HIATUS:


















I'm just in the processing of moving across the great country of Canada so I doubt I will be having any new posts for a while. Once I'm settled back in the Maritimes I hope to resume things as usual.

Cheers,

KulPop

VARIOUS BITS AND PIECES:





















According to reports Sheffield's The Human League have begun recording their follow-up to the excellent and under-rated 'Secrets' album released back in 2001. The band have been playing live shows pretty consistently in recent years, but news of a new studio recording is always a good thing. "All that is currently known about the new Human League recording sessions in Sheffield is that Philip has been writing songs with drummer Rob Barton who has been playing live with The League since 2004. Philip has also revealed that the new tracks may have an electro glam rock feel them."

And news that Prefab Sprout plan to release their new album, tentatively-titled 'Let's Change The World With Music - The Blueprint', in February 2009. This would be their first new studio album release since 2001's 'The Gunman And Other Stories'.

Wondering whatever happened to Ferras? Reading some of his recent MySpace blogs it appears that he is busy writing the follow up to his debut cd 'Aliens & Rainbows' in LA where he just downsized from a house to an apartment. Sounds like he may also be caught up in all the changes going on with EMI (and that may also account for some of the lack of success and promotion of the Aliens cd). He certainly didn't have the break through that I and other bloggers predicted but it doesn't sound like he has any plans to stop writing/recording and performing so hopefully a new album will see the light of day in 2009, good luck Ferras!

Do you remember the Paul McCartney recommended rock band 'Steadman' who released a good self titled cd back in 2003? It appears that a couple of members have formed a new band called London To Tokyo and you can listen to their new song 'Feel Better' on their Myspace site that shows a lot of promise for a decent album to eventually get released.
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DUFFY - ORPHEUM THEATRE VANCOUVER CONCERT REVIEW & NEW MP3:















(stock photo)

I missed Duffy the last time the young Welsh singer played in Vancouver and got a free last minute pair of tickets for her show tonight at the Orpheum Theatre. Duffy started the show with the song 'Syrup & Honey' , just her and one of her guitarists and her 'eh eh eh eh' style (I don't know what else to call it when she holds those notes) was so grating I thought the night would be a mess. Luckily she was joined by the rest of her very competent six-piece band that upped the cool quotient of the night and helped mask her singing style, especially on the faster songs that she performed. Duffy wore a super tight red dress for the entire concert really playing up the sex kitten persona with very limited 60's MOD style dance moves and the overdone spinning her microphone around on it's cord to get a crowd response. Luckily she did hit the mark on songs like 'Rockferry', 'Stepping Stone', 'Tomorrow' and 'Mercy'. One of the highlights of the evening was the performance of a new song (just went to radio in the U.K.) called 'Rain On Your Parade' (you can download the song here for one week). The song will probably be a huge hit across the pond and could do well on North American radio also if released. She finally got the crowd up on their feet by inviting us to get up and dance our 'Canadian asses' to the song 'Tomorrow' and the crowd remained standing for the rest of the show.

Duffy proved she can hit the right notes at times, but for my money Adele is a much better singer and has way more personality. I saw her live at the Red Room back in May (my review) and she really impressed me with her style, talent and sense of humour. I recommend you try and watch Saturday Night Live this Saturday as Adele is scheduled as musical guest. I hope you'll be impressed enough to go out and buy her cd '19' after you see her perform (that's if you haven't already got a copy in your collection).

Setlist:
Syrup & Honey
Rockferry
Hanging On Too Long
Serious
Breaking My Own Heart
Rain On Your Parade
Warwick Avenue
Delayed Devotion
Stepping Stone
Tomorrow
Mercy

Encores:
Scared
Distant Dreamer
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ADELE BERTEI WITH SCRITTI POLITTI - 'WHEN IT'S OVER'











Click here to download the quite rare 1985 track by Adele Bertei called 'When It's Over' that was produced by Scritti Politti and has the classic Scritti sound.

