Posts tagged Johnny Foreigner

Hop Farm Festival 2009 – Day One

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Photos from Day Two can be found here.

Interesting first day at the Hop Farm Festival down here in Kent. Even with the massive ticket giveaways it has obviously still struggled to fill out the 20,000 capacity. Which is kind of a shame, firstly because it’d be nice to see a local festival succeed, and secondly because it’s actually quite decent. Despite suffering from some odd lineup ordering (The View higher than Ash, really?), it’s a fairly professional, well laid festival.

Highlights today:
- Johnny Foreigner who included a whole bunch of a new material in their drunken set, a new band member on a few songs, saw Kelly and Junior swap positions and more.
- Let’s Wrestle played to a small, but certainly rowdy audience.
- The Joy Formidable seem to have become ten times more popular than when we saw them at Reading last year too, which was a pleasant surprise.
- Ash, who I haven’t heard anything from in the best part of ten years, were really bloody good.

Photos below. You can click through to Flickr for the full size versions. Tomorrow’s lineup includes British Sea Power, The Rumble Strips, Super Furry Animals, Editors and the mighty Dananananaykroyd.

Johnny Foreigner unveil new video containing both robots and zombies

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Feels Like Summer is the latest single by Johnny Foreigner, that I already covered here, so I’m not going to repeat myself. As a video, it doesn’t quite live up to the brilliance of the Salt, Peppa and Spinderella one last year, but on the upside, this one probably won’t give you seizures. All in all, it’s a pleasant enough taster for the band’s upcoming second album, which will be called Grace and the Bigger Picture according to Johnny Foreigner authority Clicky Clicky.

Feels Like Summer was supposed to be released on June 22, but it seems to have fallen off the ends of the earth.

Music festivals in Kent 2009

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As part as our ongoing attempts to cover what little exists of a Kent music scene, it seemed only prudent to put together a brief guide to the major music festivals taking place in the county over the next couple of months. A few years ago such a thing would have been impossible due to a lack of said events, but now new festivals seem to be popping up each year. Obviously not all of them work (like Electric Gardens) and some will probably have their organisers lynched if they ever come back (Zoo8) but it’s good to see a varied selection appearing.

Sellindge Music Festival

When June 4-6
Where Hope Farm, Ashford
How much £55 weekend / £35 daily

Lineup (AFOR endorsements in bold)
Supergrass, The Holloways, Emmy the Great, Ben’s Brother, Red Light Company, Alessi’s Ark, Cut La Roc, Hoxton Whores, Thomas Tantrum, The Answering Machine, Karima Francis, The Young Knives, Tubelord, Marina and the Diamonds, Alex Cornish, Oh, Atoms, Royal Treatment Plant, Bender, The Rosie Taylor Project, William, 4 or 5 Magicians, motion picture soundtrack, Video Nasties, Bobby Long, The Domino State, The Ryes, Micky Slim, Silvery, Hungry Ghosts, Los Salvadores, Minnaars, Lucy and the Caterpillar, Kids Love Lies, Barefoot Confessor, Right Turn Left, Tin Soldiers, Far From The Dance, Seven Story Down, Ten Bears, Tom Williams & The Boat, The Suggestions, Elephants, The Dirty Disco, Junkstar, Brandon Block, Mr Basista, Monday Street, Romanov, Polka Party, HANDSHAKE, Greg McDonald, The Quirk Burglars, The SheBeats, Alma Mahler, Floors & Walls, Eddy Temple-Morris, Rob Cockerton, Adam Bloom, Haunted Stereo, Small Fry, Joe Mac, The Streetlight Conspiracy, The Little Philistines, Illegitimate Sons of the King, AEF, Shadow Aspect, Vagner Love, Peter Andrews, Twisted DJs, Rhys morgan, Krissy and the Jackdaws, The Hidden Revolution, Bruised Beauties, Groove Monkey, Cocos Lovers, Everybody Be cool, Waterhorse, Lotte Mullan, Lucy Holliday, Circle of Rage, Kouncilhouse, Amoriste, Sean Mooney, Steve Day, Spooka, Jamie Abbott, Robbie Styles, Nic Bennett, Hal Cruttenden, Jamie Ley, Nathan Caton, Outa City Committee, Lester Clayton, Jeff Barker, Kev Harris, Lizzy Spit, Jarmean?, Pete Jonas, Delta Connection, danny reject, Matt Rudge, Adam Crow, Sally-Anne Hayward, Christian Reilly and 3 Parts DJ

In 2007, Sellindge was populated by bands you’ve never heard of. Last year, they managed to nab Idlewild to headline more bands you’ve never heard of. This year, there are a few solid bands at the top of the bill, a handful of decent ones underneath, and of course, a whole slew that you’ve never heard of. Still, for the money you can’t really go wrong.

