Deerhunter - Glasgow - Father's Day

Sunday was a first in terms of gigs for me. For one, I was seeing Deerhunter, a band I've been patiently waiting to see for awhile now. The other was the fact this was our first time seeing a gig in Glasgow's Stereo.



After (finally) finding the venue we hung around for a bit, and even caught Bradford Cox having a coffee in the restaurant area of Stereo. When the doors for the gig opened we went downstairs to the where the gig was taking place. I had heard from a few friends that Stereo was basically a glorified basement (just turning eighteen myself meant I couldn't get into most of the awesome gigs that had been held there before). I actually found the venue to be pretty damn good however. For all the venue was very small there was also a great feeling of intimacy between the performers and audience, making it feel more like going to see your friends band play at a local venue.



First on the bill where NYC's High Places. I had heard the band before after finding out they where supporting Deerhunter on this tour so I knew I wasnt in for a bout of Xiu Xiu soundalikes although their setup could have fooled me otherwise. The band come under the whole "folktronica" tag but I thought they seemed more like an upbeat trip-hop group with a lot of Caribbean and reggae influences. Their set was very tight and they seemed to pick up a few new fans from the show. Ones to watch for the future then...



Deerhunter themselves where in top form, playing songs from both Microcastle and Cryptograms. Brad was at his most eccentric and kept the between song (and mid song) banter very funny with calls of quiting music because "these sell out shows don't do anything for me anymore!".They also performed a cover since it was father's Day for Brad's father. Ending with "Strange Lights", the band chose to give their guitars out to the audience to play them off while the noise grew louder and louder. As I said, the night felt really intimate and this only added to that leaving everyone in high spirits as they left. I'm still majorly gutted about not seeing Bradford playing as Atlas Sound in May but after Deerhunter's performance on Sunday I'm assured that there's a big chance I'll be seeing the man play again in one form or another very soon.

This Has To Be Made!

"You come at the king, you best not miss"

So for the past month or so I've been addicted to one of the greatest TV shows ever to grace our small screens; The Wire. After watching Deadwood, Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip and The Shield pretty much back to back, catching them all after they had either been cancelled or on hiatus, I decided I'd finally watch the one that has been most applauded by even the most harshest of critics.



The Wire spanned for 5 Seasons, or 60 episodes, before it came to an end. Created by David Simon and Ed Burns, one a former newspaper reporter and the other an ex-detective, the story followed the realistic struggles of the police and their gangland counterparts. However, this would be selling the show short as it covered a wide variety of characters from varied backgrounds. The show was highly realistic and, even as a non-US resident, I saw a lot of similarities between how the city of Baltimore's police force and underworld worked when compared to that of my own city.



The Wire was never about one character, constantly intertwining the stories of the people of Baltimore until the show had a cast larger than that of most other well established TV Shows. The cast of the show was another huge draw for me, as most of the shows fictional cast was made of the very people who had influenced the creators to write the show in the first place and others where actors with a very similar upbringing to the characters they portrayed.



I could yatter on for years about this show. I'm amazed how lost I felt without it once I had seen the last episode but it has inspired me to maybe write something similar set in my own city (I'm an aspiring Director/Screenwriter didn't you know?). I've also made a point of not giving away any of the plot of the show as it's far better having no idea where the show is going to go next. I'll end on this note: If you watch The Wire and you don't think that Omar Little is the coolest man to ever appear on your TV with a shotgun, whistling "The Farmer in the Dell", then I really need to watch more TV...

Recent Bedroom

My favourite song from one of the best albums of this year so far.

What Happened?

After being touted by most baseball commentators to be one of the top teams this season, my beloved Tigers have been pretty damn terrible. The only thing that's made me quite proud so far this season was our sweep of the Yankees. Hopefully, if my application to study in America next year goes through, I'll get to see them live and maybe my presence will inspire them to a win!

Anyways on a blogger front, it's been awhile since I've updated the blog and hopefully my last post will kick start me to do some more since college shall be finished soon. I may also post some of the music we've been making on here as well as some movie reviews.

Laters!

Beats And Basslines

So, last weekend, a friend and I decided we'd stop trying to be the post-rock band we'd always wanted to be and take a different musical route. We decided it should still be something we where passionate about but at the same time something we'd both be fairly good at (needless to say, power metal and Scandinavian pop where out the window). We came to the conclusion that Hip-Hop was where we both felt comfortable.



To us, this felt like the strangest thing ever as neither of us, up until around 2 years ago, wasn't vaguely interested in Hip-Hop or any of it's other sub genres. It was something we left to our other friends to listen to as we never really "connected" with what 50 Cent or Eminem had to say..



When our musical snobbery subsided and we finally saw that two artists don't typecast a whole genre no matter what the music (except, of course, Scandinavian Pop and Power Metal) we started digging deeper and found that we couldn't have been more wrong about the whole idea of Hip-Hop. Out of all the artists I have embraced within the last couple of years, I have fallen in love the most with J Dilla. The way his music flows and the way he makes the simplistic place of a beat or a bassline at the right moment to give the music far more potency makes me feel far more connected to him than most indie-rock bands who populate the music scene nowadays with their skinny fit jeans and "lost love" lyrics. If you don't know anything at all about Dilla I suggest you give him a bit of researching, his short time on this Earth is filled with some of the greatest produced music I have ever heard. If you ever felt the way I did about Hip-Hop or rap I suggest you give the songs at the end of this post a listen. If you still haven't fallen in love with the music then there's no hope left for you.


Madlib - Mystic Bounce
J Dilla -Love(Feat. Pharoahe Monch)
The Cool Kids - One, Two