Musical Revelations Of The Week:
Hamfatter - What Part Of Hamfatter Do You Not Understand? I've been hugely fond of this record for the last two months since it dropped onto the doormat. The artwork promises little and they've not got the best band name I've ever heard, but they've got the tunes. A whole album full, to be precise. I've been playing this rather a lot today for vaguely professional reasons and I'm still discovering new bits I love about it. I won't say too much now, as it's not out till mid-July, but around release time I'll deploy hyperbole like you wouldn't believe.
Suburban Kids With Biblical Names - #3 This one that I have to thank Radcliffe and Maconie for. 'Loop Duplicate My Heart' was an early single of the week on their new Radio 2 show and their name lodged at the back of my mind as a result of its shining brilliance. I was tootling around town on Friday evening, in the mood to pick up a few bits and bobs and this popped back into my mind. Glad it did. Very Magnetic Fields-y with some superb summery sounds.
Songs : Ohia - The Lioness I've been working my way through Jason Molina's back catalogue over the last couple of years, and this was the last album for me to pick up. The blessed Norman Records got a second hand copy of this in on vinyl last week so I figured it was time to get hold of it. Once again, it's a beautiful, fragile album that creates an atmosphere and commands your attention. I'm conscious of the fact that his albums need a bit of time to be absorbed and that I flit about far too quickly to truly appreciate them. Thus, I have mentioned it here so that it might actually remind me to spend more time with the Molina cannon in the near future.
Non-musical Revelations Of The Week:
Alex James - 'Bit Of A Blur' Yes, I know, it's a book primarily about music, but when you bear in mind that I spend as much of my free time obsessing over music as possible it's hard for anything else to creep in. Anyway, it's as good as I had hoped. I've even forgiven him for selling his soul to the Mail on Sunday and letting them print extracts in the run up to its release. It's honest, breezy and chirpy. It doesn't get bogged down in the first sixteen years of his life like so many biographies that end up boring the arse off you before you get to the good stuff. I'm just over a hundred pages in and he's already up to the recording of 'Parklife'. Suits me just fine.
Another quick mention for Blurcast.tv (full details below) at this point. Currently watching/listening to the '13 Live' show that was on BBC2 to promote said album, back in 1999. Excellent stuff.
Big Brother - Apparently they have a moral conscience after all. Did they need to show the clip though? Was it really essential viewing? In a sense I do agree that it had to be aired once in context in order for it to be put to bed, but at the same time Channel 4 can't really claim to have been acting with anything other than ratings in mind, as with the Diana show. If nothing else it confirmed my opinion that Emily wasn't even half as clever as she thought she was. The flimsy attempt at an explanation in the diary room was disturbingly confident, almost as if she didn't really believe anything would happen. Yes, I'm still watching it, four days after the point at which I normally storm off in a huff complaining about how annoying they all are. I still think that, only I seem to be more tired in the evenings and less willing to get off the sofa.
New Zealand rugby team - Is there any point having the World Cup later this year? Watching the destruction of France at the hands of the All Blacks, who themselves were not at their best, made it quite clear that nothing much is up for grabs this autumn. However, for some insane reason, New Zealand will be playing a warm up game against Canada next weekend. Canada? Even my beloved Welsh team managed to put a bucketload of points past them last year, so what sort of challenge will they present for the world's best rugby team?
Hamfatter - What Part Of Hamfatter Do You Not Understand? I've been hugely fond of this record for the last two months since it dropped onto the doormat. The artwork promises little and they've not got the best band name I've ever heard, but they've got the tunes. A whole album full, to be precise. I've been playing this rather a lot today for vaguely professional reasons and I'm still discovering new bits I love about it. I won't say too much now, as it's not out till mid-July, but around release time I'll deploy hyperbole like you wouldn't believe.
Suburban Kids With Biblical Names - #3 This one that I have to thank Radcliffe and Maconie for. 'Loop Duplicate My Heart' was an early single of the week on their new Radio 2 show and their name lodged at the back of my mind as a result of its shining brilliance. I was tootling around town on Friday evening, in the mood to pick up a few bits and bobs and this popped back into my mind. Glad it did. Very Magnetic Fields-y with some superb summery sounds.Songs : Ohia - The Lioness I've been working my way through Jason Molina's back catalogue over the last couple of years, and this was the last album for me to pick up. The blessed Norman Records got a second hand copy of this in on vinyl last week so I figured it was time to get hold of it. Once again, it's a beautiful, fragile album that creates an atmosphere and commands your attention. I'm conscious of the fact that his albums need a bit of time to be absorbed and that I flit about far too quickly to truly appreciate them. Thus, I have mentioned it here so that it might actually remind me to spend more time with the Molina cannon in the near future.Non-musical Revelations Of The Week:
Alex James - 'Bit Of A Blur' Yes, I know, it's a book primarily about music, but when you bear in mind that I spend as much of my free time obsessing over music as possible it's hard for anything else to creep in. Anyway, it's as good as I had hoped. I've even forgiven him for selling his soul to the Mail on Sunday and letting them print extracts in the run up to its release. It's honest, breezy and chirpy. It doesn't get bogged down in the first sixteen years of his life like so many biographies that end up boring the arse off you before you get to the good stuff. I'm just over a hundred pages in and he's already up to the recording of 'Parklife'. Suits me just fine.
Another quick mention for Blurcast.tv (full details below) at this point. Currently watching/listening to the '13 Live' show that was on BBC2 to promote said album, back in 1999. Excellent stuff.
Big Brother - Apparently they have a moral conscience after all. Did they need to show the clip though? Was it really essential viewing? In a sense I do agree that it had to be aired once in context in order for it to be put to bed, but at the same time Channel 4 can't really claim to have been acting with anything other than ratings in mind, as with the Diana show. If nothing else it confirmed my opinion that Emily wasn't even half as clever as she thought she was. The flimsy attempt at an explanation in the diary room was disturbingly confident, almost as if she didn't really believe anything would happen. Yes, I'm still watching it, four days after the point at which I normally storm off in a huff complaining about how annoying they all are. I still think that, only I seem to be more tired in the evenings and less willing to get off the sofa.
New Zealand rugby team - Is there any point having the World Cup later this year? Watching the destruction of France at the hands of the All Blacks, who themselves were not at their best, made it quite clear that nothing much is up for grabs this autumn. However, for some insane reason, New Zealand will be playing a warm up game against Canada next weekend. Canada? Even my beloved Welsh team managed to put a bucketload of points past them last year, so what sort of challenge will they present for the world's best rugby team?
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