Foals, Friendly Fires and Cut Off Your Hands
MGMT or Foals? Quite an easy choice for me, and having asked my friends who went to MGMT, a well chosen one. We missed most of Cut Off Your Hands, to my friend’s dismay, who had only been there for them. From the two songs we heard outside (Still Fond to Expectations) and then You and I from inside, they did a good job. Sweating everywhere, they went off to a quiet crowd, which is unfortunate for such a great band.
Having never really go into them, the Friendly Fires did come on and put on an impressive show. I enjoyed nearly all their songs, highlights were In The Hospitol and their amazing jam at the end with their famous single Paris. It was stunning to watch as the bass player put down his bass and started playing the amazing cow bell section for the whole song. Friendly Fires proved that they are a great band , not perhaps enough to buy their album, but they put on a fanastic live set, with furious amounts of energy, perhaps only being shadowed by the mighty Foals themselves.
Walking through the crowd, and brushing past me, they came on to huge amounts of cheers and whistling. Walter, the bassist, took a swig of beer from a nearby ticket holder. Jack started it off with an amazing amount of percussion work as the band started to increase in tempo and in volume. It soon became just lots of high pitched noises which started to become unbearable, until the release into Two Steps, Twice. Whenever he got the chance, Yannis was bobbing, weaving and dancing about with the rest of the band. Perfect musicians, they did not falter once. Moving into Olympic Airways without stop, they managed to persaude my friend, that is was not so bad that had missed Cut Off Your Hands. Today he stands a Foal convert. With racusious enthusiasm, the crowd was screaming along with Yannis; “Dis-A-Ppear!” The songs kept coming and the crowd was hungry. Hanging on Yannis’ every word, the crowd shouted requests throughout, all which seemed to be fufilled.
Half way through Jimmy (pictured above left), jumped onto the pillar, clambered two meters up and banged his guitar for distorion, right above us! Jumping down he dropped his guitar. Hummer, the crowd pleaser, started and it seemed Yannis’ mike had broken. Then it became obvious, the crowd was just singing louder than his amp could go. Red Socks Pugie came on (a song which has been negelected by me of late) and it instantly made me fall in love again. The drum beat was amazing, as were the lyrics, the rise and then the quite fall to nothingness. Yannis took a trip to the bathroom, through the crowd, and with his guitar. Even songs which I didn’t really enjoy on the album, Big Big Love (Fig. 2) and Electric Bloom, were incredable. Perhaps the best live show I have ever witnessed, actually no, Foals’ polyrymthic rock, Friendly Fires’ cowbell and Cut Off Your Hands’ power pop made it the best gig I have ever been too.
See more photos here
Watch the end of their concert from the next night (two steps, twice), in great quality, here.
The Wombats’ Christmas Single
Not just a mere rock song released in the “Christmas” period, The Wombats latest single is Christmassy as well as fantastic. Sharp, chunky chords, fast bass lines, easy to sing along to lyrics, solid drumming and lots of background singing. It’s like one fantastic Wombats’ song, but for Christmas! Maybe not one for the quiet evenings, but certainly put this one on, when the presents are being opened.
Buy it on the 15th of December!
Cat’s Meow – The Bad Eliots
Basically, a bunch of really talented guys got together and created a really cool single. Ranging from an ex-drummer of the band Boston to a culture critic to a “Guitar World” teacher, it’s certainly an interesting mix. The end result, their single “Cat’s Meow”, is nothing revolutionary, but certainly very solid. It has interesting vocals, (imagine if the Interpol singer discovered happiness), a hard but upbeat, guitar section, a long and interesting bass line and a great beat through out. Too happy to be Rock but too raw too be pop, whatever it is, it sounds really great.
Buy; itunes
The Libertines – Rarities
There are so many reasons people are drawn to The Libertines, everyone has their own take on their music. I love them becasue of their uniquely melodic songs, mixed with superb lyrics and their uneveness in playing which I believes creates something extremely special. Because of this, I leap at the chance of finding any secret demos or unreleased tracks. And because they wrote so much, it seems like we will never find all of it, but here are some tracks which I have found and that I find to be the best.
Who’s Got The Crack? – Mentioned previously, it’s probably not as good as the original, but it’s nice to hear Pete and Carl singing it.
Dreaming Of You – Similar to “Who’s Got The Crack?”, it’s good, but no as good as the original.
I Got Sweets – A jazzy number from Carl, with bluesy chords and great lyrics. Maybe not their smartest song (just replace “sweets” with any illegal substance), but still a good life moto, just like with “I Get Along”. Great, clean solo at the end.
The Delaney [Live] – A more normal type of Libertines song, it has distorted guitars and screaming, never die choruses.
