Just a heads up:

And update: I didn't find a co-host, so no radio show today. Which is too bad as it's also the end of term meaning that I won't have another chance to host a radio show.



I'll be hosting another radio show next Tuesday! So tune in to Rare.FM at 12 that day! At least, if I'm able to find a co-host, otherwise it'll be more chaos and random butting pushing than an actual show, but I guess that would have it's appeal as well.

And while I'm in the process of getting people to actually listen to 'my' show: Which song should I put on to make you listen?  
Please bear in mind that it's the reviews show, so tracks should be fairly 'new' or 'relevant' (you can interpret those words in any way convenient to your choice of song) and that I'd like to actually present a show at some point. So as much I'd like to put on 'Station to Station' or half hour long tracks by Lindstrom, I would choose the sound of my own voice over those.

And before you start making suggestions, these tracks will certainly be featured in the show:
Foals - This Orient
The National - Bloodbuzz Ohio
Zola Jesus - Night
And probably some Phoenix as I'll have seen them the night before

*Warning: extremely enthusiastic review*

Remember that bit I wrote about Beach House/Grizzly Bear at the Roundhouse where I commented on the temperatures rising to tropical levels? Well, imagine that same venue, but now replace said bands with Phoenix, that French band who made one of last year's best albums filled with catchy music that would prevent anyone from standing still. Get the idea?

To make sure we reach the appropriate temperatures even before Phoenix come on, Two Door Cinema Club are given the opportunity to promote their recently released album Tourist History. Though their album appears to be released with the idea of, "Hey, people really seemed to like those singles we've put out! Let's copy those songs and call it an album!", they are a lot better live. The way they build up their songs reminds me of Editors' early work. As Editors' guitarist Chris Urbanowicz once explained, they use two different melody lines: the vocals and the guitar. But as opposed to Editors, Two Door Cinema Club are a lot more upbeat and danceable, and, regarding the last few years of Editors, sincere. Nice to see a band that thoroughly enjoy being on stage.

But band of the evening are of course Phoenix. I think I missed the part where they've become massively famous, and attained herds of screaming female fans. People are so excited to see them, that, once the lights go out, pictures are taken en masse of the white curtains that separate the audience and the stage. Once the first notes of 'Lisztomania' are played and the bands silhouettes are projected on to the curtains, visions are blurred by the sudden amount of photo-camera flashes and the cheers are deafening for just a minute. One might think it's a bit pretentious to open with one of your best known singles, surely that's to be left for the end of the set? But with Phoenix that's certainly not the case. From front to back, the set is filled with killer tracks, there's not a dull or lagging moment to be found. Okay, maybe the bit where Thomas Mars dives into the audience during the third song and has to find his way back to the stage which does take some time, but this also neatly leads into a rather sublime version of 'Love Like a Sunset', which is mostly instrumental so Thomas can take his time.

Throughout the entire set, Phoenix seem have the appearance one of those previously defunct rock bands that have gotten back together only to discover how much they actually love performing live and to harvest the cult-status they've build up over the years of their absence. It's just that Phoenix never have been away. Still, they perform like they've just conquered the world, or at least an entire football stadium. The herds of screaming fans are thus easily explained: those are just the people who've seen Phoenix perform live before and it's not long before the minority who were stunned at this unexpected enthusiasm join in.

Now, you'll often see Phoenix described as 'those French indie rockers', and yes, most of their set could be described as rock. But there are also those moments when they sound almost like fellow French men Daft Punk. Take 'Funky Squaredance' with its raving synths for instance, during which Thomas Mars suddenly appears in a cloud of smoke, almost like a God-like creature. And that's not the only song from the first album that makes its appearance on the set list: all four albums are covered tonight. 'Too Young' and 'If I Ever Feel Better' of United are absolute highlights, as are 'Consolation Prizes' of It's Never Been Like That and 'Run Run Run' of Alphabetical. The band balance the more danceable songs perfectly with some slower moments, like in the build up of earlier mentioned 'Love Like a Sunset', during which guitarists Christian Mazzalai and Laurent Brancowitz show us some excellent call and reply riffs, ultimately leading into the song.

After exactly an hour, the stage is cleared, but of course only for a short while. Surprisingly, the crowd's cheers are so loud that I at least can't really distinguish an increase in volume when Phoenix finally do appear on stage again. To start of the encore, Thomas Mars proves himself a real chansonnier, by choosing to for once sing a French song. Even though the entire show has been packed with amazing singles and highlight after highlight, there's still that one song that hasn't been played yet. So once those first chords of '1901' sound through the Roundhouse, a dancing frenzy is inevitable. At the end of that song one would think that it's really over now: Thomas Mars has left the stage and the lights on the stage lower. But there's still that bass line lingering in the background, and the rest of the band's silhouettes are still distinguishable on stage. And then suddenly people start looking over their shoulders, as Thomas Mars has just appeared in the back of the venue and '1901' starts all over again, all whilst Monsieur Mars makes his way to the stage again, only to finally end one of the most memorable gigs of the year. Merci beaucoup, Phoenix, merci beaucoup. 

Capsule reviews #9

Okay, so I had a bit of a slow week with only one gig, but still there’s plenty of other stuff going round to fill this little columny thing of mine with. And yes, I’ve once again failed to write this on Sunday: I blame that on the midnight price increase on cider. But honour where honour’s due: the live bit first.

Sleigh Bells/Visions of Trees/New Yoga @ White Heat/Madame Jojo’s In the few months I’ve spend in London so far, ‘White Heat’ has become one of my favourite features. As a weekly happening set in a former brothel in the heart of Soho, the organisers are able to gather an impressive line-up of soon to become the new indie-darling-of-the-week bands almost every single week. The directions to get there will give you an excellent idea of what to expect from that particular area: from Leicester Square tube station walk towards ‘Priscilla, Queen of the Desert’ and turn left at ‘Jersey Boys’, past ‘G-A-Y’. When you hit the edible underwear store turn right and immediately left again and then it’s just across the street from ‘Snog’ (which surprisingly is a store selling frozen yoghurt).

As I’ve been to this little indie hipster night before, I thought I knew by what time I ought to get there in order to not look like that loner that has no friends or sense of door times but still be able to catch all the bands. Well, not so much. New Yoga just finishes his set the moment I descend the staircase into the dark realms that are Mme Jojo’s. Better luck with Visions of Trees: another English boy/girl duo. And yes, they’ve managed to find a niche that wasn’t yet occupied by a mixed gender duo with their electro/hip hop beat fuelled dream pop, but apart from having a somewhat original idea about what music should sound like, they sound rather bland. Singer Sarah does not have the most amazing voice, but they find ways to work around that. Lowlight is a song that goes by the name ‘Solid Rainboes’ (and I whish I had misspelled that), which is merrier than your average Kate Nash song, and anything that brings Kate Nash to mind should be banned. However, they do manage to close their set with a promising sounding track, of which I’ve unfortunately forgotten the name.

A name that you’re much more unlikely to forget after seeing them live is Sleigh Bells, who are, to put in their own words, a little “up front”. As another boy/girl duo, again with a vaguely original idea, they manage what Visions of Trees cannot so far: be entertaining live. Vocalist Alexis (singer would be stretching it a bit too far) ‘owns’ the stage, as much as you could ever ‘own’ a stage. And yes, for this review I might have to reach a bit more into my urban vocabulary (and we’ll soon discover whether I even master such a thing as opposed to urban dance moves which I certainly do not), as urban is certainly a word I’d use to describe this musical partnership. Another way might be Crystal Castles meets American Apparel, as they combine the screaming lyrics and raging synths of CC with aggressive guitars and thumping hip hop beats straight of the streets of LA (or the American Apparel stores where I’ve based this theory of mine on).

