Overheard: Are we not being ripped off?
Gig of the year, possibly, was at Symphony Hall last Friday when Ohio's oddest sons, Devo, played their first Birmingham date for donkeys' years.
Continue reading "Overheard: Are we not being ripped off?" »
Gig of the year, possibly, was at Symphony Hall last Friday when Ohio's oddest sons, Devo, played their first Birmingham date for donkeys' years.
Continue reading "Overheard: Are we not being ripped off?" »
(something i've thought about doing on several drunken occasions)
Birmingham's best new band, Shady Bard, are currently all over the giant MTV channel but don't expect to see their name writ large.
Po-faced Birmingham student favourites Editors had to cut short their gig in Cologne last Wednesday night when armed place stormed the venue and ordered them to stop playing because they were playing "excessively loud".
Disturbing news from the camp of The Enemy, one of the many Midland bands currently being groomed for fame.
The band's guitarist, Andy Hopkins, ended up in hospital last week, apparently due to a spiked drink – or so he says.
We'll kick off this week with an appeal by occasional Birmingham Post gig reviewer and all-round good egg Marcus Face.
As well as being adroit with a snappy James Taylor put-down, Mr Face is also a rather talented songwriter and producer in the old style. His stock in trade is pithy pop nuggets which connect directly with the English pop psyche underground of the mid-1960s.
Continue reading "Overheard: The search for an old-style amp" »
It's the simplest ideas that are the best, so hats off to the organisers of this year's Glastonbudget Festival.
You read that right. Not the £100-plus a ticket weekend at Worthy Farm in Zummerset but its threadbare, slightly shabby cousin which takes place on the Nottinghamshire / Leicestershire / Derbyshire border near the villages of Rempstone and Wymeswold next Bank Holiday weekend, May 25 to 27.
Here's a novel idea. Conkers, the Midlands' woodiest theme park, is to relive the majesty of Live Aid in a concert held there on May 4 and 5.
I'm afraid Phil Collins won't be flying in on Concorde and Freddie Mercury's unable to whip the crowd of day-trippers into a frenzy, but 20 of our best tribute acts will be there, doing their best to get the party started.
Aspiring DJs, producers and musicians hoping to attend the Red Bull Music Academy sessions in Toronto need to get their skates on for this year's event.
Continue reading "Overheard: Sign up for a trip to Toronto" »
The latest addition to the Supersonic Festival is none other than American sludge drone outfit Sunn 0))).
This will be the second time that Stephen O'Malley and his two cohorts have played at the Custard Factory and they really are something to be experienced.
Birmingham's esteemed Supersonic Festival of challenging and downright weird music celebrates its fifth year on July 13 and 14 and we can now bring you the line-up for the bash at the Custard Factory.
Don't worry if most of these names mean nothing, they're all top-drawer turns...
there's four pairs of tickets on the door for Sunday night's sold-out gig by the fab Newton Faulkner. If you want a pair, drop an email to billymilk@mac.com and we'll sort it. first come first served....
here's a thing i just snarfed from youtube... rather dodgy footage taken at moseley folk festival last summer.
if this is a taster for the album, i can't wait....
Well done to Birmingham's Robot, the city's lo-fi mechanoids of melodic prog pop (their words, not mine). They've only gone and landed the honour of providing the theme music for BBC2's new primetime gardening show, Grow Your Own Veg!
There's a new album coming soon but for those who can't wait, Kevin Rowland's gone and posted a new track online... Listening to it now and it sounds like it's going to be business as usual when It's OK Joanna comes out. I'd be interested to know what the rest of you think....
John Peel may have left us but his spirit lives on at Dandelion Radio. The Peely-devoted web-based radio station has been polling listeners for a festive fifty, the annual poll which the radio One DJ used to run every Christmas and New Year. A bit tardy perhaps, but the results are in and these are their top 50 records. The station is broadcasting them all week...
Love God's way
Here's a useful list for you of bands that God wants you to avoid like the proverbial plague. Apparently all these heinous monkeys are either gay, gay-friendly or pose some nefarious threat to hetero-Xtian living.
the very interesting sound artist bob ostertag has made all his recrec records available for free download, a really generous thing to do. it's some weird gear but strangely entertaining. His website explains it all...
expand your mind here
The general opinion on the Beatles recent Love album is that it's a pretty nifty piece of work. Very much a labour of love for producer George Martin and his technoboffin son Giles. A patchwork of outtakes and edits, it recasts the Beatles legacy as one of sonic adventurers in the 21st Century. In other words, it sounds fantastic. Sources have been buffed up into chrome soundscapes and all sorts of tricks and red herrings have been added to keep the most devoted Beatle Brain busy. It's a big favourite in the office here where a quick straw poll reveals that 3/4 of the features desk team own a copy. One of the younger whippersnappers is of the opinion that it's OK, but would have been much better had the tapes been given to one of the more cutting edge "mash-up" artists currently in the limelight. Danger Mouse, one of the crazy Gnarls Barkley guys, made his name by crafting Jay-Z acapella samples from the Black album to backing tracks from the Beatles White Album. The resulting Grey Album was a massive underground hit and put the internet on the map as a source of subversive music distribution. The arrival of the Beatles Hate could well set the same wheels in motion. It's the dark side of the Love album, taking samples from bootlegs and welding them to a much darker worldview. It lacks the gloss of the Martins' effort but makes up for it in many other ways.
