Submerge Myself In Brie

(imagine an obligatory blah blah sorry for taking so long to update ramble. i'm not really sorry though, cope.)

Right straight to the music, mainly because i've been hard at work procrastinating for the past three hours and really ought to do some work. Or at least get dressed. Or get out of bed. Hmm.

Tuesday me and neil hit the gritty islington streets to see the Wombats, who incidently were fantastic. However as they are officially so-last-year(see date of last post) we have to move on bigger and greater things. Seeing the Wombats reminded me of a band i've been meaning to post up here for ages, in fact i had to check i hadn't already, senile dementure setting in early. Span were a fantastic norweigan band, hugely tipped by Drowned in Sound etc around 2003 but somehow didn't manage to break out. Seeing as they are my second most seen band ever (Placebo are the fairly bizaare number one, i've only 'intentionally' seen them twice. Oh and we ignore the Atomic Kitten thing...) it seems right that others should share in the chance to become Spanners too.

Sadly they are/were -far- better live than on record, listen to this with a the thought of a sweaty scandinavian singing straight into your face, mmm.

Span - Baby's Come Back

I've been in the mood for really awful 90s dance all week (when am i not?) and so to commemorate that i've had this thudding out nice and loudly. Sadly it hasn't yet managed to piss off my housemates but i'm doing my best:

Stardust - Music Sounds Better With You

Just love the quite break in the middle with the vocals and the bass, hell yeah.

Haha found track number three. We spent lots of last week holed up in a large youth hostel in an Amsterdam suburb playing cards, gambling with pieces of paper, drinking one euro wine and listening to Missy. I've mentioned my love of Mean Girls before and for me, more than any other song, this is it, this makes the film. To the greatest teen film ever, we salute you!

Missy E - Pass That Dutch

Finally this afternoon/evening/whatever it is when you read this, another example of why more bangra crossover songs need to happen. I'm still not sure who wins the Dre/Timbaland competition but this just laughes down from a great height at anything the Neptunes have produced (..except I'm a Slave For You, obv). Shut up Neil, i can talk about producers, i'm cool, i'm hip, i drive a scooter haha.

Truth Hurts - Addictive

Laterz innit.

He's Coming To Get Ya

I'm watching So You Think You Can Dance. I love the creeping takeover of television by 19 productions. They took music five years ago, television now, what's next? I'm amazed at how well Cat Deeley is doing though, and how short she makes all the little dancing men with their silly hair look. Bless.

Right this is going to be a bit of an epic post, aimed as a 'best of 2006' but may very well stray. The problem is that most of the time i've already posted stuff that would have been in my top 10 - Midlake, The Format, Cold War Kids, Girl Talk, ie all that could be described as the 'acceptable' end of my musical taste. Hmm. Lets see where this takes us then...

10. The Wombats are apparently British (not a good thing), young and upandcoming. I haven't read NME in ages but i'm sure they'll get jumped on soon. However while i'm basking in having got tickets to their gig in Jan they get to be in this list by virtue of the awesomeness of this song

The Wombats - Backfire @ The Disco

9. I actually only really love this song because it starts off like a Bryan Adams song, then goes a bit Texasey and then the man sings and I feel a little sad. It still is heavily awesome.

Captain - Glorious

8. I was pretty pissed off this morning because I went to see if any decent bands were playing in London soon and there are loads! Cleverly at the time where my bank balance is most crying in pain. Killers, Cat Empire, Eagle*Seagull, Midlake, Ted Leo (!! now cancelled, phew), The Wombats, and this bloke Donavon Frankenreiter. He is isn't the most original of artists and drifts far too close to Jack Johnson territory for my liking but this song just rocks. It's probably a bit like Jamairoqui without him being a tosser, crossed with Maroon 5. That doesn't sound great does it? This is why I decided against pursuing a career in music journalism, possibly one of my most sensible choices.

Donavon Frankenreiter - Move By Yourself

7. Do you know what, i'm going to cheat. Because i've never been one for rules, particularly self imposed ones (up to the 23rd in my advent calendar, i'm clearly going to burn in hell). THIS is the best Cold War Kids song, they are fab and I don't care if no one else seems to agree.(damn you Pitchfork!)

