Local Natives Monkey Around

Last month Jaz hooked up with LA band Local Natives for some hummus and banter. Bearing in mind the guys had been on the road for about 4 months in total it was at times quite an odd conversation but entertaining nonetheless. Due to the extremely packed out nature of King Tut's that night, Jaz failed to get many photos from the front. The decision to pack up the Canon was made in prompt response to the first of many dousings of beer. Jaz is sceptical about the nutritional purposes of ale for hair nourishment but is resoundingly opposed to its effects on expensive electrical appliances.

"We played five cool barns in Iowa. That one was huge, octagonal and 120 years old. It was incredible." - Local Natives' Taylor Rice

For the full interview head over to Q's website: http://news.qthemusic.com/2010/04/interview_local_natives_monkey.html

Local Natives' album Gorilla Manor is out now and has seen them compared to Fleet Foxes and Vampire Weekend. Check out their harmonious single Airplanes as performed at Maida Vale for Radio 1...



Jaz x

P.S. Jaz has also been busy chattering away to Paloma Faith and Ellie Goulding. Coming to a screen near you very soon :)

Introducing Babe Shadow

Imagine if HG Wells' Time Machine (or Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure) was, in fact, a preview of things to come. We could create all manner of impossible situations. Like travelling back 15 years to meet then-alive Jeff Buckley, only to transport him to the mid-1960s in order to record a rare unreleased duet with a Blonde On Blonde era Bob Dylan. If your mind is as partial to inner ramblings as mine, you have the same inkling as you glance upon the above picture. To our mutual surprise then this is actually a picture of Tom Cawte and David Thornley. Who, you say?

If their demo Sea Serpents is anything to go by, bedroom musicians Babe Shadow have been experimenting to delightful folksy effect since Buckley's passing - almost. Which is bloody fantastic if you're sick of hearing that the next sophisticated art collective hails from Brooklyn. Based in London they were discovered by the same people at Luv who found Florence Welch warbling in a club toilet cubicle (yes, really). Their folk-pop transcends the limits of the Northern Line borrowing instrumentals from the same worldly school as Vampire Weekend and is set for a late April release. Haunting vocals with a hint of the Marc Bolan quiver about them (or for the younger among you, a softer Nathan Willett - Cold War Kids), may go some way to explain their dark broody exterior. And that name, which is most likely a reference to T Rex and not something vacuously emo. But this is strictly for fans of Devendra Banhart / Noah & The Whale. Head to: http://www.myspace.com/babeshadowband

What's more, we at BOOMerang Kid are massive supporters of Florence & The Machine (in case you hadn't already gathered) whom Babe Shadow will be supporting on the eagerly anticipated UK leg of the Cosmic Love Tour (wink wink, nudge nudge Island Records). See the flame-haired harp-reinventing sorceress conjure up some ethereal magic and a helluva lot of howling crescendos (while potentially sacrificing some fluffy things onstage) at the following venues:

• 5th & 6th May - Edinburgh Corn Exchange
• 7th & 9th May - Blackpool Empress Ballroom
• 10th & 11th May - Wolverhampton Civic Theatre
• 13th, 14th, 15th May - London Hammersmith Apollo

Jaz x

Easy Like A Sunday Morning... Anywhere But Here

Looking out the velux window this morning at the candy blue sunshine saturated sky I momentarily forget that last night the car's temperature gauge read -4°C post-Valentines Day (not the event - the movie, which was equally as torturous). I imagine a balmy breeze cooling my Havaianas-flopped feet before realising that I have, in fact, woken up to Glasg-Arctica once more.

Thank Zimbabwe (or, Hackney) for Tinashé then. The London via Africa troubadour charmed the socks off a Q crowd opening for Marina & The Diamonds a few weeks back with his suave demanour, butter-melting vocals and feet-shuffling guitar pop. I was in heaven... if heaven's a hammock on a white sandy beach in the middle of a turquoise diamond-and-pearl strewn ocean.

Jaz suggests you are promptly swept ashore by A-Liar: a jam that (without subtlety) reclaims Afrobeat roots back from Vampire Weekend's A-Punk while melding Arctic Monkeys' When The Sun Goes Down into pure reggae soul. Jack Peñate? Who needs 'im?


Also check out the drummer as he abandons his instrument in favour of the old hand clap. Love it.



Tinashé joins previously blogged about Tiffany Page on tour with the Noisettes. So if you're soon to watch Shingai Shoniwa do her rhythmic best make sure you get there early. Head to the mighty MySpace for more: http://www.myspace.com/tinashemusic.

