MOODY MOMSEN'S MEDICINE

YOU know her face (or maybe not, if you're over 18).
She's the one who turned from the innocent little J to the bad girl hairband-wearing queen of mean in Gossip Girl.
She's the barely out-of-school face of Madonna and daughter Lourdes' new fashion range. But right now, she's the heavily made-up rock star that fronts The Pretty Reckless.

Taylor Momsen, who plays a one-off show at the 02 Academy Islington next week (Thursday, Aug 19) has accomplished a huge amount during her short 17 year years on this earth – and happily divided opinion amongst critics.

(No official video, this odd clip dubs the album recording over the live performance)

Right now, her eyeshadow is so black and limbs so spindly that The Corpse Bride would be jealous, while her hair's that trashy blonde that draws comparisons to the other, older dame of grunge Courtney Love.
But although her gruff vocals and moody attitude ring truly familiar, Momsen's having none of it.

She's carving out a reputation of her own and distancing herself from hints that she's anything like Love.

And this could well be true. Momsen claims to have been writing songs since she was five years old, and has been acting since the age of three, later going on to performing arts school. Love was into her 20s before entering the entertainment world – as Nancy Spungen in biopic Sid and Nancy, and only formed Hole at the age of 25.

Perhaps it's all that arts school training, but Momsen doesn't look the least bit uncomfortable squeezed between her unlikely band of relatively older, darker, hairier men during sofa interviews – that's bassist Mark Damon, percussionist Jamie Perkins and guitarist Ben Phillips, who co-writes songs with Momsen.
Aside from playing this year's V festival, the band's Islington appearance is their only scheduled show on these shores this month.

And while this talk of child actors and arts school probably jars with the grunge image, it's worth trying to forget this while listening to the music for the first time.
Album track My Medicine reveals the depth of soul that lies behind the cloud of celebrity obscuring the young musician's genuine talent, while Make Me Wanna Die is the teenage angst theme of the Gossip Girl generation.

So, if the following quote coming from the mouth of a 17-year-old is hard to swallow, then try to forget it when listening to the songs.
Here's Momsen's description of her debut album as an honest chronicle of her experiences: “The record is about life. It covers everything: love, death and music itself. It’s rock and roll. It’s sex. It’s drugs. It’s religion. It’s politics. Each song tells a story about the trials and tribulations and emotional struggles that I’ve experienced or observed. It’s not a happy pop record, but it’s not Satan-worshiping either. The lyrics aren’t meant to be taken literally, they are open to interpretation.”
It'll be good to judge them on their merit when they reach Islington next week.

• Light Me Up, the debut album from The Pretty Reckless, is released on August 30 and single Miss Nothing comes out on August 23.

COURTNEY LOVE'S TWITTER ARMY AND THE CASE OF THE MISSING MILLIONS

COURTNEY Love's recruited an army of hackers, fans and detail geeks to help her sort out some huge financial mess - all through twitter.
Offering to pay anyone who can help her get hold of vital legal documents, Love has given out her most personal financial details online.
From what I can understand it's a complex wrangle involving Kurt Cobain's estate and her struggles over missing millions.
To someone like me, her many, many tweets make little sense but to those who have had the patience to decipher them, it seems like there's something in it.
And she's getting somewhere.
I'll add more details later. In the meantime join the twitter army @courtneyloveuk
And here's a reminder of Love in action with Hole

LIAM GALLAGHER IN JOG SHOCK + LITTLE J'S RECKLESS MEDICINE

WHAT'S happening to our rock idols? They’re getting respectable in their old age. My spies spotted an early morning jogger legging it through Hampstead last week, dressed in all the kit. Closer inspection revealed it to be Liam Gallagher. I’d say this is a more shocking image than the usual pics of him swearing and scowling at photographers.

