Vinyl Junkies

Just Played Continues

2010-05-15T17:14:00.006+01:00

A reminder that the revised, more exciting and, frankly, prettier version of this blog - Just Played - continues to cover all of the best new music, along with other random musings, over at http://justplayed.wordpress.com.
For a quick way to access reviews of 2010 releases, click the image above.

40 From The Noughties at Just Played

2009-12-09T18:23:00.004Z

Hello! You are looking at the old version of a wonderful little music blog that witters on about splendid tunes a bit. It moved over to a new address earlier this year and I would dearly love you to follow it over to that new address at: http://justplayed.wordpress.com
December 2009 sees the unveiling of Just Played's '40 From The Noughties'. Come and have a look.

Just Played

2009-06-19T19:31:00.002+01:00

Just firing this off for those who still have VJ in their feed reader and haven't updated to the new site and address: http://justplayed.wordpress.com/

C'mon over and join us. New posts, interactive 'just played' list and a slightly reluctant attempt at Twitter. What more do you need.

That's http://justplayed.wordpress.com/

And now, the end is near...

2009-06-11T17:25:00.002+01:00

Hello dear reader of Vinyl Junkies. You are clearly a person of exceptional taste and somebody who probably spends slightly too long on the net. Nothing wrong with that, I just thought it best to tell you that you now need to waste a small fraction of your internet time in a different corner of the web from the one you're currently visiting. I've decided that Vinyl Junkies has reached the end of its life span. This site is looking quite tired now and the name is a little confusing as people think it refers to either a record shop in London or some club night or other. As much as I love vinyl, and I really do, the main thing I write about is music, not the format. And so, Just Played is born.

To visit, luxuriate in its (not especially well tinkered with just yet, but I'll get there) splendour and generally nosey about, please redirect your bookmark to the following address:

http://justplayed.wordpress.com/

From here on, it's highly unlikely that I'll be doing any updating on this site and I've carried over ALL of the posts from this blog to the new one, so it'll all still be there. Please visit!

There's a new email address for any comments you'd like to make but would prefer not to post on the blog: justplayed@hotmail.co.uk

Thanks for taking the time over the last five years of Vinyl Junkies - firstly on a makeshift website, then this blog - to have a read, post a comment or even visit your local record shop. You're a truly lovely person. Just make sure you follow, ok?

http://justplayed.wordpress.com/

Oh, the many words for Bono

2009-05-26T21:31:00.001+01:00

Well, it looks like I've found somewhere else to spout about records on a monthly basis after a lengthy hiatus. May say a little more when it's confirmed. It's a nice feeling anyway, after a couple of years of not being able to say, "I'm in WH Smith" to loved ones, friends and bemused strangers.

Anyway, it looks like I'll need to be even more concise with my words than I used to be. As if trying to write about music wasn't difficult enough in the first place, this is a right bugger because it pretty much guarantees that you can't set the scene. So, in an attempt to get myself back into old habits, I present the first offerings in a terribly exciting selection of 20 words reviews. Feel free to contribute some yourself. It might even be fun.

The Divine Comedy - Regeneration

National Express man loses orchestra, suit and raised eyebrow but gains long hair, weird noises and Godrich production. Oddly undervalued.

The Divine Comedy - Absent Friends

National Express man regains orchestra, suit and raised eyebrow but loses sense of fun and retreads past to limited effect.

Blur - Think Tank

Not much Graham, too much Fatboy Slim. Often chilled, sometimes heartbreaking and - whisper it now - actually Blur's best album yet.

U2 - No Line On The Horizon

Crap. Cack. Shit. Toss. Balls. Plop. Shite. Icky. Smug. Piffle. Cobblers. Codshit. And, just for variety like, absolute smoldering arse.

Suddenly that two years hiatus makes sense, doesn't it?

It's like buses

2009-05-26T16:15:00.001+01:00

Good old Graham Coxon. Not only is he a member of one of the greatest bands of recent times, creator of one of the early contenders for 2009's album of the year and one of the few musicians willing to contribute honestly and openly to online discussion boards, but he's pioneering exciting and alternative ways to make money out of music. As huge fans of music, this can only be pleasing news for us, as the more that musicians develop ways to make releasing tunes into the current climate viable, the more great music we'll continue to be graced with.

Coxon's new single, 'Sorrow's Army', is available in one format only. An art print. Ok, that art print comes with a download code for that track, but the release itself is something you can't actually play. The print itself is rather lovely (click to see the image, as uploaded by 'salmon' from the Blur forum) and sets you back £4-£5 depending on where you purchase it from. Not bad for an art print and it's worth remembering that the song on its own would have sold for 79p. Not a bad mark up. Naturally, art prints aren't suddenly going to become the format du jour, but it's a great example of an artist adapting to the rapidly changing commercial nature of music selling. Graham's fans all seem pretty chuffed with the item and it'll be raking in the cash for his record label. It's certainly a more appealing alternative format than the USB releases that Keane and Ed Harcourt have attempted of late and, while I'd never have considered buying 'Sorrow's Army' as a single, having already purchased the rather splendid album, 'The Spinning Top', my five quid went winging its way to Transgressive Records quicker than, well, much quicker than they actually sent the bloody thing, but we won't dwell on that.

This seems like a good time to mention just how utterly terrific his new album is. I'm not sure what I was expecting from it - certainly not what I got. The Record Store Day exclusive 10" of 'In The Morning' gave a pretty decent indicator, with eight minutes of acoustic splendour, gentle vocals and a delicate touch not normally associated with solo Coxon.

Two immediate highlights are the aforementioned, 'In The Morning', and 'Look Into The Light'. Listen to both below.

See? Now go and buy the album.

What, you need more convincing and a more persuasive pitch?

'The Spinning Top' is Graham's masterpiece, lengthy but enthralling, beautifully sung and exquisitely rendered. There are touches of Nick Drake, particularly on 'Look Into The Light', and, as he's explained in numerous interviews, the music of Davey Graham sent him off in this direction in the first place. Gently affecting, hugely understated and unlikely to immediately strike you as a stone cold classic, 'The Spinning Top' slowly abducts each and every heart string until suddenly the one, almighty tug brings you on side and from that point onwards there's no looking back.

Now go and buy the album.

It will make you spend more. Be advised.

2009-05-23T15:12:00.001+01:00

Long time readers of this blog will remember how I used to get ever so slightly too excited about Bank Holiday Monday trips to my local indie emporium when, with literally no logic to back this up, I used to spend without impunity, somehow convincing myself that money spent on a bank holiday doesn't count. Actually, now I think about it, what with it being a day when banks have a holiday, that's not quite such an idiotic idea. Still quite an idiotic idea, mind.

Anyway, said days are long since gone, what with most of the record stores in the whole world having closed down. I'm now left to take my chances with whatever I can find. And so I found myself in a hotel in Derby this morning, flicking through boxes of mainly second-hand vinyl. Most of it, it must be said, was toss. If you ever need a battered copy of any Tina Turner album, a record fair's the place for you. In fact, if you ever need seventeen battered copies of any Tina Turner album, a record fair's the place for you. Sadly, it also appears to be the place for people who get so lost in the supermarket that they never quite find the aisles for soap and deodorant. Sadly, despite the late, great Joe's claim, they can still shop happily. Still, there should be a little corner of the world for everybody and, just like the New Year Sale in HMV is the place for the chronically flatulent, record fairs seem to be the place for the slightly unwashed.

Not me, I hasten to add. I smell perfectly fine, thanks. Anyway, after flicking through the aforementioned tat, I alighted upon a stall selling new stuff. It dawned on me how infrequently I actually get to physically hand over the cash for vinyl these days. The charming bloke I ended up buying a few records from, whose name I can't remember - something like Dave, told me that the record-selling business is so shit these days that he's just resorted to record fairs and "my Vauxhall Cavalier." As a result of these circumstances, most of my record buying occurs online. Not through choice, so much as lack of options.

This neatly dovetails with a request from a rather splendid chap (who has recently directed people to this site from his own rather fine corner of the interweb) for a general guide to picking up vinyl at decent prices. So, provided you don't all start buying everything I want before I can get it, I present:

The Vinyl Junkies guide to buying vinyl

I know, imaginative title, eh?

1. Indie stores online

First and foremost, if you're after new release vinyl that isn't just the latest overly-loud, overly-pompous and overly... well, shit, U2 album then you'll need to identify a few indie retailers who cater for tastes similar to yours.

My chosen benefactors are the splendid people at Norman Records, who I've mentioned previously.

They stock pretty much all the new release stuff you could wish for and, almost always, at the best price you'll find online. They ship the items in very sturdy packaging and turn around orders pronto. Their communication is second to none and often rather amusing. Decent sized orders tend to come with a few sweet - works for me - and they publish weekly reviews of an irreverent nature which carry the following advisory message:

Warning: stay away if you're going to be all offended by us slagging off your favourite artist. We reserve the right to hold an opinion!

The one thing to bear in mind is postage. Vinyl is heavy and bulky and will always require a few quid bunged on top of your order. That said, order more than £50 worth in one go and shipping is free!

There are a few other indie retailers I frequent:

Action Records - The shop in Preston is lovely, the web service is quick and pretty competitively priced. I use them for reasonably recent back catalogue stuff. If you're after something from the last five years, and it's not already super-rare, Action are a good bet.

What Records - Now online only. Vast stock, lots of upfront listings in order to ensure you can get hold of very limited pressings and very secure shipping. Neither particularly keen on obscure stuff nor the cheapest, What is pretty dependable for the rare stuff.

Leaning more towards electronic music than Norm, but covering similar ground, Boomkat is another place to go to for the very limited indie store only pressings and it also does a nice line in flac downloads - not that that's what this post is meant to promote!

2. Catching the big boys getting it wrong

I do so love benefiting from a mis-price by Amazon or HMV. It's double satisfying: knowing you get a bargain and that bargain is directly linked to one of the indie-slayers not making so much money. As a technique, it only really works on pre-orders and you'll need to get in early. Online retailers, or etailers if you will, try to outdo each other in terms of getting things listed first in a bid to get extra sales. As a result, this doesn't always lead to entirely accurate listings. HMV listed the Oasis vinyl box set for 'Stop The Clocks' as a single vinyl at £12.99 delivered for a month. Amazon were gladly flogging the recent Aidan Moffat and the Best Ofs vinyl/CD/bonus CD/7"/Valentine's Card/board game box set as a piece of single vinyl at £13.69 delivered. Peter Doherty's 'Grace/Wastelands' vinyl pressing was £7.98, the same as the CD, delivered for a month. It's all about luck and it's not a guaranteed route to bargains, but it throws up some decent stuff.

3. Caiman on Amazon Marketplace

If it's an album that's getting a release in the US, then a good source of cheap, new vinyl is Caiman USA, Caiman Zone, Caiman Bargain or whatever they're calling themselves at the exact moment when you order. Often charging £8-9 per item, with the stock £1.24 postage on top of that, you can get some real bargains. They tend not to list items until a week or two after release, and those prices don't stay around for long, but they're worth checking for on most new releases.

As for second hand stuff, I can't really offer much more than you already know. Track down your nearest second-hand retailer, keep an eye on eBay auctions that finish in less 'busy' times and search via places like Gemm and Musicstack. That said, car boot sales and record fairs remain the best places to pick up second-hand bargains.

Feel free to leave a comment correcting me, adding extra info or simply sharing your experiences. I enjoy reading about this sort of stuff, honest!

Oh, one last thing. I write a reasonably well-followed blog (which has already been visited by the rather splendid Thomas Pugwash) and yet I've not been sent a promo of The Duckworth Lewis Method's new album to review. I'm naturally quite hurt. That said, a rather positive review will be appearing at the aforementioned splendid chap's aforementioned site shortly.

EDIT: The Duckworth Lewis situation has picked up. Yay.

Coming Soon

2009-05-17T12:15:00.000+01:00

Some thoughts

2009-05-14T19:57:00.001+01:00

The new Pet Shop Boys album, 'Yes', sounds utterly tremendous on vinyl.

It's not too shabby on CD either, like.

The Maximo Park album is not as bad as it first seems but not as it good as it really should be.

2009 already has rather a lot of top notch albums:

Super Furry Animals - Dark Days / Light Years
M. Ward - Hold Time
Pet Shop Boys - Yes
Doves - Kingdom Of Rust
Manic Street Preachers - Journal For Plague Lovers
Graham Coxon - The Spinning Top
Madness - The Liberty Of Norton Folgate
Trashcan Sinatras - In The Music
Lily Allen - It's Not Me, It's You

and there's still stuff from Massive Attack, The Divine Comedy and Richard Hawley to come. Lovely.

Blur are back together and this particular Cinders is going to the ball. A bit giddy, truth be told. Listening to lots of b-sides at the moment. Those waltzy instrumental numbers are ace, aren't they?

Apparently, Selectadisc isn't dead. It's been bought and will be back soon. Good.

Yet more proof that supermarkets are killing music. Fuckwits.

Northern Portrait are wonderful. I may well have said this before. Go and listen and then buy their EPs from the nice people at Matinee Records.

The new Maps single doesn't sound like much at first, but after a while it takes over your head.

I know it's in the list above, but you really do have to listen to the new Graham Coxon album. It's beautiful.

The new Wilco album has a silly cover.

Doves are better live now than ever before. They've gone from being a slow band that does the odd fast one to being a fast band that does the odd slow one. I know, I know, that's what they were in their previous incarnation, but still.

Mondays aren't the same without Stewart Lee.

So, this, I guess, is what Twitter is like. Only, I'd have had to click submit after each and every mildy-interesting comment. How exciting!

It's that time again - if you've still got one...

2009-04-15T11:46:00.001+01:00

Cucumber sandwiches all round

2009-03-08T12:06:00.001Z

I'm supposed to be working. That's why I'm here. If you like, you can imagine the traditional apology for a delay in posting. Feel free to inset it about here. Done? Splendid.

If you like buying records from people then you will soon be officially 'odd'. It's not possible, apparently. Even the odd record shop still going - yes, HMV, I'm talking about you - doesn't appear to actually want to sell music anymore. Branded 'listen' or 'hear' or something equally patronising, music is gradually being shunted into the small section previously reserved for 'special interest' DVDs and magazines. In the last couple of months, we've had the demise of Woolies, Zavvi and, more personally, the news that Nottingham's Selectadisc is shutting up shop at the end of this month. I've written about this topic many times on here, so I'll try not to witter on about the same-old, same-old, but I'm genuinely pissed off at the fact that my record shopping will soon be done almost exclusively online. Where's the fun in that? Anyway, Selectadisc has always been a shining beacon of how to run a record shop - I've said as much here and Nottingham's Left Lion folk have a tribute here too.

The other thing I felt compelled to mention - admittedly, once again, fuelled by work avoidance - is the new project from Neil Hannon and that fat beardy bloke from Pugwash, called Thomas Pugwash. While his voice is largely unremarkable, the splendidly, well, splendid voice of Mr Hannon delivers the goods aplenty on the Myspace page for this new venture, charmingly called, The Duckworth Lewis Method, as in cricket. The album'll be out around the time of The Ashes for prime cash-in factor. They appear to have forgotten that neither of them sell many records, but it's quite sweet logic, nonetheless. Anyway, whatever the sales figures, the track they uploaded yesterday, 'Gentlemen and Players' is sublime. I've not been able to stop playing it since I first heard it. I'm playing it now, actually. Go listen yourself. Click here.

Should probably do some work now.

Oooh, it's lunch time.

When rock stars grow old

2009-01-11T13:54:00.001Z

One of the many splendours of Sky + is the way in which it invites you to record even the most minimal and insignificant fluff, just because it's no effort at all. For me, the clearest example of this is the Channel 4 tendency to show exclusive first plays of new music videos at some time around midnight. Can I be arsed making sure I'm watching the telly for that precise five minute window? No. But give me the chance to press a button, forget all about it and then come back to it another time, and I'm in!

Last night, Channel 4 played out the new video from Morrissey, for ''I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris'. This morning, feeling a bit fluey and equipped with a strong cup of tea and some Nurofen, I settled down to flick through the telly. As I watched this particular video, I could only think of one thing. Doesn't Morrissey look old? Let's be absolutely fair to the chap - he is actually getting on a bit. It's not like he looked 25 last week and now he looks like he's smoked Amy Winehouse, but he just seems to actually be looking his age or even a little older.

It's no great surprise, people get older after all, but my first proper exposure to Moz was his Nineties Britpop incarnation and he was still rather spritely then. Even his most recent albums were supported by performances that suggested a man full of energy, passion and natural charm.

Watch this and see if any of that is still there now:

See? I'm not imagining it, am I? Now, I should confess that the reason why I'm so struck by his aging appearance is entirely selfish. I can't help thinking that time must have seriously moved along if 'my' generation of indie legends are starting to look a little rough around the edges. Noel's greying, Supergrass have the sideburns of a randy farmer who, in times of loneliness, has been eyeing up the goats and Moz looks like he's been cryogenically frozen and is now being operated by strings. I'm getting ever nearer to dropping out of the traditional 'new music' demographic and it feels odd. Of course, there are self-imposed boundaries that don't exist in the real world, but it still feels a bit strange to look at the figureheads of my youth and find them appearing more than a little lived in. Still, doing an impression of a Weeble trying to seduce a small dog is nothing compared to this silly old tart.

As for the song, it's quite good actually. It's Morrissey-by-numbers, but after 'Ringleader Of The Tormentors', which was about as much fun as an aneurysm, I'll happily take that. After all, that's what made us all like 'You Are The Quarry' so much, wasn't it?

***

As this blog is actually called Vinyl Junkies, I should take this moment to point you in the direction of your nearest Zavvi. They're currently flogging all of their vinyl at half price. Provided your local shop had a reasonable range prior to their administration issues, they should have plenty for you to pick up at rather splendid prices. Ok, they're not exactly giving them away, but anyone used to buying plenty of vinyl is used to fairly robust pricing, so getting it at half price is quite a big deal. I'm quite happy to tell you this as I've already cleared out the two stores nearest to me! Get there while you can.

This is, of course, the precursor to a potential repeat of the recent insanity found in Woolworths stores, as stock was cleared prior to closure. Nobody's saying anything about how secure Zavvi's future is right now, but it's hard to imagine any single buyer coming in and keeping the chain as it is now. While I picked up a fair old number of CDs and DVDs in the Woolies clearout, it was a rather depressing affair. Plenty has been said in the media about the demise of this much-loved chain, but anyone who loves music has their own precise memories of the Woolworths music section and it still seems odd that it's not there now. I was in one store a few hours before it closed and it was very odd. Imagine that Britain is at war, everything - even pick'n'mix and large plastic replicas of minor characters from Doctor Who - has been rationed. Sprinkle in some paranoia and desperation and that's a little bit like how it felt. Still, cheap CDs, eh?

***

And finally, it's been such a long time since I posted here that I never did anything about albums of the year for 2008, so I'm just going to re-post the list that I submitted to the end-of-year lists on the various music sites I frequent.

