*UPDATE*
KML passed away Summer, 2009.
From the Northernights vaults:
The name might come from a bastardised Elastica lyric but Keys Money Lipstick is a night that stands out for its commitment to new music. That may not seem like a big deal but with the nostalgia industry still chugging cheerily backwards – particularly gathering pace on those occasions when the words ‘indie’ and ‘Manchester’ are in close proximity – KML’s stance is particularly refreshing. Never will its audience have to dance to the records their parents bought. Not when Art Brut, The Long Blondes and Gossip are on hand to erase any memory of baggy dancefloors of yore.
"New music is accessible to everyone," founder Justin Heaton observes. "But I still get a bit annoyed when I find something I like that’s new and people say “oh they sound like this band”."
Obviously wanting people to just let go of the past, there are still traces of music’s rich heritage in Heaton’s playlist. Not only in those echoes that may come through today’s indie/electro releases, but in the slightly older material that may just sneak in here and there: maybe the occasional Idlewild track, for example, which, in fairness, is still relevant while reflective of a band at their peak. And perhaps this particular approach should have even more resonance in the Star & Garter: a venue that has its most popular session in The Morrissey Smiths Disco.
Heaton, however, is instead more likely to be spotted at the similarly sited Smile ["I do like the Star & Garter because it’s not fake," he says] or at the likes of Up The Racket. But now there’s talk of increasing the frequency of KML with more live guests [To My Boy have already played while, at the time of going to press, We Are The Physics are also booked]: then providing another blast of fresh air into what could otherwise be a stiflingly history-steeped scene.
Danny McFadden
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