NEWS: Cocker Preaches In The City

Music-conference-slash-festival In The City has today announced one of their most exciting guest speakers for this year’s music conference.

Former Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker is to appear at the international music convention founded by Tony Wilson, which takes place in Manchester over October 5th, 6th and 7th.

Cocker will take to the lectern on the final day of the event. His lecture will discuss the function of lyrics in modern popular music.

Entitled ‘Saying the Unsayable’, ASAD is told it will be a completely biased and subjective exploration of a selection of Jarvis’ favourite songs on top of a dissection of some of his own lyrics.

He's likely to talk about Leonard Cohen, Pete Doherty, Hot Chocolate, Amy Winehouse, David Bowie, Lou Reed, Neil Sedaka, Dory Previn, Katerine, Rozalla, Arctic Monkeys plus many more he hasn’t thought of yet. There will also be an in-depth analysis of ‘Louie, Louie’.

Other keynote speakers already confirmed include former Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham, UK Culture Secretary Andy Burnham MP and some guy called Sean Adams from some site called Drowned in Sound. Other guest speakers and panelists will be announced over the next few days.

More details are available from In The City’s official website.

This news story can be found on Drowned in Sound with other pieces by Dean Samways.

Words: Dean Samways

Image: Google

NEWS: The Futureheads Bootleg Their Own Work

Sunderland’s finest four-piece, The Futureheads, top off a fantastic major-label-free twelve months with a full UK tour.

Not only are they touring, but in a Pearl Jam fashion, the Futureheads are releasing a number of live shows which fans will be able to buy as digital and actual CD albums from The Futureheads’ online store. The first of which, recorded at 2004 Quart Festival in Norway, is already available from this very link.

The tour dates are as follows:

November
29th London Astoria
30th Whitehaven Civic Hall

December
2nd Glasgow ABC 2
3rd Glasgow ABC 2
5th Cardiff Point
7th Norwich Waterfront
12th Sheffield Academy (Pet Sounds)
19th Gateshead Sage
20th York Duchess

Tickets are on sale now.

This news story can be found on Drowned in Sound with other pieces by Dean Samways.

Words: Dean Samways

Image: Google

NEWS: Foo Fighters to take ten year hiatus from UK

Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl today sugggested that that the band may not be returning to UK shores for ten years.

His dramatic statement comes after the band played two stonking summer shows at Wembley Stadium.

Unfortunately, this means Grohl and the boys may well be on their way to grandfatherhood before we see them grace a UK stage again.

Speaking to BBC 6 Music Grohl said: “After doing Wembley, we shouldn't come back there for, like, 10 years. We're over there every year, every summer, and I think it's time to take a break and come back when people really miss us.”

Elaborating further he went onto say: "It's a funny place being in the band now because we've been a band for about 14 years," Grohl said. "We've gone from playing the Astoria, to playing Earls Court to playing Wembley. That wasn't really the goal but hey, we'll take it."

"We've never really taken a long break," he said. "I think it's time.”

The band have crossed the pond no less than three times in the last three years and were joined by Led Zeppelin on their last night at Wembley.

Here’s hoping they can still rock like Page and Plant in ten years times...

This news story can be found on Drowned in Sound with other pieces by Dean Samways.

Words: Dean Samways

Image: Google

NEWS: Watch: Björk & Antony 'Dull Flame Of Desire'

The video for Björk’s next single, 'Dull Flame Of Desire' is now online

Taken from Volta (reviewed) and out on the 22th September the song is a collaboration with Antony & The Johnsons front man Antony Hegarty.

As with everything associated with Iceland’s pop pixie, the video is pretty conceptual.

Three amateur directors were picked from hundreds of competition entrants and given the responsibility of producing a video worthy of the Björk’s prestigious music video library.

The two singers performed against green screen in New York then each director was sent the raw footage to edit and create their piece. The directors were each given their own section of the film to develop how they saw fit. The three parts were then edited together here in the UK to create the final piece.

Watch the video right here, right now:

This news story can be found on Drowned in Sound with other pieces by Dean Samways.

Words: Dean Samways

Image: hejhejmusic.com

NEWS: Doherty & Barat Impromptu Reunion

Former Libertines band mates and likely lads Pete Doherty and Carl Barat joined forces once again last night when they performed an impromptu set in London town.

The surprise performance took place at the Prince of Wales pub in Camden where Doherty was playing his own material for an MTV documentary before a gaggle of fans.

When Barat strolled out on stage though the congregation couldn’t believe their luck.

The cockney couple performed classics from their days as leaders of The Libertines, including 'Don’t Look Back Into The Sun' which transformed into a rendition of Oasis’ 'Don’t Look Back In Anger'.

This news story can be found on Drowned in Sound with other pieces by Dean Samways.

Words: Dean Samways

Image: blogs.guardian.co.uk