Where’ve You Been?

Yeah, so, been a while hasn’t it?

And yeah, I know, I made a load of promises for February and have delivered on no more than two of them. Sorry about that, but I do have good reason for being so lame.

I got another gig.

Yup, that’s the reason, I now write for a massive American Pop Culture Website in their music section. As such the last couple of weeks have been a bit mental. I write a weekly news round-up column and first up we had to agree how it was going to look, content type etc. That took a few days to resolve, and then there was the writing of the first column itself, which went out last Monday. This was followed by a brief appearance in one of the weekly roundtable columns on the Tuesday and then my second weekly column on the Wednesday. Yeah I know, two days doesn’t make a week but it was decided that Wednesday would be my day so I had to put another one out quite quickly.

So, as you can imagine, as well as the day job and demands of a young family something had to give for a bit, and I’m afraid that something was this blog. That’s not to say though that it’s going to end, far from it in fact. I’ll just need to be a bit more structured about how I do things. I’m not entirely sure how that’s going to work exactly but I will still be doing Alphabet Bands as well as album and gig reviews (which reminds me, anyone out there able to hook me up a couple of tickets for Delphic & Chew Lips at Heaven on 15 March?). I’ll try and organise myself in such a way that things go out on a regular basis but for now it will be as and when I’m afraid. With any luck it’ll start with a review of Tourist History by Two Door Cinema Club tomorrow.

Anyway, the site I write for is 411Mania , my stuff is in the music section, the column’s called the Music 5&1 and you can find the first two here and here as well as my appearance in the weekly Top5 column here. My news round-ups are much more ‘gossip’ based than the stuff I write here but I hope you still enjoy it.

Cheers, Adfunk101.

LIVE BLOG – NME Shockwaves Tour

So, here we are, the Live Blog experiment. Hopefully this goes well and doesn’t just turn into a bunch of incoherent drunken rambling. Also, lets pretend that all spelling and gramatical errors are intentional

Just like last year the snow is falling and my cab is late, hopefully I won’t miss as much of The Drums as I did of Florence 12 months ago. Damn you snow!

Anyway, on to the show…

So, I didn’t miss as much, I missed more. I missed the whole fucking set! They must’ve started almost as soon as the doors opened. Grrrr.

The Big Pink now, coming out to cyrpess hill. Sweet.
Actually, that’s the high point so far. They’re quite dreary really, like Glasvegas with a DJ. C’mon guys, get the crowd going a bit.

Right, 4 songs in and they’ve just asked the crowd if we’re still here. Dude, doesn’t that tell you something? Grow a fucking personality, and what’s with all this tuneless noise. It’s not a song, it’s not big and it’s not clever.
Ok, so as expected they finished with Big Single(tm) Dominoes, which is so out of keeping with the rest of their stuff. Hey ho, they’re good at what they do, it’s just that what they do isn’t very good. We like their big pink amp though. Sorry.

Bombay Bicycle Club next, to the mosh pit! Do they still call it a mosh pit?

Right, so lesson learnt. Blogging from the mosh pit is not possible.
That was great, Bombay Bicycle Club know how to play live. I now want to buy the album, that’s what it should be about. They hadn’t even started an actual song and they had shat on The Big Pink from a great height. Energetic in performance and songs that was lots of fun. Even the gaggle of 14 year old Danny Dyer and Noel Gallagher wannabees determined to start a fight in the middle (seriously, who throws a shoe?) couldn’t take away from how good that was. From the moment they started Dust on the Ground the crowd was up for it. A surprisingly powerful voice from such a slight singer everything about that set was great. Incidently, the reason the crowd is full of 14 year olds is so Bombay Bicycle Club can get their bassist into the gig. God to see Lil Chris still in work after his solo career tanked.

Forgot to mention, fat kid crowd surfing = v funny.
Maccabees now.

So far so much fun. There’s no denying that these guys are good but, to me, it just all sounds the same. Problem with having such a distinctive voice I guess. Rover and his wife fucking love them though so that’s something I guess
Seriously though, I do like The Maccabees, lots of energy, lots of fun, good crowd interaction and, according to Rover’s wife, Orlando is actually quite attractive. She has a thing for skinny indie kids. Tells you all you need to know about Rover.
Btw, one of The Maccabees is left handed and wearing a Danger Mouse T-Shirt, how much more indie can you get?
Right, play Latchmere you bastards.

Still no Latchmere but lots, lots of fun. X-ray a highlight so far.

Btw, minor football related digression, Chelsea lost! Oh, and more importantly, re: yesterday – WEM-BER-LEY!

Back to it, so I couldn’t tell you when one song stops and another starts, this is still good. You can see why The Maccabees are indie darlings. This is all good, crowd pleasing stuff; I have both albums but I haven’t enjoyed them as much as this live perfomance.

