The Xx @ Audio

So the ugliest band that have ever lived (Magic Numbers aside..) came to our fair shores last week to play a sold out gig at Audio, put on by our dear friends at Lout Promotions. It sold out so easily that another gig in March is already booked in at the Komedia and if you missed this show, i recommend getting a ticket.

Support came in the form of brighton band Esben and The Witch. I was quite looking forward to seeing them as id heard nothing but good stuff about their goffik reverb shenanigans and although i wasnt disappointed as such, it wasnt quite as good as id thought it might be. The songs all seemed quite shambolic and unfinished, and 2 minute moments of brilliance would be followed by 7 minutes of pissing about with FX pedals and banging a floor tom over and over. Basically it was quite pretentious but at the same time, they were pretty mesmerising and there is definitely some potential there. The birds quite fit aswell...

The Xx album, simply titled "xx", is quite possibly my favourite record of the year so far so i was really looking forward to this gig and they didnt let me down. The Xx have had an extremely quick rise to fame since their album was released by Young Turks in late August and have since toured with The Big Pink and Florence WENCH to name a few. They also went to the same school as Hot Chip, Fourtet and Burial which is kinda quite cool i guess....

They came on to 'Intro' which was to be expected and continued to play the album song by song which definitely seemed to work in this case. It was basically a perfect rendition of the album without any surprises or new bits and if im honest, this was exactly what i was hoping for as i love the album so much. If you havent heard it yet its full of insular, glacial pop tunes which are hauntingly brilliant and weirdly uplifting at the same time, id even go as far as to say its the 'Dummy' of the Noughties... Goosebump moments were "Crystalised", new single "Islands", the Chris Isaac - Wicked Game-esque "Infinity' and the amazing cover of 'Teardrops' by Womack and Womack so all in all pretty much spot on. Im looking forward to March already...

The Xx - Islands - Live on Jools Holland

For sufferers of saturday night fever everywhere...

So Liam Maher from early 90's baggy outfit "Flowered Up" died yesterday aged 41. The drugs dont work ladies and gentlemen. Anywho, it reminded me of the classic 2 part video for the rave classic "Weekender". It was directed by W.I.Z who went on to direct videos by Oasis, Kasabian, Arctic Monkeys and Dizzee amongst others and while its pretty fucking dated and cringe looking back, it was a pretty epic video at the time (over 15 minutes in total). Flowered Up were dubbed the "Cockney Happy Mondays" but were never quite as good and after some hype and NME / Melody Maker covers they disbanded a few years later. I digress, i just thought id post the videos up on here. Makes you wonder exactly where the makers of Human Traffic got their inspiration from....anyway, RIP and all that lad.






Let us never be cured indeed...

Mumford & Sons @ Komedia

Well i hate to say it (i dont, i fuckin love it), but i said these guys would make it big this year in my "top 10 bands to watch in 2009" ALL the way back in december. Their album 'Sigh No More' came out this week and went in at number 1 on iTunes which they followed with this sellout show at the Komedia the day after. I love being right.
If you dont know, Mumford & Sons are a four-piece folk band from the Big Smoke who play lovely irish-tinged ditties with accordians and banjo's and stuff. I think they're dope and it was only a matter of time before they crossed over into the mainstream and made middle class mothers cry into their glasses of wine after reading about them in the Observer Music Monthly. They were personally invited to support The Pogues at their christmas shows last winter and any band who can manage to wake Shane Macgowan out of his whiskey and cheap hash slumber for long enough to actually make a judgement on their music gets some props from me.


If my slightly drunk memory serves me correct they opened with "Awake my Soul" and started plouging through favourites such as "Little Lion Man", the new single that is on BBC6 seemingly every 5 fucking minutes. It was a lot dancier than i was expecting which was definitely a good thing, but halfway through they brought the tempo down and started playing some new songs. GREAT. Nah, new songs sounded good but it just seemed an odd setlist in my opinion. Things picked up at the end though and they even used a real life drumkit in a few songs (!). They finished with the brilliant "Roll Away My Stone" and although they didnt play "Liar", this was only a minor glitch. Id been wanting to see this lot for ages now, having missed their last brighton gig exactly a year ago and it definitely wasnt a disappointment. It seemed like a band on the cusp of something pretty special and they've certainly got the songwriting talent to take the potential further. Expect some pretty impressive festival shows next summer id imagine...

Its funny, i really dont see myself as a folk/acoustic fan, but two of my favourite shows of the last year have been this and Bon Iver...Maybe im becoming a middle class mother? Oh well, rather that than some brainless little twat who's still banging on about dubstep i guess....

Thugs battered by cross-dressing cage fighters..

God this is good..