As if the crowd wasn’t into it enough, Alexis decides to spice things up just a little bit more and descends into the pit of dancers at the forefront during ‘A/B Machines’, causing a mixture of excitement and fear with here aggressive appearance. The tracks that are featured in the set vary between killers (aforementioned ‘A/B Machines’, ‘Infinity Guitars’ and set closer ‘Crown on the Ground’) and a lot of fillers. Live they make up for this with sheer stage appearance alone, but how that will work out on an actual album remains to be seen.

Also nice: Benjamin John Power of Fuck Buttons DJ'd in between sets. Without his hat he appears to be virtually unrecognisable. 

Save 6Music Protest @ Broadcasting House I’m not sure whether you’ve heard anything about the plans of the BBC to axe 6Music, but here in London it is a very big issue. Due to possible cuts in the budget of the BBC in the future, the Beeb has decided it has to cut down its services. Those cuts include taking down half of the web content, axing BBC Asia network and, unfortunately, axing Radio 6.

As 6Music is the only radio station that can still claim any credibility when saying it gives new and exciting music a platform to gain listeners, there was quite some opposition to this idea, leading to a fierce Facebook campaign, online petitions and angry e-mails to the BBC Trust telling them to Save 6! All of this accumulated in a protest that was organised to take place at Broadcasting House last Saturday. As a regular 6Music listener (where would I be without my weekly portion of Jarvis Cocker on Sunday afternoon?) I of course couldn’t stay away (and was also secretly hoping that Jarvis himself might be there to support this good cause as well). And I wasn’t alone in that thought, as about 2,000 people turned up to stand in front of the building and stare at several persons shouting undecipherable things into a megaphone for about two hours, in the rain (or as Ilse described it: “God is angry as well”).

Results: so far some extra media coverage in the Guardian, as the BBC is blatantly ignoring all the criticism of its decision to axe its services. How’s that for being objective? The final decision on whether 6Music has a right to live will be taken somewhere in May, so there’ll probably be some more protests coming up.

St John Passion (by Johann Sebastian Bach) @ St Mary Abbots Church Yup: classical music. With two flatmates at the Royal Academy of Music I’m broadening my musical horizon. And of course there’s also the part where I can get in for free to these things now, though I did have to pretend to be part of the orchestra to get actually get in.

I’ll not pretend that I know anything about classical music that grants me the expertise to write anything sensible as a review on this particular piece; I can just say that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Especially the opening bit where the entire choir (yes there was a choir) backed the orchestra up. I was told by my expert flatmate that this was indeed the best bit of the over two hour piece, though the fact that it was sung in English rather than the original German did attenuate the enthusiasm of the crowd a bit. What I found most surprising was more of a personal experience: when I listen to ‘my’ kind of music, I tend to focus more on the instrumentation. I think that might have something to do with the fact that I play guitar and keys a bit myself. But in this setting, the vocals appeared to be the main attraction. Lowlight: sitting on a wooden bench for over two hours doesn’t do wonders for one’s bum. 

Some things to get you through the day:

(I know they worked for me)
I'm here: A Love Story in an Absolute World.
It's a short film by Spike Jonze (if that name means anything to you) and it's brill. But then again, how could a film with robots and Of Montreal not be amazing?
I'm Here/
More of this free stuff please!

Some Scottish comedy. I think it's rather brilliant, and by now can almost understand what they're saying (almost).


The Daily Mail song.


Lastly, something that's sadly only available on the iPlayer (so not outside the UK): Lizzie and Sarah. It's a bit of a dark comedy and again absolutely amazing. I bet you could find it outside the UK as well if you'd try (and it's certainly worth the trouble!)

The art of portion size

As I have been participating in diet related research for the past five months, I’m starting to get a grip on the issues that surround this type of research. The department I’m working at mostly focuses on diet in overweight children and adolescents, and one of the problems that comes up most is portion size. ‘Cause how big is one portion supposed to be? And is an adult portion the same as a portion for an adolescent or child? This is particularly important when you try to send out a questionnaire asking how much people actually eat as one portion of chips can be very different from one person to the next.

One other problem is the size of portion throughout time. There are some indications that portion size has increased over the years: people put more food on their plates than they used to. But how can you actually measure this as no one really weighs the amount of food they put on their plate on a daily basis? Well, some researchers in Ithaca published a paper today with a very creative solution: art. As people have always been rather obsessed with food, there are a lot of paintings with food as its main theme. But of course, you want some control over your study; you don’t just want pictures of any food! Standardisation! Randomisation! Well, luckily there’s this one scene that has been painted over and over again over the last thousand years and it also happens to be documented pretty well: The Last Supper.

By looking at the 52 most famous depictions of The Last Supper, all produced over the last 1,000 years, researchers were able to compare portion sizes of a main meal, bread and plate size (as these all happen to be mentioned in the Bible). Over time, the size of a main meal increased with a staggering 69%, while plates became 66% larger. The size of a loaf of bread increased a modest amount with 23%. Several studies have already proven that, when offered more food, people will eat more, regardless of hunger and satiety. Moreover, the speed with which portions increased accelerated over time.

A subtlety that ought to be mentioned here is that this concerns ‘normal’ meals. It is well known that fast food portion have increased over time: take for instance your average McDonalds burger. Since its introduction, it has increased over 500% in size (in the USA of course, in Europe it’s ‘only’ about 300%). And that’s just burgers. As the whole portion size issue seems to be implicated in the surging obesity epidemic of the last few decades, this study seems of particular interest. Maybe we could compare what James Bond has been having for dinner next?

Capsule reviews #8

Cold Cave/Talons @ the Old Blue Last
Maybe this wasn't the best choice of gig to introduce my flatmate, who plays violin and only listens to classical music and Michael Bubble, to indie music, but believe it or not, it was free and that always works for me. When she spotted the two violins that make up one third of the line up of Talons, I think she even became a bit excited. Until they actually started to play. Instrumental lo-fi post-rock, especially at the volumes reached in the Old Blue Last, is not the kind of genre that should be used to gently make someone acquainted with the subtleties and melodies of indie music. But she made it through the entire set, and even managed to appreciate the skill of the lead guitarist. The two violinist were not that impressive according to my accomplice, and even I have to agree on that.

As Cold Cave are able to sell out Cargo, the Old Blue Last is just a bit too small for them, let alone the part where the entry was free tonight. Combine that with the absence of a working air conditioning system and the temperatures rise to levels where you could easily start a banana farm. Nevertheless, Wesley Eisold insists on appearing in his dark collared coat on stage and persist on wearing it throughout the entire, abruptly ending set. Fortunately for him, he is one of the very, very few men who miraculously look better when they sweat. And Eisold does a lot of that. Yup. Since the last time I saw them, female vocalist Caralee McElroy has been replaced and a live drummer has been added to the line up. The latter of these really adds to the live performance, and Jennifer Calvin fills the void left by Caralee perfectly: if I hadn't seen them before I probably wouldn't even has noticed this inconsistency.

