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2. “Long hair is an unpardonable offense which should be punishable by death.” - I so so so agreee!
3. “I am capable of looking on the bright side - I just don’t do it very often.” -- man after my own heart.
4. “Doing nothing gives me great pleasure. And believe me, I succeed wonderfully in it.” -- I have officially got a new mission statement people!
5. “Life would be so colourful if only I had a drink problem.”
6. “Age shouldn’t affect you. You’re either marvellous or you’re boring, regardless of your age.”
7. “Bob Geldof is a nauseating character. Band Aid was the most self-righteous platform ever in the history of popular music.” -- I'm pretty sure I said this myself...!
8. “When I'm lying in my bed I think about life and I think about death and neither one particularly appeals to me.”
9. “I have seen one or two psychiatrists. They just sit and nod and doodle.”
10. On dance music: “It's the refuge for the mentally deficient. It's made by dull people for dull people.”
11. “Yes I have had a tan, actually. I went to Los Angeles and got one there, but it didn't make it back to Britain. You're not allowed to come through customs with a tan.” -- six weeks in Asia, pale as Lizzy the 1st - we may just be soul mates.
12. “Nothing is important, so people, realising that, should get on with their lives, go mad, take their clothes off, jump in the canal, jump into one of those supermarket trolleys, race around the supermarket and steal Mars bars and kiss kittens.
13. “What's the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning? Wish I hadn't.”
14. “Music is like a drug, but there are no rehabilitation centres.”
15. “When they bury me in a church and chuck earth on my grave, I’d like the words ‘Well, at least he tried’ engraved on my tombstone.”
1. Hotel California - Eagles
2. Friday I'm in Love - The Cure
3. One For the Road - Ocean Colour Scene
4. Space Oddity - David Bowie
5. Hurricane - Bob Dylan
6. Karma Police - Radiohead
7. Dazed and Confused - Led Zep
8. Pretty In Pink - The Psychedelic Furs
9. This Charming Man - The Smiths
10. Song 2 - Blur
Highly Commended;
-- All Tomorrow's Parties - The Velvet Underground
-- Non-Believer - La Rocca
-- The Guns of Camden Town - The New York Fund
-- Train In Vain (Stand by Me) - The Clash
-- Crooked Teeth - DCFC
-- Romeo and Juliet - Dire Strait
-- Grounds for Divorce - Elbow
-- Elenor Rigby - The Beatles
Finally, my up-and-comers/fave relatively unknown bands;
-- The New York Fund -- bringing a nice country twang back to the Indie scene. Shame about the lead singers crippling coccaine addiction; it makes the possibility of success much less likely.
Best songs; The Guns Of Camden Town, Nobody Home.
-- The More Assured -- recommended to me by Chewy. More upbeat than your average indie band - just a hint of dance about them which makes them perfect for those with more cheer in their souls.
Best songs; Army of the Non Pretenders, Beat You Down (Nice and political - for all you Civil Liberty nuts out there - that may just be me...!)
-- The Dears -- formed in 1995, The Dears are not exactly newcomers but, harking from Canada, they are pretty unknown in the UK. They are reminiscent of the Teardrop Explodes with the same melancholic air of early Smiths records. (In fact, Morrissey is a self-procaimed fan - they opened for his tour a few years back.)
Best songs; Lights Out (featured on Gossip Girl recently!)
-- The Filthy Youth -- starring Gossip Girl's Ed Westwick, The FY state some of their influences as The Clash, The Strokes, The Velvet Underground and, on a smaller scale, The Rakes. With influences like that, they set a high standard which, despite a slight rough-around-the-edges timbre to Ed's vocals, they don't fail to live up to. Loud, cheeky and, from what I hear, a highly enjoyable band live - what more do you want?
