The Rent a Groupie massive. Made up of top quality reviewers, interviewers, photographers, promoters and artists from across the British Isles and the not-quite-British Eire. Send forth begging messages and we shall immortalise you in Rent a Groupie history for one and all to see.
We travel and adventure, we dance and we sing. Give us reason to be excited please.
I tried reading Stuart Maconie's latest literay release but then some twat in the flat below decided to put on Babyshambles full blast. Now, don't get me wrong, I am more than a little partial to a bit of the Doherty but I cannot read and listen to music at the same time. Instead of concentrating on the words on the page in front of me, I find myself trying to interpret those pouring into my ears instead. So, the book got laid to rest and 6Music turned on to cover any sound of Fuck Forever. The dulcet tones of Steve Lamacq greeted me and presented me with the new problem of how I will never be the female version of the great man. Lammo (along with Blur, obviously) is my hometown hero, being a fellow Colchestarian. At Reading last year, I stood 5 yards away from him and shook a bit. I would've spoken to him but he was deep in conversation whilst taking a break from compering the NME/Radio1 stage. 'Twould have been rude to interpret for the sake of a few bits of advice and me going more embarrasingly fangirly than I would do over any musician.
This week was mostly spent recovering from Camden Crawl, "dancing" into May (although drinking would be a more accurate description of activities) and losing my Vietnamese cuisine virginity with TEETH!!!
On Thursday, one of my favourite venues played host to the NME/JD/Adidas House Party with the Rifles, the Rakes and Young Fathers. Except it wasn't in the tiny room most 229 gigs are held in, but in some bigger room next door that felt more like a school hall than a concert venue. Strange. Young Fathers are a Glaswegian hip-hop trio with the best dance moves this side of Metronomy. Dance moves seem to be the in thing at the moment, don't they? No complaints here. Then, unfathomably, The Rakes played. Meaning the Rifles were headlining. THE RIFLES, for gawd's sake. Sub-sub-sub Jam rip offs who no one actually gives a flying fuck about. Headlining. Over the Rakes?! Insanity. Apparently they headlined Brixton academy a few months back too. The world has gone mad. Not that the Rakes are the greatest band to ever grace the Earth but seriously, if you had to choose, you would totally choose them right? Not content with confusing the fuck out of me, Joel from the Rifles then came and stood in front of us and proceeded to suck the face off his girlfriend for THE WHOLE SET. Jesus. Just go put on a Rakes CD and do that in your dressing room and leave me to watch Alan Donohoe's awkward stage movements in peace, yeah? Needless to say, we left after the Rakes had finished and went off to Ally Pally for the turn of the month celebrations.
Friday, I headed up to Camden to interview aces fuzzy noise purveyors TEETH!!! in a bus shelter on Delancey Street, before joining them for Vietnamese on Parkway. I am not very good at chopsticks. Tofu is good though, and TEETH!!! are excellent company. Sunday, I'm sure you don't need me to tell you, was Gaslight time. Anto Dust played a couple of her sombre lullabies before Kieran Leonard enthralled us with one of, if not the, most impassioned and, at times angry sets I have ever seen him play - raw, unadulterated emotion combined with poetic melody that had me on the verge of tears at more than one point. For once, I think this is not because I am somewhat emotionally unstable but because it was truly, astonishingly moving.
And that is that. I have spent much of this Bank Holiday Monday sleeping, which I suppose is what they're there for. This week holds reunions and instores and training for Glastonbury, which, by the way, is only 6 weeks away. Exciting times ahead.
"...with your chin on your knees like you belong"
Listening to this week:
The Maccabees - Wall of Arms
Patrick Wolf - The Bachelor
Bombay Bicycle Club - I had the Blues But I Shook them Loose album sampler
Oh hm. We've been neglecting this blog a tad, haven't we? Sorry. Don't report us to the necessary authorities, yeah? We promise to take better care of it in the future. Starting now. Its been all go lately for RaG. Somehow we've managed to do reasonably well in our various educational establishments, keep to most of our deadlines for other publications, make our debut on the indie DJ scene, fly across the Irish sea a handful of times and head on a mini-road trip up north, whilst simultaneously being completely out of boxes for most of it. Hence, why this blog hasn't seen much action.
Our first ever RaG DJ set took place at Shoreditch scenester hang-out, The Old Blue Last, last month as Offset took over the downstairs bar. We played a fuckton of tunes, a complete list of which you can find over on the myspace blog.. After we'd finished owning the decks, some guy told us it was the "best DJ set ever". Glowing recommendations and free drinks are our favourite things, so obviously this and Offset's drinks tab made us ridiculously, ridiculously happy. We're keen to do some more spinning of records asap so if you need cheap and cheerful DJs for your party/club night/gig/other shindig, hit us up. When I say cheap, I mean we'll do it for a bottle of vodka, a bottle of rum and some mixer. CHEAP.
If you've looked outside your window lately, you might have noticed the sun's been shining on a much more regular basis of late. This makes RaG happy for a variety of reasons; a) we can wear massive fuck off sunglasses without looking like complete wankers (although the dimmed view of natural light does make me a bit para on occasion that I'm actually be-shaded on a very gloomy day), b) it's almost summer!!, and c) we can coordinate amazing summer outfits to wear whilst listening to our favourite new and old sunkissed songs. Yay!
