Parka @ The Fly 05.11.07

It was hellish cold, I can tell you that much. Fireworks night in the capital and as I was driving down the A40 into the West End you could see big jets of colour exploding from all sides. Very pretty, if slightly distracting but don't worry, I managed to keep my eyes on the road just enough to ensure I didn't crash.
Parka were first on on a four band bill down at The Fly and despite this fact, and that they were having to miss the fireworks and celebrations going on outside just to entertain us they were in wicked form and top moods. Singer/guitarist Matt Thompson is a proper fucking livewire, jumping all over the stage like a madman throughout the set. I had never seen the band play live before so I didn't know what to expect and I came away very impressed. The addition of live sax and cowbell brings to mind The Rapture obviously but they're more intense than that, not as louche as the New Yorkers. Parka want to make you spazz out on the dancefloor (as indicated with a songtitle like 'Disco Dancer' for their forthcoming single) so they step it up a level. I was reminded of the pounding rhythms of The Music, but with bigger and broader tunes and choruses. If Pigeon Detectives were a bit cooler.

After setting off a party popper in their own personal tribute to Guy Fawkes night Matt finished off the set with a full on somersault on the dancefloor while still playing his guitar. Nice touch.

Songs like Hoxton Hair, Better Anyway, the aforementioned Disco Dancer and If U Wanna just sound so much better when you see Parka live as well. Bigger and ballsier. Go see them on this November tour that's currently happening (contact us for guestlist):

November
13th Nottingham Approach
14th London 229
15th Leicester Charlotte
16th York Junction
17th Sheffield Threads vs Filthy Few @ DQ
19th Glasgow Barfly
20th Edinburgh Liquid Rooms
22nd Aberdeen Tunnel Club
23rd Dundee Doghouse
24th Liverpool Bumper Club
26th Cardiff Barfly
27th Brighton Pressure Point
30th Winchester Railway

December
1st Southampton Lennons
4th London Metro
5th London Club Fandango

We've got hold of a very exclusive Subsource Remix of the new single which you can download here.

If you haven't seen it yet, here's the video for the new single as well:

Free Rumble Strips acoustic mp3s

The album is out this week, they've had more glowing reviews in the press than anyone we can remember in recent memory and they're going down a storm with pretty much everyone who hears the. Anyway, we've managed to wangle some exclusive acoustic versions of a few tracks out of the record label Fallout - download them here and spread the word.

1. Alarm Clock
2. Girls And Boys
3. Twenty Flight Rock

Future of the Left @ Engine Room, Brighton, Sept 9th.

I'll admit I was dithering about going to this show until the day before the gig but by god I'm glad I made that choice to deafen myself for fun on a Sunday night in a club that smelled overwhelmingly of toilet.
I know you were a fan of mclusky. Don't even try and argue that you weren't, or that they were just ok. Fuck off. They were brilliant; a white hot flash of anger and sharp edges, all off kilter top and groove-ridden bottom. So when they broke up and I had only managed to see them live once I was ashamed I hadn't made more of an effort while I could. Thank the lord for Future of the Left and second chances.
First off, how do they make the bass sound that filthy? Not in a sleazy, sexy, Girls Against Boys sort of way, all late night bars and cool haircuts. No. In a belligerent tramp sort of a way that is highly impressive to watch from a safe distance but if you get too close you know that you're the one who's going to come off worse.
Considering that the only songs I knew before the gig were 'The Lord Hates A Coward' and 'Fingers Become Thumbs,' both of which were played and sounded HUGE, the rest of the set was a fresh treat to listen to with each song sounding like your new favourite by verse two. Tracks like 'Manchasm' and 'Small Bones Small Bodies' sprinted past leaving us in their wake; 'Plague Of Onces' kicked me right in the balls; and despite some technical hitches - hey, would it be a small and sweaty gig if something didn't go wrong with the bass at least once? - once the closer 'adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood' spat its last notes and the stage cleared it was an true triumph of hard bastard determination over any technological shenanigans.
They said they'll be back this side of Christmas. Don't make the mistake I did with mclusky. See them as many times as you can because I'd like to think you're not as stupid as me.

Reading 2007. A festival of queues.

