Huh? Wait.. What? Oh. Er. Yeah. Yeah, so I went to Glastonbury. And. Er. I didn't actually go to bed on Sunday night. At all. Yeah, er, we watched the sun come up over the stone circle. Which was cool. And then we got wet. And muddy. Again. And took the tent down and came home. And after the world's longest shower, I tried to stay awake as late as I could on Monday until I collapsed faced down on my bed fully clothed, with my trainers still on. And then I woke up and went to work today. Which was... uh... y'know, interesting. But I don't think I'll be doing that again in a hurry.



So, yes, it was "the best Glastonbury ever", the same as every year. Except for the first time I went with my gorgeous girl, who was determined to pack in all the exciting things I'd done at my last three Glastonbury's into her first, thus nearly killing me. But it made it even more fun to see her little face light up as band after band wowed us with their wonderful music, the weather dazzled us with SUN and RAIN and THUNDER and LIGHTNING, and we sampled far too much Brother's 7% Pear Cider.



I fully intend to write a full, exhaustive review... but I intended to do that last year and totally failed. So in the meantime, here's my 17 feel good hits of the summer (it was supposed to be 15, but I have no discipline these days):

Friday
1. The Maccabees - Can You Give It
2. Fleet Foxes - Blue Ridge Mountains
3. The Specials - A Message To You Rudy
4. The Streets - Turn The Page
5. British Sea Power - Waving Flags
6. Animal Collective - My Girls

Saturday
7. Eagles Of Death Metal - I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News)
8. Spinal Tap - Big Bottom
9. La Roux - In For The Kill
10. Maximo Park - Apply Some Pressure
11. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Born To Run

Sunday
12. Art Brut - Good Weekend
13. Charlotte Hatherley - Behave
14. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll
15. Bat For Lashes - Daniel
16. Bon Iver - Skinny Love
17. Blur - For Tomorrow



What do you mean "Michael Jackson's dead"?

Labels: blur, festivals, top 10's

"Somebody was trying to tell me that CDs are better than vinyl because they don't have any surface noise. I said, 'Listen, mate, life has surface noise.'" John Peel.

I love that each new generation of musical media has it's own sound...

The pop and crackle of vinyl.
The whirr and clunk of 8-track.
The warble and hiss of cassette.
The skip and glitch of CD.
The fizz and flange of Mp3.

I wonder what the next noise will be.

1. Mazzy Star - Fade Into You
2. Nirvana - Come As You Are
3. Pat Benatar - Hit Me With Your Best Shot
4. Dweeb - Chart Raider/Space Invader
5. Bikini Kill - Rebel Girl
6. The Auteurs - Lenny Valentino
7. Le Vicarious Bliss Pop Experience - Together In Electric Dreams
8. Prince - Alphabet Street
9. Transvision Vamp - Baby I Don't Care
10. The Go! Team - Everyone's A VIP To Someone

Anyone coming to see me DJ tomorrow can expect to hear some, if not all, of the above. With plenty of surface noise... Joy!

Labels: djing, top 10's

Electro androgyny?

Soft emotional inner core shielded beneath tough girl exterior?

Ridiculous ginger hair?

Uh-oh. Developing a severe crush on Elly Jackson of La Roux. And I rather suspect she's trouble. Especially following Patrick Wolf's claim that her act was signed by his old record company the very day after they'd dropped him. A cat fight I wouldn't like to get in the middle of. The fur wouldn't half fly... (There's enough of it between them.)

Lucky there's room enough in my world for both, whatever they think of each other. La Roux have tunes and she can't half sing. Plus she possesses that indefinable pop star quality of seeming completely untouchable and otherworldly, yet simultaneously totally vulnerable and delicate. And with a pretend French name to boot. Can we get a Jacques Lu Cont remix from the new Thin White Duke Stuart Price please?



Kudos to Patrick though. After being dropped for evidently not being commercial enough, he makes an album with Alec Empire, once of German anarcho noise-terrorists Atari Teenage Riot. This is a very good thing indeed.

1. La Roux - In For The Kill (Skream's Lets Get Ravey Remix)
2. Hole - Boys On The Radio
3. Bat For Lashes - Use Somebody
4. Ash - Return Of White Rabbit
5. Gossip - Heavy Cross (Fred Falke Remix)
6. Gorillaz - M1A1
7. Little Boots - New In Town
8. Friendly Fires - Jump In The Pool (Thin White Duke Remix)
9. The Buzzcocks - What Do I Get?
10. Patrick Wolf - Vulture

If I was gay, I'd have a massive crush on Patrick Wolf too.

Obviously.

Labels: girls, music, top 10's

Continuing the recent Britpop revival, I've been flicking back over John Harris's The Last Party. A sort of behind the scenes story of Britpop, with added Politics. But whereas most "behind the scenes" stories are dull and indulgent, there are in fact a great many skeletons in the Britpop mafia's closets for our John to discover. Perhaps I was a little naive as a teen, but I had no idea there was so much debauchery going on behind the sleeves of my favourite records. I know it's supposed to be Sex n Drugs n Rock n Roll, but there seemed to be far, far more of the first two than the latter going on at the time. Especially concerning of my favourite bands of the era, Elastica.



Their debut album was one of the last I bought on cassette. I've since rebought it on CD and then again on second hand vinyl, such is my admiration for it. It was a trasitionary record for me, one that felt punkier, wittier and sexier than everything else surrounding it. Justine's orgasmic scream in the middle of 'All Nighter' got my 15 year old heart pumping, 'Car Song' was about loving it in a motor and 'Stutter' was all about male failure to perform. It was powerful, confident and genuinely intimidating to my teenage self. And thoroughly educational, in a very good way. Just a shame that they had to go and blow it all by doing shit loads of heroin, shagging each other and falling out big time. But, hey, we forgive them.

Because I adore this record. Absolutely. It hasn't dated one bit. Yeah, sure, the riffs are all ripped off from Wire and The Stranglers, but none of their songs had any of the wry seductiveness of Elastica's. It is one of my all time regrets that I missed out on seeing them play live in my home town in 1995 (the gig sold out before I pulled my finger out). And for ages, I've been after a decent Elastica T Shirt. Justine wore a great Adam and the Ants T Shirt on their debut's sleeve. I wanted to pay a similar tribute to her band. But unlike the craze for retro rock T Shirts, we haven't got to the 90's yet. Searching ebay and google, there was the odd one or two to be found, but none of any quality or featuring the iconic sleeve above. So I thought, fuck it, I'll make my own...



And I did! Proper Punk Rock DIY aesthetic. And I'm pretty pleased with it. Just a photocopier, some card, a stanley knife and some black & red fabric paints. I love it, and can't wait to wear it to Blur's reunion shows this summer. Well, always got to be the contrary one, haven't i?

Labels: music, punk, the 1990's