it's summer! b/c Friendly Fires is a summer type band IMO, I'm going to treat you to not just one, not just two, not three, but FOUR videos on this Friday.
Moshi Moshi is a v. small, independent record label in London. despite its relatively small size, it's nurtured some of the most popular bands out there today. check out a smattering of their artists (starred are the ones I've seen live)...
Au Revoir Simone
Bloc Party
the Drums
Fanfarlo*
Florence and the Machine*
Friendly Fires*
Hot Chip*
Hot Club de Paris*
Late of the Pier
Lykke Li*
Kate Nash
the Rakes (RIP)
Slow Club
the Very Best*
(read more about them on Wikipedia)
now that I think about it looking at the list above, it makes a lot of sense why Friendly Fires supported Lykke Li on her first North American tour. the first video below, the first promo they filmed for 'Paris', was directed by Price James and is from their Moshi Moshi days, before Richard Russell found them and signed them to XL. the one features, rather oddly, guitarist Edd Gibson playing drums. he told me last year he was very uncomfortable playing them but Ed Mac insisted it was b/c their was one boring guitar line throughout the whole song and he (Gibson) would have looked stupid standing there holding his axe. Edd countered this by saying even so, he would have still have felt more comfortable holding his guitar. ha!
this is also an interesting piece of history b/c there isn't a huge amount of media of back in the day when Edd didn't have much of a beard and Ed Mac's hair was long and out of control. even though it's kind of kitschy, I still prefer this one over the over stylised one XL had them record, which I have also included below. what's I find really silly about the XL one is that the video has nothing to do with the song whatsoever. at least the Price James one had stars! in the third video, a behind the scenes look at the filming of the XL version, you can just feel the discomfort in all having to do all this choreography. (you know what, I haven't watched this behind the scenes thingy in ages. and now that I've seen it again, I wish I hadn't b/c I now have a lump in my throat. long story.)
the fourth video has nothing to do with promos - I've included it b/c some people have not yet seen the band live. there's the Jools Holland videos that are quite good, but I just found this 'Paris' one from 2007 a couple days ago and wanted to share. you know, get everyone in the mood for summer and everything, b/c last summer Ed Mac wanted everyone to be having picnics and be drinking fishbowl-sized margaritas. so just spreading the joy.
04 June 2010
03 June 2010
this week's Roundtable (03/06)
from the @lamacqshow Twitter: Roundtable tonight is with @marksutherlanduk @misterwallace and Tom Ravenscroft
1. Mystery Jets - 'Dreaming of Another World' - pop perfection. I am so stoked for their album 'Serotonin' to be released 05 July. it's gonna be epic.
2. !!! (chk chk chk) - AM/FM - this sounds like a fun track for the summer. possibly better than 'Drunk Girls' LCD Soundsystem.
3. Kate Nash - 'Kiss That Girl' - the winner - I guess I have a different perspective on Kate Nash than most Britons (who thinks she's an noisome idiot). to me she sounds like Duffy sold out with worse lyrics, or like Supremes-era Diana Ross came back white (the instrumentation is so v. throwback, and VV Brown does this so much better). but it's not horrible. this one is all right, and you know it'll get tons of airplay.
4. Gang of Four - 'You Don't Have to Be Mad' - this is ok, it's indie rock. and it's not terribly exciting.
5. Kanye West - 'Power' - oh no. I thought he was gone. :P blech. what is this, tribal-hop?
6. Bombay Bicycle Club - 'Ivy and Gold' - I like the spareness of this. funny that it's taken so long for them to release it, they could have headed off Mumford and Sons and Fanfarlo.
7. the Bluetones new album 'A New Athens' - it's all right. Britpop in its old form is back...? I don't remember their singer sounding so much like Brian Molko (Placebo)? talk about nasal. LOLZ
1. Mystery Jets - 'Dreaming of Another World' - pop perfection. I am so stoked for their album 'Serotonin' to be released 05 July. it's gonna be epic.
2. !!! (chk chk chk) - AM/FM - this sounds like a fun track for the summer. possibly better than 'Drunk Girls' LCD Soundsystem.
3. Kate Nash - 'Kiss That Girl' - the winner - I guess I have a different perspective on Kate Nash than most Britons (who thinks she's an noisome idiot). to me she sounds like Duffy sold out with worse lyrics, or like Supremes-era Diana Ross came back white (the instrumentation is so v. throwback, and VV Brown does this so much better). but it's not horrible. this one is all right, and you know it'll get tons of airplay.
4. Gang of Four - 'You Don't Have to Be Mad' - this is ok, it's indie rock. and it's not terribly exciting.
5. Kanye West - 'Power' - oh no. I thought he was gone. :P blech. what is this, tribal-hop?
6. Bombay Bicycle Club - 'Ivy and Gold' - I like the spareness of this. funny that it's taken so long for them to release it, they could have headed off Mumford and Sons and Fanfarlo.
