Gigs of 2008

So heres my top 10 gigs i saw in 2008. I had some terrible luck with festivals this summer, so unfortunately theres no epic glasto headline sets or anything like that, but i still saw some fuckin brilliant bands:

10 - Sigh and Explode @ Great Escape - This gig gets in simply because i was working all Great Escape weekend and was annoyed i was missing a load of good gigs, but then this band came on who id never heard of and were actually really sick. S'all about the norwegian melodic hardcore boys and girls...

9 - Bonobo @ Beachdown - A perfect mid-afternoon festival set at the slightly disappointing Beachdown Festival. Just what i needed after caining it the night before, this was one of the musical highlights of the weekend.

8 - Maccabees @ Concorde2 - This was the first time id actually managed to see a Maccabees gig and they didnt disappoint. However, this gig only really gets a mention because i went off to see MSTRKRFT afterwards, so they get points for adding to a fuckin sick night.

7 - Lykke Li @ Concorde2 - Sound was a bit quiet and the audience were all wankers, but the gig itself was quality. Mad props.

6 - Caribou @ Loop Festival - Wasnt really a fan on record before i saw this gig and to be honest, i still dont like them that much. This gig was fucking amazing though. "After Hours" was just brilliant. If you get a chance to see this band live, take it.

5 - MGMT @ Digital - Had seen parts of them live before when i worked at their Pressure Point gig a few months earlier, so kind of knew what to expect, but this gig was pretty dope. All the "classics" were spot on.

4 - Neon Neon @ Digital - This gig was a brilliant live version of one of my favourite albums of 2008. The sound and look of the gig was perfect, with projected films about each song. Cameo's from HarMar Superstar never fail to be interesting either...

3 - Holy Fuck @ Audio - An all day drinking sesh probably helped this gig be as enjoyable as it was, but it actually was fucking amazing. I cant wait to see them again.

2 - De La Soul @ Beachdown - Easily the highlight of Beachdown. For some reason they'd been put on the smaller Second Stage so it was well packed, but this just added a real festival experience to a pretty shoddy festival where all crowds were sparse as fuck. Had never bothered to go see this lot when they'd played in Brighton before, but if they ever do again, might have to get myself a ticket.

1 - Nick Cave @ Brighton Centre - Well, what can i say? This gig was just amazing. Of course with the number of brilliant songs he has, there were a few songs i wanted him to play that he didnt, but this is literally the only "complaint" i have. The blokes a fuckin gangster.



Photo by some fag called Sam Hiscox..

All Time Low

check out these fuckin spastics:




jeeeeeesus christ.

Nick Cave

So yeh basically, im really fucking excited about seeing Nick Cave and The Badseeds this weekend. Even if it is at the bloody Brighton Centre...urgh. Apparently the tour is in celebration of his entire back catalogue being rereleased digitally remastered, which hopefully means it'll be a bit of a greatest hits tour. At least thats what im hoping...So i thought id take this opportunity to post some of my favourite Nick Cave videos so you can all GET TO KNOW 'cos this blokes a fookin legend alright?


I Had a Dream, Joe


Do You Love Me?



Your Funeral, My Trial (live)


Brother My Cup Is Empty (Live)


Stagger Lee

Violens

Violens are a New York band who formed only about a year ago, but who are getting some real hype going, supporting MGMT amongst others. The name is a cross between "Violence" and "Violins" which sounds really gay, but it does kinda sum up their sound. They have an almost psychedelic feel with lots of harmonies and reverb, but then with some quite sharp sounding synths and stuff thrown over the top. Ive only heard the songs on their Myspace so cant give any kind of album review (they dont even have an EP out yet i dont think) but they've got a kind of Zombies-mixed-with-an-english-80's-indie-band feel to them. I dont think they're amazing, but certainly a band to watch. Their single "Already Over" is fuckin gorgeous but for some reason i cant find a video for it to post up on here, just check it on the Myspace.

Heres the video for Trance Like Turn:



http://www.myspace.com/violensmusic

Women and Children First @ Penthouse

So Women and Children First continued its monthly night at the Penthouse the other week, and heres some "flix". I think we ended up pissing off the staff in there by constantly turning the music up and playing porn in between songs, but fuck it..



















Women and Children First - First tuesday of the month @ The Penthouse (Above the Freebutt)

Photos by Jack Deeks

Dizzee Rascal for Prime Minister?

i fucking hope not..

