Evening/Morning

A really great interview with Johnny Depp and Tim Burton on Alice in Wonderland and their binge drinking...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFBC556kLdQ

I can't wait for the film to come out :)

Rx

Dominos

NME Award were this week:

Godlike Genius Award - Paul Weller
Outstanding Contribution To Music - The Specials
Best British Band - Muse
Best International Band - Paramore
Best Solo Artist - Jamie T
Best New Band - Bombay Bicycle Club
Best Live Band - Arctic Monkeys
Best Album - Kasabian - West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum
Best Track - The Big Pink - "Dominos"
Best Video - Biffy Clyro - "The Captain"
Best Live Event - Blur, Hyde Park
Best Festival - Glastonbury Festival
Best TV Show - The Inbetweeners
Best Film - Inglourious Basterds
Best Dancefloor Filler - La Roux - "In For The Kill (Skream Remix)"
Best DVD - The Mighty Boosh Live - Future Sailors Tour
Hero of the Year - Rage Against The Machine
Villain of the Year - Kanye West
Best Dressed - Lady Gaga
Worst Dressed - Lady Gaga
Worst Album - Jonas Brothers - Lines, Vines and Trying Times
Worst Band - Jonas Brothers
Hottest Man - Matt Bellamy
Hottest Woman - Karen O
Best Website - Muse.mu
Best Album Artwork - Kasabian - West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum
Best Band Blog - Radiohead (Radiohead.com/deadairspace)
Giving It Back Fan Award - Lily Allen for her Twitter ticket treasure hunt
Phillip Hall Radar Award - The Drums

to go over a few...Matt Bellamy as the Hottest Man - undisputed, he's stunning. :)
Speaking of Matt Bellamy, Muse won best band which I think is thoroughly deserved. They have been nominated for so long as best band and have unfairly been dismissed and almost forgotten about behind bands such as the Arctic Monkeys and Oasis. That is not to say those bands don't deserve the award either but they seem to get more recognition for their work and are talked about more etc that Muse have ever been. This award, I feel, marks a change in public attitude and heads towards a more appreciation of this incredible band.

Also really happy about Jamie T getting best solo artist! he works so hard and I have been a big fan of his for so long, that now I finally feel like he's getting some credit for all the work he does. :)

Dominos - Best song of the last 6 months by a country mile.

Future sailors = best dvd! I <3 the Boosh!

Also really chuffed for Bombay Bicycle Club getting best new band. Their album 'I had the blues but shook them loose' is such a winner. There isn't a bad song on that album. Their sound is really fresh and energetic which just gets you going. Its great :) And I saw them at the NME awards tour in Nottingham too and they were fab. I can't wait to see them again. I think they will go far this band.

Godlike Genius went to the wonder that is Paul Weller. I adore this man, both solo and in the bands the Jam and the Style Council (bad hair in those days). Known as the Modfather, Weller has shaped a generation of rebellious youths into our parents today. I don't know anyone who doesn't like this man! A well deserved prize :D

Paramore winning best international band? Obviously a glich, votes made by twilight-obsessed teens. Boo. Should have gone to the Kings.

Overall a pretty good night, I think in the whole, the right awards went to the right people. And also how funny that Lady Gaga got both best and worst dressed. I think that is a perfect metaphor for her split it the public eye.

Until next year...

Rx

Pass Out

I actually cannot get enough of this Tinie Tempah song.
I liked it from the start but its such a grower that I love it now. I also adore the fact it mentions Scunthorpe, a place where I spent many a night under age drinking, my friends shouting at chavs out my car window, bowling and most memorably, where I got my first festival ticket from a mad dash to HMV. :) Big Tune!

<3 to Tinie



Rx

The Cave

So I got my hands on the new Alan Pownall EP this week to review for the Mic...

Alan Pownall is being dubbed as the British Jack Johnson and his EP certainly shows potential for him to be our next star in the singer/songwriter field. The six songs on this EP each have distinct and well crafted melodies which expose the poetic lyrics Alan has penned. His songs are simple and summery with a folksy vibe which makes them sound effortless, ideal for easy listening. Pownall’s songs sounded really familiar to me on the first listen; I was expecting another tedious and forgettable pop album. But on reflection, although he’s not the most original thing out there, his songs are catchy with great little riffs which are sure to do well in the charts and will undoubtedly be part of the soundtrack to this summer.

