I had decided that my 50,000th track played on last.fm would be carefully chosen and played (just for myself obviously) with a little bit of a celebration. Today I noticed that the Billy Bragg track I was playing was number 50,027 and that the time for celebration had passed. Counting backwards it appears that it passed last night just before I went to bed when I played the new Low xmas single Santa’s Coming Over, that I’d nabbed from some blog somewhere…it wasn’t very good, far too harsh and lacking in melody, not sweet like most of their very wonderful Christmas EP from a few years back.

Oh well – maybe I’ll be more on the ball when I hit 100000.

You can listen to the whole of Low’s good Christmas record on last.fm for free

But despite that I bought myself a xmas pressie of a 12 month sub to last.fm not because I missed being a subscriber after all the benefits of subscription are pretty minor…

• No ads – I haven’t seen an ad on last.fm in the six months I’ve been unsubscribed thanks to Adblock
• Personalised radio – While I’m more inclined to listen to last.fm radio than almost any other radio station I’ve been happy enough with the limited access I’ve had for free.
• Who’s visiting? is a nice little bonus but hardly a clincher especially given that almost no one vistis my profile…
• Red carpet treatment (priority server access) – I can’t say I’ve ever really noticed any server access problems enough to make me dig in my pocket to improve things
• Top secret beta access – I think I can manage without bleeding edge perks.

No…the reason I subscribed is because last.fm is good and, like Flickr, ultimately I’m happy to put a few quid in the coffers of something that I really like.

And despite what Russ from last.fm said in a comment to my post six months ago…

We want people to subscribe because of the features, not because they feel like they’re doing us a favour anyway

…I’m afraid that, while it may not be a “favour”, its closer to that than to anything else.

Along with Flickr and Google (mail, reader, search etc.) last.fm is one of the very few sites that I visit every day – and that’s why I got the urge to come back into the last.fm fold…

I often wake up with music in my head and no real understanding how it got there, more often than not it’ll be Bohemian Rhapsody or the theme from Terry and June. Today it was The Doors. I haven’t listened to The Doors for many MANY years. Part of stretching my musical awareness beyond what the radio or my parents played involved listening to The Doors, as well as Neil Young, The Velvet Underground and stacks of heavy metal. So for a short while in the 5th and lower 6th I listened to The Doors quite a lot. Mostly it was Ray Manzarek (and to a lesser extent Krieger) that kept me listening, not Jim Morrison – in fact I probably stopped listening at the point where I became more aware of Morrison.

I bought a couple of CDs in a sale a few years ago (at least 15 years!) as the records were boxed up somewhere and it was easier to buy cheap CDs rather than hunting down the LPs – but I’m not sure I ever played them…until this morning…when The Doors inexplicably invaded my head.

So the debut album, The Doors, was still astonishingly familiar considering how long it was since I’d dug it out. It was still Manzarek’s keyboards that pulled it all together and it was still Morrison’s voice that started to grate after a while. But while it occasionally drifted into the tiresome (End of the Night) or just plain daft (Alabama Song) I found myself surprised to be quite enjoying a dip into a part of my musical coming-of-age that I have pretty much ignored for the last 20 years.

I pulled out La Woman too but think I might shove it back on the shelves unplayed until next time The Doors get into my head.

Between acts at the Albert Hall last week I started looking around the venue thinking of all the different places I’d sat and I suddenly realised that I’d been to quite a few shows so here’s a top 6 (but aside from the first one they’re not really in any order)…

