Saturday, November 19, 2005
Famous for 15 megapixels
I'd like to alert readers of my blog to this considerably better blog about life in London and that sort of thing. He seems to make a good go of articulating his observations about London life, drawing different things together, and he's a decent photographer to-boot.
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Reviews
I am overjoyed by the fact that the first review of my band's new CD (at Collective Zine) is a good one, by a source that I trust.
This has really made my day
This has really made my day
Monday, November 14, 2005
I love my band!
Continuing the theme of posting last week's events, I thought I'd tell you about one of my highlights which was playing at a mental health arts event for Mad for Arts. We were on a bill of predominantly jazz-related music and spoken-word recitations; I knew before we did it that we'd be the only rock band, and yet again we'd be on a line-up that wouldn't be of bands with a natural fit with the music we play, but it almost felt as if the more mis-fit, the better.
There was a very cool sampling duo with broadly jazz instrumentation called 'Rabbit' who were mesmerising to watch and listen to, particularly in combination with their freaky projected visuals. Delay pedals combined with saxophone occurred in one of the other bands as well, which I enjoyed listening to, in the same way that I'd enjoy listening to the wierder sections of The Mars Volta.
What really made the night for me (apart from the newky brown ale, obviously) was that when we went on-stage, it felt like we were hungry again, with the kind of aggression that we'd had when were a brand new band, only with much much better songs to back it up. Guitars were thrashing about, I was narrowly avoiding smacking my face into various solid objects, and there was a sense of barely-orchestrated yet fun chaos about the room, from my point of view. People were either retreating into the recesses of the crypt to get away from the completely un-jazz noise we were banging out (did I mention, it was a gig in a crypt!), or otherwise coming forward with renewed enthusiasm (we're definitely a Marmite band). This is why I'm in a band. I want to let loose, and getting some sort of reaction from the onlookers is a significant bonus. We're playing in Oxford this week, with my Uni mate (and ex-band-mate) Jake's band. I'm really looking forward to it, and I just hope we play as well as we did last week!
There was a very cool sampling duo with broadly jazz instrumentation called 'Rabbit' who were mesmerising to watch and listen to, particularly in combination with their freaky projected visuals. Delay pedals combined with saxophone occurred in one of the other bands as well, which I enjoyed listening to, in the same way that I'd enjoy listening to the wierder sections of The Mars Volta.
What really made the night for me (apart from the newky brown ale, obviously) was that when we went on-stage, it felt like we were hungry again, with the kind of aggression that we'd had when were a brand new band, only with much much better songs to back it up. Guitars were thrashing about, I was narrowly avoiding smacking my face into various solid objects, and there was a sense of barely-orchestrated yet fun chaos about the room, from my point of view. People were either retreating into the recesses of the crypt to get away from the completely un-jazz noise we were banging out (did I mention, it was a gig in a crypt!), or otherwise coming forward with renewed enthusiasm (we're definitely a Marmite band). This is why I'm in a band. I want to let loose, and getting some sort of reaction from the onlookers is a significant bonus. We're playing in Oxford this week, with my Uni mate (and ex-band-mate) Jake's band. I'm really looking forward to it, and I just hope we play as well as we did last week!
Monday, November 07, 2005
My view of the world
Today, this was literally my view of the world. The wonderwoman mug I was given for my birthday by my colleagues, a huge pile of red plastic folders of work to go through. Aaaargh.
Keen observers will notice I have the This Ain't Vegas website loaded on the computer screen.
Okay, so what have I been up to recently? Well, tonight I went to see a rather excellent film called 'Totally Personal', by Nedzad Begovic, a Bosnian director, at the Blue Elephant Theatre. It was very touching and genuinely portrayed family life without being corny, and alluded to the conflicts of the balkans only very gently. This past weekend I went to visit Naomi in Hampshire, to recover a bit from the wierd stomach problems I've been having recently, and to catch up on some 'personal admin' as my wish-they-weren't-City lawyer friends would call it. I think I'm going to keep dealing with things in reverse order. Well, we went to see the new Wallace and Gromit film last night, which was very very funny, and had me laughing out loud many times (to Naomi's slight embarassment). I'd highly recommend it. During the daytimes, Naomi had law college classes to attend, so I sat in their computer room to get on with various things, like trying to find good value flights to Florida around the New Year for Andrew's wedding. Back on Saturday night, we went to the Alresford town fireworks display, which was actually really good. And on Friday evening we just watched some TV and generally rested.
During last week I discovered the most wonderful band, at a gig at the Betsey Trotwood. Called Itch, they were a Leeds-based bunch who reminded me of Braid, Mineral, Youthmovie Soundtrack Strategies and Owls, i.e. a collection of superb influences. Please give them a listen.
Keen observers will notice I have the This Ain't Vegas website loaded on the computer screen.
Okay, so what have I been up to recently? Well, tonight I went to see a rather excellent film called 'Totally Personal', by Nedzad Begovic, a Bosnian director, at the Blue Elephant Theatre. It was very touching and genuinely portrayed family life without being corny, and alluded to the conflicts of the balkans only very gently. This past weekend I went to visit Naomi in Hampshire, to recover a bit from the wierd stomach problems I've been having recently, and to catch up on some 'personal admin' as my wish-they-weren't-City lawyer friends would call it. I think I'm going to keep dealing with things in reverse order. Well, we went to see the new Wallace and Gromit film last night, which was very very funny, and had me laughing out loud many times (to Naomi's slight embarassment). I'd highly recommend it. During the daytimes, Naomi had law college classes to attend, so I sat in their computer room to get on with various things, like trying to find good value flights to Florida around the New Year for Andrew's wedding. Back on Saturday night, we went to the Alresford town fireworks display, which was actually really good. And on Friday evening we just watched some TV and generally rested.
During last week I discovered the most wonderful band, at a gig at the Betsey Trotwood. Called Itch, they were a Leeds-based bunch who reminded me of Braid, Mineral, Youthmovie Soundtrack Strategies and Owls, i.e. a collection of superb influences. Please give them a listen.
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