a_ghost_is_bored

well, as long as there is the piratebay i dont think we need worry about napster.

get into tom waits...

first buy these 3;

swordfishtrombones
rain dogs
bone machine

then go and buy the rest!

dug by little moles- great opening line to a record

do a top 50, with dis readers voting.

i got the natural bridge first, its still my favourite - its intimate and sometimes claustrophobic but thats partly down to the cheap production. it took me a long time to warm to tanglewood numbers but since it got jammed into my car stereo i have spent a lot of time in traffic with it and i love its poppier moments [see videos above]. still think the definitive jews record is in db's mind-cellar. did anyone get actual air? it wasnt all to my taste but then again, his words take time to full pull you under and molest you. there were moments of perfection where he dazzles like the slightly wasted, princely kid brother of denis johnson. someone should put a toe into his arse, preferably his publisher.

slightly worried about how he looks in the photos, like a late period bill hicks when cancer got to him...

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/arts/music/03diddley.html/partner/rssnyt?_r=1&oref=slogin#

of the nofx lyric, did you ever go to sleep with bo derek and wake up with bo diddley.

bit of a crap write up, i have to agree - any fule could put a better article together.

protest against a part of the mass media is as valid as a protest against war or famine. do the maths.

if you listen to the weed forestin' record he can barely keep his hand off of 'the pirate of mens pants', and when he does its only to talk about him being a genius.

i doubt jc would like to be seen as untouchable. i think he likes being touched.

youtube - sebadoh on totp!

reminds me of arturo bandini!

is his best solo

it seems he is gonig in a workbook direction!

if he does go back to a workbook style for the next record maybe i wont think of him as the guy that used to be...

i felt the tingle of bob-greatness when i placed track one one, but apart from Stupid Now this is as tepid and unfocussed as Bob has gotten in his whole career.

I, and fellow H.D. devotees i know, have longed for Bob to return to the folky expansiveness of Workbook for a decade and over. If he needs something to get his teeth into he should gather Grant Hart and Greg Norton together and do a six month run of Husker Du shows. Failing that maybe it is time for him to concentrate on the Wrestling.

Sorry Bob.

cunt said he would leave the uk if a labour governemtn ever got into power, then wrote a song about the plight of homelessness, what a cunt.

its funny!

i like calling tits mimps, im not sure why, it just makes me feel good.

mimps.

he has done so many great records, i love what birminghamskasounds says above too, he doesnt compromise.

i love weld, it has all the great big old live anthems on it, cortez the killer, powderfinger, rocking in the free world.

i really enjoyed chrome dreams 2, he is still putting it together.

talented but useless cunt

tho i preferred at dawn to the last couple of records

shit, im 36 and wear increasing amounts of brown and green clothing, but its still depressing to find out that someone who, i assume, has decided to call themselves spider webb is cooler than me, i demand a recount.

i dont know about barroom heores, i went to see the buggers in nottingham and it was so packed i couldnt reach the bar. they still rocked. they should release this before summer, i fancy driving my tricycle around chav-town blasting the hold steady out.

also, chronicles is an incredible book - even if you dont get too much out of dylan as a singer.

in chronicles vol1 dylan talks about the guthrie stuff, he was on his way to collect the songs on a winter night but it was snowing so he gave up, and the songs ended up siting there for decades waiting for billy bragg and wilco to pick them up. they did a good job too. lovely records - mermaid avenue 1 & 2...

lost interest a bit with the second solo record, ramp of death apart...am i missing out?

american music club. saw them in nottingham last time out and they were excellent, eitzel goes in and out of form as an artist and is the kind of person of whom the music press constantly declare 'he is back and better than ever', i was more than happy with the last record, the vitriol and arcing sadness - i hope this one lives up to the hype.

a great artist in the pop sphere, one review of blinking lights said he crafted songs 'with a jewelers care' and that sums up his music pretty well, tender and precise pop.

hope i get to see him on the tour.

the last two songs off of electro-shock blues are incredibly uplifting, the medications wearing off & funeral II.

