NEWS: Beady Eye !

Y-E-S !!!!
The news has been spreading around fast today!

Beady Eye should be releasing their new single on Nov 22nd.
15 months after Oasis' legendary split in Paris, Liam is back with his band. And it feels good to know that we'll be able to put decent music into our ears in the next couple of weeks.

Biased? Yes, I fucking am. So do expect to get a 5-star review of that single here. I haven't followed Oasis for 16 years to write something shit about them.

Wanna have a taste of what it will sound like? www.beadeyemusic.co.uk

Now you know what you can do with the savings account you opened instead of following Tame Impala throughout Europe: keep putting money on it and wait for Beady Eye's tour dates. "A splendid time is guarateed for all"
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YEEEEES !!
La nouvelle s'est répandue comme une trainée de poudre aujourd'hui.

Le nouveau single de Beady Eye devrait sortir le 22 novembre.
15 mois après la légendaire bagarre dans les coulisses de Rock En Seine et la suite tragique que l'on sait, Liam est de retour avec son groupe. Dans moins de deux semaines, on pourra enfin se mettre de la musique correcte dans les oreilles.

Partiale? Totalement. Attendez-vous donc à une review plus que positive de ce single.

Si vous voulez jeter un coup d'oeil à ce que ça va donner? une seule adresse: www.beadeyemusic.co.uk

Si vous avez suivi mon conseil et ouvert un Livret A au lieu d'aller voir Tame Impala, vous savez ce qu'il vous reste à faire: continuez à le remplir et attendez les dates de tournée de Beady Eye. Comme aurait dit Lennon "A splendid time is guaranteed for all".

LIVE REPORT: Tame Impala @La Maroquinerie 01/11/2010

17,80 euros. Avec ça, vous pouvez vous payer trois menus Big Mac, deux places de cinoche à prix réduit, quinze tickets de métro ou encore un yukka chez Ikea. 17,80 euros, c'est surtout ce que m'a couté ma place pour aller voir Tame Impala. Et bien même en période de grève RATP, investir dans le métro parisien aurait été plus judicieux que dans le concert d'un groupe qui ne sait pas faire des titres de moins de huit minutes.

J'aurais dû me douter quelque part que ce concert allait être mon chemin de croix (pour moi en tout cas, je suppose que pour les hocheurs de tête dans la salle, le concert aura fait son oeuvre). Du buzz, de la hype, la fille du groupe Control dans la salle (souvenez-vous, le groupe dont la leadeuse s'est quasiment mise à poil en première partie de Kasabian à l'Olympia- le groupe pour lequel on se sera tous demandés comment ils en étaient arrivés là et dont la rumeur -fondée- donne toute l'explication), des types qui ont trop lu Glamour et pensent que The Kooples est le temple de la mode. Soudain, le doute s'est emparé de moi alors que je sirotais tranquillement ma pinte sur la terrasse de la Maroquinerie.

Cependant, je m'étais dit que je ne pouvais pas être déçue. Auréolé d'une promo bien organisée, Noel Gallagher, Sergio Pizzorno et Allison Mosshart à leur concert londonien, cela ne pouvait que laisser présager du bon. J'aurais pourtant dû me dire que ces trois là avaient eu des invit et ont eu accès au bar gratuitement.

D'accord, en période de disette, on est prêt à bouffer n'importe quoi. Du rat, du chat, des putains de rutabaga. Et en plus, on trouve ça bon. Et bien Tame Impala, c'est ça, du rutabaga musical en période de disette rock. Psychédélique? Jerry Garcia et John Phillips doivent se retourner dans leurs tombes! Rock? Non, une guitare ne fait pas de toi quelqu'un qui fait du rock. Bordel, je connais plus de groupes ados dans des lycées- français- qui font du rock. Même BB Brunes à côté, c'est Led Zeppelin.

Certains ont-ils oublié Kasabian l'année dernière? Band of Skulls il y a un mois? Dead Weather il y a quelques temps? Vielle, je le suis peut être trop pour un groupe de prétentieux pré/post adolescent qui croit révolutionner le rock en faisant du sous-Archive.

