|
Post by blade on Feb 10, 2009 21:39:20 GMT
I could have put this in this thread - "New, New date, February 2009" but I thought I'd start a new one. Here's the first review I've found, from londonist.com: Link: londonist.com/2009/02/howling_bells_islington_academy.phpText: Howling Bells @ Islington Academy Make way, north London, for the horrendously good-looking and youthful Australian lovelies Howling Bells. You want to hate them but they are good, darn it, so here comes a generous review. The first and best thing about them has to be coquettish frontwoman Juanita Stein, a sultry siren who flutters her eyelashes and shimmies around the stage, toying with and teasing one and all. Being so achingly beautiful has got to make it pretty easy to win friends in this business, though her grouchy comment in response to a predictably sexist heckle from the crowd suggests it may be a little tiring being able to launch a thousand ships at any given moment. But she doesn't get our sympathy, because she comes across as a smart girl, and because she is good, with a voice that is syrupy and strong at the same time. When she talks the Antipodean is lost and she rasps like an American beauty queen; when she sings it is rusty, slick sweetness; a kick-ass, wised up cherry pie is being baked in there somewhere. Additionally, the rest of the band haven't exactly been burdened with any unfortunate physical traits, and, much like the manner in which New Young Pony Club and MGMT sucked all the sap out of the music paparazzi for a few months, HBs are set to grace the front pages of the press with their flawless cosmopolitan aesthetic. It helps that they make indie pop that veers to a relatively dark side: stylish and spiky and extremely likeable. Do the Howling Bells put on a slick live show? They sure do. Do they ever spill over into the spectacular, or move away from the self-conscious? Not quite, though strangely they get nearer to it after some sound problems, when the crowd seem to warm to them and they seem to let go and relax. However, although we could put it down to churlish envy, it does seem hard to really love something that looks so perfect. It makes you want to go and watch something grittier or stranger or homelier - an overweight and ageing Wilco, a wraithlike Newsom or the curious contours of Mr Cave. Rock and roll should be bruised and dirty, right? All we can pray for is that looks and musical ability are the Bells' only redeeming features. If they are quoting F. Scott Fitzgerald and helping disadvantaged children practise reading in their spare time, we are all doomed
|
|
|
Post by tealovertoma on Feb 10, 2009 22:33:16 GMT
Haha, funniest HB review I've read so far. "it may be a little tiring being able to launch a thousand ships at any given moment." :lol: nice pic, too.
|
|
|
Post by frannington on Feb 15, 2009 9:20:38 GMT
There's another one here: www.musicomh.com/music/gigs/howling-bells-4_0209.htmNo one likes being at work. That's why they call it work and not Super Happy Fun Time. That, and the fact that Super Happy Fun Time sounds like a cross between a paedophile's homepage and the latest moronic 7am cartoon on ITV.
But then again, surely being in a band and playing shows can't be like work. It's what you do instead of doing work. Isn't it? For Howling Bells, this gig sure looked like work. Hard, tiresome, rather be at home watching Trisha in my pants work.
The kind of work which makes Monday morning's schedule as follows: 1. Can't be arsed. 2. Need A Coffee. 3. Gonna play Solitaire for at least the next three hours and woe betide the miserable sod who even casts a glance in my direction.
They were tired, they were grouchy and they were hardly on top form. Three things that if you're stricken with, you should at least try to mask from your audience.
It was all brought to a head when Setting Sun started, stopped, glared unhappily at the soundman and then collapsed. A shame, and not entirely their fault, but troubling nonetheless. Particularly as when they did just get on with the task in hand, there were some real blasts of excellence.
Ms Bell's Song pointed intoxicatingly at what The Velvet Underground would have been like with some proper vocalists, while Cities Burning Down enveloped you like an inappropriate hug; a hypnotically driving pace, cut with squalling guitar lines and Juanita Stein providing the siren call to pierce through the haze.
