Once upon a timepiece, this blog was just about festivals. Heady days they were, with month after month of writing about events to which I wasn’t invited gradually leading me to a severe, excrement-flinging depressive episode.
I jest, of course. Kind of. The fact is, it’s all very well setting up a blog about festivals, but if no fucker’s inviting you to them it ends up being a) expensive, b) dull and c) (see points a & b). No funzies. Ergo dipsum velorum, this particular site broadened its scope to music in general (and jigsaws).
Fortunately there are people out there willing to make a decent fist of covering festivals, and they are less likely to crumble like a Custard Cream when faced with putting in a bit of effort. So if you’re looking for a site of such a nature, ’tis my pleasure to point you the way of This Festival Feeling. Continue reading »
Posted by
Stuart Waterman on
Friday July 31st, 2009 at
9:00 am
Do you miss Popworld? I do. It was a chucklesome nuggetoid of TV pop silliness with the ability to bring on the hungover gigglies, and it hasn’t really been replaced.
On television, anyway. But that doesn’t matter because only your gran watches TV nowadays, and even then it’s just when Antiques Ladder is on. For amusant pop-related funtimes these days one looks to the web, and once there one finds things like Sony Ericsson’s Pocket TV.
Taking the Popworld template of asking stupid questions to pop stars, Pocket TV is helmed by Holy Moly Amstell-lite talking person Matt Edmondson, and a jolly good job he does posing questions to people like The Enemy such as: “Have you ever fingered a kebab?”
It’s called Pocket TV because we’re all supposed to be watching video on our telephones these days, but you’re also allowed to watch it on your common-or-garden “home computing machine” as well. You should give it a go - you might see Lethal Bizzle shooting clay pigeons, N-Dubz being face invaded or, as below, dreadful “normal lad” dullards The Enemy pretending to be halfway interesting.
Posted by
Stuart Waterman on
Thursday July 30th, 2009 at
10:00 am
In keeping with this site’s generally shambolic approach to pretty much everything, allow me to present you with some week-old, lukewarm-off-the-presses “content”.
My Chemical Toilet was presented with the opportunity to go to Lovebox Weekender and film some things happening. “Splendid!” thunk I, then: “Oh. I don’t know how cameras work.” THEN: “I know, I shall ask the lovely folk at Fixation Video if they’d like to go and film some ting.”
They said yes, and, with a minimum of (i.e. quite a lot of) technical ishoos they captured all of (i.e. a few of) the things you’d expect to see at a trendy urban festival.
The subtitles are very amusing, and more than make up for any moments where you may wonder if you’re experiencing a videophonic representation of one of your most intense childhood nightmares.
And anyway, I like nightmares, so nerr.
If you think this is late, let’s see when the Latitude review goes up. It may very well be after next year’s festival.
Posted by
Stuart Waterman on
Wednesday July 29th, 2009 at
8:55 pm
It’s a fact of modern gig-going that the more brands get involved, the more unwieldy become blog post headers. Hence that displeasing title up there. Peh.
Anyway, Louise Doherty went to Matter for the latest Smirnoff Original Nights extravaganza, and came back with a newfound respect for Little Boots. And a tattooed tit.
Crowdsourcing is best known as that thing people do when they’re too lazy to use Google. Y’know, asking your Facebook friends or Twitter followers to find you a cheesetastic club in Margate, suggest a birthday present for your 84 year-old grandmother or decide whether you should dye your hair bright pink or not (all real life examples by the way
Posted by
Stuart Waterman on
Monday July 20th, 2009 at
8:30 am
Well, who saw this coming? Jet, priapic Antipodiean lowest-common denominator bollock-rockers, have decided to introduce some surprising - and yet welcome - elements to their new material.
Beginning with a stark, austere drum machine before being joined by a chilly synth line and the more familar rollicking guitar, “She’s A Genius” shows that the band, previously perceived as knuckle-dragging Oasis obsessives, have secretly been hiding a thrillingly eclectic outlook. And make sure you wait for the bit with whooooosh of sequenced beats as the chorus kicks in!
Perhaps i shouldn’t be surprised that such a well-oiled touring & merchandising machine as the Rolling Stones started doing TV ads in 1963, but… Really? Rice Krispies?
I wonder if they’d consider a Just For Men spot nowadays…
Credit to P-Money - “Everything” (featuring someone called Vince Harder) is going to find it difficult to be anything other than massive in the UK this summer. It’s irresistible electro-funk-house which I heard for the first time on Zane Lowe the other night and loved immediately.
But it did make me wonder where the heckfire Chromeo are at the moment, because surely they should be tearing up the charts - albeit with slightly fewer housey vibes - with this kind of stuff by now?
Anyway, P-Money is a New Zealandish chap who seems genuinely, touchingly excited by the prospect of soundtracking our summer. And why shouldn’t he? It’s quite an honour. I suppose it’s just nice to catch an artist at that point before they blow up completely and become a tad blas
Posted by
Stuart Waterman on
Monday July 13th, 2009 at
9:00 am
This is a guest spot by Laura Scott, who is from somewhere called Canada. Recently she went along to see a band called Moneen, who are from - hey! - Canada as well.
The other week I had the chance to check out Moneen at the Camden Barfly, as they headlined one of two UK shows before kicking off their week-long tour with Brand New. Despite the fact the show had been organised fairly last minute, with the band having to borrow equipment from opening act Lights. Action!, the Barfly was packed and Moneen delivered a solid performance.
Playing predominantly old material with a few new songs from their forthcoming album The World I Want to Leave Behind, they had the whole room singing along from the moment they stepped on stage. Continue reading »
Posted by
Stuart Waterman on
Monday July 13th, 2009 at
8:30 am
Wednesday’s Levi’s Ones To Watch show was, for me, an evening of counfounded expectations. I didn’t like what what I thought I might, and I really liked what I expected not to. More of that later though.
I had no expectations whatsoever regarding the first band of the night, Apples, because I didn’t know they existed. Now I can report that they are a jaunty little outfit full of ’09-issue plaid shirts, shaggy side partings and post-Vampire Weekend rhythms.
Fewer African influences here though - if anything, you’d swear Apples have been taking cues from Alphabeat. Which is no bad thing in my book, but while I enjoyed their summery jangle-pop I did get the sense that if I was exposed to them on a regular basis familiarity would soon breed loathing. Perhaps that’s down to my low boredom threshold rather than their abilities as a band though, I dunno.
Apples ended their set with a saxophone making an unexpected appearance, which led nicely into Fanfarlo’s multi-instrumental approach. I spied a mandolin, a clarinet, a violin and a xylophone onstage at various points during their burst, but sry2say the band came off as considerably less than the sum of its parts. Continue reading »
Posted by
Stuart Waterman on
Sunday July 12th, 2009 at
1:07 pm
