it's hard to make a stew when the meat keeps looking up at you

I first heard Elastica on Trigger Happy TV back when in sec 3 or 4, one of those nuts british kind of humour show that I really liked and never failed to watch every Tuesday. The song was Elastica's ' Connection', and a certain acerbic yet smooth detachness in the lead singer's Justine Frischmann cool voice caught my happy and anti establishment hungry teenage ear back then. Anyway forward a few years and I finally started digging around for more of their stuff, and Fluxblog's recent post sorta reminded me of them with an amazing version of another of their song.

Here's ' Hold Me Now', a slightly off center crowd pleasing tune that is sure to grab you by the ears and make you pay attention. Lyrically, it's typically British off kilter but with a killer sass helped in no small part by Frischmann's brash and frank charm. You can imagine her slitted eyes stabbing right into you as she sings and cooly plays her guitar, imploring, begging and warning you all at once.

It's best to watch a video of her live performance below to see what I mean.

Elastica - Hold Me Now ( Live BBC session)

since they had disbanded, there is no official site or something like that. Unofficial net writeups are all rather dead and outdated too. The best site online for more information on Elastica is still over @Allmusic.com

Things really started to heat up about 30 seconds in..

so what can i do when i'm thinking of you

I swear i'm not inundating the readers with Swedish music on purpose but I really did not know The Shout Out Louds were from Sweden too until after I decided to write up about them and checked them out on allmusic.com.

Anyway The SOLs are sorta more like an ' indier' version of Mando Diao. The sheer energy and boyish confidence is as much present in here as it is in Mando Diao, perhaps a little brasher and rawer that may not be as " bluesy and soulful" rocky but veering along in a more sparkling and hearts-on-sleeve fashion. It is the catchy and distinctive arrangements that really make the SOLs stand out, all creative and unforgettable hooks ( like the Cure). It is easy for most songs singing of love and the dicey stuff to go overly kitschy and self indulgent, here fortunately the lead singer Adam always keeps it from turning that way ( unlike the Cure sometimes), instead using his unique voice to gel and match the sound together nicely.

Heh nice harmonicas on the song too.

THE SHOUT OUT LOUDS - MY FRIEND AND THE INK

their site, where you can sample more of their songs:

i've been away but now i'm back

Maybe it's just a reflection, but I find myself drawn to things, be they songs and things that consist of what may seem oddly incongruent differences that cannot simply.. work with each other ( mm 'sometimes always') but somehow oddly, at the end of it all, after much trial and error and false starts, find a way to mesh eventually creating something profoundly new and, so I would like to think, more amazing and wonderful than if one merely worked with the same similar components initially. The unexpected from the usual expected. Here again this tendency surfaces again, for I cannot seem to settle on who I like more, the sway of quiet melancholic alluring Mazzy Star ( just look at the video in the previous post) or the dance of all plainly cutesy and yay sunshine zest of the Pipettes.

So imagine my reaction when I came across a cover of ' Sometimes Always' rendered by Brakes & The Pipettes. Interestingly, they have switched the male/female positions in the duet, and subtly changed the whole nature of the song. Depending on you, you can decide that it's a triumph for post-feminism feminism or perfect summer coy pop, but look, now I am simply unable decide which version of the song I prefer, and that is really very telling.

BRAKES & THE PIPETTES - SOMETIMES ALWAYS (COVER)

click to see a video of the Pipette's album single previously mentioned here:

That is Rose again on the left. You can hear and see Hope Sandoval on another video if you scroll down.