LCD Soundsystem @ Brixton Academy - 23rd October 2007

James Murphy and company make their first visit to London since their electro-punk, rock & roll, funk infused second album ‘Sound of Silver’. Although tagged as an electro act, LCD Soundsystem’s electronic sound is just the tip of the iceberg, it’s not your standard DJ plays remixed records or uses just decks, like most of the current thriving electro scene. (e.g. Ed Banger Records)

Murphy is a renowned perfectionist, and it always comes across just as clear cut on stage as it does on record. He appears to almost conduct the music, delicately raising and lowering sound levels, encouraging his fellow band mates to improvise, and at the gig last night you could tell he was gauging the audience’s participation, energy and enthusiasm and differing the length of certain songs accordingly.



Major highlights still come from the band’s self-titled debut record and the most sweat is perspired during early single releases ‘Daft Punk Is Playing At My House’, a sludgy, slap bass driven, cowbell homage to their electronic heroes and ‘Tribulations’, the band’s first huge hit, a powerfully driven, warped synth and electronic fast paced tin sounding drums. First single from the latest, ‘North American Scum’ also receives one of the most frantic dancing moments of the night, fast, dirty electro, lyrically giving middle America a cheeky slap on the wrist.

Murphy’s band mates, although not involved in the recording process, are equally as talented on their instruments as he is on the decks, and the spectacle of the wall of decks, speakers and keyboards is quite superb, it does the best possible job of making the vast, spacious Brixton Academy into more of a club setting.

It’s not all techno and electro though, and some of the best moments come during the band’s few slower, rock songs. Yes, they do have them, if you’re intrigued just listen to the closing track from the latest record and also final encore of the night, ‘New York I Love You’. It follows the footsteps of Frank Sinatra’s ‘New York, New York’ and Billy Nicholls’ ‘Girl From New York’ as a gentle, romantic, genuinely heartfelt ballard, full of praise for the city he inhabits and it also gives the audience a chance to rest their sore, dance fueled feet.

Everyone seemed to leave the show delighted, despite their aching limbs and wet hair, and we can only assume that the letters LCD don’t stand for Liquid Crystal Display, but actually Loud Contagious Dance.

The Maccabees at the Camden Roundhouse - 16th October 2007

The Maccabees are a popular, young, art-rock, indie band from Brighton, comprised of members Orlando, Felix, Rupert, Robert-Dylan and Hugo. Maybe I should have only typed the band’s names in my opening sentence, it would have said the same thing.

Although they’ve been going for less than two years, they’ve already built up a huge following by relentless touring of the UK underground circuit and by releasing a superb debut record. The show was their last of the year before heading back into the studio to work on their second, and was also the biggest to date, playing the newly refurbished, 3000 capacity Camden Roundhouse.



Like the band themselves, the crowd was mainly made up of twenty something, checkered shirt wearing indie fanatics, who didn’t stop moving through the majority of the set. The band played nearly every song they have, which although lacked imagination, made a more exciting, warm show where every word was sang. Particular favourites were the gentle, shakily sang with complete honesty and emotion, ‘First Love’ and distortion heavy, ‘Lego’ another song taking inspiration from youth, with the lyrics ‘Mum said no to Disneyland/Dad made us go to church’. Other highlights were ‘Precious Time’ and ‘About Your Dress’, more songs about being young and in love and adolescent problems, all of which though not strong in originality, the young crowd can relate to perfectly.

The beautifully delicate, mandolin and ukulele ballad ‘Toothpaste Kisses’ started the encore on a romantic note, followed by the finisher ‘X-Ray’ a fast, catchy, upbeat rock song with powerful guitars and an addictive sing-a-long chorus.

Although the set was predictable and short, the band proved they are more than enough to play a show of this size. With their overwhelming enthusiasm, youthful innocence and genuine talent, I can only presume that this time next year, with more songs under their vintage belts, they will be playing concerts on this scale far more regularly.

Further Listening:
www.myspace.com/themaccabees
'Colour It In' is out now on Fiction Records (2007)

Bloc Party @ Camden Barfly - 14th October 2007

‘Tonight we’re here to party, use your space well’ bellows Bloc Party frontman, Kele Okereke as the band rush the petite, paltry stage at the Camden Barfly, the band’s ‘smallest headline show in two years.’ Of course it’s wrenched in irony, space being the exact thing the thrilled, adoring audience have absolutely none of.

The crowd were made up of lucky ticket winners, extravagant eBayers and industry types, all collected to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the cult MTV2 news programme and generally, bearer of all things alternative, the Zane Lowe presented Gonzo. To make the distance between you and the sweaty, dehydrated, fringe swept teen in front of you even smaller, there was also a large number of cameramen filming the show to be aired on TV in a few weeks time.

