DIM

Actual music reviews

2010-06-07T15:39:00.000+01:00

The Wave Pictures - Sweetheart EP (Moshi Moshi)

I'm scared the Wave Pictures will give up writing songs soon. David Tattersall's voice isn't, and probably won't, get any less whiny than it is on 'Cinnamon Baby'. His crowdpleasing lengthy guitar solos are being featured prominently on record. The title track of this six-song EP and the closer, the Springsteen-influenced (they recorded a covers album, given away as a free CD-R, last year) 'American Boom', are balladic, the latter acoustic- and bass-led.

But this record is so much more immediately likeable than 'If You Leave it Alone', perhaps because it comes about as 'polished' or defined as the Wave Pictures are ever going to sound on record. 'American Boom' might be about the life of Howard Hughes, although it sounds a million times more personal, but it still manages to combine beautiful, no-longer-completely-abrasive indie pop with excellent wordplay, about being on "the cricket pitch, with cracked lips, in the middle of winter". It's got the fast-paced 'Kittens', a recording of old track 'I Shall Be A Ditchdigger' that could have found its home on any Wave Pictures release - and another ever-Wave-Pictures gem, 'Sweetheart': about the sweetest thing you'll hear this year.

I know the Wave Pictures will not give up writing songs, at least, not soon. XFM DJ John Kennedy once remarked to me that it seems the Wave Pictures are set against their own success. You could aptly describe the lyrics and the prolific small or non-label releases that seem not to care about 'major press attention' or 'Radio One plays', like, playing unreleased songs on radio sessions when they've just put out their most widely available and acclaimed album (2008's 'Instant Coffee Baby'), as idiosyncratic. It's also uncompromising, like the Fall, except non-Mancunian, for the way lyrics such as 'I Shall Be A Ditchdigger''s "Leroy I'll, Room 302, I'll be there and I'll be waiting for you" will be sung, easily, by fans unaware of their indecipherable meaning, who will decipher it themselves, or not, or embrace it, laugh, love the story.

They're also very British - Pitchfork's review of their first two full-lengths on Moshi Moshi seemed to pick up this as a flaw, an obstruction to achieving US-wide commercial acclaim. But it's David Tattersall's distinctive, Wymeswold-bred voice, their very guitar-led brand of indie pop, their English charm and their ballads and riddles, that have gained them a steadily growing UK audience. I asked bassist Franic Rozycki, and he didn't know who Good Shoes were. They're magnificent, sweet, intelligent and hilarious. And one of the very best things Britain has to offer right now.

Shonen Knife - Supergroup

Kurt Cobain's beloved Shonen Knife sound like a Japanese, female Ramons, in bright colours. Their latest - they've been around, obviously, for a while - bears a title, and a refrain ending "everybody's feeling satisfaction now", marking them up immediately as more a pop-punk band that is comfortable with their own image, than kindred spirits with the Nirvana frontman who struggled against the fact that his anti-consumerist, anti-establishment protest was naturally packaged and sold at great profit by the very capitalist system that was pissing him off so badly. The lack of such internal warfare here makes for a band that, without wanting to be overtly reductive, are more similar to Deerhoof than a Western post-Ramones pop-punk band. No authenticity squabbles. No bemoaning capitalist realism. Satomi-a-like joy is best captured on a track that reminds me of the first time I saw Mudhoney, a track called 'Muddy Bubbles Hell', with gleeful and childish pronunciation of those very words interspersed with brooding Japanese alt-rock heavy riffers. Seconds of this conjured another ludicrous comparison: Boris. And it is all a bit like that: rock music that achieves simplicity, does it well, and is fun. 'Deer Biscuits', about feeding biscuits to deers at the deer park and making them "very happy", is this epitomised: a more formulaic Deerhoof; an actually fun band that sounds like the Ramones. It is a simple, yet strange record, and it is very well produced. Songs about animals... that animals would actually listen to.

WARNING: LANGHORNE SLIM

2010-06-07T15:33:00.000+01:00

Langhorne Slim - Be Set Free

WARNING: This man sounds like Ryan Adams.

FUCK

2010-05-26T22:50:00.001+01:00

i'll always want to stay

2010-04-11T13:53:00.003+01:00

Oh, hello.

THINGS ;

Return of the Ankh is a brilliant album. Totally perfect, intense, hilarious, shimmering, absurd, innovative, more immediate but less urgent than New Amerykah, so incredibly worth the wait.
'Roman Candle' reissue; is a thing which is good, considering that album is probably one of the best albums OF ALL TIME, or at least ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL THINGS EVER RECORDED. Or something. I love Elliott Smith.
A Year To Kill; I will do more musically reviewing next year.

space odyssey

2010-01-17T02:09:00.004Z

2AM, English coursework bibliography looking distinctly sparse ;

"Bibliography
· Lolita, Much Ado, Venus in Furs, etc
· Hilgards or whatever that thing is
· The talking cure: Literary representations of psychoanalysis : Jeffrey Berman New York & London: New York University Press, 1985
(?????????????????????????????????)
· Larry Wolff “Introduction” Venus in Furs
· Harold Bloom “The Invention of the Human” (read? Don’t read? Just reference in passing?) "

In other news, M.I.A.'s new material is looking ridiculously promising, as in, kind of spacey (worst review of a song called 'Space Odyssey' ever) and reverb and good, working with Rusko is cool although, hey, where is Blaqstarr, how is he even doing. Vivian Girls' new thing, 'Everything Goes Wrong' AKA 61ST BEST ALBUM OF 2009 ACCORDING TO SOME LAME INDIE PUBLICATION (how is some Black Lips offshoot which looks like a potential gang rape 'scenario' better than this???) is really really super good.

And finally, for things that are really really irrelevant, things on the BBC Sound of 2010 that suck - Marina 'I Genuinely Don't Get It' and the Diamonds, Ellie 'Why?' Goulding, Owl 'Seriously, though, why?' City, Hurts 'Are Probably The Death Of Avant-Pop Crossover, If Not Music As A Whole, At Least Until Daisy Dares You Takes Fun Electro Rock And Twists It Into Something That Can Illicit THIS.' I understand that I mentioned 'Lolita' earlier in this post so I can't make a joke relating to the fact that 55% of ReadPlatform's readership are right now beating off to a picture of a 16 year old girl with her tits out, but it still stands : that is potentially the worst thing on the internet right now.

Q : who owned the first decade of the new millenium?

2009-12-26T20:29:00.002Z

A ;

You can disagree, but you would be wrong. Unless you said 'Diplo', in which case, 'okay, yeah, maybe, I guess'.

2009-12-14T20:03:00.002Z

I’m always telling whoever will listen that for all its ‘Karley Sciortinos’ and ‘funny pictures’, Platform is essentially the death of ‘youth culture’, staged over ‘the internet’. What a vast and embarrassing backdrop that is, and how blindly Platform follows in the footsteps of V*CE. Don’t worry if you’re beginning to think that I might be making a point, this post says something odd about being allergic to semen at the end. And there are pictures, and a video. And some fashion stuff that we think is pretty cool, which we are going to point out online and then, like, yeah, whatever, wear it to a party.

Platform recently posted an article, as it is nearly the end of 2009 and the beginning of 2010, to point out, in true V*CE imitation fashion, the ’10 worst things about the noughties’. Whoever wrote it at times actually attempts to ‘make a point’ in his one or more of his rants that ‘isn’t totally ironic’. Like, irony is rubbish, and overused. Really? And apparently, also, blogs are bad, because they are saying nothing ‘new’ most of the time, or something. Thanks to the third person in the comments section for pointing out ‘hypocrisy’ in this idle and totally worthless criticism. Other things that apparently suck particularly badly include, um, Doctor Who, Piers Morgan, and (the bastardisation of) ‘indie’.

Do you know one rubbish thing from ‘the noughties’ that springs to mind reading that post?

OVER-INFORMED AND LAZY ‘CRITICS’

I think somewhere in the ‘blogosphere’ that is so maligned on Platform they are likened to the undead and called something like

ZOMBIES

but I might be missing the point.

One of the things that particularly sucks about the internet’s growth and the cult of the internet amongst young people, in particular, is exemplified pretty much anywhere you will find a comment box.

Wherever someone is given a chance to be a ‘critic’ about something, regarding which, because there is usually no qualification or validation pre-requisite to making a response on the BBC’s website, on YouTube, or on a blogpost, they will normally have no real or relevant awareness, you will get dumb responses.

So in the ‘blogosphere’ and, particularly, on websites like the BBC’s Have Your Say and YouTube, you will get an awful lot of comments that rage from simple flaming to total idiocy, via a lot of ill-advised attempts at irony. There are websites, like ‘speak you’re branes’, which thrive off this.

When the notion of unnecessary, brainless feedback becomes so overridingly popular – as in, when most of the nation is approaching ‘web-consciousness’ – people, i.e. the guys who took V*CE online, and the founders of similar websites elsewhere, including the British copycat Platform, will exploit this, to create a website based on ironic half-assed humourous observational criticism, e.g. ‘Well, that’s shit’.

Platform is an example of a website whose readers and journalists have been convinced that it needs to exist. Platform doesn’t need to exist. If it didn’t, its writers would go elsewhere, perhaps, or simply spend less time trying to be funny and trawling the internet for wacky things to write about. Its readers would spend more time on V*CE, or on their own blogs / flickrs / youtube accounts / whatever. It is an example of a website whereby the writers – as ever in hipster culture, the writers are merely the representatives of the ‘bloggers’ that they criticise – have a post writing for some ‘youth culture’ website, which they think means they are ‘informed’ and that their opinions are ‘relevant’, when, actually, neither of those things are true.

Platform’s writers, however funny the pictures might be, are zombies, and this article basically proves its own point, without being aware of doing so.

If you are going to be ironically self-deprecating, whilst attempting to actually criticise bloggers who have nothing to say, and to point out the flaw in the irony of the ‘noughties’ – in that it is a generation with ‘no punchline’ to its endless irony – then you are probably failing, if you don’t recognise that your own website is the exact epitomy of a void in youth culture, and of pointless regurgitation of uninformation.

Thanks for a rubbish article.

hurts & ailments

2009-11-26T16:24:00.008Z

There's a reason why you should watch the video for Hurts' debut single 'Wonderful Life' before listening to the song sans visual aids - that's the proverbial hypodermic needle containing the Image they want you to imbibe. The Guardian vaguely fell for it, apparently this is the return of 'clever lad pop' or something, except, hey, it sounds exactly like all the other pop around at the moment, the synthy bassy stuff, the heavy 80s drums, electro, distortion, seven kinds of Korg.

It's maybe a slightly worse Leona Lewis song at best, but it's Hedi Slimane-approved, skinny indie-worthy, harks back to (what the fuck, Paul Lester), "a period when it was OK to namedrop obscure literary texts in interviews and resemble gaunt, starving artistes masquerading as stylish Italian models or actors in pseudo-y French existentialist movies from the 60s".

Except, hey, haven't we moved on from that period and now embraced a slightly less shitty version of existence which is more about making vaguely alright music and not selling some romanticised, black and white, gloomy 80s ideal?

This is hype-mongering beyond, like, anything, ever - the website's painfully minimalist, there is Emphasis on Creating a Brand, but not in the normal shitty corporate way - this is actually self-conscious pretention. This is literally the worst thing ever not because it sucks massively, but because it's smug, swaggering, and has no value that could merit this. Lady Gaga can be arrogant because she did this. Hurts cannot.

Not getting bored of seeing the Wave Pictures and writing 'reviews' of them

2009-11-06T21:06:00.002Z

The Wave Pictures - Relentless Garage, London, 30/10/09

The Wave Pictures are the backing band for the 'sweet tones' of Freschard (she said she was German but my friends were all sure she was French). Maybe the bar at the Relentless isn't the best place to judge her from. Maybe Stanley Brinks, who used to call himself 'André Herman Düne' but does so no longer, is not the perfect saxophonist to accompany her, either. But Maybe it's just the sound, or the relatively small size of the crowd thus far, or something. She could be really, really good.

The way Stanley Brinks commences is solo set gives you this, 'It's going to be really, really good' feel. He asks, "Do you watch television?", to no response. He tells us all, some of us a little bemused, that he does, sometimes, because he likes it. Then he plays his songs. My friends laugh. His songs are simple, and you might call them songs or ditties; he plays sans sax, and adopts a cigarette along with his guitar for a song which sees The Wave Pictures completing his little group, until it gets bigger, as Security are making a Big Deal out of his indoor cigarette-smoking. He finishes the song, gets told-off onstage by some woman and some Security man, declares that they've talked to him in the wrong way, says "Fuck you" to a sizable cheer and puts the cigarette out through the method of throwing it to the ground and stomping on it. His set ends with a sing-along to 'Things Ain't What They Used To Be', replete with the new refrain of "That's not how you talk to / Stanley Brinks / not how you talk to / Stanley Brinks". The band ends up with no Security man or woman (she walked off looking Angry), although Freschard is more than welcome in joining them.

Then, The Wave Pictures, finishing up some pan-European tour or other, headlining. Clearly having fun. Subdued behind Freschard, they start with 'Now you are Pregnant', sung by David Tattersall, singer and guitarist. And improvisational lyricist. The Wave Pictures tend to have this trick where Jonny 'Huddersfield' Helm sings this song, but he does not this time. Because sometimes indie rock bands will kind of have to say a gentle 'Fuck you' to the way they normally do things. The Wave Pictures have released a second album on Moshi Moshi and are doing singles from it and are about to tour with Daniel Johnston, and though a lot of the set tonight comprises of material from 'Instant Coffee Baby' (because you can shout along, and people do, to 'Strange Fruit for David''s "A sculpture is a sculpture, marmalade is marmalade - and a sculpture of marmalade is a sculpture, but it isn't marmalade", because this, and these songs, are brilliant), there's no 'Long Island' or anything.

There's 'Tiny Craters in the Sand', upon request. Perhaps telling of people's appreciation of 'the new stuff'? "I hope you like new songs", David does warn us. Or offer us. Or prime us. Or all of these. Jonny Helm, drummer, percussionist, etc., sings instead a song from David Tattersall's new solo record, although maybe it would've been better if David had sung his own song. Although maybe it wouldn't have.

New single 'Strawberry Cables' has been around for a while. A couple of years or so ago I first heard David Tattersall pine for "This is mine, it isn't anybody else's". But now the Wave Pictures are 'big' enough to go to see with friends, jazz friends, photography friends, whoever, and can be relied upon, and 'rock', and substitute into the song 'Kiss Me', in place of "John Lennon" in the line "I read your letter; it said 'I love John Lennon forever'", the phrase "Michael Jackson's 'Thriller'", and they get laughs for it, and they are consistent, later on changing "...how much you love 'Sgt. Pepper'" for "how much you love (contemplative pause)... 'Thriller'!", and they make jokes work, have a 'presence', are cohesive, and are pretty much perfect tonight.

2009-11-03T21:25:00.004Z

on the eve of my Oxford Entrance Exam
i am reading through the
testimonies of people at UCL
so that i can say
'on the eve of my failure in the Oxford Entrance Exam
i was thinking about going to UCL
anyway.'

Choclit Raisin fund

2009-10-31T20:30:00.004Z

I will sell you everything in my room except for my bed and door and windows and curtains for $_____
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

an impotent glowstick and other drawer-dwellers;
goalkeeping gloves from the jam cup
never conceded
lately succeeded.
other apparatus: shoelaces times two;
one silver, good for football,
one black, good for charity.
more
things -
I think this is a dress.
you'd better be deserving of
a coat that used to belong to my uncle alun,
and i've found that japanese electro album
to file next to the one by boredoms,
to sell, all for the sound
of a princely sum in sterling.
princes can pull off pinstripes
and attach them to jumping
trousers, made out of foxes,
which cost me £2
from a surplus store in worthing.
other combat trousers;
30/31,
jeans stretching through sizes
'skinny' to 'slimfit, 32'.
i'm not being extravagant,
i think.
i do not have a 'kitchen sink'
but i would sell that too,
swapping them all for
flowers from a prince,
aesthetic yearning,
or nearest offer.

