The Hepburns have been around for years. First surfacing out of Wales in 1987 they released a couple of singles and an album for Cherry Red. Then their new record company went kaput, taking their unreleased second album with them, and it was not until 2000 that the band resurfaced on the Californian label Radio Khartoum. This is their third release for the label, collating three songs recorded between 2000 and 2003 and was originally due for release in 2003. However s/he who waits......

Lead track What If Everyone Got What They Wanted? is a perfect slice of indie pop. Allegedly recorded in 10 minutes it's bubbly, infectious and harks back to the jingle jangle era of days gone by and you are guaranteed to hit that repeat button. As for the b-sides Chrysanthemum Fountain and Sierra Alpha One Five both are playful romps through the lands of offbeat guitar pop.

The band will be releasing a new album titled Something Worth Stealing early next year.

There are no tracks available to download but you can stream them from the Radio Khartoum site

The Relationships were formed over a decade ago now comprising ex-members of The Anyways and The Razorcuts. Prior to this release they have put out the Country Catalogue EP in 1998 and the 2000 album Trend.

Anyway back to 2005 and Scene which has been out for a few months now but somehow slipped off the radar. The first thing that struck me was the Englishness of it all. From the pictures on the sleeve to the lyrics themselves which bring up images of picnics, Pimms and croquet on the lawn. However that should not mean that the album is inaccessible as it contains plenty of sixties and c86 inspired pop nuggets for all and sundry! Above all there is plenty of variety and superior songwriting that sets it apart some of the other albums I have heard in 2005.

It opens with the psychedelic leanings of Flying Saucer Girl which flows into the wonder that is Mediaeval Day. These two tracks set the tone for the rest of the album with Richard Ramage's vocals shining throughout and which are joined by ex Razorcut Angus Stevenson's shimmering guitar playing. Other highlights such as ex download only single The Approach and Wisdom Of The Ancients draw the listener in further but in truth there are no album fillers here. English Blues indeed.

This is a great pop album but don't take my word for it. Pick it up and judge for yourselves. More tea vicar?

The Relationships - Mediavel Day

The album can be purchased from Oxford Music Net (UK) or Twee Kitten (US)

The results of the poll are here! Thanks to all those who voted which was a higher number than I expected! Judging by some of the results my work is done but I was surprised at the number of votes of the Kaiser Chiefs.

And if you think you can flatter me as per the results of the best music site then it worked!

Best Single:

Crack Babies - Smoking At Gas Stations
Kaiser Chiefs - I Predict A Riot
The Futureheads - Hounds Of Love

Best Album:

Brakes - Give Blood
The Envelopes - Demon
Art Brut - Bang Bang Rock & Roll

Best Band:

Bridge Gang
The Envelopes

(The above two won by a mile, loads of bands tied in third place including Maximo Park, The Rakes and Art Brut)

Best Live Act:

British Sea Power
The Wedding Present
Kaiser Chiefs

Best Music Site:

indie-mp3
Take Your medicine
Pitchfork
Sounds XP

Best Download Service:

Napster
e-music
Blogs

Have a safe and happy new year.

Getting back from the Christmas break that I enjoyed back in Wales with family and old friends. I arrived to a mountain of post. The nicest surprise seemed to come from Hello! Surprise! it was a a CDr release by The Bent Pen Project. I had to dig a little on the internet to find out the tracklist and a little more about The Bent Pen Project. This I did find:

"BPP is primarily Jonas Stahl fooling around with two guitars, a synthesiser, and a recording machine. It's all been recorded in a student's flat in Vaxjo, Sweden. The music is what you might expect from the above description only better, much better. Early Cure and Joy Division are clear influences but done on a low budget makes this even more appealing not less." - Craig Bonnell, swedesplease

I can certainly endorse BPP - the CD has that quirky and lovable lo-fi indie pop quality that pushes all the buttons for me - in it's more electronic places it reminds me of White Town - who scored a real hit in the UK a few years ago with 'Your Woman'. You can buy the CDr EP from Melodrama for a very reasonable US$3.50.

The Bent Pen Project - Longing at the nowhere station
The Bent Pen Project - Ocean Eyes

Sarah Rogers is a Seattle based 14 year old girl although she is an elder stateswoman when compared against the likes of Smoosh and Shisho! She has been recording with help from the Math and Physics Club and her songwriting/playing belies her fourteen years with the track Mitch and Anne emphasizing this point. Now in the process of setting a band up will we be seeing her on Matinee in years to come?