Eisold is not a man of many words, directed to the audience at least. He just walks on stage, starts doing his thing and doesn't even glance at the people trying to catch his attention right in front of him. But for Cold Cave, this works excellently. Most of Love Come Closes, their debut album, is featured on the set list and almost causes a dancing frenzy on the first few rows. The dancing quietly dies down when songs of Cremations are included and the set then suddenly end with a short "Thank you" from Eisold. After some initial confusion (the band have left the stage before the word "Thank you" even had time to sink in), it becomes clear that the performance really has ended. What my classically orientated flatmate thought of it? I don't know, she left after the first two songs as she couldn't take it any more.

Times New Viking/Cold Pumas/Prize Pets @ the Dome
I've been having a real noise/lo-fi music revival lately. If you can call it a revival, as I don't seem to remember having had a distinct 'noise' phase before. So seeing Times New Viking again was something to look forward too (and does anyone else now crave a font by this name too?).

Both support acts complied with the lo-fi/noise/garage band theme, but opposed to most bands in this genre, they were English. And yes, I know they are not the only fish in this endless grey sea of flannel wearing bands-that-don't-care (take Lovvers for example), but still, I am quite intrigued by the use of an English accent in this niche of the musical spectrum. And opposed the two times I've seen Lovvers, no obvious signs of alcohol intoxication! The most distinctive feature of Prize Pets is their guitarist, who appears to suffer from restless leg syndrome. There is not a single moment in the entire set when he is able to stand still for longer than the time it takes to use an effect pedal. It certainly adds some comedy value as he frequently becomes entangled in the wires and has to figure out how to untie himself whilst keeping on playing and moving (which he is surprisingly good at).

Times New Viking, devoid of stage exercise routines, have a large back catalogue to rely on during this gig. Apparently, this is not enough for singer & drummer Adam Elliott who sneaks a full bottle of Jack Daniel's onto stage, only to leave with the bottle over half finished. Hmm, this sounds vaguely familiar, doesn't it? Well, opposed to that other band, Times New Viking are able to deliver an outstanding performance even while under the influence of alcohol. I guess that's the experience you get with years of touring.

Throughout the gig, Elliott becomes increasingly more talkative and energetic, but still manages to flawlessly supply the songs with an appropriately tight beat. Jared Phillips and Beth Murphy, who both seem surprisingly sober next to Elliott, leave their lead man to take the spotlight and provide him with the necessary background vocals and melodies. A simple nod is often enough to create an understanding among the three people on stage. They play their songs back to back, with Elliott screaming "Thank you"s and other encouragements during the very short intermissions. "It's Saturday night! Let's get pissed together!" are the uplifting words he uses to announce the end of the set. Thanks for the more than apt set kind sir, but no thanks, I believe you're already there.

DM Stith/Mechanical Bride @ the Slaughtered Lamb
I've been to the Farringdon/Clerkenwell area a few times now, and I still don't really know what to make of it. It's a very un-London-like area in that you never, no matter what time of day you are there, meet any other people. Unless you count the lorry drivers who are unloading the carcasses of dead pigs.

But no decaying animals today as DM Stith is the reason I'm here, and by now I know some detours to avoid having to look dead in the face. And may I start by saying: well done David Michael, his performance was of such excellence that it prompted me to quietly sneak my pint glass in my bag to keep as a souvenir. In hindsight this might not have been such a good idea as it prevented me from finally buying the album (I couldn't just take out my purse without displaying the stolen goods I had on me).

The support act, Mechanical Bride, is mostly missed by yours truly, due to certain detours undertaken to reach the venue without feeling physically uncomfortable. The moment I enter the venue (comfy couches everywhere and carpets on the floor), there is a silence as if someone just dropped dead. After wondering for just a second whether this is why I didn't ran into a dead pig man this time round, Mechanical Bride start to play their melodic but minimalistic folk and the mystery is solved: the audience is simply completely captivated by this duo.

The fact that DM Stith even made it to the Slaughtered Lamb tonight -- a name even more appropriate if you take a random stroll around the area I might add-- is quite impressive: only 30 hours ago he was at SXSW (and who wasn't?), and only managed to get half an hour of sleep whilst trying to get to London, which can be pretty tedious if you're flying from the USA and forget to take your paperwork with you. As opposed to the last time he performed on this side of the Atlantic, DM Stith is performing solo. But even without the strings and piano, his songs are as amazing as on his album Heavy Ghost. Besides his own work, Stith also decides to do a Mark Linkous cover, which might seem as an odd choice, but somehow it really works in the entire set.

There is also some new work featured in this show, though there are currently no plans of releasing them any time soon. That's what this tour is all about: just trying out some new material. The songs go neatly with his previous work: the same unusual chord progressions combined with his singing that almost sounds as a whisper. Certainly something to look forward to.

Cambridge! Flash mob! Flash mob!

So, I went to Cambridge last Friday with my flatmates, and I must say: this city has restored my belief in England as a country. It's just an hour by train from London, but it's completely different. No people running so fast as if they were trying to go back in time, no six lane streets that are so wide you can't even see the other side and maybe best of all: you can buy both drop and stroopwafels there. Hooray for that.

And as you can see in the picture, the university (Cambridge university, not the other one that is being advertised on the train station, buses and every flat surface area of a certain size) is absolutely amazing. My flatmates took some pictures, so I'll try to post those somewhere next week, when they've uploaded them. The day started out great with sunshine and a temperature which didn't necessitate winter coats any more, so we rented some bikes and biked through Cambridge and some of the surrounding country side (whilst discovering that the lack of exercise in London really has had a negative effect on my ability to ride uphill). Biking on the left side of the road didn't create any problems for me, as opposed to one of my Hungarian flatmates whom we had to keep reminding that right wasn't the right side here.

The reason we went to Cambridge together was because Zsuzsi just finished her exams and was going home for three weeks, to get married to her fiancée. A good reason for celebration I would think. As Zsuzsi is also completely obsessed with anything even mildly related to Jamie Oliver, we decided to go to lunch at his recently opened Italian restaurant: Jamie's Italian (the recipes happened to be a bit more creative than the restaurant's name). The food was absolutely amazing. Only comment: there wasn't an awful lot of choice for vegetarians, and if you're vegan you'd be stuck with truffle chips (which were great by the way) and a side salad. The dessert were, if possible, even more amazing. I had a piece of lemon cheesecake, which was the best cheesecake I ever had: it was soft but filling and the lemon was really distinctive and, lemony. Afterwards, I also finished three plates of leftover tiramisu, as you just can't leave Jamie Oliver desserts to go to waste.

On Saturday, I participated in a flash mob. Ilse was supposed to join me in this organised mayhem, but a slight drizzle of rain (and weekend closures at the tube) got the better of her, so I went by myself. The event was supposed to take place at Trafalgar square, at 1.15pm, somewhere near one of the fountains (there are two ginormous fountains on that particular square). As the square is pretty big, is home to loads of tourists every day and there were serious doubts about the amount of people that were gonna turn up, I wasn't quite sure I'd be able to find the right place in time, especially since there was a guy preaching some bible related stuff in front of the two fountains. Luckily, as I got closer to Mr Bible guy, I suddenly found myself surrounded by indie kids with an above average amount of camcorders in stead of the usual Japanese tourists. The results you can see in the vid below. The thing was started by one guy and his friend re-enacting a scene from spaced, which then resulted in a slow-motion finger gun fight (which was supposed to take about 10 to 15 minutes, but in reality lasted under a minute). Bible guy (in the far left on the vid) didn't even falter, like people start dying in front of him on daily basis. I conveniently 'died' against the fountain, as I the idea of lying on Trafalgar square wasn't that appealing to me. The faces of the people who were standing in the middle of the group but had absolutely no idea what was going on were indescribable and absolutely priceless.

