The Mars Volta crash land in England

Mars Volta sandwich of happiness

Hands shaking, rash forming, sweat dripping, I was on my way to Universal HQ to meet the two men who made me the girl I am today. Musically obsessed, that is.

Omar Rodríguez-López and Cedric Bixler-Zavala were once in the greatest band I have lived through. At the Drive-In were Hendrix-reincarnate and changed my life the day I saw them on Later with Jools Holland in 2000. I watched Rolodex Propoganda from the  Relationship of Command record so many times it wore the video out. And here I was about to meet them. I was shaking.

They always say don’t meet your heroes. In this case, that advice was wrong. They were everything I imagined them to be. Charming, funny, friendly, and above all pure rock and roll.

I could not be in the same room with Omar and Cedric without asking them the million pound question… are At the Drive-In getting back together? The answer is not as black and white as the question. But there sure is promise there. ‘Never say never’ in the words of the true great guitarist Omar.

Gigwise posted the first news story on the reunion rumour and the full feature will appear next week.

Kills n Stills and Bellyaches

Listened to Post War Years on the tube this morning. Can’t stop calling those mathletic blighters Cold War Kids, though. Why do bands name themselves similar things? Don’t they realise my brain span isn’t as long as their outros?

Did get my thinking about other band conundrums…Cassettes & Microphones and Walkmen; Kings of Convenience and Kings of Leon; Ryan Adams and Bryan Adams (well they are actual names, so I’ll let them off); Handsome Boy Modeling School and Handsome Family; The Kills and The Killers; The Shins and The Stills; The Kills and The Thrills; Wolf Eyes, Wolf Parade and Wolfmother. And forget swine flu, the real concern is the bear pandemic the music world is witnessing at the moment… Grizzly Bear, Minus the Bear, Polar Bear Club, Panda Bear, Bear in Heaven…

Possibly the best animal image ever

Don’t even get me started on Crystal Antlers, Crystal Castles, Crystal Fighters and Crystal Stilts.

What happened to good ol’ fashioned black, eh?

Black Sabbath; Black Lips, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club; Black Keys; Black Angels; Black Mountain; Frank Black and Black Kids, to name but a few.

Much more rock n roll.

I am the firestarter

Smack my bitch up

The Progidy are back. Bigger and better than ever. And two dates at a sold-out Wembley arena prove this overdue return is hotly anticipated by the loyal fans.

Find out exactly how shit went down in this Gigwise review.

… and you will know us by the trail of dead… again

Conrad doing what he does best

Texan trail blazers released their sixth record on Monday. Read the only review you ever need, here.

NME’s 6 star excuse for a review makes me turn green. Not with envy, with pure Hulk shaped rage.

“This has masterpiece written all over it.”

The start of something big…

... and you will know us by the trail of dead

The obligitory first blog ramblings will be cut short today due to adverse weather conditions.

Instead I shall offer a link on how I spent my weekend. Well, 40 minutes on Friday night with the very reason I am now unhealthily obsessed by all things rock – Mr Conrad Keely.

Frontman of …and you will know us by the trail of dead, Keely was a delectable fella and treated me to such a candy store of impressive quotes that I exceeded word count. Lucky for me, those good people at definitive music website gigwise.com know a great interviewee when they’ve got one, and let me twitter away.

Enjoy

trailofdead.com