Excellent piece on the C86 cassette over at The Quietus, once agian patiently explaining that no it wasn't all jangly in them days:

thequietus.com/articles/05828-c86-and-all-that


Also, from the Comments, a memory that rings true:
"God yeah, Stump. The sound of Friday tea-times of the mid-80s, trying to see how long your Dad would let you watch The Tube until his patience snapped."
Ha ha!

Albums of 2010

Teatime Favourites – Betty And The Werewolves

Everything And More – Dolly Mixture

Phosphene Dream – The Black Angels

Mind How You Go (Revised edition) – The Advisory Circle

Cursed! - The Specific Heats

Rough Trade Shops Psych Folk 10 – Various

Voice Of The Seven Thunders - Voice Of The Seven Thunders

Halcyon Digest – Deerhunter

Before Today - Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti

Innerspeaker - Tame Impla

Steeple - Wolf People

Skit I Allt - Dungen

Life! Death! Prizes! – Shrag

I Will Be - Dum Dum Girls

Shadows – Teenage Fanclub

Dream Get Together – Citay

Crazy For You – Best Coast

Celeste – The Soundcarriers

Places - Hong Kong In The 60s (download for free! at Bandcamp hongkonginthe60s.bandcamp.com)

12 Favourite Records 2009

Only Fools On Horse

This line about the forthcoming Teeth Of The Sea album made me snigger (it conjures an excellent mental image) AND made want to investigate the record:

'Only Fools On Horse' the opening track on Teeth Of The Sea's debut Orphaned By The Ocean starts with a burning drone, like the noise Gary Numan hears in his head when he walks too close to a power station while eating an ice cream cone.'
- John Doran,

The Quietus

Nice bombastic cover art too.

My Best Albums 2008

Hush Arbors - Hush Arbors At the moment this is my perfect album.

4 - Dungen I adore Dungen and their mysterious prog ways. They are being tinklingly jazz happy here.

Dig, Lazurus Dig!! – Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds Fearsome moustachioed rock ‘n’ roll lunacy.

Stainless Style – Neon Neon I cannot resist Gruff Rhys’ voice in any form.

Things That Roar – The Beep Seals Sweethearts of psych pop.

The Hive - Greg Weeks In the absence of any new Espers soundz this is just as good.

Alight Of Night – Crystal Stilts Echoey garage pop perfection, receiving many plays on the Painting stereogram.

Some of my fave albums also had rather splendid cover art, e.g:

Self-Taught Magic From A Book – Je Suis Animal Folktale forests of dreampop, and an OWL.

The Seventh Goodbye - Ben Nash Twisted experimental folk freakiness, pstrokeable psumptuous psychedelic cover.

Vol. 1 - Wooden Shjips DRONEZ! Purple skellingtons!!

These Flowers Of Ours: A Treasury of Witchcraft & Devilry – The Asteroid No. 4 Swooshy psych-gaze for lying in fields staring at the sky. My eyes are like, flowers collagework.


Directions To See A Ghost - The Black Angels Thunderously rumblesome head-noddy psych. Eye-squizzing, strobey red and green, touchy feely EMBOSSED cover. Num.

Summer Falls

Zut alors! What a formidable couple of weeks it’s been.
There was WIZARD BEARDERY, monged-out drones and purple skellingtons at the eagerly anticipated (by me) Wooden Shjips gig.

Then the ever ridiculous Brian Jonestown Carnival careened into the Forum, skidded to a halt to soothe our souls with the likes of ‘Sailor’ and ‘Swallowtail’ before poor old Frankie Teardrop was STABBED TO DEATH (copyright: The Sun) after the gig for knackering a microphone during his alarmingly ‘punk rock’ performance of ‘Golden Frost’, only to be resurrected in time to play a Belgian festival the next day.

The drone-funz continued with a top Sonic Cathedral night featuring The Early Years striving for and frequently achieving greatness despite hideous ‘technical problems’ (go see them live, please) and a set by Spectrum during which Kate and I saw Sonic Boom’s PANTS quite often as he bent down in front of us to fiddle with the ‘technical problems’ (Calvin Kleins, pant-fans).

Truck Truck Trucky –hurrah! the best pop fun on an Oxfordshire farm you could ever hope to get, with added Sunday Sonic Cathedraling, plus the BEAST of Truck – the cutest monster ever.

And the following weekend, Indietracks – the best pop fun in a Midlands railway museum you could ever hope to get, topped with LASHINGS of sunshine (rather too many lashings actually) and a million friendly faces.

Summer 2008 you are GRATE.
And I may even write about you properly at some point.

Belated 2007 Round-up

Ah, just got time for a spot of self-indulgent looking back at 2007...

