I <3 The Kill Van Kulls. Really I do. They were an unexpected bonus when I saw The Naked & Famous last year and when I heard that they were releasing a new single and doing a small gig to launch it… well. I was sold. They remind me a little of Tears for Fears crossed with Patrick Wolf, which is actually a pretty nice-sounding hybridisation.

Anyway, they were great. Their music really filled out the venue (yeah, I know it was small, but still… you’ll see what I mean later) and, of course, they played the one song that I really know too. I guess I should really try to hit up more of their music, but have a sneaking suspicious that there isn’t really a lot of it about.

Also, as soon as they have a tangible EP or album out? It shall me mine. Definitely. And yeah, I know, CDs are getting a little old-fashioned now, but I like having music I can hold. Especially when you’ve had several hard drives die on you.

Support came from Ben Burrows and We Human. We Human were OK – as it’s over a week since the event, I don’t really remember much. I know I thought they were OK, but they could have done with being a bit louder somehow or bigger sounding (the music didn’t really fill the place, like I mentioned TKVK’s doing before) and maybe it was down to there not being that many people there… but I don’t know. Maybe there wasn’t enough banter between songs. Maybe the sound needed turning up. They were OK. That’s all I’ve got. They’ll probably be more to my exact taste in time.

Ben Burrows was pretty good. Just him, his guitar and his laptop with a sizeable chunk of “you know, I think he listens to a lot of Jeff Buckley” with a smidgen of “a bit ramshackle” for flavour. In contrast to We Human, he really filled the tiny stage and not just because he’s like… a giant (seriously, he was really tall). There was chitchat, there was poking the laptop to make it work without making it fall off its stand and there was guitary bits with some drum bits. I liked it. There was one song that had a one word title beginning with L, I think, that I really liked and now can’t remember the name of.

So. In conclusion, We Human were OK, Ben Burrows was pretty good and The Kill Van Kulls were aces because I don’t go and see bands I don’t think will be aces. Unless someone else has kindly given me a free ticket.

And now that I’ve had some time not trying to remember that Ben Burrows song? I think it was called “Lariat”.

Originally published at half girl, half robot. You can comment here or there.

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So.  Came back from two weeks in Malaysia.

You’ll notice I don’t really talk about going away before I go away. That’s so no one comes round to burgle our house. Not that I’m paranoid.

Malaysia was great though. Got to see most of the family, ate out lots, watched my mum buy many many pairs of shoes, ate some more, carried a lot of shopping and generally had good times all round. I still don’t understand how anyone can just buy 8 pairs of shoes over the course of 10 days. The idea just boggles me.

I’m not much of a shoe buying person. I buy shoes when I need them, not just because they’re on sale and because of the exchange rate/cost of living…they also are really really cheap. I don’t get it.

One thing that’s annoying about Malaysia is the difficulty I have buying clothes there. I do understand that one though.  It’s because I’m twice the size of most of my female relatives and they’re pretty much the average size of ladies in Malaysia. Meh.

Originally published at half girl, half robot. You can comment here or there.

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For anyone who lives in my town: Were those rappers with the PA system in the town centre a christian group?

Regardless of that, some guy gave me a leaflet about some evangelical event. His response when I returned it after reading it (better than just throwing it away) and saying that I was a Catholic and go to Mass regularly? “But we have drama.”

Rap music and drama doesn’t really work for me, I’m afraid.

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I had almost forgotten that this journal existed…hmm.

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I would make krazycat totally invincible to all things

Apart from the cuteness of guinea pigs and kittens, because every superhero needs ONE weakness. And fluffy animals make cool kryptonite

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I…went to a whole load of gigs and never really got round to blogging about them so here goes:

1. Frank Turner @ Brixton Academy 12/12/10

Frank Turner was ACCCCES.  I’d never seen him before, had an unlistened to album and it turned out that I’d only actually listened to one song. He was rocking. The old songs were ace. The new songs were ace. The cover song was ace. Everything was ace.  Support were Dive Dive and Ed Harcourt. I love Ed Harcourt. He started the evening with a full beard and then he came on later to perform with Frank…and surprised us all (even Frank) by just having the moustache.

2. XFM Winter Wonderland @ Brixton Academy 15/12/10

This was also ACES.  Manics were ace. Suede were ace. White Lies, Two Door Cinema Club, Mona and The Drums were all ok.

3. The Twang @ The Relentless Garage 22/12/10

The support were Tantrums who I really liked. Had to leave before The Twang did their encore because of the snow, Christmas and trains and that but they were fun and played all the songs I actually knew

Of course, I would remember more if I’d blogged all this 4 months ago!!!

Originally published at half girl, half robot. You can comment here or there.

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I…refuse to name inanimate objects. Mostly because they don’t have any kind of personality to me and I have enough names to remember already.

Queen of the Damned is a less bad film than I remember, but only possibly because I’m struck down by allergies of dooooom

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AHAHAHHAAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAomgAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH

In other news: Alec Empire is actually the most adorable noise-meister in the universe.

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OMG. Have found out what the title of Neil Gaiman’s Doctor Who episode is.

OMG.

OMG

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I guess, it would have to be somewhere far away that I’m never likely to visit under my own steam. Which reeeeeally narrows it down because I don’t think there’s anyway I wouldn’t consider going in the next 10-15 years at least. Obviously, I’d also cut out the places I’m just not interested in seeing. Like Antarctica. Which I’m sure is fascinating and all, but I like seeing it on TV without having to put in the effort to go there.

I suppose it would be a road-trip all around Europe. Mainly because I hate driving, so if I won a trip like that then it’d have to have someone to drive me, but also because while yeah, I’ll probably visit a lot of these places one at a time, it would be nice to take a few months out and see all the bits in between too.

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