The Replacements: All Over But The Shouting

If you're a Replacements enthusiast like myself, you may well be interested in this book, which came out in November. I did mean to write about it then, but I've been lazy and inactive.

In all honesty, I've been getting mixed reviews about this book, and I'm yet to get round to purchasing it, or even having the time on my hands to read it. The unread pile of books I currently have is getting a bit stupid.

As I would expect, the book contains quotes from Green Day's Billie Joe and REM's Peter Buck, I think it'll probably also feature quotes from Soul Asylum's Dave Pirner, the likes of Bob Mould, and maybe even a bit from top writer Gina Arnold.

It's getting a tad bit boring of me to keep on typing "favourite band" and crap like that practically every time I mention anyone, but The Replacements still remain one of the few bands who have genuinely "changed my life". Without sounding too twattish, they really hold a massive place in my heart.

So, Amazon.com readers gave it an average of 4/5, the UK version gave it 3/5, including one review of 1/5 which seemed to be from a fan who knew his onions to my eyes.

The book is by Jim Walsh, I suppose I should reserve my judgement until I get round to buying it and giving it a good once over. You can read a few reviews and soundbites here.

Meanwhile, if you're interested in reading a bit more about The Replacements and all associated with that era and their influence, you could do a lot worse than checking out the following:

Our Band Could Be Your Life: Scenes from the American Indie Underground 1981-1991 by Michael Azerrad

and

Route 666: On the Road to Nirvana by Gina Arnold.

Both books offer lots of information and look at "the scene" and the bands from different angles. Gina Arnold's book features one of my favourite quotes ever from Paul Westerberg:

"Ha is the first word in happiness, and the last word in lonesome is me"

To some that doesn't mean much, but it's genius to me.

I'll get round to reading this in the summer and do a proper review then.

The Lemonheads - It's A Shame About Ray (Collectors Edition)

One of my favourite bands ever and one of my favourite albums ever. It's A Shame About Ray has been all remastered and expanded, with a few demo's and even a DVD of the previous VHS release, Two Weeks In Australia.

For anyone who hasn't seen Two Weeks In Australia before, it's a brilliant little video. Evan Dando's solo in-store of "Ride With Me" is one of my highlights. Nic Dalton's little brother is slightly annoying, but the annoyance is balanced about by the cool pumpkins in the "Half The Time" video.

Anyhow, it's coming out on Rhino on March 25th.

Tracklisting as follows:

CD Track Listing

1. "Rockin Stroll"
2. "Confetti"
3. "It's A Shame About Ray"
4. "Rudderless"
5. "My Drug Buddy"
6. "The Turnpike Down"
7. "Bit Part"
8. "Alison's Starting To Happen"
9. "Hannah & Gabi"
10. "Kitchen"
11. "Ceiling Fan In My Spoon"
12. "Frank Mills"
13. "Mrs. Robinson"
14. "Shaky Ground"
15. "It's A Shame About Ray" Demo *
16. "Rockin Stroll" Demo *
17. "My Drug Buddy" Demo *
18. "Hannah & Gabi" Demo *
19. "Kitchen" Demo *
20. "Bit Part" Demo *
21. "Rudderless" Demo *
22. "Ceiling Fan In My Spoon" Demo *
23. "Confetti" Demo *
* previously unreleased

DVD Track Listing

Two Weeks In Australia

1. "It's A Shame About Ray" Music Video
2. "Ride With Me" Live
3. "Mrs. Robinson" Music Video
4. "Being Around" Music Video
5. "Alison's Starting To Happen" Live
6. "Hannah & Gabi" Music Video
7. "Half The Time" Music Video
8. "Rockin Stroll" Music Video
9. "Confetti" Music Video
10. "It's About Time" Live
11. "My Drug Buddy" Music Video

And here is the great "Half the Time" video............

Minotaurs - Anyone Who Had A Heart EP

Fantastic local label, fakeindielabel, are releasing the Anyone Who had A Heart EP by fantastic local band, Minotaurs, on the 12th of May. The EP is available as a 12 inch chunk of vinyl and pre-orders are now being taken over at the fakeindielabel website.

