Fresh from the front page of NME..

Mulliga-frickin-tawny. You heard.

Lupin latest

It's not time to make a change...just relax, take it easy..

Oh the awful title belies the quality of this unusual.....comedy, its the same for you and me

This was the view as i rounded the final corner on the walk into work today..

And this is the tune that came onto the nano at that precise time..

Recent listening; a bit of a live cd theme..

Sleigh Bells - Reign of Terror.

A habit i occasionally fall into is the lunch break cd purchase. Outside of the lunch break purchases i try to stick to buying cd's that I've heard some of the tracks from, or know previously, or have read a fair bit about. The lunch time purchase doesn't usually follow these rules. And i've ended up with a fair amount of guff this way. For some reason, probably because i've had a stressy day, i tend to grab any old cd - something i might have vaguely heard about in music magazines but which i generally know nothing about. I have an angel and devil whispering in my ear about this habit. One is welsh and says 'you don need it butttt, put it back on the shelf', the other (herefordian) influence is more along the lines of 'you know you want, buy it buy it buy it'.

So a recent double whammy lunch time cd purchase was Mr. M by Lambchop and Sleigh Bells' Reign of Terror.  Now the Lambchop is very pleasant plinky plonky middle aged mumbling. Loungey crooning with some nice strings (and to be fair i had heard a bit of their previous music).  The Sleigh Bells however is something I am still not sure what to make of. Its the sort of music that for the first 30 seconds you think it is some kind of awful art school joke. Whereas some musicians in the quest for being original go as far out as they can with beats/samples/politics, Sleigh Bells have gone for a wierd mix of 80s hair guitar and 90s indie girl emoting. It's Metallica crossed with Saint Etienne! It's Van Halen crossed with Lush! It's Poison crossed with Dubstar! And yet. And yet... Something about it stops you from turning it off, and after listening to it all the way through you kind of get into its way of thinking. In as much as i am still not sure if i could commit to saying i actually like it, i am glad i heard it. And it confirms to me that its always good to take the plunge and check out things outside of my comfort zone (ref. the choral society shizzle i mentioned a few posts ago). 

And who wants to be buying Bright Eyes and R.E.M. for the rest of their lives?

Yesterday i found a music mag in smiths with the 'bells on the cover, so i will explore further...

Take a bow, my sheila..

6 years ago we returned from NZ with a few balls of wool that N was determined to use to make me a jumper. 6 years and a lot of knitting later here the results. Very impressed N. Like a knitting boss.

yeah.

Something completely 'off trend'..

On Saturday, N's dad was singing in a big choir thing at Hereford cathedral. During the afternoon they were having a practice which was free to drop in on. They had the full orchestra malarkey belting out a tune in this impressive building. And what were they rattling through?

This...

It's not cool, clever or trendy. Its not my usual americana portland oregon indie boy thing. but.... you've got to be open to new [old] things, right?

A car washing, wood glossing, taking the kids scootering over to diego's kind of weekend...

Last year's window sill project, now doing well out in the big bad world...

Current walk to work listening of choice..

It is this..
An excellent listen. Mark Kermode and Simon Mayo's film show from Radio 5live. Something i used to listen to ages ago (well at least 3 or 4 years ago) and have recently got back into. Or gotten back into, whichever you prefer. It's full of injokes and rants, sniping and diatribes.  And it's a great distraction on the commute.


You want a taster? Regardez...

You want a bit more? Bien sur...

This spring's window sill project = Lupins [aka 'Lupin Fiasco', 'Lupins of Fury', 'Snooker Lupins (nuts are we)', 'Lupin Howl'...]

A thing of beauty is a joy forever..

wye wye wye.....delightful

Call My hay Bluff

We hiked up into the clouds hoping the sun would eventually burn away the mist. We had a chilly picnic lunch on the top and the cloud wouldn't budge. And then.... just as we were starting on our way back.....[boomchickawaawaa] out came the sun......

slippy-flippy's, jelly stingers, trick sticks, bing bangs or flying willards

New Beach House tune..

On a kanye west roald dahl tip..

So, you got 'my beautiful dark twisted fantasy' by Kanye West, right?


You heard the first track? For those who aren't down with yeazy here's the first track...

[Just listen to the first 20-30 seconds... okay, bear with me]

Well, at the nightly bedtime book session with young E we were reading this....

Quality. And we happened to be reading the following..

...and....sounds familiar? Rewind that kanye and check it out. It's not often you're reading to your kids and you stumble across a hip hop inspiration.

Wired.

Scenes from HR1

Ascari's all day breakfast. Old school game.

All my blog photos, ever.

for your information there's an inflamation in my tear gland

..........steve.

Interesting article in the weekend paper..

Have a read of this and tell me what you reckon.