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My Top 10 CDs of 2002

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New official South site to coincide with the upcoming release of their new CD "With the Tides"   Check it out since you can hear the excellent new single "Loosen Your Hold."  the CD is going to be released at the end of August.  From the sound of the single and from talk on the livebetweenthelines message board it sounds as if they have dropped the Lavelle influence.

posted by Fawaz at 1:27 PM

 
More on the crazy hype about the Kings: 2003.07.11 Astoria Show Review and the KOL EPK
I love how the NME gets behind fresh young bands and then acts like they are the greatest thing in the world.

posted by Fawaz at 10:43 AM

 
OK, I am seriously pissed. My family and I moved from the 'burbs of Chicago to Kalamazoo, MI last summer for job reasons. I am seriously missing living near a city that has good concerts. Of course when living near Chicago I never took full advantage of all the shows there, I could never attend as many shows as the NYC blogger crew does (see themodernage and braquage for examples) but I did see my fair share of excellent shows. Of course now living in the middle of nowhere (not really but it feels like it) I constantly see listing of bands that I love or bands that I am discovering coming to places like the Metro, Abbey Pub, or Double Door. I really wanted to see the Coral earlier this year, I really liked their Zappa-ess debut CD and know I am really loving the new single 'Pass it On'. So just now I was looking up some stuff on them when I can across a review of the show I wanted to attend and would have if I lived near Chicago. Kings of Leon + The Coral - PopMatters Concert Review So not only did I miss the Coral, but I missed seeing what I think will be the hottest new band this year. I already missed the Strokes opening for Doves at this small venue two years ago. Oh well. At least I got to see my hero Richard Ashcroft there.

posted by Fawaz at 3:35 PM

 

Some really cool Coldplay stuff on Radio 1 this week.   First of all Steve Lamacq has a nice half-hour documentary titled: The Ticking Of Clocks: Coldplay In America, there is an uncut interview with Chris Martin from which sound-bites make up some of the doc.   And lastly there is Lamacq Live from Monday where part of Coldplay's set from this past weekend show at the T in the Park Festival up in Scotland.   New Coldplay song 'Moses' is included.    Some interesting stuff in the doc and interview, The talk about how great the Hollywood Bowl shows were and which celebs showed up, Chris kind of addresses him and his 'high-profile' girl friend, Chris talks about the new songs and how they aren't going to be playing anymore since the ones they have played all get out on the internet instantly and they want to save the really good ones until later.  (can't wait for the new album.)    But one thing I found puzzling is that Chris mentions how even though they play the game of kiss-ass with radio stations they haven't sold out by doing adverts.    If they haven't done adverts who exactly is the band playing over a ton of HBO spots.   'Yellow' was pretty prominent in a ABC networks promos advertising their show line-up a couple years ago and now 'Clocks' is featured in the trailer for 'Peter Pan'.   Maybe the band don't know about this. (I read in this review on a St. Louis show from the excellent looking hotandcoldplay : 
   "Once inside, the conversation goes back to American television and I tell them that I've just gotten a call (from my son) to tell me that that night's episode of "Alias" featured one of their songs ("God Put A Smile Upon Your Face.") They had no idea. So I tell them that last week's "ER" featured their song "Clocks". They say they never know when a television show will use their music."
Or maybe like A-list US celebs hawking stuff in Japan they don't consider adds outside of the UK and adverts.   Anyway I think hearing Coldplay songs so much on TV tied to some promotion of some show or movie cheapens their music and I really hope they stop soon.

You can't hear the Coldplay set on the archived Lamacq Live show, but you can check out live songs from Kings of Leon, the Charlatans, and the crappy Darkness.

The excellent picture below can be viewed along with a ton of other excellent shots from the Coldplay show at Red Rocks (played 20 years to the day as U2's legendary show) on this page from this site: the Scientist.

posted by Fawaz at 10:48 AM

 

Could a band like this be the kings (of leon) of cool rock in 2003.   Looks like with the buzz building in the UK (and of course in NME) that they will be.  The NME review stated that their new CD 'Youth and Manhood' is the best debut since 'Is This It?'      I do agree some songs are great rockers, not sure if I really like the CD, but it took me a couple months to like the Strokes, after I got over how retro they sounded.     Just like the Strokes they sound retro although taking a different musical style as a source (Southern rock instead of NYC new-wave garage) and just like the Strokes they have the right UK pop icons going to their shows.   Unlike most bands the NME hypes I agree that they will become popular.   Check 'em out on left cost Lolla' shows.

posted by Fawaz at 4:28 PM

 
Sorry for the lack of updates lately. Reason #1 We have a new beautiful baby daughter. Reason #2 A complete lack of sleep.


