Let the music play

Fuck Buttons @ Heaven, 27.10.09

pic from www.thelineofbestfit.com

ATP Film screening/Les Savy Fav @ The Kentish Town Forum (yes, I'm aware of its new corporate name), 26.10.09

Pixies @ Brixton Academy, 06.10.09

I think I'll stick to writing.

It kicks like a sleep twitch

"If Ian Curtis had lived till New Order."

It's a statement that could not only be seen by many people as wrong, but is also of dubious taste. And could get an equal number of people quite angry. So that's why it's in speech marks – to show it's a quotation. A quotation from me. But I decided not to actually say it, hence it being a quotation. Still with me? No? Never mind.

In This Light And On This Evening is the new ablum from Editors. And it's brilliant. I've had a soft spot for this band for a long time, and not just because they were spawned from the same city I was. Their previous efforts might have been loved by the Daily Mail (you weren't expecting a link there, were you?), so it's understandable that a switch in style was needed. That's not to say their previous two albums weren't good. Actually, they weren't good, they were so much better than that. Anyway, electronic is the path Tom Smith et all decided to take. I know that 'indie' band (read: bands what use guitars) have been turning to the synth for a while now but Editors have proven that you don't need to be at the forefront of a movement to make it work.

I've been caning it on Spotify, but fully intend to buy the 'deluxe edition' of the album as it comes with an extra disc with additional songs. Oh, and I've got tickets to see them at Brixton in March next year.

This obviously isn't a review. It's just a rambling way to post a link to a great album.

Modern love gets me to the church on time

I went to a wedding on Friday. "What," I hear you cry, "has (another) one of your loser mates managed to trap an unwitting life partner in the eyes of God?" Well, in about a year one will have, but that's another story. No, this wasn't what you could call a "real wedding". It was at Bestival. In an inflatable church. Between Zoe, who's boyfriend, Joe, was absent, and Tom, who, as he pointed out at the start of the service, prefers his partners to be a bit more "male".

I tried my hand at some amateur filmmaking during the service. Here are the videos (there should be three but I filmed the first one with my phone on its side and I can't work out how to rotate the film):

Talking of videos, here's a slightly more professional effort. It's the bonus footage from Debacle, Nike SB's latest skate film. Short and sweet but I love it.

And while I'm on the topic of things I like at the moment. I strongly recommend you give this Resident Advisor podcast a listen. It's Erol Alkan in his Disco 3000 guise. An hour and 20 minutes of great '80s-electro-tinged tunes. I can't find a tracklisting but when/if I do, I'll post it up.

Yes It's F*cking Political

I wrote a short (but a bit longer than 140 characters) review of Tweetminister for next week's new media age today. I'm one of those people that wants to be a bit more interested in politics but that desire isn't quite enough to actively seek out the information I think I might be after. Thank god for Twitter then, and, more than that, Tweetminister.

Basically, it collects together tweets by politicians and about political issues and presents them in a live stream and analytical blog, cutting out all the other noise that exists on the main Twitter site (although Tweetminister is not associated with Twitter). I think I'll definitely be checking up on it from time to time, mainly just to make myself feel intelligent and relevant.

And for those of you wondering about the title of this post, it's the name of a Skunk Anansie song from their second album, Stoosh. You might or might not have noticed but I like using song titles and well-known lyrics as headlines (both in my professional and non-professional work). This one has a special place in my heart as I clearly remember a Radio 1 DJ playing it by accident on daytime radio back when the album was released. About half the song was played before the hasty apologies. Here's the song (albeit not the version I heard but you get the point).

Things to do in Mile End when you're wet

Living so close to Victoria Park is great, although my visits there are mainly restricted to when it's warm and sunny. But there are occasions that mean I have no problem standing in the middle of the park in the rain. Two such occasions came this weekend. Madstock on Friday and Lovebox on Saturday.

Taking to the stage before Madness on the Friday were The Pogues. Shane MacGowen was happy to show off his shiny new teeth, although he seemed to have traded in his eye for them. I'm still trying to work in an 'eye for an eye, a tooth for tooth' joke in here.

It might be heresy to some, but don't all of The Pogues' songs sound the same? But it was ok, because Mr MacGowen was ready with the witty quips in between songs. God knows what language they were in though.

