Emmy The Great at Pure Groove

Earlier on I went to Pure Groove, a North London record store which has somehow previously escaped my attention, to see indie folkster Emmy The Great play a very cosy and rather beautiful instore gig. I managed to end up without much of a view (and stood next to Jeremy Warmsley) and she only played five songs, including an Adam Green cover. That was ok though because all were as wryly amusing as theu were pretty and her own songs were so despite all being new to me. And calling M.I.A. a bitch for refusing to guest on the song named after her was pretty funny too.

Head over to The Daily Growl for mp3s of a recent Xfm session including the aforementioned "MIA".

The Crimea - Requiem Aeternum

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There's not that much similarity musically between The Crimea and My Chemical Romance, I'll grant you, but they've long struck me as being a little bit emo nonetheless. Mainly it's thanks to singer Davey MacManus, with his breathless raw emoting of words that spill out of his head uncontrollably with a total absence of self-censorship: hilarious, awkward and despite his actual age often painfully teenage. Partly as a result, on debut Tragedy Rocks they were equal turns brilliant (joyful sort-of-hit single "Lottery Winners On Acid", the hallucinatory rant of "Opposite Ends") and really frustrating.

On their follow-up, Secrets Of The Witching Hour, he produces just as many bizarre and endearingly misguided lines ('Hell is a crowded room/Heaven's just got you/Naked on all fours' takes something to pull off so well) but this time nothing misses. The band have expanded their sound effectively, still resembling a more earthbound Soft Bulletin produced on next to no budget, but fitting in all kinds of effective arrangement tricks to give force and grandeur for MacManus to both revel in and poke holes in with his wry wit. And when they reach, however tentatively, for the emotions there's just enough depth that it really works this time, as "Requiem Aeternum" demonstrates.

Best of all, they gave away the album for free on their website in adavance of its release, and it's still there. This will be the way for more and more bands soon, I'm guessing, although it's just served as a pretty decent advocate of buying the real CD for me. Without its liner, I would have no idea that the ghostly female voice that drifts into "Requiem Aeternum" is one Amy May of Paris Motel, my favourite new band who I discovered coincedentally around the same time as being wowed by the song.

Okkervil River - John Allyn Smith Sails

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[spoiler warning: plot and/or ending details follow]

There aren't many songs that need one of those but it feels sort of appropriate here. If you haven't heard it yet, you're better off clicking the link before reading this. Go on! The element of surprise is a large part of what made this song such an amazing first time listen, though it stands up very well indeed to repeated album listenings.
But before we get to the spoilers, some background first. The Stage Names feels a bit of a reaction to Okkervil River's previous record, where they wrote an entire album around one song by someone else, the Black Sheep Boy of its title. This time, they limit themselves only to 50+ years of rock and roll history and archetype. Throughout, Will Sheff's really funny and perfectly fitting lyrics are steeped in allusions and references, from the add-one-on songs of "Plus Ones" (TVC16, 51 ways to leave your lover...) to meeting bitter declarations that 'you look your age/which is 37 by the way/and not 28'.
Then, at the end, we reach "John Allyn Smith Sails" as the frazzled rock anti-star of the album's very loose narrative crashes and burns completely. It starts off as a sad acoustic ditty, which is pretty excellent in its own right, and has to be to not just seem like a precursor, so that the big move can make its proper impact. It's timed to perfection, because you get just long enough to get a thrill of recognition from just the musical allusions to "Sloop John B" that creep in, before they launch head on into a ragged, cathartic cover of it. It's as if, after being soaked too long in rock legend, even the wish to escape can only make it past with the protective shield of a familiar song, and it's a terifically odd and affecting way to end an album.

Though, of course, it does rely to a certain extent on your knowledge of the song. Which got me thinking about other songs based around the album that contains the most famous version of "Sloop John B". I can't think of enough for the whole tracklisting of Pet Sounds yet but there are a few. Hello Saferide's excellent recent single takes an inversion of "I Just Wasn't Made For These Times" as its starting point, and she has a new song based around her ideal person being the one who is just like "God Only Knows". Kaiser Chiefs' "Caroline, Yes!" doesn't really go much past the title. My favourite other one is Gorky's Zygotic Mynci's "Spanish Dance Troupe" which distills "Wouldn't It Be Nice" to its one line essence for a haunting closing mantra.
Am I missing anything obvious?

Chartsengrafs - We can work without the perks

It's a second week on the top for Timbaland, once again thanks to lack of other worthy challengers as much as any particular momentum of its own (see: Fergie back up to 3 again). That seems to be a bit a theme this year. But it's okay, because our unlikely new entry at number 5 is "With Every Heartbeat" by Kleerup featuring Robyn! That's twenty places higher than Annie ever got, just in case you're counting, and... well, actually we'll leave it there, because it seems like there's going to be even more to be excited about on that front next week. Although I will say that I listened to Robyn's previous top ten hit from 1998 "Show Me Love" the other day for the first time, and it's not an experience I'm too keen to repeat.
Newton Faulkner sneaks up to 7 in the brief moment he has before being made irrelevant by the 'James Blunt's new single isn't the worst thing ever' shocker, and the top ten is rounded off by the continuing advance of Plain White T's and their brand of sappy pleasantness.
Yves Larock at 13 is one of a dying breed of summer dance hits, with rises for Beyonce (17) and Amerie (21) somewhat less rare. A somewhat censored version of "Pussyole" at 22 leaves Dizzee Rascal still a way away from his only proper big hit but does see his album make a re-entry to the top forty at least. The Coral's moment has sadly well and truly passed at 25, and relief that the Simpsons theme is falling down is tempered by that fact that it's joined by "Spider Pig". What else do we have in the top forty? Er, Amy Winehouse, The Cribs and Graham Coxon teaming up with Paul Weller, in descending order of both positions and excellence.

In the albums, Paul Potts is still number one, holding off new entries from Newton Faulkner and Amy MacDonald. Prince's Ultimate at 6 won't be in nearly as many homes as Planet Earth, but also in fewer bins. Next week: The nation needs Kate Nash and doesn't want to wait.

Of Montreal at Scala (02/08/07)

First of all, the organisation/security at Scala has completely gone to shit and has put me off going there again (although there will always be exceptions). Having to queue outside for half an hour when turning up an hour after doors open, so that they can search every single person and then have them queue again for the understaffed box office to collect their tickets is stupid, and I was clearly far from the only one to completely miss Pull Tiger Tail's set as a result.

But that aside, it was a really enjoyable gig. I didn't know that much about what to expect but was taken right away, both by the fact that they kicked the set off with the awesome one-two of "Suffer For Fashion" and "Bunny Ain't No Kind Of Rider" and that they put on such a bizarrely extravagant show. There was a big glam rock thing going on with their (hilarious) outfits and Kevin Barnes' somewhat Bolanesque performance which was not something that I'd really thought of from the album before but makes sense now. And then on top of that were pretty cool projections and, oh yeah, the two guys in black lycra bodysuits with mirrorball faces running around, bursting balloons and crowdsurfing.
Music mainly came from Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer? which was fine by me as I don't know much of the older stuff very well and its dense pile-up of melody and meaning has sneaked its way to a position as one of my very favourite albums of 2007. "She's A Rejector" was pleasingly manic and the sleazy funk of "Faberge Falls For Shuggie" was cool and funny in equal measure. The bravest move was playing the whole ten minute trip that is "The Past Is A Grotesque Animal" but they pulled it off, going way beyond repetition to totally brainwashing groove and pairing it with the total contrast of "Heimdalsgate Like A Promethean Curse".
There were a couple of enthuiastically met trips into their back catalogue too, including an inevitable encore of "Wraith Pinned To The Mist (And Other Games)" which was introduced as a song that they can no longer play in their own country, presumably referring to the whole Outback Steakhouse thing. It definitely served to increase my interest in finding out more about a band capable of great things.

Sooo much better than the single artwork

Amazing followup to the Hard-Fi record thing from over on Popjustice:



Yes, that's taken in Music And Video Exchange, and yes, we all know that's what most promos are for.

Oof

Started work at new job, excited but tired. Real updates to follow.

Chartsengrafs - I ain't got a motorboat

Kate Nash turns out to to be cruelly denied at the last. By 16 copies. Instead it's Timbaland who rises to number 1, becoming the first act to score two this year and matching last year's Nelly/Justin assisted duo of Timbaland produced chart toppers. "The Way I Are" still sounds the more reasonable of the two to be there too. Not much happening after that in the top ten bar Groove Armada's fine "Song 4 Mutya" making it up to 8. It feels like forever since everyone (ok, Popjustice) was first raving about this, but it's actually only just been released and doesn't seem to have suffered too much as a result. Oh and Mika is just below. Yay!

And Manic Street Preachers' placing of 10 with "Autumnsong" is a fairly useful gauge of the state of the market since the same 10,000 people buy all of their releases - it says things are doing a little better than when their last three (no.2) singles came out.

