Maybe this is what I needed to get going again...

I saw Noel Gallagher at the Royal Oak Music Theatre yesterday and it was... bonkers. The meeting him bit certainly helped with that but... it was a damn fine show on it's own merits.

I've seen Oasis quite a few times. And the highlight for me way always the acoustic bits that Noel would do on his own (playing stuff like "The Masterplan") so I couldn't have been more geeked for this show.

I saw Oasis first with Travis in Detroit at the State Theatre I think? I remember an Ian Brown street team giving us free cassettes and bumper stickers after the show (after which I promptly almost killed Melissa and Lizzy and myself in a rain storm).

Second time I saw them it was pouring out (again) and Liam couldn't barely sing... they were opening for the (ugghhh) Black Crows so we weren't at that concert very long! But seriously it was so rainy I kept telling my friend "Cross your fingers and hope this is actually an exit" when driving on the highway.

The third time I saw them was when they toured for Don't Believe The Truth at UIC with my dad and my sister... despite having numerous panic attacks (god knows why) it was a great show and I kept remarking how much better Liam sounded compared to the last time I saw him. As is typical of my family when watching shows we skipped the end because we didn't want to get caught in traffic (and also because we figured we've seen Noel do the "acoustic" part of the show many times, we'd heard the singles enough times that hearing it again wasn't gonna make a difference, etc)... no rain for that show surprisingly.

So having seen them tour for Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants (which actually may be one of my favourite Oasis albums, or fav albums in general... AND BEFORE YOU RIP INTO ME FOR THAT tell me that the b-side of that album isn't brilliant! I mean it's got "Gas Panic!", "Where Did It All Go Wrong", "Sunday Morning Call", and "Roll It Over" those songs are better than "She's Electric" lol), and having heard them play basically every single they'd ever written had me ready to hear the solo material last night. Had he only played one Oasis song I would have been cool with it. But once I knew that I was going to this show I had another agenda... I gotta meet this generation's equivalent of [insert the name of whoever you think is really important here].

I sort of had this feeling that "I'm gonna meet Noel tonight". I generally have a pretty good feeling for these things... I also tend to go out of my way to engineer a way to make it happen lol. Sometime that doesn't work (see the recent Arctic Monkeys show I went to for example). The other night it did!

I felt sort of bad for him because he obviously wasn't up for it. Even though there were like 6 of us waiting to talk to him? He had a cold (which I think I caught, yay!) and was obviously worn out. Thankfully he wasn't a prick like some people have been in the past because that would have ruined the music for me (and that's a lot of music to ruin.)

I'll write more about it but I wanted to get this post up before I forgot about it like so many posts before. SO WATCH THIS SPACE FOR AN UPDATE WITH MORE STORY!

Check out the setlist here.

Oasis - "D'Know What I Mean"

When this came out I was, what, like 15? And I remember seeing the video and thinking "this literally feels like a mission statement, it feels like for the first time in my life things are reaching the height of awesome... like everyone 'gets it', loads of music is amazing, and it feels like we could change pop culture for the better, like, forever"... I remember when the single came out I had to NOT buy it on purpose so that I would have the money to buy, what was expected to be the greatest album ever written, Be Here Now.

Needless to say Be Here Now should have been called Cocaine Music and the whole band should have been forced into rehab or something... and they should have saved half the album and filled the rest with ummm better songs and lyrics. I'm still trying to sort out what "Magic Pie" is all about.

Unfortunately they never really recovered from the fall out from that 3rd album. It allegedly "killed" Britpop... it was almost universally panned... and at least in the U.S. they never got the credit they deserved ever again. The follow up, Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants, was in my opinion an amazing album! I mean "Fuckin' In The Bushes", "Go Let It Out", "Who Feels Love", "Gas Panic!", "Where Did It All Go Wrong", "Sunday Morning Call", and "Roll It Over" are FANTASTIC (especially those last 4). Ask Ryan Adams! He agrees!

Things could have turned out better for Oasis but... for that brief moment they were about as close to "perfect" as any band has in my lifetime. Or anyone's lifetime. I mean this song got played thousands of times before anyone realized (about 10 years later) that the "backwards bit" at the beginning of the song actually says "...fuck...me"... I'm sorry, I don't care what you think, these guys are one of the greatest bands ever.

Extra personal shit you probably don't want to read: I remember my dad telling me, during at period where we weren't speaking, that he would listen to this and cry. Which was nice. So this song probably sounds better to me than it really is.

New Dot Allison & Peter Doherty, plus Britpop!

I gotta admit I've been pretty bored with dance music as of late. I'm not saying that quality tracks haven't been coming out... it's just I'd rather listen to Blur, Oasis, Joy Division, Morrissey, The Cure, Late Of The Pier, and Klaxons (speaking of, when is that Klaxons album gonna come out now?!?! If you have "The Parhelion", "Moonhead", "Marble Fields And The Hydrolight Head Of Delusion", "Imaginary Pleasures", "Silver Forest", "Echos", "Venus", or "Hoodoo Borer" let me know!)

I mean, I dunno, maybe I'm full of it but British music (on a whole) is sort of in hibernation right now. We're looking back to Britpop, and finding some new scattered gems along the way, but music as a whole feels sort of stuck. So maybe it's time to review some of the glories of the somewhat recent past... and a couple of gems from the future :)

My friend, and inspiration, Dot Allison is about to put out a brilliant record called "Room 7 !/2 and a more polished version of this gem will be on it... these two really should do a whole album together!

Dot Allison & Peter Doherty- "I Wanna Break Your Heart (Demo)"

For more Dot Allison check here!