Cold War Kids - We Used To Vacation

6. (imagine the Format are here. probably with Time Bomb)

5. Hahaha this list was looking much too sensible. The world needs the Black Eyed Peas. The world needs the Pussycat Dolls. But most of all the world -needs- Fergie because she is so hilariously awful she somehow manages to spill into genius. Yes the video was completely inaccurate. Yes the cd cover contained the wrong 'London Bridge'. And yes, I still don't know, or want to know, what her 'Venice' is. BUT this still rocks.

Fergie - London Bridge

4. Continuing the push downwards we have the almighty My Chemical Romance. I always wanted to be a proper rock kid when I was at school but could only bring myself to buy the trainers. The baggy trousers and silly eye makeup always seemed a little unnecessary. My Chem appease the inner emo-kid in me and seem to have imbibed the spirit of Queen in the new album. Little surreal but this song is fantastic and has Liza Minnelli singing in the background. Or so Wikipedia has told me. I'm quite gullible so it might not be true but it makes me happy to think it is.

My Chemical Romance - Mama

3. Oo I forgot how much I liked this song. Bit of proper camp dance pop, it's all good. It's a bit like Coronation Street in a song. Without the Northerners. And all the bizaare incest stuff that is going on at the moment, eww. 'feels so good you know that it's so wrong'.indeed. Does he actually sing 'oo-er'? Oh dear.

Dangerous Muse - Give Me Danger

2. Apparently this song is in an Orange advert. This makes me want to use sad smilies. Mr Owen is fabulous and has one of the best live shows i've ever seen (four times now i think, i win). I'm not sure if he works quite as well on record but this song/album/artist (whatever the hell this list is meant to be)gets a nice high charting by virtue of having a silly name. There is a method in this madness.

Final Fantasy - Peach Plum Pear

1. Well this isn't really what i was expecting from a Best of list. And to be fair these things always end up hideously weighted towards this end of the year. Thus this song can be considered my best song of the past two months. Nelly Furtado probably wins song of the year with 'All things...' but this is a similarly fantastic pop song and confirms that Jamelia should possibly be considered more than just a one (or two, maybe three) hit wonder.

Jamelia - Beware of The Dog

Hmm not sure i'm happy with this list. Have the Pet Shop Boys too, this song was used when England lost to whoever, lots of people, in the World Cup, and thus triggers off the sadness reaction before I come to my senses and realise that I didn't care that because there were no West Ham players in the team and so they deserved to lose. Bah Humbug. This song is lovely.

Pet Shop Boys - Numb

Informative. Varied. A truly epic blog post, I applaud myself.

You Have Your Cousins, And Then You Have Your First Cousins

Perhaps putting my email address on here wasn't the greatest of plans, I've just been invited to join 'ladsoncam' or something. As tempting as hot guys on film may or may not be.

This isn't actually my most exciting experience of the day. On the train to london i sat next to someone who was potentially Charlie Dimmock (but on second thoughts probably wasn't, suggestions of female redheaded presenters?) and then was asked to move because they wanted to film, how rude. AND THEN to round the day off for amazingness i was sick all over Waterloo station, fantastic.

Anyway none of this works as any sort of excuse for not updating in ages. Shake your fists and blame bloody ezarchive for making their new system thing too confusing. Well actually it isn't -that- confusing but it was enough to put me off till now.

ANYWAY here's our first song, the Kenny Loggins classic 'Highway to the Dangerzone' (the one off Top Gun for those not in the know, duhr). Obv because the world is a dangerous place rammed with master gardeners and strange men stripping. And because i'm in a Tom Cruise sort of mood and would love to be watching Minority Report right now. Instead we plumped for my fourth (?) Mean Girls extravaganza of the year, it's so fetch.

Kenny Loggins - Highway To The Dangerzone

Saturday was extremely exciting (the world is a very exciting place at the moment, sorry) as myself and the erstwhile mr Phil (as mentioned in my profile) toddled off to Brighton to see the Scissor Sisters, clearly nowhere better. They were as splendid as ever but more excitingly (damnit, -fires up word thesaurus-) were supporting by the fantabulous Gossip. Hence I was reminded how brilliant this song is (and it has indeed been played in NG1, ah har i knew you were wondering!)