Never Never – My favourite b-side, it’s a shame that few people will hear this because it was not included on the album. It’s really infectious and has an absolutely fantastic chord progression.
Blood Red Shoes Live
This is Philip, my friend from north Germany, and he is hear to explain about the Blood Red Shoes gig he recently went to:
Living in Dresden, a pretty small city in former East Germany, I don’t really get to see very many good bands. So, one day I was sleepily cruising the web, when lo and behold, Blood Red Shoes were coming to Dresden! I obviously gathered a few friends and had the tickets bought in less than an hour.
Blood Red Shoes were playing Beatpol, a really awesome venue that I’d never been to before. It’s this really old house that has been renovated and it has a really great feel to it. My friends and I made sure to arrive early and get places right in front of the stage. The venue filled up quickly, and by the time the support act, 1984, started playing, the place was packed. 1984 played quite well, better than when I saw them at Frequency Festival, and got the crowd going a little bit. However, when Blood Red Shoes came on at 9 o’clock, everyone went wild straight away. As soon as they played the first note, people started dancing and having a good time. I didn’t see anyone bored, just standing there, and not having a good time.
All of the Blood Red Shoes songs are perfect for shows. They are all super, simple punk songs, usually with a slowdown and a really wilder part. They played their whole album “Box of Secrets” and played a couple new songs as well. These new songs were great, and sounded just like the classic Blood Red Shoes songs: lots of energy and fast paced. Steve and Laura Mary didn’t really say much, but they made up for that by playing with a truckload of energy and passion. After the concert I only managed to get half of the set list, as some girls standing next to me ripped off the other half, but the last five songs were:
You Bring Me Down
Forgive Nothing
Count Me Out
This Is Not For You
I Wish I Was Someone Better
‘Count Me Out’ was one of the new songs they played, which was great: I can’t wait for the new album. Everybody enjoyed every single song, with almost everybody singing along and rocking out as best they could. But the crowd really went wild for ‘I Wish I Was Someone Better’. The whole venue simply turned into one giant mosh pit within a few seconds of the song and there was no escaping it. Blood Red Shoes left the stage right after, but the crowd was just screaming for an encore, so they played another new song and then ADHD.
I left Beatpol half deaf, soaked with other people’s sweat and my own, with a Blood Red Shoes t-shirt in my hand and a huge smile on my face. I hadn’t listened to much Blood Red Shoes for a while, but after seeing the amazing way they played their songs, with all the energy and emotion, it seems like all the songs are stuck in my head again. After talking to lots of people after the show I heard the same thing – Great gig, and it was super fun.
It’s Getting Boring By The Sea
Thanks for the picture, Nicozz
Weblog Awards – Time To Vote!
Come on down and vote for my blog. “How do I do this?” I am sure you are asking yourself. Well, follow the links below and click the little, green plus-sign next to the comment with my blog in it. If you have time, it would be great if you could vote in the following categories:
I think I would probably like to win “Best Music Blog” the most, but I think being a finalist for any of them will do just fine. Thanks for the great picture, Enrico Fuente.
Franz Ferdinand Album
Franz Ferdinand’s new album is coming out January 26, and if you can’t wait (like myself), NME have a little preview, with a bit of information and youtube links to the songs. From what I have heard, it seems a lot more danceable, and as I wasn’t too keen on the second album, this different Franz is more than welcome. If you want to hear the whole album, but in not such great live quality, go to JP’s blog here. Thanks for the brilliant pic, Guy Eppel.
RSS
I have moved it and it is now using feedburner. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Two Nice Songs
Again, apologies for not posting. Again, I don’t how I couldn’t find a little time for the blog. Anyway here are two nice, softer songs which I have been listening to recently.
I just bought the album from the mercury-nominated singer, and I am deeply impressed. She has been contributing to hosts of other bands (Noah and the Whale, Mystery Jets and The Rakes to name a few) and by herself she has her own unique style and a really fantastic voice. She could have my favourite female voice, but we will have to see once I have finished the album. Soft sliding guitars, mix with her friendly, wonderfully placed lyrics and well inserted piano, violin and male vocal sections.
My favourite track on their album, which I had only just managed to get a hold of. You can hear Laura’s influence here, with cheerful singing between verses. The main guitar riff is incredibly catchy, with an infectious beat and dabs of xylophone. The lyrics in this song are magnificent and are well thought out; “I’m not trying to write a love song, just a sad, pathetic moan, and maybe I just need change, maybe I just need a new cologne”. The whole song has this wit and is really fun to sing along to.
Also I just got LittleBigPlanet and it is pretty cool…
