Karinski.net

Ye gads, it was hot.  And we left straight from the club to go to Glastonbury – it was hot and sober.

Early set
——–

Air – Kelly watch the stars
Dubstar – Not so manic now
Dawn Penn – No no no
Visage – Fade to gray
Sparks – Greatest Show On Earth
Sister Sledge – Thinking of you
Client – Pornography
Charlotte Hatherley – Dare
Beck – Girl
Ladytron – Sugar
Charlotte Church – Crazy Chick
Hard – Fi – Hard to beat
Maximo Park – Apply some pressure
Franz Ferdianand – Michael
Pulp – Common People

Late Set
———

Supergrass – Alright
T-Rex – 20th Century boy
Buzzcocks – Ever Fallen in Love
The Vapors – Turning Japanese
Caesars – Jerk it out
Dandy Warhols – Bohemian Like You
Robbie & Kylie – Kids
Pink Grease – Pink G.R.Ease
Electric 6 – Danger! High Voltage!
Muse – Hysteria
Girls Aloud – Wake me up
Amerie – 1 Thing
No Doubt – Just a girl
Bananarama – Help
Dolly Parton – 9 to 5
Placebo – Every me Every You
Hole – Celebrity Skin
Le Tigre – Deceptacon
Jet – Are you going to be my girl?
Beastie Boys – Intergalactic
Joan Jett – I love rock and roll
Blondie – Call Me
Madonna – Holiday
Breeders – Cannonball
Pixies – Debaser
Radiohead – Just

So another review for BBC Music.  You can see it on their site here.

The Clash, The Cure The Undertones, The Specials, hell even Sisters of Mercy, to name but a few…this could have been a horrible disaster.  French electro producers Marc Collins and Olivier Libaux have revisited classic tracks from the late seventies and early eighties and put together a covers album designed to arouse and gently caress your ears.

Fans of the originals will no doubt be shrinking in horror at the mere thought of these artists being covered, but as the album opens with young Brazillian Eloisa’s "Love Will Tear Us Apart", you realise that this album does exactly what a covers album should do. It takes the original song, tears it apart, develops it and turns it into something new. This album isn’t about repugnant karaoke versions of your favourite tracks: instead it brings them into a whole new genre, that of the Nouvelle Vague.

Nouvelle Vague translates to New Wave in English and Bossa Nova in Portuguese, so it’s no shock that this is a combination of both. 8 young women (who have never heard the original songs) take care of the vocals here.  Each song was originally sung by a man and smothered in attitude. In Nouvelle Vague, Collins & Libaux set out to reveal the elegance of the melodies behind the overbearing attitudes.

Never so is this more apparent than when the exuberant paranoia of PiL’s "This is not a Love Song" is replaced by the detached broodiness of Melanie Pain.

"In A Manner Of Speaking" is the stand-out track. The beautiful voice of Camille soars above the soft piano and drums, and lifts you up into a reverie. Suddenly you are in a French cabaret bar, with a broken-hearted beautiful chanteuse serenading you as you sip at a whiskey and smoke a Gitanes.

The bewitching vulnerability of the voices on these reworkings make this much more than a novelty covers album.  Indeed the only track to slightly fall into novelty cover is Depeche Mode’s "Just Can’t Get Enough" which was probably novelty enough to start with. Approach this with an open mind and you’ll be sure to enjoy it.

On my own this week…

1030 – 1130

Sister Sledge – Thinking of you
Nenah Cherry – Manchild
Saint Etienne – Who Do you think you are
Pay TV – Trendy Discotheque   
Annie – Anniemal
Fischerspooner – Happy
Dead 60s – Loaded Gun
Clor – Good Stuff
Teen Anthems – What a girl wants
The Faders – Jump
Kelly Clarkson – Since U Been Gone
Courtney Love – Mono
Kenickie – In your car
Pixies – Here comes your man
Beck – Mixed Bizness
Transvision Vamp – I want your love
Le Tigre – On the verge
Blondie – Sunday Girl
Puretone – Addicted to Bass

