Playing them guitars.

I played some music yesterday, which was nice, as I've been somewhat lax in practising of late. Chris and I had some fun pretending to be an acoustic Cure: I was Simon Gallup, he was a ruddier Robert Smith.

I also got to try out an Ebow, which is a disntictly odd experience. For those not in the know, an Ebow creates an electromagnetic field, which allows notes to be sustained indefinitely and sound like they're being played by, well, a bow. It creates instant ambience, guy!

Some bad news, though: my guitar playing skills have decayed to a bitter husk of what they once were, like a decaying obelisk in an abandoned town, promising only hints of the greatness that it was once built to represent.

Yes, anyway. This is slightly concerning since I have now been contacted by TWO bands, and the inevitable new band fear is starting up again (see here)

God this "update" was boring. I guess something is better than nothing, right?

How was 2008 for you? (Part II)

As promised, let's have a look at all the other albums I heard in 2008 that didn't make my top 10. I can hardly wait! First up, let's have a look at some honourable mentions:

Deerhunter - Microcastle

Would have liked to put this in my top but it was just edged out. The band describe themselves as "ambient punk" which is somewhere approaching the truth but I'd prefer to describe it as intelligent, atmospheric, imaginative guitar music. The jam on the end of "Nothing Ever Happened" is one of the most sublime things I heard all year.

Brian Eno and David Byrne - Everything That Happens Will Happen Today

The fact that this album even came to be released was cause for celebration enough. Of course, it wasn't as groundbreaking as My Life In The Bush of Ghosts but the pair's folk-gospel-electronica was wonderfully human and clearly showed them both relishing being able to display their considerable songwriting powers.

Torche - Meantherthal

Thunder pop? Doom pop? Whichever slightly-awkward hybrid phrase you use to describe this, Meanderthal was a mighty refreshing album. Heavy as anything and yet so very soaring and catchy. Sounds like it shouldn't have worked, but it did. Very well.

Oneida - Preteen Weaponry

Now I love Oneida, as anyone who read my interview with them will be able to tell. Preteen Weaponry, the first part in a planned trilogy, is definitely the most unconventional album I've discussed. A 40 minute instrumental composition, split into three parts, that was by turns hypnotic and enthralling. Not one for the faint hearted, but a very worthwhile and enormously rewarding listen.

And now, some miscellaneous awards:

The "Could Do Better Award"

The Magnetic Fields - Distortion. About 3 really great tracks and a lot of okayish ones. C'mon Stephin Merritt, you can do better than this!

Most Disappointing

Broken Social Scene Presents Brendan Canning - Something For All Of Us. "Spirit If..." was excellent. This was very ordinary by comparison. Let Kevin Drew go back to writing all the songs, ok?

The "Hooray for Gloomy Indie-Pop" Award

Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight. Those crazy Scots and their lovestruck gloom.

Best Reissue

Wooden Shjips - Wooden Shjips Vol 1. Mmm, fuzzy psychedelia. Also includes some tape experiments. Excellent stuff.

The "You Clearly Just Made That Genre Up" Award

Abe Vigoda - Skeleton. Tropical punk? Come on. Actually the tag kinda makes sense when you hear it. Some very fine calypso rhythms and fiddly guitar lines from the West Coast boys, named after the not-dead actor.

Phew! Hope you enjoyed that. There were loads of other albums I could've mentioned as well. Man, I clearly listen to too much music (note - this is almost certainly not true).

Obvious Post Time

Right, to get me back into the habit of writing for this thing I'm going to do something very obvious and write my top records of 2008. It's still early enough in the year to do this, right?

10. Why? - Alopecia
9. Melvins - Nude With Boots*
8. Hercules & Love Affair - s/t
7. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
6. Nice Cave & The Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
5. The Fall - Imperial Wax Solvent
4. Fuck Buttons - Street Horrrsing
3. Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna
2. No Age - Nouns
1. Earth - The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull

Check out my livejournal post here for some more detail on why I like these albums. Man, I'm just full of links recently, aren't I? But, because I'm nice like that, you can actually have some new content! Yes, the review part 2 teasingly implied by that livejournal. Expect it next, y'all.

* Also winner of my "Obligatory Metal Award" for 2008.

(I expect a comment from Speednik saying he has heard none of these albums)

Been a long time comin'

Howdy folks,

Yes, that's that right, I'm starting this old thing up again. Mainly because I'm doing a fair amount of musicy stuff at the moment, but also because I'm slightly less of a whiny, attention-desiring bitch now. Slightly.

Anyway, until I think of anything better to post, here are links to some reviews and stuff I have done (plug plug plug)

http://www.musosguide.com/?p=1978
http://www.musosguide.com/?p=2025
http://thisisoffset.co.uk/?p=1240 (interview with Oneida. I am VERY pleased with this)

Love and kisses,

Horatio

It Ended On An Oily Stage

After some careful consideration I think I'm going to shut the blog down. I really don't feel I can give it the time and effort I would like to (as has probably become apparent recently). It's also the fact that hardly anybody reads it and I really have no idea as to how to change this.

I don't think I'll delete it, as I can't quite bring myself to throw away all the work I did put into it, but consider this goodbye unless I have a sudden change of heart.

Thanks.

Recent Purchases

The other day I bought 2 albums from the Oxfam across the road for a grand total of £6.50. Hooray for charity shops!

They were:

stellastarr* - stellastarr*

Wanted this one for a while, but never really got around to it. Still, probably wouldn't have got it if it wasn't £1.50. Really like the three singles (Somewhere Across Forever, Jenny, My Coco). Hilariously I once saw them live and turned up halfway through the set. Luckily the first half seemed to have consisted of mostly tracks from the less-good second album.
Manic Street Preachers - The Holy Bible

I bought this so I coul see what all the fuss was about (even non-Manics fans seem to consider it the only decent album they've) and also, as a friend excellently put it (hi Pat), so that I can better argue with Manics fans (I'm not generally a fan of them), who will probably say I don't "know them" if I haven't heard The Holy Bible. From the couple of tracks I've heard it seems pretty good. Time will tell.


A week or so before then I bought "Live At The Witch Trials" by The Fall (absolutely great, I'll post about my love of The Fall soon) and "Floodland" by Sisters of Mercy, which I've been after for a while. Hilariously the wrong album was in the case so I had to return it. However I copied the other album onto my computer first, so I got them both. Haha! I win!

I've also got the new Magnetic Fields and British Sea Power albums on order, so I'll review them when they arrive.

Music Is My Boyfriend - Providing you with irrelevant comment intermittently since 2007.

Happy Nude Year!

I've listened to exactly 666 different songs on my iTunes. Spoooooooky!

Sorry for the massive, massive gap in posting recently. Now I've decided not to delete it after all and maybe to revamp it to breathe some life into it there will be much more of the self-depreciating humour and nerdish enthusiasm that all 4 of you know and love so much.

Here's to a blogtastic 2008!

Horatio