You can watch the video for the song here.
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BANNER SAYS IT ALL: THE AMAZING ADELE ON SNL THIS WEEK!:

A COUPLE OF BITS AND PIECES:















Head over to Advance Copy for a song by the band More Amor called 'Same Damn Song', it grows on you. Taking a quick listen to their album samples on iTunes they remind me of 'Hellogoodbye' a bit which is a good thing.

Empire Of The Sun have released their album 'Walking On A Dream' in Australia, it is available for download on iTunes Canada as well. I like the record a lot, standout tracks are the title track first single, 'Half Mast' and 'Swordfish Hotkiss Night'. (3 tracks at Blouse Sydney blog).
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IMOGEN HEAP WORKS ON DUNCAN SHEIK ANIMATED FILM PROJECT:

















Imogen Heap has a new vBlog (#30) which is chalk full of information. Big news is that she has written a song with Mika (who has also recently got into the video blogging act) that may appear on his next album. She also flew to LA to sing at 'The O.C.' creator Josh Schwartz's wedding to Jill Stonerock in Santa Barbara, CA. She has written a song for an upcoming animated movie that is scheduled to air on NBC this holiday season (she plays a clip, the song could be called "It's Alright"). The animated movie "Macy's Presents Little Spirit: Christmas in New York," starring the voices of Danny DeVito, Lucy Liu, and Freddy Rodriguez centers on a boy who loses his dog right before Christmas, and features original songs and music by Duncan Sheik. It sounds like Duncan approached her to work on the project, will be interesting to see if a soundtrack to the TV movie gets released.

Some reissue cds coming out in the U.K. in the coming weeks that I'm looking forward to picking up at some point are:

Red Box - The Circle And The Square (order here) (And Red Box (Simon Toulson-Clarke) have a new record ready to release)











Thompson Twins - A Product of.../Set (order here)

EMMY ROSSUM - SLOW ME DOWN





















Just heard a great song by singer Emmy Rossum called 'Slow Me Down' from her album 'Inside Out' that is available on iTunes. It should appeal to fans of Imogen Heap or Enya, sort of a cross between the two of them. MP3 available here for one week. Rossum recorded her album with Canadian producer Stuart Brawley who has worked with Darren Hayes among many others, check out his MySpace for more info on his work. This song has been around for a while I guess, but I heard it for the first time tonight and instantly liked it, I will have to check out the entire album and see what it sounds like.
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NEW KEANE CD PERFECT SYMMETRY IS EXCELLENT:





















I've been a big fan of Keane since I first heard them and have been lucky enough to see them in concert many times and also chat with them on occasion. I've been waiting for the release of "Perfect Symmetry" and look forward to picking up the deluxe 2 CD edition when it is released on October 14th in Canada.

Listening to the record this morning I have to say there is definitely a change in sound for many of the songs including the already released 'Spiralling' and the first single 'Lovers Are Losing' and the Bowie sounding 3rd track 'Better Than This'. Then along comes the classic Keane sound on the title track 'Perfect Symmetry', and the grower 'You Don't See Me'. 'Again And Again' returns to the new sound followed by 'Playing Along'. Not having the chance to listen to my entire Keane collection for comparison I have to say that 'Pretend That You're Alone' has to be the funkiest track Keane has ever recorded, cool bass line and a horn section (probably synth horns I know). The album closes with two classic sounding Keane tracks 'Black Burning Heart' and 'Love Is The End'. "Perfect Symmetry" is a very strong record and should get Keane the good cd sales and sold out tours that they deserve.

Highlights: 'Lovers Are Losing', 'Pretend That You're Alone', 'Perfect Symmetry', 'You Don't See Me' and 'Again And Again'.
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LORRAINE LOSES GEAR AND REHEARSAL SPACE IN FIRE:

















Lorraine have suffered the lose of all their gear and rehearsal space in a fire, the picture above shows the remains of the building after the fire (this happened in early September). My best wishes go out to the band and hope that they can get back on track and release an amazing album which many people are waiting for. Blurb below is from their MySpace blog:

Will let the pictures speak for themself, but a hint, the big pile of ashes and rubbish, used to be Lorraine and dozens of other bands rehearsal rooms.. All our gear were in there:(
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