The Gossip - Standing In The Way Of Control

Short entry today i'm afraid as This Life is on in a mo. I need proof that not all lawyers are as dull as some of the people on this course, there must be hope for the future! Now i absolutely luuuuve this song. Esthero is Canadian which is always a good thing, unless you are Alanis Morrisette. Basically this song is about being a complete ho, something close to my heart. Plus she has several other fab songs including one with the big mouth man from Gnarls Barkley. He scares me.

Esthero - If Tha Mood

'I know I said it was over but if you ever wanna come over,
I think I got what it takes to make you feel nice'

Teenagers Scare, The Living Shit Out Of Me

(really really want to post some My Chemical Romance -le sigh-)

Much gig-going lately. Last friday should probably not be mentioned for fear of adding to the damage done by the above admission. However last night we saw the splendid Phoenix who were indeed frenchtastic. I'm not entirely sure that really works as a decent descriptive word but I figure if George Bush can make up words then so can I.

However for me Phoenix were upstaged by a tremendous support act by the name of the Deportees. Reasons why they were great: a) they are Swedish, b) they all have long hair and c) they have banjos! woo! Sadly I couldn't find the epic banjo song but figure this one gives a pretty good taste of what to expect.

The Deportees - Damaged Goods

Think Scissor Sisters, crossed with Maroon 5, Grandaddy and Abba. Somehow it works, I promise.

I love love love this song. Perhaps it's bringing back sad childhood memories of the disappointment of never having my own treehouse. Or not. I was never very keen on the dangling, swinging rope ladder factor. Or the insects. Hmm. They do bring back fond memories of Clarissa Explains It All so they can't be all that bad.

I'm From Barcelona - Treehouses

Right well i've held it back long enough. You've had two passibly decent songs, indeed I'm From Barcelona are so bloody hot at the moment, that I think I justify serving up an amazing piece of uber cheese. I'm slightly ashamed to admit that this is my current ringtone. Possibly worse is the number of people i've made miss-call me just so I can hear it. But yeah, one of the greatest songs of the eighties (shut up, there were loads!) and would -most definetly- be played at NG1 haha!

Billy Ocean - Love Really Hurts Without You

Go on download it, you know you want to!

River Running Free

Mmmmmmmmmmm.

Am busy listening to the first song up this evening. It is a bit of a classic but mr ipod seems to have become obsessed with it so who am I to argue? Nina Simone doesn't need any introduction (...and I know nothing about her of any relevance, do you really want to know the fact I know a girl called Nina who was a bit of a ho? I think not). This song really does need to be heard through headphones, fresh air, crisp breeze mmmm. The first 'and i'm feeling good' sends shivers of pleasure down my spine everytime.

Too. Much. Info.

Nina Simone -Feeling Good

As a consequence of my extradiction to Guildford I am now back on the computer of my final year at university, complete with its wonderful selection of music. Er. Bad doesn't exactly cover it: Whitesnake, Gala, Kenny Loggins, and way too much Sean Paul. However what it does have is all the songs I forgot that I really really like. Tying-in marvellously with current events we have a fantastic pop song from 'Abs' (why the awful name? why?), during his estrangement from newly reunited Five (or 5ive, whatever, I always read that as sieve). Hopefully his old band will be able to wack out songs as good as this.

Abs - Stop Sign

This entry is looking a bit dated isn't it? Alright something a bit newer, albeit just as tremedously poppy. I think that all this law school stuff is, what with all the work being so crushingly dull, causing me to desire anything bright, fun and exciting. Hence the High School Musical soundtrack. Luckily or not for you I suspect posting any of that (Stick to The Status Quo!!) would go a little too far over my internally determined copyright limits. Instead you get Betty Curse who i'm sure is a middle class, well brought-up girl from Surrey but is doing her very best to convincingly pull off Angst. Bless. Never shall she top the Avril though.

Betty Curse - Girl With The Yellow Hair

'the girl who stayed in bed and never needed to go to school'

I wish bah.

(anyone know why ezarchive is being so shit? you could have had this yesterday, damn them!)

