The Week of Britpop

OK, before I begin (as Mr Fry might say), some housekeeping. I've posted a crazy THREE times this morning, my excuse being that I'm sat in waiting for a UPS man to pick up my 360, which has succombed to the Red Ring of Death. Below you'll find my opinion on the "most anticipated album of all time" tm. and "the best night out ever" tm.

I'm now in my new house, broadband works (on everything but the Mac so far...grrr!) so I'll be posting more often. Also, I'll shortly be setting up a twitter, cos it's about time, I'll be updating it as often as I can be bothered. A few photos have also been added to the Leeds Post. Right, on we go...

These things always come in threes.

On Tuesday I saw Supergrass, who were characteristically brilliant (if a little drunken, but HEY, IT'S CHRISTMAS!!!). They did loads of new stuff, but none of that mattered after a beautiful rendition of She's So Loose. Photos are below.

THEN I was reminded yesterday that I'll be seeing the vastly underrated Bluetones performing their vastly underrated debut Expecting to Fly tonight. More of which tomorrow.

Then to cap it all, came the announcement I've been waiting for for at least 5 years, but never really expected to arrive. Damon and Graham are cuddling on the cover of NME, Blur are doing Hyde Park in July and all is fucking right with the world.

Apart from my 360 being buggered, but hey, if that hadn't happened, I wouldn't have been bored enough to blog, so think yourselves lucky.

As an aside, the landlord of my new house has left behind two DAB radios and, as such, I have now discovered the joys of 6music. Lovely. If anyone has any other reccommendations of good DAB stations, please let me know.

Supergrass

Chinese Democracy

And another thing, while I'm catching up. As most of you now know, Chinese Democracy is fucking atrocious, but Timmy told me to blog it so I didn't piss him off complaining to him about it any more.

In brief, it's a horrible, horrible mess.

The level of overproduction, and the amount of autotune so ham-fistedly on display is gobsmacking. For comparison, take a listen to anything from Bat out of Hell 3. Now, bless him, Meat Loaf can't pitch like he used to, so there's a fair amount of autotune on that album. You have to listen real close to hear it though, because it's only done where absolutely necessary, and it's done with a light touch. The result is a Meat Loaf record which is in tune and still sounds like Meat Loaf.

In the case of Chinese Democracy, whoever's been at the desk has been so heavy handed, Axl's voice loses all of it's character. On occasions it sounds one step away from a vocoder.

It's hard to believe that it took 13 years to make something that sounds so much like everything being thrown at a wall. There's no finesse, no subtlety. Even Death Magnetic sounded like a band playing songs, Chinese Democracy sounds like a Guns n' Roses simulator programmed by an excited teenager.

Add to that the fact that the best song (the slow, piano one, fucked if I can remember what it's called) is lifted from a Polyphonic Spree song, and you have a record custom designed to piss me off.

I was going to give it some time to settle in, but much like the NME reviewer, I'm not sure I even want to give it a second listen.

Nah, bollocks. Life's too short.

Best. Night. Out. Ever!

Before I start on more recent events, I thought it only fair to post about, quite honestly, the best night out I'm ever likely to experience (unless Blur in Hyde Park turns out to be REALLY good). 

Those of you who know me, know how much I love the Wildhearts. They are (for those unfamiliar) the perfect combination of Beatles pop tunes, Therapy? riffola and Aerosmith attitude and cool. Their first album, Earth Vs The Wildhearts is, quite simply, perfect and has been in my top five ever since I've had a top five. Glad was I when frontman Ginger announced that he was following the trend and doing a 15th anniversary show, playing the album beginning to end, with an encore of B-sides from the era.

The show took place one Saturday in September at the Shepherds Bush Empire. The Empire is a lovely venue, four storeys high but not too deep. There's a good view from everywhere and, due to The Academy Group's standardised pricing, the beer's cheaper than the pub across the road. 

The sound was spectacular (not so onstage, apparently, but the band held up admirably), perhaps a little too loud for the Earth Vs set, to get over the volume of the crowd, but reduced to a more delicate level for the encore.

So, those who know me will also know that I, more dubiously, adore Andrew WK, who, as fortune would have it, was playing his first UK show in about 3 years at the Astoria 2 the very same night. I mean, that kind of timing only happens in London!!

There was no band, just him, a keyboard and a backing track, but that's all you really need. Pit injuries, the walk from Shepherds Bush to Charing Cross and the late hour (went on stage about 1.30am!) notwithstanding, Mr Wilkes-Krier got a very drunken me, very excitable indeed. No doubt much to the embarrassment of my companions.

But fuck 'em. Best night out ever. 

Photos of the Wildhearts, plus supports The God Damn Whores and Eureka Machines are below. AWK photos will follow shortly.

The Wildhearts, God Damn Whores, Eureka Machines