mercury's.

so it's that time of year again when the Mercury's are just around the corner (ish).

the nominees and their nominated albums are:

Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare (i'm thinking: they can't win two years in a row can they?)

Dizzee Rascal - Maths and English (i'm thinking: good contender, but there's better)

The View - Hats Off to the Buskers (i'm thinking: no comment)

Maps - We Can Create (i'm thinking: i haven't listened to this album)

Bat For Lashes - Fur and Gold (i'm thinking: breathtaking album, definitely worthy of winning)

Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future (i'm thinking: no no no no no no, if this wins i'll eat my own head)

Jamie T - Panic Prevention (i'm thinking: bundles of talent, quality album but bring on the new material)

The Young Knives - Voices of Animals and Men (i'm thinking: very good album, but again bring on the new material)

Fionn Regan - The End of History (i'm thinking: i haven't listened)

Basquiat Strings with Seb Rochford - Basquiat Strings (i'm thinking: see above)

Amy Winehouse - Back to Black (i'm thinking: don't give Wino Winehouse £20K, she'll just drink it or snort it away)

New Young Pony Club - Fantastic Playroom (i'm thinking: what a hideously boring album)

Bat For Lashes - Trophy

on sunday i went to the finale of Manchester International Festival which was Unknown Pleasures at The Lowry.

overall, it was a disappointing day. it rained (surprise surprise), and although i had my trusty £3 massive umbrella from Primani i had to endure the heckling of SHORT PEOPLE behind me telling me to put my umbrella down. my suggestion is to grow a bit or don't stand behind me?! ugh. anyway.

The Whip put in a brilliant performance after the dreadfulness that was Gasperilla. New Young Pony Club were sufficiently boring. The Horrors, although amusing to watch, just sounded like a whole lot of noise. The Gossip were good (loooooving that Aaliyah cover!) but only played for 30 minutes despite being scheduled to play for an hour as headliners. there's a more detailed review and photographs of the day over at Tourista de Mancunia.


The Gossip - Are U That Somebody? (Aaliyah cover, live at The Barfly in May)

food was expensive, pink skinny jeans were everywhere, there were quite a few idiots in the crowd including a middle aged woman who stole some 13 year old's mobile phone, and there were probably less than 2000 people there despite there being 5000 tickets available.

well well well, Manchester International Festival i can safely say you felt nothing like a festival at all. bring on D Percussion!

..

on Thursday night a girl i knew who was in my English class at college was murdered along with her brother who was 13 and her mother who was just 36 years old. i found out on Friday afternoon and have obviously been very shaken up about it. it's all over the papers and the news and people are talking about it and it's just a very surreal situation at the moment.

i'm finding that human nature is completely and utterly confusing. how anyone could hurt anyone else is beyond me. words, expression, etc is extremely difficult at the minute so forgive me if there's a lack of posts for the foreseeable future.

Modest Mouse - Float On

wow wow wowwwww

OKAY. this is possibly the first post i have made with such a sense of urgency, but if i do not get this music out to the world, i think i'll actually have an instant heart attack (do you get non instant heart attacks?), keel over, foam at the mouth a bit and then DIE.

it's half past three in the morning, i don't do this kind of stuff for just any old music.

if you aren't a strict reader of All Things Go, you might have missed their updates with 'Nick Miller's Song Of The Week' every now and then. i'm a "selective reader", as i'm sure most of you bloggers are. i hadn't heard the name Nick Miller before so nothing jumped out at me or urged me to want to download the tracks accompanying various Nick Miller posts made by ATG. then a cover of 'Umbrella' (ella, ella, eh eh eh eh..) popped up by said Mr. Miller. however the track on offer at ATG was only 20 odd seconds long, forcing me to visit Nick's myspace.

where i stumbled over 'Chemicals And Cowboy Boots'. it. is. AMAZING. from beginning to end, it is just fantastic. it's as if someone has rolled Anthony And The Johnsons and Radiohead into one. i cannot describe how much i want to wrap this song around my head and carry it everywhere with me. i heavily suspect it is going to soon rival Patrick Wolf's 'Bloodbeat' as my most played song.

download 'Chemicals And Cowboy Boots' as well as the 'Umbrella' cover from Nick's myspace: here. and add him and leave him lots of lovely appreciative messages.
if you do not, you will force me to have a hernia. thanks.

aaaah.

i'm really behind with everything, absolutely everything. this is mainly because i am a very selfish teenager who chooses to procrastinate lots and lots.

so today's post is completely about a separate post in a different blog.

the Great Stereogum have made something i think i'll be listening to for the rest of the year.

a tribute to Radiohead's phenomenal album OK Computer to celebrate the 10th anniversary since it's release.

here's the post about it, and here's where you can download the tribute which is some of Stereogum's favorite musicians doing song-by-song covers of the whole OK Computer album.
they are entirely correct in marking out the significance and impact of possibly one of the best albums of all time. even if you aren't a Radiohead fan, you cannot deny that if it weren't for OK Computer (as well as Pablo Honey in my opinion) music today would not exist like it does.
my favourite track on the tribute album has to be Cold War Kids' version of 'Electioneering'. superb all round! if you do anything at all with your weekend please download the album, or at least reminisce with Radiohead!

