Caw-Caw Music

Archive for April, 2010

For those dissenters who accused LA’s Dum Dum Girls of riding on the coat-tails of similarly suffixed gal-pals Vivian Girls, it’s time to eat your words. It may have been a long time coming, but the debut album from this West Coast four-piece proves that despite sharing an obsession with fuzz, the Mary Chain and Shangri-Las melodies with their contemporaries, Dum Dum Girls are very much their own women. With ‘I Will Be’, they unfurl a sound far more intricate and subtle than their Brooklyn rivals. ‘Blank Girl’ (featuring Crocodiles’ Brandon Welch) and ‘Jail La La’ each usurp the Vivian Girls’ dream-pop girl-group harmonies by dint of Dee Dee Penny’s effortlessly cool, sugary croons. Make no mistake: as a self-confessed “choir nerd”, Dee Dee (real name Kristin Gundred) has the vocal chops to see off all competitors.

It was she who initiated the band as a bedroom project before roping in the likes of drummer Frankie Rose (ex of both Crystal Stilts and – yes – Vivian Girls). Both sticking to the garage rock template of outsider gang-dom and upsetting the genre’s canonical history as a tiresomely male-dominated field (the band’s name is a pointed play on a song from international man of mayhem Iggy Pop’s solo debut ‘The Idiot’), this rollicking debut album is a balance-redressing, cliché-bucking tonic.

‘It Only Takes One Night’ possesses both the frenzy and the cool of The Cramps’ signature sound, but in place of that band’s raw weirdness there’s the lulling breeze of Dee Dee’s vocal, evocative of a sedated Eartha Kitt. The record strays far beyond the basics of rockabilly and garage rock: ‘Yours Alone’ may feature Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner on reverberating, fuzzy guitar, but the tenderness of Dee Dee’s vocal transcends genre boundaries: “Met him at the school yard, five years old/Told him I would love him ’til I’m cold/We held hands, we took walks/My first kiss was at the docks… All my love is yours alone”. Rather than a mere stylistic nod to the girl group sound, Dum Dum Girls offer a subtle-toned exploration of the politics of the personal of which Ellie Greenwich would be proud, typified by latest single ‘Jail La La’, which is equally lustful and sentimental.

‘Bhang Bhang, I’m A Burnout’ recalls the dulcet tones of The Breeders circa ‘Divine Hammer’, while ‘Oh Mein Me’ takes its cue from Kim and Kelley Deal’s very own ‘German Studies’ textbook. Yet the song is not just an exhilarating journey into the foreign languages, but an analysis of the rollercoaster ride of love at first sight.

Admittedly, ‘I Will Be’ at times lacks the raw kinetic energy and fury that surged through early single ‘Catholicked’. The decision to exclude that song from the album is an unfathomable act to say the least. Still, there’s more than enough here to compensate for such minor misgivings: ultimately, ‘I Will Be’ is a convincing retort from an unfairly maligned band. Over to you, Vivian Girls.

With their last album ‘ABC 123’, a tribute to the 50th anniversary of the Helvetica typeface, it seemed as if To Rococo Rot were to follow their German forebears, the mighty Kraftwerk, celebrating the straight line in pursuit of joyous modernity. Sadly, with ‘Speculation’, their journey aboard the trans-Europe express to experimentalism seems to have been derailed. While the likes of ‘Away’ and ‘Ship’ trundle pleasantly along with an assortment of beeps and whirrs, it takes an appearance from Faust’s Jochen Irmler on the eerie chimes of ‘Friday’ to help ‘Speculation’ move from tuneful to testing. Too bad they couldn’t have made a similar Faustian pact for the rest of the record.

Who’d have ever thought someone from Yourcodenameis:milo would go on to make something vaguely decent? Justin Lockey – partnered now not only by Craig Philbin, but by one-time Cooper Temple Clauser Tom Bellamy – makes ‘Methods’ even more of an unlikely triumph. More broken Britpoppers than Broken Bells, the duo are the very embodiment of scrapheap-indie, yet ‘Methods’ fizzes with daisy-fresh exuberance and shiny production. The tunes probably have more sheen than Lockey or Bellamy would desire – polished in a lamey, little-bit-Coldplay way – but the bleepy, string-ripping FX prove that the duo are striving to be more than simply flyweight guitar cannon fodder.

