The George Lite Zone

Riddle me this. It amazes me that the British government currently jumping up and down over the execution of a Briton with alleged mental health problems in China, are the same jokers who didn't lift a finger over the extradition of hacker Gary McKinnon to the US regardless of his.... mental health problems. McKinnon is possibly facing 60 years in an American jail, which with his medical condition is a possible death sentence, a fact conveniently ignored, by Gordon Brown and his toadies in the foreign office, so they can maintain their 'special' relationship with Uncle Sam. Ironic isn't it. A dark night in the annals of British diplomacy.

The Lunar Tiki's Leo, A Santa Fit To Deliver My 12 Discs Of Christmas 2009 has been a great year for music, the year that the avant garde broke into the mainstream with bands like Animal Collective, The Dirty Projectors and Grizzly Bear riding high in the charts. Live highlights for me included the Dodo's in Antwerp (far better than their Brussels show), Melody Gardot, The Dirty Projectors and a magical performance from Grizzly Bear ably supported by St Vincent. Not to forget Belgium's own Madensuyu, who's hypnotic drum and guitar playing carried me off on a wave of musical bliss on three separate occasions. And so, without further ado, here, for what it's worth, is my pick of the musical crop from this exceptional year. 1. The Phantom Band - Checkmate Savage 2. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion 3. The Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca 4. Grizzly Bear - Veckatimest It's Blitz! 6. St Vincent - Actor 7. Andrew Bird - Noble Beast 8. The Decemberists - The

The night began with a detour in the direction of a Rockabilly gig which happened to be playing the same venue that night. The nice chap on the door for this quifftastic event took us to a lift which carried us to the first floor and a rendezvous with the Dodos. "Hi y'all" I drawled to the man at the desk "is this the rockabilly concert?". After being told no, I pointed out that I was only joshing and settled down to a pre-gig beer. It's great when you go to see a band and find that a support act are exceptional too. Thus was the case last Saturday night. The Dodos as expected rocked, the surprise in this little kinder egg of a concert were Megafaun . This bearded threesome from Wisconcin sound a bit like the Fleet Foxes on acid, which is no bad thing. Lumbering around like a group of musical Bigfoot, these guys really rocked the house in a moonshine swilling stomping sort of way. I'm listening to their debut album, Gather, Form & Fly at the moment a

Novacon 39's guest of honour, Justina Robson, advocated that social networking and blogs be consigned to room 101. So that's it for this post and the George Lite Zone.

Canceled flights and detours via London do have some advantages. In this case the chance to listen to Hawklords Live 1978 released on the excellent Atom Henge label. First off a trip back to 1978 and Bob Calvert in all his pomp. The 1978 Hawklords tour is special to me as it was the first time I saw the Hawks live. As the first bars of Automoton segued into 25 Years On, I found myself transported back to that night. Calvert on stage with bullet belt and flying helmet. The definitive urban guerilla delivering the ultimate sonic attack. High Rise and Deathtrap followed, the latter delivered with blistering intensity. Age of the Micro Man mellowed things out a bit then, Steve Swindells swirling synth playing and regae rifs counterpointing Calvert's vocals perfectly. No disrespect to messrs Brock and Wright, but no one delivers Spirit Of The Age quite like Bob and the version recorded here doesn't doesn't disapoint. The classic Urban Guerilla then showcases what Calvert brought

Tonight the Willard Grant Conspiracy were aided and abetted by a fine alternative Folk act from Glasgow called Doghouse Roses, initially as the support act and later joining the conspiracy. Iona Macdonald has an exceptional voice and backed by quality guitar playing from Paul Tasker, Doghouse Roses are a fine alt Folk group. I look forward to seeing them back home in Scotland some time. Doghouse Roses left the stage briefly before returning with Willard Grant Conspiracy. A session of top drawer musicianship followed, with Iona's silky vocals providing the perfect counterpoint to Robert's potent brand of Americana. An aural delight to swirl around in the mind and savor, like a fine cognac. Music to warm the soul. The following pictures were the first I've taken with my newly acquired Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II. An excellent lens for low lighting conditions when you don't want to use a flash. Also great for hunting pandas.

24 hours on from Mudhoney's Berlin gig , I was still buzzing from their adrenaline fueled brand of West Coast punk. Madensuyu in Brussels were going to have to be exceptional to take me to the same heady levels of rock nirvana. And exceptional they were. For a two man band Madensuyu produce a wall of sound that is simply astonishing. Listening to their studio material had given me an inkling of what they could do, but live they are something else. Woma n, Fafafuckin' , Tread On Tread Ligh t... hypnotic pulsating music that blows the mind. Ghent's finest have raised my live rock bar another couple of notches and reaffirmed my belief in just how good the Belgian musical scene is at the moment. Go out and buy their albums. Better still, if you can, see them live, you wont regret it. Finally, here are a few more images from a truly memorable night in Brussels.

