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Off the record
Evening Standard 30.05.08
''That's one of the coolest things we've ever done'': Carl Broemel (left) and Jim James of My Morning Jacket
Look here too
You'll never guess who I had in the back of my cab
This is the ultimate intimate gig — Kentucky country rock band My Morning Jacket are performing a gorgeous new song to an audience of just me, a cameraman and an enthusiastic taxi driver.
I'm clutching headphones and a micro-phone and trying not to get in the way as the car swings around the back streets of Bloomsbury for the latest Black Cab Session, a London-centric internet hit that has now seen more than 40 musicians crammed into the back of a taxi (one at a time) to film a single song in a single take. Participants have included British indie stars The Kooks and The Futureheads, cult favourites Seasick Steve and Daniel Johnston, and people from outside guitar rock including Killa Kela and Benjamin Zephaniah.
The most popular video so far is, appropriately enough, by Death Cab for Cutie, America's number one band this week. Sessions by the latest critical darlings Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes are imminent, and near misses include the folk eccentric Joanna Newsom, who would have done it if only her harp had fitted in the taxi. The organisers' wish list includes Leonard Cohen, Tom Waits, Radiohead and, even less real-istically, the late Jeff Buckley. I wouldn't bet against them to start landing bigger and bigger names, though, for the level playing field that such a simple idea creates is proving an irresistable challenge to musicians.
“That was one of the coolest things we've ever done!” exclaims Jim James of My Morning Jacket as he returns to the street. He chose to play Touch Me I'm Going To Scream Pt 2, from next month's excellent new album Evil Urges, because it involved playing the Omnichord, a strange synthesiser, “and no one else on the site has used one so far”.
“The Kooks told us they loved it because they were so bored with doing interviews,” says Gen Stevens of Hidden Fruit Promotions, the company that collaborated with Just So Films to record the first few sessions a year ago as a novel way of promoting gigs they were putting on in conventional venues. Now the Black Cab Sessions exist for their entertainment value alone.
There's a definite romance to hearing a ballad being played in close-up as the city floats by in the steamy windows. My Morning Jacket's performance is so beautiful, James's high, pure voice so captivating, that I would have been genuinely moved if my arm hadn't ached so much from holding the microphone out of shot.
The middle-aged geezer driving the cab is a different matter. “It's a lovely tune. What's the name of the band? Do they need a road manager?” he enthuses. He had been hailed in the standard way and paid the amount on the meter, though Stevens had secured his services around the corner first so he wasn't scared off by the film crew and the musician with the funny beard and cape.
“About 10 per cent of drivers turn us down because they don't want to be filmed or think it's a bit weird,” she tells me. “But every cabbie who's done it has really enjoyed it.”
They're not the only ones. These are now the biggest small gigs in London — it'll have to be minibuses next.
www.blackcabsessions.com
A musical makeover for the Connaught
For posh hotels, a classy music policy used to mean a man tinkling a grand piano in a corner. Now they call in a music consultant to sort out the sounds and create the perfect playlist.
The five-star Connaught hotel in Mayfair is in the middle of a £70 million modernisation, and recently reopened its Coburg Bar with art by Blur collaborator Julian Opie on the walls. It bustles with cocktail-sipping youngsters, and the soundtrack, put together by Clapham-based company Music Concierge, includes soul from Al Green, African blues from Ali Farka Touré and something more modern from the likes of Alice Russell.
Rob Wood of Music Concierge says it is only lately that hotels and restaurants have started paying as much attention to choosing the tunes as choosing the curtains. His songs arrive at a hard drive via broadband, and switch tempo depending on the time of day, always changing, shuffling and refreshing with new material so that no one gets bored.
“There's a growing trend for sensory branding, the idea that a brand can appeal in more than just a visual way,” Wood tells me. “We've tried to appeal to a younger guest without offending the older ones.”
But although it may not irritate like the muzak of old, isn't it still musical wallpaper, only there to be ignored? “It should never be in your face, but at the same time it needs to add to the atmosphere of the room and if you do tune into it, it ought to be engaging.”
The music is turned on halfway through my experience of the Coburg cocktail hour, and the mood noticeably picks up. There's one more sensory development to come, though, and the punters will never want to leave — soon, the Connaught will be getting its own painstakingly concocted smell.
NEW ON THE NET
Those in need of convincing that Melbourne trio Cut Copy's recent second album In Ghost Colours is a worthy investment can download the catchy track Lights and Music as a free single of the week in the iTunes store this week.
Sigur Rós have been recording outside their native Iceland for the first time for their imminent fifth album, which signals a move away from the band's usual whalesong wispiness if lively free preview Gobbledigook is anything to go by. At www.sigurros.com you can download the song for free now, stream the album from 9 June and also watch the new video — a bunch of nudists cavorting in the woods that won't be seen on MTV anytime soon.
New York's Joan Wasser, aka Joan As Police Woman, can be heard on the jazzy preview single To Be Loved, in download stores from Monday, before her second album To Survive is released on 9 June.
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Lovely story about the taxis. Just one thing -- irresistible is not spelled with an a.
- Polly, United Kingdom
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