Staying live

This post is long overdue, my apologies. I haven't felt very motivated lately. Today after a Facebook chat with my boyfriend, Chris, he said I should definitely give blogging a real go and even write for a career, so I decided to post something. That was probably the best compliment I have ever had.

A while ago I saw someone post on Facebook how sad it is that so many venues can not afford to run their live music night anymore because there's no audience, and then urging people to support live music and going to their local venue - who knows what they'll find! I then proceeded to bounce ideas off of my fellow university students of the same major. This post is a collection of thoughts and ideas inspired by our chat. I also consulted Chris and as biased as I may be, he is a very wise individual and an enthusiastic musician who has to deal with the problems of gigging regularly with his band. (check 'em out!)

Fair enough, you might stumble upon something great - your future favourite band ever - one night at the rock bar on the corner of your neighbourhood. But the chances that you'll instead be bombarded by an endless supply of mediocre "I've heard this a billion times" delivered to you by a group of bored indie boys who are so above playing that gig to a mere handful of people are far more probable than hearing something actually engaging AND of decent quality. Sounds cynical and pessimistic but that's what the live music scene here does to you; puts you off live music.

I'm playing the devil's advocate here as I have quite honestly been put off by going to live music nights because of the sheer amount of horrible that enters my ears and the awkwardness that goes on on the stage. I do not want to listen to or watch that. And I definitely don't want to spend my money on that. I'll go see a band I already know and like but I will stay well away from live music venues if I don't recognise any of the names on the poster. It's not that I don't want to support live music. It's just that the majority of live music out there doesn't deserve my support.

Is there a reason that people aren't interested anymore? Are there too many mediocre bands putting on mediocre shows that don't excite people and that's why they don't have an audience in the first place? Shouldn't it also be the venue's responsibility to book interesting bands and offer good quality entertainment and not just the audience's duty to support the utterly boring and technically challenged musician wannabes who are trying to "make it"?

Also, I've noticed that as getting gigs has gotten easier to do on your own, lot of bands go out there and play way before they're ready, way before they're "good enough". And if the bands themselves don't care too much about being worth people's money then why should people support that? Chris agrees: "It almost is too easy to form a band and do some gigs, thus lowering the general quality of unsigned music."

Fellow students said: "I can't stand listening to a bad band. I'll rather choose another bar of my liking."

"I think that bands should make sure they are ready to try their wings before they hit the stages, and if the venues held some kind of quality standards the band could maybe realize that they are not ready if they are constantly rejected and go and practice some more."

I think what it ultimately boils down to is that the responsibility of paying to see bands shouldn't solely lie on the shoulders of the audience. It should also be the promoters' responsibility to offer something worth paying for.

The bands that are worth it are still "making it". Local bands, if good enough, have a local following and are known by everyone in their community and draw an audience in that area. But only if they're good enough to draw people's interest. That's where it all starts. No bond or sense of community will be strong enough to pull the weight of a shit band. If a band one day wakes up to the reality that they don't have any fans and no one goes to their gigs, it isn't the audience's fault. They're just not likeable.

"It's then a challenge for the better bands to find a way to stand out and not get lost in the mess of crap bands. There's no excuse for that if they're really that good." - Chris, 2012

It's a jungle out there. There's no arguing that things were easier when musicians could concentrate on playing music and writing songs and the business side was taken care of by business professionals. Now bands need to do their own PR, social media, gig bookings, branding, and quite often also recording and mixing. All in addition to the musician-y stuff that comes with the gig. There was also an unspoken promise that bands that get booked to play a gig are at least of decent quality and have a backing from the industry. Such promises are now far gone and the collection of clueless are taking over the stages. People aren't interested because they're not being offered anything interesting.

Customer confusion service

I'm feeling a little under the weather and feel the need to rant.

Never in my life have I encountered such poor customer service as I have here in London. Not every company and every time but I've now had two very appalling experiences in a very short time. I'm not generalising that customer service is overall bad - I've also had very helpful and delightful experiences. But when it's bad, it's really bad. The gaps in customer service quality seem to be just as huge as the gaps in welfare. You get the really impressive ones and then on the other end there are the absolutely horrendous ones. As a Finn I've come to expect at least decent correspondence with customer service. Not always amazing or incredibly friendly, but a least stuff gets done in an acceptable time frame. Now encountering these infuriatingly confusing and difficult people on the receiving end of my enquiries, I'm left with my eyes rolling in amazement and great frustration.

First I was trying to book an appointment for a massage and facial I had a coupon for. I emailed twice, used the contact form on their website twice, all in a month's time so I did give them a week to reply each time instead of harassing them every day. Finally when someone could be bothered to get back to me, they clearly had not even read my emails and had no idea what I was after. I didn't get an apology for their poor performance and my wasted efforts, just a very blunt response asking what my enquiry is about - which I had already explained in all of my messages. After this I finally got the answers I was looking for quite promptly - it was just the hassle of getting someone to actually acknowledge that I had contacted them and I had a question that needed to be answered. It took a month. A month.

