Exclusive Premier of 'Sugar' by FWW

Just thought we would let you all know that the Sugar video is going to be premiered - along with 6-7 other short films / music videos - at a Brighton based film night called Final Cut this coming Sunday (17th). It's being held at a venue called Komedia which is in the North Laines, 44-47 Gardner St (not far from Brighton station). Here's the link to Komedias website for more in depth directions

Things usually get going about 8pm and it's £4 to get in but you get free popcorn! It's a bit of an ask for the non-Brightoner's among you but it would be great if you could make it down.

Speaking of videos - here be 'All For Nothing'!

PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCAST CLUB #3 - TODAY!

We're at the Notting Hill Arts Club in London again this afternoon for some MORE LIVE MUSIC JAPERY. Hitting the stage this time:

EPIDEME - myspace - onstage 7pm
>>> The Wire sez "Two guitars, one drum, much yelling, and a boil of fuzz and stutter that will not be denied", and we think this is pretty spot on. New 7" out now on Jonson Family.

CALORIES - myspace - onstage 6pm
>>> First ever London show from this new stripped-back rock trio from ex-members of noise pop heroes Distophia! Expect plenty of Rock, in the twisted style of Hot Snakes, Liars and Deerhoof.

THE LIGHT SLEEPERS - myspace - onstage 5pm
>>> Brighton-via-Exeter purveyors of lo fi guitar pop. Debut album "We Are Gathering Dust", out through Faux Discx / Smalltown America in September, showcases their fuzzy Moore / Tengo / Malkmus-style ditties superbly.

Doors are at 4pm and it's TOTALLY FREE. Plus, it's my birthday tomorrow so I'm going to get like totally crunk WOAH and play records in between the bands. I'm going to play Jimmy Eat World. YEAH!

Facebook event? Last FM event? Sweet.

Pow!

Here's an exclusive for readers of our little blog - we're putting out the new record by Let Our Enemies Beware. Don't know them? Imagine twisted avant-metal, shards of feedback and haunting moments of stillness. Then imagine it being played by four nutjobs from Kent. I'm awful with musical comparisons but for me they bring to mind Tomahawk quite a lot - heavy as fuck but quite playful with it.

If this still doesn't put you in the right frame of mind to imagine them, the front cover might help:



Take that, Peter Rabbit.

We make our own mythology.

If you've haven't done so, just go and buy the new Johnny Foreigner LP. Please?

Pure Tense

Just been checking out Nicholas Bentley's website - wonderful, fun, creative promos. Just shows you what is possible when you put LOTS of love into something:



On a completely different tangent - here are FWW playing Nemesis on BBC at double speed - good drum fills from the Big Man - are you watching this Jools or are you polishing your ivories?:

Your english is good.

So the cat is, one might say, very much out of the bag: we are running a festival!

We're all (obviously!) very excited about this, as you may have been able to tell if you'd heard Ferris and I talking about it on Radio 1 the other night. We've been beavering away on this for a while now (pretty much since the last alldayer died) and it's already had a fair number of emotional ups and downs, so it's a huge relief to make it public. Hopefully you approve, and hopefully you'll snap up the earlybird tickets pretty quickly!

Thinly-veiled sales pitch over.

Today, I will mostly be burning CDRs of An Emergency's forthcoming album so I can do a promo run. This would be a lot easier if my burner (only about three weeks old) would let me burn more than one at a time, but it isn't. I don't know why. It burns the first CD, yet when it comes to the second it keeps telling me there's an "invalid block address". Still, it's marginally better than my old burner, which doesn't work at all. Glamorous life etc. I may head to Oxford later, as my friend Steve aka Jam On Bread (vetern of PSB Club #2) is playing with the wonderful Foxes!, and I fancy a night away from London. Plus, there are few better ways to go from drunk to hungover than on Oxford Tube somewhere on the motorway at 2am.

The Town I Loved So Well

Holla atcha STA kids! I am now firmly ensconced in Derry City/Londonderry - this place is mad as fuck, but I'm into it. I thought moving from London Town to Ireland would have meant that the pace would have reduced but hell no! We've opened our new office and already new projects are flying through the door. So many that The Cake has been recruited to weather the storm - he needn't think that he's gonna get paid.

STA FACT: Phil Coulter (Author of The Town I Loved So Well and general Carnegie Hall botherer) - wants to collaborate with Cahir Fighting With Wire on some tracks. This is a real fact.

The most interesting thing about the last six weeks has been the fact that I'm actually working in a real record label office as opposed to mine and LC's back bedroom at Casterbridge Towers; it's a strange experience. Feels a bit dirty, where are those DIY credentials now Ferris?

So, FWW at Number 1 in the MTV2 chart - good news people, keep those votes flying in - Alan MX's record is finished and we've just signed a new band that I'm probably not allowed to talk about yet, lest Daniel beat me with a stick. Needless to say THEY ARE INCREDIBLY BRILLIANT.

Check this out it's Brad Junk Mag's exclusive re-mix (work in progress) of Captain America Video by Alan MX - how four to the floor-tastic is that?

Anyone hear the Huw Stephens BBC Session last night? We are DIY label of the week - it was awesome; replay details when we get them.

Somehow I can't see this idea taking off

Box of Secrets

Again this poor blog is neglected. For shame!

Lots going on at STA towers at the moment. Received the final mixed and mastered copy of An Emergency's forthcoming Wrecked Angles LP, and it sounds incredible - really leaps out of the speakers, presumably so it can beat up their previous releases using just the power of TOTAL ROCK. It's going to come wrapped in an awesome digipack, with more artwork courtesy of the multitalented Dan Reeves. This is going to be the first release in the new alliance of Faux Discx and Smalltown America, which is also going to give birth to the debut album by The Light Sleepers later on in the year. That's also a really good record, and will appeal to anyone out there into Moore / Tengo / Malkmus fuzzy guitar pop. What do they put in the water down in Brighton?

Anyway: we have big news, yes we do. Who remembers the old STA Alldayers? Who was sad there wasn't one last year? Yeah, we were as well. However, we're bouncing back with a vengence, and we're going to be announcing how on Friday morning. Keep your eyes on the STA website, and join our mailing list as something may be going out on that as well...

No Gimmicks

Ah sweet Craig McKean - how much do I love thee; let me count the ways; whilst Cahir struggles to keep his vocalzone in his mouth for the duration of FWW's interview with Zane at last weekend's One Big Weekend - Half Man Half Climbing Wall McKean; delivers FWW's USP is a single bound.

He's also a dab hand with circular saw:

Public Service Broadcast Club #2

Aaaaaaand... that was Public Service Broadcast Club 2! Thanks to everyone who came down and a special thanks to all of the bands for being... well, fucking brilliant, if I'm going to be honest. How good was Jam On Bread's cover of At Your Funeral? A LOT BRILLIANT, that's how. Plus, Aaron Connolly finally cornered me for this documentary he's making about us, and it went far better than I ever expected it to. I probably talked a load of rubbish, but you can blame the Arts Club's rotten cider for that. The evening went hilariously off-the-radar after we left Notting Hill, and ended up with my friend Chris and I drinking cheap Strongbow whilst making keyboard loops and guitar feedback in my tiny, tiny flat until about 4am. I think my neighbours probably hate me now.

Oh well! Public Service Broadcast Club 3 is set for June 14th, which is also my birthday weekend! Most, most excellent.

So tomorrow, we're off to Radio 1. I'm really excited! I've only been to Maida Vale once, when I saw the Super Furry Animals do a session about seven years ago. I've also been up since before 7am working on some sampler CDs, we have the intention of thrusting them into the hands of anyone important looking we see while there...



You may also notice the presence of a Faux Discx logo on there - for those who don't know them, they're a great little label based down in Brighton, and we'll be co-releasing and handling distribution on a number of release with them this year. This is also really exciting! Have a look at their website, there's a bunch of free download releases that are all worthy of your time.

So there you have it! Record labels: pretty exciting.

Be Awkward

Oh, poor little blog, how neglected you are... However, fear no more, because here is some VERY EXCITING NEWS!

