I'd only known about early 80's "synthpunk" band The Units through their collaboration with Bill Nelson on their New Way To Move EP (1983). And since then I've not seen or heard anything from them... until now!
History of the Units is a recently released 21 track selection of their work. There's some cool stuff on it too. Sadly though, it won't sell many copies, and they'll remain an obscure itch on the backside of synth music history, but at least it's out there for people to stumble upon and enjoy.
Now tell me this music video isn't great! Found instructional film footage over Warm Moving Bodies...
Mick Jones and Tony James are back! From their forthcoming album - The Carbon Bubble, here's What's Up Doc? - a nice bit of thrash, accompanied by an excellent, fresh and funny animated video.
Carbon/Silicon - What's Up Doc?
I remember seeing Carbon/Silicon preview this song live at their Carbon Casino 9 gig in Hammersmith just before Christmas. At the time, it just passed over my head as a lot of loud concert noise. However, another new song, Unbelievable Pain, stood out as being something quite special. The Carbon Bubble sounds like it could be the album of the summer.
Well Sony may be cashing in on his forthcoming Superbowl half-time appearance with an unnecessary "Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band Greatest Hits" and Bruce may end up playing at Glastonbury this year (Noooo!), but things aren't all that bad...
There'll be a new album proper in 3 weeks time, and more than likely another tour starting in the Spring. Geez, I'm still a bit feeling a bit Bruced-out and broke after seeing so many shows on the last tour - However, my enthusiasm is starting to build up again thanks to a newly surfaced, fan made, DVD release called 'The Lowlands'. Capturing 10 songs from Antwerp and Amsterdam last year, it's been nicely shot on a HD camera and dubbed with a fine audience recording. Really fun to watch - especially when Bruce and the band dig oldies like this one out of the E Street vaults...
Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - I'm A Rocker 23rd June 2008, Antwerp
That's got the old 'Bruce Juice' a flowing! OK, so I'm A Rocker is from my favourite Springsteen album, but any song that mentions James Bond, Columbo, Kojak, Mission Impossible and the Batmobile has to be classic in my opinion!
Following last year's 'Six Strings For Sara', Bill Nelson has written and produced another new song to aid a children's Cancer charity.
The suitably tuneful 'A Million Whistling Milkmen' is available now and can be downloaded in FLAC or mp3 formats. All proceeds from the song's sale will go to the Sara's Hope Foundation.
HHIBA! DYMMWIWA? Late nights at work and the curse of Facebook has meant that I've neglected this blog for a long time. It's not like there's been nothing happening! The Credit Crunchie, Harry Redknapp, Nelsonica, Light of Day, great gigs from The Godfathers, Carbon/Silicon and The Hold Steady, and hey Ben Folds was pretty good as well!
Time has just flown by, and now it's Christmas already. Hey kids, have you checked your Parents' wardrobe for presents yet? You never know what you might find. Just remember - Santa can be so good for you...
Back from my hols, with a new job and my PC muthafuddaboard temporarily coming back to life - I guess I've got no excuse not to continue on with this blog... So much rubbish to write, so little time and so few readers... Hell, here's a 15 second run through to bring things up to date since my last post:
Start new job. Take a well earned holiday! Jump on a plane - > Austin - "Don't Mess With Texas"/ Millions of bats/ Fantastic Fest: The Tingler!/ Estomago/ The Good The Bad And The Weird/ Austin City Limits: David Byrne/ Bobby Bare Jr (twice!)/ John Fogerty/ CSS/ Gnarls Barclay/ Beck and The Foo Fighters -> Dallas: 'JFK blown away'/ Longhorns -> NYC - Happily drunk in a Brooklyn bar watching Biden vs Palin/ Up close in Jesse Malin's intimate new Bowery club whilst his 'spoken word' + songs concert goes on and on and on for the cameras.../ -> Back to Blighty. Back to work :-(
Sigh, the clocks go back soon. Darkness and the recession are coming. Nothing much to look forward to now except Christmas... Hold on a minute, there's Nelsonica 2008 in York on November 1st - better than Christmas for Bill Nelson fans! Yay!
Bill Nelson - Mr Magnetism Himself (1979 b-side) New video by YooToober 'Zobiemoro'
Well, last night to be precise - Tokyo Police Club entertained a young crowd at ULU, London, on the last UK show of their current tour.
