Review of 2009

I have been neglecting this blog for a while and concentrating on my photo blog, which I really enjoy doing.

 

So to kick off this year, I thought that I would do a kind of review of the year for 2009.  I don’t think I am doing a Spex awar this year, mainly because I can’t be bothered.  I am getting Lazy I think.

 

January started off with New Year in the most random pub in the world and a trip to a brewery for May-Z’s birthday, and then not a great deal happened, until February when I started going to Gigs again, Iglu and Hartley was the first of the year.

 

In March, not a lot happened again, but I saw a couple more bands.  April was great though, I met the wonderful H and we had a lot of fun.  I also formed the Victorian Gentlemans Amaretto Drinking Club (Fingers Up) in a pub in Worcester and went to Thorpe Park for the first time that year.

 

May was pretty good, my birthday was superb, we had a lot of fun, and then I went on Safari, this took me until mid June and was one of the most amazing things that I have ever done.  June came and went with more gigs and a trip to the Isle of Wight.  July flew past with Mark Cavendish winning 6 stages of the Tour De France and the Ashes starting.

 

August saw the completion of the Ashes, with England victorious, me failing to walk the Southdowns Way because of injury.  September included Bestival, which was superb, (Elbow were sublime) and Love Albert Road Day which was good too.

 

October was my month of blogging and to be honest it is some of the worst things ever written, I did start taking a lot of photos though.  In November I saw the Flaming Lips, which was about the only thing I did that month.

 

December flew past, with ATP and christmas, and I cooked for H on New Years Eve.

 

All in all, not a bad year.

Good but Not That Good.

So, I should have written this last week, but I have been really busy, and to be honest I didn’t really know what I was going to say.  We toddled off to minehead for ATP meeting up with Jackie, Neil and KP, getting into the chalet really early.  Which was nice, but we had a few drinks and had to wait for Dave and his mates to turn up to get Jackies wristband.

Unfortunately they were a few drinks too long and by the time we left the chalet, we had missed Alexander Tucker and hit Bardo Pond.  To say that they weren’t really our thing was an understatement.  Neil called them Boardo Pond.  We then saw Om, which I really liked before moving to another stage for Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks.  They were really good.  Things started to go a little fuzzy for me then and I had to go and have a lie down, missing the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Luckily I did, because apparantly it was terible and Neil had to get dragged out of the front of the Mosh pit.  I managed to regroup and then went to see Múm (pronounced Moom), who were really good, but tiredness got the better of me and at the end of them we headed back to the chalet.

Waking up the next day Neil, H and myself headed to the swimming pool for a few goes on the slides and then went into town for a bite to eat.

Saturday evening came and we had seen Shellac, Melvins, Porn…before Modest Mouse came on.  I was so excited about this, they are one of my favourite bands, and having seen them before, I was looking forward to a great show…

What I got was the start of a great show, with dody sound quality and a lead singer whose voice was nearly gone.  Musically they were awesome, but when the lead singer is swigging from a bottle of vinegar and cayenne pepper you know that you are going to be in trouble.

When a couple of them had a chat on stage, you knew there was going to be an early finish to the gig, but any normal person would have done some of the big singles.  A Modest Mouse set without float on is just dissappointing, and that sense of dissappointment followed me through the whole evening.

We went and had a few drinks in the Crazy horse before heading to see Beak>.  We didn’t last very long as none of us were really in the mood for bleepy electronica.

Sunday Started with a swim and a game of 10 pin Bowling before going to watch Shellac, The Magic Band (they may be old and not played live for 3 years but god were they good) and then to one of the highlights of the festival for me, Deerhoof, before the grunge of Mudhoney and a bit of Sun O))).  The Last band on the main stage was The Mars Volta, and they were spectacularly good.  We then saw Tall Firs and Sleepy Sun, before calling it a festival.

The next day we took a walk on the beach and had a cooked breakfast in the cafe recommended by Shellac before the drive home.

Although the Sunday was good, I couldnt shake the dissapointment of the saturday night.

ATP 3

10 Years of ATP festival starts tomorrow, I will be there, its going to be legen…wait for it…dary! 

It really is, apart from the fact that I havn’t seen a band in a while, a lot of people that I know are going, so it should be excellent.

Plus the line up is good too, and apart from the fact that Breeders and Modest Mouse Clash (MM for me), I should get to see everyone that I want to.

So tomorrow, the first band on is Alexander Tucker and the Decomposed Orchestra, and we will be there as always.

I am quite excited.

My Favourite Gigs

Its been a while since I have blogged, so I had better make this a good one.  As I made a very bold statement in my last blog that the Flaming Lips gig may have been the best gig that I have ever been to, which got me thinking, what are the best gigs that I have ever been to.  I have made some tough choices here and omitted some really good bands (Including Muse twice, Elbow and Radiohead who are my favourite band).

