David Emery Online

Olympus E-P1

The first Micro Four Thirds camera from Olympus pays unabashed homage to the Pen F; from the classic styling to the long running teaser campaign running in print and online, the E-P1 doesn’t just wear its influences on its sleeve; it shouts about them from the rooftops (and is referred to in some parts of the world as the ‘Digital Pen’). There’s even a subtle engraving on the chrome edge of the top plate that reads ‘Olympus Pen Since 1959’.

Like I really need another camera. Thanks guys.

Left

As I write this I’m watching ‘Night at the Museum’ for the second time in a week – for some mystifying reason Channel 4 showed it last Sunday and this Sunday. The only thing more mystifying is that I’ve accidentally ended up watching it each time. I suppose that it’s the natural conclusion of the concept of the TV replacing the fireplace in modern homes; it certainly has in my household – always on, providing background noise and I guess – somewhere deep down the national grid – burning fossil fuel.

CSI certainly buoys up this argument, by having the intellectual ingenuity of a damp log. (CSI:Miami is kindling in this particular strained metaphor.)

What the burning fire that is Ben Stiller playing fetch with a dinosaur skeleton has enabled me to do is to finally get caught up processing photos from the last week, specifically the ones from the Future of the Left gig at ULU on Tuesday. Now as regular readers will know I saw ‘the Left at the Great Escape only a couple of weeks ago but they’re a band that’s worth going to see every time you get a chance. Also, their set in...

RED ONE Camera Shoots Esquire Magazine Cover

Esquire magazine today announced that the June 2009 issue of their rather glorious magazine (on sale May 10) features Megan Fox on its cover, and more importantly, that the image was captured with a video camera. Yes. That’s right the REDone’s 4k image is the first I know of to be sitting nicely on the front cover of a high-end, public-at-large magazine.

The march of progress continues, although I think possibly the point may be: Why? It’s a nice enough cover but it’s hardly something that couldn’t have been achieved via a traditional camera.

What I wonder is how on earth you go about wading through the footage to find the ‘shots’? For example on Monday at the Sonic Youth gig I took over 1000 shots and picking between those was hard enough – what do you do when you have 10 minutes of footage at 25fps (which works out as 15,000 frames)?

Big Pink ++

It’s funny how gigs seem to come – like the proverbial fleet of buses – in waves; you can go weeks without one and then have a week packed with them. This week was one of those weeks, with the lovely St Vincent playing the Hoxton Bar and Kitchen on Tuesday and then a whopping four possible gigs to go to on Thursday: Jeffrey Lewis playing the Scala, Camera Obscura playing Shepherds Bush Empire, British Sea Power playing the BFI and The Big Pink & The XX playing the ICA.

I ended up going for the latter and I’m very glad I did – it was probably my favourite gig of the year so far. For a start, the other two support acts – A Grave With No Name and Loverman – were surprisingly good, both being worth of checking out further (Loverman particularly – the hints of things like 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster and Nirvana being right up my street).

The XX came in stark contrast to the riotous noise that came before but were no less diminished for it; you get the sense that every note they play has thought and weight behind it and...

The Veils at the ICA

Back in the tail end of deepest, darkest January I had probably the busiest day I’ve had for quite some time. I’d like to think that ‘busy’ is something I can deal with reasonably well, but the schedule for the day was pretty punishing:

11:00 – Go to the ICA where The Veils are filming a video to take some photos

14:00 – Hot-tail it over to Ladbroke Grove for a project meeting.

16:00 – Back to the ICA for more photo taking.

19:00 – Go straight from the ICA to see Blue Roses play St. Giles church (and take photos).

20:45 – Go to the BFI for BUG hosted by Adam Buxton.

Phew.

Luckily, all that running around has actually achieved something; yesterday saw the release of the new Veils album ‘Sun Gangs’ – which is really rather lovely – and if you look inside underneath the CD you’ll see a photo from the video shoot taken by me:

You can see the original photo here.

