The Popfest has landed

The London Popfest kicked off on Thursday, with a bunch of bands playing at Brixton Jamm. Highlights of the evening were Let's Whisper and Pelle Carlberg.

Let's Whisper at Brixton Jamm, with Elizabeth Darling on uke duties.

Pelle Carlberg was awesome as usual. I'm still amazed at his bandmate managing to play drums, bass and harmonica at the same time.

Then last night the Popfest headed to the Buffalo Bar, with amazing gigs from Allo, Darlin, Betty & The Werewolves, Zipper and Tender Trap.

Betty & The Werewolves

Zipper

More Zipper

Afterwards, there was dancing. Oh yes, there certainly was some dancing. 

I'm so tired I feel like dying. The only thing to do is to head down to the Macbeth for another ten hours of pop. Woooooo!

just awesome

David Lynch on Twitter is pretty much the best thing ever.

Tender Traptastic

Many pop kids would probably have traded their Talulah Gosh badges to swap places with me last night. I was invited to the Tender Trap dress rehearsal ahead of their comeback gig at the London Popfest on Friday. Playing their set to only a handful of people (five to be more precise) it was a strange but very pleasant experience. The new songs sound great, the old songs sound great.....so Friday should be alot of fun.

TRAVELODGE

It's not often I slam the phone in people's faces, but today I did it. Twice. To the same company.

Travelodge, oh Travelodge. Evil.

Jeff Lewis super secret show

Jeff Lewis played a "secret" show at the Betsey Trotwood last night. Normally, news of these kinda things leak pretty early, but this time it was handled pretty well. I think the only two places advertising the show was The Extradition Order's myspace and then on the day, on the Drowned In Sound messageboard. The problem with posting to DiS I guess is that so many of their users live in London, so yes it was pretty mobbed. After all, The Betsey only has a capacity of 50 or so.

Jeff played with a full band and it was one of the best shows I've seen him do. He played a mixture of songs, old and new and seemed to really enjoy himself.

I tried to film one of his new songs that they were playing for the first time and told us they probably would never play again, but it was too dark for my crappy camera. Anyway, the sound works, so below is an mp3. I don't know what the song was called or if it even had a name, but it's about tigers.

Jeff Lewis and The Junkyard - Unknown song about tigers (Live at the Betsey Trotwood, London, 20th February 2009)

I'm really glad I went, despite feeling uber sick. He's playing the Union Chapel today, but I think last night was a far more memorable experience than tonight's show could ever be.

Barcelona

I had to call and wake Elizabeth up this morning. The reason. Well, Primavera announced a big chunk of their line-up and we really need to go. Not that there are any OMG OMG OMG OMG bands, well there are, but it's mainly that as a whole it looks like it could be AMAZING! To name a few: Aphex Twin, Art Brut, Black Lips, Bloc Party, Jarvis Cocker, Jay Reatard, The Jesus Lizard, Karl Blau, Kimya Dawson, Magik Markers, My Bloody Valentine, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, Shearwater, Sonic Youth, The Vaselines, Vivian Girls and Yo La Tengo. A lot of those bands I don't really listen to, but still, would love to see at a festival. And it was such a lovely place. Expensive, yes. Worth it? Definitely.

In other news, I woke up with a really sore throat today. Not sure why.

February mix

I feel like sharing. Here's a bunch of songs that for one reason or another all have been played a lot this year. Some of the artists are mega famous, some are virtually unknown. Some I only discovered this year, some have been personal favorites for years. The only thing they really have in common is that they've all left a deep mark on me. 

I don't Weezer needs an introduction. This song is a B-side and was first brought to my attention in the Kevin Smith film Mallrats. 

I wrote about Trouble Books in one of the very first posts on this blog. I can listen to this song on repeat. I can't really explain why, but it just gets to me. It's only a minute long. Unfortunately the file is twice that size, but my computer skills are not great enough to sort that out manually.

The Replacements have been close to my heart for about seven or eight years and picking one song to share with the world was always gonna be a nightmare. This, like most of Paul Westerberg's songs, is just great.

I do love The Moldy Peaches. Silly, rude, simple, but oh so much fun. The live version of Rainbows is probably better than this "properly recorded" one, but just the idea of recording this song in a studio makes me smile. Perhaps the funniest first verse ever.

First time I saw Viking Moses was at the End Of The Road Festival in 2007 and he just blew me away. His voice is extremely powerful and just...well...insane. This song is relatively straight forward, but astonishing nonetheless. Genius. Check out the video on youtube.

Me and Bill Moustache once bumped into the boys in Let's Wrestle outside the Macbeth in Shoreditch. They almost begged us to go in to watch them and even put us on the cheap list. We went in and were pretty disappointed. A year later they are huge (well, you know...in my world) and I decide to give their album a go. Wow! It's fast, funny, sweet, angry and just brilliant. The most exciting young rock band around? Probably.

