Give us an 'A', give us a 'V'...

If you're in the UK and as yet undecided on which way to vote in Friday's Alternative Vote referendum, why not let the ever-entertaining MJ Hibbett guide you through the ins and outs of the process with the rather nifty home-made vid I'm Saying Yes. (There may be a slight clue as to which way he'll be voting in that title.) Anyway, we're giving this one a big vote of confidence, and so should you.

My Boss Was In An Indie Band Once

No, not mine, silly. It's the title of the brilliant new single from MJ Hibbett & The Validators, and it's available to download at iTunes and other online purveyors of files musical - as is the album Regardez, Ecoutez et Repetez, which you can also buy on CD direct from the MJ Hibbett website. Hurrah!

Mildly Interesting Pop Fact: The titular boss (fnar fnar) is none other than Phil Wilson of the June Brides. Hear (or read, really) his thoughts on the subject at Fire Escape Talking.

Yule love this

This time last year Spike posted an ace Christmas song by MJ Hibbett & the Validators called The Advent Calendar of FACT. Now, twelve months later, it's being released as a single. Hoo and indeed ray! It'll be available as a download from Monday (8th December), but in the meantime here's the song's equally nifty vid!



MJ Hibbett & the Validators' website

Three of a Kind #56

Keeping up with the latest releases from your favourite bands and singers can be difficult in these fast-paced, information-laden times, we all know that. So please, allow us to help you keep on top of things, as it were, with this brief round-up of new stuff from a few of our favourite tip-top pop types.

First up, ex-Monkey Swallows The Universe singer-songwriter Nat Johnson releases her debut solo single Dirty Rotten Soul, on CD and as a download, on the 29th of September. It's accompanied by this rather saucy vid, in which our Nat leads a young Bill Bryson astray. Who'd've thunk it?



If the thought of having to wait a whole three weeks before you can get your hands on a copy of that fills you with angst, fear not! That nice Pete Green has a new four-track 7" single out right now. The Platform Zero EP is available for a snipsome £4 (inc P&P) from here.

Dennis from All That Ever Mattered has a rather splendid interview with the man himself on his blog at the moment, which I'd urge everyone to check out also.

And here's track three of Platform Zero, in which Pete (British) rails against the corporate toadying of the modern-day NME. Right on!

Pete Green - Best British Band Supported By Shockwaves mp3 (right click)

Finally today, it's Mr Green's great showbiz chum MJ Hibbett with the heart-warming It Only Works Because You're Here, from an EP of the same name featuring seven songs from his recent Edinburgh Fringe show My Exciting Life In Rock. You can buy the EP direct from the source. This one's actually been out since the 21st of July, so I'm hopelessly late picking up on it. But like I said at the start, it's difficult these days!

Three Of A Kind #37

Computer geeks and music fans, rejoice! Today's Three Of A Kind is three songs about computers and codes.

The first band is even named in a coding-related way! MJ Hibbett & the Validators came up trumps with this wonderful paean to old home computing consoles (I still have my Spectrum ZX+2 in a cupboard downstairs), which was released as an internet single in 2000.

MJ Hibbett & the Validators - Hey Hey 16k mp3 (available for 7 days)

Listen to more at their myspace page and buy music and merchandise from their website.

The Hot Toddies are Heidi, Erin, Jessica and Sylvia from Oakland, California, and they've produced this slightly anachronistic-sounding doo-wop online love/hate story. www.wohwohwoh.com, indeed!

The Hot Toddies - HTML mp3 (available for 7 days)

Listen to more on their myspace page and you can also buy their album, Smell The Mitten, and merchandise from the shop there.

The final track comes courtesy of The Superfantastics and can be found on their Pop-Up Book album. It's a romantic song about love over ICQ, facebook and other internet fads. It's enough to warm the cockles of your cathode ray tubes!

The Superfantastics - The Only One I C++ Is U++ mp3 (available for 7 days)

You can hear more at their myspace page and buy music from their website.

And here's the excellent sing-a-long video for Hey Hey 16K:

"It's nothing like the Christmas that I know and like"

There's quite a few Christmas songs aren't there? I'd estimate well over 12. In fact I've somehow amassed 1258 (of varying quality) on my computer over a couple of years, largely due to my determination to make a good and unpredictable Christmas CD each year. I'm not one of these nuts who goes bonkers over Christmas music...well, only for two months out of every year...but it's fair to say I could start a blog posting Christmas songs every day of the year. But I'm not going to, because that would be loopy.

Still, if you're not fed up of Christmas songs yet, the following two are super. If you are fed up of them, download these and listen to them this time next year - it'll be worth it, I promise!


From The World In Winter compilation from El Records in association with Cherry Red available to buy here:

Would-Be-Goods - Christmas In Haiti mp3 (available for 7 days)

From A Very Cherry Christmas 3 on Cherryade Records, available to buy here (I'd recommend snapping up volumes 1, 2 & 3 for a trifling £12 total):

MJ Hibbett and the Validators - The Advent Calendar Of FACT mp3 (available for 7 days)