Later... with Jools Holland

So let me kick this off with my review of tonights show. Three acts that cought my interest were Yeasayer, The Kooks and Goldfrapp.

My favourite was Yeasayer. Their CD All Hour Cymbals is in my collection since about three months (maybe Ponder remembers my enthousiasm in chat back then?). It was a pity they did "2080" and "Sunrise", admittedly their best songs but also the ones most found on YouTube and their site. So many interesting songs on that album, I would have liked to hear one of those. But that's me, they were probably hitting for your regular John Doe watching and seeing them for the first time.
But nonetheless, they did their best performance I've seen yet. The crowd seemed to agree.

The Kooks, Yeasayers newest fans (they said in the interview) was interesting, but not really my cup of tea. Good band, fun to watch, driven and from the heart. But they did not hit any strings in my gut, if you know what I mean.

And Goldfrapp. Hmmm, seriously, I can see (and hear) the genius, especially in the arrangements, but it was all a bit too flat in my opinion. She has a lovely voice, but only uses it to whisper, it seems. I remember thinking, watching the last song they did on the show, what it would have sounded like if The Kooks singer, or Yeasayers, would have done the same song with the same band. Probably better, I imagined.

i remember jools holland and his show with th e kooks,as you say not the best at the time but have shown heart and i expect them to be around for a fair amount of time,jools holland has been a steeping stone for many in my mind though.

Thank you ook. Yes, indeed he was (and is; stepping stone I mean).

Last Fridays show was a roots show, with Sharon Stone, Devotchka and Toumani Diabate.
My favourite was Toumani Diabate. Granted, not everyones kind of music, but what craftsmanship!!! I liked the music, and was stunned to see that he did all that with the use of only two fingers and two thumbs! Wow.
The Last Shadow Puppets was a surprise. I'm a bit of an Arctic Monkeys fan, but wasn't aware of this side project. Interesting, to say the least. With a 22 piece orchestra!
Least favourite was Portishead. Repetitive and boring. Sorry....

Tonights show: Was (not Was). Ha! That's a flashback to olden days. It's going to be on in half an hour, maybe I will be back later.

Good Gods in the Heavens!!

Eartha Kitt! Eartha Kitt!! Eartha Kitt!!!
Let me repeat that:
Eartha Kitt! Eartha Kitt!! Eartha Kitt!!!
The sexiest 81-yo (1) I have ever seen! That was so good it brought tears to my eyes. She sang Fats Wallers classic Ain't Misbehavin', and it was the best!

Come on Jools, that's cheating. No-one can compete with that! Even Was (not Was) looks semi-interesting weak compared to that. (ow! that's a lame pun, isn't it? Their first song on tonights show was "Semi-interesting Week").

However, I will be looking forward to more of Brandi Carlile this friday. Very good singer, and a good song too.

Yamato - Drummers of Japan was good too, but all-drummer acts usually are because it's so physical. A show in itself, no matter if the music is really good.
But it was. Not just the usual boombakaboom, but interesting shifts in rhythm and stuff.
The biggest drum ever to appear on Later..., Jools said. Hah! Fooled you mate, that was an apartment block with the windows covered.
But it did remind of a couple of CDs I have of a dutch all-drummer act. Let me try to find an interesting youtube for next post.

In the meantime, a hint: watch fridays show!
Eartha Kitt! Eartha Kitt!! Eartha Kitt!!!

(1) Don't even try! No sick jokes until you've seen her perform with Jools and his orchestra and seen for yourself she really is.

Just watched last weeks of this - It had Metallica as the main band! Metallica! They were fantastic, random, but fantastic.

Linky? Metallica? On Jools? Doesn't seem right...

Why so? Metallica is music, and even good music too. That's the thing I like most about Jools: he doesn't discriminate. If it's good enough, and professional enough, it eventually makes it to the show.

