It's just over a month until Blur's Sunday night headlining slot at Glastonbury, and I'm starting to feel genuine, but also nervous, excitement. I've seen the band three times before, and each of those times was unique. But the fact that they've sprung from the dead after several years, and at Glastonbury no less, makes this feel extra special. I keep thinking of favourite songs, personal lyrics, and just the moments in a record that make me feel weightless: the wail of feedback over Alex's chiming bass in Sing, the swooping backwards drums at the start of This Is A Low and the radio chatter over the coda of Beetlebum.



I often cursed the band at the time for failing to make what I considered one truly classic record. One that compared with the greats from the past. But classics don't appear ready made. It's a status granted by the passage of time, viewing retrospectively with hindsight and context. And of course, with the personal memories attached to those recordings, thanks to the unique magical ability music has to conjure up emotions from otherwise lost days. So even records which at the time might have appeared a bit daft, now have an air of pathos about them. (You know the one I'm talking about...)



The headline spot at Glastonbury is always an experience. Last year I watched Kings of Leon step up to the plate and confound my expectations. Then Jay-Z absolutely stormed the Saturday night. Previously I've been utterly entranced by the extraordinary Radiohead and REM, seduced by the sublimely enigmatic White Stripes, and charmed by the epic yet humble Coldplay. But this is the one I've really been waiting for, and didn't really think I'd ever see. I'M SO EXCITED!

1. Blur - No Monsters In Me
2. Blur - Luminous
3. Blur - Young & Lovely
4. Blur - Magpie
5. Blur - Tame
6. Blur - Threadneedle Street
7. Blur - St Louis
8. Blur - Theme From An Imaginary Film
9. Blur - When The Cows Come Home
10. Blur - Bustin' & Dronin'

You know when you're a lost cause when you have to narrow down your 10 favourite B-Sides...

Labels: blur, festivals, music

I love it when things work out just right. So far this year, I've fallen in love with two songs by two very different artists. And the last two weekends, I saw both play those wonderful songs live. And really quite extraordinarily loudly.

The first?

Deadmau5 - 'I Remember' at Radio 1's Big Weekend in Swindon, 9th May.



In fact, his whole set was superb. Any DJ who arrives on stage on the back of a BMX whilst wearing a giant mousehead gets my vote. But more than that... the music is great and heavy house. The graphics are superb. The last dance artists I can think of who combined such great imagery and costume with superb tunes were Daft Punk, and it can't be a coincidence that Deadmau5 drops a remix of Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger mashed with Muse's Knights of Cydonia in the middle of his set. Just wonderful.

But it's 'I Remember' that I've waited for, and when it drops, it's just magical. Deceptively simple, bittersweet, vocal led house music. It's been a stressful few weeks at work, but at it's worse, a blast of this track at high volume just seems to soothe my soul. It's just gorgeous. It will take something truly magical to topple it from the position of record of the year. Although...

The second:

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - 'Stay Alive' at Brixton Windmill, 16th May.



Twee-gaze. A phrase that will either fill you with utter contempt or childlike joy. Couple that description with the very name of the band, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, and you're going to jump to a few pretty sizable conclusions. And you'd probably be right. I absolutely adore them. The influences are clear and obvious, the jangley twee pop of The Pastels and The Field Mice with the noise of Jesus and Mary Chain and early My Bloody Valentine. It's just gorgeous.

Live, they're louder, which is good, and appear to be just as sweet as they sound on record. ("Man it's hot in here, but the cardigans have to stay on, those are the rules.") But the lyrics are what makes them special, far darker and paranoid than their sound and image would suggest. This song is so beautiful and wonderful. It jangles and fuzzes and coos and swoons, with a breakdown that makes my heart sing. And yet underneath such sugar coated shimmering...

Can't you see his arms are a hell and you won't ever leave?

Just wonderful. Roll on the rest of the summer.

Here are ten more lovely bits of live joy from Radio 1's Big Weekend and my weekend of fun at Brixton's Windmill...

1. Florence & The Machine - 'Rabbit Heart Raise It Up'
2. Calvin Harris - 'I'm Not Alone'
3. Temper Trap - 'Science Of Fear'
4. Friendly Fires - 'Jump In The Pool'
5. Basement Jaxx - 'Where's Your Head At'

6. Help Stamp Out Loneliness - 'Rush Hour'
7. Betty & The Werewolves - 'Euston Station'
8. Sad Day For Puppets - 'Marble Gods'
9. Freshkills - 'I Know I Know'
10. Vivian Girls - 'Where Do You Run To'

Slight contrast between the two there. Equally ace for very different reasons.

Labels: festivals, gigs, music, top 10's

So I slink back to by faithful old blog, with Twitstick on my collar. It's been waiting up all night for me, worried sick. My dinner's waiting in the oven, and this is going to take some explaining...

Yeah, as Amy rumbled me in the Comments Box of my last post, a solid month ago, I've foresaken this place a wee bit. Twitter is partially to blame, but also a home web phone broadband TV failure that thrust me back to 1999 for over a week (trying to do anything via Dial Up is like trying to get a Camel Light through the eye of a needle). Plus, other stuff. You know. Life. Getting in the way, as it is wont to do. But in a very good way.

There's been lots of fun had. Wonderful live noise with Eagles Of Death Metal, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Doves. Jaunts around the cultural delights of the South Bank. An eyeball to eyeball encounter with an actual shark at the London Aquarium. I dressed up as Dave Tennant's Doctor Who. Again. Oh! And I succeeded in giving up sugar for Lent! And then fell off that wagon in quite considerable style. Let's just say the shop assistants in Hotel Chocolat are easily the politest, sweetest and most persuasive pushers in the game...

And this, of course, is what I've been listening to.

1. The Maccabees - Love You Better
2. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll
3. Sugar - Helpless
4. Morjac & Fred Falke feat Sarah Tyler - When We Were Together
5. Jon Hopkins - Light Through The Veins
6. Art Brut - Alcoholics Unanimous
7. Deadmau5 feat Kaskade - I Remember
8. Doves - Kingdom Of Rust
9. La Roux - In For The Kill (Lifelike Remix)
10. The Field Mice - It Isn't Forever

And it wasn't forever. Been doing this for five years now, and sometimes I need a break. But I've not given up on it, not yet...

Labels: blogging, top 10's