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Mo' Pollard
It's not just John Frusciante that can kick out multiple albums. The demise of GBV hasn't slowed Robert Pollard, and after recent releases From A Compound Eye and Bubble he's now got a further 3 albums slated for this year. And he's supporting Chimp Jam in the U.S.
5th May 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Neil Young
Living With War
According to Pitchfork this is Neil Young's "rawest release of new material since at least Ragged Glory, maybe even Rust Never Sleeps... " According to me it's about as immediate as his last 10 years of plod. It plods along and has the same plodding pace as his last 'Decade' of work, except this time it has some overtly political lyrics.
There's no doubting that this is protest music of the most literal order, but where his 60's protests like Ohio or Southern Man were relevant and emotional, the plodding Shock and Awe, Lookin' For A Leader or Let's Impeach The President have nothing like the weight, and certainly not the political commentary of an angry album like Radiohead's Hail To The Thief
I wish he'd get on with re-releasing his missing old stuff, rather than forever moving 'forward'....although judging by by 2004's 'Greatest Hits' even that could be a mis-fire.
5th May 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 1.5 star reviewsJeff Nelson
Madrid's Map Magazine have got an interview with Fugazi/Dischord's Jeff Nelson, talking about how he met Ian Mackaye, his new band Fast Piece of Furniture, straightedge and his love of jeeps.
5th May 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Listen Again
Pearl Jam live on Radio 1's Zane Lowe show.... listen again here.
4th May 2006 - 6 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Olivo Barbieri
Went to see Olivo Barbieri's excellent exhibition Site Specific at the Bloomberg Space in Finsbury Square. Mostly shot from a helicopter, Barbieri uses a blur filter to isolate specific parts of the screen and direct the viewer's attention. Enhanced by helicopter sound/no sound/street sound, the effect is amazing - making Rome, Las Vegas and Shanghai seem like you're watching a hand-held home-movie version of Koyaanisqatsi, shot at Mini-Europe in Belgium.
4th May 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Stadium Arcadium
While Blood Sugar Sex Magic had some (I'd say 3) great songs, it's funky-monk overtones make it sound dated, recorded as John Frusciante say's "back when we were assholes". The Dave Navarro version of the band obviously sucked, but after Frusciante kicked his drug habit and crawled back to the Red Hot Chili Peppers things really started to take off. Californication had some great tracks, but was quickly overshadowed by version 2.0 - By The Way. Frusciante had found his sound, releasing the awesome solo albums To Record Only Water For Ten Days and Shadows Collide With People and clearly shaping the direction of the revitalised Chili Peppers. After another 6(!) solo albums from Frusciante last year - all peppered with great tracks - the promise of a new full-spec double RHCP album was good.
Things kick off well with single Dani California. Using all the best elements of the RHCP signature sound - catchy, stripped down, funky bass, roaring guitar solo - it sets the pace.... and the rest of the album carries on from there. All the same. Every song is good, most contain a bit of all of their styles and all are in the 3-5 minutes / 3.5-4.5 star range - and that is where the problem lies. While the album is apparently 'based' on the planets (Disc 1 Jupiter, Disc 2 Mars) there is no obvious theme or progression over the album and not much difference between the two discs. It becomes totally homogenized and just seems like a collection of 28 randomly sequenced good songs.
Torture Me is not one of the best, but it stands out for merely being a bit more punky. Strip My Mind threatens to be like a Frusciante solo track - but ends up being not as brave and falling back into line. Even the bass-funk workout tracks pull their socks up to be not nearly as bad as some of the 90's era stuff. The excellent Desecretion Smile and Animal Bar have so far floated to the top of the pile, although I'm sure more will grow on me if I give it time. 28 tracks is a lot of time though, and in the age of CD a double album is more like 120 minutes than The White Album's 90. The lyrics also take the score down a notch, as the band have never been that deep, and that doesn't change here. There's plenty of lyrics of the horny-coyotes-prowling-around-michigan variety.
Time will tell whether this becomes a sprawling masterpiece or self-indulgant monolith, but for a band who should have been at the peak of their powers it currently seems that they are on more of a plateau.
UPDATE: As of August 9th '06 I'm updating this to a 4. It's 80% genius, and the finale of Snow (Hey Oh) and Frusciante's scream at the end of Wet Sand are worth the price alone. It's only losing points for the length and lack of sequence, but is undoubtedly the closest thing to their masterpiece (to date).
