I could never be a drummer; I'd throw up.

Saw Cajun Dance Party on Saturday. I will not lie, it was very very amazingly good fun. I squeezed right to the front, close enough for, if I'd wanted, I could have ripped all the cords out of the keyboard CDP's resident pianist Vicky was playing.Towards the end of the night the singer was stage-diving, the guitars had about 2 strings still working and the crowd had managed to somehow crowd-surf the singer Danny's microphone stand all the way back to the auditorium.
It was the first night of Cajun Dance Party's UK tour. It was a pretty good start. The support acts were an icelandic band called Jakobinarina (pronounced "yack-oh-been-a-reen-a"), and a guy singing ballads on a piano. The poster said it was Jakobinarina and Tinseltown supporting, but after checking out tinseltown on MySpace, it turns out it wasn't. Whoever he was, he was good; and he handed out FREE shirts after his set. They were these off-white fairtrade organic cotton shirts (WHY ARE THE ECO FRIENDLY T-SHIRTS NEVER WHITE? MY HADOUKEN SHIRT IS ALSO ALL YELLOWY!) with "NICE GUYS DON'T PLAY GOOD MUSIC" hand-sprayed onto them. I managed to get a girls extra small size, and i am pretty sure it is roughly the same size as any t-shirt that my four-year-old brother might wear. Ah well, I can just tell everyone that it is the style to wear childrens' clothes. Or girls' clothes.

I can't remember tracklisting perfectly, but the finale was The Next Untouchable, soon to be Cajun's new single. It was an awesome gig, buy their single off iTunes, it's amazing.

DOWNLOAD: Cajun Dance Party - The Next Untouchable

I have a recurring dream in which I manage to single-handedly start some kind of illegal underground warehouse rave club scene in my middle-class suburban town just outside the M25. It's not going to happen, but every time I put on Pirate Soundsystem's Headspin Remix of Hadouken!'s 'Liquid Lives', there it appears. One word for this track: WAREHOUSE.
It's not music in the music sense of the word - I will actually eat my own hat if this EVER (even in like a hundred years) comes up on Desert Island Discs - but it's one hell of a dancehall-oriented track, and the bassline SCREAMS neon.

DOWNLOAD: Hadouken! - Liquid Lives (Pirate Soundsystem Headspin Remix)

And now, Regina Spektor. She's finally coming to London, so me, Wil and Jane are going down to see her at the Royal Festival Hall. Except, annoyingly, Kate Nash has decided to schedule the ONLY London date of her UK tour that very day, and somebody's offered me a free ticket. RARGH. The scheduled time of both shows are EXACTLY the same, and I've already paid for Regina Spektor. The decision was tough, but I'm going to Regina, seeing as this is her World Tour and she probably won't be in London again for at least a year. But argh, it's still really irritating.
Although, on the upside, as remarked by my sister after she heard Habanera, the B-side to Kate's Number 2 smash Foundations, Kate Nash is starting to sound more and more like Regina.
Habanera is a masterpiece. It's a little bit too arthouse to ever get the mainstream recognition of Foundations, but it's a solid tune. It builds up from Kate just singing some high-pitched dadadadaaas over a deep piano riff, in comes some drums and some lyrics. The real artistic bit is in the random noises that build up over the course of the song. There's a match being lit, coins being dropped and glasses being tapped. Or something like that.

DOWNLOAD:Regina Spektor - Wasteside

DOWNLOAD: Kate Nash - Habanera

Bolt The Dizzee Hadouken Fox Party

OK I'm sorry this is turning into a blog that seems entirely dedicated to Hadouken, but I just had to do a write-up of their excellent (and I mean excellent) mixtape. Sampling all of early 2007's best banger's, this is really one for the scene kids. It's got Caroline's a Victim, Ready To Uff, TWO Klaxons rework's (major kudos on the Golden Skans snippet) and they're even remixing their own tracks. IT IS AMAZING. The available artwork only gives the sampled artist's names and not the songs, and some of the tracks I honestly cannot be bothered to research but it tracklisting is roughly as follows:

Bloc Party vs Hadouken! - The Prayer Remix
Like Woah! - (DON'T KNOW)
David E Sugar Feat Ears - (DON'T KNOW)
Wiley - (DON'T KNOW)
Plan B vs Hadouken! - No More Eating Remix
Virus Syndicate
TNT - (DON'T KNOW)
Skepta Feat Wiley, JME, Creed - (DON'T KNOW)
Klaxons vs Hadouken! - Atlantis To Interzone Remix
Bolt Action Five - Tree Friend Tree Foe
Hadouken! - Tuning In
Uffie - Ready To Uff
Kate Nash - Caroline's A Victim
Mr Oizo - (DON'T KNOW - I REALLY SHOULD KNOW)
Klaxons - Golden Skans
Justice - Phantom
Fox N Wolf - Youth Alcoholic
Radioclit - (DON'T KNOW)
Gossip - Standing In The Way Of Control
Test Icicles - (DON'T KNOW)
Jixilix - (DON'T KNOW)

Get the whole mixtape @ http://www.myfreedownload.co.uk/hadoukenmixtape

Overall the mixtape is really really good. Personally I reckon some of the rap/grimey bits at the beginning go on a bit too long + Maybe they coulda done something a bit more interesting with Caroline's A Victim. I particularly like the way they've really subtly messed with the bassline from Standing In The Way Of Control, although it actually makes me wince so much when i hear people refer to Beth Ditto & Co's three and a half minute frenzied protest track as 'The Skins Song'. Eurghhhhh.

My favourite bit of the track has to be Bolt Action Five's Tree Friend Tree Foe. I hadn't heard of this band before but I am officially in love with them. I have no idea what they are talking about with friends and foes and trees but it makes an excellent track. The Cleft Pallettes have an amazing remix of it, all glitchy synths and super mario drumbeats.
DOWNLOAD: Bolt Action Five - Tree Friend Tree Foe (Cleft Palettes Remix)

In fact, the Cleft Pallettes have some really awesome remixes, especially their edit of the Teenager's Homecoming, in which they manage to laugh at just about everything to do with the Myspace generation of 2007. Get them off their Myspace. I'm also grateful for the screechy Youth Alcoholic bit. It's like the horrible third verse of the Timewarp, except really really good. I do have first-hand anecdotal evidence it will make your pets go temporarily insane. There's a wicked "hungover booty crunk" remix of it available HERE from Discobelle.net

In other news, Cajun Dance Party have just started their UK tour. I'm hoping to catch them at the Bedford Esquires in a few Saturdays' time, and they've just made their 2006 demo EP available free from their website. If you haven't heard Cajun Dance Party yet I seriously suggest you check them out. CAJUN FREE DEMOS
&&&& I have FINALLY managed to get my hands on the Dizzee Rascal album. I'd be lying if I said it's all good - track number 1 is especially crap, the hightlight is where Dizzee coughs at around the 2 minute 40 mark - but there are some awesome tunes. Sirens, his ode to 'goin out n robbin stuff', if you ignore the fact it includes actual sirens, is a wicked banger. Listen to the heavy guitar riffs that sound like they're stolen out an old White Stripes album, and the catchy-as-anything chorus: it's impossible not to be hooked.
DOWNLOAD: Dizzee Rascal - Sirens