Edinburgh Live Listings: 7VWWVW anni rossi hot club de paris my kappa roots trampoline
by Matthew
26 comments
Toad 2.0
Live in Edinburgh This Week – 12th October 2008
It’s an unusually busy Monday this week, for some reason. Normally even one gig on a Monday would be midly unusual, but this week there would have been three, but for Come On Gang having to cancel their show a the Wee Red Bar relatively late last week.
Monday 13th October: Anni Rossi at Henry’s Cellar Bar.
I know about Anni Rossi from listening to The Waiting Room, presented by DC, one of the regulars here. Personally I am somewhat ambivalent about her – there’s a lot to enjoy, but some of the Bjorkish yelping means I do sometimes have my doubts. It’s all about proportions with these things though, so as long as it doesn’t overwhelm the music it might be no problem at all.
Anni Rossi – Wheelpusher
Monday 13th October: My Kappa Roots at Cabaret Voltaire.
My Kappa Roots used to be a staple of Tracer Trails lineups, back when the prettiest posters in town were yet to be retired. Pablo has moved through to Glasgow now, making an appearance in the capital all the more rare, so this gig might be the only chance I get to seem him play for a while.
My Kappa Roots – The Lord of Rosyth
Friday 17th October: Hot Club de Paris at Cabaret Voltaire.
I’ve never been entirely convinced by these guys on record, but live was how I first saw them and they were excellent – they were chirpy, witty and the music was much more arresting – so it might well be worth popping along to this.
Hot Club de Paris – This Thing Forever (Live on Welcome to Our TV Show)
Saturday 18th October: 7VWWVW play Trampoline at the Wee Red Bar.
Mammal set film-makers Super8Super8 the challenge of creating short films to run alongside three of their songs. So there will be multiple Super 8 projectors, apparently, and as Mammal perform three short live sets, the films will play. Sounds bloody intriguing if you ask me, and nice to see Trampoline mixing up the media a bit, which is something they have been keen to do for a while.
7VWWVW – SingerSongwriter
me bird’s birthday that night…else i’d be there…however she has just got some work…so there may always be an outside chance that i’d chum ya!!!
Will it annoy everyone if I go to Trampoline on Saturday night and keep saying “Ooh, aren’t seven-vee-double-yoo-double-yoo-vee-double-yoo good?..”
I can just tell it’s going to be one of those weeks when I read this and don’t know a thing you all are talking about…. sitting back and just listening to the pretty music then, and Bjork’s yelping is divine! xoxo
Bjork’s yelping can be divine. It can also be very, very annoying. Not half as bad as that Regina Spektor though, who ruins perfectly good tunes by occasionally shrieking in the middle of them.
Is it just me, or does Anni Rossi remind you of Samantha Crain a bit? And she’s a Chicagoan, nice! That track was beautiful, thanks!
I think the preferred pronunciation is:
’seven-vee-double-double-yoo-vee-double-yoo’.
Sheesh Dylan. I thought everyone knew that.
Best to get it right.
Imagine how foolish you’d sound otherwise.
Hmmm.. I don’t think that can be right, because if it were, when we were talking about web addresses on the internet we would have to say
“double-double-yoo-double-yoo-dot-songbytoad-dot-com”
or even
“double-yoo-double-double-yoo-dot-songbytoad-dot-com”
And that just sounds silly.
Of course it does. That’s because it’s just songbytoad dot com. No yoos, double or otherwise, involved.
Well now you’re just being persnickety. I was just using it as an example.
Perhaps I should have used one of your other favourite websites like
“double-yoo-double-yoo-double-yoo-dot-dirtyoilygrannies-dot-com”
Persnickety is American, stop it at once. Pernickety is English, although the origin is Scottish, apparently.
How’s that for persnickety?
I actually picked up the word Persnickety from the label of my Tilley Hat. That’s my Canadian Tilley Hat, a hat made in Canada by the famous Canadian hat makers; Tilley.
Good hat, though.
Still wrong, innit.
is it
Is it? I dunno.
dunno is not right either. clearly the short hand version of do not know is don’t know. jeezo.
Fuxake.
Fisk, TWoTH & I are travelling across to Bristol to see/interview her in Redland Park Church (gorgeous acoustic) this coming Saturday.
