Royal Republic – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham 8/10 Support: Bleeker & Dinosaur Pile-Up

My coach ride to Nottingham was quite obviously not spent blogging about the gig in London as it should’ve been, but rather I slept like a log. Good for me, bad for the blog. Does that count as rhyming? It should count as rhyming. Anyway, got to the hostel and didn’t even have to do my makeup as it had magically stayed on from the night before. Lazy, but hey, it it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Changed and ready it was off to Rescue Rooms where I anticipated a very chill queuing, because hey, pub and outside heating. Was first in the queue, amazingly, and was loving life with my pint of cider and my book. Socialise? What do you mean, socialise? Doors went smoothly and it turned out that the meet & greet people had left a spot free at centre barrier and hey, don’t mind if I do. Did get talking to the guys behind me though, since I was running to bar/bathroom/merch about a million times and they were kind enough to hold my spot for me. Super nice people and see, I can socialise, it happens.

The gig itself was, for me, the best of the three when it comes to the band. They’re always (and have pretty much always been) an extremely tight live act but in Nottingham it was completely top notch the whole way through. If asked to point out specifics that were different I really couldn’t, just a feeling, but a great feeling. The crowd was somewhere between Bristol and London, into it but not very lively. I don’t GET it? How do you not jump to their songs? How do you just stand there, like statues? (Now I want to see Enter Shikari again.) Oh well, the band was so good I couldn’t really be bothered to mind about the audience, a good thing I suppose.

Not a lot to say about the support tonight, but that’s in a good way. Dinosaur Pile-Up just continue to grow on me and I can’t wait to see them on the Swedish dates as well! Bleeker, well, their EP is pretty much the only thing I’ve been listening to since the first gig and I can only hope they make it back to the UK for touring soon, wouldn’t mind some headline gigs!

After the gig I was social indeed, talking to basically everyone, constantly. Double vodka + mixer was £4 in the pub and the rest, as they say, is history. Made it back to the hostel and had a not so great moment when I woke up and realised that my phone had died and had I missed my coach back to London?? Turned out it was exactly the time I had planned to get up, so off for a Greggs and onto the bus – Kingston and Biffy Clyro awaited!

Royal Republic – The Garage, London 7/10 Support: Bleeker & Dinosaur Pile-Up

After an early night in Bristol, oh bed how I love thee, it was time to head back to London for another round of RR-madness. I had a feeling I wouldn’t be seeing much more of beds until Monday, so definitely made the most of it in Bristol. It was YHA time again in London, great stuff as they actually have comfy mattresses. I was still stuck in the, now extremely dated, mindset that Royal Republic isn’t a bad you have to queue for, which was very nice. Meant I had a calm few hours at the hostel for once.

Of course, when I made it to the Garage around 5pm, it turned out there was 40 people ahead of me in the queue because it was SOLD OUT JOSEFINE, get with the times! The meet & greet people were of course first in anyway, so front row was a no go (early entry, you can get to fuck). That said, I got second row and was very pleased because the audience was AMAZING. Everything I wished for and more, jumping throughout the whole show and turned into a little puddle of sweat by the end of it.

Royal Republic brought their A-game of course, just a brilliant on stage as in Bristol. I tried to the chats with audience about three times, only to realise every time I tried to stop recording, that I hadn’t actually been recording in the first place. So, no funny snippets for the blog. But at least there photos and shoutout to RR for being great to photograph and to whomever was responsible for the lights too! Even if I think there was some frontman syndrome it was great otherwise! And only red and purple, thank you very much for that. Same setlist as the day before, I did manage to snag one, but I also managed to forget to photograph it… I know, promises, promises.

The new songs continue to be so. damn. good. Weekend Man live is just amazing and at some point my head will probably fall off from headbanging too much. Full Steam Spacemachine finally got the reception it deserved as the closing song, THANK YOU audience, you were the best!

Support acts were great again, Dinosaur Pile-Up grows on me with every song I hear live. Will probably not be a band I spend a lot of time listening to on my own, but then, not many bands are. Live however, they are really, really good even if I’ll be damned if I can explain in  just what way. They draw me in. See them for yourselves!

Bleeker are so tight live it’s just ridiculous, watch out Adam, you’ve got a contender for charisma there! At least some of the maturity in their songs was explained when it turns out they’ve been band for a longer while, with more releases than only an EP, just under another name. Obviously it’s mainly that they’re extremely good at what they do, but still!

The night didn’t end there however, it was back to the hostel for me to meet up with Charlyne and head to Facedown at Scala. Hands Like Houses were playing and oh dear. Rock bands with funky bass, man. Makes me tingle. Great gig by them, and a great night all in all with loads of amazing dancing (heh) to old goodness like AFI and Good Charlotte. Even if the DJ didn’t play ANY of my requests. Bed at 4am, solid. Up at 9 and off to Nottingham! A tale for another post.

