It has been a while since posting a YouTube find but this particular video was worth it. Squeeze, bringer of Jools Holland, appeared on the Jimmy Fallon show a few weeks ago to promote their upcoming tour. Besides giving a rollicking performance of this classic from 1980, the performance featured an iPad piano solo – the first on television! Organ is featured throughout but their keyboardist throws in this gem at 2:27 into the performance. It is outstanding to see the precision in his fingers as well as the excellent sounds coming from his tablet.

Speaking from experience, few keyboardists would give up a human-surrounding rig of keyboards for an single device, but gigging musicians can continue to dream…

Friday night saw in my first gig of 2010 with Vampire Weekend at the O2 Academy in Newcastle upon Tyne. The O2 Academy (recently rebranded from the Carling Academy) is a fantastic venue of the dance hall-era with great sound and terrific atmosphere. The support act were Fan Death, a rather interesting female group with a Pulp-like disco sound with some violins thrown in for fun. One to watch for the future. The main act were terrific and seemed to truly enjoy the Newcastle crowd, claiming they were the best of their UK tour. Their new songs came across stronger than on record and the crowd had a great knowledge of the new tunes. Apart from a few weak points in the middle, Vampire Weekend has to be one of the best gigs I have been to. Everyone had the opportunity to bob along to as many tracks as they wished, encouraged of course by frontman Ezra Koenig.

For some reason, I took quite a few videos of the gig and they have come out rather well. Check out the playlist above for some highlights of the gig.

Setlist – White Sky, Holiday, Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa, I Stand Corrected, M79, California English, Cousins, Taxi Cab, Run, A-Punk, One (Blake’s Got A New Face), Diplomat’s Son, Boston (Ladies of Cambridge), Giving Up The Gun, Campus and Oxford Comma

Encore – Horchata, Mansard Roof and Walcott

This has been my first post in a long time, over a month in fact. This is due to having a ridiculously life at the moment – with a final year degree, my role as Vice President of Van Mildert College, my band and enjoying each and every day! Tonight I am working on a number of menial tasks that aren’t particularly fun for anyone and I was sifting through my music collection to find something I had not listen to in a while.

What came out was this beauty. Fire, the lead single of Kasbian’s last album West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum. The album has been described as “Sounds like a Frog in a Top Hat, wearing a monocle. Smoking a cigar”.

Can’t disagree really, can you? Fire begins off as a slowing ballad, that rollocks into fifth gear for a funk-inspired rock chorus, with some excellent vocal-guitar interplay. Very much a return to form of their best work.

BACK IN 1995, my father purchased Don’t Look Back In Anger on at the tender age of six. How much has changed in those years; since reaching their musical and commercial magnus opus with (What’s the Story) Morning Glory, Oasis have drifted from their projected path. Be Here Now was simply too long and not interesting enough, Standing On The Shoulders of Giants saw the band splinter with the old guard leaving, Heathen Chemistry saw the band scaling back to basics and Don’t Believe The Truth was their most successful album in years.

Anticipation has been running high for Dig Out Your Soul. Their first release in over two years, the Gallagher brothers have been proclaiming this as their finest in years, and a return to grandure. This may a common sales tactic but Noel and Liam have a point this time. Unlike their past few releases, the album is heavy with Liam’s classic Manchester drawl and luscious grooves. Most of Dig Out Your Soul has distinct influences of Led Zeppelin and The Who. The powerful drumming on Zeppelin classics like Whole Lotta Love and Kashmir can be spotted on Falling Down. Not surprisingly, it would not be Oasis without borrowing a few ideas. I’m Outta Time is their most Lennon-esque composition yet and The Turning has a great similarity to Cliff Richard’s 1976 hit Devil Woman, this must be a new low! The cover is has come from the hands of Peter Blake, designer of the legendary Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band cover.

Radio 1 have been pumping out the lead single The Shock of the Lightening recently and this is one of the least impressive tracks. It’s stereotypically Oasis and doesn’t showcase their new sonic explorations. Bag It Up prepares you for the rest of the album, with a much better lift off. It is ironic that the brilliant rhythm section found here has been broken apart before the album was even released. Zak Starkey (son of Ringo) has filled the drumming position with Oasis since 2004, splitting his time with Tho Who and Oasis, drumming My Generation with both bands. However, after a disagreement with Noel, the position of drummer has changed again.

Oasis have spent the past ten years proving they are the world’s biggest and best rock and roll band and Dig Out Your Soul is their true return to form. Nothing of the grandure of Champagne Supernova or Live Forever can be found inside. However, in the Oasis catalogue, it rates higher than all their albums since (What’s The Story) Morning Glory. It is a reminder that they are one of the last true English Rock and Roll bands that provide fantastic guitar driven music. Oasis are back and Dig Out Your Soul is their long due return to form.

Originally published in Palatinate Issue 699