Albums Of The Decade ( Part Two )

Okay, it's March already. How did that happen? Way back in the wastelands of 2020 ( is it always going to be painful to write that sequence of four numbers? ) I began to list my favourite albums of the last 10 years. Here's part two for anyone who wants to laugh at my musical choices:

Simulation Theory  -  Muse 

I've always liked Muse and, although Sarah is more of a fan than I am, seeing them play live a couple of times in the last few years has increased my admiration for the boys from Devon. Their music is a very slick, supremely well-played amalgamation of metal and prog, shot through with Queen-like bombast and slightly dodgy old science fiction ideas. Simulation Theory jams all these elements into its grooves but also adds a huge dollop of '80s synth-pop which makes it easily my favourite Muse album. There are some absolutely huge tunes here from the Gospel-inflected Dig Down to the appropriately catchy Thought Contagion and the pop-metal juggernaut of Pressure. All these songs are powerful and effective, even when divorced from their stage-show special effects.

The Modern Age  -  Sleeper

The Brit Pop era was a massively important time for women in indie music; so many talented females comprised and /or fronted great bands that went toe-to-toe with the more laddish types  -  Echobelly, Garbage, Elastica, Curve, Kenickie and Lush all kicked against the pricks and one of the most successful of these bands was Sleeper. After three albums of sassy, breathy pure guitar-pop, Louise Wener and her "Sleeperblokes" ( TM the NME some time in the '90s ) went their separate ways... until this 21st century reunion which was a long-overdue delight. A slight update to the original Sleeper sound but still that knack for a well-turned lyric and contagious chorus made this album, very possibly, the best thing they've done so far. Let's hope for more soon.

Diamond Mine  -  King Creosote & Jon Hopkins

A quietly beautiful amalgamation of Folk ( KC ) and electronica ( JH ) with ruminations on getting old, family squabbles and life at sea on Scottish trawlers. Kenny Anderson's vulnerable, Caledonian vocals float effortlessly over layers of acoustic guitars, found sounds and Hopkins' harmonium on such sublime songs as John Taylor's Month Away and Bats In The Attic. Absolutely haunting.

My Woman  -  Angel Olsen

This eclectic album from the ultra-talented Angel Olsen veers from the electronic torch song of the first track, Intern, through garage stompers like the Courtney Barnett-esque Shut Up Kiss Me to the Country Rock epic Sister, all held together by her soul-baring lyrics and keening, gorgeous vocals. Easily some of the most deeply moving performances I've heard in recent years. "I want to live life / I want to die right."

Kablammo!  -  Ash

After their A-Z Singles project when they'd announced that the album as a vehicle for music was dead, Northern Ireland's greatest pop/rock/punk/ metal band had a re-think and came back with this outstanding set of songs. As good as anything else in their career, Kablammo! saw Ash producing such classic power-pop singles as Cocoon and Bring Back The Summer, while Let's Ride and Evel Knievel showed they could still rock out with the best of them, and Free was just a beautiful, string-assisted Tim Wheeler ballad about escaping a toxic relationship. I had a ticket to see Ash play live in Bristol last March but, of course, the pandemic stopped that from happening like it put so much of our lives on hold. I'm really hoping that their "Teenage Wildlife" tour will be rescheduled... and Free will take on a whole new relevance.

American Dream  -  LCD Soundsystem

Another comeback album, this time from James Murphy's electro-pop outfit who had famously split up in 2011, making a big noise about it, and then apologetically reformed only four years later. Luckily, the result was worth it as American Dream is every bit as good as their previous output. Full to the brim with their retro-synth-driven Bowie / Talking Heads art rock and featuring the absolutely massive single Call The Police, it's a monster.

Given To The Wild  -  The Maccabees

With their melancholy lyrics, existential themes, beautifully smooth production sounds and propulsive guitar playing, the late lamented Maccabees almost turned into an indie Pink Floyd on this wonderful album. Which is a good thing.

Damage & Joy  -  The Jesus & Mary Chain

Can I use the word "comeback" yet again? Yes, I think I'll have to, as this album saw the return of the notoriously fractious Reid brothers who had buried the hatchet ( hopefully just figuratively ) long enough to go out on a couple of tours and produce some songs together for the first time in what seemed like several ice ages. Sticking to their tried and trusted formula of distorted rock 'n' roll fatalism, Jim and William showed there was life in the old dogs yet with such typically obnoxious tracks as All Things Must Pass, Mood Rider and Amputation ( "I'm a rock 'n' roll amputation" Of course you are, dear ). They also still have a way with a fuzzed-up girl-group ballad which Always Sad and The Two Of Us prove perfectly. Yes, it's a formula, yes, they're sticking to it and, yes, it's still fantastic.

Lost In The Dream  -  The War On Drugs

Okay, hear me out. What if Bob Dylan took a shed-load of mushrooms and recruited the E Street Band to back him on some windswept AOR epics that all went on for precisely forever? Yeah? Well, that would seem to be the thinking behind Adam Granduciel's psychedelic Americana on this towering album. And it works, it really works. Man.

