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Things I Like

Posted: October 1st, 2005, by Marceline Smith

KICK-ASS:

Crazy Boys – The best song on the new Rachel Stevens album and that really is saying something. I have listened to this about 14 times today and have had to copy the album on to CD so my Last.fm stats don’t get completely ridiculous (and so I can listen to it even louder and run around the room).

Fighting Boys – I will kick your ass, and enjoy it too.

del.icio.us – Nothing (much) to do with boys but a super-helpful mishmash of bookmarks, RSS and blogging that is pretty much acting as my online memory and to-do list. I will make a diskant group collaboration one soon. It’s the future!

Howl’s Moving Castle anticipation – It’s been out a whole week but I’m finally going tomorrow and I’m so excited I can’t even eat my free cake.

LAME-ASS:

Rocktober – If it’s October it must be time for 700 bands you like to come and play in your town all in the same week. And charge you £9 a ticket. What’s so great about live music again?

My TV – Why why why do you have to hate Channel 4? Why not Channel 5 or ITV? WHY?

Telephone Spam – Every time I answer the phone it’s one of those recorded messages (about what I have yet to find out), some guy trying to sell me something or this woman who keeps calling and then saying she has the wrong number. And then my mother phones and she wonders why I sound so aggressive.

Over-ambitious zine making – see comments.

Thoughts for the day

Posted: September 26th, 2005, by Chris S

1. I hate students. Everyone says that but I hated them when I was one. Yes I know that means I hated myself. They are fucknuts, they don’t pay council tax and they make more mess than anyone else in this city because they need their parents to wipe their arses for them. If that sounds Tory then work in Lenton.

2. Tortoise are ace. I just got the new Burn To Shine DVD and the Tortoise song is the shit. Red Eyed Legends too.

3. A Hartke 4×10 bass cab weighs a lot which is something I discovered at 2.30am as I tripped up a kerb carrying one and left half my knee on the pavement.

4. T-Rex had some riffs.

5. I am freezing cold and my feet smell.

Things I Like! Or Not!

Posted: September 18th, 2005, by Ollie

Long overdue.

YES PLEASE
Blood Red Shoes 7″ on Jonson Family
Little White Lies magazine
The onset of massive autumn gig action
Last.fm – Get with it already

NEIN
Learning the hard way that being an office temp is no fun at all
ATP still being about a year away
The end of film as we know it

Random Things

Posted: June 15th, 2005, by Marceline Smith

I now have proof that computers are bad for you, work isn’t fun and I’m not invincible, as my doctor this week confirmed I have RSI. So apologies if diskant seems quiet but I’m trying to cut down on my computer usage. The Reviewsblog is being updated regularly though so don’t leave us! I don’t have the really scary kind of RSI so I hope to be better soon.

I’m not sure if this is RSI-related but I seem to be listening to an awful lot of pop music at the moment. I don’t think my aim when buying an iPod was to find myself listening to Girls Aloud while the on-bus TV screen was playing, er, Girls Aloud.

It’s not all bad news though as Nintendo have finally built the theme park I’ve been building in my head for years – PokéPark! I want to go to this so badly I could cry but sadly it’s in Nagoya, Japan. It has Pokémon merry-go-rounds and Pikachu shaped cars! Kill me now.

Okay, back to my non-computer fun. I am learning how to use a drum machine and relearning how to draw. By the end of the summer I expect to have formed a terrible solo project and written a new actual paper-based zine. Wish me luck.

My Top 5 quotes of 2004

Posted: January 13th, 2005, by Dave Stockwell

From the temping job that has been slowly destroying my life since June:

Number 5. From someone who wrote a five-page letter about the brown spot on their ceiling:

“…please note no one in the house who smokes as this is a CHRISTIAN home.”

Number 4. From a man who wants his local housing association to reimburse him for the uninsured stuff he got stolen from his house after he forgot to lock the front door:

“I don’t believe I should pay because I am a victim”

Number 3. Explains itself nicely:

“I have absolutely no intention of returning to shop in ********* ever again, until all of the parking meters produce tickets with sticky labels to enable me to fix the ticket properly to my screen, as is the style in Derby. My daughter, who is 6′ 5″ has the greatest difficulty finding clothes to fit. Derby cannot help her and ********* was one place that could help. She has, since the above incident, found one or two good shops in Leicester.”

