"Well, hello there, girl's name"

Musical Revelations Of The Week:
Spoon - 'Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga' - As documented in yesterday's post, I made a bit of a boob with this band, and ignored them because I, ahem, didn't like the artwork of one of their old albums. Turns out I had my head nestled firmly up my arse. Feel-good indie with charming melodies that is a late contender for album of the summer. Mind you, summer's late too, so who knows, the summer album might come out in October!
Lily Allen - 'Everybody's Changing' - Her utterly fabulous ska-cover of the pleasant-enough Keane single had passed me by until I was in a situation whereby I was listening to a compilation of live stuff from Dermot O'Leary's Radio 2 show. It turns out that it was the b-side to the 7" of 'Littlest Things', which is now winging its way to me. Who knows, if the posties show up to work tomorrow, I might even receive it.
Josh Rouse - 'Country Mouse, City House' - Wooo. 'Subtitulo' may have been mediocre tosh and 'She's Spanish, I'm American' was a quaint diversion, but this latest effort from Josh is right back up to his usual high standards. On the off chance we have some sunshine this week, feel free to dust down '1972' and 'Nashville' and play them back to back with this newie for some genuinely sunny tunes. As cheesy a comment as I've ever made, but accurate, methinks.

Non-musical Revelations Of The Week:
Jekyll - What a fantastic conclusion. Some neat twists, brilliant acting and numerous laugh-out-louders. A genuinely brilliant piece of modern drama. More, I say, more!
Scrubs - Yeah, I know I keep banging on about Scrubs at the moment, but I'm only doing it because it's ace. This coming Thursday on E4, at 9pm (repeated numerous times, including Saturday at 5.30pm) is a quite brilliant episode with a musical theme. I'm aware that truly shite shows have attempted this in the past, but rest assured that the Scrubs writers pull this off with aplomb. You'll particularly enjoy the song about poo. No, really. Ah, go on then, here's the two best songs:
'Everything Comes Down To Poo'

'Guy Love'

Nick Abbot on LBC - I used to love Nick's phone-in shows of the 90s on Talk Radio and Virgin. Having been quiet for a few years, Nick returned to the phone last year and is now running at full speed. This week he filled in for Iain Lee for a few evenings, and I can't recall sniggering at a radio show so much since Kevin Greening left daytime Radio 1 for the last time. While I can't recommend future fill-ins, as I'm not aware of any, I can point out that he's on every Saturday at 10pm, via channel 0177 on Sky and through their website at www.lbc.co.uk If you do fancy treating yourself, you can subscribe to their podcast service, which will allow you to download all of Nick's past shows. If you happen to do that, and want some tips on which ones to get, get in touch.

Have a good week all.

My Bones Hurt?

Musical Revelations Of The Week:

Super Furry Animals - Absolutely everything they've ever done - Listening to 'Hey Venus!' this week has once again convinced me that this band have NEVER done anything less than excellent. I've spent the last couple of days working through all of their albums, and even 'Guerilla', the record I tend to put at the bottom of the SFA pecking order, sounded fantastic. Every time Gruff et al release a newie I think the same thing; 'God, SFA are great. They're really underrated, I should listen to them more.' Which I duly do, absolutely love all of their records and then move on again. The Super Furries seem to be condemned to being one of those bands that everyone says they love but never quite achieve legendary status. With 'Hey Venus!' they really should.

Daniel Pemberton - Tvpopmusik - Loads of bits and bobs that Mr Pemberton has composed for TV shows, in longer versions along with other assorted instrumental bits. Shame there's no League of Gents theme, but the music from That'll Teach 'Em sounds superb, freed from the irritating connotations of that tittish headmaster.

Maps - We Can Create - Bollocks to the fact that I've talked about this before. It got a Mercury nomination this week, and I can only hope that that leads to a number of people checking it out that might otherwise not have done so. T'is a tremendous record, and if you're a vinyl nut there's a quite beautifully pressed 2x10" edition available while stocks last.



Non-musical Revelations Of The Week:
Jekyll - Another brilliantly written episode. Laugh-out-loud funny and full of suspense almost simultaneously, this series has been a joy. Final episode next week. I don't imagine it'll make much sense, but then who cares when it's this entertaining?
Scrubs - Back to that start via the DVDs for me. Season Six is currently being shown on E4, and is meeting the high standards one has come to expect from it and as a result I thought I'd nip back to the start and remember why I fell in love with it. It's the nature of the ensemble performance that does it. The plots ensure that virtually everybody is used in every episode, and the throwaway gags that are peppered through the not-especially-complex plots range from genius wordplay to the most vintage slapstiok imaginable. Word is, Season Six will be Zach Braff's last, so this could be the final run of greatness. E4, Thursdays, 9pm. Or the first five seasons on DVD from all good retailers and lots of shit ones too.
101 Great Welsh Tries - Ok, something of niche item here, but I enjoyed it. I say I enjoyed it, but I speak mainly about the tries themselves. The talking head bits with Robert Jones and Clive Rowlands are at best funereal and at worst bloody pointless. I tried watching it at double speed and suddenly Rowlands was almost talking at the speed the rest of us use normally. Still, some great footage.

