You can request free tickets for you and a friend from http://www.vauxhallmotorsbc.co.uk/tickets

Oh hello there new LCD Soundsystem video! Drunk Girls is the current single, taken from the upcoming album ‘This Is Happening’.

The video is strangely brilliant in a messy sort of way, the band are constantly harassed by a horde of insane inverse panda types. I find it a little terrifying if I’m honest.

LCD Soundsystem will be headlining the NME/Radio 1 stage at Reading festival on the Friday this year (and Leeds on the Sunday). They will also be appearing at Wireless and Bestival and  number of other festivals across Europe this summer. Check out their dates here.

Drunk Girl is available now on iTunes.

Dancing people at Blissfields 2009

What: Blissfields Festival

Where: Bradley Farm, Hampshire

When: 2nd – 4th July

Who: [Unknown Saturday headliner], Ou Est le Swimming Pool, Charlotte Hatherley, Band of Skulls, James Yuill, Beans on Toast, Polly and the Billets Doux

Price: SOLD OUT £55 for a weekend camping ticket [Day tickets remain available, see Blissfields for details]

I will freely admit that Blissfields is probably my favourite festival. I have a warm-hearted affection for it that I’m fairly certain cannot be shaken. Situated on a small farm in the heart of Hampshire, you will be hard pushed to find a friendlier and more intimate festival. It’s tiny, there are only around 1000 people there, a lot of whom are return visitors giving a family feel to the site. Not only are the festival-goers in love with Blissfields but a number of acts return year after year due to the incredible atmosphere.

I’ve heard whisperings that the Saturday night headliner is the return of Mumford & Sons – second on the bill last year to the lovely Laura Marling. Checking out their live dates shows a return from a tour of the USA on July 2nd…conveniently the day before the missing headline slot. Here’s hoping that 2009 was good enough to tempt them back to Bradley! An update on the headliner (Mumford or not!) will be posted here as soon as confirmation from the Bradley Camp arrives…[UPDATE: Doesn't look like it will be Mumford & Sons, they're confirmed to be at Hop Farm in Kent that day...]

For those lucky enough to have grabbed weekend tickets, I shall see you there. The rest of you, if you’re in the South it really is worth a day ticket and it won’t cost you much to give it a go!

ACTS SO FAR CONFIRMED (more to be added, stage and times still to be announced):

Live Acts:
Band of Skulls
Beans on Toast
Birdpen
Charlotte Hatherley
Chris T-T
Dub Pistols
Echaskech
Fenech-Soler
Headstone Down
Imperial Leisure
James Yuill
Kill It Kid
Kingman County
Lanterns on the Lake
Malpas
Mark Johnson
Montage Populaire
Ou Est le Swimming Pool
Polly and the Billets Doux
Randomer (Med School)
Rebel Control
Ryan O’Reilly
Subgiant
Subsource
The Ashbies
The Jessie Rose Trip
Turbowolf

DJ’s
Ally Wolf and Big O (Long Live Rock and Roll)
Benzo
Bloody Awful Poetry DJs
Chess Club DJs
DJ Chix
DJ Samson
Hannah (One Deck Dolls)
Little Chief
Marcus Muktarsingh (Kent Connection)
Matt Clark (Supersonic)
Sean Brosnan (Future Disco)
Sombrero Sound System
The Bandangos DJ (Club NME)

x

If you are at all interested in art or fashion or music, you should head over to Ballad Of… right this second (maybe finish reading this first, then go). They are looking for contributors, so if you’re an artist, a designer, a photographer, a poet or anything else that you think might interest them, contact them. After chatting to Claire and Camille that evening, I can promise you that they’re all very friendly and just want to showcase all the amazing talent that is out there. The theme of the next issue is “eclectic few days off” and details about contributing can be found here.

It is a truly beauitful publication. You can purchase a copy from their website and I believe it also now available from The Tate Modern and RD Franks.

Thank you to the whole Ballad Of team for hosting such a lovely evening!

Look at her up there. With her red hair and glittery bits all over her hands. Gosh, I want to be her.

