October 27, 2006
The BBC’s Electric Proms has taken over Camden for the week, and last night I was at Young Tiger, Jamie T, and Damon Alburn’s new “supergroup” who don’t officially have a name, but everyone’s calling “The Good, The Bad, and The Queen“.
Usually I’d write a long sprawling review, pilfered from hundreds of other blogs, but I’m off to see the Godfather of Soul, James Brown this evening, and then I’m flying to New York tomorrow morning.
Who needs words though when the Beeb have the full shows, radio, pictures, and reviews online, on the telly, and on that red button thingy. They’ll be available for a week. Everyone from Billy Bragg, Kasabian, Klaxons, Paul Weller, Squarepusher, the list is huge and many are available online.
BBC Electric Proms website
The Good, The Bad, & The Queen - Full Set Video / Audio / Gallery
MP3: The Good, The Bad, & The Queen - “Kingdom of Doom (Live)” (MP3)
Jamie T - Full set Video / Gallery
Young Tiger - Full set Video / Gallery
For an alternative to my rose tinted view of the BBC, please visit “Biased BBC“. Its a superbly demented look at all the evil perpetrated in license fee payers names. Its actually well written, and usually entertaining, and who knows you might agree. It sometimes oversteps the mark, for instance ridiculing Frank Gardener pleading for his life in Arabic, but mostly its entertainingly barking.
Lily
If you’ve read The Guardian, and are looking for the “Alright, Steal” compilation, its here. Leave a comment and say hello… would be nice to come back from NYC with a few comments that don’t start “c*m piss c*ck sluts”! (Bloody spam)
October 26, 2006
They made the NME want to “wear a mini-skirt & backcomb their hair“, while Drowninsound rushed “down to Saville Row for a new suit“, and last Saturday The Bishops made a surprise visit to Walthamstow for a low key warm up to their 26 date UK tour.
With the New Labour council intent on achieving the impressive feat of both bemoaning the lack of a “night time economy” in the Stow while at the same time presiding over the closure of much of it, it was a treat to see a heavily touted band like The Bishops in town. The Cinema has been closed for years, the dog track’s threatened, and the latest plans are to demolish The Standard to make way for a roundabout, and yet more new housing.
East 17 needs all the entertainment it can get… fortunately twin brothers Mike & Pete Bishop (not forgetting rogue non-sibling Chris on drums) are just the group to provide it.
Unfortunately the majority of the crowd seems to be made up of support act Grasp’s fans, and initially they react to The Bishops mixture of sharp suits and even sharper tunes with a mixture of a little disdain and much bewilderment. The Bishops specialise in providing quick fire salvo’s of two and a half minute guitar pop gem’s, and thankfully it doesn’t take them long to win over the crowd.
Their influences are declared before they even strike a chord, its plain to see in the mop tops and tailored suits… this is a band firmly under the spell of the swinging sixties Mersey sound. Some in the music press have used this to dismiss them as little more than a parody of that scene, but there’s no arguing with the quality of the best of the songs on display tonight.
In honour of their esteemed guests, the Standard management had clearly chucked a few extra logs on the smoke machines fire, prompting Mike to jokingly respond with a feigned choking fit. A fairly short but song packed set followed, with highlights including the tight harmonies, and chugging riff of “The Only Place I Can Look Is Down“, closely followed by “I Don’t Know What To Say“, and last months single “Higher Now“. To blank looks from most, they further proved their credentials as 60’s connoisseurs, throwing in a cover of Dutch beat band, The Outsiders 1965 debut “Sun’s Going Down“.
Last time I saw The Bishops back in February (supporting The Rumble Strips), Mike Bishop ended the night in full axemeister mode right in the middle of the audience. For a while it looked like The Standard’s long stage would be enough to contain his theatrical tendencies, and he seemed content to merely teeter in front of the monitors working the crowd. By the last number however he could hold back no longer and leapt off the stage to continue his guitar work on the dance floor.
With those assembled duly won over, The Bishops departed The Standard stage (most likely never to return) with thanks to all, and a promise to “see you all at the bar“. With luck, and some decent airplay we might just see The Bishops in the charts.
An album recorded with producer Liam Watson in the famously luddite Toe Rag studios is expected sometime in early 2007. In the meantime they’re on tour throughout the UK for the rest of the year.