Sarah Rogers - Mitch & Anne

No home page but she, like so many others this year, has a My Space page to stream her music.


CobSOn, based in Montpellier, released a web EP titled "Wasted" in August this year. There are certainly plenty of PJ Harvey based hints on The Man Who Knows but CobSOn shows her versatility (and the benefits of 11 years of piano training) on Bobby which reminds me of a Tori Amos in a 1950's nightclub. Not what I would normally listen too but a revelation all the same and further proof, if needed, that keeping an open mind is essential when listening to music.

CobSOn - The Man Who Knows

You can download the whole EP from here.

Nixon sent me a new song a couple of months ago and to my shame I forgot all about it (sorry Albert!). Titled Little Miss Hyde it's Nixon at their lo-fi acoustic best. Hopefully they are now recording with a full band line-up and tracks from these sessions will surface soon.

Nixon - Little Miss Hyde

Over the past year I have been plugging The Morrisons and The Legendary 10 Seconds. Ian (from both bands) is a bit prolific and has now turned up in another reformed band called The Psycho Daisies. Ian sent me an exclusive mp3 of a track taken from their forthcoming album "Grimbol Old Porker" and he writes:

The name for the band comes from the b side of the Yardbirds single happening ten times years ago.(Both Graham and myself are big big Yardbirds fans.) The band first surfaced in Castle Cary back in the 1980s with Graham Moores playing guitar and Wilf on vocals. There is a picture of the original line up on Golden Pathway. One of the first releases on golden pathway records was a cassette album by the psycho daisies. The band split up years ago but started again last year as a recording project with Graham Moores on guitar, myself Ian Churchward on bass and vocals and Guy Bolt on drums. We also did one gig last year with a guest vocalist because I don't seem to be able to play the bass and sing at the same time!!!!

I understand there is another band in the USA also called the Psycho Daisies who sound very 1960s psychedelic. We're a bit more english folk rock psychedelic.

There is another track available as an mp3 on www.road-noise.net under the alternative indie rock section.

The Psycho Daisies - Jack White

Jim, the bloke behind Egg Records, contributed an excellent series on Australian indie-pop to indie-mp3 recently. In case you missed it here is a summary. There will be a series on New Zealand indie soon! Anyway back to Jim:

I don't know why Australia produced so many great sounds in the eighties; maybe it was the continuing brilliance of the Go Betweens, the flourishing of The Triffids. Maybe near neighbours, The Chills and Flying Nun inspired. Maybe it was the same general indeterminable reasons that UK pop flourished at the same time.

Of course Australia had its own post punk, not that I knew much, however between the post punk years (See Inner City Sound) and the Nirvana inspired death kneel, there was a lesser known golden age.

The golden age of Australian guitar pop. Easter Records released a series of great records. The Stems inspired power pop boomed, Lo-Fi gems from The Cannanes, pure pop from Club Hoy and The Honeys, quirky post punk of Rabbits Wedding and Lets Go Naked.

Not many are known to the UK audience. Even As We Speak via Sarah Records, the Cannanes, pure pop from Club Hoy and The Honeys, quirky post punk of Rabbits Wedding and Lets Go Naked.

Not many are known to the UK audience. Even As We Speak via Sarah Records, the Cannanes, the Lighthouse Keepers, the Hummingbirds maybe.

Club Hoy - On and On
Club Hoy - Stay With Me
Tender Engines - Girl From The Hinterland
Tender Engines - A Legend Never Fails
The Hummingbirds - Alimony
The Hummingbirds - Get On Down
Let's Go Naked - Stars Shine Bright
Let's Go Naked - Three Limbs

Buy Australian indie pop at Egg Records

One of the main features of the old indie mp3 site was the featured track of the week and luckily it is the easiest part of the site to transfer to the blog format. Over the next weeks/months I will be posting the tracks that were frequently re-requested from the old archive. However to start the ball rolling I am going to kick off about The Vaselines, a band who for some bizzare reason I never posted in the 30+ months the site was up. Luckily I do not have to rack my brains to write about them as I can lift the entry from Wikipedia.

