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.

......

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".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCCqODXuLVU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xDCe6mV0xV8

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

Lissie

Country Music Yall.....

Country music is on its way to the UK just in time for our 1 day of summer sunshine, shouldn't be flippant our summer lasts at least a week, anyway where was i....... Ah yes Country Music, Lissie Maurus other wise known by her stage name Lissie, dropping the surname is so in this season, is an American country music artist likened by some people to a modern day Stevie Nicks. Lissie released her debut EP, "Why You Runnin" in 2009 and her debut album, "Catching A Tiger" is Rumoured for release, see what Ive done there Ive slipped in a sneaky Fleetwood Mac comparison, can you spot is? Anyway her debut album is due for release in June 2010.

Lissie's debut EP "Why You Runnin" was produced by none other than Bill Reynolds the string slapper from legendary Country, Rock band "Band of Horses", "Oh Mississippi" was co-written with English singer songwriter Ed Harcourt who has worked with artists such as Jamie Cullum, Yusef Islam, The Streets, New York Fund, and Brian Jonestown Massacre. The first single of the album, "In Sleep", was selected as Track of The Day by Q Magazine.

Lissie isn't just another Country singer she brings a Folk, Rock element to her work and really puts her stamp on the American Folk, Rock wave invading our shore's today. Lissie has real appeal and the fact that she has chosen to favour an electric guitar as apposed to the classic acoustic guitar look donned by so many in her genre invokes real sex appeal for all of the red blooded Folk, Rock lovin men of the world.

Check out these video's and hopefully you'll see what i see;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh4_Jysk8Q4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yRlXausKdiQ

(Video's and Pic's secretly stolen from Google and YouTube)

I Blame CoCo

CoCo Sumner,

Beautiful name, sounds like hot chocolate some nerd, delish! I like hot chocolate!

Real name Eliot Pauline Sumner, Band slash alias "I Blame Coco" their/her first album, The Constant is due out this year, and her first single, "Caesar", was released in February.

Back in the early days of days ago when i first heard "I Blame Coco" performing at 2010's Camden Crawl i was amazed at how much they sounded like "The Police", not a police siren that would be rude, after hours of heavy journalistic type researching (Wikipedia) i was shocked, actually shocked is stupid since my first impression was of them sounding like "The Police", anyway back to my thought thread, i was shocked to find out that she was daughter of none other than The Sting himself, this is clearly evident in her vocal style, once you wrap your lobes around my links you will see ney hear this and say "Yes he is right".

Check "I Blame Coco" out for yourself, via the selection of YouTube Video's that i have supplied:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykQC_9yqr-g

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gSweH0gYZXI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9LAEf-EGdQ

(Pics and Vid's Ripped from YouTube and Google)

Kevin Devine

Bello,

Next on the Random Blab list is a very flaky review of a singer songwriter called "Kevin Devine", No ladies he's not a smooth, tall, black, muscular R&B singer that likes to expose his abs at every god given moment, though the name oozes otherwise he's but a mere skinny, white, ginger boy from Brooklyn New York.

I first took notice of this Brooklyn based singer songwriter after trawling through "Manchester Orchestra's" video blogs. On a whim i typed his name into YouTube, after watching him goof around and talk about getting his ass kicked by a fast food employee, i was pleasantly surprised to find that not only was he a singer but he was actually pretty good.

I'm not overly familiar with his music but the tracks i have listened too can be described as (in my weird warped world) Rock, Indie, Folk with a dollop of Political, Melodic, Lyrical Flav. I have attached three video's, two of which have been added to give you an incite as to how cool this guy really is and the other is an awesome live version of a song called "Another Bag of Bones" which is now one of my new favourite songs. if your going to check out but only one new artist this season then beg you kind Sir's make it Kevin Devine, you wont be disappointed.

Kevin is currently touring the US with his fifth album "Brothers Blood" enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDFwb534O34

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0e6WPjdfdjk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=953EdDtFhvQ

(Picture and Video's supplied but the Juggernauts Google and YouTube)

Silversun Pickups

Silversun Pickups.......

A future Heavy Weight in the Rock world or at least i like to think they should...ney Need to be regarded as. They hail from the gold plated, sun kissed streets of Los Angeles California.

This Rock 4 piece consists of the following; lead vocalist and guitar player man Brian Aubert, who's slightly cock eyed, meek presents is dwarfed by his rough edgy yet faultless vocals, Nikki Monninger, ex English literature supply teacher look alike backs up Brian with a more gentle Vocal range and also plays her part in rhythm section of the band on bass guitar, Christopher Guanlao, a small left handed man child with a head down Dave Grohl approach to drumming who likes to extend his cymbals to the sky for some crazy arm extending reason, last but by no means least Joe Lester, he plays Keyboard.

The band released their debut EP, Pikul, in July 2005, and their debut full-length album, Carnavas, on July 26th 2006. Their second full length album, Swoon, was released April 14th 2009.

As i reluctantly found out last week Carnavas is the perfect album to listen to (volume low) whilst trying to sleep after a gig in the back of a car, it is also a great album to amp right back up and shake the life back into a car full of selfish snoozers, best of both worlds.

Here are a few video's of the Pickups in action, Enjoy;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ziR2EaQOSjU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yB_YbQQ6tcA

(Pictures and Images supplied by Google and Youtube)

Los Campesinos

(Eagle)

Los Campesinos, a seven piece indie pop band from the Welsh'est Welsh of Wales, Cardiff. Formed in early 2006 at Cardiff University, interesting fact for you - none of the band members are actually Welsh.... sorry did i say interesting i meant blahhhh but thought I'd mention it regardless, i mean come on guys you couldn't have even squeezed one tiny Pubhornist in, just to keep the home fans happy? Huh, shame on you, anyways...Their debut album "Hold on Now, Youngster" was released in February 2008. Campesinos second album "Romance Is Boring" was released in February 2010 but was not without its casualties, the band announced on their website that Aleks (Keyboard and Vocals) was to leave the band and return to her studies after their US tour in August. The Campesinos crew released the single "The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future" hmm beautiful, it was to be released as a free download. Giving something back to the people, i like, i like a lot. The video for the song was directed by the band's bassist, Ellen Campesinos.

Campesinos formally announce Aleks successor in the form of lead singer Gareth's sister Kim, having long alien like fingers and the voice of an angel she slipped nicely into the band as the new keyboardist. blah blah blah more facts........If your a fan of Arcade Fire, Dananananaykroyd, Vampire Weekend, Peter, Bjorn & John and all other indie type bands that the youngsters are infatuated by these days (Just messin) then you'll love Los Campesinos. Deserve'ed of a lot more recognition than they currently get, i predict big things in the future so much that i am not going to get my brother to illegally down load "Hold on now youngster" for me. I intend to shell out the £5 price tag Play.com have generously attaching to this epic record....I shall however wait until "Romance is boring" is to match this mark up as i am not a millionaire, £7.99 is too much, TOO MUCH. Cheap Bastard signing out.

Favourite tracks from LC:

The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6booM03nKI

Death to Los Campesinos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGDsbnTqdaE

(Image borrowed from Pitchfork.com)