Yesterday i went to see Jeff Scott Soto in the Biebob for their 'Live in concert 2009' tour, and i had a great time!
The evening started with the band Mike Stone, who were support, i never heard of these guys before, but they were a good live band, loved their KISS cover (Deuce) & Neil Young cover (Rockin' in the Free World).
Jeff proved yet again he has a great voice, and his show was energetic, he played quite afew songs of the new album Beautifull Mess, and it sounded great live, but what i enjoyed most was the medly he played near the end, with bits of songs from Queen, Adamski and Wild Cherry amongst others, not to mention his cover of Bon Jovi's song You Give Love a Bad Name.
Shuffle are always at the cutting edge of house music. Here we have created a new genre ‘Taliban House’. My boss who sidelines in tech warfare is off to Afghanistan on a sortie in a couple of weeks so I thought I’d prepare him for the trip and give him something to play in the helicopters and humvees. He’s been blown up four times in Iraq and I know Afghanistan is pretty damn dangerous so I thought I’d prepare him properly with a fired up mix. During the first gulf war, Iraqi troops at the front line were tortured with incredibly loud renditions of Bruce Springsteen – Born in the USA. I’m hoping that the Wez G Taliban House will go down a bit better with the enemy and maybe help bring peace to the region. They might lay down their arms and get grooving in the caves. Who knows? It’s worth a try. Look out for a Wez G Shuffle gig at Bagram Army base in the very near future…
To celebrate the return of well formatted lists to the Last.fm journals, I made a list of One Hit Wonders with a little help of my friend Knirrie and Last.fm's tags. Don't bother if you find your favorite artist here, some of mine are as also on this list. "A one-hit wonder is a music industry term to describe an artist generally known for only one hit single." says Wikipedia. One Hit Wonders
The DreamOn Pro VST pack hit the nail on the head…. in an age of digital audio workstations, it only makes sense that some of the “oldschool” musician issues show up.
The VST pack includes 5 critical instrument / effects units worth adding to any Digital Audio Workstation environment.
Kill hours and hours of your free time believing that a single piece of good-looking software is your key to stardom. Then, after months of fiddling, end up with a track that sounds exactly like it was stolen wholesale from swomeone way more talented then you. But from three years ago.
Not only will they help polish your tracks… they’ll a must have for producers looking to get “that sound” they’ve been missing since they’ve moved into the digital relm. And for those who use to play an instrument, and now consider software their thing… it’ll feel like the old days when you had a practice space and band mates.
Not sure if they work in all environments, but check out em out and purchase them direct from the Schmapple Store. - Thanks to Spoo for sending me the link.
Originally posted on Lx7.ca
A Couple of tracks that I thought were worth mentioning that are done by Party Ben. The First is Clash Killers-Somebody Rock Me. I know the track has Clash Killers as the artist, but thats how Party Ben has tagged it, direct from his website. Another one that I like isAdamski vs. Killers - Somebody Kill Me, (yet another one from Party Ben). Both tracks are great, the first is more upbeat and mixed with The Clash and The Killers The second track, much slower and apparently mixing Adamski, and The Killers. I have never heard of Adamski, but I did like the mix quite a bit.
A bit of a catchup for last month here. I started the month at the Connect Festival in Inveraray - set in my favourite part of the world, the West Highlands, I couldn't have asked for a better location. The line-up was pretty stunning as well, with the festival set up by DF Concerts, the folk behind T In The Park, but aimed at a more discerning audience altogether.
Got there on the Friday at 12ish, it took me a while to find my mates, set up camp and build up the will to go into the main site, so I missed a couple of decent acts, but got there in time to catch a bit of Aereogramme's farewell to the world. I've always liked Aereogramme, but for some reason I couldn't get into them on the day; shame. Wandered round to the main stage in time to get bored by Jarvis Cocker - again, I loved Pulp and saw them every time I got the chance, but apart from The Cunts Are Still Running The World, his solo stuff leaves me cold, and monologues about dolphins aren't enough to make up for the gulf in quality. On the other hand, The Aliens just keep getting better, and this set was maybe the best I've seen them play. Faffed for a bit after this at the (excellent) foody bit, and then went back to the main stage for The Jesus and Mary Chain, who I was never a fan of... I'm now thinking this was a mistake, because they were astounding, easily the best act of the day, and to top things off they played my current favourite Pink Floyd song, the Syd Barrett-penned Vegetable Man - a real *moment* for me, it had me doing the saddo thing and phoning my mate Dusty to let him hear it. Headliners for the night were The Beastie Boys, another band I usually see every chance I get, and another act that fell flat for me on the night; they just didn't seem to be in to it, a real waste of time. So, back to the campsite, smoke, drink, airbed.
