Why I'm Here

It's the beginning of a new blog, which may last a while, it may die a horrible death, but while I'm here, let's celebrate some ace things, starting with the blog's namesake.

SOKO

I first heard of brand new Parisian artist Soko before Christmas through a music mailout. Her track 'I Will Never Love You More' is perhaps the most perfect pop song you will hear this year (even though it went up online last year and lord only knows when it was written). The track became a mild obsession, hence the name of the blog.

The track is a stripped down ukelele and folky vocal number, however, Soko does go on to experimenting with garage band with the rest of the tracks from the blog being from her garage band demo. I'm so excited by Soko, her cover of Grace/Klaxons 'Not Over Yet' can be streamed from Hype Machine.

Some of the amazing things Soko will never love you more than include:

'Dancing to Phil Spector'
'Daniel Johnston himself - for me he is more than God'
'God Only Knows'
'My Boyfriend When I Was 14'
'Meeting Paul MacCartney and asking him to play a song on my ukelele'
'Kisses all day, cuddles all night'

Alas, there are no releases to get your hands on as yet, but expect some soon as managers and the like are drumming up a buzz for this talented lady. Here next gigs are in Holland after playing a spate of UK gigs before Christmas, including the ace Blue Flowers night in Chiswick and a gig at Nambucca on the Holloway Road. I hope to catch Soko and her ukelele in town soon.

There has been a crop of bands with Ukelele's recently, including the rather fab Lucy and the Caterpillar' from Manchester, she deserves a blog in her own right. First drawn to my attention by an article in the Times back in June last year, it would seem that the love of the Ukelele is never ending - apparently it's much easier to play than a regular guitar, maybe i should take it up!
Down my way, there is a fantastic Ukelele shop that I am far too terrified to venture into, called Duke of Uke just near Spitalfields Market. Maybe Ed Larrikin buys his from there? Who knows....