Thursday 25 November 2010

Laura Marling, Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms, 22/11/10

Considering the gig sold out well in advance, the Wedge is a surprising scene of calm, quiet, politeness tonight, with the huge capacity crowd completely entranced by a relatively tiny twenty year old and her acoustic guitar. The silence breaks in between songs for deserved applause but still every word of every crowd member can be heard. Shouts of ‘I love you Laura’ are so audible that they really do seem genuine, which leaves the young songstress in a predicament. ‘I never really know what to say when people …say things…just in life’ is the response to one such heckle, but despite confessing to having no ‘social awareness or comic timing’ she handles the banter with a reluctant yet charming sense of discomfort. Though she gets by with the chitchat, it’s obviously her music that stands out. For the majority of the set, she’s accompanied by drums, double-bass, cello, banjo and piano that fill out her sound enough to justify the sold out crowd. Above all the instrumentation however, Marling’s voice always dominates, cutting through the other instruments and powerfully covering a range that you wouldn’t expect if you were just to have a chat with her. The crowd knows most of the words but the sing-a-longs are almost whispered so as not to disturb what is emanating from the speakers. The only tracks that the audience may be unsure of are the three new songs, which still command the same perfect silence from the crowd, even when the band is reduced to just Marling and her guitar. Tracks like Failure and Ghosts stand out as much, if not more than full band numbers such as Devils Spoke.

Despite having had a Mercury nomination for each of her albums, she’s ambitious without any arrogannce. Before the penultimate song, What He Wrote, Laura claims that ‘for those who’d like an encore, this is our last song’. While it may sound tame the eerie calmness in the Wedge provided the perfect environment and neither the crowd, or Laura Marling would have had it any other way. For those who were happy to accept the end of a set without an encore, title track, I Speak Because I Can was the final song and was met by more rapturous applause and even some optimistic shouts of ‘encore’... She stuck to her word.

Tuesday 23 November 2010

Local Natives - Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms, 17/11/10

On another gloomy night in Portsmouth, the only thing bigger, darker and thicker than the surrounding clouds is the moustache perched upon the upper lip of Local Natives’ guitarist and vocalist, Taylor Rice. Once you get over the initial resemblance to Mario (or maybe Luigi), the Californian bands’ live show leaves a lot more to think about than slightly ridiculous facial hair.

After releasing a debut as polished as Gorilla Manor, many bands would struggle to replicate such an accomplishment live, but Local Natives take it in their stride. The drums and rhythms come to into the foreground especially on Who Knows, Who Cares, while the basslines remain softly prominent throughout. Sparse percussive breakdowns rumble around the in the middle of songs laying a pathway for euphoric sing-a-long choruses like that of Wide Eyes. The vocal harmonies are consistently flawless making use of the voices of the whole band at times but even when just one voice can be heard, it still has considerable force and resonance in a fairly packed Wedgewood Rooms.

The songs are largely led by drums and guitars until Airplanes, which lets the piano take centre stage, and with the addition of mandolin shows yet another dimension to Local Natives style. At times there are elements vocally and elsewhere that seem like an American version of Wild Beasts, but as one of the front men, Kelcey says, they’re ‘not just crazy Americans’. Where Wild Beasts coax fans in with a similarly entrancing delicacy to their vocals and delivery, they’re never quite capable of delivering the final punch. Local Natives however, finish the job and cap off gentle builds with potent choruses and more aggressive instrumentation. The band has a clear, profound effect on their audience that others just aren’t capable of and it makes for a constantly captivating set that doesn’t take long to attract more focus and significance than the moustache, or the weather.

Saturday 20 November 2010

We Are Scientists - Portsmouth Pyramids 15/11/10

Morrisey has been known to ask his crowd not to sing along in the past, so as not to spoil it, and it’s somehow ok for him, because underneath all that pompous titting around, he’s a genius. However, very few others could get away with it. Except perhaps, for We Are Scientists.

When bassist, Chris Cain pleads to the crowd not to sing along as ‘this one has quite a sensitive harmony, and if even just one of you fuckers hits a bum not, the whole thing will turn to shit’, he could easily come across as a complete arse, but there isn’t a hint of pomposity about it. Chris and Keith’s tongues stay firmly in their cheeks between songs, with comparisons to Lord Byron and a dedication to Lord Nelson, but as always they keep the music serious. Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt makes an early appearance in the set, as well as a surprising proportion of songs from their debut, With Love and Squalor, which receive the best response. The crowd has to warm up pretty quickly for the headliner though, as the support didn’t quite manage it. First support, Rewards didn’t provide any more than a lesser version of The XX, about eighteen months late to catch the band wagon. Goldheart Assembly showed a lot more potential and the intensity picked up towards the end of their set, but it wasn’t quite enough to prepare the crowd for the energy of the main act.

While We Are Scientists showed that they can put on a good show, regardless of whether they have a permanent drummer (or whether they borrow one from Razorlight), the crowd did struggle to keep up after a while. The first half of the set had both the kids and the obligatory balding middle-aged men of Portsmouth moshing together, to tracks from Barbara, as well as older songs and even History Repeats, a B-side from 2005. However, as the set draws on you can’t help thinking that they could quite easily have got away with playing a few less songs and kept the crowd going. It’s not that the quality of the songs declined, and they still played them with just as much vigour, the problem is that the crowd just can’t keep up with it for such a long set. Saying that, it’d be hard to pick any song to take out of the setlist, and when they leave stage following After Hours, the crowd are still hungry for an encore, and Cash Cow makes for a fittingly lively conclusion.

Wednesday 10 November 2010

Foals - Southampton Guildhall, 7/11/10

Set against a hazy backdrop of smoke and soft lighting, Foals look as though they’re playing to the Guildhall from somewhere inside the screensaver of a Macbook, without being anywhere near as pretentious. Proclaimed as ‘Math-Rock’ in their early days, they’ve since matured into something more refined and less nonsensical. The bleeping, chirping lead guitar parts are still there, along with the insanely tight, complex drum rhythms, but now they’re all set to an underlying, atmospheric whirring that floats around, filtering in and out of prominence. This progression was hinted at in the transition from demos to the first album, and has been finalized by Total Life Forever. It’s not to say it’s a better or worse record; in fact it makes for a pleasingly varied set. Recent single, Blue Blood features elements from old and new and leaves some of the crowd in two minds as to what to do with themselves. With the age restriction of fourteen plus, you’re left with a crowd of teenagers half trying to look like they’re ‘going mental’ and half making sure they don’t break they’re glasses as it’s the last pair they get on free prescription.

