Things I can’t shut up about at the moment:

Nintendo DS Lite
I have almost pre-ordered one twice now but the Friday launch date and letterbox size/grumpy postmen scenario makes me think getting one delivered is not the best option. If I have to spend the launch weekend knowing my new DS is at my work or at my delivery office I will probably cry (or claw my way into either building). Obviously Animal Crossing will be my first game purchase. I’m currently deciding between Wario Ware and Zoo Keeper as my second. The choice would be easier if I could work out where the hell I put my GBA and games when I moved house. Sigh.
[Update – I found them under the stairs! WarioWare still rules.]

iTunes
The program too, but mostly the Music Store. It’s like eBay to the power of Amazon. Not only can I pick up random pop songs I hear on the radio and continue to avoid having to purchase CD singles to get the remixes or b-sides, I can buy just the good (PSB produced) half of Dusty Springfield’s Reputation album and Girls Aloud videos. At 79p a track and with a credit card tie-in that beats even PayPal for the illusion of free money, they’ve even got me buying stuff twice – once on vinyl for the house and then MP3s for my iPod. Pure evil genius, I tells you. In a similar vein, I am in awe of PlusDeck, a cassette player for your PC so you can convert tapes to MP3. I want one of these rather badly – make a Mac version!

Crowded Teeth
These all involve shopping, don’t they? Crowded Teeth make wonderful Tshirts, hoodies, patches etc. for girls and guys and I am loving them. I have already bought Tshirts with bunny flowers and bears going Grrr! and now she has a SALE on I have succumbed and ordered more. Fuzzy apple prints!

Current listening: Dusty Springfield, Gay Against You, Econoline, Otterley, Pet Shop Boys, :(, Park Attack.

diskant interview slackness stats: Interviewees: 2, Me: 3

Well, not entirely but I’ve just been doing some of the tedious re-keywording of the entire diskant archives (oh the fun of an Overlord evening) and re-reading our ATP round-ups with much nostalgia. Those truly were “the days”.

Anyway, looks like Barry Hogan has been keeping an eye out as I see we predicted both Sleater-Kinney and Mudhoney as future curators back in our ATP 2004 round-up. Go us.

Gay Against You know the meaning of entertainment, and fun. Their recent support slot for Lightning Bolt was so entertaining that we barely stopped laughing throughout the duration of their half hour set. COSTUMES OVER CONTENT boasts their Myspace, a slogan worthy of OXES Rowdyism at its best. When we saw them, this involved 80s PE kits, homemade bandanas and covering their faces with multicoloured sticker dots. Despite this claim, our fears of the content of their CDR being unlistenable nonsense were completely unfounded. Instead it is well-constructed enjoyable idiocy. The CD also comes in a variety of neon coloured sleeves. Mine is pink.

The undeniable highlight of this release is a song called Gay Unicorns which is about, well, gay unicorns and mainly involves chanting UNICORN! UNICORN! over ridiculously dinky keyboards. Plums de la Mer is possibly my favourite though with a catchy tune trying to push its way over the glitchy distorted casio backing, a toy keyboard having nightmares of a hundred toddlers with sticky fingers. Elsewhere, Ppanda is basically a minute and a half of yelping and squealing and general spazzing out. They bookend this CD with Hello and Good-bye, both of which feature what can only be described as a synthesised saxamaccordian. When they played Good-bye live they managed to endear the entire audience into waving at them for a good couple of minutes.

Gay Against You are part of a fine mentalist tradition that spans Atari Teenage Riot, Denim and Diamonds, Les Savy Fav, Devo and, er, Dweeb and are a breath of fresh air in the often po-faced pretentious Glasgow noise/improv scene. Anyone want to put on a FUN, ELECTRONIC version of Subcurrent? Thought not. Anyway, they’re touring in July and have some proper records out then too so look out!

