A few weeks ago, the Camden Roundhouse played host to one of Britain's great underestimated bands. Perhaps to call them undiscovered would be a misrepresentation for Athlete have had 3 top-ten albums and a couple of top-ten singles, but the sell-out crowd would call them one of the country's most unappreciated bands. The crowd was mostly middle-class 18-30s, a lot of couples and close groups of friends, which is probably one of the biggest indicators of why Athlete have never taken off in the way they should have. They're not a band that your whole group of friends will like, some people will understand and some won't. Truth be told, I didn't get in to their latest album, Beyond the Neighbourhood, until the 3rd listen, but after that I was hooked. Its beautiful balance of soft guitar, electronic noise and traditional rock has made it one of my favourite albums of 2007.
Wandering around London today, I found myself in the Apple store on Regents Street, firstly to find out who's supporting Athlete tonight in Camden (Boy Kill Boy was the answer), but secondly to test a rumour I heard. I'd been told that the iPhones in the store all had working sim cards and you could make and receive calls! I had to find out if it was true.
Whilst at work today, I, like almost everyone else in the office, was being updated in some way/shape/form on the Macworld keynote speech, in which lord Jobs announced a number of products including the Macbook Air. Possibly the most talked-about piece of hardware since the iPhone, the ultra-portable macbook looks mighty pretty (see picture below) and is incredibly small. I'm writing this on a 3rd generation Macbook with the same 13.3" screen, but the new Air will be almost as thin as the lid of the macbook!