Port O'Brien

John Darnielle

"The question isn't whether to tatoo "morbid" in big dark letters on one's chest, but what font to do it in"

Acoustic Kitty

 They're watching you

Cyborg cats. Read it and believe.

The Knife (Rune Lindbaek remix)

This is going to be in my set at the shoddy indie-disco no one will turn up for tonight

Enter the Void

This needs to be watched by yourself (or with someone who knows how to shut up), sitting right at the front of the cinema. It will be the most spectacular and possibly the most moving thing you have ever consumed through your eyes.

Don't Give a Shit About...

Kanye West's new album. I had a hip-hop 'phase' in my teens when I listened to Public Enemy, Jurassic 5 and Wu-tang Clan. Pretty soon I lost interest once the novelty of burning around Hereford in my mums car with Method Man crumbling out of the speakers wore off. So it would be fair to say I'm not big into the hippety or the hop, which is why I read pitchfork and DiS. So when I read a review like this one and another review like this one, it was a real wtf moment. Virtually NOTHING gets a 10 (!?) from the Pfork and certainly plenty of stuff that would shit all over Kanye's new narcissistic nightmare didn't even come close to getting a TEN. As for DiS they're a little easier going but a 9 is still a pretty rare one to see on the score board.  Now I know most music blogs try to pass themselves of as 'non-genre specific' because that 'wouldn't be true' to 'the music', however I noticed Pitchfork didn't review either Bon Jovi's greatest hits, Take Thats new album or even (and this is truly disgusting) The Chelsea Pensioners - Men In Scarlet (as far as I know it is not a concept album devoted to Scarlett Johansson). If they want to claim that they only review 'alternative' music, I think it would be a bit of a stretch to call an artist whose debut album sold over 3 million copies in the US alone, alternative. Another point; if I want to listen to hip-hop then I'll go to a 'genre specific' hip-hop blog, not one run buy some pasty white indie dudes who are trying to 'diversify' their site's audience. No matter how good the album is it isn't going to be a life changer for me, like an album by Pavement or Yo La Tengo might be, and I know that for a true fact before I even listen to it. Pitchfork has become so snobbish towards any music created by an actual band now that the only positive reviews I've read in the last few months have been either electronic or an obseqious hip-hop review. Fortunately DiS shows no signs of going the same way, even if it did deign to waste it's time reviewing My Dark Lust Fantasy or whatever the fuck it's called. But yeah, who gives a shit about Kanye West?

Caribou

History

 

sometimes I lose sight of why I study history, then I read a name like Chichester Skeffington and it all becomes clear again

Loive

Undoubetdly sentiments Titus Andronic agree with


Titus Andronicus were incredible. Unfortunately I was too much of a pussy to get into the shovepile at the front (although some girl did come flying out of it and crash into my knackers so I wasn't entirely free of injury), but I could still admire the amazing sights of beards, manic faced female guitarists and short distance crowd surfing.

Gawk

Not Here

The Radio Dept.

I think we should destroy the bogus capitalist process which is destroying youth culture

Tom Waits

This Whole Courtroom's Out Of Order

 The staff at Robin Hood Airport are trained and highly professional

Way back in January financial manager Paul Chambers was prosectued for leaving this Tweet   "Crap! Robin Hood airport is closed. You've got a week and a bit to get your shit together otherwise I'm blowing the airport sky high!!". He was due to meet his woman friend in Northern Ireland but bad weather delayed the flight and he obviously got a little bored and impatient, but to take his comment as a genuine threat and prosecute him under some 'menace' law which we apparently have (since when I don't know) seems a bit of an overreaction no?  The case finally got settled this month (the British justice system works very quickly these days) in the Crown's favour to the tune of a few grand and a lost job for Paul. But Robin Hood airport? Seriously? I'm not sure a county that has one of the highest violent crime rates in Britain and names its airport after a mythological criminal is in any position to punish stupidity. It was quite apparent to every sane individual on the planet, which clearly doesn't include judge Jacqueline Davies (how do these people get these jobs?), that it was a weak joke backed with some mild frustration, and now she has inccurred the ire of no less than Stephen Fry (yes Stephen Fry) who is of course high King of Twitter.
I'd like to wheel out the old cliche "it's PR gone MAD" for this one but unfortunately that phrase has been hijacked by Labour MPs (nice one Woolas) and the BNP. It would be interesting to know the reaction of staff at the airport and if they were genuinely frightened for their lives or if (most probably) they hear worse to their faces every day and couldn't give a shit. It's hard not to view this as anything other than another stamp on civil liberties by big brother, which in the light of Fitwatch getting closed down looks like something we can get increasingly used to. The worst bit about all this stuff is not just that it is undemocratic and essentially illegal, but that it is such a fucking waste of time and resources by the disconnected idiots who we place in positions of power in this country. Oh and the Daily Mail, let's not leave them out.

Toro Y Moi

The Perfect antidote to central London traffic enduced road rage

The Squid and the Whale

Written AND Directed by Noah Baumbach this film is one I've being trying to watch via highly illegal stream for a year or so now and last night I finally did it. A brilliant story of a neurotic middle-class artistic family, great acting, great plot, and some hi-larious moments. Must watch.

