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.

Great Videos and February Preview

Yeah so, I’ve been a bit tardy in posting this week. Sorry about that, the real world got in the way somewhat this week. So, to make it up to you lovely people I’ll give you a quick preview of what’s coming up in February and as an extra treat, four of the best videos of all time. OF ALL TIME!

So, February’s going to be pretty packed. At the very least I will endeavour to do the following:

T – These New Puritans, Hidden review.

T – Them Crooked Vultures (eventually).

G – Ellie Goulding (yep, been promising that one for a while too).

CONTRA! – Review and thoughts on Vampire Weekend’s latest masterpiece.

K- Two part piece on Chicago’s finest, Kid Savant.

LIVE BLOG! – Yep, I’m gonna give it a go. Live blog from the NME Shockwaves tour.

Los Campesinos! – Gig Review.

So, that’s the plan for Feb, plus any other stuff that may come up, like taking the piss out of the Brits some more.

Now, on to those top four videos! Enjoy.

Moray McLaren – We Got Time. No special effects or CGI in this, all legit.

Tenacious D – Tribute. Complete with Dave Grohl Demon!

Pop – Pop Goes My Heart. You don’t like it? You’re dead inside, fact.

Hurt – Johnny Cash Version. Great cover, great video.

Hope you like them.

Don’t agree? Feel free to post alternatives in the comments section below.

What next? Andi Peters and Ed the Duck hosting? – The NME Awards

Occasionally, very occasionally, I reminisce about my youth and the magazines I used to get as a kid. 90 minutes with its new season league ladders that would last about a week before I got fed up of moving the teams around to reflect their positions; Melody Maker and Select with their free cassettes of new music (first time I ever heard Green Day was on a Melody Maker free tape) and the myriad of others that have long since fallen by the wayside, some that I read, some that I didn’t.

One such magazine that now resides in the great publishing house in the sky (that I didn’t read, I hasten to add) was Smash Hits. For those of you too young to remember, Smash Hits was, in a way, the Heat magazine of its day but focused entirely on pop music. Aimed mainly at teenage girls it devoted much of its pages to the ‘hunks’ of the 80’s pop scene. In later years it had its own annual awards ceremony, the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party which was attended almost exclusively by the kind of people who would faint with excitement at Michael Jackson concerts. It was a pretty big deal as I recall though, even hosted one year by Will Smith, post Fresh-Prince but pre-Independence Day.

As you would expect with something aimed at teenage girls and focusing entirely on the mainstream, the Smash Hits Poll Winners Party wasn’t exactly all about the music. Awards, as I recall, included such illustrious and critically relevant categories as ‘Best Haircut’ and ‘Most Fanciable Male’ which brings on to NME.

The nominations for this years NME awards were announced yesterday and while they were obviously much less anaemic and soul destroying as last weeks Brits Nominations (though not entirely. For the most part it’s same old big bands nominated for the same old awards) there were still one or two categories that more than raised an eyebrow.

By my own admission I have been away from the new music scene for a while now and to be fair, I was never really an NME reader (as mentioned, Melody Maker was my music paper of choice) so I haven’t ever paid too much attention to their awards either (shame on me, I know). Because of this I may be about to complain about something that has been part of the NME awards since time immaterial. I do know this isn’t something that’s been added to the awards this year so it’s not a new thing but I’m fairly confident it wasn’t around ‘In my day’ (I make myself sound so old, I’m really not).

I am talking of course about the inclusion of the ‘Best’ and ‘Worst Dressed’ categories and the ‘Hottest Man’ and ‘Hottest Woman’ categories as well.

I always thought that the NME was supposed to be the pinnacle of music journalism, THE place you went to find out about new music and what was hot in the ‘alternative’ music scene. A band would know they’d made it if they were featured in and liked by the NME. Now it would appear that somewhere along the track the points have changed and the New Musical Express has pulled up at a very different station indeed.

Why do we need these categories exactly? What do they add to the musical world we live in? Or is this just a cunning ploy to try and get the mainstream pop audience, the Tweens and the ‘Twilight Moms’ to take an interest in a more diverse musical landscape? Unlikely.

Also, doesn’t this send a message, one that is all too prevalent in society today, that your looks and appearance are important? That you can’t truly be taken seriously as an artist if you don’t look like a model? Balls to that.

