friday feeling

so, whilst i sit here plotting a million ways to kidnap Russell Howard and force him to marry me, Channel 4's The Album Chart Show show is on in the background.

some of the artists featured on it tonight are Calvin Harris, some god awful ginger (i get to say ginger with contempt because i suffer from the same affliction, haha) white guy with dreadlocks and (ugh) The View.

'headlining' the terribly annoying show is Kate Nash. Nash's album was released on Monday and is obviously going to slam dunk it's way into one of the top 2 slots in the charts come Sunday.

i've listened to the album a couple of times and although i enjoy some of Kate's music, the album is such a massive disappointment. it's clearly rushed. not only in terms of song writing and production but also with regard to exposure and press.

everywhere i go all i hear is people going "your mates are much FITTAH" and i'm praying that they stop before i actually hurt them. everyone's pegged and posted Nash upon the merit of her shoddy album which is a shame. if only she hadn't gone so far down the comercialised, mark-one shopper friendly, tracksuit wearing people appealing route! not that i have anything against anyone who wears a tracksuit.. my brother wears one when he plays squash and everything.

overall, a huge letdown that has been forced on us too quickly. i hope Kate fades out and then takes a few years to mature and refine her sound into something with all the substance that 'Made Of Bricks' lacks.

Kate Nash - Dickhead
Kate Nash - Nicest Thing

also!! TONY WILSON! :( not good news. a legend has passed away. if it hadn't been for him, well. music would not be where it is today. R.I.P Tony.

Joy Division - Isolation

it's my party and i'll cry if i want to.

after a wonderful birthday, i thought i'd keep the spirit going by giving you all a treat!

Mat Payne (aka, 'The Pound Shop Erol Alkan') very kindly made me a birthday mix!

Happy Birthday Jamila Mix by Mat Payne

Pharoahe Monch - Simon Says (Hostage Remix)
Duke Dumont - When I Hear Mu'Sic
Kanye West - Stonger (DIPLO WORK IS NEVER OVER)
The Futureheads - Worry About It Later (Switch Remix)
Black Ghosts - Face (Switch mix)
Klaxons - Golden Skans (Switch Remix)
To My Boy - Model (Audioporno Remix)
The Knife - Pass This On
SOULWAX - E Talking (Tiga's Disco Drama Remix)
The Maccabees - X-Ray (South Central Remix)
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Cold Light (Les Petits Pilous rmx)
Uffie - Hot Chick (Detboi's Hot Glitch Re-Edit)
MIA - Boyz (Kimono Kops Mix)
Infants - Firetruk (Drop The Lime Remix)
Architecture In Helsinki - Do The Whirlwind (Yacht Remix)
Stardust - Music Sound Better (In Miami Horror Remix)
Daft Punk - Da Funk
Justice - Waters of Nazareth (erol remix)
Dusty Kid - The Cat (Crookers Remix)
Calvin Harris - Acceptable in the 80s (Glimmer Remix)
The Whip - Trash
Klaxons - it's Not Over Yet (Brodinski Remix)
Patrick Wolf - Pigeon Song

(1hr 34mins long)

change is gonna come.

Saturday saw the day many Mancs had been waiting for all year. D Percussion!

after many stops and starts over the past 10 years, D Percussion developed into one of the biggest free music festivals in the whole of Europe. Saturday was unfortunately the "last ever" D Percussion due to money problems/lack of sponsors. it's a great shame and i'm crossing my fingers that next year or the year after there'll be a creation of a brand new free festival in Manchester that is just as good and filled with acts of such a wide variety.

on the day i managed to catch several performances due to my amazing sobriety. running between stages was a slight annoyance, especially when combined with those fucking cobblestones! there were some slight over-crowding problems, stage times running all over the place and bands pulling out which did make for a rather anti-climatic day in the end.
Lo-Fi-FNK were brilliant, as were The KBC and Twisted Charm (both of whom were my favourites of the day despite missing half of both bands' sets). The Whip were crowd pleasing, Van She had all the pissheads dancing away, The Answering Machine showed off their brand new drummer with their twee indie pop, Fear Of Music seemed to have improved immeasurably since the last time i saw them and The Sunshine Underground strode away with most people's musical hearts after an amazing performance.
i also saw a few songs by The Courteeners when i was looking for someone i'd lost earlier on. i don't get them? generic, much. they seem to have a massive following of your typical boy-in-checked-tshirt-and-jeans type. definitely not inspiring!

Lo-Fi-FNK - Heartache
Twisted Charm - Boring Lifestyles
The KBC - Poisonous Emblem

for my birthday i got a MacBook Pro laptop and have been enjoying looking at it in awe, ha ha.
as soon as we get our wireless internet sorted i'll post up the very first Fucking Dance Podcast! yaaay. now you'll get to hear my god awful voice and my sketchy GarageBand abilities. oh dear.

quicktimeee.

it's my 18th birthday tomorrow, woooo!

onto the music:

last week i came across a young man named James Severy on the Radio 1 Unsigned podcast. he's a London singer/songwriter who happens to make some very lovely noise. i know everyone is wondering why on earth we would need another singer/songwriter from London but if this man is anything to go by then we need lots more of them! he is currently signed to the fantastic Art Goes Pop label, so check him out on myspace.

talking of singer/songerwriters, i was kindly sent a couple of new tracks by Some Body. and they are sounding brilliantttt.

Some Body - It's A Red Light

i've decided to go back to Sendspace. i can't be doing with YSI anymore; it's making me crazy.

they call me her, they call me stacey..

so you think you like The Horrors? or you think you like Neils Children, or XX Teens or Plastic Passion or Les Georges Leningrad or Boys Of Brazil or Twisted Charm?

well without The Cravats none of those bands would be where they are today.
with a mere 500-odd friends on myspace you wouldn't think that was the case, but it really is true. i only came across The Cravats via my dear (not actually that old) dad. he was rather surprised certain members are still alive let alone releasing singles (The Cravats released a single in January this year) and running profiles on social networking sites.

their dirty sounding punk is like listening to the above bands all mashed toegther. yes, including saxophone. they're scary yet endearing, and were a favourite of the late and great John Peel. all for good reason too.

i demand you listen!

The Cravats - In Your Eyes
The Cravats - Welcome

first post with YSI! let me know how it fares/plays up/acts like a twat.
ps. sorry for the really lazy post.. i'm feeling lazy.

p.ps. doesn't the beginning of Cajun Dance Party's new single sound like it should be Arcade Fire?

and ppppppps. what is the deal with everyone bumming Windmill? i can't be the only person who thinks he's a bit rubbish.

woop

i've heard a rumour or two that Les Savy Fav may be doing a UK tour?!

if this is true all i have to say is 'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!'
if this is not true all i have to say is 'aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah :('

i love Les Savy Fav. a lot. a lot lot lot lot.
they're like my 'post-punk-but-not-quite' dream come true.

Les Savy Fav - What Would Wolves Do (From the forthcoming album, 'Lets Stay Friends')
Les Savy Fav - Hold Onto Your Genre

also: i am tempted to switch to YouSendIt so that my blog can be acknowledged by The Hype Machine. yay or nay to YSI?

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.