Posted in Music, Christmas, Ponchos at Sat 9 Jan 2010 by Stavros
To paraphrase a Mr J. Lennon late of Liverpool, Lancs., “so, that was Christmas”. The penultimate Christmas of a pedant’s decade in fact. How was yours? Mine was great really. I’ve eaten out. Masti a contemporary Indian in Wellington, which was fantastic, and The Golden Ball in Ironbridge which wasn’t as good as it used to be. I recieved trainers, socks, a scarf, brandy and beer. I’ve had a party which was a success, and I’m told I had a good time of it at the New Year’s Eve party. Now, though I have my annual New Year’s cold, spread no doubt from drunken hugging and Auld-lang-syneing with germ ridden revellers.
Anyway, I apologise for not getting round to doing this sooner.
StavTunes Top 10 Albums of 2009
10. Röyksopp - Junior
Because everyone needs: lively Norwegian electronic paeans to robot love.
spotify
9. jj - jj n° 2
Because everyone needs: a Swedish Foxbase Alpha for this still young century.
spotify
8. The Antlers - Hospice
Because everyone needs: a concept album about a dying girlfriend in a cancer ward. Probably.
spotify
7. Dirty Projectors - Bitte Orca
Because everyone needs: harmonies that go “ah ah ah oh” that sound much much better than they read.
spotify
6. Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport
Because everyone needs: a band with a radio-unfriendly name and sound. Go on, Beacon play this, I dares ya!
myspace
5. The xx - xx
Because everyone needs: knowing Londoners younger than you making sexy dub-tinged indiepop with as much Gainsbourg as Portishead.
spotify
4. Phoenix - Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
Because everyone needs: a reference point where Gallic electronica converges with AM soft-rock in the well-thumbed atlas of choonage.
spotify
3. Fever Ray - Fever Ray
Because everyone needs: a scary Nordic woman probably from the future with a voice distorted like an image in the house of mirrors.
spotify
2. Girls - Album
Because everyone needs: a surf-rock record by a Californian who grew up in the Children of God cult.
spotify
1. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion
Because everyone needs: an idiosyncratic kaleidoscopic hallucination crafted in a top secret lab from the dreams of The Beach Boys, Beck, Philip Glass and Syd Barret. FACT.
spotify
Traditional honourable mentions go to Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Doves, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Passion Pit, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Atlas Sound, Super Furry Animals, Thee Oh Sees, Real Estate and Camera Obscura.
For being late, and I’m moving into virgin territory here, I give you an extra special bonus StavTunes Top EPs of 2009:
DeLorean - Aryton Senna EP
Burial & Four Tet - Wolf Cub & Moth
Cassius - Youth, Speed, Trouble, Cigarettes
Animal Collective - Fall Be Kind
So why not treat your ears in these embryonic days of this unknownable decade. And pass on the thank yous to your uncle Stav when they express their gratitude.
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Posted in Music at Wed 23 Dec 2009 by Stavros
Right, I feel as if I’ve been bullied in to this and it goes against what I wrote a mere two posts down. But we have no principles here, and one man’s fluffer is another’s saviour. Or something. Anyway. I’ve compiled a list of my ten albums of the decade, over a bottle of white wine and a couple of benson and hedges. Think of this as the online beermat, stained with the inky evidence of sudden thought. You’re not having it in order though, no bloody way. I’ve wasted literally an hour on it already. So in chronological order, from the strangely still futuristic sounding to me YEAR TWO THOUSAND to the very fucking moment I post publish at the bottom of my screen.
Modest Mouse - The Moon And Antarctica [2000]
Sigur Rós - Ágætis Byrjun [2000] spotify
The Avalanches - Since I Left You [2000] spotify
Broken Social Scene - You Forgot It In People [2002] spotify
The Arcade Fire - Funeral [2004]
The Decemberists - Picaresque [2005] spotify
LCD Soundsystem - Sound Of Silver [2007] spotify
The Knife - Silent Shout [2007] spotify
TV On The Radio - Dear Science, [2008] spotify
Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavilion [2009] spotify
Closing in were LCD Soundsystem’s debut, Daft Punk’s Discovery, The Shin’s Chutes Too Narrow, either of the last two Hot Chip albums, Fleet Foxes, Explosions In The Sky’s The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place, Interpol’s Turn On The Bright Lights, BRMC, Doves, Panda Bear, Mogwai, and to be frank a whole load of other shit I’ll probably think of tomorrow.