1. Elbow - 'The Seldom Seen Kid'
2. Laura Marling - 'Alas I Cannot Swim'
3. Tindersticks - 'The Hungry Saw'
4. Joan As Police Woman - 'To Survive'
5. Pete Molinari - 'A Virtual Landslide'
6. Bon Iver - 'For Emma, Forever Ago'
7. Portishead - 'Third'
8. Malcolm Middleton - 'Sleight Of Heart'
9. She & Him - 'Volume 1'
10. Paul Weller - '22 Dreams'
11. Our Broken Garden - 'When Your Blackening Shows'
12. Helios - 'Caesura'
13. James Yorkston - 'When The Haar Rolls In'
14. The Last Shadow Puppets - 'The Age Of Understatement'
15. Jamie Lidell - 'Jim'
16. Fleet Foxes - 'Fleet Foxes'
17. Elvis Costello & The Imposters - 'Momofuku'
18. Calexico - 'Carried To Dust'
19. Glow - 'I, Yeah!'
20. Ladyhawke - 'Ladyhawke'

Honourable mentions to: Beck, Nick Cave, Jenny Lewis, The Dears, R.E.M., Max Richter, and Ray LaMontagne

Even looking at it now, I'm fairly certain I'd shuffle a few of them round, but it's a moment in time and nobody really cares anyway, so that'll do. Feel free to post your own via the comments section, should you be that way inclined.

Oh yes!

2008-11-19T22:19:00.001Z

With thanks to Phill and Phil, hosts of the rather wonderful 'Perfect 10' podcast, for the tip-off.

If you would like to be outraged, turn to page 4

2008-11-01T16:57:00.001Z

What an odd week it's been. On Wednesday afternoon, I was sitting in Dublin airport, a sizeable snowstorm visible through every window, sipping what was alleged to be tea and flanked on all sides by the moral outrage of the British press. The TV in hotel had Sky News, so I'd caught moments of the scandal as it unfolded by, even now, I can't quite believe how it was escalated so quickly by the delightful, intelligent and well-rounded individuals who work for the Mail.

If I might just, briefly, focus on the point that I believe to be key to the whole situation. Prior to the papers getting hold of the story, there had been five complaints, and only two had come immediately after the show had aired. Now, it's also worth stating that what Brand and Ross got up to in that particular programme should not have been broadcast. But, I think it says a great deal about what that show must have been like that such content only provoked two complaints from its actual listeners. Thus, the people tuning in for that particular programme were, almost entirely, untroubled by that incident and felt it was in keeping with what Saturday night on Radio 2 offered.

I could spend several days writing about the people who are willing to be engineered into moral outrage by the very people who claim to want to protect our delicate little minds from such filth, but I'll try and keep it brief. If what was said was humiliating for Andrew Sachs' granddaughter, then why on earth did the Mail decide to take something that had only been heard by a little under half a million Radio 2 listeners and reprint it for the benefit of the masses?

That Russell Brand, he's outrageous. The things he says aren't fit for the good people of Britain to hear. Why not read them instead?

It's typical Mail reportage.

So-and-so went to a film premiere last night looking really slutty. Here's a fucking huge picture of her so that you can examine exactly how slutty she looked. Hands on the table at all times, please.

As someone who struggles with the notion that God guides us all through our daily lives, I'm tempted to try and organise 10,000 complaints about Songs Of Praise. I find it offensive to my beliefs and, although I've never seen it, they sing songs about God and bang on about him being a redeemer and stuff. Honest, I read it in the paper. Then again, I could engage my brain for, ooh, maybe five seconds, and realise that this programme isn't for me. That's why I haven't watched it and it's why it hasn't actually offended me. There, that was a really unnecessary crisis averted, wasn't it?

On Thursday night, Newsnight gave over the first thirty minutes of the show to this story. Thirty minutes! Still, it's not like a super-power is about to appoint a new President or anything, is it? Emily Maitlis appeared to want to leave Mark Thompson as close to death as her sense of humanity allowed during her interview and actually bothered to quote a fairly typical Frankie Boyle crack from Mock The Week at him twice, in the hope that he would condemn that and give the hacks something else to find some fake ire over.

I know that this blog is essentially about music, but I get a lot of my musical info and awareness from some of the BBC's outstanding broadcasting. The Beeb means a lot to me and the access I have to it is something I cherish. The thought that this story will lead to an even more timid BBC than we already have, post-phone-in scandal, genuinely troubles me. Not as much as Fox News does, mind you.

Absolutely right.

2008-10-31T17:57:00.001Z

I will gather my thoughts in due course, but Tim Shaw does a pretty decent job of summarising how insane the week in media has been.

£17.50 for a conversation in a room with a sticky floor

2008-10-19T12:59:00.001+01:00

The first time I heard 'Asleep In The Back', a winter's night towards the end of 2001, I found it almost too dense to get my head around. These beautiful, ethereal tunes, simultaneously complex and yet understated, have since taken up residence as old friends. 'Cast Of Thousands' took even longer to make sense, and it didn't really click until after I'd heard the rather wonderful, 'Leaders Of The Free World'. This latter record contains one of my all time favourite songs; 'Great Expectations'. Musically, it's pretty great, but lyrically is where it gets me. Guy Garvey tells the story of a marriage that happened only in his mind, as he imagined nuptials with a regular passenger on the late bus.

"A call girl with yesterday eyes
Was our witness and priest
Stockport Supporters' Club kindly supplied us a choir
Your vow was your smile
As we moved down the aisle
Of the last bus home."

Perfect. Argue with me, if you like. I won't listen.

And then, 'The Seldom Seen Kid' arrived and it all changed. It's another beautiful album and it may well be their best to date - certainly, songs like 'One Day Like This', 'Friend Of Ours' and 'Grounds For Divorce' support that theory - and yet, finally, the great British public have come on board. I talk, as it must have become clear by now, about Elbow.

I had the pleasure of their company at Leeds Academy last night and I'm still smiling. I don't think I've ever heard such clear vocals at a concert before as the sound for Guy's mic last night. The track, 'Leaders Of The Free World' is one of the most gigantic sounding songs I've ever heard live and there wasn't a moment in the whole show where the band were anything other than imperial and, frankly, fucking brilliant. It's right up there in my top five gigs; I only wish I'd gone to see them sooner. They played 'Great Expectations' last night, at which I entered an almost trance-like state and stood their swaying like a ninny, completely lost in that beguiling song. Until, that was, the twerps behind me decided to revive a conversation they'd been having intermittently throughout the gig.

Answer me this. Please. Why the hell would you pay for tickets to a concert only to talk through the gig? I expect a little chat during the support act - that's life. But during the main act? You know, the ones on the fucking tickets you had to give up to get in to this venue? The people you knew you were coming to see and, presumably, at least quite like. Why go to a hot, sweaty building, with a suspiciously sticky floor and speaker stacks that could destroy hospitals to have a conversation about hats and trains? I know this might be coming across as something of an over-reaction, but what goes on between the ears of these gibbering fucknuts? If you don't know many songs, but still decided to buy a ticket, presumably you're expecting to like the songs you've not heard? Thus, perhaps, you'd actually want to hear them?

Having completed a brief assessment of how likely they were to be knife-wielding maniacs, I opted to turn round and frown sternly at them. This caused a cessation of idle chit-chat for a song or two at least, but it's an ever-increasing problem. Towards the end of the gig, as the band were performing some of the afore-mentioned, dense but beautiful material from the debut, an exasperated male voice could be heard yelping, 'Shut the fuck up, just shut the fuck up." He made a fair, if not especially eloquent, point.

Anyway, Elbow were utterly fantastic and I cannot recommend them highly enough. I'm sure the people behind me would too, except of course they've no idea if they were any good or not.

***

Had a quick skip through The X Factor this morning. Yeah, I put it on Sky +, so what? Alexandra kicked things off with a terrific, 'I'll Be There'. The one who always starts in Spanish didn't, and then got told off for not doing so, despite being reasonably good, while even Pontins managed a respectable, if utterly unremarkable, stab at 'She's Out Of My Life'. Why Michael Jackson songs, by the way? In what way is he relevant to the modern music scene, that is so frequently a reference point in much of the judges' critical opinion?

Girlband's 'Heal The World' was hilarious. Properly bonkers, that one. The little Irish Lego man was overcome with enjoyment during the performance, suggesting that there is, actually, at least one person who likes that song. Their fate was sealed.

Talking of shit Michael Jackson songs, 'You Are Not Alone' got a reasonable going over by Bo-Selecta, even if the start was a bit mediocre, only to be eclipsed by an opinion-dividing performance from Austin. I was actually quite taken by his version of 'Billie Jean'. Who cares if that version's been done elsewhere? Isn't that essentially the basis for pretty much every performance on The X Factor? It'd be fantastic if each show was filled with new music performed by the wannabes, but it's never going to happen.

David Brent - leave the joke alone, Louis, or I'll tape your hands to your sides - was coma-inducing at his best and completely shit at his worst. Strip his story away and you've got nothing. If it's done on merit, I'd imagine he'll be in the bottom two next week.

JLS brought a West End show feel to 'The Way You Make Me Feel' and made me feel quite queasy. It was very late-eighties, New Kids On The Block-lite, and one of them has a hideously nasal voice that detracts from the half-decent work of the others. Louis' only remaining shot at the title, and thus it's easy to say that the-over-excitable-Girlband-dressing-room-loiterer is screwed.

Diana was, naturally, tremendous. The novelty 'wow' factor from last week had worn off, but it was still a wonderful rendering of 'Man In The Mirror' and her voice remains the most compelling on the show by miles.

Macy Gray was up next. In addition to the tinge of madness displayed last week, there was an undercurrent of menace and desperation added to the mix this week. Perhaps she'd been getting performance tips from Ringo Starr. That said, creative Brian - you know, the one they couldn't fire after he turned out to be a shit judge, so they labelled him the 'creative director' - really did fill the tissue of ego-wanking with the truly bizarre concoction that the mad one was ensconced within.

Little, squidgy E-Owen was up last with, the not-especially shocking song choice, 'Ben'. He was rather good. Nothing more, nothing less.

Girls Aloud popped up for the results show and delivered a reasonably strong performance of their marvellous new single, 'The Promise'. It really is good. I make no apologies.

Girlband and Not-so-Spanish-now contested the bottom two spot and, having gone to 'DEADLOCK', Girlband were told to go away. Quite right really. Not quite as entertaining this week, but then what was I really expecting?

Like you didn't watch it.

2008-10-11T22:03:00.001+01:00

So, the live shows return. I love music. I know that there's every chance that the majority of The X Factor will make me angry, and yet, every year, I return for more. Every so often someone great actually makes it through. It may well have happened this year.

That said, I'm not sure any of the acts are ever good enough to justify watching Louis' simpleton-at-a-Radio-1-roadshow clapping on a regular basis. (By the way, did Simon try to out Louis tonight? Sorry, I digress.) There were some truly awful performances tonight, some mediocre offerings and a couple of decent vocals.

Girlband, who kicked off the show, have a truly shit name. Weirdly, they ended up being the better of the two girl groups that the little Irish nutjob is looking after this time around. It was a solid enough performance but never going to win in a million years. The remarkably different looking Austin followed, with a competent version of The Police's 'Every Breath You Take'. The panel seemed to love it, but I'm not entirely sure why. It was alright. It was safe. It did the job, I guess, but who the hell made the backing track? Was it from one of the karaoke nights we saw him running in his little film before the performance? It was utterly chronic and sufficiently diverting that I ended up quite ambivalent about one of the few I reckoned might be quite good.

Alexandra was very good. There was definitely a risk of a wardrobe malfunction, and Whitney tunes always know how to rub me up the wrong way, but she has a fabulous voice. Cheryl clearly has the best group and appears to be bloody good at mentoring, what with her rather successful song choices. More of which, later.

Daniel followed. As he was singing, I pointed out the similarities between the performance and this:

However, ol' cymbal hands himself made a similar, if less accurate, comment directly afterwards, thus ruining the moment a little. It was very poor. Big heart, big arms, poor performance. If a judge's review begins with words like, "I just want to say that you're such a nice guy..." it's pretty obvious that the vocal wasn't up to it. And it wasn't.

Ricky Gervais' dad ( © Dermot O'Leary) has one chance of winning this year, and it's JLS, whose performance of 'I'll Make Love To You' was 50% quite good. They'll get better, and they're one of the better acts in the twelve. Quite a disappointing start though.

Pontins was up next. I'm not sure what his name was, actually. Might be Scott. Who cares? By the time you read this, I'm fairly certain he'll have been kicked out. At least Simon, who I have to say talks the most sense out of the lot of them, was honest enough to say out loud what everyone else was thinking. He screwed up. Pontins' version of 'Yeh, Yeh' was toe-curlingly bad. I imagine there was more entertaining wakes occurring at the same time as that performance.

Macy Gray was on next. Or at least, that seems to be who Rachel is using as the basis for her stage persona. A not-as-bad-as-the-judges-seemed-to-think version of that song by Robyn was hijacked by some of the most disturbing bumping and, if you will, grinding since the most recent Austrian dungeon clearout. Then, she coined her catchphrase, "taken on board." Take this on board too: stop playing your arse a different song to the rest of the room.

And then, for me, one of the very best performances ever seen on The X Factor. No, really. Diana's version of 'With Or Without You' knocked me for six. It made me think of Emiliana Torrini and Frida Hyvönen. Even once I realised that it was a U2 song she was singing, it didn't automatically summon a Bono-rage. It was magnificent. It was controlled. It was different. And, crucially if you listen to what the judges always bang on about, I'd buy her record. I may be proved wrong by some shocking performances in the future, but I thought she was great. And I'd expected to find her exceptionally annoying. So, that shows what I know.

Although, I do know that Bad Lashes were crap. To paraphrase Boyzone, I didn't get it. It was a mediocre song, it was a mediocre performance and (pulls trousers up to tits) it sounded like a drunken hen night. Apparently their image was good. Not so sure myself.

Little Irish boy who doesn't spell Owen as Owen was next. I really, really don't like 'Imagine', but it was hard to deny that it was good. Good enough, in fact, that BT are currently altering their network to ensure that if you press 1 on the keypad of all mums' phones, it automatically registers a vote for little Owen with an E at the front.

I would imagine that singing the first couple of lines of every song you do in Spanish, before going back to the English language original, would get pretty bloody annoying after a while. Oh wait, it already bloody well has. Ruth - or Rachel, as Simon called her whilst mid-orgasm - makes me angry. It's not even a gimmick, it's just stupid. Sing the bloody song and get off. Decent enough voice, but the novelty act schtick needs to go.

Bo Selecta closed the show and proved she has a much bigger voice than anybody had expected. I was quite surprised at the choice of an Alicia Keys song, but, by the end, I had to admit that it was a very impressive performance. Cheryl must have the winner in her ranks and she certainly outclassed the others on song choices tonight.

One last thing. Dermot makes it a much more enjoyable watch. Kate Thornton was, as she always is, diabolical as the host of The X Factor. She had no personality and very little ability when it came to presenting. Dermot's enthusiasm is contagious and, whisper it, I actually find myself quite enjoying the programme. Anyway, got to go. Time to watch Leon (I know, I know. Who?) before Pontins gets told to bugger off.

EDIT: Pontins got the sympathy vote in the end and it was Louis' girl-group showdown. The right group got binned, although neither 'bonus' song was much cop. Watching the Sarah Harding-lite girl in Bad Lashes go to bits was a little unsettling although Dermot's school master impression, "Now's not the time for petty squabbles," was wonderful.

All I Want To Do Is Ballad

2008-09-16T20:22:00.001+01:00

'Writing To Reach You', 'Selfish Jean', 'Closer', 'More Than Us', 'Driftwood', 'Flowers In The Window', 'Re-Offender' and 'Something Anything'. All of these are wonderful songs by Travis. I know, as a 'serious music fan', I'm not supposed to rate Travis but they're great. Let's get the mudslinging out the way first. '12 Memories' is quite poor and its effect on their sales may never be reversed. However, it's pretty much their sole aberration.

I've got 'The Man Who' on as I type this and it sounds marvellous. The sound is rich and warm and the songs are, at worst, gently charming and, at best, genuinely affecting. Balls to the fact that plenty of bands have tried to do this since, (go on Lightbody, fuck off) it doesn't make these songs any less great. The album was a sneaky success when it came out, gradually gathering momentum until it was virtually compulsory to buy it in order to be allowed to purchase bread and milk for your hungry family. And, like so many others, 'Why Does It Always Rain On Me?', got on my nerves after the billionth play during Glastonbury footage, but I'm even rehabilitated towards that song now.

My return to Travis' bosom came about as a result of hearing their utterly splendid new single, 'Something Anything' for a second time. When I first heard it, I wasn't convinced it. It sounded a little bland and, well, chuggy. The second listen enabled me to hear the wailing backing vocal in the chorus. Now, regular readers will know that the bit in Radiohead's 'Weird Fishes/Arpeggi' when Ed comes in, wailing as a counterpoint to Thom's main vocal is one of my absolute favourite musical moments. This isn't quite up to it, but it is similarly powerful, but in a different way. I don't know why, but it gives the song more heart. There's a real sense that somebody's giving everything to that song and suddenly the chorus comes alive.

Furthermore, it's short and sounds tremendous at unacceptable volume levels. Shit cover, mind. Anyway, the new single led me back to the last one, 'J Smith' which is just bizarre, flicking between shuddering rock and a dramatic choir on the edge. From there, I ended up digging out their last album, 'The Boy With No Name'. The lead single from this, 'Closer', is the sort of track that is as inextricably linked to 'the Travis sound' as 'Imitation Of Life' is to 'the R.E.M. sound', but that doesn't make it bad. The list I started this post with demonstrates that a number of their best songs come from their most recent albums, and how many long-lasting bands can you say that about?

The 'Singles' album went on next. Why do I even own it, when I have the album? Not sure, it must have been cheap. But it's got a new song! I was amazed by how, when almost every song started, I kept thinking, "Oh good, I like this one." I got the new singles collection by The Coral yesterday and I thought that was pretty impressive, but this, while less musically creative, made me smile more.

Obviously, if they've never done anything for you before, then it's unlikely they ever will, but if they've faded away, lost in the middle distance, then give 'em another shot. I can almost guarantee you won't be disappointed.

Can't embed 'Closer', for some reason, but if you go to Travis' Last.fm page, you can listen to it, and many other tunes, in full.

Woooooooo!

2008-09-09T22:40:00.001+01:00

Elbow win the Mercury Prize. Justice is done. If you don't own it, sort yourself out now. It's wonderful.

Wooooooo again!

I guess I should update the blog, so...

2008-09-06T11:44:00.001+01:00

Still obsessing over the music of Tindersticks so, instead, here's a classic bit of digging from the truly wonderful Jon Stewart and The Daily Show in relation to the Presidential election.

In a word, 'toss'

2008-08-23T19:07:00.001+01:00

Don't waste your money on the new albums by Bloc Party or The Verve. I've tried to listen to them a few times now, but with no joy. Each time I find myself skipping to the next track to avoid torturing myself. I'm sure some of you reading this will like one or both if you spend long enough with them, but, fuck me, there's better stuff out there to be spending your cash on and filling your time.

I was going to write a long, and quite possibly pretentious, dismissal of these two records, but what's the point? I think they're both a bit shit. I quite liked the single, 'Love Is Noise', but most of the album is six minutes plus drones with fuck all in the way of lyrical quality and utterly inoffensive music. As for Bloc Party, it occasionally piqued my interest but then, just as quickly, pissed me off.

Don't you wish broadsheet reviews were like this?

Asphalt Ribbons

2008-08-21T20:56:00.001+01:00

As the last post was thorough, structured and even vaguely factual, I reckon I can get away with something a little less coherent this time out.

I mentioned Tindersticks the other day. Seriously, how have I not found this band before now? They're just the right amount of...different to be utterly beguiling. It's that kind of quality sentence that will ensure that none of the big names in music publishing ever come calling, but how do you express this kind of music in mere words? I know this sounds like one of my usual attacks, whereby every couple of months I shit out hyperbole until I'm dehydrated, but I oh-so-definitely mean it this time.

