Lots going on, honest!
Check the gig previews page for details - but in brief coming up tonight is the first Blueprint featuring Throat, Torgas Valley Reds and Los Cabras, tomorrow is the monthly Howl club at the New Orpheus and Saturday is the launch of Nova Wreck issue 5 at the Front Page featuring Yakuza and Torgas Valley Reds amongst others. Hopefully I will get time to tidy this post later.

More lists!
Soon everything will be back to normal, but at the moment I'm typing with this keyboard in the top drawer of a chest of drawers as we are in the middle of moving house!
If you like lists you should check out DJ Martian's blog which links to dozens of them - pretty exhaustive stuff.
Our readers albums of 2002 are now up on a separate page which can be found here, my own list and brief comments will be ready tomorrow. Meanwhile here are my 10 fave gigs of 2002.....

1. BRIAN WILSON London Royal Festival Hall, June
2. CORNELIUS London Royal Festival Hall, May
3. GODSPEED YOU BLACK EMPEROR Hackney Ocean, March
4. ESG London Bagleys, April
5. SONIC YOUTH Shepherds Bush Empire, June
6. YO LA TENGO The Sounds of Science at Barbican, April
7. JAD FAIR + TEENAGE FANCLUB Barbican, April
8. SOLEX Barbican aftershow, April
9. SUEDE Belfast Limelight, Sept
10. JAMES YORKSTON Belfast Errigle, Sept

Again, these will be mentioned in more detail on a separate page very soon.

Polls and stuff
I have spent quite a while collating your contributions for the reader's poll, cursing myself for making it so complicated! I had hoped that my plan would make it diverse if only 3 or 4 people voted but I ended up with fifteen widely varying lists, I also noticed that a lot of my choices weren't going to count so I didn't include my own in the vote - I have a separate chin-stroker list on the way! Here is your discerning and diverse top 40....

1= Wilco Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
1= The Streets Original Pirate Material
3. The Flaming Lips Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots
4. EL-P Fantastic Damage
5. Boards Of Canada Geogaddi
6. Sonic Youth Murray Street
7. Lambchop Is A Woman
8. Liars They Threw Us All In A Trench...
9. Sleater-Kinney One Beat
10. Tom Waits Alice
11. Beck Sea Change
12=. Spoon Kill The Moonlight
12=. And you will know us by the Trail of Dead Source Codes and Tags
14. Tom Waits Blood Money
15. DJ/Rupture Minesweeper Suite
16. Interpol Turn On The Bright Lights
17. Akufen My Way
18. Beth Gibbons & Rustin Man Out Of Season
19. Queens Of The Stone Age Songs For The Deaf
20. Godspeed you black emperor - yanqui uxo
21. Low Trust
22. Suicide American Supreme
23= The Notwist Neon Golden
23= Sigur Ros ()
25. Badly Drawn Boy Have You Fed The Fish?
26. Doves The Last Broadcast
27. The Delgados Hate
28. Johnny Cash American IV - the Man Comes Around
29. Jim O'Rourke Insignificance
30. DJ Shadow The Private Press
31. Antipop Consortium Arrhythmia
32. rjd2 - Dead Ringer
33. Missy Elliott Under Construction
34. Pretty girls make graves - Good Health
35. Songs: Ohia Didn’t it Rain
36. The Books Thought for Food
37. Breeders Title TK
38. Desert Hearts Let’s get Worse
39. Ben Kweller Sha sha
40. Asa-chang & Junray Jun Ray Song Chang

Surprised? I thought the top end turned out quite predictably but there was nice variety lower down. For the life of me I have no idea who the Books or Pretty Girls make Graves are, but they got votes from three separate people so there you go. Comments on the message board if you like....


Oh, and John Peel's Festive 50 is now listed online.

It's that time of year again!
Yes, I'm still here but I'm in the middle of moving house and I've been completely bogged down with collating the reader's poll/ albums of the year - it will be up here on the 1st or 2nd along with my own review of the year. I never see the point in posting these things til the year is finally over. There are some very bizarre choices in a lot of end of year polls and Peel's Festive 50 was disappointing too [No web link to it yet I'm afraid]. The Wire have Sonic Youth's Murray Street at number one, which is weird because alothough it's my most listened to record this year I didn't think it was that highly rated.
Just about recovered from Christmas festivities, two great nights at Auntie Annies in particular - the long awaited debut of Josh Mills and the Olympic Lifts Xmas party with Go Commando and Tracer AMC.

Well and truly into the silly season
Lots and lots of going out to do, and a website to update before the end of the year! Polls are happening left, right and centre - details of ours is on the message board. If you want to know what all the other zines and weblogs are choosing there's a good thread over at I Love Music which collects a lot of the lists together.
I went to a great show last night - The National, Desert Hearts and Barry Peak played Auntie Annies - the sound was the best I had ever heard in there and all of the acts were great. The National had driven from London to Belfast and hadn't had any sleep, despite this they won a lot of people over, though I think their record is even better than their live show. Desert Hearts were also the worse for wear, but they were stunning - the best gig I've seen them play although I'm sure they won't believe me!

