REFLECTIONS ON THE AV REFERNDUM AND MY SUDDEN PANG OF SYMPATHY FOR THE LIB DEMS!

I’m currently watching the election results on TV. The Lib Dems are getting a thrashing, it seems that they are being systematically wiped from every council up and down the land. There are Liberal Democrat MPs are sitting across from David Dimbleby looking glum. Is this a good thing? Well, we all know the arguments for hating the Lib Dems, they have let a generation of voters down, well the members of the government have and the MPs in Parliament have. So should the councillors, who, I’ve heard are generally quite nice, do good work and still try to implement traditional Lib Dem polices get punished? What I’m saying is, that I’m all for giving the Lib Dems a kicking, but this is a massive kicking which will harm the Lib Dems, but not, directly at least, the Lib Dems in parliament. Tonight’s results show that people blame the Lib Dems for the appalling decisions which are currently being made in government, but the party who should really be blamed, the party who are really behind these savage cuts are the Tories. The Lib Dems, should have asserted their authority in the coalition early on, dug their heels in instead of being swept away by the Conservatives and the novelty of being in power, at the very least they should have showed that they were fighting to get their views across instead of bending over and taking the metaphorical cock of the Conservatives up their collective, metaphorical arse.

If they lose the referendum and the chance for electoral reform (which I think is almost certain, unless God himself comes out in favour of AV and overturns the result) they will have nothing to show for their time in government except the fact that most people in the country hate them. But what can they do? They are trapped in a loveless, abusive marriage. If they get out now, take a stand and leave the coalition, it wouldn’t matter, the damage has already been done. The Conservatives would probably call an election, they have far more money than Labour or Lib Dems, so would get back into power with a comfortable majority, because any anger at the government seems to be being directed at the Lib Dems, and David Cameron and co would have a free hand at ruining the country.

I’m not going to vote Lib Dem at the next election, but then again I don’t want the Liberal Democrats to be kicked so hard by the voters that they fall into the annals of history. Because at their heart they are a great party. They preach things that I agree with (or at least they used to, and I know they still want to, they are uncomfortable when defending decisions they’ve made in government.) They stood up for Liberal values when they needed to be stood up for, we need a strong Liberal voice in this country. However, in the next election they need to ditch Clegg, he’s toxic waste, he is the political equivalent to leprosy, everything he touches turns to shit. Including the AV referendum.

Although I want to remain optimistic, it looks like the British public has shown its stupidity again, only a week after getting completely distracted by gawping at bright colours and shiny things in the guise of the Royal Wedding . They again managed to look like fools by turning down a chance to finally change our rotten electoral system which is ancient and has given us minority governments for years. Now I’m not going to go in the arguments again, it’s too late, and I’ve been doing it for months. But you didn’t listen, did you?

Both campaigns were poor, the YES! Campaign was well intentioned, but was executed wrong. Focusing too much on MP’s expenses rather than explaining the benefits of AV, they had lots of celebrity endorsement from people whom the public trusted, they should have played up to that, because that’s what people want nowadays, shit to be explained to them by famous people. They put on some good events but it felt like they didn’t reach the people they should have, preaching to the converted and all that. Also we must admire that they managed to keep their heads held high whilst facing an barrage of abuse, smears, personal attacks and downright lies from the, much more well-funded NO! campaign, they should have really torn them apart, threatened legal action, complained to the electoral commission etc.

The NO2AV campaign should be ashamed of themselves for the way they behaved, and this isn’t sour grapes, I said it throughout the campaign, they openly lied (David Blunkett admitted it http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/the-staggers/2011/05/campaign-figure-blunkett) and used dirty, underhand tactics. But they won’t be ashamed, because the people who block change are heartless evil shits.

So yeah, thanks ‘the public’, thanks, I am someone who is passionate about politics, I am always absorbed by politics, especially during elections. I have no allegiance to one political party, so I always make an informed judgement. But now each election I’ll vote in I will not have any effect on the result, local or national, my vote will be wasted, my voice won’t be heard. This was the one chance to change things and you blew it, I hope you’re proud Britain…you twats.

We lost the vote, but we didn’t lose the argument. Every one of the NO! campaigns arguments I could shoot down, they had no good arguments, but they did have money, so could reach people the YES! Campaign couldn’t and if I could I would have gone to every door and just explained to people the benefits, but alas I can’t and I didn’t. I, like many other people, will continue to campaign for electoral reform, we do need it despite what old people, the uninformed and the brainwashed think.

I think I’ll end this comment with a quote from a man I rang up whilst campaigning for the YES! Vote. He said “I want STV, we won’t win, it’s probably rigged, I’ll go out and vote but there’s no point, this country is run by arseholes. If there’s a ‘NO’ vote I’ll leave this country, because this country is a shit hole.” Well, sir I wish I could join you, and I tend to agree with you. STV would be great, this country is a shithole and is ran by arseholes and now we won’t get a chance to change that. We could have been run by arseholes who were elected more fairly, but instead we are still ruled by arseholes elected on a minority vote.

Touch My Chin, Anthony Eden Commentry

Hi, so The Atomic Penguins have just finished their third album! And we’re joining the likes of Harvey Danger, Mikrofisch and The Crimea by giving it away for free over the internet, mainly because most of you refuse to pay for our music and we’re anti-capitalist, so it made sense. So I thought that I (Nathan) will give a commentary of all the songs, just to you know, flatter my ego and give you some sort of insight into the songs, if you feel you needed some...




DOWNLOAD IT HERE


Firstly the title of the album, ‘Touch My Chin, Anthony Eden’ was first conceived of as a bit of nonsense in mine and Ed’s English class, and was originally going to be a line in a song often talked about, but never recorded, ‘One Penny’. We still liked the stupidity and surrealism of the phrase. But looking at it now, it has more meaning, than we first assumed. Anthony Eden waited for years before becoming Prime Minister, and when he finally did many thought he was too old and past it. Much like us, in a way, as we have been waiting for years to be offered gigs, sound OK, and gain a small following, its lost potential and all that, he had the Suez crisis; we had to turn down a gig from Beercart...

Right now to the songs...

The Sell-out Manifesto.
The Atomic Penguins have always been conscious of selling out, so we thought we better compile a list to check back to so we could make sure we never sell out in the future. If anyone criticizes us and says “you’re not in tune” or “you’re not in time” or “you can’t sing” we say “if we could do all those things, we’d be selling out.” Bulletproof response.





Virginity and the Cathedral City
The title was thought up by me, Ed and Luke while sat in Wetherspoons watching in horror as David Laws resigned from the coalition government. As the dream of making a movie with that title faded away, we thought it would be a good title to this song, our love letter to Canterbury and its fine drinking establishments, where we all hold many memories, some good, some not so good, but all alcohol fuelled.




Bullshit of A Preacher man
We needed this to vary the song topics, plus I liked the name. We also wanted to do a song with drums, bass and guitar. Just because we had all of said instruments within our grasp, in the end this was rushed and we’d never actually rehearsed it with words and music together, which explains the lack of coherence between the two, but nevertheless, it, does not sound as bad as I imagine it would. Plus finally we have had the courage to come out and say what we think about religion, a subject we have strong views on but have never expressed them in a song, until now.

