Cougar Microbes

Christmas was celebrated a little early this year to pre-empt the mass exodus from London. In a couple of days we’ll be heading out of the city to see family/friends, relax and generally get away. There is no such thing as a holiday from this blog though so expect a feature on the top artists/releases for the year that was.

In other news: producer to the stars Ben G. has released his annual Christmas compilation. Going strong since 2004, this years edition features tracks sung exclusively by female vocalists. Usually they come on neat 8cm CDRs but it seems the credit crunch (or possibly a move to Canada) is affecting our Christmas entertainment too. Despite this minor detail I really enjoyed this year’s edition and Macmacmac rock.

Find it at:  Remember This Day Forever

Happy Christmas/Hanukkah or anything else you are celebrating to you all. Here are a couple of tunes with a twist to get you into the holiday spirit. I feel I should be sitting in front of a fireplace with my new robe on, a glass of port and a Cuban cigar.

MP3′s:

Before Braille – Merry Christmas, I’m Cheating

Before Braille‘s debut UK release should finally drop in 2009 after a long delay. Hopefully it will be worth the wait.

The Hives & Cyndi Lauper – A Christmas Duel

How did Cyndi Lauper go from just wanting to have fun to “going down on your mother”? Easy, introduce her to The Hives. This is soon becoming the ultimate anti-christmas anthem.

Sherwood have released their single for the holiday period titled ‘Snowing In Seattle‘. Despite penning a contemplative song, and even setting it in colder climes, they just can’t lose those sugar sweet melodies that are seemingly part of any Californian’s DNA. They may not be reinventing the wheel but they succeed in hitting that melodic college rock sound to perfection.

The band will be releasing a full length in summer 2009 and will be touring again no doubt. If this track is anything to go by expect more slick production and enough hooks to enter an angling competition. Download it now from the bands myspace.

Billy Corgan of the Smashing Pumpkins has revealed to The Chicago Tribune that his band will not be releasing any new albums. Apparently:

“People don’t even listen to it all [an album]. They put it on their iPod, they drag over the two singles, and skip over the rest.” He also stated that the band will no longer be laying traditional tours adding “We’ll go small and do exactly what we want to do and stop playing catalogue. We’ll be like a new band that can’t rely on old gimmicks“

I wish he would realise 2 important things here: Firstly, if he released an album worth taking notice of people might actually go out and buy the whole thing. More importantly the reason he is even able to consider playing small one off shows for a wage  is because in the past (millions of) people have bought his releases. Those same people want to hear the tracks they fell in love with all those years back, By all means mix some new stuff into the set but remember the tracks you built your reputation on that are now allowing you the privilege to act like a spoilt brat.

I honestly think Billy Corgan is an amazing songwriter and Siamese Dream and Mellon Collie are albums I loved, it is precisely for this reason that those tracks deserve to be heard. Now, can anyone give him James Iha and D’arcy‘s numbers!

Encyclopedia sound like they should have been scoring the soundtracks for all my favourite Commodore 64 games back in the days. I first noticed their brand of riffs, midi tracks and adolescent (yet endearing) vocals when I was sent their ‘Young Hearts‘ EP back in 2004. The band even managed to bag a spot on the third instalment of Deep Elm‘s auspiciously titled This Is Indie Rock compilation series before disappearing off my radar. Their myspace page shows the band is still going, albeit in a somewhat on-off way. This is music guaranteed to make you smile.

The first time I watched ‘The Future Is Unwritten‘ was in a jam-packed cinema in November last year. The Joe Strummer documentary/biopic had just been released and watching it with a large enthusiastic audience added a quasi-religious feel to the event. They sang along to every song and marvelled as a series of respected friends, contemporaries and fans highlighted The Clash‘s talent and Joe Strummer‘s influence.

Though I was too young when The Clash were in their heyday I did manage to catch a set by The Mescaleros back in 97. It was raining like there was no tomorrow and we were huddled around my shitty car’s dashboard trying to get some heat into our bones at what could only be described as a festival gone wrong. We suddenly heard a loud roar as the opening chords for ‘Rudie Can’t Fail‘ played over the huge muddy field. I turned to my shivering comrade friend and said: “you realise we are missing out on an absolute legend here” and without another word we simultaneously jumped out of the car and splashed towards the stage.

Last week ‘The Future Is Unwritten‘ was shown for the first time on British terrestrial TV. Watching it again reminded me of that initial movie-going experience and how The Clash‘s music lives on through the years. Though the documentary occasionally resorts to what is unabashedly idolisation for Strummer this is suitably augmented with footage and tales where Joe Strummer the man doesn’t quite match up to Joe Strummer the myth. Ultimately Strummer comes across as a passionate, and sometimes difficult, man whose heart is true to his beliefs.

There is a scene in the movie where Joe Strummer is handing out flyers to try and entice passers-bye to come see The Mescaleros live performance somewhere in the USA . This man had played stadiums not so long ago, he is a living legend for fuck sakes! Yet he was promoting his show like a budding artist at the first ropes. There was no ego, there was no entourage. It was just Joe Strummer trying to build a crowd to see him doing what he did best, standing on stage and giving 110%

That night in 1997 we drove back in our boxer shorts because our clothes were completely soaked but we had the sweet sound of ‘London Calling‘ ringing in our ears. Epic.

RIP Joe!