Also included in the awards categories are ‘Hero’ and ‘Villain’ of the year. I have less of a problem with these categories but I’m still not sure exactly what they add except a bit of pantomime to the ceremony. That said, included in the nominees for ‘Hero’ of the year is Rage Against the Machine. Now, surely the heroes in this were not RATM but the people who set up the Facebook group and started the campaign to get them to number one rather than the X-Factor single in the first place. RATM were merely a conduit through which a previously silent majority could vocalise their displeasure with the continued blandification of our musical society at the hands of the all powerful ‘moguls’ such as Herr Cowell. If this truly was the most heroic thing that happened in music last year then get it right and find those facebook people!

One, seemingly abstract, category I do agree with though is ‘Best Band Blog’. My reason being that it advocates greater interaction between bands and their fans. Much like in the days of yore when bands had fan clubs that would send you exclusive newsletters and badges (the very height of desierability), now blogs and Twitter give us more direct acces than ever to our favourite musicians. In return we, as fans, are rewarded with exclusive content and first dibs on gig tickets. Also, if nothing else, it’s always great when Los Campesinos tweet about football you’d forgotten was even on.

Chew Lips – Unicorn review

I’m not sure where I first heard of Chew Lips. Having gathered the names of a number of new bands for the purpose of this challenge in a relatively short space of time I genuinely can’t remember where I found out about them all. All I’m sure of is I needed a ‘C’ and Chew Lips appeared to be getting some buzz for 2010 so, without knowing anything about their sound, onto the list they went.

Obviously, with the premise of this whole challenge being about finding new bands, I hadn’t previously come across debut singles Solo and Salt Air. As such I couldn’t really pass judgement on whether they are either ‘supremely confident or reckless’ as suggested by Q Magazine in their album review (Q283). What I can say is with tracks like Toro, Karen, Play Together, Slick and Eight I’m leaning heavily towards ‘supremely confident’ and justifiably so.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this is album of the year material (or even album of the month, hey, it’s been a very strong month) but this is more than just a solid debut. Seemingly channelling both Karen O and Beth Orton singer Tigs’ voice has a wistful, sometime ethereal quality to it. This is particularly evident in closing track, Piano Song, which is almost A Capella with nothing but (unsurprisingly) a simple piano track with occasional electronic whirring underscoring the lyrics.

In fact, given the energy showcased in Solo and Salt Air, it’s a little surprising just how understated Unicorn is as an album. They’ve been described as minimalist electronica and I can see why; certainly the sometimes-delicate arrangements seem designed to showcase the lyrics and Tigs’ vocals. That said, there is still plenty here to get excited about and that you’ll find running through your brain hours after listening.

Unicorn is beautifully crafted, opening with the hauntingly melancholic Eight before upping the tempo into Play Together (the first single from the album) and Slick. Karen is the sort of track that sits on radio play-lists for ages and, along with Toro, shows that La Roux are not the only ones who can do intelligent, chart friendly electric pop.

As an aside, how achingly cool is the Kitsuné label? La Roux, Delphic, Two Door Cinema Club, Ficherspooner, Autokratz and now Chew Lips. Talk about tapping into the zeitgeist.

As a whole though Unicorn is more eloquent than some of Chew Lips’ contemporaries and whilst many try to create the ultimate floor-filler, this is much more of a Sunday morning, post club album. Upbeat enough to hark back to the previous nights festivities, subtle and melodic enough to nurse even the sorest of heads. Besides, you want floor-fillers? That’s what remixes are for.

Still you can’t help feeling something is missing. It’s not the length (though 33 minutes is somewhat on the short side) and as I say the album is beautifully crafted, each track complimenting each other as you journey through from Eight to closer Piano Song. Perhaps the idea was to take a relatively simple approach or maybe Unicorn is designed to leave us all wanting more. I’m certainly looking forward to hearing what Chew Lips do next, so if that is the case, job done.

Brit Awards 2010 – Nomination thoughts

So, once again I digress from the original premise of this blog, ignore the challenge (I am listening to stuff, posts to come soon, promise) and talk about something else. This time, the Brits. Nominations for the 2010 awards were released on Monday and well, lets just say it’s not really for me. I’m going to go through most of the categories (Sorry, I just don’t know enough about the producers, mind you that won’t stop me on some of the others) and give my opinion. You know, for fun.

