Gut of the Quantifier

The Fall were good - not as blinding as earlier this year at the same venue , but still good. I think that's partly because in March I would have been impressed if MES had lasted longer than 10 mins, such was the man's reputation at the time, but the band is young and plays very tight garage R'n'R...good stuff.

Another English eccentric, Ray Davies...I am enjoying the Kinks 'Village Green Preservation Society' which I've never heard before. I only have one Kinks LP which isn't a 'greatest hits' which is pretty shameful really as I reckon RD to be, on his day, the equal of Lennon and McCartney and Townsend in the Greatest English Songwriter stakes.

Ears still ringing from the Fall, I laid off the iPod today...

Well it's lonesome in this old town...

...everybody puts me down..

Out to see the Fall tomorrow night, hoping that Smith doesn't implode with whisky and bile as he apparently has been doing on a few nights of the current tour. He's gone and cancelled most of the remaining provincial gigs except Nottm and Wolves -burning out already?

Started the Peel biography this weekend, you can hear him speaking each line...very good and very funny, but incredibly sad - he clearly was expecting to live a bit longer than the end of the next sentence.

Strolling Bones

Not heard the new album yet, and to be honest the sensible reaction to a new Stones record is a weary shrug of the shoulders, and a safe assumption that it will be a a bucket of bollocks.

However - opening track is a blinder, and I only know this because I saw it on young person's beat network MTV2. 'Rough Justice', not quite as dirty as Stray Cat Blues from 30 odd years ago (no WAY you could get away with lyrics like that these days) but still pretty sleazy. A pretty tune, and a charming sentiment.

Mick Jagger is 91.

Double Albums - why?

With the new Kate Bush (you wait 12 years for an album, and when it arrives - it's a double) record on the horizon, time to reflect on the truly essential double LPs which wouldn't have been better honed down to a single - here's Graham:

I honestly find it hard to think of a double album which wouldn't have been better off editted onto one disc (with the possible exception of Quadrophenia and the Wall - but they're operatic so maybe they can be let off). Even London Calling - when was the last time I actually got as far as Train in Vain?

I would weigh in for 'Exile on Main Street' and the White Album as being worthy of 2 discs, though I am scratching my head to think of any others...'Blonde On Blonde', 'Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus'...

I would love to say 'Zen Arcade' and 'Warehouse:Songs and Stories', both by Husker Du, but to be honest I just don't have the stamina for more than side one of each. If we are allowing live albums, I'm having 'It's Too Late To Stop Now' by Van Morrison, and Queen Live Killers (which apparently isn't very 'live' at all...but it's good fun.

Kids Today

The Arctic Monkeys, new single out now pop pickers.

Does it for me. So much hype around this band, but on the strength of this record (which I bought! From Mr iTunes!) it seems deserved.

Sometimes A Light Don't Shine

Saw the Alabama 3 in Wolverhampton last night, good venue and a marvellous gig which saw me go 'down the front' for the first time in at least a decade.

Tour diary from the Spirit Of Love in today's Independent.

50 Bands To See Before You Die

More no brainer list nonsense - this time from Q magazine, via this Wikipedia article.

I've seen 10 out of the 50, which bearing in mind several are DJs (hmm, stretching the concept of 'band') and several others are dead, I reckon is not too bad. Out of the Top 10, I've seen Kraftwerk, the Pogues and The Fall. Would love to have seen AC/DC or The Who...

Dutch Peel show online

I can't remember how I happened upon this, but it's a show from 1986 which Peel did for a Dutch radio station - the first 5 mins are in Dutch, the rest is the man himself and some great records (Husker Du's version of Ticket To Ride?). Click 'uur1' on the page, it's streaming audio.

I Can Hear The Grass Grow

Still thrilling to the breathless rush of Fall Heads Roll.

Meanwhile, in other news, I have hacked the dvd player to play multiregion discs...meaning that I can finally order Dylan's 'Don't Look Back' on dvd, unaccountably unavailable in this country.

Album of the Year

Hard to imagine anyone besting Fall Heads Roll as LP of the year - it's bleedin demented and rocks out like the olden days. Picked it up during my lunch hour - a tenner from Selectadisc! - the gigs will be terrific. Maybe the version of Blindness is not quite as unhinged as the Peel sessions version...but the version of I Can Hear The Grass Grow is much better - SAVAGE!

Fall Heads Roll

New album out on tomorrow, contains the epic Blindness, the best thing they have ever done.





I can't get my eyes checked
My blues eyes can't get checked
I'm only one leg
I said to poster, "When's the curfew over?
I said, "Blind man, have mercy on me."
I said, "Blind man, have mercy on me."
Blind man have mercy on me
Oh Great One I am a mere receptacle
The egg tester for your sandlewood and over asserted roots

In dark green
Blind man have mercy on me
I got a metal leg - truth
Flat is the evil of Calvary and cavalry

and if you can make any sense of that, you're a better man than me...

Witness The Pitness

MC Pitman - sorry to go on, but this bloke is bloody hilarious.

'brother, let's do this right -first we'll drink tea, and then we'll fight'.

he's mentioned in Wikipedia, it seems shock horror that he may not in fact be a real miner.

Not this old rubbish again

BBC 6 Music have asked their listeners to nominate the most over-rated albums ever made...and these are the lucky winners.

1. Nirvana - Nevermind

2. Coldplay - X&Y

3. The Libertines - The Libertines

4. Oasis - Definitely Maybe

5. U2 - The Joshua Tree

6. Radiohead - OK Computer

7. The Beatles - Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band

8. Beach Boys - Pet Sounds

9. Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks

10. The Smiths - The Queen is Dead

Now, whilst I am more than happy to see Radiohead and the bleeding Libertines on there, and Coldplay of course, the rest of the records on this list are classics of one sort or another. Except for U2. The Queen Is Dead is one of the best records ever made by anyone, as is Pet Sounds. Sgt Pepper is ok I suppose, but it wouldn't distress me if I never heard Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds ever again. Suede - overrated almost beyond reason. A good guitar player, that's about it. Prince - a couple of good singles over 10 years ago, the rest is bobbins. Almost anything that ever won the Mercury Music Prize - a hallmark of over-ratedness.

meanwhile, this guy is a genius.