Mystery Jets - Half in Love with Elizabeth (Foamo Remix)

Heard this remix during a Queens of Noize mix the other day and deemed it good enough to blog. HEAVY.

download it here:

Mystery Jets - Half in Love With Elizabeth (Foamo Remix)

No Age - Nouns (2008)

No Age are two skaters from San Francisco who are signed to Sub Pop and make slightly wanky distorted music. This album came out in May but i hadnt heard it until i went to see them play with Times New Viking and Los Campesinos a few weeks back. They were a pretty good live band, if slightly samey, but this album has some really fucking good songs on it. Its all feedback, distortion, vocals low in the mix, instrumental songs and other things i generally fuckin hate but these guys can actually write some good tunes. This album is, however, pretty hit and miss. "Songs" such as 'Keechie' sound like Fuck Buttons b-sides and they sometimes appear to be trying too hard to be a bit edgy, but then songs like "Cappo", "Ripped Knees" and "Teen Creeps" sound like the lovechild of unreleased Sonic Youth demos and Minor Threat. Which is definitely a good thing. Basically what im trying to say is they should've cut out all the pretentious wank and just made this an EP. It would be much more spunk-worthy.

Heres some video someone made for Ripped Knees:

So during the last couple of weeks ive gone on a bit of a gig rampage so instead of writing in detail about each one and boring the shit out of you, i thought i'd write a brief overview of each show:

Lykke Li @ Concorde 2 - Well the electro pop ice queen bought her quirky scandinavian set up down to brighton and needless to say, it was a great gig. All the "classics" sounded great, and she mixed it up with a few covers. She even had a breakdown in one of her songs which went into KRS-ONE's "Sound of da Police" while she stood there drinking a mug of tea. Which is pretty cool in my book.

Sam Sparro @ Corn Exchange - Cant really work out whether i enjoyed this gig or not. Im not a fan of him on record and hes obviously a fuckin knob'ead, but i was still there, drunk and dancing about so who knows really. And 4 costume changes in an hours set, thats pretty impressive..

Hot Club De Paris @ Audio - Supported by Lyrebirds and Heels Catch Fire, this was definitely a case of the support bands being better than the headliners. Never been a fan of HCDP really, and this just confirmed it more. "Shipwreck" is an ok song but thats about it. They just seemed to spend half the time mumbling in scouse. Meh.

Friendly Fires @ Audio - Not the biggest fan of their Bloc Party/LCD Soundsystem ting on record, apart from a few exceptions, but actually quite enjoyed this show. Its just harmless indie grabbing onto the coat tails of the New Rave CRAZE, and in my opinion, thats not as horrible as it sounds. It did get a bit wanky when a pathetic glitter shower went off during "Paris" and the guitarist started using a Dust Buster to play guitar (!?) but it certainly knocked away some post-weekend cobwebs on a rainy monday evening.

Blood Red Shoes @ Freebutt - Having been knocking around Brighton for ages now, and apparently touring for the last 73 years, its quite odd that i'd never actually seen BRS live before. This gig was a warm up for a big tour that includes venues such as The Astoria, so it was quite good to see them in a tiny venue before they BLOW UP. Apart from the fact that the freebutt has no air conditioning and it was actually stupidly fucking hot, it was a pretty good gig. Nothing special if im being honest, but certainly worth a fiver.

Holy Fuck @ Audio - Having not remembered the majority of their Loop Festival set, i was really looking forward to seeing this lot again. They didnt disappoint either. Restlesslist supported who i have seen too many times to mention, but i actually thought their set was one of the best ive seen them do, so props for that. Holy Fuck's slightly improv electronic MADNESS was just fucking brilliant. One of my best gigs of 2008 so far.

Simian Mobile Disco @ Digital - This doesnt really count as it was only a DJ set, but honourable mention because it KICKED OFF BLAAAAD.

Cajun Dance Party @ Concorde - So yesterday i went to see those public school indie pop upstarts, Cajun Dance Party. Its quite sickening how young they are. Anyway, enough about my bitterness towards them, they were just crap. To be fair they do a couple of catchy tunes, such as "The Next Untouchable" and "The Races" and if they can fit 450 15 year old indie kids into the concorde on a monday night, then they must be doing something right. It just all sounded so pathetic. But hey, what do i know? They get laid a lot more than i do.

Little Boots

Ah Little Boots, my little electro sex kitten. AKA Victoria Hesketh, she's the former singer of Dead Disco and shes decided to go solo which is turning out to be a pretty good idea, as shes receiving mad love on the interweb. The amazing tune "Stuck on Repeat", produced by Joe Goddard of Hot Chip, was released on white label earlier this year, but her first proper single "Meddle" came out about a month ago. Shes definitely "one to watch" and shes also apparently a pretty capable Dj as well, as shown on the mixtape linked below. I cant wait to marry her.

shes all over this world wide web nonsense, check her myspace here:
www.myspace.com/littlebootsmusic

or go to her Blog here:
http://www.littlebootsmusic.co.uk/blog/ - this is where you'll find her "Magical Tropical Mixtape", you just have to sign up to her mailing list, which i guess is fair enough..