Those in the crowd who have got the jist of what Foals do, choose to avoid the unnecessary, yet massive attempt at a moshpit, and are happy to stand back and appreciate the quieter bits and let their bodies do what they like in the dancier bits. It seems almost rude to talk during Spanish Sahara, so as not to disturb the eerie, encapsulating effect it has on anyone listening to it. Yannis’ vocals on this and many of the other newer songs embody the change to a softer sound, but the addition of Two Steps Twice as an encore shows that neither the band or Yannis have lost their balls. He explores every corner of the stage, physically as well as sonically, from the front of the crowd to the top of the speaker stacks. They’ve become experts in changes of intensity, to an extent that surprises even long term fans into not quite knowing what to expect. It becomes apparent that their earlier material was clearly not written for a big room with a big crowd; even the colossal Cassius comes across as lacking slightly, but only when compared to the immensity of the likes of Miami and Total Life Forever. Foals are a band that are by no means afraid of outdoing themselves.

Monday 18 October 2010

NME Radar Tour (The Joy Formidable, Chapel Club, Flats) - Wedgewood Rooms, 13th October

A spot on any of the NME tours is pretty much guaranteed to give any band a massive boost into popularity, whether interesting or not. There’s usually a pretty standard formula for the line-ups when the magazine are picking them, but the openers this year make quite a change. Nutter-punk outfit, Flats start the night off by pissing all over the trend of hushed indie bands that the NME has been whoring out over the last couple of years. It’s only a momentary shock though, as the arrival of Chapel Club brings all the terrified trendy haircuts away from the back wall of the Wedge and up to the front of the stage. The young band, and drummer possess the rare quality of restraint, and resist any urge to speed their songs up live. For a band like Flats, the faster the songs are played the better, but Chapel Club’s impact comes from their steady, simple beats driving along an indecipherable whirl of guitars and synths. With soothing vocals and guitars concealed by a wall effects, the band join the list of new artists pointing towards a change in direction for indie music. The sharp, stabbing guitars of the ‘noughties’ (sorry) are gradually being replaced with a soft, but far from boring, new sound.

While Flats may have made Chapel Club appear tamer than usual, The Joy Formidable definitely kicked things up another notch as headliners. At a glance of the stage, you could easily underestimate the band, led by fairly meek looking frontwoman, Ritzy and surrounded by birdcages filled with fairy lights. However, the three-piece’s intentions are made clear not long after as more pounding drums fill the room, this time accompanied by similarly intense guitars and vocals, and any timidity vanishes from Ritzy’s demeanour. While it would be it would be slightly stereotypical to compare them to the only female fronted guitar bands I can think of at this point in time, Blood Red Shoes and The Subways do spring to mind. Even so, there’s something about The Joy Formidable that could see them faring a little better in the mainstream (if that kind of thing floats your boat). They combine interesting rhythms with uncomplicated riffs and hooky vocals in a way that’s easy to listen to too but still keeps you thinking and leaves you guessing. The Radar Tour has seen the likes of Friendly Fires, La Roux and Marina and The Diamonds into large-scale success, and there’s no reason why any of these bands shouldn’t have the same outcome. Except Flats, they might struggle on daytime Radio 1.

Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly - Wedgewood Rooms, 12 October

Since the days of strolling onto stage with an acoustic guitar, a laptop and a mass of hair threatening to engulf his entire head, Sam Duckworth’s stage presence has changed drastically. Instead of a one-man outfit, he now plays front-man of a full band that gives life and power to all of the ideas that used to be chirped out by his computer. The laptop may have been replaced by human equivalents, but the guitar and the continuous threat that his hair poses still remain integral to his live performances.

The quality of the songs on the twenty-four year old’s 2006 debut album come to light early in his set when the majority of the crowd wail the lyrics of ‘I Spy’ back at him before he has a chance to start them himself. When Duckworth and his band do kick in, the compositional intricacies are accentuated by a supremely talented line-up that fills out the sound with extra live percussion and backing-vocals. The full band adds a versatility to snap from full on choruses to quiet breakdowns, with the synthesisers supplying as many eerie sound effects as the laptop ever could have and occasional bursts of trumpet piercing through the soundscape.

After such an energetic opening to the set from an artist with acoustic roots, a few songs worth of bean-bag time were to be expected. However, with the band off stage and Duckworth left alone, the fidgeting from the crowd did become audible after two or three songs; though not enough to dampen his charm or likeability on stage. This quiet mid-section oddly acted as a segway into a political, anti-fascist rant, set to an oddly jazzy accompaniment. Despite any valid message, this could have come across as a Bono-esque display of arseholery if it had come from anyone else and not been delivered quite so articulately. In fact pretty much everything he said made sense. The set ended on a more energetic, cheerful note with a cover of Daft Punk’s ‘Digital Love’, which (unlike most attempts) did the original justice and a flourish of brass utilising ‘Call Me Ishmael’ and the whole group’s full potential.

Wednesday 15 September 2010

Mercury Prize 2010

If last year’s Mercury Music Prize taught us anything, it’s that giving the award to an obscure hip-hop act probably wont do that much good. While Speech Debelle’s victory proved that the judges can choose a lesser-known artist to praise, and that they’re not just token additions to the nominations list, it’s hard to see how it’s had much benefit. The album has still only sold about 15,000 copies to date and people only know her as ‘that one who got the Mercury Prize’. Although it’s not all about sales figures, if no-one has bought the album then there can’t be all that many people who have heard it. As a music award that concentrates on the actual music, it’s a shame that this kind of commerciality has to come into it, but when it’s being broadcast on terrestrial television and sponsored by Barclaycard, it really becomes inescapable.

With this in mind, The xx seem like deserving winners this year. The fact that their eponymous debut has already seen huge critical acclaim, and that their mass popularity has come about partly through covering one of the biggest songs of the previous year (You Got The Love), and partly through being the soundtrack to the General Election is almost irrelevant. The trio’s hauntingly mellow sound doesn’t fit into the mainstream, yet they’ve somehow forged a niche for themselves over the past twelve months. Receiving this award is a fitting to conclusion to an outstanding year. It’s confirmation of their talent and of their popularity but it’s also an incentive to keep the ball rolling and push themselves. In previous years, winners have seen varying levels of success following the prize. The Arctic Monkeys won in similar circumstances -after an intense year of popularity- and went on to produce two more brilliant albums and become one of the biggest bands in the country. Dizzee Rascal has also gone on to mega-stardom since emerging from the underground with Boy In Da Corner, and Ms. Dynamite came fourth in Hell’s Kitchen last year.

The real test comes in the year following the victory and with their next album. While I can’t quite picture them writing the next ‘Bonkers’ (or cooking with Gordon Ramsey for that matter), it’d be a shame to see The xx disappear into insignificance. It’s at that point where we see if they’ll follow Dizzee, Dynamite or Debelle or if they carry on as they are by something completely different. Encouragingly, the latter seems most likely, but we’ll give it a year and see.

Thursday 1 July 2010

Born Ruffians Interview

Back in May, Canada’s Born Ruffians came over to the UK for a mini tour, with vague intentions of ‘breaking England’. Turns out they’re already well on their way. ‘The promoter had to turn people away on the door so we’re thinking that next time we come we can play somewhere like Scala or a bigger show’ says vocalist and guitarist Luke LaLonde on the three piece’s recent London shows. While the band are beginning to notice the following they have over here after two full length albums, they’re not getting ahead of themselves, ‘When you start to think about it, it is pretty cool that we even have 100 people to play to.’

