The Great Big Axl Truck Festival Blog Part 2

The first part was not some of my best work, but it got the fundamentals across. Hopefully this one will be better.

Sunday:

11 in the morning, the main stage, The Walk Off?!?! Really?!?! Was there ever a more inapropriate setting for this? I'm standing in a field with group of just woken up and extremely hungover human beings first thing on a Sunday to see the drum 'n' bass 'n' noise behemoth that is The Walk Off. There could not be a worse time or place for this. Apart from at a Grandparents funeral. No, actually that would be better. Oh, and of course I have a twisted ankle, so I can't even help with a bit of a dance. To their credit, The Walk Off played a really good set. Put it in a tent or even the Barn Stage on Saturday night and it would've been the fucking highlight of the festival. The Walk Off simply aren't an 11am Sunday open-field band. End of. It's a real shame, and a wasted opportunity on Truck's part.
To top things off, Ol' Luca Hansman The Walk Off Bear saw me, bounded up and jumped on my back, unaware of my ankle problem. Immediately my left leg just said "NO! This aint happenin'!" and just gave way sending us crashing to the floor. Bizzarly I just felt guilty that I couldn't help try and inject some life into this crowd. I wasn't particularly bothered by the intense pain that had just shot thru my ankle. Luca looked at me later as if to say "What happened man?! Where were you when I needed you? How could you just leave me out in the cold like that man? I thought we were buddys! I can't believe you man!" and other war film related statements of being let down. Don't hate me Luca! NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Ahem. Anyway...

I missed Baby Gravy coz I forgot where they were playing. I missed Fonda 500 for the same reason, then later found out I'd got the time wrong anyway. I was gutted. I fucking love Fonda 500, and haven't seen them play for years.

Did see Hreda tho. It was the first time I've seen them with the new addition of a Cellist. I was a little dubious when I first heard about this, but it really works, I think because they don't have a bass player it sort of substitutes for that. Substitutes is the wrong word, it's not like "Our bassist's injured! Quick, call the cellist!" It's more that the fact Hreda don't have a bass player, the fact they've added a cellist fits very naturally as it provides a bass layer. My other worry was that it may sound like a post-rock cliche. No need to worry, the fact that the Cello "fits very naturally" as I just said, makes this a non-issue. No, the Cello is a fine addition, and helps Hreda play the best set I've seen them play. A definite highlight of the weekend.

I'm pretty sure the next thing I saw was the Neon Productions piece. A dance choreographed to Fuck Buttons music. This meant I actually got to see a little bit of Fuck Buttons live. The fact that I couldn't get out of work meant I missed them on Saturday, which I was gutted about. That said, the focus was very much on the dance. Although, I'm not sure if it was the way they were performing/choreographed or the music itself, but as the music got more intense, the dancers did aswell. It was a really good dynamic that worked well, whether intentional or not. So yeah, it was good.

Sunshines next, although apparently they changed their name due to a member not being there. Basically it was the Hootie Birthday Roadshow. It was pretty hilarious watching drunk Hootie failing at putting a mic in a mic stand, talking to his mum on the phone, counting a bit too loudly, and flashing a gonad. But in the moments when there was nothing to laugh at and Hootie & Alex were doing their keyboard drones piece, I have to say some of it was actually pretty good. There was a really nice base melody to it. If they decided to commit to it and practise a bit more they could have something real decent on their hands.

Then I went to catch The Schla La Las on the main stage. The end of Hootie ran into the start of Schla's, so I only caught the last 25 minutes or so of their set. I hadn't seen them before, and it's a good job I did coz apparently it's their last gig together and now Hannah won't kill me for never having seen them. It's a shame they've split, they're a really fun band to watch. Catchy poppy rock 'n' roll songs with the best stage banter of the weekend. Admitedly not the kind of thing I'd really dig on record, live they do it well and it's really easy to get into and just enjoy.

What was next? The next thing I remember was going to see The Rock Of Travolta but them starting a bit later than billed so having to leave before they started to go to the Quilting Tent for The Walk Off's acoustic set, then bumping into Mya on the way who told me they'd all gone home, by which time The Barn had become very full indeed and I couldn't be bothered to go back so went to the Trailer Park tent to wait for Jonquil to play.