Now I'm trying to book a reflexology appointment with a different company. So far I think I have managed to confirm an appointment for my desired date but I'm not sure about the time, although I suspect it might be 7pm. I asked and didn't hear anything for two weeks so today I asked again, replying to the same thread so the earlier emails would be there too. This is the exchange:

"Hello,

I didn't receive a reply for my earlier email. Would you have anything earlier than 7pm on November 16th? If not, I'll keep that appointment but would appreciate if you could find an earlier time. Thanks!"

"sorry ca you call to book thanks"

"Hi, no I can't. Emailing was fine earlier and should be fine now too.

I've booked an appointment for 16th of November and if I understand correctly (this hasn't been very clear from your part) it's at 7pm. I would now want to know if you have any other available appointments for earlier that same day. If not, I will keep the appointment I have but if possible would like to move it to earlier."

"You have mentioned many dates and times I really don't know which day you like to come and what sort of time . Can you please be sure , and let me know"

Now I don't know if I'm just being unreasonable, but I didn't think my mentioning the same day over and over again was so confusing. I haven't mentioned any other dates, that is the day I had in my original enquiry and that is the day that has been booked (I hope). Would you have understood what I was asking from the emails I sent?

Other worlds

There's a live events company that brings films to life, Future Cinema. I was lucky enough to get to be at their Grease event! It was such an amazing experience! They had transformed Barnes Common park into a '50's fun fair with a carrousel, ferris wheel, dance hall, diner, Frenchie's house for makeovers and hair dos, few old cars to pose with, and actors playing the characters from the film interacting with the audience. The park was filled with people dressed in '50's

Such an amazing business idea! Experiencing the films you watch and love. They've got another branch called Secret Cinema for which the film isn't revealed until the opening credits roll, but they do give out hints before the event and finally give a dress up theme and time and place for it. Then you just show up wearing the appropriate costume and you're taken into the world of the film they're showing you. I'm in love with this company! They only do a few events a year because they really are spectacular and it takes a lot of time and effort to put the whole thing together. So far I've only seen trailer videos for their previous events but I'm going to one in November! I'm already excited to see which film it's going to be and what they've done for it!

Then there's Secret Screenings; a smaller profile film event where we were told a time and a place but the film was kept a secret until it started; no big special event shenanigans. It turned out to be The Imposter, a documentary about a French serial identity thief who managed to convince government officials as well as the family that he was an American boy who'd gone missing three years earlier. I suggest you check it out! After the film we heard from the director, Bart Layton, and the Private Investigator, Charlie Parker about their experiences with the case and the film. Fantastic experience as well. I think it's mostly the anticipation and secrecy, and the film turned out to be fascinating too.

A Door In A Wall is organising a murder mystery treasure hunt. I'd be really tempted to go to that too but they recommend people to do it in groups and I don't particularly have a group here. I've been doing stuff and going to things with one person and now he's gone back to uni.

I've also subscribed to a secret supper club newsletters for some secret dining in a secret place but haven't heard anything yet.

This city really is full of fantastic events and experiences just as well as everyday awesome places and venues. London is not a place to be bored in. If you've got time, willingness, and ability to use Google, you will find amazing things to do every day of the week! Or don't even bother googling, just hop on a bus (any bus) and hop off somewhere you've never been before and go for a little walk around the area.

Born this gay - London Pride 2012

London Pride. I was a first timer - In Finland you'd need to find your way all the way to Helsinki for that. This time I happened to be in the same city and happened to see someone post about it on Facebook in the same morning. I had no other plans so decided to go check it out. After all, I fully support equal rights for everyone - and really wanted to see Boy George and Corey Hart. I convinced my flatmate Hanna and her friend Seamus to come too! He got chatted up a lot while us girlies were left alone. The situation got rectified later on in Roxy Club where, to put it nicely, all the guys seemed to be lonely. Ugh, I again remembered why I don't go out that much. Funnily it doesn't take long to forget these things again.

There was only one entrance gate into Trafalgar Square which was a bit shit honestly. The queue was horrendous and moved reeeeaaalllyyy sloooowwlyyy. Yet there were at least three "exit only" gates. I didn't get to hear Karma Chameleon, either because he didn't sing it or he started with it and we weren't in the area yet. Do You Really Want To Hurt Me was heard. He was fabulous in his sparkly hat and strong eyeliner!

How awesome is he!

I was so ready for it too! Shame I missed the song.

Corey Hart didn't disappoint - Sunglasses At Night remix version was incredibly fun! For those of you who aren't so well educated about 80's cheese, he's the guy who invented duckface.

Then we popped into a pub for a drink and the table next to us invited us over in their company. Then we spotted some, apparently hot, lonely man in the table behind us and took him in. He'd been stood up by his friend and was stranded in this strange city all by himself. All the way from Italy, poor guy. We then proceeded to go find a club - wandered in the general direction of Heaven to notice that the queue was about 7 miles long - then came up with a plan B and found Bar 101 for a drink and then moved on to Roxy. Roxy was fun! Completely packed full which was annoying but the music was good! No standard club music, more indie rock and oldies.

Such a fun night! Great time was had by all, almost everyone hooked up with someone, love was all around. And bright colours.

