EVERYTHING'S IN ORDER IN A BLACK HOLE

Oh Lord. I lol'd my head off when I saw this makeup lesson from Jezebel's Slut Machine. Its a day look with a twist. I can't figure out how to embed it but check it out here.

Speaking of...I finally got around to checking out the new Misshapes.com. It looks really cool. Of course the only legacy I've left there is this extremely flattering picture someone snapped of me at Ruff Club.

I look

1. On drugs (debatable)

2. Confused by the flash (true)

3. Really hot an sweaty (true)

I like the streamers. Nice touch, Samantha. Oh well. I guess I'll have to wait until my return to my redeem myself pictorially.

Lastly, something actually musically related. When I was in London, Paul played me the new Fischerspooner single "The Best Revenge". It is soooo awesome. I know thier last album wasn't the greatest but I think their new album is gonna make them big again. Its like a mix of Cut Copy and Crystal Castles...but better....and with horns. Listen to it here.

THE ADRENALINE IT BURNS A HOLE

If I wrote a linear narrative (thanks punk cinema!) of my trip to London, this post would be a novel, so I'll give you bullet points of things I learned.

#1. THERE ARE NICE PEOPLE OUT THERE.
I flew off to London by the seat of my pants. I didnt really have a place to stay, but help came in the form of two lovely people sent from above. The first was Lee Laborde who is a promoter for LiveNation and helped Chief book a couple of their gigs. One of the nicest guys I've ever met and kindly offered the spare room of his house in Clapham to me and the rest of the band. He is the dashing chap on the right.

However London is very large and some people don't like to take night buses by themselves for fear of being stabbed(wow I sure am glad my Mom didnt read the world news), so luckily I met a friend of Paul's named Alicia who let me crash with her a few nights at her flat in Kentish Town. Here is one of the 10,000 pics i have of her. Elle mag online picked this outfit out of the crowd @ wireless for a festival style article.

She actually became probably the best friend I had in London! So fate worked out nicely in that way.

#2. TRY NOT TO GET DRUNK ON TWO HOURS OF SLEEP AND GO SEE THE NATIONAL
Otherwise, you will end up getting overexcited about a band you don't really care that much about and end up taking approx. ONE MILLION blurry pictures of the stage and make a general fool out of yourself. Exhibit A:


#3.ALL OF THE MAJOR RECORD COMPANIES ARE ON THE SAME STREET.
High Street Kensington to be exact. Well, Sony BMG wasnt there when I was but it will be by now. And I got to go visit all of them as Paul (my favorite Englishman as you all know....well of the ones I know personally) let me tag along to all of his business meetings. Thank you so much Paul!

#4. LAUGHING GAS IS REALLY FUN
Can we get it in the US? This is what you look like shortly after you take it. The other girl in the pic is the gorgeous Tijan who is very cool and hopefully visiting me in NYC!


#5. DOING GUESTLIST AT DURAN DURAN's BIGGEST SHOW IS VERY STRESSFULL
Seriously. It was fun, but NO ONE knows what list they are on and there are like 35 lists and six girls working at the same time, and people show up like 5 mins before the band are due on and expect you to find their tickets for them and then get upset that they don't have aftershow passes. On the plus side, I did get to hang out backstage, meet most of the band, and roam around basically wherever I wanted. Since guestlist took so long, I only got to catch the last 2/3rds of the band's show. I was specifically impressed at the band's cover of The Normal's "Warm Leatherette" which is an awesome sort of new/no wave/post punk hidden gem. Good job guys. Here is me @ the show, obviously stoked



#5 I REALLY FUCKING LOVE CHIEF.
This band is so developed and tight for a new band its scary. They nailed almost all of their shows. Their sound is not something I'd usually go for, but the style they have which is kind of Verve meets like Americana type Neil Young, is done flawlessly. They all sing vocals so there is that really full harmony element. Plus their lyrics are amazing. My current fav is "You Tell Me", which Danny wrote. Basically if you see them live, you become a fan of the band and thats pretty much it. The amount of industry people who showed up to their Hoxton gig was shocking, esp considering that it was raining and the place was damn near impossible to find. Drew and Adam from Babyshambles (!) and Joe Lean was also there with his Jing Jang Jong (Or as Paul would refer to them later in the night as the Jing Fooking Faggots. They got in a bit of a tiff.) Here is a photo that I love that Paul took of all of us outside the 100 Club, where they did their first London gig.


