Ruby Perera in Underwear Shocker!!
It is less than a week until my finals begin, but right now there is only one thing on my mind. I have just met the number one Sex God of Britpop, Ash's Tim Wheeler, and I, Ruby Perera, am in LOVE. Fresh from a night of playing Abba covers at the London Astoria, Ash finished their UK tour at the Brookes on Sunday night, with their current resurgence in popularity ensuring full houses around the country. With their new album, Free All Angels, Ash are back to put an end to whiny "Moby-sounding" guitar music, and about time too. Tim, my ideal man since about 1995, is happy to describe himself as a "veteran" of the indie scene despite being only 24. Ash are one of the few bands to have survived the demise of Britpop and come out on top (of me, I wish!), although they've had to work for it. After the success of their first full album, 1977, (1996), and recording the title track for Danny Boyle's A Life Less Ordinary (1997), Ash fell from their popular pedestal with the release of Nu-clear Sounds (1998). Tim blames the negative reception the album received on the Britpop backlash, and believes that fans will return to it eventually, denying rumours that new member Charlotte had impinged on the group's songwriting. ...
Music: Albums
Another week; another thoroughly pointless compilation released. This time, it comes courtesy of Def Jam, who have gathered together a more or less arbitrary selection of tracks culled from their 16 year history. And it's not an entirely bad idea: it acts simultaneously as an overview of the label's illustrious past and a history lesson for all those 14 year olds who think that Dr Dre invented hip hop. ...
Music: Singles
Dimestars are all good-looking bright young things, have supported Kylie Minogue on tour, and sound just too polished to be a 'proper' band. And guess what? "My Superstar" pisses all over most of the stuff I've reviewed recently. Unlike far too many bands nowadays, they've realised their total irrelevance to the world at large, and just concentrate on making it smile for three minutes. Bright, sunny guitar-pop is the order of the day here, with hooks just where they should be and a chorus that presses all the right buttons. ...
Music: Interview
People are crying. Not a rare experience on Cowley Road, I grant you, but tonight they are crying for all the right reasons. Against all probability, a bearded hulk of a man scruffily dressed in baggy trousers and an old work t-shirt has penetrated the city's apathetic veneer and shown that the words 'Oxford' and 'emotional' can actually go together without evoking bad poetry. Indeed, it is this man's very words which have caused this most unusual state of affairs. For three songs into his band's set, Guy Garvey put down his guitar for the first time and meekly began 'Powder Blue', the sparse instrumentation promoting a vulnerable and tender beauty in his voice that betrays his physique: "They're trying to ignore us. That's ok. I'm proud to be the one you hold when the shakes begin". And, just for a minute, it seems as if the members of the packed crowd are not the only ones affected by what is going on. Just briefly it seems that Garvey himself is on the edge. And, in a world increasingly populated by irreverent bands who seem more interested in playing for the contents of the bar than the people in it, this passion adds to the beauty of the man and his music. ...
Music: Live
Let me tell you story in my best Tolkeinesque style. Once upon a time in a galaxy far far away (well George Lucas is really more my type of level anyway) there lived a group of elves. They sat nestled away in their insular little world, unaware of the outside world. For many millennia they have remained singing to the trees, or Ents if you will, and making love to the rivers. But now some-one some-where has sought to expose them to the world so that everybody can share in their magic and joy. Unfortunately, people outside the Elven wood have a different genetic make-up and don't desire to listen to this unfortunate ramble. How these particular elves escaped the great elf massacre of fourth-age middle-earth I really don't know, but I doubt they'll sail the seas of middle-earth to find gold at the end of a rainbow. ...