thethouroughlyannoyingblonde

One of the more interesting characters in pop music over past couple of years has been that of Janelle Monae who nearly took the world by storm with her debut album in 2010 Archandroid winning numerous nods for album of the year and helping her become a house hold name in the states and is possibly one of the biggest names on Big Boi records, a label that she has been signed to since she was about 15 ( she can be heard doing backing vocals on Hey Ya) .

She has gained a reputation for being the female alternative to Prince, and with aplomb she pretty much sticks this up Princes Booty filled Jacksie. big funk driven breaks that hit right from the off recalling a Nile Rogers Chic style production, full of synthed up hand claps and squidgy keys lay the foundations for Monae’s vocal hooks.

It’s an interesting progression for Monae, it kind of screams of early Baduism era Erykah Badu who’s vocals offer a hefty lift on the chorus. it very much has the feel of an artist very much on the cutting front foot. It’s not quite the foot stomping of Tightrope or Cold War but something much more interesting.

I don’t know much about the Pearl Harts other than that they are a female 2 piece from London, that could quite easily rival that of Deap Valley. All I know is that the bands has only just started giging around the London area. I don’t even know quite how I came across them. i think it was through someone from one of the multi million bands I have come across from London was playing with them and I got an accidental Facebook invite from my millions of friends. So I can’t really go into great detail about knowing these girls a great deal or into knowing them personally. But from the two or three songs I’ve heard from this band shows a lot of potential.

Right from the off Wolf Eyes feels like the spirits of Joan Jett And The Runaways have been cobbled together in these two ladies. Right from the off theres is the big guitar sound that dry humps these ears and blasting drums give the kind of electric energy that only Joan Jett could really deliver. Her voice has real  holler with a real whiskey stanched feel and a killer bad ass attitude.

I think it’s really interesting how they kind of tone down the chorus lulling you into a false sense of security, and just when you think its going to fade away they smack you in the face with guitar riffs the size of venus dragging these ears back in

Along with the recent arrival of Deap Valley it very much feels like as if these girls are readying themselves to give it the double barrel gung-ho style performance. Anyway this is really good. a definite band full of promise!

One of Bristol’s best kept secrets are a band that have been gaining a pretty fierce live reputation The St Pierre Snake Invasion, a band who pretty much specialise in writing songs politically incorrect song titles and hilariously sarcastic song lyrics.  A band who happily fall somewhere between the boundaries Mclusky and Pulled Apart By Horses, or the tasteful or the tasteless. Trust me they have got a song that they dedicate to the loving memory of Micheal Hutchins and David Caradine called Hey Kids, Do The Choke Stroke And their take on Saville cover Sex Dungeons And Dragons. No subject is really too far a cry for these guys.

So Last Words Of A Bent Cop see’s the band take a quite frankly hilarious slur on the music industry, the media around it and most importantly of all Razorlight.  The synical sarcasm is something that very few will ever delve into, largely because of the fear of loosing any sense credibility, not that this ever really bothered The St Pierre Snake Invasion as they gleefully sing out I Wish I Was As Good As Razorlight.

It does blast of early Mclusky especially Light Sabre Cocking Sucking Blues you can pretty much hear it in the guitars. Also these guys remind me of a couple of bands that used to do the rounds in Bristol a couple of years ago, 3HoestwoMexicansandaTinofSpanners and Ivory Springer and listening to the St Pierre does sometimes make me long for the return of those bands, just so the kids could hear them.

But St Pierre say things that many will be too scared to say, or put into a comical context. anyway Last Words Of Bent Cop is taken from their debut ep which is out next week. Go and dig it!

Rachel Zeffira is a Canadian Italian operatic pop singer and multi instrumentalist and is probably best known as being one half of Cats Eyes with Horrors front man Farris Badwan.

her first solo album was launched late last year with which  Here On In is taken from. It very much feels like as if she has taken elements of the work she has done with cats eyes  and given it an extra dose of a dreamy atmospherics that floats somewhere in-between Kate Bush and Broadcast, never quite really settling into one influence or the other. This of course allows her develop and deliver her own understated voice.

For me this song breathes with a beautiful dream like quality that some female artists are scared to touch. right from the off there is a repetitive riff that travels all the way through the song with a real melodic impact the use of strings and washed out backing vocals stir up an image of a lapping sea-shore. It’s the way that she has used the subtleties that really elevates the whole thing with getting to over blown. This is a very beautiful song from a very interesting artist.

She is Currently touring the UK with which I would erge people to a go an see her.