We couldn’t have asked for better festival weather, or food! (You would have thought we were competing to see who could consume more tartiflette and ice cream cones). As we sat sipping spiced cider and eating pies, we couldn’t help but think that it was rather like a food festival with a bit of music on the side.

In addition to entertainment on the four main stages, secret shows were also held by various bands on a small backwoods stage. One of our favorites was Okkervil River, who made our weekend with a 4 song set on Sunday afternoon.

Other Songkick team highlights were Blitzen Trapper in the Tipi Tent, Bob Lind on the Garden Stage, Wildbirds & Peacedrums blowing away the Big Top tent, Neko Case’s show-stopping voice, Bob Log III’s shouts of ”I’m Bob Log the third, gawddammit! WOO!“, Darren Hayman singing Hefner requests, and The Tallest Man on Earth’s old-soul songs.  Be sure to check out all of the photos, videos, and reviews up on Songkick — and add your own if you were there too!

(All photos taken by Anikainlondon, all rights reserved)

See you there next year!

We’ll be at Electricity Showrooms from 7:30pm on Wednesday evening. There’ll be summer eve relaxation, music- and tech-related philosophising, and fine company.

(picture by fabbio on Flickr, some rights reserved)

Topspin’s CEO Ian Rogers has beaten us to it and has created a Facebook event for the meetup, so RSVP and then (as Ian puts it) “please forward the invite to any London friends you think may be interested/ing!”

Come along if you can make it!

Team Songkick

Thanks to the fancy folks and friends at Topspin, buying and downloading their new album, “Everything That Happens Will Happen Today” was totally hassle-free. (Go do it!) I would buy music a lot more often if it was this easy and DRM-free. I’m looking at you, iTunes.

I adore David Byrne. He’s so boss. His voice is guile-free and true. When I listen to him sing, it’s like being reminded of all that’s good in the world.

“Strange Overtones” is the track that’s been making the rounds, but I think “Life is Long” is unbelievably touching–full of the joy that comes with real wisdom. And because I’m feeling especially generous, I’ll throw in a cover.

David Byrne and Brian Eno – Life is Long
David Byrne and Brian Eno – Strange Overtones

The Rolling Stones – Sympathy for the Devil
David Byrne – Sympathy for the Devil (cover)

Ian and I are going to the Roskilde festival in Denmark this weekend, and I am SO STOKED to see Jay Reatard (as well as Radiohead, My Bloody Valentine, Jay-Z, Lykke Li, Lupe, Battles, Band of Horses, Holy Fuck, Yeasayer, Mogwai…must I go on!?). This summer’s amazing festival season has made all of us resolve to handle festivals better on our site.

Anyway, sorry for the zero-content post. I know you guys come here for the free music anyway.

Jay Reatard – My Shadow
Jay Reatard – Fading All Away

Every once in a while I’ll discover (or rediscover) a band or singer who totally knocks my socks off (all over again), and I’ll check our own site and be like, “WOAH. They’re on tour!” That moment of discovery reminds me of the selfish purpose Songkick served in the first place. We wanted a site that would aggregate all the concert info in one place and make it really easy to find. It can be easy to forget that as you’re arguing whether to make something a button or a link in the day-to-day.

My ex-boyfriend introduced me to Stevie Wonder. He’s really knowledgeable about the good old classics,and has a really anal connoisseur’s knowledge–this album recorded in that studio, with this equipment, produced by this guy, during that era of the musician’s life, which was annoying and impressive at the same time. Stevie Wonder’s Songs in they Key of Life is one of his desert island discs. When I learned that, I was like, “What? The blind guy with cheesy beads in his braids who plays on Sesame Street?” See, I’m naive and uneducated, and have a total dilettante’s depth of knowledge. I like what I like and sometimes I get obsessed and find out more and sometimes I don’t.

Well, yes, Stevie Wonder is the smiley guy with braids. But his songs have a sheer exuberance and generosity that shame me for every meager and ungrateful thought I’ve ever had. I’ve been listening to my iTunes on shuffle all day, when he came along, I didn’t even recognize who sang the song (again: ignorant dilettante), but I thought, “WOAH this song is amazing. Who is this?” Lo and behold, it was Stevie. Next thought: “Beads, braids, is he still alive?” (You would like a stream of consciousness of my every day, wouldn’t you?)

Not only still alive, but touring my friends. Sadly, not coming to London, but those of you in America are lucky. See his tour dates.

Stevie Wonder – I Was Made to Love Her (mp3)
Stevie Wonder – Joy (Takes Over Me) (mp3)

So I was grateful for another chance to see them play live at ULU. The Silver Jews are one of those bands whose discovery is an undeserved surprise gift that makes you wonder what other hidden, bespoke treasures might be lurking out there in the musical cosmos. I had never heard of them, but a very dear musical friend of mine put them on a mix CD. I listened to them for the first time with absolutely no pre-hype bias, and I still remember my startled reaction to its poetry.

I usually hate comparisons between lyrics and poetry. It’s close, but not the same; it’s so easy to lend weight to a description of a song by calling it poetic. But Dave Berman’s lyrical economy completely startled me with its allusive grace.

I enjoy shows most when I know the songs I’m going to hear. When I’ve played them repeatedly, turning over the emotions at different times in my life. Some great songs are inextricable from my memory of certain periods of my life, and The Silver Jews punctuated a time when I was desperately waiting for something to happen to me.