Despite being around for a few years now, and achieving the questionable pseudo-acclaim that’s customary for any band that’s been featured on Skins or an advert for Orange, the band still have the refreshingly modest attitude of a group that’s just started out. However they’re now more than comfortable in the studio. ‘It’s a little different for us because we had albums before ‘Red, Yellow and Blue’ that were kind of like secret records but they more just ones we just made as high school students for fun, so we ended up having a writing period for the first album which was a lot like writing a third or second record.’ New album, Say It, was written in a similar way; ‘It felt really relaxed and chilled out, we wrote when we wanted to and we only worked on stuff when we really felt inspired’. This relaxed approach to writing has complemented the sound already established by Red, Yellow and Blue, as well as LaLonde’s ability to fluctuate between soft verses angsty choruses, giving Say It an equally varied texture. The timid frontman references Talking Heads as a lifelong influence, and solo McCartney material for the second album, while Mitch, the more extroverted bassist takes influence from elsewhere.

‘Personally I’m influenced more when I go and see a band, than just listening to a band on record. Sometimes if we see a band and think, “Ahh we can’t do that, we’re not even that good!” it makes us want to do better things with our live shows and our music.’ Live performances seem to have been more of an issue for the Canadians than the album itself. With few opportunities to play the new songs before release, they’re having to work out setlists as the go along. ‘We’re starting to figure out what songs are the live songs. Once you get out in front of a crowd you realise some songs sound great live. There’s one song which I thought would be awesome live but the more we try it, the more it’s like…maybe not.’ For their showcase at Basement as part of Great Escape Festival in Brighton, the set was made up mostly of old songs, but the few new songs that get airtime hold their own amongst the old favourites.

If you missed the select few London shows in May and the Brighton showcase, you might have to wait a little while to catch the new songs live. With the album being released in June, they’re a bit late to get themselves on festival line-ups and they’ve got a fairly busy summer touring the US and Canada as it is. At the moment there’s no clear plan for touring the UK, just a ‘plan to make a plan’ for a return in the autumn. When offered hypothetical fantasy festival line-ups or collaborations -rather than bringing Hendrix back to life or reuniting The Beatles in their minds- they’d rather just invite all of their friends along and see what happens. Though they may still retain some of the humble ideals they had as band in high school, they don’t lack ambition. ‘It’d be nice to try just sending a song to friends and see if they have a guitar part for it. We’d like to push our music a bit, push our boundaries and our comfort zones and hopefully the next record will be something a little more, a little different. That’s what I’m excited about.’ They’re already making music that’s different to anyone else’s without the pretentiousness of many bands. If they want to push it further, things can only get better for Born Ruffians, wherever they choose to go.

Say It is out now.

Monday 31 May 2010

The Great Escape Festival 2010

It’s easy to get lazy at festivals, regardless of how many bands are playing that you’ve been waiting years to see, somehow you still manage to spend the whole weekend sitting in a broken tent, drinking warm cider and cooking bad food to an awful standard. The Great Escape is a bit different. For a start it’s in a city, Brighton, so you’d have a job hammering your guy ropes in anywhere. On top of that if you’re lazy at Great Escape you will miss literally everything.

Now in its fifth year, the festival is pulling in some big acts. Groove Armada, Chase and Status, and Broken Social Scene were some of the headliners but with 30 venues hosting gigs, there was plenty more to choose from over the three days. For the weekend, every venue had bands playing all night and day; even places that weren’t venues had a go. One of these makeshift venues is the Queens Hotel, which gives gigs more of a wedding-disco vibe than most of the bands would have liked. Despite this, Detroit Social Club’s Kasabian-esque indie still could have filled a quarry with the amount of reverb they layered over it. There could be a danger of the songs losing substance with this much echo but they still manage to hold themselves together with some beefy riffs every now and then.

The mid-afternoon ‘headline’ act were even less appropriate to the setting. The Chapman Family follow a quiet start to their set with a chaotic, frantic explosion of noisy post-punk. However after an angsty half hour, they finish the set with ‘Kids’, which could quite easily find it’s way into the charts if they hadn’t drenched it in delicious, filthy distortion. It makes it a better song and is a slightly more appropriate accompaniment to vocalist, Kingsley asphyxiating himself with the microphone cable.

As well as some odd buildings turning themselves into venues, a few impromptu street gigs crop up over the weekend. The spontaneity of this kind of thing is spoilt a bit though when Relentless decide to sponsor it and build a specific stage for these so-called ‘street gigs’ on the pier. It’s not even a street. Outside Concorde 2, the Red Stripe (more sponsorship) acoustic caravan is a nicer idea and if you can handle the trek down to it there’s a chance of catching something a bit different.

Aside from the walking (which my laziness may have exaggerated) the only issue with having so many separate venues is actually getting into them. The queues for some gigs did get a bit ridiculous, so much so that you end up not even bothering in some cases. Most venues have two separate queues, one for normal ticket holders and another for ‘priority’, but seeing as they were usually both a similar length, that didn’t make too much sense either. Great Escape is the kind of festival where it really is better to go to the smaller venues and find some new bands. Although not completely unknown, Young Legionnaire proved to be one of my highlights for Saturday. Comprised of Bloc Party bassist, Gordon Moakes, La Roux and I Was A Cub Scout drummer William Bowerman and former Youcodenameis:milo vocalist Paul Mullen, they delivered a powerful, heavy show to a venue that deserved to be packed. Somewhere between At The Drive In and Death From Above 1979, it was certainly a change from what Moakes has been doing with Bloc Party recently, but more than welcome during their hiatus.

My choice of headliner was Canada’s Born Ruffians and after some more bizarre queue issues, they showed exactly why their debut album was so good and that their second LP (out May 31st) is well worth a listen too. Retard Canard and Sole Brother stood out from the new tracks showcased and closing on Foxes Mate For Life ended the night nicely. Obviously in a city like Brighton there’s plenty more to do till the early hours, after the bands have finished. I ended up spending two hours strolling the streets in search of a house I’d never been to be before, but hey, that’s just how I roll. There were plenty of much better, less moronic things to do than that and although you can spend a lot of time walking around and queuing up, with the sheer amount of bands playing at Great Escape, it’s definitely worth going just for the few you do see.

Friday 28 May 2010

The Ivor Novellos

The Ivor Novello awards have been rewarding ‘excellence in British music writing’ for the last fifty-five years, and with that legacy comes a certain amount of prestige. Receiving an Ivor is often seen as a far more respectable achievement than getting a Brit or an NME award and it’s partly down to the presentation. The Brit Awards look more like a kids birthday party, this year with Peter Kay hired as the clown and Liam Gallagher playing the grumpy dad. The NME’s try to be a bit edgier but, despite Jarvis Cocker’s input, still turn into a school disco, with everyone trying to be more alternative than everyone else. The Ivor’s eliminate any of these problems by simply not allowing any cameras in, and initially seem to be a truly alternative awards ceremony, reward good, real music. However, a quick glance at this year’s results suggests otherwise.