Me & Michael shouted abuse at Bevan & her out of control children. It was fun.

Jonquil were really good. They've really nailed the whole live performance thing now. It's wicked to see them play their slightly poppy folk songs so well, and as is now customary, everyone who can must sing "Lions" at the tops of their voices, even though half of us don't actually know what the line about the council actually says.

I'm pretty sure Disco Drive were next. If there was someone before them then I obviously either didn't see them, of Disco Drive were just so stupily good that I forgot whoever it was. Disco Drive were possibly the best band I saw all festival. An awesome three piece playing some of that disco-rock that is so in at the moment it would be tedious if they weren't so bloody good at it! When the guitarist isn't playing guitar, he's playing a drumkit (usually having set up a loop on his guitar first). There are two drummers! In a three piece band! They're very rhythm heavy and make me really wish I had fully functioning ankles.

Rolo Tomassi are disturbingly talented for their age. They sound a bit like Blood Brothers. Their fingers move stupidly quickly on the fretboards. They seriously rock hard. It's just a shame that in about 2 or 3 years time they will have probably split up and been forgotten about. Watching them, I can't shake the feeling that they are just gonna crash and burn out in about that timeframe. I hope I'm proven wrong. They really are an awesome live band.

Next thing I remember was being in the main field wondering just how Idlewild are still pulling a crowd considering how dire and dull they've become. Seriously middle of the road stuff. So boring it hurts. Hang on, I remember those notes. That's "When I Argue I See Shapes"! I fucking love that song! That was the first Idlewild song I ever heard back when they were awesome! This'll make having to stand thru this utter gash worth it. Oh my God, he's fucking crooning out those lyrics like a rejected Paul Anka track from the "Rock Swings" album. Rejected for being really rubbish and no fun at all. It sounds awful! STOP FUCKING CROONING! STOP DEFILING YOUR PAST! You may well be total shit now, but that's no reason to sully your good past with this hideousness! God I wish I was in the Trailerpark tent seeing Nervous_Test_Pilot. I caught about half of one of his songs while me & Rob were looking for Rhyannon and I fucking loved it. That's where I want to be, not wathcing yet another band who've totally lost the plot. I kind of hope I am right about Rolo Tomassi now. If they ever turn into this, it'll be fucking horrible.

And that was it. The end of my first Truck Festival. Overall I had a really good time. Bring on next year!

P.S. Can't remember what my P.S. was going to be now.
P.P.S. My next blog will be my 100th! I'm gonna have to work out how to make it special.

The Great Big Axl Truck Festival Blog Part 1.

Oh God, this is gonna take ages to write.

Saturday:

Fucking stressful day at work. Afternoon seemed to last forever.
But enough of that.

Finished work and went to get the bus to Steventon for Truck festival shenanigans. Nearly missed the stop, but luckily the driver stopped there for long enough for me to realise I should probably get off here. Looking a bit lost on the phone to Paul, I was joined by a couple of lost lady people who were supposed to be playing in about half an hour, and we decided on the whole "Power in numbers" philosophy and joined forces against the harsh unknown terrain ahead of us. Then about 30 seconds later saw a big sign saying "TRUCK" with a big arrow pointing to a pleasent country walk on it. Phew. Paul came to meet us at the railway crossing and onwards & inwards we went. Attacked by Team Cat (plus one monkey). Tent. Dump stuff. Move on.

Paul & I popped into the Quilting Tent first to check out said lost ladies band Betty And The Werewolves acoustic set. They were really good. A nice dose of summery fresh pop (I really hate that lazy phrase, but I've spent literaly 20 minutes trying to think of a better one and I can't.), slightly playful and lots of fun. And the best guitar soloing of the whole weekend. Listening to the tracks on their MySpace, it works just as well electricly too.

And they dedicated a song to me & Paul for helping them find the place and where they were supposed to be. Which was lovely of them.

Then we had to shoot off for Foals/Youthmovies related goodness. I say that, but what actually happened was that I saw Youthmovies set up, went to see if the whole "You're a Truck guest, you can come in and watch from the side of the stage" thing because people had been stopped from going into the Barn Stage for a while now (The Trailerpark tent had already been "Closed" coz far too many people were trying to get in. Move Foals to the Barn, still not enough room.). It worked, but I saw Emma's mate Hannah there aswell, and ended up chatting to her instead of going back to see Youthmovies. Oops. Apparently they were real good.