1. Joanna Newsom – September 2007 – Seat: Arena floor
   The view from the floor was surprisingly good although it helped to have an aisle seat. Spectacular show…but I’ve said all that already.
2. 10,000 Maniacs – November 1989 – Seat: Box
   We were in a box to the left of the stage, a friend of mine got the tickets through his work – we shared the box with this nutter who sang along at the top of his voice for most of the show (until I asked him not to and then he mimed for the rest). I think Indigo Girls may have supported.
3. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – January 1987 – Seat: Stalls
   Elvis was doing a run of shows at the Albert Hall split between being backed by The Confederates and The Attractions…we chose, obviously, to see The Attractions. The seats and the view were excellent, the show wasn’t too bad.
4. Elvis Costello & The Attractions – (July 1994) – Seat: Box
   In 1992 Elvis appeared on Desert Island Discs and chose a bunch of music pretty far removed from the music that he had made (up until that point) and while I was aware of his high-brow pretensions I was disappointed that he seemed to not love the music he made (or the music that influenced the music he made) it was this point that I stopped being a fan. I was surprised therefore that the Elvis wiki seemed to suggest that I saw him play at the RAH in July 1994. We sat in a box at the back of the hall so the stage was a bit distant. Difford and Tilbrook of Squeeze supported.
5. Cowboy Junkies – 1992 – Seat: Circle
   My abiding memory of this gig was the "new" percussionist getting an onstage telling off for making a noise between songs which made me sneer at the precious-ness of the band. I’d loved The Trinity Sessions and quite enjoyed The Caution Horses but my Cowboy Junkies thing pretty much ended there – or maybe, more specifically ended at the point at which Margo turned and stared at the new boy and apologised for him.
6. Frank Sinatra – 199? – Seat: Cheapest – up in the gods…
   We had great seats for this – they were (relatively) cheap and supposedly (I think) restricted, but we were looking right down onto the stage, admittedly from a long way away. We could see Frank’s autocue and so could easily sing along, even to the songs we didn’t know…not that there were any. This was really a case of going because we wouldn’t have another chance…and it was in the days when cheap tickets were within reach (rather than the £100 you’d have to pay for the cheapest Barbra Streisand tickets this year!

I eventually succumbed and do own an album or three but I admire them all the more now that they have finally ditched the label and have decided to release their new record In Rainbows on their own. They have also taken an "honesty box" route by offering the download version at whatever price the customer wants to pay.

It helps that they’re huge and can take a chance on this but I sincerely hope that this proves that you can live outside of the system. Whether it’s HUGE Radiohead or not so huge Kristin Hersh who recently announced that she no longer feels she wants to be a part of the system…

There is today a twisted kind of natural selection in the entertainment industry — a sort of "survival of the blandest" — the result, I imagine, of mind-fucking marketing techniques, bandwagon appeal, hype. To me this stuff is ugly, not beautiful. Given this, I can only assume that record labels are not for me.

…and then there are all the thousands of other acts who have no prospect of becoming the next Radiohead (or even the next Throwing Muses) but who can now use the Internet to find an audience without having to work within the system (because for them the system is broken)…

A big fat pat on the back to Radiohead…and another nail in the coffin of the music industry.

Recently I’ve found it hard to enjoy music in big sit down venues so despite the long wait (I’ve had the tickets for six months!) I was a little apprehensive about seeing Joanna Newsom at the Royal Albert Hall. Ys may be the best album I own and that’s the first time I’ve said that about a non Galaxie 500 album in a very VERY long time. I’m not sure it can work like that – it exists so far removed from anything else I own that it seems almost ridiculous to set it alongside the indie-guitar music that makes up so much of my listening.

So anyway I arrived at the RAH just as The Moore Brothers set was finishing up and I opted for the lav and a bottle of water over catching the end of it, I hadn’t been all that impressed by what I’d heard on the Internet but should probably give them a bit more of my attention (particularly given Joanna’s effusive praise). Roy Harper arrived on stage at eight and played through his 1969/1971 album Stormcock…it was great to hear and he still has a great voice and presence.

As an aside, my first introduction to Roy Harper was in the middle of my Heavy Metal phase (probably 80 or 81) and my cousin Clare asked if I could go and buy her Bullinamingvase, I guess because it was hard to get a hold of in Cork. I was happy to oblige but equally happy to mock her for listening to such "old" music – I taped it before I passed it on (because I did that with any album that passed through the house). It was probably ten years before I actually listened to it and became aware that my mockery was very poorly placed and that it was me whose blinkered attitude was deserving of mockery.

