Too many roads bypass my way...

In honour of my car throwing another fit and requiring another day at the garage, here are some motor-related gems...

MP3: Prefab Sprout - Cars and Girls

MP3: The Divine Comedy - Your Daddy's Car

MP3: Citizen Band - Rust In My Car

It's so clear and so true...

Hurrah! The best pop band in Leeds have returned with a cracking new record. Have a look at The Lodger's new vid and then grab the EP from iTunes:

Look over there, you used to say...

Here's Don McGlashan performing one of the finest songs in existence:



(Envy Of Angels, performed live on Good Morning (NZ TV), 10th July 2009)

Cassingle Revival: Seven - Inside Love

Hadn't really thought about uploading random old cassingles before, but I had this song in my head today and figured other people might, at a push, remember it too. This is from somewhere around '89/'90-ish (it surely couldn't be from any later???) and was a single I absolutely adored, and played to death at the time. Think I may have even had the poster-bag 7" version too. I guess musically it hasn't stood the test of time, but as a tune it still pretty much rules.

Not sure what made me think of this song today, but a little bit of searching turned up the video on Youtube:

The audio on the MP3s below is from the cassingle, so probably not the greatest sound quality ever (but better than on that Youtube version...)

MP3: Seven - Inside Love

MP3: Seven - Till Then

It's a balancing act...

I've become a bit obsessed with Nerina Pallot's new Buckminster Fuller EP. It doesn't appear to have been promoted much outside of her Myspace, which is a shame as it contains some of her best tunes to date. It Starts is just musical perfection, a fragile statement of intent which sets the tone for what's to follow. Best of the bunch is Girl On A Wire, where the modern-day-Joni vocals and piano are unexpectedly joined halfway through by a synth, to fantastic effect. Some gorgeous chords and the kind of melody that instantly sticks in the head all add up to a dreamily wonderful three and a half minutes. The EP's title track may well (consciously or not) melodically reference Regina Spector's Samson, and try listening to the synths in Better Than Today and not smirk if you're familiar with the theme music from the BBC spoof comedy Look Around You, but all in all this is a fantastic set of songs. Fingers crossed the long overdue album is as good...

Links to buy the EP can be found on Nerina's Myspace page

MP3: Nerina Pallot - Girl On A Wire

You shall go to the ball...

Vested interest aside, here's a quick plug for the new March Greens EP, You Shall Go To The Ball. People say it's in a similar ballpark to Belle and Sebastian, so give it a listen if that's your bag. The whole EP is streaming over at www.myspace.com/themarchgreens, and it can be bought on iTunes and various other places - check out www.themarchgreens.co.uk for all the info you could possibly need.

MP3: The March Greens - Family Tree (demo)

My 90s: Pulp - Dishes

Paul, my housemate during my second and third years at Uni, was (and possibly still is) a huge Pulp fan. I knew the hits (how could anyone in their teens in the mid-90s have missed Common People?), but listening to Paul's vinyl copy of This Is Hardcore on many a drunken night when it came out in 1998 was a revelation. "I am not Jesus, though I have the same initials / I am the man who stays home and does the dishes," sang Jarvis on what is surely one of his finest songs, 'Dishes'. A song with a guitar solo so brilliant yet so simple even I could play it. A tale of domestic drudgery which moves up a gear to the glorious ending: "And aren't you happy just to be alive? Anything's possible!"

MP3: Pulp - Dishes