2011 And All That

Im struggling to decide if lists of things like a best of etc or shite that people have done in the year are cool or not?

 maybe they aren't as im sure some bloggers use them to announce to the world how cool they think they are... answer: not very..... i think i might stick up some random shit that iv done this year anyway... its been fucked up and fantastic in equal measures!!

1. Football and specifically Barnsley FC

There is something amazing about travelling the length and breadth of the country on a train , on a Saturday , with your mates... Usually the game is insignificant to the days happenings even though its the only reason for actually getting out of bed that day, it will rain, il spend shed loads of cash and my team will lose, but you know what , il still do it the week after because i cant give up.. just one more hit... just one more goal scored by a player who doesn't really care if im watching as he's pocked his 20 grand this week.. still its all about the journey...........

2. Some Bands 

You know how you feel when you hear the opening guitar line from your favourite song of your favourite band.... that feeling you wouldn't swap for anything else in the world at that time... i thank you this year for Carter USM, The Wonder Stuff, Pop Will Eat Itself , Inspiral Carpets, some new bands who dont actually mean all that much to me right now but might do in 20 years time, just the way Happy Mondays or the Stone Roses do, some more who iv forgotten now but will remember in 20 minutes....

i think il stop now.... i was going to stretch this useless post out to a magical 3 but i think 2 is kinda funny.... there is plenty more good things that have happened but as i said at the start... lists are a bit shit aren't they ! 

peace out xx

Melys - Life's Too Short

Melys came form deepest darkest Wales , Betws - Y - Coed to be precise and were firm favourite's of the late, great John Peel , an earlier single release called Chinese Burn had been No.1 in the peel festive fifty

Lifes Too Short was to be the bands last album and its a fitting testament, It contains in songs in Welsh and English , not at the same time though which would be pretty cool dont you think !?!

Thought You Would Never Go

You Want It Deep

Skating

Diywyd

Eyeliner

Treading Water

Y Dr Yn Y Mor

How High Is The Mighty Fall

Casino El Camino

Stori Elen

Its All Been Said And Done

click here

The Beta Band - The Three EP's

The Beta Band were a folk pop group well before Mumford and Sons made it cool... A little too weird and wonderful to be mainstream successes however this is what people loved them for... gigs often took on a spiritual happening with the band swapping instruments as they went along 

The 3 EP's is just that.... a collection of the first 3 EP's the band released, Champion Versions , The Patty Patty Sound and Los Amigos Del Beta Banditos.

Dry The Rain

I Know

B + A 

Dogs Got A Bone

Inner Meet Me

The House Song

Monolith

She's The One

Push It Out

It's Over

Dr Baker

Needles In My Eyes

click here

Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand

Robert Pollard's Guided By Voices never ceased to amaze me, or just about everyone who has heard the records... Bee Thousand was recorded outside of the normal studio environment using 4 track demo's and almost single handed coined the phrase lo-fi , each song took around half an hour to record and in total the whole album took 3 days!

 Bee Thousand was influenced by the 4 P's of rock music.... Pop, Punk, Prog and Psychedelia and went on to be the greatest album you've never heard.......dont believe me ? Take a look below or just have a listen for yourself.... i know you wont be disappointed 

Publication	Country	Accolade	Year	Rank
Spin	United States	Best Albums of 1994	1994	10
The Village Voice	United States	Album of the Year - Critics Pick	1994	8
Alternative Press	United States	The 90 Greatest Albums of the '90s	1998	63
Pitchfork Media	United States	Top 100 Albums of the 1990s	2003	10
Spin	United States	Top 100 Albums of the Last 20 Years	2005	37
Amazon.com	United States	The 100 Greatest Indie Rock Albums of All Time	2009	1
Mojo	United Kingdom	The 100 Greatest Albums of Our Lifetime 1993–2006	2006	80

Hardcore UFO's

Buzzards And Dreadful Crows

Tractor Rape Chain

The Goldheart Mountain Top Queen Directory

Hot Freaks

Smothered In Hugs

Yours to Keep

Echos Myron

Gold Star For Robot Boy

Awful Bliss

Mincer Ray

A Big Fan Of The Pigpen

Queen Of Cans And Jars

Her Psychology Today

Kicker Of Elves

Ester's Day

Demons Are Real

I Am A Scientist

Peep Hole

Your Not An Airplane

click here

Vex - Frontiers And New Technologies

Late 90's space rock?? repetition , Terry Bickers, Levitation , Ohm Records...  How about i let you decide however i think you will find this is just fantastic...