Don't get me wrong, I had a fucking brilliant time and saw loads of bands who were fantastic but the abiding memory is going to be that of having to queue for an hour and a half to get across that bastard river from my car to my campsite every time I needed to bring stuff over. I still bear the scars. As a friend of mine said, "this must be what war feels like."

But anyway, the highs for me were Smashing Pumpkins (who I fully expected to be disappointing so extra bonus points for the surprise factor there), Interpol, Metronomy, Long Blondes and The Horrors. Low points, apart from the poor organisation, were the rest of my campsite companions carking out early by 5am leaving me to sing Bon Jovi and Nik Kershaw songs (yes, I have nothing but the best compilation CDs) by myself around a dwindling fire, and the Chili Peppers from what I heard from my seat where I was drinking beer and trying to ignore them.

Hope anyone else who was there had as good a time as I did, feel free to add any comments about bands or post pics on here.

Secret Kanye Show For Vodafone TBA Awards

So, last Monday I went to the super secret Kanye show in Westminster (right next to the Houses of Parliament... nice)

After stupidly queuing in the wrong line for 20 minutes, we swiftly managed to get our label passes, get into the building, and into our seats in the golden circle upstairs.

The show was good; Kanyeeze has stage presence for days and bounded into the spotlight rapping whilst tour DJ A-Trak and the 30-piece orchestra energetically kicked the show off with 'I Wonder', an achingly beautiful song from the new album 'Graduation'. The Chi-town rapper then proceeded to perform a plethora of tracks from both old albums and new, including 'All Falls Down', 'Through The Wire' and current number one single 'Stronger', before culminating in an awesome flourish with a powerful rendition of 'Touch The Sky'. This final song was accompanied by immense bursts of confetti, people freaking out, and of course, the dulcet tones of adoring screaming fans.

I have to admit, having been blown away by the 'Graduation' playback last week, I was a little disappointed with the show; I expected Kanye to perform more tracks from the new album and stay on stage a little longer. That was my only reservation, and it's a small one at that. The fact is that this cat knows how to rock a show silly, and he's one of very few mainstream rappers out there who can leap and run around the stage, exercise excellent breath control AND get the crowd hyped all at the same time. For that, you've gotta admire him.

Here's a lovely download of a phat Diamonds Remix featuring Jay Z to brighten up your wet summer's day.

And don't forget, 'Graduation' is out in stores September 10th - be sure to check it out!

State of The Hives Address

I attended the highly sweaty, impossible-to-get tickets-for and loud as hell show by The Hives last night at The 100 Club and by god it was good fun. I'll be honest, I wasn't sure if it would be much cop as I didn't know if people were still as into the band as they were a couple of years ago but if the gig last night is anything to go by then everything is still very rosy for Sweden's finest purveyors of rock and roll. Howlin' Pelle Almqvist is as fantastic a frontman as ever, whipping the crowd up with promises of a new religion dedicated entirely to him and The Hives, and diatribes about just how damn GOOD the new material is.
They've got a new album out in October and if I heard them correctly (which is always doubtful) some of the new songs they played are called 'Tick Tick Boom' and possibly 'Try Again'. But don't quote me on that.
They played some old favourites as well like 'Die, All Right!' and 'Two-Timing Touch and Broken Bones' which sent the blokes in front of me into a fucking frenzy and then they finished with a triumphant 'Hate To Say I Told You So' and 'Walk Idiot Walk' before guitarist Nicholaus Arson crowdsurfed his way offstage and around the venue for a lap of honour.
Really really enjoyed it. I'm a fan all over again.

Found this online, feel free to download it - The Hives doing 'Back In Black.'

Duracell!

A mate of mine somehow managed to book Duracell for his clubnight in the middle of nowhere last night so I went along to check him out. I'd seen plenty of youtube footage etc but never actually in the flesh; he was just brilliant. If you're not au fait with his work he's a French bloke (very English accent though) who just plays drums but has a series of triggers hooked up to them via his laptop so he can play whole weird electronic tunes from beating out mental arrythmic rhythms. Totally mental. At some points I wondered if he was actually talking to aliens via bizarre noises and bleeps.

For an example of what Duracell's music sounds like, download Ninja Spirit.

