Snappish 2006: I suck.

Dec 23, 2006 · 1 minute read

Songs that I meant to write about this advent:

• Cat Power — Could We
• The Pipettes — Pull Shapes
• Camera Obscura — Let's Get Out Of This Country
• Jarvis Cocker — Running The World

I apologise, and promise to do better in 2007.

Songs of Advent 7

Dec 20, 2006 · 1 minute read

Neko Case — The Needle Has Landed

Okay, so given my predilection for female vocals, I was always going to love Neko. And I did. But Fox Confessor Brings The Flood took it further this year (going to see her in Carrboro helped, as well, I think). That voice. Haunting, sultry, playful, damning, joyful; the charms of the South. Sitting on a porch on a humid evening, watching the sun go down. And other such things.

The Needle Has Landed is the final track on the album, and it’s just sublime; a tale of returning back to old haunts, of gossip and why you got the hell out of there in the first place. Complete with a chorus to die for.

Songs of Advent 6

Dec 18, 2006 · 1 minute read

CSS — Let’s Make Love And Listen To Death From Above

I’m still a little worried about CSS. They’re so cool, so hip, that I fully expect that one night during a concert Lovefoxx will rip off her head to reveal that she is, in fact, Cliff Richard, and lead the hipster crowd in a performance of The Millennium Prayer. Then, he will devour them, in his Mayor-like plan to become unto a God.

But, until then, Let’s Make Love And Listen To Death From Above. My favourite bit? “run run run” / “kiss, kiss, kiss”. Obviously.

Now, can anybody get me a ticket for their appearance in Oxford early next year? Pretty please?

It's Christmas!

Dec 16, 2006 · 1 minute read

And we’re watching Die Hard. The finest festive film of the season!

Crews For Consumismo

Dec 15, 2006 · 1 minute read

Johnny Boy available from Rough Trade very shortly…hurrah!

Songs of Advent 5

Dec 12, 2006 · 1 minute read

The Long Blondes — Once And Never Again

What Amp said.

Songs of Advent 4

Dec 11, 2006 · 2 minute read

Lucky Soul — Lips Are Unhappy

Observant readers might remember that this song appeared last year.

thtthhhuppbbt

I’ll put it in again if I want to! It’s my blog, and if you don’t like it, you can go home!

chirping crickets

Oops. Anyway, this gets included in this years list because it’s still as ace as it was last Christmas, but more importantly, it was released as a single back in June. So there. If you wanted to attach them to a scene, then it would be UK indie’s rediscovery of the Spector sound; with the advent of ProTools, Phil’s bag of tricks can be stuffed inside a MacBook (and it leaves the shotgun behind, thankfully enough), thus allowing bands like Lucky Soul to sound spectacular on a smaller budget.

But, enough of the technology! “Shake, shake / shimmy shimmy / shake shake shimmy / Without you!” is one of the lyrics of the year; for all its preposterousness, it strikes to the core of lost love. In a bouncy, bouncy, bouncy type-of-way, of course!

The band release their debut album The Great Unwanted next March, while they have a fabulous new single Ain’t Never Been Cool next month (is that the Be My Baby drum beat being played on the guitar?)!

Tomorrow, an entirely new song! Promise!

The Ballad of Jake And The Heffalump

Dec 9, 2006 · 0 minute read

Bonnie And Father Christmas!

Dec 9, 2006 · 0 minute read

Donald Rumsfeld: Still A Jackass

Dec 8, 2006 · 1 minute read

RUMSFELD: Well, I’ve read a great many books. They’re all history books; a number about the Revolutionary War and about George Washington and John Adams and others, Jefferson.

I started reading a number of books about the Civil War. And one particularly good one was a book on Ulysses S. Grant. But I stopped. I found the struggle going on — gosh, those years, there were so many people killed and wounded, and they were all Americans, except for the foreign fighters who came over from Germany and Poland and elsewhere.

So I turned away from that and read a great deal about World War II. And that has been basically what I’ve been reading

“I just loved the bit where 20 million Russians bought it!”