If you ignored my call to arms the other day then I now present you with a few more useful resources to help you as you fall in love.

Firstly, last.fm has loads and loads of Tindersticks tracks available to stream in full; thus the love affair costs nothing! Click here and turn the speakers up.

Secondly, Tinder.info has a wealth of great Tindersticks info, interviews and reviews and I've found it invaluable as I've been trying to slot their back catalogue into place. It hasn't been updated for a bit, so it doesn't cover the recent album, 'The Hungry Saw', but pretty much everything else you'll need is there.

That is all.

A logo written in toothpaste

2008-08-19T18:07:00.001+01:00

Mmmm. Another record shopping-based outing today. A small, but splendid, pile of records are being aired as I type. Currently, it's the new Stereolab, which is better than I'd expected after reading some mixed reviews on the net. The limited edition Japanese-style CD is rather fun too. Anyhoo, said record shopping expedition leads me to my (main) two topics for today.

Firstly, the Coalition of Independent Record Stores and secondly, the changing ways people purchase music, with a particular focus on those young rapscallions, Bloc Party.

I've mentioned the 'Coalition' a few times already and I'm still not convinced that it actually counts for anything. I've previously expressed my misgivings about the elitist approach it's taking and this has been underlined by my experiences over the past couple of weeks. As is my tendency at this time of year, I've been working my way round many of the independent record stores of the UK and, not being an especially shy chap, I've taken to engaging the staff (generally the owners, it must be said) of these stores in conversation about how business is going, which has, inevitably, brought us round to the topic of the Coalition.

When I first mentioned this idea it was alongside a blog post by the good folk at Norman Records that didn't paint the project in an especially pretty light. It would seem that the initial fears have proved absolutely correct. One of the main reasons quoted to Norm as to why they wouldn't be allowed into the Coalition was that this initiative is all about driving people back in to actual record shops rather than simply adding to online sales. As Norm pointed out at the time, many of the shops allowed in to the Coalition actually do a brisk trade online. Thus, it came as no surprise to me today to find that, upon visiting one of the Coalition stores - I'll not mention which one to avoid any assumptions about who said what - the Brett Anderson album, 'Wilderness', that is, apparently, exclusively available in Coalition stores in August ahead of its main release in September, had yet to arrive. It was officially released to these stores last Monday and yet this store had had none, and had no idea when they would actually arrive. However, Avalanche Records, who, if you remember, are the initial torch-holders for this endeavour, had plenty in stock from the off and have been merrily flogging them to anyone who wants them...via eBay! I know, just sit back and bask in the insane hypocrisy of that for a moment.

During the numerous chats I've had with Coalition members of late, it has been noted that a Brett Anderson album is hardly going to set the charts alight or keep the tills ringing for weeks on end. Surely, you don't release an album in a limited edition of 1900 if you think you can flog 1901, or more, copies of that title? That said, not even a handful of those 1900 copies had made it to at least one of the Coalition stores by this morning. When I last checked, Avalanche's eBay shop had put up 50 copies, and already sold 21 of them. Still, at least Avalanche aren't letting their position as 'head honcho' distort things in their favour. Oh, hang on. For fuck's sake, you're either trying to help out all of the people in the same, dire position or you're not.

Apparently, during the heated meetings that occur from time to time between representatives from the Coalition member stores one of the most recent (and I think you'll agree, brilliant) ideas was to have exclusive Coalition T-shirts that can only be bought from Coalition stores. Have you seen the Coalition logo? It's over to the right in amongst the links to independent record stores. It's truly appalling! The title of today's post is the best description I've been given of what the T-shirts look like. The most important point that's been raised, however, is who the bloody hell would actually wear one of these things, let along buy it? Furthermore, who even knows that the Coalition exists apart from over-keen people like my good self and you, my loyal readers? It seems like an exercise in dithering thus far. A Brett Anderson album that you couldn't pay most people to take away is exclusively available from Coalition stores - unless it's not of course. It's intended to provide an incentive to shop in a bricks and mortar record shop, and yet it's doing steady business on a world-famous, online - and let's be pretty fucking aware - corporate auction site. Mission accomplished.

Some readers may remember the joyous days of the 'Chain With No Name', regularly labelled as CWNN on adverts in the music press. Regular pages would tell you what the latest indie releases were and then, at the bottom of the ad, you could find out where to buy them from. CWNN occasionally led to little perks like bonus discs or posters you couldn't get elsewhere. Not CWNN T-shirts, you'll notice.

Some questions remain about the Coalition:

1. Who's it really for? Does the consumer really benefit when there's bugger all advertising, the stock isn't actually in the shops that it's supposed to be in and those in charge don't appear to care too much about other shops.

2. What's it really for? If it doesn't actually alter the record-buying experience, how will it have an impact? Is anyone going to think, "Balls to buying that CD on play.com for £6.99, I'm going in to town, to my local indie so I can get it for £9.99, but at least I'll have the chance to buy one of those lovely T-shirts?" I suspect - and I'd so dearly loved to be proved wrong on this - that the answer is no.

3. Does it actually have any meaningful principles? If web-only indie stores aren't going to be allowed in on the grounds that they don't cause people to tend towards independent stores on the high street, shouldn't all Coalition exclusives be store sales only? Isn't it a really shitty tactic to ostracise online-only dealers and then fill your pockets with eBay funded cash?

As virtually nobody knows about the Coalition and even fewer care, I think that'll have to be my last word on it for the time being. I'm sure I'll be whining about it again by this time next week.

And so, eventually, we come to the other topic of note. Bloc Party's new album, 'Intimacy', is out on Thursday, at 9am. No, really. Out of nowhere, they've come up with the idea of announcing an almost immediate download of an album, with a CD version to follow. It's revolutionary, I tell thee. To be fair, the manner in which they've done it is quite neat. It was only announced last night and yet, in a couple of days time, the album will be all over file-sharing networks the world over. And a few people will pay for it, I'm sure. However, it continues the logic I was touching on yesterday with my post about boxsets. The bands and record industries are desperately looking for anything that will give the business a quick cash injection. Using upfront, and unexpected, paid for downloads is a very simple way of avoiding the 'leak' issue that can cause untold damage to physical sales, as everybody illegally downloaded the album six weeks before it came out for real. Not the case with this. However, if you look at the new David Byrne and Brian Eno release, 'Everything That Happens Will Happen Today', which went on sale digitally yesterday. A CD will follow, if you took that option on purchase, but for now you've got the MP3 or flac files to play with. However, disproving the theory that this makes leaks less of an issue, within an hour of the webshop going live, the album was available for illegal download all over the internet. I'd recommend the Flac + CD option, personally, but the point remains that plenty of people don't expect to have to pay anything and giving them a good deal does nothing to change their minds.

Oh, and if 'Mercury' is anything to go by, it'll be a big bag of arse anyway. That said, I'm sure they'll get my tenner and I'll have a grumble about it on here at the end of the week.

That'll do for now, eh?

Boxing clever (and why I love Tindersticks)

2008-08-18T17:29:00.001+01:00

The Monkey album, 'Journey To The West' came out today and it's really rather good. I'd anticipated having to give it a number of listens before warming to it. I figured it'd be awkward and difficult to get my head round, but it's actually pretty accessible. There's some lovely little Albarn melodies and flourishes throughout and, while there's still far too much to get your head round on the first listen, you'll certainly find yourself going back for more.

The only way you can get this on vinyl is via the special edition by The Vinyl Factory, which is £65 before P+P! As much as I love Damon's music, I'm not shelling out that kind of cash on a one album. It's one of many, similarly insane, projects that have been put before the record-buying public of late. When Radiohead announced the 'In Rainbows' project, back in October of last year, the media made bold claims about the impact it would have on the music industry and how free music would be the way forward. Far from it, it turns out. The actual legacy of the experiment is the 'discbox' effect, with prices ranging from 'a little steep' to 'taking the piss'. Primal Scream have one for 'Beautiful Future', also created by The Vinyl Factory. You get the album, on double vinyl, plus a 12" with one remix on it, a poster and a fancy, but flimsy booklet. All for the knock-down, bargainous price of £50 + P+P. No, seriously! There's one for the new album by The Verve, which features the CD/DVD and double vinyl (featuring two bonus tracks) and a booklet with 'exclusive artwork'. £40 to you. Likewise, Portishead's 'Third' came in a box with double vinyl, an etched 12" of 'Machine Gun' (available elsewhere for £4) and a USB stick with digital files of the album and some videos. Once again, £40. The new Oasis album will also be available in a £50 special edition and there are plenty of others that you can seek out in your own time. As nice an idea as they initially seem, it's starting to feel like the record companies have grabbed at this concept as a way of trying to prop-up flagging sales by fleecing the hardcore fans for as much as they're willing to pay.

Obviously, I'm in the minority in that I buy a lot of records and thus I'm exposed to a lot of these 'special' editions, whereas perhaps the casual fan is less aware of how common these are becoming. However, that doesn't make them any more palatable. The original Radiohead discbox is a delight. Worth £40? Probably not, but it was justifiable as a 'one-off', a treat, a nice item for the collection. But, now they're coming thick and fast, I'm finding myself tempted by many options and therefore choosing to buy none of them. The minute these become an acceptable indulgence, my record-buying budget goes out the window. I know, I know; I'm moaning about something I can just ignore. If I think they're too pricey, I can just not buy them. But they're so pretty!

Two more things before I go. Firstly, I was flicking through the Later - The First 15 Years DVD the other day and came across a truly joyous performance from Al Green. Sure, at times he does Grandad dancing and smiling that much is probably bad for your health (well, your jaw at least) but he just oozes enjoyment and I found myself grinning like an idiot by the end. Watch it yourself right now:

I've spent most of the last few days listening to the music of Nottingham's Tindersticks. Why had nobody told me about them before? I knew they were there but I've no real recollection of hearing much of their stuff previously and I'd never read anything that made me want to investigate, but I've really been missing out. Delicate but ambitious indie music that isn't ashamed to wear its soul and jazz influences in public, their back catalogue is an absolute joy. The first two albums, both, confusingly, called 'Tindersticks' are avilable now in expanded, double CD format and I cannot recommend them highly enough. That said, I'd also recommend all of their other studio albums, so you won't go wrong, whatever you go for.

Here's some YouTube-age to begin the love-in.

This is the track, 'For Those', rendered so beautifully on the Bloomsbury disc that accompanies the reissued version of their second album and in demo form on the debut's bonus disc.

A vintage Jools performance - firstly, 'No More Affairs'

and then 'Talk To Me'.

Finally, this is the much-revered, 'Tiny Tears', accompanied by some random footage, as it average You-Tuber's wont.

Good, aren't they? If you've just fallen in love, thank me later. If you already knew, why didn't you tell me?

I stand before you to urge you towards Action

2008-08-12T19:30:00.001+01:00

On Saturday, I spent a couple of hours sampling music on the MySpace pages of acts tagged as 'friends' on Steve Lamacq's page. In that time, I found one act I liked the sound of. One! My new found enthusiasm for tarting around on MySpace was quickly extinguished. The one act I liked? Well, for a start, they've already split up but, on the plus side, you can download their music for free from their site. They are The Arrogants and their music is essentially a rockier Sundays. Occasionally somebody gives them a few too many blue Smarties, but I suggest you have a listen. Go here for free audio goodness.

I finally visited Action Records in Preston yesterday. I've used them for mail order from time to time over the years, but I'd never previously experienced the shop. It was a delightful (and costly) experience. I'll get my one concern out of the way immediately: For most of the time that I was in the shop, there was no music playing. That's not right, is it? I used to have to budget extra when shopping in the now defunct Reveal Records of Derby to allow for the inevitable purchase of whatever was on the 'now playing' shelf. I expect to be bombarded with tunes and I don't remotely care if they're actually toss, just so long as they're there. Which reminds me. The other week, whilst browsing the vinyl department of a well-known Midlands indie store, the young lad behind the counter decided that the next record we were going to hear was the current (and oh-so-very-perfect) Elbow album, 'The Seldom Seen Kid'. He'd been playing a dance 12" previously and so, just as the record was starting, he flicked the speed from 45 to 331/3. Unfortunately for him, that particular album is pressed on two 45rpm discs. Plus, the opening track has a long, instrumental build-up before the vocal arrives. Hoping to communicate in the way only slightly anti-social, slightly hairy musos can, I looked across at him trying to convey my confusion about what was coming out of the speakers. At this point, he gave me a look that I can only describe as, "What, peasant? Haven't you heard this great record?" Once Guy Garvey's delightful voice grace the speakers, he hurriedly (and, agonisingly, audibly) dragged the needle away from the vinyl. A few seconds later, it returned at the correct speed. As I was leaving, I looked across and he scowled at me. If you're going to be an indie snob, know your bloody tunes. Like me, for example!

Anyway, where was I? Ah yes, Preston. Action Records is packed full of quality stock and disturbingly good prices. In particular, the new vinyl section is very reasonably priced. For example, the Johnny Flynn album, 'A Larum' is available as a double-vinyl, pop-up gatefold sleeve, limited edition for £20. In Action, £18. And such was the case for many other titles I could mention. There's a huge CD sale with piles of stuff reduced (admittedly not all of it worthy of your attention). Back catalogue isn't marked up ludicrously and it's clear that their approach to stock control is to keep prices low on stock that isn't shifting. Seems sensible, but so few other record shops do it. I won't say much more other than to once again recommend their excellent mail order service which is available on their website here and to reiterate how delightful I found to be. A rare beacon of splendour on an increasingly dour music shopping landscape.

On that note, I've put up a link to the 'Coalition' site along with the other record shops on the right-hand side of the page. I mentioned it a few months back and how it's meant to unite the remaining indie stores in the UK to make them stronger and to help with business. However, they're still not involving the good folk of Norman Records (or some other indie mail order types I can think of) because they don't have an actual shop. Surely, for something designed as a means of fighting the big companies who shut off doors to small companies, being elitist is rather anti the ethos of the Coalition? Who knows.

Do you have hallucinatory visions of The Chuckle Brothers?

2008-08-07T16:18:00.001+01:00

Mojo readers - is it wrong to like that cover of 'Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da' by Gabriella Cilmi that's on this month's free CD? Clearly, it's dreadful, wrong and naughty, but something about it got under my skin. Surreal, to say the least. Not a great start, I know, wittering on about a track you'll only know if you buy a certain magazine. Not unusual, either.

The post had a few surprises in it today. Firstly, the new Herman Dune album, 'Next Year In Zion', which is really rather good. Never taken to them in the past, but, on first impressions, it sounds splendid. They haven't changed particularly, perhaps I have.

Secondly, a new album from Misty's Big Adventure! Oh yes! The last one only came out towards the end of last year, but even so there is more to delight, thrill and confuzzle your ears. 'Television's People' is a concept album about a troubled man seeking solace in daytime stodge who ends up getting sucked into the TV. Delightfully bizarre, but not especially surprising when it comes to Misty's. If you've not yet had the pleasure of this lot then a) you're not a long-standing, loyal reader of the Vinyl Junkies internet presence (fair enough, really) and b) you're in for an absolute treat. Start with the album, 'The Black Hole' and then buy everything else. Anyhoo, this album is wonderfully good and comes with a quite brilliant press release by Grandmaster Gareth (the head honcho). I truly hope the good folk of Misty's and SL records won't mind that I've temporarily placed track 10, 'There Is Hope' on the Muxtape, simply because of its comic genius. It documents the daytime commercials coming alive in the head of the man at the centre of the story and he starts to believe that the telly is talking to him. Superb. Naturally, if anyone's pissed off at its presence on the Mux, please let me know and it'll disappear rapidly. That also goes for any of the new bands whose material I've popped on there as a taster for those who'd like to go and spend their hard earned quids on some independent releases.

As I believe I mentioned the other day, I was off on my jolly holidays last week and upon arrival I was heartened by the lack of phone reception and utterly shite TV signal. I was subsequently startled when I turned on the DAB radio and had the strongest reception I've ever had. Figure that out. Anyway, as a result of that, I ended up spending some time with 6music outside of the Gideon Coe show. In particular, I spent a few afternoons with the ever-delightful Lammo. Only the other week I was praising his blog and now it's the turn of his radio show. His 'New Favourite Band' feature is a logical extension of what he's been doing on the radio for years and years. Quite simply, each week he identifies a new act to which he's taken a shine. Last week it was Tom Williams & The Boat. It's a good band name that. Although the name at the start is nothing out of the ordinary, by adding '& The Boat' on the end, the name is suddenly memorable. It would've been enough to keep it lodged in my mind until I got back to the world of Google. Obviously, I'm geeky enough that if I ever happen upon music I like when I can't do anything about it, I save the name of act and song as a draft text message, but if I wasn't a geek, I'd still have been able to remember their name.

Anyway, we got sidetracked there. Tom Williams & The Boat's latest release is the 'Got Fuel EP', which you can get from this website. It's a delightful little package, coming as it does in a PVC sleeve with a wraparound sleeve made of glossy photos stuck to sugar paper. Inside, you get two more photos, a lyric sheet and, of course, the rather splendid CD. 'Got Fuel' is a delightfully woozy indie singalong that has been going round in my head for the best part of this week. To confuse matters, there's a song called 'Pete & The Pirates' that actually sounds like a menacing version of The Young Republic and 'Half Mast' contains one of my current favourite lyrical refrains; "I don't have a hoodie set at half mast, sitting on my fringe like balaclava on my chin." I'm not putting it on the Mux because I think the bloke deserves £6 for that alone.

The whole EP is great but, should you want more convincing, over on the main TW&TB site there are loads of free downloads, including some rather amusing covers. Treat yourself.

One final act of note today. Our Broken Garden are a new act on the, quite superb, Bella Union label. She - for it is only one woman, Anna Broensted of Efterklang - had an EP out back in April called, 'Lost Sailor' and there's a new album on the way in September, entitled 'When Your Blackening Shows'. Nothing else to tell, I'm afraid, but you can be thoroughly enchanted by the tunes over at the Myspace page.

A curator, if you will

2008-08-06T20:23:00.001+01:00

I'm not even sure what radio show it was, back in the day, one of the stations I listened to used to do a music press review on a Wednesday. Actually, it might have been in the early days of 6music when Andrew Collins' afternoon show (RIP) was still called 'Teatime'. Anyway, I used to love hearing the cherry-picked highlights and treated it as a buyer's guide. Sadly, there isn't enough music press to make that particularly worthy these days, but, on this occasion, indulge me.

There are two things I've been meaning to share with you. The first is the rather excellent list of 'Things heard at the Latitude festival' in this month's Uncut.

Some of my favourites:

"Pimm's me up to the power of two!"
Heard over a walkie-talkie: "Child control to the Poetry Arena!"
"Seriously, I thought it was called Ricky Pedia. I assumed it was a bloke with a really popular MySpace page."
Woman on phone telling her friends where to meet her: "I'm directly below the cloud that looks a bit like Cyprus."

Splendid stuff.

The second item of note is in today's NME. Now, I know that every few months I keep saying almost nice things about this magazine but it really has shown signs of improvement recently. For a start, the woefully pretentious letter from the editor - and his picture, for that matter - has disappeared from the third page and the writing just seems sharper and funnier. Mark Beaumont having a weekly column can only be a good thing. Anyway, this week, the main feature is a huge interview with Noel Gallagher. Say what you like about Oasis, and most people do, Noel is fantastically good value when it comes to interviews. Never one to disappoint, this time around it's regarding Jay-Z.

