If you only had access to Daneeeboy.com, you could be forgiven for thinking that Lady GaGa is the only woman recording electro-pop goodness at the moment. Sorry about that.
So here’s a nice alternative from the lovely little town of London. They are a band called The Ultrasonics, an unashamedly electro pop bunch headed up by a bleach blonde lass called Johanna. And they are very good. They sound a little bit like US west coast electro groups Ultraviolet Sound and Stefy (two fantastic bands to sound like, if you’re asking me). They are set to release their debut single, “Perfect Girl” via iTunes and other digital stores this summer.
According to their press release thinger…
“Already championed by the likes of Popjustice (the UK’s number one pop music site) and EQ, ‘Perfect Girl’ is a true electropop gem. The track draws influences from classic ‘80s pop, with a nod towards the synth-laden sounds of The Human League and Depeche Mode.
‘Perfect Girl’ acts as a perfect introduction to the group’s fusion of retro and 21st Century electro.”
Oh right, then. I’ll add a Daneeeboy quote: “They make me feel dirty in a good way. Also the lead singer sounds a bit like a more talented Jenny Frost.“
In all seriousness, I hope The Ultrasonics are a band we will be hearing more from over the coming months. They will be performing alongside Sophie Ellis-Bextor, Alphabeat and Client at Manchester Pride on the 25th Of August, the same day “Perfect Girl” hits digital stores.
Pay-TV are a three piece ‘girl’ band who are two parts mythology and one part trashy glamour. Having been around since 2005, they have never really done or released anything to put them on the great pop map. Whilst a few tracks have surfaced, and they have done a few performances over the years, they have yet to release an album or a huge single. Their biggest success to date is the glitched out “Trendy Discotheque” which sounds like an 80’s coke sess.
Now in 2008, after three years of ‘media exile’, the girls return - “Surgically perfect and re-touched bodies, mentally focused, dentally re-constructed, vocally auto-tuned, ruthlessly motivated, media trained and hungry for success“. That’s enough of a story to get me hooked.
Muu Muse refer to them as “three trannylicious women that look like they’ve been thawed out from the ’90’s” which isn’t too far off. But they’re three trannylicious women who sound like a decadent trip through the Tron soundstage. And the lyrics are decidedly vein and trashy, declaring rich bitch fashion in, and saving the planet out. Check out “Fashion Report”:
And if you love that as much as me, check out their almost entirely fictional (yet excruciatingly fabulous) website, where you can buy such delights as the “Danny The Drug Dealer” kids drug kit, which features “2 chunks of cannabis, 20 extacy pills, 10 LSD pills, freebase, heroin and some lighter drugs like glue, pot and viagra”, for all the wannabe drug dealers out there.
You may well have heard of 22 year old Lady Gaga, the very well styled ‘rebel’ who is currently making an assault on the dancefloors. Alot of early reviewers are comparing her slightly off-beat style and brash attitude to 80’s Madonna, but her own bio references, more correctly I think, Cyndi Lauper.
Apparently Miss GaGa has worked her way up from the streets via the New York club scene. Boys and girls and drugs included. However, since this came from her ‘official’ biography I would put this down to more record label intern imagination than actual fact. That said, her music does seem to be on the amazing side of mass-produced electro, down the Sam Sparro route of cool pop. She seems to have grasped that mixing music, fashion, and performance in a completely unbelievable and OTT way equals fabulousness. She reels off words like “70’s trash” and “glamour”, and creates soundbites like “And, now, I’m just trying to change the world one sequin at a time”, which is enough to have me sold.
Debut single “Just Dance” is a thumping electro rave-up, whilst the video shows a bunch of very well styled kids falling all over the place at some house party - although it doesn’t look half as exciting as you’d imagine. You can check it out below.
Whether she can throw a good party or not, I think GaGa’s album, “The Fame” will be huge this summer. And here’s a little video of her talking about it all.
Some of them are making music and sticking it on MySpace! Lily Allen would be proud. For a while I’ve been keeping my eye on an artist called Fabio Lendrum. He’s 16, doing ‘A’ Levels and ‘bringing you a mix of electro rave pop, with a fresh young London sound. .‘ But unlike most MySpace kids, his stuff is actually kinda amazing.
Fabio’s first track to surface was “Rebel Rebel Go Go”, which sounds a bit like Hadouken!’s “Superstar”, but with more tune and a good dose of Street Fighter charm. The chorus is pounding like a good pill, and it’s the kind of track you can imagine getting off your tits to and then jumping around like a tit! Second track “Little Game” is a bit less grimey, and a bit more 80’s pop, which is all the more fab. And no one gets knifed! What a relief for the Daily Mail.
The two other tracks on his MySpace, “Mum Don’t Like It” and “Don’t Wait For Me” are less ravey and more tears in the rain, and prove that not only can this kid throw together a great tune and MC all over it, he has a unique and warm singing voice. It’s slightly sickening, even his hair is cool.
Once upon a time, in sunny old England, there was a band. That band was Bolt Action Five. They dressed in bright colours and cardigans, and sang energetic electro songs about such amazing topics as 80’s TV show, Knightmare. Watching Bolt Action Five perform live was a bit like watching someone have an epileptic fit after too many pills, with the music sounding like the inside of the mind of someone who has taken too many pills. Fabulous. I also fancied the lead singer, that helped. Although one of them looked alot like one of my exes. Eurgh.
In March 2008, Bolt Action Five became Bolt Action Five deceased.
Some members have moved on to a new band called Fables, with members of another departed band, 586. More on them when I’ve decided if I really like them or not.
I received a very nice message on MySpaz about newish band I Haunt Wizards. And they did well enough to get a blog post out of me. They’re a young band from Brighton featuring two pretty boys with electro blippy synthesizers and a pretty girl who does some singing. Their music sounds like an the theme from an early Atari computer game, which is my kind of music.
On their MySpace you can listen to some tunage. The best songs are “Along Came Polly” and “Sailor Moon”. It’s all a bit demoey, but they have promise. And they’re touring alongside the likes of Hadouken! and We Smoke Fags. Double thumbs up.
Pop culture can be so dull and drab, but it can also be like an orgasm in an ice cream shop. Daneeeboy is about celebrating the stuff that makes your clit tingle, and not the other stuff. Simon Cowell is not welcome here. If you are Simon Cowell, please fuck off.
I like stuff that is independent. Stuff that speaks for itself. Stuff that makes me want to dance. Stuff that makes me want to cry. Stuff that's cheap and tacky. The glamorous, the dirty, the over the top and the insane.
Contact
Hints, criticisms, tips, and any kind of feedback is welcome to dan@daneeeboy.com.
