Greg's Blog

Important: This site has moved..

2008-01-13T20:58:00.000Z

Important: The site you are viewing now (the blogger one) is no longer being updated.

Please see my new site at: http://greggannicott.co.uk/blog/

Don't forget to update your bookmarks :-)

Drwnt.... t. t. t. t. t. t. t. t. Drwnt

2008-01-13T20:02:00.000Z

My gift to the world-wide-web: For those of you that were wondering what the tune is in Hollyoaks when Zoe is having fantasies about Mikes Barnes, it's "I Need to Know" by The Hours.

The web owes now me for that nugget of info.

New to the Site: Feeds

2008-01-13T19:54:00.000Z

I've added a new section to the site (if you are still reading my Blogger blog, my actual site is here). It's called My Feeds and contains a few RSS feeds regarding this site and me. To see what the feeds are (there are a couple unconventional ones there) and to find out just what an RSS feed is, visit the new section here.

Madness Review

2008-01-13T10:39:00.000Z

Here's a good review of the gig Madness did at the Bridgwater Palace.

For a change the urban blot on the M5 (Bridgwater) hasn't come off to bad, and to think that's in a national paper. I'm sure someone in Taunton will point out that's simply because the reviewer doesn't know the area like the rest of the south west do.

Click here for the review...

Cheers to Lional Flipdue for the link.

Music

2008-01-13T10:30:00.000Z

It's been a while since I posted about the music I'm listening to at the moment, or anything else for that matter.

There's been a few posts I've wanted to write over the last month.

Notably:

- My top 5 albums of last year (I still aim to write that one)
- Write about the fact we're now looking for a new house. Obviously a wedding this year simply isn't enough excitement or stress for us.
- Point anyone who actually reads this blog to the best story of the year so far: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/7174760.stm

Probably the two best albums I've purchased in the last couple months are Justice's Cross and The Stage Names by Okkervil River.

On first listen the Okkervil River sounded a little to much like the Killers for my liking, but after many listens it's really starting to come into it's own. The song that offended me the most at the beginning was "Unless It's Kicks", due to the fact it sounded like a strange mix of The Killers and Craig McLachlan (Yes, Henry in Neighbours). After some listens though that curious mix has resulted in it being my favourite song on a very good album.

Justice's Cross is first dance album I've bought in a while and is a cracker. Mixing Daft Punk with The Go! Team, it's an addictive listen. The best songs are the ones you should hate the most. A great example of that is "Tthhee Ppaarrttyy". The only song I can relate it to is Morgan's Miss Parker, filled with annoyances that when combined turn into something very good indeed. Other great songs on the album include the Go! Team like D.A.N.C.E with its shouting kids (quite possibly the best dance song I've heard since Daft Punk's "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger") and early Daft Punk sounds of Phantom (Parts 1 and 2).

My most recent purchase is an album by Kevin Drew (of Broken Social Scene). I've only listened to it the once so far but it looks to be extremely promising. It sounds like a more accessible Broken Social Scene. My only gripe so far is that at 16 songs it goes on a bit.

One album I wasn't going to mention but I've just so happen to put on is Lily Allen's. Ignore what you've heard. Buy it, it's great!

So there you have it. There are other albums I'm really in to at the moment but I've run out of time.

BTW, which one's Pink?

2007-12-21T14:25:00.000Z

I finally got around to watching the Pink Floyd doc that was on BBC One last week. I have to say it was really enjoyable. Featured plenty of footage I've never seen before and points of view from the band that I've up until then not heard.

Most suprisingly of all was the change in Roger Waters. The 20 minute set they did for Live 8 really seems to have changed his outlook. Up until then, the interviews I've heard and read has him sticking to his guns with regards to his views on why the band split up and the fact he was right. Yet in the documentary on more than one occasion he admitted being wrong. Very surprisingy but fair play to him.

Another thing I've noticed is that despite all their differences, they all have the same regrets with regards to Syd Barrett. They all regret burying their heads in the sand and not helping him.. being in a state of denial.

The guilt and love they have for Barrett (famously) comes through in their music, most of all in Shine On. Its those honest lryics and the music that goes with it that makes it one of the two 5 out of 5 star tunes on my iPod. Pink Floyd's Great Gig in the Sky being the other.

Finally, it still shocks me how every time I see that Live 8 performance (which granted, isn't often), I love it. There is something about seeing that that puts my hairs up on end. They showed a clip from it of them finishing off Comfortably Numb (that track would be another 5 out of 5 song if it wasn't for the parts of the song that isn't a solo). I've never seen them play with so much passion.

One last thing. I've got Piper at the Gates playing whilst I write this. Superb album, buy it if you don't already own it!

The Weekend

2007-12-08T14:14:00.000Z

I saw this video on Becky's Facebook funwall. Thought it was worth sharing.

It's not so bad really..

2007-12-08T14:13:00.001Z

It's safe to say I probably had my most stressful week in work to date last week. That counts for any job I've done in any business I've worked for. People who know me will know I don't stress that easily so fair play to Debenhams, they've truly achieved something.

However, it's a new week and in spite of the fact those same stresses are lingering somewhere; I'm far happier right now. Every now and then something triggers off the thought that I really like my job. I'm shocked that it happened earlier today (especially bearing in mind last week) but it happened.

I was sat at my desk doing some DB2 SQL in VI when someone came round to my desk with a new member of staff. He seemed quite a young chap. In fact it might well be true that I'm no longer the youngest person in Debenhams Development (that might never have been the case though). Whilst we were going through the usual introductions and handshakes (both of which I'm rubbish at) I noticed he glanced at my screen. At this point I thought to myself "If that were me and I saw someone working away on some code in an ugly looking command line editor (VI), I'd be really impressed". Sad, I know, but I'd think to myself "That job looks great. Proper geeky.". Once the introductions were over and he moved on to someone who said more than a whimpering "Hi" with a handshake to match, I took it a step further and wondered what else my job looked like.

Behind my VI session was an UltraEdit session with yet more confusing yet intriguing code. On my desk was a Boba Fett Star Wars figure hanging from a basketball hoop with a "Birthday Girl" badge attached (cheers Dean!). Next to that were a few programming reference books. Also on the desk was the iPod and a bag of opened Haribo.

I'm confident no one else feels the same way, but when I think of all that I consider myself to be really lucky to have such a great job. I've got my entire music collection there which I can spend most of the day listening too. That alone is fantastic for me. It helps that I get a kick out of the coding I do. Heck, I even have my own telephone number which rings once or twice a month.

So to sum up, in spite of the stress it brings, I really like my job.

Dave: Totally Viral

2007-12-02T10:05:00.000Z

I watched a really good show the other night on Dave called Totally Viral. It's something I've been looking for for some time.

Basically they take the best video content from the web (eg. YouTube etc) and put it into a half hour tv show. I'm sure there is some great content out there on the web, but for now at least I don't really want to sift through all the videos of folk miming to Britney Spears and Feeder. Now I don't have to!

They feature some really funny clips. It's like the show that launched with BBC Three - Monkey Dust - but without the repetition.

More at: http://uktv.co.uk/dave/homepage/sid/6351

Technorati

2007-11-30T22:11:00.000Z

I just gave the web service Technorati a try. One of the things that appealed to me was the feature whereby you give it a subject (eg. "Glastonbury Festival", "iPod" etc) and it provides you with a list of blog posts regarding the subject. I thought if it was good enough, I could take an RSS feed of each 'Watchlist' and include it in my Google Reader feeds.

So I tried this, but sadly almost all of the posts suggested are spam. Shame as its a good idea.

One good thing about Technorati though is the homepage. Using a nifty ajax interface, it provides a stream of new blog posts, sort of in real-time. It's something Delicious would benefit from. A few posts in I found a good YouTube video which was about a help desk setup to support the Death Star, manned by down-to-earth Storm Troopers. It crashed my browser though :-(

The strange thing is, since signing up for the service I can't seem to find that real-time feed! Typical.

White Label

2007-11-30T17:17:00.000Z

I got my very first white-label 7" through the post today. I can't be sure whether the artist is called I Blame Coco or whether that's the name of the song. Either way, its a very good track. It's a female singer with a sparse yet funky and catchy melody/backing to it.

I wasn't really sure what to expect with a white-label in terms of packing etc. I've heard Peel refer to them many times, and from what I gather its released as a white-label because its the least expensive way of releasing a single.

I've just flicked on to the B-Side now. Very funky and dub like. I'm starting to wonder if its just an instrumental version of the A side. Either way, I like it. Strange as I never could see the point of those either.

Anyway, the packaging hasn't disappointed. The sleeve itself is white. And the actual record label itself is, as you'd guess, white, with "I Blame Coco" scruffily hand written on it in parker pen! Great!

I got six 7" singles in total through the post today (all random purchases (Bar Lorraine)). So far (3 records in) nothing I've listened to can stand up against "look look (dancing boys)" (see my post "The John Peel Experience"), but then I think that was a one off. Three songs I should hate but truly love. That's not to say the singles haven't been good.

At the time of writing this (sentence) I have Chinese Burn on and that is sounding really good. Kind of like early Beatles but with a twist. I've just flicked to the B-Side and strangely enough its the second song of the three records to sound like the Hollies.. is there a bit of a Hollies revival going on in the underground scene?!

As mentioned "I Blame Coco" was also very good. Both of those records I'd happily go out of my way to put on again (as is the case with records.. none of this drag-n-drop onto Winamp convenience).

The first single I played (High Priests) wasn't as good, which is a shame as that's the one I double ordered by mistake!

Still to get a play are Jazz Monkey, Dead Kids and Lorraine.

Lorraine are a band I saw support The Feeling in Taunton. I think I was the only person in the venue that "didn't mind em", rather than hate them. From memory they are like The Pet Shop Boys, so I'm baffled as to why I didn't dislike them.

New(ish) Look Site

2007-11-17T11:44:00.000Z

For those of you (well, for the person) that reads my Blogger blog (if it's called Greg's Blog at the top, that's the one) you might like to know that the blog is now located at a new home. Its got exactly the same blog posts (as its based on an RSS feed from Blogger (saves me rewriting what the guys at Blogger have written)) but its on a site I designed myself alongside a list of all the music I own and how I rate that music. What's more, its running on my (incredibly geekish thing to do) home Linux server.

The music section is probably the first bit of code on the web that I've created since the days of Easyhosts, and I'm really pleased with it. For those who are interested in HTML, PHP, the Zend Framework, Javascript, XML and JSON, I might write up how I went about creating the site. That sounds incredibly dull to most people, but to tell you the truth is the sort of thing I'd quite enjoy reading if some of my friends wrote such a thing.

Just to get one thing straight, the music section is populated by a script that takes the data from my iTunes. I'm not sad enough to manually enter the details myself, but just sad enough to write a script that does it for me..

The new site: www.greggannicott.co.uk

The John Peel Experience

2007-10-21T11:31:00.001+01:00

I made my first random 7" single purchase last week off of the Rough Trade website. I say random, but it was slightly swayed by the fact that the a side track was titled "Arse Road". Imagine my delight when it arrived and one of the B sides was called "Titwank".

It (by look look (dancing boys)) already felt like something John Peel would play. This whole feeling was added to when I played it and couldn't be sure if I was playing it at the right speed (I'm still not sure now).

I'm not sure if I could handle an entire album, but for three songs its a great listen. Sadly I can't find the lyrics online, but I can say with confidence it couldn't be further from progressive rock if it tried.

Losing Pounds

2007-10-21T11:21:00.000+01:00

"Good news everyone" - I've lost 6lbs in the past few months. I've not been trying as such, but I have certainly been eating healthier. I'm still some way from the11st back when I worked in Wickes though.

Some shocking news though. Yesterday we had a letter through the post to say that the price of our home and contents insurance has changed. Don't worry it said, you don't need to do a thing! Well thank god for that - my kind of letter! Luckily I glanced at the new price, and a good job I did too.

