Now I know Its been a fair while since any new gigging content has been posted. This is mainly due to the fact that I’ve been saving cash on my global travels. So what a better way to catch some live music than to head too a free festival.

The St. Kilda Festival is a yearly free festival put on in the small seaside suburb of Melbourne of (guess where?) St. Kilda. This years started with a week of free music gigs around town in various cafes and bars. So like a true gig hunter, I headed out into the 46 degree heat searching for good music and up and coming acts. I quickly gave up on that idea as I was physically melting in the scorching sun! I did venture out later in the evening once the sun had set towards the Village Belle Hotel to watch my first “free” show.

Sam Pollard, is a local Melbourner who with his band play a great combo of indie pop rock. His voice is very similar to the great Ted Leo with the same falsetto and smooth vocal delivery. He was swapping between very hook heavy original tracks with some very catchy chorus’s and some unexpected covers. Each cover was done pretty well and has the very small crowd beaming with delight (well me and the other 5). Covers included Robbie’s Let Me Entertain You including trumpet solo, The Animals Daydream Believer, Muse’s Our Time Is Running Out and as if they knew I was coming The Darkness’s I Believe In a Thing Called Love (I give top marks for muse and the darkness, even though he admitted not knowing who they were…misguided fool).

The highlight of their set was their original track entitled Blah, Blah, Blah. A fun track loaded with comical lines and a good time vibe. I really enjoyed this show, they had great original tracks, a shed load of musical talent plus a gift for cool lyrics. I hope these guys will ascend to the popular audience but being so far down the ladder, sadly it’s hard to imagine they will ever leave the Australian shores.

I stuck around for the next group up the Andy Grant Duo. I rather with I hadn’t time would have been wiser in bed. Their singer / guitar combo was pleasant enough but their American sound was tried, tested and proven to death by bands much better than they. The one cover of Creedence Clearwater Revivals I heard it through the grapevine was ok, but non inspiring. So I headed for n early night ready for the big festival Sunday.

I know this is slightly late, but I havent had time to post it since writing it in December!

Albums of 2008

The top ten albums which have been rocking my world in 2008!

10, Foxy Shazam - Introducing…

Foxy Shazam manage something remarkable in 2008, and thats they managed to sound like absolutly nobody else around. Mad piano bashing, fuzzed up guitars packed with energy, a crazy vocalist who pours fiest and desire into each idiotic srewball lyric. Yet despite their eclectic arrangements they make some cracking tunes all packed into this short but super album. Top Tracks: Dangerous Man, The Rocketeer & It’s Hair Smelled like Bonfire…

9, The Raconteurs - Consolers of the Lonely

After a promising hit and miss debut, White and Benson hit all the right notes on their sophomore lp. Their mix of brandon’s pop sensibilities matched with jacks gift for crafting stunning blues riffs make for a cracking album. The range of influences is huge producing superb rocking licks, dreamy blues & folk storys all with the greatest ease. Another album at this standard and The White Stripes may be on the back burner for a little while longer. Top Tracks: Salute Your Solution, Consolers of the Lonely & Carolina Drama

8, Black Tide - Light from Above

Here we have a stonkingly great traditional heavy metal album, which to put it bluntly. Rocks your face off! Huge guitars wailing solo’s filled with blisteringly fast riffs backed with a string vocalist adds the final touches of accessibility to create a collection of metal masterpieces. Wanna Rock??? Look no further the Black Tide. Top Tracks: Warriors of Time, Shockwave & Hit The Lights

7, The Gaslight Anthem - The 59′ Sound

Here is a band ive been championing for quite some time! I love these guys after releasing their debut Sink or Swim and this album picks up where the last left off. Full of punk energy, springsteen ideology, farytale storytelling, rough vocals and love for rock and roll. These guys are great and this album is another reason why you should too. Top Tracks: Great Expectations, Here’s Look At You Kid, Old Lincoln

6, Flight of the Conchords - S/T

Ive been kept laughing all year with this comedy album from this mock new zealand band. Songs were taken from their hit tv comedy of the same title, which is also hilarious! The sharp snappy lines are combined with the thing which is missing from so many comedy bands…good music! They create a huge range of fun hip hop, sweet melancholic acoustics and funky electros. Top track: The Most Beautiful Girl in the Room, Business Time & Bowie.

