I saw Kraftwerk play at the Brixton Academy on Saturday night. It was a midnight show and they played for about two hours. Wow! Absolutely amazing.
This is a band I've wanted to see for many many years, and they definitely lived up to my expectations. Brilliant music, incredible visuals.
When the robots came out for the second encore, it was quite amusing because the robots moved about quite a bit more than the band members on which they are modelled.
I've been enjoying this great online radio station recently. The Global Pop Conspiracy plays a suitably eclectic and fun mix of indie pop music, with a bit of pure pop shoved in for good measure. Nice stuff.
This is what I love about London: any band that's doing any sort of tour ends up playing a gig here. So in May, Fantomas are playing at the Astoria. Yay! I've wanted to see a Mike Patton band for years, and they don't come much weirder than this one!
One of my fave record labels, Warp Records has just launched their digital downloadable music site, Bleep. At last, someone has done it right!
Have a look at this little exerpt from the EULA:
You shall be authorized to store as unlimited copies of the
Product on any media, provided that these copies are for personal
non-commercial use only. The Product or copies of the Product may not
be resold or streamed either for profit or non-profit use,
You shall be entitled to export, burn or copy Products solely for
personal, noncommercial use.
Brilliant! Their prices aren't particularly cheap though. Lower than the CD prices, but not much. For example, the new Broadcast album is £6.99. Not exactly cheap! Sure, Amazon are charging £10.99, but you'd think the costs of digital distribution would be much lower...
Still, the quality should be good and it's nice to see someone trusting users. I'm off to get that Broadcast album!
I'd heard about Franz Ferdinand before, but hadn't heard the music. So I got hold of the album and it's excellent! Kinda New Wave in a way, a bit Stranglers or Clash even. Energetic, witty, intelligent and fun.
Think I might see if I can get tickets to their gig at The Astoria...
As a side note, if you're starting a band in roughly the same style and want to get some gigs the easy way, try calling your band Gavrillo Princip and you'll no doubt land the support gigs for Franz Ferdinand.
I've followed the career of Jean Grae since her collaborations with The Herbaliser (as "What What") back in 1997. Since then she's changed names, crews and producers, making her very difficult to track from outside New York. Just try finding "What What" on Google...
Jean Grae is one of the most talented, intelligent and varied rappers I've yet encountered. Her rhyming is always lyrical, frequently darkly humorous and incredibly intelligent.
Anyway, her best release yet came out last year. The Bootleg of the Bootleg EP finally marries her brilliant vocal style with good production. Her collaborations with The Herbaliser hinted at this brilliance. Her work with Natural Resource and her previous album, Attack of the Attacking Things, lacked coherent and clear backing tunes to her always awesome vocals.
So if you like underground hip-hop with a bit of intelligence, go out and buy this.
Holly and I went to see Spearhead last night. As usual, an excellent gig. Spearhead are one of the best bands you can see live, but it's kinda hard to recommend their uniformly cheesy and dull albums. Michael Franti is such a natural performer and the vibe at their gigs are always amazing.
This is the third time I've seen them and every time it's just amazing. Once was even at Glastonbury. Mmmmm
If you see a Spearhead gig coming up, I couldn't recommend it more highly.
Ooh! I just discovered that Kraftwerk are playing at the Brixton Academy next March. Yay! I'll definitely be grabbing some tickets.
Turns out, after looking at their site, Kraftwerk are also playing at Royal Festival Hall which means there are cheaper tickets, but seated, available. Not sure which I'll go to.
While looking at the RFH site, I note that Brian Wilson is playing again, this time performing the long lost Smile album.