Music
www.list.co.uk/music
WELL EXECUTED POP IS ABOUT SO MUCH MORE THAN JUST THE MUSIC Hitlist THE BEST ROCK, POP, JAZZ & FOLK*
✽✽ Zombie Zombie The Parisian duo pay tribute to John Carpenter’s films, as part of the Glasgow Film Festival. See feature, page 22. Mono, Glasgow, Thu 18 Feb. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ Hexicon, The Just Joans and Cancel the Astronauts Expect summery pop (Hexicon), ‘tales of teenage longing in small town Caledonia’ (the JJs), and indie-pop that hopes to offset all the bloody folk coming out of Embra (Cancel the Astronauts). Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh, Thu 18 Feb. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ Sir Richard Bishop It was a jaw-dropping guitar masterclass when SRB (Sun City Girls) played Stereo two years ago, supporting Earth. He’s supported this time by Glesgae’s Remember Remember and RM Hubbert. See preview, page ?? and album review, page 64. Stereo, Glasgow, Wed 24 Feb. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ The Undertones Two words. ‘Teenage Kicks’. No Feargal Sharkey singing this time though; Paul McLoone (what’s so funny about that?) is lead singer these days. King Tut’s, Glasgow, Sat 27 Feb. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ Shy Child Shimmering, throbbing pop, in that Miike Snow, electro-meets- Abba sort of way. Expect songs off LP Liquid Love (out Mar 15), which the New York duo call their ‘female’ album; a softer, more disco follow-up to their macho first album. ABC2, Glasgow, Tue 2 Mar. (Rock & Pop) ✽✽ Passion Pit PP’s debut EP, the colossally good Chunk of Change was written as a Valentine’s gift for his girlfriend. Ok, Manners, the album, wasn’t as good, but songs like ‘Sleepyhead’ still make this tempting. Supported by Ellie Goulding. ABC, Glasgow, Sat 6 Mar. (Rock & Pop)
Gaga about Gaga? Underneath Lady Gaga’s yellow (or sometimes purple) Lego-style bob lurks the new Madonna, argues Camilla Pia
W e tried to resist, honestly we did, but Lady Gaga got to The List in the end. It wasn’t the relentless marketing campaign that did it either. No, no, we survived all that initial fluff; we battled triumphantly against the moneyed barrage of hype and her bland R&B-inspired first offering ‘Just Dance’, only to be ultimately ensnared by the release of the gargantuan anthem ‘Poker Face’ last year. It has haunted us since first listen, as did ‘Paparazzi’, then ‘Bad Romance’. It was the nail in the coffin of any too-cool-for-school, indie-snob cred – we were soon singing along happily to that chorus of ‘Gaga’ and ‘Oh la la’. A few months later, we’ve got it bad – sometimes waking in the night, sweat-dripping, grinning demonically, whispering, wide-eyed, ‘HAUS.OF.GAGA’ over and over.
You see, as well as being a highly addictive modern pop classic, pa-pa-pa ‘Poker Face’ signalled the arrival of an extraordinary star, not last seen since Ma Ma Ma-donna was good. It was THE POP MOMENT of 2009 that set the ball rolling for a string of incredibly catchy hits, accompanied by controversy, eccentricity and visual freakery. Gaga made music genuinely exciting and innovative again. Last year, yes, we lost the Sugababes, and Girls Aloud slowly started to make a bid for freedom, but really, did anyone notice? We were too busy marvelling at Gaga plonking at flaming pianos, yapping in TV interviews, gender-bending at festivals, making BFFs with Oprah and Elton John, donning t h e most outlandish of outfits courtesy of the ‘Haus of Gaga’ and in her last video (for ‘Bad Romance’) managing to simultaneously conjure up mental images of Marilyn Manson, Kubrick, Britney, Hitchcock and the
60 THE LIST 18 Feb–4 Mar 2010
criminally insane.
Granted, she’s not yet a whole album proposition; The Fame was filler-tastic for the most part, but The Fame Monster’s extra eight tracks bolted on for December’s re-release (including killer duet ‘Telephone’ with Beyonce) bode very, very well indeed. In fact we reckon it’s only a matter of time before the Gaga delivers a whoppingly awesome 12- tracker – which will all be well and good, but really clever, well executed pop is about so much more than just the music. That’s the beauty of it. There’s a big difference, for example, between the thrilling visual and sonic science behind Gaga or Girls Aloud and the run-of-the-mill X-Factor plodders and Pixie Lotts of this world. It’s like comparing Kasabian with, say, Biffy Clyro. Yes, both make music with guitars in a guitar-based genre, but my god, we know who comes up with the more inventive stuff. (Spoiler: it’s not Kasabian.) Similarly, properly amazing, hype-worthy, pioneering pop is about more than just sing-able melodies and expensive stylists. It’s about never- ending reinvention (30%), the what the hell is he/she wearing factor (10%), pissing people off with screw- you sass (10%), playing with sexuality and gender (5%) and ultimately – perhaps most importantly– fusing a bizarre mix of musical styles and influences that shouldn’t work but they just do (45%). Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, like all the finest pop acts, brings it all together in a seamless, born-to-do-it, ridiculously infectious and mind-messing fashion. So step forward Lady Gaga – icon in waiting.
Lady Gaga, SECC, Glasgow, Mon 1 Mar.