Look over there


There are new things going on over at slightlyinperfect meaning that things are going to be a bit quieter here (if you notice the difference).

Also check the flickr links here and there to see what should be a constantly updated bunch of photos that I've taken. Comments welcome over there as and when you feel like it. Some people seem to be checking them out going by the number of times viewed, not sure who though.

14:57 | 0 Comments, | permanent link

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Want


Futher to the month of May being ridiculous for the number of new records I want here is another list of wants from this month...

Teenage Fanclub - Man Made
Four Tet - Everything Ecstatic
Gorillaz - Demon Days
Dungen - Ta Det Lungt (at last in the UK. Woo Hoo!)
Bill Fay - Bill Fay
Bill Fay - Time Of The Last Persecution
Belle & Sebastian - Push Barman To Open Old Wounds
Donovan - Four 60's reissues
Hal - Hal (might be bland, sounds like it's worth a punt though)
Fopp keep listing the Rough Trade comps such as Indiepop 01 on their website for £5. Can't find them in the shop though. Damn!/blessing in disguise?
The Coral - The Invisible Invasion (nice single but doubt I'll buy this - a band who haven't live up to their initial promise despite talking a good game in interviews)

15:08 | 0 Comments, | permanent link

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Singles Going Steady


Hot tracks.

Snoop Dogg ft. Justin Timberlake - Signs
This is just brilliant. Great horn sample, Snoop sounds good and the Justin bits bring to mind the best bits of Justified. Can't help but find myself singing it for hours after I've heard it and it keeps pushing me to try embaressing dance moves whilst doing the dishes. Proves the Neptunes haven't lost their touch.

Basement Jaxx - Oh My Gosh
Should really pick up their singles disc as they have had some great singles over the last few years and surprisingly for being the new track put on to pad out the hits comp this is fantastic. I never quite recognise it at first when the verses start off but when it hits that chorus, joy be unconfined. Easily up there with Red Alert, Romeo, Where's Your Head At etc.

The Tears - Refugees
I initially got stupidly excited about Bernard and Brett being back together even if it is simply a marriage of convenience for two underperforming careers. Suede came out at an important time for me and those first two albums and attendant singles still stand up as something special. I think the band lost a lot of what had made them important and special after Bernard left so messily, even if the Coming Up album was such a big hit; the mystery had disappeared with him.

So, here they are back together and this sounds pretty good though the decadence and mystery have unsurprisingly not reappeared. Bernard is still great on guitar, still exciting. Brett's lyrics haven't changed a jot, singing about the kids and the streets and the high rise flats. You would have thought he might have moved on but I suppose that's his style and he's sticking to it. The sound is a bit more like Coming Up than the two records that Butler was actually involved in which means rather too many trebly synth lines for my liking. They need to turn up the guitar and turn down those synths. All in all, it's not bad and the album's ok too though I'm not going to get gushy about it. Hope they get the chance to make a second record to see where this goes.

11:15 | 0 Comments, | permanent link

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This 'n' That


1. Watching 24 is like eating Pringles. You watch one...then you have to watch another, then another and so on. The only thing that stops you watching another is that if you watch that one more then you know you're going to want to watch the one after that too. And you know, there's work tomorrow and stuff and it's nearly 11.30...oh go on then. Just one more.
2. Press Gang. Started watching the first series. It's 16 years old! Snappy writing even from the first episode. Spike (where is he now...theatre?) & Linda (Argos adverts) = Sam & Diane = quick fire arguments. My God but the Linda Day character is annoying but suppose that's the point. Hey, look, there's Phil's girlfriend from Eastenders. Isn't Knightmare on next.
3. Library today = Kirsty MacColl:From Croydon To Cube - An Anthology...Mogwai:Young Team...The Faces:Five Guys Walk Into A Bar(Box Set) and a book of Annie Liebowitz photos.
4. It's always without fail around about April/May that the interesting new releases start flooding rather than trickling out, this week being a case in point...Ben Folds:Songs For Silverman...Eels:Blinking Lights And Other Revelations(haven't bought anything by them since I got their first LP on import. This new one is a double (33 tracks) and therefore appeals to my previously stated delight in sprawlingly overly ambitious double albums. 7 years in the making, inspired by death and suicide, guest appearances by Tom Waits, Peter Buck and John Sebastian...Stereolab:Oscillons From The Anti-Sun (3CD's and one DVD..comp of EP tracks). How can you go wrong with 3 CD's of prime period 'Lab with a DVD of promos and TV appearance and all for only £13. Answer: You can't.
Also, The Fall: Peel Sessions box set. May have to buy this at some point. Don't know why. Just a kurious oranj I suppose.
5. The Life And Death Of Peter Sellers:Good film, great performance, one messed up bastard of a man. You don't really come out liking him at the end. Which is a shame.
6. Restless Natives: Out on DVD at last. Yay!