The Sunshine Underground  -  The Sunshine Underground

Along with The Maccabees, The Sunshine Underground are one of those bands who, in a just and fair world, should have been absolutely massive. Their sky-scraping Nu Rave dance epics like Start and It Is Only You were tuneful, propulsive and all-inclusive and they were a massively fine live band. I saw them a couple of times and grinned from ear to ear throughout both performances of their positive-vibe-filled indie-dance-pop. ( That's a lot of hyphens! ) I was gutted when they announced they were splitting up but Sarah and I were lucky enough to catch them on their final tour at Bristol's iconic Thekla. As I say, in a better world, they would have been megastars. But of course we're living in a world where, instead, Ed Sheeran is a megastar. Aren't we lucky?

So, there you go, another 10 great albums which are guaranteed to make you even cooler than you already are whilst you listen to them. And you're pretty cool already, am I right?

Albums Of The Decade ( Part One )

 In a different corner of t'internet* I've been taking part in some weekly polls where a bunch of music nutters  fans discuss their favourite albums of particular years or decades. This has led to the inevitable question of which were the best albums of the last decade. While obviously a very difficult choice for anyone who doesn't think that "music has been rubbish since the '80s / '90s / delete as applicable", I've managed to get my choices down to a workable list of 20 and I thought I'd inflict it on you, Dear Reader...

( In line with the original poll I'm going with albums released from 2010 to 2019  -  I'm not really sure that's how decades work but I'll stick with it. The Number One is really obvious but after that all numbers are arbitrary and completely irrelevant anyway because it's only my opinions and who am I? )

*( Twitter) 

Blackstar  -  David Bowie ( 2016 )

The Thin White Duke's parting gift to the world, an endlessly rewarding treasure box of mystery, melody and melancholy. Bowie's previous album, The Next Day, had been his kick-ass comeback after the quiet years when we'd all assumed he'd retired. It was by any standards a very, very good rock album and probably more than most people had expected from the former David Jones. Blackstar, on the other hand, was a masterpiece for the ages. Reconnecting with his more experimental days, Bowie hired a crack team of top New York jazz musicians and made some of the most exciting music of his career, mixing Hip Hop beats, Nadsat lyrics and call-backs to 17th century playwrites with songs that, in hindsight, anticipated his sad demise but were also bursting with life and energy.                                  "Something happened on the day he died..."

Masseduction  -  St. Vincent ( 2017 )

Staying in the artier realms of pop music we have this glossy, glassy, diamond-sharp album from the wonderful Annie Clark aka St. Vincent. A burst of Glam synth-pop colour, vibrant and shiny but with a dark flipside, Masseduction is the perfect soundtrack to the rainbow-coated Dystopia of your choice.     "I can't turn off what turns me on / I hold you like a weapon"

American Slang  -  The Gaslight Anthem ( 2010 )

After breaking big with their second album, The '59 Sound, New Jersey rockers The Gaslight Anthem refined and distilled their Springsteen-goes-Punk ethos on this cracking collection of heart-on-sleeve anthems. Blue-collar rock doesn't get more poetic yet clear-eyed than this album's The Queen Of Lower Chelsea. "American girls they want the whole world."

Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit  -  Courtney Barnett ( 2015 )

You know that moment when you're in a record shop and you hear a song playing and think "that's really good" and then the next song is just as good and the next is even better and you have to ask the guy behind the counter who's the artist and then you buy the record and walk out of the shop and take it home and it still sounds great? Yeah? Well, that's how I first heard the laconic, ironic garage-rock of Courtney Barnett.                                                                                                                                        "Put me on a pedestal and I'll only disappoint you / Tell me I'm exceptional, I promise to exploit you"  

Arc  -  Everything Everything ( 2013 )

It's hard to believe that Everything Everything have been chronicling the horrors of the 21st century for over a decade now. Their twisty-turny, R'n'B-flavoured math-rock sounds like no-one else  -  a complex but danceable sound, deftly entwining often uplifting music with grimly pessimistic lyrics. And in front-man Jonathan Higgs they have surely one of the most powerful, if underrated, singers in modern music. Arc still stands, for me anyway, as their most complete album, a laser-guided dissection of the increasingly bizarre world we happen to be living in.                                                                                   "And that Eureka moment hits you like a cop car / And you wake up, just head and shoulders in a glass jar."

Wrecking Ball  -  Bruce Springsteen ( 2012 )

"Hard times come and hard times go, yeah just to come again." Bruce Springsteen's 17th studio album is one of his angriest, a protest howl about the uncaring forces ripping out America's guts. From the Irish-folk-meets-Punk of Death To My Hometown ( a song which really kicks hard when played live ) to the Gospel revival of Land Of Hope And Dreams, these are songs of ordinary people taking on the challenges of life in the USA, whether it's institutional racism or Ivory Tower bankers destroying communities. There's very little here that's subtle but it's powerful, stirring stuff with some of the most cast-iron tunes of Bruce's recent career. On a personal note, the title track has an extra meaning for me, beyond Bruce's intentions. I was listening to this album at the end of 2012 when I'd first been diagnosed with cancer and the sentiment of taking on whatever could be thrown at you affected me deeply. I can remember driving home from work one Winter night, full of mixed feelings, wanting to talk to my parents about my illness but being unable to  -  my Mum had passed away only two years before and it still felt very raw. I found myself singing along to Wrecking Ball at the top of my lungs, with tears coursing down my cheeks. I wasn't going to let this collection of rogue white blood cells beat me...        "Take your best shot / Bring on your wrecking ball!"

