC … Led Zeppelin, Tina Turner and the Rolling Stones …”

So, do they stand up to the hype? Oh my God, yes. When they play live, they exceed all expectations.
When the Alabama Shakes took to the Woods stage at Larmer Tree Gardens on Saturday they looked like they had just got up after a happy day spent disposing giant moonshine hangovers in some long forgotten ditch on the huge Dorset estate – probably in a muddy haystack, near a festering pig-swill silo.

Brittany was dressed in a black top, with gauzy Walmart scarf, improper brown boots and her hair rushed into unconvincing ponytails, her trusty Harmony Rocket guitar strapped high. Bass guitarist Zac Cockrell was wearing a pair of stained denim overalls and a brown cap. Up on one side of the stage -  high on an alter piece – sat Ben Tanner on keyboards, wearing an old thrift store pin-striped jacket. “My quest is to make him a star” Brittany screamed.  At the side of Brittany, and for the entire duration, stood guitarist Heath Fogg,  who was wearing a blue denim shirt, and clutching his pearly Gibson. Drummer Steve Johnson was also at the front-of-stage wearing a dirty baseball cap and a murky sweat shirt.

So what were they like? Well, if you can imagine Robert Palmer, Chuck Berry and Tina Turner, all rolled  into one, you get close to the experience. Back when they started, the Shakes covered songs by Led Zeppelin, James Brown and Otis Redding. And it still shows.

At this stage (anyway) the band seems to be a mechanism for the unbelievably talented firebrand Brittany Howard to purvey her kind of frenzied soul. They are the best retro rock, roots and soul band I’ve ever seen. Or I have ever imagined, for that matter.

With songs like ‘Hang Loose’ from ‘Boys & Girls’ [2012]- their numbers jauntily roll along and have a husky sweetness to them- they sound like the kind of work you might associate with bands like The Faces. With an innocent, yet clever, blues-rock accompaniment.

Or ‘Hold On’ that twangs a lot deeper and may remind you of something by Eddie Cochran. The cotton-dust digs deep in your veins. Rivulets of sweet dripping guitar notes are uncontrollably lost on a peanut-shell-strewn shelf of rhythm. And the voice is filled out with sweet spasms of pleasure. Just experiencing that rubbery rib-shack rockabilly beat makes you feel alive.


‘Rise To The Sun’ is a beast more difficult to define. The sweet icy voice plays it soft at times, but rapidly this song evolves into a generously pluming bubble bath of sounds -  a flood of rattling emotions – as a celebration of vibrant guitars storms in, to take you off guard.

And ‘Boys & Girls’ is their Al Green sounding  piece. Laden with sentimental feeling and lush melancholy memories, it manages to create an atmosphere of empathy with the crowd who, en masse, swayed unashamed to the waltzing rhythm.

So, in a world of lack-lustre ‘stars’ – and the forgettable fodder that they spew out -  impressive performance is hard to find . Musicians who really know how to bring a crowd to its feet are in the minority.  But the Alabama Shakes are the real thing.

And take note. The greatest gift that the Alabama Shakes has to offer is the power to unite. They can bring absolute peace in a broken world. They create harmony for all. The rifts in the rock universe are about to be healed by this band. So, come together, right now. Over these.

– © Neil_Mach September 2012 –

Link:
http://www.alabamashakes.com/

Jay James Picton - Live in Concert

It’s about time that this country produced a male equivalent of Adele or Amy. I know, I know... but I may as well say it now, because everyone will be saying it in a few months time (mark my words)... we have now discovered a (Welsh) male Winehouse- and he is called Jay James Picton. And long may he live.

Jazzy, soulful and so utterly pleasurable that his voice will make you weep. One moment his smoky tongue creates a tension that seems to be so insecure and so near to breaking point that you wonder how he manages to hold back the tears - but the next moment his voice becomes so uplifting and joyful that your heart will bounce off the moon.

Full of fiery passion and exhilarating rapture, he also demonstrates some grunt and growl that you will not find in any female vocalist. The celebration of finding the ‘God Particle’ should be put on hold, because now we have discovered the ‘Voice of the Universe’. Whoever urged Jay James to pick up a microphone and perform for us should be awarded a Nobel prize for services to popular music.

Backed by a slick and skillful band of utter professionals, Jay James launched into his sparkling set in front of a select gathering of family friends, longtime admirers and excited new fans at the Borderline this Thursday evening. Oodles of passion greeted the loving audience. He seemed like a man possessed - possessed by a stimulus to grow ever stronger and to create ever more soulful and moving sounds - as he lifted the crowd up as high as he could manage to take them.

‘Long May They Roll’ has an insistent beat that creates such unbelievable tension that you start to tremble. The long, low notes start to scratch your soul and, just when you feel that you will not ever recover from the darkness, the chorus begins to elevate you. Yes, there will be tears. But they will be tears of joy in place of sadness.

Finishing off with the powerful second single taken from his debut album entitled ‘Play It By Heart’, (which will be released on 10th September) this impassioned song grabs your heart-strings and doesn’t let them go until they’re threadbare. And he pulls no punches. He says it just the way it is. The lyrics are meaningful and street-wise. This is all about apportioning blame and creating a hard shell of defence when your heart is broken. And when he sings out in agony, we all know how it feels. And how much it hurts.

An incredible performance by a consummate artist who will, no doubt, take on the world and start to make it shine. © Neil_Mach July 2012

Links:
 http://www.jayjamespicton.com
http://www.facebook.com/jayjamespictonofficial