14:04 | 0 Comments, | permanent link

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SoTT Touches Down


It was the tablecloth right enough at the post office but thankfully the CD's arrived too. The neighbour had taken them in. Thanks to a speedy work computer they're all ripped to mp3 now and the 8 or 9 discs I need to fit them all onto will burn in about 2 minutes each on my speedy work computer. Just need to take them home to my not as speedy home computer and get typing on those tracklistings.

Must remember to rate as I go because realistically most of these comps will get one listen only and I need some way to remember what is worth going back to. If I can do that then I can have a nice tidy playlist at the end with all the 4 and 5 rated songs (if there are any). I did this with a previous SoTT and it worked pretty well although it means I have to make snap judges after hearing something once which isn't always the best, sometimes you have to give songs time to grow on you. The scale of this makes this unrealistic though. I'll be erring on the high side and then I can always downgrade later.

Isn't it terrible the way that this sounds like some arduous task that I have to wade through instead of a bonanza of fun new music to listen to? I suppose I'm just concerned about missing something cool and if I don't do it in this regimented way then I will miss things. I'm sure I'll enjoy it too.

11:24 | 0 Comments, | permanent link

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SoTTing iD3 tags


There was a note from the postman through the door yesterday so I'm hoping that was my SoTT Cd's but I bet it was just a table cloth from DK :-(. The thought of 49 CD's is horribly daunting not least because I have to type all the tracklistings into iTunes. I've made a small dent in this with my previous SoTT's over the last couple of week but there are still about 1918 tracks that have to have info added. Insane.

14:15 | 0 Comments, | permanent link

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Rumpty Tumpty Tum


*Cough* *Cough* Check...1....2....Hello...is this thing on...

Hi, still here, been a while but isn't it always between posts. I could post every day to my hearts content but there would still only be 2 people reading this. Maybe I should post a little often rather than a lot less often? Maybe I just shouldn't have a blog?

Anyway, almost all those records I mentioned in my last post I got as you can see from the current listening bar down the side although it's out of date and I'm not really listening to most of them that much just now 'cause I've got a whole pile of other stuff I'm listening to acquired from GR, the library and someone at work - so Nick Cave, Dinosaur Jr, Joni Mitchell, Rough Trade's Counter Culture 03 comp, Steely Dan, New Order, Simple Minds, Of Montreal, M Ward amongst others though I was also listening to Jellyfish this morning for the first time in an age. Also back listening to The Concretes and The Cardigans and Cody Chesnutt.

Digging those C's.

14:11 | 2 Comments, | permanent link

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Not Enough Hours In The Day


The start of a new month means the music mags are out which is mostly a good thing. Uncut have a feature on 'The Sound of Young Scotland' or the infamous Postcard records who released the early singles by Orange Juice, The Go-Betweens and Aztec Camera. Early Orange Juice especially is a thing of joy and wonder and something to cling to as I await some better news of Edwyn Collins' condition in hospital. They really were a brilliant band not afraid to assimilate say, Al Green or funk into their ramshackle whiteboy guitar pop. They could be so camp with it as well, which Edwyn admits they played up just to annoy the hard nosed punks in the audience which is pretty punk in itself. You could see why they would be annoyed by Collins who in one publicity picture is wearing knee length red shorts and who stood on stage singing 'Ye gawds I'm simply thrilled honey'. Life affirming.

