It has been..

6 months!!

For shame

In that time I’ve mostly been working, going on holiday and making a mess. In short.. In January I went to London and had a rare tear in Camden for a few days then went to see Wicked. In February I played for The Mill then went to Milan and saw Mogwai and Errors. In March I went to Edinburgh to see Elbow (Cheers Rhona!) and in April, I had some time to relax in Dijon where I mostly went to Monoprix and drank whisky. In May I had a rowdy time in Bristol meeting some locals and in June, I went to Belfast with a Swede and partied and stayed with some wonderful Irish people.

This brings us to July, the more musical of most months in Scotland for the volume of bands playing here in this particular month. That’s right, T in the Park. So with equal amounts of trepidation and joy, I’m slowly packing for the muckiest, nediest festival you can find north of Leeds. Then two days later I’m going to see Bruce Springsteen.

Yaaaaaaaldiiiiii!

I plan to use this more..

 

The Sun Smells too Loud

I suspect I’ve been a bit slow on the uptake but I just seen this tonight when looking for a video to put up for my last post. Touch of class!

The Sun Smells too Loud, after bingeing on too much Danish bacon-

 

2008

Was a good year for music I’d say. This is just a wee daft thing I did for a forum, listed my top 3 albums of last year. Here they are..

Mogwai – The Hawk is Howling
From the opening track I’m Jim Morrison, I’m Dead this album just grabbed me by the proverbials (and I don’t even have any, that’s how good it is.) Saw them perform this live in Paris in September and it’s one of the best gigs I’ve seen. The best gig I’ve seen is Mogwai at Somerset House in 2007, fyi.

Frightened Rabbit – The Midnight Organ Fight
I finally got round to seeing these boys in July this year, in quite spectacular style. I went along to the recording of the accoustic version of this very aforementioned album. The room was tiny and sweaty but it made such an impression and I can’t get enough of them.

Fuck Buttons – Street Horrrsing (No, not a typo)
I’d say you are all guaranteed to hate this but it’s right up my street. Sort of post rock digitalism but what I love best is that whereas most post-rock songs tend to head towards some sort of climax, FB don’t necessarily and are completely in control of their sound at all times.

I also listened a lot to
Errors – It’s not Something But it is Like Whatever
Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
The Twilight Sad – Here, it Never Snowed. Afterwards it did
As well as tons of Arab Strap, Interpol, Leonard Cohen, Lou Reed, Dead Cab for Cutie, Kanye West, The Beach Boys, Bruce Springsteen, Popup and Elvis Costello.

I hope 2009 is as good, and I predict this will be the year where I get into dubstep in a big way.

 

A Moan

Do you know that every time an old past-it band reform for a tour, somewhere in the world – three young bands fall down dead?

Two to grab my attention recently being AC/DC (free flu jab, anyone?) and Blur. Sorry, Blur. I love Blur and I’m sure everyone heading to Hyde Park will have a pure blast watching you. Let’s all have a Pimm’s and smoke a ciggie, hoorah. Don’t forget The Police, Genesis, Crowded House, James, Boyzone…

Imagine the money being spent though on promoting and booking those gigs, and the cash spent ensuring all these superstars show up on the day, and the mark-up on the ticket sales and merchandise that will line the pockets of all the greedy execs.. Then imagine how much new and exciting talent this revenue could have nurtured and given another bunch of spotty kids the chance to make the music they really care about and want you and your grandkids to listen to aswell.

It’s so not a case of ‘Well there’s no good new bands coming out that people want to go and see anyway’, cos I’m sorry there is. There’s thousands and thousands of musicians out there who could be great, and who will die with the same potential never realised, (imagine Eva Cassidy had been discovered in time?) just so you’s all can watch Richard Ashcroft wank into the front row of the 02?

Ever since people had talent there was always other people’s talent going unnoticed, that’s not what I’m annoyed about. I’ve just never had to sit through a hundred and ten (sorry, fuck off Take Take!) disbanded bands reform and pretend they’re doing it for anything other than money.

 

This week..