Newton Faulkner is new at 16 and the best words on him go to John Cunningham - 'I wouldn’t have thought robots could be such big Jack Johnson fans'. Although that doesn't mttnion that his voice kind of sounds like Johnny Borell at his worst. Rihanna's "Shut Up And Drive" goes to 18 on downloads despite the hordes still buying "Umbrella". That puts it one place ahead of Green Day doing the Simpsons theme. Green Day doing the Simpsons theme. That's where charting downloads gets us, people. Actually, I take that back, at least it isn't "Working Class Hero".

Plain White Ts were all over the radio in California, and now I get back just in time for the first rumblings of the same thing happening here with them at 26 well ahead of a physical release. Sort of pretty song, but does just make you wonder how Deat Cab For Cutie never managed to have a hit here. Meanwhile if anyone can explain what Take That's "Shine" is doing back in the charts at 29 I will be grateful. I'm half surprised not to see "Chasing Cars" there anywhere actually. And that's about it for singles, bar Yves Larock and Funeral For A Friend sneaking in at the very bottom of the forty.

Albums see Paul Potts still at the top and likely to be there for another week yet at least. Timbaland's steady rise takes him to 2, which is sort of a surprise - it's the type of album that usually tends to see strong steady sales, but nothing that high charting. Kings Of Leon at 4 is also a headscratcher, The Enemy see a fall from 2 to 9 and Garbage's Absolute Garbage at 11 turns out to be a greatest hits and not one of these crappy things.


Next week: Robyn! I don't even know what song, since I thought "With Every Heartbeat" and Music Week claims "Konichiwa Bitches", but still, Robyn!!

Paris Motel at Good Ship, Kilburn (26/07/07)

(Yeah, I finished the blog entry and got there in time for the support acts too)

First up, as featured today in one free paper's Glen Hansard-led feature on buskers, the unfortunately named Rod Thomas. Playing solo, he puts thoughts of Matchbox 20 to the back of our minds soon enough with some agreeable folk-pop, in Stephen Fretwell/Liam Frost style but constructed in the Final Fantasy style by recording bits of himself playing different instruments and looping them round and round. This has clear benefits in fleshing out his simple melodies, but eventually begins to feel a little constricting. Almost every song goes minimal keyboard melody-minimal electronic beat-handclaps-minimal strum before finally getting to the point, and there's not much freedom for them to breathe when tightly constrained by the lengths of loops. Ultimately, it feels like he's just not doing much with the cool technology that couldn't be replicated by even an average backing band.

Better by far still than Kaiko. Jetlag may have been lingering, and I don't usually go to gigs on my own, but the fact that there was absolutely nothing remarkable or interesting whatsoever about their trebly, vaguly post-punky indie proably still had something to do with my dozing off during their set.

No such risk with Paris Motel. The sinister fairytale crack and thud of "Mr. Splitfoot", magnified by proximity in cramped quarters, makes sure of that very quickly even before technical problems kick in and we're assaulted with feedback screeches. With Amy May tonight backed by 6 band members, including violin, clarinet and a new double bass player, the very crowded nature of the set up on the venue's tiny stage does have a large impact, both in a few such technical problems and that seeing the band here feels such a treat.

'We are the disasterous Paris Motel,' proclaims an elegant Amy May brightly as an introduction after those screeches, 'home to broken strings. And maybe broken bra straps too'. Gulp. A lot of eyes were surely following her as she regularly pulled up her strapless dress even before that point, though the band make for no shortage of other visuals. Their intense playing sometimes conjuring a bit of an Arcade Fire feel, especially apparent in the a capella group singing of "I Lost My Heart".

Later on there's sadly no "Static Song" but "071" is as sumptuous as on record and "Oh" even more bittersweet. A short set doesn't allow for too many new songs, but they are without exception great, especially "After Wanda" which winds its way through multiple dramatic turns with expertly handled ease. After which hearing a long delayed defintie release date for the album (September 26th) is music to the ears too.

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Hard-Fi's Stars Of CCTV definitely had one of the best album covers of recent years. A really striking image that (in the UK at least) was instantly recognisable but something that is so commonplace that you didn't normally give it any thought at all before presented in this different context. Which is probably the answer to why no-one thought of it earlier.

So how do they follow it up? Well, with something that's already got people writing dramatic articles about the death of the album cover:



Which is definitely a great idea, but it should have been even bolder - why bother with the band name or album title at all? They could always have gone for the better cop-out of putting them on a sticker. And the bright yellow colour, as part of what made the debut's cover so striking, has become representative of them to a certain extent as well. It seems like even when trying to remove image, they're just a little too brand-conscious to go the whole way.

Paris Motel - Static Song

One of the very best things about living in London is being able to look up a band's website for gigs at 5:30, see one, realise that it's today, and be able to go. And still have time to write the blog entry that you were looking it up for to boot.

So, I'll report back on Paris Motel live very soon, but for now this is about the 071 EP, especially one song on it, which is the best thing by a new band I've heard this year by far (lets not let the fact that it came out in 2005 and that the album is all new stuff get in the way here). It appeals to much the same bits of me that fell head-over-heels for Guillemots I guess - their eclecticism and tendency to drench songs in strings and do it well is pleasingly similar, though Amy May's songs assured, layered songs are not exactly cut from the same cloth.

"Static Song" is their (/her?) tender pop at its most romantic. It takes a simple recieved premise (that the infinite shifting disorder of an untuned TV screen is a bit like that of the universe) and retells it as a thing of fantastical wonder, slowly assembling its own glistening world along the way of xylophone and humming strings and May's enchanting voice. It's warm and thick with nostalgia but remains alive and urgent, like opening a dusty old book in front of a crackling fire and still being enthralled by the stories within.

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Chartsengrafs - Told you I'll be here forever

When I last did this near the start of June, "Umbrella" was number one. And, well, it still is. Its now in its tenth week on the top and is only the 6th song ever to have its run reach double figures. Now, it's a pretty great song and all, but that still says more about the slowdown of interest (and sales) in the singles chart than anything else. Kate Nash has been hanging around almost as long and goes back up to number two, it looks like her "Foundations", rather than anything newer, is going to block Rihanna from reaching an eleventh week. It still doesn't feel like a song by someone quite ready yet to be thrust into fame, but it'll do.
The Hoosiers go back up two to 8 and I realise that I still haven't heard "Worried About Ray". The video is what I expected (ie. annoyingly wacky) more so than the song, which sounds like a Britpop era band that I can't quite place covering "Happy Together". Enrique Iglesias is at 5 and I'm also wondering how I could have missed that his new single goes under the subtitle "The Ping Pong Song". Mark Ronson avec Lily Allen doing Kaiser Chiefs goes to 8. It's better than "Everybody's Changing" but not as good as "Nan, You're A Window Shopper". And people who say 'could care less' annoy the living shit out of me at 10.

Why does Amy Macdonald's Scottish accented voice make me think of Tim Booth? I'm confused. She's at 12, anyway, and not as bad as 'new Sandi Thom' tags suggest, even after reading the lyrics. Though that was still slightly ill-advised. Patrick Wolf's favourite Mika moves up to 14 with the much more than slightly ill-advised "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)", and Biffy Clyro follow at 18 with the latest product of their new exciting new Foo Fighters direction. No one's even seen High School Musical 2 yet, but they're still at 20.

Further down: Reverand & The Makers have been in the top forty for 11 weeks? R Kelly and Usher and Sunfreaks and Andrea Britton join them (that's two entries, not four) and The Thrills make a triumphant return at 40.

Over in the albums, The Enemy are removed from number one by Paul Potts, winner of Britain's Got Talent. Now, this is probably worth more than anything said band has ever done (although I like their album cover a lot actually) but that's no excuse to give the guy an album. It also makes me think that we're now at the end of July and still no sight of a follow up single for last year's X Factor winner Leona Lewis, someone who shouldn't really be a problem to market further. Cowell et al appear to have completely given up any pretense of being in it for building anyone's careers but their own.

Lisa Brown - What's That Sound?

I've been following Snowfight in the City Centre for nearly three years now, during much of which they've always seemed just on the brink of a much deserved breakthrough. So it's a real shame to find out that they've split up (in May, in fact - I haven't been following that closely obviously).

Here's their finest released moment to commemorate. Under their previous guise as Lisa Brown, it ties icy guitar blasts and heartfelt falsetto vocals to a 80s disco beat and silly backing vocals, with infectiously fun results that beat Delays' "Valentine" by a couple of months back at the end of 2005.

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Hello Saferide - San Francisco

I'm back! And sort of trying out a song a day format as it worked so well for Paraguay And Laos, although this will be much less strictly cotnrolled and lead to rambles about whole albums or other things as often as not. I should be making a couple of other changes too as you'll see soon.

