Back on home turf for a month-long residency to mark their 20th year, “punk cabaret” trio The Tiger Lillies are as fragrant as ever - just don’t put them in a vase.

Because a Lillies gig is a stroll on the seamy side, down crack alleys and cul-de-smacks where life’s unfortunates come terrible croppers. It’s Threepenny Opera territory - hookers, freaks and ne’er-do-wells - and no sin is left unturned: the Lillies’ overdriven oompah songs, but one facet of their repertoire, could soundtrack George Grosz’s caricatures of 1920s Berlin.

Backed by longtime foils Adrian Stout on contrabass, theremin and bowed saw, and Adrian Huge on a grab bag of percussion, frontman Martyn Jacques, wearing bowler hat and greasepaint (the Fat Controller via Baron Samedi), gives shape to listing sea shanties, sly ballads and wind-up tangos - hymns to death and deviancy all - with gusto, accordion, and a keening falsetto that is the band’s hallmark.

By turns hectoring and tender, if at times suggestive of Dame Edna Everage gargling with cellophane, Jacques’s voice merits a wider audience. Read more…

Guitarist Gene Bertoncini loves music. But just as importantly, he loves people, and feels this focus directly influences the way he plays. He also credits his early architecture studies with giving him a sense of form and proportion that contributes to his beautifully crafted arrangements and performances. Gene and I met in NYC in 2006 for the following conversation.

What follows is an excerpt from this conversation that was aired on my Judy Carmichael’s Jazz Inspired radio show in 2006.

How has your background studying architecture affected your music?

When I went to school you had to prepare a set of drawings for a client. You had to have a complete concept of a project. I think I took that whole concept into arranging for an audience. I wanted to present more than say a sketch or a jam session or something that was totally improvised to really present something that was well thought out and conceived. Each type of structure architecturally is sort of like a tune and each one has a character of its own and you can design a well-balanced conception of how to perform that, how to present that to a client, in fact which is your audience.

I think a lot of musicians have lost track of the client.

I do too. They get pretty self-indulgent up there. They lose the idea of telling a story with their design. They just think of flash. I’m not going to criticize, because it’s nice when people are impressed with that, but I prefer a well-balanced piece of music. Read more…

The gilded walls of London’s Hackney Empire played host to an Arcade Fire at their sensational, barn-storming best at a special one-off gig on Wednesday.

The Canadian eight-piece, marking a long-awaited return to the UK, have spent the last year hidden away in the recording studio.

Any suggestion their renowned live performances had lost their edge was instantly laid to rest at London’s famous East End theatre.

The band oozed confidence as they tried out new material from Surburbs, the new album due for release next month.

However it was the fan favourite from the back catalogue that really got the audience jumping. ‘Ready to Start’ was among the stand-out tracks from the new material.

A fast-paced, bass-driven opener, it showcased sparser sound than on previous records, but still distinctively Arcade Fire.

‘We Used To Wait’ also sounds like a single - all staccato piano and the trademark urgency of Win Butler’s vocals. Read more…

Fresh and flirty, clever and quirky, Fishtank Ensemble’s Woman In Sin is a veritable boatload of fabulous. Building on a resume of recordings that include 2005’s Super Raoul and 2008’s Samurai Over Serbia, Fishtank Ensemble’s Woman in Sin careens headlong into a musical landscape fashioned out of gypsy tunes, swing, jazz, Flamenco and folk melodies from Romania, Serbia and Transylvania, as well as brief dips into a manouche from Holland and Kurdish folk tunes, transforming the group into an American gypsy band.

Rounding out Fishtank’s sound are Ursula Knudson on vocals, violin, banjolele and musical saw, Fabrice Martinez on violin and violintromba, Douglas “Douje” Smolens on guitars and cajon and Djordje Stijepovic on vocals and upright bass. It’s apparent from the opening strains of Woman in Sin that these musicians have earned their chops. Creating a sound that’s densely packed and tautly vibrant, Fishtank Ensemble wrings the most out of every single track. Read more…

This week sees the release of ‘When You’re Strange, a film about The Doors.’

This is the documentary about the band with previously unseen footage charting the history and legacy of the group.

It’s narrated by Doors fan Johnny Depp.

6 Music’s Sinead Garvan has been talking to the band’s drummer - John Densmore:

Read more…