5, Airbourne - Running Wild

If you want a good old fashioned romp of a rock and roll record, Running Wild is your answer. AcDc Rock-a-likes have outdone their idols in 2008 and wrote, by far, the most catchy ball to the wall traditional hard rock, sex drugs and rifftastic record of the year. Innovative? …no! Great? …you bet your ass! These guys live show is a riot too!! Top Tracks: Running Wild, Stand Up For Rock and Roll & Blackjack

4, Motion City Soundtrack - Acoustic EP

I know its only 5 songs long but the quality of the songs on this album is amazing. Focusing on their lyrical content of zany lines brings to the fore what it so great about this band. Beautifully arranged and superbly produced this is acoustics at its finest. Top tracks: Point of Extinction, Broken Heart, Fell in Love Without You

3, Rose Hill Drive - Moon is the New Earth

Hard blues rock plays loud on this super sophomore album from this american trio. Big vocals and Bigger riffs are the driving behind this cracking album. Quality is top notch and they keep pummeling you with superb guitars all lp long. Top Tracks: Sneak Out, The Eighth Wonder, Altar Junkie

2, Black Stone Cherry - Folklore & Superstition

Back after their cracing first album, number 2 picks up where the first left only with a bit more heart poured into it. Despite the soul devted to it, each track rocks your socks off with blazing guitars and flailing solos coming from every angle. Their Deep South influences are here again in abundance but this adds to the appeal and auora. Top Tracks: Things My Father Said, Blind Man, Devil’s Queen

1, Frank Turner - Love, Ire & Song

After seeing Frank perform at dot to dot festival in bristol, there really was only going to be one winner of the crown this year. His passion, love of music, amazingly transparant lyrics and tales of rock and rolling on are each amazing in their own ways. This album has a bundle full of cracking pop tunes, tonnes of witty lyrics and so many beautiful moments. Songwriting is excellent with his anti-folk style and stripped acoustics. I love this guy and this album should only propel him onto bigger and much better things Top Tracks: Long Live The Queen, Photosynthesis, Reasons To Be An Idiot

The oh so close but yet so fars… Buckcherry - Black Buttefly, Ida Maria - Fortress Around My Heart, Hold Steady - Stay Positive, Enjoy Destroy - S/T, The Mae Shi - HillyH

As you may have noticed from the lack of posts I’ve been very busy over the last 5 months. The main reason behind this is the fact that I am 4 months into a round the world adventure. Being on the road has left me gigless and unable to afford as much music as I would like.

However, have still been checking out and listening to alot of music as I circumnavigate the world on planes, trains and automobiles and there has been some great music released in 2008. So in addition to the annual top 10 albums list, i’ve been busy on putting together my top 50 tracks of 2008 (no repeating artists of course) which have been keeping my spirits high. Links below are of unverified quality, there is only so much you can do with slow hostel internet connections!

Top 50 Tracks of 2008

50, Weezer - Pork And Beans … Weezer return with this long and fun song from their 3rd self titled album!

49, Supergrass - Bad Blood … Can’t deny supergrass can pen a feelgood hit or two when they put their minds to it!

48, Mars Volta - Wax Simulacra … Screwball prog antics again from the Volta’s

47, Glasvegas - Daddy’s Gone … Depressed? You will be after listening to this!

46, Vampire Weekend - A-Punk … Ivy leaguers produce some summery goodness!

45, Mayday Parade - Jersey … Probably the best and catchiest Pop-Punk anthem of the year!

44, Local H - Jesus Christ, Did You See the SIZE of That Sperm Whale? … From the suprisingly good concept album about a beakup!

43, Lifehouse - Who We Are … American middle of the road, but i love it anyways!

42, Band of Horses - Is There A Ghost … Dreamy indie with the repeat lyrics never fails to draw you in.