I missed it, somehow Jools' newsletter never gets through to my gmail account. It had Kings of Leon as well, apparently, and I would've loved to see them perform.
Ah well, starting the day after tomorrow, I will start taping the shows again.
Thanks for the input, I was getting afraid this thread would end up being a one-man show.

Did I mention, BTW, that I was fortunate enough to be able to see Jools play at my favourite festival of the year, the BRBF in Peer, Belgium? He was a headliner, and the show was great. Normally (I'm a 19-year veteran for BRBF, so I know what I'm talking about) the crowd disperses about halfway through the show of the last act, too inebriated or too tired to keep it up and leaving only the true fans of that particular act, a quarter or maybe one third of the original crowd.
But not this time. Jools had great fun, and the spark went out and kept at least half of the crowd interested until the end. And it was a great show, with a couple of special guests, and what's even more, a couple of unintended power blackouts that showed how good the band (19 musicians!) was at adopting, adapting and improving. "Let's have our acoustic section [the coppers and strings, OB] play a little bit for us, then!"
Nothing like a bit of unexpected improvisation against odds to get a crowd to like you. Seriously, I've seen it happen twice before, and those concerts are the best I've ever seen.

But anyway, tonights show. Elbow! Never heard of them before, but gods that was beautiful! I'm running to my CD shop first thing tomorrow, seriously. Sometimes, just the once in a blue moon, a new band or song brings goosebumps all over. It happened tonight.
My other favourite was Imelda May; one song a both funny and uptempo, immediately likeable rootsrocker, the other a very introspective jazzy thing that brought Tom Waits to mind (replacing the gravelly voice by a silken one; a contrast I'm sure, but if you've seen it you know what I mean). I think I will remember her for my next drive to the CD shop.
And then there's David Gilmour. Still noticeably affected by the recent death of his former Pink Floyd bandmate Rick Wright, he managed to play an immediate standard guitar solo at the very end of the show. Some things are just not right, you know? Like David, it seems like every time he plays his guitar, it turns out to be the best solo ever. Not right, and definitely not fair! Get him to stop doing that at once, please.

Hi y'all,

Awright! The Elbow CD was one of the presents for my birthday, and I'm fairly sure that the song "One Day Like This" (heh heh, yeah) is about to become my favourite of the year. "Throw those curtains wide, one day like this a year will see me right" (ad infinitum). Merely a coincidence.

Mixed feelings about tonights show. Missed one third, but I'm not quite sure if "missed" is the right verb. A lot of tone-deafs in this one, that's why.
Tone-deaf: from a song by His Royal Medium-Hightness, AKA Prince, formerly known as The Sign, formerly known as Prince, referring to rap(pers). A lot of those in the show tonight: The Streets, Little Jackie, and even TV On The Radio in one song. Not my thing, rap. Boring. Sorry.

Boy George: let's just hope that those designer whiskers are indeed whiskers, and not tattoos.

Kaiser Chiefs: ah well.

TV On the Radio: a lot of buzz over here (Netherlands) about their latest album. A feature article on the arts page of my national newspaper, plus a raving review with 5 out of 5 in the music section of same. The Missus liked TVOTR, and bought the CD, so I did have a chance to listen to it, but I can't seem to find the 5 anywhere.

So that leaves Seasick Steve. Third time around, and rightly so. But even then, I wasn't too excited about the additional backup singers. He's always been the uncut diamond, and now the polish sounded like a blemish. Great title though: "I started out with nothing, and I still got most of it left". Oh, and a very nice beard. Thinking of growing one like that myself.

All in all, it may be no surprise if you've read the above, I'm not excited about tonights show. Next week: Coldplay, John Mellencamp and Hold Steady. Hm.
Just hm, neither positive nor negative. We'll see. The Missus bought Viva la Vida, and again, one great song --obviously-- but the rest... Let them surprise me.

