Mr Red Penguin's MP3 Heaven.

Saturday, October 29, 2005


Arctic Monkeys, Mylo and Los de Abajo



EDIT: I've zipped these files together and put them up on Rapidshare.

More session tracks from last night's Later With Jools Holland. I was as impressed with the Arctic Monkeys as I was disappointed with Mylo - okay, I prefer tuneless noisy guitars to dance beats but there's still a lot I listen to but there's something a bit Emperor's-clothes-etc about Mylo, I just don't get it. Oh Elton John likes them, that speaks volumes.



I thought the AMs were excellent though, particularly enjoying the bit where Alex Turner tells everyone the song's not finished as they start cheering through a quiet bit thinking it has. I bet they don't get that much at their gigs these days. Oh and the Los de Abajo latin/ska Fun Boy 3 cover is outstanding, say no more!

Arctic Monkeys - From The Ritz To The Rubble (Later With Jools Holland 28-10-2005).mp3
Arctic Monkeys - I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor (Later With Jools Holland 28-10-2005).mp3
Arctic Monkeys - When The Sun Goes Down (Later With Jools Holland 28-10-2005).mp3
Los de Abajo - Los Lunaticos (Later With Jools Holland 28-10-2005).mp3
Mylo - Drop The Pressure (Later With Jools Holland 28-10-2005).mp3
Mylo - Otto's Journey (Later With Jools Holland 28-10-2005).mp3



posted by Paul at 9:05 am
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Tuesday, October 25, 2005


Today's midweek charts



Just when a real band* with real instruments hits number 1, a reminder how far in the bottom of the skip British chart music still is.

1 - Westlife (outselling everyone else 3 to 1)
2 - Arctic Monkeys
3 - Kate Bush (223 copies behind Arctic Monkeys)
4 - Sugababes
5 - Mc Fly
6 - Pussycat Dolls Ft Busta Rhymes
7 - Backstreet Boys
8 - Robbie Williams
9 - Hilary Duff
10 - Daniel Powter
13 - Maximo Park
17 - Mariah Carey
18 - Magic Numbers
19 - Danni Minogue
22 - Katie Melua
23 - Kelly Clarkson
28 - The Corrs
30 - Charlotte Church

(* I know it doesn't turn into Tolstoy half way through, but it's okay I suppose)



posted by Paul at 12:27 pm
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Saturday, October 22, 2005


Later: Goldfrapp, Editors, Brendan Benson



EDIT: I've zipped these files together and put them up on Rapidshare.

Is music getting better or am I just getting older or more tolerant (doesn't sound like me) or what?

I don't normally get too enthused about a new series of Later With Jools Holland - the only really memorable track I remember seeing was a very strange and beautiful version of Paranoid Android. The current series - number 26! - which started last night seems to have some better stuff though, including Mylo, Arctic Monkeys and Maximo Park (sorry, Maxïmo Park) in the next few weeks, and last night, Brendan Benson, Editors and Goldfrapp.



Brendan Benson - Spit It Out (Later With Jools Holland 21-10-2005).mp3
Brendan Benson - What I'm Looking For (Later With Jools Holland 21-10-2005).mp3
Editors - Bullets (Later With Jools Holland 21-10-2005).mp3
Editors - Munich (Later With Jools Holland 21-10-2005).mp3
Goldfrapp - Number 1 (Later With Jools Holland 21-10-2005).mp3
Goldfrapp - Ooh La La (Later With Jools Holland 21-10-2005).mp3
Goldfrapp - Satin Chic (Later With Jools Holland 21-10-2005).mp3



posted by Paul at 7:31 am
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Thursday, October 20, 2005


The return of the incredible? Rumblings in PWEI-land



If you go to the rather excellent PWEINATION site tonight you'll get this slightly cryptic message:



If you like your Poppies then you should register and visit regularly - it's an excellent source of information, one of the few sites which clearly shows there's no need for an official site.

