I’ve got a new standard in hand-made sleeves for albums that all other records will now need to live up to. Remember how the booklet from GY!BE‘s second album stank like some dead fish you’d found down the back of your sofa and then wiped your arse with? I always that would be the most pungent record I would ever own.

BUT THEN! Thankfully, the brand new Espers LP from our most recent interviewees Time-Lag Records, smells HEAVENLY. It’s a lovely chocolate colour mini-pak sleeve, and as soon as you pull it from its plastic sleeve you’re hit by the loveliest aroma imaginable from a mere piece of (thick, highly tactile) card. Seriously, it’s like taking a hit of pure goodness, or something. Nice music too.

You have to love it when mail comes at all hours. It’s 10.30pm and a parcel just arrived, delivered by the neighbour, with a note on it saying “please deliver to number three – thanks, postie”. It actually said “postie” ! Marvellous.

What’s more, the parcel contained the CHECK ENGINE album in its limited edition hand-produced form; hand-sprayed sleeve with hand-written tracklisting and hand-glued googly eyes on the front, and hand-inserted random items inside. God Bless Late Post !

I’ve always been a keen believer in the ‘downloading music actually helps record sales’ line and am now realising my mistake. It is true that I download stuff to hear what it sounds like and that if I really really like it then I go buy the actual record so that I don’t have to listen to it on my computer and/or can have it on lovely vinyl too. BUT I see now what I have actually been doing is going to eBay and buying the records I like secondhand! So no extra money for record label or band. I wonder when the RIAA will turn their stupid minds towards eBay, record exchanges and charity shops. You’re all killing music!!

I’m also vaguely bemused by the fact that the most oft-downloaded MP3s from my collection on Soulseek are the Washing Machine album by Sonic Youth and Let’s Get Ready To Rhumble by PJ & Duncan.

As well as a “log”, this can also be a handy way to communicate. Chris! Don’t buy a Playstation you fool! Get a Gamecube, or a Gameboy Advance, or something else that is made by Nintendo and not by some bunch of Nazis. Get a SNES! They’re cheap on eBay and just as amazing as they were in 1992.

We have a Mac and iPods. We’re going to hell, but in a very nice, flashy, and distinctly non-Microsoft kind of way. We also just got fast internet for the first time, which has made for some very exciting Soulseek experiences. Thanks to Mister Stockwell, Charalambides have also been on my “Why Was I Not Listening To This Band Years Ago” list. Other recent favourites have been Wolf Eyes and anything to do with them, anything on the Siltbreeze or Blackbean and Placenta labels, and in a fit of 6th Form nostalgia, the Super Furry Animals. Them were the days. I also have a part time job in a record store, which pays worse than you could ever imagine, but at this point, I’m in no position to complain. Discounts galore, so I guess it works out. Lastly, we saw Kill Bill Vol. 1, and it was far, far better then either of us were expecting. Quite looking forward to the new one, which I believe is out tomorrow.

ooh, and another thing. i was in a restaurant on Bank Holiday weekend, and who walked in? ‘Hat’ from Busted. I dunno his real name, i forget, so he’s ‘Hat’, because he was wearing one. The one from Southend. I felt his presence before he even sat down, so mighty was the feeling of ROCK within the room.

Then i saw Shaun of the Dead, which was good. Go see that.

“log”, right. got it. i can talk about mundane shit.

i’ve been kinda sickly lately. a cold, they call it. felt worse than that. when you can’t be bothered to say owt cos it seems too much effort to pass air through your throat and you blow blood out of your nose, “cold” seems like a lame description. whatever. it didn’t stop me from smoking a dozen spanish Camel cigarettes a day. Hardcore. And they’re in a SOFT PACK too.

We all know smoking makes you look COOL, but taking a cigarette from a soft pack makes you look 3 times as cool. And if you’re doing it when you’re ill, you’re the coolest motherfucker alive! Yeah. Anyway, soft packs. So cool. Give the pack a wee flick on the bottom and one pokes out of the pack, amazing stuff. I was in a club the other week, looking like the coolest motherfucker alive (naturally), when i flicked the pack and two cigs flew out of the pack, one onto the floor next to me, one onto the dancefloor. So fucking cool.

Oh so I have to talk about what I’ve been up to like a “log”! Sorry…

So today I got up, had a bowl of cereal, looked at Teletext. Then I got in my car, drove to work. I logged into my computer and sat sorting out peoples electric accounts until around 9.30 when I had a break to have a cup of tea. Then at about 11 I went for a massive poo and took my phone in the toilet and failed to break my personal best of 55 on the game Bananas.

I took lunch at 1 (ham and mustard sandwiches). I had around 4 tea/coffee breaks in the afternoon and left at 4 in my car to go home. I had a slight argument with my girlfriend at about 4.45. I then practised with my friend Gareth for a couple of hours ending in me farting into a microphone and looping it through my amp.

I have just had another cup of tea and drawn a picture of a nob in photoshop.

Later on I will have a shower, I might have a wank beforehand so I’m clean when I go to bed which should be around midnight depending if I watch the last hour of The Burbs that I taped last night.

chris

x

I have been thinking about getting a Playstation but they cost so much and I don’t have the time to use them. Talking of which my finances are a nightmare because of my car. I love my car but TWENTY THREE MILES A GALLON. Jesus. And it’s hardly a fanny magnet.

Oh so I have to talk about what I’ve been up to like a “log”! Sorry…

So today I got up, had a bowl of cereal, looked at Teletext. Then I got in my car, drove to work. I logged into my computer and sat sorting out peoples electric accounts until around 9.30 when I had a break to have a cup of tea. Then at about 11 I went for a massive poo and took my phone in the toilet and failed to break my personal best of 55 on the game Bananas.

I took lunch at 1 (ham and mustard sandwiches). I had around 4 tea/coffee breaks in the afternoon and left at 4 in my car to go home. I had a slight argument with my girlfriend at about 4.45. I then practised with my friend Gareth for a couple of hours ending in me farting into a microphone and looping it through my amp.

I have just had another cup of tea and drawn a picture of a nob in photoshop.

Later on I will have a shower, I might have a wank beforehand so I’m clean when I go to bed which should be around midnight depending if I watch the last hour of The Burbs that I taped last night.

chris

x

I need to alert all you film-makers and friends of film-makers out there. Or dance groups, or anything silent and performance based really. Me and my friend Gareth are involved in doing a music project called EOM. We played one gig doing it but we really started it to soundtrack films or events or installations maybe. Basically we want to collaborate with other non musical types to create something musical and visual as an end result.

Here’s the official word:

“EOM (Economy of Motion) is a two-piece guitar duo based in the East Midlands of England comprising of Gareth Hardwick and Chris Summerlin. We create semi-improvised ambient music that is both sinister and calming.

EOM would like to work with filmmakers/visual artists to create a soundtrack to their work and if possible, perform the music live at a screening or exhibition. EOM are also looking for offers to play at any interesting spaces or installations.

More information, together with mp3 samples of music can be found at http://members.aol.com/hardwickgj or contact us at hunniisfunni@aol.com”

But if you want to work with us let me know on the email above. I guess some reference points for what we do would be the Twin Peaks Angelo Badalamenti stuff, maybe Charalambides if you were lucky enough to catch them at atp, Sonic Youth, Stars Of The Flid. You know what I mean.