From The Basement Weekender
If you like good music yeah yeah and you like watching telly yeah yeah then tune in or set your Skybox this weekend to Sky Arts 267/268HD. Yes – beautifully simple and utterly engaging music series From The Basement is back! The ratings were so good that the lovely people at Sky have decided to run the first series again this weekend.
From The Basement is unique in the sense that it is purely artist led – no audience, no cheesy interviews, no annoying whizzy graphics – just bands doing their own thing in the studio. The icing on the cake is that the audio is recorded and mixed live by none other than uber-god Record Producer and From the Basement creator Nigel Godrich. Word on the street tells us that the next series out later this year will feature Radiohead, Mark E Smith and The Fall, Shortwave Set, Andrew Bird – and that is just for starters. From the Basement Weekend kicks off today Sat 24 May at:21:00 White Stripes/The Shins/Neil Hannon from Divine Comedy
21:50 Thom Yorke/Albert Hammond Jr/Envelopes
22:40 Beck/Jarvis Cocker/Jamie Liddell Sun 25 May line up is:
21:00 Sonic Youth/Jose Gonzalez/Laura Marling
21:50 Super Furry Animals/PJ Harvey/Freeblood
22:40 Damien Rice/E from Eels/Architecture In Helsinki/Autolux If you don’t have Sky then you can watch clips and see the new Radiohead preview here. And if that is still not enough then you can start saving up for the forthcoming Series One DVD with loads of extra’s out Autumn 2008.
Rockmother 
It made me go out and buy the Eels’ wonderful greatest hits, if that’s an endorsement.
been dipping in and out all weekend – great stuff. Reminds me of when we had proper, grown up music shows on tv, where the focus was on… the music! (what an mad idea eh? no wonder that died out…)<br/><br/>Piley
You don’t know how lucky you are living in the civilized English speaking world with first class TV production. <br/>One year here in the frozen north with TV shite except for the odd UK TV prog. a rerun or out of date.<br/>Imagine if you will for a sec.<br/>First take a breath, empty your mind, are you ready.<br/>Finnish Idol/Finnish Top Model, and they are the best of the copies; they get more insanely ridiculous. <br/>What never comes across about the introverted Fins is they???re aggressively arrogant, and feel independently above the rest of Europe. The proof of this is in their insular approach. When you meet them abroad yo get the impression everyone speaks English when in fact a very small % speak, and quite badly. All English TV prog. Have subtitles, and last year Music TV went totally Finnish.<br/>Sorry I???m going on. <br/>Great Show/stuff. Keep it up.
Yes, hurrah for the forthcoming DVD releases. A move to basic digital TV would be nice too, so come on Sky (f)Arts, you know it’s the right thing to do.
I’ve been resisting going back to Sky, but this sorta thing could swing it for me.
BOO HOO…(tears astreaming down). No sky for us…any chance of sky plusin recording for us…It would make one guy I know a very happy bunny…lol x x
Geoffster – well I hope it was worth it – we don’t do refunds ;-)<br/><br/>Pilester – fab – a true FTB fan how splendid. Glad you enjoyed it and thank you for watching.<br/><br/>Momo Madster – thank you Momo – I worked with a Fin once and he was extremely big-headed and insular…until we went out drinking and he went mad with drink and stubbed his cigarette out on my arm thinking it was an ashtray! And look at Raikkonen – the ice driver with no sense of humour although I know it is all an act – I saw him laugh a little the other day when he won….again. <br/><br/>Ister – well – if proper tv would have it! Most of them liked it but then turned it down and tried to copy it! I suppose Sky Farts is exclusive and is a great channel – I don’t have it myself but longingly gaze at the listings most evenings. Anyway – I am surprised we haven’t had a free gift skybox yet as a thank you for creating such a popular series for them cheapskates!<br/><br/>Mr Mondo Bongo – well, thank you – you are too kind<br/><br/>Chazza – I know – boo hoo eh?
Good JoB! 🙂