Justice secret show last night

Well I couldn't make it as I was recovering (or trying to) from my weekend at Download festival but Cara from our office went down to check out the guestlist-only Justice show at the Mean Fiddler last night (Monday 11th) and said it was just amazing. From the footage below shot during the new single DANCE (out this week, go buy it if you don't already have it. Tell all your friends to do the same) it looks absolutely mental as one would expect from a Justice gig to be honest.




This band is going to be HUGE this year! If for some bizarre reason you don't already have the brilliant Justice vs Simian 'We Are Your Friends' then right click and save as NOW.

I haven't checked my Download photos yet but if any are worksafe enough to be posted up here I'll do so in the next couple of days along with my highlights of the weekend.

New Horrors video unlikely to be shown on children's TV

Just got sent the link to the new Horrors video and frankly it's just not right. Seriously, what is wrong with that band? The 'Sheena is a Parasite' video was bizarre enough thanks to Chris Cunningham's input but this is just as weird and wrong.



Have a look and make up your own mind.

And talking of Horrors, while you're here feel free to download one of my favourite tunes from The Little Shop Of Horrors - Steve Martin singing 'Dentist' .If you don't like that film/soundtrack there's something wrong with your brain.

QOTSA at the 100 Club Last Night

As I'm sure you're aware, Queens of the Stone Age played a "secret" low key show in London last night (Thursday May 3rd) at the 100 Club. It was so secret that it was only advertised on Radio One, XFM, 6Music etc. But was anyone from Wild at the show? Damn straight, bitches. Out in force were myself, Dave, DB and David Laurie giving it some by the side of the stage (see the picture I took from my camera phone - David Bailey eat your heart out) and getting sweatier and sweatier in the melee of screaming fans.
It was, as you'd expect, amazing. I won't go through the whole setlist as you can see it on NME.com and myriad other places already but suffice it to say they played mostly new material (3s and 7s sounded fantastic, as did Turning On The Screw and Into The Hollow) but completed the set with some older classics like Little Sister, Burn The Witch, In My Head, Mexicola (YES!!) and finished with a stunning version of Song For The Dead.
Afterwards we made the mistake of continuing our drinking at Garlic And Shots where some pure evil was imbibed in the form of garlic based shots and so hangovers were in full effect this morning. But hey. It was worth it and we'd do it all again tonight if we only had the chance.

Click To Download Queens Of The Stone Age - You Would Know

New Bjork Material

Few acts are able to split opinion in the Wild Office as much as Bjork. Seriously. There are plenty of bands we all agree are total shite and quite a few which a good 90% of us think are ace. But when it comes to Ms Guðmundsdóttir we are a mass of arguments and opinionated rants. We managed to blag a copy of the new album 'Volta' to listen to in the office and it's definitely going to delight her fans and annoy her detractors. Just what you want from a Bjork album really.
Here is a performance of her new single 'Earth Intruders' from a recent Saturday Night Live so you can join in the debate.

Queens of the Stone Age new album

Thank fuck for Queens of the Stone Age frankly. Not only do they make fantastic music but they also provide the Wild office with a permanent debate* about which of their albums is the best. "Obviously the first one is, that's just a fact." "You know nothing, Rated R may not be as 'cool' but it's got far better songs. And Nick Oliveri." "I hate you all, Songs For The Deaf is actually their most complete album - it's got the best of all their aspects in there." And so on.

But soon we will be able to add to that debate* with the new album Era Vulgaris. It's out on June 11th, preceded by a single on June 4th. A couple of the boys in the office have heard a few tracks from it and they say it sounds like a punch in the balls from the hottest hellbitch in christendom. I can't wait.

You can see a video of the band in the studio here, and a longer snippet of one of the new songs here.

Oh hell yes.


(*argument)

Won't You Shut The F**K Up I'm A-Just Trying To Watch The Band

There are plenty of things that annoy me in life - Second Choice Steve being in charge of England, people breaking into my car, not being tall enough to see anything at gigs - but one of the things right at the top of the list is people talking during gigs.

Working in the media, you do become kind of immune to archetypal media-types not paying attention cos they only went to get a free dinner/free drinks out of the PR - but I REALLY don't understand why anyone would pay for a ticket to see someone and then talk all the way through the show.

I especially don't understand it when people do it for an up and coming singer-songwriter like Josh Pyke. It's just him and his guitar. He can't drown you out with swathes of feedback. Just shut up!