Mostly been loving Brother Louis Collective. Calling themselves, ‘the sad clown cast’, they make me anything but. Their song Dead Against Smoking is currently my myspace player default, I love how the intro almost reminds me of the Cheers theme. Feels like a pal dropping by to sing you a wee song.

For your ears!

 

Angil and the Hiddentracks

Hello Angil! Not seen you since 2005.

Used to listen to Teaser for Matter a lot just after I left school. A girl I know through a music board had been spending the year in France and recommended him, then one day when I was in Avalanche someone handed his album into the second hand section (perhaps they were suffering a stupidity leak?) so I got it for a couple of quid. Huge bargain. A few years later (and not so long ago now) he was welcomed into the Chemikal Underground family and on the 24th of this month his new album, Oulipo Saliva ‘hits the shops’.

 

Blood bruise update..

A la Arab Strap event…. still massive! No longer sore though I have plenty other bashes and bruises to make up for that.

Useful post, aye.

 

High School Musical 3

Sad posting about this but I feel like a rant. Took my wee cousin to see this yesterday afternoon, cinema was packed as it was a Saturday afternoon. It was a fromage-fest and the kids loved it, but I was left feeling pretty gutted. I’ll explain as best I can- it’s a Disney brand, right? And thirty or so years ago, the live-action Disney films that kids lapped up were films like Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks etc. Films with at the heart of it, a core message relaying that having a secure family and people that loved you were the key to building a pretty cool life.

High School Musical teaches kids that being able to sing, dance and have a boyfriend (with a gay-face) are actually what makes you happy. Hmmmmm. The distorted images here really confused me – the third film (I’ve not seen any of the others) revolved around them planning their final school show and of course, their prom, and it was HEAVY ladened with the subtext of ‘the night of nights’ – ie, let’s all get it oaaaaan!

Now I’m not daft, I know that kids now live in a different world to the one that previous generations lived in and that the media itself will always make the products that will make the most money. It just sticks in my throat a little that Disney, who built their reputation on keeping childhood magic alive, would so flagrantly undermine itself for the sake of the buck. It’s lazy, it’s damaging and it sucks!

Not a patch on this….

 

Happy Halloween

Well there’s about two minutes left for me to get this in here, so happy Halloween!

I didn’t get up to anything. Sat in the house with the lights off watching Corrie while wee strangers chapped my door. They never got anything off me. Haha!

 

Mogwai / The Twilight Sad – Casino de Paris

On Tuesday night I took the metro over to some strange part of Paris I hadn’t been before, to the pretty, old venue Casino de Paris. I was lucky enough to be in town the same time as the Mogwai tour rolled in, so my pal and I scammed some guesties through her ex-boyfriend Gavin who went to college with Craig from The Twilight Sad, who were supporting that night. Topper. Two of my favourite bands on the bill from my home town, hunners of miles away from home – it was destined to be braw.

The venue was a big olde-worldey, sumptuous looking place which as the name suggests – used to be a Casino did you know?? Tricky to work out but et voila! When The Twilight Sad came on the venue was maybe about a third full but I think people there really got into them. They just came out and battered into their set; I keep trying to remember which song they played first but it was but I was sort of overcome with the whole spectacle (plus the beer was mucho cheapo for Paris.) I have seen them play piles of times (more than I care to remember really) but I think they did something pretty special on Tuesday. They just got their heads down and ripped everyones ears off, and after just a half hour set (morally wrong if you ask me) they were gone again.

 

But then Mogwai came on!

It was just everything you’d come to expect from a Mogwai gig. Lifting you in the right moments and chucking you 40 feet in the air (to hear some hawk’s howling perhaps) and then taking you right doon to the gutter and stomping on your face. It’s like Iain Rankin was saying, it’s pointless trying to review Mogwai or sum them up in words – it just can’t be done. The only words I could of used during Like Herod though would have been ‘eh, new pants please’ as I near shat myself when it finally kicked in.

There was no aftershow (that we knew of, ha) which was gutting so we just had a Kir then a pizza and tottered off home. Immmmense stuff.