So, a brief recap: Bloc Party in London, ‘smallest show in two years’ and it’s being filmed for television. We sure were in for a treat and I was undoubtedly privileged for the opportunity. I definitely owe my friend with the spare ticket at least one or two pints next time I see him.



Opening with ‘Song For Clay’ the first track off latest ‘Weekend In The City’, the simplistic, hard hitting, gloomy chords got the crowd bobbing along immediately, with the pulsating rhythms and signature Bloc Party cynicism on display in the lyrics, with lines such as ‘When we kiss I feel nothing’ and ‘We can dream that the ‘80s never happened.’

‘Banquet’ from 2005’s ‘Silent Alarm’ sent everyone into a frenzy, with the first of many sing-a-longs to come, and ‘So Here We Are’ was also played in close succession. The band really took the crowd’s opinion into mind, and as well as playing a request at one point, a rare B-side ‘Lost Thoughts’ asked for by a typically pretentious fan, they also played all of the fan favourites and classics, and turned the show into more of a greatest hits set. We got one taste of the much anticipated new record ‘Flux’ but it didn’t last long as the band experienced keyboard problems and had to end it, to the crowds dismay. Perhaps they were just teasing us.

During the encore anthem ‘Helicopter’, Okereke completely knocked down the stage and crowd barrier and crowd surfed the entire length of the venue, all the way to the bar at the back, where he preceded to pour himself an absolutely deserved pint of lager. He finishes the set with a happy birthday chant to MTV2 still standing gloriously a top the band in a sea of thrilled fans.

It’s not hard to believe that they’re a huge band both sides of the Atlantic, although the days of playing shabby bars in the armpit of Camden are behind them, they prove tonight they can still deliver on a small scale when given the opportunity. I will certainly be on the sofa when it's on next week, I can’t wait to watch it all again.

Pete and the Pirates at the Camden Barfly - 9th October 2007

For a few months now, friends and opinionated acquaintances have been telling me to listen to Pete and the Pirates. I didn’t manage to find their EP in any record shops though and I couldn’t listen online due to my temperamental internet being about as reliable as British weather. So when finding myself in Camden and hearing about the Pirates playing a small single release show at the Barfly, I couldn’t resist finding out what all the fuss was about.

Pete and the Pirates play perky, fun, folk inspired indie, vocally they add charming Englishness, taking clear inspiration from bands like the Smiths and the Cure. The atmosphere was relaxed and good natured, it was evident the band are enjoying their rise in popularity by the huge grins they wearing and exchange of banter with the audience and each other. It was refreshing too, to see that there was none of the rock star egotism that is becoming common in the British indie scene.

The Pirates kicked off the nights festivities with ‘Disko’, appropriately named with it’s disco influenced funky guitar line and shameless eighties drum beats, it got the crowd in full swing straight from the get go. ‘Come On Feet’, was a delightfully quaint pop song with bouncy guitars and sing-a-long harmonies. ‘Think Twice’ made us do exactly that, skipping between slow, romantic soft guitar strumming, made sweeter with vocalist Tommy Sanders adding a touch of tambourine, keeping us quiet until bouncing unpredictably into fast, raucous indie, dance mayhem.

The new single ‘Knots’ went down incredibly impressively, with the bands faithful singing along to every word, even though the track is being released next week. It takes definite inspiration from experimental indie bands, such as Interpol, using a lo-fi sound to make it sound of lower production, with whimsical melodies over it to give us a glimpse of what contemporary indie would have sounded like if it was released in the seventies.

If I ever manage to get my internet working I will definitely be downloading all I can find from these pirates, I recommend you see them now on the club circuit before this secret treasure of a band is thrust into the mainstream.

Further Listening:
www.myspace.com/peteandthepirates
‘Wait. Stop. Begin.’ is out now on Stolen Recordings. (2007)

My Top Ten Records

Nick decided to set us some tricky homework, absolutely brilliant, but nevertheless tricky homework. Here's my list at the moment, i'll be adding a few paragraphs on each in the next couple of days. So here we go, in no particular order, finding the ten is hard enough, why would i make it even more difficult on myself?