.. oh, and i can't remember Shut Your Eyes And You'll Burst Into Flames very well. i woke up with a sticker stolen from a bus saying 'please let elderly people sit on these seats' on my forehead and vomited very neatly in my friend's bathroom. 'nuff said.

new meeeeat.

last week i came across a band called Cut Off Your Hands. i thought it was the first time i'd heard them but i had listened to some of their tracks when they were called The Shaky Hands.

i'd never took much notice until i downloaded a couple of tracks from á la discothèque. i was instantly hooked on Cut Off Your Hands' infectious spiky indie pop. there's the all too obvious Futureheads comparisons i could throw around to describe their sound and get myself accused of sloppy journalism. basically, Cut Off Your Hands are brilliant. no word of a lie. if you like fresh sounding, up beat, quirky, spiky guitar orientated music, this band is most definitely for you.

Cut Off Your Hands - Expectations

yesterday i went to see a very excitable Cajun Dance Party on their second day of their first ever tour.
first of all, smoke free venues are weird to begin with. but a smoke free Night&Day Cafe is just strange beyond belief. they were supported by the brilliant Jakobinarina who hail from Iceland.
Jakobinarina looked like they were giving the performance of their entire lifetime, jumping all over the shop including getting involved in the five people 'moshpit' that was going on. i think they sound better live than they do on record, and i'm looking forward to seeing them again sometime in the future.
Cajun Dance Party were, as expected, on top form. as it was a matinee show, i was a little miffed that the whole thing was over before half past nine (another support act were scheduled but they cancelled) but i have to hand it to the two bands. i enjoyed both bands lots and lots. well worth seeing! the only downside were the kids behind me who kept trying to grab Cajun Dance Party's legs whilst screaming "WE LOVE YEWWWWWWWW!!!!!" in my ear. what is with that?

Jakobinarina - 17
Cajun Dance Party - The Next Untouchable

tomorrow i'm off to see Shut Your Eyes And You'll Burst Into Flames which should be a definite bargain for £3 entry. if i can remember any of it i'll give you the lowdown.

maybe not.

i was supposed to interview Twisted Charm today but it's been moved to next week.
Twisted Charm formed in London and make saxophone infused indie pop with synths and scathing lyrics about life in general. definitely a good thing.
i first heard about them ages and ages and ages ago when i heard 'London Scene?' on the radio and thought it was qualityyyy. since then Twisted Charm have recorded their debut album (released August 6th 2007) which is titled 'Real Fictional'. it's well worth a buy. almost all of the 'older' songs sound different and the new songs are just fantastic. the whole thing sounds so dated but simultaneously very very current.
i haven't seen Twisted Charm live (yet!) but they're playing D Percussion in August. very exciting!

Twisted Charm - Boring Lifestyles
(buy their singles here)

also, i've noticed a slight political turn in a few people's blogs lately! here's my contribution to the bandwagon.
last night i was watching Question Time and i was appalled. primarily at Douglas Murray's comments. i'm not going to get on my high horse about people like him, but honestly. it made me sick to think there are people with similar mindsets living and breathing in this world.
a big part of the programme was discussing whether or not the voting age should be lowered to 16 in the UK. it would be so much easier to say yes than to say no which is why i think a lot of people have said it is a good idea.
as much as i fully believe in democracy, i think lowering the voting age to 16 is a bad bad bad bad bad idea. first of all, some 18 year olds aren't well informed enough to vote let alone 16 year olds. all it will create is a section of society who have power and are likely to misuse that power. you'll just see 16 year olds voting with their parents, or voting for very extreme parties because they have not been informed properly. this obviously isn't the case for all 16 and 17 year olds, as i think (as a 17 year old myself) there are some 16 and 17 year olds who are more capable than some 40 year olds. however, the majority are not. end of story (i could go on and on and on and on but i'm lazy).

Help She Can't Swim - Sensitive Youth

going underground..

Tuesday was my cousin's 15th birthday. she's recently decided that she like 'rock music' and by that i mean Linkin Park (gag). so i very kindly made her a CD and titled it 'An Antidote To Linkin Park: Songs That I Like That I Think You Should Also Like'. i basically shoved on your basic beginnings to guitar music. nothing too heavy or alternative, just simple pop songs.

featuring on the CD and following with my London theme, are Good Shoes. because they're amazing.
if you don't know about Good Shoes yet, where the hell have you been these past twelve months? i first saw Good Shoes live in January '06 supporting Be Your Own Pet (probably one of my favourite gigs, top ten definitely). i'd heard 'Small Town Girl' on the radio a few months before hand and searched frantically for their music online. there was a 12 track demo that the band themselves had put up for people to listen to and i became slightly addicted.

after months and months and months of touring, an EP release and several single releases the band recorded their debut album 'Think Before You Speak'. as a long time fan the first time i heard the album i immediately protested that the demos were better, but now i know i was mistaken. 'Think Before You Speak' is one of my favourite albums this year (top three i reckon) and has only made me anxious for endless streams of new material from the band.

their live performances are always special and i've been to every gig they've played in Manchester since that gig with Be Your Own Pet. seeing them in London will be a strange experience!