If it had gone up by a few quid a month, I could have lived with that. If it had gone up a tenner, I'd start to question it. When it goes up from £23/mo to a whopping £63/mo, I'd have no other choice than to believe it must be a typing error! Nope, it was for real. When I spoke to the lady on the phone she didn't really hesitate in telling me that maybe its time for us to leave them. "We obviously won't want to lose your custom, but it might be in your best interest to cancel your account with us.". Damm straight.

I have a horrible feeling its going to backfire in 7 years time (when my only memory if this incident lies in reading this entry), and the house has just flooded, but we've opted to go with Tesco. It's half the price we were previously paying, and lets just hope we don't pay for it in the long run.

More Peel Quotes

2007-10-14T17:00:00.000+01:00

Some Peel quotes for your reading pleasure. Thanks to Rossall for these:

- - - - - - - - - - -

After Morrissey's falsetto wailing at the end of 'What Difference DoesIt Make?': "Ah, the sound of distant seagulls"

If Elvis were alive today, I think he'd really understand happyhardcore."

People like Mike Read and DLT would often complain that they couldn't goanywhere without being recognized, but of course would go everywhere ina tartan suit carrying a guitar, so they would have attracted attentionin a lunatic asylum. In the streets of London, people would go, "Who thef**k is that? Isn't that that Mike Read bloke?"

From when he was presenting Top of the Pops. After a video of the dismalAretha Franklin/George Michael duet (i forget it's name), it cuts backto Peel who says:"You know, Aretha Franklin can make any old rubbish sound good, and ithink she just has."

Show starts.A motorcycle revving noise.Some guitars being very loud and heavy.Then some guitars being very loud and heavy with a man shouting. alllast about five seconds."Three tracks from Napalm Death, there, in session tonight..."

In 1993 Peel took over the lunchtime slot for a week afterthen-controller Johnny Beerling was challenged by someone at aconference. He'd obviously been told "Look man, we don't want tocompromise your show, but remember there will be a different audiencelistening, and we do have a daytime playlist to follow... just bear thatin mind, OK?" First record - "Why Are People Grudgeful?" by The Fall,followed with the obscure reggae original version of the same song. Hethen continued in the same vein, playing a lot of hard-trance, the oddBeefheart classic and making snide comments about most of the playlist.For instance, the Chris Issak which included the line '...and you can'tdo a thing to stop me' to which Peel retorted, "Yes I can, mate, I cantake your awful CD out of the machine and throw it as far away from thisstudio as possible." For a brief moment, we thought we'd won. Next week,he was back on the night-shift. Bet off.

Peel's compering debut on TOTP: "In case you're wondering who this funnyold bloke is, I'm the one who comes on Radio 1 late at night and playsrecords made by sulky Belgian art students in basements dying of TB."

They sound like somebody's been given a good kicking - set to music.

Another TOTP classic, after a particularly dismal Duran video:JP (jaunty): Well that was the best song I've heard since...well, teatime. Mind you, I had a late tea.

"Janice has just phoned to ask if I can play some Whitney Houston.Haven't got any Whitney tonight, Janice, but here's Bolt Thrower"

Cbeebies and the smell of fresh shit..

2007-10-14T16:30:00.000+01:00

Me and Becky had our nephew round for the night last night. Its the first time we've had him overnight and although it was stressful (you can never really relax), it was great fun with it. He's 18 months old and at the great age where he's not only really good fun (anyone who can kick a ball instantly become fun, and its great when he uncontrollably giggles!) but he doesn't chat back either - not at least with anything I can make sense of.

In much the same way I wonder how people survived without tv remotes and mobile phones, just how did people get by before the TV channel Cbeebies came about? Sure you had kids tv, but never quite on demand like it is now. I'd love to know the science behind how it works, as they've managed to engineer the content on the channel so it instantly grabs the kid's attention (much like that Whiskers advert use to with cats). There was a show on there being narrated and presented by Martin Clunes (of Men Behaving Badly fame). I'm sure my nephew didn't have a clue what Clunes was chatting about, but he was gripped. Yet I can be sure that if I flicked the channel over to ITV1 so Doc Martin was on (also starring Clunes) he wouldn't want to know about it.

I realise there is a lot of talk in the media at the moment about kids watching too much tv, but I can hardly blame the parents. Cbeebies is like the magic bullet for almost any situation. If he's getting restless or agitated, flick it on and he's happy. Whats more, it looks like it's designed to teach as well - bonus!

One final thing.. nothing - not even numerous amount of visits to dodgy Glastonbury Festival toilets - can prepare you for the task of changing a nappy after a kid has really gone to town in it. Heck, I was only watching. That was bad enough! Poor old becks was changing it and I don't think she knew whether to laugh or cry. She chose hysterics.

Spare Time

2007-09-30T14:07:00.000+01:00

This week I have a great deal of spare time on my hands. Not only do I have a week off work, but Becky is also away for a week over in Ibiza. So with that in mind (or rather to occupy my mind) I hope to watch as many DVDs and listen to as much music as I can.

I've got a few films lined up that I've bought during the past couple years but have never got around to watching them. Amongst them are:

Trainspotting
JFK
Dr Strangelove

... and some film starring Mel Gibson about Jesus. I can't remember the name of that one.

In terms of music, I thought it is a great chance to listen to the CDs that never really clicked or never really had the chance to. That part of my week has got off to a good start. Already I've listened to the following albums:

The Mars Volta - Frances The Mute
James Yorkston - Moving Up Country
Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
The Allman Brothers Band - At Fillmore East

There were a couple tracks that really stood out for me on the Mars Volta album (The Widows and L'Via L'Viaquez), but the most enjoyable album yet (and I thought it would be the least) is The Allman Brothers Band one. Really enjoyable background music complete with blues solos of all sorts.

Office Dares

2007-09-20T19:13:00.000+01:00

Some of these appealed to my childish side. Thanks to James for these..

ONE-POINT DARES: (1)

Ignore the first five people who say 'good morning' to you.
To signal the end of a conversation, clamp your hands over your ears and grimace.
Leave your fly open for one hour. If anyone points it out, say, "Sorry, I really prefer it this way".
Walk sideways to the photocopier.
While going in an elevator, gasp dramatically each time the doors open.
When in elevator with one other person, tap them on the shoulder and pretend it wasn't you.
Finish all your sentences with "In accordance with the prophecy..."
Don't use any punctuation.
Use your highlighter pen on the computer screen.

THREE-POINT DARES: (3)

Say to your boss, "I like your style", wink, and shoot him with double-barrelled fingers while making a clicking sound with your tongue that resembles the sound of a revolver.
Kneel in front of the water cooler and drink directly from the nozzle.
Shout random numbers while someone is counting.
Every time you get an email, shout ''e-mail''.
Put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 weeks. Once everyone is over his or her caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.
Introduce yourself to a new colleague as "the office bicycle". Then wink and pout.
Call I.T. help desk and tell them that you can't seem to access any pornography web-sites.

FIVE-POINT DARES : (5)

At the end of a meeting, suggest that, for once, it would be nice to conclude with the singing of the national anthem (extra points if you actually launch into it yourself).
Walk into a very busy person's office and while they watch you with growing irritation, turn the light switch on/off 10times.
For an hour, refer to everyone you speak to as "Bob".
Announce to everyone in a meeting that you "really have to go do a number two".
In a meeting or crowded situation, slap your forehead repeatedly and mutter, "Shut up, damn it, all of you just shut up!"
During the course of a meeting, slowly edge your chair towards the door.
As often as possible, skip rather than walk.
Ask people what sex they are. Laugh hysterically after they answer.
Hump the photocopier. When someone spots you, stop and cough embarrassingly, then lean in to the machine and whisper loudly, "I'll call you tonight".

Saving Face

2007-09-15T21:52:00.000+01:00

In a bid to regain (if thats the appopriate word.. perhaps 'gain' is more apt) some credibitily following the previous Bon Jovi post, here are some songs by other bands I'm currently quite litterally addicted to..

The New Pornographers - Myriad Harbour (I don't think I've played a tune so many times in one day before)
Modest Mouse - One Chance
Deerhoof - Believe ESP
Interpol - Mammoth (Didn't like it at first. Thats certainly changed)
The Fall - Bingo Masters Breakout
Wilco - You Are My Face (Just when you think they've gone completely easy listening they hit you with a twist)
Taken By Trees - Lost and Found
Cherry Ghost - Four Eyes (B-Side)
REM - Begin the Begin
Man Man - Enrish Bwudd (bonkers)
Lily Allen - Everything's Just Wonderful

Owning up to your hidden truths..

2007-09-15T21:27:00.000+01:00

Before I go into the detail, I'll just get admission over and done with. Not only did I once think Bon Jovi were an 'ace' band when I was about 11, but to tell you the truth, when I look back at their earlier stuff now, it still sounds really good.

That's a bit of a general statement, so I should focus it a bit more. Their first two albums were flakey at best. Their third, Slippery When Wet certainly had its moments ("Wanted Dead or Alive" for instance). Their next album New Jersey has it's fair share of 80s poodle rock, but there are a couple cracking songs on it, the highlight probably being "I'll Be There For You".

It's their 5th album (Keep The Faith) that's stood the test of time though. One of my brothers popped round earlier to update his iPod, and whilst going through it we spotted Bon Jovi and made some derogatory remark. One of us then said "Yeah, but Dry County is a good song. No denying that!". So we had a look at the album its from (Keep The Faith) and went through each track commenting on whether its any good. To our surprise we were keen on the majority of them. Looking back its a good album thats overlooked when people take the mickey out of the band.

If for some reason you feel like delving back into the late 80s/early 90s, I'd suggest checking out these tracks (those in bold are well worth trying):

Band : Album : Song

Bon Jovi : New Jersey : I'll Be There For You
Bon Jovi : New Jersey : Wild Is The Wind
Bon Jovi : Keep The Faith : Keep The Faith
Bon Jovi : Keep The Faith : In These Arms
Bon Jovi : Keep The Faith : Bed Of Roses
Bon Jovi : Keep The Faith : If I Was Your Mother (Surprisingly heavy for them..)
Bon Jovi : Keep The Faith : Dry County (A 10 minute epic! Thats something you don't associate with the Jovi)
Jon Bon Jovi : Blaze of Glory : Blaze of Glory
Jon Bon Jovi : Blaze of Glory : Sante Fe (Cracking tune this. Seriously, try it)
Jon Bon Jovi : Blaze of Glory : Bang a Drum (Gospel singers n all)

WORLD EXCLUSIVE: My Stag Day Plans

2007-09-11T21:03:00.001+01:00

Or 'Bucks Day' for all my Aussie readers...

Along with the rest of the wedding, plans are actually starting to take shape for my stag day - and I have to say, I like them.

The current plan (bare in mind that this is the first plan we've had and its now been in existence for 27 minutes at the time of writing - so it's subject to change) is to hire a coach for the day/night and at some point in the day set off on a mini tour of country pubs. So far, fairly standard stuff for a Bridgwater stag day. That doesn't make that part any less enjoyable though. Then, after that, the coach drops us off at... The Newt Beer Fest!! I have to say, brilliant idea by my Best Man James. He suggested maybe going to a beer fest and it just so happens that Newt is usually a couple weeks before July 19th (my, er, our big day!). I've never been to it before but for a few years running now I've been tempted - its just its always been an issue getting there. The coach takes care of that :-)

From what I gather the bands that play there are mainly local, but that's besides the point. Who cares about the music lineup when you have a beer lineup like this (the 2007 Beer List):

http://www.newtbeerfest.com/beerlist.asp

The Power of Three

2007-09-11T20:57:00.000+01:00

It's recently occurred to me that my web usage is all based around just the three sites. Very rarely do I access content without first going through these sites.

They all serve difference purposes but all ultimately help me find the content I find useful and/or interesting.

