Lily Allen has teamed up with John Lewis to offer her first solo track in four years – a cover of Keane’s prestigious 2004 hit “Somewhere Only We Know,” recorded for the London based department store chain’s 2013 Christmas advertisement.
While originally, Lily mentioned that she abandoned plans for renegotiating her record contract and had no plans to make another album, it seemed to be only a matter of time to have her back after her pop ups over recent T-pain and P!nk hits (don’t get us started on how over-compressed “5 O’Clock” is – we quickly digress).
This cover marks the true end of Allen’s four year hiatus from the music industry.
In regards to the song’s composition, Lily Allen’s version of “Somewhere Only We Know” reinvents the original by giving it a snowy, stripped down, and linear feel to the song. This re-working gives a holiday vibe to the song without compromising emotional intent and lends itself to the month of December in the way “Just For Now” by Imogen Heap does; by evoking specific feelings without blatantly incorporating jungle bells and ho-ho-ho’s.
At the forefront of the song, like all Lily tracks, are her vocals. Beyond a good amount of compression, the vocal layers remain untouched in terms of effects. A bit of reverberation thrives, specifically during the adlib portion of the song before the final chorus, but there’s not much beyond it.
In a world of sterile music, the live strings and simplified layers of “Somewhere Only We Know” is brilliant. What makes this cover stand out even more is the piano tracks recording. While some Keane enthusiasts may be agitated by the more sixteenth-note oriented piano melody, the actual recording method used allows for the wonderful mechanics of the piano playing to be heard.
How The Telegraph even thought of mentioning the Keane classic as a “forgotten indie ballad” let alone citing the advert as “the backdrop of an Animals of Farthing Wood Christmas special” (have they seen the forest-filled original video?) is beyond anyone’s imagination. “Oh simple thing, where have you gone? I’m getting tired and I need someone to rely on” is a goosebump moment for any version of this song and Keane’s hit finds itself one of the more heartbreaking, honest, and beautiful classic tracks released during the Coldplay oriented rock takeover of the early 2000’s.
Lily’s version of this song is both a warm welcome back to the music world (we hear there’s a new album with some feminist vibes in the works) and a hope from us that it will reign as Christmas number one this year on the UK singles charts.
Watch the €7 million advert below and click here to stream the song in its entirety
Purchase “Somewhere Only We Know” by Lily Allen [iTunes EU // iTunes US]
An extensive seven years had gone by since one of the biggest rock bands on the planet, Pearl Jam, last set eyes on the Steel City. Checking a calendar throws fans back into June 23rd, 2006 at Mellon Arena, an arena that’s since been demolished. Ironically, mere days before the release of their tenth studio album Lightning Bolt, Eddie Vedder and Company made a stop at Pittsburgh’s Consol Energy Center, the arena of which replaced Mellon, to kick off their 2013 North American tour in support of both an album and a long waited return.
While Pearl Jam certainly isn’t the sort of act to neglect their live audience, Pittsburgh’s vibe for the evening was littered with embracing anticipation. Outside of any big arena show, every individual is met with at least one legitimate ticket scalper, seven more illegitimate ticket scalpers, bootleg T-shirt sellers, and unaffiliated drivers who kick themselves for not checking the daily traffic report. These different pockets scattered through the parameter of the arena on a cloudy October 11th, 2013 afternoon, but were sparse compared to the abundance of twinkles within pedestrian’s eyes as they awaited to whisk past security and enter into the sold out show.
Once situated, the lights eventually dimmed and a boisterous collective began while the opening notes to a live debut of “Pendulum” lifted off. No stranger to having bottles of wine on stage, this opening night was no exception as lead vocalist Eddie Vedder walked out with what he revealed toward the middle of the show to be a bottle with Franco Harris (of the Pittsburgh Steelers) and the Italian Flag. A little research leads you to Engine House 25 in Lawrenceville & the Clemente Museum, where it’s thought to have been visited by member(s) of Pearl Jam while spending a few days around the city.