British male solo artist

Calvin Harris; Dizzee Rascal; Mika; Paolo Nutini; Robbie Williams

OK, it should be a straight fight between Calvin Harris and Dizzee Rascal with Dizzee emerging the victor. His grime-pop really hit the mainstream this year and he had some great singles. It won’t be though and in all likelihood it’ll go to one of the others. I genuinely didn’t think Mika was British so I’m a little surprised to see him here but hey, who else is there? Sting? Robbie Williams has it written into his deal with the Devil that he be nominated for and win at least one Brit every year he releases something, and some years he doesn’t, so he will probably win again. The wild card for me is Paolo Nutini. I say wild card because, well, this is probably best illustrated by a conversation I had with ‘Rover’ today about Mr Nutini and his inclusion:

Me: I Just don’t get it.

Rover: He’s sold shed loads of albums.

Me: Yeah, that’s what I don’t get.

British female solo artist

Bat for Lashes; Florence & the Machine; Leona Lewis; Lily Allen; Pixie Lott

Florence’s album has hit #1 just at the right time but don’t we just know that the Brits love Radio 2 so look no further than Lilly Allen here. Certainly her music has matured somewhat since her debut but I’m still not convinced. Too soon for Pixie Lott I feel and I don’t know enough about Bat for Lashes to say if she’s in with a shout or not. Leona has sold a bucket and done well in the states so she could well be the first X-Factor winner of the night. God help us all.

British breakthrough act

Florence & the Machine; Friendly Fires; JLS; La Roux; Pixie Lott

I’d love it to be Friendly Fires but they just haven’t had enough mainstream success, neither has Florence to be fair. Good as she is, the majority knows her just for her cover of You Got the Love. One of the other three to take it here, possibly La Roux as they were the face of the 80’s inspired synth revival but JLS may well nick it.

Ahh, JLS. Four action man figures who’ve been implanted with animatronics and taught rudimentary dance moves that are almost a literal translation of their songs. Seriously. I have Star Wars figures from when I was a kid that are less plastic looking than JLS. Also, why does one of them have a bit in the videos where he has to lift his shirt? Of course your abs are perfect, they’ve been made in a mould! There’s a warehouse full of JLS spare parts and replacement figures in case one breaks down.

British group

Doves; Friendly Fires; JLS; Kasabian; Muse

Again, love it to be Friendly Fires but it’ll probably be Muse. I haven’t heard the latest Kasabian but I’m sure it’s better than The Resistance. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it but it isn’t their best by a long way and I have heard nothing but good things about West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum. JLS we’ve touched on already. They have got a very commercial album, had good success and could do well in the States but no, they’re still utter dross. Did Doves even do anything this year?

British album

Dizzee Rascal – Tongue N’Cheek; Florence & the Machine – Lungs; Kasabian – West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum; Lily Allen – It’s Not Me, It’s You; Paolo Nutini – Sunny Side Up

Err, haven’t heard all of them. Should be Dizzee or Florence, will be Nutini. This is based purely on the fact that it’s shipped gagillions this year. Still don’t understand how. It all sounds like outtakes from Reet Petite.

British single

Alesha Dixon – Breathe – Not bad in all honesty but no, just no.

Alexandra Burke Ft Flo Rida – Bad Boys – Proof she’s not just another Leona but still, wasn’t much to it.

Cheryl Cole – Fight For This Love – The incessant media assault meant it was in all of our heads for months. You couldn’t go anywhere or turn on any radio station without hearing it. This will win. The music industry just won’t allow it not to.

JLS – Beat Again – See above. Stupid Stupid Stupid. ‘If I die/Will you come to my funeral/Will you cry?’ Well, you’ll be dead so it really doesn’t matter what I do does it Action Man?

La Roux – In For The Kill – Alright I suppose.

Lily Allen – The Fear – Didn’t like it, not even the best single off her album.

Pixie Lott – Mama Do – Catchy, Radio 2 friendly (don’t underestimate how important that is). Newton Faulkner gave it a bit more gravitas with his Live Lounge version.

