Lily Allen’s Return To The Concert Stage Gets Mixed Reviews

Lily Allen returned to live performance on Wednesday with a show at Koko in London. The Koko show was a warmup for Allen’s UK tour, which begins in March. According to reports from those at the show, Allen made an effort to move away from the sound of her 2006 debut album, Alright, Still, and only performed three songs from that album at the Koko show. Songs from Allen’s new album, It’s Not Me, It’s You, dominated the set list.

 The new material is mostly guitar-based pop, a departure from the ska-sounding tunes from her first album. “The Fear,” the album’s first single which is number one in the British charts, reportedly received a good reception from the crowd.

Among the songs from the new album that Allen performed at Koko was “Fuck You,” a song that Allen wrote about George W. Bush. I haven’t heard the song yet, but I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment.

Allen’s hour-long performance at Koko closed with a cover of Britney Spears’ “Womanizer.”

Some fans were not happy with Allen’s musical shift. I’ll have to reserve judgment until I hear the new album. I do like “The Fear” quite a bit. It’s a great lead single for the album.

For more on Lily Allen’s Koko performance, see the article from BBC 6 Music.

Also see the review of Allen’s Koko performance from The Times of London.

I saw Allen perform twice in 2007 when she was touring behind her first album. The first show, at New York City’s Irving Plaza, was fantastic. The second one, which took place several months later at Roseland in midtown Manhattan, was a considerably more shambolic affair. Allen had sheets of paper with the lyrics written on them on the floor in front of her microphone. The papers got jumbled and she lost her place. Forgetting the words, she implored the audience to take the lead vocal. I thought it was really funny, but also incredibly unprofessional. Allen is a very charming performer, and that charm persuaded the audience to go along and take over the lead vocal until Allen could get her shit together and find her place in the song. Given that experience, I hope that Allen puts in more rehearsal time for her upcoming UK tour. In this tough economy, concertgoers will be more fickle about what gigs to attend. If Allen continues to act like she doesn’t give a damn onstage, maybe her audience will stop supporting her and find other artists to follow. I’m sure that many artists would be more than happy to inherit Allen’s audience.

To watch an amateur video of Allen performing “Smile” at the Koko show this past Wednesday night, click below:

To watch Allen performing “The Fear” live on a Webcast earlier this month, click below:

To hear a sampler of songs from Allen’s new It’s Not Me, It’s You album, click below:

The Rifles Are Interviewed And Perform On XFM Manchester

Walthamstow, England’s The Rifles appeared on XFM Manchester this week to promote their second album, The Great Escape. They performed an acoustic version of the album’s title track and were interviewed by XFM Manchester DJ Clint Boon. To hear the interview and the live version of “The Great Escape,” click here.

I had the very good fortune to see The Rifles open for Paul Weller twice in New York City last September. They are an excellent live band. After Weller’s second New York show, I got to chat for a bit with some of the members of The Rifles. They were pretty cool, and seemed to be a bit stunned to be playing in New York City and to be supporting Paul Weller.

The material that I’ve heard from The Great Escape is good. I’m looking forward to hearing the album in full.

For additional information on The Rifles, see:
http://www.myspace.com/therifles

Chris Martin Makes Solo Appearance On XFM London

On Thursday, Coldplay’s Chris Martin made a special solo appearance at XFM London’s Leicester Square studios and performed before a small, invited audience of contest winners. Martin, playing acoustic guitar and piano, performed “Viva La Vida,” “Talk,” “Life In Technicolor,” and “Fix You.” He was also interviewed by current XFM London DJ Ian Camfield, formerly of New York City’s K-Rock.

I’m not a big Coldplay fan, but I was quite impressed with Martin’s XFM session. The songs sounded great in that setting.

To hear the session and the interview and/or to watch videos of the individual songs performed by Martin at the session, click here.

Half of the Original Pretenders are Gone, But the Band Still Rocks

Chrissie Hynde and her Pretenders are playing New York City tonight (Roseland). I was tempted to go… the band still rocks (I saw them a few years ago open up for The Who). One of the best shows I ever attended was a Pretenders concert at a small venue, first row … when requests were asked for, I yelled out “Precious” to Hynde and she complied. No joke. It was fantastic.

So, at 55 dollars a pop tonight (plus a dreadful surcharge), I figured how can The Pretenders top that night 14 years ago in San Francisco at the The Warfield? I’ll just cherish the memories and save the money. Sorry Chrissie. It’s a recession.

Here’s a song (about Lemmy?) from 1981 — the original players.

FREAKY FRIDAY LYRICS: Warrant — “Cherry Pie”

Warrant — “Cherry Pie”

Swingin’ on the front porch
Swingin’ on the lawn
Swingin’ where we want
‘Cause there ain’t nobody home
Swingin’ to the left
And swingin’ to the right
If I think about baseball
I’ll swing all night yea

Swingin’ in the living room
Swingin’ in the kitchen
Most folks don’t ’cause
They’re too busy bitchin’
Swingin’ in there ’cause
She wanted me to feed her
So I mixed up the batter
And she licked the beater
I scream you scream
We all scream for her
Don’t even try ’cause
You can’t ignore her

She’s my cherry pie
Cool drink of water
Such a sweet surprise
Tastes so good
Make a grown man cry
Sweet cherry pie oh yea

She’s my cherry pie
Put a smile on your face
Ten miles wide
Looks so good
Bring a tear to your eye
Sweet cherry pie

Swingin’ to the drums
Swingin’ to guitar
Swingin’ to the bass
In the back of my car
Ain’t got money
Ain’t got no gas
But we’ll get where
We’re goin’ if we
Swing real fast