Place yr bid.$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

2009-10-29T13:30:00.004Z

Unloading stock in Sainsburys in Adjposjpsbn

I just opened my window in what must be the first time in two weeks in celebration of two interviews, only one of which I lied to get. I'm arguably more stoked to have a chance to talk to UCL about the personal statement I ripped from their 'recommended reading list' (I have 3 weeks to read and understand an epic poem by 'John Gay' which I thought was 'alternative' to Chaucer, as well as 'Jude the Obscure' by Thomas Hardy which so far is lame and half of 'Crime and Punishment' which I am dragging out because it is ace and 'The Death of Ivan Ilyich' which should be pretty easy and also a book by someone who loves Hackney called Iain Sinclair) than I am to have an interview with Sainsburys. I need to call them by 7 tonight, which means I need to form a diary so I can work out when I can go and tell Sainsburys why they should let me get up at 5am on Saturday to get a bus to Adjsjsjton and assist people who have issues with broccoli. Or whatever 'Customer Service Assistants' do. Regardless, this is going on my CV.

Having a job would probably be cool, although I think I'm managing to survive being 17 pretty fine without a source of income. My parents have lame jobs like 'full time church elder' and 'getting made redundant' and I couldn't get my act together to lie my way into some EMA money, so whenever I get invited to go to actual-London I constantly have to bum a £2 child travelcard, which normally means I have to shave my face.

I meant to shave my face so that I can go and see the Wave Pictures tomorrow night and so I don't have to get up before 5pm tomorrow, but for some reason I got held up because I was looking for microporous tape to mend the foot that somehow has become one massive blister since an unexpected and sweaty late-night game of uni-hoc yesterday. Less stoked about medical procedures.

Having to get a job at 17 is lame. I don't even especially need one right now. I have a friend who managed to lose my ipod and my huge, fun, super-big headphones and he still reckons he owes me about £60, which I'm not going to argue about, because that's £30 trips to London catered for, and maybe some tickets to 'Socialism 2009' or something.

Trying to prepare for an interview with UCL

Read personal statement and list all the books you mention
Realise you do not have copies of those texts in yr house. Panic. Google 'john gay trivia poem' and feel momentarily relieved; realise the poem is 500 lines long; panic again
Make coffee
Panic because yr family has decided it can do without the 'luxury good' of 'plasters'
Begin to read the David Foster Wallace essay you mentioned in yr personal statement. Give up two pages in after googling 'intentional fallacy' and 'affective fallacy'. It was better last time, and reading Dostoevsky is turning out to more fun than reading about him
Allocate remaining time before interview to remaining tasks, e.g. '3 weeks - read all remaining books'

Trying to prepare for an interview with Sainsburys

Shave
Make coffee first
Hear post arrive whilst in kitchen
Check post, selfishly rooting for letters that look like they might be from a university
Get disappointed to find only birthday cards for sister; get disappointed that it is sister's birthday tomorrow (mainly due to lack of present)
Arrange with ipod-owing friend a 'shopping trip' for 'this evening' during which he will buy present (he will) for sister
Drink coffee
Decide to put 'calling Sainsburys' back as far as possible until '7pm tonight' deadline

What do you buy a 15 yr old sister? I'd ask Abby but... no, I will ask her

What we're up to

2009-10-28T12:09:00.001Z

Trying to get a job

a poet's work is never done

2009-09-13T14:27:00.004+01:00

This is my very favourite poem by him, called 'Laura Brown'. Skip to like, halfway in. It's just 'banter' until then, and poets suck at banter. Also univocalisms exist, which are poems when you can only use words with one type of vowel, and in this case, it is 'e'. And it rules. Aisle16 did a WHOLE SHOW of just univocalisms, and this is Ross Sutherland doing a univocalism at HOMEWORK which is an ace poetry night in Bethnal Green.

'It was like listening to a piece of vocal percussion or an inverted tone poem.' 'The letter 'o' continually propagates itself...as such I found the symbol of the O appearing almost subliminally inside my poem.' Oh, poets.

20Q.net vs The Pope

2009-09-11T00:19:00.000+01:00

Q29. I am guessing that it is Pope Benedict XVI?
Right, Wrong, Close

28.		Were you born between 1900-1950? Yes.
27.		I guessed that it was the Dalai Lama? Close.
26.		Are you found in history books? Yes.
25.		Are you part of a team? No.
24.		Are you a scientist? No.
23.		Do you have gray hair? No.
22.		Are you under 40 years old? No.
21.		Were you popular in the '70s? No.
20.		I guessed that it was Kenneth Branagh? Wrong.
19.		I guessed that it was Mika Häkkinen? Wrong.
18.		Are you a sex symbol? No.
17.		Are you often criticized? Yes.
16.		Are you skinny? No.
15.		Are you still alive? Yes.
14.		Are you bossy? No.
13.		Are you still on the air? No.
12.		Are you American? No.
11.		Do you have dark hair? No.
10.		Do you play an indoor sport? No.
9.		Have you ever won the World Series? No.
8.		Are you funny? No.
7.		Do you wear makeup? No.
6.		Are you Austrian? No.
5.		Were you popular in the '90s? Yes.
4.		Are you a lead singer? No.
3.		Have you performed live since 2000? Yes.
2.		Do you have long hair? No.
1.		Do you have children? No.

2009-09-11T00:00:00.002+01:00

delegate immediate manual...

define immaterial materials

delete idiot marks

deranged irate magazine

dimpled irish midgets

deadly intense mothering

djs in mud

Daphne and Celeste in Mali!

did I mean...?

damn internet moguls

dayummm indian mama

definitely indie (maybe)

deconstitutionalise immediately! mmkay

doya? isit? meh.

desolate iranian map

ALTERNATE TITLES FOR THE ZINE

2009-09-10T23:53:00.000+01:00

Speech Debelle won the mercury award!

2009-09-09T11:10:00.002+01:00

I think I'm meant to be in a history lesson, but every time it is Tuesday morning I am completely shattered by having listened to Mary Anne Hobbs on Radio One. She has the best voice ever, it is totally better than your girlfriend's voice on the phone. I am listening to the show again now, and it's all fantastic so far, forget skweee or whatever, I just remembered Hudson Mohawke are really good. I wrote a scathing review of a Will Self book on a small bit of paper that I can't find, and I need a job in a bakery or something. Trying to read this, Nihil Unbound it is called.

It opens with some Thomas Ligotti:

There is nothing to do and there is nowhere to go
There is nothing to be and there is noone to be

I've spent all my money on toffee cake for friends and at the chicken shop so I think I need some new 'assignments'.

2009-09-03T16:19:00.007+01:00

Okay, here's the deal - lad rock is terrible, NME is poisonous, 'modern pop' is disappointing, music fans and musos alike are repulsive and 'Reading Festival 09' was, on the whole, A Nail in a proverbial Coffin which contains the Soul Of Music (Radiohead were stunning, though). Also, I might do a whole post on how bad the Black Lips are BUT WAIT COME BACK there is Hope ;

Like, if you haven't heard of the xx then maybe you've 'been on holiday' or something but seriously, listen to their debut album which was the best thing of August. 'Crystallised' is unequivocally their best song, all Joy Division ominous opening notes and breathy vocals. They bang on about being 'r 'n' b' a lot but seriously the girl sounds like Mirah and the dude sounds like a sedated Patrick Wolf so this is basically a Quirky Facade. Also 'live' they are completely motionless and awkward. Brilliant.

Okay also there is this amazing band called Everything Everything who are vaguely 'Math Rock' but really they are crazy good at writing hilariously complex, harmonic pop songs about hilariously complex 'Situations' like 'MY KZ, UR BF' which is about a confession of adultery during an air-raid. "I wanna know what happened to your boyfriend, 'cause he was looking at me like 'woah', right before the kitchen was a dustbowl." Um. Or 'Suffragette Suffragette' which is a wailing elegy for a 'lost love' or something. Seriously, they are incredible. Just look.

'Amazing.' New LOVVERS album out, like, 'before'. Also new HEALTH album soon. Also new Vivian Girls album sooner. Also Robbie Williams is BACK (!!!). Also DIM Zine out soonest. So, Hope.

in reference to an earlier post about The Big Pink

2009-08-24T15:31:00.004+01:00

"Members
Robertson "Robbie" Furze – vocals, guitar, programming
Milo Cordell – keyboards, synthesizer, programming
Joined live by:
Jo Apps (sister of Patrick Wolf) – backing vocals
Valentine Fillol-Cordier – backing vocals
Akiko Matsuura (of PRE, Comenechi) – drums
Daniel O'Sullivan (of Guapo, Sunn O))), et al.) – bass
Leopold Ross – bass "

The whole thing reeks of V*CE overrated cool. Can this please be the last post on the internet about The Big Pink?

Last.fm is So Cool

2009-08-21T11:54:00.003+01:00

'Cool new feature' over at Last.fm - well, it could've been there for ages - you can see *exactly* when you listened to a particular song. I decided to test this out by checking when I'd listened to Elliott Smith's '2:45 am'.

	Date
2:45 A.M.	3:18	18 Jul 2009, 23:56
2:45 A.M.	3:18	25 Jun 2009, 18:39
2:45 A.M.	3:18	18 Jun 2009, 23:17
2:45 A.M.	3:18	30 May 2009, 00:50
2:45 A.M.	3:18	22 May 2009, 00:05
2:45 A.M.	3:18	12 Feb 2009, 23:58
2:45 A.M.	3:18	31 Jan 2009, 20:18
2:45 A.M.	3:18	28 Jan 2009, 03:04
2:45 A.M.	3:18	26 Jan 2009, 00:01
2:45 A.M.	3:18	24 Jan 2009, 03:18
2:45 A.M.	3:18	22 Jan 2009, 02:11
2:45 A.M.	3:18	22 Jan 2009, 01:03

Also the zine is out really soon.

fame litmus test #1 : Frankmusik

2009-08-06T11:45:00.005+01:00

"Unless 20Q.net knows you, nobody knows you!"

30. I am guessing that it is Pete Doherty? Right, Wrong, Close
29. I guessed that it was James Blunt? Wrong
28. Are you European? Yes
27. I guessed that it was Jack Johnson (musician)? Wrong
26. Were you famous before you were 20? No
Do you wear makeup? Unknown.
25. Do you play an instrument? Yes.
24. Have you ever been in trouble with the law? No.
23. Were you on a TV talent show? Unknown.
22. Do you perform Rap music? No.
21. Are you a singer? Yes.
20. I guessed that it was Enrique Iglesias? Wrong.
19. Were you married to someone famous? No.
18. Are you a young girl? No.
17. Are you strange? Yes.
16. Are you a relatively young actor? No.
15. Do you perform Rock music? No.
14. Do you criticize others? No.
13. Were you born before 1975? No.
12. Do you live in modern times? Yes.
11. Do you have a beard? No.
10. Are you an American icon? No.
9. Are you a president? No.
8. Are you part of a team? No.
7. Did you ever compete in the Olympics? No.
6. Are you a One-Hit Wonder? No.
5. Are you funny? No.
4. Were you in a romantic comedy? No.
3. Do you have brown hair? Yes.
2. Were you popular in the '80s? No.
1. Do you have long hair? No.

Dude needs some more 'quirky' Spotify ad time or a few more twitter accounts if he wants to break the internet. Maybe it would help if he 'had some trouble with the law' or something. Sorry James Blunt. I mean, 'Frankmusik'.

rules

2009-08-03T02:14:00.009+01:00

These were the recently-deceased literary critic (RIP) John Updike's 'rules' for literary criticism, better than Orwell's rules for writing, at least. Vaguely sucking the frivolous joy out of reviewing, but it's totally anti-cynical-indie-journalism, which is good. Objective and transferable ftz, basically. 'Food for thought'. ;

1. Try to understand what the author wished to do, and do not blame him for not achieving what he did not attempt.
2. Give enough direct quotation—at least one extended passage—of the book's prose so the review's reader can form his own impression, can get his own taste.
3. Confirm your description of the book with quotation from the book, if only phrase-long, rather than proceeding by fuzzy précis.
4. Go easy on plot summary, and do not give away the ending.…
5. If the book is judged deficient, cite a successful example along the same lines, from the author's oeuvre or elsewhere. Try to understand the failure. Sure it's his and not yours?

To these concrete five might be added a vaguer sixth, having to do with maintaining a chemical purity in the reaction between product and appraiser. Do not accept for review a book you are predisposed to dislike, or committed by friendship to like. Do not imagine yourself a caretaker of any tradition, an enforcer of any party standards, a warrior in any ideological battle, a corrections officer of any kind. Never, never...try to put the author "in his place," making of him a pawn in a contest with other reviewers. Review the book, not the reputation. Submit to whatever spell, weak or strong, is being cast. Better to praise and share than blame and ban. The communion between reviewer and his public is based upon the presumption of certain possible joys of reading, and all our discriminations should curve toward that end.
(literally taken directly from wikipedia, soz)

Competitive reading

2009-07-30T16:42:00.002+01:00

Okay look this is what I have read so far this 'summer'.

Luckily this summer so far has been a little bit full-on boring, etc., so in between doing things like 'not having a job' and 'going to the Tate' and 'whatever' and 'cycling' and 'parties' here are some things that I have read.

Albert Camus - Exile and the Kingdom (Stories)

Boring. Ha.

Richard Brautigan - In Watermelon Sugar

It gets better after a spell when you think 'this is weird'. Although Brautigan's character is a total circle jerk.

Graham Swift - Waterland

Riveting.

David Foster Wallace - Consider the Lobster and Other Essays

Sterling.

Ali Smith - The Accidental

I just about finished this. It's quite good. The 'Alhambra' chapters (the last one in each section) are a bit hard work, wait, maybe meaningless, possibly. Probably not though. Michael is a bit of a twat, although you are probably meant to think that. Eve isn't that great either. I'm not sure it actually ends.

Ted Hughes - Birthday Letters

There is a really good poem called 'Fate Playing' in it. One time I was on the fast train, but only by accident, and I tried to copy it out onto paper to give to someone, but I didn't finish it, so I still have half of it in my notepad.

Okay, I think that constitutes 'a canon'. I think I got sunburnt. I nearly hit a van.

Relevant indiepop song

2009-07-25T14:30:00.002+01:00

The Hidden Cameras - Ode To Self-Publishing / Fear Of Zine Failure

Popjustice $36.27 music prize

2009-07-21T18:19:00.003+01:00

(there is no pound sign on Canadian keyboards)

Once again, the PJ music prize is vaguely more appealing than the Mercury Music Prize.

Definitive reviews (with all-important videos attached) ;
'Beat Again' by JLS - I genuinely don't see 'the draw'. BUT video, ace.
'Better Off As Two' by Frankmusik - 6/20
'I'm Not Alone' by Calvin Harris - 12/15. Brill video.
'In For The Kill' by La Roux - Really very very good song, but, um, Quicksand is best.
'Love Etc' by Pet Shop Boys - Obviously very good. Also, video. Also, rules.
'Method Of Modern Love' by Saint Etienne - See above. Minus video.
'New In Town' by Little Boots - Shit. WHAT HAPPENED.
'Take Me Back' by Tinchy Stryder - 89/100, this rules. This is so old, though.
'The Promise' by Girls Aloud - 'Um'. Sorry, rubbish.
'Up' by The Saturdays - 'See above'
'The Boy Does Nothing' by Alesha Dixon - Bloody catchy, also good for mums.
'The Fear' by Lily Allen - 'This one's for the indie vote'. Sigh, 7/10.

On the tentatively indie music prize front Bat For Lashes and The Invisible and Speech Debelle are the only ones who 'deserve' it. If Kasabian wins, well, then, Kasabian will win. But as long as Micachu still exists it's basically ALL GOOD.

