Reading Festival, Caversham Bridge

Reading Festival

August 27-29, 2010

When the music at Reading Festival begins on Friday (following a boozy Thursday session in the town centre), a hangover is as welcome as the evacuation of vomit that preceded it (said sickness is still being blamed on an salmonella-friendly campsite BBQ on Thursday night). As the phrase goes, time stands still for no man (even one with a hangover) and a now-successful remedy is to get a cold pint of Gaymers (other ciders are available, just nowhere near the festival site) and head off to see some bands. … Continue Reading

New song appears on Los Campesinos!’s blog

los campesinos!

In a completely unnanounced surprise, pop starlets Los Campesinos! have put a brand new song on their blog.

Entitled ‘The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future’, the music video sees the band froliking and drinking at the beach, and features soon-to-depart member Aleks.

It is unclear as to wether the track will feature on the band’s currently untitled third record. … Continue Reading

Arctic Monkeys – Humbug

Arctic Monkeys - Humbug

At a stage in their career where a even a bad album would undoubtedly still be commercially well received, Arctic Monkeys go for broke and serve up a much darker, more menacing follow up to 2007′s Favourite Worst Nightmare.

After spending time holed up in the Joshua Tree studio in the Mojave desert, working with co-producers Josh Homme (Queens Of The Stone Age) and Simian Mobile Disco’s James Ford – who drummed and produced for Alex Turner’s side project The Last Shadow Puppets – the band return for a punt at a new direction, with older influences (The Doors, Cream, Jimi Hendrix) and Homme the combined driving force behind this almost psychedelic venture into vintage revivalism.

Opener ‘My Propeller’ isn’t the best of starts – innuendo-laden lyrics such as “My propeller won’t spin / And I can’t get it started on my own” are fun, yet clearly not a display of Turner’s best work. His usual eloquence doesn’t always show, namely in ‘Fire And The Thud’, a song that probably should have been relegated to a b-side, and ‘Pretty Visitors’, with its snarled yet curiously bizarre line “what came first/the chicken or the dickhead?”. To claim that the lyrics totally pale in comparison to past work is an injustice, and for every bad line there are several clever lines to counter it – on ‘Dangerous Animals’, Turner belts out a dyslexia-friendly chorus - “I’m pinned down by the dark/A-N-I-M-A-L/Makes my head pirouette/More than I would be willing to confess/D-A-N-G-E-R-O-U-S”. … Continue Reading

Friendly Fires – Kiss Of Life

Friendly Fires

Before we start – why has ‘Kiss Of Life’ been offered as a stopgap to sate Friendly Fires fans eager to hear new material? Is it that their debut was a little thin at just ten tracks? Or possibly as part of a money-spinning re-hash of their debut record timed uncannily well to coincide with the announcement of their place on the Mercury Prize shortlist?

Cynicism aside, what is on offer here is a catchy track intended to remind us that this time of year is supposed to resemble what meteorologists call ‘summer’, and once the pangs of minor annoyance have subsided over the brash screech of Ed Macfarlane wailing “Kiiiiiiiiiiiiss of life” listeners are treated to a carnival ambience, as samba-esque percussion and an infectious disco hook collide with lyrics that offer a temporary daydream to a much hotter climate - “Could you wave goodbye to sun?/The sea, the stars, the waves, the tide?” … Continue Reading

Dan Black – Un

Dan Black

For those not familiar with Dan Black, a brief introduction – he was the former front man of minority indie band The Servant until they split in 2007, before decamping off to Paris. Two years later, Black re-emerges as a fixture on just about every website/publication’s early ‘ones to watch in 2009′ list.

… Continue Reading

Viva Machine – Viva Machine

Viva Machine - Viva Machine

It’s been a fair while since this reviewer caught Viva Machine live; back in 2007, not too long after they had decided to change their name from Ipsofacto. Without wishing to begin on a detrimental note, one of the few things that stuck out in an uninspiring set that night was catching a drumstick thrown into the Bristol Academy crowd.

… Continue Reading

Aleksandra leaves Los Campesinos!

Los Campesinos!

In somewhat of a shock announcement, Aleksandra from Cardiff seven-piece Los Campesinos! has left the band, leaving a posting on the band’s blog.

“I don’t really know how to start this. I’m not sure I can really find the right words to express how I feel about leaving the band. Not in a vaguely coherent manner anyway so I’m sorry if this all comes across as either overly-sentimental or strangely detached.

Making the decision to leave was very difficult and even though I’m excited about what the future has in store for both me and the rest of Los Camp! (once they unveil their bright spangly new line-up), I still get a lump in my throat every time I think about my time in the band coming to an end. Trust me, I’m gutted. The past 3 years have given me some of the best times of my life full of incredible experiences and wonderful people. I am really grateful to have been a part of the Los Campesinos! story. I’m going to miss so much about the whole thing and no doubt regret this move a thousand times over when I’m stuck in some dark corner of a library, while the band are busy playing to thousands in some paradise location… … Continue Reading

Junior Boys – Begone Dull Care

Junior Boys

2009 welcomes the return of Jeremy Greenspan and Matt Didemus, more commonly known as Canadian dance act Junior Boys. Three years have passed since their last release, the critically acclaimed So This Is Goodbye. But can Junior Boys replicate their past success on their latest album?

… Continue Reading

Founders of The Pirate Bay found GUILTY

Pirate Bay

The four men behind the Swedish file-sharing website have today been found guilty of breaking copyright law on Pirate Bay.

Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde were sentenced to a year in jail, and have also been ordered to pay 30m Kronor (£2.4m) in damages.

The Pirate Bay is the world’s most popular file-sharing website and millions of files are shared through the service each day, many of which are advance copies of movies, and albums.

In (somewhat of) an ironic twist, the accused actually found out the verdict the night before it was announced, and released this information via Twitter:

“Really, it’s a bit LOL. It used to be only movies, now even verdicts are out before the official release.”

In a statement earlier this week, the four men said they intended to appeal the verdict if found guilty.

Mike Skinner! The Streets! New songs! Via Twitter?

Mike Skinner: he tweets

Mike Skinner releases the first of three new songs this week.

The Streets’ frontman has tonight released the first of three brand new songs onto the internet via his Twitter page.

The first of the new songs, entitled ‘I Love My Phone’ is available from this link, with Skinner claiming he has watched a recent BBC documentary on Handel, and popular Kevin Spacey movie The Usual Suspects as inspiration for this new track. … Continue Reading