What..DaMondays on a Thursday?

I Missed this Monday's DaMonday, due to it being Christmas eve and all...so here's a bit of Damon Albarn news.
Damon was the guest editor of BBC Radio 4's Today show this morning. He reported from Mali about their recycling- centered society, and interviewed and played with the upcoming British Olympic table tennis team. He also dispatched some of his friends to report on other issues he deems important. Eslam Jawaad, the Syrian rapper who guested on a Good The Bad and The Queen b-side and toured with Damon met with Iraqi musicians exiled in Damascus, Brian Eno put forth his arguments against the British nuclear defense program, Trident, and Damon's manager Chris Morrison talked about the changes happening in the music industry.
It's an interesting listen, and at the end Damon talks about his love for Radio 4. We all know how much he loves the shipping forecast!
Listen to bits of the show here
The show aired on Thursday, December 27th if you have to do some searching to find it.
The BBC news website also has this story in their entertainment section about Damon's comments.

In other news: I'm going away so stay tuned for the winner of the Best Show of 2007 announcement on January 2nd. Ringing in the new year! If you can't guess who the winner is though.. you're a fool!

Time For A Rant..

I've just realized something. I hate the use of the word "essential" when referring to music. It's a tad dramatic no? The British are the worst at this. It seems like every year end compilation mix attached to a magazine comes with a subheading involving essential. This years' Q magazine Best of 2007 of course is a culprit (as it is every year.) This mix's subheading? "15 of the years essential tracks". Miriam Webster defines essential as "implies belonging to the very nature of a thing and therefore being incapable of removal without destroying the thing itself or its character".
Now I don't know about you, but I think I'd survive pretty well without "We Used To Vacation" by the Cold War Kids, or anything by Hard-Fi, they aren't really ESSENTIAL to my being.
Q's not the only one to blame, although they're the worst. A few years back they had a whole series of mixes with dramatic titles like "Essential Dance", or "Essential Chill Out".Now there's also the Essential Mix, Radio 1's long-running show featuring guest DJ sets. Umm, I doubt I'd collapse and die if I missed Paul Oakenfold's two-hour dance mix...
I get it, yeah this music is good, but why can't Q be satisfied with just saying these are the best songs of the year? I mean come on are we really going to think Jamie T is essential in 2010?

--UPDATE: It's all over iTunes too! Ahh. Yes, apparently Toby Keith's Christmas CD is also necessary for life.

--UPDATE: I've just had a thought. I reckon Q is probably implying that those 15 tracks were essential to the year, not essential to my well-being. I might have been a bit egotistical in thinking that. However, it's still a bit of a hyperbolic statement, and those essential chill out, essential drive, essential dance, etc, mixes have no excuse. I stand by my rant!

The semi-finals continue, today on Christ's birthday, we'll have The Good The Bad And The Queen against Daft Punk. Coachella against Lollapalooza. West Coast against Mid-West, and again, England V. France. Todays winner will go on to compete against Justice, and let me tell you it is hard to beat Justice (unless you're working in the U.S. criminal system..) Oooh political! China, get out of Tibet! No Nukes... Stop The War!..etc, etc, merry christmas...jesus is fake!


THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE QUEEN

WHAT I SAID ABOUT THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE QUEEN AT THE TIME:
"O.K this was the day I was most excited about...the only disappointment was that THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE QUEEN canceled their signing in the Virgin store tent...so I was a bit gutted. We went and sat in the Oasis tent with the air conditioning for a while. We came out to see TRAVIS on the Coachella stage, I don't listen to them very often anymore, but I used to be a big fan. Their set was great, very lively..they did all the classics! Me and Kir watched KINGS OF LEON for a bit while Jim went to go and see Busy P. We all met up to see the ARCADE FIRE who were brilliant. They went crazy on stage... they got disrupted by this plane flying over with a light up sign..it was advertising the pirate radio station you could hear the new queens of the stone age album on later that night. So after the ARCADE FIRE we went and danced our pants off to JUSTICE who were sooo good!! I even danced!! I saw SPARKLEHORSE for a little bit, the tent wasn't very packed but he did a good show, Kirstin and Jim stayed in the Mojave tent for LCD soundsystem. After that I went up to the outdoor stage to get a good spot for THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE QUEEN but Gotan Project ran long so I had to suffer through that for about half an hour. I was able to get right up the front for THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE QUEEN though. I was a bit overwhelmed with seeing Damon I got a lot of good pics of Damon in classic poses, Paul Simonon was throwing shapes on stage so all my pics of him are a bit blurry! I have waited about 12 years to see Damon Albarn live so I suppose it was a dream come true! Oh I almost forgot, me and Kir got a great pic with Fran Healy from Travis right before Arcade Fire...they were all out there to see the show!"

DAFT PUNK

WHAT I SAID ABOUT DAFT PUNK AT THE TIME:
"shit i just deleted a rad blog review of lollapalooza complete with a pie chart diagramming the ratio of Pearl Jam to Stone Temple Pilots/ Bush/ Smashing Pumpkins played on mid-nineties G-105
CRAPPPP
Lollapalooza pics coming soon......." Um...so nothing?

O.K so disregard my Travis-love...it was hot in California, I wasn't sane.. once again my show reviews are a bit lopsided, and once again it has no bearing on my decision. However, funnily enough.....

The Winner Is: THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE QUEEN!


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Now playing: Moose - This River Will Never Run Dry
via FoxyTunes

IT IS TIME....The Final Four battle to see who will be crowned my favorite show of the year! It's tense, all of these acts' careers are riding on this one decision. Well, O.K maybe not, but lets give it a go anyway. It's been tough, there's some musicians that I would have loved to get this far but my wicked-complicated bracket system kicked them out already (M.I.A, Klaxons..) Erm, well it's not that complicated...
The final shows left are:
The Good The Bad And The Queen at Coachella.
Justice at the Metro.
Cornelius at Park West.
Daft Punk at Lollapalooza.
To even it up a bit the match ups will switch a bit so the two festival shows will compete and the Metro show and the Park West show will compete. This should even up any advantages (or disadvantages) a festival show would have.

Today's match up will be Justice VS. Cornelius!
WHAT I SAID ABOUT THE JUSTICE SHOW AT THE TIME:
"Justice played a sold out show at the Metro, and guess what? The way I dance IS a mystery! Of course it was great. This show isn't for the faint of heart. There's none of the obligatory "slow" songs...you know, the times when you stand still except for a few head nods, and reflect on the ridiculous dancing you were doing a few minutes prior. Nope, none of that. Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay are probably the most boisterous, and least subtle, producers of dance music around today, so it's fitting that they have adopted the worlds most arrogant symbol as their main light show (and as the title of their album). A giant cross lit up most of the show, it's lights flashing in time with the music. Now, I'm not sure how to tell all of you Christian dance music fans this, but I don't think it's because they love Jesus. It's probably more to do with how much they love themselves!

Never mind, you would have thought it WAS the second coming of Christ (well, you know, if Christ was split into two French people). Their music does sound as though it would accompany something biblical- just listen to the beginning of "Genesis" on their album and then try to dispute it. Eh? Eh?

Justice wanna make your ears bleed, and they almost succeed! They did all the "hits" and even popped in a little bit of Klaxons before going into "We Are Your Friends", which has to be one of the best remixes ever!
Justice are so good that I'd probably still like them even if they WERE a real Christian band!"

WHAT I SAID ABOUT CORNELIUS AT THE TIME:
"Cornelius was brilliant @ Park west on Monday, he's a star fluit sulf lider!"

To be fair, my Cornelius re-cap was before I started this blog, hence its concise nature. The length of my post show run-down has not much bearing on who I'm choosing as the winner, it's just coincidence.
Tonight's winner is:
J U S T I C E!

