2011′s Crappest Films:

Apart from the last film on the list these are in no particular order. As I was [...]]]>

Hey guys! So the second part of best films of the last year. Before I start with the final countdown, however, I have to give a brief nod to the crappiest films of last year.

2011′s Crappest Films:

Apart from the last film on the list these are in no particular order. As I was compiling this list of best and wort films I realised that I saw all of the worst films films with people that I work with. There was a point were we saw three in a row and and I had all but given up on films and going to the cinema and was consodering firebombing the local Cineworld. Luckily we then went to see the sweet “50/50″ and since then I am on for a run of 7 ace films in a row. Snootch!

WTF??

The best Films : Part Two

5) Kings Speech – Im annoyed at how much I didn’t want to watch Kings Speech based on the trailer alone. It was only with the the mounting awards pressure that I relented and subsequently loved it. Never trust the trailer folks!! You must know the chat by now? A reluctant king (Elizabeth II’s Dad) is forced to deal with speech impediment at the time of war, when the radio is the key telecoms medium and his words are required to empower the nation. Previous attempts faltered until he meets failed Australian actor Lionel Logue, who can help him, maybe……..

4) True Grit – I love the Coen Brothers, with films like the Big Lebowski being one of my all time favourites and No Country for Old Men down as a modern classic. True Grit is a western that is rare these days, tracking the journey of a young girl that wants to avenge the death of her dad. In doing so she hires a bounty hunter played by the ace Jeff Bridges (a Kobestarr favourite) who is drunk and indecipherable and bringing in Matt Damon as Mr LeBeef (spelled LaBoeuf).

wow - he's really fast!!

OK! Thats how for now! By the time this is posted I should be about ready to get onto a plane bound for Brazil!! (Via London and Frankfurt! Wearing just speedos)

K*

I thought the best way to kick my [...]]]>

Hey! Wow…. Sorry it has been a loooong time since I last wrote and published anything – let alone a playlist. Genuinely I have been busy and with this and that and other stuff that I’ll fill you in with someday soon. Maybe…just the interesting stuff…..

I thought the best way to kick my posts off would be to lay down a long overdue playlist. Yay!

Just click anywhere here or on the spotify button to get listening!

A couple of weeks ago I was kicking about in New York City with Red, playing about in East Village, cartwheeling on top of The Rockefeller tower, ice skating, shooting hoops in a cage with Mr Quick, navigating the sales in Macy’s and missing a friend doing the marathon there. Sorry again Linz!

Kobestarrs NYC Playlist - Click here to listen!

Before heading across the pond I loaded down a few NYC tracks to celebrate the long weekend with. It has been a while since I have been on the old faithful that is Spotify to make a playlist so I was a little nervous but I think it has panned out well! The NYC playlist naturally takes you through a fair few genres, which helps to emphasise the melting pot of folk that have lived there and been influenced by it.

A few highlights for me include my favourite song by The Strokes “New York City Cops”. The first day that we were out in the city I was forced into a ”Dunkin Donuts” shop to be confronted by a rotund man in a fluorescent yellow  ”NYPD” weather proof jacket. ”I bet you’ve been here more than once I thought!”

Other big moments in the playlist include the recently deceased Gil Scott Herons “New York Is Killing Me” and ”New York” by Richard Ashcroft from his first solo album. Also on here is New York by Ryan Adams - special mention should go to Ellebee who posted this on my facebook wall, albeit after I had made the list! Thanks though!

The final big hitter will take us into next months Xmas playlist, which is of course, “Fairytale of New York”. Boom! I’m gonna be posting some pictures on flickr soon. Take it easy y’all!

K*

As its (kind of) Christmas here is a list (you see what I did there) of top tips of ways to maximise fun and be [...]]]>

This is the final part of the Camden Crawl Lowdown before the big event this weekend! Woo! It is going to be mega and I can’t wait, its like Christmas…

As its (kind of) Christmas here is a list (you see what I did there) of top tips of ways to maximise fun and be prepared.

1)    Get a list together of the artists that you want to see in order of preference. Be prepared to make tough decisions as there are bound to be clashes in the schedule. Sticking to your list should help you make the most of the weekend.

2)    Go on the website and double check to see who is playing on both days. You should factor that into your planning!

3)    Get to the venue one artist before the one you want to see. Some of the venues are small and will have limited capacity. This will help ensure that you wont be disappointed by the queues.

4)    Try and see 2 bands that you have never heard of. For shits and giggles and such!

