Chris Martin and co. seem to have mastered the art of the generic pop-rock song when they wrote the title track for their last album Viva La Vida. Why else would the British alt-rockers keep finding themselves under scrutiny from other musicians accusing Coldplay of ripping them off? First it was Joe Satriani, claiming the foursome stole the melody for “Viva la Vida” from his song “If I Could Fly”, but now Cat Stevens has joined in on the drama, claiming the band actually ripped off the melody from his song, “Foreigner Suite”.
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Back in February we told you Chris Martin and his Coldplay pals were planning to give fans a ‘thank you’ present for still buying tickets to shows, despite the state of the economy. The blueprints were drawn and the plans are now solidified, as Coldplay confirmed they will be giving away a live album to fans at their upcoming tour dates and as a free download from their website.
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To what degree is it absurdly patronizing that I didn’t take Laura Marling seriously because she’s a 19-year-old British female-folk/pop singer? Let’s call a spade a spade here: if you’re a young artist, you’re afforded little respect. If you’re a young woman, you’re afforded even less. These are entrenched stigmas in critical culture. It doesn’t help Marling’s cause that her songs are anchored on tales of failed or unrequited love. To sum it up: good-looking blonde teenager sings songs about her ex-boyfriend. Play coy all you want, but we both know transcending that persona on a critical level is pretty fucking tough. But we’re not talking about the Jonas Brother or Miley Cyrus here — we’re talking about Marling, who exudes a unique maturity in interviews; she is comfortable in the spotlight and admirably reticent. She doesn’t play to the camera; she plays to herself. She dismisses compliments about her maturity saying such self-analysis is unnecessary. And truthfully, she has little to nothing to do with her youthful contemporaries, but more with accomplished artists like Leslie Feist or Lykke Li.
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They announced their formation barely a month ago and their debut album doesn’t come out for another five weeks, but apparently the buzz around “supergroup” Chickenfoot is so great that they’ve managed to sell out all nine road-test shows they had planned for the month of May.
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Jon Hopkins came back to New York for the first time since his Madison Square Garden show opening for Coldplay, and the scene this go around was much different. I tried to catch him at the Museum of Natural History where he performed with Four Tet, but he was late in arriving, so we rescheduled to do the interview in our offices the day after he performed an intimate show at Pianos.
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