Website / Myspace / Twitter

Hop Farm Festival

When July 5-6
Where The Hop Farm, Paddock Wood
How much £125 weekend / £65 daily

Lineup (AFOR endorsements in bold)
The Fratellis, Editors, Doves, Echo & The Bunnymen, Ash, The Pigeon Detectives, The View, Mystery Jets, Super Furry Animals, Paul Weller, Ladyhawke, 65daysofstatic, British Sea Power, The Rifles, Alex Gopher, Noah and the Whale, Bell X1, Cage the Elephant, The Twang, The Twilight Sad, Howling Bells, Florence and The Machine, Johnny Foreigner, Eight Legs, Dananananaykroyd, Jape, Fight Like Apes, Etienne De Crecy, That Petrol Emotion, Let’s Wrestle, Dr. Lektroluv, D.I.M, The Chapman Family, Burn The Negative, The Good the Bad, R.S.A.G, and 2Manydj’s

The Hop Farm Festival has jumped from being a one-day event last year to a two day festival this year. It’s gimmick is that it has no sponsorship (yay!) and no VIP areas (boo!). Of course, such things come at a price, which results in the excessive £125 cost for the weekend. Which is a shame as I actually quite like the lineup. The main stage doesn’t do much for me, but the creatively named “third stage” with the likes of Johnny Foreigner, Let’s Wrestle and Dananananaykroyd looks like the place to be.

Lounge on the Farm

When July 10-12
Where Merton Farm, Canterbury
How much £85 weekend / £35 daily

Lineup (AFOR endorsements in bold)
Dub Pistols, Bent, DJ Food, The Horrors, Nostalgia 77, Cage the Elephant, Edwyn Collins, The James Taylor Quartet, Horse Feathers, DJ Format, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, The Aliens, Krafty Kuts, Jeremy Warmsley, Lights, DJ Food & DK, Zomby, Wild Beasts, The King Blues, Chris Murray, Kid Harpoon, Mr Scruff, Ipso Facto, Solid Steel, Golden Silvers, Portico Quartet, Jonquil, Son Of Dave, Chris Difford, It Hugs Back, The Temper Trap, Jay Jay Pistolet, Flamboyant Bella, The Invisible, Sargasso Trio, Trost, 6 Day Riot, DK, Mumford & Sons, James Taylor Quartet, Baddies, Chris T-T, Toddla T, Greg Wilson, Pete Molinari, Casiokids, The XX, Drums Of Death, Cha Cha, The Pan I Am, The Congregation, Peggy sue, Congregation, Greco Roman, Rae, S.C.U.M, Joe Gideon & The Shark, Josh Weller, Skeleton, cherbourg, Wave Pictures, Tom Allalone, Elephants, Black Market Karma, Psychotic Reaction, Onlookers, Ghost of a thousand, Tom Williams and The Boat, Monday Street, The Simonsound, Syd Arthur, Hobo Jones & the Junkyard Dogs, Wheeler Street, The Goodtimes, Moon Music Orchestra, Zombie Met Girl, The 18 Carat Love Affair, Amber Room, J*Star, Zoo for you, The Lovedays, Cocos Lovers, The Startover, The Wild Wolves, Trevor Moss, Trevor Moss & Hannah-Lou, Samondi, Mr Lovebucket, Mc Serocee, MC Honeybrown, djbunjy, Ukulele Gangstas, The Chihuahuas, The Mind Without Maths, The Steve Hillage Band, calico street riots, Greco Roman Soundsystem w/ Ross Allen, Raf Daddy & Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, VJ LSDave, Comfy Porn DJs, Hannah Lou and Boxing Octopus

Lounge on the Farm is the almost the little festival that could. Growing from strength to strength over since the first in 2006, the event now boasts over 100 acts including a decent mix between minor recognisable bands and a ton of local talent. Operated by the same team that run the delightful Farmhouse in Canterbury, they really do seem to be doing everything they can to foster a local scene.

Website / Myspace / Twitter

Johnny Foreigner return with a song about summer. What else?

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Johnny Foreigner

I wasn’t planning on writing about Johnny Foreigner today. I was going to write about Sky Larkin’s Canterbury gig on Friday night, but that’ll have to wait for another day. This is what happens when a new Johnny Foreigner track drops in front of me.

For those keeping up with the band, Feels Like Summer has already been streaming on Myspace for a few days now. The song is the lead single from the band’s upcoming album and sounds about what you’d probably expect really. The Johnny Foreigner playbook hasn’t changed between albums, which is no bad thing when you’ve sounded this fully formed right from the start. If anything, this is even more immediate than their previous work, it’s blistering pace resulting in the whole thing being over in under two minutes.

Feels Like Summer may not bring anything new, which I’d likely be complaining about with a lot of bands. With Johnny Foreigner though, I just want another album that’s even half as good as last year’s Waited Up Til It Was Light. This makes it sound like we’re on the right track.

