Meeting in the Aisle

closing time

2008-10-24T11:07:00.001+01:00

Hello anyone that still reads this blog.

I am putting it to sleep, to be replaced with this one.

Update your bookmarks.

Safe.

x

reckoner remix

2008-09-23T16:56:00.001+01:00

my 'reckoner' remix

http://rapidshare.com/files/147737910/reckoner_mix.mp3.html

Use with caution

2008-09-09T16:06:00.000+01:00

The new love of my life: Theresa Andersson

2008-09-07T16:00:00.002+01:00

It's things like this that make you just want to give up everything you've ever tried because it will never be this good.

My new blog

2008-09-02T19:26:00.000+01:00

My new proper grown-up media blog:

http://learningisfunblog.wordpress.com/

Newsflash...

2008-08-21T16:15:00.001+01:00

Silly season

2008-08-13T14:38:00.000+01:00

With deep apologies to Adam Buxton

don't panic....

2008-08-04T15:07:00.002+01:00

This is definitely a good idea

2008-07-29T17:21:00.004+01:00

There's no way this isn't a good idea.

...

2008-07-25T14:01:00.001+01:00

if anyone reads this thing anymore i apologise for the lack of updates.
soon i am going to start making music again so i might use this space to post some tunes.

s x

Miss England runner-up

2008-07-23T12:59:00.001+01:00

guilfest 1

2008-07-10T16:31:00.000+01:00

long division

2008-06-27T22:52:00.001+01:00

Gabe and Max's internet thing

2008-06-22T19:27:00.000+01:00

Sex shop pizza and childhood heroes

2008-06-16T16:45:00.002+01:00

Going away on a business trip is, apparently, a sign of genuine adulthood.

You’ve made it through the adolescent monotony of school and college; you’ve negotiated the intoxicating faux-independence of university; you’ve even managed to land on your feet – bruised and battered from uncomfy new shoes – in a bona fide ‘proper’ job.

A business trip, however, is the ultimate sign of grown-up life.

You are no longer chained to your desk like a newly purchased cat on probation, unprepared to face the outside world.

You are packed off to a Travelodge – more of which later - and trusted as an ambassador for the company.

It was this inflated sense of false optimism that filled my thoughts as I boarded a train from London Euston on Monday, bound for the Manchester Evening News for a week of camera training with their sister TV station, Channel M.

The week was interesting, and it was a privilege to spend time in such a highly regarded newsroom.

I even got to meet Andy Crane, the legendary children’s’ TV presenter from the late 80s and early 90s who has reinvented himself as a hard-nosed northern newshound, a kind of cross between Jeremy Paxman and – well, Andy Crane.

My evenings were spent watching Euro 2008 matches in my hotel room, with its sealed windows and sparse décor, venturing out occasionally to scavenge for food.

I find there is something quite sad about eating out alone – I wouldn’t be able to escape the feeling that everyone else in the restaurant would think I had been stood up – so I had the choice of cold supermarket pasta, a sparse Travelodge menu or what I came to know as ‘sex shop pizza’.

There were a number of reputable eateries within walking distance of my lodgings, but only a couple of takeaways, the nearest of which was located next door to an adult entertainment establishment.

As far as I am aware, the pizza joint had no connection to the adjoining building, but the stodgy cheese and tomato that gave me a stomach ache and filled my hotel room with a questionable aroma ensured I’ll never look at a Margherita pizza in the same way again

So that was my week up north. Hardly a high-powered executive business trip, but I return to the safety of Surrey feeling refreshed, educated and a little bit dirty.

First published here

radiohead cover portishead

2008-06-08T11:59:00.001+01:00

Vote for my short film

2008-05-28T12:11:00.000+01:00

Vote vote vote

Parkour in Guildford (brightcove video)

2008-05-21T12:17:00.001+01:00

Welcome to Get Hampshire

2008-05-15T17:08:00.001+01:00

Welcome to Get Hampshire, your new one-stop website for all the news, sport and entertainment headlines across the county.

Powered by the Aldershot News Group and Surrey & Hants Star, gethampshire.co.uk also features video news and interviews, blogs, competitions, special features, and entertainment and event listings.

Get involved and interactive by signing up to have your say on all our stories. You can vote in our online polls, send us your own pictures and video, and also contact us if you’re interested in becoming a regular Get Hampshire blogger.

So join in our new community and look out for lots more additions to the site in the coming months.

Gary Waddock

2008-05-13T11:48:00.001+01:00

Blogging from Brightcove. Stay tuned...

Disability Challengers

2008-05-13T11:43:00.001+01:00

Blogging from Brightcove. Stay tuned...

How I wish you could see the potential of you and me

2008-04-30T17:05:00.000+01:00

Disability charity opens new Farnham centre

2008-04-17T16:49:00.000+01:00

For more see www.surreyad.co.uk

Ben Elton opens new college performance centre

2008-03-21T11:47:00.000Z

how to fight loneliness

2008-03-16T16:37:00.001Z

The journo in the corner

2008-03-07T13:31:00.002Z

The England cricketer Andrew Flintoff once described his first meeting as a young Lancashire intern with his all-time hero Ian Botham.

“I just dropped my shopping,” he said. “I didn’t know where to look.”

For such a recognisable and seemingly confident personality to admit to bashful hero-worship suggests there is hope after all for the socially inept among us.

I recently found myself in a similar situation at a certain media event in London.

I arrived unfashionably early, and after chatting briefly to the press officer, was left cowering in a corner, buried in my notes as a procession of national journalists, broadcasters and academics entered and hobnobbed before me.

There was the BBC’s home editor, Mark Easton; Saturday editor of the Times, George Brock; former Olympian and sports journalist Matthew Syed; and City A.M Editor Lawson Muncaster.

I disappeared further and further into my corner, drinking the complimentary tea like it was going out of style and reading and re-reading the press release in hope of discovering a formula for invisibility.

You may have guessed from all of this that I am not a good networker. I never have been.

Put me in a room filled with people I’ve never met before, place a drink in my hand and tell me to “mingle” and I descend into a navel gazing, quivering wreck.

Not very convenient for a journalist, you might say, given that the old adage of “it’s not what you know, it’s who you know” could have been invented for the fickle world of media.

One a one-to-one basis, I’m usually fine. I can laugh when I need to laugh, I can nod and look serious, heck I can even stretch to a witty remark now and again.

But as a newly qualified rooky, how do I go about introducing myself to people who have been to more press briefings than I’ve had hot dinners?

People whose profound discourse I was reading only yesterday in The Guardian were now standing just feet away providing what more sure-footed colleagues would describe as “the perfect networking opportunity”.

I decided, in my infinite wisdom, to chicken out.

I stuck to my corner, eventually following the crowd into the event, simultaneously breathing a sigh of relief and choking on my supreme embarrassment.

Maybe in the future, people will no longer communicate face to face and the phrase ‘social networking’ really will be confined to the impersonal comfort of technology.

Until then I remain the journo in the corner, my innate awkwardness shining through for all to see.

In praise of radio

2008-03-03T16:45:00.005Z

WHEN ASKED to describe his reaction to the invention of the radio, German physicist Albert Enstein said: “Radio is a kind of very long cat. You pull his tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles.”

A mangled kind of explanation from arguably the greatest genius of all time, but you can see what he was getting at.

Before the invention of the magical box we have come to know as the ‘telly’, families used to crowd round the wireless and listen for news of events from around the globe, interspersed with the occassional Noel Coward play or spot of frivolity from the likes of Arthur Askey.

Simpler times, some might say. In this modern age of ipods, bendy buses and ‘Kit Kat Orange’, it can often be hard to keep up with the latest trends in technology.

Not a day goes by, it seems, without another channel appearing on TV – the BBC is spreading itself increasingly thin across it’s ever expanding empire – but online radio is the pot of gold at the end of this digital rainbow.

I recently found myself with an unexpected day of leisure, so rather than going for a healthy walk in the country or visiting one of the capital’s many culturally enlightening galleries, I decided to stick some hot cross buns in the toaster and settle down for an afternoon of radio.

There is something brilliantly comforting about Radio 4’s classic quiz show ‘Just a Minute’. No matter what is going on in your life, you get the feeling that it will always be there.

You could be standing in the burning wreckage of your flat, your treasured possessions going up in smoke as your spouse bids you farewell for the final time, and still you would raise a smile as Clement Freud attempts to talk for 60 seconds on the subject of ‘what I did on my summer holidays’.

The main thing that struck me as I surfed through the stations and indulged myself in radio goodness is that everything is so much slower, and better off for it.

Television is becoming overwhelmed by the constant need to keep the viewer from switching over, flashing graphics and blaring adverts, just in case we get bored and contemplate doing something more wholesome with our time.

Radio, on the other hand, assumes that it’s listeners are more patient, and thus there is more opportunity for the ‘aimless ramble’ – an intergral and neglected part of communication.

On his Sunday afternoon music show, actor and writer Stephen Merchant is a master of this art.

The conversation between Merchant and his co-presenters spanned a variety of topics, very few of which I can recall off the top of my head, but such is the nature of this kind of unplanned spontaneous setup.

Comedians Adam and Joe have a similar ethos with their Saturday morning slot on 6 music, but to the point where they are just saying the first thing that comes into their head – and it’s very, very funny.

You don’t get that kind of spontaneous humour anywhere else. At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man, TV is packed to the rafters with ‘comedy’ panel shows which masquerade as platforms for comedians to indulge in topical banter, but are in fact as carefully staged and scripted as the Labour party conference.

So here’s to radio, the oft-neglected orphan of the digital revolution. Next time you find yourself pulling a cat’s tail, think of Einstein, and let yourself drift off into a magical, wireless world.

Sam Blackledge

Couple get engaged on rollercoaster

2008-02-29T21:18:00.005Z

A loved-up couple had the ride of their lives on Friday when they got engaged on the tallest rollercoaster in Europe.

