What have you got to GAIN?

This speaks for itself....

Late of the Pier's Homecoming gig!

more band photography, tell me what you think!

This is all at the Polish Eagle Club in Nottingham, a relatively unassuming venue but it gave a nicer feel to what was probably the best gig of the past few months, with three absolutely amazing bands to match.

The main support were Kap Bambino and their lead singer, Khima France was an absolute joy to shoot. She had much energy and emotion, and kept coming into the crowd to get the semi-polish crowd to move a bit more.

CLICK TO VIEW DIFFERENT SIZES ETC,








Faley DJd for most of the night, i had a slot just after la la lepus while he went to get drinks, but i ran out of songs. Later on while Faley was preoccupied one half of La La Lepus took up the decks and didnt dissapoint.



Late of the Pier were truly on form. If you know how much lead singer Sam strains his vocals in songs such as Focker and Bathroom Gurgle you can appreciate how spot on this performance was. Its also possibly the first time theyve had an entire run through of all the entire album's worth of songs!



I'm pretty pleased with the results i got from the entire night. The Lighting could have been better but bands like these are so easy to shoot, its all about energy, emotion and movement.








The other photographers who were around were Tim Eastgate (yes, a relative) and Danny North, shooting for the NME. You can probably spot them in a few of my photos, and they are tagged if you have a look in flickr.

Don't be a SMUCK...try your LUCK

Not got long as currently kicking it in NYC (yes I am showing off :) 

A chick I met last night told me to check out this band from Japan - and they're pretty cool.

The Boredoms

Putting the E into MadgE

So...Madge has done Ecstacy.

Does this really surprise you?

Here's the story.

The 49-year-old admitted to taking the drugs during her acceptance speech into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at the Waldorf Astoria hotel, New York.Madonna said: "The night I met Michael Rosenblatt, who signed me to Sire Records, I jammed my demo tape into his hand, we both did a tab of ecstasy and then we danced the night away."

As she continued to talk about her early career she added that during her first meeting with publicist Liz Rosenberg the pair also took drugs together admitting: "We smoked a joint together."

Zarcorp does not condone drug use. It's WRONG kids.

Jumpers for goal posts.....

Them crazy cats Late of the Pier are organising a footballing jamboree in Nottingham to celebrate their homecoming.

Liars Club are hosting their Nottingham gig which'll take place in a Polish dancehall.

Support will come from Kap Bambino and La La Lepus.

The afterparty will see Captain Zarcorp (aka Faley) spinning tunes alongside Liars Club DJ's.

Read the NME.COM article.

New Justeeeeece

Gold....Santogold....

She was on Annie Mac's 'Ones to Watch 2008' list and my isn't she doing it, doing it, doing it now.

I reckon the debut album is going to be seriously BIG.

A Herculean feat...

From one of the coolest record labels on the block - DFA, come Hercules & Love Affair...currently uber-cool NYC muso fodder and general god like geniuses in waiting.

The name is a cover for mastermind and knob-twiddler Andrew Butler who's coaxed in a variety of collaborators including Antony (of Antony and The Johnsons fame).

The music is glitterball 70's disco that makes for hugely satisfying and nourishing ear sex.

The album 'Hercules & Love Affair' drops today (March 10th) - Check out the Myspace for more info.

Also check out the AWESOME video directed by the equally AWESOME Saam Farahmand. It guest stars Jamie Winstone, daughter of Ray.

Sam Sparro

I've been hooked on this guy for a good while now after getting sent the promo by a friend of mine.

Sam Sparro hails from Los Angeles via Sydney and proves that a white boy can have an awesome soul voice.

Signed to Modus Vivendi and now Universal in the UK - his other track 'Sally' is another killer tune.

He's coming over to the UK for gigs soon - and will be playing at the Camden Crawl. Check out his Myspace.

Check out his video for 'Black & Gold' :

I'd like to Converse....

photo : me

I headed out to London's Hoxton Bar & Grill the other night for free alcoholic lubrication and the chance to see FOALS in intimate surroundings.

The party was to celebrate 100 years of Converse. 

Dirty Pretty Things were also on the bill but the real buzz was for FOALS.

Put simply. They were sublime.

Interesting, fast paced, excited, dance-able , well constructed ear damage.

Their debut album's due to drop fairly soon but check out their Myspace or Hype to listen to their tracks. The problem is, I don't think they do them justice.

