“Reading is like thinking, like praying, like talking to a friend, like expressing your ideas, like listening to other people’s ideas, like listening to music, like looking at the view, like taking a walk on the beach.”

Recently I’ve been reading the work of Chilean writer Roberto Bolaño and it is, as everyone has been saying, brilliant. Since his premature death 6 years ago at the age of 50 he has been causing quite a stir in literary circles across the world and has been compared to writers such as Nobel prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez (although whether that is just because of the latin american link I do not know).

2666 was Bolaño’s final, and arguably finest, work. The story remains unfinished as sadly Bolaño could not complete it before he died. Nontheless it is being called a masterpiece by many critics and it is one of the most brilliant books I’ve ever read. Divided into six parts, the story (or stories) unfold over three different continents with many different characters, all of whom are somehow linked to each other and the unusual amount of deaths taking place in an around the fictional city of Santa Teresa in the (very real) state of Sonora in Northern Mexico.

His other famous novel, The Savage Detectives, is a fictionalised account of Bolaño’s own youth in Mexico City. The story starts with a young poet, Juan Garcia Madero, as the narrator but then leads on to another set of interweaving narratives from various people, all who are somehow connected to each other and to Mexico.  The book also finishes from Madero’s viewpoint, with the actions taking place informing the rest of the book.

A short novella of his, By Night In Chile, arrived in the post this morning and I’m fairly certain it will be brilliant. As I hope will the book I ordered at the library, Distant Star.

What I’m saying is, read Robert Bolaño. Life can’t be all about music.

Straight from the mouth of Domino Records themselves

‘We are very excited to announce that Lightspeed Champion has returned with his second album, Life is Sweet! Nice To Meet You. The follow-up to 2008’s Falling Off The Lavender Bridge is an epic collection of twelve pop songs, two instrumental intermissions and one piano étude, set for release on 1^st Feb.

As announced previously, the first single will be Marlene (out25th Jan).

Lightspeed’s early leaning towards American country dressings is traded here for a palette that draws on classical music and even musical theatre.

Producer and mixer Ben Allen (Animal Collective, Gnarls Barkley) assembles the eclectic grab-bag of influences: joltingly ‘70s guitar and synth sounds, classical piano, Greek choruses shouting reprisals, and at least one ukelele-driven moment.

All tracks on Life is Sweet! Nice To Meet You were written and arranged by Dev Hynes.’

Love it. Consider yourself updated.

Tickets are on sale 10/11/09 and you can rest safe in the knowledge you’ll be getting value for your money – Adam Green is one of the best live performers there is.

January
Tues 26 Dublin Academy 2, Eire
Wed 27 Belfast Speakeasy, UK
Fri 29 Glasgow Stereo, UK
Sat 30 Newcastle Academy 2
Sun 31 Leeds Cockpit

February
Mon 1 Manchester Club Academy, UK
Wed 3 Cambridge Junction
Thurs 4 London Electric Ballroom
Fri 5 Birmingham Academy 2
Sat 6 Brighton Concorde 2, UK

Buy Tickets

Vampire Weekend are releasing their new album ‘Contra’ on January 11th next year and so confident are they that you will love it they put the tickets on sale yesterday. I saw them at Leeds Festival both this year and last and I can confidently say it’ll be a good night for anyone who gets a ticket

VAMPIRE WEEKEND LIVE, FEBRUARY 2010

Sunday 7^th Cambridge Corn Exchange

Monday 8^th Manchester Apollo

Tuesday 9^th Leeds O2 Academy

Wednesday 10^th Birmingham O2 Academy

Friday 12^th Newcastle O2 Academy

Saturday 13^th Glasgow Barrowlands

Sunday 14^th Edinburgh Picture House

Tuesday 16^th London Brixton O2 Academy

BUY TICKETS

Recently there has been an influx of average material from artists I previously thought failproof. Point of reference – Kings of Leon’s fourth album ‘Only By The Night’. What happened there? It was like each album they got better and better and then all of a sudden lost it! The sudden fondness by Radio 1 didn’t help (If you live in England you’d better pray to God Radio 1 don’t suddenly ‘discover’ your favourite band because the overplaying will be enough to drive you into burning all their CDs and start listening to JLS). But I digress, the point is that the last couple of years have been pretty good with regards to new music but when it comes to well-established artists releasing new music there is just nothing great about it.

Julian Casablancas is, as always, the exception. Phrazes for the Young is not ‘Is This It’ but then it’s not 2001 either and times have changed, if only in the sense that artists are now being influenced by different eras, predominantly the eighties. None of them have done it as well as Casablancas’ though. First single 11th Dimension is brilliant in the fact that, despite managing to evade the stale format followed by many popular artists these days, it’s really easy to listen to and likeable to everyone.

My favourite track from the album is ‘Left and Right in the Dark’. It really is a 10/10 song with at least two hooks that you don’t stop thinking about for the next few hours after you’ve listened to it. Lyrically it is an adventure into your dreams,

‘Sliding across the Indian wildnerness
Like the wind, riding down sore throats
6am and you’re in Hollywood
And you’re dancing, we made it’

Banality is never an option with Casablancas, even when writing about the most everyday subjects he makes them seem so beautiful that we all feel like we’re living the life of poets. There’s tragedy in the first drink of the evening and beauty in the final kiss, I’ve never hidden my love for Julian Casablancas and, indeed, The Strokes and I think that’s probably why.

