Blast from the past #1

Yeah! Everyone should remember this… your PC had no games installed when you purchased it… so what do you do??? That’s right, boot up Solitaire, scroll through the funky decks (I preferred the Palm Trees one), and get addicted.

And of course, as captured gloriously here, the ending of hyperactive bouncing cards. Amazing scenes.

Do people still play it? Office people, please get in touch. Is it all Facebook this and Twitter that when the boss isn’t looking?

The Thousand Art Exhibition (from Total Rewall)

This is a re-post of Total Rewall’s blog. WOAH! Plagiarism I hear you rant. But it’s okay, as I write that too. So calm down.

Total Rewall, along with the marvelous chaps from arts, music and culture site The 405, went along to the opening night of The Thousands Art Exhibition on a windy East London street last night – The Village Underground in Shoreditch to be precise.

Freash-faced 18 year old RJ Rushmore of Vandalog put the whole shindig together – an in-depth interview you can read courtesy of The 405 here. A plethora of street artists work was on offer, including: Faile, WK Interact, Adam Neate, Swoon, Banksy, Know Hope, Herakut, Elbow-Toe, and many more talented fuckers on display.

The 405 really went to town on some cracking interviews with the street artists involved – check the following out: Nick Walker, Rowdy and Armsrock

The goal of The Thousands was to attempt to show the art world and the public that there are great works of art within the sphere of “street art,” and that street artists deserve a place in art history at least equal to that of The Young British Artists or the great pop artists; And hells yes, that was indeed achieved. An added bonus was the free, taste-bud-shattering Japanese Ale on offer. Sadly, we can’t remember the name – much was consumed.

You have until this Sunday (22nd November ) to check it out, make sure that you do.

Here are some exclusive photos, from Tim Boddy

Reviewface by Free Energy – from Muso’s Guide

What started out as almost an ‘experiment’ has turned into a regular feature for Muso’s Guide… entitled Reviewface. This week the band scrutinising the weeks releases were the much hyped Free Energy in The Lock Tavern, just before playing a storming show in Camden.

It’s been rather fun, and at times testing, learning to edit and use Final Cut Pro on the fly… but very much worth it. Also, I got to have a sneaky listen to a new LCD Soundsystem track, Bye Bye Barou, which was very pleasurable. Here are the outcomes of the session:

Reviewface from Muso’s Guide – Animal Collective from Tim Boddy on Vimeo.

Original article here

Reviewface by Teenagersintokyo – from Muso’s Guide

Muso’s Guide gave me the opportunity to experience my first foray into the exciting and murky world of video, using my 5D MKII (it’s primarily a stills camera for those who are not sad and geeky enough to understand such matters).

I’m pretty happy with the results considering it was my first time. Australian fun-indie-types Teenagersintokyo were the first band involved in the new feature and were great company, as well as being a fine band too. The feature has been given the brilliant name Reviewface by head Muso’s Guide lady Natalie Shaw, see the original article here.

Here are the videos, first one is of the girls reviewing Alphabeat and The Twilight Sad…

…review of Cheryl Cole….

…and finally a noice little interview with Teenagerintokyo…

The Horrors – Whole New Way

So, have you played the Album-of-the-year-contender Primary Colours to death, and are now desperate at the slightest sniff of new material? Yes? Good, we’re on the same page then. The Horrors are due to release new single Whole New Way next month – November 2nd to be precise for all you pedants – which will act as a gloriously satisfying fix til the next hit.

One can see why it was not included on the album, this is not a criticism, far from it. A subtly different sound is at play with a slightly sunnier deposition is evident, a lighter ditty that bubbles along – of course never straying too far from the dark; come on, this is The Horrors after all.

It recalls more Joy Division rather than the Krautrock-influenced nature of Primary Colours. They’ve somehow managed to find time to shoot a video too… aren’t they touring all the time though?? I tried to embed it here, but couldn’t. Ah, you seem like a bright soul, Youtube it yourself.

Available on Digital and 7″ format.

Download: The Horrors – Whole New Way

‘I’m Faris Rotter me, or Faris Badwan, I dunno, whatever get’s more Google hits’

(It’s Badwan if you’re wondering by the way. About four times as much)

G20: Reprise

G20: Reprise, originally uploaded by J_Ymmit.

I got some film developed the other day, that must have been sitting in my camera for ages… as the images contained photos of the G20 protests. Remember them ay?? That’s right, the media circus (including the hilarious ‘Sky-boat’ for Sky News. Anyone see that?), police ‘penning in’ tactics and general stink of the whole torrid turd-stain of an affair.

Anyway, here are a few shots from that day in April. I seem to remember I missed most the juicy stuff, so had to make do with snapping the extremities of action.

It has reminded me that I should use mah film camera more (Canon 1V for those that give a fudding welk)… I mean, one film in six months??! Poor show.

Esben & The Witch

Esben & The Witch, originally uploaded by J_Ymmit.

It was a mighty successful night at the Buffalo Bar for The 405 on Tuesday just gone, absolutely rammed, packed in like sardines and other cliches we all were.

