Wednesday 30 June 2010

The Island of Whites



The Island of Whites is a strange place, an island of only one rule "NO BRINGING DRINKS INTO THE ARENA". Slightly reminiscent of the fair that the boys were carted off too in Pinocchio, "You Know", the one where they all turn into donkeys.

 
Tip number one for all you festival goer's, don't buy a pop up tent for a rainy festival. I am sad to say i did and yes it did flood. I first became aware of this when i woke up in a pool of my own urine, have you ever heard of that game people play when a drunk mate falls asleep and you put his or her hand into a bowl of water whilst sleeping and they end up peeing themselves, it is now apparent to me that hanging your hand off of a blow up bed into rain water can be just as effective. I'll leave you to decide for yourselves how much of this statement is true.

 
I went to Glastonbury festival in 2009 and it is safe to say that Isle of Wight is a much more chilled out festival, nothing starts until about 13:00, so the morning is spent sleeping, eating and generally prepping for the evening ahead. There are considerably fewer preforming tents than Glastonbury so alot less walking which was nice.

 
Onto the music, i managed to see 10 Main Stage acts, 4 Big Top acts and possibly a few from the other stages and bars but i cant remember names. Highlights of the week for me were; Jay Z preforming Heart of the City, Kanye West joining Jay Z for Run this Town, Jay Z's interaction with the crowd, Pink entering the stage via a crane, Vampire Weekends drummer....drumming, Ocean Colour Scene stealing some dudes hat, The Big Pinks drummer standing on the bass drum to show the crowd her ass cheek revealing swim suit, and Bombay Bicycle Club doing there thang.

 
All of these moments were dwarfed by the mere presents of, drum roll please......wait for it........ THE STROKES!!!!!!

 
Now i'm a 27 year old man and should probably know better but i found myself palming small women and children out of the way in order to get to the front of the stage so i could enjoy this moment to the fullest as i have convinced myself that this will end up being a once in a life time reunion. I know i should be ashamed of myself but I'd do it all over again if i could, the cry's of squashed feet and palmed faces were drowned by the Sheer coolness oozing from the stage. I bounced around like a baby for about an hour, I even removed my shirt at one stage in order to swing it high above my head in some homoerotic Stroke loving frenzy, for that and that alone i am ashamed. It's safe to say that this was the highlight of my festival, no year, no decade, No.....Life. For all of you that missed this moment, I feel sorry for you and wish you all could be as happy in your lives as i now am in mine.

......

Sunday 6 June 2010

Surf's Up Dude!


There Surfers....Blood

Strutting the streets of Florida comes an interesting and refreshing summer sounding indie 5 piece called Surfer Blood. Still in their early 20s this greasy hoodie wearing indie boy band have been locked away in their smelly university dorm room, venturing out only to stock up on cartons of orange juice and all manor of tasty treats that the crazy young indie folk use to stuff their faces in order to stay awake until the early hours of night stroking their strings, disgusting. In summary they have just finished their new album Astro Coast.

The band comprises of Guitarist and lead singer John Paul Pitts who is considered by no one as the colossal Juggernaut and driving force behind surfer blood, playing with his toms directly behind him is drummer Tyler Schwarz who is widely considered to be the deep thinker of the group, just to the left of him is guitarist and all round ladies man Thomas Fekete, self proclaimed wild man and general trouble maker stands to the right in the form of bassist Brian Black, last but by no means least percussionist Marcos "Crazy hair" Marchesani, there's one in every band!

As you can probably tell by now Surfer Blood still remains a mystery even to me, they are still going through the very early stages of Indie Rock growth, as we all know their journey is just beginning and thanks to me you are privy to their first word. If you like music and you like listening to it (yet another odd line) check out Surfer Blood in my opinion their "totally awsome dude".




(Praise goes out to that god like Buddha YouTube entertaining the young & poor til the end of time)