PREVIEW INDIE. BLACK KIDS King Tut’s, Glasgow, Wed 4 Jun
They're not gomg to teach your boyfriend how to dance With you. but tipped-for-greatness combo Black Kids are hellbent on entertaining the Tut's crowd as part of their UK and Europe-Wide tour.
Speaking from the back of a tour bus making its way across the States. keyboard player. vocalist and former substitute teacher Ali Y0ungblood has a philosophical take on whether they can live tip to the fren2ied hype surrounding them.
'lt's a little worrying.‘ she says. ‘but you just have to step it up. and the intentions are not bad.’ The group. from JacksonVille. Florida. have been recording With Bernard Butler. and the erstwhile Suede guitarist is currently working his magic at the miXing desk.
‘lt was a dream for us to work With him.' she says. ‘It's been awesome.‘
Ali's highlights so far including touring With Cut Copy i'that was pretty fun“) and the Coachella festival. but does boing in a band With her brother Reggie. who sings and plays guitar. cause any tension?
‘We argue about who's the prettrest.‘ she says wryly. And who wins? 'I don't let him Win. I refuse to.‘ But the glass certainly seems to be half full from where she's sitting. 'Are we a party band? I hope so.‘ she laughs. ‘We try. We're always haying a laugh and l ItlSl love playing music. getting on stage and being together. It's been pretty good and we ItlSl want to stay around for a long. long time'
(Emma Newlandsl
PREVIEW HIP HOP PUBLIC ENEMY ABC, Glasgow, Tue 27 May
Do you know the one about the ahead-of-his-time internet entrepreneur, the clock-obsessed reality TV star, and the boyish looking, alleged anti-Semite? No punch line here, just excerpts from the long and vivid history of one of hip hop’s most irresistible forces. A lot has happened since the most revolutionary and incendiary rap group in history - that’s Public Enemy to you and me - released what has widely, and rightly, been proclaimed to be one of the greatest hip hop albums of all time, their 1988 sophomore opus It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back. We’ve had Chuck D shrewdly abandoning record labels in favour of the web five years before everyone else did, Flavour Flav becoming hip hop’s small screen Hugh Hefner in his reality show Flavour of Love, and Professor Griff? Well, he should probably just watch his mouth.
Sure, times have changed, and the rap game is barely recognisable now from the bare, spare, gnarly beast that was only just into its awkward teenage years by the time Nation of Millions . . . was unleashed, but Chuck D and his squad showed rap’s possibilities, both sonically and politically, and set a blueprint for much of what followed. Where would Kanye West and The RZA be without The Bomb Squad's incendiary James Brown-sampling ballistics? Or everyone from A Tribe Called Quest to Ice Cube without Chuck’s deft verbal assuages? Lest we forget, their collaborations with Anthrax and their ill-fated tour of America with The Sisters of Mercy pioneered the notion of rap/rock crossover.
This show may be part of the Don’t Look Back series - previous combatants included The Stooges, Teenage Fanclub and Slint all playing their most revered albums - but is also celebrating the present with a substantial line-up in support: everyone’s favourite eccentric porno lyrical surrealist Kool Keith with Kutmaster Kurt, tripped out rap geeks Edan and Dagha and the newly reunited Antipop Consortium filling out this bulbous evening of tremulous hip hop magic. (Mark Robertson)
Annette Peacock
PREVIEW JAZZ LE WEEKEND Tolbooth, Stirling, Fri 23—Sun 25 May
With Triptych now but a memow. the eclecticism of Le Weekend is brought into even sharper focus as an important vehicle for music that eludes the attention of more conventional mainstream events. This year's programme offers an intriguing selection of star names like percussion maestro Hamid Drake. guitarist Elliott Sharp and the perennial Evan Parker. btit featured in new combinations.
A very rare UK appearance from singer Annette Peacock counts as a ITTE‘thF final night coup. and the opening night combination of The Pastels and Victoria Bergsman's new band. Taken By Trees. will attract a different audience. As Alasdair Campbell. director of both Le Weekend and The Tolbooth. explains. that is very much part of their ethos.
“Le Weekend has always had a jazz element at its heart. however experimental. although I don't even really like using that word to be honest. Many of the artists have some kind of Jazz connection. but pop has always been in there as well. and I definitely feel it has a legitimate place in the festival. It also attracts a younger audience. which is Vital'
Commissioning new work is also important. Composer DaVid Fennessy's ‘Big Lung' WI“ utilise the organ at the nearby Church of the Holy Rude. where Evan Parker's quartet Will also play. Back at the Tolbooth that night. Hamid Drake. who has appeared here previOusly vvith Peter Brotzmann and William Parker. will hook up with French guitarist Raymond Boni. while New York guitarist Elliott Sharp performs in a guitars and electronics duo With Frank Vigroux. The final night features Annette Peacock's solo performance and a quartet led by German saxophonist Alfred 23 Harth. while more locally-based talent appearing includes saxophonist Raymond MacDonald working with Miguel Carvalhais (electronics). and Bill Wells' National Jazz Trio of Scotland. here expanded to a quartet.
‘The joy for me is to take a risk. experiment and be allowed to fail now and again as well.‘ Campbell says. 'We have a combination of established and new artists and that is a key thing we try to do in the festwal.‘ (Kenny Mathieson)
22 May—5 Jun 2008 THE LIST 87