130 – 300

Placebo – Bitter End
Republica – Ready to Go
The Hives – Main Offender
The White Stripes – Fell in love with a girl
The Strokes – Last Nite
No Doubt – It’s my life
Pink – Get the party started
The Dandy Warhols – Get Off
Jet – Are you gonna be my girl?
Amerie – 1 Thing
Basement Jaxx – Plug it in feat JC Chasez
Studio B – I See Girls
Goldfrapp – Train
Depeche Mode – Enjoy the silence
New Order – Blue Monday
Pink Grease – Pink G.R.ease
Siousxe & the Banshees – The Passenger   
The Clash – Rock the Casbah
Le Tigre – I’m so excited
Girls Aloud – Jump   
Rachel Stevens – L A Ex
Supergrass – Alright
The Lightening Seeds – The LIfe of Riley
Suede – Beautiful Ones
Beck – Sexx Laws
Green Day – Basketcase
Super Furry Animals – Juxtaposed

Thanks to Darren, Dan, Mary and Laurie  for coming.

Hello Hello

I have a spare ticket to see Saint Etienne (and more imporantly their support – Annie) on Thursday at the lovely (!) Koko in Camden.

It’s going to be a great gig and it’s sold out.  The ticket is  £18.50 + £1.50 booking fee I think

Let me know if you’d like it.

Thanks

You know, The Blue Room on Radio 1 is often mocked, and it’s on at a crazy time meaning I only hear it if i’m working earlies.  But maybe I should make more of an effort.  They just played Out Hud – For You followed by Portishead – Glory Box.

N’yom

Last night was great, the first time we’ve been properly relaxed and enjoyed it fully. Whoo.

1030 – 1130

Gorillaz – Fire coming out of a monkey’s head
Moloko – The time is now
The Magic Numbers – Forever Lost
The Flirtations – Nothing but a heartache
Le Tigre – Hot Topic
Belle & Sebastian – I’m a cuckoo
Ben Folds – Rockin’ the Suburbs
The Cure – A Forest
New Order – Crystal
Fischerspooner – Never Win
Ladytron – Sugar
Placebo – Daddy Cool
Charlotte Church – Crazy Chick
Siousxe & the Banshees – The Passenger
Interpol – Slow Hands
Garbage – Push It
Monaco – What do you want from me?

0130 – 0300

Britney – I love Rock & Roll
Beck – Sexx Laws
Pink Grease – Pink G.R.ease
David Bowie – Suffragette City
Placebo – Nancy Boy
En Vogue – Free your mind
George Michael – Too Funky
Adamski – Killer
Pulp – Babies
Dandy Warhols – Not if you were the last junkie
Killers – Mr Brightside
Pixies – Debaser
Le Tigre – TKO
Girls Aloud – Love Machine
The Vapors – Turning Japanese
Ash – Burn Baby Burn
Daft Punk – Robot Rock
Garbage – Why do you love me
Blur – Country House
The Clash – Rock the Cashbah
White Stripes – Fell in love with a girl
Suede – Filmstar
Madonna – Into the Groove
Blondie – Atomic
Sleeper – Sale of the Century
Amerie – 1 Thing
The Source – You Got the Love (feat. Candi Staton)

Here is my review of Geri Halliwell’s new album – Passion.  This is the original 12" Kraines edit.   The bbc mix can be seen here.

For someone most people claim to hate, Geri Halliwell has a history to be proud of as the UK’s most successful female singer ever amassing 13 number 1s. Admittedly not the best but, her bold and brassy routine had something that made us like her. That is, until the disastrous sales of 2001’s ‘Scream if you want to go faster’. Four years later, here comes album number 3 – Passion.

The pop world is very different to that which Geri is used to. In 2001 we were at the height of Steps and S Club chart topping days. Now the charts are filled with mediocre MOR styles of Embrace, Coldplay and Athlete. Geri could quite easily have turned herself into a Gabrielle-esque character, but she’s stuck to her roots and Passion has no aspirations to be a serious, sophisticated album with ‘Superstar’ containing typical Geri lyrics of ‘Oooh baby, I love your hot action’

Preceded by singles ‘Ride It’ and ‘Desire’, even the most ardent Geri fan was surely expecting a clanger of an album. Passion is however surprisingly entertaining.  The album is bookended with two musical numbers sounding like Geri is doing a public audition to be the latest celebrity in Chicago. Putting these aside, it’s typical Geri fare with camp dancefloor classics and ballads, sounding quite good, but a little awkwardly sung. Even Robbie’s old writing partner Guy Chambers has been brought in here, giving us disappointing ballad ‘Loving Me Back to Life’.