Live they are simply energy and excellence personified. 

I'm dying to see them on a stage soon but their tour takes them to Europe and the US up until June and I'm missing their London gig in the coming weeks.

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

strange strange cartoon

Fancy Being In The Video For The Bears Are Coming?

A brilliant video idea for our next single has been slapped in our face by easily the most influential young director of the last 3 years of pop vids... He has asked us to recruit a gang of merry men and women as extras and we were rather hoping you lot would give it your best shot..

shoot date: wednesday 23rd jan 2008

You need to email a photo, measurements (including height) and telephone number to this email address: lateofthepier@partizan.com asap!!

No payment i'm afriad... but a damn good excuse for a day off school/work to have a laugh.

Shoot is outside london, but there will be transport from a specified location in london - therefore london fans preferable, unless you can transport yourself and anyone wanting to attend will need to bring their own food stuffs


Don’t delay if you want to be part of something exquisite!

;)

lots of love your faithful noise mongers.
Late Of The Pier
xx

LATE OF THE PIER MEGA GEMS TOUR FEB '08

video: Late Of The Pier

sorry about the absence all... i was happily skipping back home from an xmas bash when i fell into a stray fag packet.. i've been trapped in there for nearly a month but after a horrifying ordeal involving a panther, an irate cheesecake, a weird room with red curtain walls and a dwarf who talks backwards i'm back on the blog-o-sphere.

late of the pier are touring through feb... we've got our good mates The Video Nasties & Slagsmalsklubben (yes...from those videos down the page a bit) along for the ride and we're calling it the SUPER MEGAGEMS tour..at least until we decide it's stupid and change the name..
anyway to tell people we're playing shows we thought we'd knock up a little video/audio delight for you while we were in the studio doing our album with erol. if the tours going to be half as fun as the video/audio was it's going to be 10 times better then winning an egg and spoon race.


Here's an hour-ish long mix i knocked up for some E4 Skins myspace thing.. i'm not really sure what, there's a couple of sketchy bits i'm sure but i had a laugh making it.
they've had do with it now though so i'll put it up for you lovely lot...



Zarcorp presents - Songs To Skin Kids To

LA Priest - Engine
Supermayer - The Art Of Letting Go (Ewan's Daft Funk Edit)
Yelle - A Casuse De Garcons (Punks Jump Up Remix)
Dubfire - Roadkill (Mylo Remix)
Kris Menace - Steamroller
Alter Ego - Jolly Joker (Extended Re-edit)
Adam Sky Vs Mark Stuart - We Are All Prostitutes (Crookers Remix)
Hugg & Pepp - Pung
The Pointer Sisters - Send Him Back (Pilooski Edit)
Gusto - Disco's Revenge
Earth People - Dance
Late Of The Pier - The Bears Are Coming (Metronomy's Extended Vocal Remix)
Radio Slave - Bell Clap Dance (Sebo K Remix)
Nathen Fake - Dinamo (Andre Breton Sweet Edit)
Inxs Vs Aerosmith - Need You This Way (Kleptones Mash-Up)



and here's a couple of tracks that're REALLY floating my boat at the moment...

Siriusmo - All The Girls (Tomboy Remix)

David Bowie - Magic Dance


...
'you remind of a babe'
'what babe'
'the babe with the power'
'what power'
'the power of voodoo'
'who do'
'you do'
'power of the babe..'

Vote!!

Click here to VOTE for Late of the Pier in MTV2's 'Spanking New for 2008'.

Do it. Do it now.

This Might Be Better Than Phantom

Goblin - Tenebrae

Dancing to electro-pop like a robot from 1984....

photo : gigwise

This is more of a trip down memory lane than anything as well as a tilt of the hat. Sheffield's a top city and it's hard to get away from the fact they've produced one of the biggest bands (commercially anyway) of the past few years.

You may love them. You may hate them. But it's hard to deny the fact that the Arctic Monkeys are bloody talented.

As well as them you've got the Reverend & The Makers. But before that there was Judan Suki - who at some points boasted 20 members - including a certain Alex Turner and Matt Helders.

Then came 1984 - named after George Orwell's novel.

Not really sure why this post exists -but I stumbled on their Myspace pages, their music is pretty hot and thought I'd share.

Plus it explains the lyric from 'I bet you look good on the dance floor'.

"Dancing to electro-pop like a robot from 1984. From 1984!"

Call it pub trivia.