The Bishops
Website / Myspace
MP3:
The Bishops - “The Only Place I Can Look Is Down” (MP3)
The Bishops - “In The Night” (MP3)
Pics:
The Bishops @ The Standard Music Venue, Walthamstow 21/10/06 Flickr set
Video:
The Bishops - “The Only Place I Can Look Is Down” (YouTube)
The Bishops - “Higher Now” (YouTube)
October 25, 2006
“They say all the legendary gigs were only attended by a handful of people… this could go down in history with that famous Sex Pistols gig… Has anyone seen Mick Hucknall?“
Scroobius Pip
Sunday night in a sodden and rainy London. Scroobius Pip could be forgiven for thinking the “Fly Bar” is cursed. First headliner “Dan Sartain” cancels promoting him to top of a bill of one, and then with replacements duly found one of them turns up without their drum kit. Call are made, favours called in, and a taxi hastily despatched.
I Shouted Gun gamely kick things off but I’m finding it hard to concentrate… the drummer from Morland appears to have left not only his drum kit but his manners on the plane, and spends most of the set assembling and examining the replacement drum kit right in front of the stage (and when I say stage if you know the Fly Bar its more “the corner of the room”). So apologies to I Shouted Gun as my memory of him is obscured by a drum kit and the skinny backside of a Swede… the unusual ladies pink loveheart and cartoon covered pants he was wearing also had a strange transfixing effect :s
Unfortunately the pants were about as interesting as Morland got, very proficient pop rock, but maybe the tunes or the soul got lost in translation. They also took an age to both setup and get off meaning Scroobius Pip didn’t actually play until almost 1030.
You wont find many acts that start their show with a slideshow explanation of where Lithium is on the periodic table, but sporting a beard that would make Jack Straw quiver Mr Pip is far from run of the mill hip hop. Welcome to Angsta Rap…although as he acknowledges that’s one term he may regret coining.
Apart from the science, the lyrics cover everything from suicide, coca cola, the physical embodiment of music and the US administration, but this is far from po-faced hectoring, there’s plenty of humour mixed in, and anyone who performs with a cartoon of Groucho Marx behind them is A) not taking them self too seriously and B) alright in my book.
Accompanied ably by his 6ft 2″ pianist and an effects pedal Scroobius used the later to loop his beat boxing to great effect (I saw singer songwriter Feist do a similar thing at the Royal Albert Hall a few years back).
He also mixes up the beats and poetry with a bit of spoken word, ambling off stage into the audience to deliver his verses.
There’s even a slideshow during some tracks albeit one operated by someone who clearly hasn’t read the manual… no matter Scroobius simply laughs and occasionally prods a few buttons to get the slides back on track. Standout album track “Angles” (covered at length before on this blog) works particularly well with not only slides but Scroobius’s fancy dress kit called into use to illustrate the tale of errmmm well different angles.
A graph of Hip Hop achievement also made an appearance with P Diddy down at one end, Rakim, Public Enemy etc at the top, and Scroobius putting himself somewhere sliding around in between. As someone with a minor “Jesus Walks” obsession I wouldn’t have put Kanye at the bottom myself, but his rapping is admittedly pretty ropey.
Last month Scroobius played with Kate Nash at a packed Fly Bar, and tonight he gave an airing to a new track pilfering a little from Ms Nash. For some reason it put me in mind of Biz Markie’s “Just A Friend“, not lyrically… Unless I missed the line about “small tiny pants and a very big bra” but maybe just in the piano riff.
Aside from the jazzy poetic hip-hop Scroobius has also teamed up with analogue synth spotter and mixer extraordinaire Dan Le Sac for remixes and new material in a much more electronic vein. The Le Sac v Pip live debut was not supposed to take place until Saturday in Reading, but Dan hot footed it over from a set in Brixton for a three song taster of what to expect. The piano was quickly switched for a laptop and a copy of Ableton as some of the tracks from earlier appeared in radical new forms.
“Angles” becomes a great rumbling behemoth of a tune, dark and brooding, but utterly danceable… its hopefully soon to be rerecorded and released as a limited edition single. Understanding the saying “Leave them wanting more” Scroobius departed, leaving Dan hunched intently… sorry I should say, poised over his laptop to continue with his finest electronica. Unfortunately the dreaded Sunday night last Tube dash intervened and I scarpered mid way, but Dan has kindly come to the rescue and put a live set up for download for those that missed out.