Albums:
Tio Bitar - Dungen
Hey Venus! - Super Furry Animals
Take Time To Wonder In A Whirling World - Soft Hearted Scientists
New Magnetic Wonder - The Apples In Stereo
Strawberry Jam - Animal Collective
Night Falls Over Kortedala - Jens Lekman
Sarabeth Tucek - Sarabeth Tucek
Famous Problems - The Butterflies Of Love
Candylion - Gruff Rhys
Holy Mountain - Wooden Shjips

Gigs:
The Radio Dept / Great Lakes / I Was A King - Water Rats

...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead - Koko

The Black Angels / Flowers Of Hell - Sonic Cathedral

The Butterflies Of Love - 100 Club

The Beep Seals / Congregation /The See See - The Spitz

Espers / Voice Of The Seven Woods - Dingwalls

The Apples In Stereo - Bush Hall

Circulus - The Museum of Garden History

The Hot Puppies / Chrome Hoof - Tapestry Goes West

Super Furry Animals - The Roundhouse / Royal Festival Hall

Things:

Dari Meya clothes - Owls! Cats! Toadstools! Yes!

Dr Stuarts teas - Especially Echinacea Flavour and Apple and Ginger flavour. And fab illustrations by Brett Ryder on the packets.

The End Of Mr Y - A new Scarlett Thomas book! With bewildering physics! And time travel.

Dressing like a Biba Robin Hood for two days - At Tapestry Goes West. Why can't I always carry a sword around? My nephew does.

Russell Brand on BBC Radio 2 - don't go out on Saturday nights no more.

Grapefruit Absolut - a delightfully refreshing way to enjoy neat vodka.

Places:

Sydney - Zillions of big old bats in the Botanic Gardens. Sailing into the harbour on the Manley Ferry - the skyline looking like a shiney comic book drawing. Going to a Dollyrocker Movement gig in the middle of Mardi Gras with chronic jetlag. Hoping to secretly live in our friends' pool-house forever.

New Zealand - Driving round the South Island - I am queen of the road (no one else on it). Seeing our lovely friends again - we miss them. Marvelling at glaciers - they're pale blue you know. Delicious breakfasts that you never get in England. Never wanting to come home.

Stockholm - Hermans veggie help-yourself restaurant - like being at a suburban '70s hippie party. Some excellent sleeps cocooned in the top bunk in a cabin on the Malardrottiningen hotelboat. Klubb Sockerdricka with The Sweptaways acapella, al fresco on a balmy Swedish summer evening. Pet Sounds record shop. And bar.

Limni Keriou, Zakynthos - Kittens are our friends! Free ouzo. Balancing on a lilo. Discovering the secret path over the mountain. Getting lost in an olive grove (again).

SFA OK

Here is a Candylion I made to celebrate the mind-boggling, irridescent gorgeousness of Super Furry Animals' Roundhouse gig last night. How we danced and sang along and held hands aloft with complete strangers in Furry Solidarity to tunes old and new. A skronky glam-funking 'Baby Ate My Eightball', a chaotically bouncing 'She's Got Spies', doing air-pointing for 'God Show Me Magic', the swoony splendour of 'Runaway' and 'The Gift That Keeps Giving', gut-thumping bass kicking in on the best ever version of 'Receptacle For The Respectable', the usual mixture of gleefullness and indignant anger at 'the man' for the cathartic jump-fest of 'The Man Don't Give A Fuck and...and...argh everything you ever loved about Super Furries ever.

Even when SFA aren't making an effort (no yeti costumes, no alien costumes, no trumpeters dressed as bride and groom, no inflatable demon bears, no tanks, no quadrophonic sound systems, no suits that light-up, no films to accompany each song this time) they can't help but make an effort, so there was a beautifully crafted lighthouse backdrop - with lighting what made it look like the lighthouse was shining it's er, beacon, plus members of the band holding up signs hastily constructed from card and gaffer tape. Oh and Gruff wearing his Power Rangers helmet and singing through the eye, obviously. Effortless, genius entertainment. I love you Super Furries.

Corrie Psycho Suicide Pop

Excitement all round last night in a tension-building, credulity-stretching hour-long episode of 'Coronation Street'. Devil boy David Platt has decided to End It All (or has he?) by plunging his car into the very same stretch of canal that psycho killer Richard Hillman (formerly known as 'Hoppy' Hopwood on 'Grange Hill') attempted to plunge the entire Platt family into some years ago (remember?!) And what does the 'troubled teen' slam into the car stereo to accompany his descent into a watery grave? 'You and Me Song' by The Wannadies. Genius! It's the little things that make me love Corrie.

P.S. Whatever became of The Wannadies I wonder?