Miscellany

Apr 9, 2008 · 3 minute read

Have you been into a Woolworths recently? Did you have the same odd feeling? That you could feel the shop aging around you? That once well-arranged aisles are now dilapidated and strewn with disorganised and out-of-season items (specifically the toy section, obviously)? The pick’n’mix section of the shop seems to be collapsing in on itself; a tiny little island of sweets holding out against the encroaching racks of Wii games and mobile phones. A desultory selection of contemporary CDs fighting for space alongside ancient compilations reduced to clear. Chad Valley disappearing in favour of simple, plain white packaging; efficient and soulless.

Let's go to town and switch the magazines.

I'm probably just getting old. But it feels like the chain is dying a slow lingering death.

Even though we're 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29!

It's a good thing that I checked Kieron's weblog, because he seems to have said most of the things that I was going to say about American Demo, damn him. Even the bloody Nick Cohen comment!

(essentially, my problem with Cohen's Left, from what little I know about it, is that while there are some on the Left who will always see America as the Great Evil, there's a big section of us who, while sympathetic and enthusiastic to the cause spreading of democracy, wonder how we've managed to end up with an America that tries to split hairs over whether controlled drowning is torture and turning a country into a playground for lackeys and the latest insanity from the University of Chicago Economics department. But hey. Another argument for another time.)

So, er, yes. I really like American Demo, as it manages to cut me to my core at various points. Especially Sixteen.

And Los Campesinos. Okay, I admit, I avoided them for a long time, for reasons that I can't really remember right now. But I bought the album a couple of weeks ago...it's quite fabulous, isn't it? At first, I thought it was an album that I would have loved if I was currently in the Sixth Form, but on the other hand, are Meanwhile Back In Communist Russia big names in 16-18 set right now? I am sceptical. So I'm coming around to the idea that they're the flipside to The Indelicates' cynicism, a glorious jangle of xkcd-like adventures, twenty-something reference points like ATP and K Records, and the feeling that I get when I hear Come Out 2Nite. Which is pretty awesome.

And this song will be four years old this year. YEAH! YEAH!