It's been a year since MustyMC and I saw them play in the hot and sweaty confines of the Camden Barfly. I can remember thinking then that 'these guys are going to be big'! Well I guess they are getting there slowly - a good first album proper and ULU is a step up size wise, but last night it was hardly close to full and the crowd were a bit lacklustre. Maybe it was just down to it being summer and not term time. Calling the youth of today - TPC need more students!
I see that they are going to be supporting Geek-fathers Weezer on tour later in the year, hopefully that will help raise their profile. Cheer it on.
Oh, give us your vote Give us your vote If you know what's good for you Your English Is Good/Nature Of The Experiment/Cheer It On
"In the future, a man returns home from war only to discover that his town is now dead, in more ways than one. Fortunately, he finds comfort both in some undead monsters, and a very, very special album."
Written, edited & directed by Daniel Fox and Terence Krey. Nice job. It's better than the official Radio Nowhere video! Plus it has the Gonk!
Tonight I caught The Hold Steady giving a free in-store performance at Rough Trade East, in the old Truman Brewery, Brick Lane, London.
As they began to play I was up against the right hand speaker - whoa! It was painfully loud. Rather than stand there with my hands over my ears, I gave up what I'd thought was a prime position and moved round to the side. I was slightly behind the action with a restricted view, but I could enjoy the songs without my ears bleeding and my brain vibrating against my skull...
The band ran through a short sharp 11 song set to promote their new critically acclaimed album Stay Positive. For some reason I've not found the album to be the immediate knockout that Boys and Girls in America was. Up until tonight it has been slow to grow on me. However, hearing the new stuff live does make all the difference, and now I'm really looking forward to seeing The Hold Steady's next proper show in London @ The Roundhouse on October 8th. 'We Gotta Stay Positive'!
I managed to grab a tad (pun intended) of video with my little Sony, one of the quieter moments - it's just a shame I was on the wrong side for Tad's excellent guitar solo!
Lord, I'm Discouraged - The Hold Steady
Stuck Between Stations (end clip) - The Hold Steady
Setlist: Constructive Summer/Stuck Between Stations/Magazines/ Yeah Sapphire/One for the Cutters/Lord, I'm Discouraged/ Sequestered in Memphis/Navy Sheets/Joke About Jamaica/ Stay Positive/Slapped Actress
Two new Carbon/Silicon tracks (featuring Gary Kemp) are available now as free downloads: Maybe that's the Meaning of Life and The Inconvenience of Truth. Get your mpfrees here
Friday: I arrived in Boston from NYC by Greyhound bus and flopped onto my bed at the very nice Royal Sonesta hotel right on the Charles River. I needed to quickly figure out how I was going to get to the Bruce Springsteen concert the next day. The problem was that it was at the Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, about 40 or so miles away from downtown Boston, and there was no means of getting there by public transport. I guess it's a bit like trying to get from London to a concert in Milton Keynes with no car, trains or buses.
When I bought the ticket I knew that the stadium had a station next to it for 'event trains' i.e. there was a train service for events at Gillette Stadium. As I was to find out, with no help from the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transport Authority), the event train was not being provided for this concert!! Nightmare! Everyone going would have to travel by car - 50,000+ people is probably 20,000 cars, and at $40 to park the Stadium's going to make a hell of a lot of money!
I was stressed out. The nearest train and bus services were miles away and not running after the show's end. I was quoted $120+ each way for a taxi (if I could get one) and around $170 an hour for a 'car service'. I guess if I'd had my driving license with me I could have hired a car and paid the parking, but it wasn't an option. So, I decided to see if I could get a ride with a fellow fan who was going to be driving there from Boston. I posted my request to a Springsteen message board and crossed my fingers. At this stage I was seriously considering just eating my ticket and not attempting to get to Foxboro at all. Thankfully someone came through with an offer of a lift (thanks Howie!) and I could relax and enjoy my evening.
Saturday: Having previously arranged my transport for the night, I was able to take an interesting 90 minute boat trip up the Charles River that focused on its locks and bridges. It's always great to watch a bridge open, especially ones like this giant monster or the swing bridges around Manhattan. The rusting metal, the weight, the giant gears grinding. It seemed to me like a kind of Victorian steampunk.
Now on to the evening's entertainment. The striking open-ended design of Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots, is weird but very pleasing on the eye. As we arrived the heavens opened. Torrential rain fell and lightning bolts crashed down all around us. Whoa! Everyone was cleared from the pitch as the tropical storm passed overhead. I was thinking about the next day's headline - '50,000 fans fried in stadium strike!'. Fortunately the severe weather soon died down and the concert could go ahead, albeit an hour late. Another curfew busting post midnight finish was on the cards.
