Vampire Weekend ‘Oxford Comma’
XL Digital
‘Who gives a fuck about an Oxford Comma?’ sings Vampire Weekend’s front-man Ezra Koenig in what has to be the most unlikely chorus for a pop song ever. This, the band’s third UK single, promises to propel the NYC band ever closer to broad, mainstream recognition. Although not as immediately infectious as last single from their eponymous long player, ‘A-Punk’; ‘Oxford Comma’s stripped down, minimalist beauty foregrounds Koenig’s sweet lyrics of high-society hypocrisy and disdain, without the faintest whiff of self-indulgence. This cracking little grower of a single deserves to be bought in droves.
Dave Allen
Add comment July 4, 2008
Sons and Daughters ‘This Gift’
Domino
Album title track ‘This Gift’ showcases Sons and Daughters rough and ready, folk-flavoured, indie-rock, much in the guise of bassist Ailidh Lennon’s husbands’ band Idlewild. ‘Ah-hoo’s’ decorate the sing-along chorus, whilst the guitar heavy raucous rolls by. Yet it’s an ever so slightly disappointing effort from a hotly-tipped band, albeit one that will inevitably cause explosions on the dance floor when they play it live.
Dave Allen
Add comment July 4, 2008
Black Lips – ‘Bad Kids / Leroy Faster’
Good Bad Not Evil
Fresh out of Atlanta, Georgia come the NME-approved ramshackle, rock n’ roll styling’s of Black Lips. ‘Bad Kids’, a two-minute slice of infectious pop with punk flavoured lyrics based on band members’ experience with juvenile detention centres. Inevitably it has more than a faint whiff of Ramones about it, but desperately deserves to be a nod-along, summer anthem. Fantastic. It’s a shame the same can’t be said for ‘Leroy Faster’, the other half of this double A-side. A psychedelic meander exhumed from the Velvet Underground’s cutting room floor, its over-familiar 1960’s feel simply falls flat.
Dave Allen
Add comment July 4, 2008
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
DUM DE DUM DUM, DUM DE DA, etc, etc…
I love Indiana Jones. Not sexually… more the fact that the first three films were essentially the dream film for any 10 year old. Adventures, a casual approach to violence and likeable comedy meant that many a bank holiday were spent watching the original trilogy. So it was with much geeky anticipation that I hummed the famous theme tune as the game of the new movie: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Skulls, downloaded onto my phone.
Add comment July 4, 2008
Black Lips The Place I Love – Birmingham 8th May 2008
With handlebar moustaches and gold teeth aplenty, what the dodgiest looking band to grace Club NME lack in innovation that make up for in perspiration.
As part of Club NME’s student launch night – although according to one website, that’s every Thursday till February -The Black Lips thrash through their set of ramshackle rock n’ roll. Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, this noisy quartet take heavy influences from everything 60’s, adding a dash of punk sensibility along the way.
The Ramones then? Well, yes and no.
Add comment July 4, 2008
Late of the Pier Barfly – Birmingham 6th May 2008
Glowsticks aplenty as the nutty electro sounds of Late of the Pier invade Barfly for Levi’s Ones to Watch
The problem with scenester gigs these days is they’re full of cunts. No I take that back, scenester gigs have always been full of cunts. As brilliant as Late of the Pier later turn out to be, their admittedly generic, sub-Stereophonics, pub-rock support The Displacements attract an embarrassingly muted response from the glow-stick adorned teenagers here for Late of the Pier.
Add comment July 4, 2008
Operator Please supporting Lightspeed Champion Birmingham Academy 2 – Birmingham 1st May 2008
More than just a song about ping-pong…
Promoted from the diddy Bar Academy to the (slightly) grander (but scummy) surroundings of Birmingham Academy 2, Operator Please are tonight sandwiched between two fellow bands that share their eschewed approach to indie; masters of punctuation Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man. and the unique geek-pop glory of Lightspeed Champion.
Add comment July 4, 2008
long time no see…
I haven’t updated this blog for a while, but will hoprfully get round to it this sometime this weekend for anyone who cares…..
Add comment July 4, 2008
Review of an incredibly addictive phone puzzler
Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
Mobile Phone
THQ Wireless
So addictive it should be made illegal
On the surface this award winning mobile game is infuriating. A stupendously tricky difficulty curve gently introduces the player to a surreal mix of MSN Messenger favourite Bejewelled and stripped down RPG elements, before throwing your face in a pile of shit and making your squeal like a pig.
But without you realising, Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords sticks its grubby claws in you and draws you into the most addictive fun you can have in the palm of your hand.
