Lost in the lot?

Apparently The Dears tour bus has been stolen of the eve of their US tour...

Thieves steal The Dears' tour bus

At this point I feel obliged to come up with something witty or amusing... Anyways, in other news Leona Lewis was head-butted by a horse - it was not reported if the injury was self-inflicted...

Leona Lewis headbutted by horse

My cab will be here in a minute...

Won in translation...

I've never been to Sweden but it sounds wonderful... A selection of headlines from today's The Local - Sweden's News in English include the following:

Thirsty Swede jailed over snot attack

Robot attacked Swedish factory worker; which includes the wonderful quote "I've never heard of a robot attacking somebody like this!"

Sweden tops European rape league - I didn't know there was one...

Fetishism goes pop culture: Sweden’s latest social trend; which contains some wonderful prose like "In a rather bohemian café in Stockholm, a heterosexual fetishist couple walked in, dressed casually in jeans and shirts."

I'm not sure how much of these stories got lost in translation but these articles are all winners when read in a Swedish accent...

Vinyl Solution?

Interesting article in yesterdays LA Times about the 'resurgence' of records shops in LA selling vinyl LP's:

In a digital age, vinyl albums are making a comeback

A more well-balanced article than some I have read about the comeback of the vinyl LP and it remains to be seen if this renewed interest is just a passing fad...

Black Kids at The Glasshouse

Black Kids played a shortish set in support of Mates of State at the Glasshouse in hip and happening Pomona... I don't think the sound was 100% but it was a good show nonetheless... Along with the usual favorites from Partie Traumatic they played a Hefner cover (not the wonderful 'Good Fruit' unfortunately...), an average (at best) new song 'UFO Cool' and broke into New Order's 'Bizarre Love Triangle' during last song 'I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How to Dance with You'... Best song of the night was the Pulp-esque 'Hit the Heartbrakes' but even that seemed to lose momentum in parts...

Depeche Mode at Hollywood Blvd

Got in the VIP section thanks to Amoeba Records. Laura went down there to buy the Sounds of the Universe Deluxe box set when the CD came out on Tuesday...

DM played about 7 songs including 'Wrong' which was taped for the Jimmy Kimmel show - a little surreal to see the band on stage waiting for the go ahead from the TV producers. Anyway, after the stop/start nature of the first couple of songs (during the TV taping) the band played a few oldies like 'Personal Jesus' and 'Enjoy the Silence', plus what I assume were a couple of new songs... I had fun - I wish every Depeche Mode show was 30 minutes...

A la mode...

Live at the Jimmy Kimmel show for Depeche Mode.

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The Deer Tracks...

Deconstruction regulars The Deer Tracks on Manchester's Channel M... The wonderful 'Yes this is my broken shield' starts around 20:40...

RIP J.G. Ballard

The British novelist and short story writer was 78. He was a prominent member of the New Wave in science fiction and was best known for his novels 'Crash' and 'Empire of the sun', which have both been adapted to film. His book titles have been used by bands such as Joy Division (The Atrocity Exhibition) and Klaxons (Myths of the Near Future) as song and album titles respectively...

Coachella Sunday Final...

After the strange but wonderful Mr Heggarty we moved forward to get a good spot for Paul Weller. Quite funny really to see a few hundred aging sunburnt brits wedged at the front and no-one else within 50 yards of the stage... As the sun set a big crowd appeared out of nowhere as Weller took the stage at 7pm.

Weller played a great set including storming versions of 'Eton Rifles' and 'Changing Man' plus a dubbed out version of 'Wild Wood'... As 'Wild Wood' was reaching it's climax I saw a familiar face behind the stage - Johnny Marr!! Marr came on to rapturous applause and played on a spritely version of 'Town called Malice'... The only thing that could have topped that would have been an appearance two days earlier with Moz!

