The Walkmen “Four Provinces”
February 16, 2009, 7:37 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized

This is good enough to get a post all of its own. The best track off the awesome You & Me album gets a genuinely beautiful video to accompany it: it accomplishes what all the best music videos do, which is provide unforgettable, meaningfully appropriate visuals to music that you would never have thought of yourself in a million eyes-closed headphones-on years, yet after one viewing seems like the only logical choice. Watch in the highest quality possible:



Monday Roundup
February 16, 2009, 5:52 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized

Every Monday I will be putting up a hastily assembled column comprised of low-quality Youtube videos of the songs I’ve been enjoying that week. These terms are non-negotiable.

Fur stupp:

St Etienne: “Nothing Can Stop Us Now”

Lovely loungey pop from London’s finest. I find it hard to imagine anyone genuninely disliking St Etienne – their music is gorgeously comforting yet still somehow manages to maintain a particular kind of aloof glamour, like Scarlett Johansson making you beans on toast. Why yes, I am wearing my crap simile hat, thank you for asking.

Notorious BIG “Gimme the Loot”

Ooh, that new Biggie biopic (according to Mark Kermode, it’s pronounced bye-owe-pick, not bye-awe-pic, which is what I’ve been saying my whole life. No wonder nobody came to my birthday party) looks good doesn’t it? Er…no, it looks crap. Regardless, this is one of the most virtuoso bits of rapping ever – every line slays.

The Human League – “Empire State Human”

Awesome piece of vertically-challenged bonkers synth-pop. The chorus has eaten my brain.

Belle and Sebastian – “Lazy Line Painter Jane”

Classic stuff from gay wee scotch laddies B+S. “You were in two minds/Tossing a coin to decide/Whether you should tell your mum/About a dose of thrush/ You got when licking railings” is a strong candidate for Best Lyric Ever. The no budget video is as charming as you’d expect, also.



Great British Exchanges #1
February 11, 2009, 3:07 am
Filed under: Uncategorized

David Attenborough on Simon Mayo’s Radio 5 Live show:

DA: Maybe we should be feeling gloomy about climate change.

SM: Do you feel gloomy?

DM: (pause) I don’t feel bouncy.



Open Letter to ITV
February 5, 2009, 2:13 pm
Filed under: Uncategorized

Dear ITV,

I expect you’ll be receiving a lot of complaints today, but I wanted to reassure you that last night wasn’t some epic game-changing moment that has besmirched the good name of ITV forever, turning the heads of thousands of loyal viewers with a careless flick of the ads button.

Nah – your football coverage has always been breathtakingly incompetent. You employ commentators who are alternately biased, patronising and ill-informed, and pundits who are ten times worse; your on-pitch production team is slipshod at best, with inexplicable camera angles that seem to always miss the crucial bits of the action; and your match presentations in general have the air of being put together by people who have never actually watched a football match, with insignificant moments being replayed and discussed ad infinitum while other things that most fans would agree are generally considered as crucial (i.e. the extra time winning goal of a tense derby cup match) are missed entirely.

Anyone who wants to watch a live football game without shelling out for Sky has had to put up with this excruciating buffoonery for some time now – last night was the final straw for me, and I sincerely hope the case is the same for all the others who stupidly tuned in last night on the off chance that they might be able to watch some football without being flicked the proverbial Vs.

Please could you never bid for, broadcast or comment on any sporting event ever again, as you have perpetually proved over the last 10-15 grim years of abysmally poor coverage that you are completely incapable of doing so without eventually cracking under the strain of just broadcasting the bloody match/highlights in a comprehensible format (like Sky manage to regularly do, or the BBC, or Setanta, or even pissing Five) without committing another world-beating apocalyptic balls-up. I hope this isn’t glossed over or forgotten about by the press and the public, as I find your contemptuous attitude towards sports fans and television viewers in general far more offensive than Russell Brand and any number of libidinous granddaughters.

In fact if it wasn’t for Harry Hill, ITV1 may as well be one long 24-hour advert for bogroll and car insurance, which, incidentally, I’d probably find more involving and emotionally resonant than Demons.

In summation, I don’t like you ITV. I don’t like you one little bit. Now you live with that.

Regards,

Paul