Why should you care? PWEI played their first gigs for 8 years in January and they were OUTSTANDING - musically tight as ever, crowd as brilliant as ever. Rumours are rife of new material too and if they pick up where they left off then 2006 should be a treat. And it looks like they're going to ... that date isn't there to commemorate the Eighty Years War. (Thank you Wikipedia, I was struggling for a minute there).



posted by Paul at 9:29 pm
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Christmas No 1 Contenders - Shoot Me Now Please



JUST when you were looking forward to a few days off and one or two beers ... here's a story from Music Week.

Choral boy band The Choirboys and Westlife with Diana Ross are the favourites for the Christmas number one, according to HMV and William Hill.

In what could prove to be one of the closest competitions in years, HMV is tipping The Choirboys' rendition of Eric Clapton's Tears In Heaven for the festive top slot, while bookmakers William Hill are backing Westlife’s duet with Diana Ross on When You Tell Me That You Love Me.

Other contenders for number one include Tony Christies cover of Slade’s Christmas perennial Merry Xmas Everyone, G4 featuring Robin Gibb’s take on Johnny Mathis’s When a Child is Born and the Crazy Frog’s Christmas single. William Hill is also offering odds of 7 to 1 on the winner of the X Factor.

The race is particularly open this year as there is no obvious charity hit, as was the case last year with Band Aid 20. Bookmakers are also trying to assess how downloads will affect the Christmas chart.

"The charts can be fairly predictable these days," says HMV singles buyer Stewart Allan. "But the one time you just don’t know what’s going to happen is at Christmas. Often there’s a novelty hit that comes out of the blue or a big charity release, and sometimes there’s a really hot new boy band or girl group that’s pretty unstoppable. I’m sure this Christmas will be no different and it wouldn’t surprise me if a song emerges that we don’t even know about yet."

Allan adds that those who fancy a flutter should try Coldplay, who are at 33 to 1 with William Hill for Talk, and Mariah Carey, who is at 40 to 1 with William Hill for non-album track Don’t You Forget About Us.

This year, for the first time since 1994, when East 17 topped the chart with Stay Another Day, the Christmas chart is announced on Christmas day itself.



posted by Paul at 11:13 am
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Monday, October 17, 2005


Kate Bush video for King Of The Mountain - THE TRUTH REVEALED!



It's been bugging me all week but know I am CERTAIN I know where the inspiration in Kate Bush's new video comes from.

First look at these two stills from the video:



The mysterious house with the checkerboard floor



The snow shaker imagery

Got both of those? Now download Homer's new advert from the classic 1992 short film, "Mr Plow".



Spookily, elsewhere in the episode Homer uses his plow (which I believe is some kind of plough) to rescue Kate Bush's dad, George Bush (*check this later), from a bunch of hippies and protestors.

Rumour has it that the second single from Kate Bush's new album, Aerial, will be Kiss My Asphalt.

Yes yes, I know it's all about Citizen Kane, but it's clear that the Simpsons thing is much more prevalent. Isn't it?



posted by Paul at 10:44 pm
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The Top 20 Indie singles of the year so far (UK sales)



Notice I have been a wee bit liberal about exactly what an "indie" is. Come and get yer pigeonholes here!

01 Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc. - 246300



02 Oasis - Lyla - 134600
03 Stereophonics - Dakota - 112000
04 Gorillaz - Dare - 111900
05 Oasis - The Importance of Being Idle - 107100
06 Coldplay - Speed of Sound - 104100
07 Razorlight - Somewhere Else - 102000
08 Green Day - Wake Me Up When September Ends - 82500
09 Chemical Brothers - Galvinize - 80300
10 Foo Fighters - Best of You - 77300
11 Coral - In The Morning - 63200
12 Phantom Planet - California - 61900
13 Kaiser Chiefs - Everyday I Love You Less and Less - 60100
14 Athlete - Wires - 58600
15 Coldplay - Fix You - 56400
16 Goldfrapp - Oh La La - 54800
17 Kaiser Chiefs - I Predict A Riot / Sink That Ship - 54600
18 Killers - Somebody Told Me - 50800
19 Kaiser Chiefs - Oh My God - 49100
20 Green Day - Boulevard of Broken Dreams - 48100



posted by Paul at 3:41 pm
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Saturday, October 15, 2005


Kate Bush - King Of The Mountain video



The video was aired tonight for the first time on Channel 4. They actually gave it its own programme which was nice.