Indie Con - no cosplay involved

I'm on my last month of interning! Well, kind of. Full time until the end of July and part time for August while I also (hopefully) earn some actual money. The sooner I find a job the better. I can't do maths and will be trouble with bank balances unless I start receiving a paycheck.

I met with a recruitment agent who specializes in helping Finns find jobs. Apparently we have a good reputation and the Brits have a bad reputation when it comes to employment so she's now marketing us as the amazing, intelligent super worker bees that we are. Fair enough, I'll take advantage of that if I can ;) Hire me, I'm Scandinavian! True Aryan as well, if that's something you value. I can't really pull the minority card though, so that's an obstacle. Or maybe I'll convert to lesbianism for the sake of getting a job. (Disclaimer: I do think it's a bit silly to use my nationality - or any other unrelated issue - for advantage in the job market.)


Then the interesting stuff: Indie Con, a "unique new conference devised for independent labels and artists", kicked off Thursday and went on until Friday lunch time. So, simply put, a day and a half little thingy.

Thursday was really useful and interesting for me as I'm leaning towards marketing and PR with my career aspirations. I can't really say any of it was really new, but I got some ideas that I hadn't thought of yet and got good reminders of things I know but have neglected lately. But as they say, repetition is the mother of learning. It was also great to get some validation as the things they'd done with their campaigns were very similar to ours. Builds confidence.

The first panel was about online marketing and fan engagement. We heard from five marketing professionals about their campaigns that they've recently done for their artists and how it worked. Most of them were quite new up and coming acts with small budgets which was great since that's where we're at. One presentation was about Prodigy's campaign around this year's Download festival and while interesting, I have a feeling I won't be doing promotions for bands that caliber any time soon.

Later in the day we got to hear from music journalists and how they wish to be approached by PR. No surprises here but nice reminders that we shouldn't be dazzled by shiny, pretty newsletters that are easy to send to entire lists of email addresses but to keep it simple and personal. I've always known that but have been ignoring it because it just is so much easier and more fun to create a pretty newsletter with beautiful colors and pictures than manually send normal emails.

Friday I went to listen to a more political discussion about US visa issues (which is incredibly unfair!) and quick visit to Google and illegal download sites. I never thought it'd be as interesting as it was. Touring in the USA is currently pretty much impossible unless you have a lot of money and influential friends where American bands can just trot over and do a tour. Going to the States to play requires months of paperwork; to first apply for a permission to apply for a visa, then apply for the actual visa which costs substantial amount of money. Then you need letters from respected members of the industry proving that you're a significant artist (this caused Adele some problems as she was such an overnight success that she didn't have a great back catalogue of achievements and press coverage). You might have convinced some journalists to feature you and your music, media might even love you but when you ask them to write a letter of recommendation as a favour to you, they probably don't have the time. It's a nightmare.

I really enjoyed these day and a half! I'll definitely go again next year. You should too.

All I Know is that the office is getting crowded

It's been a while again! I've been busy and away and lazy. I went to visit friends and family in Finland in the beginning of June and straight from there I flew to sunny Spain for a friend's wedding. It was absolutely lovely!

First dance in action. My camera is awesome.

Last week I made a comeback to work to find that we have about a million new interns! They all are apparently mostly doing social media stuff, one of them is taking care of new releases and I'm still doing newsletters and press releases and bugging media people. All is well.

I do like that we now have new blood around here. Sometimes the office can get a bit quiet if all the other interns, who mostly are here 2 days a week, are gone. Now with this many new people I'm assuming such a day will never be again! At the moment most of them are quite scared and quiet but that should change once we get to know each other more.

Then I got hit by some annoying stomach flu and was out of the game for the better part of three days (and the previous weekend). The longest stomach upset ever! I was on a solid diet of yoghurt, bananas, white rice, coconut water and peppermint tea for about three days. Yum. When I felt well enough to have tasty food again I nearly went on a binge and made myself sick again (that was the plan) but ended up in a pub eating a sandwich and sipping wine. All went better than expected!

Now that I'm back in action we've been busy busy bees with promotion campaigns for a single 'All I Know' by iremembertapes. They're like the lovechild of Scissor Sisters and Joy Division. Makes me wanna boogie. As of yesterday (Thursday June 28) morning the track has been available on iTunes and other platforms worldwide! Get on it!

Gay or European? The annual Festival of Kitch

This post is about Eurovision Song Contest. If you don't appreciate the ridiculousness, hilarity and excessive use of glitter in ESC, stop reading.

Eurovision week is over. Congratulations to this year's winner, Sweden's Loreen with her song 'Euphoria'! And speedy recovery to all ESC drinking game players. To be honest, I was quite surprised by Loreen's victory. Normally these conventionally good quality songs that will go on to play at clubs and radio, don't succeed that well in Eurovision. Euphoria has already topped the charts in Nordic countries and now will no doubt do just that also elsewhere.

On the day of the second semi-final, Thursday that is, Eric Saade started trending on Twitter as soon as Norway had performed. The similarities between Sweden's last year's performance and Norway's show this year were incredible. The guys look the same, the backup dancers look the same - if you ignore the gender upgrade - and the songs could be by the same artist. Norway came in last in the final with only 7 points.

