Dananananaykroyd @ Southampton Joiners, 13th May 2009

First a quick word on the illustrious venue. Currently hailing from Portsmouth, I am supposed to have absolute disdain for all things Southampton, but I can't help but enjoy the Joiners Arms. Its the largely independent spirit behind it, the local band splendour of knowing that for local scenesters, this is almost making it. It's grottiness is close to Godliness. Plus the toilets boast a collection of promo stickers for probably long gone bands with such awful/great names as "Die So Fluid" and "Rushing With Apathy".

So then, an apt setting as a staple stop on the indie circuit, and as such featured a couple of local bands to begin with. The first (and arguably second best band of the night) being instrumental post-rock act WAKING AIDA. While those adjectives may prompt a snore-fest from many of you, they are far more of the 65DaysOfStatic stable than the Godspeed You! Black Emperor extended noise sessions, mixing as they do, looped math-rock stylings into what is meant to be only their fourth gig ever. Definitely worth a listen.

Myspace

Second on are JAPANESE VOYEURS, whose name is only just good enough to not be forever confined to a venue toilet wall, but with a sound that should be. It's all grunge cliches except with a female singer, which I sincerely hoped wasn't going to be a gimmick, but turned out to be the only vaguely interesting thing about them. What was also a shame is how on their second song, she decided to stroppily proclaim "You're so cool" in a mock Paris Hilton strop that was all too realistic to tell if it was a parody. Really bad.

Myspace

Next are VIDEO NASTIES, a band I'm only dimly aware having passed on a number of promos sent into to the radio station I work for after admittedly skimming through the tracks. Live they seem to resemble a sub-par Maccabees, albeit less fun and much more serious, apparently believing the tiny Joiners venue to be far below their expectations. Not all that great either.

Myspace

Finally, DANANANANAYKROYD hit the stage, with all six of them in jovial spirits and chatting with the crowd. Possibly the friendliest band ever. Lead singer Callum not only calling up a fan who couldn't make it but heartily apologising to anyone he jostles with in the crowd during frequent trips into the front (and back) row. Taking a brief intermission to take questions from the audience, it is discovered that this warm up gig for The Great Escape Festival is one of the few they've done on the South Coast at all. More importantly however, their twin-drummed attack of lo-fi melodic noise is an absolute stormer, as good, if not better, live than on their record Hey Everyone!, with "Pink Sabbath" being the highlight in both.

Myspace

Unfortunately, thanks to the sense of humour of the South Coast rivalry, the last Portsmouth-bound train leaves at 2303, on the opposite side of Southampton, meaning that a sprint through some parks and roads is all that the second half of their set was for me, but very much enjoyable, all the same.

Dananananaykroyd's debut album "Hey Everyone!" is out now in the UK via Best Before Records.

Some updates, some news, some opinions.

So I'm temporarily home (literally just for a couple of hours) and I absent-mindedly returned to this blog and had a good trip down short-term memory lane and laughed and "gosh, how funny AM I?" etc. etc.

I'm not going to apologise, you'd never believe. Nor am I going to fawn over this year's selection of "talent", whom by now have all gently slipped off the radar near completely (save for Florence and The Machine, whom I accidentally heard on the radio today) meaning that, of course, the Festival Season has arrived to remind everyone of those bands who "we" all loved in those last cold dark weeks of December when every two-bit music site had us believing that this was the second coming.

A major karmic decision, based on something I did that was clearly so heinous that I managed to block it out completely means that Radiohead are headlining Reading and Leeds the year I decide not to go. On the night I definitely can't go, as I am on my way to Tokyo mere hours later. While the rest of the line-up is predictably sour and much too boring to describe here, I've promised the irrational part of my brain that if Animal Collective and the heavily rumoured Black Lips both play, I will be obliged to attend.

Unfortunately on the new music front I have kind of slipped recently due to the frightening prospect of a dissertation and the smoking crater of real life it has left behind, although I've been trying to keep abreast of a few recent albums. Notably Franz Ferdinand's latest, containing the wonderful "Lucid Dreams". Although if I hear "No, You Girls" one more time I might kill something. Also, Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Its Blitz! was the darling of my speakers for a week or so some fortnights ago. The eagerly awaited Fatboy Slim remodelling of The BPA turned out to be so bad you begin to realise why he didn't want his normal moniker included at all. Royksopp's Junior was crazy and sedate in equal measure, in the way only these Norwegian advert musicians can. The tracks featuring The Knife's Karin Dreijer Andersson being by far the standouts.

I'm sure there were other albums I have listened to, as well as those that I will hit myself for missing (such as the aforementioned Ms Andersson's solo work as Fever Ray, which I eagerly await in the post). However, I have really taken a bit of a step back and instead listened to some old music, checking out post-punk geniuses (genii?) Wire for the first time to find that everyone was right and they are amazing.

Eagerly awaited albums for the remainder of this year are the much-delayed LCD Soundsystem and Beastie Boys albums, as well as Patrick Wolf's latest work. I would go into release dates and the relevant info on further albums, but the only reason I really came on here was because I'm meant to be writing a lovely essay on the co-evolution of the French and English languages and how we like to nick their words but they hate ours. Oh well, c'est la vie.