New Frank Ocean video... solid

Once you go mersh, you can't go back...
and how swiftly those OMGWGKTA players move to the majors, eh?
Still, solid work from Mr Ocean.

True Widow play tiny London show for a mere seven hundred pennies

The day of reckoning is upon us. True Widow play the tiny Macbeth in Shoreditch in less than a month. My tickets are already in the bag.
Yours should be too.
Would just like to point out I paid more in fees, per ticket, on a Ryan Adams Union Chapel gig this morning. Is Ryan Adams goin to be five times better than True Widow, including fees? I have my doubts.

Their full three date UK jaunt.

October 10^th – Glasgow, Captain’s Rest
October 11^th – Manchester, Star & Garter
October 12^th – London, Macbeth

Get to the merch table. I know how expensive it is to bring US bands over here, am pretty sure you'll be filling their petrol tank and putting food in their mouths.

The Get Up Kids - Rally 'Round the Fool (Official Video)

Good progressive choice of single noted. Seem to remember Pitchfork said something nasty about the song, but I think very much the opposite. By the way, Pitchfork have NEVER given The Get Up Kids a positive review. They seem almost grudgy about it, in a too cool for school sort of way. Once more, a critical failure on their part.

Anyway, the video.

Home of Metal - Parts One and Two / Screaming Trees - Final Words

Both interviews with Mark Wilkinson and Tony Iommi are now available on DrownedInSound, as is my review of the "new" Screaming Trees album. I'm submitting my reviews for the Pure X album, and the most recent Drugstore release (trailed below) soon, and that'll be me for a while in terms of reviews. I'm hoping to concentrate on and improve my live music photography, and am hoping to push that along for the end of the year.

In the meantime here are two portfolio sets. The first is a Hevy set via eFestivals, who I got the pass from, and the majority of the shots have already been used by them; the second is my work from the Sziget festival. I originally intended to shoot Sziget for DiS, but felt the standard wasn't quite there. Neither set can be used for any commercial purpose, all rights are reserved, and all wrongs will be reversed.

Wild Flag - Album Teazer

Wild Flag - Album Trailer from Merge Records on Vimeo.

Back from Hevy

and band of the weekend were for some Touche Amore, but for me latecomers to the bill, Feed the Rhino impressed greatly. I'm absolutely amazed they're still at club level.

They won't be for very long.

Catch them at the Camden Barfly for £8.50. You will not be disappointed.

N.B. Hilda May also added to the bill, which is good news for your girlfriend.

Drugstore are returned to us

For those who have forgotten (and how could you?), Drugstore were one of the better bands from the 90's, with Isabelle Monteiro's soft, drawling voice mounted upon a dynamic, supple indie rock base. They gained a little extra fame from a Radiohead endorsement, Thom Yorke singing on one of their bigger singles, El Presidente. Their debut album was a nervy mix of lyrical genius and tension and release, but the band disliked the bare bones production, if memory serves. White Magic For Lovers was the sequel, and improved production and continued high quality songs really put them on the map. They opened the main stage at Reading 1998 (and were in fact the best band I saw at Reading 95. Look at that bill and tell me it isn't a compliment), but then seemed to vanish after the slapdash Songs for the Jet Set. Isabelle said "Things spiralled down", and that spells ten years of hard times.

But after many years in the wilderness, a great Glastonbury performance and a few more sell out shows, Monteiro has reassembled a crack unit of players under the Drugstore moniker. No half assed Marion style reformation here, as the band have signed to the once legendary Rocket Girl label and released a new record, Anatomy. After a ten year lay off, I'm hoping for a solid piece of work with a few flashes of brilliance. Realistically that's all you can ask for from a band that's come back froim the dead (see Satchel's Heartache and Honey for a good example of that), and it's a real shame that I'm out of the country for their August shows. They play a free show at Rough Trade East on the 11th of August, and a sold out album launch on the 18th of August in St Giles in the Fields. I had that bookmarked in my tickets to buy tab, but it had sold out by the time I looked at it again. So the only chance I have to see them is at their December 8th Scala show. We'll see if I haven't been skinted by Christmas cheer before that one then. Listening to this album over the weekend, and will let you know how it shapes up shortly....