Number 2. An email, apparently drafted on a mobile phone:

“our tax 4 136 leybourne dr is up to date acc no ********,wepay monthly over the fone so why r u taking us to court 11-11-40 we dont owe you.

yourskevin and sonia wright”

Number 1. Some constructive criticism in the wake of the very publicised murder of a teenage girl:

“You people are to blame, your city is the most violent city in the UK.You are all accountable and have presided over this continuing decline in the quality of this city.

1. Bring back the death penalty

2. Sack the entire ********* council and the staff

3. Wipe ********* off the face of the map”

My Top 5 Websites of 2004 #5 – COLLISION DETECTION

Posted: December 30th, 2004, by Marceline Smith

#5 – COLLISION DETECTION

A recent discovery for me via the incomparable things. things itself would be on this list if it wasn’t that it is so detailed and so full of content that it becomes quite bewildering at times and so I tend to read it more as a long poem rather than actually clicking on any of the links. Possibly also because I fear being drawn in click by click to millions of previously undiscovered websites and never being seen again.

But Collision Detection is a different beast altogether. It uses a ‘commenting on interesting stories and oddities picked up on other interesting blogs full of links to interesting stories and oddities’ structure which harks back to the internet’s very beginnings. Collision Detection is loosely a science and technology blog run by Clive Thompson who also writes for Wired and The New York Times Magazine and has a strange but understandable obsession with stories about Giant Squid. His writing is always sharp and friendly with an amused tone and the stories range from hilarious to thought-provoking. Recent entries have included tsunami physics, the mental health diagnosis of Gollum, electoral maps, a giant squid so colossal it can’t be described as a giant squid and graphs ahoy. Just think, you might learn something while faffing on the internet. Imagine!

www.collisiondetection.net

2004 A-Z

Posted: December 26th, 2004, by Chris S

Sorry this is a bit long. Happy new year etc. Check the links too…

A is for Aubergine Parmegana. The Aubergine is the prince of vegetables. I fried about 400 pieces of Aubergine for dinner with Ian MacKaye when the Evens played, with Neil Johnson whipping the kitchen in to shape like that weird dwarf dude with ginger hair and an underbite who’s on all the cooking shows on TV. The Evens were great too.

A is also for AOL: GO PISS UP A FUCKING ROPE YOU FUCKNUTS.

B is for Breaking my tooth on a 10p Pickled Onion Space Raider that I stole from Howe Gelbs dressing room egged on by the lovely Scout Niblett who was lifting all the booze. Serves me right for being a thief.

C is for Cass McCombs and specifically his wonderful song Not The Way. The man is a prince and after 2 beers he’s anyones.

C is also for Cunt Galactica.

D is for Damo. If someone told me in January that by the end of the year I’d be mates with Damo Suzuki from Can I’d have thought they were mental, not only that but I played guitar with him in a band that consisted of my best friends. It’s been said on diskant that watching the gig was life changing but being up there doing it was overwhelming. Mainly because I was so caned I could barely stand up.

D is also for Deerhoof, the best band on the planet, who gave us a sell out gig at a new venue in Nottingham and paved the way for Damn You!‘s best year yet, which coincidentally also begins with D.

E is for the Evil Egg. I was frying some on a Saturday morning with a very ugly head and I cracked one egg into the pan and what came out was black. I leaned over to look closer and the heavy smell hit me and I gagged. No one could get this evil out of the door because getting close to it meant instant vom. I can smell it now if I think about it. 2004 was the year of the Evil Egg.

F is for Festival. We put one on. It was fun. Still recovering. I was so stressed by the third day in that I started to grow a boil on my ass. Luckily it never blossomed.

G is for Getting so drunk that you cry for no reason. At anything. I’m talking about the kind of drunk where the end of Karate Kid can set you off on a weeping frenzy.

