Prattle

Fujiya & Miyagi - Ankle injuries
Nice beats, chaps. They’re from Brighton, rather than Tokyo, and they seem to be pretty good producers.

Mates of state - Fraud in the ’80s
Might go to see this duo next month, when our paths cross. The album has some sweet tunes, almost entirely without guitars. I think this is the best of a pretty decent bunch.

Beck - No complaints
A new Beck album no longer causes the gently bubbling excitement that it once did. I’ve yet to listen to the new one enough times to see if it’s more interesting than the occasionally good Guero, but he at least seems to have mixed things up and chucked some more DIYish sounds in there.

The Aliens - The happy song
It’s like Robot Man, but with added Ren & Stimpyism. I don’t know if their ramshackle optimism will last the course, but it’s great fun at the moment. Looking forward to seeing their live show when they come round this way.

The Fratellis - Baby Fratelli
They’ve made an album of guitar-based pop, largely influenced by the soundtrack to Bugsy Malone. This is a particularly fine example, I think. They might be The Scottish Arctic Monkeys, but they have some undeniably good tunes, I feel.

Cord - Eyes
What am I supposed to make of Cord? I haven’t been following the music press or online equivalents, but I suspect they’re pitched somewhere between The Feeling/Keane and U2. But the album is pretty good, as well as being rather noisy. His voice sounds a bit like ludicrous Canadian pomp-merchant, Hawksley Workman, so I quite like that. And this song worked its way into my subconscious undetected.

Young Knives - Loughborough suicide
Brilliant song that’s tucked away towards the end of their debut album. Seeing them play on a boat, some time in the next month or so.

My Chemical Romance - Welcome to the black parade
This is absolutely ridiculous. My Chemical Romance have got some new haircuts, and are calling themselves The Black Parade. There’s some pretentious, teenage-angst-related reason for this, but I won’t go into it. Along with the new hair comes this absurd rock opera. In itself, it’s a great song.

The Polyphonic Spree - Lithium
I’ve been listening to a lot of “I’m from Barcelona”, so I thought I’d do some searches for new Polyphonic Spree stuff. Turns out they’ve got a new EP, containing a couple of new tracks, along with some covers. Included here is their absolutely brilliant cover of Nirvana’s “Lithium”. Abandon hope all ye who dislike this track.

Tom Baker - Symphony out-take
Snippet from the legendary out-take of Tom Baker’s “Symphony” voice-over. Google to hear the rest. I tried including a link, but it cocks the Podcast software up.

Sugarplum Fairy - She
A new song from the kid brothers of Mando Diao. They’re the Swedish “Son of Dork”, I expect. Still, you can join in with the ooohing.

Mando Diao - Long before rock’n'roll
They’ve got a new album on its way, but first listens suggest that it’s not as good as their previous efforts. They’re in danger of being usurped by Sugarplum Fairy. Whatever, it seems that they’re never going to get anywhere in the UK. Shame, as this song from the new album isn’t bad.

Nicky Wire - The shining past
Ahahahahaha. No, really. There’s no noticeable bass on this album from the Manic Street Preachers’ bassist. He can’t sing either. But a number of the songs on the album have a simple charm, if you ignore the trademark clumsy lyrics.

Electric Six - Chocolate Pope
New album on the way, but they continue to suffer from the loss of their riff-master guitarist from the first album. They don’t stand a chance of recreating their early success unless they come up with some memorable riffs. This song is a silly, short ditty.

Electrelane - Film music
I bought a lot of CDs when we were in Edinburgh, but I didn’t buy the new Electrelane album, as it wasn’t out. They played a bit in Avalanche records though, and it reminded me to go back and listen to some of their MP3s. This was among them, and is very good.

Shout Out Louds - The comeback (remix)
Some of their songs sound a bit like the Cure. This song sounded a lot like the Cure, and was then remixed to make it sound almost exactly like the Cure. But it’s not the Cure, so you can enjoy it without hating yourself.

Ben Kweller - Penny on the train track
Just bought tickets to see the young ginger one in Bristol, and am quite looking forward to seeing a selection of songs from his 2 (soon to be 3) decent albums. The new album is slicker than the last, and generally pleasing. It might become better with further listens, or I might get bored of it. Don’t know. This is from the new album.

Easy star all stars - Let down
From a largely disappointing album of reggae Radiohead covers, this is the stand-out track, I think.

I’m From Barcelona - Treehouse
I bloody love this album. I could have picked any one of about 5 tracks to represent why I like it so much, but this one’ll do for now. There’s a load of people in this band, which prompts comparisons to the Polyphonic Spree. But it’s much lighter than them, with more entertaining lyrics.

The Decemberists - The mariner’s revenge
On that long drive back from Edinburgh, we went through most of the CDs I’d bought in Avalanche, and this one generally went down quite well. I’ve included a track from it in a previous podcast, but I’d forgotten about this one at the end of the album. It’s quite a meandering tale.