Gay Against You at MySpace

So, festival season begins this weekend with All Tomorrow’s Parties and I have no plans to be at any festivals this summer. The mainstream festivals look as dull as ever (Girls Aloud at V aside of course) and even looking down the final schedule for the two ATPs I can barely find a handful of bands I’d be excited to see. It just seems like too much noize and all the usual ATP bands who played the last 4 events. Sure, ATP isn’t just about the bands but I do kind of resent it a little when I have to take 3 days off work and spend another £100 on travel etc. I really miss going to ATP though so I will be there in December. I must say, I’m looking forward to writing MAR-C AT BUTLINS on the work holiday calendar. If Thurston Moore books a lot of rubbish though I will be MAD.

Anyway, who needs ATP. This weekend I will be seeing (or hearing, at least) Lightning Bolt in the Grand Old Opry in Glasgow, a country and western themed venue complete with cacti, saloon bar and Man Selling Hot Pies. Should be just about as incongruous a setting as Pontins with its murals and pirate sword shops. The dullness of live shows has long been one of my primary moans and I’m glad there’s promoters like Synergy willing to make the effort to make gigs exciting again by using unexpected venues, putting together surprising line-ups or just getting amazing posters up.

Make sure you have a look at our own Chris Summerlin’s awesome gig posters while I’m on the subject. They really do look amazing all together and they’re all for sale. I’ve got my order in, even though my bedroom is already decorated with too many posters of gigs I’ve played at.

If you are going to ATP have fun. Hopefully the diskanteers in attendance will post their highlights when they return. In the meantime have a read of our new Talentspotter profile, of Pangaea Recordings which is full of advice for anyone thinking of starting a label. It’s reminding me of all the hard work I have ahead of me with my next release…

Current listening: Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan, Otterley, Mogwai, Findo Gask, Errors, West End Girls.

Excellent article on The Morning News today about circuit bending – Bend Me, Shape Me. This sounds like lots of fun and probably what they should be teaching kids in science lessons. Music science! Lots of cool pictures of circuit boards too which is always a bonus.

I do take issue with his mockery of the Casio demonstration version of Wham’s Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go though. I have a keyboard featuring this and it’s totally awesome. It even makes an hilarious appearance at the climax of the only song I have actually made up and recorded (with my sister) back in the day. I should dig that out and see if it still makes me laugh.

Many many thanks to 1990s for posting the link to the documentary I mentioned a while back that they hosted for Danish TV*. You can view it online here (link to video is half way down on the right under SE Udsendelsen). It’s basically a post- Franz look at the Glasgow music scene which means nice live footage of 1990s, Lucky Luke, Mother & The Addicts and Franz Ferdinand and bits of chat with Arab Strap, Isobel Campbell, the ubiquitous Stephen Pastel etc. And of course no Glasgow music programme is complete without wee Stuart Mogwai and Barry Burns pissing about town under the euphemism of “showing people around”. This of course means going to Monorail and then Sleazys (as anyone who’s visited Glasgow knows full well) and pointing out that every single person you meet is in a band. All it really lacks is a bit where Glasgow band members insult each other on Myspace and it would be just like the real thing. I haven’t laughed so much at the internet in ages.

* Yes, they did cut out the bit where John introduced me to the camera at the Triptych launch, thank god.

You’ll hopefully have noticed that the diskant homepage is all new and exciting. This has been a long time coming but it took a while to find solutions to the main blight of diskant (= I have no time to keep updating it constantly). So, hope you like it and thanks to Minter for his suggestions and help. You’ll also note there’s now a huge area in the middle for me to blather away about random nonsense (this was not my idea – I am not (entirely) self-obsessed) so expect slightly less of that here. The blogs are due a tidy up also and that’s next on my list. Let me know what you think and keep suggesting events and links we should feature.

Otterley seem to have come straight out of the Postcard era back when guitars used to jangle and chime and boys were skinny and had indie fringes. Obviously I am all for this and Otterley’s two self-released EPs are something of a dream come true for indie nostalgics such as myself. They’re not content to merely hark back to the past though with electronic beats bubbling in and out of these songs. What really sets them apart and stops them from falling into the Postal Service indie/electronica cliche are Gerard’s angelic, yearning vocals (also to be heard in the similarly wonderful Findo Gask) which are unashamedly sung in his lovely Fife accent. When his voice catches on a phrase your heart does break.

