More than one pot of gold at the end of this I suspect

I figured every blogger and his dog (or should that be mouse?) would be talking 'In Rainbows' this week and thus stepped away from what was probably the most obvious thing for me to talk about on this page in months. Well, it turns out I couldn't resist.

Just to get the opinion bit out the way first; it's a great album. It's not life-changing, and it's not my favourite album released this year, but it is full of good tunes, musically interesting and stylistically challenging, as one might expect from Radiohead. It's concise, moody and fantastically precise. It feels like it has been meticulously crafted and that's no bad thing in my book. 'Hail To The Thief' sounded quite the opposite, and was played less as a result. 'In Rainbows' sent me back to 'Hail', as well as 'Amnesiac' and 'Kid A' will go on again soon. I've always been fond of 'Kid A' and 'Amnesiac', but never that sure on 'Hail'. This hasn't caused any great change in viewpoints, but it has sent me back to some fabulous music. 'Drunken Punch-Up At A Wedding' was blasting out in the Rescue Rooms bar on Thursday night when I went to see Maps - quite possibly my all-time favourite gig - and it reminded me of why we all liked Radiohead in the first place. Ballsy, grumpy and unmistakably them. Anyway, I think it's a pretty decent record and am looking forward hugely to my 'discbox'. The low bit-rate was a bit of a shame, but it was a fucking download first and foremost, not the way to listen to music in the long term.

Now, the more interesting aspects of this week. Paul Morley has something of a reputation as a self-aggrandising smuggy whose writing attempts to build a house with nothing but hot air, but puts intellectual curtains in the window to give the air of something too clever for us mere mortals. Possibly the most convoluted metaphor ever, that. Enjoy. Anyway, this week he truly surpassed himself, and I say this as someone who has quite a lot of time for the chap. His track-by-track review for the Observer Music Monthly blog was spectacularly twattish. Whether it was meant to be a huge wind-up or taken seriously it was still the most bizarre thing I've read in ages. I'm well aware that picking apart a piece of writing I consider pointless is probably even more pointless, so I'll attempt to keep my criticisms specific and brief. Obviously this may still cause the internet to melt, but we shall see. (Incidentally, I've been reliably informed that the real way to melt the internet is to Google 'google'.)

The faux-ironic, I'm saying I'm not doing it but I really am, teee-heee-heee, approach grates from the off. I actually found myself needing power-naps in the middle of the review just to make sure that I would get to the end, so heavy is the over-bearing tone of 'this is about Morley not Radiohead'. I'm well aware that this is how he has always been, and re-reading old piece from the weekly music press his style is engaging, bold and provocative. His latter-day writings are often astute, amusing and erudite. But this was a pastiche. Hard to criticise him for it, as I'm sure he pocketed more than a few quid for the review, but there remains a worrying sense that he might have actually thought it added something on the subject of 'In Rainbows'. Still, he's not as mental as some of the people over on the atease message boards, who appear to think that the members of Radiohead are figments of their imaginations who should do as they're told.

Favourite bits of 'In Rainbows'-ism, is this page dedicated to creating artwork for the album. Some genuinely wonderful stuff here.

Good point

I've said it before, but it's worth another shot

Go and investigate The Innocence Mission.

That is all.

VJ will be taking a break from here on. The daily-ish posts will come to an end for the time being. It will return. Probably.
Speak soon.

I was, er, 'on board'

Two great artists were played on last night's Zane Lowe programme - the first of which being Laura Marling. The new single, 'New Romantic', is what won me over, but here's the last one, 'London Town':

The second spiffing piece of musical niceness came from Adele. Again, it was her new single, 'Hometown Glory', that grabbed my attention, but here's a performance of a track called 'Daydreamer' from Later.

P.S. You may remember that some time back in June I alerted you to the podcasting efforts of Nick Margerrison, a DJ and now stand-up who offers something a little different in the increasingly muddied waters of British radio. Well, the fine chap has got himself a brilliant gig which'll start in October. Nick's going to be doing late nights on Kerrang! Radio in Brum. Bearing in mind the kind of show he's replacing, it's safe to say he should have enough freedom to produce a show as great as the Hallam FM triumphs that converted me some years ago. Info here.

And this was a good idea how?

What the fuck?

"This is the way they would have come, if they hadn't not come this way"

Musical Revelations Of The Week:

The Go Team! - 'Proof Of Youth' - Ok, so they're not reinventing the wheel, but there were some quite sniffy reviews of this album in the 'serious' papers recently. It's meant to sound like it's all coming through a transistor radio. That's what made the first album so charming. This one's a bit more vocal-heavy than the debut, but still rides a wave of euphoria from start to finish. I wasn't convinced by the first singles initially, but I'm glad to say I was wrong and if 'Thunder, Lightning, Strike' was a favourite, then take a punt on this too. Purchase early for a rather splendid free bonus disc of oddities.
Andy Lewis & Paul Weller - 'Are You Trying To Be Lonely?' - A cracking Northern Soul stomper that is a logical continuation of one of Weller's teenage compositions, 'Left, Right & Centre' having similar treatment at the hands of Lord Large and Dean Parrish not all that long ago. As I've said recently, Weller's voice has matured like a fine wine, and his covers album, 'Studio 150', demonstrated that he can apply it to a variety of styles. This is a resounding success, and far more heavyweight than the collaboration with Graham Coxon from a few months ago. Single out tomorrow.
Bat For Lashes - 'Fur And Gold' - I've already said a fair bit about this, but for anyone who likes their female singers quirky but affecting then this is for you. No peaks and troughs, just quality throughout. Still cheap at the moment due to excess Mercury-influenced stock in shops, but may not always be the case.
Non-musical Revelations Of The Week:
Argentina's rugby team: To be fair to myself, I'd had more than a slight hunch that the opening game of the Rugby World Cup 2007 might go against the home team, France, but what a bloody great game it was. I shouted myself hoarse cheering on the underdogs, despite the fact that I reckon France deserve their time. It blows Pool D wide open, with Argentina, France and Ireland all competing to get out of the group and on to the quarter finals. Gripping stuff. Unlike the England team who looked like there's a slight risk they may not come even second in their pool. As for my lot, it's a good job we finally managed to play well in the second half of a game of rugby for a change, as we were fucking awful in the first half. I fear for us against Australia. Here's a cool picture of Shane Williams from the BBC website, although likely to be from Huw Evans' Welsh Rugby Pics website, which is full of wonderful Welsh rugby photos to buy.Sky News - This morning a slightly flustered member of the Sky team attempted to fill a huge chunk of airtime stood by the side of a road waiting for the McCann family to arrive at an airport. She spent much of the report turned sideways on to the camera as she appeared to also have the job of looking out for the relevant vehicles. It was one of the most pointless and ill-conceived bits of 'news' reporting I've ever seen. Quite what would have been gained by seeing the cars I'll never know. Such is the problem with rolling news. It's got to be filled with something. Rather charmingly, she was determined to make up for failing to being us live pictures of a moving car, so she showed us the airport, and how it would have been for the McCann family if they hadn't gone through the private entrance. So, in other words, here's some footage of an airport for absolutely no reason at all. Bizarre.
Outnumbered - Some of it might have been improvised apparently, but who really cares, because it was funny. Starring Hugh Dennis and the delightful Claire Skinner, this was a comedy based around some brilliant child actors who spent the majority of each of the six episodes pushing their parents to the edge. Laugh-out-loud funny at times, and nothing less than chucklesome at others, this was another fine piece of telly from the team behind Drop The Dead Donkey.

