I'm digging...

Best Coast.

I'm sure you've heard of them, since you haven't been living under a rock for the whole of this year!

But, for anyone who HAS been living under a rock, this is surfy stuff with gal vocals at its best.

And it is this gal vocalist, Beth Cosentino, who gives Best Coast the edge over all the other American bands making fuzzy lo-fi indie in their sweltering garages at the moment. She's laid-back yet confident at gigs and gives the band's songs a heartbroken slant, sounding as though she's jumped off the 'girl group' bandwagon, all arms flailing but with her sweet voice surviving intact.

And she has a cat called Snacks, who features not only on Best Coast's album cover (above) but also on that of another American group who write sun-soaked slacker pop, Wavves.

Perhaps this aint so surprising since Beth Cosentino is dating Wavves' man Nathan Williams. What an alternative couple that doth make.

But here's a track from Best Coast's debut, which I receive on merry yesterday along with other lovely goodies like this:

(I've been waiting to own this since SEPTEMBER when I fell in love with it and I know it's been SITTING in my mother's wardrobe ever since just waaaiting... waiiittting... and I finally got to wear it on christmas day. Woop)

and these:

(uh, I did get two though. I'm not one-legged. No offense to anyone who is... Hi there!)

and this:

(So intellectual. Thanks ma and pa.)

Ok I got a little distracted there, here's a song! It's just a short one, the title track of the album. What I like a lot about Best Coast's songs is that they're completely unpretentious. They're not particularly avant-garde in any way, they're just sing along pop tunes that infect your brain with catchiness. But not in a Simon Cowell produced way. Win.

OH and I hope everyone had very merry days yesterday. And are enjoying leftovers today..!

x

happy christmas your arse, I pray God it's our last

och aye

Well guess what..

Despite the hideous problems some travellers have been experiencing this week due to England's incapacity to deal with snow n ting (I know some people who've been stuck in transit between Kenya and home for over 60 hours... Not fun), my madre and I have managed to touch down in Edinburgh. It's as snowy here as it is back home in Wiltshire, as you would expect from Scotland, I suppose (not to generalize or nuffink), and very, very cold!

It's my first time up here, and I haven't really had time to explore yet, buuut I DO have a view of the castle from my window, so I'm liking it so far. I will take a few photos as I mosey around over the next few days getting a feel for the place and doing last minute Christmas shopping!

But I have a question for YOU (yes YOU); if you know Edinburgh at all (if you've even been once you're a step ahead of me) where are your favourite haunts? If there are any natives out there then pray tell, pray tell.

On another note, how happy does this photo make you:

Yes, yes and three times YES.

Misfits is incredible. Anyone who hasn't seen the last two series has missed out... Gowaaaan, give yourself an Xmas treat and stream it online, there are only 6 eps per series sooo it'll give you a couple of days of reclusive snuggle-up-with-a-duvet-and-your-laptop-and-don't-move fun!

x

Oh, you pretty thing

He sings, he trumpets, he fiddles... This is the tale of when Alice, Kate and I toddled off to see the multi-talented mr Johnny Flynn in Exeter.

Although first there were some support acts, so let us begin with those.

First up were Melodica, Melody and Me. We missed the first part of their set (partly because we were distracted by seeing Johnny at the bar with his family, awww bless) but what I heard, I liked. I had heard of them a little before, having heard their debut single 'Piece Me Back Together' earlier in the year, and I knew that they had toured with some of the best in Britain (well, in my books) such as the Mumford lads, Bombay Bicycle Club on their acoustic tour (wish I could have seen that..) and Laura Marling. SO if they're good enough for the Mumfords, Jacky Steadman and Lazza M then I'm sure they'd be good enough for me. They were one man (well, woman) down, and I'm not sure why - they might have explained earlier in the set when we were still hanging casually by the bar trying to catch the eye of a certain Mr Flynn - but this did mean they were lacking the girly vocal harmonies which, as far as I can tell, are quite integral to their sound. But hey ho, it was still a lovely set. A friend of mine received a melodica for his 18th (this is one, for those who don't know!) and we haven't heard anything BUT melodica ever since. He is a very competent pianist, so therefore is relatively skilled on this instrument also, but it was nice to hear someone play with real melodica 'skillz', as it were. It was marginally less shrill when combined with the other instruments of the band too. So yeah, definitely one to check out. Here's their myspace.

