i just created this playlist in about two minutes

sounds pretty good so far...
Saint Simon 4:25 The Shins Chutes Too Narrow
Magnet's Coil 2:27 Sebadoh Bakesale
Imitation Of Life 3:56 R.E.M. Reveal
Grandmother's Steps 3:12 Of Arrowe Hill The Spring Heel Penny Dreadful
Pick Up The Phone 3:55 The Notwist Neon Golden
It's Only Divine Right 4:11 The New Pornographers Electric Version
Serotonin 2:33 Mansun Six
A Nanny In Manhattan 1:47 Lilys Better Can't Make Your Life Better
Circling Motorhead Mountain 1:50 Lexo And The Leapers Ask Them
1 Joy Zipper The Heartlight Set
Universal Truths And Cycles 2:19 Guided By Voices Universal Truths And Cycles
Optional Bases Opposed 1:38 Guided By Voices Tonics And Twisted Chasers
Heavy Metal Country 3:16 Guided By Voices Sunfish Holy Breakfast
do the earth 2:44 Guided By Voices
Little Lines 2:02 Guided By Voices Mag Earwhig!
Buzzards And Dreadful Crows 1:43 Guided By Voices Bee Thousand
Mic Check 3:01 Cornelius FANTASMA
Turquoise Hexagon Sun 5:07 Boards Of Canada Music Has The Right To Children


When I was in Munich my friend Joerg
dragged me to the X-cess bar, a little late night dive right in the middle of Munich's new rock'n'roll area around the Frauenhoferstr tube, where these friends of his
played a mad mix of pretty much anything. He had his old original vinyl copy of "Alien Lanes" and we managed to sneak in 'A Salty Salute' to start with. I've never heard that in a club before. Later when I wanted to leave because I couldn't stand the smoke in there, they lured me into staying a bit longer by playing all two minutes of 'Hit' ("Coming into town with the giggling faggots", hahaha) and 'My Valuable Hunting Knife' . They blended in okay with the mix at this little rock'n'roll dive, though whether anyone else knew this stuff is another question. I like to think we got some approving looks....

Anyway they gave me this nice mix CD with all of these mixed as one hour long track:

Mix 2006 - one Song Mix And You Will Know Us ... - Ode To IsisGang of Four - Natural's Not in It (Ladytron Remodel)Union Youth - Fruits for the NAtionM.I.A. - Pull Up The PeopleHansen Band - KameraPosies - dream all dayAdam West - CruiserTestTube Babies - The JinxRäuberhöhle - Silvester RaketeEL*KE - Komm BabyThe Faint - Desperate GuysThe Faint - Glass Danse (Paul Oakenfold)Autolux - BlanketBetter Off With HimMillionaire - I'm on a highWhitey - Leave Them All BehindDepeche Mode - John the RevelatorNine Black Alps - Not EveryoneElectronicat - NonLouis XIV - God Killed The QueenDuke Spirit - XUnion of Knives - Operated OnQuintron - White Man StyleQueens of the Stone Age - Go with the Flow (Live)TEST ICICLES - Circle Square TriangleBlondie - Once I Had A Love (Aka The Disco Song)Broken Social Scene - SuperconnectedTalvin Singh Flight IC408 - Anokha: SoMix 2006 - one Song Mix And You Will Know Us ... - Ode To IsisGang of Four - Natural's Not in It (Ladytron Remodel)Union Youth - Fruits for the NAtionM.I.A. - Pull Up The PeopleHansen Band - KameraPosies - dream all dayAdam West - CruiserTestTube Babies - The JinxRäuberhöhle - Silvester RaketeEL*KE - Komm BabyThe Faint - Desperate GuysThe Faint - Glass Danse (Paul Oakenfold)Autolux - BlanketBetter Off With HimMillionaire - I'm on a highWhitey - Leave Them All BehindDepeche Mode - John the RevelatorNine Black Alps - Not EveryoneElectronicat - NonLouis XIV - God Killed The QueenDuke Spirit - XUnion of Knives - Operated OnQuintron - White Man StyleQueens of the Stone Age - Go with the Flow (Live)TEMix 2006 - one Song Mix And You Will Know Us ... - Ode To IsisGang of Four - Natural's Not in It (Ladytron Remodel)Union Youth - Fruits for the NAtionM.I.A. - Pull Up The PeopleHansen Band - KameraPosies - dream all dayAdam West - CruiserTestTube Babies - The JinxRäuberhöhle - Silvester RaketeEL*KE - Komm BabyThe Faint - Desperate GuysThe Faint - Glass Danse (Paul Oakenfold)Autolux - BlanketBetter Off With HimMillionaire - I'm on a highWhitey - Leave Them All BehindDepeche Mode - John the RevelatorNine Black Alps - Not EveryoneElectronicat - NonLouis XIV - God Killed The QueenDuke Spirit - XUnion of Knives - Operated OnQuintron - White Man StyleQueens of the Stone Age - Go with the Flow (Live)TEST ICICLES - Circle Square TriangleBlondie - Once I Had A Love (Aka The Disco Song)Broken Social Scene - SuperconnectedTalvin Singh Flight IC408 - Anokha: SoST ICICLES - Circle Square TriangleBlondie - Once I Had A Love (Aka The Disco Song)Broken Social Scene - SuperconnectedTalvin Singh Flight IC408 - Anokha: So