Which could be where the strange undercurrent of nastiness actually helped. For every good siren needs the layer of rocks upon which to wreck their captured craft, otherwise they're just some silly bint flopped on a beach offering favours for passing sailors.
For the most part, the gaps in the performance were the gaps in the performance. There were some weak numbers tonight for sure - Nightingale was overlong and directionless and Let's Be Kids Again is silly, one dimensional and trite live or on record. But it was the awkward, bi-polar delivery and banter which really scuppered the Bells.
If this new found edge perpetuates in more songs like Golden Web, Portishead-like in both its processed beats and its haunting, vitriolic lyric delivered with pristine beauty, then it isn't a bad thing. If it's just something that makes attending their live shows a slightly awkward experience, then we can probably do without it.
Workmanlike performances and ethereal beauty are pretty much opposing concepts. Howling Bells would do well to remember that, if they continue to aim for the latter and hit the former. - Tim Lee( 2 out of 5 stars album review on the same site too. It's not the only less-than-glowing article about it, but I don't want to go overly off-topic.)
|
|
|
Post by blade on Feb 16, 2009 22:27:18 GMT
Well, you have to accept that some people will never like certain groups. I can't stand Coldplay but millions like them, so who's wrong, me or the millions? Anyway, here's another (mixed) review from music.virgin.com/2009/02/13/review-howling-bells-islington-academy-london/Text: Howling Bells covering Britney Spears sounds like a lazy journalist’s attempt at defining the latest electro-rock-pop, one-woman amalgamation. It isn’t though, it’s tonight’s encore. Howling Bells are back with their second album and are clearly fixated on it outdoing their first smouldering triumph. As they saunter onstage to face a sold-out crowd tonight, there is the tangible feeling they are after success; the kind that gets you on the end of talk shows and the start of charts. Not that there is anything wrong with that, as long as the tunes remain as creakingly, broodingly brilliant as before. Opening with oldie Blessed Night is an overdue welcome back to their fans, the chugging riff and sultry elusiveness of singer Juanita Stein stomping back into view. Then it is into the new stuff, with sophomore record Radio Wars showcased solidly. It is certainly broader, the sonic scope of Cities Burning Down contrasting with the pop tart shimmer of Digital Hearts. However, despite the wider range, it lacks the focus of its predecessor in the live arena. When Wishing Stone is bludgeoned into action it’s a hearty relief. Juanita is as enticingly as ever, her wispy, dreamy stage presence and infiltrating vocals holding the mood. Nevertheless, the chat between songs is grating, a feeling that annoying technical problems on Setting Sun only exacerbate. The slow-burning, creeper nature of their old sound never fully flourishes at this sold-out show, with flops such as the wet electro of Golden Web breaking it up. Regardless, there are highlights, not least the breezy single Into The Chaos. Former darkness forgotten, it is smothered in a pleasing, toe-tapping glitz. This new direction is aptly illustrated by the choice of encore. Rather than returning to former singles such as Broken Bones, Toxic is tackled. Juanita pulls off Britney’s energetic playfulness well and its unexpected nature adds novelty, but there is little musically to match the original. They have been away for quite a while, came back bigger than they ever were, but misplaced the nagging, blustery feel that made their music so alluring. Still, the textured nature of their new sound may be another grower and a repeat of this gig by spring could be transformed. There’s just enough sprinklings of imagination to ensure most stick around to find out, but this is not quite the night their Radio Wars are won.