4th May 2006 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
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Brilliant Maniac
Chimp 75 will be DJ-ing at Brilliant Maniac this coming Friday (May 5th), at the PUSH bar - 93 Dean Street, Soho W1.
Free - or maybe a couple of quid if you get there very late. Open until 1.30ish.
3rd May 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Indigo Moss at the Ivy House
Had a good night at the Easycome Acoustic Club down at Chimp Towers local The Ivy House last week, with the open mic night providing a few good bands... and some shite.
Prince of Wales were very good in a Broken Family Band style - even if their name makes them invisible on the internet. (UPDATE: it's Prints Of Whales apparantly, not that it makes them any easier to Google) Indigo Moss were good too, rocking the Jesse James suits.
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3rd May 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Comments
By popular demand, you can now add comments to reviews. Click on the link at the bottom of each review and feel free to slag off/praise at will. Keep it clean. Go.
3rd May 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Not So ECONO
A two-disc dvd set of The Minutemen documentary We Jam Econo is available to order, with over 5 hours of interviews, live performances and archival footage!
Disc 1:
- feature "we jam econo" - the story of the minutemen (90min)
- original music videos for: "this ain't no picnic," "ack ack ack ack" and "king of the hill"
- 19 additional scenes and interviews
- uncut bard college interview (56min)
- english subtitles for the hearing impaired
Disc 2:
62 live songs from three full performances:
- the starwood los angeles, ca - november 18th, 1980 (includes multi-angle feature)
- 9:30 club washington, d.c. - 1984
- acoustic blowout (cable access show) - hollywood, ca - 1985
- 16-page booklet with full color photos, flyers, filmmaker notes and liner notes by David Rees, creator of get your war on.
2nd May 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Live Wire
McNulty is deep undercover for the new series of The Wire.
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2nd May 2006 - 4 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
New(s) Search
Chimpomatic news and reviews are now searchable - buy using the bar on the left.
Enjoy finding lost articles from ze early yearz.
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Click here for 'mugison', the top search...
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28th Apr 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Surveillance
The art of Surveillance is ever-progressing, with some of the upcoming Nokia phone sporting 3.2MP cameras and capable of recording 'DVD quality' video at 30 fps.
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27th Apr 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Later With Jools
Team Chimpomatic were at the taping of the new series of Later with Jolls Holland last night. Pearl Jam, Zutons, Spinto Band and the (er) 'mighty' talent of Jamie Foxx and his entourage. He single-handedly managed to lower the bar beyond my wildest expectations - and made Miami Vice the 'must miss' movie of the summer.... even though I had been looking forward to it.
Pearl Jam were given centre stage and were clearly who everyone was there to see. Kicked off the great show jam, then did World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand and finished with Alive.
Check out surveillance for a video clip.
26th Apr 2006 - 9 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Pearl Jam
London Astoria
As one of the last gigs on my list of all-time favourite bands, having not seen these guys had always nagged at me. I had been too poor as a student, out of the country for one tour and then after the death of some fans at the Roskilde festival in 2000, Europe had been off rotation for the last couple of Pearl Jam world tours. I was resigned to eventually seeing the band at the enormo-arena-dome some time past their peak - and convincing myself that I wasn't disappointed.
Recently, things started to look up. A well invested fan club membership led to a great 7 inch single, but the golden ticket was a heads-up on this one-off warm up show at London's Astoria. Chimp Jnr managed to snag the tickets, which sold out in 1 minute and ended up going for £450 on eBay. It crossed our minds to cash them in and fly out to Seattle, but even there a 20,000 seat Arena could not offer the same opportunity as a 1600 seat venue on home turf.
The gig had a quick turnaround and before we knew it we were queuing down the side of the Astoria, round Soho Square and back onto Oxford Street. Some of the eBay tickets had apparently been confiscated, so some persistent fans did get a chance to get last minute surprise re-sale tickets on the door. The touts dropped their tickets to £250, while security guards checked the ticket numbers as some fakes had been circulated.
The atmosphere in the queue and inside the venue was electric. It obviously wasn't just us that had been holding out to see them, and when the band came out the place went crazy. A quick acknowledgment that it had been a long time set the scene, and then we're off with new single World Wide Suicide. As noted, this is a bad title, but as a song it was a great start - thundering, off new album Pearl Jam, but still one that the fans could get into. That was followed by Life Wasted and Severed Hand from the new album, which subdued the crowd slightly as they are still relatively unknown.... Two more new songs followed, but these were current b-side Unemployable and Christmas b-side Gone, which is already one of my current favourites. So things were picking up, and then they really took off with Even Flow.
