It's been an awful long time since I updated my blog. Been busy writing far too much for the good people at NARC. This month's Narc saw my first tentative steps into the dangerous world of reviewing demos, which I must admit, I was rather reluctant to do at first. A thousand apologies if you happen to be one of the three people that read this blog, and by strange coincidence you also happen to be in one of the bands that I gave a less than glowing review to. Truth is though, you were probably shit and deserve it. Do check out Dog Years though, as they are most splendid.

Met with old friends Louise and Bill today, now of Pop Klubb, Newcastle's premier / only Swedish Indie Pop night. It was great to see them again, and good to spend some time dusting down some of the forgotten Twee and C86 gems from from my collection. Disturbingly seem to have mispalced my vinyl copy of C86 itself, but did manage to play the following:

• The Sea Urchins - Stardust (LP)
• Temple Cloud - Sarah Records Complitaion (LP)
• Stereolab - Lo Fi (EP)
• My Bloody Valentine - Ecstasy and Wine (LP)

Anyhow, if you fancy a bit of pop action the next Pop Klubb is on 21st April 2007 at Retreat@St. Dominics, New Bridge Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, Opposite the Tanners Arms. It's the perfect antidote to all those dull indie nights. Hairslides are optional!

Shakin' Stevens

Every once in a while I have a small obsession with an artist. Sometimes it lasts, sometimes it doesn’t. Quite often I’ll ditch them before they even get an LP out (e.g The Decemberists), with other bands like The Shins I become a almost teenage in my appreciation.

I’m currently in the throws of a mini obsession with Sufjan Stevens. I finally got around to buying a couple of his LPs at the weekend, the majestic Illinoise and Michigan, after having copies of some of his stuff for a while. Unlike Badly Drawn Boy (see previous post) Stevens shows exactly how an artist should build their career, slowly and surely. There's a clear evolution up to Illinoise, so several LPs in, you can hear that he’s grown into his massive talent.

Anyhow, lets get back to business; creating meaningless lists of artists that I like, and that I think that may or may not have had an influence of Stevens:

Eureka – Jim O’Rouke is just about as close to perfection as you could wish for in your record collection. Buy it now!

Our Endless Numbered Days - Iron and Wine

After The Goldrush – Neil Young

Everybody's cool nowadays

Being a bit of a musical magpie, I have usually dumped bands long before they reach what marketers would call the senility point in their life cycle. This means I probably have a skewed musical world view. This changed last night with my assignment to review the Badly Drawn Boy gig at Newcastle Uni.

BDB and support Isobel Campbell were dead before they even hit the stage. I'm just not sure if there's a market anymore for the kind of 'grown up' pop music. These days everybody is allowed to be cool. No longer do you have to suffer the humiliation of the youth behind the counter in the record shop, sneering at your choice of Dido record.

The democratisation of music via the web means that you can pretend you bought all the early eighties Sonic Youth LPs simply by spending a bit of time on eBay. Equally resources like the Hype Machine, wikipedia , Drowned In Sound etc allow you to gain instant knowledge, if you're desperate to impress your friend with your knowledge of Daniel Johnston.

It's always sad to see someone die onstage. I really liked Badly Drawn Boy's early stuff. But the Curse Of The Mercury Prize strikes again, and you can't sustain a career on one decent record released over 6 years ago. As for Campbell, I neither know nor care why she feels that we need another second rate Sandi Denny rip off. I guess she's bored with bastardising Lee and Nancy so she's looking for something new.

The result of everyone being cool is that 'the kids' have to find something they can call their own. Scenes like New Rave and band like The Horrors serve exactly that purpose. They have no merit as such, they are simply there to differentiate them from us (and vice versa). This is entirely healthy, and although I don't like the crap that they record, I'll fight to the death (perhaps an overstatement) for their right to record that crap.

There endeth the lesson.

I'm so tired

Working for The Man can take it out of you. Kids can take it out of you. Insomnia can take it out of you. Somedays you feel that you haven't got anything else to give.

Today is one of those days. Got into work at 7:30 and thanks to Sisyphus-like nature of working as a corporate whore, worked very hard at achieving nothing.

Hey kids, don't let it get you down. There's no point crying over the futility of the surplus value of labour. Look where that got that Marx fella. Still he had a good beard, and I thought that Hazard was a pretty good power ballad.

It's on days like these when you need a good tune to get you through. Here are some messages from our sponsors:

- MC5 - kick out the jams
- Jesus and Mary Chain - Upside Down
- Bring da Ruckus - Wu Tang Clan

Stick it to The Man!

The kids aren’t alright

The ultimate cruel blow was struck yesterday. On the first day of the half term school holidays, my daughter was struck down by a mystery illness that rendered her incapable of going to soft play. Given that she only started reception class in September, and this is her first ever school holiday, I felt this was particularly cruel.

This got me thinking last night of my childhood. Thoughts turned to my musical education, which began far too early. My eldest brother went to Uni in the midst of punk and new wave. As we shared a bedroom, holidays were filled with the wondrous sounds of that exciting time. Few children in my class at infant school could claim to have enjoyed Bingo Master’s Breakout at the time of release. But firm favourites middle brother and I were Fad Gadget’s classic Ricky’s hand and The Monochrome Set by The Monochrome Set.

Ahh the halcyon days of childhood.

In an effort to ‘educate’ my kids I play music in the house all the time, and frequently ask which tunes they enjoy. Would-be parents take heed, as this pays dividends. Recent results of records that have met the approval of a 4 year old are:

- The Decision – The Young knives
- You Can’t Fool Me Denis – The Mystery Jets
- Carrot Rope – Pavement

So maybe the kids are alright after all.

It's a snip

Strange thing writing for a music mag. Went to the hairdressers on Saturday (metrosexuality allows me to admit that it’s a hairdressers and not a barber) to get the ends cut off my indie comb-over. While in there I let it slip that I’d been writing some bits and pieces for NARC. Remembering that her bloke was in a band, I asked my hairdresser how it was going, and she reminded me that NARC gave them a less than favourable review a month or two ago.

It was at that point that I realised that there are a few keys rules to reviewing local acts:

1. Never tell anybody that you do it, as they’ll undoubtedly know someone in a band. Even your Gran’s mates are likely to know Little Billy from Enoch Flan, who played at the Cumberland Arms last week

2. Always attend gigs in heavy disguise. I’m favouring a waxed moustache and cape at present

3. If you have to review local bands, be nice about them all

4. Don’t get your hair cut

As I’m a man, and a lazy blogger I thought I’d suggest a list of hairdressing related records, more as a form of therapy than anything else:

- Take The Skinheads Bowling - Camper Van Beethoven

I guess the last one is a bit tenuous, but I thought I’d stick it in there anyway, as I once played at the Cumberland Arms in Newcastle many years ago and did a cover of Take The Skinheads Bowling. Sadly there were no hacks from local music mags in attendance to slag off my drunken massacre. I also used to cut my own hair in those days, both of which are key reasons why my pop music career never amounted to much.