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Five Day Forecast – w/c 26 Sep 2011
By Andy Malt | Published on Monday 26 September 2011
Having spent most of the weekend in the countryside, I readjusted myself to urban life last night by going to see Death Grips at XOYO. There’s nothing like some aggressive hip hop with live drums from Hella’s Zach Hill performed in almost total darkness to tell you you’re back in the big city. It was a great show; dark not just in lighting terms (although stage illumination was mostly left to the occasional camera flash), performed in one intense stream with no audience interaction, save for a “thank you” right at the end. Let’s see if there’s anything happening this week that might match up to that…
01: Conrad Murray trial. After a number of false starts, a new jury has been selected and the trial of Dr Conrad Murray, who is accused of killing Michael Jackson through negligence of course, is due to begin tomorrow. It’s expected that Murray’s legal team will argue that Jackson administered the dose of Propofol that killed him all by himself, possibly in a bid to commit suicide, because he couldn’t face actually going through with his looming 50 date residency at the O2 Arena. The prosecution will argue that the doctor shouldn’t have been giving the singer a surgical anaesthetic as a cure for insomnia.
02: BT Digital Music Awards. It’s probably about time someone handed out some more awards, isn’t it? It’s been ages! Sometimes I wonder if the world has just forgotten about the concept of awards ceremonies, they happen so infrequently these days. Thankfully, BT is on the case. The formerly public-owned telecoms network will be handing out acknowledgements for folks who’ve done well in the field of digital music at The Roundhouse in London on Thursday.
03: BBC Music Video Festival. This started last week, but in the previous Five Day Forecast I chose to instead tip an event that, as it turned out, wasn’t actually happening. Luckily, this celebration of music videos continues to run throughout this week as well, finishing on Saturday, so I can mention it here now. Events are happening all around the country, though the focus is in Norwich, where The Forum venue is home to Europe’s largest permanent video screen. There you can see the Norfolk County Youth Orchestra playing along to videos created especially by Efterklang this Thursday, amongst other things.
04: New releases. Right, where do I start with new releases this week? There are a lot. Particularly exciting are the new albums from Roots Manuva, Dum Dum Girls, Mastodon, Sleep ∞ Over and Death In Vegas. There’s also the re-issue of Nirvana‘s ‘Nevermind’, a load of Smiths re-releases, and the physical release of Polyvinyl’s Japan benefit compilation. Plus records from Twin Sister, Zola Jesus, Apparat, L-Vis 1990, Jane’s Addiction, Machine Head, Plaid, Brett Anderson and SCUM. Blimey.
05: Gigs. To launch this year’s Oxjam, various artists will play in-store shows at a number of currently secret Oxfam shops this week. Headliners include Damon Albarn’s DRC Music project, Fatboy Slim, Brett Anderson and Charlie Simpson. As well as that, The Cinematic Orchestra and various guests will be adding new soundtracks to silent film at the Barbican in London on Saturday, there’ll be the latest Ja Ja Ja Nordic showcase on Thursday, and the likes of Shabazz Palaces, Zola Jesus, Theophilus London, Male Bonding, St Spirit and Young Legionnaire will all be playing variously.
And whatever you do, don’t forget to listen to the latest CMU podcast. Who knows what terrible things would happen if you did? Stream it below or get it through iTunes here.
Andy Malt
Editor, CMU
