Best Fwends

I was almost positive i did a post about these guys before, but aparently not.

Manic, electro-skate-punk from Texas, however they're on a UK label (Moshi Moshi) and so make frequent trips to the UK/europe for shows etc.
My fav song at the moment by them is "Skate Or Live" a melodic electro shouty track which i also recently found a good remix of by GoTo80, however you may recognize their song "Bedroom Music" as it was the backing track to a rather cool Bacardi advert about a year ago.





Myspace

Bric-A-Brac

The miracle that was Bric-A-Brac was yesterday, and oh god was that £8 well spent!
7 hours of absolute musical ecstacy :D

First on was Burmese Days, who werent absolutely terrible, but neither did they really stand out from the crowd of other similar bands around nowadays...
Pretty much your everyday, run-of-the-mill indie band, but the next people on made them look like they were the best band of the night!

Myspace

The next band to play was Bearsuit, a late addition to the lineup, and boy did they suck. it made me think of the whole Tiger Force shouty, noisy lo-fi experience, except done really REALLY badly and with like flutes thrown in. although, they did all wear cool devo-esque jump-suits with Jupiter Force logos on (their single) and at the end one of the singer/keyboardists took hers off to reveal only a t-shirt and some skimpy pants to try and sell some t-shirts and copies of their single, although no one bought them. Oh and a man in a bear outfit with a top hat on came in and started dancing on their last couple of songs which was quite cool i thought.

Myspace

Next on was Poppy & The Jezebels, an all girl indie band from London in the red room upstairs. We had a hard time finding the red room and so missed about a song and a half, however the three or four songs we did hear were very good, indie guitaring, laced with piano/keyboard with some haunting female vocals over the top. Although, some of my friends were outraged they had a song called "Nazi Girl".

Myspace

Next up was The More Assured, and rather good band from London, who, after much running around being confused, we found out had had to cancel. A pity, as they would've been one of the highlights of the night...

Myspace

So after wolfing down two plates of chips, it was back up to the red room for one of the highlights of my night, PARTYSHANK! After a quick soundcheck, Howard donned his hot dog outift and became the mighty Party Sausage, and joined by I Will Shank You For A Penny (yes that is his stage name) set about creating the best disco/rave/cartoon/dance/electro noise you could hope for, laced with samples and children's toys plugged into amplifiers. The first band of the night to get the whole room dancing, jumping, going insane. After a rather short, but absolutely magnificent set, they finished with an obscure, but no less rad track called something about happy families or something... which envolved the drum machine playing some beat downs similar to death metal, with some sick synths over the top and then both of them leaping into the crowd and pretty much beating each other up while shouting high pitched screams of something or other... all in all making one of THE best songs ive ever heard them do, and definately the best song of the night. And to top it all off, me and Liam got our tickets signed by both of them, HOW COOL IS THAT?



mp3:Gary

Myspace

Next up was more confusion as Crystal Castles, who had been scheduled to play the red room at around 8:30, instead took to the main room stage at about 7:15ish... They played an awesome, if not short set, although the actual show on stage was pretty basic. just the dude at the back playing the Korg and the girl at the front dancing like a spaz and holding a strobe light... they still got most people dancing though so i guess they were pretty cool too.

Myspace

We then retreated from the venue for about 15 minutes to go find a shop to buy a drink from and returned in time to see about four songs from Talk Taxis. Another of the endless stream of semi-talented indie-bands, however with more to offer than Burmese Days. Talk Taxis' new single "Liverless" is rather good, and well worth a listen/buy.

Myspace

We then headed back up to the red room, to catch a few of Twisted Charm's songs, the best of which being "Boring Lifestyles", however the tiny snippet of "Happy Alone" I heard as I came up the stairs brings that in at a close second. We left early however, to get a good place for headliners and last band of the night Friendly Fires (who ive already mentioned in this blog).

Myspace

Friendly Fires for some reason had an extra person on stage who played some drums and some bass, however the singer also played guitar, bass, keyboards, a cowbell, a tambourine and a little bit of drums, while also losing his mic into the crowd and having to borrow the guitarists, which i thought was a rather cool thing for one person to do on his own. they played an awesome set, with all their best songs including "Photobooth", "On Board" and "Paris", and for the final song the singer leaped into the crowd and mingled with the audience. Not as magnificent as Partyshank's set, nor their mosh-fight song in the crowd, yet still one of the highlights of the night nonetheless.

Myspace

All in all it was an awesome day, it lived up to all my expectations and I would love to do it all again.

Optimist Club

Optimist Club, although now sadly split up, were a freaky alternative foursome from Lundawn in little ole Endglandes.
and oh look my clock says 23:33 thats cool

anyway yeah they're really cool, best songs in my opinion are Rotation, and Hitchcock Blonde, with Horses Haunches coming in close.

youlistennow.

TRY BEFORE YOU BUY: Myspace

In other news, going on holiday the day after tomorrow, so there'll be no action here for a couple weeks.

3 days after i get back though, on the 21st of august a miracle will be performed righ t here in little ole Nottingham.

THE BEST GIG OF THE CENTURY!

would be great if you could all come and rave on down all day/night and pay those wonderful people at Under The Radar all your moneys so they can get rich and get really cool bands like The Beegees and DEVO to come play for us, theres a good girl.

oh yeah and its my birthday next wednesday, so it would be great if one of my none-existant readers could drop me my first ever blog comment to celebrate it! *hint hint*