Good Shoes - We Are Not The Same
Good Shoes - Questions And Answers

fellow Good Shoes fan, Shaun, has just started his own music blog over at Puzzled. so go check it ahhhht.

ps. the new background is not 'emo'!!

hm.

i'm going through these love-hate phases with things quite regularly of late. my current phase concerns this big big city i live in but won't in about ten weeks time.

Friday was the first night of the Manchester International Festival with The Wombats playing at academy 3. it didn't feel like a festival at all, and a friend and i drunkenly stole someone's laminated lanyard with a hologram on. the security told me i can only use it in conjunction with a ticket but what it does, i have absolutely no clue. i'll have to test the waters! when i pull my finger out, there'll be a review of the gig up on High Voltage.

despite having lived here for nearly 15 years of my life, i still haven't managed to explore every bit of the city although i'm definitely trying to. Friday and Saturday nights out can either be absolutely amazing, or quite boring depending on where you go, when you go, how off your face you are, who you go with and how often you've been to that particular place. i think i'm starting to get quite weary of seeing the same faces in the same places. some, i don't mind. but others are grating on my nerves, and i'm worried that these last ten weeks of living in Manchester will become tiresome because of those people and the repetitive feeling going on with certain places.

then again, maybe i'm not getting drunk enough. regardless of that, here's to moving to the Big Smoke!

for the next week, i'm going to be bringing you some of my favourite bands from Laaaaaahndaaahn in celebration of packing up my shit, and moving it 200 miles south to share it with a bunch of strangers/smelly teenage freshers at university.

today i have to profess my undying love for Bombay Bicycle Club. they're from north London and i think they're just fantastic. and at 17 and 16 years old, i can only imagine what wonders they will be creating in the way of indie pop in a couple of years time. delicate but not at all, singing about the things that teenagers do but managing to make their songs simple and wonderful at the same time.

Bombay Bicycle Club - Cancel On Me
Bombay Bicycle Club - Open House

buy their EP (links on their myspace) because it is definitely worth your pennies!

last night.

Jack Penate at Manchester Academy 3.

i was sober, bloody hell that doesn't happen often. i arrived in great anticipation as i'd never seen any of the bands who were playing before. obviously, with his recent increased exposure and 'fame' for dancing i was eager to see some of said dancing from Penate.

first on were Wild Beasts. if you watched the video i posted in my last post you'll know just how weird they are. this weirdness completely translates into their live shows, and i'm sure most of the audience were either very confused or highly amused by the end of their first song. they sound like Scooby Doo meets The Rumble Strips. there's no other way to describe it. the frontman dances like a pigeon (don't ask), and their on stage banter was a little forced but aside from that i am looking forward to seeing them again tonight.

Adele, Jack Penate's friend and label mate was supposed be supporting also, however she couldn't make it due to having booked studio time blah blah blah. bit disappointing really as i might not have the chance to see her again before she explodes properly onto the female singer/songwriter scene.

after aaaaaaaages and aaaaaaages of waiting finally Jack Penate jumped on stage. wearing some manky patterned sweatshirt and some jogging trousers, which later on induced shouts from some kiddies at the front. they asked where his check shirt was, which got a little eye rolling from moi. does it matter if he doesn't wear what he wears on TV when he's playing a gig? ermmm NOT REALLY.
kicking things off with 'Spit At Stars', Jack managed to the the crowd jumping around like frogs on rocks. i was impressed, not overwhelmingly, but definitely impressed.
Jack also did a cover of 'Just Be Good To Me' in his set, covering the dub version rather than the pop version from the 1980s. this was definitely a highlight for me, reminding me of summers long ago in the car shuttling back and forth between Newcastle, Sunderland and Manchester with my mum playing her tapes on the car radio playing 80s R'n'B, Reggae and Dub.

Jack Penate - My Yvonne
Jack Penate - Cold Thin Line

shhh.

just a quick one today!
engross yourself in Wild Beasts whilst i'm seeing them support Jack Penate tonight (and possibly tomorrow night if the gods are in my favour).



video for 'Brave Bulging Buoyant Clairvoyants'. it's weird as fuck but 100% worth checking out as it becomes slightly addictive after a few listens.

alsooo The Pop Register is a brand new blog dedicated to bringing you the best in simple pop music. they've got an acoustic version of 'Kill The Director' by The Wombats up for grabs so get it while it's hot! you can buy Kill The Director from hereeee. and of course your local record shop.