More Jewels on Jools

Oof, look at that, it's been a month!  A whole month!  Well, I'm back now, mostly because I watched Jools Holland on Palladia this morning and found some things I liked, and had some thoughts on it too.  First off, it's a big shame that Palladia cuts the show down in order to show ads -- they cut out performances to do so, and interviews, and in this episode they cut a performer out altogether!  Not cool, but at least there's Youtube to catch up on things with.

On to the show, and  I will of course be pasting in (too) many videos, but still want to say that I was very impressed with Natasha Khan's dancing and liked how Soundgarden brought the RAWK -- Chris Cornell's voice is still really good.  I'm not a big fan of the band's tunes to be honest but they did make a change to what's on the show otherwise.

Two Door Cinema Club were on and I found out that they're not from the west coast of America but are actually from Northern Ireland.  Not impressed by their clothes or haircuts I must say, and out of their three songs I only liked one -- the other two had that dancey DFA beat that I'm not really much of a fan of (I prefer proper dance music, sniff).  But this track was alright:



Next, the Staves.  I didn't want to like them despite their very photogenic singer, but I found myself listening to this song and getting a bit nostalgic for I don't know what.  And I liked the whistling:



Now some Bat for Lashes.  When her newest album came out earlier this year I listened to some of it online but wasn't too impressed.  But I liked everything I heard on Jools, so perhaps I need to give it another go?  Or maybe it's the live touch that's helping.  During this song I wondered if she was miming but I know that's not allowed; now that I've heard it again I feel a bit silly for even wondering.  Note to Two Door Cinema Club: this is how you do a dance beat:



I really liked this song by her too.

Last vid here, and this is from a show I saw a few weeks ago, but I have to put it up cos it may be the most amazing performance I've ever seen on Jools.  Here is Willy Moon:

See all music videos Willy Moon

From Later

A nice perk of my massive comcast bill is having the music channel Palladia.  Why's that a perk?  Because the excellent BBC show 'Later... with Jools Holland' is on it.  If you've never heard of it, 'Later...' has been on for twenty years and is a live music show -- around six different artists are in a studio together, where they take turns playing songs in front of each other and an audience, and it's all broadcast (I believe) live.  It's pretty cool and makes for some great juxtapositions, as well as great performances.  Look it up online and you'll find all kinds of clips from the show -- it's almost like the old Peel sessions from Radio One, but on tv.

I've been taping the current season and catching up with episodes every now and then.  It's great to see some favourite artists live, like Jack White and Brett Anderson; it's also cool to check out some artists I've heard of, or who are famous, on the show, such as Sharon van Etten and the Beach Boys.  Another cool thing is hearing artists I've never heard of before on there and being blown away by their amazing voices, which is what happened last time I checked the show out.  I guess I've got a thing for female singers with big voices at the moment, as both the singers that stood out to me most recently fit that description.  

First up is Beth Hart, who was on a few weeks ago.  Never heard of her before, know nothing about her, but her voice was amazing.  I can't find the clip from 'Later...', but it was a great performance -- it seemed like it was no effort at all for her to sing, and that she was using her authentic voice.  Here's a different live clip I found (I don't think it's as good):

Lyrically it's nothing special, but I do think her voice, especially as I heard it on 'Later...', is pretty amazing.

My second find is Natalie Duncan -- similar in that she's got a big voice and she's on the piano, but different since she has a band and seems to put a bit more effort into her singing:

Again, no info, but she looks very young and seems like a new artist.  The song seems like it may have something to do with 'Skyfall', the newest James Bond flick, but I don't know of any connection.  I really like this track, even after a few more listens today.  

Hearing these two slightly different artists reminds me of another who also had a big brassy voice and was tatt'ed up a bit like Beth Hart is.  She comes to mind as I'd heard her again on the radio quite recently.  I refer, if you haven't guessed, to Amy Winehouse.  'Back to Black' is what I heard a few times recently, and I was really struck by how evocative that song is -- when I listen to it I can see scenes, places, people, in my mind's eye.  

I think you're better off just listening to that song and ignoring the video -- let your imagination do the ... imagining.