As 2020k has stated, Pittsburgh loves its city and its sports, so if you’re a musican and happen to mention either; good standings come your way. Not only was the wine reference present, but Jason Grilli of the Pirates made an appearance on stage during the first of two encores, to spend some playful time with his good friends during the song “Whipping”.
Throughout the evening, a slew of first-time-Live-Lightning-Bolt tracks came to life, including “Infallible,” “Let the Records Play,” “Yellow Moon,” and an extremely heartfelt “Sirens,” which was dedicated to a journalist who’d interviewed the band once, and passed away (the family of the journalist was in attendance at the show). The thing about Pearl Jam is that even though the setlist was heavily with new material, back catalog favorites such as “Daughter,” “Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town,” “Better Man,” and “Alive” roared just as relevant as they were when originally released – this sort of mix is expected due to the band’s noble way of coming up with re-inventive set lists each night before a show.
Speaking of Ten songs, during “Porch,” see-through light bulb fixtures that had glittered the stage all through the show descended for the band to rock out to. They pushed them, threw them around, even knocking over room-microphones as a means of electric fun and games.
On the contrary to this light-hearted side was a political “Unemployable” off their self-titled eighth album, which especially resonated as an introduction to the song stated that the title of it was wished upon everyone in congress (in reaction to the 2013 government shutdown).
Obviously known to the mood, Vedder took several moments in between songs to express his happiness to be back in the area, as well as his promise not to neglect in the future. At one speech segment, the lead singer expressed his apprehension for the evening. Would Pittsburgh be up for the show after all these years? Motivation, he said, came from Bruce Springsteen, who assured the band via phone that the Eastern based area would be outstanding.
Pearl Jam’s display of talent is forever endless, forever perfection, and forever perfected, so there was no reason the concert wouldn’t have sold out and no reason why the crowd wouldn’t be positively insane over these guys. They spoke in class, struck the venue with lightning, and infected every ear with over three hours of material and no signs of letting up until the house lights came on during a Neil Young cover of “Keep on Rockin’ in the Free World.” Obviously not unintentional on the venue’s part, guitarist Mike McCready gave Stone Gossard a confused look, the band powered through the song while the lights remained getting brighter. After, one lone closing song remained, “Yellow Bedletter”.
Afterward, both the crowed and the band parted ways; seemingly gracious and in-awe of one another in the welcoming in of a back and forth participation banter of music and adoration that surrounded itself through the night.
Lightning Bolt was released October 15th, 2013 (vinyl, CD, digital download). Tour information can be found at Pearljam.com. All 31 songs played during the Consol Energy Center date are up over at Setlist.fm.
Extremely sad news has come about in the world of United States concert venues today, as New York City’s historic Roseland Ballroom has announced that it will be shutting down in April 2014, cited by an internal email to Billboard.com today. As of right now, this is breaking news and there is no official statement to the public.
Originally held for all-white ballroom dancing in the 20’s, Roseland quickly changed its attitude to more jazz oriented artists, welcoming African Americans, eventually growing and captivating hearts around the globe with it’s ability for intriguing a wide variety of artist’s and charming concert goers. Fiona Apple had her infamous “break down” there during the Tidal days, Beyonce held 4 intimate nights at the venue in 2011 to promote her record 4, Nirvana took their music to the 3,500 seat venue, Madonna (pictured above, photo from justjared.com) and the list goes on and on…
Sharing a memory from Roseland; my only one – I saw Erykah Badu while she was under fire for her risque music video for “Window Seat” from New Amerykah Part 2: Return of the Ankh. Janelle Monae opened the show and since Badu was late, the audience received two DJ performances from ?uestlove, who took the attendees through a “History of Hip-Hop.” At one point in the show, Badu gave a musical queue to start the sociological video on the screens behind her as she began an ironic, and quite sexy cover of “More Bounce to the Ounce” by Zap & Roger.
