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.