The Vaselines were an indie rock band from Edinburgh, Scotland. Formed in 1986, the band was originally made up of only Eugene Kelly and Frances McKee, but later added James Seenan and Charly Kelly.

The band released two singles, "Son of a Gun" and "Dying for It", prior to releasing an album. In 1989 they released their only album, Dum Dum on the record label Rough Trade. Following the closing of the record label 53rd and 3rd, which they had originally signed to, the band broke up in 1990. However, they reunited for a short time a year later to open for Nirvana when they played in Edinburgh.

Though they were not widely known when the band existed, covers of their songs by Nirvana and Kurt Cobain's tendency to mention them as an influence brought exposure to the band. With their songs "Son of a Gun" and "Molly's Lips" covered on Nirvana's album Incesticide and "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" covered as "Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam" on MTV Unplugged in New York, the band gained a new audience from people who wanted to discover the bands that influenced Cobain (a similar situation happened to the band The Meat Puppets). Due to this new exposure, in 1992 Sub Pop released The Way of the Vaselines: A Complete History, a compilation that contained The Vaselines' entire body of work on one album.

No longer together, members of the band moved on to new bands. Eugene Kelly went on to found the band Captain America (later renamed Eugenius) and Frances McKee founded the band Suckle. Eugene Kelly currently performs solo. (Via)

Well there is not much to add to that apart from the Sub Pop compilation was re-issued by Avalanche Records with the title "All The Stuff and More" in 1995. Oh and "Son Of A Gun" is one of the greatest records ever made.

The Vaselines - Son Of a Gun
The Vaselines - Jesus Don't Want me For A Sunbeam
Nirvana - Son Of A Gun (Real Audio)

Buy:

The Vaselines - Way Of The Vaselines
The Vaselines - All The Stuff And More

Christmas rapidly approaching, I'm busy getting into some christmas mood with a little help from some musicians. First up are indeed very little musicians, the apparently 5 and 8 years old Shisho who, with the aid of the mysterious "Professor PeuShu", have released an online single called "Get Behind me Santa". The title song is wonderful, but even better is their cover version of The Dead Milkmen's "Punk Rock Girl", though it's not a christmas song. With influences like The Dead Milkmen I'm sure they'll grow up to make lots more great music in the future. Thanks to Mira El Péndulo for pointing them out to me.

Shisho - Get Behind me Santa
Shisho - Punk Rock Girl

Total Gaylord Records released a compilation of indiepop christmas songs before last christmas entitled "Cwistmas Twee". It featurese many fine bands with original songs including Colin Clary, The Icicles, Shumai, The Specific Heats, Snoozer, The Diskettes and Lil' Hospital. I've never heard Lil' Hospital before but they've got one of my favorite tracks on this CD, entitled "Dear Scrooge" and sounding like a cross between Jesus and Mary Chain and Beat Happening. It also has one of my favorite songs ever; The Icicles' "Snowman Song" so I totally recommend spending money on this CD.

The Icicles - Snowman Song
Snoozer - Sub-Zero
Lil' Hospital - Dear Scrooge
Shumai - California Christmas
Colin Clary - Meow Meow

And last but not least my own band Dýrðin haphazardly ventured into the realm of christmas songs. It's called "Jólavaktin", which can be tranlated as "The Christmas Nightshift". I'm not sure if this is tradition outside Iceland, but here the kids put one of their shoes in their bedroom window each night for 12 nights before christmas, and when they're asleep the parents sneak in and put something nice in the shoe, and pretend it's a gift from Santa Claus. This tradition ultimately ends in tragedy as each kid grows up and figures that Santa can't possibly haul around all this stuff and sneak in through every kid's bedroom window in the world in one night, but until then it's a happy tradition, unless the kids are naughty in which case they'll find a potato in their shoe the next morning. Anyhow, this song is about a little girl who decides not to sleep one night, and catch Santa in the act. This plan then fails miserably as she falls asleep but she stubbornly tries to do this night after night. Spot the Icicles influence if you can.

Dýrðin - The Christmas Nightshift

Merry christmas everybody!

