My Leeds Festival 2009

This year I've felt a little too self absorbed to induldge myself in Leeds Festival properly. I spent the Friday & Sunday bed down in House Of Mook perfecting the mix for You Animals forthcoming opus, and setting up for recording some Honour Before Glory tracks on Monday

I did have a great day in attendance on the Saturday, though as usual it was the social aspect as much as the bands that made it the occasion it was.

I started the day watching The XX, who's album has quickly become a bit of a favourite of mine. It was an odd entity live, I wasn't expecting it to be that much more than it was, but I still thought it was a shame there wasn't more to it. Still, it's made me listen to the album today and I've enjoyed it all the more.

After The XX, I wandered around the site a little bit and checked out the BBC Introducing Stage, caught a little bit of ex-Loiner Anna Prior in Metronomy, before watching the Grammatics in the Festval Republic tent. And very good they were too

Later on, we camped out on the main stage to catch Vampire Weekend (who reminded me more than ever of Gracelands), bits of Bloc Party (very festival) and then Radiohead.

Radiohead was a bit of an odd one as not the set per se, but the whole set-up seemed very hard for a casual observer to 'break through' - and what I find odd, is why a band that was doing a sponsor-less tour in their own tents, was headlining such a 'corporate' festival?? With the 'arty' set up of video screens and lighting it was hard to connect from a distance, so I lost interest. I'm sure if I'd have been in the mood for an intense Radiohead set it would've been outstanding. I guess it was the festival equivalent of The Wire - not one for the casual observer. But that's what I go to the festival to be.

Two brief links / mentions:

1) To the festival volunteers who are actively getting involved. Great work if you can get it:

http://festvolunteers.blogspot.com/

2) Check out highlights of loads of bands on 'death of independent journalism' website the BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/2009/videos/

Keep an eye out for Faith No More covering the Eastenders theme

Many thanks to the kind people at Festival Republic though for letting me attend again. Hopefully next year I can do something worthwhile to attend

Soundtrack to this post: Wilco, Fever Ray

Bloc Party - One More Chance

Bloc Party's new single got it's first airplay on Zane Lowe / Radio 1 last night. I'm just listening back right now. The first 10 seconds are utterly ridiculous, but as the song goes on, I don't find it half as bad as I thought I would do from that initial intro.

To explain where I'm coming from, I used to really like Bloc Party. In former incarnations, we played with them, and I was lucky enough to see a few early gigs in small venues. The first album I liked, but I thought the album didn't flow too well. The second album felt like a mess, and I honestly didn't get along with a lot of it. By the time Flux & then Mercury came out, I'd stopped listening out for what they were doing next. I haven't even the 3rd album.

I honestly don't get the band, and more to the point, their infatuation with experimentation in the production of their songs. The odd thing about this song, is that it sounds like there's a good song in there! Unlike Mercury which was just a complete mess. Strip away the bad midi piano and added bells and whistles from the drums, it'd probably sound pretty good. The comparatively stripped back and restrained chorus holds it's own, and benefits from these facets. Why the song as a whole sounds like some mid-90's throwback experiment is anyone's guess.

So in conclusion, ignore the wierd piano - the new Bloc Party single might be the best thing they've done for quite a while. If this was their One More Chance, they might just have grasped it [sorry]

*due respect to It's Getting Boring By The Sea for hosting my intial discovery*

Soundtrack to this post: Bloc Party interspersed with Royksopp

Life Update incorporating more Videos & Gilmore Girls

So, had a cool but busy week. Spent last weekend (not the last couple of days) in beautiful Tuscany where it pissed it down with rain almost constantly. The rain receded a little bit on the last day so we could take part in some Olive picking - which was the excuse for our visit

Otherwise, been a good-ish week. Got some work done, had a few nights in, and then did some more recording with The ABC Club over the weekend.

