Tuesday, 13 November 2007

yes yes yes yes

i've written about Operator Please in this blog a few times before and my tune has never changed. they are one of the best bands around at the moment.

not only do they make fantastic pop music, they make it with style and charisma oozing from every single pore in all of their bodies.
their album 'Yes Yes Vindictive' is a collection of finely tuned guitar stomping, violin wheeling, shouty tunes.
Amandah Wilkinson's voice is almost hypnotic as she belts out lyrics with a touch of 'i know i fucking rock'. newer songs such as 'Cringe' and 'Yes Yes' take the classic components of catchy to the next level with clap claps and echoed shouts ('don't! don't! make me!' 'who! are! you!').
there are softer songs on the album, 'Other Song' and 'Pantomime', and they are dominated by the violin but not in an overbearing "wtf where's the guitar gone" type of way.

my favourite track is 'Ghost' (it MUST be the next single after 'Leave It Alone'). it's just seven shades of wonderful. fast drumming, the haunting bleat of the keyboard, speedy vocals.. everything is ace.

Operator Please have taken a soulful voice, surf rock (think 70s theme tunes and Bermuda shorts), a violin, the sunshine, a couple of genius kids and put them through some kind of magic processor.

'Yes Yes Vindictive' is a brilliant debut and i cannot wait to see this band live again.

Operator Please - Ghost

Operator Please - Cringe

it's not out in the UK yet but you can buy the album here! and 'Leave It Alone' is out on the 19th November!

Monday, 12 November 2007

mayhem.

in case anyone wanted to know, i reached my target of 52 gigs for this year. and i'm still counting. i won't do a rundown of the best ones yet as i suspect Patrick Wolf will have to take up a slot with his finale on the 20th December.

on thursday i saw Foals at Camden barfly as part of the Levi's Ones To Watch events. they were on such better form than they were at leeds fest, rattling out the tunes, a few new songs thrown in for fun.
the end of their set was "cut short" due to a stage invasion that prompted Yannis to throw his guitar down and storm offstage. as the person who started that stage invasion i'd just like to say 'wtf?'. i'm a bit sick of bands getting annoyed at people being enthusiastic. fair enough if everyone wanted to steal their equipment/beat the crap out of them/insert other bad things. but they didn't. i, for one, was happy enough dancing. i think more people should be grateful that they actually inspire people to dance. things could be worse; you could always be in a band that sounds like Embrace. not hatin' though! Foals are a fantastic band and Yannis is a lovely bloke. i guess everyone gets dramatic from time to time.

Foals - Hollaback Girl (Gwen Stefani cover, xfm session)

saturday was YACHT and The Whip at Push. both of whom were fantastic.
YACHT jumped around the crowd like a madman and the crowd jumped too. i cannot even begin to explain YACHT.

YACHT - The Magic Beat

(do what you love, love what you do - the best life philosophy ever)

The Whip make music that really doesn't sound like it comes from Levenshulme. electro beats with crushing guitars and intros that can work even grunge lovers into dancing frenzies. their single 'Sister Siam' is out today! buy it here.

The Whip - Divebomb

Friday, 9 November 2007

look at what we found.


they're back. and they mean business. and it sounds fucking great.

The Futureheads - Broke Up The Time (zshare)

the lyrics are witty, the guitars are fierce, the drums are heavy. it's catchy, it's poppy, it's fantastic.

i am such a geek i'm going to their King's College gig (29/11) AND one of the Sunderland Independent dates (7/12). the excitement is unbearable.

Tuesday, 6 November 2007

amazingness.


Yeasayer. amazing. their debut album is full of gems. and is possibly one of my favourite of the whole year.

songs like 'Forgiveness' take on Grizzly Bear esque vocals, Indian vibes and mash them together with jumps and skips and shakers and psychedelic guitars. they are truly something brilliant.

you can download a free track from the Yeasayer MYSPACE as well as find links to buy their phenomenal album, 'All Hour Cymbals'. do it, you won't regret it!

Yeasayer - Wintertime (zshare)

ps. I have a spare guestlist place for The Wombats tomorrow at ULU (london!) if anyone wants to go for free? you don't have to hang around with me or anything haha. email me ASAP if you're interested: yorkiethegreatest@gmail.com

Wednesday, 31 October 2007

raaaargh?

happy halloween and all that.



i figured this was a satisfying cross between scary and absolutely hilarious. watch and love.

antonyms, synonyms, meronyms, hyponyms..

talk about SWAMPED!!

i went out every night last week, four gigs, one bad incident, two days getting used to the light again.
now i have six weeks worth of university work to catch up on. and an exam on friday!

lots of exciting things happening re: the blogasphere so keep your ears to the ground.

song i cannot stop listening to, so much so i changed my ringtone to this and have missed too many calls due to dancing instead of answering the phone:

Friendly Fires - Bring Out Your Dead (zshare)

Tuesday, 16 October 2007

naked we made it.

last night i ventured to East London on my lonesome for a gig. a few of my friends said things that resembled "?@£@!!@&*?!" when i said i was going on my own for East London Is A Vampire (lololol). no. but seriously, most people would shit themselves and i've only been here a month.

but i'm brave like that.

i arrived at Cargo, only too eager to get inside as it was a little late and i was cold. the first band were already onstage. they were called Trouble Vs Glue and the woman in the Italian two piece was amazingly scary (i guess she's the Trouble). they made loud, erratic and furocious electro that was charming in the strangest of ways.

next onstage was Dirty Projectors. seeing as i am in love with this band, i knew straight away they were going to be really good. but they weren't. they were fucking IMMENSE. at one point i wanted to cry. their drummer is fierce and it seemed like he was beating the crap out of their songs but in a completely brilliant way. dave, singer and guitarist, was doing some sort of chicken bobbing impression (much like Wild Beasts) but his voice is so compelling you hardly noticed the strange moving. amber and angel (the names almost seem fitting!) sang their hearts out and it was beautiful.
i think i was slightly overwhelmed at just how good they were.

