Yes, the barbers. A place for hair cuts and inane background music like local radio or daytime Radio 1. But not this time, no Airbourne Toxic Event blasting out good and loud.

So I better give you an idea of what ATE are like. Probably the easiest description is to say that they are a mix of early Elvis Costello and the Smiths.

Photo from recent Faithless gig

Only dissappointment is the new dates don’t include a return to the UK.

It is still early, but Scratch My Back may make the album of the year in my books.

Of course they also performed their big numbers such as God Is A DJ and lesser numbers like Flowerstand Man.

Wonder over to photos.mp3monster.org to see pictures.

“Re-Vinylized” trailer from John Boston on Vimeo.

When I go travelling on business, and often being on my own I have a chance to go looking for those record stores that manifest the character of Nick Hornby’s Championcip Vinyl.  rummaging through the racks looking for something different and interesting is a good way to kill some time.  so I thought I’d point out a couple those fine emporiums I’ve encountered:

Polyester Records in Melbourne - a hint of commercialisation, but a brilliant section on Oz & Kiwi artists.  More Empire Records than Championship Vinyl.

Basement Discs - good stock of vinyl, big on Folk.  Easily missed as its only a small entrance at street level - but basement is big, right in the centre of Melbourne.

Dixons Recycled Disc - several stores around Melbourne (I visited the Prahan store as I wondered down Chapel Street) stocking second hand, or better put ‘pre-loved’ music.  An aladin’scave of stuff. Yes, lots of the dross, but jems among them.

Amoeba Music - San Fransisco, a short cab ride from the city centre. But a place of pilgrimage.

Rasputin Music - heart of San Fransisco, just a minutes walk from Union Square and could be giving Amoeba a run for its money.

So the tour means a large Orchestra rather than his regular touring band. The concert has much in common with a traditional orchestral performance with the first half being the new album end to end. After the interval we’re treated with some great reworkings of his own songs. Some obvious choices and others not so.

With a large orchestra Peter can’t provide the usual style of performance he lays on with zorb balls, Sedgeways, massive moving floors. That’s not to say this was not a class Gabriel visual feast. No, we get curtains made from massive U2 style displays, visuals behind the orchestra; several camera crews filming, often right in the middle of the musicians so the stage side screens get you into the heart of the action.

So a beautiful and stunning concert. I have posted some photos on our flickr account. What is cool is that the guy (Stefan Goodchild) who produced some the visuals has found my pictures ans some by a few others (possibly more professional than mine) and put them together into a collection to show his work which can be found here.

If you read the journal, the artist will be making some video clips of the work available. We would highly recommend checking them out, along with the blog.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mp3monster/sets/72157623594005837/

even better ….

• iTunes wishlist
• Amazon Wishlist

If only there was an easy universal wishlist app out there.

“extensive critically acclaimed US tour in Fall 2009, Moby recorded an intimate live performance at the Montreal iTunes store to a captivated audience. ‘Moby iTunes Live from Montreal’ becomes available around the world at iTunes …

For this special recording Moby performed tracks from his most recent album ‘Wait For Me,’ as well as some other classics from previous albums, with a rare ‘stripped back‘ set consisting of just guitar, piano, violin and vocals. Joining him for this incredible and unique performance were the very talented lead vocalists from his tour - Kelli Scarr and Inyang Bassey. “

iTunes album here - £4.49

I’ve not yet seen the album listed on the usual online stores yet to preorder yet.

• Official Site
• Myspace
• FaceBook

Glorious Noise hve an article about trying to support real record stores here. Although I do want to agree with the direction of the article, I am lossing faith in the bricks & mortar stores because they only seem to want to flog mass market and not cater or encourage more diverse tastes.

Having said that when I was in San Franscisco recently, I had a little bit of time spare and came across Rasputin Records.  This is how record shops should be, rough around the edges - with that feeling you’d get that Nick Hornby captured in High Fidelity.  Four stories of this within a block of Union Square!

Plus a video of the creation of the album at http://www.vimeo.com/8715360RegardsTBx