The last time I was in a mosh pit was at Motorheads 25th anniversary concert in Brixton, the birthplace of punk, it's ironic then that the band to drag me back into the pogoing fray were the godfathers of grunge, Mudhoney, returning to Berlin after a 15 year absence. Tracks from their new album, The Lucky Ones , meshed seamlessly with their old classics, as body surfers cascaded onto the stage in a blitzkrieg of the flesh. On that stage lead singer Mark Arm threw himself around like a man possessed, running at the crowd one minute and jerking around in demonic puppet fashion the next. A punk master in all his pomp. "You may have noticed we had Kurt Cobain on stage with us earlier", he quipped. "He was a bit smaller than I remembered him". Touch me I'm sick in particular brought the house down, with the German audience freaking out en masse. Two encores rounded off proceedings, with the crowd still baying for more. All in all a fantastic nights entertainment

A walk up Friedrichstraße today took us into Scheunenviertel, known as the "barn quarter". Amongst other things, this former Jewish center of the city hosts numerous art shops and includes Tacheles. At the turn of the 20th Century Tacheles was one of Berlin's most elegant shopping centers but has since fallen into disrepair and been converted into an alternative art center. Perusing one of the Tachele artists studio's I came across the surreal work of Hungarian born artist Andras Bartos . A walk further down the road to Oranienburger Str. 27 brought us to a shop full of his work. After much humming and more than enough harring I couldn't decide on a print for myself. Calvin on the other hand immediately went for this macabre canine piece which will be winging its way back to Bonnie Scotland in a few days time.

Sitting here in our hotel room in Berlin surfing You Tube in search of musical entertainment. Having just played a live version of L7's Pretend We're Dead on iTunes, I went hunting for footage of grunge's finest in full flight. That's when I came upon this clip that reminded me what a damn fine drummer Dave Grohl is. With Brütal Legend fast approaching, here's young Jack Black and Kyle Gass performing their tribute to the greatest song in the world, aided and abetted by the shiny demon himself. And here's Dave playing the tributed song. Hmmm is that why Zeppelin didn't have him guesting with them at the O2 Arena. Although he would have done a bloody good job... If they ever make a live action Muppet Movie, Dave's getting my vote to play Animal!

I'll swear that Gym Ball I was working out on tonight is out to get me. Bounce to the left, bounce to the right, roll along on your belly supported by your hands, bounce, bounce, bounce... By the time I'd finished I felt like Tigger. How can a ball be such hard work. I'm not a number I'm a free fan! Speaking of balls, here's an old classic from those German metal maestros Accept . It's the title track from their 1983 release and is the opening album in that old charade favourite The 100 Best And Absolute Greatest Heavy Metal Albums In The World Ever .

Thanks to Suki for reminding me just how good L7 are. I meant to follow up on them when I heard the track Shitlist on the Natural Born Killers Soundtrack album years ago and was mightily impressed. It's taken from the album Bricks Are Heavy which is a good place to start with the band. In terms of all female grunge bands they kick Hole's ass. Now that just doesn't sound right now, does it! Here's a video of the girls playing Shitlist in Rio in '93. Play it loud, then play it again, this is good stuff.

I just heard the bad news from Hawkwind's MySpace account, that Huw Lloyd Langton has just been admitted to Dorset County hospital with kidney failure and is on dialysis after a bout of food poisoning. Anyone out there who wants to send him a get well card can send it to: - Huw Lloyd Langton Prince of Wales Ward Dorset County Hospital Williams Avenue Dorchester Dorset DT1 2JY My best wishes go out to him and Marion.

In search of Mudhoney Berlin gig tickets, I stumbled across this cover of one of my all time favourite Hawkwind tracks, Urban Guerilla. http://www.last.fm/music/Mudhoney/_/Urban+Guerilla Mudhoney's version was recorded for a John Peel session in 2002, and released on a 2003 Mojo Magazine freebie, it was also included on the compilation album Up Yours! Punk's Not Dead . Cargo Records also did a limited edition 7 inch run in a series of Hawkwind covers. Hawkwind's original dates back to '73 and was banned by the BBC due to its release coinciding with a series of IRA bombings at the time. Mudhoney have captured the punk sensibilities of the original, while incorporating guitar riffs reminiscent of early Hawkwind. All in all a bloody good cover. I think they did Bob Calvert proud here. Speaking of which...

