After a frankly inexcusable delay, behold!

It's the Delrico Bandito Review Of The Year 2010!

Yeah, so after being so keen last year, it's taken me a little longer to decide my faves from the previous 12 months. But here we go, for posterity if nothing else. These are the things that made 2010 just that little bit more special...


Albums Of The Year.



1. Avi Buffalo - Avi Buffalo
2. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles II
3. School Of Seven Bells - Disconnect From Desire
4. Sleigh Bells - Treats
5. Best Coast - Crazy For You
6. Beach House - Teen Dream
7. Tame Impala - Innerspeaker
8. The National - High Violet
9. Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
10. Manic Street Preachers - Postcards From A Young Man

Ok...yeah, so I was listening to a LOT of Northern American music. But so much of it was so good. Crystal Castles seduced me with a second album that was somehow both darker and more pop than their debut. Sleigh Bells were wonderfully noisy, School Of Seven Bells beautiful, and Beach House & Best Coast were simply dreamy. Arcade Fire produced their masterpiece. And Tame Impala and the Manics broke the US/Canadian hegemony with a stunning debut and continued late career renaissance respectively. In the end, despite all that, it was an album of Californian indie pop that won it for me this year. Twee and dirty and fragile and perfect. It left its stains on me.


Singles Of The Year.



1. Crystal Castles - 'Celestica'
2. The National - 'England'
3. Jenny & Johnny - 'New Yorker Cartoon'
4. Magnetic Man - 'I Need Air'
5. Best Coast - 'Boyfriend'
6. Swedish House Mafia - 'One (Original Mix)'
7. Mark Ronson And The Business International - 'Bang Bang Bang'
8. Kylie Minogue - 'Get Outta My Way'
9. Pull In Emergency - 'Everything Is The Same'
10. The Crocodiles - 'Sleep Forever'

This one was tough... in December, friends asked me to share a Top 20. I came up with over 50 tracks I had to filter down. And moreso for this. It was a great year for singles, and stand out album tracks (all of which count thanks to downloads). There were some gorgeous pop moments this year. These tracks all lodged themselves in my brain, and refused to leave until I'd listened to them time and again.

But it was Celestica that blew my mind the first time I heard it, and every time since, whether on my iPod, on Radio 1, or in my DJ sets. Otherworldly and haunting and driving and genuinely beautiful. Alice turning off the crazy to deliver a lifechanging vocal, before it launches itself into the stratosphere. I can't hear it too often or too loudly.


EPs Of The Year



1. Team Ghost - You Never Did Anything Wrong To Me
2. Girls - Broken Dreams Club
3. James Blake - CMYK
4. Los Campesinos! - All's Well That Ends
5. Sufjan Stevens - All Delighted People

A new category, cos it's my blog and I'll do what I like. Thanks to downloads, EPs have come back in considerable style. Team Ghost and James Blake used them to test the water with fresh ideas; Girls and Sufjan as a breather between albums; and Los Campesinos! to remind us how great the album before had been all along. Team Ghost's first EP was just perfect, possibly my favourite release of all this year. Hell, I added a whole new category just so I could give a prize.


Live Performances Of The Year.



1. Pet Shop Boys at Glastonbury Festival
2. Avi Buffalo at Glastonbury Festival
3. Team Ghost at The Social, W1
4. LCD Soundsystem at Brixton Academy
5. Metric at Shepherd's Bush Empire
6. Beach House at Glastonbury Festival
7. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart at 229, W1
8. Godspeed You Black Emperor at The Troxy, Stepney
9. Rolo Tomassi at the Underworld, Camden
10. Thee Oh Sees at the Luminaire, Kilburn*

I'm getting chills just thinking about these. Avi Buffalo and Beach House shining in the Glastonbury sun. LCD Soundsystem's victory lap. Team Ghost surpassing all my expectations. Metric giving stadium love in a medium sized venue. Pains being Pains but better. Thee Oh Sees and Rolo Tomassi making a fantastic sweaty racket. And Godspeed changing everything I ever thought I knew about live performance. But it was the kings of pop the Pet Shop Boys who win this year. I'd seen them live before, at the tiny Barfly in Camden for charity, but their Glasto gig was a great show that left me grinning for days afterwards. National treasures.

(*RIP The Luminaire. Great venue. A sad loss.)

Other Musical Bits...