Then came Basia Bulat. Now here was a Canadian lass I had never heard of, but really impressed me. She came on and started her set with a song completely a cappella, the only accompaniment her hands clapping and her high heeled boots banging out a rhythm on the stage. Her voice sounded so powerful, more so than it comes across on recordings I've heard since the concert. She's definitely worth a looksie, though. We met her briefly after the concert too, and she was such a sweet and genuine gal.

Johnny himself looked ravishing as ever. I realize I do go on about his looks rather a lot, and they are definitely deserving of this praise, but obviously what is more deserving of praise is his gorgeous voice and beautiful songwriting (although as Kate pointed out, the latter does seem to revolve around a few basic topics: 'being homeless', 'food', 'death' and 'religion'. Not to knock it, or anything! Those categories do make his music seem pretty suicidal. But it's good, I assure you!)

We were right at the front on the right hand side, just in front of the Sussex Wit's cellist, which was a prime position in my opinion since we could see the whole stage and marvel at Johnny whilst also keeping one eye on the epic cello playing going on right in front of us. We did then discuss for a good 10 minutes how to convert the word 'cello' into a verb. I cell, you cell, he/she/it cells? It has a certain je ne sais quoi, don't you think..?

Anyway, the set was bursting with old and new favourites, opening with a first album track 'Cold Bread' (see what we mean about the food thing?) and then newer single 'Kentucky Pill' which is a Johnny track to groove to if ever there was one. A couple of highlights for me had to be 'the Wrote and the Writ', which is one of my favourite songs ever, I think; it's quite stripped back compared to some his other songs, so exposes his rich baritone over just a guitar accompaniment. Barnacled warship gave him a chance to do some fiddling, and our fave neighbour 'cello man' got a prime spot in this one too, while during parts of the bluesy lollop of 'Howl' Johnno grabbed his trumpet (positioned so temptingly close to the edge of the stage that we could have simply grabbed it and made a mad dash for the exit...).

As is the usual case, after the final chord of 'Tickle Me Pink' rang out through the venue Johnny and his chums made a shambolic and half-hearted exit, knowing full well that we were still waiting for duet 'The Water' and a lovely euphoric stamp to 'The Box' before we would be satisfied to go home. To be fair from our front position we could also see cello man's set list, where these two songs were typed at the bottom, separated from the main set by a telling gap. Sure enough, they returned to the stage and gave us what we wanted. We had been discussing, at the beginning of the night, who would sing Laura Marling's part in 'The Water' in this live version.. My guess, before the band had come onstage, had been that it would be Johnny's sister Lillie, who sings harmonies on his albums, but I was wrong. It was in fact the band's keyboard player, a chap, reaching up into Laura's alto range with surprising ease. It was unexpected, but lovely. And then, after a good stomp along to 'The Box', it was time to hit the road (jack). I mooned over a limited edition tour poster for a while at the merch stall, priced at the extortionate rate of £18 (for a POSTER, jeez..), and we decided to do our usual 'hang around until most people have left and therefore hopefully bump into band members' ploy. Like I said before, we said hi to Basia Bulat, who was really sweet, and then heard a tip off that Johnny was hanging out down at the side exit. Needless to say after a couple of minutes of dithering we headed in that direction.

We were, of course, smoooooth operators:

"Oh, Johnny! Fancy seeing you here! How strange! Umm... Great show by the way... Umm... Can you sign this set list I stole from mr Cello Man..? Ermm, my name's Georgie... thank you so much...! Umm..."

We also told him about the '4 basic topics of his songwriting' which seemed to amuse him, mildly. So, a successful meet 'n' greet, I would say.

Here's Howl. Oh my god I only just discovered this session recording of it and ... Blimey. Do, do watch it.

So that was that evening. A good'un.

More from me soon, I promise!

love. x

falalalala

My life's been feeling a little bit métro, boulot, dodo recently I'm not gonna lie. But NOW dear friends I am home for a month over the christmas period. Hurrah! I shall now endeavour to post more regularly, with interesting things, etc etc. Let's call it a christmas holiday resolution.