Jenny Harold, 28, took advantage of the February 29 leap year tradition to propose to boyfriend Patrick Hyde on the Stealth ride at Thorpe Park.

Rollercoaster enthusiast Patrick, 26, said he was amazed when Jenny popped the question.

Jenny kept her plan secret for almost two months, telling her now-fiance that the day out was a late birthday present.

“I did think something was amiss,” said Patrick.

“My birthday was a month ago, but she just kept saying ‘I’ve got something planned’.”

The couple, who have been an item for more than a year, had one of their first dates at the theme park so it was the perfect setting for Jenny’s proposal.

“I’m glad it came together – it could have gone horribly wrong!” she said.

“I just feel completely relieved.”

Stealth was introduced to the park in 2006, and now goes from 0-80mph in 1.9 seconds, producing G-forces of up to 4.8g.

First printed in: Surrey Advertiser Online

"You're like... the coolest person I've ever met and you don't even have to try"

2008-02-17T20:39:00.003Z

Every so often, a film from the left field of the American movie industry has critics and cinemagoers alike falling over themselves to garnish it with praise and, very often, awards.

Last year Little Miss Sunshine scooped two Oscars - best actor for Alan Arkin and best original screenplay – unprecedented for a film with a budget of just ₤8million and no major stars.

In 2008, Diablo Coby’s Juno looks set to be the surprise hit of the season, having made an appearance in almost every top ten list of the past few months.

Telling the story of a 16-year-old who finds herself pregnant by her best friend, Juno is a witty, fragile, perceptive piece of work that says more in 92 minutes than an army of Orks and Hobbits could in more than nine hours.

Ellen Page is the undoubted star, and with a spot hosting Saturday Night Live lined up for next month, she will surely enjoy the dazzling Hollywood limelight for a while longer.

Page’s depiction has been described as spunky, quirky and razor-sharp, but there are subtleties to her performance that go deeper than her delivery of the BAFTA winning script.

She seems to defy the character’s tender years, to the extent that the penultimate, brutal labour scene serves as a jarring reminder that this all-conquering, Stooges-loving tomboy is in fact just a child herself.

Plaudits must also go to the solid supporting cast. Michael Cera and Jason Bateman - reunited after the tragic cancellation of Arrested Development – share low-key, intimate moments with Page, while Allison Janney and J.K Simmons are perfect as Juno’s parents, even more confused and lost than the teen herself.

The Academy Awards may not adorn this sleeper hit on February 24 with so many other great films vying for honours, but it’s a little gem to be cherished in an industry so obsessed with doing things on a grand scale.

Sam Blackledge

First published in Surrey Advertiser Online

the death of journalism?

2008-02-04T23:04:00.001Z

The Guardian came over all self-pitying and masochistic today.

On Comment is Free, Martin Bell believes that newspapers and TV networks are "retreating into a comfort zone of celebrity stories, consumer news, sport, health-scares and crime...the coverage is mawkish, exploitative and highly speculative."

In MediaGuardian, Nick Davies goes one better, suggesting that the media is involved in the "mass production of falsehood, distortion and propaganda." Journalists have become "passive processors of unchecked, second-hand material, much of it contrived by PR to serve some political or commercial interest," he says. "Not journalists, but churnalists."

While it is frustratingly true that much of a journalist's work nowadays involves wading through a sea of PR guff, most of the reporters I have met over the past year seem to be in it because they care about issues and want to tell the truth. If the Murdoch empire and increasingly media-savvy press departments block the way occassionally, then we'll just have to find another way around.

S

The RPM Challenge

2008-02-02T17:46:00.000Z

this month i will be mostly doing this.

This is the challenge: record an album in 29 days, just because you can.

That’s 10 songs or 35 minutes of original material recorded during the month of February. Go ahead… put it to tape.

Anyone can come up with an excuse to say “no,” so don’t. Many of you are thinking “But, I can’t do that! I don’t have any songs/recording gear/money/blah blah blah...” But this doesn’t have to be the album, it’s just an album. Remember, this is an artistic exercise. Well written, honest music is compelling and undeniable no matter what it was recorded on. So put it to tape.

After failing miserably last year, I have got off to quite a good start and I have three or four 'finished' songs (although i don't think the word finished really applies to this project in any way). I am struggling with lack of gear and a crackly hissy snivelling computer but hey...

check out my efforts so far here.

Too Cool for Camden (demo)

2008-01-29T17:29:00.000Z

My first foray into the confusing world of music videos.
Enjoy.

2008-01-21T20:21:00.001Z

winter gets cold in ways you always forget

2008-01-20T17:23:00.000Z

so...this blog appears to be fading away somewhat...i might keep it going if inspiration strikes...

having said that, 2008 looks like being a pretty awesome year for new albums, with hot chip and british sea power already putting in bids for album of the year.

here are some tunes to inject some life into your tired little january legs.

roll on summer.

x

Hot Chip: Ready for the Floor

Royksopp: Eple

Dizzee Rascal featuring Alex Turner: Temptation

!!!: Heart of Hearts

Spoon: Rhythm and Soul

Burial: Archangel

British Sea Power: No Lucifer

it's nearly time.

2008-01-15T21:01:00.001Z

a million little pieces

2008-01-10T20:42:00.000Z

happy new year. if you have a spare book voucher left over from xmas or just a few pounds burning a hole in yr pocket, buy this

scotch_mist

2008-01-01T22:01:00.000Z

getting away from ourselves

2007-12-30T17:22:00.000Z

winter london

2007-12-23T15:11:00.000Z

merry xmas x

blonde redhead

2007-12-19T17:21:00.001Z

your new favourite band

The best top five albums of 2007 ever!

2007-12-08T18:42:00.000Z

It seems like the world and his wife are blogging their top albums of what has been a pretty awesome year for music. So here's my twopenny worth. In no particular order:

MODEST MOUSE: WE WERE DEAD BEFORE THE SHIP EVEN SANK

If 2004's 'Good News for People Who Love Bad News' was Modest Mouse's breakthrough album, this is their pop Pièce de résistance. With ex-Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr onboard, the Washington misfits finally found their sea legs. This seems to be a record that splits the Mouse fanbase - some people think they sold out by losing their trademark gritty, punky sound; others are too busy tapping their toes to songs such as 'Dashboard' and 'Missed the Boat' to think too much about it. It's a welcome entrance to the mainstream, whether Isaac Brock and co like it or not.

Modest Mouse: Missed The Boat

KINGS OF LEON: BECAUSE OF THE TIMES

The Followill brothers from Tennessee went in a similar direction for their third LP, a more radio friendly, polished sound, leaving behind the shambling, bluesy swagger of their early work. This record is a real grower - you can listen constantly for two weeks before suddenly realising that every single track is going round in your head. Lead singer Caleb has one of the most distinctive voices around and they are one of a dying breed - a proper good ol' fashioned rock band.

Kings of Leon: Ragoo

RADIOHEAD: IN RAINBOWS

The groundbreaking 'pay what you like' online release method got everyone talking about music again, and reminded us of the simple beauty of everyone hearing a record at the same time. The album itself is gorgeous - their best since 2000's 'Kid A', it
is a wonderfully floaty, poppy album and every song fits perfectly to bring back the concept of the album as a whole piece of art. If you downloaded the 160kbps mp3 version from the official website on October 10, try to get hold of the 320 version which was released in discbox form last week, as the quality is slightly better. The album will get a conventional record shop release on January 31.

Radiohead: Reckoner

INTERPOL: OUR LOVE TO ADMIRE

I never realised how much I like American bands until now. Interpol's third studio album is a continuation of their first two efforts, but if it ain't broke don't fix it. 'Our Love To Admire' is more immediate and less sinister than it's predecessors. In an era when so many bands are garnished with praise for branching out and experimenting, spare some props for the guys who know their limitations and do it consistently well. Underrated album of the year. Awful album cover, though.

Interpol: Rest My Chemistry

IRON AND WINE: THE SHEPHERD'S DOG

From the reaction to this album you would think Sam Beam had dug out his shellsuit and gone all Gary Numan. The reclusive folkie simply broadened his horizons on his second LP, bringing in a full band and electric guitars to back up his heartbreaking and at times eccentric love songs. Another record that rewards repeated ipod rotation, this guy is fast becoming one of the hottest tickets around at the moment.

Iron and Wine: Flightless Bird, American Mouth

Honourable mentions go to Wilco: 'Sky Blue Sky'; The National: Boxer; and Beirut: The Flying Club Cup.

Hvarf/Heim

2007-12-05T13:08:00.000Z

Here is a short piece I wrote for this site

SUCH is the immediacy of the age we live in, with rolling news, podcasts and entertainment on demand, the allure of slow-release pieces of art is in decline.

Not only do we want ever improving standards of music, TV and film but we want it now, we want it fast and we want it short. After all, we’re busy people.

There are some artists, however, who simply do not fit in with this ethos. Iceland’s Sigur Rós, whose music you will know from countless scenes of rolling hills and spectacular landscapes on BBC TV, demand that the listener takes time out to appreciate their work.

The band’s new double album, 'Hvarf-Heim', is a near-perfect introduction for the uninitiated. Comprised of re-worked acoustic versions of songs from their first album, 'Ágætis Byrjun', and new recordings of unreleased songs, this will also serve as the perfect stocking filler for die-hard fans.

The old songs are stipped down and Jónsi Birgisson’s fragile voice is brought to the fore to heartbreaking effect, and the previously unheard tracks just serve as a reminder of the band’s glorious operatic power.

Birgisson once commented that listening to a 30-second snippet of a Sigur Rós song is like only looking at one corner of a painting. The band try to avoid licensing their tracks out for use on screen, but their growing popularity means it is harder to control.

