Monday, November 27, 2006

Nick!! This one's for you! (again)

Mu-mu-mu-mu-music can only be sooooooooo baaaad......
Jesus and Mary Chain. ROCK AND FUCKING ROLL.

Another weekend gone....

And i'm now a DESK SLAVE! (eeeeep) well, at least for the next couple of weeks whilst I do the coding for the new streams on this upcoming xfm project (more about that soon) It's an odd felling being at a desk with a phone and a computer, with people all around me....the studio is, by comparison, such a solitary place...
The weekend also saw me DJing in Islington (i'm back there this Friday) and power-napping every chance I could get. Hurrah for noise-cancelling headphones.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Back in London.......

And checking out some wonderful 80's reggae on Youtube. Part 1 is here, with some wonderful popping chat from the one and only Papa Toyan, Part 2 is a little more bonged-out, but has Yellowman riding the mic in fine style. The riddims are what makes these clips tough, pure "junjo" Lawes on the board and Roots Radics on the grooves.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

And more work on the site....

...means a new hit counter *points down* which is starting again from zero, obv.
I'm off to the south coast soon, more tomorrow.
EDIT: Aha! I learned how to mess with the counter and include all the old hits. Rah! And i've added an ipod-style display of my current tracks on the wonderful last.fm.

As if the song wasn't good enough already......

The video is just fantastic, too.
The album is getting better and better. BOTH the ballads ("No Return" and "Isabel" are just killing me at the moment)
Brighton tonight, and it's looking cold. I may have to bring the Parka out of mothballs. I always know when winter is on the way, I start to crave chillies.

Monday, November 20, 2006

And I also think I should let it be known...

That my little blog had its third birthday at the weekend :))
While we're on the subject of the weekend, here's the mailout for the downloads of the week, as featured on Sunday's show:



Hurrah! Sunday is here once again. and that means........downloads!
Where shall we start? How about something that is GUARANTEED to put a smile on your face? OK then , here's the original version of "I Fought The Law" http://katry.blogspot.com/2006/11/i-fought-law-bobby-fuller-four.html
Killer selection of remixes, the Gossip re-rub courtesy of Soulwax is a particular highlight....
http://www.sandwichclub.fm/blog/2006/11/saturday-remixes.html
And while we're doing remixes: Captain get the DFA treatment :)))))
http://www.americanathlete.blogspot.com/
One of the best new bands around are The Hidden Cameras....check 'em out here:
http://tracemyface.blogspot.com/2006/11/hidden-cameras.html
Hmmmm. Odd post raving about the return of the McRib (bleeeee), but giving us some live Pavement, from Reading in 1994. Ho hum.
http://www.captainsdead.com/2006/11/17/its-baaaaaaaaaaaaaack/
Oh yes! This is what the weekend is all about.....a HUGE slice of funk!
http://feedmegoodtunes.blogspot.com/2006/11/if-you-were-mine-i-doubt-wed-stay-home.html
One of the most influential bands of the 80's (and one that's often overlooked) The Cocteau Twins....
"Sugar Hiccup" is here:
http://lessonsfromthings.blogspot.com/2006/11/sugar-sugar-burning-bright.html
(As well as a nice gohome productions mashup "Velvet Sugar")
...and still on that "Overlooked 80's" thing.....let's celebrate the return of the Sugarcubes shall we?
http://indielaundry.blogspot.com/2006/11/sykurmolarnir-sugarcubes-celebrate.html
Britpop? you want Britpop? OK, not just Blur and Oasis, but Blur and Oasis and Travis Live :))))))
http://insearchofarcadia.blogspot.com/2006/11/britpop-explosion-oasis-vs-blur-live.html
great post promising to make your wishes come true, and giving you some wishes in return ( that's a big YES for Pink Floyd, and an exasperated NO for Phil Collins)
http://res1999.blogspot.com/2006/11/make-wish.html
OK, time for some kitsch brilliance, forgive me..........
http://tinydancing.blogspot.com/2006/11/this-is-no-ordinary-computer.html
this post is just the sort of thing I think we should see more of on the net....go see a gig, then review it online, with handy MP3's from the artists involved. Rah!!!!
So....CSS/1990's/Rogers Sisters
http://thedailygrowl.blogspot.com/2006/11/css-1990s-rogers-sisters-scala-14.html
Right, here's a mixed bag of quality stuff (Joanna Newson, Depeche Mode, Rufus Wainwright, the AMAZING Silversun Pickups, Iggy Pop, death Cab and more)
http://thetruthenlightensme.blogspot.com/2006/11/michigan-vs-ohio-state.html
And I think we should end by going off on a tangent.....Legendary drummer Buddy Rich brings it all to a close.
http://abeefsandwich.typepad.com/a_beef_sandwich_w_sweet_a/2006/11/saturdays_with__2.html
Enjoy :))))))
Actually, just before I go.........this link won't stay up for long, so enjoy it while you can...here's THE WHOLE FILM of "Cars" (The pixar thing....) on google video :))))))))))))))
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=720927334558326792%26hl=en
As ever, more in seven days time.
Love,
iain
x

This guy is REALLY creepy...

...but worth chatting to.
Timbot.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Last night then.......

*points down*
Palace Fires were great, there's an easy, confident aura about them as a band, still makes me wonder why they're not bigger than they are; the album's great, they're great, period. It seems to me they're just one TV ad, one appearance on a soundtrack, one lucky break away from making it work.
On the subject of gigs, look who made it onto youtube. That was our biggest ever crowd, at the Hollywood rock festival in Brazil. Estimates on how many people we played to vary from 100 to 250 thousand people. Bloody hell. I'd love to see the rest of this gig make it onto youtube, there's a corking version of "What Would You Know" on it.....

