Morning beloved readers, how are you?
It's list-making time again and today I would like to share my favourite blogs and websites. Basically this shit rocks my world.
I mean I fancy the pants off of this blogger and I tried everything from asking him out to slagging him off and introducing myself, but NOTHING! His blog is still pretty ace though, especially if you’re into music and fashion.
Lesley Arfin basically hangs out with all the cool kids in New York, so if you wanna know who’s hot and who’s not, check out her blog. It also helps that she is simply mental, in a good way. Thoroughly enjoyable blog.
I’m simply obsessed with Yelawolf at the moment and on his MySpace you cannot only download most of his previous and absolutely amazing albums but you can also perv on his pics big time!
In my opinion, this is the best music blog out there, which finds the right balance between talking about the most obscure indie shit and the least obscure new Drake single. It also gives you loads of free downloads and exclusive videos. Always on the forefront of what’s happening musically. So if you wanna impress that indie boy in skinny jeans, this is the place to brush up on your music knowledge. I love it! Check it out.
Hi guys, today it's fashion fix time again. On a day that I am wearing a Jason DeRulo T-Shirt, I thought it might be a good idea to go a bit casual and post a summertime entry. So here is what I would be rocking to go the beach / a BBQ / or hiking in the hills.
Hi guys I watched the game last night, yes THAT game during which Germany annihilated the Aussie squad and one thing stood out besides their ability on the ball. They were smoking hot. So I was inspired to come up with my very own list of football hotties playing in the cup 2010. I’m sure they are all great footballers, but they for sure are real lookers. And now don’t give me that ‘girls only watch the World Cup to perv on players’ talk, it’s lame.
Yoann Gourcuff...I love a bit of intensity.
Tim Cahill...yes I admit this is a bit of a charity pick, but the red card was a bit uneccessary and he's got nice lips.
Robin Van Persie...he's got something, haven't figured out what yet, but he's got something.
Lukas Podolski...I mean just LOOK at those arms.
Heath Pearce...give me some of that full-bodied curly bliss
Gregory van der Wiel, yummy little cutie pie with rock hard abs, and rocker tattoos
Florent Malouda...nice jawline, nice jawline.
Fernando Torres...just a little ray of sunshine in this bleak world.
and holy f**k pretty much the entire Dutch squad is extremely easy on the eye.
Arne Friedrichs...future husband material. WAG it out babes.
Hello guys today I would like to be Vice Mag’s bitch again. Basically Vice have launched something called The Creators Project, which is a new network dedicated to the celebration of creativity and culture across media. The Creators Project has two mandates: on one hand it’s a modern day media channel that we will continually identify and celebrate the work of visionary artists wherever they are. On the other hand it is also a content creation studio, an arts foundation of sorts that will facilitate the production and dissemination of new work with these artists and their collaborators.
So anyway, The Creators Project mostly features in-depth interviews with artists (musicians and other creative types). Some of them quite interesting, others not so much. Guess which one it is today?
I would like to talk about Mark Ronson a bit. I interviewed the guy once and he was mega doped-up and talked a lot of rubbish. Anyway, he is a bit more together and bearable in this clip and let’s face it, his hair looked amazing when he was 14 years old. He’s talking hip-hop and diva pop-stars, so maybe you’ll find this fairly fascinating, let’s hope so. Enjoy:
Hi guys, today I would like to write about something very special, something unique, something that comes totally unexpected. BOYS and relationships! Fuck me, yes again, I’m sorry, I cannot help it.
On the weekend I got together with my ‘romance’ focus group and quite literally witnessed some eye-opening discussions about that eternal mystery called love.
Obvs now I would like to share these insights with you. This post is metaphorically challenging, so please don’t think literally, think laterally!
So we all know that sometimes a relationship just turns into relation-shit and in order to avoid that from happening there are some steps to take. Listen up!
