Don't Like Eating Glass?

...then why not pop over to the Guardian site, where they have a week-long series of Bloc-Party-related features, including this, my personal favourite, in which the mindblowingly talented BP drummer, Matt Tong, takes time out from pounding the skins to teach us a bit of basic cookery.

Class act.

Calling All Morrissey Fans

If you're a fan of Moz and his bequiffed brand of plaintive, angsty, daffodil-brandishing, band-aids-on-the-nipples moan-pop, then clicky here to link to the BBC Radio 2 show of veteran DJ Janice Long, on whose show Stephen Patrick appeared the other day for a great interview.

Oh My Sweet Lord in Heaven

Say it ain't so, John!

Playlist from Oct 8, 2008

Art Brut -- Emily Kane (Bang Bang Rock & Roll)
The Jam -- Eton Rifles (The Sound of the Jam)
The Rolling Stones -- Rocks Off (Exile on Main Street)
Althea & Donna -- Uptown Top Ranking (Jamiaca)
Kate Bush -- The Sensual World (The Sensual World)
Southside Stalkers -- Five (The Sound of Speed)
Bauhaus -- Spirit (Gotham)
Cure -- Closedown (Disintegration)
Radiohead -- There, There (Hail to the Thief)
George Harrison -- If Not For You (All Things Must Pass)
Trashcan Sinatras -- Leave Me Alone (Weightlifting)
The Cake Sale -- Aliens [feat. Neil Hannon] (The Cake Sale)
Roxy Music -- Remake/Remodel (Roxy Music)
The Subways -- Shake! Shake! (All or Nothing)
Libertines -- Death on the Stairs (Up The Bracket)
Foals -- Balloons (Antidotes)
Hot Chip -- Hold On [remix.] (Made in the Dark)
Tricky -- School Gates (Knowle West Boy)
The View -- Same Jeans (Hats off to the Buskers)
Field Music -- Working to Work (Tones of Town)
Cherry Ghost -- Dead Man's Suit (Debut)
James -- I Want to Go Home (Hey Ma)
David Bowie -- Sound & Vision (Low)
Mclusky -- To Hell With Good Intentions (Mclusky Do Dallas)
Van Morrison -- Queen of the Slipstream (Poetic Champions Compose)

Playlist from Sept. 24th 2008

Ballboy -- Avant Garde Music (A Guide for the Daylight Hours)
Hot Chip -- Ready for the Floor (Made in the Dark)
Smiths -- How Soon Is Now? (Meat is Murder)
Psychedelic Furs -- All That Money Wants (Left of the Dial Box Set)
Streets -- The Irony of It All (Original Pirate Material)
Tricky -- Past Mistake (Knowle West Boy)
Brian Eno -- I'll Come Running (Another Green World)
Teenage Fanclub -- It's All In My Mind (Man Made)
Trashcan Sinatras -- It's a Miracle (Weightlifting)
The Real Tuesday Weld -- What it Takes (End of the World)
Radiohead -- Sail to the Moon (Hail to the Thief)
M83 -- Kim & Jessie (Saturdays = Youth)
Emiliana Torrini -- If You Go Away (Rarities)
Sugarcubes -- Birthday (Left of the Dial Box Set)
Southside Stalkers -- Five (Sound of Speed)
Coldplay -- Strawberry Swing (Viva La Vida)
Foals -- French Open (Antidotes)
Forward, Russia! -- A Prospector Can Dream (Life Processes)
Blur -- End of a Century (Best Of)
Divine Comedy -- Perfect Lovesong (Regeneration)
Belle & Sebastian -- The Model (Fold Your Hands Child...)
The The -- Love is Stronger than Death (Dusk)
Supergrass -- Low C (Road to Rouen)
Stereo Total -- Moviestar (Stereo Total)

Playlist from Sept 10, 2008

Radiohead -- Let Down (OK Computer)
Jesus and Mary Chain -- April Skies (Darklands)
Suede -- Moving (Suede)
Inspiral Carpets -- I Want You (Saturn 5)
Franz Ferdinand -- Darts of Pleasure (Franz Ferdinand)
The Libertines -- Can't Stand Me Now (The Libertines)
The Rakes -- Retreat (Capture/Release)
Foals -- Cassius (Antidotes)
The Thrills -- Big Sur (So Much For The City)
The Guillemots -- Trains to Brazil (From the Cliffs)
David Bowie -- I'm Deranged (Outside)
Eurythmics -- Missionary Man (Revenge)
The Ting Tings -- That's Not My Name (We Started Nothing)
MIA -- Paper Planes (Kala)
Underworld -- Born Slippy (Trainspotting)
Coldplay -- Viva La Vida (Viva La Vida)
Elbow -- One Day Like This (The Seldom Seen Kid)
The Heavy Blinkers -- He Heard His Song (The Night and I Are Still So Young)
Belle and Sebastian -- Woman's Realm (Fold Your Hands Child You Walk Like a Peasant)
Spiritualized -- Soul on Fire (Songs in A+E)
Rialto -- Monday Morning 5:19 (Rialto)
Supergrass -- Butterfly (Diamond Hoo Ha)
Ed Harcourt -- The Birds Will Sing For Us (From Every Sphere)
Ballboy -- Essential Wear for Future Trips to Space (Club Anthems)

Mercury Music Prize

Yes it's that time again. We're just a couple of hours away from learning who won this year's Mercury Music Prize -- a slightly weird award that started about 15 years ago and is simply given once a year to one band/artist for producing The Best Album of the Year.

There's something about that simplicity that appeals to me. Too often in the world of music awards we get bogged down in splitting the difference between "Best Band," "Best Artist," "Best Act," "Best Single," "Best Song," "Best Album," "Album of the Year," etc. It's like Cannes -- they have about a dozen different prizes and each of them sounds like First Prize.

So, the nominees this year are pretty mixed (and they seem to have dropped the idea of including a classical record just for the sake of tokenism.) Burial, a hotly tipped favourite, would indeed be an outside win (very outside, since nobody even knows who he is or what he looks like) but it's just the kind of edgy move Mercury needs to make after giving the award to the bloody Klaxons last year.

I'd love it to go to Elbow. A win by Radiohead or British Sea Power I will accept. Neon Neon and Last of the Shadow Puppets are also just about OK by me. I really hope it doesn't go to Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, despite the latter having ties to Champaign -- I have yet to be impressed by the record itself. Adele and Estelle cancel each other out. Rachel Unthank and the Winterset are really lovely, and a from-out-of-nowhere win by them would be welcome.

Ah well, we'll know in an hour or so...followup comments to come.