‘Love Never Loved Me’ is the standout fast track and expected 3rd single. If it were 2001, this would be number 1 without question. Now it’ll probably be relegated to only being heard on the campest of dancefloors. Surprisingly the best track on Passion is a ballad, the stunning ‘Let me Love You More’. Here we can really hear the improvements in Geri’s voice over the last 4 years.

Whether this album does well or not is probably more about the music climate of the UK at the moment, than its contents. In 2001 it would have been a ‘surefire hit’, now it’ll be lucky to go top 30.

As mentioned here, the whole Bad Wolf saga in Doctor Who has been driving everyone crazy.

Paul has just let me know (and this isnt a spoiler) about a secret hidden message on the Bad Wolf website.

Go to the disclaimer and ctrl+a it.   

One thing that is really annoying me is how much the BBC seem to be spoiling their episodes ahead of broadcast.  People have been mad about the ‘coming next week’ trails for ages, but I guess we can just turn off before they come on.   However they released LOADS of details about special guest stars in ‘Bad Wolf’ about a month ago and some images of where the episode is set.  Thus giving a lot about the episode away.  And now this weeks update on the Official Site has gone up – if you missed the press releases don’t go anywhere near the official site or you’ll know a lot about next week’s episode already.

I’m writing as much as possible at the moment to build up my writing portfolio.  Yes, these 3 reviews are very random things to review here in June 2005, but I was filling in a couple of things that had been left blank somewhere in a singles review of 2004.

Britney Spears – Everytime

The third and final single from ‘In the Zone’, ‘Everytime’ was released at the height of Britney’s trailer trash, look at me I’m getting married, yay cigarettes, yay alcohol period. Couple her frenzied press coverage with a video starring Stephen Dorff and Britney’s death, and you are well on your way to a number 1 single. ‘Everytime’ was a dramatic change of tone from the squelches and crazy hooks of previous single ‘Toxic’. Singing with emotion and fragility, Britney tells of how she misses a lover and wishes she could be forgiven or at least get him out of her head (Justin Timberlake anyone?). It’s probably her best ballad, but I doubt it’ll be remembered in the annals of pop history as a corker.

D12 – My Band

This was the record that made me sit up and say HELLO to D12. Later, after being playlisted to the max on every possible radio station & music television channel in the country, it was also the record that made me want to gouge my eyes out. But enough of that. Casting aside the tedium of its overplayedness, ‘My Band’ eclipsed anything else the ’12 had released, and hit the number 2 spot in April 2004. It was cheeky, a little menacing, and self-mocks Eminem’s ‘I am the big I am’-ness. Hell, members of D12 we probably didn’t even know exist are given a verse to sing here, and it’s sure as hell fun to have a sing off with your mates to!

Blue – Curtain Falls

Oh Blue! The loveliest of boy bands. Oh Duncan, you made girls across the land tremble with excitement every time you appeared on television. Curtain Falls was here, as the name may suggest, to draw the career of these 4 strapping young men to a close after 12 top 20 hits in 3 years. Sampling the riff from Coolio’s 1995 number 1 Gangsta’s Paradise was a bit of an odd choice, but hey ho! Reaching number 4 in November, this returned to the styles of Blue’s first few tracks even including a rap from Simon. We were too busy swooning at Duncan, mind.

Gorillaz – Demon Days : Album number 2 for the cartoon dream team, complete with collaborations here there and everywhere. Particularly loving DARE (feat Shaun Ryder) and Fire Coming Out of A Monkey’s Head (feat Bill Murray).

Black Books : Not seen originally on television, I’ve been watching the first series of the Dylan Moran/Bill Bailey comedy over the last few weeks, and I love it. I hated Dylan Moran in Shaun of the Dead (first time I’d come across him) but am now slowly falling in love with Mr Bernard Black. Is that wrong?

Bob Mortimer : Is that wronger? Oh come on, he’s super hot, particularly in the highly underated, fantastic, reworking of Randall & Hopkirk. Mmm i’ve gone all daydreamy