Taio Cruz – Break Your Heart – Don’t know it.

Tinchy Stryder Ft N-Dubz – Number 1 – Don’t know it.

Joe McElderry – The Climb – NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Oh boy, where do I start? Right first off, this is nothing to do with Joe as an individual. I’m sure he’s a lovely boy but unfortunately for him he now represents all that is wrong with pop music today and it’s truly disposable nature. The Climb is a truly atrocious song and what makes it worse is it’s a cover. A cover of a terrible song is considered one of the best singles of the year? No, it was just a way to get more money out of the suckers that vote on X-Factor (and the rest of us who had to buy Killing in the Name so we could all feel good about raging against the machine while giving more cash to the same record label as Mcelderberry’s. Yeah I bought it too, felt good didn’t it?). We have had enough of group after group after group selling an absolute fuck-load of records just because they are pretty. Boyzone and Westlife made £8squazillion each and another 50 for their record label just, for the most part, by singing other peoples songs. I want originality, I want bands that play instruments not just stand up for the key change. The charts are full of X-Factor winners and losers; even the hideous ones (Cheeky Girls, Jedwood) are successful. MAKE IT STOP!

BRITs performance of 30 years

I’m not going to list them, all you need to know is the Jarvis interrupted Michael Jackson performance won’t win. It really should though.

International male solo artist

Bruce Springsteen; Eminem; Jay-Z; Michael Buble; Seasick Steve

I love this category if only because it’s always fun to see who will be listed just to make up the numbers (Hi Seasick Steve). At least we’ve moved away from years gone by when Beck and Prince would win year after year just because there was no one else. Honestly, previously nominations were chosen by simply finding five American singers that were still alive then giving it to Prince.

Jay-Z to win.

International female solo artist

Lady GaGa; Ladyhawke; Norah Jones; Rihanna; Shakira

Lady GaGa is an absolute lock to win this and it’s well deserved. Why though is Norah Jones on the list and Beyonce isn’t? Who did she piss off?

International breakthrough act

Animal Collective; Daniel Merriweather; Empire of the Sun; Lady GaGa; Taylor Swift

Her Ladyship to win again though it might go to Taylor Swift just on the off chance Kanye is in the audience. Who doesn’t want to see this again?

Lady GaGa had one of the best pop songs of all time. OF ALL TIME!

International album

Animal Collective – Merriweather Post Pavilion; Black Eyed Peas – The E.N.D.; Empire of the Sun – Walking on a Dream; Jay-Z – The Blueprint; Lady GaGa – The Fame

‘Rover’ disagrees but I expect GaGa to complete a hat-trick here. Annimal Collective and Empire of the Sun were (so I’ve heard) great albums but nowhere near commercial enough. If Black Eyed Peas are in attendance they might nick it but Lady GaGa is scheduled to play so don’t surprised to see her win all she is nominated for. Besides, Bad Romance is one of the best pop songs of all time.

Outstanding contribution to music

Robbie Williams

Outstanding contribution to music. When was that then? Was I asleep? Did I miss something? Oh right, deal with the Devil, yeah I forgot, sorry.

BRITs album of 30 Years

Coldplay – A Rush of Blood to the Head; Dido – No Angel; Dire Straits – Brothers in Arms; Duffy – Rockferry; Keane – Hopes & Fears; Oasis – (What’s the Story) Morning Glory?; Phil Collins – No Jacket Required; Sade – Diamond Life; The Verve – Urban Hymns; Travis – The Man Who.

The reason this blog post is up so long after the nominations were announced is because I’ve spent the week trawling through numerous graveyards digging up the people that chose this lot to ask them ‘why?’. Are you honestly telling me that this bland, blander, blandest list is indicative of British music over the last 30 years? 30 whole years and the best we produced is the entire playlist for every retirement home in the country? I call shenannigans.

30 years takes us back to 1980. Think of albums you’ve loved since 1980. I mean really loved. The kind that elicited an emotional response; that sound-tracked your life not just played quietly in the background while you waited at the hospital for an endoscapy. This list is just utter rubbish. You know it, I know it and so do the dickheads at the Brits. Still, they don’t really go for quality or excitement do they? Just quantity of sales.

So there you go, my thoughts on the nominations and before you ask, no, I won’t be watching.