Mais lorsqu'on a assisté à Oasis, Kasabian, Jet, les Rolling Stones, Paul Weller et même Pete Doherty, on ne peut que rigoler- ou souhaiter se pendre à la barrière de sécurité- à la vue de ces quatre là. Ils débutent. Soit. Pourtant je me souviens d'un temps pas si lointain où des groupes démarraient en proposant leur meilleur et pas du réchauffé/resucé dont même la nouvelle version du Mouv' ne voudrait pas;

Alors leur solution? Grandir, forcir, manger de la soupe, acquérir un minimum de technique et de...comment appelle-ton ça? Ah oui, de chansons et peut être, alors peut être , pourront ils espérer revenir avec un second album potable. Si Noel Gallagher s'est fait avoir une fois, que c'était peut être son unique occasion de voir un concert en dehors de sa verte campagne anglaise et que Pizzorno avait besoin de respirer hors des couches bébé, je ne suis pas sûre que la prochaine fois, ils ne préfèrent pas rester devant une énième rediffusion de Midsomer Murders/ Barnaby.

A bon entendeur, ouvrez donc plutôt un livret A.

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17,80 euros. With this amount of money, you can get three Big Mac meals, two tickets at your local cinema, 2 day passes for the London underground or a yukka at Ikea. 17,80 euros, that's what I gave to get a ticket for the Tame Impala gig. Well, even during this period of strikes at the RATP, it would have been more intelligent of me to invest in the Parisian transportation system than in a band who is not able to write songs that don't last 8 minutes.

Well, I should have somewhat guessed that this concert would be my burden. (well, I guess all the people nodding their heads wouldn't think the way I do). A media circus, some buzz, hype, the female leader of the band Control in the venue (remember, Control supported Kasabian in Paris. The frontwoman got half-naked as people were not cheering enough), guys who read Glamour magazine far too much and who think The Kooples is the world's fashion temple. Suddenly, a doubt crawled into my mind as I was sipping on my pint in the beer garden of La Maroquinerie.
Yet, I thought I couldn't be disappointed. Basking in the glow of a well-organized promotion, Noel Gallagher, Sergio Pizzorno and Allison Mosshart attending their London gig, the band looked pretty cool. But hey, I should have remembered that those three had got passes and had free access to the bar.

Ok, during famines, we're ready to eat everything and anything. Rat, cat, even fucking rutabagas. And we can even find that good! Well, Tame Impala are pretty much that: musical rutabagas in a time of rock n' roll shortage.
Psychedelic? Jerry Garcia and John Phillips might well be turning in their graves. Rock? No and again NO, a guitar doesn't make a rock star out of you. For fuck's sake, I know more teenage bands in high schools- I mean French high schools- that play real rock. Even our national BB Brunes would be Led Zeppelin compared to the Impalas.

Have you forgotten Kasabian last year? Band of Skulls last month? Dead Weather a few weeks ago? Old, I may be for such a pretentious bunch of pre/post teenage lads who think they are revolutionizing rock when they are actually playing some low-rate Archive.
When you attended Oasis, Kasabian, Jet, The Rolling Stones, Paul Weller and even Pete Dohery, you can only laugh- or hang yourself to death on the security barrier- when these four are playing.
It's just the start of their career. So what? I remember a time, not so long ago, when bands came with the best they had written and not some overrated tunes.

Their solution? Growing up, getting stronger, eating soup, learning a minimum of technique and coming back with...how do you call that? Oh yes, songs. Maybe then, they can hope to make a decent second album. If Noel Gallagher was mistaken, that it was his only occasion to go to a concert and get out of his countryhouse and that Pizzorno needed to breathe outside nappies, I'm pretty sure that, next time, they'd rather stay at home and watch a repeat of Midsomer Murders.

Now go open a savings account.

REVIEW: KT Tunstall- Tiger Suit

FRENCH VERSION ALSO ON sound of violence

Third album for KT Tunstall. And we can easily tell you it's a damn pretty good one. Kate is like your usual girl next door, the good friend who takes her guitar wherever she goes and decides to start improvising over a Bob Dylan's song. Rewind: KT reached fame in 2004 with Black Horse And The Cherry Tree and its easy-to-remember « wouhou ». But she had had her share of difficulties for almost 10 years before that. From bars to mini tours, the Scotsgirl has learnt how to captivate an audience and to give her listeners the songs they want to hear and that she likes to play.


Since 2005, KT Tunstall got us used to her bluesy pop-rock. Of course, it's pretty conformist and selling but it's also fucking enjoyable. For Tiger's Suit, she had Jim Abyss, the producer of the demential Kasabian beat, to work for her. Not to change her folk tunes into some Vlad The Impaler soundalike but to include more electro sounds and rhythms, like on Uummannaq Song. And that was a good idea: Abyss managed to give her some fresh air. 