Metronomy - Nights Out

So yeah, basically everyone is jumping on Joseph Mount's dick at the moment, so i thought id check out this new Metronomy album in the hope that id hate it. Only cos i like being different. Turns out though, its actually pretty sick. Ive never really been a huge fan of their "quirky" electronica and have always been pretty bored when seeing them live, but this album has changed my mind. There are some great songs on here which prove hes not just a good remixer, but a good songwriter as well. Songs like "My Heart Rate Rapid" with its Klaxons-esque vocal and synth HEAVINESS to new single "Heartbreaker" which is just a bloody good pop tune, its pretty consistent. So yeah Joseph, consider your dick well and truly jumped on.

Heartbreaker:

MGMT - Kids (Soulwax Remix)

Uh oh, they've done it again. Looks like we've found the anthem for a new breed of Freshers to do ketamine for the first time to. WAHEY. i actually expected more from this remix, but hey ho, I'll like it until its on the Skins advert and then i'll pretend i always hated it. You know how we rolllllll...

Shout Out Louds

Shout Out Louds are from Stockholm and basically sound exactly like The Cure. They say that imitation is the highest form of flattery but i think at times they get a bit close to just actually ripping them off completely. See "Tonight i have to Leave it" for proof of this. However, they do have some really good tunes of their own like "Impossible" which i cant stop listening to. Anyway yeah ive only got an old album which isnt too exciting but these new songs sound a lot better so just thought id share them with you lovely people.

Tonight I Have To Leave It:




Impossible:

Noel Gallagher

As much as i find the Gallagher brothers' unshakable arrogance pretty funny, whoever the man is that did this deserves a fucking medal.



i love Liams "lets get involved" stagger at the end. "Ya Fookin' Coont!"

Beachdown Festival 2008

Beachdown is brand spanking new 4 day festival up on the Sussex Downs. The line up consisted of a lot of brighton bands, lots of obscure bands no-one had ever heard of, some shitty "Big Names" and De La Soul. I arrived on friday evening due to having worked at a One Night Only gig the night before (lets not even go there..). Spent the first night drinking red wine in the dance tent watching in no particular order, Utah Saints, Krafty Kuts, and A-Skillz. It was enjoyable enough. Woke up on saturday and pissed around for a few hours until The Kleptones came on and did their mash-up ting, which had a nice festival viiiibe. Caught the last half of RestlessList which was nothing new then headed over to see The Maccabees. They were dope as usual, and the new songs sound better every time i hear them which is good news! Had to miss Kissy Sell Out after this because De La Soul were coming on. For some spastic reason, they'd been put on the second stage even though they blatantly pulled the biggest crowd of the weekend, so it was a bit squashed. They fuckin killed it though, well good show. EVEN THOUGH they didnt play "3 Is the Magic Number". wankers. Walked past the Magic Numbers and shouted general abuse, then headed to the dance tent to see Pat Mahoney from LCD Soundsystem. Id been looking forward to this for a while, but was so fuckin disappointed it was untrue. It was just the most monotomous house music ive ever heard in my life and some wanker with dreadlocks (not newton faulkner unfortunately) was bloody BREAKDANCING in front of me. If i hadnt been gurning out, i wouldve slapped the cunt.
Sunday consisted of a horrible feeling in my head for most of the day. Saw the last half of Heels Catch Fire who i think are one of brightons best live bands. Pissed around for quite a few hours until Bonobo, which i really enjoyed. Was perfect "lets roll an afghan zoot" music. So after that chill sesh, went to go and drink tequila slush-puppies (yes really) and wait for The Beat to come on. The Beat were also pretty disappointing. Well i say pretty disappointing, i thought they were shit, so we fucked off and saw some of Maths Class who ive seen far too many times to really comment on, but the crowd seemed to enjoy it. After this we went to see Fun Lovin' Criminals who are basically just a fuckin easy listening band with swearing and references to cocaine and weed. So after they'd played Scooby Snacks, we fucked off. Caught a bit of Mr Scruff but i wasnt really in the mood so only stayed for about half an hour.
Monday i got up and felt so shit i had to go see some music to try and cure my hangover. Saw Left Hand Red on the brighton stage who despite their terrible name, were actually alright. After that it was Horace Andy which was good without being great. Fuckin legend though that bloke. Fucked off seeing Jose Gonzalez 'cos im not a fanny, and waited for Nouvelle Vague who were really fuckin fit and a lot better than i thought they'd be, cos i really dont like them on record that much. Gogol Bordello finished the festival but my days intake of ketamine started to creep up on me, and all i remember is i kept forgetting i was watching a band. Music finished at 9 on monday so after that, got the 15 minute bus ride home (what a fuckin luxury that is) and passed the fuck out.
In conclusion ladies and jellyspoons, Beachdown has the potential to be a good inclusion into Brightons summer line up, but as of yet isnt really there. The line up was pretty shoddy and the location has plenty of room for a much bigger capacity, but seeing as it was the first year, i hope this will all be sorted out in time for next year. BRAP.