With a panel appointed to decide the winners you would think that there would be little commercial influence, but with PRS as sponsors, commercial success completely dominates one of the awards. The PRS for Music Most Performed Work Award -presumably based on whose song has been whored out the most- went to Lily Allen for ‘The Fear’. Fair enough, if that’s the song that got played the most, I guess it deserves the award. The issue comes when you see that Lily Allen also won the award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically, with the same song, and the award for Songwriter of the Year (with Greg Kustin). Now, surely one award is enough? Surely an awards event with a panel should be able to spread the awards around a little more evenly? Surely that’s exactly what the panel is for? If the public were voting for the awards and it turned out that the whole country loved Lily Allen more than anyone else, then that’s that, she…deserves the award, but a panel of judges has the ability to stop that. Apparently they chose not to.

After you’ve digested the information that twenty percent of the whole ceremony was essentially dedicated to Lily Allen, it’s hard to take the rest of it seriously. The news that Ice Age 3: Dawn of the Dinosaurs took the award for Best Original Film Score sort of flies straight over your head. At this point the whole prestige and status of the event fades away. Winning one Ivor Novello this year simply means that you’re nearly as good as Lily Allen, because she got three of them. That’s not going to persuade me to go out and buy the soundtrack to Ice Age. There were some brighter moments; Johnny Marr deservedly received the Ivors Inspiration Award and Bat For Lashes and Imogen Heap were given the awards for Best Contemporary Song and International Achievement respectively. Even Paolo Nutini getting the Best Album Award comes across as a good thing. At least he’s actually on the writing credits for it. Contrastingly, Girls Aloud’s ‘The Promise’ was nominated, despite it being credited to a list of seven other people, which didn’t include any of the band’s actual line-up.

An event like The Ivors is an opportunity for people who supposedly know what they’re talking about, to really reward artists for their songwriting ability, regardless of commercial success. With the influence it holds, BASCA (the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors) could have taken the chance to highlight some new talent, by picking something that’s been going on under the radar, and granting it the respect it deserves. Instead they chose to give out a few awards to artists that everyone’s already heard of, and allow one person, who is clearly not the ‘future of music’ to completely overshadow the whole thing, it just seems a little bit lazy. What was previously a well-respected institution now just seems to be another meaningless awards ceremony that no one with any sense will give a shit about. Sorry Ivor.

Sunday 23 May 2010

Some words with Barry from The Futureheads

‘Creativity is a relationship between you and what you create, and relationships can sometimes stagnate. You know, sometimes you need to start having sex in the kitchen.’ They may not have gone for it as the title of their fourth album, but all that ‘sex in the kitchen’ has led them to a musical…climax. ‘I feel with The Chaos we’ve made what we would consider to be our perfect album.’ It’s not just the record he’s proud of either, ‘Some of these gigs have been some of the best we’ve ever done, the collective feeling in the room has been nothing short of ecstasy. You see when you play the new tunes if they perk people up or they’re kind of like whatever. All the new tunes have been going down like a …ton of bricks.’ That’s presumably a positive thing, as opposed to the sinking feeling they might have experienced when they were dropped by (or left) their previous label, 679 Recordings, back in 2006.

Whether they left of their own accord or were subtly ushered out of the door, it’s definitely working out better for the band, ‘Whatever happened in the past has allowed us to really be where we’re meant to be now, and that’s here, playing smallish venues, but selling them out.’ They’ve done exactly that at the Wedgewood Rooms tonight and once the crowd settle in a bit, some of that ‘ecstasy’ is definitely shared around. A lot of the new material gets showcased, but they’re not stupid, plenty of their self-titled debut album gets played and it’s these songs that really spark a reaction with the crowd. While their sound may not have changed drastically over the years, they’ve definitely matured. ‘I’ve been getting into some pretty mad books’ says Barry, ‘I’m more influenced by literature these days. I used to spend all my money on records but now I spend it all on books.’

Now on their own label Nul Records, they’re free to produce whatever they want and have the fans be the judges of it, however, in a completely unselfish way, the plan on keeping Nul for themselves. ‘The great thing about doing it is that it’s really liberating to have your own label and if we were to sign another band we’d be robbing them of that experience by being their bosses and we don’t want to get involved in that dynamic at all. You need to hold onto your creative integrity.’ Part of that integrity comes down to the way in which their music makes it’s way to the public and having already made their opinions on the subject of illegal downloading known, Barry summarised the situation quite nicely. ‘The Internet is like this collective mumbo jumbo ocean, it’s very wild and free, and I would hate to see greedy music business people and greedy politicians hindering our ability to use it.’ That’ll do nicely.

So having hit a self-confessed peak after four albums, it could be a challenge finding a path to follow. ‘There’s no real need for us to be going into the studio any time soon and whacking out another bang bang bang Futureheads album.’ To break the ‘bang bang bang’ trend, there’ll be an entirely acapella album on the way, and if that’s not ambitious enough then Barry’s got plenty more ideas. ‘I’ve just started writing a punk-rock vampire musical which I want to be our fifth album.’ If The Chaos was sex in the kitchen then I’d love to know where he got the inspiration for that.

Tuesday 18 May 2010

Some words with Dev Hynes - Lightspeed Champion

Ever since his days in half band, half elaborate joke Test Icicles Dev Hynes’ ambition has been growing faster than the ominous patch of mould on my bathroom ceiling and showing no signs of slowing down. While the results of this growth with Lightspeed Champion -or in any other musical situation the twenty-four year old finds himself in- are a lot more pleasant than that of the mould, is there a chance he might have exhausted himself at an early age? ‘I think right now I’ve written everything I’ve wanted to reach to, it’s whether I record it all or not.’ Officially, we’ve only heard three full length albums from him but there’s clearly a lot more going on behind the scenes.


‘I make a lot of stuff, but people only see what Domino release. It’s not like I stop listening to or making certain types of music. I haven’t toured like this in a couple of years but I’ve made and played music live in that time and it’s ranged from R&B to metal.’ The majority of us may not haven’t heard any metal or R&B but those wise enough to have got a copy of new album, ‘Life is Sweet, Nice To Meet You’ have been treated to a very different style of album. At fifty minutes long, complete with two intermissions and an etude, it been compared by many to musicals and stage shows, however this may not have been Hynes’ intention. ‘I would never make this album into a musical. I would write one but if I did I’ve always thought that I’d take a couple of years out and just concentrate on that. Maybe in my 30’s…’

On top of having explored every genre possible, he’s had a crack at most instruments as well. ‘I actually started with cello, then piano, then drums…then guitar. I write quite a lot of cello pieces when I’m bored.’ –like most bored men in their mid-twenties. There are still some that he hasn’t quite mastered, ‘I can’t play brass instruments at all. I’m pretty bad at woodwind. I can write better for woodwind than I can for brass but it’s still so difficult.’ We can probably let him off for that, he still manages to produce songs that any full band would be proud of by himself. ‘There’s a song on the album called There’s Nothing Underwater, and that’s all me apart from the oboe arrangement…well I wrote it but it’s played by a girl called Sally.’

