Song of the day (Australia) - 149: The Birthday Party

No explanation required here, I hope.

My new favourite blog

There's gotta be one, hasn't there?

Song of the day - 54: The Moonbears

It's very 1975, like I imagine Todd Rundgren to sound but I bet he doesn't. I don't know why I don't find this more surprising. Should I?

Song of the day - 45: The Slits

Well, duh. I finally purchased the reissue of The Slits' first album Cut - with a little hesitation, truth be told, as I already own various versions of it several times - and Powers alive, if the eight-track demos on the bonus CD don't sound even better than the original. (As Jack Endino wryly remarks on Facebook, "The eight-track demos are ALWAYS better than the album".) But how can that be? The original is, hands down, one of the 10 most influential records of my life, no denying no denying no denying. Wow.

Song of the day - 22: Electrelane

Well, I was thinking of posting some music from Zola Jesus - very Gothic, but with a good 'G' - especially as I've been admiring old clips of Siouxsie And The Banshees on Top Of The Pops.

Reflections on Plan B magazine

Former Careless Talk Costs Lives and Plan B contributor Steve Hanson has just started the mammoth task of re-posting all his articles and reviews onto his blog.

ET Recommends - 30: Langley Schools Music Project

If you aren't familiar with the Langley Schools Music Project, check it out here.

How to start a music magazine

Sneaky preview of an article that's about to go up on Drowned In Sound as part of the Music Journalism R.I.P? week.

Plan B Magazine R.I.P. pt 5 - June 2004

After the (relative) success of the previous entry in this series - Melissa's 'Making Plan B' from right at the magazine's inception - I thought I'd re-post an early blog entry from the same year.

Riot Grrrl 3

This is the third part of the interview I did with Julia Downes for her PhD thesis on DIY Queer Feminist (Sub)cultural Resistance in the UK. It (partly) tackles the question of critical distance.

Plan B Magazine R.I.P. pt 4 - Making 'Plan B'

I just found this in the depths of my computer.

Electrelane's final gig (revisited)

I'm not entirely sure why, but it feels like I should (re-)post my review of Electrelane's final gig.

Plan B Magazine R.I.P.

It was Miss AMP who introduced me to Frances Morgan.

Everett True vs the world

I promised yesterday that I would post the other part of my correspondence with Spanish music magazine Go-Mag.

Blind Blake vs Coldplay

I've been wondering about different directions this blog could take.

The temptation to post archive material (particularly from Plan B and Careless Talk Costs Lives) is overwhelming. I'd need permission from the designers, editors, original photographers and illustrators, but I don't envisage that to be a problem as this site is non-profit and it's good profile for material that would otherwise be lost.

I'd also like to reprint some of my original The Stranger columns because I'm proud of them, and my Village Voice blogs because those fuckers owe me (a lot of) money and haven't responded to any emails for a few months now. All of this will be easy to do, I'd imagine, once James from my music blogs class teaches me how to embed files.

The downside is that I think it might stop me from posting about new music here, and that's the primary purpose of this blog. (I'm using the word 'new' to refer to music new to me, not 'new' per se.) For example, Blind Blake, whose sweet earthy Bahamian music doesn't disappoint whatsoever, makes me realise how special M. Ward is and how major an influence Harry Belafonte was on my five-year-old self. In the world of Fifties and Sixties world of Blind Blake and the Royal Victoria Hotel in funky Nassau, politics = dance = colonialism = culture = entertainment = human life with all its frailties and humour attached, set to the gentlest of calypso rhythms. My favourite moment 'The Cigar Song' kicks ass harder than 10,000 Korn A-sides and also immediately engages Isaac in a singalong whenever he hears the opening chords strike up.

Maybe I should try and drive the numbers up on this blog, talk about the same dumb-ass mainstream 300 bands that everyone else talks about - Radiohead (yawn), Coldplay (triple yawn), U2 (yawning so hard it feels like the entire world is going to collapse into my mouth and I'm going to choke on the fumes). You know something? What shocks me the most is their fans' lack of imagination and the most rudimentary of research skills.

I mean, why would you listen to this when you could listen to this?

Pah.