41, Voodoo Six - Faith … Southern rock inspired, huge thundering riffs and classic vocalist.

40, Mae - Brink of Disaster … Electro laced indie rock from little known americans!

39, Story Of he Year - Tell Me (P.A.C.) … American big radio hit, but you cant deny its catchiness.

38, Feeder - I Miss You … Return to former selves afetr the glum of recent offerings

37, Rolo Tomassi - I Love Turbulence … Craze Spazcore jazz/metal/electro is intense, barrage of noise is cool!

36, We Are Scientists - After Hours … Oddball second album produced this great song.

35, Futureheads - The Beginning Of The Twist … Poppy indie anthem.

34, Joe Satriani - I Wanna Rock … Guitar Gods story of a robot sent to Earth with on mission! To ROCK!

33, Bullet For My Valentine - Scream Aim Fire … Welsh metalheads with another cracking track

32, Stonerider - Rush Hour Baby … Guns’n Roses better watch out, these guys are after their crown.

31, Shinedown - Devour … Second Lp brings more hard rock highlights.

30, The Trews - I Can’t Stop Laughing … My fav canadians return with feelgood hit!

29, Phantom Planet - Do The Panic … Theres more to Phantom Planet that just “that” song

28, Los Campesinos - You Me…Dancing! … Indie darlings hit the spot on this fun eclectic track

27, Thrice - The Sky Is Falling … Progressive beauty from the reformed punksters

26, Be Your Own Pet - The Kelly Affair … Punk full of youthful energy and naivity

Somewhere in the midst of time and space this gig skipped my review radar, so here is what i remember from a night that time forgot…

I can’t so much as remember what the support bands name was but their ethos was “lets play some stupidly loud and pointless noise rock rumblings”. Vocals were a non-starter and effects pedals drenched the already heavily distorted guitars to form a lumbering beast of ear shattering proportions. As you might have guessed, I didn’t like them at all, probably because I didn’t really “get” them, as Jinx suggested. He seemed to think they were OK though.

As if from the prehistoric era the silver haired axe wielder J. Mascis turned to his triple-stack of Marshall amplification (yes that’s right, 3 full size stacks… he seriously means business) and plugs us in for a thrilling ride through how rock music should sound.

J. Mascis

Dinosaur Jr. , veterans of the late 80/90’s US alternative rock scene brought some huge fuzz riffing, wailing melodic solos, scintillating shredding and a stadium sized bag of bass to Koko this evening. Singing has never been their strong point, but their low key almost spoken vocals retained their laid back nature live. Newer hits from their latest album stood up against their older material with Pick me Up and Almost Ready being up there in the show highlights.

Dinosaur Jr.

For old guys, this was a great show which shows some of the new brigade how rock was …When Dinosaur (Jr.) ruled the earth. The next few days deafness had never sounded so good.

Dot To Dot Festival, Bristol
26th May 2008

The weekend kicked off in glorious fashion in blazing sunshine, not a cloud in sight but unfortunately a fair share of hay fever induced sneezing from this weekends companions Jinx and Anna. Three ice creams, three wristbands and one coin toss later we found ourselves in a rock pub called The Fleece on the East side of town ready to watch the first band of the weekend.

Hatcham Social to be fair, have a long way to go if they are going to move up the bill from this early afternoon slot. Musically they started raggedly but the rough clatter brought a certain charm after your ears had recovered from the excessive noise levels. Vocals were pretty poor and the few catchy tracks were driven mainly by the guitar lines. More touring necessary I think!

After carefully traversing a neighborhood of plentiful massage parlors and blacked out windows, we thankfully arrived at Trinity Music Centre (TMC). To my shock and surprise this was actually a church converted to a music venue, not an arena usually reserved for booze and rock and roll I imagine! However I’m sure the lord would have approved of the next band we saw, Ida Maria.