Best Compilation: Swedish House Mafia - Until One
Best Soundtrack: Various Artists - Scott Pilgrim vs The World
Best Original Score: Daft Punk - Tron: Legacy
Best Video: Duck Sauce - 'Barbra Streisand'

Movies Of The Year:



1. Scott Pilgrim vs The World
2. Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
3. Kick Ass
4. No Distance Left To Run
5. Tron Legacy

Really?, I thought when I first made up my Top 5. But yes. Two musical biographies of a sort, two blockbuster action movies with different strains of daftness, and a number one that practically combines the two. Scott Pilgrim was so much fun to watch, I actually saw it twice in the space of a week, and then my brother got it for me on the very day it was released on DVD. The original comic books are wonderful, the soundtrack is sublime, everything about it makes me happy.

And The Rest.

On TV, The Lovely Amy Pond Show featuring Doctor Who was a constant delight. Sherlock Holmes was a brilliant, but all too brief, revelation. Peep Show just kept getting better. I discovered 30 Rock, House and True Blood. And Charlie Brooker made the acerbic into an artform.

In Art, my Tate membership granted me access to the filth and glamour of Pop Life and the voyeurism of Exposed at Tate Modern. The Rachel Whiteread and Chris Ofili retrospectives at the Tate Britain were both excellent.

Also, this was the year that I went to Ayia Napa. Ok, so it was with work, and I couldn't party too hard, but it was great, great fun. And I returned to Cyprus later in the year to see a whole other side of the island. And I escaped my bunker in Finsbury Park to a wonderful flat in Manor House (which is actually closer to Finsbury Park itself). I did some amazing new things at work. It's been a good year. A really good year.


Appropriately , the true sign of a good year is that I'm fretting about all the other stuff that I left out. I'm happier than I was this time last year. And in the grand scheme of things, I can't ask for much more than that. I hope 2011 is treating you well.

Labels: gigs, lists, movies, music, top 10's

The dark and the cold are biting. It's the same every year, but I think we all suffer a bout of collective amnesia during the Summer months. And as the gloom draws in, and the warmth slips from our fingers, it feels like we need something positive to focus on and look forward to. And I can't help but feel mightily lucky that there's so much pop cultural fare to get excited about coming up.

Tron Legacy is one such treat. It looks like big stupid fun Sci-Fi nonsense. I can't wait. I'm already nurturing a crush on Olivia Wilde from House, and this is beginning to blossom into full blown obsession, mainly thanks to that adorable asymetric crop. Couple this with the fact that she co-stars with The Dude and Blair/Williams/Frost/Clough/Aro/Wesley Snipes godhead Michael Sheen, and frankly the movie could have the plot of a videogame, and I'd be happy. Which, let's be honest, is fairly likely.

Oh, and apparently there's a soundtrack album done by some band called Daft Punk. That. Sounds. EPIC. The fact that it comes out in December is bound to screw up my album of the year charts. Let's just hope no other amazing musicians decide to release something around the same time...

Hmmm, what's this? '"Na Na Na (Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na Na)', you say? Oh, it's only world conquering goth opera punk rock heroes My Chemical Romance with a new record. Well, that's buggered everything up in the most wonderful way possible. I can't wait to hear where they've gone next. One of the most underated, foolishly neglected bands on the planet.

Then there's seeing Paramore at the O2. And then Godspeed You Black Emperor live at the Troxy. A mild contrast, I suppose. Plus, I'm excited about Harry Potter. And so in love with Emma Watson's pixie cut. The best band from Britpop that have yet to reform and aren't Elastica are reforming. Scott Pilgrim is out on DVD, and I've got new albums from Twin Shadow and The Walkmen to indulge in. And I still have sublime lingering memories of School Of Seven Bells at Heaven on Monday to keep me warm for the next few weeks.

I want to dye my hair bright red like Gerard Way.



Current Top 10:

1. Spiritualized - Run
2. Crystal Castles feat Robert Smith - Not In Love
3. Daft Punk - Derezzed
4. School Of Seven Bells - I L U
5. Fleetwood Mac - Storm
6. Pulp - Pink Glove
7. Jenny & Jonny - New Yorker Cartoon
8. The XX - VCR (Four Tet Remix)
9. Lloyd Cole - Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken?
10. Pavement - Cut Your Hair

I should be getting too old for hair crushes on rock stars.

But I'm not.

Labels: movies, music, top 10's

Oh Stephen, you are quite the dandy.

Labels: fashion

"You won't be happy with me, but give me one more chance, you won't be happy anyway..."

A gorgeous song, thrust back into my consciousness by joisacliche's delightful, but swiftly deleted cover version. And a song all the more wonderful for its acceptance that love doesn't guarantee happiness, and that the people you love are the ones who can hurt you the most. But that love is still something utterly fantastical. Like 100,000 fireflies ricocheting around your room. (Or in my case, one moth pinballing around my lampshade. Time to turn out the lights...)

