Free DM's Partay!1!

Vice are hosting a special party on October 29th to celebrate the half century anniversary of the iconic Dr. Martens brand. Get on down to the secret East London venue and enjoy sets by Flats (i bloody love that band) and the Black Lips, amongst others, by registering for FREE tickets at the Facebook event page (just write your name down).

As an added incentive, the booze will be cheap...

check out the official website here

Dry your eyes mate...yeah?

I've been very busy not blogging lately so i thought i'd come back with a vengeance. I offer up the following three videos as part of this vengeance. These aren't just any old videos however, no. They're all united by a little bit of bleary-eyed crying. You've all probably seen these videos before, but only now are they all brought together under one thematically cohesive blog post.

1. Kele- Everything You Wanted

Kele's latest single sees him walking the streets of New York, at times looking determined, at others more bewildered. It all culminates in a tear-stained breakdown. Aaawww, despite his new found muscle-bound exterior it seems he's still the introverted softie of old on the inside.


2. Janelle Monae- Cold War

I know, I know, I've already posted this, but so what? It's still good and it fits the crying criteria.


3. Summer Camp- Round The Moon

Technically this is not a video of the actual band and instead represents a highlights-only version of the film A Swedish Love Story. Teenage love, lust and heartbreak wouldn't be complete without tears, right? Nicely soundtracked by the retro nostalgia Summer Camp have quickly perfected.

Somethin' like a Menomena

I've spent much of today listening to the new Menomena album, Mines, which is really pretty good. Sounds less abstract and willfully experimental than their previous record, Friend and Foe, although this isn't meant to denigrate that album which is still a favourite of mine. Having said this, the new songs maintain all the classic Menomena characteristics: tinkly pianos, deep sax, yelps and croons, all delivered in staccato fashion. Reminded me of the funk of Liquid Liquid at times, particularly this track, but that may just be beacuse the "something like a phenomenon" line reminds me of the name Menomena. Anyway, here's the band in action.

LOL, that was a pretty funny joke.
This gives a better representation of what they're actually like:


Another album, that's been out a little longer, but that is also "really pretty good", is Archandroid by Janelle Monae. Check out the video for the storming Cold War. It's a wonderfully simple video that contrasts with the high drama and energy of the song, with the sort of performance not seen since Karen O's near break down in Maps.

When I was a young boy...

Jus' chillin', y'know, in the suburbs

Most of you have probably heard the new Arcade Fire album by now, and most of you probably think it's brilliant. And I would completely agree with you, I'm not gonna shit on this sacred cow, who do you think I am, Vice? I do have one bone of contention though, and it's to do with the lyrics. The album's title may be The Suburbs, but this does not mean that every single song (almost literally) has to include the words "suburbs" or "sprawl", let alone countless relations such as "city", "town" and "street". The suburbs are populated, almost exclusively it seems, by "the kids", or on a few rarer occassions "the children". We all get that it's an album about suburbia and childhood, but across 16 songs those themes become stretched a little thin when the same few words are used to articulate them.

Here are the results of my pedantry, mentions of:
The suburbs/sprawl = 20
The kids/children = 16

Back in my day...

I realise this is a somewhat trivial matter, but it detracts from the listening if you find yourself noticing, and being irked by, these things. Maybe if they'd cut three or four songs, rather than the 16 they've opted for, these shortcomings may not have been so obvious.

Still, one of my favourite albums of the year so far, but it seems increasingly unlikely that Arcade Fire will ever quite top Funeral, and will always leave people, well me at least, a little disappointed.

Songs of the Day

2 sa-weet songs 4 ya.


Number One:
Les Savy Fav with Let's Get Out of Here

 

Number Two:
Jens Lekman and The End of The World is Bigger than Love

 

Both lovely songs and well worthy of an email address and the effort of downloading.

1-2-3-4, Go!