"I never dissed that guy. But there's no point going on about it or you end up sounding like Heather Mills."

Fair point, well made. It's worth £2.20 to read the whole thing.

And finally, today's new music mutterings:

They describe themselves as 'ambient/electronica/pop', which'll do for me. That said, one track, 'Handcuffs' is pure indie joy from start to finish. If you've already visited the VJ myspace then that's the track that blares out at you when the page loads. Good, innit? They're good Welsh boys, are Man Without Country. That's who I'm on about, by the way. There are delightful moments in the aforementioned track where you're left in no doubt about the band's country of origin and I can't deny that I love it all the more because of that. The other tracks that you can hear on their Myspace and iSound pages have a little more of that ambient feel to them, but if you love innovative, energetic songs then you should give them a few minutes of your time.

Quite spacious at the moment

2008-08-05T14:56:00.003+01:00

Ok, so it's very 2005, but I spent longer than I meant to setting up a Myspace page for the blog yesterday. I mention lots of different bands on this blog and increasingly it tends to be things that aren't perhaps as well known as they deserve to be. To make it easy for the loyal readers of this blog to have a listen to the stuff I'm talking about, the Myspace page will try to link to as many of these bands in the 'friends' section, thus allowing you to listen to whatever they've got on their Myspace player. Simple, eh? Anyway, don't expect it to look particularly special - that's not the point. (Plus, I'm not entirely sure how to do that anyway) It's there for the tunes. Little, clickable link on the top right of the site.

A few things to talk about today. First up, a single that was released, seemingly via download only (I know, the site is called Vinyl Junkies, but give me a break) today by Ryan Mullin. The track is called 'The Splint', on Grooveland Records. I've seen it described on the interweb as tech-house, whatsoever the flying fuck that means, but to me it's just very, very good. I have a soft spot for imaginative electronic music of whatever kind. That Glow album is still wonderful, by the way. Anyhoo, 'The Splint' can be heard in full over the Ryan's Myspace and there are many links to allow you to buy the track for varying prices and in varying qualities, from 192kbps MP3 up to WAV. Treat yourself.

Secondly, Robin Allender and The Allender Band. Technically two different acts, although you can probably guess what the common factor is. I defy anyone to listen to the start of 'Green Wound' and feel nothing. It's not possible. That noodly little guitar thing (so, so technical, as always) is just beautiful and the way the band gradually seem to arrive in the background sets you up for a rather splendid piece of music. It's one of the best tracks I've heard all year. Thankfully, it's not a one-off. The accompanying 'In The Grip Of Light' EP is all of the same standard. You can also pick up Robin's solo album from last year. There is some overlap with the material, but it's a worthy purchase. Both CDs come in exceptionally fun card boxes with fold-down flaps and black CDs. You can order straight from the Dreamboat Records site. The less said about the name of Robin's previous band, the better.

Here's the original, stripped down version of 'Green Wound' by Robin. Full version, oddly enough, can be heard on his Myspace.

Finally, as the whole point of setting up the Myspace page is to tie together recommended tunes and to hunt out other good stuff, I should give a mention to the first act to request friendship from the mighty bastion of musical mutterings that is Vinyl Junkies. The honour goes to Derby band, Leon. Nope, I'd never heard of them either. Now, they're not doing anything particularly original and I don't imagine anyone's ever heard one of their records and thought, "Christ! The future of music is here," but they do melodic indie-rock rather well and considerably better than plenty of bands that are selling records these days. 'Hope' sounds like contemplative Feeder and 'Be There' sounds immediately familiar - a bit like a tidied up and polished Super Furries singalong in the chorus.

Oh, and while I think of it, here's the album cover for the quite magnificent Glow album, 'I, Yeah!'

No reason, other than the fact that it gives me another chance to point out how wonderful it is. I promise you, I'm not being bribed to mention it. Like this blog will ever be that important, anyway! Still, like I said yesterday, it's only a fiver!

I'm hoping to tell you a little bit about Man Without Country tomorrow, but I'm waiting on some demo tracks from them. Worth the wait, I assure you.

Taking all the credit

2008-08-04T14:34:00.001+01:00

Having been banging on about physical media and the demise of the record shop only yesterday, I found myself purchasing a download-only album mere hours after publishing said blog entry. My main excuses are that a) it was only a fiver b) it isn't available by any other means. I'm not especially fond of downloads, mainly because I rarely form an attachment with music I acquire in that manner, but on this occasion I'll make an exception. The album I download was 'I, Yeah!' by up-and-coming (get me!) Bristol band, Glow.

Regular readers may remember me droning on about the sheer majesty of Northampton's finest, Maps, last year. The album, 'We Can Create', just edged 'The Good, The Bad & The Queen' as my album of 2007. It's slightly squelchy, delightfully indie, intelligently-crafted electronic music. And that, my music-loving-internet-browsing chums, is also how I would describe 'I, Yeah!' Seriously, it's that good. It hasn't been with me long enough for me to make insanely hyperbolic statements about how it's as good as the Maps album, but I can forsee a long and beautiful relationship. It won't be quite as beautiful as could be though, because it's a CD-R. Still, mustn't grumble. This appears to be a clear argument for the increasing reliance on digital releases. My guess would be that this album would have been a financial nightmare to get off the ground if it had to be pressed up and packaged as a full CD release, but as a download that you can pay for with Paypal, it's a (relative) piece of piss.

I should just confess at this point that I shambled upon this rather wonderful album as a result of the tireless work of one Adam Walton. I've mentioned him before for one reason or another, but for those not up to speed he's the host of a late-night new music show on BBC Radio Wales. I became hooked on the show in an earlier format during my later teenage years living in South Wales and I've kept listening from time to time ever since. A few months back he played the Glow album in its entirety. As it happens, I missed that show, but while following the time-extinguishing Google/Wiki trail of Adam Walton I happened upon a post on their site about him doing that. So, I had a listen and the rest, as they say, is history. For those counting cliches in this post, I think that's four.

Adam's great, by the way, and sadly not as revered as he should be. There are two remaining, essential new music shows for me these days - one is, as you may be aware by now, Gideon Coe on 6music and the other is Adam's. He plays some truly bizarre stuff from time to time, but his show is essentially a latter-day John Peel show with the emphasis on Welsh music. Last night I heard a hip-hop group called Mudmowth - great, although the Myspace page appears to have been written by an Alan Partridge version of Westwood - a delightful female artist by the name of Georgia Ruth Williams, the folksy delights of The Toy Band and a truly brilliant indie band called Man Without Country. Click on the respective names to find out more and/or have a listen to last night's show via the BBC iPlayer. He's on every Sunday from 10pm.

Oh, and if you didn't click on the link above, go and buy the Glow album here.

Not Keane.

2008-08-04T13:38:00.002+01:00

Chortling, red-cheeked, rehab-frequenting, hay-chewing chump Tom Chaplin and his popular music troupe, Keane, are offering a track from their new album as a free download for one week only, starting today. 'Spiralling' is really, really bad. To give you some idea how bad it is, I had to listen to Bloc Party's 'Mercury' afterwards, in order to cleanse my ears*.

Allow me to convey my disgust in real time. I'll just restart the song.

Big, cheesy 'Ooooh!' over synthetic guitar sounds and eighties piano. Verse begins with drums, bass and repetitive piano refrain and over-emoted and over-polished vocals sit atop, speaking lots and saying nothing.

Stadium roof-lifting chorus. Tick.

"I fashioned you from jewels and stone, I made you in the image of myself." Must have used a lot of rubies.

Cheesy guitar thing from start runs through the chorus but there's not really a hook to hum along with. It goes up and down, up and down. You know like Keane songs do. It's so obvious they even made a video demonstrating it for the first single off the last album.

Ah, the middle-eight.

"Did you wanna be a winner?

Did you wanna be an icon?

Did you wanna be famous?

Did you wanna be the president?"

In a weirdly American sounding voice, Tom bellows the above, and more that I can't be bothered typing out. A few screeching, internet dial-up noises at this point to sound...edgy?

Chorus comes back. Oh good. I'm not sure that even Max Moseley would have got much enjoyment from listening to this.

Well, I've no idea what they're trying to do with their 'sound'. I confess that I quite liked bits of the debut, but whatever this is, it's not for me.

Download, for free, from here.

*Cotton buds are more effective.

The Kids Aren't Alright...apparently

2008-08-03T18:22:00.001+01:00

I've just returned from a week in Northumberland. Very nice, thanks for asking. While in the area, I took the opportunity to drop in on the independent record shops of Newcastle. Before I go into any kind of detail, I should point out that I tried to go to Steel Wheels, but I'm fucked if I know where it is. Apparently it's now called Beatdown Records and I found their old store and... oh, forget it. I'm still bitter, ok?

Anyway, I very much enjoyed my time in both RPM and Reflex. RPM smells like a proper record shop. I'd feel obliged to explain that statement were it not for the fact that I'm making it on this blog. And if you're reading this blog then I'm fairly certain that you know what I'm on about. In addition to this, they were playing 'The Good, The Bad & The Queen', which I'm not sure I've ever heard being played in record shop previously. It was a promising start. As it happens, I didn't actually spend any money in there. Not that their stock isn't splendid. There's racks of vinyl at reasonable prices, a reasonably clear filing system for the CDs and a few sale racks. I have nothing but praise for RPM, it's exactly how I would describe the model independent record shop. Ticks every box.

I also visited Reflex, where I confess a number of my quids were liberated by the fine tune-age of Terry Callier and Micah P Hinson. It's a bit more sanitised than RPM - which is to say everything is very neatly arranged and not an inch of display space is wasted. It's clearly a very efficiently run business and you have to applaud any shop that employs a Lurch looky-likey to stand at the end of the road with a large sign directing custom shopwards. I was served by a slightly hyperactive woman who offered up the kind of banter you just don't get in your enormo-stores. Just as I was about to pay, I noticed 'Old Rare New', a delightful tome about independent record stores, up on a shelf and thus double the cost of my shop. Still, another great indie store. The people of Newcastle are spoilt.

In amongst the many tales told in 'Old Rare New' is a page by Sister Ray owner, Phil Barton. I enjoyed his words and offered a token world-weary sigh as I read his comment that, "kids don't collect records anymore, they steal tunes instead." He may well have a point, I thought. Then, I got back yesterday and found my weekly email update from Sister Ray, in which the news was imparted that the shop is in administration while a new buyer is sought. I'll be honest, my first thought was, "Shit! Don't they own Selectadisc in Nottingham too?" I've since had most of my fears about a knock-on effect allayed, but I'm still rather dismayed by the news about this Berwick Street great. It's a cracking shop, full of the sort of records any self-respecting collection requires and not unreasonable prices. A few years back it moved across the road into the old Selectadisc store when that particular business opted to concentrate on one city only. I've not been since the move, but I remember, in its slightly pokier previous location, being thoroughly chuffed with its stock. It was in Sister Ray that I finally managed to buy a - not 100% official - copy of 'Fanfare For The Comic Muse' by The Divine Comedy, back in 2001. I'd spent years looking for it and was happily dispatched with a copy, some sixteen pounds lighter. I'm sure I've moaned about the state of Berwick Street in the past, but only a few years ago it was the ideal day out. A street full of record shops, each offering different things for the rabid collector, but it's now flagging seriously. I hope that Sister Ray finds someone willing to stump up the cash, but its potential demise is yet another sign that the physical product isn't winning over the latest generation of music fans.

I'm still a little concerned about Selectadisc. I wrote about the reduction in floor space a few months back, and while the shop isn't part of the same company as Sister Ray, I know there are some financial links. I can only hope that its legacy and seemingly continued popularity with the good folk of the East Midlands will ensure its survival for some time to come. If that fails, does anyone know what house prices are like in Newcastle?

Mixtape...blah, blah, nostalgia, blah...

2008-07-25T17:07:00.001+01:00

I was about to start with a profound and incisive statement, but that new Bloc Party single really is fucking dreadful, isn't it?

I've spent a thoroughly enjoyable day rearranging bits of the record collection and ripping assorted tracks to the computer in order to refresh the content of my mp3 player and contruct a decent mp3 CD for a long car journey that's coming up. It's wonderful just browsing through the tunes that have, at various times in the last few years, meant rather a lot to me. I did the slightly embarrassing, but hugely popular, swivelling-a-little-bit-in-a-computer-chair dance to Stardust's 'Music Sounds Better With You' earlier and it was hugely satisfying. And what about 'Forever J' by Terry Hall? A beautiful, beautiful song which was sampled on 'Life In Mono' by Mono, which I've also ended up digging out. However, whilst finding out more about it I stumbled upon the Emma Bunton cover version. Eugh. Now, I actually really liked that soul-pastiche album she did a few years back. The one with pink cover. But this is not good. At all. The original is, however, and it would seem you can still buy it via the iTunes empire.

The mp3 player will soon be receiving a number of albums that I can't believe I haven't felt the need to put back on there since reformatting it a few months back. Most of Supergrass' back catalogue is still absent, as are the first two Portishead albums and Thom Yorke's 'The Eraser'. Not for much longer. Also going on will be Madness' wonderful track, 'NW5' that came out as a one-off single a little while back, but which will feature on their forthcoming concept album, 'The Liberty Of Norton Folgate'. If you've not heard it, I would put it up there with pretty much anything else they've ever done. It's great.

And with that cunning link (that's great and so is this) I should probably say a few words about the Jamie Lidell record I was on about the other day. Gilles Peterson has started offering a splendid service via TellJack that allows you to hear albums, in full, before deciding whether or not to purchase. You don't download anything, it's all done via high quality streams, but it's splendid. That's how I got to hear 'Jim', by Jamie Lidell. I keep calling it 'Son of Stevie' because it sounds like that sort of record Stevie Wonder would be making now if he was a) younger and b) as good as he used to be. To me, this album slots in quite neatly alongside 'Innervisions' and 'Talking Book'. High praise, I know, but it really is the best soul album I've heard in yonks. And, I've heard Sharon Jones and the new Al Green. Anyway, there's a track on the newly updated Mux (click on the tape in the right-hand column) along with a chance to hear the Terry Hall track 'Forever J' and the Mono track that sampled it. Plus other stuff. Stuff you'll like, I'd imagine.

I remember now what it was that I was going to talk about when I was going on about mp3 compilations. I was listening to Jeremy Vine's show on Radio 2 yesterday (the outraged voice of middle class Britain©) as he discussed the possible charges for broadband customers in the UK. Apparently, devious downloaders will be receiving angry letters in the near future, explaining that what they're up to is illegal. Assuming, of course, that they are downloading illegally, that is. They wouldn't make any mistakes, would they? Judging by some of the calls to the programme, mistakes have already been made and there will be more on the way. Predictably, one of the 'I ain't paying for it, why should I? I've ten CDs over the last twenty years and they were, like, £16 each, so why should I pay now?' brigade got on air. I've never really had a strong opinion about it one way or another, but with the number of independent record stores dying on their arses and bands failing to keep hold of their record contracts, you do have to wonder. Ok, so it's a symptom of a jaded industry, rather than the cause, but surely nobody who loves their tunes thinks it's a long-term approach? Weirdly, I've just noticed that the good folks at Norman Records are having a similar debate on their blog.

And finally, the nominations for the Mercury Music Prize came out t'other day and I was amazed by just how many I've actually heard and liked. The list is as follows:

Adele - '19'
British Sea Power - 'Do You Like Rock Music?'
Burial - 'Untrue'
Elbow - 'The Seldom Seen Kid'
Estelle - 'Shine'
Laura Marling - 'Alas I Cannot Swim'
Neon Neon - 'Stainless Style'
Portico Quartet - 'Knee-Deep In The North Sea'
Rachel Unthank & The Winterset - 'The Bairns'
Radiohead - 'In Rainbows'
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - 'Raising Sand'
The Last Shadow Puppets - 'The Age Of The Understatement'

It's only Portico Quartet that I need to do any real research for - and I will, I'm sure. I can't think of a time when I've been so in line with the Mercury choices. It could just be that I've bought far too many records recently, and therefore whatever they'd gone for I'd have been in this position, but I'd like to think not. From my perspective, it's got to be between Elbow, Laura Marling and Radiohead. Radiohead are getting a bit of negativity thrown their way regarding this because of how established they are, but 'In Rainbows' really is one of their best albums and definitely one of the best albums of the last twelve months. Laura Marling is someone that I've raved about on here for almost a year now and I certainly don't intend on stopping. 'Alas I Cannot Swim' will be in my end of the year list and it's a near-perfect folk-pop album. It's an exercise in measured understatement, and it's all the more beautiful because of that. However, I think it should probably go to Elbow. They went off, not in possession of a record deal, and did it all themselves; recording a record that they would want to listen to. It's a wonderful, wonderful collection of songs and 'One Day Like This' could well end up as one of my all time favourite songs.

Any thoughts? Perhaps the blog will get spammed again by the vinyl collectors of Idaho. (See comments for previous post) I'm with Neil Hannon on Idaho.

Like I said, have a listen to the Muxtape.

So, in conclusion, don't read this...

2008-07-16T21:52:00.001+01:00

I love Steve Lamacq. Not like that. Obviously. Although, I guess I could pretend if I could get near his record collection. He was the aural comfort blanket on the nineties and I adored listening every evening to the Session. Jo Whiley's subsequent media whoredom has ensured that I've written her out of history and I just remember Steve's grand work. These days he's on Radio 1, Radio 2 and the afternoon host on BBC 6 Music, also home to the beloved Gideon Coe. His shows remain a delight, but he's gone back to his roots and you can read his musings on music in blog form. And, perhaps unsurprisingly, he's still as bloody great as he was back in his pre-radio days.

Go here for a number of witty, eloquent and downright entertaining blog posts.

Why do I bother?

A few, minor things

2008-07-15T19:03:00.001+01:00

Christ, the coverage of T in the Park was dreadful. I mean truly awful. For a start, it was hosted by that bloody Bowman individual, along with 'Grimmy' (lovably cutesy nickname always means wanker - he doesn't disappoint) and Jeff Leach (whoever the fuck he is.) On top of this, the choice of songs offered up was piss poor. For example, when Primal Scream were shown, was it a late nineties/early noughties electronic beast? No. It was fucking 'Rocks'. What a surprise. R.E.M. headling, eh? Ah, well, headlines get a good few songs don't they? What can we look forward to? 'What's The Frequency, Kenneth?' and 'Man On The Moon'. That was it. Two songs!

"But, the Sunday night highlights package was 135 minutes long," I hear you cry. Indeed, but after the first hour, it consisted of The Fratellis, KT Tunstall and Amy MacDonald. Presumably, as I can't think of any musical reasons for showing them, because they're Scottish and it's a Scottish music festival. Just as the Glastonbury highlights were only based on English bands, of course. Numpties.

So, if I can recommend just one thing to do with T, it's to not bother even watching bits via the BBC website. Waste of time.

Secondly, I finally browsed through the photos and artwork found on CD2 in the 'In Rainbows' boxset earlier and was pleasantly surprised. There's some lovely stuff on there, such as this one, which is now my wallpaper. Not sure why I'm telling you this as if you've not got the discbox it's sold out and if you've got it, you're probably not as tardy as my good self. If you are, however, then go and have a look now. I remain of the belief that 'In Rainbows' is a truly great album, by the way.

The Jamie Lidell album, 'Jim', is fantastic, but I'll write about that next time.