Talking of the latter, I'm sat here writing this with The Virgins entered in the search box on the Hype Machine, wishing the clouds would fuck off away from New Cross for 3 minutes at least. Please? Teen Lovers is making me think of beach scenes in 80s New Romantic videos. If there was sand anywhere near here, I would go frolic on it in my flip flops and new dress that is more revealing than first thought, with this blaring from some old school ghetto blaster.
Summer summer summer. Not long to go. I don't know about you, but as soon as January comes I start making plans for warmer months. Don't get me wrong, winter is aces as, but nothing beats watching the sun set at 9:30pm in the middle of a field with your closest friends. This year is all about working at festivals. Since becoming a fully-fledged tax-dodging work-shy student, I'm far too fucking skint to be able to afford to get a coach home, let alone go to a festival. Which obviously is bad times, if not just because I hope to achieve my aim of going to more festivals each year than I attended in the one previous. 2007, my first year of festivalling, saw 3 (Latitude, Secret Garden, Reading). 2008, 6 (Camden Crawl, Glasto, Oxegen, Standon Calling, Reading, Concrete & Glass)... so the aim for 2009 is at least 7. How the fuck am I going to manage that on no money? Simple - WORK. So I've signed up for Oxfam stewarding at Glasto (I'm willing to bribe people to swap shifts so I don't miss Blur) and Reading (I've got a feeling working here will make me feel even older than I felt last year, damn 16 year olds). I'm considering applying to work at Isle of Wight and Secret Garden too. So that's four already! I'm hoping press passes/guestlist can be obtained for a further three, fingers crossed.
In other-publication news, the newest issue of Kruger came out on Tuesday. Its been relaunched in a new format (bigger and better), with new regular features and is now bi-monthly. Wicked. Its still free, and includes a feature on the Soft Pack, amongst other exciting things, written by yours truly. Thursday also saw the new issue of Disorder hitting the shelves, which I haven't seen as yet, but has N-Dubz on the cover. I want to know what's going on there, to be honest. Its not free but it is hella good, and features me fawning over Frederick Blood-Royale in a very obvious manner. Oops.
Otherwise, we've been listening to new albums from Micachu, The Rakes and Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and sporadically HypeM-ing Little Boots, La Roux (still not entirely sure what to make of either of those) and Golden Silvers. Following last night's utterly ridiculous episode of Skins, Maps' We Can Create has also found its way back on to the stereo, whilst I sat reeling from the fact I haven't had a Skins-induced emotional breakdown for the past two episodes. I think the key is to not drink copious amounts of cheap vodka whilst watching it, to be fair.
Anyway, I have a mammoth cleaning task to execute now. I've been sleeping on the floor lately, cos I'm too lazy to move things off my bed. Probably should sort that situation out, like. So ta-ra, RaG readers. Wishing you good weekends an'that, xx
I had written half of a 'Sound of 2009' article for your reading pleasure but I just deleted it without completing it. Why? Er, it's February?! Yeah. That would be going against all industry rules. I mean, come on guys - tipping new bands when it's not January? Like we're going to do that...
Actually, the real reason I scrapped it wasn't because I want to fit with mass media's limitations but rather that at the back end of last year I swore to myself I would never write a 'Sound of [insert year here]' piece. As you might have gathered, I do not agree with the idea that you need the start of a new year to be bringing new groups/music to the attention of the general public. No, I'd rather just be able to tell you about things that excite me as and when, rather than saving it til next January and then hyping them beyond belief, to the point where no one actually wants to listen to them anyway because you're fed up of all the superlatives and hyperbole.
Instead (and to save myself from writing a 1000 word rant on mainstream media and their ridiculous business ideals), we're going to list some bands we think you should listen to. We don't think they'll shape the sound of 09 (hey, they might but we like to think they'll be important past then), we won't call them THE BEST THING EVAH!!!11 and then pretend we never liked them a couple of months down the road and we sure as hell won't be writing about Little Boots or Florence & the Machine. Some are new, some are old. Get over it, kids.
Peruse, listen, fall in love. Do what the hell you want. As follows are Rent a Groupie's current objects of affection:
Your Twenties - if you're ever invited to my room a) you should feel fucking honoured and b) expect to hear the three YT songs I own, a million times over. They sing songs about Annie from Elastica and make videos that make me feel sick. There's a photo of their single on myspace with a cat. A CAT. Plus, they're playing a warehouse in Whitechapel next week. Get yo'selves down.
La Shark - New X's finest macabre cabaret assaillants. How Patrick Wolf would have sounded if he went to an Arts College rather than running away to the country and killing sheep (ALLEGEDLY). East London art hipsters will think they've died and gone to heaven.
Spinnerette - at least two of RaG will scream at you until they're blue in the face about how much they love Ms Brody Dalle. There's been a hole in our lives since the Distillers split so it is with much jubilation that we can recommend her new band, Spinnerette. Hurrah! Slicker and not quite as brash but still with the raw energy and attitude that made us fall in love with the Dalle in the first place. Consider us excited.