I Hate All Bands!
This goes down an absolute storm live, with the crowd singing along and people seem to remember it, I wish we’d written it sooner to be honest. As a band, we’ve always liked songs done by smaller bands who then call the really big successful bands shit, because I love the idea of little people shouting about big people but never making a difference. We were also annoyed by constantly going to local gigs to see local bands, who just sounded like every band who have been on the radio in the last five years, we felt there was no creativity, no passion and nothing unique, just very boring, bland, generic sounding bands, who were getting more gigs than us. All this is simply summed up in the phrase “I Hate All Bands (Apart From the Ones I Like)




Hyperbole in Love Songs
This is made up of lines from various different song ideas, but I really liked the idea of offering girls exaggerated language in love songs, I thought it was sweet, and after all, that’s all love songs are, people promising things they’d never do to people who are not as beautiful as the song suggests. But looking at the final product, I feel the song is more about how no man is perfect, we all secretly have an animalistic side to us, but hoping girls will forgive them if they received hyperbole in a love song they’ve written. (I say “them” I mean me, really)

Lo-Fi Lady
I had the idea for this song, when I realised that all the women on lo-fi records sounded very attractive, and their voices I found sexy (the woman who used to sing on early Mountain Goats records, Kimya Dawson and the like) may be a bit weird, but the chorus of the song was “lo-fi lady” sung to the tune of “sex farm woman” by Spinal Tap. Ed seemed to laugh at that but neither of us could be bothered to write the whole song, so we went back to our roots and sang it accapella and laughed childishly over a wank joke.

Difficult Acceptance
We messed up at the start of this song so we are a bit out of time, and the keyboard is probably a bit too loud and overpowering, but we have never been perfectionists so I guess it’s alright. I don’t like the title of this song, but it was originally going to be part of some sort of musical trilogy about the three stages of accepting a girl going with someone other than you, the three stages in my mind were Anger, Romanticism then finally Acceptance, I’m yet to think of a better title, although I’ve dropped the brackets around “acceptance.”

18
This is a song left over from the time when we were seriously considering becoming a serious political band (well trying to anyway, we were listening to a lot of Crass, and becoming very angry about society) this song made the cut when the song ‘Pah, Bloody Capitalism’ didn’t. This is split into sections, along the lines of Green Day’s Jesus of Suburbia, but at 4 minutes are attempt is not so grand, but such a style of song is pulled off in our own unique style. It is basically about the saying “if you’re not liberal when you are young, you have no heart, if you are not conservative when you are old, you have no brain.” Also denouncing Nick Griffin and the BNP via a Kinks parody.


Kiss Me Quick (Before You Realise I’m Doing It Wrong)
A song about paranoia, plain and simple, a girl once told me that I didn’t kiss properly which sent me into great fits of it. The song later turned into a take off of a R’n’B record, (hence the “bitch” reference, I would never call a girl that in real life) we thought it would be funny if a R’n’B record was produced which sang about such paranoia’s, especially since most of it seems to be awful men bragging about how good they are at sex. And by the way, I’ve kissed girls since and had no complaints, so I’m guessing I’m alright at it, ladies *raises eyebrows*

Single Man’s Pit
I’d been playing around with the lyrics to this for ages, adding verses, taking verses out. It’s a whiney break up song, but one that I think we pull off well, Ed wrote a really sweet riff, and I’m very happy with how it turned out.

Going To Germany
A song which was totally written and recorded by me, Ed had no part in it. I really did write the lyrics when pissed and recorded it when hung-over. The lyrics are fairly self explanatory I think, eagled eared fans will notice it is incredibly similar in subject to Ramblings (Part 2) (Nathan likes girl, Sees girl with another boy, Get’s very drunk, hates boy, makes a tit of himself, makes girl feel very uncomfortable.) Rest assured, as long as I keep making a tit of myself in front of girls, I shall write songs about it, I’ve done it so many times, it’s all part of the therapy which follow such events. The night it happened I came home and listened to two songs over and over and over and over again: the beautiful “Now You Are Pregnant” by The Wave Pictures, and “Half Moon Street” By TAP TAP, look up those songs, and get some of the references in the song. As for the music in this song, I didn’t know how long it was going to go on, so my drumming occasionally wanders off with random, not very good fills, but I like that, it’s messy and conveys the messiness of the night in question. The title is referring to the “Going To...” series by John Darnielle, although this song is no way as good as anything he has written.

The Best Ever Anti Electro Folk Musical Comedy Duo Out Of Whitstable
This has been floating around the sphere of The Atomic Penguins for a while now, and we decided it would be the last song we ever performed live. For those of you who don’t know, it’s going back to our parodying roots with our ‘version’ of The Mountain Goats classic “The Best Ever Death Metal Band in Denton.” The Mountain Goats, are probably, if we had to choose, our favourite band of all time, though I think we both hesitate to cite them as an influence because we sound nothing like them, and we are probably incapable of writing a song anywhere near as good as that of John Darnielle’s, the only thing we have in common with them are the lo-fi recordings. If you are a fan of The Mountain Goats, please don’t moan at us for murdering one of their songs, we did it with love in our hearts. But after a few tweaks this song was a fitting ending to that of The Atomic Penguins, I do hope that The Best Ever Anti Electro Folk Musical Comedy Duo in Whitstable will indeed; in time, both out pace and out live you.

Herne Bay Gazette, 07 Jan 2010. Pages 8 - 9

Audio Storm Moving up in the world...You know you've made it when you are in the Herne Bay Gazzette

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Herne Bay Gazette
07 Jan 2010

10 SONGS MADE IN THE NOUGHTIES, WITH LINES THAT DEFINE THE NOUGHTIES

Harvey Danger – This Is the Thrilling Conversation You’ve Been Waiting For

“Don’t try on the suit if you can’t afford it”

Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobious Pip - Thou Shalt Always Kill (De La Soul edit)

“Thou Shalt not assume because I am a Leo I will act real proud, Thou Shalt not type “LOL” unless you’re really laughing out loud...Thou shalt not think everyone with a beard is a terrorist, thou shalt not think having a blog makes you a journalist”

The Attery Squash – Haven’t you got enough disillusionment in your life?

“ OK – conceded I never read it, Let's Wikipede it, "Citation needed", Teen actress in a bar, Stumbling into her car, What does it really take To get the sack these days?”

Jeffery Lewis - I Aint Thick, It’s Just A Trick

“They tried to get me with the TV show, But I wouldn't have none of it, no, no, no. Standards and values on the living room screen, Sarah Jessie Parker acting mean. She's got it all, that's what they want you to think, But if you read between the lines, you'll see the missing link. She's just a puppet in their indoctrination plan, "Be like me girls and become a real man," Live to the full, always act flash, Don't use your brain when your body makes a splash.”

Billy Childish and the Musicians of the British Empire – Thatcher’s Children/Joe Strummers Grave/Snack Crack (they all basically say the same thing)

“A mobile is ringing, the ice is getting thing, and terrorists might get you, the tunnels caving in, the countdown’s beginning the winner can’t win, save your own skin...everyone’s a loser.”

