Music. The language of modern love.

At the best of time music plays a huge part in the lives of everyone, any track can take you back to a specific moment in your life for better or for worse. My latest theory however is that as the headline of the article states; Music is the language of modern lovers. In a generation where words seem to be becoming less and less important, gradually replaced with emoticons, Tweet updates and text speak it seems to be getting more and more difficult to really tell someone how you feel about them.
The one tool which has emerged somewhat unscathed in this era of minimal phone tapping is music. From the painstakingly assembled CD compilation to the track that randomly comes on the radio, there is at least one tune which will have you and your partner glancing at each other and either taking you back to that first moment you realised that you were in love, or at least reminding you of just how much you mean to each other.
It’s important to note then that if you happen to have the idea of making a compilation CD for your partner there are definetly tracks that you should avoid. These are tracks that I have reserved for what I like to call the ‘anti-love’ CD, a compilation which expresses your distain towards what might be your ex-partner. The tracks that I have collaborated for that so far (in no order) are: I hate you – The Monks, You’ve Done My Brain In – The Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band, Baby Bitch – Ween, Little Willy – Sweet (rather vindictive), I’m through With white Girls – The Dirt Bombs, I’ve Had it With Blondes – CUD. The list is endless, but this rather alternative selection of tunes is perfect for reminding someone of any pain that they might have caused for you during a breakup perhaps. It was decided that should you ever need to compile a CD of tunes for this purpose then an ideal name for it would be: In My Opinion, You will hate this more than I hate you. Yet that will never be enough. (Thanks to John White for his creative title contribution there)
Now let’s contrast that with the tunes I have selected for what I like to call my Pro-love compilation CD. Ignoring the obvious ballad crap that you find on any A.O.R compilation CD and very much avoiding the nonsense in the charts, my list has a slight alternative twist to it: To Love Somebody – The Bee Gees, Don’t Laugh I Love You – Ween, Canyons of Your Mind – Bonzo Dog, 1952 Vincent Black Lightning – Richard Thompson, Please Love Me – The Monks. Once again and endless list, I’m applying tracks here which have worked with my theory in the past. I hasten to add that during that painful process of heartbreak you do adopt a number of sad songs, for me the two that spring to mind are: Birthday Boy- Ween and I don’t Know Why I love You – Stevie Wonder. Yes Ween get a lot of mentions, but they are one of my favourite bands and their varied sound make it easy to pick plenty of songs for different reasons.
Of course the other thing to consider as well is that you can fall in love WITH music and not just TO music. There are songs which can come on and cause you to stop whatever it is that you’re doing, close your eyes and just listen. You can be completely incapacitated by the rhytmns, the layers, the lyrics or even the memories that you assosiciate with the track in the first place. It can be simple things as well for instance I’m sat here now listening to Jurassic 5’s Lesson 6 (The Lecture) which is reminding me of driving through Cardiff with my friend Jase after a rather successful car boot sale. Happy days!
So I guess the point that I am making is that music itself is a language of its own, whether you’re listening to it or creating it music will always tell stories, provoke emotions, inspire the mind and even make people angry. It’s a very powerful tool indeed but I don’t think (apart from one person I know of who is just weird) that there is anyone who can turn around and say hand on heart that they don’t like music AT ALL. If you discover these people, please shoot them as to not question the validity of my article.
Love music, love people and love people through music.

The missing Boomtown review

Given that I very rarely visit my blog, or read my own work for that matter it came as a suprise to me earlier to find that my review of last years Boomtown Fair is missing!
I thought that the quantity of complaints regarding my reviews was low so upon checking out the uploaded stuff I was shocked to find a huge blank hole where my once shameful review once lived. So here be a re-post:

The upcoming days to this year’s Boomtown fair were stressful to say the least. It co-incited with my partners birthday and given that I had just spent all of my money buying and converting a ropey DAF 400 mini-bus into a barely passable camper van I knew that I had to make this a weekend to remember for her.
It was her first festival and to be honest it was only my proper second one. I had visited Ashton Court every year from the time I was tiny until the time I was big, I had also popped into Nozstock last year to perform with Sicknote. But as I was only there for a day I never really counted it.
Boomtown Fair 2009 had set a high standard of what to expect from a festival and this year I was looking forward to the same level of entertainment and fun.
Needless to say, the bar was raised again!

After hours of tedious motorway driving followed by forty minutes of being lost in Buckinghamshire country side, we finally found Stow House. The venue of this year’s event. What a beautiful scene it was too, an infinite blanket of greenery within sandstone walls, enormous well-aged trees shrouded a stunning mansion and a school for posh kids who wouldn’t understand what a festival was.
We drove over a bridge that crossed a beautiful lake that accommodated ducks and reeds and... Wait a minute, I’m not Bill Oddie. This is a festival review, not a nature documentary.
ANYWAY! We picked up some hitchhikers who had a didgeridoo so that makes up for it all.