Anni’s something special live — its typical of such uniqueness & invention, really, that her live solo shows wildly differ to her recorded material, & it’s here an interesting paradox lies. Anni’s said to me on a few occasions that it’s with her work on CD/vinyl where she stretches herself & experiments with the music (rather than the spikey, jagged, honest live performances). She brings in & collaborates with/bounces off other musicians, plays with/changes the forms/structures of her songs & generally has fun letting her stuff just develop rather than relying on restricting structures.
If you listen to the demos vs. the CDr releases vs. the album proper vs. the vinyl 7″ etc you’ll hear the differences in the same song that develops across the processes. Then, live, it’s all stripped back to just her voice, footstomps & viola; almost to the point at which each song was conceived, sketched, elbowed into shape & then memorised.
She really is hypnotic live, especially if its an intimate setting.
I dislike & disagree with the Bjork comparison as it does neither party any justice & suggests dismissive &/or lazy listening. True, there’s an organic quality to both their vocal/tonal expressions, but I think any similarity ends there.
Rossi’s squeaks & chirrups are entirely in-keeping with the glacial & geographical/physical aspects of her lyrics & music; it reflects her (successful) attempts at capturing that unpredictable, natural movement.
Bjork, on the other hand, is a giddy giggle bag (http://www.blueeyeboy.com/catalog/350_laughing%20bag.jpg) with a ticklish vocal cord prone to bursts of exclamatory squawks as if to trot out a leitmotif.
Another lazy comparison is Joanna Newsom, which I think is far more accurate a description of directional ’style’ (faerie-folk, anyone?) but its still not taking on board how obvious it is that Rossi’s vocal elasticity is an extension of her viola. An embelishment rather than an accompaniment.
As for the Samantha Crain vocal comparison — that’s just fucking nonsense. Rossi is in an entirely different register, for one, & uses her singing voice (minus the gymnastics) in an entirely different way. As delicious & familiar as SC’s voice is (possibky my favourite vocal for 2years+), Rossi is not from the same petri dish.
Next time she’s in town go & see her Toad; go with no expectations, relax, say hello (she’s an exceptionally polite & unassuming, almost apologetically shy, person) & buy her a G+T.
so there!!!!
jesus i’m happy i don;t do this blog thing
That’s a rather interesting approach to take – usually the last place people experiment is on their albums.
The Bjork comparison was really more down to hearing the songs on Anni Rossi’s MySpace and thinking ‘Oh Christ, another yelping female’. I can love that kind of thing actually – even Bjork can be really good on the increasingly rare occasions where she tones it down enough. Spektor I really dislike because the squawks absolutely invariably arrive just as I am starting to think ‘ooh, I quite like this’, which I find incredibly frustrating.
As to Anni Rossi, well I think anything with women yelping, squawking, chirruping or anything else is, in terms of my own taste, incredibly sensitive to the timing and extent of the noises themselves. Anything too extreme or too abrupt and my ears reflexively close and I get cross. I am almost always incredibly close to really liking it, however, so I am certain that if I were to find someone who kept it carefully under control then I would be able to enjoy the music all the more – I just haven’t found that person yet.
I’ll definitely give her a try the next time she’s in town though, because it sound intriguing, and there’s definitely a decent chance I’ll really like it, from your description.
plus she might be worth a look
Well DC, I stand by my comparison based as it is on this one song as both women’s phrasing and lilting tone, regardless of register, evokes a beautiful image that borders on traditional folk music whilst experimenting with more modern musical expressions of well… god knows what. No, I can’t quote what song this reminds me of, as my streaming capacities have gone and left my laptop at the moment and I’m without my e-drive, damn technology has failed me! But to each his own, it was and is a complimentary comparison, albeit “fucking nonsense” in your eyes, ha!
DC’s in a bit of a mood today, Tart, so don’t take it badly. He has been wielding his wrath rather liberally – you aren’t the only recipient.
DC’s well clever!
I’m going to copy and paste a big chunk of his comment, change the names, and use it to finish giving C&B a bollocking for comparing Marcus Mumford to Dave Fucking Matthews. Again.
DC has nailed exactly what I was trying to say!
(But with different singers, obviously.)
Anni Rossi is amazing live.
It’s a truly captivating performance, and I’d recommend checking it out – even if you’re not sold on the recordings.
My lock of the week is the Creeping Nobodies, Come In Tokyo and Hyena at the Wee Red Bar on Wednesday. The Creeping Nobodies are from Toronto. They rock. Come In Tokyo are from Edinburgh. They also rock. Hyena are from Glasgow. They rock too.
Anyone? Anyone?