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)

iSnort

I officially give up on civilization.