Night-time walks

Walking along a pitch-black Belgian highway in the middle of the night can be strangely relaxing...when nothing happens that is. Last time I did this walk, from the Hermann-Debroux metro station to my mum's house, I was surprised by two very scary dogs that appeared out of nowhere. This time, no such exccitement. Just me and my ipod, Hefner and The Replacements. 

So, who's the rogue indiepopster?

There's a traitor in he indiepop ranks. Great songs keep popping (no pun intended) up in terrible ads...and someone must have told the producers about them.

Aberfeldy - Summer's Gone (stupid betting shop ad)

The Boy Least Likely To - Be Gentle With Me (ad for some bank....ING?)

Pelle Carlberg - Riverbank (The new Kelloggs Special K ad)

Those are all I can think of at the moment. It's odd. I'm not sure I like it. 

London Pop Fest

Every great city needs a Popfest and now London has one. At a first glance the line-up doesn't look that interesting.....to me personally anyway. Many familiar bands, but nothing I've ever really listened to....actually, only four of the bands listed appear on my last.fm page. But, but, but...that's not necessarily a bad thing....and I am looking foward to it. It'll be fun.


So, I guess I could have just copied the line-up from the homepage, but what's the point in having a scanner if I'm not going to use it? This one was in my pocket after Friday's Wave Pictures show at Bardens.


So....through boyfriend obligations, I am definitely going to see Allo, Darlin' and Tender Trap. Then I'd quite like to see Colin Clary again, cause he's nice and also Liechtenstein perhaps. We'll see.


London Popfest website

I'm reading this book...

..about The Replacements, one of the greatest rock bands that ever walked this planet. I've just read the introduction and it inspired me to do some youtubeing. There are some incredible clips out there and the quality is pretty damn good as well. Their live shows are legendary and this is probably far from them at their wildest, but it's pretty awesome. 

Customer/Rattlesnake


I Hate Music/Stuck In The Middle


I know what's going on my ipod for tomorrow :)

So, I'm putting on a show...

...and it will be awesome.

Eagleowl myspace

Rob St. John myspace

Allo, Darlin' myspace

Moustache of Insanity myspace

So, the weekend finally arrived...

First day at work was fine, if uneventful. I spent most of the day feeling rather useless. There's only so much you can do before you know what you're actually meant to be doing...if that makes any sense.

After work, I headed over to Soup Studios again, to watch the final hour of 'Allo, Darlin' recording her new EP. I came in just as this was happening.

That's Mike and Paul from Hexicon, Simon Trought and Elizabeth Darling doing some serious oohing and aahing. Again, it sounds lovely.

The evening continued with cans of lager, falafel, lemon/orange millions and finally with The Wave Pictures at Bardens Boudoir. Awesome show as usual and absolutely packed beyond capacity.

Apparently, Holloway is the new Hell.

Soooo....

I started a new job yesterday, something that always makes me really nervous. I went for a long walk in the dark to try to make myself stop worrying about it. It was nice and worked...kind of. 

Night-time in the woods is a good time for thinking, noticing things and listening to music. I noticed that my favorite phone box is out of order.

When I saw Talons play at The George Tavern on Wednesday, they mentioned a band called Trouble Books. This was enough for me to go and check them out, so I did...and their album 'The United Colors of Trouble Books' is simply amazing. Gorgeous lo-fi folk-pop with beautiful melodies and sweet lyrics. I listened to the album five times in a row. In fact, I am listening to it right now. Go and find it. You won't regret it.

Troble Books myspace

Storyland Valley

I had to do it. Wikipedia gave nothing, but google gave me some amazing pictures. Apparently, it's now called Edmonton Valley Zoo. Where's the fun in that? Anyway, here are three more pictures from Storyland Valley, then maybe I'm done with this topic.

Old postcards

I found these in the local Oxfam charity shop yesterday. There's just something about old postcards that I find very appealing. The colours are incredible and the photos almost look like paintings.

This one's of Old MacDonald's Farm in Storyland Valley, Edmonton, Alberta. Storyland Valley, eh? I like it. I think that calls for some googling/wikipediaing.

I love the swimming trunks on the boy in the bottom one. I can't imagine anyone ever swimming in the Thames, but maybe you can...or at least maybe you could back in the olden days.

Allo, Darlin' in the studio

So..Allo, Darlin' is recording this week. She's doing it at Soup Studios in East London and I went over to say hello. It's tiny and cramped, but very cosy. From what I heard the recordings sound incredible. Monster Bobby is providing drum machine awesomeness and backing vocals, Paul from Hexicon plays the guitar and Mike (also from Hexicon) is doing some drumming. It will be awesome.

Elizabeth Darling aka Allo, Darlin at Soup Studios this afternoon.

New year, new blog...

I feel like writing again. That's why I'm here. New year, new blog. We'll see how long it lasts.

Went to The George Tavern last night for a very pleasant evening of random musical treats. Two acts caught my acts:

Talons - myspace

and

Wounded Knee - myspace

Drew Wright aka Wounded Knee and Malcolm Benzie from Eagleowl (myspace) last night waiting for a bus that never came.