the subways, carling academy oxford (with twin atlantic)

Went to the Zodiac (Oxofrd Carling Academy) last night to check out The Subways, verdict, brilliant. So much energy, and they possessed one thing that so many UK artists seem to lack, the ability to command a crowd, both guitarists (Billy Lynn and Charlotte Cooper) showed plenty of charisma and had the crowd eating out of their hands by the end of the night. A top night with a top performance.

Though for me the highlight of the evening was the warm-up act Twin Atlantic. I thought they were fresh, original and all in all a really exciting prospect. Four guys from Glasgow with crazy hair/beard combos with influences from all over the park, I’m eagerly anticipating their debut album due for release next year. So until then I’ll have to settle with the six songs available from iTunes and an upcoming tour, which their signer confirmed to me after the set (shameless name-drop) that they were returning to Oxford.

Check em out, I honestly rate these highly: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=98238102

9/10

decisions, decisions…

After I promised to look at the new iPods way back, probably a few months ago now, here’s a post checking out the new iPod Nano against some of its competitors.

I’ve been looking to upgrade my first generation iPod Shuffle for some time, and after using my Sony Ericsson Walkman phone (with 4Gb memory stick) as my default personal music player for a while now, I think its time I caught up again to the rest of the market.

What I’ve shortlisted is the new 8Gb Nano, Microsoft’s 8Gb Zune and Creative’s 16Gb Zen vPlus. They each have at least one strong selling point that appeals to me, so I’ll have to look at the details to separate them. Ideally 16Gb is perfect for me, will easily hold enough music and as I’m not planning to watch videos on these small players I don’t need a crazy amount of space, i.e. iPod Classic 160Gb. As Creative are the only ones to offer a 16Gb it quickly gets my interest. The iPod Nano is stylish and amazingly small, although it is the only one I’ve seen in the flesh, as it is currently the only one available in the UK. Plus I already use iTunes, so very importantly there will be no annoying transfer of files needed. The Zune is pretty exclusive as none of their models have been released in the UK yet, so it has that going for it – it’d be pretty cool getting it out on the train/bus etc whilst everyone else listening to music is doing so via the usual iPod.