Ida Maria, a Scandinavian female fronted indie band with a keen eye for melody and an Ikea sized warehouse of cracking songs. Lead singer has a cute kitsch aura surrounding her and her Kate Nash-esque vocals (thankfully with better pronunciation). She commands the stage as the band more than get this church o’bopping. Instant happiness and breezy melodies tied to contagious chorus’s on tracks such as I Like You So Much Better When Your Naked, Oh my God and Queen of The World make this a super uplifting set. Can’t wait for their Debut album!

After hightailing it to The largest of the weekends eenues, the Bristol Carling Academy, we settled down the front to catch my only “must” see performer of the festival. Not before we strayed upstairs into academy two to witness a gabbled mess of electro and processed beats played erratically and Wee’haaay too loud by The Death Set. Not unexpectedly… we left!

Frank Turner, did not disappoint in the slightest. The rough around the edges hardcore punk rocker turned acoustic anti-folk hero was a commanding presence with his laid back rock and roll ethos. His new material sounded awesome, good time tunes with his characteristic heart on sleeve transparency.

Frank is immediately likable in a “you must have some crazy stories kind of way”, some of which he sung about here this afternoon. Set highlights included The Real Damage which documented one such boozy weekend, Fathers Day with its melodic grace and Back in the Day retraced to his angry youthful punk days (which he clearly still clings onto quite a lot).

However the show stopping track was the heartstring tugging, uplifting anthem for a lost friend that showcased his poetic no-nonsense songwriting at its best.Long Live The Queen is a perfect tribute to someone who clearly meant a hell of a lot to the guy. As the final chord rung out of yet another cracking tune The Ballad of Me And My Friends, we shuffled out knowing we’d witnessed the best the weekend had to offer!

Back over to TMC we trotted to catch the alt country duo Two Gallants. Their unique take on country music with finger plucking noisy fuzz riffs sounded great. The lead singers weathered vocals were not the strongest but what they lack in power they regained in character. This was rather enjoyable and one of the most un-formulaic bands of the weekend, but they did little to totally inspire the crowd, which is a shame really.

A pretty lengthy walk to Fiddlers later we settled down and caught some terrific piano indie pop in the shape of Golden Silvers. They put on a fantastic short set which had the crowd totally enthused and they were not short of style, melodies or catchy vocals either! Unknown to me before now, until now!! Watch out for these guys!

The real reason we were here was for Anna’s choice, the 80’s loving popsters of Palladium. Being honest I didn’t expect much more than a few cheery pop numbers, but this was a whole heap of fun. I just truly hope that their tongues were in cheek as their outfits were truly Duran Duran inspired. I was keeping a firm eye on the sublimely over the top keyboardist (complete with silver glittered visor) prancing around trying to be cool. To put it bluntly, he missed woefully and induced more than a few belly laughs. Anywho with all this lightheartedness it would take a pretty depressive band to lower the vibe….they duly arrived.

Tonight’s headline act Glasvegas (Elvis quiffs et al… ) have now been labeled the best new band in the country by NME. They did their very best to spread misery, angst and depression. They succeeded spectacularly! Their moody noise rock melodies were atmospheric and suitable dark and with lyrics like your dad he’s gone, he’s gone, he’s gone… these guys set to take on Morrissey for title of pop music’s grand miserablists. I will have to disagree with the stamp place upon them by NME, but then… that’s not particularly a big surprise.

A downbeat but no less impressive end to a cracking opening day…. Day 2 coming soon

Shout Out Louds, The Brunettes @ Bush Hall, Shepherds Bush, London
21st April

Again…Pics are in the pipeline….

Lighthearted pop was the game this evening and what better way to start off the evening with some New Zealanders vagabonds, namely The Brunettes. I was quite disappointed given the name of the band that there was only 1 woman in the ensemble and she was blonde (can you call a guy Brunette?). Despite the false advertising The Brunettes were lets say “pretty” with plenty of quirks and fun little pop melodies. Substance was not at stake here as most tracks drifted gently over the too cool for school crowd.

Live they sounded better then what I imagined given it’d heard a few album tracks (which they were only plugging quite annoyingly every 30 seconds), but nothing to write home about. Given their home is so far away too, i’d save the postage money.

