Botchandango.com

Should've kept up the lessons...

! Introducing the Gretsch Pro Jet (without bigsby) in black played through a Marshall practice amp (also black) and me in a rather fetching bathrobe (not black) doing an incredible injustice to the opening bars of This Charming Man by The Smiths.

CSS

Thanks to "Friday Night with Jonathan Ross" I have a new favourite song and band of the moment... CSS

I like this... quirky... catchy... cool in a really simple way :)

I downloaded the album from itunes last night and have listened to it a couple of times already. It's nice to find something new to listen to once in a while... see what you think...

Top 25 Playlist

Not being able to decide what to play this morning on my iPod while driving to work I tried out the 'Top 25 Most Played' playlist... it was good to listen to but a little suprising. The 1728 tracks that I have currently loaded onto my iPod are a pretty varied selection from my CD collection plus a few downloaded albums but this list is certainly not particularly varied. What suprised me was just how much Smiths I seemed to have listened to. The most likely explanation is that these Smiths tracks are all one's that I have tried to learn on the guitar  and so have therefore listened to them repeatedly to work out the chord changes etc. I like the Smiths but would not have said they were my top favourite band. In fact, two of the bands that I do reckon as being my favourites (The Fall and Spiritualised) do not even appear in this Top 25 list. And... just how many times have I listened to that Dead or Alive track?... sure, it's pretty good and a classic sound from the 80's but my tenth most played song??? I couldn't even tell you the last time I played it before this morning.

1. Rusholme Ruffians - The Smiths
2. I started Something - The Smiths
3. What She Said - The Smiths
4. Cemetery Gates - The Smiths
5. The Headmaster Ritual - The Smiths
6. I Want The One I Cant Have - The Smiths
7. Bigmouth Strikes Again - The Smiths
8. Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand
9. Vicar In A Tutu - The Smiths
10. You Spin Me Round - Dead or Alive
11. Jacqueline - Franz Ferdinand
12. Sexx Laws - Beck
13. Cold Brains - Beck
14. Soul Rebel - Bob Marley
15. Nowhere Fast - The Wedding Present
16. The Boy With The Thorn In His Side - The Smiths
17. There Is A Light That Will Never Go Out - The Smiths
18. No Sympathy - Bob Marley
19. Jah Is Mighty - Bob Marley
20. Planet Earth - Duran Duran
21. Sound Of Thunder - Duran Duran
22. Ooh La La - Goldfrapp
23. Taller Than You Are - Madness
24. That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore - The Smiths
25. The Queen Is Dead - The Smiths

And to break this list down into a summary...

12/25 The Smiths
3/25 Bob Marley
2/25 Franz Ferdinand
2/25 Beck
2/25 Duran Duran
1/25 Madness
1/25 The Wedding Present
1/25 Goldfrapp
1/25 Dead or Alive

New Music

The first Scissor Sisters album was a 'lucky' purchase for me that I'd bought on the strength of one song and then had been pleasantly suprised at the quality of the rest of the album. They have a new album out now which although I haven't heard all of yet should be just as good if the tracks being played recently on the music channels are anything to go by. It sounds as if it will be more of the same but it was a formula that worked well the first time around. Need to get hold of it soon...

What is very good though is the new album 'Costello Music' by a band called The Fratellis. I had heard one track on the radio a month or so ago which I liked but had then forgotten all about them. Seeing their album tonight in the supermarket I bought a copy and listened to it this evening... what a great buy! This is great music... find it, listen and see what you think.

Oh Lordi!

For some reason I always seem to find myself sat in front of the Eurovision song contest each year... it is a big joke but it's always good for a laugh or two. This year Finland's Death Metal entry Lordi made the news well before the final but considering the other entrants and even allowing for my own indifference to all things 'metal' they would have got my vote. Needless to say they won by quite a large margin.

Bauhaus - Brixton 03/02/06

Fridays Bauhaus gig was good fun but not quite as awesome as the last time I saw them. Although the music was just as good, the stage show on the previous tour was so much more theatrical. There was one sight Friday night though that really amused me. Standing towards the back of the stalls looking down at the stage, I thought for a sad moment that a large proportion of the audience were holding lighters up in the air as you might see at any stereotypical rock concert. I soon realised however that what I had mistaken for the flames of lighters were in fact the screens of mobile phones as people were taking photos or video of the stage. How times change.

Move his way nice and slow

The best gig I have ever been to is without a doubt Bauhaus at the Brixton Academy in November 1998. Today I bought tickets for their latest tour at the same venue in February next year. I can't wait! Looking at the set lists from recent gigs in the US I don't think we are going to be dissapointed at all. There are rumours of a new album on the way (the first in around 22 years) but this current tour is thankfully still a series of 'greatest hits' gigs. Don't get me wrong, I will get any album as soon as it comes out but I want another chance to see and hear live performances of all my favourite songs first.

Attention young ladies...

attention young ladies...

Last night was the long awaited PWEI gig at the Carling Academy (Expensive watered down beer) Birmingham. It was a really polished performance by a band who have obviously not lost any of their energy of the past 10 -12 years since they were last on the scene.

At one stage the lead singer said something along the lines of.... "we didn't think anyone would still be into this"... I'm sure that's not exactly true as even a small five date tour would take a fair amount of time and money upfront to put together.  Still, the venue was sold out and people were jumping around all over the place.

The set was a real 'Greatest Hits' moment and they seemed to pack in a lot of numbers with hardly any pause between them. I'm pretty sure they played at least one new track which might suggest a more permanent regrouping or at least another opportunity to see them again in the near future. The song everyone wanted to hear last night though (obvious by the chants of 'Beeevahh! Beeeevaahhh!') was Beaver Patrol, a request that was granted during one of the encores.

It was quite a nostalgic feeling to listen to music that was played at every 'Alternative night' at the SU, pubs and clubs during my University days. For awhile it felt just like being a student again. One thing I did miss though and probably for the first time ever since deciding to get rid of it was having long hair. Dancing around with strobe lights and dry ice going off all around, my head felt strangely unencumbered and the standard rock head movements felt.... well.... a little silly.

Here's a couple of photos of the obligatory gig t-shirt. These days destined to become a pyjama top rather than a public declaration of musical taste.

Blancmange

Blancmange is such an oddly spelt word and a dessert I have managed to forget since childhood.  It is also the name of an 80's pop group who it turns out sung a song that I've had bits of going round and round in my mind for the last few days (no idea why, perhaps I caught a few bars of it on the radio).

Anyway.... all I could remember of the lyrics were "I'm so tall I'm so tall"  and there was a simple but catchy keyboard part repeated at the end of each chorus. Anyway a quick search of Google Groups for the lyrics I could remember gave 24 hits, mainly news posts of people also trying to find out the name of the same song and group. Still, enough to track down what I wanted to know and now thanks to the wonders of the internet I'm sitting listening to the very track 'Blancmange - Living on the ceiling'. I really like it and it's definately going to find its way onto an 80's playlist I'm thinking of putting together. Yet another one of those bands that I missed out on by only a few years, although as a 9 year old I was much more interested in my BBC Model B.

PWEIsation

What will the new year bring? How about a trip up north to see Pop Will Eat Itself at the Birmingham Carling Academy... should be a good opportunity to dance like a psycho and buy an obligatory long sleeved t-shirt (black of course).