Oh yeah. Before I forget, cheers to Russ & the Hreda boys for getting me in on a guest place. Love you long time guys.

Foals. I think pretty much everyone in the whole world knows how much I love Foals by now. And they were proper on form. The first couple of songs were a bit wierd watching from the side, so when no security were looking I jumped over the security fence and into the big group of dancing kids (NO! I did not fucking stagedive! I jumped over at the side of the room and made my way from there.). Much better, now I could properly get into it. There's something a bit detached about watching a band from the sidelines, like you're not properly watching or missing out on something. In the proper crowd area, it's a lot more like you're actually there. Involed. It was awesome. Few things in this world are better than dancing to Foals live. Tonight was no exception. They were truly awesome. An exicting, vital set full of life. They are gonna take over the world.

Then I bumped into Staz, Blake, Cotty & Josh who took me to the Disco Shed for the begining of drunk dancey times. There was a mirrorball in a tree. There was good music. There was bad dancing. There was laughing. There was good fun. Then onto Trashy at one of the tents. It was strange that Michael was djing, coz he's not a Trashy dj. He's Michael. And we love him for it coz he plays the best tunes that make us dance til our feet bleed and then we dance even more. Only I was a bit too drunk and decided it would be a really good idea to climb up that big tent pole and dance while hanging off it. Amazingly I survived unscathed. Nearly got thrown out by security though. Then while dancing afterwards, I twisted my left ankle and had to be carried to First Aid. Literally. Paul gave me a piggy back all the way. Bandage. Ice-pack. Back to tent for sleepy rest times.

Right. I've just read that back and it's not very good. Quite frankly I was too tired to do this about an hour ago, but I can't be bothered to re-write it, and if I leave it any longer it'll just get even worse. I'm going to bed now, I'll try and write part 2 tomorrow, which will hopefully be a lot better written than this.

Before I go, I have to tell you all that today my Statcounter taught me that if you search for "She's wanking" on Google (UK), my blog is the 6th webpage listed. And I really wish people would stop looking at my page when searching for Great Eskimo Hoax. I'm starting to worry that a gang of Axl hating GEH fans are gonna hunt me down and kill me. Thank God they're not playing the Oxford gig with Foals. I'd probably get the shit kicked out of me.

THE GIG.

PERMANENT VACATION'S "COMMUNITY NOISE" ALL-DAYER.
Sunday 16th September.

It was probably innevitable considering just how consistently excellent PV gigs are, but this was amazing. They really outdid themselves this time and put on their best show so far.

Opening proceedings was Euhedral. A much more ambient and subtle set than when I saw him before. He seems to have found a focus now, which is shaping his work as opposed to the slightly try-everything-I-can approach of before. In a way it's a shame as I really liked him first time round, but this is by no means a criticism or an attempt to take anything away from this set. On the contary, Euhedral has improved with this new found sense of focus and is looking forward and exploring where to go with this. At a time when it can get too easy to get bogged down in staying put and sticking to what you know, it's refreshing to see someone willing to push themselves and explore new ground. A great way to start the day off.

Next up, Patel Pretal. Trimmed down to a two piece now, they also seem to have more of a sense of focus than when I saw them before. The new duo format is one that suits them, they work very well together, even if their equipment occasionaly lets them down. They use vocal drones to create a very warm (I'd possibly even go so far as to say lovely if I didn't think it would offend Pierre) sound that if I was writing for Wire magazine I would say is a sound that comfortingly hugs your head, or something like that. I don't, so I'll simply say that it's an engrossing sound that hooks you and doesn't let you go until it's finished.

Thirdly was The Duke Of Zuke. The first two pieces of their set were really good guitar and violin duo pieces. The second two pieces were more obviously recognisable Godspeed-style fare, the violinist switching to bass, and made less of an impact on me, but were still good.

Twat Trot Tra La were next up. These guys have been playing around Oxford for a while now and I've never got round to actually seeing them before. They sound like White Stripes meets The Fall. This is a very good thing. They finish with a cover of Foals' "Hummer" that is both hilarious and genius.

