Preview: Adam Green @ Electric Ballroom

By Ruth Last edited 170 months ago
Preview: Adam Green @ Electric Ballroom

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Self-professed Anti-Folk songsmith Adam Green acheived notoriety as one founding half of The Moldy Peaches alongside Kimya Dawson (despite his track 'Tropically Island' from Sixes and Sevens featuring on the 'Folk and Proud' album. Oh the bitter irony of the artist...). If nothing else, you'll be familiar with their work for the song Anyone Else But You, which is one of the highlights of the indie-allstar Juno soundtrack. Don't expect any of their jangly, lo-fi tracks to turn up when the New Yorker hits The Electric Ballroom in Camden on 4th February though, since he and Dawson have a pact not to play their music during solo performances. Bless.

Green has developed a gruffer edge to his vocals in his solo career, but has kept the signature lowbrow, charmingly quirky, almost adolescent lyricism (think rhyming Carolina with terms for ladies' genitalia, for instance) of his previous collaborations. Green's current album, Minor Love, has a laidback vibe, with a sound that veers from garage rock to smoky lounge bar crooning. The lyrics may have grown up a little from his Moldy Peaches days, but the naiive rhyming couplets still feature in tracks like "Cigarette Burns Forever", and somehow he manages to reference farting more times than Terrance and Phillip. This doesn't detract from the quality and variety of the music though; "Lockout" sounds like Neo-Mariachi-Beck, and the cross-section of tracks featured would certainly appeal to fans of Ben Folds and Cake. Prolific comparisons to The Velvet Underground don't seem out of place either. His music is not of any overwhelming complexity, either musically or lyrically, but the talent shines through.

So that's flatulence, blockbuster movies, indie legends, rock, lady-bits and irony covered - did we leave any of your favourite things out?

Doors 7.00pm, Tickets £12.50

Minor Love was released by Rough Trade on Monday 11 January 2010

Last Updated 12 January 2010