After the performance? The Queen of neo-soul turned around to face the video, eventually turning around – giggling.
Robert Del Naja from Massive Attack continues his Battle Box series with “Battle Box 002” – released as a limited 300 copy vinyl and titled “3D on Jupiter”.
Battle Box 001 was released late last year and is still available. Massiveattack.ie reported that Del Naja has also reissued 001 with limited edition screen printed artwork by Paul Insect.
Dej Naja speaking on the song, “In 2007 I went to the Congo with Africa Express. I was lucky to hang out and listen to some pretty amazing musicians, Jupiter among them. This track is built with an unknown modular synth from Munich, a Moog and a Vermona drum machine, with help from Euan Dickinson and Tim Goldsworthy. And mixes by Bruno Ellingham. I wanted to mirror the energy and message in the song without complicating it. The b-side is a more relaxed and melodic using a Prophet 5 and a jupiter 8.”
You can stream both songs on the Battle Box Soundcloud, then head on over to The Vinyl Factory and purchase a copy before they’re all snatched up!
All vinyl copies will be individually numbered and feature artwork & label art by Paul Insect.
There’s still an NPR stream of the album up over here.
To celebrate and start the promotional train for their sophomore release, the duo created a music video to go along with the dazzlingly-honest “High Road”. It’s quite the psychedelic car ride, complete with a goosebump-worthy free fall segment at the minimal break in the song.
2020k recommends the vinyl, as their self-titled debut sounds immaculate and clear on wax. Why Go Outside with your Nokia Lumia* when you can listen to Cults instead?
Click here to see our excitement for “High Road” and here to read our review on Cults’ opening set at a Passion Pit show in Pittsburgh, PA.
*I was not paid to type this, I just love screaming “EEEEEYIEYIYEIIYEI I really wanna goooooo out” when this commercial comes on the televsion…cause I know what’s good.
“I grew up not too far north from here, so we all know what that’s like.” – Trent Reznor
Regardless of one’s stance on the audiophile release authenticity of the latest record by Nine Inch Nails, Hesitation Marks launches a different kind of signal in the Trent Reznor headed catalog; one becoming with maturity.
A surface level scratching of the LP certainly bespeaks conflicts in aggression; what would a Nails song be without it? However, this ninth studio release has an aerodynamic elegance to it in a way of utilizing stripped electronics and sleek moving melodic-textures to explore more bare arrangements and using space as an instrument, rather than countless layers that have prompted themselves in earlier releases. Interestingly enough, the heavy use of drum machines throwsHesitation Marks in the same vein of Electronica as the band’s 1989 debut Pretty Hate Machine, which, in a way, completes a full circle of growth and high expectations for the live show evolution that would seemingly come with it.
Tension 2013 landed itself near the heart of Oakland, near Forbes Ave at Petersen Events Center on October 8th, 2013. Mariqueen Maandig-Reznor adorably sent out an instagram celebrating an early Halloween somewhere amongst the area, while art director Rob Sheridan placed a gleefully dressed up cardboard Coors Light advertisement at center stage. Meanwhile, myself and Stacie (a good friend who introduced me to Nine Inch Nails years ago) strayed around blocks looking for coffee, smiling at the shenanigans; elated to feel the good spirits of our surroundings, as well as those involved in the show.
Inside, a melting pot of Halo 1: Down In It OGs, casual Closer fans, and post-1990’s audience members excitedly trickled into their respective general admission stances. Cross-generational Friends met at the front barriers as the lights dimmed for the opening band Explosions in the Sky. An ill-mannered “Don’t suck!” clumsily echoed from one impolite attendee’s unfiltered mouth, embarrassing the sound waves forced to bounce off the walls of the arena from the words produced by the lone spokesmen, but a becoming audience and sensible opening act silently dismissed the exclaim. Instead, the band splashed into the cinematic-alternative instrumental creations from their discography, flowing from one song to the next without much break; seamlessly interpolating songs into one another and maximizing their impression amongst the allotted stage time.