Damn it!

But you've got to admit: I was pretty close! And Sanne Vogel was pretty good.

Happy St Paddy's day!

A catholic Irish holiday dedicated to a protestant Brit.

So what have you been up to this week?

Let me excuse myself beforehand: this is not going to be a very interesting post. No stalking of semi-famous people or other intriguing business this week. The only maybe mildly interesting thing that happened might be the part where I applied for a job at Rough Trade, which is one of the most amazing record stores in existence. Though I do ought to check out some more record stores in stead of hanging round there every Sunday. But they have vinyl, massive amounts of vinyl. And waterproofed copies of albums that haven't even leaked yet! (I heard a few bits of the new LCD Soundsystem today! Yay!).

But I've planned for this to happen: a week in which I wouldn't have anything worth posting here. So I am prepared. In stead: something maybe even less interesting: things I cook in London. Some people seem to have an unhealthy interest in this particular matter (guess who...), so I thought I should take some pictures of some of the things I managed to come up with. In the picture above: scrambled pancakes with cheese and rockets (and no, scrambled pancakes is NOT a good idea). Other, slightly more successful attempts:

Fish finger sandwiches with cheddar, tartar sauce and salad (tastes a lot better than the picture might suggest)

Banana porridge-cinnamon-apple pancakes with lemon curd (again, better than it sounds)

Baked potatoes with cheese and beans, and a side salad

Some piping hot pasta

Risotto with mushrooms and spinach

You might also notice in these pictures how I tend to eat my dinner whilst sat behind my laptop. Not sure whether that's a good habit. Next week, I'm planning a trip to Cambridge with my flatmates, so I might have something more interesting to blog about then. And following the 'success' of my trip to Salisbury, I've planned another trip out of town. And again, I'm aiming for the South West: Bristol this time. But for a much, much better cause: Foals are playing there. At this point you might ask yourself: a band? You're travelling half way across the country to see a band? (I used to do that at least once a week in Holland anyway, but in England it just sounds slightly more impressive). And I must confirm this suspicion. And it's not even that they're not playing in London, or anywhere near London, they're playing both Cambridge and Oxford, a mere stones throw away from London. It just so happens that on their London date, Pavement are playing Brixton Academy, on their Cambridge date, The National are playing London, and on their Oxford date, Cold Cave are playing London. So the only logical consequence of that would be to travel to Bristol on a Saturday to see Foals as it is absolutely vital to see all these bands perform live. 

The week in gigs, or: how to avoid having a social life

March 11

Panda Bear/Kode9/Kurt Vile @ Heaven If there was any gig this week which you had attend if you considered yourself to contain even the slightest spark of indie hipster credibility, this was apparently it. And as I so much enjoy conforming to the opinion of others, I was of course at the forefront of this happening. And though it is a nice idea to go to Heaven to see a gig, there's always the question of whether you'll be able to return to Earth afterwards. Luckily, the local bouncers eventually allowed us to leave premises, though with some reluctance and after being tempted by the toilet lady who points you to your toilet, guards your door for you if it won't lock properly and starts a polite conversation whilst providing you with both water and soap to wash your hands. Interesting at the very least.

Kurt Vile, a man as vile looking as his name implies, was first to take the stage this evening which was filled with lone wolf performers.Apart from his long hair that looked as if it hadn't seen shampoo for some time now, his performance wasn't very memorable. A man and a guitar just need something more than a lack of personal hygiene to stand out from the vast crowd of singer-songwriters. 

In stead of opting for a DJ to play some music mildly related to the main act of the evening, Heaven choose to put Kode9 on, a dubstep/grime DJ of sorts. If someone can point me in the direction in which he or his music is supposedly related to either Kurt Vile or Panda Bear, please, do enlighten me. He might be a perfectly apt performer, but dubstep surely  is a genre that is not appreciated as much as it ought to be when it is planned in between some lo-fi guitar music and an Animal Collective spin off? 

With his fourth album well under way, Panda Bear thought it time to do some one of performances, just to get everyone that extra bit excited for his new album. Noah Lennox, the man behind this moniker, is of course better known for his partaking in last year's highly acclaimed (mostly by Pitchfork that is) Merriweather Post Pavilion, the so far most successful album of his band Animal Collective. As his former album, Person Pitch,  was said to be the most important inspiration for said album, that might have something to do with the attention Noah has been getting lately. Let alone that Person Pitch was of course an excellent album on its own. Live, Panda Bear is a true solo-project: Noah Lennox is the only person present on the stage, unless you count the persons appearing on the screen set up behind the stage. Even more so than Animal Collective, Panda Bear is an electronically orientated music act which necessitates its repetitiveness to be concealed through distracting the audience with the screening of short films seemingly filled with subliminal messages. Except for the part with the sharks, that was not subliminal or subtle in any way, nope. Helped by this film screening, the set turns more into a DJ set than into a real concert: the songs flow into each other in a way which causes one not to know where the first one ends and the second one begins. No room for applause then. Maybe it's just me, but I was expecting more 'songs' in stead of live DJ-ing. Nevertheless, everything sounds very promising for the new record, especially as it does not sound like Animal Collective at all (which is definitely a good thing coming from me).

March 13

Grizzly Bear/Beach House @ The Roundhouse Now there's good poster! Two of my favourite bands on the same evening! And at the Roundhouse, which I've been told has incredible acoustics. Much to look forward to thus. Beach House immediately prove the claim being made about the acoustics: with this being the third time I've seen them while in London, the sound has never been better. Victoria LeGrand's warm and endearing voice manages to fill the room with an atmosphere that makes one totally forget about the tropical temperatures causing some people to faint before the main act is even near the stage. Save one song, they only perform tracks of their latest album, Teen Dream. And though that may be one of my favourite albums of this year, and certainly their best yet, it would have also be nice to hear some more of their older work. If the local climate hadn't made it physically impossible, 'Norway' would have certainly caused me some goose bumps. 

Grizzly Bear had something to live up to, as last time I saw them they were backed by an entire symphonic orchestra. And though it may be unfair to expect a similar performance this time, one just can't help reminiscing about that. To compensate for this loss, Grizzly Bear have upped their game by providing us with an incredible light show and inviting Victoria LeGrand back on stage to make 'Two Weeks' an even more magical moment. I'm very much conflicted at the moment whether I prefer her over a strings section. All the songs you'd expect them to play were of course present in the one and a half hour set: an absolutely incredible version of 'Knife', personal favourite 'Ready, Able', 'Colorado' and the absolute highlight of the show: 'While You Wait for the Others'. The set also contained a splendid version of 'Deep Blue Sea', which was recorded for the Dark Was the Night compilation (and yes, I know it also appeared on the Friend EP, but that was not a proper recording (the song, not the EP), so hold your horses!). As an encore, we were treated to an acoustic version of 'All We Ask', and what more could one ask for? For me, perfection went by the name of Grizzly Bear this week.

