Live Review: The Futureheads, D Bar, 9/12/2008

Spot the band:


And an easier side of stage shot:

I think I can see a head.

First correct answer wins a instant scratchies gift pack.

Blur: are back

I grew up with Blur. They are one of the bands that got me into music, and soundtracked my teenage years and beyond. It's one of my great musical regrets that I've never seen them live.

Great news then, that they're back. So far, just for a big gig in London's Hyde Park, but a headline slot at next year's Glastonbury is all but a certainty.

Surely, though, they'll be many more gigs to come.

Big Day Out organisers: You know what you have to do.

Are we Human or are we Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Blitzen...?

The Killers are obviously fans of the Christmas single having recorded A Great Big Sled in 2006 and Don’t Shoot Me Santa in 2007.

This festive season the band have teamed up with Elton John and Pet Shop Boys’ Neil Tennant for Joesph, Better You Than Me.

The Countdown to Christmas Continues.

LCD Soundstreet: New York I Love You But Your Turning Me Green

Look out for the James Murphy cameo, I bet you never saw that coming?

The Countdown To Christmas starts here....

Everybody loves a dodgy Christmas single, don't they? Eddie Argos from the marvellous Art Brut certainly does. Last year, he and his band teamed up with Black Box Recorder to form The Black Arts They released 'Christmas Number One' which, of course, failed to get anwhere near number one in last year's Christmas chart. Also failing in his attempt to reach number one last Christmas was renowned miserablist and former Arab Strab member Malcolm Middleton, whose brilliantly unfestive We're All Going To Die barely charted at all (despite it being ace).

This year, Eddie Argos has teamed up with Mikey Georgeson (David Devant) to form a glam rock band called Glam Chops. They've recorded a couple of Christmas songs, 'Countdown To Christmas' and 'Baby Jesus Was The First Glam Rocker'. Neither of them are that good, but they're available to download for free, and they might just put you in the Christmas mood.

Art Brut, incidentally, are working on their third album, the follow up to last year's very enjoyable 'It's A Bit Complicated', which is being produced by none other than Frank Black. Amongst the 20 songs being worked on are 'Alcoholics Unanimous', 'Summer Job', 'Art Brut Versus Satan', 'Rebellious' 'Henchman', and 'Moved To LA'. Should be good.

Fabchannel.com is Fab!

Fabchannel.com is a Dutch company that aims to give recognition to artists that are largely unrecognised by the mainstream media. Their main outlet is the Fabchannel website that streams live and on-demand of concerts for free.

Why should you care? Well, Bawley-approved artists such as Wire, MGMT, Midnight Juggernauts, Digitalism, A Place to Bury Strangers, CSS, Of Montreal, The Presets, Spank Rock, Iron and Wine, Xavier Rudd, Patrick Wolf, Bonde Do Role, Elbow, Bloc Party, The Arcade Fire, and Okkervil River all have full sets on the site.

An endless list of indie bands is all well and good, but the real treasure in the fabchannel.com closet is footage from the 2003 to 2005 Dutch air-guitar championship finals. Gems in three years of air-footage are the 2003 battle between The Scarecrow and Funky Jordie for the best air-version of Michael Jackson’s Beat It; Barbie Rock, a semi-hot blonde chick air-riffing on a metalled up version of the Grease Mega Mix in 2004; and the progression of The Devastator from middle-aged man with long hair, black jeans and black t-shirt in 2003, to slightly more middle-aged man with longer hair, black jeans and a sports bra air-rocking out to the Foo Fighters Low in 2005.

Each year’s air-guitar concert is closed by B.O.G. Holland’s best poodle rock tribute band: Van Halen (Jump), Bon Jovi (Livin On A Prayer), Europe (The Final Countdown), Guns n’ Roses (November Rain), ... they have it all.

It is no wonder the Dutch smoke so much.

Live Review: A Place To Bury Strangers, Barfly, 29/11/2008

On an arctic night we walk into the Birmingham Barfly and quickly find that checking our jackets in the cloak room was a mistake. The concrete and metal downstairs bar is only slightly warmer than outside - a cool environment for one of the coolest bands around?

Canadian support act Ten Kens work hard for very little reward, before A Place To Bury Strangers arrive on the stage and kick off with Gimme Acid, the small crowd now pushed up against the front of the stage calmly nodding along to the howling guitar and pounding drums.

Fix The Gash In Your Head is just as menacing live as it is on record and the audience responds with pockets of the crowd jumping and dancing around the room. Between songs, one brave punter cries out for the band to play louder, APTBS answer the request with a swirl of feedback, screech of guitars and Don’t Think Lover turned up to 11.

APTBS are obviously influenced by My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus Mary Chain, and like these bands they are more than just noise merchants. Underneath the wall of sound there are lush pop songs, as evident on I Know I’ll See You which has the crowd singing and dancing along with glee.

By now the room has filled with smoke, guitarist Oliver Ackermann is lying on the ground tearing at his effects pedals and the sound, combined with the constant strobe effect, is oppressive. The noise morphs into Ocean, again the vocals are delivered low in the mix as the guitars scream louder and louder. The song and set ends with the band throwing themselves and their instruments around the stage.

New York's loudest band brought a little bit of noise to the Midlands tonight - my ears hurt but I would love to hear a little more.