First impression with the design- gee, is it really  KT Tunstall's new album? I mean, she looks totally like Natalie Appleton on it! (come on, Natalie Appleton, Liam Gallagher's sister-in-law, Liam Howlett's wife...the former All Saints!). Well, anyway, despite this little visual bug, it's clear that KT knows her job. Of course, some people will say that there's nothing new in it, that Come On, Get In is just a copy of Black Horse, that sometimes she sounds just like Sheryl Crow (on The Entertainer or Glamour Puss), that her attempts to verge on the electro side like in Lost will go unnoticed or that this album is designed to please the ears of the average over-thirty woman and will leave a younger, rockier audience totally indifferent.


Yet KT is, before and over all, an urban folksinger, a female version of Bruce Springsteen, in skinny jeans and leather boots, a John Fogerty from the Highlands, a girl cradled by the 1990s Britrock. And that is what she keeps delivering us. Glamour Puss, Push That Knot Away or Difficulty remain in a very American blues trend, with hints of sounds Muse could use in their albums.


So if you didn't like her previous albums, you will certainly not go for Tiger Suit. But if you somehow appreciated Eye To The Telescope and Drastic Fantastic, then this album should become a classic in your record collection.

INTERVIEW: The Wombats

FRENCH VERSION AVAILABLE WITH PICS FROM THE CONCERT on www.soundofviolence.net

Google map was wrong. And it took me about 45 minutes trying to find my way around the Canal Saint Martin to get to the venue where The Wombats were playing and where I was to interview the band. But it was worth it as the gig was legendary and the interview turned out to be a nice chat with Tord Overland-Knudsen, the bass player, about the (in)famous pressure of the second album , working with four producers and becoming a Norwegian legend on the Merseyside.

HAL : You're at the beginning of the European leg of the tour. So how do you feel?

Tord: Well, apart from having a cold, I'm really excited about showing people our new songs, the things we've been working on for a year and a half now. I think.... It's gonna be really exciting to see how people react to the songs. There are a lot of of new elements, a lot of keyboards going on that we didn't have previously so it's all like, you know, things that technically work out live. I think we're gonna be OK. Fingers crossed!

HAL : This tour will last about five months and you will come back to Paris in February. How do you explain such a popularity in our country, which is not particularly famous for loving rock bands?

Tord: Well, I can't really tell why but I guess, I mean I do like our music, obviously that's why I'm in this band, and I can see why I would like it if I were a teenager. I mean, we're pretty good live.

HAL: You've got lots of very young fans already queueing for the gig. (pointing to a young German fan trying to get her name on the list)

Tord: actually, I don't know if it's an all-age or 18 + gig tonight

HAL: Well, there's no 18+ in France.

Tord: Oh? really? OK then!

HAL: You're back with your new single entitled « Tokyo:Vampires and Wolves » which is like the perfect dancefloor song. Is it important for you, as a band, to have people dance on your songs?

Tord: I don't know, it doesn't really have to be dancing. If a song inspires you to do something- even relax, or be cheerful- it can have various effects on people, I think it's great if music makes people happy in whichever kind of way, if music is doing something right to people

HAL: And why this title « Vampires and Wolves?

Tord: Well, Murph wrote this song, It's about escaping daily life, being away, having fun being on tour and coming back and having to face reality. It's a bit of a let down thing at the beginning and also the process of writing songs and having the band write or perform songs that are supposed to be better, well at least as good as the o nes on the previous album. That's what people expect from us. Even ourselves as well, we want that to happen. So it's all about the pressure of doing a second album

HAL: Well, that's true coz it's a highly-anticipated album. I mean you've got a great press coverage but you must feel a lot of pressure.

Tord: We do. But I think pressure can be good in terms of pushing yourself creatively and aesthetically. I think that the songs that we've written for this album, some of the songs are probably the best songs we've ever written. Whether it is the pressure or not, I don't know but it's been definitely a lot of pressure, having a successful first album. Well, the label wants us to repeat the success we've had with the first album so I think the biggest pressure has been from the label. We've written 30 songs but its only 10 songs on the album you know.

HAL: Did you pick up the songs you wanted or...

Tord: it was the label choice but we wouldn't have been able to choose the best in the 30 songs so we kind of agreed. We picked the songs together. The songs that we wanted wouldn't probably have been the best for the album.

HAL: When will you release this album? Coz there's no official release date yet.

Tord: Well, this is the thing: it was supposed to be at the end of November but it's now been pushed back. It's gonna be early February. So we have more time to promote it. It all came a bit of a sudden coz we basically finished studio 3 weeks ago so we need to take time to promote and we felt we would have done it in a rush otherwise.

CC: What is the name for the album? Is it already chosen?

