Swingin' Ryan

I watched Yes Man the other day, not the kind of thing I'd normally go see but I was bored and I get in for free because I work in the cinema.

I was pleasantly surprised, it was a fairly formulaic Rom-Com brought up by a brilliant performance from Zooey Deschanel who was playing one of the most belivable female leads in a major Hollywood comedy as I think I've seen in years and she's in a band with M.Ward. Incidentaly, her fictional band in the film Munchausen By Proxy are fucking awesome.

Or Zavvi.

Zavvi Goes Into Administration - Music Games And DVD Retailer | Business | Sky News

That might explain why I managed to pick up the entire 5 series box set of Peep Show for 15 yesterday. Mental.

As Charlie Brooker stated this week, and I completely agree, anyone who uses the word 'party' as a verb is scum.

As in 'I love to party' or 'I'm totally going to party tonight'. They should all be boiled in vinegar.

Best 3 Bands heard this year for the first time - Fleet Foxes, The Miserable Rich, The Mae-Shi

Best gigs this year - Slow Club @ King Tut's, Camera Obscura/The Twilight Sad @ ABC, Goldfrapp @ The Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Best Releases of 2008 - Fleet Foxes - S/T

Los Campesinos - Hold On Now, Youngster/We Are Beautiful,We Are Doomed

Belle and Sebastian - The BBC Sessions

Slow Club - Let's Fall Back In Love EP

DCFC - Narrow Stairs

Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Sunday At Devil Dirt

Best Result Of The Year - Ayr United 4 - Ross County 2.

Man Utd beating Chelsea on penalties and John 'I'm 28 but don't tell my face' Terry slipping on the penalty spot. Waaayyyyy.

Best Purchase - A flat (didn't actually buy the flat itself but rent is kind of a purchase...you get the idea). My Roland Juno-D synth. My new Christmas jumper.

YAS MINS of 2008 - Had two cracking holidays in France including three days in Paris and four days up a mountain on the Swiss/French border which was ridiculously pretty. Spent a large part of they year between Aberdeen and Glasgow. Learned to play piano a bit. Got a degree. Finally managed to stop eating meat permanently after several failed attempts.

Biggest Dissapointments - The realisation of actually having to get a proper job in the real world in about 4/5 months.

Looking forward to in 2009 - Possible relocation to Glasgow. New albums from The Manics, Camera Obscura, M.Ward, Belle and Sebastian, Regina Spektor, Joanna Newsom and The Concretes. Hopefully going to Stockholm on holidays.

Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes

Belle and Sebastian - The BBC Sessions

Death Cab For Cutie - Narrow Stairs

Los Campesinos! - Hold On Now, Youngster

Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan - Sunday At Devil Dirt

Slow Club - Lets Fall Back In Love EP (its an EP but its 6 tracks so its close enough to count it)

Goldfrapp - Seventh Tree

The Mae Shi - HLLLYH

Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip - Angles

Los Campesinos! - We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed

Ayr v Lochlee called off for a fifth fucking time this afternoon. I reckon it's less to do with the Lochlee pitch and more that their players can't get the time off work.

Mine is just my name with 'Swingin' infront of it to jazz it up a little bit. I'd like people to think I was the conductor of a 1950's Big Band.

I recognise the style of pin-up, but not the woman herself.

This is probably one of the main reasons she's not hugely known, her look has been appropriated by a lot of mainstream media outlets and she never really got any credit or recognition and as Giles said, wasn't even aware of her new lease of fame until her likeness had been already used all over the place.

It's very sad indeed, hugely influential, interesting and very humble woman

Can I nominate the Earl of Holburn Street? He walks up and down it all day, pausing for a cigarette beside the Foundry or outside Willy Hill's, before carrying on again...ad infinitum.

Yes! I once described him to a friend as looking 'like he was fairly high up in the Army in the 80's but he started hitting the bottle and his wife left him and now he lives in a big empty house still doing his Army excercises and 'waiting for the 'Argie's'' and within 5 minutes he walked past and my friend instantly identified him from the description.

That should be a cracker. I was at an Ayr - Killie game when I was a nipper.

The bloke in front of me kept shouting in Andy McLaren's face, when he came anywhere near the touchline, that he had HIV.

Some of the Ayr/Killie rivalry taunting is truly remarkable, bizarrely enough he was on the Ayr roster until May this year. I'm looking forward to the Killie game it's just a pity the game against Lochlee that's leading to it has now been postponed four times. I'm starting to doubt if they actually have a pitch at all. They'd be as well just hiring Goals or something, it's getting beyond ridiculous.

I clicked on The Guardian link and then suddenly remembered that Sarah Dempster does a TV coloumn for The Guardian and went straight to that instead because I want Sarah Dempster as my bride.

I then looked at the art work and had small seizure. Then went back to Sarah Dempster.

The highly overrated....Goldfrapp...

Wrongggggg.