Next week, on Wednesday April 23rd to be exact, STA will be taking over Radio 1! Sort of. Both Fighting With Wire and Alan MX have been invited to record live sessions for Huw Stephen's In New Music We Trust show.

This is, obviously Proper Cool.

As I've just posted over at the STA site, we've also got some spare guestlist places. Click on this if you want more details on that.

The best thing to remember is this, though: Radio 1 (like all of the BBC) are able to give labels such as us airtime like this because they're a public service broadcaster. This means that, essentially, they work for you. If they play something you like, you should tell them that you like it and that they should play it again. If they're not playing anything you like and you want them to, you should tell them this as well. As a great example - Let Our Enemies Beware (as seen on Public Service Broadcast 9) recently got a couple of plays from good old Zane Lowe, and all because someone who liked them emailed him and told him to play them.

That, dear readers, is the power of non-corporate public broadcasting. Treasure it, because, as anyone who's been subjected to North American radio will tell you, we're very lucky to have it.

Chris T-T - Capital

I'm absolutely in love with the new Chris T-T album. It's called Capital, and came out via the wonderful folks over at Xtra Mile a few weeks ago. I suppose it's his first 'proper' album since 2003's London Is Sinking, although that only really works if you count 2005's 9 Red Songs as not a 'proper album', and I'm not sure why you would do that, 'cause it's great.

Errr, moving on. I've had a softspot for Mr T-T since I caught him playing a set on Leap Day 2004. I've always liked the way he's managed to combine wit with a level of insight about "things" that few songwriters ever seem to reach. Essentially, I really like how honest he's always been - I mean, how many people would release a single that contained the line "or if you’re fat like me"? Exactly.



He's always had a political bent to his songwriting, as shown most prominently (and deliberately) on 9 Red Songs, but this new LP manages to take this to a whole new level. Largely avoiding the issues-based songwriting of the previous LP, it instead takes a totally brutal "THIS IS YOUR FUTURE, IT'S KNOCKING ON YOUR DOOR, AND IT ISN'T GOOD" line. Suddenly, you're catpulted into a nightmare Children of Men-esque world where London is pinned down by terrorists blowing stuff up and tanks occupying the streets.

But you know what? Mr T-T is quite, quite happy to stick two fingers up to it all. The man who, seven years ago, scored a minor indie hit with a song about using alcohol to boost ones flagging self-esteem, is now singing "so if you want us, come and get us" and giving songs titles like "None Of Them Give A Fuck About The Future", and aiming it all squarely at the liars and cheaters who manipulate us for their own gain.

The end result is a strange mixture, because in a way it's vintage T-T - a record of angry, eloquant pop music - and yet it's so much more of a statement, of a complete experience than his previous records. It's a really brave, really honest album. I was expecting something good, but not this good. Go buy this record, I'm confident that you won't regret it.

Isn't music great?

SXSW Part III: Italian Beetroots & The Los Camp Megamix

The final day at SXSW and truth be told I'm pretty fucked - I've been giving those Belfast boys I'm with (Rigsy ATL, Johnny AU and Joe Stiff Kitten) loads of shit about being lightweight; but this morning I'm suffering.

It might be something to do with the fact that I went to bed last night at half three and was woken up at half past seven by a malfunctioning hotel alarm clock - the bastard thing wouldn't turn off! None of the buttons worked at all - what's that about - even when I unplug it from the wall it's still going?!

MEEP, MEEP, MEEP... MEEP, MEEP, MEEP

I have to get dressed go downstairs and throw the clock at the over-friendly concierge - 'We'll have another one brought straight up to you sir!'. No you fucking well will not. [Excuse my language in this blog by the way - disgraceful.]

Needless to say I couldn't get back to sleep.

That is until we go to see Ting Tings at The Bat Bar; I'm dead on my feet and it's only five pm; this isn't going well. After an excruciatingly ill-advised acoustic set, they play 'That's Not My Name' for about four hours. It's all really safe, poppy and dead boring. I don't give a fuck what your name is.

We go to 'Damn Good Tacos' (this is a shop not a band - just in case you were wondering) for some of the aforementioned, to try to revive the flagging feet and spirits - some life returns... part of SXSW I realise is like the Endurance Test on the Krypton Factor and this last evening is the A-Frame rope wall.

Sons & Daughters are pleasantly obtuse; I've never seen them before - they're one of the more distinctive British guitar bands on display, the best compliment that you can pay them is that they really don't sound like anyone else. They probably need another album under their belts before the whole set is engaging as the singles.

Oppenheimer ring the changes for the evening opening up at Emo's - after this show they have to drive 20 hours straight to LA for another gig on their never-ending US tour. It's a welcome relief to hear something rough around the edges. They are more confident and dissonant than I've ever seen them before - leaning heavily on new album 'Take The Whole Mid-Range And Boost It' the set is raucous and grungy. A new song 'Before And After The Earthquake' rivals 'Breakfast In NYC' for the best thing they've ever written. With this new found swagger and growing industry momentum; 2008 could be a big year for the band.

Okerville River need no description to this readership but if you haven't seen them live you simply must (this is my first time); they are wonderfully charismatic and musical without ever descending into muso territory. The fans are in rapture - the impartial observers are silent during the quiet songs. They have a classic sound not dissimilar to the E-Street Band, Afghan Whigs, Mercury Rev or American Music Club.This is a special band - I understand now why Daniel stalks them.

We're back on form now - let's keep this up; the queue for Nada Surf stretches all the way back to Houston Space Station - fuck! Luckily we run into The Whip in a sweet shop and they tell us about an Italian band they know called The Bloody Beetroots who are playing in the neighboring Vice Bar; never trust a Manc I reckon, but Johnny convinces me otherwise - and what a call. This is earth shuddering, four to the floor techno chaos.

It's the first time in a week that I've felt scared at a gig: it's the only bar that we don't get ID'd in - and you get the feeling that it could kick off at any minute - the whole place is pilled up to the teeth and I can't tell you HOW GOOD these guys are. Genuinely, thunderously mind-blowing and technically staggering. They have a hot Italian girl in a gold skin-tight dress dancing the changes and a mate who spits beer over everyone at the apex of each breakdown. We really don't mind him doing this - for some central European reason.

Trembling, we decide to go see Neon Neon Gruff SFA's new side project, how industry of us - checking out the supergroup... but supergroups being supergroups they have decided to play an hour earlier that it says in the programme.

It probably worked out for the best as if we had left getting into The Arts & Crafts Showcase any later it would never have happened. Los Campesinos are effortlessly wonderful - Gareth LC steers the pace of the set beautifully and even has time to give his label bosses some (self deprecating) grief "Look - you guys asked us to come over here and play and you're telling me we've got five minutes left - these people came for the hits, they didn't want to hear all that album shit"...

Needless to say the appropriate person gives them the nod to play everything they want to thereafter - 'You, Me Dancing' is amped to the max as a result. They even manage a version of 'Box Elder' in the closing "Megamix" - fifty seven bonus scene points. I love them.

Chromeo are the only way to round off a week like I've had - the club they play in is suitably Miami Vice - the place is bouncing; it all goes a bit blurry after that... I seem to remember a Texan woman trying to get me to buy her a drink - I think I bought her one if she promised to leave me alone, then we went to see The Gza's festival closing set - he does most of 'Liquid Swords' in between checking his text messages - he might have been good, but I can't honestly remember.

So, I'm back in London now - typing at 09:14AM and my body thinks that it's 1AM in Texas. It's probably going to take me a month to recover from this, it was a great trip - the label got loads out of it for all our bands, it really is a great way to meet people - but the best thing I can say about SXSW '08 is that it was massively inspiring artistically. Nowhere else could you have the night I've just have, you can genre hop all night - and it's all about brand new music - even from the established artists.

