Edit: Review now up over on Spoonfed…

I’m pretty passionate about music. I try to go and photograph as many gigs as I can. Some are big events, big names, others are smaller gigs, people just starting out. I love it all. Someone I’ve come to love lately is Lissie. Her album, Catching A Tiger, is phenomenal. I’m in love with her voice that resonates such as Stevie Nicks influence. I went along to her collaborative gig at The Flowerpot. I wrote a review which will hopefully be up on Spoonfed soon. There’s also a video I shot (albeit a little wobbly standing on a sofa) of her performing. I have some photos, may post them in a few days…

Oh, The Flowerpot. Tucked away on Kentish Town Road, this vibrant music hub hosts gigs by upcoming and leading bands, all for the measly price of diddly squat. This week they’ve been taken over by Communion – the label and club night run by Mumford and Sons‘ own Ben Lovett – creating a collaborative musical effort by artists big and small. The intention is to record each live one-off show which will then be turned into an album to be released later in the Autumn.

Tonight’s cross-section of musical delights includes James Moss, The Staves, Mt Desolation and my personal favourite, Lissie. After hearing Lissie’s cover of Gaga’s Bad Romance a few months ago, I was instantly hooked on her Stevie Nicks-esque voice. Since then she’s released her debut album, Catching a Tiger, performed at Glastonbury, and seems to be picking up headlining dates across the UK. Simply put: she’s one to watch.

The Flowerpot’s a lovely little venue, if not a little hot in the midst of our impromptu summer heat wave, but what’s a good night out if you’re not brushing shoulders with another sweaty Londoner? Its small size lends itself well to creating an atmospheric buzz with a friendly crowd and welcoming artists. The Staves, whose simple acoustic rifts accompanied by a trio of haunting female voices, are joined on stage by James Moss for the first collaborative effort. Simple and melodic, their track is almost mesmerising with the repetitive chanting of “I’m not scared of dying”.

But it’s Lissie that I really came to see. With her shaggy dirty blonde hair she zips through the small crowd, a friendly beaming face. Taking to the stage she’s chatty, always smiling, and springs straight into When I’m Alone, a track which she recently dueted live with Ellie Goulding on at The Great Escape Festival, and one that defines her style of folk rock. Playing tracks from her album, Lissie’s mixture of guitar slinging folk and electric blues send you straight back to Fleetwood Mac, whose influence seem undoubted. Everywhere I Go, one of Lissie’s more melancholy tracks is instantly reminiscent of a solo Stevie Nicks, a beautiful but troubling ballad. There’s a real star quality about Lissie – the energy of her performances, the warmth of her character, and the complexity of her music. Whether it’s the rockin’ jamming at the end of In Sleep or the raw softness of Oh Mississippi, there’s definitely something that sets Lissie apart from the female artists emerging today.

A video I recorded of Kelis at Perez Hilton’s “One Night In London” event…

Love him or hate him, Perez Hilton‘s infamous Hollywood gossip website has crafted him an envious career that means he has Lady Gaga on speed dial. Whilst his name may be synonymous with scandals across the Atlantic, Perez has recently been turning his hand at nurturing new musical acts with the launch of his own record label. Branching out further from dissing celebs online, his events touch down in London town for his aptly named One Night In London at The O2′s smaller IndigO room. Tickets were free from Perez’s website.

On first entry I was a bit perturbed about walking into a half-filled room full of people watching what appeared to be a choir of prepubescent girls miming along to The Puppini Sisters‘ version of Mr. Sandman. Luckily that soon finished and although the event was free, I was a little confused about how there seemed to be so little people there. After all this is Perez, self-titled Queen of All Media, friends (and foe) to the stars. Surely there were going to be some big named acts tonight? Next up were The Hoosiers, whose inoffensive pop-rock seemed to drag in a few more. It took me a while to work out who the next act was, a breathy urchin whose styling may have gone down the pan slightly, dressed in a giant doily dress. Diana Vickers. Say no more.

It picked up when the real acts, introduced personally by Perez (and not billed on the line-up) were announced. Peaches, a lady you don’t wanna mess with, walked the crowd (amongst threats that “If you drop me, this show WILL be over”) and had the crowd screaming to her best known electro stomper, Fuck The Pain Away.

When headliner Kelis was announced the venue seemed to fill out dramatically with everyone desperate to get a glance at one of pop music’s women of the moment. Decked out a slinky skin tight purple mini dress, high heels and a strange piece of headwear, Kelis’ took to stage for a medley of her latest album, Fleshtone.

Glastonbury was… hot. Scorching. Roasting. A burning hot magma of field time frolics. We should have known that this would have been the way for the next five days as we stood in line for hours and hours in the blistering heat, queuing to get in. Had a damn good time, got totally burnt (for the first time ever?), did silly things with friends. Lay in fields looking at the night sky, watched the sunset, painted spoons with hippies, went to the tranni club. The usual. Highlights for me were Lissie, Snoop Dogg (!), Laura Marling, Candi Staton (again) and Corinne Bailey Rae, to name a few. On to the photos… there’s a lot of them!