It was the first game of the Rugby World Cup. Did you really expect me to be here?

The Bat For Lashes album was waiting for me when I got in yesterday and I already feel a little slack for not having explored it sooner. The performance at the Mercury awards was fantastic, almost bettering the quite sublime offering from Maps, and led to an almost immediate purchase from the very reasonable, Action Records. Having shouted myself hoarse supporting the Argentine underdogs last night I've finally had a chance to listen to it this morning and it's actually better and more consistent than I'd hoped it would be. Something about the fragile, haunting live track made me suspect that such aural claustrophobia wouldn't translate to a full album, but it never relents.

I was rather delighted to be reminded of Mazzy Star by 'Seal Jubilee', while the inevitable Bjork comparisons are no less than accurate, although it's definitely early Bjork. Not sure when I last listened to 'Volta', but I feel like it's something I have to mentally prepare myself for. I'm a sucker for the piano, and similar more bizarrely named instruments on records, and 'Fur and Gold' has plenty of it. I can same with some certainty that this is one that will be played regularly here, and for once the Mercury has done something good. Obviously it still gave the award to The Klaxons, to ensure that people aren't too satisfied, but a C+ for effort.
The good folk at Norm have come good on the vinyl of 'BFI' by The Dragons, finally. There's a great deal of muttering going on about this record on the interweb. A surf-psych/funk/soul record recorded 37 years ago and then abandoned due to the lack of 'a hit' is the official line from Ninja Tune. Seems perfectly plausible to me, but certain know-it-alls are claiming that it sounds too 'clean' to have been made back then. Who knows, eh? All I can say for certain is that it sounds great and is worth ten of your earth pounds.
Finally, I've just finished playing the new Misty's Big Adventure 7". Oh, how I love this band. 'I Can't Bring The Time Back' is a slightly less 'kitchen-sink' pop nugget, but the real gem is on the flipside. 'Serious Thing' is a pounding little beast of a tune that is the most ballsy thing they've done to date. Well worth hunting down on Club Fandango records.
Hmmm. Time for more rugby methinks.

Really I need a rapper to just talk bollocks over the start of this, and then I'll have loads of readers

Sitting here, air-drumming along to 'A Certain Trigger' as I am, I am reminded of just why I love music so much, and spend so much of my hard-earned cash upon it. It really can pick you up, give you a massive great shake and set you on your feet again.
Whilst purchasing a few bits and bobs in Morrisons earlier, I was drawn to their 'Chart CDs for £7' offer. Naturally, the choice isn't exactly broad, and I enjoyed smirking at the big pile of unloved Athlete albums, but I was reminded that I'd toyed with picking up the Rihanna album a few weeks back. 'Umbrella' started off as something I found quite annoying - quite possibly simply because lots of people like it, but it grew and grew until I finally realised that it's a piece of perfect pop. Factor in the new single, 'Shut Up and Drive' and I was sold. Turns out that the album is really good record, and that the pop masterclass is present for pretty much the duration. I'm not ashamed to admit my liking for pop - the Girls Aloud and Sugababes singles collections are both fantastic sets - but I have to confess that I didn't imagine a few months back that I'd be enjoying a Rihanna album quite so much.
I also didn't imagine I'd be particularly impressed by an issue of Q magazine, but lo-and-behold, the new 'Songwriting issue' is a great record. Interviews with Stipey, Bjork, Rufus Wainwright and Nick Cave amongst many others and Cash For Questions is Girls Aloud. The Editor's note suggests it'll be normal, lists-r-us fodder next month. They do have a sense of humour, mind. On the letters page, someone's written in to point out that there's a Scandinavian magazine called Q. The Q response is, "Do they do lists?"

So hard to deal with all the love

So, last night I did live coverage of the Mercury Prize on the blog and today it has the lowest number of readers since the very early days. Harrumph.
Anyway, here's Bat For Lashes and Maps, just to point out how utterly splendid they are and how Maps wuz robbed!

Live and interactive

A brief initial post in which I point out that I would love Maps to win the Mercury tonight. Of course, if James (Maps) Chapman is the winner now I'm going to be annoyed that I put no money on it. Still, it's a wonderful album and if you don't own it yet, then you really need to sort yourself out.
Anyhoo, this post will be contiuned later with reaction to the event.
It's 'live' on BBC4 from 9pm.

EDIT:

Well, The View were shite, as was Jamie T and that old Rascal. The Young Knives had a certain charm, although they were a little nervy, and New Young Pony Club went from a band I'd wanted to investigate to the 'not bothering with them' list. The Maps performance just edged it for me, although La Maison du Vin did a wonderful job of putting the attention back on the music and the Bat For Lashes album has just been purchased. Neat little performance from Glasto by the Arctics, while Klaxons were somewhat wonky as is always the risk with so much in the high-notes range - sounds a bit better on record. Basquiat Strings weren't all playing the same song, to my knowledge and Fionn Regan conducted himself with a fragile majesty.

And the winner is...

(God, Jools is a knob!)

The Klaxons!

What the fuck happened there then? Just goes to show that the Mercury is the most bizarre music prize in the world. Bear in mind that in the past they did give it to M People. The Klaxons are crying on stage. Awww. Couple of decent songs lads, but do they really deserve this?

Ah well, good exposure for Maps and I've found a nice album from Bat For Lashes. Night all.

A Short Post About Nothing Much

Went to work this morning with a spring in my step and left truly brow-beaten and wondering why such a frivolous mood had been present nine hours earlier. As a result, I required a large dose of loud, familiar music to sort me out. I've now moved on to a live version of 'The ChangingMan' by Weller and The Needles' 'Girl I Used To Know', but my initial came from my beloved Neil Hannon and The Divine Comedy.
To celebrate this, some spiffing Ver Tubeness featuring Sir Niles Hammond of Irelandshire.

