I've made no secret of my love for Mad Men. Season 4 was quite frankly brilliant and I was VERY excited about its return. Let's just say I was not disappointed by Don Draper's new wife (GREAT 60's bob, my own new short haircut is most jealous) Zou Bisou Bisou-ing all over the place. It all got a bit awkward - for Don. At home however, I rubbed my hands in glee at his red face and Jane's spot-on response to Roger asking her why she wasn't get her Zou Bisou on too...
And what a week. Just days later, the return of another fictional legend in a fabulous suit: Anchorman's Ron Burgundy. I know I'm not the only one on tenterhooks for the sequel. For at least 48 hours Twitter was alive with Anchorman joy and that winning phrase... You stay classy, San Diego.
Sunday 1 April 2012
Thursday 22 March 2012
Jack White can play the guitar
Stating the obvious perhaps, but sometimes songs come along that make you wish more than anything that you could play the guitar. Jack White's new track Sixteen Saltines is definitely enough to make me regret not asking for guitar lessons for my birthday this week.
We can rest assured they'll be more where that came from when the debut solo album Blunderbuss is released on April the 23rd. He produced it himself at his Third Man Studio in Nashville - a dream holiday destination if ever there was one. Until then tickets for his London show are on sale tomorrow. Finger's crossed!
Luckily Jack's way with a guitar has also been enough to make me stop listening to this Eugene McGuinness track (or the Black Keys album) for at least 5 seconds. I'm trying to wean myself off before I hate it. It just works too well for its own good for a London walk into work....
We can rest assured they'll be more where that came from when the debut solo album Blunderbuss is released on April the 23rd. He produced it himself at his Third Man Studio in Nashville - a dream holiday destination if ever there was one. Until then tickets for his London show are on sale tomorrow. Finger's crossed!
Luckily Jack's way with a guitar has also been enough to make me stop listening to this Eugene McGuinness track (or the Black Keys album) for at least 5 seconds. I'm trying to wean myself off before I hate it. It just works too well for its own good for a London walk into work....
Thursday 8 March 2012
Adele / Daft Punk mashup = no more New Boring
I have always been a big fan of Adele. The lady, the voice, the talent, the laugh. Long before she was dressing in Stella McCartney, enjoying worldwide album success and flicking the finger to "The Suits", I got to interview her as an excitable, scruffy and hugely talented teenager and an Adele-shaped soft-spot was born. It's big enough that whatever anyone says, I can't even blame her for any of the New-Boring-ness that followed.
But to those people - I think you'll like this! Carlos Serrano's done a lovely mash up of Set Fire To The Rain and Daft Punk's Something About Us. Just the thing for some subtle desk-dancing to see you through till home time....
And while we're at it, let's have a shout out for last year's amazing Rolling in the Deep remix by Jamie xx. Way too good not to mention... and nothing boring about that.
Adele + Jamie XX Rolling in Deep from BurnsDesign on Vimeo.
Sunday 4 March 2012
*Weepy alert* aka The Now Is Good trailer
I have to confess I do like a good cry. Which is handy, what with the over-productive tear ducts I seem to have been saddled with. Sleeping in, a hangover, not being able to find anything to wear or do up my jeans because of post-Christmas podge have all been known to result in a mascara-stained face with matching puffy eyes.
Sometimes crying really isn't fun (in a job interview /when something bad happened/ that hyperventilating type of crying when it takes ages to regulate your breathing): but crying at a movie is without a doubt one of my guiltiest pleasures. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (inconsolable), Terms of Endearment (was for some reason expecting a comedy), Green Mile (obvs), Stepmom (every time), One Day (nowhere near as much as the book, but still a fair bit of mascara movement) and just last weekend Love and Other Drugs (again, doubly effective as I had wrongly assumed I was watching some kind of Rom Com) have all had me weeping into my popcorn.
And here's a film which looks like it should come with a "crying guaranteed or your money back" sticker....
I'm already feeling emotional. Now is Good stars Dakota Fanning as a teenager with a terminal illness who decides to fill every last moment of her life with activities like trying drugs and losing her virginity. Enter the quite beautiful (in a cradle-snatchy way) Jeremy Irvine. And - I imagine / fully expect - cue the tears. It's out on the 25th of May (with the brilliant Paddy Considine playing Dakota's dad). I'm off to bulk-buy some tissues.
Sometimes crying really isn't fun (in a job interview /when something bad happened/ that hyperventilating type of crying when it takes ages to regulate your breathing): but crying at a movie is without a doubt one of my guiltiest pleasures. The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (inconsolable), Terms of Endearment (was for some reason expecting a comedy), Green Mile (obvs), Stepmom (every time), One Day (nowhere near as much as the book, but still a fair bit of mascara movement) and just last weekend Love and Other Drugs (again, doubly effective as I had wrongly assumed I was watching some kind of Rom Com) have all had me weeping into my popcorn.