Bert Jansch

Grrrls

Women are the best, and this proves it

Bettie Page and Of Montreal

This is probably the best video Youtube has given me

Pavement

   I was dressed for success
   But success it never comes
   And I'm the only one who laughs
  At your jokes when they are so bad
  And your jokes are always bad
  But they're not as bad as this

Stuck Inside of Mobile With The Memphis Blues Again

I love you

Probably the best Dylan cover on the I'm Not There soundtrack, and probably the loveliest woman in the world singing it. All it needs now is a Carlsberg sponsorship deal.

Fucking Phwoar

'Fuck you' The Man

I think it was primarily a statement of just how much young people in this country detest the Conservative party, and by inclusion the Lib Dems now too. If anyone had a clue where their headquarters is no doubt it would have gotten the same. Personally I think it was wonderful to see in a supposed age of apathy, and if anyone is frightened by it they need to get out more. Peaceful protests generally have NO IMPACT WHAT SO EVER, and in terms of popular reactions to unpopular governments and their policies, yesterday was mild in the extreme. Wish I'd been there in stead of being stuck on the fringe of the universe out here, maybe next time.

I could always go and deck the windows in at the Aberystwyth Conservative club (or even the Lib Dem one), but I imagine all the old men in there are charmingly amnesiac octogenarians who would sit me down and feed me Worthers Original and only vote Tory because they still think Churchill is in power and that France is occupied by the Nazis. Sigh.

Beta Band

Man to John Cusack in High Fidelity: "What's this band?"

John Cusack to Man: "The Beta Band man"

Funpowder PLot

Thematic

Remember remember

The 5th of November!! Yeah bitches. I have no idea what I'm doing tonight, but I have some sparklers, so it can only be fun.

Silver Jews

What an amazingly 90's video, seriously think these guys might have been the best band ever

Goldheart Assembly

Wolves and Thieves is a supremely good album and it's impossible to pick an ideally representative track, this is one of my favourites

FROTFLOLW

 There's no point denying it, I would kill for that jumper

I dont understand young people speak anymore. This makes me Old. I am genuinely Old. I own a car. Oh my God I am so old. You know I really don't mind, people talk about the apathy of youth, but the apathy of mid-youth is way more pronounced. Not so much in terms of politics, war, music, cinema, literature, any of that stuff, but I just don't give a shit about what people think of me anymore, and it is the most liberating feeling.  

Ted Leo and The Pharmacists

Ted Leo rocks

Olafur Arnalds

   This dude used to drum for Icelandic death metal bands. WHAT a relief he discovered melody.

Dullest

Today is one of the dullest days I've ever seen, there's barely any light coming through the windows.

David Shrigley

Oh my god this so goood

Down By Law

Tom Waits is definitely a better actor than Bob Dylan. I've never consciously watched a full length Jim Jarmusch film before but it was pretty good, a solid storyline, initially shakey acting got better as a genuine sense of camaraderie appeared amongst the actors. Real nice.

Dawsons Creek

 

I cant begin to describe just how heinously crap that TV show was. The theme song really sums up its manifest crapness nicely

Yo La Tengo

Apparently this song was on Gilmore Girls. I can't say I'm happy about it, but I can live with it.

Coughing Hard

Cough cough

BAths

I talk nicely to them and try and get them to come closer

November

'It's November so I'll be cold' - British weather is so formal

Freschard

Hail! The Planes

Lovely and from Wales of all places

Pumpkin Flambe

 
Somebody lit a scented candle


Here's something I wouldn't recommend doing for Halloween: Using tinned scented candles inside your pumpkins. And I definitely wouldn't recommend pouring water onto them when they burst into flame. Not unless you like four foot high sheets of flame anyway. I have no idea how my eyebrows are still intact.

Cannabis

The Apathetic Cat is pro-legalisation


So you light up a spliff and prop yourself against the skate ramp and you're a fucking rebel. Hold on, a five-a-day spliff addiction in what way makes you a fucking rebel? Firstly it makes you stupid and apathetic and, frankly, the Mans wet dream. You'll sit around all day watching daytime TV and eating snack food so grotesque it'd make chemical Ali wake up in a cold sweat in the dead of the night, all the while eating up the nastiest type of marketing garbage, listening to shit music while ordering novel hats with the ganja leaf stitched on that were mass produced in some slave labour factory in Indonesia. And despite what the ingredients list on those multi-pack Aldi own brand crisps says, you'll still try telling everyone you are a vegetarian. So when I hear the most common banners at the Restore Sanity rally were pro-legalisation of weed in California, it doesn't make my day. And if it gets legalised, that also means it will be sold by, you guessed it, a fucking corporation.

The Corporation

We all know corporations are evil right, but to see with your own eyes JUST HOW EVIL really brings it home. Whilst we tend to think "OK they're self interested, and OK aren't natural humanitarians" when you see the mindless, sycophantically destructive behaviour they actually get up to, and just how deeply embedded in the sinews of modern government they are, you realise that they genuinely compose the biggest threat to our civil liberties that there is in this world today. Watch The Corporation and have your eyes opened