From then on things only got better and better. The band pulled highlights and rarities from their 15 year back catalogue, such as Sad, I Am Mine, Leavin' Here and Given To Fly mixed in with a couple of the new tracks. There was a healthy dose of revived songs from black-sheep album Ten (which out sold Nevermind for you haters out there) including an awesome ramped up version of Why Go? The Indie Goth Revival is over, long live Grunge.
The highlight had to be an impromptu sing along to Betterman, where Eddie Vedder literally hardly sang a word. The entire crowd took over in a spine tingling moment, reminiscent of Black on the Benaroya Hall album. Visibly moved by the crowd response, the band came back for two encores until finally the end had come, as Mike McCready plucked the opening notes of traditional set-closer Yellow Ledbetter. Everyone sang along and the band even dropped in a few notes of Nobody's Fault But Mine as a nod to Robert Plant, who was in the crowd with his son. After a bow the band started to leave the stage, before the overwhelming reaction from the audience genuinely changed their minds. Eddie Vedder called them back for one more... a storming rendition of Alive. As one of their only UK hits, this is often how they are perceived by those who know little of their later work. It was an unashamedly 90's moment, and I realised that after 15 years of progressing onwards they are now looking as much like the grunger's of the early 90's as ever.... and I love it.
All in all it couldn't have been a much more satisfactory conclusion to my quest.... although thanks to a man on the inside we are off to see them taping Later with Jools Holland tonight.
25th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 4.5 star reviewsPearl Jam
Pearl Jam
Pearl Jam have a knack of sounding like a muscle car cruising down an empty road in Montana. Masters of the key/pace change, they often shift up and down gears, speeding up and slowing down but always sticking to the road.
While Life Wasted and World Wide Suicide are great openers (except for the title "World Wide Suicide" - definitely a case for 'keep the title out of the lyrics') rocking all the shift change tricks, it's not until six songs in that we get a real change of style - with Parachutes. Similar in tone to the Stones' track of the same name, this great little number is much more in the vein of 1996's No Code.
Things get more more varied on what would have been side two in the vinyl days, with Gone being the gem on the album. It's Pearl Jam at their best, using a simple quiet start to build up the emotion and sound into an awesome wall of noise.
Army Reserve is one song that doesn't quite click, somehow sounding like the U2-style jangling guitar was written separately from the lyrics, but the album finishes with two excellent tracks. Come Home sounds like a cover of a lost classic by Smokey Robinson or Otis Redding and is the band at their best. Inside Job, written by guitarist Mike McCready, is a moody slow burner. Staying just the right side of Dire Straits, the song would fit well on a movie soundtrack and brings the album to a worthy close.
The album is definitely a democratic effort and the input of the entire band leans the sound down the more conventional end of the Pearl Jam spectrum - generally sounding more like Yield or Riot Act than Vitalogy or No Code. That's never a criticism with these guys however and although not as lyrical as some of their work it's a solid, thoroughly enjoyable rock album from a band totally assured of their craft.
25th Apr 2006 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
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Ocean's 12
(dir. Steven Soderbergh)
After bad guy Andy Garcia tracks down the crew who robbed his casino in Ocean's 11, Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and pals (plus one extra person - get it?) stage a series of robberies to raise the money to pay off Garcia. Problems come in the shape of a French master cat burglar (Vincent Cassell), who revels in beating Clooney's gang to the punch, and an Interpol agent how had a fling with the cheeky Brad Pitt (surprisingly likeable here).
The film is very stylishly done, shrugging off the glossy style that you would expect for so many huge names and instead using a low-key European-looking documentary style (a bit like the excellent Bourne Identity), with editing and simple trickery to keep the pace moving. Straight off the bat however, the script is so engrossed in its own cleverness that it is instantly hard to follow. Little attention is given to setting up the characters - which is fine for Clooney, Brad Pitt, maybe Matt Damon - but the rest of the supporting gang were not that memorable in episode 1 (or 11). A potential clever twist with Bruce Willis where Julia Roberts' character is mistaken for actress Julia Roberts is so smugly done that the actors practically wink at the camera...
It's watchable, but unless you're flying long haul don't bother.
