Grown Ups - More Songs

The moral to today's post is a very simple one: if you have a chance to see a band play live, you should probably take it. I didn't go to see Grown Ups play in Kingston a few years ago and I still regret it. Best we start at the beginning:

My friend Matt introduced me to Grown Ups by the way of a link on Facebook to a download of their EP Songs. He'd posted it on both mine and Hugh's wall with the comment that it was "another big win for Big Scary Monsters", possibly the first time I heard of the label too. I downloaded the four songs to my office PC, enjoyed them greatly and for a while they were on pretty heavy rotation. I'm a sucker for gang vocals and hand-claps, so that appealed to me, and the mathy guitar and general shoutyness were added bonuses.

A short while later I saw that Grown Ups were playing The Fighting Cocks in Kingston and I mentioned it to my friend Sarah, who is pretty much the only other person I knew in London at the time who was into this sort of music. Unfortunately she was busy and this was before I was in the habit of going to gigs on my own so, and this is the terrible bit of the story, I didn't go. It was a Sunday evening so I can pretty much guarantee that I did absolutely fuck-all. I probably just sat at home watching shit on the TV whilst this band I was quite into was playing an hour away from my house. Mistakes and regrets.

A year and a bit later I had my flights and tickets booked for Fest and I was pretty excited because Grown Ups were playing and I'd get to rectify my mistake of missing them live. A few days beforehand I went into Banquet and saw they had the full-length More Songs in on vinyl which I bought and played excessively until I had to leave for Florida. It was great. As you might as expect from the titles of the EP and the LP, it was more of the same but that was fine by me (in fact, it included the songs from the EP). Surprise Party is the highlight (with the cracking chorus "What good is a bird if a bird can't fly / I'm still stuck here and I don't know why") but Three Day Weekend is a close second. I recommend this record heartily if you're into any other band Topshelf Records have been involved with. Nice coloured vinyl too.

Anyway, a week later we arrive in Gainesville, connect to the wifi to update the Fest App timetable and Grown Ups are no longer there. I hoped it was some sort of mistake, but I later found out that they split up a few days earlier and cancelled all their upcoming shows. Obviously there were enough other bands on the bill to keep me happy, but I was gutted that Grown Ups weren't playing and moreover that I'd never get to see them. Every time I listen to the album I now it's slightly tainted by the fact that I'm certain these songs would've been incredible on a stage. I still think it's great, but I can't help but wonder how awesome it would've been to sing/shout along to those huge choruses. 

We get pretty spoilt for gigs in London, and it's all too easy to be lazy and stay at home, but I've made it my goal since to try to not miss out on seeing bands I like since. Sure, I still miss some but I aim to never let it happen when there's no good reason, like I did when I could've seen Grown Ups in the Cocks.

Format: 12", insert

Tracks: 10

Cost: £13 new

Bought: Banquet Records

When: 22/10/11

Colour: Tan

Etching: none

mp3s: no

Hüsker Dü - Land Speed Record

I wanted to write about a short record today (in the the hope I might get some work done sooner) and they don't come much shorter than this: Land Speed Record crams 17 songs in just over 25 minutes and it is relentless. I'd just come back from a holiday where I'd been reading the excellent Our Band Could Be Your Life, a book chronicling the lives of 13 indie/punk/hardcore bands on independent labels and a very good read if that sort of thing interests you. I knew about some of the bands (Mudhoney, Black Flag, Fugazi,...) but there were some who I'd only ever heard about. One of those bands was Hüsker Dü and when I got back to Cardiff I decided to pick up a record of theirs.

I can't remember why I chose Land Speed Record as the first (and, for my sins, so far the only) Hüsker Dü album I bought. We listened to and went to see a lot of hardcore bands whilst I was in Wales so it might have been because I knew it was their hardcore album. I also remember reading in Our Band... that they used to play loud and fast and without gaps between songs so that people couldn't discuss them between songs, which I thought was pretty cool. I knew Land Speed Record was a live album so maybe I bought it because I wanted to hear this idea in action. It also might have been that Land Speed Records was the name of my favourite record shop in Canberra.

Whatever the reasons, I bought it one Saturday and it definitely is a hardcore record (and the title could hardly be more appropriate). The ones are brutally short and violent and it's pretty abrasive on the ears. I like it, but I spin it rarely; it's a good record for packing or tidying or any task you want to get done quickly, but not so great for a casual listen. I know that Hüsker Dü's later work was very different and I've been meaning to buy Zen Arcade for ages, but somehow it's never quite happened.