Picture by Kenny Street

Loop Festival 2008

Loop is a one day festival in the middle on Brighton that apparently "celebrates digital culture" and it does this by having a varied mix of (mostly electronic) bands, lots of animation and keraZy visuals.
I started off the day in the sallis benney theatre, watching some animation that started lecturing me about climate change too much for my liking. Then we saw some jazz drummer bloke which i just thought was wanky bollocks. After this we went into the real arena for an over priced beer and a sit down. The first proper band we saw were The Bays, who were some half-improv live synth fest - they were alright but nothing too special. After that Caribou came on who were brilliant. Im not the biggest fan on record but it really was a great gig. The lead vocalist had his own drum kit that he would switch between playing and singing, and the use of two drum kits really gave them what i feel is missing from the records. Next up we saw Fourtet i think? I found him really boring actually, which was a big disappointment. Then we rolled around the floor for a while until Holy Fuck came on. Having missed both brighton gigs they've played recently, i was really looking forward to them. Unfortunately i can only remember about 5 minutes of the gig, but remember it being proper sick. After that we walked around in a K'd state for a while, then left. I did go to the Komedia for Loop Late which Bonobo amongst others were playing, but i was too drunk and couldnt handle it so left pretty sharpish. All in all a bloody good day. Roll on 2009..

Caribou - After Hours (Live)



Holy Fuck - Lovely Allen (Live)

Newton Falkner

I think the thing i want to happen most in the world is for me to see this bloke in the street, and for me to start strangling him to death with his stupid fucking ginger dreadlocks while i forced him to sing this cover version, slowly going faint until the falsetto part proves to be too much and he ends up dying in my arms with a look of "why?" in his eyes.

The Raveonettes - Whip it On (2002)

The Raveonettes are a danish duo who were a real "Hype band" when this album came out in 2002. I remember dismissing them as some Kills cover band and havent really bothered listening to them since. HOWEVER, i decided to the other day, and its actually really good. Its simple, distorted smacked out rock and every song on the album is under 3 minutes long and in the key of B flat minor. fascinating stuff. Basically every song sounds pretty much exactly the same and has the exact same structure, but this doesnt seem to matter. The lyrics are pretty dark (when you can make them out) and the simplicity of it all makes the easiest riff sound amazing. If that makes sense? The best tune is either Beat City or Cops on our Tail, but its not the kind of album where you can just listen to one track, you need to listen to the whole album to get a real feel for it. I havent checked out any of the more recent stuff, anyone know if its any good? i dont really care enough to fill up my harddrive with it..

Pendulum

Now i know that they probably think they're really pushing DNB boundaries and bringing it to a new audience, but do they really have to make it sound like two songs that dont go together being played at the same time while you have your throat slit? It truly is fucking awful. All its gunna achieve is little pussy indie kids goin to drum and bass nights and getting fuckin battered. hmm actually, maybe Pendulum are cleverer than i thought...



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My cousin plays this at full volume in his car. Its kewlness =]

Chromeo - Fancy Footwork

bitch has been stealin my moves!

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Under 15 Feet of Pure White Snow

Cocaine isnt usually my favourite song topic, but when its written by Nick Cave and you have Jarvis and Jason Donovan in the video, its pretty much genius..

Lounge on the Farm 2008

Went up to this small festival in Kent for the day on sunday 'cos what else is there to do on a sunday? It ended up being a pretty messy sunday but i wont go into that. Unfortunately, they'd left the worst day of music until the last day, so i spent a lot of time drinking Pimms and listening to minimal house (urgh). First up we saw THE MALE LILY ALLEN aka Natty, who was alright in a radio 1 reggae-lite summery kind of way. Next on were Shortwave Set who i thought were pretty good, even though they played their 3 best tunes first. Harmonia was brilliant live, as was No Social. After then, the minimal house took over for a while until Terry Hall's Dj set which was as can be expected really, half an hour of classic reggae and dub tunes, then half an hour of "classics" like Talking Heads, Blondie and Human League. I wish my job was just to play records...We watched some weird psychedelic bands for a while then went to see Underground Heroes who i really enjoyed, but that might've had something to do with the chemicals in my bloodstream as they're not actually very good at all. They sound like a slightly ska-tinged Libertines/The View and to be fair, put a lot of energy into the gig and i wouldnt bet against them doing alright for themselves. Their cover of "Message in a Bottle" was pretty dope as well. After that i wasted hours of my life in the "cinema tent" talking shit to people who didnt care. SUH-WEET. i fuckin love summer...

