Adrian Bewley - Guilty White Boy

Adrian Bewley's Beat EP (2004) featured a certain Ian D. Matthews on guitar so it's little wonder that it's taken four years to overcome that set-back and release a debut full length cd 'Guilty White Boy'...

I'm probably not the best person to review a cd in the acoustic singer-songwriter genre so I'll keep it short and sweet. The cd is actually very strong and full of good performances both by Adrian and a number of guest musicians, who add just the right amount of texture without overwhelming the acoustic guitars and vocals... There are touches of country, folk, blues and jazz and the best songs have more than a little 10,000 Maniacs about them which is a good thing. Adrian's lyrics are always interesting and he really stretches himself on songs such as 'Montgomery Clift' and 'Times Square 1948'...

Not really my cup of tea but an enjoyable listen nonetheless...

God Put A Smile Upon My Face

Coldplay's Mr Paltrow has announced to the Daily Express that the band will split up at the end of 2009... Unfortunately, I don't think that will happen - although it would still give them time to crank out another couple of appalling albums...

Expect an announcement about comments being taken out of context some time in the next 13 months...

Insight

The legendary Martin Hannett and Tony Wilson at Strawberry Studios mixing some Pauline Murray...

RIP Mitch Mitchell

Drummer Mitch Mitchell, last surviving member of the Jimi Hendrix Experience has died in Portland aged 61.

Brookline and sinker...

Thanks Keith - this tag was too good to leave on the shelf for long...

Brookline (and more recently SLR supergroup) drummer Rob Ray has a starring role in the Staind video 'Believe'. I've seen the extended 10 minute film (thankfully not featuring Staind) and it's brilliant but I'm not sure whether it's officially available yet. So until then...

Kaiser Chiefs at Music Box

I would usually have a field day with a support band called 'Hockey' but I'm not one some giving someone stick for having a shite name... Hockey are another band who play a watered down version of 'Combat Rock' and don't do it very well...

Credit to Kaiser Chiefs for continuing their tour without the stricken Peanut, who was left in Brazil (time for a name change methinks...) recovering from appendicitis. KC coped pretty well as a four-piece (a roadie stood in to play a few keyboards parts here and there) and the stripped down lineup sounded even more like Blur than usual... I hadn't heard any of the new songs except the one that (groan) goes 'what do you want for tea? I want crisps..' but they sound like a cross between 'Sunday Sunday' and 'Eton Rifles' - in other words, the same as every other song they've ever done...

STANLEYLUCASREVOLUTION at eVocal

SLR played an epic and memorable show to celebrate the release of 'Evolutionary Sunset Call' or as it's fast becoming known: 'the orange one'...

The OTAI orchestra played Sean onto the stage with some classical music which I probably should know the name of but oh well... The set started with some solo songs including a rare outing for 'Two ways' which Sean admitted was only the second time he's ever played it - the first time was when he hit the record button. After 'Intro in C' the strings came back for 'Insatiable' after which the full band came on for 'New Stone 40', 'We still love them' - which sounded brilliant with Derek's saxophone stabs and finally 'Brand New Way'. The highlight of the latter was the extended playout with the Brookline guys proving once again what great musicians they are... The keen eared will know the playout of 'Brand New Way' is also the end of 'Downhearted' and so the transition into a taped 'Happy Sun Day' complete with samples from Obama's victory speech proved a poignant and fitting end to a great set...

The full set was:

Consultation Valley Ruse
Believe in yourself
Baby baby come on
Two ways
Is a with dubs
Intro in C
Insatiable
I'm trusted in the C (outro)
New Stone 40
We Still love them
Brand New Way
Happy Sun Day

After a 30 minute break Sean, Vince, Derek and Justin came back on and did three amazing jams - which were almost as good as the official set...

The OTAI strings


SLR vs Drugstore Cowboy


The OTAI band


The post gig jam...

Gentlemen fake polaroids...

Found a nice little MAC utility that turns your pictures into Polaroids, complete with those weird colors you only get from an instamatic...

The Last Shadow Puppets at the Mayan

Much as I was ready to write a scathing review The Last Shadow Puppets were excellent... The live show is a million times better than the CD, which is drowned in a sea of merseybeat reverb. No such problems live, and with the assistance of a 20 piece orchestra the sound was at times thrilling...

Amongst songs from the 'The Age of the Understatement' there were four covers: Leonard Cohen's 'Memories', Bowie's 'In The Heat of The Morning', The Beatles 'I want you (she's so heavy)' and Love's version of Bacharach & David's 'My Little Red book'. Only the latter was a little disappointing - if you're going to bring some Arthur Lee to LA baby you better bring it perfect! And what's with all these bands covering 'I want you (she's so heavy)' - another great version and you can't beat two suited and booted mop-top Northern lads belting out some Lennon & McCartney!

Deconstruction 19

Episode 19 of Deconstruction features:

01 Intro
02 The Happy Hollows - Tambourine
03 ExDetectives - Closing Bell
04 Figurines - Childhood verse
05 STANLEYLUCASREVOLUTION - We still love them
06 Brightblack Morning Light - Everybody daylight
07 Brookline - Mind Tree
08 Boxcutter - Windfall
09 Trentemoller - The forest
10 Zend Avesta - Free jah
11 Glasvegas - Gerladine
12 The Dears - Lights off
13 Cao Fang - In summer
14 Mint Royale - From Rusholme with love

For your ears only!

Newton's third law of blogging...

When Isaac Newton wrote his third law: 'for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction' I doubt he was talking about blogging... Apparently they didn't even have the internet 300 years ago...

Anyways, two days after I mentioned Jefferson Starship in my review of the ExDetectives show at The Derby I got a MySpace friend request from them... Who starts a MySpace page for a band that split up 25 years ago?