Christmas number one...

I came across this while I was reading a website about how hard it is to move back to the U.K. after being abroad.. (I've been getting all sentimental and wistful about Britain lately, what with making the Christmas pud' and watching lots of British T.V. My sentimentality is quickly waning now that I've seen the house prices in old Blighty and there's always happy slapping to remember!)
Anyway in Britain, the song at number one in the single charts on the Sunday before Christmas is known as the Christmas Number One. It is the highly prized and coveted jewel in the increasingly irrelevant U.K single chart war. Usually, this honor is bestowed on a horrendous novelty song (look up 1993's CNo.1 "Mr. Blobby, by Mr. Blobby, or 1971's "Ernie- the fastest milkman in the west" by Benny Hill for examples)
It has also been awarded to hyper- sentimental songs like Queen's re-release of "Bohemian Rhapsody" with "These are The Days" in 1991 to mark the death of Freddie Mercury. Perhaps the worst Christmas number one crime was the 1996-1998 stretch when the Spice Girls had three CNo.1's in a row..forever tarnishing the saintly aura surrounding this honor.
This year there's a grassroots effort to get the song "We're all going to Die" by ex- Arab Strapper Malcolm Middleton to number one this Christmas. The tough competition includes the winner of X-Factor (a British "Idol" type show with Simon Cowell at the helm). Now I'm not sure if it would help for Americans to buy the Mp3 of the single but it's worth a try. Wouldn't it be nice for something a bit different to win out this year?

You can hear the song here and find links to buy.

DaMondays are here again! This week: a look at two duets with very high profile musicians. The first, an early clip of Damon singing "Waterloo Sunset" by the Kinks with none other than Ray Davies. It's from an episode of The White Room (the Channel 4 music show hosted by radio DJ Mark Radcliffe, not the KLF album, or the Cream song) and looks to be from about 1994/5 (the height of Blur's popularity in Britain.) It's one of the greatest songs ever, and this version's not too shabby; although it might be the most "duetted" song ever by Ray Davies - pimping it out to all and sundry. It ends with a shambolic bit of Parklife! The second video is a more recent duet from 2003 with another of my "imaginary friends" (I'm liking the quotation marks today) David Bowie. On a French TV show, Damon joins David for fa fa fa fa fa Fashion...Damon looks a bit embarrassed by it, and his attire is NOT appropriate for a Bowie duet, come on Damon..it's Bowie dress up! Anyway, it makes for good entertainment, even just for the pure spectacle of it.

Who will join The Good The Bad and The Queen, Justice, and Cornelius in the final four?




M.I.A. AT THE VIC
VS.
DAFT PUNK AT LOLLAPALOOZA

WINNER: DAFT PUNK
UP NEXT THE FINAL FOUR COMPETITION!

NEXT.....Keigo Oyamada against Win Butler and co.





CORNELIUS AT PARK WEST
VS.
THE ARCADE FIRE AT THE CHICAGO THEATER

WINNER: CORNELIUS

It's the dance your pants off fight to the death. Wrigleyville goes up against Ukrainian Village, France against England, Jesus against erm...well hustlers.....


JUSTICE AT THE METRO
VS.
SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO AT THE EMPTY BOTTLE

WINNER: JUSTICE (because it's almost jesus' b-day!)

Next round! We're down to the final eight competitors, it's getting brutal..Well actually the first decision was easy. It's a battle between the festivals as the winners of the Coachella group and the Pitchfork group go head to head!



THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE QUEEN AT COACHELLA
VS.
STEPHEN MALKMUS AT PITCHFORK

WINNER: THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE QUEEN AT COACHELLA

I don't need to explain DaMondays again do I? See the previous Damondays posts for an explanation of this weirdness! O.k so in honor of the new Gorillaz movie (kind of), here's a clip from Blur's 1992 documentary Starshaped. It follows the band around on their Modern Life Is Rubbish era tour. It's directed by Ceri Levy, and here's the connection...he directs the upcoming Gorillaz documentary!! So this bit shows the band going to Stonehenge, with the best line going to Graham Coxon when he describes Stonehenge as "a bit like going to see Morrissey, it's not quite as big as you thought!"
Ahh yes young Damon, back in the days when he used to wear shirts and ties...with "fake" glasses!
The song at the beginning is "The Wassailing Song" which is a very rare Blur release, you can buy the 7" here for only $515.00!

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Now playing: Soulsavers - Revival
via FoxyTunes

The honorable mention award goes to Klaxons for their prolific tour stops in Chicago, and around the world. Unfortunately they were inched out of the competition in the first round, but that was only due to these factors:
•There was no Urban Outfitters, or Schubas bracket.
•They were up against stiff competition at Coachella and Pitchfork.
•I had a bit of Klaxons fatigue by the time I saw them at the Vic, therefore M.I.A won that one!
If there was a competition between the five places I've seen Klaxons this year, I'd have to say their Coachella performance would win!

UP NEXT...THE ELITE 8 FINALISTS SQUARE OFF!

Last of the first round competitions...the final festival bracket.



LOLLAPALOOZA bracket:

DAFT PUNK

VS.
LCD SOUNDSYSTEM

WINNER: DAFT PUNK

Next battle of the bands.....NME shockwaves style!





VIC bracket:

M.I.A

VS.
KLAXONS

WINNER: M.I.A

This is the wild card bracket. I only saw one show each at the Riviera, and at the Chicago Theater this year, but they were pretty large. Therefore, I've made this special group for them....

WILDCARD bracket:

CHEMICAL BROTHERS (at the Riviera)

VS.
ARCADE FIRE (at the Chicago Theater)

WINNER: ARCADE FIRE

Next up..the Park West bracket. I only saw two shows there This year so the two bands automatically made it to the sweet sixteen...lucky them! One's a Japanese experimental musician, the other's a brilliant "Dad-Rock" band I saw with my parents. That doesn't mean I didn't love it...just seeing my Dad do the one leg tap dance was worth it, basically going to a concert with your parents is fun....But does it give the Waterboys enough credit to overtake Cornelius?...let's see...(just so you know the little thumbnails of the bands are mostly from pictures I took at the shows..hence the terrible quality of most of them!)


PARK WEST bracket:

CORNELIUS
VS.
THE WATERBOYS

WINNER: CORNELIUS

Last one for today....






EMPTY BOTTLE bracket:
SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO

VS.
FUJIYA & MIYAGI

WINNER: SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO

Next match......this one's not a festival.......




METRO bracket:
CRYSTAL CASTLES

VS.
JUSTICE

WINNER: JUSTICE

I've just written up the match-ups to see which venue will be battling who in the elite eight. So here's
the skinny: I've picked 2 shows from each venue or festival, and then there's a wildcard "region" with a show from the Riviera against a show from the Chicago Theatre.... Since I only saw one show at those venues. Anyway here's a look at the bracket, written on the back of a junk credit card offer envelope.....with tea spilled on it. OFFICIAL.

So after The Good The Bad And The Queen defeating Bjork in the Coachella bracket, here's the next battle, another festival match-up.


In the PITCHFORK FESTIVAL bracket:
STEPHEN MALKMUS

VS.

CADENCE WEAPON

WINNER: STEPHEN MALKMUS

O.K so this is the beginning of my "Best Show of 2007" tournament. I'm starting with 16 concerts in 8 brackets, based on "region" with two wild cards. In a fight to the death, you'll see the show that I deem The Best Show Of 2007! Erm obviously I don't actually understand the correct word usage for tournament brackets so bear with me....
The first match-up is in the COACHELLA Bracket:
THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE QUEEN
VS.

BJORK


WINNER: THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE QUEEN