The Chance for Peace

As you must have noticed, if you've been following the Streetlamp from the beginning, we've not been bringing you quite the same indiepop outout recently as he have in the past. The main reason for this is that we've been rather diverted on the political front. Scotland, at the time of writing, stands on the brink of a momentous, game-changing decision, which will have repercussions far beyond these shores.

One of the repercussions of Scotish independence is that, if the people of Scotland vote Yes, we will effectively be able to force the UK state into unilateral nuclear disarmamnet. This is quite an attractive outcome for some of us!

Inspired by this opportunity, our own resident film-maker, Ray, has made the following video, which has been given official endorsement from the Scrap Trident campaign. The video in question uses excerpts from the Chance for Peace speech, an address given by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower on April 16, 1953. Eisenhower is, of course, the man who famously warned the world of the growing power of the Military–industrial complex and uttered the immortal lines:

"I think that people want peace so much that, one of these days, government had better get out of their way and let them have it."

We here at the Stretlamp think that, for the people of Scotland, that day is coming soon. Here's Ray's video on the subject:



For more information on the subject, please visit Scrap Trident.

The music used in the video is the 2nd movement, Largo, from Dvorak's "New World" Symphony reorded in 1963 by the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Otto Klemperer/ This can be downloaded for free 'here'.

The Streetlamp Team

If you love indiepop, clap your hands!

Hello everyone. No, we haven't died, you'll be glad to know, it's just that we've all been very busy doing other things and have had to neglect the poor old Streetlamp for a bit. Anyway, we're going to make that up to you tonight with a compilation from Frigopop! of the very best in indie-pop. And we really mean the best, we're talking Jens Lekman, The Drums, Liechtenstein and Belle and Sebastian here.

Frigopop! was started in February 2008 by a group of Roman girls with a love for pop music and, as well as a webzine, it is also a netlabel and a festival. Their latest release Nastrone Handclapping was released on March 1st and contains 13 songs, which all include that indie-pop staple, handclapping. The compilation is intended to wake you up from hibernation and get you in the mood for Spring.It is available as a free download 'here'.

Here are a few sample tracks. First off is Jens Lekman with I Saw Her In The Anti War Demostration.



We had to include this as, right now, all Griff's time is being taken up by, well, helping to organise an April anti-war demonstration, believe it or not.

Now here's Architecture in Helsinki with It'5!



And we''ll finish off with Pelle Carlberg with Clever Girls Like Clever Boys Much More Than Clever Boys Like Clever Girls
Sadly, probably true.

The Streetlampers
xx

Barftroop - Filthy girls doing foul things for fun

Tonight I'd like to introduce you to Babeo Baggins and the Barftroop whose motto is the brutally simple - "Fuck with us or don't, its that simple." That's right, if you want straight talking and in your face attitude then you've come to the right place. Do you remember back in January when I wrote about the sexily subversive hip hop of Lady Boners and their song Bacon Pancakes? Well, if you liked that then you're going to love this. Barftroop is five young women from the US who all met through being bloggers. Marshaled by the formidable Babeo Baggins they set about challenging the negative stereotype of the 'black female rapper' through their provocative and exciting music and art. The five members of Barftroop are;

Babeo Baggins
Babenstein
Baberella Fox
Babe Field, and
Justin Baber

I came across their music on bandcamp and soundcloud and I immediately found it arresting. It's loosely within the hip-hop tradition but is obviously much freer and playful than that genre normally allows.
I was also taken by the humour and the bold, explicit sexuality in the music and in the accompanying visual art (which can be found on the Barftroop tumblr page). It seemed to me that this playfully assertive attitude might be an aspect of the group's feminism and I put that question to Barftroop ringleader Babeo. She replied:

"When it comes to our feminism I'd say it's an EXTREMELY important part of our music.
Speaking for myself, my sexual content is greatly influenced by my feminism. As you can hear, my voice is very light and innocent. It's sort of me showing that you can be a sexual creature and not lose your innocence. Because innocence is held in some strange, important light when it comes to women, and if you have sex or talk about sexual things people deem it 'gone' as if it's a bad thing to be sexual. Or as if I have to be completely pure to still have a grasp on my innocence. As though my sexuality should make me feel guilty and ashamed so that there's no way I could still be innocent. I don't like that thought process. I just want anyone who listens to my music, mainly women, to feel like you can be sexual and sweet and innocent. You can be anything you want to be, no one has the right to tell you any different.
I think just Barf Troop as a whole, for all the girls-is just us expressing everything we want to express with no filter whatsoever."


