I forgot...

I somehow forgot to mention seeing Sigur Ros at both of the Germany festivals. The first night I watched from right out front and it was so unbelievable that I forgot to take pictures. They use a gauze-like curtain in front of the stage which produces some amazing shadows combined with projections and lights. It was one of the best visual effects I've ever seen. The second night I watched from the side of the stage which was a very different but also amazing perspective. The music was hypnotic.

I also forgot to mention that Matt got stung by a jellyfish in Nice and Albert peed on him. It didn't work. Apparently it's a myth. Still, that's friendship.

Photos

Shadows, Toronto...


Washington, DC...


Vancouver, BC...


The Lost Coast, CA...


Sunset, Cornwall, England

Yes I Love Technology

At first I couldn't tell whether this was genius or garbage. In the end I think it's a perfect mix of both. Apparently Sao Paulo's favorite party rockers, they're called CSS and they seem to me to be a bunch of sexy, hipster, children-of-the-80s chick rockers who'd make me feel old & lame if I was in Williamsburg or the Mission. The thing is, their 'look' probably stems from living in Brazil and having terrible fashion sense as opposed to being all ironic like the American hipsters. Anyway, the record is called Cansei de Ser Sexy which means "sick of being sexy". Indeed. I stumbled on them while perusing YouTube, which is possibly the greatest thing the internet has ever produced. I'm sure some corporate piece of shit somewhere is drawing up plans to have it destroyed.

Let's Make Love & Listen To Death From Above


Meeting Paris Hilton (live)


They're touring the states right now. I'm gonna see them in SF the night I get in from Australia. I'll probably feel old & lame.

Here's more reasons why YouTube rules.

From the British The Office. Some of the funniest shit ever.

David Brent sings David Brent...


David Brent's video...


From Reno 911...


What an asshole...

Sweet, Sweet Jetlag

It's really odd how this kind of perpetual motion affects me over time. Jetlag feels so familiar now that I almost welcome it. Not unlike a Starbucks in Germany, it's something I normally want nothing to do with, but its familiarity is comforting in a strange place. Today that strange place is Incheon, S. Korea. It's 1:30am here and I just woke up from sleeping 8 hours. We flew overnight from Europe, everyone converging in Frankfurt from their respective "break" locations. I managed to finagle myself (and Matt) into business class which was a major victory for the day. When you're talking about sitting in a seat for 10+hrs, the difference between business class and coach is akin to the difference between a handjob and a punch in the nuts. Just so I didn't get too spoiled, the airconditioning unit on the plane was broken and couldn't be used until the engines started. They announced before we boarded that it was 40 degrees (celsius) on the plane, that's 104F. Now, a 777 is big (as planes go). It fits a lot of people. It takes ages to get all those people and their shit crammed into this tube and be ready for take-off. So for about 30-40 minutes I sat sweating like Meat Loaf, which is exactly what you want to do before sitting in those clothes for the next half a day.
Me sweating...


The sun sets on Siberia...


And rises over Mongolia...


Sometimes I wonder...
Where the fuck am I going?

I spent most of the flight watching 7 episodes of 24 (season 4 for those who care). As soon as we landed I wished I'd slept. It was noon when we landed which was 5am in Europe. We got in a strange bus and drove through the rain to the hotel. We're doing a festival in Incheon which is a couple hours from Seoul. We won't even see Seoul on this trip. Just the airport, hotel and gig. These are the trips that sound great when you list where you're going, but in reality it's just lots of travel and you don't see much of anything. After a few hours I couldn't last and crashed. I slept from about 4:30pm till midnight and now I'm killing time in yet another dingy hotel room that is so depressing that (not unlike the jetlag) it almost feels good, like I'm in a sad movie. A lot of great people lived their lives in sad little rooms like this. There's a poignancy in these rooms. That and about 30 years of someone else's grime. It makes me wish I had a guitar. I could pretend I'm some brilliant but miserable bastard like Nick Cave or Leonard Cohen and I could channel the melancholy into a soundtrack for places like this. It also makes me wish the hotel was nicer.
The view from the Paradise Hotel, Incheon...

Bleak.

Sometimes I take pictures...

Sloss Furnaces, Birmingham, AL


Walburga Eiche, Eastern Germany


Santiago, Chile


Between a rock & a hard place: UK Busses...


Look how artsy I am!

Music: Festival Highlights

So I figured I'd do a quick recap of the best sets of music I saw at the Eurofests this summer. These people make good music. Go see them play it.