You can watch it on the official site here.



posted by Paul at 11:31 pm
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From the archives: Frank and Walters 1996



Back in 1996 I was a fledging presenter on little known and now defunct community radio station in Billericay, Mayflower FM. The best thing about this station was that we broadcast from an old BBC Outside Broadcast van in the car park of the White Hart pub in the High Street, and all you had to do was mention them on air and they’d be knocking on the door with another pint. It’s a wonder we got any radio stuff done at all.

On 28 June that year I went out to do my first interview with the suddenly-reappeared Frank and Walters, who were playing their first gig that night at the Water Rats in Kings Cross, London. Our station had no recording equipment (that’s right, our station had no recording equipment) and I had to borrow an extremely cheap and old voice recorder from Basildon crown court (don’t ask, please don’t ask!) This caused great amusement with the boys from the band as we piled into the back of the van, with Paul telling me that this was state of the art equipment and the BBC use them all the time.



Fast forward to whatever year it is now and I’ve just found the tape in a big box marked “things to do”, in the kind of handwriting I might have used in the mid 90s. It’s not really good enough quality to put up on line, so I’ve done the next best thing, and transcribed it.

You will notice this is my first interview, from the extremely rubbish questions I asked them. My second interview took place at the same place, almost exactly nine years to do the day. As Ashley put it this year, “yes I think I remember the first interview, were you wearing a blue shirt?” Anyway I went under the pseudonym of "Eddie Curry" for some reason, so my stupid questions are as follows.




EC: You’ve been going for quite a while now, you came onto the music scene around about 1990/1991, how did the idea for the Frank and Walters come about in the first place?

Paul: The name of the band, is it?

EC: Well, yeah, the name of the band, and how you got together?

Paul: Well my brother, he’s the guarists, and Ashley, he just lives up the road, we just like, I remember I bought a bass there once, my first bass, and they bought a guitar, and Ashley brought drums, and we just formed a band, that was it like.

Ashley: We were just bored, and just hanging around, you know.

EC: The actual name of The Frank and Walters, that came after a couple of local characters, didn’t it?

Niall: Yeah, these two guys that we grew up with, they’re older than us, one was called Frank, and one was called Walter, they were a bit off the wall. And then we just started, you know, if we saw anyone acting strange we would say, “Oh he’s a Frank and Walter”, the name came off of that.

EC: Around about that time in the early 90s, you came around at the same time as the Sultans of Ping, and people started talking about a Cork scene coming up, did the music scene in Cork inspire you to play, or was it more out of boredom and you decided to do something about it?

Ashley: When we started, we weren’t inspired by any Cork music scene, you know, there was no scene, no similarities between our music and the Sultans of Ping, you know what I mean?

EC: So it was just a coincidence that it all seemed to come around together then?

Niall: There’s not much happens in Cork anyway, you know what I mean? There still isn’t, there’s not a lot of jobs there, there’s not a lot of anything there.

EC: So it didn’t get any better as time went on then? It didn’t inspire other people in the town to …

Niall: There’s thousand of young bands trying to break through, like, being in Cork was no different.

EC: This is probably the most–asked question that you’re getting at the moment, but where have you been for the last three years?

Everyone: laughs

Paul: It is, yeah. It was like, when we got here three years ago, we got kind of burned out from too much gigs, and for a while we almost had a fear of music, because we associated music with stress, because we had a balance diet in our minds. When we went back to Cork we were even afraid to write songs, the whole thing was associated with stress and we stopped for a while. When we started playing again we were rejuvenated again.

EC: So you feel that the new stuff coming out at the moment is all the more better for you having had a break?

Paul: It definitely is, like we had a fear of music, but we still love music, you know what I mean? We always had a love/hate relationship with music. I love writing music and songs because I find it therapeutic, but if you do too much of it you become stressed out or whatever, but if you don’t do anything then you miss out on the therapeutic factor, getting things off your mind and trying to come to terms with something that’s happening – when you’re moved by something, you can channel it into your music.