All in all Scroobius reaffirmed his status as one to watch, and the night switched from cursed to a blessing for the few that turned up. If you’re anywhere near Reading this Saturday (28th Oct) be sure to make it along for the full Live debut of Le Sac vs. Pip plus if that wasn’t enough the lushness of Vincent Oliver is also on the same bill.
Scroobius Pip Myspace / Scroob.com
Dan Le Sac Myspace / Le Sac.co.uk
Le Sac vs Pip Myspace
MP3:
Dan Le Sac - “Le Sac Live Electronica (MP3)”
Visit here to download a Le Sac party mix featuring remixes of Jay-Z, Elastica, Bob Dylan and er The Only Fools and Horses theme!
Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius - “Dreaming (MP3)” - click don’t right click
More Le Sac v Pip downloads on their Murdochspace.
Scroobius Pip - “1000 Words (MP3)” - click dont right click
Scroobius Pip - “Reading My Dreams (MP3)” - click dont right click
More pip downloads here
Buy:
Scroobius Pip - “No Commercial Breaks” - Debut ablum £7 inc P+P - Buy it here with a free vid
Read:
Dan Le Sac & Scroobius say “Listen To This” in my irregular recommend tunes you love feature. Pt1 / Pt2
October 21, 2006
Bit of a lazy London centric post today, but I’ve been sick as a dog all week, and Time Out has just published a list of the “50 Best London Songs Ever“.
The inexplicable absence of “London Calling” by the Clash makes the list a bit suspect (Fergies “London Bridge” (Video) is also sadly absent 
), but there are some good interviews/features on all fifty tracks.
I’m sure most people could make an alternative list of all the songs that are missing… “Electric Avenue”, “West End Girls” “Its a London Thing” “Parklife”, etc.
There’s also an interview with Damon Albarn and Paul Simonon about their new apparently London influenced band “The Good, The Bad And The Queen”. I’m off to see them next week as part of the BBC’s Electric Proms festival (along with James Brown, Jamie T and Young Tiger).
Time Out’s Top 50 London songs / Competition to win 2,500 itunes tracks
It’s a tenuous link I know but here’s four MP3’s from London based acts or remixers currently looping on my trusty old ipod.
Ty - “Don’t Watch That (Knickers, Y-Fronts and Jockstraps)“ (MP3) - Buy the album
Jeremy Warmsley - “I Believe In The Way That You Move“ (MP3) - Buy the album
Soweto Kinch - “Everybody Raps“ (MP3) - Buy the album
Franz Ferdinand - “Do You Want To (Erol Alkans Glam Racket mix)“ (MP3) - Myspace
Musical Map of London
While I’m on the subject of London, its been a while since I mentioned a neglected little project of mine: The Musical Map of London.
With the advent of Google Maps I thought why not collect together as many London musical locations as possible. Its a huge task, and this is a very very rough early attempt but I need your help - please leave a comment with any address’s, tales, birthplaces, drug busts, recording studios…anything really that should be included on the map. I’m on night shifts in a few weeks so I’ll be updating it with any suggested locations in the wee small hours.
Also if anyone with coding skills or ideas has any thoughts on how I could better present the map. Being able to search would be useful, as would a better way of displaying the list as it grows.
Links:
Derelict London’s fantastic “London’s Musical History Landmarks” page - some great pictures here.
Soho Music Tour - The Times with a Soho walking tour.
The story of The Clash in London - features pictures of almost every location The Clash ever visited in London.
The story of the Ziggy Stardust album cover shoot here.
October 13, 2006
I mean no disrespect to the Hoff when I say this, but I really wish I’d not seen him last week.
BBC 6music had declared Monday Beck day and the plan was to catch him live in the 6music hub. Unfortunately by the time I arrived Mr Hansen had already left the building, and so wandering down to HMV I found myself watching the bizarre spectacle of a David Hasslehoff instore signing. Fresh from flirting, dancing, and sleaping his way through an interview with Jenni Falconer on GMTV, “The Hoff” certainly knew how to work the crowd.
“Jump In My Car” (YouTube) played on a loop and as a result echoed around my increasingly infuriated head for the rest of the day but I cant deny that it was entertaining to see Hasslehoff in person… it didn’t quite make up for not seeing Beck though .
On Thursday I did however manage to make it on time to see a superb 6music session from an old favourite of mine, Badly Drawn Boy. The hub (essentially the 6music staff tea room) is not really designed for crowds so with Damon, four band members and presenter Gideon Coe set up, those lucky enough to get along squeezed in where they could (Gallery of pics).
