A league table of my top 15 favourite bands

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Although a member for a good while longer, I’ve only really been using Last.fm for just over six months. It’s pretty good. I like the way it recommends stuff based on your listening history – I’ve found some new stuff through that, which is nice. The charts that show your favourite bands and tracks are particularly cool. My top 15 most listened to bands of the last six months-or-so is very shoegaze/post rock biased:

  1. Slowdive 
  2. Stars of the Lid
  3. Helios
  4. Sigur Ros
  5. Goldmund
  6. M83
  7. Immanu El
  8. Mahogany
  9. Mogwai
  10. God is an Astronaut
  11. Boards of Canada
  12. My Bloody Valentine
  13. Monster Movie
  14. Styrofoam
  15. Eluvium

Basically, I like stuff that drones. I pretty much know something is going to be my bag when I read words and terms in a review like dischord, processed sound, tape loops, repetition and electronica. Nice.

Anybody know anything about location-based services?

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I’m putting together a feature on location-based services for CIO Connect’s spring 2009 magazine (brief below). As ever, I’m looking to talk to CIOs that have implemented are – or are thinking about implementing – location-based services. Here’s the brief – and ping me an email if you have any leads:

Location-based services and presence – Modern mobile devices offer a host of possibilities for CIOs. Location-based services can allow the business to deliver geographically-sensitive information. What types of location-based services can help CIOs change business processes? Potential areas of discussion include convergence, presence and tracking.

Emmanuel Eboué is just a small fish in a bigger prawn sandwich

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“It was a moment that summed up the vein-bulging temper and perversity of the modern football fan,” begins David Hytner’s review of the Arsenal vs Wigan game  from last Saturday. “It perhaps went even further and offered pointers about society in general.”

Hytner was referring to Arsenal’s own fans booing Emmanuel Eboué for a series of mistakes. Eboué was eventually substituted. Whether the incident offered a broader comment on society is a moot point but I really liked this part of Hytner’s review:

“Blame the credit crunch. Attending matches is not cheap, especially in these parlous times and, after a hard week, some modern fans have no time for underperforming players, particularly not those who earn in a week what they do in a year. They pay their money, they bubble with indignation and they have a right to express their opinions. Loudly. Call it Wembley syndrome. The England players Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole would relate to that. Many supporters no longer feel the duty to support. They are now consumers and, if the product is not up to scratch, they wonder why they should tolerate it.”

Everyone is a consumer now; everyone is obsessed with consuming. Rather than being about cheap boiled sweets and empty stands, football is more about champagne and Sky’s TV money. The ordinary man (or woman) on the stands has been pushed to the side, not just by money-obsessed executives – but also by the game itself and its obsession with ‘markets’ and ‘consumers’. And that is the saddest thing of all.

Nick Drake and Zippy from Rainbow

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Nick Drake would surely have approved of this:

Nick Drake performs Rainbow (kind of)

There’s real attention to detail, especially the sad face at the window. But it’s just the titles – no Zippy, I’m afraid. The orange one often appears in YouTube searches in our house, primarily because my daughter is a big fan of Rainbow. She is not the only fan, though.

Personally, I like the DVD where Zippy’s cousin from the US, Zippo, turns up and spends most of the episode rapping. I can’t find it on YouTube, but take it from me – it’s excellent stuff. By means of an apology, here’s some more information on Zippo from Wikipedia :

Zippo, Zippy’s cousin, identical in appearance to Zippy, who would make the occasional guest appearance. Originally portrayed as an eloquent Frenchman, but a later episode depicted him as an American-accented rapper with loud, flashy clothing.

Psychogeographic rock recalls joys of the West Midlands

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Sometimes you miss an article that you later find and think: “Hmmm, this looks tasty”. I’ve just had such an episode, discovering and then reading ‘A sonic postcard from the past’ from The Guardian in early June:

In quiet corners of the British Isles, a strange kind of nostalgic music is prospering. Some of it summons up disused railway tracks and endless childhood summers through guitar drones, samples and field recordings…

…begins the article. They had me at the ‘endless childhood summers through guitar drones’ bit. The article goes on to discuss how a bunch of like-minded artists are making music inspired by concrete precincts and old ordnance survey maps. In other words, the best bits of geography.

The piece refers to a bunch of artists who often hail from the West Midlands and who make music that recalls all the best bits of the last 30-odd years of UK music. Basically we’re talking about my musical bag: Brian Eno’s ambience, shoegazing and 80s indie pop.

I’ve been listening to two of the main protagonists for a while, namely Epic45 and July Skies – both of whom rely on the skills of Anthony Harding. I’ve seen both acts associated with shogazing and post rock, but not Psychogeography – which according to The Guardian: “is the study of the spooky effects of the geographical environment on individuals”.

But whatever the ‘tag’, I like the sentimental mix of geography, guitar drones and the West Midlands.

Beary Happy Wishes

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“Let’s go in here,” I said. And I soon regretted my decision. Four pounds for a teddy bear holding some balloons? Now that’s expensive.

It was a ‘table top’ sale at an old people’s home. I thought there might be a bargain or two; maybe an interesting thing or two. I was wrong. There wasn’t much there and the stuff they did have was pricey. Not that my daughter cared, who co-opted me into purchasing the pricey teddy and a soft toy puppy. Two pounds for the puppy, by the way.

Anyway, I have returned home and completed my research. Here is a picture of the teddy, whose real name is apparently ‘Nina: Beary Happy Wishes’.

The above teddy is available on eBay, you lucky people. And at $5, the little chap works out better value than our second hand teddy. You also get the original box and papers, which is great – if you happen to collect ‘Chreished Teddies’ (as I now know the collection is called).

Still, my daughter seems to like Nina the teddy   – which is the main thing, I guess.