Portishead – Mysterons

Sparklehorse – Homecoming Queen

Joanna Newsom – Bridges and Balloons

Love – My Little Red Book

The Velvet Underground – Sunday Morning

Patti Smith – Gloria

First up obviously (well it was obvious to me)…

The Sweet – Blockbuster

The Clash – White Riot (thanks to Harvey for pointing me at this one)

Frankie Goes to Hollywood – Two Tribes (thanks to Jim for this one)

The Ruts – Babylon’s Burning

Girlschool – Demolition Boys (sadly no clip of the album version with the siren so you’ll have to imagine it… this is a great clip though).

13th Floor Elevators – Fire Engine

The Sweet – Blockbuster

T-Rex – Jeepster

Mott The Hoople – Roll Away The Stone

David Bowie – Life on Mars

Faces – Maggie May

First up Lily Allen’s LDN – maybe it is a hateful sneer at London but I don’t think so – I think it’s a realistic and in ways, affectionate painting of London. If you look hard at anything you start to see flaws, that doesn’t stop it being a great place. If you want a hateful sneer at London I guess Catatonia can provide that.

… the start of the Lily Allen video kind of ties in with this. Part Time Punks by The Television Personalities

… and obviously this is in my list – Waterloo Sunset – The Kinks

… this one’s London references are closer to home… Big Green Eyes – Brian

… and this is the sweetest of the lot… A Rainy Night in Soho – The Pogues

“ahh London, you’re my home” – Dirty Water – The Inmates

The Impossibles – Delphis

Curve – Coast is Clear
I saw Curve in 1995 at the Town & Country and it was the show that made it clear to me that I was not the sort of person who could cope with the indie disco… I realised I preferred to enjoy my music alone – or in an environment where I could pretend to be alone.

Dubstar – Stars

McCarthy – Get a Knife Between Your Teeth
Maybe it did smack ever so slightly of McCarthy jumping on a bandwagon… but if it means that if I wanted to I could dance to McCarthy…

Thousand Yard Stare – Wonderment

The Stone Roses – Waterfall

Albums of the year
Lots of great albums – struggled to get this down to six… they’re not in order but if they were the one at the top would very probably still be at the top…

• Lower Dens – Twin Hand Movement
• Nina Nastasia – Outlaster
• Joanna Newsom – Have One On Me
• Tracey Thorn – Love and Its Opposite
• The Clientele – Minotaur
• Agent Ribbons – Chateau Crone

Gigs of the year
Shockingly this list couldn’t have been much longer than this – probably my most inactive gig-going year. There’s still one to come…

• Dean Wareham plays Galaxie 500 – The Garage – 2010-12-08
• 13 Most Beautiful – The Barbican – 2010-07-30
• Kristin Hersh – Round Midnight – 2010-07-26
• Joanna Newsom – Royal Festival Hall – 2010-05-12
• Iggy & The Stooges play Raw Power – Hammy Odeon – 2010-05-03
• Damon & Naomi – The Luminaire 2010-05-01

Artists according to last.fm
The usual suspects although with Motorhead thrown into the mix – not too sure why (or how).

1. Galaxie 500
2. Luna
3. Motorhead
4. Joanna Newsom
5. Low
6. Dean & Britta

Tracks according to last.fm
Tracey Thorn breaks this list – although technically she was tied for 6th place with another Galaxie 500 song!

1. Galaxie 500 – Decomposing Trees
2. Galaxie 500 – Snowstorm
3. Galaxie 500 – Ceremony
4. Galaxie 500 – Blue Thunder
5. Galaxie 500 – When Will You Come Home
6. Tracey Thorn – Oh, The Divorces!

Albums according to last.fm
Was surprised at The xx being there – I listened a lot to it last year but obviously also at the start of this…

1. Galaxie 500 – On Fire
2. Nina Nastasia – Outlaster
3. Lower Dens – Twin-Hand Movement
4. The xx – xx
5. Galaxie 500 – Uncollected
6. Galaxie 500 – Today

Music videos of the year
Struggled to get this down to six as well…

• David Quantick – The Music Industry is Killing Music
• The Clientele – Lamplight
• Venice is Sinking – Tugboat
• Standard Fare – Philadelphia
• Dean & Britta with Mercury Rev – Snowstorm & Car Wash Hair
• Giant Drag – Stuff to Live For

2010 is dedicated to…
Mark Linkous/Sparklehorse – I miss him hugely and regularly…

1. Bohemian Rhapsody – Queen
   I'd say that Bohemian Rhapsody will pop into my head unannounced at least four or five times a week – if I scrobbled my mind this would be so far away at the top of my chart!
   
2. Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey – Paul & Linda McCartney
   Lots to love about this but mostly the silly butter pie thing gets me going 'huh?' and reminding me how much I can't help loving Macca!
   
3. Fairies Wear Boots – Black Sabbath
   What a title… I mean how can that not be the title of a great song!?
   
4. Mr Blue Sky – ELO
   Mr Blue Sky is one of the few songs that has survived my HM -> punk -> indie thing pretty much unscathed… I maybe ignored it through snobbery for a while but it never really went away…
   
5. Mr Apollo – The Bonzo Dog Band
   Obviously the Bonzos could own this list but this is one of my faves because it's not too silly (by Bonzo standards)
   
   
6. Kiss Me, Hold Me, Eat Me – Ballboy
   Another band that could fill a top6 all on their own -mostly for their beautifully silly titles – but this one because it's about canniballs falling in love!