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Mmmm, nice...

This is wonderful: 30 minutes of Mingus.....
Him and his band look absolutely *perfect*, like the S1W's of Jazz.......
Off to see Palace Fires tonight at the Metro, report to follow tomorrow.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Hurrah for Risotto!

Free range chicken, asparagus, chestnut mushrooms.......and arborio rice from the best little Italian deli in London.

Oh, and one more thing.....

You've probably noticed, i've updated the blog a little, some new links and content stuff *points right* and some new functionality as far as comments and feeds go.....
Any thoughts?

Right.......

I've sorted the links in the previous post, so it *should* work OK. Lots to be done today, off to visit my V/O agent, a little bit of shopping in the MVE, might pop into Cuts as well (i'm currently vacillating over the wisdom of having my hair cut short again) and a meeting with the new boss as well. If i'm up in Soho, i'll check out Berwick St. market again, got some wonderful Chillies yesterday and i'm on the lookout for some nice fresh wild mushrooms for a risotto *gets hungry*

Monday, November 13, 2006

What have I been doing?

Laughing a little too much over this..........
...and absolutely obsessing over the new Brakes album. At first I was unsure as to whether it was the equal of the first CD ("Give Blood") but now i'm pretty sure it's as good, if not better. There's a track on it called "No Return" which is genuinely the most heart-breaking thing you'll hear all year.
There's an MP3 blog post of the single "Hold Me In The River" right here.
While we're on the subject of MP3 blogs and the blogosphere as a whole, i've been featuring a "download of the week" mailout in my Sunday show on Xfm: essentially it's a round-up of all the blog posts that have been pulling my chain over the previous week.
Here's this week's.................
(cut and paste follows.....)
>>>>>>>
Ah, another Sunday, another mailout full of downloads......
Starting off with some of this, a little TECHNO MADNESS courtesy of CJ Bolland.....
http://www.thewhitenoiserevisited.co.uk/2006/11/banging-like-barn-door-in-force-10.html
(Just because the first links on the mailout tend to be bit mellow, and I thought i'd break with tradition)
You may remember last week I was musing on how the web was now the principal place to find bootlegs (and what a bloody good idea it was) Well, further proff of this comes in the shape of some quality Pearl Jam acoustic sessions.....
http://licorice-pizza.blogspot.com/2006/11/pearl-jam-unplugged-part-2.html
And while we're at it......Counting Crows get the same treatment.....
http://www.captainsdead.com/2006/11/10/coming-out-of-the-closet-of-sorts/
OK, a change of tack....
Cover Vs. Original, RATM Vs. Bambaataa.......
http://somevelvetblog.blogspot.com/2006/11/renegade-shout-out.html
....and some more cover action as well, including Death Cab doing The Smiths, and Modest Mouse doing Slayer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
http://iguessimfloating.blogspot.com/2006/11/new-song-modest-mouse.html
There's a new Trail Of Dead album! Rah! It's streaming over at their Myspazzzzz or there's a couple of snippits here:
http://therichgirlsareweeping.blogspot.com/2006/11/yeah-you-all-know-i-have-unholiest-of.html
OK, it doesn't get much better than this..two of the greatest pop songs OF ALL TIME. Wreckless Eric, and The Only Ones (can we get that dreadful cover version taken OFF the phone ad? Jesus, it's dreadful)
http://www.captainsdead.com/2006/11/10/whole-wide-world-with-another-girl-from-another-planet/
(FYI, Wreckless Eric's parent are known as Wreckless Frank and Wreckless Doris, honest!)
Did you get a copy of the new Scritti Politti album? shame on you if you didn't...but fear not, you can hear what you're missing here:
http://www.idolator.com/tunes/mp3/idolator-feasts-on-scritti-polittis-white-bread-black-beer-213943.php
I know the Jarvis album is getting ALL the plaudits at the moment, but let's bathe in a little bit of his glorious past shall we?
http://plagueofangels.blogspot.com/2006/11/pulp-fixation-on-second-thought-its.html
Right, remix time.....some great New Young Pony Club stuff....a great Wolfmother mix (which i think we may have done before, but if you haven't heard it, YOU NEED TO)...and more besides.....
http://soundgym.blogspot.com/2006/11/modular.html
Bloody Hell!!!! AMAZING post about the roots of punk rock....with musical evidence from The Velvets, The Voidoids, New York Dolls, Stooges and more.......
http://loadsafun.blogspot.com/2006/11/england-steals-all-credit-thats-how-it.html
(sod 'em for the "England Steals all the credit" though, we just took a good idea and made it BETTER)
jefitoblog SHOULD be on your list of favourites by now.....if not, you'll be missing stuff like this KILLER Sabbath show from 1974
http://jefitoblog.com/blog/?p=978

\m/ \m/
Nice varied post 80's stuff, Depeche Mode, New Order.....also contains Men At Work (eeeeep!)
http://speedofdark-web.blogspot.com/2006/11/its-80s-all-over-again.html
another mixed-bag post...B-52's (the wonderful, if a little barmy "Wig") Beck, Dead Milkmen and more.....
http://feedmegoodtunes.blogspot.com/2006/11/music-to-douche-your-nose-by.html
And YET ANOTHER mixed bag finishes todays mailout, this one's a corker.....MBV, Nick Drake, Hood, Of Montreal......
http://bushwickisbeautiful.blogspot.com/2006/11/painkillers-for-emptiness.html
enjoy 'em ALL.......
As ever, we do it all again in 7 days.....
love,
iain
>>>>>>>>>>>>

So that's what you get.