And here's a film which looks like it should come with a "crying guaranteed or your money back" sticker....
I'm already feeling emotional. Now is Good stars Dakota Fanning as a teenager with a terminal illness who decides to fill every last moment of her life with activities like trying drugs and losing her virginity. Enter the quite beautiful (in a cradle-snatchy way) Jeremy Irvine. And - I imagine / fully expect - cue the tears. It's out on the 25th of May (with the brilliant Paddy Considine playing Dakota's dad). I'm off to bulk-buy some tissues.
Sunday 19 February 2012
The day I gained a new understanding of Bruce Springsteen and The Boss gained a new fan
Some of the more ardent Bruce Springsteen fans among you might think it grossly unfair that in the game of chance they call life, this week I got the opportunity to go to Paris to hear his new album Wrecking Ball. That after it was blasted out into the darkened Théâtre Marigny with the lyrics on a huge screen, The Boss himself took the stage – in the flesh - for a Q and A. Did I mention it was in Paris? Yes: a very good day at work.
It’s not that I didn’t like Bruce Springsteen before. I enjoyed watching The Boss at Glastonbury, and I have been found drunkenly air-guitaring to Born in the USA on more than one occasion. Who hasn’t? But to call me a “casual Springsteen fan” (the ones super fans regard with much contempt) would have been pushing it.
It’s not really my fault. I just wasn’t raised on Bruce the way some of my friends were. Round our house it was all Neil Diamond and Fleetwood Mac - still two of my all-time favourite acts and they always will be. My boy is not massively familiar with The Boss’ back catalogue either. When I asked him what his favourite Bruce track was, he burst into a rendition of Money for Nothing. Yeah, you know. The one by Dire Straits.
So let’s just call me a little uneducated and through no real fault of my own, a bit oblivious to the many charms of most of Springsteen’s work. But now of course, things have changed. Now that I have witnessed The Boss himself, jauntily perched on a bar stool, fielding questions (one of them from me – “Hi Bruce!”), working the room. Now that I have shared in the love, admiration and (verging on geekish) enthusiasm he elicited from the men of a certain age that gathered beside me. They hung on his every word, laughing loudly at every hint of a joke, their beaming faces turned up towards him. One journalist and fan of 20 years standing had flown all the way from Australia to be there! That kind of excitement couldn’t help but rub off. I was beaming and laughing too! Not to mention toe-tapping. And when said Aussie was rewarded with a private chat with Bruce backstage (who he met on the street Down Under several years ago), you couldn’t help but agree with the general consensus: Bruce is a bit of a ledge.
For any fans wanting to hear about the actual album, well Bruce gets angry on Wrecking Ball - plenty of which was inspired by the financial crisis that hit the US in 2008. Opening track We Take Care of Our Own (performed at the Grammys last weekend) forms a question that the album answers (as in… Do we take care of our own? Not so much). In Shackled and Drawn "It's still fat and easy up on banker's hill", on Jack of All Trades (featuring Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello) he sings “the banking man grows fat, working man grows thin, it’s all happened before, it will happen again”. On Death to my Hometown, there are “greedy barons” and in Wrecking Ball he suggests “hold tight to your anger”. In Bruce’s own words: “My work has always been about judging the distance between the American Reality and the American Dream”. And he’s not about to stop now.
"I met Clarence when I was 22, my son's age, still a child really,” he said. "Something happened when we got close, it fired my imagination. So losing Clarence was like losing something elemental, the air or the rain. There's just something missing.” Clarence does feature on one track on the album. "We were lucky to get him on The Land of Hope and Dreams,” Bruce said. “When the sax solo comes up, it's a lovely moment to me."
It’s not that I didn’t like Bruce Springsteen before. I enjoyed watching The Boss at Glastonbury, and I have been found drunkenly air-guitaring to Born in the USA on more than one occasion. Who hasn’t? But to call me a “casual Springsteen fan” (the ones super fans regard with much contempt) would have been pushing it.
It’s not really my fault. I just wasn’t raised on Bruce the way some of my friends were. Round our house it was all Neil Diamond and Fleetwood Mac - still two of my all-time favourite acts and they always will be. My boy is not massively familiar with The Boss’ back catalogue either. When I asked him what his favourite Bruce track was, he burst into a rendition of Money for Nothing. Yeah, you know. The one by Dire Straits.