Elapse-O were on before us, and those buggers had to go and play the best I've seen them. Great, as if I wasn't nervous enough, possibly the best band to have emerged from Oxford this year go and play their strongest set so far. I'm not quite sure why it was, it just all seemed to come together really well and was very strong. The fact they've done a few gigs recently has obviously helped them improve. That this band keep getting better is pretty exciting.

I was shitting myself. How do we follow that? At some point during setting up though, my nerves suddenly went, and by the time we were ready to start I was really up for it. Not that I could look anywhere further than about 3 feet worth of floor infront of me, but I just went for it. I can only remember about half of it. Apparently I threw my bass at someone's legs (sorry whoever that was) and some guy started dancing. I broke a string, my cable (which meant doing a lot more vocals than I had planned to) and my drumsticks. And possibly a toe. And my right hand still hurts from essentialy beating up my bass. I'm not really sure how it sounded to the crowd, but it went really well & the feedback we got from people afterwards was really good. So all in all it seems that my first gig with Traktors (and indeed, my first ever gig) was a success. Can't wait to see the video of it.

It was definitly the single most intense and exilerating experience of my life.

I'd managed to calm down a bit by the time headliners Action Beat started. I remember seeing Action Beat last time they played a PV night, and they were amazing then, but this was on a whole other level. 4 guitarists, 2 drummers, 1 bassist & 1 violinist = one hell of a set. They seem to write themes and improvise the songs around them while playing, kind of like a jazz band in that respect, only they sound nothing like jazz. The Glenn Branca & early Sonic Youth comparisons made of them are easy to understand, theirs is a heavily layered noise-drone rock, but the sheer energy and enthusiasm they convey flavours their music with an upbeat tone, a positive and optimistic feeling that you just get hypnotised by & totally lost in, and you kind of don't want it to ever end. They were unbelievably good. One of the best bands you will ever see live without a doubt. These guys are something truly special.

To put it simply, Action Beat are one of the best bands on the planet.

To tired to write more or emphasise further now. "Hooray!" said the reader.

London Blog.

During my time off work, I discovered that actually, London isn't half bad really. I mean sure, most of it's full of rude people and overpriced avocadoccinos or whatever shite's fashionable at the moment, but if you try to drill thru that, or are fortunate enough to have one or two very good guides, actually London has some real merits. Like Italian bars in peoples houses, the South Bank after midnight & "Echo-y Cunt Bridge".

The first Monday I went, I've already written about on here, so I'll skip straight to Friday. I met up with Jef C and a couple of people he worked with in The Slug & Lettuce, a truly awful place full of wankers in suits taking high paid talk about their high paid jobs and their £500 a head functions, two thirds of whom were very obviously younger than me. We spent too long in there, but it probably made the next place even better. After Tat met us and boozey drinks were finished, we went to a place Jef knew about. P-P-P-Picked up a James-guin on the way. Anyway this place Jef took us to was awesome. Small, uncrowded, nice atmosphere, cheap booze. Bottle of wine with Hitler on the label was kinda weird tho. We didn't drink it, it was on a shelf. Next to one with a label with the Pope on it. No idea what that was all about.

I'm not really sure Jef's friends knew what to make of us. We kind of just got into our mode of "Right, it's us. No topic of conversation is untouchable!" I wish I had been able to write this sooner so I could remember what we were actually saying. I remember some comments about marriage (Both Jef's workmates were engaged, not to each other). I remember a lot of laughing.

James had to go to a gig, Jef had work at 8am, Axl & Tat get left on their merry lonesome. Go to eat lots of awesome Thai food at a place I can't remember the name of. I can't remember if that was before or after we went to a sex shop in search of a home enema kit. Yeah, I know. Tat's some kind of freak or something. They didn't have any, so we ended up looking at dvd covers that featured ladies who had penises that some guy Tat knows showed us. Yeah, Tat bumped into someone she knows at a sex shop. You literaly cannot go anywhere with Tat in London without her bumping into someone she knows.

After awesome food came the awesome walk. A walk down the South Bank at night. It was awesome. That place looks amazing at night. Kind of reminded me of Paris. And a guy proposed to his girlfriend and she said yes. It was really sweet.

