My Top 10 Records Of 2008

This is my first year on a 'blog', so my favourite records of the year list usually goes on my myspace. This year its a DCOP exclusive. Enjoy - and please check out all the bands.

Broadway Calls - Oregon
The Fad - Kill Punk Rock Stars
Lemuria - Get Better
H2O - Nothing To Prove
The Steal - Bright Grey
Pinhead Gunpowder - West Side Highway (EP)
The Shitty Limits - Here Are The Limits (EP)
The Fabulous Penetrators - The Fabulous Penetrators (EP)
Mike TV - Mike TV
The Bronx - The Bronx III

There are a few others which should be mentioned but i wont, will make another blog on another day on ones that didnt make it.

Dear Santa....

I really need a speaker system for my living room. I have some of the worst speakers known to man. They sound like someone is playing music through the speaker of a walkie talkie then redirected over a 2001 era Nokia. dreadful.

What is needed are these bad boys. The Steinway & Sons Model C Music System is brilliant looking and I was lucky enough to get a demo of these last week, Slipknot never sounded so good.



So if anyone knows Santa personally or has the $148,000 to stump up for them, then help me out. Failing this I might look at a Bose setup in the new year. anyone got any suggestions?

check out the wired blog on 'Steinway and Sons'

xSTAYING_INx

Today I have moved from my bed to my sofa, with the duvet. Its pretty awesome.

Laying here, wearing my baggy MOSH pants & H2O tee while talking to a friend about Sick Of it All, I wonder why I don't do this more often and why all bands don't have melodic beatdowns that the kids who cant windmill, can dance to.

Not saying I lead a hectic lifestyle and I am out all the time, I just don't spend too much time by myself chilling out. I enjoy hanging out with friends (wont quote Big D today..) but sometimes it is nice to stay in and be with one's self. So from now on I am going to try and make more of an effort to make time for relaxing and nights in.

Doe's it sound like I am getting old yet?

H-2-Old - GO!

Let's Do This!

Pretty excited to be filming Cancer Bats tomorrow night. Show should be pretty narly.

Cancer Bats on Myspace

Ticket for the show

Hassle Records

You know Its X-Mas When...

You hear this for the first time in a year...

Embed, Share And Mobile Viewing With Joost

So I have been working for Joost for quite a while now, hopefully you should know who we/they are. Its all pretty awesome web-video/tech stuff. If not check out the many links on google or the website.

The last couple of months have been exciting times with the launch of the new website using the in browser P2P plugin player then moving on to the current Flash based player.

The last couple of weeks has seen the bar risen by our brilliant player team and our biz integrations with how content is discovered and displayed outside of the Joost website. Here are a few of my favourite examples...

Embeddable Player



Facebook Share


Joost iPhone Player app (get it here - App Store)


Please go check out all three of these, and if you havent yet the website. Let me know what you think and please ask questions if any!

www.joost.com

Here Are The Limits

'Yeah, I Heard You On The Radio And Hated Your Song!'

The Shitty Limits have been going a fair while, which is a surprise seeing that most bands coming out of the Guildford Youth Centre scene usually last anywhere from a 1 incomplete band practice to the dizzy heights of putting out a poorly recorded 7". This is the charm of the GYC scene though and one of the few things I miss of my hometown.

Having now released several 7"s the band have announced they will be releasing their first CD/LP via Boss Tuneage Records (CD) and La Vida Es Un Mus (LP) sometime in the new year. This will be a collection of all the 7"s for those that werent quick enough off the mark to get the original releases.

The bands recordings are really good, but no way near as good as what they are live. This band surprise me that they are so tight, but yet get away with sloppy errors (Ellis had never played bass before starting this band, and still to this day, Lous the singer has to tune up for him... bless) and the energy which is excelled from the performance makes up for the ever decreasing lack of talent.

Check the band out live and lookout for the upcoming LP. do it!

Also all their 7"s are up for download (but for how long??) on their myspace

http://www.myspace.com/theshittylimits

Fake Problems, Real (good) Band

This band are going to be massive!

I had the pleasure of seeing Fake Problems play at The Brixton Windmill in South London tonight and I was blown away by the energy and talent of this band. They take everything i like about early Against Me! stuff and make it sound 100x better!

If you get the chance to check them out anytime soon then do so, before they get too big to be playing these small venues. They have a few releases out now and have an EP and a LP coming out early next year on SideOneDummy Records. Check their MySpace for more details

It wouldnt be fair to not mention the other bands on the bill tonight, who were all great as well.

Fake Problems were/are tour supporting Smoke Or Fire, who played their melodic EpiFat style punk rock so well that it makes me wish it was still 1996!

Also supporting on this evenings show was You Me And The Atom Bomb, and The Arteries.

I have never been a massive fan of YMATAB but tonight they had me bopping and will be digging out their album tomorrow to give it another chance.

