Happy birthday, Mascotte Zurich!

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Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you…the much-loved Zurich club Mascotte is turning 8 years old on 12.02.12! That’s eight years of amazing music (just look at the Mascotte concert archive to see all the awesomeness that has passed through the Mascotte’s doors), good times and fun. I’ve spent many a happy night ensconced in front of one of the Mascotte pillars, soaking up good music.

And what’s a birthday without a party? Eclectic Finnish French duo The Dø will be playing on the night, and I’m sure they’ll be properly celebratory.

The Dø released their second album Both Ways, Open Jaws last year, the follow-up to 2008′s wildly diverse Open Mouth, a surprise chart topper in France. Sometime-actress and chanteuse Olivia Merilahti and film composer Dan Levy are whizzes at radically jumping genres, with styling and music ranging from Björk to blues to experimental jazz, rock, hip-hop and folk. I saw them last year at Komplex 457 where, if I recall correctly, their live set-up included a veritable kitchen sink of miscellaneous instrumentation (which might come in useful for birthday cake eating).

Watch ‘Too Insistent’, one of my favourite tracks from Both Ways, Open Jaws:

Here’s to another 8 years of brilliant live music from Mascotte. Thanks for all the good times!

The Dø play at Mascotte, ZH, on 12.02.12. Tix here.

Both Ways, Open Jaws is out now on Get Down!/Cinq 7/Wagram Music

Team Emma – Band of Skulls

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I’ve been waiting for Southampton trio Band of Skulls to get back into the studio to record the follow-up to their rocking 2009 debut Baby Darling Doll Face Honey for a while now. Finally they’ve done just that, with second album Sweet Sour to be released in February this year.

Having survived their brush with teenage obsession (the band were featured on the Twilight: New Moon soundtrack and got their fair share of ‘Team Edward‘ T-shirts appearing at gigs for a time), the trio have stayed true to their roots, with Sweet Sour bringing more of the band’s signature bass-heavy, moody rock, tempered with some tracks of almost folk-like sweetness and melody.

Live, Russell Marsden (guitar, vocals) does wonderful things with his Fender guitars and Matthew Hayward does a sterling job on drums, but I’d be remiss in my fanly duties if I didn’t make special mention of my girl crush, bass player/singer Emma Richardson, who is spectacularly at ease on stage, languidly playing bass and looking like the coolest girl you ever wanted to meet behind the bike shed at school, the kind of rock chick who wears her studded belt like she really means it.

So you know I’m really looking forward to the trio’s special pre-tour gig at Mascotte, ZH, Saturday 28.01.12. I’ll be there with belts on…

‘Bruises’, from Sweet Sour:

Band of Skulls play @ Mascotte, ZH, 28.01.12. Tickets here.

Sweet Sour is released in Europe on 20.02.12 on Electric Blues.

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Wendy McNeill + Bony King Of Nowhere

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I’ve got a soft spot for accordions. To me, there is something very old-worlde and nostalgic about them. Perhaps it’s my history of playing Beirut on high rotation for many, many months. And my penchant for wandering the streets of Eastern European towns.

So my attraction to Canadian folk noir singer Wendy McNeill’s fifth album For The Wolf, A Good Meal, replete with accordions, piano, slow waltzing tempos and McNeill’s strong and melancholy vocals, isn’t such a surprise. I love to see this kind of music played live in front of me, because the artistry and spectacle involved in playing the instruments is something you don’t get to see too often. A delicious treat.

McNeill is currently playing around Switzerland (see below for dates), ably accompanied by 24-year-old Belgian singer-songwriter Bram Vanparys, aka The Bony King Of Nowhere (such a sad, descriptive name – is that self-referential, I wonder…), who released his second album of subdued and beautiful indie folk, Eleonore, in late 2011.

Wendy McNeill + Bony King of Nowhere play @ Grabenhalle, St Gallen, Friday 20.01.12, Sud, Basel, Saturday 21.01.12, and El Lokal, ZH, Sunday 22.01.12.

For The Wolf, A Good Meal is out now on Six Shooter/Haldern Pop.

Eleonore is out now on PIAS/Cargo Records.

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Track of the day: The Cure – ‘Lullaby’

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All of a sudden, I’m seeing The Cure in all sorts of places – news broke on Monday that the venerable English band are dragging out their hairspray, black hair dye and red lipstick for the 2012 European summer festival season, and last night I saw Finnish band French Films, whose song introductions seemed to be mostly variations on the intro to the classic ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ (I’m not saying that’s a bad thing).

After the heydays of the 80s and 90s, The Cure hovered stealthily but steadily at the edges of the popular music conscience for a couple of decades. But not for much longer – I guess it’s now The Cure’s turn to be at the frontline of influence for the current generation of up-and-coming bands. I’m seeing their names pop up on press releases in the field marked ‘seminal influences while growing up’ a lot more lately – well, they did win the NME ‘Godlike Genius’ award in 2009. Looks like 2012 is going be a Cure revival on a rather epic scale.

So in the wake of the (glorious) news of Smith and co.’s return to the concert arena in 212, I’m revisiting The Cure’s increasingly-referenced back catalogue. For instance, the track ‘Lullaby’, from 1989′s brilliant Disintegration, which, along with Twin Peak’s Bob, used to scare the crap out of me in high school:

The Cure are playing at numerous festivals during the European summer, including Pinkpop (NL), Les Eurockeennes (FR), Southside (DE), Hurricane (DE), Hultsfred (SE), Roskilde (DK), Heinekin Jammin’ (IT), and Rock In Roma (IT). Fingers crossed for a Swiss festival! See the full list here.

Into the wide blue yonder – French Films

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Oh, this modern world of confusion and paradox, where nothing is what it seems. In this case, French Films – which aren’t, contrary to first impressions, French. Nor do they have anything to do with films. In fact, they are a Finnish indie band who released their first album, Imaginary Future last September, after generating a huge buzz with their earlier EP ‘Golden Sea’.

Despite being supposedly inspired by the winter climes and long, dark nights of their homeland, Imaginary Future is bright and resplendent with jangly pop harmonies and The Cure-esque melodies (‘This Dead Town’), as well as definite New Wave tendencies.

Sounds like the perfect antidote to the winter blues to me. And just looking at the gig poster has me wistfully staring off into its wide blue yonder, longing for the sun…

French Films play @ Mascotte, ZH, 17.01.12. Tickets here.

Imaginary Future is out now on GAEA Records.

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Upcoming gigs

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If you don't have tix yet to The Black Keys gig...too late.

Hi, my name is High Rotation and I’m a gig junkie…It’s been 36 whole days, THIRTY SIX DAYS! since my last gig. I confess that I’m starting to get a little jumpy – I’ve got my earplugs at the ready, and elbows sharpened in preparation for defending my carefully-chosen position at that long-awaited first gig of the year…

Needless to say I’ve been hard at work scouring the gig calendars for my concert fixes for January, February and March. And, yay, there are some great gigs and festivals coming up. I’ll be doing my damnedest to get to each and every one of them.

Here are my picks of what’s coming up in Zurich in the next couple of months:

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