The Robot Ate Me is one of my favorite bands and I brought singer Ryland Bouchard to London in January to do a show at The Wilmington Arms. Not many people showed up to what was an absolutely breathtaking performance. 

As I said in my previous post, Roky Erickson has been on my mind a lot recently. This song is a personal favorite.

Weezer - Susanne

Trouble Books - Personal Tornados

The Replacements - Favorite Thing

The Moldy Peaches - Rainbows

Viking Moses - Werewolves In The City

Let's Wrestle - Song For An ABBA Tribute Record

Ryland Bouchard - Another Day No. 2

Roky Erickson - For You (I'd Do Anything)

As usual, please support these artists in any way you can, by going to gigs or buying their stuff.

Rokyn Roll doc

I've been listening a lot to Roky Erickson this week. My Swedish friends have been going on about him for years, but it wasn't until now that I finally took the time to listen to his stuff. Wow! Really. What a voice! And the lyrics. Maybe his music isn't exactly what I would normally listen to, but this week it really struck a chord with me.

The film itself, You're Gonna Miss Me, is a moving and extremely personal account of the man's life. Unfortunately, the issues behind Roky's mental illness are too complex and there's not really any time to go into any details, meaning the film leaves you with a lot of unanswered questions. I want to know the background to the deterioration of his family. When did the father leave? How much has he been part of Roky's life. Why did his brothers wait eleven years to take action? Those are just a few. Anyway, it's still an interesting film and is guaranteed to get people seeking out his music.

Official Movie Website

We did it!

The first 'Records Make Great Pets' night went really, really well. Everyone involved seemed to have a blast. Even though I spent most of my time from 5pm-8:20pm stressing like a mofo it all worked out in the end. It turned out to be exactly the type of night I've always wanted to go to, but have never really found in London. Of course, this was mainly down to the bands, who were all awesome. Well, I can't really comment on the awesomeness of Moustache of Insanity, since I'm in the band, but the others were all amazing.

Moustache of Insanity (myspace)

One of our best shows ever. Nothing went too terribly wrong and we remembered most words and chords. The new song went down really well. Hooray!

Allo, Darlin' (myspace)

Playing some new material from her upcoming EP, Allo, Darlin' was almost a full band this evening. With Paul on guitar, Bill Moustache stepping in on drums and Monster Bobby coming on stage for a duet, it was all just perfect. Elizabeth is always brilliant, but with a band behind her the songs come alive in a way that's just impossible recreate as a solo artist. 

Rob St. John (myspace)

Rob brought down the tempo a bit and the crowd gave him the attention he deserves. His heartfelt songs warmed the bellies of popsters and folksters alike.

Eagleowl (myspace)

The Owls just get better and better. They're tighter, more confident and just seem to enjoy playing a lot more than they used to. Their EP was one of the highlights of 2008 and you still can (and should) get it from their website

So, will there be a second live night next month? I sure hope so.

The first "class photo" of year 2009

Back row, l-r: Ian, Rob, Malcolm, Nik, Bart, Bill

Front row, l-r: Clarissa, Elizabeth, Paul

The only performer missing from the picture is Monster Bobby.

killing time

with FAIL BLOG

http://failblog.org

I'll never ever, ever, ever get sick of some things

Like the sneezing panda.



Or the bouncing fox



He's fighting, then discovers that bouncing is much more fun. Clever fox.

Things that make me go GRRRRRRRR

Things that make me go GRRRRRRRR (No 1)

I've decided to use this blog as a way of, not only spreading my love for certain things, but also venting my anger at certain things. Maybe it'll make me a better person. Maybe. So, here we go. This is the first issue/post of 'Things that make me go GRRRRRRRR'

People with umbrellas (mainly on busy streets)
OK, so I use umbrellas as well, but only when it's absolutely necessary. Something I would never do, however, is use one whilst walking down Oxford Street (or any similarly busy street) on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. It's just insane.

People who stand on the left side of escalators
You get signs every five metres, saying 'Stand on the right', but still so many people don't. Why? What is so difficult? I know tourists/visitors are the main culprits and I know for a fact that there's no such thing as escalator etiquette in Belgium, but come on. When in Rome.

People eating on the tube
The tube is smelly as it is. Why would you want to sit down and eat a burger when you have some business man's ass crack just inches away from your face anyway?

People who go to 'The Church'
The Church is a 'dayclub' taking place every Sunday at what is now known as the HMV Forum in Kentish Town. I don't know if it's an Australian invention as such, but it seems to be mainly frequented by Aussies, kiwis, South Africans and their British compadres. It runs from 2pm to 5pm and during these few hours they manage to turn the whole area into a vomit soaked hell.

Cold callers
We've been getting a lot of these recently. Always at the worst times possible. Please leave us alone.