This song followed me round on holiday, at least in my head. Every time I saw a sign of San Francisco this came into my head, not that suprisingly as it's from one of the albums that I've been listening to most for the past nine months or so and is a pretty fine song in its own right. The closing encore highlight the last time that I saw Ms. Norlin, it was given a massively energetic that rather suited it and the thrill of escape that it's all about.
Because there's nothing about San Francisco in it that you won't know without ever going there (Golden Gate? Alcatraz? Closest is 'the only place in North America not too destroyed by the government', which has got to be an ouch for Canada), since the from is always far more important than the to. San Francisco doesn't really have to be the destination, though it serves rather well, when the emphasis is always on escaping from the present surroundings to handclapping excitement.

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(my CD haul out in SF if anyone's interested:
Bargain bin:
Goldrush - Ozona
Goldrush - The Heart Is The Place
The Like - Are You Thinking What I'm Thinking?
The Grates - Gravity Won't Get You High
The Beatles - Rubber Soul
Tori Amos - Under The Pink
Black Box Recorder - England Made Me
Kenickie - At The Club

Cinerama - Torino
Mae - The Everglow (a gift for someone)
The Lodger - Grown-Ups
Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
Okkervil River - Black Sheep Boy
The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
Deerhoof - Friend Opportunity
Rogue Wave - Descended Like Vultures
Puffy Amiyumi - Splurge
Polysics - Now Is The Time!
The Dresden Dolls - Live at the Roundhouse London DVD

I wish I could have spent more!)

Oops

I didn't actually mean for this to die when I started Paraguay And Laos.
But I will definitely be away for the next two weeks, with the proper excuse of being on holiday, and then after then have some non-Bluetones related ideas to work on alongside it. So, see you on July 23rd or so!

Finally

Tomorrow, I graduate! I'm looking forward to having the whole thing finished for good. Wearing a gown and stuff, not so much.

I'm not usually at all good at meeting new people so it was especially nice yesterday to talk to a friend of a friend of who I had lots to talk to about: he turns out to live two minutes away from me and to have had been to many of the same gigs in the last couple of years. Even nicer was that he recommended me a band called Paris Motel who are, judging by the songs on their myspace, fantastic. Beautiful, grandiose stuff and the album will hopefully be soon!

Also, since I've built up a few entries to make it worth a look now, it's time to link to my new blog project, Paraguay and Laos, in which I talk about every Bluetones song ever. 6 out of 111 in and I'm enjoying it a lot so far.

Field Day Festival

London's best gig promoters Eat Your Own Ears have really outdone themselves this time with the Field Day Festival:

1990'S
ABSENTEE
ADEM
ARCHIE BRONSON OUTFIT
BAT FOR LASHES
BATTLES
FRIDGE
GOODBOOKS
GRUFF RHYS
JAMES YORKSTON
LIARS
MYSTERY JETS
PULL TIGER TAIL
THE ALIENS
THE CONCRETES
THE EARLIES
VETIVER

All for the not unreasonable price of £22.50 a ticket. And if that isn't enough to get you down to Hackney in August, there's going to be Morris dancing too.

Chartsengrafs - It's raining more than ever

Right, now I've got this blog moving again, time to bring back the only regular feature that I 've yet kept up with any regularity. What have we missed? Well, back in 2004 before legal downloads were included to the charts, things hit a disasterous low in October when barely 20,000 sales were needed to reach the number one mark, and Manic Street Preachers came within spitting distance of making it there despite their song having no real reach beyond their fans at all. A few years on the positive effect of downloads seems to be dwindling a little and, yep, so close again. Plus album sales are dying too. Eek.



Sunday gone: No need to be downhearted for now though because "Umbrella" rules all for the fourth week running! Looking up the lyrics for my title here was an interesting one because I've not really paid much attention to them before and their tone really is rather at odds with the sound of the song. This is Rihanna's number one after a few near misses, and well deserved all round really. Number one album too, fending off an unlikely challenge from Biffy Clyro.
Second for a second week is Mutya Buena, doing the laid-back, famous sample soul thing to no great effect. Moving up to number 3 on full release is Calvin Harris, who likes them black girls and them asian girls and them big girls, albeit not enough to put them in the video.
When I did Gym Class Heroes for Jukebox ages ago I was rather disdaining, but somehow "Cupid's Chokehold" actually becomes less, rather than more annoying from more exposure. How do they do that? It's 4, anyway.
Amongst new entries and risers, Reverend & The Makers show just how haircut-indie-friendly the new charts are at 8, Enrique Iglesias manages to repel all those bad memories of his previous work and replace them with even worse ones at 12, The White Stripes continue making each lead single more barking mad at the last at 13, Bob Sinclar is 14, Unklejam 16, Kelly Rowland 18 and QOTSA 20.
The Chemical Brothers and Klaxons make early entries with "Do It Again" and "It's Not Over" at 25 and 28, at 32 The Zimmers make it to a second week striking a blow against agist music culture in a very similar fashion to Beth Ditto naked on the NME striking against size zero culture, and Ghosts are in at 25 for the benefit of people who didn't find out about Thriteen Senses' second album. Something called Cornell/Lisa Marie Experience is 37, apparently. And just to finish things off on a delightful note, WORST BAND EVER The Holloways edge in to the botton end with advance downloads for "Generator '07". Yes, that's a rerelease of their one before last single which was 30 in October.

Sunday coming:
At the moment, The White Stripes hold an unlikely lead on the singles front. So a fifth week for Rihanna, in other words. Enrique will move up to 3, Marillion just won't die and will probably make the top ten, with Maximo Park probably joining them. Koopa turn out not to be a bad dream that we all once had and are currently heading for a better place than Erasure and Kelly Clarkson's widely 'meh'ed new single.
In the albums, it's The Travelling Wilburys versus Bon Jovi! Welcome to June 2007, all.

Gig roundup - Travis, Pet Shop Boys

In the past two weeks I've been to two gigs at Hammersmith's reasonably large Apollo. Both were by bands with a dedicated following but their best days (in musical and success terms) some way behind them. One of them was kind of formative in my music taste, the other wasn't at all.

First up, Travis. In the wait before the inevitable encore, I jokingly guessed at what was to come: 'They're going to play three more songs, and not one of them will be "U16 Girls"'. It sort of made my evening that, on the second count, I was wrong. Fran Healy hammed up his implausible dirty old man role brilliantly and all laid into its increasingly incongruent strut with style and, gosh, had fun. It cemented what was clear throughout much of the gig, that ten years after they abandoned the dischordant rock of Good Feeling it's still when they sound most vital. Not just the songs from that album though (we were treated to another two earlier). It's thanks to unlikely guitar god Andy Dunlop is let loose that "Turn" and particularly "Writing To Reach You" reach through overfamiliarity. New songs, aside from the appallingly drippy "My Eyes", are loose enough to benefit similarly and prevent increasingly redundant lyrics from being a liablilty, which just leaves the empty stadium rock of "Sing" and "Side" as evidence of where things all went wrong. Hope that they'll learn too much from their live strengths isn't strong, but for the night, it was enough.

Travis, in a rather pleasing gesture to showmanship, began their show spotlighted, running through the crowd with the theme from Rocky playing. Pet Shop Boys beat this though, with some ingenious sleight of hand whereby Neil and Chris emerged from a neon lit frame, followed by... Neil and Chris. And Neil and Chris. One man in a fluorescent yellow anorak and baseball cap looks much like another from a distance, you see. This set the scene for definitely the best staged show I've ever seen, with fabulous projections and lighting and great work by the dancers throughout. The accusatory synth stabs of "Can You Forgive Her?" synched with angry flashes of white light, the thunder and lightning finale to "It's A Sin", the gold lamé cowboys dancing to a hilarious "Where The Streets Have No Name"... yeah, there were a lot of highlights.
And a very smartly chosen setlist, aside from packing in enough classic songs to make almost anyone jealous, was often tied into the staging. The icy blast of "Numb" giving way suddenly to the warm, red glow of "Se a vida é" was perfectly done, and it's a compliment that segueing M-I-N-I-M-A-L into S-H-O-PP-I-N-G seemed so obvious in retrospect.

Staging aside, the music was given a boost and a twist here and there to sound more bright and immediate than ever, and Neil Tennant was pitch perfect. A little too much if anything - a curiously limp "Rent" didn't really add anything to the record and was about the only moment to not quite come off. Almost all of the rest was fantastically celebratory in a way that only The Flaming Lips can nearly compare to out of any gigs that I have ever been to. During "Always On My Mind" the dancers popped up from behind giant cardboard cutouts of the boys' heads in a succession of silly hats to massive cheers, and it seemed the most logical thing ever, bursting way through irony and turning it into genuine feeling in much the same way as the song.