I was also especially proud of them when they played @ wireless on Sunday in front of like, 800 people, which is a huge amount considering their stage and time slot. Ben Harper was scheduled to do a secret early set right before them, so I think a part of the crowd turned up for that. But there was a miscommunication and Ben ended up not playing, and Chief took advantage of the gathered crowd. But then NOBODY left. It was so amazing. I was in front of the barricade filming the whole thing and I just got this overwhelming feeling of happiness for them. They sounded amazing. After they finished the crowd totally dissipated (sad for the next band coming on though). Keeping a festival crowd is a tough job, considering they are not captive, they (probably) didnt pay just to see you, and they could just as easily walk over and get a drink or a bite. This is an really cool pic that Paul or took over Evan's shoulder. Note the Denmark Loves You sign. They've already conquered Europe. Clearly.


I also must share this totally amazing random pic that Paul took. Its fate really.


SO if you havent checked them out yet GO DO IT RIGHT NOW.

#6. A LOT OF SEMI-FAMOUS PEOPLE HANG OUT/STAY AT THE K WEST
We went there on a night the band had off after we had seen Band of Horses at Shepard's Bush Empire. The people that I remember being there were Liam Fray and the rest of the Courteeners (i think, I only really know what Liam looks like), Basshunter, Damon Marley, and Paolo Nutini (I talked to him outside for like 5 minutes before I realized who he was). And this was just like, a random Tuesday night. The drinks were super expensive though. The trick was to get someone to buy them for you :). We took many photo here but these are my favorites.





#7. THE BEDS AT K WEST ARE VERY COMFORTABLE.
Hee hee. Just sayin.

#8. WHEN ON TOUR, BRING A SHITLOAD OF STUFF WITH YOU, OR GET USED TO WEARING THE SAME CLOTHES FOR DAYS.
UGH, this was a very valuable lesson I learned, for my clothes never seemed to be residing in the same place as me when I woke up in the mornings, and I guess I thought it a waste of time to go back to wherever they were. One thing that made it better though, was on Sunday of wireless I got an artist pass, which let me go backstage and have access to pretty much everything the artists did. Including the free Bed Head Salon, where you could book a haircut and style fo freeee. I got one, and it felt so good, I can;t even describe it to you. I felt 100% better. Then I thought I was a hair model. Decidedly untrue, but one can dream.


#9. I FOUND TWO NEW FAVORITE DRINKS.
The first was Gaymer's Pear Cider. It is delicious. Its like apple cider, but with alcohol. Like the original mike's hard. So you don't feel like such a pussy drinking it. The second was Jameson's on the rocks. It may sound a bit...alcoholic, but after waaaaay too much free beer/cider, sometimes all you want is a little concentrated liquid courage. And this was the perfect remedy.

#10. MINGE MEANS LADYBERRY AREA.
You learn something new everyday.


#11 I CAME THISCLOSE TO GETTING TO MEET PETE DOHERTY. THEN CRUEL FATE SHAT ON MY HEAD.
In the cab over to Wireless on Friday me, Paul, and some of Chief shared a cab with Matt Bates from Primark, a booking agency. After impressing everyone with my encyclopedic knowledge of The LIbertines, Matt told me that he was Pete's agent. Keeping my cool, I asked, "so when can I meet him?", Matt said I could accompany him to Pete's Royal Albert Hall gig, complete with box seats. This filled me with boundless joy, but unfortunately I was due to leave on the tenth and his gig was on the twelfth. whyyyyy oh whyyyyyy. its ok. it will happen someday. im sure of it. I told Matt I was coming back to London in January and maybe there would be some gigs then, to which Matt responded with a lighthearted laugh, "Oh, he'll be dead by then". Some people have no faith.

