Florence + The Machine - What The Water Gave Me (new song)

Flo and her machine are back with a bang. And by bang I mean more of the same as where she left with 2009's Between Two Lungs album.

What the Water Gave Me is by no means a groundbreaking masterpiece but it's still a fine piece of music in it's own genre of "operatic rock-pop how ever you want to call it".
It's a touch darker than her previous stuff, but you wouldn't really write a bright and upbeat tune about drowning would you?

She's got a new as of yet untitled album coming out in November.

Helsinki

Got my taste of "city life" yesterday.
My day trip to Helsinki was good. Helsinki was kind to me.
Yesterday was of course Florence + the Machine at Tavastia.
I'm thoroughly entertained for the time being.

Supporting act 'Sian Alice Group' had to cancel their slot so Anastacia Mouna was brought in to support for the whole duration of three songs. Those three songs being the exact ones found on Myspace.
Mind you the length of the set didn't really matter seeing as she was the smiliest person you'll ever see + yesterday was her birthday making her even bubblier and smilier than she's possibly ever been.

Enter Florence + the Machine:
Flo' herself is dressed in a fabulous (green?) gown/bathrobe, inspiring comments such as "ooh, doesn't she look like a fairy?" from one of my pop-concert-viewing-companions. I suppose she sort of did, but the thing that sprang to mind was her looking like a (ginger) redhead Noel Fielding. I DON'T MEAN THIS AS A BAD THING. I mean there was even talk of a cape being bought from UFF

Florence in a cape? Noel in a cape?
Now all I'm saying is that I've never seen both of them in the same room together.

If it wasn't yet obvious that Flo has an amazing voice, then it became very in-your-face obvious seeing her live, because so much of the gig relied on her vocals. And hear me out: They were absolutely scorching. Flo was definitely pulling the strings last night. Instructing band members when and what to do with dictator-like authority. Quite impressive. What else was impressive was the harp. Now who even plays the harp in this day and age?
It was quite a bit spine-tingling when the fella playing it started proper arpeggiating. Crickey!

The set itself was quite unsurprising. Just songs from 'Lungs'
but that's all good.

Hmm yeah, well I had a good time.
Cheers flo. Maybe see you again at Ruisrock



Here's Boy 8-Bit's reworking of same song. a bit speeded up. Still nice though

Cold War Kids

Something very good passed by me quite unnoticed quite recently.

It was the excellent Cold War Kids' new EP 'Behave Yourself' released maybe a month or so ago.

It follows up 2008 album 'Loyalty to Loyalty' with more top-notch tunes and more of Nathan Willett's tell-tale vocal style.

Now some people give 'Loyalty to Loyalty' shit saying the band went off the rails into a whole new direction of poo-ness after debut album 'Robbers & Cowards'. And to be fair 'Robbers & Cowards' was mighty good and obviously hard to follow up, but with tunes like this on "L2L" who even cared what the rest of the album sounded like?



'Behave yourself' is a bit of a pick and mix of CWK's best and most differentiated styles of musiqué. Rolling in at roughly 14 minutes it is a bit of a short indulgement but oh yes it's satisfying. 'Sermon' is exceptionally good as a piano driven cry for mercy. erm yeah.. enough of my meaningless words, here's 'Audience of One'



OH YEAH!

And just because I'm off to see Florence + the Machine in a bit, here's my old dear Flo covering the Cold War Kids' Hospital Beds

Merry après Christmas

HO HO HO peeps!
How y'all doing after that festive period?
I know I've been eating like a scummy greedy chocolate muncher. Yummy yummy.
Things have been going good in Brighton so far. Managed to get at least one overwhelming hangover and isn't that always the sign of a banging holiday?
Crashed some random persons (not Jesus) birthday party as well but can't really tell y'all more about it 'cos I honestly can't remember it.

I've got my fingers crossed in anticipation of what 2010 is got in store for me and the lovely lovely city of Turku...
Got tickets to see Florence and the machine in March at Tavastia so at least I've got that to look forward to. Whooh.

So yeah last Wednesday went to the Freebutt for the release party for OIB records Christmas compilation 'Krampus is coming'

OIB records have got some very good and very versatile acts on their label. The better known bands being Casiotone for the Painfully alone who actually played the same venue the night before. Total bummer I missed this, Electropunk boys The Death Set whose gig at Redrum I was gutted to miss during the summer and AndygoesdowntoChinatown favourites Lovvers. Lovvers played Turun Klubi last January and even though there was only a handful of people in the crowd the bands energy was massive.

Blahblahblah I'm going on and on again.
I'd have loooved to take pictures but. I didn't. Get over it.
Wednesdays gig had the following line up:

Foxes!
This four-piece was down to three members but still managed to be extremely cutesycute. And I loved the drummers pleading looks towards the other members like she wasn't entirely sure what she was doing. Beautiful voice and otherwise very nice performance. Very Belle & Sebastian-ey, not a bad thing at all.

My Device
A Brighton based noise-generating trio definitely were lively during their slot, layering lots of distortion onto some nice drumming. Had it's moments with some nifty riffs from the singer/guitarist. Harsh to say but ultimately quite average.

Curly Hair
Now this lot were my favourites. Lovely arrangements for the violin (the violin player was apparently just standing in for the real one who couldn't make the show. Brilliant!) and very catchy melodies. Highlight of the night and I haven't been able to stop listening to them on spotify since. Would not mind seeing these again sometime soon.

The Hornblower brothers
I didn't mind these lot at all. In fact I had a great time just following what the bass player had to say, because he must have been if not Alan Carr then definitely his son! Good stuff from the Brighton band, sometimes teetering on the dangerous verge of ska-punk. If there's one thing in the world that f##ks me right off it's ska! AARGH the memories of doing my national service and the lad sleeping on top bunk listening to the f####ng Skatalites every night.

I probably had something more to write about but can't remember.
Need to go now. Maybe have beer. Coolio
Here's to waiting for 2010!
Cheers
xxx