No more than seven years behind the times

Musical Revelations Of The Week:

Paul Weller - 'Heliocentric' - Yup, finger on the pulse of yoof music, once again. As I said a week ago, I've finally picked up the two Weller solo albums that were missing from my collection, this one and 'Heavy Soul.' I won't go over the reasons for the delay again, but suffice to say I've been proved wrong. Somebody I work with is absolutely obsessive about Weller and recently attempted to persuade me that this album was far better than critics judged it on release. I allowed him to blather on for a little while, before dismissing such fanciful notions with but a waft of my eyelashes. However, I think he might actually be right. I've been playing it quite a lot this week - that and 'Lady's Bridge' - and it's really starting to win me over. It's not so much individual songs that stand out, but the overall mood that it creates. It's soulful, it's got that earthy-rock sound that has more than a little blues in there and his singing is marvellous. There is, however, one tune that does stand out, and that's the closer, 'Love-less.' One of Weller's heart-breaking, piano-led ballads that just floors me. A delight, not to mention a surprise. The spiffing chap himself was in the Sunday Times magazine today which I happened upon as a result of switching from the Sindy as a result of the free World Cup guide. I'm such an oval-ball whore. That seems so much worse written down than it did in my head.
Booker T. & The MGs - Picked up the 'Stax Profiles' CD from Fopp the other day because a) it was £4 b) it's compiled by Elvis Costello. I've always been quite fond of BT&MGs, but the 'Complete Stax/Volt Singles' and their 'Green Onions' album had always seemed to suffice. This album was something of a revelation and Costello must take some of the credit for his wonderfully enthusiastic sleevenotes. Sitting between the speakers and giving it my full attention I realised that I'd done this lot a disservice in the past. Don't just judge them on 'Green Onions' and don't write them of as background music. At this price, you can just buy it rather than have me try and capture the raw power of these tracks on a blog on a rainy Sunday afternoon.
Super Furry Animals - 'Hey Venus!' - I was convinced that, having waited an extra week for it, the vinyl edition was going to be a shit pressing that sounded like somebody was eating a bag of salt and vinegar throughout, but no, the LP of this quite marvellous record sounds ace. In addition to that, you've really got to get it just to see that artwork in its 12"x12" glory.
Non-musical Revelations Of The Week:
The Smoking Room - Got series two on DVD this week and it reignited my love affair with this programme. The laws of the land ensure that a third series would be highly improbable, but that doesn't stop the two that exist being laugh-out-loud funny throughout. A beautifully observed bunch of regular characters reaching into double figures spend each episode doing little more than talking. This would be shit, but for the perfectly crafted dialogue and the meticulous performances from the cast. Video samples from here.
The Likely Lads - It's my firmly-held belief that 'Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads?' is one of the all time great comedy shows but I'd never got round to buying the DVD of the surviving episodes of the original, black and white series from the sixties. The Beeb, back in the days before archive material was the never-ending source of money, had wiped a great deal of legendary material - Pete and Dud and Dad's Army suffered similarly cruel fates, but these seven episodes remain. They're bloody funny. To be fair, it's the later episodes that stand up the most, but still, I remain hugely jealous of Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, writers of not only this, but the follow-up series and another of the greatest shows of all time, Porridge and its follow-up, Going Straight. The Likely Lads owes a great deal of its entertainment value to the performances of Rodney Bewes and James Bolam who are superb throughout. Their entirely believeable relationship adds a dramatic elements to events, as well ensuring that every gag is milked to its full potential. Wonderful stuff, and currently going rather cheap. (You can get the surviving episodes of this series, plus both series of 'WHTTLL?' in a box for £17.99 here)
Gideon Coe on 6music moving - I was rather dismayed to learn that one of the most under-rated presenters on British radio is being moved from his morning slot to the equivalent show at the other end of the day. From 22nd October, Gid will be hosting 10pm-1am, while shouty E4 tyke, George Lamb will do a straight swap into the mid-morning show. Is it a genius move to provide music lovers with an excellent late night listening experience now that Radcliffe's been moved up the schedule or is it yet more dumbing down of 6music to the point that intelligent presenters can no longer be heard during daylight hours?

No movement required

The second of the 'indie shops that are dead good and well worth your time and money' series (catchy, eh?) is one you can't even go to. Over the last couple of years I've become increasingly aware of the demise of the bricks and mortar musical havens and in particular the plight of my favoured store. Naturally, mail order is the thought that springs to mind, but do I really want to be giving Play, HMV or even, ahem, Amazon my money?

I chanced upon the quite splendid folk at Norman Records when looking for a copy of the out-of-print Magnolia Electric Co live album, 'Trials and Errors'. After trawling through umpteen webpages with no joy, I happened upon this beacon of splendour in a sea of porn and badly informed twerps ranting on bulletin boards. I've been increasing my spending with this particular shop in recent months due to their excellent customer service, competitive prices and wide range of stock. The lines of communication are second to none, and tweaks to orders or discussions about pre-releases are dealt with quickly and successfully.
In addition, the site features extensive reviews sourced from weekly updates that can be accessed from the main page, where all of the staff chip in to review the new releases. What I particularly enjoy about this aspect of the site is that they've not afraid to say something's shit. They work on the theory that everyone's entitled to their own opinion, and as it's their site it'll be their opinions that will be posted. You can add your reviews if you want, but nothing's ever as amusing as reading some of Phil's rants about tired, bed-wetting indie music. There's a rather charming attempt at a caveat on their reviews page, that in itself can't help being opinionated - "Please note: if the review isn't positive or offends, please remember it's only someone's opinion - so get a grip!"
So, to summarise, the staff are shit-hot, music-loving types, like me and thou who spend silly money on vinyl and can't get enough noise in their ears. Prices are ace and items are packaged really well. Lines of communication are frequently monitored and the stock range is a delight. If you can find a problem with them, let me know, 'cos I can't. I think Norman Records is an outstanding little indie store and you'd be a fool to not click here.

Like the independent record shop guide in this month's Mojo, only for the UK, rather than America

Following on from a comment from the enigmatically named, 'Anonymous', I'm going to embark upon a massive great list project of the UK's greatest indie stores. At this stage, mind you, they've got to be pretty bloody good to still be alive. I'd like to offer info about the stores, possible web links and any thoughts from actual, real-life people who've been there.
This will grow into something splendid, hopefully, but it will require input from the delightful army of lovelies who visit this site from time to time.
I'll spread out my contributions over a few posts, and as the series grows I'll put a collection of links in a menu on the right-hand side of the blog, so that you can find them all easily. Ain't that neat?

First up, the soon-to-be-no-more Reveal Records of Derby. Quite possibly my favourite record shop of all time, but their time is up, and the shop has only months to live. As stock levels dwindle and prices slowly descend it'll no doubt slip in the rankings as it becomes transparently obvious that the game is up, but for the time being I'm almost telling myself that "it'll all be ok."
A wide variety of genres are covered, along with bargain prices through 2 for £10 offers and the like, and with the current desire to shift stock prior to closure, the bargains will increase. It feels a little like ambulance chasing, but it's gonna happen whether I get a few cheap records or not.
Reveal also has its own record label, featuring Joan As Police Woman and Lau. All good stuff.
Links:
REVEAL RECORDS ONLINE SHOP
REVEAL RECORDS eBAY SHOP
REVEAL RECORDS LABEL

Over the weekend, whenever I can be arsed, I'll add Selectadisc of Nottingham, Spillers Records of Cardiff, Norman Records in Leeds and Action Records of Preston.
Throw your delightful ideas in my web-based direction should you so desire.