EC: Does it feel good being back on the road after all this time?

Paul: It did actually, it felt brilliant. We’re kind of surprised, we thought it would be all hectic again or whatever, but this time we’re just more prepared for it, you know what I mean? We’re a bit more easy going than we used to be. We’re kind of laid back and just take things in our stride rather than just worrying about things. We’re not as nervous as we used to be, going up on stage or anything.

EC: What kind of bands have been around in the meantime that might have influenced the stuff you’re doing now? Or maybe they haven’t, but you’ve enjoyed them anyway?

Niall: In the meantime? I don’t know if we’ve been influenced by them but I do like some of the modern bands, I like the Cardigans, the Wannadies, and even some of the Britpop music is fairly good, you know what I mean? I think Blur and Oasis are very good, and Supergrass, and Pulp, and a whole lot, I think they’re very good, like.

EC: It’s more the melodic kind of stuff?

Niall: It’s more like what we were aiming for ourselves, you know what I mean? Melodic kind of pop music.

Ashley: A few years ago, we were releasing records and the top 40 would be jammed full of dance stuff, dance jazzed-up cover versions. It’s amazing that you can look at the top 40 now and half of it would be proper melodic songs. That’s good for a band like us because that’s where we’re coming from.

EC: How do you see the future shaping up? Up to the end of this year can we expect more touring, or plans to start work on a new album, a third one?

Paul: We actually have. We’ve already written songs for our third album. This album that we have was finished recording about a year ago, believe it or not, but we had to wait around for a while to get it mixed, there was a bit of confusion, but the thing is that in the meantime we wrote a lot of new songs, we’ve got a lot of songs for a third album and we’ve got millions of ideas.

EC: Thanks very much for the chat, Paul, Ashley and Niall – hope it goes well for you.

Here’s the second interview with the Frank and Walters I did
Here’s the now defunct website for Mayflower FM

And finally, here’s the top 40 the week I interviewed them:

01 - Fugees - KILLING ME SOFTLY
02 - Baddiel and Skinner and the Lightning Seeds - THREE LIONS
03 - Peter Andre Featuring Bubbler Ranx - MYSTERIOUS GIRL
04 - Mariah Carey - ALWAYS BE MY BABY
05 - Celine Dion - BECAUSE YOU LOVED ME
06 - Black Grape Featuring Joe Strummer And Keith Allen - ENGLAND'S IRIE
07 - Livin' Joy - DON'T STOP MOVIN'
08 - Everything But The Girl - WRONG
09 - Queen - LET ME LIVE
10 - Ocean Colour Scene - THE DAY WE CAUGHT THE TRAIN
11 - Tony Rich Project - NOBODY KNOWS
12 - Simply Red - WE'RE IN THIS TOGETHER
13 - Pianoman - BLURRED
14 - Divine Comedy - SOMETHING FOR THE WEEKEND
15 - Let Loose - MAKE IT WITH YOU
16 - Maxi Priest Featuring Shaggy - THAT GIRL
17 - JX - THERE'S NOTHING I WON'T DO
18 - Space - FEMALE OF THE SPECIES
19 - Upside Down - NEVER FOUND A LOVE LIKE THIS BEFORE
20 - Adam Clayton And Larry Mullen - THEME FROM MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE
21 - Louise - NAKED
22 - R Kelly - THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY
23 - Love Tribe - STAND UP
24 - Gina G - OOH AAH... JUST A LITTLE BIT
25 - Crowded House - INSTINCT
26 - Longpigs - SHE SAID
27 - Strike - INSPIRATION
28 - Robert Miles - FABLE
29 - Deuce - NO SURRENDER
30 - Wildhearts - RED LIGHT - GREEN LIGHT EP
31 - Cure - MINT CAR
32 - Lighthouse Family - OCEAN DRIVE
33 - Gabrielle - FORGET ABOUT THE WORLD
34 - George Michael - FASTLOVE
35 - Beck - WHERE IT'S AT
36 - Rod Stewart And Scots Euro 96 Squad - PURPLE HEATHER
37 - Collapsed Lung - LONDON TONIGHT / EAT MY GOAL
38 - Gemini - COULD IT BE FOREVER
39 - MC Lyte Featuring Xscape - KEEP ON, KEEPIN' ON
40 - Mark Morrison - RETURN OF THE MACK

Hmmmm, must have been a bad week. Comments welcome!



posted by Paul at 7:14 pm
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The Fall - Free Range



One good thing to come out of John Peel Day, maybe - after 1,000,000 years and 1,000,000 single and album releases, I've bought my first Fall record. Oh yes-uh!