December always turns out to be a bit busy on the events front. Tonight our work Xmas party conflicts with Suede and Doves free Witnness bash at the Mandela Hall (all tickets snaffled I'm afraid) and the very tempting Monkey vs Robot club at the Menagerie. Don't forget to check out our gig previews forum for details of events - and post your own as well!
Hopefully some site updates will happen tomorrow as my keyboard has now come back to life and the E, D, and C keys are working at the moment.

Mary Hansen of Stereolab has died
I'm very sad to hear that Mary Hansen of Stereolab has been killed in a cycling accident in London. I had met her on both Stereolab's visits to Belfast, and then when I moved to London she seemed to be an ever present fixture on the gig going front. I know a lot of people are going to miss her.
A formal announcement is on the Stereolab site, the news story can be found at the NME.

BelFEST
This year was the first time I had been in Belfast for BelFEST and I made the most of it, I saw around 15 acts. It was odd that I thought a lot of the solo acts stole the show - Kidd Dynamo on his own, Robyn Shiels and Barry Peak in particular. One negative side to the whole thing is that the accompanying CD hasn't made into the shops yet and the festival is over. It's quite ironic that when I lived in London people had no trouble getting me copies!

It's nearly end-of-year round-up time, although I always refuse to publish mine until January in case I discover something too late to include. We're running a reader's poll as opposed to a simple albums list like last year, the details are on the message board now. Closing date 31 December.

Post-Mascis, pre-BelFEST
I thought that J Mascis was great at Belfast Limelight last night - excellent guitar playing, some strong new material and classic Dinosaur tunes to keep everyone happy. Spotted in the crowd - Kevin Shields and Ryan Adams. Kevin was there because his brother Jimi was the support act and he didn't join in with Mascis's set as many had hoped. In fact the whole Shields family were there and were sitting right in front of me. I hadn't heard of Jimi Shields since the demise of his band Rollerskate Skinny, and now that he is back in business I'm tempted to upload an old interview I did with them (Weedbus 7 I think).
Tomorrow (or later today by the time I post this!) BelFEST kicks off. There are 16 bands playing for free at four venues on Wednesday 27. For more details check their website. It looks like we'll be doing something like this....
9pm Empire - Somedaysbetter, maybe watch a bit of Panda Kopanda
10.15 Katys - Go Commando, maybe catch a bit of Los Cabras
11.15 Auntie Annies - Kidd Dynamo
12.30 Limelight - Olympic Lifts
... and that's probably as much as I can manage!

Gig previews page - now working
Post your own event details at the new previews page. The suggested format is "Name/ Venue/ Date" in the subject line, with prices, times etc in the message. I'll also be using it to post info that I have been emailed as well, but feel free to post your own!

The Feline Dream - now in Belfast Limelight
Yes, the Feline Dream show this Sunday (17th Nov) has been moved from the Empire to the Limelight. More details at www.felinedream.co.uk.
Apologies for the lack of updates, but I've been tinkering around with the inner workings of the site. The first results of this are the imminent reintroduction of the 'previews' page, where you can post your own event details. It should be ready to use early next week.
Other developments? Well, in the next couple of weeks you can expect some pruning of the archives, some new reviews and interviews, maybe even a new front page! Hopefully we will be able to include some audio on the site - specifically from unsigned bands who lack a bit of web presence. More info soon.

Monkey versus Robot
News of a new club - 'Monkey vs Robot' which starts in the Menagerie on Thursday 7th November. They say the music features 'robotic exotic' & 'simian sound rock'n'roll': a mixture of stuff really: see their website for more details of the music they feature.
Admission is £3.00 and the club runs 9pm-late.

I am thinking about re-opening the Previews section of the site now that I'm back in Belfast and I'm getting emails almost every day about interesting events. You would use it this time wouldn't you???

Ninety Nine + Estel + Tracer AMC - tonight!!
It's almost too late to plug this, but Ninety Nine are playing at Auntie Annies in Belfast tonight. Support comes from Estel and Tracer AMC, doors 9pm, £4 (£3 concessions) -more details, some music and lots of info here, some older Ninety Nine mp3s here

Max Tundra - Halloween night
I should have plugged this before now, but just a reminder that Max Tundra is playing the Menagerie, University St, Belfast, tomorrow night, doors 8.30pm, dress freaky, £7 on the door. He will be playing a live set with Becky Jacobs, presumably concentrating on his new album 'Mastered by Guy at the Exchange' (Domino). Support comes from Clone Quartet (live set) and Jupiter Ace (DJ set). Looks like I'm going to miss it, which is a shame....