So the next four weeks shall (hopefully) be a fun whirlwind of blogging, sleeping, seeing old friends, spending way too much on train tickets and eating way too much on christmas day. And then realizing a few days into January that I haven't done any of the essays I am supposed be getting on with. Ah, the festive season. Nothing quite like it, is there?

Here's something I've been listening to a lot recently, thanks to a recommendation from my dear friend Katelin:

It's a cover of Robert Palmer's 'Addicted to Love' that dear old Flo has done. S'good.

Sorry this was a shortie - as I've mentioned recently (ish) I'm off to see JOHNNY FLYNN tomorrow night so expect a mammoth post giving yous the lowdown when I get a chance!! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will meet him and he'll fall instantaneously in love with me so.. If you fancy saying a little prayer that that might be the case it would be mightily appreciated!! Haha.

Over and out.

A Swedish Love Story

Sorry for the fact that, as per usual, I have been a rubbish blogger who disappears for weeks on end every once in a while.

Well here I am again, with a nugget of both audio and visual goodness for you all.

I just can't stop watching and listening to this.

The band is summer camp, who I've probably mentioned before - they're a duo made up of Jeremy Warmsley (a man who personifies 'geek chic' and who also has plenty of awesome solo tunes) and Elizabeth Sankey. I saw them at Camp Bestival in the summer and it was lovely, I really like their sound, I've loved everything I've heard since their first single "Ghost Town", which is also worth a listen.

And this video... All the clips are taken from 'En Karlekshistoria', a Swedish film made in 1970. I'm captivated by it. The little girl is possibly one of the most beautiful girls I've ever seen. It's a bizarre sensation watching these kids smoking... I swear they all look about 11, but their tender age is part of the beauty of it in a way. After seeing this video I scoured the internet trying to find a way to watch the whole film with subtitles, but to no avail....

Basically this video is now one of my favourite things. 'Nuff said.

my, how you've grown!!

little did they know.........

brings a tear to your eye, doesn't it?

All grown up.

I'm absurdly excited.

So don your hats, grab your brooms and draw glasses and scars on your faces with eyeliner pencil - it's off to the cinema we go!!

x

ps. Although I'm not going to be able to see it until sunday or monday. Eeek, life is so cruel and unfair.

cheeky

I'm very much obsessed with The Cheek right now.

The main focal point of my obsession with this band is probably their lead singer Rory...

I am falling truly madly deeply in love with him.

ilovehimilovehimilovehim.

But obviously it's all about the MUSIC, not just the image, so here's a song:

this video is a little clichéd in the sense that it is essentially shots of the band interspersed with those of horribly hung-over hipsters wandering around a house. But I'm sure it's ironic. Rory's dancing makes me happy. And it's a bangin CHOOOON.

All their songs are just incredibly catchy. Not sure when the album is FINALLY going to come out, but when it does I will certainly be first in line - and I've heard it on the grapevine that they are very good live, too, so I'm looking out for any headline tour dates of theirs that aren't 3 hours away from me, like the one that's coming up in Selby! Goddangit.

I'm also a big fan of their album artwork, not sure exactly why, I just think they really work;

So yes. Keep your eyes on these chaps....

x

If I could be anyone right now......

... it would have to be Clémence Poésy.

She's one cool cat... n'est pas?

Sorry for - yet again - been gone so long. I'm home for the weekend and am currently looking over all my favourite blogs - YOURS if you're lucky.. haha - for the first time in a few weeks. I'll post again soon. Say hello in a comment if you want, that always makes my day, because I'm a sad soul like that.

HOW GOOD was misfits on thursday? Answer: Very.

HOW EXCITED am I for the first installment of Hazza Potts 7? Answer: ridiculously, ridiculously, ridiculously so. Anyone else as freakishly obsessed? Just me? Ok..hah....um... ha....

x

I'm done with my dying

ah, Johnny and Laura.

doesn't raw talent like this just give you a wee bit o' the shivers.

I love these two.

Isn't Johnny's voice absolutely flawless?

(Not to mention he's not half bad to look at, but I've mentioned that on here before a fair few times!)

I think I am going to go see him on the last date of his UK tour in Exeter in December, which is a VERY exciting prospect because I've never seen him live before! But I've heard excellent reports from all my friends who have. I've seen Lazza Marling a couple of times now, though, and she is equally as brilliant.