24th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Read more 2 star reviewsBear/Chimp
Hats off to our recently prolific reviewer bear/chimp for scoring letter of the month in The Observer for his thoughts on the Morrissey/Coupland show down.
24th Apr 2006 - 7 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Pearl Jam
Last night's Pearl Jam gig at London's Astoria lived up to expectations. A huge queue snaking round to Oxford Street, a few surprise tickets being released at the last minute on the door, touts dropping their prices to £250, Robert Plant in the crowd and more. Some new favourites, Betterman, Given To Fly, Even Flow and so on. Plus a little snip of Nobody's Fault But Mine in one of three encores. Full report soon.
Links
Some great snaps here.
Independent Review
The Sun
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21st Apr 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Adam Green
Chimp74 has wired in some photos she took at last night's Adam Green concert. See surveillance for more.
21st Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
DeLorean vs. A-Team Van
Spotted this non certified weather experiment in New Cross recently.... followed by a sighting of the A-Team at Leyton Homebase. Probably picking up some garden furniture to finish off a tank conversion.
17th Apr 2006 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Chimp v6.0
You may have noticed that we've started to overhaul the look of chimpomatic this week. As well as a new photo-heavy style we'll be bringing in a few new features - such as the ability to leave comments on reviews.
Other suggestions welcome.
13th Apr 2006 - 14 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Hot Lips
Good video online for the Flaming Lips new single The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song.
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Broadband (Quicktime)
Dial-Up (Quicktime)
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12th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Get Lost
US TV network ABC are taking 4 of their hit shows online in a free trial during May and June. Users will be able to watch streaming versions of Lost, Alias, Desperate Housewives and Commander In Chief the day after they have been broadcast in the US. Not sure if UK chimps will be able to tune in....
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11th Apr 2006 - 3 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Dislocated Finger
Sent in by chimp buddy BC. Sustained while goalkeeping.
9th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
When Good Cops Turn Bad
Steven Caracappa and Louis Eppolito (AKA 'Fat Andy' from Goodfellas) were yesterday convicted for their role in 8 mob hits, while serving as New York City cops - but also on a $4000 per month retainer from the Luchese crime family..... Hollywood is on the sniff. Maybe Eppolito could play himself, finishing the film Reality TV style.
Links
www.timesonline.co.uk
www.bbc.co.uk
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7th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Ariel Pink
We're all about Ariel Pink at Chimp HQ today, thanks to a tip off from occasional web-logger Evergreen Daze.
Playing the UK in June apparently.
6th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Boot Camp
Apple has today released a new Public Beta product called Boot Camp, which will allow Mac users (and potential future Mac users) to run Windows on Apple hardware.
Planned to be included in the next version of OSX (10.5 - due late 2006/07), Boot Camp will allow users to dual boot their machine, meaning that you will be able to run old Windows programs without having to have a PC.
There had been a $14,000 reward offered to the first programmer to create a solution to run Windows on a Mac, but that is now obsolete.
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5th Apr 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
RHCP
The new Chili Peppers double album Stadium Arcadium is due for release on May 13th, with iTunes snagging pre-order type bonus data.
UPDATE: Will Ferrell has joined RCHP on drums.
4th Apr 2006 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
R.I.P. Shoreditch Underground Station
Shoreditch Underground station on the East London Line is finally closing down on June 9th, to make way for the new extension up to Dalston and beyond. That will be a set-back to the Chimp Towers > Chimp HQ hotline, but hopefully an improvement in the long run.
The locals have luckily got enough micro-scooters to keep them moving.
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4th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Reading Festival
The Reading Festival line-up is announced, with Pearl Jam headlining the Friday in Leeds, and the Sunday in, er, Reading.
Not much else worth seeing, unless you like the Kooks. You're soooooo naiive.
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3rd Apr 2006 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Samba Pa Ti
I was on hold with Apple Support for 30 minutes this afternoon, trying to make headway on my endlessly busted Powerbook, but thankfully I was kept entertained by Santana's epic classic Samba Pa Ti, a personal favourite since the days of Toy Machine's Welcome to Hell video.
3rd Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Is this your homework, Larry?
The 3rd Annual Dude Abides will take place on Friday 5th May 2006 at Streatham Megabowl from 8pm till 1am.
Unlimited bowling from 9pm - 1am
Each lane will have their own bottle of Kahlua, bottle of vodka, plus free milk from the bar = White Russians for FREE!