The Brunettes

Shout Out Louds are another band who mis-advertise themselves. Without a raised voice or strained vocal in sight these Swedish indie pop maestros take the stage. With a bag chocked full of mega infectious inspired tunes they cant help but radiate fun and danceability. The usual array of odd twee instruments were in display here, with my favourite being the Cowbell on their single Impossible.

Shout Out Louds

I fell in love with these guys after their first album Howl Howl Gaff Gaff, and they satisfied my hunger for those tunes by playing rocky strummer Please Please Please, electro fueled Don’t Call It A Comeback and the funkaliciousShut Your Eye’s. This was a feel good set of happy pop tunes which drill deep into your subconscious, so much so they played on a loop in my head the whole way home! Sweden has never had it so good!

Mixtape#11 - May 08

A Bit late I know…I’ve been somewhat busy!

1, Royworld - Dust … Dropped out of Dot to Dot at the last minute, good job this track is ace then!
2, Alphabeat - Fascination … Wonky pop tour headliners with some not so wonky pop, pop, pop.
3, Apocalyptica - I Don’t Care … Rocking out with 4 cellos, idea may be strange but this track is awesome!
4, Frank Turner - Long Live The Queen … Amazing song about a lost friend, sung with true heartfelt honesty!
5, Thrice - Sky Is Falling … More beautiful post hardcore prog melodies from this American changeling band
6, We Are Wolves - Magique … With Electrock on the uprise once again, keep a tag on this band
7, 1990s - You Make Me Like It … One of my favourite pop bands without the over hype and huge radio abuse
8, Flight of The Conchords - Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenoceros … Stars of hit TV comedy release debut album, this is a cracking tongue in cheek hip-hop number
9, Ida Maria - Oh My God… Fresh female fronted indie rockers who have a huge bad of pop hits, plus they are great live!
10, Palladium - High Five … Campness is the word for this 80’s influenced electro pop outfit, Keyboardist is absolutely hilarious (complete with silver glittered visor!!)
11, Envelopes - Smoke in The Desert, Hide In The Grass … Indie pop which is worthy of your attention
12, Glasvegas - Daddy’s Gone… Noisy, Moody, dark, brooding indie rock. Intensely performed on the live stage.
13, Stonerider - Juice Man … Hard rock, twinned with Guns n’ Roses, great riffs and mega catchy
14, Two Gallants - Steady Rollin’ … Alt Country with a southern feel, heartfelt lyrics and a sweet swagger
15, Rufio - Out Of Control … Pop Punk Anthem!

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists @ Borderline, Soho, London
20th April 2008

Quick apology for the lack of photos! I’ll put them up as soon as I can!

Upon arriving at Borderline this evening I felt a huge sense of relief that the doors were even open! What made me so nervous? Well quite simply old age must be taking its toll on poor old Ted Leo as he has cancelled his 2 previous scheduled London shows without citing any explanations to my knowledge. Enough for any fan to pack up bags and detract from his band of indie rockers. Not me however as third time turned out to be lucky, time to see if the patience paid off.

A packed lineup was kicked off by Wakefield trio The Research. Poppy vocal melodies rang over chiming guitars as they blatantly ripped riffs from hometown fav’s The Cribs. Pretty? Maybe… Inspiring? Not in the least… Good? Elevator Music…

I can’t imagine what the next band were using at the time they decided to call their band Large Mound, but it must have been pretty trippy! Still, they have thankfully come down from those highs and produced a set of fuzz riff fuelled alt rock in the same vein as Dino Jr. and Sebadoh with a pretty high RPM (Riffs Per Minute, in case you were wondering.) They were pretty good, highlights were punchy and catchy at the time. Looking back though… I only have a vague recollection of them, they clearly made no impression.

Unmemorable is one word I cannot use to describe Ted Leo, even if me and jinx spent 20 minutes arguing if the balding dude setting up on stage was actually Ted himself. I was wrong, slightly to my dismay as the “guitar tech” turned round, guitar loaded ready to rock with his Pharmacists in tow. They were running slightly late and this transformed what could have been a pedestrian run through of hits, into a punked up, adrenaline fueled romp through indie rock at its stripped down finest.

