Calling all gypsies!

Shakira is disrespecting you and your heritage. Are you going to stand for it?

Shakira - Gypsy


PS: If you think I couldn't work out what to say about this song, you are right.

PPS: OMG Rafael Nadal iz buff n they does kissin at the end LOL (etc)

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This is driving me mad...

We Have Band's new single, Divisive, is excellent - but the melody for the verse ("Is it working for you / 'cos it's working for me / let's count to three / no, it's hard to disguise") is definitely ripped off of some 1980s pop tune. At first, I thought it was the Thompson Twins; then I thought it was Nik Kershaw; then I thought it was Fun Boy Three. Now I'm just confuzled.

Can anyone out there help?

We Have Band - Divisive


A great video for fans of programming drum machines, there.

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Five amazing things about Nina Persson's latest song

1) It'll make you go a bit watery in the eye "department".
2) It sounds a bit like the Human League.
3) The end leaves you wanting more, then the song actually re-appears and gives you 50 seconds more AS IF IT KNEW WHAT YOU WERE THINKING.
4) Trumpet solo.
5) It's a duet, but it's not with the Manic Street Preachers.

Called The Blues, it is a collaboration with Primary 1, aka Joe Flory, a "film graduate and computer kid who writes, performs and sings feelgood synthfunk", according to The Guardian.

You can listen to / download it below. Scrummy.


Primary 1 and Nina Persson - The Blues [Right click and select "Save link as"]

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Mini review: Marina and the Diaaaah-tishooo!

Dear old Marina is poorly sick. "I'm ill, everyone, i'm ill, pity me, make a fuss, pity me," she writes on Twitter just hours before she took to the stage in London's Bush Hall.

She certainly seems a little under the weather (unless sneezing into microphones and generally looking a bit peaky is all part of her act). But if there is a frog near her throat, he's been given his hopping orders.

From the opening - a larger-than-life Girls, performed in what can only be described as a Pikachu Slanket - Marina is in fine voice, belting out her kooky pop confessionals like a true Welshwoman. With her album out this week, a lot of reviewers have focused on the singer's vocal tics, falling evenly on either side of the genius / irritant divide. But the whoops, animal calls and hollers are all just window dressing. Tonight, the fragility with which she sings "you're vulnerable, so vulnerable" on I Am Not A Robot, proves what an emotive, genuine singer Marina can be.

As the concert draws on, however, the star begins to look precariously wobbly. When she is highlighted with red spotlights during Rootless, it is presumably meant to convey drama and passion, but instead resembles a particularly frightening Vicks vaporub advert.

Then, a medical miracle occurs. The shaggy backing band (dubbed the 'rough diamonds' by one especially unkind acquiantance) kicks into "the one the audience knows", ie Hollywood, and Marina is carried away on a wave of positive energy. The adrenaline boost lasts all the way to the end of the show, when a prowling, predatory Mowgli's Road bursts right through the doors and into the shadowy night.

Properly amazing. Even with the snuffles.

SETLIST
Girls
Seventeen
The Outsider
I Am Not A Robot
Oh No!
Numb
Obsessions
Rootless
Hollywood
Shampain

Encore
Mowgli's Road

Photos from Manchester Deaf Institute gig on 21st February, via Astrocreep and Ricky Orr on Flickr.

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Ellie Goulding in the Live Lounge

Ellie Goulding looks set for a top 10 SMASH with her debut-single-that's-not-her-first-single-but-is-her-debut-despite-those-two-words-being-synonyms-and-what-a-perfect-illustration-of-the-mess-the-music-industry-has-gotten-itself-into-that-is, Starry Eyed.

To ease its passage into the charts, Ellie turned up on Radio One this morning with a beautifully breathy version of the song. She also re-interpreted Temper Trap's Sweet Disposition as a drippy acoustic ballad. Best to give that one a miss, though.

Radio One have proudly uploaded some photographs of the session to their website, along with the declaration "audio coming soon". It's been four hours, though. What are they up to? Probably making one of those jingles where someone shouts "Ray-dee-oh ONE" into a dustbin, then they chop it up and play each syllable in a different speaker with a whooshy sound effect and a bit of Hadouken.

In the meantime, here's a 30-second snippet of Starry Eyed.

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3, 2, 1... We have Blaskoff!

Aussie warbler Sarah Blasko launched her bid for UK stardom last night, playing a short, 40-minute set in London's wintry Soho. After last week's Gagavaganza, this was a simple, stripped back affair, with seven musicians elbow-to-elbow on a tiny stage - but it was no less impressive.

Blasko is a big deal back at home. She was recently named Best Female at both the ARIAs and the Rolling Stone awards, and she's been hand-picked by Temper Trap to support their upcoming UK tour. Now, she has moved to East Dulwich as she attempts to get a foothold in Europe.

The 33-year-old singer-songwriter has an intoxicating, husky voice. Quite rightly, she doesn't embelish it with studio trickery on her album, so you're immediately struck by how pure it sounds in concert, as she flits between doe-eyed vulnerability and that trilling, outer-space operatic thing Alison Goldfrapp used to do in the early days.

For a performer with nearly 15 years' experience Blasko seems unnecessarily shy, but she remains fascinating to watch - making intense, angular movements that bring to mind a Raggedy Ann doll impersonating David Byrne (the song Over And Over even lifts a few lines from Road To Nowhere for its coda).

The set is entirely comprised of tracks from her third album, As Day Follows Night, which is released over here in April. Produced by Bjorn Yttling of "Young Folks" fame, it is a crisp collection of folk-pop, full of dainty piano riffs, brushed snares, and understated strings. The arrangements may be easy to replicate on stage, but not with this amount of soul and verve.

Arbitrary verdict: 8/10

Sarah Blasko - No Turning Back (live)

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