Back to Tat's and a sleep on the comfiest sofa I've ever slept on. I'm going back to London soon just so I can sleep on that again. It was sooooooooo comfy!

Saturday was Thames Festival, which basically meant some market stalls were set up along the South Bank, and lots of people came to gawp at them. We had some awsome fishcakes and sat in the sun until I had to leave to come back to Oxford for Paul Heard's birthday.

Still somehow managed to end up in Sister Ray on the way and spend more money. Naughty Axl!

Paul Heard's Birthday:

Same night as Abort Retry Fail?. It was always going to be messy. We all got a bit drunk and I don't remember a lot of it now. I remember Dan was there. I remember enjoying Keyboard Choir. I remember general drunken chatter and laughter. It was a pretty good night.

Can't Think What To Call This One.

Lame of me, I know.

Luton gig got cancelled due to personal cicumstances regarding the other Traktors. It's a shame and all, but certain things are more important. We'll just play double hard at the Oxford gig on Sunday to make up for it.

I have spent my week off work doing cock-all. It's been bloody great. Went to London on Monday to spend an obscene amount of money on cds and sushi. Among other things I bought this awesome compilation they were playing in Sister Ray called "After Dark" on a small American label called Italians Do It Better. It seems to be the potential begining of what could very soon become a "scene", or maybe it's part of the whole Italo Disco thing that I have no idea about but that my friend Jef is into. Either way, it clearly draws on late 70's disco as it's main influence, but at the same time seems like a modern take/update rather than a mere apeing of a scene,and most importantly, it's very very good. I definitely think this is one of those "Ones To Watch", so much so that I've put links to their Blog & MySpace pages (They still don't have a website yet) up at the top there. Check it out. It makes me hard in the cock area.

I've totally forgotten what else I was going to write now. Erm... I've cut the inside of my mouth and it hurts like fuck. I had a drink with my old chums Phil & Mel last night at The Bear. It was really nice. I deleted my Last.fm profile coz the bloody thing never worked and after trying to sort it out many times I eventually just gave up and deleted it. So I'll just have to prove how good my music taste is by making lists like this one:

Albums I've listened to recently that make my cock rock hard:
* Various Artists- "After Dark"
* Rolan Vega - "Documentary"
* Kevin Drumm & Daniel Menche - "Gauntlet"
* False - "2007"
* Ricardo Villalobos - "Fabric 36"
* Emanuele Errante - "Migrations"
* The Monroe Transfer - "Electric Old Wire Noise"
* Sleeparchive/Antti Rannisto - Self Titled
* Animal Collective - "Strawberry Jam"

Some EP's that have had a similar effect on the prostate gland:
* Helios - "Ayres"
* Machinefabriek with Anne Bakker & Greg Haines - "Koploop"
* Taylor Deupree - "Landing"

That Ricardo Villalobos one is especially interesting. Although it's a Fabric album, he's just basically used it as an opportunity to release a bunch of his own stuff. It's essentialy a Ricardo Villalobos album, and one that any fans of minimal slightly glitchy techno cannot do without. Anyone who isn't will probably be turned by it. It's kind of the Johnny Depp of albums in that respect.

Right, I'm off to get drunk with some members of the human race. Shana tova to all you hebrews on this Rosh Hashanah, and to the rest of you just the usual goodbye.

General Axl.

Just so you blog fans have something other to read today than my boring film review. Some general stuff.

I have done pretty much absolutly nothing this weekend. It's been great. I watched footbal on tele and got bored. I've watched dvd's and listened to cd's. I've hardly moved from my bed. The furthest I've been out side is Tesco, about a minutes walk away. Mum keeps asking one of our cats "Is that scotch mist?". This hazardous laziness does mean that I missed Helen's party (Sorry, Nell's party), but I didn't get any "Where the fuck are you?" messages, so I'm assuming the party was a big success even without me. It was quite nice to wake up on a sunday morning without a hangover. I'm going to go to London tomorrow and do some shopping (Translation: I'm going to go to London and spend about 3 hours and stupid ammounts of money in Sister Ray). No, you can't come with me. I intend on spending as little time as possible with members of the human race during my holiday.

Traktors gig in Luton on Thursday. Eeeeeek! My first ever gig!