The annual run down is still in progress, much like my metaphorical fluffer I promise the main event will come in time.
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Posted in Music, Christmas at Wed 31 Dec 2008 by Stavros
I hope you’re all having a nice and lazy and indulgent Christmas break. It is 2009 in a day, so it seems an apt time to write this. Under some slightly unexpected pressure, here it is. I have compiled my ten favourite albums of the year. It wasn’t particularly easy neither, I was happy with the top seven or so, but couldn’t fit six into the last three places no matter how much I tried to bend the rules of maths.
10. The Walkmen - You & Me
I’ve always found this lot an inconsistant band, but this is their strongest album for a long time, and probably their best. The slower, latin rhythms frame the singer’s distinctive voice very well with vintage piano and moody horns. They still make a noise at times, but it’s a much better class of noise these days.
[MP3] I Lost You
9. Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster…
A fun album with a bite. Smart-arse lyrics yelped over infectious tunes like Architecture in Helsinki playing Pavement tracks on glockenspiels. They also released a second album this year too, which although short is more than worth a spin.
[MP3] Don’t Tell Me To Do The Math(s)
8. Sigur Rós - Með Suð Í Eyrum Við Spilum Endalaust
The Icelanders returned with their fifth record (which translates as “With Buzzing in Our Ears We Play Endlessly” factfans). I’m not sure if it’s as impressive as Takk…, but it does have some of their finest moments on it. Great live too.
[MP3] Inní mér syngur vitleysingur
7. Hot Chip - Made In The Dark
Following from the great “The Warning”, this soulful and playful album is a great listen. You’ll have heard “Ready For The Floor”, maybe even danced dodgily to it, also standing out is “Wrestlers” which is easily the best love song I’ve heard that refers to cage matches and half nelsons.
[MP3] One Pure Thought
6. El Guincho - Alegranza
Here comes the curveball. All the way from the Canary Islands and dripping in sangria. With a parrot on the cover! Balearic beats, Afrobeats, curious samples crash into each other like rubber rings in a water park. Production wise it is reminiscent of Panda Bear and The Avalanches blah blah… turn it on, turn it up and dance like a lobster-hued Englishman on a Spanish beach.
[MP3] Palmitos Park
5. Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago
Recorded in a cabin in the woody depths of Wisconsin on vintage equipment and anything he could get his hands on, after splitting up with his missus, this folksy record is a thing of rare tender beauty. Would it be selfish to hope he never finds love and produces another album of this quality?!
[MP3] Skinny Love
4. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
White American college boys doing Afrobeat styled indie pop, sounds awful doesn’t it? It’s not, it’s unashamedly poppy and catchy and never falls foul of pretension. The world might be going to shit, and we might all be living in poorhouses by 2009’s out, but this album will still be able to draw a smile from my face and get stuck in my head as I collect my lunch from the soup kitchen!
[MP3] M79
3. Cut Copy - In Ghost Colours
From the same label as New Young Pony Club and fellow Aussies The Avalanches, comes this year’s great indie-dance album. There’s nothing particularly new here, a lot of it sounds like missing Electronic recordings with hints of The Cure and Coming Up-era Suede, track after track flavoured with 60’s psychedelia, 80’s synths and 00’s sweaty indie-disco. Joyous nonetheless.
[MP3] Far Away
2. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
The second folk-ly album in this list. That’s quite worrying for someone who can’t grow a very good beard! This is a rich mix of West Coast harmonies and Appalachian pre-pop folk with lilting tunes and warm full vocals capable of transporting the listener to a dozen different times and places, even when listening to in a cold flat in Telford with the darts on the telly. And for that reason it makes it this high!
[MP3] White Winter Hymnal
1. TV On The Radio - Dear Science
Art-rock you can dance to? From the heart-pounding beats on the album opener “Halfway Home”, to the last distorted horns on the closer “Lover’s Day”, this is a remarkable record. It’s harder to pick a genre that it doesn’t include on it’s way to the climax And it’s all delivered in a fierce but soulful falsetto. This is twice the record of Return to Cookie Mountain, and that was fucking good. Play loud.