Labels: girls, music

8am on a Sunday morning in Ayia Napa. No, I never thought I'd be out all night there, either, but sometimes life can beautifully unpredictable. Back to the villa and the sun's coming up. We can already feel the temperature starting to rise again. The pool looked so inviting. It only seemed right...

Labels: weather, work

Or "Hiatus gonna hate."



Do you see what I did there...?

Anyway. So. Nearly a five month break. Now, where were we?

Sometimes I think you need a holiday. I've been writing this blog on and off for nearly seven years, which is a long time in anyone's language. And I was naturally seduced by blogging's younger, sexier sister Twitter, which takes less effort and gets more attention. But although I thought about deleting this old thing, it is different, and it's lovely to come back to it.

The last few months have heralded a lot of changes. I've moved house. I've changed jobs. I've gone from a relationship to it's complicated to quite happily single, thanks ever so. All three of which have improved my state of mind immeasurably. But a lot remains the same. My brain is full of music and stuff. And I try and blog and tweet about happy good things. For a while, blogging was a chore, and I struggled for topics and positives to write about. But a break has inspired me.

I shall make no promises of a productive writing spree to rival Shakespeare on ritalin, as I've made foolish pronouncements of this sort before, and failed to live up to them. So let's just see how we go, eh? And if you really miss me, head to http://www.twitter.com/delrico, cos I'm bound to be spouting some gibberish there.

Woohoo!

In time honoured tradition, let's have us a Top 10 of the now.

1. Pulled Apart By Horses - Back To The Fuck Yeah
2. Swedish House Mafia - One
3. Chemical Brothers - Swoon
4. Underworld - Scribble
5. Crystal Castles - Celestica
6. The Divine Comedy - At The Indie Disco
7. Team Ghost - You Never Did Another Wrong To Me EP
8. School Of Seven Bells -Disconnect From Desire LP
9. Kylie Minogue - All The Lovers
10. Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending

Labels: blogging, music, top 10's

"Only philosophers embark on this perilous expedition to the outermost reaches of language and existence. Some of them fall off, but others cling on desperately and yell at the people nestling deep in the snug softness, stuffing themselves with delicious food and drink. 'Ladies and Gentlemen,' they yell, 'we are floating in space!' But none of the people down there care." Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder.

It's been a tumultuous time, 2010. It would be convenient to align this with my turning 30 just before the start of the year, but it's probably just coincidence. There's a lot of flux going on in the House of Bandito at present. And this isn't necessarily such a bad thing. One of the happy changes that I can reveal is that I'm moving out of the bunker that's been my home for five years, and into a flat with a friend. Hugely exciting stuff. We've already had deep and important conversations in the pub over the importance of Dr Who & Mastadon, the infallibility of David Mitchell and whether Lucozade is more than just a "poorly drink", so it promises to be a flat full of debate and controversy. There have been other things changing too, but you can most likely guess at those from the earlier post below. Let's leave it there, eh?

But in such times of turbulence, it's characteristic to cling to something warm and familiar. This weekend my security blanket has been the expanded reissue of Spiritualized's wonderful album Ladies And Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space. A collection of songs essentially about getting over your broken heart by taking a shitload of drugs. The fact that this resulted not only in a listenable album, but a stone cold classic, is down to the genius that is Jason Pierce. That there's two extra discs of outtakes and sessions to geek over is testament to his obsessive attention to detail.

I'll admit, I listened to the album to death when it first came out in 1997. And as such, I've not listened to it much since, mainly concentrating on Spiritualized's other albums (principally Pure Phase and Let It Come Down, the LPs that sat either side of their masterpiece). Going back to it now, it's clear that my earnest teenage self missed much of the deep, dark black humour underpinning the heartfelt yearning. Much like a lot of Pulp and The Smiths' back catalogues, Spiritualized's records reveal more to me as life does the same. Which, I must confess, is the polar opposite to what I actually expected to feel about music as I got older, and is therefore a wonderful surprise! Long may it continue.

1. Spiritualized - Ladies & Gentlemen We Are Floating In Space (I Can't Help Falling In Love With You)
2. Ride - Leave Them All Behind
3. Blood Red Shoes - Light It Up
4. Pulp - Lipgloss
5. The Smiths - Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others
6. Jacuzzi Boys - Island Avenue
7. Gorillaz - Stylo
8. Light Pollution - Good Feelings
9. Le Tigre - Deceptacon
10. Spiritualized - I Think I'm In Love (Acapella)

Sun so bright that I'm nearly blind,
Cool cos I'm wired and I'm out of my mind,
Warm as the dope running down my spine,
But I don't care bout you, and I've got nothing to do.

