My weekends in East Sussex are always lovely. When I'm in Australia, I miss Jamie's company, even though much of our time together is spent arguing about socialism or watching shoddy 80s films.The Coles have an an adorable cat named Bert.  I miss Claudia at home, so his affection is appreciated.

U.K. bowling alleys are cooler than Australian bowling alleys.

We're only young and naive still.

The Naked and Famous - O2 Academy Oxford - 19th May 2011

The Naked and Famous were getting a fair amount of radio play on Triple J before I left Australia and made a few appearances on the summer festival circuit. They're a perfect festival band in a lot of ways, super energetic, strong vocals, catchy tunes you can dance to. They're what would happen if MGMT went poppier, grew some balls and added a female vocalist. Thanks to their singles being used in some high profile advertisements and tv shows, they've taken off in the U.K.. This little New Zealand band  took to the stage in Oxford and seemed somewhat suprised that the packed room of people in front of them knew the words to their songs. The synth-heavy album has a fuzziness to the edges that makes it easy to listen to. This falls away in the live show and it's all crisper and more aggressive. Thankfully, Alisa Xayalith's voice is up to the challenge and she carries the show. Also, I'm jealous of her shiny, shiny hair.

7 Years

Jamie's terribly upset that I haven't mentioned him here yet. It's a strange experience to return to a friendship after very little contact for many years. Some things stay the same, but certains shifts in personality become very obvious through changes in the dynamics. We still fight like crazy, but he lets me stay whenever I feel the urge to spend the weekend in East Sussex.

I can hear you, louder than ever.

Cold War Kids - Shepherd's Bush Empire, 16th May 2011

I came to the party late with Cold War Kids. I knew of them but didn't pay attention until they released the song Audience from the Behave Yourself E.P. in 2010. That track was probably my favourite individual song from that year. It's also my default 'sing at the top of your voice in the shower' song. I didn't manage to see them on their recent Australian tour (huge mistake considering how strong the latest album is) and I also missed out on a London show that took place soon after I'd arrived because I didn't know about it until after it had sold out. I got lucky and they returned for a second London show within 3 months.

In many ways they are a typical Californian rock band, but there's an undercurrent of blues and southern soul throughout their music that really appeals to me. I consider them similar to The Black Keys for that reason, but in the case of Cold War Kids, the influence is more subtle. Nathan Willett has this brilliantly strong, but surprisingly high voice. There's something about it that reminds me of female American soul singers, and it cuts right through live. There's a lot of physical contact between the band members on stage and you get the sense that there's no fakery. They're genuinely engrossed in what they're doing, feeding off each other's energy and throwing themselves into it.

It's always fun watching live rock that you can dance to. Listen to the filthy bass heavy opening of Hang Me Out To Dry and tell me it doesn't make you want to move.

Better not to quench your thirst

Warpaint - O2 Oxford Academy - 13th May 2011

Warpaint's debut album The Fool is dreamy, melodic, layered and mellow. Their live show is certainly melodic and layered, but not at all mellow. Listening to the album, it's hard to believe that there's a full blown rock band in there and I was surprised at how heavy the live sound was. The live arrangements aren't dramatically different, but everything's louder and more urgent. The bass and drums come through much heavier and it results in music the audience really wants to dance to. Like Fleet Foxes, the band's individual voices are strong enough to recreate the dense vocal harmonies live.



May Day

The first of May is quite the event in Oxford. I hauled my arse out of bed at 5:30am so I could catch the Magdalen College Choir sing from the tower rooftop at 6am. This was followed by a whole lot of Morris Dancing down the high street. There are balls held the night before, so many of the people on the streets at dawn are students in evening wear who have pulled all-nighters. Years ago these students would hire out boats and go drunk punting on the river. Crowds would gather to watch them from the bridge because they'd end up capsizing or falling in. Hilarious. To prevent this, the boat companiess stopped hiring out boats that morning. So a new tradition was established: jumping off the bridge into the extremely shallow water. There have been years with up to 50 morons ending up with broken bones. The bridge was open this year, but unfortunately security and barricades ensured that no-one ended up going over the edge.