As Norway's poor performance showed us, it's not a good idea to resemble another (famous) artist too much. Yet this mistake is made every year. This year Italy's artist was clearly channeling Amy Winehouse and Denmark's girl sounded a lot like Alanis Morissette. Denmark only scored points from six countries, coming to a total of 21 points, while Italy did considerably better with 101 points and 9th place.

I am sailing, across the stage

The gayest show this year was Turkey, no contest! Their leather wearing seaman and his batman-inspired backup dancers managed to be exceptionally camp, even by the Eurovision standards. And then their capes transformed into an outline of a boat and made me giggle uncontrollably. Most fun this year, however, was Malta's little foot dance! They also had a pretend-DJ on stage. 0:55 is when the fun begins.

The UK's Engelbert "The Hump" Humperdinck came second to last with only 12 points despite his huge global success and large fan base. The BBC offers this as explanation: "Historically no-one who has opened the contest has gone on to win, as viewers often tune in late and miss the early contenders." which is of course complete bollocks. While he came across as sympathetic and sweet, his song 'Love Will Set You Free' (yes, really) was utterly boring, as the title would have you think. In this freak circus such a ballad will go unnoticed, unless it's Ireland. And even they've had bad luck lately. Of course, they've also had a turkey.

Speaking of Ireland, I liked Jedward's 'Waterline' much better than 'Lipstick' last year. The audience, however, seemed to disagree. I don't blame them, the whole reason even I watch this show is for the WTF-reactions and the exciting shows these artists throw at us. Seeing the same performers year after year is dumb and boring.

Special mention goes to Georgia for providing the most ridiculous performance, in the true spirit of Eurovision Song Contest! I would have definitely wanted to see them in the final.

Another special mention to the Slovakian Eurovision Hair Metal band with shirtless lead man. That should be a genre; it's a classic Eurovision song disguised as hard rock/glam metal. Listen to it and you'll know what I mean (ignore the beginning, it gets more Eurovision-y come chorus). Belarus also had a Eurovision rock band with members who looked like they jumped on the stage straight from the TV show The Tribe. Yep, "Eurovision rock" needs to be a genre. Not limited to only bands who've been in ESC.

The BBC commentators made this year so much better for me (that's where the headline for this post came from). The Finnish commentators have some good jokes and say funny things but hold back much much more than the guys at BBC. It was a joy listening to them. I'm also extremely happy to have learned about the existence of Dr. Eurovision! Isn't it marvelous! Academic expert, has a PhD in Eurovision. I don't know if that's incredibly cool or just incredibly ridiculous. Or both. Awesome dude either way.

What were your favorite moments this year?

Bright lights and bright minds in Brighton

My camera is amazing

The Great Escape came and went. It was a really fun weekend and even though interesting comments and statements were rare and everything the panels discussed I already knew*, I did still learn. And it was nice to notice that I really do know something about what I'm doing and even the top players aren't that much more knowledgeable, they just have the years of experience and reputation behind them. The thing where you put the knowledge into action and make something of it. This was more of a trial run though and next year, if I go, I'll get much more out of it.

*For bands to be ready for a label they need to practice, write songs, play gigs and have a fan base. If they want to work with a brand they should do their research and find a brand with the right image. Oh, and bands are brands too. All fascinating bits of information if you've never really been near anything music industry related and are a bit simple and clueless, but pretty self-explanatory to everyone else.

Despite there being millions of gigs all through the weekend, we only saw a handful of them. Our own night took up all of Friday night and during the days we went to the conferences rather than watch some band we've never heard of. So we only pretty much had Thursday and Saturday nights to check out some live music.

On Thursday the highlight of the night was Kids In Glass Houses despite the front man's very geeky-in-an-uncool-way t-shirt. Come on, bands, look like a band! They had energy, they had attitude and they had catchy punk rock tunes. Their sound is quite American which for anyone who knows me is a sure sign that I'll like it. Very enjoyable to watch too. I really also liked the venue they were playing, Concorde 2. Magner's cider was only £3,80/pint which for a Finn is very impressive and exciting!

I'll just skip right to Saturday since I feel I've highlighted our bands' greatness enough already. I have nothing to add. They're great. They're always great. They even might have been a bit greater than before. And they look like bands. And they are: The Manic Shine, Violet Bones and iremembertapes.

Saturday we hunted down a band called Billy Vincent because someone knew someone who knew someone or something. They were instantly likable and their music made me happy. The last song really made the night. I'm a sucker for some violin and folky sounds, though, and may have let that affect my judgement. Not to mention that they looked good.

Such attractive lads

After that we headed down to a launderette with our new friends from The Icarus Youth to catch a band called The Computers. There we were climbing on washing machines and watching this amazing group of punkrock dudes ooze pure energy and thrills. They should, however, get some hairstylin' tips from Jedward; their cool rockabilly quiffs were pretty much ruined after 15 seconds into their set. That was very possibly the coolest gig I've ever been to!

YYYEEEEAAAAHHH!

Crammed in.