More YouTube awsomeness / Volta disappointment

Björk on Later last night, not just playing new songs but taking full advantage of the robed brass section to play "The Anchor Song"! Breathtaking stuff and probably my favourite song of hers ever.

An especially nice suprise as I find the new album Volta really rather disappointing. The fact that it's impossible to get to the CD without ruining the packaging wasn't a good start, but I still held hope. "Earth Intruders" is a really fine single, recalling earlier work more than innovating but with way too much relentless energy for that to matter.

Problem is, only the completely batshit electro-punk of "Declare Independence" is on the same level as "Earth Intruders". Of the other two Timbaland tracks, "Innocence" is much the same with diminishing returns and "Hope" is sort of interesting but somewhat muddled. Elsewhere, two songs have to be flat out discounted thanks to Antony Hegarty's unccessarily horrible bleating (ban on guest appearances NOW PLEASE). That leaves, well, not that much. "Wanderlust" and "Pneumonia" are pretty but coming from someone capable of the supernaturally gorgeous Vespertine, pretty doesn't seem so much.

I think the most disappointing thing is that it doesn't feel at all musically brave. Even though Medúlla only had a couple of flashes of genius it's individuality was impressive in itself and it did feel like it was stretched a little too far - if you only listened to it 100 times, it might all start to make sense! - while this one feels like just another Björk album. That's a first in itself, I suppose.

Anyway, back to watch the video again...

My gosh

The new version of Los Campesinos' "You! Me! Dancing!" is perfect. Possibly the single of last year except that it wasn't actually released as a single until now), it's been tightened up anywhere it needed to be tightened but more mostly left well alone and so sounds just as ridiculously gleeful as ever but with twice the punch. Yay!

Missed The Boat

It's no Shimura Curves on BBC Breakfast, but I was still a little taken aback to see a feature on Modest Mouse on Channel 4 news this evening. This was, of course, a somewhat belated reaction to Johnny Marr becoming a Brit at number one in the US album chart despite not being Rod Stewart.
Jon Snow's introduction, explaining how Marr had turned down a lucrative Smiths reunion to 'join obscure American band Modest Mouse and take them to the top' required either a mid-sentence jump across the Atlantic or an unusual reading of obscure to work, but the actual piece didn't go too badly. At least until they got to the name of the number one album being discussed. We Were Already Dead When The Ship Sank. Together with the total fluffiness of everything else, kind of makes you wonder why they bothered.

Quick update

Stylus does Eurovision 2007 - including some of my thoughts, though just on the performances as I didn't really get a chance to comment properly on the voting this year. Suffice to say that I wasn't too happy with how it went. Too many points for Serbia, Ukraine, UK and Ireland.

So then, non-music update

I spent yesterday at the MCM (Movie, Comic & Media) Expo at Edexcel. Much of the interest was nothing to do with anything on show but just looking at the other attendees:



and it was a nice enough day to sit outside and watch some swordfighting too:


This was one of five Links, I think, rivalled only by Sephiroth as the most popular. In common with other costumes some were much better than others, with the best ones showing an impressive level of dedication and attention to detail, but all were fun to see. The expo was not exactly my normal scene and a lot of the manga stuff especially passed completely over my head but it was still a lot of fun. And I got a T-shirt there too:



At home, rewatched the film Densha Otoko, as seemed appropriate. Still as sweet as ever and I can definitely relate a little to much of the story, if not quite to how the main character starts off. Fortunately.

Now with 5 x more "Slight Return"

xfm are dropping DJs entirely from 10am-4pm.

It seems a bit of an odd idea at first but on reading more it might actually make sense. When listenening to the radio outside of Xposure hours I've been listening to Virgin Xtreme (when not Radios 1 or 6) instead for a while and the fact that they have no DJ has never proven a problem. As far as slipping into the background goes, it actually helps, which may will be the reasoning behind the move (and most of music television?) Even though it would help if they sorted out the digital track display, it's already easy enough to look anything up online. The playlist remains by far the larger factor in why I choose as I do though. DJs as a prescence on music shows are sort of an inessential anyway - as many fond memories as I have of the Mark and Lard parts of their show on Radio 1 towards the end of their tenure, it was still the fact that they would play Belle And Sebastian or Elbow instead of Dido for another hour that was more important to making it the best show in the daytime schedule. That was down to them too, of course, but giving one person the duty of personally picking the music without having to do anything else actually sounds sort of good to me.

That isn't what xfm are doing, though, instead 'asking listeners to choose the non-stop tunes' (where non-stop means 'apart from for adverts'). I hope I'm not tempting fate by wondering how long til they call it Radio 2.0. But anyway, just how much freedom they're giving will be crucial. The ok request shows they run at the moment suggest that this will ideally be enough to prevent the drudgery of The Twang and The Fratellis and The View and The Enemy day in, day out, but not so much that they're replaced by "I Am The Resurrection" every half hour instead.

Hi

There are a lot of reasons why Delete As Appropriate has basically been dead this year.

A preceding year of reading so much of the amazing music writing out there and trying to keep up, increasingly feeling that it was a hopeless cause. Needing some time out to sort out some issues with myself, generally quite linked to the same sense of worthlessness. Getting back into video gaming for the first time since 1999, coincedentally (?) just before my music fandom really took over. Simply not getting as much time to listen to music as I'd like, even before that. A final year of my degree which turned out, through my own fault in part, to be the least fulfilling by far and sap my will to do anything constructive. Well, that is now over (I get my results tomorrow so wish me luck if you've happened to stumble across this) and things are definitely looking up for the future.

There is something else though - a creeping lack of excitement about almost any new music that's been nagging at me for a while. I wondered at moments if it was burnout from writing too much last year but, looking back, it was already setting in then. I think it's more to do with listening to the same music for 7 years now, or at least listening for the same things, and reaching for something new without really knowing where to look.
There are exceptions, of course. And they actually include some of the most obvious things that I'd expect to have been excited about - Patrick Wolf, Arctic Monkeys - as well as the not so much.
There's still hope then, but you might be thinking nonetheless that this doesn't sound like a very promising start for a return to music blogging. Well, it doesn't, and for the moment this is not going to be a music blog in the same sense as before as I talk about whatever else I want or need to as well. Don't worry, it's not going to turn into livejournal (there's a reason why I've never been able to keep one of those going long) and this post might stay as personal as it gets, but just a warning to anyone still out there. I really don't want to lose writing about music as an outlet though, and have really begun to miss it. Plus, you know, it would be nice not to waste all of the progress that I made last year in actually getting better at it. So I'm determined to find a way back in, and this, as well as another ideas that you might see more of soon, will be it.

Thanks for reading.

Chartsengrafs - Tomorrow is cancelled

Sunday gone: Kaiser Chiefs' physical release is enough to give them the first ever number one
by an alumni of Drowned In Sound records. Jeniferever unlikely to follow. The Kaisers' 38,000 sales are enough to put them comfortably but not enormously ahead of Mika, finally gone after five weeks at the top, and a second week for "Ruby" is unlikely.
Kelis and Cee-Lo jump to 3 with their CDs out, but Sophie Ellis-Bextor's are only enough to make 8. Take That are number 10, just like last week, but this time it's with "Shine", and The Fray continue their inexorable rise at 5. Not known if this was helped by their Radio 1 appearance, during which they played a cover of "Hips Don't Lie" that set amazing new standards in DEAR LORD HOW LONG DOES THIS GO ON FOR??. Actually, that might explain why Shakira's original is at 74!
Akon both falls to a place to 4 (the one with Snoop) and climbs a place to 7 (the one with Gwen).
To make things a bit less confusing, the Take That, Gwen Stefani and The Fray records are the ones that actually got released yesterday and will be sure a boost next time around.
As will The Gossip's "Standing In The Way Of Control", already an impressive 13, although there are some rules issues to be worked through there: they already released it as recently as the end of October on as many physical formats as are allowed, and some of those are still selling.
Beyonce's "Listen" jumps back from outside the top forty to 16; Amy Winehouse's "Rehab" makes a further leap up to 18 post-Brits with her album similarly returning to 1 an album chart otherwise lifeless bar The Fray entering at 4. And Explosions In The Sky at 58! Junior Jack's climber "Dare Me (Stupiddisco)" rounds out the top twenty, possibly thanks to being mistaken for Just Jack.
In download action Lily Allen moves to 23, Fergie to 27 and The Killers to 29. No such chance of advancing for The Magic Numbers (36) and Mumm-Ra (40). Fair enough in the latter case when Pull Tiger Tail are doing the same thing better, really. Not making the top forty
And in our now regular closing puzzle, The Fratellis' "Chelsea Dagger" is 34 this week, up another five places.