To make things right, I would like to point to two sessions Theresa Andersson did in Louisiana Music Factory, the best and at the moment only CD shop in New Orleans.
She's a looker allright, but that's just a bonus. She takes the one-person-band idea one step beyond. Have a look and be astonished (sorry, LMF does not allow embedding):

Theresa Andersson @ LMF part one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXZc__IZhew
Theresa Andersson @ LMF part two:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hlqt_3ropXE

If you want to skip, then skip to the end of part two. The "a capella" part she does at the end is simply amazing!!

See y'all next week.

SeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaSiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiccckkk SSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTEEEEEEEEEEEEEEVVVVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm seeing him on concert on the 23'rd october in Aberdeen, so I am (rightly) excited. The kaisers new stuff, i found hard to listne to, as I insist on figuring out the lyrics to their songs, but they were so quiet!

Oh bugger. [jealous] and [feeling stupid].
Did I really write "backup singers"?? I must have been even more tired than I thought I was... What I meant was: "backing vocals".

You get to see Seasick Steve! Wow mate, wish I could be there. Have a lot of fun, I'm sure you will.
Did you get a chance to look at the Theresa Andersson videos? You should you know, since you seem to like Steve. He's a man with a guitar and a stompbox; she's a woman with a guitar, drums, violin, plus several "backup singers" all in one.

Tonight's show:

Coldplay: used tapes. DISQUALIFIED! This is a live show, go get your act together mates.
No, seriously, one moment he was playing piano, the other he wasn't and you could still hear the piano. A couple of hands on a tv screen (or a quartet of strings on same) isn't live music, so who's going to tell the difference between what is and what isn't?

Other than that, this was a very good show.

This afternoon I was at my favourite CD shop, listening to a press-the-button-and-listen display, and this weeks selection was four country and one christian rock albums. Ten seconds into each album I thought Nah-huh, I'm not into country, and definitely not into christian whatever but that's beside the point.
And then, a couple of hours Later.... I have to admit I am into country, when it is as good as Glen Campbell's. His bass has turned into a baritone over the years, that's a shame, but other than that, those were a couple of very good songs.

Two other "hey, that's been a while, good to see you again" moments were Mick Fleetwood and John Mellencamp. Not particularly good, but nice to see them again anyway.

SIA: interesting. A very, very good voice, but a bit of a surreal presentation. What's with the green hands, hon?

My two favourites of tonight however were:

Amy Lavere: a cute girl with a double bass. Now that's a first. Especially since double bass usually means rockabilly, or jazz, but this was neither. Poppy, but not. Jazzy, but not. Interesting, yes.

And: Cage the Elephant. Yeehaa! Just a couple of kids with in-your-face rock, always my favourite. Reminded me of very young U2 (yeah, I'm that old), first Pixies albums, and most recently Arctic Monkeys. Not that they sound like them, but the attitude is the same. "Cut the crap, this is what we like to play, and we're going to play it whatever you think about it". Honesty, devotion, drive. 99% of good music is build upon those three pillars. They've got 100% of all three.
Judging from one song, I have to admit. Let's hope they do not disappoint.
Oh, and the Mcjagger dance helped, definitely.

Hi Y'all,

Tonights key word was dynamics. An essential part of music, dynamics.
Music is rhythm, melody, and dynamics. Best music has all three. Tonights show was a very good example.

Rhythm. Essential to music, but not music in itself. See dance, house, or whatever they call it these days. No melody, hardly any dynamics, and boring as hell. It takes masters like Steve Reich to make an interesting piece of music with only rhythm (listen to his tour de force Drumming).
Of course there's also music without any rhythm at all (mostly modern classics like Stockhausen, Luigi Nono), or it bouncing all over the place (probably jazz), or jumping from one to the other (jazz again, or mathrock, but also King Crimson for example, mixing several for each individual instrument into one song(!)).

Melody. Thought of by most as being the sole ingredient of what music is. It's not. Very, very important, but not entirely. I remember a concert by John Hiatt at BRBF Peer last year -I know I'm walking on sacred ground here, but I'm going to say it anyway: utterly boring. Granted, good melodies, and rhythm obviously, but it just droned on and on and on. Because:

Dynamics: none at all at the Hiatt concert. No piano, no forte, no crescendo. Just droning.
Whereas for instance Pixies had the dynamics part down to a pat. Shouting and whispering, raging and nearly silent. Nirvana had a good sense of dynamics as well, but they just copied from Pixies (true!).

