Blog: music like dirt

I'll keep this brief for fear that this blog becomes a Rumble Strips pimping ground, but suffice to say The Rumbles were on form again. Having previously raved about their support slot with The Young Knives ( here ), I've been pushing their wares onto unsuspecting friends and work colleagues ever since. When asked what this band I'm urging the immediate purchase of sound like... I've usually said something along the lines of "well its sort of Dexys Midnight Runners ish". While I mean this as the highest of compliments, the reaction of 90% of people I [...]

You can't have a music related blog and not have an end of year chart, so for what its worth here are the tracks that make up my best of. I've been fiddling and repositioning the chart for weeks, but there comes a time when you just have to publish and be damned...or more precisely publish before its 2007! In this age of internet MP3 leaks, I did have a dilemma whether to include tracks that aren't actually physically out yet, but in the end it seemed strange not to include music that I've practically had on a loop for [...]

You can't have a music related blog and not have an end of year chart, so for what its worth here are the tracks that make up my best of. I've been fiddling and repositioning the chart for weeks, but there comes a time when you just have to publish and be damned...or more precisely publish before its 2007! In this age of internet MP3 leaks, I did have a dilemma whether to include tracks that aren't actually physically out yet, but in the end it seemed strange not to include music that I've practically had on a loop for [...]

-To be completed with downloads tomorrow- You can't have a music related blog and not have an end of year chart, so for what its worth here are the tracks that make up my best of. I've been fiddling and repositioning the chart for weeks, but there comes a time when you just have to publish and be damned...or more precisily publish before its 2007! In this age of internet MP3 leaks, I did have a dilema whether to include tracks that arn't actually physically out yet, but in the end it seemed strange not [...]

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Easily the second best record shop in North London, after Woolie's on Junction Road, Puregroove have managed the feat of reaching 15, and so quite rightly showed off in style with a bash at The Dome. Over their 15 years theyve managed to reinvent themselves from what I remember as a Hard House and Garage specialist who'd look at guitar with a puzzled look (wheres the BPM button!) to now being at the forefront of the current 73 sized boom in guitar rock (not that theyve forgotten about dance of course). They assembled a fantastic line [...]

Did you only notice The Arctic Monkeys when they boogie woogied with Jools Holland? Forced to shell out £80 to some ebay chancer just for the first 73, and the chance to claim you were into them before they were THE most talked about band in the country. Well I could almost say now is your second chance........ Clap Your Hands Say Yeah certainly rival "lindsey lohan+naked" on the google search results front, but they've already sold 25,000 copies of their self released CD, and the blog swarm have apparently moved onto The [...]

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So many Blogs so little time! Here's my roundup of the best blogs and MP3s to slurp! Madonnas new ABBA sampling track is pretty good, but my god the video is more SAGA than ABBA. For those who wish to know what their gran would look like in pink hotpants straddling a man half her age then watch and enjoy , or altenativly check out the first of many mashups, as Madonna meets bloggers favourite MIA "UR Hung Up" . Into The Groove have the unlikely pairing of Ben [...]

As i'm too lazy to write regular music reviews I thought i'd pass the buck to someone else, and so a new feature is born, Parental Advisory. Its an irregular musical "Ask The Family", where we give the latest singles, mp3's, and just musical curio's to a family to give their opinion on. Hopefully [...]

As I'm too lazy to write regular music reviews I thought I'd pass the buck to someone else, and so a new feature is born, Parental Advisory. Its an irregular musical "Ask The Family", where we give the latest singles, mp3s, and just musical curios to a family to give their opinion on. Hopefully [...]

It seems 2005 is destined to be remembered as the year of the Monkey.....or rather The Arctic Monkeys. They may have only released one limited edition single, and this may only be third time theyve made it down to the capital, but the buzz around The Monkeys has to be seen to be believed. If The Daily Star is to believed, theyve just signed a 1 million pound publishing deal with EMI, and this gig was moved from the smaller Marquee to cope with the sheer numbers craning to see the "the best new band in Britain". They could have [...]

It seems 2005 is destined to be remembered as the year of the Monkey.....or rather The Arctic Monkeys. They may have only released one limited edition single, and this may only be third time theyve made it down to the capital, but the buzz around The Monkeys has to be seen to be believed. If The Daily Star is to believed, theyve just signed a 1 million pound publishing deal with EMI, and this gig was moved from the smaller Marquee to cope with the sheer numbers craning to see the "the best new band in Britain". They could have [...]

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His second LP "I Am a Bird Now" has received rave reviews from everyone from the New York Post to the Daily Star, celebrity fans queue up to either feature on or laud his work, and the style mags lap up his androgynous glamour...but could I persuade any bugger to go with me to the gig...could I hell! Maybe my sales pitch of a 6 foot 3 inch goth transvestite singing cabaret torch songs didn't help, and my attempts at pigeon holing him with Boy George, Divine, Nina Simone...Hedwig & The Angry Inch...registered only a mass reply of "I'm very [...]

His second LP "I Am a Bird Now" has received rave reviews from everyone from the New York Post to the Daily Star, celebrity fans queue up to either feature on or laud his work, and the style mags lap up his androgynous glamour...but could I persuade any bugger to go with me to the [...]

Announced on the Friday, and sold out in 45 minutes, Islington Academy - a shopping centre store room with the soul sucked out of it - is the venue for the return of Beck Hanson. Ever since the Channel 4 sitcom Nathan Barley began, critical voices have complained that the East London fashionistas it satirises vanished years ago. You suspect critical voices would be immediately silenced upon entering the Islington Academy tonight. It's a sea of lamentable headgear and bleeding-edge mobile phone technology. At any moment, a game of cock, muff, bumhole might break out. I'd dashed [...]