This boy is TOCOTRONIC

"Ja das ist jetzt der einzige Zweck
Alles um uns herum ist weg
Das wird jetzt alles mitgezerrt
Ein Scherz im Labyrinth der Unvernunft
Macht uns gesund
Du liegst neben mir und dann
Blicken wir uns an
Deine Augen sehen
Was meine Augen sehen
This boy is Tocotronic "



Ultra-literate German indie gods, toured with GBV in '95 on the GBV vs Tocotronic tour, self confessed Thomas Bernhard abusers, "Diskurs Rock", Hamburger Schule, (Hi) freaks, etc. I've known and liked some of their earlier material for a while but recently really got into it through their Best of , my main purchase on my recent German trip (And I'm always keen to bring something back from the homeland). While a lot of the earlier material came across like a German Pavement, accurate appraisals of the trappings of German youth culture and student life, delivered in a nagging, ironic voice, coated in noisy lo-fi guitar pop, definitely nodding towards leftfield US indie, their more recent material is clearer, more poetic, eccentric, they're still evolving and reinventing themselves, getting older, more authoritative. Delicious, weird, dark pop. I'm really fascinated by them right now.

Hey, that's my shirt you're wearing!

Stills from last week's 'The IT Crowd' sitcom written by 'secret GBV fan' Graham Linehan (Father Ted, Black Books, etc.) Apparently they asked for three different GBV t-shirts to use for the series. (!)

the Vaselines

So... the second instalment of my random voyage of musical discovery is already reaping some rich rewards. 'All the Stuff and more' is essentially the Vaseline's first album, 'Dum Dum', and some more stuff. Fun, fast, dirty DIY rock'n'roll tunes with titles like 'Rory Ride Me Raw', 'Sex Sux (Amen)', 'The Day I Was A Horse', 'Monster Pussy'. Nice girl-boy tunes with a knowing twist, fast noisy popsongs. There's an obvious Velvet Underground influence, but also curious 80s touches. The songs are strong and stick in your head though, even though they can be a bit repetitive when listening... I think this came out on The Pastels label 53rd and 3rd, with whom they seem to share a wide-eyed love for DIY rock'n'roll and a wayward attitude, but it doesn't have the affected layered drowsiness of the Pastels (who have been growing on me too). Cool to hear the lovely, original versions of 'Jesus wants me for a sunbeam' and 'Mollys Lips'...

Last night I saw Eugene Kelly taking Mark Lanegans place at the Isobel Campbell show at the (great, smokefree) Bush Hall, which was mainly duets, just like most of the Vaselines music. It worked really well. They even ended the show with a Vaselines song...

places that have become repositories of mental states and dreams for no particular reason, no. 1

Corner of West End Land and Finchley Road. I pass this corner quite frequently, walking down the hill from Hampstead, but I also seem to spend time there in my head when I'm thinking about stuff. I think I might have spent some time in an outside corridor of this house there in a dream or two too. It's a scuzzy looking building out of sync with its surrounding houses and it also marks the entry point into West Hampstead territory...