Royal Republic – Thekla, Bristol 6/10 Support: Bleeker & Dinosaur Pile-Up

 

It’s just past midnight, I’m in bed after an amazing gig and I’m trying to find the words to describe it. The gig I can probably describe, with my usual superlatives, but the whole experience was so much more emotional than I’m… well, used to.

This is a band that I first saw supporting Sherlock Brothers at their release party at Harry B James in 2009. Just the fact that they’ve been billed before Sherlock Brothers on a night is weird to think about now. Then of course there was the Bandit Rock (Swedish radio station) tours/cruises/parties where Royal Republic played, the very, very funny Kill Hannah tour (where My Passion also supported, hilarious) and the small headline shows around Sweden… In my head the headline shows were in 2012 and 2013, but I’m a year off. They were in 2011 and 2012?? How the hell did time pass so quickly? How have I not seen them since?

 

But I’m making up for it this year, and to start it out by attending the first 3 dates of a pretty much sold out UK tour is just insane. They’ve grown so much as performers and well and truly deserve every good thing coming their way, with the crazy amounts of hard work they’ve put in!

 

The show itself, tonight, was excellent. At least from the people on stage. The audience however… Come on Bristol? One of the most boring crowds I’ve ever had the displeasure of being in. I get that it’s not the weekend, but come ooonnn. Not even the clapping got going? I also had a big problem with the one man band-syndrome. Sure, Adam is a really great frontman and he is great on stage BUT, there also happens to be three other band members on the same stage and they are fucking brilliant. How about maybe the tiniest little bit of light on them? I understand not all venues are easy for lights, but there were at least four different spotlights in the ceiling and they damn well managed to point at different parts of the stage for the support acts. As for these two sticking points, I have high hopes for the next two gigs. Lighting-wise, sure, but mainly audience-wise. Both shows are sold out and they’re on a Friday and Saturday so no excuses! Time to lose your minds peeps.

But enough of the bitching and moaning. Royal Republic were awesome. They rock. The setlist was well packed with a balanced choice of songs, and I only realised which ones I was missing when I read back in the blog and saw setlists from years ago. Basically the best review I can give, because there will always be songs missing (where the HELL was Sailing Man? And Let Your Hair Down? And… anyway..). So you released an album that you’re now touring? What do I care, just play 35 songs and get them all in there! One can but dream… That said, the current set is 18 songs (if I counted correctly) AND the last four is encore of my dreams. Seriously what I would’ve put there if I was free to choose. I’ll put a setlist photo up after tomorrow! Side note: Weekend Man is a fabulous headbanging song! I commend Adam for his chat skills as well (how on earth do you say mellansnack in English?), bringing the Swedish sarcasm to England. The crowd seemed to enjoy it, and of when you add the charisma and personality of not only Adam, but the whole band and their dynamic, well, you end up with an extremely well put together show. Can’t wait to see how tomorrow turns out!

The support acts tonight, Bleeker and Dinosaur Pile-Up, were brilliant. Of course that lended the whole evening an extra point or two, because how often do you get not only one good support, but TWO? I’d say pretty much never. Bleeker were first out and oh my god. I was completely bowled over. The star quality was over the top, apparent when the first support does a band introduction. Loved it. Just seen that they’re supporting on the whole UK tour and well, time to get this party on! After them Dinosaur Pile-Up took the stage and they were equally great, if in a different way. Not what I’d call my kind of music, very grungy, but maybe I’ve been converted now? Looking forward to seeing them, both on the rest of the UK tour and also on the Swedish leg… Not that I’m doing that.. of course. That would be crazy…

Now I’m in London and it’s high time to start getting ready for tonight, so I can start fretting about queueing! What would life be without queue stress?

Rory Indiana & Reigning Days – BLEACH, Brighton 29/9 + Reigning Days – Boston Music Room, London 30/9

On September 28th I got back to Brighton after spending the summer in Sweden and the first thing that happens after checking into my (peeeerfect) hostel, is that Charlyne who I met at the Twin Atlantic gig in Kingston, is staying at the same hostel! Could my move back to Brighton have started better? Shouldn’t think so! We’ve obviously already planned about 400 gigs or so…

September 29th brought a short and sweet enrolment session and the first (and almost the only) Brighton gig for this autumn. Started the evening by heading down to The Globe to check out Sad Lamp’s pre-launch show. Only caught about ten minutes of the first band, but the vibe was great! Looking forward to seeing more of their events. Then for a quick walk up the road to BLEACH, where Rory Indiana were playing.

No surprises there, as in, they were just as good as ever. If they come to a place near you, definitely, definitely check them out. Haven’t been this excited about a band and what the future may hold for them since Arcane Roots. Their (Rory Indianas) EP, Ruling Class Crooks, is available on Spotify and should be given a listen or ten. The video for Leave Me can be found at the bottom of this post.