[MP3] Dancing Choose
The shortlist included Deerhunter, The Dodos, Ruby Suns, No Age, Beach House, Mogwai, Wolf Parade, Death Cab For Cutie, M83, Los Campesinos!, Sons & Daughters, Glasvegas, This Will Destroy You, The Hold Steady, Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit. But it didn’t include the brilliant No Way Down by Air France, because that’s an EP and… well, you’ve got to have a code haven’t you? By the way all these great cds and more might be even cheaper soon at Zavvi! Thanks to an army of mp3 bloggers: Zýrður rjómi, Sand is Overrated, AW Music and Minneapolis Fucking Rocks for some of the mp3 links.
Have a great New Year, I’ll be in The Crown! See you in 2009.
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Posted in Music, Beer, Work, Christmas at Mon 22 Dec 2008 by Stavros
I’m about to go Christmas shopping. Actually, I’m about to start and finish my Christmas shopping. And buy a tree. Working until Christmas Eve is no good for idle anti-shoppers like me, it really screws up the schedule! Not getting paid until the 31st takes the piss too. I’ve got to do all this shopping, get bladdered at least five times and hire a fancy dress costume for the New Year’s Eve party. At this rate it’ll be the last costume in the shop, the cheapest. A pillowcase doubling up as a Klan hood or maybe even Walt’s infamous Nazi Sergeant Pepper outfit from a couple of years ago.
Working the Monday after the Christmas Party is odd too, there’s more elephants in the room than there are on the Masai Mara national reserve. Saturday night at Shifnal’s Haughton Hall, and I’m typecast like Hugh Grant (less fop more pop, less dandy more shandy… BOOOM!) and ended up in my usual role as spare drinks minesweeper. Which led via white wine, red wine, champaigne, wifebeaters and a catholic whiskey, predictibly to oblivion and to a rather delicate Sunday. But I don’t think I embarrassed myself any more than can be expected. I have no recollection of falling over, I have no leg injuries or mysterious scars or bite marks, no tears in my clothes, I don’t think I inapporpriately felt anybody up and I didn’t throw up over anybody. No marks for effort, must do better next time.
For the thousands hundreds people two of you that are interested, the annual ego-wank about my TOP TEN ALBUMS OF THE YEAR (this year proudly sponsored by Woolworths) will be published as soon as I can be arsed.
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Posted in Music, Politics, Nature at Thu 6 Nov 2008 by Stavros
I went to see Sigur Rós on Tuesday at the Civic Hall in Wolverhampton, with Fulla and Walt. It was tops, really effing good. As the Icelanders made strange and beautiful noises on stage, I realised that I always see 6 and a half foot blokes with 5 foot nothing girlfriends at gigs. Loads more than on the street. Where do they all come from? Is there a national society of tall fellas with short birds? And do they scour the UK for live music? And why do they always gather at the front of gigs so no-one else can see anything? Why do they always stand infront of me? There must be someone I can complain to. What gives Daily Mail readers the right to be offended at anything? Who do I moan to? Oh yeah, you dear readers. You.
We’ve had a lodger for the past couple of months. He wasn’t paying any rent, but I got used to him all the same. And I fear on Monday, I condemned him to almost certain death. In August a moth (or a butterfly not sure which, summat to do with antenna furriness apparently) came in and with scant regard to the legislations about sub-letting, perched himself on the wall above the stairs. Not wanting to make a mess of the wall by “integrating” him with a rolled up Admag, we left him there. He was obviously just resting for a couple of days. A kip grew into a deep sleep, which in turn grew into full on hibernation. Anyone who’s been a student will know all about this I guess. He woke up on Monday, possibly a result of the heating being on. His warm little brain must’ve thought spring had sprungeth and he found his way back downstairs fluttering about at the window. I duly let him free, as Merk got a bit scared (he promised he’d have done the same for me had a clown been clawing at the glass). As he flew away from his servitude my heart glowed, like those people in TV animal programs who nurse a chimp back to health and let it back into the wild. A feeling of loss, pride, hope and farewells all at once. He fluttered away with the hopes and expectations of another bountiful summer to come. But, no! I could see him shivering in the distance. That was the moment I realised the result of my actions, and the moment the poor moth realised it wasn’t actually May. Sometimes freedom comes at too heavy a price. Sorry buddy.
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