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1218651/Thugs-attack-men-dresses--turn-cage-fighters.html

Passion Pit @ Concorde2

It must be a weird feeling being pretty much certain you'll only be famous for 6 months. Whether Passion Pit actually know this or not is another matter of course, i was just thinking out loud.

This gig sold out pretty easily as can be expected i guess and was full of "cool" parents standing at the back and "cool" 15 year olds jumping around and drinking cheap vodka out of water bottles. Oh to be 15 again...

Anyway, onto the music. Passion Pit started gettin some recognition with the release of their 'Chunk of Change' Ep last year with its "pop gems" and its perfect-for-adverts beats. Personally i was really underwhelmed and slightly irritated by the record, but that was nothing until i heard the full length LP 'Manners'. Ok, so i do like 'Sleepyhead' but since when was fusing Friendly Fires, Mika and the worst parts of Nu Rave a good idea? GROW A PAIR LAD. The live performance was hit and miss. Songs such as the aforementioned 'Sleepyhead' and 'Ive Got Your Number' werent the worst live renditions ive ever heard, and i even found myself bopping my head to songs like 'The Reeling' but mostly i stood there generally hating the general public and wondering if 3 cigarettes during one 40 minute set was too many.

Passion Pit? PASSION THE PITS MORE LIKE. MAD LOLS.

Cherbourg @ Prince Albert

Went to this gig on a tuesday after a particularly heavy Bank Holiday weekend and almost didnt go, but im glad i did as it was exactly what i needed. It was in the small venue of the Prince Albert pub and thankfully i managed to grab a chair and a couple of drinks to see me through. A band called Karran and the Wolfnotes were supporting and did their thing pretty well. It was poppy new-folk stuff as i expected, with accordians and ting. The songs were good and his voice is strong, but some of the lyrics left something to be desired. Cherbourg are a london folk-band who have toured with Mumford and Sons recently, which gives you an impression of their style of music. They opened with one of my favourite songs at the moment, Man, which was amazing and continued to play songs off the two EP's 'Into the Dark' and 'Last Chapter of Dreaming' as well as a batch of new stuff. While they do have some great songs such as 'Let Yourself Love' (some of the new ones sounded great aswell), it can all get a bit dreary and heartbroken for my liking sometimes. Thats just a side note though, all in all this was a really nice gig and perfect for my suicide tuesday...

Cherbourg - Man

Secret MGMT show @ Digital

So MGMT chose our fair city for their festival warm up show (mainly 'cos last time they were down here they were given a massive bag of drugs and "had a blast"). It was announced two days before and tickets sold out online in 10 minutes, so i guess people still care about these arrogant electro hippies. Support came in the form of 5 manc lads who's name escapes me. They played Primal Scream-esque sleazy physchedelic indie, and to be fair it was pretty good although ever so slightly underwhelming. MGMT came on to 'Weekend Wars' which is one of my favourites off their last album and it was obvious they've grown as a live band since i last saw them. All the singles sounded a lot fuller and 'anthemic' if you'll allow me to be a bit over the top for a second. This was also a chance for them to play a load of new material which was to be expected i guess. It seemed to me that they seem to have got a bit more indie-schmindie but i guess its hard to tell with live performances, especially as the production was such an important part of the last record. Once 'Kids' had finished, i assumed the set was over but they carried on for another half hour seemingly making songs up on the spot and noodling shit guitar solo's for days. Everyone got a bit confused at this and half the crowd left, and the other half just stood there wondering how long this was actually gunna go on for...It was certainly a weird way to finish a gig, but i spose it wont do them much harm. Reactions to the new stuff were mixed from what i gather, so the jurys still out on that but judging on the crowd during the crowd favourites from the first album, they could probably get away with touring that record for another year at least, and why not eh?

Photo by Sam Hiscox - http://partiepartie.blogspot.com

Level Army

Pointless big up...

Over the last 6 months or so, mates of mine from darrrn Tha Lev' have been compiling nuff skate footage and compiling them into some pretty sick vids, culminating in the full length video "Brighten" which had a viewing at the Sallis Benney theatre which had pretty much every cunt in brighton being a pissed idiot. It was fuckin hilarious and KICKED OFF BLAAAD. Heres a couple for your enjoyment:

Teenage Wasteland:


Brighten promo:


The Brighten Premiere:



"Brighten" Available now from 'Another' SkateShop or www.levelarmy.com

Great Escape 2009

Ah the Great Escape, everyones favourite attempt at drinking as much and sleeping as little as possible over a weekend. This year i was stuck working for the festival at Audio so unfortunately pretty much all of this review will be bands that played there..but piss off...