As for the no-gaps-between-songs thing, everything you've heard is true. One song has barely ended before the next one stops and the only slight breather comes in the intro to Data Control. The two sides of the vinyl are continuous and any attempts to figure out which song you're listening to can only be done by listening to lyrics, if you can figure them out. The quality is great though, especially considering it was recorded straight to the mixing-desk of a gig 30 years ago.



Format: 12"
Tracks: 17
Cost: £9.50 new
Bought: Damaged Records, Cardiff
When: 03/05/08
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Quicksand - Manic Compression

In 2000 the 800th issue of Kerrang! magazine came out with a list of the 100 most influential bands since it had been a magazine (along with a piece on the new Deftones LP and a 5K review of Worship and Tribute). I've always loved lists and read it over and over again, learning about these bands I'd mostly never heard of, let alone heard. Gorilla Biscuits made it in at number 98 and Quicksand appeared at number 77. That was almost certainly the first time I heard Walter Schreifels' name and the fact that it claimed Quicksand influenced the Deftones was enough to intrigue me.

At some point in the following year, Rival Schools exploded onto the scene and for the first time I heard a song Walter was involved with. I became a huge fan of Rival Schools (something I still am today) and set about finding music by his older bands that I'd read so much about. Just after Christmas nearly ten years ago I decided to explore the record shops of Reading. I'd been for the festival but never to the town center and figured they might have some decent record shops. The first one I found was in this arcade near the station, and was still open when I was in Reading a few years ago. It was pretty good, and had plenty of second hand records by bands I was interested in, but sat high on one of the shelves was not one but two copies of Manic Compression. Both were in decent enough condition and only a tenner, so I added one to the armful of records I was buying and took it home.

Hugh had somehow heard Landmine Spring and told me a number of times how great it was (to this day I still don't know how he heard it, because streaming music on the internet was a long way off). On the first listen it was Delusional, Simpleton and Skinny (its Overflowing) that caught my ear the most and I thought Supergenius was pretty cool too. The lengthy It Would Be Cooler if You Did stood out but listening to it now, I can see what Kerrang! meant in their comment about Deftones - Pink Maggit was their equivalent to this song. If I had to make a list of the best final songs on a record, this one would be up there. It took a few listens before I realised how awesome Landmine Spring was, and even longer before I appreciated how brilliant the lyrics were ("There is no pain in death / It only hurts to die" and "Loading my questions like a shotgun" are two favourites).

Quicksand are another band on everyone's tongues at the moment - they've been playing a handful of shows and both the albums are getting re-issued (I only have Slip on cd so plan to pick up a vinyl copy sometime). I'd love to see them live. I've seen Walter and Rival Schools countless times, and they're always great. To hear these songs live would blow me away. Last time Rival Schools were over Walter said he was going to play a song he used to play with Quicksand and my heart jumped to think I might hear any of these songs, only to be dashed a second later when he announced it was a Smiths cover. Hopefully one day they'll make it over again.

Whilst I haven't bought Kerrang! (or any music magazine) in years, I still have the copy that introduced me to Quicksand and Gorilla Biscuits and so many other bands. It's quite fun reading it again now; I have albums by over half of the bands and the rest are all so familiar its hard to think that they were once entirely new names to me. Luckily, when I was 16 the name Quicksand caught my attention because it's still exciting listening to them today.



Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 12
Cost: £10 second hand
Bought: Reading
When: 27/12/02
Colour: Black
Etching: Side A: "Who pissed in Lyle's Snapple" Side B: "Sundahl's getting married?"
mp3s: no

Hum - You'd Prefer an Astronaut

I first became aware of Hum the same way a lot of people did - by hearing Stars - the difference being I heard it about 10 years after everyone else. Still, better late than never. In my first year of university there were a handful of American students living in our halls and one of them was a guy called Andy who was into some interesting music. I'd just discovered The Paper Chase and was pretty impressed that he was a fan too. Anyway, at some point in the first term he burned an mp3 cd for me with a whole bunch of albums and songs he figured I'd enjoy. The highlights were The Moon and Antarctica by Modest Mouse and Stars by Hum. He'd only put that one Hum song on there and said it was great, but the rest of their music wasn't very good. He was half right, but half very wrong indeed. Of course, I've long lost touch with Andy - these were the pre-Facebook days, so I have no idea what his surname is or what he's up to know. Either way, he introduced me to Hum, which is a good thing.

