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BAD FRIDAY!
Peluché,
Dead Coast,
Les Sueques,
Calva Louise,
Flights of Helios,
Videocean,
Dirty Blondes
+ SoundsXP DJs

The Windmill, Brixton
Good Friday, 14th April 2017
3pm till late

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Gig Review

Pop Levi/ Eat Sugar/ Olympians
London, Metro

Article written by Ged M - May 27, 2008

Olympians have polished their stage banter with the best dead drummer explanation since Spinal Tap: “he was killed in a bukkake accident” deadpans Jose. Unlike other two-piece outfits, you don’t feel the need to succumb to the usual temptation of White/Black comparisons with Olympians; in their tight mixture of garage and pop, their influences are more like Mick Collins and Link Wray. They begin with a cracking version of ‘Brand New Cadillac’, and include choice covers of the Gories’ ‘Thunderbirds ESQ’ and Sutch’s ‘Jack the Ripper’ but their own tunes stand up in such august company, especially ’11 Pieces of Silver’ and the gnarly pop of ‘Ballad of Peter Pan’. It’s quick, it’s direct, it’s unmissable.

Unlike Eat Sugar. I’ll give the Cincinnati foursome massive credit for putting in so much effort but all that perspiration goes unrewarded as hardly anyone watches their electro pop set. They’ve replaced guitars with keyboards and sound like the Faint or the Gossip but don’t really come across as anything more than a bog-standard indie band now.

Pop Levi shows everyone how to do it. He stands out sartorially as well as musically: cowboy boots, skinny jeans so tight it’s clear that he dresses to the right, a woman’s blouse and, beneath the straw hat, the prettiest male face (see also Devendra Banhart) that would turn even the most rabid hetero just a little bit gay. You don’t need Patrick Moore to tell you this cat has star quality. He might sound like George Harrison in conversation but when he sings it’s like Marc Bolan and Devendra, and he’s about the only white boy who can get away with dropping exclamations like “mama” and “baby” without sounding like a tit. And even though he’s acoustic tonight, his songs are infused with a Prince-like carnality, his psychedelic electro-pop tunes like ‘Blue Honey’ and ‘Crying Chic’ transformed with verve and sensuality. He’s full of boho charm and awesomely good but the world’s more than slightly fucked when Pop Levi is only playing the Metro (no offence Metro dudes) on a Saturday night.

Links:
http://www.poplevi.com
http://www.myspace.com/olympians1
http://www.myspace.com/poplevi