Google
http://www.google.com/
The most obvious of the three is Google. Rarely does a day go by that something doesn't crop up in my everyday life that I need to quickly look something up. It could be anything ranging from settling a bet, looking up some Korn Shell code through to finding out what the latest in the long line of obscure words used by my colleague Bob Quinton means (usually using the 'define:' feature).

Delicious
http://del.icio.us/greggannicott
I use del.icio.us (soon to be renamed Delicious) for storing my bookmarks. Its hard to describe to someone who doesn't use Delicious (or a similar service) just how handy it is to not only be able to access your bookmarks from any PC with net access, but to also be able to store, manage and view so many of them with ease. I would never dream of having 231 bookmarks stored within Internet Explorer, Opera or Firefox, let alone manage and replicate them both at home and in work. Thankfully another colleague of mine, Mark Williams was able to convince me of how handy it is.

Google Reader
http://www.google.com/reader/
Finally, the latest addition to my list of useful sites. Once again I have Mark to thank for introducing me to this and I've not looked back since. Google Reader enables you take a large number of RSS/Atom feeds and easily manage and read them. Thankfully almost every site I follow contains an RSS feed. Whether that is Tech Crunch, Dan Lawrence's blog or the JMS News Feed. Whenever a new addition is made to any of those, an entry appears in Google Reader. This is handled in date order so every day I can go through my list of items, flag up those that are of interest to me and then read them when I have the time. The glory of it being so easy to glance at the content and flag it for later is the fact it enables you to subscribe to even more feeds, whilst not taking up much of your time as a result yet still getting to read it all in the end!

So it turns out girls don't really smell after all..

2007-08-13T20:11:00.000+01:00

There was once a time I'd struggle to name a good female artist besides Alanis Morissette - now-a-days I'm spoilt for choice..

The first one to mention is probably the most shocking on the list. Along with around 7 to 8 other posts/subjects per day, I intended on writing a blog entry about her back in early July. Since then I was glad I didn't as I figured it might just have been a phase I was going through and maybe she wasn't as good as I'd thought at the time. However, I listened to Lily Allen again on the way home from work today and it was every bit as good as I remembered!

I was lucky enough to see her at Pilton this year - I never intended to but my mate (Gee - uh sorry, Simon) wanted to see her and I was intrigued. Even ignoring how much it amused me at just how much offence Simon took from her slagging off of blokes with small dicks (listen to her song Not Big), it was a ruddy good set. It sounded great and there were clearly some good tunes amongst it.

She appears to have a great knack of not only writing tunes that hook you in, but lyrics to match. I'm almost tired of what's become known as 'kebab and texts' lyrics by the likes of The Streets, Arctic Monkeys and Lily Allen, but for the time being I enjoy kind of being able to relate to them.

Next up on the female list is the band/singer Taken By Trees. This is the solo outing by the ex-Concretes lead singer. Until now I've only ever heard two songs involving her. The first is a Concretes track New Friend which I have on a Rough Trade compilation. The other (also on a Rough Trade comp) is the always great to listen to simplistic love song "Young Folks" by Peter Bjorn and John (she was guest vocalist). With both tracks I couldn't help but get suckered in by her sensual voice. Her debut album is a sparse affair. With the wrong kind of singer it would be the sort of album I'd only be able to listen to when I was very much in the right mood, but I think that thanks to her voice I could listen to this in most moods.

The next album is officially the first ever album I downloaded legally (and in fairness only the second whole album I downloaded - the other being Soft Parade by The Doors from KaZaA). It's only now though I'm appreciating just how good an album it is. The album is "Let's Get Out of This Country" by Camera Obscura. It would be far to easy to dismiss this band as Belle & Sebastian but with a female lead. There songs have great melodies with a great deal going on. And it's not often I'm able to truly pick out one of the things it is I like about a band, but I love their rythmn section! Its just something about the instruments used and their pacing.

Finally, its the always solid yet never dull Rilo Kiley. They're back with a new long-player towards the end of the month, but until then I'm quite happily making do with the cd single The Moneymaker. When I first heard it on 6Music I had to double check that it was Rilo Kiley. I recognised the voice of Jenny Lewis, but the sound of the band was very different to what I expected. It has a funky guitar lick which grows on me every time I hear it. At the moment I'd say it's far from being there greatest 5 minutes, but it looks promising stuff for the album.

Peel Quote

2007-07-03T20:20:00.001+01:00

Just read a good quote regarding John Peel I thought I'd share. It's by Steve Albini (producer/engineer of albums by bands such as Pixies, Nirvana and Wedding Present) and goes some way to explaining Peel's openness to music:

"John Peel said something that I thought was really profound. He said when he gets a record from somebody and he doesn't like it, he assumes that it's his problem and that the band would not have made that record if there wasn't something valuable about it."

Amen.

Even Miles Davis was harmed by the 80s... who's next?!

2007-06-25T20:46:00.000+01:00

I recently started purchasing vinyl records with a view to getting a record player some day soon (that day was today in fact). I'm not quite sure why I want to buy records as almost all logic points to the fact I shouldn't, but for whatever reason it is, I do.

One thing that appeals (although I think this is thinking a few years ahead, as I strangely sometimes do with my purchases) is the idea of going into the spare room that has my music, sticking on a relaxing jazz/blues record and chilling out to it. Of course, I could easily stick on a CD or MP3, but it just wouldn't be the same.

With this in mind I thought it would be a good idea to own a Miles Davis record. So, when I spotted one for a tenner whilst browsing a record fair at the Glastonbury Festival, I figured why not. I was already buying a Pixies record so one way or another I was going to have to get a record home. So I picked up an album of his called Decoy. Usually when I purchase an album by someone I'm unsure of, I check out the year it was recorded and try to buy one from a time the artist was at their peak. Now I don't know much about Miles Davis, but if I were thinking straight I'd probably aim for the 50s/60s. What I would have made sure I did was NOT buy something from the 80s, because very few things that come from that decade (be it a Bob Dylan, Neil Young or Johnny Cash album) are any good (with the exception of that Pixies album I mentioned earlier). And that's exactly what I did.. 1984 in fact.

And as if I needed any more convicing that the 80s were shite, this record confirms it. I'm not one to dismiss music out of hand - and I'm open to the idea that this may well become an enjoyable record for me in time - but when all the good things about jazz (such as the sax) are replacing with all things that are evil about the 80s (such as the synthesiser), I'm left with little choice but to dismiss it. It's still playing as I type (in fact I just made the effort to stand up and flip the disc), so I suppose I can take some confort in the fact it's not been stopped yet, and I do aim to hear it again, but it's going to be some tricky listening.

A Solid Selection of Music

2007-06-10T21:16:00.001+01:00

Usually the music I'm listening to is all over the place, but these past couple weeks it's been mainly focussed on the same set of artists. This is slightly driven by Glastonbury but also by the fact that they are all really good albums that deserve some attention. They are:

Rufus Wainwright - Release The Stars
I have this on as I type and I'm just starting to appreciate how good it is (in fact I've just sent a text to my brother to say how good it is). I saw him at Pilton (I'm local, so it's almost an unwritten law that I refer to Glasto as 'Pilton') a few years back. The first track he played was superb and was enough to stop going to where ever it was I was going and sit down and listen. Sadly the rest of the set was dull. However, his latest album promises a lot more with some real stand-out tracks on there. I look foward to see him playing this year in-spite of my previous experience.

Standout track: Going To A Town

Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
Although I could see it was a good album from the start, it was never really a threat to their previous album - until now. It's starting to sound fantastic and I'm glad I've kept at it.

Standout track: My Body Is A Cage

The National - Boxer
If ever there were a band who write slow burners, it's these. On first listen the songs sound pleasant enough, but never truly grab you. Their previous album, Alligator was a fine example of this. Boxer has yet to completely grab me, but it's darn close, I can tell! Gutted these are not playing Glasto as I think they'd be fantastic live. Oddly enough, when I saw Marrillion on Friday, I thought that if you ignore their wailing lead singer you had a good band there, sounding a fair bit like The National.

Standout track: Fake Empire

Pixies - Doolittle
I absolutely love this album. So many great songs on there. If I can just avoid murderning it I think it might well turn out to be one of my top 10 albums. Before I purchased it I was already familiar with Monkey Gone to Heaven and the strangely great Hey. A favourite track that I was not aware of is Mr. Grieves. Kicking off with a dub-like beat, Black Francis stutters his way through the lines "Hope everything is all right..". A line or two later and it's bounces into the chorus. So many ideas going on in one song. Great.

Standout track: Mr. Grieves

Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare
Believe the hype. It's a great album. I don't think it has as many stand-out tracks as their debut, but it's probably a more consistently good album. And - like their debut - the final track is a corker.

Standout track: 12 - 505

Of Montreal - Icons, Abstract Thee (EP)
I love EPs. Long enough to get into, but not to long as to get the fidgets and move on to the next artist. This is a solid EP, although there isn't one track on there that is better than any tracks on their latest album 'Hissing Fauna, Are You The Destroyer?'. Don't let that put you off though, it just so happens that their latest album is (alongside Modest Mouse's latest) probably the best album I've heard this year.

Standout track: No Conclusion (note: I'd be lying if I didn't admit that this is partially down to the fact it contains the lyrics "cock-sucking blues". A very 00s take on a roots tradition.)

Albums that haven't grabbed me, probably should have and no doubt will...

The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
Make no mistake about it, it's a great album that I know I'll listen to during the coming months - its just so far, apart from the first couple tracks, there are no stand-out tracks.. yet. Talking about the opening track though, what an opening track! I've never heard rythmn guitar sound so good as it does as it kicks in early on in this track.

Bright Eyes - Cassadanga
As with The Shins, the first two songs on this album are also brilliant. With the opening track 'Clairaudients (Kill Or Be Killed)' reminding me of Atom Heart Mother era Floyd and the second track 'Four Winds' sounding like Desire era Dylan. After that though, much like The Shins again, there are no tracks that stand-out. Much like The Shins though, I expect this to change (especially after seeing him/them live at Pilton soon).

Mr Biffo

2007-06-03T16:18:00.000+01:00

Why waste your time reading this blog when you could be reading Mr Biffo's, who actually has something to say and has a funny way of saying it.

Glastonbury 2007

2007-06-03T11:12:00.000+01:00

Well, the line-up has been announced.

http://www.efestivals.co.uk/festivals/lineups.php?hits_seen=0&Year=2007&FestID=1175

Headliner wise I don't think it's all that special, but in terms of the line-up having bands I'm either in to or interested by, it's a corker. The big one for me is Modest Mouse with Arcade Fire a close second. Anyway, for those who are interested (or at the very least wouldn't mind an idea of the sort of music I'm in to) here's what I plan to see:

Must See

Gogol Bordello
Arcade Fire
Bright Eyes
Modest Mouse
The Little Ones
Liam Frost

Want to See

Arctic Monkeys
The Earlies
Guillemots
Bjork
Rufus Wainwright
Super Furry Animals
The Cribs
The Long Blondes
Chemical Brothers
Cold War Kids
Amp Fiddler
Tokyo Police Club
The Hours
Mr Scruff
Charlotte Hatherley
Cherry Ghost
Duke Special

If there is nothing else on, then I'd very happily go to:

Amy Winehouse
The Who
Damian Marley
Editors
Babyshambles
Mika
Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly
The Go! Team
Hot Chip
Mumm-Ra
Tiny Dancers
The Noisettes
Infadels
Annie Nightingale
The Cat Empire
The Broken Family Band
3 Daft Monkeys
Beans on Toast (Only because it's a brilliant band name)
The Electric Soft Parade

Why we were always destined to get married...

2007-04-15T20:15:00.000+01:00

So there a I am, layed out in the bath listening to a bit of Modest Mouse when I let another one rip. As is often the case in the bath, it sounds great, enchanced by the bath itself.

Seconds later I get a phone call from Becky on my mobile...

"I just heard your fart down here! I'm impressed.."

We really were meant for each other....

