This is a remarkably intellectual looking crowd. I feel I should jump up and apologise to everyone "I'm so sorry I shouldn't be here. There's been a terrible mistake I'm from the Isle of Man!". Heather & Jeremy sit either side of the stage with the screen above them. Previous when I've attended live scores of films it's been larger gbv type bands how can an accordion & violin act fill out the room. Once the film starts it's clear that they can. The movie is a subtitled Soviet-Armenian one from 1964. Boy meets girl from rival family but falls in love anyway. Girl dies falling from cliff with sheep into frozen river. Fate of sheep unknown. Boy goes mad for a bit then falls in love with a girl whilst shoeing a horse and they get married. But he still loves the dead girl. She then gets off with a shaman. Things get hazy now party due to the images turning druggy and partly cos I kept drifting off. Anyway the bloke was killed by the wizard. The music though was fantastic raising and falling in time with the action. The band switch between instruments to fit the mood. Heather Trost had a mini keyboard in addition to her violin. Jeremy Barnes switches between accordion and a santur (a kind of hammered dulcimer) he also has a bass drum and both have bells & percussion implements to call on. The santur is a revelation although played a little like a glockenspiel by short percussive striking of the strings it produces dramatic waves of sound that swell and ebb with the characters' emotions. Overall this was an evocative triumph for A Hawk & The Hacksaw, while the film was an otherworldly depiction of a Carpathian past, it was the music that provided the emotional connection to the modern audience.

This is a remarkably intellectual looking crowd. I feel I should jump up and apologise to everyone "I'm so sorry I shouldn't be here. There's been a terrible mistake I'm from the Isle of Man!". Heather & Jeremy sit either side of the stage with the screen above them. Previous when I've attended live scores of films it's been larger gbv type bands how can an accordion & violin act fill out the room. Once the film starts it's clear that they can. The movie is a subtitled Soviet-Armenian one from 1964. Boy meets girl from rival family but falls in love anyway. Girl dies falling from cliff with sheep into frozen river. Fate of sheep unknown. Boy goes mad for a bit then falls in love with a girl whilst shoeing a horse and they get married. But he still loves the dead girl. She then gets off with a shaman. Things get hazy now party due to the images turning druggy and partly cos I kept drifting off. Anyway the bloke was killed by the wizard. The music though was fantastic raising and falling in time with the action. The band switch between instruments to fit the mood. Heather Trost had a mini keyboard in addition to her violin. Jeremy Barnes switches between accordion and a santur (a kind of hammered dulcimer) he also has a bass drum and both have bells & percussion implements to call on. The santur is a revelation although played a little like a glockenspiel by short percussive striking of the strings it produces dramatic waves of sound that swell and ebb with the characters' emotions. Overall this was an evocative triumph for A Hawk & The Hacksaw, while the film was an otherworldly depiction of a Carpathian past, it was the music that provided the emotional connection to the modern audience.

Summer of 100 Bands - 28 to 37

Shoreditch 1234 Festival

 

28: Rayographs. On Rough Trade Shops Stage. All girl trio. Operating in the space between shoegaze & goth that the Heart Throbs mined.  They kind of sneak up on their songs, opening with indecisive strumming gradually a rhythm develops and eventually a groove. I like these moments more. 

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29: Advert. Swirly guitar music. Brings Loop to mind. Greeted by sunbathing. Impressive instrumentals moves between light and shade.  

Vocals are an afterthought, a needless one at that. The lead singer is inaudible and the backing singer too loud and not very good.  Whatever the cause of the problems is they lose confidence, the assuredness of the instrumental sections goes. 

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30. Novella. RTS stage. Anonymous all girl group playing indistinct guitar music. 

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31. Electricity in Our Homes. Main stage. Vocals somewhere between Frank Black & Richard Hell. Music is rhythmic but tuneless. 

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32. Echo Lake. RTS stage. Female singer. Very equal ops this festival every band so far has had at least one female member and given the two all girl acts they probably outnumber the boy musicians. 

Wall of sound shoegazer music with ethereal vocals. The festival seems stuck in that period between Madchester and Grunge, I expect the Pale Saints to appear, no I hope the Pale Saints will appear because they were better than these bands. Still better that they choose Lush as a template than Carter or Neds. 

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33. Fair Ohs we've moved up a division here. The uncertainity and diffidence of the earlier bands is gone. These guys are confident and relaxed with a crowd.  Duel vocals. Tribal rhythms, post punk guitar.  There's a few acts paddling in similar seas at the moment, more successfully, but the Fair Oh's are a fine act. 

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34. Lydia Lunch. She's backed by an excellent dirty rock trio. Elements of grunge with early Bad Seeds. Sleazy. 

