Listening:

The last record I bought was the debut by Bracken, which was purchased from Monorail purely on the basis that it was on the Anticon label, and they can seemingly do no wrong. This is no exception and may be my favourite album this year so far. I guess I should probably review it properly some time.

My iPod, however, is largely playing host to old episodes of In Our Time, the Radio 4 programme in which Merlvyn Bragg chats to three academic types about history, science and philosophy. The site only allows you to download the last episode, but a workmate has been archiving them for the past year or so, and I’ve set myself the marathon task of listening to each one, as well as the new ones when they come out.

Imagine a world in which, in order to listen to a radio programme or watch TV, you had to sit in front of a little box at exactly the right time! Apparently people used to do that! Madness.

Reading:

The lecturer who took the writing course I’ve just finished repeatedly recommended Raymond Carver as a master of the short story, so I’m finally getting round to reading his collection “Cathedral”. His style is very clipped and minimal, which is refreshing if a little dry at times, but they are all expertly constructed. Like Bukowski but without the rage.

Watching:

Nothing on TV, since Doctor Who finished. Well, ok, and the odd episode of Big Brother, which has caught me more this year than the last few, but not in the same obsessive way as the first few years.

Last night we watched The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada which was fabulous. Tommy Lee Jones is, as they say, “the man.”

Anticipating:

Supersonic this weekend. Also, NYC in August for a friend’s wedding then off to Texas to spend time with the inlaws. After that… other stuff I can’t talk about yet.

Working on:

I’ve been working on a desktop Blogging app called “Poster” which will hopefully see a first beta release some time soon, and will be cross-platform and excellent, I assure you. In fact, I’m writing this post on it just now.

Plus occasional tunes, occasional writing, and occasional paralysing panic when I realise that I’ve got a million more important things I should be doing, like getting the flat cleaned up and on the market.

(Adapted from Alistair at Unpopular)

Listening:

Japanese Survival phrase lessons from japanesepod101.com on my iPod. I got by okay in Japan last year but I could really do with knowing phrases like ‘sorry, I am a dullard’, ‘where the hell is this amazing shop I found on the internet?’, ‘can I have a metre of every fabric in your store please?’ and ‘what is this and should I really eat it?’ for when I go back in October. I’m finding it all very useful so far, especially for making use of my tedious bus journeys. Music-wise, I am still obsessed with the Kaput! promo mixes.

Reading:

Finally finished reading the last issue of Beard zine which was highly enjoyable. Lots of festival round-ups (ATP, Instal, Triptych, Green Man etc. etc.) and interviews with the likes of David Berman, Vashti Bunyan, Gay Against You and Dananananaykroyd plus cartoons and stuff. All great! Other than that, mostly books about Japan and crafting, and 17 million blogs.

Watching:

LOST! I have been having to rest my arm lately but I still hate most TV so I was finding it difficult until the amazing Greg Kitten sent me the last bunch of episodes from Season 3 to catch up on. And now I have started watching it all again from Season 1.

Anticipating:

Supersonic this weekend. Who’s all going? Also, JAPAN in October and, um, hmm.

Working on:

My new Asking For Trouble online shop (just launched – go see!), purses and things for the Miso Funky Market next Thursday in Glasgow, diskant redesign (still), Glasgow Craft Mafia launch event.

What are you doing?

Well, everyone has been very quiet lately so what are you up to? I have been up to my eyes in STUFF, both good and bad. So here you are:

YAY!

Miso Funky Shop
Can you believe it? Me and the Miso Funky gang are opening a real life actual SHOP at The Barras in Glasgow this weekend! If you’re in the area do come along to say hello, view our lovely handmade crafts (including MF’s hilarious Emo-broidery) and sample the free cake. Yes, I said FREE CAKE! More info here.