Watch the video right till the end because the way he says 'cool' after the song itself has finished sort of makes my heart melt!

x

ps. 'the water' is out now as a single! Show the boy some love. Plus it comes with a lovely B side, Chimney Sweepers, which I bought alone on itunes today since I already had the main track! Huzzah for London folksters. There's nothing quite like 'em.

don't eat too much candy, now.

never seen you in the light of day.

so, as most of you probably know I popped over to cambridge on monday night to see Mystery Jets.

the first support slot was a band who were called Youth. or maybe it was 'the youth'? I was trying to find them on myspace or youtube earlier today, because although their set was v. short I liked what I heard, but 'YOUTH' is a frustrating word to search for. let me explain why. 1) it is a word in its own right. 2) if you try 'the youth' that is also the title of an MGMT song, so therefore meaning you find that. 3) EVEN if you resort to trying 'youth band' or 'the youth band' YOU END UP WITH LOADS OF VIDEOS OF YOUTH BANDS PLAYING THINGS LIKE BEATLES MEDLEYS AND THE PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN THEME MUSIC RAUCOUSLY AND WITH LOTS OF BRASS.

I already HAVE to do that in my school concert band, which I am obliged to be a part of since the music department partially pay my school fees... *shiver*

so, yeah. the enigmatic 'youth' were good. I'll tell you more if I ever discover their music again.

Youth

Then played Tribes. They were also good, and less mysterious; their myspace is pretty easy to find.

I like this: WHENEVER by TRIBES

I don't know if that will work. Apparently that is a link to the song on myspace. Who knows.

Their lead singer had a certain sex appeal too.

Tribes

And THEN it was the main event. Mystery Jets rocked onto stage. Blaine looked as much a rock star as anyone despite his crutches, and Will... kind of like a businessman. Maybe that was just me?

It was a really awesome show. The one downside was that, although we had been standing right in the middle very close to the front for the support bands, as soon as the Mystery Jets themselves started everything went a little pear-shaped. I'm as up for a bit of jumping about as the next person, but... we kind of had this feeling that a few people were there not for the gig so much as for just a 'fun night out', since it was only £12.50 for a ticket. So it got very mental in the centre of the crowd, very quickly. And it just wasn't fun. I think it was exacerbated by the fact that it was a small venue; I saw Muse last month but since it was Wembley, even though it was packed out, it wasn't the frantic crush that we experienced on monday night. I got stepped on by some bitch in stilletos (stilletos? At a gig? Why? I bet [and hope] she lost them) and elbowed in the face by a fat sweaty man who just shouldn't have been there at all. Gah.

So we only stuck it out in the centre for a few songs, then retreated a little way to the side. And the atmosphere changed, utterly, within about a metres walk. On the little fringey outskirts of the main crowd were, clearly, the true fans, those who were having a little dance and singing all the lyrics but didn't want to lose their lives. Also, from here you could actually see the band, whereas from my previous position my view was, more often than not, of someone's armpit, rather than of the stage.

Blaine. Aaah, blaine. How do I love thee, let me count the ways, etc.

So the set was nearly all from the new album, which we were expecting, and since the new album is awesome, this was fine. They didn't play anything from their first album, 'making dens', though, which was a trifle strange - though they threw in some old favourites from '21' like '2 doors down,' 'hideaway', 'hand me down' et al. Hurrah.

see what I mean with the businessman thing? Yes?

Kai Fish. He HAD to be famous with that name, surely.

So a fun time. One of my favourite moments was when they played the song 'After Dark', which is a Count & Sinden track featuring the old MJs, with Will singing. It's a dancey one, pretty different from their own stuff - they said at the beginning of the track that they don't play it very often, with Blaine adding "I don't know why." Neither do I - It worked so well live. And just as I thought it couldn't get any cooler, I heard the opening chords to 'Hideaway' and they merged into it, with lots of sirens and pizzazz. Man it was cool!