Damn.  -  Kendrick Lamarr ( 2017 )

I have to admit I'm not that well-versed in modern Hip Hop but Kendrick Lamarr is, for me, the finest rapper I've heard since Jay Z, and "Damn." ( full-stop intentional ) is a fantastic album. Kendrick looks back over his life, comparing his early hard years in Compton with his more recent success and, of course, comes to the conclusion that "They won't take me out my element." The album pinballs back and forth through his timeline with recurring themes, motifs and lines, until the end which instantly catapults the listener back to the start. With its winning combination of old skool / new skool Hip Hop sounds and beats, and Kendrick's seamless flow, this is an album which does indeed demand repeat listening.                                                                                                                                                      "What happens on Earth stays on Earth."

Skying  -  The Horrors ( 2011 )

The Horrors were a band I never really paid any attention to until I saw them supporting Primal Scream at the Eden Project, whilst promoting this very album. I was so impressed by their performance that I rushed out to buy Skying and was just knocked out by it. It's a hugely confident, atmospheric collection of songs  -  a whirlwind of Psychedelia, shoe-gaze and post-Punk influences with some huge Motorik beats underpinning it all. Still their best album.                                                                                            "In endless blue / Reflections look so good"

Beard, Wives, Denim -  Pond ( 2012 )

More Psychedelia, this time with an Antipodean flavour. Pond, formerly Kevin "Tame Impala" Parker's backing band, first came to my attention with this, their fourth album. The song When It Explodes drew me in with its dreamy, Flaming Lips-inspired otherworldliness and then I was hooked. Pond are the kind of band that can zoom off into stratospheric improvisations and freak-outs but will always return to a blue-eyed pop sensibility. Later albums like Hobo Rocket and Man It Feels Like Space Again only underlined this relationship between tunes and trips. I saw Pond play live a few years ago and they were just incredibly loud and heavy, man. Far out!                                                                                              "I hope that my head is not all straight" 

The Navigator  -  Hurray For The Riff Raff ( 2017 )

HFTRR ( as I'm sure nobody calls them ) are basically a vehicle for ferociously talented singer / songwriter Alynda Segarra. Apparently more known for a rootsy, folky style, the band here stretch out to embrace Indie, Velvet Underground-inspired sounds and  -  crucially  -  Segarra's Puerto Rican heritage in the stirring underclass anthem Pa'lante. It's a wonderful album, never going where you expect and always suffused with melody and passion.                                                                "Colonised and hypnotised, be something / Sterilised, dehumanised, be something"

   

Okay, that's as much as I can manage for now. The next 10 albums on my list will have to be revealed when this shitty, shitty year is over and we're on to the "sunlit uplands" of 2021. 

For now ( Dear Reader ) look after yourself, stay safe, wear a mask and have a Happy New Year. I'll see you on the other side... 

( By the way, if some of the lines above seem irregular and not aesthetically pleasing it just shows how useless the recent Blogger update has been. As I write and edit stuff it looks kind of alright, after some tweaking, but when I view the same stuff in "Preview" it all seems to go to hell. Blogger's overlords must have a "Brexit-style" view of things where they want to make blogging as difficult, restrictive and non-user-friendly as possible. Rant over. For now. )                                                                 

30-Day Song Challenge Week 1

As I'm sure everyone appreciates, we're all trying to distract ourselves during these crazy times. There are many polls, quizzes and the like on t'internet to help people think about happier days and to just generally help our brains keep ticking over. Just for fun I thought I'd post the results of a song challenge I'm currently doing on Twitter, one week at a time. And, of course, the beauty of doing it here at TGW-S is that I'm not hampered by Twitter's character limit so I can waffle on to my heart's content. Here we go:

Day 1  -  A  song you like with a colour in the title
Purple Haze by the Jimi Hendrix Experience


Well, it's Hendrix. What more can I say? THAT guitar riff, " 'Scuse me while I kiss the sky", the feeling that the sky was now not the limit, early psychedelia at its rawest, perfection.

Day 2  -  A song you like with a number in the title
Song 2 by Blur


Song 2. Second song on its parent album, 2:02 minutes long, got to number 2 in the charts
Woo-hoo!

Day 3  -  A song that reminds you of summertime
Walking Barefoot by Ash


Yet another noise-pop nugget from one of my all-time fave live bands. Tim Wheeler's lyrics are often elemental, concerned with the seasons, the weather, the sun and moon, the pains and pleasure of love as if it was an elemental force itself.

Day 4 - A song that reminds you of someone you'd rather forget
Vienna  by Ultravox


I'm not really a fan of the 'Vox but this is a fine, windswept example of overblown '80s pop. And, no, I won't be going into who it reminds me of.

Day 5  -  A song that needs to be played LOUD!
The Ace Of Spades by Motorhead


Okay, this may not be THE classic Motorhead line-up but it's still a cracking performance of a mighty tune and being part of The Young Ones makes it an important moment in pop culture. Obviously.