Reigning Days were on afterwards and a very nice surprise for me! I had never heard of them before but they instantly had a new fan in me after an energy packed set, the only thing letting them down was the crowd, we were so few there. I accidentally spent so long chatting to people outside the venue after this that by the time I made it back upstairs ALLUSONDRUGS had already played and gone… Oops. I then spent the next day debating if I should go to London and see Reigning Days again, this time supporting Kyle Gass band, and well, of course I did go in the end. Not that I took much convincing. It was another great gig and I can’t wait to see them again, at headline gigs please!

Sadly I’ll miss their headline show at The Old Blue Last on November 9th, but anyone who’s in London and into great rock n’ roll music should definitely go!

I’ll get some more of their music up on the blog as well, when I have a better internet connection going for me.

Brighton doggo

Rory Indiana – BLEACH

Rory Indiana – BLEACH

Rory Indiana – BLEACH

Rory Indiana – BLEACH

Reigning Days – BLEACH

Reigning Days – BLEACH

Reigning Days – Boston Music Rooms

Reigning Days – Boston Music Rooms

Reigning Days – Boston Music Rooms

Reigning Days – Boston Music Rooms

Reigning Days – Boston Music Rooms

Reigning Days – Boston Music Rooms

 

Red Fang – KOKO, London 27/9

Before I even got to Brighton, I did my usual thing which is to have a little gig detour. Last year it was Twin Atlantic in Perth, Scotland, this time Red Fang in London. So a lot closer! And not involving a 13hour Megabus ride, which I have to count as a bonus.

Red Fang were playing KOKO and I managed to get there after doors without having a nervous breakdown. Maybe I’m growing up? (Yeah…right.)

Red Fang are one of those bands that I love without listening to them regularly, without really interacting with them at all apart from watching the video for Wires at every pre party ever (link at the bottom of the post, give it a watch! Pure genius). I’ve only seen them once before, at Getaway Rock Festival in Gävle, Sweden, and they were excellent. So now that I had the chance to time my move back to England with one of their gigs, it was a given that I should go.

And did they live up to my expectations? Did they ever! They got straight into with Wires as their first song and kept the energy up from there and through the whole set. The only other song I know, Prehistoric Dog, came at the end of the set, where I had expected Wires to be as well, though it worked surprisingly well having it at the start!

I’m usually bad at going to gigs where I don’t really listen to the band beforehand, something I’m trying to get better at, so this was a pretty unusual experience for me, but so good!

It was interesting seeing the difference compared to, say, Twin Atlantic when it came to amount of people filming and taking photos… A few people took a couple at Red Fang, whereas at a Twin show the whole thing is just a sea of phones. I gotta say, Red Fang was easily the better experience…

After the show it was straight to bed, enrolment and busy weekend coming up (ended up busier than expected, in a good way)!

Never think it’s gonna be easy!

There I sat, excited to start the blog again, excited to get all the photos up and reminisce for days. Got one whole post up, went to bed for some beauty sleep to wake up fresh and ready to spit out a post per minute. Started my computer and hey! – It’s crashed!

So now, instead of uploading photos I just hope to get them off the computer and onto my external hard drive at all. Laptop is back in Sweden and I have already moved back to Brighton. But fear not, because the gig season is already upon us!

Instead of getting old photos, you’ll be getting new and fresh photos and updates from the road. I’ve gotten myself a slick new laptop too, light enough that I’ll have absolutely zero excuse to not bring it along with me and keep you all up to date with my VERY exciting gig going life (it mainly consists of megabusses, but let’s skip that part).

As I’m off on my first gig adventure of the season while writing this, I thought I’d spend the coach ride uploading some photos, most definitely better late than never (took me a while to get an adapter so I could transfer my photos to my computer, ah, the one-port-and-shitty-wifi-life).

But here we go!
Some Brighton snaps to start us off:

Hello Brighton!

Ugh, so basic.

My lovely hostel pod.

Post waffle nap was needed!

Nothing But Thieves – Manchester Academy, Manchester 22/10

For words and photos about any gigs prior to this date, I’ll refer you to http://lightzonemusic.wordpress.com, because well, that’s where they are!

Speaking of that, is seems I have pretty much no pictures from this gig, so a little bit of video will have to do. In my defence, it was my birthday and I’m sure I was busy celebrating! Er… (so I was)

Damn, uploading this and watching back the tour diaries makes me miss seeing them so badly. I managed 8 dates on this tour, 15 or so in total (I should probably count it all up) and it looks like the only other time I’ll see them this year is in London in December. So let’s make that one count then eh?

New start, but photos first!