The Arteries are the latest find from Lil and Kafren at Household Name Records, fresh off a tour with Strung Out these guys will go far and rightly so. The vocals makes this band stand out from the rest though. So brutal but so melodic at the same time, mix that in with the extremely catchy skate punk hooks this all ends up making a perfect blend. Looking forward to their debut album which should be out on HHN early 2009!

think globally, buy records locally

My all time favourite record store owned by one of my all time favourite people.

Please go and buy your CDs and Vinyl from Banquet Records, they offer one of the best online services I know of, and if you are ever in Kingston (South London, UK) I can not recommend the shop as your first point of call when arriving.

www.banquetrecords.com

my new ride

I bought a new bike last week, having not touched let alone ride my old bmx in about 11 months. I think its all in effort to try and get healthy. note not "fit". I dont ever expect to mr. healthy lifestyle but I dont want to be in a position in years to come with weight/health problems which I could have helped to prevent now. The joys of getting older i guess.

Cyling to work is one of them, even though it isnt far away its every little bit that counts. Will also save me some money now that I wont be donating as much to TFL

I havent been out to ride it yet due to not being able to find my tyre pump but I will go out and buy one tomorrow if it doesn't show up tonight. Hopefully get some pictures of it out on some adventures over the coming weeks.

Will also be trying to cut down on snackages. I think snackages are my favourite food. After Lasagne and a good burger of course. Having Peanut Butter M&Ms sitting in front of you on your desk all week doesnt help the cause. Though they do taste real good, just glad they dont sell them over here otherwise I would have a stash hidden away at all times.

Until i get some decent pictures of the bike here it is from a webstore picture.

I used to have one of them but i dont anymore

Usually for me its a case that someone asks if I have a particular item in the house they can use or borrow, and my reply is that I used to have one but not anymore. The Joys of living with others that then move on.

Today I found this website that is the opposite, Stuff Thats Left Behind. Its a look of peoples experiences of what (usually ex-bfs/gfs) people leave behind when moving out.

Having had 4 different flat-mates in the past 3 years i have a few of these stories also. Will try and post on there soon.

www.stuffthatsleftbehind.com

The Fad - Kill Punk Rock Stars

"Go to hell! You & the image that you sell"

I wish this band would tour the UK, totally awesome punk/ska/hardcore band and they do all three brilliantly. When I first heard the 'Kill Punk Rock Stars' album I knew it was going to be top or very high in my top albums of 2008.

I discovered this band totally by accident. I was on vacation in New York City last summer (07) and had the opportunity to see Bomb The Music Industry! play a yard show at Sealab in Brooklyn. This meant extending my stay in NYC by an extra night costing an arm and a leg. The girl I was with thought I was crazy for wanting to stay just to see a band play in someones back garden. I missed the whole UK tour that BTMI had done the previous December, I didn't want to walk away from this opportunity.

We rolled up to the show about 9pm, having walked about 15 minutes through a very darkened area of Brooklyn, we had missed 2 bands and told when entering that something had happened to one of the support bands and that BTMI were going on shortly. BTMI were everything I hoped for and the local crowd were going nuts, dancing in a way which i can only describe as a mix between slam dancing and hop scotching, aka the Brooklyn skank.

After the band finished there didn't seem to be any rush for the door which you usually get at venues in the UK, instead people just sort of hung out and chatted amongst themselves. At this point I picked up the, then, new BTMI album 'Get Warmer' and a poster celebrating its release.

Just as we were about to head off, there was a cheer and applause as a few guys came into the garden. Enter The Fad. The Fad were meant to be supporting BTMI, which they kind of did but i missed it. Apparently during the first song of The Fad's earlier set the singer, Jimmy, hit his head on something splitting his head open. Lots of blood and a trip to the hospital, Jimmy was back and ready to carry on, bandaged et al.

The band covered pretty much all my favourite genres from Ska to hardcore to punk rock. The kids went nuts and everyone left happy. Unfortunately they didn't have any merch with them. But their Myspace page kept me going for my Fad fix.

Earlier this year one of my friends mentioned he was going to see them play and he picked up a copy of the album for me. Not alot of time passes until that album is back playing on my iTunes or iPod. I seriously recommend checking it out, and if you have time ping them a message telling them to come to the UK!


The Fad - Vinyl Paradise MP3

The Fad - Myspace
Bomb The Music Industry - Myspace

why hello there

This is me giving the whole blog thing a go.

I have no real experience of writing a 'blog' but I have had a few people ask me if I have one and others who have told me I should have one so I can share my stories of gigs, football and other random experiences.

First an intro to me, I am Dave, I live in South London, UK, work for an Internet TV company. Likes include and not limited to football, music and VW beetles. I enjoy playing tennis, though really need to practice more.

At the moment I am not really sure how often this is going to be updated or what exactly I will put up here but I guess it will start to take a direction and shape over the coming weeks.

till next time