Minotaurs are truly magical, I could gush for ages on here, but because they're friends I'll not bother, don't want to get accused of any bias. So here's what a few other people thought.....

NME:

Minotaurs were never likely to be pigeonholed as just another guitar band. Bursting out of South Shields, the seaside town more famed for Saturday night scuffles than finely crafted mini-epics, they bring a mix of immaculate vocals, beautifully arranged songs and heartbreaking narratives that give an entirely new twist to the art form making them one of the most exciting bands around today. Fragile and delicate, yet completely compelling, they hail not only the return of the anthem but the return of hope. While their joyous live shows have been rightly acclaimed as a breath of fresh air for melodic folk-pop this EP lifts them head and shoulders above their peers, showing them at their self-consciously stunning best. Lead track 'Anyone Who Had A Heart' is bursting with understated emotion and is a stunning representation of the warmth and charm that makes Minotaurs so enchanting to both the listener and the audience. Forster's voice swings between arrogance and insecurity, innocence and insouciance while the music spirals unfathomably and the effect is truly breathtaking. Minotaurs have already overtaken their contemporaries in both creativity and song writing. Wowing packed 'sing along' audiences they have been loved and admired solely in the North East for too long, it's time to let the rest of the country in on the secret

High Voltage:

Minotaurs are everything that you’d want from an indie band. Their sweet, succulent melodies are about to take your heart and hold it hostage of their own and then they’ll probably use it to make another achingly perfect indie-delicate pop mesh.

Where Captain and Magic Numbers have failed is where Minotaurs succeed - unafraid of power in songs, ‘Anyone Who Had A Heart’ with its graceful guitars combine with vocals and drums with passion, not just cuteness. With so many copy cat sounds and false indie fancies, Minotaurs are sure to fill that ever growing hole where earnest indie should be.

4/5

Camden New Journal:

Twinkly melodious pop ne’er shone brighter than the Minotaurs – apparently a not-so-well-hidden star from up north. They hail from the Geordie coastal town of South Shields, which they describe as “more famed for Saturday night scuffles than finely-crafted mini epics”.
This isn’t completely true though. Notably, Franz Ferdinand singer Alex Kapranos is also from there, but the Minotaurs have all to play for in terms of firmly establishing South Shields as a haven for musos. Their new EP, Anyone Who Had a Heart, out in May, is a beautiful reflection on love, or maybe just pulling! “You know I’d give my heart away, to anyone who had a heart, or even someone who’d understand, tonight.” Haven’t we all been there?

...and the rather fantastic Laura Barton of The Guardian:

Minotaurs are making me pine for the north, for the days when we used to head out to the dirty backrooms of pubs, to community centres and working men's clubs, in search of something, anything to set our young hearts on fire. Back then we were still in awe of the peculiar power of music to completely rearrange the air you're breathing. We rejoiced in the fact that music was an ephemeral thing, not an object to own, in the same way we loved each car journey, driving too fast with the windows down, the way we kissed people for the hell of it, the way we danced until we were breathless because we knew a song wouldn't last forever.

"You know I'd give my heart away," Minotaurs are singing, "To anyone who had a heart/ Or even someone who'd understand/ In the world tonight." I'm looking at the audience scattered across the floor of the Dublin Castle this evening, heads bobbing, knees jouncing, I'm watching that pocket of air between us and the band, where all the molecules are thrown into glorious disarray, and somewhere in my chest I feel the surge of Springsteen singing: "Tonight I wanna feel the beat of the crowd/ And when I tell you that I love you/ I wanna have to shout it out loud/ Shout it out loud."


So there you have it. Brilliant band and brilliant independent label. Over at fakeindielabel is another great deal on their back catalogue, with some really good bands and tunes.

You can also check out the spiffing video for the old version of Anyone Who Had A Heart by Minotaurs below:

Seasick Steve at the Carling Academy, Newcastle, 30th January, 2008.