5)    There may well be merchandise for sale at the gigs, bring some extra cash if you can, as you’ll want to buy their rare Ep’s and stuff.

6)    Camden is a small place and you are bound to see some of the acts wandering about. If you like them don’t be shy, go up and say hello and try and grab a picture. Bring a marker pen so that they can sign your boobs.

7)    Be prepared to jettison your friends if they are not interested in a band! This sounds harsh, but it could ruin your enjoyment!

8)    Don’t underestimate the distance between venues!

9)    Things are likely to run late at some places. This is rock and roll. Deal with it!

10) Enjoy it!

There are still a fair few bands that I want recommend to you all but there is not much time left to get in there and explain why I think you should see them. As action speaks louder than words I have chosen to give you a brief intro to each of them and a link to a tune of theirs that you should hear. Press play on the track and see what you think! If you wanna hear more go out and hear more and try your best to see them this weekend.

Dels

What a lucky place to pass out!

Rainbow Arabia

Beware the tiger, for fuck sake

Housse Da Racket

Guitars, Lots of guitars!

John and Jehn

Post Orgasmic Chill

Treetop Flyers

Like squirrels, only bigger

Cloud Control

Looks like rain!

The Agitator

Little Drummer Boys...

Enjoy yourselves!

K*

Benjamin Francis Leftwich

I was first introduced to Benjamin Francis Leftwich (hereafter [...]]]>

OK folks with less than a week to go its time to unveil the last couple of posts with the last few recommendations of who to check out before the start of this years Camden Crawl. Lets get to it!

Benjamin Francis Leftwich

I was first introduced to Benjamin Francis Leftwich (hereafter referred to as “BFL” like Roald Dahl’s “BFG” but instead of it standing for “Big Friendly Giant” it stands for “Big Friendly….er Lad?” (What the fuck am I on about? Sorry guys!)) by my flatmate who then went on to see him a venue that only had 30 strong audience. He came back from that gig proclaiming it to be one of the best in his life and going on to book more of BFL’s gigs.

You might that’s excessive, but when you hear BFL’s singing and playing, and I mean really hear them, you may well want to do the same. The thing is when you listen to his songs please, please don’t use the crappy laptop speakers or the headphones that came with your ipod. Get yourself on Spotify or Youtube, type in BFL’s full name (hint, not Big Friendly LadJ), plug in and put on some big comfy headphones, press play and close your eyes!

Benjamin Francis Leftwich ‘Atlas Hands’ by Generator

I’m a complete sucker for an acoustic guitar and voice amalgamation and think that the best, biggest, beefed up songs in the world should be able to be stripped back to those two elements and sound unreal. BFL is mixing it with the likes of Elliott Smith, Jeff Buckley and Scott Matthews. Get involved folks!

Marques Toliver

This guy has got soul! AND a violin! Soul and violin? Say what??  Now that’s a winning combination! Im sure like me that you will be pulled in within the first 15 second of “White Sails” like I was! You should be able to see and hear this now if you click on the play button below!

It’s a rare sound that makes me have to stop everything that I am doing and listen to the intricacy involved. This is one of those exceptional sounds where I involuntarily lose the ability to do anything. If I listened to this whilst driving I would almost certainly cause accidents!

Marques Toliver is living proof that buskers can be awesome having started out that way in his home town of New York he was spotted by a radio producer out there who helped him kickstart his career. He now lives in LDN and should be releasing his EP shortly.

Sound of Rum

I was initially enticed into listening to Sounds of Rum based on their name. Its my favourite drink. I love rum! Rummy Rummy Rum! Down it goes, deep into my belly! I hadn’t considered what my favourite drink might sound like but I can tell that these guys sound MEGA!

Rum sounds like…smooth lounge jazz, (mmm nice), provided by the guitar styles of Archie Marsh, beats by Ferry Lawrenson teamed with the driving conscientious MC lyrical flow of Kate Tempest. These guys met up in 2008 prior to which time Kate had been working her skills in spoken word and hanging out at London Hip Hop Open Mic nights at the age of 16.

Slow Slow by soundofrum

She met Wu-Tang member GZA a few years after that and performed a rap for him, which gave her the confidence to perform in front of others. I’m glad that happened and now Sound of Rum happened and we can all see them at the Camden Crawl this year. Ill be there front and centre!

If you are heading to CC2011 this year then you are more than likely overwhelmed by the [...]]]>

Hey there! I hoped you enjoyed the thoughts of the last post giving you insight on music that you should be paying attention to whether you are heading to the Camden Crawl this year or not.

