The A to Z of Pop - N is for 90s? Just No.

Well, they made that much more difficult than it needed to be, didn't they?

The A to Z of Pop

by Jo Michelmore

Since I took over The K-Tizzle Sizzle this week, it's put me in a sizzling mood. So instead of using the 'N' in the A to Z of Pop for good, like N'Sync and Nicki Minaj, I'm gonna focus on something that is really freakin' annoying.


90s Nostalgia. Sure, the 90s were a decade of greatness, no one is denying that. I'm not going to get into the history of music and the birth of the internet and the massive social changes that occurred in those ten short years that made the 90s good, because you know what the other side of good is? Bad. The 90s may have given us Nirvana, but when it comes to pop music they also gave us this...

See, the problem was, for every Salt N Pepa, there was also a Sisqo. It's like using the genes of Robin Thicke and Pitbull together in a sick genetic pop experiment and seeing what would be born. 90s? No.

And for every Vengaboys there was also a S.O.A.P. 'We Like To Party' vs 'This Is How We Party'? We all know the correct answer to that question. 90s? No.

And for every All Saints, there was a Girlfriend. You want to know what TopShop's latest collection looks like? Watch a Girlfriend clip and like a lot of the 90s, it's not good. 90s? No.

And for every Seal, R Kelly, Michael Bolton....wait, were there any good solo male pop stars in the 90s? Perhaps not. Which shows why kids like Joey Lawrence made appearances long before Justin Bieber could say "baby" once, let alone three times followed by an oh. 90s? No. 

And just because I'm actually a nice person and a little bit scared of a friend of mine who won't forgive me if I don't include some of this in a post dedicated to the 90s. To this part of the 90s I say even the bad bits were good? Ok then. I admit it. 90s? Not all bad.

Song Review - Angels Walk Below

Angels Walk Below

by Harts
Album: Untitled (out 2014 and SOOOOON?!? Please!)

While it's actually only been five and a bit months since we last heard something new from Harts, it seems like an eternity. I suppose that's because the last song I heard; 'Lovers In Bloom' was so freakin' good I wanted that instant gratification that we all seem to crave these days, I wanted something more and I wanted it yesterday. But like the sounds Harts is clearly influenced by, sometimes the best things should be left to sit, to age a little and to appreciate all in good time. Being patient has never been one of my best qualities, but then sometimes I get rewarded with things like this. 

As soon as that killer bass line kicked in, I knew 'Angels Walk Below' was well worth the wait. There's a reason people around the world are starting to look at Harts and sit up and take notice and that's because he makes music that is familiar, inviting and goddamn catchy, without being a copy of anything else. While he certainly takes his P's and Q's from some funk sounds of the past, he doesn't sound old or unoriginal, he just sounds freakin' good. There's a reason artists like Prince have jumped on the Harts bandwagon early on and that's because he seems to know how to take a rhythm and shake it up, singing in his fabulous funk filled falsetto way, throwing some killer guitar riffs on top and making songs born to be moved to.


Perhaps it's best Harts waited to release this track, after all, I'm going to have to perfect some dance moves to this one before the next comes along, which I have no doubt will be just as impressive. Until then, wherever those angels are, I'm not sure they'd be walking, I think they might be dancing below. 

Jo Michelmore gives 'Angels Walk Below' four Beyonce heads out of five...

The Medicine Cabinet #27

Courtney’s Lesson In Sarcasm 

by Nayt Housman

Music is my medicine. Is it yours? I ask the public six golden questions to find out if and how they use music to feed the soul.

'Courtney' by Nayt Housman

Tonight’s patient is one of my favourite people in the world and is equally the bravest person I know along with one of the most sensitive but boy does she know her way around a sarcastic response. I wasn’t sure we’d even make it through the interview and what usually takes around five minutes went for close to fifteen. In the few years I’ve known 24 year old Courtney she has travelled the world playing with dolphins, parrots, caring for orphans and generally looking for that ‘something’ that makes her happy. In the process she has grown so much, learnt more about herself than she imagined and taught me so much too. However as well as I know her being one of my besties, I know little about her music life, so evidently being a professional music doctor, I thought it my duty to find out.


Who are the musicians and/or bands that flick your switch and turn up the volume?

Courtney: Well, ummmm, I’d probably say that…ask me the question again? What do you mean, “flick my switch”?