Of their six song set, “Let Me Back In” provided a specifically haunting live interpretation of the song, as the reverberated vocal samples of which thrive through the Take Care, Take Care, Take Care track were met with the same flowing room ambiance as the earlier heckler, only this time allowing the room to bounce serious artistic expression and guitar-positioned melodies throughout it. Only six songs deep in length, Explosions expressed an exuberance not so easily portrayed and created a mood so pure that the upcoming Prince Avalanche film in which they scored should prove to be an immense intense experience due to the backdrop of in the band’s Texas based talent.
Gawking at the curtained stage solidified an anticipation more severe than the wait after Street Sweeper Social Club’s opening performance on the Wave Goodbye/NINJA tour co-headlined with Jane’s Addiction. Not that the concept of Wave was negative, but although it was filled with rarities and a minimal smoke & lights setup, the tour felt just as it was named; a simple wave goodbye, a temporary hiatus in touring for Reznor and crew.
This time, with full production in swing that have completely revamped the Nine Inch Nails festival tour earlier this year and an extended set list averaging about twenty-five songs per show, Tension 2013 seems to put the band back on track with the likes of previous groundbreaking The Lights in the Sky and With_Teeth creations. From the newest release, “Copy of A” began the show translated in a fashion that sticks true to the album version’s core, down to the lone two-kick drum notes in the middle of the song of which pumped the venue full of low end energy that the song could flourish upon.
Powering through the entire discography, basically avoiding With_Teeth, Year Zero, and The Slip save for one song from each of those respective records, Nine Inch Nails put on a powerful show, complete with visuals by that formed a conglomerate in demonstration of an evolution in one of the smartest, most innovative industrial rock bands that have ever walked the face of the Earth.
Of the touring members of Nine Inch Nails, even with the legendary PinoPalladino on bass (who has toured with the likes of The Who and Gary Numan), it is the former NIN-Festival-bassist turned guitar/keys player Josh Eustis of the brilliant Telefon Tel Aviv that specifically stands out as the talented newcomer amongst the bunch. Not only has he been one half of Tel Aviv before the unfortunate passing of Charles Cooper, but has remixed “Where is Everybody?” off The Fragile for its remix compilation entitled Things Falling Apart, as well as an unreleased remix of “Even Deeper” that can be found on remix.nin.com. What makes Eustis such a valuable player in Nine Inch Nails’ live orientation is how effortless he displays his multi-instrumental talent. For the most part, he is dormant on stage, however, the focus radiating off what he is playing and himself allows for one to stare in awe at how effortless he makes the intricacies look. By the time Josh breaks out the saxophone during “While I’m Still Here,” any skeptical reservations are tarnished; replaced with admiration and respect.
Along with Eustis and Palladino are unconventional backing singers Sharlotte Gibson and Lisa Fischer, whom give the band a Pink Floidian feel to several songs, mainly “Even Deeper,” where Fischer (who’s toured with The Rolling Stones) completely lets loose, recalling adlib and vocal additions akin to falling in line with the likes of “The Great Gig in the Sky”.
There’s no nostalgic tension here, no copy of a copy of a copy of a copy of a previous shadow of a performer, but a noteworthy and continual step forward in the Nine Inch Nails legacy that’s continual growth only seems to grow better with age.
It’s also noteworthy that “The Day The World Went Away” made it’s Tension 2013 debut at this Pittsburgh, PA date. Tickets and additional tour information can be found at NIN.com
On an early autumn night, with a pumpkin beer in hand, situated in the back bar area of Millvale, Pennsylvania’s church-turned-concert-venue Mr. Smalls, the setting seemed to be a perfect mood for an evening to be in the company of quiet, dim-lit indie band Daughter. The venue is a small, almost homely feeling – definitely more than intimate enough for a melancholic trio to lament and confess inside. With two EPs and one full length under their belt, Elena Tonra and her fellow Institute of Contemporary Music Performance friends have crafted some of the more somber musical pieces on the 4AD & Glassnotes record labels, and in support of them teamed up with Bear’s Den to tour the projects around the United States, landing them here on a cool October 2nd, 2013.