'Chat to Strangers'

2009-07-17T01:04:00.001+01:00

I know 'everyone has done this already'. But I had to try Omegle.

Here is my transcript:

Connecting to server...

Looking for someone you can chat with. Hang on.

You're now chatting with a random stranger. Say hi!

A word of advice: "asl" is boring. Please find something more interesting to talk about!

You: hi

Stranger: hi

You: oh wow, this is my first time pretending to be a teenage girl

Stranger: m-f

You: um... f

You: do you like cherries?

Stranger: i gotta jimmy

Stranger: i like melons

You: what's a jimmy?

You: is it hard?

Stranger: a boner

Stranger: and yes

You: why

You: is it something i said?

Stranger: sure

You: awesome

You: so what is the last thing you ate?

Stranger: a watermelon

You: did you take the skin of the watermelon off?

Stranger: yeah

Stranger: my jimm y just got bigger

You: why did you choose 'jimmy'?

Stranger: idk

You: i think 'austin' is more of a sexy name

You: personally

Stranger: ok

Stranger: austin

You: i just put some yoghurt in my mouth

You: i like yoghurt

Stranger: heheheh

Stranger: harder and harder it gets

You: like a watermelon with the skin still on, eh?

Stranger: yeah

You: good

You: i'm glad

You: are the curtains pulled?

Stranger: ioh ya

You: good

You: this keeps getting better

You: now

You: talk to me about indie rock

Stranger: wats that

You: um

You: music

You: i like guys to tell me what kind of music they are into

You: it helps set the mood

Stranger: i like dragonforce and eminem

Stranger: also soad

You: they're pretty fun

Stranger: yea

You: what about bjork?

You: i love bjork

Stranger: cool

You: i fantasise madly about iceland

You: rushing geysers and livid, angry volcanoes

Stranger: sweet

You: pouring lava flows as red as ice floes aren't red, or blue

You: i also like poetry

Stranger: yea

Stranger: cool

You: hey, having breasts is pretty fun too right

Stranger: i wouldnt no

You: well, i'm telling you

Stranger: cool

You: yep

You: so

You: what're you doing later?

Stranger: nm

You: well i hope you enjoy it

Stranger: i will

You: good

You: so, anything else you want to talk about or have you finished jerking off yet whilst i try to imagine just how large and hairy austin is right now? i imagine he's huge

Stranger: he is

You: brilliant

You: okay hurry up my dad wants a turn

Stranger: ok

You: i like strangers

Stranger: same

You: they are fun

Stranger: yea

Stranger: especially

Stranger: u

You: aw, thank you

You: okay, well, sorry to spoil the pants party but

You: i really must dash, it's been great though

Stranger: yea

You: give my love to austin, et al

Stranger: k

You: take care

Stranger: bye

You: xxxxxxx

Stranger: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

You: aw i don't really want to leave...

Stranger: me niether

You: ...just joking

You have disconnected.

dear readers of this blog

2009-07-15T02:54:00.001+01:00

1. American suburbia.
2. Boats.
3. My mum is asking me to listen to her.
4. I totally didn't listen to her.
5. I want the zine to be as funny as, if not funnier than, 'that one book Jon Stewart half-wrote'.
6. Hi.
7. I had a dream that I got into UCL through SNEAKY LYING 'n' stuff.
8. I was really happy I was going, though, which probably means something.
9. Mitch Hedburg is fucking hilarious.
10. Does Phil Coales know how much he sounds like Mitch Hedberg? In mostly every way?
11. My grandma is calling me to do 'something', ie, 'bye'.

The Wave Pictures Are Doing Things All The Time

2009-07-11T11:30:00.004+01:00

They are always playing in Spain and sometimes in London too.

I just found out via Spotify that they have released a 7" for 'Some Singles Club' (I might create a 'singles club' called that) and then when I went to look up what was going on, they contributed a song to 'Some Bruce Springsteen Tribute Album' too.

Via discogs.com, I found this:

The Wave Pictures - Puncture My Pride EP

It's a free download and a compilation and you can get it from http://library.team-love.com/the-wave-pictures-puncture-my-pride-ep/ where you need to 'create a free account with team love' and you get 12 tracks that have been scattered across various previous releases, although there are at least 5 songs there that I haven't heard of before.

It's like the pre-emptive 'Wave Pictures Best Of' mix CD I never bothered to make for you.

Personal statement

2009-07-08T15:39:00.002+01:00

Other people that might have marfan's syndrome #1

2009-07-08T13:43:00.003+01:00

Erik K. Skodvin (aka Svarte Greiner)

really good, Norwegian, field recording-y, chilled

10/10

2009-07-03T22:08:00.001+01:00

review - grizzly bear 'veckatimest'

2009-06-24T20:40:00.003+01:00

In short : "Sorry, guys, not really feeling this."

Long but ultimately potentially more fulfilling : The cover of Grizzly Bear's 'Veckatimest' is imposing. Or at least, Ed Droste wants you to think it's imposing, that the colourful-but-slighty-faded-ASSYMETRICAL-BLOCKS won't be filed under 'a bit new ravey' and will be taken Seriously. As Art. Because Grizzly Bear are now serious and they give a shit. Seriously, they give a shit. About melody and rhythm and 'pop'. Sigh.

I heard an abysmal leak of 'While You Wait For The Others' last May, and on this very blog commented (in my own special 15-year-old way) that "it's quite good by the way, though the fact that it has a structure and proper lyrics that aren't disjointed words and phrases tacked together makes me uncomfortable..." Oh, man. Close your eyes and cover your ears, 15-year-old me, because this isn't going to be easy to read. Or hear. Grizzly Bear have gone 'meticulous'. No more slow-burning thunderous epic wailers. No more 'freetranslation' skewed lyrics. No more deconstruction or fun eeriness or inconsistency. Double sigh.

Here's a truth - cohesion ruins albums, especially ones by slightly deranged 'cult' folky indie bands. Dirty Projectors remain suitably manic for a reason, right, it's because it works. 'Veckatimest' sounds like an album that acts smug in record shops namechecking Beach Boys b-sides, namely that-one-in-london-which-is-now-a-wine-bar-what-the-. Where's the fun? And by that, I mean, where's the depression and angst and pain? Where's the wailing? There's tame wailing on 'Veckatimest', but it's Directional and Ambitious. It's the kind that gets a 9.7 on Pitchfork.com and then it becomes a purr. Triple sigh.

Things I blame (ie things that could be remedied, if Ed Droste is reading)

Maturity ('evolving')
Touring with Radiohead (BOO)
Lack of live dates (which makes music theatrical and exciting)
Department of Eagles. No I'm kidding you guys rule. I love you.

ps. redeeming feature of album and band : best drummer ever, ever, ever, ever, ever.

A poem I wrote which doubles as a review of Kila Kela, in which I liken Carol Ann Duffy to a serial killer

2009-06-01T21:09:00.003+01:00

I once wondered
If I could write
One hundred poems in a day
Every one as good
As every other one
And every two as bad
As the baddest person I have ever met
Coincidentally, one time I thought I met John Lennon's killer
Alas, poor dude was the drummer from Kila Kela
I say "poor dude" because that band sucked
And the dude could've had a brilliant career
As a serial killer
Like Carol Ann Duffy.

revision music vol. 2

2009-05-30T17:39:00.003+01:00

Conclusions ; my brain is so battered that it needs bleepy bassline baile funk to wake it up during revision. Alliteration is fun. Jurisprudence is not.

2009-05-19T01:44:00.005+01:00

Emiliano Zapata

This is a thing I did once and it is shit to look at but fun to read, if you get spanish, 'I guess'. I will never be a graphic designer, shame.

SPEECH DEBELLE

2009-05-08T09:34:00.004+01:00

listen to Searching - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6XeQRntvV0&feature=related

Speech Debelle - The Key

Speech Debelle - Go Then Bye

this is Speech Debelle's new single. it is on Big Dada.

"I can't see you on Facebook / because we're not friends on Facebook."

2009-05-07T14:25:00.000+01:00

The Wave Pictures

15.4.09 - Institute of Contemporary Arts, London

"Planet Earth were really good," says Wave Pictures drummer Jonny 'Huddersfield' Helm. "They were really... good." Planet Earth were meant to be joined in support by An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump, to form a Moshi Moshi showcase at the ICA. Unfortunately, uh, the three girls of 'AEOABITAP' (it'll catch on) pulled out, and so the set timings are moved forward - that, and my enthusiastic best friend falling quite ill at the last minute (she's okay now), mean I just catch The Wave Pictures. The Pictures have a way with love songs, and so, yeah, going with yr beloved is advised, especially in a crowd of couples. But they play for fun, too, as you can tell by the guitar solos of first album 'Instant Coffee Baby', which make up a lot of the setlist. I don't miss bassist Franic Rozycki singing - for the first time on stage, according to lead vocalist / guitarist David Tattersall - as encouraged by a few swigs of something and banter regarding the contents of his underpants. His deep voice, the two drum solos woven into 'I Love You Like A Madman', David's string break whilst "rocking out" on 'Leave The Scene Behind' - fun. Jonny actually has to reaffirm, in his now standard (check Youtube) introduction to 'Now You Are Pregnant', that "It's actually a really sad song." Mixed in are some less identifiable new songs, including the new album's lead single and title track, 'If You Leave It Alone' - a snippet of what looks like a sadder and longer type of Wave Pictures love song. Franic and Jonny also amalgamate their voices to try and atone for the lack of the "beautiful woman" that David had written 'In Your Own Sweet Time' to duet with. Credit to the cohesive unit the Pictures are - they may not currently be able to afford to tour with a 'beautiful woman', yet it still stands out as, well, a lovely pop song. Jonny forgets some words on a new song, David whispers them to him; David seems to start off playing the wrong chord during 'Stawberry Cables' (re-recorded for the 'second album', that is actually less a 'second album' and more like the second to be released on Moshi Moshi, and the most recent recorded output from a band that has been fairly prolific since around 2005); he laughs, and counters that "It was jazzy". They end the set with the favourite 'Long Island' as requested, before coming back out to end the night proper with a new song which they all sing. And so it was throughout the set - on 'Strange Fruit For David', all three of them stand stock still to declare, "A sculpture is a sculpture, marmalade is marmalade - and a sculpture of marmalade is a sculpture, but it isn't marmalade." "Ladies and gentlemen," then - at times, acapella; at all times, fun; The Wave Pictures always!

m-e-c-a-n-o

2009-04-20T17:20:00.002+01:00

A band. From the 1980s when, apparently, right, apparently, pop music was happening in Spain with the 'Madrilenan Groove'. That's from Wikipedia, so don't hold me to account if that never existed. 7 full-length albums. They look unbearably '80s fancy dress party' mostly but it's actually quite endearing. Really good, vaguely corny songs about stuff - their discography is literally like a microcosm of every other indie band ever.

Debut Album - Self-titled, fairly groundbreaking, songs about sex and hangovers and being young and in love in citieszzzzzzzzz. 7.9/10.

Next album - 'Where Is Fairyland' (um...), pretension and 'filler' barometer rising, first song is an INSTRUMENTAL, some song about a fire that broke out in a nightclub, um, yeah, 6/10.

ETC ETC ETC ETC until...

Last Proper Album - 'Aidalai' - running out of ideas and hooks, sort-of a concept album but totally not in a fun of Montreal way. Check the tracklisting;

El fallo positivo. It's the 80s, everyone has AIDS, this is a song about that.
El uno, el dos, el tres. Introspective 'this has been our struggle' thing.
Bailando salsa. Token Spanish thing, obvz.
El 7 de septiembre. 'Love'. Obviously.
Naturaleza muerta. "A tale of love between a girl and a sailor and the revenge of the sea who was in love with her." says Wikipedia. If true, ACE.
1917. (Instrumental) Historical, about 'some revolution' in Russia.
Una rosa es una rosa. 'A rose is a rose'. Love is super difficult, according to this.
El lago artificial. Two songs about drugs? 9/10.
Tú. Three songs about love? 2/10.
Dalai lama. Buddhist leaders actually aren't given enough exposure in synthpop. Represent.
El peón del rey de negras. "The hilarious adventures of a lowly black chess pawn and all the injustices that he has to put up with, but also the perks of working for a royal family (like sleeping with the Queen). An allegory of social classes and class struggle." (Wikipedia, LOL)
J.C. Christian anthem. Probably. Dios mio.
Sentía. Post-love. Like post-punk, but even more depressing.

There's like 'some musical' being made of them, but, seriously, they are really good if you are into highly danceable frenetic music. It hasn't aged well but that potentially makes it more charming. They rule. JUST LOOK.

'luna de miel'

2009-04-13T13:56:00.002+01:00

A few notable things about the time I went to Roses and had the most fun ;

Spanish hip-hop KILLS IT, seriously.
All the kids know Nena Daconte which is like 'friendly dance pop/rock' for the Facebook.es age. Even Jose Luis, the cook from 'the restaurant' knew it AND AND AND sung with us, spatula in hand.
There is a band called 'La Oreja De Van Gogh' ('The Ear Of Van Gogh').
This dude we met referred to AC/DC in Spanish letters and it was a bit like 'whu?' and then 'ohh' and then 'lol you're really spanish'.
Dreadlocks are cool. Bob Marley is cool. This is the extent of the 'alt' scene in Roses.
5-year-olds can speak Spanish, Catalan, French, Castellon and some English. Does this make us stupid? Yes, yes it does.
No-one really gives a shit about Benicassim.

I am now like 'tattoo' and 'cultural' or something. DEME DEME MAS.

DIM Writer's Poll:

2009-03-20T13:56:00.002Z

And the results are in. Dang. Best band name ever goes to Porn Sword Tobacco.

2009-03-20T10:46:00.001Z

MI-CA-CHU

2009-03-13T22:27:00.009Z

Hey everyone, look! Meaningless assertions ;

1. Micachu is the best New Thing I have heard in a Significantly Long Time.

2. Micachu does brill garage mixtapes with people and they're not shit. Like, at all.

3. Micachu live is like Micachu on record but louder and more fun and less detached.

4. Micachu 'splits opinion' like most new things from London. This is why her Wikipedia has the best (and meanest) vandalism on it. Literally;

"She is most famously remembered for a promotional free show which took place in October 2008 in HMV Oxford Street. During the set she played each song from her album Lone Ranger backwards (including some impressive reversed vocals) whilst simultaneously naked and bent over, with her back towards the audience. Mid-performance she invited any interested viewers to penetrate her openly "with as much violence as you feel is necessary: my soul is long gone". Over 350 attendees accepted the offer before the store had to be closed for reasons of health and safety due to the increasingly slippery floor."

5. Okay admit it, that's hilarious.

6. This doesn't stop Micachu being so 10/10 that it is near-impossible to stop listening to her.

Her debut album, 'Jewellery' is produced by some vaguely cool guy called Matthew Herbert and being lauded by equally cool people like Dazed & Confused or whatever. It doesn't really matter. What matters is that she can crank out a mindblowing album, look like some kind of eccentric and adorable boyslashgirl and make me want to be in her band. Man, I really want to be in her band.

This won't descend into an 'album' 'review' primarily because you don't need a flippant hack ("blogosphere") to tell you that Micachu is Now and Relevant and will probably be the definitive indie pop thing of 2009. You're watching her strum a broken guitar with a CD case and the drummer's playing some jerky Galang-esque beat and banging a wine bottle and it's like, 'Yeah. This is 2009. This is the kind of crazy shit we do. And you know what? It sounds amazing.' Okay, maybe you're not that smug, but you're happier listening to dischordant hoover-pop (srsly) than 'The' 'Big' 'Pink's latest EP.