With so much music simply blending into the background these days, Hvarf-Heim is a welcome treasure trove of uniterrupted symphonies, which reveal themselves more and more with each repeated listen.

Sigur Rós: Hljomalind

Sigur Rós: Staralfur (acoustic)

MiXtApE: bOsSa NoVa DuB ZoNe

2007-11-23T19:22:00.000Z

asian dub foundation: modern apprentice

buck 65: wicked and wierd

!!!: hammerhead

dizzee rascal: fix up look sharp

dj shadow: monosyllabik

M.I.A: pull up the people

encore plus de Londres

2007-11-19T21:45:00.001Z

harder better faster stronger

2007-11-17T13:57:00.000Z

AAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

the big smoke

2007-11-14T17:20:00.000Z

thumbs down

2007-11-10T23:47:00.000Z

i know i blog a lot about this band but there's good reason. last night radiohead webcasted from their oxford studios and it has all been committed to internet tape and put on youtube and various other places.

the band looked like they were having great fun, playing live songs, covers, dj sets, drawing, running up hills, doing dramatic readings and generally messing about. some of it was very funny, some of it was nonesense and some of it was brilliant.

last night confirmed the fact that they are the most innovative, interesting band in the world because i can't think of any other band who would do everything they've done in the past month, and all without a record label or big PR company. its a phrase which gets used a lot, but they are genuinely 'changing the music business'....or at least creating one of their own.

check it out and i promise i'll shut up about them now.

bodysnatchers

faust arp [in a field]

the headmaster ritual [smiths cover]

reckoner

forgot my mittens

2007-11-07T22:14:00.000Z

it's cold and the trees are dying
here are some winter songs to warm your ears
and tickle your face

tori amos: winter

grandaddy: alan parsons in a winter wonderland

eva cassidy: the water is wide

r.e.m: be mine

beirut: the penalty

sebastian tellier: la ritournelle

jon brion: punchdrunk melody

sigur ros: hljamlind

How lucky do you feel?

2007-11-02T21:33:00.000Z

Alison Benjamin thinks this is the most terrifying video you will ever see. It's a very simplified version of an incredibly complex argument, but most people don't have the time to even begin to read about it all. This video neatly condenses the issues into a chart with smiley faces.

How happy is the blameless vestal's lot. The world forgetting by the world forgot.

2007-10-31T18:59:00.000Z

I have a backlog of things I want to blog about, including a couple of things I have been sent, so I'm attempting to clear it whilst procrastinating from proper work. Two birds with one stone.

First of all, watching 'The Science of Sleep' for the first time last week prompted me to reinvestigate Michel Gondry's other masterpiece, 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind', and more specifically Jon Brion's sumptuous soundtrack.

If you have seen the film, listening to the score brings back all the emotions of the crazy, dream like plot and the beautiful images Gondry creates are echoed in the music.

Brion composed most of the piano-led score, but Don Nelson, Beck and ELO also add fitting contributions. It's closest in tone to the Terry Davies' soundtrack to Matthew Bourne's stunning ballet/musical/drama Play Without Words, which amazingly is not yet on youtube. So you see, the internet doesn't know everything.

Sometimes you get the feeling that certain artists just fit together - Lennon and McCartney, PJ and Duncan, Daphne and Celeste....I think Gondry and Brion deserve to join that illustrious group.

I could post mp3s of the whole album, it really is that good. But the Lars Ulrich might have something to say about that.

jon brion: theme

jon brion: phone call

jon brion: elephant parade

Three years in Hull: A student's view

2007-10-28T20:34:00.000Z

I wrote this back in June and it has been published in the October edition of Sandman Magazine.

As the dust settles on the farewell binge and all we're left with is blu-tac stained walls and awkward man-hugs, the time has come to reflect on three years as a student in Hull. Like the majority of wide-eyed, fresh faced first years, I arrived at the halls of residence carrying boxes overflowing with CDs (these were the olden days, before mp3s made music less of an object and more of a concept), and quickly found likeminded pals with whom to share the journey.

Living a bus ride away from civilisation in Cottingham meant that our exposure to the local music scene was limited in the first few months. We had a few outings to Asylum, the campus nightclub, where an early incarnation of Turismo was struggling against the horrific sound system, along with the likes of 59 Violets and The Blue Slide Circle. However, our regular gig haunt came from an unlikely source - The King William IV pub on Cottingham High Street. Every Wednesday, Mike and Danny from The Bonnitts would host an open mic night in the backroom, and a handful of scruffy indie kids - yours truly included - would bang out classic covers from Erasure to the Eagles, competing manfully against the pool tables and televised football. It was a bizarre introduction to the Hull scene, but remains an enduring memory of life as a fresher.

Making the move up to Beverley Road for the University equivalent of the difficult second album, I encountered an unopened wardrobe of musical goodies, leading to the enchanted forest of magical sounds and, er, overly elaborate metaphors. The Adelphi inevitably became my temple of worship, introducing me to local bands such as The Holy Orders, Alison Angus and Fonda 500, all of whom I have followed with both journalistic professionalism and unabashed hysterical fandom. The Lamp also quickly became a perennial favourite, the Sidekicks Lounge on Wednesday nights hosting some of the best gigs of my time here, including James Yorkston, Analogue Consumption, Park and Ride and exciting new Grimsby talents The Brightlights.
There has been widespread criticism of Hull's inability to attract the biggest names of the moment, whoever they may be, but quality often outshines reputation and you'd struggle to find a more consistent line-up for sheer variety of style.

One of the biggest parts of my Hull experience has been the excitement surrounding the regular visits of out of town acts, particularly those from across the pond in the U.S.A. I have seen Thomas Truax three times at The Adelphi, and each time have been reminded of his sparkling unpredictability. Dufus [video below], Danielson and the ear-splitting Melt Banana will stay with me for a long time, and the legendary Jeffrey Lewis was as thought-provoking and witty as he is on record. When speaking to international jet-setting groups for whom this is just another stop on a lengthy tour, they all speak fondly of Yorkshire, and many of them are very aware of the musical history of the place. Long may Hull continue to attract such unique international artists.

I feel that this recollection of the live music that shaped my student life would not be complete without discussing the open mic scene around Hull. I have already mentioned my humble baptism in The King Billy, but closer to the city centre there is so much more on offer. The Sanctuary's regular slot, started by the newly formed band society in 2006, was too often doomed by lack of publicity from the student union, but when it clicked it really did showcase some of the best talent the student community had to offer. It's a similar story at Sleepers on Newland Avenue, which regularly attracts quality artists without reaching out too far beyond its comfort zone. The daddy of all open mic experiences is, of course, Monday night at The Adelphi. A free-for-all forum for all shapes and sizes, acts range from four-chord Fratellis clones to the sonic soundscape experiments of Misshapen Lodge and the technically brilliant love songs of Phil Wilson, a.k.a MyOneManBand. The Adelphi boss Paul Jackson does a tremendous job, not only providing such a prestigious platform for young musicians to perform, but also offering an encouraging word both to the regulars and the new faces. If you haven't tried it yet, give it a go.

Over the past 18 months of writing for Sandman, I have heard a wide range of opinions on the Hull music scene, and now seems as good a time as any to offer my own thoughts. To put it bluntly, the place is thriving - it just needs more people to realise it. The size of the crowds at the majority of local gigs simply doesn't do justice to the supreme wealth of talent on display. Nights such as The Gig That Exploded, The Sidekicks Lounge and The Sesh will be in danger of dying out if they don't get the support they deserve. 'You're preaching to the converted,' I hear you cry, so I'll bid you farewell for now. Thanks for the memories Hull. It's been anything but dull.

À cinq heures cinquante-cinq

2007-10-27T19:19:00.000+01:00

Charlotte Gainsbourg is one of those people you've always been aware of, but you never knew it until now.

You'll know her father Serge from his saucy and slightly pervy 1969 duet with Jane Birkin on 'Je T'aime...moi non plus'.

Madonna fans will know her from the sultry spoken-word intro to 'What It Feels Like For a Girl'.

You might even know her from Michel Gondry's surreal 2006 film,The Science of Sleep, among many other movies.

But it is her music that has propelled London-born, Paris-raised Gainsbourg into the consciousness of the hipster masses of late.

Her debut album, 5.55, (discounting an ill advised father-daughter debut in 1986) is a beautiful piece of work. With music by Air and lyrics by Jarvis Cocker, it's a dream come true for geeky, romantic francophiles.

The songs are floaty, seductive numbers, but with a bit of an edge thrown in. That's as far as my description can stretch, so enjoy for yourself.

Charlotte Gainsbourg: The Operation

Charlotte Gainsbourg: 5.55

Don't got any blog ideas [so here's some guys rappin']

2007-10-24T22:40:00.000+01:00

Erik Mongrain

2007-10-19T19:19:00.000+01:00

Jeffrey Lewis

2007-10-18T17:42:00.000+01:00

I spent all my punning energy on that Joanna Newsom line.

Anyway while we're on the subject of 'anti-folk' heroes, Jeffrey Lewis is a guy who seems to continually slip under radar of the 'popular' music scene, whatever that is.

This week he released his 21st album, which is pretty impressive for a 31 year old. In fact, it's 0.67 albums per year of his life. Radiohead took 5 years and 4 months over their last album. That's right, I couldn't go a week without mentioning them.

Lewis' new album is called '12 Crass Songs', a collection of covers of songs by legendary punk band Crass.
It's a strange choice given Lewis' incredible gift for writing songs of his own, but it really works.

At times he can soung like a genius capturing the zeitgeist of alternative underground New York life. Other times he can seem like the crazy old man on the corner ranting and raving about how things ain't what they used to be.

Either way, he's developed an unrecognisable style, and while the new album lacks some of the idiosyncracies of records like 'The Last Time I Did Acid I Went Insane' and 'It's The Ones Who've Cracked That The Light Shines Through', he's still flying the flag for prolific individual punk folk.