Day 6  -  A song that makes you want to dance
Liquidator by The Harry J All Stars


A seminal Trojan Records single. Brings back memories of school discos, Young Farmers discos and youth club discos and pestering every DJ to play this tune. ( I actually didn't go to that many discos but it's a word that doesn't see the light of day much any more so if I can use it 4 times in one paragraph I think it makes the world a better place. )

Day 7  -  A song to drive to
Cadillac Ranch by Bruce Springsteen


Bruce obviously has many "car" songs in his repertoire but this is one of my faves  -  an unpretentious, foot-to-the-floor rocker.
"1, 2, 3, 4...!"

So, that was Week 1. Tune in next week to see if I manage to keep up the manic pace of thinking of one song a day. It's going to be tricky.

And, finally Esther, a big shout out ( as DJs probably still say? ) to Pete and Dave who have been joining me on this trip into stereophonic sound on Twitter. They are, of course, two-thirds of the legendary Kids From Rec Road and you can read their highly unlikely comic strip adventures here.

Steve Ditko

The major news events of this weekend may include the football World Cup, Wimbledon and London Pride but, for me, the most significant news was the sad passing of comic book legend Steve Ditko. There are countless excellent tributes to the great man on t'internet to which I can add very little, so I thought I'd post just a few Ditko images from my collection starting, of course, with his most famous co-creation, the Amazing Spider-Man.

These two early Spidey covers are among my favourites, showcasing indelible images of our wall-crawling hero fighting some of his idiosyncratic Silver Age foes. Both of these comics are a bit wrecked ( which is how I could afford to buy them! ) but that just adds to their charm for me. I love the "Spidey in darkness" image of the first cover and the instantly-recognisable Ditko cityscape and vile villain of the second. ASM #9 is the oldest Spider-Man comic I own and is a treasured possession, taped-spine and all!

Of course, Sturdy Steve's other most famous character was Stephen Strange, Master of the Mystic Arts and this issue of Strange Tales was Ditko's swan-song on the title and also featured his only cover. And what a great cover! The mind-bending, psychedelic adventures of Doctor Strange in Ditko's surreal worlds often come across as a four-colour waking dream and this image of Doc encountering the enigmatic Eternity is a splendid example.

Of course, Ditko worked for many comics publishers throughout his career, creating supernatural stories and the mighty Captain Atom for Charlton, as well as various jobs for Warren, Atlas, Pacific and Eclipse. After jumping ship from Marvel in 1968 he dreamed up some outlandish characters for the usually staid and conservative DC Comics, including The Hawk & The Dove and the outrageous chap above, The Creeper. This weird-looking misfit never set the super hero scene on fire but was a fine example of Ditko's bizarre character designs.

And, speaking of bizarre characters, during a later stint with DC in the 1970s he created the short-lived Shade The Changing Man series, packed full of his trademarked surrealism and dimension-hopping adventure. In many ways it was an attempt to recreate his 1960s weirdness which could only seem out-dated ( although the distorted architecture on the cover above seems to prefigure the likes of Inception... ) but it was fun while it lasted. And it gave us pages like the one below...

The fiercely independent and legendarily reclusive Ditko became an avid proponent of the objectivist philosophy of the likes of Ayn Rand and devoted decades to expounding these moralistic, black-or-white theories in self-published comics such as Mr. A. ( I've got a copy of that somewhere but haven't managed to dig it out. ) These almost hysterical Libertarian tracts were virtually unreadable but often the great man's sublime style shone through the tub-thumping...

Steve Ditko was indeed a unique talent whose imagination made the world a better and weirder place. He will be sadly missed.

2001: A Space Odyssey ( 1968 / 1978 / 2018 )

Last night James and I went to a rare screening of Stanley Kubrick's 1968 science fiction masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey. This 50th anniversary re-release featured a lovely, if not quite perfect, print of the film and was presented as originally intended, with overture and intermission included. ( It's certainly the first movie I've seen since the 1970s with an intermission! )

I first saw 2001 on its 10th anniversary re-release back in 1978 with my dad, Pete, and my mate Adrian, so it was quite a strange experience to see it again forty years later with my own son. I'll always remember Pete turning to the 11-year old me during the intermission and more or less saying "So, what's actually happening in this film?" Luckily ( or maybe not, in a spoiler-y sense ) I'd already read the Marvel Treasury Edition adaptation by Jack Kirby so I had a head start...

It was great to see 2001 on a big screen again. Both James and I are very familiar with the movie but seeing it like this just brought home all the amazing attention to detail that Kubrick worked into the story, and the ground-breaking special effects still stand up in this age of photo-realistic CGI. The famous "star gate" sequence still looks stunning, with its psychedelic evocation of multiple realities rushing past, and really should be seen on the big screen as the film-makers intended.

There have been many pretenders over the years ( Chris Nolan's Interstellar springs to mind ) but 2001: A Space Odyssey is still The Ultimate Trip...

Comics! New Comics! Action, Captain America and The Prisoner!

If there's one thing I don't do much of these days it's write posts on this 'ere blog. And if there's another thing I don't do much of these days it's buy new comics. What if I combined these two things I don't do much of these days into one thing? And put that thing here on t'internet for your perusal? Let's try it...