This might all sound a bit pretentious or self-centred, but it’s really not, it seems like he just feels the need to get things out of his system so he can move onto the next project. ‘I always want other people to play the songs [on record] but it’s usually a time issue or if people aren’t around. I’m quite impatient. I want to get it done.’ He’s certainly efficient with his music, ‘a couple of months ago I recorded another album for Blood Orange’ -yet another new side project ‘and I’ve actually already written the next Lightspeed record, but I’m not gonna record it for a long time.’ It’s debatable how long a ‘long time’ is in Dev Hynes world, having once written and recorded an album within five hours, but he’ll definitely be keeping himself busy till the next record. He’s already written songs for Diana Vickers number one album and for plenty of others who he seemed slightly reluctant to mention. So what is there left to do? ‘I’d love to work with Janet Jackson, so much.’ With the way Hynes works, even that doesn’t seem too farfetched, I doubt she’d be able to keep up with him.

Monday 10 May 2010

Little Comets

"A lot of bands don’t pay attention to details. We pay attention to too many details. We have problems.” Self-diagnosed problems aside, it’s the details that make this Newcastle four-piece so special. Whether they’re sellotaping up pianos in the studio for their first album, or working out exactly how David Bowie would reveal their dream festival, the little things are critically important to Little Comets.

Eagerly hunched onto a single armchair, upstairs in Southampton’s Joiners, they’re certainly friendlier than a lot of bands. The prospect of being interviewed by a stranger actually seems to be exciting to them, where others would find it daunting, or probably just a bit dull. The personal touch shows through in their relationship with their fans as well, “We’re really trying to make as much of the music available as possible. If someone sends us an email, we’ll send one back saying ‘Do you want some free songs?’” It’s a refreshing attitude to have at a time when music is becoming more commercial than ever, and such a small number of people at major labels dominate the industry. Money and commercial acclaim are obviously not the things that Little Comets strive for. Having only released two singles so far, the release of their debut album has been delayed for a number of reasons.

Despite reaching a height many bands aspire to, by getting signed to a major label last year, they won’t be releasing the album on Columbia. “It was a total nightmare” says drummer Mark on working with the big label, “It’s like waking up in the mornings to brush your teeth and them saying ‘What toothpaste are you going to use?’” continues bassist Matt. “As much as they didn’t work with us, we didn’t fit that model, and looking back, it’s a model we’d never fit.” The decision to go it alone definitely makes sense for a band like this. “We like to be in control. It’s our thing.”

Wasted time spent conforming to a major label’s model is time that could have been spent elsewhere, on more important, musical aspects of the band. “We don’t record in a studio now so we’re not really hemmed in by anytime constraints. We spend hours experimenting with the tiniest things like the room, or selloptaping a piano up so it’ll only resonate in one chord, and then playing things through it. Really stupid things.” While some may see this kind of attention to detail unnecessary, it gives the band personality and it’s clear that they spend a lot of time perfecting their music. A string of percussion instruments hung across the top of the stage is visible at every gig, as well a beaten up tambourine and a cymbal with what looks like a biscuit tin duct taped to it. With so much going on, their gigs could easily be a complete shambles. In actual fact, their performances are tighter than the bassist’s Adidas sports shirt –which is dangerously close to skin-tight.

The fact that they’re Geordies prompts some rather unimaginative, geographical comparisons with Maximo Park and The Futureheads, and for the slightly more inventive, ‘A northern Vampire Weekend’. In reality they take influence from a much broader range of sources. As well as citing Debussy and Einstein on their Myspace, their dream festival would have an interesting line-up. “Paul Simon would close it” fantasises frontman Rob, “Bowie would open it, at ten at night, and at the end of his set the stage would rise up in the air and reveal the rest of the festival.” It doesn’t stop there either. “I’d like to have Rage Against The Machine playing in a tent…no, a pit, with a destruction derby going on around the outside. At the end of the festival, all of the bands would leave on a precession of elephants, led by Bowie holding…fireballs.”

Back in the real world, they’ve been making a name for them selves by showing off their cheery, limb-loosening guitar pop in an array of unlikely, uninformed venues, including trams, lecture halls and Mark’s and Spencer’s. They’ve got ambitions for more as well; a Sunday church service, the back of a van on the Tyne Bridge and perhaps the most ambitious, a play on the London Underground’s Circle Line. “Or a festival where different bands get on and off at each stop…with Bowie.”

The album is due for release this September and with a following as loyal and enthusiastic as theirs, there’s no reason why it shouldn’t do well. However if it doesn’t all go to plan, they’ve got a contingency arrangement. “We were saying it would be so good if we all had kids and they met up, happened to be musicians, formed a band, and got massive! We haven’t got kids…well” Until any littler Comets come along, these ones should do just fine.

Alphashite - DJ

I’m not sure if I was missing something a couple of years ago, but the disgusting sensation that was Alphabeat never quite hit me. To me they just looked like Steps trying to reinvent themselves and gain some actual credibility, without realising they were fighting a lost cause. Somehow they saw some chart success with a top ten album and single, but then so did Steps. That by no means makes them any good.

‘DJ’ is a three-minute long, cheery plea for ‘Something I can dance to’, a bit like The Scissor Sisters, but without that little self-mocking element that makes them ok. They could enter this into the Eurovision Song Contest but it’d probably be beaten by some Scandinavian heavy rock gimmick, and rightly so. They’ve thrown in some lack-lustre scratching to appeal to morons that might find that cool. It’s like Cottoneye Joe slowed down to a point where it loses any novelty value or the kind of band that would be an integral part of a kids TV show, if all the sense in the world disappeared. I could compare Alphabeat to other shit things for days, but the truth is, not many things are as shit as Alphabeat.

Monday 3 May 2010

Good Shoes - Wedgewood Rooms, 24th April

It must be hard for bands to pick a set-list when they’ve just released their second album. However for Good Shoes I’d imagine it would be quite easy.

Their first album was brilliant. It wasn’t particularly clever or groundbreaking but that didn’t matter in the slightest. It just danced right up to your face, jigged around a bit and then ran off to do the same to someone else, and that was fine. You didn’t really have to think about it much, but it was still a good album. At a point where so many bands were making mediocre, simple, uninteresting indie, Good Shoes turned up with something that wasn’t that much more complicated, but somehow stood out.

While it must have been tricky trying to figure out what direction to go in after a debut like theirs, ‘No Hope No Future’ is quite a heavy come-down (the title itself isn’t particularly optimistic). All the urgent, excitement of their earlier tracks has been replaced by an impotent, unnecessary grumpiness. When you slow Good Shoes down, their lack of individuality as a band comes to light and they just blend back into the hazy, colourless pool of average guitar bands, leaving yet more filler for the innovative few to swim through. As you might expect, this puts their live show in jeopardy.