And that's just from a cup of tea and some Green & Blacks. I'll let Jason take the drugs so I don't have to...

Labels: getting old, music, top 10's

I booked the tickets to see "Hole" at Shepherd's Bush last week with a considerable degree of trepidation. Not the most reliable of performers at the best of times, this was Hole with only one original member. You know the one. Blonde. Shouty. Bonkers. You know.

And it really was the Courtney show. In response to chants of "Courtney! Courtney!" from the inevitably fanatical crowd, she replied "No! Not Courtney. Hole! We are a band." Hmmm. That remains to be seen. And I must confess, the cynical part of me was expecting disaster: either a no-show or a shambles, but Love was there, and they did a full set (aided by a teleprompter it must be said. Cringe.) And at times, between the rants and flirtation with the crowd and rest of the band, Courtney looked... almost... doddery. I mean, how ridiculous that a woman in her 40's should struggle to strap on her own guitar. But...

And that's just it. BUT. She still has it. She might be reading the words off a screen, fronting the grunge equivalent of a bunch of Sleeperblokes, but when she unleashes that voice it suddenly makes sense again. The old songs still have the same venom to them. The set feels all too brief and misses out some of my favourites (no 'Asking For It', 'Teenage Whore', 'Awful' or 'Boys On The Radio'), but 'Pretty On The Inside', 'Doll Parts' and 'Celebrity Skin' are blistering. And a sublime 'Reasons To Be Beautiful' is the highlight of the evening.

The new material feels like new material, yet a bit more of the same, really. None of the songs stood out, but then they rarely do in such circumstances. A fresh jazz-funk direction was always somewhat unlikely. They sound like Hole songs. But therein lies the root of my unease. Can you still scream out these angst filled anthems into middle age? At what point does Glorious Disaster become a bit... sad?

I mean, lest we forget, Hole's last original output was 12 years ago. Twelve years ago! And very little seems to have changed since then, other than mounting plastic surgery bills. Surely there has to be some kind of progress, some sort of maturity, some degree of closure? I mean, 12 years ago, I was a mess with no idea where my life was going and seemingly completely incapable of maintaining any kind of long term stable relationship. And now, I'm... I'm...

Oh.

As you were, Courtney, as you were...


And Ten Songs to disaster gloriously to:

1. Be Your Own Pet - Becky
2. The Walkmen - The Rat
3. Beach House - Lover Of Mine
4. Vivian Girls - Where Do You Run To?
5. Ringo Deathstarr - In Love
6. Spiritualized - Baby I'm Just A Fool
7. Cymbals Eat Guitars - ...And The Hazy Sea
8. Crystal Stilts - Love Is A Wave
9. Jeff Buckley - Last Goodbye
10. Los Campesinos! - A Heat Rash In The Shape Of The Show Me State; Or, Letters from Me to Charlotte

Never a dull moment.

Labels: getting old, gigs, music, top 10's

OMactualG. It's the Delrico Bandito 2009 Review Of The Year!

Yes, the New Year is but hours old, but I've been making my lists and checking them twice, so no time like the present to splat them from my brain to your screen. Last year I finally hit on a format I liked, so we'll stick with that and start with...

Albums Of The Year...



1. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
2. Paramore - Brand New Eyes
3. Metric - Fantasies
4. The xx - xx
5. Girls - Album
6. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
7. The Horrors - Primary Colours
8. Japandroids - Post-Nothing
9. La Roux - La Roux
10. The Antlers - Hospice

Reissue: The Vaselines - Enter The Vaselines
Live Album: Nirvana - Live At Reading
Special Gym Award: The Prodigy - Invaders Must Die

A cracking year for albums. At one point I had 20 albums in my Top 10, which doesn't quite work. Paramore, Metric and Phoenix all made engagingly different guitar led pop. The Horrors confounded my expectations. The xx were a terrific antidote to the scourge of overproduced everything-including-the-kitchen-sink records. But the number one spot was never open to debate. POBPAH's debut is all wonderful sweet indie pop songs about sex in libraries and teenagers in love with Christ and heroin. It's like someone grew them in a lab specifically to push my buttons. A band and record to treasure.


Singles Of The Year...



1. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - 'Stay Alive'
2. Deadmau5 Feat. Kaskade - 'I Remember'
3. Metric - 'Gimme Sympathy'
4. Animal Collective – 'My Girls'
5. Paramore - 'Turn It Off'
6. Art Brut - 'DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake'
7. Jon Hopkins - 'Light Through The Veins'
8. Mumford & Sons - 'Little Lion Man'
9. Florence & The Machine - 'You Got The Love (xx Remix)'
10. Ercola Feat. Daniella – 'Every Word'

I know these weren't all promoted as singles, but thanks to the download charts, they all count. So there. And these are just all gorgeous, whether making you dance like a lunatic, drift away into a dreamworld, or scream "I REALLY FUCKED IT UP THIS TIME!" very loudly. The sample of 'Light Through The Veins' was the best thing on the last Coldplay album, and The xx made the best Florence record of the year by almost completely removing Florence from it. In any other year, Deadmau5 would've kept up the tradition of a house track being my No.1, but a song like 'Stay Alive', with its breakdown to die for, doesn't come along very often. Simply wonderful.

Live Performances of the Year...



1. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart at Scala, Kings Cross (also Brixton Windmill & Highbury Garage)
2. The Pixies at Brixton Academy
3. Blur at Glastonbury Festival (also Hyde Park)
4. The Flaming Lips at The Troxy, Tower Hamlets
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs at Shepherd's Bush Empire (also Glastonbury)
6. Paramore at Wembley Arena
7. Coldplay at Wembley Stadium
8. Mogwai at Field Day Festival, Victoria Park, Hackney
9. Japandroids at Madame JoJo's, Soho
10. Deadmau5 at Radio 1's Big Weekend, Swindon

Yes, it's the hat-trick. It was the year of The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. Each gig was better than the last. Every song sounded like a single. I love this band. Elsewhere, comebacks from Blur and The Pixies were better than I could've hoped. The Flaming Lips are still one of the best live bands on the planet. Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Paramore were two perfectly contrasting strains of exciting female fronted punk pop joy. And, to paraphrase David Tennant on Buzzcocks, Coldplay were great. Deal with it.

Band Of The Year...

Take a guess.


Movies of the Year...



1. Moon
2. A Serious Man
3. Inglourious Basterds
4. Sherlock Holmes
5. Watchmen

Oh, where to begin with Moon? I knew nothing about it before I walked into the cinema, and it just swept me away. Just everything you could want from modern Sci-Fi. Classic story telling, beautifully acted and wonderfully produced. A Serious Man was as black as comedy can get. Inglourious Basterds was beautifully absurd, yet also capable of startling intensity and suspense. And Watchmen and Sherlock Holmes were quite simply tremendously entertaining. Bonus celeb spot fact: I watched the No.1 film in my list in the same cinema as the director of my No.4 film.

And the rest...



Quick mentions of other cultural wonders. The second series of the Phonogram comic book 'The Singles Club' was simply stunning. Anish Kapoor's exhibition at the Royal Academy was my artistic highlight of the year, along with Francis Bacon at the Tate Modern. I devoured the Twilight series like junk food and then cleansed my palate with more Haruki Murakami and Douglas Coupland. I sold my soul to Twitter and my iPhone, and finally signed up to emusic's download subscription service that has opened my ears to lots of great new music. And with memberships to both the Tate and the ICA generously given to me for my birthday, there'll be even more to write about at the end of 2010.


So there it is. Another year over, but another exciting one just begun. And what with it also being the end of the Noughties, I may well blog about some of my favourite things from the past decade at some point. But enough lists for the time being. Here's to 2010. Happy New Year.

Labels: gigs, lists, movies, music, top 10's

Well, um, yes. So... Yeah, look, I know, ok? I'm not here to play the blame game. There are reasons, many reasons. Things are always going to get in the way. And, y'know, that's not necessarily a bad thing. Life would be dull if it wasn't busy. But ultimately, yes, I have once again neglected this blog. To the very point where I let the lease on my webspace lapse, so half the images have disappeared. Whoops. I will now have to go through the blog, post by post, and try and repair all the broken links. And this may take me... a while... But such is life. The front page and new posts will all look lovely. I promise.

And there will be new posts, have no doubt about that.

It's the end of the year. It's the end of the decade. I've just turned 30. Lots of things are changing, and it's exciting. But some things have not changed. And for that I'm thankful.

The main headline is that Delrico Bandito is not dead.

"Perhaps my best years are gone, but I wouldn't want them back, not with the fire in me now."
- Samuel Beckett.

Stay tuned!

Labels: blogging, getting old, graffiti

Boom...boomboom...kick...



Boom...boomboom...kick...



Boom...boomboom...kick...



Boom...boomboom...kick...



Talent borrows, genius steals.

Labels: music

It's funny. When I was growing up, I sort of assumed that when you reached a certain stage of adulthood, that you'd reach a level of equilibrium. That essentially, things would even out and there wouldn't be any more problems or disasters. It is fair to say that, as yet, this has not been the case. Not that, even in my state of arrested development, I'm still experiencing the same teenage angst. Just that your problems and anxieties mature with you.

