What the hell is going on? #22: Rockfeedback’s World Tour Pt. 8
By: Thomas Hannan
Alright mate.
It’s an exciting week this week, as we launch the inaugural Emerging Talent Awards with our friends at the Gaymers Camden Crawl. Full details of that can be found here, but in essence, it’s a chance for a load of YOUR bands to play a set at the legendary Roundhouse in London as part of this year’s Crawl, and win a load of amazing stuff, from studio time at the Strongroom to guitars, microphones, and a load of money and cider. Brilliant. Enter, why dontcha.
On the Rockfeedback telly side of things this week, we’re back on the Rockfeedback World tour, taking in places as varied as London, Barcelona and... Dorset. Whilst I’m fully aware that Dorset is in the same country as London, anyone who has visited the End of the Road Festival with attest that its rolling fields and two-peacocks-to-every-man policy is a world away from Hackney’s Victoria Park, so we demand that any whinging ceases forthwith. Thank you. Anyway, the bands certainly aren’t anything to moan about – we start today with a set from The Horrors (pictured above – see the video here), terrifying and enthralling in equal measure the children of the Underage Festival 2009, and also talking to our very own Toby L about the curious nature of being in a band. Then it’s off to Barcelona on Wednesday for a revealing chat and gig from 4AD stalwarts Throwing Muses at the 2009 Primavera Sound bash, whilst Friday’s jaunt to Dorset has us feature the delicately charming quirky folk of Bella Union’s Ohbijou performing in a tent at the aforementioned E.O.T.R. festival.
Furthermore, the Rockfeedback TV cameras will be pointed in the direction of two particularly exciting events this week, one being a Rockfeedback Session with nine piece Welsh indie pop combo Los Campesinos! performing in our very office, the other a Real Talk piece with the infamous Anton Newcombe of The Brian Jonestown Massacre fame. The last time we met sure was eventful. He promises to be sober and “on his best behaviour” for this one, perhaps sadly.
On the site this week, we recommend showing some love to our Artists of the Week, the Amish math-rock of Islet (Amish? Well, they sure as hell seem to hate the internet...), who also play what looks to be one of the best new band showcases of the year at the Lock Tavern in London this coming Sunday (January 24th) – Frankie and the Heartstrings and Swanton Bombs are also on the bill, making it relentlessly killer. We’ll also have a huge report from Rockfeedback overlord Toby L on the goings on at the premiere of the Blur movie (which we detailed on our Twitter account) No Distance Left To Run - which instantly became our favourite film ever – as a round up to an article detailing Blur’s movements in 2009, much of which we were lucky to witness first hand. A novella on the topic will be with you in due course.
What else? Well, we’ll be DJing as usual at the first birthday party of our good friends Videopia (celebrating a whole 12months of “film karaoke”) at the Notting Hill Arts Club in London on Friday night (January 22nd – details here), I’ll be spending all by birthday money with Mr Toby L at the Kensington Olympia Record Fair on Saturday, and from 7.30pm tonight on London Fields Radio you can hear Dan, Kev and myself from the Rockfeedback team comparing farmers markets to punk rock for the pleasure of the discerning listeners of Nina Smetek’s Eat This! Show. Listen online as we make fools of ourselves.
Bye bye.
Tom.x