I think that's it for now.

Weezer winter warmer

I've been listening alot to the second disc on the special edition of Weezer's Blue album. Normally, Weezer is the definite summer band, but for some reason I've taken to them early this year. They've been keeping me warm on the freezing bus journeys to work and even colder walks home. The second disc is a lovely addition to an already brilliant album, filled with b-sides (including Suzanne, perhaps my favorite Weezer song ever) studio outtakes and live recordings. If you don't have it already, you can get it here or at a gazillion other places.

I'll put up a song or two when I get back this evening.

Last night I realised how fascinated I have become by pointless statistics. I blame the internet for this. Before the introduction of last.fm to my life, I had no desire to know exactly how many times I had listened to a certain song or band on a particular day. With the constant updates it's even worse. I remember when it was called Audioscrobbler and was updated very sporadically. Instead of checking it every hour, word seemed to spread on blogs, messgaeboards and IM - " Audioscrobbler has been updated!". Haha. Then it all got a bit more advanced. I can't remember if this was before last.fm took over, but it started getting updated regularly every Sunday. I remember sittin waiting for the bloody list to change, just so I could find out what me and my friends had been listening to that week. Haha. Uber dork alert! But, now, I'm not sure what to do with it all. It gets updated as you listen and I find myself checkin my last.fm page just to make sure the song I'm listening to is being "scrobbled" correctly. And the ipod gets scrobbled too. On a couple of occasions I have pressed the wrong button when asked if I want to scrobble my recent "listened to" ipod songs and been quite upset over losing a record of 100 songs. Hmmmm. And now you can "love" songs as well! I can keep a record of the songs I love. Damn you, internet.

My last.fm page

Rain, rain, rain and blue skies

So the weather is as schizo as only London weather can be. Last week we were in the middle of snow-induced chaos and now it almost feels like spring is on its way. My walk home from work was really, really pleasant. The sky was blue...well, at least until it got dark. 

I feel like I should be getting on with stuff, writing new songs, whatever...but I'm also feeling extremely restless and impatient. I just started watching a film and was really enjoying it. I wasn't getting bored or tired. I just couldn't keep watching. 28 minutes was all I could handle. Hmmm.

The big 3-0 is getting ever closer. In less than one month I will be one of the oldest people in the world. Guinness Book of Records, look me up.

I'm not really dreading it, but I am very aware that it's approaching. Like something will happen. But, chances are extremely high that it will just be a day like any other. 

Anyway, it's bed time. When I wake up it'll be Thursday, which is almost Friday, so there. Until then, here is my most listened to song of 2008 and, according to last.fm, my seventh most listened to song ever. 

Paul Baribeau - Ten Things

I don't really know much about Paul, apart from that he is an incredible songwriter. But, you should visit him in myspace land, where you can buy both of his great albums. This particular song is from Grand Ledge.

Paul Baribeau's myspace

Good night.

Where did the weekend go?

It's Sunday evening and I feel like I haven't done anything this weekend. At least it's been cheap.

Elizabeth's feet while we were waiting for the bus last night. 

I'm in the middle of uploading all (or at least a lot) of my CD's to itunes. This has resulted in a bit of a nostalgia trip. I thought I'd upload everything I might want to listen to at some point. Cause, with ipods etc I just never listen to actual CD's. If it's not on the computer it just sits there gathering dust. I'm not quite sure why. Maybe it's because I don't want to listen to something that last.fm won't be able to register (haha..dork alert). Anyway, so a lot of punk has gone on the computer today. And some general randomness as well.

Revenge of the Nerds is one of my favorite 80's comedies. Great script, great acting, wonderful characters and, perhaps surprisingly, an incredible soundtrack. You should definitely try to track it down if you can. My favorite track on the CD is this:

Gleaming Spires - Are You Ready For The Sex Girls?

Who are Gleaming Spires? I don't know. All I know is that this song is amazingly catchy with just ridiculously insane lyrics. Enjoy

The snow is gone and I'm still poor

Eek! My money situation is getting worse by the minute. I guess I haven't been paid for almost two months and with no savings, it's not really surprising that I am in deep shit at the moment. I really don't know what to do about it. I can always panic, but what good would that do? I shall wait and see what happens. The next rent is not due for three weeks. Big CD sale, perhaps?

Anyway, this weekend will have to be an exercise in zero spending. I'm going to lock myself into my flat and perhaps watch those lovefilms that have been sitting on our shelf for about four weeks. Not really making the most of that subscription.

So, it's all a bit depressing...

Allo, Darlin' - the snow princess

Thought of the day. When I lived in Sweden I don't think I ever saw people using umbrellas when it was snowing. Or maybe I just never thought about it until today, when I suddenly thought it was the silliest thing.

Also, Pavement is surprisingly good snowstorm music. Fact.