Snoop Dogg: Liverpool o2 Academy, 18/05/2011

In the week of Liverpool Sound City it can be difficult for an artist to stand out. Every venue in Liverpool City Centre had been preparing for months for the area's stand out music festival, but it was the o2 Academy on Hotham Street that seemed to be the busiest. The night before Sound City officially began, the Academy was clearly hosting something special. Two enormous tour-buses (I believe the technical term for their size is “big, fuck-off tour-buses”) blocked the road and security guards were intent on making sure no one wandered where they shouldn't. There was even a noticeable police presence – one frisking wasn't enough for entrance, you also had to shuffle past a sniffer-dog to get in, causing many a-pothead to creep past like a particularly nervous contestant on Knightmare. To say there was an atmosphere around the place would be an understatement, and few artists can generate this sort of buzz.

One man who certainly can is Calvin Cordozar Broadus, Jr. Or as he's better known, Snoop Dogg.

Even fewer artists can get away with taking the piss over stage-times as much as Snoop either. Whilst his DJ stretched out the minutes by inviting on stage the easier female members of the Liverpool crowd (who no doubt got the chance to make a “film” with Snoop backstage later on), the crowd gleaned with an anticipatory sweat; not helped by the Krazyhouse-levels of humidity in the Academy. After two hefty bodyguards lined the stage to discourage any would-be invaders, the Doggfather himself finally arrived to a tremendous reception. Pigtails, shades and ridiculously oversized gold microphone in hand, Snoop dove straight in to the set.

As this tour was primarily to promote new album Doggumentary, there may have been some trepidation from those in attendance that he would focus on his newer songs while ignoring the classics; thankfully this was not to be the case*. Standards such as “Who Am I (What's My Name)” and “Tha Shiznit” rested comfortably alongside later hits like “Drop It Like It's Hot” and new single, “Wet (David Guetta remix)”. A setlist spanning three decades highlights a remarkable career for a man who is not yet 40 but has remained near-enough at the top of the rap game since his 1993 début – and it was a song from that début LP which stood out as the peak of the night, “Gin n Juice” bringing together the rapper on stage and the predominantly white, scouse crowd; many of whom were not even born when the song was first released.

Fans of Snoop's numerous collaborations were not to be disappointed either - “The Next Episode” kicked off the whole gig to an ecstatic crowd, and “I Wanna Fuck You” followed later on, as well as Snoop's version of 50 Cent's “P.I.M.P.”. The inclusion of a few musical tributes to fallen friends was a nice touch too , with covers of songs by House of Pain, Eazy-E, Tupac and Notorious B.I.G. - the sing-a-long chorus of the latter's “Hypnotise” going down particularly well with the crowd. There was also a touching moment of respect for his close friend, collaborator and cousin, Nate Dogg, who passed away earlier this year.

Though there was a surprising lack of guests joining him on stage, Snoop admirably held the crowd alone and performed for near an hour; more than one might expect for a rap gig these days. The setlist contained more than enough hits to keep most happy, with a few nice surprises along the way. For someone whose reputation almost certainly precedes him, it might have been hard for Snoop Dogg to live up to the high expectations of the Academy's capacity crowd. But he did it with aplomb, showing no sign of letting up and engaging in a nice level of interaction with the audience; even when potentially alienating half of the crowd by coming back on stage with a Liverpool FC shirt on, Snoop enhanced his reputation as a fan-favourite.  Even when a brief power-shortage caused the beats to drop he wasn't thrown off stride and remained in good spirits.

Snoop certainly has his critics, especially outside of music, but for rap fans he does not disappoint. It would have been easy for Snoop Dogg to phone in this sort of gig and simply play the tracks from his latest album, but the setlist was almost everything a fan could want and he performed with gusto, and perhaps most importantly, looked like he was enjoying it himself.

Hopefully next time he'll do it without the Liverpool shirt.

*Murder was tha case

Foster The People's album, "Torches", is out tomorrow.  Looking forward hugely to illegally downloading buying it ASAP!

A tribute, in spandex

I went to my first concert, as a wide-eyed 13 year old, when I went to see The Offspring back in January 2001. I remember being amazed at the scale of it – a reported 20,000 were crammed in to the M.E.N. Arena. A, the first support group, were to be the first of thousands of bands I'd be fortunate enough to see over the next ten years, and the gig as a whole remains a favourite of mine.