I'm a traitor. Oh well

One of the internet boards I frequent had a thread today asking for posters to recommend one track from iTunes that people might enjoy. Naturally, I'm not one to condone all of this downloading ahead of buying from lovely wee record shops that go out of business if we ignore them and just go for convenience over personal service and physical product (yup, still bitter about Reveal), but I thought I'd join in. And, in an act of word-recycling in these eco-friendly times, I thought 'fuck it', that'll go nicely in the blog. So here it is.
The Innocence Mission - 'Tomorrow On The Runway'
A hauntingly beautiful track.
Clicky!

P.S. My thanks to Richard Hawley for alerting me to this one via his excellent forum, on which he does post. What a nice man.
P.P.S. Maps tour dates have been announced. Buy tickets now before the Mercury Music Prize bluster causes a sellout.

On the breeze, like

I'm fairly certain that the ever-growing bunch of regular readers of this blog aren't especially bothered about the person who writes it, more the shared interest in music and the surrounding areas. Thus, I don't feel obliged to sparkle any magical words about this lot onto the interweb. One of the staff in Selectadisc recommended this - perhaps not entirely without bias - and it turns out that they knew exactly what they were talking about. 'This' is the debut 7" by The Soundcarriers, 'I Had A Girl' and you can get it from top notch indie outlets, including the aforementioned Selectadisc.
Feel free to do your own exploring via their website and their myspace. Enjoy.

Noisemonger utters a cautious squeak once more

Right then, who's got all of the vinyl copies of the new Super Furries album? Can't find it in the shops, and my online order still hasn't been posted. Tut-tut. Mustn't dwell.
Went into a re-opened Fopp today and I have to confess it was a little bit weird. I spent most of the time thinking, 'wow, this is exactly where it was before they closed,' which is felt rather odd. I was almost surprised at how normal it all felt. The stickers have changed over to the ones HMV have been using for a little while, but the pricing seems mainly the same. Obviously the odd title has gone up, but I think it's important to avoid rose-tinted spectacles when looking back at Fopp simply because then it was technically an 'indie' and now it's owned by HMV. I spoke to one of the staff who's been there as long as I've been meandering through the doors on a regular basis, and he seemed made up about getting his job back. I'm aware that there are plenty of ex-Fopp staff for whom this won't be the most pleasing news, but something's better than nothing, no? Anyway, they've only been open since Saturday, and he said things have been pootling along slowly as trading resumes. Naturally, his pay from the old days is still in limbo because it's in the hands of the administrators, not the new owners. Still, the problems seemed to have been surpassed by being back at work, and it was strangely reassuring to see him there again.
As for the stock, I was quite impressed. There appears to be an increase in £3 clearout stock - with a lift in quality, with the like of Blur's 'Think Tank' and the deluxe edition of Morrissey's 'You Are The Quarry' the highlights. In addition to this, there's plenty of £4 stock now, before we even get to the old school £5 bargains. Loads of excellent soul bargains in the £4 category, including some of the Sly & The Family Stone reissues from a few months back. I noticed that plenty of titles I'd meant to get just before the problems at the end of June were now a quid cheaper. Now, I'm not saying that that means everything is cheaper, because it clearly isn't going to be, but ultimately I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't expect to buy much, but it was as satisfying a bagful as I'm accustomed to from Fopp.
I'm well aware that this isn't the most exciting of posts, but then I've been trying to get info about the re-born Fopp through the internet for the last few days, and have found bugger all, so hopefully this'll be of use to someone. It was like having an old friend back, and while I knew something had changed, I couldn't quite pinpoint what.

Relevant links (and other bits to make this stick out in search engines):

The Help Save Fopp Myspace

Fopp Returns


Fopp is open again
Fopp reopened

Ian McEwan and Oscar Wilde

It's a bank holiday here, so I'm sitting around picking my feet. I did do my traditional bank holiday trip to the record shop, and in amongst the bits and bobs I picked up was a Rhino Handmade special edition of the complete works of The Neon Philharmonic. No, I'd never heard of them either. But, it looked nice, was a Rhino Handmade pressing and it included song titles like 'Long John the Pirate' and 'F. Scott Fitzgerald & William Shakespeare'.
Here's a track from it, 'Morning Girl', that's been rather charmingly bunged over some random images just to get it on Ver Tube. I shouldn't mock - it allows you to hear it.

I just can't deal with all of the success

Musical Revelations Of The Week:

M.I.A. - 'Kala' - See yesterday's post for the rapturous response to this record. I still can't quite think how to describe this sufficiently. That said, it's an enormous mish-mash of music and noise and it'll hold your attention right through the eventual whirring of the CD player grinding to a halt.

Richard Hawley - 'Lady's Bridge' - There are those who would have you believe that this record is Hawley treading water. Such nonsense. To me it seems the logical follow on from 'Coles Corner', and by that I don't mean he's simply remade his previous album, I mean that he has continued the lush orchestrations, developed the styles and honed his voice to its finest sound to date. Treat yourself to this one; you'll not be disappointed with it.

Wilco - 'Sky Blue Sky' - So, it turns out it was the album of the summer after all. Finally got a chance to test it during some lovely weather on Wednesday.

*MROTW is somewhat concise this week due to it being a bank holiday and us having guests. Sorry about that. Likewise for the NMROTW, although I suspect I'd have gone with this whatever the situation.

Non-musical Revelations Of The Week:

Gareth Jenkins is a clown - No further explanation required.

The Welsh rugby team has not bulked up like virtually every other team in advance of the World Cup - We get bullied. A lot. If we can't be a constant force, we can't win.

Realising that all the effort I went to track down my World Cup tickets was probably a waste of time - *cries a little bit - in a manly way, like*

Part of a tour visiting a dying breed

The M.I.A. album is something of an aural assault from start to finish. I finally picked up the debut, 'Arular' the other week because a) I figured that I should probably hear it after all of the praise it received and b) it was £4. I've still not played it as a cursory flick through the tracks didn't exactly ignite my interest.

The newie, 'Kala', has once again received excellent reviews, with some pundits declaring it a far superior record to the first. As a result, during my first visit to Leicester's Rockaboom (a slightly sparse, but well-priced indie store) I took the opportunity to sample bits of it through the left-hand-earphone-functional-only listening post. Even with such restrictive audio kit it was clear that the album is something worthy of place in any music fan's collection. It's challenging, it's loud, it's occasionally bereft of actual tunes, but by fuckery you can't ignore it. It's noisy, it's urgent, it's fun. It's over-the-top, it's under-developed, it's a complete up yours to what the music selling and music buying public probably thought it would be. I can't capture its spirit adequately via a simple review, so I'm hoping the bare bones approach of what I've said thus far will provoke a purchase and save me having to try, having already deleted several attempts thus far.

Here's The Good Tunes

Finally picked up Weller's 'Heavy Soul' and 'Heliocentric' today in one of those '2 for £10' offers. I've always avoided the latter due to some truly mediocre reviews on release, and for some reason I've always associated the former with some notion of 'Dadrock' from the tail end of Britpop. And yet, one of my favourite Weller solo tracks, 'Peacock Suit' is on it and it seemed about right to cave in as I absolutely loved 'As Is Now' and have recently been on a bit of a solo Weller binge thanks to the documentary DVD, 'Into Tomorrow', that came out recently.
So, today, a selection of Weller stuff from Ver Tube.
Ain't the weather lovely?