Jeffrey Lewis: Do They Owe Us A Living?

Crass: Do They Owe Us A Living?

Oh, and he's awesome live.

Jeffrey Lewis: Back When I Was Four[live]

Canon

2007-10-12T23:16:00.000+01:00

This week Ani Difranco released her 'retrospective', 'Canon'. It charts her 20 year-long journey of making music.

Unlike many 'best of' collections, it's not just a hastily assembled bunch of tracks taken from random parts of the artist's career.

The re-imaginings of classics like 'Both Hands' and 'Overlap' give a whole new meaning to these songs. Alanis Morrisette, Lauren Hill and others have done this before, re-recording old songs and breathing new life into them. It's an interesting idea, and much better than bashing out the same old stuff that all the fans know anyway.

Oh and she's playing at Shepherd's Bush Empire next Sunday, so if anyone would be kind enough to ask her to move the gig to a day I can make and buy me a ticket that would be super.

Ani Difranco: Both Hands [2007]

Ani Difranco: Overlap [2007]

Rain and Sun

2007-10-10T17:26:00.000+01:00

The world and his wife did a collective poo this morning as Radiohead's 'In Rainbows' hit inboxes around the world. You know my thoughts on the band - added to the fact that everyone else has already blogged their reviews [see Alex Petridis' 5 star review] - but here are some words after my first listen.

First of all, it's good. It's kind of unfair to compare Radiohead's albums, because they change with every release, but initially I reckon its definitely better than Hail to the Thief. As Petridis says, Thom Yorke's gimmicky, petulant, word-playing lyrics have largely disappeared, to be replaced with subtle phrases which hint at emotions. This was always his strong point.

Highlights for me are Nude, All I Need, Faust Arp and Jigsaw Falling Into Place. What is really fascinating about this record is that despite the uniqueness of everyone receiving it at the same time, the majority of Radiohead fans come to it knowing 8 out of the 10 songs from the live tour last year.
Nude has been a fan favourite since before OK Computer, when it was titled 'Big Ideas', but they have completely changed it around. The bass takes centre stage, but they've filled it out with beautiful strings, remeniscent of How To Disappear Completely from Kid A.

All I Need does what nobody expects Radiohead to do - sound cheerful and life affirming. Their best songs - 'Lucky', 'The Tourist', 'Street Spirit' - are all gloriously positive songs. They may not be lyrically optimistic, but the music lifts you a higher place [excuse the pretentious wankery.]
Faust Arp is exciting simply because it's a brand new song, and initially sounds a bike like Elliott Smith.

Jigsaw Falling Into Place, formerly titled 'Open Pick', was my favourite song from the 2006 tour. It's urgent, and the crescendo to the final 'You've got a light and you can feel it on your back' is brilliant.
One thing everyone seems to have identified is the drums - they're really noticeable. Phil Selway has always been one of the tightest, most innovative drummers around - see 'Morning Bell' from Kid A - and they do more than hold the songs together here.

There are inevitably some disappointments. For me, 'Bodysnatchers' sounds cluttered and bass-heavy. 'Arpeggi' is not quite as dreamy as it was live. And Videotape is nowhere near as good as it could have been. I think Thom's vocals could use a bit more reverb - he didn't use any on The Eraser, but Radiohead songs suit echoey vocals more.

However, my verdict after 1 listen is that it's a very good album, understated, beautiful and minimal. It's far from the complexities of 'Paranoid Android' and the experiments of Amnesiac, the songs are tighter constructed, there are only 10 of them, and there is very little flab here. The title 'In Rainbows' suddenly seems quite fitting - the album has moments of rain and sun, combining to make pretty colours in the sky.

So there. I'll shut up about them for 5 years or so now. We await the pitchfork review, and roll on LP8.

UPDATE: I gave it a 2nd listen. and a third. and a fourth. and a fifth. I feel like a child at the end of Christmas day who has over-played with his new toy and is now tired and smashy.

x

Some new Newsom

2007-10-08T21:46:00.000+01:00

Not to detract from the ever so important Sarah Silverman post, but I thought this needed sharing.

It's a good week for new music. Now where's that Radiohead album?....

Sarah Silverman

2007-10-07T09:58:00.000+01:00

Every so often I come across a subject on which I feel compelled to write. This is an example.

Comedy has, to put it lightly, a chequered past in terms of political correctness. In the 1970s, English comedian Bernard Manning became popular for his style of comedy which involved jokes about ethnic stereotypes and minority groups. He was effectively gradually exiled from TV appearances before his death last year.

Since then, we have had Jim Davison, Roy 'Chubby' Brown and, more recently, Michael Richards making a living out of telling jokes about people of different religion, race or creed to them. More on this later.

One of Bernard Manning's most famous quotes is: "I tell jokes. You never take a joke seriously. We have to tell jokes about everything and everyone." It's a motto which may well be employed by the newest 'star' of the comedy world, Sarah Silverman.

I had only heard Silverman's name in passing before coming across an article about her in Saturday's Guardian newspaper. If necessary, you can get a clear, and much better written picture of her personality and upbringing from Katie Puckrick's largely partisan piece.

Having read the article, in which Puckrick quotes a couple of Silverman's most shocking 'jokes', I felt compelled to visit youtube and check out her stand-up for myself.

You can make up your own mind about it (the video follows this post).

Silverman reels off a tirade of astonishingly crude, tastless jokes, seemingly experimenting with just how far she can go.
"I love how Palestinians and Jews hate each other," she says. "It's so cute. Honestly, what's the difference? They're brown. They have an odour. It's like sweet potatoes hating yams."

She goes on to talk about how the most precious diamond in the world can only be found on the tailbone of Ethiopian babies who are de-boned in order to attain the jewel, and it is "so worth it."

You name the taboo, Silverman dives right in and attacks it head on.

In the Guardian interview, she is quizzed on the controversy surrounding her racist material. She implies, somewhat limply, that anyone who does not understand the irony of her statements simply does not understand the humour.

There are many comedians who play racist, bigoted, prejudiced characters or personas. The key to it all, however, is that the audience should always be able to tell where the line is. If a comedian is making a comment on society, making us laugh and then making us feel shame and question our morals, this is often a clever piece of social commentary. Anyone who has seen Pip Utton's superb 'Adolf' will understand this incredible feeling.

Questioned further, Silverman would probably argue that her onstage persona of 'Sarah', who she plays in her new TV show 'The Sarah Silverman Show', is not her. It is an extreme version of the views of society which are stifled by political correctness. I would argue, however, that the aim of the comedian does not make a lot of difference. To me, all Silverman is doing is standing in front of a microphone and telling racist jokes.

Bernard Manning, Jim Davison, Roy 'Chubby' Brown and co are frowned upon nowadays. They are considered to be bad memories of bygone era when these kind of jokes were ok. We are supposed to live in a tolerant, multi-cultural society of intelligent individuals. To me, what Silverman is doing is not very far removed from these guys. It is not just her, either. There is a worrying trend in the comedy of Ricky Gervais, Chris Rock and others who come onstage as themselves and say things which make the audience's jaws drop. Their defence is that it's 'ironic'. It doesn't wash with me.

There are the inevitable comments to accompany the youtube video, which sum up the counter argument:
"You don't have to like her, but calling her a racist makes you sound like an idiot"; "She's making fun of racism. That's what makes it a joke. It wouldn't be a joke if she were just saying racist things"; and " I just love how she can make everyone with an IQ over 70 laugh and make everyone else get angry and call her racist."

Silverman has the last word, as is her wont: "I'm not afraid to say something if I think it's funny, even if it's harsh or racist," she says. "I really think everything is fair game". Look at that Bernard Manning quote again.

Are we going backwards?

p.s for more not at all libellous or defamatory opinions go to http://www.theboydone.blogspot.com

A decade of love and obsession

2007-10-05T21:23:00.001+01:00

Ten years ago I fell in love for the first time.

It was May 1997, and my mother had just returned from the supermarket having purchased Radiohead's 'Ok Computer'.

That evening I put the CD on my dad's old 4-tray LP player and listened to it on big headphones. I hated it, and remember feeling really disappointed. Earlier in the week I had watched the band playing 'Paranoid Android' and 'No Surprises' on 'Later with Jools Holland' and having my tiny little mind blown. But the album was too experimental and wierd for my tastes. I was twelve, remember. I liked Oasis and The Bluetones.

A few months later, on November 15, I went to see Radiohead live at the Birmingham N.E.C. I remember this gig more clearly than any other. DJ Shadow was the support act, at a DJ booth in the middle of the arena and nobody knew who he was. I bought an 'OK Computer' t-shirt. They opened with 'Meeting in the Aisle' followed by 'Airbag', and closed with 'Fake Plastic Trees'. I couldn't believe what was happening.

I rediscovered their first two albums, 'Pablo Honey' and 'The Bends, but neither came anywhere near my new-found adoration and obsession with 'OK Computer'. The original CD still exists somewhere, the sleeve battered to oblivion, as does the t-shirt, similarly worn out.

It was an agonising 3 years before their next effort, 'Kid A'. I've never known hype like the hype that surrounded this release. I don't remember how I bought it, but I know that this was the last Radiohead album I bought in CD format and heard for the first time that way. Simpler times.

By the time 'Kid A' came out, my judgement of the band was blurred. I was dangerously obsessed, and I loved this record just because it was Radiohead. I had been following the online diaries kept by Ed O'Brien on the agonising recording process, and felt like I knew the songs inside out before I'd ever heard them.

Looking back, it is the most complex, beautiful and misunderstood album Radiohead have ever made. Listen to it on headphones in the dark with your eyes closed and no distractions, and you'll see what I mean. 'Everything in it's Right Place', 'The National Anthem', 'How to Disappear Completely' - fragile, terrifying, end-of-the-world pieces of music - it seems somehow trite to call them songs.