Due to punctuality, traffic and parking problems, I ended up missing the support acts. But in all fairness, there was only ever one person that everybody had crammed in to see this evening. When Seasick Steve climbed up on the stage via the front row of the Academy he instantly had the adoring Newcastle crowd in the palm of his hand.

Over the past year or so, Seasick Steve has managed to build up a loyal and enthusiastic following across the UK, evident with his dates last year at the Cluny and The Sage, culminating in this show at the Academy.

Throughout the show, Steve introduces his songs and his instruments in a way that is alien to today’s modern rockstars. Part of his unmistakable appeal is the lack of a barrier between him and his audience, his everyman charm allows us to all associate with him. Fair enough, we might not have all been put in jail for vagrancy, or had a dog that took all of our food and ran out on us, but somehow we can all connect to his stories as if he’s an old friend from the streets, making us laugh or leaving a lump in our throats.

With sing-along stompers like Cut My Wings, Fallen Off A Rock and most notably Things Go Up, Seasick Steve ensures his gigs are an amazing experience. Rather than prancing about in a cardigan and scarf, Steve takes time between songs to stagger to the front of the stage in his trademark dungarees and oily cap to shake hands with people in the front row and even bring one fan up on stage to serenade with his brand of blues. Don’t miss Seasick Steve the next time he comes to Newcastle, you won’t regret it. The man is a one off.



Originally published on the official NARC. website. You can also get more information on NARC. magazine, including outlets, at their MySpace.

Scene And Heard - Local Reviews, Published in NARC. #24

The Secret History – Virgin On Legal

I bet that this lot are all really good musicians; in fact I know they are after listening to this album. But, and this is a big but, the music itself is just so inexplicably and horrifically bland and uninspiring. It’s just nothing, a big pile of nothing. It does nothing at all for me, I actually feel terrible for not liking this. I can’t begin to imagine how much time and love and care went in to this album, but when I listen to it, all I hear is shit. I genuinely hope that other people will like this band, I’m sure there are people who will like them, but I just can’t and I’m trying to be really nice about it. They are a bit like an Aldi Muse I suppose, but I don’t even like the normal Muse, but maybe you’d like them if you like that type of nonsense. I don’t, and I did try.

Visit the Secret History MySpace.


Shootfirst Strategy

Whales and Dolphins! Whales and Dolphins, Yeh! Remember that one? That’s who this band of tinkers reminds me of. This all feels a bit rushed to me, maybe it’s meant to be part of the charm, you know when bands like to appear shambolic when they’re actually genuinely good at what they do? That’s the difference, bands that are good at what they do can pretend to be shambolic, if you aren’t that good to start with, you just look like idiots. That’s what is going on here. The singer struggles to get the notes at times, and at other times the bass and the drums seem to be from completely different songs. But hey, as long as they’re enjoying themselves, then who cares, right? That’s what being in a band is about surely, enjoying yourself with your mates. As long as they don’t aspire to do more than just that, then they’ll be fine. Otherwise, keep practising and try to ignore people like me.

Visit the Shootfirst Strategy MySpace.


Barse – If You Can’t Fuck ‘Em, Cut ‘Em Up

I’ll say it from the start, if you don’t like punk rock, you’re wasting your time, as you’ll never enjoy this. However, I do enjoy this. So fuck if they only know a few chords, so fuck if it sounds dated, so fuck if the production isn’t the best, so fuck if some of the lyrics are weak. Who cares? I don’t. That’s the point. I can only imagine that the album is as close as you could get to the live shows. The whole reason this is good and a lot of the other stuff that “the kids” are doing is shite, is because this has got a bit of soul. It’s honest, it’s in your face, and it’s from the heart. It’s a big fuck you to over-produced twaddle and a finger to “the man”. This is music at its most sincere, harking back to the golden age of British punk bands that didn’t make it on to our TV screens and radio’s. Try it if that’s your bag.

Visit the Barse MySpace.