In case any of you somehow missed her in the Radio 1 Live Lounge at the end of June, here is her cover of Beyonce’s Halo. I promised to post this up a couple of weeks ago for a friend of mine and I keep forgetting. For I am a bad friend.

I was sent this by a friend who considers it to be one of the best covers of the year so far. As I started listening I found it rather underwhelming and was surprised it had come so highly recommended but sure enough by the time she was halfway through the chorus, I felt like my heart would explode. In a good way.

I cut out Jo Whiley talking at the beginning of this as it was in my original copy. She’s a devilwoman and I hate her. That’s probably a little unfair, there’s a good chance that she’s a really nice lady but her voice makes me want to stick sharp objects into my ears to poke at my brain. Irrational and extreme, I know. I do occasionally love the Live Lounge though.

Florence is quite possibly a genius at covers. Beirut’s Postcards From Italy, Cold War Kids’  Hospital Beds, The Source/Candi Staton’s You Got The Love…I’ve really liked them all. In fact, I might as go as far as to say I enjoy them more than her own songs. I might. I don’t like what she did with My Boy Builds Coffins for Lungs and it’s turned me against her the tiniest bit although she somehow makes up for everything with that fabulous hair.

I am so tempted to dye my hair red but I know I’d regret it.

Florence + the Machine – Halo (Beyonce cover)

Anyway during the past week of procrastination I watched the season finale/probable series finale of Scrubs and it was just as sickening as I expected, fantastic. There’s a bit near the end of J.D imagining possibilities for his future with some appropriately mushy song playing when to my horror I realised it was The Book of Love by the Magnetic Fields.

The ukulele has been replaced with a luscious string section and in place of the cynical (and fantastic) Stephen Merritt there is the too-serious tone of Peter Gabriel. Or so I discovered after a quick bit of web research

While I’m a little dismayed to actually be posting a Peter Gabriel track, I find it interesting. First of all, does this mean that somewhere Peter Gabriel is sat to listening to 69 Love Songs? Is he turning out sappy tracks like this after being inspired by Stephen Merritt? Surely not.

It doesn’t quite work; the lyrics are a little too cynical, too tongue-in-cheek, too wonderfully Stephen to ever coincide with the sentimentality provided by the new arrangement and at times it feels jarring. However there are rare moments when it feels like it could be a Peter Gabriel original, those last 2 lines in each verse…they work perfectly.

The book of love is long and boring
No one can lift the damn thing
It’s full of charts and facts and figures
And instructions for dancing
But I, I love it when you read to me
And you, you can read me anything

The book of love has music in it
In fact, that’s where music comes from
Some of it is just transcendental
Some of it is just really dumb, but
I, I love it when you sing to me, and
You, you can sing me anything

The book of love is long and boring
And written very long ago
It’s full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes
And things we’re all too young to know, but
I, I love it when you give me things
And you, you ought to give me wedding rings

MP3 The Magnetic Fields |

MP3 Peter Gabriel |

(I’ve been informed that there’s also a cover of this by Now It’s Overhead but I’m afraid that I don’t have a copy to share with you.)

Snowing in Seattle

I found this in my inbox this morning and it came to my suprise that I actually saw the very end of their set when they were supporting Go:Audio in the UK only a few weeks ago. This is highly exciting, that I’m at a stage where bands I’ve actually seen send me things.

Sherwood are an American fourpiece who cite the Beach Boys as one of their major influences. Beach Boys? More associated with summer really aren’t they? (Yeah yeah, I know, Little Saint Nick, but still…they’re a summer band). It’s all quite cheerful sounding stuff though even if I do find sleigh bell introductions ever so slightly nauseating! Once you get past the sleigh bells, it’s an enjoyable track although if you head over to their website you can hear what I personally think are better efforts from them.

They’re the sort of band you can imagine fitting in well on the soundtrack to American teen dramas such as The OC or One Tree Hill alongside bands like Nada Surf and Jack’s Mannequin, you can hear definite similarities between them. They plan to have a new album out in summer and if you enjoy this track I’d say it’s almost certainly worth hunting down some more of their work.

Happy holidays everybody!

