Dan In The Front Row

Tuesday, 19 June 2012

Countdown to Benicassim: 23 days

So there are just 23 days to go until this years Benicassim festival! (www.fiberfib.com) The line up is unbelievable and everyone at Dan In The Front Row headquarters is getting really excited.
We thought that with the countdown on, each day right up until Beni kicks off we would feature a couple of our fave tracks from artists who will grace the stages this year, you know, just to get everyone in the mood.
Have a little gander each day and hopefully you might discover some great music and get a few tips for bands you might want to check out. See you there! Mine's a San Miguel!

Zola Jesus playing 13/7

Todd Terje playing 15/7

Monday, 18 June 2012

Countdown to Benicassim 24 days

So there are just 24 days to go until this years Benicassim festival! (www.fiberfib.com) The line up is unbelievable and everyone at Dan In The Front Row headquarters is getting really excited.
We thought that with the countdown on, each day right up until Beni kicks off we would feature a couple of our fave tracks from artists who will grace the stages this year, you know, just to get everyone in the mood.
Have a little gander each day and hopefully you might discover some great music and get a few tips for bands you might want to check out. See you there! Mine's a San Miguel!

The Horrors playing Thursday 12/7

Maya Jane Coles playing Sunday 15/7

Wednesday, 30 May 2012

#25//FIELD DAY//2nd June//Victoria Park//London//My tips

So it's nearly upon us, a mere 3 days away and i'm excited. Really excited. London's Field Day is always a massive highlight on my festival calender every year.
1) It's a one dayer, brilliant, this means you can hit it hard all day and be safe in the knowledge that if the worst comes to the worst you can be home in your lovely bed within half an hour and not back to some shitty tent, (not that we will, we'll all end up in some warehouse over east, standard.)
2) It's for proper music people, you wont find any jessie js or professor Greens on this line up and you certainly wont get any fucking mums and dads with little Tarquin and Jemima who simply must "get to the main stage to see Stevie Wonder" like you get at Glasto, no, it's proper music for proper people who wanna get properly fucked up.
3) And most importantly, the line up is so strong every year that i honestly haven't bothered to check it until now, 3 days before the actual festival, i was that confident it would be good i just bought my ticket without even looking.
So i have just this minute actually had a look and i've been proved right again, the line up is absolutely cracking. Below is my pick of the bands you should try and catch on each of the various stages, now i know some of these overlap in which case you will have to use your own judgement or, my tip for how to choose who to watch when bands overlap is...involve some sort of elaborate drinking game to decide who gets the nod, it's the best way...

Laneway stage
13.50 Blood orange
17.20 Kindness
18.30 Spector
19.40 Sleighbells
20.50 Vaccines

Spector: never fade away: http://youtu.be/lAr15Ol8G14

Eat your own ears stage

14.40 Pond

18.40 Metronomy

Metronomy: the look: http://youtu.be/sFrNsSnk8GM

Shacklewell arms stage
13.05 Friends

13.50 citizens

14.35 crocodiles

18.50 Theme park

21.20 Austra

22.20 Baxter Dury

Crocodiles: mirrors: http://youtu.be/MhGlOjxgxcQ

Red bull stage

16.40 Jessie Ware

Jessie Ware: 110%: http://youtu.be/eblGD5yuid8

Bugged out stage

18.00 Julio Bashmore

19.40 SBTRKT

20.40 Maya Jane Coles

Julio Bashmore: battle for middle you: http://youtu.be/SpY9lxI8axo

So there you go, enjoy it peeps, get wasted, kiss a stranger and bask in the best bands around at FIELD DAY!!!!!!!

Contact me on dannywoodlands@yahoo.co.uk

Peace x

Wednesday, 11 April 2012

#24//Thank Pablo//Cafe 1001//Brick lane//London//Tuesday 3rd April

Tuesday found me in a place you can normally find me on a Sunday with a can of Red Stripe in hand and a reggae bounce in my step, i do so love a Sunday afternoon in The Big Chill on Brick Lane skanking to some serious reggae vibes but tonight i was a couple of doors up at 1001 to check out hotly tipped new band Thank Pablo.

Thank Pablo describe their music as "sun-kissed quintessentially English pop that has been dragged through the backstreets of Africa, Spain, France and Jamaica" This is a pretty spot on statement. The lyrics are all romantic and nostalgic and very, very "English" with tales of growing up, falling in love, being scared of times a changing, most tracks would fit perfectly into a film about two childhood sweethearts that run off to the freedom of an English coastal town on an adventure away from the scary responsibilities that are approaching at home. The melodies are where the other influences come in and i really noticed the African jingle jangle of the guitar and bass, they have a very upbeat sound and my feet were tapping by about verse two of opener 'just friends'.
The boys have been getting some serious airplay by very well respected radio DJs of late with Tom Robinson of BBC6 music raving about them and The Oracle himself, John Kennedy, The Godfather of new music on XFM throwing his weight behind them, Mr Kennedy has even invited them to play at his upcoming night at The Tooting Tram on the 20th of April, high praise indeed, oh and they supported some little band called Kasabian on Friday, dunno if you've ever heard of them??!
All of this left me feeling pretty lucky to have seen the lads in this tiny venue on a rain lashed Tuesday night before they blow up.