So I spent the next two years loving Stars but never quite getting round to checking them out (in fact Stars has been a staple of nearly every mixtape I've made since I heard it). I'd read reviews of You'd Prefer an Astronaut (much more glowing than Andy's) but never found a copy, despite my searches. In the very long summer break from Australian uni I'd been home, visited some friends and flown back to Sydney. I was going to be staying at a friend's house for a bit, but spent the first two nights in a hostel. On the second day I'd got past my jet-lag enough to go out record shopping and see what I could find. I first found a second hand place in which I bought the self-titled Black Eyes album on cd, then proceeded up the road and found one of the three(?) Red-Eye Record shops in Sydney. I spent a while flicking through the racks and eventually stumbled across a sufficiently-mint copy of You'd Prefer an Astronaut for $15. Needless to say, the smile on my face was enormous. Finding a record you've been searching for for ages is a great feeling, let alone when its a bargain and in such good condition. So I bought it and tried to explain my excitement to my friend when I met her that afternoon (I also bought a copy of The Wall on Laserdisc - another collection of mine of old technology. That shop remains to be the only shop I've found in the whole world that sells Laserdiscs).

Listening to the record was top-priority upon moving back into my halls a week or so later, at which point I realised Andy's review was nonsense. The other eight songs on here alone are enough to class Hum as a great band. Why I Like Robins is a huge song and Suicide Machine and I'd Like Your Hair Long are both highlights. The riffs are great, but the songs are laid-back. Of course Stars continues to be incredible, but that goes without saying, and the thoughtful closer of Songs of Farewell and Departure is brilliant too. Chino from the Deftones has raved about this being one of his favourite albums, and apparently the cover of White Pony is a nod the zebra here. Hum are another band very high up on my "Bands I must see live" list, but despite their occasional shows, they've not made it to the UK in a very long time. I wanted to take a very long detour from Fest last year to Texas to see them (and Murder City Devils) at Fun Fun Fun Fest, but Sarah had to get back to work the following weekend so that idea was scrapped.

The recent excitement was that You'd Prefer an Astronaut is being re-issued by Shop Radio Cast, which I'd be very pleased about if I didn't already own a copy (any chance of a Downward is Heavenward reissue please?). Somebody posted on Facebook that he'd seen copies of this sell for US$600, which is considerably more than I paid for mine, or assumed it was worth (Discogs notes three versions of the LP, and I suspect the green vinyl goes for more). I had no idea the demand for it was so high and this re-issue will push the prices down, not that I would ever have even thought about selling my copy. Every time I put this album on I think of how happy finding this record made me, which makes it all the more enjoyable.



Format: 12", 10"x20" poster
Tracks: 9
Cost: £6.45 second hand
Bought: Red-Eye Records, Sydney
When: 02/02/06
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Deftones - White Pony

White Pony was one of the first truly great albums I bought and remains a favourite to this day. My sister introduced me to the Deftones, having bought a copy of Adrenaline on holiday one year, and the release of their third album was big news amongst my friends and I. Hugh and I pre-ordered our limited edition cds (with the bonus track The Boy's Republic and the cd-rom game of Deftones Pac Man) and went to MVC straight after school on the day it came out to pick up our copies. When I was 15 the internet was a very new thing, and if you wanted new music you had to borrow it from your friends or save up and buy the cd yourself; the pool of music available to us was much smaller back then and so we devoured any music we could get our hands on. Naturally then, we played to White Pony to death and listened to those songs in a way I don't have the time to do any more.

It doesn't surprise me that I still love this album, as I remember thinking there was something very special about these songs from the off and somehow both the similarities and the differences to Adrenaline and Around the Fur are what makes it great. Songs like Teenager, Passenger, and Change (in the House of Flies) were so unexpected given the back-catalogue but so brilliantly done you'd be tempted to believe Deftones had never been called a "nu-metal" band. And those songs in turn made the incredibly heavy Elite look out-of-place. There's quite a mix of styles on White Pony and Feiticeira, Knife Prty and Korea couldn't have nailed it better. I think I instantly fell in love with Passenger (Maynard James Keenan's vocal work perfectly with Chino's) and slow build-up/celebration of Pink Maggit, although I could never pick a favourite from these eleven.