Visiting the Labrador site today I noticed that they have made a digital single from South Ambulance available as a free download. The label states:

Inspired by hot wine punch South Ambulance decided to give everybody an exclusive song for Christmas. They call it "Hanging in a tie". As far as we can tell it's not about Reindeers, Santa Claus or even Jesus. So what is it? It's a lovely 3 min pop song crammed with noise, sweet popmelodies, distorted drums and wall of jangly guitars.

South Ambulance - Hanging In A Tie

If you fancy downloading as a wav file vist the site.

There are a number of Swedish CDR labels I raid on a regular basis as and when funds allow.

Music Is My Girlfriend is one such label and their last release before Christmas is from Peace In Our Time titled A Way To Pass The Time. It features nine tracks and two have been made available on the website.

Apart from the artist description which is "A one-man musical project that plays wonderful popmusic with his acoustic guitar and drummachine" I cannot find out anything else about the man! So enjoy the tunes until I can find some more info.

Peace In Our Time - Everyone Or Anyone
Peace In Our Time - We Never Cared To take The Time

A label I have featured on more than one occassion is Songs I Wish I had Written. They now have formed their own label and the last two releases were from Finland's Regina and the fellow Swedes Unarmed Enemies.

Regina - Katso Maisemaa
Unarmed Enemies - Missing Out

Next up is Bedroom which is an ideal name for a CDR label seeing as Kitchen was already taken by a UK label sometime ago! And joining in the spirit of Christmas the label have released a remix of South America from Nicolas Malberge (which is a duo and not just one person!).

Nicolas Makelberge - South America (Mr.Suitcase remix)
Nicolas Makelberge - South America (original)

I will do a podcast in the near future rounding up the best of these labels plus I will write about a couple more. If there are any you think merit a mention then let me know.

This is an interesting one. The Doublestops not only claim to be inspired by the likes of The Beatles, Joy Division and the Mission of Burma but also claim to be influenced by Johann Sebastian Bach. This may explain the extensive use of the violin but to be honest it gives them some originality rather than the wanna be Libertines and Dexys Midnight Runners clones who seem to be two a penny these days.

Take A Picture sounds like it is Apples In Stereo going up against the Penguin Cafe Orchestra whilst I Get So Confused is a more laid back affair with some fine vocals.

The Doublestops are not going to change the world and they may want to give the violin a miss at some stage but they are an interesting distraction none the less.

The Doublestops - Take A Picture
The Doublestops - I get So Confused

The band do not have a website at present but visit their My Space page to stream all their tracks and download an additional two songs.

As you may have gathered by now the blog has moved address to the indie-mp3 domain name. At first the blog was an addition to my main site but in the past year has far outgrown this site, receiving many more visitors which left me neglecting it. Coupled with other commitments I have decided to end the indie-mp3 site and use the blog for it's features such as track of the week which will be returning in the new year.

And as for the Flatmates Audio Archives, Bubblegum Splash, Subway and Egg Records they will all be back in one format or another alongside the RSS and podcast feeds I have developed for the blog.

I will keep the forum and the yahoo group going for the time being (thanks Tom - that's another one - for keeping it going) but will have to see if there are demands for them to continue as they are both quiet these days.

Enjoy the blog and I am sure myself, Trev and Magnusk will be bringing you the best in indie, jangle pop, twee etc for a while to come yet.

A seasonal theme for the latest indie-mp3 podcast:

The Long Blondes - Christmas Is Cancelled
Bobby Baby - Santa Claus Is Coming To Town
Ormondroyd - Stop The Cavalry
The Help Me Please - Here The Bells Ring
El Perro Del Mar - Oh! What A Christmas
Unarmed Enemies - I Saw Mommy Kiss Santa Claus
The Pipettes - White Christmas
The Vichy Government - Christmas Is Cancelled
And What Will be Left Of Them - Have Yourself A Filthy Little Christmas

Subscribe to the podcast feed here or download directly from here (23.3mb)

Celestial have made some of the best music I have heard towards the end of 2005 and I was more than pleased when the two demo EP's from band member Andreas Hagman popped through my letterbox yesterday! And the songs sound even better on CD than they did from the ones I streamed/downloaded from the bands My Space page.

And guess what? You can download the second of these EP's in all it's glory from Lost Music Recordings who have previously given us The Crack Babies and TRIP and whose EP's are still available on the site.