Yesterday I visited my ( sort of ) local comic shop, Proud Lion in Cheltenham  -  with my usual impeccable timing, only a week after Free Comic Book Day. I was after one comic in particular ( which I'll come to later ) but I managed to pick up another couple which looked interesting.

First up is Action Comics #1000, a landmark issue for the Man of Steel in his 80th anniversary year. There are a few variant covers out there, including a strangely sub-par one from Jim Steranko, but the only copy left in the shop sported the regular edition cover by Jim Lee. And I think it's a pretty fine illustration of the Last Son of Krypton, back in his iconic costume, red trunks and all. Unfortunately the contents are rather a mixed bag. There are nine separate short stories ( although "stories" is stretching the point ) which all pay homage in one way or another to the career of Earth's mightiest mortal. Even though there are some creators represented here with excellent track records with this character ( Dan Jurgens, Marv Wolfman, Curt Swan ) most of these short vignettes fall flat, being stuffed with often trite moralising, and mostly going nowhere very interesting. But there are lots of pretty pictures...

A far more satisfying landmark issue comes courtesy of Mark Waid, Chris Samnee and Matthew Wilson as the Star-Spangled Avenger reaches his 700th issue. ( I'm trusting Marvel and DC to have accurately worked out all this numbering, considering both characters have had various "first issues" and reboots over the years. ) As well as being an anniversary issue this is also the concluding part of a continuing storyline where Captain America has been catapulted into a near-future, Dystopian America ( yes, even more Dystopian than the one that exists in 2018 ) where he is trying to protect the crumbling Republic from various enemies both from within and without. Waid is at his dependable best, crafting a fast-moving adventure which tests Cap to his limits, mentally and physically, while Samnee proves yet again that he's one of the foremost stylists in the business with his wonderfully retro-yet-fresh artwork:

There's also a strange 10-page back up story which Waid has cobbled together from various Bronze Age Cap comics and added his own dialogue. It doesn't really hang together but it's nice to see the Jack Kirby / Frank Giacoia artwork. All in all, Captain America #700 works far better as an anniversary comic than Action #1000 because the main story is so engrossing and the tribute to the character grows organically from that...

And, saving the best for last, we have the brand new Titan Comics adaptation of The Prisoner by Pete Milligan and Colin ( friend of TGW-S ) Lorimer. ( Yep, this is the comic that prompted my journey to Proud Lion ) This modern-day updating of the 1960s spy-fi mind-bender sees an M15 agent on the run from his own side after a disastrous mission in the Middle East. Inevitably his luck runs out and, in an echo of the very first Prisoner episode, he is gassed in his London ( not so ) safe house, only to awaken in the mysterious Village.
Pete Milligan is an idiosyncratic writer, a creator of many surreal and intriguing comic book worlds who is the perfect author to chronicle the story of the new Number Six. And Colin Lorimer is a wonderful choice of artist  -  there's an enjoyable tension between his gritty, contemporary style and the psychedelic / Pop Art leanings of the original show which seem to bleed into the modern setting. It will be interesting to see how many of the McGoohan / Markstein creations will appear in this 21st-century nightmare...

This is The Prisoner retooled for the Information Age where the Village seems to be an autonomous state, obtaining information from its "guests" by "mental fracking" ( ouch! ) while also carrying out bizarre crimes in the outside world. The surface has barely been scratched in this first story and I'm looking forward to uncovering more of this world where no-one dares trust anyone else.
Be seeing you...

Songs of 2017

Firstly, Happy New Year, people of Starship Blog! I hope you've all had a peaceful seasonal break.
Okay, most people will actually write their "Best Of" lists during the year to which they apply but, you know, where's the fun in that? As ever I'm allowing the best bits of 2017 to spill over into 2018 to bring some joy to this potentially terrifying but also potentially amazing new 365-day trip around the sun. Last year was a great time for new music but not necessarily for "chart" music. I have to admit I paid less attention than ever in my life to Top 40 -type songs during 2017. One or two songs did occasionally grab me but most of the chart fodder just seemed too superficial and manufactured for my tastes. I know that's the nature of pop music and it can be a glorious thing when done well but I found myself digging deeper for the truly good stuff.
Starting with this:


New York's favourite indie-dance hipsters stormed back from their controversial "retirement" with the American Dream album, demonstrating they're still the absolute best at what they do. Cracking songs such as Call The Police, Tonite and Oh Baby were suffused with James Murphy's paradoxically world-weary optimism and the sound of a band almost telepathically in tune with each other. I'm almost genetically predisposed to love this band, with their debts to Bowie and Talking Heads all too obvious, but I can't resist it  -  one listen to those analogue synths in Oh Baby and I'm gone...



And, talking of comebacks, East Kilbride's finest the Jesus & Mary Chain also returned, older and hopefully wiser but still 100 per cent rock 'n' roll. Their age-old formula of Velvets meets Phil Spector meets Punk still holds up and many of their new songs are as good as anything they've done. It was an absolute joy to see them play live back in April, 25 years since I last saw them and, if anything, the new songs sounded even better live  -  Always Sad, Amputation and The Two Of Us being the stand outs.