Check him out at http://www.myspace.com/alanpownall

The Brit Awards were also this week...

Liam. "What a knobhead" Enough said.

And Kasabian winning best British band was the obvious choice. Their performance of Fire was also the best I've seen live (on the telly...)


However JLS winning best breakthrough act? Its hardly a breakthrough. They just don't seem worthy when its been given to them on a plate...I know they work really hard and deserve their brit for best single but they're just not a breakthrough act. I definitely think Florence or Friendly Fires would have been better winners.

Speaking of Florence, I'm so chuffed she got best album for Lungs. I really do love that woman and can't give her enough praise.

She's got the love.



Rx

Never Be Your Woman

Drums Interview article!

I had to cut so much out which was a bit rubbish...but here's the final.

Who The next big thing from NYC
Sounds Like The Smiths but happier
The Mic Recommends Let’s Go Surfing; Best Friend

This being my first interview and all I was really quite nervous about chatting to Jacob and Jonathon from The Drums after their set on the Nottingham leg of the NME tour, so after possibly a bit too much Dutch courage I sat them down for a chat in their toothpaste coloured tour bus...

Rachel: What a great set guys, how did you find it in there?
Jonathon: Yeah it was a lot of fun! You do sort of forget what’s going on though.
Jacob: Sometimes I look around and see someone looking at me and I’m like “Oh yeah right there are people here...”

Rachel: How are you finding the tour so far? And how do you like Nottingham?
Jacob: Glad I haven’t been shot yet. I hear you have to be tough to live here.
Jonathon: It’s been good. Tour has been really great, a just to be on this tour for us is such an honour very exciting, and yeah it’s been very exciting.

Rachel: Yeah I heard you did 3 gigs in one night in Manchester the other day...
Jonathon: That was crazy; it felt right that we should do that. A few of our favourite bands of all time are from that place so to be there and to play, it was amazing. Our first set was pretty proper, our second set was quite sloppy and by the end we were just throwing drums into the crowd, I was singing into two microphones, Jacob was on the floor crying. It was a downwards spiral. But to us the more sloppy the better.

Rachel: Yeah, that sounds like a wicked night. How do you find the British audiences compare to others crowds?
Jacob: Younger. In the US you have to be 21 to get into any show, there are like drunken 14 year olds in there. But yeah they are great. Here, there is such an openness from the people, much more so than the US. This tour has been just wild.

Rachel: Now this year you’ve been voted #4 on the BBC Sound for 2010 list and you have been tipped for greatness by NME, what do you think of the hype surrounding you? And how do you cope with that?
Jacob: It’s flattering, but it doesn't affect any sort of process with us, we just continue to do things the same as we ever had. So it’s nice and it’s flattering but it doesn't change anything
Jonathon: It was never our goal for this to happen. People are always like “oh wow it’s your dreams coming true” but we never actually dreamed this would happen.
Jacob: The dream came true when we started the band, when we wrote our first song. That’s why people can get into the live shows because we are legitimately excited about the music, we really believe in it so I think it comes across well in the shows. That’s what we consider our greatest achievement rather than being this number or that.

Rachel: Why do you think you have been so widely accepted and acknowledged?
Jonathon: I think one reason is that people have been dealing with a lot of music but no songs recently. I feel we are trying to reintroduce the song. We just strip away the experimental intros and the over clever lyrics and simply show how powerful a simple pop song can be. That’s why all our songs are like 3 minutes or less, we try to be very dynamic within the constraints of that time. We put limits on ourselves. There haven’t been any rules for so long and when limits are set on you, you are forced to be creative within them and I think that’s how you can get such a dynamic result within those limits. There’s nothing more powerful than a strong simple lyric with a simple melody and when they come together your heart breaks and it’s like everything’s perfect and that really gets us excited.
Jacob: Adding to much over that just covers it up. A lot of people have the perfect melody with the perfect lyric and they go and ruin it, almost hiding it. It’s that simplicity which is really important to us. A lot of great songs out there are really muddied up by so much junk on them. We think we have a very strong vision and as soon as you get someone else’s opinion in it, it just waters it down so quickly and we wanted to keep our work so potent, not watered down at all.