Sunday coming: Kaiser Chiefs will be number one in albums, but you already knew that, right? In singles, they're probably going to be deposed by Take That, just sparing us "How To Save A Life" at number one. Gwen/Akon should be top 5, The Gossip and Justin Timberlake a little further down. And we have out first actual big new download rules entry (no, Koopa don't count) as an anti-war song promoted at the weekend's demonstrations heads for the top 10. Ooh.
Further down in the top forty:
Cascada!
Cussh!
Pigeon Detectives!
The Horrors!
Idlewild! (which is, us, a surprise actually)
The Maccabees!
and CSS!

7 Days - The grammar of one finger

Patrick Wolf - "The Marriage"
Thanks to the awful quality of the leak I have I haven't been listening to the album much yet (that can wait til tomorrow!), instead falling in love with this bonus track from its iTunes release. Which is all about Patrick being in love too, as demonstrated through popping electronic noises and one of his warmest and sweetest vocals ever. Its entertaningly gauche lyrics are soon to be an essential reference for every messageboard 'Is Patrick gay??' debate ever, too.

Kepler - "Lighthouse"
This came from Ian, and a quick google reveals (aside from the astronomer) that they've broken up. It's a shame, because this is gorgeous. Running on only a slowly cycling guitar riff and the merest smears of strings, it concentrates everything on the singer, not that he needs more than similarly minimal input. There's a real tension present throughout, because it feels on the edge of launching into some kind of catharsis but never actually does. The atmosphere of overhanging doom that is created so effectively is a perfect fit to the lyrics, too - when it finishes on 'every day, my execution is stayed' the hint of futile relief present is heartbreaking.

Art Of Fighting - "Free You"
Continuing the slow and the sad, the new single by a band that I've previously talked about at length. This isn't as monumental as "Heart Translation" but is rather lovely nonetheless.
Thanks to Sheila for the tip-off on this one, available for free from Aussie radio station Triple J.

Goose - "Black Gloves"
I got their album because they impressed me so much at Eurosonic, and it's living up to expectation so far. This instrumental first track is actually the pick of the bunch, cramming all that they do best into two minutes: sleek bass, squelchy keyboards and a fast build into a brutally effective dancefloor monster.
{A different song on YouTube}

MIA - "Zirkus"
First, no, not that M.I.A.. No dots, see. Anyway, this is your Jukebox referral of the week. I totally said 'sinister undertones' too! But there's obviously no point in having it twice. Together with "Tanz Der Molecule", good enough that I have ordered the album of the same name from amazon.de. At least, I hope I have. I only studied German for two years and it was a while ago.

The Kissaway Trail - "Eloquence And Elixir"
If you were just a bit disappointed when Mew decided to coat their dreamy pop in lots and lots of prog then it's time to rejoice, because The Kissaway Trail do yearning and twinkling and grand at least as well as they did! They're Danish too, of course.
{A different song on YouTube}

I Was A Cub Scout - "I Hate Nightclubs"
Carries on exactly where their really promising electro-angst debut left off, really, bar the addition of just a smattering of guitar fuzz taking them further away from The Postal Service. That made it initially slightly underwhelming, but there are still few new bands making music so addictive.

Chartsengrafs - Am I too dirty?

Sunday gone: Let's start off with the campaign of the week to right invented wrongs and turn over the charts: "Roll With it" fails to even make the top 200, though the website hasn't changed yet to reflect this. Morrissey fans at least acknowledge their crushing failure.
Both would perhaps have been wise to choose weeks without sales being inflated by the Brit Awards, not that it would have helped that much. The effect isn't enough to change the very top of singles (or albums), where Mika still rules all, but it does send "Patience" 22-10 (putting it just ahead of Take That's follow-up!), "Chasing Cars" 23-12, "Rehab" 49-22 and "I Don't Feel Like Dancin'" 39-33.
"When You Were Young", "Put Your Records On" and "Dani California" obviously weren't so well received, only the first even making the top seventy-five. Meanwhile RHCP's new piece of crap "Desecration Smile" does only a little better at 27, sitting alongside the similarly fully released Snow Patrol's "Open Your Eyes" (26) and The Feeling's "Rose" (38) in the 'maybe we should stop bleeding this album dry now' stakes.
Higher up Kaiser Chiefs are still 2, Akon moves to 3, The Gossip move top twenty and Omarion enters at 19. Never Forget.
I guess their Best British Breakthrough Artist award might be responsible for The Fratellis' "Chelsea Dagger" re-entering at 39, but there must be greater unholy forces at work to explain why that and their follow-up single have both been hanging around the edges of the top forty for weeks now. Also back from the undead: Razorlight's "America" at 34. More heartening news is that Towers Of London's "I'm A Rat", despite the best efforts of the press to turn a few days' worth of reality TV exposure into a career, stalls at 46. That's one place better than Blink 182 leftovers +44, and, brilliantly, two worse than Ch!pz. Remember the Pop! that didn't feature Hugh Grant? No? Well, that would be where they've gone wrong. It may be worth clicking that YouTube link just for the tags and description. Finally, anyone wondering about why Spice Girls Reunion rumours are taking hold now should note the position of Emma Bunton's new single, peaking at 60. 60!

Sunday coming: Kaiser Chiefs should manage number one in the singles. Amy Winehouse will be back on top in the albums. Also going up: The Fray, Kelis/Cee-Lo, Beyonce, Junior Jack and 27 year old former Spiller singer ((c) Metro) Sophie Ellis-Bextor.

7 Days - It's my party

New thing works like this: end each week with the seven songs that have most caught my ear during it.

2Raumwohnung - "Nimm Mich Mit"
Yummy German electropop with a gentle exterior eventually giving way to heartache - had me intrigued to hear more straight away and the more has delivered too! Their new single is on the Jukebox too. No-one else liked it as much :(

Snow Patrol - "One Night Is Not Enough"
Reviews of modern day Snow Patrol getting on my nerves? Obviously the perfect time to listen to the Snow Patrol of old before it was all big lovelorn anthems. Except that, hmm, this is in fact their biggest lovelorn anthem of all. There's a bit of extra bite to the guitar crunching in the chorus, and the chorus itself has a bit much venom, but really this is close to "Run" as makes no difference, right up to the spiralling guitar climax. That's no bad thing.

Los Campesinos! - "We Throw Parties, You Throw Knives"
Having long since fallen in love with their debut sort-of-single "You! Me! Dancing!", this was the week that this one started to make just as much sense. Sounding this fresh in the world of scrappy, dancey indie is no easy achievement, but they do it by being more fun than everyone else by a distance. The noisy false ending and listing of Halloween costumes is quite the winning combination. Also notable because of the weird coincedence of sharing an amusing lyrical reference with the title track to fellow hopefuls Lucky Soul's The Great Unwanted. They almost use it in the same way, in fact, with Lucky Soul having 'It's your party, you can die if you want to, die if you want to' to their 'It's your party but I'll die if I want to, die if I want to'. What are the chances?

Fall Out Boy - "Hum Hallelujah"
I just love that kind of thing in general actually, which is why my favourite song so far on the very surprisingly good Fall Out Boy album is the one with hook provided by Leonard Cohen via Jeff Buckley (via Shrek?).

Klaxons - "Totem On The Timeline"
The album is perhaps a little slim and the hype of course silly, but in a climate where imagination in mainstream guitar bands seems something to be frowned on, songs as energetically ridiculous as this ("In club 1830 I met Julius Ceasar...") are refreshing as well as exciting.

Grinderman - "No Pussy Blues"
Another Jukebox contender (except this time everyone else liked it even more). This is the first time I can remember that Nick Cave has not just sounded like someone to be admired and respected from a distance, but actually demanded attention NOW.

Bat For Lashes - "Moon & Moon"
See here.