The Flemish province of Limburg straddles the border between Belgium and The Netherlands and is home to 5 piece indie band Johnny Berlin . Featuring Paul Renner - vocals & guitar, Laurens Renner - synths & vocals, Roberto Beck on Drums, Tom S. Downing - Lead guitar and Jean Letour on Bass. Musically they hark back to the golden days of 80's electronica with some punk undertones. A time of Kevin Keegan, Spandau Ballet and bad haircuts (such as yours truly's disastrous Afro). Great vocals, cool keyboards and catchy riffs this is a nice band. To cut a long story short, the band took it's name from the legendary 19th Century pimp Johannes "Johnny" Renner. Born in Berlin in the 1920's he wandered depression torn Europe before establishing himself in Belgium in the 30's. Johnny was one of the first people to open a brothel on Chaussée d'Amour (The Highway of Love) between Liege and Saint-Trond and went on to establish a series of bordellos in Brussel

In case of Sonos attack on your district, follow these rules. If you are making love remain in the shelter and use your Sonos remote to stream Hawkwind to your nearest media player. Do not panic. Try to get as close to the sonic source as possible. It's good shit! Remember, if others make requests for music, play more Hawkwind via the Sonos control on your iPhone. Think only of yourself. Yourself... With my CD collection just about re-ripped and residing on a 2TB Apple Time Capsule, I was looking for a means of streaming the music round the house. After exhaustive trawling of the web I came across Sonos and decided to invest in a starter pack. This consisted of 3 peces of kit. The ZP90, pctured above, was connected to my router via an ethernet cable, and my amp using a digital audio cable. Connecting digitally meant that the DAC on my Arcam amp was used, which improves the sound quality considerably, if I want to upgrade further at some point then a seperate DAC could be used. A

The last time I saw J Tillman was at AB supporting his other band The Fleet Foxes. On that occaision he played to a packed concert hall, tonight he played a far more intimate venue, Botanique's Rotonde, to a crowd of around 80. At the AB he played alone, this time he fronted a 5 piece, electric guitar, bass, drums, keyboards and Joshua on rhythm guitar and vocals. And great vocals they were too. This was good stuff, reminiscent at times of Mike Nesmith in his prime and, when they opened up, of the free flowing space rock of Hawkwind in full flight. On some numbers, they had the sort of manic intensity of the Bad Seeds with gongs banged, recorders blown and heads well and truly banged. After the electric mayhem that ensued, the set concluded with Josh returning to the stage and encoring solo with two acoustic numbers. Haunting.

Botanique, saturday night and the anticipation of another cracking nights musical entertainment. First out of the blocks the highly experimental tUnE yArDs. Singer Merill Garbus accompanied by a single guitarist wove together a web of time delayed drums, vocals and ukulele playing that defied belief. If she could have travelled back in time multiple times to provide a one woman chorus and rhythm section with herself it would have sounded a lot like this. Add in a cracking vocal range, at time soulful, bluesy and out and out playful, and you've got a unique and highly enjoyable act. I'm listening to their album BiRd BrAiNs now it's an excellent, if a bit bizarre, listen too. After the last reverbed echo's of Merill's vocals finally faded, on came support number two, a Canadian band called Sunset Rubdown. Fronted by keyboardist Spencer Krug, they hail from Montreal and got the crowd rocking along nicely prior to the main event. Their latest album is called Dragonslaye

Car free Sunday in Brussels. The streets are filled with cyclists, rollerbladers and horse riding dogs. Only in Belgium...

Rammstein. Pussy. Classic. Watch the premier of the new video before it gets banned! http://www.visit-x.net/rammstein/

Here I am sitting listening to the excellent Brooklyn based band Dirty Projectors latest album, Bitte Orca and looking forward to their gig at Botanique tomorrow night. I'll post a review of the gig on the Zone at some stage over the weekend. In the meantime, here's the video to a track from their new album, Stillness Is A Move. You just gotta love a video with a Llama.

The above footage was shot by your intrepid reporter in Cafe Nero in Perth yesterday, and is brought to you by the wonders of iPhone. I think this crazy bird fancies a cup of java and a muffin. Does that make it a mocha'ing bird?

I just read Dave Hoffer's " My Case Against Motorhead " lambasting the worlds greatest Rock N' Roll band. I suggest you do too and add a couple of choice comments. As my old mucker Ken would have put it, he should have titled it "Blossom". It's the Biggest Load Of Shite Since 'Orse Manure.

First off the support act at Botanique tonight, Wye Oak , were excellent. Hailing from Baltimore they're a two piece with Andy Stack on drums, keyboards and backing vocals, while the delightful Jenn Wasner provides lead vocals and guitars. A mix of rock and folk they were most impressive, so much so that I picked up a couple of signed albums, If Children , and The Knot , after the gig. How the hell Andy plays drums with one hand and keyboards with the other is beyond me. Jenn's vocal range was impressive, as was her guitar playing. All in all a good start to the night. As an aside, of their two albums to date, Jenn recommended The Knot as it is her favorite of the two. On to the main event, The Dodos . Before the concert I'd listened to a couple of Dodos albums, Visiter and the newly released Time to Die , playing on my Mac Book Pro as I type. Both are fairly solid albums, with the Visiter being more readily accessible, while the latter is more of a grower. Having heard th