As it says on the Luminaire website (for it was here I saw Josh last night): "Q: I'm an idiot who likes to come to gigs and stand at the bar talking very loudly, ruining the performance for others. I don't seem to be able to accept that I'm being rude, inconsiderate and disrespectful. Am I welcome to come in?
A. No."

Well apparently they didn't manage to keep those people out tonight. But anyway, Josh handles it very well - plays his lovely shimmering pop songs with real aplomb. Just him and his two guitars. And his guitar stand. Which gets a round of applause. Stripped down to their bones the songs really shine through, especially 'Private Education', which was a real stand-out. If you get the chance to check him out whilst he's out supporting Scott Matthews, you should really take it. And if the person next to you won't shut up, do everyone else in the crowd a favour and suggest to them the place for conversation really is the pub, not a gig.

www.myspace.com/joshpyke

NIN Album - The First Listen

Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero
Some pretty seismic changes have taken place in the NIN camp since 'With Teeth'. Trent has cleaned up, hit the weights and is now a man of steel like Rollins. He's also written a new album in about a fifth of the time it usually takes him. So, what's it like?

Well, Trent says:
'This record was more of a 'sound collage' than recent efforts from me.
A lot of it was improvised.
It is very tedious describing your own music.
It's probably too long, but it felt like the right thing to do to paint the complete picture.
It will sound different after a few listens.
You cab think about it and it will reveal more than you were expecting.
You can dance to a lot of it.
You can fuck to a lot of it (maybe all of it depending on what you're into)'

Harry says
'Year Zero' is about an imaginary future that isn't much fun. It sounds like 'Blade Runner' with more religious fanatics, more drugs and fewer flying cars. A huge Sci-Fi / comic fan, Trent spent weeks planning out a suitably twisted 'back story' to the album in HUGE detail. The websites below are the tip of the iceberg, there's tons more to come. People will be able to work out the complex 'Lost'-style story behind the album from clues on-line, in the songs and in the packaging.
This may sound completely bananas but I kinda like it. The previous NIN albums were all about Trent's (largely drug-fuelled) inner demons. Now he's hugely rich, successful AND clean I'm glad he's still got plenty of nasty ideas. You wish The Red Hot Chilli Peppers would work this hard on a new album, instead of 'phoning in' the usual boring crap about California, yoga, chakras and California.
The album itself seems more influenced by Trent's soundtrack work than anything else. There are fewer guitars and more electronics, but it's still very loud and very heavy in places. The tunes are a mixture of violent big -bass stuff and more brooding moments akin to 'Something I Could Never Have'. It's a little hard to judge properly in one listen on a Thursday lunchtime, but it sounds like it'll all make sense after a few listens in the dark.

Check these websites from Year Zero. To really read what's on these sites you have to highlight the words. Once you get there, you'll understand what I mean

http://anotherversionofthetruth.com/ Click and drag on this picture long enough and watch what happens
http://iamtryingtobelieve.com/ Official website of Parepin, the drug that's fed into the public water supply
http://www.churchofplano.com/ The government-run church of Year Zero
http://www.consolidatedmailsystems.com The mail service of Year Zero. To access the site type 'nooneimportant' into the address bar where 'citizen_unknown' is......try to click on any other section and watch what happens.
http://105thairbornecrusaders.com/ The military troop where the Sniper, a character in Year Zero, received his training.
http://www.uswiretap.com Contains several 'classified' documents. To access the site, type case number 71839J into the address bar. This one is probably the scariest site!
http://www.bethehammer.net/ The Sniper's 'blog,' if you will.
http://artisresistance.com The site to download desktops and wallpaper, but done with a twist....once accessing the site, try to click and highlight any words and watch what happens.

A Rolling Stone article about 'Year Zero'
http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2007/02/22/year-zero-project-way-cooler-than-lost/

My Week In Gigs by Mark WILD (aged 27 and a bit)

I’ve been to a lot of gigs this week. I see this as an achievement cos I’m pretty lazy and normally prefer an evening of TV and Pro Evo to going out. So anyway, here we go:

Monday: Lily Allen @ Hammersmith Apollo

Non-‘work’ gig to start the week, I actually wrote a long and convoluted review full of pontification but it made me realise why I work in PR and not as a journo so I gave up. Here are edited highlights: good gig, people don’t seem to regard Lily in as high esteem as someone like Amy Winehouse – but she’s just as good and just as drunk. She’s more pop and you definitely wouldn’t see little girls in those glowing bunny ears at Amy Winehouse, but great voice and kudos for Blondie and Specials covers.