On Friday I found time to watch the Gilmore Girls again, I made time especially as I knew which specific episode it was and it didn't disapoint. Cue appearances from, amongst others; Sparks, Yo La Tengo and Thurston Moore & Kim Gordon. Absolutely brilliant

And while I can't find any YouTube clips of that , here are 2 more that I should put up after last week. First off is one that did the blogs not long ago, of Norweigan duo FIRST AID KIT performing a cover version of Fleet Foxes' Tiger Mountain Peasant Song armed with just their guitars and the open air:

Second is another Take Away Show video, that I didn't put up last week because it felt a bit 'obvious' - but really it's a great, and a tribute to those guys in Bloc Party:

Finally, updates from the world of WATCHMEN. There's an even better new trailer that was released with the US release of Quantum Of Solace. Download it via this link

WATCHMEN TRAILERS

Soundtrack to this post: Radio 5 606

Remixing London Town

No, Kano hasn't asked me to remix him. I've just been busy - first remixing and getting involved (which was a lot of fun) and then I've been in London.

I've been remixing a track by PIN ME DOWN, Russel from Bloc Party's new 'thing' - it's a neat swap for me because he's remixing the new Forward Russia single. I had loads of fun, but it's got me mildly obsessed with all things Ed Banger, Modular, French House, DFA and so on. I want to bust a groove and go out DJing some of that stuff, but I don't think people will be interested

MP3---> JUSTICE VS DEATH FROM ABOVE 1979 - Blood On Our Hands

MP3---> PANTHERS - Thank Me With Your Hands (MSTRKRFT Remix)

Vice Records MP3 Blog

London was fun, though the mainstream music industry definately seems a bit fucked. No one's talking about signing bands, and it doesn't seem like many people are going to SXSW. Sucks to be EMI

I enjoyed catching up with friends though, as music wasn't the purpose of my visit. If it was I would have failed miserably by missing all these bands I had the opportunity to see:

Eureka Machines, Jimmy Eat World, The Kills, Martha Wainright, Oh No!! Oh My!! (actually really regret that), Yeasayer and probably some more...

Soundtrack to this post: Justice / MSTRKRFT Remixes... what else

Busy Bees

I've had a busy week, hardly spent a minute in the house over the back end of last week. Most pronounced by a trip to Preston on Wednesday to do a Forward Russia photoshoot. 

Danny North - photographer extraordinaire, picked an abandoned asylum as our location. Very crazy

    

And so far this week, I've been working on some remixes, and re-discovering old ones. Last year, I did a remix for the new BLOC PARTY record, that I think got lost in a huge pile of Bloc Party remixes. 

I've put it on my 'remix' MySpace (Constructicons Form Devastator) and linked to it below, with my favourite remix from the new album - Where Is Home? by Burial. Which I bizarrely heard on Panaroma the other night

MYSPACE---> Bloc Party - Uniform (Constructicons Form Devastator Remix)

BLOG SEARCH---> Bloc Party - Where Is Home? (Burial Remix)

Other than that, I've been constantly enjoying listening to the new YOUTHMOVIES album 'Good Nature' and re-listening to THE WRENS, who my dad once said was like a cross between Forward Russia and Coldplay....

MP3---> Youthmovies - Archive It Everywhere (Live At ATP)

MP3--->Youthmovies - If You'd Seen A Battlefield (Live At ATP)

MP3---> Youthmovies - Last Night Of The Proms (Live At ATP)

MP3---> The Wrens - Everyone Chooses Sides (from The Meadowlands LP)

If you can't tell, I still haven't worked out the best way to link to the music on this blog, suggestions welcome. Myspace links, blog searches and links to available downloads seem like the future

In the meantime, here's a download I feel good about linking to, the first fruits of a new Leeds band PULLED APART BY HORSES, available to download from Myspace for a limited period of time

MYSPACE / MP3---> Pulled Apart By Horses - High Five, Swan Dive, Nose Dive

FINALLY, and most importantly, GRAND ARCHIVES have released a sneak preview of their upcoming album via Pitchfork - the opening track Torn Blue Foam Couch. Enjoy

MP3---> Grand Archives - Torn Blue Foam Couch

Soundtrack to this post: These New Puritans / Grand Archives / Die! Die! Die! / El Guincho