Jeff Buckley - Grace



Saves The Day - Stay What You Are



Joni Mitchell - Blue



The Libertines - Up The Bracket



Nick Drake - Bryter Layter



American Nightmare - American Nightmare



Arcade Fire - Funeral



Radiohead - OK Computer



The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead



Bright Eyes - Lifted Or The Story Is In The Soil, Keep Your Ear To The Ground

Sigur Ros announce a wonderul trio of new music

Sigur Rós look set to blow us all away yet again in a few weeks time, with the release of the new album ‘Hvarf-Heim’ that is being released in conjunction with their new film ‘Heima’, which critics are already hailing as ‘one of the best music films of all time.’ The album, which will contain eleven tracks, is comprised of two discs due to the sheer length of each of the extended versions on offer. The first disc ‘Hvarf’, translated as ‘disappeared’, contains five songs that were almost lost over the excruciatingly painful selection process of cutting down their past albums to the right length. Although these songs didn’t make the cut at the time, they have been wonderfully re-worked and re-vamped. Songs ‘Von’ and ‘Hafsol’ are included, which were originally recorded just a year after the band’s formation in 1994. Second disc ‘Heim’ which translates as ‘home’ celebrates a further six tracks, including a rarity in itself, a purely instrumental song. Fan favourites ‘Starlafur’ and ‘Vaka’ are among the lucky selected few songs to be played purely acoustically live on location. Fans of Sigur Rós are usually massive fans of Sigur Rós and they will surely eat this up in it’s entirety, but for people who haven't explored the beautiful world of their music, it’s the ideal introduction.

Single - ‘Hljomalind/Staralufur’ - released 22nd October
Album - ‘Hvarf-Heim’ - released 5th November
Film - ‘Heima’ - released 5th Novemeber

The Clash - London Calling (Reissue)

This month sees the long awaited reissue release of The Clash’s ‘London Calling’; it shouldn’t come as a surprise that we’ve picked it as our album of the month. The Record is still today, a truly remarkable achievement. It’s as inspirational, exciting and monumental now as it was at its release 27 years ago, and it’s not too difficult to see why.

One of the most impressive aspects of London Calling, is just how far the band moved on from the previous year’s ‘‘Give Em’ Enough Rope’’. The Clash moved from being a reggae influenced rock band to a band that experimented with Punk, R&B, jazz lounge, ska, blues, soul and funk. Each member played a vital role in this eclectic mix of music and effortless genre merging. They all had their own interests and individual tastes and the time before the writing was spent discovering and learning new types of music and styles.

Each song has a strong, important theme, although the album isn’t based on one subject in particular. Themes range from Nazism and the rise of far right politics on ‘Clampdown’ to the Spanish civil war at Andalucia in ‘Spanish Bombs’ and large corporations and capitalism on ‘Koka Kola’ (originally titled ‘Koka Kola, advertising and cocaine’.)

Title track ‘London Calling’ is still the album’s stand out song, which everyone and their mother must have heard on at least one occasion. It still stands out, as an anthem of the period and the chorus remains as strong today as it was when released in 1979. It is hauntingly dark, and paints a vivid picture of the Clash’s London at the time, living in fear of another war and the collapse of society. The chorus of ‘London is drowning/I live by the river’ confirms Joe Strummer’s paranoia of war and of the River Thames breaking and flooding over London. It’s apocalyptical in parts, with the howling just adding to the intensity as the song climaxes and eventually echoes out.



‘Brand New Cadillac’ is a smashing, swinging, funky, rockabilly number originally written by the band Vince Taylor and his Playboys in 1959. It takes a great track to follow a song like ‘London Calling’ and the two flow back to back sublimely. ‘Jimmy Jazz’ as the names suggests is a soft, jazz song that slows the record down before launching into ‘Hateful’, which is a fast, horn-led song with punchy, aggressive honest vocals confronting drug addiction. ‘Lost in the Supermarket’ although sung by Mick Jones and written in his style, was actually from the pen of Strummer. It’s a cynical, sweet song about resisting the industrial world and the temptations of commercialism.

‘The Guns of Brixton’ written and sang by bassist, Paul Simenon, is a strongly reggae influenced song with a repetitive, almost zombie like thudding chorus, it tackles issues of gun culture and police brutality with frightening force. ‘Train in Vain (Stand by Me)’ finishes the album delicately, with a pop, rock love song that seems to take influence from R&B or country lyrics.

The album’s artwork has always been a striking feature. It’s a photograph of Simenon smashing his bass guitar on stage during a high profile gig at the famous New York Palladium, photographed by Pennie Smith who followed them on their 1979 US tour. There’s also the way the font for ‘London Calling/The Clash’ is completely devised from Elvis Presley’s first self-titled release. Strummer said at the time that they compared the two as ‘the first rock album ever made and the last rock album ever made.’ There’s no debate over how the photo received ‘Best rock and roll photograph of all time’ later in Q magazine.



