Winter's here

Idaho indie popsters The Very Most have been busy releasing season-themed EPs throughout 2009; the A Year With The Very Most cycle is now complete, with the release of The Winter EP. From it, here's their rather jaunty version of Yuletide chestnut Away In A Manger (or Away In A Manager as it was rather endearingly misspelt on the press release).

The Very Most - Away In A Manger mp3 (right click)

Buy the three-track Winter EP for 2 Euros from Indiecater Records.

Roses grow on you

Oh I do like this. Classic folky pop - with strings attached! Really distinctive vocals too. The dog very nearly steals the show but the song and performance just about edge it on points.



Ironville - Roses mp3

Ironville's debut album, Welcome To Ironville, is released on the band's own label next month. See their MySpace for details.

Search of the Day

"How much money can I make selling pies?"


Shalamar - Take That To The Bank mp3

Shocking Bleu

(Thierry Henry auditioning for the 2012 French Olympic volleyball team last night)

Sharon Redd - Can You Handle It mp3

Guten Tag!

Right, well, I've been chosen by whippersnapper Mick as part of this whole "tagging" craze that the young folk seem so keen on at the moment, so let's crack on shall we? Here're the rules:

1 You post a song that makes you happy
2 You can tag as many people as you want
3 Say one thing about the blog that you tag that will make them smile.

Easy, no? I'm going to tag Adam, as Pretending Life Is Like A Song was the first blog I ever stumbled across, it inspired me to start this one up (so you know who to blame now) and it's remained a firm favourite ever since. And because I'm stalking him.

Here's a song that makes me very happy indeed.

Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle - I Wish I Could Sprechen Sie Deutsch mp3



Mildly Interesting Pop Fact(s): Big favourites of John Peel, Freiwillige Selbstkontrolle (F.S.K.) recorded no less than six (count 'em!) Peel Sessions. I Wish I Could Sprechen Sie Deutsch made a very respectable #33 in the Festive Fifty of 1986. (Curse those 32 Smiths and Wedding Present songs for denying it its rightful place at the top!)

Derek Boland 1965-2009

So, pioneering British rapper Derek B has died from a heart attack, aged just 44. First Edward Woodward, now this. What a crappy day. This was his biggest hit (Derek's, not Edward's), 1988's Bad Young Brother (Sign O' The Times sample and all):



I hadn't realised till today that Derek co-wrote The Anfield Rap, the naff but surprisingly memorable Liverpool FA Cup Final song for 1988. (Its naffness and the fact that I don't even support Liverpool still didn't stop the teenage me from buying it on 7" at the time mind.)

Actually, I should have got the connection between Derek B and this song much much earlier. I mean, that's clearly Derek's voice at the start that John Barnes is miming over, isn't it?

Things I've Learnt Watching YouTube

Number 2:

The video for Come Around by Daryll-Ann was filmed on April 5th 1994, the day that Kurt Cobain died.

Anyone making any sick jokes about them both being shot on the same day can see me later!



(I've not got an mp3 of this song handy at the moment but if there's any sort of demand for it I can stick it up here on Monday, when I should have access to the CD. So pipe up if you're interested!)

Fakes, Rattle & Roll

A gorgeous slice of ethereal dream pop in the vein of The Innocence Mission and Mazzy Star for a Friday afternoon*, courtesy of Melbourne combo The Fakes. Bloody marvellous this is. (N.B. Any resemblance to a Del Amitri song title is purely coincidental.)

The Fakes - Always The Last To Know mp3

The Fakes on MySpace

Buy The Fakes downloads at Klicktrack

*other days and times of day are available. Please see your local calendar/clock/wristwatch/sundial for details. Times and conditions apply.

Sealey Love Songs

A Dee C. Lee post on this blog? I never thought I'd see the day. *chortle*

Dee C. Lee - Come Hell Or Waters High mp3

Dee C. Lee - The Paris Match mp3

Mildly Interesting Pop Fact 1: Although the above two songs are cover versions - written by Judie Tzuke and Paul Weller respectively - Dee C. Lee wrote the song for which she's most famous herself. Which must have been some kind of consolation, royalties-wise, when Girls Aloud massacred See The Day in 2005. (I've not actually heard the Girls Aloud version, by the way. I'm just assuming they massacred it.)

Mildly Interesting Pop Fact 2: Dee C. Lee's real name is Diane Catherine Sealey. Which kind of makes sense when you think about it. (Although quite what made her think that "Lee" would be a more showbizzy surname than "Sealey" I don't know. Then again, "Dee C. Sealey" would probably have proved a bit cumbersome.)

Mildly Interesting Pop Fact 3: Cheryl Baker of Bucks Fizz's real name is Rita Crudgington. Which has little or nothing to do with the matter in hand, admittedly, but it's a fact I like to trot out whenever possible. Rita Crudgington! *snigger*

Trevor & Simon Podcasts

Podcasts: everyone's doing them nowadays. Well, not everyone, obviously. I mean I'm not, and you're probably not either. But then again, perhaps you are. We just don't know. Well, you might, but I don't. Anyway, where was I? Oh yes. Podcasts: everybody's doing them nowad-

Bugger. Shall I start again?

