Dum Dums: The Reunion
Monday night was a blast from the past. My friend and former Dum Dums frontman Josh Doyle played in Birmingham on his first UK tour since the Dum Dums split up and he moved to the USA in 2003.
From 1997-2001 I ate, slept, walked, and talked Dum Dums, going along for the ride of a lifetime with Josh, my cousin Steve, and Stu. In 2000-2001 they went from being an unknowns to having top 20 singles, a top 20 album, appearing on almost every TV show in the UK, touring the world with the likes of Bon Jovi and Robbie Williams, and playing numerous festivals, culminating in a sell out show at the legendary Shepherd’s Bush Empire in London. It was an amazing time for everyone involved, and we all had a ball before we were really old enough to appreciate what was going. As with all good things, it had to come to an end, and in mid 2001 during the writing of what would have been their 2nd album the band imploded, taking their final bow before a huge crowd at the Greenbelt Festival in Cheltenham. Relationships were strained after the break-up and I only saw Josh once very briefly before he sold everything he owned and moved to Nashville, Tennessee with his wife in 2003.
Having kept in sporadic contact via email over the last 7 years, I was pretty excited when I got an email from Josh a few weeks ago saying that he was planning on returning to the UK to preview his new solo material, particularly as he was coming to Birmingham. It was a long time since the Dum Dums had split up but I was secretly hoping that Josh, Steve, and Stu would be able to put their old differences aside and enjoy the occasion. Luckily, everything turned out brilliantly!
Josh approached Steve and Stu in advance and asked them if they’d be interested in doing a couple of Dum Dums numbers at the encore of his Birmingham show…and they were both game And so, the worse kept secret in the history of the band was born…
At the gig Josh played a great set with his makeshift band of UK-based friends, including my good friend Rich Johnstone who put in a sterling effort on bass guitar (nice one Rich!). The set stretched Josh’s career and included Dum Dums tracks, as well as song from his EPs ‘The End Of Fear’ and the new ‘Values and Virtues’, and before long, Steve and Stu joined him on stage much to the ’surprise’ of everyone in the audience.
Having not played together since 2001 they were understandably a little rusty, but in true Dum Dums fashion bashed through ‘Photographs’, ‘Robot Boy’ and debut single ‘Everything’ (which they’d run through once in soundcheck), before Josh decided it was a good idea to attempt ‘Lonely Hearts Company’ and ‘Can’t Get You Out Of My Thoughts’, completely unrehearsed. Strings were broken, capos were dropped, songs were re-started, jokes were made, and everyone had a great time! It was rough around the edges, and just like the old days when no one knew what might happen next, but they pulled it off and everyone finished with smiles on their faces. It was great to see so many familiar faces at the gig – a real testament to the band’s influence.
After the show we headed back to Rich’s house and talked into the early hours. It was a really special night, and it was great to see Josh, Steve, and Stu joking around as if they’d only seen each other yesterday.
I love it when a plan comes together.
Swine Flu Bands
A couple of weeks ago, as the world was gripped with Swine Flu fever (forgive the pun!), a great game emerged on Twitter. Feeling somewhat disillusioned with the mainstream media’s attempt at convincing us we were “all going to die”, a bunch of twitter users began various games based around a swine flu theme.
My favourite game to emerge was the ’swine flu bands’ game, where you had to come up with as many musician/band names that played on words related to swine flu as possible, and tag them with the Twitter hashtag #swineflubands – these could then be viewed on Twitter Search.
I got rather carried away one afternoon and came up with a bunch, whilst laughing my socks off at some of the names that other Twitter users had come up with.
Check out the #swineflubands I came up with here, and everybody else’s here.
(Pic: ‘Swine Flew’ album cover by One Bad Pig, originally released in 1990, well before swine ‘09!)
My Morning Jacket
My Morning Jacket from Tugboat Productions on Vimeo.
I recently found this mini-documentary about My Morning Jacket (a band that I’ve been in love with for several years now) – which coincided with the release of their ‘Celebración De La Ciudad Natal’ EP. It’s a great snapshot of what I think is one of the best live bands in the world right now.
Albums Of The Year: 2008
I’ve put off my annual list this year for long enough! I’ve found it really hard this year to pick a top 5 this year, so much so that I almost didn’t bother writing this post, but that would have been daft! So here they are – my top 5 albums, followed by a (long) list of honourable mentions – albums I just couldn’t leave out!
Top 5 albums of the year (in no particular order):
MGMT – Oracular Spectacular
Kings Of Leon – Only By The Night
My Morning Jacket – Evil Urges
Band Of Horses – Cease To Begin
The Raconteurs – Consolers Of The Lonely
Honourable mentions go to:
Everest – Ghost Notes
Death Cab for Cutie – Narrow Stairs
Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes
The Futureheads – This Is Not The Word
Glassvegas – Glassvegas
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – Cardinology
Sigur Rós – Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust
Supergrass – Diamond Hoo Ha
Songs of the year:
Everest – Rebels In The Roses
Biffy Clyro – Mountains
MGMT – Time To Pretend
Foo Fighters – Let It Die
Ryan Adams & The Cardinals – Fix It
2008 proved by far the hardest year since I’ve begun posting my top 5 albums, but this can only be a good thing as it means there was a lot of good music! I hope 2009 is just as hard, if not harder!
Previous years:
Albums of the year: 2008 (so far)
Albums of the year: 2007
Albums of the year: 2006
Albums of the Year: 2005
So long, Astoria
The Astoria in London is one of the capital’s most loved music venues, and unfortunately it’s being pulled down next week in order to build a new Crossrail train system. Whilst being a bit of a dump (it’s the kind of place you can’t stand still in for too long without becoming stuck to the floor) it’s a really great, dirty rock ‘n’ roll venue, and there aren’t enough venues like it left these days – mainly thanks to the increasing corporate sponsorship/stranglehold of venues.
I’ve been to several stand-out gigs at the Astoria, gigs that have really stuck in mind as being some of my favourites ever. These gigs were usually to see bands that can fill much bigger venues play small, low-key shows. I remember seeing the Foo Fighters (supported by Ash) playing 24 hours after seeing them headlining the Leeds Festival – I travelled over half the length of the country to see them at the Astoria – one night they were playing to 60,000 people, the next 2,000! I was lucky enough to see the Foos play there again a couple of years later and will never forget them playing ‘Aurora’ – it was awe-inspiring.
I also saw Audioslave’s first UK gig which was at the Astoria – they were never the band they could have been on record, but live they were something else – the energy of Rage Against The Machine, with the vocal power of Chris Cornell was outstanding! Then again a few years later I saw Chris Cornell perform solo – another great gig with many highlights from his career, including several Soundgarden numbers.
And in 2006 I attended what was (and still is) the best gig I’ve ever been to. After not touring the UK for 6 years (and me never having seen them) I saw Pearl Jam perform the first show of their ’self-titled’ album world tour at the Astoria, and by a bizarre twist of fate met all of the band afterwards. That gig has to be one of the loudest I’ve been to – maybe it was just my emotions running away with me, but you could feel the balcony swaying up and down that night as they played ‘Alive’ in the encore. This one stands out as my most vivid Astoria memory and I’d like to think that dark, dank, old building brought me a little bit of luck that night. So long, Astoria! Gone, but never forgotten!
