Swingin' Ryan

M.Ward - Hold Time The Shop Assistants - Will Anything Happen?

Amazing song. One of my favorite bands, hugely overlooked in their home country. I've heard live versions of French Navy and The Sweetest Thing which were both amazing, can't wait for the album. Hope there's an Aberdeen date, although I'll almost certainly go to the Glasgow date, think I must have seen them live more than any other band.

Watched Che: Part One the other day, and it was really, really good. Benicio Del Torro is incredible, particularly in the scenes when he's talking to the UN assembly.

I completely agree. I've always thought it's something to do with women being born into a male-dominated society and all having something to be naturally angry at from birth, but I'll stop before going into full Gloria Steinem mode! I've liked everything I've heard by Team Dresch but haven't got any of their stuff so I'll put that on the 'to buy' list. I think a lot of the girl-fronted Indiepop/'twee'/C86 stuff had a lot of punk at the heart of it. Most of it might have been jangly pop in sound but there's a lot of punk ideology and feeling at the root of stuff like Talulah Gosh (Testcard Girl in particular), Heavenly and The Shop Assistants etc. Double yes for Le Tigre! I like L7 as well and Sleater Kinney also deserve a mention.

I've also been trying to rope my band into BK covers, specifically 'New Radio'. On the Riot Grrrl front, the aforementioned Huggy Bear are worth a shot as are Bratmobile. On the heavier 'three chords and the truth' side of things The Casualties are well worth a listen. Better off listening to their old stuff before they discovered production values, the first few albums sound like someone's chucked a mic into the middle of a bar floor and recorded what's happening, and it's fucking amazing (if you like that kind of thing). http://http://www.myspace.com/thecasualtiesearlyyears Also the more obvious stuff, some of which has been mentioned... Ramones, NY Dolls, Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, The Stooges, The Cramps, RFTC, The Bronx, Misfits, Rancid, NOFX, etc etc. Presumably The Clash and the Sex Pistols go without saying?

I don't believe in ghosts but I still wouldn't want to be in there alone at night, that would be hugely creepy, ghosts or not.

Probably not as there's no such thing as ghosts...because it's completely mental.

Gutting The Cramps have been one of my favourite bands for years and Lux was a total original. It's shocking how little recognition they got and I always admired how they plugged on without any of the huge success their peers got and just carried on in their own world! Amazing guy and amazing band.

Shit, I remember seeing the listing for this on their myspace and completely forgetting about it until last night at about 2am and then went to check when it was happening only to discover it was earlier that night. Gutting. While we're on the topic, am I alone in thinking The Joy Formidable is one of the most amazing band names for ages?

That's rather sad indeed. My girlfriends a big fan and made me listen to him on a daily basis for about a month until I got into him.

Ditto. I had to wait for years after I got into them to see them due to a variety of exams and cancelled gigs. That t-shirt is amazing. My current coveted Manics tee is the one with the girl holding the AK47 and the caption 'this is the only answer to rape'. I bid on ebay for it recently but it went for like thirty quid!

Easyworld! Whatever happened to them, they were brilliant? Bleach was an absolute corker of a song!

Thats a beautiful point. I rashly drew the conclusion that Ewan was talking about me as he said 'tell the story about the guy from Blue, Ryan' directly after a post I'd made about spotting celebrities. I apologise to anyone I've offended.

Are you sure thats me? I may have met someone from Blue but I don't remember it.

Any thread on this forum that features boys talking about girls always ends up being horrible.

I'd like to think that's the case. Although I have less to worry about as I smoke and wear tight trousers so I'm probably as fallow as a desert anyway. About a 7.5/10 on the Kook-o-meter. More on the 'tacky gift shop jumpers from Owl Sanctuaries' side than the 'Myra Hyndley's head on Anna-Nicole Smith's body' side.

I once saw Charlie from Busted standing with (presumbaly) the members of his new band Fightstar in the middle of Buchanan Street in Glasgow. All of them were wearing Fightstar t-shirts. I also once saw the beardy singer from the Magic Numbers mulling about outside the Royal Albert Hall after Joanna Newsom played there. My all time best celebrity spotting was Jeremy Paxman being filmed bear the Barras in Glasgow sighing unhappily as the camera-man told him they were 'going to have to do another take'. Was going to nod and smile as I walked past but he scowled at me in a way that suggested he wouldn't appreciate it.

Don't get me wrong, I've gone out with some 'odd' girls but it's normally been a 'wearing kooky jumpers' or 'collecting old rail tickets' kind of 'odd'. I am yet to go out with a girl who pretends to have a Polycystic Ovary in order to trick me into unwittingly fathering their child against my will. I must have lived a sheltered life...

Agreed. I think the best food I've ever eaten has been in Switzerland and the Savoyarde area of France. I stopped eating meat last year and I was across for a wedding in the Swiss/French border area and just ate a dangerous amount of Fondue, I think about 40% of my vital organs were made up of Gruyere by the time I flew back.

Got a cheeky 30 off a Coca-Cola league 2 accumulator on Tuesday. If the Accrington Stanley hadn't been postponed and they'd won I'd have been on for 90. Could get another 40 if Ayr win tonight (although that could just be wishful thinking from an Ayr fan) and I've got my free 5 pound bet off Bet 365 on Stevenson scoring first.

I'm currently reading 'Riot Grrrl!: Revolution Girl Style Now!' which is a rather brilliant history of Riot Grrrl music and culture and The Journals of Sylvia Plath 1950-1962 which is utterly fascinating.

Haha, 90th minute equaliser for Ayr! I fucking love Alex Williams, apparently hugged the referee when he scored! Think my neighbours may be at the door in a minute questioning why they just heard the sound of furniture collapsing and a hoarse voice screaming 'Fucking have that!'.

Question: Is Sportsound on Radio Scotland the funniest thing on radio? Answer: Yes 1-1 with Ayr v Killie at half time. Keenan crashing in and wiping out the early Killie lead, yas min!

This is Baxter the family Spaniel engaging in his favourite pastime. And this is him as a puppy for added cute-factor.

I have mixed feelings on that album, Rilo Kiley are one of my favourite bands and from their debut produced three stunning albums in a row. I consider both The Execution Of All Things and More Adventurous among my all-time favourite albums and one of the best bands I've seen life. Under The Blacklight was in general pretty bad though, it had maybe two really good songs, and another two pretty good ones but other than that it was a bit of a washout. They took a gamble but it didn't really pay off. I wish they'd just either stuck with the orchestrated Americana kind of stuff on MA or gone back to the more 'Indie-Rock' stuff of TEOAT. It worries me that after they fairly minimal success of UTB, they'll just stick to doing the solo stuff from now on because, as much as I like Jenny Lewis solo and The Elected, I much prefer them as a band. I have been waiting to have that Rilo Kiley based rant for some time now. Edit - I feel I must also add, I consider the lyrics on TEOAT and MA to be the finest produced post 2000 by anyone other than Joanna Newsom.