Here today, gone tomorrow - hahahahaha

2007-04-15T15:50:00.000+01:00

As I type I'm 'on a call' - what this means is something has gone tits up on Debenhams' Data Warehouse and I'm the one that investigates any issues it has this weekend.

Until today it's been a good data warehouse - although in the past few hours it's let itself go a little causing no fewer than 9 errors. I've taken care of 4, and someone else is now investigating the other 5 for me (hence I'm writing this - if there were anything I could do, I'd be doing it. But I'm out of ideas and it looks like it's an issue with the DB2 database itself - not my juris-frickin-diction as they say in Hollywood).

Every time I get a call I try to at least make it a pleasant event, with a very slowly drunk beer (the taste is good enough to please me now I'm getting older, without the side effects to match) and some great music.

Music wise (and this is the point of this post really) I try and get something that doesn't destract - just plays nicely in the background. Today I opted for one of my faves - none other than the mighty Pink Floyd.

Every time I listen to them I forget just how good they are, and how much I enjoy listening to them. A testemant to this is whenever I put on a Floyd track, I really struggle to listen to anything else straight after. So I end up listening to Floyd until I have to go somewhere other than at the PC.

I started this incident with Ummagumma (Live), followed by Atom Heart Mother and now I have time to actually pay proper attention to the music I'm listening to Dark Side of the Moon.

Superb.

Glasto Shaping Up

2007-04-11T13:18:00.000+01:00

Glastonbury 2007 is really starting to take shape now. Only a few days ago I was starting to wonder whether the line-up was much cop (mind you, a bad lineup doesn't make a bad Glastonbury), but with the addition of Modest Mouse (!!), I've taken another look at the lineup and I'm now starting to fear that I'm going to have to miss one must-see band to catch another. I must stress, the following list is based on rumours, but when efestivals.co.uk state To Be Confirmed, you can be pretty sure that they will be playing. The following bands look set to be on the bill and are all bands I'd pay good money to see:

Modest Mouse
Bright Eyes
Arcade Fire
Gogol Bordello
Mr Scruff
Arctic Monkeys

If there were just a few more additions (namely those listed below - all pretty realistic requests really, otherwise I'd chuck on Pink Floyd, Radiohead etc), I couldn't ask for a better line-up:

Of Montreal
Rilo Kiley
The Little Ones
The Shins
Liam Frost
Simple Kid

Still, the existing line up is pretty spot on.

Glastonbury Line-up at efestivals

Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank

2007-04-04T21:00:00.000+01:00

So the follow up to what I currently believe to be my personal favourite album ever is finally here - and with that in mind, strangely I didn't really have high hopes for Modest Mouse's 'We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank'.

I've listened to their previous album, 'Good News For People Who Like Bad News' many many times, to the extent that I know every nook and cranny of the trademark Modest Mouse sound. I've learnt with Mansun that the more I look forward to the album, the more likely it is I'm going to hear it a couple times and put it to one side as I've already conquered them as a band, and I've been expecting it to happen with this album. Not only did this album have to be at least half as good as Good News (a tall order imho), but it had to sound different with it. Baring in mind that in America Modest Mouse hit the big time with Good News, I expected more of the same from them (why change a winning formula?).

So I'm chuffed to say that it's a ruddy addictive listen, with the moments of brilliance that I come to expect from MM. As with Good News, the more I listen to We Were Dead, the more I realise just how good each individual song is. It took a couple listens before I noticed the difference between each song, but I did have it on whilst at work, so I wasn't really focused on it.

It's not a massive leap from Good News, especially when you consider how big a leap Good News was from The Moon & Antarctica, but it's still a leap, with the lead singer of The Shin (James Mercer) on backing vocals adding a variety to Isaac Brock's shouting.

On guitar is well known former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr (I know very little about him or his 'sound' so I won't even try to claim that I can hear the influence he has had).

The album kicks off with a 'The Decemberists ' sounding song, March Into the Sea, complete with accordion and a sea-shanty sound (I love that right now, all thanks to The Decemberists). This song is a slightly new direction for MM, but certainly not a bad one.

On the heels of the opener is probably the most accessible song on the album, Dashboard. As such, if you were to download one track as a sample, make it this one. This is the nearest song this album has to Float On, with the inclusion of (albeit minimal) trumpets and I believe a fiddle.

One of the weaker tracks off the album (not that it's a poor song by a long shot) is next, in the form of Fire It Up. That said, as I listen to it now it's already growing on me.

Florida (song 4) has moments of brilliance, although overall the song is slightly annoying due to it's repetitive nature, but if you can get past that it's actually one of the best tracks on the album with a great stomping ending and fantastic grungy guitar completely turning the song around.

Parting of the Sensory is one of the songs that make this such an addictive listen. It wouldn't sound out of place on either Moon or News, this is Mouse sounding at their very best, bringing together everything that is great about them and placing it into the one song. Crunching guitar, funky beat, the fiddle and Brock yelling with as much passion as ever.

Missed The Boat appears to be the first song on the album featuring The Shins lead singer James Mercer, and it's another new direction for MM with a relaxing, melodic chorus. It would make an ideal single.

We've Got Everything is for me the second weakest track on the album. Whilst on the previous track James Mercer really added to MM's sound, on this occasion he detracts from it. Not that it's all down to him. It's generally a repetitive track, although it does show signs of hope. I'd imagine it will grow on me in time.

Fly Trapped In A Jar kicks off with a hook you could swear you've heard somewhere else before (as it should be with all great hooks) and on that hook alone it's a great song. It could easily be a sister track to Shit Luck off of The Lonesome Crowded West album, although lyrically it's a massive improvement on Shit Luck (that said, the shoddy lyrics in Shit Luck was it's charm). 'Fly' has a couple twists in it, leaving you to think it's moved on to the next track. Apart from a lyrical reference, until you hear that catchy hook which opened the track, end it, you'd be forgiven for thinking it was a new track.

Education is a good song - it's only problem is it's placed straight after Fly Trapped In a Jar, with a very similar rhythm and sound. This leaves you thinking "this is all a bit similar...". Some times it works when songs that follow sound similar, I don't believe it does on this occasion though. If the song were played on its own it would sound much better for it.

Little Motel is a mellow number. I get the feeling it's one of those songs that don't grab you straight away, but a time will come when it's played at just the right moment and it will be a stand-out song, such as on a hung-over summer's Sunday afternoon.

The pace picks up and the bouncy rhythm is back with Steam Engenius. A typical MM track, oozing layer upon layer of different sounds - the sort of technique that could give this album that same ability as Good News in that you can listen to it for the 1000th time, and still hear something new.

At eight minutes and twenty seven seconds long, Spitting Venom is the longest track on the album. Typically speaking if you see a track of that length on a MM album you expect what they have come to refer to as a 'lounge' song - a song where they just let themselves go and to an extent, jam. Not this time though. Starting with just Brock and an acoustic guitar, one minute thirty seconds in, a superb bit of electric guitar kicks in (if that is what Marr has brought to them, then he's very welcome to stay with the band). From then on the song still sounds like MM, but is taken a step further with more great guitar, yet more twists and turns, some touching trumpets and an amthemic ending, all coming together to form one of the best songs on the album.

People As Places As People can only be a let down after Spitting Venom (which I think really should have been the album closer). Nothing to note on this right now I'm feeling quite tired.

Invisible, the song that brings the album to the end does it with some energy (a far cry from Good News' Flaming Lips collaberation Good Times Are Killing Us). Trademark MM guitar in the background, if that is Marr playing he's fitted in well. To be honest I'm to tired to write any more on this. With regards to writing reviews, this album goes on about 2 tracks to long. Good song though :)

Anyway, if you've read this far I should appoligise if the above was in anyway pretensios for a blog entry. After reading so many album reviews, I thought I'd give it a shot myself. I was quite curious to see if it helped me to actually listen to and take in the songs - and I believe it has. I think sitting here writing this has achieved the same as hearing the album 10 times on the iPod whilst going to work. Far more tiring though as a result!

Dirty Dancing Wedding

2007-02-10T18:09:00.000Z

Read about this in The Metro newspaper (the free one you get on the train). Being a closet Dirty Dancing fan myself (and I don't believe that means I should be coming out of a closet despite what some might say), I thought it was good.

Basically, for the first dance of their wedding, a couple spent 6 months learning how to dance in order to do the dance that features at the end of the movie. They did a cracking job to. Fair play for doing 'the lift' as well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VG6RQyhXaxs

Don't expect me and Becky to put this much effort into our first dance - or even appear for it for that matter.. I think I might try and find a spoken word track for ours so no dancing is required.

Playing Catchup with Peel

2007-02-10T16:43:00.000Z

I've just visited the following site which is a collection of legal mp3s. The overall theme is they are either Peel Sessions or were played by John Peel on his show.

http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/gsteel/radioplus/

I use to visit this site all the time 'back in the day' and as I've just finished his biography (which was a superb read btw) I thought I'd check it out again.

What I find most shocking about this site is there are quite a few bands on there who at the time I'd never heard of, but I'm now getting into. That fact along with many others really makes me miss his show. I feel it could have been of more use and more enjoyable now than it ever was for me. Some bands who passed me by back then but I'm currently playing include:

The Shins
Camera Obscura
Stephen Malkmus
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Pretty Girls Make Graves
Interpol
Death Cab for a Cutie

New Music: Of Montreal, Deerhoof

2007-01-26T21:07:00.000Z

Whilst browsing the pages of eMusic I noticed a band called Of Montreal. I added them to my 'To Download Later' list without hesitation, simply on the basis they appeared to be from Canada. Generally speaking, Canada appears to be a great source of music (I just did a search of Google to see which bands come from Canana - confirming those that I thought were, and finding those that I didn't even realise were - rest assured I included '-"bryan adams"' in my search terms. That search revealed just how many of the bands I thought came from Canada in fact don't, which just adds to the reasons why I shouldn't have downloaded the Of Montreal album - which is what this blog entry is about). So, as a result of my search for this entry, I found the following bands/artist come from Canada:

Neil Young
Arcade Fire
The Broken Social Scene

I know, not as many as I'd hoped. I personally had Cold War Kids down as Canadian - sadly not though. Anyway, even just taking the above bands, it's a solid list and reason enough to trust all music from Canada I'd say. So based on that I added an Of Montreal album to my eMusic Saved For Later list. It still wasn't enough to convince me to download it, but it got me as far as the shall I? shant I? process.

The decision was sealed when I read a positive review of their new album on Planet Sound. So off I set to download an older album of theirs. It must have been my lucky day though, as eMusic has the new album ("Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?") up for download, in spite of the fact it's not for sale until Feb. This is most unlike eMusic.

It's a cracking album though. Every now and then I hear an album that I instantly take to and hammer (Modest Mouse's "Good News For People Who Like Bad News", Gogol Bordello's "Gypsy Punks", Rilo Kiley's "The Execution Of All Things", Simple Kid's "1" for instance) - this was one of those.

It's the first album I've heard that is not only as bold as Mansun's Six, but actually managed to pull it off - something I think The Fiery Furnaces tried but failed to do, but that's just my opinion.

It's very much electric in nature, but by no means an electronic album. Best way to think of it is by comparing The Flaming Lips' Yoshima against Soft Bulletin.

Biggest shock of all is Pitch Fork actually agree with me on this: Pitchfork Review: Of Montreal - Hissing Fauna, Are You the Destroyer?

The funny thing is, after downloading and loving this album, I looked them up on Wikipedia and it turns out they are in fact American. Still, can't complain.

So that is an album I've downloaded an loved. The next album I'm looking for to downloading/buying is the latest album by Deerhoof ("Friend Opportunity"). I first heard and got into Deerhoof when I found out they were supporting The Flaming Lips - this was the night before the gig. I downloaded their latest album at the time ("The Runners Four") and and relatively quickly took to it. It was patchy in places, but when it was good, it was good. It's the nature of the sort of music they played. Although I largely ignored them at the Lips gig (nothing to do with them, more because I was having a good conversation) what I did catch was a good sound and very enjoyable (she's well wierd!).

