Music, Issue 638

Cabaret Whore

Sex, revenge and Katie Price

The themes of sex, revenge and Katie Price are just some of the topics tackled in Sarah-Louise Young’s all female cabaret show. Performed with passion from the very beginning, Young’s interchanging characters - Southern belle, socially inept librarian…

Camille O’Sullivan: The Dark Angel

For every fly-by-night that comes to Edinburgh in August one month and picks up the awards, TV contracts, films scripts and buggers off to their newly purchased castle on a tax haven Caribbean island. Others do some sweating for their rep and Camille…

Tragic endeavours: Staatsoper Stuttgart’s Actus Tragicus

Lifting the lid on one of the EIF's must-sees

Actus Tragicus. A presentation of tragedy. With that title, Stuttgart Opera’s production is hardly going to be a bundle of laughs. Yet, the sheer beauty of the Bach cantatas, which lie at the heart of this highly unusual synthesis of music and drama…

Magazine - Second Life

On their return earlier this year, Magazine received ecstatic words. Now, Neil Cooper is convinced lighting can strike twice. Valentine’s Day is the perfect time for reigniting love affairs. This year, in a concrete hall close to Manchester University…

The Pastels and Tenniscoats - Two's company

It was a marriage made in indie heaven: the dreamy ponderings of Glasgow’s Pastels with that of Tokyo’s industrious Tenniscoats. David Pollock takes up the story

Sporadical

Sea shanties and your long-lost auntie

You thought your family reunions were bad? They’ve got nothing on the Wellesferry’s. Except that it turns out you are part of the extended Wellesferry clan, which is made clear in this interactive musical with name badges all round, enthusiastic…

Music hitlist

Belle Orchestre, Bronto Skylift, Fleet Foxes, Hank Williams III, Retrofest, Tenniscoats, Terry Reid, The Fortunate Sons, The Pastels, Tori Amos,

Hitlist: Festival music

What to see this week

Pokey La Farge, Actus Tragicus, Magazine, Maria Tecce, Malinky, Camille O'Sullivan, Air Alba

Singles and downloads

Your tunes for the week

Sugababes are sexy and, bless ‘em, they want us to be sexy too, so they’re imploring us to ‘Get Sexy’ (Island) ●●. Strange, then, with all that sexy-talk in the air, the single should be an insipid rehashing of that deeply unsexy Right Said Fred song…

The List Festival Awards: 2009

From chicken sex to naked puppets

Our annual awards for the most interesting and unique shows out there.

Hitlist: Around Town

The best events, books and LGBT

Sheep Heid Inn Summer’s End Beer Festival, Launch of SEEDBOM, Bletherheads, Jeffrey Lewis’ Watchmen, Handmade Heaven, Mary Brennan, Dead Girls’ Dance Club

Frightened Rabbit

New material promises great things

From the moment Frightened Rabbit take the stage, the capacity crowd at the Queen’s Hall gives them a warm welcome - roaring their approval before a note has been played. They open with the first track from their Midnight Organ Fight album, ‘The Modern…

Pokey LaFarge

Being totally honest, it was the tremendous name that first caught our eye with Mr LaFarge, but when you hear the ragged glories he knocks out on his acoustic six-string you know there’s more than just showbiz glitz to this critter. Like all genii…

The Dodos - Time to Die

Uplifting US folk rock

(Wichita) Formed in San Francisco about four years ago, The Dodos have previously left their mark via two well-received sets, Beware of the Maniacs and Visiter. Many American fans might’ve caught the duo (frontman Meric Long and drummer Logan Kroeber…

Noah and the Whale - The First Days of Spring

(Young & Lost) A sublime paean to the restorative powers of nature, space and time, The First Days of Spring elevates London’s Noah and the Whale from punctuation-denigrating indie-poppers – see 2008’s mini-hit, ‘5 Years Time’ (sic) – to philharmonic…

Jim O’Rourke - The Visitor

Eight years in the making

(Drag City) It’s been eight years in the making but this indie legend makes his long-awaited return with a sublime solo effort in the form of The Visitor. All-instrumental and played solely by his own masterful hand, the record is a series of musical…

Yacht - See Mystery Lights

Playful beats

(DFA) He left The Blow to go it alone, but it seems that Jona Bechtolt just can’t keep away from coupledom. The Portland, Oregon-based lo-fi quirkpop pioneer has invited Claire L Evans to turn Yacht into a duo, and the outfit sounds all the better…

Yo La Tango - Popular Songs

Indie stalwarts return

(Matador) There was a time when a new offering from Yo La Tengo was reason to rejoice, but these days the Hoboken indie veterans seem to be distinctly treading water, slowly refining and reworking their past sound without creating anything too…

Money Can't Buy Music - The Universe For Beginners

Sweet and poignant

(Pony Proof) Annoyingly precious band name aside, this is a sweet and poignant little side project from Gordon McIntyre of Ballboy, this time collaborating with Swedish singer and multi-instrumentalist Maja Mangard. There’s no great departure from…

Vetiver

Sub Pop folksters play Stereo

The seven-strong line-up of Nu folk band from the US of A headed by Andy Cabic is sometimes bolstered by Devendra Banhart (though we can’t guarantee his appearance at these dates). Tune into their layered, mesmeric folky sound on their latest album…

Belle Orchestre

Instrumental orchestral rock comes to Glasgow

Instrumental band from Montreal with a shared history and sound to Arcade Fire, though Bell Orchestre go for a more epic glacial sound. Not surprising when you realise they share three members and recorded their debut album in the same studio and at the…

Terry Reid & The Fortunate Sons

Looking forward to the man who turned down Led Zeppelin

Nicknamed ‘superlungs’ Terry Reid turned down positions in both Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple and has a long and prestigious history in rock working with the likes of Jackson Browne, Jeff Beck, Keith Richards, The Eagles, The Who and The Police through…

Tori Amos

The definitive female voice returns

The ultimate kooky female singer-songwriter (well, since Kate Bush at any rate), known for her quirky take on piano ballads and eccentric vocals. Here touring her tenth studio album Abnormally Attracted to Sin recorded at her home studio in…

Admeto Re’di Tessaglia

Getting a handle on Handel

Scorned lovers, jealous tantrums and furious outbursts are all in a day’s work for conductor Nicholas McGegan. As he explains, ‘There’s not a great deal of difference between opera and soap opera – they are all about love, jealously and ambition.…

Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich

American soprano is mobbed, but not in the mob

Dawn Upshaw is up to her elbows in batter. She’s in the kitchen of her New York home, making pancakes with her son. It’s a very domestic scene, but then the American soprano couldn’t be further from the diva-ish stereotype. She’s just returned from the…