The new music mags also mean new album anticipation which I haven't had in a while. I've bought very few new records this year so far with the last two being Rhino's compilations in the Nuggets series compiling obscure psych and sunshine pop. Glancing at Uncut and Mojo has got me considering Rufus Wainwright's 'Want Two', Arcade Fire's 'Funeral', Brendan Benson's 'Alternative To Love', Edan's 'Beauty and The Beat', Antony and The Johnsons 'I Am A Bird Now' and even 'Guilty Pleasures Rides Again' a double disc of songs you shouldn't admit to liking(including Chas 'n' Dave!). The sort of stuff that Radio 2 used to play and you'd hear in the car on holiday. Even considering Doves new one and I don't even like them that much. Must just have been in the mood for some new music last night but some or all of these I shall no doubt pick up at some stage.

It's not as though I haven't got lots of new things to listen to. Been on a downloading frenzy at least compared to normal. This netted a disc of Nick Drake demos and outtakes, a pretty succesful mash up of The Beatles Revolver, Bob Dylan appearing on a radio show in 1962 complete with interview and live in the studio songs (fascinating stuff especially when I'm reading his 'Chronicles Vol. 1'), Damon Albarn's Democrazy (which includes a demo of part of the new Gorillaz track Dirty Harry), Dylan and Johnny Cash in the studio together in 1969 when Dylan's was singing in a voice almost unrecognisable from how he had sang in the previous years and indeed after, a whole bunch of Jon Brion demos and unreleased tracks, Nellie McKay live at the Aldrich Museum 130804 which is excellent although the person who put it up has cut the between song banter which is unfortunate as I suspect this is probably an important part of one of her shows. Also got a recording of The Tears in Oxford (The Tears being the new band formed by Brett Anderson and Bernard Butler) which I was very eager to hear especially given my love for the early singles and first album by Suede. Sadly the sound quality isn't much cop and I don't want to judge them on the basis of a dodgy bootleg (which may just mean they were rubbish but as I said I'm going to give them a fair chance and wait till I hear some proper studio stuff). Oh yeah, add to the list a bunch of Franz Ferdinand demos, radio sessions and unreleased stuff including a cover of Pulp's Mis-shapes recorded for Radio 1 and a few new songs.

Finally (I think), Fiona Apple's record company Sony won't release her new record. Her last one 'When The Pawn...' comes highly recommended. Great songs, great voice and Jon Brion's production and keyboards all over it. 'Fast As You Can'was on especially frequent rotation when it came out. The new one has been in the can for some time but for whatever reason her label won't put it out. It would be nice to report that the 5 tracks I have from this unreleased album are fantastic, as good as anything on the last one and that it is an enormous injustice that it's not been released but on one listen they're not that hot, being melodically uninspiring (update: as I'm writing this I've just acquired the rest of the record so we'll see what it's like all together) That was only on one listen though. It still seems unfair to shackle an artist like that. No doubt they won't let her go to another company and she's not going to be able to record anything else until this comes out even if she wanted to. There seems to be a bit of an internet campaign building up around this so we may have another Wilco situation although whether she'll achieve what they did in getting a subsidiary of the same parent company to buy the record meaning that the record company basically paid for the record twice remains to be seen.

-Deep breath-

In addition to this I also got a bunch of stuff from someone at work - British Sea Power's new record Open Season which I quite enjoyed, Skinnyman's Council Estate Of Mind, about 30 Wesley Willis tracks who obviously knew his animals managing to not only write the stone cold classic 'Suck A Camel's Dick' but also the follow up 'Suck a Bactrian Camel's Dick'. Every song ends with 'Rock Over London, Rock On Chicago' followed by an advertising phrase eg 'Polaroid, see what develops'. It has to be said though that listening to music made by the mentally ill can be an uncomfortable pasttime.

