I went to see some of my favourite musicians play in Oxford for like the first time EVER last night as the Ninja Tune posse came down to find that the Zodiac had printed up flyers saying the label was called Ninja Tunes and advertsing theri web address as ninjatunes.net, which it isn’t. At least they made the effort, bless. (go to and buy everything, go on) DJ Food were brilliant, although still adjusting – they made a few mistakes which they blamed on it being the first night of the tour, and it took DK a few goes to scratch out the tune to the Addam’s family. But the breadth of music the played and the skill with which they mixed it was incredible. Why can’t all club nights be made this way?

It is Therapy? next week. I expect to behave like an excited child.

well kinda, i got the mp3s on a cd. i listened to them twice in a row while we were playing staff scrabble. it’s amazing, it rocks like an evil mutha and pops like a balloon that’s been overfilled with fun power. the guilt has set in now, however, and i’m gonna have to buy it at the weekend when i’m in the big city, but it’s really so good i’d pay twice the asking price. i’m gonna go back to stunned silence now.

just a quick word about j spaceman and his gang. well, they were very very good. it felt like as well as writing a bunch of new songs in that long break, they also perfected a great deal of their old stuff. the sound at the corn exchange is generally noted for its shiteness, but every note seemed absolutely perfect. the new stuff slotted in well with the old blah blah, and it was nice to hear something different, but it was still the old ones like let it flow and the the two spacemen 3 songs that stood out. i went to the gig feeling generally ill, and as there was no support, i struggled with the wait for them to come on, but about ten seconds into cop shoot cop i had been reminded of why i first got into spiritualized in the first place, and as lame it sounds, i felt about fifteen again (ah memories), all wide eyed, completely astounded that that noise up there was being made by some dreary looking thirtysomethings.

they did play for like 2 hours too, which seems to be a very rare thing nowadays. so, er, hats off and all that. i envy stu whos seeing em tonight at the royal albert hall i believe. bet its even more fantastical.

i did also see melt banana on monday, who were as great as everyone else has already said. due to some nasty drunkeness, i gave £4.60 to some sketchy guy for a copy of his bands cd. but! low and behold, its not half bad. the kevorkian solution i think they’re called. sounds like something in between melt banana and dillinger escape plan i would say (but with not as good production).

so there you have it. crappy reviews and pointless obscure music reccomendations. i so rock.

everyone here at diskant hs been rendered speechless by the new Fugazi album. seriously, it’s that good!

i’m feeling weak and fragile after possibly my worst day at work since i started there four years ago. so, i’ve got the vincent gallo album on warp records to listen to and i gotta say it’s the most exquisite, beautiful, touching, personal and artistic record i’ve heard in a long time. from the elaborate book-style packaging onwards it seems clear that vincent, or mr gallo to me, should be friends with all of us.

and if you haven’t seen buffalo ’66 yet, either, then that’s this week’s movie go see tip!

Don’t mention the NME either. Even though the fact that it’s crap has been staring me in the face for ages, i’ve only just stopped buying it. I used to read it in my half hour lunch at work every wednesday (i don’t mean i’m only allowed to eat lunch on wednesday, that’s just the day i bought it) – it was ever so slightly better than nothing and the content was so lame that i could eat and read it at the same time without too much brain action. But yeah, i finally stopped getting it. What clinched it for me was the story about the White Stripes signing some million pound deal with some label or other, and as an illustration they’d done a mock up of a cheque for a million quid with a caption that said ‘what that cheque may have looked like’. That really did sting quite a bit. And that was the end of my NME reading career. And i still hate Kerrang! since they slated me nearly two years ago. But i’m not bitter.

Rock. If you don’t know me I’m the events hadler. Or gig boy. Anyhow might as well let you all know that I’ve been doing some serious events research recently. Last Thusday (27th Oct) was Coventry with the glorius Souvaris. I thought they were great they thought they were crap. Typical huh? If you not familiar with them they have six members and play long instrumental sound scapes that meander a bit, lurch a bit and just generally make you feel all warm and fuzzy. Sunday (30th Oct) was Portsmouth and an all dayer with Hirameka Hi-Fi, Caretaker, Escanna and disoma among others. Caretaker were very late and while I was drunk I just wasn’t impressed. Hirameka were ace however, played some new stuff too all of which sounded wonderful. Escanna were the best I’d ever seen them play and disoma just plain rocked. Anyhow Bristol yesterday for Les Savy Fav, Enon, Kiska and Mountain Men Anonymous. MMA did their heavy instrumental thing well; Kiska did a groovier instrumental thing; Enon were just plain ace and Les Savy Fav were Les Savy Fav. If you’ve not seen them yet you must. Arty-Punk stuff. They even played Paradise City by Guns ‘n’ Roses during a fuck up with the guitarists gear, glorious. Next is Oxford on Monday for Billy Mahonie and Jullander. It’s tough working for Marceline but the job does have it’s good parts. Be back soon and sorry for the shit descriptions and reviews but that ain’t my job. Bye Bye…

About six months ago I managed to wean myself off buying the NME every week as it was 94% crap and costing me way too much money. However I’ve now started buying Kerrang! most weeks which, while being much more interesting and informative, costs even more than the NME. Hmm.

But there’s a rather good feature on Fugazi in this week’s Kerrang! Not long ago I would have been highly surprised and dubious of this fact but Kerrang! is certainly gaining my respect. Although granted an interview with the band they’ve obviously had to dumb the whole thing down to the level of your average Slipknot fan who’s probably never come across Fugazi yet but it’s a nice little introductory piece. The pictures are really cool as well.

I’ve been reading the Punk Planet collected interviews book and, having read the interviews with Ian Mackaye and Jem Cohen plus the Kerrang! thing, I’m now desperate to watch the Instrument video again. why couldn’t I have thought of it while I was off work ill?

and Melt Banana were fantastic on John Peel last night even though I had to blu-tac my aerial to a plastic bottle to get a half-decent reception. very much looking forward to seeing them in Glasgow tomorrow.

on my way home tonight I saw Aidan from Arab Strap talking on a cellphone outside the 24 hour shop on Byres Road. However, that’s also right next door to Blockbuster so I think he’s probably succumbed to the charms of Steve, the hilariously patronising video store guy who works there. and who can blame him?

I did go to the record store after work but ended up only buying the Papa M mini album and the new one by Tara Jane O’Neil. I have no idea why I didn’t buy the Papa M thing when it came out – I’ve seen him play these songs live three times and been singing them for days after yet never thought to actually buy them. I was going to buy the new Les Savy Fav as well but I didn’t have enough cash on me and the counter at Missing is too high for me to sign Switch card receipts on. I’d have to stand on a box and frankly I don’t want to make that much of an idiot of myself.

Argh, don’t even mention boxsets. I made a disgusting impulse buy yesterday and ended up getting the scream trilogy boxset which i so can’t afford. I was ill, i got confused, they were playing the new Ian Brown album in the shop and i just lost my mind. I wouldn’t mind but scream 2 and scream 3 are so, so crap! And what the hell are Jay and Silent Bob doing in scream 3?

Oh yeah, and i’ve got an american express pen if you want it, marceline. Corporate enough?