REVIEW: Two Door Cinema Club @ Olympia 25/11/2010

Two Door Cinema Club is one of these numerous electro pop band for which the press seems to fall in love once in a while. Thurssday night, the band was playing in an almost sold-out Olympia for a totally teenage crowd. Indeed, for the three Northern-Irish lads, it was the third gig of the year in Paris and they have now a quite diverse following. After the Nouveau Casino in February and La Cigale in June, the band was coming back in the mythical and all very solemn venue on the Boulevard des Capucines.


There were two opening bands. Florrie, a young talented London-based songwriter who did pretty well with her band followed by The Teenagers, a genuinely annoying French band who couldn't help but ask for half a dozen teenage girls to come onstage while they were playing their hit single Homecoming. That was perfect to end a Junior High year in a private school out of town but there was nothing surprising nor exciting. That's when a part of the audience literally ran away to the bar, taking advantage of the cold beer rather than of the music.


That's around 9:45 PM that the TDCC came- at last- onstage in front of a cheering and mainly female audience. The band started with Cigarettes In The Theatre and went on with Hand Off My Cash, Monty, and Do You Want It All. The late-comers at the back of the venue couldn't see a thing but they really didn't care and were enjoying every moment of the gig. For some of them, it was some kind of out-of-body experience. And you'd better not be epileptic that night as the lights would even have turned a paparrazzi crazy. Something Good Can Work, the single that we all know in France because it became the flagship tune for a bank was the song of the night and we have to admit that the three guys have fathered a little pop nugget.


Surprisingly, the band seemed to keep the same motivation and pleasure to be on stage. And yet, I couldn't help but to find some boringly, binary, bubblegum, puppet-ish side to them There was not a hint of rebellion, not a scream from the guitars that would cover the screams of the girls. Clean but charmless.


After almost a year on tour, the TDCC have acquired a scenic maturity. They will now have to reach the same songwriting maturity to become more than Band Of The Year 2010.

Happy New Year !!

Happy New Year to all of you!!!

Hope it's going to be a nice one with great rock n' roll records.

This week, I'll be catching on with the reviews I didn't post in November and December as work took all my time. 

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.