2008-07-13T22:07:00.001+01:00

I love a good pop tune. I tend to only think about this at the weekend. This coincides with chunks of time spent flitting about between all of the music video channels. Obviously, most of what I end up catching is shite. But, in amongst the seemingly endless supply of Girls Aloud (hey, who's complaining?) can be found some wonderful tunes. The track 'Love Song' by Sara Bareilles (two attempts) has been all over the radio for weeks now and I remember some of the pre-release interest was centred around the fact that her label told her to write some love songs for her album if she wanted to be a success, so she wrote a song about that and cunningly titled it in a way to confuse said suited buffoons. I hadn't really taken in how good the song is until I caught the rather twee video. Now, I can't deny that my interest was piqued in a different way than radio play can manage, but the song is wonderful pop. Well-produced, piano and vocals to the fore, splendid little melody and doesn't outstay its welcome. One of the singles of the year thus far.

Another song I was surprised to find myself liking was will.i.am's 'Heartbreaker', which should really be disqualified from the off because off his bloody stupid name. However, it's a quality bit of throwaway pop. Slightly cheesy, repetitive chorus? Check. Random famous female vocalist? Check. (Cheryl Cole) Mid-song swearing to catch out shit local radio DJs? Check. The video is crap, mind, but the song's very good indeed.

The Bareilles (first time!) team appear to disagree with YouTube video embedding. So, you'll have to click on the words 'Love Song' to hear that one.

will.i.am.a.man.with.a.silly.name is available below.

What the cocking hell are Bloc Party doing?

2008-07-07T19:05:00.001+01:00

I'm not one to make a big fuss of not-especially-legit interweb downloadage - mainly because I love record shops and adore the sound quality of well made discs, rather than any issues with morality - but, without much hunting you should be able to track down the new Bloc Party single, 'Mercury'. It leaked earlier after the tech boffins at Radio 1 put their BP exclusive online 90 minutes early. Anyway, if you've not found it, I imagine Zane Lowe's homepage has probably got it by the time you read this.

Anyway, it's very, very odd. Now, I loved 'Flux', their last single, which pissed off an awful lot of fans. I've seen this described as a cross between 'The Prayer' and 'Flux' on one message board and I can kind of take the point. That said, 'The Prayer' had a cracking and thumping drum track and 'Flux' was a serious band after too many Skittles and cheap cola. This is just...bad.

I'm actually quite offended by the repeated bit: "My mercury's in retrograde", looped and twisted and just fucking annoying. I've just had my third listen, just to ensure it's a bad as I first thought it was.

If you'd like to tell me why this isn't a hugely disappointing release from a band who have, at times, promised such great things, then please do. 'Flux' convinced me that they were back on the right path after the mushy sound of their last album, but this is awful. Apologies for not being more eloquent about this, but why search for twenty words when 'crap' will do?

On the plus side, the new Beck album is ace.

Four

2008-06-29T23:03:00.002+01:00

Hmm. The fact that I'm researching some background details for work tomorrow via the interweb and updating this here blog doesn't exactly offer a ringing endorsement of The Verve, does it? Well, two plus two and all that.

Oh, and 'Life's An Ocean' has the bassline to 'Another One Bites The Dust', doesn't it? 'Mad' Richard's introductions for the songs are right up there with vintage Alan Partridge. He doesn't really do stage banter does he? By the way, if you've got the nickname 'Mad Richard', you shouldn't really do things like this, should you?

No sign of Solomon Burke. And, in every sense, if you can't spot him on the horizon, he's no-fucking-where near.

May well give up soon. I just want to be entertained!

Finger firmly out of arse

2008-06-29T21:47:00.001+01:00

The BBC have updated lots of the artist pages on their Glasto site with 30 minute highlights videos. Well worth having a look about. Most noteworthy is the arrival of the Elbow highlights from last night. A wonderful performance of simply splendid songs. As I updated this morning's post to say, Massive Attack are on there and, having seen it on the red button this afternoon, it's a treat and a half.

Neil Diamond was really rather good earlier, and not just when performing some of the excellent songs from his recent Rubin-assisted albums. Mark Ronson struck me as rather inessential, despite liking the album itself, and Goldfrapp were a little odd. Did the maypole dancers realise that the pervy cameraman would get close enough to show the whole world their pants? He did, you know.

Solomon Burke and The Verve to come, and who knows what else is the magic world of le button rouge. Or something.

I was too busy watching it

2008-06-29T11:34:00.001+01:00

Saturday provided much to enjoy, as it turned out. The red button was the saving grace however, as the various programmes offered a frantic dance around the stages - Jay Z and Winehouse aside - leaving you with only a fleeting sense of what might have been. Thankfully, thanks to the multi-screen splendour I got to see Crowded House, Imagined Village, Vampire Weekend, Band Of Horses, The Wombats and, probably the set of the weekend thus far, Elbow. I'm sure Massive Attack could have been in there too, but in their infinite wisdom, the Beeb offered five minutes of their set to fill a gap before Jay-Z came out and then two songs some time after midnight. Having just skimmed through the iPlayer, it would seem that BBC3 played out two more songs at around 1.40am. I'm astonished that the BBC didn't consider them more important.

(EDIT: It's now midday and 34 minutes of their set has appeared on the BBC Glasto site - go here.)

The Jay-Z performance was much as expected. If you like his music, you'll have enjoyed his set. If you don't, then you probably didn't. It's as simple as that. There's no debate to be had about what 'belongs' at Glastonbury. Everything 'belongs' at Glastonbury - that's the whole point of it. Whether Jay-Z was a more worthy main stage headliner than Massive Attack though, I'm not so sure. He opened with a version of 'Wonderwall', obviously trying to ram home his point about Noel Gallagher getting it wrong, but the crowd took such delight in singing the song for him, it was hard to tell what the final message was. That said, Oasis delivered one of the worst Saturday night headlining sets I've ever seen three years ago, so I'm not sure anyone's in a position of superiority on that one.

Anyhoo, there was much to enjoy, although the BBC's Glasto site doesn't appear to have caught up yet in terms of video footage. Your best bet is to head straight to the iPlayer. The show labelled 'Elbow/Hot Chip' features two belters from Elbow near the start, the hour long 'Pyramid Stage' show is all Winehouse. Worth a watch. It was riveting, if not, perhaps, the most professional festival set you've ever seen.

The big fuss today is about the return of The Verve, but having heard the new single, I'm not expecting a great deal. If ever a band was coasting by on nostalgia for halcyon but, crucially, bygone times, it's them. Everyone bangs on about how they captured a moment with 'Bitter Sweet Symphony', but a few decent singles (because, let's face it, 'Urban Hymns' wasn't much cop) does not a tremendous Sunday night headline slot make. Especially when you think it was The Who last year.

'Mad Richard' (oh do fuck off) aside, Solomon Burke's performing today and that promises to be an absolute joy. If he hasn't got his own section in your record collection you need to get that sorted. Leonard Cohen, Spiritualized and Laura Marling all play today too, but I wouldn't get your hopes up too much in terms of seeing them on the telly.

I suspect, looking at the line-up, that the red button showings of yesterday's highlights may well be your friend today. Have fun.

Relive the dreams. And the shite, as it happens

2008-06-28T09:28:00.005+01:00

Gave up around midnight as I needed some sleep. Did I miss anything? The videos have started appearing on the BBC's Glasto site and, yes, as I'd hoped, they're in the iPlayer format so they're actually worth watching unlike the RealPlayer crap we've had in previous years. Candi Staton and Editors are on there and, if you wish to torture yourself, so are The Ting Tings.
Click here for video fun.

It's not raining on my sofa

2008-06-27T21:07:00.003+01:00

Plenty of decent stuff already on the Beeb. Keep flicking on the red button, or visit the BBC webpages to see a blistering set by Candi Staton, some excellent librarian-rock from Young Knives and an intense bit of tunery from Editors. The first outbreak of seal-clubbing has been spotted during The Tings Tings' set. Delightfully quirky vocal on record, agonising mid-excretal-endeavours yelp live. Shame.
My intense hatred of Bowman has been reunited by the BBC Three coverage. I assumed, however foolishly, that she'd be absent having just had a wee baby. No such luck, it would seem. Radcliffe and Laverne will steer the good ship late night BBC2 from 11, so we should be in safe hands then. The late night shows are the only time lovely Lauren doesn't use her slightly annoying over the top elongating of words in an ironic stylee voice these days. Should be some good music too, of course. The Jimmy Cliff set's on BBC4 soon too. I'm fairly certain that everything I'm mentioning will be iPlayer/BBC site based for seven days hereafter so you can trawl as and when you see fit.
The Fratellis now - I can do without them, to be honest. The Hoosiers and The Feeling were almost enjoyable earlier, in a whistle-along-at-the-festival kind of way. Can't help thinking that they'd have been better suited to a sunny Saturday afternoon rather than a pissing with rain Friday tea time.

Glaston-bloggy. No? Well, what then?

2008-06-27T18:19:00.001+01:00

After the overwhelming success of last year's frequent, but brief, updates across the Glasto weekend, I thought I'd do it again. Editors, MGMT, The Enemy, Jimmy Cliff and Edwyn Collins are all due to be on the assortment of televisual viewing portals this evening. I suspect all will be splendid. Solomon Burke, Elbow and Massive Attack to come over the weekend, so plenty to look forward to.

Anyhoo, I'd be muchly chuffed if some of the regular readers of the blog got all interactive this weekend and chirped up with their views of the festival. That's you, by the way.

If you're without a red button this weekend, then you have my deepest sympathy. I'm not sure what I'd do without it. In fact, I suspect I will pretty much glued to the sofa for the next few days as a result of it.

Right then, T-40. Beers in the fridge, pizza ordered. Let's go.

But can he tell his arse from his Radiohead?

2008-06-25T19:25:00.001+01:00

I've been shit, haven't I? Sorry about that. So much music, so little time. These ears have been privy to new albums by Al Green, James Hunter, Neil Diamond, Sigur Ros, Lau, Solomon Burke, Mark Morriss, Coldplay, The Zutons, Fleet Foxes and Brett Anderson recently and I've not really had a moment to stop and gather my thoughts. Add in the series of splendid German cheese, 'The In-Kraut' albums, vintage Moby Grape, Terry Hall, Dexy's, Hank Williams, Al Wilson, The Byrds, Miles Davis and Sinatra and it's been a delightful few weeks of listening. I can happily say that there's nothing shite in amongst that lot. Perhaps predictably, the worst thing in that list is the Coldplay album, but even that is reasonable and certainly many, many times better than their last.

Perversely, I don't intend to witter on about any of them right now, although I'm sure I will in due time. My two focuses for this post are Elbow and Radiohead.

'The Seldom Seen Kid', Elbow's fourth album, is well on the way to being my album of the year. 'One Day Like This', the recent single from it, is occupying similar territory in the corresponding 'single' list. It's not a return to form because every album they've made is great, but it's certainly a step up. I've been playing it a lot recently after getting the vinyl edition (2x45rpm 12" - wonderful stuff) and I can't find a weak moment on it. The ethereal nature of the songs are entirely in keeping with the phenomenal attention to detail that goes into the making of an Elbow record. There's little point singling out individual tracks as I'd just be writing out the tracklist in a slightly different order.

As a result of this adoration of the latest album, I've trolled back through their earlier stuff and I'd forgotten just how delicately poised, 'Asleep In The Back' is. Emotionally vulnerable, ensconced in a 'bad place', Guy Garvey's lyrics do not a happy picture paint. Aurally, it's an imperfect masterpiece. Yup, some bits go on too long and perhaps certain arrangements could have been worked at more, but it's a wonderful album, in the traditional sense of the word. The collection of songs work perfectly together and less well when separated.

In addition to the albums, anyone with an eMusic subscription can pick up pretty much all of their b-sides up to the end of their third album. There are some gems in there too and, if they get your attention, you'll need to dig a little harder for some of the more recent, predominantly vinyl along with limited edition CD releases, bonus material. I feel like I should conclude this section with a cautionary tale about what to avoid. I can't really think of anything though.

***

Meanwhile, my attention was sharply returned to 'In Rainbows' last night by the arrival of 'In Rainbows - From The Basement', a live video album, on iTunes. Ok, so it'll cost you twice as much as those in the US to purchase it from UK iTunes, but, on this rare occasion, I'm going to wholeheartedly endorse a digital product. I still feel a little dirty, even though it's good.

The performance of 'Videotape' found amongst these files is beguiling. After the stripped down performance that made the album, fans of the 'Head had begun to fret that the more complex and electronic interpretation of the track may never see the light of day. Well, fear not, for here it is. Go on, click on the brief preview now, treat yourself. I'll wait.

See. Anyhoo, the version of 'Weird Fishes/Arpeggi' is rather splendid also - although that is true of pretty much every performance of that quite brilliant tune - as is the aggressive pounding of 'Bangers & Mash'. It left me thinking about the 'In Rainbows' album. I was playing it at work the other day and a colleague enquired, "Is this Radiohead?" I pointed out that it was and that it was from 'In Rainbows'. She replied, "Oh, which one's that? I don't have that one, although I've got all of their other stuff."

I was truly baffled. How could anyone who likes Radiohead not know about the existence of 'In Rainbows'? Back in October, it seemed like the news of the free download had spread around the whole world and media commentators were predicting massive shifts in the whole entertainment industry. And yet, here's someone who's stuck with them, right up to 'Hail To The Thief', who didn't even know that they had a new album out. With hindsight, it's clear to see that 'In Rainbows' was never quite the global phenomenon the British media made it out to be. Although, regularly refreshing various Radiohead message boards in the hope of being able to get on there and discuss the album back on October 10th, will remain a happy little memory of that time.

As for the music, opinion remains a little divided. Generally, it would seem that most people think it's a good record, at the very least. I think it's one of the best things they've ever done, and its concise nature and meticulous production charm the pants off me. These new iTunes performances have served to underline just how good 'In Rainbows' is and I simply expect the band to be outstanding and, as a result, don't always release how good each thing they release is.

Neither quality nor quantity

2008-06-15T14:20:00.001+01:00

Rather a lot to do, so it's only a short post this time. However, three things of note. Admittedly, only one is musical.

1. Wales gave a much better account of themselves yesterday against South Africa and we should be on for some wins in the Autumn Internationals. That Shane try was pure genius.

2. What the cock is Gordon Brown doing commenting on The Apprentice?

3. Joan As Police Woman's new album is already a contender for 'Album Of The Year'. It is a stunning collection of songs, not least the recent single, 'To Be Loved'.

If that doesn't result in a purchase, then I'm not sure we can ever be friends.

I hardly said a word

2008-06-07T18:35:00.001+01:00

I've had a thoroughly splendid week in terms of listening pleasure. I had an interesting conversation about musical snobbery and what makes a good pop song during several hours in bar that played the most chronic selection of shite I've heard in some time. A quick comment about how the Girls Aloud track playing when we went in was probably the best thing that they'd managed in about two hours spiraled off into something far more complicated. Anyway, the conversation leads me nicely to my first point of interest this week, Lily Allen.

A few months ago I read that she'd posted a couple of new tracks on her Myspace and I made a mental note to have a listen at some point. I finally did that today and I'm pleasantly surprised. There were some decent tracks on debut album; sampling Allen Toussaint is always good by me and 'Alfie' is pop genius, but for the new record she's gone in an electro-pop direction. The two new tunes are splendid, in particular the first offering, 'I Don't Know' which has an enjoyable quiet/loud Girls Aloud/Sugababes feel to it. Not that I imagine she'd be especially thrilled with the comparison. The second track, 'I Could Say' sounds a little like a Pet Shop Boys ballad. Anyhoo, whatever I think, I'd recommend having a listen via the link above.

Speaking of the PSBs, they recently recorded a cover of Madness' 'My Girl' while rehearsing for a live performance with Suggs. On this delightful demo, Neil takes lead vocals and it's a wonderfully quirky take on a classic tune. You can access it via the 'exclusive tracks' page in the 'Product' area on their website. Or you could just click here. You choose, why don't you?

A final true 'pop' moment before moving on. As I'm pointing out rather splendid bits of popular music that I'm rather fond of, I'll give a quick mention to Rihanna's 'Don't Stop The Music'. Now, I know this isn't exactly new and I know that you probably cut your ears off after the ninety-seventh time you heard 'Umbrella', but this is a true pop classic. Meticulously crafted, never quite as fast as you think it's going to be and yet deceptively uplifting. Ver Tube allows a listen below.

I've been living with Weller's '22 Dreams' for a week now, and it's almost as good as the reviews are suggesting. Let's get one thing straight before we go on - it ain't a five-star kind of album. It can't be, really, because of its quite deliberate ebbs and flows. A few tracks add nothing, and the final, noodly instrumental track, 'Night Lights' really outstays its welcome. But it's a definite four-star kind of album and one which repays repeated listens. That's not especially surprising when you bear in mind that there are 21 tracks to absorb. Apparently, the deluxe edition has sold out already, but you'll not be missing much if you've not got it. 'Rip Up The Pages' and 'Love's Got Me Crazy' are the additional tunes - both rather good, and probably more deserving of a place on the main album that some of the more fanciful farting about, but all of that stuff does rather add to its charm. Have a listen via the link below and make sure you do it in one sitting; it works better that way.

I should just finish by noting the fact that a true great, Bo Diddley died earlier this week. If you know nowt about the man or his music, you should probably get that sorted. One of the 'Chess' collections should suffice. Some far more professional and worthy tributes can be found via the following links:

1. Richard Hawley's tribute on the BBC site

2. First ten minutes of Gary Crowley's show, filling in for Tom Robinson on 6music on Friday 6th June

3. Mark Lamarr's 'God's Jukebox' from Saturday 7th June. Various tunes and references throughout.

Click here to listen to God*

2008-05-29T17:05:00.001+01:00

The NME website is currently allowing you to stream the new Weller album, '22 Dreams', ahead of its release on Monday. My advice would be, do so. It's really rather good. Perhaps even as good as some of the recent orgasmic reviews have suggested. Listened to 'As Is Now' on double vinyl today for the first time. It really is a wonderful record and I remain baffled by its failure to sell. If you haven't bought it since it's come down to, oh I dunno, £1.27 or thereabouts, then you're a muppet. I know I risk alienating the casual reader with a remark like that, but there you go, eh? Life's too short to hold grudges. Apart from in the case of George Lamb, obviously. What was I saying? Oh yeah, go here...

NME Weller Page

and scroll down to the Paul Weller Media Player section. You'll need to register, but they don't want much info. Then click and you're off. Enjoy.

*It's a track on the album.

Plus, you can hear the new album from, the rather fabulous, Ron Sexsmith here. I've not listened to it all yet, but if you like the old stuff you'll like this. A little like Spiritualized, each album has plenty in common with the previous one, but if you like one, you'll like them all. Have a listen. It's free. That seems less of an endorsement than I'd meant. Never mind.

Scorpio, if you must know

2008-05-28T10:27:00.001+01:00

I was definitely annoyed about something earlier and I was going to rant about it on here. Seems to have slipped my mind now. Although I can muster a mild amount of ire for the 'limited edition' version of the new Spiritualized album. My complaint is not with the music; it sounds exactly like you'd expect a Spiritualized album to sound - Quiet, loud, quiet, loud, discreet drugs reference, quiet, loud, blatant drugs reference, quiet, loud, invocation of the good Lord, quiet. No, my problem is with what you actually get for the extra few quid you have to pay on top of the normal edition. It's a slim hardback book, with some photos of medical equipment. The CD is slotted into a little cardboard sleeve page at the back of the book. That's it. I've had some slightly shite special editions in the past, but this one is the ultimate. To be six quid more than the normal version but to have bugger all meaningful to add AND a case that's a sod to store is taking the piss. So, if you're after that album, stick to the normal CD or the double vinyl.