A second live experience followed, in a tent in a field in Warrington. 'Clinic' supported, but I don't remember very much about them. What I do remember is being quite far back, leaning on a railing listening to 'Motion Picture Soundtrack' closing the show. It was muddy, and I bought an official grey hoodie and a knock-off 'Kid A' t-shirt outside.

'Amnesiac' followed in summer 2001. I bought this album when I was revising for my 'AS' Levels, and was underwhelmed. Exciting as it was to have new material, this seemed like 'Kid A' outtakes to me, coming as it did from the same recording sessions. There are highlights - 'Pyramid Song', 'You and Whose Army', 'Like Spinning Plates' - but I think they went too far towards what a dissillusioned acquaintance once called 'electronic keyboard noodling'.

A period of quiet, and then a pirated copy 'Hail to the Thief' came through the post from a friend in Spring 2003, weeks before it was due to be released. Welcome to the modern age. I remember being very excited as I travelled to college with the disc on my portable cd player. It turned out to be an unmastered version of the album, which had been stolen from the studio and leaked onto the net.

I bought the record when it came out, and still don't really know what I think about it. It's their most disjointed album, and I don't think they knew what they wanted it to be. There are short, energetic, punky songs like '2+2=5', experimental 'noodling' on 'The Gloaming', and beautiful piano led ballads like 'Sail to the Moon'. 'A Wolf at the Door' is just rubbish, however.

I saw them live a third time on the 'Hail to the Thief' tour, at the Manchester Apollo. I was impressed with how tight they had become, how many more instruments they were using and Thom Yorke's vast stage presence. This is also the best venue I've seen them at.

A fourth gig followed quickly at Earl's Court in London, which I will always remember primarily for missing the last train back to Birmingham and standing outside Euston station all night in sub-zero December temperatures with wierdos stalking the streets.

'Hail to the Thief' could have been the end of Radiohead. They seemed to have reached the point where they didn't really know what to do next. They effectively broke up and reformed - something they seem to do after every album - and then Yorke returned with a solo album in 2006, entitled 'The Eraser'. It was an interesting diversion, no more. All it did for me was prove that Radiohead is more than just one man, talented and fascinating though he might be.

And so, we come to the present day. My fifth, and to date final Radiohead gig was in May 2006 at Wolverhampton Civic Hall, when they premiered songs which will be released next week on their 7th studio album, 'In Rainbows'.

It's hard to tell what the album will be like, despite the fact that most hardcore fans already have an intimate relationship with most of the songs. 'Arpeggi' is already in line to be the most beautiful song they've ever recorded. 'Videotape' likewise.

The discussion about the band choosing to release the album online for a voluntary donation is for another blog, in another world.

Apologies for the rambling. I'm sure it makes no sense whatsoever. My obsession grows, coupled with the fact that I am spending all day every day writing 120 word news stories about cats stuck in jars of marmite.

Meanwhile, we await the new record. Here are a few gems to tide you over.

This is a video of agonisingly short clips of the new songs:

And here are some old songs:

Radiohead: Subterranean Homesick Alien (From 'OK Computer')

Radiohead: Where I End And You Begin (From 'Hail to the Thief')

Radiohead: Nice Dream (From 'The Bends')

In Rainbows

2007-09-30T21:34:00.001+01:00

It has happened. And it came out of nowhere.

At around 2.53 this afternoon, my friend Nick reached for his mobile phone and read the following message.
"LP7," he began, "is the new Radiohead album. It is called 'In Rainbows'. It will be released in 10 days by download only."

The journalism class continued. Inside, however, my heart was doing somersaults. Was it true? Could it be?

3 agonising hours later I arrived home to confirmation from Jonny Greenwood on the band's website www.radiohead.com.

Hello everyone.

Well, the new album is finished, and it's coming out in 10 days;

We've called it In Rainbows.

Love from us all.
Jonny

This is going to be the longest 10 days of my life.

The latest news is that you can pre-order a download of the album for a donation of your choice from www.inrainbows.com, which you will recieve on 10th October. There will be no promos or PR as the band are releasing the record themselves.

A deluxe CD box will be released through the website in December.

A regular CD is planned for early 2008.

Way to mess with the system, Radiohead.

x

Golden Oldie

2007-09-30T21:34:00.000+01:00

WE LIVE in a frenzied age of fast food, tilting trains and entertainment on demand – but when it comes to music, the public knows what it likes.

When word got out that I was to interview self –proclaimed ‘King of romance’ Engelbert Humperdinck, it was like Thursday night at the bingo hall.

As memories of parents’ record collections flowed forth and choruses of ‘Release Me’ echoed round the office, it became clear that ‘the hump’ is a golden oldie in a sea of preening pop stars.

Humperdinck, 71, is indeed a fascinating personality, a kind of cartoon character you wouldn’t believe really exists in the flesh. Born in Madras, India and raised in the rather less glamorous surroundings of Leicester, he has acquired an American demeanour over years of exposure to the Hollywood lifestyle.

He scoffs when described as a crooner – “I am a contemporary singer, a stylised performer” – but accepts that while he has a novelty appeal to the masses, his loyal fan base lies in the older generation.

“The music business has changed since I was young, and I’ve had to adapt to that”, he says. “In the 60s, with the likes of The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Elvis, people made lasting material. The songs we wrote were evergreens, they lasted for years. In today’s world, you’re lucky if a song lasts 6 months before it is dismissed.”

Nobody can say Humperdinck hasn’t earned the right to his opinion. Breaking into the music business in the late 1950s under the name of Gerry Dorsey, he contracted Tuberculosis at the age of 25. While Elvis Presley was busy topping the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, Humperdinck was out of action for the whole of 1961.

“My voice is my lifeblood as a singer, and that was a scary time for me. Back then people thought T.B was a horrible disease and didn’t want to be anywhere near you.”

It is perhaps the memory of this traumatic time that keeps Humperdinck going. As he embarks on a gruelling world tour, including a date at the London Palladium on November 4, his enthusiasm is undiminished.

“After I turned 70, I said I wanted to return to playing 120 dates a year, and that’s exactly what I’m doing”, he says. Surely that must take its toll on a man in the autumn of his career?

“I’m still as energetic as I ever was”, he says. “I jump around on that stage like I’m a forty year-old!”

Humperdink admires fellow artists who appear to go on forever, but accepts that it is rapidly becoming a young man’s world.

“I don’t try to be young, I know my limits”, he says. He marvels at modern technology – “People can just sit down at a computer and connect with me!” – but remains nonplussed by the rapidly changing landscape. “It’s a funny old world right now. Some of it’s good, some of it’s bad.”

He comes across as a man who doesn’t dwell on the past. Does he have any regrets?
“If I could edit my past, I’d get a good manager and get my future secured at an early age”, he says. “Of all the money I’ve earned in my life, management has taken almost half.”

He praises the current team of masterminds behind his enduring popularity, and insists that he has no plans to hang up his microphone any time soon.
“On the day my new record came out, I was back in the studio recording new songs”, he says. “As long as the demand is there, I’ll keep churning them out!”

And with that, the Hump signs off, on his way to another L.A show, to entertain another few thousand adoring fans. Not bad for a golden oldie.

“It has been a wonderful journey”, he says. “I hope it never ends.”

Engelbert Humperdinck plays The London Palladium on November 4. For tickets call: 0870 890 1108.

Funny t-shirts

2007-09-29T20:41:00.000+01:00

If you laughed at any of the above, go here. If you didn't, shame shame shame on you shame on you and what you do.

You treat me like a woman when I feel like a man

2007-09-25T21:26:00.000+01:00

Remember Kula Shaker? They were great, weren't they?

Well, no actually. They weren't. I thought they were back in the heady days of 1996 as a foolish 11 year old. But as the mystical hipsters make a not very much awaited comeback, I have been listening to their debut album 'K' again.

It has its moments. 'Hey Dude', 'Knight on the Town' and 'Tattva' are really good pieces of songwriting. But most of it is overproduced guff, in the same vein as 'Be Here Now', 'This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours' and others that I can't think of right now because my head is filled with media law.

Anyway, they said something about Nazis and went away for a while. Now they're back. One of them used to be Hayley Mills' son. I believe at the time of writing this is still the case.

Kula Shaker: Hey Dude

Meanwhile, everyone's favourite cheeky indie popsters Radiohead have been posting coded messages on their website. They may or may not be related to their forthcoming album which may or may not be forthcoming. Nobody seems to know what they mean.

Apologies for the non-committal sparseness of todays blog. Like I said, my head is being infiltrated with Rupert Murdoch's lies and Conrad Black's pies.

If you want to see some words what I write on the news and that, go here.

This is the funniest show on TV

2007-09-17T23:31:00.001+01:00

You can keep your 'Friends', your 'Scrubs' and your 'Frasier'. You can keep your 'Black Books', 'I.T Crowd' and even 'The Mighty Boosh'.

Peep Show is a comedy masterpiece that makes me fall off my chair every time. There are too many quotes and too many clips to sum it up neatly in one go, but you can pretty much stick a pin in any episode of all 4 series and strike gold. It's all in the writing, courtesy of Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain. When you see some of the lines written down you realise how genius they are.

Adding to that, the shooting is dazzlingly original, the characters brilliantly and subtly observed and the awkward moments are even better than Ricky Gervais at his cringeworthy best.

If you've never seen it, the following may not make much sense out of context but I urge you to watch it from the start of series 1.

These are two of my favourite moments:

When you smile your sad eyes look sadder and sadder still

2007-09-16T21:52:00.000+01:00

It's funny how brilliant music can creep up on you sometimes. You can go months, years even hearing a name of a band but never listening to their music. So it was for me with Bat for Lashes, the pseudonym of 28 year-old Natasha Khan, a Brighton based singer/songwriter.

