Steven Wells, one of the greatest music journalists ever, has died of cancer. Growing up, I remember fondly his contributions to NME particularly in the Thrills section (an antidote to the tedious voice-of-a-generation pretensions of the rest of the paper). Unlike most music journalists he (1) was funny (2) disliked overserious miserable music. ( Read more... )

Standing In The Way Of Control on the pan pipes. This is rock'n'roll. They also immeasurably improve Pigeon Detectives and The Fratellis. Not really, but at least they try.

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I don't think I've mentioned my love for miserable all-girl synth band Au Revoir Simone. Probably my favourite track off the Bird of Music album is Sad Song, which you can hear on their MySpace. It does sound very like Slumber Party, which is certainly no bad thing ( Read more... )

From Overheard in New York:Creepy Casanova: Want to hear the worst pick up line ever? 'Does this rag smell like chloroform to you?'
Don't knock it, I'm sure it works quite often ( Read more... )

I bought the Lucky Soul album about 1 hour ago. I've only listened to four songs so it's a bit premature for a review, but when she sings, "I want you so bad that it hurts", I believe her. Yay ( Read more... )

I have started to write a short story sitting at my desk in the office. The first sentence is: "Jason hated his coworkers." I haven't got much further. My name is not Jason. Also I have started to write in a (comparatively) terse style with short sentences and little punctuation other than full stops (and brackets (rarely ( Read more... )