Pop That Column: MEN, Lauren Flax, The Gossip, LIttle Boots, La Roux

I’ve been racking my brains thinking of an ‘angle’ to approach this new music column, but everything I think of is quite frankly, pretty rubbish. Writing as a Brit to all you Americans is harder than it seems, especially when it comes to writing about music, because although I claim to know a great deal about the music scene over here, I’m not as clued up as I’d like to be with what is current with you girls on the less mainstream scene over there. Let’s see how we go…

To kick us off on our new adventure, Johanna and JD of Le Tigre have become MEN -- DJ’s that is -- called MEN. They’ve been DJ-ing for a couple of years under this name, but have released a few amazing tracks during their European tour this year, which is how I heard of them.

Via a quick stop performing as Hirsuite, MEN has kicked off my summer in a big way. They play a mash of electro-reggae-chicks on speed crossed with CSS -- kind of stuff, and if you haven’t managed to catch them DJ-ing on one of their epic tours before, you can check out their latest dates over on their Myspace and catch them out in a club near you.

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Lauren Flax has been remixing big tracks for a while now, and as well as recently remixing MEN’s track Simultaneously, she has released a track with Sia providing the vocals called You’ve Changed and it. is. Awesome! One of Flax’s more well known remixes was that of Telepathé’s So Fine. Telepathé are ex-partner girl duo Melissa Livaudais and Busy Ganges, whose musical ethos is basically, if you don’t want to be defined to one musical genre then be involved in them all. They released their album Dance Mother on IAMSOUND in April this year, and like their NME review says “It doesn’t sound like anything that has come before it.”

Sticking with the queer music route, I saw The Gossip last week in Brighton. This is the fifth time I’ve seen them live, not because I am a massive fan but just because, conveniently, they always seem to be playing at events I attend. The first time I saw them must have been about 3 or 4 years ago at a small venue in England, where the audience was around 95 percent lesbian. I’ve never been in a room with so many different stereotypes, but it was clear to me then that the gift of a ticket from my then girlfriend was probably how half of the room had come to get their tickets too. It was heaven!

This year brings about their fourth album, Music For Men. It’s slated for release in a matter of days. The audience at this gig was incredibly different from my first foray with seeing the Gossip live. Granted, the first people who arrived at the gig were mainly young gay girls but the audience was a lot older than what I remembered and with a lot more men taking part in the dancing and drinking.

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The Gossip’s huge commercial success relied in part to a Soulwax remix of “Standing In The Way Of Control,” which was featured on an advert for the popular teen program, Skins. Since then Beth Ditto has been splashed over everything imaginable. Naked on magazines, hanging out with Kate Moss, you know, the usual celebrity stuff….But what’s apparent is that she remains the same as the first time I saw her – fun. She invited two girls up on stage with her and stopped the show for one of them to propose to the other whilst exclaiming “That’s so cool you gals can do that over here!”

The band’s new song Heavy Cross is written in the Gossip’s typical vein, with Beth’s fantastically powerful vocals stealing the show of Hannah and Nathan’s great guitar and drum combinations that we all love. The album is out on the 23^rd June, and it’s really worth a listen. While familiar indie-electro beat flow throughout it, it’s worth buying to support a band that has become famous due to being, well, just really good.

And now for a few ‘must-haves’ for your music collection: First up is Alex Metric. He remixes everything from Ladyhawke to The Enemy and does it with some serious style along the way. Starting off in the Breakbeat genre, Metric realized that the electro-rock fusion tracks that he was remixing was the path to follow. He can currently be heard all over the radio, and is DJing just about everywhere this summer, bringing his version of up-beat beats directly to the fans.

Little Boots has just released her first album over here called Hands, which I received along with an apparently limited 12-inch Vinyl today. The artwork alone makes it worth picking up the album. It’s filled with unicorns and sparkly images to match her infective euro-pop songs that all come together to make a really special first album. In the USA she is releasing a special EP for you all, Illuminations, out this week with a couple of tracks exclusively available over there. 

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Moving on to La Roux; I defy anyone to keep their quiff that well after a night singing and dancing around! Androgynous singer Elly Jackson pulls off the most memorable of performances with her huge hits Quicksand and Bulletproof to massive audiences in the UK at the moment, and with an album inspired by a rocky 5-year relationship coming out soon, this bouncy, catchy, new electronic act will be one to listen to this summer.

Although these two artists have been in the mainstream charts over here for a couple of months now, they are not to be mistaken with being the only key players on the electronic scene. For something a bit more edgy and experimental in a similar style to El Perro Del Mar and Fever Ray, Jenny Wilson has been singing solo since 2004. From Sweden, her second album Hardships! was released in February this year and has similarities to all sorts of weird and wonderful singers including the French vocalist of Nouvelle Vague fame and solo success – Camille, Kate Bush --do I need to tell you about her? -- and up and coming ABBA-esque band Music Go Music.

With so many emerging talents hitting the mainstream over the last half a year or so, it is hard to keep up. But I’ll try and keep you readers in the loop with what is happening in the music scene and queer scene as much as possible without waffling on too much. I’m also really looking forward to hearing from you with your suggestions of new artists for me to write about both here and over on my blog.