To warm up, the folk-laden Bear’s Den presented a performance that set apart the dismal, sometimes humdrum debut Agape EP release. Whereas the first few listens of the actual record itself can come across as a more arduous listen, their live set is very natural, even professional in a way that the sonics and song structures are more freely defined and definitive of the emotion/talent behind them. It’s not to say that Bear’s Den doesn’t sound great on their polished studio release, but seeing the tracks come to life by the band’s musicianship and interaction with the songs provides the missing piece of their work; the heart, if you will. The set was short, as most opening act time slots are, but enough for the early arriving audience to hear some debut EP musings and things off an upcoming follow up Without/Within EP. The rainy day banjo-infused Londoners, all together played a diminutive, but effective set, specifically highlighting “Agape” as a beautiful opener, with the lines “Tell me how long, love, before you go and leave me here on my own. I don’t want to know who I am without you,” which distinctly resonated the spirit of the night, accelerating anticipation for the main act.
Admittedly, Daughter entered 2020k’s radar a week before the actual show, through a friend. Normally, the chance to see an act fully un-acquanted with one’s ears are passed on, but the emotion and genuine songwriting is so intensely powerful on their releases that it seemed like an act of regret to pass up on viewing a trio whose emotional affect was so instant. Expectations for the evening were not through the roof, but rather subdued in a way to relax for the evening and watch the band dig deeper into their discography, to thrive through the darkness of their songs, and to see a group of musicians whom fallen artistically relatable on the 2020k table.
The modesty behind Daughter is what’s swift to catch attention. There are no frills at a Daughter show, the lights mostly stay dimmed and low, and the only time a member of the band chooses to speak with the audience is to say thank you for being so kind. The small gathering of individuals at the show were quiet, respectful, listening, and the band took notice. “It’s our first time here and I’m quite awkward with people,” Tonra spoke noiselessly, at one moment, “so thank you for being so welcoming.”
What hindered the Daughter show was a lack of clarity from the engineering standpoint of the show. While the instrumentation and creative skill shined through the entire thirteen track set, the majority of it was lost in a muddied mess. The instruments sometimes collided sonically with each other, creating chaos in clarity, and for the majority of the show, Elena’s vocals were unintelligible, often buried beneath the amount of mid-range muddiness, that doubled greatly with the various subtle effects on her vocals. Unfortunately, this is not at all Daughter’s fault, but because of it, at times, made the show completely unengaged, confusing, and all around translated a lack of pure emotion of which should have been delivered to the listener. This was a shame as there is no doubt of the talent within any member of Daughter.
At any rate, musically the show comprised of a musical chemistry within the band as they despondently delivered their sorrow sonics, at times, playing off of it, saying “Here’s another sad song.” “Smother” and “Youth” obviously showed strength in their delivery, as they’ve been pushed to the forefront of their promotion on various projects, but different tracks like “Landfill” and the stunning opening track from If You Leave called “Winter” came out to play as well.
At the end of the night, I had a Daft Punk shirt on, because I thought it would be funny considering the band did a cover of “Get Lucky” live on BBC Radio One Live Lounge, and ironically enough, after a compliment from an individual on the shirt (thank you!) the band came out as an encore to finish of their performance with this specific cover. A wonderful, completely human rendition of the song was broadcasted, still sonically doomed, but still a wonderful end to a good, still, and honest night of musical solemn evening.
