"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.

You're like House without the limp

Musical Revelations Of The Week:

Maximo Park - Every last thing they've every done, seemingly. As I may have mentioned, Maximo Park's performance at Glastonbury last weekend sparked something in me and another 'new favourite band' was born. I'm well aware that they're not 'new', indeed I already had both of their albums prior to seeing this performance. But something about their presence on stage, in particular that of frontman, Paul Smith, pushed all the right button. It's spiky, literate indie with no shortage of noise and thrust. It doesn't come across as particularly fashionable, just hugely enjoyable. As a result of that dawning realisation I reverted to my teenage approach to music and started to hoover up everything I could find. Only difference being I now have access to eBay and Amazon marketplace, which makes it both easier and more expensive. It's been fun though. Lovely assortment of colours on the 7" vinyl.
Ryan Adams - 'Easy Tiger' It's a very nice record. I'm sorry to use the word 'nice', but that's where I'm up to at the moment. Considering he releases a recording of pretty much every noise that is ever emitted from his body, simply being nice isn't too bad an achievement. There is a very limited edition orange vinyl pressing of this one, and unlikely previous Lost Highway vinyl outings, it's a pretty quiet pressing. I think I like it, although I couldn't hum you a tune from it if you put a gun to my head. That said, if you're the kind of person who would put a gun to someone's head over a Ryan Adams album then I suspect you're probably unhinged enough for me to get away with a brief doo-doo-doo. Is this the worst review ever written. Possibly.
Super Furry Animals - 'Show Your Hand' Possibly the greatest comeback single of the year. The album, 'Hey Venus!' is yet another sun-kissed SFA masterwork. Is any other act this consistently bloody brilliant? Caught a performance of the new single from Glasto last weekend, and it really is as good as it first seemed. Sixties harmonies, pure-pop melodies and a real sense of urgency. It'll probably get to Number 22 and then drop like a stone, but then this is the same public that thought Michelle MacManus had a pop career in her. (Do your own joke)

Non-musical Revelations Of The Week:

Scrubs - It returned to E4 this week, for season six. This prompted me to resume devouring season five on DVD. It really is never less than hilarious, and often much funnier than that. The shift in JD's character as he is now, at least nominally, Cox's equal is well handled, while Cox's breakdown after a wrong decision made for some genuinely lump-in-the-throat viewing. An undervalued work of genius that nobody will shout about until it's long gone, no doubt.
News 24 bloke with enormous bouffon grey hairdo - Good grief. I happened to have News 24 on yesterday morning, while they were covering the Queen's visit to the Scottish Parliament. Listening to this bloke trying to string a sentence together was genuinely disturbing. Every so often you were on edge as you waited to see if he'd actually died or simply forgotten every single word in the English language. Thank God that Peter Sissons was on duty when the burning car got stuck in the automatic doors at Glasgow airport.
Buying shops that have been in administration twice already isn't a good idea - 'Nuff said.