Is 'The Men Don't Give A...' too obvious?

That logo is a little off-centre. Might even sort that out soon. What is going on in Neighbours these days? Just watched today's episode and for once I couldn't pick it up. What is Karl doing? Who are most of these people? Why is Steph with Toadie? Anybody think I need more to fill my days with? Ah well, I'm in a good mood today after finally getting hold of my Rugby World Cup tickets that have been floating somewhere between here and France for sometime. All is well.

So, music. Received a signed copy of 'The Man Don't Give A Fuck' by the Super Furries in the post this morning, after a winning bid on eBay. Listening to the two remixes included on the CD reminded me of the golden era of pointless alternative versions.

When I rummage through my pile of CD singles I can find any numer of truly terrible remixes that do nothing but add a tacky beat to a tune and remove most of the vocals. I could understand your average pop tune having six different remixes to get played in the 'clubs' (in inverted commas because, for some reason, I feel rather old writing that sentence, not sure why), but why did SFA need bizarre mixes from Howard Marks (!?!) and Matthew Herbert. Did the Manics benefit from their association with the Chemical Brothers? As much as I love to hear all the different versions of songs I'm hugely fond of, is there any need for the six minute plus reworkings that take small bits of the song and create something else, something not altogether worth listening to?

My single buying years are behind me - much like every person in the world, seemingly - but I still encounter these mixes via bonus discs with albums and downloads. I can't remember the last great remix I heard. Which brings me back round to the Super Furries. I frequently discuss this band with a mate who's also a fan, and his theory is that, rather than tarting up half-decent songs with good production like most bands do, they make pristine pop gems and then deconstruct them for the sheer hell of it. I think he might well have a point. 'Hey Venus!' is the purest pop thing they've ever done, and while I'd not really thought of them as particularly contrary, I was listening to 'Hermann Loves Pauline' this morning and the 'Marie Curie was French bred' line, which is followed by Gruff shouting 'French Bread' and a manic laugh and was suddenly struck by the fact that this was a Top 40 hit ten years ago. I've always loved them, and so I've never had to find a way through their 'weirdness', but listening back I can now vaguely understand why they've never quite cracked through to the mainstream. They deconstruct at will, twist songs out of shape and add noises and in-jokes because they want to. Their attitude is 'why not?' Working on the theory that Rough Trade, their new label, are aware of this, I can't see any reason to change this approach and I hope they don't.

My point? God knows? And who's that woman Boyd's with?

Get Mildly Chirpy!

Here's a classic bit of Costello to enjoy, continuing the theme from yesterday:

And now, to continue the other theme, here's a live performance of 'Demons' by the Super Furries from the 1998 NME awards:

To conclude, another SFA live performance, this time from Glastonbury 2007. They decided to redo 'Northern Lites' in a Teenage Fanclub stylee:

Everyday I Write The Blog

An Elvis Costello promo CD featuring an in-depth interview about his career up to 1986 came in this morning's post and proved to be as entertaining as I'd hoped it would be. Costello is not a man to humour an interviewer, nor to say what is expected simply because it is easy. Listening to him throwing in afterthoughts across the interviewer's next question and replying bluntly to questions that he considers incredibly wide of the mark is a delight. I can fully understand why this assertiveness (arrogance?) puts people off EC, but for me it's just another part of his appeal.
While listening, I was shuffling through the singles boxsets from a few years back, that covered the same period. Why on earth I thought I needed these in addition to the 2CD remasters of the original albums I'm not sure, but they're delightful items with the odd track that hasn't appeared elsewhere. Not that they necessarily deserve to have done so. Anyway, it got me to thinking about how Costello's is the one autobiography above all others that I'd love to read. As it stands, collecting together the essays in the booklets accompanying all of the 2CD reissues does a reasonable job of it, but they're on such a small scale compared to the likely delights of Costello in full flight. He's not one to mince his words, nor to be tactful for tact's sake. He does seem to always strive to be fair in his assessment of things. For example, he's quite happy to point out that a record like 'Goodbye Cruel World' is, well, a bit shit. I point you in the direction of the Elvis Costello Fan Forums if you'd like to read these booklets to give you a sense of what I'm on about.
A bit more Costello musing to come over the next few days, along with some prolonged focus on the Super Furries, who have once again been shafted by the record buying public, getting to 46, 46?!! with 'Show Your Hand'. Hence my decision to, er, decorate the site a bit for the time being.

Just like the rain. Again. Where is the summer?

The Richard Hawley album is now out there. For anyone holding out to find out if the vinyl is a decent pressing, I can confirm that it sounds splendid. Apparently there are only 500 copies, but that could just be one online retailer drumming up business. According to the forum on his website, the bonus DVD edition is also worth your hard-earned, featuring a selection of performances and interview material.
None of that has made Ver Tube just yet, but here's a splendid acoustic take on the recent single, 'Tonight The Streets Are Ours', from Newsnight.

What's your ratio?

Musical Revelations Of The Week:

Rilo Kiley - 'Under The Blacklight' - Hello. I'm a cool person. I scour the internet for leaked albums on a minute-by-minute basis. I don't give a really smug fuck whether it's supposed to be good or not because I must hear everything so that I can be really cool when I slag it off on some internet message boards. I don't give a shit about having an informed opinion, as long I'm one of the first and one of the most outrageous. Man, this Rilo Kiley record is a big bag of wank. Jeez, this sucks out loud.
OR. I've played this album four times now, and I'm genuinely loving it more and more with each play. It's a pop/soul record with a hint of country, in all the right ways. There's an almost camp disco number, a few funkier pop tracks and some truly soulful tunes that demonstrate just how spellbinding Jenny Lewis' voice is. The lyrics aren't always amazing, but it's not something Rilo Kiley were previously known for. Provided you enjoy quality pop and soul, alongside whatever other genres, ignore the trendy muppets and give this record a shot.
Magnolia Electric Co - 'Sojourner' - As I think I've already said, this is a beautifully presented set that gathers together four different recording sessions offering the different faces of Jason Molina's musical persona. Excellent value for money and a nice split between bluesy rock and contemplative, eerie solo pieces.
Emitt Rhodes - 'Emitt Rhodes' - It's his debut that's doing the business for me right now, after I finally got a decent vinyl copy through in the post. To sample his rather excellent wares you need only go back to this post. Often described as like early solo Macca, I would argue that he's even less smug. Genuinely beautiful pop songs, recorded at home and delightfully murky records that just bung everything together and ooze melody. Hard to describe him, but I'm starting to think he ranks right up there in terms of 'perfect pop writers' with the afore-mentioned Macca, Motown's H-D-H, the Pet Shop Boys and Neil Finn.