OK, having discussed that, let's review tonights Later....
What acts were especially good? The ones that had the dynamics right, yes.
Tom Jones, Camille O'Sullivan, and Snow Patrol.

Let's start with the first one, the one and only Sir Tom Jones. Three great songs, including one with Jools on piano, but it was the fourth one that stood out and made me sit up, listen up, and clap in awe at the end was "24 hours". Very hush, a bit of strings and a sotto voce Tom, and utterly beautiful.

And Camille O'Sullivan. I remembered to watch last tuesday -I always seem to forget the tuesday part of Later...- and lucky for me, because she sang a vaudeville style and funny "In These Shoes?" in tuesdays show. Not today, which is a shame, but she did one even better: just a piano and her, in a slow but beautiful, sometimes singing, sometimes whispering song.

And surprisingly, Snow Patrol. Not very interesting, until the end of the show, when they did an Arcade Fire with an ever increasing crescendo with horns and eventually even a six or seven piece choir.

Three songs that stood out, all because of dynamics.

Next show, tuesday and friday: ALLEN TOUSSAINT!!! One of my three and true living legends (the others Dr John and Fats Domino) of New Orleans Rhythm & Blues! According to Offbeat Magazine Weekly Beat he's at Londons The O2 on october 24 & 25. Do yourself a favour, go and see him and make me jealous.

Sweet baby hobo!!!
Steve was utterly awesome. No other way to describe it.

And, Oograh will like this, Amy Lavere's band were the supporting act, heck, Amy even did a duet with Steve (clashed styles, but it was good).
The hobo done well.

This little quote sums up the whole attitude of the night:

Male audience member:We love you stevey!!!
Steve:What, no, it meant to be the girls that say tha....oh hell, it's all good, i'll take whatever i can get!

And he did a long version of dog-house boogie, that took nigh on 20 minutes...i'd swear his fingers were red-raw by the end...

Anyway, dead tired, think i might go sleep again...

Hi Y'All,

Heh heh, thanks Hexon, your enthousiasm is inspiring. Wish I could've been there.

Did I miss a Later..., or a post, you might be wondering?
No I did not, I was just too busy helpdesking at friends and relatives all over the weekend. Got me a few very nice dinners along the way though LOL.
But still in a bit of haste, I need to try to keep this short.
Last fridays show was awesome, if only for one of my gods: Living N'Awlins Legend Allen Toussaint. Just a legend and his piano, chatting along with Jools and doing two utterly genious "covers" of own material, Working in a Coal Mine and Southern Nights.
Did you know that a few months after Katrina he made an album with Elvis Costello? Some might argue it was EC who made the album with Allen, but most of it was original Toussaint. The River in Reverse, listen to it if you get the chance. There's a nice video where you can see EC get the hang of Toussaints offbeat melodies, there's probably a copy on youtube somewhere.

Other than that, I was impressed by Bloc Party. Need to listen to that new album, it's on an online listen-before-you-buy service right now.

Tomorrow: Grace Jones. Good gods, her Nightclubbing used to be one of my favourite albums, back when rhythms still used to be forged in the dungeons of Sly and Robbie.
[off to attic to find that album on vinyl]

Hi Y'all,

Before I start my "review" of tonight's show, I would like to go back to last week. Later... was an hour late, because of The Electric Proms, whatever that is. I did not know, so I sat down before my telly at the usual time, and was presented an absolutely stunning surprise: Nitin Sawhney.
Wow, that was nice. Eclectic, professional, astonishing. Why haven't I heard of this man before? Last Shadow Puppets (second half of an hour of EP) wasn't even interesting anymore after this.