'Smells like ... '

currently available (sort of): The DVD bootleg of the Guided by Voices show at Gebäude 9 in Cologne, Germany (KöLN!!!!) on 06. September 2002, the only German date on the excellent 'Universal Truths and Cycles Tour', and also the only German date in 7 (!) years at that point. It's the whole show, plus about 20 minutes of hilarious aftershow footage. Unfortunately the audio of the show footage is really bad, though one can sort of hear the songs and you get used to it after a while. It's mainly filmed from the Nate side of the stage and it rocks, visually! It's unlikely another audio version turns up, so this is it, pretty rough soundwise but otherwise awesome!!!

What you can see above is a pizza carton, signed by Bob and everyone else after the show. Allegedly it once held a pizza consumed by Bob Pollard and Guided By Voices! :-) It now stands on our mantlepiece. I think it was my idea, but Simon basically went around and realized my vision, talked to Bob for a bit and got him to write his love on it in big fat marker, and got everyone else's signature too, not just the band but the support band Gary (big GBV fans, led by 'movie star' Robert Stadlober), as well as the other assorted hot freaks still hanging out much later after this great show on this beautiful September night. The Gebauede 9 is a pretty laid back venue in an old industrial complex on the edge of town. There was a backstage room but it was open to the courtyard so everyone was hanging out afterwards.

It was one of the magic shows, the band was on and the audience went completely nuts, there were people from all over Germany, Switzerland and the Netherlands present and especially the front rows just went wild, from start to finish. It was beautiful. One of the last times I went completely crazy at a GBV show. One of the last GBV shows I saw with Tim Tobias, before the Toxic Twins (Nate & Tim) got separated. I completely lost it during 'Universal Truths and Cycles', the song, which is kind of an underrated gem I think, and actually kneeled down on the beerstained floor and started wigging out. Thankfully I'm largely absent from the footage ;-))

anyway, this is cool, especially the euphoric second half of the show and I'm happy to share this around a bit by snail mail, "just say the word".

Now, 'GBV Cologne', what would that smell like, hmmm??

The Power of Suck

I'm missing a couple of tracks but this is one version of the 'lost' concept album GBV were going to make when they started recording what would become 'Under The Bushes Under The Stars', re-assembled by fans from various available sources. Well, it took a while to import all the different sources but it's been worth it, a new path through the forest, a new sequence, another tasty disc... I'm digging the OIRS demo especially. Release The Power Of Suck Demos! Or something...



pantherz 2:41 Guided By Voices Rarities Disc 3
Stingy Queens 3:20 Guided By Voices Suitcase 5
Bug House (2 Version) 3:43 Guided By Voices Suitcase [Disc 2] Alternative & Punk
Drag Days 2:50 Guided By Voices Under The Bushes Under The Stars
Sheetkickers 2:11 Guided By Voices 30 Songs
I Am Decided 2:13 Guided By Voices Suitcase 2 (Skag: Superwhore)
Pink Drink 3:09 Guided By Voices Suitcase 1
he's the uncle 1:41 Guided By Voices Rarities Disc 3
why did you land? 2:17 Guided By Voices Rarities Disc 3
Superwhore 2:39 Guided By Voices 30 Songs
Redmen And Their Wives 3:55 Guided By Voices Under The Bushes Under The Stars
color of my blade 2:25 Guided By Voices Rarities Disc 3
Are You Faster? 1:13 Guided By Voices Mag Earwhig!
My Feet's Trustworthy Existance 2:29 Guided By Voices Suitcase 4
Cocksoldiers And Their Postwar Stubble 3:29 Guided By Voices Sunfish Holy Breakfast
The Official Ironmen Rally Song (demo) 3:11 Robert Pollard Power of Suck Demos
Pluto the Skate 1:17 Guided By Voices Suitcase 1
Don't Stop Now 2:39 Guided By Voices Under The Bushes Under The Stars