Musica: Róisín Murphy in NYC

OMG! So perhaps I should have been sh*t'in' in my pants last night but I still could not believe that I was at Róisín Murphy's first ever solo show in NYC (which understandably was sold out).

Róisín stuck mostly to songs from her last album ("Overpowered") which was OK. Unfortunately she also neglected a great deal of her past catalogue as the lead singer for the band Moloko which produced one of the greatest unsung albums in pop music history ("Statues").

Leaving all of that behind, I did rejoice! The show was amazing even if the place was too crowded. Murphy seemed thrilled at how many people showed up and the gays were certainly giving her lotsa love.

And she certainly lived up to the haut-couture expectations by changing into a new outfit for almost every song (photos below).

For the sake of objectiveness, I must say that the following Moloko video (and song) is among my all-time favorites:


So even if the sound quality hardly matches, I was thrilled that Murphy sang "Forever More" last night in a retooled version (yup! That's me singing along as well):

Luckily I was also able to capture "Primitive" also from the "Overpowered" CD:


as well as the title song:

Make sure you click on the high-quality link below each YouTube video.

Upcoming US Tour: By the way, Arjan says that Ms. Murphy plans to come back in March of 2009 and tour some other major US cities such as Los Angeles, Atlanta, San Francisco, and Austin for the South by Southwest music fest.

Official Sites:

• Roisin Murphy's official website here
• Roisin Murphy's MySpace page here
• Roisin Murphy's MySpace Remixed page here

Related:

• Review: Roisin Murphy does New York (Arjan Writes)
  
• Dance beats and deer antlers (New York Times Blogs)
• Friday (Pitchfork Media)
• Roisin Murphy at Manison NYC (Chez Tune)
• Roisin Murphy @ Mansion (Brooklyn Vegan) - Includes some amazing photos
  
• Roisin Murphy U.S. Debut & Photos (Arjan Writes)
• Roisin Murphy: Mansion (SoundBites)
  
• Roisin and the amazing technicolor overcoats (The Determined Dilettante)
• Fame, Yes; Fortune, Not So Much (The New York Times) (plus photos)
• Murphy's Law (Billboard Blogs: Jaded Insider)
• I got "Overpowered" by Roisin Murphy in New York (Entertainment Weekly's Pop Watch Blog)
  

A sample of Roisin's attire:
The furry feather thingie with shades and cap on...

The little red riding hood thingie....

And the vulture allure thingie with a flat moon hat (we assume you already noticed the deer for shoulder-pads thingie in the "Overpowered" video).

PLUS: One of my videos is now featured on Roisin's official page! Brilliant!

Musica: Choice cuts from 2007

I certainly didn't intend to go on hiatus but that seems to have been what's happened to the blog in the past few weeks. Not sure it will be up and running soon after the beginning of the new year but I'll leave you with a very subjective end of the year list of some of the best music that came my way this year.

This is the year that I saw the last of the local store outlets for actual CD-singles (with Virgin records folding it's in-store singles aisles and keeping just a fraction of the releases), another casualty to the rush to digital downloads, legal or not. Which means online stores like Hollywood's Perfect Beat can prove to be indispensable.

No top ten list here, just a sampling of stuff. Check details at the bottom on how you can win a CD-selection of some of these songs as compiled by yours truly!

Notable music of 2007:

Women Power: Three women that dominated the soundtrack of my youth released new albums this year which speaks to their longevity despite the volatility in the pop universe.

Siouxsie Sioux released "Mantaray," Annie Lennox released "Songs of Mass Destruction," and Alison Moyet released "The Turn" (not yet in the US but you can pick it up from this Canadian store).

I have yet to give a proper listen to Mantaray but the standout track is "Sea of Tranquility" - a gorgeous track with a nice burbling underpining rhythm and Siouxsie's immediately recognizable voice soaring over it. Alas, no video to show you.

In the meantime, I've seen a few online pans of Annie Lennox's latest which surprises me quite a bit because the album has some of her strongest material in ages and a couple of tracks that really stand out: "Smitheereens" and "Fingernail Moon."

The gist of the pans, from what I've gathered, is that this is the umpteenth album from Lennox with a confessional bent and that some of the tracks here, such as the anti-AIDS song "Sing," are more didactic than entertaining.

Here's a YouTuber lip-synching to "Smitheereens" a-la Chris Cocker.


