What The Hell Is Going On? #11: Rockfeedback’s World Tour Pt. 2
By: Thomas Hannan
I love Monday mornings.
Let me qualify that - I love Monday mornings that involve going to Urchin Studios in Limehouse to record the latest instalment of the Rockfeedback Sessions. Especially when the band performing for the episode in question is none other than No Age, one of our favourite alt-rock bands of recent times, treating us to a blinder of a four song set that took about three hours to set up, but due to the thrilling brevity of their compositions, all of about fifteen minutes to record. And that included the Saddam Hussein impression. What with them releasing a wonderful new EP, us sending our beloved Matthew Tomiak down to review them at their highly anticipated Scala gig this evening, and rumours of a secret show in East London with Pens tomorrow night, we thought it only right we give them our Artist of the Week slot, and will happily kick anyone who disagrees in the shins. Hard. Our thanks to the band, Stacey Walton, and Matt & Dan at Urchin for making today happen – check back shortly for the footage.
Sure, when the first thing you do with your week is a No Age session first thing in the morning, it’s possible that the rest of it could be something of an anti climax, but we hope the following quality programming helps ease that pain somewhat. Until that session arrives, we’ve some great stuff premiering on an excitingly diverse few days on Rockfeedback TV this week.
We start the second part of Rockfeedback’s World Tour, introduced last week, with a stopover in Berlin to be entertained in a particularly glamorous fashion by Zoot Woman at the 2008 MELT! Festival, melding dance rhythms and rock hooks in a way that went down unsurprisingly well with a tent full of hyped up Germans. A complete about turn is taken on Wednesday when we unveil a special feature length show focusing on one of the most remarkable things we’ve ever shot, namely Swedish duo Wildbirds & Peacedrums (pictured above) playing in the round with a twenty (twenty!) strong drum circle as accompaniment to singer Mariam Wellentin’s lone, frankly incredible voice. We’ve got the whole set, performed at the wonderfully weird Ritual For Elephant and Castle gig (run by Nomad at London’s Coronet), and an accompanying interview to feast on. We end on Friday by diving deep in to the archive and surfacing with jittery Liverpudlian rockers Hot Club De Paris far away from home but very much in the zone, captured at Iceland’s much admired Airwaves festival back in 2006.
Elsewhere this week, we’ll be spinning records in to the early hours at the fantastic Videopia night at London’s Notting Hill Arts Club on Tuesday, with Jeremy Warmsley’s recent Club Rockfeedback stars Acres, Acres and Shellac-meets-Clor genius of The Siegfried Sassoon providing formidable live musical entertainment whilst a room of pretty people try to recreate scenes from Dirty Dancing for the benefit of the Videopia cameras, who screen the always hilarious results on a big screen later in the night. It’s truly one of the most unique and enjoyable nights we know, and not just ‘cos they always let us play Prince songs ‘til 2am. Come, and hassle us for songs.
Oh, and have you got your tickets for our Cymbals Eat Guitars show at London’s Lexington on November 12th? I’m just sayin’, if you don’t get ‘em soon... s’looking like one of those.
Tom.x