Hot Chip & LCD Soundsystem (and other fun things too!)

At the weekend we went to see Hot Chip & LCD Soundsystem play a massive gig at the Magna centre in Sheffield. It was awesome! We saw Hot Chip here in Notts at Rock City recently and that was an incredible experience. On an ordinary Monday evening it felt like we had been to the carnival and church at the same time. Hot Chip came onstage to squeals like Beatlemania and every person there was dancing and singing.

This time things were different.  By the time Hot Chip came on the area near the stage was a swamp of people crowding and pushing, so we retreated towards the back of this huge cavernous room. Inevitably the distance affected our involvement with the gig, so we didn't enjoy them quite as much this time. To be honest, we would've been hard pushed to equal last time anyway, so that was fine. Plus there were still some amazing tracks and their live sound is great. My favourite part is when the Chip that talks (beard & gingerish? Not a singer?) has to run between all his different instruments - guitar, drums, kettle drum - in one song. He really covered some ground.

The real revelation for me was LCD Soundsystem. Anders loves them, and has done for aaaages, which is why we got the tickets for this gig. I've never really listened to them if I'm honest. I've heard Daft Punk, Drunk Girls and a couple of others and they've never really grabbed me. The only LCD song I've really connected with is I Can Change, so I was standing just really waiting for that one song. We were right down the front, near the stage. Shit Robot was DJing and people were really getting in the party mood. Then, the lights went down and we stood in near total darkness and a familiar song started up. It felt both foolish and electric to be standing in the dark listening to I'm Not In Love by 10CC, with strangers all around singing along. After that, lights came up and LCD came out onto the stage and started up with Dance Yrself Clean from the new album:



(This video is really long, but I think it gives a feel of what the atmosphere created is like if you watch just the first few seconds)

It was like a lesson in how to open a gig. I didn't know the song at all, but everyone around us did and were singing along and really dancing. The song is perfectly constructed for this scenario - starting relatively small with James Murphy's vocals and minimal backing, adding in a few more instruments and members of the band as it builds and then halfway through just exploding into a huge sound. It was perfect to build tension and excitement at the band coming on and then gave the perfect release for everyone to sing and dance and (in the case of a man stood behind me who used me as a steadying post...) headbang. It was perfect.

(We had somehow ended up slap bang in the middle of fan boy central with people who knew every word and some people who had clearly taken their drugs too early and were even bouncing to 10CC. )

After both bands had finished they came on together and did a special collaborative cover of a song called "Seabird" by the Alessi Brothers (no, me either). It was really magical. It was like a moment from The Last Waltz for me, almost romantic... It was like a celebration of a tour romance between the two bands and was just lovely.

(as a post-script, I've just listened to the original and it's lovely, but the brothers appear to maybe have a little lisp... distracting and yet very sweet!)

Anyhow, I loved it and I'm really glad we got to see LCD, particularly as it keeps being suggested that this is their last album. And they played I Can Change. Yeah!

Other fun stuff we've been up to (quickly):

- Saw "A Town Called Panic" at Broadway just before it finished. Animated film, you might recognise it from the Cravendale milk ads. it's all created in stop-motion using little vintage toys (cowboy, indian etc) as the main characters. It's really fast and fun and inventive and I'd recommend seeing it on DVD if you can.

- Saw Micah P Hinson at the Rescue Rooms - This was the day after Hello Gore II (pics here from that by the way) and I was in no fit state to be going to a gig. I can't do things two days in a row. It didn't help that he had a harp lady playing before he came on and the rolling sounds were affecting my queasiness. I have nothing useful to add about the gig.

- My dad turned 60 and we celebrated with him. One of the things we did was go for a meal to a restaurant in Sheffield called Kitchen. We had the most down to earth, Sheffield born & bred, waiter you can imagine. Turned out he was a partner in the restaurant, which made sense, I'm not sure he'd have made it as a waiter. We asked what a dish described as Paris Brest with lots of french words was. His response? "Well, it's a choux bun. The chef came up with the name. I think he's probably made all that other stuff up." in a broad Yorkshire accent. Lovely! I ate a dish called 3 Little Pigs which was pork in 3 ways, including the revelation that belly pork is actually delicious.

- Went to Lustre at Lakeside Arts - this is one of my favourite events of the year - a big craft market with beautifully hand made objects from all over the country. Every year I suggest we go to look at Christmas presents. Every year we go and come back with "us" presents instead. This year I got a brooch with a zebra on. I love it.

SO, just to finish off I can confirm that it is Jumpers for Goalposts this week at the Alley Cafe on Thursday. We've got Burly Nagasaki playing, which will be a real treat. Plus we've got a great creative competition. Come down! It's free!

Love Bex
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FISTS EP Launch gig - 9th April & Fools' Gold Loaves

Hello!

Isn't it nice to have a bit of sunshine? Mmmmmm.

I realised I haven't posted or put up any pics since the Hello Thor/ Fists EP Launch at the Rescue Rooms on the 9th April. What an amazing night. ALL the bands were brilliant. Escapologists had a hard slot being first on, but totally set the tone for a great night with their performance. Pilgrim Fathers killed with a big rock set and lots of great posturing from frontman Shelf. Swimming were brilliant and it was awesome to hear one of my favourite songs (Tigershark) live. Then Fists rocked up and played the best set I think I might've ever seen them play. It was an amazing way to launch the new Fists Olympic Hits EP and lots of people went home with copies. If you didn't get one you can buy them at http://www.hellothor.com/ or on amazon etc.

