London Popfest 2011

Superfast, supercheap Virgin train to Euston, with free Wi-Fi... Wander to Camden and discover cheap veggie burger place is no more... Amble across the city (and The City) for a few hours (via V-Cross, St John's Gate)... Begin to realise my brand new £4.99 shoes are already totally fucked up... Walk up and down Cable Street but am unable to find the red plaque (cos it's on Dock Street)... Meet up with Clare Pop, then head over to meet other pop types in Shepherds Bush... Bush Hall has upsides (sounds, chandeliers, balcony) £3.80/can booze is one of the downsides... Tender Trap are my highlight for the evening... Friday is for Thai Food at The Miller, followed by 'Darkened Doorways' (lovely to share with others), then 'Strange Powers' (totally watchable, even as an unfan of Magnetic Fields)... Bored of the cold I buy a 1/2 price cardigan in H&M, Brixton... Comedy confusion in The Music Bar where Ben is told his chicken burger has become a beef burger as chickenburgers aren't served so the menu must have a 'spelling mistake'... It's payday for me and The Windmill has lots of beer and a merch desk... Town Bike & Sourpatch are top banana... Dancing til WAY past bedtime... Saturday is chinese buffet followed by Blue Posts, had to force the first couple of pints down battling with hangover... Enter The 100 Club to the opening notes of La Revolucion Sexual played by Twee Grrrls Club, hangover symptoms disappear... Wait for Humousexual... knackered guitar amp doesn't prevent a good number of terriblyexcited kids dancing, fists in the air to the likes of Oh Camberwell and Batty Street... Spend much of the day trying to avoid the eyes of people I went TOTALLY FANBOY over the night before, same with randoms I HUG-ATTACKED... Drink til it matters less... Go all FANBOY over Rob Price... Eux Autres nail their set... Think I may have accidentally sort of pulled a dude... Dance til late... Get called a 'cunt' by a Met Copper... Head across to The Lexinton for All Fringe No Knickers for more dancing to Sultans of Ping... Head east with a chatty taxi driver and a spare Swede... Early rise for Pop Quiz, Tony Wilson's Cock slaughter the competition... Head over to Bhel Poori House for dangerous amounts of curry... Find the following grafitti:'I bet the chef wanks in the curry, I would. Imagine all those uptight indie girls (not women, for sure) necking the whack.'... Enjoy the nervous dancing of Youngfuck's singer... Enjoy onstage banter of Girls Names' singer... Make a girl cry... Don't manage to say goodbye to everyone... Realise at Euston that my train ticket is for Monday... New ticket for train leaving 30 mins after I thought, arriving 90 mins after I'd thought... Birmingham City FC win the Carling Cup, my train makes this common knowledge... Popfest 2011 ends.

Fever Fever

So I lied, Lucksmiths next week.

Last night I went to see The Lovely Eggs cos they are ace. Everyone knows The Lovely Eggs are ace. What I didn't know is that Fever Fever are also ace.

I nearly saw Fever Fever some time last year when they played at the Victoria with The Lovely Eggs and Hotpants Romance. I didn't actually manage to see Fever Fever, though. This is because living in Dudley is a fucking ballache and pretty much makes existence anti-fun. I checked out some video clip somewhere of Fever Fever and didn't get it.

Last night I actually got to see Fever Fever and it was hella mega! As soon as they started I couldn't help but think of three sounds: early-ish Mudhoney, the first Help She Cant Swim album, and the criminally underrated Montana Pete. I'm fairly sure no one else would say they can hear these bands in Fever Fever's sound, but I reckon I can, SO THERE.

I was pretty surprised by how big a sound they manage to produce with just two guitars and drums, even when they go down to one guitar they still have a really impressive, chunky sound. I tried for ages to think of a better word but I couldn't. I will be winning no prizes for this post.

I've been looking around online and I still can't find anything by Fever Fever that does justice to the live set I witnessed last night. I'd definitely go see them again, though. I've half a mind to go to the Flapper tonight to see them. In fact, if I weren't flat-piss broke, and if I hadn't rolled in at 5 this morning, I would be heading for the bus right now.

Okay, I'm Sorry. Next post is The Lucksmiths..

I wanted to post this week, but I knew I wouldn't be able to say the right things about the stuff I wanted to post about.

So I figure a drunken post about something simple will do. RETRO HONPO are fucking mega. Here is some PROOF.

I heard them cos The legendary Alan 'The Doc' Farmer was DJing at The Aumtun Store all-dayer a couple of weeks ago. He sent some links to Dunc, Dunc posted them on Anorak.

The moral of the story? Retro Honpo are immesurably fucking mega.