Finally, and I think this really is finally I got some Richard Thompson live things, a gig for Radio Wales and a fine recording of one of his '1000 Years Of Popular Music' shows where he covers everything from songs in latin from the 13th Century up to Prince's 'Kiss', Abba's 'Money Money Money' and Britney Spears' 'Oops! I Did It Again'. Most unexpected but really quite fine. Look for the song Dear Janet available on his website for an example of a previously unexpected (by me at least) bawdy sense of humour.

So as you can see, not really anything new to listen to so I really have to consider buying all those albums.

(Yeah, I know I should have put more links through this post but it's boring and I can't be bothered. You know where google is and if you can't find something then you can ask)

10:26 | 1 Comments, | permanent link

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Dizzee VU of the Preachers Ives


Not posted in a while, nothing meaningful anyway apart from the tracklistings below which hardly make scintillating reading. Nothing interesting to say I suppose. My SOTT tracklisting is basically there. Listened to it a bit much so I'm starting to get a wee bit jaded with it so probably the time to put it to bed and accept what it is. Not too different to what I posted below but some changes to help the flow and a couple of different tracks added. I'll post it in due course. Just have to dub 49 copies now!

Visited the library the other day and got another small pile of things to listen to. Dizzee Rascal's Showtime which I've only listened to bits of, Reed/Cale and Nico live at the Bataclan in 1972 doing some solo things and, of course, some VU stuff. It's acoustic so makes for some very pretty versions of the Nico tracks from the first VU album. Haven't had the stomach for the tracks from Nico's solo stuff yet. Maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised. Also, The Essential Kris Kristofferson 'cause sometimes it's interesting to delve into these hard living country guys who can write and perform a country song without turning your stomach. There's a certain attitude to this that I like and a kinship with Johnny Cash which can't be a bad thing. The discs mainly cover the late 60's and early 70's which again is a good thing. No scrabbling about in the 1980's with synthesised drums trying to find a voice.

Not often classical music crosses my path but there's an article in the Look!Listen!Vibrate!Smile! book compiled by Dominic Priore that compares some of what Brian Wilson was doing with Smile with Charles Ives the American composer. I've heard something of his before which I seem to remember sounded like two marching bands crashing into each other. His 4th Symphony which I was listening to yesterday has elements of that and in places reminded me of Carl Stalling's work for Warner Brothers cartoons of all things. This is down to Ives taking popular American tunes and weaving them into the fabric of his work and this is evident in the second movement. This symphony was deemed unperformable until it was attempted in 1965 as it requires more than one orchestra plus choir on stage. It also needs two conductors so I can't imagine it's been attempted too often. An interesting listen though it won't be entering regular rotation.

Finally, I got the Manic Street Preachers 'The Holy Bible' which I haven't heard in 10 years and was impressive if only for James Dean Bradfield being able to fit the labyrinthine lyrics into any sort of tune. It's the only album of theirs that perhaps lives up to what they set out to be and if Richey Edwards hadn't gone missing who knows if they could have survived as a band having this album's weight on their shoulders. As it is he did go missing and they were able to move on with a fresh slate though maybe they were merely swapping one set of baggage for another. Can't get round to really liking them though, still can't get passed the fact that their drummer wears leather gloves for God's sake. For all the apparent rock 'n' roll posturing, 4 real and all that, I still can't get passed those damn gloves.

