Mr Axl's Lovely AWARD WINNIN' MUTHA-FLIPPIN' BLOG Y'ALL!!!

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBtCMPiFUjjdfEj1IDwjgm5mF9H8Ihnjg_otzmZje7YJBRYc1VrnhakPcdr6-xlNn0mQw_KJB4wM9osTbrPu1wtMuDOQMarbg49bRdtxfGcN7zbhXmm2fqxDF_y7gpwXJNkY0MPi9Db4M9/s1600-h/ArteYPico.jpg

This computer's being a twat and not letting me put a picture on this fucking thing, so go to that web address and look at the picture now before going any further.
SEE THAT?! That right there is an "Arte Y Pico" award. It's an award among the blogging community, that bloggers give to blogs they deem to be particularly good and deserving of recognition. Yup, first I've ever heard of it too, but guess what? I don't give a fuck, coz my blog has been awarded one!! This was a surprise to me as: a) I'd never heard of it before: b) I'm not really part of the blogging community, I just have a blog. You may say that this makes me part of the blogging community by default, but I say that just because I get drunk, doesn't make me an alcoholic, so just because I have a blog, doesn't mean I'm part of the blogging community: and c) My blog is the kind of unfocused nothing that I assumed the blogging community despised and wrote off as a waste of time, but apparently not. Well, to one member at least.

It is apparently the done thing to give this award to five other blogs once you have been given this award. Trouble is, as I'm not really part of the blogging community, and coz my laptop has been broken for about 6 weeks now, I haven't been looking at any blogs past my own approved list, and most of them can't be bothered to update their blogs more than once every 3 months or so, so I'll start off with 2 awards, on consider my other 3 as time goes on, and award them accordingly.

My first award would probably go to the blog I got mine from, which is almost certainly not the done thing, but fuck it, they're my awards to give out so I'll give them to whoever the fuck I like.
"Blog Is Not A Four Letter Word" ( http://www.wurzel-power.blogspot.com/ (sorry, I can't do fancy links!) is a blog written by a guy called Sean who I worked with about 3 years ago. He was this odd little yank who knew a lot about prog and fusion jazz, just as I was going thru a prog & fusion jazz phase. He made me this wicked compilation of fusion jazz, and a friendship was forged. Working with Sean was fun, coz we'd take the piss out of shit music a lot, trading amusing insults and observations. His blog started off as a shared blog with other writers, but has become almost solely kept updated by Sean himself, with the occasional new post by his wife. This blog is always well written, with good attention to details and research gone into their subjects. Sean always writes touching and informative obituaries too. Even when writing about something yer not particularly interested in, the writing is of such a standard that it will still always make for a good read.

My second would go to "Fudge". ( http://www.dontgiveafudge.blogspot.com/ ) "Fudge" is also written by an American. Do Americans make the best bloggers? Maybe. Anyway, "Fudge" is the blog of another friend of mine, Rhyannon. Rhyannon's blog is basically a reviews blog. Sometimes they're unabridged versions of reviews that she has written for websites. I like Rhyannon's reviews a lot. She reviews in a way that seems to me to be very original and fresh and not like some cliched wannabe NME/Q/Plan B/etc writer. Different perspectives and interesting views, as journalism should be, surely.

So there. My first two awards gone. I'm keeping the other three to give out later on.

In other Axl news, I can't get that Dizzee Rascal & Calvin Harris song out of my head! After thinking it was shit when I first heard it, it seems to have grown on me so much that I'm almost thinking about breaking up with my girlfriend so I can go out with it. I don't know why, it's not really even that good, it's just so fucking infectious!! Another one to file in with "Guilty Pleasures" then. I've been told recently that I have too many guilty pleasures and I am in fact just a bit guilty. Maybe they have a point.

