Gig round-up (Bristol-centric)

There are lots of great gigs coming up in Bristol over the next few months, so when better to provide a round-up. If you aren't cool enough to know all the bands listed below then you can shamefully click THIS handy link for a Spotify playlist which contains a choice track from each band (the ones Spotify has at least..). Otherwise rock out to the embedded yootube/myspace musics. Also, if anyone was heading to the Gang Gang Dance show (w/Fuck Buttons DJ set) at the Fleece this Friday then don't because it's been cancelled due to all of GGD's artsy/bloopy equipment being lost in an electrical fire on the first leg of their European tour. Unlucky.

INGUE RECORDS PRESENT MT + DEAD MAIDS + CONSTELLATIONS at The Cube Microplex on Fri 06 Mar 09

New Mt. track available here (it's great)

PEOPLE IN PLANES at Academy 2 on Fri 03 Apr 09

PURE REASON REVOLUTION at The Cooler on Sun 15 Mar 09

THE ACORN at The Cooler on Mon 04 May 09

MONO at The Croft on Wed 25 Mar 09

M83 at the Fleece on Wed 06 May 09

PREFUSE 73 DJ SET/ SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS / KYTE / APACHE BEAT (BROOKLYN) / DJ SET FROM NADIA KSABIA at Start the Bus on Sat 28 Feb 09

JEFFREY LEWIS & THE JUNKYARD at The Thekla on Mon 27 Apr 09

AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD with support from Middle Class Rut at The Thekla on Wed 22 Apr 09

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE + SPECIAL GUESTS at Trinity Arts Centre, St Philips on Sun 22 Mar 09

MOUNTAIN OF 8 (A MINI FESTIVAL ) at The Arnolfini (Auditorium and Dark Studio) on Fri 03 Apr 09 - Qu Junktions presents. 'Mountain of 8' (A mini Festival ) with Dirty Projectors + Polar Bear + Wildbirds & Peacedrums + Matt Elliott + Gary Smith + Lucky Dragons + Silver Stairs of Ketchikan + Silver Pyre

Also, lol-worthy gig listing of the moment goes to:

THE SLACKERS + THE SKINTS (!) at The Thekla in on Mon 18 May 09

Non-lol worthy satellite news

It all started so well for NASA's new Orbiting Carbon Observatory, which launched in the early hours of this morning from Vandenberg Airforce Base in California..



However at 10.11am GMT NASA implemented an undisclosed "contingency plan" as the payload failed to separate from the Taurus XL Rocket, thus ending the mission in failure. This satellite system could provide a key holistic insight into the processes acting on carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and therefore help in the battle against climate change. Follow the NASA OCO blog here as to the status of the mission.

New Additions

Regular followers may have noticed a couple of additions to the Goatwriter layout. To your right you should now be able to see the Goatwriter last.fm radio station, press play and listen to some choice tracks whilst perusing the blog. Also, excitingly, the page now has a music-themed novelty hit counter. I'm not sure how many hits Pitchfork have had, but I can't imagine its many more than 80,000!!*

*it could be more than 80,000

Spotify the Goat

Spotify, accesible here, seems to be the next candidate to enter the contentious world of free online musics. Although not perfect, and nowhere near as novel as the old muxtape was, Spotify has a huge and ever expanding archive of artists who are freely accesible to listen to in gloriously high quality. As ever (!) you can rely on the trusty Goatwriter to be at the forefront of such new technology. Please follow the link below for a Spotify playlist which, although by no means complete, gives an idea of what Spotify has to offer (which seems to be mostly live/rare/alternative versions of songs). Let us hope that alternative music becomes higher on the list of priorities for the people at Spotify, with notable omissions including: Grandaddy, Slint, American Football and, oddly, Pink Floyd. Your guess is as good as mine as to how now defunct Derby-based math-rockers The Little Explorer made it onto Spotify - let us hope that this is a sign of things to come. See below for their award-winning music video.

GOATWRITER SPOTIFY PLAYLIST FOR Y'ALL

Point to B(us)!

Exciting News! Prefuse 73 + School of Seven Bells (ex-Secret Machines poppy shoegaze) + Kyte(Post-rock for post-rock's sake) + others to play Start The Bus in Bristol, 28th February. Tickets can be ordered for a measly £4 from here. The big cajone Prefuse is going to be "off the meat rack" with his blend of schizophrenic trip-over hop (lol) in the form of a Dj set until 3am. If you dont know Prefuse then get your ignorant chops around this bad babysittter:



This evening is likely to afford many an opportunity to make an angry dance music face, along with whatever face you might make when listening to post rock. Try watching this shimmering little Múm-esque ditty from Kyte, and please report back with whatever face you pull. Im struggling to get beyond glazed at the moment.