Producer Jacob

Not a blog about Michael Jackson

On tonight's BBC Kent Introducing

Lights Go Blue, being played on tonight's BBC Kent Introducing show

Tonight from 8pm on BBC Radio Kent: new music from Bodymachine, Orbital and Martin Jay, plus tonight's hottest record from Tom Williams & The Boat... not to mention another six new tracks in Demo Listen Derby.

You can listen live at 8pm, on 96.7FM or 104.2FM, on AM or DAB across Kent, or online around the world at bbc.co.uk/kent. If you miss the show or want to hear it again, it'll be available as normal for a further seven days on the BBC iPlayer.

See the tracklistings and messageboard here - let us know what you think!

Another festivals roundup

So apparently Beach Break Live this week was a success...

That's one more major Kent festival out of the way now, and we've still got another three left to go this summer! Here are the details, in order of appearance:

Florence & The Machine - at The Hop Farm Festival

HOP FARM FESTIVAL

4 - 5 July 2009 - see website

Vince Power's big-name music festival comes to The Hop Farm in Paddock Wood for the second year running next month... The headliners include Paul Weller, Editors, The Fratellis and The Pigeon Detectives - plus loads of other new and old bands who I highly recommend. With no sponsorship or advertising across the whole festival, it's presumably having to rely on rich people and ticket sales alone - but for someone like Vince Power I'm sure it's not ambitious to aim for a massive 53,000 capacity. Seriously though... 53,000! That's massive!

Roots Manuva - at Lounge On The Farm festival

LOUNGE ON THE FARM

10 - 12 July 2009 - see website

From the owners of Canterbury's Farmhouse venue, which continues to go from strength to strength, are once again putting on their highly successful Lounge On The Farm festival on the outskirts of Canterbury. In the past the festival has been home to Super Furry Animals, The Coral and The Wombats - and this year's headliners include Edwyn Collins, The Horrors, Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip, and - announced this week - Roots Manuva. Should be good! Plus, BBC Radio Kent and BBC South East Today will be live from the festival in a celebration of the Canterbury Scene - see the details here.

Sonic Boom Six - at Hevy Music Festival

HEVY MUSIC FESTIVAL

1 August 2009 - see website

A lot of new rock and emo comes to Folkestone Seafront this summer, with three stages of live music from the likes of Feeder, Ash, Hundred Reasons and Cancer Bats. Then there's a third stage, featuring loads of music from around Kent - the lineup for that includes Lights Go Blue and Elephants who are particular favourites of ours, as well as More Than Normal, Eleven Eleven and Kingskin. It'll be... er... hevy!

By the way - Hevy are to be congratulated on having one of the most well-thought-out and most user-friendly festival websites ever. You can listen to every band without leaving the site, and there's great integration with Facebook and MySpace. Top marks.

This week's three top tunes

Baby, there's a shark in the water! Photo by Flickr user StormyDog, used under license.

It was tricky picking this week's top three, because I've been listening to lots this week. But I've done it. Here goes:

3. The Hives - Abra Cadaver

I got the album Tyrannosaurus Hives, from a few years ago, last week. The best track on it is the last one, and it's really short but really good. It reminds me of watching The Hives live, which was truly epic - they're a great live act with lots of gimmicks like throwing drumsticks around. Hear it here (on YouTube) - the song starts at 2.35, just in case you can't be bothered to watch the uber intro.

2. Crystal Fighters - Xtactic Truth (Xtra Loud remix)

Discovered this track because it was Nick Grimshaw's Record Of The Week. Then discovered the Xtra Loud remix which seems to be the same but with more layers and beats and thrill. Good stuff. My mum hates it. I'm afraid I can't find a link to the remix, but here's the original (on YouTube).

1. VV Brown - Shark In The Water (Blame remix)

This is immense. Some proper drum'n'bass with an awesome summery feel to it. I love how well it works making drum'n'bass out of a whole pop song - it doesn't feel wrong having VV singing all over it. I love it.

I couldn't find a YouTube link or anything, but eventually came across the full six minutes as an MP3, uploaded by someone to a sharing site. Remember to buy it if you like it. Here you are.

