Torr

Out in the UK on Monday

Here's the notable stuff that's out in the UK on Mon Jan 7th...

Singles:

Clocks - "All I Can" [Vid above. Great 2nd single from London 4-piece. It even has a neat video where they drop 3,000 parachuting toy soldiers from an airplane.]

British Sea Power - "Waving Flags" [Vid. Great 1st single from Do You Like Rock Music?]

Parka - "Disco Dancer" [Vid. Re-release of debut single from Glasgow/London 5-piece.]

The Maccabees - "Toothpaste Kisses" [Vid. Millionth single from their debut album.]

Albums To Look Forward To In Early '08

I managed to get a copy of the Helio Sequence album already and it's an incredible leap forward for the band; some songs sound like Unforgettable Fire-era U2 while others are akin to Bob Dylan. Good stuff!

The Helio Sequence - Keep Your Eyes Ahead (Sub Pop, Jan 29th)

Nada Surf - Lucky (Barsuk, Feb 5th)

British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music? (Rough Trade, Feb 12th)

UK release-dates:

• Boy Kill Boy - Stars & The Sea (Mercury, Feb 11th)
• Duffy - Rockferry (Polydor, March 3rd)

And of course there are all the bands whose new albums don't have an exact release-date yet: Elbow, The Kooks, Ours, Sun Kil Moon, Aloha, Margot & The Nuclear So And So's etc.

holiday haul

Here are a few of the items that my wife and others got me this holiday season...

A-Z CD dividers that you use to alphabetize your CD collection. Each divider lists hundreds of artists on the back. They're sold at many places around the world, including a great little store called A+R here in Silverlake across from Spaceland.

Books:

Peepholism: Into the Art of Morrissey - Out-of-print UK coffee-table book from '94 shows the making of The  Smiths (and solo Moz) single and album sleeves. It's full of interesting facts about each releases artwork including pix of aborted versions, mispressings, etc.

Amazing . . . but False! - Hundreds of "Facts" You Thought Were True, But Aren't.

Where's My Jetpack? - A Guide to the Amazing Science Fiction Future That Never Arrived.

DVDs:

American Dad! - Vol. 1

Little Britain - Abroad

New British Indie Doc On VH1 Classic

Seven Ages of Rock: British Indie

VH1 Classic has a new hour-long documentary which traces "British Indie" through The Smiths, The Stone Roses, Oasis, Suede, Blur, Franz Ferdinand and The Libertines.

The doc contains new interviews with Johnny Marr, Mani, Brett Anderson, Alex James, Noel Gallagher, Alex Kapranos, Carl Barat and more.

You can watch the entire thing online, or you can see it on the TV when it airs Dec 25th at 10pmET on VH1 Classic.

Most anyone reading this will already know all the info offered in the documentary, but it's nice to see it get an airing on U.S. TV.

Gigs Of 2007

My first full year of gig-going here in Los Angeles was a great one; I got to see many bands that would never play anywhere near Texas.

Best shows of 2007:

• Jan 26 Keane @ Wiltern Theatre
• Mar 03 Midlake @ Troubadour
• Mar 09 Earlimart @ Getty Museum
• Mar 14 SXSW - Austin, TX [recap]
• Apr 14 Travis / The Shins / Lily Allen @ Universal Amphitheater
• Apr 29 Travis / Goldspot @ Henry Fonda Theatre
• May 04 Apartment @ El Cid
• May 29 Voxtrot @ El Rey Theatre
• Jun 16 The Rosebuds @ Spaceland
• Jul 19 Shout Out Louds @ El Rey Theatre
• Jul 27 Maxïmo Park @ El Rey Theatre
• Aug 16 The Veils @ Hotel Cafe
• Sep 24 Editors @ Wiltern Theatre
• Sep 25 Arctic Monkeys / Voxtrot @ Palladium
• Oct 05 Metric @ Henry Fonda Theatre
• Oct 17 Mobius Band @ Spaceland
• Oct 25 Air Traffic @ The Echo
• Nov 14 Athlete @ Troubadour
• Nov 07 The Thrills @ Spaceland
• Dec 13 Richard Hawley @ Troubadour

Average shows:

• Jan 31 AMPOP @ Silverlake Lounge
• May 16 Patrick Wolf @ Troubadour
• May 11 Keane @ Universal Ampitheater
• May 17 Ben Gibbard @ Royce Hall
• Jun 07 Kaiser Chiefs @ Henry Fonda Theater
• Jul 27 Eisley @ Silent Movie Theatre
• Aug 29 Office @ Standard Hotel
• Oct 06 Detour Fest [The Raveonettes, Shout Out Louds, The Aliens, Scissors for Lefty]
• Nov 21 Travis / Maxïmo Park @ Wiltern Theatre

Morrissey shows:

• Feb 03 @ Pasadena Civic Auditorium
• Apr 20 @ Jimmy Kimmel Live
• Jun 05 @ Majestic Theatre - Ventura
• Jun 08 @ Hollywood Bowl
• Oct 05 @ Palladium
• Oct 09 @ Palladium
• Oct 13 @ Palladium

Best Night Of Stand-Up:

• Apr 25 Janeane Garofalo / Marc Maron / Henry Rollins @ Silent Movie Theatre

Most disappointing and/or worst shows of the year:

• Jan 05 The View @ Viper Room
• Jan 23 Emily Haines @ El Rey Theatre
• Feb 01 Peter Bjorn and John @ The Roxy
• Apr 18 Aereogramme / The Twilight Sad @ Knitting Factory
• Apr 26 The Jesus and Mary Chain @ Glass House
• May 01 Rufus Wainwright @ El Rey Theatre
• May 08 Black Rebel Motorcycle Club @ Wiltern Theatre
• Jun 10 The Raveonettes @ Little Radio Warehouse
• Sep 21 Air @ Greek Theatre
• Oct 26 Caribou @ Troubadour
• Nov 03 IAMX @ El Rey Theatre
• Nov 04 N. Lannon @ Spaceland
• Nov 06 The Orange Lights @ Viper Room

Oddest Meeting Of PopStar And (former) Politician

On Dec 11 '07 Nobel Prize Award winners Al Gore and Rajendra Kumar Pachauri unveiled Magne Furuholmen's new aluminum sculpture, Climax. The unveiling took place at the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo. Magne is in a-ha.

