Miike Snow are cool

This is a public service announcement.

Miike Snow are an awesome Swedish band.

If you ever get a chance to see them, drop everything, buy a ticket, jump a fence, kick the bouncer in the balls and run, just do whatever you have to do to see them.

I dismissed them at Splendour because I thought Miike Snow was a folky singer-songwriter and so probably went to the Mo-rockin wine bar instead.

But a week before Good Vibrations Nathan was singing their praises (pun intended) so I thought I would give them a go. Funny thing is, I've had them on my iPod for months after Nathan topped up my albums. Lordy lordy, had I been missing out!

And they were fantastic at Good Vibes, absolutely fantastic.

So don't make my mistake peeps, get out there and listen to them!


I won't waste your time with my revelations, hello my friend I see you're back again, hello mystery don't bother to explain...

I heart Groove Armada

So, Parklife was pretty rubbish. About an hour after we got there I realised that I am too old for this shit.

Reasons why I am too old...

I didn't have half my arse hanging out

I haven't been bulking up on steriods in preparation for the summer music festivals

I didn't wear thongs and have mud splashed all up the back of my legs

I didn't get so drunk or drugged that I didn't even make it in to the festival before security bailed me up and took me away

I didn't cut in front of 20 people at the bar by sneaking in the exit like a coward

I didn't push other people and try to physically walk through them when the crowd was lining up to get through to the main stage

I didn't stand with my back to the stage so that everyone on the hill behind could see me dance

I didn't join in the skanky last-ditch-attempt group-sharing make-up session in the ladies toilets at 8pm

I didn't miss out on Groove Armada's last performance in order to see bands that will play at every other music festival this year and next year and probably the year after

But, oh, were Groove Armada worth it! The were freaking awesome! Best. Performance. EVER! Honestly, it was on par with the magical musical moment that was Goldfrapp at Splendour. Tom and Andy and co seriously rocked it, and made up for the crapness that was the rest of the day.

As for the douchebags that were filing out half way through the set, leaving the Riverstage the most empty I have ever seen it at a music festival, I would like to say thank you. Thank you for leaving, it made the performance all the more amazing that I didn't have to fight with you for dance space, or hear you talking through the set, or deal with your posing and poncing.

I've got three months to recover from Parklife and get the rose-tinted-glass perspective, before I front up to Sunset Sounds in January....


"So I might have to be the one to turn the world around, put love where they had hate and make the world get down, and you might have to be the one to change it with me too, and if they try to stop us we'll say funk you too"
The Girls Say, Groove Armada

Hi y'all

When requested to write original material, I suddenly went quiet, despite a lot going on lately. Well, here's a wrap up.

In the last few weeks I...

• Met Rusty's younger, better looking brother outside Jess's apartment building - Rusty used to be a damn good looking bike, but now he's like a handsomely weathered older man
  
• Nearly ruined Nathan's pristine white kitchen with a flood of red wine (which was then overshadowed by Tyler setting a napkin on fire and nearly burning Nathan's apartment to the ground)
  
• Was dumped in a most passive aggressive way
  
• Had the best time at Splendour with my closest friends, where I danced and I walked and I ate donuts as big as my head and I bought a dress and I got a stomach ulcer from a frozen margarita and I slept in a station wagon and I enjoyed spending some time with Ross and Sarah and I wore leopard print gumboots and I experienced my happiest music moment ever at Goldfrapp.
  
• Spent a hilarious night with Jim Bob and Michelle and a bottle of red wine (it was Sticks Pinot Noir, Nathy!), discussing what sounds look like
  
• Fell a little bit in love with Iggy, Jim Bob's son
  
• Found out that Rusty needs $800 worth of work done (can you really put a price on my safety, fun and happiness though?)
  
• Have been absolutely under the pump at work, so really should get back to it
  

Later skaters...

Song of the day: Do You Realize??

Today's song of the day is The Flaming Lips' "Do You Realize??".

According to Wikipedia... The Flaming Lips are an American rock band, formed in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma in 1983. The band is known for their lush, multi-layered, psychedelic arrangements, spacey lyrics and bizarre song and album titles—for example, "Psychiatric Explorations of the Fetus with Needles", "Free Radicals (A Hallucination of the Christmas Skeleton Pleading with a Suicide Bomber)" and "Yeah, I Know It's a Drag... But Wastin' Pigs Is Still Radical". In March 2009 "Do You Realize??" was announced as the official rock song of Oklahoma. Ten choices were put to a public vote, and out of 21,000 votes cast nearly 51% were for "Do You Realize??". They are also acclaimed for their elaborate live shows, which feature costumes, balloons, puppets, video projections, complex stage light configurations, giant hands, large amounts of confetti, and frontman Wayne Coyne's signature man-sized plastic bubble, in which he traverses the audience. In 2002, Q magazine named The Flaming Lips one of the "50 Bands to See Before You Die".

And I have been fortunate enough to see their amazing live show. They closed Sunday night at Lovebox in London in 2008 with this song, and it is one of my favourite music festival moments of all time *smiles*

Do you realize that happiness makes you cry? Do you realize that everyone you know someday will die? And instead of saying all of your goodbyes, let them know you realize that life goes fast, it's hard to make the good things last, you realize the sun doesn't go down, it's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round...

Song of the day: 49 Percent

Today's song of the day is Royksopp's "49 Percent".

According to Wikipedia... "49 Percent" is the second single from the Norwegian duo Röyksopp's second album The Understanding. The song initially was written as "Don't Give Up" and sung in live shows, then was developed into "49 Percent" and "Don't Give Up" was covered by the band The Whitest Boy Alive (of Erlend Øye). The word Röyksopp is a stylized version of the Norwegian word for the puffball mushroom, "røyksopp" or literally, "smoke mushroom".

I saw Royksopp at the Get Loaded in the Park festival in Clapham Junction in London last year, and was utterly disappointed. The tent was too small, the sound was rubbish, and the crowd was full of idiots. I still like Royksopp and I still like this song though.

49 percent, one percent short of half, and less than half ain't really much of nothing...