Sonic Youth

I was lucky enough to get a ticket for the Sonic Youth show at the Scala last night, and i was awe struck. They drew heavily from Goo and Sister along with some tracks off their forthcoming album The Eternal. It was the first time I'd seen the band in such a small venue and as my attendance was unexpected the element of surprise really made the gig a special one, oh and they finished off with Kool Thing, one of my favourite Sonic Youth songs of all time.

Brumsdale

Birmingham is a concrete jungle, simple as. Jostling for space on the cramped streets are numerous buildings of numerous eras in numerous colour and design that it can be difficult to walk the pavements and not stop every 10 yards to say; why the fuck did they build that? However; this confusion and lack of planning also makes Birmingham a great place to explore as you never really know what architectural monster or beaut is waiting for you around any corner. For example i walked from a Victorian canal, under a post war reconstruction by pass, past a Blair approved glass tower and into a pub built in 1368 in about 2 minutes.
The Reason for my visit was to see an Irish band called the Chakras, at a great little venue called The Rainbow Bar. Plying a soaring blend of psychedelic tinged indie their ambitions seemed restrained by the small stage. With a singer full of energy who spent most of the set dancing like his life depended on it i got the feeling that we will all be seeing a lot more of this band in the not so distant future.

Mirrors

Last week I sat in on a Mirrors showcase - a band that hails from Brighton and are yet to play any gigs - and i was sufficiently impressed. With a kraftwerk-alike get up and 1000 yard stares they were reluctant to engage the audience instead leaving that to a projector showing black and white static and various images. They will be playing their first show at this years Great Escape Festival in Brighton and are definitely worth checking out if you like Ultravox, Human League et al.

Record Shop Weekend

As the guillotine falls on the majority of independent record shops in the UK and Europe a number of key players in the sector are teaming up this coming weekend - April 18th- to celebrate all that is good about these bastions of taste. As we move into a world of online content (cloud computing) it's hard to imagine online retailers like itunes, amazon or napster having a similar jolly when the use of hard drives for mp3 or mp4 because they are without the sense of community or relationship building that is apparent in independent record stores. This is not to say I'm averse to online music consumption, quite the opposite really as I've become a spotify freak these past few months - i'm merely highlighting the shame that is the slow death of the physical record store. I mean, you can form bands, discuss music and generally do everything that can be done in these stores online however a little bit of the human condition is lost in this increasingly accepted social norm because face to face interaction is no longer required. Maybe I'm being nostalgic, old fashioned or even ignorant but I'd much rather meet someone in person than piss about via email, twitter or the plethora of communication methods that are available online. Anyhow, needless to say i will be attending record store day at Rough Trade East on Saturday in the hope of finding a copy of Fugazi Argument on 180g vinyl.

Fugazi at their best

Easter Weekend Playlist

Hanging about at my parents house on the side of a hill in North Wales has presented me with plenty of time to scan the ipod and listen to the radio. Below are the tracks that have sound tracked this weekend so far to accompany my copy of The Great Shark Hunt.
Delphic - Counterpoint



Chris Clark - Indigo Optimus



Happy Mondays - Wrote For Luck

Water Rats

Gigs at the Water Rats on a Wednesday evening usually involve the latest tipped band and a room full of music industry types. The atmosphere at these nights is similar to a tense game of poker, with the goal of the band being to impress a room full of A&R and that of the A&R to remain tight lipped on the act in front of them until phone conversations the following morning. Anyway , Surfbeat were OK if not a little underwhelming with a song called Sunshine being the highlight. However i left feeling that maybe they shouldn't have played that gig and put themselves in a position that allowed them to be judged by those with the influence so early on. Shame.

Sunday Nostalgia

I just came across this early nineties street soul classic by gloworm. I used to belt out every single word of this tune as an eleven year old, ah the memories.

And the Days go by

This week i saw hotly tipped Kurran and the Wolf Notes at Bloomsbury Bowling lanes - a venue with a bowling alley (no shit) and a karaoke room; it's a decent place to go for a night out and the promoters always tend to get decent bands on. Kurran and the Wolf Notes were impressive enough, with a track called 'Your Four Limbs,' standing out as a possible future folk hit. Along with Kurran I've also been listening to a band called The Love Language who hail from Raleigh, North Carolina. Their music is an interesting blend of Spectre era wall of sound production fused with a country sound, definitely worth checking out.

Rak Studios

I visited Rak studios in St Johns Wood on Friday to catch up with a new band called Surfbeat. Their music is reminiscent of west coast Americana with a hint of 60's British Invasion bands. Rak studio was created by Mickey Most so needless to say it's always a pleasure visiting this place as many great artist's have recorded here in the past from The Animals to Ar tic Monkeys. Aside from getting to meet and listen to the Surfbeat music the highlight of my visit was operating a vintage jukebox that dates back to the 1950's, they just don't make them like they used to - like try comparing one of those tacky video jukeboxes to the one pictured; i arrest my case.