Brit Awards 2007

I only made it back halfway through, hence no live coverage and the fact that I can't speak with much authority on the whole thing. But it was a bit of a weird one. As long as you realised that Cat Power, Bob Dylan and even Guillemots never had any chance at all, the set of winners was an unusually pleasing one that even had some minor surprises. Lily Allen going home empty handed could be predicted, but Snow Patrol too? Even The Fratellis winning Best Breakthrough can be seen as a lesser of two evils situation while The Kooks still exist.
But on the other hand, the ceremony itself was deadly dull. Russell Brand tried his best, and his Gallagher baiting was quite amusing, but nothing interesting happened, no one had anything interesting to say and the live performances I saw were all totally lacking in spark. The only consequence of being live for the first time in years was that the sound got annoyingly muffled every few minutes - ITV claimed afterwards that this was to cover swearing, but it didn't sound like it.
Now, getting rid of the duet performances of the past at least prevents something like Melua/Cullum's "The Lovecats" ever happening again, but uninspired runs through all the songs that everyone's already heard too many times doesn't seem a great alternative. And as the big finale Oasis sounded like shit even outside of the numerous underwater sections and didn't even play any big hits til after the TV cameras had left them.
So what was worth watching? Nelly Furtado at least seemed very excited as ever to win and got all but shoved off stage as a result, but the only real highlight was Arctic Monkeys continuing to adapt to success in their own unique way in their video acceptance speeches for their two awards. 'We're too busy rehearsing', sour expressions offset by appearance:

Chartsengrafs - Repulse you with my queasy smile

Sunday gone: Mika at number one for a fourth week in the singles, now joined by his album too. I was wondering what amusing new thing I could possibly say about him at this stage, but luckily Brian May has stepped in to save me from needing to!
Midweek predictions of not much happening near the top aren't quite correct as Kaiser Chiefs' "Ruby" rockets right in at 2 after being released to download services earlier in the week. Next week's number one? Maybe! I can't remember a time when their rise seemed that exciting but there might have been one once.
The Fray continue their inexorable rise, going 10-6. Look, I had the measure of them in October! Gwen Stefani and Akon move to 10, just below his other single. That makes it six top 15 singles in a row for her, as long as you ignore "Luxurious". Oh yeah, everyone did. Kelis and Cee-Lo continue to follow their trajectory a little below, moving 19-13.
Mark Owen and his Take Thats go 30-17 well ahead of full release, Sophie Ellis-Bextor does much the same just below, and Nelly Furtado moves up to 19 with one of those rare songs on her album that falls into neither the awesome or cloyingly awful category. Unlike all of the above, Jessica Simpson at 20 has actually been fully released and has about the same amount of UK appeal as Paris Hilton. But more than 2Pac at 21.
"Chasing Cars" moves 24-23.
Ericke E's beat is rocking at 25; what goes around comes around for Justin Timberlake at 29 on dowonloads; Beyonce creeps 39-31; The Long Blondes' fantastic "Giddy Stratospheres" is 37 and Lily Allen lurks just outside at 44. Plus at 34, FHM High Street Honeys! Yes, they're covering "I Touch Myself". And the video is exactly what you expect. Thing is, this is at least as well as any proper British girlgroup launched at this point would do.

In the albums we have Bloc Party and Fall Out Boy at 2 and 3 behind Mika as expected, and Cold War Kids' hype just about carries them to 35.

Sunday coming: Mika is going to be number one again, unless Kaiser Chiefs have a very big end of week surge. Akon's the only other possible challenger. Meanwhile "Chasing Cars" is already heading for the top 10 even before the Brit Awards effect which thanks to the instant accessibility of downloads is probably going to dominate the chart this week even more than in past years.
Oh, and no sign of "Roll With It"! What a surprise.

Bat For Lashes - Moon & Moon

A treat from last night's The Culture Show. Playing for a TV audience probably larger than that of existing fans, Natasha Khan makes the obvious decision to play a bewitching but unreleased song:

Chartsengrafs extra: Fix Me Now

Getting a fair amount of attention this week: a website campaigning for people to download enough copies of old songs to get them to number one in the UK singles chart, focussing on cases where a single has 'undeservedly' reached number two. Leaving aside the fact that this is apparently being run as a publicity stunt for a download store, their particular campaign has idea an awful start by choosing "Roll With It": everyone already owns it, it was beaten by "Country House" which lots of people still prefer, "Wonderwall" is better anyway. There can't be many songs that were more famously number two, but it's still not a lot to go on. It will be interesting to see where they get to if they carry on down that route for any length of time, as well: "this week, download Out Of Your Mind"?

The switch to a chart that allows downloads, meaning that much less outside help is required to provide the stock for those taking part in these campaigns to go ahead, has spurred a number of such efforts. Morrissey fans are attempting similar, and of course we've already had Billie Piper's return to the charts via Chris Moyles.

And all of this is a great thing. Partly because it's doomed to failure of course: if it there was any risk of an Oasis/Morrissey top two next week thanks to people posting on messageboards I would be a bit iffy on it, but it never works that way. It's a great thing because the occasional harmless hijacking of the lower reaches of the UK charts by outside influences is one of the things that makes them so fun to watch: fantastic stories like John Otway and Brighton and Yeovil football clubs spring to mind from recent years, plus that whole business of The Alarm pretending to be a new band and it working despite not fooling anyone for very long. I don't want to see the charts turned over to these people completely, obviously, but I don't want an end to it either.
And it means that, against all odds, people still care. The complaints in that John Otway link about his song being missing from Woolworths charts (the writers seeming to miss the point there that they make up their own chart all the time, 'airbrushing' many a hit in the same manner) seem kind of quaint now. HMV run their own chart too, just shifted to Fifty Quid Man instead of teenage girls, and you'll be hard pressed to find an online store that displays the top 40 rather than their own sales chart. You no longer get your 3 minutes on Radio 1 or Top Of The Pops as reward for a position. Yet people still care! Deeply enough to hold votes and start up campaigns, looking to teach a lesson to the chart watching public, whoever they are. Amazing.

Chartsengrafs - Mmm-mmm

Sunday gone: Mika stays number 1 for a third week. The addition of physicals to downloads lets him take his sales for the week to 77,500. That passes for loads these days, so runners up Fall Out Boy can perhaps consider themselves a little unlucky having got 30,000 or so. Bloc Party stomp and plead their way to 4 with "The Prayer" and Akon and The Fray both slip into the top ten for the first time. You know, I think (or hope) that the gap to The Fray's physical release is going to be long enough that they'll have already done too well to get a big peak - it might cost them number one.
Ten-twenty shows little movement bar Sharam partying all the time at 16 and Kelis and Cee-Lo climbing to a fairly impressive early 19. It's been a while since she had a proper hit, too. It's from twenty-thirty that it's all happening, though.
No one much cares abo0ut Kasabian any more, even if their song isn't totally awful, at 22. Gwen Stefani moves to a downloads only 23 with "The Sweet Escape" then she's set up nicely for another slowly successful and if even this can manage to be huge album campaign. Bring on Rice-Oxley! "Chasing Cars" heads up eight places to 24, ffs, and The Gossip climb nine to 25. Lady Sovereign moves up to 26 on full release, so I was only slightly premature and slightly wrong in making fun of her last week. Sophie Ellis-Bextor's "Catch You" is 28 on downloads. If she'd have left it much longer to come back she'd have been being promoted as 'the girlfriend of that guy in The Feeling', probably.
Take That unleash Mark Owen at 30 on downloads. Nas, Nelly Furtado, Beyonce and Bowling For Soup all creep into the lower end of the forty. Two of those are going to get much higher. Guess which. Razorlight and The Fratellies make up four of the next ten places between them, so let's stop there.

Over in the albums, Klaxons' early week charge turns out to be no match for the weekend supermarket/Amazon buying power of Norah Jones fans, so they have to settle for 2. Other end of January top ten entries from Jamie T (4), Just Jack (6) and a Madonna live album (7) and it's fairly unlikely we'll be seeing much more of them this high any time soon. Actually that counts double for The Shins and Josh Groban at 16 and 17. On Just Jack: does the album cover look about 5 years out of date to anyone else?
At 20 we have, uh, Doris Day, while Little Man Tate bewilderingly fail to take off with the Kooks/View/Fratellis audience at 27, and a year is a long time for Clap Your Hands Say Yeah as Some Loud Thunder fails to replicate their debut's top forty success of Jan 2006.


Sunday coming: It will be the same story again in the album chart; Bloc Party have taken an early lead but have no chance whatsoever of keeping it up all week with Mika bearing down on them full force. Fall Out Boy will settle for 3.
In the singles there's really not a lot that's going to happen, bar entries/risers for the following lower down:
Kaiser Chiefs!
Jessica Simpson!!
2Pac!!!
Erick E?!?!
The Long Blondes!!!!!

Reviewer mindmeld

From a review of Snow Patrol's "Open Your Eyes" single in the NME this week:

'NME have finally pegged the appeal of Snow Patrol - basically they make rock music for people who are too busy to actually get into rock music, and need an easy option swathed in a veneer of quality. Favourite restaurant? Pizza Express. Favourite furnishings store? Ikea. Favourite band? Snow Patrol.'

From a Drowned In Sound review of "Chocolate", April 2004:

'This is a recording designed to fit into a banal lifestyle, without friction, without fuss. It slots in nicely with that trip to Ikea, that purchase of a deluxe double-disc DVD, that Pizza Hut meal deal'

"Open Your Eyes" is a bit of a ponderous, overlong thing and it took me at least 30 seconds to realise wasn't "Chasing Cars" last time I heard it soundtracking something on TV. Hardly their finest moment, then, but still less banal than that approach to criticising it.

Regina Spektor - Fidelity

This was one that got away, Jukebox-wise, and what is this for if not telling you about awesome songs? Anyway, I've never had that much time for Regina before but that's because I haven't heard anything as gorgeous as "Fidelity"'s pizzicato progression. A thousand dainty little steps moving purposefully forwards, and the moment when the music momentarily stumbles before heading forwards stronger than ever is the stuff of dreams. I still don't love Regina herself on this (sung by, say, Joan Wasser this would be a 10/10 for sure) but it's difficult to mind too much.