Another aspect that shows off the album’s greatness is the length, with a running time of just over 65 minutes altogether and nineteen tracks, it shows the band’s commitment to delivering their fans all that they have to offer. The album was originally going to be made as a single vinyl consisting of ten tracks, but the band’s anti-industry nature led them to persuade their label to let them include a free 12’ single with the record. The band then persisted to push their luck and ended up putting 9 tracks onto the second disc, wishing to reward their fans with as much Clash music as possible.

The Clash still credits much of the album’s success to Guy Stevens and to his unique methods of producing. On this reissue there’s a thirty-minute documentary thrown into the deal, which contains footage of the band recording their album at Wessex studios. There were lots of classic rock tales at the time that claimed Guy Stevens used to throw around ladders and chairs to try and excite and energise the artists he was working with, this is all confirmed during the programme. It’s fascinating, nostalgic and truly hilarious, he throws tradition and professionalism out the window and you can genuinely see his enthusiasm for the music coming out. He really tries to get the best performance possible out of Jones by repeatedly throwing a chair at him, and then continually screams at Strummer, until he likes what he hears.

It is at this period in the Clash’s existence that we can see the band at their tightest, musically and in terms of their friendship together. It’s been said that when the band weren’t writing or recording they were playing five-aside football in the fields adjacent to the Wessex Studios. The games are of legend, and it’s been said that when management and A&R went to see how the album was progressing they ended up playing against The Clash boys, who didn’t let them off easy just because they were more used to the office than the park, apparently they took an utter battering. Luckily for us though and music lovers everywhere, they decided to continue with their incredibly diverse, massively influential, outstanding music over pursuing football careers. It’s still as perfect today as it was all those years ago.

The Decemberists at The Royal Festival Hall, Waterloo - 2nd October 2007

Tonight’s sold out show at Waterloo’s Royal Festival Hall at first appears to be a strange selection of venue for a band used to playing clubs and theatres on a much more intimate scale. Especially when considering the band have decided not to bring the full blown orchestra that accompanied them on their previous summer’s US tour jaunt.

But all soon becomes clear, the venue, usually used for opera and classical concerts, has superb, crisp, pin-point acoustics and the band take full advantage of them. They sound like a much larger band, with each member playing a diverse array of unorthodox, whimsical instruments. We realise instantly the Decemberists are more than capable of playing concerts of this size.

The set predominantly featured songs from last year’s ‘The Crane Wife’. The album was written as a story, based on an old Japanese folk tale, about a man who puts his own greed before a loved one and eventually receives his comeuppance. The music on display is just as adventurous and compelling, with an extensive arsenal of instruments at their disposal including accordions, a harpsichord, a stand up bass, glockenspiels, mandolins, violins, bongos and other unusual percussion pieces.

A highlight came during the ambitious three parter ‘The Island’ which is a twelve minute musical explosion which tears through genre barriers effortlessly. The song travels from soft, gentle folk to frantic psychedelia to pop rock indie fun and everywhere in between. It began to feel like an intimate jam, with the group playing extended, epic versions of each song and merging them without pausing in-between easily and with precision and skill.



‘O’ Valencia’ the only single to be released from the new record thus far, is melodic, sharp and snappy, lyrically it’s dark and despondent, the chorus ‘Oh Valencia/With your blood still warm on the ground/And I swear to the stars/I’ll burn this whole city down’ is sung warmly and melancholically though, with almost Morrisey-esque sarcasm.

The band seemed to be uncharacteristically nervous through some of the set and unsure how to handle a fully seated audience. I would have loved to break the mould and in turn encourage others to do so, but sadly lacked the courage to stand alone and stick out like a sore thumb in a crowd full of judgemental industry types.

It’s during the encore though where the band completely come out of their slightly gypsy, nineteenth century shell and we realise that the audience’s participation definitely correlates with the bands. The best is saved for last’s playing their biggest hit to date named ‘The Mariner’s Revenge Song’ from the 2005 record ‘Picaresque’. The song is a ten minute epic following the story of a man avenging his dead father who was swallowed by a whale at sea, twenty years later he goes out on a ship searching for the same said whale. This is where the theatrics really take off, with all five band members, swaying in motion, are grouped in front centre stage. It’s almost a pirate chant and the swinging, accordion-led melodies go in hand with the subject matter perfectly. The climax of the song is reached when the crowd are signalled, thanks to a comical five minute long explanation and practise run before hand, to ‘scream like you’re being swallowed by a whale!’ It’s the true Decemberists anthem, which the crowd in turn, swallow in its entirety, and it finally, rightfully finds every audience member on their feet.