To follow up from Monday, the Richard Swift album is enjoyably odd. I wouldn't be so brash as to say there are any actual songs on there, but there's some fabulous crashes, bangs and noodles as he gets out of his system whatever it is he feels he must prior to unleashing his next solo album proper. Good quality vinyl pressing too. Audio samples here.

Thought it was worth pointing out a new re-release programme by Stateside Records. If, like me, you're rather fond of Cannonball Adderley, then you'll be aware that plenty of his stuff is quite hard to track down. I was rather pleased to see a compilation covering the Axelrod era on sale during my Bank Holiday browsing, entitled 'Walk Tall'. It appears to be available online for a little more than bugger all. Off you go, I'll wait.

Anyway, I noticed one other new Adderley release alongside it, the concept album of sorts, 'Soul Zodiac'. I wondered at the time if this would mean a reissue programme for the albums from this era, including the much-vaunted, 'The Black Messiah'. Well, yes and no. 'Soul Zodiac' is the only one getting a physical release, but a stack of other albums from that era are now available for download as 320kbps mp3s from the Stateside Records online shop. Regular readers will be aware of my mixed feelings about download-only releases. Ultimately, if the music isn't going to be out there any other way then I've no problem with them, even if I'd rather a CD or vinyl. However, with these, I can understand that the record company wouldn't expect to sell that many and are therefore testing the water with one CD, whilst offering us muso types the chance to get our ears wrapped around some quality music. I've yet to download, but I suspect that 'The Black Messiah' will be on my hard drive sooner rather than later. They're not the first label to do this, I know, but this is the first time it's happened where I've actually been interested in the product for sale.

What do you mean, 'how predictable'?

2008-05-26T19:03:00.001+01:00

I thought I'd use this Bank Holiday for some record shopping. Not an especially innovative idea for me, I know, but that doesn't stop it being thoroughly enjoyable. I spent a rather splendid few hours mooching around Birmingham's (open) record shops and have picked up some nice little bits and bobs. The new Weller single came out today and I've added both 7"s to my collection. One of them has been advertised on pre-orders as 'dinked'. I was curious to find out what this means and, it would seem, I'm going to have to remain curious. I'm buggered if I know in what way either of the pieces of vinyl I purchased are 'dinked'. Still, both sides of this double a-side are brilliant and I'm genuinely quite excited about the release of the new album, '22 Dreams', next Monday.

Also picked up the 7" of The Young Knives' 'Turn Tail'. I already own the album, but this version is from a lathe recording. A quite magical version recorded with the band standing round one mic and cut straight onto vinyl. Wonderful stuff and to be encouraged.

I appear to have been duped. Back in my reviewing-occasionally-for-a-national-magazine days, I was less than polite about Green Day's 'American Idiot' album. It's shite, by the way. I wasn't wrong. However, today I was merrily browsing through the racks in HMV to decide what to go and buy for a quid less in Zavvi (they're a big independent now, you know) when I happened across Foxboro Hot Tubs' new album, 'Stop, Drop and Roll'. It's packaged like an old 60s garage band, and while I knew it was a new recording, I figured it would be the sort of thing I might well enjoy. So, I added it to the pile and it was duly purchased a little while later. My suspicions were first aroused when, stopping on the way back home for bread, milk and a lemon meringue pie, I noticed it was in Asda's album chart. Surely not? Anyhoo, got home, bunged it on and was tapping my foot along to the rather pleasant opening numbers when Google hit me for six and left me wondering if the world is really as I took it to be. It's fucking Green Day using a pseudonym! Plus, and this is the bit that's really fucking with my mind, it's actually pretty good. Really. A couple of songs have normal vocal style of the twattish lead singer (he has a name? Oh, well I've always called him that) coming through, but overall it's a bit of loving pastiche. So, all was not lost there.

Also picked up the new album by The Shortwave Set, which has been on my mental list for a little while now. It's playing as I type and it sounds bloody good. Different to the delightful debut, but nevertheless it's a cracking set of songs. Apparently it's produced by Danger Mouse, but then isn't everything these days?

The new Futureheads is in the pile to play, as is Richard Swift's 'As Onassis', on which he comes on all 'sixties garage rock'. As long as he doesn't come on all 'Green Day' I'm sure it'll be excellent. Plus, it's one of the splendid recent vinyl releases that gives you a free digital download to allow it to become a portable listen. Great idea.

Will comment on The Shortwave Set, The Futureheads and Swift in due time, as well as the new 2DVD 'Later...The First 15 Years' set, which Zavvi are knocking out for a very reasonable £14 off the shelf. Not the cheapest online price, but bloody good for high street prices. I've only watched the sublime performance of 'Electrolite' (one of my all-time favourite songs) by R.E.M. so far, but with over sixty songs I'm sure it'll keep me amused.

As you were.

Yes, another new artist decorated in hyperbole!

2008-05-20T19:48:00.001+01:00

£17.50! £17.50! That's all it cost to see Richard Hawley in a tiny little venue in Derby last night. Not only that, and that's more than enough for that price, but the support act was absolutely beguiling. Pete Molinari has, rather shamefully, not been on my radar up to this point, save for a decent tune that appeared on a recent Mojo cover CD.

Playing solo, with nowt but a guitar and a harmonica, Molinari's raw vocal performance had me entranced from start to finish. It's hard to capture quite why. For a start, he has a deep, languid speaking voice but, at times, he sounds almost feminine when singing. He's bluesy and folksy and, on certain songs, there's hints of Dylan, in line with his traditional influences. In amongst the rather splendid self-penned songs came what I truly believe to be the best version of 'Satisfied Mind' I've ever heard. Words won't do it justice, so I'll not even try. Instead, allow YouTube to win you over...

And find out more about Pete Molinari via this fantastic interview on the Undercover website.

(Oh, and check the mux for a track. Plus, new stuff from Occasional Keepers, Northern Portrait, Bon Iver and Elbow, plus classic Trashcan Sinatras and Band Of Horses)

Wonders of the web

2008-05-17T13:11:00.001+01:00

Just found this and figured the discerning folk that frequent this here corner of the interweb would enjoy it. That's you, by the way. If you still don't have Laura Marling's album, 'Alas, I Cannot Swim' then improve your weekend immediately by doing so now.

Just splendid

2008-05-17T12:25:00.001+01:00

I was doing my regular Saturday morning trawl of the music channels when I happened upon the video for Mark Ronson's not unenjoyable take on Radiohead's 'Just'. I'm well aware that this isn't exactly cutting edge reportage here, but you get what you pay for. Anyway, this video is only tremendously funny if you're familiar with the original. Which is here:

Lovely stuff. But what was he doing? Ah, we'll never know. Incidentally, all of Radiohead's videos from the EMI days will be available on DVD from June 2nd.

Anyhoo, back to the point of this post. Mark Ronson's done his own take on 'Just', originally for the 'Exit Music' project that offered covers of Radiohead tracks by a variety of artists, with some bloke called Alex Greenwald on vocals. It's a more upbeat take on the original, as you might imagine, although it seems strangely plausible. I know it's very much the done thing to automatically hate Ronson at the moment, but I don't have any problem in admitting that I actually rather like his 'Version' album.

'Just' was released as a single earlier this year, and the quite fabulous video that accompanied it can be seen here. Not allowed to embed it, apparently.

Weller-Weller-Weller-Uh, tell me more...

2008-05-13T20:29:00.001+01:00

Despite receiving middling reviews for most of his albums since 'Stanley Road', Paul Weller is one of those artists who are almost entirely above critical opinion. They're safe from attack and have pretty much carved out their own corner of cool, in which they will reside forever. Having witnessed him in action last night at Derby's Assembly Rooms, I'm reasonably certain I get it.

Firstly, and this was the first time I'd seen him, he is a quite wonderful musician, whose boundless enthusiasm radiates from him for the duration of the gig. You can tell he really fucking loves the songs he's playing, and it's a sense of abandon you don't see at many live shows.

Secondly, he's just about got the art of building a set sorted. Admittedly, after the years he's had to perfect this he should really have it perfected, but the material he played ensured that a state of rapture was duly bestowed upon all present by the point it was time to head homewards. Sadly, 'The Eton Rifles' got the biggest cheer of the night. While I understand this from the nostalgia angle, I'm a firm believer that much of what Weller has done solo is worthy of attention. Ok, so 'Illumination' is hardly an album that'll appear in Mojo's 'Buried Treasure' feature in twenty years' time, but can you honestly deny the quality of 'Stanley Road' and 'As Is Now'? A friend I was with suggested that the audience looked like they were here just for 'You Do Something To Me'. I'd argue that that was far too modern for many of this audience. Not to say it wasn't a great audience, mind. Weller seemed genuinely chuffed with the response he got - presumably this was at least in part down to the plethora of new tunes being debuted - and as a result we received a bonus encore of 'All You Need Is Love', which was thoroughly charming and almost as good an end to a gig as walking out of Richard Hawley's Buxton date to the strains of Louis Armstrong's 'What A Wonderful World'.

Thirdly, the new album is likely to be shit-hot, based on the material offered up. Only the odd song ended up chugging as he was prone to do around the turn of the new millennium, and the upbeat stuff sounded urgent and, most importantly, fantastically soulful. I've long been of the opinion that he could release a truly beautiful soul record, in the mould of the live version of 'Broken Stones' which builds on the already brilliant foundations of one of my favourite Weller tunes and takes it off into orbit. It was last night's joint highlight along with 'Wild Blue Yonder', the recent one-off single that was supposed to launch a whole run of stand-alone singles. Ah well, he'll do whatever the fuck he likes, one supposes.

Fourthly, and this is the weird bit, I don't think I'll ever feel the need to see him live again. Taking nothing away from what was, in the main, an excellent performance, there's slightly too much of the self-indulgent guitar wankery that is so acceptable to fans in possession of rose-tinted ocular matter and the overwhelming sense of 'hope he plays a few from his days in The Jam' that hung over the crowd a little to visibly is a little hard to ignore. I'm glad I saw him, and he kept me entertained. But with ticket prices at £30 and upwards, I'm not sure that's the most likely route for my disposable income in the future. I can't be the only one who feels like this after certain gigs, can I? Great, but once is enough.

I've pre-ordered the new album, '22 Dreams', mind. Here's the new single.

It was a 'Jim'll Fix It' reference.

2008-05-05T15:00:00.001+01:00

Regular readers of the blog may be aware of my penchant for record shopping on a Bank Holiday Monday. It just seems so right. Not that it ever seems particularly wrong. Hmm, this may just be a thinly veiled excuse for buying more records. Anyhoo, as I had a wander round my nearest music emporiums of choice I noticed that Elvis Costello's 'Momofuku' had indeed crept into the UK shops. Fopp were blasting it out at a quite magnificent volume and had it prominently displayed on their new releases shelf. However, the most disturbing moment of the whole process was the discovery of a copy of the vinyl in their meagre racks. £13! Bargain. Pretty much the price I paid for the US import that's not proved to be particularly speedy. It's moments like this, moments when you think that you've cleverly circumvented the machinations of 'the man' only to have your face - or ears, I guess, as this is music related - very much rubbed in it (whatever the figurative 'it' is), that really piss me off. I shouldn't be annoyed. I'll have the album in no time at all on vinyl, a kind soul shared their bonus download code with me so that I can actually enjoy it already and yet, there I was smarting at its presence in the racks. I have to confess, dear reader, that I did spend a minute or two attempting to conjure a reason why I needed two copies of 'Momofuku' on vinyl thus rendering the purchase of this copy an absolute necessity. Thankfully, common sense kicked in (a new experience in a record shop) and I left without it. That said, if it doesn't turn up soon I may lose the plot.

Fopp are in the middle of a big clearout, with plenty of CDs at £3. Once the price is this low, I find it quite hard to avoid temptation and duly left with six titles from the vast range on offer. I still feel a little dirty shopping in Fopp in the same quantities I used to. It's a bit like when you see celebrities so desperate to appear 'trendy' that they start wearing a Stooges T-shirt for every TV interview they do. Fopp is HMV in a Sex Pistols T-shirt, and it's not quite right.

Oh, and this blog proved how scarily instant the interweb can be yesterday. Mere hours after I'd posted about the new Costello album, a quote of the entire post appeared on the exact forums I referred to, link and everything. Kind of appropriate once you've heard the lyrics to 'No Hiding Place', the opener on 'Momofuku'. Hi all. Be regular readers, won't you?

In a nutshell, I've bought lots of records.

2008-05-04T15:48:00.001+01:00

I've had a thoroughly enjoyable week, piling up CDs wherever there was space remaining. After getting hooked on the Trashcan Sinatras last weekend, the three albums of theirs I didn't own arrived from various different parts of the UK. DVD.co.uk have an insane 4 for £15 offer on that, at the time I ordered, included the deluxe edition of Joy Division's 'Still' amongst the spoils. Add in The Loose Salute, The Blue Nile, Northern Portrait and Ladybug Transistor after hearing them played on Gideon Coe's show and it's been rather a splendid week for new tunes.

The Northern Portrait EP , 'The Fallen Aristocracy' is a little charmer. Four songs of prime British indie jangle a la The Smiths, only made by a trio from Denmark. Even the cover looks like a Smiths record, which earns them a bonus points or two. Sample a track via the mux if you happen to be interested. See the previous post about this EP to order yourself a copy.

I'm now incredibly glad that I pursued The Trashcan Sinatras after 'How Can I Apply?' piqued my interest last week. Its parent album, 'A Happy Pocket' is a total charmer of Teenage Fanclub proportions, while 'I've Seen Everything' - their second album - also has a touch of late Beatles to it. The harmonies are divine and every last second is so delicately constructed I can't help but wonder why I didn't know about it before this week. That said, when you look at it on Amazon, most of the reviewers seem intent upon mentioning Travis, which is enough to make you think again. The aforementioned, 'How Can I Apply?' has also made it to the mux this week, and their first three albums, while not in print, can be tracked down for reasonable prices by trawling all of the different online outlets for second-hand music.

'Momofuku' to you and you and ba-ba-bahh. Bonkers name for an album, even more bonkers approach to distribution in the UK, but nevertheless, the new Elvis Costello is upon us. It's actually really rather good. It was supposed to be double vinyl and download only, but it didn't quite work out like that and a CD copy will be in all good stores from tomorrow. Which is more than can be said about the vinyl edition. That said, it would seem that it has just reached British shores as Amazon briefly had two copies in stock on Friday. HMV are knocking it out cheap too, but to me it seems like the sort of thing you should buy from an indie store. You know, one of the shops that carried on supporting vinyl even when the big stores were trying to persuade us that we didn't need it anymore. The ones who haven't just come flooding back to it because they sense the opportunity for a quick buck. Anyway, despite the fact that the album actually came out in the US on April 22nd didn't seem to bother the distributors in the UK who, despite seemingly having told most shops that the UK release date would essentially be the same, have been unable to supply any copies to any shops until the last couple of days, thus bringing the vinyl release date, at least in the UK, in line with the CD's appearance. Dopey, if you ask me. I ended up buying my vinyl from the US because I was tired of waiting, and it's this kind of balls-up that the industry could do without right now. Some of the more charming if neurotic types over at the Elvis Costello forums have decided it's all a deliberate part of Costello's plan to piss off the UK because some posh people went to Glastonbury the other year. Is it fuck.

Oh, and the Portishead album's actually rather good. There had been mumblings about the record after a sub-standard leak appeared some time ago, but the beefy and brutal sound of the double vinyl has made me sit up and take notice. 'The Rip' may well be one of the finest tunes released this year. Still think that £40 boxset's a big old load of bollocks though.

Vinyl Junkies - written from scratch (d'ya geddit?)

2008-04-27T17:50:00.001+01:00

Eurgh. This weekend I have mostly been getting annoyed with lazy journalism. Cajun Dance Party are just finishing their A levels, apparently. They got the album finished and ready for release and then went back to school. Fair play to them. But does that really make it ok to then say that they'll soon be 'top of the class'? Is that really the best way to say that they've got plenty of potential (and a decent debut album, as it goes)? It's like the reviewer was channeling the jokes of Jimmy Tarbuck in an attempt to avoid having to think of a single, original idea.

It's not entirely the fault of these vacuous dullards that clutter up the reviews section of most of the (notional, if not actual) broadsheets. If you're going to tell someone to review an album in 100 words or less you may as well have a rating system of just: Excellent, Good, Ok, A Bit Dull, Crap, Blunt. Why bother with the other words if, having deployed a subordinate clause, the review is pretty much over before its begun?

Today's Madonna review in The Observer set of the crapulous bullshit alarm almost as quickly as the actual album being reviewed. Almost every time Gavin Henson plays in a rugby match at which his partner, Charlotte, is present, the commentators will call him Mr Church at some point in the game. What the hell is that all about? Apart from the fact it means absolutely fuck all, it's such a simplistic and dopey way of saying he happens to have a famous girlfriend. In a similar manner, today's review of 'Hard Candy' mentioned a 'Mr Ciccone'. When exactly did Guy Ritchie change his name by deed poll? I wasn't aware he had time in between making gangster films according to the law of diminishing returns to do such a thing. I mean, for fuck's sake, it doesn't matter where that review had appeared; it's shit journalism, and it's meaningless space filling. I should know. Ahem.

I know I shouldn't be getting worked up about this, but do any newspaper reviewers actually have anything to meaningful to say about the music they're attempting to evaluate? Having spent a few years writing reviews for one of the monthlies, I can vouch for the fact that it's bloody hard work, but that doesn't mean you should just settle for the first draft to avoid getting stressed. A review needs to be an interesting piece of writing on its own, irrespective of what it's about, otherwise why read it in the first place?

I can't actually remember what the review said about the album, but I'm willing to bet it's every bit as desperate as the single that preceded it. Oh, and if you can spare a couple of quid, probably best send it to the 'Clothes-that-aren't-underwear for Madonna to wear in pictures and videos from now on fund'. Just Google it.

***

I've been thoroughly enjoying the tunes of The Field Mice and Trashcan Sinatras this weekend and, were I less worked up about trifling matters, I would happily tell you more. As it is, have a quick poke around the interweb. Emusic-ers can get a splendid compilation of pretty much all of the essential stuff by The Field Mice right now, while Trashcan novices can download slightly low quality audio files of much of their output here.

Oh, and the muxtape's been updated to reflect some recent musical highlights.

I's tunes

2008-04-24T20:02:00.003+01:00

Recommending tunes was always meant to be the real reason for this blog existing, and I realised today that I've not done that for a bit. So...

A couple of weeks back, BBC 6Music's 'Roundtable' played a track from the Bon Iver album, 'For Emma, Forever Ago' which ticked all of those completely subconscious boxes that simply cause your ears to tingle and your heart to race. I quickly purchased a copy of said album and was not disappointed. It's hard to describe the quirky voice that ebbs and flows across the album's nine tracks. If Elbow staged a coup of Arcade Fire, it might sound a bit like this. Or not. It's lovely. Go here, and choose 'Skinny Love'. Then go here and click 'Add to Shopping Cart'. Or, if you're an eMusicer then it's here, with a bonus track.