What else haven't I said before? The only thing I can think of right now is a week or two ago when I bumped into Pippa in the street and ended up having a couple of drinks with her, Nina & Bizz in All Bar One, and Nina started lightly scratching the top of my head, not knowing that that is one of my major turn-ons. I think I freaked her out a bit. Especially when she got to the dip in the back of my head.

Erm... yeah, enough of that now.

Good albums I've listened to recently:
* Shape Of Broad Minds - "Craft Of The Lost Art"
* Axolotl - "Memory Theatre"
* Various - "Babel" (Soundtrack)
* Rachel Unthank & The Winterset - "The Bairns"
* M.I.A - "Kala"
* Various - "Folk Rising"

INLAND EMPIRE

(Apologies in advance for another of these review posts, but I need to practice coz I've been asked to write for a zine that a mate of mine & some people in Coventry are setting up, so I need to practice.)

Finally got round to watching INLAND EMPIRE today. Well, it's something different to do on a Sunday morning isn't it? I've been spending most of the day since trying to work out what I actually think of it. See, on the one hand it seems to be a natural progression from and successor to Lost Highway & Mulholland Drive, on the other hand it seems to be a step backwards to Eraserhead style Lynch. This is what confuses me most about the film, not the fact that it's a confusing head-fuck of a film in itself because that's just to be expected. What confuses me is the question of whether this is an evolution or a devolution for David Lynch.

Stylistically it starts in much the same way as Mulholland Drive did. Actress in Hollywood has some scenes of deliberately awkwardly acted dialogue with seemingly random people. In Lynch films more than any other director, the opening scenes are very much about setting the film up. Not just in the situations of the film, but in the style of the film itself. This is especially true with INLAND EMPIRE due to it being completly filmed in digital, which would make for a very disconcerting first 20 minutes or so, but seeing as the film in general is anyway, this works in his favour. The awkward dialogue, the general narrative that is kept from us so much that it almost seems not to exist, the fact that you have to accomodate to a Lynch film in general makes accomodating to an uncommon style of filming just one more thing to adjust to, and it's easier to do so because of this.

The most laugh out loud hilarious moment comes about 20 minutes in with the butler celebrating some news. Genius, and proof if it were needed, that Lynch does have a sense of humour.

One of the things David Lynch does best is to get you caught up and comfortable/used to his world that he creates and then totally flip it on it's head and leave you thinking "What the fuck?!?!". In this film he does it twice. The main confusion comes in between these two moments as for over an hour and a half this film becomes a collection of what seem to be random scenes with no narative or central structure at all. Nikki Grace (Laura Dern) seems just to go through a dreamworld of scenes and situations and almost randomly come out the other end. This is what's confusing. What is David Lynch trying to do here exactly? Is this an advancement of the two-worlds-coliding themes of Lost Highway & Mulholland Drive, or is it an attempt to return to the simple unknown of Eraserhead? Even then though, at least Eraserhead had an obvious structure to it, but then maybe that's the point. Maybe we're simply supposed to be experiencing this unknown world as Nikki is herself, as confused and unsure as she is, and as she starts to accept her surroundings and become part of it, we get caught up in this bizarre otherworld and stop questioning it, choosing instead to simply go along for the ride. It was only after the film had finished that I started to question it.

This may be redundant writing anyway. With Mulholland Drive I found that after repeated viewings I started to understand what was going on, as more details fit into place and things I had missed or not understood the significance of the first time round became apparent. The striking thing is that although INLAND EMPIRE is very much a David Lynch film, it is in a way very different to his other films in that he hasn't really taken us on quite that much of a random headfuck journey before. There's always been a clear sense of plot progression which there really doesn't seem to be with this film. In many ways it seems to be a work of art rather than a film. Is that the point? Are we not even necessarily supposed to be able to follow it? Is it deliberatly pushing aside the main ideas of what a film is and is instead a work of pure artistic expression?