Morten Harket even performed his (really weak) new single "Movies" (a Locomotives cover) at the Noble ceremony.

I've said it once and I'll say it again, all three of a-ha's albums since the reformation are very good, believe it or not:

Minor Earth Major Sky (2000) [Vid: "Summer Moved On"]

Lifelines (2002) [Vid: "Lifelines"]

Analogue (2005) [Vid: "Cosy Prisons"]

Stream new Moz single at BBC Radio 1

Head to bbc.co.uk/radio1/zanelowe, click "Hear Monday's show", hit the 5min-skip button five times, sit thru Supergrass, then "That's How People Grow Up" starts at the 16:28 mark. Kristeen Young wailing during the intro is just ridiculous.

You can also watch the Letterman performance from back in June.

So what do ya say? I'm thinking Moz's worst single ever:

1988

• "Suedehead"
• "Everyday Is Like Sunday"

1989

• "The Last Of The Famous International Playboys"
• "Interesting Drug"
• "Ouija Board, Ouija Board"

1990

• "November Spawned A Monster"
• "Piccadilly Palare"

1991

• "Our Frank"
• "Sing Your Life"
• "Pregnant For The Last Time"
• "My Love Life"

1992

• "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful"
• "You're The One For Me, Fatty"
• "Tomorrow"
• "Certain People I Know"

1994

• "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get"
• "Hold On To Your Friends"
• "Interlude"
• "Now My Heart Is Full"

1995

• "Boxers"
• "Dagenham Dave"
• "The Boy Racer"
• "Sunny"

1997

• "Alma Matters"
• "Roy's Keen"
• "Satan Rejected My Soul"

2004

• "Irish Blood, English Heart"
• "First Of The Gang To Die"
• "Let Me Kiss You"
• "I Have Forgiven Jesus"

2005

• "Redondo Beach"

2006

• "You Have Killed Me"
• "The Youngest Was The Most Loved"
• "In The Future When All's Well"
• "I Just Want To See The Boy Happy"

And btw, here's the tracklist for the new singles comp, which includes another new (slightly less weak) song "All You Need Is Me."

UK Chart Report

Here are the notable UK chart entries for the week of Dec 16th...

Singles:

• #32 Stereophonics - "My Friends" [Vid. 2nd single from Pull The Pin.]
• #39 Foals - "Balloon" [Vid. Debut from Oxford 4-piece.]

Indie-label singles chart:

• #4 The Rascals - Out Of Dreams EP [Vid. 12"-only debut from Wirral trio.]

These singles did not chart:

• Wolf People - "Storm Cloud" [7"-only debut from London 5-piece.]

Albums:

• nothing of interest

Indie-label album chart:

• nothing of interest

My fav non-album singles since 1990

I just realized the other day that there are quite a few non-album singles that I love. Songs were only eligible if they were actually a proper UK cd single that did not appear on a studio-album or EP.

Electronic - "Disappointed" [1992. The last track they did with Neil Tennant, it originally appeared on the Cool World soundtrack of all places.]

Haven - "Tell Me" [2003. Released after their debut album, I thought for-sure it'd mean that their 2nd album would be great, but alas no.]

The Libertines - "Don't Look Back Into The Sun" [2003. Same deal as the Haven track above; released after their debut album, I thought for-sure it'd mean that their 2nd album would be great, but alas no.]

Manic Street Preachers - "There By The Grace Of God" [2002. Was a bit of a signal towards the Depeche Mode-influenced sound they would explore on the excellent Lifeblood.]

Morrissey - "My Love Life" [1991. Hard to pick just one for Moz since he had so many great ones back-in-the-day.]

Oasis - "Whatever" [1994. Released after their debut album it still stands as one of their finest songs.]

The Seahorses - "You Can Talk To Me" [1997. Same deal as the Haven and Libertines tracks above; released after their debut album, I thought for-sure it'd mean that their 2nd album would be great, but alas no.]

Shed Seven - "Disco Down" [1999. The new track for their singles compilation.]

Travis - "Coming Around" [2000. Released as a one-off single after The Man Who. In an recent interview with I Am Fuel... Fran says he doesn't really care for this song. Odd!]

Other tracks that are great, but I can't find a YouTube link for:

• The The - "Jealous Of Youth" [1990. A one-off single after Mind Bomb, it signaled the direction they would head on incredible Dusk.]

• Longview - "In A Dream" [2004. Released after their debut album, we're still waiting for that 2nd album!]

• Shack - "Oscar" [2000. A one-off single after the fabulous HMS Fable, sadly it was one the last great tracks they ever released.]

Turin Brakes post "Stone Thrown" demo

Turin Brakes have posted a lovely up-tempo demo of "Stone Thrown" on their MySpace. The final version of the song appeared on 2003's Ether Song.

"your love is just a bloody game", replaces "fuck"

I guess their latest album Dark On Fire is never gonna get a U.S. release? I've only gotten to hear a few tracks, which sounded good to me, but xolondon says it's a "truly lackluster album."