Ever since I heard Mark Radcliffe play 'Fat As A Fiddle', I've been wanting to hear the new album by Chris Difford (you know, him out of Squeeze... no, the other one.) Rather brilliantly titled, 'The Last Temptation of Chris' is a beautiful little album full of melodic reflections on life from the other side of your fiftieth birthday. If you love Teenage Fanclub's 'Songs From Northern Britain' then you should really treat yourself to this one.

Here is the aforementioned single ("Now I have tits, just like my mum") while the album is knocking about with free delivery here.

The Sea and Cake are not exactly a groundbreaking discovery, but they're new to me. I heard them on Gideon Coe's show last week and was smitten. They have a slightly jazzy, soulful but acoustic feel and clearly love a good pop melody. If you look them up on places like Allmusic then you'll find that the members of the band were originally in lots of bands you've never heard of. Not that you need to now, as I've just told you. Anyway, I now own three of their albums and don't intend stopping there. You can hear tracks from the most recent, and deeply charming, album 'Everybody' here. Part with cash here.

Finally, an extra mention for Malcolm Middleton, who I surely must have talked about in the past. Hmm, he's not in the tags. How remiss of me. He's ace, to put it simply. Because he's a truly splendid man, you can listen to all of his latest stuff for free over at that there last.fm place. In particular, go for 'Blue Plastic Bags', a strikingly bleak, but ever-so-wry, take on British life. "The whole world's going home with blue plastic bags. Six bottles of Stella, Jacob's Creek and twenty fags." This track's just come out as a blue vinyl 7", although you should treat yourself to the parent album, 'Sleight Of Heart'.

An exclusive coalition?

2008-04-23T19:40:00.002+01:00

Having wittered on about 'Record Store Day' last week, I did a bit of internet pootlage and found out a little bit about the Coalition Of UK Indie Stores. This has, apparently, been set up to try and fight the corner of indie stores, across the length and breadth of the country. Apparently, there will be Coalition-only releases in order to curry favour with those who might shop elsewhere, along with future events and the like.

However, there are only twenty-three stores in the coalition. As there are more than twenty-three independent record stores in Britain (admittedly, not many more) how can this be a true coalition? So far, it's been announced that the boss of Avalanche Records is in charge for the early months, and then leadership will pass to the supremo at Rough Trade East. Fair enough, you say, and so did I, until I read this.

Interesting post on the Norman Records blog. Click me!

A coalition of some indie stores then, and definitely not any of those excellent mail order only stores that offer a huge range of stock, fantastic customer service and tremendous reviews. The comment about the difference between Norman Records and Avalanche was what annoyed me most. What a twatty thing to say. And plain, bloody wrong.

I suspect that this particular blog post will make for an interesting read as it develops over the next few days.

Duffing is very much the anti-shabba

2008-04-22T19:52:00.006+01:00

Attentive readers of the blog will have noticed the new clickable banner at the bottom of the page. It refers to Gideon Coe's quite brilliant radio show on BBC 6Music. I get nothing from doing this, naturally, I just love the show and think you might do so too. I was always rather fond of Mr Coe when he was in the mid-morning slot on the station, a gig he occupied from the station's launch in 2002 until October of last year. At that point, a straight swap was made George Lamb, then-host of the station's late show. I have to confess that I was actually quite pleased, as previously I'd had bugger all chance of hearing Gideon as I was in no position to listen to his daytime show at work. Catching his show when enjoying time off was always a delight, but it always seemed a shame that I couldn't hear more of it.

Gideon has created a wonderful show in the 10pm-1am slot and I cannot think of another radio programme being broadcast anywhere in the world that I rate higher than this one. The music is absolutely spot on and the sense of community is right up there with the work of the late, great Peelie. With regard to the music; as a reader of this blog I'm guessing we have at least vaguely similar tastes in tunes and therefore I should utter some brief words of caution. Unless you can afford to dispense with a tenner a week as a result of hearing something great that you previously didn't know existed, don't tune in. Only last night, I sent $8, via Paypal, to Matinee Recordings for the debut EP by Northern Portrait as a result of hearing one of the tracks on Gid's show.

The listener interaction makes for one of the most pleasant ends to a day I can think of, and it's not just about inviting emails and texts. Far from it. In fact, it's all about the topics he chooses to pursue and the quaint regular features such as 'Paintbox Jury' (famous-ish albums covers, re-done in Paint) and 'Duffing' (listeners' emails in which they have a gentle moan about the world - all ages welcome.) On top of all of this, Gideon is, quite simply, a very witty man. At a time when silly little catchphrases and tales of getting drunk constitute 'radio banter', it's a relief to listen to a show where it's acceptable to:

a) give a shit about music

and

b) have at least a modicum of intelligence

It's rarer than you'd think these days.

Were this blog a school playground, at least one person would now be shouting, 'Why don't you just marry him if you love him that much?' such is my eulogising about the show. But it's all perfectly sincere. It's nice to hear a show that seems designed for you. If it was bollocks then I wouldn't waste your precious time with it, but I genuinely believe you should have a listen. You may well like it muchly.

Gideon's video manifesto for the late show

Last Night's Show

Oh, and don't, whatever you do, play the new Portishead 12", 'Machine Gun', at 33 1/3 rpm. It'll fair make you shit yourself.

I'm still working on factual AND funny...

2008-04-18T19:14:00.001+01:00

Thanks to those who've been in touch about indie stores of note. Will be doing some researching over the next few days and will start to add names soon. One that pops up quite a lot, and one which I have experience of and there I'm able to write about with relative ease, is Selectadisc in Nottingham.

In the last couple of weeks, things have changed in store and everything's been bunched up a bit. I've just tried describing this in words, but it didn't work especially well, so here's a visual aid.

Right then, the bit you can see some of on the left used to be the 'specialist' CD section but they've now put that up for rent and squidged the whole stock into the main bit you can see and the upstairs of said main shop. Confused? Good. Anyway, it's now even more bonkers and cluttered than it was before, but I think I might actually like it better like this. For a start, it feels much more like your traditional indie store, with things shoved everywhere and quality stock piled high. Secondly, if this ensures the store a long and prosperous future then that can't be a bad thing.

Why's it worthy of your time and money? Well, the internet is full of people bitching about arsey staff and the like but from my personal experience this is utter cobblers. Sure, they're not the most talkative bunch but they're some way from the snobbery of 'High Fidelity'. In addition, as a result of Fopp opening in the city about over six years ago, prices altered. When Fopp's popularity was at a peak in the city, Selectadisc figured that they could be a little bit more competitive and, from that moment on, they regained the title of 'Best Record Shop in Nottingham'. Back catalogue is regularly no more than 8.99 on CD, with a lot of mid-price titles at 4.99 or less. New releases are very competitively priced and their vinyl stocks cannot be rivaled for many miles around. Where they stand out from many indie stores is their refusal to treat vinyl buyers as mugs and use scarcity as a reason to hike prices. They are regularly a couple of quid cheaper than any other sources on new vinyl and bloody quick at getting hold of import copies of select, splendid titles.

The main plus point for this lot is their excellent stock. Great prices, sensible organisation and atmosphere are added bonuses. Music fans who have lived in Nottingham at some point in their lives always seem to remember Selectadisc, and always seem to rave about it. You can count me in that group.

It's a grower, right?

2008-04-15T20:14:00.001+01:00

Oh, and one other thing. What the hell is going on in the world of The Zutons? Their new sound appears to be a cross between Status Quo and 'Remember You're A Womble'!

If you fancy putting yourself through it, you can hear it here.

Did you find e̶v̶e̶r̶y ANYthing you were after?

2008-04-15T14:39:00.010+01:00

I've ranted about this before, so stick with me on this, but the lack of decent music shops is alarming. Obviously it's not alarming to many people otherwise we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place, but for those of us who enjoy picking through obscure new releases and well-chosen back catalogue stock, the end is increasingly nigh. Last summer I found out about the demise of Derby's last remaining indie store, Reveal Records, which closed its doors for a final time at the end of last year. The reports of record shops in London closing keep coming thick and fast and Left Legged Pineapple has shut up shop in Loughborough, Track has departed from York and Selectadisc has downsized its operation in Nottingham.

I had the misfortune to be in Northampton yesterday and I haven't had such a poor record buying experience in a long time. I couldn't find a traditional indie store to speak of, and judging by a search of the net that is indeed the case, and the one second hand store, Pied Piper, that has something of a reputation is some way into a depressing 'closing down' sale that consists of utter toss that you couldn't pay me to take away. They will continue trading in a different manner, so I can only hope they've kept the decent stuff back for that venture. There's Sidewinder, a very specialist dance shop but beyond that I could find nothing. What's even worse is that HMV and Zavvi haven't opted to capitalise on this. HMV appeared to have no vinyl whatsoever, while Zavvi - currently doing a wonderful job of filling their stores with vinyl nationwide - had a limited stock that appeared not to have been updated in months. The Last Shadow Puppets single, 'The Age Of The Understatement' was released yesterday on CD and 2x7". I could not find either 7" anywhere, which is a major surprise. Why, when they happily pile it up in other stores, aren't Zavvi and HMV catering for music fans? Saying, "did you find everything you were after?" at the till counts for fuck all if it's a token gesture and the answer is of no consequence. I was amazed that people living somewhere as big as Northampton have so little access to music. Now that HMV find music a dirty word, favouring DVDs, the stock is growing ever more conservative and the range is diminishing rapidly.

Now, there's no point me issuing a rallying cry for people to go dashing off to their local indie store and purchase a record or three, as I suspect the game is already over and we've lost. In addition, if you're reading this, the chances are you already frequent indie stores wherever possible. The thought that in the not too distant future I won't be able to have a proper browse in an independent record store upsets me more than it probably should, but I won't pretend otherwise.

Thankfully, a stop off at Leicester to visit Rockaboom restored my confidence in the indie store. Well-run, competitively-priced and sensibly-stocked, this small indie store is a flashback to the glory days. There's a second-hand rack, a great back-catalogue with most essentials in stock at less than a fiver and new releases are shoved wherever possible, ensuring you get exposure to as much great music as possible. There's a good selection of vinyl, local bands are covered and the traditional rail of metal T-shirts is there by the till. Both Last Shadow Puppets 7"s were duly purchased, along with the Jim Noir album which, to dispel one of the rumours about independent stores, was actually a quid cheaper than HMV or Zavvi. I don't imagine you'll go out of your way to visit, and they don't have an online presence, but if you happen to be in the area, treat yourself.

All of this neatly links in with this weekend's 'big' event, Record Store Day. We'll just have to allow the Americans the word 'store' on this occasion, as it's for a good cause. You'll have noticed the logo for this in the top right of the blog for the last few days and by clicking on it you can read the philosophy behind the event. Worthy of your support, I would argue. Rough Trade East is having a whole day orgy of live music including the sublime Jason Molina (Magnolia Electric Co / Songs:Ohia), up and coming Glasgow band of note, Make Model and Billy Bragg. Full info here. Action Records in Preston will have live performances from 4pm - info here. Spillers in Cardiff are in the middle of organising something. Avalanche, in Glasgow and Edinburgh, are listed on the Record Store Day site, although I can't find out what they're doing. By visiting the RSD site you can access a list of all stores participating. It's mainly US, but worth a look. If your local indie store's not on there, ask them why not.

If you've got info on particularly lovely indie stores you know of, please let me know and I'll bung it up on the site - the more promotion the better. If you have any Record Store Day news, then likewise, bung it in the comments.

Shuffle The Third

2008-04-13T20:06:00.001+01:00

1. Jens Lekman - Friday Night At The Drive-In Bingo

Ooooh, now there's a tune to start with. This is taken from the absolutely wonderful album, 'Night Falls Over Kortedala' on the equally splendid Secretly Canadian record label. The good folks at Norman Records pointed out a few similarities to Barry Manilow on this album, and while the notion is horrifying I can see what they mean without that reflecting badly on Jens. He's from the stable of slightly fair vocalists that is headed by Stuart from Belle and Sebastian. Actually, there are some musical comparison points there too, but he's very much his own man. This album really swings and is a joy from start to finish. Vinyl comes with a code for a free download too!

2. Richard Hawley - Serious

Splendid track and it'll give me an excuse to post the sublime video that accompanied its release as a single. 'Lady's Bridge' is a wonderful album, although perhaps not as sublime as 'Coles Corner', and this is one of many highlights. Not particularly representative of the overall sounds, but perfectly in keeping with the jolly, skiffle-for-the-noughties sound he uses from time to time and which is a real delight witnessed live. The man loves his music and it's bloody obvious when you realise just how many wonderful songs the man has written. If you don't anything by him, sort that out now.

3. Soil & Pimp Sessions - Red Clay

Now here's a curious one. Downloaded this album from eMusic after seeing them on Later towards the end of last year. Their performance was, to be frank, fucking bonkers. But, despite straying a little close to Jamiroquai's wet dreams at times, their enthusiasm was enthralling and there is something genuinely great about the musical synergy that occurs when they've on stage. I'm not entirely convinced that that same magic is there in the record tunes, and this isn't one of their strongest tunes. Heavy on the sax and manic jazz drums.

Here's the track 'A.I.E.' as performed for Jools.

4. R.E.M. - Losing My Religion (Sheffield Hallam Fm Arena - 25/02/05)

This is a weird flashback from my past. Travelled up to Sheffield in the snow and frankly horrific driving conditions to see R.E.M. live for the first time. Finally got warm, stood not too far from the stage only for the intro tape to go quiet but the lights remained on full. At this point, a rather subdued looking Michael and Peter walk out to inform the crowd that Mike had an ear infection and couldn't stand up. Stipey was clearly battling nerves and emotions as he made the announcement and, having explained that the date would be rescheduled, told the dismayed throng that they'd do a few songs for us as an apology for us not doing the show. A wonderful little acoustic set followed, this being one of the tunes. A strange, but beguiling performance, with two men doing what they do best, but with the house lights up and everybody united in a mass singalong. Not to be forgotten. Amazingly, although perhaps not surprisingly, there's a video of it on Ver Tube!!

5. Dexter Gordon - Flick Of A Trick

My affinity with Dexter Gordon came about as a result of the rather well-known Blue Note record, 'Go'. That we can buy so many of the wonderful Blue Note albums these days for a fiver or less is something to be truly chuffed about. There's so much great music there for the taking. The only downside is that I never really feel like I ever get to know the music as well as I'd like, although I guess that's as true of any of the genres as much as it is of jazz. As a result, although I have a faint memory of this tune, I'm hearing it with essentially fresh ears. Delightful Sunday evening listening; a ten minute stroll through a master class in the saxophone.

Here's 'Cheese Cake' from the aforementioned, 'Go'.

Shuffle The Thirdish

2008-04-13T20:05:00.002+01:00

Come here, little boy

2008-04-12T08:58:00.005+01:00

Just when you thought she couldn't be any more repulsive, Madonna comes back and trounces her previous lows. Have you seen the video for '4 Minutes'? I was unfortunate enough to stumble across it today and found it absolutely terrifying. It appeared to be a promotional video for some kind of Granny-porn fetish site, in which their young male model who looked a bit like Justin Timberlake, only with far too many scarves, was groomed by an old dear whose clothes kept coming off in quite sinister fashion.

Does she honestly believe this is a good idea? Naturally, this is part 2 of the exciting, 'What was she thinking?' series, although for somewhat different reasons. I'm amazed that Madonna is persisting with that little dance she seems to think looks good and, at about the 3:15 mark, makes it seem like she's taken a little tumble. Which, at her age, is not surprising.

Of course, all of this would be of little consequence if the song wasn't based around the sound of two rhinos having a farting competition. Would have made for a more interesting video anyway.

Fair play to Justin Timberlake. As a first project since he pledged to work with 'Help The Aged', it's probably a little bit more high profile than he'd anticipated, but he's had a go. The huge wads of cash probably had nothing to do with it, and he really did want to work on some sub-standard tosh with a singer who hasn't released a decent record in six years.

The Kooks can fuck off too.

***

On a lighter note, and I don't think that phrase has ever previously been used with this band before, you can watch Portishead performing seven songs from their forthcoming new album, 'Third', in a special broadcast on Current TV. UK viewers can see it on Sky Channel 193 at various times over the next few days or you can simply nip over to the Current website and watch the video there. Here it is in a small, blog-friendly box.

Smooth Trading

2008-04-11T15:09:00.002+01:00

I made my first visit to Rough Trade East yesterday and found it to be quite a pleasant experience. For those not aware, Rough Trade closed its Covent Garden store last summer in order to open what was widely described as a 'megastore' off Brick Lane. This new store has been much hyped by the media and hit the headlines with the free Radiohead gig back in January that was so popular it actually had to be moved down the road.

The internet community is littered with people unhappy with the prices in Rough Trade and so I approached the store uncertain about what I'd find inside. As it goes, the first thing that you're greeted with is a cafe, offering the chance to grab yourself something to drink as you wander about amongst the racks. There is something fundamentally wrong about this, it seems to me, although at the time I didn't allow it to sour the mood. As someone who practises the 'two-handed rummage' when looking through racks, I'm not sure where the coffee's meant to go when you're actually looking at the records you presumably went there in order to purchase. Am I over analysing this?

Anyway, the record shop is presumably what you're interested in. Firstly, the selection is huge but, as a result of being in a bloody big building, the shop is enjoyably spacious. Having sweaty, middle-aged men in raincoats squeezing past you as a fug of warm fart hangs over the artist-alphabetical section that you're battling to get a look at loses its allure pretty bloody quickly. Filing is pretty simple and none of the artists I could think of - and I did try to be a little bit awkward at times - were filed out of my grasp.

Price-wise, I take the point of those who mutter about how much certain things cost, although I don't think that they're particularly over the top for the majority of items. I have to say, my main focus was on the vinyl which was pretty reasonable all round and when I strayed into the CD sections the odd item was a little more than I'd have expected. To use a couple of the items I purchased as examples, £13.99 to add a vinyl copy of Richard Hawley's 'Coles Corner' to my collection is pretty standard and The Superimposers' new album, 'Harpsichord Treacle' was £9.99 on CD, with a bonus - Rough Trade only - disc featuring remixes and unreleased tracks.

Rough Trade East seems pretty good at stocking those items that you struggle to track down. In amongst the racks of 7" singles, I noticed Duffy's 'Rockferry' (ok, I know, I'm just using it to make a point) and Adele's 'Hometown Glory' at their original prices, rather than the inflated eBay nonsense that's occurred since they became famous. They've still got stocks of the 'Fat Children' 12" that Jarvis put out a while back, which everyone else tells you has sold out. Ok, so it's on their own label, but it's worth a rummage if you're after something in particular.

The other reason for visiting is the sheer exposure to different records. A sustained browse - caffeine assisted or not - will present you with all sorts of records you'd forgotten about or never seen physical copies of. In addition, the reasonably hyperbole-free description labels on everything help you to dig up something new that you just might like. Be in no doubt, there are plenty of better record shops out there, but this one is a worthy addition, and I can't help thinking it'll still be there long after many of my current favourites have pulled down the shutters for good.

Vinyl Rotters at your service

2008-04-09T18:46:00.004+01:00

Fair play to the NME, their piece about people getting attacked as a result of their musical preferences is a decent read and long overdue. That said, once the Daily Mail had said that 'emo' music was dangerous, you'd like to think that most sane people realised it was quite the opposite. Their coverage was centred around the recent rulings on the murder of Sophie Lancaster, a 20 year old Goth who was attacked last August as a result of her and her boyfriend's appearance. They quoted a truly brilliant post from one of the Goth message boards, "no group of Goths ever beat up a chav." The idea that musical tastes will lead the nation's youth astray is hardly a new one, although you can't blame publications like the Mail, as all of the evidence would suggest that in previous cases this assertion has been proved to be complete and utter bollocks. Which is how they like their 'news'. Do I need an allegedly here? Allegedly.

