Tallest Man on Earth » 24 November
Electric Ballroom | 184 Camden High St., NW1 8QP
Immediately after Kristian Matsson played his first ever London show at the now deceased Bardens Boudoir back in September of last year I made a prediction: “This time next year he’ll be selling out Shepherds Bush Empire” I said (probably to myself). Well, lo and behold I was (almost) right, venue aside. Though it’s doubtful The Sun will be hiring me as their new Mystic Meg anytime soon; you only had to look on the faces of the swelling Bardens crowd to realise what a special talent Matsson is. Considering at that point he hadn’t actually released a record in the UK (his debut Shallow Grave only being available via import) the level of crowd adoration was at fever pitch. Matsson—far from being tall, let alone the tallest—prowling the stage like a tomcat, his short frame hunching over as he finger-picked his way through tales of love, loss and redemption. Eye-balling the audience at every given moment, spitting the lyrics out in his Dylan-esque drawl—witnessing a Tallest Man On Earth show is in equal parts terrifying and enchanting. With a new album (and EP) now in his ever growing song cannon, you’d be mad to miss what is sure to be a much talked-about show.
02 Nov 2010
Sleigh Bells » 21 November
XOYO | 32-37 Cowper Street, EC2A 4AP
Hailing from Brooklyn, Sleigh Bells are singer Alexis Krauss and guitarist-producer Derek Miller. The pair met in 2008 and realised that whilst one was stuck in a world of glossy-pop craving hardcore beats, the other was stuck in a hardcore world secretly listening to Madonna. A match made in noise-pop heaven then, tonight’s show promises to be as ferocious, gritty and infectious as their critically acclaimed debut.
02 Nov 2010
Vessels » 17 November
The Queen of Hoxton | 1 Curtain Road, EC2A 3LT
Vessels make post-rock interesting again. Theirs isn’t the kind of by-the-numbers band that plagues the genre; it’s altogether farther reaching. It’s an epic, swirling soundscape filled with emotional rancour. Debut long player White Fields and Open Devices found them crafting a niche somewhere between the environmental echoes of Sigur Rós and the hardcore riff attack of Oceansize. There are also elements of Battles in their twinkling riffs and shifting time signatures, but again, it’s a sound Vessels make their own by shifting the influences around. Live is the environment to truly enjoy their sound as it allows their harder edge to come to the fore and their technical mastery to become blazingly apparent.
02 Nov 2010
The Hundred In The Hands, !!! » 4 November
Koko | 1A Camden High Street, NW1 7JE
These two bands make more sense together than you might at first think. The Hundred In The Hands are the electro-pop band of the moment, a two-piece with sharp hooks and plaintive vocals wrapped in swathes of shoegaze guitar; veteran punk-funk collective !!! are a many-headed, party-drug-addled monster that stretch dance music towards stoner psychedelia. !!! might seem like they’ve topped out in the years since their genre-defining masterpiece Louden Up Now, but don’t rule out a revival from that unpredictable bunch. And it’s the perfect time to catch the opening act, so why not take the chance.
02 Nov 2010
Marnie Stern
Keeping self-satisfaction at a distance
02 Nov 2010
Zola Jesus. In it. For real.
It’s hard to imagine Zola Jesus, aka Nika Roza Danilova, in her new home city of Los Angeles, dressed in her outsiderish proto-gothic outfits, driving and strolling and loitering between the palm trees and paved boulevards and rollerbladers.
She’d be better suited to the spiked towers of Prague, or the architectural melee of Berlin, or at least the weeping trees and hulking blocks around Central Park in autumn; somewhere you can gaze mournfully or lurk meaningfully amongst buildings with weathered headstone facades.
But, as always, it’s a mistake to identify an artist too much with their work. Why should the recently married 21-year-old star be anything but cheerful with the state of her life?
02 Nov 2010
DIARY: Icelandic singer in London, Snorri Helgason
I didn’t mean to hurt you – I’m Snorri that I made you cry.
I learned English from TV and reading Blur lyrics with a dictionary. I have a pretty good vocabulary and can hide my Icelandic accent pretty well when I’m sober.
I’m a musician and so I get to travel a lot. I go to lots of different places and pick up the little differences in the mannerisms and vocabulary of each place. Right now I’m in Newfoundland and I find myself saying things like “oh yaah?”, “fur sure” and “eh?” all the time. I was in Austin, Texas for a couple of days last year and was throwing “y’all” around like crazy. Weird.
I recently moved to London and the first thing I started picking up there was that whenever I’d order something from a bar or a café or something I’d always get these weird looks from the staff. I was being chatty and smiling and everything but no matter what I did I’d always get that look and that feeling of guilt. It took me a while to figure out what it was. Actually I didn’t figure it out—it had to be pointed out to me by a rather pissed-off waitress that I had forgotten to say the magic word—“PLEASE”. Now you see… you don’t learn that from TV and Blur lyrics. OK.
