Not blogged for a while - forgot bout the changes! will have to play around with the layout but it looks like evrything works ok (except images).

Trying to sort out a present for Fox - speaking to Nina on the phone and I wrote down this;

"Is - what the"

...Hmmm. Not much help that. I think that a CD is in order - and a winnie the pooh honeypot soft toy thing for baby Charlie - which ox can play with too if he wants...

I got a promotion at work! I will start being a nerd with the IT dpt. So long Payroll, so long Admin. Hello more money and weird computer things.

Meagre picking to pick through this week pop pickers. Part through slow release week part through me having no money.

Single of the Week

Maximo Park - I Want You To Stay  

Maximo Park are fast becoming the most reliably great pop singles band around. Every single they release is brilliant and this, though not quite not up there with Apply Some Pressure, is also great. 3 versions abound on the two vinyls and new track La Quinta. The three versions are; the demo - rougher than the finished version obviously but aptly demonstrating Pauls great voice; the Field Music mix which brings to mind handbags and gladrags and the slightly more famous Paul - Mr McCartney; lastly the Cristian Vogel mix which could be the soundtrack to a Paul Smith fitness montage as he trains to get in shape to try and keep some dark haired bird from ditching him for a lifegaurd who work down the rec centre. Or not. La Quinta is a spoken word set to the theme tune to a Commodore 64 game theme tune that finds itself a chorus. Its reminding me of college kids in the 80's doing a "modern interperative dance movement". Hmmm... On that school note I award it an A -

Delays - Valentine

Released, with impeccable timing, a week after valentines - well done lads. I've got to love this cus they are good Southampton lads (good result against Sheff Wed 3-0!) and it sounds like ABBA and Donna Summer and a fey indie types Geneva all at once. Have Delays been leaving the Joiners Arms to the rock kids and sneaking down to Ikon (shit shit horrible club)? I fear for their mental heath if this is the case but each to their own. Good hand waving disco stomper lads! B-side Talking Me Down is back to normal guitar dull stuff but for the A-side B+

Soledad Brothers - Good Feeling

The first few seconds of this do not bode well. This sounds a bit, um, neutered - the cover is a sham I tells you - no wild animal of a single here. Having seen these lads live, and being blown away by Rock n Roll greatness, I expected more balls. Also the track itself is as weak as a Reverends urine. Lets see if the B-side, magazine, is any better... Yes, it is - much much better, this would get me up shaking my stuff on the dancefloor, necking Jack Daniels and dancing into people and falling over. But it still sounds as though this is an other track that needs to be heard live. Over all this only gets a D -...

Single of the week.

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Envelopes – Free Jazz

If Franz Ferdinand are happy to make music for girls to dance to then Envelopes are cooler girls (and boys) who dance better who make cooler music for indie fans like FF to dance to. And what a dance! Shake, shake, pogo, handclaps and the throwing of hapless indie shapes ahoy! A big fantastic mix of all things DIY circa late 90’s but, sensibly, with the impeccable timing of a 2005 Epworth remix that comes with its own asymmetric fringe haircut – lyrics sung in at least two European tongues – thankfully one is English. The B-side Put On Hold even throws in an AFX girl/boy type spluttering melody mixed in with the sloshed love of Tiger (RIP). As much fun as eating a big ol bag of Haribo and washing it down with Vodka.

Liars – The Other Side of Mt Heart Attack

Wow! When did Liars go and become so Jesus & Mary Chain-tastic? Where’s the Black Dice like stabs of horror and the general head-fuckery of all their other recent (and recentish) tracks? Who knows but while Liars forget that they are meant to be making un-listenable, too cool for school, rackets they conveniently go and make this absolutely lovely single. B-Side is the LP version which is equally as nice – few more interesting little beeps and plucks that recall that other stalwart of 80’s chemical induced rock, Mr Jason Pierce. Bravo Sirs. Now, go back and make more music about witches being eaten by slugs and bashed over the head by bad fridges.

Harrisons – Blue Note

Ah, so young and so longing for youth already. An other Yorkshire band here (there are now more bands in Yorkshire than there are people – is this possible?) and here I am ready to dismiss them as a bandwagonesque outfit – but no! Harrisons are making like a new Undertones/Buzzcocks – more so on B-side Shirley’s Temple – and as such are a simpler affair than the Artics but just as enjoyable. Hooray! Suburban new wave teenage earnest punk action is go!

Regina Spector – Us

Oo – boy, was I wrong about Ms Spector when I dismissed her last summer because this is awesomely lovely and her voice (which I didn’t get to grip with last year) sounds fantastic. Is this a bittersweet dedication to a love that was wild and true but is now over? No, not love maybe, maybe it’s a futile dedication to all the dreamers – how to get it oh so wrong when you look to honour someone. Hmmm. But anyway its beautiful and I for one am considering falling head over heals for her.

Single of the week.

Mogwai - Friend of the Night

OK, I am very biased when it comes to all things Mogwai related, they are ace! And if you think otherwise then you are wrong.

3 tracks here, highlighting the fact that they new LP will be one of the best of 2006, no arguements. Mogwai just keep getting better and better, maybe slightly more mellowed, no longer feeling it neccessary to burst into white noise every other song (more's the pity perhaps...) and can quiet happily roll along with the best of the postrock crowd.

The only other single of note realeased was a boring track by the Cazals which was so dull that I fell asleep to it whilst injecting caffeinne into my arteries and having my eyes held open a la clockwork orange contraption whilst being forced to watch the awsomeness of 24. i.e. it was very dull indeed.

Kettle recovered... tea saved... all good with the world... singles will have to wait I've popped 29 by Ryan Adams on. Nice.