TGE

It's been a while, sorry. Nothing worth reporting has really happened. Still promoting, still updating contact lists, still designing newsletters, still sending those newsletters out.

But this Thursday we will grab our backpacks, take our eagerness to learn, aim our concentration towards the speakers and unleash the excitement at The Great Escape festival in Brighton! On Friday we're putting on our The Animal Farm showcase and the rest of the time we'll go from conference to conference, one gig to another and take in as much as we can. This year's theme is DIY which is quite fitting as that is how things are done at the Farm.

Our line up is:
19.00 - 19.30 The Rocket Dolls
19.45 - 20.15 Little Signals
20.30 - 21.00 Violet Bones
21.15 - 21.45 iremembertapes.
22.00 - 23.00 The Manic Shine

It's going to be fantastic! I will obviously give a full report next week of how amazing it was.

I found a website for a company called City Academy who have musical theatre classes and singing classes and dance classes and such. I really really want to go to a musical theatre class! The beginners classes that last 6-10 weeks are between £200-300 so a bit much for my finances. Maybe I should try one of those online money raising sites and have people fund me! If even a handful of people would pitch in, it would help tremendously. I'm thinking of doing it around my birthday so there's that going for me instead of just randomly asking people for money ;)

I also had a quick meeting on Skype with my academic instructor and it seems that I will eventually graduate (I knew that, now it's just more real). My thesis idea was approved at this time, but it is just a vague idea still and needs a lot of work. And academic backing. I need to hit the library and start researching. Oh dear, soon enough I will have a degree and have to let go of my student-ness and need to find a grown up job with a grown up salary and grown up responsibilities. Scary thought!

Here's a very awesome video from our very awesome The Manic Shine!

The Animal Farm Club Night

The Animal Farm Club Night happened last night at the fabulous Zigfrid von Underbelly of Hoxton Square. It was a night of fantastic music, good wine and great company! I don't have photos (still happened!) because my camera battery is dead and my adapter for the plug is temperamental and refuses to work. Also because I'm lazy and haven't bothered to buy a new charger with an English plug. But YouTube has videos.

The first band to take the stage was The Counterpoints; new band from Reading releasing their first single April 30th. That's an exciting release as we're releasing five songs from five bands on the same day as a collaborative effort on everyone's part. Their music was good but stage presence is something they still need to work on a lot which isn't surprising for a new band; no one is born a master. Warning: the following song will get stuck in your head. That's an earworm if I ever heard one.

Next up was Red N Pink, two loud chicks from London town. To be honest, I didn't like them too much before. I thought they were a bit in-your-face trying too hard to be tough and cool. But seeing them live has now changed my opinion completely! They sounded great, were very comfortable on stage, interacted with the audience well and delivered a good show overall.

Then it was Violet Bones' turn. As always (she says based on two shows) they were fantastic! I liked them a lot last time but now that I have their album on my iPod and know all the songs, it was ever better. They have awesome energy, fun! The album is a great exercise soundtrack! Those kettlebells are getting it! Although it feels slightly wrong to be swinging them around while my iPod is blasting "let's get drunk and stay that way forever!" into my ears.

Wrapping up the night we had iremembertapes. and their fun electro-indie set and slightly homosexual dancing. We went to see them in St Albans the night before; a gig where no one in the audience remembers tapes. That was enjoyable despite some technical difficulties but last night was about 127 times better! They should definitely play more dancey clubs instead of standard rock gig venues; places where people will actually move their tush instead of standing and watching in admiration (to be fair, they're nice to look at). They're touring atm, coming back to London on Monday. Check out the website or this picture for all dates and go to a show! Here's their 80's influenced (as opposed to everything else) latest single 'All I Know'.

And here's a bonus tribute to some band who also played at St Albans and whose lead man reminded me of Corey Hart. The fact that I know Corey Hart and this song so well that random people remind me of it is probably a sign that I need to stop watching VH1's I Love The 80's. Then again, nah.

Vamos a la playa! Y a Great Escape y a Finlandia.

When I came here, I kept my options open. I had no actual plans to go back to Finland but neither had I decided to definitely stay here; I'd do whatever would suit the situation best come August and the end of my internship. Well, that was then. Now I've decided to stay. I keep falling in love with this city more and more as time passes and the thought of packing my things and leaving just seems ridiculously wrong. As of future plans - if job hunting carries no fruit, I have at least a year to figure out my next move while finishing my degree; I still need to complete few courses and of course write my thesis. It'll be tight but things always work out.

Speaking of thesis - I finally have a general idea of what I want to do it on. If this idea gets approved, I'll be working with the Farm so it'll be a nice continuation to my internship.

This spring/start of summer will be too amazing! Chronologically: My best friend is coming for a visit, the Farm is going to The Great Escape, I'm visiting Finland briefly to go to my niece's high school graduation and then flying to Málaga, Spain for a friend's wedding! And we're doing this:

Last Sunday 1.4. I went for a walk around my neighborhood, grabbed a coffee in a farm close by and then stumbled upon Stave Hill Ecological Park. And all this just a spitting distance from London Bridge so basically still quite central London. The farm has goats, pigs, ducks, chickens, geese, sheep, turkeys and a pony. They serve food, coffee, ice cream and cake. They also sell eggs; chicken, goose and duck.