A year and a half later I found this double vinyl in Tower Records in Southampton. I'd gone in for a record fair before work, but was early so checked out the high-street record stores beforehand. Tower was pretty expensive in my memory, so £11 for this was definitely a bargain. I didn't have very many records at all by that point, so not only was White Pony one of the first cds I owned, it was also one of the first LPs. It looks great on the gatefold sleeve, and the variation on the cover-art is nice too.

Twelve years later, and I'm still a big fan of the Deftones. I've lost count of the number of times I've seen them but still remember the excitement of the first time - Docklands Arena on the 24th of March 2001 - the first gig I ever went to in London. They had a handful of backdrops that fell as the set went on, and I was so excited when Change started and the previously plain-black backing was lit up with hundreds of little lights that looked like stars. I bought the new album (on cd) on Saturday and I've listened to it a bunch of times today. I've not fallen in love with any of their later albums as much as I did with White Pony. I always kinda hoped they'd write another one like it, but they haven't and now I quite like that; all their albums are great, but White Pony stands out as a classic.



Format: 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 11
Cost: £11 new
Bought: Tower Records, Southampton
When: 29/12/01
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Lovage - Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By

This is a pretty lovely record, and one of my favourite Mike Patton-related projects (although he only co-wrote two of the songs, so it's probably wrong to categorise it so). Nathaniel Merriweather is the pseudonym that Dan the Automator took on for the two Handsome Boy Modeling School albums: a strange, but occasionally awesome collaboration with Prince Paul (as Chest Rockwell) and more A-list appearances than songs. (A particular highlight was A Day in the Life featuring The Mars Volta and RZA.) Anyway, this record is far greater than either of those two and made it to the dizzy heights of #24 in my top 50 albums of 2000-2009.

Mike Patton's Peeping Tom album came out whilst I was living in Australia, and one of the free music magazines had an interview with him which I remember reading whilst eating breakfast in a hostel in Melbourne. The album sounded pretty interesting (Mike's idea of how radio should sound - no irony in the fact he sings on every song) and I thought I'd try to pick up a copy. I went into a JB Hifi store later that day but decided it was probably too expensive for my student/backpacker ways and put off buying it for a while (the wonders of the exchange rate was that everything seemed really pricey in Australian Dollars. I eventually bought the cd in Leeds). Anyway, whilst browsing the Mike Patton section, I saw the Lovage cd, an album I'd never heard of, but was drawn in by the names on the sleeve - Kid Koala, Damon Albarn and Dan the Automator. They're a mixed bag of musicians, leaving me no idea how the record would sound. Sadly, this cd was too pricey too, so I left with just the intention of checking them out at some point.

So after the trip to Melbourne I had a look on the local network to see if anyone at university was sharing the Lovage album. A guy called Lorne, who I knew well enough to say hello to but not well enough to say much more to, had the mp3s so I downloaded the album (something I never really do) and had a listen. The music was nothing like what I had expected, but all the more awesome for it. The best description I can think of for this record is sexed-up trip-hop; it's both lust-heavy but so chilled and smooth. I have no other records anything like this. Dan handles the music whilst Mike shares vocals with a woman called Jennifer Charles and their chemistry is incredible. The intro makes for a pleasing start to the album and Pit Stop (Take Me Home) is excellent: Jennifer starts off and Mike's vocals appear like a sex-pest hiding around the corner. I love it. There are quite a few skits throughout, but the actual songs are brilliant: Everyone Has a Summer, Book of the Month, Lifeboat (in fact, the whole of side 3), Stoker Ace and the cover of Sex (I'm a) are all great. The latter is worth a mention in particular  for Jennifer's raspy vocals, Mike's "I'm a man" and the awesome samples - if you have 6 minutes to spare I thoroughly record giving it a listen, although probably best to do so through headphones.

Shortly after returning to England, I found this mint double promo LP on eBay for £13.50, which is a bargain given that you'd probably be paying nearly that for the cd if you ever stumbled across a copy. I've kept Lorne's mp3s and I've slipped a Lovage song onto most of the mixtapes I've made over the last six years. Another album I fully recommend.



