But I can't believe I missed this!
(Look familiar Bruce?)
(Tom Waits, live in Dublin earlier this year)
(Drunk In Charge Of YouTube - DICOYT)
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Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Music. Show all posts
Friday, December 12, 2008
It Was Nice To Get Married And All....
Sunday, November 09, 2008
Friday, September 05, 2008
Something Good For Your Soul
Couple of things actually. Y'know, YouTube really is a wonderful thing, even if it's now akin to trawling through a really good rubbish tip.
Hell, yes!
Friday, November 30, 2007
Eco Media Player
Stephen Fry has blogged about it and today, with a big ol' trip coming up, I damn near bought one. Unfortunately I have a big ol' trip coming up, so can't really justify the cost. Yet. But I'm totally loving this:
Not the most beautiful thing in the world, but have you seen the features on it? Chief of course being the ability to wind the fucking thing up! I've suddenly fallen in love with the idea of cranking up my mp3 player. Let alone the fact that running out of battery will be a thing of the past. And given the length of time I'm about to spend in planes, trains and automobiles, that's no bad thing.
And then there's the phone-charger application, the SD card expansion slot and the torch. Yes, the torch! Alright, it's not a beautiful piece of sleek modern design with a smooth, intuitive interface, but then neither am I. And it, like me and the cockroaches, will eat your sleek designer ass alive when the apocalypse comes! *
It seems to retail most places for around £170, but eco-shop Green & Easy (part of a huge network of "green" online stores that I never even knew existed) has it up for about £130.
*I mean this quite literally.
Saturday, November 03, 2007
Damn...
Have I mentioned how much I love Tom Waits? I have? Oh.
Too bad!
Ahh...this song always breaks my heart.
My favourite live Waits performance. The 1.48 mark knocks me every time.
How's THAT for self-indulgent!
Welcome Back Kotter
I'm at home, getting trashed, watching music videos on YouTube.
What's new?
I know, I know, it's been a while. What can I say? I've been indisposed. Between houses. Between connections.
But, hey, here I am, ready for duty and all that jazz. The boxes are unpacked and the broadband is up and running at last (a whip-smart 24meg ADSL2 connection with Be).
Dirty cartoons. Anyway, I just wanted to say that I will be blogging again, hopefully on something resembling a regular basis. If, y'know, that's something you might be interested in.
And it won't even all be YouTube links. What more can you ask?
Honest.
Friday, September 21, 2007
Turisas - Islington Academy 19/09/07
As with my recent trip to see Maiden, Wednesday night's Turisas gig was a great reminder of why I love metal gigs: the fun. A great crowd*, a fantastic performance by the band who managed to replicate the big sound of their new album, loud, chunky riffs and just a general good vibe. And yes, they dress like this:
Which can be seen as a silly gimmick (actually, is pretty indefensible as anything but) but is just fucking great fun. Let alone the fact that they have fiddle and accordian players. I have always maintained that metal needs more fiddle and accordian.
Oh, c'mon! How could I not like this band. If you like a bit of bombastic metal (I'm looking at you Bruce), then check these guys out. If you don't, then you're probably not even still reading.
*Except for the mosh pit. I went down the front for the encore, and nobody was moshing! I think all the hardcore guys streamed out when the initial set finished, but everbody left was just waving their hands in the air or taking photos! Photos! In the mosh pit (or lack thereof)! Kids these days...
Sunday, September 09, 2007
Battle Metal
The other day I had the joy of hearing Finnish metal outfit Turisas on the Bruce Dickinson Rock Show. So I was happy to find out they are playing here on the 19th September. Needless to say, tickets have been purchased.
Turisas - Rasputin
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Your mileage may, as always, vary.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
The Polyphonic Spree - Astoria, London 03/09/07
If you have never seen the Polyphonic Spree live, you're doing yourself a disservice. I know and can understand that their albums might not be for everyone; fair enough. But as a live band I have seen very few acts that top their intensity and none that leave me on such a natural high.
The gig started with what has become a bit of a London tradition, with this town crier guy (and son) coming out and reading a bit of panto-like audience participation "Hear Ye" material. It's all good fun. And then a red sheet of material was raised in front of the stage to obscure the band coming on.
Then lead singer Tim DeLaughter began chopping his way through, cutting out the shape of a heart (yeah, I know, it all sounds cheesy as hell, but it's great fun).
He then chopped up to clear the sheet and they were off! There are 23 band members in the Spree, so their sound is understandably pretty big. Brass section, two drummers, chorus, flute, guitars, two keyboards, harp and so on.