Beyoncé, the only woman for me. So so so hot in her new video.

I love the opening lines…

“Now, now, now, honey
You better sit down and look around
Cause you must’ve bumped yo’ head
And I love you enough to talk some sense back into you, baby
I’d hate to see you come home, me the kids
And the dog is gone
Check my credentials…
I give you everything you want everything you need
Even your friends say I’m a good woman
All I need to know is why? ”

I’d been trying to get to see Kal Lavelle for quite a few months but kept missing her gigs. She writes beautiful, gutsy folk music about love and all that mushy stuff. You should check out her MySpace, or in particular this video of her track ‘Disaster’:

Here’s a few snaps of her performing at Proud Camden:

Paloma Faith at Shepherd’s Bush Empire.

After interviewing MEN (see previous post) we stayed for their set. I kept thinking back to when I photographed Le Tigre in 2004.. Amazing set, great energy, lovely people. Here’s some live shots. I also took some videos but I’m not a video whiz just yet!

Fronted by two thirds of Le Tigre, Brooklyn-based performance collective MEN aren’t like your usual indie/art band. The project of JD Samson and Johanna Fateman, they focus on the radical potential of dance and make booty-shaking tunes that speak of issues as diverse as wartime economies, sexual compromise, and demanding liberties.

I caught up with JD and bandmates Ginger and Michael in Brighton to hear more about their musical endeavours, their love for Dizzee Rascal and the pitfalls of political dance.

Can you explain how MEN came about after Le Tigre’s hiatus in 2006?

JD: Le Tigre finished and we each individually had our own projects. Johanna and I had been DJing a lot and we decided to turn our duo into a collective, bringing in Michael and Ginger. We’ve completed around seven or eight songs and we have a couple more to record, then hopefully we’ll have our record finished in about a month.

Le Tigre’s music was notoriously politically charged. How is it different writing as MEN and what issues are the new songs covering?

JD: We’re artists and activists and that’s who we are as people. All of us are separate from the band and all of us are queer – that’s a big part of our lives. We spend a lot of time paying attention to our politics so I think our music naturally ends up being politically charged. It’s less something that we feel forced to do, it’s just natural to us.

Do you think that as long as you’re making music and art that the subject matter is always going to be about your political stances?

JD: I think working with Kathleen and Jo [Le Tigre] has taught me about writing in this way. Most people’s songs are about love but I was schooled in this way that music is about life, not just about love, so it can be about anything.

Ginger: I don’t think it’s that the topics are that pre-determined.  It’s not like we set out to write an album that’s a queer activist project – it’s just the way we live our lives, the way we think, the people around us, the things that we’re doing. 
 
The production and sound of the new tracks is a lot slicker than the recognisably lo-fi sounds of Le Tigre. Was that a conscious decision?

JD: It’s come from all different things. One thing is that I’ve learnt a lot. Being with Le Tigre until ‘This Island’, we all became better musicians. DJing helped me to analyse music. Working with Ginger and Michael, both instrumentalists, has helped to understand the music better. Le Tigre was such an experiment – pushing buttons and making some amazing things happen but it really was so experimental.

Who are you listening to these days?

JD: We’re really into Dizzee Rascal’s new album. The production is incredible!
Do you not find the song ‘Freaky Freaky’ [in which Dizzee reels off a list of girls’ names and various sexual encounters with them in detail] degrading and offensive to women?

JD: It’s a bit like that other song..

Michael: [Sings] A little bit of Monica..!

JD: Yeah! The Mambo Number 5! In the states Dizzee is really underground. His music is innovative; it refers to so many different periods of music.

Ginger: I feel like you could listen to this and be offended from a really essentialist feminist standpoint.

You’ve recently been working with Christina Aguilera on her new album. What other female artists would you like to work with?

JD: I have so much respect for the artists that are at that popstar level. The amount of work that they put in is pretty crazy. I really respect Lady Gaga – she’s an incredible performance artist which is cool. I don’t know? Joan Armatrading?

What would your ultimate milestone be as MEN?

Ginger: If we could open for Joan Armatrading! [Cheers] Or record a song with her.

Michael: I think something interesting that’s happening is that not all of our audience is queer. I think it’s interesting because we’re obviously totally gay, yet we have really straight dudes feeling this. It’s nice to appeal to not just a queer audience.

Ginger: Another grand vision is to do a major touring act, like a festival model with a bunch of queer bands that would tour and there would be this following of people that would come and travel with us until we ended up with this ridiculously huge queer festival somewhere!

Their EP, ‘Physical’, featuring 3 of their finished tracks is available online via their MySpace.