Friday, February 26, 2010

Beer, Cigs & Very Hot Sounds


Just rewinded this 5 times. My favourite part is around the 2 minute mark when the groove gets going with Antony's 'feelin' refrain.
What Friday nights are about. Killer

Constellations


Last Friday i was distracted from the live Eastenders episode by a truly beautiful clear night sky. Armed with my Guardian night sky guide, i spent a good hour mapping the stars whilst freezing my bollocks off. I find space amazing and it took me back to my childhood when I was obsessed with the universe & planets. Stargazing is underrated.
NYC resident Darwin Deez looks like a proper hipster dick (check his myspace for evidence), but i do like the guys music. Constellations is out now on limited 7", get it at Rough Trade.

Monday, February 22, 2010

Craft Spells


I woke up today with this on constant repeat on my internal jukebox. California's Craft Spells, aka Justin Vallesteros, obviously love New Order. I like them too, and i love this blurry simple pop song. He has a lovely blog too.

Terminator 1 or 2??


Pretty damn accurate. I still can't decide whether i prefer Terminator 1 or 2 though??

The Telescopes @ The Victoria Birmingham 13/02/10


In 1989 The Telescopes released Taste, one of my all time favourite lp's. They were a massive band for me in my teens, from hearing 'The Perfect Needle' on John Peel show, and my first gig of the new decade took me back to those days.
As previously documented here, Stephen Lawrie has been revisiting the early Telescopes material, either acoustically or backed by the support band, on sporadic dates around the UK. Thankfully for me (as i missed the other dates), this has now resulted in a proper tour.
The venue was an upstairs room of a great Birmingham boozer called the Victoria, and was part of the Sound Of Confusion monthly promotion which showcases the kind of shoegaze/noise/psychedelic thing that the Club AC30 & Sonic Cathedral nights do in London.
The first band One Unique Signal from London were the only support worth a mention. Mainly instrumental apart from the odd inaudible vocal this 5 piece gave it everything. The triple guitar assault sounded especially amazing. Luckily these guys were to provide the Telescopes backline for the nights main event.
Crashing in with 'There Is No Floor' the band perfectly captured the noise assault of the early material and it was great to see that Stephen Lawrie had lost none of his venom in the preceding years. Clearly these songs still meant everything to him as he screamed them out whilst rolling around the floor. From my Red Stripe addled state it's hard to remember the set list but it did seem way too short. Anyway i think it included To Kill A Slow Girl Walking, Precious Little, Sadness Pale, The Perfect Needle, Please Before You Go, Silent Water, the previously mentioned There Is No Floor, ending with Suicide.
Fucking great.
I look forward to new Telescopes material in 2010.
Another review of the night here
Great set pictures from the tour here