Trees reflected in a pool Originally uploaded by Southcoasting. Back from Belgium - a great country: neat, well-organised, great beer, great chocolate - and in this shot, some beautiful trees and water reflected in the late afternoon at Maria Hendrike Park in Oostende. This park provides free bicycles to cycle around on! A truly civilised country. Anyway, back to the real world... here are two

Merry Christmas, Internets. Peace and love to you and yours. PIMPS OF YULE: Christmas 2006 1. "Specialized Nutcracker Suite" by FLIP 2. "Another Christmas At Home" by EUX AUTRES 3. "Santa Claus Got Stuck (In My Chimney)" by ELLA FITZGERALD 4. "Merry Christmas Baby" by IKE AND TINA TURNER 5. "Don't Believe in Christmas" by THE SONICS 6. "Holiday Hymn" by ORANGE [...]
Hey, are you using Firefox? Well, I may have a surprise for you. *Sixeyes, this very page you're now looking at, has a right sidebar. YES. Right over there on the right. That's right. It's got some good stuff in it. Now, is there anyone out there who could please tell me how to get that damn right sidebar back on screen, so, you, the unaware visitor won't miss it, or you, the now aware visitor, won't have to scroll over to see it. By the way, the page looks fine in IE, just the [...]
Ich sag's hier mal offen und ehrlich: Bei der Wiederveröffentlichung von Josef K auf 'Entomology' wird mir ja leicht nostalgisch um die Nase. Nicht, dass ich das jetzt selbst miterlebt hätte und nun 68er-mäßig in hochnäsigen Erinnerungen schwelgen dürfte..."Siehste, mein Junge! Das hat Dein Vater gehört, als er so jung war wie Du gerade" (aber natürlich 10x schlauer als Du). Nein, aber eine gewisse Affinität hege ich schon – wenn auch mit 10-jähriger Verspätung – für dieses einwandfreie Label Postcard Records ...'Aztec Camera', 'The Go-Betweens', 'Orange Juice' – das waren schon Sterne am damals trübem schottischen [...]
I popped into Newbury Comics today for the first time in a long while. I picked up two albums on sale for $10.88 apiece (gotta love those Newbury sales). Both are from the early '80s, both are from Scottish bands, both are jittery post-punk, and both are quite good. Orange Juice (of Glasgow) and Josef K (of Edinburgh) are two short-lived bands who recorded around the same time as each other and defined the sound of artsy, independent music in Scotland. Orange Juice's The Glasgow School and Josef K's [...]

Good for Josef K (pictured above), they're the belle of the ball (the Scottish post-punk ball, that is). Domino Records just released Entomology, a collection of Josef K's work. I love them, have for a while, and they're suddenly getting praise and hype (justifiably) in the blogosphere. Well-read, introspective, and Scottish, what's not to like? But Scotland played a major role in post-punk, so where's the love for the others? Thankfully Domino re-issued both Orange Juice and the Fire Engines last year. Josef K had some great rhythm going, flirting with pop, but were never [...]

Some bands just sound better when it's raining outside. This is a fact, particulary in mind of those dark and moody bands of the 80s. One group that comes to mind are the Associates , the influential duo of vocalist Billy Mackenzie and multi-instrumentalist Alan Rankine. Like many talented twosomes, their relationship eventually became volatile and Rankine departed after their classic Sulk album in 1982. The two albums Mackenzie and Rankine recorded, however, are both considered classics that touched two aspects of great originality. One was Mackenzie's extraordinarily powerful vocals, which had the [...]

No. 6: "Sorry For Laughing" Josef K The Only Fun In Town, 1981 As the story goes, Josef K had committed its debut album to tape, only to have the whole project nixed by Postcard Records head Alan Horne who wasn't fond of the record's slick sound. Down in Brussels for a New Year's Eve gig, Josef K decided to re-recorded the album's title track; four months later, the single "Sorry For Laughing" hit shops in April of 1981, released by the [...]

RIYL : The Smiths, Belle & Sebastian, Franz Ferdinand, The Vaselines, et al . Orange Juice , while a relatively short-lived outfit, went on to influence quite a few bands that readers of An Aquarium Drunkard most likely enjoy. But that, in and of itself, is no reason to download the following tracks. While driving around L.A. the other afternoon it struck me that Orange Juice, and specifically The [...]

The UK has a grand tradition of fast, chaotic and vulnerable pop that reaches back to the post-punk era. Pehaps one could even trace the thread back to Skiffle and Mersey Beat, but that's probably more of a stretch. From Glasgow, Scotland, Orange Juice pioneered the nerdy and romantic art-punk jangle that has has become a permanent part of the indie landscape. You might even call them pre-twee. An impressive collection of their first recordings (1980-1981) was released by Domino last year as The Glasgow School , and contains the track below. Orange Juice never really [...]

CONTEMPORARY GUITARS (2000-2006) N.E.R.D - " Thrasher ." Antony and The Johnsons - " Fistful of Love ." CONTEMPORARY RAP (2002-2006) Kurupt - " I Didn't Change ." Three Six Mafia - " Rainbow Colors " ft Lil Flip. NEW CLASSICS (1980-2001) [...]
One of the best things about You Tube (and it's quite a horse race), is that the database is ever expanding. Can't find what your looking for now? Try back in a week. Depressed that you've exhausted all the videos by your favorite artists? Somewhere, out there, some old punk dude with a ridiculous 16mm collection is finally hearing about the site, and making plans to upload some footage that will own you. It's the gift that keeps on giving. So, with that in mind, occasionally we'll update old entries and swing [...]