Where is everything? Helloooh? Bloody weather.

Hello! Yes, sorry, I know, I know. It's been a little slow of late here in Bandito country, but tis the season! I've been lost in a flurry of moonlight and music and love and romance. The bright lights of Yuletide have dazzled me, it's true. They've also given me a stinking hangover. Ah, c'est la vie...

But with such end of year celebrations, come other tribulations. It's list season, people. Come on. Soon I'll sit down and work out what my favourite records of the year are (I did 50 last year, which was just plain silly, frankly, and indicated that I had far too much time on my hands). And, of course, I'd love to know what's been spinning like a windmill in your mind this year.

To help you along, why not vote in this online chart thingy that's been organised by some bloke I've never met who used to do stuff on the student station I worked at several years before I actually did. Otherwise McFly or Take That will win, which would be a bit of a disappointment. Do me proud, my friends.

I think it's been a pretty good year for music, but then I always say that. As a whole 2006 has been ok. Started well, dipped a bit in the middle, continued sloping downwards, bottomed out, came back up a fair bit after that, and then finished on a definite high. And that's all you're getting out of me. Enigmatic little bugger ain't I?

Anyways, I reckon this'll be my last post before Christmas, and probably for the year as a whole, so have a good one, and I'll see you in 2007, which is gonna be a cracking year, I can feel it in my water.

It's nearly Christmas, and I just spotted a nativity in one of my neighbours' windows. And it was actually really cool. So it's official. Scrooge McDel is dead, and I'm starting to embrace the Christmas spirit. So here's my first present to you all, and it's really really silly...

Enjoy.

Everyone likes Queen, don't they? They can do no wrong. Well, apart from play Sun City in apartheid South Africa and constantly rehashing their back catalogue until we're sick to death of it. Anyway. Yes. The songs are still ace. So go here to download the instrumental versions and you too can sing-a-long-a-Queen to your heart's content. Can't be any worse than that bloke they've drafted in these days...

When I'm feeling a bit man fluey, I like to spend my time floating around in a smiley daze. A combination of lack of sleep, lots of sugar and various drugs ending in "...eine" or "..tab" or "...mol" help to create a nice hazy buffer between myself and the oh-so nasty real world. With a suitably psychedelic soundtrack it could almost be the 60's. Crazy times, man. Except, usually, I'm at work, trying to cling onto the desk and any semblence of reality. Woo!

Or, like now, I'm at home, paying the price for a day on over the counter uppers. I survived the comedown with Thai Chicken soup, repeated episodes of Frasier and repeated doses of Stevie Wonder, The Clash, The Flaming Lips and Spacemen 3. Grooovy.

Whoever said the drugs don't work obviously didn't get enough pseudoephedrine hypochloride.

After a wonderful long weekend of much partying and mischief, but precious little sleep, I'm feeling a bit zombiefied this Sunday evening. So i turn to everyone's favourite Icelandic multi-instrumentalist post rockers Sigur Ros to make everything all better again. Their Takk LP from last year is just sublime, and the highlight is the almost ubiquitous 'Hoppipolla', as heard on trails for the Beeb's Planet Earth.



The vocals are simply wonderful, but not being a particularly fluent speaker of Icelandic, I looked up a translation of the lyrics here. And look how cool they are!

Smiling
Spinning 'round and 'round
Holding hands
The whole world a blur
But you are standing

Soaked
Completely drenched
No rubber boots
Running in us
Want to erupt from a shell

Wind in
And outdoor smell of your hair
I hit as fast as I could
With my nose

Hopping into puddles
Completely drenched
Soaked
With no boots on

And I get nosebleed
But I always get up
(Hopelandic)

And I get nosebleed
But I always get up
(Hopelandic)

I love that 'Hoppipolla' means 'hopping into puddles'. It all suddenly seems to make sense! And there's nothing better than a really superb cover version to remind you just how great the original song is. Luckily for us, We Are Scientists have done the impossible and produced a version of 'Hoppipolla' that is almost as perfect as the original...