There's snarling, bluesy noise pop with 'Just In Case' and 'Turn Me Well' (which is like Top 100 Songs Of My Lifetime-worthy) and melodic harmony-driven songs like 'Golden Phones' and the truly brilliant 'Vulture'. Lyrics are 10/10. Her voice is genuinely 10/10. Everything is 10/10. This is my favourite thing of 2009 so far. Can you tell?

i think this is what people do when they get webcams

2009-03-04T20:57:00.009Z

Here is a thing Johnny Flynn of "Oh my god is that Johnny Flynn? Ask for his autograph, he is so fit!" 'and the Sussex Wit' drew of me and Phil at a Rough Trade thing many a moon ago.

This is the thing that P.rob (back to that moniker, now) made me do at work experience when he got bored of giving me things to do. The dude is holding a sign called DIM. Do you like it? No, neither do I.

This is a thing I did for DIM. It is genuinely quite good, in a sort of Lipster way.

This was my favourite book as a tiny indian child. It is about world unity and has stories from 'real' people around the world and then has 'hello how are you' at the end of the book in a trillion different languages.

This is a book that makes me laugh, in terms of like 'what? this is bullshit' and then like 'actually maybe it's not bullshit' and then like 'yeah, it's bullshit' again. No but seriously it's cool to like this stuff, 'I've heard'.

Here are some places that look nice. How good is that woman on the cover of the UCL prospectus? Super super good.

Edit : picture deleted, for 'people on the internet are not all my friends' reasons...

potentially the best thing on youtube

2009-02-16T12:34:00.002Z

I was there for this and it was BONE-TINGLINGLY good. 4 real.

2009-02-10T10:35:00.002Z

Simon Reynolds on How the fanzine refused to die in The Guardian

Simon Reynolds' old zine, Monitor

M.V.P.

2009-02-05T20:06:00.004Z

Hey. The reason this review is rubbish is because I wrote it for Tasty zine. I must be doing something right because they're still sending me free crap (suckers!!). Although you think it's rubbish, I'm fairly sure it's the best M.P.P. review on the web.

Animal Collective's 'Merriweather Post Pavilion' is the album where they do 'what they've been threatening'. What is that, exactly? Simple transitions in song structure or in synth-plundering doesn't tend to propel the Great indie rock band into the Magnificent - yet M.P.P. is Animal Collective's highest platform yet, and by a long way. The people who liked 'em but hated everything since 'Feels', the people who thought 'Strawberry Jam' was as carefully produced as a flaccid turd, the people who just didn't love 'em yet are all wide awake. M.P.P. is the product - the nigh-on dang perfect accumulation of Animal Collective show favourites - and the latest, hugest Animal Collective dimension to date. What it does, what it does spot on - it engrosses you. You don't have to try to listen to M.P.P. It's a feast for the as yet unsated Anomal Collective fan. Which is pretty much most of us. It would be stupid, of course, to warn you of consuming the richest indie rock cake, to exercise restraint, to leave room for afters - yet you're going to burst at some point (I'm warning you).

'My Girls' does for 2009 what other songs did in 2008 and 2007; the proliferation of "I want" / "I just want"s on the album betray a shift into songs of familial bonds and bonding. Repetition, even song-sequencing - all the rhythmic devices transpire to make music to put you in a trance-like state. "Noone should call you a dreamer" nudges home the message - hey, Animal Collective are like the Beach Boys or something, the All Boy Summer Fun Band, no vicious. 'Summertime Clothes' comes in behind 'Also Frightened' as tremendously as anything off 'Strawberry Jam', and 'Taste' is reminiscent of the moment on HEALTH's debut when 'Glitter Pills' kicks in, "and I want to walk around with you, and I want to walk around with you", and so on - there are so many different ideas going on, layered even in individual songs. For instance, the jaw harp and the near-indecipherable lyrics of 'Lion In A Coma', my favourite song and the most immediately hypnotising song on the album. It is not easy, therefore, to define M.P.P. as an electronic or indie rock or 'freak folk' album - just as the next instalment of Animal Collective, returning to 'Feels' / pre-'Feels' territory in song structure (or destructive, more messy) yet carrying on from 'Strawberry Jam' too, minus to oft-terided 'tinny' production, shoving in highlights from along the way, more 'Runnin' songs, 'Person Pitch' dreaming, and the live vitality of 'Brother Sport'. It is an album which people will look back and trip up on, and very probably trip out on.

P.S. listen to a new Animal Collective song from some BBC session

P.P.S. 'terided'?

i might do one of these for every skins episode until someone shoots me

2009-01-27T22:27:00.003Z

Oh, God.
5 minutes in and my only notes are ‘WHY IS HE SKAEBOARDING (sic) SO FAST HE COULD HURT HIMSELF’, with the words ‘PISS-POOR DIALOGUE’ written underneath, underlined, circled, with a massive star next to the word ‘piss’.

I wanted to like this, I really did. But apparently a show written for teenagers, by teenagers, comes out looking a bit amateur. Who knew that the art of screenplay couldn’t really be replaced with dialogue that flutters between barely passable sub-sub-sub-Peep Show humour courtesy of ‘the geeky one’, JJ (shit name) and the most cringe-inducing underage double entendres since, well, the last series of Skins.

Basically, the plot this series is that Effy, the beautiful-yet-disturbed-yet-funny-yet-pyromanic lead is enamouring enough to attract the attention of every idiot ‘lad’ this side of Bristol. This manipulative heroine depends on her ability to control these smitten idiots into breaking the school rules in return for sexual favour. The ‘list of rules’ Effy wants Freddie to break are unintentionally hilarious, ‘Teacher Abuse’ ‘Arson’ and simply ‘glue’ being amongst the most radical. Anarchy, Skins says, is smoking a joint at college. What would Erase Errata say etc etc

I guess the real problem is that Effy isn’t really likeable enough to elicit all this lust she commands. Nicholas Hoult’s enigmatic cockiness hasn’t really imparted itself into her tiny frame and she just struts around looking a bit Heroin Chic all the time. It’s okay for about 10 minutes and then you’re a bit like ‘can Charlie Brooker or someone get here and save this wreck, please, I need to watch Lost.’

But hey, on a purely aesthetic level this thing isn’t too bad, they’re all quite pretty and the good ones dress like they’re in twee indie pop bands and the bad ones dress like they moonlight as lapdancers. The music’s alright. A bit, sort of, ‘Skins’ but that’s expected. The camera work is passable and seeing as the least promising actor in the last series (Dev Patel) is now the most promising actor in the universe, there’s hope for some of these kids.

Basically, it’s not particularly good but no-one’s expecting it to be 10/10, are they? 16-years-olds are renowned for being idiotic dicks, especially the clever, deep ‘n’ meaningful ones that think it’s well cool to swear and ‘smoke spliff’. It’s a testament to teenagers, if nothing else. We’re not actually that brilliant, and until we can learn to be proper citizens we have to watch Skins and nothing else. Boohoo.

click this for the best song ever

click this for a really brilliant clip from Y Tu Mama Tambien

an incomplete history of sleater-kinney

2009-01-21T11:11:00.003Z

let's find out about sleater-kinney who have unfortunately been over since 2006!!!

on sleater-kinney's website you can find this quiz. I don't know much about them so I am going to learn too.

quiz

1. Which of these bands/singers has NOT opened for Sleater-Kinney?
The White StripesRobyn HitchcockThe DecemberistsYeah Yeah Yeahs

I don't know who Robyn Hitchcock is, so Robyn Hitchcock probably did. The YYYs are too big and great to not have supported them according to this list, and The White Stripes would've been a huge clunking elephant. The Decemberists are crap, though, right? I chose 'em.

2: What festival did Sleater-Kinney play soon after Janet joined the band in 1996?
SXSWReading FestivalEndfestCMJ

I chose Reading.

3: How many drummers have Sleater-Kinney had?
TwoThreeFourFive

Three?

4: In early 1996, Carrie didn’t make it to a gig in Portland and Sleater-Kinney were forced to perform as a two piece. She didn’t play on account of
Throwing out her backCar troubleFloodsNothing good to wear

Nothing good to wear would be the right answer but it's all about the tonality of the question. I think floods. Or throwing out her back. Floods.

5: Who directed Sleater-Kinney’s first video for the song 'Get up'
Miranda JulyBrett VapnekSpike JonzeLance Bangs

I doubt it was the last two; Mirana July is female too. I voted for No Name #2.

6: In what city did Sleater-Kinney play their first ever show?
Olympia,WABrighton, EnglandArcata, CASydney, Australia

Brighton is closest.

7: How did Corin and Carrie meet Janet?
At a Portland Blazers gameAt an auto showThrough a mutual friendThrough an "I Saw You" ad in the Portland Mercury

The last one... although... now I might just highlight the answers I went for.

8: Sleater-Kinney often don’t name their songs until they are recorded. What group of titles represents actual ‘working titles’ used by the band?
Out on the Tiles, Gallows Pole, That’s The WayPerky Pony, Crappy Kitty, BadgerLoose Stool, Loose Women, Tight PantsB-52's song, Words and Keyboards, Two Beats

9: What SK song was written in Calvin Johnson’s basement?
Get UpLittle BabiesIt’s EnoughEnd of You

10: At DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution) Hall in Washington, DC, S-K’s set consisted solely of their then unreleased album, played in order from beginning to end. What album did they play?
The Hot RockAll Hands on the Bad OneOne BeatThe Woods

11: Carrie appeared in a television commercial with whom?
Ray RomanoWilliam ShatnerCarrot TopSpuds McKenzie

12: Janet began playing drums when she was:
16272212

Yes ALL OF THEM.

13: Corin’s middle-school band was called?
This, That and The OtherHeavens To BetsyStrawberry WhorecakeThe Ladybugs

14: Before Carrie moved to Olympia to attend college, she played in what band?
Christ on a CrutchExcuse 17Conspiracy A Go-GoPony Express

15: Janet’s first concert was:
Bruce SpringsteenYesJoan BaezDavid Bowie

16: Where does the name Sleater-Kinney come from?
The law office that helped Carrie through her 3rd divorceA road near Olympia, WAThey wanted something that sounded like Slutty-Kitty but cleanerIt is the maiden names of Corin and Carrie’s mothers

17: What MC5 song did Sleater-Kinney cover on one of their tours
American RuseKick Out The JamsHigh SchoolTommy Gun

18: In the beginning of the song “Heart Factory”, what is Janet hitting her drum sticks against to create the “industrial” sound?
An army helmetA space heaterPots and pansA 1/2 empty bottle of Makers Mark

19: What song, usually sung by Corin, did Janet sing almost in its entirety during a particularly grueling show?
SympathyYouth DecayTurn It OnStart Together

20: What song did Sleater-Kinney play when they appeared on The Conan O’Brien show?
Words and GuitarStep AsideGet UpYou're No Rock n' Roll Fun

LISTEN TO ENTERTAIN BY SLEATER-KINNEY

LISTEN TO JUMPERS BY SLEATER-KINNEY

hey listen

2009-01-10T01:21:00.012Z

Listen up ; For future reference, let this be known as 'the greatest album ever created, at least to Abby Jitendra from the week beginning 5/1/09' . Here is how Popjustice.com would illustrate this fact;

1. Roman Candle - 'I'm a roman candle, my head is full of flames.' Is it cool that I used this in my english coursework? Is it cool that when I got bored in my functional maths (baby maths) GCSE, I filled in one of the questions with the lyrics to 'The Past Is A Grotesque Animal' and that the examiner must've had a strange half-hour of googling the words 'NONE OF OUR SECRETS ARE PHYSICAL' ? No, and seriously, no. Let's move on.

2. Condor Ave. - Elliott's voice sounds really brilliant in this, also his wierd pseudo-Southern twang makes it even more 'endearing' and good. 'What a shitty thing to say, did you really mean it?' Also, 'little whispered smoke signs you'll never get'. Amazing, beautiful, truly brilliant. This would be the best song on any album but on Roman Candle it's maybe like the 3rd.

3. No Name #1 - Beautiful. Also, depressing. 'Leave alone, cause you know you don't belong here' isn't making anyone feel cheery about losing their job/wife/purse. 'I hate to walk behind other people's ambition' is such a good lyric. Conversely, this post is so badly-written but I will continue.

4. No Name #2 - Harmonica? Harmonica. Elliott Smith is brilliant at melodies (see: 'Happiness' 'Angeles' 'Rose Parade' 'L.A.' 'His Entire Discography'). This is not his best song but it is still 8/10. Take that, 'Animal' 'Collective' (sorry Phil I do like them really).

5. No Name #3 - Literally amazing, literally. The lyrics are far more sparse and detached that Smith's usual style, without the sort of 'confessional' wordplay quality that he and other folky types capitalise on but retaining reams of depth 'n' meaning and other good things. He is what you call 'a good songwriter' which the Ting Tings are not.

WARNING : The last four songs are the best.

6. Drive All Over Town - 'It's okay I knew exactly what you meant, when you said you were an accident.' This is such a good song. Elliott's voice sounds incredible in this, too.

7. No Name #4- The 'happiest' song on the album, in terms of Tone Of Music-type things, even though there are heavy hints about, like, Domestic Violence in the beggining. The song reflects a lot of Elliott's later work - melody-driven wordy not-very-pop songs. I would quote this whole damn song but you don't have the time and I don't have the space.

8. Last Call (is the best song on the album) - Should I be a dick and label this song the 'turning point'? This is a 'turning point' - this is like where Debut Album Elliott Smith and Figure 8 Elliott Smith meet and shake hands and go for coffee and then decide to start making music together. And that is 'Last Call'. It's one of the best songs ever recorded. 'You're a crisis, you're an icicle, you're a tongueless talker, you don't care what you say'. 10/10.

9. Kiwi Maddog 20/20 - 'Subtle...yet evocative'. 'Multilayered'. 'The most intense piece of guitar wizardry ever made'. All these statements apply. This is a truly stunning composition. I wish Elliott Smith was not dead ):

In 2006 I went to Smith's home town, L.A. (though not because he used to live there) and the whole time I listened to nothing but Elliott Smith and it was 'haunting' and decaying and skewed and magic and since then I have been enchanted by him. And that is why I like, and will probably always like, Elliott Smith. End of rubbish, gushing blog post.

2009-01-02T23:30:00.008Z

I don't know how you can like 'stream an album' on this blog dealy but if it was possible then I would place the entirety of Diplo's 'Florida' on here. It's quite possibly the best album in the world, though it is pretty much devoid of actual 'lyrics' and 'melodies' and other silly things that people who review music crave.

It's the tone of the music that really gets you; the ominous, sultry, almost suffocating atmosphere of the bass and the thunderous drums and clipped lines taken from warped conversations used as lyrics ('Sarah'). And then 'Into The Sun', with the backwards trumpets. Literally, literally amazing.

It would be good incidental music for, say, I don't know, Adulthood. Oh, if only they hadn't messed it up with that shitty Bashy song (soz). The album closes with 'Diplo Rhythm', his BIGGEST PARTY ANTHEM EVER ('only party anthem'), which is the brilliant kind of baile funk, reggaeton, foul-mouthed favela jam that Diplo is kind of famous for. Actually, 'Florida' is damn pretentious, but it's so good and psych-y and beautiful that it doesn't, and shouldn't, matter.

Secondly, there is this thing called 'music released after 2005' that I am not exactly up-to-date on, but according to this thing (and Natalie's iPod) this amazing person called La Roux exists and she's going to make 2009 bloody brilliant for all of us. Also according to this ot her thing there is a band called The Big Pink who are like a more dicky and cool version of well, Lots Of Other Bands. In fact, their whole deal is being more dicky and cool than other bands, and because one of them is head of Merok records and they have Akiko from Pre naked in their video, this is quite easily achieved. Here are some boxes that they tick :

Vaguely 80s
Alice Dellal
'Dark' Band Pictures
List of obscure influences
Unintelligible lyrics
'Heroin Chic'

And here are some that they definitely don't :

Noise rock
Baile funk
Fun
I Am Spy

Also, yeah, Megapuss ('crunk/jazz/pop'). Devendra Banhart and some guys from The Strokes making weird amazing psychedelic jams. 'Cool'.