Chartsengrafs - Why don't you like me?

Sunday gone: It's a bit of a slow week at the top. Mika is still number 1, still kind of smug looking. Just Jack still follows, with Mason/Princess Superstar jumping to 3. Fall Out Boy enter at 6 with their absurdly self-referential "This Ain't A Scene, It's An Arms Race" and still sound like the one mainstream emo band who aren't actually really good. As opposed to My Chemical Romance, obviously, who are two places below with the full release of "Famous Last Words". Well, their last single was rather unfollowable. They do get the biggest selling physical release of the week though, incedentally, an achievement which means increasingly little as digital sales reach the 80% mark of market share.
Akon climbs to 11 with his ignorable new single, Bloc Party enter at a not bad 13 with "The Prayer", a grower to put it politely. I'm seeing them tomorrow by the way. And I still haven't heard any of their other new stuff. Will report back soon. The Fray climb to 16 and see the physical release date of their single put forward another few weeks. Can't we miss out on a big American hit for once? I mean I know we gave them "You're Beautiful" and all, but still. Brining up the rear of the top 20 are Little Man Tate, who win the least hatable Arctic Monkeys soundalike competition by some distance. The prize is to still kind of suck.
Keane's "A Bad Day" only gets to 23, but they won't mind too much as their album finally takes off again a little. That single's number two in the airplay charts at the moment, but happily those don't count for anything chartwise here! (although, woah, I had no idea that radio liked "Annie, Let's Not Wait" so much)
Amy Winehouse falls from 21 and 24 to 24 and 28, with "You Know I'm No Good" proving to have just as much sticking power as "Rehab". Larrikin Love's "Well, Love Does Furnish A Life", confusingly released on a disc called "A Day In The Life" is 31. It's not especially good, but it's ok because the release has given us a gorgeous Guillemots cover of it. I bet you knew I'd say that. the Skins effect does indeed push The Gossip up into the top forty at 34, and Kelis and Cee Lo are the last new entry on downloads, with The Shins just missing out despite early week promise at 42.
Further down you get some larger new rules oddities. The release of Rocky Balboa pushes "Eye Of The Tiger" and the original theme to 47 and 52 respectively - they've got to have peaked by now, surely - and if anyone can explain why Placebo's version of "Running Up That Hill" is at 66 I'd be grateful.

At the top of the albums chart The View are on fire! Sadly not literally. The Good, The Bad And The Queen are just behind, with the only other new entry for The Cooper Temple Clause, who still have some fans at 33.

Sunday coming: Mika will be number one again easily since his CDs are out, keeping Fall Out Boy off. Bloc Party for 3, and, uh, The Fray for the top 10? Oh dear. Your other new entries or climbers will be:
Kasabian
Kelis/Cee-Lo
Gwen Stefani/Akon (not that he does much)
Nas/Will.I.Am
Lady Sovereign
Bowling For Soup
Switches
Take That

And in the albums, Lex favourites Klaxons are going to be number one. Though only number 34 in Sainsburys' chart. There's loads behind them but we'll talk about that this time next week.

Lucky for some

As promised - a compilation of 13 of the acts that I'm looking forward to great things from this year, ready for you to download. Usual rules apply: they can't have released as album yet, basically. Having come around to them a lot, Klaxons might be on here except that there really isn't any point at this stage.

New/2007

1. Los Campesinos! - You! Me! Dancing!: Four exclamation marks for excitement entirely justified. The reason that this is the most likely song for you to have already heard is becauseit isn't so much promising as the magnificent complete article; it takes a while to get going but you soon realise that that's just to prepare you for the unrestrained joy to follow. They seem to have some other songs nearly as good, too.
2. Dead! Dead! Dead! - Colours 123: 2006 was a bit quiet on the Dead! Dead! Dead! front, but they did contribute the standout track to 50 Minutes, a hectic minute of brooding atmosphere followed by crashing aggression. This is rather like that but stretched out a bit - think a cleverer Cooper Temple Clause before they decided to become awful and you're somewhere near.
3. I Was A Cub Scout - Teenage Skin: I was too, you know. Nottingham teenageers who have come up with some marvellous skittery beats to back up their angst, this being a good example.
4. Lorraine - Saved: Popjustice favourites tipped for big things at the start of last year, which resulted in a number 29 single in April and then not a lot. Hopefully they won't be completely forgotten because their pristine electropop is actually really good.
5. Snowfight In The City Centre - Listen: This is the third year in a row that I start by picking this band, though previously in their old guise of Lisa Brown. Yet in the meantime the likes of The Upper Room have managed to make a success of a similar sound without any songs nearly as good as this. Mystery.
6. GoodBooks - Turn It Back: As was clear when they wowed me at last year's Camden Crawl, they have a lot of great songs. Enough in fact to have actually given this one away for free. Ooh.
7. Candie Payne - Take Me: Not a cover of The Wedding Present's song, but a forceful piece of retro pop soul that excels way beyond mere pastiche.
   
8. Lucky Soul - Lips Are Unhappy: Achingly sweet girly pop with gorgeous harmonies. Anyone who liked The Pipettes and Camera Obscura's albums last year, this is like the best bits of both put together.
9. Sky Larkin - Somersault (Notes): Hottest British Act of 2006! I can't add much to what they say, except that I'm rather excited about going to see them and Los Campesinos!
   
10. iLiKETRAiNS - A Rook House For Bobby: I spent a while trying to work out where to put this in the tracklisting, but it would sound like nothing else wherever I'd gone for. Such is the extent that their deep, dark post-rock sounds beamed in from another reality entirely.
    
11. The Indelicates - New Art For The People: 'If it weren't for the cum in your hair, the cocaine on your teeth...' Well, a first line like that is one way to grab the attention. Pleasingly the rest of this boy/girl duo's scuzzy dramatics are just as captivating.
    
12. Emmy The Great - Secret Circus: Rich and evocative folk from a girl who sounds a little bit like Joanna Newsom might if she weren't so annoying.
    
13. Kate Nash - Birds: Lily Allen comparisons aplenty coming her way, and if anything puts you off this it will probably be her Laahndan accent. But under her folk's surface attitude there's some heartwarmingly beautiful songwriting at work . Her first single proper, then, is of course a spoken electro mess called "Caroline's A Victim". Whatever works.
    

'Happens to be about nine feet tall and have a mohican'

It's Stylus Singles Jukebox time once more! Except that it's different now - it has changed format to a blog and will now provide a more constant stream of snarkiness and fine music from mainland Europe. I'm on the first new entry, for Teddybears (who fit into the second category, as long as Sweden counts as mainland) and if you keep an eye on it I'll be on more soon. Plus there are a lot of other rather excellent writers that you should be reading for too.
I won't be mentioning updates I'm on now unless they're particularly notable, obviously, but that's ok because I'm going to have lots of other exciting stuff right here. Starting this weekend with a compilation of songs by some of the most promising new acts around.

Just heard on the radio

'The original emos, Good Charlotte, are back!!'

Chartsengrafs - Should I bend over?

Sunday gone: It's an all hyped all new acts top three this week, headed by Mika getting the second ever download only number 1. You know, I could almost bring myself to actually like him if it wasn't for the spoken bits in this song being so incredibly irritating. Just Jack is at 2 (and he would have been number one under the old rules, ha) and is pretty much the opposite to Mika in that his current single is enjoyable but I have a feeling that it will be a bad thing to ever hear from him again.
The View go up to 3 on full release, presumably selling to people too young to remember "Brimful Of Asha". Jojo is also a riser to 4, with Leona Lewis and Eric Prydz tumbling as a result of all this new activity. So with the new rules, does this top five feel a little... unearned? Even less worth anything than normal? Well, yeah, actually. But then it is January, long the season for Mercury Rev to score hits and unexceptional records to climb to unrealistic heights. If we have the same feeling come March, then there's a problem.
The Ordinary Boys probably can't believe their luck re the Celebrity Big Brother furore reminding people of that Preston guy from last year's just in time for their new single (ok, that part must be deliberate) - it's enough to put it up to 7. Not-so-secret Manics fan Jamie T goes up to 9 with "Calm Down Dearest".
Five years on from "Bad Babysitter", Princess Superstar neatly gets her second number 11 single thanks to Mason's "Exceeder", although that might be ruined by a rise next time; Klaxons creep up to 14; The Good, The Bad And The Queen scrape into the top twenty this time around.
Oh and there's some silliness as Chris Moyles tells his listeners to download Billie's "Honey To The Bee" and it's enough to get it to number 17. Which is not too high for January and thus rather a relief, although it's still difficult to imagine Ms. Piper herself actually being too pleased for everyone to be reminded of it. Actually, the msot interesting thing is that is solves the mystery of what else Hear'say's "Pure And Simple" was assembled from apart from "Never Ever" and "All Around The World".
Lower down the forty, Guillemots' awful rerecording of "Annie, Let's Not Wait" (but hey, it has a nice video!) is their second biggest hit yet at 27; The Fray are at 29 two months before their single is released and will presumably soon be as huge here as in the US; and we get a first sighting of My Chemical Romance's new single at 38, one place behind "Welcome To The Black Parade".
Just outside we have The Gossip's "Standing In The Way Of Control" maybe because of that advert for that program that it is on? I don't know. And love her or hate her, Lady Sovereign sure is an obsession at, er, 48. To put it in brave new chart world context, that's three places ahead of "Eye Of The Tiger" and all of five ahead of The Jackson 5.
Amy Winehouse is still number one album, still nothing else interesting happening. Unless you count people buying The Fratellis again, but we'll try to forget about that one.

