Song of the day: Santamonica – Anais Lullaby

Mr. TweeNet is in South East Asia right now and just let the pop list know about some of his local discoveries. Which means Indonesian, as the Singapore scene seems to be rather passive and the Philippine one almost dead. Apart form Annemarie, which I have hopefully plugged here before (if not: here are two songs for you to download), he mentioned some other new bands. Santamonica is one of them and now I’ve fallen in love with their Birdie-esque song Anais Lullaby, which can be found on their Myspace site.

And since I mentioned Myspace, it won’t hurt anyone if I mention two more bands whose songs can be found there. The Bridal Shop is something that I discovered the other day when one of my Last.fm friends was listening to them. They’re very Swedish 80s indiepop, with a touch of Red Sleeping Beauty when the girl is singing.
The Castavetes were a ten-piece from Gothenburg, which is in Sweden as well, who sadly ceased to exist this summer after the death of their keyboard player, but whose songs are still available on their site.

And from said indiepop list: Le Sport, the band that was going to be big (I thought), has broken up as well.

I was in a geeky mood this morning (am I never not?) and I finally decided to use the Last.fm plugin to put my most recently played tracks in the sidebar. It’s faster than what I had written myself, although that was more web 2.0 so probably a bit cooler. Whatever. I had to modify the plugin a bit and then I decided to use the code to write my own plugin that puts ‘posts I like’ (or something) from Google Reader in the sidebar. I intend to improve the plugin a lot, to make it a lot more customisable for example, and then I’ll add it to the plugin-list.

There are still some minor bugs though, most of which have to do with character encoding (which is why Filles Sourires’ last post is called Françoise here, instead of Françoise, for example), but my to-do list is rather long, so we’ll have to live with those for the time being. And there’s also the design. In fact, Dimitra made me a really nice and simple design, so I should incorporate that too. Hopefully soon.

With only ten percent of 2006 in front of us, people all around the web are compiling end-of-year lists. It is quite strange to realise that I have no idea what has come out in the past twelve months; that I could force myself to making a top 3 of favourite albums (Pipas, Pipettes, Math & Physics Club), but then these are the only albums I have listened to thoroughly. I think. And really, there are tons of things that I would have done differently, had I been given the chance to live this year again, but at the same time, if I would still be working towards a definitive end-of-year list every day of the year, I probably wouldn’t be in England right now and I would definitely be a lot less happy. So it’s all worth it after all.

Anyway, once a pop geek always a pop geek. The pop geek in me stumbled upon this recently:

• The Happy Couple have released a compilation of early singles on Japanese Quince Records. It includes some unreleased songs as well as the Song For The Troubadour 7″ that was released earlier this year (I had missed that one completely), which has a guest appearance by Stevie Jackson of Belle & Sebastian fame. Listen to some songs at theirspace.

• Ultrasport, who released an album on Quince last year, have a new one out. It’s called False Start City and I remember having read somewhere that it costs as much as one wants to pay for it (which I think is a pretty great idea), but I can’t find that anymore. There isn’t much information on the album at all, so perhaps the release date is postponed. It’s indiepop after all. There are four songs on theirspace though and they sound a bit different from previous recordings, but still pretty great.

• Svensk Indie is a compilation-2cd covering Swedish indie from 1988 to 2006. That is more than just indiepop, so they’ve ‘forgot’ to include the likes of Aerospace, The Tidy-Ups or Nixon. Which is a terrible shame of course, but if you’re still interested in a compilation featuring Jens Lekman, Club 8, SKWBN and Eggstone, then Indie MP3 has the full tracklist for you,

• And then, the Only End-of-year List That Really Matters (with the possible exception of TweeNet’s poll) will never be the same since John Peel’s early death two years ago, but at least some people are trying to keep the thing still going.