St Vincent is an artist who's never been properly on my radar. I've been aware of Annie Clark for a while but never really checked out her music until now. It seems she's become a huge pop star without me even noticing  -  I really should pay more attention to things like that. Her recent songs are as much perfect pop songs as they are acerbic comments on modern celebrity "culture", and her videos are amazing! In an age when the music video is more or less redundant St Vincent has brought some artistry back to the form. It's like early Lady Gaga but with a PhD. Check out future electro-pop classics Los Ageless ( which you can do above ), New York and the scarily sexy Masseduction...



I can barely think of any new bands in recent years ( certainly not UK bands ) who can match Everything Everything for sheer quality in songwriting, performance and overall ambition. If anything, they occasionally overcompensate with the ambition and some of their music can be too much of an aural maze, but when all their stars align they are unstoppable. Night Of The Long Knives, Can't Do and Desire again demonstrate how this band can peer into the existential abyss of the 21st century and still pull out some pop gold...



My 2017 Award for Rock 'n' Roll Lunacy goes to The Moonlandingz. As well as being one of the most head-spinningly mental live acts I've seen for years they also somehow tamed some of their electro-psyche-pop outpourings and wrestled them into a recording studio. If you value your sanity, don't watch the following videos: Sweet Saturn Mine, Vesssels, or Black Hanz ( oops! )



Without a doubt my Song Of 2017 is Living In The City by Hurray For The Riff Raff. This is a pleasingly retro-sounding song with echoes of Lou Reed, Patti Smith and Jonathan Richman, and the feel of a sweltering summer's night in a big city. The formidable Alynda Segarra is apparently known for a more acoustic sound but is here branching out in a rockier direction and it sounds great. I still haven't bought her latest album, The Navigator, but songs like the title track, Hungry Ghost and Pa'lante seem like such a perfect blend of the personal and the political that I think I'm going to have to get it soon.

Bands I like but didn't listen to properly last year:
Arcade Fire ( new album still unwrapped ), The War On Drugs, Pond, Courtmey Barnett & Kurt Vile

Honourary mentions:
Weaver by Richard Dawson
When The God Of Love Returns There'll be Hell To Pay by Father John Misty
Kept It All To Myself by The Weather Station
If The Storms Never Came by Joan Shelley ( Tom Wiggins  -  check this one out! )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4x8esUNpa5A

The Moonlandingz at Bristol Trinity

Sometimes, seeing a band with no prior knowledge or preconceptions can be a disappointment and a waste of money... but sometimes, happily, it can be one of the best gigs in years, which was the case with The Moonlandingz last week in Bristol.
My mate Glenn had a spare ticket for this gig and recommended the band so I jumped in the car with Glenn, Gail and, er, Barry ( possibly ) and his dog ( it's some indication of my age that I can't remember this guy's name a week later... ) and headed down to Bristol. Specifically to the Trinity Centre, an old converted church that I'd strangely never visited before, but which  -  after much frustrating searching for a parking space  -  turned out to be a really cool venue.

Support came from a young band called Sweat who played some very upbeat, pop-inflected indie. Although still at the "talking to your mates in the audience" stage and employing a little too much ill-advised autotune they had a great sound and are certainly a band to watch.
And then The Moonlandingz landed...

Apparently The Moonlandingz were a "fictional" band, created for some kind of art project involving Sean Lennon, who enjoyed being together so much that they went on to become a "real" band and actually put out records, tour and do the other things that real bands do. ( Which probably accounts for the late start of their set... ) Well they certainly seemed ( sur )real on the night...

They played a frenzied mixture of electro pop, psychedelia and rock 'n' roll, blurring genres right left and centre and kicking up a hell of a racket in the process. Front man Lias Saoudi wandered onto the stage carrying a bottle of wine and wearing what looked like his dad's old suit from the 1970s and then proceeded to give one of the most deranged performances I've seen in an age. After the first, relatively low-key, song the band launched into the sky-scraping Black Hanz and the gig took off like an electrobilly rocket bound for the Planet Gonzo. Shaking, twitching, screaming and bouncing around the stage, Lias stripped his rail-thin torso bare ( much to the delight of many in the audience ) and reminded us all how exciting a proper rock star can still be in this age of bland, corporate "acts".

Behind all this lunacy the band were super tight  -  the bassist was the spitting image of a younger Bill Bailey and was cool as frack, the keyboard player contributed some sonorous vocals as well as some cosmic sounds maaan, while the perma-pouting guitarist Mairead O'Connor was a fretboard goddess. And the drummer was a drummer. Actually he was pretty bloody good too.
Amongst the highlights were the Glam stomp of Vessels, the Cramps-gone-Kraftwerk of Glory Hole and the twisted singalong pop of The Rabies Are Back. At one point the bass guitar died and had to be replaced, prompting Lias to lead the band and the audience in an acapella folk song about "shovelling shite"  -  I remarked to Glenn that, alone in this crowd of urban hipsters, I was probably the only person with actual shite-shovelling experience.