Side note: During this song, boyfriend looked over at me after the line “If you’re in love, then you are the lucky one” and said he was a lucky one. AAAAWWWWWWWWW, so cute it makes you sick, right? I swooned (and then we were up all night to get lucky if you know what I mean. Just kidding..). Special thank you to Andrew for coming, and to Thom for turning me on to Daughter. Also, my apologies to the bartender who made his way somewhere else before I was able to leave a tip! Still feeling bad..next time you’ll get a few extra dollars (I’m always there, just look!) Also, this paragraph is supposed to be smaller in font size than anything else, but WordPress is being strange, so just imagine that this text is smaller.
Check out If You Leave by Daughter. The first full length, released via CD, vinyl, and MP3 on April 30th, 2013. Amazon link.
Lady Gaga has revealed the ARTPOP album cover, curated by Jeff Koonz. Her body isn’t a motorcycle this time.
Like it?
Read our “Applause” Review. ARTPOP will be released November 8th, 2013 with production from Martin Bresso, DJ White Shadow, Madeon, Monson, Zedd, and Dino Zsis.
I’ve been absent a bit over here lately. I know. I apologize. (Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.)
A couple of posts down, I explained that I’ve been working 60 hour work weeks. This amount of work is no doubt strenuous, but is necessary in preparation to make a life change and move into the actual city of Pittsburgh for a bit.
There’s a lot of other projects in the works. Big projects. Big music projects that are being processed and creatively executed. Announcements will be made in the near future.
For now, there’s a song that I’ve worked on for the last eight months with Vestron Vulture called “Run in Circles” that just came out. So far, it’s been featured on a great compilation called Vox Populi by the Retro Promenade’s imprint [click] and a free five track single download that’s currently out for download.
01. Run in Circles
02. Chip in Circles
03. Always Etcetera (Wet Eyes Featuring 2020k)
04. Run in Circles (Original Mix)
05. Supertramp ’68 (Vestron Vulture)
Thank you to Dante for the collaboration, as well as additional thanks to Aneesh Ratan & Ross Auger for the extra help, and to Mike Mendoza for finding a slot on the compilation.
You can stay more informed during this “quiet time” (for lack of a better phrase) over at twenty20k.com, Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter (where I’m a Chatty Cathy from time to time).
What you are reading above is true. Madonna answered a question submitted by myself [link] in regards to an artist’s duty to responsibly use their voice to reflect society and themselves. To correct myself, I was six when I obtained the “You’ll see” cassette single, not four. This is also me trying to be modest, as I cannot lie that her response to my inquiry sent the buzzer for my constant support for messages throughout art off in full swing [more on that specifically here].
This is just one of the many questions submitted by Reddit users during a special Ask Me Anything segment featuring the artist herself. Like the Twitter banter (sans Mau5 drama), the Queen of Pop delivered back-handed, clever comments to her fans as she spent a few hours scrolling through the thousands of submissions of which pelted this specific section of the internet outlet.
Obviously a call to promote her upcoming Secret Project Revolution, which premieres next week at artforfreedom.com, Madonna makes several references to the project, stating “It’s a very ambitious project because it deals with very controversial issues; both global and personal. I’m extremely passionate about it. It means more to me than anything I have ever done before. In one week, it wont be a secret.” This back and forth even went so far as to ask a fan from Pakistan, who’s account has since been deleted, to share any story he might have.
More insightful, she had this to say about the critical and commercial downfall of American Life: “Because I dealt with a lot of controversial issues in it. I criticized american politics, the entertainment business in hollywood. I was in an angry mood when I was making it. Maybe that came across, but I was in an angry mood when I made my last album [MDNA] too.”
In funland,
She came out as a gay man.
when asked where to put the hydrangeas, she replied “up your ass.”
Kept typing the phrase “send photo”
Wishes she could turn Frank Ocean straight.
Wants a dirty martini.
Is waiting for Daft Punk to return her call.
So since we’re best friends and I’m still waiting for Deadmau5 to get back to me about doing a car interview, do you think next time she’s in Pittsburgh I can take her out?
What you are reading above is true. Madonna answered a question submitted by myself [
2020k 