At 9:20pm Bruce and the band started to race through another marathon set that was to include a sign requested Little Latin Lupe Lu, a passionate Tunnel of Love, the inevitable Who'll Stop The Rain and a very rare appearance of that almost forgotten Born In the USA single I'm Goin' Down. It was great fun.
By all accounts it was a good show. I enjoyed it, but this time, standing to the side of the stage rather than in front of it, watching the screens and the crowd, I found myself a little detached from the performance. Sadly, I've not got any great video or pictures of the event - just this crap phone photo looking towards the back of the stadium during Glory Days...
Setlist (courtesy of Backstreets): Summertime Blues/Tenth Avenue Freeze-out/Radio Nowhere/Lonesome Day/The Promised Land/Spirit in the Night/Tunnel of Love/Little Latin Lupe Lu/Does This Bus Stop at 82nd Street?/Hungry Heart/Who'll Stop the Rain/Youngstown/Murder Incorporated/She's the One/Livin' in the Future/Mary's Place/The Rising/Last to Die/Long Walk Home/Badlands. Encore: I'm Goin' Down/Jungleland/Born to Run/Glory Days/Dancing in the Dark/American Land/Rosalita (Come Out Tonight). Boston Globe Review
Sunday: My last day of this short trip. I was up early to catch a Whale Watch boat from the harbour - more of which in a later post.
Then, after one of the best plates of Cod and Chips ever, it was just a case of heading for Logan airport and my flight home via Newark. Of course it wasn't that simple, another thunderstorm hit the east coast and that meant I couldn't meet my connecting overnight flight back to Gatwick. Nightmare! So, powerless, I reserved a spot on a flight out the next day and started to look for a hotel room... Then for the second time that weekend someone pulled through for me - a nice lady at Continental managed to squeeze me onto an American Airlines direct flight back to Heathrow; 'grab your bags and run'! Result!
I'm now shaking off the jet lag from a short jaunt across the pond; just 3 days in New York and then 3 in Boston. My aim was to take a break from the pain of job hunting and rejuvenate myself with a couple of E Street Band concerts. It was a trip that would add more pointers to my insanity. 'Broooce'!
July 29-31 New York/New Jersey Not the best of months to be a tourist in NYC. The streets of Manhattan were sweltering. Underground it was worse. Down on the sauna-like subway platforms it felt like I was following a trail left by Arne Saknussemm. Welcome relief from the stifling heat was however provided in the cool air conditioned trains.
Tuesday: After arriving and installing myself in a nice cheap-ish hotel on the upper east side, I headed out across Central Park, past frisbee catching dogs and the humans and turtles alike sunbathing down at the lake.
I'd come to New York to see Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band play but I'd not got a ticket. Doh! So, moving around town I was stopping off at Star*ucks watering holes and using their Wi-Fi hotspots to try and score a ticket via the net. No joy! There were hundreds of tickets available online, but only at vastly over inflated prices from arseholes on eB*y and Stubh*b. W@nkers!
Wednesday: Frustrated, I decided to relax a little, just slip back into tourist mode and enjoy the city. I took the subway down to Brooklyn Heights and made what's now become my traditional walk back over Brooklyn Bridge. My usual DVD, CD buying frenzy then took over before I sat back with a 'small' soda the size of a dustbin, and enjoyed the fun and stunning visual beauty of Hellboy II: The Golden Army.
Thursday: Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band were going to be playing a third night @ Giants Stadium, on their New Jersey home turf. The concert was sold out and I had no ticket... My best hope was to try the drop line at the stadium and see if there might be a return. I arrived at 10am and became the 7th person in the queue. I was in for a long long wait out in the 90 degree heat with no guarantee of getting into the show.
By late afternoon the queue had grown to several hundred people, all hoping that they might get lucky and be part off the 55,000 capacity audience. The sun blazed down, and shade was at a premium. Sunburn and heat exhaustion were becoming a problem. As I stood there on the concrete by the stadium fence, fans with tickets were arriving in their thousands, setting up tailgating parties in the vast parking lot. They had music blaring out and were enjoying their barbecues and cold beer. I was wilting. Water, beer everywhere, but not a drop to drink.
Event staff numerically wristbanded us in queue order and we were told that chances of getting a ticket were not good, and if any were available they would not be given out until just before the show start at around 8pm. So what's a few more hours to wait eh? In for a penny in for a pound. As it turned out the show start was delayed to around 9:30pm due to a major traffic incident involving a propane gas container, and this meant that the ticket office didn't start releasing tickets until around 9pm! All my fingers and toes were crossed.