Okay, It varies and often I don’t actually know the names of people but I would say Missy Higgins because she was like the first ever artist that I had any interest in. The next one you’re not going to like!!! It’s name starts with a ‘D’ and ends with a ‘rake’…I can’t help it, and I named my bird after him, Kirby’s middle name is Drake. And then Chet Faker and this guy called James Vincent McMorrow, mainly because I’m a bit lazy and my friends tell me who’s interesting. So those are two that some of my friends love. Oh and James Blake!

Why do you think they are the pills that cure your ills?


Courtney: Fucking hell Nayt, what does that mean? WHAT DOES THAT MEAN? *Lol* I don’t know what language you’re talking…


Well Missy Higgins, her music and her lyrics are quite poetic I think. So I can be quite like depressive with her and just because I listened to her through my high school years it sort of brings me back to that time. Drake ‘cause I can be ghetto! *Lol* and just ‘cause it gives me like some street cred. The other ones I mentioned, the James guy, he’s very ethereal and whimsical and just really pretty, his voice is just really beautiful, Chet is just cool. He could transport you to a pub like drinking the cider and the other James is just really emotional and beautiful too.

What kind of high do they give you?


Courtney: Oh god…what do you mean? Hahaha.


Well I think sometimes I listen to music that is how I’m feeling if that makes sense. So if I’m feeling a bit emotional maybe I’ll listen to a bit of Missy because it’s cathartic you know? Then some, I think that I can just relax to, like just chill out.

When do you find yourself craving music for relief?


Courtney: These are stupid questions…*lololol* I kind of like having music on all the time. Well sometimes, because I don’t like awkward silences. So if you’re having dinner or whatever it’s just nice to have that in the background…


What was the question? I don’t know how… How would someone answer that? When do you crave music? When you feel like listening to it pfffft! I think these questions are very ‘wordy’ and stupid.


No, I’m going to think about that… I crave music just all the time because I think it enhances whatever you’re doing. So if you’re drinking coffee, it enhances that experience, if you are reading a book, if you are driving a car, it enhances.

Where in life, home, and your world does music take you?


Courtney: Some, like I said before (Missy Higs) it can take me back in time and can just remind you of an era like, you know that song “show me how them apple bottom jeans…” that reminds me of grade 12 and getting my license and thinking I’m really cool and then like other songs remind me of when I was travelling (like Missy Higgins ‘Nightminds’). I also enjoy Christmas carols, I enjoy singing Christmas carols, I love dancing to Christmas carols, I love pretending that I’m the singer. It takes me sometimes to a happy place…I don’t fucking know…

How do you share your music love?


Courtney: I sing it; I’m just the best singer. What do you mean “How do I share it”?


Or DO you share your music?


Courtney: No not really I don’t think. I think music is a very personal thing. It’s like somebody looking at your underwear. So people can just judge you, it’s very private and it can be very embarrassing depending on what you see you know? People say that they like music, like they’ll pretend they like someone even if they don’t because that’s what’s cool.

All I can think now of is whenever I share my music with anyone that they’ll be judging me as if I have dirty undies! But thankfully I can live in comfort knowing a little saying Courtney has “accept the things you cannot change, have courage to change the things you can and wisdom to know the difference.” So in other words it really doesn’t matter what anyone thinks of your music whether it’s daggy, cool or otherwise. But the question really is what has Courtney taught me about music and life?


Well firstly that my questions are stupid but mostly that music isn’t all about idolisation.  It doesn’t matter what you’re listening to or who made it, only whether you find a connection with it in some way, although Courtney did only like Drake to feel ‘ghetto’ and give her ‘street cred’. I guess that’s her dirty underwear and I guess then the lesson is that everyone has their tunes that provide meaning to their life and then some are just for fun.


I shall dub this ‘The I Don’t Fucking Know Because Courtney Has Ruined My Life Effect’. So basically just like any music you want. There doesn’t have to be a reason, or there can be a reason. It can be because your friends like it or because it makes good background music or because you like annoying people with your Christmas carols.


Doctor Nayt’s prescription this week is to not bother even finding out the artists you like or even bother choosing any music for that matter. Just put on the bloody radio or put your iPod on shuffle and just let music, any music, be the background to your life. But even better than that, make everything anyone says into a song, like my friend Courtney does. Because in reality music is just in your soul and it resonates from your heart and when you sing the sentence just spoken back to the person who said it, it will make them smile and tell you “you’re weird” then you’ll laugh together and life will be beautiful.