The only songs that stand out from the first half of their set are ‘Ice Age’ (the only old track) and ‘The Way My Heart Beats’ which, to be fair to them, is up to the standard of their debut. Despite only being released this year, live, it sounds like you’ve heard it hundreds of times before. Now that either makes it hugely unoriginal, or something close to a perfect pop song. Luckily for them I think it might be the latter. Aside from these two, the crowd stays fairly motionless for the first twenty minutes, clearly disenchanted by the new material. However, when the old songs start turning up, the crowd sees a new lease of life. Albeit like recently woken coma patients making their first movements in twelve years after ‘No Hope No Future’, but nonetheless, the old songs still have the power to animate an audience. Final track, ‘Under Control’ keeps the energy alive and lies in the same category as ‘The Way My Heart Beats’. Pointing towards an interesting new direction for the band.

We might just have to wait till the next album to hear the complete product though.

Kele - Tenderoni

With the way Bloc Party’s music has been going recently, there was clearly some directional disparity within the band. The differences were starting to show through in the music too. ‘Intimacy’ wasn’t anything particularly special and ‘One More Chance’ was just odd. Both flirted with dancey, electro elements like an awkward teenage boy trying to chat up a girl who’s a little bit too cool for him. It’s not that Bloc Party aren’t cool, and there’s nothing wrong with wanting to change their sound (quite the opposite). It’s just that so far, all of their attempts at change have sounded a bit half-hearted. So it sort of makes sense that they opted for one of those it’s all going down the pan’ hiatuses.

It looks as though it could be a sensible interlude for the band though as it’s prompted some interesting side projects. I guess at the moment it’s just the sense of mystery that makes bassist, Gordon Moakes’ ‘Young Legionnaire’ interesting. So far they haven’t let any recorded material slip and they’ve only played a couple of London gigs. However with La Roux’s drummer (formerly of I Was A Cub Scout), the singer from The Automatic (formerly of Yourcodenameis:milo) and more gigs lined up -including one at Great Escape Festival in May- it’ll be nice to see what comes out of that mix. Guitarist, Russell Lissack has collaborated with Milena Mepris to form Pin Me Down, which has unfortunately just provided us with a worse version of Bloc Party, with a female vocalist (and she gets a bit irritating after a couple of songs). With no news of any projects from drummer Matt Tong, a substanstial amount of weight has been left on Kele Okereke, as the frontman of the band.

With the release of his first single Tenderoni (out 14th June), from his debut solo album The Boxer (21st June), it becomes quite clear where the musical differences lie. Tenderoni sounds like the finished product of the new sounds the vocalist was trying to inject in Bloc Party’s music. From a musical point of view alone, it looks as though Lissack was resisiting any radical change and was happy to carry on doing the same. Kele obviously had very different intentions. This first glimpse at his solo material shows a very different style emerging. With flattened, looped drums, a synth line that’s a little bit too similar to ‘Wearing My Rolex’ and not a guitar in sight, it’s certainly nothing like Bloc Party. However it fulfils the intention of the hiatus by letting new sounds emerge and allowing individual ideas to be explored without constraints. Maybe after a bit of time to play around with these new ideas alone, the full band could return and have a go at finally producing an album that gets close to the quality and excitement of Silent Alarm. Just Maybe.

This is what it sounds like;

Thursday 22 April 2010

Mystery Jets - Flash A Hungry Smile

While we wait with bated, eel pie tinged breath for The Mystery Jets third album, they’ve kindly decided to follow the trend and swap a preview track for your email address. However, unlike a lot of seemingly altruistic bands, The Mystery Jets have chosen to give away a really good song (all Kate Nash could muster was three minutes of wailing album filler). ‘Flash a Hungry Smile’ manages to somehow blur the line between potential Christmas single and something you’d put on your summer BBQ playlist. Despite this seasonal sporadicity, the song makes perfect, simple sense.


The song wouldn’t be too out of place on their second album, ‘Twenty One’ but it shows a clear progression. For a start, it just sounds insanely, almost self-mockingly happy. Blaine’s vocals range from sound inanely gleeful to exhaustedly strained, stopping for the odd whistle and whoop. All of this gaiety makes the suggestion that ‘All the birds and bees have caught STD’s’ sound in some way friendly. I suppose after being used to represent sex that many times, those poor birds and bees are bound to have caught something nasty. I just hope for the band’s sake that the rest of the album is as promising as this. If they’ve given away the best song for free that’s just terrible business sense.

You can download it for free from their website now.

Thursday 15 April 2010

Interview with Radio 1's Huw Stephens


After the initial hilarity of his Welshness and the realisation that somehow it's illegal for him to utter a single word related to the closure of 6 Music (have a go at saving it, apparently Facebook campaigns ALWAYS work), I resorted to my back-up questions.

Me: A few days ago Edith Bowman spoke out about the 6 Music closure and how important a station like that is when programs like the X Factor and people like Simon Cowell are having such an influence on new music. What do you think about programs like the X Factor and that method of finding ‘talent’?

Huw Stephens: I think X Factor is just pure Saturday night entertainment and there’s nothing wrong with that but I think that you and I and hopefully everyone reading this knows that there’s so much more new music out there than what’s on the X Factor. It’s everybody’s job just to push it, find it, nurture it and discover it. I think the X Factor is so far removed from what a lot music lovers actually want. It’s relevant to some people, it’s not relevant to others, in the same way that my show is relevant to some people and not to people who watch X Factor probably, but there’s room for everything. If people want to watch it then there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, I’ve watched X Factor plenty of times

Me: What do you think of sources like Spotify and Mflow and their benefits (or lack of) for small bands?

Huw: I think it’s really good. Everybody gets their music in different ways, some people still buy CD’s and vinyl, other people…don’t want to pay for music and get it from services like Spotify. Some people just listen to the radio to get their music fix. As long as the music industry can work a way of carrying on with all these free services then I don’t think it’s a bad thing.

Me: What small bands at the moment would you like to see make it big?

Huw: I think Frankie and the Heartstrings are a very exciting band who I like a lot. They’re from Sunderland, and they’re just a brilliant band because they take it seriously but they’re not po-faced about it, they’re really fun and they enjoy being in a band and their tunes are amazing. I reckon Washed Out will do well at some point too, but that’s the beauty of music really because you know who’s going to big next, because it’s up to the people to make them big.

Me: What festivals and line-ups would you recommend for well-known bands, and for scouting out smaller bands?

Huw: Green Man festival is brilliant. I think for new bands the inner-city festivals are good like Great Escape in Brighton and Camden Crawl. For festivals in a field, Bestival is always good, Rob Da Bank always books lots of really good new bands there, and Reading and Latitude as well have always got good new bands on the smaller stages. So hang about the smaller stages at those and you’ll be all right.