But these familiar patterns achieve sudden, new saturation by the live performance. That’s what it is for me, at the heart of it. I like going to shows when I barely know the band, when it’s something new and fun, when it’s something I’m not really committed to, but the shows that are formative (if you’ll let me be dramatic) are the ones where I come prepared. And to see a living, sweating human being sing something that is at the same time so painfully mine–well, I guess that’s the rare occasion when I shed my usual misanthropy and feel like two people who don’t know each other really can share something special just by being human, living life, and feeling the same things.

When the band stepped on stage, they opened with two of my favorite Silver Jews songs ever: “Random Rules” and “Trains Across the Sea.” Dave Berman was wearing a gray, vintage-looking blazer with a dark black piped pattern, paired with a hot pink dress shirt. He looked like spent Vegas lounge singer who had lost it, wearing the weird, plastic glasses of your eighth-grade science teacher, greasy combover and all.

I think he was wasted. I don’t know. Either way, he was captivating. He never played guitar, but instead availed himself of the mic stand as though it were a weapon, a stave, or a baton, swinging it around to his band members as they played their solos. As he swayed around, abruptly sat down, and leaned on the precarious mic stand, there was a strange reliable control in his movements. So instead of an uneasy anticipation, you felt you were watching a pro who would never fall.

Silver Jews – Random Rules (mp3)
Silver Jews – Trains Across the Sea (mp3)

credit Snap Punk!

It was my first Nick Cave gig after years of loving his records, which was unusual – most of the bands I see live for the first time are those I’ve only just got into.

First up the show was brilliant. He played a ton of my old favourites (Into My Arms, Stagger Lee, Red Right Hand, The Ship Song) as well as tracks from the new record Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! One of my favourite tracks from it is More News from Nowhere for you to enjoy below.

One of the oddest things for me about seeing Nick live was that I’d built him up in my head to be some sort of weird combination of a gunslanging cowboy pimp (Stagger Lee) and the kind of guy you’d find at the back of an old country church on Sunday (Into My Arms). After watching him play I think I’m not so far off…on stage he flips incredibly naturally between those styles. One of a kind.

Nick Cave – More News from Nowhere (mp3)

Nick Cave – Stagger Lee (mp3)

Nick Cave – Into My Arms (mp3)

The place was completely packed and sold out. I heard a rumor that they booked another show for Tuesday night (last night) because there was so much demand. Such is the power of the blogs I tell you! While I was waiting in line to get my wrist band, this girl asked me what they sounded like. It was really tough to describe them (I’m shit at it anyway), but I said something along the lines of really mellow, synthy music with a female vocalist. The fetching singer, Ruth Radalet, reminds me of a modern-day Nico. Maybe it was the heavy bangs framing a beautiful face, but their voices share a flat, removed quality.

After their set, they came to the side of the stage to sell merch. How’s that for DIY?

Here’s their cover version of Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill,” paired with the original for comparison. I listened to this song on repeat for much of February. It was the last song of their set, and it didn’t disappoint. (It’s been a while since I posted mp3s, yes?)

Chromatics – Running Up That Hill (cover)
Kate Bush – Running Up That Hill (original)

Pretty lights = mood shot

All three boys in the band were wearing the exact same, pristine white Adidas sneakers. (Third boy is the drummer, you can’t see here.) Not sure if that was a nod to boy band outfits or what.

This is the best shot I have of Ruth. Isn’t she a Nico for 2008?

“The idea is to mash up the name of a book with the name of a band. Here’s a few of our examples to get you started:

The Things They Might Be Giants Carried*
The Who Moved My Cheese*
The Old Man and The Sea and Cake*
Charlie Daniels and the Chocolate Factory*
Catch 182*
Horton Hears a Hoobastank*
Of Mice and Men at Work*
Bare Naked Lunch Ladies*
The Agony and the XTC*”

Horton Hears a Hoobastank? Eet kills me. They ran a contest for these, which I wish I caught because I bet I could’ve come up with some pretty good ones. Here are some of my favorites:

The Sun Also RZA
Last Yo La Tengo in Paris
Chromeo & Juliet
Megadeth of a Salesmen

A problem we come across a lot with machine learning are band names that are also commonly used words, like Justice, Spoon, Pavement, et al. How do you train a robot to know that that’s a band and not just a normal word and vice versa? Anyway, I thought I’d give it a shot. Here are mine:

Interview with the Vampire Weekend
Super Furry Animals Farm (not very good, I admit)
Legends of the Fall (This doesn’t really count as a mash-up.)
Peter and the Wolf Parade
Beach House of Sand and Fog
About a Beastie Boy (Dude, what is it saying about me that I only know about most of these “books” because they were made into movies??!)
Fast Food National
The Sound and We are the Fury
Burial Child
To the Razorlight-house
Sonic Youth without Youth (I’m on a roll!!!)
Lady Chatterley’s Modern Lovers
Okkervil River Runs Through It
God of Small Faces
White Rabbits at Rest
The Optimist’s Sons & Daughters
Middlesex Pistols
The Twilight Sad of the Idols
The Love as Laughter Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
The Waste Land of Talk
Of Mice and Man Man

I have to pry myself away and get back to work! How good am I?!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRLbpy9KDaY&feature=related

And here’s a dark, shaky photo from last night – see teacosy-sporting guitarist in background. Cute!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/oldton_tim/2382918861/