#12. I LOVE LONDON AND CAN'T WAIT TO GO BACK.
That needs no explanation.

GET DOWN ON IT

Helllloooo. ok so I promise I wil get back to regular posting soon but in the meantime, if you find yourself free on Tuesday night...or if you have plans you can back out of without losing your job /spouse, you should come down to Bowery Ballroom to see CHIEF supporting the Futureheads (!). This is a show I am very sad to be missing and if you are in the NYC area shame on you if you dont seize this opportunity for a night of mind blowing music.

WE PUT THE SASS IN SASQUATCH DAY 1

OK so I know its been like over a week since Sasquatch and probably no one is interested anymore, but I don't care. Here is a log of the adventures of Samantha and Caitlin, festival going virgins:



FRIDAY: Even though the festival had not yet officially begun, the partay definitely had. There were campers everywhere from all over the world (OK only really the US and Canada) who were really to kick of the weekend in...well style wouldn't really be the right word. Let's say enthusiasm. Caitlin and I dove right into the festivities and before we knew it, we were in VIP camping drinking Grey Goose out of some Canadian boy's trunk and...well I'll leave it there, but suffice it to say the night ended with me losing my bra and my phone. not fun. but fun.

SATURDAY


We kicked off the day with the FLEET FOXES, who were awesome. The way FF's songs sound is completely opposite to what you would expect because they are SO young. The songs sound like they came through a whisper in the trees of some ancient forest. "Oliver James" and "White Winter Hymnal" are definitely my favorites. (Photo credit: Brooklyn Vegan)


Then we made our way down to the pit so Caitlin could see her future husband aka the ever a-fucking-dorable Zach Condon of BEIRUT. I had seen them once before at NYU but this was a way different experience. I really just can't believe that all of these epic ballads come from this skinny 20 something american from New Mexico. The music just suited the beautiful, slightly overcast afternoon beautifully. And we noticed that Zach has french horn tattoos on both of his inner wrists. Hot. (Photo Credit: Caitlin Tormey)

After Beirut, we went back up to our little spot on the hill and snoozed through Ozamatli (sorry diana) and were planning to sleep through the National as well, when WHO should show up but none other than RAINN WILSON, aka Dwight K Schrute. OK, so he was there promoting his new movie, The Rocker, but he was SO funny. Me and Caitlin definitely both have an ugly crush on him. Anyways he told us that the National was too arty and depressed to play stuck somewhere in Canada because their bus broke down. So Fleet Foxes played again instead! Horay!

After Fleet Foxes part 2 we made our way down again to the pit to catch the end of the New Pornographers and get a good spot for MIA. But being the dumb inexperienced shits that we are, we didn't realize that we needed to stand really close to the metal gate to get into the inner pit area. So we were stuck where we were against the metal partition thing. Oh Well. I hadn't really heard too much of the New Pornographers stuff, but they were really awesome. And then they did a cover of ELO's "Don't Bring Me Down" which is one of my favorite old songs. I used to sing along to it all the time on the radio when I was five.




ANYWAYS. then MIA came on, and the place went....well, less wild than I would have expected. I don't know. I think maybe this wasn't exactly MIA's target market. Their were some technical problems too, and the performance just didn't seem to run very smoothly. Especially when she was like "Hey sound guy? We need to pretend this is Glastonbury 1993 and we are all on E and this is a rave!!!". I think about 25 people got the reference. But she sounded great when the sound was working. AND she was wearing a t-shirt with a giant picture of Ian Curtis with his name and birth/death day on the back. Which kind of gives her a million points in my book. And she invited people to come up on stage and dance with her. So I don't know. Maybe it evened out.