Song Review - Tough Love

Tough Love

by Jessie Ware

I had a funny kind of "oh yeah!" moment when the name Jessie Ware appeared on my laptop monitor recently. "Oh yeah" in numerous senses. The first being almost a question, a thought of "whatever happened to Jessie Ware?", because while I was first introduced to her lovely sounds back in 2012, she had kind of disappeared from my radar since, appearing briefly again in 2013, but then fading off to that place in my mind that some awesome musicians go, somewhere I imagine is actually quite delightful, considering the amount of talented people who are probably hanging out together in said place. Regardless, wherever she has actually been in real life, with her latest track 'Tough Love' it's an absolute pleasure to have her back. 

"Oh yeah!" is also what I thought when I heard Jessie's voice singing those familiar high notes she hits so well, the oh so tough lyrics being sung so perfectly in such a simultaneously gentle and dramatic fashion; "so you wanna be a man about it, do you have to, have you figured out all you wanted, have you?" and "oh yeah" is how I felt about the pulsating beats and emotive, quick synths dragging me through the song, it's a sound I could obsess about that takes me back to the first time I heard her sweet sounds and now I regret having a minor mind blank and putting her in that lonely place in my mind that some musicians go.

The other "oh yeah!" sense I felt was one of those types that if I was a sporting type, I might punch my fist in the air in some way, because it was an "oh yeah!" as in "I really reeeeeeally like this!" With a song this good, I doubt she'll slip back into oblivion in my mind, this one I could hear a thousand times over and still like. I'm more than happy to have her back at the front of my mind and it's somewhere I hope she stays, with clips that look this good and oh so subtly angry songs she's an artist I won't be forgetting again any time soon. Jessie Ware, welcome back to my world. "Oh yeah!"

Jo Michelmore gives 'Tough Love' three and a half The xx heads out of five...

Video Review - Dizzy

Dizzy 

by Nussy

EP: Nussy (out July 18, 2014) 

We all know that things I like include pop music, fashion, maddening colour and a tasty beverage. Nussy's latest clip 'Dizzy' offers almost all of these things and the other one? Let's face it, I can find that one for myself.

The pop music is provided by the little over three and a half minute track, which follows in a long standing tradition of simple, awesome pop songs released in Australia, and Nussy can include herself in an impressive line of artists that have done similar things, but there's nothing happier than the freshest clip and latest catchy pop tune to put a smile on my face. 

A vibrant array of dresses, tops and leggings in an array of fabrics and prints, all spinning around and around to match the dizzy theme, most of them worn by the super cute Nussy with a face full of metallic shades, these provide the fashion element, the 'Dizzy' clip a visual feast for those of us who like staring at pretty things and pretty colours. 

So that's the pop, fashion and colour taken care of, what next? It's only the beverage I need to provide, I'll just need to be careful not to spill any as I bounce around when the sweet beats, synths and voice spill out of the speakers in my lounge, in my car, in a club; all the places good pop music should be. 

Jo Michelmore gives 'Dizzy' three and a half Kylie heads...


Nussy will be playing two shows to launch her EP;


Melbourne at The Workers Club on July 31
and Adelaide at Pirie and Co Social Club on August 1. Probably best if you go, don't you think?  

Song Review - Black Metal Queen

Black Metal Queen

by Cash For Gold

Well, I suppose it's been a week or so since I first heard the harsh guitar sounds of Cash For Gold's latest release; 'Black Metal Queen' and it wasn't that I didn't like what I heard, in fact, quite the opposite. I immediately liked the sounds, the severe but engaging vocals and words catching my ears and begging me to listen, but something else played on my mind.

The trouble was, what exactly was this? I write on a blog, so surely I'd have to find something to call it. Some label it death pop, some label it doom pop, but I feel like those terms don't give it enough credit, because while they're all labels I'd be likely to love, there's also something, I don't even know how to describe it, would we say 'bluesy' dragging me through? Would we say just plain old 'pop' dragging me through? It's rock, definitely, but not plain old rock, the changing tempos ensure of that. Maybe it's almost a punk sensibility that I'm picking up on, which is certainly how the clip was made, on a budget of apparently nothing and a storyline that says....not much at all actually, but is somehow strangely addictive to watch. 

Look, whatever it is, all the words I have used are things I like and genres I love (although admittedly, I probably still haven't found one I don't like....) so why should I question these things, blog writer or not? I don't even know what a black metal queen is, if I've ever met one, or if I am one, so the best thing to do here right now is just enjoy it. Rock, pop, punk, doom....whatever. They're all good things, stick 'em all together and you have yourself a nice little tune, with a nice little black and white clip to match. 

Jo Michelmore gives Black Metal Queen three and a half Karen O heads out of five...