Since then other concerts stand out for varying reasons. Muse and their batshit-mental light-show, playing outdoors during one of the worst thunderstorms I've ever been caught in (Leeds, 2006); Snoop Dogg and his entourage performing to 30,000 pilled-up Europeans in a Serbian castle (EXIT, 2007); and Andrew WK, simply being Andrew WK in a tiny room to about 200 people (Manchester Academy 3, 2003). Right up there amongst those illustrious names*, though, is a band you may have never heard of before: Carousel Cartel.

Carousel Cartel – formerly known as Halagoogoo – are a three-piece from Bristol/London-ways, with a blues/rock sound that would not have gone amiss in 1972. Capable of a lot more noise than you'd perhaps expect from three short southerners, the group assuredly wear their influences on their spandex sleeves; from tight, Zeppelin II-esque guitar licks and pounding drums to the funky excitement of Ram Jam, Carousel Cartel clearly have the enthusiasm for classic rock and fortunately have the talent to match. Indeed, both the latter group's “Black Betty” and Zep's “Moby Dick” often make appearances in their live sets. And their live sets are really what this band is about.

I first saw CC/Halagoogoo back around 2007 at The Magnet in Liverpool. I was there to see my friend's band, a fine act in their own right, but it was hard not to notice the three people sitting by the stage waiting for their time to shine. Despite having had no idea who they were, if you see a band dressed in leopard-print leotards, fur coats and platform boots then you simply have to stay and watch – and I'm glad I did. While it was the outfits that drew us in, it was immediately obvious that this was a very talented, very tight band.

Simon Frost handles the tricky combination of lead vocals and lead guitar superbly – no easy task when you consider the Page-esque riffs he's expertly playing whilst maintaining strong - but not overbearing - vocals. Bassist Chris Neagle also provides backing vocals, furnishing the songs with some nice harmonies that complement his pounding, driving basslines. However it's drummer Ryan Woodland that invariably ends up as the centre of attention. Not because of his drumming – and he's certainly more-than-adequate, thumping but also capable of a subtle, jazzier style on songs like “Black Bryan”, for example, that provides an extra dimension to the group's rhythm – but because he seems to be on a one-man mission to avenge every drummer who has ever been roundly ignored, forgotten behind his kit.

Bounding across the stage, off the stage, into the audience and onto the audience at any opportunity, Woodland's energy and sense of (more than a little unhinged) fun is Carousel Cartel in a microcosm. Despite playing to about 25 people in the aforementioned Magnet gig, he was a dynamo; at one point he was in the crowd and miming performing fellatio on my friend Pete whilst playing a cowbell between his legs. Stood next to Pete, I couldn't help but wonder if I had had a close call or a missed opportunity.

Faux-homoeroticism aside, it's a shame that the band hasn't been given the wider opportunities their music, and especially their live shows, deserve. Considering the current nadir of British rock music, the energy and enthusiasm of Carousel Cartel would be a refreshing, entertaining change to the soulless guitar music that's widespread recently. Would you rather go and watch Snow Patrol croon through another forgettable rock-ballad or watch 3 men in headbands and leotards play – perform – out of their skin no matter the size of the audience?

For the last few years I've hugely overplayed my three-disc sampler (kindly given out for free at their 2009 Bumper gig, such nice boys) and tried to recommend them to anyone who would listen, converting a few friends along the way. Over the years their relentless touring has sure enough won them fans nationwide – to see them live is to more-than-likely love them. But sadly the band have decided to call it a day, and their last gig is Saturday the 28th in their HQ of Putney. I urge anyone nearby to call in for what will surely be a brilliant, worthy send-off. Disappointingly I can't make it but I feel privileged that I got to see them live, if only a couple of times, before they packed up for good.

And I haven't been able to look at a cowbell properly since.

Carousel Cartel are on Myspace, and are over here on Facebook.

*“and Andrew WK”, yeah yeah, you were thinking it. The man is a misunderstood genius

Hot-a Sowuss

For most bands a gap of seven years between (non-instrumental) albums would probably be regarded as lazy. With the Beastie Boys, though, it usually seems to be worth the wait; and considering they've released seven strong albums since their 1979 punk début - along with founding member MCA thankfully taming cancer over the last 18 months - it seems fine to cut them a little bit of slack. However as with any extended wait, the anticipation for the release has grown disproportionately – can Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 live up to the expectations placed upon it by anxious fans?

Opening with the single “Make Some Noise”, there's immediate signs that this is a Beastie Boys record. The track is loaded with synthesizers and scratches, setting the tone for a lot of the album, but is thankfully not overly saturated with them. Instead the synths complement the vocals and head-tapping backbeat and it's a positive opener to welcome the Boys back.

