The Sunday Round-up

So how blog-slack have I been? Was I wallowing in a cultureless pit you say? Why no! In fact I’m going to share my artsy wandering with you in my new slot The Sunday round-up. Sounds exciting doesn’t it?! Well first off, I’ve been in a musical time warp this week, a bit like Kylie Minogue when she steps back in time, except I’m a lot taller than Kylie. I mean a LOT taller. So, the time warp- well it started with the new Breeders album, Mountain Battles. At first I was just really enjoying the groovy old Breedersiness of it all, but after a few listens I was kind of pining for just a little bit of innovation; a few bleeps and squirls, some synths, some effects, you know, just a nod to acknowledge that the 90s did actually happen . I felt something similar about the new Gutter Twins album Saturnalia, which takes you back to a similar era. The original grunge king Mark Lanegan has teamed up with Aghan Whigs’ Greg Dulli for, well sort of grungy early 90s rock music. Which sounds like I’m slagging it off- but it’s actually pretty engaging if you like, well, grungy early 90s rock music, which I quite do. One can’t help imagining how both of these bands might sound if someone like U.N.C.L.E or the Chemical Brothers got their hands on them though. Now that would be something. Just a little warning- the Afghan Whigs is only the first of several bad band names I’ll be mentioning today. So brace yourself. Still on the retro theme, how disappointing are Biffy Clyro? (See what I mean about the band names?) I was enjoying that new single Who’s got a match so I decided to give Puzzle a go. They sound like some crap American teenage band from back in the day. You know, like Good Charlotte; or My Chemical Romance. And I don’t mean that in a good way. Who came up with the idea that this band are cool? With that ersatz American accent, those poser beards and those piss poor lyrics? Moving swiftly on, Elbow (oh for fuck’s sake) have got a great single out called Grounds for Divorce, taken off their new album The Seldom Seen Kid out on March 17^th. I am enjoying their ugliness. Go and have a look. Good news too, the wonderful Bon Iver is playing with the wonderful Iron and Wine, on 12^th May. I mean, what a dreamy combination! Ok, it’s in Glasgow, which is enough to take the sheen off, but them’s the breaks. Bon Iver put a video out this week actually, for The Wolves (part I and II), which suggests strongly that if you take yourself to a log cabin in the middle of nowhere in winter after you’ve been dumped, there isn’t much to do except make fires and write songs about your big thoughts. This video, you know, tells it like it is. Finally, I’ve been having my heart broken almost daily by Milo and Isaac, off the Pedigree dog adverts (I wonder when they lost the ‘chum’?) It’s the line ‘I know I’m a good dog’ that really gets me, suggesting as it does, that ‘I know I’m a good dog, so why does my owner keep putting fags out on me and making me sleep in my own shit?’ Watch this then listen to For Emma forever ago and listen to the sound of your own heart breaking.