Underground Heroes - Skinny Twins


Shortwave Set - No Social

Lykke Li

Yet another scandinavian artist! Lykke Li (pronounced Licky Lee) is a woman from stockholm who plays soulful electro pop and while its not fascinating, its nice enough. Although this is mostly because of her great voice. Her album "Youth Novels" has just been released and is produced by Bjorn Yttling of Peter, Bjorn and John fame. Shes playing quite a few festivals this summer and am hopefully gunna catch her at either Lovebox or Bestival. I saw her do a brilliant acoustic version of "im good, im gone" on the bbc glastonbury coverage but cant find it on youtube yet. So heres the video for "Little Bit" featuring the quality lyric "And for you I keep my legs apart, And forget it by my tainted heart"




www.myspace.com/lykkeli

Dj Mehdi - Signatune

tunes BIGGGGGGG

For a minute then, I lost myself..

For all you CUNTS goin to see Radiohead on tuesday, it made me think of my one and (regrettably) only radiohead show ive seen, at Glastonbury 2003. It was easily the best gig ever. If you say you dont like radiohead you're either lying or a twat. Heres a few videos of that gig. I literally couldve picked any tunes but for "goosebump moments" chose Karma Police and Fake Plastic Trees.





You can download the set pretty easily and seriously, most of it is better than the recorded stuff, which is pretty fuckin rare..

Fuck Buttons

I downloaded the lp "street horrrsing" in some lame stoned attempt at being scene. This is possibly the worst album ive ever heard. Their Wikipedia says "they turn drone into melody" and for some reason, that still didnt put me off. people who listen to music like this are fucking wankers. Avoid 'dis!

Gabriella Cilmi

im in love.

Kid Rock - All Summer Long

oh bloody hell, what the FUCK is this..

RestlessList

Restlesslist are a brighton band who specialise in instruMENTAL electronica and they seem to rapidly been gaining an important fanbase. Nemone gave their single "Butlin Breaks" tune of the week on her BBC6Music show, and their album "Rise and fall of the curtain club" was given album of the week on Huw Stevens Radio1 show as well as playing a live session for Marc Riley. They have an ex member of Electric Soft Parade as a main founder and have already played with bands such as Battles and Mystery Jets. While not sounding too similar, they have a bit of a Lemon Jelly vibe going on and the album should be a great summer record. It was out last monday and you can buy it here (as if anyone does that anymore..) :

http://www.play.com/Music/CD/4-/3513430/-/Product.html?searchstring=restlesslist&searchsource=0

heres their extremely professional video for "Dirty Pint"

Those Dancing Days @ Audio

I dont know what it is with me and scandinavian bands at the moment, but i cant get enough! Those Dancing Days are 5 swedish teenagers, and although they arent as wet dream as that sounds, i did fall in love with the keyboard player. They play cutesy pop music with a northern soul edge to it and to be honest, its a load of fun. The gig itself was enjoyable enough, the crowd and the band all seemed to be having a good time but the thing is, these girls are only 18 and it showed sometimes. They werent very tight (hurhur) and there was a lot of filler songs. However, there definitely seems to be potential and i hotly tip them for big stuff. Heres the video for pop gem "Hitten" :



www.myspace.com/thosedancingdays

Nice one Boris..

Girls That Scream

jesus christ, fucking kill me now. i think this is maybe the worst thing ive ever heard in my entire life. and LOOK AT THEM!

this country...

www.myspace.com/girlsthatscream

Put the Boot In!

Cockney Rejects are made up of 4 hardcore West Ham fans who literally just wrote songs about football, violence, and football violence. Their gigs often turned into fights between rival supporters (often started by the band themselves) and although its mindless Oi! punk, i think they're a really interesting band who sum up the frustration of that late 70's/early 80's era that we always hear about in shit documentaries on bbc4. Anyway i digress, i just wanted to post the lyrics to Fighting in the Street 'cos it makes me wanna kick someones head in. And who cares if thats a good thing or not..