SET LIST
1, Just friends
2, Good things
3, By the sea
4, My favourite subject
5, Old habits
6, Dinosaurs and astronauts
7, Wonderful
8, A little sunshine

Highlights on the night were the beautifully innocent 'Dinosaurs and astronauts' and the infectious 'My favourite subject',a track that made me think of Bug juice, remember that? That great show about the summer camp you used to watch in the school holidays when you were a kid? You should defo check out these and their other tracks on their website: thankpablo.co.uk

Nitty Gritty
Crowd: mostly people keen to check out new music like myself, cool crowd.
Drinks: just as expensive as everywhere else to be honest.
Venue: good size, nice and small, Cafe 1001 is usually a place you go to at 9am in the morning to carry on partying after you have been out all night, it's normally full of loons so it was interesting to see it host an indie night, it worked well.
Cool band or what? yeah cool lads, full of northern charm and good haircuts and we all know it's about the haircuts don't we.

Thank Pablo play very laid back joyful summer music and next time the sun is out i shall be sat on my roof terrace with a Bacardi and Coke in my hand and Thank Pablo blasting out my speakers.
The lads have loads of shows coming up so be sure to go see them, you can find out all the info you need on the band and their tour dates on their website thankpablo.co.uk

Contact me on dannywoodlands@yahooco.uk
Peace xx

Wednesday, 4 April 2012

#23//Awsa Bergstrom//Notting Hill Arts Club//London//Friday 30th March

I have been 'Dan In The Front Row' for quite a while now and are there are many great things about it but by far the best is that it gives me the opportunity to meet so many interesting and talented people along the way.

At a recent www.sofarsounds.com gig in a strangers living room in Hackney i had the pleasure of being sat next to the incredibly gifted and beautiful Awsa Bergstrom.

Awsa is a singer/songwriter from Scandinavia who is now based in West London, she has performed with many legendary acts over the years including Madonna, Nick Cave, Stevie Wonder and Elbow to name but a few and has graced some of the world's greatest stages from The Royal Albert Hall to Wembley.

Awsa is now recording and performing her own material and has lots of exciting projects in the pipe line, she kindly invited me to the famous Notting Hill Arts Club to see her perform at the Rock The Belles night (rockthebelles.com) , I had a feeling i would not be disappointed.

The Arts Club is a famous old venue that has a seen many great artists hit it's stage over the years aswell as hosting epic House music parties, it is a small cavernous space with low lights and a great atmosphere. It's a pretty perfect little joint to experience Awsa's brand of Electro pop.
The room was practically full as Awsa and her band took to the stage and right from the off she had the audience eating out of the palm of her hand, she is a very charismatic front woman and her confident banter was very well received.
By the second verse of opening track 'Maybe' most people were dancing and this pretty much set the standard for the rest of the show. The highlights for me came in the middle of the set with the incredibly charming 'Innocence', i love the playful tone of this song and you can actually here her accent on this track which i love, this was preceded by 'Do it again' which has a gloriously sleazy chorus that had me hot under the collar as i watched her sing the words on stage! This is the sort of song that Alison Goldfrapp and Kylie Minogue would love to get their hands on. Awsa does exude Scandinavian vibes which works to her advantage, i could hear the best bits of Robyn and The Knife in some of the music but she also has the stage presence and sex appeal of Lykke Li, i really like the Scandinavian angle and it is part of the draw for me.
The show ended with a rousing rendition of 'If i could let go' with Awsa cutting one on the stage grinning from ear to ear, as i looked around the room that's pretty much what everyone else was doing too!

SET LIST

1, Maybe
2, Lost in translation
3, Do it again http://youtu.be/J5BXXXOXJgk
4, Innocence
5, There's got to be a cure http://youtu.be/5IWN5caeZK4
6, If i could let go http://youtu.be/hcZQ6IqNLWw

Awsa's voice is ridiculously good, click on the links above to see some of her videos and hear it for yourselves. You must check out her cover of Emili Sande's 'Heaven' too cos it is pretty special: http://youtu.be/Zwqu3ISVzXo

NITTY GRITTY

Venue: Decent, smaller venues are always better, you don't need me to tell you this, right next to the tube at Notting Hill Gate too, sweet.
Drinks: Before 9pm it was £2.50 a beer which is pretty reasonable but after 9pm it seemed to go up to £4.50, i know it's possible i may have been merked at the bar by a new waitress or something but if that was a genuine price hike then that is not on, after Awsa performed it was a club night so i can see this happening to be honest.
Crowd: cool mix of mostly people in their late 20's and lots of hot girls which is always great.
Ok, ok so we know Awsa is good but is she cool?: Yeah she's cool, she has that gorgeous Scandi thing going on and she was rocking a funky haircut with a sheer blouse over black bra combo, (which i'm loving on chicks right now, so take note girls, this is a good look, haha), she's a cool customer.