Here's some pics (apologies for the variable quality - not much light in the Rescue Rooms it turns out):
(*Random order is due to the intensely annoying new Blogspot editing*)

Fool's Gold Loaf? It's what killed Elvis and recently our kitchen turned into a film studio when we helped Burly Nagasaki to try and make a music video for the release of their forthcoming album. We heard the album too, it's GREAT! They recorded it in a month for the RPM challenge, doing it all in February, and it sounds awesome. Can't WAIT for their Launch Party at the Chameleon on the 7th May (I think). Hopefully some of the footage we shot will also be useable so you might get to see the horror that is a FOOLS GOLD LOAF - AKA A jar of peanut butter, a jar of jam, a whole heap of bacon and a massive buttered loaf. It tasted disgusting and was definitely a month's worth of calories in one go. Elvis used to eat them as a midnight snack. Unbelievable. here we are filming:

Fun!

This week: off to see Greenberg at the Broadway on Thursday (part of Screenlit), hopefully just relaxing on Friday then it's Dolly Disco time on Saturday! It's at Moog, Nick (Hello Thor) & Daddy Bones & Abi are DJing, so it should be ace!

Bye!

Bex
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Fists EP Launch plus "Boy Meets Gay Swan"

Hi Everyone!

How was your Easter? Mine involved doing 2 hours of gardening and needing 4 hours to recover (#whenyouknowyou'reold). We also went to see Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake which is just incredible. It's also awesome seeing it in the heart of Yorkshire with my dad, who said afterwards: "It's just the age old tale of boy meets girl, boy's mum won't let him see girl so boy meets gay swan". Of course.

I hope you'll all have heard by now about the big party on at the Rescue Rooms this weekend. Hope to see you there, come say hi, I'll be manning the stall giving away free EPs! In case you needed more info, all the stuff's below. PLUS there's exciting news about who the special guests at the after party are! Oooh!

love Bex
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FISTS ‘Olympic Hits EP’ Launch Party! @ The Rescue Rooms 9th April 2010

FISTS are a 5-piece whose sound shifts and sprawls from skiffle-punk ('6 5 Special') to country-inflected indie pop '(Cockatoo') to the Stereolab/Velvets drone of ‘Skit’. Live, Fists are a woozy, kaleidoscopic and riotously fun affair. http://www.myspace.com/fistsmusic

SWIMMING manage to combine an avant-garde approach to making music (incorporating experimental field recordings, binaural art, electronica and post-rock) with a knack of writing anthemic, euphoric and righteously poppy music. http://www.myspace.com/swimmingband

PILGRIM FATHERS play awesome slabs of mind melting psychedelic post-rock. Expect inter-galactic riffs and songs that make you think of lazers, monsters and just how incredible this spinning ball of rock we inhabit is. http://www.myspace.com/thepilgrimfathers

ESCAPOLOGISTS have recently regrouped and morphed into the kind of band that makes synth-heavy, drum machine backed, dark pop that bring together psychedelia, hip-hop and electro together in all the best ways! http://www.myspace.com/escapologists

INCREDIBLE AFTER-PARTY IN THE RED ROOM featuring special guests, playing live, the “North west musical cataclysm” that is Apes Fight Back (www.myspace.com/apesfightback) & Frank's Vintage Metal Disco (featuring the likes of early ZZ-Top, AC/DC, Thin Lizzy, Led Zep, Black Sabbath, and Judas Priest).

PLUS there's still time to snap up an advance ticket for £5 (from Rock City box office / www.alt-tickets.co.uk) and you’ll get a FREE copy of the brand new ‘Olympic Hits EP’ by FISTS - just swap your ticket stub at the merch stand on the night.

http://www.hellothor.com/

Fists "Olympic Hits" EP Launch Party @ RescueRooms, April 9th 2010

Book your tickets in advance through Alt-Tickets &

get the new Olympic Hits EP (Hello Thor) for FREE!

Bex

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Hello Thor News

Thought it would be good to pop up a bit of Hello Thor news, seeing as things have been so busy and exciting with the label in recent weeks.


First off, Fists were featured in the NME! AND they got 4/5 in Artrocker! This is all down to the new EP Olympic Hits, which has also been getting airplay on 6music, BBC2, NME Radio and more. Brilliant news and SO great to see a great band getting coverage despite not being from a hyped city/scene. Let's hope the same happens for more of Nottingham's talented musicians.


We Show Up On Radar played a Maida Vale Weekender for the BBC! You can hear the tracks here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/music/introducing/sessions/maidavaleweekender/2010/  They sound Awesome.  Plus you can download the WSUOR EP from http://www.hellothor.com/, it's ace.


Then, last week Fists played at Rough Trade in London to launch their Counter Culture 09 compilation, which Cockatoo is on. Here are some pics:

They played some old favourites (Finger, 6-5 etc) and the tracks from the new EP, which will be released on 29th March. The new tracks sounded awesome, Weekend and Ace is the Way just work so well live and have a really full, fierce sound.


So, you can buy the new EP Olympic Hits on http://www.hellothor.com/ or you can buy an advance ticket for the launch gig, 9th April @ The Rescue Rooms, and get the EP for free. Not a bad deal. Get the advance booking deal on alt-tickets or maybe on Hello Thor's website.

The EP Launch Party is going to be a huge celebration of Nottingham music, with Fists joined by the wonderful Swimming, the marvellous Escapologists and the mythical Pilgrim Fathers. Hello Thor DJs will be on the decks and there's an after party up in the Red Rooms featuring Frank's Vintage Metal Disco and special live guests. Buy your ticket in advance and get the EP free as a thank you, so that's £5 for a ticket for a mega gig and a free EP worth £4. Good times.

We're so pleased with how everything is going with Hello Thor and are even more pleased that we've had such support from people in our hometown here in Nottingham. Thanks everyone.


Bex
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