Best songs; City Stop, Come and Flash All Your Ladies
First on the list was Dashboard Confessional who I naively rejected a year ago as "too emo", a judgement which, looking back, was both hasty and unfair. Their sound is quite a remarkable mixture of that all-too-emo quality, self-pity, which is outweighed by enough talent from the lead singer and songwriter and impressive guitar riffs which help to absolve them their slight self-indulgence.
More significant a re-discovery, however, was that of The Honorary Title, a Brooklyn based band largely ignored in the UK. Their first album focusses more on the singer-songwriter and has an almost ballad-like quality despite its heavy guitar focus and strong drums. The real gem is their second album, Scream and Light Up the Sky, which is the perfect album for summer. It has a positive feel about it, born from the lead singer's enthusiasm, despite the often negative lyrics. (It's a similar paradox to that which The Cure often portray - positive rhythm and enthusiastic vocals teamed with angry or distressed lyrics. Still, I can't claim such legendary status for THT as I do for The Cure.)
So, this summer, instead of trying to find a new band to fill the usual "best band of the summer season" slot, last year filled by Vampire Weekend, I look to The Honorary Title for my bouncy and yet lasting hits.
Best songs - Hands Down (Dashboard Confessional), The City's Summer (The Honorary Title), Stay Away (The Honorary Title)
2. The Psychedelic Furs --- Formed in 1977 - these guys are actually pretty famous but I resent that they have been outdone so easily by the likes of The Clash (one of my all time favourite bands but still, a little limelight-stealing!) Best songs - Heartbeat (good luck deciding which song I'm talking about. There are two. Pretty In Pink and President Gas.
3. Cold War Kids --- the up-and-comers of two years ago and a trend I seemed to have missed! Heard many friends rave about them, listened to them in a Washington Starbucks on a "Born in the UK" mix (which makes no sense given that they are from California!) circa two years ago. Downloaded their albums 3 weeks ago after a little late night Dr Who (I don't know why that should've lead to this decision - it just occurred to me!) and I FINALLY got what the fuss was about. Something for everyone. Best songs - Hang Me Up To Dry, Hospital Beds
4. Eagles of Death Metal --- I had a little stage with them a couple of years ago during my post-Supernatural discovery era and have recently returned to them. They make beardiness and awful sunglasses/tight jeans combo not only work but COOL. Seriously. Best songs -Speaking In Tongues and I Wanna Be In LA.
5. Led Zeppelin --- Now, don't get me wrong, I have always loved them but I kindof shelved them until recently when, buying their best of, "Mothership", i had a re-discovery moment. Now can't get "Dazed and Confused" out of my head....and can't resist the urge to play it loudly while drinking Jack Daniels....I don't really know why, its just a combo that works. Try this at home.
1. Ok Computer - Radiohead
2. An End Has A Start - Editors
3. Mothership - Led Zepplin
4. The Queen is Dead - The Smiths
5. Hot Fuss - The Killers
6. Money For Nothing - Dire Straits
7. Anthology- Ocean Colour Scene
8. Plans - Death Cab For Cutie
9. Talk, Talk, Talk - The Psychedelic Furs
10. This Love And Squalor - We Are Scientists
This list changes ALL THE TIME so, you know, chill out! Any suggestions as to what is missing?
We need electoral reform because as long as we are under our present system of Simple Plurality, we are not a democracy. AND, if we are going to go about forcing "democracy"(the great beacon of light sent down from the heavens, as it is described by all "well-thinking" people) on other countries, we may as well ensure our model is worthwhile. What makes a democracy? Free and fair elections? Many would say, "CHECK we have those". (although with turnout so low, these are pretty meaningless) NO, we don't. We have a system where Labour are able to take 55% of Parliamentary seats with only 35% of the votes. In Scotland, Labour won an absurd 70% of the seats with only 40% of the votes. The poor Lib Dems were left way in the dust despite a small but significant percentage of the votes. In 2001, it took 26,000 votes to elect a Labour MP, 50,300 for a Tory and a whopping 92,000 for a Lib Dem. This is b/c the Lib Dem vote is the most widely spread and the least concentrated in key seats. Nonetheless, the system is a biased joke (much like my blogging style...). In pure numerical terms, more people voted for John Major in '92 than for Blair in '97! I mean, Lordy be. The system destroys the chances of small parties (In the case of the BNP, thank god! Still, these nutcases have as much right to be represented as the rest of us - It's like what that Voltaire bloke said back in the day) and can only be described as archaic.
