Bangkok has him now

That's me there with a soft ball bat in Bangkok, so yes I have been busy now as a English teacher living out in Thailand and perhaps I'll get back to actually posting on this here blog again now, but I probably wouldn't count on it, anyway I saw the Hangover 2 recently hence the quote.

Its been a while

It really has been too long, so I'm just posting again to say that hopefully this time I can make it stick and start posting on this blog again, I'm posting now just to say I'm still here and still apprerciate all e-mails and comments. I've done a lot of things since I last posted on here by far and away the most notable was being on that freezing cold Washington Mall a certain day in January to witness history, I've also sent in a sitcom script to the BBC and most recently I may be back on the radio with a local radio station. So I want to post on this blog again and hopefully this time I'll keep it up.

A formidible leap

It is no secret that this blog has clearly been neglected for some time now, the last post was three monts ago, and the last regular post was even further back, the truth is that I have had some life things to deal with (I now work 1-9 on week days) and I haven't really got organised with posting stuff on here, I still am not organised but I thought I'd post today just to see if I can start fairly regular posts going again and also I just checked one (of a lot) e-mail from a member of a band called The Joy Formidable it was a brief message but I thought 'hey why not' so I clicked on the bally ol' hyperlink and found to my slight (very good) surprise that rather then being a band like so many on MySpace sounding good but not great I found a band on the verge of greatness with a sound that manages to mash-up many influences into a big tasty music smoothy they'll remind you perhaps of the more anthemic sounding of Arcade Fire's songs and maybe the rock energy of the likes of the Duke Spirit, anyway they have three songs available on their MySpace to download, I would highly recommend that you get over there and download them all whilst you still can because if they don't get signed to a label sometime this year I'll eat my hat and become a reclusive newt obsessive. Well then right-ho hopefully I'll start posting at least a bit regularly from now on and all that rot.

My Shadow Falls over Blue Roses

Something that caught my eye in my packed inbox (and believe me I will never get round to checking everything out but I'm going to attempt to do so this week, especially since I quit my evening part-time job) was a new musical duo of Dan Bejar and Sydney Vermont ( who are "romantically entwined" which sounds better then "going out with each other") who "conjure a timeless collection as Hello, Blue Roses" anyway it caught my eye and the available mp3 'Shadow Falls' caught my ear in that despite the presence of the highly recognisable (maybe even ubiquitous) vocals of Dan Bejar, and some of the guitar work certainly reminded me of Destroyer it actually sounded very different to a lot of music being pumped out at all times by everyone, I think that the fact that Sydney Vermont's vocals are really the lead vocals helps as she has a voice not entirely disimilar to the likes of Kate Bush and Elizabeth Frasier which lends a blissed-out 80s vibe enhanced also by the electronic backing sounds which sound like they have been taken straight from 'Blade Runner' at one point, worth a listen I would say and don't forget to check their MySpace for another different sounding but perhaps more immediate 'Hello, Blue Roses' (title track).

MP3: Hello, Blue Roses-Shadows Fall
Buy: Hello, Blue Roses-S/T (released January 22nd)

Frozen precipitation in German capital

Or Snow In Berlin a newly available song from Austin's Zookeeper, a band I've taken a shine to recently. I think this song is an absolutely perfect song for the incoming long winter nights, not only does it have 'snow' in the title making it easy fodder for any winter compilation, its the sort of song that a family can gather round and enjoy as the nights come sooner and sooner.

MP3: Zookeeper-Snow In Berlin
Pre-Order: Zookeeper-Becoming All Things (with limited edition autographed booklet)

Classic Video Day-Galactica

any Galactica fan probably knows about these series of Adama flashbacks to the first Cylon war but this one is particularly epic, I can't wait for Razor and the 4th (and last!!) series. If you haven't already checked out Battlestar Galactica you are probably living under a rock or something.

MP3:Battlestar Galactica Music (why not)
Pre-Order: Razor

Becoming Beautiful

Well, haven't posted for a while and I have been sent so much music I thought "I'm going to sift through this and actually start posting regularly" so I started with the most recent e-mail which informed me about a band called Zookeeper who are releasing an album 'Becoming All Things' on November 6th (in the US), they are from Austin, Texas (quite a hotbed of talent recently) and I really enjoyed what I've heard from this album thus far a kind of indie-folk-pop mix with vocals that suit the music down to the ground, the two tracks made available are 'Trumpets' a sprawling, laid-back melodious number and the album title track which is a slow burning build with incredibly well done instrumentation gradually adding layers to the song before it reaches its climax. Well worth a listen. Moving away from that perhaps I should actually write a review for 'In Rainbows' to make up for the 'First Proper Review' which seems to have annoyed (although also entertained) some people, let me just say I'm not sure what possesed me to write it and I didn't think people would actually read it anyway, maybe I'll review the Britney Spears album after that, as thats "on my level" according to one anonymous remark who also used the phrase "faux witticisms" which I never expected to read in a blog comment, brilliant.

MP3s: Zookeeper-Trumpets
Zookeeper-Becoming All Things

Pre-Order (or more accurately buy when its available): Zookeper-Becoming All Things