That, I think, is their great failing as recording artists (as much as I love the albums), as it is impossible to capture the power they have as a live act. By the second or third song you're swept up in it, and it all just feels so goddamn good.
And that good feeling is as much down to the infectious enthusiasm of the band. They're all smiling, dancing, jumping about, giving it their all. The backing singers all swing back and forth and leap about in unison, DeLaughter constantly leaps on top of his monitor, punching the air, whoopin' and hollerin'. Again, describing it just doesn't convey what a joy the entire band is to behold.
Anyway, they played a number of tracks from the first two albums, as well as new material. They play with the material a little but the anthemic nature of their material still gets the crowd going. Then, one by one, the band members left the stage, finally leaving only DeLaughter (holding up his heart cut-out) and the harpist, who each respectively left.
And then the other great Spree tradition: the crowd walk-through. Sure enough the band appeared walking in a line up on the balcony, where they walked from the side up to the rear exits, then downstairs and through the middle of the crowd, the trombonist holding his instrument up like a tour operator's umbrella. But DeLaughter came back on a different path, following our friend Aaron as he came back from the bar and so walked right by us.
He's the sweaty head of hair the guy in the olive shirt is staring at.
And so they all got back to the stage for an amazing encore, decked out in their old white robes, no less (the origins of why many people think they're some kind of cult).
I just can't understand why they get that idea...
Anyway, once back, they launched into a cover of Nirvana's "Lithium" which sent the place crazy. A long suite of their own material followed, one song flowing into the next, before finishing up with "When The Fool Becomes a King". Grinning like a madman, DeLaughter kept thanking the audience and then did what always sends a gig up a notch for me: an unscheduled encore. With three minutes to curfew, they cranked out a rendition of Tripping Daisy song "Sonic Bloom".
Great show. Great band. And if I had one photo that sums it all up, it'd be this:
Smiles, everyone, smiles!
Friday, August 31, 2007
Flight of the Conchords
I'm enjoying Flight of the Conchords a great deal at the moment. I certainly didn't expect the HBO series to get a second season, but I'm glad to see it has.
Anyway, I like this song. It's got that melancholic tinge that infects so much New Zealand entertainment: all bittersweet reminisces and plaintive regrets. No wonder our teen suicide rate is so bloody high...
Sunday, August 19, 2007
Kia Ora
I'm so out of touch with New Zealand music.
Headless Chickens - Gaskrankinstation
When I was growing up, New Zealand had a peculiar relationship with home-grown talent. Well, when I say "peculiar", I mean we didn't have much time for it. We had been spoon-fed all our media from UK and US sources. Anything not performed in an American or British accent of some description was generally considered a bit crap. We had a full-blown cultural cringe - curious for a country which is normally so fiercely, defensively nationalistic - and our music scene was all the poorer for it.
Bailter Space - Splat
Artists either struggled along in obscurity, or went over to Oz and struggled on there with at least the promise of making a living from it. There was the odd hit, and there was a thriving counter-culture around it, but on the whole New Zealand music was marginal and as such, was easily known. Regardless of your tastes, you always at least had some grasp on what bands were out there.
Supergroove - Sittin' Inside My Head
That's all different now. After a couple of decades of strong campaigning, home-grown music quotas on TV and radio and the introduction (some might argue as unfortunate) of a strong commercial music scene, the NZ music scene is thriving on all fronts. It's led, it would seem to me, by the kind of indie guitar pop that typified New Zealand music in the mid-late 90's, there are now all manner of flourishing scenes. Hip hop, metal, folk, dance and more in all their various permutations and flavours are going strong.
Head Like a Hole - Spanish Goat Dancer
And so, whenever I try to dip my toes back into the world of New Zealand music, I'm completely lost. Out of touch, like some doddery old fool. Okay, so I'm hardly cutting edge on the music front. But the lack of knowledge I have just serves to make me feel that little bit more alienated from my home country. And that's weird. Anyway, it's more just an excuse to put up some old NZ music videos that I really like. Because I can!
Dimmer - Evolution
Oh, hell. How can I not finish with this? Ahh, Netherworld Dancing Toys. How many New Years Eve music video shows have we shared?
Shihad - Derail
Straitjacket Fits - She Speeds
The following is the quintessential New Zealand yob song. Play this in a Walkabout on a Friday night and it would go off like an atom bomb. Which is my way of saying I'm not proud of this song, nor do I particularly like it, but rather put it here to give you an important insight into a particular traditional New Zealand male psyche. Mate.