It’s pretty ambitious for a mobile phone game too. After selecting a fantasy stereotype (I went for the druid owing to his prowess with herbs), you gallivant around a 2D map, conversing with weird old men and battling trolls. Runes, hit points and other such mandatory RPG jargon is muttered as you upgrade levels and the like. And what does our brave hero do upon encountering wolves in the woods? He battles them in the only way he knows how: by taking in turns to re-align jewels into lines of three or more.
Mild sarcasm aside, this is actually a pretty addictive game. The neat RPG facade simply forms a backbone to what is essentially a puzzle game that cleverly incorporates strategy and tactical nuance. Think Bejewelled, but rather than simply racking up multiples within a time-limit, your objective is to destroy your opponent by stringing rows of skulls together or casting spells fuelled by magic accumulated from combining coloured jewels.
If that lot doesn’t make any sense, chances are that you have a life.
But the lack of a time limit on your actions added to the pure frustration of helplessly watching yourself being mercilessly butt-fucked by the AI enemy, forces you to think tactically and pore over the possible consequences of falling jewels, and how to limit your opponents moves. This deep strategy however is offset by the occasional flurry of chain reactions where a fluky move can win a game almost instantly.
Yet despite the advent of 3D graphics, improved memory and larger screens on mobiles, most mobile phone games are still crippled by infuriating controls over-reliant on quick finger-work. The brilliance of Puzzle Quest is its thoughtful fusion of genres that actually work well on a mobile phone; RPG, puzzle, turn-based strategy, into one superbly addictive bundle.
www.infinite-interactive.com/puzzlequest
Dave Allen
4.5/5
For fans for: Final Fantasy Tactics, Jewel Quest, Metal Gear Acid, Tetris, Dungeons & Dragons
initially pub. on www.subba-cultcha.com
Add comment March 22, 2008
Proof that I don’t wear indie blinkers… kind of.
Duffy
Glee Club, Birmingham
11th March 2008
Number one in the charts, purveyor of unmistakably retro pop and somehow not yet hated by indie kids, Duffy brings Motown chic to Birmingham tonight.
“Do you fancy reviewing Duffy at the Glee Club?” a surprisingly proactive PR agent asked me during one absent minded afternoon at work. Upon considering this perfect opportunity to take the other half out to see her favourite, Welsh, retro-pop songstress for free (all dressed up as ‘my treat’ at no cost to myself), I quickly hammered “Sure!” into the half-hidden Gmail window.
Yet seeing a teacher isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, and the night before the gig with lesson plans aplenty, the girlfriend pulled out, leaving me with two tickets for a gig I wasn’t fussed about and no-one to go with. Thankfully, it’s always useful having a mate easily lured to any event on the promise of booze and drugs.
So stood in the hot, tight confines of the Glee Club, high as a kite, we awaited Duffy, currently standing at number one and collecting a string of plaudits along the way from both mainstream and alternative circles. The small comedy club-cum-gig venue was overrun with all sorts, middle-aged one-gig-a-year families, northern soulsters bedecked in Lambretta and the occasional brick shithouse with a shaved head who amazingly knows the words to every song.
“Duffy? Isn’t she just an Amy Winehouse rip-off?” My friend asks. But before can I inform him of the strange irony of a white man’s Aretha Franklin being herself a source of imitation, the short blonde from the Llŷn Peninsula pops on stage to greet the crowd with a few nervy words about it being the last night of the tour.
She opens her intimate set with album title track Rockferry, and finally, we get to hear that astonishing voice. At a time when the general direction of music washes about aimlessly looking for a way forward but only hitting the past, Duffy unashamedly embraces the likes of Dusty Springfield, resurrecting Motown chic for post-modernity.
“That song’s about not putting up with any shit,” she tells us after her heart-wrenching vocals tear through album highlight, Stepping Stones, “much like a lot of my songs tonight.” Clearly overjoyed to be in front of a packed, appreciative crowd at the end of her tour, Duffy inevitably leaves the hit for last, closing on Mercy, she returns for a brief encore with anthemic number Distant Dreamer.
But it was well before that, when the backing band left the stage and her vocals were accompanied only by a simple guitar on Syrup and Honey, that her voice was fully let loose, transforming – if only for three minutes, Brum’s, smoke-free, Glee Club into a liquor-soaked, seedy, Detroit jazz cafe circa 1961.
Is she the Arctic Monkey’s to Amy Winehouse’s Babyshambles? Well I don’t know, but her potential as a future queen of pop is massive.
www.iamduffy.com
DAVE ALLEN
4/5
For fans of: Dusty Springfield, Aretha Franklin, Amy Winehouse, Adele, Billie Holiday
pub. originally on www.subba-cultcha.com
Add comment March 22, 2008