Sadly, as MIA was playing, I realized I was ill-equipped for the inclement weather ahead:




So after we trudged back up to our hill, we decided to smoke some smoke-ables. Where I proceeded to get high out of my mind. I do not like this feeling. I am upset it made me too incoherent to see Johnny Marr on the big screen thingy. It seriously felt like Modest Mouse played for 3 days. I was so confused. But everyone else seemed happy. So thats good. Then REM got up...and it started to rain. And all we had was one little blanket between four of us. I was not a happy camper. It could have been Michael Moore singing down there instead of Michael Stipe and I wouldn't have noticed. All I wanted to do was get back into my nice warm and dry sleeping bag and fall asleep. Luckily it started raining hard enough that everyone else wanted to leave too. And I did make it back. And I dove into my sleeping back and fell asleep in about three seconds

NO YOU DIDNT, AND NO YOU DONT

OK. I love Liam Fray. I really do. But, seriously could he be ANY more of a Libertines worshipper/rip off-er? I mean we all know that his songs are just one after another glorified Don't Look Back Into the Suns. And now NME reports that the B-side to the Courteeners new single "No You Didn't and No You Don't" is going to be a cover of "Dream a LIttle Dream of Me". Which was a huge number in the Libertines live show in their early days and a crowd favorite at their reunion in 2007.

I mean we all know that Lam and a secret Pete and Carl shrine that he prays to every night, but I didn't think he would make it so obvious to the rest of the world. And by rest of the world, I mean Libertines fans.

Check out the REAL (feat. Carl on vocals) deal doing an awesome cover at their reunion show complete with tap dancing!

AAAND WE'RE BACK ON DRUGS

God love the boy, but if he is going to go back to his crack-tastic ways, why oh WHY does he have to share his benders with the world. I mean I find them mildly fascinating. but thats only because I'm obsessed. Seriously. It really is funny that the two most fucked up people in London finally find each other. It seems they are just friends, especially because Amy uses a mouse to beg Blake not to divorce her, but seeing that Pete will probably have sex with just about anyone, I can't see it staying platonic for long.

"he looks like Johnny Borrell just come out of the bath" EPIC LULZ

I like redbullll I like adderalllll

HEY

whilst sarah is studying communism in Cuba, I've taken over the Redbull and Adderall section of the Almack's Dance Hall blog for the rest of this week. Here is today's entry and be sure to check in every day for your daily dose o' stimulants.




more song chart memes

If you missed American Idol last night, you missed (and this is putting it mildly) one hell of a performance from former Idol contestant Fantasia Barrino. Too bad hers is the most exciting performance of the season thus far. Gawker has the vid.

Conor Oberst is realeasing a solo album, out on August 4th. I'm glad he's branching out, it'll be interesting to see how he fares now that he's escaped from under the shadow of....all those other influential people in Bright Eyes.

Oh la la. Looks like Lily Allen has been doing some all over tanning work in the south of France. And I mean all over.

So...a "fat girl" finally wins America's Next Top Model. Only Dlisted doesn't think the fight was quite fair. Rumor has it that winner Whitney didn't start out as the curvaceous babe she purports herself to be.

The latest installment of the addictive 3 1/3 Series that features in depth analysis of seminal albums in mini-book form is out with their latest installment (#56), Black Sabbath's Master of Reality. Author John Darnielle will be doing a reading at Housingworks Used Book Cafe on Saturday at 7pm. Get out your devil horns.

We all remember the times we laid on the floor of our bedrooms and stare at album covers all day long, but did you ever wonder what was going on outside the frame? Well, this guy did and came up with some pretty hilarious ideas.

Hot Chip are going on tour....again! I would say that I'm getting tired of them...but their just too damn catchy. They are coming to NYC in October to Terminal 5 (best venue ever!....NOT). You can get more info on Spin.com