This week in London - Lykke Li and Those Dancing Days!
Hey, listen up! Two of Sweden’s currently (here today - gone tomorrow!) most hyped artists are coming to London this week to entertain us, the public. Lykke Li(whose upcoming album is great! We've previously written about her here) is a bit posher and doing just the one show, whereas those kids in Those Dancing Days are putting in some more effort and doing three gigs in as many days. I’m definitely going to check out Lykke Li’s show, and I’ll try and go and see Those Dancing Days’ Barfly show, or the Bardens Budouir one. I’m much more a fan of Lykke Li than TDD, but I’ve never seen TDD live (I’ve heard mixed reviews) so I’m curious to see what they’ve got to offer. Hopefully, they won't be pants.
Lykke Li 31 January 2008 - Hoxton Square Bar, London
Those Dancing Days 31 January 2008 - Bar Acadamy, London 01 February 2008 - The Barfly, London 02 February 2008 - Bardens Boudoir, London
Here you go, today’s MP3 blog cliché – Robyn doing her thing with Snoop’s “Sexual eruption”.
Note how they’re both vest fans, but whereas Snoop has decided to accessorise with scary bones, Robyn went for a flamboyant scarf. Also note my unwillingness to put a rude sexual pun in the title, despite sort of falling in the trap anyway by just trying not to (I'm in constant struggle trying to suppress my inner pervert).
Two average artists – soon here to play their average songs!
Both Jonna Lee and Little Dragon are coming to London soon to do some shows. I’m no great fan of either of them. Little Dragon (Giles Peterson is a fan – eurgh) are alright, but a bit dull and bit too jazzy. Little Dragon’s singer is also José González’s girlfriend. Lucky girl, thankfully they’re not as boring as José. Jonna Lee is also OK, but even more dull than Little Dragon. Little Dragon sounds a bit like Erykah Badu and Jonna Lee is pretty much a straight up singer/songwriter with bleak songs. I’d say you should give these gigs a miss. Yes, stay home and eat some pancakes instead. Nothing dull about eating pancakes!
Jonna Lee dates:
26 February – Monto Water Rats, London
27 February - Monto Water Rats, London
Little Dragon dates:
7 February – Cargo, London
Here are some videos so that you can make up your own mind whether you prefer going to any of above gigs or having a pancake feast:
It’s been 5 years since I first heard them and bought their first 7” “Bye Bye! Friend”. After the 7” came a couple of fantastic EPs and a single. When the album dropped in 2004, I’ve already played a lot of the songs on it to death, and it wasn’t as exciting as it should have been, despite it being a great album. So far Niccokick have only put one new song (“The Poet”) on their Myspace page, but I only had to play it a few times before I remembered why I once loved Niccokick so dearly. The lyrics are about a night in the singer’s life and the video’s pretty much a little short film. I like the video though, it’s nice to see someone take advantage of a video instead of having the band just stand around doing quirky poses while playing their fine guitars. It’s hard to get into the song by only watching the video, since the visuals demands most of one’s attention, and the actual song comes in second place. Watch it below, then listen to the song on Niccokick’s Myspace page, and finally you are free to purchase the album when it comes out (I’m pretty sure it’ll be great).
No, the thirty five thousand people of Liechtenstein are not being relocated to the British Isles, but instead we get the Swedish twee band of the same name as the 22nd smallest country in the world coming to these shores (London shows only, I'm afraid) for a couple of gigs early February. Liechtenstein (the band) are quite the twee outfit, and sound a lot like Talulah Gosh and all that fey stuff that some of us love. Hopefully they’re better live than most twee bands tend to be, since there's just so much fiddling about and nervous mistakes a man can take!
Go and see them perform their tunes here:
5 February – White Heat @ Madam JoJo’s, London
8 February – Twee As Fuck @ Buffalo Bar, London
Also, have a listen to their song “Stalking Skills”, it’s great and if you’re into twee and all that, you’ll like it, I'm sure.
Everyone seems to love this song. Fair play, it’s a sweet song with a crooner quality à la Rufus Wainwright, but less annoying and better! His album is out next week, let's hope it'll be the first great album of 2008. The video is perhaps not the most exciting thing I’ve laid my eyes on though.
A couple of days ago The Music Slut posted the Ratatat (not Ratata, unfortunately) remix of Shout Out Louds' "The Comeback" which is from their remix EP released in 2006. It's great stuff, have a listen to it here through TMS.
I wasn't that keen on SOL's last album, but this track made me remember how good they once were. Ah! I think it's time for another comeback, please.
Pssst... you Billie The Vision and the Dancers fans - look here.
You can still (for a few days more?) listen to a Billie the Vision and the Dancers live show recorded by Swedish Radio P3. Go here and down to Monday 17 December 2007.
It was recorded at KB, Malmö, Sweden on 24 October 2007.
I think I prefer BTVATD live recorded, and without any visual stimulation.