Ryoga

Here’s another one of those local bands that you may have missed. By no means one of the leading lights in the north east, but why not? They’re really good. This contains plenty of brilliant ideas and influences scattered throughout. Imagine mixing up some retro electronica with a bit of prog-rock and you’ll be near the sound. It’s a very good effort which deserves your attention. It’s moody, atmospheric, glorious and challenging. I can’t stop dancing around to Ricky Got A Girlfriend, which places me somewhere between Air, Stakka Bo and a big fat Floyd guitar line. There’s just so much going on here, so many different things to discover every time you listen. From the shimmering ethereal beauty of I Don’t Know What I Did Last Summer, to the Daft Punk-esque stomp of the addictive Delorian Daze, there’s something here for everyone. Absolutely fantastic.

Visit the Ryoga MySpace.


Les Cox (Sportifs)

This Les Cox (Sportifs) album is lots of fun if you’re inclined to bounce along to lo-fi rock and roll. The music has a real purity about it, nothing flash at all, just what any good old fashioned tune needs, a decent bit of rhythm and a decent bit of melody. The lyrics are quirky with an almost Richman like quality, with the music sounding like some sort of 1950’s radio stomper and a Velvet Underground rarity mixed together. A lovely warm recording and lovely vocals give this effort its biggest plus points. If you like that Jonathan Richman type of thing, then I’m sure that you’ll love this. The only thing I dislike is the Purple Rose of Cairo instrumental track which just seems to be a bit of an improvisation and is out of place with the rest of the songs. Good work nonetheless.

Visit the Les Cox (Sportifs) MySpace.



Whilst NARC. is currently available in all good record shops, pubs, practice rooms etc. etc. View more information on NARC. magazine, including outlets, at their MySpace, and at their website.

Radiohead - Jigsaw Falling Into Place

I’ve got to be honest here, I’m not a fan of Radiohead, and I think that’s why I really like this single. I don’t actually think it sounds a great deal like them. Maybe that’s why I like it; maybe that’s why it’s being released – to convert the unconverted. I don’t click with the usual miserable fayre that Thom and co. usually bandy about, but this single is both poppy and frantic, starting off telling the tale of a couple meeting up on a night out, through to a mid-section which could belong to the remake of a Hitchcock spy thriller, to the closing spinning assault. Die hard fans can call me what they like for pigeonholing their heroes, but this is brilliant garage rock. Most of you reading this will have downloaded the album for ten pence and will have probably heard the album over and over again, but I didn’t bother with it, and this is the first time I’ve heard this song. I’m almost reluctant to say good work, Radiohead. But unfortunately I have no choice. Great lyrics, great tune.


Originally published on the official NARC. website. You can also get more information on NARC. magazine, including outlets, at their MySpace.

Goldfrapp - A&E

Goldfrapp’s new single marks a departure from the sleazy perverted electro-glam rock that they’ve offered up before. But it is a good departure. Strutting around in PVC and bawling out ballsy anthems have been put aside for this opening single from their new album. Having spent several hours of my life in Accident and Emergency before, I rarely recall it being as pleasant as this. Patronising receptionists are replaced with lush sexual vocals, watery hot chocolate from ancient drinks machines is swapped for folk guitars and a gentle build up of piano, and nurses who tell me it’ll be best to see my GP in the morning after I’ve already wasted 7 hours of my life, are replaced by a climactic chorus leaving you longing for more. This certainly bodes well for the forthcoming album.


Originally published on the official NARC. website. You can also get more information on NARC. magazine, including outlets, at their MySpace.

Helen Boulding - Copenhagen

This single takes its sound from the likes of KT Tunstall and Sheryl Crow, before setting off with a guitar solo reminiscent of that Robin Hood Prince of Thieves song by that Canadian acne rocker Bryan Adams. You’ll find songs like this in One Tree Hill, or on those Laguna Beach type shows that star spoilt American rich kids talking about their relationship problems. It’s got that unmistakable foul stench of cheese about it. It’d be perfectly suited to the soundtrack of a montage of some stupid skinny American kids falling in and out of love, or as the hit single to accompany an insipid chick flick about some incredibly pretty country girl discovering herself in a big city. This is music that completely alienates me and leaves me desperately craving something that actually inspires me, rather than more and more of this arid filth.