Where next for music in 2009?

2008-12-23T17:06:00.004Z

(The content of this post has been unashamedly stolen straight from The Mire.)

Noone is ever going to shut up about Karlheinz Stockhausen, despite the fact that he died in 2008 and it won't be 2008 anymore. People are idiots.

Herman Dune are GOING TO BE HUGE AT LAST:

Finally, in the aftermath of the international recognition of South Ossetia and Tibet as free states, rare 1860s field recordings of creaking bridges will become available to the public for the first time, on a hotly-anticipated and expected-to-be-seminal 3" blue wood release on Constellation Records:

(http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WL-yI6w3Eh0)

Swedish 'scientists' will effectively prove that you can not only stick microphones anywhere and call it music, but that if you put it on the internet, people will try to download it
And most importantly yada yada serious music journalism will reach heady new heights in terms of how many obtuse 'descriptive phrases' can be fitted into a paragraph with an overall net meaning of 'nothing' (I dare you to get through a paragraph of this)

And now to go into Central Croydon to play 'spot and punch Frankmusik' (buy here). The rules are astoundingly simple making it a game suitable for all the family.

No shouts, no calls

2008-12-22T17:29:00.002Z

Christmas is in a matter of seconds. I am being stupid and not going to parties (hey, since when have I been invited to parties) and instead of either revising or bugging the hell out (hello, can of Red Bull, youth, etc.) I am, in circumstances eerily similar to what actually happens in actual real life, illin' and blogging. Instead of making a Christmas mix I've just downloaded about a million songs from 'the hype machine'. It's not as if it was ever hard to find any song ever, but now 'Cannonball (Breeders)' pops up by CSS right here. I know I didn't want to hear it. It is great.

Here's my summary of 2008 for MFM, because I felt guilty and they are growing and my name is still on their website. It's a bit sarcastic. I like the bit when I suggest that Bon Iver's album only had one song on it, and also the bit where I cease typing in order to post pictures of Abe Vigawesome: http://mfmic.blogspot.com/2008/12/bloody-hypemachine-i-no-longer-need.html

Post-Christmas 2008:

Wooden Shjips - O Tannenbaum

I could see myself listening to this. Only problem is, it's a bit boring. Jingle bells and yada yada prog stuff wacky noises woo hoo. Like the really good Fleet Foxes song but without the words and with a Japanese guy just... there. It has bells and waves of sound and I think this is meant to be recalling Boredoms' 'Super Roots 9', yet that was unstoppably ace and this lacks the intensity of anything eYe would do. It's like the music for a really boring Christmas animation for kids with someone fat from the BBC Radiotronic Workestra thingy playing a fancy joanna 'as adapted w/ synth fashioned from Lego'.

Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal

I don't think I should give an mp3 for this song. It is the best song by Fleet Foxes. It is really good.

That's it, I'm going to go out now.

Have a nice Christmas.
x

a shitty update

2008-12-14T19:03:00.005Z

1. Being More Actively Ethnic;
This is a non-aim but still, my mum was being all WOOHOO FOR INDIAN MUSIC and stuff so I thought I might join in and wow, just, wow. Here are some 'must-see' bollywood things that I liked when I was about 7 and still kind of adore now, ps. the picture quality of these is shitty but the audio is 10/10;

Yaire - Rangeela (translation; 'Yay' from the film 'Colourful' which is about dancing and falling in love, basically a Bollywood Staple. Yellow leotards! Doc Martens! 'Ikat'! It's '80s' except it was made in 1995 but whatever, Topshop wants to Cop It.)

Chaiyya Chaiyya - Dil Se (translation - 'From The Heart', this film is probably the best film I have ever seen, it is about Terrorism but in India which is Topical for Real Life Today but was made ages ago and Yes the video is wierd and Yes everyone is camp and stuff but Wow isn't Bollywood fun? Yes, yes it is.)

That was a (painfully)rough guide to mid-90s Bollywood songs. I am now getting a plane to Delhi and being fed by my grandma who is so, so awesome and driving my cousin's Maruti etc.

2. Teaching Myself Linguistics Because It Might Be Helpful
Discourse markers! Semantics! Syntax! Pragmatics! NOAM CHOMSKY!!! Amazing.

3. Lol;

hints 'n' tips for MIA

2008-11-27T21:05:00.004Z

This is all totally 4 REAL, taken from some magazine ('Mothering Magazine') from 'the 80s' when stuff like desegregation and homosexuality and Thatcherism were new and exciting (says my history textbook)

Roast Placenta

1-3lb fresh placenta
(must be no more than 3 days old)
1 onion
1 green or red pepper (green
will add colour)
1 cup tomato sauce
1 sleeve saltine crackers
1 tspn
bay leaves
1 tspn black pepper
1 tspn white pepper
1 clove garlic
(roasted and minced)

Method

(Preheat oven to 350 degrees)
1. Chop the onion and the pepper &
crush the saltines into crumbs.
2. Combine the placenta, onion, pepper,
saltines, bay leaves, white and black pepper, garlic and tomato sauce.
3.
Place in a loaf pan, cover then bake for one and a half hours, occasionally
pouring off excess liquid.
4. Serve and enjoy!

There is a Fairly Brilliant recipe for 'Placenta Cocktail', which urges placenta connoisseurs to 'blend it (the placenta) at high speed for 10 seconds' with ice cubes and a carrot. Amazing.
Also, to keep this Vaguely Musical 'No 13 Baby' is probably the Pixies' best song, probably.

I wanted to remind everyone I am a viable journalist

2008-11-24T11:19:00.003Z

from abe vigblog

mix by a big rock band:

FUCKED UP - Oct 31 2008 Steam IntroFUCKED UP - Magic WordMR OIZO - It Takes TwoRICHARD BARTZ - Diamond GirlZOLAR X - ScienceTHE POLICE - When the World Is Running Down...MYSTERY JETS - Young LoveHAMMER DAMAGE - LaughCRYSTAL STILTS - SinKingALDEN TYRELL - MindlessLOVE IS ALL - New BeginningsBLACK ROCK AND RON - Stop the WorldLET'S WRESTLE - I Won't Lie to YouFUCKED UP - Greek InterviewCLAUDE DEBUSSY - Clair De Lune

from looking for gold

The Debussy thing has come up lots and lots with me recently. I'm writing some stories about that, I've written one already but it's more about other stuff that happened on Friday night / Saturday morning.

"the guy loosens crafty cruelties on Vice"

from monogandul via freetranslation.com

nena daconte have one good song;

2008-11-18T20:41:00.001Z

and By God It Is 'A Corker'.

our last summer as independents

2008-11-11T10:12:00.002Z

think about the blood that's pumping keeping you alive

2008-11-05T20:08:00.009Z

Warning : I really like this song and Mirah and stuff so this post is DEVOID of sarcasm and 'wit'. Go, read Charlie Brooker or Whatever.

Okay I was reading through the posts and at some point Phil said that 'Cold Cold Water' was Mirah's best song, and I concede; even though 'The Light' has nearly the same number of plays on my Itunes, 'Cold Cold Water' is so frighteningly Majestic and Spine-Tingly that it cannot be beat. It's positively thunderous. It's positively brilliant.

In many ways, the rest of her music (edit: all music ever) pales in comparison to its titanic sweep of turbulence. It's hard to describe. It nearly reduced Sevil to tears when she heard it first. This sounds really exaggerated and shitty but seriously, it is a masterpiece.

Mirah's music as a Body Of Work is fairly good, in that she's 'indie' and inaccessible enough for reviewers to be okay with giving her albums 7/8/9s and thankfully never utter the words 'unashamedly pop' (zsxilfjlzdvk) but also excellent enough to be genuinely rewarding 'for the listener'. I guess some could find her lilting, girlish voice 'cold' but it's so brilliantly passionate at the same time, take 'Special Death' for example, with its strange, dirge-like 'la la la's, or the pulsating, 'wall of noise' (gag gag gag) non-beat of 'Body Below' where her voice is seemingly detached but the lyrics exhibit a truly awesome fire. In fact, as her music is so intense, you notice a key set of recurring themes; fire, pressure, power, heat. Pretty much, all her songs are about sex. It's not so much a hunt to look for the double entendres as a struggle to find anything that isn't about her conquests.

Is it stupid to liken a musical artist to a novelist? Mirah makes the most eloquent, engaging, intense music that I have literally Ever Heard In My Life ; even if it's not a valid comparison, it is apt. Someone in Victorian Times once said that the author of Jane Eyre had "all that we require in a novelist...perception of character, and power of delineating it; picturesqueness; passion; and knowledge of life." Mirah is better because this is all packaged into 2.5 minutes of fun.

REMorse

2008-10-27T01:22:00.006Z

(Mock up via the Plan B forum via me I did it)

R.E.M. are one of those bands who you hear on the radio and when you hear them it's their big songs you hear, the ones that yr. parents like, like 'Bad Day' and 'Losing My Religion' or maybe 'Man On The Moon' and hence by the millionth play in yr. friend's dad's car on the way to a football match are pretty boring. Then you realise that two of their songs, like 'Nightswimming' and 'Orange Crush', are two of yr. very favourite songs ever.

To start with the last song, 'Orange Crush', you have to pick away the scab again. So you have the fresh wound. Off comes the Editors cover - Editors, a band whose soul-sucking corporate aim it seems is to sound as tortured as Athlete fans can stand. Whilst otherwise sounding like Interpol. In a totally demoralising and understandably inconvincing manner. They are so bad at sounding sorry for themselves that you start to feel hate for them, and then the whole paragraph as been taken over. We mustn't do that.

'Orange' refers to 'Agent Orange', and there's a whole underlying reference there if you care to look it up. REM have with it one of the best anti-war songs ever, up there with 'Unmarked Grave' by David Thomas Broughton or something.

Then 'Nightswimming':

Nightswimming deserves a quiet night
I'm not sure all these people understand
It's not like years ago,
The fear of getting caught,
Of recklessness and water
They cannot see me naked
These things, they go away,
Replaced by everyday

and it is fantastic. Sorry dear.

some things that relate to women, written by a woman

2008-10-26T22:11:00.003Z

After reading exactly 7 pages of The Female Eunuch and some more pages of a really bad translation of The Second Sex, I have decided that 'Long Way 2 Go' by Cassie is the nearest thing to a feminist anthem R'n'B is ever getting as long as Missy Elliott remains 'enslaved by exaggerated ideals for women' (ie 'on a diet') and the Destiny's Child 'Independent Woman' message remains Downplayed by the likes of Diddy and co (yes it is a warped equality, based solely on materialism BUT like, it is Equality nonetheless).

'Fierce'? The song basically disses the likes of 'Lloyd' and 'Chris Brown' and 'Akon' - the lyrics are so The Other Side Of The Mariah Carey Stereotypical R'n'B Woman Spectrum that I am pretty sure Simone de Beauvoir is championing this song from 'beyond the grave'. Plus the video is brill. 'shirtless love'. 'lol.
In other news, Grace Jones is the coolest person in the universe and Kate Bush is a close second. I regret not knowing this Before but At Least I Know Now, Eh?

ps i am not a feminist.
pps seriously.

something that will never be on the front page of popjustice.com

2008-10-16T22:24:00.004+01:00

'review' of BBC Switch Live 2008 ;
What does BBC Switch Live Signify?

The NME have less power than they think.
14 year olds don’t care what The Wire thinks (thankfully).
The only people who think that ‘pop music is dead’ are those who refuse to notice the teenagers at the back of the bus playing Ne-yo on their phones.
It is more fun to listen to things without having to worry about being post-modern or ironic. I don’t think the children there understood why people would need to be ironic in their music taste. ‘This harks back to a simpler time’ etc etc.
Fallout Boy are now quite bad.
The BBC positively reeked of capitalism. And Rupert Murdoch’s clammy, bulging wallet.
This is a bad thing.
Cameramen in the BBC do covert crotch shots of underage singers ‘for lolz’ or something. It is Highly Suspect.
This underlying sense of ‘an event run by cynical thirtysomethings that want to both satisfy and mock children’ was Not Anticipated but Rampant.
The level of idolatry poured upon George Sampson is both frightening and hilarious.
(DIM SCOOP: ‘George Sampson will never make things work with Miley Cyrus because of ‘the Atlantic ocean’ that separates them’. Shame.)
Sometimes people underestimate 14 year olds and the music could have been more ‘challenging’ to like, ‘challenge’ them; but if they like Miley Cyrus IS THAT SUCH A BAD THING? Maybe it is. Maybe we could play them some baile funk. Or maybe we can just let them get on with it and stop being so pointlessly elitist.

Natalie Fraser: ‘Mcfly know how to rock’.
4 real.

/undrum to muted da

2008-10-16T09:38:00.002+01:00

I am getting to know 'Skeletal Lamping' a wee bit better and giving the Metronomy album chances anew and the new Los Campesinos! album a twirl. Well, I think it's the new Los Campesinos! album. It is in Promotional Format and I was given when I bought a No Age 7" (which also had Los Campesinos! on it, which could be why).

I am get-upping slightly later today so I've had time to move on with stuff. I catalogued some of the CDs on my shelf (there are lots) and I assigned some of my clothes new roles and possibilities as pyjamas. I found all my library books and some badges which I think belong(ed) to my mum which say things like 'I've been to Sellafield!' and 'Warning: H.M. Government will damage Your health'. I tore up my 'Priorities' list and fixed a lightbulb in my room.

When we get together / it's always we are the champions my friends

2008-10-15T23:09:00.003+01:00

blog action day

2008-10-15T20:21:00.005+01:00

'You know the government are running out of ideas when they feel the need to ask awkward internet people about Major Issues' etc etc. Today is when all the 'b l o g g e r s' write things on their pretentious blogs about defeating poverty and helping people and similarly socially-yes things, though didn't a load of smug middle-class musicians get together to make this history a few years ago? That thing with Bono? No?

Basically, because I know little-to-nothing about global poverty except the fact that it is largely due to human greed and partially due to people wanting to eat cows that take up valuable land and vegetation, and that there are really fun tramps in Bedford that insult people as they walk past, I will like, Tell You about Erase Errata, who are kind of like a disjointed, wailing, boisterous, maniacal version of Girls Aloud. They are three girls, one of who is Jenny Hoyston who organises something called the Fabulosa Fest which is for women and plays a long list of things in the band, from this we can infer that she is a fierce feminist who 'won't take shit from anyone'.

The band has some really good songs like 'Tax Dollar' and 'High Society' and 'Tongue Tied' and 'How To Tell Yourself From A Television' and they did a split single with Sonic Youth which probably propels them into some kind of nirvana of coolness for people who care about That Kind Of Thing. They also do improvisation at gigs and 'apparently' it is 'mind blowing'.

Their drums are thunderous and Jenny's vocals are near-hysterical and theatrical and sometimes she just drawls disjointed poetry and rambles, the guitars are spiky the keyboards are really kind of anthemic and there are HORNS yes HORNS that coat 45% of the songs in a quite strange and manic glow (this makes no sense but if you listen to them, you may Get What I Mean). Some songs build up to a frenzied climax, like 'Marathon', which could leave you breathless if you're into the whole 'unbelievably intense punk' thing, whereas some songs, like 'Walk Don't Fly' skip this musical foreplay completely and hit you with a 'high' 'octane' wall of sound and lots of 'shredding' on guitars that is as abrasive and brilliant as is humanly possible.

Tedious link to bridge the first bit of the post with the second : Erase Errata are really good. And have the power to end poverty. Maybe. Probably not.

Icons, Abstract Thee vs. Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?

2008-10-12T13:38:00.003+01:00

Shock. Unhorror. Disdain. etc.

Last yr. Of Montreal put out the 'epic' and 'grandiose' and the fantastic 'Hissing Fauna'. It contained songs like the 11:53 'The Past Is A Grotesque Animal'. So far so zomgzordz.