Despite being described by one magazine as the best-dressed festival of the year, Shoreditch's 1234 Festival proved it had plenty of substance to back up its indisputable style. Perhaps the bulk of this substance was provided by Peter Hook and his showcase of Joy Division's classic Unknown Pleasures. It was a fitting setting for such a performance, Joy Division a band that launched a thousand Shoreditch post-punk copycats, and this was confirmed by the huge, raucous crowd who came to witness the spectacle. And spectacle it was, as Hook tore through the album, giving it the full rawk treatment, often far removed from the minimal, menacing restraint of the original recorded version. Having obviously never had the fortune to see J. Div perform for real, i have no real point of comparison aside from the record itself, and despite this most recent incarnation being different, it was no less affecting. This was aided on a number of songs by the powerful vocals of former Happy Monday and X-Factor contestant Rowetta, again making no attempt to mimic the distinctive Ian Curtis, which was perhaps for the best. The highlight was saved until the end however, with the only non-Unknown Pleasures track, Love Will Tear Us Apart. The sight of a thousand Shoreditch scenesters finally shedding their cool insouciance to dance, sing and all but cry along to every indie kids favourite song was a somewhat touching moment.

Peter Hook's set would have proved a fitting headlining show, had he not been on at 6, with numerous acts to follow him. Instead, much of the crowd dissipated before Wavves came on to rip through his snotty lo-fi punk, before being told to get off the stage by an equally snotty festival organiser due to over-running. Wavves were in fact a more fitting representation of the kind of bands i ended up seeing throughout the course of the day. The likes of Mazes, Dum Dum Girls and Vivian Girls all played lo-fi alt-rock that evoked different decades of American indie, from the Pavement-inspired Mazes to the 60's girl-groups and West Coast pop of Dum Dum Girls. Notable exceptions to this rule of thumb however, included S.C.U.M, a group of black-clad post-punk upstarts who have discovered the art of making a song since i last saw them a year ago, as well as the Japanese prog/punk/noisefreaks Bo Ningen who tore apart the tiny Artrocker tent with their collective insanity.

The only negatives on what was an otherwise beautiful and entertaining day in Shoreditch park were my sunburn and the sound problems of These New Puritans that resulted in them pulling out of their headlining slot in the Rough Trade tent just two minutes into their first song.

Prepared for the sunny weather better than i was

Photos from Vice and Offset

Side-projects, secrecy and SALEM

A triple whammy for ya:

 1. Offshoots of Indie Kings Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear have both released new material lately. In the GB corner, Daniel Rossen has unleashed a series of old songs and outtakes under his Department of Eagles moniker, collectively (and originally) entitled Archive: 2003-2006. While We're Young is a typically beautiful track that will be instantly familiar to fans of the Bear.
In the AnCo corner, we have the heavy-hitting Noah Lennox, AKA Panda Bear, releasing his first material after the much lauded (and much copied) Person Pitch. It's woozy, off-kilter pop is instantly recognisable, but equally instantly lovable. His full album, Tomboy, is out sometime in the Autumn.

You can listen to them both on the Pitchfork Playlist.

2. Secrecy and anonymity are watchwords for 2010 it seems, withholding your identity the latest marketing ruse for many new bands. Most of the pioneers, the likes of Summer Camp, have since been rumbled, but Wu Lyf, who supposedly hail from Manchester, have managed to preserve their secret status. I  followed a link to their website today that goes straight to a video depicting a struggle between white invaders and natives on a seemingly tropical coastline. It's got a sweet twist to it, plus some good old gore, and the song that soundtracks it (that i'm obviously assuming is by Wu Lyf themselves) is pretty great. It's got a similar aesthetic to the nostalgic pop that's so in vogue right now, save for the vocals that sound incredibly pained and impassioned, a dimension sorely missing from most other such bands. Check it out here.

3. SALEM are a band who make spaced-out goth pop, but who have come to be seen as leaders of the so called witch-house genre. Ludicrous genre names aside (i realise the witch connotations from the name, but seriously??), they've done a remix of the latest These New Puritans single, Hologram. As i'm meant to be seeing TNPs this weekend, it seemed rather timely, as well as the fact that it's a cool song, all slow beats, handclaps and deep vocal with a heavy drawl. SALEM's own stuff is also worth checking out, especially the song King Night.