 

So here they are in vaguely Chronological order, with a bit about why I thought they were so good:

 

3 Colours Red (1999)- This has probably made it on to the list as it was one of the first gigs that I had been to, and one of my favourite bands at the time (Listening to Nuclear Holiday still rocks my socks off), but mainly because I was chatting to the Lead Singer at the back for ages. 

Goldie Lookin’ Chain (2004)- On the back of Half Man Half Machine, I went to see these (the first gig that I went to with the Jolly Green Dave Ware). They didn’t sound like any music around at the time and still don’t.  On their day (this one) there stage show is amazing, even when the power went out it was brilliant, they improvised a game show called Win a Date with the Maggott.  Sadly they are getting worse every time I see them. 

Gogol Bordello (2006)- Immigrant Gypsy Punk has never sounded so good, to have the drummer girls crowd surfing on top of giant drums was genius.

Apples in Stereo (2007)- You know when a new song hits you and you need to know what it is and everything about the band, that was what it was like with Energy.  Seeing them at ATP vs The Fans topped off the festival, it also helped that I was stood on a chair so that I could see.

Bon Iver (2008)- Again its amazing what a brilliant song can do to you, top it off with one of the best voices in Music at the moment, sat in a festival field with a paper cup of Cider when the sun comes out, you have near perfection. 

De La Soul (2008)- At ATP again, De La Soul provided a perfect hip hop party beat.

Vampire Weekend (2008)- Mansard Roof, was easily my favourite single of the year (probably of the last 5 years) and I may have said that the album could challenge The Bends as my favourite album.  I am not sure if it has or not, but this gig on my birthday was utterly superb.

…And you will know us by the Trail of The Dead (2009)- Awesome band name, awesome music, 2 drum kits, brilliant.

Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip (2009)- I have seen these 4 times now, the first in 2008 at the Joiners was great too.  This time was at Bestival though, their second set.  At midnight, in a tiny tent.  It was sweaty, it was loud, the place went mental, it was everything that all gigs should be.  I really can’t wait to see them agin in March.

Flaming Lips (2009)- See the last Blog entry, but this was a definite spectacle.

The main thing that all of these have in common is that I was there with good friends, and I liked the music before I went.  I suppose I had a pre-programmed idea of what the gig would be like, and I guess these lived up to the expectations.  The 3 big bands at the top that didn’t make it in aren’t the only ones that have had great gigs, some of the others include Skindred, Rival Schools, Modest Mouse, Le Savvy Fav, Futureheads, Editors.  I could go on, but I won’t.

Damn Thats Quick.

The ATP festival that I wanted to go to next year has sold out already.  9 days it took.  The only band to have been announced is Pavement, which would have been really cool.  Plus it would have been my birthday too. 

Still I have the Christmas one to look forward too yet.

By the way, well done to Jenson Button for becoming World Champion in the Formula 1.  I don’t like the sport, and never have, but he is genuinely a nice guy.

ATP

It was the Explosions in the Sky All Tomorrows Parties weekend this weekend, and Myself, May-Z(from now on to be known as May-kwon), Dev (Lethal Nizzle) and KP (KP Diddy) trundeled off to Minehead Butlins for a weekend of music, swimming, beach cricket, emergency Ginsters and Hip Hop Shoulder.  This isn’t just a weekend of music, but is a great laugh.  It also boasts a line up that many other festivals would kill for.  Who else but the lovely and hospitable people of ATP could get defunct bands back together, attract some of the most critically acclaimed artists at the moment and 2 members of the Wu Tang Clan to play at a stage normally reserved for 80s has beens and crap chart acts. 

I am not going to write about everything that happened or even all of the bands that I went to seen, and I will apologise now for saying either superb, or awesome a lot, but these 2 words need to be used for most things that happened.

Now I like the ATP weekend, as the normally chavvy Butlins is taken over by a tattooed and bearded muso crowd.  There was more (Tattoo) ink on show in the swimming pool than in a bookshop. It is great to be wandering down the prom or into the shops and all you can see is people with the green wristbands on.

Anyway, we saw some bands, As this was curated by Explosions in the Sky, I will start with them.  They were slightly dissappointing, and I was really expecting them to be better than they were. 

On the friday we saw:

• Constantines who kicked off the weekend in excellent style, with the lead singer cutting his own hair while he was singing.
• Mono, the Japanese orchestral rock legends, who comprehensively out orchestral rocked explosions.  They were also thourghly nice chaps as we were stood next to them when we were watching explosions.  They also loitered around Butlins for the Entire weekend.
• Dinosaur Jnr.  who I really liked, but Lethal Nizzle (from now on Ehtal Nizzle) fell asleep like an old woman.
• Explosions in the Sky
• Ola Podrida, again, very good
• The Octopus Project who we didn’t see very much of because the stage was rammed.
• The Pale Gallery who were excellent
• Four Tet, who started off well but seemed to get worse as the gig went on, which may have had something to do with the tiredness and Vodka.  I stayed up late to watch this with Kanye Ware (a friend of mine from the Homebase years).