The Importance Of Keeping Your Clothes On

I'm sat here crying at X Factor, this could not be more embarrassing. The sudden rush of 'Love Lifts Us Up Where We Belong', when the old man who only had one last chance got through, pushed me way over the edge. Go you, ugly old man!

I felt it best to set the mental scene before beginning this entry, perhaps by way of explanation/excuse.

Now I've noticed a general lack of Australians in this blog, obviously a huge oversight on my part, and thus have decided to rectify this forthwith. I'd never heard of Augie March until about a week ago but am reliably informed they are huge down-under. I love this song for two reasons a) because it appears to come from an album called 'Moo, you bloody choir' and b) because the title 'Thin Captain Crackers' makes me think of Parrots and as I've spent/wasted much of last week playing Monkey Island 2 I felt it was appropriate.

Obviously.

Thin Captain Crackers - Augie March

(have to avoid the urge to offer a running commentary on X Factor, the current glasweigan woman is almost fluorescent from overtanning, eww, take note children of essex)

This song is just, bizaare. I tend to think of them sounding a bit like Jamie Liddell but in reality they are dub-reggae-funk or something. It's 9 minutes long so you can basically split it in three parts, the first -brilliantly- funky bit, the second pretty but unnecessary gospel bit and the third odd and disappointing dodgy keyboard/saxophone ensemble. Listen and love the first bit and download their song 'This Room' if you enjoy it.

Wandering Eye - Fat Freddys Drop

It's that time again, I don't think NG1 ever played this song but I might well have exploded if they had done. They only place i've ever heard it out was this amazing bar in Budapest, whereby I went mad and stepped on many angry Hungarian toes. Anyone know 'sorry' in Hungarian?

Anyhoo I digrest, great great dance/pop fabulousness, cannot fail to make me smile.

Push Up - Freestylers

You know what, it's been way to long since we've had something bordering on rock on here. I want loud, snarling guitars, throaty vocals and an obvious drug habit, yeah!...On second thoughts lets just have Dogs Die in Hot Cars instead to celebrate my return to (deserved) dossing around as a scummy student:

Lounger - Dogs Die in Hot Cars

And so to Guildford!

There's So Much That We Need To Share

Right so it has actually been ages since I updated this, for which I offer no apologies because I'm just that sort of girl.

The true reason for my absence was forgetting my username and not having the drive to fill in the appropriate form. Lala. I've been preoccupied with researching conspiracy theories about driving test examiners (bastards) and worrying about the outbreak of potential bird flu that our road experienced (6 pigeons dead in two days, result!). Sadly it seems we got the woman from Defra excited for nothing as I bet it will turn out they all had this: http://environment.guardian.co.uk/conservation/story/0,,1871512,00.html

Poor birdies :(

Anyway to business! I'm loving the current(yes yes I know it's been happening for years, i had to start the intro some how) pop trend for mildly sampling older songs and turning them into far greater songs. Or something like that. Prime examples of this are S.O.S. and Maneater, easily the two best pop singles of 2006 thus far. This song overcomes the handicap of having been featured in John Tucker Must Die and is just fab:

Chelsea - Stefy

(It also defys the rule that all things called Chelsea are crap, so full marks to Stefy.)

People get preoccupied with the idea that mashups are a lesser form of musical output because they require less creativity. Bollox. This Johnny Cash v. Wu Tang Clan shows how the most unlikely collaboration can really turn out brilliantly:

Johnny Cash Rules Everything Around Me - Iron Monkey

To commemorate the utter fantasticness of Pearl Jam at Reading I was going to put Iron Man by Black Sabbath up here but I thought that might be a little counterproductive in getting people to read this. In a complete turnaround we havesomething nice and pretty up here instead. If it hasn't already been used expect this song to pop up in a nice dramatic part of either the OC or Greys Anatomy. Probably after a blazing row, tears, lots of 'damn' and 'hell, and things being smashed.

'the clouds in your eyes
down your face they pour'

Closer - Joshua Radin

And to round things off we need a good NG1 song (<3). SuperJupiter have a stupid name but the pretty decent *cough* Napolean-Dynamite rip off *cough* video for this song just about redeems that. Enjoy:

You Know - SuperJupiter


(....go West Ham yeah!)