Tim Minchin – YouTube Lament

All my brow-dependent jokes, All my mirror balls and smoke, All my tilts at wit and whimsy,All my poetry, my swear words and my smut...Will never get as many hits as Kitten Waking Up.

The Lancashire Hotpots – This Lancashire Town

“We both held hands outside Matalan, I tucked in my vest outside the old NatWest, I dreamt of Gherkins outside Dorothy Perkins, in this Lancashire town, MY Lancashire town.”

Mikrofish – The Kids Are All Shite

“Their Shite’s all over the radio, the faces on the morning show, they’re played in every supermarket, when the sell-out hasn’t even started, each Monday there’s another clone – they all look like Johnny Ramone. Unit shifting, shabby looks, chart potential...fuck the Kooks!”

Jarvis Cocker – Running the World

“It’s the ideal way to order to the world: Fuck the morals, does it make any money? And if you don’t like it, then leave, or use your right to protest on the street, yeah use your right but don’t imagine that it’s heard...no, not while cunts are still running the world”

Harvey Danger – Diminishing Returns

“Farwell to the days, of having it both ways, the booms are bust now, but thanks for your concern.”

Audio Storms Best Albums of the Decade

Audio Storm’s
TOP 30 ALBUMS OF THE DECADE

Right, some of you may know that me and my friend Ed do a show on Radio Cabin called Audio Storm, on last week's show we counted down the 30 albums that, in our opinion, are the best of the decade just gone (the noughties.)

So just incase you weren't listening (which you almost certianly weren't) then luckily I've written them down and added my own personal thoughts on them, because I literally have nothing going on in my life, and attempted to sound all poncy like a music reviewer in the Guardian or some shit, but I mainly sound like a twat I think.

I own all these albums (apart from the ones I haven't written anything about, they are Ed's choices, although I do like what I have heard so have nothing against them) and I own the Young Knives album as well, but for some reason didn't write anything about it.

So I hope you enjoy reading it (if you choose to) and I hope you go buy all the albums because me and Ed said they are good.

I also hope you listen to Audio Storm's on Sunday nights from 7pm at www.radiocabin.co.uk

30. The Lancashire Hotpots – Never Mind the Hotpots – (2007)
Best Track – He’s Turned Emo

Although this is probably the only countdown of the best albums of the decade which will feature this particular record, we think it deserves it’s place, it does put a smile on your face, and it is thoroughly a noughties record, with many pop culture references. “Nigella, MySpace, Fall Out Boy” And an endless stream of songs about the new technology that has flourished in this decade.
It also has a nice little song about the inevitable globalisation of the country and the loss of Identity of a Lancashire town, when the singer strolls round his home town after been offered a job in Coventry, remembering all the memories he has of his Lancashire town. “they chopped down that tree to build an hmv...good” and “it’s all changed since my day, used to be a comet down there now it’s a Currys digital.” They play to a very stereotypical view of a Lanchishire resident, mentioning greyhound and whippets, there are little quips from the lead singer, which always make me smile and it is just a really fun album. Although it will by including it, this list almost certainly looses credibility.

29. Portishead – Third (2008)

28. Johann Johannsson - Fordlândia (2008)
Best Track - The Rocket Builder (Lo Pan!)

I only discovered this album lately, but I listened to it on the new medium of Spotify and fell in love with it, just beautiful haunting strings.

27. British Sea Power – Do You Like Rock Music? (2008)

26. Andrew Jackson Jihad – Issue Problems

Best Track – Brave as a noun

Not really an album, as it is just over 10 minutes long. But what a ten minutes, just brilliant from beginning to end, and most of these songs have appeared on some of his other releases, but I can not stop listening to this so that’s why it is here, 10 minutes of non stop music of lyrically intriguing, fast paced, beautifully punky anti folk. Tackling everything from murder, survival to love and the human race. Plus because now it is out of print, it is available for free on their website.

25. Howling Bells - Howling Bells (2006)


24. Decemberists – Hazards of Love (2009)
Best Song – The Rakes Song

A beautifully crafted rock opera masterpiece. An hour of uninterrupted, mystical, haunting epic story telling. And even if you don’t follow the story you can enjoy the sheer craftsmanship of it all.

If you don't then you have to hand it to them, they have written the catchiest song (The Rakes Song) about killing children.


23. David Croenburg’s Wife - Bluebeard's Room (2008)

22. Arctic Monkey’s – Whatever People Say I am, That’s What I’m Not - (2006)
Best Track – Mardy Bum

This may come as a shock to many Audio Storm fans as this is a popular band, but this will be the album that people look back on as the seminal album of the decade. It caught the public imagination and started a wave of “Indie” bands with twangy guitars and distinctive accents. Their indosyncrantic nature of writing showed that Alex Turner could produce some of the wittiest, clever most observant lyrics in modern mainstream music. “There aint no love no, just Montague’s and Capulet’s or banging tunes and dj sets.” And “so tense, never tenser could all go a bit frank Spencer and I’m talking gibberish, tip of the tongue but I can’t deliver it” and “He’s not from San Francisco he’s from hunters bar, I don’t quite know the distance, but I’m sure it’s pretty far.”
Their number one hit “I bet you look good on the dance floor” became an instant classic and the soundtrack of the MySpace generation. And will inevitably be played over montages of the noughties in future documentaries. The arctic monkeys retained some creditability by shunning the cameras and making few Television appearances, they followed up with a very impressive second album. Which showed the hype was justified, even if it was from Gordon Brown trying to get down wiv da kids!

21. Brakes – Beautific Visions (2006)

20. Sigur Ros - Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust (2008)
Best Track – All Alright

Sigur Ros ‘s latest album “With A Buzz In Our Ears We Play Endlessly” or “Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust” is brilliant beyond belief, and I think, my favourite of all the Sigur Ros albums. It has all the usual heart rendering beautiful, slow music. (I have stated in the past that Sigur Ros are the only band who has the power to make me cry!) But also on this album are more upbeat, happy tracks. My favourite of these is the second track on the album “Inní Mér Syngur Vitleysingur” It starts off with some muffled trumpets then, bursts in with some piano chords and the main riff starts, it continues, I defy anyone to listen to this track and not have a smile on their face. Sigur Ros are such talented musicians; this track shows that they don’t just use their talents for making quite sombre music. Halfway through the song breaks down and only the piano, violin and the instrument playing the main riff (sorry cant work out what it is) are audible then the drums and vocals kick back in, then the bass, then more vocals, then the strings become more noticeable, then the trumpets, then the drums get faster along with the vocals, (which also get higher). It’s building to something...I get exited, then all the instruments stop, and just the main riff instrument continues, suspended in mid air for a few seconds then...BANG! The drums kick back in along with all the other wonderful instruments, the victorious sounding trumpets capping off a truly excellent song.

This is the effect this band has on me and, I think, every other one of their fans. They have the ability to take you out of the real world, and into another. Sometimes you’re happy to be there, other times it can be upsetting, and even, at times, scary. Listening to this extraordinary band you paint your own images, meanings and subjects to the songs. As most of their songs they speak in, to quote the title of their songs, “Gobbledigook” or “hopelandic” their made up language, or just plain old Icelandic. Despite this you instantly know, or create, the meaning of the song.