H is for High Heels worn with socks by ladies. The quickest way to my heart. Yeah?! Fuck you! I’m not getting any younger. Fuck subtlety. And while we’re on the subject I would get busy with Anne Widdicombe if she was wearing knee high boots. Sue me! I don’t care anymore!

H is also for Hoover who reformed, played on my birthday with Lords supporting and were amazing. Joseph McRedmond absolutely personifies the above ‘Fuck subtlety’ statement too.

I is for Insanity. I don’t want to sound like a Daily Mail reader but is it me or has the world gone apeshit?. A man gets onstage and shoots someone 4 times in front of his own brother. In the town I come from, a guy I went to school with slit a man’s throat in the town centre and then, obviously not satisfied with his night’s work, went into the park and raped a man. Yesterday, I read in the paper that 2 men kicked a man senseless and then drowned him in mud in a ditch. That’s horrific but to cap it all they then called his wife on his mobile phone and told her what they’d done. A totally random man, a father of 2, married for 20 odd years to his childhood sweetheart. That is insane. I hope the two guys spend the next 20 years of prison life getting anally ploughed on an hourly basis.

J is for James, Skip. No understatement but this man;s music sorted me out. They say the blues is healing music and I thought all that was bullshit but I’m so pleased it isn’t. Column about Skip written and on the way.

J is also for the Jazz as it is every year.

K is for Kevin Smith. In Japan all year and then finally home for Christmas and still as handsome as ever. Later on this evening I will go out in town with him and we will be beaten up by people we went to school with because of our ‘big city ways’.

L is for Lungfish. Finally got to see them and loved them to pieces. Next time I go to the beach with them in Camber Sands I will endeavour not to be ripped to the tits.

M is for Moving to Sneinton. It’s where all the hip cats are. And all the petty thieves. And all the David Lynchian bald women who urinate on shop windows.

M is also for Marshall, Chan aka Cat Power who wrote He War which is maybe the best song ever written.

N is for Nirvana and specifically the Kurt Was Murdered theory that overtook my life for about 3 months. Just got to see the DVD from the box set too and the Motor Sports show with Dan Peters on drums. I am stoked.

O is Oxbury, Kevin, an odious snivelling prick of a man who (quite rightly) sacked me from Powergen. Hey Kevin, if you’re reading this like you read all my other emails then eat a shit you retard.

O is also for Hey Ya by Outkast. That record is godlike. It is the great bringer togetherer. If it comes on the radio NO ONE will turn it off and that’s the first time a record has done that since Push It by Salt N Pepa. Please look at the link on this. Oy is just Yo backwards.

P is for John Peel.

P is also for PJ Harvey. Will someone get me the guitar job in this woman’s band? Please. What do I have to do? I’m being serious!

Q is for Quim, the most amusing and out dated piece of terminology for the female tuppence.

R is for Rockette Morton. I fucking met Rockette Morton! And Drumbo! On my wall is a Polaroid of me and Rockette and Drumbo scrawled ‘DRUMS BY DRUMBO’ across my copy of Trout Mask Replica.

S is for my 1986 Saab 900i which has rinsed my bank account of all funds in the last 10 months but will do 130 mph, has a heated drivers seat, and is the absolute SHIT.

T is for Telecaster. Not Travis Bean. This year has been the year of the 1973 Mocha Brown Telecaster Deluxe. No more broken back, no more math rock geekery. Woo hoo!

U is for Ulrich, Lars and the amazing Some Kind Of Monster documentary. FUCKIN A! I love Lars, I have loved him since A Year In The Life Of Metallica Part One and I will continue to love him forever.

V is for Very shitfaced which is what my Dad was when he vomited his false teeth down the hotel toilet on his wedding night. Chap!

W is for Woe, served up with a side salad of misery and a dessert of heart break.

W is also for 2004: Worst year of my life by some way.

X is for X-girlfriend. See above.

Y is for Y can’t I think of something beginning with Y?