Collaborations are relatively rare for the Beastie Boys (reissues and remixes aside) but there are two on HSCP2. The first, featuring Nas, is “Too Many Rappers [new reactionaries version]”. This mix is slightly different to the versions that have appeared on various demos over the last few years, with a more bombastic drumline that wouldn't be out of place in the era of Licensed To Ill. As to be expected from the Beasties and Nas the rapping is tight and though there are flangers and wah-wah effects everywhere the vocals stay strong enough to make this track a decent enough collaboration. 3 MCs and One More MC, if you will.

The second, however - “Don't Play No Game That I Can't Win” with Santigold – is one of the higher peaks of the album and already feels like it could be a huge summer song this year. Santigold and the Boys toast over the chilled snare-and-hi-hat backbeat and reggae horns, and the typically laid-back lilt of the ex-Stiffed singer for the chorus adds up to a beach-friendly, barbecue-scoring feet tapper of a song. It might not quite make you skank but don't be surprised if this emerges as a big crossover hit.

With such a varied back catalogue it's easy to recognise aspects of their previous records in this one; there are several moments, such as “Non-Stop Disco Powerpack” and “Say It”, that could slot right in on Check Your Head while “Long Burn The Fire” is reminiscent of the darker mood from To The 5 Boroughs, albeit crossed with Deltron3030 and the Dr. Who theme tune. More recently, The Mix-Up's instrumental groove influence is clearly felt on “Multilateral Nuclear Disarmament”, another song that showcases the talents of the Beastie Boys when they pick up their instruments.

In that vein, one of the highlights of the album is the Descendents-meets-filthy-synths track “Lee Majors Come Again”. Previously released as a remix versus Daft Punk's “Da Funk”, the album version is a punk-rock song driven by a gloriously simple bassline that suggests that despite what the Beastie Boys have given as such eclectic musicians over the years, they can still do punk-rock as well as anyone and it's a shame we're not treated to it more often.

Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 isn't as littered with samples as you may expect from a Beastie Boys album. There are a few noted ones, such as dropping Bob Dylan and U2 loops here and there (and I'm almost certain there's a sample of the Batman soundtrack from the Nintendo GameBoy game, but that's possibly because that's been stuck in my head since about 1989) but for the most part the album sticks to multi-instrumental sounds and songs; and from steel drums to cowbells to clavinovas galore there should certainly be enough for musos to muse over.

One thing that stands out is the consistently high level of vocals throughout the record. Rap-centric songs such as “Long Burn The Fire” and “Here's A Little Something For Ya” show that each member remains a great MC in their own right, alternately toasting themselves in the time-honoured tradition of rap and delivering couplets with a sense of fun that the Beastie Boys are so renowned for. There are few rappers apart from the King Ad-Rock that could get away with “The proof is in the pudding and the pudding's in my pants/Now watch me rap and watch me dance”, but he does it with aplomb.

Admittedly on first listen the album can seem a tad over-produced – a lot of the songs initially present you with a wall of noise and can seem overwhelming and tracks can blend together in a bit of a sonic mess. However with each subsequent listen the tracks, as heavily-layered as they are (and some are very heavily layered indeed), stand out better. Hot Sauce Committee Part 2 is certainly an album that deserves to be listened to with good speakers – tinny laptop speakers will be about as useful as Michigan J. Frog when faced with the multiple, finely-tuned levels of each song.

It's unlikely to win a great deal of new fans in the way that Hello Nasty did, but lest we forget that was 13 years ago – and this is an album that is littered with new, diverse influences and innovations that most groups wouldn't dare to try. For existing Beastie Boys fans, though, it's good to have them back and the more you listen to the album, the better it becomes – a worthy addition to the already great canon of the group. And thankfully we only have to wait a year for another album; the chronologically-challenged Hot Sauce Committee Part 1 should be out in 2012.

God of Four Year Old Reviews

I was honestly meaning to write something over the last week or so but I became rather distracted.  Not distracted by the nice weather - an annual event in which the British public become fully-fledged Ra worshippers, sacrificing animals and first-borns in a futile attempt to make the sun last for more than a week - nor distracted by getting myself a job, an event that hasn't happened despite my sacrifices of animals and first-borns.

No, this week I have been hugely distracted by the Playstation2 game God Of War 2.

I realise I have my thumb spectacularly on the pulse with this one considering it was released over four years ago, but it was still a nice surprise when LoveFilm pleasantly dropped this through the letterbox last week.  Nice because the game has turned out to be brilliant, but still mainly a surprise because a) I didn't realise it was on my rentals list and b) I've been waiting for them to deliver Fallout New Vegas for about 4 months now.