Most noteworthy, to me at least, was Alison Moyet's return. The new album doesn't quite match the brilliance that was 2002's "Hometime" but sees Moyet as self-assured as ever and in better control of the songs she has chosen to sing (at least according to the liner notes). If you have time, you could check her cheeky - if infrequently updated - blog which includes this entry on her memories of a gay friend who died of AIDS in observance of World AIDS Day earlier this month.

Here she performs the first single from "The Turn" - "One More Time" - live.


Up-and-comers: Yes, I spent the year listening to the one-two British punch of Amy "Back to Rehab" Winehouse and Lilly "Knock'em Out"Allen, finding Allen's "Alright, Still" to be the better of the two. Part of it is just how funny her lyrics can actually be which is refreshing in an industry that seems to thrive on drug-abuse scandals and sexed-up tarts.

Here's Lilly Allen's "LDN" (love the record shop intro bit):


Thing is, both these albums are actually material released well over a year in the UK so I'm not that sure that they could be considered newcomers anymore.

Jump in New Young Pony Club with "Fantastic Playroom." You probably know them if you've watched some television as "Icecream" was the soundtrack to some I-pod or cell phone commercial, I believe:


The album is full of punky electro ditties such as this, my fave being "F.A.N."

Favorite song of last year: I also picked up Just Jack's "Overtones" this year with material also released in the UK in previous years and was captivated by the pop perfection that is "I Talk Too Much" featuring Kylie Minogue. Best Kylie duet since "Kids" with Robbie Williams and maybe even better. No video but the full song's stream is available at YouTube. Have a listen:


Favorite song of this year: No big surprise for those of you who know I adore this woman: From Róisín Murphy's great new album, "Overpowered," it's "Let Me Know":


The full album is probably in my top five of the year with an amazing title track as well and an array of songs that could easily be chosen as singles including "You Know Me Better," "Primitive," "Dear Miami," and "Scarlett Ribbons."

Top albums of the year: If you'd asked me at the beginning of the year which albums would probably make my year's end top list I'd probably have said 4hero, Underworld, Gus Gus and Róisín Murphy. That Róisín's made it but not the others doesn't mean that the work that the other bands released this year wasn't noteworthy or good but personally I thought that 4hero and Underworld turned in spotty albums with some brilliant tracks (4hero's "Give In" and "Morning Child" and Underworld's "Crocodile/Beautiful Burnout") while, if it wasn't for the remixes, the Gus Gus CD did actually disappoint despite "Need in Me".


I'd be shocked, actually, if you had told me that come year's end I'd still be loving Calvin Harris' "I Created Disco" which I previewed back in July. The tale of a MySpace music geek getting a record contract and then becoming one of the UK's biggest selling albums of the year certainly seems a bit last year considering that this year the new thing is offering a pay what you want download of your album.

Here's the "official" video for his new single, "Colors."

Speaking of pay what you want though, I paid $0 for Radiohead's "In Rainbows" and still loved it! You can buy the CD pressing of the album here.

So yes! Sue me! I have a thing for British pop and dance songs! But I am still loving Philadelphia's very own Jill Scott and her under-appreciated "The Real Thing: Words and Sounds, Vol. 3." This woman's work is just amazing and she's just getting started. Here, for you, "My Love" (even if my fave track on the album is "Only You"):


Best album of 2007: So, what gives? Which is the album of the year? Actually, the year that saw all the major studios seek out producer (and former Missy Elliot and current Justin Timberlake co-hort ) Timbaland to put a gloss on albums ranging from Nelly Furtado to Duran Duran to - gulp! - Ashlee Simpson, the fate of my album of the year almost fell in the same trap.

Following up on the success of Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam's first album, "Arular" (2005), rumor was that her new album "Kala" was supposed to prominently feature Timbaland as a producer and, while Timbaland might have produced some of the best and most innovative tracks of the last ten years (Missy Elliot's "Get Your Freak On" and "Work It" come to mind), I'm not sure the last thing we needed was another Nelly Furtado/Justinn Timberlake sound hybrid on "Kala."

And yet, due to restrictive US immigration policies, Arulpragasam found herself with visa problems (according to WikiPedia) and spent the last couple of years taping tracks for "Kala" during segments of her world tour in countries such as India, Trinidad, Liberia, Jamaica, Australia and Japan.

