John_K

the whole cross between a record shop and art gallery thing it's got makes you browse in a different way to a normal record shop. You pick things out and discover things you might have missed, and get an overall sense of what some of the great releases of the moment are. Love it!

but a bit sad to see it go from Archway, was always part of any Archway station to Ideal Mastering / Nambucca trip!

you must have been listening to the wrong records

not sure why this era often gets looked down upon

OK Computer, Ladies and Gentleman We Are Floating in Space, Attack of the Grey Lantern, all classics.

Even Be Here Now and Urban Hymns, which looking back on it aren't that great, were great fun at the time whilst being a teenager, new government and all.

Generally speaking, 1993-1997 was an amazing time for british guitar albums, and I'm not sure this era often gets looked down upon by critics.

That said, I'm not that interested in revisiting it through reissues and live appearances from 90's bands past their best, I'm more interested in the now.

You're a naughty one

will hopefully be releasing an album in 2008, which should be splendid.

I'll mention The Great Unwanted by Lucky Soul. Not perfect by any means, and perhaps not quite top 50 stuff (they should have put Give Me Love on it), but an album I've enjoyed a lot this year.

You've heard all 50? - there's some fantastic albums there, although I think Eugene McGuiness and Twilight Sad should have been a lot higher, and Menomena should have been in there.

bit of a PRMLSCRM thing going on too.

Not on either list - did you forget to include it? Apart from that all my favourites are up there, good to see Eugene McGuiness!

very addictive to listen to

spell the word 'excercise' (Lots)

Good, interesting, tongue-in-cheek music show -> TV bosses put keeping record company execs and advertisers happy above making decent TV by making said show safer and blander -> Viewing figures fall -> TV bosses blame on 'changing consumption of music' -> Repeat

by Darlene Love (and the whole of the Phil Spector xmas album generally).

And Fairytale of New York for sure

your point of access / streaming is down or out of business? And you can only listen to music when you're online? I don't want to have to spend all day with a computer, and do everything through a computer.

But thats just me! It is about individual choice, which is why physicals will continue alongside downloads. People will want both choices for different needs, situations.

also, the art is degraded by the download format when you lose the sound quality, and flipping itunes decides to insert silence between tracks that are mean to run together.

Also, when you've spent all day in front of a computer, you want to play music on a hi-fi in the evening.

that isnt on any album, and has two great b-sides, so the whole thing plays as a mini-record in itself - why should that be for kids?

You could argue that that kind of release is heading towards EP territory, but they're a bugger to promote.

Do people trust b-sides to be good? Or are they just seen as being extra tracks and half ideas? I always want b-sides to be just as good, if not better in their own way, than the a-side.

when I said downloads won't ever replace physicals, I meant more in terms of albums.

The thought just occured to me - if the CD single is dying away, then mr.general public man isn't going to switch to vinyl. Vinyl will indeed continue as a single format, but not in a widespread way. So I guess that will mean downloads will replace physicals as far as singles go.

As for the CD at large, it will die eventually. But will it be replaced with a new digial physical format, like DVD-audio?

The public seems obsessed with getting the best quality possible from pictures - HD TV, Blu Ray disks, etc. Strange that things are going in the opposite direction quality wise with music.

When he talks about the CD as a format in itself - single, album, or otherwise - he says they're only useful for downloading to your ipod? So what if you're listening on your hi-fi at home? No, I won't just put the CD in, I'll put it on my ipod, and then connect that up to my hifi. Great.

I'm bored of the constant 'download! ipod!' obsession within the media (referring more to newspaper coverage here). Downloads are growing to take their place within the market, but won't ever replace physical formats, whatever format that may be. Why own something just as a download of shitty quality, when you could buy it physically, actually own it, and still be able to transfer to your computer if you want?

CD's are 'ugly data'. So what does that make downloads?

But he got us talking about singles, and on that subject - CD singles may well be dead - the vinyl / download combination is best I think. You get to own something that looks lovely and sounds great, and have it as mp3 too. The challenge is how to make that work across widescale distribution, rather than just a singles club where you've know everyone who's bought a vinyl and can give them a code.

I still love the format of the single, not when they're just used to promote an album, but rather releases in their own right. Like the way New Order used to seperate albums and singles.

bearsuit as well, was an amazing gig.

For the London crowd, they're playing the Buffalo Bar on sunday June 18th too.

...and countdown has never been the same with Des Lynam.

a bit of well placed pretentiousness. And 5 Verses is a great tune, ditto other assorted jeremy tracks.

= best ever Warmsley. I await the album (can't imagine what that will end up sounding like)

and watch it's rather splendid animated video at exercise1.net/av/av.html

As with any P+A song, I love the lyrics on this one.

We're still trying to track down Part I...

makes digital all worth it.

Music wise, freeview is rubbish - just two crap pop channels.

Someone wants to set up a good independent freeview music channel...

April's Attack! Attack! night with Kalev touring their new single, and Attack + Defend, After Christmas, and Captain Dangerous joining them.

www.exercise1.net/attackattack for pics and £3 advance tickets. www.myspace.com/attackattackclub for mp3's of the bands.

Haven't really though about the easter thing much. Maybe there'll be bowls of chocolate eggs around the venue. Maybe*

(* - probably not)

poor Jeremy

that is an amazing line-up, best ever at The Star? Not much to go with, although The Bishops-Ailing Popes-DIY Cravings was a great one last year.

I was only in Guildford for a year, maybe I picked the wrong one

PS - Mike, Jeremy gets very cross when his name is spelt with an l not an r...

not make things sound better? I could swear that it sounds nicer than last weeks.

S'all good either way, have just discovered Howling Bells.

Pleased to see the bit rate go from 48k to 96k. Being a bit of a sound pedant I found 48k a bit detracting from the songs. Is this what it'll be like from now on?

I always think of that year as being the golden year from that era - pet sounds, revolver, and phil spector's last stand before semi-retirement. I suppose you had Smile by the Beach Boys in 67, but only Smiley Smile surfaced in that year.

1999 was pretty poor from what I remember though. Terris on the front cover of the NME?!

is quite fantastic. Look forward to seeing them live, that barfly line-up is pretty damn good.

really want to get over to New York sometome soon. To add to that list, discovered a great New York magazine called Permission - the podcasts on their site are well worth checking out. www.permission3000.com

Just wish the place wasn't so damn far away... Will be looking up those bands though.