10:26 | 0 Comments, | permanent link

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SOTT 18 - Everything You Need


1. Ben Folds - Inbetween Days
2. Jason Falkner - Lost Myself
3. Scissor Sisters - Take Your Mama
4. Bic Runga - Get Some Sleep
5. Teitur - I Was Just Thinking
6. Alfie - Stuntman
7. Belle And Sebastian - Dear Catastrophe Waitress
8. Delays - Long Time Coming
9. Tue West - Du Er Min Sol
10. Mellow - Out Of Reach
11. Stereolab - Vonal Declosion
12. Air - Run
13. N*E*R*D - Wonderful Place (Edit)
14. Ivor Cutler - I Believe In Bugs
15. The Fiery Furnaces - Crystal Clear
16. The Streets - Fit But You Know It
17. Franz Ferdinand - The Dark Of The Matinee
18. Swan Lee - In Your Life
19. Morrissey - Irish Blood English Heart
20. The Divine Comedy - Come Home Billy Bird
21. Adem - Everything You Need
22. Graham Coxon - Bittersweet Bundle Of Misery

20:13 | 0 Comments, | permanent link

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SOTT 17 - Burn Baby Burn


1. The Boo Radleys - Lazarus
2. Tim Christensen - Whispering At The Top Of My Lungs
3. Saybia - The Second You Sleep
4. Tim Burgess - Only A Boy
5. Tahiti 80 - Get Yourself Together
6. Inside The Whale - Louise
7. Mew - Am I Wry, No
8. The Webb Brothers - I've Been Waiting
9. The Shins - New Slang
10. Todd Rundgren - We Gotta Get You A Woman
11. Roy Wood - Indiana Rainbow
12. Prince - When U Were Mine
13. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Pin
14. Wire - Outdoor Miner
15. The Raveonettes - Little Animal
16. Hawksley Workman - No Sissies
17. Ash - Burn Baby Burn
18. Motorpsycho - Neverland
19. The Coral - Pass It On
20. Roger J Manning Jr. - Sleep Children

20:07 | 0 Comments, | permanent link

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SOTT 16 - Notes From A Small Island


1. Supergrass - Sitting Up Straight
2. The Smiths - Bigmouth Strikes Again
3. The La's - Feelin'
4. Kirsty MacColl - Free World
5. The Auteurs - Showgirl
6. World Party - Call Me Up
7. The Milltown Brothers - Here I Stand
8. Suede - Together
9. Electric Soft Parade - There's A Silence
10. The Jam - But I'm Different Now
11. Mull Historical Society - Watching Xanadu
12. Silver Sun - I'll See You Around
13. Blur - Look Inside America
14. Michael Head & The Strands - Someone Like You
15. Saint Etienne - Hobart Paving
16. The Coral - Dreaming Of You
17. The Montrose Avenue - Shine
18. Nick Heyward - Rollerblade
19. Duffy - Sugar High
20. Oasis - The Masterplan
21. Strangelove - Another Night In

20:03 | 0 Comments, | permanent link

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SOTT 15 - Plastic Ants And Wanna-bees


1. Aztec Camera - Oblivious
2. The Boo Radleys - Barney ...And Me
3. Super Furry Animals - Dim Bendith
4. Boedekka - Save Me
5. Simian - One Dimension
6. Pulp - Birds In Your Garden
7. Roy Wood - Any Old Time Will Do
8. Delta - We Come Back
9. Slade - How Does It Feel
10. The Delgados - 13 Gliding Principles
11. Jim O'Rourke - All Downhill From Here
12. Oranger - Sorry Paul
13. The Bees - A Minha Menina
14. Circulatory System - Yesterday's World
15. Millenium - It's You
16. Serge Gainesbourg - Bonnie And Clyde
17. Margo Guryan - Why Do I Cry
18. Mellow - Instant Love
19. Cornelius - Chapter 8:Seashore And Horizon

19:50 | 0 Comments, | permanent link

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SOTT 14 - Windmills Of Choruses