Feels Like Summer, a new version of Camp Kelly Calm and a new track entitled Wow, Just Wow will be available as free downloads from the Johnny Foreigner website on June 22. Album two will presumably follow not all that long after.

Great British Hopes: Dananananaykroyd

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Dananananaykroyd

Talk about your unwieldy band names. Getting the right amount of anananana is bad enough, but then there’s the double header of Aykroyd not being the simplest name to spell either. The funny thing is that the music fits the name. If you’d asked me beforehand what I’d think a band called Dananananaykroyd would sound like, I’d go with loud and fast. And that’s exactly what we have.

The thing that takes one aback about Glasgow’s Dananananaykroyd is just how loud and fast it is. The vocals jump straight in, not sung, but fucking shouted. A dual assault of two drummers quickly follows. None of this is an opening gambit, nor is it limited to the song. This is the sound of desperate for you to hear them. This is the sound of a band that makes even labelmates Johnny Foreigner sound relaxed.

The risk with music like this is whether or not it can work in a full album setting. It’s easy to run dry when you use up this much fuel in just three minutes. A bunch of singles and an EP show they are on the right track. We’ll find out in a month if their ability matches their ambition, but they certainly seem willing to try.

Hey Everyone! will be released on April 8 by Best Before. The band is also participating in new WTFblog Awesome Pals, alongside Los Campesinos!, Sky Larkin, Johnny Foreigner, Favours for Sailors and a bunch of others. In other words, the entire good end of the British music scene.

Johnny Foreigner sum up the festival experience with riots, tents, free drinks, mud and panic attacks

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Johnny Foreigner

Oh Johnny Foreigner, the only band to put out a record last year that I enjoyed more than either of the Los Campesinos! records. Quite an impressive feat given there is only three of them when the other lot have seven. Even more impressive given their album, Waited Up Til It Was Late was largely made up of older, re-recorded songs. Nearly two and a half years down the line though, they still sound as fresh as they ever did.

Of course, it’s still lovely to hear some new material, so it was a nice surprise last week when the band threw up a zip file on their Myspace page containing two new songs: Ghost the Festivals and Ohai, Sentinels. The first has been around for a while now, both in live sets and a couple of videos out there in Youtubeland, but it’s nice to have proper recordings. The production may be a little rough around the edges, but I’d expect nothing less.

Ghost the Festivals manages to sum up my own experiences at Reading last year, but I imagine the language is pretty universal. From escaping the site before the riots on the final night to the endless sea of tents to hanging out in the VIP area with free drinks. Although I must have been doing something wrong as my drinks certainly weren’t free. £2.50 for a tiny glass of Coke? Jesus.

There isn’t anything particularly new in these songs. When you hit the perfect formula with your first album, I suppose it makes sense to keep it up. Which is fine with me. So long as the next record is even half as good as the first, it’ll still probably be the best thing released this year.

Johnny Foreigner Is Aces (containing both Ghost the Festivals and Ohai, Sentinels) is available to download from the band’s Myspace page for the next ten days or so. Both songs are also on an exclusive tour EP that the band will be touting during their European tour with the mighty Sky Larkin.

Website / Myspace

Video: Johnny Foreigner – Salt, Peppa and Spinderella

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I usually shy away from posting videos on here because it’s supposed to be all about the music and shit. I’m happy to make an exception in this case though. Johnny Foreigner are my favourite band at the moment. Salt, Peppa and Spinderella is my favourite Johnny Foreigner song. And this just may be my favourite music video ever. Seriously, I usually dislike videos, but I’ve watched this one over and over.

Constructed from over 68,000 individual photos on a digital camera, I dread to think the amount of hours that must have gone into it. In fact, now that I think about it, are there any videos that have more quick cuts than this one? It’d be pretty hard to beat this. Watch it in full screen and you may find yourself becoming slightly dizzy. Which suits the song perfectly well. Bring out the real fun. TURN ON THE REAL DRUMS.

Website / Myspace

Johnny Foreigner – Our Bipolar Friends

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Johnny Foreigner

I always welcome an excuse to talk about Johnny Foreigner on here, so it was rather pleasing today to receive a press release from Nettwerk announcing that they will be releasing JF’s Waited Up Til It Was Light album in the US in October. Now I’m sure that dedicated fans will have already got hold of it from the UK, but with a bit of luck, this deal will open up an entire new audience for The Best Band In The UK Right Now.

Our Bipolar Friends was the first single from that album over here, released exclusively on 7″ vinyl. My signed copy has sat here lovingly unplayed since I received because I don’t have a record player. Yet I bought the release anyway. If that isn’t a testament as to it’s quality, I don’t know what is.

