In the spirit of three stars..

The alien thing that took it's form..



I went to see the Hitch-Hikers film yesterday. I am a massive fan of the books and was so excited to see it adapted for the big screen that I was making random high pitch squeaking noises.
Then I saw it.
How could anyone make such a pathetic excuse for a film when they have such great source material! ?
Two thirds of the jokes weren't even used, and the last third were changed to completely ruin what made them so great in the first place!
The film would then go off on unexplained tangents without any reason or explanation.
I came out of that movie theatre feeling so disappointed and shit about everything that I needed something to make me feel better..

Even though I wouldn't usually, I decided (after finding it on Soulseek) to download the forthcoming Sufjan Stevens album.



All I will say is that it is absolutely perfect and I will still be buying when it comes out purely for the artwork and the pleasure of putting in my CD rack.

Check out one of my favourite tracks in this weeks Pop77 mix.

Let's stop hanging out, let's stop having fun..

Stand in the corner and think about what you've done.



This blog may not have been alive that long, but I feel proud of the fact that I seem to be the only one not to have mentioned The OC in a post..

Shit. Well that's the end of that then..

Anyway, to make up for it here are some great MP3s by some great bands.

Reuben - Shambles

Plans & Apologies - Eggbound Mute

Aereogramme - Zionist Timing

A.C. Newman - Drink To Me Babe Then

Save Ferris - Hungry Like The Wolf (Duran Duran cover)

Owen - Places To Go

American Football - Honestly

Ugly Duckling - Do Your Thing

Freedom to us has always been a trick..

Freedom to you has always been whoever landed on your dick..



Whilst looking around a website I found recently devoted to Bootlegging I decided to download some tracks to check out peoples efforts and found a mix that made me lose my breath.

This is a mixing of the guitar from Iron & Wine's "Faded From The Winter" and the vocals from "Trick Me" by Kelis (and also some backfround samples from "Teardrop" by Massive Attack.
Whereas the original version of "Trick Me" was full of attitude and two fingers towards the subject, this bootleg manages to make the vocals sound sad and reflective and just generally heartbreaking.

The bootleg mix (and the great picture!) was/were done by downlowtooslow, check him out here.

Kelis (ft. Iron & Wine and Massive Attack) - Massive Winter Trick

Our grandpa bought us a new VCR..

We watched it all night, we grew up in spite of it..



The next Sufjan Stevens album in his 50 States saga (following on from Greetings From Michigan) is due out on July the 5th (a date for the diary definitely).
22 tracks as well, this only excites me even more because, unlike other artists, with Sufjan albums, quality doesn't diminish with quantity.
This one is called Illinois and the tracklisting is below i'm just hoping this isn't a piss-take, because some of these song titles are pretty strange & funny.


01 Concerning the UFO Sighting Near Highland, IL
02 The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience But You're Going to Have to Leave Now, or, "I have fought the Big Knives and will continue to fight them until they are off our lands!"
03 Come on! Feel the Illinoise!
Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition
Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream
04 John Wayne Gacy, Jr.
05 Jacksonville
06 A Short Reprise for Mary Todd, Who Went Insane, But for Very Good Reasons
07 Decatur, or, Round of Applause for Your Step Mother!
08 One Last "Woo-hoo!" for the Pullman
09 Chicago
10 Casimir Pulaski Day
11 To the Workers of the Rockford River Valley Region, I have an Idea Concerning Your Predicament, and it involves shoe string, a lavender garland, and twelve strong women
12 The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts
13 Prairie Fire That Wanders About
14 A Conjunction of Drones Simulating the Way in Which Sufjan Stevens Has an Existential Crisis in the Great Godfrey Maze
15 The Predatory Wasp of the Palisades Is Out to Get Us!
16 They Are Night Zombies!! They Are Neighbors!! They Have Come Back From the Dead!! Ahhhhh!
17 Let's Hear That String Part Again, Because I Don't Think They Heard It All the Way Out in Bushnell
18 In This Temple, as in the Hearts of Man, for Whom He Saved the Earth
19 The Seer's Tower
20 The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders
Part I: The Great Frontier
Part II: Come to Me Only With Playthings Now
21 Riffs and Variations on a Single Note for Jelly Roll, Earl Hines, Louis Armstrong, Baby Dodds, and the King of Swing, to Name a Few
22 Out of Egypt, into the Great Laugh of Mankind, and I Shake the Dirt From My Sandals as I Run

Come dance with us tonight..