Me: What do you think of this year’s Reading and Leeds line up and reunions in general at festivals? Do you think they block the path for smaller bands who have the potential to headline stages or do you think it’s a good chance to see a band you might not have seen the first time round?

Huw: I’m not sure you know, there are so many festivals and so many stages at festivals that I think there’s room for everybody. I think reunions are fine, if people want to see The Libertines or Guns N’ Roses or Blink 182, and they’ve never seen them before, then seeing them at a festival is going to be incredible. I do think there’s room for newer bands to headline. There are so many festivals now that you can chop and change what kind of bands you use to headline them.

Me: What band would you like to see re-united at a festival or elsewhere, whether possible or not?

Huw: I’d love to see Talking Heads live, they haven’t played for years, that would be amazing.

Me: How likely do you think that might be?

Huw: I don’t know, are any of them dead?

Me: I’m not sure. I don’t think so.

Huw: Well if they're dead, it's probably quite unlikely, but if not, let's start the campaign here!


Looks like another Facebook campaign barely worth bothering with...

Wednesday 14 April 2010

Doo-Wah-Don't - Ahaha! A pun!


When it comes to being female and playing popular music to people on a piano, Regina Spektor has always dicked all over Kate Nash.

You could claim that Kate Nash's additional guitar skills give her a boost over Regina, but she does guitar as well! Regina doesn't over do it either, she keeps it simple and does it in a way that's...just cool.

Regina Spektor - That Time

Fair enough for Kate though, everyone's got their influence, no music is completely organic anymore, she even spoke about the influence in an interview;

“Oh, I love Regina Spektor – she was like the first person I found when I was 16. You know who certain people are, all the great artists in music, and you’ve gone through your shit stage and you’re now looking for some really good music. Regina Spektor was the first person who really hit me and really touched me. Everything she said I just wanted to hear. I just wanted to hear every message that she had. I just love her and her music. She’s a really great writer and she’s really quirky. The main thing is that she doesn’t conform to anything in any way. She writes and performs the sort of beautiful music that saves peoples lives, and she gives you hope, makes you wanna cry and makes you laugh. To be honest, I think Regina Spektor is my biggest influence musically, definitely.”

That said, I think her new single might be pushing it a bit. In the sense that it has just lifted the riff from 'That Time', and stuck it into this;



Ok, so she's padded it out with some far less interesting lyrics, a 'dum di dum' pop chorus and one of those minor chaos on an aeroplane videos, but it's hard not notice the similarity.
To her credit though, it's at number 13 in the mid-week charts and if it stays there till Sunday she'll have outdone Regina in chart terms by a long way.
It would just be nice if on the cover of the single there were clear instructions telling customers to buy some Regina Spektor albums, to put it all in perspective.

Sunday 14 March 2010

Gorillaz - Plastic Beach

On the release of their self-titled debut album, Gorillaz were guaranteed a boost towards success by Damon Albarn’s pre-existing notoriety. For their third release, he’s granted them a solid gold, fame-encrusted rocket to the moon in the form of all of his famous friends.

It’s not as if collaborations were a rarity in the past for the cartoon monkey ensemble, but Albarn has really upped the ante here as far as famous friends go, by simply inviting his whole phonebook. Snoop Dogg, Lou Reed, Mos Def, Bobby Womack and half of The Clash make up only a fraction of the collaborators. If you listen closely you can even hear Mark E. Smith’s groan of ‘Where’s north from here?’ on Glitter Freeze. Managing a cast as diverse as that could be an insanely difficult task to handle but somehow Albarn has made it work. Despite the disparate nature of some of the additional contributors, the combinations of them sort of make sense. Bobby Womack’s injection of soul following Mos Def’s input on Stylo fits perfectly, and Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach makes you wonder why Snoop Dogg hasn’t worked with Hypnotic Brass Ensemble before.

Although the sound of this record may be far removed from the first two Gorillaz albums, and perhaps not quite as coherent, it’s the band’s ability to combine contrasting talents and genres that makes them so different from anyone else. They have never been a clearly defined group. Sometimes they seem to be Damon Albarn’s solo project, sometimes they’re just a bunch of monkey drawings. This album may not have the standout singles like Feel Good Inc. and Clint Eastwood that the first two offered, but the change in direction has made way for a much more varied album and a sound that can’t be heard anywhere other than on Plastic Beach.

Wednesday 24 February 2010

Interview with Felix from The Maccabees

Quite possibly the nicest man in the world.

ME: So how’s the tour been so far?

FELIX: Brilliant, we’re down to the last three gigs now so we’re almost there, but it’s been great, we’ve loved it.

ME: What have the instore gigs been like?

FELIX: We only did one, the other two got cancelled for some reason, but the one we did (in Glasgow) was good.

ME: Is it an odd experience playing in a shop?

FELIX: It is a bit strange. It can be car crash, but I suppose they’re set up as foreign experiences, things you wouldn’t normally see at a gig and a different side to a band. Some of them can be really fun; it’s a bit of bi-polar experience.

ME: Have you or the rest of the band made use of the other facilities at the venue?

FELIX: I think a lot of the boys have gone for a swim actually! We’ve played here a couple of times and I’ve never been swimming here, but yeah it’s a strange venue.

ME: Have you had a chance to look round Portsmouth much today?

FELIX: We stayed here yesterday actually as well, but I haven’t done that much. I had a walk across the beach today and it was actually really beautiful.

ME: Who would you give an NME award to?

FELIX: I think Micachu and the Shapes deserve more attention than they’ve received and Richard Hawley’s not up for anything and I think he should be.

ME: What plans have you got for summer festivals and tours?

FELIX: There will be a few, but it’s basically getting down and doing the next album really. This is kind of the last thing we’re going to do.

ME: When are you planning to release the new album?

FELIX: Hopefully this time next year, there’s a lot of work to do it all in that time but hopefully we’ll get it done.

ME: Will you be going to any festivals yourself?

FELIX: I might go and see The Strokes at Isle of Wight. Strokes and Jay-Z, that’s a pretty immense line up! They’re one of those bands I’ve been in love with since I first heard them.

ME: Are there any other festivals that you would recommend?

FELIX: Bestival is good, as long as it’s not too muddy. I always hear that Secret Garden Party is good as well but I’ve never been.

ME: After the collaboration with Roots Manuva, have you got anything similar planned?

FELIX: I think Edwyn Collins from Orange Juice is going to be joining us to do ‘Rip it Up’ at the Brixton gig.

ME: Do you have any plans to record it in future?

FELIX: No, not just yet, I think we’ll just see what happens. I think it’s nice to just keep you’re head on and do unexpected things.

ME: Do you see a different sound developing for the next album?

FELIX: Yeah. We’re doing it all individually at the moment, so I don’t quite know how it is going to develop, but it wont come out unless it’s different.

Interview with Bombay Bicycle Club

I spoke to Jamie (Guitarist) and Suren (Drummer) before the gig. Suren barely said a word.

ME: How was the instore signing today at HMV, do you find it a bit odd signing autographs?