Dirty Projectors - Gimme Gimme Gimme


finally, Khaela Maricich, aka The Blow floated onstage wearing all white and looking fresh faced despite being heavily jet lagged.
Khaela gave us a running commentary to each one of her tracks and explained the stories behind her songs which was highly commical. she called it her song writing workshop and never once lost the concentration of anyone in the entire audience. with her singing over the electro infused beats from Paper Television and Poor Aim: Love Songs, and dancing like the best robot i've ever seen, i completely forgot i was on my own.
it was more of a performance than a gig which she gave but it was incredibly enjoyable and well worth going to.

The Blow - Hey Boy

Sunday, 14 October 2007

brand spanking new.


fresh fresh fresh.

the next release on Phantasy Sound records (home to LA Priest's ace single 'Engine') is by a new act called Primary 1.
Primary 1 consists of one man making music you can't help but dance to. 70s disco meets noughties electro, layered with funky beats and that added bit of pop sparkle. if it's good enough for Erol ..!

Primary 1 - Hold Me Down (Demo Version)
(zshare)

the single version (which sounds even better!) will be available to buy soon! check out his myspace for details, more tracks and an absolutely fantastic remix of Operator Please's track 'Leave It To Me'.

Primary 1 Myspace.

Thursday, 11 October 2007

you're too pretty to leave

my soft spot for north eastern boys who play guitar has grown considerably after watching this video. please someone serenade me in a similar fashion!



School Of Language (David Brewis from Field Music) on Channel M.

perfect. minus the appearance of fucking Frank Sidebottom.

in other brief news:

'In Rainbows' is very good. the following is my favourite so far!

Radiohead - House Of Cards
(zshare)

i saw Blood Red Shoes last night and they were more than immense. in the words of my dad who saw them at Liverpool Barfly on Sunday, they were "shit hot". he's cool. hah.

Blood Red Shoes - ADHD
(zshare)

also, thanks to absolutely everybody who voted for my blog in the BT Awards. i reached number 38 and only voted for myself twice. wooooo. next year i've gotta be top 15 though.

Monday, 8 October 2007

girls who play guitar.

It’s been an incredibly busy week.

I went to see Sky Larkin at The Social in London (which is one of my favourite venues so far!). Supporting was Nic Nell and his unbelievable amount of energy. He definitely put on enough of a performance to make me want to see him live again. Keep Hope Inside have a track up for grabs, listen to podcast number 5! Also up was The Voom Blooms. They sounded like a shittier version of The Jam.
Sky Larkin were excellent, even if they didn’t play ‘Young Lungs’ despite my many heckles for it! Well worth £4.

I caught the end of a set The Moths were doing in a club the same night and I thought they were pretty bog standard. Nothing even remotely interesting about their music or performance. I spent the two songs I saw watching the floor change colours (and not because I was on any kind of drug either).

On Wednesday I went back to Manchester and went to Headlines’ single launch and they were absolutely fantastic. I cannot get enough of this band at the minute!

On Thursday I saw The Rumble Strips do a set in Retro Bar after their gig with The Answering Machine at Club Academy. It was highly entertaining and more shows should be like that. People shouting for “one more song” got their request granted not once, not twice but three times. People chanting “Amy Amy Amy!” also got their wish made come true when the band did their version of ‘Back To Black’ live.

Saturday was what I’d been waiting for for ages and ages and ages. Maximo Park, Good Shoes and Blood Red Shoes. Although The Apollo is pretty legendary and supposedly decorated wonderfully, I’m not that big a fan of going to gigs there. It’s either, be at the front and die, or be at the back where you can’t see a fucking thing. I was, of course, at the front for this gig.

Blood Red Shoes seemed a little scared of the sheer scale of things. Which is another reason why I dislike the venue. Its capacity is near to that of 2000 when the balcony upstairs is open. It’s massive basically. Although a little nervous at first, Blood Red Shoes seemed to really get into their performance and gave it everything they had.
Good Shoes declared that the Apollo was the biggest venue (minus festivals) that they had ever played. Daunting. They too were on form, commanding the stage despite the audience being mostly deadpan. New song ‘Talk’ sounds good and I can’t wait to hear more of their new stuff. Woo new material!
Maximo Park played an excellent range of material, new and old and rare. I thought they might have just rattled off their new (and fantastic) album but they didn’t. A more than energetic performance. Paul and the gang always always always know how to please.

Sky Larkin - Young Lungs
The Rumble Strips - Girls And Boys In Love
Maximo Park - Girls Who Play Guitars

Back in London now!