Badly Drawn Boy has a reputation as an eccentric performer but he seemed on fine form playing three tracks, and talking though what’s been a bit of a nightmare 18 months. His career had been relatively trouble free until recently, a Mercury Award, 4 album’s in 4 years, and he even managed the feat of making a Hugh Grant soundtrack album seem cool.
His debut for EMI however turned into what he called “an inexplicable disaster“. 20 songs were recorded with producer Stephen Street, but unhappy with the result Damon scrapped the entire album. Listening to him talking about it, it genuinely seemed like a horrific experience that left him questioning if he could ever do a record again… he felt that “the game was up“.
Drastic times call for drastic measures so Damon went back to basics locking himself away in the studio with just his drummer and bassist… the aim to record a song a day.
“I said lets go in the studio, and write a song a day. Starting in September each night I went home with a new song on my ipod, and by December there were about 80 of them. It became a thrill for me and a bit of an addiction even… just to have a brand new song every day not finished but pretty good version or idea for a song.”
After hand picking his favourites, he went into the studio in January with Nick Franglen from Lemon Jelly and set to work on what became the new album “Born In The UK“.
Badly Drawn Boy - “Born In The UK (Live on BBC 6music)” (MP3)
The limited edition Secret 7″ “Born In The UK” came wrapped in a special Fish n chip style newspaper wrapping including chip fork, its too nice to actually open so I’d only heard a “hooky” downloaded version before, on which the vocals sound like they were recorded in the studio toilet. I was pleasantly surprised when the song, live and free from its terrible production revealed itself as a something that may just become a Badly Drawn Boy favourite.
The lyrics are however a bit random at times (“Virginia Wade was winning our hearts/ she made us want to live,” he sings, clearly confusing “live” with “buy a tennis racket“). People not as old as Damon (and me) may also need a glossary to make sense of the UK circa 1971-87 featured in the song… Virginia Wade… ahhh I see tennis player, Jilted John, see also John Shuttleworth.
The video is also worth a watch, if the BBC ever started making personal “Rock n Roll years” for its licence fee payers, they wouldn’t need to do mine as the video neatly does the trick in 3 minutes.
Badly Drawn Boy - “The Journey from A to B (Live on BBC 6music)” (MP3)
Badly Drawn Boy - “All Possibilities (Live on BBC 6music)” (MP3)
Although problems with the levels of a keyboard that already sounded like it’d been borrowed from Frank Sidebottom, and a mid song laughing fit from BDB slightly marred the performance, the sheer class of “All Possibilities” shone through. Damon also broke into lyrics from the Sister Sledge classic “Thinking of you” which seemed to fit perfectly.
Towards the end of the session Damon neatly summed up where he is with his career right now:
“I’ve made enough money to live on for the rest of my life, I’ve got 2 kids and I couldn’t care less what the NME thinks anymore.
I’m just going to continue making records, I could afford to do it on my own steam if I wanted to… but I’ve got a BIG BIG fat record deal from EMI so I’ve got to try and keep it going!”
You can vote for your favourite fish and chip shop here. Badly Drawn Boy will stand on the fryer of the winning shop and sing his heart out. Bristol was in the lead last time I looked.
Badly Drawn Boy - Myspace / Website
Buy: Order “Born In The UK” from Amazon for 9 quid.
MP3:
Badly Drawn Boy - “Something to talk about (Four Tet remix)” (MP3)
Badly Drawn Boy - “It Came From The Ground (Andy Votel mix)” (MP3)
Watch:
Badly Drawn Boy - “Born In The UK” (YouTube)
Badly Drawn Boy - “Nothings Gonna Change Your Mind” (YouTube)
October 7, 2006
What with internet problems, and the gig fest caused by my brother visiting I’ve not had a chance to post in a while so this is a bit of a hip-hop live / mix roundup. After the response to the Lily “Alright Steal” compilation any post following it is bound to be a let down… thanks to everyone who mailed suggestions… glad so many people liked it!
Kid Koala (above) & Jurassic 5 live to follow but first a couple of very tasty mixes well worth grabbing.
First dating back to August but still essential DFA are kindly sharing:
DFA Radio Mix by Tim Sweeney (MP3)
Mixes by LCD Soundsystem main man James Murphy are also there for you to download.