Z is for ZZ Top, my bestest band in the world ever. On my bedroom wall is the 3 fold gatefold cover from Tejas with the 3 members portraits so as I snore loudly, get dressed or bang one out, Billy, Dusty and Frank are smiling down on me. 2004 was the year of ZZ Top, Cat Power and Skip James on my stereo.

A-Zs are, like, SO traditional

Posted: December 22nd, 2004, by Simon Minter

So here are my 26 As of the year, instead (in no particular order)…

Audioscope

Asking for Trouble putting Sunnyvale in the box set

Aufgehoben album released on Fourier Transform!

Anxiety, Clinical: and the slow fight against it

Alice

All Tomorrow’s Parties

All Tomorrow’s Parties (went to two this year)

Aquanaut (my old band whose tapes I have rediscovered)

A new G5 iMac!

Appearing on a big stage at Truck Festival

Alphabetising my record collection

A growing interest in NWOBHM. Kind of

Acquiring the new Sonic Youth album, the best one in ages

A big graphic design magazine featuring the Aufgehoben sleeve!

A new pair of glasses

Attending my friend Tom’s wedding and realising I really should stay in contact with people more

Absolutely loads of gigs this year – I’ve seen more bands than ever

Accepting that I have no need for hairdressers and can do it myself

Acquainting myself once again with the fun of all night excessive binges

Another trip to Glasgow

Actually meeting Damo Suzuki – pretty cool

Attempting to design anything and everything music-related in Oxford

Ageing: it’s not so bad

Always having too much to do

Arguing

Absolutely loving living in Oxford

2004 A-Z

Posted: December 22nd, 2004, by Dave Stockwell

Amy Bethan Jose – an annoyingly beautiful niece.

Birchville Cat Motel: Ur-drone Emperor.

CDRs explode as the new homemade cassette labels. Well, for me anyhow.

Damn You! Know It’s Christmas – a fine way to end the year/exhaust yourself.

Europe in 6 days (see tour diary).

Foxy Digitalis

argh, Garage bands get out of my life.

html, I am now too intimate with thee for comfort (www.souvaris.com).

Infinite loops of sound/noise/delay. Yum.

John Porcellino, artistic genius, sweet guy, and album artwork practioner.

Key Skills, giving up on developing as the year progressed.

Linklater, Richard – School of Rock + Before Sunset = $$$ x critical kudos.

MA = Master of Arse.

Nottingham City Council has taken my sanity away and I want it back.

Ontological arguments, endless. Damn pseudo-intellectual flatmates.

Philip K. Dick, extremely mental/not mental bloke (who I now know too much about)

Questioning yourself about everything you do, ever. Fun.

Rehabilitating Mr Wiggles, as ever.

Sneinton, home of Notts – increasingly concentric indie-rock circles.

Twenty-three Productions – independent recording and production collective.

Unit Ama, The – officially nicest band on the planet.

Vandalising your own musical equipment/output. Consequences to come in 2005.

Waiting for The Brown Bunny (still a while to go yet it seems).

Xanax Tobin, a (rubbish) song by Tom Sweetlove that seemed to follow me around.

Your taste in everything sucks. I have been trying (failing) to revise this opinion.

Z‘ev is a pretentious wanker.

My A-Z of 2004

Posted: December 21st, 2004, by Marceline Smith

Here’s my A-Z so we can squash ChrisH and his politics with our nonsense.

Animal Crossing – living an alternate life in a town called Mogwai

BOXES

Cat shoes, Cow skirt and other great stagewear

diskant

eBay

Fire Engines reforming but evading me

Getting old

Hookers Green No.1

iBook love

Joanna Newsom

Keyphrases, 10. Kitchen Fitter London, Kitchen Installer London, KILL ME

Legwarmers (they keep your legs warm)

Murakami, Haruki

Nostalgia

Old friends

Parasite Pals

Quitting full time work to learn printing

Rollercoasters, going on them for the first time

Simon and Stu’s ace Audioscope event

TK Maxx

Uter gigs

Very tired

Wario Ware insanity madness

X11 + Nicotine = slsk on Mac

Yummy Fur, still

Zelda: Wind Waker