Good Weather Does London
Cheerio, bitches. This is a most excellent time for me, as I’m abroad in London spending the next six weeks doing the one thing I love most: surrounding myself with good music. Not sure why I neglected to bring this up until now, but here’s what’s up. Last summer Vice gave me one of the best experiences of my life in my six-week internship there, so I obviously had to up the ante in 2007. Thus, here I am back in the motherland, doing all kinds of exciting shit and just generally living the dream. Below is a comprehensive breakdown of how I’m keeping myself (very) busy here.
Mondays and Tuesdays I’m in Covent Garden working at the Clinton’s legal firm as an intern/personal scout for Nicky Stein, a tastemaker of sorts in the British music scene and one of Britain’s preeminent music lawyers. This dude represents everyone that matters in the UK in 2007. Seriously, name a band set to do big things this year and he’s probably got them on his client list. The Kooks? Check. Hadouken? Check. Air Traffic? Check. Cajun Dance Party? Check. Vampire Weekend? Check. The list goes on and on (and on). My job? Checking out hot unsigned bands on MySpace by day and going to shows to see said hot unsigned bands for free by night. Did I mention I’m actually getting paid for this? Sometimes life is beautiful.
Wednesdays find me interning at XL Recordings, the home of The White Stripes, Ratatat, Thom Yorke, Cajun Dance Party and like fifteen other bands I fucking love. Suffice it to say, I’m way pumped about that, especially since this summer will see the release of a new White Stripes album and the beginning of teenage up-and-comers Cajun Dance Party’s rise to stardom. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays I’m working with Imran Ahmed, who runs XL subsidiary Abeano Music (home to I Was A Cub Scout and To My Boy), is a head writer for the NME, the curator of London’s biggest indie club night (FROG @ the Mean Fiddler) and has his own radio show on BBC6. In other words, dude is doing everything I want to be doing in four years. Long story short: this summer is going to rule. Hard.
There are a few drawbacks, however. Most of you have probably noticed a glaring lack of activity around here as of late, but neither time nor reliable internet service have been in large abundance for me over the past week or so and unfortunately none of that’s really changed since I’ve gotten to London. My flat in Willesden Green, while nice as shit, will have no internet connection until May 22nd when its apparently going to be installed, and even though internet cafes are in abundance here, I need the FTP program on my laptop (not to mention the music) in order to upload tracks to the site. Clinton’s has no wireless set-up, but XL’s got the hook-up, even though I’m only there one day a week. I’m at shows every night so I don’t exactly have a surplus of time, but I’m confident I can work something out. And just for those of you who are wondering, Rya finished her second column for me this weekend, but as I said, I can’t upload shit at the moment so it will have to wait until closer to the weekend.
But yeah, the best summer ever stars now. You down?
MP3: “London’s Alright” - The Tacticians
May 16th, 2007 at 1:44 pm
Haven’t been that jealous in quite a while and I just found out that the girl I’m seeing has a boyfriend
May 16th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
Oh man, that’s soo cool… I wanna go to England!
Are you going to big shows there? I bet you are… Maybe you can bump into Thom Yorke!! Oh God…
May 16th, 2007 at 3:24 pm
First thing you want to do, is get yourself over to the Luminaire in Kilburn, the best live venue in London…
Six weeks won’t be hardly enough time to “do” London, you won’t sleep…
May 16th, 2007 at 3:54 pm
i’ll hold down everything in VA for ya. have fun over there. have a drink at the black lion. cheers.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:13 pm
Yes my hometown, Nice one. I guess you missed interpol at koko? A shame
May 16th, 2007 at 4:28 pm
You are the luckiest son of a bitch like wow. You have fun, you hear me? Fucking awesome.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
Jesus. Thats some nice arranging. I’m hugely jealous. How on earth did you manage to secure all of those internships? Etc.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:42 pm
London/ England is the best place on Earth. Fact.
Great to hear your here to taste our indie scene.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:44 pm
THE NICHOLAS J IS NOT PLEASED.
May 16th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
Sounds like you’re going to have another great time over her in England!
May 16th, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Hey, i live near Willesden Green!
It is a decent area but by no means great when compared to some areas in London which are absolutely brilliant. You will have fun, London is packed with things to do, 6 weeks is a good length of time. The plan you have sounds incredible, well done for getting some brilliant placements!
May 16th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
have fun dude!
May 16th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
While you’re over here check out Dartz! www.myspace.com/darts
They’re supporting “IWACS” on tour, they’re all from where i live and once upon a time I was friends with the singer. Clutching at straws.
Rather good I think you should agree.
May 16th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
ohh. and www.myspace.com/theripps they are 10/10 good too.
May 16th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
25th may- tunbridge wells forum (an hour train from charing cross), the teenagers (http://www.myspace.com/theteenagers) are playing, you should definitely come check it out out if your not busy, pretty nice venue too
i second checking out dartz! and i was a cub scout as well, theyre playing here too
the wombats (i can remember you being crazy about them!) are playing here june 3rd as well i guess theyll be playing london too, looking forward to them!
enjoy yourself mate and try not to get mugged
May 16th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
Good luck with all your endeavors in London! But don’t forget to bring us some new shit to dance our party hats off to!!!
May 17th, 2007 at 6:56 am
Fucking awesome. I have to say I’m pretty damn jealous, although that must have taken some serious arranging.
May 17th, 2007 at 6:56 am
I was about to say, the only downside is living in Willesden Green. That’s the hood. Boyeeee.
May 17th, 2007 at 9:00 am
Arnold, I most definitely did not miss Interpol at Koko, as I got in Monday night and was able to see them Tuesday, thanks to the fact that Abeano signees To My Boy were opening. I did, however, have to leave early, as I was severely jetlagged and was absolutely knackered. I thought it was a great show, but my location in the crowd wasn’t exactly ideal so I didn’t have too much trouble leaving early.
As for the difficulty of securing all these internships, it was surprisingly stress-free, and despite getting a very late start on the search everything just kind of came together in the last place, thanks to the fact that all of my employers are familiar with the blog (and the fact that they’re all now either head over heels in love with Vampire Weekend or professionally involved with them after finding out about them first here). It’s quite lovely, really.
And finally to clarify, Willesden Green to the left of my flat is the hood, but as long as I keep to the right it’s all good.
May 17th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
nicky stein is a celebrity.
May 17th, 2007 at 3:31 pm
Well done mate, wish i had got a ticket. I guess theres reading festival. Have a good time in london, maccabees playing tonight at astoria?
May 17th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
Nicky Stein does JAYMAY as well who is absolutely wonderful. Last time I was in the UK I met up with Nicky at Fabric for Cajun Dance Party along with SMD, The Whip, Metronomy, Kavinsky, SebastiAn, and more….check out Adventures in the Beetroot Field, they do those shows.
May 18th, 2007 at 8:04 am
Welcome to the Jungle!
Not sure what the mugging comment is all about. You’d have to be pretty unlucky to get mugged here. Mind you, I don’t spend a lot of time in Willesden!
You going to Daft Punk in Hyde Park?
May 18th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Ldn is the place.
Willesden, though, is pretty shit! Not that where I live (Acton) is much nicer.
http://www.myspace.com/fielddaylondon
If you’ve not already heard about that, it’s definitely worth checking out. If the weather’s good it’ll be a top day out.
If you’re still around then that is.
May 18th, 2007 at 2:51 pm
WTF - Posting on an interblog about a mediocre band from the ivy league gets you several phat internships in London for a summer…Why the hell did I ever go to law school…
June 21st, 2007 at 4:10 am
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