Saturday started and we had a game of beach cricket and a few chucks of the frisbee before lunch in the Hairy Dog pub, and myself and May-kwon headed off to the old cinema for the FA Cup final.  After sitting in every seat on the balcony we found the best possible viewing platform to watch the mighty Portsmouth beat Cardiff one-nil thanks to a Kanu goal.  (We probably should have lost, but we didn’t so I won’t go into any great depth)

Straight from the FA Cup we went to watch Ghostface Killah (one of the Wu Tang Clan) in the very surreal environment of Butlins 2nd stage.  He was ace and really worked the crowd.  This was swiftly followed by  …And you will know us by the trail of the dead! who blew me away, but nobody else in the group seemed to like.

The next band we saw was The National, who put on one of the shows of the weekend.  They really were great.

We saw a spot of Eluvium and Lazarus, but spent most of the rest of the evening in the Crazy ’Oss (Waaaah, Waaah), with me and Ethal dancing in the indie disco.  (Ethal dances like he is running, which amused me greatly).

Sunday came and after a brief dip in the pool we had a couple of games of 10 pin bowling, I won the 2nd, and should have won the first if I hadn’t scored 3 off the first 6 balls.  We ate lunch and then went to see Jens Lekman, who I would have seen the whole set, but he played my favourite song 2nd and the weather was so nice, that we all went for a walk around the beach.  We returned for Beach House and lasted 10 minutes before we went to see Polvo (who had reformed for the first time in 10 years to play here).  After a brief constitutional at the chattle we headed over to the main stage to see the Silver Jews (Great), De La Soul (amazing, never seen a band so happy to be on stage) and then back to the centre stage to see Raekwon, the 2nd of the Wu Tang Clan to play the weekend.  He was joined on stage by Ghostface, which was lucky as he kept forgetting his lines.  During both of the Wu sets, 2 things happened.   Firstly they got a guy from the crowd up onto stage to rap, and he turned out to be really good, and secondly they kept saying put your W’s up, which we had no problem with,  it just reminded me of the waca wave, with Ghostface as a ghetto Timmy Mallett.

We saw a few more bands and then left on the Monday for the long drive home.

There are a few inside jokes that I said I would post, and nobody else will get them…

• The Tumour Auction
• May-Z getting stimulus from the back
• Jenga Tournament feat.  Michael J Fox, Muhammed Ali, and Daniel Johnson
• Ethal Nizzle
• Ghetto detectives-Bustarac, Wycliffe Jean and Agatha Ludacristie
• Jepetto Macann and the the Pied Billie Piper of Hamlyn (Why havn’t the police searched there.
• 6mm alan keys
• 3 triple salkos, a double bass and a single to new street
• May-z and hi bedtime picnic baskets

I am sure there are more, but I will have to be reminded.

I have thought of something else that had me absolutely creasing up at the time, It was when De La Souls band were warming up.  They sounded like they were going to do a mariarchi band set, leading to the song title Me, Myself and Aye Carumba, and their collaboration with the Silver Jews, Me, Myself and Oi Vey.

OK, not funny to anyone else, but myself and May-Kwon thought it was good.

Music makes my world go round

As im sure it says in my Bio on here, I am a bit of a music junkie, which is why its surprised me that I havn’t actually written anything about it on here.  So here goes…

I like a good gig, but havn’t been to one for over a month, so im getting itchy feet and restless ear, I am longing to be aurally excited but am going to have to wait a while as firstly I have no money (Due to my own stupidity I am down to the last £100 of my exceedingly large overdraft) and 2ndly there isnt much about for the next couple of weeks.  No matter how much I scour the listings pages of the local venues there isnt anything for over a fortnight.

The Wedgewood rooms is the most likely place to have somthing that I would go to, with the Joiners being a close second. 

Now I have tickets for New Found Glory at the Wedge on the 9th and have some mates from the Woo coming down, but apart from that my friends down here are being generally lame.  I cant find anyone who wants to go to Nine Black Alps, I could ask my sister but she is so lame when it comes to music (she went to the Isle of Wight festival and says that the best band she saw were the Feeling.  This was at a festival headlined by Muse and the Rolling Stones.  Festival poser!!! but thats a different story alltogether)  and won’t see a band unless she has heard of them, no matter how many times I tell her to take a chance.

So anyway, the next band that I have tickets for are The Futureheads who I know Fat Bob and The Bimbo hate, but I have seen them and thought that they were really good.  Still it looks like it will be a good summer for music down here.  I am hoping that by the time I get paid, there will still be tickets for The Automatic and Dashboard Confessional.

Still in May, its ATP, curated by Explosions in the Sky,  with some bands that I am really looking forward too like the Silver Jews, ….and you will know us by the trail of the dead, De La Soul, The National and Ghostface Killa.

That will be somting to see.  One of the Wu Tang Clan in Butlins wavepool.

Later Kids