If you are heading to CC2011 this year then you are more than likely overwhelmed by the amount of choice available over that weekend following the Royal Wedding, with 250 acts playing over two days, and will be quite concerned about avoiding the gash stuff. Once again I have sorted some wheat from some chaff and to give you a helping hand. Bless!

Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs aka TEED

A magnificent name and I’m so glad that the music lives up to it! Despite the rather grandiose moniker TEED is actually one dude. Called Orlando Higginbottom, from Oxford, who makes phat phat electro dance tunes. Think of a dubbed version of Hot Chip from a dude who poses for publicity shots in the type of head gear that would make an Apache Warrior jealous, and me!

Imagine just walking round your local Tesco Metro in that headgear! “Erm excuse me, where’s the milk?”

Garden (edit) by T-E-E-D

Not only do I hope that he dons his largest headdress at the Crawl but that it serves as some kind of antenna to beam his rhythms and beats straight to our brains causing the kinda “Dirrty” hipster gyration in the whole crowd that you see in Christina video. Except with more clothes!   

GhostPoet

Another Kobestarr 2011 favourite! The scene for half of GP’s tunes is the morning after the night before with hazy recollections and exlpanations of his actions to his girlfriends and mother. This guy is definitely no stranger to the party! What I want. What I really, really want is for Ghostpoet to storm it on the stage then come off and then go on a massive bender with his friends and my friends, which will the inspiration for the lead single off his next album. It will be called “Krawling with Kobestarr!” Possibly…

Ghostpoet – Morning feat. Micachu by Brownswood

Seriously though! You need to see this guy. The venue will be small and everyone in there will be beyond cool. A true advocate for hiphop in its truest form, that is poetry set to beats. As the UK’s largest embodiment of “The Four Elements” and hyped up by Mike “The Streets” Skinner as Englands best MC, you would have to be stupid to miss out!

Ghostpoets first album “Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam” is out now so you should buy or Spotify it. It’s so laid back and easy going I like to think that he recorded it whilst lying down in a dark room, incapacitated with a Jim Beam hangover. Check out this song “Morning”, that doesn’t feature on the album. Smoother than a cashmere codpiece!

Maverick Sabre

My man got soul!! Think of a placated Plan B on with a Finlay Quaye flow and you have pretty much hit the nail on the head. Maverick was born in London and raised in Ireland and this has been a huge influence on his music with a social commentary style based on his upbringings.

There are two sides to Mavericks style with side A being the stripped back acoustic soulmeister and side B being the big beat vocaliser playing with big beat producers such as Redline and Wretch 32. Being the selfish Camden Crawler that I am I really want him to bring both sides to the show when he comes back to his motherland.

Maverick Sabre – Far Away From Here by roundhouseLDN

Maverick is already flying high and having been compared to Amy Winehouse has laid some heavy duty tracks down to ensure that he’ll be having a top class year. He was one of the hits of the SXSW festival in 2010 and since then has been teamed up and working and supporting the likes of Chase and Status, Tinie Tempah and Professor Green.

You can grab a copy of his free mixtape “The Travelling Man Mixtape” by clicking the link. Go on you know it makes sense!

K*

I have been once before in 2007, Amy Winehouse was there on the cusp of going [...]]]>

The Camden Crawl is a brilliant idea for a festival. Take a load of new bands, groups and musicians, add a sprinkling of old faves and throw them in to the sprawling semiopolis that is Camden Town.

I have been once before in 2007, Amy Winehouse was there on the cusp of going super loco, I finally got to see The Charlatans and I lost my Oakleys whilst crowd surfing to Jack Penate(I’m still gutted but what a way for them to go!).  I recently had a look at 2007 and was genuinely impressed at how many of the then small acts went on to make waves (Adele, Biffy Clyro, Laura Marling, Foals, Kate Nash, Hadouken, CSS). It truly is a haven for New Music Fetishists and you get a hell of a lot for less than 70 quid, plus the advantage of fully working toilets and getting to a bed at the end of the night!

The problem with the Crawl is that there are just tooooooo many peoples to see and things to do. So for the next few posts I’m just gonna give you the low down of my recommended the acts to see and a few tips to makes sure that get yourself around and involved!

ODD FUTURE WOLF GANG KILL THEM ALL (OFWGKTA) or simply ODD FUTURE

I love the idea of collectives where there is a collaboration between musicians, artists, filmmakers and producers where each person plays a valuable part in the mix. This is the main reason I am mesmerised by Odd Future.