Vex came from Portsmouth , formed from the ashes of Amazing Windmills first came Velcro... soon to be Vex after a rather large fastening company got all upset with this particular bunch of Portsmouth upstarts.

However more about the music, comparisons to early Verve and Spacemen 3 were often thrown out by lazy reviewers, Vex rattled along referencing noise, sound and space in equal measures this was no ordinary guitar rock album. Almost futuristic this should get played whenever lunar landings or missions to mars are planned!

check out the Vex history, discography , scrapbook and reviews on the Deleirum records home page here

Frontiers

Flies In Amber

Heidelberg Speedmaster

New Technology

Jim Watches Over Us

Sound Of Life

Tzarcophagus

Omnia and Satori

Cheung Ta Ta Cheung

click here

The Wonder Stuff - Never Loved Elvis

Released 20 years ago in 1991.... Wow just writing that makes me feel a little old ! Eat Junk has seen The Wonder Stuff five times this year already and is making it seven next week with gigs in Birmingham and London, celebrating this release the band are going to play it in full... Seems a good idea to me and although its sometimes seen as a cheap way of selling out gigs without any new tunes classic albums deserve recognition... and a classic this surely is.... 

The third full length release after Eight Legged Grove Machine and Hup, Never Loved Elvis was the breakthrough the band deserved , Mouthy front man Miles Hunt had been a star in his own head for years by the way!! And yea im sure you all know about Size of a Cow and that but if you haven't heard this before take a few minutes to listen to my favourite song Mission Drive or Here Comes Everyone... fantastic

Only Miles Hunt and Malc Treece remain from the original line up however the addition this year of Fuzz Towshend the band is becoming something of a midlands super group! id actually go as far to say the band are playing better now than they did 20 years ago , probably helped by not being pissed all the time!

Mission Drive

Play

False Start

Welcome To The Cheap Seats

Size Of A Cow

Sleep alone 

Donation

Inertia

Maybe

Grotesque

Here Comes Everyone

Caught In My Shadow

38 Line Poem

The Takin' Is Easy

Will The Circle Be Unbroken

That's Entertainment

Me, My Mum, My Dad And My Brother

click here

World of Twist - Quality Street

W

A great album by a truly great band... read more about the band , its members and pretty much everything else here

http://louderthanwar.com/featured/world-of-twist-the-great-lost-manchester-band-remembered-by-john-robb

I saw World Of Twist at Sheffield University on the coat tails of the baggy era around 1991, a band called Rig supported and it probably cost about 3 quid to get in! From what i remember Tony Ogden was a genuine superstar in waiting

Lose My Way

Sons Of The Stage

This Too Shall Pass

Jellybaby

Speed Wine

The Lights

On The Scene

Sweets

The Spring

The Storm

She's A Rainbow

Life And Death

click here

Clor - Clor

Clor was the debut and only album from London post punk's Clor. Released in 2005 it was largely ignored, despite being critically acclaimed throughout the music press, tours with Maximo Park and Art Brut failed to get the band noticed despite this being on major label Parlophone. The bands angular sound didn't fit well with the times and probably wasn't easy to pigeonhole, 

The album was voted in an NME poll in 2010 as "The greatest album you've never heard" !!! that's a pretty good reason to have a listen now i think...

The band split soon after in 2006 and nothing really of note has been heard of the band members since , you can find some information here

Good Stuff

Outlines

Love + Pain

Hearts On Fire

Gifted

Stuck In A Tight Spot

Dangerzone

Magic Touch

Making You All Mine

Garden Of Love

Goodbye

click here