7. the Bluetones new album 'A New Athens' - it's all right. Britpop in its old form is back...? I don't remember their singer sounding so much like Brian Molko (Placebo)? talk about nasal. LOLZ
02 June 2010
my cup has been Phill-eth
so it's been a couple weeks now since I got back from my last holiday-cum-journo trip, and you're probably wondering "she's a spaz, why hasn't she written about her Philadelphia trip yet?"
the truth is, during and immediately after the trip I was experiencing some conflicting emotions, the worst being those that crossed my mind when I tripped on (and hurt myself pretty badly) on uneven pavement literally seconds before being where I needed to be for Two Door Cinema Club's gig at Johnny Brenda's. at that point, I couldn't turn around. what would have been the point of all that travelling if I couldn't see them? I was wearing skinny jeans so I couldn't ice my knee, but I was able to buy a bottle of water and ice my elbow and that seemed to help. the show was wonderful and Sam and Kev of TDCC were super nice (Alex was under the weather and disappeared swiftly after the set), as was their tour manager (who recognised me from touring with another one of his charges, Jack Penate, as I'd interviewed Jack in DC last autumn).
but to prevent any more damage, immediately after the show I took a cab back to my temporary lodgings, iced my knee as much as I could, and waited for the morning when I had to go to hospital to get this stupid thing attended to. the bad thing was I had to completely cancel all my plans on Day 2 - all the really touristy things like the Liberty Bell and the Rocky steps. even worse, I had to cancel on my mate Eddie Argos and his gf Dyan Valdez (aka their side project Everybody Was in the French Resistance...Now) and I felt terrible, like I'd let him/them down.
worse, I became petrified of what would happen at Roskilde. I mean, the bad condition of a Philly sidewalk was the sole cause of this accident. but at Roskilde I'm going to be surrounded by rowdy drunks, and I will get pushed and I will get shoved.
anyway...temporary crisis is over. I'm not eager to get back to Philly. or maybe better put, I'm not eager to go back by MYSELF. anyone not involved in the medical, service, or hospitality industries (my nice b&b owner who drove me around town to get the treatment I needed), everyone that I met was for some reason unnecessarily rude, and no one stops for pedestrians. (I thought DC was bad but Philly is far, far worse.) my brother said to me (over the phone while I was wailing, tears streaming down my cheeks I might add), "it's Philly, didn't you know?" no, I didn't know.
conclusion: I want to go back to England ASAP for a gig, festival, whatever is doable. dunno how realistic that is though. I've got several friends who are going over this year, and I am deathly, deathly jealous. I've actually cried over how much I miss the place. I'm trying to organise an England/USA pub lunch with friends here, knowing I'll be the only one who will not be rooting for the USA (oops).
the truth is, during and immediately after the trip I was experiencing some conflicting emotions, the worst being those that crossed my mind when I tripped on (and hurt myself pretty badly) on uneven pavement literally seconds before being where I needed to be for Two Door Cinema Club's gig at Johnny Brenda's. at that point, I couldn't turn around. what would have been the point of all that travelling if I couldn't see them? I was wearing skinny jeans so I couldn't ice my knee, but I was able to buy a bottle of water and ice my elbow and that seemed to help. the show was wonderful and Sam and Kev of TDCC were super nice (Alex was under the weather and disappeared swiftly after the set), as was their tour manager (who recognised me from touring with another one of his charges, Jack Penate, as I'd interviewed Jack in DC last autumn).
but to prevent any more damage, immediately after the show I took a cab back to my temporary lodgings, iced my knee as much as I could, and waited for the morning when I had to go to hospital to get this stupid thing attended to. the bad thing was I had to completely cancel all my plans on Day 2 - all the really touristy things like the Liberty Bell and the Rocky steps. even worse, I had to cancel on my mate Eddie Argos and his gf Dyan Valdez (aka their side project Everybody Was in the French Resistance...Now) and I felt terrible, like I'd let him/them down.
worse, I became petrified of what would happen at Roskilde. I mean, the bad condition of a Philly sidewalk was the sole cause of this accident. but at Roskilde I'm going to be surrounded by rowdy drunks, and I will get pushed and I will get shoved.
anyway...temporary crisis is over. I'm not eager to get back to Philly. or maybe better put, I'm not eager to go back by MYSELF. anyone not involved in the medical, service, or hospitality industries (my nice b&b owner who drove me around town to get the treatment I needed), everyone that I met was for some reason unnecessarily rude, and no one stops for pedestrians. (I thought DC was bad but Philly is far, far worse.) my brother said to me (over the phone while I was wailing, tears streaming down my cheeks I might add), "it's Philly, didn't you know?" no, I didn't know.
conclusion: I want to go back to England ASAP for a gig, festival, whatever is doable. dunno how realistic that is though. I've got several friends who are going over this year, and I am deathly, deathly jealous. I've actually cried over how much I miss the place. I'm trying to organise an England/USA pub lunch with friends here, knowing I'll be the only one who will not be rooting for the USA (oops).
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