Pictures!

Jaguars are native to SE London

Big cities don't have nature

My interpretation of a concrete jungle, consider this a postmodern view

South London is such a miserable place

Proper music post!

There's this thing called Ja Ja Ja club where Nordic bands and artists play tunes and it's organized (bi?)monthly at The Lexington. I like this idea and think I'll go again and keep track of what's happening! This Thursday was the day. I heard about it at about 4pm on Thursday when my boss asked if I wanted to go and introduce myself to the Musex UK project manager. Yeah, why not. So I went to see Manna (FIN), Freja Loeb (DEN) and Útidúr (ICE). (I apologize for linking to MySpace but they don't seem to have websites!) Had a few words with the guy, he was very tall. After Manna's set I was already really tired and had a headache so I was getting ready to leave when I saw one of the boys from the next band carry a saxophone on stage and decided to stay for a bit. I stayed for two more songs and headed out. Bummed that I didn't get to see the last band but as I was very disoriented (getting lost on straight hallways, almost missing my tube stop - twice, bumping into people, etc.) on my way home it was probably for the best that I left. By the time I was home I just and just managed put on my pajamas before crashing. Slept like a.... thing that sleeps very deeply.

Anyway, I liked Manna. I've never heard any of her songs before even though she's been in the media quite a bit in Finland for the past, I don't know, maybe couple of years? I'm very bad with time. I was very positively surprised as I was expecting just another female singer-songwriter that we're all getting a bit bored of, amirite? But she had just enough rock and just enough groove to be interesting. I have to say, they (she?) were more intriguing on stage than on record and I spent a lot of time trying to find a video that would do them (her?) justice. This one's alright but still lacks something that was there during a live performance. Wine, perhaps...

The next group, Freja Loeb, were essentially the exact same thing as Manna. Same cereal, different packaging. There's a band, there's the girl, the group's name is her name, they play indie, both girls wore leggings as pants and red lipstick, you get the idea. Manna had the advantage of being first so people (me) weren't yet bored with that. And in my mind she was more likable anyway, more real. Her voice was also definitely stronger while I couldn't really even hear Freja for a big chunk of the time. But they had the sax and that alone is cause for mad props in my book. I also realize that had Freja been first on stage, I'd be comparing them in reverse and that might affect how I feel.

As I already mentioned, I didn't stay long enough to catch the last band, Útidúr from Iceland, but I've since checked them out on YouTube. My first thought was that they sound very Icelandic. Not really my cuppa tea normally, but I'm strangely fascinated anyway. I can picture a time and place for this and will make a mental note to listen to this more when that time and place present themselves. Beautiful sounds and I do love me a bit of violin and trumpets. For a fraction of a second they remind me of a chilled out and slowed down version of Katzenjammer (NOR).

I wish I'd seen them live but no can do.

For a bonus, here's Katzenjammer with A Bar In Amsterdam. 

No Place Like London

Let me just say, Jamie's Italian is a beautiful restaurant. My feelings may have been enhanced by those two bottles of wine we had during the course of the night, but it was good wine! And the fact that I really like Jamie, I think he's fun and has the right attitude towards food and cooking.

That was last Sunday. Also the day I realized that I love this city. I've been perfectly content here all this time but now I'm starting to really grasp the magnificence of this place. We spent the day having Sunday roast at a pub, then just strolling down the street by Thames, visiting Tate Modern, admiring the view and then had great - yet affordable - food.

I started making a list. List of things to do when my friend Maria is coming for a visit. I'm getting really excited about that even though it's still five weeks away. There's so much to do and see!

There's these little quirky things that are so interesting about this city! Like wandering around London Bridge area (sort of city centre) and stumbling upon some little cottage that looks like it's been teleported here from some idyllic little village on the countryside. Huge office building towering over it on the background. And going to Canary Wharf for the first time to be amazed by how it seems like a completely different city. Completely different country even! And this guy and his guitar:

Rockin' by the River

One of our bands released their new single on Monday. Check out the video here. (I would embed the whole thing but for some reason YouTube search can't find it) They're such a fun band, I really like them. Also, we're releasing five new singles from five new bands from five different cities on April 30th. Now it's relentless promoting of that for the next five weeks. Five seems to be the magic number here. That gives me a flimsy excuse to do this:

Weird science

I read an article about how aging affects the brain and how that affects our musical tastes. Dopamine, one of the important chemicals that affect the brain's reward centre and gives us chills when we hear new catchy hooks and exciting tunes, has a lesser effect when we get older. Thus, no more insane excitement over the newest fad in the musical world, and more nostalgia driven choices of playlists. Nostalgia is a natural antidepressant and evolutionally important in that remembering the 'good ole days' will prevent you from dwelling in your cave and whimpering about how life is hard and then dying of hunger or getting mauled by a saber tooth tiger.

Conclusion: Today's music is not shit and older music is not decidedly better, our brains just react differently to them because of actual physical differences. Our tastes do not become more refined and sophisticated because we get older and wiser but because our brain chemistry is different.