The first good stuff came at the twin German festivals Hurricane & Southside. Both days I saw Wolfmother and the Shout Out Louds.

Wolfmother is from Australia and play music that pays very literal homage to big 70s rock. It's not very original but they were amazing. They played in one of the tents which makes for a much cooler vibe for a show than a field in the sun (or at least for this kind of band). It was so hot & sweaty and the crowd was insane for them. They were tight and sounded huge. Good stuff.

The Shout Out Louds are a Swedish band that I've been on tour with twice, once when they supported Futureheads and again with the Strokes. I never paid much attention to them then but I finally got around to listening to their record and I love it. Their sets in Germany were goosepimply good. The crowd ate it up. It felt good just to be in the tent. Get their record Howl Howl Gaff Gaff.

Eagles of Death Metal opened our headline shows in Germany. They were on tour with us for a while in the states and we became great friends. They are not only one of the best rock bands on the planet (you have to see it live), but they are some of the greatest people ever. Get with the mustache...

I watched a bunch of Daft Punk's set in Belfort. Not exactly my thing but I thought it was brilliant. Crazy visuals and where I was standing on the side of the stage it sounded perfect. There's something about the low end...

At Oxegen I thought the Arctic Monkeys were great. Not quite as good at T In The Park though.

And of course my boys the Futureheads & Pixies made nice noise at Benicassim.

I hope to be writing soon about the amazing Mogwai set in Japan. They're probably playing at the same time as us...

Festival Season Ends...

Well, at least the European part. I woke up on the bus at the festival site in Benicassim, Spain. This was the first European festival I did back in 2002 w/Radiohead. It's pretty cool as festivals go. It starts late since it's so hot and goes till mid-morning in the dance tents. There's a swimming pool and open bar backstage so it's good times...


Did the soundcheck and went to check into the hotel. Matt & I hopped a cab to the beach for another few hours in the sun and sea. This time the beach was sandy which felt good after the rocks in Nice.
Matt rocked his undies on the beach...


Got back to the festival in time to catch most of the Futureheads. I miss those boys dearly and I thought they killed. Lots of people turned out to see them open up the main stage. Bittersweet I tell ya.

The 'heads show the Spaniards what for...


The Pixies followed and were great...

I was happily nodding along to Monkey's Gone To Heaven when Charles stopped the song and the band walked abruptly off stage. Turns out the barricade at the front of the stage had broken and people were getting crushed. Nobody ended up hurt but the show stopped for a good 20-30mins. They fixed it with bars from the staging and ratchet straps. Oh the Spanish... professional to the last.

First get 50,000 kids to back up...


I'd love to know what part of the stage these were taken from...


A first rate mickey mouse job...



After Echo & The Bunnymen gave new meaning to the term "bored to tears" the Strokes came out and crushed a great crowd. Oh the Spanish... how they love to jump around and scream their approval.

The last note of Take It Or Leave It...


We weren't onstage till 1:30am and we had an 11am leave for the airport so I only had 2 hrs sleep before we flew to Lisbon to do a show that night. It was another late set and I had a 6am leave for the airport so I didn't even get to bed that night. Now I'm in Amsterdam enjoying 3 days off before heading to Seoul and the rest of our round-the-world journey. It's been mostly spent trying to shake out of a sleep-deprived haze, just in time to plunge headlong into 2 weeks of living on planes, perpetual jetlag and other fun. And so...to Korea.

Viddy This

and just for reference...

More Photos

The Sage, Gateshead, England


Graffiti, Montreal


Luna Park, Melbourne, Australia


Gilbert Hotel, Los Angeles


Ferris Wheel, Gateshead, England


Point Reyes, California


I like the window seat...

Nice...REAL Nice

It's been 5 days since we left Lyon to head to Nice. I woke up on the bus outside the venue which was on the Promenade d'Anglais (the main strip along the sea). Nice is in the French Riviera so it's a huge tourist destination in summer. The venue was a smallish outdoor amphitheater/plaza. Not as cool as the Roman one in Lyon, but a decent place for a show. After soundcheck Matt & I hit the beach for some sun and swimming. The beaches were all rock instead of sand which made for very painful and difficult traversing with barefeet. No sand all over everything though, so that's something. The weather was hot & sunny and the beaches were packed.

Matt on the rocky beach...


