Leftover Notes From London

Time to clean up and put my summer fling to bed.

The two-day Blur in Hyde Park shows will be available for download or purchase via their website. Now if they could put some video together, that would be something. You can purchase the VOTE DAVE t-shirt from there, as well. I just looked at my credit card bill with the exchange rate on the merch ... ouch.

Thighs Wide Shut has his thoughts on the show as well. He also fulfilled a dream and visited shooting locations from A Clockwork Orange.

Let's not forget the day's opening acts. I know, you've been chomping at the bit to see some more pictures of Vampire Weekend. Well, not to make you more jealous, but they debuted new songs like "Cousins" during their set. Oh boy, oh boy. I'm the luckiest blogger in the world.

I have few things to tell you. First, the plastic bottles were flying all over the place during their set. I'm not talking 2-3 being launched, I'm talking hundred being thrown around. It must be a British thing. None of the members of Vampire Weekend were injured. Their Nautica sweaters might have gotten a little scuffed, but that's about it.

Second, I almost lost it because fucking Ezra has been doing the same fucking stage for three fucking years. "Okay, everybody. I'm going to need your help on this one. I need you to sing 'Blake's got a new face.'" If only I had a bottle. Then, he said, "Okay, the sun is going down, so I think I need to see more dancing." This led me to yell out, "I think I need you to do more of getting off the stage."

 

 

Amadou and Miriam got people grooving as the sun was about to set. Damon produced their last album, Welcome To Mali. They played a spirited set, with all up-tempo tunes. Loved it.

 

 

More Florence goodness. I hope she has multiples of that dress. Wearing it at every shows -- that must get a little musty.

 

 

Kicking off the whole day was Deefhoof, who are not for everyone. I think that have some good aspects of their experimental, avant-garde jazz rock fusion. I do admit that the lead singer needs to go. Repeating "Panda" over and over again isn't art, it's stupid. She also held a big tennis ball for "Basketball Get Your Groove Back".

 

As for other music happenings, I hung with Andrew from Lucky Soul in the hip Clerkenwell and Brick Lane area. The new album is coming together nicely. I've only heard early workings of it, so I'm interested to hear the final results. I do know the album title, but I'm sworn to secrecy.

I did pay a quick visit to Rough Trade, but didn't have time to dig or discover new artists. I got the new albums from The Leisure Society, My Sad Captains, The Boy Least Likely To (with exclusive bonus disc) and Alessi's Ark.

I would be remiss to relay some outside music happenings.

As you can tell, I got the traditional Wimbledon breakfast of strawberries and cream. I woofed down four serving at 2.25£, so that's 9£ ($14.70) -- worth every damn penny. With my fill of strawberries and nice, refreshing Pimm's No.1 cocktail, I settled into the All-England Club to see Serena Williams play Elena Dementieva. After Elena won the first set, I promptly fell asleep and started drooling on myself. That jet lag is a bitch my friend. I woke up with Serena tying the match and a wicked sunburn.

Going to Wimbledon was nifty, it's all hoity-toity and fancy like the Kentucky Derby. You see stuffy British men in pastel suits and women in loud dresses and funny hats.

That's it. Before I know it, I'll be back over in mid-September. More than likely, I'll see Massive Attack, Paloma Faith and maybe, just maybe, Coldplay and Jay-Z at Wembly Stadium. We'll see.

Comments

[Odette Célibataire]

Moore Florence... I thought I was the only one who noticed she has a show outfit. I actually saw her only once like that, beside your pictures, but it is still unusual for an artist, a woman artist.

[DOOOOP]

omg lol you suck so damn much....your writing is that of a first grader and you know nothing about music....YOU SUCKKKK

[Poker Books]

Florence looking dapper. VW looking snobbery.