Fortunately, I ended up with a great seat on the floor. I was in line with the back of the General Admission standing area ('The Pit') where I could see Jesse Malin and 3 of the Seeger Sessions Band 10 yards to my right, packed in like sardines. The lights dimmed. A colliape played The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze as the E Street Band took to the stage, and then Max Weinberg started hitting the drums...
Summertime Blues - Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band 31st July 2008, Giants Stadium, Meadowlands, New Jersey
It was of course a fantastic show - a Jersey special. At 30 songs, 3 and a quarter hours long, it finished at around 12:45am and tested the physical endurance of the crowd. After queuing in the hot sun for over 10 hours I was absolutely knackered. I must have been nuts. My feet were aching and I was fit to drop just 12 songs in, but Broooce and the energy of the crowd kept me going until the end. I've now seen 3 shows at Giants and each time the atmosphere in the old stadium has been tremendous. Song highlights for me included Blinded By The Light, a sweet Pretty Flamingo, Incident On 57th Street prompted by a sign requesting it 'For Your Old Bald Fans', and the ever powerful Because The Night which had Nils Lofgren embellishing his stunning spinning guitar solo with a John Otway-like forward roll!
Setlist (courtesy of Backstreets): Summertime Blues/Tenth Avenue Freeze-out/Radio Nowhere/Prove It All Night/Two Hearts/The Promised Land/Spirit in the Night/Light of Day/Brilliant Disguise/Pretty Flamingo/Blinded by the Light/Cadillac Ranch/Candy's Room/Night/Because the Night/She's the One/Livin' in the Future/Mary's Place/Incident on 57th Street/The Rising/Last to Die/Long Walk Home/Badlands. Encore: Jungleland/Born to Run/Bobby Jean/Dancing in the Dark/American Land/Jersey Girl/Rosalita (Come Out Tonight).Star-Ledger review.
Shagged, I got back to my hotel at 3am, took a cold shower to cool down and then crashed out, grabbing a welcome few hours of sleep before getting the bus to 'Bosstown' on Friday morning...
'Mirrors should reflect a little before throwing back images' - Jean Cocteau
It's a quote that I often say to myself after waking up in the morning and taking a look in the bathroom mirror. Uggh, not a pretty sight. I can't help the fact that, as a child, I fell out of the ugly tree and hit several branches on the way down. Beauty is supposedly perceived in the eye of the beholder - when I look in the mirror all I can see is someone who looks like Rondo Hatton.
Perhaps though I can be helped? Trinny and Susannah could give me a style makeover, and Gok Wan could make me look good naked! I could get my eyelids lifted or have a botox injection. A little touch up and a little paint and I could be a thing of beauty, a joy forever. Albeit a fake one.
Bill Nelson - When Your Dream Of Perfect Beauty Comes True
Being a fan of Bill Nelson's music I stumbled upon the above unofficially made video. I've no idea where the original film is from but the chosen instrumental track fits it well. When Your Dream Of Perfect Beauty Comes True is from Bill's excellent 1982 album The Love That Whirls (Diary Of A Thinking Heart) - my joint favourite album of all time.
Saturday 14th June, Millennium Stadium, Cardiff. "Helo Cymru". It was the first time Bruce Springsteen had ever played a show in Wales, and acknowledging this he opened with the rarely played rocker From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come), a song he'd donated to Welshman Dave Edmunds way back in 1981. Not a bad start to another magnificent, energetic, emotional stadium performance.
The wristbands allowing access to the front 'pit' standing area were given out early at around 1pm which meant I could have a nice relaxed afternoon down at Mermaid Quay, drinking a cold cider in the hot sun, and filling myself up with a Harry Ramsden's take out. At 6:30pm, feeling refreshed after a quick snooze back at my hotel, I entered the concert venue and took up a good position a few yards back from the stage barrier. I've got to say that the Millennium Stadium is great, much nicer than the soulless new Wembley, it's nice and compact with the stands hugging the pitch - if you are going to see a stadium show in the UK then this is the place to go.
With the vintage of the E Street Band, the no doubt exhausting touring schedule and potential health issues related to their age as a backdrop, there was a point during Clarence Clemons' long and marvellous Jungleland sax solo when my eyes welled up. I was realising that this might be the last time I'd see it performed live. The atmosphere in Cardiff seemed highly charged at that point.