MP3 Sherwood – Snowing in Seattle | Website /  MySpace

This week’s frequently covered track is Pixies’ Where Is My Mind.

With your feet in the air and your head on the ground
Try this trick and spin it, yeah
Your head will collapse
When there’s nothing in it
And you’ll ask yourself

Where is my mind?

Way out in the water
See it swimmin’

I was swimmin’ in the Carribean
Animals were hiding behind the rock
Except the little fish
But they told me, he swears
Tryin’ to talk to me to me to me

Where is my mind?
Way out in the water
See it swimmin’?

With your feet in the air and your head on the ground
Try this trick and spin it, yeah
Your head will collapse
When there’s nothing in it
And you’ll ask yourself

Where is my mind?

Ooooh
With your feet in the air and your head on the ground
Ooooh
Try this trick and spin it, yeah
Ooooh
Ooooh

Top marks this week go to Emmy for realising that she’s not American and pronouncing Caribbean as a Brit should. James Blunt loses the competition for doing exactly the opposite, also, just for being James Blunt. I promise never to post a James Blunt track ever again.

MP3 Pixies |

MP3 Nada Surf | Website / MySpace

MP3 Yoav | Website / MySpace

MP3 Emmy the Great | Website / MySpace

MP3 The String Quartet |

MP3 James Blunt | Website / MySpace

MP3 Placebo [XFM Live] | Website / MySpace

I’m afraid I’m having to use a different file host to usual due to bandwidth issues, sorry for any inconvenience, the blog has obviously been vaguely popular this month. Good to know!

Anyway.

They’re now involved with Winchester Live Festival, a week long event in Winchester, Hampshire this October. Running from the 13th – 19th October it’s yet another chance to catch some of the best talent in Winchester and the surrounding area. It’s also going to involve some other brilliant acts such as Mumford & Sons, Peggy Sue, Art Brut and Emmy the Great. And you thought that festival season was ending…hah.

[All links lead to MySpace pages]

Monday 13th October:

The Vault (Winchester Uni): TBC (16+)

Tuesday 14th October:

The Tower: Emmy The Great, Peggy Sue, The Wellbeing + Phil King. (14+) £7 (advance)

Wednesday 15th October:

The Tower: Imperial Leisure, Django + TBC (14+) £7 (advance)

The Railway: When The Lights Go Out present TBC (16+) £5 (advance)

Thursday 16th October:

The Railway: Blissfields presents TBC (16+) £5 (advance)

Friday 17th October:

The Tower: SixNationState, The Foxes, Shit! Hot Llamas + The L.C.D. (16+) £7 (advance)

Saturday 18th October:

The Vault: Art Brut, Thomas Tantrum, Scarlet Soho, Subliminal Girls, Hijera + Fresh Legs (16+) £10 (advance)

The Tower: Mumford & Sons, Ryan O’Reilly, Jay Jay Pistolet, Derek Meins, Beans on Toast, Thos Henley + Cherbourg (formaly Davie Fiddle) (14+)

The Railway: Mine Host presents Shaped By Fate, Eta Carinae + Incarna(18+) £5 (advance)

Sunday 19th October:

The Tower: Bloody Awful Poetry presents, The Click Click, Rosie Odd & The Odd Squad + TBC (14+) £7 (advance)

The Railway: Die! Die! Die!, Nicotine Smile, Run Walk! + TBC (16+) £5 (advance)

I’ve already bought my ticket for Emmy on the 14th, I’m keeping an eye on the Thursday as I support anything and everything Blissfields-based and I’m torn about what to do on the Saturday, do I go to The Tower or The Vault?

If you happen to live in Hampshire or any of the neighbouring counties I can’t recommend this enough.

You can buy tickets for any of the events here.

MP3 Emmy the Great – Absentee | Website / MySpace

MP3 Peggy Sue and the Pirates – Lipstick | Website / MySpace

(P.S I really do wish I had green shoes)

(P.P.S This event has plunged me into my overdraft before uni term has even begun)

(P.P.P.S Who’s glad that The Tower hasn’t been closed?! Meeeeeee!)