Little White Lies

Went to see A & R loved band White Lies last night in London Town.

Not sure if it was their first gig but the buzz was pretty immense...and they lived up to it.

Their sound is BIG. With strings, keys and great guitar they've got a well honed sound and felt too huge for the relatively small Hoxton Bar & Grill.

2 demos are up online. Go feast your ears.

Some other weekend fun!

Friday night was Late of the Pier in Leeds. I arrived around half an hour late because my escort failed to realise the importance of the support bands (slags and video nasties). When i arrived they wouldnt believe me that i was on the guestlist, and when they finally checked they said i needed an adult. They were polish. Its a scary accent to use. I can see why they are bouncers. I got in about half way through slagsmalsklubben's set and met up with hewett (of Copycats fame). I heard about 3 songs including malmo night party which is an excellent tune (see here).

It was a stormer of a set, and even though i missed most of it i really got a sense of what state of mind these guys put an unknowing crowd into. Everyone seemed very bewildered, or perhaps stunned is the right word. They make a really good first impression and there music is very easy to get along with.

Then i took some photos!

Then my dad bought us some beer, which was pretty cool, until a big polish vampire bouncer stole our beer and then stole us. We got chucked out. Not good. Me and Hewett went round the back to the dressing room and wallowed in our own self-pity. If we went back in the crowd we would get chucked out again, and the cockpit is the most unfriendly place ive ever seen. In other places they would just take your beer away and leave it at that. Security like that isnt even in rock city. And they rotate so you never know who youre going to meet. Some guy got on the mic during the start of bears are coming and they grabbed him in the most violent way. I dont think he got back in either.

Because of that we missed all of Video Nasties, but the tour manager and a skinny guy let us watch Late of the Pier from the back behind a small curtain, the one you can see rob poking out of in the picture above, but it was pretty poor for taking pictures from.

Me and Hewett managed to sneak to the side of the stage beside a couple of speakers. I did a video of Focker

The reason i stopped the video short was because i wanted some shots like this:

Here are some more of my favourites from the night:

The Grammys and weekend FUN

What an action packed weekend I've had.

Left London and arrived in Bristol at around 8pm to see the Pier boys do their thing at the Skins launch party.

It was at a skate park behind the train station which was a little dodgy getting to. I was at one point confronted by 10 lads in 'hoodies' but it turned out that they were actually members of 'The Bristol Tea Society' and all they were bothered about was whether I prefered peppermint or darjeeling tea.

So anyway I got to Bristol, inspected the boys' tour bus - watched their show - and then drank jesus juice and passed away in the hours in the bus listening to the fantastic Kitsune Maison 5 album (which features the 'Fairy Lights' mix of 'Broken').

We also watched their video for 'The bears are coming' directed by the monumental Saam Farahmand. The end bit is FUNNY.

It then got rather late and so I decided not to sleep and stay up for my train at 7am.

Arrived back in London at around 9am and literally am missing about an hour on the tube. In between Paddington and Liverpool St - anything could have happened to me.

The weekend was then spent having fun times around London. I met a guy with a guitar on the tube who had a BB King sort of voice and was amazing on the guitar. A tramp came and sat near him and started smoking on the tube (naughty naughty) - the tramp said it was his birthday and so the guy with the guitar sang him a song.

I listened to the Hot Chip album a fair bit - still really LOVE 'Shake a Fist' as well as 'Ready For The Floor' - the rest is still growing on me.

I was quite impressed to hear that Daft Punk turned up to The Grammy awards...

And I was also happy that Amy Winehouse looked better than we've seen her in the past few weeks. To win 5 Grammy's is quite an accolade. Quite why sometimes our media, or certain factions anyway, feel the need to almost break people. Then again - since that video emerged of her - she has been forced to seek help so maybe it wasn't such a bad thing.

She's a national treasure...someone we need to be proud of!

Check out this photo below - her at school with Billie Piper!

and here she is now - on the mend.

Eurrghhhh music

Zarcorp needs defibrillating. This is how its done. I was going to make a mix out of these, but then i didnt, ok? This is just a few of my favourite things at the moment, i want to get DJing again so i can play some of this in a club, it will sound absolutely massive.

Toxic Avenger

Do you know that sound like bricks in a blender? The overdriven sound that you thought only Justice and Sebastian could pull off? Toxic Avenger seems to take this to a new level and already has a huge list of intense and brilliant remixes under his belt.

Heres just a couple of my favourites///

Fredze Fred - All Da Motha Fuckas (Toxic Avenger Remix)

Late of the Pier - Space and the Woods (Toxic Avenger remix) (very old!)

Myspace


Fredze Fred

I only just found this the other day, its some really exciting stuff, the same overdrive electro but theres a lot more going on and some real variety and inventiveness compared to his peers, and i assume hes already gathering a lot of interest.

Fredze Fred - All Tha Motha Fuckas

Fredze Fred - Superbastards

Myspace


Sebastian

Perhaps a little obvious, but I've been a huge fan for ages and i think ive got practically every single remix. Hes probably the best thing to have come out of ed banger, and easily holds the title for the best remixer of the last few years. Heres 2 of my favourite remixes.

Nadiya - Tous Ces Mots (Sebastian Remix)

Sebastien Tellier - Sexual Sportswear (Sebastian Remix)

Myspace


Siriusmo

Here is something i was only introduced to yesterday by my friend Mads from Electrojuice, and ive already fallen in love through just the 30 second previews on iTunes. The myspace is confusingly thin on the ground, but it looks like Siriusmo is already pretty big and has had various singles and remixes released already, which can be bought on itunes. This piece is some seriously funky shit, some Siriusmo tracks remind me of a mix between Oizo and discovery daft punk.

Siriusmo - Girls Rock

Myspace