You're walking along quietly
There's the sound of running feet
You turn around the corner
There's fighting on the street
See all the kids they wanna good time
They all wanna get stuck in
Don't know, don't care
if they're fighting for a cause
AS long as they get one in

Go

We're fighting in the streets

You all look for solutions
But you can rack your brains
No matter what the gov't do
Its never ever gonna change
Wankers hand hand out leaflets
They'll never ever let it be
I don't care what they do
But they better not come near me

Go

We're fighting in the streets

You're walking along quietly
There's the sound of running feet
You turn around the corner
There's fighting on the street
See all the kids they wanna good time
They all wanna get stuck in
Don't know, dont care
if they're fighting for a cause
AS long as they get one in

put the boot in!

We're always fighting in the streets
We're always fighting in the streets
We're always fighting in the streets
We're always fighting in the streets

Jesus Camp - The Movie

Saw this documentary on More4 last night and couldnt believe what i was seeing. This is the most blatent documentary ive seen of the fundamentalist christian right in america literally brainwashing children. This film shows a summer "Bible Camp" where children are preached to every day, sometimes for hours at a time, and become "one with god". The kids literally start breaking down and crying for jesus. It also touches on the importance of the evangelical church on US politics. Its some pretty fucked up shit trust me.

stream it here:

http://www.videogateway.tv/index.php?link=p,view_free;stream_id,2188;bw,2

Sigh and Explode

Sigh and Explode hail from that hotbed of musical talent, Oslo. They're a relatively new band and only have one EP recorded, but have already got a name for themselves in the norwegian hardcore scene and have supported bands like Blood Brothers and the Misfits. They play melodic hardcore with a slight technical edge and sound like AT THE DRIVE-IN HAVING A FIGHT WITH MILLION DEAD. in norway. I recently worked with them at the Great Escape and they sat in the dressing room all day getting hammered on red stripe, then played their gig, smashed a window and fucked off. i quite like them.


www.myspace.com/sighexplode

Arab Strap - The First Big Weekend

So that was the first big weekend of the summer...
Starts Thursday as usual with the canteen quiz and
again no-one wins the big cash prize. Later I do
my sound Bloke routine by approaching Gina's new
boyfriend to say that he shouldn't feel that
there's any animosity between us and then I even
go and make peace with her Shouldn't have
bothered.

Then on Friday night we went through to the
Arches...

There was only one car going so some of us had to
get the train. We got through quite late. Then we
went to a pub to take the gear. There was no
problems getting in - we saw some others waiting
down the front of the queue so we skipped in. It
was a good night - everyone was nutted and I ended
up dancing with some blonde girl. I thought she
had been quite pretty until last night when
Matthew informed me that she had, in fact, been a
pig.

When the club finished we wandered the streets for
a while until we got to this 24-hour cafe. I
didn't like the look of it so we left and got a
taxi back to Morag's flat. I couldn't sleep so I
sat about drinking someone else's strawberry tonic
wine and tried to keep everyone else up.

Then at ten o'clock in the morning we went
downstairs to buy some drink. We had intended to
watch the football in the afternoon but we'd
passed out by then and slept right through it,
awaking to find that England had won two-nil. Then
we went to get the train home and had a few in the
Station bar. We had some stuff left from the
previous night's supplies so when we got home we
decided to go down to John's indie disco. Same
story as Friday - lots of hugging, lots of dancing
etc. etc. I couldn't sleep again so went to the
park to look at the toon, taking a detour through
the playpark. To get in we had to climb over a ten
foot steel fence, which resulted in severe
bruising of our hands, legs and groins, but we had
a good laugh on the stuff, especially the
tube-slide, which probably doubles up as a urinal
for drunk teens. Then we walked through the woods
to have a look at the toon. Big disappointment,
but the mist on the lake was cool.

Sunday afternoon we go up to John's with a lot of
beer in time to watch the Simpsons - it was a
really good episode about love always ending in
tragedy except, of course, for Marge and Homer. It
was quite moving at the end and to tell you the
truth my eyes were a bit damp.

Then we watched these young girls in swimsuits
have a water fight in the street. We went up to
the pub about ten. It was busy for a Sunday night,
lots of people we know, including my first ever
girlfriend who I still find very attractive, quite
frankly, but I didn't really speak to her She's
probably still a bitch, anyway. Her friend Gillian
was there, I had a chat with her, she was still
quite pleasant. At the same time I watched Malcolm
make some terrible attempt to try and chat up a
girl we know called Jo. He made some remark about
her skirt that was barely there the previous night
or something. I couldn't sleep again that night,
thanks to some seriously disturbing
nightmares...Matthew says I should cut down on the
cheese.