My Bloody Valentine were excellent - the sheer volume slightly easier on the ears in an outdoor venue. Earplugs were still necessary, particularly in the apocalypse section of 'You made me realise' which I forgot to time, but seemed to go on for about 15 minutes. As the apocalypse was raging we started to walk across to the second stage to see a bit of Public Enemy, who perfomed their seminal album 'It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back' in full. It was quite fitting as they started 'Bring the noise' during the MBV onslaught!

Watched some of The Cure but wasn't really into it having seen them recently...

Weller and Marr:

Coachella Sunday 5:40pm

With the temperature touching 100f all bets are off today! Any plans made are likely to change until night falls...

Okkervil River were ok. Alternative-folk but without the lightness and subtlety of a Fleet Foxes. We caught a bit of The Gaslight Anthem who hail from Jersey and their straight up indie rock had a bit of a Springsteen flavor.

Lykke Li was ok I think, the type of quirky indie dance you would expect out of Scandanavia. Watching Anthony and the Johnsons at the moment which is interesting as he's using loops and drum machines to change things up a little...




-- Post From My iPhone

Coachella Saturday 11pm

The band interrupting Fleet Foxes was Thievery Corporation, whom we caught a couple of songs before they finished. They were cool, phat beats with a world music flavor!

MIA had her moments, but as she admitted she should have been in the dance tent rather than playing the main stage... Highlights were 'Paper Planes', 'Boyz' and the New Order and Pixies influenced '$20'...

A bugs life?

Coachella Saturday 8:50pm

Glasvegas cancelled due to illness (James Allen was out in the sun for 5 mins?) so we headed back to the second stage to see Calexico who were very good. Their Morricone style was enhanced by some Mariachi brass, which was put to excellent use on a great cover of Love's 'Alone again or'.

At dusk a light breeze brought some respite to the heat, and the orange skies painted a perfect backdrop for the lucious harmonies of Fleet Foxes, who were excellent. Only when some phat beats started bleeding over from the main stage was their folky spell broken, but their set had already produced one of the highlights of this years festival so far...

Sun it sets? Fleet Foxes:

Coachella Saturday 5:20pm

Bloody hot today - 95f, so hiding out in whatever shade we can find as we don't really have anything on the agenda until Glasvegas at 6pm...

Saw Paolo Nutini on the main stage - pleasant enough early afternoon festival fodder but dangerously close to the Jack Johnson definition of singer-songwriter. Shame it's not a little more cutting edge - he can certainly sing and there are touches of Mike Scott and Joe Cocker in his style...

Next we headed over to the second outdoor stage for Superchunk. Their melodic grunge reminded me of Buffalo Tom with a touch of The Pixies...

I also have a whip in my valise!

Coachella Friday 10:00pm

Franz were ok - I kind of feel they have been playing the same set for the last 4 years. Sure, they bring in some different tunes like 'Ulysses' but the set is still built around soungs like 'Matinee' and 'Take me out' from the first album...

Leonard Cohen was great - the band and backing singers stylishly dressed in grey suits, white shirts and various headwear. The legendary Cohen was on fine form as he cruised through a selection of his best loved songs including 'Who by fire', 'First we take Manhattan' and the seminal 'Hallelujah'... The highlight for me though was the classic 'Bird on a wire'.

Back over to the main stage for Morrissey, who aired the usual smattering of Smiths songs, which tonight included a disappointingly unjangly 'This Charming Man', a reasonable 'Girlfriend in a coma', a spritely 'Ask', a half-hearted 'Some girls are bigger than others' and set closer 'How soon is now'. Moz seemed unhappy with the sound throughout and even disappeared off-stage at one point due to "the smell of burning flesh" - hey, if the wind picks up you are bound to catch the whiff of a burger or two... Highlights were actually the songs from new album 'Years of Refusal'...

Paul McCartney closed the main stage in style. Predictably brilliant and kind of boring having seen him a couple of years ago. I'm sorry - did you want me to stick around and listen to Fire Engine songs?

Franz doing their thing:

Coachella Friday 6:45pm

Had a snack listening to the mellow(?) tunes of Molotov, who are by all accounts the Mexican Rage against the Machine...