Giant Robot
Despite the fact that all their galleries are thousands of miles away, I am an avid subscriber of the Giant Robot email newsletter as all their shows look so cool and feature my favourite pop culture artists. When I eventually get to visit the USA, they will be top of my list of places to visit so I can buy everything in their shop. They also put out a magazine packed full of Asian art, design and kawaii. I picked up the latest issue in Edinburgh and it is awesome. Also, ROBOTS!

URRRRRRR
I am still very much into electronic music that goes URRRRRRRRRRRR. All hail then the marvellous Glasgow club night Kaput! whose recent downloadable promo mix is amazing and the new Optimo comp CD Walkabout which is similarly great. Other than that, I am mostly listening to the new Electrelane (glorious!), new M.I.A. tracks (stupidly, infectiously brilliant) and anything that still sounds okay with only one earphone (see below).

ARGH!

Broken Headphones
Boo hoo! I have a two hour bus journey for work every day plus numerous other buses and walkings so I rely very heavily on my iPod to entertain me (and stop my bus rage from exploding when having to wait for 20mins in the rain). But now my headphones have broken and only one ear works, the other stuttering in and out depending on what angle I hold my head. I have tried to buy some new ones but I cannot find any that aren’t crappy earbuds (always fall out, have dreadful sound leakage) or are massive over-ear things (great but too bulky to shove in your pocket). I have even been too busy to order something online. I am getting a lot of reading done though.

No Shellac
How is the new Shellac? 1000 Hurts was possibly the most eagerly anticipated album in diskant’s history and yet I have read virtually nothing about the new one. I went to purchase it last week but they had SOLD OUT of the vinyl! I picked up the CD but I couldn’t bring myself to actually buy it. Must have the vinyl! If anyone wants to, ahem, provide me with MP3s while I wait for an opportunity to get back down the shops let me know :)

Rainy Days
No really, where did Summer go? Was there a timeblip that pushed us back to February?

First record you bought and do you still own it?

The Cult: Revolution 7″, bought from Morrisons in Staveley for 99p. I still have it, but it doesn’t get played too often these days. In those days Morrisons was a rich source of cheap ex-chart vinyl. Revolution really opened the floodgates. I don’t remember the second – probably something ridiculous like The Gap Band.

Last record you bought

4 LP box set of 14th century secular French music from Oxfam in Bath. Haven’t had the courage to listen to it yet.

Last song you downloaded

As we speak (as I type) I’m in the middle of downloading mnortham’s Geosynclines (processed recordings of natural geophysical phenomena, or something) and Will Guthrie’s Spear, which is a solo improv percussion album that I’ve heard people losing their minds over, which must be especially good given that it’s only actually 8 minutes long.

Last song/record you went to enormous lengths to find

I dunno, everything seems so easy these days, what with the internet and stuff. I’m lazy, too – I can’t imagine anything ever being worth tremendous effort. I mean, how good can a piece of rare music really be? Ha ha.

Most elaborately packaged record you own

My currently unreleased solo album is currently packaged in a Ford Fiesta.

Last song you listened to

Cheer-Accident: Graceful Beautiful Animal, from the soundtrack to Gumballhead The Cat. I’m pretty sure that Cheer-Accident are a band that it’s not possible to introduce anyone to. You can’t play anyone individual tracks of theirs, because none of them are particularly memorable or exciting. You have to listen to whole albums. And it’s the kind of music that you have to have a sense of ownership to enjoy. I think that if I overheard someone else playing it without knowing what it was, I’d probably write it off as crap.

Favourite mixtape someone made you that you still listen to

The Mintster made me a great tape of 60’s psychedelia a while ago that would still get played often if the cassette player wasn’t presently upstairs in a box. Mar-c also made me a great mix of POPMUSIC that I actually started to review but never got round to finishing. It will happen, I promise.

What records are you going to buy next?

I’m not allowed to buy any more at the moment.