Tord: No, there is no title yet. But it will probably be the title from a song on the album. Maybe like Jump Into The Fog.

HAL: You recorded the album with 3 producers.

Tord: Well, now 4 actually! (laughs)

HAL: wow! But why 4 producers?

Tord: Because the producers went away for longer than 2 weeks at a time. The first one only had 2 weeks. And 2 and a half weeks with Eric Valentine and we went to LA, and then back to the UK for two weeks. Then 3 weeks with Rich Costey and 3 weeks with Butch Walker. They're all producers we wanted to work with. Rich Costey mixed our 1^st album so we knew it was gonna be fun. Eric Valentine was the label's suggestion. A lot of things he'd done was like cheesy American rock music that we didn't really like. But as a producer, he is a genius, he ended up being one of the producers we liked best.

HAL: So what was it like, working with someone you didn't really choose?

Tord: He only did 2 and a half songs. He's just like, he had a very msuical approach to things. He was geeky about sounds. But the thing is that you lose the right feeling if you don't have that live approach. It's fun though. It's cool to work with many producers because they have very different ways to approach the recording and mixing.

HAL: Those who've heard the album already compares it to The Horrors, Depeche Mode, The Killers. Is it a mix of all this or did you try to put your influences away and do something that could become typically Wombats? I mean you are becoming a reference for new bands.

Tord: Actually, I don't know who's heard the whole album! But people have to refer to whatever they like. I personally, and we, as a band collectively don't drag our references. We don't refer to them. A song is a song, whatever suits the song is good. Any genre can be fine.

HAL: And what about you? What are your influences?

Tord: Me personnally? When I was a kid, it wasn't like one band or one guitarist. It was more, I liked the idea of making music that I enjoyed listening. I was really into Weezer, Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, it was grunge, I grew up in the 90s.

HAL: So no Britpop. You were more on the US side.

Tord: I grew up in Norway you know, so we were more influenced by America. I loved Blur though but they were almost a grunge band, an English version. At the time, I didn't like Oasis. I learned to like them afterwards. Basically I played classical music. I got tired of playing an instrument that played music I wouldn't listen to.

Which intrument did you play?

Tord: Cello.But it wasn't creative enough. And I came to think: « why should I even bother playing this when some people can do it ten times better than me? » I knew how to read music, it was useful, I used my classical experience in rock and indie music

HAL: You never wanted to put cello in your songs?

Tord: we did on the 1^st album. For one of the songs we'll record the strings in Abbey Road. I don't know if I'm going to be on it though. I think they're going to hire someone coz I haven't played it for so long. I'd screw everything up! (laughs)

HAL: Or they'd tell you it's you, when it's a professionnal cello player.

Tord: yeah, probably! « yes, listen, it's you »! (laughs)

HAL: You said you used more keyboards on this album. Was it an attempt to get a more 80s sound or were you tired of playing the guitar?

Tord: Yep, the second one! We really liked with the idea of playing many instruments at the same time. « How can we get all these sounds playing at the same time? »

HAL: You're gonna play many instruments tonight?

Tord: yes! But it's a surprise.

HAL:The last tour was pretty harsh on you all. Is it why you're having this 2-month break in the middle of the tour this time?

Tord: No, well ,the reason is that we want to do promotion around the album. I don't think there was any reason. It's not gonna be a gap, as we've got radio and TV things to do. And hopefully meet the fans. It's not gonna be time off.

HAL: You're from Norway but you moved to Liverpool. Why did you decide to move there and did the town have any influence on your music?

Tord: I chose Liverpool because of the university, it's got a good reputation in Norway, it's like Paul Mc Cartney founded it! so I wanted to go to Paul McCartney's school. (laughs) Now, I'm gonna stay, I've got a girlfriend in Liverpool.

HAL: As we're reaching the end if the interview, is there a new band you particularly like, or that you think the readers should know about?

Tord: I listen to a band called Miniature Tigers. They're from NY. But I quite like older bands. Nothing particularly new. No, it's more like new releases. I'm not really finding much these days. There was a lot of things last year like Passion Pit and Phoenix. PVT also. They're good live.

HAL: Well PVT is really more electro than rock. Are you into a lot of electro?

Tord: Well,I would listen to anything as long as there is something that is inspiring in it

REVIEW: The Bees- Every Step's A Yes

Si vous êtes adeptes d'un folk urbain, fans de Simon and Garfunkel ou encore appréciateurs de Sean Lennon, le nouvel album de The Bees devrait être pour vous. Avec Every Step's A Yes, le quatuor livre ici dix titres parlant d'amour et de joies quotidiennes. Un retour musical à une époque- les années 1967-1970 - qui fait encore fantasmer la jeune génération.