Non-musical Revelations Of The Week:
The X Factor - Definitely in the 'non' section this one. Is it me, or is Dermot not especially fond of spending his time standing around outside the main audition room waiting for the contestants to come out? Almost every time one of the utter loonies who go in for this show came out weeping and losing the plot, he was nowhere to be seen. Still, nice to know that there's no risk of Kate Thornton popping up at any point. The first show seemed to lack some of the zip of previous series. Naturally I'll waste an hour every week from here on, but I expect better.
House - Mmmmm. What a conclusion to the third season. The final two episodes air this coming Thursday on Five and the penultimate show features a chess-playing teenager with a serious attitude problem. But that's not really the main issue. Foreman's leaving and he's only got a couple of weeks left. Will he stay? Will he go? If you're a fan of this drama then I'm sure you're gripped by recent events, and if you're not, see previous posts about how best to remedy this. Advance warning for the season finale that will air straight after the normal timeslot at 10pm this Thursday. A great episode that has a very neat approach to the necessary end of season cliffhanger. Why Five have felt the need to give away loads of the plot in the advert, I'll never know.
Harry Thompson - 'Penguins Stopped Play: Eleven Village Cricketers Take on the World' - I don't feature books often enough on here. The Tom Waits biog by Patrick Humphries is a great read, by the way. Anyway, this is a delightful tale of whimsy and comical endeavour told with wit, charm and humility. Yes, cricket is the central theme, but it's essentially stories about friends getting into various situations and dealing with the shit that everyday life throws up. If you want something to keep you smirking, without requiring a huge amount of intellectual perspiration then this is for you.

You can't blame him for 'Love Is Here'

Plenty of rugby on today, so any thoughtful chit-chat on Tim Buckley, Rilo Kiley and the like will have to wait. I'm a little more calm now that Wales have actually won a game, but things still don't look right.

Anyway, here's an excellent clip of Tim Buckley from The Old Grey Whistle Test. Revelations as normal tomorrow.

I must have killed puppies in a past life

So there I was, minding my own business, thumbing through the vinyl racks and getting ridiculously excited at finally finding the 4 Men With Beards pressing of Tim Buckley's 'Starsailor', when all of a sudden I was assaulted. A rep from one of the big record labels took a sledgehammer to my ears. With the phrase, "King Monkey's back" the first warning signs had appeared, and next thing I knew the seemingly nice man behind the counter was loading a new CD to play. As if getting back and finding that the Russian (yes, I fucking know that this should be reason enough for leaving well alone, but I'm gullible) pressing of Emitt Rhodes' 'American Dream' I bought sounds like it was record via a dictaphone pressed up against a cheap hi-fi speaker wasn't reason enough to rue going in that particular store, being subjected to Ian Brown's new single, 'Illegal Attacks', certainly was.
How the fuck this musical imbecile is still allowed to make solo records is beyond me. Having endured his live show once I realised it was actually possible to dislike him even more than I previously had. During his famously terrible support slots for the Manics in 2002 I witnessed him shouting to the crowd, "what have you got?" in return for a few people pointing out that he sounded like a seal with piles attempting to insert a melon up its own arse, before throwing a full bottle of water at a girl in the front row. A charmer. That he had to be dragged off the stage by security, despite the house lights being put up was the true nadir of a shambolic pisstake of a performance. The first Stone Roses album is a good album. I'm not somebody who puts it in the 'great' category, but I can understand why people do. The second Roses album has a few moments, but is an otherwise middling indie record of no consequence. Since then Brown has managed one, half-decent single, 'F.E.A.R' which seems pretty good until you listen to the lyrics.
Truly, he is to music what Amy Winehouse is to mineral water.
Anyway, it would seem that Brown is under the misguided belief that somebody gives a flying fuck about his views on the war. Ah yes, well it is 2003, so it seems relevant. Oh no, wait a cotton-fucking-picking minute. It's August 2007. I think most people get the point that it was a pretty shitty decision, and it's safe to assume that members of the public have come to their own conclusions about what has happened. Do we really need chivalrous gent, Ian Brown to offer us his deep and meaningful observations on not-even-all-that-recent events? Do we fuck. As if listening to that dick rattle on for minutes isn't bad enough, just to really put the wanky icing on the shit-for-brains cake, in comes Sinead O'Connor to wrap the song up. I mean, really? Honestly? Ok, fair enough.
Now, I don't want you to just take my word for it that this is a really, genuinely horrid piece of, ah go on, I'm in a reasonable mood, music. I'm sure if you look about the internet you could find a way of hearing it. Just click there or click here and I'm sure it'll be there. Ahem.

Oh, and because it would be mean to end like that, here's a really good tune that came to my attention again today.
BETH ORTON - CENTRAL RESERVATION (SPIRITUAL IBIDAN REMIX EDIT)
This can be found on the 2CD best of, 'Pass In Time', but really you need all of her albums if you don't already possess them.
All of the stuff I did want to say, about Tim Buckley, Super Furries and Emitt Rhodes will have to wait till tomorrow.
One last thing. Cool, trendy internet types will be spending the next twelve hours attempting to outdo each other in terms of expressing their dislike of the new Rilo Kiley album. They are tits, every last one of them. No, it doesn't sound like 'More Adventurous.' Yes, it's much more poppy and with smoother production, but it's a brilliant pop album. Jenny Lewis' voice sounds amazing and the more soulful and occasionally camp moments are wonderful. Make your own mind up on this one, don't simply listen to those who listen to an album once before dismissing it so that they can get through the other twenty-seven albums they've downloaded today.

Oh, the anticipation

Gosh, Mock The Week is rather funny. That Frankie Boyle does come out with some outrageous stuff. Chortle.
Anyway, that Magnolia Electric Co boxset. I suspect that may be the least grandiose introduction it'll ever get, but what do you expect from a two-bit blog that doesn't really get freebies? It's lovely. 'Sojourner' comes in a little wooden box with a slidy lid and the band logo on the front. It's got a weird, utterly useless poster, four CDs, a DVD and some glossy cards explaining each of the discs. Oh, and a medallion. Let's not dwell on that or we might think that Magnolia Electric Co are wankers.
The music, for that, as I am occasionally prone to forgetting, is what it's all about, is rather splendid. Recorded across four different locations - hence the four discs - and each featuring a different line up - Molina being the only constant, the sounds vary from full-on blues-rock right down to sparse, solo, acoustic recordings full of background hiss and fuzz. None of it is less than splendid.
However, I can save myself a lot of time on the reviewing here. First up, if you've never bought a Magnolia Electric Co/Songs : Ohia/ Jason Molina record before, this isn't the one to start with. If you have then it's very easy to give you some reference points. The most obvious starting block is the 'Fading Trails' album from last year, which features selected highlights from these four sessions, hence the fact that it doesn't hold together as well as most of Molina's albums. If the majority of it was up to scratch for you then this set is an absolute must. If you've not gone down the MEC route, but did like Songs : Ohia, then my guess is that you were turned off by the fuller production and bluesier, Neil Young feel to the last Songs : Ohia album, 'Magnolia Electric Co'. In which case, you will enjoy approximately half of the boxset with ease, but I suspect the other 50% could win you over if you give it a chance. It's still fairly restrained and contemplative, even when it gets as close as Molina can manage to 'rocking out'.
It is, essentially, a collection of music that lays out the different approaches that one man has taken towards music over the years. It takes all of the things that have made Molina's records great for the last however-many years and condenses them down into one set of tunes. It's a greatest hits featuring tunes that, in the main, you've never heard before.
Remember, cheapest option is to buy direct from Secretly Canadian.