I just love the random pointless meandering of the lyrics. Of course Fall fans will probably tell me I've completely missed the point.

Fall - Free Range.mp3

In 2001
A Life code:
It pays to talk to no one.
Proliferating across the earth.
Also Sprach Zarathustra*
Faction Europa
Free Range.
2001
Also Sprach Zarathustra
Proliferating across the earth
Pressure guilt
Grudge match
12 cm flak unit
Range 1 stroke 35
This is the spring without end
This is the summer of malcontent
This is the winter of your mind
By 2001
Also Sprach Zarathustra
It pays to talk to no one
Europa, faction
Proliferating across the earth
Free Range
This is the spring without end
This is the summer of malcontent
This is the winter of your mind
Insect posse
will be crushed
Moravia, trouble
Moldavia
Europa
Every second third word
Europa
It pays to talk to no one.
Free Range.



posted by Paul at 9:59 am
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Thursday, October 13, 2005


Hooray Hooray It's John Peel Day



Sometimes you just don't know what you've got till it's gone.



I'm sitting in front of the "telly" watching MTV2's extremely spurious list, "John Peel's Greatest Festive 50" (it seems like MTV aren't content with BBC listeners voting for the Festive 50 so they've made their own chart irrespective of year of release). However I have had the opportunity to see a good many videos I haven't seen for ages, like Pavement's "Cut Your Hair", Belle and Sebastian's "Lazy Line Painter Jane", etc etc.

Speaking of spurious lists, here's 10 great songs from the last 10 Festive 50s:

2004: Bloc Party - Helicopter.mp3
2003: Futureheads - First Day.mp3
2002: Mclusky - To Hell With Good Intentions.mp3
2001: Strokes - New York City Cops.mp3
2000: PJ Harvey - Good Fortune.mp3
1999: Super Furry Animals - Northern Lites.mp3
1998: Mercury Rev - Goddess On A Hiway.mp3
1997: Bis - Sweet Shop Avengerz.mp3
1996: Stereolab - Cybele's Reverie.mp3
1995: Hole - Violet.mp3

The version of New York City Cops is the one live at V2004; apparently I didn't rip it from my CD and now I can't find it.

What do you think? Get on over to the BBC John Peel Festive 50 site, study the form and then tell everyone how great he really was. Or just me, if you like; I'll pass it on, promise.



posted by Paul at 10:47 pm
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Dirty Pretty Things





I know they too their name from some art-film but what a rubbish name considering Carl Barat is in them. No, I don't know if they're any good. These are taken from a bootleg from their second gig. I can't think for one minute they are going to be as good as Art Brut (the main act that night) but you never know.

Dirty Pretty Things - Boys In The Band (live in Padova 07-10-2005)
Dirty Pretty Things - Death On The Stairs (live in Padova 07-10-2005)
Dirty Pretty Things - I Get Along (live in Padova 07-10-2005)



posted by Paul at 11:39 am
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Tuesday, October 11, 2005


UK top 100 singles of the year so far



Sorry to piss you off with such an evil evil list.

As Bill Bailey once said: "There's more evil in the charts than in an Al-Qaeda suggestion box".



