Crikey

sorry if anyone sat through that... Mika was bad, but Shakira was really bad, they clearly decided to keep the best back for friday's extended edition!
Still, Gladys Knight was super cool.
In the meantime there's an extra track from The Duke & the King, 'If You Ever Get Famous' at the Later website.

crikey

Later...

The Duke & the King and The xx both make their debuts on Later tonight (will just have to make it through Mika first)...

Presents

it was my b'day last week and i got a very nice crop of cds...

my folks got me three of the lovely Beatles re-issues, my three favourite albums(probably):
A Hard Day's Night
Revolver
Abbey Road
Also a mate got me The xx album, which sounds pretty good to me, a bit cure/mary chain/spiritualized like
The new Pearl Jam album, Backspacer, from one of my sisters - old school
And from another Truelove's Gutter, from the ever great Richard Hawley, who's sounding a little blue it has to be said, probably not your ideal monday morning record!
My third sister didn't get me anything at all...

Like Mariachi...

Well i thought Richmond Fontaine were amazing the other night: the stuff of the new record sounded great, particularly 'Lonnie', and the title track 'We Used the Think the Freeway Sounded like a River'. Other highlights were 'Lost in This World', great to hear live for the first time, with Ralph Huntley on piano, and the awesome instrumental 'El Tiradito'. They finished with fierce versions of 'Song for Dead Moon' and 'Four Walls' at what was their biggest London show to date, i think, over 500 people.
Only two complaints: I've still not heard the band play 'The Water Wars' live and the new Garage was nice as a venue, but way too much noise from the bar that runs all the way across the back. Great night though, and i was lucky enough to catch The Duke and the King at the same venue on friday night, short, early set, but great nonetheless.

Here are my four top tunes to check out, i'm guessing they're all on itunes to take a listen, but i recommend buying the albums they're from (all mentioned here once or twice over the past few months)...

'Lonnie' Richmond Fontaine
'Waterspider' The Duke and the King
'Goode's Field (Alternate Version)' Drive-by Truckers
'A Satisfied Mind' - Pete Molinari

'Your Dad's a smart guy...'

great session from Richmond Fontaine on the Marc Riley show last night - you can listen again at the 6Music site, they come on about 18 mins in.
And looking forward to their show at the Garage tonight!

Looking forward to delving into the fine print...

The curse struck again...

sorry Lisa. Well done to Speech and big dada records though (go Will Ashon!)

Mercury tonight...

at the risk of damning her, as i did Laura Marling last year, my vote's for Lisa Hannigan. To be fair it's the only album on the list i own, but i've heard enough of Florence, La Roux, Kasabian and Bat for Lashes to know they ain't doing it for me. Plus, any album that's got a song called 'Splishy Spalshy' on it gets my vote, and Annie's! Go Lisa...



Here are the full odds (not a bad bet at 7/1):

11/4 Florence and the Machine

5/1 Bat for Lashes

5/1 Speech Debelle

6/1 The Horrors

7/1 Lisa Hannigan

15/2 Friendly Fires

9/1 La Roux

14/1 Kasabian

14/1 Glasvegas

25/1 Sweet Billy Pilgrim

33/1 The Invisible

33/1 Led Bib

Holiday playlist?

Well it was mainly oldies (but all of them goodies) this year:



Hollywood Town Hall - The Jayhawks
Carried to Dust - Calexico
Car Wheels on a Gravel Road - Lucinda Williams
Townes - Steve Earle (which i really got into, having initially thought it was a bit of a mis-step)
And a compilation i made which worked out pretty well, with some Southern soul and blues thrown into the mix... I'll post that tracklisting up very soon.