From the jangliest guitars this side of Johnny Marr that end up twinkling and sighing (In Camera) through harder distorted electronics that soon tip back into Nintendo bip-bop (Sferics) to Kirsten’s almost too cute for words sassy almost-rapping (Idea Fixed) Otterley bring together the precociousness of early Aztec Camera, the lush oddness of Boards of Canada and the heartbreak of the Field Mice into something all their own. In fact, it’s Gregory’s Girl made into song.

But don’t just take my word for it – both these EPs are available for free download from their website. On you go.

www.otterley.co.uk
www.myspace.com/otterleymusic

(Or where the hell is everyone?)

LISTENING

Mogwai – Mr Beast
They’ve still got it, you know. I Chose Horses nearly made me cry on the bus this evening and then We’re No Here almost made my ears bleed, and yet I barely considered the idea of turning it down. If you ever gave up on them, now’s the time to come back. Nothing else is really grabbing me at the moment – I need to invest in some new records (IDEAS PLEASE – preferably tunes to think to on sunny mornings)

SPENDING

Lots of money on a new iPod
Well worth £200 to only listen to 1 Mogwai album. But I can bore people with photos of my flat and video of my band! Now that’s progress.

Too much time on MySpace
Urgh.

PLANNING

A “short break” in Dublin
Since we are going all the way there to play one gig. Any tips on places to go and things to do? I have never been to Ireland before. The next 100 people to mention drinking and Guinness will get a slap.

The RETURN of Asking For Trouble
I have not shaken hands on any “deals” yet but soon, soon… (also new website very soon – it’s chirpy)

READING

Frank Kuppner
The man is a poetic genius (and that’s just his fiction). He makes me realise my inadequacies and enjoy my idiosyncracies. Criminally, his books are mostly out of print but search them out if you can. He writes of murder and memories and minutae with both astounding flippancy and hearbreaking poignancy. If you’ve ever walked the streets of Glasgow in wonder you’ll want to hug his books.

American magazines
I’m regressing again, to my art school days of The Face and prime era Just Seventeen. The Music Issue of Cosmo Girl USA is the greatest magazine I have read in years. Subsequent issues have not held up. I am still enjoying Nylon though.

NOT READING

The Riddler
I was sent these beautiful zines which are so perfectly formed and folded and sealed with sealing wax that I can’t bear to disturb them. I will try soon.

*As opposed to what I have mostly been doing: sleeping.

My photo diary is here. Enjoy!