I scream you scream
We all scream for her
Don’t even try ’cause
You can’t ignore her
Swing it! All night long,
Swing it!
Swing in the bathroom
Swingin’ on the floor
Swingin’ so hard
We forgot to lock the door
In walks her daddy
Standin’ six foot four
He said you ain’t gonna swing
With my daughter no more

She’s my cherry pie
Cool drink of water
Such a sweet surprise
Tastes so good
Make a grown man cry
Sweet cherry pie oh yea
She’s my cherry pie
Put a smile on your face
Ten miles wide
Looks so good
Bring a tear to your eye
Sweet cherry pie
Sweet cherry pie

I think Warrant is finding out right about now that Cherry Pie becomes harder and harder to get when you’re a middle-aged man. I don’t care how much of a rock star you once were.

And, if you do by chance get to eat some Cherry Pie, and her “Daddy” catches you “swingin,’” you’ll proabably find out that the guy’s the same age as you. And that’s just sad. It’s a badly written Lolita novel. The “grown man” in this scenario will hardly be crying with delight.

And, if you watch the documentary clip below, even the band’s singer, Jani Lane — now nearly twenty years later — says “I can shoot myself in the f***ing head for writing that song.”

satan is rocking

beware.

Put On The Thermals

As you might have heard on Pitchfork, The Thermals just signed to the label Kill Rock Stars, and I’m excited to hear their next release.

The Village Voice recently described The Thermals like this:

If there were any natural selection in punk rock, The Thermals would have emerged victorious a long time ago.

But the band itself had a very humorous description of their music on their website, thethermals.com:

The Thermals have also made many contributions to rock “journalism”, including the terms no-fi, some-fi, mid-fi, post-pop-punk, pre-post-punk, neo-grunge and s.e.d.i.f.y.(somebody else does it for you).

Ha! So here’s to your future labels:

A Piece of Art Entitled “Self” By Slipknot Drummer, Shawn Crahan

…posted on MTV’s Headbanger’s Blog.

Whether you like it or not, it is good art; disturbing as it may be. But that’s Crahan’s point. Read in his own words:

If you’ve followed any of my past photos on this Blog, you’ve probably seen this technique, in which I employ a bunch of different styles including layering things like glass and spit to get this sort of look. I have done some studying in distorted imagery and how a lot of people will look in the mirror at themselves and see different things. You can walk by one mirror in your house and be happy with the way you look, and you can walk by another mirror and be completely disgusted. That’s distorted imagery in the brain and it’s something I like to capture in my art.

This particular day I wasn’t liking myself that much – not at all, actually – but instead of allowing myself to get depressed or dwelling on my emotions, I did the opposite and explored my unhappiness in the ugliest, scariest, most devilish way possible. I wanted to create an image of myself that was so disgusting I would look at it and think it’s absolutely beautiful. This was the way that I perceived myself on that particular day, and by the time I was done developing this, I was absolutely happy. It was an experiment in self-hatred and disgust where I see something horrifying and try to find some positive potential in it.

When I was growing up, if I said something bad about my mom, she would say, “Can you tell me something good about me now?” I have a lot of bad things to say about myself, but when I look at this I find a lot of great things to say.

Say what you want. I love Crahan’s post describing his art. Keep on expressing yourself outside of Slipknot, Shawn.

He has another recent photograph of roadkill with a cigarette butt next to it, and breaks it down wonderfully — how the used cigarette represents the waste and contempt of Man, and the animal the snuffed-out beauty of innocence and Nature. But you have to read his explanation yourself to really appreciate the insight into it.

One thing, though: do you have to post any of it on MTV? That may be part of your disgust! But seriously, this stuff could be in a gallery instead, like P.S. 1 in Long Island City, NY. Another words, it can get a wider audience than MTV.

Wired Magazine Has “First Annual” Rippy Music Awards

Most of the comments from this posted article on Wired.com think it’s far from a good joke, this Rippy Award idea. But I found it amusing, especially with the Grammy ceremony fast approaching.

Guns N’ Roses, winning for Most Anticipated Album Leak. Ha! Considering that the leaker got pinched, and Axl had no mercy… yeah, that should win.

And Vanilla Ice (yep, and can you believe that photo above?! Looking like Max Headroom’s illegitimate child!) picking up the award for Least Anticipated Album Leak (Whitesnake and Joe Satriani were also nominated).

Come on, that one’s a little funny, no?

Check out the other winners and the nominees at Wired Rippy Awards 08. And if you hate it as much as the others, just comment.

Lily Allen Does Great Acoustic Performance For Absolute Radio’s Zoo Sessions

Promoting her soon-to-be-released album (which is titled It’s Not Me, It’s You), Lily Allen performed a great acoustic session this week in London for Absolute Radio. Allen, accompanied by an acoustic guitarist and a piano player, did stirring versions of her new songs “22,” “The Fear,” and And “He Wasn’t There.” You can watch Lily Allen’s Absolute Radio Zoo Session by clicking here.

Alternatively, you can watch the session by clicking below:

Allen also sat for a somewhat off-the-wall interview with Absolute Radio DJ Geoff Lloyd, which you can watch by clicking here.

The interview can also be seen be clicking below:

NOTE: The video quality is better on the Absolute Radio site than it is in the You Tube clips above, so click the links above to the Absolute Radio site for the best quality video and sound.

For additional information on Lily Allen, see:
http://www.lilyallenmusic.com
http://www.myspace.com/lilymusic