A very wise man told me that you always need to clean up after yourself – metaphorically speaking. So no lying, no deceiving and no indulging in a new relationship if you’re still mentally grinding over the last one. It’s quite simple. It all starts with one little crump and if you clean up as you go along, you’ll be fine. You can always use a nice and clean kitchen and you’ll find exactly what you’re looking for. But if you don’t clean up as you go along, that one little crump will turn into a heap of crumps and sooner or later that mess will become too big to clean up. Now your kitchen is mega dirty and the prospect of getting it clean again seems way too overwhelming. And even worse little leftover crumps will keep falling into the cracks of your kitchen appliances and you can never clean that shit up unless you move the entire furniture. Do you get me? Be honest, don’t carry grudges, talk about your feelings and make sure you’re straight up about things.
A yes or no is ALWAYS better than a maybe. Don’t be lame, make a decision.
Whatever floats your boat, make sure you always know where the nearest harbour is.
I reckon that when it comes to relationships understated is always better than overstated. Big feelings – yes. Big make-out sessions in public – no!
If you ask me most of the time sleeping is better for you than sleeping with someone.
And it’s also mates before dates.
But then the last two points maybe illustrate why I am still single….
Morning guys, here's a review I did for Gigwise about Beatsteaks. Shit name, fucking fantastic band. Come on and share the love!
Lately there seems to have been some sort of bizarre German renaissance going on. Berlin is the hipster destination du jour, a German Kate Nash carbon copy has just won the Eurovision song contest, and let’s face it, the Germans will most possibly win the bloody football world cup, too.
So Berlin punk band Beatsteaks have chosen the perfect time to conquer the UK gig scene. Setting off to play to a packed ULU, the tension in the air is palpable. Still a relatively unknown band to these shores, Beatsteaks are massive in their native Germany having recruited followers over years of relentless touring and through their totally unique, in-your-face sound.
Seconds before the band enter the stage, you just know that this crowd, who are already religiously chanting the band’s name, are going to go absolutely ballistic. And bonkers they go, as Beatsteaks open their set with old cheerful sing-along ‘Atomic Love’. During the first song full-on stage-diving already occurs and consequently follow-up swing-punk-smasher ‘Hand in Hand’ seals the deal turning the venue into a sauna-like mega disco. The crowd is so hyped on heat and high-drinks, they cling to every word superbly charismatic power-house front-man Arnim says. He knows perfectly well how to command the crowd, and ensures that all eyes are on him.
Launching himself from the rafters and singing standing up on the barriers, Arnim still embodies that old good-time Rock’n’Roll attitude, that’s only to be found in one-offs like Iggy Pop. He invites crow-participation, but he is also in total control of the venue at all times. After finishing a soulful cover of ‘Teenage Kicks’, Beatsteaks send the crowd into a frenzy with their most powerful and most frantic-sounding last single ‘Jane Became Insane’. The tune’s chorus is brimming with off-kilter melodies and the razor-sharp, high-pitched guitar lines and clap-along bridge guarantee that this bomb of a song is going off, big time.
Beatsteaks’ latest album ‘Limbo Messiah’ is showcased at its most glorious during the ULU gig and Gigwise have hardly ever seen a band with such an immense physical presence along with similarly immense tunes. They combine the best of Black Flag, Minor Threat and Bad Brains and the troupe’s explosive mix is equally captivating and cathartic. Their gig at ULU is a celebration of everything that’s good about music: dedicated fans, a dedicated band and magnificently demented and catchy songs. Beatsteaks the world is yours to conquer!
Hi Blog-lovers here's a review I wrote for Gigwise about Dot To Dot Bristol 2010. Enjoy.
Dot to Dot fest 2010 returned to Bristol for the sixth time this year and despite a distinct lack of really big names on the line-up, exciting new-comers like Egyptian Hip Hop, Washed Out and Alan Pownall certainly made up for that.
It all starts out with the inevitable queuing for wristbands at Thekla but once the queues are left behind, a thrilling evening of new music is about to kick off.
