The premise focuses on an indoor tennis match with a redhead clad in a natty polo shirt and skirt combo seeing off competition from luminary cameos such as Joe Jonas and Jake Gyllenhaal, in front of the equally well dressed Vampire Weekend. RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan acts as umpire, Lil’ John is originally cast as a francophone coach resplendent in boater and grills. If Tom Ford did Wimbledon I’m sure he’d be looking here for inspiration.
Giving Up the Gun reads like 5 minutes and 4 seconds of a sleek sports advert; clean lines, cool colours and some pretty banging ball action. Even if the star cameo pisstakes don’t keep your eyes glued to the action, the deliciously coordinated fusion of red, white and blue makes for design heaven. The lingering camera draws you into the variety of flickering emotions traced through the shots; a puff of pride here, a sulky scowl there.
Of course, the music is divine; a mismash of classic Vampire Weekend qualities. Delicate vocals tiptoe across thundering percussion with cheeky chimes picked out here and there, and the visual accentuation of Ezra Koenig in a pillar box red headband only adds to the fun.
A brief run down of the pit of passion from Wednesday night at the Bristol Academy (which must be applauded as one of the few venues which give the most punters possible fab stage views). Having seen the ‘Pit in action for now the second time, I’m not surprised they lulled me into a pear cider-tinged nap. It was like being fed melon balls whilst having a hot, scented Jacuzzi and; a relaxing and refreshing musical experience which seemed to flash by in the toss of the lead singer’s Jewfro. The amount of musical instruments and bits and pieces crowding the stage made it seem more like a gig taking place in a church hall jumble sale than anything else, and the apt abilities of each band member at switching from synths to guitar or drum machine was astounding, as well as lead singer Michael Angelakos’s trilling vocals consitently hitting the spot. Particular highlights; Little Secrets “higher and higher’ raising the roof whilst the “oh no’s” of The Reeling rang across the Academy. Sleepyhead was a wall of ebbing sound. Please see this band if you ever get the chance; your ears will only thank you for it.
Post gig (and post 40 minute wait to retrieve battered parka from the cloakroom), I managed to catch up with bassist and self confessed “ginger ‘tard’ Jeff Apruzzese hanging about outside amongst the clutter of chuntering fifteen year olds. Having just hollered to him in baritone Lancastrian tones that the gig had been ‘WELL GOOD” from across the Academy it was nice to congratulate him at a normal level, grab a goon-tastic photo with Woz and also get his view on Ellie Goulding dropping out, something it seemed had lead to a considerable amount of worry among the Passion Pitters that no one would turn up if she wasn’t playing. Quite the opposite was the case, I can assure you! Chat turned to the wonders of Twitter, with Jeff proving to be a bit pizzled off that Ellie Goulding’s manager had tried to tempt me to her Alan Carr filming and away from the Bristol show. However, he perked up when he revealed that the band have begun using the chat site as a rustic tour guide to each city they rock up in; a brief request for some Banksy art in Bristol or “good record stores” in Manchester leads to inudations of recommendations from devoted followers and hey presto, top travel tips at their fingers!Passion Pit’s genius had been revealed to me by my own guru of all things musical, the Jeffmix podcast, with a early 2009 episode featuring this snazzy remix of “Sleepyhead” by The Knocks. Ebullient and rousing, it’s a bit of a party banger. Apologies for the crude accompanying video.
Bed and hot chocolate calling. Hope you had a bobby dazzler of a weekend.
© Miranda Thompson 2010
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