Monthly Music – June Jams

Monthly Music June

I like music, in fact I’d go as far as saying I love music. As anyone that follows me on twitter or Instagram will know, or anyone that has seen any of my posts about festivals I’ve travelled around the world to get to, I talk about music quite a lot. I spend a fair bit of time recommending music to other people as well. So I’ve decided that I’m going to start doing monthly round-ups of bands/music I’ve been listening to for that month.

Worth noting is that there is almost always an underlying amount of Thrice, The Hotelier, The Smith Street and various Post Rock bands to go alongside this. But I’ll try and keep this on either new discoveries or bands that have really stuck that month.

I listen to a lot of sad jams (read old school emo a la American Football), punk rock, post rock and pop punk but there may well be something here for everyone’s tastes so don’t discount anything. If you’re interested then follow me on Spotify

Somos – Temple of Plenty
At the start of the month I asked a few of my friends for some recommendations and Somos were one of those. I’ve been listening to this album on repeat ever since. Think undertones of American Football but with a slightly more upbeat and poppy vibe. Plenty of singalongs and perfect for summer.

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A weekend in June: Hotbox, Dinerama & Dinosaurs

Well, June has been hectic. In fact, wait a minute, it’s JUNE? And it’s July IN TWO DAYS? When did this happen? I have no idea where my time has been going lately. It seems to be slipping away faster and faster (along with my money). Just this Friday I’m moving (again) to Bow Road, so if any of you are East Londoners, mine is a Gin & Tonic (no cucumber, god help you if I find cucumber in my gin).

Secret Cinema - Force Choke

Force choke – Photo by Arthy

But why has June been so busy I hear you ask? Well I’ll give you a snapshot of just one weekend to really hit it home. It started with a gig on the Thursday, the Movielife to be exact, at the Electric Ballroom. A whole heap of my friends were down from Leeds as well as a bunch of people from London. The Movielife are one of those bands that helped shape half the people I knows music taste. They got big in the early 00’s before breaking up and continuing with various endeavours (Vinnie, most notably in I Am The Avalanche). This meant that while it was a Thursday, a rather large amount of booze was consumed, and by the end of the set I had no voice left.

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Strawberry Glazed Doughnuts

Strawberry Glazed Doughnuts

Here comes that chant again; Doughnuts, Doughnuts, Doughnuts. I realised it had been too long since the last time I cracked out my doughnut baking tray and I wanted to give a strawberry glaze a go for that classic pink glazed ring doughnut. When my friend Char (across at Dino Princess Char) was posting about some problems and not being too happy I took the chance to send her a Cake Care Package to try and cheer her up. It was the perfect opportunity for me to crack out the dinosaur sprinkles my friend Naomi gave me for my birthday, and it gave me a chance to channel my inner Jurassic Park fan (I’ve still not seen the new one, so no spoilers please).

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Simple Water Recipes: The eBook

simplewaterrecipebook

The sun’s out, that means it is basically Summer, right? This means that it’s finally time to start thinking about refreshing cool drinks. I personally drink a ridiculous amount of water. I find that if I don’t have 4+ pints in a day I get headaches and my skin dries out. I’m one of those people that’s fortunate enough to absolutely love the taste of water (I know people that hate it, to the point where they just will not drink it) but even I sometimes get bored of it. Fortunately there are a number of great ways to flavour up your drinking water without using cordial or without having to shell out for anything fancy.

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Easter 2015 Pt.3

Early on the Sunday morning of my trip to see my parents on the Isle of Mull at Easter (see parts one and two) I woke up to see my Aunt & Uncle off for their ferry. We were also thinking about a couple of different walks we could perhaps fit into the day, planning low lying ones to avoid the rain. Little did we imagine that on opening the curtains we’d be greeted with an absolutely stunning view across the Loch with a thin band of low lying cloud leaving the peaks clear.

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