Jini's Pick of the Week - Little Boots x Youth Music x Destroy Rankin

I was lucky enough to attend theYouth Music 10th Anniversary charity event just over a week ago and it didn't disappoint. In association with the Destroy Rankin exhibition at the Philips de Pury gallery in London, the main event was a Little Boots live acoustic set.

Not only were we supplied with a couple of free drinks (a rarity in London), but we were surrounded by lovely photos of some of the greatest musicians of all time (yes, especially Kylie)! The idea behind the Destroy Rankin exhibition was for the artists to "destroy" the photos taken by the reknowned photographer Ian Rankin, with great results. Check out some of the pieces in the slideshow below as well as on the website where you can find out how to purchase the book.



We were eased into the acoustic electro-pop by supporting act by The Woo!Worths, who came off more folksy without the help of a their electric beats, but enjoyable nonetheless. Then the main event of Little Boots, who lived up to her name as she sat at her piano leaving very few people in the crowd able to see the dimunitive artist (calls of "stand up so we can see you" were understandably ignored). Performing some of her hits off her fabulous debut album "Hands" with only her piano meant she was able to strip down each song to its emotional core with great effect. Ending with her brand new song "Echo", I am certain that we're going to see a lot more from this previous pick of the week artist in 2010. Special mention to FT fan Si who was able to garner a lot of attention when he held up his iPhone with a rolling electronic banner that said "Can I be your Big Boots?" which Little Boots responded to by saying "I'm not quite sure what that entails but I'm not sure I can make that kind of commitment!" Brilliant!

Here's a little video treat for those that wished that they were there:



Just to show how much synergy there is within my posts(they're not as random as you might think!), I just so happened to bump into to previous pick of the week artist Paloma Faith in the McDonalds after the gig...completely by coincidence but it definitely topped off a great night!

Youth Music is a charity that supports young artists and developing music talent in the UK.

Jini's Pick of the Week - Karoshi Bros.

My pick of the week is a duo from Newcastle that go by the name Karoshi Bros. I heard their tune "Love the World" a while ago and instantly fell in love with it. Cute robo pop is the only way I can find to describe it, but then again I'm no music journalist! With the opening lyric "Coca-Cola is pop, Madonna is not", how can you resist?


Anyway, check out the equally cute animated video below and as a bonus their video for new tune Vive Le Difference.




Label: We Are Woodville
(Indie)

Jini's Pick of the Week - We7.com

So a couple months ago, I featured the cool Spotify software that gave users access to millions of songs through a simple itunes-like program. Now here's another site that allows access to 3million + songs directly through their website www.we7.com.

This British website, was only launched a couple of years ago and is co-founded by the one and only Peter Gabriel. It's a simple concept really - they've tagged on ads to the songs which allows users free access to music, with the option to buy also, and ensures artists get paid. They also have a simple “Search, Click and Play” and a “play anywhere” service which allows blogs and websites to link to and have their users listen to music powered by WE7.

There's quite a few of these sites popping up - so let's hope that the record industry has stopped thinking that the internet is the downfall of the music industry - embrace it people!

MTV EMA Highlights

The MTV Europe Music Awards were live from Liverpool last Thursday and lucky for you I was there to get the lowdown on the event. It was rather low on controversy (unless you count the drunk guy behind me booing Bono really loudly throughout his overly long intro to Paul McCartney's legend award) and low on European acts. Personally, I loved Katy Perry's kitsch intros, sitting on a banana here, a cherry there, even if many suggested she was milking her fifteen minutes.



Out of all the acts, my personal highlights were Kanye (and Estelle) with the crazy mix of colourful visuals and bright white light.





The Killers in the ultra cool "wall stage"


and of course my favourites The Ting Tings.


Other Awards of the night (presented by ME):
"Who let her out of the insane asylum Presenter" Award - Grace Jones
"Most awkard moment" Award - Jared Leto asking Katie from the Ting Tings if she was a witch
"Speech that went off on a tangent" Award - Bono talking about the Beatles and the Irish potato famine.
"Biggest posse on stage" Award - Kid Rock and his 1000* band members (along with the dancing girls) *margin of error +/- 99%
"Most ridiculous real winner" Award - Rick Astley for Best Act Ever (I have it on good authority that the votes on the MTV website were a result of rick-rolling)
"Most popular person to depict on clothing or on screen" Award - President Elect Barack Obama
"Did Someone Die? Performance" Award - Beyonce "If I were a Boy"

Catch all the peformances here (if you're into flashy camerawork and don't appreciate my guerilla film-making techniques using one hand...the other one was for drinks of course)