Went to 2 gigs in 2 days. At each gig, the band I went to see were really good, and the other bands weren't.
Gig 1 was to see Theo at the Cellar.
I can't seem to find anything about who the band on before Theo were, which is a shame because they were absolutely terrible. At the time they reminded me of an emo re-working of the end credits music from the anime series "Cromartie High School." I can't think of a better comparison, which isn't going to be much help to any of you, so I'll try a description. They sounded like someone trying to make a gravel smoothie. No, that makes them sound like a noise band. You know what? I can't remember them well enough to write about them. I just know that I really didn't like them. At all. So much so that I said after they'd finished, that they were one of the worst bands I had ever seen.
Theo was awesome. Theo's guitar loops and live drums combo gets better every time I see it. I put this down to real development of the guitar work. Loops and lines that in themselves mesmerize and excite, far from being just a prelude to the beat. Theo has always had the talent with the drums, and is now really getting the skill with the guitar to match it.
A band called Nitkowski were headlining. I was told I would like them. I didn't. They were ok, until the guy started singing in that horrible affected emo voice people just keep on singing in. We left during the first song. Or was it just after? I can't remember.

Gig 2 was to see So So Modern at the Zodiac.
So So Modern are back in the country for the Transgressive roadshow tour. I've creamed over So So Modern on this blog before so I don't think I need to do it again. Needless to say, they were excellent. Two criticisms though. 1. They didn't play for long enough (They were only given half an hour). 2. They should have been much higher up on the bill. Especially considering that Absentee were on after them, a band who were so dull, you forgot what they sounded like approximately 3 seconds after they'd finished playing. I'm pretty sure they did a cover of a song from "Grease", but I may have subconsciously made that up in a vain effort to make them seem slightly more interesting.
A band called Esser played next, and confused the fuck out of me, quite frankly. Did you ever see the Channel 4 show "Faking It", where people were taken out of their regular routine and put in the opposite situation (classical musician becomes dj, fine arts student at Oxford becomes graffiti artist, etc, etc) to see if they could do it? Well this lot look like some really extravagant version of that programme, where they've all been picked to try to fake it to each other, aswell as the rest of us. 4 of the most misfitting people you could imagine, brought together to see what happens. You've got a dodgy Link Wray impersonator on vocals, the unknown 4th member of The Jam on guitar (might've been bass), an Indian Yannis-from-Foals lookalike on synths & samplers, and a skinhead on drums. This is probably why their music at first comes across as bizarre. First song sounded like a meeting point between My Bloody Valentine and Bill Haley & The Comets. Then came equally perplexing songs, thought I cant't remember why now (knew I should've written that shit down.). I do remember one song sounding like Lily Allen. After being confused for about 4 songs, I just started to find them irritating. Yes, we get it, you like to mix up styles and see what happens, now can you please get more talent so it's interesting please. Then, they play the last song of their set, which actually sounded good for about half a minute, until I realised it sounded exactly like Hot Chip, and the magic was gone. I saw Hot Chip this year. They do the Hot Chip sound much better.
Jeremy Warmsley headlined and was a bit pedestrian. Bit boring. Even with a bass player who permanently looks like he's having sex. We left after 3 or 4 songs to go to the pub.

Seriously, So So Modern far outshone everyone else on that bill. They're playing Truck this year. Hopefully they'll be this years Disco Drive. I don't know anyone who saw Disco Drive who didn't think they were one of the best bands, if not THE best band of the weekend. So So Modern are gonna rule Truck this year, mark my words.
AND they deserve it coz they're really nice people. I met them, they were really nice guys. They were staying at 'Caela's coz they know one of her housemates. I had breakfast with them. Me & Bevan showed them Pitt Rivers museum and how to get to bookshops.
After the gig, a couple of them came out to booze with us. We took them to Hi-Lo Jamaican Bar. We drank Rum Punch. We had an awesome nite.

Ok, that's more than enough for now. The next post will be the 200th potato farm post. I have no idea what I'm gonna do for it yet. Eeeeek!