This is a cross-post from https://lightzonemusic.wordpress.com/ where my blog has been the past 6 years or so. But I’m in the mood for something of a new, clean start, so all posts coming up will be on this MusicEleven blog!

A LOT of photos from the past year will be coming up in the next few days.
It’ll be mainly photos since so many of the gigs were so long ago (yeah I know, I can only blame myself) and I’ve probably forgotten half the things that happened or were funny at the time.

But I’ve realised I do miss blogging, and having the blog to look back on after the gigs. I’ll take more care this autumn, because I don’t want to forget the small moments, the weird and the fun things that happen when out to gigs all the time.

Here we go…
(they’ll get separate posts, or this one would be miles long)

(Twin Atlantic at Scala in London, photo by Kristina Österling)

A closer look at AudioLock

In this post I’m going to write about AudioLock, an anti-piracy company founded by Ben Rush in 2009. Aiming to make it harder to pirate music, the company is offering two services, 24/7 Scanning & Takedown as well as Watermarked Promo Delivery. What to these services entail and how can they help the music industry against piracy?

AudioLock’s 24/7 Scanning & Takedown service includes removal of copyright infringing links from search engines such as Google and Bing as well as from torrent and piracy sites. It provides continuous  scanning for theses links and automated DMCA takedown notice sending. This technology is developed exclusively for AudioLock and they have a patent pending which helps them stand out from the competition.2

Their second service is aimed at protecting promotional material from leaks, regardless of format. They promise to ensure that “our watermarking service ensures your promo material is protected from the moment it leaves the studio. Our watermarks are highly robust and virtually indestructible ensuring your pre-releases sent to tastemakers, press and influencers are secure.” Through this technology, not only is the material protected, it also enables tracking of the leak, so you know who is responsible for it.

Aimed at artists, producers, labels and other copyright holders, the company has a huge potential market, the question it will be the go to service? While major labels have a lot of resources in house, AudioLock could be the answer for independent and smaller labels and unsigned artists. The price for Scanning & Takedown is £6 per track per month for new releases, with back catalogue coming in at £1 per track per month (though this is only scanned once every two weeks), while the price for watermarked promo delivery credits is as seen below:

“Purchased as required; each credit protects an individual track with a unique watermark which enables it to be sent to a single recipient. If that recipient leaked their watermarked release onto the internet it can be traced back to them, so ensuring accountability.
Watermark credits do not expire and can be used at any time.” While this may seem expensive for artists who are just started out, AudioLock do offer a one month trial where you get 10 delivery credits and can upload 2 high priority tracks. This can be a good way to see if anti-piracy measures is something you need at that stage of your career, and it’s also a possibility to compare these services with those of AudioLock’s competitors.

Looking at the services that AudioLock provide I can see mainly positive things with their business idea and their services. They are specific and targeted to do a few things, which ideally should mean that they do them well, rather than try to encompass more of the music industry than anti-piracy and only that. Having used mainly AudioLock’s own website as a source, I have only read impartial information, but I do believe that the focus they have on only a few services is a good thing. Having developed their own anti-piracy technologies in house is also something that I think is positive.

Speculatively, one possible development could be partnering with digital aggregators directly, so that the artists when utilising an aggregator would get the anti-piracy services as part of that. Though this would most probably mean higher rates, it could end up being cheaper for the individual artist than paying an aggregator and (for example) AudioLock separately. Mainly it could provide an even bigger scope to anti-piracy, if every artist using an aggregator meant an anti-piracy scheme was automatically put in place for those tracks.

 

All about that data – Apple & MusicMetric

Last year saw Apple buying MusicMetric, a company specialized in gathering artist data anywhere from social media to BitTorrents and mentions on blogs. While Apple released a statement declaring that “Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plan”, one can speculate that they bought the company to incorporate their analytics into Apple Music, which launched on June 30th 2015.

So why would Apple be interested in acquiring MusicMetric? With the streaming service Apple Music up and going, Apple can make use of the data gathering to provide analytics to the artists and labels they are affiliated with, and seeing as MusicMetric also branched out into providing analytics for films, tv shows, e-books and games, Apple could definitely see some use for it outside of Apple Music. It will also be useful for seeing how streams affect iTunes sales and what kind of impact YouTube plays and mentions on social media can have both on streams and iTunes downloads.

It also allows Apple Music to compete more effectively against Spotify, it’s main streaming rival. As Spotify also provides data and analytics to artists and the music industry, not being able to offer something on par with that would be negative for Apple. All in all it seems to me that it’s definitely a positive development for Apple to have bought MusicMetric, especially as Apple, being such a big company can probably find many different ways of utilising the data collected. A side note to MusicMetric having been removed from the market so to speak, is that this provides a big opportunity for Next Big Sound, one of MusicMetrics biggest competitors. Now they have the possibility to acquire the part of the market share that either can’t or won’t  use a MusicMetric owned by Apple.