日志

A brand new mixtapes, 25 of my favorite lead-off songs. A second batch might be on the way in a few months. I've got other mixtapes ahead of it.

Tally Hall - "Good Day" (Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum)
Patrick Wolf - "Overture" (The Magic Position)
The Smiths - "A Rush and a Push and the Land Is Ours" - (Strangeways, Here We Come)
Beirut - "Elephant Gun" (Lon Gisland EP)
Bob Dylan - "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" (Blonde on Blonde)
The Decemberists - "Shanty for the Aresthusa" (Her Majesty The Decemberists)
Blue Merle - "Burning In The Sun" (Burning In the Sun)
Franz Ferdinand - "Jacqueline" (Franz Ferdinand)
The Bravery "Believe" (The Sun and The Moon)
Death Cab For Cutie - "The New Year" (Transatlanticism)
U2 - "Where The Streets Have No Name" (The Joshua Tree)
Radiohead - "Everything In Its Right Place" (Kid A)
Gogol Bordello - "Sally" (Gypsy Punks Underground World Strike)
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So, last Thursday meant a trip to Bush Hall for Thu 12 Jul – Aqualung.

Aqualung were, as ever, great. This was a warm-up gig for them prior to the Latitude Festival, where they'll hopefully win some new fans (or reconnect with some old ones who might have forgotten about them). It was an excellent setlist, with a good mix of older songs and stuff from the new album (which, judging by people's reactions, everyone has a copy of, despite it not having been officially released in the UK yet).

Matt seemed a little bit quiet at first as the band ran through the first few numbers without much chat (although he did rock off his spectacles pretty early on) but he seemed to come more to the fore as the gig went on, improvising a song about the fact that he'd been on a first aid course that day and he got chattier from that point onwards.

It's hard to pick out particular song highlights as the whole set was immensely enjoyable. All of the new stuff works extremely well live (as the new album…

Aqualung's new UK single, Cinderella is to be released on June 11 and there's an accompanying video, shot at the recent ULU gig (which I attended: Gig review)

I'm pretty sure I'm in this video, although I only fleetingly appear in the wide shots - I was standing to the left of the stage by the bass speakers. Good luck picking me out, however, as I only just about managed it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jf-ostUl1GI

Incidentally the new album is rather good and well worth your hard earned pennies, at least in my opinion.

Am I desperate or the latest Aqualung album is absolutely fabulous? I'm thinking, it's pretty fabulous, you know?

I'm in love with Something To Believe In. The beat is pure awesomeness and well that piece is just ten thousand kinds of brilliant.
You Turn Me Around will probably stay my all time favorite and my true love (it's so beautiful) but Something to believe in will remain pretty close behind.

Broken Bones, Glimmer, Cinderella and Garden Of Love are absolutely amazing as well. The whole album kicks ass anyway, but I love those so much I can't stop listening to them again and again and again.

My obsession landed me at the top of the weekly listeners list, AH! Too bad he's not playing in Montreal this year, I'd love to go see a show again, I had such a great time the last time.

Alright that was a totally pointless entry but I'm pretty good at them it seems.

Now go get the album, that's the best 10$ you'll ever spend this year. Seriously. *pimp*


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So, I went to Thu 12 Apr – Aqualung and I've just got round to writing a gig review for it. I blame illness followed by a trip home.

I think this is the closest I've ever stood to the stage at a gig. It's a bit surprising as we didn't turn up very early at all but there was still loads of space right by the stage. I was close enough to be deafened by the bass speaker and almost close enough to reach up and touch Ben Hales. A couple of the songs were being filmed (Cinderella and Outside), so hopefully I'll be appearing on those videos.

Support was from a young lady by the name of Kate Walsh. She was a very good acoustic singer-songwriter type. There was also some nice chat between songs (I always find that a good story about where the song comes from makes me listen more closely to support artists, and helps me remember the song). She reminded me quite a lot of Gemma Hayes, which is a good thing. My friend Ged_uk bought her album and I'll be interested to know what he makes of it.
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Last night I went to ULU to see Aqualung.

In a fantastic return to form with the support acts, we had the wonderful Kate Walsh, a singer-songwriter who reminded me strongly of both Jenny Lewis and Martha Wainwright, which is No.Bad.Thing. I was so impressed, i bought the album (and got a free aqualung one too!). Hopefully i'll see her again at some time in the future.

Now, I wasn't actually a fan of Aqualung. That's not to say i don't like them, but i've just never heard their stuff before (or at least that i'm aware of). They were simply awesome! ULU is a tighly packed little venue, and it was rocking like nobody's business!

Matt Hales, who to all intents and purposes is Aqualung, is a really nice, cheery and, well, just normal, guy. I've seen his brother Ben Hales playing guitar for Duke Special. I've sadly forgotten the bass player's name, but the drummer David was utterly unique in that he actually played the violin during one song. …