Then they did this whole new one, well, it was simultaneously recorded, or thereabouts. I shouldn't know. Of Montreal did 'Icons, Abstract Thee' and it could well have been a tour-only special edition 20 copy affair but it was a good thang that I heard it because I like it bester.

Three songs from each:
'A Sentence Of Sorts In Kongsvinger' vs. 'Miss Blonde, Your Papa Is Failing'
'The Past Is A Grotesque Animal' vs. 'No Conclusion'
'Gronlandic Edit' vs. 'Du Og Meg'.

'No Conclusion' begins in a simple simple fashion. "Tonight I feel like I should just destroy myself, tonight I feel like I should just destroy myself..." It is the lowest song ever.

'Miss Blonde, Your Papa Is Failing' "went down so hard, trying to keep the family together". It is so confessional and raw I don't want to divulge. Kevin is kicking hisself to shreds. "It's kind of creepy how-" and then you have to listen to the rest yrself, because, really.

Then, 'Du Og Meg' is totally different. I think I know all the lyrics. It is 2 minutes 21 seconds and it is blissful and I think it is more extroverted version of the new album, 'Skeletal Lamping' (i.e. no cheap sex). ' "She fell in love with a boy / Who spoke a second language / And who lived across the ocean / In the evil empire." There are plenty of "ooh-ooh-ooohs" and it is guaranteed a zillion plays if you like Of Montreal. It was also featured on the The Believer Music Issue CD thang last yr.

'Icons, Abstract Thee' is an existentialist microcosm of Of Montreal if you can consider 'Skeletal Lamping' themetically out-pushing and 'Hissing Fauna' big.

call hype williams, please

2008-10-11T17:37:00.004+01:00

Is it callous to say that I dislike Ladyhawke because her eyes look dead? The Fact Is that she needs the 'engaging, expressive pop star' thing to be an 'engaging, expressive pop star' considering her voice isn't particularly 'engaging, expressive pop star' and she lacks charm and charisma and other qualities we value in pop stars and human beings. I just heard 'Womanizer' by Britney Spears and Frankly her voice sounds truly brilliant and it is Plain To See that people have thrown million dollar bills at Britney to 'get better' and 'return to form' and thankfully it worked because she looks amazing and fun and engaging and interesting.

Then I watched Little Boots' videos on Youtube and in many ways she Represents Pop Music Right Now because she is ridiculously talented and charismatic (one time I stood next to her in Leeds and talked to her about something and she sold me a Dead Disco badge and Was Nice and Not At All Strange) and 'personal' and 'web 2.0' and all those other kind of pretentious things we expect indie and pop bands to do now that the internet is literally punching us with its promise of 'absolutely everything' at your fingertips. Little Boots isn't ironic when she does strange piano covers of Wiley and Neil Young songs or is fiddling with that hilarious Tenorion thing and she doesn't attempt to emulate any past glories or dredge up forgotten (but oft-repeated) phases of music, like the tired 80s cliches Ladyhawke falls back on.

Ladyhawke needs 'media training' or whatever McFly were taught to make them seem interesting on screen, or 'voice training' to make her vocals seem less tepid, or 'an image shift' so that she can stop being another one of those acts that has one knockout song that is shamed by the rest. Maybe she needs outward charm or intrigue or ambiguity or depth, but those things Can't Be Taught so she will have to compensate with Other Things. MIA isn't particularly charming on screen but 'her music makes up for it' or something. Anyway, there's hope for Ladyhawke. But more hope for Little Boots. And even more for Britney.

a milli a milli a milli a milli a mi-a mi a milli

2008-10-07T22:24:00.004+01:00

Lil' Wayne > Oscar Wilde's attempt at realism.
Lil' Wayne's wordplay > David Banner's filth.
David Banner's filth > 50 Cent's filth.
Lil' Wayne singing 'voice' < T-Pain's singing 'voice'
T-Wayne > Bonde Do Role
The rest of baile funk > Bonde do Role
The fact that I can now understand the words in baile funk songs > everything.

ahem.
A Milli's 'minimalist' 'beat' > 'Prinzhorn' 'Dance' 'School'
A Milli = 'La La La' (this is another song off Tha Carter III)
The bit in A Milli when he goes 'you're like a bitch with no ass, you ain't got shit' > 'Mango Pickle Down River' sorry sorry sorry I know we should be helping aboriginal rappers but Lil' Wayne is better.
The fact that Lil' Wayne can hold an entire song that is Well Over 5 Minutes without a chorus, guests, hook or riff > most other songs.
Gwen Stefani reference < ERYKAH BADU REFERENCE.
The 'Motherfucker, I'm Ill' bit > the 'u no what i sell' bit in That Song
'Get Like Me' by David Banner < 'Play' by David Banner (but this is Highly Arguable)
'Shawty Say' < 'Lollipop'
'A Milli' > nearly almost every song released this year.

Hey, everyone! Get yrselves together

2008-10-07T16:26:00.002+01:00

Hey rain! Stoppit.

I did quite like the Metronomy album that I heard. This is what I wrote about. Note how many times I say 'mark' towards the end:

Metronomy - Nights Out

The name 'Metronomy' used to have some sort of pastiche comedy value amongst certain friends of mine. 'You Could Easily Have Me' seemed the archetypal post-new-rave, Late of the Pier-esque brazen pop tune that failed to excite purely on the basis of wildly hyped electropop synths.

'Nights Out', then, should fail: the PR company-scribed Wikipedia entry lauds it as a 'half-arsed concept about going out and having a crap time", which is generally not a cool thing to say. Maybe the fifth song, 'Heartbreaker', is Enough, with the sub-Klaxons vocals having quite nothing about them, but the whole 'lookit, we have some machine which makes fancy horns sounds' formula is sufficient to warrant a listen to 'The End Of You Too', 'A Thing For Me' or 'My Heart Rate Rapid'. You'll shuffle along to that one like you did to 'Random Firl'. First single 'Radio Ladio' also makes a mark in that it sounds like The Ting Tings over, well, a Metronomy beat. And having a trademark like that is no bad mark.

Also you should see what I wrote about Fujiya & Miyagi (again) (probably not). But basically I ended up listening to 'My Heart Rate Rapid' like 3 times and also then I listened to Prinzhorn Dance School and a song by Love Is All that I think is called 'Busy Doing Nothing'.

Five movie marathon! Nine times the same song!

And then I drifted off into the ether listening to the Milk-Eyed Mender. And another song that is really, really good is 'Woke Up New' by The Mountain Goats, it should probably make you weep.

What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?

post-First Proper Band Rehearsal

2008-10-02T20:12:00.003+01:00

WOW our drummer is the best thing ever - he has a bunch of mega fun old instruments and we are microKORGing and stylophoning and casio CS-1-ing our way to Genuine Actual Talent.
our guitarist 'likes prog' and 'listens to Korn' and 'wants guitar solos in every song' which he is not getting.

this is a pointless post but i am so tired and my voice is dying so KL KL.

2008-10-02T09:44:00.004+01:00

Oh. I have no idea what I am listening to. Except it's playing at 20 kilobytes a second (a bitrate lower than yr homeboy's jeans) and it is fantastic. It is from Persia, and it can be heard again on the stream from Radio Golha. Which is, like, the best thing ever.

I re-stumbled upon this after, um, some pretty generic research on '20th century Iran', for a presentation. Radio Golha's proper title, when it was actually on the radio, i.e. not on the internet everywhere in 2008, translated as "Flowers Program", and ran for 23 years until 1979. It is pretty brilliant in format: the aim was to mix poetry and the traditional music - 'musiqi-e sonnati'.

So you hear orchestral arrangements, recitals, biographies and ensembles. And it achieved a lot:

"First, they popularized Persian classical poetry and made a vogue of it, particularly among the middle class and the affluent social elite. They boosted appreciation of Persian poetry at a popular level to a degree never before achieved. Second, they brought masters of traditional music to public notice and bestowed on them the dignity that they deserved as artists. This should be seen against the background of earlier times, when musical performers were considered mere "entertainers" with a lowly rank in the social hierarchy (they were referred to as motárebs, often with a pejorative connotation). The Golha@ programs not only made most of them household names, but also provided them with a fairly secure basis of income through remuneration or regular appointment."

(link)

That is a whole magical morning that I wouldn't have spent any other way.

கோம்ப்லேடே ஹிக்ளிக்த்த்ஸ் ஒப் மி அதர் ப்லோக்

2008-10-01T13:52:00.001+01:00

bbc switch 'live'

2008-09-22T19:40:00.003+01:00

For a TV program that consistently shoves sub-par 'indie' 'music' down the throats of future ex-editors of NME and maybe even VICE, they did a fairly hilarious U-turn in the direction of 'post-Disney' (Demi Lovato, put your lighter up!) 'pre-Alphabeat' 'pop' (were N-Dubz ever pop? Were Fallout Boy ever pop?). The lineup is as follows ; McFly (predictable), Ne-Yo (amazing, but predictable), Basshunter (I heard him on the bus to school once, shit), N-Dubz (actually very bad), Miley Cyrus (amazing, shit), Fallout Boy (2 good songs, generally shit) and The Belle Of The Ball will be 'George' 'Samson' (he danced once and it was passable).

Lazy journalism commences..
What do each of the acts tell us about Teenagers as People and also as Consumers? (the event is Xclusively 4 fourteen to seventeen year-olds)

McFly
'This one's for the prepubescent girls' ; and for those who Get that McFly are at least 70% brilliant. As a young girl I was obligated by law to buy a copy of 'Room on the Third Floor', the debut, which is about as exciting as a Delta Goodrem CD single (I was obligated to buy this, too) but is really good and catchy and fun and Let Us Face It, '5 Colours In Her Hair' and 'Obviously' are such notable Choons that it would be a shame for McFly NOT to play to a crowd of screaming girls. This tells us that teenagers are good and also have okay tastes in music.

Ne-Yo
'For the ladies' - similar to McFly, but smoother and more mature and with better moves and less terrible hair. He is the thinking 14-year-old's crush.

Basshunter
'For those who believe that music that sounds better as a ringtone' - basically quite a lot of people, then. Surely it is Highly Illegal for Basshunter to play in front of impressionable Youths after 'those pictures' that 'everyone has seen'? Soulja Boy is better, more fun and less 'naked on the internet'.

N-Dubz
'For the urbanites' - basically they couldn't afford a proper 'indie' garage act so Out Comes N-Dubz. They can't really rap but are popular with young people, so maybe teenagers aren't All We're Cracked Up To Be.

Miley Cyrus
'For the 7-17 year olds' - she ticks many a box, 'pretty' 'can sing' 'semi-nude photo scandal' etc. Her voice is fairly brilliant but a bit strange, Demi Lovato is so much better. Plus Demi Lovato is more interesting-looking. Like, Miley Cyrus does too much 'punching air' poses and 'manic jumping' in her videos. See for yourself.

Fallout Boy
'For the RAWKERS' - someone's got to speak for the minority. All those forgotten eyeliner-drenched kids with Proper Black Skinny Jeans have a voice and Pete Wentz provides the bassline. 'SOCIETY WIL DIE IF U LIKE FALLOUT BOY', maybe.

It seems there is a lot more for Girls than Boys, Fallout Boy could possibly be appreciated by a white male aged 15 but Really, we have to give the pubescent boys of London some credit, they deserve more, they deserve to be represented in this magnificent spectacle we call 'BBC SWITCH LIVE' - welcome, Ladies and Gentlemen, this is GEORGE SAMPSON. He'll be entertaining your teenage boys this afternoon. 10/10. He appeals to everyone because he does very little and smiles quite a lot.

BBC Switch Live might be a bit fun.

2008-09-22T11:25:00.001+01:00

^^ this is pretty decent

Only 3 Years Late: 'Digging to America', Anne Tyler, Vintage

2008-09-16T00:45:00.006+01:00

Tracklisting:

1. Baltimore

2. Airport Waiting Room, Waiting

3. South Korean Baby

4. Someone Else's Korean Baby

5. Arrival Pyjama Party

6. Phonebook Stalkers (The Way You Used To Do It)

7. Two Families Raking Some Leaves

8. Ill-In-Laws

9. Awkward Love Affair B'tween Old Folk

10. Iranian-American

11. Didn't Read This Far

12. Tyler Is A Sweet Typist

Page where 9/11 is mentioned:

T'wards the end.

When we will study 'Andy McNab' in English Literature:

Never. LUKE. They are never going to introduce his dumb books as a set text. Never. Not even the Welsh board.

Possible reason for my disinterest:

Traumatic childhood experience.

Better things to buy with £7.99:

Buy 22 Dime bars and some cheap bubblegum.

Bands with better 17th albums:

Pram, Radiohead, The Rolling Stones, Slipknot, RZA.

15500/20000.

a note to mr charlie lyne

2008-09-09T17:22:00.001+01:00

AMAZING.

(does he even read this?)

this is not a post

2008-09-06T22:00:00.000+01:00

Basically, I review a bunch of emails Hadouken! have sent me

2008-08-29T15:56:00.003+01:00

(Psst... happy birthday on Wednesday, Sinister!)

WATCH HADOUKEN! AT READING 2008

Blown away by Hadouken!'s 2008 Reading performance? Maybe you weren't one of the lucky ones who bought, blagged, stole or crashed the festival?

Well now you can watch the full set by clicking below.

ENJOY!

No. I didn't go to Reading. I don't want to go to Reading. Ever. (Much.) So I'm not going to watch it. Thanks for catering for my demographic.

0/10.

AERIALS LATEST - FESTIVAL TICKETS COMPETITION!

Here's what else is coming up only on Aerials

Competitions to win vinyl formats of Hadouken! singles
Competition to win signed and framed proofs of Hadouken! artwork
Competition to see Hadouken! at Bestival (sold out!)

If you're not a member of Aerials then click here to find out more and join!

In email view, you can't read it because the background is white. Thus rendering it useless. For reading, or forwarding. To yr friends. So when you win tickets to the festival, you have noone to go with. Sucks to be lonely.

0/10.


	ASK HADOUKEN! Amazing scenes! Hadouken! play Reading and Leeds festivals this weekend. To celebrate we're running a special competition where you'll be able to ask the band ANYTHING you want and the filmed answers will be available just for you lucky listers. All you need to do is email hadouken@atlanticrecords.co.uk - using the subject 'Ask Hadouken' - with the question you most want answered by the band. We'll pick the best ones, ask the questions and film the answers. Make sure you include your full name too so we can accredit the question to you. It's that simple! Get your thinking caps on to come up with the perfect question as this may be your only chance to get it answered!

Why? Like, unless you're 12 and you really love Hadouken!. That would be okay, I guess.

2/10.

HADOUKEN ADDED TO THE iTUNES FESTIVAL 2008 - APPLY FOR TICKETS NOW!

Hadouken! have joined the bill of the 2008 iTunes Festival taking place at London's Koko throughout July.

They will be performing on Thursday 3rd July with support coming to be announced shortly.

You can apply for tickets to the gig right now by heading to www.ituneslive.co.uk

Due to the intimate setting of the gig tickets will be hot property, so make sure you apply as soon as possible to be in with a chance of getting to the gig.

See you there!

NEW MERCH!

We've have added even more swag to the official online store for you to kit yourself out with and show everyone your true Hadouken! colours. You can see a selection of the new merch on sale below and click HERE to head to store to get yours today!

So the 'sending all-white emails thing' is a long-term issue. At least Hadouken! are offering you the opportunity to get beaten up for $25 and a bout of credit-card-fraud-enduced glandular fever. Plus, they've discovered how to HTML-format emails so you can get pictures in. Nice.

3/10.

