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Off the record: the buzz begins here
27.02.09
Little Richard meets James Brown: King Khan, led by a Canadian of Indian descent from Berlin and featuring a 10-piece soul band
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As music fans plan their summer camping arrangements, the one festival most of us can't attend is about to begin in Texas. It may also be the most important.
The global music industry will soon congregate in Austin's myriad bar venues for South by Southwest, or SXSW, hoping for the same luck as those who discovered The White Stripes or Fleet Foxes here in years past. The American indie bands who will permeate our charts for the rest of 2009 will all be found somewhere in this teetering haystack of 2,000 unknowns.
How does the expert music magnate locate the needles? There's a little more to it than getting drunk and scouring the schedule for the band with the weirdest name (though Shilpa Ray and Her Happy Hookers, Tokyo Sex Destruction and Fuckshovel do all sound tempting). In this oversized echo chamber a whisper quickly becomes a scream, and buzz is built fast until a nobody's tiny lunchtime set becomes a roadblock.
In addition, thoughtful bloggers are already listening to all these bands so we don't have to. At http://sxsw.tastekeeper.com, the “hottest” acts are classified according to how much they're being talked about on the web. As an innocent bystander it becomes almost too easy to pick three for stardom. Those staggering around Texas next month will inevitably disagree but these are the hopefuls that stand out the most for me:
Passion Pit are the vehicle for the songwriting and electronic trickery of Boston-based Michael Angelakos, and are a leap ahead of most at SXSW, with a major label deal already landed. Their six-song Chunk of Change EP came out last week on Columbia, showcasing an airy touch with the synthesizers that should win over fans of successful labelmates MGMT. His high, wobbly vocals can grate, but the computerised whoosh of Smile Upon Me and cutesy swing of Cuddle Fuddle, both written as Valentine's gifts for his girlfriend, are charmers flaws and all. A debut album is due later in the year and features a 55-strong children's choir.
Harder of edge and significantly less bearded, Lissy Trullie may be the American to infiltrate the gang of British women soon to dominate the charts. She comes from a long line of overly cool New Yorkers that includes Debbie Harry and Patti Smith. With model looks, wiry guitar and a deep voice for a girl, she's what Kate Moss would be if she were a singer instead of a hanger-on.
Trullie's track Boy Boy is so redolent of her home it's almost a parody of New York rock music, with its Strokes jangle and Velvet Underground drawl. She also brings chugging guitars to a novel cover of Ready for the Floor by British electronica geeks Hot Chip. Her future magazine covers may outweigh her record sales but one way or another she'll make an impact.
If it's more outrageous glamour you're after, try the wildest of wild cards, King Khan and the Shrines. They're a giant gang led by a Canadian of Indian descent from Berlin, who won't be forgotten by anyone who spies him in Austin. With a howl like Little Richard and a cape like James Brown, plus a 10-piece soul band that includes a pompom-wielding cheerleader behind him, he makes other supposed showmen look like actuaries. A compilation album of early works, The Supreme Genius Of King Khan and the Shrines, is available through import on Vice Records. It includes Took my Lady to Dinner, with its proud chorus: “She's fat and she's ugly but I love her”. It's silly but powerfully done, and with that combination of songs and looks he can't fail at the main goal of SXSW — getting yourself talked about.
http://sxsw.com
www.myspace.com/passionpitjams
www.myspace.com/lissytrullie
www.myspace.com/kingkhantheshrines
NEW ON THE NET
*New Croydon pop band Frankmusik may end up attracting fewer stalkers than most musicians — he's made it too easy. Thanks to a tracking device in frontman Vincent Frank's mobile you can visit www.frankmusik.com and see where he is at any time, as well as emailing in suggestions of where he should play his next gig. It's claimed the hard-up singer might even stay over at your house if you ask nicely.
*Perpetually underrated French band Phoenix are surely owed a proper breakthrough by album number four, due in May. As a preview of their latest synth-heavy sound, new song 1901 has just been made available as a free download at www.wearephoenix.com.
*Electronics are everywhere, even in new material by once-minimal rockers Yeah Yeah Yeahs, whose third album It's Blitz! is coming in April. Blogging supremos Stereogum have two tracks available at http://stereogum.com/archives/new-yeah-yeah-yeahs-heads-will-roll_054111.html. Heads Will Roll sounds like a future favourite down the indie disco.
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