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.