Khan rose to prominence recently after her debut album 'Fur and Gold' was made favourite for the increasingly meaningless Nationwide Mercury music prize, only to lose out to The Klaxons. Shallow glory-whore that I am, I then decided to have a listen. It's brilliant.

The usual comparisons are inevitable - Kate Bush, Bjork, Tori Amos etc - but this is more of just an amalgamation of eccentric sirens. There's an understated beauty about these songs, similar to Charlotte Gainsbourg but less French. I think it's a sign of a really great album when it gets better with every listen, and the songs start to reveal themselves more and more. There are only a handful of artists who can do this in my opinion - Radiohead, Death Cab for Cutie, The Frames, Sigur Ros, and of course Snoop Dogg - and I can now add Bat for Lashes to that illustrious list.

Plus, she's very pretty.

I urge you to legally purchase or otherwise obtain this fine piece of work. Meanwhile, here are three of my favourite tracks, of which there are many.

Bat for Lashes: Seal Jubliee

Bat for Lashes: The Wizard

Bat for Lashes: Sad Eyes

We love you, Conor

2007-09-12T17:17:00.000+01:00

I am training to be a journalist, which pretty much means forgetting everything you were ever taught in English lessons at school or college. And leaving behind any temptation to use long sentences or remotely elaborate adjectives.

Anyway, that doesn't have any relevance to anything. Except that this blog will henceforth forthwith be my haven for creative scripture.

I have rediscovered a lost album, as is my wont. I'm sure I've blogged about them before, but for the benefit of anyone who doesn't know already, Bright Eyes is a band consisting of singer-songwriter/guitarist Conor Oberst, multi-instrumentalist/producer Mike Mogis, Nate Walcott, and a rotating lineup of collaborators drawn primarily from Omaha's indie music scene.

In 2002 they released their 5th studio album, entitled 'Lifted or The Story is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground'. It's a brilliant, multi-layered, raw piece of work, much less produced and polished than their recent material. I first heard it on vinyl and it really works in that format. Oberst often sounds like he was meant for another era. I am fascinated by the guy, mainly because of his music but also because of his childhood and his passionate anti-war protest songs, a genre he seems to share with only Neil Young and Bruce Springsteen these days. See the hoarse-throated 'Road to Joy' from 'I'm Wide Awake It's Morning' -

'If you're going to fight a war that's over nothing, make sure you join the side that's going to win / No-one's sure how all of this got started, but we're gonna make them goddamn certain how it's gonna end'

Anyway, here are a couple of tracks from 'Lifted...':

Bright Eyes: Nothing Gets Crossed Out

Bright Eyes: False Advertising

and a blistering performance of 'Road to Joy' on Craig Ferguson, followed by an incredibly cringeworthy interview:

Why do they keep cheering everything he says? Stupid Americans.

I'm not sad. I'm just disappointed.

2007-09-03T18:01:00.000+01:00

In 2001, Irish band The Frames released a record called 'For The Birds'. It is a diamond in the rough of their discography, and is one of the most beautiful and affecting albums I know. The almost-too-quiet vocals and fragile guitar parts sound like they're going to fall apart at any time. They have been making music steadily for almost 20 years, but this record stands out amongst everything they - or anyone else - has done for a while. That's not very well phrased, because I'm very tired. But it's a great album.

They also have some pretty strong opinions on the modern music industry. They give an eye-opening insight into how their 1999 album 'Dance the Devil' was commercialised by American producer Trevor Horn here.

The Frames: Disappointed

The Frames: Headlong

Ps In my new life as a hotshot journalist, I am interviewing the actor Richard Wilson on Friday.

A Puzzle Wrapped Inside an Enigma

2007-08-29T15:30:00.000+01:00

Occasionally in this crazy world, a rock band pop up who confuse and perplex the masses with their musical stylings. The current group of popsters that the kids are, apparently, going mad for are Biffy Clyro. Typically late off the mark, I have just got hold of 'Puzzle', the new album from the Scottish rockers, and I just can't decide what I think of it.

At times they sound like a hybrid of The Liars, Queens of the Stone Age and System of a Down. Which is fine by me. But then a few tracks later, they start to venture into emotion-filled Stained/Idlewild/Jimmy Eat World territory. Then it goes a bit Blink 182/Busted. All of which is not necessarily a bad thing, but it confuses me. Also, they all have different lengths of beard.

It is an impressive feat, to display such variety within one album. It took Manic Street Preachers the best part of 10 years to go from angry, smashy, cutty rock rebels to moaning, weeping, hoovering jesses. That's right. JESSES.

Anyway, I can't make up my mind. So you'll have to do it for me. Fly pretties. Do my bidding.

Biffy Clyro: Living Is A Problem Because Everything Dies

Biffy Clyro: As Dust Dances

Shake Your Moneymaker

2007-08-23T12:00:00.000+01:00

Ah, indie bands with girl singers. Sleeper. Catatonia. Sneaker Pimps. They are every 14 year old boy's greatest Smash Hits fantasy. One group who seem to have avoided being lumped in with all the rest are Rilo Kiley. They have all the right ingredients - stunningly attractive female lead; three generic-looking guys behind her playing the instruments; and some decent indie pop tunes.

However, something seems to have changed with their new album, 'Under The Blacklight'. They've gone all funky! It's always dangerous when indie bands start to think they're James Brown. Manic Street Preachers tried it to limited success on 'Miss Europa Disco Dancer' from 'Know Your Enemy'. Pulp tried their hand at sultry, seedy funk on 'This Is Hardcore'.

Here, though, it seems as if Rilo Kiley have pulled it off. They've bought a slap bass, a couple of synthesisers and they're bringing back the funk. This is not a massive departure for them - Lewis' voice is still instantly recognisable, the clangy guitars and steady beats are still there, but it sounds like the band have been through a car wash and come out all new and shiny like. They have experimented, like all good bands should, and evolved, like all great bands do.

All together now - "Funkeee..."

Rilo Kiley: The Moneymaker

and specially for Megan, who before today was a Rilo Kiley virgin, here's an old song:

Rilo Kiley: A Better Son/Daughter

Further evidence to support the argument that there is nothing hotter than
a) a female singer
b) a female singer saying 'fuck'

Introducing your new favourite band

2007-08-17T20:48:00.000+01:00

Ok, so maybe I am jumping on a bandwagon which left the station a few years ago. And maybe I am hypocritcally embracing everything about the NME/Zane Lowe scene that I have previously professed to abhor. But I don't care. Because Canadian five-piece You Say Party! We Say Die! have won my heart. Despite a slew of great albums this year, it has been a while since I heard a new band who blow me away quite as much as these guys. The best comparison I can offer is a mixture of Sleater Kinney, Franz Ferdinand and The Alma Boobies, which doesn't sound great written down but trust me, it sounds a hell of a lot better on record.

Here is a track from their first album, 'Hit The Floor' released in 2005. Told you I was a latecomer. Their recent album 'Lose All Time' was released in April this year.

You Say Party! We Say Die!: Stockholm Syndrome pt i

Ps No Radiohead album anytime soon. Boo.

Some people never work a day in their lives, don't know what work even means

2007-08-16T19:16:00.000+01:00

So after three years of getting free money from the government to sit around playing Mario Kart and eating ice pops, the real world has hit me like a lead frisbee. In the words of Dolly Parton, 'Working nine to five, what a way to make a living. Barely getting by, it's all taking and no giving.' And people say she's just a big pair of tits.

Anyway, to that end here's the king of cheerful tunes, uncle Bobby Dylan, with a reminder that the sad songs are the best. Stay in school kids.

Bob Dylan: Working Man's Blues

[left click it and it might take you to the file. who knows.]

David Sandström & Co cover Wilco

2007-08-15T12:51:00.000+01:00

Second Wilco related post in the past 10 days but it's worth it.
Previously, 'Jesus etc' never jumped out at me from the album 'Yankee Hotel Foxtrot', but this is one of the most beautiful cover versions I've ever heard. If you know the original you will love this, and if you don't, you should.

I had a bad dream

2007-08-09T14:46:00.000+01:00

Continuing the theme of blogging about bands that I really should have blogged about before, here are Idlewild.

I got into Idlewild when their second album, '100 Broken Windows' came out in 2000, and I saw them live at the Birmingham Academy a couple of years later. I subsequently went back to their superb debut, 'Hope is Important', and watched them become more and more commercial and stadium rock oriented, but without losing their knack for a decent tune.

Here are a couple of my favourites:

Idlewild: Let Me Sleep Next To The Mirror

Idlewild: Everyone Says You're So Fragile

Anyone can play guitar...

2007-08-03T19:15:00.000+01:00

...but no-one can play as well as Nels Cline. 'Impossible Germany' is a diamond in the rough of Wilco's recent album 'Sky Blue Sky'. Check it. Unless you are Jonny Greenwood or Brian May, you will never ever come close to playing guitar like that.

They can call me crazy if I fail. All the chance I need is one in a million, and they can call me brilliant if I succeed.

2007-07-30T21:25:00.000+01:00

I realised today that I have not yet blogged about one of my favourite musicians in the 'ole world.

Ani Difranco is a New York based singer/songwriter, often [although not often enough] found in the 'folk' section of your friendly neighbourhood record emporium. She has been making records since before I was in short trousers, and is still going strong, announcing yet another mini UK tour this autumn, supported by anti-folk legend Hammell on Trial. In this era of 'ipods', 'sky plus' and 'oyster cards', you can rely on Ani to provide genuinely thought-provoking music, released independently as a firm two-fingers to the music industry fat cats. A drop in the ocean it may be, but as she says herself, "the masters tools will never dismantle the masters house".

If you don't know her work, you should check it the hell out and you will be transported on a magical journey of witty, poignant poetry and skilful, beautiful music. Every few years she re-invents herself - these two tracks represent very different points in her career.