Song of the day: Barcelona – I Have the Password To Your Shell Account
(because it might be the geekiest song I know – listen to it here)

I just found that there’s a Devon and Cornwall GNU/Linux User Group. I joined instantly, though I think it’s wiser not to let the people know about the operating system this laptop is running on…
I hadn’t thought it would take so long to have my proper computer sent over. I suppose gaining some Windows experience is good in a way –I have actually added it to my CV– but now I’m really starting to miss running a computer from the command line. Or just having a computer that acknowledges the fact that I, as a user, might know better what I want than it does, so it doesn’t suggest me what to do all the time.
(Thinking about that last remark, perhaps it wouldn’t be such a bad idea if Microsoft would deliver the software for voting machines. Some people could do with a suggestion, I’d say…)

There is a song on the new album by The Shins called Pam Berry. I just downloaded it. It’s just a minute full of guitar noise with the Shins singer muttering some words over it. Can’t make out what he sings about really, but it doesn’t sound like a tribute the indiepop veteran/hero/legend deserves.

You’d better listen to Ms Berry herself. I just stumbled upon this video of Throw Aggi Off The Bridge by her first band Black Tambourine. This song, from 1990 or so, has become an indiepop/shoegaze classic, not in the least because of its lyrics about being jealous of Stephen Pastel’s girlfriend Aggi, who apparently should be thrown of the bridge…
A lot sweeter is Pam’s latest band, The Pines of whom Matinée is about to release a 20-song compilation album It’s Been A While, which will include some unreleased tracks. Damn, I really need to have that one. (Oh, and both links lead you to some sound clips.)

So the current prime minister did win after all. At least his coalition (due to a system of proportional representation, governments are usually a coalition of three or more parties) lost the majority in the parliament and it’s quite likely that the this will mean a move to the left for the new government. Even though the poor leader of the labour party, whose name translates as ‘Bush’ but that’s where the comparison ends, lost about 10 seats, after having led the polls for more than three years. And even though the left-wing socialist party, who almost tripled their number of seats, are not very likely to make compromises. We’ll see – it’s not impossible there’ll be new elections within a year.

I realised that it was January 2003 that we last had elections for the parliament. It feels like yesterday in a way, but then, if I think about how much my life has changed since… wow. Time is a weird thing.

They’re having elections for the parliament back home. In fact, we are having elections, as they sent me a voting card, which I managed to sign and send back to the Netherlands, so my mum will vote on my behalf. I have had an interest in politics from a very young age, when I was having elections among my stuffed animals. (Really. In fact, it took me years to realise that when other children played with their teddy bear, they meant something else.) So it’s kind of strange that the new government’s decisions won’t have an effect on me and also, that it will probably the last time for me to vote for the Netherlands.
(I suppose will keep my Dutch passport, but I don’t really see the point in voting for a country that one hasn’t been living in for years. It seems to be quite a fuss to vote from abroad, too.)

At least there is something to vote for. Last four years, the country has made an effort to get rid of its image of a boring corner of Europe where nothing ever happens. It has worked quite well, it seems, though not sure if the country’s image has really improved. Recently, the government initiated a new law, which forbids people to wear a burqa in public. Given that at most 50, but probably a lot less, people in the whole country wear a burqa, how do they think this is not a sign of muslim fear? Immigration, in general, is quite a big issue in the elections, for which I think the expression one suffers most from the fear of suffering fits quite well. So, for example, refugees have to go back to a country that is dangerous enough for the government to send a troop of soldiers there and do some interrogation. To see an outsider’s point of view, watch the video attached to this BBC News article and judge for yourself (note that they mean The Netherlands when they talk about Holland, an annoying habit most people in the UK have).

But then, I am not a political fighter. I always vote for the same party, a reasonable sideline-party who might make it to the government, one day. One day…

(Harry Potter is the nick-name of the current prime minister, which he didn’t get because of his magical talents. In fact, he is disliked by many for his appearance, which I think is rather stupid. Being socially clumsy, speaking way too fast, not having a girlfriend until late into his life and apparently lacking some leadership-skills, he is quite like me, really. But, believe me, I have better ideas on politics.)