She's an assured & accomplished performer. Almost compelling.

Her songs take an aggressive attack pose towards the battle of the sexes that's a little dated.  

Later - "I can't stand rock stars that murder people, can't handle their drugs, and can't fucking write decent songs so Pete Doherty tweety bird this muthafuckin' song's for you. "

This is proper rock 'n' roll. 

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35. Damo Suzuki

Beforehand dj plays the Fall first Mountain Energie though not I Am Damo Suzuki. That might have been confusing. Looks like two drummers tonight. Excitement building. 

Damo seems to have brought at least two bands - a Japanese one & one made up of former members of the Fall plus a couple of Tangerene Dream.  There's Damo singing, three guitarists, a bassist, three drummer/percussionists, a bassist, a keyboarder who does some extra percussion, and a bloke twiddling knobs in an electronic box of tricks. 

The set lasts 45 minutes and only two songs are played. Well it might have been more than two, they didn't stop between songs at any rate. 

The music was freeform, percussion driven with feedback and effects, over which Damo growls & yelps, I'm not sure in what language. 

Normally, when it is a band backing a name singer your focus is drawn to the "star". Not tonight it is the fluid interplay between all the band that made this a compelling performance. One of the Japanese percussionists was playing the floor, the scaffolding holding the tent, he ended up sitting on the bass drum of the English drummer to stop it migrating across the stage. A guitarist left her instrument against the amp then twiddled her foot peddle to inject burst of feedback into the mix. 

Phenomenal, joyous, energetic, spectacular performance.

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36. Black Lips. Headlining the mainstage. Grunge-tinted US Rock-n-Rollers. Good guitar sound, switched vocals around. A little too much of the frat boy about them for me but still OOK.

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37. King Blues. Ska with occasional rap and ukueles. Well executed but surprisingly for this sort of music bereft of charm.

Summer of 100 Bands 26 & 27

26. Charles Bradley - old skool soul singer. Songs about how hard it is to make it in America today. Wears a gold lame riding jacket and glittery polyester marching pants and shirt. Was greeted with genuine warmth by audience and responded by shaking everyone's hand at the end.

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27. Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings.

Sharon and the guys have built a reputation as modern providers of 60's style soul. Live the band is tight, funky and high-class. The band leader does the whole MC act building to the arrival of Ms Jones.

When she arrives on stage the first thoughts are shock she's far older and much tinier than her recorded persona suggests. You wonder whether she'll have the stature to do the band and large venue justice. But her personality is huge and she connects with each audience member in turn. She has that sort of knowing look that insinuates she knows what your thinking. Ultimately. It was a fun night where few remained seated.

Summer of 100 bands - 15 to 25

15 - Cashier No 9 are on first at the small Barclaycard Unwind Stage. They're from Belfast and their Jayhawks like jangly pop is competing with a dreadful guitar solo heavy act on the mainstage called Vintage something.

Rickenbacker, harmony vocals - can't go wrong. They look quite old for a new band. Perhaps they've played in local bands for years and only now they come together. They're certainly very assured. ---

16 - The Smokin' Barrels playing the tiny bandstand have North Eastern accents & look about 15 they sing new wave songs about underage drinking. Not especially original, but fun. They may well mature into something greater.

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17 - Yuck turn out to be British. Having heard the lp and even after three songs I had assumed they were American. Everything about them seemed early 90's America. Their sound is midway between Dinosaur Jnr. & Pavement. There's an Orange amp, female bassist, hairy drummer, awkwardness, singer sounds like J. Mascis. The songs were strong, & well played, with the controlled tension necessary to make this music work.

As you probably can tell I was bound to like this. And I did. If anything they were better than Dinosaur Jnr had been a few days before.

--- 18 - Roky Erickson.

Everything up to now has a very early 90's thing going. Roky takes us back a few decades, but he was very popular at that time - Primal Scream and others covering 13th Floor Elevators songs.

He seems, initially, barely alive.

First off there's a few Southern Rock songs then the wah wah and reverb came out. He needs some support with vocals, but enjoyable performance.

Finished, with You'll miss me when I'm gone, storming Harmonica solo from his son. Hey, I Saw Roky Erickson.

--- 19. Fight Like Apes. Initially a band I thought were better on record. Vocals were too strident.

Later, when a groove was allowed to develop it's good. Ace spectrumesque keyboard sound. Became more spirited, a fun set.

Actually, the above comments are too luke warm they were much better than that indicates.

--- 20. Caught brief bits of the Horrors. Mostly unexceptional rock, but some excellent freaked out oscillating at the end.