But part of me still wonders if there's an age where you do achieve that sort of stability. And then I wonder, doesn't that get boring after a while? Is that where life ceases to be exciting? I think it's fair to say that I'm never going to be entirely happy. Oh well. The solution to such woes hasn't changed much since my teenage years, though. Music, turned up LOUD.

1. Foo Fighters - The Pretender
2. Paramore - Turn It Off
3. Huggy Bear - Hopscotch
4. Rage Against The Machine - Sleep Now In The Fire
5. Annie - I Don't Like Your Band
6. Charlotte Hatherley - Colours
7. Burial - Night Bus
8. Weezer - Undone (The Sweater Song)
9. Blondie - Picture This
10. Van Halen - Jump

You've got to roll with the punches to get to what's real.

Labels: girls, it's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine), music, philosophy, top 10's

What a few weeks. Weddings in Winchester, Weston-Super-Mare and Teeside, and meeting a wonderful brand new person in Cambridge. All terribly grown up, but very much counterbalanced by my single, media life back in London. In fact, life in London is a different kind of reality. The rest of the country seems somehow completely disconnected from the world that I am used to, and therefore feels a little unreal. Although the obvious fact is that it is London life that is unreal. I'm just tuned in to it.



But there has been fun in London's strange parallel universe too. A trip to Wembley Stadium to see Coldplay and very special guests was a treat. I won't bother to try and convert unbelievers, but they're probably the only act I would pay to see in such a huge venue. White Lies, Girls Aloud and Jay-Z all play their respective cameos perfectly, but the space only truly works for Coldplay. It is uncomplicated, uncluttered communal euphoria. We all know it's terminally uncool, clunky and almost embarrassingly earnest, but fuck it, I love it.



And in a very different space, I see Charlotte Hatherley (who, on Ash's 2004 cover of the Buzzcock's 'Everybody's Happy Nowadays', played alongside Chris Martin). I catch her at London's Borderline; a frustratingly small venue for her, frankly. She has some great songs, but in the preceding week I speak to no less than three girls who all seem to hold a grudge against her for having the audacity to join (and significantly improve) Ash's fledgling line up all those years ago. Let it go, girls. I personally can't wait for the new album.



Then there was Florence + The Machine at Shepherd's Bush Empire. Now, the Flo backlash already appears to be gathering momentum post-Mercurys, so I won't add to it. Being that this is the fifth time I've seen her in just over a year (supporting MGMT, on the NME Tour, at Radio 1's Big Weekend and supporting Blur), the set is now perhaps a little over familiar. And as impressive as her voice is, over a full headline set it does get a little... wearing. But hey. A more enlightening discovery is the xx in support, who are almost drowned out by the disinterested Florence fans. They're superb. Sparse, dark, minimalist, gloomy, and absolutely perfect. Their cover of Womack and Womack (and Lovestation's) 'Teardrops' is exquisite. The album is ace, too.



Then finally, finally, finally... Pixies at Brixton Academy. A band that I, like a vast number of the fans attending, got into late. I make no apologies for that, being that they released their masterpiece Doolittle, played tonight in it's entirety, when I was nine. Their legend stands tall in alternative music, and tonight I really see why. The records speak for themselves, but live they are taught, uncompromising, ferocious and quite simply fucking brilliant. Despite their combined physical age of 183, there is not an inch of flab in their performance. It is relentless and dreamlike. I jump around like a lunatic for the majority of the set. Not for a moment does it seem like some nostalgia trip. It feels utterly in the now, perhaps because they were never huge initially, they've never become stale or anachronistic. It's a masterclass in rock. No frills, just extraordinary songs. Ok I'll stop gushing now...

1. Pixies - Doolittle LP.
2. Mumford and Sons - Little Lion Man
3. Martha & The Muffins - Echo Beach
4. The Horrors - Who Can Say
5. Charlotte Hatherley - Grey Will Fade
6. James - Laid
7. Biffy Clyro - The Captain
8. Boards Of Canada - 1969
9. Sleeper - Inbetweener
10. Guns n' Roses - November Rain

Greatest wedding themed video ever. Best cake jumping trousers on...

Labels: gigs, london, music, top 10's

I remember when I started to read the NME in the mid-90s I would devour its entire contents. But then I would turn to the crossword. And much to my frustration, I'd manage to get about five of the answers, almost always to contemporary clues. They'd sit marrooned in a ocean of empty white squares, mocking me, like an abandoned game of Minesweeper. So instead I turned back to the latest spat between Blur and Oasis and thought nothing more of it.