(I can't get too high and mighty: I do remember staggering about a field at the "Mountain Rock" festival in the early 90's, smashed out of my skull and singing along to this. But they're kind of taking the piss, so it's all okay...)
The following is the quintessential New Zealand yob song. Play this in a Walkabout on a Friday night and it would go off like an atom bomb. Which is my way of saying I'm not proud of this song, nor do I particularly like it, but rather put it here to give you an important insight into a particular traditional New Zealand male psyche. Mate.
Th' Dudes - Bliss
(I can't get too high and mighty: I do remember staggering about a field at the "Mountain Rock" festival in the early 90's, smashed out of my skull and singing along to this. But they're kind of taking the piss, so it's all okay...)
Oh, hell. How can I not finish with this? Ahh, Netherworld Dancing Toys. How many New Years Eve music video shows have we shared?
Monday, June 25, 2007
SCREAM FOR ME BRIXTON!
So last night I had a little outing...
Yes, time to cash in those tickets for an experience I've wanted to some degree or other for about 20 years. Iron Maiden, live in concert.
Now, as mentioned before, I got these tickets off eBay for a great price. Not so great was the fact that the guy sent me circle seats instead of the standing tickets I had bid on. Ah well, I consoled myself with the fact that if I had only managed to get circle tickets myself I would have still been excited. Plus, I really stuck it to him with some scathing neutral feedback. Well, he was very polite, got the tickets out quickly, and offered me a refund when I brought what my optimistic view of human nature would like to think of as a mistake to his attention. Plus, I totally got a bargain. Anyway, as it turns out I was totally wrecked from the party our downstairs neighbours had the night before, so having seats suddenly seemed a lot more like a good idea.
Anyway, without further ado, a review I like to snappily title:
FIVE THINGS I LOVED ABOUT IRON MAIDEN, LIVE AT BRIXTON 24TH JUNE 2007
1) The Fun
I think one of the main things people don't understand about metal (or heavy rock, or whatever the hell you want to call it) is that it's fun, particularly live. It's high energy, often a bit silly (sometimes intentional, sometimes not), and at it's best is totally immersive. The best metal gigs suck you in to a shared experience: kind of a wave of mass hysteria which puts you on a total adrenalin high. It helps that the fans are usually feverishly devoted, so that even a casual concert-goer can't help but get a little caught up. Alex, for example, loved it.
It sure beats the hell out of going to a gig filled with assholes who are more interested in having a conversation than watching their latest NME hotlist band. Anyway, Maiden, needless to say, are fun. Yes, it's all a little daft and cheesy, but if you put your oh so sophisticated cynicism on hold for a while it really pays off in spades. Of fun!
2) The Theatrics
Maiden have always been great ones for putting on a show. They come from the old school of stadium rock, brilliantly parodied in Spinal Tap, but still highly entertaining to actually see. Everything is big and brash: the lighting is elaborate, the stage is designed to an album-related theme, the backdrops are dynamic and dramatic, and then of course there are the props. So what did we get?
War torn set to match the theme of the latest album? Check.
Costume change for Bruce, donning a vintage infantry coat and tattered Union Flag for The Trooper? Check.
Huge dead soldier walking around on stage and interacting with band members during Two Minutes to Midnight? Check. (He was really impressive, I gotta say).
Massive tank rising from the back of the stage during Iron Maiden, with Eddie popping out the top? Check.
A glowing-eyed Devil rising at the rear of the stage during Number of the Beast? Check.
3) The People
I'll tell you now: the crowd at an Iron Maiden gig aren't going to win any beauty contests. But they were one of the most pleasant, aggro-free crowds I've been to a gig with in recent memory. We knew something was up when people weren't trying to push into the queue outside the venue. That, and the amount of families in attendance, all decked out in Maiden tees. There was a kid over the aisle from us who can't have been more than 9 or 10, and he was totally rocking out with his dad. It was really nice. Oh, and at the end everyone dispersed in an orderly, non-shoving fashion. Okay, okay I realise that this kinda shows the hollow attitude of this kind of old school metal for what it is: all hot air and puffery. But goddamn it, it's entertaining hot air and puffery!
4) Bruce Dickinson
I swear, you wouldn't think the man was 50 next year. He was pretty much running the entire 2 hours of the gig. Up and down ladders and stairs on the various raised walkways; jumping from the main walkways to the platforms at each end of the stage; jumping, leaping and generally bouncing about the stage.