Format: double 12"
Tracks: 16
Cost: £13.50 second hand
Bought: eBay
When: 13/07/06
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Black Eyes - Cough

It's a controversial statement, but it's true: Black Eyes are my favourite Dischord band. There are lots of great bands on that label and of course I love Fugazi, but Black Eyes put out two records that sound like nothing else I've ever heard. Deformative on the self-titled album is one of my all-time favourite songs and if I ever find that album on vinyl I'll rant about it on here suitably.

In my first year of university I was living in halls and met a lot of people from a lot of different places. One of those people was a guy called Kevin from America who had a very interesting taste in music. He once recommended a few bands to me, but the only one I remembered was Black Eyes and somehow two full years passed without me checking them out but at the same time not forgetting about the recommendation. Anyway, just after new year in 2006 I was in Brighton visiting some friends and headed into town to pick up some records. I found Cough in Punker Bunker (a shop that you're guaranteed to find something you'll like in if you like punk music) and decided to chance my £9 on a recommendation that had somehow stuck in my mind. I imagine I was a bit taken aback at first by the noise I was greeted with, but I quickly found myself loving it.

Black Eyes consisted of two vocalists, two drummers, bass, guitar and some of the most pained and strained horn noises you've ever heard, and the combination works perfectly. Fathers and Daughters and Holy of Holies are both great examples of how well Daniel's and Hugh's voices work together, and the contrast when Daniel starts singing on Drums is great. I also love False Positive for how the singing matches the beat and for what the trumpets add to the song, as well as A Meditation with its crazed barking. I can see how Black Eyes might be too spazzy for most (they're definitely un-easy listening) but I think they're great.

As is often the case, Kevin has no idea that his recommendation worked out so well; 2004 was long before Facebook and you had no need to know someone's surname back then, so we've long lost contact. Still, I'm pretty pleased with the result. Everyone has their list of bands they'd love to reunite and see play. I'm doing pretty well at seeing the bands on my list, but Black Eyes remains on there and, sadly, I suspect will for a long time yet.


Format: 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 10
Cost: £9 new
Bought: Punker Bunker, Brighton
When: 11/01/06
Colour: Black
Etching: Side A: "Mystic bro lives" Side B: "vegansteven @ hotmail.com"
mp3s: no

Bonnie 'Prince' Billy with Harem Scarem and Alex Nielson - Is it the Sea?

There used to be this show on MTV2 called 120 Minutes, which they would show very late at night and consisted of two hours of music videos of obscure songs that they'd never play during the day. It was quite a mixed bag, but there were some great songs and it felt like a shame that it was resigned to the graveyard shift. Still, I'd watch it from time to time, and on one such occasion I heard a song by Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, who at that point I'd never heard of. I don't remember what the song was, but I enjoyed it, and stumbled across a 7" of his in my local HMV. I was later in Resident Records in Brighton and thought I'd pick up an album of his. They had a few, and by chance I bought I See a Darkness, which became one of my all-time favourite albums.

Since then I've had hit-and-miss luck with buying other Bonnie 'Prince' Billy/Palace Music/Will Oldham albums. Lie Down in the Light didn't do a huge amount for me and Sings Palace's Greatest Hits was just odd. This live album, however, is one of his solid gold releases. I found it in Spillers on the last Tuesday-record-from-Spillers Tuesday of the year and thought the track listing was pretty nice; the info on the sleeve mentioned the unlisted vinyl-only bonus tracks of the incredible I See a Darkness and Love in the Hot Afternoon, and I knew and liked Minor Place and New Partner. My confidence in his music had been knocked but this record reminded me quite how incredible his songs and voice are. Along with the four titles I mentioned, Wolf Among Wolves, Molly Bawn, and Master and Everyone are all fantastic (the last one in particular; I ended up buying that the album Master and Everyone purely because of that song). The other five musicians add so much to the performance too, especially the female backing vocals.

The bonus tracks are a particularly nice touch, not only because the version of I See a Darkness is even more haunting than the original, but because of the fact they're there; so often bonus tracks are a cd-only affair, so it's nice not to be punished for buying the record. On top of that, they're included in the strangest way - side 4 finishes up on Master and Everyone and the needle runs off around a groove in the middle of the side. You then have to pick up the arm and place it back down on a fresh groove a few millimeters further in to play the last two. The gatefold sleeve is pretty lovely too, with the lyrics to the songs inside.