Track Of The Week - 'Hey Boy' by The Blow
Performance Of The Week - Los Campesinos
Punk-Rock Award - Har Mar Superstar - you can't deny the funk
Best Attack On A Member Of The Stage Crew Award - Raife Burchell on behalf of Ed Harcourt
Worst Idea Of The Week - Doing tequila slammers As N.E.R.D. walked onto the stage
Best Idea Of The Week - Listening to those Mancs - they're not wrong all the time
Best Possible New Name For A Band - Damn Good Tacos

I'm going to bed - x -

New Alan MX blog

Check it out, "Young Alan" (as he's known at STA Towers, he goes by Alan MX in the real world) has gone and got himself a blog! Go read some stuff about his forthcoming Warpsichord LP and about the creative process behind it - what inspired it, how he made it and stuff. It's now finally mixed (by the golden hands of Harvey "Backlash Cop" Birrell), artwork is being prepared (by the gold hands of Matthew "Public Service Broadcast 9" Barnes), and it's going to be out sometime in the next few months. It's pretty exciting. I know it's natural that one should be excited about artists you're releasing and suchlike, but I really do feel this is going to be a special record to (hopefully!) a lot of people.

More soon. Over and out. Etc etc.

Macmillan 'Cancer Rubbish' Charity Project

Good friend of Jetplane Landing (remember those guys); Peter Young has put together a compilation CD all profits from which will be donated to Macmillan - the cancer care nursing charity. Costing a paltry £7 the CD can be ordered via Big Cartel. Meet Me In St. Louis, Yndi Haldi and some old blokes shouting about revolutions being the particular highlights.

If nothing else you should buy this CD from Peter because he lives in Sheerness in Kent - which I've played in and is scary - and I come from Derry.

Tracklist me up:

1. Bout To Get Fruit Punched - The Wonder Years
2. Serious - Crash Romeo
3. Delta - The Filaments *previously unreleased*
4. Rude Boy - Babylon Whackers *previously unreleased*
5. Ship Ahoy - Pickled Dick
6. Im High - Fandangle
7. Sound of a revolution - Sonic Boom Six
8. Doves With Hawk Heads - Suicide Bid *previously unreleased*
9. We Are the Ordinary - Over It (acoustic version)
10. Fan the Flames - Luke Leighfield
11. Dash and Blast - Yndi Haldi
12. Fix Up - Johnny One Lung *previously unreleased*
13. This Is not revolution Rock - Jetplane Landing
14. All We need Is a Little Energon, And A Lot of Luck - Meet Me In St Louis
15. Skeleton Crew - The Ruined
16. Infected - This is Hell
17. Another Sinking Ship - Sikth

There will also be a gig to launch the CD on April 19th - the headliners being My Awesome Compilation. Details for all that can be found here.

Good on ya Peter.

SXSW Part II: I'm rhyming on the top of a cop car

Hey - I'm back, this time with a monstrousmotherfunking hangover - take my oil, Day III at SXSW was worth it...

The temperature is up in the hundreds (sorry DF) and it's time to get to grips with this thing - no fucking about today lads - let's go!

First up is The Cribs at The Village Voice Party - noone told me that they don't tune their guitars - EVER; I'm surprised that they're so loose, speeding up, slowing down - generally fucking about with the songs. They're more The Jam than The Sex Pistols - once I get used to the vernacular the songs shine. I'm sorry to see them leave the stage - they could have played for another half hour, easily.

We high-tail across town for the Photo Finish Records party and Paper Rivals are onstage; they're american post-emo (I think we can say post-emo now), this guy can sing - Johnny T. asks why bands would ever need three guitarists - I'm inclined to agree. I suppose it didn't do Radiohead any damage.

It's hot as hell now - so lunch in the shade and home for zzz...

Back in action with Make Model at the NME showcase - I'm absotively certain no-one from the NME is here - that being said the small crowd are certainly enjoying the pretense. Make Model as you know are post-Fickle Public's Lewis and JC. Simon Sweeping The Nation put it brilliantly in last year - that there are 'industrial sized record company driers keeping this powder dry'. The secret is most certainly out now, Lewis tells me that their album is finished, finally after a year. They'll be on tour all over UK in April and May. You would do well to see them now - this is Pop with complexity, to say a brighter Broken Social Scene wouldn't be too far away, but there are acres of influence under that veneer. Fantastic players - my fingers are crossed for them and there is more than a touch of parental pride when I see them play. It's kinda emotional kids...

Aptly, therefore it's over to Emo's for Crystal Castles - damn that girl is hot (I suppose he isn't bad either) - but they are mediocre. You could bang these backing tracks out in half an hour on Garageband whilst making yourself a nice sandwich - very disappointing. The strobe lighting doesn't cover a multitude of sins.

JT reckons that we'll get into MGMT tonight - I'm not so certain, but he bounces the queue at Stubbs and we're in the front row. These boys need another album under their belts before they can command the attention they are currently attracting. It's basically Steely Dan mixed with bits of Journey, Pink Floyd and Bowie - don't get me wrong; I think they're good - just that the singles are too much of a high point; and I hate Pink Floyd so the drugged out instrumental sections bore me to death.

We bump into Rocky Oppenheimer who is on a mission to 'get bombed' - inspired by this single mindedness, we head to Be Your Own Pet @ Mowhawk - she's fiesty this girl. I wonder why XL signed BYOP - I know they look great and have got a cool name, but in a grumpy fit I wonder if they traded on their music alone how much we'd really know about them? In comparison to Tokyo Sex Destruction last night, this brand of punk is pretty un-evolved. Maybe I'm too old. By track three though I'm into it - her energy is infectious and the crowd are loving it - then THE PA BLOWS UP! WTF is going on with all this dodgy PA gear in Austin - I'm disappointed for our intrepid pets; they deserve better. Oh well.

The Whip are fucking chancers to be honest, I feel that they're taking the piss out of us - but their brand of Manc-Happy-Hardcore is typically British and thoroughly feel good; so what it's basically a bloke pressing the spacebar on his laptop and three others punching the air; they get the most movement out of a crowd so far tonight. Cool no - Mad Fer It - definitely. Good luck to them.

Damn the choices, the choices! Do we finish at the Kill Rock Stars night or the Polyvinyl night - in the end the beer does the talking and we end up at Shy Child (that boy is lethal on his keetar - I'll bet he would be pissed off if he lost it, where are you going to get a backup keetar in Texas?). They're a less complex Deerhoof or a more complex Jean Michel Jarre depending on which way you want to look at it.

N.E.R.D are the biggest 'rockstars' playing SXSW - as suspected, this is a masterclass of the Urban session musician variety. This is the first properly funky drumming we've heard in a week - and we're relieved - hands in the air, everyone is bouncing, Lap Dance is lethal and I'm shocked at how up for it Pharrell is - I thought he'd be much more up his own arse being The Biggest Rap Star In The World TM - but he engages his band and the crowd for a full hour. This is what makes America great - the rest of it is oversized and too damn salty!

Mission: Impossible VII

"No Culture Icons" by The Thermals is an absolutely perfect song.

Behold, the STA demo pile!



Actually, there's probably a lot more than this, but the really terrible ones tend to get filtered out before stuff comes to me. Small mercies etc.

It is my aim to listen to every single one of these CDs this weekend. Let's see how that one goes, buh? NB: I am in no way focusing on a menial task because Andrew is at SXSW and I'm stuck in drizzling London. PERISH THE THOUGHT.

SXSW - Half Time Report

I've been in Texas for almost three days now, and I've hung out with a man called Bill who drives a hearse for fun; rubbed beer into Har Mar Superstars thighs and seen Jonny Tiernan from AU Magazine stripped to his ballhuggers.

God Bless America.

For those that don't know anything about SXSW or to give it it's full title - The South by Southwest Music, Film and Interactive Conferences and Festivals - essentially this is a mass convening of the music industry for five days of panels, workshops, showcases and bands playing in the most unlikely of bars along a single stretch of anarchic, alcohol-soaked tarmac in Austin, Texas. It is very unique.

Getting here from London is very straightforward - two flights, cost me about $400; the music delegate pass (get one of these) is $400 if you book it early enough and if you stay on a Craig's Listed appartment (everyone rents out rooms to the festival go-ers) you are probably looking at about another $100/night. So essentially on a budget you can do this thing for about £800. That might sound like a lot, but honestly - this is probably the best festival you could go to in terms of the volume of bands that you can see. There are literally thousands of gigs that you could go to - it's mental.

