Monthly Archives: August 2007

Big Blue Playlist 4/8/07

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The IRS

Tonight’s best new track was ‘The World Is Theirs’ by The IRS. It’s the title track from their stunning debut album, out next month. This is prime hip hop, great beats coupled with killer lyrics about the real world (think Braintax rather than party rap). And they’re being themselves, South London lads, not pretending to be American. If you’re a fan of hip hop, I’d say this is an essential purchase this year. Get your pre-orders in now!

Saves The Day

The best old tune was ‘At Your Funeral’ by Saves The Day. Did it really come out more than half a decade ago? I’ve been listening to this album a lot lately, and I drive round at night wailing along to ‘At Your Funeral’ at the top of my voice. It’s simply an immensely catchy pop song.

Tonight, you heard:

The Twilight Sad – Cold Days From The Birdhouse
Example – What We Made
Miles Away – Brainwashed
Ascii.Disko – Black Summer
Yeah Yeah Noh – Bias Binding
The Presets – Are You The One?
Stephen Malkmus – The Hook
Access Immortal – Acc The Villain
The Sweptaways – Kalla Mig
Refused – Rather Be Dead
Milanese – Dead Man Walking
Sea Wolf – You’re A Wolf
Cable – Whisper Firing Line
Braintax – Syriana Style
The Narrator – Surfjew
Stars – Midnight Coward
A Hawk And A Hacksaw And The Hun Hangár Ensemble – Serbian Cocek
Audit – Phernie Funk (Circuit Breaker Mix)
The Seduction – This Statement Is False
Del tha Funkee Homosapien – Mistadobalina
Numero – Hit-Pop
La Casa Azul – Cambia Tu Vida
Circuit Breaker – Still Got The Funk-Dip
The Fiery Furnaces – Duplexes Of The Dead
Morphine – Buena
Blue Scholars – Back Home
Noisettes – Don’t Give Up
The Slits – I Heard It Through The Grapevine
Le Tigre – Let’s Run
Huggy Bear – Herjazz
Samsara – Outcast
Boom Bap Project – Dealing With All Of This (Ft. Peegee 13)
I Love You But I’ve Chosen Darkness – The Ghost
JME – Serious
Love Is All – Talk Talk Talk Talk
Funkola – What’s In A Name?
Bristols – Who Does She Think She Is?
Shellac – Squirrel Song
Urthboy – The Signal
The Blood Brothers – Set Fire To The Face On Fire
Bad Religion – American Jesus
Agent K – Black Haze
The Ventures – Secret Agent Man
The IRS – The World Is Theirs
The Fall of Troy – Problem!?
Saves the Day – At Your Funeral
Buffalo Daughter – New Rock
The Red Chord – Black Santa
All Girl Summer Fun Band – Later Operator
Lateef & Z-Trip – Listen To The Dj (Remix) (Feat. Soup)
Jeans Team – Oh Bauer
Lightning Bolt – Draculamountain
Belle and Sebastian – The State I Am In
Beirut – Elephant Gun
I Am The Ocean – Scribble Jack
The Upstarts – Got What It Takes
John Barry – Hit And Miss
Stars – Midnight Coward
Manchester Orchestra – Now That You’re Home
Gorilla Biscuits – Start Today
Bowerbirds – In Our Talons
Teenage Fanclub – Cells
Cat5 – Sexy
Brother Reade – Let’s Go
Sonic Youth – Sunday
Vapnet – Thoméegränd
Dilated Peoples – The Release Party
Big Black – He’s A Whore
Little Ones – Let Them Ring The Bells
The Sprites – Do It Yourself
Leonard Cohen – Hey, That’s No Way To Say Goodbye

Birthday Pathos And Bathos

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You see – I have achieved advanced maturiosity!

Pheweeee! Well, last Monday was my 41st birthday. I’ve only got round to writing about that now as the previous few days were consumed with practising, gigging, festival-going and trying to sleep through wheezy nights. It’s been a hectic time for an old bloke!

I guess the biggest change in the last year is that I now take my health seriously. Since being in hospital, I’ve lost loads of weight and I’m generally far more active. You know, all the typical stuff old men do when they have their first health scare. Inside, I still feel twentysomething. It’s my physical body which is boorishly insisting on being fortysomething.