PS. is it just me or are my capsule reviews getting more elaborate by the week?

My record of the year so far: Zola Jesus - Stridulum EP

Vorig jaar kwam Zola Jesus, oftwel de toen nog negentien jarige Nika Danilova, met haar debuutalbum The Spoils, waarvan op deze site ook nog een review te vinden is. Een klein half jaar later is ze alweer terug met een vervolg op dat album in de vorm van haar Stridulum EP. Het belangrijkste commentaar op eerdergenoemd album was dat het misschien allemaal iets té lo-fi was, wat ertoe leidde dat de lyrics bijna niet meer te ontwaren waren tussen de wailing synths en drumbeats. Ik kan er alleen maar vanuit gaan dat Nika het daarmee eens, gezien dat precies het punt is waar de band op deze EP het meest op is vooruit gegaan. Het is nog steeds lo-fi, het is nog steeds noise, maar alles in proporties this time round.

De EP opent met het sterkste nummer: ‘Night’. Wat betreft de lyrics, die deze keer dus wel te verstaan zijn, is het niet bepaald een sterk nummer, meer een clichématig. “At the end of the night / we’ll be together again”, zingt Nika. Het hele nummer is opgebouwd rond variaties op deze ene zin. Wat wel sterk is aan het nummer is dat bij iedere herhaling de conviction en tegelijkertijd wanhoop waarmee deze zin wordt uitgesproken groter en sterker wordt. De muzikale begeleiding groeit mee in het despair en dwingt Nika om nog meer uit haar toch al geweldige stem te halen (she used to sing operas, you know?). Herhaling en het proberen jezelf te overtuigen is een terugkerend thema op de thema. Zo ook in het nummer ‘I Can’t Stand (to see you this way)’ waarin Nika vooral zichzelf lijkt te proberen te overtuigen van het feit dat “It’s gonna be alright”.

Haar stem komt waarschijnlijk nog het beste naar voren op ‘Run Me Out’, waarop ze zichzelf op de achtergrond begeleidt met vocalen die niet zouden misstaan in welke opera dan ook (niet dat ik enig verstand heb van opera’s, but they should be glad to have her). Vergeleken met de andere nummers op de EP is ‘Run Me Out’ niet zo out there, alsof Zola Jesus de strijd letterlijk heeft opgegeven. Zelfs zonder naar de lyrics zelf te luisteren komt de boodschap van het nummer over. Dat ze toch nog in het bezit is van strijdlust blijkt uit het volgende en afsluitende nummer ‘Manifest Destiny’, al heeft ze wel wat hulp nodig: “You gotta to help me out”, smeekt ze bijna.

Haar stem en de emoties die ze ermee weet over te brengen zijn de absolute selling points van Zola Jesus, daarmee kan ze concurreren met namen als Victoria LeGrand (she of Beach House) of Cat Power. Op deze Stridulum EP lijkt daarbij opeens alles op zijn plek te vallen: zonder te verliezen aan lo-fi en noise, wat toch zo’n beetje de belangrijkste kenmerken van het album waren, is een manier gevonden om Nika’s stem toch uit te laten komen op een manier waarop ze de kans krijgt te excelleren. Wat jammer nou dat het slechts een zes tracks tellende EP is en het volgende album zeker nog tot volgend jaar op zich zal laten wachten. 

And now for something a bit lighter

Okay, normally I'm not that into the whole choir singing thing, but this is pretty swell, isn't it?

"I have one pedal and it is distortion"

Veel concerten in London hebben een leeftijdsgrens, en maar al te vaak is die 18+, zonder een voor mij in ieder geval duidelijke reden. Een live optreden van Xiu Xiu lijkt daarentegen, met teksten die verhalen over incest, verkrachtingen, eetstoornissen en andere familievriendelijke bezigheden, een gerechtvaardigde leeftijdsgrens te hebben. Niet dat deze thema’s een ieder die deze leeftijd nog niet heeft bereikt boven het hoofd gaan, nee, meer om het risico op het beschadigen van tere zieltjes te beperken tot een minimum. Want dat is nodig wanneer Jamie Stewart op het podium staat. Hij krijgt het voor elkaar dat je hem wilt troosten en gerust stellen, maar daarbij is het wel noodzakelijk een veilige afstand te houden voor het geval de waanzin besmettelijk zou zijn.

Deze avond is een plaatsje in the Luminaire voor hem gereserveerd, naar mijn bescheiden mening één van de beste kleine venues van London. Het ligt redelijk verstopt in de High Street in Kilburn, wat er dan ook toe leidt dat ik er een half uur over doe om van Kilburn Tube Station naar de venue zelf te lopen. Nice. Vooral wanneer je hierbij in beschouwing neemt dat the Luminaire op slechts vijf minuten lopen van Kilburn ligt en ik er toch al minstens drie keer ben geweest. Het voorprogramma, Irma Vep, gaat dan ook geheel aan me voorbij. Maar veel blijk ik daaraan niet gemist te hebben, gezien toch enigszins bedompte stemming die er in de zaal hangt bij binnenkomst. Een sfeer die snel omslaat in een gezonde spanning, gezien de live-reputatie van de band.

Xiu Xiu bracht afgelopen maand nog hun zevende album uit, al is Jamie Stewart de enige vaste waarde in die ‘hun’. Caralee McElroy was goed op weg een tweede vaste waarde te worden, maar liet Jamie Stewart eenzaam en alleen achter om samen met Wesley Eisold Cold Cave te vormen, om ook hem recentelijk eenzaam en alleen achter te laten. Al heeft Eisold inmiddels wel weer iemand gevonden om de leegte die Caralee ‘runaway band member’ McElroy had achtergelaten op te vullen in former Mika Miko frontwoman Jennifer Calvin (if they now break up anytime soon, I’ll be the first to tell him “I told you so”). Ondanks dat Jamie Stewart zich tijdens het schrijven en opnemen van Dear God, I hate myself ook druk bezigde met het sideproject Former Ghosts (samen met Nika Roza van Zola Jesus en Freddy Ruppert van This song is a mess but so am I), en het opnemen van The Smiths covers met Parenthetical Girls, vond hij toch een nieuw band member in Angela Seo.

Ondanks de toch slechts korte samenwerking van de twee, staan ze op het podium alsof ze dit al jaren doen. Nu is dit ook zo in het geval van Jamie Stewart, en het is zeker niet de eerste keer dat hij van muzikale partner wisselt, maar de chemie tussen de twee op het podium is toch iets dat meteen opvalt, zeker bij de rustigere nummers waarmee de set wordt begonnen. Wat daarbij ook opvalt is de abolute stilte in de zaal, iets wat toch zeker uniek is gezien er in iedere venue toch altijd wel een paar mensen te vinden zijn die hun eigen bezighede n belangrijker vinden dan de performance op het podium waarvan je uitgaat dat dat de reden is dat ze überhaupt daar staan en waar ze meestal ook nog eens voor betaald hebben. Maar gelukkig niets daarvan in the Luminaire, misschien door de waarschuwing die op de muur geschilderd staat, maar ik geef liever de eer aan het excellente optreden van Xiu Xiu, die vanaf het moment dat ze achter hun stellages plaatsnemen weten te intrigeren.