The next album promises to be more hit and less miss than the last, with the good being even better.

Pitchfork Review: Deerhoof - The Runners Four

I'm Currently Reading: Margrave of the Marshes (John Peel Autobiography)

2007-01-15T15:33:00.000Z

For the first time that I can remember, I've left one book I really enjoyed and dived right into another.

Usually when I finish a book, in spite of just how much I enjoyed reading it I never use the momentum and read another, which is daft as I really love reading a good book.

So I've gone from less than trodden ground for me with a story of entrepreneurial success (The Google Story) to safe ground in the form of a music orientated book.

I've only read the introduction and the first 3 chapters, but it looks like it's going to be a really good read. Usually the intro is a chore for me, something that needs to be read but at such an early stage I have no real interest in what it has to say. On this occasion the intro was an enjoyable read. John Peel's children take after their father where they are able to make even the dullest of things enjoyable.

And that sums up the 3 chapters as well (they are written by the man himself). I find the problem with biographies is you have to read through the initial childhood chapters that you don't really care about before you can get into the good stuff where the person you are reading about hits the trials and tribulations of attempting to gain success and then finally gaining success. But this book is different. John Peel has a knack of making even the dullest of subjects interesting. What he writes oozes the dry wit he had on the radio and on TV.

He writes his childhood chapters from a child’s point of view, but with the intelligence of a 60 year old. He tells of the first time he saw a girls 'lady garden', his failures at masturbating at an early age and the fact that a local gardener in his late teens once showed him his penis. He explains how impressed he was by both the size of it and how clever it was that this chap could make it larger at will. John Peel is in the minority in being someone who can write about this stuff and not only get away with it but make it funny in the process.

Being the Peel fan that I am, I can't believe I've held off this long before reading it. That said, I don't think it matters whether you are a fan of John Peel, his taste in music or even music in general. I think you'd really enjoy it.

Some Google Tips

2007-01-14T15:04:00.000Z

Off the back of the Google book I've read, here are a couple helpful tips for getting more out of Google.

Tip #1: Google News - http://news.google.com

I've had a look at Google News previously and I've not really appreciated it's potential. Basically, Google News gathers news from "4,500 news sources" from around the world. Well, generally speaking the BBC does the trick for me. Sure I read several other things (The Register, Digital Spy, Tech Crunch, Pitchfork Media) but that is as much for their featured content as it is the news. It then occured to me that maybe I should try Google News for something more niche. So I did just that. I typed in the name of a band called "Modest Mouse" and sure enough it came up with some (for me at least) interesting results. All modern entries and from multiple sources. Brilliant!

It can be taken to the next level though. Thanks to joys of the interconnected modern day web, I can take the RSS feed of that search (on the left hand side of the search) and include it on my Netvibes homepage. So whenever I open my browser now, as well as seeing the latest updates that have been made to The Guardian's music section, Tech Crunch, my del.icio.us links, new gMail emails, pop3 emails and the latest programming Digg articles, I now have a dedicated panel dislaying the latest 10 news articles written about Modest Mouse from a massive list of news sites. Naturally this can be used to follow any niche subject that you'd otherwise struggle to keep on top of.

There are many more things you can use the RSS feed for though, but I don't really have the energy to go into that right now.

Tip #2: The Google Cheat Sheet - http://www.google.co.uk/help/cheatsheet.html

Ever since starting my job in devlopment I've come to love cheat sheets. Basically they are web pages/documents that have short, sharp information and tips on how to use a service/application/programming language etc which can be place on your desk for easy reference. I've got a couple in work pinned up on my desk board on how to best use the Unix text editor VI and find extremely useful.

In this instance though, it's a Google Cheat Sheet. I plan on sticking it up in work and hope that it helps me to get a little more out of Google.

Some cheat sheets I've found useful can be found at the link below. Funnily enough though the 2 VI ones I mentioned aren't there - typical :)

http://del.icio.us/greggannicott/Cheatsheet

Bugger it, I've finished!

2007-01-14T14:46:00.000Z

A couple posts back I said that to help kill some lunch hour time the cheap way, I was going to try and get into a book - well it worked, problem being I enjoyed it so much that I've now finished it!

It happens every time I read a book: I get into it so much that as the end is in sight I rush to finish it - only to find an empty feeling inside when it's finished as I miss not looking forward to reading it.

The book was The Google Story and it told the story of how Sergey Brin and Larry Page went from 20-something students to billionaires in a shockingly short amount time, executing it with some style and doing some good along the way.

I don't completely buy the 'Do No Evil' claimed by Google, but I think as far as a money making business goes, they are probably about as non-evil as you can get.

An example of there slightly evil nature is there refusal to properly sort out the click-fraud issue which is costing their paying advertisers, because to reduce the issue would reduce their profits (that at least is what the book claims - I'm inclined to believe it).

But at the same time, they seem more than happy to blow money on things which don't stand to make them money. Some times it's because it looks like fun, sometimes its simply because they can and sometimes it's just to make the world a better place.

Although they don't have superpowers in the same way Superman or Spiderman does, I think they do have extrodinary amount of power and resources at their disposal, and they seem keen to use it for good by donating Google's resources to good causes (both charitable and public service wise (such as them digitizing as many paper based books as possible, making them searchable and accessible by the masses and not just those lucky enough to be at a particular university in America)).

My first impressions of the book was that it was written by someone who was heavily bias towards Google, but that didn't turn out to be so.

It was a great read though. Now I need to find something for tomorrow lunch time...

Glastonbury 2007 News

2007-01-10T11:55:00.000Z

Some news on Glasto.

First of all, ticket prices have been announced. They are set to be £145 + £5 booking fee. Certainly sounds a lot (maybe because it is) but it's a bargain.

Secondly, the first band to confirm themselves as playing are Chumawamba - they'll be playing the Avalon stage.

Full details and a bit more news on the trusty eFestivals.

I'm Currently Reading: The Google Story

2007-01-10T09:58:00.000Z

I've decided that in a bid to stop me from wasting money (well, that's debatable) in Virgin and Music Zone every lunchtime, I'm going to try and have a book on the go at all times so I have something to read during my lunch hour.

As with my music, dvds, pvr and other stuff, I have a backlog of books to read, so this should also help with that.

I bought The Google Story hoping it might inspire me a little to do some development at home. I often find that reading things such as this often do the trick (the monthly magazine Internet.Works (which is all about developing business web sites) took me from start to finish on Easyhosts, and when the magazine finished, my hunger to do Easyhosts went with it). And sure enough this book is doing the trick.

I had a little read on the train going home last night and thought "right, I'm not going to go home and crash out on the sofa - instead I'm gonna do some PHP!". And I did just that.

Problem is, no sooner had I got started, I had to finish in order to make tea. I bet ol Bill didn't have these problems when he was busy developing DOS.

But at the very least I got the thing I was working on into a working state that I can now progress. Previously it was located on a now defunct hosting account so in order to get back to developing it I had to go through the code and find out what tables needed to be created and what columns they should contain. For the record the thing is in the very very early stages (I'm working on the 'login script'). All that has been done is a series of functions to handle error and debug logging.

Anyway, back to the Google book.

It looks like it's going to be a good read. My only concern is the writer seems to be heavely bias towards Google, making it out to be a bigger change for society than perhaps it is.

Sure, it's impressive how quickly the business has grown (that's an understatement) but the product itself wasn't truly anything new. Search engines existed in the form of Excite and Altavista to name just a couple - Google just did a better job of it.

Why the iPhone will fail...

2007-01-10T09:54:00.000Z

There is an interesting article on The Register on why they (well, at the very least the article writer) thinks the new iPhone will fail.

Bare in mind this was written December 23rd, 2006 - before the phone was officially announced.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/12/23/iphone_will_fail/

The iPhone

2007-01-09T22:16:00.000Z

Bugger me it looks a sweet piece of kit. I get the feeling I won't be able to afford it whilst my Becky is still a Bell...

Coverage

Official iPhone Site (Check out the iPod Widescreen link)
The Register
BBC News
BBC Tech Blog
Tech Crunch (1)
Tech Crunch (2)

BBC Four: California Dreamin' Week inc Neil Young Concert

2007-01-09T16:40:00.000Z

There appears to be a good week in progress at the moment on the TV channel BBC Four called California Dreamin Week. Of most interest to me is the Neil Young concert on Friday night at 20:30, recorded 1971 during a brilliant spell song-writing wise (around this time he wrote among others, classic albums such as Harvest and my personal favourite After The Gold Rush, although he hadn't yet swerved off into the ditch - another great period of song writing).

The whole scene facinates me though with Cosby, Stills and Nash, Joni Mitchell and others.

The flagship documentary appears to be Hotel California: LA from The Byrds to The Eagles. It's repeated many times. I've recorded it at home on the PVR. Based on what I have waiting to be watched, I should get to see it in a few months time if I'm lucky.

Details:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cgi-perl/whatson/search/advance_search.cgi?tmp=whatson%2Fsdk%2Fbbcfour%2Fsearch.tmpl&err=whatson%2Fsdk%2Fbbcfour%2Ferror.tmpl&keyword=california+&go=go

A Google Bomb

2007-01-09T15:12:00.000Z

A bit of an old one this, but I haven't seen it before.

If you go to Google and search "Failure" you get the following top result (click it and you'll see):

http://www.google.com/search?q=failure

Quite amusing :)

I like the fact Google paid for an ad (or at least, placed one) to explain itself at the top.

I found out about this at:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/09/googlebombing-failure.html

Good news for people who like bad news...

2007-01-09T08:49:00.000Z

There is a reason I've ripped off a Modest Mouse album title for this post.

I found out last night they (one of my favourite bands who have written one of my favourite albums (see post title)) will be playing Minehead in May. Fantastic, only 15 or so miles away!! Usually they are a bit of a London only band.

The bad news though is it's part of the All Tomorrow Parties festival. If I could afford it it would be superb news, but with a wedding, holiday to Mojorca and Glastonbury, I think the minimum fee of £254 for a couple is a bit steep.

It's a real shame though as it sounds like fun. Ignoring the fact there should be lots of bands there I've never heard before that I could easily get into, rather than staying in tents and not washing for 5 days (which I still love btw), you stay in a Butlins shallay.

Unless I can find a way around the money problem, it isn't going to happen though.

Music Currently Giving Me My Kicks

2007-01-06T16:45:00.000Z

At the moment I'm very much enjoying the following bands (in no order):

The Early Years
The Maybes?
Yo La Tengo
Cold War Kids
Prodigy
Deerhoof
The Black Angels
Liam Frost
The Go-Betweens
The Little Ones
Guillemots
Hope of the States
Arctic Monkeys
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah
Cat Power

Out of those bands, the ones where I'm getting the biggest kicks are The Little Ones, Guillemots, Cold War Kids (who I'll be seeing shortly supporting Clap Your Hands Say Yeah) and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (who I'll be seeing shortly supported by Cold War Kids).

Admittedly, there is only one song of Bongwater I currently like right now, but it makes the album worth it. The song is Nick Cave Dolls.

BBC Sound of 2007

2007-01-06T16:39:00.000Z

My final "Look back on 2006, look forward to 2007" style post, but this list is always worth a look.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6169551.stm

It has a knack of being right. Last year they predicted The Feeling, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Guillemots, The Automatic and Corinne Bailey Rae were going to be big, and they weren't far wrong.

It's fun to look back at the list and think "Bloody hell, didn't realise they were being tipped on this list!", as I did when I read it and noticed Guillemots and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah were on the 2006 list.

I also went to see The Feeling in Taunton off the back of this list, they have now moved on to much bigger things.

Planet Sounds Tip for 2007

2007-01-06T16:33:00.000Z

Planet Sound (my musical bible) has said that the following bands will be great in 2007 - who am I to argue? I've placed this list here so I've got somewhere I can check it out whenever I have a spare tenner or some download credits on eMusic to use up. It'll be interesting to see whether the names are more familiar in 6 months time.