When I listen to their music I get sucked in and become almost oblivious to my surroundings. For example I was listening to a song on my iPod from their new album, the song was called “Festival” and I was standing in a car park. I just shut my eyes, and was cut off from everything around me and for nine minutes or so I was in Sigur Ros’s world. Then when I opened them again, I did find it hard to re-adjust to normal life. Only a truly special band could do that to someone like me, and Sigur Ros are a VERY special band. Make no mistake about it.

19. Lightspeed Champion – Falling Off The Lavender Bridge (2007)

18. The Crimea – Secrets of The Witching Hour (2007)
Best Track – Raining Planets

The second of three albums in our countdown which are available to download for free on the internet. (Incidentally all of them done way before Radiohead had the idea) is a stunner. Secrets of the witching hour has an air the apocalyptic and bleak to about it conjuring up imagery such as “Terradactal taking on the helicopter gunship” “there’s no need to start freaking out, it’s just the end of time.” And “it’s all down hill once you learn how kids are made.” The lead singer’s strained; almost child like voice gives every song a bit more poignancy and haunting effect.
From what I believe this album has saved the band, who were repeatedly dropped from their record label, now have a steady run of gigs. And one of the songs of the album, Loop a Loop, was used in an advert for chewing gum, (Which ruined it a bit, although the advert did not feature the line in the song “throw another small child on the fire”)
A simply wonderful album, beautiful, haunting and epic, with the last line of the album “the bastard that made us all” sung by what sounds like a choir (though it’s probably vocal dubbing”) is spine tingling. A simply stunning album and it’s for free so you have no reason not to love it!

17. Kaiser Chiefs – Employment (2005)
Best Track – Saturday Night

This commercially successful album has made its way into the countdown, for sentimental reasons more than anything. This was the first album I (Nathan) brought which was recorded by a modern band, with my own money. I had just started listening to Radio 1, and this album kind of symbolised for me the start of my teenage independence in musical terms, listening to bands, buying records and moving away from what the local radio used to tell me was good, i.e. pop and stuff from the eighties. As you know now my music taste has now evolved and I tend to shy away from the more commercially successful music. But this album is still a great album, with many anthemic tracks which again were sing along hits to the noughties young at festivals.

16. The Robocop Kraus – They Think They Are the Robocop Kraus (2005)

Best Track – After Laughter

We discovered this band when they were supporting Art Brut at the Electric Ballroom in Camden, their live performance was brilliant. The lead singer sold me a T-shirt which was too small for me, I then told him how good I thought he was but didn’t have enough money to buy one of his albums.
The German indie electro band that are the Robocop Kraus, in this album created a brilliant collection of bouncy pop orientated, catchy songs with some fairly serious issues.
A friend becoming a religious fundamentalist for example in Concerned, Your Secular Friends and the song “Life Amazes us Despite our Miserable Future.”
A very enjoyable album.

15. Elbow –The Seldom Seen Kid (2008)
Best Track – Starlings

Quite rightly this album was presented with a host of awards upon its release. Such a magical body of work. Guy Garvey's, personal, beautiful, touching lyrical poetry accompanied by epic orchestral sounds.
The album produces songs about love, being in a band and the loss of a friend, with such tenderness that it is hard not to be moved by them. The anthemic power of “One Day Like This” can still make you feel incredibly happy and optimistic about the world, despite how many times it has been played over gaudy montages of weeping idiots or supposedly uplifting moments on the telly.

14. Tim Minchin – Darkside (2005)

Best Track – Ten Foot Cock and A Few Hundred Virgins

The first of three live albums from Minchin this decade, there seems to be no stopping his rise to stardom at the moment, but here is where it all started. A brilliantly crafted comedy show and the songs proved that this musical comedian was very special. As his songs were so brilliantly put together they could stand alone without out the comedy label being attached to them.
He injected the comedy song, with insightful, intelligent, philosophical, polysyllabic intellectual lyrics.
If it’s not laugh-a-line “Inflatable You” which is nothing less than a perfect comedy song, treading the line between innuendo with genuinely hilarious lyrics. Or the brilliant beat poem “Mitsubishi colt” or the superb “Rock and Roll Nerd” and the touching, thoughtful tones of “Not Perfect.”
Whether Minchin is attacking religion “Which suggests that God's omniscience
Is nullified by His ambivalence, Unless it turns out that He's impotent, And if God can't get a boner, I guess that explains the plethora Of huge erections in His honour -Because we all know a steeple's just a subconscious compensatory manifestation of a huge stiff penis” or the Israel/Palestine conflict “...why not, not eat pigs together?” He blends intellectual qualities with childish humour.
He raised the bar for musical comics and I believe that the he is the best of a generation. Always challenging always thought provoking and above all always funny. This was the show and the album where it all started for Tim.


13. Jeffrey Lewis – 12 Crass Songs (2007)
Best Track – Big A, Little A

This album is guaranteed to make anyone who listens to it, depressed, paranoid and angry. Bit don’t let that put you off. It is a stunning record. The brilliant Jeffery Lewis covers 12 songs by the anarchic punk band of the 70s, Crass, hence the name.
What Lewis does is add a certain depth to the songs that the original versions in their chaotic, unorganised (though great) recordings lacked. He presents the lyrics (some updated by Lewis) over stunning musical arrangements. The lyrics preaching about the sinister “systems” that have control over us all our lives, or the demise and commercialisation of Punk, are a still as relevant today as it they were when they were originally written.

12. The Young Knives – Superabundance (2008)
Best Track - Flies

11. Art Brut – It’s A Bit Complicated (2007)
Best Track – Nag Nag Nag Nag

Art Brut’s only album on a major label (EMI) and it is a cleaner produced, more polished sound, as opposed to the more “rough” sound of their first and third offerings, this is full to the brim with punchy pop tunes. However, this is not a bad thing; Eddie Argos’s unique voice carries the songs, and can’t help but make you smile. The lyrics are as witty and charming as any other Art Brut record “river deep and mountain high, there’s some lyrics that will never apply, because I don’t lie awake at night, dreaming of river depth or mountain height” or “all the best pop songs are girl meets boy, and there wasn’t one song that I didn’t enjoy, but I lacked confidence when I was young so things didn’t work out the way they get sung” and it is consistent as that throughout the album. For example the song “I Will Survive” is lyrically one of Art Brut’s best, I think.
The album also contains our favourite Art Brut song, ever. Nag Nag Nag Nag, which is an absolute (to risk sounding cheesy) corker of a song, and features the immortal line “I feel nothing for my peers except, envy and hatred...how many girls have they seen naked?”
This is a brilliant album not a bad song on it, from start to finish each song makes you want to jump around, sing along and smile.