I previously described Celestial's work as “‘Dream On’ is a lovely little tune that reminds me of some of the early releases on Creation Records (except for “Upside Down of course”) and other early 1980’s jangle pop. It’s that good....."

Head here to download the EP which is in high quality mp3 and comes complete with artwork. If you want a buy/or exchange a copy of the EP, which is limited to 200 copies e-mail the band and ask!

This years Popfest in Northampton MA, gathered together many fine bands, but one in particular totally blew the socks off me and my friends there, namely Asobi Seksu from New York. Considerably louder than the other indiepop/tweepop bands there, I'm afraid they actually blew a few of the audience away too, quite literally. Their music ranges from innocently poppy to toweringly loud as walls of distorted guitars suddenly hammer at your eardrums, very pleasantly I might add. They've just finished recording a new album due out in spring, and have gotten some very favorable reviews for their self titled debut album. Likened to Stereolab, Jesus and Mary Chain, Sonic Youth and mostly to My Bloody Valentine they do have their own sound and the energy of a hurricane.

Check out the following songs, and indeed you will spot the MBV influence without even listening to the song "Sooner".

Asobi Seksu - I'm happy but you don't like me
Asobi Seksu - Sooner
Asobi Seksu - Walk on the moon

You'll find more songs on their website, including their thundering cover of Ramones' "Merry christmas, I don't want to fight tonight", and you can also visit them on Mysapce.

I recently ran across an interesting site for music lovers, where people can submit their own mixtapes for others to enjoy. It's in Icelandic so far, so you may have a spot of a problem reading it but the music speaks for itself, and here's a rough translation of the webmaster's introduction to the site:


I too had a good time some 10-15 years ago making tapes like these, and I'm sure many of you did or still do. If you feel so inclined you should feel free to make a mixtape of your own to submit, and write a few lines about each song as it makes the experience of listening to them even more interesting for others. There's some punk, some pop and some indie and all the songs share the fact that they at some point or another inspired the maker of the mixtape in some profound way.

http://www.mixteip.net/

50 Foot Wave, which is Kristin Hersch's latest band, are giving away a free digital EP from their site. Titled Free Music it contains five tracks and can be downloaded in both mp3 and the lossless FLAC format.

The band state "With "Free Music" 50FootWave is seeking new earballs. We thought it'd be interesting to ask for your energy & enthusiasm rather than your money and see what happens. To that end, please share this music in any and every way you see fit. Burn CDs, post the mp3s, seed Torrents -- whatever's comfortable for you. It's an experiment. Who knows how it will go? Wheee!"

Download from here.

For a while now The Snow Fairies' album "Get Married" has been looping on the CD player in my car, and each time catching on a bit more. Someone once said that if you can't say what you want in a 3 minute song then don't bother to say it. The Snow Fairies take this expression to the limits and squeeze 12 songs into a 26 minutes CD, crammed with fun and catchy hooks. But don't take my word for it, try out the following songs and visit their web site where more songs are waiting to be downloaded, and some pictures are waiting to be fixed.

The Snow Fairies - The life of a total square
The Snow Fairies - The place where I like to read

Belle & Sebastian and The Envelopes have both made digital singles available as a free download although you need to give your e-mail address to get your hands on The Envelopes offering.

Belle & Sebastian - Another Sunny Day
The Envelopes - Pink Christmas

Brille Records are presently the home of The Envelopes, The Bridge Gang, The Good Shoes and Whirlwind Heat.

If you head over to their My Space page you can currently listen to a new track by The Envelopes titled Pink Christmas and Neutrino which is the forthcoming b-side to the Bridge Gangs debut single.

Plenty of stuff to mention today!


Filthy Little Angels have put out a free mp3 download album of 24 tracks from the likes of The Bridge Gang, Schla La las, The Vichy Government, Captain Polaroid and many more.

Schla La Las - Up For It
The Vichy Government - Christmas Is Cancelled


Download the rest of the album from here. You can also buy the album from the site if you want.

Talking of Christmas the Sheffield Phonographic Corporation have a series of free Christmas mp3 downloads availble from the likes of The Long Blondes, Pete Green and Velodrome 2000 amongst others. However my favourite is Ormondroyd's cover of Jona Lewie's Stop The Cavalry.

Ormondroyd - Stop The Cavalry
The Long Blondes - Christmas Is Cancelled

Download all the other tracks at the SPC website.