I am listening to the new UNKLE CD right now, it's pretty good, and I'm sure it's a grower. Check out this Mixmag cover article in full
posted by Fawaz at 12:45 PM

 

So Glasto 2003 is over, looks and sounds like it was a great success.   Looks spectators didn't see a lot of rumors pan out like a live acoustic set by festival go-er Noel Gallagher, a performance by Paul McCartney, or Wayne from the Flaming Lips singing his song with the Chemical Brothers, people did get to see Bez jump on stage during the Rapture's performance of 'House of Jealous Lovers'.    At first I thought that it was strange then I recalled how the new Punk/Rock//Dance scene and how it happened years ago with bands like the Stone Roses and of course the Mondays.   The 22-20's and Kings of Leon got the best star turnouts with Travis, Doves, and Primal Scream turning out for the Kings and the always gorgeous Kate Moss the 22-20's.  Radiohead, Doves, Super Furries, etc, etc seem to have played excellent sets.  I am going to forget my dreams of Coachella and concentrate on getting to Glasto soon.

Also NME has an funny Glastonbury survey.   How about a survey for people who only experienced this years glasto from updates on NME, dotmusic and listening to Radio 1.

NME.com is accepting votes on which poster to include in the July 12th issue.  Some of them are pretty cool.  But 3 Har Mar shots, please no more.

posted by Fawaz at 3:05 PM

 
Up to date Glastoonbury blog from the folks at BBC's 6 Music. Looks like they might have bad taste in music though - especially since they enjoyed Pryamid Stage openers The Darkness. Possibly one the of worst new bands and one of the leaders of a terrible new trend in reviving 80's glam heany-metal.
posted by Fawaz at 9:03 AM

 

If there wasn't enough going on the the jet set festival going people who live in Europe with Glastonbury going on this weekend.   On Friday in the Czech Republic there's a open air night of some of the best electronic music around.   Sets by both Adam Freeland as a DJ and as Free*land (his live band.)   He's appearing Sunday at Glasto. Check out the sweet location.

 

Here's an interesting article from Jo Blo's Movie Site about a dude getting caught for sharing a pirated movie. This time it was the Hulk and it was 2 weeks before the movie was even out. Pretty interesting to see how they traced it back to this one guy. The dude is facing a felony charge. This along with the recent RIAA RIAA announcements might start a decline in the online sharing of movies and music. Yeah Right!
posted by Fawaz at 2:11 PM

 

I thought I was jealous of the folks who went to Coachella this year.   Well that jealousy doesn't compare to the jealousy to the people attending Glastonbury this year.    I found a site with the full line up with times in a nice spread sheet fashion.  Line-ups link courtesy of Rock-Roll No Fun   I printed it off and planned my weekend like I was actually going.   (I know I am sad).    People have already started setting up camps.  For those of you like me, you can check out the webcasts for some excellent bands on Playlouder.   I'm definitely planning on checking out Super Furry Animals and Doves (I am dying to hear some new songs from these guys)  Maybe even Interpol and the Lips.

Whatevs has taken over themodernage for my favorite blog.   Great site that distills of bunch of the best pop-culture info that I am addicted to.    Plus the blog originates from the same state as me.   Make sure to check it out because it really is a great blog.

posted by Fawaz at 8:47 AM

 

Not sure how long this will be available, but here is free 1 year subscription to The Week.   I think it's a great little magazine, it compiles articles from other magazine and newspapers from around the world and serves 'em up.  Check out the magazine's website here.   A normal subscription is pretty expensive. (courtesy of john's crawlspace)  Also for more cheap magazine deals check out the deals at Ableshoppers for 6/22 and 6/23.  Entertainment Weekly for $4/year.

posted by Fawaz at 2:39 PM

 

Eminem ripped it up in England this weekend.   The show featured 50 Cent, Cypress Hill, D12, Xzibit, and Obie Trice.   There were 70K people there to see one of the worlds biggest stars.    Many celebrities should up including 50 Cent fan Gary Oldman.  Maybe his character, Drexl Spivey in True Romance rubbed off on his real life interests.

posted by Fawaz at 1:29 PM