"Went out for the weekend, it lasted for
ever, high with our friends it's officially
summer."

I got some sleep eventually on Monday afternoon.
It was a beautiful day, and later that evening
Malcolm introduced me to the power of Merrydown -
£1.79 a litre, 8.2% - mmmm..... Judith and Laura
came round later and we sat in my back garden and
drank. Then Matthew came round and we went up the
town.
Its officially summer.


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iLikeTrains @ Barfly

iLikeTrains have the worst name in music and are from Leeds. They are 5 blokes who sound like they've listened to too much Nick Cave but never had the balls to do heroin and become interesting. They play atmospheric, miserable indie that is reverbed up to the eyeballs and slur pretentious lyrics over the top. I actually quite enjoyed it. Songs like "Victress", "Rook House for Bobby" and whatever the last song was had their "goosebump moments" so credit where credits due i guess. Theres something about them that i really want to hate and even though they're pretencious as fuck, have a terrible name and sound like listening to Editors whilst in a k-hole, i cant help but admit it was a great gig. wankers.

Alphabeat @ Audio

Id just like to say that my love for pop music is not ironic or tongue in cheek. I firmly believe theres space for pop music in everyones record collection, be it Stevie Wonder or Take That. So with that out the way, id just like to say that Alphabeat were amazing. You've most likely heard their disgustingly catchy single "Fascination" and that was all id heard before going to see them. So while there were some fillers, i was pleasantly surprised to hear numerous other great pop songs, such as "Boyfriend" and "10,000 nights of thunder". Its kitsch as fuck danish pop fronted by some bloke who danced/sweated like Bez and some little wine drinking scandinavian minx. While i'll probably get really pissed off by them in a few months and will look back on this post and cringe, right now i think they're brilliant. Hindsight is a dangerous thing sometimes.

Mariah Carey - Touch My Body

Touch my body
Put me on the floor
Wrestle me around
Play with me some more
Touch my body
Throw me on the bed
I just wanna make you feel
Like you never did.
Touch my body
Let me wrap my thighs
All around your waist
Just a little taste
Touch my body
Know you love my curves
Come on and give me what I deserve
And touch my body.

The Chameleons

The Chameleons are one of those "seminal 80's indie groups" that loads of bands name check in an attempt to appear underground and interesting. So i thought id do the same. thankfully, they're actually quite good. Formed in Manchester in the early 80's, they have haunting vocals a la Joy Division but with an instrumentation that is really ahead of its time. Apparently its to do with using dual guitar melodies instead of a lead and a rhythm or something, but thats not very interesting. They influenced groups like U2 and The Smiths, and then bands such as Interpol and Editors pretty much completely ripped them off. check these cunts out, you'll receive 250 scene points.

www.myspace.com/thechameleons

The Shortwave Set

The shortwave set have been knockin about for a few years now. I remember seeing them support Goldfrapp at the astoria a while back, but have no recollection of what they were like. They're just about to release their second album, "Replica Sun Machine" which is out on Wall of Sound on the 28th April. Its been produced by that king of hype at the moment, Dangermouse, so expect a certain amount of excitement when this album comes out. They keep their slightly psychedelic sound from the first record but its been toned down into more of a commercial album, with that 60's sound thats pretty big in pop music at the moment. If new single, No Social and the other songs on the myspace are anything to go by, it should be a pretty nang album i reckon.

www.myspace.com/theshortwaveset
www.shortwaveset.com

Neon Neon

Neon Neon are a collaberation between Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals fame and LA producer Boom Bip. its an odd collab i'll give you that. The album "Stainless Style" has got rave reviews everywhere and NME said they are "they best side project since gorillaz" but thats bollocks 'cos Gorillaz are shit. Stainless Style features cameo's from the likes of Fat Lip, Spank Rock and Yo Majesty, as well as young welsh singer Cate Le Bon. The album is a mix of electro pop and spank rock style electro-hop and i have no doubt that the Guardian Music Monthly will be spunking over this album very soon as the sound is "just SO now!". That said, it does have some good tunes and is a pretty consistent album. Boom Bips production is pretty flawless and songs like new single "I Lust U" and "Belfast" are pop gems that deserve the hype. The album is apparently a concept album about John Delorean, some bloke who was an engineer and worked in the car industry or something. which sounds pretty gay to me.

