When life gives you Lemonade . . .
. . . you certainly don’t make tracks like U2’s “Lemon.” Nevertheless, in town this weekend are Lemonade, Madonna-picked DJ Martin Solveig, and Royal Headache. Whether you add raspberry, Lynchburg tea, or gobs of sugar is up to you.
On Diver (True Panther), Lemonade seem to be saying that the ’80s are a fact of the present so we might as well make the best of them. While African syncopation swims ashore from Talking Heads and Paul Simon excursions, the synth basslines and ultra-earnestness of Callan Clendenin‘s voice overpower the shimmering textures of “Infinite Style” and “Sinead.” “Sister” and “White Caps” deliver more of the rhythm-heavy areas of last year’s cover of Shai’s “The Place Where You Belong,” though “Neptune” runs the opposite direction and fully embraces Spandau Ballet. (Friday@Empty Bottle with Leif and New Canyons.)
Long before DJs were accepted as, you know, people, the names of Madonna’s producers were about as consequential as the Scrabble scores they yielded. But now, as with Mirwais and William Orbit (alas, poor Leonard and Bray), Martin Solveig became a name as soon as he was tapped. It’s easy to see why: Solveig’s The Night Out EP anticipates, slips into, and develops top-40 club-pop with arrogant ease. The Swedish producer perhaps doesn’t fully dedicate himself to his own cause, but you can understand such pause with the names surely bidding for his biggest beats. (Friday@The Mid.)
As someone whose career as a music critic likely owes to a snobbery born in the mid ’90s, and who’ll always have a soft spot for white-boy indie blues, Royal Headache fall into the wheelhouse. The Aussies have a sonic abandon comparable to The Replacements via Titus Andronicus, while critics have fallen over each other to compare frontman Shogun — apparently named for Japanese military dictators of the middle centuries — to on-fire Sam Cooke. If you feel the need to be spared such hyperbole, we’ll oblige. Just gimme indie rawk! (Thursday@The Burlington with OBN III’s.)
— Steve Forstneger
Category: Stage Buzz, Weekly