Isn’t that nice? Typically enough they picked a completely different photo to use...

The Horrors at Rich Mix

I’ve written much praise about The Horrors and their forthcoming album, ‘Primary Colours’ already and it’s been quite gratifying to see that I’m not the only one with that opinion – it really seems to have turned peoples perceptions around (witness the Quietus track by track review for example).

Two quotes I’ve heard stand out (although the first is flagrant hyperbole):

“Strange House [the first album] is their ‘Pablo Honey’”

“They’ve finally got the music to match their look.”

So it’s with that weight of expectation I journeyed down to Rich Mix in East London to see their ‘launch gig’. As is the norm with this kind of thing it was half full of industry types (see Conor McNicholas of the NME’s twitters for example) but I don’t think that really mattered too much – it was a gig that was always going to have a separation between band and crowd as none of them will have heard any of the songs (bar Sea Within A Sea) before.

If anything it created a slightly charged atmosphere – it’s rare you get a set of more passionate fans then Horrors fans (the confirm – on the whole – quite nicely...

Fucked Up

Loud.

Really loud.

So loud that I’m now seriously considering getting ear plugs (the idea of which freaks me out in a slightly odd way). I was half deaf for at least 24 hours afterwards.

I am – as the photo above had maybe tipped you off – talking about the lovely Fucked Up, who played the Electric Ballroom as part of the Shred yr face 2 tour with Rolo Tomassi & The Bronx. I’ll admit that I’d never heard any Rolo Tomassi before – just heard of them – but they were good fun. Possibly a little shouty/screamy for my tastes but that was certainly made up for in energy and enthusiasm.

However, if we’re talking about energy and enthusiasm Fucked Up will take the crown every time. Damian – the singer – spent only one song fully clothed and on the stage; it was quickly shirt off and into the crowd, where he remained for much of the set. Luckily that energy is backed up by great songs so the crowd matched their fervour. I guess it can be summed up by the fact that I went home after Fucked Up – I’d used up all of my CF space...

Micachu

Following on from my last post about what I’m listening to at the moment yesterday I trundled down to the Notting Hill Arts Club to catch Micachu (with The Shapes firmly in tow).

They were headlining this weeks ROTA, which is a regular club night at the Notting Hill Arts Club except it can’t really be called a night considering it’s on from 4pm until 8pm. I am all about the matinée gigs so this is right up my street – see the headline act and still get home by 20:30, what more could you want?

Before Micachu I caught both Favours for Sailors and The Old Romantic Killer Band. Favours for Sailors were good fun (if hardly groundbreaking) and obviously have an exceptional name. Sadly neither of the these things can be said of TORKB (not going to type that in full twice), except the bit about being hardly groundbreaking – they were bluesy-rock by the numbers; they had obviously seen The Black Keys and gone “let’s do that” and added very little in the process. Also, the singer threw up on stage at the end of the last song – it’s not big, clever or shocking,...

Large Joy

I know, I know: long time no see.

Sure, it’s not as though this place is full of tumbleweed slowly ambling by but the fact remains I haven’t written a proper post in donkeys years. I have – of course, as ever – been really busy. Work is very busy in that “it’s all really great stuff but I’d like to breathe more then once a fortnight” kind-of-way (more on some of that soon) but the real reason is that I’m busy beavering away on a new design for this site.

It’s much better then this one.

Anyway, whilst not doing that last night I went to my first gig of the year – Little Joy at Dingwalls in Camden. Little Joy – for those that don’t know – are a three piece featuring Fab Moretti from the Strokes but don’t pass them off as a mere side project; they’re much more then that.

I wouldn’t blame you if you did though; it’s exactly what I did on first hearing about them. Why would the drummer from the Strokes’ band be that interesting. Couple with that the slightly gentle nature of the music and you have something that’s very easy to pass you...

Abandoned London

Lovely set of photos of a deserted London on Christmas day.

It looks so peaceful…