Wednesday 18 May 2011

Velvet Owl Turn Ons - May 2011

Please note: This blog posting does not include any music produced by or featuring Will.I.Am

Arctic Monkeys - Don't Sit Down Because I've Moved Your Chair The indie titans are back with a new album to be released in June. This is the first single to be taken from it, and Turner's lyrics have definitely moved on from catching taxis in Hillsborough.

Bon Iver - Calgary New material from Bon Iver is a joy to behold. And news that he has announced a UK tour for November has made us all giddy kippers at VO Towers. 

The Kills - Satellite Chosen via the process of a lucky dip, the Velvet Owl Gig Collective's official outing for May will be The Kills at Leeds Uni.  If you're interested, the other gigs in the lucky dip were Yuck, Drive by Truckers, Cults and Wild Beasts.

Friendly Fires - Live Those Days Tonight Hands up, who thinks this sounds like Living in a Box? Rumours that the new album features a cover of Matthew Wilder's Break My Stride are as yet unfounded.

The Leisure Society - This Phantom Life Ok, we appreciate it's only May, but The Leisure Society's new album Into the Murky Water is already shaping up to be one of this year's best. 

The Avett Brothers - I and Love and You While we're happy The Leisure Society are playing this year's Green Man Festival, we nearly exploded with excitement when we found out these boys were rocking up too. If you don't own the best album of 2010 -from which this song is the title track- then shame on you!

Pete and the Pirates - Mr Understanding While it does sound like a secret track from I Should Coco, it doesn't stop us from plugging in our air guitars and pulling off some Townshend-esque windmilling here at VO Towers.

My Morning Jacket - Circuital To paraphrase that famous saying 'Tired of Jim James' voice, then you're tired of life' This is phenomenal!

Saturday 7 May 2011

The Jim Jones Revue, Norwich Waterfront

Much as we here in the Norwich Owl nest are looking forward to Tom Vek's new direction and have been blown away by Radiohead's brave latest venture (actually that's not true.  Either make a proper record Thom and co., or go away), there is nothing we like more than a good bit of honest, kick-ass rock n roll.  And so it is that we have converged on the Waterfront to check out the Jim Jones revue, confident that the traditional use of strings and keys will bring plenty of saturday night thrills.  And so it proves as, in front of a healthy all-ages crowd, the 21st century's finest Little Richard tribute band sweat buckets for the cause.
On record, the Revue's all-out assault can sound a little one-dimensional, but here it makes perfect sense, and as the likes of "Dishonest John" and album title track "Burning Your House Down" pummel the ears of the good people of East Anglia, it is clear that the good time sought by tonight's audience is being delivered in spades.  A little change of pace on occasion wouldn't go amiss, but subtlety is not really the aim here, and 80 minutes of blistering noise later, all appetites appear sated.
Leaving the venue by ten o'clock (to make room for Norwich's premier indie night, at which the hard-working DJs spin the same tunes in the same order as they have done for the past thirty years), all Owls agree that the spirit of rock and roll lives on in the lean frame of Jim and his classically attired cronies. By all means music needs to evolve and push envelopes, but sometimes a quiff, a leather jacket and a celebration of rock's history will suffice. A top night out.

Chris