Amazingly it's all reflected in the album's sound and so much the better for it. One wonders what Timbaland would have done with this masterpiece and while it's not always an easy listen, it certainly sounds like the music of the future. The newest single, "Paper Airplanes" by the woman better known as M.I.A.:


Bits and pieces: What follows are the rest of the best songs of the year in no particular order.

"Can't Do Without" - Peven Everett
"Jus' Dance" - Mr. V
"Beautiful (Fred Everything Mix)" - Tim Fuller
"Let's Be Young (Paulo Mojo Remix)" - Quentin Harris
"It's All True (Martin Buttrich Remix)" - Tracey Thorn
"Dust (Induceve Remix)" - Recloose feat. Joe Dukie
"Song 4 Mutya (Out of Control)" - Groove Armada feat. Mutya
"Soñando Contigo" - Kiko Navarro
"The Sun Can't Compare" - Larry Heard feat. Mr. White
"Us vs. Them" - LCD Soundsystem
"Neighborhoods" - Matthew Dear
"All Woman (Sandy Rivera's Blackwz Remix)" - Skwerl
"Make Me Want You" - Mondee Oliver
"Love Song" - Sarah Bareilles

You can also do no wrong by supporting a worthwhile cause end getting a copy of "Stomp Out Cancer: Indie Artists Fight Ewing's Sarcoma" which was released in honor of my friend Steven Mackin earlier in the year.

And the best for last: If you've made it past aaaaalllll that and you want a nifty compilation of some of the music mentioned here (plus and minus a few tracks), be the among the first five people within the United States to send me an e-mail at blabbeando @ gmail . com requesting one and you will get one sometime after the new year. Happy holidays!

Yesterday, Thomas Dolby, Sunday, Rosin Murphy

Last night the bf and I went to check-out Thomas Dolby at Joe's Pub at the Public Theatre (he's got two more shows lined up for tonight so it's not too late to check him out if you live in New York City).

I had never been to Joe's Pub but did not like the venue the moment I walked in. It was crowded, there were tables set up for people who had made dinner reservations, and a really small standing room space for those people who chose not to dine during the concert. At the very least, it was a small venue so that you could actually see most of the performance from pretty much everywhere you stood. The crowd was a mix of people in the mid to upper 30's, a bunch'o'gay guys and, in one annoying case, the younger girlfriend of a guy about my age who kept asking why people seemed to be so much into music she'd never heard. Then again, there were the couple of guys who seemed to think they were in a VH1 "Whatever Happened to..." concert and kept shouting stuff at Dolby.

The show ran into some technical difficulties as Thomas Dolby would introduce a song, for example, and the computers would play another; at a couple of spots, the sound dropped out altogether. All in all though, it was a truly enjoyable night with some highlights including great renditions of "I Live in a Suitcase" and "Hyperactive" among other songs. Surprisingly, most of the repertoire came from the earlier albums rather than "The Flat Earth" or "Astronauts and Heretics."

For a couple of the songs he simply broke down the layered sounds of the songs and allowed the audience to see how he constructed their melodies. You can check what I mean by taking a look at "The Flat Earth" on his website (although last night he simply allowed the tracks to speak for themselves instead of giving a spoken tour - allow time for the full clip to download).

For the most part, the song structures followed those of the original versions with some thrilling exceptions, including the cacophonously funky new intro for "Airhead" (which he did as an encore). In "Wind Power" and a couple of other songs, a hypnotic looped-in beat made me wonder what bands like Gus Gus could do with these tracks.

With additional concerts added to his New York stop, I'm not sure what the man thought about last night's audience. His blog allows you to have a different perspective on what it means to put a tour like this together.

Mostly, it felt bizarre that after all these years, I was able to see Thomas Dolby live. He's certainly been the soundtrack to some of my memories.

In any case, the music Gods are smiling down on me. Next up, if I can make it, Roisin Murphy at Danny Krivit's "718 Sessions" at Club Deep this coming Sunday. On Saturday she's also appearing at Cielo.

Best CD of 2005 is now out in the US: Roisin Murphy's Ruby Blue

Without much fanfare, the US arm of British record house ECHO, has released a US-version of the best record of 2005, Rosin Murphy's Ruby Blue. The track-listing is no different but it means you can now get it for a non-import price. You can listen to some tracks at the above links. Initially, it will sound a bit experimental and off-track but it will definitely seep into your consciousness with repeated listens.