- Connan and the Mockasins
- Mika
- Cherry Ghost
- Sky Larkin
- Cajun Dance Party
- Gas Club
- The Envy Corps
- Jamie Sample
- Ayo
- Bobby Cook
- Oh No Oh My
- Edgar Praise

Bobby Cook - you don't get much less rock 'n' roll than that.

A word of warning regarding this list. Last year Planet Sound had placed Orson on the 2006 list - they very quickly appoligised and they've seemed to have had it in for them (Orson) ever since. Very strange.

Planet Sound's Top 10 Singles of 2006

2007-01-06T16:24:00.000Z

Similar to my previous post, here is Planet Sound's Top 10 Singles of 2006. Please read the previous post to find out just why I'm placing this here.

I just want to say though, that the number 1 song is indeed a corker. It's hard to believe the guy is only 22. Makes me feel a little old. Another one worth noting is The Little Ones. They've released a mini album over in the States and it's great. I purchased it here from Rough Trade Records. It's a testemant to the album that Lovers Who Uncover is not the best song on there.

1) Liam Frost - The Mourners of St Paul's
2) Peter Bjorn & John - Young Folks
3) The Maybes? - Olympia
4) Hot Chip - Over and Over
5) Gnarls Barkley - Crazy
6) Little Man Tate - The Agent
7) The Racontours - Steady As She Goes
8) Air Traffic - Just Abuse Me
9) Scissor Sisters - I Don't Feel Like
10) The Little Ones - Lovers Who Uncover.

Planet Sound's Top 20 Albums of 2006

2007-01-06T16:13:00.000Z

This is as much for my reference as it is for anyone's reading pleasure. Planet Sound is a music magazine on good ol fashioned Teletext. The editor of it John Earls shares many of my tastes in music (or rather, I share his tastes) and I often find he's spot on with his suggestions. So below is his Top 20 Albums of 2006. Previous winners have included Modest Mouse and Bright Eyes. With the information here I hope to purchase some albums off the back of it. For the most part, I already seem to own them.

1) Muse - Black Holes And Revelations
2) The Sleepy Jackson - Personality; One Was A Spider One Was A Bird
3) Razorlight - Razorlight
4) Acrtic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
5) Cat Power - The Greatest
6) Guillemots - Through The Windowpane
7) Black Angels - Passover
8) The Early Years - The Early Years
9) Lilly Allen - Alright Still
10) Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan - Ballad of the Broken Seas
11) The Feeling - 12 Stops and Home
12) Mojave 3 - Puzzles Like You
13) The Knife - The Silent Shout
14) Unkle Bob - Sugar and Bite
15) Bell X1 - Flock
16) Jarvis - The Jarvis Cocker Record
17) Keith John Adams - Pip
18) Placebo - Meds
19) Keane - Under The Iron Sea
20) Beirut - Gulas Orkestrar

Great Song Title

2006-12-10T19:56:00.000Z

Just found a great track name on the Sonic Mook Experiment compilation album by band called Mclusky:

"Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues"

Works on so many different levels.

False Accusations

2006-11-10T21:44:00.000Z

I was speaking to a friend in work and I asked him what he thought of this blog. He pointed out that unlike Dan Lawrence's site, mine is used more as a means to rant about stuff.

I couldn't disagree more. I would never use this site as a soapbox for my oppinions. I resent the obviously false allegation.

Whilst we are on the subject of rants though, something that really chaps my ass is people that gather round the door of a train when it arrives - doesn't sound like much of a crime, but it really gets to me.

This is the thing. Every day, the same people crowd the train doors whilst waiting to get on. The folk on the train then need to get off and have to edge their way through the people blocking the doors. It wouldn't be so bad if there was limited seats and they wanted to make sure that they get them, but there is no reason why people need to stand at the door and rush on. It's pointless.

Far better to stand back and then make your move when people are off the train.

Rants? Really!

Amstel Beer - Finally!

2006-11-10T21:29:00.000Z

About a year and a half ago me and Becky went to Corfu, and whilst there I fell in love with the Dutch beer Amstel.

I knew my dad was a fan so I brought back a bottle for him and one for myself. I was living at home at the time, so my bottle was kept in the folk's fridge. My brother, Lional Flip-Due, being the beer theif that he is, was warned not to drink it as I couldn't get any over here in the UK. I saved it for a special moment.

When that moment finally came (not sure what it was now - must have been something VERY special), I went to the fridge only to find my Amstel had gone! I accused Flip-Due of all sorts, although he denied it. Turns out that my Dad had drunk it thinking it was his not realising that he'd already drunk his a while back.

Since then I have searched every known supermarket, any off-licence I pass by (from Cornwall to London) and even Lanzarotie, with no joy. Every time I go to a supermarket I check the drinks section for it, but its never there.

A dull story I realise, but hopefully it gives you an idea of just how happy I am that I found it on sale today in Asda! On spotting it I raised my arms in joy and rushed off to find Becks (my fiancee, not the bottled beer) to see if I could get it using the food money (I couldn't afford it myself) - how could she say no to my excited grin!

I'm now enjoying it as I type. Mmmmmm

As an aside, I'm loving how I got the bottle top in the picture to shine like that, making it irresistible. I could make Marks & Spencers food adverts with a talent like that!

Flaming Lips, Birmingham NIA, 09/11/06

2006-11-10T19:51:00.000Z

"Those religious conservative mother fuckers"

That's how Wayne Coyne of the Flaming Lips describes the members of the Republican Party in the US during the gig at the Birmingham NIA last night - well put.

The gig could very well be my favourite show that's taken place out side of Glastonbury, with Hope of the States giving it a run for it's money.

From start to finish I had a massive grin on my face, bursting into hysterics at every turn.

Despite forming in 1983 and being a band big enough to play to arenas, it's a credit to them that they take part in the setup of the instruments, having fun a long the way - they really must love their job.

As the band prepare in the wings to take to the stage for the performance, so to do Superman, Wonderwoman, Captain America, Thing (the orange guy from Fantastic 4), a bunch of Santa Clauses without beards, an army of young female Aliens, one main alien and Santa Clause himself.

Not only that, but the one thing all 4 of us wanted to see: the balloon that Wayne Coyne climbs into and runs out on to the audience in. The moment he is in, it all kicks off.

Opening with Race for the Prize, large orange baloons are thrown out into the crowd (where they will stay for the rest of the night, being knocked around), the band takes to the stage, the confetti cannons fire off and to as massive cheer Coyne runs out into the crowd in his balloon.

The start to this set is by some distance the greatest set opener I've seen, and certainly one of the best 5 minutes I've had at a gig, including Glastonbury sets. From here on in the whole crowd is on a high - I personally can't stop laughing at the surrealness of it all, not to mention just how much fun it is.

The next song is a personal Lips favourite of mine, Free Radicals. He explains to the crowd that it was in Birmingham that this song first generated a sing-along by the fans and that he'd love to recreate that moment.

If you were being cynical you would argue that he says this where ever they play - that might well be the case, but the thing about this band is they genuinely perform like this is the most important gig in their lives - like they are headlining the Pyramid Stage for the very first time and it's what they set out to achieve. They never once look bored or show any sign that it's just "another gig" for them.

Sure enough the crowd sing back. The next song was a suprise for me as I didn't expect them to play such a well known tune of theirs so soon: Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt.1. They go into it with no introduction and the crowd love it.

This song also sees the only use of the glove puppet nunn - a shame as I swear I remember her staring in many more songs a Glasto.

Before the song ends they go into a slow Queen-like piano piece, as if they have just finished playing a 20 minute 70s rock classic, prompting the fans to sing-a-long, not the last time they use this technique.

Following this they kick straight into Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots Pt.2. When I first purchased the Yoshima album I was looking forward to hearing the second part of the song, disapointed to find that it was an instrumental. As time's gone by I've learned to like the song more and more until last night where it all finally made sense.

Whilst all this is going on, the santa's and aliens are always dancing along, waving their torches. From what I can gather they were just joe publics who perhaps the band approached before the gig and said "Fancy being on stage?". They had their digital cameras and really looked like they were loving it. All the girls seemed to be below 20, and were the sort of girls who quite frankly think to much of themselves and their dance moves, but fair play to em because they didn't look any less enthused by it the whole night, always giving it their best, having fun - a quality that people lose as they get older where fun is concerned.

Wayne Coyne then went on to make the first of many hippy-like speeches about how we can make a difference and just how many sound people their are in the audience just looking for a good time.

He talked about the recent resignation of Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary who was a key part of the planning for the Iraq war. He pointed out that it's thanks to public pressure that it's happened and that music has been a part of the changing attitude of the american public. All this to cheers from the crowd.

With that he introduces the next song, the politically charged Yeah Yeah Yeah Song asking the crowd to sing the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the No No Nos.

They then play My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion, which is fast becoming one of my favourite Lips songs (the way they played it at the show certainly did it's cause no harm). He explained that the lyrics were about all the negative, cynical people out there. He's definately a song writer I can relate to.

During all this more confetti is fired, more streamers released, torches swung, comedy sized fists raised and a large balloon blown up to burst (see below piture).

The large orange balloons are also still being knocked around by the crowd - the first of which to be burst by a member of the audience get the response of a large cry of boos from the crowd. A bunch of grownups booing never fails to amuse me.

There were a couple tracks I'd have liked to have heard (The Spark That Bled and The Gash), but both those tracks are off The Soft Bulletin, an album from the late 90s, so I can hardly blame the band for not playing them and opting for something fresh.

The final two songs before the end of the main set are She Don't Use Jelly (introduced on screen by Jon Stewart off the Daily Show (weekdays on More4)) and another favourite of mine Do You Realize??, this for me seeming to be the most euthoric of their songs - with the screen behind showing footage of a couple in Rabbit Costumes (think Dom Jolly's Trigger Happy TV) hugging and boucing away in slow motion in a totally over the top cheese, hammy, happy way - a perfect set ender.

The thing about encores is they really bug me, yet I think I'd feel cheated if a band didn't do one or two. As with everything, at least The Flaming Lips make their's fun. Whilst the crowd yell for more, Captain America takes to the stage and encourages the crown in to an east v west shouting match. As with the rest of this blog entry, it doesn't sound like much, but when you are there it's brilliant.

They then return to the stage and ask the crowd for a karoke moment, telling them to sing along. Members of the crowd shout out "But we won't know the words!!". "Don't worry" Coyne replies, "They're on the screen.". They needn't have bothered as the song has to be one of the most easy to sing-a-long to tunes in the UK, with *everyone* knowing the words: Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody.

I was hoping they were going to play a cover, as they did at Glastonbury in the form of Pink Floyd's Breathe. On this occasion they couldn't have picked a better tune, with the whole crowd singing every word. A real experience. To top it off, when the tune reached its head-banging moment, the crowd responded well. Something I won't forget in a while.

They then left the stage with Captain America once again returning to get the crowd going.

One last song remained - I've yet to work out which song it was, but he introduced it saying that at the end, their will be a bit of music that will give people the chance to say to their partner (or potential partner) just how much they mean to them. A blissed out ending to an amazing show. I challange anyone of any taste of music to go to a Lips gig and not have a great time. I worried that after having such a good time watching them at Glastonbury, I was going to be disapointed. How wrong I was. I haven't laughed as hard for as long in a long time.

The lights then raise. As we leave we are treated to a highly appropriate What a Wonderful World and an oddly chosen Wizard of Oz track.

Myself and Simon both agree that following that, we're not looking forward to "having to sit through Muse" next week. It takes a fantastic set to make you feel that way about a band as good as Muse.

Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments II - The Domino Effect

2006-10-30T22:17:00.000Z

This is a good example of some Viral Marketing. Well worth watching - enjoy:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-274981837129821058

Credit where it's due of course, this is where I found the link:

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/10/domino-effect.html

And some details on just what Viral Marketing is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viral_advertising

Time Consuming'ness and Blogger Beta

2006-10-29T20:52:00.000Z

I've decided recently to make a bit of an effort with this blog - but tonight is the first time I've realised just how time consuming it can be. Put's me off a little. Still, I'll keep trying for what it's worth.

As part of my new found dedication to this blog (it's [dedication] debut you could argue) I also switched my blog to the beta version of Blogger.

Not a lot has changed (at first glance at least), but the important feature for me is the inclusion of labels (such a Google title). This enables me to give keywords to my posts, something I've been wanting for some time now as I'm a big fan of tags in a web 2.0 kind of way.

As much as I dislike people actually reading this blog (god knows why I write it), it would still be good if say someone did a search for "Beta Band" and as a result found my ill-written half assed review of their Three EPs album below.

First Listen: Beta Band, The Doors

2006-10-29T20:42:00.000Z

Well I'm currently in the process of listening to the Beta Band's The Three EP's for the first time and had a listen to disc 1 of 2 of The Doors' In Concert earlier:

The Doors - In Concert
I'm really impressed with this. Some critics tag The Doors as being just another pub band, but there does seem to be something more to them than that. On this live recording Jim Morrison is sounding great, having a good laugh with the crowd (well, thats my call on it - if that is the case he's doing it very dryly as he shouts "Shut up!!! This is no way to behave at a rock concert!" (or words to that affect)). Musically it sounds superb. Where as some live albums tend to make you long for the studio version, the versions of the songs on this album seem to be superior. It is also the first time that a band I like have used medleys and got away with it.

The Beta Band - The Three EPs
After buying and disliking the Hot Shots II album by the Beta Band, I've been put off this now for some time. However, this seems like the perfect album for a Sunday evening, with some nice mellow bass lines and sparse and soothing vocals. Good background music. With that in mind I think it'll also work well whilst I'm in work.

Spending Spree in Taunton

2006-10-29T16:34:00.000Z

Went to Taunton for shopping today, and as often happens when I avoid spending money the previous time I go to town, I spend way to much the following shop. It doesn't help that last night I watched the Top 50 Comedies on C4 followed by High Fidelity on DVD (that movie always makes me want to go out and buy loads of music as I just love the huge music collection featured in it).

Here's what I bought:

CDs

Tom Waits - The Island Years
I've never bothered with him before - dismissing him, but not in a way where I'd say "I don't like him", but rather that I don't have time to get into him. I heard a track of his on 6 Music the other day and his voice sounded great, so think I'll give it a go. Only a £5.

The Beta Band - The Three E.P's
I bought their second (I think) album and I must admit, I don't think much of it. However I keep on hearing rave comments about this collection of EPs. To top it off, it got a mention in High Fidelity last night and part of a track was played... it sounded good, so I made a note of in on the mobile and picked it up earlier today.

The Doors - In Concert
I've heard a few Doors tracks that were recorded live over the years and they always sound superb, so I decided it was time I got one for the collection. I'm listening to it as I type (When The Music's Over is the track) and Morrison sound's great, as does the trademark organ. 31 tracks for £6, and most of their short recording history is covered.

DVDs

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
A Stanley Kubrick movie (I don't think I've ever watched one of his, but they all seem to be regarded as classics, so it's about time I tried one) about the dropping of an A-Bomb (I think - I try not to read the writing on the back as every now and then it gives a little to much away for my liking). It featured in the Top 50 Comedies and what's more, has been spoofed by the Simpsons (where Homer rides the bomb) so felt like I should give it a try.

There's Something About Mary
Another movie featured on the Top 50, I get the impression that much like American Pie and Wedding Crashers, I could watch this movie time and again with Becky. Always worth having to hand. Very funny movie.

Wayne's World 2
It's about time I bought this. Very funny send up of rock music. I shouldn't need to explain myself here :-)

Syriana
One of two independent movies that George Clooney has made that I'd like to see (the other being about a warmonger during the Cold War - the Cold War being an interest of mine makes it an appealing movie), this one is about the oil industry and the corruption in the US that surrounds it. Considering the Iraq war a few years ago, this seems quite a topical movie.

Walk The Line
The story of Johnny Cash. When I watched it in the cinema I didn't think it even came close to 'Ray' (the story of Ray Charles) but I still enjoyed it, and it even got Becky familiar with Cash's music (I was playing a track of his and she asked if it was him - has to be said, I was very impressed with that).

The 40 Year Old Virgin
I've been meaning to get this since I seen this at the cinema, but haven't got around to it. Me and Becky watched it last week when we were baby sitting our nepthew and it was even funnier than I remember - so I snapped it up for £5 today from Asda.

And those are my purchases. All bargains as well.

2 movies I did want but wasn't willing to pay full price for (I would have had I not just spent £45 on other stuff) were This Is Spinal Tap (I watched it a couple years back and didn't find it funny, but keep on seeing clips and they make me laugh) and Monty Python's Holy Grail (well, same as Spinal Tap really.. I've seen it, didn't find it funny but I see bits now that make me laugh.. maybe I compared it to much to Life of Brian and the Flying Circus Series).

So Grundge wasn't a genre of music after all?

2006-10-18T22:00:00.000+01:00

Was reading a Neil Young fan site tonight and it highlighted a great blog by 'Shelley the Republican'. I can't decide whether she is for real or just a democrat fan sending up Republican voters.

In the blog entry, titled "Neil Young: An Enemy Of George Bush. An Enemy Of God.", she lays into Neil Young on the basis that he wrote a song titled 'Lets Impeach the President', all about George Bush. As Shelley suprisingly correctly points out, the album it's from (Living With War) is a protest album aimed at the current administration.

The blog is chock full of rubbish - some choice quotes include..

He likes to call himself the Godfather of Grunge. I have heard that this name is a reference to a sick sex-act during which his fellow Canadians (Young is Canadian by the way! He ought to be ashamed!) and caffeine-crazies from Seattle cover themselves in a disgusting gloop (the “grunge”) and embark on unspeakable rites and crypto-pagano-sex rituals. It’s disgusting!

At least 2 things wrong with this:

1) is the fact that Young never likes to call himself the Godfather of Grunge. This is something he's referred to by the music press and maybe (to be fair I can't remember for sure) a grunge band such as Pearl Jam.

2) Anyone who knows even a little about 90s american music will realise that, that description of grunge is truly shocking! (For those who don't know, bands such as Nirvana, Pearl Jam etc are classed as grunge)

Another quote:

Naturally, I haven’t heard it and have no intention of doing so, but I can tell you with utmost confidence that the music is rubbish too.

It's as if Matthew Wright was an american republican zealot! I don't give anyone any credit who is daft enough to include a statement like that in their blog and expect to be taken seriously.

Why would anyone want to impeach the greatest President in the history of the world [Bush] rather than Bill Clinton the infamous sleaze? What crime has Bush committed? What has he done that’s worse than adultery? I don’t get it.

I don't really need to comment on this.

The blog can be found at:

http://www.shelleytherepublican.com/2006/08/21/neil-young-an-enemy-of-george-bush-an-enemy-of-god.aspx

And credit where it is due. This is where I found the link to the blog entry:

http://www.thrasherswheat.org/wheatfield.html

Daft Punk - Discovery

2006-10-13T10:43:00.000+01:00

I've been listening to Daft Punk's discovery this morning in work. The reason I put it on was because my thought process somehow got around to thinking just how good the tune Harder Faster Stronger Longer is (my favourite dance track I'd say) so I thought I'd have a change from breaking in the new purchases and listen to an old favourite in the name of hearing that song.

What I failed to remember was just how good the rest of the album was. I remember the first 4 songs are corkers (I forgot just how corking though) and the rest of the album keeps up the high standards.

It's a suprisingly loved up album as well, with some great lyrics in. Not something you expect when you put on a dance album.

It's just a shame their long awaited follow-up album didn't even come close to it.

www.last.fm

2006-10-08T21:09:00.000+01:00

Haven't posted anything about music in a while so here we go...

As of around a month ago I started using an app call last.fm - I find it's most usual feature (amongst many more) is the fact it notes what music you are listening to on a MP3 application of your choice (mine being trusty Winamp) and then generates stats at the end of it. If you are curious about what I listen to, you can find out here:

http://www.last.fm/user/greg711/

This week's stats are a bad example as I've been abroad for much of the week. But you get the idea.

My only gripe (it's an unfair one I know) is there is no reasonable way of tracking what I listen to on my Creative Portable MP3 player - this is where I listen to the vast majority of my music (on the train and then in work). Although in fairness, when I am sat at my desk at home I do tend to listen to the bands I'm truly into, where as the MP3 player is more about getting into new albums.

"The customer is always right..." - What a crock of shite.

2006-09-05T12:53:00.000+01:00

The old saying goes that the customer is always right. I had that pointed out to me in Wickes several times, and worryingly the customer felt that that comment alone was enough for me to have to back down.

On my first day at Wickes I was told by the person training me that customers are not always right, but they are king (or queen when appropriate). That's a far better saying that makes far more sense.

What gets to me about the customer being right theory is that it's simply not logical.

It usually applies when the customer is querying a policy or perhaps some technical knowledge.

"I'd like a refund on this please. It's faulty." says the customer.

"I'm afraid we need to send that away for repair, as you do not have proof of purcahse." replies the member of staff.

(I'll delete the conversation that follows and cut to the all important line)

"Young man, have you not heard of the saying 'The customer's always right? Refund please.'"

Honest to God, it happens.

So where does the lack of logic apply? The fact that the employee has been doing their job for x amount of time and is payed to do and know that job on a daily basis. On the other hand you have a customer who believes they know it all - far more than the professionals. Yet (unless their living is also behind a till/customer service desk etc) spend little time dealing with such matters in comparison.

Rant over.

And strut...

2006-09-04T17:17:00.000+01:00

Was walking to work from the train station this morning and 'Krack', off of the Nite Versions album by Soulwax (they sure are zany spellers!) played on my MP3 player. Its such a confident song I couldn't help but want to strut to it as I walked the streets thinking that "I was the man!".. Hell, I'm a little concerned that some strut might well have leaked out in my walk.

If you are lacking in confidence then give it a listen - for around 4 minutes every doubt you have about yourself will be gone. The price for this amazing ability? The eternal memory of your strut when you're not feeling nearly as confident.

BBC - The Wrong Man

2006-09-03T15:01:00.000+01:00

I realise this is old news now but it's only now I've seen the actual intereview.

Quick overview: Guy turns up for an interview at the BBC, only to be mistaken for a different chap. As a result he is taken onto the set of News 24 where he is interviewed live on air regarding a tech story. As far as the chap was concerned this was his job interview.

Here is a link to the footage:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi?redirect=st.stm&news=1&bbram=1&bbwm=1&nbram=1&nbwm=1&nol_storyid=4774179

The initial look on his face when he is asked a question is priceless. Well worth watching.

Assignation of George W Bush

2006-09-01T13:32:00.000+01:00

Digital channel More4 (or Mo-Fo as its known in 'the hood') will be screening a drama/documentry which includes a mock assignation of George W Bush. Based on the BBC article below, it sounds like an interesting show:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5302598.stm

What ammuses me from that article though is the following quote:

John Beyer of UK TV pressure group MediaWatch said the film was "irresponsible".

He said it could even trigger a real assassination attempt and told the Daily Mirror: "There's a lot of feeling against President Bush and this may well put ideas into people's heads."

If you truly feel strongly enough to want to kill someone you dislike - even in America, it shouldn't really require inspiration from a TV show for you to think of such a general, obvious plan. It's not like American history alone doesn't provide enough history of how to deal with a president you dislike.

Child Like Lyrics - Oh Yeah!