As part of the Larry Sellers Homework Competition, each lane gets a real piece of homework done by a real-life 15-year-old brat. Prizes for the most amusing corrections.
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3rd Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
New Lips
The new Flaming Lips album At War With The Mystics is out today. Apparently the band were submergered in Black Sabbath at the time of writing it.... but I suspect it will be more like Multi-Coloured Sabbath.
3rd Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Ramones
There's a Ramones show opening at the Proud Gallery on Buckingham Street this week.
I never quite understand the appeal of the Ramones. Can someone please explain?
2nd Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Pearl Jam at Astoria
After a morning of wrangling 5 browser screens and 2 ticket hotlines, we've hopefully snagged some tickets for chimp75 & chimp jnr favourites Pearl Jam's low-profile gig at London's Astoria on April 20th.
One of the last remaining bands to be checked off the big hit-list, and certainly a better venue than the usual Wembley Arena style event. Fingers crossed.
They're also pencilled in for Jool Holland apparently, taping in late April for a broadcast on May 6. If anyone has an in on that, please let me know...
31st Mar 2006 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
How Do You Like Them Apples?
It's Apple Computer's 30th Anniversary on April 1st, but rather than expecting a Fool's Day joke, many blogger's are expecting some sort of mega-surprise product. Rumours have been touted about a Video iPod, an iPhone and even an iMac aimed specifically at the games market.
30 year's has seen Apple rise to the top of the computing pile (thanks to their revolutionary windows-style operating system and Mac II computer in the 80's), through the salad days of the bad early 90's (brown G3 anyone?) and then back into every overly-wealthy gadget fan's heart with the iPod in the early 00's.
Personally I'd just be happy if my Powerbook is back from repair - where it is for the third time this month and the sixth time in it's short 2 year anniversary.
Links
30 years of consuming
The best of Wired on Apple
Apple at 30
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30th Mar 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Call 999
2005 favourites Ambulance Ltd are back with an EP of new and live songs New English, in preparation for a new studio album in summer 2006. They played some of the new stuff on their last tour, which showed promising hints of more to come.
27th Mar 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
En Francais
What is it with musicians being compelled to sing in A-Level French? The Wedding Present's George Best Plus CD is ruined by the pretentious Pourquoi Es Tu Devenue Si Raisonable?. That's Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now?, numbskulls.
Tindersticks are even worse with Plus De Liaisons and don't even get me started on Le Ponce Jeff Buckley on his Live at Sin-E mega edition.
27th Mar 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
The Dude Abides
It could be this years Million Dollar Baby, or it could be this year's Save The Last Dance. Who knows, but the dude should know better.
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24th Mar 2006 - 3 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
Live Tweedy
There's a recent solo performance from Jeff Tweedy over at Wilco World for your listening enjoyment.
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21st Mar 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
Elizabethtown
(dir. Cameron Crowe)
After losing $1 Billion on behalf of the Oregon-based sneaker company (?!) he works for, hotshot designer Orlando Bloom thinks about killing himself - before the death of his father leads him on a journey of self-discovery to check out his roots in old Kentucky. On the way he meets a hottie airline steward (Kirsten Dunst), who makes him realise just how swell life can be.
It could have been a lot quicker if he'd succeeded with the early suicide, as this was pretty painful for all involved. The basic premise is a bit cheesy, but could have been really well done in an indie movie. Cameron Crowe's heavy handed recent form just pummels any glimmer of hope into distant oblivion, aided and abetted by the truly awful Orlando Bloom and a pretty average Kirsten Dunst. I only realised quite how bad the acting had been when an OK scene from Susan Sarandon seemed like the best acting I had seen in years.
Musical references are squeezed into the film at every unsuitable moment but the highlight was, of course, My Morning Jacket's appearance as the cousin's reformed band 'Ruckus', who play a blinding cover of Freebird as a tribute to the old man at his funeral.
20th Mar 2006 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet
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Canadian Entertainment
One of the best things about Canada is the fact that The Kids In The Hall is on every night. In fact most TV in Canada seemed to date from 1994, which generally was not a good thing. Luckily we brought our own entertainment in the form of Marx Brothers movies on DVD. Hear Harpo speak here.
17th Mar 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet
ATP Fallout
Some fallout is trickling through from the upcoming All Tomorrow's Parties festival.... notably Spoon and Dinosaur Jr. gigs in London.
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16th Mar 2006 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet