Thursday, March 30, 2006

The Gigwatcher 29/03/2006

Not much to report this week I'm afraid, both Spear of Destiny and Ned's Atomic Dustbin have live dates listed in amongst the ads for hotels and foot pedals, but sadly they're not making it this far south. So all I found this week were..

Pure Reason Revolution @ The Joiners, Southampton - 03/04/2006 (fingers crossed they fix the van in time, they didn't show up at the Wedge on Monday)
Kubichek! @ The Joiners, Southampton - 19/05/2006
King Biscuit Time (ex-Beta Band) @ Hanbury Ballroom, Brighton - 20/05/2006

I'll add the above onto the Son of Music Club's Events Calendar just as soon as I can be bothered. The Events Calendar has been updated to include gigs up and coming over the next few months at a variety of local venues. I've also, thanks to Jim, added details of the Utah Saints DJ set at The Registry next month.

In order to interrogate the calendar you need to be registered on the forum (it's free); once registered you can also post comments on the forum generally (if you want to that is). Can you beat Paulo's effort at the Mojo CD covers quiz?

Well, that's about it for now.. until next time true believers..

Monday, March 27, 2006

Music for Anoraks: Boo Hoo

It's hard to believe that I knocked up my last compilation, Tears Before Bedtime, way back in October. It's taken nearly 6 months to make it around the circulation list, though it did seem to languish on (or in) a few desks as it did the rounds. When I sent it out into the internal post it was full of stuff that, at the time, I'd been listening to a lot. Such as...

01 'Cheney Lane' by Nostalgia 77
Scenestars had a track from the new Nostalgia 77 album available. In best Victor Kiam tradition, I liked it so much I bought the album.

02 'Stockholm Doesn't Belong To Me' by Most Valuable Players
I found this on Swedesplease, an excellent blog full of excellent Swedish music, and just couldn't stop playing it. Typically I only discovered that the Most Valuable Player's album was available AFTER I returned from a trip to Sweden. It wouldn't have helped me anyway though, the only decent record shop I found was shut every time I went anywhere near it.

03 'Sound and Vision' by David Bowie
It's Bowie. Nuff said.

04 'Disconnect The Dots' by of Montreal
of Montreal are (yet another) band that I have Banto to thank for. He sent me a link to the of Montreal website and suggested I peruse the large amount of downloadable MP3s there. So that's just what I did. They're a bit 'out there' but repeated listening brings rewards.

05 'Set You Free' by The Black Keys
I used to hear this a lot on WOXY (back when I could listen to streamed audio at work). Apparently they played The Wedgewood Rooms awhile back.. doh!

06 'Hate To Say I Told You So' by The Flu
A cover version I found on Swedesplease, and what a cracking cover it is too. I don't really know much about The Flu, but I like what I've heard.

07 'No Children' by The Mountain Goats
Another Victor Kiam moment. This was posted on an MP3 blog, I forget which, and I liked it so much I had to buy the album from whence it came. I think, if I had it on vinyl, I'd have worn it out.

08 'Gigantic' by Pixies
It's (the) Pixies. Nuff said.

09 'Glósóli' by Sigur Ros
I've recently read a couple of Icelandic detective novels, Tainted Blood and Silence Of The Grave, by Arnaldur Indridason, and Reykjavik comes across as being a very drab and miserable place (OK, so I know it's just a novel, but it's supposed to be one of the party capitals of Europe). Maybe Sigur Ros are from the lovely weird bit that nobody wants to write about.

10 'Sugar' by Ladytron
Fantastic. A sub three minute chunk of dirty electro pop. Why can't Goldfrapp do stuff like this? [shakes head ruefully].

11 'The Zookeeper's Boy' by Mew
Arguably the best track on the new album, this will be Mew's next single. The CD single of Special featured an alternate take on this song, called Animals Of Many Kinds, which is worth checking out.

12 'Graffiti' by Maximo Park
Fantastic album with some cracking singles but, honestly, what's with the lead singers haircut? Can he not afford a proper barber? Does the guitarist cut it for him?

13 'See America Right' by The Mountain Goats
It's a dark slice of driving angst. Fantastic. Play loud. No, louder than that.

14 'Mexican Standoff' by Elbow
The new Elbow CD is really very good indeed. I was really looking forward to seeing them at the Pyramids but, unfortunately, I had to spend the weekend in Prague. It's a tough life, no really it is.

15 'Finally' by Corinna Repp
I was on Messenger one day when up popped somebody from America who wanted to chat. They suggested I might like Corrina Repp. And they were right.

16 'Nickee Coco and the Invisible Tree' by of Montreal
OK, so it's quite an eccentric slice of indie pop, but I can't get enough of it.

17 'Kelly Wash The Cars' by Air vs Missy vs Stakka Bo
When done right mash-ups can be very entertaining. Whatever happened to Stakka Bo anyway?

18 'Din Daa Daa' by George Kranz
A long long time ago, before I sold off most of my 12" singles to fund a festival ticket, I had (one of the many re-releases of) this in my collection. Time hasn't really been all that kind to it but, given that it was bonkers from the get go, I don't think that matters much.

19 'So Here We Are (Four Tet Remix)' by Bloc Party
I saw these live at the Guildhall last year and they absolutely [insert choice expletive] rocked. They didn't rely on fancy lighting, or back projection, and weren't half as miserable as the NME would have you believe.

Well, that's the third down and out. I suppose I'd best knock up my next offering.