For the epic Velvets-referencing, girl-group-gone-bad ballad The Strangle Of Anna, Lias invited half of the female population of Bristol onstage to sing along with him. On record the vocals are handled by the awesome Rebecca Taylor from Slow Club ( it's the Sheffield connection ) and the ladies who filled in for her weren't quite up to her vocal standard but had great fun none the less, as pictures show. The quietly fuming security bloke at the side of the stage wasn't having so much fun...

All too soon we were told "you won't like it but this is our last song" and, after an insane Man In Me Lyfe with Lias virtually bellowing his lungs out onto the stage and the crowd going equally nuts, the short but sweet 50 minute set was over with no encore. Talk about leaving 'em wanting more!
Without a doubt one of the best gigs of the year and that ain't no fiction...

Trapped In A Cult

A few weeks back I finally decided enough was enough and dropped out of society to join a mysterious cult. Well, only for about two hours on a Sunday afternoon...

This was actually my debut as an extra in the video for the mighty Borrowed Time's new song Trapped In A Cult. Here are my fellow cult members above. ( I'm the one flicking "Peace" signs... I think... )
I turned up at Two Rivers Studios in Cheltenham for my indoctrination into the cult and instantly found myself on bubble-blowing duties. ( Please try not to think of that outrageous old Michael Jackson joke at this point. ) Yes, I had to stand in front of the band while they were filming a "psychedelic" middle-eight and blow bubbles from one of those cheap kids' bubble-blowers until I was blue in the face. All for about 1/2 a second of screen-time :-)
Here are four of the 5 BT boys in full hippie regalia, going for a Bohemian Rhapsody vibe:

The band had by this point finished their filming ( they'd been there all day ) and now it was time for the cult to assemble. Drummer Marcus assumed the role of cult leader and stood on the stage gesticulating ( he's that kind of bloke ) while us cultists marched forwards and reached out to our leader as if he were the messiah, and not just a very naughty boy. The director filmed various different takes of this from many different angles and then filmed us miming the letters "C -U -L -T" like some kind of Punk Rock Village People. It was all good cult-y fun. Finally Marcus put his hippie rags back on and surrounded himself with groupies. It's hard work being a revered leader...

And here are two fully paid-up cult members for life, the lovely Carol and superstar Chinese Burn bassist Ed...

It was great fun being a cult member for an afternoon and interesting to see behind the scenes of a video shoot. And below is the finished article which I think is pretty bloody good. ( If you squint really hard you can see me in the centre of the screen around the 1:36 mark, reaching up for absolution from my guru... )

It was 50 years ago today...

Sergeant Pepper taught the band to play...
Yep, it's been a whole half century since the Beatles' classic album came out and arguably changed the face of pop music, if not that of popular culture itself. It's hard to imagine if you weren't there at the time what an impact this piece of vinyl had on the world. ( I was 6 months old at the time so wasn't too aware of it... ) Their previous album, Revolver, may have been more innovative, their first step into the unknown, but Sergeant Pepper was The One  -  the concept album that sound-tracked the Summer Of Love ( baby! ) and brought the world such amazing songs as Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds, When I'm Sixty-Four, A Little Help From My Friends and, of course, A Day In The Life. I think I'm contractually obliged to use the phrase "acid-drenched" at this point...

I think I need to take a trip to Pepperland... I've been there before...

"Thanks very much and I hope I pass the audition..."

Songs of 2015

This last year, which I'm contractually obliged to refer to as "not 2014", has been an absolutely cracking one for new music. Although the UK charts have mostly been clogged up with middle-of-the-road, granny-friendly performers like Sam Smith and Adele, or identikit-sounding pop princesses like Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift, if you dug a little deeper into 2015 there was a lot of good stuff out there. And most of it came from Australia...

My favourite solo performer of the year, Courtney Barnett produced an instant classic album in Sometimes I Sit And Think, And Sometimes I Just Sit. Hard to choose favourites but I'll go with  -
Pedestrian At Best ( see-sawing riffs and tumbling, incandescent wordplay )
Elevator Operator ( power pop... but in a good way )
Depreston ( suburban melancholy, beautiful Antipodean diction )

 Staying with Australians ( albeit ones from some acid-fried, parallel universe Oz ), Nick Allbrook's mighty Pond proved to be an awesome live band with their outasight, psychedelic psounds  -
Zond
Sitting Up On Our Crane
Elvis' Flaming Star

Pond's fellow astral plane traveller Kevin Parker aka Tame Impala was very busy this year  -  working with Mark Ronson and releasing his third album, Currents. Largely ditching the psychedelia of previous years, Parker hit the big time with this collection of synthpop and funk-inspired tunes  -
'Cause I'm A Man
The Less I Know The Better
Let It Happen

 Back in this rain-lashed corner of the world, my fave band of the year Everything Everything pulled an absolute work of genius out of the bag with the album Get To Heaven, a record that edged them towards the mainstream but still managed to be a claustrophobic howl at all the evils of the world... with some great tunes. I saw them live for the second time at the good ol' Gloucester Guildhall but didn't review the gig here for some unknown reason. They were on sparkling form and frontman Jonathan said they were having the best year of their careers  -  the album had just reached number one in the charts and they were all set to play Glastonbury a few days later. Key songs:
No Reptiles ( epic! )
Regret
Distant Past