For a real treat though head over to WFMU.org and grab their two hour Steinski special. They don’t get much more legendary than Steve Stein… Part 1 features a set he did for Wire magazines “New Music Festival”, while the second half has an interview with the man himself interspersed with a Simpson’s cutup, a few Lessons, and such delights. Grab it while you can by downloading this:
Put The Needle On The Record - A Steinski special
Once you’ve got it, drop the ‘-n’ from the end of the file name and boom, you’ve got 2hrs and 16mins worth of Steinski goodness.(thanks to Bos Bos on the ninjatune forum for this)
For a track list and link to the “Put the Needle On the Record” podcast visit here.
Finally before I move on to Kid Koala, Big Dada have launched their very own podcast. The ever excellent Ty provides the first episode, playing some tunes, and talking through his new LP. Ty’s new album is further proof of his place at the top of the UK pile… actually scratch the UK from that sentence (Preorder the LP here).
Big Dada Podcast Ep 1 or subscribe with itunes.
Now back to the man featured in the picture above, the return of Kid Koala! A couple of weeks ago I squeezed myself into a heaving Cargo for the launch party of “Your Mom’s Favourite DJ“. Its ten years since Koala first blew Coldcut’s minds playing them his demo tape “Scratchcratchratchatch” and this album/live show marks a “back to basics” of sorts so its 3 turntables instead of 8, and no bingo.
That’s not to say its po-faced like your average “turntablist”, Eric is ever the showman from the second he bounds onto stage grinning ear to ear like a child who has drunk one too many additive packed orange juices. He gets the crowd on side straight away - as if he needed to - cutting up some dialogue “Lets begin in London… one of the worlds truely great cities” before the music proper starts with a cut up version of Erol Alkans Franz Ferdinand remix (Youtube video).
Over the course of 2 hours he grins and scratches (all without headphones might i add) his way through everything from Radiohead, Bjork, Spank Rock, and De La Soul. With his mesmerising 3 deck, five minute reworking of Judy Garland’s “Moon River” Koala almost has the crowd in tears (youtube video), but after a pause for a collective sigh he briefly transformed the place into a student union with Rage Against The Machine, an Amon Tobin remix of Slayer, and the debut of what he called “Grungelism“. Take two stupid words and combine them into a longer even stupider one he said. There was more rock featured than your average DJ show, with the test cuts of his new guitar based band “Slew” highlights (as they are on the Mom album).
Moving to the stage side and grabbing a portable lap sized turntable Koala previewed another of his many side projects “Mosquito Blues” (youtube video). An animated book about a clarinet-playing mosquito, he recreates the insects buzzing dialogue on a Vestax QFO, a turntable & mixer in one developed with the help of DJ Q-Bert.
There were times when the Koala of old was missed, the extra turntables and the friends of previous tours, but its difficult to be bored by a DJ with the breathtaking skill, and endearing charm of Eric. He ended the show with a typically quirky Koala flourish, flipping over messages on a board thanking the crowd, and saying he was off to dance now.
With that he left the stage, leaving a lady who’d been stood to the side of the stage all night to uncover the remaining messages (Youtube video)…
Thanks to Ninjatune, cargo, soundcrash and Corinne (arrow pointing to woman turning over messages)
flip
Isn’t She Lovely?
flip
In January I asked her to marry me
flip
She said yes! (huge roar from crowd)
flip
Thank HER for letting me do shows on our honeymoon
flip
good knight (british spelling)
With that Corinne removed the needle from the record with all the skill of a master turntablists wife, ie not much, and exited the stage to rapturous applause.
Kid Koala
Website / Myspace
MP3:
Kid Koala - “Scratchcratchratchatch mix tape (Part one)” (MP3)
Kid Koala - “Scratchcratchratchatch mix tape (Part two)” (MP3)
A track from the new album over on “listen to this“.
Buy:
Grab the superb “Your Mom’s Favourite DJ” from Amazon or Ninjatune.
Watch:
You Tube videos of the Cargo gig courtesy of Rob Red Alert.
Kid Koala - “Fender Bender” (QT)
Kid Koala - “Basin Street Blues” (QT)
Kid Koala - “Floor Kids (Part 1) (Myspace link)“
Jurassic 5 @ The Astoria 01/10/06
More on this later as I’ve got to dash to a “Duck tour” and wedding celebration! Needless to say they were excellent… i’ll leave you with a golden mp3.
Jurassic 5 - “What’s Golden” (MP3)
