Post by That Skipping Rope. on Aug 23, 2008 23:00:03 GMT -5
Hometown: London.
The lineup: Vanessa Brown (vocals, instruments, production).
The background: Warning: today's column will feature zero references to the Clash or Gang Of Four. VV Brown is the sum of her idiosyncratic listening habits: old rock'n'roll and doo wop, novelty soul and incidental music from Nintendo games and Disney movies. One of her songs, Quick Fix, is a dead ringer for Toni Basil's Mickey, fast becoming the most influential piece of music of the modern era (see also: the Ting Tings' That's Not My Name). Debut single Crying Blood nicks the chorus from 1962 novelty smash Monster Mash by Bobby "Boris" Pickett. Bottles is 60s R&B meets the modern variety, with a melodic refrain based on teach-yourself-piano standby Chopsticks. Travelling Like The Light is a doo wop ballad with handclaps and an echoey trip hop production. And L.E.A.V.E. sounds like Quick Fix, so we'll stop there for a breather.
VV Brown - Vanessa Brown to her mum and chums and paymasters at Island, the new home of wonky pop - is a 24-year-old singer, songwriter, instrumentalist and producer who cut her gnashers in LA performing backing vocals and penning tunes for Pussycat Dolls and, back home, doing same for Sugababes. She almost released a record under the name Vanessa Brown which would have been a far more conventional and less far-out affair than the bubblegum punk'n'soul she peddles as VV Brown, so hurrah for that.
She's always been a bit out-to-lunch. In fact, lunch-breaks at school were spent sitting on the school field wondering why the grass was green. She calls the mad mix of music she grew up listening to as "musical mashed potatoes", and she got the impetus for her career volte-face from a violently unhappy break-up with an arsehole boyfriend, which might explain why, beneath the merry melodies and Looney Tunes, lurk songs of real heartbreak, full of dark portents and disturbing imagery. "I was in a quagmire of self-doubt and complete hell," the Veevster says of her period of transition, after splitting with her jerk-off ex but before Going Wonky. "I was lost in a flood of tears and blinding love and felt like a complete piece of nothing. Got a cheap guitar and started to write in my room I was renting. Was starting to listen to a lot of old rock'n'roll." Money was so tight, she was forced to buy a one-string guitar from a charity shop. She marked the frets out with her red nail varnish and wrote Crying Blood the next day. And now she's falling like a comet from a broken sky.
The buzz: "Upbeat summer pop that strikes a big impression."
The truth: Blimey, damn her with faint praise, why don't you? VV is far less innocuous, and far more love-her-or-hate-her, than that makes her sound. We love her, but then, we're wonky.
Most likely to: Cry tears of joy at next year's Brits.
Least likely to: Cry blood.
What to buy: Crying Blood is released by Island on July 21.
File next to: Little Jackie, Tawiah, Ebony Bones, the Moonglows.
The lineup: Vanessa Brown (vocals, instruments, production).
The background: Warning: today's column will feature zero references to the Clash or Gang Of Four. VV Brown is the sum of her idiosyncratic listening habits: old rock'n'roll and doo wop, novelty soul and incidental music from Nintendo games and Disney movies. One of her songs, Quick Fix, is a dead ringer for Toni Basil's Mickey, fast becoming the most influential piece of music of the modern era (see also: the Ting Tings' That's Not My Name). Debut single Crying Blood nicks the chorus from 1962 novelty smash Monster Mash by Bobby "Boris" Pickett. Bottles is 60s R&B meets the modern variety, with a melodic refrain based on teach-yourself-piano standby Chopsticks. Travelling Like The Light is a doo wop ballad with handclaps and an echoey trip hop production. And L.E.A.V.E. sounds like Quick Fix, so we'll stop there for a breather.
VV Brown - Vanessa Brown to her mum and chums and paymasters at Island, the new home of wonky pop - is a 24-year-old singer, songwriter, instrumentalist and producer who cut her gnashers in LA performing backing vocals and penning tunes for Pussycat Dolls and, back home, doing same for Sugababes. She almost released a record under the name Vanessa Brown which would have been a far more conventional and less far-out affair than the bubblegum punk'n'soul she peddles as VV Brown, so hurrah for that.
She's always been a bit out-to-lunch. In fact, lunch-breaks at school were spent sitting on the school field wondering why the grass was green. She calls the mad mix of music she grew up listening to as "musical mashed potatoes", and she got the impetus for her career volte-face from a violently unhappy break-up with an arsehole boyfriend, which might explain why, beneath the merry melodies and Looney Tunes, lurk songs of real heartbreak, full of dark portents and disturbing imagery. "I was in a quagmire of self-doubt and complete hell," the Veevster says of her period of transition, after splitting with her jerk-off ex but before Going Wonky. "I was lost in a flood of tears and blinding love and felt like a complete piece of nothing. Got a cheap guitar and started to write in my room I was renting. Was starting to listen to a lot of old rock'n'roll." Money was so tight, she was forced to buy a one-string guitar from a charity shop. She marked the frets out with her red nail varnish and wrote Crying Blood the next day. And now she's falling like a comet from a broken sky.
The buzz: "Upbeat summer pop that strikes a big impression."
The truth: Blimey, damn her with faint praise, why don't you? VV is far less innocuous, and far more love-her-or-hate-her, than that makes her sound. We love her, but then, we're wonky.
Most likely to: Cry tears of joy at next year's Brits.
Least likely to: Cry blood.
What to buy: Crying Blood is released by Island on July 21.
File next to: Little Jackie, Tawiah, Ebony Bones, the Moonglows.
www.myspace.com/vvbrown