After a few hours we went back for dinner & the gig. Catering was amazing once again. The food in France is ridiculous. The gig went smooth enough and I had to set up a mix next to me for some VIPs as Bono & Edge from U2 came down with Bono's daughters and their friends. They all hung about after the show and invited some of us up to their house for lunch. So the next day saw myself, the band, Richard and Matt journeying 20mins up the coast to the compound that Bono & Edge have together. This was truly one of the most unbelieveable places I've been. It's right on the Mediteranean with gorgeous views, 2 houses that are both as sweet as you'd expect but without being gaudy or pretentious at all. We were greeted by Bono & his wife Ali and Edge & his wife and all their kids. We had a delicious lunch on the deck and got drunk on rose. It was really surreal. Now, I'm not the hugest U2 fan as some people I know are, and I've always suspected that Bono was an arrogant prick, but I have to say that he was one of the most gracious, unpretentious people I've met and it was really interesting to see him in that setting. While he was giving us the tour he showed us this room where Ghandi would pray when he had come to this house to get well after his hunger strikes. Listening to him tell that story it became immediately evident to me why he's such a massively famous person, even outside of music. He was so engaging, genuine and passionate about the things that he was talking about, be it the work he and his wife do on AIDS in Africa or the new songs that they played the demos for us. I felt really fortunate to get to experience all of it. So, after a swim in the sea (and after I threw Matt in the pool with his clothes on), we said our goodbyes and went back to Nice for dinner.

The French Riviera




Bono's assistant had set up a table for us at a restaurant they recommended called La Petite Maison. We sat outside and had another first rate meal, enjoyed more wine and a couple of us even went for a midnight swim. It was one of the best days I've ever had.

The next day we had to leave for Spain but not until 8pm so I checked out of the hotel, went back to La Petite Maison w/Albert & Matt for lunch and spent another day of lying on the beach and swimming.

Nick on his own version of the cross...


Then for my last meal in France I found some moules et frites (mussels & fries) at a sidewalk cafe and got on the bus for one last ride...

Lyon

In keeping with the theme this tour of enjoying places I usually don't, I have to say that France has been amazing. We arrived in Lyon at 7am, stumbled off the bus into a misty Sunday morning that looked like this...



The hotel was a cool little place in the old part of the city which was all windy little streets and alleys lined with cafes.



It continued to be really hot so I spent much of the day inside resting. Went to dinner with Matt, Albert, Nikolai, Nick & Danny. We walked across the river to a brassiere called Le Sud (the south). It's one of 4 places in Lyon owned by some famous French chef. They're each named after a direction (north, south, east, west) and each one features cuisine from that part of France. The one we went to featured lighter, simpler Mediterranean food than its heavy, creamy Northern counterpart. The food in general in France is amazing, but this was a particularly delicious meal. One of the best I've had in ages.

The next day was gig day. The venue was an ancient Roman amphitheather built in 43 BC. It's in a part of town called le Fouvrier which is the oldest part of the city and is up the hills from the rest of the city. It was an incredible place to do a show.








We had many hours to kill between soundcheck & the show and much like the last festival we played in France, it was spent lounging in catering munching on delicious bits of food and drinking chilled rose. Catering here was up the hill a bit in the garden of some big old house. It was a beautiful place to spend the day. A picture of civilized relaxation.

The view to catering...




Matt loves his rose...


The view from catering...


The gig was a good one and there was a bit more relaxing in the warm summer night before getting on that god-forsaken bus to drive to Nice.

Montreaux

We drove overnight from Austria to Montreaux, Switzerland to find that our truck had been turned away at the border. While we waited to see if it would get there with the gear we checked into a hotel. We stayed right on Lake Geneva which is a huge alpine lake surrounded by the Swiss & French Alps. Spent the afternoon relaxing and taking in the sights before heading to do soundcheck. After soundcheck I walked
along the lakeside path to a park where I went for an amazing swim just as the sun was setting.



The gig went well but ended late which didn't bode well for our 8am lobby call. I know that doesn't sound early to all you fancy-pants workaday types, but when you get back from work at 2:30am, it's early. I managed to get up at 7 and go for another swim on a beautiful, clear morning. The water in Lake Geneva is surprisingly warm. Not warm, but not cold. Some of the best swimming ever. Montreaux is definitely one of the most beautiful spots I've been to, though the hazy day kept most of my pictures from doing the place justice.

Montreaux


Lake Geneva & The Alps at 7:15am



We left Montreaux and drove thru the Alps to Torino, Italy. It was an incredible drive of twists and turns and mtn. views.




We played a free festival in a park in Torino. It was a long, mellow and very hot day. Had some great salad-y Italian food and waited... The gig went well and we got on the bus to Lyon, France. Day off tomorrow.