What are your top 10 most listened to songs on iTunes/last.fm/whatever

According to iTunes:
Shock Headed Peters: Say No To Funk
The Godz: Quack (I’m a Quack)
Thuja: The Magma is the Brother of the Stone
Todd: Hog Blood River
U.S. Maple: Letter to ZZ Top
Sicbay: Herculaneum
Haohio: Marimo
Piero Piccioni: Mr Dante Fontana
Traw & Rhodri Davies: Sgwd Yr Eira
Bing Crosy & Rosemary Clooney: Ol’ Man River

THINGS I LIKE

U.S. Maple
Field recordings
Iceland

NOT

Laying laminate flooring
Dust

Here’s an additional question for future quizanswerers, which I’ve asked some of you before: what are the ten worst/most unlistenable songs in your collection?

First record you bought and do you still own it?

I believe it was The Empire of the Sun soundtrack LP. I couldn’t tell you why. I’m sure it’s sitting in a box somewhere at my parents’ house.

Last record you bought

The double CD reissue of Pavement’s Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain.

Last song you downloaded

I couldn’t tell you, as I don’t really download music. I did, however, copy Psapp’s cover of “Everybody Wants To Be A Cat” recently.

Last song/record you went to enormous lengths to find

The World of Need, Land of Greed compilation LP that Trustkill put out sometime in the mid-90s. It was a bunch of hardcore bands doing covers of Embrace songs, I think to benefit a charity. I wanted it for the Sparkmarker song on there–this was before I knew who Embrace were–but I passed it up when they were selling it at a show, and I didn’t see it again until probably close to five years later at Crosstown Music in downtown Vancouver. I bought it. The record isn’t very good, but it was a satisfying purchase.

A few months ago, I scoured ebay for a copy of Patti Smith’s Piss Factory/Hey Joe 7″ with the Mapplethorpe cover, but using ebay for record collecting is cheating.

Most elaborately packaged record you own

The Roswell Project 7″ on Bacteria Sour. Not a very good band or record, but worth owning for the packaging. For the Pushead nerds out there, I have the green cover version with the file folder.

Last song you listened to

Cerulean Transience Of All My Imagined Shores by Disembowelment.

Favourite mixtape someone made you that you still listen to

I don’t have a cassette player anymore.

What records are you going to buy next?

I haven’t thought about it. Since I’m in a 1990s nostalgia phase this week, probably some Superchunk or Dinosaur Jr or something along those lines.

What are your top 10 most listened to songs on iTunes/last.fm/whatever

From my work itunes (in descending order):

Lisa Loeb – Stay
Kids – This is Rock n’ Roll
Descendents – Bikeage
Patti Smith – Pissing in a River
Three Mile Pilot – On A Ship To Bangladesh
Descendents – Hope
Flying Saucer Attack – For Silence
Articles of Faith – Hollow Eyes
Descendents – Catalina
Descendents – Jean Is Dead

THINGS I LIKE

Cats
Pandas

NOT

I’m trying not to be as negative anymore, so I’m not going to answer this.

First record you bought and do you still own it?
The first record I bought myself was the Snap album “The Power”. I don’t still own it. The first record I remember having was The Beatles 67-70 and I still have that though it’s not the same copy.

Last record you bought
I bought a load of stuff in Chicago at the same time: Eddie Murphy “Comedian” LP, Pharoah Sanders “Tauhid” CD, Reissue of “Blind Joe Death/John Fahey” LP, Borbetomagus 7″, UOA 7″, Sun Ra LP the name of which escapes me, Earthless LP, Ornette Coleman “Dancing In Your Head” LP, Thurston Moore/Nels Cline Live CD, Loren Connors “The Departing Of A Dream Vol II” CD, Ken Vandermark’s School Days “In Our Times” CD. It’s the most music I have bought in ages and I’ve only listened to a small bit of it.

Last song you downloaded
I am not a big downloader but I did get all the old Scratch Acid stuff off Soulseek.

Last song/record you went to enormous lengths to find
Not counting Tauhid by Pharoah Sanders (as I settled on the reissue CD) it would be this weird double 7″ called Burlap Fantasy (it’s an 8 track dub-style mix of Mississippi Queen by Mountain) that I heard on WFMU.