I asked Babeo about the band's stated intention not to be confined by labels, especially that of 'black, female rappers'. Specifically, I wanted to know hat were the annoying negative aspects of that stereotype for Barftroop?  She replied:

"The negative aspects of the black female rapper would have to be that idea that we're all "rough" and "mean" or "rude". We're all different and we bring a different sort of rapping style to the "black female rapper" image and I'm excited about that. I'm happy to be able to say that I'm a (part) black woman and I'm rapping and I'm not being "hard". I'm rapping about nerdy things and sexual things in a sweet way and being shy and silly. You don't HAVE to be anything just because you're a black female rapper and I think that's what it's about for us. Breaking the stereotypes, but just being ourselves."

So, that's the Barftroop ideology and it serves them well. To hear how it feeds into their music, here are some of the tracks they've produced over the last year:





Hope you liked those. As you can see, all tracks are available as free digital downloads and there are plenty more great tracks like these on Barftroop's bandcamp page.

The last thing worth noting about Barftroop is the group's fantastically vibrant and colourful cartoon art, which I briefly mentioned above . These posters and covers are designed for them by artist and Barftroop fan Yuta Sakakibara and they are graphically, brutally, sexually explicit but with the cutesy overtones of Japanese pop culture. This bizarre combination somehow suits Barftroop perfectly.
Have a look:

Griff
xx

Everybody's got one - now you can get one too!

Everybody knows that the Streetlamp had a little bit of an infatuation with London's bentcousin last year, with the 2012 Streetlamp festive Thirty featuring no less than two of the band's songs.
If you've not had a chance to catch up with them yet, this week is the ideal opportunity as they release their 6-track EP, Everybody's Got One on Team Love records this Tuesday, February 19th.

As regards the music on the EP, the band range from a sweet, quasi-folk style to punk/glam rock stompers, so they can be quite hard to pin down (oooh, steady!).

Anyway, here's a quick round up of what to expect:

Track 1, bentpaperboy, is one of the folky ones with Amelia's soft vocals sparsely accompanied by a nicely-picked Paul Simonesque guitar. This has a clever lyric that is chock-full of English cultural references, which gives it a homely charm. I really liked this, as it is the closest in style on the EP to last year's I Think I Like Your Girlfriend More Than You, which I was particularly taken with.

Track 2, Slade, sees Pat take over vocal duties. This is one of the rockers on the album and although it has British musical antecedents, imagine the Jesus and Mary Chain playing glam rock (if you're imagining The Damned then that's about right), Pat's Richard Butler-like vocals stray a little too much into mid-Atlantic waters for my taste.

Track 3, I Quit You, is my least favourite track on the EP. Its meaty guitar riff keeps reminding me of Transvision Vamp, which is something I don't like to be reminded of. Sorry, guys.

Track 4, F.O.R.G.E.T., is my favourite new track from this lot. This has a funky/indie feel that evokes São Paulo's CSS, or for people of a certain age, is very reminiscent of Orange Juice. In particular, Pat's vocal, like a young Sarf Lahndan Edwin Collins is spot on.

Track 5, Glittery Joe, Is another punk/glam rocker this time filtered through a Britpop influence. Think Blondie meets Elastica with a hint of Suede.

The EP ends with Track 6, I Think I Like Your Girlfriend More Than You, with which you should all be familiar. This is the band's calling card and it really is a wonderful track with Amelia's vocals set off by a great folk/jazz guitar accompaniment. It is available as a free download from the Team Love site.


This new EP sees bentcousin retain those aspects that we love, the playful, witty overtones and the mischievous, sleazy sexiness and it takes those and mixes them up with folk, punk, Britpop and glam to fun, but variable, effect. Where this band really hit the mark for me though is when they hit their funky, indie Orange Juice evoking stride on F.O.R.G.E.T. This sound is hinted at elsewhere on here and its this, I think, this genre-hopping band do best.


Griff
xx