I heard over my Honeymoon that Oasis were quits, and last I heard Blur aren't writing any new music which basically amounts to the same things. So who is going to take their place. Arctic Monkeys are you gonna do it? Or are The Libertines coming back?

Blur- "Out Of Time (Live)" YSI

Oasis- "Let's All Make Believe (B-Side)" YSI

I hope you all enjoy. As the sun sets on Summer all these melancholy songs seem appropriate headed into fall... I can think of one good album to look out for: Bad Lieutenant I just started listening to today, Muse also look promising (but we'll see, and there is an upcoming Massive Attack EP that (trust me) is VERY exciting. I'll be back soon!

BRITPOP EXPLOSION! Oasis vs Blur LIVE!

I have always been an ardent Oasis follower. The first time I heard "MAY-BAYYYYYY... I DON'T REALLY WANNA KNOWWWWW... HOW YOUR GAH-DEN GROWSSSS" I was hooked. "Live Forever" is the first song I ever learned how to play on the guitar (in fact it's one of the only songs I 'actually' know how to play as I'm not a guitar player... *in the most pretentious I went to art school way* I'm a SONGWRITER lol). I cannot count how many of the best moments of my life were surrounded or soundtracked by Oasis songs. So many fantastic moments.

Like, how about when my friends Melissa and Lizzy and I went to see them with Travis (the band not a person) in Detroit? We were only like 17 or 18 (which meant Meli Mel was a couple years younger than that) and we got soooooooooo fucking drunk. This college age guy in front of us was drinking Jim Beam and buying us beers, and he would keep turning around and beign like "WOOOOO You're my bro man! Oasis are fucking SWEET man!" and letting us take swigs of his pint. If memory serves me correctly I had a joint on me that we smoked with him (who's joint it was evades me but oh well) and it made Lizzy really sick cause she was already so drunk. Frat boy brings me my third and last beer (which I guzzle thinking 'they're bound to play plenty more songs so I better blow this down so when they finish an hour from now I'll be straight to drive') and as soon as I take my last sip Liam goes 'fuck you good night' and the show was over.

Needless to say I almost killed us going home. I frankly it was one of maybe three times I have driven drunk (WHICH I DO NOT CONDONE AND THINK IS HORRIBLE SO DON'T DO IT!) and it was sooooo difficult. When we got home it was as though I had climbed Mount Everest and I was so proud we got home in one piece (btw thanks for that God!). They ended up staying at my house because it didn't really seem to make sense and... if my memory serves me correctly... my girlfriend walked in on the three of us in bed the next morning and was ready to kill me (if she didn't come in she at least stopped by). Now, nothing happened, I didn't do anything with either one of them, they were just my friends, but we all just sat around in bed giggling and being retarded because I think we were still high... and it was one of those bonding moments that makes you friends for life.

We got to see one of the greatest bands of all time. We got royally fucked up. We were saved from certain death (did I mention it was raining buckets, I had the car on cruise control because I didn't know better and almost ran into a bunch of cement dividers because the 'move-over-arrow-highway-sign' was turned off?). We got free Ian Brown solo album singles outside the show. We got to see Noel sing acoustic 'Masterplan'. We had a major laugh and got to do everything fun (and stupid) that teenagers do in one night.

Of course, I've seen Oasis many times since (most of which have been plagued by rain and near death experiences) and I will tell you each time I go it strengthens my feeling that the world is an ok place. That other people see the magic I do in Oasis... in fact it goes a little something like "I think you're the same as me/ We'll see things they never see..."

Their new collection Stop The Clocks (UPDATE: you can stream the whole entire thing over here at AOL= Oasis, 'Stop the Clocks'), which is a greatest hits album with new tracks AND a concept video has just come out and I thought I would celebrate by posting some live stuff to stir up some nostalgia. Here's some tracks from The Point in Dublin, Ireland... it's all Noel, no Liam, in all of his coked out Be Here Now glory! If nothing else make sure you check out 'Stand By Me' which is labeled 'Sand By Me'... ooops!

Oasis- "Be Here Now (Live @ The Point, Dublin, Ireland)"

Oasis- "Stand By Me (Live @ The Point, Dublin, Ireland)"

Oasis- "D'You Know What I Mean" (Live @ The Point, Dublin, Ireland)"

This right here is the best performance I have ever seen them do:


And I really love this song... both are off Standing On The Shoulder Of Giants which I think is the album everyone dislikes except for me...


And since I mentioned Travis... I thought I'd give you this to jog your memory...

Travis- "Driftwood (Live @ Link Cafe, Glasgow)"

Now............... as much as I am a major major Oasis fans with posters in my living room, posters in my bedroom, Oasis ring tones, stickers on my car, and ringtones on my phone... I do like Blur a lot as well. I suppose in the Blur vs Oasis war, I'm more on the Oasis side though. HOWEVER, I own every single Blur album and 13 had a profound impact on my life. And Think Tank. And Parklife. Memories of driving to Bath from London listening to Badhead falling asleep in the sun. In fact when I was younger I used to think I wanted to be Damon Albarn when I grew up (even though everyone said he was a twat). In fact I used to carry a picture of him in my binder during high school (him and David Bowie along with a chat transcript of a 5am GMT chat with the Thin White Duke himself). I own ever Gorillaz album, I have a huge poster in my living room, a dvd and loads Albarn related stuff on my Amazon Wishlist (hint). So having said all this... I will post some Blur as well. Just to appeal to you all.

Blur- "Beetlebum (Live @ Brixton Academy)"

Blur- "Girls & Boys (Live @ Brixton Academy)"

Blur- "Song 2 (Live @ Brixton Academy)"

Sorry I haven't been around for a few days. I'll make sure to post TONS over the weekend... in fact I'm going to start right this second!