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1. Galaxie 500 – of course. I'm fairly certain that I've barely gone a week without listening to Galaxie 500 since I came across them back in 1989!

2. Joanna Newsom – no wallowing in nostalgia here – just another perfect album which has had plenty of spins.

3. The Wedding Present – a kind of nostalgia, although I only really fully realised my love for TWP after Cinerama

4=. Teenage Fanclub – with the arrival of the new album, and my first Fannies gig for nearly 20 years I went back and loved those first three or four albums. The new one is not a match (and their gig wasn't as great as the olden days either) – but both were just good enough.

4=. Motorhead – Surprised to see them so high – but I do turn to loud music at certain times and when I do I invariably turn to Motorhead.

6. Big Star – Alex Chilton's passing obviously contributed to this – I spent the week after his death listening to very little else.

I'll mention that in 7th place was Nina Nastasia because she has a great new album, a great back catalogue and because the top 7 were a fair distance ahead of the rest of the pack and it seems a shame to not recognise that just because of the arbitrary "6" I picked a while back.

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Kristin Hersh – For more than just the music she made – for being the person she is and for painting a future that I can believe in.

Nina Nastasia – Never disappointing on record and one show that I will rate amongst my most memorable. If pushed You Follow Me might be my album of the decade.

The Clientele – Probably the band I’ve seen most over the decade, and not disappointed, not even once… and a run of perfect albums over that time too.

Damon & Naomi, Luna, Dean & Britta – I consider myself very lucky that in Galaxie 500′s demise I was gifted with three acts I adore and the chance to be friends with some of the nicest people.

Joanna Newsom – Two stunning albums, one great (and one fairtly good) performance. Ys could have been album of the decade but I’m now unable to put it into lists or charts – it can’t be found next to anything else.

Honourable mention to Ballboy, Yo La Tengo, The Decemberists

Albums of ’09

The Xx – The snob in me is bothered by just how popular The Xx have become. But I still keep listening to the album and it really is quite excellent.

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart – This year has been sprinkled liberally with nostalgia – whether it has been me dipping into my metal past with Sabbath and Hawkwind, or spending time with Lush, Pale Saints, Bleach and Drugstore – the late 80s and early 90s nostalgia was fueled by The Pains…

13 Most Beautiful… – The DVD is good but I’ve mostly listened to 13 Most Beautiful as an album, having ripped the audio from the DVD. It works beyond the films.

There were plenty of others too… Julie Doiron, Cheval Sombre, The Clientele, Wye Oak, School of Seven Bells etc.

Gigs of ’09

13 Most Beautiful… – Carnegie Hall – Not just for the show – although that was exceptional, but for the event, for the before and the after. And for Tugboat as an encore.

Damon & Naomi – The Luminaire/Cafe OTO – two great shows although I had to leave the second one early so the Luminaire show takes the prize.

Dean & Britta – St Giles – More for what it was because if I think to hard there were disappointments – the venue worked better as an idea than in reality. But lovely all the same.

Most shows I went to this year were wonderful so I’ll chip in honourable mention to Julie Doiron, Pastels/Tenniscoats, The Clientele, Spiritualized

I was never a punk, I liked punk music and owned Clash and Damned albums and a fair few punk singles, but I was a headbanger (which is probably why the punk bands I generally liked were very much on the rock side of punk rock – see my previous ascii illustration).

But for all my denim and leather and loud music and lusciously thick and greasy hair (swoon) I still loved pop music. Top of The Pops was still regularly viewed right into the mid 80s and I still bought singles in Boots and Smiths which is where a couple of these tracks stem from.

There is no Clash or Damned or Buzzcocks because none of them made songs that I love as much as these (except maybe The Buzzcocks who came very close to being on this list and would definitely be here if it was a Top 7).

• The Members – The Sound of the Suburbs
  I have enduring memories of The Members performing Sound of the Suburbs on Top of The Pops (although it wasn’t this performance so they must have been on twice – or it was on a different TV show). They looked so ordinary. Sound of the Suburbs is like a punk version of one of my other favourite songs, Pleasant Valley Sunday.
• The Rezillos – Top of the Pops
  I love Faye’s voice, I love the anti-corporate lyrics and the gorgeous irony of their ToTP appearance (and the major label that it was released on), and I love just how it makes me feel.
• Fatal Microbes – Violence Grows
  I suspect there’s a whole swathe of people who have John Peel to thank for their love of Violence Grows, I’m one of them. Honey Bane’s delivery is perfect. I also remember Peel playing it years later as a comparison with Wipe it Away by Bleach. Didn’t Boy George write about his love of this song in Take it Like a Man?
• The Slits – Typical Girls
  I’m pretty certain that I came late to Typical Girls (and The Slits), I do own a 7″ somewhere but bought it at a record fair years afterwards. I di remember a school friend lending me Cut (I guess I probably had to smuggle it into the house) and I had a tape of it around but probably never listened as much as I should have.
• The Newtown Neurotics – Blitzkrieg Bop
  I saw The Newtown Neurotics a couple of times in the mid 80s. This is obviously a cover of The Ramones track but has a wonderful anti-war lyric and one of my favourite song endings ever… “and we’ve gone”
• Television Personalities – Part Time Punks
  Part Time Punks was all I knew of the Television Personalities until quite recently. I can’t remember how or when I became aware of this song and it wasn’t until the TVPs back-catalogue arrived on eMusic that I discovered that they were much more than just this one track.