Rachel: So you were talking about your influences from Manchester, who would you say are the biggest influences on the band?
Jonathon: We love The Smiths and Joy Division, we love Orange Juice all that type of stuff is very influential to us, we grew up listening to that kind of stuff so it’s such an honour to play these places, as an American band to come over and to be kind of embraced.
Jacob: It’s quite edifying, you know, when you grow up being very inspired by something, you wonder what Peter Hook or Debbi Harry would think about your music and for us to meet them and then for them to say that they really likes us, rather than you suck is really great.

Rachel: Wow having icons such as Peter Hook and Debbi Harry in your fan base is such a massive accolade. What’s next on the cards to further your fan-base? Can you tell me a bit more about the LP and future singles?
Jonathon: Like our first song off the album is called ‘Best Friend’. Basically Jacob and I were best friends and wrote it together. We said “lets write about being best friends” as hokey as that sounds. But then we made the song a bit more grim and it’s about Jacob dying and him still being my best friend through death.
Jacob: I think it’s about the idea that we are all really miserable but we don't take ourselves very seriously or take our misery too seriously. All of us are going to die eventually so we thought we’d make light of it.

Catch The Drums this year touring with Florence + The Machine and doing the rounds on the festival circuit, with their album out in June 2010.

Yay.
Much Love Rx

New York City Cops

Actually can't wait for their new album.

"...Nickolai broke the zoom..."

Rx

Superstition

So listening to good old Stevie at the minute. Actually gutted he is headlining Glasto and I'm not going. It will be amazing..

Speaking of amazing...

I went to the NME tour at Rock City for free on Tuesday! and then interviewed The Drums (article to come shortly).

It was so good :) My first ever interview with a band and they were wicked, so, so lovely to me. I did however, get a little drunk before I went in...I blame Joe. But anyway, I felt like I kept staring at them and I could not make coherent sentences before I went in...Nightmare. I think I rescued it though...hopefully they don't think I'm a massive tit.

So the gig itself.

Started off with The Drums. They were very good, especially to say they were out first. Really filled the place with a great atmosphere and the room definitely packed out while they were on stage. Everyone had a bit of a boogie and went mad for 'Let's Go Surfing'. Plus the band all looked like they were having a great time too, dancing around like crazy fools. They had such energy, it was really refreshing :) Expect big things from this band.

The Big Pink came along second. Their opening was great, it was this synthy-electro eruption of noise which just captivated everyone and I don't think anyone was expecting it. It was wicked. They then kicked off with songs off the album, 'A Brief History of Love.' Their performance was great but I didn't hear anything which struck me with such electricity as 'Dominos' had done previously. Maybe it was just me on the night, the cider or whatever but I really wanted to fall in love with this band and I just didn't hear anything which stole my heart. (how poetic...maybe because its valentine's soon...Ha!) Anywho, to end on a good note, 'Dominos' was phenomenal and blew everyone away.

Next came Bombay Bicycle Club. They are just so good. Unfortunately we left half way through to go interview The Drums on their tooth coloured paste tour bus. Of the few songs I heard though, they just put a massive grin on my face.

And finally, last but by no means least, the wonderful Maccabees played. This was the 5th time I've seen them, and I re-fall (is that a word?) in love with them every time. Their sincere honesty and genuine appreciation of their fans is so great to see in this arrogant world we live in. They are gorgeous in every sense! The band were on fire that night, mixing it up with a cover of 'Rip It Up' by Orange Juice as well. Orlando didn't really need to sing most of the time for the overwhelming volume of the crowd which made the atmosphere simply incredible.

I have so much love for The Maccabees :)

Overall, a pretty good night.

Rx

Too Many Holes

So... funniest advert I've seen in a while...

I Felt Stupid

Ahhhh, I'm going to interview The Drums on their Nottingham leg of the NME Tour!!

Gets me some practice for the future! *Excited* :)

Rx