Morning Music Notes – Laura Jane Grace Enters The Music World

Klaxons’ James Righton Engaged to Keira Knightley

The weekend brought so many stories, I don’t know where to begin! How about I start with the most disappointing news story – love of my life (one of many) Kiera Knightley has foolishly decided to get engaged to Klaxons’ James Righton (via Gigwise). An official statement did not reveal much more than that, but an unofficial statement says that the Klaxons’ third album is delayed due to James running “tedious errands for the high maintenance princess.” Okay, I made that up, in hopes of winning her heart. It’s not over yet, James – she will be mine (bloggers > rock stars, right?).

Tom Gabel From Against Me! Plays As Laura Jane Grace for the First Time

Transgender Against Me! front man person, Tom Gabel, played her first gig as Laura Jane Grace in San Diego on Friday night (via NME). The band played a 40-minute set, and also debuted the song that heavily hinted Tom might’ve been transgender – Transgender Dysphoria Blues. That’s the mother of all hints, one might say. There are no reports of (drunken) idiots shouting out inappropriate comments at Laura, like “play one more song, bitch!”, but Laura chatted to Rolling Stone after the set and said “I was worried some people expected me to come out looking like Little Bo Peep or something.” Is it wrong that I assumed that’s how Laura was dressed up until this point?

Spoiler Alert: Sweden Wins Eurovision

Eurovision is fascinating for so many reasons. It is not even a blip on the radar in North America, and you will struggle to find people who know exactly what it is. “Some kind of places to get retro European glasses?” Not quite. It is perhaps the old reality television competition, having begun broadcasting in 1956. The competition pits all of the European nations against each other in a singing contest of sorts. Each country has a representative, and I’m not exactly sure how they are picked, but the United Kingdom had 76 year old Engelbert Humperdinck as their singer. Yup, he would be in the bottom 100 of my 100,000 band list from the UK. And yes, he finished 2nd last in this year’s Eurovision.

The contest was held in Baku, Azerbaijan (which is not made up – honest!) and was dogged by protests about the country’s human rights record. I agree – subjecting millions of people to Eurovision is an appalling crime against our human rights. In fact, 100 million people worldwide watched Eurovision, but I’m guessing most of those were within Europe (via Yahoo).

Past winners you know: ABBA won for Sweden back in 1974, and believe it or not, Celine Dion won for Switzerland (?!?!) in 1988. This year’s winner was Loreen from Sweden. She won for her song Euphoria, which I don’t think is about the perfume fragrance. So what does this song look and sound like? Watch – if you dare – below (before it gets taken down). Look at those dance moves (or lack thereof)!

Loreen – Euphoria

Sergio Pizzorno Scores Brilliant Goal in Soccer Aid Charity Match

File this under another European event that North Americans know little about- Soccer Aid. The event is for Unicef charity, and sees an English football team take on the Rest of the World. Half of the teams are former footballers, while the other half are celebrities, which consisted of Will Ferrell, Mike Myers, Gerard Butler, Serge Pizzorno from Kasabian, and others. And wouldn’t you know it, Sergio scored a brilliant goal over former England international keeper David Seaman, which he dedicated to fellow Kasabian bandmate Tom Meighan and his new daughter. Check it out below, and note the Kasabian pun at the 57 second mark (puns are MY gig!).

It’s not the first time he has scored a brilliant goal, either, as you might recall from the Soccer AM show. Pretty sure he could walk onto the Liverpool team today.

Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, The Dears, and Tegan and Sara Support Quebec Student Protests

Protests over student tuitions and protests about how to protest have hit the news in Quebec over the past 100 days, as the Quebec government wants to raise tuition prices annually for the next 5 years. The $325 (about 200 GBP) will result in an added $1625 to tuition fees, which are already and will continue to be the second lowest in Canada. The government has tried lowering this to $254 over 7 years, but nothing has been finalized. While on Saturday Night Live over a week ago, Montreal’s Arcade Fire wore red patches on their clothes, symbolizing their support for the campaign (via Spinner).

Amy Millan from Stars tweeted: “Thousands of protesters coming down my tiny street right now in front of the baby’s room while she sleeps. Bring her dreams of revolution!!”

“revolutions take too long,” said Kevin Drew from Broken Social Scene on Twitter, while Tegan and Sara added “So inspired by what is happening in Montreal: Night demo illegal but peaceful.”

Why not use a protest to make some money? Maybe because it lacks tact. Enter The Dears, who updated their website and Twitter page by noting, “From 2001 to 2012, This Is The Summer Of Protest.” They then included a link to the song “Summer of Protest”, which the band wrote and was on their 2002 Protest EP! Way to support yourself the cause, guys! “Protest – but buy our music!”

Watch! PS I Love You – Princess Towers

Off of new album Death Dreams comes a video for Princess Towers. The video gets technicolor transitions, layers of shots, and the band somewhere in between all of this. Check it out below.

PS I Love You – Princess Towers

(via Consequence of Sound)

Watch! Nas – Daughters

We’ll end this morning’s notes with a double video package. First was PS I Love You, and last is Nas. Nas has a song about the relationship with his daughter, Destiny Jones. Both Nas and his daughter are in the video for Daughters, which is off upcoming album, Life is Good, out on July 17. Is Nas rapping about his daughter on Twitter? How people change with the times.

Nas – Daughters