Dopamine is also the reason why our brains are secretly into Justin Bieber, no matter how carefully hipster our existence or how loyally hard rock we pretend to be. Predictable pop music is physically addictive, fo realz.

Special thanks to Cracked.com for introducing me to these articles.

People are strange

While out shopping I found this gem in Urban Outfitters. For £475 it could be yours!

Too bad I'm too short for this

If you're not quite that well off but totally love the design you might find comfort in that this lovely shirt was only £135.

Bargain!

Then we saw this fun street performance. Knocks bird-whistler right to second in my 'weirdest way to apply yourself' -list.

Russell Brand is a giant

This week started off with going to a band competition, Hard Rock Rising, to show our great affection and support for our fellow intern whose band was battling for a chance to win this thing. They didn't. You may as well still check them out. Apparently it came really close between them and the winning band, which doesn't surprise me.

There's been a lot of promotion going on. There are many new releases coming up, quite a few tours happening and other exciting news for our bands so we've been sending out press releases like crazy. If you want to keep track of what's happening here, follow us on Twitter and Facebook. One mention worthy thing (because I thought it was funny) would be taking over the promotion for Athletes In Paris' new single release after Linda up and left. I stumbled upon this little quote in one of the music blogs that has featured them "What I think they sound like: a dancey rock band (I was going to describe them as "Scissor Sisters Without The Camp" but thought that may be a tad unfair to both bands." I personally quite like that.

I bet he's taller than you thought. 

Saturday I went to Madame Tussaud's with two other Finnish girls who are also doing their internships here. Afterwards we went to a pub to get some food and hang out and then two of us decided to go out for the night. First we stumbled into this really cool, kinda bohemian, artsy little tavern where the 'Madame' gave us a kiss on the hand when we ordered our first drinks, then dragged some guy hurriedly into the disabled toilet with her. It was a beautiful place and I must go there again! Finding a club proved to be a bit more difficult since people kept giving us wrong directions. We were gonna meet up with a colleague of mine at a club called 'Mother' in Shoreditch. Once we found the right street, we asked some guys which way it was. They warned us to stay far away from that awful place but we didn't listen. We finally got there and it was pretty much as horrible as the guys made it sound, but free entrance. We had one drink there and headed off to find something else. Someone recommended Plastic People but as the queue was long and the entrance £10 we didn't bother. Now that I've googled it and it is said to be the birthplace of dubstep I'm glad we didn't. Instead we noticed a bar across the street and went there. The music was bad and people looked well-groomed, but at least it wasn't too expensive. We ended up having a good night after all.

See how ridiculously tall he is!

Buses here are a constant headache for me. I can never find the right stop! I know for a fact that my bus goes to Shoreditch and I was probably quite close to the right stop but just couldn't find it! I ended up walking way longer than I should've and then found a bus that took me to Trafalgar Square and from there I can always find the right bus. But that's way more complicated than it should've been.

I was first a bit annoyed that clubs close around 2-3am here but now I'm glad they do since I get way lighter hangovers. Not that mine have ever been exceptionally bad but now they're pretty much nonexistent. When I first open my eyes after a night out I keep expecting to feel somewhat queazy but quickly notice that I'm absolutely fine. This has happened two-three times now so I'm definitely safe saying it's more a rule than an exception.

I finally managed to open a bank account! Cheers, Churchill, for abolishing identity cards to "set people free" and making things so complicated. National Identity Register is a GOOD thing, Brits. Now I'm waiting for them to activate my card so I can start using it too.

*Oh, hey, attention! There's a little easter egg hidden somewhere in the links, can you find it? It's not exceptionally hard.

Brian stew

I joined a boxing gym. Bought a 3 month membership, got the rest of this month free. Fucking finally! I've been feeling so bad about myself for not working out and eating unhealthy and just not taking care of myself like I used to. So Tuesday morning I got up a bit earlier and went for a little jog, popped in, had a quick look around and decided to start training there.

The owner is a middle aged Irish bloke with a really strong accent so I'm not quite a 100% sure what I've gotten myself into and what my membership actually includes. But the place seemed like a good place for getting the most out of the workout. It was old school, it was sweaty, it was rough. Not some girly fitness gym where women wear pretty things and smell like flowers. Saturday noon I went for my first ever ladies only boxing fitness class! It was so fun and so hard. Although I thought it'd be a lot harder on me since it's been about a month since I've really exercised but I came to realize that a few week break really isn't the end of the world when you've been working out actively before that, it doesn't just disappear in a few weeks time.

On Tuesday night the girls from the office got our pretty brains together and took part in a pub quiz. They had difficult questions about capital cities, mediocre questions about random shit and easy intros in the music round. There was only one song we weren't absolutely sure about so we randomly guessed it right! It sounded a lot like a boy band song so we picked Westlife. Then we randomly picked the word "love" for the song title. It actually was Westlife and the song was My Love! Good instincts.

