Manics Update

So that godlike Nicky Wire has been talking about the next Manic Street Preachers album. Apparently both him and James Dean Bradfield want to take a new road and the album will be, ahem, "riff-tastic". You got that from him, not me. So literally speaking the album will be like a more heavy-rock version of "The Holy Bible" which should be pretty interesting. After all, "Send Away the Tigers" was a great album but lets face it, was it really them? They've kind of mellowed out in a strange way (okay, there's still the rather bleak lyrics but musically it's not as intense as any of their early work or even their previous album "Lifeblood").

Can't wait to hear this one.

Elbow Review

If any of this is a bit repeated, sorry. I realise that I've already mentioned the 4 consecutive 9/10s. Anyway this was for Newcastle Academy on Saturday:

With the recent release of their fourth album, ‘The Seldom Seen Kid’, Mancunian rockers Elbow have become the only British band to ever achieve consecutive 9/10 ratings in the NME. With this accolade, the pressure was on to impress a large and devoted crowd that they really are the best indie band in Britain.
Their setlist was made up mostly of songs from their recent release, but they found plenty of time to include old classics as well. They played tracks such as Newborn, Mirrorball, The Bones of You and current single Grounds for Divorce.
Frontman Guy Garvey took the time in-between songs to ask the audience if they were alright and tell anecdotes. He even stoked the crowd’s fires by telling them that Glasgow had sung better the previous night, inciting the audience to erupt into a chorus in order to outdo them.
When Garvey introduced The Fix, everyone was astonished to find that Richard Hawley was joining them onstage to sing and play along. On the day of the Grand National, The Fix was an ironic inclusion since Garvey and Hawley sing about trying to fix a horserace. It seemed like everyone laughed when Garvey pointed this out.
At the end of the night, Hawley once again joined the band to play along with Grace Under Pressure where the audience sang louder than they had the whole night, giving the band a standing ovation at the end.
If Elbow were trying to prove that they are the best at what they do, then surely they verified it tonight.

Festival Season Is Near... Part 2

Hmm, maybe it's just me but Reading/Leeds seems to be going back to its old heavy rock roots after turning into more of a Glastonbury spin-off in the last couple of years.

Personally, I would be happy to see none of the main headliners here this year. The Killers are now barely tolerable (despite me having their albums on my rack), Metallica really isn't my scene and despite Muse being very into Rage Against the Machine, that's not enough to persuade me that they're any good (in my opinion only, please feel free to contradict me).

So, I know a few people who are going to Leeds this year and one of them said "I've got serious problems - The Cribs and Metallica are on at the same time and I don't know what to do!" Er, try not going to either. Backing up on the main stage are the likes of The Fratellis, The Enemy, Queens of the Stone Age, Biffy Clyro and Taking Back Sunday. Yes, it has truly back-pedalled. Add to this two more days of bands such as The Subways, Dirty Pretty Things, Slipknot, Tenacious D (seriously!) and Dropkick Murphys and we have a really weird and almost unbearable time on the main stage.

If I was going, I'd be heading over to the NME/Radio 1 stage where there are actually some decent bands on. There we have MGMT, Vampire Weekend, The Wombats, Justice, Foals and the wonderful Manic Street Preachers. But honestly, how did the Manics not get a place on the top of the main stage bill? That's really bugging me.

Ahh, looks like this is one festival that's really regaining its reputation for being hard-rock central...

Festival Season Is Near... Part 1

So glad I'm not going to Glastonbury this year. Point one: it's probably going to be another total washout (okay, you're saying what the point of going to a festival is without getting a bit mucky? I say that I can't live with tons of mud). Point two: the bands are, admittedly a bit average.

Well, you want great bands at Glasto because it's the most well known British festival there is (maybe Reading/Leeds is catching it up though). Blaming the low registration numbers on the weather is ridiculous - it never stopped people before. So now we have two problems. One is that the legendary Lost Vagueness has been scrapped this year, despite immense protest and the other is because the bands are no good. Who wants to see Jay-Z in the pouring rain? No offense, but who would want to see Jay-Z at all? It's only going to mean that there's a lot more trouble, the atmosphere of the whole place will change and there's only going to be loads of young people who know nothing of truly good music. If I was going, I'd hide in my tent on that night.

Well, I can't slag everyone off really. I guess they do have Massive Attack (come on! Blast that hiphop pretender away with some immense Trip-Hop!), Neon Neon (my fave new band), British Sea Power (but hope they're in a tent - that distortion will ruin them outdoors), Editors (again, they did it last year) and Hot Chip (in a tent, the best place for them!) so far...

But then there's all these little mediocre bands like The Enemy, Dirty Pretty Things, Kate Nash, The Subways and... wait for it.... Will Young. Oh my God, this year could end up being the worst Glasto I've ever seen. If they only show limited highlights of some of the "best" action, I'm doomed! Red button action is definitely needed this year!

The Power of the Gods

Hercules and Love Affair came through the post yesterday and it's simply amazing. Like thirty years of dance music mashed together into ten wonderful tracks that have heart, soul and a great groove! As I said when I half-reviewed Blind, I'm not the biggest Anthony Hegarty fan but this project gives him more dynamism and brings out the diva inside of him. Other contributions come from R&B singer Nomi. My favourite tracks on the album are Blind (uh, not going to explain again - see the original post somewhere below), Time Will (slow out of the starting blocks, but it picks up the pace and builds up immensely over the space of a few minutes) and Athene (Kim Ann gives a great vocal performance here I think - almost emotionally detached but bewitching as well. She goes through a great range over the verses and it's all to the tune of an amazing beat). I won't be able to stop listening to this for a while to come. Oh, well until Siouxsie and the Banshees arrives (Tinderbox - has my favourite Siouxsie song on it).

Neon Lights Up My Day

Neon Neon - partly made up of Super Furry Animal Gruff Rhys. Now, I Lust You is really a typical song for him, because it's sort of happy and light-hearted with lots of little electronic blips and blops here and there and has just the right level of weirdness for it to be fairly commercial but also a bit indie and out there. I love it. I really love it. Especially the bit where all these drums and beats come in towards the end and everything just gets that little bit more intense. It's a lovely little bit of electro-pop that sends you into a blissful state... like it's just done to me right now.... Ahhh.....

A Little Bit of Trivia...

For your entertaining pleasure, it may or may not interest you to learn that Elbow are now the only band to ever get four successive 9/10 ratings for their albums in the NME.

Their new release The Seldom Seen Kid means that they have set a record - the NME calls them the most consistently good indie band in the world. Well, I guess this record proves it.