As a festive treat (and because we haven’t bothered to compile any sort of list of the year’s best), here’s a load of Christmas songs. They’re all really excellent.
Low – Just Like Christmas
Frightened Rabbit – It’s Christmas So We’ll Stop
Darlene Love – Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
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Bubblegum Lemonade – Susan’s In The Sky EP (Matinee Recordings)
The titular track of this excellent EP from Bubblegum Lemonade recalls the simplicity and chug of The Jesus & Mary Chain in their lighter moments, gleefully and tastefully winding itself up until we reach a pedestrian (not in a bad way, but a satisfying one) conclusion. [...]
The Capitol Years – Revolutions (SOE Records)
Is it possible to base a song on a raging war of tempi? The Capitol Years (what an excellent name) seem to have answered that question affirmatively, given that Revolutions is constantly flitting between a gentle Byrdsian bounce and a psyched triplet feel in its verses. There are cunning [...]
Gigs in churches are just ace. No one talks, no one wanders around and gets in the way, everyone’s seated, not drunk and the artists are more likely to play at their best ‘cos of all the upturned faces at their feet. Malcolm Middleton seems very nervous about the whole affair, though, even though it’s [...]
Her Space Holiday – XOXO, Panda and the New Kid Revival (Mush)
There’s not an awful lot to be said about Marc Bianchi’s transformation from computer-wielder to guitar-slinger, because the record itself should be able to dictate whether or not this ballsy (apparently it’s ballsy, I’m not all that familiar with him) move was the right [...]
Alexandra Burke is a worthy and unexpected winner, but Beyonce completely shits on her:
That aside, Burke will now undoubtedly disappear (after her inevitable Christmas no.1 and some minor activity) until her album is complete. The album will probably be a tremendous disappointment that doesn’t use her voice in the right way [...]
The London premiere of The Flaming Lips‘ long-awaited festive psychobilly hellride from heaven movie Christmas On Mars fell on Friday night, and PM was there to take in some first impressions and listen to an interesting Q&A with the director and one of the stars, Wayne Coyne.
The narrative is simple enough, but typically skewed: It’s [...]
This time, it’s an obvious one. Obvious because there rarely has been such an apparent about-face in ideologies spread so widely, albeit in hilarious fashion. So we all know about that. Forget that. Here’s the offending article:
The problem with this insane concept for an advert is that it works. Annoying though [...]
Fight Like Apes and the Mystery of the Golden Medallion (Model Citizen)
Fight Like Apes manage to convey almost universal simplicity in a framework that could supply nothing but that. Punk rock riffs (but certainly not the ideals, thankfully for them), childish humour and structural adherence to templates that accentuate the clarity of their expression make [...]
As regular readers might be aware, PM was on holiday in Krakow last week. One evening when we weren’t sampling the honeyed vodka, underground salt mines and a weird quivering old woman outside a local supermarket (we didn’t sample her, just sort of saw her…), we found ourselves in one of the city’s numerous live [...]