JAMIE: It was all right, there were a lot of people there. I just don’t see why anyone would want my autograph. It’s mainly 13 or 14 year old girls, but if they want it then that’s fine!


ME: Have you had much time to look around the rest of Portsmouth today?

JAMIE: I’ve already been to the d-day museum, by myself, which is a bit sad.

ME: Did no-one else want to come along?

JAMIE: I didn’t ask.

ME: We’re attached a swimming pool at the moment, have you played in any other unusual venues?

JAMIE: We’ve played in a bowling alley before and a barber shop as well the other week; we have done some weird gigs. We played in a puppet theatre.

At this point the interview was interrupted by Ed (bassist) trying to determine which polystyrene take-away container was his. It was pork and chips.

ME: Do you know what festivals you’re going to be doing this year?

JAMIE: Just Glastonbury at the moment. We’ve got a new acoustic album coming out though; we’ll do a tour for that.

ME: What are you’re favourite festivals, to play at or just to go to?

JAMIE: Reading and Leeds, Glastonbury…actually I’m not a massive Glastonbury fan. There are too many people there and it’s too big. Too many old people. Sorry I sound like a grumpy old man! I really liked Latitude last year, that’s a good gig, and Secret Garden Party. I think it’s better to go to the little ones now. I think you’ll have more fun there.

ME: As this is the NME awards tour, who would you give an award to, and what for?

JAMIE: Nicest band goes to The Maccabees definitely, this tour’s definitely re-enforced my love for The Maccabees. I can’t think of any other awards. I really like The Big Pink after this tour actually, I wasn’t that sure at the start.

ME: How do you think this year’s line-up compares to some of the previous NME Awards tours?

JAMIE: Well I went to The Killers, The Futureheads, Bloc Party and Kaiser Chiefs one, that was great. You can’t really tell because bands tend to get big after the tour. Looking back, the line up this year doesn’t look nearly as good, but then last year I’m sure no one was there for Florence and the Machine opening it. If we’re in the position Friendly Fires are in this time next year that’ll be great!

NME Awards Tour 2010

On seeing this year’s tour line-up I was a little confused. The Maccabees deserve to be there after two great albums, Bombay Bicycle Club fit in well too, it was the other two I couldn’t work out.

From The Drums I had previously heard a lot of hype and not much music, and from The Big Pink I’d heard that song about dominoes. After listening to both beforehand I wasn’t exactly enthralled. Unfortunately after now having seen them both live, my opinion is much the same. Openers, The Drums are clearly aware that their music is nothing special. When playing live they had the fundamental issue of not being able to play it all themselves. To make up for this deficit they play along to a backing track and dance around like lunatics in an attempt to distract us from the lack of live music. Regrettably, their dance of choice looks like a cross between the locomotion and a slow motion Ian Curtis, both of which are unadvisable.

The Big Pink initially seemed more promising, through a complex combination of pedals and effects, they filled the Pyramid Centre electronic bleeps and feedback. However after that, the band didn’t appear to have hooks, choruses, or anything of interest. Obviously people enjoyed Dominoes but other than it just sound like a bad version of Placebo being brutally arse-raped by a gang of daleks

After a fairly static start to the evening, the running order of the bands began to make sense. Bombay Bicycle Club immediately had a bigger impact on the crowd, despite barely saying a word for the whole set. The band seemed a lot more accomplished than their support acts despite only one full-length album and they provided a much more balanced set with intricate riffs as well as noisy choruses.



As the night drew on it was clear that the majority of people were here for the headliners. The Maccabees looked quietly confident, with the recent addition of a well deserved (and well utilised) brass-section. They showcased a faultless set of old and new material, but they’re attitude on stage makes them a great live band. In contrast to The Drums arrogant arsing around, The Maccabees seem genuinely happy to play and grateful to the crowd. Frontman Orlando ended the night by thanking pretty much everyone in the world. You’re very welcome Orlando.

Funnily enough, NME gave it a glittering review.

Sunday 21 February 2010

The Winter Olympics, rewarding obscurity, insanity and then maybe talent.

At the time of writing I am watching speed skating.

It's ridiculous. Five men -some with moustaches- line up,
then for some reason they attempt to complete 'NINE LAPS OF THE TRACK!'. The track, incidentally, is a tiny oval within which these men spend a couple of minutes skating like morons. Apparently, these men just travelled 1500 metres, on ice, in a circle, to win a bit of gold. Obviously, it's prestigious, without a doubt, it's the Olympics, I'd take a medal if I could. Yet it seems ridiculous to train to the extent these people do, to dedicate their lives, as these people to, just to get a medal. What the hell is a medal?! No-one deals in medals any-more! It's like a horse getting a rosette, what on earth do they mean?

I suppose that, maybe, over the years (about 2000 of them) the Olympic Games have earned themselves a fair bit of attention, and rightly so. Nothing else has lasted that long. Jesus supposedly turned up at a similar time (i.e. 'the beginning of time') and look what happened to him. It's impressive that an event that is essentially a display of fairly unnecessary talents has stood the test of time, and anyone that comes out as victor in such an event in modern times deserves some credit for it. Even if just to be part of a colossal legacy. I suppose it's just the winter bit that gets to me.

In ancient times, when there was no abundance of fairly useless modern distraction tools, a competition to see who could run really fast in a straight line, or who could throw a rock the furthest would have presumably been a fantastic way to while away the time. Making it a competition is just a natural progression.

Although it's the 'winter' aspect of it that is currently affecting me, (mainly because that's what's on telly at the moment) even that makes sense. Most of the sports are essentially insane. The basis of the majority of the events is putting something on your feet, or putting yourself on something, and then just sliding down a hill. Skiing, snowboarding, luge, skeleton, bob-sleigh, they're all fundamentally the same, but in an environment where there are a lot of hills, and where it snows quite a bit -as you'd expect- it is literally the winter equivalent of the summer games. Running is just a way of getting around, so is skiing. Why not make it a competition every now and then? The part that baffles me is the UK's involvement in it, and the extent to which we attempt to compete.

There aren't that many hills in the Great Britain. We have a few, but they're nothing special. Most of them very rarely accommodate snow. If they do, it's so rare, that no-one owns the skis to utilise it. Luge, skeleton and bob-sleigh tracks don't even rely solely on the weather. You can make ice, but we've barely got the hills to make doing that worthwhile. Yet still, every four years, the BBC is commandeered by coverage of the UK being distinctly below average at winter sports, because as a country with a temperate climate, we can never quite reach the peak of that domain.

Everyone knows we're not going to win, a couple of days ago the commentators were ecstatic when we got eighth place in some form of snowboarding, they must have gone insane when we actually won our first gold medal in eight years. Obviously it's great if we can excel in some aspects of the games but it seems like there's a little too much excitement and anticipation. Can we not just set our standards a little bit lower? That's clearly a horribly pessimistic suggestion. We'd never achieve anything if we adopted that attitude. I'm not quite sure if there is a solution, or even a problem. We probably all just need to calm down a bit.