Lesson learned.
That waitress got me so paranoid I started saying, “please” at least twice in every sentence. “Can I please have pint of Guinness, please… sorry”. And that’s another magic word ain’t it?—“SORRY”. What’s with you English and yer sorries?
Going to a market or walking down a busy street in London is like sorry—heaven. “Imsorry… Imsorry…Imsorry”. I was talking to an English friend of mine the other night and she said; “I’m sorry I’m saying sorry to much”. Riiight.
I mean—being nice and courteous is fine. Makes the world a better place. Just don’t overdo it. (Cliché alert!) It’s like the boy who cried wolf; what are you going to say when you really are sorry or your really need someone to do something for you?
So my preachy preach preach is; Britons! – just… relax. Stop apologizing for your existence.
And to London newcomers like myself – just start firing out sorries and pleases all over the place and you’ll be fine.
02 Nov 2010
Trophy Wife
Would you bloody believe it, Oxford has gone and got dead cool. Previously mostly famous for housing some clever dicks and everyone’s favourite clever dicks-come-musos Radiohead, there’s a new bunch of bands attracting attention for making interesting and fun pop music in the city. Best of the bunch is Trophy Wife, a three piece who have already been picked up by Moshi Moshi for their sparky, contemporary take on the disco tracks of Studio, and Donna Summer. Think catchy melodies and throbbing beats but with nice cardigans not flared trousers. Everyone from the NME to the flighty bloggers are getting onside and they should be confidently proclaiming to be the next big thing while sloshed in trendy venues. Are they? Of course not. Described by the band as music made for an “ambitionless office” the songs’ balearic richness battles its understated performance. Debut single ‘Microlite’ is out on the 8th and they tour with Toro y Moi, other Oxford-types Foals and Bombay Bicycle Club (two out of three good bands isn’t bad) throughout November and December.
Trophy Wife play Electrowerkz, 9 November
02 Nov 2010
Jai Paul
Confirmed, official details are few and far between with Jai Paul, but here is what we suspect/have heard: he is twenty-one years of age, comes from NW London and has been courted by XL Recordings. His only original work available, ‘BTSTU’ might be named after legendary Argentinian footballer Gabriel Batistuta and includes a sound around the 2:00 mark which sounds like a pixellated rocket taking off. He supports Chelsea (who are not based in NW London, so he might be a glory hunter.) He might have an EP out at the end of the year, he might just have been conceived backstage at one of Prince’s London shows of the Lovesexy World Tour in 1988 and he might be the little brother of the speccy one from Hot Chip. (These last two things might not be 100% truth serum, but IT WOULD EXPLAIN A LOT). What we know for certain is this: ‘BTSTU’ is an addictive earworm, all laid-back sass with Jai’s gentle falsetto vocals over meaty synths explaining “I know I’ve been gone a long time but I’m back and I want what is mine.” We don’t know where he’s been, but we sure as hell like where he’s going.
02 Nov 2010
Big Deal
Big Deal? Yeah, so what, big deal. Or, you know, maybe a blinging-through-the-airport Beckham-style NO PHOTOS big deal. Or maybe a Mad Men sweating-round-the-boardroom-table dotted line big deal? Or maybe the second hand guitar store in Wolverhampton. Who knows which type of big deal Big Deal are named after. They sound a bit like the formerly-quite-a-big-deal duo The Kills, but stripped back and more subtle and less bombastic and annoying. Just nice, personal, low key songs rather than all that sloganeering. Maybe it’s just the boy-girl dynamic that’s the same, and the vaguely Americana feel. It’s almost reassuring to hear two people singing over some guitar, and for it to be really great. Sometimes, it feels like all the combinations of notes have been written, and all the lyrics have been sung before in all the different ways. And maybe they have. But as Big Deal prove, that doesn’t mean someone new can’t come along and make something honest and strikingly simple, that sounds like it was always written somehow, that makes everything seem fresh again for a minute. This is nice stuff.
Big Deal, or no deal.
Big Deal play the Lock Tavern, 7 November, and the Lexington, 15 November
02 Nov 2010
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- A unique collection of photos of Edwardian Londoners
- Diary of the shy Londoner
- Silencing the Brick Lane curry touts could be fatal for the city's self-esteem
- The five best places in London to have an epiphany
- London has chosen its mayor, but why can’t it choose its own media?
- Only 16 commuters touch in to Emirates Air Line, figures reveal
- Nice Interactive timeline lets you follow Londoners' historic fight against racism
- Punk brewery just as sexist and homophobic as the industry they rail against
- Summer Camp: Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days
- An interview with Desiree Akhavan
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