Angel Interceptor

For all of my independent record shop rhetoric I caved today. Morrisons are doing their chart CDs for £7, and the new Ash and Chemical Brothers albums were sitting there, luring me in. The Chemicals album might have something about it, but the first listen proved it to be wallpaper with slightly higher bpm.
The Ash album, however, is a beauty. I didn't think they had it in them after the terrible, terrible career nadir of 'Meltdown', but this is the power pop indie of old. It's their 'last' album before they go download singles only on our collective asses. Nice bit of PR but it means bugger all. Shame mind, as this may be their most cohesive album to date.
Sadly, I was correct about Seven Ages Of Rock. At least half the show appeared to be given over to Oasis. Yes, Noel is a cracking interviewee, but he's said pretty much all he's going to say on the subject now. Occasionally I thought, "woo, here we go, some time on Suede or Blur", but having had them on screen for a few minutes of we were back to the riverboat on Gallagher senior's alimentary canal. Where were Sleeper, Pulp, Dodgy, Supergrass, Super Furry Animals, Elastica and so on? It was 50% longer than the other episodes, so the need for a precise focus is bullshit. The film about Britpop, 'Live Forever', managed to cram plenty of indie luminaries into its ninety minutes. It was engaging telly, but another missed opportunity. Part 2 of 'Something Changed', the Britpop review will be on here towards the end of this week. Oh, and fucking Franz Ferdinand at the end. When was this made? May 2005?

Certainly triggered

It's the dreaded British indie episode of 'Seven Ages Of Rock' tonight. I'll be recording it, as 'Jekyll' is on at the same time, but whenever I get around to viewing it I'll report back on how traumatised I was by the whole experience. I guess there's a chance they'll do it well.

Ha!

Maximo Park live from the Oxford Union tonight on Channel 4, apparently. It's one of those Vodaphone TBA things, that seem to exist only to get the name 'Vodaphone' into the tv listings. And blogs, evidently.
Maximo Park are my current love affair. I have a habit of throwing myself into the collecting of a band or artist as soon as that magic 'click' occurs and I realise their greatness. I've stubbornly held out on Maximo Park for some time, but thinking back, I'm not sure why. I took a punt on 'Our Earthly Pleasures' back in April because the CD was fairly cheap, and realised that they weren't at all bad. A chance to buy the special edition of the debut at a good price ensured that that was in the collection too. However, the adoration didn't happen until the Glastonbury performance (See video clip in a previous post.) They delivered a blistering live set and suddenly I realised what I'd been missing.
As a result, this week has involved tons of Maximo Park stuff pouring through the letterbox, including a multi-coloured pile of 7" singles, a Japanese b-sides collection, a limited edition CD/DVD book thingy and both albums I already own, but this time on vinyl. Ok, so they didn't come through the letterbox, but you get the idea. I have form for this kind of behaviour. But, it's not like I don't listen to it all, and thoroughly enjoy it.
I really do recommend that you check out the Field Music re-version of 'I Want You To Stay', available on the single of that name, or for download via the excellent Bleep.
The music's spiky, the lyrics are just the right side of odd and the presentation is perfect. An indie band that's a cut above the rest. It'd be nice to hear about an act such as this lot on tonight's 'Seven Ages', but I suspect it'll be the Oasis show. I'd love to be proved wrong.