Esben & The Witch headlined with their astounding beauty and ability to melodically haunt everyone. Definitely a band going places, it was an honour for them to be associated with The 405.

On a personal note, I got a ’shout-out’ from them on stage which made me super embarrassed – I did one of their first ever interviews with them, and am apparently a ‘very nice guy’. Nah, I didn’t believe that either. AND i won a piece of art that was created n the night. Good times

Full review from The 405 courtesy of Danny the Champion of the world here.

Thom Yorke – All For The Best

This I deemed to be blog worthy despite it being slightly out of date in the fast-paced-attention-span-of-a-leaf-in-a-windtunnel-instant-tweetly-interweb-world, as it is such an outstanding track.

Recorded by Thom Yorke, featuring vocals from his brother Andy, the track is to appear on album Ciao My Shining Star: The Songs of Mark Mulcahy, of Miracle Legion fame. The album features contributions from a mighty impressive range of artists, including The National and Frank Turner, see the tracklist below for full details.

The story behind the album is quite a moving tale. A year ago the wife of Mark Mulcahy, Melissa, died suddenly leaving Mark to raise his three year old twins daughters by himself. 21 artists have contributed to the compilation, enabling him to continue making music during a tough period in his life.

The album is available from 21st September as a digital download here

01 Thom Yorke – “All For The Best”
02 The National – “Ashamed Of The Story I Told”
03 Michael Stipe – “Everything’s Coming Undone”
04 David Berkeley – “Loves The Only Thing That Shuts Me Up”
05 Dinosaur Jr. – “The Backyard”
06 Chris Harford & Mr Ray Neal – “Micon The Icon”
07 Frank Black – “Bill Jocko”
08 Vic Chesnutt – “Little Man”
09 Unbelievable Truth – “Ciao My Shining Star”
10 Butterflies Of Love – “I Have Patience”
11 Chris Collingwood (Fountains Of Wayne) – “Cookie Jar”
12 Frank Turner – “The Quiet One”
13 Rocket From The Tombs – “In Pursuit Of Your Happiness”
14 Ben Kweller – “Wake Up Whispering”
15 Josh Rouse – “I Woke Up In The Mayflower”
16 Autumn Defense – “Paradise”
17 Hayden -”Happy Birthday Yesterday”
18 Juliana Hatfield – “We’re Not In Charleston Anymore”
19 Mercury Rev – “Sailors And Animals”
20 Elvis Perkins – “She Watches Over Me”
21 Sean Watkins – “A World Away From This One”

All For The Best mp3 download

Moon

Moon, originally uploaded by J_Ymmit.

I took this whilst coming home from a Future Of The Left gig (as seen here) and was fascinated by the poster, probably as I was pretty steaming. A bit of a pointless photo probably (woah, alliteration!), as there is no context to where it is and so on – but hey, I just like how it looks…

Still haven’t got round to watching Moon, looks pretty epic from reviews read and snippets seen.

Future Of The Left @ 229 Club – Live Review

Originally posted on The 405

Venue: 229 Club, Great Portland Street
Date: 10/09/09

Notorious for their lives shows among many other things, Future Of The Left are a band that I’ve never seen live until Offset Festival last weekend, yet here I am with 2 shows in a week; insert London bus analogy here. The Offset set (review here) was a straight forward set of clinical excellence, though something missing perhaps, mostly due to a limited time set FOTL had to power through their late afternoon set. Tonight is something very different…

Having toured extensively over the summer, and for the last few years really, tonight’s devastating show is delivered from a rock band obviously at the top of their game. From opening track Arming Eritrea, with the blood curdling legendary Falco shriek “COME ON RICK!” to closing live special Cloak The Dagger, there is no let-up in the emphatic quality from the Welsh Trio. Two albums of excellence means every track is a deadly barrage of noise. Every guitar crunch and booming bass line is crisp, sharp and every note swaggering aggressively round the room.

Falco and Kelson are in top witty sardonic form when dealing with invited abuse from drunken crowd banter, mercilessly ripping into anyone stepping up, including a poor chap in a pink T-shirt. An outing for Falco’s least favourite track Drink Nike gets an airing after discovering they have more time than thought, much to the audience’s delight however as the ever increasing mosh-pit explodes.

A cliché as much as it is, every track could be called a highlight, it seems trite picking out specifics. Toungue-in-cheek laden You Need Satan More Than He Needs You is a cracking scream-a-long “God Dammit it’s gonna rain, but I only brought my socks!” is one of many inventive surreal lyrical phrases – and Falco knows how to write these in abundance. Plague Of Ones is another that’s an explosive frenzied behemoth of molotov cocktail rock.

As the set draws to a close, Kelson ventures into the crowd for a surf, and manages to be held aloft heroically in the centre of the venue for a good couple of minutes. A fitting end to a spectacular gig, the future is looking bright for FOTL.

Future Of The Left – Last Night I Saved Her From Vampires (live album) on Spotify Highly recommended listening.