All good things must come to an end I guess, but who knows?, maybe not! As the show finished, for the first time on this tour Bruce said 'We'll be back', more specifically 'Wales, we'll be back'. I hope so, it's a trip worth repeating.
Setlist: From Small Things (Big Things One Day Come)/Tenth Avenue Freeze-out/Radio Nowhere/No Surrender/Lonesome Day/The Promised Land/Blinded By the Light/Magic/Atlantic City/The River/Gypsy Biker/Darlington County/Because the Night/She's the One/Livin' in the Future/Mary's Place/Working on the Highway/Devil's Arcade/The Rising/Last to Die/Long Walk Home/Badlands Encore: Jungleland/Thunder Road/Born to Run/Rosalita (Come Out Tonight)/American Land
Ladies and Gentlemen, set the dials on your time machine for November 1st 2008 - Nelsonica 08.
Before then, out now - two new instrumental albums have just materialised; Silvertone Fountains and Illuminated At Dusk are available at Bill Nelson's Online store
I've just been contacted by someone via last.fm telling me that a band called Pivot will be joining YMO on Sunday 15th June at the Meltdown Festival, South Bank Centre, London.
Scratching my head, I was thinking 'who?', so I decided to investigate a little...
Check out this brilliantly freaky video - it's great and Pivot sound pretty good too! It should be a good night.
Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band. Friday 30th and Saturday 31st of May 2008, Emirates Stadium, London. Arse**l's new home hosted its first set of concerts, much to the annoyance of the local residents. With lots of talk about a worried Islington council enforcing noise and curfew restrictions, I was a bit concerned that Bruce would be reduced to performing a short acoustic set!
I shouldn't have worried. Friday night was an immense rock 'n' roll experience - "Nobody's played here before? We gotta test that structure tonight!". An incredible selection of 28 songs, opening with a storming Tenth Avenue Freeze-out and including an intense 'Darkness' 3 pack of Candy's Room, Prove It All Night and Because The Night with Nils Lofgren spinning like a top on his closing blistering guitar solo. After which, without pause, Bruce swung into a series of uplifting singalong crowd pleasers, and then finally quietening things down with a rare and reflective Point Blank before building up again through tales of redemption to a barnstorming encore.
Setlist: Tenth Avenue Freeze-out/Radio Nowhere/The Ties That Bind/Lonesome Day/The Promised Land/Magic/Atlantic City/Reason to Believe/Candy's Room/Prove it all Night/Because the Night/Working on the Highway/Cadillac Ranch/Livin' in the Future/Mary's Place/Waitin' on a Sunny Day/Point Blank/Devil's Arcade/The Rising/Last to Die/Long Walk Home/Badlands Encore: Thunder Road/Born to Run/Glory Days/Rosalita/Dancing in the Dark/American Land
Phew! Saturday night. Could Bruce and the band match or top the show from the night before? No, not quite, but it was great nonetheless. The strict 10:30pm curfew meant a few less songs, however there were 12 different choices from what was played on Friday. Old classics like Sandy and Growin' Up resurfaced, and Downbound Train and I'm On Fire made their tour debuts.
Mary's Place (end clip)
Changes to the set on the fly, whilst good, affected the flow of the show a bit and at times it came across a bit disjointed compared to Friday. But hey, a total of 40 different songs over the two nights is pretty incredible. For me, Saturday's highlights were the performances of the Born To Run heavyweights, Backstreets and Jungleland, holding the stadium audience in awe.
Girls In Their Summer Clothes (end clip)
Setlist: Out in the Street/No Surrender/Darkness on the Edge of Town/Gypsy Biker/Radio Nowhere/4th of July, Asbury Park (Sandy)/Growin' Up/Downbound Train/I'm on Fire/Because the Night/She's the One/Livin' in the Future/Mary's Place/The Promised Land/Backstreets/The Rising/Last to Die/Long Walk Home/Badlands Encore: Girls in Their Summer Clothes/Jungleland/Born to Run/Tenth Avenue Freeze-out/American Land
Next stop for the E Street juggernaut, Cardiff Millennium Stadium in two weeks time. Looking forward to it already :-)
As they began to play I was up against the right hand speaker - whoa!
The band ran through a short sharp 11 song set to promote their new critically acclaimed album 
I'd come to New York to see 
I've just been contacted by someone via 
Phew! 
Changes to the set on the fly, whilst good, affected the flow of the show a bit and at times it came across a bit disjointed compared to Friday. But hey, a total of 40 different songs over the two nights is pretty incredible. For me, Saturday's highlights were the performances of the Born To Run heavyweights, 