1. Kenickie - Nightlife
2. Logan's Sanctuary - Search For Tomorrow
3. A Camp - I Can't Buy You
4. McCalmont & Butler - Yes
5. Superstar - Superstar
6. Super Furry Animals - Ysbeidau Heulog
7. Money Mark - Tomorrow Is Like Today
8. Harry Nilsson - Gotta Get Up
9. The Divine Comedy - Bad Ambassador
10. The Diggers - Waking Up
11. The Webb Brothers - Fluorescent Lights
12. Ed Harcourt - She Fell Into My Arms
13. Plush - Found A Little Baby
14. Brave Captain - Hermit vs. The World
15. The Tages - I Read You Like An Open Book
16. Orange Juice - Felicity
17. Teardrop Explodes - Traison
18. The Pets - Wind Blows Through Your Hair
19. Neil Innes - Godfrey Daniel
20. Stereolab - Captain Easychord
21. Ryan Adams - Goodnight Hollywood Boulevard
22. Andy Sturmer - Sweet Wingless Angel (unlisted track)

19:45 | 0 Comments, | permanent link

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SOTT's gone by


Since I've been working on a tracklisting for my new CD swap compilation I've dug out what I've done previously. Looks like this latest one is definitely going to have the highest proportion of older tracks on it. I don't even think I've got my own CD copies of these comps but by the looks of them it's going to be worthwhile trying to recreate them as playlists in iTunes as I quite fancy giving them a listen. In any case, I'll post my previous tracklistings in case anyone is interested and so at least I've got a copy of them somewhere other than on the cover art saved on my PC.

19:23 | 0 Comments, | permanent link

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SOTT 19 Update


As it stands the following is what I have for SOTT 19, though the last third needs some work on its pacing. I just got two rather nice compilations of sixties soft pop and psychedelia which might be good to mix in. Also in the quest for some spurious theme for the compilation I did a couple of playlists of songs of a particular length. The perfect pop song is supposed to be three minutes long so I did one list of those along with a couple of others. So I may scrap this altogether and end up with a themed comp where all the tracks are 2:58 in length! Need to do more listening over the next couple of weeks to determine the way forward.

1. Dexy's Midnight Runners - Dance Stance
2. The Soul Survivors - Expressway To Your Heart
3. The Jam - Shopping
4. Granny's Intentions - Nutmeg, Bitter Suite
5. Lulu - Love Loves To Love
6. Chrysalis - Summer In Your Savage Eyes
7. Mouse & The Traps - Sometimes You Just Can't Win
8. Suzanne Vega - When Heroes Go Down
9. Sondre Lerche - Suffused With Love
10. Danny Wilson - Second Summer Of Love
11. Motorpsycho - B.S.
12. Mellow - Mellow (Part 2)
13. Joy Zipper - 33X
14. Magnet (with Gemma Hayes) - Lay Lady Lay
15. The Concretes - You Can't Hurry Love
16. Charlotte Hatherley - Summer
17. Billy Nichols - London Social Degree
18. Glen Campbell - If This Is Love
19. The Searchers - Popcorn Double Feature
20. The Bystanders - Jesamine
21. Jim O'Rourke - Something Big
22. Laura Nyro - Stoned Soul Picnic (Demo)
23. The Go! Team - Feelgood By Numbers
24. The Zombies - I'll Call You Mine
25. The O'Jays - Lipstick Traces (On A Cigarette)
26. The Poppy Family - Free From The City
27. Donovan - Sunny Goodge Street

17:15 | 3 Comments, | permanent link

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I like to watch 2


Super-size Me features one man's mission (the personable Morgan Spurlock) to apparently kill himself by eating burgers, and he gets suprisingly far along the path in the space of the 30 days documented in this film. Even the Doctors who examine him every step of the way are shocked at the state his body is in. From someone with above average fitness and health to someone with a noticeable paunch, no sex drive and a liver that's turned to pate in 30 days is impressive. When the heart palpitations start in the middle of the night he almost chucks it all in but just for us sticks it out to the end.

This film made me think twice about what I put into my body and I don't even eat at MacDonalds. It would seem like a silly gimick to eat all your meals at McD's for a full month but as it's pointed out in the film, a lot of people aren't too far away from doing this. Apart from the changes in Spurlock's body there are a lot of fairly shocking statistics that help support the fact they, hey, maybe you should eat at home once in a while.

