Number 86

To B and Back

The alphabet odyssey continues and I found myself in two dilemma filled situations. Neil said to me a long time ago when he bought me the Best of the Beta Band album that it was possibly one of the best best of albums because it really was all killer and no filler. He emphasised that it was really all I needed.

That didn't stop me from downloading Hot Shots II, Heroes to Zeroes and the first eponymous titled studio album and again because of this 'I like this so therefore this must be good to' principal I have never bothered to play them. Perhaps had I played them I wouldn't have wasted the CD.

The Beta Band really are a band whose best bits were all collected onto their best of album; it really is the best best of album for doing exactly that. What I found most odd about this band is the total inconsistency of their music - stuff you think must be from a later period is really early stuff and vice versa. As a follow up, The Aliens (who I have only played one of their three albums so the other two must be downstairs) were/are probably more consistent, even if there is a large dosage of weirdness in their stuff as well. The thing is weirdness isn't always a selling point. The dilemma was whether it was worth keeping the albums on the strength of already owning a shop-bought best of. The common sense bastard in me consigned them to the next fire...

Dilemma #2 was Bark Psychosis. This is the band that are believed to have produced the first album to which the label post-rock was attached, although I'm of the opinion that Talk Talk produced this many years before Hex came out. Here's my problem with it: musos proclaim this album as something special therefore if you know people who rave about this album you treat them like fine art snobs and hedge around the subject of how fucking brilliant Hex is when in reality it's just boring naval gazing shoegaze jazz. Yes, it actually has a timeless feel about it (I'm listening to it as I type this), but I think it's because by its nature post-rock has a timeless feel. There is also the fact that Lee Harris (drummer with Talk Talk) was involved in this record which is a little like saying 'the bloke that tuned the Beatles guitars plays on this tune'.

This album isn't bad, but like Jeff Buckley I can't really see myself thinking 'oh, I think I'll go and play some Bark Psychosis' - I have enough of this post-rock nonsense and a lot more of it has tunes.

I also appear to be down to the last few Bs already, although I am aware there are a lot of them downstairs.

Football

Back in September I got involved in the Guardian's on-line football discussion thingy and my cheery line in Andres Villas Boas hating and general disliking of the way my beloved Spurs have gone branded me something of a troll-like troublemaker, especially when Spurs (playing like 11 strangers in a dark room) managed to get into 4th place in the league. However, my mantra has been simple - never mind the (lack of) quality, feel the width, or something that was once a TV sitcom title - and despite being called lots of intelligent insults (this is the Guardian after all), I've doggedly stuck to my guns about how shit Spurs are.

People are fucking quoting me now. More and more of my rants are being recommended; people are coming round to my way of thinking or have just disappeared (like they do). AVB is shit and now I want the useless Portuguese wanker to leave and take that useless Thunderbirds puppet of a chairman Daniel 'Twatboy' Levy with him.

Football is not The Cure

Gosh, it comes to something when you forget you've written half a blog until four days after you start it! This is how unbelievably exciting my life has been in the last couple of weeks...

Work has been back and it's been hectic, but since when weren't school dens of crazy madness? Quizzes have been lost: to the now rather annoying Bar Stars, who also won the jackpot and could quite easily drive some of the semi-serious quiz teams away - no team has ever NOT been applauded for winning; but the almost perfect Bar Stars achieved the united disgruntlement of the other teams last night as they walked off with the £100+ jackpot and something like their 10th win in the last 12 weeks. We're Lamping it next week, to boost the kitty.

The AtoZ continues apace with The Cure. Old classics have been enjoyed and some of the albums I haven't played for 25 years have been dug out. The Cure - miserable stuff doesn't date; their pop songs are woeful: it's that simple.

In the car is/are Ozric Tentacles, because sometimes you have to. Oddly enough, it's pretty banging head music, that strange melding of prog, ambient, indie rave and ska...

Hooray for the Free World

Barack won. All is calm. All is right. Kermitt lost and it would have been weird with a 1970s styled evangelist with 16 wives as president.

There was some twat on Breakfast this morning called Nile something or other. He was British but a commentator for the Republican party. Jesus on a spit, talk about bad feelings. The most positive thing he could say about Obama was that the USA only had to suffer him for 4 more 'lame duck' years.

No wonder Hollywood casts English actors as twats, sorry, villains.