One tries to keep an open mind in this game, but honestly, Sharleen Spiteri doing covers of classic movie soundtrack songs? Why not just turn up on the NME CD pile with a big ‘KICK ME’ sign Sellotaped to your back? The sheer scale of the delusion of a woman whose name is a byword for MOR mediocrity, in thinking that she can reinvigorate classics like ‘If I Can’t Have You’ and ‘Windmills Of Your Mind’, defies the very furthest limits of human belief. The latter is a particularly ghastly desecration as Sharleen plays it all kittenish, and Berlin’s ‘Take My Breath Away’ translated into Spiteri’s signature country-lite snooze is similarly awful. Stick to making Tannoy music for upscale supermarket chains, love.

The Ibanez GRGM21L is the left hand version of the Mikro 34 scale electric guitar. It is perfect for last minute rehearsals, running scales while waiting for downloads, young rockers just joining the fray or anyone who just wants a smaller neck and body. Not to be confused with other small guitars, the Ibanez Mikro is no toy. Mikro features the same construction, high quality and careful set-up of the Ibanez full size GRX and GRG models.
Mikro’s 22″ inch scale length (standard guitars feature a neck scale from 24 3.4″ to 25 1/2″) makes it the right choice for beginner players or pros practicing on the tour bus.

• Neck Material: Maple
• Neck Type: 22.2″ scale GRGM
• Body: Basswood body
• Frets: Medium frets
• Fingerboard: Rosewood
• Inlay: Sharktooth
• Bridge: Fixed bridge
• NeckPU: PSND1
• BridgePU: PSND2
• HW Color: CH
• Finish: Black

Post-Interpol, us Brits have churned out a succession of groups turning the dark ore of that band’s influences into a succession of inferior alloys; Editors’ bendy spoon, White Lies’ pound shop aluminium foil. New Yorkers Blacklist toil at a similar forge but retain a sense of arch grace. It might be best enjoyed with a fragile chemical mind in the company of a black-haired girl who could do with a few sausage rolls, but this tour around Bunnymen and early U2 is executed with panache; ‘Flight Of The Demoiselles’ and ‘Julie Speaks’ teeter on The Edge-style histrionic guitar flourishes. There’s no new dawn in ‘Midnight…’, but it’s a shade of the nocturnal worth embracing nonetheless.

Introducing the DN-HP500 headphones from Denon DJ. These latest headphones, like the HP1000 and HP700 models, produce impeccably clean and vibrant audio while withstanding the high-volume demands of today’s DJs; all in a stylish and affordable package.

* Type: Air tightness Closed Dynamic
* ±90 deg Swivel Mechanism
* Driver Unit: phi 40mm Neodymium Magnet
* Impedance: 40 ohms
* Frequency Response:10 (target)-28kHz
* Output (Sensitivity): 103dB
* Max Input Power 1,300mW
* Cord Length: 1.2m (max 3m)

ULTRASONE DJ1-PRO HEADPHONES

The Ultrasone DJ1-Pro headphones provide premium performance via a closed back design and the proprietary S-Logic natural surround sound. This special features requires no additional equipment. Directions and distances can be heard and perceived much like being in a live concert. The DJ1-Pro phones are easy on the ears allowing up to 40% lower dB output (3-4 dB) for the same loudness sensation, thereby reducing the risk of hearing defects. With the efficient 50 mm mylar electro acoustical?drivers these headphones are especially designed for DJs. As a result of the high efficiency they produce an impressive sound pressure even with a high environmental sound intensity. Thanks to the closed construction, external noise is suppressed. As a totally pro package, these phones come with two detachable cables including one with volume control and a stereo/mono switch. There’s even a pair of extra speed-switch ear pads.

You can fold back and up the individual earpiece without having to remove the headphones from your head. This folding mechanism allows the the headphones to be compactly stored and easily transported in a suitcase. Like all Ultrasone headphones, the DJ1 has a strongly reduced radiation. The standard version LE (= Low Emission) offers a reduction of?up to 60% in comparison with ordinary headphones, but the DJ1-Pro has MU metal shielding which provides up to a 98% reduction in radiation.

* Closed-back professional DJ phones
* 50mm mylar electro acoustical drivers
* S-Logic natural surround sound produces 3-D characteristics
* Folding design for single-sided monitoring and easy storage
* 2 detachable cables: one coiled 10 FT cable and one 10 FT cable with volume control and stereo/mono switch
* MU metal shielding
* Spare pair of ear pads
* Frequency range: 10Hz – 22kHz
* 64 ohms
* 10 FT coiled cord
* LE standard (low emissions
* Gold plated stereo 1/4″ plug
* Includes free demo CD