Maybe the fact that INLAND EMPIRE leaves us with a lot more fundamental questions than any of his other films is proof that this is an evolutionary step for David Lynch. Maybe that's the whole point. Whatever the answers are there are 2 things that are made very clear.
1. David Lynch absolutely loves digital film. You get the sense watching this that his vision of INLAND EMPIRE would not have been as fulfilled with old style film. The fluidity and length of the film (There is no way he would have been able to make this a 3 hour film if it weren't for digital. The time it would have taken to set up and film would have been ridiculous.) alone seem to testify to that.
2. Laura Dern is an excellent actress. She handles everything thrown at her and totally makes the films bizarre situations human and believable.

Right. Sorry about that.

Stuff An' Ting.

A general blog of generalness today.

Russian Circles were really good on Wednesday. However, almost all possible enjoyment of the gig was taken away by the fact that the upstairs room at the Wheatsheaf had no functioning air-conditioning and so it was like watching them play in a sauna. I hardly remember anything about the gig. I just remember the feeling of "They're really good, but fuck me I'm boiling my fucking arse off here!" The best thing about the night was having a nice cold shower when I got home. I was so unbearably sweaty. Some guy was up there in just his underwear.

I keep dreaming about Elephants. The most memorable one being the one I had the other night, which was in the style of a tv programme. A guy was washing an elephant, and it got angry and started chasing him around, and then as the camera panned out, you could see that it was half horse-half elephant, but the horse half was dead so it's hind legs were just trailing behind while it bounded after this guy using only it's front legs. I woke up very confused.

Statcounter tells me that a worrying amount of people find my blog looking for Great Eskimo Hoax. They probably don't like what I said about them and are plotting my demise as I write this. Also I've learned today that if you type "youporn cum on my tits" into Google, my blog is fourth in the list! HA!!

Too tired to write anymore. Nice lie-in tomorrow and a week off work after that. Very nice indeed.

Penguin Vacation.

I can't remember what I was going to write now because I just saw a monkey having sex with a coconut on tv.

Oh yeah...

Just been to another Permanent Vacation gig. Here's some opinion based writing about it.

Don't worry. I'll keep it brief.

First up, Lex, Lee, David & Toby. An Oxford noise supergroup featuring Elapse-O, Euhedral & half of Traktors. A 4 man drone machine. With a trombone. There's always a worry with these kind of collaborations that they will end up being a little disappointing. The key to this was that they used the opportunity to explore a side of the whole noise/drone scene that none normally do in their respective bands. Maybe because of this, they end up giving us an awesome set that is greater than the sum of it's parts.

Second, Smear Campaign. Wasn't so keen on this guy. Really liked some of what he was doing, like the sound he got from his contact mic'ed up cymbal, but it was a bit too samey without good reason to be for my liking. Kind of like watching John Olson on an off day.

Headlining was Serfs. Serfs gave us a set of 2 halves. The first half was the kind of warm guitar drones that recalled Growing at their best. For the second half the noise took a back seat and we were treated to some very nice slow (again I want to say warm) riffing. Kind of like a blues Earth. Very good indeed.

Russian Circles tomorrow! Yipeeeeeeeeee!

Rehearsal & Other.

Had first (and probably only) rehearsal with Traktors for the gigs I'm doing with them in Luton (13th) and Oxford (Port Mahon, 16th) this month. It was intense. Intense and very loud. A wall of noise. We're going to make heads bleed. Well, probably not, but they will hurt.

Statcounter results show that my blog is being visited by lots of people searching for Great Eskimo Hoax, and rather bizzarely, a couple of people looking up "Youporn".

Personal life type stuff is all very boring and self indulgent blah blah blah hideous weekend waffle waffle waffle god doesn't it make you want to vomit I mean really now.

Went to St Giles' Fair tonight. God it was depressing. A sea of chavs and idiots. And quite a few pit-bulls. Went on a couple of rides that threw me around like a sack of jelly in a washing machine. My highlight was going in an arcade on one of those old horse race gambling machines that I used to love, and winning 3 times in a row. I was well chuffed with that.

Permanent Vacation gig tomorrow! That'll be awesome.

Oh and the Audioscope line-up's been announced. I nearly wet myself with excitment when I saw that Shit & Shine are playing. I cannot fucking wait!

P.S. Marius: I'm afraid I don't know what's happening to the stock or how to get in touch with the former owners of Vinyl Frontier. Likewise Polar Bear. All I know about Avid, is that when they close, their stock is being moved to another store. I think it's in Bournemouth or Brighton.