I lied. Not on purpose like.

Ok, so I never got around to writing anything about the Magnolia Electric Co box. I will, eventually. It's not like I haven't written loads recently though, is it? Feel free to chime in on any of the topics using the comments buttons, although it would seem that the ever-increasing band of readers prefer to simply read and mull in the private domain of their own minds. And why not?
Bought a cheap copy of the new Shellac album today. My first Shellac album. Whatthefuckisallthataboutthen? Yikes. Good fun though. And fair play to the Super Furries for surpassing themselves with the cover of their new single. It's late. Til tomorrow...

Great : tunes

A nice new lick of paint today. Still not sure if it looks entirely central, mind. Anyway, tomorrow I will write lots about the new Magnolia Electric Co boxset, 'Sojourner', which the fabulous people at Secretly Canadian records have got to me already, and at a very good price. To do the same click here, otherwise you'll have to wait for the UK release next month, which'll be more expensive.
Whet your appetite with this...

Hands on the table, please

An early post today because I can. Just a brief one to remind you to buy the Super Furry Animals' new single, 'Show Your Hand' today. It's on CD and 7" picture disc and the usual download outlets, although those are naturally not as good as a spiffing picture disc. I wanted to put the video in the post too, but I can't actually find one. I did find the weirdest clip of them miming to it on GMTV, but I'm not sure they'd ever want to relive it, and I'm sure it was just a bizarre blip whereby an alternative universe opened up and SFA are suitable for people who can barely find their own arse whilst waiting for Jeremy Kyle to start. So, instead, here's a slightly shoddy audience recording from their album-taster shows in Cardiff a few months back.

Time to buy now...

Norman Records for the 7"

CD/7"/Download bundle from recordstore.co.uk (search Super Furry)

You're a pussy-boy

Musical Revelations Of The Week:

Catherine Feeny - 'Hurricane Glass' - While flicking around the music channels prior to turning in the other night, I happened upon a rather lovely track, 'Mr Blue,' by Catherine Feeny. Now, I've since found out that it was used on The OC, which is enough to put me off virtually anything, but as I've already got the album and found it to be excellent, I don't need to concern myself with such trivial concerns. It's a collection of fairly laidback folk music, with clear late Sixties/early Seventies influences. When the word 'fuck' popped up I was almost shocked, but having played it a few more times since, it's quite clear that Feeny has made the album she wanted to make and the fact that it suits all kinds of marketing ploys is just a happy, financially beneficial coincidence. There's a spiffing vinyl edition available for a little while. Follow this clickage, then select 'video' from the bottom, to watch various stuff, including a charming acoustic performance from Glastonbury.
Richard Hawley - Just the bloke himself, if that's ok? I'm a bit fucked off with certain aspects of the press deciding that it's time to have a go at Richard for having a few albums with a similar sound. It is, let's be honest, to be expected. Very, very few artists will make dramatically different sounding consecutive albums. More likely is the case that Hawley was one of their 'finds' because of the Mercury nomination for 'Coles Corner', despite most of us knowing about him for years prior to that, and now they've moved on to somebody new. Well, balls to them. The new album is great, much like everything he's done as a solo artist. Likewise the Super Furries. If I read another review that says they're standing still or lacking in enthusiasm when they've made a record as perfect as 'Hey Venus!' I'm going to... well, get annoyed and pace up and down a bit. But you understand the sentiment.
Candie Payne - 'I Wish I Could Have Loved You More' - Now I get it. When I heard the opening track from this album a few months back I was decidedly unimpressed. Something didn't click. It didn't sound particularly well thought-out or particularly innovative. However, constant recommendations from people whose musical taste I can trust caused me to finally purchase a copy of the vinyl. It's a feel good pop/soul album that sounds just a little bit weird. Weird in a good way, I hasten to add. Kind of like the songwriting team can make pop gems, but have a habit of getting absolutely smashed when doing so and so they come out a little bit psychadelic or just a little screwed up. That said, putting fake crackle on something is just silly. It becomes all the more silly when you're listening on vinyl and the crackle fades out at the end of the track to complete silence!

Non-musical Revelations Of The Week:
Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip - This is now reasonably established on More4, despite everybody knowing that it's already been junked by the American networks and won't make it to a second series. The writing is just as sharp as one might expect from the man brought us The West Wing, but Sorkin's slight problem here is that it's hard to be convincing without being a little bit 'in-jokey' and it's hard to be endearing if you're being that convincing. It's all rather neatly polished, and Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford are outstandingly good as the two leads, but I can kind of understand why it wasn't a huge success. That's not to say that I'm not sad that that was the case. It makes a change to have something that accepts an audience can be intelligent on the TV, and I'll be savouring every episode.
Apple and Mango Juice - Delightful
Tony Wilson - The way he spoke, you almost believed he was invincible. Hard to quantify his impact on the music scene at various points in his illustrious career. He'll be greatly missed.

Really trying to resist the obvious 'Virgin' pun

The Complete Motown Singles series is genuinely spectacular. Such a well thought-out product that really does have the sensibilities of record collectors as a priority. Cynical or not, the result is quite beautiful. For those that aren't aware, the 'boxsets' (an inadequate term, as you'll soon realise) are covering every one of the Motown single releases, in chronological order. While the first set covered a number of years, in the early stages of the label, subsequent editions have taken one year each.

1967 was released this week, and I took a few moments to fondle it in a Virgin Megastore yesterday. Why fondle a boxset? Well, firstly, I'm not sure that there's an answer on earth that is actually socially acceptable, but what can you do. Anyway, they're packaged as 7"x7" size hardback books. There's a detailed guide to all of the music, and then the CDs slip into card pockets in the back pages of the book, just as 78s would have gone into albums back in the day (which, incidentally, is where we get the name 'album' from for a collection of songs.) Just to add a little more icing onto the several tonnes of icing already on this particularly soulful cake (enough with the metaphor?), there's a repressing of one of the 7"s featured on each collection housed in the front cover of the book. See the accompanying pictures for further ogling potential.
Anyway, the music is, naturally, peerless and just as sublime as a huge pile of Motown can be expected to sound. Sure, the constant desire to do things other than just straight soul results in all kind of weird sounds being tried across two sides of a piece of vinyl at various points in their back catalogue, but even the oddities are captivating.
The packaging issue is the constant problem I have with boxsets. You inevitably pay a lot for these things, but they don't always have a user-friendly outlook. Now, hi-fi bods will argue that CDs that go in and out of card sleeves are going to get ruined quickly, which is the greatest over-reaction since David Cameron sellotaped a wind-turbine onto the side of his house because somebody told him being green wins votes. It's balls, unless you have fingers the width of country lanes and the co-ordination of Amy Winehouse, but then you'll damage anything. However, the packaging issues extend further. As I have said previously on this site - I am often lured in way too easily by nice, shiny packaging. I have all but one of the metal spine Miles Davis boxsets. I don't play them all that often, but they look fucking fabulous. Likewise, the 'Girl Group Sounds' boxset that got a post all to itself some time back. Still, would I be writing a blog about music if I wasn't obsessed enough to buy lots of boxsets? I think I just have to accept that the two things will always go hand in hand.
Oh, did I tell you about a bargain I got the other week on the vinyl box of John Coltrane's 'Heavyweight Champion'? Well, it was the most blah blah blah