I'd fully recommend this as both a great intro to Will's extensive back-catalogue and as a great record in it's own right. I'd forgotten about it a little recently, but rediscovered it a few days ago and have been playing it pretty much solidly since then.


Format: double 12", gatefold sleeve
Tracks: 15
Cost: £13 new
Bought: Spillers
When: 16/12/08
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Manic Street Preachers - Generation Terrorists

There's a lot of talk about Generation Terrorists at the moment: the twentieth anniversary edition was released on Monday and today it's 6 Music's Classic Album of the Day (apparently). My copy of the deluxe boxset arrived on Saturday and so I've been listening to a lot of early-Manics this week (the boxset includes a 10", meaning I can write about it on here in due course).

Generation Terrorists was one of the first cds I owned (the fourth, in fact), which I bought about a year after getting This is My Truth Tell Me Yours for my birthday. I remember going into MVC and looking at the first four Manics albums countless times before eventually opting for Generation Terrorists; I think the idea of getting 18 songs for £9 appealed to me, along with some sort of desire to work through them chronologically. The girl at the counter told me she was more of a fan of Gold Against the Soul, a position I wouldn't find myself in for a few years.

The sleeve notes with the new boxset talk about how the album came to be the slick double album it is, and how people would discuss which songs they would have removed had they been in the band. When I was 15 the notions of slick production and an album potentially being anything other than the songs you bought were alien to me; I've always taken Generation Terrorists to be what it is - a crazy and ambitious collection of some of the bands best songs. Even after I heard the rough-around-the-edges New Art Riot EP I still never thought about how Generation Terrorists could have been if it was a straight-up punk record.

Thirteen years have passed since I bought the cd and there have probably been years at a time when I've not listened to it, but I know the songs so well it's almost as if I don't need to. Listening to it now, it's hard to tell if nostalgia is clouding my judgement on whether Generation Terrorists is truly a great album or not, but the facts are these: Slash n' Burn, Motorcycle Emptiness, You Love Us and Stay Beautiful are all still incredible songs. Little Baby Nothing was one of the most punk songs on there in a lot of ways, but at the same time one of the most pop too. Maybe the choice to include two versions of Repeat was a strange one, but I've always accepted it and enjoyed them both. I can almost remember the first time I heard You Love Us, reading the lyrics and absolutely loving the chorus - the way those three words fit to the beat still pleases me now.

Anyway, a few years after buying the cd, and my Manics collecting in full swing I found this on eBay for a reasonable (at the time) £28 and snapped it up. I wanted a copy on vinyl and the majority of copies of the regular version of Generation Terrorists suffered from fairly knackered sleeves, which isn't an issue with a sleeveless picture disc. The quality isn't as good (something they decided important enough to print on every side of the records) but it's good enough. I imagine I was also attracted to the Limited Edition run of only 5000 copies. As for the discs themselves, side 1 is hideous (what is James wearing? And the multi-coloured title!?) but sides 2 and 4 look great. Why they couldn't have found a decent different picture for side 3 is beyond me, but given the state of side 1 I'm not the person in charge could be trusted.


Format: double 12" picture disc
Tracks: 18
Cost: £28 second hand
Bought: eBay
When: 21/02/03
Colour: Picture disc
Etching: none
mp3s: no

A Gun Called Tension - A Gun Called Tension

I picked up the cd of this album in an incredible record shop in Melbourne that I'll almost certainly never visit again, since I have no idea what it's called or where it is, and I live on the other side of the planet. It's a shame because it was a great shop and I felt like I'd barely begun spending money in there before I ran out of cash.

I was studying in Australia for a year and most of that had passed without me visiting Melbourne, so some friends and I skipped the last week of classes and drove down there (no wonder my grades suffered). I had an afternoon to myself so went out in search of record shops and found this very cool one, half underground on a side street somewhere. They had some great records and cds, both ones I was after and ones I'd never heard of. This album fell into the latter group, but the sticker on the front told me it was a collaboration between Dan Gallucci (of Modest Mouse and The Murder City Devils) and a guy called Sean Reveron. I asked to have a listen in the shop (something I don't often do) and was pleased by what I heard. There were elements of every genre I can imagine; mostly hip hop, but hints of punk, indie, electronica, ragga; some tracks were laid back, others aggressive. The songs 5+1 and Treason caught my ear and I decided to buy the cd, along with a small stack of other bits.

