DANNY ROBINS' EVENTS GUIDE: 2ND DECEMBER 2010

Introducing play DJ Shadow's Endtroducing

I missed these guys when they played London's Koko recently so thought I'd give them a mention for this Brighton gig at Concorde 2 on Friday 3rd.

This is truly the sort of post-modern thing that could only exist in our savvy media-saturated times but it does sound genuinely impressive and interesting. Introducing are a 9 piece group who play DJ Shadow's seminal 1996 album Endtroducing in its entirety on live instruments. Yes, that's right - the album that got into the Guinness Book of Records as the first ever album to consist totally of samples is being redone, note for note with real instruments and voices and absolutely no backing tracks allowed. How contrary is that? It sounds borderline impossible and certainly the sort of thing only a crazed musical genius with too much time on their hands would dream up.

It's a strange idea for sure, but apparently, it's an awesome and impressive feat live. Rob Da Bank is a big fan and had them play at Camp Bestival and Bestival. This seems to be the only live date they have booked in before London's The Forum in April next year. They are apparently working on a new project, though it's hard to think what could top this.

Weird Al Yankovic

Song parody is a pretty established art-form now - Youtube is full of satirical versions of well known songs, Katy Brand does them on her ITV show and plenty of comedians do stuff in their live sets, but the godfather of the whole song parody scene is Weird Al Yankovic.

You've almost certainly seen or heard one of his parodies, he was huge in the days when MTV was where it was at and he's still going strong. He scored a Billboard Top 10 Hit with his rap parody White and Nerdy as recently as 2006. Other huge hits include 'Amish Paradise', a take on Coolio's Gangsta's Paradise, Michael Jackson parody 'Eat It' and 'Smells Like Nirvana' - a parody that Kurt Cobain and Dave Grohl both said they loved. Being mocked by Weird Al became a badge of pride for bands to say they'd arrived and his video were massively popular on MTV, often being almost shot for shot parodies of the originals.

Weird Al is 51 now but still seems to be going strong - he still parodies the latest music and I reckon he's still pretty funny. He was never as huge here as he was in the States, where he really has been a phenomenon; he's sold more than 12 million albums - more than any other comedy act in history.

He's doing a small tour of the UK - The Academy in Birmingham on Thurs 2nd, The Academy in Manchester on Fri 3rd, All Tomorrow's Parties in Minehead on Sun 5th and The Forum in London on Mon 6th.

He's a legend of comedy and music. Go and pay homage.

Dandies and Underground Films

A couple of things happening in London this weekend. First, the second incarnation of The Chap magazine's annual Christmas shindig, The Grand Anarcho-Dandyist Ball - I remember talking about this last year. It's essentially a night in celebration of all things dandyish, moustachioed and plus-foured, for those who would rather be living in the 1930s and 40s, knocking back G&Ts and ordering about their man-servants.

This year they've booked the lovely Bloomsbury Ballroom and got Nikolas Grace from the original Brideshead Revisited down as a host, plus entertainment from Mr B The Gentleman Rhymer. The refusal to live in the modern world is nicely summed up by The Chap Room which offers an alternative to emails and texts - you can dictate a message for a fellow guest to a secretary, have it written up on a typewriter and then delivered by a butler. Nice.

The Chap events are always good, so this should be fun and it's a fine chance to give that Movember 'tache one last outing. It's on Saturday 4th. More details at: https://www.thechap.net/

Also on Saturday 4th, the London Underground Film Festival kicks off. No, not a film festival sponsored by the Tube but a week of screenings and talks by 'underground' film-makers - i.e. those without money or big cinema releases.

It runs until Friday 10th and bills itself as 'a celebration of obscure, no budget, low budget, genre and genreless new and recycled films'. There's screenings and talks throughout the day on Saturday and Sunday and then every evening for the rest of the week. Tuesday has The Putrescent Picture Show - a selection of short horror films, Wednesday has the best films from Australia's Sydney Underground Film Festival. On Saturday there's an opening night party. Sounds like it would be worth going down if you're interested in film and certainly if you are interested in making your own - there are lots of talks by low budget film-makers offering tips on how they did it.

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