House of Gerrish International » Music

Nick Drake

Matt — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 00:31:41 +0000

Anticipating another forgettable Friday night out, last weekend, beer in hand, I switched on the TV to get me in the mood. Three hours later I was still watching BBC 4′s special on Nick Drake, the elusive English folk singer, who I’m sure you all know. Usually I would run a mile from red-bearded hippies and organic, stripy-tighted troubadours. But the tribute concert to the man was actually very touching -- seeing the elegant lady tapping on the piano, the strings in harmony behind and the singers with almost trance-like immersion. But above all, his songs -- each one reminding…

2000 – 2010: splintering scenes

hugh — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 09:30:45 +0000

Just reading this Guardian piece debating whether Pitchforks 200 albums of the decade is a significant list that we should take note of. The answer for me from both a music fan and cultural observer angle is yes definitely. Those guys went beyond the guitar based music with the odd exception mindset that the NME and Q had to one where any album, whether it was from a Norwegian disco producer or Brooklyn 4 piece was listened to and assessed on a level playing field.

I’ve got to be thankful to them for some of my…

EXCLUSIVE Norman Jay uncut interview

miguel — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 19:18:56 +0000

“Success has no taste, or smell, and when you get used to it, it’s as if it didn’t exist” says Huma Rojo in Almodóvar’s Todo Sobre Mi Madre. Tragically insatiable as human beings may / may not be, Norman Jay MBE seems momentarily appeased: “The Queen could have given me a chocolate biscuit, I’d still be happy”, he says, departing for once from his slick media-type tones into a 1970s Nottin’ ‘ill bubble.

Norman Jay, veteran DJ of house with a black flavour, is also co-founder of Kiss FM, the only black DJ to be awarded an MBE, and has…

Lil Wayne

Matt — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 20:48:03 +0000

I’ve been living in New York for a few months now. I can’t help but notice the widespread adoration for Dwayne Michael Carter, aka Lil Wayne. This does not just include preppy kids in average nightclubs, but intelligent, self-conscious connoisseurs of culture, such as my flatmate Greg, who prides himself on an encyclopaedic knowledge of all things, from the smell of children to lox bagels, roofies to Ryan Phillipe.

But when we bring up Lil Wayne, formerly of ‘Hot Boys’, he seems to melt like a knob of butter on Beyonce’s inner thigh. Why, I ask, do you worship…

Charlie Winston

Matt — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:50:44 +0000

Charlie Winston is an English singer-songwriter who has taken France by storm, topping the charts with his song, ‘Like a Hobo’. All things imply that he is about to do the same in the UK. HOG contributor Greg Spielberg thinks it’s a bit of one-hit wonder. What do you think?

Charlie Winston’s American Ripoff: Like a Hobo

greg — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:26:51 +0000

The first ten times I heard Charlie Winston’s Like a Hobo, it was muffled and scratchy coming from a friend’s Mac laptop speakers in another room. All I could feel was the driving beat and the soulful first-person story of a young man. I mistook it for a lighter, folksy cover of the Temptations’ Papa Was a Rolling Stone. Then I thought it might be a remake inspired by Hoochie Coochie Man, Muddy Waters’ song that starts off with a gypsy predicting to his pregnant mother that Muddy’s coming into the world as a damn baller — fine ladies, watch…

The White Buffalo

Matt — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 03:15:19 +0000

I literally stumbled across this gig the other night at The Living Room on Ludlow Street. The artist in question was a singer-songwriter by the name of The White Buffalo.

He was a big, barrel-chested man – must be 6ft 4 – with a thick beard and raw lumberjack-shirt, a throwback to the time of hard touring, hard drinking artists who really lived what they sang about.

Whether he is “a legend in the making”, as his website insists, is another story. But it was an entertaining hour or so packed with catchy songs and strong vocals.

Best tracks:
…

Why Mayer Hawthorne is a gimmick

miguel — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:12:59 +0000

by Miguel Cullen of www.stateofthearts.org.uk

For those who don’t know, Mayer Hawthorne is a new soul artist on Stone’s Throw records, the label that puts out Madvillain, Breakestra and J Dilla. His sound is almost inseparable to that of Curtis Mayfield and Isaac Hayes, and his look is a sort of Mark Ronson, slightly geeky in skinny ties/cardigans.
He’s a massive hit among discerning heads in the scene, with his Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out single heading six-figure hits on YouTube and his Maybe So, Maybe No Venice Beach-shot music video getting him a front page interview spot on…

Twitter and the offencerati

sam — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:27:59 +0000

Anyone whose life involves writing more than the odd shopping list will know the feeling. For a split-second (perhaps it is a trick of the mind) all your thoughts summate into one concise, witty, perfect sentence. And then – in absence of pen or dictaphone – it is gone as quickly as it came. So it was that my exact stance on Twitter came to rest somewhere on the southbound stretch of the A21 between Sevenoaks and Tonbridge – a hellish place to die.

I’m definitely not going to describe it as the internet’s marmite. Likening something to marmite is…

Theophilus London

hugh — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 14:55:19 +0000

He’s not from London but don’t let that put you off, this is the real deal. Looks set to be a big album.

Theophilus London- Enjoy The Sun (Prod. By Machine Drum) from GFCnewyork on Vimeo.