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March 10th Source: Independent.ie KATIE White is contemplating the "h" word: hype. "It’s really weird – it’s like I can hear what everyone is secretly thinking about me," says half of the year’s most buzzed-about duo, The Ting Tings. "People can be quite honest about what they think of you – which you wouldn’t get if you weren’t in a band." She and Ting Tings partner Jules De Martino, purveyors of a bouncy gut-bucket pop, are a duo in the centre of an invisible, but very palpable, hurricane.
“There’s the hype thing, but you can’t make people put you in their top 10 bands predictions,” she says of their sudden, inescapable rise.
“People who do our press, they have loads of bands – another week, another hyped-up band.”
You can’t blame White and De Martino if they seem a little fazed by their white knuckle ride from obscurity. Even by the hyperbolesplashed standards of UK music – where the build ‘em up, knock ‘em down tradition has the status of holy writ – theirs has been a breathtaking ascent. Formed 18 months ago, The Ting Tings had played only three shows – and had three songs in their set – when they kicked off a major label scrum.
There’s nothing new about any of this, of course. Twelve months ago Mika, a gaudy piano-man with an eye-grabbing mullet and diverting falsetto, was being anointed the new Elton John. Add to that the glut of MySpace poster children such as Kate Nash and Lily Allen, and neo-soul singers Duffy and Adele, swooping in just as Amy Winehouse tottered off to rehab.
Like many of those artists, The Ting Tings have followed a wellworn path to ubiquity. First came the cred-generating secret gigs, then the MySpace following, then the Rick Rubin emails.
Then there are the constant White Stripe comparisons. Musically, The Ting Tings operate in a different vein, but aesthetically the analogy stands up: De Martino plays drums; White sings and bashes a guitar. Naturally, they’re already sick of it: “The first time someone said that, we thought, of course,” sighs De Martino. “Still, there’s no denying that the ‘White Stripes in reverse’ angle makes for good soundbyte, especially at a time when faux-Winehouses and indie boys with sideways fringes are what passes for edgy.”
Add White’s girl-next-door looks to the equation and their third place finish on the BBC ‘Sound Of 2008’ poll and their success, far from seeming like a fluke, feels like a foregone conclusion. Think about it: a cutesy Britpop riff on the White Stripes – how could that not work?
In fact, the only ones who seem truly taken aback by the scale of the media maelstrom are The Ting Tings themselves. Says White: “While we were doing Jools Holland, we were being interviewed by a journalist who goes, ‘I want to interview you ‘cos you came third in this poll’ and I was like, ‘Great, did I win anything?’ We didn’t have a clue what it was.” March 10th Source: GIGWISE Music fans will be able to stream songs by Bruce Springsteen, Foo Fighters and Kasabian on their computer for free from April, it’s been announced. Thanks to a deal between SonyBMG and We7, a free-to-use online service which is supported by advertising, users will have access to Sony’s entire music catalogue. This also includes artists such as Mark Ronson, Leona Lewis and The Ting Tings.
Sony BMG is the first major record label to sign with We7 since the service launched in May last year. As with We7’s download service, a short, tailored advert will accompany each track. Ged Doherty, chairman of SonyBMG in the UK and Ireland said the deal was “an important step forward in offering fans greater flexibility in how they consume music."
Initially songs by SonyBMG artists will only be available to existing We7 users, with new subscribers expected to get access shortly.
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