August, 2009

Saturday

Vampire Weekend brought out the late afternoon sun on Saturday with a typically cheerful, breezy performance. It’s perfect for the time of day, and the now established favourites from their eponymous debut album fully deliver the goods and are met with the same amount of enthusiasm that the band continues to deliver them with. The group also manage to keep the crowd entertained and engaged while playing a selection of new songs – something other acts have failed to do so far. Overall it’s yet another accomplished performance from a band who are fast becoming one of the most reliable festival acts on the circuit. It’s hard to imagine a time when ‘A-Punk’ won’t put smiles on the faces of all who go to see them.

Later, Yeah Yeah Yeahs confirm a stronger afternoon/evening than the day before with a powerful performance of their rock-disco tunes. Despite not acknowledging the crowd until the closing stages, frontwoman Karen O, decked out in an outfit straight out of 1970s wrestling, shows why she is one of the most engaging singers on the planet, working the crowd effortlessly. Her boundless enthusiasm is impossible to resist and the band show their versatility when things are slowed down for an acoustic rendition of ‘Maps’ which is even more haunting and passionate in it’s stripped down form. Songs from their under-rated new album ‘It’s Blitz!‘ sit well with the established hits such as ‘Gold Lion’ and set closer ‘Date With The Night’, and the performance shows them up as one of the stronger live acts on show at this year’s festival.

As the sun rose on the first day of the 2009 Leeds Festival, expectations were high on site with an impressive afternoon/evening Main Stage line-up. However, by the end of the night, it was hard to shake off an over-riding feeling of disappointment.

Manchester band The Courteeners took to the stage in the late afternoon to a very respectable crowd on the Main Stage. The band have forged a devoted following in the north of England and everything looked to be in place for a strong set. “This festival starts now!” declared the ever modest frontman Liam Fray, but the crowd weren’t ready to follow his lead. Ultimately the performance fell flat, songs from 2008 debut ‘St. Jude‘ now seem overly familiar, and the band and fans seem to have grown tired of the songs which were delivered with real power and passion 18 months ago. Any casual fans or critics were unlikely to be bowled over by what was a 5/10 performance at best.

Amidst this weekend’s whirlwind of events over in the Oasis camp there is still business to be done in the world of fashion . Our friends and frequent contributors at stopcryingyourheartout.com were invited to an exclusive preview of the new Autumn Winter 09 collection from Liam Gallagher’s Pretty Green clothing label. For the past 4 weeks, the industry’s top retailers have been viewing the range and along with 20 ‘Premium members’ of the brand, SCYHO were given access to the new range and we were sent their exclusive report:

Developments over the past 48 hours have brought new interest into Noel and Liam’s extra curricular activities and over the coming weeks, Pretty Green will be under the spotlight more than ever before. It seems that if ever there was a time to launch properly into the fashion community beyond simply being ‘Liam’s side project’ then this is the time. And to say fans won’t be disappointed is an understatement.

For all of you who don’t follow the British music scene too closely it might come as a surprise that Oasis has split up. If you would have asked 5 American music buffs about the split 3 would have answered ” Didn’t they break up a long time ago?” No my dears, Oasis has been performing to sell out audiences world wide for almost 16 years.

The fans that waited long hours at Rock En Seine festival in Paris on Friday did not expect to be part of Oasis history as a back stage argument between brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher led to an all out physical brawl between the two. Noel went as far as to smash one of Liam’s guitars to pieces. Minutes later Oasis’ scheduled headlining appearance was cancelled, but worse was to follow hours later.

Twitter lit up the Internet brighter than a bonfire on Bastille Day today as Rock En Seine was getting ready to welcome Oasis on stage, the main act for day one of its festivities.

Just last week the band had cancelled an appearance at V Festival citing health problems for Liam Gallagher as the cause. Today it seemed a bit more dramatic as even diehards accustomed to brother Noel and Liam’s constant infighting during this tour did not expect the night to go over like this.

As it came closer to Oasis’ scheduled stage time the ‘oooo la la …Liam and Noel are fighting’ tweets spread like wild fire over the social networking site.  When Amy MacDonald’s (yes, the singer) personal twitter reported :

Ian Brown has set his price for a Stone Roses reunion and it seems like a good deal , then again it’s quite doubtful it would ever happen at second glance.

Ian said that he would reform The Stone Roses only if he was reduced to “begging on the streets”.

Brown is scheduled to play on the Main Stage at this weekend’s Reading And Leeds Festivals explains he’s disheartened by bands who reunite simply to cash in on their former glories.

“Maybe if you see me begging on the streets you might find me doing The Stone Roses the next day,” he said. “We did it because we wanted to change the world, we didn’t do it because we wanted to be millionaires.”

Speaking to the NME Brown admitted that there were a couple of exceptions to the reunion rule.

“I was glad when the Sex Pistols got back because they never really got paid,” he explained. He added that he was also pleased The Specials together again.

Them Crooked Vultures – Nobody Loves Me And Neither Do I @ Pukkelpop, Kiewit, Belgium

The annual celebration of anything buzz worthy and cool enough to be played in heavy rotation on the ever popular cable channel MTV moves back to Radio City Music Hall in New York this year and has kooky Brit Russell Brand hosting the extravaganza again. We’ll have to wait and see who he insults this year as his favorite victim George W Bush is not in office any longer….

A number of star performances are ready to boost this year’s viewer ratings as stadium rockers Muse from the UK are set to preview their new album ““The Resistance” with a special performance. The trio will be featuring their new single “Uprising” off their first album in 3 years in front of the US and global TV audience.

Pass the fiber biscuits and turn up your hearing aids cuz our cuddly bunch of old folks at “Breakfast At Sulimay’s” are back for another round of tasteful music reviewing. Why not feed em UK’s alternative darlings RadioHead in their Miracle Ear / ipod buds. These Are My Twisted Words might have been a bit much to chew on for the coffee shop rat pack , oh yeah, they also review Amanda Blank, their rapping Philly soul sister…..did they get it right? You decide :

US Indie super stars Kings of Leon continue to tour in the wake of 2008′s platinum “Only By Night,” and are planning some new projects for the fall — their focus is now on the new album.

The rock ‘family’ quartet plans to release a live DVD and a remix album in the coming months. Billboard recently spoke to the band ans asked why London’s O2 arena was chosen as the location for the DVD live shoot last July. Drummer Nathan Followill explained, “England is really the first place we broke…We figured what better place to make a live DVD than where the fans have been the craziest for the longest?” The show featured some choice rarities, and Followill says “we just put the cameras in the back of our minds and acted like they weren’t even there.”

The remix album came to life after Kings of Leon learned that other artists such as Justin Timberlake and PharrellRonson had started working on revisions of the band’s songs. Mark , Kenna, Lykke Li and Linkin Park are also contributing tracks, according to Nathan.

“It’s neat to have these people who we would’ve jumped at the chance to work with ourselves…coming to us before we even get a chance to ask them,” the drummer says. “It’s amazing to hear your song played by these people who are so creative. Most of the time it takes me two or three listens to even wrap my head around, ‘Oh man, that’s our song…’”