Monday 29 October 2007

I am home

No posts last week - I was busy in Cornwall trying to learn to surf. No posts at the weekend - I am quite a lazy person. Saturday was my birthday and I am very happy to say I am going to see Amy Winehouse in december. YAY. To celebrate, here is a very rushed illustration done with my amazing wacom pad.
Amy Winehouse Portrait

Wednesday 17 October 2007

I'm feeling rather pleased



Yay, Lillica Libertine has a new mixtape and it's awesome. Titled 'Oh My Gosh 4', it's 53 minutes of sick electro banger. He's also releasing his EP in november on Meal Deal records.



In other news,



Yeah, that's right, my mum's old wacom tablet does in fact work on my computer so now I can spend my whole time failing my GCSE's through the method of iSketch.

Because I am cool I am also allowing you to download Mr Libertine's amazing remix of Papa Vito's 'Drill It'. I'm not tooo excited about the original, but the remix is phenomenal. Also, When I said "I am cool", I actually mean Lillica Libertine is cool, seeing as he posted the link to this in a bulletin about a week ago. Have a listen.
DOWNLOAD: Lillica Libertine - Oh My Gosh 444 Mix (50.4 MB)
DOWNLOAD: Papa Vito - Drill It (Lillica Libertine Remix)
*Update: Drill it link now fixed!

Sunday 14 October 2007

Partyshank @ Boston Dome, London


Partyshank @ Boston Dome, London, originally uploaded by OMG TOM.


After the incredible disappointment of not seeing Hadouken! and Late of the Pier" in Bedford on Tuesday, I had an awesome night seeing Partyshank at the Boston Arms Dome on Friday. I'd never been ther before, and the venue's website made it sound like the tiny back room of a pub. But it was HUGE inside. The lineup was a ska band followed by rap outfit Sabotage Party who were actually really good, preaching about not being a twat in the moshpit and always using a condom. (Sample Lyric: "We don't want no STD and we don't want no pregnancy!" - note the double negative, what is grammar coming to these days?)
After that there was another ska band, whose music was infuriatingly rubbish to dance to. However, they entertained in other ways, such as when the lead singer attempted a stage dive and the crowd completely failed to catch him.
What was good was that in between the sets the music was actually really good, supplied courtesy of the ADHDJ's, two kids my age who know how to put on a good tune, and remix it and stuff like that which will forever remain a mystery to me. At about half ten Partyshank finally took the stage, and put on an exhilirating set, starting with 'Untilted'. I am 99% sure this song is actually called 'Untitled', and they happened to spell the name wrong when they uploaded it to their Myspace, but for now I will have to assume it is referring to something that is not tilted. The venue was almost completely empty at this point, either because Partyshank were completely not anyone's cup of tea, or maybe people needed to catch a certain train. The last few tracks introduced a new aspect of Partysdhank performance I'd never seen before: screamo. In general I would say I am against screamo because it generally represents the more depressing emotions and generally leads to people dying their hair black and snarling at cameras for their Myspace pages, but by then I was too immersed in adrenaline to care. I managed to video pretty much the whole of 'Penis vs Vagina', lead track to the latest Partyshank EP, available off their Myspace. I got a bit 'funky' with the camera angles at times, but I'd hate for people to think I was the sort of person who could stand still with Partyshank playing a few metres away.

Monday 8 October 2007

Niyi & Namalee: Super?


Niyi and Namalee are all about bright colours, optimism and not being afraid to make a fool of yourself. Namalee's top fashion tip for this season is "saucepans on heads". Making regular appearances in London's no.1 cut-and-paste style magazine Super Super¹, Niyi and Namalee are turning heads. Here's what Niyi has to say for himself on his myspace:

"I'm a really nice guy who who is trying to do this music thing after dropping out of uni. my mum got all african and threw her splipper at me. so i need to prove her wrong... i had to get her to pay my rent the other month, so im not doing so well so far........ and now jus tryna finish an album of some sort, with a broken laptop....and of course prevent further slipper throwing and mum rent paying."

To be clear: Niyi is a solo artist, and so is Namalee (sort of). Namalee's band, Namalee N The Namazons, consists of the frontwoman herself and whoever she happens to be collaborating with. However, Namalee & Niyi are routinely appearing on each other's songs and myspace pages - take 'Niyi's Supershiny Nanamix' by Namalee for example.

Niyi's music is what could only be described as Geek Rap: songs about his love of poached eggs, or having a crush on your friend's mum. Namalee has the ability to effortlessly swap genre about three times a song. From my point of view, it's really refreshing to see a whole scene based on happiness, individualism, looking like a twat and loving it. For too long has the world been full of floppy-fringed, pierced-lip poseurs who want to be taken seriously.

DOWNLOAD: Namalee - Namazonia
DOWNLOAD: Niyi - Ur Mummy
DOWNLOAD: Niyi - Poached Eggs

¹ Surprise surprise, Namalee is creative editor at Super Super. Oh and Creative Review magazine have an interesting article about Super Super that you can read online

Thursday 4 October 2007

THE TEENAGERS + CRYSTAL CASTLES TOURING THE UK FOR FREE!


Incredible excitement pours forth - Crystal Castles are coming back to London, and so are The Teenagers and These New Puritans. Did I mention it's free? Supposing you haven't already, I implore you to go www.unitaur.com and register for the chance of winning tickets. Starting late october, the Vice Tour is going to loads of student unions, it's gonna be noisy. If you haven't seen Crystal Castles you haven't lived, click here to read my ridiculously overhyped review of them at this summer's awesome Underage Festival.

DOWNLOAD: Crystal Castles - Seed
DOWNLOAD: The Teenagers - Tiger

In other news, if you're free next friday, I would suggest you hop on a train to Kentish Town to see toystep duo Partyshank at the Boston Arms. If you feel so inclined, I might suggest you have a little read of my ridiculously overhyped review of them at the New Cross Inn.




DOWNLOAD: Partyshank - Penis vs Vagina
DOWNLOAD: Partyshank - Untilted
By the way, both of these songs are low bitrate and are repeatedly interrupted by a computer generated voice reading out their myspace address.

Tuesday 2 October 2007

Pleased To Meet You


(This picture has no relevance to anything, but it looks rather cool.)
I cannot allow myself to think that there are some people who have not heard the amazing cover/remix of Blur's excellent Song 2 as put forward by elctro-rockers !Trash Yourself. I'm not going to write a full review as I will just end up repeating what has already been said, so I suggest you hyperlink yourself to This review from Missingtoof.com!
All I can say is that combining a britpop classic with dirty pounding synths is a guaranteed party starter. Enjoy!