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.

David Shrigley

I have never been one to pretend i know anything at all about illustration, but david shrigley is someone I've been a fan of for ages. Ive been reading his books for years and it seems he's gaining gradually more clout as an artist. His bizarre doodle-like drawings coupled with hilarious scripted conversations are fucking brilliant. Its quite hard to explain so I'll just put a few examples:











check out his website for more drawings, animations, sculptures and shit:

www.davidshrigley.com

Gigs of 2007..

I was meant to write this a while ago but bloody January got in the way..

This is the top ten gigs i saw in the year that was 2007. I was fortunate enough to see loads of fuckin good bands this year, but that also means some may have slipped my shoddy short-term memory but fuck it..

10 - Primal Scream @ Bestival - wasnt expecting much as am not a fan, but really surprised me. 3 litres of red wine probably helped..

9 - Gallows @ Great Escape - This gig was just when things were "kicking off" for them and the front of the stage was packed with cameramen. Had only seen them in a small venue before so wasnt sure how it would work, but they pulled it off.

8 - Kid Harpoon @ The Hope - Was a fan before i saw him, but seeing him with a live band was well good. "Riverside" and "First we take Manhatten" were quality.

7 - Les Breastfeeders @ Great Escape - Was workin at the great escape and was told to help a band load out and stumbled upon this band. Was manic french pop-punk (in the real sense of the word) with a midget hitting a tambourine over his head. They're not great on record but was a well good gig

6 - Easy Star All-Stars @ Bestival - Nothing better to get rid of your hangover than lying on the grass on a boiling hot day having a zoot with this band on the main stage.

5 - Foals @ Bestival - 200 gurning tossers squeezed into a tiny tent at 3am. dont remember much to be honest but remember it being good..

4 - Goose @ Cargo, LDN - This was a fuckin gurnfest but so, so good. South Central DJ set afterwards was sick as well.

3 - Electrelane @ Pavillion Theatre - Electrelane's final ever gig and they played 3 encores. Was lesbian post-rock at its best. Found a gram of sniff on the floor as well which was a bonus.

2 - Ian Brown @ Digital - Played all his solo "classics" as well as "i wanna be adored" and "I am the resurrection" thrown in for good measure. Was dope. Got to meet him as well.

1 - Toots and the Maytals @ Lovebox Weekender, LDN - Coming up on gurners while the sun sets after a hard day drinking over priced gin and tonics, dancing to "Pressure Drop" is one of my best moments of 2007. perfect gig.


Honourable Mentions: ra ra riot, the rapture, south central, erol alkan, 80's matchbox