Who will give us electoral reform?
According to the '97 Labour manifesto (or deceit-dossier, as I like to think of it), the Labour govt will deliver. They promised PR and they'll give it to us. Yeah, just like they increased social mobility. Just like they sorted out the economy. Just like ended child poverty. Bullshit. The Tories work on the basis of "If its not broke, don't fix it" (as Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Cheltenham, Mark Coote told me recently). The Liberal Democrats (hem. hem) make electoral reform a priority. Some could argue this is b/c, as the party least likely to be elected, they are the only party whose love of democracy is untempered by a greed for power. Afterall, if your chances of power are that low, you might as well be moral. True this may be but still, might as well go with moral even if the motivation is a tad dodge....!
Be groovy or leave! (Bob Dylan)
6 x Mighty Boosh
2 x Julian Barrett
3 x Noel Fielding
11 x Richard Ayoade [6 x Mighty boosh, 4 x IT Crowd, 1 x random]
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1. Paddy Ashdown: He rules, his book rules, he is the only reason the H of Ls rules.
2. Labour suck; the tories suck. Why does Labour suck? Well...thats a whole another q. I suggest we all take a look at the 1997 manifesto that promised us a. Electoral reform b. the abolition of the H of Ls c. Clean, sleaze-free govt d. a better education system and e. a smooth running NHS. AND, most importantly; THE ABOLITION OF THE 10p TAX BAND! Why do the tories suck? WELL...that would be a. Thatcher b. Dave Cameron and is content-free politics c. tax-obsession d. sound-bites. TB (the disease that siezed Labour) made those annoying enough, we don't need them anymore.
3. CIVIL LIBERTIES; we need em, they know we need em.
4. Sometimes, change is good.
Thank you, no one, for reading.
PS Anyone else find it unfortunate for Mr Blair that his initials are TB as in killer disease and Mr Browns are GB as in Great Britain. Therein lies a great op for propaganda
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Enjoy!
15 x Dean Winchester
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8 x Mighty Boosh
2 x Justin Chambers
2 x Hugh Laurie (& Stephen Fry)
1 x Simpsons
1 x We Are Scientists (Chris)
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Here is my New Year post @ blogspot;
How to become a YouTube celebrity!
Last year Time magazine named YOU person of the year. This year they replaced you with Putin. After making clear that "TIME's person of the year is not and never was an honor. It is not an endorsement. It is not a popularity contest. (it is in Russia. Jackasses) ...Putin is not a boy-scout. (Shame. There I thought the brownies were taking over.)". We must win back our crown. I therefore provide you with a step-by-step guide to becoming the coverted You-tube celebrity.
Disclaimer: I have absolutely no experience and therefore legitimacy to write this article.
Buy a video camera. Or just use your phone. Lets face it, video cameras are kinda pointless. And expensive.
Now, get a friend. Preferably a funny one who enjoys weirdness. Doing it alone is a no-go on the internet. Unless you wanna be the next "I love Britney" freak. That's been done guys. Not fresh.
Make a film. It could be of anything really. Crying helps. Or being fat. That gets a lot of laughs. Have no shame. Afterall, only millions of people are going to be potentially able to see it.
Now sit back and wait for the fame. Or Infame. (I know thats not a word. I'm inventing it)
Happy New Year people. Good luck with your fame-grabbing.
[4] Eric Dane
[2] Patrick Dempsey
[1] Justin Chmbers
[2] General Greys
[5] Wentworth Miller
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