DAY 1: It kicks off with The Kills at The Fader Party - not for me it has to be said, I thought the drum machine needed turning up; Saul Williams looked very dapper and spat his verses in an equally elegant manner; Ra Ra Riot are Vanessa Mae mud-wrestling with Death Cab For Cutie - go electro cello!; Ed Harcourt is wondering why JPL Raife (his drummer) is going to punch fuck out of the stage manager whilst he's playing his set (no mean feat)?; Johnny Foreigner are revalatory in front of eight people and remain my tip for world domination; The Lemonheads play 'It's A Shame About Ray' from start to finish - that lad is a good singer, he should think about doing it professionally; The Blow are the experience of the night - sexy, provocative, funky and in your face 'Thanks for dancing, that's really nice - can you just do it down there, you're in my personal space' is the perfectly polite put down one over eager stage invader gets -

I leave thinking that Human Robotic Dancing should be on the National Cirriculum; The Black Keys wrap up Day 1 for me - they sound like Led Zeppelin still - without a bass player and a singer, anti-climatic after The Blow TBH - bad call Ferris!

DAY 2: I go to the Mall! I get an aforementioned Massage! I go out of town and eat a BBQ! I listen to Johnny AU tell me about how tight his trousers are and that he needs to change his underwear because he is 'so chafed' - KIDS WEAR LOOSE FITTING PANTS - you're endangering future generations.

Oh yes the music - FM Belfast are party hardcore from Iceland I think - they have a song about going to 'The Caribbean' and give out Olympic style gold medals; we then get dragged to some singer song writer bloke that is signed to Kiefer Sutherland's record label, he's shite; we go to the NME party which is housed in a ridiculous surf-themed bar and watch Dan Le Sac - it's not going well we need a plan... we conspire to stand in a queue to get into MGMT, this is never happening - KIDS DON'T QUEUE FOR ANYTHING EVER - so we leave with tails between our non-guestlisted legs.

Diplo starts to pick things up for us dancehall styleee - but then the PA blows up FUCK!; Tokyo Sex Destruction at the Primevera stage are incredibly good on all levels, they're RFTC mixed with the good bits of The Hives - band of the night; Har Mar Superstar is the only person that can finish this thing - he's fantastic and plays a song that he wrote for a Disney series that never made it 'But you know - I'm glad because it's way creepier when I sing it' - quote of the night has to go to HMS - 'Here's another Har Mar Superstar song - and it's a fucking gem!'

I have to agree.

Head hurts - need to drink water - no... more... red meat....

Fort Awesome

I proper love The Mathletes, the musical project of minor internet celebrity (he'd hate that description, but it's kinda true) Joe Mathlete. The combination of his wonky vocals and lo fi records and songs about unicorns and being jealous of Conor Oberst and having a time machine and the fact that he's released about 20 albums over the last decade just can't fail with me. The last release was an album of covers, the wonderfully arrogant The Mathletes Own Other Peoples Songs, which you can download for free here. One of those covers is of My Bloody Valentine's "Only Shallow", and I've just discovered a video for it. Take a look:



It's really, really special.

I also feel the need to point you in the direction of his Joe Mathlete Explains Today's Marmaduke blog. If you've never read it, I can't stress how much you really, really should do.

Sunday Afternoon Five

Bored? Hungover? Just avoiding the rain currently blanketing London? Ignoring the first one (I don't have time to be bored anymore), me too! Have some fun links:

* Sonic Youth - Kill Yr Idols (Live, Brighton Zapp Club 1985) >>> Sonic Youth are pretty much my favourite band in the history of ever. Things like this are why. Check out the 'Related Videos' section, there's a clip of them playing 'Making The Nature Scene' on Brighton Beach, it's one of the most horrible/incredible things I've ever heard.
* Diary Of The Dead trailer >>> ZOMBIES! ZOMBIES! ZOMBIES! I love Zombies.
* October All Over - Vital Signs CD album >>> Recorded at the start of last year and finally emerging through Unlabel last December, the band kinda fizzled out in the period between. Shame, as this album totally slays - imagine late-80s Sonic Youth filtered through the GUITAR POWER of Rival Schools recorded somewhere sweaty in a decaying urban area and you're halfway there.
* Wet Paint @ myspace >>> I saw this band last week. They covered two Neil Young songs and made them sound like The New Pornographers. I spent their entire set smiling like a loon.
* The new STA Flickr Account >>> No photos currently. Soon, though! Add us. Go on.

Oh yeah, and something called Man Vs Monster by some band called Fighting With Wire finally hits UK shops tomorrow. It's our first release of what is shaping up to be a monsterously busy year. Excellent.

The Coast Guard is on strike.

The news is telling me this. Better not go for a swim, eh?

So, here is some news. Friend-of-STA Aaron Connolly (he used to run the Fighting With Wire website and was a regular on the old Jetplane Landing boards before they were destroyed by spammmmmmers) is making a documentary about us! It's been brewing for a while now, but last weekend he shot his first footage, interviewing Alan MX during his mixing sessions at Southern Studios.

He's also putting a video diary of production on his youtube account. Check out the latest one below:



But here's something else: this has been talked about for at least four months now, and I've always been in favour of it. So why has it only just dawned on me that I'm actually going to have to be in it? Eep.

I can't think of a witty subject line because it's 12:15am.

If you only have enough cash to buy two recently-released albums this month, I recommend Hold On Now, Youngster... by Los Campesinos! and Meet The Eels by Eels. The former because it's one of the most thrilling, intelligent and downright fun pop records you're going to hear all year (and probably all decade), and the latter because Mark Oliver 'E' Everett is pretty much the biggest maverick currently signed to a major label. I saw him play live last week (third row at the Royal Festival hall, get UB) and in two hours he managed to both bring me to the brink of tears and laugh like a fiend. He's a genius, simply put.

Oh, and some record called Man Vs Monster by some band called Fighting With Wire, although considering how many of the copies of it I've shoved into jiffy bags and taken to the Camden Town post office in the last two weeks, you lot out there don't need my coaxing to do this!

So I spent the afternoon today in Southern Studios with STA newboy Alan MX, watching him work on the mixes for his forthcoming Warpsichord opus with one Harvey Birrell (who's recorded loads and loads of bands, but is mostly known in STA-circles for doing the last Jetplane record). Kid-in-a-toy-shop doesn't even begin to cover it, he was absolutely hyper. The tracks I heard sounded incredible - crisp, punchy, and batshit insane with a million things going on at once in places. I found out that one song ('Flesh Emergency') currently has 49 tracks on it. As you can imagine, I'm somewhat excited to hear the finished product.

I was also roped into helping with a few screen tests for his forthcoming video shoot (for 'The Captain America Video'), which involved Alan chasing me up Wood Green High Road. I wasn't told how far I was supposed to run, so I kept on going. Obviously, he kept on chasing after me. All of this was much to the amusement of Lulu, the director of and brains behind the video. Dead professional, us. As always.

ZL♥FWW

"This album is so phenomenal. Smalltown America, Jetplane Landing, Andrew Ferris from Jetplane Landing, it's a very reputable, very cool, very independent record label. Not those independents that go and sign deals with major labels and get all their money... This is independent, you know. Northern Irish music, Smalltown America, Jetplane Landing is the band, fantastic. Cahir from Jetplane Landing starts this band, Fighting With Wire, they come out and they make this record like a while ago, Man Vs Monster, absolutely phenomenal from the start to the end, a flawless modern rock record, completely done independent, flown to the States, sign a big deal with Atlantic Records. It's all coming out in the next couple of months, bells and whistles, the whole thing, and I couldn't be happier. That's the story, here's the record, radios up, no excuses, GO!"

Zane Lowe there, on Fighting With Wire's forthcoming "Everyone Needs A Nemesis" 7" single, right before he played it for about the eighth time. Trust me when I say this: it's currently a bit crazy down at STA Towers right now, but there's LOADS of good stuff forthcoming and I'm super excited about all of it.