So let’s just call me a little uneducated and through no real fault of my own, a bit oblivious to the many charms of most of Springsteen’s work. But now of course, things have changed. Now that I have witnessed The Boss himself, jauntily perched on a bar stool, fielding questions (one of them from me – “Hi Bruce!”), working the room. Now that I have shared in the love, admiration and (verging on geekish) enthusiasm he elicited from the men of a certain age that gathered beside me. They hung on his every word, laughing loudly at every hint of a joke, their beaming faces turned up towards him. One journalist and fan of 20 years standing had flown all the way from Australia to be there! That kind of excitement couldn’t help but rub off. I was beaming and laughing too! Not to mention toe-tapping. And when said Aussie was rewarded with a private chat with Bruce backstage (who he met on the street Down Under several years ago), you couldn’t help but agree with the general consensus: Bruce is a bit of a ledge.
For any fans wanting to hear about the actual album, well Bruce gets angry on Wrecking Ball - plenty of which was inspired by the financial crisis that hit the US in 2008. Opening track We Take Care of Our Own (performed at the Grammys last weekend) forms a question that the album answers (as in… Do we take care of our own? Not so much). In Shackled and Drawn "It's still fat and easy up on banker's hill", on Jack of All Trades (featuring Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello) he sings “the banking man grows fat, working man grows thin, it’s all happened before, it will happen again”. On Death to my Hometown, there are “greedy barons” and in Wrecking Ball he suggests “hold tight to your anger”. In Bruce’s own words: “My work has always been about judging the distance between the American Reality and the American Dream”. And he’s not about to stop now.
There was more charm than anger on show just off the Champs-Élysées though. Springsteen shared his thoughts on politics (he’s glad he supported Obama as “with Bush, things got so bad, if you had any cache, you had to cash it in”), jokes (about how hard life is when he’s asleep in his big rock star bed, and that Obama’s better at hitting the high notes than him), anecdotes (he does the school run!) - and a touching tribute to legendary E Street Band saxophone player Clarence Clemons, who died last year.
"I met Clarence when I was 22, my son's age, still a child really,” he said. "Something happened when we got close, it fired my imagination. So losing Clarence was like losing something elemental, the air or the rain. There's just something missing.” Clarence does feature on one track on the album. "We were lucky to get him on The Land of Hope and Dreams,” Bruce said. “When the sax solo comes up, it's a lovely moment to me."
Bruce fans can check out this video of highlights from the evening. And while there's every chance The Boss will remain oblivious to this pivotal turning point in our relationship, I will always remember it as the day I had a bit of a Springsteen moment.
Wednesday 15 February 2012
The lovely Lianne La Havas
A girl who was inspired to become a singer while watching Sister Act 2 is a girl after my own heart. Sadly, Lauren Hill's amazing talent never rubbed off quite as well on me as on Lianne La Havas, but that film can have a lasting effect on people. For my best mate Lou, her life-long love of Sister Mary Clarence led her family to club together and buy her a real life gospel choir to sing her down the aisle at her wedding (ok, so officially Keira Knightley in Love Actually got there first but it was still very special). For Lianne it was the lightbulb moment that set her on the path to a career in music and possible superstardom.
And thank god for Whoopi Goldberg in a habit. As Lianne's soulful voice and beautifully retro tunes are a real treat. It's not just me that thinks she's great - she's already been touted as one to watch by the BBC's Sound of 2012 and MTV's Next Big Thing, Bon Iver asked her to support him on tour and she has an appearance on Later with Jools Holland under her belt too.
And this week sees the launch of her second EP Forget. I got the chance to chat to her about it for BBC 6 Music when she came in to record a session last month and the interview went out today on the breakfast show and Radcliffe and Maconie.
She told me about her upcoming headline tour, who she counts as her inspirations and what we can expect from the debut album which will follow in May. Here it is in case you missed it...
You know you're getting old when the artist you're interviewing says her MUM got her into The Fugees. And at just 22, Lianne Le Havas is a bundle of excitable energy with an infectious smile to compliment that voice and a lovely habit of taking pictures of her audience for her blog, as she can't quite believe how big they're getting.
Expect more where they came from soon. Lianne's been booked to take part in 6 Music's 10th birthday celebrations at London's Southbank Centre in March. Sadly it's sold out, but her UK tour kicks off next month too so if you can beg, borrow or steal a ticket it will be well worth it.
Here's where she's playing...
8th March - Brighton - Coalition
9th March - Oxford - 02 Academy 2
10th March - Dublin - Sugar Club
12th March - Birmingham - Glee Club
13th March - The Scala - London **SOLD OUT**
Friday 10 February 2012
Mardy Bum Mahalia
I promise I won't make a habit of *cough* borrowing from other people's blogs but this is such a beaut of a performance I couldn't not share it.
As recommended by the lovely Uche on his brilliant new music blog This Kid Is a Problem (well worth a follow), here is a simply stunning performance from soul/folk singer songwriter Mahalia, covering Arctic Monkeys.
While I tend not to feel too Mardy Bum on a Friday afternoon when there's a whole weekend off stretching out before me, this has definitely put a very welcome little smile on my face.
Sit back and enjoy x
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