Filed under: Music & Gigs
These days, you can’t charge for music the way you used to. Having pretty much grown up with this, it makes perfect sense to me- after all, when you buy a CD you’re not actually buying the music, that still belongs to the record company, and £12 is a LOT for a small disc of plastic.
And everyone knows about Pirate Bay, and even if you care about dumb copymusic ownership laws, there’s always Spotify.
But it’s still nice when an artist gives away their stuff for free. Especially when it’s FUCKING AWESOME. So download the new Freeland track, Under Control, here.
This video demonstrates that by making a complete dick of yourself in front of as many people as possible, you can often get free stuff. In this case, tickets to a music festival. I will definitely be putting a team together- I’d do this even if there wasn’t a prize, it looks fucking awesome.
Filed under: Music & Gigs
In case you didn’t know- Marianne Faithfull will be permforming tracks from her new album, ‘Easy Come, Easy Go’ for FREE at Rough Trade East (just off Brick Lane) tonight at 7pm.
You need to get a wristband to go, these become available from the store at 6. I’m totally going to try and go if I can get out of work early. I’m pretty excited- apparently it’s her best album since Broken English. Hope to see you there!
I have to preface my review by saying that I might not feel so strongly if I had not had such high expectations set by the group of people I went with, who promised me that it was the best night in London, and that I would deeply regret it if I missed it, and that it was absolutely my kind of night.
Soul of the Sixties represented everything I dislike about soul nights. I want to hear a wide range of soul music that shows the different facets of the genre, with elements of funk, blues, and disco, and what I got is just a load of motown. I’d also quite like to hear a bit of rarer soul, perhaps something I haven’t heard of- there really is so much to this genre, and there’s no need to rely on the same five or six artists and only play their two most famous songs. And while I’m all for versatility, I didn’t come here to hear music that patently ISN’T soul, but is just from roughly the right era- ‘Jailhouse Rock’ should not be on your playlist.
On the other hand, a lot of people there seemed to love it, so if your less of a soul snob than me, you should definitely give it a try! I should also mention it’s not technically free, but I’m including it since I got in free on the basis that my brother’s boyfriend knew a friend of the girl on the door, so I figure you probably know them as well as I do!
French Revolution is a music night at 93Feet East showcasing French bands. It’s free, but the beer is extortionate (£3.80 a can!!)
The Tatianas and La Shark are two completely polar opposite bands, that I couldn’t even believe were on the same bill.
The Tatianas clearly believe themselves to be the next Libertines, despite being about 5 years too late to be the next Libertines. The singer’s impression of Carl Barat is very accurate, but not exactly relevant to modern music. I did like the way the two guitarists had coordinated their ‘rock n roll’ look so thoroughly that they were identitical, from their Beatles haircuts and bum-fluff moustaches to their leather jackets, faux-vintage black and white t-shirts, retro guitars, ripped skinny jeans, and presumably scruffy converse trainers, although I couldn’t see their feet.
The gaggle of sixteen year old groupies at the foot of the stage were lapping it up, in their plimpsolls and tea dresses and bleached blond hair, doing their ‘I’m so indie’ dancing- the kind where you just jerk your body around without really moving your feet, like an out-of-control puppet. But to me, it sounded like a pastiche of bands I used to like as a teenager; a hollow, superficial shell of a performance that had such a fixed idea of what it SHOULD be there was no room for creativity or artistry.
La Shark are everything the Tatianas are not. They were the most vibrant band I’ve seen in a long time; the energy just seemed to flood out of them. They weren’t trying to BE anything, but they were wholly authentic and… substantial. I almost left after the utter disappointment of the previous band, but my friend convinced me to stay by describing La Shark as ‘the sound of someone faxing you a carnival”, which I can see, but trust me, La Skark aren’t a facsimile of anything. Please look out for them if they play near you.