Then it was the turn of the hosts. Suggs took the stage in a shiny houndstooth check suit and bowler hat. The set was a mix of the (amazing) classics and (also very good) songs from the new album (which I admit I'm actually still to listen to).

The crowd was also quite amusing to watch. We had 'gold circle' tickets, which meant we were in the bit right in font of the stage, with the proles fenced off further back. We were surrounded by a lot of quite large, original skinheads. Obviously, looks were very deceiving. There was a lot of dancing but it was all very civilised with everyone keeping themselves to themselves and just thoroughly enjoying the show.

And then on to Saturday and a much younger, rowdier crowd at Lovebox. After lapping up what sun there was in the afternoon and a few pints of cider we headed over to the main stage to catch Florence and the Machine. I've met The Machine's drummer. His name is Chris and you can consider his name officially dropped. I'd watched coverage of their Glasto performance and this one was just as good.

After Florence, it was time for one of the two bands I'd really looking forward to – N*E*R*D. I'd wanted to see them on their last your but, at £35 a ticket, I opted to give it a miss. Unfortunately, things didn't start off too well. First, Pharrell's microphone wasn't anything like loud enough. Then, when the sound had been sorted, they proceeded to cram all the best songs, bar the singles, from their first, and by far their best, album into a ten-minute medley. I was not impressed.

They pulled it back though with sheer comedy value. During their last few songs they invited a load of people from the audience onto the stage. The invaders were then herded off for a few minutes before the female portion was aloud back on during Lap Dance. Those girls already on stage were soon joined by more from the crowd till it was practically overflowing for ladies, largely trying to get the attention of the band members. And they all went off backstage together at the end of the set.

If I was excited about N*E*R*D, I was was stupidly excited about seeing Duran Duran. As with Madness the night before, their set was a mixture of classics and new stuff although, in this case, the new stuff provided perfect opportunities to go to the toilet and the bar. Yes, both the toilet and the bar – it really wasn't that crowded.

The main body of the set ended with Ordinary World, providing a massive singalong from the crowd. I'd heard that Mark Ronson would be joining Duran Duran on stage and feared the worst. But my fears weren't realised as they kicked off the encore with a Bond theme medley before launching into A View To A Kill. Ronson just played guitar. He didn't even play the trumpet. In fact, it wasn't exactly clear what he was adding to the performance. Never mind.

All in all, it was two great days of music. Ok, it might have rained a bit but i haven't been to a festival in the sun for literally years, so it'd have to take more than that to dampen (sorry) the mood.

What's that sound? I like that sound. I love that sound.

I've been getting pretty excited about the impending release of CIAO!, the second album from on Dr Timothy Tiga.

Getting sent a link, to an exclusive album-preview My Name Is Tiga podcast, just made my day. It's meant to be only for mailing list members, but I'm sure he won't mind (or even find out, which would require someone to actually read this).

Download/listen to it here

The album is out on May 11th in the UK. I know you're gonna want it.

A-Z

While listening to the podcast or Erol Alkan's music A-Z on Rob Da Bank's Radio 1 show, I decided to come up with mine.

A – Hot Chip: And I Was A Boy From School

B – Bryan Ferry: Love Me Madly Again

C – The Cure: Want

D – Depeche Mode: Enjoy The Silence

E – Soulwax: E Talking (Nite Version)

F – Fleetwood Mac: The Chain

G – LCD Soundsystem: Get Innocuous

H – The Smiths: How Soon Is Now

I – Interpol: Evil

J – Justice: Phantom Part II

K – KLF: What Time Is Love

L – DJ Shadow: Stem/Long Stem

M – MGMT: Kids

N – Grace: Not Over Yet

O – Duran Duran: Ordinary World

P – Pink Floyd: Comfortably Numb

Q – Queen & David Bowie – Under Pressure

R – Roxy Music: If There Is Something

S – Bronski Beat – Small Town Boy

T – Tiga: Three Weeks

U – Unkle: In A State

V – The Verve: History

W – Warren G feat. Nate Dogg: Regulate

X – X-Ecutioners feat. Ghostface & Black Thought – Live From The PJs

Y – Yazoo: Don't Go

Z – ZZT – The Worm (Erol Alkan's Extended Rework) To bring it nicely back to Mr Alkan

For the Spotifiers among you, here's the playlist. I had to change P from The Floyd to Purple Rain by Prince and the ZZT track to Lower State of Consciousness.