Even though The Crookes at Academy 1 perform to a semi-empty venue, it doesn’t hamper their retro-tastic allure. With quiffs neatly styled and shirts so nicely tucked in even your grandma would be impressed, the Crookes are in equal parts jangly surf riffs a la The Drums and nostalgic 50s Rhythm and Blues styled on teenage retro-popsters Kitty, Daisy and Lewis. The singer’s erratic dancing and the sharp riffs of Crookes’ guitar man ensure that the girls in the front row keep dancing. And we all know once the girls are dancing, most boys will follow suit, which turns Academy 1 into nice afternoon swing fest. With praise coming from high places such as Steve Lamacq, who reckons that “...a band this good are unlikely to remain obscure”, The Crookes are likely to have a bright future ahead.
Next on are Bristol’s very own Kill Kassidy in the Academy upstairs. Their pop-punk-pastiche might be well-received by home-grown fans, but, quite frankly, the singer’s constant wailing and the band’s utterly unimaginative melodies are more Avril Lavigne than Ariel Pink. Singer Tim throws himself around on stage like an ADHD kid on too much cough medicine and combined with the sonic assault coming out of the amps, this experience can only be described as traumatic.
After quickly making our way back downstairs to catch Blood Red Shoes, we discover that the venue has filled up considerably. Kicking off with former single ‘It’s Getting Boring By The Sea’, Blood Red Shoes showcase their usual blend of angry pop and pissed-off punk. But possibly, instead of investing all their energy in complaining, they should rather put it into writing some proper tunes for once.
The band gets close to doing that with ‘I Wish I Was Someone Better’, but their sound is nonetheless rather generic and samey. I know Laura-Mary is really hot and most of the male audience are here because of her, but when she yowls “Repetition is killing me” on ‘It Is Happening’ it strikes a bit too close to home. Maybe in 2008 grunge-esque, rocked-out tales of angst, alienation and boredom were terribly en vogue, but in 2010 they are just terrible.
Wild Beasts ensure that lovers of more elaborate and intricate soundscapes get their share of good music with their Battles meets Sigur Ross appropriation, but they don’t really manage to wow the crowd.
Moving on to watch London hotshots Fiction at the tiny upstairs bar in Thekla, we get the first idea of what a really exciting band sounds like. Springing from the arty New Cross scene, Fiction blow off the roof with their sonic double-drumming and gloomy, reverb-heavy beats. Conveying a ferocious intelligence, the band mix the playful with the hard, the dissonant with the catchy and by the end of their set, everybody in Bristol has a new favourite band.
Playing the main room in the Thekla, incredibly young freak-funk popsters Egyptian Hip Hopare already necking their cans of lager. Despite the fact that they are all underage, they sound like a band having gained several master degrees in music. The band turns the sterile venue into a tropical funk P.A.R.T.Y! Egyptian Hip Hop’s nonchalant dream-indie / slacker-soul / noise-techno / freak-rave does not only portray a band that has liberated itself from genre boundaries, but also a troupe that is having fun with music. Take note all you Blood Red Shoes out there. Single ‘Rad Pitt’ sits comfortably between the loafer antics of Beavis and Butthead and the melodious insurgence of noise-kinks such as Liars or even Atari Teenage Riot.
Long-awaited returners to the live circus The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster should have been the perfect closing act to an overall diverse and musically challenging festival, but they are unfortunately (and to put it politely) too ‘sozzled’ to fulfil their infinite potential.
The new material is well-received by a devoted crowd, but it doesn’t justify the fact that the audience know all the lyrics better than lead-singer Guy McKnight, whose state can only be described as ‘dilapidated’. Fantastically well-crafted gloom-goth single ‘Love Turns to Hate’ isn’t showcased properly as Guy’s constant stage-diving hinders every song to be brought to a proper closing. With only three original band members left, Eighties Matchbox are a mere shadow of the gloriously talented and positively bizarre band they used to be back in 2002. It’s unnerving to see them become a parody of themselves and whilst I will always love every single album they released, it breaks my heart to say that they were in absolute shambles live.
Clearly the highlights of Dot to Dot were the great organisation that guaranteed no queues at most times during the event, the refreshingly different approaches to music by new bands such as Egyptian Hip Hop and Fiction and THAT quarter-pounder at half past midnight. Roll on Dot to Dot 2011!
