Watch out for the soup dragon

Never let it be said there's not a theme running through these posts. Take today, we have two songs, by two Scottish bands, both concerning the moon, and both from their respective first albums. Take it one step further you could also summon up the spectre of Belle and Sebastian as Looper features the talents of ex B&S member Stuart David and on the first Ballboy album "Club Anthems" which is a collection of their early singles they tried very hard at times to sound like them. Not a bad thing in my humble opinion and on their subsequent releases they've definitely developed their own sound. In the meantime Looper have been quietly releasing free MP3s on their website and hopefully one day will get around to a new album so I can stop having nightmares about their pants third release "The Snare"


Looper's website is here

Up the Wooden Hill to Bedfordshire

The horrible events of last week in London have left me thinking about the city and music that always reminds me of the times I've been there. Saint Etienne are the most obvious example, there's just some sort of London quality to them and is embedded in most of their albums. Their new one "Tales From Turnpike House" is a great example of this and in my opinion is their most consistant album for a long while. Not sure if there's a US release date yet but the UK version comes with a bonus EP of songs from a hopefully forthcoming kids album "Up The Wooden Hill" you can tell you're getting old when your favourite bands are looking at enough fans with children to justify something like this. I've gotta say the song "Let's Build A Zoo" is one of my favorite songs at the moment.



The Saint Etienne website can be found here

Down the dip

On the new Fountains of Wayne grab-bag compilation "Out Of State Plates" there's a faithful cover version of Aztec Camera's "Killermont Street" which I would love more if it didn't sound JUST LIKE the original but at least it got me delving back into Roddy Frame's back catalogue and reminiscing on the highs and lows of my associations with the band.....Hearing High land, Hard Rain an marvelling at what a complete stunning album it was/is and thinking even then he would never better it and that's pretty sad when you consider Roddy was I believe 12 when he made it......When for ten minutes back when "Somewhere In My Heart" was a top pop chart hit the band was the belle of Smash Hits and seeing the band at Portsmouth Guildhall surrrounded by screaming teenage girls who at least wasn't obscuring my view......Being told that a meeting in a small Southsea park wasn't as I thought a reconcilliation but a break-up but being given a copy of their "Dreamland" album as a parting gift that I made a big show of throwing in the nearest garbage bin. Oh heady days! So three Aztec Camera songs for your pleasure, "We Could Send Letters" from High Land, Hard Rain, their great cover of "Jump" from around the time of "Knife" their second album and the aforementioned "Killermont Street" from their third album "Love." It appears Roddy is touring in various places for the rest of the year and plenty of news can be found at the website linked below.


Aztec Camera website can be found here

Do You Come Here Often?

Probably a lot more often then I have done in the last couple of months!! I promise to try and do better, and thanks to all those people who commented on the lack of posts and said they actually missed my bad grammar and downloads of guitar bands who coulda shoulda been contenders. So for your listening pleasure we have two songs that March Records released as a very limited CD (150 copies apparently) to celebrate their 10th anniversary. That's tin by the way in case you're interested. The Cd featured some of the label's bands doing covers so here's Barcelona with a cover of Altered Images' classic "I Could Be Happy" and Holiday with the Beach Boys' "That's Not Me"


March Records can be found here