*cough*

Amongst the seemingly endless lists of comedy podcasts doing the rounds these days, one that you never see advertised* is that of Trevor & Simon, the erstwhile Saturday morning TV comedy duo par excellence. In fact I wasn't even aware of its existence until yesterday - despite the fact that their podcast has been running since February (not continuously, obviously. I mean they've probably taken naps and the odd toilet break here and there).

But anyway, yes, Trev & Simon's podcast is my new favourite. I listened to the first one last night and it made me laugh a lot. But then I'd not expect anything else from two funny (ha ha, not peculiar) blokes who've known each other forever and have such a great rapport. Their producer Andrea chips in with some great lines of her own too. All in all its a marvellous way to pass an hour or so.

Here, filched from their blog, is a list of the stuff they talk about in that first episode:

Smiley Culture
Pob v Bod
What the podcast is going to be called
What we’ve been up to over the last ten years
Me (Simon) saying “Swing your pants” and annoying Trev
Outed by Jonathan Ross
Obama’s rubbishy car
Ghosts (Roman ones, poltergeists, ghosts who say ‘hello’)
Phantasm (the film)
Hammer Horror films
Raquel Welch and Fred Trueman
Marc Bolan
Trev’s family collection of porno (from when he was a child) versus my family’s Football Pink
Cake
Belief
Coronation Street is real
My blog- Mummified Fox
A question from Bruce

And here's the download link

As you can possibly tell, it made my day discovering this! I think they've done another eight podcasts since that opening one, too, so if you don't see much of me on here for a while you'll know where I've disappeared to!

Before I bugger off, here's some classic Going Live-era T&S Theatre Shop action.



And relax!

*I've subsequently learnt that T&S's pod has made both the Guardian's and Dave's top ten podcast lists, so forget what I said there about it not featuring anywhere. Just me spouting ill-informed rubbish again!

How Tikkled I am

Any band signed by the venerable A West Side Fabrication have to be worth a listen - and so it proved with Tikkle Me, a winsome electro pop duo from Ekilstuna in Sweden, who recently released the rather fab Butterflies In My Tummy single on the label. Here's the also-ace promo vid!



You can download Butterflies In My Tummy for 80 piffling pence from Klicktrack.com

Tikkle Me's MySpace

Now That's What I Call A Christmas Album

Christmas is coming
The goose is getting fat
A Very Cherry Christmas 5 is here
Let's take a look at that!



Track listing:

1. The School - Let Me Be The Fairy On Your Christmas Tree Tonight
2. Das Wanderlust - Someone To Pull Crackers With
3. Allo Darlin' - S P A C E Christmas
4. The Lovely Eggs - Tyrannosaurus Rex for Christmas
5. The 10p Mixes - Christmas Number One
6. Fever Fever - Little Drummer Boy
7. Detox Cute and the Beauty Junkies - Unhappy New Year
8. Sparky's Magic Piano - The Escape From Aled Jones
9. Persil - Dear Santa
10. Mia Vigar - What the Hell
11. Tiger MCs - The Way That You Arrived
12. Hearts! Attack - It Was Christmas That Killed Us
13. The Gresham Flyers - Mistletoe Misadventure
14. Foxes - Christmas Gifts
15. The Bobby McGee's - Sub Santalales
16. Shrag - Stop The Revelry
17. The Hi-Life Companion - Brockweir Winter Reverie
18. Doris and the Jumpers - Murder Under The Mistletoe
19. Humousexual - Come Take My Hand In Winter
20. The Shrieking Violets - Jethro (Song For)
21. Rebecca Wilmott - A Christmas Echo
22. The Pocket Gods - KFC (Kentucky Fried Christmas)
23. Master Solo - The Last Xmas Of Achiebald Sterling
24. Everett True - A Christmas Tale
25. Marble Krusher - Summer Toys (Winter Version)

A Very Cherry Christmas Volume 5 is released on November 15th, but you can pre-order your copy right now for six festive quid (plus a pound postage) from Cherryade Records

Things I've Learnt Watching YouTube

#1 - Twiggy had a pop career!

Well, it was news to me anyway. Note how the Twigster cleverly utilises the skills she picked up sashaying along the catwalk in her modelling career as she, erm, sashays down the Top of the Pops set mocked-up to look like a catwalk, at the start of the first clip. This discotastic track was produced by David Essex, apparently. Owsaboutthatthen guys and gals? Rattle-rattle-jewellery-jewellery etc.



This one's good too, in a Reader's Digest Love Songs of the 70s 5-CD boxset type-way.



Pizzicato Five - Twiggy Twiggy/Twiggy vs James Bond mp3