Seventh Tree was one of the most genuinely original and exciting albums this year. After the fairly major success of Supernature they could have just kept peddling quirky disco-pop and cashing in off T4 on the Beach appearances and phone advert deals for at least another 2 albums. Instead they completely stopped the ship and released a really weird, chilling folk album with no dancefloor appeal whatsoever, that sounds like Kate Bush, Joanna Newsom and The Cocteau Twins all at the same time.

Opening Credits:

Metal Baby - Teenage Fanclub

First Day At School:

Right In The Head - M.Ward

Falling In Love:

Only In Dreams - Weezer (haha)

First Kiss:

Dusty Wreath - Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan

Breaking Up:

Hateful - The Clash

Getting Back Together:

Warm Night - The Concretes

Prom:

Eat Yourself - Goldfrapp (sounds like a pretty wild 'prom')

Life:

Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You - Manic Street Preachers

Fight Song:

Live and Let Live - Love

Mental Breakdown:

Surfin' Bird - The Ramones

Driving:

We Rule The School - Belle and Sebastian

Graduation:

Hey Scenesters! - The Cribs

Flashback:

Fade To Grey - Nouvelle Vague

Final Good Byes/Moving On:

There's No Such Thing As Victory - Felt

Wedding:

Let's Race - Alessi's Ark

Birth of Child:

Future Pt 1 - Voxtrot

Final Battle:

Abacus - Fionn Regan

Death Scene:

Personality Crisis - New York Dolls

Funeral Song:

The Big Fight - Stars

Rememberance Song:

Haulass Hyena - The Cramps

End Credits:

Into Eternity - Jens Lekman

You know how halfway through the credits another song comes on:

Sweet Dreams, Sweet Cheeks - Los Campesinos!

Some OK ones, didn't change any apart from skipping repeat artists so I could have a different band for each one.

Here's hoping Lochlee actually sort out whatever fucking ice-rink they're calling a pitch and we can actually get this game played against them on Wednesday. Third time lucky.

Got Killie if we win it as well!

Morricone?

Clearly the correct answer.

Also, don't forget Mark Mothersbaugh. Not only was he in Devo and he scored most of Wes Anderson's films but he also did the Crash Bandicoot score.

You should be happily allowing The Cramps to take over your iPod. If it wasn't for Lux Interior the iPod would have never existed (I have absolutely no evidence or logical reasoning for this frankly ludicrous statement).

As for iPod shuffle mode I always seem to get either Love, Felt or Jens Lekman, but I don't have much on my iPod as it's new so the odds are stacked in their favour.

That is really fucking off.

yup it's a nice idea but it's been done a million times before...this was also when there was a real bond between local bands as well so these days I very much doubt it could work. Some of the old AUBL lineups were probably the 'best' bands of the time, and often they were fairly different. Just seemed to work though.

My sentiments entirely. Also, a lot of the good bands in Aberdeen are touring pretty regularly/have relocated elsewhere, so it could be a bit of a headache to organise. Would still be nice though.

it's a joke it's not saying "kill all asians" is it?

No, it's saying 'we wish Asians were not in this country' which isn't much better o_O

That band died when Izzy left, all thats left is some bizzarre project.

Bingo! Izzy is criminally overlooked by Guns n' Roses fans. This album is pretty much Axl Rose and The Rosettes, to call it Guns n' Roses is criminal.

iPlayer man!

iPlayer!

I found it last night, I love iPlayer!

Charlie Brooker is a golden ray of light in a foggy sky of stupidity, I'm delighted to have him back on television.

Ahhhh, I forgot. There better be a repeat, I almost wept with joy when the advert came on for the new series and I still forgot, I hate myself.

This list is fairly 'of the moment' and not really in much of an order. Doesn't really differ that greatly from my original list.

1. Manic Street Preachers

2. Belle and Sebastian

3. Joanna Newsom

4. Rilo Kiley

5. The Clash

6. Camera Obscura

7. The Concretes

8. Elvis Presley

9. Death Cab For Cutie/The Postal Service (I'm aware they are different bands but I'm lumping together for ease as they are both Ben Gibbard fronted and PS only have one album)

10. M. Ward

Gotta have The Royle Family there!

Absolutely! The only sitcom that comes close to The Office for me. Brilliantly funny, fantastically written and acted and genuinely moving. It's a fantastic portrayal of British working-class life without ever getting trite or patronising, I don't think Craig Cash and Caroline Aherne have ever got the full credit they deserve for that programme. Particularly if you think there was nothing like the Royle Family that came before it, it was hugely brave of both Aherne/Cash and the BBC to have such a 'lo-fi' comedy in that particular time period.

The question is, does anyone think that their label will let it out as Albini intended....

That is a good question but I think Sony have always been pretty good about letting the Manics do what they want though. This is the last album on their Sony contract and they've said in interviews recently that after this they'll probably release things themselves on a smaller scale. From what I've heard this new album itself probably will not be a particularly conventional album release and they don't plan on releasing any singles from the album.