'Out of Habit' comes from her debut album, released in 1990, and tells the story of how dazzled she was by Manhattan when she first moved there.

Ani Difranco: Out of Habit

'Swim' comes from her 2005 record 'Knuckledown', co-produced by Joe Henry.

Ani Difranco: Swim [sorry its an m4a file. technology fails me yet again. communists.]

Fifteen years after her debut and still as great as ever. This autumn she will release a best-of, entitled 'Canon'. So get yourself down to Shepherds Bush Empire on October 19th. That's if I don't get there first.

You wouldn't want to be anywhere else in the world right now

2007-07-28T10:05:00.001+01:00

There's nothing like being part of the rush hour rat race to make you appreciate the wonder of the ipod. The morning tube ride turns into a sequence from a low budget indie film, the soundtrack to which is controlled entirely by your right thumb.

Here are two of my current favourites.

desparecidos: happies place on earth

amiina: rugla

underground

2007-07-23T22:00:00.000+01:00

apologies for the lack of updates. although im sure you have lives and didn't even notice. i have been busy moving house and shoulder barging men in suits on the choo choo tube trains and selling legal advice to people who don't need it.

anyway i got a new guitar its a beautiful tanglewood semi acoustic.

also the artwork for my new record is done.

the album should be ready to be given out to anybody who wants it in a few weeks. meanwhile show your appreciation for the artist here, or listen to a couple of preview tracks here.

more coherent and less self promoting drivel on its way. promise.

s x

No TV and no beer makes Homer something something

2007-07-05T14:47:00.000+01:00

The movie that's been eighteen years in the making.

Mika sticks it to the man

2007-06-30T18:07:00.000+01:00

Yesterday morning MSNBC news anchor Mika Brezezinski refused to report on the lead story of Paris Hilton being released from jail, attempting to burn the paper on which the story was written in a defiant protest against celebrity culture.

Saying "I hate this story and I don't think it should be our lead", Brezezinski was teased by her co-anchors who joked that she "changed the world" as she fed the paper into a shredding machine live on air.

It's a bizzare piece of footage, some people believe it was staged.
Although she is completely correct and justified in her opinions, neither Brezezinski nor her co-anchors seemed to be taking it very seriously at all.

Anyway in the words of Kent Brockman, that's my two cents. I promise that this blog will return to being about music and less about other stuff soon.

Shameless self promotion [do the locomotion]

2007-06-29T17:23:00.001+01:00

It's fun to rhyme.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, I make music.

As I complete my new CD, this blog seems as good a place as any [i.e better than myspace] for some shameless self promotion. I like to think that my music is un-pigeonhole-able, but it could probably be very easily pigeonholed as acoustic alternative something something.

Last year I made an album called 'Sunshine In Your Veins':

This cover was designed by Birmingham based artist Jessica Ashman, and she is currently beavering away on the new artwork for my new CD, 'Losing You, which should be ready to send to people within the next couple of weeks. If you're interested, go to www.myspace.com/samblackledge and check out the tunes. If you want a CD, drop me a line.

And just for you, because you asked so nicely, here is a freebie from the new album.

Sam Blackledge: Magicians

Non, je ne regrette rien

2007-06-26T15:08:00.000+01:00

Yesterday I saw La Vie en Rose, the life story of french singer Edith Piaf. Marion Cotillard plays the lead role, and she is absolutely stunning. The film itself is overshadowed by Cotillard's incredible performance, which should gain her an Oscar nomination if there's any justice in Hollywood. Which there isn't, of course.

Anyway the point is that Olivier Dahan, the director, chose to use the original recordings of Piaf singing in the film, and to great effect. She really did have a truly original voice which only got better with time.

Here is the real Edith Piaf back in the day:

If you want something done properly, do it yourself.

2007-06-19T15:11:00.000+01:00

It’s an admirable ethos, but one that’s unlikely to win you many friends. That doesn’t seem to bother Phill Wilson, however, as he makes his way as one of the most intriguing solo artists to grace Hull’s open mic scene for quite some time. Going under the name of MyOneManBand, Wilson defies labels: onstage he is a shy, shambling mix of Damien Rice and Jonny Greenwood, using delay pedals and sample banks to expertly loop his performance in real time, literally a ‘one man band’. ‘I’m a failed epic artist, because I don’t have the band behind me,’ he laughs. ‘The electronics and samplers are my way of trying to be me but more so. Trying to layer me upon me until you’ve got a band’s worth of me.’ Off duty, Wilson is much more forthcoming than his stage persona, holding forth on everything from the current music scene to the first time he picked up a guitar, a story which will be familiar to any music fan who grew up in the ‘90s. ‘One of my friends got a copy of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? and an acoustic guitar, as everyone does, and that’s what got me into it really.’

Born in Beverley, Wilson is a fiercely loyal Yorkshire lad, and despite having spent three years at university in Carlisle he knows where his roots are. He describes the frustration of not being able to fully experience the Hull scene when he was younger, and is at pains to champion up-and-coming bands like The Holy Orders and Alison Angus, who he feels would be closer to breaking into the big time if they were based in a bigger city. ‘The one thing that I don’t like is the sheer apathy that the majority of Hull still has about music,’ he says. ‘There’s so much going on, there are people who if they were in Leeds, Manchester or Sheffield, they’d be followed, and they’d have people who wanted to see them make it. Here, you can promote and promote, and you’re still performing to a handful of people.’ It’s a view that all bands in Hull would surely endorse, but Wilson himself tries to use it to his advantage. ‘I largely play to other people’s audiences; part of the fun for me is being the support act, and turning other people’s crowds around to me.’

The way that Wilson works is nothing new – the use of delay pedals to create a fuller sound is becoming increasingly common – but behind the pedal board and layers of loops, he is not averse to writing a bloody good tune. He pens fragile fragments of desire and heartbreak, subtly enhanced by his technical skills. ‘The Boy Meets Girl Song’ is a particular highlight among his newer material, starting off as an understated four-chord ballad, growing into something more substantial as Wilson harmonises with himself without losing the song’s original simplicity. It may sound like typical music geek talk, but it’s rare to be able to identify all of the separate fragments of a song working together, and this is exactly what MyOneManBand manages to create.

Anyone who frequents the Adelphi’s legendary Monday night open mic session will be familiar with Wilson’s unique style – dressed in a waistcoat, jacket and red cravat with hair somewhere between Adam Ant and Pete Doherty, he looks like a Dickensian character who has stumbled into 2007 and found that he is still cool. He is refreshingly matter-of-fact about plying his trade around the various musicians’ nights, despite the growing interest in his work. ‘As far as I’m concerned, I wouldn’t have been able to do what I do now without open mics. They provide a forum for you to come and test out new stuff. Every time I write a new song, it’s a case of coming back to an open mic, and getting feedback from an audience that really have no expectation of you.’ The downside of performing regularly in such a small musical community, he says, is the danger of overexposure. ‘There is that risk of overplaying yourself, and you often see the same people playing the same songs.’

The days of being just another unknown open mic hopeful may soon be a thing of the past for MyOneManBand, however. He recently had support slots with Windum Earl and one-man band hero Thomas Truax, and hopes to build on this growing promise over the next few months. He expresses a desire to begin releasing records, but there are no plans to add to the members of the group, preferring to keep the creative differences inside his own head. His lack of technical knowledge restricts him in terms of forming bands. ‘I have no musical background, I can’t read or write music, so presenting my ideas and working with other people was always difficult.’ Wilson describes himself as ‘an introverted show-off’, which seems to neatly sum up the mass of contradictions which make him such a fascinating musician. He recalls the teenage phases he went through, from Britpop to metal (‘there was a dangerous time when I could’ve turned out like a little rave kid’), but these days he doesn’t fit neatly into the ‘scenes’ so beloved by music journalists. The fickle nature of fashion is a constant source of amusement to him. ‘Going out in Hull, you do see all the kids that used to bully you at school who’ve now bought the tight jeans and the pointy shoes and they’re out there with you,’ he says, ‘which is simultaneously uplifting and morbidly depressing.’ Judging by the increasing flow of positive comments doing the rounds, it may be the one man band that has the last laugh.

www.myspace.com/myonemanband

This article was published in the June edition of Sandman music magazine.
www.sandmanmagazine.co.uk

This is what you get when you mess with us

2007-06-15T18:43:00.001+01:00

Note to self: build time machine. Go back 10 years. Buy OK Computer again.

If you know me, you'll know how much of a Radiohead fanboy I am. So I won't go on about it. Suffice to say OK Computer, which was released 10 years ago tomorrow, is one of the greatest albums of all time by a band at the top of their game. They haven't matched it since. But then nobody has. When I first got it, I played it on my dad's old stereo system through big headphones and hated it. Then I realised I was wrong. Then I loved it.

The end.

With a hey, and a ho, and a hey-nonny-no...

2007-06-13T20:44:00.000+01:00

Ah, folk music. Beards. Tweed. Old men with beards and tweed. Right? Yes. But not always. Kate Rusby is just one of a handful of young mainly British folk artists who have slowly but surely made the genre semi-cool again. The Barnsley lass has released seven albums, which I am excitedly planning to rediscover over the next few months, starting with 1997's Hourglass, made up of both traditional folk songs and Rusby's own compositions.

And speaking of 1997, this is yet another classic album from that year, all of which celebrate their 10th anniversary this year, so I am planning to construct a post based around this fact. Stay tuned. In the meantime, break out your bodhran, dust off your dulcimer and enjoy the opening track from Kate Rusby's debut album.

Kate Rusby: Sir Elgamore

Plus, Ain't she purty?

You might miss me more than you think you will

2007-06-06T16:08:00.000+01:00

Wine then cider then beer then wine then beer ... and you'll be fine. Or not, as the case may be. The end of uni binge has finished and all we're left with is awkward man hugs and empty rooms with blu-tac stained walls.