I'm really enjoying picking and writing about my top three tunes every week - I'll aim to publish the posts every Wednesday or Thursday. For a slightly sooner musical tip, I often do tunetuesday on Twitter.

The Young Knives at Sellindge Music Festival

So there you are! Elephants have celebrity fans - although their celebrity fans clearly haven't learnt their name yet. Apparently they've also bumped into Foals at their Oxford gigs too - maybe watch out for a collaboration...?

Oh, and here's proof that BBC Introducing is FAMOUS!

Also, while we're talking of Elephants and BBC Introducing - here's George from Elephants with his classy new vest:

After the festival I got George to explain the story of his vest. I rather liked it, and so did the audience.

Hear more interviews and behind-the-scenes stories from the Sellindge Music Festival on the show this Sunday (14th June) from 8pm.

Download Festival

ZZ Top - gracing the main stage at Download this weekend. Stay classy.

Seen who's playing at this year's Download Festival in Donnington Park?

There are some great names on the lineup, some you'll have heard of and some you probably haven't:

Five Finger Death Punch... Sacred Mother Tongue... Duff McKagan's Loaded... Lawnmower Deth... Hunting The Minotaur... White Man Kamikaze... etc etc. And loads more obviously, plus some great headliners including Faith No More, Slipknot and Pendulum. And ZZ Top, randomly.

It happens this week. A Kent band called Symphony Cult are playing - hear them this Sunday on the show. In fact, this week's Demo Listen Derby is Download Festival themed, with some of the best new rock and metal we've been sent over the past few weeks. (If you want to get us to hear your tracks, upload them to the BBC Introducing uploader).

This week's three top tunes

I'm not one to take things too literally, but that's a Layer Cake. Which is vaguely related to this post. But mainly I wanted to have a picture of some cake on my blog. Photo by Flickr user kimberleykv - used under license.

Here are my favourite three songs this week:

3. Alexisonfire - Young Cardinals

Hear this on their MySpace. The new single from Alexisonfire seems to have abandoned their old screamy nature (which I was never particularly keen on). Now it's just hench drum solos and a very chorussy chorus.

2. Simian Mobile Disco - Audacity Of Huge

Hear it on YouTube. Remember Simian? We - are - your - friends and all that? They're back, this time with Chris Keating off've Yeasayer, with a new single. The name is better than the song, but that's saying something because the song is great.

1. FC Kahuna - Hayling

I watched the Daniel Craig gangster film Layer Cake this week. I'd recommend it if you are a fan of gangster films (which I'm not particularly!). One of the best bits about the film is its musical score, which features this track by FC Kahuna. See the music video on YouTube, or hear it in context in Layer Cake (NSFW).

So yeah, I've been listening to that loads this week too.

You cannot accuse me of a narrow-minded music taste now, can you?

For more music I've been listening to, see my Last FM profile.

Let Our Enemies Beware video

Remember that track we played from Chatham band Let Our Enemies Beware a while ago? And Zane Lowe played it on Radio 1 too? Well - finally - here's a video for it! Classy stuff!

Another festival comes to Kent: Beach Break Live 2009

With less than a week to go until the gates were set to open on the indie student festival Beach Break Live, the festival team has announced that it will move from its original site on the Cornwall clifftops, to the sunny Garden of England... to Port Lympne Wild Animal Park near Hythe.

Scores of great new musical talent, including Dizzee Rascal, The Zutons and Mystery Jets, will now grace the zoo's gardens for four days of camping, safari and live music next week (16th-19th June). Now based in the same location as last-year's ill-fated ZOO8 festival, Beach Break has had to rearrange their plans for the festival because the planning permission fell through for their original site in St Agnes.

This brings Kent's major music festival toll back up to four, as it joins The Hop Farm and Lounge On The Farm in the highly competitive market. But this festival reaches a specific niche market - university students finishing their final exams - and all 10,000 tickets are already sold. It looks like there won't be many Port Lympne locals in attendance.

For details see beachbreaklive.com.