Overall: 5/40. Like, 12.5% or something. Sucks, because I used to REALLY LIKE Hadouken!'s bastard pop exuberance.

a dissection of 'glamour' 'for' 'better'

2008-08-23T01:06:00.002+01:00

Aren't they delightfully repugnant in their own Almost Cool Private School way? Don't they reek of post Test Icicles, bor(e)derline 'nu raaave' fatigue? Aren't they pretty?
Glamour For Better are a band. This is a shame, because their collective talent as a group of human beings is being really, really, unimaginably lovely to look at. This, in turn, means that live shows are clearly better than their countless (rubbish) albums and countless (rubbish) singles and countless (rubbish) EPs. Live, you can forget about the music and just watch the lead singer jump around. It's really brilliant.
I told the aforementioned lead singer that the band's music sounded like Test Icicles and he seemed grateful, or disinterested, or drunk. I couldn't quite tell. I don't think he sensed that 'sounded like' would have been followed by '..a bad parody of' if I was slightly less polite and was Okay with letting the conversation get both unpleasant and awkward. To say that they sound like a hilarious hybrid of Klaxons, Test Icicles, Foals, Lethal Bizzle, blah, blah like a 'Best Of '06' NME club mix seems far too easy - they incorporate elements of screamy year 8 Kerrang hardcore and techno/electro/pop/dance/Hadouken synths. It's like Trash Fashion. It's like Partyshank. It's basically like a lot of truly terrible music.
The cherry on the icing of the cake is the song, 'Shape Cutting Catalyst'. 'Ooh, fancy name. They must be clever and educated and intelligent. But the song is so fun and dancey! Oh, this band really has it all.' Music isn't usually irritating ; it's either pointless or out-of-tune or infuriating or just rubbish, but this gem of a 'tune' manages to Drive You Up The Wall. In between overedited vox effects, you hear words like 'blud' and 'bubble' and 'big up' and 'gyals'. It should be the anthem for the 'Hug A Hoody' campaign, playing in the background while David Cameron puts on 'bling' and 'talks hood' to 'the yout'. 'Give us your number, or not' half-raps the lead singer. I will, but promise not to make me come to your next gig. Please.

and the answer is...

2008-08-21T14:14:00.010+01:00

Hello! I am here! I wrote something FTZ. Well, I wrote two things. You can vote on which is the least coherent. If like thirty people vote then I might give someone some of this Tesco's Dark Chocolate. It's not so nice. Sorry but I am going to be going Away again tomorrow, for a week. Fret not. I will zine hard.

The first thing I wrote was a review of the theme music for the BBC's coverage of the 2008 Olympics which are going on still, I think, in China.

It is bleepy. You do not hear it for very long so you cannot do the music journalist thing of re-listening to it forever until someone from the internet pops up to tell you what yr. opinion should be. It is better than some really old classical piece aimed to give the Sporting Event an elegant feel. It is typical of the BBC's animated children's television and sporting adverts of late. It sounds like Crystal Castles if one of Crystal Castles was called Jimmy. It is more suited to the Olympics than, to say, GCSE Bitesize revision game webiste thing adverts. Which you can never find when you go on the website. Which I will never go on again because my GCSEs are so over today, today I got y results, I even attained an A grade for my superfluous efforts in Latin. I did well like the British cyclists. I hope I am not feeling pride (please don't call me racist).

Then I wrote something about Mirah but Scout Niblett sort of butted into it as well because I was listening to Scout Niblett. This is Scout Niblett:

She is fantastic. I might write something else about Mirah, like proper Reviews of her and all. Then she can go on the cover.

Mirah vs Scout Niblett

One could accuse both Mirah and Scout Niblett of sorcery. Scout Niblett has got it down. She even sings "thine" instead of the plain "yr.". Mirah's got something too, and I recall finding Body Below reminiscent of Gowns, Recommendations of Casiotone For The Painfully Alone (if female) and selected other moments as cold and yet as warmly majestic as Björk. Scout Niblett doesn't hold herself in so much. Hear "Baby Emma". She sings: "Do what you will, supposed outsiders of my soul". I am thinking of the three albums I have. Mirah's C'mon Miracle, Mirah's Advisory Committee and Scout Niblett's This Fool Can Die Now.

Mirah occupies more of the outsider role. Her name is less heavy than Ed Harcourt's. Ed went to school with my Latin teacher. I was the only person in my class to know who he was. Then, even I wouldn't've known Mirah. Maybe this ignorance caused my Latin teacher to run off to Australia with my old English teacher. Either way, he left, and I got an A in Latin. It's all worked out just fine. (An A in Latin is nearly a miracle). With album covers like Mirah's for these two albums (I had to Google-image-search them because Abby put them on to one disc for me, but don't worry because I told Mirah and Sony BMG about this and they were really cool) you can tell instantly that either she's wholly worthwhile and that you can listen to her with great pleasure - or that her music is cruddy and little. I think it is the former. Mirah 3 - 2 Prinzhorn Dance School. (Björk 19 - 17 The Fall).

Is that the very Prince himself I hear? Scout Niblett gets in all the right places, I mean, her album cover shouts "Devendra Banhart But With Awe Due". Her indie musicianship ties in perfectly with being photographed with Steve Gullick. In the pack of cards her dimensions are all askew and she STICKS OUT.

Mirah - C'mon Miracle
10

Mirah - Advisory Committee
7
(Picture of an unrelated advisory committee)

Scout Niblett - This Fool Can Die Now
9

yo soy pedro, y soy un hipster

2008-08-20T02:23:00.002+01:00

'Back' and stuff, our hotel was in the Cool bit of Barcelona with all the vintage shops and record stores and everyone was beautiful and I went to American Apparel because it was air conditioned and met a Hoxtonite who 'wanted to work in television' and 'used to be a model' and it was Thrilling. P.Rob asked me to do Another Week in PJ, which may or may not be fun but must be Done. Mirah hasn't replied yet. Where is Phil? Why do we have to get our results back tommorow?

Pah.

HEALTH hate free jazz and tribal funk

2008-08-12T22:13:00.005+01:00

Last things before I go on a plane and maybe die, maybe ;

Health are the best band alive and words actually FAIL ME when I attempt to describe how painfully, brutally, enchantingly awesome they are (okay, words did not fail me this time but Yeah). Also, The Ring guy is lovely but not as lovely as BJ who made a joke about my book and it was brilliant and I want to marry him. John - 'BJ is quite beastly'. 'You' 'heard' 'it' 'here' 'first'.

It was raining and I got really soaked but it was fun and I ran to various train stations and bought a Low CD because it was cheap and pretended to look interested in Rough Trade. Incidentally, there was someone next to me who was doing an interview with someone and I am wondering if they were Famous or Good or Rubbish.

'Walk Like An Egyptian' is a really, really, really good song, as is 'All That She Wants' by Ace Of Base. They aren't even guilty pleasures, they're just Choons. Erdem's autumn/winter collection is beautiful. 'Piracy funds Terrorism' is stupendous. Luke Wright remains awesome, Ross Sutherland remains innovative and Panda Bear remains exceptional. Agyness Deyn is irrelevant and obsolete. I am, as well, but I didn't get voted 'Best Dressed' so it doesn't matter.

Here is Erykah Badu ;

GOODBYE. XX

becoming

2008-08-03T00:12:00.002+01:00

since this Blog is becoming less of a Zine Blog and more of a look-see blog (totally cool), may I just say that you, as in, you, whoever is reading, as in, it could be someone else, couldn't it, need to love The Mountain Goats, already.

they're the band of what I will now refer to as The Erstwhile John Darnielle. if you do a google image search for him there's such a cute picture of him with a piglet.

he's done a zine in the past and does this blog. the new album from The Mountain Goats is called 'Heretic Pride' and the first song is called 'Sax Rohmer #1', but they have quite a number of albums. the zine has the same name as the blog, and was printed, and he really is a great, great writer.

he's also really great at writing songs. not one of these casual, lame indie / folk singers who has to touch base with all the right reference points - he is powerful and exactly on point emotionally, just hear 'The Sunset Tree' and marvel, and I quite like The Mountain Goats in a similar way to that in which I like Xiu Xiu.

aside from him therefore being a total hero, I mentioned at the top that This Blog Lost Momentum and it is my fault so I am going to write something. I think I became a bit of an idiot and I've written some poems, but that was mainly for a competition, but I was so dashed when I remembered we needed a Serious Music Perspective and that we Can't Go Overboard On Poetry And Recipes, which is cool because, like, it's crap, anyway. maybe we should have a hitlist of things (bands) to promote.

'i grew up in colchester, where very little culture stirs'

2008-08-01T18:07:00.005+01:00

Luke Wright, who is a brilliant poet and all-round good chap, and who is solely responsible for all the brilliant poetry at Latitude Festival. 'Laura Brown' is a poem of his that actually made me weep on the first listen, but I am a Stereotypical Girl so am I forgiven? Yes, yes I am. He is also in a very very good poetry collective called Aisle16, and has written a funny book with someone else called 'Who Writes This Crap?' which is like if V*CE was actually good at irony and sarcasm and was witty enough to write a rhyme like;

"Down in the parking lot the queues become unsettled
By the sort of folk who call The Darkness 'Heavy Metal'.
There’s trainee middle managers, the PR media type
Debt consolidating, administrating fans of Michael Stipe."
or
"But teenage girls were easy to impress.
Just paraphrase the Manics and their views on 'otherness'
and you'll get your greasy paw on many a nubile breast,
But alas,
Just like a teenage boy I knew it couldn't last,
And after years of avoiding my fellow man, I arrived at an impass -
University, a casanova's hell
Where all the other girly boys wrote poetry as well."

Other good things in spoken word are Dockers MC, who toured with Kate Nash time ago and probably outshone her in every way, John Hegley who does awesome deadpan beat poetry and is from Luton which is renowned for its stabbings and not its thriving poetry 'scene' (do 4 poets sitting in a bar discussing John Cooper Clarke count as a scene?) and Byron Vincent, a slam poet, who looks like he should be in a rubbish indie band but thankfully decided to be a poet who merely dabbles in Garageband-penned beats. Polar Bear is so, so, so brilliant, it's Quite Unnerving listening to his monotone raps because he spews some of the most fantastic and intelligent poetry ever, greatly introspective but completely unpretentious (unlike me right now) and quiet and shy and just, wow, but he should maybe not stick guitars under his raps because it sounds like The Streets, which is Bad. Seriuz.
In non-spoken word things, Lackthereof (Menomena's frontman's 'side project') is like Lycanthropy-era Patrick Wolf and it gives me great joy to type those words because 'lycanthropy-era patrick wolf' is the best kind of Patrick Wolf, all flighty and innovative and fierce and magical. Estupendo.

Oh, V*CE...

2008-07-24T17:19:00.003+01:00

An Overview

Too obvious, I know, but truly brilliant. Really, where would we be without V*CE? How would we know who to laugh at? There would be (dare I say it) random acts of unpretentious Happenings all over the world, there would be no order and chaos would grip the hipsters of the world. Spontaneous, logical choices! Totally fucking out this season, yeah? Yeah!
Highlights include :

Laughing at ugly people
Trivialising lesbianinsm (worse than FHM, worse than Playboy, this is actually self-aware, supposedly ironic degradation of maybe the worst lesbian ever) ps. the comments are hilarious, "HAIRY WOMEN RULE!!! 100,000 years women have been hairy, hairless is just a fad".
Porn. Nothing more and nothing less. The third one's quite pretty, but WHAT IS THE POINT THIS IS IRRELEVANT DAMN YOU V*CE WHY DO YOU SUCK SO MUCH.
More porn. Basically all of this is gratuitous indie porn. Really? Really. The worst thing about this is the male cameraman who has the most rapey voice ever, it will haunt me.
Incest. "Here’s one thing us guys with no sisters will never get. How can you not want to fuck them—at all. Like, if you had a sister that looked like this and you walked into her room and she’s putting on long white socks how can it not just flash through your mind even for one second?" I really didn't think they would go there, but they actually went there. Good God.
Blasphemy. 'Because God stopped being cool when Jesus died' and stuff.
Something...about..tabards. 'It’s become the armor of cleaning ladies, café waitresses, and chip-shop girls', apparently. No 'witty' aside needed.

And to end, the most V*CE sentence ever, lifted from their truly delightful weekly mailout that I am still subscribed to because I need midweek cheer -

"See photos from the opening of The Vice Photo Book exhibition at the Jago Gallery in Shoreditch. "

shoreditch, VICE, photo, gallery, exhibition, opening...gah.

Important things and other things that aren't as important

2008-07-22T14:51:00.002+01:00

1. Mercury 'Music Prize'

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

All consistent 8/10 albums, no hip-hop, no grime, a fairly dull list of uninspiring 'nice' music. Where is the punch? Where is MIA? 'Representing the British music scene at the moment' doesn't necessarily mean drawing up a list of fairly popular, fairly alright bands with fairly alright albums because that is boring and music right now isn't boring, it is fun and exciting and makes you want to jump up and/or down because it is really, really Good.
ON THE OTHER HAND....

2. Popjustice £20 Music Prize

'A&E' - Goldfrapp
'About You Now' - Sugababes
'Bleeding Love' - Leona Lewis
'Call The Shots' - Girls Aloud
'Dance Wiv Me' - Dizzee Rascal feat Calvin Harris
'Flux' - Bloc Party
'Money' - Daggers
'That's Not My Name' - The Ting Tings
'Valerie' - Mark Ronson feat Amy Winehouse
'Ready For The Floor' - Hot Chip'
Song 4 Mutya (Out Of Control)' - Groove Armada feat Mutya Buena
'Stuck On Repeat' - Little Boots

!!!!!!!!!!!! All classics, I mean, Song 4 Mutya's even in there. And Bleeding Love. And Hot Chip. Ting Tings, though...well, at least the Ting Tings will never write a post punk 'masterpiece', which is admirable.

3. Lack of NME // V*ce magazines, general exhaustion and low literary self esteem, long list of 'To Do's and falling out of favour with mentors. Dead batteries and broken dictaphones, annoyance at not seeing Interpol, Lovefoxx from CSS talking really fast and Brazillian and incoherently. Blah, blah, and also, blah.

a cold evening for sleuthing

2008-07-21T21:24:00.001+01:00

A cold evening's sleuthing has revealed firstly that Ex Models are actually alright, and secondly that Prurient produces harsher noise than Kylie Minoise. Sorry, Kylie. We used scales, and everything.

Also:

"Conflicting edits

There was more than one attempt to edit this resource at the same time. This may have been because you double clicked on a link or a button or because someone else is also editing this blog or post."

Congratulations are in order.

On The Ting Tings

2008-07-21T10:43:00.000+01:00

» Someone we had in for work experience recently explained that she and her friends do not like The Ting Tings for the following reason: "she wears a hat on stage and he looks like a paedophile". (??!)

Micah P Hinson Live Review

2008-07-14T20:42:00.003+01:00

Basically, when my zinemate wasn't there, I couldn't find it.

I ended up outside the Old Blue Last.

I was more lost than I'd ever been before. I also blended better than I'd ever done before.

At this point I got worried and boarded the nearest whizzy beneath-the-surface train homewards.

On the way back, I realised that 'Recommendations' by Mirah sounds like Casiotone for the Painfully Alone if he were female, and that 'Body Below' by Mirah sounds like Gowns, and that 'Cold Cold Water' by Mirah sounds like the best Bjork song she never sung.

mmm, FTZ maybe. maybe. probably not.

2008-07-14T17:56:00.004+01:00

Patronising 'women's journalism'

(am feeling suitably venomous and bored of everyone being on holiday and running off with attractive Europeans whilst I am looking for pictures of the elusive faux-Grecian drape dress by Isabel Toledo, so this will have to do.)

There is only one music website that is worse than DrownedinSound.com (no link provided, luckily, one wouldn't want to increase its page rank) - the 'brilliantly titled' Lipster.com. Though it loses the stifling air of pretension that hangs over aforementioned website like a canopy, the (almost) shield against sense is replaced by a far more poisonous literary atmosphere - one of comfort food, comfort telly, comfort clothing. One of 'it's a women's site, for women, by women! We promise!'. But most importantly, one of, 'look! we're women! we don't really care that much about all this faffing around with experimental drone and ambient techno, give us a Youtube video of Patrick Wolf displaying his manhood and we're happy! We're not serious! Come sit down and have some tea, let's have a gossip, we're only women after all!!!!!'