Into the encore now and still no Latchmere, c’mon guys, don’t disappoint. Yes, Love you better is a good track but I want a song about a wave machine!

Damnit, no Latchmere. Still, lots of fun and I picked up the Bombay Bicycle Club cd cheap from the merch stand and got it signed by the Ginger one, what’s not to love? Anyway, that’s all from me. Sober thoughts tomorrow.
Night all, thanks for being a part of this.

Right, home now. I know I said I’d signed off but whatever. Another enjoyable evening but I’m gutted I missed The Drums as they were the band I was most looking forward to. Still, Bombay Bicycle Club and The Maccabees were both excellent so that more than made up for it and hey, who doesn’t want to own a cd signed by a Ginger? Night all.

Live Blog – The plan

Right, so this is the plan.

Rover and I are heading off to the NME Shockwaves tour to check out The Drums, The Big Pink, Bombay Bicycle Club and The Maccabees. Should be fun.

Anyway, I will be blogging my thoughts and anything else that springs to mind live from the gig (could be interesting depending on the beer consumption!) and I’ll try and add pictures if I get the chance to take any.

I should be starting around 20:00 and will try to update at least every half hour (so keep checking back for updates).

That’s the plan anyway, we’ll see how it goes tomorrow.

Intelligent & challenging: These New Puritans – Hidden review

As you will have no doubt seen already from Rover’s live review of These New Puritans instore performance at Rough Trade East, Hidden is not an easily classifiable album. This is a good thing. Those of you who have read my pieces on The Brits and Tuggawar will know that generally I rail against the current mainstream homogenised pop factory approach to music and the whole idea of your appearance being more important than what you produce.

With Hidden, These New Puritans have produced a compelling, challenging and, above all, damn fine record. Rough Trade had it as their album of the month for January (which is how I heard of them and they came to be added to the list by the way) and I can understand why.

Before I go any further I just want to give a caveat to anyone yet to hear Hidden who then decides to go and get it based on what they read here. The first time I heard it my immediate reaction was quite simply ‘what the fuck is this?’ There is no other way of saying it I’m afraid. I genuinely had no idea what the hell I was listening to or why it seemed so, well, odd. Should you too feel this way when you hear it for the first time I say ‘persevere’. Listen again, more than once. Seriously.

The track that has thus far garnered most attention is the seven minute opus, We Want War. In his live review, Rover described it a ‘song that would perfectly accompany a dramatic film’ and he’s right. Except, he’s also wrong. The first time I heard We Want War I instantly imagined it as just that, the soundtrack to a big battle scene, starting with a montage of warriors getting tooled up and ready before cutting out to great sweeping shots of an immense battlefield. Then it became a video scene from a vast sprawling video game but that’s not right either. My point, very badly made, is that We Want War has a quality that will make it almost anything your imagination will allow. With the obvious exception of it being the soundtrack to an episode of In the Night Garden. Perhaps if Iggle Piggle were to snap and go on the rampage killing all the inhabitants, starting with Macka Packa and his OCD addled brain but not a normal episode, no chance.
To me, We Want War is balletic; it conjures imagery of dance, of a strong narrative, of a remorseful hero and his need for redemption from the one he loves. Give it a listen; see where your mind is taken away to.

So far this year I’ve reviewed Delphic and Chew Lips. Both high quality electronic based releases. Hidden too uses a lot of electronica but in a very, very different way. You’re not going to get the same euphoric high as when listening to Delphic or the beautiful haunting vocals of Chew Lips washing over you. No, from the very beginning, the two minute long Time Xone which is a very gentle horn piece, you know this is going to be unlike anything you’ve heard before. Time Xone slips surprisingly easily into the pounding drums of We Want War which in turn moves effortlessly into the dark yet catchy Three-Thousand. Just when you think you’re getting the measure of Hidden it then sweeps into Hologram which genuinely sounds like something Badly Drawn Boy might’ve done than back, back to the drums and the rhythmical assault that is Attack Music. You know what? It IS attack music! Again though, like We Want War, there is a somewhat orchestral feel to it, like We Want War it includes the use of a knife as a musical instrument (you don’t get that on the X-Factor!) but unlike We Want War, Attack Music is more directly accessible. Of all the tracks on Hidden, this is the one that is most likely to creep back into your skull four hours later without you realising, stealthily creeping towards then slitting the throat of Bad Romance before taking its place as that tune you just can’t get out of your head.

What follows are more drums, more horns, more woodwind, more electronic punctuation throughout and more intelligent, challenging tracks. For me, after seventh track Orion the album does seem to lose its way a little but it’s still going to be a long way ahead of much of what comes out this year. Hidden is a rich and varied album filled with dark melodies layered over a multitude of diverse vocal arrangements (some reminiscent of Mezzanine era Massive Attack, some even a little like Mike Skinner) and vast sprawling drum beats. Look out for it in the end of year lists.