Franco chillin'

Si of Violet Bones rockin'

On Thursday a bunch of us went to see Franco and the Dreadnought in Camden and on Saturday I went to see Violet Bones in Buffalo Bar, Islington. Franco gig was fun enough and the guy is very likable and I really enjoyed that night even though I'm not much into all that "guy and a guitar" sweetness. Then on Saturday the Violet Bones were soooooo good! And attractive. They could well be in my top-something list of my favorite bands, and probably will be eventually. First I need to hear more. I'm so glad I get to work with them. They had cassettes on sale at the merch table but I forgot to buy one. Yes, forgot. I don't know what happened, apparently my brian went "PRIII" and everything I was about to do was just suddenly gone. I remember walking towards the table and then got distracted and went home instead. I'll have to ask around if I can get one somewhere still. This is the video for their latest single "Chamicals".

On the weekend I finally got into the flow of some retail therapy. Saturday I went to King's mall and Sunday to Oxford street. I now have such pretty things in bright colours! There's still some stuff I didn't have time to look for but there's always next weekend! Now that I still have money I might as well put it to use and buy lasting things instead of spending it all on takeout indian food and everything else that's bad for me. I definitely need shoes. To go with my new pretty things. Which reminds me:

Show me your dirty face

Dust. There's lots of dust in this town. I have to vacuum my room once a week here because house dust just piles up so quickly. In Finland that miracle happened maybe once in three, I'm a very lazy housekeeper. The pollution is also visible in my cotton pads when I wipe my face clean every night and mornings. I've always thought of air pollution as something invisible (apart from obviously car fumes from passing cars) that only quietly affects things like health and whatnot but I've come to find that it is also very real physically too. I'm curious to see if I can also feel it the next time I visit Finland.

I can not, for the life of me, get a stupid bank account opened! They don't seem to know what they want from me since every time I've tried, they've needed different documents. Passport seems to be the only thing they all agree on. They also always want proof of address but don't quite know what they can accept for that.

This week was quite uneventful. 10-18 at the office and then home to watch tv. Which is awesome! I definitely prefer working to going to school as I can - with a clear conscience - just bum around doing whatever when I'm not working. With school there's always some essay that needs to be written or a project proposal that needs editing and researching and stuff. Now my free time is actually my free time! No nagging sense of guilt about assignments.

On Wednesday one of my coworker's band had a gig and we all went to support him. Check them out here. And here's a video just in case you're too lazy to navigate to a different site.

Saturday night I went to a local pub with two Finnish girls who also have just started their internships here. It's nice to meet other people who are new to the city and compare notes on how we feel about it ;) I had a -10% food voucher but forgot to use it so I'll have to go back in a couple of weeks. Tuesday nights they seem to have a pub quiz, that could be fun.

I'm a farm girl now

My first week of interning for The Animal Farm has gone so quickly! People at the office are nice and chill, but professional of course. The atmosphere is relaxed but the environment stimulates hard work. Really an ideal place to gain work experience as the first step into the harsh music industry world. She says after one week.

So far I have: googled a lot, browsed Twitter a lot, listened to boring bands a lot to find few good ones, sent emails a lot and laughed a lot.

On Friday we went to Kensington Roof Gardens where one of the bands the company works with - Athletes in Paris - were playing. Dress code: "No effort, no entry" so I put on a skirt and heels - my new Irregular Choices. It was a super posh place, and very very beautiful. I'd imagine it'll be amazing in the summer! As the name indicates, it is a garden on a rooftop. They'd built a sort of tent around it tho so we weren't exactly outside the whole night - only about half outside. The gig was very enjoyable, they're such a fun band and a bunch of nice guys. And I really like their music too. Drinks were expensive. I paid over £10 for a GT and £8,45 for a glass of wine!

Athletes In Paris

Other great things have happened this week too: We got a new dishwasher to replace the old broken one! We couldn't use it at first, though, because it couldn't be plugged in. But we didn't have to endure that for too long as the plumbers showed up to rescue us from the mountains of dirty dishes the very next day! A dishwasher really does make life a little bit simpler.

Fun fact: There's a pretty respected rehearsal studio in the building complex and lots of famous people use it. I've heard exciting stories of celebrity spotting around there! And then I got to witness some of it myself; Little Mix came into the café to get lunch one day.

Don't blink!

Today I went tot the Doctor Who Experience. I got to step inside the TARDIS, be held hostage by the Daleks and travel through time and space a little bit. 3D weeping angels can be quite intimidating and I have to admit that I was a little creeped out by the Daleks, especially when they spoke.

Daleks through the ages. EXTERMINATE!

After the official bit we got to wander around a display area where they had, for example, every Doctor's and Companion's clothes, all main monsters, different models of the sonic screwdriver and other gadgets, couple of TARDIS interiors through the ages and a "Walk like a monster" rehearsal area (exactly what it says on the tin) with instructional videos. There was also a Dalek voice recorder that converted whatever you said in the microphone into a Dalek voice. And a "Design a monster" competition. Too bad I'm not much of an artist.

Outside

Inside (it's bigger!)

And of course, exit through the gift shop. There was millions of different Doctor Who themed knickknacks on offer. Most of it seemed to be targeted to school boys, lunch boxes and pencil cases and notebooks etc.

All of this for just £20! It's gonna be in town for a couple of weeks and then they're moving all of it to Cardiff, Wales.