Monday, 6 December 2010
Gig Round up!
We've been to a few gigs recently and I've been too busy to post up about them all, so I just though I'd round them up now.
First of the bunch we went to was Paramore at the LG Arena in Birmingham, with support from Fun and BOB. Fun came on 10 minutes early, which was a bit of a shock, as a band starting early never happens! We were excited, as we have followed them for a while and knew of the lead singer Nate Ruess when he was in the great band The Format as well. They performed brilliantly, but as they are a little unusual (to people who think Paramore are alternative anyway) some people were a little bemused by them! As me and my husband were singing along a girl approached me to ask "sorry, but who are these?" Their name does truly reflect the band, they are a slightly camp indie/ power pop band, but their music is so joyful and infectious. They were a party of different instruments and sounds.
Next up was BOB, not being a fan of his music, he didn't manage to change my mind I'm afraid.
Paramore were great! We saw them at Leeds and they had the misfortune of having sound issues, so we didn't get a true feel for what they were like, as you could barely hear Hayley singing. Their performance was virtually flawless, they were humble, gracious and real crowd pleasers. They did a brilliant acoustic set in the middle, that allowed the musicianship to shine. At the end they allowed a girl from the crowd to come up on stage to perform part of one of their songs, a night she will certainly never forget.
Then on the Sunday of the same week, we went to see one of my all time favourites Jimmy Eat World at the Birmingham Academy. We managed to get on front row, so I was pretty pleased with that. Support came from Minus The Bear, who did a relaxed and confident set. They came across as being very down to earth, performing tracks mostly off their new album, Omni, which has quite an electronic feel.
This was the third time we'd seen Jimmy Eat World and by far the best. Jim Adkins came on in his trademark, black shirt, smart trousers and smart shoes, appearing to be rather insignificant if you saw him on the street, however, behind a microphone he is something else! They delivered everything I expected and more, performing a great mixture of songs from their amazing back catalogue, while promoting their new album Invented. They seemed to perform so many songs, and did an encore of 4 fantastic songs. My personal highlight was when they performed 'Goodbye Sky Harbour" which is one of my favourite songs, but I never expected to hear them perform as the album version is 16 minutes long! And I think they did nearly the full length! It was mind blowing!
After two amazing gigs we went to see 30 seconds to mars at the NIA last week. I'm afraid to say they really disappointed me. Support came from Funeral Party, who were great with their jerky indie rock, but as they were on first there was a lack of atmosphere.
I am not a fan of Enter Shikari, for me they are just a mash up of too many musical genres. I start to get into a part of their song and then it goes off in a tangent, but having said that, I think they did quite a sterling job in warming the crowd up.
Then for the main act 30 seconds to mars (cue screaming girls!) For the other two gigs I left feeling elated (the way you should feel after a good gig), but 30stm left me feeling cold! I think if your a huge fan of them you would still leave thinking they were amazing, but they (I mean Jared) laid on the fact they think they are a 'cult' so thickly, that anyone who just likes the music would get annoyed. He was self indulgent through-out and never sang a whole song, preferring to get the crowd to sing every other sentence.
There were several huge gaps in the set, where it went dark and not a lot seemed to happen, I presume to enhance expectation. The encore was lame consisting of 2 songs, which were so fragmented by the huge gap where they decided to take photos of the crowd to put on Jared's twitter page and got about half the crowd up on stage with them. I just wanted them to perform some music! Not impressed.
First of the bunch we went to was Paramore at the LG Arena in Birmingham, with support from Fun and BOB. Fun came on 10 minutes early, which was a bit of a shock, as a band starting early never happens! We were excited, as we have followed them for a while and knew of the lead singer Nate Ruess when he was in the great band The Format as well. They performed brilliantly, but as they are a little unusual (to people who think Paramore are alternative anyway) some people were a little bemused by them! As me and my husband were singing along a girl approached me to ask "sorry, but who are these?" Their name does truly reflect the band, they are a slightly camp indie/ power pop band, but their music is so joyful and infectious. They were a party of different instruments and sounds.
Next up was BOB, not being a fan of his music, he didn't manage to change my mind I'm afraid.
Paramore were great! We saw them at Leeds and they had the misfortune of having sound issues, so we didn't get a true feel for what they were like, as you could barely hear Hayley singing. Their performance was virtually flawless, they were humble, gracious and real crowd pleasers. They did a brilliant acoustic set in the middle, that allowed the musicianship to shine. At the end they allowed a girl from the crowd to come up on stage to perform part of one of their songs, a night she will certainly never forget.
Then on the Sunday of the same week, we went to see one of my all time favourites Jimmy Eat World at the Birmingham Academy. We managed to get on front row, so I was pretty pleased with that. Support came from Minus The Bear, who did a relaxed and confident set. They came across as being very down to earth, performing tracks mostly off their new album, Omni, which has quite an electronic feel.
This was the third time we'd seen Jimmy Eat World and by far the best. Jim Adkins came on in his trademark, black shirt, smart trousers and smart shoes, appearing to be rather insignificant if you saw him on the street, however, behind a microphone he is something else! They delivered everything I expected and more, performing a great mixture of songs from their amazing back catalogue, while promoting their new album Invented. They seemed to perform so many songs, and did an encore of 4 fantastic songs. My personal highlight was when they performed 'Goodbye Sky Harbour" which is one of my favourite songs, but I never expected to hear them perform as the album version is 16 minutes long! And I think they did nearly the full length! It was mind blowing!