He's a hell of a front man, commanding attention in a way that's all the more impressive given how elaborate the stage dressing is. He's incredibly charismatic, always chatting with the crowd,, or exhorting them to sing or scream along. Small wonder that he has helped the band gather such devotion over the years. And I was very happy to see that his voice is still holding up. I was under the impression that he couldn't hit the high notes the way he used to, and while he does rework things every now and then, his voice is still pretty amazing. Clear, powerful, and no drop outs that I could hear.
5) The Music
Yeah, I can't deny it, I still love the music. I don't listen to much Maiden any more, but all the classics from my youth are locked in my head, and to hear that material performed live was pure glee. To be fair, the material from the new album - which isn't half bad anyhow - really gained a lot from being live, but to be honest they weren't my reason for being there. So they started with a few new tracks which certainly got things warmed up, and then started hitting the back catalogue. We got Wrathchild, The Trooper, Children of the Damned, Run to the Hills, Iron Maiden, The Number of the Beast, Two Minutes to Midnight, The Evil That Men Do, Fear of the Dark, and a final encore of Hallowed Be Thy Name (which was fucking brilliant).
What can I say? I loved it. A real childhood dream fulfilled for me, this easily stands as one of my Top Gigs (tm)
The gig was actually a benefit concert for former drummer Clive Burr, btw (he left in 1982, but was the drummer on their first three albums), who now suffers from MS and for whose MS charity Maiden regularly do benefit gigs. So it was even for a good cause.
Up the Irons!
Saturday, June 02, 2007
Sweet Baby Jesus!
Something incredible happened today.
Last week I had notification of a band playing a gig later this month at the Brixton Academy. Tickets were to go on sale Friday 1st June at 9am at a flat face value of £40. Now, this band is one which I've missed out seeing in the past while I've been living in the UK, and they're not ones for touring down NZ way very often. And they are firm placeholders in my "Bands I Must See Just Once" list, a desire attributable more to my youthful enthusiasm for them than any current appreciation. Though I didn't mind their last album.
Anyway, the chance to see them in a venue the size of Brixton Academy was irresistable, and I had advance notice! I could sit on the net at 9am, frantically hitting "refresh" until the tickets became available and so beat the scalpers. But it wasn't to be. At 9am on Friday I was on my way to work, and totally forgot about the tickets. Needless to say, by the time I did check they were all gone.
Oh calamity!
Anyway, I pulled myself together and checked ebay. Sure enough, dozens of scalped tickets up for sale, many at ridiculously hyped prices. But gritting my teeth I took a punt on one of the 99p starter bids. What the hell, the tickets near the end of their auction were going for reasonably close to face value.
And today I won! Two tickets for £52 (inc postage)! That's right, I managed to get concert tickets off ebay for less than face value! Maybe not all that groundbreaking, but it sure was for me, not to mention the satisfaction of knowing that some professional scalper has lost on the deal. It was like an angel of God had come to earth and whispered my destiny to the internet. Or something closely approximating that, I imagine.
Anyway, that's all. Thought I would share.
2006_Iron_Maiden_Holdings_Ltd..jpg)
YESSSS! **Though it doesn't need saying to those who know me, I'd just like to say that there's no irritating hip irony to my love of Iron Maiden. It's a deep, ingrained thing that goes back to me at 11 discovering Number of the Beast through my mate Barry. A year later I bought a copy of Piece of Mind on cassette. We never had a tape deck in the house at the time, and I always fondly remember listening to it on the stereo in my sister's car on a hot summer day. Holy shit, I am so excited!
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Important Life Lessons From Avril Lavigne
Bully your way to the top. And by "top", I mean fucking some spineless idiot in the toilets.
Girl Power!
Also, this video - by way of quick edits and medium shots - showcases the need to hide Avril's inability to dance. Take THAT ya big bully!
Friday, April 06, 2007
Scattershots
Like a blast from shotgun, these are the days of my lives....
Just a few bits and pieces as they occur to me. It's a bit self-indulgent blog-like, so get out now while the getting's good. Otherwise, let us continue:
ITEM! I watched Event Horizon again for the first time in a long time last night. I was very excited to see the nifty new gimmick box set. I'm usually averse to gimmick box sets, as they're a pain in the ass to store anywhere, but it was £10 on Amazon so what the fuck.
Now, Event Horizon is a film that I have long defended as not being as bad as people make it out to be. I loved it in the cinema, and remember it as being flawed, but great looking and quite gripping.