Kicking things off on thursday we had Video Nasties with their distorted post-punk thing who i had never heard and was reasonably impressed. Ive since checked out album 'On All Fours' and while not particularly exciting, its certainly not the worst thing ive heard all year. Following them it was Mika Miko who were a female 5 piece who play bouncy riot grrrrl stuff. A bit like X Ray Spex crossed with Operator Please. They were quite cool but not really my bag maaaan. Next on were scottish band Danananakroyd who despite their awfully gay name, were and are actually pretty good. They play arty post-hardcore but with more indie vocals which i know sounds terrible, but they have a few good songs up their sleeves. Check the album 'Hey Everyone' if you care...So with the crowd having been warmed up by these bands, the kings of the overrated came on - Black Lips. Its not that i think this band are shit, i just never understand how they manage to have SO many fans...They were cool though and the crowd was pretty mental. They do manage to put on a good show fo' sho'.

Friday was by far the worst day line-up wise, but first band on To The Bones still pulled a good crowd with their skewed take on grungy rock. Chew Lips filled the venue with their hype thanks to recently signing to Kitsune and being touted by NME as "the next big thing" (although, who fucking isnt these days?). They played their bleepy, shouty crystal castles thing with varied success. New single "Solo" was good anyway. Dinosaur Pile-Up were next but i cant for the life of me remember what they were like since id chosen Friday to really take advantage of the free Red Stripe on offer. On record they sound a bit shit though, sound like some weird early 90's "alternative" rock band which isnt the hottest look ever in my humble opinion. Last band, The Twilight Sad are some moody scots who play "atmospheric" indie stuff and managed to clear most of the venue because its not really what you wanna be hearing on a friday night. The sound was gash as well. The highlight of the day was the singer of Twilight Sad getting into a fight with an audience member while on stage, who then turned out to be one of the sponsors...good times...After work i went to check out Metronomy at the Corn Exchange which was pretty good but again, i dont remember much. The drummer was HAWT though. You cant beat a fit female drummer, they make sex faces while they drum.

Music on Saturday started off with a "secret" gig on the terrace of Above Audio. Dont think it stayed secret for very long though because there was a queue of people with Babyshambles t-shirts on queueing up outside all day...So the king of the smackheads-who-should've-died-a-while-ago turned up and did a 20 minute set for probably about £20,000. Opinions were mixed and while i didnt think it was a good gig (i dont like Babyshambles either) it was certainly surreal and enjoyable in a "christ, this is weird" kinda way. Music downstairs started with Rogues who are an "Up and coming" band who make camp indie with 80's pop ideas thrown in the mix. Definitely a bit of Duran Duran in there. I thought they were pretty gay really but what do i know, apparently they're gunna be massive...Only caught a few songs by Fight Like Apes but they did their irish punky-synth thing im sure. I was really looking forward to next band, Soft Pack, because they had sounded great during soundcheck but they actually ended up being really disappointing. They have some really great guitar hooks and melodies, but his voice is just so "meh" and theres always just something missing from their songs. Still, early days i guess. Hockey finshed off the weekend with their dancey indie stuff which the huge crowd went mental for. They're currently touring with Friendly Fires which makes sense. I think they're ok but the show was wicked and was a good way to end The Great Escape.

After this i went to see Erol Alkan who was obviously dope, but i fucked off pretty early to go and do too much sniff for no reason and stay awake until late into sunday. GOTTA BE DONE YO! maybe...

If you read that, you're a fucking loser x

Bon Iver @ The Dome

So anyone who reads this might have noticed that im not one for gushing over-the-top rave reviews, probably because im a bitter twenty-something who takes solace in the fact that if i ever stopped being a lazy cunt and actually started a band then we'd obviously be better than all these other cunts...But fuck it, occasionally a gig/album does deserve mad props and this gig was definitely one of them. It took me a while to realise how good 'For Emma, Forever Ago' actually is and although i didnt spunk on it from a 5th floor window like most people, its still a pretty dope record. However i was quite apprehensive about how the album would come across live, especially in a venue the size of The Dome. I thought it could end up being weak and underwhelming but when i saw them setting up the stage i realised i shouldnt have worried. With two guitars, a bassist, two keyboards and two drumkits, this wasnt your usual wanky folk-fest. They opened with a few songs from the EP 'Blood Bank', the best one being the title track, but soon settled into playing the crowd pleasers from 'For Emma..'. Songs like 'Skinny Love' and "For Emma" were goosebump moments to say the least, and an acoustic interlude for "re: Stacks" was fucking intense. Due to the fact the gig was seated, you could literally hear a pin drop which was a weird and quite overwhelming experience. Anyway enough sounding like a tit, but if i see a better gig this year, i will have seen something pretty special....


Bon Iver - For Emma (Live)