Something else that came out of reading the article was a sense of disbelief at the name 'Faris Rotter'. Apparently that's the name of the lead singer of The Horrors. I guess he deserves a smidge of respect for supporting the message of the article before I wade in with a torrent of abuse. There it was. Right then, 'Rotter'? 'Rotter'? What, as in Rotten? Well, good idea, not like that's been used before. The ever reliable Wikipedia reveals that his name is actually Faris Badwan. Obviously he couldn't use that as it'd make him sound too much like some simpering twat who'd stick out his little finger whilst supping a mochachino in the back of a limo on the way to being fired by Sir Alan. Yeah, sticking up for the real people there! Being true to yourself, etc. Such begging for credibility has not been witnessed since Sporty Spice unleashed her cover of 'Anarchy In The UK' on the unsuspecting crowds at V99. The piss couldn't be flung quick enough.

Anyway, having allowed by ire to subside - all this based on a name, I know - I was then confronted by a member of My Chemical Romance. They're just shit, really, aren't they? I've no qualms about defending people's right to listen to them, dress like them and all that, but their very existence in the first place is what bugs me. In my dim and distant past as an occasionally published, and even less frequently read, music reviewer I gave Green Day's 'American Idiot' an almighty shoeing but this lot almost arouse pangs of sympathy for that bunch of middle-aged wankers in their three-quarter-length trousers. It strikes me that if you're going to have to battle against narrow-minded, knuckle-dragging fuckwits in order to submerge yourself in a particular musical culture, shouldn't the music be good enough to warrant the fight?

As readers of this blog will be aware, every so often I go through a period of acknowledging that the NME isn't actually that bad only to become completely disillusioned a couple of weeks thereafter. Once again, reading the new issue today I found it quite a pleasant experience and was delighted to reach the back end of it and find an interview with Roger Daltrey. Top man.

The NME review of The Long Blondes' '"Couples"' was reasonably close to the mark, although it represented my view of the album after a couple of listens. After a few more listens, the seemingly cold and insular sound opens up just enough to let you in. It's still pretty claustrophobic, and not what I'd expected, but it's a lot better than I first thought it was. 'Century' has really grown on me, despite initially hating it, while next single, 'Guilt', is already on the VJ muxtape.

Small child reaching for a gun. Controversial? Us?

2008-04-08T17:40:00.002+01:00

I bought the new James album, 'Hey Ma', yesterday and I have to confess to being a little surprised by it. Obviously, I didn't expect it to be a complete bag of arse - I don't buy records I suspect will be shite - but I wasn't entirely certain if it would fit with their legacy. To these ears, it picks up where 'Whiplash' left off, only a bit better. 'Millionaires' was just a little bit too full of...well, just too full. And can you even remember what the album after that was called? Ha! Thought not. Read into that what you will.

'Hey Ma' is a quality collection of songs with uncluttered guitar work and a knack for a nagging melody last heard when 'She's A Star' took over my speakers for a month in 1997. Future single 'Waterfall' will be a forthcoming single and ranks up there with the best stuff they've ever done.

James were always an infuriating band when it came to albums and, if I'm absolutely honest, their best album is the best of that came out in 1998. 'Fresh As A Daisy' had some merit in that it opened a few more ears to some cracking pop songs, but it was a completist cash-cow and its place in history is irrelevant. However, 'Hey Ma', while not earth-shattering, nor likely to suddenly make them stadium-shagging, sunglasses-indoors-wearing cockheads, is a mighty fine collection of songs that doesn't provoke any fervent use of the skip button. Seriously. You'll spot it easily enough in the shop, it looks like this:

Oh, it was 'Pleased To Meet You', by the way.

Mux U

2008-04-07T19:48:00.002+01:00

Ah, I'm just reclining and enjoying the sheer wit and style displayed in the title of this post. Ahem. So, you may or may not have heard about this yet, but it's the latest way of pointing people in the direction of good music. It's called muxtape - as in mixtape, geddit? - and can be accessed here. To demonstrate its many charms, here's one I made earlier. Would fill one side of C90 perfectly. I'll update it in due course...

VJ in the mux

Sunday Shuffle - Take Five (more)

2008-04-06T17:27:00.008+01:00

1. Jimmy McGriff - Cash Box

Funkier than the proverbial Mosquito's tweeter. Whatever that mad-as-a-table songsmith Nina Simone was on about, it's a cracking phrase and damned appropriate for this swinging bit of organ work from the really rather splendid McGriff. You only really need one album of his and, rather splendidly, 'The Best Of The Sue Years 1962-1965' was release a couple of years back at a bargain price. All the tracks match this hip-shufflingly high standard and never fail to raise a smile. Even when your rugby team has been booted out of the Heineken Cup by Toulouse. Smile along.

2. Freddie Hubbard - Hub's Nub

Cards on the table, I'm not sure I've ever played this before. I got myself a bulk load of jazz not all that long ago and I'm still working through it. Classy enough from the get go as it hails from the Blue Note stables and thus can't be anything other than good and is likely to be great. My foot's tapping at a fairly swift rate. Splendid trumpeteering throughout, although I'm finding it hard to passionately care one way or the other about this. I hate to say this about any piece of music, but it's, ahem, nice.

3. Radiohead - Something To Hate

From a bizarre Radiohead rarities collection that I dug up over at atease.com, this is nothing to write home about. In fact, it's an absolutely dreadful piece from the early peroxide days. What were they thinking. Thankfully, it's only 1:15 long!!

4. Laura Marling - (Interlude) Crawled Out Of The Sea

Technically, the next track was a Nick Abbot phone-in programme from 1998, but I've decided against including those. The next musical track was this, a brief moment of musical majesty from Laura Marling. To understand just how great she is, feel free to scroll down through this blog to see me rhapsodising at length about her on numerous occasions. Here she is performing it in a Brighton record shop, although it comes after 'Cross Your Fingers', as per the album tracklist.

5. Paul Weller - I Wanna Make It Alright

Quality tune from the somewhat overlooked, 'As Is Now'. After the somewhat bloated 'Illumination' and the pleasant enough covers album, 'Studio 150', this album was a surprisng return to form from Weller and this one is a lovely, Swinging-Sixties style piece that demonstrates what a wonderful, soulful voice Weller has.

Here's a live performance to enjoy

A nice little shuffle

2008-03-30T20:26:00.009+01:00

It's the question that music obsessives hate even more than, "do you really need a fifth copy of that?" It's the moment when the brain melts and it becomes impossible to act rationally. It's the moment when somebody says, "so, what are your top three songs of all time."

How are you supposed to be able to answer that off the top of your head? It depends on the weather, time of year, the bloody time of day on some occasions. You can't just nail three songs on, can you? Or can you? I try from time to time and get abso-bloody-lutely nowhere. I keep using bloody today. I'm trying to avoid too much fucking near the start of the piece. Ah well, not to worry.

Anyway, the good lady wanted her mp3 player filling up prior to a long journey and was sat alongside me as we scrolled through a quite disturbing number of tracks in iTunes. Now, I still don't find this anywhere near as satisfying as rummaging through the racks for hours on end, but it offers a different perspective on the collection. What it's really good at is throwing up odd songs that you'd pretty much forgotten about. 4 Non Blondes anyone? Clarence Carter's 'Patches'? Oh yes, just two of the delights I heard again this afternoon.

As these long-ignored tracks blare out, you suddenly find yourself thinking how good they are. Before long you're vowing to listen to them regularly, only for them to slip into oblivion as quickly as they came forth.

So, rather than do a 'my favourite tunes' piece, I thought I'd embark on a shuffling project. I know it's not a new idea, just look at most music based message boards right now and you'll see this topic with umpteen replies. But, as I find it makes me dig out old records and influences my listening habits for the week, it might make interesting reading. Where possible, I'll include the opportunity to hear the songs I refer to. Right then, let's get this going with...

1. Maximo Park - Nosebleed

Loved 'Our Earthly Pleasures' more than I could ever have imagined. I'd written Maximo Park off as another one of those 'famous for fifteen' indie types. I was, quite unreservedly, wide of the mark on that one. Both of their albums to date have the feel of a 'Greatest Hits' collection about them, and this is a fine example of why. Any album that can overlook this, and yet still release four singles as fan-fucking-tastic as 'Our Velocity', 'Books From Boxes', 'Girls Who Play Guitars' and 'Karaoke Plays' must be doing something right. Can't recommend them enough, and from what I've witnessed of them on telly and in print they seem like truly splendid chaps.

This performance of the track is from the Glasto 2007 footage that convinced me of their genius once and for all. Enjoy.

2. Super Furry Animals - Y Gwyneb Iau

I have to be honest about this one. When it first started I couldn't be absolutely certain what it was. It is, it transpires, a lovely little tune. I'm accustomed to taking 'Mwng', the album from which this is taken, in one sitting as a result of having little understanding of the song titles, and thus the lyrics. Any Super Furries fans reading this who don't have this little gem of a record should set about rectifying that oversight. It catches Gruff et al just before everything had to be quite so BIG. As close to a bare bones record as they've ever done, it contains some splendid moments, in particular Ysbeidiau Heulog. Listen here.

3. Bill Wells and Isobel Campbell - Somebody's On My Mind

A recent addition to the collection, this one. Weirdly, the death of Kevin Greening over Christmas (see my other, more specialist, blog) brought about my interest in pretty much everything Bill Wells has ever done. I was listening back to a tape of Kevin filling in on Xfm's 'X-Posure' show and he used a track from 'Also In White', Wells' 2002 album in the background. Further exploration of his back catalogue led me to this little beauty. Combining minimalist beats and ethereal bleeps, the mini-album from which this comes, 'Ghost Of Yesterday' is a slow-burning collection of rather fragile pieces of music that serve to underline Isobel Campbell's quite magnificent talent as a singer. Recommended, although nab Bill Wells' 'Also In White' first. Listen here.

4. Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello & The Brodsky Quartet - Eleanor Rigby

Hmm. Not sure about the origins of this one. It's labelled as 'A Royal Performance', although that could mean anything. It's rather nice, in the sense that pretty much anything with The Brodsky Quartet involved tends to be. It's a little bit ponderous, and the presence of Sir Thumbsaloft ensures the usual amount of teeth-itching. In fact, Costello doesn't appear to be on the bloody thing at all. It's sparse and beautiful thanks to the Brodskys, but I'd rather have heard Costello having a go at it. If you wish to subject yourself.

5. The Innocence Mission - Now The Day Is Over

This band came to my attention as a result of that lovely, lovely man, Richard Hawley. He has quite a regular presence on his own forums over at his website, and in amongst many other topics he'll occasionally mention music he's enjoying. He refered to the heartbreakingly delicate, 'Tomorrow On The Runway' by this band last year and over time I've added a number of their albums to my collection. This is the title track of one of their latter day albums. It's not their best, but it's still pretty decent. Karen Peris' lead vocals remain as eerie and slightly juvenile in their delivery but the overall sense that you're hearing something special remains throughout. Go get 'Tomorrow On The Runway'. This, on the other hand, is here.

Dealing with all the Hoo Ha

2008-03-29T13:18:00.009Z

Predictably enough, the new Supergrass album has split critical opinion. Every time they loom back into view the sheer quantity of fence-sitting causes creaks and splintering to be heard the length and breadth of this fair isle. As each critic finally decides which camp to settle in, the predictable dusting down of the phrases 'return to form' and 'hardly essential' ensures that anyone reading more than one reviews section will have no idea what album is actually like.

As it happens, this isn't their finest work. Sorry, I should point out that I'm being serious at this point. It's better than I thought when I first listened to it, but it's just not up to their exacting standards. It's not that it's a bad album; it's actually rather good. It's just that it's not a great Supergrass album. I adored 'Road To Rouen' and, come to think of it, each of the four studio albums prior to it. Each one was different but you never got the sense that there was a pre-planned objective behind them, other than to make great music.

'Diamond Hoo Ha', as the new album is rather unpleasantly titled, is comparable to The Divine Comedy's 'Absent Friends'. Now, bear with me on this, as it doesn't seem an obvious comparison. 'Absent Friends' was the album that followed the indie-kid, Godrich-influenced delights of 'Regeneration'. Now, 'Regeneration' was supposed to be the big springboard to success via Parlophone's wads. As history records, that wasn't entirely the case and Neil Hannon fired the rest of the band and weirdly enough went back to wearing a suit and using orchestras. The resultant album was 'Absent Friends'. And so to the point. 'Road To Rouen' was the departure, the sales were hardly phenomenal and so the quick dash back to familiar territory occured.

'Diamond Hoo Ha' is a balls-out, polished pop-rock album. It's very seventies in its makeup and much of the album blends together into one satisfactory, but not particularly outstanding, chunk of music.

I really want to like this. I have adored this band for nearly thirteen years now, and the idea they could make something that's only good is almost beyond comprehension. I'm persisting with it and, I should say, certain tracks are growing on me, but I can't see where the all-important spark is suddenly going to leap out from. As is the case with all of their previous albums, the vinyl of this is the best way to hear the album, avoiding the slightly mashed sound of the CD, and it's a decent pressing.

I'm not suggesting that you definitely shouldn't buy it - if you're a Supergrass fan, there's enough here to like - but proceed with caution.

***

It's amusing to look back over the last posts on this blog before it entered into hibernation and see how my tips regarding Laura Marling and Adele have proved pretty much spot on. Sadly, Adele's album turned out to be a still-born turd of the highest order. Sorry about that. If I had any influence in you purchasing that, I apologise unreservedly.

However, Laura Marling has produced an album that is truly adorable. Unassuming, subtle yet complex and hugely accomplished, 'Alas I Cannot Swim' is better than I'd actually hoped for. Let's get the one problem I have with it out of the way first. It doesn't have 'New Romantic' on it, which is a wonderful little tune. Yup, that's all that I have to moan about.

The Joni comparisons have already done the rounds, but I also heard elements of Beirut and early, song-based Tim Buckley in the beautifully constructed musical backdrop of these songs. I can't really do her justice with mere words.

Here's the aforementioned 'New Romantic'

And this is the most recent singles, 'Ghosts'

Finally, on the subject of Laura Marling, this is the latest Mystery Jets single, 'Young Love', on which she provides guest vocals. Don't bother with their album, mind. This song's the highlight.

***

I guess this is the point where I should point out other great music I've heard recently that you might wish to have a listen to. And why not? If the hype surrounding MGMT has passed you by, then you owe it to yourself to purchase a copy of the album 'Oracular Spectacular' at the next opportunity. Even Sainsbury's are selling it. The sound is, to use a technical term, fucking bonkers. They're a bit like the Chemical Brothers remix of Mercury Rev that was knocking about a few years back, but with better vocals.

You can see high quality copy of the video, and thus hear the song by clicking here

Vampire Weekend's self-titled debut is well worth a punt. It's indie with a world-music influence, or at least that's what those really big papers you can't read on a train are telling us. It's a chaotic collection of three minute pop brilliance, done in a very different way to pretty much all the indie that's out there at the moment.

Here's recent single, 'A-Punk'

Elbow's 'The Seldom Seen Kid' has been mooted as a 'career best' in some circles, and I wish to associate myself with said circles. If it's possible to associate yourself with a shape, that is. Anyway, one of the most under-rated bands in Britain have delivered an album with tremendous story-telling, phenomenal basslines and a musical landscape so intricate that after many, many listens I'm still discovering new things each time I play it. I adored the last record, 'Leaders Of The Free World' and the two prior to it were almost as wonderful and yet Elbow are very much a C-list band who drift into the public conciousness every now and then, only to drift back out again pretty much immediately thereafter. Fuck knows why.

Current single, 'Grounds For Divorce', is splendid, although not much of an indicator of what the rest of the album sounds like. Still, a line like 'I've been working on a cocktail called grounds for divorce' deserves some recognition.

The new Billy Bragg album has its moments, but is hardly a revelation. That said, lead single, 'I Keep Faith' is one of the most beautiful things he's ever done. I can only find a solo version via Ver Tube, but the one you need to hear is the band version. I can only imagine a world where you could click here and find an mp3 of it.

Other things of note to emerge recently include the latest Nick Cave album, 'Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!' which sits somewhere between the 'Abattoir Blues / Lyre of Orpheus' set and Grinderman. Splendid, although the limited edition isn't worth the extra cash.

Lightspeed Champion's 'Falling Off The Lavender Bridge' is a fine collection of folksy indie and the new album by The Charaltans, 'You Cross My Path' is the best thing they've done in a while. You can download it for nowt via Xfm.co.uk

And finally...

Everyone's already salivating over this, but it would seem rightly so. I knew that Alex Monkey and Miles Rascals had collaborated but beyond that knew nothing else. However, when Zane Lowe was being Chris Moyles on Easter Monday, the debut single was played and I fell in love immediately. The main reason for this is, I would imagine, the fact that the song uses the drum beat so loved by Scott Walker on his 'Scotts 1-4' series, that was plunded equally splendidly by The Divine Comedy on a regular basis. Anyhoo, they are The Last Shadow Puppets, and the sublime single is 'The Age Of Understatement'.

Blinks Hello?

2008-02-20T15:10:00.002Z

I'm not sure I even expect anyone to ever read this. If you are one of the loyal band of readers from the middle of 2007 then bless you for returning in the hope of something new. It's been a while. Why? I dunno. I just got bored of trying to find the words to describe music, when the music itself couldn't be boiled down to such a simplistic reading otherwise it wouldn't be great in the first place. Doyouknowworramean? Nope? Fair enough. Anyhoo, things have changed a little and I've spent the last couple of days completely immersed in my record collection and thoughts turned back to this little corner of the interweb. I think I'll need to stick to the format that had crept in just before it ran aground - presenting things for you to try rather than talking in great detail. That said, there'd be no point this existing if I didn't pour forth on certain artists and records every so often.

The most immediate factor in my posting today was Richard Hawley's quite sublime gig in Buxton last night. For more on that, and him, see the separate post for it.

Anywa, how the devil are you? Recommend me some stuff to have a listen to via the comments option below and let's get this show back on the road. Not 'arf, pop-pickers.

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

2007-10-14T13:43:00.000+01:00

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

2007-10-06T17:39:00.001+01:00

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

2007-09-12T20:56:00.003+01:00

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'

2007-09-11T22:03:00.000+01:00

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?

2007-09-10T19:01:00.001+01:00

What the fuck?

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

2007-09-09T18:20:00.000+01:00

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?

2007-09-08T11:44:00.001+01:00

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

2007-09-06T19:37:00.000+01:00

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

2007-09-05T21:17:00.000+01:00

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

2007-09-04T19:22:00.000+01:00

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

2007-09-03T18:58:00.000+01:00

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

2007-09-02T16:06:00.000+01:00

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

2007-09-01T21:29:00.000+01:00

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

2007-08-31T17:54:00.000+01:00

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

2007-08-30T20:37:00.001+01:00

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

2007-08-29T21:30:00.000+01:00

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

2007-08-28T20:01:00.000+01:00

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

2007-08-27T17:36:00.000+01:00

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

2007-08-26T17:14:00.000+01:00

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

2007-08-25T14:40:00.000+01:00

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

2007-08-24T19:18:00.000+01:00

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?

2007-08-23T18:01:00.000+01:00

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?