AND we saw Kai on the train back to London that night. It was in a way a highlight of the night, and in a way a massively annoying occurrence... What happened was this. We had been sitting on the train for about 45 minutes discussing - amongst other things such as long words and fudge - the gig. Then we came into Finsbury Park. Not our stop. No big deal. THEN we noticed through the window a man who had just got off the train wearing a cool, and strangely familiar shirt. (see the second to last picture for details). Someone said 'shit.. is that Kai?' We all agreed that yes it most certainly was and started to bang furiously on the train window. He turned round and gave us a friendly smile and returned our childish waves as the train drew away from the platform. He had been in our carriage.. listening to our entire conversation plus our occasional outbursts of humming/whistling his band's songs. Frustrating in a way. I'm sure had we spotted him in the carriage we would have had some super chats about life and music and the universe and we would be best friends by now. Oh Kai, if only you knew what could have been.

Toodle pip, and to finish, here's the Count & Sinden ft. Mystery Jetzzz song I mentioned somewhere above in my long and rambling stream of consciousness. It's a really fun song and video, do give it a watch.

x

There's a limit to your care.

Proper ear porn, seriously -

Listen with the best headphones you own, then you'll get what I mean. Seriously. That's important. In fact, even if they're rubbish headphones... PLUG 'EM IN.

Thanks to the Bubble Boy for recommending this one.

The video's blissfully simple, too.

An astute description by a youtube commenter is 'liquid dubstep,'

and another wrote: 'please do NOT try to make "dirtier than your sister's whatever" dubstep of this! It's perfect."

I concur.

x

ps. Mystery Jets tomorrow night!! I'll let y'all know how that is, I'm mega excited. Yay yay.

tell me that things will turn out right

I don't think I ever got round to exalting the praises of Blaine and the lads back in August when I first bought this album. It's darn good, and, according to guitarist/vocalist Will Rees, "it's got a lot of cock in it." Interesting.

Anyway, it's packed with tunes.

I posted 'flash a hungry smile' back here when they first released it on their website as a free download back in May, and now I've got the album I can safely say that the rest of it certainly managed to live up to that song (which I had pretty much on repeat for about a month).

They've recently released the video for 'Show me the Light', one of my favourite songs from the album. It's one of those songs which, for some reason I can't put my finger on, just makes me feel really happy when I listen to it. The video is nice too; simple, and really nicely shot. And the slightly muted colour of it is nice. I like a lot.

this comes out as a single on the 1st of November.

I'm going to see them live next monday in Cambridge, which I am rather excited for - I've seen them once before but that was at a festival, so it's a slightly different vibe really. Their support is a band called Tribes, who I have heard of but don't really know much about, so I'm going to look into them a little more before I go... But yes! I'll post about it with pictures and whatnot in about a week's time. What fun.

x

If you got the money

Thoroughly impractical, relatively ridiculous...

But I want them so....

Here's a tune I have pretty much had permanently stuck in my head this week:

It's an epic modern rethink of a Billy Joel classic...

Listen to it!! And the video is amazing too.

I do love King Charles.

Such a dude.

Anyone else a fan?

Here's another one of his, Love Lust.

HOW EPIC IS HIS HAIR IN THIS VIDEO?

I KNOW, RIGHT.

YEAH.

x

ps. Regarding the 'no blogs at my school' battle, I have now managed to bully the IT department to let me get onto my blog at school. Woop de doo. But this does mean that I can't go on any of YOUR blogs unless I am at home... Which sucks, massively. SO, if I don't reply to your comments immediately, rest safe in the knowledge that I do love you, and will reply as soon as I get home and have the chance!! That's a promise lads. Muchos loveos.

look up, look up

Fenech-Soler.

When I looked up the vid for this song I wasn't expecting it to be quite like this... But I think it works!

First heard about these chappies through the Bubble Boy, actually, who recommended their remix of Marina & The Diamonds' Hollywood - which, by the way, is EPIC, check it out!! Just wait for the drop, man.. yeah... sick..yeh.

(But do, and if you're lazy/short of time, skip to about 1:36 to hear it.. but you may as well hear the build up too raaiiighhttt?)

Anyhoo,

they seem like fine young lads, having a fun time in the music bizniz, and producing some bangin' choons. Go Fenech-Soler. Woop.

x

Crumble Time

We made SUCH a good crumble last weekend.

I cannot EXPLAIN to you how good this crumble was.

Blackberry and apple; and we went off a-foraging for blackberries ourselves, which is always fun.

mmm-mmmmmmmm.

Like seriously, I think we are culinary geniuses. Not to brag or anything.

And we had some sweet Nina on the ipod speakers.

A very nice afternoon, all in all.