ARIGATO – really the only word of Japanese you need and even that can be bypassed with enough bowing and smiling. I’ve never met so many polite and helpful people, from the convenience store staff that call welcomes in unison as you enter to the gift shop staff that package your purchases with intricate care.
BOTANICAL GARDENS – Our free day in Kyoto was my birthday so we went to the Botanical Gardens. I have a thing about Botanical Gardens. It was the most beautiful day and half of Kyoto had the same idea but this turned out to be the most Japanese thing we did all holiday with not a single other tourist in sight. More fool them. The cherry and plum blossom was out and glorious, there were carp in the lake, a garden of bonsai trees, small Japanese children practicing their English by shouting HELLO at us and plenty of room in between the camphor trees to just sit and relax. And all for fifty pence!
CHERRY BLOSSOM – The Japanese go nuts for cherry blossom and when you see it, you understand why. Our luck was in as the cherry blossom was a little early this year and there were pink and white trees blooming everywhere, usually surrounded by hordes of Japanese cooing and taking photos on their mobiles.
DEPARTMENT STORES – We were urged to go to department stores (indeed, our tourist maps from the hotels mainly had department stores and temples marked on them) but we were highly disappointed by the reality of floors and floors of western designer fashion. The two exceptions were Tokyu Hands, basically a hardware store full of cheap mentalism, and the enormous department store within Kyoto Station where we got lost numerous times and spent lots of money in the stationery department and in the little store entirely devoted to cute bunny-related wares.
EATING – Food was probably the most difficult part of Japan, as the hotel was expensive and proper Japanese places were a bit confusing (especially with a vegetarian sister). However, this did allow me to sample all kinds of random foodstuffs from local shops including some awesome chilli noodles and a very pretty (and tasty) bento box. The snacks were considerable fun as well. I’m now quite lost without my tubes of tiny cake slices and panda biscuits. Typically, the two worst meals I had were the ones on included tour days – some very dull ramen in miso and the ‘western style’ meal of barely warm breaded chicken with spaghetti.Why couldn’t they have taken us out for sushi?
FUJI-SAN – We were so lucky to see Mt Fuji. At first we were told we might not get to go at all because of heavy snowfalls then were were allowed up as far as the Fourth Station but there was thick cloud so no views of the summit. And then the clouds lifted magically for 2 minutes so we could see it and then closed back up. Fuji-san really is shy
GASHAPON – We call them egg machines here, you know machines full of plastic eggs containing toys of some kind. Japanese gashapon are full of amazing things usually for ¥100 or ¥200 (50p-£1). We soon started collecting ¥100 coins purely for gashapon and nearly hyperventilated when we found a little shop entirely for the purpose of gashapon in Shibuya. Best find was in the Pokemon Center – gashapon containing tiny Pokemon-branded working gashapon machines full of Pokeballs. Even better you got to build them yourself in ye olde Kinder Egg style. Awesome.
HELLO KITTY – Japan really takes Hello Kitty to a whole new level of madness. Not content with the usual lines of Hello Kitty, Japan has its own series of tourist souvenir Hello Kitty for literally every tourist attraction and destination in Japan. Hello Kitty Tokyo, atop Tokyo Tower with a camera; Hello Kitty Harajuku, dressed up like a cool teen in tartan and leather; Hello Kitty Kyoto, as a geisha; Hello Kitty Nara, wearing a deer costume; Hello Kitty Hakone, inside a black sulphur-cooked egg…
IKEBUKURO – Our base in Tokyo where we stayed in a rather fancy hotel with 25 floors and an all you can eat cake buffet (which, luckily, we only discovered on our final evening). It also sounds great on the automated train announcements. Ikebukuro, Ikebukuro!
JAPANESE FILMS – I watched two of them on the flight. NANA, based on a manga comic about two girls with the same name who meet by chance – one is in a punk band and the other is the most adorable puppydog girl that ever existed. I loved this. I also watched a film called Beat Kids, about some school kids who set up their own marching band and get back at their nasty teacher who tries to take all the credit. This was great until after the obvious ending where they do a crazy jazz routine at the inter-school competition it then carried on with an ultra-complicated plot about two rival rock bands that got so confusing I gave up.
KAWAII – Everything in Japan is kawaii. It only took about 2 days for our cuteness monitors to be reset at a much higher level. Our first afternoon’s shopping in Tokyo ended in Sunshine 60, a vast labyrinth of shops full of cute stuff where we reached a level of cuteness exhaustion that eventually had us on the verge of nervous breakdown in Toys R Us.
LEGWARMERS – My only actual birthday present on the day since technically being in Japan was my birthday present. Nicolette knitted them for me and I highly recommend legwarmers for cold temple floors when they make you take your shoes off.