Tonight's show, obviously, was all about The Queen of Extravaganza, Wearer of Dresses Extraordinaire, and Slave to the Rhythm Grace Jones. Yeehaw. She's still got it, mate, and lots of it too.
Watching the tuesday part of Later... pays off, apparently, because we had the benefit of seeing her sing "Slave" in a Dress of All Dresses (did you see it? amazing, not?). But even without the show, that was some very good music! Need to watch out for that new album, first one in twenty, ahum.. nineteen years.
I always thought Grace to be very aloof, unreachable, but in the interview she turned out to be very likeable and funny as well. Appearances deceive.

Another great performance was by Novice Theory. Another surprise, suddenly emerging from the crowd, walking around, almost "confronting" the audience with his "ideas". Just a guy with an accordeon, doing a "musical" style act in a clochard "suit". Great song, even better outtro. Sorry about all the quotation marks, but it was very special and hard to put into words.

Geraint Watkins was good as well. A bit of a combo between Ry Cooder and Tom Waits, very nice and laid back.

If you aim as high as Grace Jones, the others just seem to be, well.... others. Razorlight, Seu Jorge, they could've been nice, but not tonight.

Oh ehm, just for the record: Akon is DISQUALIFIED! Used tapes*. Echo's okay, even precho (or whatever you call it when you hear the echo before the actual voice), but a duet with yourself without moving your lips? Hardly!
The Missus started tapping her feet halfway through a song, so she seemed to like it, but a Live Show is a Live Show, and that wasn't.

*Tapes: that probably tells you a bit about my age. Tapes, samples, digitalisations, whatever. Problem is, like with Coldplay two weeks ago and Akon today, what we heard was evidently prerecorded and thus not Live. "Ah!", you might argue, "but what about those Theresa links you provided"? What Theresa Anderson does (see links three weeks ago) however, IS samples, yes and granted, but at least you see her sample herself Live and on stage.

AL GREEN! Yeah, mates, AL GREEN! Jools did it again and had another Legend on his show. The one and only Soul Legend. Just one song, but it only took the one to turn the crowd wild. As it should be, I might add.
Superiour performance, and a very nice man indeed. We have to check who cheered loudest, his audience to him, or he to his audience .

The Killers, todays headliners. There's something about them that turns me into a hedgehog. I roll up and point all my bristles at them. They're so Las Vegas: all show, and gadgetry, and eye candy. It brings to mind and old Stranglers song: "You Better Watch Out for the Skindeep".
Plus: where was the string section I heard but did not see? DISQUALIFIED! Grin.

Monkey: Journey to the West. Now that was something special. Not that I liked it, or didn't, but special it was.

Fleet Foxes. Hmmm, folk(y), not my kind of music. But still, but still.... Not a bad choice to be on Later...

Thus, and so.
My favourites this night were the iHum and the GuiBoard. I make this up as I go along, but my two favourites both had some strange instruments I never saw before.

Little Boots had an "iHum". A tiny screen that flashed and apparently spit out a bit of samples (initially) and tough beats (later on), and when touched with a stylus even some nice beeps. Bring in a grand piano, and a very nice voice, and a good song too. It seems like Theresa Andersson is in for some competition as far as the one woman band is concerned.
A bit overdone in the make-up department though.

Pendulum had a GuiBoard. A guitar lookalike, played as you would a keyboard. There were some strings on it, where the bridge is supposed to be, but he did not touch them.
But wow! Did these guys play some serious tough riffs! It prompted Jools to ask the audience to cheer for riffs in general, but of course these in particular.
Pendulum: a Band with Rocks in. Me likes many much!

Oh, and let's not forget: Marc Almond. No song, just the interview, but I don't mind. Like Marc said: he was on a world tour he did with Jools and his R&B Orchestra, and of course he was at BRBF (my favourite festival I told you about before). Did I mention Marc in my post about it? Need to check. It was great. He did "Tainted Love", obviously, but also a couple of very nice Torch Songs. A bit of a surprise (it's a Rhythm & Blues Festival, after all) but a very welcome one.