UPDATE: Yesterday, Thomas Dolby, Sunday, Roisin Murphy (May 4, 2006)

Forever More - The Video

Given that I haven't written the words "Roisin Murphy" so far in 2006 (she is the former Moloko vocalist who went solo last year and released my favorite album of 2005, "Ruby Blue"), I might as well share with you a link I found today to one of my favorite music videos ever. Yes, the track is from Moloko's last and best album, "Statues," which was never released in the United States. The song is amazing, but it's the video to "Forever More" that is a stunner. Watch it here, I hope you like it too.

You can also download Roisin's brand new video for "Sow Into You," her latest single, from Ario's Live Journal here.

Music: Underworld goes underground

One of my fave bands is back in action, but you wouldn't necessarily know if you follow music release dates. That's because Underworld have opted out of the regular music industry channels and have decided to release music exclusively online for the forseable future. Not that this is new (most recently, Roisin Murphy released 3 EP's online in advance of the proper release of her latest and glorious solo album, Ruby Blue) and i-Tunes has a plethora of music only available otherwise on vynil but not on CD's.

Underworld were supposed to be the darlings of the dance music revolution when V2 - a subdivision of Virgin - signed them up in the 1990's, probably hoping that they would keep releasing singles in the vein of "Born Slippy" (which graced the soundtrack of the popular British film Trainspotting and was a pub favorite with its "Lager, Lager" chorus). Alas, Underworld chose instead to produce more intricatelly complex fare with a beauty in songcraft unmatched by any of their peers. "Shudder / King of Snake" with it's magnificent use of the relentless Giorgio Moroder synth-line from Donna Summer's "I Feel Love" set to an ominous yet erotic throb, the elegaic "Sola Sistim", and the urgency of "Push Upstairs" - all from V2 relseases Beucoup Fish and A Hundred Days Off are just stunning tracks and yet...

...they were dropped by V2 (I guess V2 are now concentrating on trendier stuff such as the White Stripes), band members Karl Hyde & Rick Smith tell DJ magazine in their January 2006 issue "We've planning this download stuff for years." What 'this' means is that, according to the magazine, they have amassed more than 180 tracks in the 2 years since they last realeased a proper album and will be releasing them peridocially over time on their site. Currently online are the first 2 releases: The 28-minute Lovely Broken Thing, released on November 9th, and the 25-minute Pizza for Eggs, which was released on December 7th. Each is a seamless mix of different new tracks, the first is the harder one, with the vocoder-influenced "Jal to Tokyo" being the standout of both mixes; while the second is a more contemplative dubbier affair which greatly complements the first mix (click on the above titles to listen to track samples). For $10 pounds (about $18 bucks) you get both mixes, PDF files for the CD-covers, should you want to burn them onto a CD-rom, and a collection of some of the photo art by Tomato (sampled above).

Most striking about the band is Karl Hyde's stream of conciousness lyrics and vocal performances, quick to capture a tonal change, a hidden meaning here and there, in truly poetic ways. For an amazing look at their past work, try the Everything, Everything DVD, released in 2000. If you want more, keep checking the Underworld website for updates.

UPDATE: "Lager Lager Meta Meta" (Los Angeles City Beat, December 8,2005)

Oh! The horror...

What does it mean when your favorite new television show uses songs from your favorite album so far this year in two consecutive episodes as a soundtrack to the drama unfolding with one of your favorite characters on network television as played by one of your favorite actors? MUST mean something! But for the love of god I can't figure out what! The horror!

But when it's been a while since the United States music industry paid any attention to Roisin Murphy (or her former band Moloko, for that matter) - and I don't believe her album has even been picked for distribution in the United States - we must be thankful for small favors (and the exposure).

We must thank the TV show's Music Supervisor Alexandra "where-can-I-get-a job-like-that" Patsavas for her keen music taste and hope for more groovy tunage down the line.

And let's hope to see Roisin Murphy performing live in the United States sometime soon...

Rocking My World

1. Running - Jon Cutler featuring Pete Simpson
2. Bar A Thym - Kerry Chandler
3. Amortiguador - Andrea Echeverri
4. Sow Into You - Ex-MOLOKO singer Rosin Murphy (and producer Herbert)
5. Bring U Up! - Romanthony