Giant Isopods Ate My Well-Known Brand of Corn Chip

My friend Theo plays guitar in a band called Pocus Whiteface - the eagle-eyed amongst you may have noticed that we stock one of their 7"s on the STA store - and they're one of the most DIY-as-fuck bands I've come across in recent months. The 7" we've got is super limited, self-released, has a sleeve designed by one of the band and comes with a bonus CDR featuring both tracks as audio tracks and mp3s, as well as a 6-track bonus mp3 EP. Their next release is going to be a hand-cut 10", limited to 10 copies.

And now... Now they've done this:

This ties in nicely with what I was saying to a director I met with at the end of last week (coming soon: an amazing Alan MX video!), that the best videos have a brilliant idea behind them, rather than big production values. The idea, in this case, stems from this photo and, one suspects, a bit too much of the home-made fruit-infused vodka Theo is fond of...

Keep an eye out for Public Service Broadcast 10, it's slated to include a brand new Pocus track.

Broken Tail - 4 By 4 More EP

Broken Tail Records who first brought the wonderful music of Alan MX to our table are releasing a EP 'Four By Four More'.

Broken Tail has been awarded the coveted DIY Label Of The Week title by nice man Huw Stephens in '07 - and relentlessly 'bring you more grapes plucked from the vine of excellence on our continuing mission to expose the unexposed'.

Due 24th March 2008 (Easter Monday) and released in conjunction with Josaka Music, Four By Four More sees the return to action of PROJEKT A-KO, a bunch of Glaswegians previously involved with Scottish lo-fi heroes URUSEI YATSURA, under which name they released three critically-acclaimed albums, performed a string of major festival dates and even propped up the top 40 singles chart for a week on the back of a John Peel Session. Imagine an Idlewild (circa. 100 Broken Windows)/Pavement supergroup mixed by Thurston Moore and you end up somewhere close.

The EP also features up and coming Bristol indie-rock act TRIPWIRES, already spun by Huw Stephens and currently being filmed by media giants Endemol for some reason, the epic piano-rock of Steve Lamacq favourite TO THE BARRICADES and a joint effort between anti-folk anti-hero BEN MARWOOD and electro-whizz MR FOGG.

Tracklisting:

1/ Tripwires – Kings And Queens

2/ Project A-KO – Here Come New Challenger!

3/ To The Barricades – Say Who You Are

4/ Ben Marwood – Question Marks?

Myspace

Kick Out The Jams/Everyone Needs A Heineken

It's 11 o'clock your time but 6AM in New York Fucking City from which I write. What a mental week it's been and it's all Zane Lowe's Fault. I was quite pleased with myself being able to work out how to crack the hotel mail server. Daniel and I even worked out how to instant message each other last night. Technology? Us? Indeed!

I'm here with Fighting With Wire - who are currently sleeping (I hope) and are possibly struggling to come to terms with the $9 bottles of Heineken they bought last night in the hotel bar. You can put a deposit down on a two bedroom flat in Derry for that.

News of KOTJ's vodcast arrives on my laptop screen and is really quite exciting - allow me to share. This is a music show broadcast on a community television station in Belfast and then redistributed via the web. They are teamed up with AU magazine and have done loads of our bands and others like Rumble Strips (pictured), The Young Knives and Therapy? In fact if you dig around on Google Video (or follow that link I've just given you) there is a particularly awkward interview with Cahir from aforementioned FWW - bless.

Biffy Clyro (have you heard of them?) recorded an acoustic session last Christmas for the show and it's available for three weeks from 5th February - after this you can watch And So I Watch You From Afar - Ireland's post-rock contenders - from February 12th.

This is a lovely community spirited venture run by real music lovers, the production value and the care put into the editing makes this a great way to discover music from Ireland and uncover little rarities by international artists. Okay, I'm off to eat some pancakes! Go me!

Vodcast Link | Feed Me, Feed Me Now | Myspace | AU Official | NvTV

"It was the first two weeks of autumn; I kissed you on the cheek and gave you flowers out of season"

It's been on the horizon for a while now, but I've finally gone and done it: I've crossed over to the Twee Side. There's little ahead in my life except for Sarah Records reissues, girls who work in libraries, the Rough Trade Shops Indiepop compilation, and merry skips through blustery autumn landscapes. Eh, so it goes.

The upside to all this is that it gives me the perfect excuse to listen to The Deirdres. I saw them live last night, first on at at a Spiral Scratch night at the charmingly-delapidated Enterprise in Chalk Farm, and pretty much lay waste to the entire room using only handclaps, glockenspiel, sparkly capes and co-ordinated shouting. Imagine Los Campesinos! if they were five years younger, played everything faster and backwards and didn't rehearse very much. Their set was the best thing I've seen in AGES. There's also the paradox that if they were twice as good at being a Proper Band they'd be half as good at being the band they are. And the band they are is ACE.

Here are some stupid videos for you to watch. The first one is of them on the Antiques Roadshow. With Michael Aspall and everything. Really.







COMING TO AN STA EVENT NEAR YOU, SOON. I'm going to bug them until they say yes.

Skibunny Debut Single

The Belfast institution that is Skibunny are finally treating us with a physical embodiment of their legendary club night.

"Good times, good music, good vibe. If it’s good, it goes on is the philosophy, and we’ll all have a good time. The whole place tonight has an end of the world and we don’t care vibe. If that is the case, then we’ve found our DJs"
BBC RADIO ULSTER

Available as 7inch vinyl and download title track 'Aah Ooh' has a sumptuous depth that belies it's simplistic title. Tender vocals and lo-fi electronica with a deliciously understated break-beat. Sounds like Laetitia Sadler left alone in a room for an evening with Cubase and a two bottles of vin rouge. Simply gorgeous.

a. AAH OOH
b. AAH OOH - Handsomeboy Technique remix

ITUNE me here | Myspace me up Myspace me down

The dying breath of an industry attempting to secure brand loyalty

We're often asked to contribute to people's dissertations and research studies. Digital is the big thing at the moment of course. My view on it is ANY WAY you can buy Smalltown America stuff is great, be it direct from our store, direct from a band on tour or via iTunes etc. We're doing our best to service you in as many convenient ways as possible AND as I say in the interview below - only buy our products if you truly believe we deserve the money.

Our attitude when Jetplane was gigging heavily was to encourage tape trading and recording of all our live shows - the independent underground relies on the kindness of others to promote its messages and art. Thanks to Stef Purenins for posing the Qs>>

How has the internet helped your label so far?
The internet provides a record label or any small business with the means to do business with anyone, anywhere. If you have a product you can sell it, if you have a message you can promote it - it also allows for collaborative working on a scale previously impossible without a large team working in the same building.

How has the internet been a problem for your label?
The only issue with the proliferation of any network's users is that the network itself becomes difficult to navigate. Anyone can set up a myspace page and distribute links, it doesn't necessarily mean that they should. It simply means that a large portion of any record label administrator's day is to deal with a multitude of requests for your cyber attention. It also means that it is very difficult now for an artist to keep his or her 'powder dry'. As a case in point look to XL's Adele - over promoted before she even starts.

How do you foresee the internet helping your label in the future?
Online retail is fast becoming the largest component of our business, I predict that these sales will overtake tactile shop-based distribution by the middle of 2009.

How do you foresee the internet being a problem for your label in the future?
Piracy isn't an issue for a label of our size, we want people to talk about our releases and share our music; we actively encourage it in fact. We labour under the possible misapprehension that if you like our artists' music you will support them by going to their shows and support us by buying one of our products.

Has the sale of digital music files affected physical sales of releases on your label?
It has simply increased our market reach and become a new income stream - it has had no discernible effect on our tactile businesses - in fact, we have seen an upturn in gig attendances for all our artists over the last year.