---

Culture?? What culture?
As you may have noticed in the news today, Belfast has failed to make the shortlist for the European City of Culture 2008. Despite being an early bookies favourite, Belfast lost out to Birmingham, Bristol/ Bath, Liverpool, Cardiff, Oxford and Newcastle/ Gateshead. The obvious reason seems to have been the ongoing sectarian violence and collapse of the power-sharing executive, but the committee must surely have been aware of the flipside to the much-hyped Cathedral Quarter/ Waterfront Hall story. The closure of the Arts Theatre, the lack of decent rehearsal space for bands and artists, the absence of major art galleries, theatre companies and the inability to see a film in the city centre after 9pm on a weeknight were surely contributory factors in the decision.
Everyone that lives here knows that there are a lot of good things about the arts and culture in Belfast. The fact that most of it remains at a relatively underground level is a shame though. One piece on the television even used Van Morrison to illustrate Belfast's culture, and while I don't expect them to latch on to the latest unsigned bands I should expect them to at least have heard of David Holmes!
If the powers that be ever decide to bid for this again let's hope it's not as blinkered and highbrow as this attempt.

---

28 Days Later Q+A at the QFT
This Northern Ireland premiere of the latest Danny Boyle movie was well worth the effort. Without wishing to spoil it for people who have yet to see it, the movie is set in a plague infected Britain where most people are either dead or zombies. It is certainly not an easy view and in the wrong hands it could have been a disaster, but it's a credit to both Boyle and the screenwriter Alex Garland that it succeeds. In fact the deserted central London scenes are near-genius, an empty capital revealed to the soundtrack of 'East Hastings' from Godspeed You Black Emperor's first album. Boyle, Garland and the two stars (Cillian Murphy and Naomie Harris) all hung around afterwards to answer questions and give us a bit of insight into the making of the movie. Tales of early morning filming in central London and remote locations in the Lake District, the influences of Nicholas Roeg, the Dogme school and George Romero, and a detailed denial of why the title isn't connected to the menstrual cycle (you can always trust a Belfast audience to ask an odd question!). However, it was noticeable that Boyle and Garland didn't seem that comfortable together and perhaps their blending of disparite influences hasn't led to a happy working relationship. Whatever, it turned out fine in the end, go and see it.

28 Days Later- Special Screening
The eagerly awaited new movie from Trainspotting director Danny Boyle will get a special preview screening tomorrow night at the QFT in Belfast. Both Boyle and screenwriter Alex Garland will be taking part in a Q+A session afterwards. Booking is essential as less than 30 tickets were left at lunchtime today. More details here

Would you buy a used car from Belle and Sebastian?
Belle and Sebastian singer Stuart Murdoch is selling his classic Ford on eBay! All proceeds to Friends of the Earth. The auction link is here.

A slight update - and some Chris Morris news
Some reviews added to the database - not one but TWO Embers reviews, an updated Olympic Lifts page, and the long-awaited Brian Wilson review which have people have been regularly googling their way here to read. The wait is over!!

Interesting news from Warp Records about the latest Chris Morris adventure. His short film "My Wrongs Nos 8245-8249 and 117" will be shown at the London Film Festival on November 14 and 15. More details on the Warp website.

How indie are you?
This seems to have turned into a news-based front page rather than a journal of rambling self-indulgence. To try and redress the balance a bit I took the 'How Indie are you?' test, here's the result!
i am a scenester!




How indie are you? test by ridethefader

You are so indie it hurts. You hang out with the coolest people in your city. It doesn't even bother
you that none of them know your name. You know lots of bands personally, you know a couple of
guys from We Hate The Mainstream Records, and you blag your way into getting almost
everything for free. That fanzine you write gives you extra kudos. You probably don't
even care that non-scenesters think you're a pretentious fuck.

(ha!)

---

[mrs thrills fared somewhat differently!.....
i am not indie at all!




How indie are you? test by ridethefader

Who are you trying to fool? Just because you own a couple of Weezer albums
doesn't mean that you're uberindie. Indie people don't hear about cutting edge
new bands from MTV. At least the ignorant don't know what they're missing...]

Cornershop statement
They're still very much an active group according to this statement released to the NME.
More news on the Hydropnic night on Sat 12th Oct at the Front Page, Donegall St, Belfast. Admission £8 / pay at the door 9:30 - 2:30
It features Cornershop: Exclusive DJ Set + Braille Acoustics (Live) + Hydroponic DJ's.
From the press release...."Cornershop main man Ben Ayres will be performing for the first time in
Northern Ireland. He will be mixing up a set of all the genres that
have influenced the band, including funk, house, breaks, dub and electro."

Should be a good one.

HOWL - back in a new venue
From 4th October, HOWL will take place in The New Orpheus (University St) on the first Friday of every month. Their press release says
The premises may have changed but the HOWL ideology remains the same. HOWL still inhabits a universe a million light years from the commercial gay scene. HOWL is a space for queer folk and their friends who get off on a different kind of beat and a much more left of centre attitude.
Our agenda is simple.
To hell with the "pink pound" sheep mentality - create your own imaginative queer culture.
The vibe will remain an eclectic mix of indie, rock, funk, hip hop and a bit of whatever, brought to you by people who love the music as much as you do. On top of that there’s the free HOWL zine, bringing you the best in avant garde nonsense with a queer bent.

HOWL - Alternative Music Queer Club
Friday 4th October
The New Orpheus, University St, Belfast
9pm - late, £4