Le Bateau Jus Viande

Musical Revelations Of The Week:
Cherry Ghost - Thirst For Romance - I was convinced he'd deliver a brilliant album after I heard him do a session for Radcliffe and Maconie. It confirmed for me that 'Mathematics' was not a one-off. A wonderfully wistful album with more than a hint of the Hawley about him. A few upbeat tracks shocked the bollocks off me at the end of the record, but overall it's the sound of autumnal evenings. Or as we now know them, summer days.
The Chemical Brothers - Greatest Hits - When they were good they were fucking brilliant. 'The Private Psychedelic Reel' is just as beguiling now as it ever was, while the glory of 'The Golden Path', 'Star Guitar' and 'Out Of Control' demonstrate how undervalued this lot are. Not much cop at normal albums, mind.
Prince - New Earth - Ok, so at times it's a little Eighties in terms of production, and he still doesn't know when to end a song, but it's not a bad little record at all. The slower tracks hint at 'Older'-era George Michael while the straight up funk of quite a few tunes hark back to the Prince records that people would actually want to buy in a record shop.

Non-musical Revelations Of The Week:
Grass - The Complete Series - Finally got this BBC3 comedy drama on DVD this week. I refused to buy it as part of an over-priced 'Fast Show Threesome' boxset, as this was the only decent thing in the set. In years to come I genuinely hope that this is held up as a masterwork of its time. I doubt it, because that's never really the way these things work out. Co-written by Simon Day (of Fast Show stock) and Andrew Collins (general media legend), 'Grass' is a delight for every second that it is on screen. Old Fast Show character, Billy Bleach witnesses a gangland shooting and is required to turn grass for the police. As a result he is placed on the witness protection scheme in a little village in Norfolk. The ensuing plot lines - poetry olympics, a rural pub that only serves Moroccan cuisine and two metropolitan police officers embarking on the senior officer's first gay relationship, whilst protecting Bleach - are quite beautifully woven around a superlative performance from Simon Day as as the titular grass. The laughs linger at all the right times, and the throwaway jokes are often the best. The local plod is christened 'Heartbeat' by Bleach, who himself spends much of the first episode inventing as many possible different identities for himself as possible, not quite realising that he may meet these people again. I cannot recommend this show enough. Click on the piccie above to purchase.
Jekyll - Ok, so I already knew this was great, but the back and forth storytelling of this week's episode was captivating. Genuinely great telly and a real feather in writer Steven Moffat's bow.
The Mail On Sunday - yuk. No, really.

Bless his cotton socks

Musical Revelations Of The Week:
Bruce Springsteen - 'Live In Dublin' - A joyous 2CD (and DVD if you're willing to spend the extra) set that simply encapsulates the atmosphere of an excellent gig. Live albums are nearly always a crock of shit, but this one sounds like the crowd were having a riot and The Boss sounds on good form. Mainly drawn from the 'We Shall Overcome - The Seeger Sessions', a fine album in itself, this is the most vibrant that Bruce has sounded in yonks.
Manic Street Preachers - 'Assorted B-sides' - As I think I mentioned, I'm currently attempting to buy up the Manics singles that I missed out on first time around. Hearing tracks like 'Hibernation', 'Too Cold Here' and 'Love Torn Us Under' it makes me wonder how the hell 'Lipstick Traces' ended up with the tracklist it did. Well worth hunting down these increasingly cheap old CD singles to hear some lost gems. And a shit live version of 'Drug Drug Druggy'.
Amy Winehouse - 'Back To Black (vinyl pressing)'- This album finally got a vinyl release recently, and as I said back at the start of the week, it really does improve the listening experience on this one no end. An extra mention in the weekly round-up in the hope that it will spur a few more people on in terms of registering the sonic differences.

Non-musical Revelations Of The Week
The work of Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David: I sort of stopped watching season six of Seinfeld on DVD around the time the Michael Richards (Kramer) story broke about offensive comments made during a stand-up gig. It's what Google's for, kids. Anyway, up till then I'd been devouring the series at a fair old pace but it took its place on the shelf and dozens of other things moved ahead of it. However, a bargainous offer over at Amazon whereby you get £5 off if you buy two TV DVD boxsets from a certain selection allowed me to get Seinfeld season 7 and Curb season 5 for £18.50 delivered. An offer not to be passed up, and thus I felt obliged to finish off season 6 prior to 7's arrival. And what a delight it was. I didn't watch Curb's fifth season as it went out on More4 because of its late-Sunday slot, so I have the delights of that ahead of me too. If you've not bothered with either series, it's not too late. In fact, it's bloody cheap to get up to speed now.
Jekyll - Plot all over the shop, delightfully menacing performance from James Nesbitt and Michelle Ryan looking eerily like Kylie at one point, this was the latest Saturday night offering from the Beeb. It's ace, although I'm not sure why. So much unexplained, although I guess that's the point. The cast is particularly well chosen - Paterson Joseph as the slightly OTT bad guy was a sublime idea. Written as it is by Steven Moffat it was unlikely to be shite, and sure enough it wasn't. Charmingly bizarre, I hope it doesn't get an intellectual panning in the press to blight its run.
Simon Ambrose - If only I was a betting man...