I now must revise that opinion. It IS as bad as people make it out to be. But I still enjoyed it. Yes it is full of cardboard cutout characters and situations (largely taken from Alien and Aliens standees and lobby cards), yes the editing is jumpy and full of pacing problems, and yes the plot is riddled with holes and characters appear and disappear without explanation, but it's got a daft horror film sense of fun. And New Zealand's own Sam Neill.
Which is to say, if you have any 15 year old part of your brain that still jumps to the fore every now and then, there's plenty to like. The concept is great (ship with revolutionary star drive powered by black hole goes missing on it's first activation of the drive, shows up 7 years later as a ghost ship, team go to investigate, bad things happen, just where did the drive open a gateway to?), the gore is top notch, the scares are generally pretty good with some nice creepy set-ups, there are more than a few unintentional laughs, and yes it still looks great. While I'm disappointed that I can't still come out in as firm a defence of the film as I would like, at least I now know who I can recommend it to.
I'm talking to you, Bruce. You, Martin, and that bottle of whiskey.
ITEM! Going to see Sunshine today. Oh yes. Okay, so I'm expecting a little disappointment, but still hoping for good things.
ITEM! I was thinking last night about my job, and how nice it's been to work in a place where coming into contact with comics creators of all kinds is a fairly common occurrence. The idea, when I was 18 or 19, that I would one day be in a store where I wouldn't think it unusual (if still uncommon) to have Alan Moore walk in (mad-ass heavy metal rings and all) would have sent me over the edge.
I've met a ton of creators whose work I admire since starting at Gosh!, and the little geek inside me thinks that's just darn swell. It was a happy thought for me, and I thought I'd share it.
ITEM! Summer is nearly well and truly here. Last night I was wandering home, and there was that most heartening of London sights: people spilling out of pubs onto the streets. It really creates such a nice relaxed vibe.
ITEM! Where does all my fucking time go?
I'm writing again (a good thing), but that has taken over my morning coffee reading time (I make sure to stop in a park for 45 minutes or so on my walk into work every morning). This means my news reading needs to be done in the evenings before bed, supplanting my novel reading. So I'm trying to read more novels during lunch, but lunchtimes are often taken up with other things. This is all not helped by the fact that my reading pace has slowed to a crawl. Mind you, my retention is so shit these days that I don't know why I bother. And don't get me started on where I get time to watch films or read comics. Or write blog entries, which seem to take an inordinate amount of time to write even the smallest thing. Meanwhile the grim spectre of death looms ever closer.
Maybe I'm being a little melodramatic...
ITEM! Watched The Man Who Wasn't There the other night. I love that film. Billy Bob Thornton delivers one of the greatest ever film monologues: laconic and dry, but filled with a slow-burning sense of longing and loss.
It's a beautiful thing.
ITEM! Got the DVD & CD set of Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds on the Abbatoir Blues tour. I was quite excited, as I was at the Brixton Academy gig on disc one, and I'm happy to see they've put in the astounding version of Stagger Lee they did there. It'll knock yer socks off.
The whole package is pretty good actually, and well worth the money if you're a Cave fan. Less successful (on a couple of listens at least - it has the potential to grow on me) is the Grinderman album, which is basically the same band minus Mick Harvey. Nick Cave does garage rock. It's okay, but nothing really standing out yet, even though it does have the nasty, recorded in a shed feel that I so appreciate in music nowadays.
ITEM! I at last watched 3-part tv doco The Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear the other day, which charts the origins and rise of neo-conservatism (and the architecture of modern US foreign policy) against the rise and fall and rise (sorta) of radical Islamism, from their common origin to their current meeting-point.
It's a great series, putting a wonderful sense of perspective on many things we are fed as a given in a blackly comedic manner, and features some astounding archive footage.
ITEM! Want to waste some time on the internet? You know you should relax more, and stop just using it as a tool for research and the betterment of mankind. Well, go to Fist-a-Cuffs, and vote on the outcome of battles between creatures created by a variety of artists for your gladiatorial entertainment.
The brain-child of Sam Hiti.
P.S. Vote for Blazin' Blades, The Delegates of Pain, and The Maliciously Merciless Monarchs Of Misery. 'Cos they're my friends.
ITEM! I'm just padding now...
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Lest We Forget...
I know I'm a bit behind on this, but it's easy to forget that Prince is a fucking genius. And has the devil's own member.
If you haven't already seen it, try and find his halftime show at Super Bowl. YouTube have taken it down, but it'll be about somewhere. Perhaps even here. Not that I would encourage that kind of thing.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Monday, January 08, 2007
Just Because.
Because pictures of cheesy horror rock bands holding bouquets never get tired...
Thank you, Eurovision.
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