2006-08-29T16:08:00.000+01:00

Got into a discussion about Syd Barrett tunes last week, and went to find the spelling for Effervescing Elephant. In doing so I found the lyrics. When I read them I realised just what great lyrics they are - they are typical Syd. You could read them to your kid and he wouldn't be any wiser that they were written by someone who lost the plot in the 60s, partially due to the amount of drugs he was doing - he'd just think its from some kids song book. And the wife would for that matter! So here they are. As with any song, they are better when you know the tune:

An Effervescing Elephant
with tiny eyes and great big trunk
once whispered to the tiny ear
the ear of one inferior
that by next June he'd die, oh yeah!
because the tiger would roam.
The little one said: "Oh my goodness I must stay at home!
and every time I hear a growl
I'll know the tiger's on the prowl
and I'll be really safe, you know
the elephant he told me so."
Everyone was nervy, oh yeah!
and the message was spread
to zebra, mongoose, and the dirty hippopotamus
who wallowed in the mud and chewed
his spicy hippo-plankton food
and tended to ignore the word
preferring to survey a herd
of stupid water bison, oh yeah!
And all the jungle took fright,
and ran around for all the day and the night
but all in vain, because, you see,
the tiger came and said: "Who me?!
You know, I wouldn't hurt not one of you.
I'd much prefer something to chew
and you're all to scant." oh yeah!
He ate the Elephant

Bank Holiday Monday Rundowns

2006-08-29T16:05:00.000+01:00

This was an email to a friend (Dan Lawrence) in work, but he suggested I blog it - I didn't think that was such a bad idea. The required blog-rant/theories can be found nearer the end. Here it is:

- - - - - - -

There are so many 'Top X of All Time' charts around at the moment. Anyone would have thought we'd just had a bank holiday Monday!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5294652.stm

Pink Floyd get a couple mentions in this one. Suprisingly, Wish You Were Here gets in the Top 10, and Dark Side of the Moon is number 1 for the albums that didn't make it to number one.

On the topic of these charts appearing on Bank Holidays, I remember for a while when I was younger that it was all the craze at one stage for stations to run big countdowns.. then people got tired of them. I seem to remember different artists/albums make it into the chart depending on what has happened recently.

I think that if this chart were ran in 98, Floyd would have been much lower, but I think Live 8 re-ignited interest in them, and so they do well.

Which leads me to stray further again and mention how it's interesting to see how demand plays a big part on someone's career.

Dave Gilmour releases an album in 78, probably having more to say with a more cutting edge sound (not to mention that Pink Floyd are at the peak of their career, or not far from it), but it goes pratically un-noticed.

The now David Gilmour, releases an album 20 years later, with an out-dated sound and very little to say (for the record I like the album btw) and it sales well.. if there had been a Floyd album a year before and one around the corner in a couple years, I don't think anyone would have cared as they would have had their Floyd fix and would know another was on the way.

Futurama

2006-06-24T19:02:00.000+01:00

One of the greatest comedies of our time (well, from a geek's point of view) is officially on its way back for a new series! :-D

Missing Glastonbury

2006-06-24T18:13:00.000+01:00

All this summer I've had moments where I wish I was at Glastonbury (that thought made worst knowing there is no festival this year). Usually its something simple, like the smell of cut grass on a sunny day, or the smell of weed or just good old fashioned smoke.

I watched some of the 02 Wireless Festival earlier and they had a performance by the Flaming Lips on there. This made me wish for Glasto more than ever as I have very fond memories of watching them a few years ago at Glasto.

At the time I wasn't a big fan of them. As there was such a big gap between The Soft Bulletin and Yoshima, when the press were raving about them I'd never heard of them. It baffled me that such a so-called well known band had passed me by. The Flight Test was being over-played on MTV2 and I just wasn't getting their music. The song Yoshima wasn't bad.. quite catchy but that was it. (note: Ice Cream Van (Mr Whippy in fact) has just pulled up outside my house.. love living here!)

So they were second on the bill to Radiohead (Other than Pink Floyd, Radiohead were THE band I had to see in my life time) (note: Icecream van has just pulled away.. talk about impatient.. if I was going for one I'd barely have time to slip my shoes on and head over all eager with my coins) and it felt like most people at the festival had never heard of them, or at best had simply heard of them.

Reading the Q magazine you get at the festival, they were raving about what a great live act they are. As it happens, we were always going to watch them as we wanted to be near the front for Radiohead but I think had we'd not gone to watch Radiohead, we'd still have checked them out I think just because of the reviews regarding there stage show.

So there we are, extremely excited about seeing Radiohead. I think I was with:

Dave Maynard
Simon Gee
James Robilliard
Brains

Sorry if I've missed anyone out - I'm sure you are extremely stressed now because of it. Me and Dave were massive Radiohead fans so were very keen to get the Lips out of the way.

And then it happened.. The Flaming Lips performed. It was superb! Everything Q Mag promised and so much more. They put on a real personal show. Wayne Coin (lead singer) had a screen just behind him and a camera on his mic.. so as he's talking out to the crowd, you can see him the whole time in great detail. Made it a real experience. Highlights include:

- The singing nun glove puppet
- Wayne Coin exploding fake bloody all over him
- Him blowing up a big baloon.. when was it going to burst?
- Him singing via a loud-speakerphone.. sounds great!
- 50,000 people singing Happy Birthday to someone in the crowd
- A cover of Pink Floyds 'Breathe'
- Dancing animals with really powerful torches.

There was loads more. It felt like one great party. It was as fun as watching Rolf Harris the year before, but with great music as well (sorry Rolf). All the above doesn't sound like much, but when you are at Glastonbury with the sun setting, its amazing.

Following the show me and Dave turned round to each other and both agreed that we get the feeling Radiohead can't even get close to topping that. Luckily, Radiohead were just as good (if not better).

Following Radiohead, with the addrenelin well and truly pumping we all agreed that we aren't ready to sleep - so we all headed up to the stone circle and sat there for a while. I was happy to stay there, but the others were ready to go, so they headed back to the tent. So there I sat, with 1000s of camp fires in the distance texting Becky (this is soon after we first met and before we had the guts to meet again) telling her all about how great Glastonbury is. Sad I know, but it really was very romantic.

That for sure is my favourite night at Glastonbury, if not the greatest night of my life. So perfect.

Sorry if the above is quite boring, but I enjoyed writing it. Makes me miss Glastonbury even more now. :-(

Later...

2006-06-24T17:43:00.000+01:00

This weeks 'Later...' was certainly worth the wait - not a single dud act on there (a first for when I've watched it). Here's a quick run-down of what I thought of the acts:

The Strokes
There is something about the Strokes that makes me really enjoy watching/listening to them, but I can never put my finger on it. It was no different this time. They forced me to open a beer within a minute as you could tell it was going to be a good show so why not make it better with a beer?

The Flaming Lips
Really good. They put on the sort of performance you'll watch in 10 years time and think to yourself "I wish music was that manic and unprofessional now-a-days!". Of course, they are one-of-a-kind now-a-days. The Yeah Yeah Yeah song was their opening number (shame they didn't play the full length of that, but still great), W.A.N.D was there second tune (it's finally starting to work for me) and sadly they wasted the third song on a cover of War Pigs. It was good, but would have been nice to hear another one of there songs, maybe an old forgotten one.

The Divine Comedy
Along with The Beautiful South, Divine Comedy are a band I dismissed some time ago only to realise my error now. They played 2 songs, both really enjoyable to listen to with the lyrics grabbing my attention. I'll try to get one of their albums some day.

Cat Power
I bought her latest album (The Greatest) when it was released after hearing rave reviews about it, and its never really fully grown on me (doesn't help that I purchased it at the same time as a couple other albums, one of which being Jenny Lewis). I was quite looking forward to seeing her on the show as I thought it might help me to enjoy the album some more. With that in mind it's a shame she played the 2 songs I know and already like but that said, the studio recordings really don't do them justice. Lived In Bars in particular was superb. So sure enough, I'm going to check out the album again.

Plan B
I think I've seen this guy on TV before (NME Awards). Back then I flicked past his performance as he sounded to much like an English Eminem wannabe.. I almost did the same this time, but thankfully I held out. Turned out to be really good. He's basically a rapper with an acoustic guitar and not a bad voice. Different.

Raul MidÃ³n
A testamentt to just how good this show was, the fact I really enjoyed the token obscure genre act. You have to see him to realise how good he is. In the simplest form, its a guy with shades on playing a guitar... but boy can he play guitar... and created a drum rhythmm on his guitar... and perform the trumpet solo with no trumpet(!). Really really good to watch! Usually I like my music because it flips a switch in my head that makes me think "this sounds good", rarely because I think "now that's some good playin!" - because to be fair, I don't really know what good playing is - But I can be certain that this guy can play.

RIP Top of the Pops

2006-06-21T10:28:00.000+01:00

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/5099894.stm

Its typical - I've pratically ignored Top of the Pops all my life, but since getting a Freeview PVR I've found that I now find myself watching it - and now it gets the axe!

Sure, there is some tosh on there, but thanks to the PVR I can skip past that and on to the usual one or two half decent acts.

Since I started watching it the two best performances I've seen are Belle and Sebastian and Gnarls Barcley (I'm sure I've spelt that wrong).

It's no 'Later...' but its still live music, something lacking on mainstream tv at the moment.

Later...

2006-06-17T19:24:00.000+01:00

Just watched this week's Later.. With Jools Holland.

Wasn't a bad one, nothing that really jumped out at the me though like I've come to expect from the show (eg. Gnarls Barkley's performance of Crazy, Franz Ferdinand's performance with 10 drummers), but still a good one.

The highlights were Gogol Bordello (an Eastern Europe gypsy-folk-punk band (!)), might have to get their album if I can find it, and The Dresden Dolls (Just a piano and drums, so naturally a little different).

The lows were The Automatic - ok, fair enough they were good but there keyboardist came across as though his ego alone was forcing the band to keep him in.. a modern-day Bez, but with some talent. Also a low were Dixie Chicks. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but disapointed to find an American version of the Corrs.

Still, next week's show sounds great. Not only The Flaming Lips (that would be more than enough), but The Strokes (ok, wasn't a huge fan until I saw them live, but they are a cool act) and Cat Power.

Some reviews on a couple of the bands mentioned above:

Gogol Bordello: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/collective/A10426907
The Dresden Dolls: http://www.bbc.co.uk/birmingham/content/articles/2006/05/11/dresden_dolls_feature.shtml

Money

2006-06-12T16:30:00.000+01:00

For the first time since me and Becky got the house, I feel skint.

Its taken far longer than expected, but I now find my self seeings things that I want that I can't have.. and its really tricky obeying that fact.

I stupidily walked into Virgin at lunchtime today and saw The Delgados - The Complete Peel Sessions for a tenner. There's three reasons why I want that quite badly:

1) The Delgados are a class band, yet I only have one of there albums and I've been planning on getting more of there stuff.. this is ideal as its pretty much a best of.

2) 2 dics of quality music for £9.99..

3) The album got a rare 9/10 on Teletext's Planet Sound. That alone makes me want to buy it, regardless of the act, as PS rarely fail me.

I resisted though. I think what I'm going to do is see how much money I have the day before payday.. if I have any left, get a/some CD(s) with it.

One reason I'm skint this month is because I didn't realise that everytime England play in the world cup, its gonna cost me a few pints down the pub.

My CD wishlist continues to grow. At the moment, off the top of my head it looks a little like this:

Delgados - Complete Peel Sessions
Muse (their new album)
Hope of the States (their new album)
Sons and Daughers (any album of theirs)
Shack
Mugison (a track of theirs I like on a Rough Trade compilation)

I'm sure there are more besides.

Hello World

2006-06-11T20:13:00.000+01:00

Hi World.

I've finally given in and started a blog - the ultimate ego trip.

The reason I gave in is primarily so I have an outlet to waffle on about the latest, greatest tune I've heard - plus it'll be nice to mention some good sites I've been to etc.

To get things started, I've currently got Neil Young on in the background (Like A Hurricane). Good Sunday chill-out music is Neil, in a non-ibiza sunsetting kind of way.