Official Secrets Act - our new favourite pretenders to the Smiths' throne. We've just heard that drummer Alex has been in a road accident so here's hoping to a swift recovery on his part. In the meantime, we're getting very excited about the release of their debut album 'Understanding Electricity' - we've heard it, it's ace. Now we can't wait for you to hear it too. They're currently supporting the Rakes on a short tour of the UK, which brings us nicely on to...
The Rakes! - it feels like 2004 never went away. Which could be a good or bad thing, but is definitely good when you consider it means we can pretend the Rakes' second album never happened. Ok, ok, so it's not that bad, but it was missing that certain je ne sais quois that was so apparent on 'Capture/Release'. It was with fingers crossed and hearts in our mouths that we first allowed ourselves to listen to new single '1989', so thank fuck it was good else we'd all have choked to death by now. Things we like about said single: 1) the chorus the first time round is entirely made up of "la la la la"ing 2) "punks were hanging out in the park" 3) Alan's voice, basically 4) how it sounds like it would just fit snugly on the end of 'Capture/Release' 5) 1989 is when I was born. Good choice of year, lads.
Apollo Sunshine - we spent a whole week in November watching these guys wow Ireland with their psych-pop epic wig-outs. It never got boring. Think the whole Brooklyn psychedelia scene (MGMT, Amazing Baby, Chairlift et al) but less corporate and more interesting.
Tubelord - I'm a bitch for the Kingston scene. No, seriously. I LOVE IT. If I didn't live completely the other side of London, I would be there, like, THE WHOLE TIME. Amazing. Tubelord make "pop songs for rock kids", write hilarious blogs and are generally wonderful, in an infectious "fight pop" sort of way. We heart them much.
White Birds & Lemons - if you're from New Zealand, it's probably a good idea to keep away from RaG's Irish contingent. They'll capture you in a net and then use you to act out their sexual fantasies. This is why I worry for White Birds & Lemons, should they ever be in the same room. There are other reasons why we like them, obviously. We are all about the music, after all. Hit up their myspace to hear clips of demos of their emotive melancholy rock.
Toy Horses - I did have some amaze description written out for these before I stupidly deleted everything. Fuck. Essentially, I called them the British equivalent of Bright Eyes (but with two instead of one. Value for money) and made some racist slurs about the Welsh. Sorry Welshies, I love you really.
Kieran Leonard - Singer/songwriters are pretty much two-a-penny at any moment in musical history, this decade being no exception. What’s rarer though is a visionary, someone with a gift of writing moving, thought-provoking and, above all, imaginatively poetic songs that transport you from the room where you sit to another world entirely. Kieran Leonard is one such curiosity, rising through underground communities to entertain the fortunate who are exposed to his music.
Rolo Tomassi - We heart screaming girls. Not in the Beatlemania-we're-twelve-years-old-thus-would-like-nothing-more-than-to-hold-hands-with-Paul-MacCartney sort of way, mind. More in the I'm-in-an-amazing-hardcore-band-and-am-going-to-show-these-so-called-hard-boys-how-its-should-be-done way. Eva Spence is pretty much one of our favourite female musicians right now, Lord bless 'er. I took some friends to see t'Tomassi at Camden Crawl last year and they were FUCKING SCARED, and if you can't watch a band that you know will terrify your mates, then what have you really got in life? Nothing, that's what.
Brontide - maaaaath roooooock. Hi. We don't really like much music without vocals. We're a bit into words and lyrics an'that, and can't really get to grips with things that don't have witty puns that make us laugh our faces off on the N21 after a night on the lash. What, Brontide don't have vocals? Fuck. Luckily, they make such brutal melodic goodness that we don't even actually realise until, like, the fifth listen or something. Ace stuff.
Line & a Dot - Last summer, one of RaG interviewed Line & a Dot for another site. In that interview, she said her "main goal is to make a song that somebody else can include themselves in and maybe I already have one and don’t know or maybe I’ll get one or never but I just want to be able to make something out of Line & a Dot where I’ve written this song but it isn’t so about me that you can’t run your own movie reel to it about yourself. I want to have a song that somebody can apply to their own lives, nothing to do with me, and appreciate it in that sense but I think it probably will take me a bit of time." I don't know about you, but I think 'For a Long Time' is that song.
The Maccabees - Finally, they return. Our favourite band of 2007 have finished their second album and are heading back out on the road next month, preceding that with three low-key London dates (Camden Barfly, anyone?). At Standon Calling in August they played a set laden with new songs, all of which sounded pretty killer from where I was stood. Zane Lowe's got the first play of lead single 'No Kind Words' on Monday (Feb 9th) at 7:30pm so y'know... turn on, tune in, drop out an'that.
Little Joy - Strokes' drummer blah blah blah. Ignore this minor factor of Little Joy's make-up please. Instead, concentrate on how lush LJ's music is. YUM. It's like being transported to Hawaii in the 60s - not a bad thing at all, in our book. Apparently they're on the wanted list for Glastonbury this year. Glastonbury is sold out. Someone send us some press passes please? TA xxx