There's only one thing for it - a goodbye mixtape.

Some of these songs are personal favourites which hold memories of the last three years [although most of my current music collection has been acquired over that period], and some are just sad songs to say goodbye to.

The Postal Service: Sleeping In

Sparklehorse: Don't Take My Sunshine Away

The National: Brainy

Yo La Tengo: I Feel Like Going Home

Jon Brion: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

By the way if you like the picture above, go here.

You don't know how lucky you are . . .

2007-06-01T11:07:00.000+01:00

As I approach the final days of student life, nostalgia is the order of the day around campus. This theme has extended to my itunes library. As the saying goes, the old ones are the best, and I have rediscovered the very best of the old ones. The Beatles' The White Album [1968], and Joni Mitchell's Blue [1971] - are surely two of the greatest albums of the last forty years.

The incredible thing is that they're still going - Paul McCartney's new album comes out on June 5th, and Joni has a new one coming too, due in the autumn. Or 'fall' as my crazy American friends would say. I think you'd get pretty long odds on The Arctic Monkeys lasting quite so long. They don't make 'em like they used to.

Anyway, here are two of my favourite tracks from the respective albums.

The Beatles - Back in the U.S.S.R

Joni Mitchell - A Case of You

its alright. it'll be alright.

2007-05-22T19:48:00.000+01:00

Last night was open mic at the Adelphi club, which made me sad as it is soon time to leave the greatest city in East Yorkshire.

I bumbled my way through a few songs before being completely and utterly upstaged by Bristol's Seagull Strange, who delivered one of the most uplifting, toe-tapping, foot-stomping, ear-flicking sets in recent memory. I can't really describe their sound without sounding trite and resorting to 'a cross between this and this' cliches, so in the words of George Michael, listen.

Seagull Strange: Sulla's Return

The album is called 'Better Angels of Our Nature', and it's out now. I recommmend.

I was going to go to see The Thermals tonight but am too sleepy and have to get up early to catch a very long train to the big smoke. So that's about it for now I'm off to my bed. I worry that no-one reads these things. If you are reading this, leave a comment and prove me wrong.

In the words of George Michael, fast love.

x

I love your eyes my dear

2007-05-13T13:07:00.000+01:00

Everybody has two or three artists or bands with whom we fall in love at a relatively young age. For pre-pubescent boys, at least one of these is usually a girl. My girl was Björk. I discovered her around the time of Post, her second studio album released in 1995, when I was a 10 year-old happy go lucky scamp. She was laughed at in the media, and labelled as a kooky Icelandic pixie due to her eccentric behaviour around this time.

My obsession grew in 1997 as I saw her live and with the release of Homogenic, one of a number of albums released in that year which shaped my musical taste, I was head over heels. Homogenic saw Björk experimenting more with dance beats, but making them sound beautiful, which I had never known before. 2001's Vespertine was another departure - ditching the beats, she employed Matmos and the result was a pretty, chiming, intricate work of art.

In 2001, she released Medulla, which is my least favourite album. WIth guests such as Rahzel and Mike Patton, the songs are made up only of human vocals, which, impressive as it is, means they lack something of Björk's usual warmth.

She returns this week with Volta, and like every other release, this is a Björk album that will certainly divide opinion. In a sense, this album is like all of her other albums rolled into one. The floating clouds of Vespertine [I See Who You Are] stand alongside the pumping beats first heard on Homogenic [Innocence], and the grandeur of Selmasongs, her soundtrack to the film 'Dancing in the Dark', released in 2000, can be heard in Dull Flame of Desire. The male voice on this track is Antony Hegarty, of Antony and the Johnsons.

Anyway, enough rambling. As you have probably guessed, I love Björk. Here are my two favourite tracks from the new record Volta, which is out now.

Björk [feat. Antony Hegarty]: Dull Flame of Desire

Björk: Innocence

x

You must have more important things to do...

2007-05-07T14:13:00.000+01:00

It's eyes down for a full house here in University land, where three years of sitting around watching Deal or No Deal and picking our teeth has come down to two weeks of actual work. Save your tears though, you shouldn't feel too sorry for us, mainly because if we stopped aimlessly surfing the net we'd be finished by now and lying in a booze-fuelled pool of vomit/blood/pizza.

To that end, I have been downloading a barrell load of good music recently, amongst which is the new album from Minnesota's Low. Drums and Guns is their eighth studio album, and sees a move away from their sunnier, catchier side as seen on Things We Lost in the Fire and The Great Destroyer, and more towards a Liars/Broken Social Scene-esque tribal-beat led sound. It takes a few listens, but it's growing on me more and more.

Low: Murderer

Low: Belarus

x

The Holy Orders

2007-05-02T16:01:00.000+01:00

The last few days have been taken up by worrying about life, wishing I was at Coachella, reading about tibetan buddhism and complaining about my wisdom teeth hurting. I lead a busy life.

Anyway as I am coming rather too quickly towards the end of 3 years in the metropolis of Hull, I promised I would post about some local bands. The Holy Orders are by far the best Hull-based band I have encountered during my time here. I first came across them when I saw lead singer Matt 'Edible' Thompson regularly on the open mic circuit, he is quite a character and a brilliant songwriter. His performances are powerful, energetic and witty. This is a song that he often plays solo during their shows.

The Holy Orders: Astronauts

In other news, looking forward to the new Interpol album . . . thinking of going to see Bright Eyes in Birmingham depending on what state my life is in . . . oh and finishing the old degree . . .

x

Lazy Sunday Selection

2007-04-29T16:13:00.000+01:00

Happy Sunday.

This morning my computer caught a cough and died, but was dramatically revived and lives on, allowing me to bring you this lazy sunday selection.

When I was younger, Sundays were all about youth theatre, reading The Observer, eating soup and dreading going back to school on Monday. Now they are about hangovers and a perfect excuse not to do any work.

Here are a few relaxing tunes to make your lazy Sunday that little bit more comfy.
Right click and save-as, and remember, if you like the tunes, support the artists and buy the albums. Otherwise Flea will cry.

The National: Cold Girl Fever from the album 'The National'

Wilco: Impossible Germany from the album 'Sky Blue Sky'

Billy Bragg: Must I Paint You a Picture from the album 'Must I Paint You a Picture?: The Essential Billy Bragg'

Múm: I'm 9 Today from the album 'Yesterday was Dramatic, Today is Ok.

Enjoy x

Modest Mouse in my house - album of the year so far part ii

2007-04-28T12:08:00.000+01:00

Following up yesterday's endorsement of Andrew Bird's Armchair Apocrypha, the second part of my album of the year so far award goes to Modest Mouse for We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank.

Joined by ex-smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, Modest Mouse's fifth studio album is their best produced to date, more accessible and moving away from the rawness of their earlier work. Some people may mourn this - I think it can only be a good thing, as I haven't been able to stop listening to this album for weeks now. Isacc Brock's lyrics remain razor sharp and the tunes are spot on.

Modest Mouse: March Into the Sea

Meanwhile, all of my friends will be very relieved to hear that today is the Cricket World Cup final, meaning an end to 6 weeks of men in coloured pyjamas hitting a ball with a stick of wood. Still, only 3 weeks until the first test match . . . .

x

Have you heard of Andrew Bird? - album of the year so far pt i

2007-04-27T12:04:00.000+01:00

It's fun to rhyme. Especially when you've got a dissertation to do.

Right, it's time to discuss record of the year so far, seeing as it's April and all. So far I have two contenders from a very strong batch of [mainly american] cds to have been released since january. Surprisingly, the albums I was most looking forward to - Wilco, Bright Eyes, Rufus Wainwright - have been slightly disappointing, so the first part of my joint award goes to Andrew Bird's Armchair Apocrypha.

This is a brilliant work, orchestral without being too grand, poppy without surrendering his trademark idiosyncracies. These songs will get in your head and take over your ipod - I guarantee it.

Andrew Bird: Heretics

Stay tuned for the second part of album of the year so far tomorrow, where I will be rhyming another band's name with a different word.

Oh and in the near future I will be writing about some local bands from Hull [where I am studying] so keep checking in.

x

Laura Veirs & Househunting

2007-04-26T12:50:00.000+01:00

I discovered Laura Veirs yesterday whilst experiencing new depths of procrastination. Fans of The Decemberists will know her from her vocals on 'Yankee Bayonet', and her sixth album 'Saltbreakers' is out now. I don't know how to describe her music so just listen to it and if you like it buy it.

laura veirs: don't lose yourself

Meanwhile I am looking for a flashare in London and not having a great deal of success. If anyone is in a similar position you know what to do.

Safe.

Joanna Newsom and the Ys Street Band

2007-04-25T14:05:00.000+01:00

A corny name yes, but harpist-du-jour Joanna Newsom follows up the stunning 'Ys' with a charming little EP, demonstrating the more folky side of her work.

There are re-workings of old songs 'clam crab cockle cowrie' and 'cosmia', as well as a new song 'colleen' which merges bluegrass and celtic folk styles.

Plus, she's still pretty

In other news Australia are playing South Africa in the cricket world cup semi final today so I'm off to get a good spot in front of the big screen in my local. Have a nice day.

s x

Welcome to Meeting in the Aisle

2007-04-24T22:33:00.000+01:00

Hello my name is sam.

New blog. Welcome. Make yourself at home. Get some nachos. Cup of tea.

I will be blogging about music.

I like indie, rock, indie rock, and that substantially populated genre of music known only as 'other'.

I also like cricket, books, cricket books, taking pictures and sitting down.

For my first trick I will introduce you to my favourite band, Radiohead, who provide the title for this blog, Meeting in the Aisle.

radiohead - meeting in the aisle

enjoy

s x