• There’s something uncomfortable about watching Gossip Girl actress Taylor Momsen fronting The Pretty Reckless. Over here recently on tour with her 40-something band, the 16-year-old singer/actress resembled a character from Tim Burton’s The Corpse Bride – spindly, pale, and with eyeshadow so heavy, her eyes were two bottomless holes. In interviews she came across almost as moody as her character little Jenny has become, and equally as pretentious. But, I’m ready to give her the benefit of the doubt – it could just be the trappings of fame and naivety of youth. Her mesh of Courtney Love grungy angst and Juliette Lewis’s country twang is mesmerising and her vocals are unexpectedly soul-laden. Single Make Me Wanna Die is out now and debut album is released later this year. Look out for My Medicine, easily the best of the short selection I’ve heard so far. This is the clearest footage of the My Medicine I could find.

• One Taste, one of south London’s hottest underground music and spoken word nights, has been the launchpad for many fledgling unsigned acts. Scroobius Pip, Beth Rowley and Newton Falkner have all graced its stage and now it’s coming to Camden. One Taste Koko brings together unsigned acts with established artists in an alternative showcase on June 16, featuring Va Voi Woon, Polarbear, Kate Tempest, David J, and Mercury nominees Portico Quartet.

ARCHIVE MOMENT - LOVE, Forever Changes

This is just for those who may not have had the fortune of hearing Love, Forever Changes or seeing enigmatic frontman Arthur Lee perform live.
There's so much to say about them, but just for now, turn it up loud, listen out for the sublime guitar solos and instrumentals and make what you will of the lyrics.



It's all about the guitar solo.



You Set the Scene, the 11th and final track has my favourite lyric: "Everything I've seen needs rearranging."
It encapsulates Lee's genius - multiple songs wrapped into one, makes full use of the orchestral capacity, is distinctly 60s in places and the words are darkly optimistic.



There are so many more that need a mention but for anyone who doesn't already know about Love, there's plenty to discover on your own.

BRITS, WIGS, TRIPS AND FLIDS (Liam - that's you)

NEITHER N-Dubz nor Alexandra Burke won a Brit this year so unless Lady Gaga or Jay-Z have some secret north London connections, we’re pretty much done here. Instead, here’s what I noticed.

• The Brits evoked anger in a lot of people this year, you only need to follow Twitter to see. There was room for some hearty pop but some real questions about how out of touch it has become remain. Case in point – Best Album of Last 30 Years category was a travesty - Dido/Duffy - seriously?
I'm still struggling to comprehend how they made it into the top 10. Bearing the competition in mind, Oasis' What's the Story Morning Glory was the only possible winner.
However, if there had been a credible top 10 selection I doubt this would've been the case.

• Too much Spice Girls stage time.

• Success stories were nutty Lady Gaga and boy band JLS. Major fails from Jonathan Ross dressing as Dizzee, and from poor selection of award-givers in Sam Fox and Alan Carr.

• Jay-Z, Dizzee, Florence and Cheryl put on a fine show – I wasn’t looking at the screen so didn’t notice any miming – though Mrs Cole appeared angry about something.

• Robbie, growing in confidence, still has the look of a post-haircut Sampson in his eyes – a broken man who’s lost his power. Yet the difference is, Robbie looks grateful.

• Angry again Liam Gallagher dissed his brother by omission, swore onstage and chucked his award and mic into crowd. Cue urgent appeals during ads for mic to be returned or one of the performers will not be able to sing – sincerely.

• Kasabian’s Tom Meighan momentarily forgot his swagger as he bounded onstage, promptly falling flat on his face. He looked tempted to throw his award into the crowd but couldn’t bring himself to part with it.

• Lady Gaga disappointed Courtney Love and Geri Halliwell by not singing something they knew - how thoughtless.

• Lily Allen appeared to wear at least three wigs – a brown bob for the red carpet, a Dynasty-esque Joan Collins one for her opening performance of The Fear and a big old ginger Vivienne Westwood/Cilla one to collect her award. The reason for the ginger one? So the camera couldn’t pick out her disappointed expression if she lost, which she didn’t.

• Ellie Goulding was so taken aback with her Critics’ Choice award she looked like she was going to crumple in front of us.

• I still love Kasabian.