Each track was played at breakneck speed as Ted’s strained falsetto did its best to actually get the lyrics sung in time, such was the tempo of these songs. Guitars were great as expected from a well seasoned performer, but his lack of crowd interaction was somewhat of a letdown. Set highlights included the superb pop classic Me and Mia, melodic strummer turned Thin Lizzy strutter Counting Down the Hours and the punk-folk musings of Bottle of Buckie.

We might have waited a loooong time for this gig, but it was sure worth the wait!

Festivals are a HUGE business these days with everyone getting in on the act. Picking your summer festival is a tricky business! From the huge corporate sponsored festivals (O2 Wireless, T in the Park, V) to the anti-corporate ethics of (Green-Man, Field Day) to niche fests (Creamfields, Download, ATP, etc… ). The current indie explosion of “discovering the hottest band in the land” clearly has a lot to answer for!

It is one such festival, which has sprung up over the last few years, that I attended over the last May bank holiday.

Dot 2 Dot festival is a relatively small but ever growing city festival based in Nottingham and Bristol, I personally was at the west country leg. The idea of a city festival is a great one and whoever came up with the concept should be knighted for lots of reasons I’ll go into. But which is best - City or Field? Let’s ponder…

The Dot 2 Dot lineup was packed with emerging and more established bands, clean undercover venues, cheap tickets, no overblown marketing ploys, good sound systems, in a vibrant city to explore, a city full of choices to eat and an actual bed with shower/catering facilities (that’s if you live nearby, which thankfully my girlfriend does…yay Anna!)

No more being woken by the sun at 6am in a sizzling tent or the drunk louts singing “feeling hot-hot-hot” at 4am, no eating greased up burgers from those dodgy catering vans, no beer from cardboard cups, no standing in the pouring rain watching your favourite bands, and most importantly no damn portaloos! Of course these are all part of the summer festival experience and I would never think of changing them.

The city festivals are not immune to criticism either. There is no possibility of standing in sun to watch bands, venues tended to be quite far apart (up to 40 mins if you were really unlucky), you may not be let into a venue if its too crowded (thankfully this never happened to us), no huge bands could ever play them, you lose a sense of the festival camaradery as other non-festies are chilling out sipping their Sunday afternoon coffee’s totally oblivious to the action unfolding around them. Plus some venues (huh.huh …Trinity Music Centre…huh..huh..) are in some rather unpleasant areas.

I hope that you, like me, realize the definitive answer to this question. And that is no matter how long I can compare them to each other, essentially they are totally different concepts. The only similarity being it appeals to the music fans and any one who remotely enjoys music will love both experiences on their own merits.

So here I find myself back at the start of this ramble and no further along to an answer than when I started. Still I hope I may have ignited a spark within some of you to get out there to at least one festival over the summer, there truly is no better way of sampling all the best bands in the world on a budget!

Standby for the full Dot 2 Dot 2008 (Bristol) review shortly….

I would like to introduce a band very close to my heart…

Heavens Basement are new in one respect and not on the other. They have in fact risen out of the ashes of a the great modern Classic Rock band Roadstar!!

Roadstar split the other year rather abruptly after releasing the amazing Grand Hotel, with management issues being cited as the major cause. But thankful to us all they have all remained working together and have returned to rock music in the shape of Heavens Basement.

Heavens Basement’s sound is still faintly recognisable as Roadstar with Richie still taking vocal duties, but they have moved on to darker and less pristine orientations. Not such a bad thing as these new tracks rock ever bit as hard as anything Roadstar produced with thundering riffs and sublime solo’s.

One bad thing is they have already spoken out to notify all those wishing to hear Roadstar material at gigs, will be sadly disappointed. Personally I’m just glad their back! (Maybe they will change their minds later)

Tour Dates can be found here
Tracks are now streaming from their website: www.heavensbasement.com

Photo courtesy of bitchinrockphotos.com.