MUSEE D’ART GHIBLI – The Ghibli Museum was amazing, one of the many highlights of the trip. The building is full of hidden corridors, nooks and staircases displaying original artwork and Ghibli ephemera, as well as explaining the concepts of animation The Totoro zoetrope is one of the greatest things I’ve ever seen, a revolving set of 3D models that magically come to life via strobe lights. It’s impossible to describe but it truly feels like magic. Biggest disappointment of the trip – adults not being allowed to romp on the huge cuddly catbus.
NARA – Home of the world’s largest wooden building which contains Japan’s largest Buddha statue. All this was very interesting but mostly we were amused by the hordes of “wild” deer that harass you for food. Taken singly they will bow to you for a piece of bread in a rather adorable way. In groups however, they become herds of scary zombie deer mowing down anything that gets in the way of FOOOOD.
ONIGIRI – Rice balls. I wish these were readily available in UK shops. I particularly enjoyed the element of surprise of what random foodstuff might be hiding in the middle. I even bought a big cuddly smiling onigiri pillow to take home.
PLASTIC FOOD – Japanese restaurants have creepily accurate plastic imitations of all the meals they serve laid out in the windows so you can see what’s on offer. Bowls of noodles are one thing but plastic imitation pints of beer made my brain hurt.
QOO – Simon P asked me to look out for Qoo which we spotted in the very first vending machine we saw in Japan. Not entirely impressed by what is basically orange squash in a cool bottle, we were still somewhat surprised not to see Qoo in any of the next lot of vending machines. A couple of days’ searching later we spotted Apple Qoo which was much nicer and thus we slowly got sucked into Qoo-spotting insanity and spent half the holiday peering at vending machines. Thanks Simon. Tropical fruit/milk Qoo – odd but nice. Fanta Grape – awesome. Suntory happy apple juice – double awesome.
RIVER KAMO – In some ways we didn’t really ‘do’ Kyoto, having only the one free day there and spending most of that in the Botanical Gardens (and trying to find our way through the vast, shop-filled Kyoto Station). We had intended to have a wander through the geisha district of Gion (an apprentice geisha being pretty much the first thing we saw after getting off the shinkansen) but the nearest we got was wandering back to the hotel along the River Kamo as the sun began to set. It was a lovely walk but we couldn’t work up the energy to leave the hotel again that evening.
SHINKANSEN – We got the bullet train both ways between Tokyo and Kyoto. The first time one went through the station we all collectively gasped at the speed. When you’re on it though, you don’t really notice how fast it’s going (up to 150km). The shinkansen doors are set remotely in Tokyo so they close on time regardless of whether you’re on the train or not!
TEMPLES & SHRINES – We were on an organised holiday tour called ‘Japan Highlights’ but we soon renamed it the Temples and Shrines Tour. Almost everything we were taken to visit or pointed out were Buddhist Temples and Shinto Shrines. Some of these were indeed amazing but really, how many do you need to see? I am still baffled by the people who went on the optional temples and shrines day out to Nikko rather than have a free day in Tokyo. Thank god for the guy on the tour who joined in our OOHing at the sight of Nintendo HQ.
UENO PARK – We were urged by our first guide Suzy-san, a cherry blossom nut, to go see the cherry blossom in Ueno Park before we left so we squeezed it into our last evening. I’m glad we did as the trees were strung up with lanterns, there were glowing 3D sculptures of animals outside the zoo and swan boats on the lake. I wish we’d had time to go in the daytime as well.
VIRGIN ATLANTIC – This was my first long haul flight and I was frankly amazed at how bearable it was. I’d packed a bunch of stuff to keep myself entertained on the 12 hour flight but barely touched it, thanks to the in-flight entertainment and constant provision of food and gifts whenever there was a risk of boredom. My highlight though was peering out of the window into the night and seeing all the constellations so big it felt like I could touch them.
WEATHER – was lovely, thanks. Snow on Mt Fuji, blue skies and sun for my birthday and warm and uneventful in Tokyo.
SAN-X – Thanks to Alice for recommending Kiddyland, 7 floors of toys and cute stuff. We spent so long on the San-X floor that one of the staff came over smilingly with a basket, obviously realising we were in for the long haul. San-X is impossible to describe but you need plenty time to fully drink in the madness of Mamegoma (honking seals of varying hilarity), Nyan Nyan Nyanko (a cat who likes to pretend to be food) and Wan Room (a set of furniture with dog faces).
YAMANOTE LINE – I am in awe of the logic, order, simplicity and cleverness of Japanese transport which is easier to use in Japanese than the London Underground is in English. The Yamanote Line runs in a circle round the centre of Tokyo and we spent much of our time on it (all the way round in the course of one day). We also fell in love with the Suica penguin, the mascot of Tokyo’s pay as you go rail pass who is all over the rail system.
ZZZZZ…. Jet lag, not fun.