It's tragic when a spokesperson for the Subway sandwich chain turns up at a high school to talk about how he was able to lose so much weight. Afterwards an upset overweight student gives an interview where she's crying because she'd love to lose weight but she can't afford to eat at Subway twice a day like the speaker suggested he had done to lose weight. Not only are you shocked at the tactics that fast food outlets will go to to promote their chains but you also end up screaming mad at the laziness of some people. Not necessarily for the fact that they don't exercise but simply for the fact that it wouldn't occur to them to make some food at home and take it to school/work with them. It doesn't take much effort or money and it would be a whole lot healthier than eating out.

Spurlock's girlfriend is a vegan chef and even with her planning a special diet for him it took him 14 months to get back to the shape he was before the month of burgers and thankfully his internal organs returned to normal after two. Entertaining and educational.

Mean Girls I had read a bit about, it's 87% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes but at the same time I didn't expect that much from a teen comedy starring Lindsay Lohan. Basically it's similar in plot to the Winona Ryder film Heathers but sanitised for a younger audience, nobody dies for a start, but there are also many times when you feel the filmmakers reigning in the swearing for example. Thankfully it's still a smart and funny 100 minutes. It's let down slightly by an icky ending and what happens to the characters at the end is pretty disappointing but on the whole what could have been a horrible film is made good by an excellent script with many a funny and barbed aside.

16:43 | 0 Comments, | permanent link

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SOTT 19


SOTT is a CD swap I do with members of a mailing list I'm on. Everyone comes up with a brilliant mix CD which you then make a copy of for everyone who's taking part. We then mail them off to the list member who organises it and he repacks everyone's CD's and you get a package back with a copy of everyone's mix. I've done about 5 now and last couple have had about 35 participants. The latest one that we're just organising is going to have 49 people involved! That means 48 copies of the CD and the cover have to be made and shipped to the US. It also means I'll get 48 different mix CD's back. That is a lot of new music and to be honest is pretty daunting. I'll never get through it all and I'll bet you there are a bunch of people who never even listen to my mix. It makes it more of a challenge mind you. You have to come up with the absolute best mix you can to make yourself stand out in some way.

I've been sticking songs in a playlist in iTunes for the last wee while and I have about 40 songs under consideration just now. I think this round I'm going to go with something a bit more retro than I have in the past where I've tended to stick to more recent sounds. Having everything in iTunes has been good though and has made me consider things that maybe wouldn't have occurred to me if I was scanning the CD's on the rack. I'll probably post a final track list here when I've got it.

The worst thing about this process though is the cover art. I want to produce something snazzy but I no longer have a working scanner and my printer is somewhat dodgy quality for artwork. I was thinking it would almost be worth designing something and taking it on a disc to a copy shop and getting it run off there. Wonder how much that would cost?

14:36 | 1 Comments, | permanent link

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Charlotte Hatherley - Grey Will Fade


Nice bit of coincidence. Walked into the library on Tuesday and what would be sitting there but Charlotte Hatherley's album! I've been listening to it this morning and it's not all sticking but about half of it isn't bad at all with Kim Wilde and Summer being the best things on it. The latter especially has been on repeat play. Bastardo is growing on me too and after another look at the video just there is sounding more and more excellent (only just noticed that Lauren Laverne is in it). On this evidence maybe Tim Wheeler should be sharing the writing on the next Ash album.

Lazy comparison: the female equivalent of Graham Coxon's Happines in Magazines.

14:22 | 1 Comments, | permanent link

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Charlotte Hatherley video


Can I point you in the direction of this.

It's the the ace new solo video for the Ash guitarist. Not sure I think that much of the song but the video is directed by Edgar Wright and features the likes of David Walliams, Simon Pegg, Julia Davis and Lucy Doo-dah, you know, Dawn from the Office. Clever stuff.

16:59 | 1 Comments, | permanent link

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