 And, speaking of Glasto, one of the musical events of 2015 was Florence + The Machine's amazing Pyramid Stage headline set. A last minute promotion to headliner after Foo Fighters' Dave Grohl famously broke his leg and couldn't appear, this was an epic, sky-scraping performance, with Florence at the absolute peak of her powers. ( Somewhat ironic as she was also recovering from a leg injury. ) This set must have been a thing of wonder to witness live, especially after so many nay-sayers had dissed Flo before she'd even stepped on stage for not being a "typical" Glasto headliner. Well, bollocks to that! A fireball of energy, pirouetting around the stage, Florence sang her impressive lungs out and spread some suitably hippy-fied love around Worthy Farm, proving her step up to the big leagues was well deserved. Her fantastic new album, How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful, had slightly dialled back the pomp of her first two records, upped the personal, and delivered such instant classics as:
Ship To Wreck
What Kind Of Man
The title track itself
Mother ( I wrote here about how this song reminds me of Hawkwind )

By complete contrast, for those in need of some harsher sounds, the extremely gobby and noisy two-piece from Kent known as Slaves released their first album, Are You Satisified? Thirteen short, sharp sonic shocks  -  thirteen aural assaults taking in urban anger, relationships and, er, traffic. Best songs:
The Hunter ( "You keep it / We don't want it!" )
Cheer Up London
Feed The Mantaray

Also rocking my world this year:
You're A Germ by Wolf Alice ( video of the year and a great, grungey sound )
No One's Bothered by Sleaford Mods ( Oi! meets the Fall meets grime? )
Marks To Prove It by the Maccabees ( excellent comeback single )
Love Me Like You Do by Ellie Goulding ( yep, she's still got it! )

I haven't listened to a lot of radio hits / mainstream pop this year. No real reason really... but not a lot of it has grabbed me in 2015. However, one song was inescapable this year, in the same way as Daft Punk's Get Lucky or Pharrell's Happy in previous years. As much as I'm not usually a fan of Bruno Mars, his collaboration with Mark Ronson was a slick, irresistible slice of Prince-funk... so I'm awarding
Earworm Of The Year to Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson feat. Bruno Mars :-)

So... come on, 2016  -  let's see what you've got...

Recent Gigs Part One: Super Furry Animals

In an unofficial '90s revival I've recently been to two cracking gigs at my fave venue, Gloucester's ever-groovy Guildhall, starting with a mid-week excursion into the wild and wonderful world of Welsh wizards the Super Furry Animals. The Super Furries were probably the quintessential festival band of the 1990s and even managed to bother the charts occasionally with their resolutely odd take on Britpop. ( They'd probably hate to be labelled as such but they were definitely the wierder alternative to the likes of Blur and Oasis back in the days of  "Cool Britannia". ) I've got a couple of their albums and always meant to see them live but never managed it so, when they announced they were doing a warm-up gig for their first tour in years at the Guildhall, it was a must for me... and for about 400 others who packed out the venue.

 There was no support band, only a DJ spinning some bangin' choons ( as I believe they're called ), and there was a buzz of excitement as we waited for the boiler-suited band to appear ( above is a pic of them backstage just before the gig started ). This tour was based around the 10th anniversary re-release of Mwng, the band's ground-breaking Welsh language album, so I wasn't sure what kind of gig to expect. Was it all going to be songs in Welsh that I didn't know? Not that there's anything wrong with that but I was hoping for one or two familiar tunes I could sing along to...
I didn't need to worry: SFA came out to rapturous applause and proceeded to play half an hour of hits  -  ( Drawing ) Rings Around The World, Do Or Die, God! Show Me Magic, Bad Behaviour, Demons and Northern Lites  -  wow! All perfectly-formed, slightly off-centre nuggets of pure awesomeness; all Number One hits from an alternate universe where great tunes, melodies, lyrics and strangeness combine to keep this world's usual factory-farmed pop at bay. Then the slightly-creepy cover artwork of Mwng ( a pipe-smoking, bearded animal skull ) was projected onto the backdrop behind the band, signalling the next stage of the two-hour set.

 

In contrast to the psychedelic pop of the previous songs, the Mwng material was predominantly melancholy and more stripped back, with excellent use of a two-man horn section ( ooh, er! ) and highlighting Gruff Rhys's plaintive, heart-on-sleeve vocals. Unsurprisingly he gave an absolutely beautiful vocal performance in his native tongue  -  I've got no idea what he was singing about but the pure emotion of it all shone through like a ray of sunlight. After barnstorming versions of Hometown Unicorn and Ice Hockey Hair ( yay! ) we were into the home stretch and things got more and more raucous and surreal...

The set closed with huge singalongs Fire In My Heart and Mountain People, the band left the stage... and the famous SFA yetis, reborn for 2015, stomped back on for a final, pounding surge through protest anthem The Man Don't Give A Fuck. The fairly restrained Guildhall audience went absolutely nuts for this one, the whole venue shaking to the repeated, expletive-laced blitzkrieg of the chorus. And then it was all over and I drove home with Ice Hockey Hair still ringing through my head, knowing I'd just seen one of the best live bands ever. SFA OK!

Next time in the '90s revival slot  -  solo gigs for EMF and Wonder Stuff frontmen...