Most elaborately packaged record you own
Harry Smith Anthology Of American Folk Music Vol 4 on Revenant. Or “America” by John Fahey.

Last song you listened to
“Holy Teeth” – Comets On Fire

Favourite mixtape someone made you that you still listen to
Chris Thrash made me a really good one called “Don’t Sweat The Technics” a long while ago that was great. Luke Younger made me a few too that were equally good and all feature still in my bath time tape collection.

What records are you going to buy next?
God knows. Probably Bonnie Prince Billy.

What are your top 10 most listened to songs on iTunes/last.fm/whatever
I use none of the above so will guess from my stereo/car stereo.

Comets On Fire – Holy Teeth
Comets On Fire – The Swallow’s Eye
The Gories – Thats The View From Here
The Kills – Cat Claw
PW Long – Stand Up!
The Monorchid – Beard Of Bees
The Monorchid – Distortion
Awesome Color – Hat Energy
Awesome Color – Free Man
Excelsior – Hoedown at the Thunderdome (aka Hoedown At Dude Ranch)

THINGS I LIKE
Going boating on a canal (www.flickr.com/photos/sumlin)
Being in Chicago
The Monorchid at The Note, Chicago
Uzeda guitarist Agostino
Buying a copy of my own guitar for £100
Awesome Color live
My new Polaroid
New Felix songs

NOT
Being in Nottingham
My next door neighbour practising his rapping skills (sorry, skillz) at 7am at concert volume
Being skint
The people of Sneinton

Hello strangers.

First record you bought and do you still own it?
Push by Bros, on casette. Lost to history I’m afraid.

Last record you bought
I had a spree on Saturday and bought Motorhead, Charles Mingus, the Best of Blondie (my favourite Blondie record) and New Nina Nastasia and Uzeda records.

Last song you downloaded
Don’t really do much of that, the 21st century is not for me. I listened to Dananananaykroyd and Field Music on Myspace yesterday, if that counts.

Last song/record you went to enormous lengths to find
Pass. I’m a very lazy man.

Most elaborately packaged record you own
I can’t think of anything particularly elaborately packaged. The Unit Ama CD has a ribbon around it, I have some nice looking Shellac seven inches. Records on Run of the Mill sometimes come with free elastic bands.

Last song you listened to
‘The thought of one’s own death’ by Sweep the Leg Johnny.

Favourite mixtape someone made you that you still listen to
First in a while came from Mr Nick Jones for my birthday and it was very good.

What records are you going to buy next?
new Shellac and Joanna Newsome when they come out, and perhaps Noxagt. John Fahey, Nico, Discharge and Dirty Three are on my ‘old records to buy’ list.

What are your top 10 most listened to songs on iTunes/last.fm/whatever.

What? er, here are 10 songs I like –

Greater than Symbol by Dananananaykroyd
Escort of Soda by Valina
Human Canonball by Butthole Surfers
In Context by Field Music
Dead Song by The Birthday Party
Government Center by Bilge Pump
Ace of Spades by Motorhead
Futures and Pasts by The Fall
Square King by Nels Cline
Charlies Laptop by I Had An Inkling

Very quick

THINGS I LIKE
Fanny’s Ale and Cider House, bike-riding, eggplant, zucchini.

And NOT
Lack of free time, the vegetable ‘fennel’, framing pictures.

Were these last two questions supposed to be music-based? Sorry.

What better way to break my rather lengthy blogging absense than an annoying Myspace style quiz? Would have posted this as a comment to Mar-C’s but it had too many line breaks apparently….

First record you bought and do you still own it?
Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em by MC Hammer, on cassette, and no.

Last record you bought
Moon Pix by Cat Power, ebay bargain.

Last song you downloaded
New Harvey Milk album.

Last song/record you went to enormous lengths to find
Trunk edition of The Wicker Man soundtrack. After what seemed like years of looking I scored a pristine copy on ebay for £20, which was fine by me.