Start to be what they want you to be
And you see yourself as they see you
Sunrise on the corner of
Sunset and Alvarado
I think what the hell do i do now
Watch the day disintegrate
So I can stay up late and wait
See this watch she gave me ?
Well it still ticks away

i think we should all upset morrisey, it seems to get him off his bum and on his fabulous soapbox. he shouldnt need to piss about with lowly trash like this, its beneath him [mind you, its beneath morrisette] but im glad he felt the need.

i used to buy melody maker in the nineties and considered it far superior to the nme in that it took 'artists' on their own merit and not within some wider lens, they seemed to like american bands when it was violently out of fashion, as an example, and they would occasionally do amazing things like interview swans or codeine. i picked up the nme about three months ago and felt that it was aiming at a much younger bunch of readers - i didnt like it one bit. mind you, im getting fucked off with uncut and mojo with their ever decreasing circles of interest.

does anyone recommend another uk mag? or even a non-uk mag?

great, lets dismiss the mars volta and instead listen to move posturing, bland, commercial, guileless, record company driven, humourless, coke sniffing, obedient white english boys telling us how alientated they fucking feel whilst drawing their influcenes from the cesspool of english rock-lite.

with the electro-shock blues comments, its a fantastic record and he is a fantastic songwriter. im looking forward to this programme on bbc4 and hoping its not too painful. if you are on the fence about eels just grab a copy of esb and play it into headphones whilst wandering around your soulless city centre and feel the joy of isolation.

shes a mess and no mistake.

...up my day, perhaps, like my nuclear holocaust nightmare at the weekend we should spread shitty news and then quickly trounce it with 'status upgrades' confirming that the world is, after all, not so bad.

have these fucking twats not heard any music this year apart from radio one??? track of the year has to be chips ahoy from the hold steady.

honestly, their diet consists of shit.

and it was great - i want intergalactic played at my funeral!

i cant say i ever bothered with his stuff, but listening to radio 5 this morning i think i will need to - so universal are probably right to rush release some stuff.

this is great news!!! mr b was on a big downer last time out and the album was too caustic to graze to, i hope he is getting happy - not just for my sake but his too.

lyrically, he is out there in the front runners isnt he?

well i havent heard the new single as i listen to radio 5 or bbc 6 but i thought this of the debut album. as for AC's list of bands, im a fan of some, not heard of others - its difficult to find good uk press for 'low unit shifters' so a lot of it is word of mouth i guess. i might need to get back onto last.fm.
delarge - its all a matter of opinion, and hard-fi are one of only a handful of uk bands getting big airplay in the last year or two who didnt immediately come across as posturing arses, a sad state of affairs.

decent = not the same as good.

interesting that someone named alistaircampbell would stick to the 5 most predictable bands one could name, only one of which remains both active and relevant, hence the paucity of current bands [since 25 years back]. i could name ten decent us bands without even troubling my cd collection, but not so many british. who, at present, is pushing things forward in the uk? certainly, lacking any real artistry, hard-fi make driving, questing pop with some real bite. i stick to my position, but would gladly investigate any bands you can recommend.

Im not sure what you mean, how many bands exactly do i need to know to pass muster with you - give me a number you goon.

when people reviewing records occasionally expressed love and joy at what they heard, now it seems they are jealous and bitter - and occasionally complete 'cnuts'. hard-fi? theyre decent for a british band, as they at least try to show some ambition, and i enjoyed their last record.

got to love jon lydon, i read his interview in uncut last month, he was in hilarious form. no prisoners for him...

i think that skybluesky is tweedy pulling his troops toghether for a pre-game hug before they embark on a series of astonishing sonic adventures a la 75% of YHF and 50% of AGIB, rather like a familied up / domesticated bob dylan putting out the slightly anaemic nashville skyline before trotting back into the darker parts of his soul for some better work. dont worry folks, he cant stay content for long - i am sure of this.

i loved this record, though i cant quite remember the attachment, i think that weed forsteting and the freed man came together as the freed weed on cd on homestead records, which i will be digging out later tonight. this truly is music as playdoh.

well i think its a great story about the miners - you miserable indie bumfluff rockers - if it was belle and sebastian then i am sure you would all be cooing like horny pigeons.

this will be good

boy! mike diver, you must really love music. your articles always show how grateful you are to spend your days reviewing and listening to music. i bet you are an incredible hoot to hang out with.

twat.

this is mighty good news! didnt grab the calexico stuff he did - was it good?

1. music must come from the soul - mikas music clearly doesnt, and that is the divine rule often misread as indie-snobbery.

2. brian may? - who cares? but bless him for caring.

3. i want to know if the dis guy does look like bm says!