Still, I can continue waiting for New Vegas whilst games like this arrive.  I had the bonus of not knowing a thing about the game before loading up the dusty PS2 but thankfully the game delves right in, and within a minute of hitting New Game you're battling a newly-anthropomophic Colossus of Rhodes.

That's right, the fucking Colossus of Rhodes is the first opponent in the game.

Not even arsed.

After defeating this bronze behemoth with your handy pair of steak knives on strings you're up and on a quest to change your fate (by "your" I mean Kratos, the perpetually angry and perpetually bald protagonist) and defeat the Gods of Olympia etc and so on. It's a long quest, I shan't lie, but it's ok because seemingly every few minutes you're thrust into yet another legendary battle.  Minutes after fist-fucking Cerebrus to death to regain the golden fleece you're kicked off on by Medusa's less-famous-but-more-ugly sister.  After defeating a Spartan general you're attacked from behind by the fucking Kraken, anachronistic but still huge and a right bloody bastard.  And you're still only about two-thirds though the game.

I don't mean to namedrop like an excitable Classics student but the amount of mythology the game includes is admirable; Perseus, Thesus, Zeus, Titan and friends are all included in one way or another, with the game's overarching storyline fitting nicely alongside the existing Greek mythos.

The level design is deceptively clever - after heading one way for a few hours you're occasionally brought back into an area you visited earlier from a different direction that didn't even seem possible the first time.  There are very few loading screens, due to the well-paced employment of cutscenes and FMV, and as such the game flows from one area into another almost seamlessly.  The sound is suitably bombastic, with huge scores to complement the action.  The voice-acting is gruff and almost-overcooked but fits the game's environment well.

The combat is the real highlight of God of War 2, though.  It's practically non-stop (aside from when solving the game's occasional just-tough-enough puzzles) and whilst it may lend itself to sporadic button-bashing when outnumbered, it's instantly redeemed by the number of powerful moves you can unleash - including several different ways of finishing off each individual enemy type, like a particularly pissed-off hairless Mortal Kombat character.  Major boss battles make use of Quick Time Events, yet these don't detract from fights and complement the almost-mindless hacking and slashing.

Some battles can get overcrowded and it's tempting to panic a tad; thankfully though it's the exhilarating sort of panic like when you drive a car for the first time, rather than the stressed panic when your girlfriend tells you she's late and you're only 19 with a shit retail job and you were supposed to be going to uni in a few months and how are you going to LIVE?!

God of War 2 is easily the most fun I've had with a game for years, with about 20 hours or so of ass-kicking gameplay.  I'm loathe to use the word "epic" but from the setting and story, to the gameplay, to the sheer size of the levels and bosses, it's the best word to accurately sum it up.  The game is like a cross of 300 and a Jason Statham film, except angrier, balder and with bigger fight scenes. And every bit as adrenaline-charged and exciting as that sounds.

I just wish I had a Playstation 3 to play the cocking sequel.

(God of War 2 is available for less than a tenner now too, so no excuse)

Good Song, This #001

I'm tempted to claim Art Brut are a Marmite band that one either loves or hates but I don't think that's particularly fair; it's probably better to describe them as a band you either love or simply feel you don't 'get'.
Though the band's lyrics have always been poignant, hilarious and instantly relatable to most, it's understandable that people may be initially put off by singer Eddie Argos' vocal style - best described as a brash (yet always well-meaning), one-way conversation being loudly aimed in your direction.  However this hasn't stopped the group from amassing an ever-growing fan-base (including several of their peers - We Are Scientists and Frank Black are vocal supporters) and continuing to record great music, and showing that the only thing to 'get' is a band making enjoyable pop music.
May 23rd of this year marks the release their fourth album, Brilliant! Tragic!,  and lead single "Lost Weekend" is online now.  Instantly noticeable is that Argos is now singing along to the band rather than communicating over them - and his breathy style adds to this traditionally self-deprecating tale about (yet another) a lost love.  Though it'd be a shame if Argos was to relinquish his trademark style permanently (and thankfully I doubt that will ever happen), this track showcases a pleasant alternative that works for this particular song.
 "Lost Weekend" seems to hint at a more complete Art Brut - a much tighter sounding group than their previous three studio albums, as each instrument seems to complement the rest rather than vying for your attention as they've occasionally been guilty of in the past.
Though they may never be everyone's cup of tea, the song certainly points towards yet another inherently listenable Art Brut record.

Force is strong in this one etc etc

I know I get far too amused by things relating to Star Wars but this did genuinely make me laugh:

courtesy of Sneaky Zebra