The John Merrick Experience are a French band playing a brand of electronica inspired indie pop. They have no website or even downloads as yet but you can stream two of their songs at My Space.

Also on My Space are the Indonesian indie-pop band Pure Saturday who released their third album Elora in 2005. I really like the track Desire from their first release which is very poppy in a Beatlesque way and I will have to make my way through the other tracks on offer including those from Elora.

Pure Saturday - Desire
Pure Saturday - Desire (Acoustic Version)

Download more songs from their site or stream them via My Space.

Letting Up Despite Great Faults have a beautiful sound mixing both digital and analog implements which remind me of Hefner and Seefeel. They also have some great song titles too.

Letting Up Despite Great Faults - I Hear You Drowning But I'm Tied
Letting Up Despite Great Faults - Disasters Are Okay

I saw Surburban Kids With Biblical Names play in Brixton last Thursday at the How Does It Feel To be Loved Presents night. I haven't been to the Brixton Windmill in years so it was a bit nostalgic going back!

There should be a review on Sounds XP shortly but suffice to say SKWBN were most excellent (I didn't know there were six of them) and of course they played Rent A Wreck which gives me another chance to link to it! I will post the link to the review as soon as it is published.

Surburban Kids With Biblical Names - Rent A Wreck
Surburban Kids With Biblical Names - Loop Duplicate My Heart
Surburban Kids With Biblical Names - Funeral Face

For a bit of fun I have decided to run a poll to find out what the favourite sounds are for 2005 for this blogs visitors. The Categories are:

Best Single
Best Album
Best Live Act
Best Band
Best Music Site
Best Music Download Service

Enter up to 5 nominations in each and in order of preference. Please send them to the indie-mp3 blog e-mail address and I will collate them and post them after Christmas. Last date for receipt will be December 28th 2005 and I will post them after that date.

I have been listening to the new EP by Mutt Ramon over the past couple of weeks and it is a bit of a grower especially the track "The Dog Song". I have wrote a review of the single for Sounds XP and you can find it here.

There are previews of the tracks available on the Mutt Ramon site's music page.

I have updated the indie-mp3 podcast with the second part of the 2005 round-up. The tracklisting is:

The Envelopes - Audrey In The Country
The Bridge Gang - The Gallery
Lucky Soul - Brittle Heart
The Lucksmiths - The Chapter In Your Life Entitled San Francisco
The Lovekevins - Soviet.se
The Maths & Physics Club - Movie Ending Romance

You can subscribe to the podcast feed here.

Henrik Rydéhn who was behind The Crack Babies and has his own blog here has launched his latest project. The band is called TRIP and the demo is self titled. I have not listened to it all yet but first impressions are promising. You can download the whole demo from Lost Music Recordings (pick up the Crack Babies EP while you are there as well) or stream them via TRIP's My Space page.

Last year a University Student got in touch with me wanting help on an essay he was writing regarding C86. I was only to keen to help out as were many others as you can see in the essay itself. Chris who wrote the essay asked for it to be posted on indie-mp3 and I was happy to oblige. I was waiting until I redesigned indie-mp3 before posting it but after a piece on Take Your Medicine I thought it would be a good idea to do it now. Here is what Chris says:

Hi all,

I wrote this essay after having studied musicology for a year at the University of Lund in Sweden. Having had to conform to academic standards has restricted my language a bit - I couldn't write as if I was doing a fanzine - but I hope you'll find it interesting enough anyway! And if you do take the trouble to read through all of these twenty or something pages, please write to me and tell me what think about it! My address is kristerbladh@linuxmail.org. Tell your friends about it, or anyone who might be interested. I wrote this essay because it's something that needs to be written about...

cheers
Chris

C86 Essay - pdf file (1mb)(Right Click and Save)

I am no longer providing the Sounds XP Podcast from this blog. You can still subscribe to them here and they will feature different tracks to the ones appearing on this blog's podcast.

Saying that the first features some tracks that have previously on the Sounds XP one but supplement The List 2005 post.

Out of interest what do people think about people speaking on Podcasts introducing songs or adding extra informations about a band or release. I haven't got the best recording voice in the world but am considering adding my nasal tones to the casts in feature. Let me know via the comments.