After two amazing gigs we went to see 30 seconds to mars at the NIA last week. I'm afraid to say they really disappointed me. Support came from Funeral Party, who were great with their jerky indie rock, but as they were on first there was a lack of atmosphere.
I am not a fan of Enter Shikari, for me they are just a mash up of too many musical genres. I start to get into a part of their song and then it goes off in a tangent, but having said that, I think they did quite a sterling job in warming the crowd up.
Then for the main act 30 seconds to mars (cue screaming girls!) For the other two gigs I left feeling elated (the way you should feel after a good gig), but 30stm left me feeling cold! I think if your a huge fan of them you would still leave thinking they were amazing, but they (I mean Jared) laid on the fact they think they are a 'cult' so thickly, that anyone who just likes the music would get annoyed. He was self indulgent through-out and never sang a whole song, preferring to get the crowd to sing every other sentence.
There were several huge gaps in the set, where it went dark and not a lot seemed to happen, I presume to enhance expectation. The encore was lame consisting of 2 songs, which were so fragmented by the huge gap where they decided to take photos of the crowd to put on Jared's twitter page and got about half the crowd up on stage with them. I just wanted them to perform some music! Not impressed.
Saturday, 27 November 2010
Mixtape 3
We were very lucky again this month, and received a wonderful mixtape lovingly created by illustrator Kerry Hyndman love the music on it, some of our favourite artists on there, and spotted the artwork on flickr and adored it before I realised it was coming to us!
and here are some images of the one we sent her
Again I had great fun doing it! Might well make people some mixtapes for Christmas :)
and here are some images of the one we sent her
Again I had great fun doing it! Might well make people some mixtapes for Christmas :)
Sunday, 14 November 2010
Yuka Maeda
I came across the lovely work of this illustrator in a book of Japanese fashion illustrators
Yuka Maeda http://www.flavorgirl.com/
Yuka Maeda http://www.flavorgirl.com/
Recent work
Just a selection of my latest personal work. Still learning new things all the time on Illustrator, but as well as that I have been trying to get back to using the noble method of pen on paper. This has partly been spurred on by all the time I have to spend in the train in my new job, so I thought I might as well put that time to good use! All to be turned into coloured works as well, and thinking I may finally get round to doing some prints!
Wednesday, 3 November 2010
Tuesday, 2 November 2010
Monday, 1 November 2010
Second mixtape received!
Friday, 29 October 2010
Mixtape numero duo!
We sent off our second mixtape for the mixtape project http://sharingthemusic.wordpress.com/ It was great fun to do!
Me and Joe had decided while doing last months that due to the great amount of awesome covers songs we had this month would be a CD dedicated to the little blitters!
I had great fun producing the artwork, as I had wanted to do some paper cut work for a while, so this was a brilliant excuse!
Ours has just arrived in the post today, but I know Joe won't be happy if I open it when he's not here, so something to look forward to when I get in tonight!
Monday, 18 October 2010
Winter wonderland
With the change of temperature I was inspired to do a wintery illustration. For a while I've been thinking that I wanted to do an image with a limited colour scheme, and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Using less colours made me concentrate on the components of the image more.
Thursday, 7 October 2010
Captain Winston Whistle Blower
I am becoming more than a little obsessed with pug dogs, so here is another pug inspired illustration!
A new recruit for Colonel Windpipe's Marching Band. Winston loves to blow his whistle though in doing so he gets easily out of breath, so travels in style in his radio flyer, pulled by his loyal team of mice. On a side note Winston is the name me and Joe have decided on as the name for our pug if we ever get a boy pug dog!
The wonderful work of Meg Hunt
Just a small selection of the amazing work of talented illustrator Meg Hunt. To see more go to her website www.meghunt.com I love her use of colour and how all her work seems to have a sense of pattern to it. There is so much detail in her beautiful pieces.
Friday, 1 October 2010
The amazing work of Tougui!
Ticket to Ride by Tougui
logo made for the Nice Paper Toys website
Awesome paper toy!
I came across the amazing work of french freelance graphic designer, illustrator and artist Guillaume Pain aka TOUGUI. I just thought I'd share a few images of his work. To peruse more of his fantastic artwork in your own time click here. I can't wait to make up some of his fantastic paper toys, available for free on his website
Tuesday, 28 September 2010
The Sandwich Defender!
A fantastically brilliant plate designed and handmade by James Ward of 'Jimbob Art". This is available from "from the wilde" a website that sells amazing art and designs from some of Britain's most exciting illustrators, artists and designer/makers. Go check out the rest of their selection here
Also to see more of James Ward's work go and visit his esty site here
Pug Dreaming
This image came to me after going to Vanfest. I have loved pug dogs since I was about 8, and me and Joe have wanted to get a dog (but done nothing about it!) for a few years. Vanfest was awash with dogs, and I was absolutely beside myself with excitement to spy about 5 different pug dogs over the weekend, cementing my desire to own one!
Friday, 24 September 2010
Amazing mixtape
A few pics of the amazing mixtape that me and Joe got sent as part of the mixtape project.
We had started to get worried that we wouldn't be receiving one, and then got very excited when an interesting envelope arrived on our door mat yesterday morning. This is the work of Sergio F Gallardo and Barbara Ana Gomez Isn't it great!? Loving the 50's adverts, and it has a great selection of music on it too. A lot of time and thought has gone into this one. Thanks guys!
Friday, 17 September 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)