Sunday coming: No change looking likely for the top two, but Mason/Princess are heading for 3. Other new entries or rises coming up from:
My Chemical Romance!
Klaxons!
Little Man Tate!
Bloc Party!
Fall Out Boy!

And Amy Winehouse is going to be deposed from the top of the albums by the combined efforts of The View, The Good, The Bad and The Queen. See, this could get easily confusing.

Eurosonic day 2 (12/01/07)

(Day one here.)

Day two begins with another couple of instores - first of all The Duke Special, who remind heavily of Liam Frost's passable but derivative folk-pop, only with a Belfast accent.



Then Tunng, who also offer folk but of a decidedly more twisted bent. Their acoustic instore is good, but they promise 'more beats and some dodgy rave music' for their Usva performance later. The latter claim is rather an exaggeration but electronic edges do improve their set and the closing cover of Bloc Party's "The Pioneers" is just as wonderful as hoped.



Massive queues prevent us taking in Osark Henry, bar his closing song, which has enough of a feel of Coldplay's "Clocks" about it to make his popularity unsurprising.

Dead Combo, upstairs at the Grand Theatre, are a Portugese duo who play intricate instrumentals somewhere between fado and spaghetti western in style. Between song explanations that broken English frequently renders funnier than intended (and this is as good a place as any to note that every act we saw spoke English, usually not even attempting Dutch venue names) they show off some fantastically proficient guitar and bass playing. It's not music that I'm particulary familiar with, but their enjoyable set is always approachable, culminating in a kazoo driven Tom Waits cover.



Datarock are a bunch of overenergetic red tracksuited Norwegian mentalists, and as such are great fun to watch. Unfortunately what we see of their set proves a little lacking in hooks or direction, to the point where actually remembering what they sounded like afterwards proves a bit of a challenge.So it's upstairs again early in plenty of time for Hello Saferide.



Seeing Annika Norlin (Hello Saferide is her, plus her friend Maia for tonight) play her songs further emphasises some of the contradictions of her recorded work. See, the person that you see in her lyrics - the one that's jealous, neurotic, obsessive and scared of feet - is kind of pathetic. Her slightly stilted explanations almost always place her songs as autobiographical, too. There are moments when she's obviously exaggerating for comic effect, like "Last Bitter Song"'s 'I'm feeling happier already' followed by an overdone grimace, but these are few and far between. For the most part, this is being presented as straight down the line.
And yet, as she marches her way through great song after great song, taking in much of her debut album and more recent Would You Let Me Play This EP 10 Times A Day? it's impossible not to take her side. Surely someone able to write songs this consistently funny, insightful, and quotable can't really be such a wreck as she makes out? Not the one whose new year's resolutions in "2006" include 'I will learn a new word every day, today's word is dejected' or who can make the brilliant handclappy pop of "My Best Friend" and make despair sound as good as on "Summer's Going To Take The Pain Away".
A handful of new songs even suggest that there's still better to come. The finest is about how 'people are like songs' and balances very funny verses ('I'm like Can't Get You Out Of My Head/Sure I'm annoying sometimes but I'll make you dance') with a chorus that's the most ingenious and affecting declaration of love I've heard in a long time: 'You're the only one who is like God Only Knows'. Aww.



From there it's back downstairs for Belgians Goose, whose name seems particularly ill-suited to their energetic dance-rock. LCD Soundsystem and Soulwax says the bits of the EuroSonic programme entry that I can understand and both are fair comparisons. But they're most similar in the more song-based early part of the set, where they are good but suffer from a frontman who doesn't quite have the necessary authority to convince. No such problem later on as he gets more into it and the emphasis switches to pounding, euphoric instrumentals. They're great enough to be worth looking up as soon as possible after the festival and it turns out that they're signed to Skint Records with an album to come out in the UK next month. With the right press and a flimsily attached new rave label, they might just get somewhere with that.

After Goose it's a quick trip to Fancy, whose preposterously awful glam rock provides a few minutes of laughs. Bar some time at an underpopulated but still enjoyable party on a boat, that's it for Eurosonic 2007. With some luck, I might just be back next year!

(Thanks to Ada for photos, bar the Hello Saferide one for which I have Sabrina to thank)

Eurosonic Day 1 (11/01/07)

Eurosonic is two thirds of the Noorderslagweekend festival in Groningen, the Netherlands. With Patrick Wolf among the hundreds of acts from across Europe playing at the town's many venues, and a generous invitation to stay with a friend in the town, I couldn't really turn down the chance to go.

Utroubled by licensing or noise issues, the festival proper starts at 8pm and runs through well into the night. There's stuff to watch during the day too, though, at Groningen's big record shop, Plato. As well as being a hell of a lot better than the crap ones in Amsterdam that I visited, it puts on instore performances from some of the festival acts, and that's where I start with Peter, Bjorn and John. Armed with infectiously cheery demeanour and equally infectious songs that come to life much better than on record, they play an enjoyable if short set. The highlight is obviously "Young Folks" though, complete with badly mimed whistling and a cardboard cutout of Erykah Badu standing in for Victoria Bergsman.



First choice of the evening was between The Young Knives and Gomez singer (yeah, that one) Ben Ottewell. Alone I would have gone for the former but the latter isn't without his merits and is playing a rather nice venue, the plush seated upstairs room at the Grand Theatre.
Now, one of the better organisational points of the festival is having 45 minute sets, with some venues having two alternating stages to eliminate any time in between sets and few gaps built into the schedule to move around in. This does make it hard not to miss the starts/ends of sets but is generally preferable to the measly 25 minute shows common at UK festivals. Not in Ben Ottewell's case, though. As amazing as his voice is to be bellowed at with up close, there's nowhere near enough in just him and an acoustic guitar to hold interest for so long. Especially when he insists on playing as many Gomez B-sides as A-sides. A cover of Nick Drake's "Black Eyed Dog" works very well though (what is it about that song? I've seen JJ72 and South play it too...)



Worries about overcrowding in the tiny Usva send us there well before Patrick Wolf's set, giving a chance to check out the preceding act Lo-Fi-Fnk. No expectations there, really, but they turn out to be easily the greatest discovery of the two days. They are three ridiculously young looking Swedish guys who play slightly fey and extremely sugary electropop, and they are FUN. Winningly unwilling to take anything very seriously, a precision and ear for a glossy hook shines through regardless and every time it seems like they might let up another exhuberant beat or riff comes from somewhere. Their set produces wide grins and dancing all round and anyone getting excited about the likes of I Was A Cub Scout at present would do well to have a listen.



Patrick Wolf is initially plagued with tehcnical problems that are a welcome abscence everywhere else at the festival - he starts about 15 minutes late, instruments repeatedly don't work and setting up a microphone at the front of the stage and at his piano is a task beyond the flustered looking guy running around the stage. Though he once looks like losing his temper, Patrick largely takes it in his stride, joking about the difficulty setting up a microphone stand for a 6'4" platform shoes wearer and offering to take requests. The start of his set is ruined beyond rescue though, with a wobbly "Teignmouth" particularly awkward. It's only when he says that he's in a 'retrospective mood' and turns to his laptop that he really gets going.
Highlights: "Tristan" is more of a defiant holler than ever, he brings out unexpected high camp in the normally harrowing "The Childcatcher" and he finishes off with a great run through the title track of his (amazing) new album and a defining "A Boy Like Me". He'll do better sets, but seeing him play so many old songs so close up is a treat unlikely to be repeated.



After that we go to Vera (more like your standard small gig venue than most here) for The Hormonauts. They're Italian rockabillies whose set is not particularly impressive but includes a song that rips off "Bang Bang You're Dead" by Dirty Pretty Things so blatantly that it's admirable for its gall if nothing else.

To finish, cancellations and rearrangements allow us to take in a second set of the night from Lo-Fi-Fnk. It's still fun, although not nearly as revelatory as the first, not least because they have the distinct air of being up well past their bedtime... us too.




The second day (when we saw a few more bands than on the first!) to come very soon.