10. Green Day – American Idiot (2004)
Best Track – Jesus of Suburbia

This generation’s seminal angry political album. Recorded in protest towards the Bush administration, it kick started a wave of good old fashioned political song writing, with artists complaining about mainly the war in Iraq.
This is a brilliant album and really captures the mood of many liberal, disenfranchised young people who felt alienated by the American government. The title track became an anthem for these people, but the rest of the album is equally as thrilling, all the singles were politically charged and characterised the way many Americans were feeling in the after math of September 11th.
All over the world people could relate to the band singing about paranoia, their annoyance at the government, the anger at the war and the state of the world. But take away the politics from this record and it is a brilliant piece of rock opera.
Plus the 9 minute epic, “Jesus of Suburbia” is one of the greatest rock songs ever written, I think. The lyrics and production on this song is something to behold, a masterpiece of modern music.
This album is so important because it was one of only a handful of successful, angry, politicised records and spoke for a generation and established Green Day’s place as a truly mainstream act.

9. The Mountain Goats – Tallahassee (2003)
Best Track – No Children
The Mountain Goats first non lo-fi offering tells the story of “The Alpha Couple” an alcoholic married couple who live in Florida.
The album paints a vivid picture of the couples’s lives, and their dependence on alcohol to stay together in their failing marriage. Each song is painfully realistic, particular highlights include “Game Shows Touch Our Lives” a beautifully touching song steeped in imagery and really emphasises the character’s need not just for alcohol but each other. “Oceanographer’s Choice” describes the couple giving into each other and having sex. And “No Children” is the brilliant, hateful, self loathing sing along tune.
John Darnielle's insightful lyrics and vivid depiction of his reoccurring characters are brilliantly bought to life in this album, and is a brilliant example of story telling within an album.

8. Art Brut – Art Brut vs. Satan (2009)
Best Track – Demons Out!
Art Brut’s latest offering revolves around two main themes. The bands dislike for mainstream music “...the record buying public, we hate them, this is Art Brut Vs Satan” and the sometimes disastrous effects of alcohol “I finally decided to tell you how I felt; I mistakenly thought that the drink would help.”
Whereas Art Brut’s first album was released by Fierce Panda, and so had an almost home made feel to it, and as we discussed before their second album, released by EMI had a much more polished feel to it, this third offering is somewhere in between the two, recorded as live by Frank Black in just a couple of weeks. And it shows; the record captures some of the energy that the band put into their live shows.
Eddie Argos is still on form with his humorous, clever lyrics “why is everyone trying to sound like U2, that’s not a very cool thing to do. Why would you want to sound like U2? Just press record and play it straight through”
Other topics covered include, teenage nerves when talking to girls on “Am I Normal?” Public Transport on “The Passenger” and DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake on, err, “DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake.”
Another brilliant record from the band.

7. Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobious Pip – Angles (2008)
Best Track – The Beat That My Heart Skipped

“I aint gonna take it no more” proclaims Scroobious Pip at the start of this album, before launching into an attack on the state of the music industry and fame culture. “Soulless music, artless lyrics, goalless movements, heartless gimmicks, controlled and clueless, careers lasting a minute. If this is the big life, well I aint looking to live it.” This is a theme which runs through the album, on Fixed he tells us that “hip hop is art, don’t make another pop hit, be smart.”
This album is lyrical poetry from start to finish. Each song is thought provoking whether it’s the comment on Human behaviour “letter from God to Man”, the poetic monologue littered with profound advice “waiting for the beat to kick in” or “Angels” the role play story of suicide and revenge killing that teaches us that “things in life aren’t always quite what they seem there’s more than one given angel to one given scene, so bear that in mind next time you try to intervene.”
Or “That Shout Always Kill” which is again littered with good advice plus more pop culture references than you can shake a stick at.
This is a sensational album, different, unique, intelligent and thought provoking this is a must have album, regardless if you consider yourself a hip hop fan or not.

6. Half Man Half Biscuit – CSI: Ambleside (2008)
Best Track – Took Problem Chimp to the Ideal Home Show

Half Man Half Biscuit show that they still have it with this brilliant album with tales of, and annoyances at, the 21st century.
Nigel Blackwell’s lyrics are as witty and as sharp as ever. For example in the blistering opening “Evening of Swing (has been cancelled)” “And a plague fell upon the Retail Park And a storm broke over Henman Hill And the christening party arsehole Who hitherto had blurred My conception of man as nature’s final word Was fleeing from the lava His SatNav pleading thus: “I’m not from round here mate, you should have got the bus” Enter then a real rat pack Millions pouring in And Ezekiel punched Dan Brown And the nights are drawing in And your Evening of Swing had been cancelled”
The biting and hilarious lyrics continue “If you look carefully in the background of The Scream
The couple on the bridge are both Robson Greene” and no target is safe, the song “Totnes Bickering Fair” is a snipe about those kind of new age hippies who go on “journeys of self discovery” and install “solar heating” or “vow to rescue donkeys.” Blackwell cuts through all of this with the brilliant chorus “I’m going to feed our children non-organic food...and with the money saved, take ‘em to the zoo.”
Or if it’s, my personal favourite on the album, “Took Problem Chimp to the Ideal Home Show” which is a song about taking a chimp to the ideal home show “in the heart of darkness there are no hassle free cabinets” Nigel Blackwell snarls.
There is not a song on this album that won’t make you crack a smile, the album ends with the six minute rant “National Shite Day” all about a day where everything seems to be going wrong or has been put there to annoy the lead singer. He shouts the immortal lines “I try to put everything into perspective Set it against the scale of human suffering and I thought of the Mugabe government
and the children of the Calcutta railways This works for a while But then I encounter Primark FM”
Brilliant!

5. Jeffery Lewis and The Junkyard – Em Are I (2009)
BEST TRACK – If Life Exists

He has been described by Jarvis Cocker as “The best lyricist working in the US today.” And this album from 2009 justifies this claim. With Lewis wrestling with life, death, theology and everything in between.
In “Whistle Past the Graveyard” talks about the big question and ways up all the big theories and comes out with gold such as “If we lived for ever we’d really wanna find out, so what a relief we all die, so there is nothing to worry about.”
This level of insightful although humorous lyrics continue through the album “going bald is the most manly thing I’m ever going to do” or the line “I tell the earth thanks for the hair, the skin and the bone, although I slowly give it back I still appreciate the loan” a quote I may have to put on my tombstone.
On the song “Broken Broken Broken Heart” although a familiar subject in popular music, but Lewis manages to turn the song in to something which only he can and makes it sound like no one has ever written a song about a broken heart before.
Or in “Bugs and Insects” he paints an idyllic view of the afterlife as being too crowed for humans because all the zillions of bugs and insects who have died over the years take up all the room.
And “roll bus roll” would be brilliant to see live as it has so much sing along appeal
Plus if that’s not enough for you, the album ends with “mini the moocher from the future” a beautifully surreal, comic book, tale.
Jeffrey Lewis is one of the most consistently interesting, special, unique and talented song writers in the world, his lyrics are like streams of poetic consciousness, as well as being thought provoking and charming.