Then, around a year or so ago, with time having healed the wounds of failure, I attempted the crossword once more. And to my astonishment, I completed it. Not straight away, but at a reasonable speed. And then the next week's. And the next. Every so often a clue would stump me. But I can and do complete the majority of crosswords by the time the next week's issue comes around. Fifteen wasted years of relentlessly pouring sounds and words into my brain have served some sort of purpose.

But it's one of those accomplishments that I'm not entirely sure I'm pleased about. It pretty much confirms me as a lost cause music geek. But I think I knew that anyway. Only other lost cause music geeks will be remotely impressed. I certainly won't be using it as a fresh chat up line for girls... however musically geekified they themselves are...

"Hey baby, how about we go back to mine for some fine wine, beautiful music and a hard, long think about what 7 Down is? I thought it was The Auteurs, but that doesn't quite fit..."

1. Elastica - Never Here
2. LCD Soundsystem - Someone Great
3. Rilo Kiley - More Adventurous
4. The Vaselines - Son Of A Gun
5. Arcade Fire – Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
6. Dananananaykroyd – Fall For You
7. The Beatles – Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds (Remastered)
8. New Order – Regret
9. The Chicks - Daria
10. Florence + The Machine - You've Got The Love (xx Remix)

"The Animals! Yes, it's The Animals! You gorgeous creature, kiss me..."

Could happen.

No.

Labels: geek, girls, guilty pleasures, music

Over the weekend, I finished reading Haruki Murakami's Sputnik Sweetheart at my parent's house. Another haunting novel from the author, with Murakami once again riffing on the themes of loneliness, loss and unrequited love. So, pretty much business as usual, but still quite wonderful. As far as I'm concerned, you can't go wrong with that sort of thing. Feeling spiritually satiated, I set down the completed book and picked up the other novel I'd brought with me. Stephanie Meyer's Eclipse aka Twilight III: The Revenge (probably. I've not got far into it as yet...)

Now, I have to confess, I've been completely sucked in by the Twilight series. Having dismissed Harry Potter out of hand as a kid's book, I can only plead that Twilight is at least a teenager's book. Melodramatic, moody and often ridiculous: I just love it! And in a vain effort to balance out some of the female furore surrounding Robert Patinson, I must say I'm rather taken by Kristen Stewart, who takes the lead of Bella in the films.



Um. Yes please. When's the new movie out?

Anyway, yes, so no apologies for loving Twilight. A friend described it to me as like junk food. You know it's not good for you, but you can quite resist it. Which is so true. And as I seem to be stuck in a state of permanent arrested development circa about 16, it seems perfectly appropriate. Although I do wonder at what point that stops being charmingly endearing and starts to stray into the worrying territory of Bryan Adams' risible '18 til I die'...

...probably about ten years ago...

1. Stars - 14 Forever
2. Johnny Boy - You Are the Generation That Bought More Shoes and You Get What You Deserve
3. School of Seven Bells - Face To Face On High Places
4. The Go! Team - Bottle Rocket
5. Camera Obscura - French Navy
6. Japandroids - Young Hearts Spark Fire
7. Maps - Let Go Of The Fear
8. Golden Silvers - True No 9 Blues (True Romance)
9. Bloc Party - Signs
10. Coldplay - Life In Technicolor II

Gravity release me and don't ever hold me down, now my feet won't touch the ground.

Labels: books, movies, music, top 10's

They say if you love something, let it go.

If it comes back to you, it's yours forever.

If it doesn't, then it was never meant to be.

Well, dear precious readers, I let you go, set you free, turned my back on you, with tears in my eyes.

And yet, and yet... if you're reading this now, then... yes, you came back to me, just like the saying said you would. Just as I planned. No... as I desperately hoped.

And now you're MINE.

FOREVER!

YOU FOOLS.

Anyway, yes, top 10!

1. Stars - Ageless Beauty.
2. Paramore - Ignorance
3. Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks
4. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - Higher Than The Stars
5. Charlotte Hatherley - White (Squarepusher Remix)
6. Metric - Gimme Sympathy [and I choose The Beatles]
7. The Big Pink - Dominos
8. Pierre Henry - Psyche Rock
9. The Guild - (Do You Want To Date My) Avatar
10. The Cure - The Perfect Girl

The first time I heard The Big Pink single, all I could think of was pizza.

Labels: blogging, top 10's

Heheh. Toothpaste for dinner rocks.