What do you foresee happening to the music industry in terms of digital promotion and distribution, in the next 10 years?
Content is always going to the prime commodity in this industry. The music industry relies on a steady stream of new artists and new 'hits' to survive. I see the creation of 'Networking Engines' in which people's servers are used to aggregate not just their playlists and video favourites on social networking sites - but the entire usage of your complete machine. Marketeers will exploit this information accordingly in an attempt to extract a tiny trickle of money from us each day rather than 'chunks' of £10 pieces.

As the network expands, the net worth of music content will fall - artists will rely on volume sales of a few pence per stream or download rather than the big ticket item of the album sale. As the value of the content drops, the need for subscription based services will rise; people will view music procurement as a 'virtual' affair - collections will be housed remotely and vaults of CD/record collections (in the main) will give way to the subscription model described above.

As a result there will be a polar reaction in the underground and eclectic music genres; a push back to traditional formats and a brand niche of 'specialist' record collectors.

Traditional releases will still be available for the next ten years - after this they will become more and more a minority taste. Stores like HMV will downsize their physical footprint and become 'channels' for content rather than a high-street music warehouse.

What are your opinions on DRM (Digital Rights Management)?
It is the dying breath of an industry attempting to secure brand loyalty - it's a pointless affair, that will be eradicated sooner rather than later. Sony, Apple and the like should have focussed all their attention on researching the ultimate compression algorithm to digitise music lossless-ly at a fraction of the current filesizes, rather than attempting to hobble file-sharers. This would have placed them as market leaders in mobile content delivery, the big place to be over the next ten years.

Do you believe that independent record labels can survive the digital age of the music industry?
I feel that if your music is good then people will support you. Independent labels tend to have a maximum lifespan of five years, virtual technologies allow this life-span to increase indefinitely as the logistics of running a record label now are as straightforward as maintaining an email inbox. It's an exciting time.

Do you believe that the mp3 file will ever replace physical music formats?
MP3 as a compression format, will have it's day relatively soon. As discussed previously, compression algorithms will become the next 'format war' between online vendors. Owning records will become a quaint pastime in a few years. We don't really have stamps anymore when we go to the post office, we have virtual sticky labelling; it's the same sort of thing. It's too expensive now to produce tactile, individual content.

Do you believe the digital age of music distribution and promotion is creating a level playing field in the music industry?
No, corporations that have access to the largest marketing budgets will always have market dominance. However, the niche marketeers (like Smalltown America) will proliferate and the long-tail model of product distribution will come into being. There is money to be made, you just have to work hard for it.

YouTubery Greatness With A Musical Theme

Firstly, an apology to Daniel for waking him up on his day off at 8:10am. I feel exonerated by the fact that my day begins at 5:30am at the moment, as young Milo Ferris has decided that it's party time when the sun breaks. He might grow up to be a druid.

Sleeping much better this week are previous STA blog starlets Danananananananakroyd - who after a single stealthy post on DiS find themselves at the centre of a mini-major bidding war. Canny and well deserved. This year's festival hit I feel.

Onto today's post. My mate Neal is officially the most tangential person I know; I always take my notebook with me everytime we go out drinking as he is generally good for song titles 'We Need To Effect A Change' being a good case in point. The picture was taken at AD3 - where he worked the stage with Birdlegs & Cundall. Cheap labour (read 'free') that's the STA way. Isn't it Daniel? erm... yeah.

As well as being a valued STA volunteer he's also addicted to YouTube (he's a recovering WOW addict you see, one replaces the other) - it's a wonderful archivist fascination, fueled by half-remembered childhood VHS duplication and encyclopedic retention for musical detail. He and Simon Sweeping could go head to head in 'Indie Mastermind' (now there's a TV programme that should never be made.)

Here are some notes from our last session - our drinking was proceeded by my falling 'into' the road at Blackheath Common and almost getting run over by an oncoming Mini Metro. Just Say No! Kids.

• Josh Homme's definition of "heaviest song ever"

• Beefheart doing what he does best, nice couple of stories at the start too.

• This is a clip from an incredible eighties channel four documentary about Django Rienhart. The first dude is Garry Potter (English Django Reinhart/Chet Atkins nut), the third is Stocchello Rosenburg (Dutch gypsy and officially the suavest man who ever lived) and the fifth is Django's brother.

• *WARNING 10 MINUTE JAZZ/ROCK/FUSION ODYSSEY* John McLaughlin gets full of eastern promise, recruits the finest jazz/fusion/wank session players of the time and creates the Mahavishnu Orchestra, sowing the seed for math rock and The Mars Volta in the process.

• In the game "World of Warcraft", typing /dance will allow your chosen character to perform a dance. This is a video that some nut made showing the inspiration behind each shindig. Suffice to say, the female night elf doing the French pop song dance is regularly used to beg for gold from male characters.

• His name is Jason, he plays crazy ass flamenco.

• Tracy Bundy with fat guy doing "wind fx".

• Bonnie Rait performing a song she sadly never recorded. Check out the group of convicts she chose as a backing band.

• Reason number 3 (see Bonnie and Beefheart above) for buying the Old Grey Whistle Test 4 DVD set immediately.

• Joe Higgs

• Jose James I

• Jose James II

• Annie Lennox

• Award winning Russian animation

• Jesus!

We've got loads of other Favourites on the STA YouTube Channel. Mr. Burchell is often good for turning up the funk gold. There's a great Chaka Kahn clip on there at the moment.

Indiep♥p Until I Dr♥p!

As some of you might know, I spend a fair chunk of time on the Drowned In Sound message boards - what can I say, they help pass the time at work far better than staring forlornly out my window at the grey concrete of Camden Town does. One of the things that seem to pop up fairly regularly is hardcore fans of an artist registering accounts specifically to reply to bad reviews of their chosen artist, and to tell the reviwer hoo "wrong" they are. often using bad words. Such an event happened today, and while far from the worst example (go look up any review/news item about the Red Hot Chili Peppers, f'rexample), it's kinda caught me on a bad day and so irritated me far more than it should have.

Seriously, kids, what effect does yelling aimlessly into cyberspace actually achieve? A review is one person's opinion, no more, no less. Rather than telling me why this reviewer's opinion is OMG SO WRONG AND AN THE REVIEWER IS AN IDIOT and whatever, why don't you tell me why you like the music in question? Start a blog, write a fanzine, why not even use Drowned In Sound's user reviews feature? Of course, I'm sure this is something we've all been guilty of in the past (remember the NME's review of There Is No Real Courage Unless There Is Real Danger?) but really, it's never been easier to get a well-constructed opinion heard.

Yes yes, I'm aware that I'm moaning about people moaning.

Anyway, onto something far more fun!

I've always been a sucker for cottage-industry labour-of-love indie pop labels, the kind who hand make each CDR and send you free stickers and have cutesy websites and suchlike. So when I stumbled upon WeePOP! Records last weekend it came as no surprise to find myself on autopilot and spending money on their releases. They turned up yesterday, and I'm really glad I did. Check this out:

(click on photos to make them larger!)







I've also got extra respect for how beautiful these are, as I've spent the last four hours making promotional copies of the new Fighting With Wire album and it's reaaaaaaaaaally not a fun activity.



So it goes! Seriously though, these WeePOP! releases are probably the prettiest CDs I've ever bought. You should all go give them money. Tell them STA sent you! It'll confuse them.

Underground Party Broadcasting

Public Service Broadcast Club Number One - was a great success I thought. Gone the decapitated chicken madness of previous PSB shows; replaced by effortless stage management and wonderful sound provided by the able hands at RoTa.

Pocock and I got locked out of the show ten minutes before it was meant to begin but this aside everything was smooth.

It always goes without saying it still needs to be said - THANKS - to Pocketbooks, Alan MX and Q Without U for making their respective journeys. Alan said to me after his set 'I felt like vomiting with nerves' - poor love.

We also met up with Rege from The Underground Party Broadcast, what a nice chap - and what a great idea. Think if you will a DIY version of Jools Holland - minus the honkey tonk. Episode One is fully available via their site or youtube. For now, a snippet of the one and only Babar Luck: "And this is long before the use of SPELL Check! I am strictly Old Skool!"