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21. The Hives wear top hats and tails and are The Hives. If you've seen them before you know what get fun performance that's high concept rather than great art.

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22. The Naked & Famous. Aussie band. Although I prefer the album to the live act, their anthemic dance music is destined for bigger stages. They seemed to win over many uninitiated. Perhaps they were on the wrong day - they'd have been a godsend yesterday afternoon.

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23. TV on the Radio. On the main stage, it's now clear Pulp have drawn a much bigger audience than The Chemical Brothers did yesterday. TVOR's sound is muddy in part that's because the music is dense and complex. They're an easier band to admire than enjoy. Crowd thinned out towards the end.

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24 Grace Jones went on and on.

What went through her mind when she thought the best way to convey Slave to the Rhytmn was to wear gold mask and hulahoop through the song?

I've often thought there's this giant conspiracy to pretend that she's this big star, and a legendary artist. There's nothing in this show to disabuse me of this notion. The crowd seem bored too.
---

25. Pulp.

A triumph. This show was a celebratory return for the band and much of the audience.

If there's a band whose back catalogue is tailor-made for the Retroscape it is Pulp. Many of their songs are nostalgic looking back at teenage or college years (Babies, Do You Remember the First Time?, Common People), which was life period that most of the ageing Brit Pop crowd first encountered these tunes. It's also appropriate that many songs were written in and about London.

Then there are the songs that are celebrations of still being here (Misshapes and especially Disco 2000).

This is the first time I've seen Pulp and what I hadn't previously recognised was what a consummate frontman Jarvis is. He is in control, he builds the pace & brings it down again. He contextualises the songs and the performance is tailored to each song.

Summer of 100 bands: 8 to 1.

8. Janelle Monáe - First act on the main stage. She has a well stage act, monochrome set design, with matching stage clothes. Brass section.

There are three folk dressed as plague doctors. What's that about? Janelle hit out at them and they fell down vanquished. Not your standard R'n'B methinks.

This is followed by a spirited version of The Jackson 5's I Want You Back lightens the mood.

Janelle is an accomplished showwoman and interacts well with the crowd well. At one point she has all the band laying down (but still playing), then gets the crowd to. Ends up crowd surfing.

Great fun.

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9. Various Artists. To be honest the afternoon dragged. There followed a series of insipid dance acts that failed to grab my attention for long.

Next up is Katy B. I don't get Katy B.

Digitalism. Germanic electro act seemed to have rocked the Pepsi Max stage. They were pleasant. Crowd seemed disappointed by the brevity of set, but they were late starting.

Keisha's a pop Courtney Love. Revolting.

Chromeo EuroPop from Canada. Weak.

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10. Michael Franti & Spearhead

This show saved the day. The former Beatnigs & Disposable Heroes of HipHopcracy singer brings a wealth of performance experience. In the intervening years his songs seem to have switched to being about togetherness & the love of man.

Michael interacts with the crowd brilliantly dancing along the front shaking hands. Later in the set he is off into the crowd. We can hear him singing but can't see him. Then suddenly you realise he is behind you.

Joyous, thrilling, life affirming.

---

11. Caught a bit of the Streets. I love his records but he always seems lost and desperate when I've seen him live. Sadly today is no different.

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12. I was greatly looking forward to warp records' Battles. I live both their albums. They are to play before a sparsely populated 2nd stage crowd. It's turns out to not be their day. These Battles were defeated by technology.

The set up dragged on and on with the band tetchily glowering at equipment they are fiddling with. We are assured it's not their fault, I'm not sure why we should care.

While the technological wrestling is going on the drummer can't resist banging on his kit. This is a typical drummer behaviour, however, for once it is worthwhile and not random.

Eventually they squeeze out 3 songs. Since singer Tondai Braxton has left between the two lps they are joined by guest singers on the new album. First tonight Chilean singer Matias Aguayo contributes the single Ice Cream. Then Gary Numan on video. Finally, there's an instrumental, that is twisted spikey dance music with unusual claustrophobic time signatures.

On the basis of what we heard it should have been a triumph.

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13. Aphex Twin

14. Chemical Brothers

Both acts are basically blokes fiddling with laptops. The show element comes from the lights and the way the they build the atmosphere. Aphex Twin's set was enveloping exciting stylish and fulfilling. Unfortunately, for the Chemical Brothers everything they did had been done bigger & better immediately before by Aphex Twin.

Alexandra Palace is always a nightmare to get to but you are rewarded by spectacular views of London. The venue itself can feel a bit like a school gymn for support bands, it takes bands with a big stage attitude to make it come alive.