4. The Mountain Goats – The Sunset Tree (2005)
Best Track – This Year

This 2005 offering from John Darnielle's Mountain Goats is a stunning record. Focusing on the singer’s childhood, and his relationship with his abusive step father. To whom he dedicates the album to in the linear notes.
The Sunset Tree is incredibly personal, and at times when listening to the songs you can feel intrusive because of the songs content. For example the songs “has thou considered the tetrapod” and “Pale Green Things” are almost unbearable to listen to as the power of Darnielle’s voice with just an acoustic guitar really shines through.
Each song is touching and personal, whether it refers to love or death or domestic violence each song takes you right back to where the singer is talking about and you are right there in the moment. Lines like “I'm in the living room watching the Watergate hearings
While my step father yells at my mother.
Launches a glass across the room, straight at her head
and I dash upstairs to take cover.
lean in close to my little record player on the floor.
so this is what the volume knobs for.” From Dance Music
The sign of a very special song writer.
The album ends with Darnielle remembering the day his step father took him to the races, the song then ends with him receiving a call from his sister informing him of his step father’s death.
This is a simply sublime album.


3. Harvey Danger – Little By Little (2005)
Best Track - Little Round Mirrors

Little By Little is the bands third album, this album is far more piano based with only one song, “Cream and Bastards Rise” which would fit on the other two albums. The sound is far more polished and the two stand out tracks for me are “Moral Centralia” and “Little Round Mirrors” which is a beautifully sad song about someone who likes music too much, which judging by the fact I’m writing a massive blog about how much I like a band, I can relate to. Although towards the end of the album their are darker songs such as “What You Live By”
And “Diminishing Returns” which is about urban and social destruction which was should have been played at the end of every news bulletin during the credit crunch over pictures of bankers who had lost their jobs walking out of their office. Which features lyrics, like the bleakly profound “...Progress shall be defined by your position on the bridge as it burns...”
And in a break from usual depressing biting form, there is a almost unbearably sweet love song in “happiness writes white” which also features the most cynical line ever written in a love song though, which is “now you’ve come along, there’s one less thing wrong.”
Sean Nelson retains his label as one of the cleverest, greatest and most underrated lyricists of our time with this album with his words staying with you for a long time after the record has stopped playing. But possibly my favourite line in the whole album is from a song called “Incommunicado” which goes “I dreamed we were alone all night in a house made out of beds...and nothing happened!”
If you don’t believe me about how good this album is, then go see for yourself, as they gave it away for free on their website, again long before Radiohead did, so you have no excuse, most albums worthy of the label “classic” aren’t free!

2. Harvey Danger – King James Version (2000)
Best Track – Why I’m Lonely

“King James Version” which was a far more angry sounding album, and sounds as if the band doesn’t know whether they want to keep the sound of the first album or go for more piano led melodies which would dominate their next album. It is a stunning piece of work steeped in religious, political and cultural references, and after only a few listens you will fall in love with it.
I found this on the internet, in which Sean Nelson describes his feelings about the album and writes about it much better than I could.
King James Version, the difficult second Harvey Danger album—not the Bible translation, silly!—was released seven years ago yesterday, on September 12, 2000. Writing sessions began in December, 1998, recording started in March or April of 1999 in Bearsville, NY, and continued in fits and starts throughout the next year. By the time it was finished, the major label that bankrolled it no longer existed, and the entire music business had entered an upheaval that, frankly, has yet to end, and isn't likely to.

Though the initial trajectory of the album was away from pop (away from melody, away from fun, away from humor, away from anything the band was identified with or, indeed, was good at), time had a way of guiding us back toward our strengths, and the resulting push and pull made an album that not only reflected the tumultuous life of success, self-doubt, internal wrangling, yearning to prove ourselves to a largely indifferent audience/totally indifferent label, and unavoidable immersion in the depths of narcissism we'd been living, but turned to the elements of that tumultuous life for thematic and even musical inspiration. What I hear when I listen to the album is not the sound of my life in 1998-2001, but the sound of our little band striving (sometimes together, but often against one another) to make it sound more like we thought it should sound. More than anything else, I think, we wanted to make an album that no one expected from us. An album no one else could make. An album that made no concessions to any idea (ours/theirs/yours) of a popular audience. An album you had to seek out. An album you had to work to love. KJV is unarguably that, right down to Tae Won Yu's beautiful/terrible/perfect cover art, which expressed our band's fractured mental and psychic state, or relationship to ourselves, our city, our project, and each other brilliantly. It's also a mess (possibly because we micromanaged him into the ground). There are sounds I hate on the album, but far more that I love. More to the point, having never before or since put so much of myself into anything with so little to show for it afterwards, there are sounds I never got over the fact that more people didn't hear. Almost never. Having met a lot of people who did hear the album and to whom it meant something, I think I am now. Which is better than never, but goddamn...

Sometimes I think we put far too much energy toward all the wrong things. Sometimes I think we were utterly delusional. Sometimes I wish we had done every single thing differently. But sometimes I think KJV is a legitimate cult gem that will one day join the ranks of Oddessey and Oracle and The Village Green Preservation Society or at least fucking Pinkerton or whatever. Not likely, I know, but I still have a dim wish.

Mostly, though, I'm glad to find myself thinking about it less. I do wish it a happy birthday, however, and many happy returns. (Thanks to iTunes).

1. Art Brut – Bang Bang Rock and Roll (2005)
Best Track – Formed a Band

I used to listen to a great little digital radio station when I first got my digital radio, called “The Storm” (which our show’s name plays tribute to in Audio Storm) it was a radio that played non stop music all day, and was run by a robot who had once broken into the studio and taken over the studio and killed all the presenters and would now do the same links throughout the day, occasionally impersonating Sean Connery. The station no longer exists, but the music it played was brilliant, not only the good mainstream stuff, but strange, wonderful music which I’d never heard before but wanted to hear more of, but the robot (or the scrolling text on my DAB digital radio) never used to tell me the names of the songs or artists.

One of the songs I heard on there started with repeated hits of a snare drum, then a catchy riff, and then in came in a man who couldn’t really sing, but was so excited to be proclaiming how he had got “a brand new girlfriend” by the middle of the song he was ecstatically shouting to me, “I’ve seen her naked, TWICE! I’ve seen her naked TWICE!” I instantly fell in love with this song, and had to tell Ed the next day at school, I sang him the line, he laughed. And then we both went on a quest (mainly on Google) trying to find this band. We typed in “brand new girlfriend song” but only found a song by a country singer called Steve Holly. We never put the “naked” line in because we were worried what results that would throw up.

Eventually we found out that the song was called “Good Weekend” by Art Brut. I went on the internet and researched them and discovered they had an album, I then went into HMV, and got them to order it for me, and then spent money I was suppose to buy Christmas presents on it. Gave it to my mum to wrap up to give it back to me for Christmas, that Christmas I drove my family mad by constantly playing it and dancing around the conservatory to it.
I was utterly besotted with this album, the cheapness of the packaging, (the cover wasn’t even a proper booklet, something I’d never seen before!) the sound of the album. I was hearing someone who couldn’t sing shout over music which didn’t sound like it was produced properly, it sounded as if it was home made. And I loved it.

From the opening track, which is the greatest opening song to a debut album EVER, Formed a Band, with the immortal chorus “Formed a band, we formed a band, look at us we formed a band!” It encapsulates the innocence and the hopes and dreams of being in a band “we’re going to write a song as universal as Happy Birthday”

The excitement and enthusiasm of the lead singer, Eddie Argos that he was in a band did not stop through out the album. Simple yet clever lyrics.