Le combo n'en est pas à son coup d'essai: avec trois albums au compteur, une nomination au Mercury Prize et deux soirs à Glastonbury, The Bees est un groupe qui sait ce qu'il fait et est conscient de son potentiel. Cinq soirées d'affilée à l'Olympia de Dublin notamment sur cette tournée, une jolie performance pour un groupe dont finalement, les média ne parlent que très peu.

The Bees, ce sont avant tout un duo de songwriters: Aaron Fletcher et Paul Archer ; ce dernier a notamment contribué à la production du dernier Devendra Banhart, ce qui laisse suggérer la couleur que cet opus peut avoir. C'est donc trois ans après Octopus sorti chez Fiction que nous revient le groupe avec cet album, sorti cette fois-ci chez Darling.

L'album s'ouvre sur le single I Really Need Love. Petite pépite folk-pop qui pourrait être tout droit sortie d'un ce ces album séminaux du milieu des années soixante, elle a depuis été reprise en session acoustique sur diverses radios. Même le Sun, qui s’attache plus souvent à diffuser des live de groupes archi-connus, a récemment organisé un mini-concert pour la sortie de Every Step's A Yes. Silver Line, autre titre folk, suinte l’influence du songwriting de Paul Simon. Mais, malgré des titres de bonne facture ensuite, on ne cessera d'attendre la chanson qui donnera une identité particulière à cet album, la chanson qui le fera sortir du lot des nouveautés de la rentrée. En effet, si No More Excuses, Change Can Happen ou encore Island Love Letter ressemblent à s’y méprendre à du Sean Lennon- timbre de voix inclus- et si Winter Rose transpire une influence mi-byrdsienne, mi-reggae, l'ensemble, bien que cohérent dans son optique néo-hippie, laisse un goût d'inachevé.

Manque de mélodies récurrentes ou mémorables, production éthérée, révérb’ sur les voix parfois trop présentes, titres trop mielleux voire mièvres, le duo n’a pas réussi à reproduire sur la longueur l’intensité de I Really Need Love ou le cachet de Silver Line et n’a pas pu ou pas voulu se soustraire au carcan du « San Francisco revival ». Dommage car ce groupe transpire une volonté de bien faire et un amour pour sa musique. A voir sur scène, car comme tout album acoustique, celui-ci prendra peut-être son envol en live.

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If you are an urban folk lover, a fan of Simon and Garfunkel or a Sean Lennon follower, the new album by The Bees should be the “album of the month” for you. With Every Step's A Yes, the quartet delivers ten songs talking about love and daily little pleasures. A musical comeback to an era- the years 1967-1970- that still makes youngsters fantasize about what it was like.

The band is not having a try: having three albums, being nominees for the Mercury Prize and singing two nights in Glastonbury, The Bees is a band who know what they do and is pretty aware of their high potential. Can you imagine: five concerts in a row at the Dublin Olympia on this tour! That is a genuine success for a band that is often left on the side by the mass media.

The Bees are a band- that’s for sure- but first and foremost, it’s a duo of songwriters: Aaron Fletcher and Paul Archer. He recently contributed to the last Devendra Banhart’s opus so that is food for thought. So here they are, back again, three years after Octopus, released on Fiction.

The album opens with the single I Really Need Love, little folk and pop nugget that could well be taken from one of these seminal 1960s records. It has already been played and re-played in acoustic sessions on many radios. Even The Sun, which usually gives more importance to famous bands, recently organised a mini-concert for the release of Every Step's A Yes. Silver Line, another folk tune, is pure Paul Simon. But, despite some fancily good tunes, we keep waiting for the song that will give a particular musical colour to this album, the song that will make it pop out of the bunch of new releases. Indeed, if No More Excuses, Change Can Happen or Island Love Letter sound like Sean Lennon – even when it comes to vocal similarities- and if Winter Rose is somewhat a Byrds-reggae song, this set, though pretty coherent in it new-hippie perspective, leaves the listener with a sort of left-undone feeling.

A cruel lack of recurring or memorable melodies, an ethereal production, too much reverb on the voices, and too many mellowish songs, the band didn't manage to reproduce the intensity of I Really Need Love or the style of Silver Line and could not or would not escape from the “San Francisco revival” stranglehold.

Too bad as this band demonstrates the will to do things right and a love for its music. Hopefully, we'll see them live and they might surprise us, as many other folk bands before them.