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It’s Friday and, for that very reason, the possibility exists—as ever—that the next two days will be a bit hazy. Here we have Art Brut’s "Lost Weekend" to send us stumbling on our way. This single off their fourth album, Brilliant Tragic!, is about as melodic as the band has ever sounded, with singer Eddie Argos actually crooning (the remnants of his spoken word delivery still coming through on the harder vowels): “It was a lost weekend/we took our clothes off and made no sense.” One can only hope!
Teeth!!! (photo Wyldman)
This is not going to be a definitive report on the 2010 Offset Festival. For starters, over the two days I saw over fifty acts that I LIKED to varying degrees. And I couldn’t be everywhere, despite trying my best.
Things get off to a rollicking start on Saturday with The Neat on the Main Stage.
Much angular guitar and the first instance of one of the Themes of The Weekend (TotW). The front man who leaps from the stage and chases his audience across a field.
These days, it’s all about numbers. So whether reaching the nicely-rounded 500 mark in Twitter Followers is a big deal or not is a moot point. It just is, OK?
For me, added excitement came in the suave and witty form of Art Brut’s Eddie Argos, who, with a click of his mouse, became ANBAD’s 500th follower. Such delightful serendipity is one of life’s most enjoyable quirks.
Explode into Colours, pic by Cameron Browne
The sun is now shining, gleaming off the quilt of white snow over everything outside. I still have very little reason to go outside so onwards with the next alphabetical characters in SxSW’s list of showcasing bands….except I’ve changed my mind. This is actually insane and I have far more important things to do. So, I’m only going to recommend bands, and forget about the ones who are plain terrible.
Those Darlins
Here’s the next batch of our favourite albums, singles and downloads of 2009. We’re hurtling towards the top 20, as today we give you our selections from 40-21.
"I think Jedward could unknowingly disassemble the record industry from the inside out like The Clash didn’t."
Top 10 Bands of 2009 by Michael M of that band WE ARE THE PHYSICS
Barcelona is so lovely and the line up for Primavera Sound looked pretty amazing so I thought I’d go along and miss quite a lot of it, due to having free beer on tap all weekend thanks to my friend sorting me out with a magic ticket.
Here’s some stuff I remember. The first thing I saw was Lightning Bolt, which was surprising because usually most people can’t actually see them because they’re on the floor in the crowd. But so this time they played on stage, I don’t know if that’s a first, but it was a first for me and I’ve seen them a whole bunch of times. Considering it’s like an integral part of their shtick that they play on the floor, it was actually really great to see them play on stage. Perversely it had a kind of novelty value, I guess. Seeing a band on stage. Anyway, they rocked pretty hard.
Then I saw Jesus Lizard again, which was even better than last time I saw them a couple of weeks ago, somehow, although there was nowhere near the same level of stage diving action from Yow. He made up for it by doing a lot of freaky dancing though, which was a sight to behold. I think I saw Dead Meadow next, who were drunk as hell, just like me. It was great, they just locked into their grooves and played real slack. It was obvious they were having a good time and it really osmosed into the crowd and everyone was swaying in that drunk and stoned manner that people do at laid back psychedelic shows, until the bass player stumbled backwards a bit too much, knocked over his wine bottle and said something to the guitarist that I presume was Man I’m so fucking drunk I can’t play because they stopped pretty much right then and were rewarded with much slack applause and heartfelt but flaccid whistling from the wasted crowd.
Goes Cube - "Grinding the Knife Blade"; Well it seems Goes Cube are finally over naming their songs after numbers, which is a definitely a good thing, and this rocking ass track certainly sets the bar fairly high for all the actually titled songs to come.
Grade: B
Art Brut - "Just Desserts"; This may just be the B-side to their lead single, but Art Brut and Eddie Argos certainly show their wit has maintained through all the time off. Taking on his own chubby self, Argos sings about his snacking habits. It’s a humorous song and not too bad musically.
Grade: B
Dog Day - "Rome"; Fans of straight forward indie pop should take note of this new act. With simple dueling vocals and a gentle rhythm the song is cute and catchy enough to catch your ear, though it never does wow us.
Grade: B-
Harlem - "Come Back Jonee"; It wasn’t enough that Harlem had to force their way into our lives with their addictive song "South of France", no now the band has gone and covered Devo to woo us even further. This is yet another example of a band that’s just finding its way and having a lot of fun experimenting.
Grade: A-
Bodies of Water - "Dear Boy"; Justin, the dude behind Aquarium Drunkard, is putting together a track for track cover album of Paul McCartney’s RAM. It almost reminds me of Nellie McKay with the big piano sound and lovely female voice carrying the track, but there are also the backing harmonies which are such a trademark of Bodies of Water’s own work to make you realize who you’re actually listening to.
Grade: B+
Ear Pwr - "Future Eyes"; The latest addition to the Carpark stable definitely fits right in. Ear Pwr makes the same sort of instantly catchy synth pop that the label has been pushing for a couple years now. It’s catchy, addictive, and extremely dance worthy so get ready to hear it everywhere!
Grade: B
So, I was watching the news a few nights ago and this year it seems the Canadian news has bothered to report on the UK Christmas number one. Apparently, it’s newsworthy this time because three versions of Hallelujah are competing for the top spot: the original by Leonard Cohen, the cover by Jeff Buckley and the cover by Alexandra Burke, some woman from X-Factor. The saddest part of the story was the fact that the X-Factor version was winning.
Photos from a recent FOE gig - a friend of our friends Hold Your Horse Is - she’s gonna be big!!! Read the gig review after the jump.
Shots of North Carolina’s folk-rocking Avett Brothers’ stop in Glasgow - 22.08.11
Read the review of the gig here.
Take a look at the acts and art on offer at this year’s Latitude Festival in Suffolk. Included are the likes of Fight Like Apes, Lykke Li, Sea of Bees and Seasick Steve. Photos from our own...
Good time with Bad Guys. Photos from the May 29th gig at the Old Blue Last. Read the review by the Bad Guy himself, Stuart London after the jump.
Artrocker.com exclusive: for fans of White Lies and Crocodiles we’ve got some fresh pictures from their UK show at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire earlier this month, courtesy of Alessandro...
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