Jaz x

Space Invaders and Supernature

All week I've felt like the White Rabbit... late late for a very important date. No press passes left for Jaz at the BRITs, guestlist for Vampire Weekend and GaGa both closed (the latter potentially the biggest blow of the year so far), invite to a VICE launch party in the wrong town, and extremely tardy arrival at Che Camille's fashion show last night once it was well and truly dried up. Not to mention there are still no paid jobs left anywhere in the industry no matter the amount of slaving done gratis or recent news that we are, in fact, out of the recession (excuse me for not whipping the victory bottle of Veuve out of fastfreeze and spraying it over my bran flakes). This morning I approached the stereo to hit play on Groove Armada's latest - Black Light (a glorious leap out of their comfort zone - Massive Attack take note please) - and literally to my shock sparks coursed through my blood and momentarily stopped time. Perhaps it was electricity's angry rebellion at my fashion faux pas of rubber-soled Uggs. More likely, it was divine intervention. "Jasper Fields", He said (via the British electro DJ duo), "This too shall pass". Thank you G-d! (Or Gandalf, I'm not sure). To make this already long story short, Jaz dodged death by electricity and is consequently on top of things. Keeping in the loop by the tips of his/her non-existent finger nails, Jaz is filling the calendar nicely full of music, fashion and cultural events to blabber to you tadpoles about. Attention must now be diverted to Operation Glastonbury, particularly as the latest headliners were confirmed this morning as MUSE. Move over U2. What use is "The Claw" (and Bono are you aware you pinched that from Jim Carrey's maligned Liar Liar?) when you're up against a falsetto-screeching guitar-shredding superbug from outer space...

Jaz x


P.S. Big fish kiss to Q Magazine for Twittering (or Tweeting?!) about us this morning!

Jaz Looks Psychotic As A Big Piranha...

What do you get when you cross a Hollyoaks-omnibus-accompanied Sunday brunch with a bloodthirsty creature of the underworld? A VAMPIRE WEEKEND! Joking aside, Columbia University's finest African music students are here touring their sophomore album Contra, which has quite ferociously split critics' opinion. Anybody who knows the value of a good cardigan and writes lyrics such as "In December drinking Horchata/I look psychotic in a balaclava" gets my vote. See Ezra Koenig and co at:

• Birmingham O2 (10th)
• Newcastle O2 (12th)
• Glasgow Barrowlands (13th)
• Edinburgh Picturehouse (14th)
• London Brixton O2 (16th/17th)

Out of luck getting tickets? Otherwise suffering a week-long series of Valentines-related engagements? Settle for streaming the new album in full at: http://www.vampireweekend.com/

Jaz x


(Photo: Tim Soter)

New To Q Sessions: A 5 Day Marathon

This was supposed to be recorded in real time. Unfortunately Jaz had to live in a bedsit with no internet access during the following events. Better late than never...

Five nights out on the trot, 14 artists, one venue: this is my quest. Mount Kilimanjaro isn’t in sight, Comic Relief haven’t been on the blower mistaking me for Gary Barlow’s cousin and I’m not yet experiencing the dizzy heights à la Cheryl Cole. No, I work under the auspices of no associated charity (aside from my own not-so-recession-proof ETTA: Employ The Tea-girl Already). I’m 23 and having a premature life crisis – staying in on Saturday nights with cocoa, mourning the completion of The X Factor and averaging a bedtime of 10.30. Reviving my inner jumping bean, however, isn’t the only motivation for my self-set New To Q Sessions-orientated challenge. I have an affliction worthy of many a philanthropist’s shrapnel. Whatever “It” is, I need to be on it. Treggings, Glee, the latest yoga/pilates hybrid – I must ride the wave of now. As I take up residence for the first night at Notting Hill’s Tabernacle where I shall worship at the altar of the latest signing I stop myself before sneering at the sea of Lyle Scotts with their side-gelled coifs. I am you (gender aside), and, I wonder, is your short-term memory as crippled as mine?

So there’s been the years of pre-exam crash revision, the relocations to three cities with complex transport systems, the constant conveyor belt of new faces/names met along the way and the brain cells bludgeoned familiarising myself with scores of office floors while slaving away at various internships… all pale in comparison to the damage caused by my bout of fingeronpulse-itus. In these www times filled by a constant release of “Next Big Thing”s who become passé the instant they’re announced as such, the briefest of cultural heart palpitations are undetectable and neurological breakdown is induced by the dreaded inquisition, “What’s on your iPod’s shuffle this week?”. Seriously: Marina & The Machine, Friendly Boots, The Big Black Kids, Broken Drums, Pixie Geldott… please make it stop! What does it even mean to be ‘new’ in music? Who qualifies for an NME cover? Next time I host a vintage throwback party, I’ll be toasting Daisy Lowe, remembering heady days of yore with all the classics from MGM.I.A. and those New York veterans Vampire Weekend, while screening Slumdog Millionaire and downing shots of wheatgrass. Florence, your dog’s had its day; time to get on your broomstick and fly away. La Roux, throw out your lemons, you can crack a smile now while nobody’s looking. I propose an indie social suicide pact. Until then, I shall squeeze the latest roster of up-and-comers into my shrinking skull.

Jaz x