Despite being half a mile from the festival we could already feel the pumping bass resonate through the floor, attracting sand worms and stressing out freeman (guess the reference).
We got there, did all the nonsense at the security stuff (they had PDAs and stuff it was very professional). Pitched up in the campy bit...put our boots on, drunk some of the beer we had smuggled in (sorry guys, but that rule was NEVER going to get enforced successfully now was it?) and headed towards the PUMPING NOISE!

This was where I was super-duper amazed.
2009s Boomtown had been fantastic and the scenery and setup was incredible, but this year they had pulled out all of the stops. I found myself stood within the centre of a post-apocalyptic town... battered shop fronts housed secret night clubs... shattered shopping trolleys accommodated speakers... it was incredible.
This mock-up town really played on the sense of deviation created by Boomtown. It felt like we weren’t meant to be there... like our parents had gone away to Blackpool and we’d invited all our mates around despite being told ‘NO PARTIES’.
The lack of commercialisation was to thank for this. Ashton Court had become an outdoor Orange Phone shop in its later days and even small events such as Rock in The Dell in Chepstow began relying on sponsorship which it had later lost.
When speaking with Sion Bailey, bassist and singer of Cowboy and The Corpse who played the Devil Kicks Dance Hall he was surprised to see people of all different musical cultures getting along so well. Spiky haired leather clad punks were chilling out on hemp blankets with hippy women called ‘Dalek’ and ‘Moonbeam’. It was like watching the I.F.C throw a party for Arsenal fans.
I don’t remember the Devil Kicks Dance Hall being at last year’s festival and if that is the case it turned out to be a nice addition. As much as I love reggae, ska and dub I also love my Rockabilly, Pyschobilly and punk. So it made for some satisfactory diversification.
As the night hit it was time to admire the Boomtown lights, often in the form of huge mechanical robots or statues throwing out fire into the night’s sky. I was not disappointed. I was also kept very warm. Open fires made for brilliant social networking areas and conversation pits.
Not one to sound quintessentially British but the weather wasn’t great at times. However, this did not stop people from wearing shorts and sandals and standing in front of the main stage. I admire their tenacity... I admired it from the Bar tent, where I lived during every period of rainfall.
As the weekend went on though, the weather cleared and all was well again.

One thing I was very happy to note this year was the much improved feel of family orientation. To the point in fact where there was an entire field dedicated to accommodating families, which included a camping area and a number of tents and stalls to entertain children of all ages. I noted that a number of them were educational and informed children on topics such as renewable energy.
Around the edge of the main ‘town centre’ (where the main stage lived) there were also a number of tents and stall which had different activities taking place over the weekend. I spoke to one little boy (who looked like a younger version of me) as he was learning how to carve rocks. He had been having the time of his life and to thank his parents he was carving a skull and cross-bones, of which I have a photograph because it looked cool.

One of my favourite stalls had to be the scientist dude with the giant satellite dish (which acted as a solar powered toasty maker) and a homemade Tesla-coil. Which I got to watch in full force on the last night. I had what seemed to be an endless conversation with the eccentric-bearded chap and was pleased to see how he was able to make physics seem so bloody interesting. I wish I had had him as a teacher in school!
Flipping heck, this review is already 969 words long and I still have so much to talk about!
Perhaps I’d best summarise it in a paragraph or something...
As far as I am concerned I think the team at Boomtown are going to find it hard to excel this year’s festival because it was fantastic. The only issue I had was that there was a LOT of reggae, ska and dub...but it IS a reggae, ska and dub festival so WHATDOYA EXPECT?!
The improvement of family based activities and accommodation was a fantastic choice, although I’m sure if space had allowed for it in 2009 it would have been equally as good.
In the second night I managed to speak with two police officers who were on patrol throughout the fair who informed me that they had had no trouble whatsoever and they were happy to see everyone having a good time. Thank you for that constabulary for having an open mind and not quashing what turned out to be a fabulous weekend.
On the Monday I did stay longer than I should have as I found myself getting upset at the stalls and stages being taken down... I didn’t want myself to believe that it was all a big mock-up but was in fact a post-apocalyptic town in the middle of nowhere. However if you want to re-live something close, come to Newport. (Although the people in Newport are nowhere as laid-back and cool as those at Boomtown)
I hope to see you all and more at Boomtown 2011 where you’ll see that everything I say is right and you’ll want to come back again and again.
Let’s keep this type of event alive! Don’t allow it to get into the hands of the likes of Starbucks or any of those filthy, disgusting conglomerates who would turn it into a giant billboard, sporting the likes of My Chemical Romance or some other pop band! We want Zen Hussies not bloody Spice Girls.

Thank you Boomtown crew for yet another Fab’lus time.