Labels: comics, music

Huh? Wait.. What? Oh. Er. Yeah. Yeah, so I went to Glastonbury. And. Er. I didn't actually go to bed on Sunday night. At all. Yeah, er, we watched the sun come up over the stone circle. Which was cool. And then we got wet. And muddy. Again. And took the tent down and came home. And after the world's longest shower, I tried to stay awake as late as I could on Monday until I collapsed faced down on my bed fully clothed, with my trainers still on. And then I woke up and went to work today. Which was... uh... y'know, interesting. But I don't think I'll be doing that again in a hurry.



So, yes, it was "the best Glastonbury ever", the same as every year. Except for the first time I went with my gorgeous girl, who was determined to pack in all the exciting things I'd done at my last three Glastonbury's into her first, thus nearly killing me. But it made it even more fun to see her little face light up as band after band wowed us with their wonderful music, the weather dazzled us with SUN and RAIN and THUNDER and LIGHTNING, and we sampled far too much Brother's 7% Pear Cider.



I fully intend to write a full, exhaustive review... but I intended to do that last year and totally failed. So in the meantime, here's my 17 feel good hits of the summer (it was supposed to be 15, but I have no discipline these days):

Friday
1. The Maccabees - Can You Give It
2. Fleet Foxes - Blue Ridge Mountains
3. The Specials - A Message To You Rudy
4. The Streets - Turn The Page
5. British Sea Power - Waving Flags
6. Animal Collective - My Girls

Saturday
7. Eagles Of Death Metal - I Want You So Hard (Boy's Bad News)
8. Spinal Tap - Big Bottom
9. La Roux - In For The Kill
10. Maximo Park - Apply Some Pressure
11. Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band - Born To Run

Sunday
12. Art Brut - Good Weekend
13. Charlotte Hatherley - Behave
14. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll
15. Bat For Lashes - Daniel
16. Bon Iver - Skinny Love
17. Blur - For Tomorrow



What do you mean "Michael Jackson's dead"?

Labels: blur, festivals, top 10's

"Somebody was trying to tell me that CDs are better than vinyl because they don't have any surface noise. I said, 'Listen, mate, life has surface noise.'" John Peel.

I love that each new generation of musical media has it's own sound...

The pop and crackle of vinyl.
The whirr and clunk of 8-track.
The warble and hiss of cassette.
The skip and glitch of CD.
The fizz and flange of Mp3.

I wonder what the next noise will be.

1. Mazzy Star - Fade Into You
2. Nirvana - Come As You Are
3. Pat Benatar - Hit Me With Your Best Shot
4. Dweeb - Chart Raider/Space Invader
5. Bikini Kill - Rebel Girl
6. The Auteurs - Lenny Valentino
7. Le Vicarious Bliss Pop Experience - Together In Electric Dreams
8. Prince - Alphabet Street
9. Transvision Vamp - Baby I Don't Care
10. The Go! Team - Everyone's A VIP To Someone

Anyone coming to see me DJ tomorrow can expect to hear some, if not all, of the above. With plenty of surface noise... Joy!

Labels: djing, top 10's

Electro androgyny?

Soft emotional inner core shielded beneath tough girl exterior?

Ridiculous ginger hair?

Uh-oh. Developing a severe crush on Elly Jackson of La Roux. And I rather suspect she's trouble. Especially following Patrick Wolf's claim that her act was signed by his old record company the very day after they'd dropped him. A cat fight I wouldn't like to get in the middle of. The fur wouldn't half fly... (There's enough of it between them.)

Lucky there's room enough in my world for both, whatever they think of each other. La Roux have tunes and she can't half sing. Plus she possesses that indefinable pop star quality of seeming completely untouchable and otherworldly, yet simultaneously totally vulnerable and delicate. And with a pretend French name to boot. Can we get a Jacques Lu Cont remix from the new Thin White Duke Stuart Price please?



Kudos to Patrick though. After being dropped for evidently not being commercial enough, he makes an album with Alec Empire, once of German anarcho noise-terrorists Atari Teenage Riot. This is a very good thing indeed.

1. La Roux - In For The Kill (Skream's Lets Get Ravey Remix)
2. Hole - Boys On The Radio
3. Bat For Lashes - Use Somebody
4. Ash - Return Of White Rabbit
5. Gossip - Heavy Cross (Fred Falke Remix)
6. Gorillaz - M1A1
7. Little Boots - New In Town
8. Friendly Fires - Jump In The Pool (Thin White Duke Remix)
9. The Buzzcocks - What Do I Get?
10. Patrick Wolf - Vulture

If I was gay, I'd have a massive crush on Patrick Wolf too.

Obviously.

Labels: girls, music, top 10's