This album taught me that anyone could make music; you didn’t have to write about what everyone else wrote about. For example there are songs on this album about not being very good at sex, and songs with choruses like “modern art makes me want to rock out” and “I’m considering a move to LA.”

And two songs at the end “Stand Down” and “18,000 Lira” which don’t really fit with the rest of the album, which seemed to be very much based and about the lead singers life and views. I later found out that it was because Argos originally wanted to write a concept album about an Italian terrorist he had read about, but could only manage two songs.

This album is nothing less than an alternative classic, featuring classic songs such as the teenage love song “Emily Kane” and made me realise that like Eddie Argos sings in “Bad Weekend” “Popular Culture no longer applies to me!” Me and Ed have since seen the band live, met and spoken to Eddie Argos twice and got his facebook and phone number (because he agreed to do a telephone interview with Audio Storm, the nice man that he is), bought all their albums and merchandise and as many b-sides that we can get our hands on.

Bang Bang Rock and Roll by Art Brut is Audio Storm’s best album of this decade, the noughties.

1,967 words why you should be sad Harvey Danger have played their last shows...

Last month saw one of my favourite bands ever playing their last ever shows ever. Unfortunately for me, and my friend Ed, said band’s last ever shows ever were being played in America, whereas I live in England, and had no money or conceivable way of getting to America, and even if I did, they coincide with my sisters wedding so, going would result in years of resentment from my family. Although given the choice, I would almost defiantly dump my family for a chance to watch this band play for the last time. That’s how great they are.
The band I am referring to is, of course, Harvey Danger. Chances are you have never heard of them, although if you are a friend of mine, no doubt either me or Ed at one point or another have come up to you and demanded you listen to them, and/or their shouted lyrics into your face for no apparent reason which most probably resulted in you being confused/scared or in very rare cases slightly aroused. Also if you are a regular listener to mine and Ed’s radio show (Audio Storm, Sunday nights from 7pm on www.radiocabin.co.uk) you would have heard their music, since as we play one of their songs every week, sometimes two a show.

If you do not already know I shall try to fill you in on the history of this amazing band. Harvey Danger, are one of the most overlooked bands in History. They had a huge hit with "Flagpole Sitta" in America in the 1990's, unfortunately it only made it to number 57 in the UK charts. They made a record, “Where Have All The Merrymakers Gone?” which went gold in America.
Then in 1999 they made another album, King James Version, but their label folded. It got released or re-released in 2000, and did not make as big an impact as their first album. Then the band split. But reformed in 2004 and released “Little by Little” which they released, and you can still, and really should get, FOR FREE on their website, long before Radiohead had the idea.

I first got into HD when I heard “Flagpole Sitta,” which was used as the theme tune to, best show on telly, Peep Show. I looked them up on YouTube and for weeks constantly played the Flagpole Sitta video over and over again. Now this song was an absolutely huge hit for the band in the states, and because of that most people only know that song and none of their other stuff, so, to my understanding the band now resent the song, as it is used to define them, and greatly overshadows all their other work, plus it meant they were playing to a lot of teenage audiences when they would have liked an older audience. Although, by definition I am a teenager, and I think “Flagpole Sitta” is still a great song. It has everything a great pop song needs. A sing a long chorus, verses which elude to masturbation, alienation, frustration and less subtle references to paranoia. It has just the right amount of anger injected into it, but on the surface, could be seen as a fairly harmless pop song. Simply it is a great song, and deserved all the success it received, and that’s why it is the most played song on my iPod, although I would never go admitting that on the HD forums!

But yeah, if you go search Harvey Danger on hype machine and go on music blogs which have written about them, you will find one of two responses, the first being “remember the people who sang that paranoia song? What ever happened to them” or the second which is “Harvey Danger, probably best known for Flagpole Sitta, but since then they have made some great music.” Or something along those lines, and the people who said the latter would be right.
They have made 3 albums, with every song being sublime. Their songs tackle everything from religion, to war, to politics and love. Sean Nelson has one of the most emotive and recognisable voices in alternative rock, I genuinely believe he is one of the best lyricists of our time his lyrics are catchy, intelligent and thought provoking.

He writes clever songs, songs which never talk down to the listener. He writes emotional, personal lyrics, for example deeply sad songs such as “Wrecking Ball” and “Pike Street/Park Slope.” Also really very funny lyrics “I had a lovely brunch with Jesus Christ.He said, “Two words about inanity: Fundamental Christianity.”The food was very nice, but then He had to go and die for my sins and stick my ass with the cheque.” For example or “I dreamed we were alone all night in a house made out of beds...and nothing happened.” As another, or “Don't tell anybody, please don't tell anybody ABOUT MY PAUL MCCARTNEY CD!”

Yes, most of their songs have a cynical, biting, downbeat tone to them, but they are also uplifting in their own way, if I’ve had a bad day or feeling down or stressed in any way, I stick on Harvey Danger and they do make me feel better. Sean’s voice is comforting. But they do have one insanely sweet love song called “Happiness Writes White,” although that does feature the most cynical line in a love song, but probably my favourite song from any love song “I’ve never been a confident man, I’ve been in the tall grass all my life, until you came along, now there’s one less thing wrong...”Brilliant.

Or a song called “Why I’m Lonely” in which Sean captures the feeling of rejection, loneliness, and the resentment for people who are in love, perfectly and beautifully. “So I told her that everything she does is divine, and she replied with a blank expression (an object lesson in making me feel benign)... Feelings I’ve had too often still no plan in place to soften the inevitable blow (the rituals we know).... everybody follows pleasure, everybody gets somewhere. I swear I wish I could be less aware…” some lyrics are so intelligent and use big words that I have to go and look up what they mean. “This attraction-introspection-diction predilection is breaking my heart again, breaking my heart again….”

Or just lyrics which you just want to bottle up and keep, like the bleakly profound “...Progress shall be defined by your position on the bridge as it burns...” that was a lyric lifted from “Diminishing Returns” a beautiful song which is about urban and social destruction which was should have been played at the end of every news bulletin during the credit crunch over pictures of bankers who had lost their jobs walking out of their office.

I could go on quoting his lyrics for ages, but you get the idea, Nelson is an unbelievably good song writer, and criminally underrated.

It’s not just Sean’s lyrics that make this band great. It’s the whole structure of the song, Aaron Hoffman’s bass used as lead instrument, the messy sounding drums of the first two records and Jeff Linn’s catchy and complex hooks, or the fabulous, polished, neater, sounds of their piano led songs of their last album, catchy songs with clever and insightful lyrics.

The bands first album, “Where Have All The Merrymakers Gone?” is a brilliant grunge-y sounding alternative rock album. It sounds very, to use a clichéd phrase, “rough and ready” which is the sound I love. It sounds almost home made at times, with lots of loud guitars, feedback and feelings of teenage angst. Although don’t assume this album is bunch of shouty teenagers, because it is not, for me it just has the feeling of a teenage sounding album. The tone of the songs and some of the lyrics, but it starts with “Carlotta Valdez” which is the plot from the Alfred Hitchcock movie “Vertigo” condensed into a 2 minute 48 second song, then there is the strangely obsessive sounding “woolly muffler” the regretful punk sound of “Private Helicopter.” This is a great introductory album for the band.

