Incoming FROM OUR FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT: JANINE SCHAULTS IN
THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS
CHICAGO
LADY GAGA
8
COME IN YOUR TIME’S UP
THE PIPETTES For fans of genuinely alternative pop music, the arrival on the scene of the Pipettes in 2005 was something to behold. Coming straight outta Brighton in matching polka dot dresses, signed to the Go! Team’s label and making manufactured pop (with the key difference that they had manufactured it themselves), their debut album We Are The Pipettes was stuffed full with up-beat, irresistible tunes and even went on to give a good account of itself in the proper charts. Since then, however, confusion has reigned. A revolving door policy has left no original members whatsoever (goodbye then, RiotBecki and the Duchess Of Darkness) with one new Pipette joining and leaving within the space of a few months. They did make a few live appearances last year, including one with Mark Ronson – understandable – and one with REO Speedwagon (less so). State for one hopes that they get it together soon.
NK BY DENIS KLEINMAN
Long before acquiring the life-changing ‘Academy Award Winner’ title, Glen Hansard brought Marketa Irglova and their batch of Once ditties to Chicago’s Hideout to preview the film’s soundtrack for an unsuspecting weeknight crowd. Maybe crowd is a bit of a misnomer, since the club more resembles the interior of a college buddy’s basement in size and décor (taxidermy and wood panelling anyone?) than the venerated music venue it is, but that’s just part of the neighbourhood dive’s charm. “The Hideout has a place in Chicago music that’s larger than the size of the room,” says Tim Tuten, who co-owns the bar with his wife Katie and high school friends Mike and Jim Hinschsliff. Known for his exuberant, rambling introductions, Tuten sees the bar as a place where musicians can explore untapped reserves of creativity in public. “The Hideout is a really great incubator. We’re not the biggest place, but many of the artists – they come, they play at The Hideout and they experiment.” Multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bird used the club as a jumping off platform to segue from the swing influences of his earlier material with Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire to the indie rock-centric flare on his solo records. Observant fans could find Chicago transplant Neko Case (pictured) behind the bar serving patrons as often as she appeared on stage, and Mavis Staples, the voice of the civil rights movement, handpicked The Hideout as a backdrop for her Election Day ’08 release, Live: Hope at the Hideout. Jon Langford of The Waco Brothers and formerly The Mekons relishes The Hideout’s intimate surroundings, calling it the “keystone” of the city’s music scene. “It’s a venue where I can do anything,” he says. “It’s a pretty weird, contradictory place ‘cause it’s so tiny and so grassroots, yet it’s got an international reputation. It’s a little jewel.” Nestled in the industrial part of town where the city’s Department of Fleet Management stashes its garbage trucks and with a dimly lit Old Style sign as the only discernable marking on the building, the bar truly lives up to its name. “It’s a little shack in the middle of nowhere that looked like it was thrown up overnight about 100 years ago,” Langford explains. “It’s beautiful. I feel very proud when I take people in there. I like watching their faces because it’s just very welcoming and rinky dink and small and weird.” The building did, in fact, originate in the late 1890s, built by Irish squatters, no less, according to Tuten. The Hideout opened in 1934 as a public house, serving the working class employed by the surrounding factories, but didn’t become a haven for the arts until the Tutens bought the place in 1996. “The Hideout is known for American music, but the sensibility is an old-world sensibility. We’re trying to create the great art of our time, building upon the past. Does that sound too pretentious?” Tuten asks. Not when Oscar winners cross the threshold.
There’s an art to creating a perfect pop song. Every now and again we are confronted suddenly with a morsel from the chalice of pop. It doesn’t happen often but when it does, State are the first to put up our hands and say so (hello our Abba issue, hello our editor’s undying love of Girls Aloud). Lady Gaga’s ‘Just Dance’ single is one of those nuggets. Joanne Stefani Germanotta certainly has the chops, style and substance to boot. She started her music career playing seedy scenester clubs in New York’s Lower East Side before turning her attention to mainstream pop. At just 22 years old, she has already written songs for Britney and Pussycat Dolls, now it is her turn. She categorises her style and aesthetic under the umbrella of “pop performance art” as evidenced in her music videos. ‘Just Dance’ is a retro synth-pop club hit and has peaked in the charts of the US, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Now it’s our turn. Her debut album The Fame is released at the end of January. Listen: ‘Just Dance’ Click: www.myspace.com/ladygaga