Originally published on the official NARC. website. You can also get more information on NARC. magazine, including outlets, at their MySpace.

Nada Surf - Lucky

Nada Surf’s new album marks a real polish to their sound and a sense of maturity from the opening song to the end of the album. I’m so happy that 2008 has begun with an album of such beauty and such depth. Lucky is a joy from start to finish, with layers upon layers of melody and vocals.

At times, the album reminds me of Tom Petty at his most productive with Beautiful Beat and I Like What You Say, and My Morning Jacket at their most effervescent with Are You Lightning. The New York trio manage to produce the sound of West Coast bands from years gone by in other places, echoing The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield. It’s quite possibly the most consistent album I’ve heard for a while, I don’t want to skip any track at all, which for cynical old me is quite impressive.

With guest appearances from members of Death Cab For Cutie and Calexico amongst others, Nada Surf have managed to produce a fulfilling and special album with an incredible sound. Nada Surf are the type of band who’ll steal your heart away, evident with the closing The Film Did Not Go Round, almost gospel and hymn-like, and making you want more.

In an age when so many bands with no soul are splurging their hideous guitar pop, it’s a joy to listen to fantastic, grown up pop music. Tremendous work, and the more I listen to it, the more infectious it becomes, like a juggernaut to my heart.

5/5


Originally published on the official NARC. website. You can also get more information on NARC. magazine, including outlets, at their MySpace.

Kyte - Kyte

Kyte have arrived with a hugely promising album which certainly bodes well for their future, as well as ours. Hailing from the mean streets of Leicester, they thankfully don’t come beating the same drum as Kasabian.

This is so unbelievably epic and colossal that it will blow the flesh off your bones if you stand too close to the speakers. The mammoth soundscapes are like standing on cliff-tops watching the waves crash against the rocks below, or standing alone in the arctic watching the earth split in two and giant blocks of ice crash into the sea.

Think Sigur Ros, Maps, or other purveyors of giant uplifting slabs of grandeur, with a bit of Postal Service thrown amongst the mix. Kyte manage to find the perfect middle ground between ambient, electronica and pop with seven tracks all offering something different.

Planet opens the album, seeing Kyte at their most majestic. Released as a single, it’s seven or so minutes of watching the sky crash down around you, quite the opposite to the shoegazing, or ‘nu-gaze’ that Kyte are being labelled with by the popular press.

Second track Boundaries was used last year in the adverts for the final series of The Sopranos, and it’s quite easy to see that the rest of the album could also find its place in adverts or the soundtrack of a film due to its accessibility and atmospheric quality.

Altogether a splendid debut, expect more in the future from this exciting new band.

4/5


Originally published on the official NARC. website. You can also get more information on NARC. magazine, including outlets, at their MySpace.

Fantastic Plastic - Now That's What We Call Music Vol.1

The best thing about compilation albums is that they always contain great songs from great bands, as well as a few songs and bands that you may have missed the first time around. Fantastic Plastic’s super “best of” is no exception to this rule.

Marking the achievement of their 100th release and the opening of their online digital store, Fantastic Plastic have brought together sixteen top pop tunes, many of which have never been released in a digital format before.

As always, compilation albums don’t just include the best songs that have been released in the past; they also have a few exclusive new releases. So we have the latest offering from the wonderfully poppy Bearsuit, as well as the newest effort from art rockers Help She Can’t Swim.

More beautiful stuff comes from the now defunct Ikara Colt, the brilliant Guillemots and post-rockers The Strange Death of Liberal England, all showing the diversity of Fantastic Plastic’s roster.

The north east is also represented by Kubichek! and The Futureheads, with one representing us slightly better than the other. The best being Kubichek! with the anthemic Nightjoy, whilst The Futureheads sub two minute Ticket leaves me massively disappointed.