So yep very impressed with Awsa, make sure you check out her website, twitter and facebook:

www.awsamusic.com

twitter.com/awsamusic

facebook.com/awsamusic

Special thanks to @bencurwenphotography.com for allowing us to use his amazing pics from the night.

Contact me on dannywoodlands@yahoo.co.uk and stay tuned for my upcoming interview with Awsa!

Thursday, 29 March 2012

#22//WU LYF//Heaven//London//Wednesday 21st March

Some of you may remember that i saw WU LYF play towards the end of last year at Shepard's Bush Empire. That gig went down as the second best live performance i had witnessed all year, that is some praise considering i must get through about 80 gigs a year, they were only bettered in my opinion by The Strokes set at Benicassim in the summer and you must take into account that i'm a Strokes obsessive and that night they played the greatest, greatest hits set anyone is ever likely to see them play. So you can imagine i was very much looking forward to seeing this band again.

SET LIST

1, Cave song

2, Summas Bliss

3, Such a sad puppy dog

4, Spitting blood

5, Dirt

6, Krusty (papa m cover)

7, Concrete gold

8, 14 crowns for me and your friends

9, Heavy pop

Encore

10, Unknown

11, We bros

I should probably start by saying that Heaven has got to be the perfect place to see WU LYF, it's very intimate, it's all exposed brick walls and it's within railway arches deep under Charing Cross Station, it's beautifully, eerily lit and suits the drama that the band produce down to a T.
I have always thought of WU LYF as more than just a band, to me they are like a cult, the huge throbbing neon crucifix that accompanies them on stage, the smoke that fills the room, the organ led sermon like tunes that build and build into blissed out euphoria, not to mention the vocals that are delivered with such ferocity like a preacher spitting down prophecies to his disciples. Even down to the merchandise on sale, all pins, tees and sew on patches emblazoned with the iconic crucifix image, heck i got so caught up in it that i even bought one to stick on my denim jacket, i'm more than happy to be a disciple.

Tonight's set was great, the close setting suiting the band much more than some enormodome, every song was met with deep approval by the enraptured crowd and there was plenty of raving and crowdsurfing to some of the more uplifting moments, personal highlights for me on the night were:
'Spitting blood' http://youtu.be/pDTEhWO2wyo,
'Heavy pop' http://youtu.be/SvsHJjldYW8
And finally i just cannot get enough of the pure elation of 'We bros' http://youtu.be/AaZ4voI4zA4
Click on the links and have a listen to these tracks yourself.

NITTY GRITTY

Crowd: lot of cool kids, mixture of ages, i was actually impressed by the number of older people in the audience, i guess this reflects the quite sophisticated sound of such a young band.
Venue: Heaven is one of the best small venues in London and i cant recommend it enough for live music.
Drinks: Same as most places really but it still pisses me off that venues charge you nearly four quid for a fucking CAN of beer.
So WU LYF, cool customers? Real deal? Or just a hyped gimmick?: The hype that surrounded this band at the beginning has been totally justified, they are instantly recognisable, they have a great individual sound and are really intelligent accomplished artists, in fact the only down side to the whole night was hearing Ellery Roberts state that unless they decide they have something important to say then these would be their last gigs, i wouldnt put this past a band that has always like to to do what is least expected of them but i for one hope they keep going because there is no one else like them out there today.

ACE FACE
Kassandra Powell, director from Greece

Hey Kassandra! So what did you think of tonight??

I loved it Dan, awesome live performance, great vocals, i can't understand a word the guy is saying but that doesn't matter, it all adds to it for me and there was a really good vibe about the crowd.

What is your fave track?

Cave song, no doubt, i loved it from the moment you first played it to me.

Have you been into them for long?

I haven't actually, you turned me onto them recently and this was my first gig since i have been in London, i'm hooked!!

Who else do you like at the moment?

For me there is no one else but The Horrors.

And finally, what was the last tune you played on your Ipod??

Heartbeats, the original version by The Knife.

Great choice, cheers Kass!!

Stay tuned to Dan In The Front Row for upcoming shows from The Rifles, Bombay bicycle club and many many more, contact me on dannywoodlands@yahoo.co.uk xxx

Thursday, 15 March 2012

#21//Our Friends In The North

Although i am a loud and proud South Londoner i have a lot of ties with the North of England. My last two girlfriends were both proper northern lasses, i have millions of friends who come from 'oop north' and most importantly half my family moved up to Yorkshire when i was just a nipper. Tomorrow morning i'm going to grab my little bro Lee (remember him, Europe's 2nd best heating engineer) and we are jumping on the train up to visit 'Nan In The Front Row' for the weekend. This inspired me to think about all the great music that has come out of Northern England over the years, below are some of my fave tracks by Northern artists, click on the links and enjoy the tunes x