Next was “King James Version” which was a far more angry sounding album, and sounds as if the band doesn’t know whether they want to keep the sound of the first album or go for more piano led melodies which would dominate their next album. It is still a great album steeped in religious, political and cultural references, and I’ve just found this,
http://www.seannelson.net/blog/2007/09/happy-birthday-king-james-version.html in which Sean Nelson describes his feelings about the album and writes about it much better than I could.

Little By Little is their third album, and my personal favourite, this album is far more piano based with only one song, “Cream and Bastards Rise” which would fit on the other two albums. The sound is far more polished and the two stand out tracks for me are “Moral Centralia” and “Little Round Mirrors” which is a beautifully sad song about someone who likes music too much, which judging by the fact I’m writing a massive blog about how much I like a band, I can relate to. Although towards the end of the album their are darker, guitar led songs such as “What You Live By” and the previously mentioned “Diminishing Returns.”

Put plain and simply, I think all of these records could be given the label of being classic albums, and luckily you can get them all on iTunes now, Which I strongly advise you do, you will NOT regret it.

Harvey Danger do not have the worlds biggest fan base, it’s fair to say, but people who are fans, just seem to fall in love with the band. It seems that once you have got into this band. You simply love them and their music becomes a big part of your life.

They are set to become one of the cult bands in America, I hope rather than being labelled as one of the great one hit wonder bands. I hope in Britain they will be remembered as one of the greatest bands no one have ever heard of, and not just the band that sing that song in Peep Show and American Pie. Their music will live forever, in some form or another, thanks to the age we live in. Their music will stay with me forever, because every time I listen to them I hear something I didn’t hear before, or I understand a line better or I can relate songs to my life or global events when I couldn’t before.

I am really disappointed not to being able to see them live, sure they’ve split up before and have played many “last ever shows” but this time they seem serious, and that’s sad. On the bright side Sean Nelson has a number of side projects, which seem promising. So maybe they will do amazingly well and then he will come and tour with one of them, because judging by the stuff he’s put out already his song writing ability shows no sign of diminishing.

So Harvey Danger, I salute you thanks for one of the greatest and most underrated collection of songs in history. In a way I like no one knowing about you, because it makes your songs all the more special and all the more personal, as you said “no one likes what I like, that’s how I like it”. Me and Ed were talking about The Atomic Penguins recording a tribute to Harvey Danger, which may still happen, but we’ll probably end up ruining perfectly good songs, but oh well no one listens to us anyway.

Another idea I am working on is that we could have a mass, UK wide download of their back catalogue which would see them get into the charts, and then they’d have to play here.

"We hang petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office" - Aesop

I am currently gripped by a TV show, each week it provides moments of drama, moments of real comedy and farce, genuine human emotion by the bucket load. It is essentially a good vs. evil story, but in every episode the lines are blurred so it’s hard to tell which is which. It tries to deal with the corruption of the establishment, but no solutions to the problems seem to be solved at the end of each episode.

I’m not talking about The Wire, on BBC2, although that does do all the above and is fantastic. I was talking about Question Time, on BBC1 Thursdays 10:35pm. In this time of economic recession, of witnessing the last days of the decaying New Labour government, and the biggest ‘scandal’ to hit the country in modern times, MP’s expenses. Politics has never been so exciting. Each week, Question Time, which used to be a civil Q&A sessions between the politicians and the stupid public, the great unwashed would ask ridiculous questions based on prejudices and ignorance, and the politicians would respond with pre-prepared bullshit, everyone went home fairly happy as there seemed to be a mutual respect between the two groups.

Not anymore, watch an episode now, and you could be forgiven for thinking that you were watching a pantomime or a boardroom scene from the apprentice (an observation made by Charlie Brooker on his excellent BBC4 show “news wipe.”) Or the audience seems to react like the audience from the bewilderingly popular “Britain’s Got Talent” as they jeer and heckle the poor politician who is trying to defend an extravagant purchase which was “within the rules.” It makes for gripping television, one week, the BBC thought it was even worthy of replacing “Traffic Cops” in the 9pm slot, a scheduling issue which I feel should stay permanent, as Question Time is the best programme on telly.

Not only does it have the supposed ‘villains’ on the panel, as well as the “celebrities” who say the most stupid, impractical comments but know that the audience will respond with rapturous applause, for example something like “I think, as a mother of two, that all politicians should have their hands cut off and made to jig around in just their underpants while the people throw actual corpses of dead animals. And I think Joanna Lumley should become our divine ruler, because she’s so bloody wonderful.”And the audience will applaud, until someone says a contradictory statement but whose voice gets louder at the end so the audience believe that therefore what that person said was great and they all totally agreed with it. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah “villains” it has the ‘villains’ i.e. the politicians on the panel but also a sinister villain which is only ever mentioned on the show that never gets seen on question time. The BNP.
But politics has suddenly become far more exciting than any of the soap operas, talent shows or sporting events on the TV. It is an on going drama filled with plots, and corruption and deception. Each day brings an exciting new twist which radically changes the whole course of this unfolding story. It’s gripping television.

Watching, what feels like, the last days of the Labour government, I can’t help but feel sympathy for poor old Gordon Brown. Put yourself in his shoes, imagine that each day you wake up and find that all the national newspapers, the general public, the TV, the Radio, politicians and even your own colleagues are queuing up to tell you just how shit they think you are. Even though you work really hard to try to fix and solve problems which largely weren’t your fault but everyone seems to blame you for. But to be fair, Labour has been in power for far too long, and all the mistakes they have made over the last few years have come back and bitten them right on their old, decaying, broken arse.

But what are the options, how will the public punish them in today’s Euro/Local elections?Will they vote conservative and David Cameron, who I can not ignore Armando Iannucci’s observation that he looks like a whoopee cushion every time I see him. I realised I didn’t like him on the party election broadcast by the Tories when he was doing a “Cameron direct”, where he stood in front of a target, a dream for any would be assassins, and talked and received questions. There was one clip of a small child informing ‘Dave’ that she had started a campaign to “save the penguins” the expression on Cameron’s face was enough to make me actually puke. Into a bucket. YouTube it, and see for yourself, (the election broadcast I mean, not me vomiting into a bucket. That’s not on the internet as far as I’m aware.)

But anyway I could stretch this out to say about the BNP and how bloody hilarious they are with their, hee hee, racist views. Or how, because I’m a young student with a naive mind that I think you should vote for the Lib Dems.

But to be honest I can not be bothered to write any more, and I doubt you can be bothered to read this anymore (though the fact you’ve got this far is, quite frankly, astonishing) I just want to tell you to watch Question Time tonight on BBC1 10:35pm. It’s kind of good to watch it when you’re too young to vote, because you feel no pressure and you can watch it as an outsider, knowing that you can, you know, not do anything. Hmmmmmmm