GROUND CONTROL MAGAZINE
Show and album reviews for digital music site Ground Control Magazine
LADY SOVEREIGN & HONEYCUT :
EL REY THEATER
Honeycut’s name might ring a bell if you’re Morning Becomes Eclectic listener, but if you asked anyone who attended the show about Honeycut, they’d most likely refer to them as the band whose keyboard playing was (expletive) awesome and beats were (superlative) sick. And they were. Thank RV Salters’ skill on the keyboard and Tony Sevener handling the beats. But don’t assume that’s all there is to them. As vocalist Bart Davenport mentioned during the set, “This isn’t no dance rock music, but good old soul music.” The soul was in the vocals. Dance music or no, Honeycut had people moving. The set began with “The Day I Turned To Glass” and went on to play “Shadows” and “Tough Kid” from their debut album and ended with a harmonica-laced cover of the Honey Drippers’ “Impeach The President.”
The last time Lady Sovereign came to town she cut her set down to a couple of songs due to illness, and essentially this was a return to make nice with her fans. Sov took the stage in crutches, arm in a sling, wrist in a bandage, and exaggerated lament—”Every f@#% time I come to LA something happens,” then began her set with “Ch-Ching.” For the next song ”Bla Bla,” she dropped the crutches, tossed the sling, and ripped off the bandage. While contrived, the blatant silliness translated as charming, making fun of the elephant in the room. Between songs she was affable and joked about being sick and all the flack she caught for it. During “Hoodie,” she paused midway into the song to mention “This is where [I] cried last time and walked off.”
Lady Sovereign made amends and played the part of good host— offering the mic to the audience, having them chant her signature lilting “S-O-V!,” sharing a bottle of her Heineken by pouring it into people’s mouths, and even giving a little cheek kiss to a nervous front-stage fan. Her demeanor was personable and she offered asides to her songs mentioning “Ooooo...this is my favorite song,” before performing “Tango.” She performed the expected crowd favorites “Random” and “Love Me or Hate Me” and even added a little something extra with her cover of the Sex Pistols’ “Pretty Vacant.” During her encore, Lady Sovereign told the crowd to get a mosh pit going and launched into “Public Warning.” Her energy and flow were spot-on throughout, with all the attendant cheek you would expect. Like the next-door neighbor’s little sister growing up, Lady Sovereign’s prone to bratty antics but too much fun to begrudge or dismiss.
The last time Lady Sovereign came to town she cut her set down to a couple of songs due to illness, and essentially this was a return to make nice with her fans. Sov took the stage in crutches, arm in a sling, wrist in a bandage, and exaggerated lament—”Every f@#% time I come to LA something happens,” then began her set with “Ch-Ching.” For the next song ”Bla Bla,” she dropped the crutches, tossed the sling, and ripped off the bandage. While contrived, the blatant silliness translated as charming, making fun of the elephant in the room. Between songs she was affable and joked about being sick and all the flack she caught for it. During “Hoodie,” she paused midway into the song to mention “This is where [I] cried last time and walked off.”
Lady Sovereign made amends and played the part of good host— offering the mic to the audience, having them chant her signature lilting “S-O-V!,” sharing a bottle of her Heineken by pouring it into people’s mouths, and even giving a little cheek kiss to a nervous front-stage fan. Her demeanor was personable and she offered asides to her songs mentioning “Ooooo...this is my favorite song,” before performing “Tango.” She performed the expected crowd favorites “Random” and “Love Me or Hate Me” and even added a little something extra with her cover of the Sex Pistols’ “Pretty Vacant.” During her encore, Lady Sovereign told the crowd to get a mosh pit going and launched into “Public Warning.” Her energy and flow were spot-on throughout, with all the attendant cheek you would expect. Like the next-door neighbor’s little sister growing up, Lady Sovereign’s prone to bratty antics but too much fun to begrudge or dismiss.
BLOC PARTY :
A WEEKEND IN THE CITY
“I will charm, I will slice, I will dazzle, I will outshine them all” - The Prayer
The bummer part about coming out with a first album which receives a good deal of hype is that your second album becomes a point of comparison. (Sorry, I’m going to do it here.) If what you liked about Bloc Party on Silent Alarm is Kele’s shouty exuberant vocals, dance party sound, or “drinking poison and eating glass” verve, then A Weekend In The City may not resonate strongly. While there are tracks that come hard and heavy (“Song for Clay”) and while there are thundering drums in even the songs with hushed vocals (“Sunday”), overall it lacks oomph. The music seems thoughtful and sincere in that they add curious elements to their sound; music box melodies on “SRXT” and tinkley bells “Waiting for the 7.18,” humming tribal vocal sounds on “The Prayer,” the entirety of the album has threads of similarities which dilute the surprise. The tracks are pleasant and unobtrusive serving best as background, certain to be heard in commercials and apt for scenes in movies and television shows where someone is reminiscing about love or coming to terms with an excruciating decision. Broken into tracks, A Weekend In The City has elements to draw interest, but for an album “Is it so wrong to want rewarding? To want more than what is given to you?”