Ketchup!

Playing catch up is not an easy thing.

I remember when i was back at school, and 'sports day' was one of the highlights of the summer. Basically, you didn't have to go to class, you just went to a running track and performed in a scaled-down Olympics. It was fairly mundane, but the thought of not having to sit through a class recital of Lord Of The Flies made me think I was getting a good deal.

I always managed to worm my way out of doing many of the events, as i wasn't really the 'sporty' type. At worst I would be put into the 'Shuttle relay', which basically consisted of running 50 meters in a straight line and handing a baton to the next unwilling participant.

However, this year was different. The guy (who will remain nameless) that was running the 400m decided that he would sprain some meaningless muscle in his leg, meaning that some unfortunate soul was going to have to take his place. After much argument from both sides of the fence, that unfortunate soul turned out to be me (click here).

When i say i can't really run, that would be an understatement. I find it hard walking the stairs at home without wheezing and gagging for a cigarette, let alone cantering along 400m worth of reddish pink track.

I take my place at the starting line. The gun sounds, I run, the crowd cheers. I get to around the 150m mark and I seem to be doing okay, as I can see the other guys around me. My confidence in my ability was premature. I got to around the 250m/300m mark and I got this weird sensation in my legs. This sensation could be known to the common man as 'Jelly Legs'. All of a sudden my legs turned into liquid and I was struggling to stand up, let alone run.

I look off into the distance to see the rest of the guys close to finishing the race, whilst I have now got to the point where i am walking the remainder of the track. A few people in the crowd start cheering my name, more out of sympathy than anything, which urges me to cross the finish line, about one minute after the rest of the group mind you.

So yes, catching up is a problem, especially when you get a sudden case of 'Jelly Legs'. I'm nearly three quarters of the way through 2008 and I've only just started writing about this years music, so I'm going to summarize the years best so far with a variety of splendid videos.

Frightened Rabbit - The Midnight Organ Fight

Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

Bon Iver - For Emma, Forever Ago

No Age - Nouns

Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid

The Grand Archives - The Grand Archives




M83 - Saturdays=Youth

That's just few samples from many good albums I've heard this year. Also check out the new albums from My Morning Jacket, The Ruby Suns, The Notwist, Los Campesinos!, Lightspeed Champion, Vampire Weekend, MGMT, Wolf Parade, British Sea Power, Why?, Nick Howard, The Mae Shi & Cut Copy.

Also, if you want to listen to a selection from some of the above, then check out my mix on Muxtape. You can find it here.


BAM

Snob? Moi?

So I've been called a music snob from time to time due to my taste, which has led me to look up the word 'snob' on the ever reliable Wikipedia (If its on Wikipedia then it must be true, right?).

"A snob, guilty of snobbery, is someone who adopts the worldview that some people are inherently inferior to him/her for any one of a variety of reasons including real or supposed intellect, wealth, education, ancestry, etc."

In that extremely accurate excerpt i don't spy the word 'music' anywhere? Do you?

Its not as if i when i find a band or an artist that i don't like i look down upon my peers and say 'for liking this ear pollution you must feel the wrath of the music gods' and point my fore finger at them is it? see figure on left.

I simply say: 'No, they are shit, that's why i don't like them.' And to be honest, I'm usually right. Oh wait, does that make me a snob?

Any of my friends will tell you that i am neither vastly intellectual, extremely wealthy, or highly educated, so going by the above explanation it would mean i am not a snob. (this may be subject to change after further investigation into my ancestry).

I think when people call me a music snob, they are simply complimenting me on my eclectic and superior taste in music to theirs, which i will gladly accept, so thanks!

Starting a music blog about your likes/dislikes would be the perfect way to prove your snobbery, right?

Wrong! This is the perfect way for me to prove having good taste in music and disliking others is my opinion and nothing else.

So from here on out, i'll be posting non-snobby (wiki that one) and extremely intuitive ditties about whats spinning in my cd player, crashing on my ipod and streaming through the interweb.

So i'll leave you with something that i found. Which i think perfectly sums up a lot of what I've just penned.

http://www.myspace.com/thesnobsrock

BAM