Antony and the Johnson’s who?

The £20,000 Mercury Prize is a UK music prize which essentially is awarded to what is considered the UK 'Album of the Year'. The nominations are usually wide-ranging and include many genres but tend to focus on indie or alternative music and this year was no different (Cold Play's "X and Y" aside.)

This year the prize was awarded to Antony and the Johnsons, a group led by Chichester, England-born Antony Hegarty who has lived in the United States for 20 years. Some pundits have criticised the British award being given to what is really an American group. The members live in the US and the album was recorded in New York. Fellow nominees, Kaiser Chiefs, also criticised the original nomination although they now deny that on the Kaiser Chiefs' website. (much as I like the Kaiser Chiefs, I had to laugh at their website. Ringtones is the very first menu item. Not music, not gigs, but ringtones. WTF?) The award has boosted Antony and the Johnsons' album sales by 900 percent on Amazon and it is in the top 5 downloads in both album and singles on the UK iTunes. Nevermind the fact I have barely heard of them, aside from seeing them briefly on a TV music news channel (I didn't care for Antony's torch-song vocal style), the group is signed to UK indie label, Rough Trade Records. They have a great roster of artists including one of my current faves, Hal (where were they in the Mercury nominations?) Check them out. I saw a few of the award show's live performances and a highlight for me was KT Tunstall. She did a unique solo acoustic version of her song "Black Horse and The Cherry Tree" with voice, acoustic guitar, tambourine and she also sampled vocal grabs for backing. Well worth seeing if you can find a copy.

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