Unifest 2009

So this was some small one day "festival" on Sussex Uni campus that i wasnt particularly looking forward to, but thought id head up anyway seeing as the weather was amazing. The set up was two large tents and 3 indoor "arena's". Im assuming the use of the word 'arena' was ironic in this case. Anyway the line-up was hardly spectacular but caught Peggy Sue and the Pirates early on who i usually cant stand and have spent many a time at the bar during sets of theres, but they've added a drum kit and i actually quite enjoyed them this time around. After this i drank beer and sat in the sun taking in all the student dickheads and god-awful dubstep. Possibly the funniest moment was when some dj dropped the Skream/La Roux remix and the students actually pissed their drainpipes and ran from all corners of the festival. As a result, the dj rewound the tune about 6 times so it actually lasted about 20 minutes. Christ. At some point Noisia came on and played a really standard d'n'b set, with the only highlight being when a beachball landed on the deck and fucked up his mix. Loefah followed with some dubstep set so i set off for the bar and spent the next few hours wondering about aimlessly, eating sausages. At some point Kissy Sellout came on who'd i never actually seen who was quite good in a 2-many-dj's-does-bassline kinda way, but it was hardly mindblowing, so i mugged it off and went to go see Andy C. All day id been planning to miss him simply because ive seen him about 300 times, but im pretty glad i did cos the fake mdma id been doing had kicked in and he played a pretty sick set full of old skool classics that the students blatantly didnt get. Good times. After this we got the bus back and got jawache in various clubs. It was actually a really good day, so props to UNIFEST!! that fucking name though....

Nick Cave - Disco 2000

Surf City

Surf City hail from that obvious hotbed of shoegazey lo-fi indie, New Zealand! Formed in 2004 i think they only have one EP out to date, recorded in various bedrooms and living rooms. The name is a reference to some obscure Jesus and Mary Chain b-side which makes sense as they definitely have that 80's sound down, with definite nods to Sonic Youth et al, but with a more contemporary pop sensibility to them. Songs of note from the Ep are Mt. Kill and Free The City and the EP is up on spotify if you use that. They also have a myspace an' dat: http://www.myspace.com/killsurfcitygo

Check em out if you care...

Surf City - Records of a Flagpole Skater:

The Virgins/Chew Lips @ Digital

Dont like The Virgins at all but ended up workin this gig so thought i might as well BLOG DAT ISH. Support came from Kitsunes latest signing, Chew Lips (geddit? say it out loud...its fuckin clever..). Id never heard them before but had heard all the bloody hype so was interested to check them out. They were ok in a lets-rip-off-La-Roux-and-watch-NME-spunk-all-over-us kind of way. Lots of synths, drum machines and high pitched female vocals. Nice guys though so i'll let em off. The Virgins came on to a barrage of screams from 15 year old girls who had heard them on the Gossip Girl soundtrack. Maybe their bandname is a reference to their target audience..? Anyway they were pretty shit. To be fair they had a fuller sound than i was expecting but its still weak pop-indie stuff with this weird funky edge...its quite hard to explain. Its like if Stock, Waterman and Aitken decided to put together a band that ripped off Vampire Weekend. Now theres a strange thought...Their t-shirts were really nice though so props for that i spose.

Foals @ Concorde2

So i know Foals are a bit gay with that whole "every 14 year olds favourite 'experimental' band" vibe they got goin on, but ive always harboured a soft spot for them, and anyone that can get weird angular math-indie songs about triangles onto the Radio1 playlist must be doing something right. This gig was, as can be expected, fuckin rammed but they had no problem with turning the concorde into a proper sweatpit. This was the third time ive seen Foals live and i do believe that you have to see them in the flesh to appreciate how good they can actually be. Songs like Cassius, Two Step, Twice and especially Red Sox Pugie really come into their own live and you realise how talented a band they are. They played a few new songs which seemed pretty "dreamy" compared to the first album which left the audience slightly bored on occasions, but ive got a feeling they will sound good on record. Apparently Blood Red Shoes filled in to do a support slot at the last minute which i missed annoyingly but hey ho. Anyway this gig was pretty sick and a perfect friday night warm up...didnt play Mathletics though...wankers.

Red Sox Pugie (live on Later..)