The line-up of our Tunes of the Decade list thus far has underlined two things: 1) that commercial pop music is relevant to the zeitgeist in a perhaps unprecedented way, and 2) that the implications of this fact are frustratingly difficult to make sense of.
Amerie, Girls Aloud, JoJo, R Kelly, Tatu, Nelly Furtado; all are utterly worthy of their places in a list of the most brilliant music produced over the last ten years. But how are we supposed to react to this development, this fact that music created by a bizarre conglomerate of songwriting teams, super producers, faux-lesbians, 13-year-olds, talent show contestants and (alleged) paedophiles, is at the forefront of the most innovative, exciting, artistically worthwhile stuff around? How can a new generation of bands, songwriters and creative individuals possibly hope to come up with a pragmatic response to this sort of confusing, hyperreal (non-)blueprint for making music?
One radical suggestion was provided in 2007, in the shape of Burial’s ‘Archangel’, the lead-track from his glacial sophomore masterpiece Untrue. The basis (if you can call it that) of the tune, is a sample of American R’n’B-pop maestro Ray J (more specifically, his 2006 ballad ‘One Wish’, a song I have been profoundly in love with since hearing it on Trevor Nelson’s Saturday evening Radio 1 show not long after my parents died). Read the rest of this entry »
Yo La Tengo have announced their European tour dates in support of the new record, Popular Songs, dropping in September . . . so you know, get excited and all that etc etc,
Check their performance on French T V of ’Nothing to Hide’, as part of the Freewheelin’ tour they just finished (see our review of the Meltdown gig), taken from Popular Songs .
5 Nov – Tripod, Dublin
6 Nov – ABC, Glasgow
7 Nov – Academy 2, Manchester
8 Nov – The Roundhouse, London
1 Nov – Forum, Bielefield
11 Nov - Het Depot, Lueven
12 Nov – Melkweg, Amsterdam
14 Nov - Grå Hol (Gray Hall), Copenhagen
15 Nov - Cosmopolite, Oslo
17 Nov - Kagelbanan, Stockholm
18 Nov - Mejeriet, Lund
19 Nov - Markthalle, Hamburg
20 Nov - Crossing Border Festival, Den Hague
22 Nov - Zakk, Dusseldorf
23 Nov - Postbahnhof, Berlin
25 Nov - Hipnoza Cllub, Katowice
26 Nov - Arena, Vienna
30 Nov - Bataclan, Paris
Read the rest of this entry »
On to day three of Meltdown and The Freewheelin’ Yo La Tengo, who performed an intimate gig at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Southbank. The ‘Freewheelin’ was qualified by the band as “that which we’ve all agreed to term “acoustic,” although there is copious use of electricity. No set list; instead the audience is encouraged (if not required) to interact with the band, leading we’re never quite sure where. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, and you’ll hear the occasional song.”
The set then worked as something of a jocular Q & A session between the ‘acoustic’ sound of a stripped down drum set, bass and guitar. The extremely charismatic and likeable Yo La Tengo opened with renditions of ‘Tom Courtenay’ and ‘Black Flowers’ before starting the open floor session with the ‘reticent’ London audience shouting out random requests and posing bizarre questions. Taking in enquiries regarding such varied topics as Antarctica, Judge Judy, the ATP set list superpower, baseball, Daniel Johnston, the band’s name, cricket, Ira and Georgia listening to Yo La Tengo while getting it on, and swinging; the band somehow managing to segway these often ridiculous, as well as humorous, anecdotes into songs. Read the rest of this entry »