Not much realeased this week - w/c 30/02/06 - only bought two singles! Couldn't find the Raconters one (Jack White new new band) oh well... bought LP's instead cus its pay day.

Single of the week.

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan – Ramblin Man

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I never thought that the Gentle Waves (Isabelle’s first group after leaving B&S) were any cop myself and assumed that Ms Campbell would stay low on the indie radar for a few years before becoming a librarian, or whatever else a career in B&S prepares you for.  I wasn’t expecting something this fantastic. IC’s vocals are perfectly understated and an excellent calm assured foil to ML’s gritty cocksure croaking. The vocals overlap each other throughout the song which I wasn’t expecting at all and it’s much cooler than a call and response arrangement; that would have turned into argument rather than the battle of willpower that seems to be going on between our leading lovers. In sound it’s a little bit Tindersticks, a touch of Tom Waits, Serge Gainsberge and good ol’ deep south country fried bliss. Nice.

Runner Up

Be Your Own Pet - Lets get Sandy

Less than a minute hear of straight up rock from those annoyingly cool kids who sound like they are having far too much fun doing this whole rock and roll lark. Don't they know that they should suffer for their art? Where is the angst? This record sounds like it was made without any idea about target audiences, the top 40, radio playlist, blah blah blah. Excellent B-side "Early Sandy", that is lo-fi in the extremes and keeps telling the listener to "suck my balls". Well really.

Beck - Hell Yes

I've not been convinced that Becks latest album and subsequence remix LP are much cop. Yes, yes, yes of course its great pop music but as soon as the track finishes I forget all about it and cast my mind back to Sea Change and Odelay and find music that I know I'll be listening to in 10, 20 years time. Not that Beck has to keep making such long-lasting-loving records he's far too cool to worry about that. This little 7" is instant gratification robotic pop and for now it will make you shake your shiny metal butt.

...unlike the following;

Cut Copy - Going Nowhere

Protocol - Where's the pleasure?

two records apply named. Seriously what is the point in making records like these? Of the two Cut Copy have the edge, I reckon that there's a couple of great songs in them. Protocol have all the soul of a Bravery covers band frounted by a failed art school poser who is happy to throw 80's shapes in front of Fashionistas but who has one eye on a "serious solo career" of excrutiating dullness. Bad bad bad.

I would listen to the Infidels - Can't Get Enough and The Early Years - All Ones and Zeros but the snooker's on Eurosport 1 and it needs my full concentration and - whoops! - I've nearly boiled the kettle dry making tea... review to follow...

Single of the week – Arctic Monkeys – When The Sun Goes Down (Scummy) 

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I’m not one for internet music, give me 7 circular inches of vinyl any day of the week and I am as happy as Chris Akabusi, eating ice cream on a log flume. And, apparently, the ffice:smarttags" />Arctic’s have web navigational skills only matched by Wally/Billy the Whale’s navigational skills of the UK’s waters. It is widely rumoured that Coolest Man In Rock™ Alex Turner once watched Jonny Mnemonic four years ago and vowed never to use any technology more advanced than his own personal scribe or abacus again. So any reference to the band co-ordinating an internet based revolution is piffle of the highest order. It just that their fans are youngun’s and using the internet to find music is the same as me using C4’s teletext’s The Void to here about what Rebecca Nahid thinks about Geri Halliwell many moons ago… Anyhow I only here this music months and months after ever nipper has this track downloaded and file swapped and burned and God knows what else and so I feel that I am constantly playing catch up with this band. This song is fucking genius, I can’t wait to buy the album, the lyrics are scarily good for a 19 year old and the music is as exciting as the libertines were when they first appeared. And yet I do not yet love this band. Hopefully this will happen, the band deserve everyone with two working ears to fall arse over tits in love with em. I think that I will always be playing catch up with the web savvy kids and sadly this makes me feel bloody old and therefore the band does feel like mine. Not quite ready for my musical slippers yet but not sure my back is up for crowd surfing much longer. This song makes me ache for being 17 again and I can’t praise it highly enough.

Runner Up – Belle & Sebastian – Funny Little Frog

Ever since working with Trevor Horn and increasing the touring schedule B&S have turned into a much, much more professional little pop band. Now here was a band that were mine when I was 17. Their charm was an apparent lo-fi, ramshackle hipster, communal, naïve and shy wonder and they are quite a different beast now. Instead of songs that are sang to the 13 year old girls and boys that live within the bodies of people a few years older (or a lot older) the objects and subjects of the songs have grown up, as have the band.  Much as I would love them to be frozen in time circa 1997 this has already been achieved by two of the greatest records of all time;  If You’re Feeling Sinister and Tigermilk (did anyone you know own the original LP? – lucky bastards). Funny Little Frog would not have sat well on either of those albums but it will sit just fine on the new record. A joy to listen to and another pop gem to add to a the growing stack of excellent B&S real eases that will, in a few years, be visible from, if not space, then a good distance away…

Rest of stuff in v. short reviews;

Secret Machines - Alone Jealous & Stoned

Prog. Noely G likes em. Bit dull.

Sunshine Underground - Commercial Breakdown

Trendy. Ticks boxes. Bit dull.

Jose Gonzales - Heartbeat

From advert I haven't seen. Not dull. Actually rather lovely. Good music for falling asleep at the wheel to.

Cat Power - Greatest

Lambchop sounding without Kurt Wagners voice. Lovely. (insert cat pun here)

Test Icicles - Whats your damage

Noisey. should be good fun but isn't. Is infact fairly dull.

Forward Russia! - Twelve

Post punk sound getting boring. Essential part of Leeds music scene but not essential to anyone else on this outing, though I still think that they have a few good songs somewhere...