Oh piss off, pop-pickers

What makes a record one of your 'all-time' favourites? I've been pondering this over the last couple of days, having nothing better to do and all that, and I've struggled to come up with a satisfactory answer. In the past, I 've always been able to trot off a list of ten albums that I really rate, but I'm not sure in what capacity they have earnt that title. For example, on that last would be Nina Simone's 'Here Comes The Sun', which is a beautiful album, particularly for this time of year. However, I can't remember the last time I played it. The same is true of R.E.M.'s 'New Adventures In Hi-Fi', which I own four different copies of, but which I haven't played for some time. Yes, I can't deny that I think they're brilliant records, but should what I play on a regular basis not offer a clearer definition of my favourite music?
Had I been sampled across the first few months of the year it would have seemed that 'The Good, The Bad & The Queen' was my favourite record by a long shot, at times almost like it was the only record ever made. I genuinely love it, and it may soon make it into my all-timers list, but if you'd asked me at the time if it was one of my all time favourite albums, I'd have snorted in your face. I suspect the whole idea is starting to rankle as a result of the constant obsession with lists in UK music magazines of a certain ilk. I've recently been enjoying Artrocker and Plan B, two fine, fine titles full of engaging, intelligent and fucking fun writing about music. Meanwhile, Uncut, Mojo and Q are happy to keep rehashing the same stupid lists with alarming regularity. I'm getting to the point where I couldn't give a toss about the 'best records of all time', I just want to keep expanding my record collection and finding albums that make me smile, nod and talk utter shite to other people. Is that one better than this one? Who gives a shit?
I did try to draw up a list of ten prior to writing this to see if it's something I can realistically do, and I struggled. Blur's 'Think Tank' made it in last time I settled on ten, and it's probably still there or thereabouts, but I've been playing 'Blur' much more in recent months. I haven't played 'Blue Lines' for yonks, and so I'm now less sure about how much I actually love it. I think Elvis Costello's 'My Aim Is True' is still safe, as it gets a regular dusting down and never fails to entertain. I'm sure the Super Furries deserve to be in there, but I'm not sure which album it should be. Miles Davis' 'In A Silent Way' has been a favourite for some time, but again, it hasn't been played all that much recently. And so it went on. Very few albums were certainties, but hundreds were possibles. Even in my sad little muso world, I just can't be arsed spending the time trying to figure this out.
I will tell you what my current favourite is, and that's the Maps album, 'We Can Create'. Is it in my top ten?

What top ten?

He won't win, mind.

New Maps single, 'You Don't Know Her Name', has a curious video. The downloads are already available and the remixes of both the title track and 'Elouise' are well worth the money. I love Maps. Not in a geography way though.

Gutted.

Including the brief collection of posts from previous years, this is this blog's 100th post. However, after the news I got today, I'm in no mood for a celebration.
I figured it would be more economically sound to purchase the new album by The Coral via my local indie store, Reveal Records, rather than from the online indie I use for bits and bobs, as I wanted the double vinyl edition, which can nuke your postage. A couple of weeks back, my local indie appeared to be a little thin on new releases and my suspicions were aroused. I was reassured that the titles I was after were just out of stock, although it was suggested that it was unlikely they'd be getting any more in. As I wandered off, I assumed that these records were simply more limited than I'd thought. However, today's discovery puts that in a very different context.
Anyhoo, in I wander, looking at the new release racks just inside the door to see what was available. My heart sank. Nothing had changed in the two weeks since I'd last been in. To confirm my worst fears, any number of items had been reduced or rolled into an offer of one kind or another. It's not significant cheapness, I hasten to add, but the first signs that things aren't what they used to be. As it was, I left with four albums I had no intention of purchasing when I went in, but no sign of The Coral. After a lengthy chat with 'nice man behind the counter', I found out that my favourite record shop - and by this I mean in the whole of the UK - has about six months left on this planet of ours. The usual suspects were blamed - Amazon, downloads, supermarkets - and it was clear that the climate has changed. Where a few years back a major indie release like The Killers or Kaiser Chiefs would shift 100 copies in a couple of days, now it's more like 25. No great surprise with supermarkets like Morrisons knocking out said Kaiser Chiefs album at £6.99 in its first week of release. It reminded me of a recent news story about independent bookshops sending their staff round to Asda on the day the Harry Potter book came out to buy it for a fiver, for them to sell it on at twice the price in order to even compete.
I've been frequenting this store for three years now, and have been anything other than wholly satisfied with each visit, often spending considerably more than I'd intended to do, as a result of their 'now playing' ledge or their competitive deals. Where the fuck will I get mint condition, decent priced Tom Waits limited editions from on rainy Thursday evenings in November now? They're not intending to get new stock in from here until doomsday and so the shop will gradually reduce its stock over the coming months, presumably via discounting and deals.
Is it wrong to feel so down about this? Probably, I'm sure, but it isn't going to stop me. Four years ago, the record shop that took up much of my teenage years, and money, shut up shop for good, and now the adult equivalent is on its way too. I love to flick through the racks, taking a punt on a staff recommendation, or being drawn in by a unique album cover. As expensive as it has often been, I like being drawn into buying a second album because the one I want is in a 2 for £18 promotion. On top of all of this, Reveal Records have the best staff of any record shop I've ever been in, but still they've closing down. They're music-lovers, first and foremost. There's none of the 'High Fidelity' style snobbery, and they'll give you honest opinions about the music you're considering shelling out your hard earned cash on. I've lost count of the great records I've picked up in that shop, although one that springs to mind is Dan Arborise's 'Around In Circles', which was my album of the year back over on the old VJ site. A euphoric yet understated acoustic masterpiece, I'd never have even known it was out there if it hadn't happened to have been playing when I went in, almost a year ago to this day.
I'm sure this post is hugely self-indulgent and not especially coherent, but I'm fucked off because I'm going to lose a, perhaps embarrassingly, big part of my everyday life when this shop closes. Having seen this shop appear to buck the trend of failing indies in recent years, I now feel like I must simply accept what is there in front of me. We are seeing the end of record shops as we know them. The constant desertion of Berwick Street in London, once filled with quality record shops, the familiar sight of indie stores with the shutters down nationwide is now the norm. I get the feeling there aren't many people who care about this, and that's fair enough, but for me it's a massive blow. I should probably finish with something sincere and concise, but I can't think of anything right now, I'm too grumpy.