These guys are an 11 strong crew from LA who have recently killed it at the SXSW festival in Texas with anything goes shows and rampage, in a good way! Officially lead by Tyler the Creator, a rapper and producer that has just turned 20, the bastard! He has signed a one album record deal with XL (the surest sign of quality possible in UK music) for the release of his upcoming album “Goblin”.

Sandwitches by oddfuture

Odd future as a collective have released a megaload of mixtapes and albums that you can download for free from their website. I gotta be honest these guys have got mouths on them and lyrically they could offend ya! If you can see past that you HAVE to see them. This is the one show at Camden Crawl where anything can happen and why would you want to miss that?

Yasmin

As recent a Kobestarr favourite I was made up when I found out that she would be playing at CC2011. Cutting her teeth whilst touring with NERD and Dizzee Rascal and will be stepping out into the stage at Camden intent on making the whole of the London Borough dance. Bravo!

Manchester born and forged in trip-hop flow and dubstep beats Yasmin is one cool cool lady I I hope will go on to have a massive year after The Crawl!

Yasmin – On My Own by PurplePR This is the section of the weekend where you’ve moved onto the short drinks with mixers and are looking forward to the happy vibe and tempo that will set you up for the rest of the night! Let all your hair down and grab a load of friends. I bet you won’t be able to stop smilling when you leave her set! £1!

Villagers

Villagers were shortlisted for The Mercury Music Prize and are currently touring with Elbow on their arena tour so they aren’t the newest of bands, but this is where you get to see them in a smaller, intimate venue. You may be able to smell them. If that is your thing of course!

Becoming A Jackal by Villagers by seaninsound

I can best describe these guys as and Irish “Shins” with a few slices of “Bright Eyes”, which is testament to their awesomeness.

These guys should soundtrack an expansive independent buddy type “road trip” movie set in Australia. Something like Sideways 2: Lets go to Oz or Little Miss Sunshine 2: This time the Sun Really is Shining. Or something! Suggestions on a postcard!

K*

The Wombats step out to the Norsk crowd with big grins on their faces. They obviously have a game plan of how they want the night to go and by the looks of them it was something like “let’s just have as much fun as possible!”

The Norwegian crowd are [...]]]>

• http://kobestarr.com/sites/default/files/The%20Wombats%20-%20Tokyo%20Vampires%20and%20Wolves.mp3

The Wombats step out to the Norsk crowd with big grins on their faces. They obviously have a game plan of how they want the night to go and by the looks of them it was something like “let’s just have as much fun as possible!”

The Norwegian crowd are mashed in tightly together and ready to bounce and do so unreservedly as The wombats step into their first couple of tunes including the smash hit crowd pleaser “Kill the Director”.

“Damn” I think to myself. I like The Wombats but hadn’t considered how they would be live, with an energy that proved to be infectious and spread like myxomatosis through the crowd. The main conduit for the dynamism is the Norwegian wing of the band, Tord, who jumps out from his mike stand to the front of the stage at every available opportunity and OWNS it.

Imagine this effect on the crowd, who are whipped into a frenzy each time. So much so that one guy in the crowd surfs above their heads before deciding jump onto the barrier landing square on his ballsack. I was less than a meter away and I have never seen anything more painful, I think he was crying blood!

The boys are magnificent and have great banter with the audience, sympathising with the guy who landed on his balls and recalling a story about a singer in and band that once supported them. This dude had twisted his testes but still played the gig that night but by the time he had arrived at hospital he was only seconds away from having to have them cut off!

Singer Matt and drummer Dan give the most of the chat to the crowd in collaboration with Tørd’s “Tigger” like leaping. Dan even tries his hand at Norwegian. “Takk”, he says “vi skal spille en ny sang nå. Vi hop at dere liker det” (Thanks, we will play a new song now. We hope that you all like it) before playing the genius Tokyo Vampires and Werewolves, which you should be able to hear now.

As the gig is prior to a new album coming out there are a fair few new songs coming out. Normally this would induce a full on belly groan but not this time as the songs are great and received well. A particular favourite of mine on first hearing being “Schumacher the Champagne”, which has a Sgt Peppers vibe to it. So make sure you grab the new album “The Wombats Present…This Modern Glitch”, which will also include “Jump into the Fog” and “Tokyo Vampires”.

The last song of the night is “Let’s Dance to Joy Division” just to make sure they properly smash it out of the park! Boom!

Massive thanks to Maria Malone and Dan Haggis for sorting me out with the guestlist!

K*