Ook al zijn ze maar met z’n tweeën, het podium staat toch vol, en dan vooral met percussie instrumenten. De twee synthesizers waar ze zich ook nog van bedienen nemen niet al te veel ruimte in, al zijn ze wel prominent aanwezig in de muziek. De grootste kracht van Xiu Xiu ligt echter in het doseren van het instrumentgebruik. Meteen bij het eerste nummer wordt dit duidelijk. Jamie Stewart zingt, fragmentarisch, alsof hij een pijnlijke herinnering naar boven probeert te halen, maar er nog niet zeker van is of hij de afloop van de herinnering wil weten. Met enkele subtiele gitaar akkoorden begeleidt hij zichzelf terwijl hij zingt over incest, een onderwerp dat nou bepaald overbelicht wordt in de muziekwereld, of waar dan ook. Het moeilijkste bijdit onderwerp is misschien wel geloofwaardigheid: wie ben jij om als normaal, unaffected, persoon hierover nummers te schrijven? Jamie Stewart heeft daar echter totaal geen last van, hij brengt het met sincerity, en met zoveel emotie alsof je zelf getuige bent van het onrecht dat heeft geschied en je je bijna oncomfortabel gaat voelen dat je daar gewoon bij blijft staan kijken.

Wanneer de synthesizers er dan bijkomen, kun je bijna de opluchting voelen dat de initial awkwardness voorbij is. Meteen gaat de muziek in een hogere versnelling, of hogere distortion in het geval van Xiu Xiu. “I have one pedal and it is distortion,” schreef Angela recentelijk nog op de Xiu Xiu blog. And that’s really all she needs. Vooral op de nummers van het nieuwe album wordt er uitgebreid gebruik gemaakt van dit ene pedal. Met de uitgebreide back catologue is er echter niet erg veel ruimte voor de nieuwe nummers. Singles als ‘Chocolate makes you happy’ en titelsong ‘Dear God, I hate myself’ maken uiteraard acte de presence, maar er wordt genoeg ruimte gelaten voor de eerdere zes albums. Waar bij de nieuwe nummers de nadruk vooral licht op het gebruik van synthesizers en vooral distortion, is het gebrek daaraan en het gebruik van percussie de kracht van veel van de nummers van de oudere nummers. Ook hier valt de samenwerking en vooral het gevoel voor timing tussen de twee weer op. Zonder ook maar enig oogcontact te maken tijdens de nummers voelen Angela en Jamie elkaar schijnbaar perfect aan.

Lack of attention is iets waar Xiu Xiu niet snel last van zal hebben wanneer ze op een podium staan. Is het niet door middel van provocerende of aanstootgevende teksten, dan is het wel door een energieke live-performance of juist door het slechts fragmentarisch gebruiken van instrumenten in combinatie met het fragiele stemgeluid van Jamie Stewart. Dit alles komt het best samen in ‘I luv the valley OH’, een nummer dat inmiddels al een lichte cultstatus heeft weten te vergaren. Met de inmiddels zeven Xiu Xiu albums op de plank is er voldoende variatie in de set, en dat zonder enig verlies van identiteit. Hoeveel bands kunnen dat tegenwoordig nog claimen?

Okay, de video hieronder. Ik heb deze keer echt moeten twijfelen of ik deze wel zou plaatsen. Ik vind het album van Xiu Xiu echt geweldig, en dit is één van de beste nummers, maar de clip is nogal aanstootgevend. De clip bestaat namelijk uit beelden van Angela Seo die haar vingers in haar keel steekt om over te geven. Letterlijk dat. Ik kan de clip niet aanzien, ik moet wegkijken. Maar tegelijkertijd wordt je er ook op een vreemde manier door aangetrokken. Het is bedoeld als een statement over boulimia. Daarom staat Jamie Stewart gewoon naast haar, te dansen, haar te negeren. Het idee voor de clip kwam overigens van Angela Seo zelf.

Xiu Xiu - Dear God, I Hate Myself from Kill Rock Stars on Vimeo.

Some lamentations on my Twitter début

As you may have noticed, I've put up a Twitter app somewhere on the right side of this page this week. Though you might have heard me complain about this particular internet service in the past, I finally caved in this week and opened an account. I'm not completely sure how I feel about this just yet, I'm a bit conflicted.

The reason I got Twitter is that you can make it into your own personalised RSS style news feed. I'm now being kept posted on everything that goes on the indie music world, cycling, speed skating and off course some general news. And I must admit: Twitter is an absolute joy in that way. Today for instance, I heard about Wouter Bos resigning from politics before it even appeared on the NOS website (and then witnessed how both 'Wouter Bos' and 'Job Cohen' made it into the London trending topics). The sports stuff is, if possible, even more fun as you can 'follow' individual athletes. Fränk and Andy Schleck are hilarious in that way. Even though they're on the same team and brothers, their communication seems to solely depend on Twitter, where you can, for instance, follow their discussions on how to brake when your hands are so cold you can't squeeze the actual breaks (I think Dave Zabriskie came up with some doubtfully efficient methods in the end). And then there's Twitter guru's as Stephen Fry and Wendy Roby whose 'tweets' are so delightful they make you want to get up in the morning. Or, in Mr Fry's case, put you onto YouTube jems like the trailer below.

But as with everything, Twitter also has its downsides, which for me are my followers. In a dark, twisted sort of way I find this rather exciting, as I feel it gives me some kind of cult-status. Though that is probably 'cult' in the 'Let's all commit suicide together on Doomsday' meaning of the word rather than the aspired Jarvis Cocker/arty/cultural credibility meaning. But aside from that, in the three days I've so far been on Twitter, I've gathered a following of five people of whom I've got absolutely no idea who they are or why they're following me, which is very reminiscent of some not so very cheerful lyrics by Pulp:

I'm being followed home, / I'm being followed home,
I don't know what for, / I don't know by whom.

In a way, I'm doing the same thing: I'm following 67 people by now, all of whom do not know me. But I have got a reason to follow them, be that because I'm love with the music they create (Zola Jesus for instance), because of their whit and inspiring columns (Wendy Roby) or because its just a news feed (the Guardian). By following me, your just following some random person. I'm completely flabbergasted and utterly confused why someone would even want to follow me as, to my knowledge, I'm still not massively famous in any way.

As opposed to other social networking websites, such as Facebook or Last.FM, you do not request to be allowed to follow someone, you just do. So far, I have discovered that some people just start following you hoping that you'll be prompted to start following them as well, which will eventually lead to a large following and a supposed internet popularity. As following someone who is following you would just lead to going round in circles, without ever progressing to something productive, I do not comply with this concept.

I'm just hoping that the anonymity implied by Twitter will stop anyone from actually knocking me out, as happens in the Pulp song, whether in real life or virtually.

We can't go on like this

As you might have heard, Holland isn't the only country facing general elections this year. Here in the UK we're also preparing for some good old electoral fun. Maybe the best part is that no one actually knows for sure when the elections are going to be. That's one of the perks you get when you're the leading party in the government: you get to call the precise date for the elections. All we know is that they're supposed to somewhere between now and May and that Labour will get to decide on the exact date. The benefit of this is supposed to be that you can call the elections at a moment that your party is at its most popular, how that's supposed to benefit a party that's got Gordon Brown as its most important asset beats me (and a whole lot of other people).