Most elaborately packaged record you own
The Harmony of the Spheres 3xLP box set on Drunken Fish. Real nice.

Last song you listened to
Flight of the Eagle by Om

Favourite mixtape someone made you that you still listen to
No one makes me mixtapes (HINT)

What records are you going to buy next?
Top of the list right now are:
Gareth Hardwick/LOTRH lathe cut
Comets on Fire – Avatar
Om – Conference of the Birds
and a million others.

What are your top 10 most listened to songs on iTunes/last.fm/whatever.
1. Animal Collective – The Purple Bottle
2. Scout Niblett – Miss My Lion
3. Panda Bear – untitled
4. Growing – Freedom Towards Death
4. Growing – untitled
6. Animal Collective – We Tigers
7. Neutral Milk Hotel – Song Against Sex
8. Neutral Milk Hotel – Oh Comely
8. Animal Collective – Grass
8. Black Eyes – Some Boys

In other news I have been ill in one way or another pretty much since 2006 began. Which has been rubbish. I did attend Cambridge’s annual Palimpsest Festival last month, which was as excellent as last year led us to expect. Some very special sounds in particular from Sunburned Hand of the Man, Directing Hand and Alasdair Roberts. And as Mar-C mentioned not so long ago, ATP is only a few short months away. If anyone would care to join me in pushing the carnage envelope please do speak up.

Very quick THINGS I LIKE
The films of Herschell Gordon Lewis
The onset of autumn
Newcastle Brown Ale
Alan Moore’s Promethea

And NOT
Missing Blood Red Shoes at the Portland tonight
The public

Random music-related survey. Do your own if you like.

First record you bought and do you still own it?
When Will I Be Famous? by Bros on 7″ and I do still own it, though I haven’t listened to it in a long time.

Last record you bought
The Last of the Real Hardmen/Gareth Hardwick lathe cut 8″. It looks lovely. I haven’t listened to it yet.

Last song you downloaded
A song called Hugs by a band called Kawaii. It sounded too cute to miss. It is very cute Scando-indiepop

Last song/record you went to enormous lengths to find
The theme song to the Paradise Kiss anime series by someone called Tommy february6. It’s a delightfully bizarre Japanese/English hybrid called Lonely in Gorgeous, whatever that means. I ended up on Limewire, for shame.

Most elaborately packaged record you own
Definitely has to be the Aufgehoben album on Fourier Transform, being as it is the only record I am too scared to even attempt to open.

Last song you listened to
Something Kinda Oooh by Girls Aloud which I “acquired” at the weekend. It is fantastic.

Favourite mixtape someone made you that you still listen to
Kompilatione ist Rad by Simon Bond, a friend from my Ride days. It includes an amazing remix of DOSE featuring Mark E Smith that I have never managed to track down plus Doorstop Rhythmic Bloc by Prolapse and He’s on the Phone by Saint Etienne.

What records are you going to buy next?
I’m looking forward to the new Bertine Zetlitz album and I think I’m going to have to give in and buy the CSS album since Alasdair won’t let me borrow it again.

What are your top 10 most listened to songs on iTunes/last.fm/whatever.
1. Rachel Stevens – Crazy Boys
2. Girls Aloud – Biology
3. Hood – The Lost You
4. Errors – Mr Milk
5. Rachel Stevens – I Said Never Again (But Here We Are)
6. Girls Aloud – Models
7. Girls Aloud – Wild Horses
8. Errors – songos ya mongos!
9. Rachel Stevens – Funny How
10. M.I.A. – Galang

In case anybody is in need of a designer (for record sleeves, flyers, posters, websites etc) I’ve just put a load of my work online to see – mostly music-based but some other things in there as well.

www.nineteenpoint.com

Enjoy, and drop me a line if you need a designer to make your things look right nice.

(ps. I’m not trying to go head-to-head with Chris in the design playoffs here… it is a coincidence!)