"Excess Robert Pollard albums will destroy the universe"

Not just a 'clever' riff on the opening line of The Young Plaything's super ace debut album (still not heard it? go here), but also the subject of a piece that popped up this week in a Stateside publication.

It's hard to tell if the piece is tongue-in-cheek or not - I'd say it is, Bob Pollard superfan Jamie of The Runout Groove says not, the comments at the bottom certainly don't think it is - but regardless of this, it does certainly raise an interesting issue. Considering how fast the world seems to be drunkenly staggering towards the roaring fireplace, having fun but completely unaware of just how close it is to horrible pain, how can supposedly intelligent (which, y'know, I like to think we are) people justify expending even more of the world's ever-dwindling resources on something as "trivial" as music, especially when we don't even have the 'decency' to focus on music that could at least enable us to make a living?

It's something that really does trouble me, but also something for which I don't have an answer. However, two things are for certain: firstly, the world would be a much greyer place without music and art in general, as "wasteful" as it may seem, and secondly I deserve to suffer a lot less guilt over getting a thousand Alan MX CDs pressed up than Interpol should do for unleashing two hundred times that amount of their last stagnant record on the world. 100% truth!

two thousand and heaven

So 2008 is already two weeks down, and I bet you thought you'd escaped the unending cycle of retrospectives on the year just departed, right? RIGHT?

You've got a lot of attitude.

I decided to ask around the STA extended family for thoughts, opinions and rantings on 2007, and got exactly three responses. So here they, along with something I wrote when I was drunk.

Andrew Ferris - Smalltown America head honcho, guitarist/singer with Jetplane Landing.
This was originally posted here, as Andrew, being the total maverick he is, ignored my request to email it to me directly and posted it on here himself.

My friend Ian said the best thing about 2007 was his girlfriend moving out; "the bitch" with that as context this is my year in review.

Music: '07 was the year of Ideas Over Marketing as the online democracy finally took hold. Robyn's Konichiwa Bitches was the best start to the year the DIY industry could have had.
After his Tomahawk distractions, Stainer fans could rest easy that the undisputed master of the snare drum was back in the now to often lauded Battles. Future Of The Left proved they were vastly superior than the sum of their parts (even NME sez so - so meh!) on the wonderfully executed and titled 'Curses'. Even a cursed Soothsayer couldn't keep The Mars Volta down and Les Savy Fav laid waste with their first fully realised record. Album of the year was Comicopera by Robert Wyatt.

Interviews: Unembarrassed by the fact that they actually began to start playing Les Savy Fav on the Radio in the year that we decided to release 'Why Do They Never Play Les Savy Fav On The Radio?' - one of my personal highlights was interviewing Tim Harrington before their Scala show. You can download the whole sycophantic thirty minutes right here.

In matters much more professional; interview of the year was at the Purcell Room with Robert Wyatt curated by Sean O'Hagan.

Magazines: Alternative Ulster became AU and looks all the better for the missing letters; Rocksound's monthly reviews became indispensably comprehensive; Organ is the best it's ever been; Plan B became more willfully and brilliantly obscure and Artrocker remains the essential purchase for the indie pop trawler. If Robert Wyatt had published a magazine this year it would have been Magazine Of The Year - just for completeness.

Bateman - singer/guitarist from The Young Playthings

I’m not a religiously ‘new music’ person, more the bargain-bin guy. Every year, before Christmas when I’m supposed to be buying presents for my nearest and dearest, I always treat myself to a shitload of cheap records and new albums are rarely on sale; when they are, like the Enter Shikari album whose title I can’t be bothered to remember and which I bought for £1.99 in Impulse in Heathrow, it’s usually for good reason – they suck. However, I did get a few new good albums this year (Amazon vouchers and Limewire etc) and I just LOVE boring people with my opinions, so here goes.

Best Albums

STRUNG OUT, Blackhawks Over Los Angeles
I’m probably the only person with a brain who realises how fucking cool this band is. It sounds like if Iron Maiden were from the suburbs of California, smoked pot instead of drank ale and grew up listening to Nofx instead of Black Sabbath. The double bass drum machine-gun bursts and duelling guitars give me an insane hard-on.
MODEST MOUSE, We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
I’m not the only person with a brain who appreciates that Isaac Brock is a total genius. The presence of Johnny Marr only confirms that Brock is bidding for world domination, of which I wholeheartedly approve.
RYAN ADAMS, Easy Tiger
I thought the dickhead Boy Wonder had finally fallen foul of the mark with this, his, like, 200th studio album but I thunk too soon; not as great as Jacksonville City Nights or Cold Roses but there are still some stunning songs here, most notably Tears Of Gold, Two, Pearls On A String (of which I saw a better version on the Internet, performed live on David Letterman) and the acoustic Off Broadway (of which I didn’t think much until I saw him perform an incredible version of it with the Cardinals at Hammersmith Apollo this year). Oh, plus the best/worst metaphor for a drug addict ever – a Halloweenhead.
AMY WINEHOUSE, Back To Black
As the rains plundered homes around the rest of the country this miserable summer, Mark and I, from the secluded vantage point of our east London loft flat, debated the important issue of whether Amy Winehouse is fit. Little did we know that this would precede our most exciting social news of 2007, for just a few months later she would move in to our apartment complex! Okay, okay, we haven’t actually spied her yet but she’s here; the paparazzo permanently camped outside the gates watching DVDs on their laptops in their mini vans 24/7 are testament to that and their photos of her leaving in the London Paper fool’s proof (while the whole thing reached an apotheosis of celeb heaven when Pete Dokkers briefly moved in too, to help ween her off the horse, pen a tune with her and, just maybe, snog her while Field-Captain-Civil-Rose was in prison on remand). Amidst all this excitement I downloaded Back To Black from Limewire on Christmas Eve and was well and truly blown away. The up-close and personal pix may confirm that Slay-Me Slimehouse (Mark’s hilarious, ludicrous new moniker for her) is, currently, physically hideous but her voice and her music and her words are to die for. Good luck getting better in 2008 Ames.
THE WEAKERTHANS, Reunion Tour
The Guardian called it ‘drive-time indie’, which is actually quite apt, though it doesn’t really do it justice. Fine, it’s not a patch on Reconstruction Site (Samson’s words and voice on Elegy For Worzel Gummidge, or whatever it’s called, make you want to curl up and die they’re so yucky) but songs like Civil Twilight, Relative Surplus Value and the utterly consuming Night Windows confirm that no one writes everyday losers like Jay Kay Samson.

Best Songs

ROBYN, Handle Me
RIHANNA, Umbrella
AMY WINEHOUSE, Rehab
NATASHA BEDINGFIELD, I Wanna Have Your Babies
REMI NICOLE, Rock N Roll
FEIST, 1234
CHE’NELLE, I Fell In Love With The DJ
‘I fell in love with the DJ/Sneaking round the backdoor, banging till we hear somebody say “ooh-ooh-ooh”/I fell in love with the DJ/ getting intoxicated every weekend, making my heart go ooh-ooh-ooh’. Unfortunately, in the bridge, her boyfriend turns up with a knife (seriously, listen to this shit!) but she avoids that potentially fatal predicament by simply jumping straight back into the chorus! God, how great is pop music?!

Bargain-bin best-grabs

LAGWAGON, Resolve
I’m probably the only person with a brain who thinks Joey Cape is a genius. He wrote the whole of Resolve after the suicide of former Lagwagon drummer Derrick Plourde and perhaps that’s why it sounds so powerful – a cohesive, 12 song elegy of grief and regret that, amongst other things, indicts the physical and emotional isolation felt by so many in 21st century American life, confronts the horrific scene of Plourde’s death but ends, most movingly, with a plaintive eulogy of hope, addressed to Cape’s wife, to whom he was introduced by Plourde.
RYAN ADAMS, Love Is Hell
Yeh, he seems like a nob, but what a great songwriter. The whole thing’s brilliant, the Wonderwall cover, English Girls Approximately and Hotel Chelsea Nights the spine-tingling standouts.
PANTERA, Vulgar Display Of Power
Stuck this on my iPod to listen to when embarking on a post-Christmas Day run and it made me want to punch an unsuspecting fellow runner in the face its pure aggression is so fucking genius.
LOTION, The Telephone Album
My friend Jason is a big fan of Thomas Pynchon. He got into Lotion because Pynchon wrote the liner notes to their Nobody’s Cool album and he lent me Gravity’s Rainbow and ripped me this album. Gravity’s Rainbow put me off Pynchon forever but The Telephone Album made me remember nights getting drunk on Mark’s roof in the mid ‘90s all over again listening to Nobody’s Cool – oh, so glorious! A criminally forgotten band.
THE WALKMEN, Bows + Arrows
The Rat. Plus 10 other amazing, weird, warm, shambolic songs. I fall in love with this album a bit more with each listen.