Anyway back to the podcast which you can subscribe to here or via the podcast button on the menu. The track list is:

Audrey: Box, And Fights
Sambassadeur: New Moon
Santa Dog: Chemical
Decoration: Escape Routine
Persil: Happy
Wan Light: That Grim Reality
The Charade: Monday Morning

By the way both the Wan Light and The Charade albums are on e-music. You can download both for free if you are not an existing subscriber as part of their free 50 mp3 trial.

It's the beginning of December and that can mean only one thing. It's list time! Rather than compiling my favourite albums, singles, gigs etc I thought I would just do one list encompassing all that I enjoyed in 2005. It’s a thankless task and I am sure there is plenty I have missed out due to my unwillingness to go through all that I have covered, bought, borrowed and stole in 2005.

And unlike the NME list this has not been fixed! Allegedly…..

1) The Bridge Gang - Best band of the year for scintillating live sets and the best demo of 2005. If there is any justice in the world this lot are going to be big in 2006. The debut single will be released on Brille Records early in 2006 titled “Pangs Of Guilt/Neutrino”

2) The Envelopes - "Demon" has to be my favourite album of 2005. It rolls in at just over 33 minutes which is the ideal time for any album. The singles were great and they were bloody good live. They even gave Clor a chance to sound good when they remixed “Sister in Love”.

3) Wan Light - "That Grim Reality". Single of the year for me! Band also named after an Orange Juice song.

4) Decoration. It's 1986 and it's Reception Records. Only it's not but Leeds’ Decoration harks back to that wonderful era. Two cracking singles followed by an album. It's not all bad you know.

5) The Crack Babies - First decent thing that hit 2005. Their Psychocandy inspired “Smoking at Gas Stations” EP was pure class. You can download the whole EP from here as well as an EP from the fella behind the band.

6) Take Your Medicine Blog. It keeps me in touch with what the kids are listening too. Well written too.

7) Santa Dog – Lovely band, lovely CD’s and a lovely website. Did I say they were lovely?

8) My DJ debut at the age of, ahem, 38 at The Penelope Tree. And people danced & listened too. Bargain.

9) Stereo Test Kit Records – UK label reissuing Labrador releases in the UK and giving us number 16 on this list.

10) e-music – You know all that American indie which recently arrived in Rough Trade? It has been on e-music for months.

11) Songs I Wish I Had Written. Not only a great mail order shop for Swedish CDR’s but they also now have their own label which has given us The Lovekevins and Le Sport.

12) The Wedding Present. Okay I know it is Cinerama really but heading down the front to “Once More” took me back a few years I can tell you.

13) The Charade – “The Best Is Yet To Come” Second best album of the year from these Swedish popsters via America’s Skipping Stones label.

14) Labrador Records starting accepting Pay pal.  Bastards! Don’t you know what you have done to my bank account?

15) The Pipettes – and I got both the rare 7”s. Makes 2005 a good year indeed for that alone.

16) Audrey – “Box, and Fights” from the self titled EP says it all as does the lovely wallpaper on their site. New album due in 2006 I think.

17) The Besties – When are you going to release that damn LP! (Edit: Valentines Day 2006)  I cannot keep listening to The Pirate Song. Actually I lied. Of course I can.

18) Sounds XP – Okay I contribute for them but things got bigger and better in 2005 culminating in putting on The Bridge Gang, The Schla La las and Wintergreen. And the mugs let me run the radio station and DJ again. Watch out for more in 2006 including the label (fingers crossed). And maybe a badge….

19) The Fire Engines at the ICA – 29 minutes of magic despite no “Candyskin” due to the lack of violins. It made us old folk very happy indeed. The compilation on Domino was a bit of a let down though. They should have re-issued “Fond” instead.

20) Persil – “Happy”. Very close contender for my single of the year. From the Tune-Up EP. And they have a cover of “Kennedy” on their site too!

Bubbling under: Celestial, Lucky Soul, “Alligator” by The National, “Glasgow School” Orange Juice Compilation, “Clockwork Mice” by Wintergreen, Sambassadeur and too many more to mention.

And a big thanks to Lost Music & Magnusk – My two co-contributors on this blog. Where would I be without them? Probably not spending so much on the bands they recommend the swines! Of course I am indebted to Tom Miles for his excellent moderating of the indie-mp3 Yahoo Group.