Music Monday Is Dead! All Hail The Playlist!

Recently I made a conscious decision to start writing more and as Seth Godin says, the more you write, the less rubbish you get. Some might even say, the better you get. I'm hoping to get out a bit of the nonsense that rattles around in my mind and hopefully put it in some form of entertaining and even informative discourse for the readers. For a while now, writing about things that interest, intrigue and inspire me is a pursuit that I really enjoy, and the fact that it keeps me searching for and discovering these "things", whatever they may be, is just as important.

But I digress. This post is an announcement. ANNOUNCEMENT. Music Mondays is no more. Though I loved the posting up whatever had been filling my ears that week, I fear that I won't be able to keep posting every single Monday. I still felt it was important to keep the music aspect of Village Boy as music is such a huge and important part of my life, I couldn't do without it. Plus I love nothing more than getting people interested in music I love, and when people do the same for myself. So make your peace with Music Mondays and welcome The Playlist in the world. The Playlist will be featured whenever I few it is necessary to share a track with you, new or old, genre irrelevant. As the posts grown it will create a series of songs for your listening pleasure. So with that, enough for your eyes, here's something for your EARS:

Drake - Headlines


Drake ft Nicki Minaj - Make Me Proud



Nas - Nasty



The Black Keys - Lonely Boy



Duck Sauce - Big Bad Wolf



Jay Electronica ft Mobb Deep - Call Of Duty: MW3




Now that seems like a pretty good way to start The Playlist.

Gig Review: Bon Iver - Hammersmith Apollo.

For years now I've been listening to Bon Iver. And by listening to, I mean having For Emma, Forever Ago on repeat for a few years, then the four track Blood Bank EP on repeat, and then this year their second album, Bon Iver, surfaced and is looking like a strong contender for my album of the year. I've watched his performance of Skinny Love on Jools Holland, countless times, felt every ounce of sadness in his Bonnie Raitt cover of I Can't Make You Love Me. And then there's his work with the one and only Kanye West just to top it all off.

It's fair to say I'm a big fan.

It's almost impossible to speak of Bon Iver, aka Justin Vernon, without mentioning his retreat into a cabin in the woods after his heartbreak from his girlfriend. This is where he wrote his incredible debut album, For Emma, Forever Ago. His odd, highly pitched, yet majestic voice and simple guitar riffs culminated into a deeply sad, heartfelt record that captures the hearts of so many. It is a beautiful album, quite simply, one of the best I have ever heard.

And then came his second album, Bon Iver. Along with millions of others, I prayed that it was as incredible as I hoped it to be. And it was. Now with a 9 piece band, Bon Iver was a whole new beast. With a variety of instruments, some backing singers and some sound manipulations, Bon Iver managed to produce an album of sonic perfection. The tracks are simple and humble when they need to be, and then suddenly epic and euphoric. Every drop is perfectly timed, every lyric perfectly sung and every instrument perfectly placed. Perfect.

So after years of what seems like adoration and hero worship as I write this post, I finally got to see the man live in concert. Needless to say I was excited. Needless to say it was perfect. Like his albums, the gig had a beautiful rythem to starting off, as the sound album does with Perth and Towers, dipping down into a solo Flume and Holocene and then up in Blood Bank.




As the sold out gig progressed, the crowd was transfixed as one, yet it felt oddly personal, largely due to the nature of his songs and the emotions that he can still portray them with. It was almost like every song was going to do end the gig, but there was another and another. After one of the loudest requests for an encored I have heard, he and his band returned to finish the night on two of his sadness, yet greatest songs, For Emma and then of course Skinny Love. Despite the sadness of the songs, you can't help but join in and feel the release of the sounds on behalf of Justin. Having listened to and watched many Skinny Love videos, his live version was unique and a welcome change as he sat down with his guitar and was surrounded by his band as they clapped, stomped and sang along. It was a (sorry for repetition of) perfect end to a perfect night.

A Sunday In East London.

East London is getting a bad reputation these days, and it's safe to say that shows like the upcoming The Only Way Is Dalson, is going to help. There's no doubt that the Shoreditch/Brick Lane area is full of hipsters and just general try hards, but equally, it is full of art and culture, and that is something that should definitely be embraced rather than shunned.

I've dipped in and out of East London, however last Sunday I had a bit more of an exploration, visiting Spitalfields market, Brick Lane market and the beautiful Columbia Road flower market where everything is 'laavley' or '4 for a fivvar'. As you squeeze and shove between a mixture of locals and tourists you bounce between countless stalls featuring vintage clothing, handmade jewellery, real fur coats, art and food from each corner of the world. You really get the feeling that each time you go there you're going to discover something new, whether it just be a new stall of t-shirts, a new musical talent or a spot of graffiti. Speaking of the latter, you can see below some examples that brightened up the streets, made people stop and stare and whip out their phones (guilty) to take a snap, now how can something that adds so much be deemed illegal?

Just a couple of hours later...

I hope to make my visits a bit more frequent and explorations a bit deeper in the near and distant future.

Pastures New.

It's been a bit longer than a while since I last got a moment to sit down at the my worn out Macbook to write some words and sentences on the humble blog. That is mainly down to the fact that it has been longer than a while since I had a chance to sit down and stop at all. Now I won't sit here and bore you with a minute by minute account of the past four weeks but I will (loosely) entertain you with some of the major plot developments, such as I got a pretty decent set of speakers of £5 from Gumtree. I joke.
Some of you will know fully aware that I have, for the past year and a bit, been one of the statistics concerning the numbers of graduates that don't get employed since finishing university. I did a good course, Advertising and Marketing. I went to a good university, Bournemouth. I got a good grade, 2.1 (just). But for me and thousands others, that really isn't enough, and a lack of working experience doesn't help much either. And that darned economic climate helps no man.

So after the best part of a year of applying for every job, somewhat related to the advertising industry, I finally got something. Well I got more than something, I got an incredible opportunity. I'm currently on the HomeGrown intern scheme at BBH. For those not in the know, BBH is one of the original, great, British advertising agencies, and has gone on to fully stamp that reputation on the rest of the world. To name but a few, their client list features Google, Audi, Lynx, ITV, British Airways. Impressive. Though it's just an internship, I'm looking to grab the opportunity and have already starting working on some cool projects. BBH is a brilliant agency, sure they've got a great show-reel and are headed by the great, Sir John Hegarty, but it is their entrepreneurial and tireless approach that I really love. Working in departments such as Labs and Zag, is really incredible as they look to diversify themselves away from the traditional agency approach. They still have the basics of fantastic creativity holding hands with great consumer insights but apply it to pushing themselves and the industry forward. Really inspiring.

So I know find myself situated in London, from the village to the big city, and I'm glad I'm finally here. Things can begin.


On a side note, I thought I would give you a bit of a heads-up on where I'm hoping the blog is heading. Now that I'm in London, I'm assuming that a plethora of interesting activites will be coming my way to write about. But seriously, I'm looking to accompany the usual updates and posts of music, advertising, film, fashion etc, with my life and the things that I get upto. I hope you look forward to this and come along with me.
Thanks for the support.

Vaccines: Wetsuit

Just when you thought The Vaccines couldn't appeal to the indie hipsters anymore they make a video out from a load of Instagram photos. It's a cool idea. Plus, I really like the The Vaccines and Instagram.