Meanwhile, the other parties haves already started campaigning. Well, other parties, mostly the Tories. But that's what its going to be all about anyway: who's going to lead to government for the next five years: Labour or the Conservatives? And will we keep the least popular PM ever? Gordon Brown recently got voted seventh in a poll among middle-aged women from London when asked who they'd like to see as their PM. First on the list was Barack Obama (now that's surprising), closely followed by Tory candidate and multimillionaire David 'I drink Guinness from a can' Cameron. Maybe some short notes on the leading political parties: Labour (you can compare them to PvdA), are the party of the working class and have Gordon Brown as their PM candidate. Apparently, the rest of them are even worse than Gordon. Gosh. You might want to keep in mind that the former PM, Tony Blair, was also a Labour man, and a lot more popular. The Conservatives, or Tories, (a bit like the VVD) are a party for the upper class, and are led by David Cameron (the airbrushed guy on the poster). As you might notice, this leaves the middle class, and those people are thus the aim of the Tory campaigns (though their latest campaign also focussed a bit on the working class who've lost confidence in Brown). For people who don't want to vote for these two parties, there's also some small other parties, such as the Liberal Democrats (Libdem, I'd compare them to D66), led by Nick Clegg, or the British National Party, or BNP, who could be compared to Geert Wilders (does his party have an actual name btw?).

Anyway, why am I trying to explain all this to you? Well, mostly because the Tory campaign has begun to lead a life of its own. I've never seen poster that were easier to mock. And every time they get out some new ones, everyone just starts to gloat when they see the possibilities these offer. So, on to some of my favourites:

(this would work actually)

(Boris Johnson, mayor of London)

As I'm in England now, I'm not the only one with a Doctor Who obsession

Remember Tatcher?

And that's not even as bad as it sounds: in the UK there's this district system, you don't vote for a national candidate, but for local representatives of the national party, who'll then go on to the parliament to represent their district. Scotland doesn't have any Tory candidates.

You can find more of these (and the original posters) on MyDavidCameron. They've actually got a poster with that tombstone. Yup. Now let's see what Balkenende can come up with.

Despite these posters, the Tories are still leading the polls, though Labour is gaining on them. I guess that's mostly because of some seriously stupid mistakes by the Tories. Like claiming that 58% of teenage girls in London gets pregnant. And then realising you've put the decimals wrong and that it's actually 5.8%. Yup, tiny mistake. They've done similar things with figures on crime, which Labour then uses to attack them on. Only to find that stories have leaked about Gordon Brown bullying his employees at Downing Street 10. Very nice all this. I'll just wait till the next set of Tory posters.

What a week

As of this week, I can say that I'm both officially a DJ and a stalker. What a great combination that is. Actually, come to think of it, it is: in both occasions you get to lurk outside of the view of the persons you're trying to reach, whilst trying to control their minds. What a creep I am. But as all weirdos do (I can proudly say that can now also be included in this group), I also do normal things, like enjoying a chamber music concerto in my living room on Sunday morning. I'll leave it up to you whether that's normal, but at least it's a lot more sophisticated than stalking guys on tube stations.

I might also tell you something about what I'm up to at my placement at UCL, as it's getting nearer and nearer to its due date. This week, I spend most of my time writing an abstract of what I've been doing so far for the head of department: Jane. I've got a meeting with her somewhere next week, and I've been told that my supervisor, Laura, is already terrified at the very thought of this meeting. Not that she thinks that I've not been doing any good work, no, it's more the 'Jane' factor here, and that we're going to have a meeting with her, with just the two of us there. See, usually Laura goes in to meetings with her with the entire Gemini team, but this time, it will be just me and her. And as meetings with Jane can be rather depressing (I've seen people come back from them), she's not looking forward to it too much. And I've been trying to do a write-up of the things will be discussing in this very meeting, how very nice. One of the things I hate most about writing abstracts, or any scientific writing, is the word limit. On this particular occasion I had a word limit of 500 words and had to include all of my results so far, which is only about half of all the analyses I'll end up doing. My first draft already reached the 800 word mark and did not contain all the requested results. Great. I managed to cut it down to 571 words by Friday, with all results included, and I'll just hope for the best I guess. Other than that, I've been mostly entering data, which is also a lot of fun.

But not as much fun as seeing one of your flatmates do some baroque dancing, whilst dressed as a sofa (her own words, though I wholeheartedly agree). This performance took place during lunch break at the Royal Academy of Music, a place I should stay away from as all the guys there are musicians (or should spend all my time there, though that would probably result in me taking my stalking just that bit too far).

Other than that, more gig reviews from last week! Yay!

U.S. Girls/Time/Heatsick @ Cafe Oto Well, as I've already written a full review on that, I'll be short: ignore both Heatsick and Time for the time being, but give U.S. Girls a try if you're into noise and Fever Ray.

Los Campesinos!/Swanton Bombs/Islet @ New Slang Yes, you have seen that same line-up just last week. And I went to see them again, in Kingston this time. Only an hour and a half by train from Central London (but still London), and just under two hours if you'd want to get back on the night bus after the gig's finished at about half 12. I guess I can't complain about missing train rides and getting home late after gigs anymore. So, sixth time I saw LC!, but this time in a venue that was a lot smaller than Koko. Not in size actually, as it was huge, but more in not-being-packed. Apparently, people in Kingston have no taste whatsoever. However, this little fact did lead to a rather familiar situation, with me being surrounded by LC! members during the first support act: Islet, who I really, really like by now. At first, it was rather embarrassing, as I happened to be the only person there who went to stand in front of the stage when Islet started to play (others preferred lurking in the back, which I can relate to, you know). Luckily, I noticed I was soon joined by some other people. When I took a glance to see who was standing next to me, it happened to be Neil and Gareth Campesinos! (yes, the guy I would end up stalking just two days later), which was familiar as this also happened about two years back in the Melkweg. I did tell Gareth to play either Paradiso or the Affaire Festival in Nijmegen next time they're in Holland, so hopefully no more Melkweg gigs after the one next week, which he is, as always, very much looking forward to (as opposed their gig in Paris, as Paris isn't very interesting and French people are rather weird).
As the first time, Islet really managed to leave a good impression. If you get a chance to see them leave: please do. I really ought to try and find some of their music online somewhere... Swanton Bombs were a lot better than last week, as I kind of liked them this time. Maybe that had to do with the shorter set they did this time, or the fact that Neil and Ollie Campesinos! joined me at the front for this performance, but still they were okay.
Los Campesinos! were awesome as always (I can know, sixth time I saw them this time), though the crowd was what you would expect from Kingston, had you ever been there (no need for the Tories to campaign there). Unfortunately, not everyone felt the same way, causing one idiot to throw some beer at the stage, which found its way to my head (yes, I was standing at the front line again as I like the flaming limbs there), Neil's effects pedals (not a good combination) and Neil himself. As I was told yesterday, the guy got thrown out, but still, it wasn't good for the atmosphere. LC! didn't even do an encore, which was a first time for me (apart from the time I saw them at Lowlands festival, but you can't really do an encore on a festival now can you?). On the bright side: they did play 'Ways to Make It Through the Wall' this time, opposed to Koko, so that made it all worthwhile.