I think I’m slightly calmer emotionally than last year. Slightly. I don’t think I’d be a songwriter if I was completely normal. Goes with the territory, the same as you have to be a psychopathic cunt if you’re a capitalist.

I reckon if I’m very lucky, I’ve maybe got another twenty or thirty years ahead of me. That’s if I don’t get hit by a bus flying car in the meantime, of course. If I were to exit this cabaret prematurely, that’d be okay (though I have no great urge to miss the rest of the floorshow, I hasten to add).

I’ve had a fucking fantastic life so far, full of adventure and wonder, beautiful women and magical music moments. If I ever wrote down an honest memoir it would likely be dismissed as fantasy. Picket lines and pop singles, singing, searching and sometimes, amazingly, connecting. Intertwining through it all are the threads that have guided and educated me: dialectical materialism, praxis, straight edge, existentialism, nihilism and, most importantly, women.

This birthday, I shall leave you with these old bloke pearls of wisdom:

Life is way too short to be bored.

There is no heaven, hell, valhalla, no coming back as a chicken or fuzzy Buddhist one-ness. This is all there is.

This.

Is.

It.

What are you waiting for?

And now I’m off to read some fab Kage Baker and do some asthmatic wheezing. Good night! :-)

The Besties / A Smile And A Ribbon / The Deirdres

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Last night (was it only last night…?), I went to see three more indie bands, as if the weekend hadn’t zonked me out enough already.


The Deirdres

I thought I might be a little jaded but luckily The Deirdres blew the cobwebs out of my ears with a marvellous set of simple (i.e., good) tunes, inventive percussion and lovely harmonies. Bits of them remind me of The Marine Girls and more obviously of a less goth Young Marble Giants. A less old man might perhaps think of Tilly And The Wall. You should see them as soon as possible, before they’re famous and get crippling drug habits and scurvy.


A Smile And A Ribbon

Next up were Swedie beat combo A Smile And A Ribbon. They do a shimmery, 1950s’-influenced take on sweet indiepop which in some ways negates the tweeness of the genre. The singer even apologised for having bitter songs and said there’d be some happy songs soon! Hey – don’t worry, goth twee songs are fine by me! I hope they do some songs about boyfriends dying in motorbike crashes soon…


The Besties

Headlining were US lovelies The Besties who surmounted major tech gripes with good humour, grace and some shocking revelations about Cyndi Lauper. Lesser bands would have crumbled into acrimony but it brought out the… er.. besty in The Besties. Their dual-keyboard and rocket guitar-propelled tunes just hummed along, airy and catchy but also, in places, very punky. Real punk, I mean, the aesthetic rather than the superficial genre stylings. If I had to compare them to any band to make you go and buy their stuff, it’d have to be The Modern Lovers. Or maybe early B52′s? They have that spirit, that joy and freedom.

So, not bad going, two international bands and one from Derby, brilliant music and a great night out all for a fiver! Click here to see the pics!

Indietracks Festival 2007

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The gorgeous Swanwick Junction

One of the reasons I haven’t done a post for a while is that I spent the weekend at the Indietracks Festival.

And it was ace!


Cats On Fire

I saw loads of bands, varying from the twee-est twee through Mod to Krautrock synthpop. A few peeps I know have been moaning that it wasn’t a varied enough lineup but I disagree: if you went to Download or any of the big NME haircut indie festivals, there’d be far less diversity. There certainly wouldn’t be the same spirit as there was at Indietracks, one of genuine friendliness and inclusiveness. Of course, it’s only a baby festival at the moment, they’re probably all like that when they start. Maybe if it’s going in thirty years, it’ll be as industrialised and soulless as the rest of them.


Arthur & Martha

Sadly, I missed half of Sunday as Cats On Fire kipped over at mine on Saturday night and we talked far too late / early. Sunday was surreal as it was scorchingly sunny and I needed a dark room and a comfy bed.


Bearsuit

The highlights of the festival for me were Cats On Fire, Arthur & Martha and Bearsuit. But there was no act I found totally boring or pointless, it’s just that those were the ones I connected with the most.

For a lineup with so many bands and so much imminence of chaos, everything seemed to go very smoothly. I was amazed times didn’t slip later through the day. It was also lovely just wandering around the site, the Midland Railway Centre. But I missed the llama! Waah!

See you there next year, mofos!

(Click here for a gallery of the event)