Just a very quick post (I should be working) about a band called The Winter Revolution, who I just discovered on last.fm. It’s all very relaxed indie stuff, some of which is quite good and other perhaps slightly too weird.
Most importantly, on last.fm you can find two of their EPs as completely free legitimate downloads. Worth it if you like their sort of music.
Editors played the last gig of their UK tour at Rock Sweaty Rock City on Thursday, which I have to confess I had already been looking forward to for some time.
The first band on were Ra Ra Riot, who were like a smaller version of Arcade Fire (although perhaps not as epic). In my opinion, they weren’t bad and were perfectly “listenable”, but nothing outstanding. This was then followed by The Kissaway Trail, who I’m afraid weren’t great at all. They consisted of three guitars and a bass lined up, with a drummer behind them - a fairly unusual format but not one that worked. Quite shouty and mostly incomprehensible, although to be fair this might not have been their fault.
None of this especially mattered though, as Editors were on next. And they were good. Really good.
Rock City appears to be a much smaller venue than Editors would normally play, and it was absolutely packed. The crowd were pretty happy as soon as the band came on and the opening bass drum of An End Has A Start was played, before generally going ballistic.
Tom Smith was much more of a showman than I expected, spending a lot of time jumping around and dancing on the piano, before at the start of the encore responding to the water thrown by the crowd by throwing some back and starting a mini water-fight.
Pity poor Chris Urbanowicz, who as someone who comes from Nottingham got a lot of attention from the crowd and was at one stage referred to by Tom Smith as “your local hero”. Still, he seemed to take it all very well.
All-in-all, a superb gig. I certainly wouldn’t object to seeing Editors again, whoever their support is.
There is also a very good review of the gig on Sarah’s Soul Drift Music Blog.
After the jump, the set list. (more…)
As promised, a slightly fuller review of the Black and White Album by the Hives.
The album opens with the new single, Tick Tick Boom, an odd name for a mad song, but very much true to the Hives’ style. And damn it’s good.
This then leads into the equally manic Try It Again (followed by You’ve Got It All… Wrong), which contains the brilliant line I quoted earlier and will quote again here for completeness:
They say the definition of madness is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.
Despite the very recognisable Hives-esque sound of the album, the Black and White Album certainly isn’t “doing the same thing and expecting a different result”. Some have called it experimental, and arguably some tracks are.
Puppet on a String is a prime example, and is perhaps where the album falters slightly. Nevertheless, it picks-up instantly with Bigger Hole to Fill and the almost childish Fall is Just Something That Grown-ups Invented (I say almost childish in much the same way that the Aquabats are - silly, mad, and perhaps even juvenile, but great fun).
All-in-all, a superb return from the Hives. Hyper as always, but that’s one of the things that makes the Hives great. Perhaps not to everyone’s taste, but once you just sit back and enjoy the lunacy it is an incredibly catchy album.
Just got the new Hives album, which is quite good generally but has a few bad tracks on it. I’ll do a fuller article later, but I just thought the pause where Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist stops singing and just says this was awesome:
They say the definition of madness is when you do the same thing and expect a different result.
I should probably take notice of that warning.
The nominations for the Q Awards have been announced and are a mixed bunch. Being the opinionated so-’n'-so that I am, here’s the list in full with a few comments of my own:
Deezer.com is a handy site which lets you listen to full length tracks of pretty much any artist for free. Apparently it’s all legal, although I’ve no idea how. No downloads I’m afraid, but frankly with the sheer amount of music on there it’s not that much of a problem.
Well worth a look with a very extensive music collection. Any tracks I mention in future posts will probably be linked to Deezer.
[Update] Someone just tried to comment leaving a link to an mp3 search engine. I appreciate why it was left and that the link was left with good intentions, but I’m afraid please do not post links to illegal downloads, even if the site is indirect and doesn’t host any of the content. Cheers.
Should have blogged about this ages ago but for some reason didn’t.
The new Interpol album was released a few weeks ago and it is little short of genius. Nothing quite like “Slow Hands” or “Evil” on Our Love to Admire, but still some great ones, notably “Pace is the Trick” and of course, “Heinrich Manoeuvre”.
If you haven’t got this album already, it’s well worth buying.
For those who want a listen for free, Heinrich is on their MySpace page.
From the “old news which Rob has only just caught up with” desk, according to this article there is a chance of Muse doing a gig with Rage Against the Machine. Wouldn’t mind if they decided to do so near me, it has to be said…
I’ve just returned from Ireland having been lucky enough to attend the Oxegen Festival 2007, and thought I’d better write a few lines about it. (No, I managed to avoid the various tent-burnings etc that went on)
Highlights were Bloc Party, Maximo Park, Interpol, Muse (easily the best of the bunch), the Killers and the Pigeon Detectives. The Bravery were pretty good too, which surprised me considering I didn’t think much of what I heard of their new album.
The mud was, unsurprisingly, horrendous. The tents managed to cope quite well since we pitched well away from the main paths people were using, but there were several other tents which appeared to be sinking rapidly. The weather was all over the place, and would switch between blue skies and torrential rain within a matter of minutes.
Overall though, awesome. The crowds were great (more than can be said at the Shins concert sadly), to the extent that the Interpol vocals were barely audible above the crowd’s singing. Paul Banks got as far in the opening line of the Heinrich Manoeuvre as “How are things” before everyone else finished the line for him by yelling “on the west coast?” at the top of their lungs.
Not something I’d perhaps do again tomorrow as it was pretty tiring, but very much worth it and generally great.
Anyone else been enjoying the festival season this year?
P.S. Updated last.fm playlist for Oxegen to follow.
After a battle for a day iTunes finally let me download the new Editors album, and it was worth the wait. Perhaps not an instant classic, but brilliant nevertheless.
If you get the chance, have a listen. Stand-out tracks are Bones, The Racing Rats, An End Has A Start and Smokers Outside the Hospital Doors. Spiders is quite good as well.
That’s two awesome second albums this year, the other one being Maximo Park. I reckon The Killers and Bloc Party were slightly disappointing.
If you want a listen to the new Editors album, you can listen to all the tracks on their MySpace, which I failed to link to last time.
http://www.myspace.com/editorsmusic
Anyone else heard this album? Verdicts in the comments please!
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