"On the Lipster you can expect to read youtube-riddled pieces about Madge, Wino, Lily and Eurovision one minute and Bon Iver, Super Furries and Indiana Jones the next" Brilliant! A posh perez hilton (no capitals, NEVER CAPITALS, the man is fictitious)! With a vagina! I can get my 'daily fix' of 'madge' and 'wino', because I'm a woman, and this is the kind of thing we like! Mike Diver and Sean Adams (DiS overlords) must be bloody brilliant with women, because they really do have them 'sussed'. The whole sordid affair was probably thought up on a drunken afternoon in the DiS office, when the remote control was lost and the satellite was busted so ITV was constantly playing, and suddenly, majestically, out of the pre-watershed reactionary ramblings of Jeremy Kyle (oooh, I love him, me. What a hunk!!!) came the Modern Voice Of Feminism And Petty Arguments About Men, Loose Women.

"Brilliant! This is just what we need. DiS is a testosterone magnet, we need pink, we need fluffy, we need something for The Women," cried Diver.
And to that, Adams replied, "It shall be called The Lipster. And it shall be brassy and sassy, because I heard Sarah Jessica Parker say those words in the movie and they sound apt. Go, now, Michael! I must review Johnny Foreigner's album again, giving it a higher score!"

The site screams 'HIPSTER HOUSEWIFE' - while Diver interviews Serious Music people (Primal Scream, Ratatat, Wild Beasts), Lipster gets the enviable exclusive of interviewing Kat Von D (famous boyfriend, naturally) and Gok Wan (fashion person, yeah? We're women, remember? That's what we do!?!?)*

"How much fun can you have on 900 calories?" asks the headline. Not much, apparently. Baked beans for every meal, leaving us gaunt. Oh, us women care a lot about staying thin, don't we? Oh, we are silly, aren't we? Just writing to inform, though, have to please the womanly masses. Though, does DiS have articles on erectile dysfunction? Articles relating to Men and Their Musical Needs, like gratuitous news features (with pictures, OBVIOUSLY) about Lily Allen looking 'buff' with her new pink hair are plentiful, however. It seems The Lipster and DiS are merely fingers on the same hand, both patronising - one is subtle and underhand, under the guise of jokey irreverence, the other, a step back in the struggle for the acceptance of women in music journalism, or indeed, any form of journalism. Ohhh, women, eh? We're only good for telly and food, after all. Brilliant.

*Bjork interview, though. That's quite nice.

Review: The Croydon Festival

2008-07-12T21:07:00.002+01:00

Poor.

My friends who I saw were good, though.

The sound was AWFUL.

It rained, which wasn't so bad, everyone got free 'macs', then it didn't and it was sunny.

I didn't stick around for the Stereo MCs because they sounded rubbish and then anyway lots of people went to the pub so I went too.

I didn't see Superman Revenge Squad because when I went to his stage there was just bad 'community' based rap instead.

Worst thing I saw was a rapper who performed with the 'flutebox'er. Because it's not really smart to diss the Labours, Bushes, Conservatives and 'Liberals' of this world and 'represent' peace if yr next lyric happens to be condoning sexual assault.

Bring back De La Soul. Or put Lyanna Austin actually on the good stage where there should be good sound. Or Cellar Door because they were quite good.

x

Preview: The Croydon Festival

2008-07-12T12:53:00.002+01:00

Stereo MCs and Finlay Quaye HEADLINE, not in that order.

Lots of my friendz are playing and going.

I have a really big blister.

I should be there.

x

Oh, LOL.

2008-07-09T15:27:00.001+01:00

http://www.independentthinking.co.uk/Who/Associates/Tim+Benton/default.aspx

<3

Review - POBAW

2008-07-07T18:39:00.006+01:00

Perks Of Being A Wallflower, Stephen Chbosky.

Oh, Stephen Chbosky. You wrote a passable account of teenage life in the early 1990s without too much intelligence or imagination and suddenly millions of awkward teenagers see your book as their Bible. Well done for perpetuating the MTV SEX DRUGS ROCK N' ROLL WEEZER BEVERLY HILLS pop-punk Charlie Ralph myth. It probably wasn't intentional, but constant references to The Smiths, Smashing Pumpkins and Nirvana mean that POBAW is always going to be stuck in that 'young adult fiction' category, where it seems that authors can write complete shit about one-dimensional characters and get away with it in the name of 'growing up'. You were the literary equivalent of The Feeling - quite good, but Chris Moyles is a fan, so all are red-faced when the 'Sewn' 7" is found in one's record collection.
The cliches are nearly almost endless. Charlie, the chronically introverted narrator, writes for a fanzine, run by a feminist riot-grrrl. Chbosky is practically yelling 'IT'S 1992, PEOPLE. DIY PUNK IS SO HOT RIGHT NOW!!' It's too relevant to be endearing and too much like Catcher In The Rye to be interesting. Charlie isn't likeable enough to hold your attention. They all listen to music and get drunk and smoke pot and cry all the time. The best bit is when he takes LSD. It's Skins, but even worse.
There's a pretty girl he can't have and a gay guy and nightly screenings of the Rocky Horror Picture Show. It's like the best teen movie ever. But it's still on that teen movie level. There's a lot of child abuse, though. You don't see much of that in Judd Apatow coming-of-age rom-coms.
Aforementioned molesting is the only real 'redeeming' quality (how strange) because it creates something that resembles depth in a book riddled with GAPING PLOT HOLES and other terrible things. The blurb is bad enough,
'Standing on the fringes of life offers a unique perspective. But there comes a time to see what it looks like from the dancefloor'. And then ; 'The world of first dates, family dramas and new friends. The world of sex, drugs, and the Rocky Horror Picture Show, where all you need is that perfect song on that perfect drive to feel infinite.'
It's like something off Postsecret.com, which should be nice and intriguing and A Window Into Humanity, but it's a bit unsettling and unfortunate and makes you feel a bit sorry for a generation that thinks Charlie an emblem of youth.

Visually and aurally offensive in equal measure: writing as flaccid as a lit turd

2008-07-02T12:37:00.007+01:00

Thank you, NME, for Tim Jonze's Lightning Bolt review. This was printed circa 2006, and I think I only have 4 editions from that year. Most of them have some sort of reasoning behind their longevity in my files: for instance, one has a full-page Two Gallants review, and this one has a Lightning Bolt review. Yes, a Lightning Bolt review! In (modern) NME! Of course, there's no time wasted in informing the unsuspecting member of the general public who's picked up this magazine that they're different. I'm not sure if it ranks up there with Gay Against You reviews which end "...but everyone else seemed to enjoy it", but it is inspirationally insipid. Apparently all their songs blend into one, and apparently wearing earplugs at (noise rock) gigs is like watching porn blindfolded, or masturbating under local anaesthetic. Thank latter day Guardian scribe Tim Jonze for these analogies. I seem to recall from other NMEs the frivolity of our Tim covering Glastonbury when there was no Glastonbury (reporting a feature story of cow and field related frolics) and dressing up as an emo kid (half the words in this post could be italicised, btw) only to realise he wasn't going to get picked on by drunks and subsequently get drunk himself. Yeah, take that, journalism! Where was Neil Kulkarni when Justice vs Simian's We Are Your Friends came out? Anyway, get some of this Lightning Bolt review down yr earholes. But don't tell Brian Chippendale.

In case you cannae read it:

Tim Jonze
NME, 10 June 2006

Lightning Bolt,
The Luminaire, London
Sunday, May 28

Tense, nervous headache? Why not go and see The World's Scariest, Loudest Most Fucked-up Noise-rock Duo (TM). That'll cure it!

It's an hour before Lightning Bolt are due onstage and NME is suffering from a terrible migraine. Let us explain the ramifications of this. When we're having a migraine, even a tender embrace from NME's girlfriend feels like 17,000 stampeding woolly mammoths are raping my brain. And now we have to endure The World's Scariest, Loudest, Most Fucked-up Noise-rock Duo (TM). For what seems like about 17 weeks. Great.

Lightning Bolt seem to be on pretty frightening form tonight. They forget to put us on the guest list (scary!), set up their kit in the middle of the crowd (revolutionary!) and mutter something incomprehensible through their broken microphone (yikes!). Then, they open their set with 'Dracula Mountain'. Ha! Get the joke? As if anyone could actually tell what song they're playing - they all sound identical; like your innards are being sexually molested by the National Grid. It's a series of increasingly painful squeals and electroconvulsive therapy that somehow mutate themselves into one long, grotesque, punishing rhythm. If you could hear yourself think, you might say, "This is what The Velvet Underground's 'Sister Ray' would have sounded like if they weren't such play-it-safe wusses."

You might also think how it must be pretty annoying being The World's Scariest, Loudest, Most Fucked-up Noise-rock Duo (TM) and having to play gigs for an audience politer than your average Keane gig. Honestly! Down in "the moshpit" people are nodding their heads and adjusting their thick-rimmed spectacles. Other people are wearing earplugs. Earplugs! Isn't that like watching porm while blindfolded? Or masturbating under local anaesthetic? Why on earth would you wear hearing protection to see a band whose only purpose is to deafen you?

Anyway, none of this really matters because, as Lightning Bolt continue to bash out their collection repulsive noises, the electric bolts of shredded noise start leaping from their guitar and drumkit and begin to remould NME's brain, removing the migraine bits and leaving the nice bits that think about stuff like ice-cream and Darjeeling tea in the process. And then the migraine completely evaporates! Which means that Lightning Bolt have actually sucked the pain directly out of our brain, fed it through their FX pedals and blasted our agony straight out across Kilburn High Road tube station. You certainly don't get that kind of thing with The Kooks. So we go outside and, hey, we're cured! Which means NME now has the brainspace to wonder: "Did we just see the future of subversive, mid-mangling noise? Or was it just two very strange men playing the same song over and over again very loudly for the benefit of some middle-class graphic design students?" And we just can't tell.

--

(Plenty of things you could comment on. For now - I've just downloaded iTunes and am setting about filling my iPod with The Fall. Said iPod is currently adorned with a sticker of Bulgarian footballer Daniel Borimov, circa World Cup 2008, because it was the best thing I could find. So... comment to follow later, on a review that misses the point of Lightning Bolt completely and shows an immense lack of preparation, yet does well to include some semblance of story - loud, the people are funny, I had a headache.)

Illo 4 Rillo

2008-07-02T10:40:00.003+01:00

You should see my syndicated stuff!

(Sorry for the language. This was my old Physics book.)

Bride of Frankspencerstein; other treats

2008-07-02T10:30:00.002+01:00

(L&C refers to 'Love & Caring' which I thought would be a neat name for this, probably the most haphazard pseudozine ever doodled)

'No Logo'? Shame.

2008-07-01T22:33:00.003+01:00

Things I did when I should've been learning about learning. I chose to 'sap the joy' from my life instead. I'm not taking advice from a 35 year old who thinks it is Totally Fine and Okay to sport a quiff.

quite useful

2008-07-01T16:59:00.004+01:00

A Selection Of Stuff From My Afternoon:

- Vegan recipes! Courtesy of an indie pop star!

- The Torah on VHS!

- A picture of John Malkovich's face that is cut to fit as a mask on my face!

- My notebook... the notebook that included 'Bride of Frankspencerstein' and the Tenacious D live review... has resurfaced. If we ever have another AGM (I have £3 which is enough for a train ticket, but not really 'cause if I screw up I will be screwed - next week I am a minute away from Oxford Circus tube stop as of 5pm, except Monday) then I can show you the WONDROUS second strip of Frankspencerstein, the GLORIOUS letters page and the HILARIOUS Nelly Furtado remix album review (as produced by "Timberland & Ragoo"). One whole page is devoted to "LINDA BARKER: NAKED (page 5)". It really is a marvellous notebook.

Sabbath Void

2008-06-29T16:33:00.003+01:00

Okay, I don't think I've ever blogged something with a more //M\\ title.

Today is Abby's birthday. Collectively, now: Happy Birthday! Um, more soul, perhaps? Oh wait, I think this blog is just me, or us, (that's a link to an e-card. to show you I slightly care.) again.

So... here are some new noises I dig:

SALEM
If you go on Last.fm, there's like 5 Salems vying for the right to bear the name. The 5th and last Salem is SALEM. And they're, like, my favourite band.

Angel Deradoorian
I think she's been in plenty of ace-seeming bands; the standout name being Dirty Projectors. Stripped of her bass duties for that band, and given GarageBand and a tad space, she fills the void.

And, like, here's a generic webcomic, from Xplosm.net. My friend FWDd it to me... "and I thought you might like it".

DIM

Actual music reviews

WARNING: LANGHORNE SLIM

FUCK

i'll always want to stay

space odyssey

Q : who owned the first decade of the new millenium?

OVER-INFORMED AND LAZY ‘CRITICS’

ZOMBIES

hurts & ailments

Not getting bored of seeing the Wave Pictures and writing 'reviews' of them

Choclit Raisin fund

What we're up to

a poet's work is never done

20Q.net vs The Pope

Speech Debelle won the mercury award!

in reference to an earlier post about The Big Pink

Last.fm is So Cool

fame litmus test #1 : Frankmusik

rules

Competitive reading

Relevant indiepop song

Popjustice $36.27 music prize

'Chat to Strangers'

dear readers of this blog

The Wave Pictures Are Doing Things All The Time

Personal statement

Other people that might have marfan's syndrome #1

10/10

review - grizzly bear 'veckatimest'

A poem I wrote which doubles as a review of Kila Kela, in which I liken Carol Ann Duffy to a serial killer

revision music vol. 2

SPEECH DEBELLE

m-e-c-a-n-o

'luna de miel'

DIM Writer's Poll:

MI-CA-CHU

i think this is what people do when they get webcams

potentially the best thing on youtube

M.V.P.

i might do one of these for every skins episode until someone shoots me

an incomplete history of sleater-kinney

hey listen

Where next for music in 2009?

No shouts, no calls

a shitty update

hints 'n' tips for MIA

I wanted to remind everyone I am a viable journalist

nena daconte have one good song;

our last summer as independents

think about the blood that's pumping keeping you alive

REMorse

some things that relate to women, written by a woman

something that will never be on the front page of popjustice.com

/undrum to muted da

When we get together / it's always we are the champions my friends

blog action day

Icons, Abstract Thee vs. Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?

call hype williams, please

a milli a milli a milli a milli a mi-a mi a milli

Hey, everyone! Get yrselves together

Metronomy - Nights Out

post-First Proper Band Rehearsal

கோம்ப்லேடே ஹிக்ளிக்த்த்ஸ் ஒப் மி அதர் ப்லோக்

bbc switch 'live'

Only 3 Years Late: 'Digging to America', Anne Tyler, Vintage

a note to mr charlie lyne

this is not a post

Basically, I review a bunch of emails Hadouken! have sent me

WATCH HADOUKEN! AT READING 2008Blown away by Hadouken!'s 2008 Reading performance? Maybe you weren't one of the lucky ones who bought, blagged, stole or crashed the festival? Well now you can watch the full set by clicking below.ENJOY!

a dissection of 'glamour' 'for' 'better'

and the answer is...

yo soy pedro, y soy un hipster

HEALTH hate free jazz and tribal funk

becoming

'i grew up in colchester, where very little culture stirs'

Oh, V*CE...

Important things and other things that aren't as important

a cold evening for sleuthing

"Conflicting edits

WATCH HADOUKEN! AT READING 2008

Blown away by Hadouken!'s 2008 Reading performance? Maybe you weren't one of the lucky ones who bought, blagged, stole or crashed the festival?

Well now you can watch the full set by clicking below.

ENJOY!