Phrazes for the Young is an album that proves Julian Casablancas is the David Ruffin of The Strokes i.e. the one who the brilliance rests on. Without him, the other members have created pretty good albums but nothing to this standard. Buy it, honestly, you won’t regret it.

credit to rebeldiamond from happyalone forum

French Group M83 started the show on Friday with a half hour set which, being as unfamiliar as I was with their music, I didn’t totally enjoy. But talking to people after who know a bit more about them than me told me they were ‘awesome’. So.. well done M83?

Kings Of Leon were on at 8:45 – exactly when they said they would – and kicked the show off with Crawl (surprising noone but when a song is that good does it really matter that its so predictable? A: NO.)

Okay so here’s the setlist

Crawl
My Party
Razz
Mollys Chambers
King of the Rodeo
Joe’s Head
Fans
Revelry
Milk
4 kicks
Pistol of Fire
Wasted Time
Sex On Fire
The Bucket
Notion
Use Somebody
On Call
Closer
Cold Desert
Slow Night So Long

Encore:
Knocked Up
Manhattan
Charmer
Black Thumbnail

Apparently people like crowdsurfing to Knocked Up. How does that even make sense??? Surely you’d be crowdsurfing during Molly’s Chambers or Charmer or something. Seems the slow ones really are the best. (Although I think even the dumbest crowdsurfers realised Milk probably wasn’t the best time)

And yes, I do totally regret not buying tickets for January’s shows. Anyone want to put me on the guestlist?

If you’re in the mood to see possibly one of the most legendary musicians ever play live then you might want to click here before tickets sell out.

The man behind some of the best songs of our century (‘Like a Rolling Stone’, ‘Blowin’ In The Wind’, etc.) has announced he’ll be playing Sheffield, London, Cardiff, Birmingham, Liverpool, Glasgow and Edinburgh in April and May.

If I had £42.00 I’d have already bought my ticket

Half an hour into Leeds Festival and I wanted to go home. The mud was ridiculous. Luckily, not only am I precious, I also have Scrooge tendencies and the ticket had cost 180 pounds – to waste it would have been close to sin.
 
The better line up today was the NME/Radio 1 stage – The Metros opened the show but sadly I’m not familiar with their music so I couldn’t possibly tell you how good a show it was, likewise Yeasayer although you will be pleased to find out that their bassist closely resembled Kip from Napoleon Dynamite when he went through his hip-hop phase – moustache included - which was of course fantastic.
 
Adam Green came next. I love Adam Green. I think his music is brilliant and his outfits even more so. He did not disappoint despite the fact he’d broken his foot in ‘Notting-ham’ last night. And the outfit – how does a tasselled t-shirt sound? That’s right, you heard it, tasselled. All the way down the arms. The show included songs like Carolina, Festival Song and Leaky Flask. Unfortunately for Adam his microphone stand was playing along. By the end of the last song it had broken in half but luckily he just did what any self-respecting artist would do and pretended to ride it across the stage like a pony.

I had to wait till half past 7 to see another artist I love although I did pop in to see Pendulum. It was the worst thing that has ever happened to me. I lasted about half an hour in the moshpit before I made my excuses i.e. fought my way out. I only went in there in the first place so I could get front row for Conor Oberst and the Mystic Valley Band who were exceptional, despite a lukewarm reception from the crowd. They opened with NYC – Gone, Gone, a perfect choice as it is both short and snappy, and finished with I Don’t Want To Die (In The Hospital) rounding off a set which was more energetic than you may have suspected from the boy behind Bright Eyes.
 
Last Shadow Puppets next. It was only their third gig but fortunately it turns out they both have experience with other bands so they were kind enough to playe a brilliant show anyway. They even had the generosity to play my favourite song, Seperate And Ever Deadly, which was great when I could hear it over the shouts of ‘I Love You Alex!’
 
I’ve got to say, I was so tired by the end of their show I had to move towards the back for The Cribs. I have seen them before and know the carnage they cause in the moshpit but tonight everyone in the tent was loving them – even considering the fact Ryan Jarman did ‘damn us all to hell if we’re booing Metallica’. Previously a threesome, The Cribs recruited former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr (or as Ryan called him, Johnny Jarman) earlier in the year to play with them on the NME Shockwaves tour and he has now become a fully fledged member of the band. Lucky for us this meant new songs which, being The Cribs, is always a treat. They opened and closed with classic songs, ‘Our Bovine Public’ and ‘I’m a Realist’ respectively so they had the whole tent singing, actually, earlier in the day Lightspeed Champion had led the crowd through a quick rendition of I’m a Realist and told us he would be in the middle of the moshpit. I didn’t see him but who knows? It is not as if his hat makes him stand out from a crowd

 See you on the other side!

You can download new song ‘Death Will Never Conquer’ from Coldplay.com now. It’s not on the album Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends but it was recorded in the same sessions.

I haven’t downloaded it so I can’t tell you how good it is. Coldplay have always been a bit too bland for me but feel free to tell me what you think about it.