Saturday looked like being the weekend's fallow point, not so many acts I was desperate to see. It was also Scotland Day, with half the country's bands apparently playing. I started with the decidedly un-Scottish Bat for Lashes, whose ethereal, slightly trpi-hoppy sounds worked a treat. Wandered a bit and managed to miss The Marcia Blaine School for Girls, but got back on track with Rilo Kiley, fronted by the gorgeous, hot pants-wearing Jenny Lewis. They played most of current album under the blacklights, which I've been enjoying lately, o again, a thoroughly appreciated appearance, in whichever meaning you prefer! Sons and Daughters next - a band I really like on record and who I'd managed to miss a bunch of times when they were supporting other bands at gigs I went to. Their set was stuffed with new tunes including upcoming single Gilt Complex, featured an interpolated riff from The Stooges' I Wanna Be Your Dog on personal S&D favourite Johnny Cash, and then played a cover of Adamski's Killer - so that was me happy. The last band I was interested in seeing that day was Mogwai, playing what was basically a Greatest Non-Hits set; I've always found Mogwai work best at festivals, and this was no exception - a phenomenal, stirring set. Primal Scream are a band I'd usually chomp at the bit to see, but they've been disappointing since releasing Riot City Blues, definitely lacking something without My Bloody Valentine's Kevin Shields' wall of fuzz. We couldn't hack more than a couple of tracks, so we wandered over to Club Noir's burlesque show, and then back for more campsite nonsense.
Sunday was the day I'd really been looking forward to, but in the event I missed Patrick Wolf, Seasick Steve and Craig Armstrong, all of whom I've wanted to catch for ages. I followed my mates to see The Kissaway Trail, who played a perfectly pleasant indie set, followed by Newton Faulkner who had just found out his album had landed at No 1, but who did nothing for me. Tilly and the Wall are something else entirely, their 60s-esque girl-group harmonies and tapdancer-driven rhythms brightening my day considerably, with particular highlights being Bad Education and Urgency[track]. We hung about lounging on the grass beside the arena, not watching My Latest Novel, a band I've always felt I should like, but who've never won me over before now; today they sounded cracking, although I was in no position to see what they were doing. After this we trudged through the mud to catch M.I.A., whose lo-fi, boombox rhythms were the first real off-the-wall thrill of the day. After an aborted attempt to catch The Polyphonic Spree we realised there wasn't time to catch both them and Björk in her moved-back-from-headline slot on the main stage. A sad-but-wise choice in the end, because it meant we missed the Spree's glorious cover of Nirvana's [track artist=Nirvana]Lithium:
but did get to see Björk do this:
Bizarrely, the organisers had decided to switch things about and put Björk on before LCD Soundsystem, despite her being the advertised headliner. I'd initially thought it was a good move, allowing LCD to finish off the weekend in party mode after what was bound to be an arty Björk set, but how could they follow that? I love LCD, seen them loads of times, but they were never going to be anything but a comedown after Björk's storming set, especially when she & Mark Bell morphed Hyperballad into Freak. Shame.
So, that was that weekend. Next up for me was The Go! Team at the ABC a couple of weeks later. Ably supported by Japanese girl-group The Suzans and the magnificent Caribou, the crowd were always going to be primed for The Go! Team's party anthem set. There's something about bands with two drummers that always gets me going, and tonight we got two of them, with both Caribou and TGT fitting the bill. For some reason The Go! Team didn't have the same effect on me as last time I saw them - although I suspect this is more to do with the fact the ABC isn't The Barrowlands than anything else. Still, a cracking night, topped off by the fact we bumped into our mate spudd, who was doing his Bohemian Grove night at the CCA across the road from the venue, enabling us to keep drinking a while longer...
A week later I had another pair of gigs to look forward to. First The Twilight Sad at The Barfly, whose advertised support act Frightened Rabbit had pulled out a week or so earlier. Still, we got to see Piano Bar Fight, whose quiet/loud dynamics were already old a few years ago, and Odeon Beat Club, who are old friends of mine that I'd like musically whether I knew them or not. OBC played a few new songs tonight, a couple of which really stood out. The Twilight Sad have been something of an obsession for me this year, with their album Fourteen Autumns And Fifteen Winters being the best thing I've heard in ages, like Astral Weeks as played by My Bloody Valentine. Getting onstage, TTS's singer announced they'd be playing the album in full, and I almost came in my pants there & then; in the event, they skipped a couple of tracks, but they were just jaw-droppingly good all the same. They've got a completely different sound onstage from on record, playing live as a four-piece rock band whereas the album is textured and layered, with slabs of accordion and other unexpected instrumentation. Hugely impressive, go buy their album NOW.
Killing off September's slew of gigs was Von Südenfed at The Arches the following night. If you don't know, Von Südenfed are German techno-meisters Mouse on Mars joined on vocals and belligerence by Mark E. Smith of my all-time favourite band The Fall. Their album Tromatic Reflexxions is a strange and brilliant beast of a thing, and live they boosted the noise a notch or two, backed with projected visuals of cross-dressing dancers among other oddness. The Great MES was predictably unpredictable, clearly not having learned the lyrics to the songs they were playing, and unable to read off his notepad, he disappeared backstage with the mic after a couple of numbers, allowing his vocals to improve considerably! The Mouse on Mars blokes didn't seem overly concerned by Mark's erratic behaviour, concentrating on blasting out their crunching beats and crushing noisebanks regardless. There was a clear difference of opinion in the crowd, with chunks of the (largely old-man-filled) audience booing at the end of the gig while the rest of us whooped and cheered, knowing that we'd seen something special. The best thing to come out of the VS project for me has been getting introduced to The Wonderful and Frightening World of Mouse On Mars, clearly a visionary act in their own right; I've been listening to a few of their albums over the last couple of months, and I'm glad to find myself converted.
So, that was September; hopefully I'll be finally catching Seasick Steve this week, and Operator Please are on at The Barfly next Sunday... October could be another gruelling month.
Adamski
One Hit Wonder tag radio