Dan Emergency - Guitar / Vocals in An Emergency
Dan also makes solo electro wizzzzzzkid music, plays in the dreamy Farewell, Appalachia! and has just started a new band with some people who were in the really awesome punk rockers Bullet Union. I think he also plays in about three other bands as well, I can't keep up. We call him "Dan Emergency" because it sounds like "An Emergency" and we're clever with stuff like that. I don't think he realises this.

BEST VIDEO GAME: SKATE. on the XBOX360
2007 was the year that I quit skateboarding in the real world. Why? Because I can now do 360 flips to noseblunt slides before 180 kick-flipping out over the shuddering body of an old lady I knocked over a few moments before from the comfort of my easy chair. In summary SKATE. is the best game ever made.

BEST 'GUITAR MUSIC' LP: Black Lips - Good Bad Not Evil
Black Lips look like a real bunch of scum bags and I mean that in a good way. I have come to realise that I like my rock (and roll) sleazy, dirty and with plenty of slacker-jerk-goofball attitude. I saw them play acoustically in a shop in Brighton and I feared them. That's how good they are. Also, you get the impression that these guys know what they are doing and although present themselves as crazy fools are actually way clued up. You can keep your super-tech nano-bot guitar stylings and octopus drum rhythms. Also, I don't want to hear any of your lovey-dovey nonsense. I just want to listen to Black Lips, wear sun glasses and pretend I am as cool as them.

BEST GIG: Dan Sartain @ The Bristol Thekla
Dan Sartain is a legend. He is younger than I am (I think) and is already a legend. I hate that guy! My girlfriend was too scared to talk to him 'cos he is so great and I'd have to agree. His songs are amazing, his voice is brilliant and he is the kind of dude you wouldn't wanna leave your girl alone with because he'd just swan off with her and deservedly so! Anyway, this show was awesome. He tore the place down and came across as being as humble as a piece of pie.

BEST HIP HOP LP: Clipse - Hell Hath No Fury

Just last week, I was out in Aspen
Me and Puff hoppin off the plane, both us laughing
A week before that, I was out in Italy
Attire heart throbs could not get rid of me
Up and down the tella crib, me and like ten hoes
Call from the cell phone, give me that enzo

Amazing.

BEST ART STUFF: Seripop

In 2007 I got really in to drawing, I figured I couldn't draw but it turns out that shit doesn't matter! Seripop make visuals that look like a bunch of psychedelic puke. Crazy colours, crazy designs and a whole load of mess. They influenced me a lot this past year and hopefully one day I'll be able to achieve some work as positively mind-bending as theirs. Also they are in a beautifully offensively named band: AIDs Wolf. Seripop, I salute you.

Me! Daniel Guntrip - STA's newly appointed label manager
I decided to write seven things that made 2007 great. You know: seven for 2007. They have the same number! And stuff! I said we were clever like that.

All Tomorrow's Parties - Dirty Three weekend, ATP Vs The Fans, Portishead's Nightmare Before Christmas.

Simply put, ATP is the best festival in the UK. I went to all three last year, which - financially speaking - is probably worse for my bank balance than a crack addiction. But who cares? In one year and three festivals, I got to: see Portishead's first show in ten years; see Wilco's current lineup beating ten bells out of their back catalogue; dance in some manic chalet party with twenty of my most awesomest friends to "Touch Me, I'm Sick"; dance while Oneida spent nearly 15 minutes playing the same bit of "Up With Peopl" overandoverandoverandover..; get a million indie points for being totally dissed by Nick Cave; see Okkervil River and for them to be SO INCREDIBLE it was totally worth skipping Les Savy Fav for, and... oh, a million over amazing memories. Including a cute Texan girl groping my bottom at five in the morning whilst I was watching the sun rise.

Battles - Mirrored

Yeah yeah, this has been on everyone's End Of Year List-O-Ramas. Whatever. Listen to the drumming. LISTEN TO THE DRUMMING! My favourite description of this record comes from someone on Drowned In Sound's message boards, who said his 4 year old sister described unlikely-super-hit-single "Atlas" as sounding like drums fighting monsters.

Future Of The Left. Generally.

Curses! makes a lot of things better, not least the fact that it's getting the level of success that Mclusky totally deserved. Despite replacing the overt sarcastic hatred of Mclusky with more a absurd take on things, Falco's still as raging as ever and Kelson From Jarcrew backs him up very nicely indeed. Also, they're great live. You know, I saw half of Mclusky at Reading a few years ago on the Carling stage. I was so hungover that day that I had to leave, which is 'impressive' (ie, not at all) as they played at 8pm or something. I went to see the Super Furry Animals instead, which was fun until Goldie Lookin' Chain came out and they did some kind of rubbish team up. GO TEAM DANIEL!

Los Campesinos - You! Me! Dancing!

Quite simply the finest slap of pop released last year. I must admit I was slightly skeptical that it would be better than the demo version that got them all their initial hype, but golly gosh did they manage. Top marks to the band and producer David Newfeld. They also win extra points for not editing down it's six minutes plus running time for a single release, even though doing so probably would've seen it spank daytime Radio 1 into shape somewhat. Even further extra points to Gareth Campesinos! for introducing it as "Creep" during their show at ULU back in October. Every band should have a "Creep": it makes them work harder.

Lost Season 3

From THAT OPENING SCENE!!!! of episode 1 to THAT CLOSING SCENE!!!! of episode 22, season 3 of Lost possibly more "OH MY GOD" moments per screen minute of television than anything that's ever been produced. I can't wait for series 4 to start, even if this Writer's Guild strike is going to derail it. Episode 1 is called "The Beginning Of The End". We're through the looking glass, people.

New Futurama! NEW FUTURAMA!

OK, time to level with y'all: I probably love Futurama more than I love rock 'n' roll. For five years, it was not only the funniest show on television, but it managed to do this whilst being so goddamn romantic and heartwarming at times as to make even a steely cynic as myself feel all warm and fuzzy inside. And then it was cancelled, and the world became a greyer place. THANKS FOX! But then it came back! Back in November, the first new Futurama in four years arrived, in the form of the 90 minute movie Bender's Big Score. I, being the utter geek I am, was unwilling to wait for the official UK release (April this year, apparently), so I imported it from North America. You know what? It's just as good as it was. It has time travelling, Bender being awesome, Fry and Leela being emo about each other, plenty of hilarious digs at Fox, and lotsandlots of references aimed squarly at hardcore Futurama geeks. Like me. Best of all there are THREE MORE MOVIES COMING OUT THIS YEAR. Hell, even my mother loved it.

Okkervil River - The Stage Names

My love for this album is such that I'm having trouble with words. It's my favourite album of 2007, and here's why:
Musically, it's their most "pop" record to date - the arrangements are as complex as they've ever been, but they've been reigned in and tightened up and everything fits really well.
Lyrically, it's their most complete, if not most complex, a loose concept record that dwells on living your life through art, both as a composer and as a spectator, taking in John Berryman, Savannah, a fictionalised version of lead singer Will Scheff circa 2015 and a lot more along the way.

I saw them play in Brighton back in November, at the tale end of a 5 month tour. They looked exhausted, Will Scheff was visibly/heroically drunk, and they played an incredible show. I'm going to see them again next month!

THE END

Yes, yes it is.