And I bet you'll like our song..



Just to break from my favourite albums of 2004 posts for a second, the incredible Team Sleep finally have a release date for their debut album which is long overdue.
It's scheduled for the 10th of May with a single called "Ever" preceding it.
Out of the blue I found a full MP3 of this finished version of the single online and was so excited that I had to share the link with the few people who visit this blog.
For those of you familiar with the demo Team Sleep tracks that are all over the P2P programs, you will know this track as Cambodia or Foreign Flag, but this version has a new chorus and it is strangely beautiful in that way that only Chino Moreno is capable of.

I have been waiting for this album for years now.

I can't wait for the 10th of May.

Team Sleep - Ever

What the water wants is hurricanes..

..and sailboats to ride on its back.



Sufjan Stevens was found in a milk crate on the doorstep of Mr. and Mrs. Stevens, in Detroit, MI, on Canada Day, July 1, 1975.
Now i'm not sure the part about the milk crate is true, but what IS true is that Sufjan makes some of the most original and inspiring contemporary folk of recent times.
The songs are all beautiful female harmonies, melodies overlapping and intertwining and banjo riffing.
Now if that sounds as good to you as it did to me, then you are going to fall in love with this music.

The following song is from 2004's Seven Swans.



Sufjan Stevens - Sister

..and here's an MP3 from Sufjan's highly acclaimed album from 2003; Greetings! From Michigan.




Sufjan Stevens - Holland

Perfect.

Poor old Red she's dead and gone, her eyes I do remember..

At least I have this old guitar to get me through December..



The next few posts will be about some of the artists/bands responsible for some of my favourite albums of 2004.
First up is Laura Veirs, whose album Carbon Glacier hardly left my CD player last winter and fitted the season perfectly with it's images of snow, blizzards, icebound streams and other ice related things! (which the cover art expresses perfectly.)



Download this song, love it, and buy her album (for best results try and see Laura and her band live, one of the best gigs I have ever been to).

Laura Veirs - Cloud Room

Hail the Earth..

She gave us birth..



Tom Copson is a good friend of mine from my Cambridge college days, who also happens to make beautiful acoustic music (but don't be fooled, he can rock like the best of them).

One day Tom will be known throughout the land, but for now, feel good in the knowledge that you heard about him here and knew about it before anyone else.

Look around the Tom Copson website.

Or alternatively, check out these MP3s:

Tom Copson - Change Your Mind

Tom Copson - Long Day

Tom Copson - 3 Times

She has no idea she could make me do anything..

She acts like it's the simplest thing for me to be there..



A lot of the people I love musically seem to come from Seattle (see Laura Veirs) and one of these bands is The Long Winters.

For those of you who haven't heard of them, their music (to me) embodies those things you love about the summer. Listening to Stupid with the windows down in my car when the sun's out gives me the most euphoric feeling.

Here are a couple of MP3s for your listening pleasure, if you like this songs and have any sense at all, buy their album, summer is coming and it needs a soundtrack.

The Long Winters - Stupid

The Long Winters - Blue Diamonds

The work is done and the record pressed

Now you're doing battle with the fickle press..

So, i'm in a band with two friends, we're called Lostboy and we play ambient British hip-hop mixed with Gozz on mic, DJ, loops, samples, myself on bass, guitars etc and another friend called Luke on piano & keyboards.

Our CD has just been finished and we picked it up from the label in Maidenhead on Monday, and it looks and sounds brilliant. The original drawings were done by a brilliant Mexican artist called Eumir Sepulveda (check him out at http://www.defected-angel.deviantart.com), and you should buy the CD purely for the artwork alone.



Check out an MP3 from the EP: Lostboy - French Canadian

Go here for our website: Lostboy