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