Gary Moore, former Thin Lizzy lynchpin and officially the least attractive man in rock, is playing a bluesy old gig at Wolverhampton Civic Hall on May 30. Tickets, a measly £25, can be booked on 0870 320 7000, or online at gigsandtours.com
He's a potty-mouthed James Blunt with 666 tattooed just below the hairline yet still manages to score a gig at the NIA.
Damien Rice has announced a gig at Birmingham's least intimate venue on October 2nd. Tickets are a princely £23.50 and can be bought online at gigsandtours.com
This has gotta be the most over the top press release ever.... Anyone who threatens "to drag real rock music kicking and screaming into the 21st Century" deserves to be given large and painful hecky with the rough end of a pineapple. This is a band who are so out-there that attempts to load their website crashes every single computer I have tried to access it from. They're at Wolverhampton's Little Civic on February 22, which just happens to be the First International Melody And Muscle Day, but Right Said Fred, official spokespersons for the new initiative say they don't need the services of a bunch of posturing bozos that night. Besides, nobody's told Gravity's Slaves that music which demands to be heard is bad manners akin to rapping with your mouth full. They're also playing at Mexborough's Civic, a place so depressing that razor-wire through an artery sounds like a good career choice.
I feel sorry for the Robin 2's boss Mike Hamblett. He's just got over the no-show of Steve Brookstein and now former 1960s chirpy chirruper Melanie has gone and cancelled her show on April 22.
The gig at Bilston's grooviest dancehall had already been postponed once and now Mike hears that the singer of Alexander the Beetle won't be coming to England this year.
Refunds are available from the point of purchase.
Mike, ever the diplomat, tells me: "It is totally beyond our control".
You couldn't make it up.... just found this Amazon reader review while buying a copy of George Orwell's 1984:
While cultural pundits try to convince you that some literature is better than other literature, the truth is that all art is relative to individial tastes. Thus, it doesn't make any sense to think that a novel like this one is really any better than say, Michael Crichton or Stephen King. Aesthetic standards can't be grounded. Thus, don't listen to anyone who tries to distinguish between "serious" works of literature like this one and allegedly "lesser" novels. The distinction is entirely illusory, because no novels are "better" than any others, and the concept of a "great novel" is an intellectual hoax. This book isn't as good as Harry Potter in MY opinion, and no one can refute me. Tastes are relative!
Sadly, it wasn't written by Jade "Hoodie" Goodie
Have a nice weekend people xx
There's something totally irrisistible about bands in masks, be it Slipknot, Lordi or the Tweenies. The original scum puppies behind this gimmick are, of course, Gwar and, praise Satan!, they're coming to Wolverhampton Civic. The gig's on Tuesday March 13. Tickets cost 11 of your earth pounds. I bring you this information not because I expect you to go but because I just had to share this nugget from the press release sent out by the venue:
The band is best known for their elaborate sci-fi/horror film inspired costumes; raunchy, obscene, politically incorrect lyrics; and graphic stage performances, which consist of humorous re-enactments of scatology, sadomasochism, necrophilia, paedophilia, bestiality, fire dancing, pagan rituals, executions, and other controversial violent and political themes. GWAR has been on the leading edge of shock rock since their formation.
humorous re-enactments of scatology???? That takes the biscuit....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4uyN5rQbbU
How to beat mix your records with sue teller
Gig of the year? Well, it's only January, but last night's 0 Degrees Of Separation show at the Glee Club, Birmingham, was one sublime jamboree. Star of the show was the enigmatic Adem who was truly in his element playing his beautiful songs with a backing band that comprised the other three acts on the bill. Vashti Bunyan, housewife superstar, was maybe a bit on the twee side but sterling effort from Vetiver and Juana Molina made this something special. The whole event was like a dress rehearsal for the Hangman's Beautiful Daughter and underlines how the current crop of so-called nu-folkies is leading the way in innovative new sounds. If you want a taste, here's a link to a free download of the four acts in rehearsal:
Full review in Monday's Post
i don't suppose they're expecting scenes of frantic abandon and crush, but Symphony Hall has asked me to remind you that tickets for James Taylor's shows there on April 8 and 9 go on sale tomorrow. It's a one man show and tickets cost a princely £40 a pop.
Form an orderly queue now....
Symphony Hall Box Office 0121 780 3333
http://www.powersteppers.com/index.php/
this link courtesy of colin cod from the power steppers. it's his first podcast... colin used to be in zion train and this is his tribute to cheesy reggae. get this on your iPod and praise russ abbott...
Take my word for it, Fionn Regan's a name to watch in 2007. He's playing the Glee Club in February. In a world which is cluttered with singer songwriters, young Fionn, who has just released his debut album, rises effortlessly to the top. His record label, Bella Union, has sent me this link to his amazing new video which says more eloquently than I could do why this is a show not to be missed
Welcome to Overheard, Birmingham Post Music writer Andrew Cowen's regular window on the music scene in the West Midlands and beyond. Here you will find announcements of new gigs the moment we receive them, reviews, news and general chit chat. In the future it is hoped that we can host interesting new music from regional acts and all sorts of other harryfoolery. Use the feedback button to make this a two-way conversation and send me any useful links, news and gossip.
This page contains an archive of all entries posted to Birmingham Post in the ::Overheard with Andrew Cowen category. They are listed from oldest to newest.
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