www.myspace.com/neonx2

Gary Numan @ The Dome

ah gary numan..that 80's electro "eccentric". Hes on the comeback trail and lets be honest, who can blame him. He managed to sell out The Dome which has a capacity of 1,700 people, so i guess some people must still like him. Anyway, this gig was quite odd. I was really kained and felt really young, but managed to grab a seat and just sat there spinning out..laughing at cybergoths in the process. fuckin cybergoths..
South Central were the support band, who are generally brilliant, but playing in such a big hall, they lost a lot of bass and i thought they sounded weak. Still enjoyable enough though. "The Numanator" came on and started to play his 2 hour set or whatever the fuck it was..parts of it were quite good to be honest. any song that had either been a hit, was instrumental or involved a synth heavily was ok, but a lot of his new stuff sounded like an industrial post-Coming Up Suede but without the pretention. or thats what i thought at the time. did i mention i was really kained..?
anyway, Gazza is playing a few festivals this year but i think i can say i'll probably be finding someone else to watch. PEACE.

I Was a Cub Scout @ Freebutt

Their terrible name aside, this band were really shit. Kerrang described them as "a mix between Jimmy Eat World and Converge" but it was more a mix between jimmy eat world, some emo wanker, and the postal servive without any tunes. Every song sounded the same and was generally very boring. If i was looking for one, new single "Pink Squares" was the highlight but im not adding their album to my Soulseek wishlist anytime soon..

Raindance @ SE1

So on Saturday i took a trip up to London Bridge (im well Fergie) and went to old-skool rave LEGENDS Raindance's "valentines ball". it was well romantic...
It was my first time at SE1 and bloody hell, what a weird place. You walk down this long tunnel until you get to this door and the club just goes on and on. I think raindance had like 6 or 7 rooms? All different styles of dance music were represented, the only one i didnt venture into being the happy hardcore room..
so yeah, danced around with gurning old blokes and sniffed up LARNDARRN rudebois to Billy Banter, Nicky Blackmarket, Kenny Ken and other such thugs. here are some pictures for you're enjoyment:

Crystal Castles @ Digital

Last time i saw Crystal Castles was a rainy midweek show at the Barfly. It wasnt very busy and the singer had a bad throat so couldnt sing. So in the end it was just watching some guy on stage pressing play on his laptop while the vocalist danced around looking quite un-interested. Needless to say, it wasnt a particularly good show. Digital was a lot more busy however and the show was a lot better. I missed the support band who were apparently really good (fuck knows who they were) 'cos i was gettin pissed so got down there just in time for Crystal Castles. This time around the vocalist was in full screeching voice and they had added a live drum kit which certainly added some "Oomph". Songs such as Alice Practice, Airwar and Crimewave sounded amazing through the Digital Funktion 1 soundsystem. it was FUCKIN loud, My ears were still ringing the next day. The only light show they had was one huge strobe light which was flashing for the whole gig. It got really fuckin disorientating after a while. I missed the last two songs due to having a fag (fuckin smoking ban) but still left fulfilled of gameboy electro noise for one evening.

album is out on the 18th March

www.myspace.com/crystalcastles
www.myspace.com/crystalcastlesremix - check the Atlantis to Interzone remix, its dope blad.

One Night Only

christ..do we REALLY need another band like this? this band are so bland its incredible. Expect to see these guys on T4 and playing over the top of the opening credits to hollyoaks in around a months time.


www.myspace.com/onenightonlyonline - dont even go NEAR the "Just for Tonight Remix". oh how down with the "nu-rave craze". faggots.

Scred Connexion

It can sometimes be quite difficult to enjoy foreign hip-hop because of the language thing, but ive loved French group Scred Connexion for ages now. They are a group of 4 (previously 5) rappers of north african descent hailing from the Paris suburb of Barbes formed in the late 90's. Their songs are (apparently) about growing up in the suburbs and the well publicised problems with police that they have over there. They use really jazzy beats and the french language just flows so well over them. The album "Du mal a s'confier" is my personal favourite with tunes such as "Trop Soule", "Justice pour tous" and "Monnaie Monnaie"

British Sea Power @ Komedia 29/01/08

I have never really given Brighton's British Sea Power a proper listen so wasnt really sure what kind of set to expect. Id heard parts of the new album and it seemed a bit more MOR than older stuff but it seems to have worked for them and both recent single and album have flown into the charts. Turned up a bit late so missed the first few tunes (i also missed the encore) but got to see a good 45minutes of their set. It was epic, melodic indie which sometimes sounded fantastic, and other times sounded really boring. I remember thinking at the time that it sounded like Arcade Fire fronted by the singer of Editors or something. The occasional instrumental bits were great and one specific 10 minute interlude was dope. New single, "Waving Flags" was really good as well. Some of the slower songs dragged on a bit but all in all ive seen worse bands fo' sho'.

www.myspace.com/britishseapower - check the single "waving flags", i really like it.