1 Tony Christie Feat. Peter Kay - (Is This The Way To) Amirillo 1,090,500
2 Crazy Frog - Axel F 523,100
3 James Blunt - You're Beautiful 436,000
4 McFly - All About You / You've Got A Friend 333,300
5 Akon - Lonely 331,400
6 2Pac ft. Elton John - Ghetto Gospel 268,300
7 Pussycat Dolls Ft Busta Rhymes - Don't Cha 265,500
8 Gorillaz - Feel Good Inc. 245,400
9 Daniel Powter - Bad Day 226,200
10 Will Smith - Switch 193,400
11 Bodyrockers - I Like The Way 173,900
12 Mario - Let Me Love You 157,700
13 Snoop Dogg & JT - Signs 156,700
14 Nelly & Tim McGraw - Over and over 156,400
15 Jennifer Lopez - Get right 155,700
16 Audio Bullys - Shot You Down 155,500
17 Mariah Carey - We Belong Together 149,900
18 Black Eyed Peas - Don't Phunk With My Heart 144,700
19 Sugababes - Push The Button 142,700
20 50 Cent - Candy Shop 131,600
21 Oasis - Lyla 130,300
22 Kelly Clarkson - Since U Been Gone 121,100
23 Charlotte Church - Crazy Chick 118,100
24 M.V.P - Rock Ya Body Mic Check 1, 2 115,800
25 Stereophonics - Dakota 111,900
26 Rhianna - Pon De Reply 109,800
27 Amerie - 1 Thing 108,100
28 Gorillaz - Dare 105,100
29 Oasis - The Importance of Being Idle 104,400
30 Coldplay - Speed of Sound 103,600
31 Razorlight - Somewhere Else 101,600
32 Ciara - 1, 2 Step 98,900
33 Eminem - Like toy soldiers 98,400
34 Gwen Stefani - Hollaback Girl 95,300
35 Gwen Stefani feat. Eve - Rich Girl 94,300
36 50 Cent ft. The Game - Hate it or Love it 93,600
37 Sean Paul - We Be Burnin' 91,700
38 McFly - I'll Be Ok 82,900
39 Akon - Locked Up 82,000
40 Green Day - Wake Me Up When September Ends 81,600
41 Jem - They 80,600
42 Chemical Brothers - Galvinize 80,300
43 Missy Elliott - Lose Control 80,200
44 Sunset Strippers - Falling Stars 78,400
45 Studio B - I See Girls 78,300
46 Ciara - Goodies 77,300
47 Foo Fighters - Best of You 76,800
48 Mariah Carey - It's Like That 76,000
49 Brian Mcfadden & Delta Goodrem - Almost here 75,800
50 Mylo vs Miami Sound Machine - Doctor Pressure 74,800
51 Simon Webbe - Lay Your Hands 74,000
52 Eminem - Mockingbird 73,100
53 Bobby Valentino - Slow Down 71,400
54 Black Eyed Peas - Don't Lie 69,700
55 LL Cool J - Hush 67,900
56 Natalie Imbruglia - Shiver 66,400
57 U2 - Sometimes you cant make it on your own 65,600
58 Uniting Nations - Out of touch 65,500
59 Coral - In The Morning 63,100
60 Ashanti - Only U 63,000
61 Cabin Crew - Star to Fall 62,500
62 Phantom Planet - California 61,900
63 Jay-Z/Linkin Park - Numb/Encore 59,900
64 Kanye West - Gold Digger 59,800
65 Kaiser Chiefs - Everyday I Love You Less and Less 59,500
66 Jessicca Simpson - These Boots Are Made for Walkin' 59,200
67 Athlete - Wires 58,600
68 David Gray - The One I Love 57,300
69 Lemar - Time to Grow 57,100
70 The Game ft. 50 Cent - This Is How We Do 56,800
71 Lee Ryan - Army of Lovers 56,300
72 Daddy Yankee - Gasolina 55,000
73 Kanye West - Diamonds from Sierra Leone 54,300
74 Goldfrapp - Oh La La 53,400
75 Ciara feat. Ludacris - Oh 53,300
76 Coldplay - Fix You 52,800
77 Destiny's Child - Girl 52,600
78 Eminem - Ass Like That 52,000
79 Kaiser Chiefs - I Predict A Riot / Sink That Ship 51,900
80 U2 - City of Blinding Lights 51,800
81 Max Graham vs Yes - Owner of A Lonely Heart 50,600
82 Girls Aloud - Wake Me Up 50,100
83 Jennifer Lopez ft. Fat Joe - Hold You Down 49,900
84 Kaiser Chiefs - Oh My God 49,100
85 Rob Thomas - Lonely No More 48,600
86 50 Cent - Just A L'il Bit 48,500
87 Robbie Williams - Trippin' 48,500
88 Steve Brookstein - Against All Odds 48,300
89 Green Day - Boulevard of Broken Dreams 48,100
90 Destiny's Child ft. Lil Wayne - Soldier 47,900
91 Basement Jaxx - Oh My Gosh 47,400
92 Caesars - Jerk It Out 44,900
93 Katie Melua - Nine Million Bicyicles 43,200
94 Elvis Presley - Are You Lonesome Tonight 42,900
95 Akon - Belly Dancer (Bonnanza) 41,400
96 Elvis Presley - Jailhouse Rock 40,900
97 Elvis Presley - Wooden Heart 40,800
98 Hard-Fi - Hard To Beat 40,500
99 KT Tunstall - Suddenly I See 40,400
100 Mario - Here I Go Again 40,200



