Karinski.net

When The Saturdays appeared on our pop radar we felt sorry for them. Here were five girls dreaming of being the next big thing in a world where the Girls Aloud & Sugababes monopoly showed no signs of letting up. Then we heard the kick-ass music, and suddenly The Saturdays felt like a viable proposition.

First single ‘If This Is Love’ seemed to spring out of nowhere with it’s Yazoo sample shining an electro-pop beacon but there’s been plenty of behind the scenes work going on. Signed to Fascination Records, home to Girls Aloud, they certainly have a pedigree with Rochelle & Frankie alumni of S Club Juniors, the irritatingly enthusiastic Mollie, an X-Factor reject, as well as soloist Vanessa. Then there’s Una – eight years older than the others, she’s a singer songwriter who already oozes disinterest in the project, and could be their Siobhan Donaghy.

If we’re looking for a word to sum up The Saturdays, it’s feistiness. Although nothing can beat the robot disco of 2nd single ‘Up’, there are only really one or two soppy ballads like ‘Issues’ that let ‘Chasing Lights’ down. Instead it’s the fierce chorus of ‘Keep Her’ and the sass of ‘Set Me Off’ that get us excited. ‘Work’ is an irresistible dancefloor puller destined to be a single,while ‘Lies’ is an electro-ballad that proves these girls will be taking no mess from the boys.

Energetic and fun, ‘Chasing Lights’ is a promising debut. It’s not perfect but it’s better than any of us could have expected.

I was neither at nor did I see the TV broadcast of this year’s NME Awards this week. If you want a commentary though gaypop was. However I’ve only just heard the much touted Beth Ditto and Jarvis Cocker duet covering Heaven 17’s “Temptation”. So just in case you haven’t here it is:

It’s nowhere near perfect, but I’d love to hear a properly recorded version of this. Incidentally you should try to check out the original demo of the Heaven 17 version which they released on their re-issued greatest hits last year. It’s quite different and pretty spectacular.

The awesome gigs continue! This month at Popstarz:

9th March - Secret Pop Act - You probably wouldn’t associate this Brit award winning female with Popstarz but she’s about to make a splash and has chosen the best place to showcase it.

16th March - 1990s - Everyone’s choice of support band in 2006. Read my piece on them in this month’s F@!K mag.

23rd March - Maximo Park - I think everyone’s up to speed on how excited I am about this! I properly love the Park!

30th March - Brett Anderson - Embarking on his solo career, I know some friends are going to wet themselves at the idea of this gig. I’ve always liked his voice and listened to some new stuff on myspace which was pretty nice.

So here I am over on Wordpress. I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing yet profile wise. I kind of like the way this looks - each post being in an individual curly box and all but I’m not sure if it’s a little ott. What do you think? I’ve just got a new job combining both my radio and interactive skills and a lot of my time is being taken up by that. It’s brilliant though, so I don’t mind. I’m getting to go to quite a few gigs with work too which is ace. Hooray!

Last week I went to see lots of gigs. Saturday started with Jarvis Cocker at The Astoria. We’d caught him before at Koko last year, but this was a much better gig. For starters we were sat up in the top floor of venue with a perfect view, instead of behind a tall man, and Jarvis was much more relaxed. There was lots of banter with the audience and he put on a perfect jerky Jarv performance. The evening continued at the Astoria with the popping of our G-A-Y cherries. It wasn’t as bad as I was expecting but we only went thanks to not having to pay to get in and to see the wonderous Sophie Ellis Bextor. She was rather awesome but seemed to push the pink pound appeal to almost nauseating effects. Catch You charted at #8 today which is respectable, although not briliant, for a lead single from an album. It’s pop tone is very unfashionable though at the moment and next single Me and My Imagination is even poppier so I’m not sure quite how well the album (brilliantly named Tripping The Light Fantasic will actually do. I’ve heard quite a few tracks and it seems to be shaping up rather well for pop fans.

On Monday, James and I saw Amy Winehouse which was ace. Burak took some fab photos for me to use at work including one which someone today pointed out to me makes it look like my 2nd favourite NL JP is doing a nazi salute (with a large pinch of imagination). Brill. Then on Wednesday I excitedly hit Hammersmith with work buddy Alex for Nelly Furtado. New ‘electro-soul’ band Unklejam were supporting and put on a great show (even though they only did three songs). Their new, very funky single Love Ya is out physically tomorrow and it’s quite a fresh, intense new sound. However I interviewed them earlier in the week and they are very taken with the idea that they are a ‘new sound’ who are ‘thinking outside the box’ and were very into themselves. Ah well. They are much more boy-bandy than the music suggests but I really hope Love Ya does do well. Nelly was brill although she was wearing some very ill-fitting dresses.

FFS. Why am I DJing on Thursday night?

Karinski is moving to wordpress and so may look a little weird over the next few days.

Just a quick note to say it is really really cold in London, particularly in my bedroom where my stupid sash style windows appear to be letting in all air possible. GRRRH.

Does anyone have an opinion on music festivals to try in Europe? I’ve already done Exit (woo!) and Benicassim (boo!) and am thinking something Scandavian as I’d quite like to see a lot of Scandavian pop acts.

My Maximo Park interview went well. Paul even sang a bit of Billie down the phone to me. My life couldn’t be more complete.

My wish on the wishing tree, originally uploaded by trixie.

In what is perhaps the booking of the decade, Mika, currently set for this week’s #1 slot on downloads alone is playing Popstarz next Friday (26th January). Woo hoo. And while the battle for #1 between Mika and Just Jack, never mind the entire exciting chart of last week (seriously klaxons downloads only at 15? WHAT?) should be spoken about, I’m far more excited about the re-entry into the charts of our glorious leader of pop - Billie Piper.

I’ve not heard it myself, but Chris Moyles has been running a campaign to get Billie’s 4th single Honey to the Bee back into the charts to demonstrate the flexibility (exploitability?) of the new charts. Why he’s picked this song I have no idea, after all it’s totally her 4th best single falling way short of Day and Night, Something Deep Inside and She Wants You, but who am I to argue? The public seem to have picked this campaign up and run with it with a current iTunes chart position of 15. Whether this translates into a real top 40 placing is yet to be seen but wouldn’t it be fabulous if it did? After all we’re never going to get any new Billie pop material. Buy, buy, buy.

Last night I went to see Fischerspooner play live in London at Koko. They were ace. Turning last year’s Odyssey show into something resembling their first year shows, they managed to combine theatre and dramatics with being a proper band.

And my interview? Well all my worries were totally unfounded and Casey and I had a great chat about a lot of things including Dolly Parton, a Fischerspooner perfume and Burt Bacharach. The full interview will be online very soon but it was super fun! Yay. I so need to stop gettting mega nervous before interviews, as they always seem to be fine. Three favourite bands down, one to go.

I always knew Elmo was evil, but I never expected him to start doing nazi salutes (and generally going apeshit.)