Tuesday: Betty Curse Showcase @ The Pigalle Club

Ahh, the showcase. Heaven for media types: free booze, free food and all over by half seven so you can be home in time for, erm, WAGs Boutique. Must be hell for artists though: twenty minute set, high pressure situation, no real gig vibe. Ms Betty Curse handles it sparklingly – does her pop/rock thing, plays to the Myspace kids down the front and in the last two songs (‘God This Hurts’ and ‘Do You Mind If I Cry’) she has a genuine chance to make it. Not impressed by the ‘alternative’ magician who followed Betty, but kudos for his Gallows t-shirt.

Wednesday: Patrick Wolf + Arcade Fire @ Brixton Academy

Patrick Wolf was great – a really interesting unique sound, mixing up a range of styles and sounds without veering into avant garde wankery. I was a bit perturbed by the extremely short shorts and the theatrical posing but that’s another story. Arcade Fire were also great, but not amazing. The sound was never quite right – never managed to balance the array of instruments properly and Win’s vocals were too quiet. But it’s still Arcade Fire: ‘Intervention’, ‘Wake Up’ ‘Power Out’ – joyous singalongs. It’s an almost religious experience – the audience was quiet a lot of the time, in hushed awe, worshipping at the church of Arcade Fire, building into rapture properly only at the end.

Thursday: Thursday night is football night. Followed by Skins and Six Feet Under.

Friday: Bright Eyes @ Koko

I’m going to see Bright Eyes tonight, thoughts to follow. I met the band on Wednesday at our student radio conference and they were very nice. A little guarded at first but very witty and very charming. See some pics :

Current listening: Maccabees album, Arcade Fire, new Kings Of Leon album, Sonic Youth, CSS, Belle and Sebastian.

So this is the new Wild Blog, eh? How very nice. I particularly like that bit over there - yes, that one. That's well cool that is.

But what's the point of this, I hear you ask. Well, gentle reader, there's not much of a point at all apart from us to post stuff about music we're into at the minute, things that have made us laugh, gigs we've been to or scurrilous industry gossip. It's intended as an outlet for a lot of the stuff we come into contact with on a day to day basis but can't email everyone about without filling up their inboxes with too much info. Most of all it's a bit of a laugh and should hopefully distract you for a while on otherwise dull days. Cos we're nice like that.

For starters, here are a few updates on the life of Wild Promotions and what we're up to (apart from ruling the world of club and student promotion on a day to basis via dual tactics of brilliance and genius). Krister is moving house; Mark has decided summer is here already and has stopped bringing a jacket to work; Harry's out at a Nine Inch Nails album playback at some swanky bar with free food and drinks (bastard); DB is sweating over a hot website. Actually, that just sounds wrong. But anyway; Natasha is being her calm and sweet self keeping hundreds of scruffy teamers in check as only she can - with threats of massive violence; and we've sent the boss off to a meeting to keep him out of our way. Yep, life as normal for Wild really.

Oh, Krister has demanded we link to a song he's got on rotation on his car stereo at the minute - an oldie but a goldie in the form of 'Carry On My Wayward Son' by Kansas. He swears it's simply because he's playing too much Guitar Hero at the minute but we suspect it's more likely that he just loves really cheesy rock music. In fact we'd put money on it. Having said that, it is a flipping class track so we'll let him off this time.

If you haven't seen the videos for the new Horrors or Bright Eyes songs by the way, then make sure you check them out from the links over to the right *points*. Seriously, we're putting these links in because we really like them and think you will too, not because we've been told to or whatever.

In terms of timewasting while your at work we can heartily recommend this Monty Python Spamalot game - If you manage to get past level seven then you're a cheat and a liar and we call shenanigans on you.

Cool, that'll do for now. Let us know if there's anything you've got from us that you're particularly enjoying at the minute or bands you think we should know about. Or any other old rubbish you want to tell us as well.

Speak to you soon.