… is the html-code for three dots (…), that are apparently called ellipsis by those who really care about punctuation. Proper geeks prefer writing the ellipsis above writing three dots (...) as they don’t care no one will stare long enough at their website to notice the difference. Semi-proper geeks, like me, try to do the same thing, but leave the ampersand out, so that their posts just appear really dorky. Or did people really think it was some cricket terminology?

Speaking of punctuation, I saw a children’s book based on Lynne Truss’ brilliant guide to punctuation Eats, Shoots and Leaves (it’s this book that tought me to love the semi-colon). It looked pretty great.

Well, as if he will read this blog anyway:

• Splash 3 is new compilation at The Rain Fell Down with a nice mix of old and new pop songs, among which Annemarie’s Strawberry Fields is my favourite. Because “a good pop song is an mp3 you play on repeat twenty times and is then lost as your iPod breaks down the day after the warranty ends.”

• I happily join the praise here and there about Bedroom Eyes in general and their song Blueprint for Departure in particular. From Sweden, of course (Östersund, to be precise), and their melodic songs remind me a bit of Starflower, but then, they have put a full ep on their site for you to download, so you may as well judge yourself.

• London label and gig organisers Fortuna Pop! will give away a daily free mp3 this week.

• Side Room is a blog whose owner is podcasting random picks of his 7″ singles. It’s probably this sort of music fans (and that most definitely includes me as well) that No Music Day is about, but some of the things he has put online are quite nice, so who cares.

I was dreaming away, on the side of the street, waiting for the bus to university to come, when some bloke approached me. It seemed at first that he just wanted to pass me, but then he stopped, took a step back and stood still next to me. My initial thought was that I had done something wrong or, less embarrassingly, that he just wanted to ask me something. And just when I was about to ask him what he wanted, I realised that he probably just wanted to queue for the bus. Which probably of made sense in and English way, after all there were people standing on my other side, waiting for a bus too. But there was no bus to be seen yet and when it finally came, there were enough free places for all of us to fit in without any problem.
Way to go to get used to the English way of life.

Perhaps, by then I will understand the rules of cricket too. It can’t be that hard, after all the sport is incredibly popular over here. And well, even people who despise football understand that it’s all about getting that ball in the net. I once tried to read what the Dutch wikipedia said on cricket. It all sounded quite sweet, especially when it mentioned that there shouldn’t be too many obstacles on the field, but one or two trees isn’t really a problem. (Hmm, wouldn’t the world cup football be much more interesting if the final was played on a field with the occasional tree?) But when it started talking about batsmen and bowlers, overs and wickets I got lost again. One day, though…

Did I, by the way, say that I love this country?

Song of the day: California Snow Story – Consolation Song

Back in 2003, when Think Small was still an over-pretentious online-magazine written in Dutch, I did an interview with David from Scottish indiepop band California Snow Story. After the interview, which was done through email, we stayed in contact and exchanged email every now and then, about the ups and downs of each others’ lives. I’m still a bit hesitant to leave the geeky music-chat behind and start a more personal conversation, but it’s always good when it happens and people in bands prove to be just, erm, people. And thus I was really happy to read the news of a debut album appearing early next year on Letterbox Records, a label that is run by another online friend of mine. Erm, wait, did I say ‘friend’? I’d better reply to that four months-old email straight away then…

Consolation Song and two other songs can be listened to theirspace, while another, older, song is still available for download at their old label Shelflife.

Song of the day: The Blue Hearts – Kisu Shite Hoshii

I have been looking for more songs by the Blue Hearts, as I am so in love with their ‘Kisu Shite Hoshii’. (I downloaded it from Dance To The Sun the other day and if their server wouldn’t give an error, you would have been able to do so too…) I did find quite some songs, apparently the guys were huge in their home country Japan back in the 1980s, but none of it comes close. And now that I am sort of working on this freelance project and trying to get some server do what I want it to do, I could really do with some adrenalinated indiepop-punk to keep me going. Preferably with lots of high vowels in the vocals. I suppose I’ll have to turn to Flipper’s Guitar instead.

In other news, we’ve got a small selection of my 7″s here in Exmouth now. They arrived in good state in a box last Monday. If only we had a record player to play them…

Update: here is a nice, animated videoclip of the song.

Song of the day: The Crabapples – London Belongs To Me, Pt 2

Slumberland Records has always been one of my favourite record labels (because of The Aislers Set, Rocketship, Black Tambourine and 56 other bands featuring Pam Berry) and now, after three years of silence, they’re back. With a new website, some kind of an mp3-blog, and, wow, two new releases. You probably wanted to know that, didn’t you? (If you hadn’t read it somewhere else already, that is.)

One of the releases is a 7″ by The Crabapples, a band that features members of Black Tambourine and The Frenchman and whose sound, according to this one mp3 is pretty close to the latter’s. The other release is a 7″ too, by The How.

Photo Matt is ‘just another WordPress blog’, except that it’s witten by the bloke who actually made WordPress. And not that I would really do everything the way he did it, but the design is pretty great anyway. (And damn geeky too – look at those coffee stains…). Said bloke, Matt Mullenweg, has become some sort of a hero of mine, as WordPress seems to be the answer to any blogging-related question in the world. And to several particular questions I have been having recently.

Apparently, according to a recent interview in the Guardian (part of a bigger feature on web 2.0), Matt first made WordPress when he wanted jazz lessons but didn’t have money to pay his teachers, so he built them websites instead. Now about 400.000 people have a blog on wordpress.com and an approximate two million others use it on other servers. Hmm. Perhaps I should have built nice bands websites too, so that they would have given me free records and I now had become a potential millionaire.

Oh, but bands gave me free records anyway. And being a millionaire is not particularly indiepop either. Oops.

I am really happy with the improved version of Google Reader. It helps me solve the blog-o-spherical problem of how to not overlook updated blogs in a way that is more efficient than visiting them all every day. (Dimitra says she just goes to the blogs she wants to read and hopes they’re updated, which is a very non-geeky solution I think. Well, she doesn’t have her records in alphabetical order either.)

A nice bonus is that Google Reader has a pretty big archive, where it has stored, for example, most of the ‘lost posts’ of last year’s Think Small. So these days I am slowly putting them back into the current blog. So that, when I mention that it’s my nameday again, I can just link to this post without having to explain a lot. A little addition though is that the celebration is, apparently, called Martinmas and that said saint was the saint of the beggars. We’ll have five visitors tonight. I suppose Saint Martin would have approved of that.

Song of the day: Lovejoy – Brightness Falls

I got an email earlier this week from Richard who is in Lovejoy. Richard, apparently, used to live in Exmouth for some years during the 1980s. His email made me realise how, despite having only lived here for just a bit over two months, I have become very fond of this area. I instantly decided that I liked Lovejoy a lot – more than I used to do. Just like I always check The Guardian for Exeter City’s latest results (mind you, they currently play fifth division from top) and get a happy feeling of pride when the county is mentioned somewhere in the news. I heart Devon.
I know that my love for Devon is not built on solid ground. After all, I have not seen much more from England than York (on a school trip in 1993), Bristol (from a bus) and London several times. I grew up in a coastal town that is about as big as Exmouth and I can’t say that helped me love small coastal towns either. And I have the typical Dutch obsession with any sort of land that is not flat, but that wouldn’t necessarily made me want to live among hills.
But it doesn’t matter.I know that in the past month I have felt better and happier than I had in the years before – perhaps happier than ever. And that I wouldn’t see why we would ever move away from here.

Oh, by the way, Lovejoy have a new EP out, called England Made Me. On Matinée, of course, and the label has the aforementioned song available in .ram-format. I suppose I’ll buy it now. They’re fellow (ex-)Devonians after all. And, apparently, it has an eighties feeling. Perhaps Richard was thinking of Exmouth when he wrote the songs.