I heart JM

So I had my little taste of home the other night at the Mum Smokes gig. Although I was always bound to say that it was a great set (I may still have a teeny tiny crush on Jon Michell, the lead guitarist and vocalist which has reared its ugly head once more seeing as he asked me out. tee hee) I have to say it wasn't their best show. Still good but I guess it just lacked the energy that is always present at their home shows because they never seem like shows, they're like parties. Everyone knows each other and theirs always a bit of banter with the crowd (usually it comes in the form of Justin. He loves a bit of a taunting. Incidentally, he was the one at the Ariel Pink show yelling 'Play some Red Hot Chili Peppers!') The set was a mix of old favorites (they played both Simple Life and Gardening Plans, two of my all time favorites) and newbies (one in particular that had Karl and Justin on vocals. Hmm, the jury's still out on this one) A bit of unrequited feedback showed up and the sound at the George isn't the greatest but truthfully, the show could have been the biggest piece of shite and I wouldn't have cared, I was just happy to see some peeps from home.

HTRK however had the crowd hypnotised. Well at least the males in the crowd were. Their music is the stuff you want to listen to at ear shatteringly loud volume while having sex in a stiflingly hot pitch black room (or maybe thats just me) I don't know why I'm so resistant to like HTRK and I think it just boils down to jealousy to be honest. Jonnine has this unbelievably powerful sexual hypnosis over the crowd. At one point I turned around and the guys looked like a bunch of zombies. What I hate is that she knows it and really plays up on it whilst remaining completely free from humour and any glimpse of self deprecation. Again, is this just my own jealousies and insecurities that are the problem? HTRK are not too dissimilar to my band. We both have these bass-y tribal beats and try to steer clear of the verse chorus verse chorus song format. The biggest difference is that they got to do it first. They even got to move to Berlin first so needless to say their egos are out of control at the moment. When we finally make the move to Berlin though can you just imagine the monster I'm going to become?......

lord of the geeks

The Lord of the Rings stage production is mere weeks away from opening on the West End.

Do I....

a) Make fun of the people who will buy tickets and severly mock the nerds I know that will get dressed up Aragorn style for opening night

b) Don my best disguise, buy tickets and sit in the cover of darkness up the back hiding my love for LOTR

c) Admit to desperately wanting to see the it. Theres nothing wrong with being heavily into sci fi

d) Stop being such a geek

this that and the other

Just a reminder that the Mum Smokes gig is on tomorrow night at the George Tavern (Off Brick Lane) HTRK (Hate Rock Trio) are playing too. There will be a few Melbourne gig regulars there that I haven't seen in nearly a year so it should be good craic.

I finished my English teaching course last week (heaven help the engrish speakers I'll be teaching)and have just applied to teach English at this summer camp in Florence for a month. Can I not decide where I'm bloody going?!?

Just bought tickets to see hip hop/ noise freakery band the blood brothers (evol if you're not already a fan, you should be) Now the torturous wait until the gig in July.....

I'm finally going to get my ass to dover st market tomorrow. I can already feel my pants being soiled at the thought of all that good design under one roof.

Okay the weather is too lovely to be cooped up in this internet cafe. Toodles xx

friends album reviewed by other music.. sweeeeeet

LOVE OF DIAGRAMS Mosaic(Matador) "Form and Function" "What Was I Supposed to Do?"Make room for this Australian post-punk trio, who play darkly wound-up, incredibly tight rock with icy veins and cold hearts. The band's precise, architectural approach is steeped in early '90s noise pop (think Bailter Space or Arcwelder), a stern Factory vibe, and the chilly, glamorous allure of Siouxsie Sioux or Bauhaus. A lot of people have been waiting for a band this good in the genre, one that stayed truest to its roots but was able to offer up a modern-day version that could stand on its own. Crazy catchy hooks, propulsive bass and drums, and jagged guitars almost push this thing in the direction of Mission of Burma or Unwound at times, but the band retains a cool distance from any modern signifiers. Quite a surprise, and a stunning debut all in all. [DM]

Tales from the arctic circle.....

Long time no write my dears. The last couple have weeks have been pretty busy and theres so much to tell you all so lets get down to business

• Iceland was effing brilliant. Not only is it an amazingly varied landscape (the whole island is pretty much built on volcanoes, so rocky roads ahoy) with all the volcanoes, geysirs and hot springs (oh my!) but true to popular belief Icelandic kids are truly the coolest on the planet. I spent my days visiting geothermal spas (being snowed on whilst in 25 degree opaque turquoise water is an odd feeling) trying desperately not to put my hand in one of the geysirs to see what they classed as 'boiling hot', doing a few small hikes, seeing the amazing Northern Lights (no where near as bright as you expect but they danced across the sky beautifully none the less. Photos were pretty much impossible as you would expect but I took some Holga as well so fingers crossed) witnessing the sheer power of some intense recently thawed waterfalls and doing some serious shopping, or well, on my budget, window drooling. For an island that has a population of no more the 375 000, they have a fantastic collection of designers. They even have a Trippen store there. We don't even have one in friggin London! A great selection of second hand stores too where I did make the odd purchase. Its definitely going on the list of top 5 favorite places I've been.
  

• On to one of the best moments of my life, seeing Björk. Although there was a bit of a mishap and I nearly didn't. Note to self: going away over a series of public holidays when you need to pick something up from an office is not a great idea. I was supposed to pick up the tickets for Monday nights gig and the offices were closed Saturday, Sunday AND Monday which led me into a massive panic Monday afternoon when I thought I may not get in. Lucky they had set up a makeshift collection booth outside the venue (the biggest arena Reykjavik has to offer. It was needed) and I got the tickets. Björk had a few special guests up her oversized sleeves (outfit of choice for the evening was a gold imitation frill neck lizard number. It was all very 'Pricilla') and onto the stage piled the 'Björkettes' a neon clad all female horn section and the lads from Hot Chip to handle the beats. The moment I had been waiting years for had arrived. Björk burst onto the stage and broke into 'Hunter' a huge favorite of mine. For such a small package she has huge energy and stage presence although I was a little suprised at how reserved the crowd was. It was her first gig in six years in front of her home crowd and I thought they would be going nuts but it was pretty much just left to me and another solo dancer in the crowd. She then did a few tracks off Volta which were FAN FUCKING TASTIC (I cannot wait for that release date) and then had Antony (of 'the Johnsons' fame) come and join her for Dull Flames of Desire which had me weak at the knees. Other favorites that got an outing and a new arrangement were All is Full of Love, Oceania, Pleasure is all Mine, Army of Me, Hyper-ballad (which got a huge reworking and smack bang in the middle she decided it was time for a bit of a boogie so had the lads put on some pretty heavy dance beats and just danced like a maniac for 5 minutes before realising that she was still playing a gig and that she wasn't doing that alone, although you get the feeling that she really is in a world of her own most of the time and does this for her own enjoyment as apposed to doing it for us) The only real disappointment was that she didn't do a single song from Debut and only a single song encore. Oh and that there wasn't any merch. I'd planned to buy up any morsel I could to keep this memory alive in my mind for as long as I could and all that was on offer was a back catalogue which I already own. Before I knew it it was all over too soon and all I had to mark the occasion was the bill poster I nicked off a wall.

And now here I am in London again with the post holiday blues but with the whiff of Summer travel in the air (I'm thinking hold on Sicilian men, I'm a comin'!) it doesn't seem so bad. If you need visuals of the adventures above, then look at this....

happy chocolate covered holidays