The concert was part of the Don't Look Back series put on by All Tomorrow's Parties, where bands play their classic albums in the order they appear on the record. This is not without it's problems - some songs are not really written to be preformed live and the sequencing of the tracks is designed for lp or cd not concerthall. But I've seen a rewarding rendering of Slint's Spiderland and a moving performance of Daydream Nation by Sonic Youth in the past.

5. Deerhoof playing Milk Man 

To be honest, I don't really get on with Deerhoof. I recognise that they a good band, that aspire to playing interesting and inventive music. I have given it chances but for some reason it they don't connect with me. They didn't tonight either.

6.  Dinosaur Jnr. playing Bug 

Gosh I loved this album when I was a kid. In retrospect Living All Over Me or the first lp may have been a better choice for the Don't Look Back series. The main problem is Bug starts with Dinosaur Jnr's greatest song Freak Scene, so it starts at the highpoint and falls away from there.

It is however a glorious start. The line up is the original one Mascis/Murph/Barlow one. J. Mascis is now grey but still has great hair and is still very much the alternative guitar hero. Lou Barlow sang Don't with extreme passion, even though he complained it wrecked his voice to sing it each night.

It was a pleasure to see this band again after all these years.

7. Flaming Lips perform the Soft Bulletin.

This gig reaffirmed my belief that the Flaming Lips are the best live band around. It's all about the conection the band has with the audience. Before the show, as the band and the roadies are setting up Wayne Coyne comes out to chat to the audience to explain some things, this stops the change over from dropping.

Later on in the evening he says that the Flaming Lips have the best audiences, and I know every performer says that, but Wayne's correct. This is because of the love the band give to the audience. 

That said it's a two way street the band ask quite a lot of the audience. You can't sit there saying "entertain me" as balloons bombard you, confetti covers you and as the singer walks over you in his space bubble you're expected to bring something to the party.

But the reward is superb because you get a visual and sonic maelstrom and you are right there in the centre of it, contributing.

I'm going to a lot of bands this summer, but I doubt any of them will touch the Flaming Lips.

Summer of 100 bands: 1 to 4

1. Kypie 

Power Trio. Interesting time sigs. Spikey Post Punk guitar, with indie singing  Tight rhythm section. But bass overpowering. Minutemen.  Actually quite a cool dynamic here odd time sigs and when the groove gets going it's really good. 

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2. Loser Superhero

Three guys hunched over laptops. Occasionally a guitar is picked up to no discernible effect. Too much talking to each other, there seems to be a malfunction.

Music aspires to be epic, and it has portentous pseudo-orchestral stuff in there. It's ok. Only played two songs. Felt longer, but then I've been up since five. Not this band's night. 

---

3. Bleeding Heart Narrative

Backing Singer plays an electric cello but vocal mic doesn't work  Today must be a soundmam's nightmare. There's about five of them, at the  start of the set they all do this high pitched monotone singing like a one note Fleet Foxes, then the drummers (there's two one stood up Mo style) begin this Afro beat, before the guitar & strings come in. 

King of the Slums meet Vampire Weekend at David Byrne's house. Awkward & powerful at the same time. There's potential that this will become something special. 

4. Nedry

 Headliner. Laptops and pedals. Every band has had a completely different set up to the last - guitar trio then laptops & no vocals, then strings drums & lots of vocals and now laptops & girl singer. Change overs have been complex and fraught. 

Singer spending a large amount of time under a table playing with pedals that loop her singing.  She has that little Scandavanian girl vocals thing going on like Bjork or Stina Nordastam but there's this electro backing and she's jigs around like the singer from TT cover band Brazen.  The dancing is mad she's  jerking about randomly, becomes oddly excited at random times then she's back under the table adjusting the pedals.

She does sing well and with passion though. 

You can manually configure access in your Hosts file

File location: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
...
Edit with notepad and add the following line;

84.40.22.118 www.manxforums.com
84.40.22.118 manxforums.com

Save and quit

----------------------------------------------------

ETA -

I was about to post Mac instructions but ....ofc there is a fatal exception error, they cannot see here. Declan maybe you could add this? for mac users "Shift, apple & G" - look up, /private/etc, find hosts doc, open and add the DNS things as per peeee ceeee.(probably need to change the file permissions of private and etc to permit changes- bit like windoze 7, but better!)

 

(Courtesy of thebees)

 

On Ubuntu hosts file is stored at /etc/hosts Users can type 'sudo nano /etc/hosts' to edit it.

 

(from @isleofmandan via Twitter)

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Latest From Ans -

It appears to be resolved.

People should really undo the temporary fix now in case we change IP further down the line and they scratch their heads trying to work out why they can't access it anymore.I seem to remember going through that before with some users.

 

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