Anyway, Joanna arrived on stage to a rapturous welcome – I’m still astounded at just how successful she has become – she is, after all, a stunningly individual and unique talent (on an indie label) and that sort of talent doesn’t often get recognised (probably Bjork and Kate Bush are the obvious exceptions). She opened with Bridges and Balloons, which seems to be the norm, and then played an astounding set including all of Ys (not together), a couple from The Milk Eyed Mender, Colleen, a trad song and a new song. High point in a show of astounding highs was Sawdust and Diamonds. It was great hearing Ys in the stripped back and stunnigly beautiful (four-piece) arrangements it worked so much better than I imagined it would (even if the Ys Street Band EP had given clues…)

She seemed genuinely in awe of the venue, the audience and particularly of Roy Harper’s performance, about which she gushed enthusiastically, which solicited a shouted "you’re welcome" from Roy in a box at the back of the hall.

So apprehension was misplaced, it was an astounding performance. She is a treasure.

Oh and that’s now two acts I can cross off My Top 6…bands or artists I’ve never seen live

The very very lovely Blanket finally have a real album out. Blankit is out now on Try Harder and can be bought from there or directly from the band

As much as I’ve loved all the downloads and the lovingly crafted CDRs I’m quite looking forward to having something "real" to love and cherish…

Previous declarations of my Blanket love can be found here and here.

The project slipped…and slipped…partially because I was trying to get up the nerve to put together a contribution of my own (something that never happened) but mostly because I was just crap at getting things together…I started trying to ignore the reminders I set for myself but by the end of 2005 it was getting embarrassing.

I decided to scale down the ambition and go for a CDR and a laser printed b/w sleeve and so in March 2006 the tribute finally saw the light of day. I can’t remember how many copies I sold/gave away (probably 80 or so).

But it was really too good a project to leave it at that. One of the contributers, mkorchia of the very excellent Watoo Watoo suggested a few months back that I should put the album on line somewhere – and even that took me bloody ages!

But here it is…finally…

You can download the complete album for nothing…

Decomposing – the songs of Galaxie 500 and Luna

Download the album

Please download it and enjoy it becuase it deserves a listen…and try not to think about the fact that it took me three years to do…I try not to!

1. Petra Haden – God Only Knows
   As far as I can tell this is only available on Petra’s web site and is a beautiful a-capella version of a beautiful song…I have been thoroughly enjoying her a-capella albuum of The Who Sell Out but this is sweeter because…well The Beach Boys are so much sweeter than The Who.
2. Schrasj – Tower
   I thought I’d blogged about this before but I guess not. This was released as a 7" single on Fantastic records and is one I never get tired of listening to. I think there’s a Rogue Wave connection that I never followed up on because I never got that excited by Rogue Wave. This website implies that there’s is still a little life in Schrasj.
3. The Divine Comedy – My Lovely Horse
   I put this on to cheer Adam up but it mostly cheered me up…if there was a silly grin on my face it was almost certain that My Lovely Horse was in my ears. Father Ted was a work of genius and "A Song for Europe" may well have been it’s pinnacle (although it had so many highs I’m not willing to commit to that)…but we have to lose that sax solo!
4. Bearsuit – Stephen Fucking Spielberg
   Bearsuit keep making the sort of indiepop music that just sticks – I’m a fairly recent convert although I downloaded this from eMusic a few months ago (although like too much recently this has now gone AWOL from eMusic (UK) recently) my interest was reinvigorated because of gordonballboy mentioning them periodically in his lovely podcasts.
5. Espers – Flaming Telepaths
   Karen & Robert has a Best of Blue Öyster Cult CD in their car so I finally got the opportunity to hear the original which I’m not sure was quite as bad as moley75 thought, but did sound terribly dated whereas the Espers version sounds timeless.
6. Nina Nastasia – This Is What It Is
   I love the strings and accordion that open and underpin this song – it seemed to work perfectly with the rhythm of the train.

Maybe if we all rush out and buy their fab new album la fuite mk could afford a grown up guitar

La Fuite has a very sweet cover of Luna‘s Chinatown that made its first appearance on the very rare "Decomposing" CDR (a tribute to Luna & Galaxie 500). It’s only rare because I was a rubbish at marketing it – I might try and get it online somewhere after the summer…