Some handy tour dates

Here are some dates for the Mr. Duke tour, attend them all and get a free mug. Also some dates for Cat Matador, check them out as they are awesome: http://www.myspace.com/catmatador


MR DUKE DATES:

Feb 23rd - Wycombe Academy - with backing band 'Hoodlum Circus', hundred cannons, Ninjaninja

Feb 26th - Windmill - Brixton

March 3rd - Kama Lounge, Newport - With Olivia Perry

March 4th - Five Alls, Chepstow - With Olivia Perry and John Mcconnachie

March 5th - Jacob's Ladder - Falmouth

March 6th - Ride - Plymouth

March 8th - The King Lud - Isle of Wight

March 9th - Studio Bar - Penzance

March 11th, Bar 35 - Bude

March 12th - Square & Compass - Purbeck

March 14th - Mr Wolf's - Bristol

March 17th - Promised Land - Cardiff (with Olivia Perry and others)
http://www.dukeofcardiff.com/

March 25th - TBC - Norwich




CAT MATADOR DATES:

>> 24th February - The Cellar, Oxford
>>
>> 1st March - The Purple Turtle, Reading
>>
>> 4th March - The Labour Club, Northampton
>>
>> 10th March - The Vic, Swindon
>>
>> 19th March - Mr Wolf's, Bristol
>>
>> 22nd March - The Dublin Castle, Camden London
>>
>> 25th March - The Cellar, Oxford
>>
>> 26th March - The Central, Nottingham

The Duke of modern country

It has been a hefty long time since any last update, hopefully now I can start getting back into writing consistent reviews for you all to ignore.

I'm starting off the new year with a reasonably new musical discovery. A chap I met sometime last year in fact, Mr. Duke.

I first met him at the Le Pub, he was sat at a table with his laptop rigged up to the PA pumping out some delicious northern soul and funk. It was at this juncture that I'd mistaken him for the sound guy. Later I was to discover that Duke will DJ at any given chance and DJ well he does too.

That particular night he was playing with his backing band 'The Hoodlum Circus' comprised of my friend 'Dude' on screechy, painful lead guitar, Duke on rhythmn guitar and vocals, some bloke on bass and an Argintinian (spelling) chappy on drums.
Thus commenced their first gig (and first time they'd all seen each other) in over a year, which for the short while was noticable. But as they played on, they got tighter. To be honest I was more completely overwhelmed by The Dude's insane guitar playing. His Fender Jaguar spewing out distorted, broken chunks of ear piercing mess as The Dude spun around in circles, headbutted frets and threw himself around like a madman. It was truly beautiful and can probably never be replicated by anyone else.

I should also point out that Mr. Duke was playing wearing only his batman pants and a pair of socks, but that seems so normal these days.

Since that fateful night I've not only seen the Duke play acoustic sets (sporting a slightly Bob Dylan meets Flaming Lips sort of formula) I've also drummed for him on two occasions.
As previously mentioned also, Duke is a very keen (and talented) DJ who will unfold his MAC and hit the virtual decks at every given moment. This includes venues such as: Le Pub, Newport Chartists (a thrift shop), my kitchen and the bus from Newport to Cardiff. Constantly perfecting mixes between tracks that you haven't heard for years and you will be constantly thanking him for each one he plays (I've seen it happen)


Now onto the new stuff that he's been producing. As some people are aware the Duke has re-located himself out of Cardiff and retreated to the wonderful nowhere of Snowdonia... with nothing more than a couple of shirts and a guitar.
In a very short space of time, he has written, recorded and produced a number of new tracks include some new versions of previous tracks. He has wonderfully blended a traditional acoustic country guitar style to at times melancolie lyrics which can really play on your emotions. By all means, avoid tracks such as 'Dirty Blonde Hair' if you're feeling depressed. However, if you are down... I suggest Great Gatsby, an entertain ditty that comes in both delicious acoustic and nutritious electric guitar depending on your preference.

Once you get through the entire Duke catalogue of songs you'll discover that he enjoys singing about meaningful subjects such as cheese quite frequently, however the lighthearted lyrics of tracks such as Great Gatsby and Peter Beardsley (Duke's ukelele tribute to his favourite footballer) is contrasted beautifully with tracks such as 'Upon a Hill' (about unrequited love, a common country subject) Dirty Blonde Hair (a murder story comprised into a beautifully composed song, available with and without his backing band) and Lonesome.

Some of his tracks feature a variety of female vocalist duo's which is well harmonised and generally very lovely.
Duke seems somehow to capture many influences of artists and bands who I like such as Half Man Half Biscuit (who are arguably at times a country band), Ween (their first country album), Flaming Lips, Filthy Pedro and some other stuff that he paid me to say that I can't remember...

Duke is due to go on tour in March of this year to perform the tracks of his new album. I shan't lie I will be going along with him to a majority of it as not only do I enjoy his shows very much, but I can drive and he can't.

I strongly suggest that you go along to all of the shows, or failing that as many as you can attend. You know that I don't write about stuff I don't like on here (although I do have a hundred cannons review coming up) so you can take my word at the fact that Duke is bloody awesome.

Don't believe me, you can check him out here:

http://www.dukeofcardiff.com/ - for the new stuff and here:

www.myspace.com/mrdukeandthehoodlums - for the older stuff

Compare, contrast, listen and enjoy.