The tiredness of the long distance worker

Good lord, I'm knackered, so forgive the lateness of the hour and the crapness of the post today please. This morning I was listening to an album called White Magic by a band called CEO, (not the rapper as spotify might try to tell you) who are all electropop excellence and well worth checking out if you like that thing or even if you don't, a good ear for a tune is all you need. Anyway without further mumblings here's a video for a song that's been going round in my head all day.



That's it, short and phenomenally sweet. Hope you enjoy.

That was 15 years ago and things were very different then

It's not very often that news of a band reforming can make me do anything more than shrug and say "mfffh" in an attempt at appearing interested. The news however that Pulp are to reform makes me genuinely excited. More so that it's the original line-up. Even more so that it's a line up that hasn't played live since 1996. They were rumoured to be reforming for glastonbury last year, but when that didn't happen I sort of gave up.

I first heard Pulp on John Peel way back in 1993, long before I really even knew that much about music, I was tuning the radio looking for some sixties stuff (probably, parents influence was quite heavy back then) and just came across this noise (in a good sense) that I'd not heard before, it was just astounding to me. I bought my first Pulp album in 95 (and probably my third or fourth overall, the others being Blur and Oasis, and let's forget all that shit about those two battling out for number one and all that crap, back then nobody managed to convey what it was to british, disenfranchised, and an outcast better than Jarvis did, and no one managed it til Hayman) and I've loved them ever since. 15 years now. So that's it, I coud go on and on here, but I'm just going to post some of their videos instead.

Lipgloss :-



Mile End (not a proper video):-



I'm a man



Wickerman



That's more then enough, normal service resumed shortly, but for now I'm off to dance like Jarvis

Down by the water

Morning! Imagine a world where you don't start work until 1pm and it gives you a chance to uphold your promise to attempt to post more on a middling blog you write. That's the world I live in!

Anyway straight in.

There's a new Decemberist's song available to download for free (well in exchange for an email) on their website, they've been playing it live for a while but this is the studio version and, oh yes, it's called 'Down By The Water'. I like the Decemberists, I like the folky pentanglesque sound of some their stuff, and the more ambitious side, and the chamber pop side too. And now I like the R.E.M sound they make, because that's what this new song sounds like. A little Cuyahoga maybe? Or something else circa 'Life's Rich Pageant'? Maybe just that fact that Peter Buck's guesting guitar jangly on this is unmistakable. Whatever, Meloy has made no bones about this being the direction that The Decemberists are going to take and I like it. See what you think. You can have a listen here

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart also have a new single out, you can hear it on Pitchfork, it doesn't sound a hell of a lot different then anything else they've done, but I doubt any fans will complain.

Elsewhere to delight your ears, noisepop slackers Matt and Kim have released a new record, I've not heard to much of it yet, but 'Red Paint' off of it is undoubtedly excellent. You can listen to it on the pop sucker blog, which is here

That should be enough for a media heavy Thursday morning.

Back, back, back

It seems that whenever I've posted here in recent months it's always with an apology about being lax with updates, and once again it's the same routine. I got around to checking my view stats and it amazes and pleases me in equal measure that some people actually do keep visiting. It gives me an immense feeling of schadenfreude and reminds me that maybe I should actually update more, which I will endeavour to do from now on.

Firstly then I'd like to pimp (or promote, delete as appropriate)a forthcoming gig that promises to be excellent, it's Nottingham's own Horowitz plus a couple more, and should be as racously entertaining as they always are, there's a facebook page for it here. There's an added incentive of it being only £3 if you're unemployed which is a fantastic enticement I feel, take that Government! If you need any other enticement (and you really, really shouldn't) there will also be cake.

There's not much other news to report music wise, but I did go to the End Of The Road festival some months back, and am still reeling from the absolute genius that Sam Beam or Iron and Wine to his friends produced, and I can think of no better way of signing off on a dark, wet, November day then to post the song he opened with on an equallly damp and terrible evening in September. I hope you enjoy it, keep reading and expect some proper updates soon!