i'm on your side

Since I last found a small moment when I was wasn't i) exhausted, ii) in a another country, iii) homeless, or iv) all of the above, many many things have happened in my life, all of which are worth "blogging" about (anyone else hate that verb?), so I guess they deserve at the very least a little summary. Let's see...


1. SXSW:

The first half of March saw me flying for oh so many hours over to Austin, Texas for the now legendary "music conference" that is SXSW. To be honest it didn't exactly overwhelm me. Growing up as an avid music fan I'd always expected it to be the mecca of music, the holy grail of new and exciting artists. How could I have been more wrong? Any hype that was going around was about already well established artists such as The Good, The Bad & The Queen or - dare I even mention her - Amy fucking Winehouse.

Bands that did appear everywhere and were good but - with all due respect - not that special, were Foals, Gallows and Boris. Bands that I enjoyed where the ever chipper Polyphonic Spree (who have now exchanged their ceremonial tunics for a strange almagamation of military costumes), the drumming sample-looping duo Berg Sans Nipple and the bloody awesome Austin-based Octopus Project who I have previously wittered on about at length.


2. Arcade Fire:

>> (c/o www.iknowhtml.com)

Arcade Fire (and of course the unforgettable Electrelane) happened to be playing in Stockholm's Cirkus the weekend of my birthday so what else was a girl to do? I hopped on a budget aeroplane across the Scandinavian fjords and found myself in the city of islands. The venue itself was a beautiful centuries-old wooden building in the middle of the city's largest park. Highlights included watching members of Arcade Fire cutting each other's hair in Electrelane's dressing room aka the venue's hair salon. I kid you not.


3. Nintendo Wii + DS:

For my pre-mentioned birthday, I was also lucky enough to be given a Nintendo Wii! Oh the joy. If anyone out there is sitting on the fence still contemplating whether or not you should buy one, for god's sake just do it! Tennis, bowling, all jolly good fun. Must be said that my favourite so far is riding a cow to knock down scarecrows yes yes yes.

In other Nintendo-related news, I remain in love with my DS Lite and have now moved on to the ever addictive Theme Park (a game I was once enamoured/addicted to on the PC in my teens).

And I'm still waiting for Sim City... come on people, get it together...

(should I be worried I appear to be turning into a gaming nerd? damn you nintendo)


4. Records:

>> Brinkman - I Wish
>> Electrelane - No Shouts, No Calls
>> Whitest Boy Alive - Dreams
>> Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
>> Sigur Ros - Takk
>> Soy Un Caballo
>> Tenniscoats - Live Wanderus


5. Camden Crawl
It's got to be said I don't really remember all of this night (I only went to Thursday) and it hadn't been something I'd been particularly looking forward to, more dragged into. Saying all that, I had a bloody good night (possibly aided by the numerous double dark rum and cokes?) and saw at least two bands that I can honestly say I enjoyed.

One was a great little Australian band, "Magic Numbers for the New Rave generation" I overheard one label executive call them. They had poppy electro songs that made you dance, but with a violin, and did a fantastic cover of Shirley Ellis' 'The Clapping Song'. Genius. Now I only have to find out what their bloody name was.

Second was Goose, a band I've been meaning to check out for a while now, mostly based on the raving reviews that Leaf Label kept dropping by me. I have not danced like that in years, not perhaps since insanely jumping at the front of Orbital at Glastonbury a few summers ago. If you want to jump, to dance, to wave your arms about in a mad and certainly unattractive manner go for it - I'll definitely be looking into their record. Brilliant stuff.

I should probably also mention that to my shame I did something I haven't done since I was about 15 years old. I stage invaded Xerox Teens. Oh the shame. And don't ask me if they were any good. I don't know.


Which more or less brings us up to present day.


--

This morning - still homeless may I add - I wake up on a dear friend's couch, roll over and fall off, clutch an aged but much-loved laptop close to me and go about searching the interweb for some feelgood tunes. Good Hodgkins (a blog I should pay more attention to) has put me on to Walker Kong.

>> Walker Kong

mp3: Walker Kong - 'Andy Warhol & The Honey Bees' (Magic Marker Records link)

For more of their happy-go-lucky jangly pop, check out the always classic MySpace address.