However, the highlights for me, are finding bands that I’d never listened to before or bands that had passed me by. This is why I absolutely love some of the songs on this album. I don’t know why I’ve never come across Buffseeds before, or listened to Angelica or Astrid before, but I’m so happy that I have now. They are much sweeter and maybe more sickly (in a good way) than the rest of the stuff on the album, but it all still seems to fit in.

The album closes with another gem, this time from William Campbell and Kevin MacNeill, mixing narrative and compelling vocals on Local man Ruins Everything.
A lot of care and attention has gone into the creation of this album and it really does show. Fantastic Plastic have produced something very special and worthy of a fantastic label.

4/5


Originally published on the official NARC. website. You can also get more information on NARC. magazine, including outlets, at their MySpace.

Bonde Do Role - Soltae Frango

This is appalling, just terrible. It’s another one of those Brazilian bands sneaking into the mainstream via the door that CSS carelessly left open. So it’s all about the funk and the electonica, with the DJ’s and MC’s scratching and undoubtedly gyrating all over the place in skimpy shorts or colourful leggings. It just doesn’t seem to go anywhere, apart from somewhere between Technotronic and Salt-N-Pepa. I even waited just over 3 minutes to hear a “Pump Up The Jam” or a “Ah Push It, Push It Good”, but then it ended. This is the type of dreadful crap I’d expect some out there sixth formers to make as part of their performing arts ensemble.

Originally published on the official NARC. website. You can also get more information on NARC. magazine, including outlets, at their MySpace.

Tom Baxter - Better

This may well be one of the worst singles that I’ve heard this year. After listening to it several times, I feel like deep fat frying my foot to make me forget about the pain that my ears are enduring. I can only really describe it as wet, soppy, pathetic and insincere. Imagine Damien Rice but even worse, in fact, towards the end, the song goes off sounding like Richard Marx or John Farnham. If you have any grandparents who might want to have a bit of a neck on and sex each other, then maybe they might like this. It has the arrangement of a Daniel O’Donnell album that comes out at Christmas and the lyrical prowess of a Roger Whittaker-type. My ears are killing.

Released on the 3rd of December, 2007.


Originally published on the official NARC. website. You can also get more information on NARC. magazine, including outlets, at their MySpace.

One More Grain - Isle of Grain

Take one trumpet, some bloke aping Mark E. Smith and add a few drums. Just repeat this formula over and over again for every song and you’ll come up with this album. It even uses the highly original thing that anyone using brass does, you know when the lyrics say something about a train and then you hear a bit of brass going “Toot! Toot!” like what a train does in the films.

But it isn’t just about trains, it also carries the sounds of many forms of transport, in fact, for the most part, this album has all of the horrific sounds of a rush hour dual carriageway smashing through my brain. Arseholes banging their horns, idiots revving their cars up, shitheads blaring drum and bass from their supper woofer systems, white van men shouting “show us your tits love”, basically just a total package of horrible noise all blended together with Mark E. Smith talking/philosophising over the top of it.

I read that it takes 5-6 listens to “get” them, sorry like, but that’s bollocks. It makes me want to rent a canoe out, go down to the beach, fake my death and then come back in 5 years time when dual carriageways have been replaced by something space age related, my debts have gone and One More Grain have disbanded. Other than a dual carriageway from hell steaming through my brain, the only other way to describe this is a private joke that I don’t “get”, and I don’t really want to know what it’s about, know matter how much they snigger away to themselves.

0.5/5


Originally published on the official NARC. website. You can also get more information on NARC. magazine, including outlets, at their MySpace.

Deaf People

I watched a friend of mine trying to have a conversation with a deaf man on Saturday night. The deaf man had another person with him who could do sign and who could hear my friend. I watched and realised that I never really give much concern to the deaf folk around us, I usually make jokes because I know they can't hear me.

Last year I was at a funeral, at the social club afterwards there was a bloke with a hearing aid in, regrettably I didn't realise it was a hearing aid, and in full listening distance of his family I said to my friend, "look at that ignorant cunt with the Bluetooth on". I also lied about being able to do sign language when I went for a job interview once, luckily I wasn't asked to do any sign and I managed to get the job.