Jeremy Jay/Internet Forever @ The Rest Is Noise I guess I have to thank Gareth Campesinos! for this one, as I was under the impression Jeremy Jay was going to be on on Sunday. I was kindly corrected on this, and was urged to get there early as Internet Forever were also supposedly really good. As I by now really trust Gareth's musical recommendations (the man's put me on to Zola Jesus and Former Ghosts, of which the first is releasing an excellent EP next week, and the latter's album ended up in third place on my end of year list of 2009), I felt like I ought to check this band out. And it paid out, as they were by far the best band of the evening. Internet Forever are a three piece from London/Cambridge, who make a kind of poppy, noisy indie-tronica, if you so wish to call it. Johnny Foreigner without the chaos, a sane version of Da[na]^5ykroyd, or, if you want to go there, a more Xiu Xiu-inspired version of Los Campesinos!. And really charming live.
Not some much for Jeremy Jay. The man himself appears to be a control freak, ordering the members of his band around in not too kind a fashion. While this only puts his fellow musicians off, his performance puts the audience off. After only three or four songs, he has managed to empty out the entire venue. Which is rather admirable in a way, as it was packed and it happened to be a pub, which has the obvious attraction of alcohol being within arm´s reach at any time, a fact that surely would lead to people putting up with some bad music. People do have their limits though, as Jeremy Jay has proved this night. I only stayed because I´m Dutch and had to pay to get in (though I did manage to get a £2 discount on the £3 entry price), and I like to get what I paid for.

Oh, and if someone is going to see LC! in Amsterdam next Sunday: say hi to Gareth for me :).

Tube strategies

*Disclaimer: "As sarcasm doesn't translate to writing very well, I must note that everything on this blog, maybe especially this post, should be considered to be written with a sense of sarcasm." "Thank you captain Obvious." "You're welcome, lieutenant Sarcasm.")

As I tend to spend a large amount of time on the tube each week, and as the underground isn't the most exciting place to be (understatement of the century there), I've come up with some strategies to make it more interesting. One of these is following cute guys hoping they'll get on the tube I have to get, and then sitting next to them (yes, just sitting next to them, how very decent of me). Until today, this only worked out once, but I did get to sit next to the new Doctor Who that time (without knowing that he was in fact the new Doctor Who, whilst reading an article in the Evening Standard about the new Doctor Who, and eventually telling him that I hated the new Doctor Who as he could in no way live up to the old Doctor Who. Imagine my surprise when I saw the episode in which he featured as the new Doctor Who).

And I say until today, as my strategy proved rather effective again today. As I was making my way through Victoria station, I spotted a guy that, from behind, looked promising. As a (by now) experienced stalker,  I followed him around the tube station, and he happened to go to the right tube line (yes!). And of course, during the creepily-following-him-around-the-tube-station phase, I got a chance to get a better look at him, and decided to dub him 'The Gareth' as, from behind, he had a kinda of Gareth Campesinos! (that fine looking young men in the picture there) going on. Too bad he was going a bit bald and had an ugly very ugly backpack (there's only so much you can use to judge someone from behind), though a very nice but. Yup.

When we got to the platform ('we' from my point of view), and he turned around, I was shocked to find out that it was actually Gareth Campesinos!. Hoping he didn't see the initial horror on my face at my discovery, I scurried past him and had to take another few glances at him to be absolutely sure. Now, as you might have read on this blog, I've been seeing a lot of Los Campesinos! lately, and I even own a mug that says 'Go Green! Fuck a Vegetarian! signed by this particular guy. Though all of this might suggest otherwise, I am not a groupie. They just happen to be in London a lot lately and I've got a live-music addiction with my 4 gigs a week average. After having gathered enough courage, I went up to him (wow! I went up to a guy!) and we talked for a bit. As always, Gareth was really nice and I think even a bit flirtatious. He may have asked me out for tonight, which didn't really work as I was already going to the gig he was inviting me too. So I guess I'll be seeing him again tonight. Yup (and they're playing Sheperd's Bush Empire in May, should I try and score some free tickets to that tonight?).

I can now say Gareth is really looking forward to playing in Amsterdam next week, though they still have to find something interesting to do that day, as they normally just hang around the bar next to the Melkweg all day when they're there, that he can speak French, and knows Nijmegen. Though only through football, which is enough as most people have never heard of anything outside of Amsterdam in the Netherlands.

So yes, if I hadn't hosted a radio show for the first time this week, this would have definitely topped the list of most exciting things happening to me this week. And could I please ask you to warn me when I'm becoming to creepy? Following men around on tube stations is just for entertainment value, if you'd have to travel by underground, you'd come up with similar schemes (I have prove that other people have!).

U.S. Girls @ Cafe Oto - 1 March (or: spot the musical references)

Other than the name might imply, U.S. Girls is the moniker used by just one American girl, who also goes by the name of Megan Remy. Her sophomore album Go Grey, which came out just last year, managed to attract some positive reviews, enough to get her on a plane to play some shows on this side of the Atlantic. Whilst listening to said album, it’s almost unbelievable to imagine that all that noise is produced by a single person, in stead of an entire army of people banging away at anything that might produce some kind of sound. Not that it’s just chaos: Megan Remy manages to interweave vocals that sound almost like plain pop music at times with pounding drumbeats and haunting keyboard melodies.

But before U.S. girls can enter the stage, there are some support acts who are also eager to show what they’re capable of. First up is Heatsick, a project that, according their website, “is focused on repetition, as a means of creating abstraction, improvising with organic variations of a theme, yet embracing the artificial to facilitate a psychedelic mind shift”. Heatsick does as this maybe somewhat pretentious instruction manual says. Over and over and over and over. Like a monkey with a miniature cymbal. Oh wait, that’s another band. Well, the joy of repetition is obviously in Heatsick, but the resulting music might be just a bit too monotonous to result in any kind of mind shift, whether psychedelic or not.

Time are next up to take the stage. It’s only the duo’s second performance as a twosome ever, but if they hadn’t explicitly mentioned that little fact, no one would have noticed. The duo combine a seemingly limitless array of instruments to create some hazy post-rock that is vaguely reminiscent of the XX who’ve lost their drum machine, but then even darker and just a bit more scary. The variety in instruments is certainly welcome at this point, but this time it might just be a bit too incoherent to really make the set as a whole work. Maybe they just need a bit less post rock, as now the build up seems to take forever, but the songs never take off. 

As opposed to the support acts, U.S. Girls has already found the balance between repetition and variety. Megan Remy manages to fill the room completely with just her drum machine, synthesizers and voice; except for the part where she is shortly thwarted by a power outage on stage. As a true professional though, she just continues her set, like no one even noticed the sudden lack of drum beats and noise. When she uses the voice transformer on some of her songs, she sounds like Karin Dreijer Anderson’s (she of Fever Ray and The Knife) angry little sister: melodic, but brooding and with a certain ghostly demeanour.

Those melodies are more often than not immerged in multiple layers of noise, which suddenly subside to expose something that could almost be described as pop. Surprisingly maybe, pop and noise seem to harmonise pretty well in this instance, leading to an interesting set, and some possible mind shifting here. It might not be as spell binding as the earlier mentioned Fever Ray, but U.S. Girls certainly make for a memorable night of music.

So, who listened?

Just made my radio debut on the Rare.FM reviews show and discovered the hottest (with regard to temperature that is) place on the northern hemisphere at the same time.

So did anyone listen? At some point during the show, we managed to have 4 listeners, which is one more than the show has on average. So yay me! If you missed it: don't worry: I'm definitely doing it again sometime soon as I've discovered a knack for pushing play buttons.