Top 20 Albums of 2011

So here it is. The shortlist of my top 20 albums of 2011. The set of albums that just missed out are also awesome, but I genuinely love listening to every one of these. Good to see a British band at Number 1, as well, although it genuinely just worked out that way.

1. Male Bonding - Endless Now
2. Givers - In Light
3. The Dodos - No Color
4. Apex Manor - The Year Of Magical Drinking
5. White Denim - D
6. Baxter Dury - Happy Soup
7. Chapel Club - Palace
8. Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks - Mirror Traffic
9. Vetiver - The Errant Charm
10. Josh T. Pearson - Last Of The Country Gentlemen
11. Nathaniel Rateliff - In Memory Of Loss
12. Cults - Cults
13. The Vaccines - What Did You Expect From The Vaccines
14. St. Vincent - Strange Mercy
15. PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
16. Slow Club - Paradise
17. Radiohead - The King Of Limbs
18. Gold Leaves - The Ornament
19. Braids - Native Speaker
20. The Horrors - Skying

Traffic Cop Enjoying his work

This is a Filipino Traffic Cop enjoying his work like a champ. I have no idea how he manages to avoid accidents, it all looks like random traffic control to me.


Thanks to Boing Boing

A New Testcard?

Recently Kate and Wills went to Canada and North America as a married couple. This photo was on the BBC website, covering the story of how they visited Skid Row, a particularly deprived area of Los Angeles, and worked with the children on arts projects.

This picture reminds me of the old BBC testcard from years ago; this is from a time when TV was not 24 hours. There were only 3 channels, and every night the BBC would finish around midnight to the tune of God Save The Queen (you couldn't make it up). At that point all you could see would be the white dot, something parodied in the Young Ones, when alternative comedy was emerging phoenix-like from the ashes of sexist & racist comedians of the working-mens' club circuits in the UK.

Thanks to the BBC

"It takes a long time to get up north, the slow way"

I feel compelled to tell you all about a great new Indie radio show that's been launched by a friend of mine, Marc Cooling. Based in Yorkshire, the show goes out on Friday nights between 11 and 12 at night on Phoenix FM. If you're out and about at that time, fear not, you can catch the previous shows on Marc's podcast page.

There's a really eclectic mix of music, from upbeat tunes (Caribou, Everything Everything) to more thoughtful stuff (Jesca Hoop, Villagers, Daniel Johnston), with even a little vintage thrown in (Ian Dury, Kinks, Syd Barrett). So go check it out.

If you listen to the podcasts that are already there, you'll hear the quote listed above in one of the songs. Can you spot it?

Back to the future

I love this photo project. it is the brainchild of Irina Werning, who takes old photos, and recreates them with the subjects as they are now.

She describes it thus:
"I love old photos. I admit being a nosey photographer. As soon as I step into someone else’s house, I start sniffing for them. Most of us are fascinated by their retro look but to me, it’s imagining how people would feel and look like if they were to reenact them today... A few months ago, I decided to actually do this. So, with my camera, I started inviting people to go back to their future".

You can tell it was a labour of love because of the sheer attention to detail in the shots. She has picked exactly the same locations and matched the exact clothing too. The picture above is of "Oscar" shot in both 1978 & 2010. She's even managed to recreate the pink colour caste in the aging original.

She adds:
"by the way, this project made me realise Im a bit obsessive..."

Lewis Floyd Henry

Just read a review for this man's new Album, called One Man and His 30W Pram, so called because he busks with his sound-gear in a pram, sat on a little stool, operating a drum kit with his feet, and playing the most amazing guitar.

Think Jimi Hendrix crossed with Delta blues and the White Stripes. There is a video on YouTube of him sounding exaclty like Jimi. The best thing about the video though, which is shot in Brick Lane, is that a man dressed as a cigarette is dancing next to him. Bizarre and hilarious.

Love Is Blind

This video on YouTube has had quite a lot of hits already in its first month.

It depicts a couple getting frisky in the photocopy room, when a colleague walks in. The boss talks to the colleague, who is blind, and when the man leaves, the couple carry on.

It is an advert from the Norwegian Association of the Blind, who are trying to sell the positives of Blind people in a quirky, funny way. I won't spoil the end caption, but it doesn't sit completely comfortably with me, even if the ad is quite amusing.

End of an Era

The pub that appeared in the 1987 movie Withnail & I was destroyed this week to make way for a block of flats. The pub features in the scene where the lads go to the local boozer to get drunk, and end up leaving because an intolerant Irishman accuses them of being perfumed ponces.

The scene contains a really funny cowardly line where, when threatened at the bar, Withnail says: "I have a heart condition. I have a heart condition, if you hit me it's murder".

The pub in the movie is the Tavistock Arms in Westbourne Grove - apparently its last incarnation was a gastro pub, although I had a cloudy pint of real ale in there on one Sunday following a Notting Hill arnival many many years ago.

Neverthless, it was iconic, and it's always a bit sad when a landmark gets taken down, especially a pub.

"I need more wine!"

Top 20 Albums of 2010

My top 20 albums of last year are listed below. Although they are not in any particular order, the top one is my favourite album of the year, the one shown left, by the Besnard Lakes. A stunningly beautiful album, and performed live was one of my favourite albums of the year. The list in full then:

• Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Nights
• Avi Buffalo - Avi Buffalo
• John Grant - Queen of Denmark
• Superchunk - Majesty Shredding
• Dinosaur Pile-up - Growing Pains
• Two Door Cinema Club - Tourist History
• Darwin Deez - Darwin Deez
• Deerhunter - Halcyon Digest
• Villagers - Becoming a Jackal
• Weezer - Hurley
• Laura Marling - I Speak Because I Can
• Band of Horses - Infinite Arms
• Foals - Total Life Forever
• The National - High Violet
• Drive-by Truckers - The Big To-do
• Arcade Fire - The Suburbs
• Everything Everything - Man Alive
• Tallest Man on Earth - The Wild Hunt
• Yeasayer - Odd Blood
• Maximum Balloon - Maximum Balloon