Wednesday 28th October 2009
Deerhunter - Nothing ever happened
This is not particularly new, but I’ve been enjoying Deerhunter’s Microcastle album lately and this song is probably the pick.
Enjoy!
Audio posted at 12:25
Great cover of Beyoncé’s ‘Single Ladies’ by PomplamooseMusic.
I particularly like the new bridge.
Video posted at 11:54
Tuesday 15th September 2009
My highlights from the End of the Road Festival
The comedy (well-timed not to clash with any of the big name acts) by the likes of Robin Ince, Martin White, Waen Shepherd and Issy Suttie was brilliant, and funny enough to make sitting uncomfortably on a wooden floor, for three hours, not only bearable, but actually enjoyable!
From a musical perspective, there were fewer surprises than at Green Man as I was familiar with (and in many cases a huge fan of) a lot of the acts already, but here are my highlights anyway (roughly in order, although they were all fantastic), with Spotify links:
- Okkervil River (performed with great charisma, and deserved the Fleet Foxes’ Saturday headline slot)
- Dirty Projectors (translate their excellent album Bitte Orca into an impressively flawless live show)
- The Hold Steady (lively and brilliant performance, perfect band to finish the festival)
- Neko Case (great voice, great band, good banter, and a very slick performance)
- The Low Anthem (a really erudite and interesting band, they showed that you don’t have to turn the volume up to 11 to capture an audience)
- Wildbirds & Peacedrums (I took a bit of a chance on seeing them and was not disappointed; supremely energetic performance)
- The Acorn
- Loney, Dear (completely confused the audience with his mangled attempts at forming coherent sentences)
I was most disappointed with Fleet Foxes. Don’t get me wrong, I did enjoy their performance enormously, but they seemed a bad fit for the hour-and-a-half long headline spot. They don’t have a lot of material and they spent a lot of time between songs not really doing anything. The best bit of banter came not from the band, but from a member of the audience jeering because lead singer Robin Pecknold left a teabag in his cup of tea too long.
I think this was a case of the organisers putting the biggest draw in the headline spot, but not necessarily the right act. Given only an hour to fill, I think they would have had a better chance of impressing.
This was a rare misstep though, and the festival in general felt wonderfully paced, with the Sunday night ‘rock’ headliners of the Hold Steady and Neko Case delivering a fitting climax to a hugely enjoyable weekend.
(Pictures are on the way…)
Text posted at 14:44
Wednesday 26th August 2009
And here are some photos from that festival, including this one of Bon Iver which I was pretty pleased with!
(you’ll see what I mean when you see the others…)
Photo posted at 23:04
Monday 24th August 2009
My highlights from the Green Man Festival
If you’ve been following my tweets about it, you’ll know I enjoyed the festival, so here’s more about what I loved about it:
Location
It’s beautiful, and due to this stepped hill in front of the main stage (accurately described as a ‘natural amphitheatre’), really convenient!
Ambience
Everyone is happy to be there, even when it rains, and there are many unexpected surprises around the site, like the ‘wishing tree’ where people put their wishes on tags hanging from the branches (among a lot of variations on the “peace and love” theme, “delicious cakes” and “pie” were amongst the things wished for), and a near life-size inflatable elephant.
Music
Obviously. My favourites are listed here with links to their Spotify pages. Give them a listen!
- Beach House (how did this fantastic band escape my knowledge for so long?)
- Bon Iver (even better than when I saw him a year ago, and he was brilliant then)
- Dirty Three (kind of boring on record, but superb live, and Warren Ellis is a funny man)
- Grizzly Bear (lived up to my high expectations; sadly their latest album Veckatimest, isn’t on Spotify, which is a real shame because it’s really excellent)
- Camera Obscura (ditto)
- Beth Jeans Houghton (surely a star in the making; wore a giant curly wig all weekend)
- Wilco
- The Leisure Society
- Emmy the Great
- Wave Machines
Text posted at 16:20
Sunday 31st May 2009
Back to the Super Furry Animals though, here are the photos from the aforementioned gig, with more Holga craziness, this time in black and white.
Photo posted at 18:35
I’m rediscovering the Super Furry Animals after seeing them live last week.
This is probably their ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (many bands have them, Radiohead’s is Paranoid Android, for example).
Pics from the gig coming soon…
Audio posted at 16:50
Thursday 16th April 2009
Fleet Foxes - Mykonos
Curiously left off their album, this cracking track is currently available for FREE from Amazon.
Audio posted at 14:48
Monday 6th April 2009
Little Boots - Stuck on Repeat
I guess something like this is what Madonna’s been trying to do for the last five years.
Audio posted at 16:53
Monday 23rd March 2009
This one’s the opener and first single from the new Bat for Lashes CD, Two Suns. It’s called Glass and it sounds very Björkesque, which is no bad thing. Promising signs for the rest of the album…
Audio posted at 10:08
Thursday 19th March 2009
So I forgot to put up the other songs I was going to post last weekend.
Here’s one - a track off the new Röyksopp album - The girl and the robot (featuring Robyn).
Audio posted at 16:14
Friday 13th March 2009
Only one audio upload per day??
Looks like you’ll have to wait for the rest of my pop picks, sorry!
Text posted at 13:57
I’ve got a few auditory delights to share with you today. This first one is ‘Zero’ the opener from the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ new release It’s Blitz! which sees them take their pared-down garage-rock style in a new more electronic direction, with pretty good results!
Audio posted at 13:51
Monday 2nd March 2009
Vampire Weekend — Ottoman
New single (via bijan)
One album down and they are already self-referential.
Audio posted at 15:13
Sunday 22nd February 2009
Bob Dylan - Hurricane
Video posted at 18:24
