Monthly Archive for February, 2007

Summer Ended Before It Began

Published on 21 February 2007 in . 0 Comments

Thankfully I read this week’s issue of Time Out immediately upon buying it. Had I not, I would have missed out on learning that All Tomorrow’s Parties is bringing Sonic Youth to The Roundhouse on 31 August 2007 to perform their classic 1988 album “Daydream Nation” in its entirety. It’s been one of favourite albums for as long as I can remember, so after reading the news that tickets were on sale, I was online buying one just as soon as I could confirm that I would have enough cash left over to avoid starvation over the weekend. It’s a good thing I acted fast, too: tickets have already sold out everywhere except for via the venue itself. If you haven’t already bought yours, try checking out www.roundhouse.org.uk and if they don’t have any, your only hope is your friendly neighbourhood tout.

ATP also has two more gigs in their Don’t Look Back series scheduled for later this year. On 22 August, Slint will be performing “Spiderland” while the 13th of September sees House of Love revisiting their first record for Creation. Both gigs will be at Koko and at the time of writing still have tickets available for purchase.

The night before learning about this ATP series, I was having one of my occasional looks around MySpace and learned of Throbbing Gristle’s 2007 schedule. I had no idea there were any TG live plans for 2007, so it came as a nice surprise. In 2004 I had the good fortune of seeing them live at the London Astoria. This time around I’ll hopefully be able to see both their 27 May tribute to Derek Jarman at the Tate Modern as well as one of their six planned recording sessions at the ICA between the 1st and 3rd of June. Full details are available at www.throbbing-gristle.com.

—–

UPDATE 22/2/07: Breaking news! Second Sonic Youth “Daydream Nation” gig added for 1 September 2007. Go get tickets now!

UPDATE 14/5/07: Third show added for 30 August 2007, which as of today still has tickets available for purchase. The other two shows are sold out.

One From Spain, Two From Japan, 20+ From Sweden

Published on 9 February 2007 in . 0 Comments

In retrospect, it’s easy to see the underlying Swedish themes appearing in past decade of my life. Shortly after university I had an imaginary electronic pop duo named Farmor and Farfar. To our credit, we aspired to move beyond the theoretical realm, but at the time I suppose I did as well. Then from 1998 – 2006 I lived in Chicago’s Swedish neighbourhood, Andersonville (w t f d). Living in Andersonville as a young indie rocker naturally meant that I drank at the indie-rocker-living-north-of-Addison’s pub of choice, Simon’s. Simon’s has a brilliant neon sign that only lights up for a few months each year. During those cold months, it proclaims “It’s Glögg Time!” and, once lit, anyone within a 5 mile radius feels compelled to enter and consume copious quantities of this Scandinavian mulled wine (w t f d).

Until recently I had been mostly unaware of the massive quantities of excellent pop music this country was producing. Lucky for me, my friend Martin insisted that I get the I’m From Barcelona album “Let Me Introduce My Friends”, which has quickly become a favourite of mine. Infectiously catchy, but with enough attitude thrown in to prevent sugar shock, it’s a new staple of my weekly musical diet. Once I’d fallen in love with this record, there was no turning back and I told Martin to let me know if they ever came back to England.

Happily, they returned to play a gig on 24 February at the University of London Union. Well, most of them. Apparently they have about 29 members in the band, but I only counted about 20 that night. Still, that’s impressive considering that almost constitutes chartering their own private plane for the occasion.

Focusing on their sheer numbers as novelty, however, misses what makes seeing I’m From Barcelona so special. It’s not just a quirky gimmick, it’s a necessary number: at all times it appeared as if there were a party happening on-stage. It mirrored the party happening off-stage, of course, in the crowd. In the end both threads wove together, as the band invited people up on stage and some of the band members wandered off into the audience. You could theorise all you wanted to about the line between the performer and the audience at that point, but it simply wasn’t there anymore. And it was great.


A few days ago Ryan Air announced a sale too good to pass up which will take Rin and I to Stockholm for the early May bank holiday. It feels like Sweden is bursting at the seams with quality indie pop at the moment, so if anyone has any recommendations of record shops, clubs or bands playing Stockholm gigs 4 May through 7 May 2007, do please leave a comment!

Breaking news! I just received an email from Martin telling me that I’m From Barcelona is returning to London again, this time just a few steps from my flat at Koko on Tuesday 27 March. See you there!

- photo courtesy of Paul Wilcock (best of luck with your move to Australia, sir!)

Fade to Grey

Published on 6 February 2007 in . 1 Comment

Rin just discovered my first grey hair. I would like to take this opportunity to publicly thank all the assholes that gave it to me.

Switch to our mobile site