The Hold Steady were excellent, creating an electric atmosphere in the Mojave tent. Their indie rock with a southern flavor is a little bit Springsteen and a little early Costello... A great set!

After seeing some of The Ting Tings in the packed dance tent, the size of which seem to overwhelm their indie dance ditties, we headed over to the main stage for Franz Ferdinand...

The Hold Steady rocking the tent:

Coachella Friday 3:50pm

Enjoying the weather so far - haven't sought the refuge of the dance tent yet! Today is 89f and breezy - tomorrow 96f and up to triple digits Sunday... Ouch!

Saw The Courteeners who got better as their set went on. The Mancunians sound a little like Arctic Monkeys and lot like The Libertines. The lyrics are David Gedge lite and one song said something about not being 19 any more... precisely!

Noah and the Whale were good. I was expecting more stuff like the annoying 'Five Years' although even that was harmless enough live, sounding like a tribute to Johnathan Richman's 'Road Runner'. The rest was like an alt-country Lloyd Cole and the Commotions...

Noah and the Whale storm the second stage:

Coachella 2009 updates

Everybody-stalking will be providing live updates from Coachella again this year starting Friday April 17th...

Friendly Fires at The Troubadour

I could tell within 10 seconds I wasn't going to like Friendly Fires. For a start they look like University boys - posh ones who have never missed a meal in their life. Indeed, the most angst they probably ever had was deciding whether to go to Oxford or Cambridge... Actually a little investigation reveals they come from St Albans (Bath without the baths) so they are definately posh. Their image is terrible, sub-Keane at best, and the singers white pants (too short and too tight) should not be seen either before or after labour day...

The music is certainly in keeping with the look - shite! An 80's mashup of The Thompson Twins and A Flock of Seaguls, and their best song (Paris) is a blatant rip-off of U2's 'Out of Control'. There are some misguided attempts at percussion (see A Certain Ratio) which try to provide a Factory hipness but one cowbell does not a Hacienda make... However, naming your band after a Section 25 song deserves a little credit...

Looking forward to seeing them again at Coachella...

Dirty Disco would have been a better name:

DSS at Crown Cafe

Crown Cafe celebrated their grand opening on Los Angeles St by hosting a rooftop art exhibition and music bonanza as part of the monthly downtown LA ArtWalk series...

David played for an hour which was great but the sound wasn't always the best - the industrial layout and high ceilings creating a reverberating wall of sound in which the guitar was often getting lost in the mix... Anyways, it was a fun show and the crowd seemed to be really into it...

Up on the roof:

Draining the Glass...

The Cherry Red Records channel on YouTube has some good stuff including The Glass Records Story!

Cherry Red founder Iain McNay interviews the somewhat dour Dave Barker on the history of Glass Records including some interesting stuff about The Pastels, The Jazz Butcher and Spaceman 3 amongst others...



The charismatic Dave Barker...


One wonders how Glass sold any records but the influence of bands like Spacemen 3 cannot be underestimated...

Wild sunflowers

Wild sunflowers at Eaton Canyon

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DSS at Universal Bar...

Universal bar slash grill is a less than salubrious bar slash grill in beautiful burbank. DSS played some new stuff which sounded pretty good along with some older stuff like 'Sorry', 'Liquor Store' and 'City of the future'. I particularly enjoyed the last song (Party of Six) which could well be David's 'Alice's Restaurant'... or perhaps at the very least his 'Alice's bar slash grill.'

The Rakes at The Troubadour

The Rakes were pretty good. Their sound is a distant relative of Franz Ferdinand or The Futureheads, in other words angular post-punk with a well used copy of Pink Flag not too far away... There are also shades of The Undertones, not only in the music but the leather jackets, turned up jeans, boots and floppily fringed front-man. Actually the singer is quite the funny man between songs but I guess a sense of humour is a good thing when you have a haircut straight out of Chariots of Fire! He is right though - Lady Gaga does dress like a prostitute...