Website / Myspace

Panda Love Unit – You Are The Chords

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Panda Love Unit

So much for having permission for everything I post, but this is too good to pass up. From what I can tell, it isn’t commercially available anywhere, so no harm should be done. Anyway, Panda Love Unit were a band that formed in 2001 and broke up in 2004. From what I can tell, they never reached any real level of success, which is both a curse and a blessing. A curse because songs like the one below are really quite awesome. A blessing because lead singer Alexei went on to form a new band called Johnny Foreigner.

Panda Love Unit / Website / Myspace

Top 44 Songs of 2007: #8-1

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Let’s just put this whole silly mess behind us.

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The Teenagers – Homecoming

The Teenagers

Homecoming is the story of an English guy and an American girl, and the way they each view their relationship. Neither of these characters are likeable. He comes across as a dick (”I fuck my American cunt“) while she proves to be so vacuous (thinking he’s the perfect guy – “I love my English romance“) that she wouldn’t be out of place in Nada Surf’s Popular. I reference that song largely because this song covers much the same ground in both style and endorsing the lifestyle of the terminally stupid. It’s all lo-fi guitar and vocals that alternate between the subdued and the sweet. Without knowing what the song was about in the first place, you could easily listen to it and not even realise the darker undertones.

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Rilo Kiley – Silver Lining

Rilo Kiley

The first track from Under the Blacklight manages to set the bar a bit too high for the rest of it, aiding in the crushing disappointment that follows. No matter though, Silver Lining remains one of the finest Rilo songs in years, a joy in it’s simplicity and “hooray hooray” choruses. So good that one could almost believe it was held over from a previous album.

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The Thermals – A Pillar of Salt

The Thermals

We don’t think we’re special, sir, we know everybody is

Quite possibly the finest song ever concerning Sodom and Gomorrah. Probably the only song concerning Sodom and Gomorrah.

Download MP3 (expired)

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Los Campesinos! – Don’t Tell Me To Do The Math(s)

Los Campesinos!

I struggled with the first proper Los Campesinos! singles (this and We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives) because they just sounded wrong at first. Covered in distortion, overproduced, seemingly losing some of the joy of the original recordings. I kept listening to them though and they soon became staples on my playlists. Don’t Tell Me To Do The Math(s), over the course of the year, wormed it’s way into my favourite song list. I don’t really know how, but now it’s hard to listen to it without shouting out the words as loud as possible at the same time. And if that isn’t the mark of a great song, I don’t know what is.

Download MP3 (expired)

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Laura Sings Liver – Ending Elinor

Laura Sings Liver

Just close your eyes and listen to this song. Immerse yourself in it, take in every word. That should be more than enough to justify it’s place here.

Download MP3 (expired)

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Johnny Foreigner – Champagne Girls I Have Known

Johnny Foreigner

Few bands have the kind of energy that Johnny Foreigner seem to bring to every song. Champagne Girls I Have Known is a noisy, confusing mess, with multiple vocals, guitars and drums all trying to be louder than each other. In other words, a glorious assault on the eardrums.

Download MP3 (expired)

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SoKo – I’ll Kill Her

SoKo

I’ll Kill Her is one of the those rare songs that will just sit on repeat for long periods at at time. SoKo Girl starts gently enough: she’s talking about how the guy she likes didn’t call her to go on their date. So far, so mundane. This evolves into anger as the song goes on about the “bitch” that is now in her place, through the eventual announcement that makes up the title of the song. The interesting part here though is that the narrator seems entirely unstable. It may all be as literal as it sounds on the initial listen, or it could be so much more. Even people bitter about a breakup don’t usually launch into detailed “what ifs” about the children they would have had (even naming them Tom and Susan). At the very least, this girl has some kind of issues. Listen again though, and you start to wonder if there was even a breakup involved. She never mentions one directly. For all we know, she has never even met the guy she’s bitter about losing to someone else. This could just be the most elaborate stalker scenario put to record. It doesn’t really matter exactly which scenario it is though. At the very least, it’s a fascinating stream of consciousness of a somewhat damaged person. It’s sung in such an informal (almost conversational) tone that it’s impossible to dislike her, no matter how crazy it may come across as at times.

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Esiotrot – Emily Scott

Esiotrot

I’ve been trying to write the blurb for this song for the last couple of days with little success. Which is a bit odd considering it’s my number one song of last year. I’ve listened to it repeatedly trying to pull some inspiration from it with no luck. Which isn’t a slight against the song itself. I adore it, probably more now than when I started listening to it last year. I just can’t seem to explain it in words. Sure, it has all of the hallmarks of what I like in music: vaguely twee, fragile yet amusing lyrics, even a trumpet. Yet I can’t seem to locate that “wow” factor which tips it over the top. Maybe, to it’s eternal credit, it doesn’t need one.

Download MP3 (expired)

And.. stop.

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