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Coachella 2009 30/30 Initiative: Friendly Fires

Posted by Amoebite, March 25, 2009 11:13pm | Post a Comment
127 Bands, 5 Stages, 3 Days and 1 Mean Sunburn.

"Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival - April 17-19th, 2009 or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Find 30 Reasons To Love a Weekend in the Desert."

- By Scott Butterworth


Day #9 - Artist #9 - Friendly Fires:


Friendly Fires, from St Albans, England, first played together at age 14, under the name First Day Back. They parted ways to attend university and after returning in 2006, formed Friendly Fires. Over the next year they released a trio of EPs:  Photobooth, Cross the Line, and The Remix. Their first single "Paris," released at the end of 2007, was named "Single of the Week" by influential English publications The Guardian and NME (New Musical Express), and launched their career with appearances on Channel 4's (England) Transmission Program and (tastemaker English DJ) Zane Lowe's Radio 1.

This led to them supporting Interpol on a tour of the U.K. and numerous performances in the U.S., including opening for Bloc Party here in Los Angeles this past July. Their debut album, Friendly Fires, was released September 1, 2008 and the band just finished promoting the album on the NME Awards Tour 2009 with two of the hottest U.K. bands at the moment, and fellow Coachella 2009 newcomers, White Lies and Glasvegas. 

Oasis

Posted by Whitmore, March 2, 2009 01:20pm | Post a Comment
The Brit-pop band Oasis’ first ever concert tour of China, planned for this spring, has been cancelled;  Chinese authorities have deemed the band as being "unsuitable." The shows scheduled for Beijing and Shanghai were due to take place on April 3rd and 5th; tickets sales were stopped on February 28, according to China Daily Newspaper.
 
Though no clear explanation has been given other than Oasis being “unsuitable,” it’s thought this cancellation might have something to do with China's Culture Ministry's recent discovery that Noel Gallagher played a Free Tibet benefit in the US in 1997 … that is a no-no in Mainland China.
 
Also uncertain is whether or not the show scheduled for Hong Kong on April 7th will take place.
 
The rest of the South East Asian tour will go ahead as planned, as Oasis is currently on a world tour promoting their latest CD, 2008’s Dig Out Your Soul -- their seventh studio album. Just this past week Oasis was voted the best British band at the annual NME Awards. They also won for Best Blog for Noel Gallagher's Tales from the Middle of Nowhere which is published on MySpace.
 
Oasis was formed in Manchester in 1991. Their first number one UK single was “Some Might Say” from their second album, (What's the Story) Morning Glory?, peaking back in April 1995. Since then they have chalked up seven more number one hits and sold over 50 million records world wide. They have also collected fifteen NME Awards, five BRIT Awards, nine Q Awards and four MTV Europe Music Awards, plus odds and ends of other awards like the 2002 Top of the Pops and the 2007 Vodafone Live Music Awards.
 
A number of musical acts from the West have performed in China in recent years, including the Rolling Stones and Elton John, but some performers have run into problems on their way to China. Jay-Z was denied permission in 2006 due to his use of profane language. Britney Spears was permitted to play in 2004 but with the strict understanding that her costumes were not to be too revealing. And last year, Icelandic star Bjork made waves when she shouted "Free Tibet!" during her concert in Shanghai.

Viva Hate?

Posted by Gomez Comes Alive!, February 3, 2008 02:33am | Comments (1)
Many of my fellow Mexicano/Chicano peers that have much respect and hold Morrissey in high regard. One of them is L.A. Weekly’s Ask A Mexican writer Gustavo Arrellano. In his excellent article written back in 2002 by about Morrissey and his Mexican following, Arrellano asked then doctorate candidate Colin Snowsel why he thought why Morrissey and Mexicanos were so closely connected.

“Morrissey was, in short, providing to lower- and middle-class Mexican-Americans the same dual utopian message that he had once provided a decade earlier to predominately Anglo fans in the United Kingdom," he writes. And what did he offer Anglos? "Escape from the injustices of a social order that confines them to the margin, but escape also from the limited identity options entrenched in peripheral, working- and middle-class culture."

It was disheartening in reading that at the end of last year. Morrissey was in the news for his comments made about immigration to NME magazine. In the article it suggests that one of the reasons that he no longer lives in England is due to immigration.

“ With the issue of immigration, it’s very difficult because, although I don’t have anything against people from other countries, the higher the influx into England the more the British identity disappears.”

Seems quite odd for someone who resides in Los Angeles, one of the most diverse cities in the world and with a large following of Non-Anglos to say something like that.  Morrissey supporters are quick to mention that he is a life long liberal and defender and lover of people all over the world. In his rebuttal to the NME, Morrissey states that, “Racism is beyond common sense and I believe it has no place in our society.”

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