Music | This is Now

Street parades in London

1st September 2009 by Violette

I was at the Notting Hill Carnival yesterday. What an amazing display of costumes, music, and spontaneous dancing! I don’t think I had seen quite that many people in the street before.

Were you there too? Do you have some pictures? Don’t hesitate to add them to the This is Now Flickr group whenever you have the chance.

tagged Notting Hill Notting Hill Carnival

At the end of August…

27th August 2009 by Violette

HogueLikeWoah / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

It’s the last weekend of the summer and the last music festivals are starting tomorrow, Reading in England and Rock en Seine in France for example.

Are you all ready? Are your Wellingtons prepared?

I will be in Notting Hill for the carnival, taking pictures and enjoying the moment. So if you are as well, tell me on Twitter!

tagged Notting Hill Reading Festival Rock en Seine

These last few weeks I had the chance to meet some of our Twitter followers (including Mr Omneo one of our guest bloggers) : it has been a great experience to meet everyone and to go from 140 characters to real-life conversations.

So when I heard that Choo Choo, a band that Melina discovered a few weeks ago on Twitter was playing in London, I decided it would be great to meet up. I headed to the Dublin Castle, a pub near Camden in North London to see them play. The set was really good (though too short) and Choo Choo managed to bring some much-needed energy to a somewhat dull and languid Sunday. We ended up dancing till the end of the night to retro music, enjoying the moment without a care in the world.

So if you are free tonight, they’ll be playing at the Cavendish Arms for one last concert before they head home. And if you can’t make it tonight, Dan, Yan, Lili and Sam are only a Twitter/Facebook/Flickr click away, so come say hi online!

tagged Camden Choo Choo concert

Now is time to choose!

16th July 2009 by Violette

I’m a long-time fan of British band Muse. Their new album, The Resistance, will be released in a few weeks. The band has organised an online treasure hunt to celebrate the upcoming release. The game seems quite complicated to me but brave fans all over the world have combined their skills to decipher the cryptic messages. After each successful phase of the game, a new part of the song United States of Eurasia is revealed.

So this morning when I opened my RSS feed and realised that two parts of this new Muse song were available, I had a moment of hesitation: would I resist listening to it knowing full well that it was not complete yet? Would I like it? I started listening to the band when I was still in school and it’s not always easy to grow up together: it’s hard to let go and admit that paths are pointing in different directions when you’ve been holding on to something for so long.

But the temptation was too strong and I couldn’t resist.

I’m still reserving my judgment, trying to get used to the new sound while I wait for the entire song to be released but from the look of it, it sounds like our paths are not ready to be separated just yet!

tagged Muse The Resistance United States of Eurasia

Twist and shout

10th July 2009 by Melina

A while ago Violette wrote a post about ‘Where the wild things are’. I’m definitely as excited as she is about the film, I can’t wait for it to be screened in the cinemas.

However, today I wanted to highlight the great song in the trailer: Arcade Fire – Wake Up, rather than the movie itself. The song is amazing, but what’s even better is that I had a ‘now’ moment with it just a couple weeks ago. I was at a party, me and my friend stood in her living room, whilst the rest of the party people where outside on her terrace. ’Wake up’ sounded from the speakers and we started to dance like crazy. It probably looked very ridiculous, two girls jumping and twisting in an empty living room. However, it was one of those moments when not much else exists for a couple of minutes – only you, music and dancing!

tagged Arcade fire wake up Where the Wild Things Are

Out of time

6th July 2009 by Violette

Last weeks have been an endless musical rendezvous for fans all over Europe with massive festivals such as Glastonbury, Solidays in Paris, Pinkpop in the Netherlands and many others…

However last week the place to be was London, to be more precise Hyde Park for the much awaited Blur reunion. On Thursday I was in the middle of the crowd of 55,000 fans who came to the concert, some of our Twitter followers standing a few feet away from me (to name a few @mr_omneo @anagasston and @neilperkin…).

The concert was fantastic, the band (especially Albarn and Coxon) leading the crowd in a gigantic sing-along. Blur songs are timeless classics and that’s what made Thursday concert (and I’m sure Friday as well) so special. Each of the songs were fans favourite, I just had to look around me to witness the joy and emotion.

The best moment however for me was when the crowd started singing Tender before the first encore. Nothing special, the band wasn’t even on stage but there is something very powerful about 55,000 fans singing a capella in the middle of a summer evening to call back on stage ‘their’ band.

tagged blur Glastonbury Hyde Park London Tender

A little wiser now

9th June 2009 by Melina

Nikaralfmik / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

I’m a person who quite easily gets stuck with the same old music she has always listened to.

I find something I like and then just keep on listening to it. Throughout the years I’ve collected quite a few bands and albums that I like and I’ve noticed that lately I’ve been totally stuck listening to them only. It’s usually not a bad thing but sometimes it’s nice to get an update and to refresh the playlist. That’s exactly what I’m doing now.

I actually found a new great band through This is Now. I read a tweet by one of the This is Now Twitter followers about Melody Clubs new video and retweeted it. I decided to check out the profile to see who “Choochootheband” was. I found a link to the MySpace of the band, and after that there was no turning back.

Choo Choo is a Swiss band that’s influenced by 60-ies Teenage Beat, Soul, Pop and Garage Rock. You can read on their MySpace that they sound like something in between Sonics and Caesars and that one of their favorite artists is Moneybrother. The fact that both Moneybrother and Caesars are Swedish (and awesome) makes me give a little bit of extra love to Choo Choo. And not only does Choo Choo play great music inspired by great artists but they also have the greatest look ever, they are all gorgeous!

I’m now impatiently waiting for them to have a gig in London so that I can enjoy music, looks and the magic of being at a gig all at the same time.

tagged Choo Choo Music this is now

I say hello!

8th June 2009 by Violette

I have to say this once and for all: I’m a long-time Beatles fan. Not very surprisingly Yesterday was one of the first song I learned to sing in English at school and I’ve been addicted ever since.

This morning I rushed to get a look at the opening cinematic for the new music video game around the Beatles that will be released at the beginning of September.

The video is simply superb: it was produced in part by Pete Candeland from Passion Pictures with the help of Robert Valley and Alberto Mielgo. Pete Candeland has previously worked on the Gorillaz videos and on several opening cinematics for similar video games.

Besides the seamless use of both 2D and 3D what is most stunning in this video is how well the team managed to recreate the visual exuberance of all the Beatles films while at the same time managing to use a visual language that would speak to a modern audience.

tagged Passion Pictures Pete Candeland The Beatles The Beatles Rock Band this is now