|
|
|
Post by livlovesmusique on Feb 18, 2009 3:14:56 GMT
Another review--from the Independent: Back in 2004, the four-piece rock band Howling Bells swapped their base in Sydney, Australia, for the gritty music scene of London. Since then, they have been slowly gaining recognition and fans, as tonight’s packed NME Awards Show proves. Their beguiling eponymous debut album of 2006 was full of intoxicating melodies, in the dreamy vein of Mazzy Star, all carried by the velvet vocals of their singer, Juanita Stein. The band have the look, too. Her brother, lead guitarist Joel Stein, and bassist Brendan Picchio have the rough swagger of rock stars while their singer is all kittenish charm, clad in sequinned top and leather trousers. Tonight showcases their new album, Radio Wars, which casts a thick menacing shadow over their already gothic-blues-rock country-folk with its heavier tone and added samples. Still, almost every dark and threatening track Stein transcends into melodic bliss. Joel, provides the ideal balance. While Juanita gently strums along to her purring vocals in the gothic-blues rock single “Cities Burning Down”, Joel bursts in with menacing judders of guitar over a shimmering riff that recalls Mogwai’s “Fear Satan”. The dark edge of “Treasure Hunt”, too, is softened by her lilting vocals. But elsewhere in Radio Wars, there is too much going on sonically to give her voice room to roll. The finale, a cover of Britney Spears’s “Toxic”, is carried by the vocals – but their attempt to recreate the pop synth sound live comes across as sparse and tinny. Paradoxically it’s their many inventive ideas that set them back live. The sheer melee of effects in tonight’s set forces them noticeably out of time on at least one occasion. A sample kicks the whole of “Cities Burning Down” out of synch. But, to their credit, their attempts to recreate the powerful sound of their songs are effective. They perform the heaviest-edged songs from their debut, but it’s still the gloriously haunting “Setting Sun”, capturing the eerie world of Twin Peaks, that remains one of their best and gives the vocals space to soar to its heights. “Nightingale” is the most comparable new song. There is only one song out of place in an otherwise entrancing set. “Golden Web” is far less captivating than its subject suggests. But when Howling Bells get it right, they are sublime. www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/reviews/howling-bells-islington-academy-london-1624755.html
|
|
|
Post by tealovertoma on Feb 18, 2009 13:34:57 GMT
There is only one song out of place in an otherwise entrancing set. “Golden Web” is far less captivating than its subject suggests. Fail.
|
|
|
Post by houdini on Feb 19, 2009 23:40:50 GMT
what sort of bullshite is this: "Workmanlike performances and ethereal beauty are pretty much opposing concepts. Howling Bells would do well to remember that, if they continue to aim for the latter and hit the former."
doesnt make grammatical sense, is bad englsih, is not worthy of reprint, is lacking in appreciaton for one of the worlds best bands. if he cant see that he should stay in his bedsit and drink warm beer
|
|
|
Post by houdini on Feb 19, 2009 23:42:44 GMT
and this, "There is only one song out of place in an otherwise entrancing set. “Golden Web” is far less captivating than its subject suggests" thats why its Bonos fave track at the moment
|
|
evesp
Junior Member
Posts: 46
|
Post by evesp on Mar 1, 2009 23:34:29 GMT
They're certainly getting mixed reviews! I thought the show was excellent and they handles the technical problems with humour! Juanita's vocals have often been in danger of being swamped though and the balance is probably something they need to concentrate on a bit more.
|
|
|
Post by blade on Mar 9, 2009 22:20:07 GMT
|
|
|
Post by mattchew on Dec 11, 2009 23:38:28 GMT
|
|
|
Post by blade on Dec 11, 2009 23:58:05 GMT
This guy takes great black and white photos but his eyes are far better than his ears!
|
|
|
Post by mattchew on Dec 12, 2009 0:17:32 GMT
This guy takes great black and white photos but his eyes are far better than his ears! LOL ;D Yeah, no shit! He obviously doesn't realize what good music is.
|
|
|
Post by velvetgirl on Dec 12, 2009 13:03:37 GMT
OK what do we learn from this review? Joel can't play Piano because of post-its on his keyboard and they played a new song called Low Happiness ;D
|
|
|
Post by mattchew on Dec 12, 2009 18:32:09 GMT
Haha ;D Low Happiness, I didn't catch that when I read it. That post it notes thing kills me. Joel's guitar playing alone automatically cancels out any shortcomings he may have with the keyboard.
|
|