Wild Top Ten of 2007

Just realised I didn't put this up at the end of last year when we all took a vote within the office on what were our favourite albums of 2007. The final decisions were compiled using painstaking mathematical formulae and fistfights.

1. The White Stripes - ‘Icky Thump’
=2. Arcade Fire - ‘Neon Bible’
=2. Interpol - ‘Our Love To Admire’
4. Future Of The Left - ‘Curses!’
5. Radiohead - ‘In Rainbows’
6. PJ Harvey - ‘White Chalk’
7. The Horrors - ‘Strange House’
8. Band Of Horses - ‘Cease To Begin’
9. LCD Soundsystem - ‘Sound Of Silver’
10. El-P - ‘I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead’

Feel free to tell us that we've missed out a classic but you'll be wrong.

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.'