With these things in mind, and with the full acceptance that I know I'm already going to Hell, I thought I'd try and make slight amends for my misgivings to the deaf. I know it'll not stop me going to Hell, but maybe it'll make my death a little less painful than the one that the Lord has already mapped out for me.

So, I direct you to my recent discovery of "Deaf Rave". Basically it does what it says, it's a rave for deaf people. Quite possibly the only time that deafness could be an advantage for you. Saying that, they reckon that your other senses get better when you're deaf so there's other advantages I suppose. You could use your heightened sense of smell and taste to be a wine tester and you could quite happily insult people without having to hear their retort, you could also play the "Deaf Card" if they threatened violence. I could quite happily hit a man with glasses, but to kick fuck out of a deaf type? Even that's a step too far in my book, I'm afraid.

So here's a link to Deaf Rave, and don't forget, just because they can't hear you, it doesn't mean they aren't human.

And just to prove my total ignorance towards the disabled, I have no fucking clue whatsoever how this rave thing works, although I presume it's all about the vibrations. But sign up to be a friend anyway and support the community.

Black Kids - I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You

I went on and on about Black Kids at the final quarter of 2007, so I might as well have a bit of an update in quarter one of 2008.

Earlier this month, the fantastic five signed to Almost Gold for their distribution outside of the USA of A. This signing has accompanied support slots for Son's and Daughter's and Kate Nash, yet again, "the man" decided to not bother scheduling any dates in the north east of England......cunts.

On April the 7th, Black Kids will release their first single, the marvellous "I'm Not Gonna Teach...". It'll be out as a compact disc, a 7 inch record, and I would imagine a download via the main frame.

I've actually been a bit of a tinker and took advantage of the generous deal over at RecordStore.co.uk, who are offering both compact disc and 7 inch formats for a total of 3 pounds sterling. A bargain at half the price, I'm sure you'd agree. So get over to pre-order.

The tracklisting is as follows:

Compact Disc

1. I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You
2. You Turn Me On
3. Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover

7 Inch Record:

Side A

1. I'm Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You

Side B

1. Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover


The "You Turn Me On" being a new one to me, and the "Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover" being a Sophie B. Hawkins cover from back in the day. Remember it? Here's the "original banned version of the video", had no idea it'd been banned?!?

B-52's - Hot Corner

I've just been reviewing the B-52's new single Funplex for NARC. the other day. It's an amazing single like, proper little dancefloor filler.

Their first new album in 16 years is out on March 25th, 2008 and will no doubt be filled with top pop tunes. In Keith Strickland's words, “It’s loud, sexy rock and roll for your pleasure zones, with the beat pumped up to hot pink”.

Rolling Stone have got themselves an interview with Kate Pierson and an mp3 of Hot Corner over at their site, which you'll find here.

I'll try and get this updated later today with all the reviews I've done over the past few months, as this place has been neglected a bit.

Snoop Dogg - Life of Da Party

Fuck me, how long is it since I've updated this place? Can't believe this is the first post of 2008. Happy New Year one and each.

This is just a quick one, I've got all kinds of stuff to post up on here when I get a spare 5 minutes, but in the meantime, here's a new one from Snoop Dogg from his forthcoming album Ego Trippin'.

Mr Dogg is still responsible for producing one of my favourite albums ever with Doggystyle, an album which gave us one of the best music videos ever involving dogs, and also influenced lots of complete and utter wankers to drive around in their shitty cars with the bass destroying the in car speakers as well as the songs.

First single "Sensual Seduction" is due out in the UK soon, I'm too lazy to research this, but Jo Whiley has been playing it lately, I think it's her record of the week at the moment, so that's due out soon. But this is the second single which won't be out here for a while. The album comes on March 11th.

Anyhow, this is good, it still doesn't elate me as much as the genius couplet "guess who's back in the motherfucking house, with a fat dick for your motherfucking mouth", but it is good, in fact, it's fucking brilliant.

You can grab a listen to it here.

Enjoy, and as promised, I'll stick some more stuff up soon. The degree will be finished within a matter of months, then I'll be as regular as fries.