Stereophonics at Music Box

I might have enjoyed Stereophonics more if it hadn't been 200 degrees inside the Henry Fonda theater... I might have, but after the first 30 minute barrage of sub-Oasis wall of sound I was begging for some light refreshment, albeit coming from the lyrically impoverished 'Have a nice day'. I preferred Stereophonics as a three piece - the additional guitarist just turned everything into a metallic swirl and how fitting when Kelly Jones dropped a few lines from Motorhead's 'Ace of Spades' into the opening 'Bartender and the thief.'

The second half of the show was better although heat exhaustion drove me to the rooftop bar to watch part of it, although even that was interrupted by a guy who was telling me how great Chris Cornell is! You can stick that opinion up your black hole son!

RIP Rick Wright

Pink Floyd keyboard wizard Richard aka Rick Wright has died age 65 after a short battle with cancer. Presumably off to play the great gig in the sky with Syd...

The Pigeon Detectives at Spaceland

First band were a very poor Magic Numbers imitation called Free Lions... Free is supposed to be a magic number but there was precious little magic in evidence, except for wanting them to disappear. Marks out of ten? Is zero a number? Lemon Sun however were excellent - the swampy rock and roll of Head combined with the pop sensibilities of the New Radicals. My only criticism was the southern rock/70's porn star image portrayed by three of the band - they should take a leaf out of the rockabilly image of the Boz Boorer look-a-like guitarist...

The Pigeon Detectives were very good... Obviously a close musical relative of fellow Yorkshiremen Arctic Monkeys but whatever they lack in clever lyrics (they are more Wedding Present than Arctic Monkeys in this department...) they make up for in energy, with vocalist Matt Bowman running around like the energizer bunny and swinging the microphone like a crazed Roger Daltry. Didn't he have a dodgy perm at one point too?

Rockin to a new beat?

The Guardian, a well respected UK newspaper, recently published an article on the LA music scene: LA rocks to a new beat!

Both Babcock and Spunt have some valid points but I tend to be more sympathetic with the former's opinion... Hype alone does not a scene make... If I want to be part of a shit scene I will grow a 70's porn-star moustache and join the folky southern rocksters of the alleged Highland Park scene...

Young@Heart

If you haven't seen this documentary yet I highly recommend it...

RIP Hector Zazou

French composer Hector Zazou died yesterday, aged 60.

Zazou fused classical and electronica and collaborated with the likes of John Cale, Ryuichi Sakamoto, David Sylvian, Bjork and Siouxsie Sioux on his albums Sahara Blue and Chansons des mers froides (Songs from the Cold Seas)...

Santogold at KOKO...

Santogold live didn't really work for me... Their set started with a 20 minute DJ mash-up which included a couple of tracks by The Cure and some Smiths and Police... This was presumably to remind all the kids that Santogold are 'oh so heavily' influenced by 80's new wave. The backing band continued the 80's theme, looking like Blondie (including a Debbie Harry look-a-like on bass) and all dressed in matching trousers, shirts and bow ties... The front of the stage, however, had Santi White and her two backing singers wearing enough gold lamé to cloth a couple of Martin Fry's. And so, here was Santogold wearing their true colors, a hip-hop gold rather than any ska or new wave black and white. The music reflected this and even the more indie tinged songs on the album sounded like also-ran hip-hop with the choreographed moves by the backing singers, and the parts where Santi and the girls shake their booty just so...

I'll stick to the Santogold mix-tapes...