Fast-forward seven or eight months and I was in Paris just after New Year, again with an afternoon to spare. I went into the mammoth Virgin Megastore on the Champs Elysees (needing a break from culture) and found their New Year sale had just begun. Their New Year sale was incredible - pretty much everything in it was €5 (about £3.35) and there were countless awesome cds in boxes everywhere for dirt-cheap. I was in a wonderland and ended up buying about 20 or so cds. I also eventually found a few boxes of records for €5 each and picked up a couple of LPs. This record was in there, and £3.35 was certainly cheap enough to justify a vinyl copy, so I bought it too. I thought the basket (yes, a basket of cds!) I had was full, but some people were buying huge numbers of cds and dvds. Clearly January sales are a big thing in France.

Anyway, the record is ace. There are a few songs that don't stand out as much as others, but the good songs are really strong. Treason with Spencer Moody (from MCD) on vocals and Document are the highlights, the latter of which has made it onto many mixtapes I've made. 5+1 has this great piano part that kicks in after the intro and really makes the song. There's not a huge amount of hip-hop in my collection, but I have a lot of time for dirty, alternative hip-hop like this.


Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 12
Cost: £3.35 new
Bought: Virgin Megastore, Paris
When: 10/01/07
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no

Neutral Milk Hotel - In the Aeroplane Over the Sea

Every Tuesday lunchtime in 2008 I went from my desk to Spillers Records in town and bought an LP. I'd not long moved to Cardiff and by the start of the year I was back on top of my finances enough to start buying music again and very keen to hear some new things. Of the 50 records I bought (I missed two weeks for holidays, but justified it by buying records abroad) there were some great albums, some average ones and, on a Tuesday at the beginning of February, the greatest album I've ever heard.

It's very easy to drift into hyperbole when talking about In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, and in every corner of the internet is someone raving about it. If you were hoping this would be a too-cool-for-school critique then you might as well stop reading now; I fucking love this album. I can't begin to express how happy it makes me every time I put it on, how it blocks out everything else on my mind and drags me into Jeff's fast-paced world. It's incredible and up until that Tuesday I'd never even heard of it.

Spillers usually have a small description on the sleeves and, whilst I've long forgotten the exact details of what was written on In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, it clearly intrigued me enough to chance my £10 on it for that week. I went back to the office and figured I'd have a read about it on the internet. It was at that point I realised how highly regarded this record was and that somehow this cult had passed me by for years. I very eagerly put the needle to the record when I got home, sat there following the continuous block of lyrics and fell in love with the record more than I ever could have imagined. Possibly the best thing is that almost every time I play this album I love it even more (the gift that keeps on giving) and nearly five years later I'm still getting more and more out of it.

Part of the reason I get so much out of In the Aeroplane... must be that, in my mind, it straddles indie and punk in a way no other records do. It's undeniably an indie record, but Jeff sings his lyrics so fast he's practically spitting them out and the music at times feels like a punk-rock band stripped down to just an acoustic guitar and a scattering of horns and drums. I also love the fact it has none of the structure of a regular album; there's no dissecting this album into singles and filler, and The King of Carrot Flowers, Pt.One feels like you've come in half way through a song but at the same time opens the album perfectly. I remember the first time I heard "I love you Jesus Christ" in Carrot Flowers, Pt. Two and it shocking me, but also realising it was supposed to. It almost goes without saying, but also wouldn't a be right to write about In the Aeroplane... without saying that Two-Headed Boy, Holland, 1945 and especially Oh Comely are truely incredible (the simple drumming on the guitar during "Know all your enemies..." is such a minor detail but one of my favourite bits of the song).

If I had to write the song titles in order of my favourites it would change nearly every week. One song that deserves a special mention here though is The Fool, a song that jumped up dramatically in such a hypothetical list earlier this year. I had the good fortune of seeing Jeff Mangum play live in March (four times in fact, more on this another time) and each night he finished with Two-Headed Boy. As the song came to a close, from the sides of the stage came the beautiful sound of unamplified drums and horns as Julian, Scott and friends walked on turning the slow and mournful end into the triumphant celebration of The Fool. Even thinking about it now sends a shiver up my spine. I couldn't imagine a more incredible way to end such a special set, and each night it surprised and amazed me as much as it did the first night.


Format: 12", insert
Tracks: 11
Cost: £10 new
Bought: Spillers
When: 05/02/08
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no