posted by Paul at 8:08 pm
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Saturday, October 08, 2005


The Sultans of Ping are back!



Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YES! YEEESSS! YEEESSS! YEEESSS! YEEESSS! I'm very excited about this.



Those of you who Know Their Indie will remember this band as a novelty, comedy band, a one hit wonder, maybe a band that bizarrely changed their name from the Sultans of Ping FC to the Sultans of Ping (when Sony told them to drop the football songs and stop being a comedy combo) and then to the Sultans (when the band went all serious, and their fanbase dwindled).

Those of you who worship at the Temple Of All Things Good will know them more for their riotous gigs, Niall O'Flaherty's endless banter with the crowd, and the astonishing wordplay which resulted in couplets like "One Night Of Mischeiva/In A Yellow Vauxhall Viva" and "You said Dostoevsky was the greatest of them all/In my opinion Boniek had better ball control".

The good word is that the Sultans are BACK. Playing LIVE. Here in ESSEX. This YEAR. In fact it's in Grays on Saturday 19 November, and I can't chuffin wait. For Christ's sake, if you have heard of them, and are mildly curious, this could be the last call, go and see them!

Sultans Of Ping FC - Kick Me With Your Leather Boots.mp3
Sultans of Ping FC - Robocop.mp3
Sultans Of Ping FC - Turnip Fish.mp3
Information about the Sultans of Ping UK show



posted by Paul at 10:09 am
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Aberdeen City



I went to Boston for a week a few years ago and all I can now remember about the city (apart from the fact that it was one enormous building site) was The Toy Museum. This may, or may not, be a good thing!

My love affair with the city is rekindled after receiving an email from Jon in New York (who ISN'T part of the band, I have been assured!) He spiels: "I wanted to introduce you to a great new band from Boston called Aberdeen City. Aberdeen City is releasing their first full length "The Freezing Atlantic" on October 25 produced by Nic Hard (The Bravery, The Church, Jesse Malin) and I would love to have you involved with it. Aberdeen City has been receiving much praise from critics and music lovers. Their recent EP release was #2 most added at CMJ and is a big hit at college radio, and it has been also selling well at iTunes. They are also receiving love on commercial radio stations in their hometown of Boston. They have played with some great bands like with The National, British Sea Power, Elefant, Stellastarr*, and The Redwalls."



Reviews compare them to Coldplay and Radiohead (I can only assume we're talking about pre-pre-Parachutes and Pablo Honey respectively) but I can hear more modern influences than that with a bit of that spiky post-punk Bloc Party kind of sound, although it's much more of an Interpol-type march. Good start to the weekend then, someone sends me an email asking me to listen to their stuff and it's great - two tracks and I love them both in equal measures. Hear for yourselves, and spread the good word.

Aberdeen City - Sixty Lives.mp3
Aberdeen City - God Is Going To Get Sick Of Me.mp3
Band website



posted by Paul at 9:53 am
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Friday, October 07, 2005


Another apology for my lazy lazy ways



Been spending a lot of time working and listening to new stuff but not posting which is very bad of me. I'm lining up a few new tracks and will be posting them up in the next week!



posted by Paul at 4:48 am
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