Swingin' Ryan

Yes! I full endorse this statement I do still buy NME maybe once every second week or so. It boils my fucking blood sometimes, but I enjoy having a music magazine that's weekly as opposed to a months worth of music news/reviews crammed into one 4 magazine. Even though 2 thirds of the writers at NME are ballsacks, there are a handful who I really enjoy reading. I picked up an Uncut the other day, mainly because it had two long and very good features on Joanna Newsom and Orange Juice (the latter was a brilliant read) but I thought 4.50 was pretty steep. I read the odd music website i.e Pitchfork, DrownedInSound etc but the problem with internet stuff is that the internet is for nerds. And its run by nerds. And its rubbish. (removes tongue from cheek).

Another win chucked away with a last minute equaliser from Raith today. Don't get me wrong, considering we've been more or less bottom of the table all season, for Ayr to go and get a point away from home against a team who's through to the Scottish Cup Semis is more than impressive. However, I've lost count of the amount of times this season we've led games against far better teams only to have them equalise in the dying seconds of the match. Brian Reid needs to get it drilled into the players heads that the game is actually still on until the whistle blows. Still 8 games without a loss.....AYR AYR SUPER AYR!

On Ricky Gervais radio show he did years ago on XFM he told a brilliant story about Bucks Fizz trying to smuggle him through security and onto a flight when he was in a pop band in the 80's. They're clearly absolute hellraisers in Bucks Fizz.

Totally agree, that just sounds like a harrowing experience. I always have a wet shave, I've never bothered with an electric razor, they look terrifying. However, saying that I can rarely be bothered shaving anymore than once a week, so spend a lot of the time sporting a kind of semi-goatee as my facial hair refuses to grow anywhere but the goatee region. I have to shave the connecting bits (as that only takes 2 minutes and I can't face the idea of having a goatee), this just leaves me looking like Jack White in his 'southern gentleman' period. Can't win.

I really enjoyed that. Particularly the Kevin Shields-esque wall of guitar fuzz at the end and the vocals were really good.

The Greatest Tattoo Of All Time (if you're familiar with Alan Partridge of course).

The xx - s/t Emma Pollock - The Law of Large Numbers

This is my main Drummonds gripe. The best thing about Drummonds for me has always been its basically like a busy pub with late closing times, which is sometimes exactly what I want at the weekend and can't face the idea of a club. I know they want to create a bit more of a club atmosphere at the weekends but the music is fucking deafening and it's not like there's generally a packed dancefloor, most people are just sitting drinking and trying to chat. I've often gone in for a pint with friends and we've ended up going up the road to Exodus because you can actually hear yourselves better in there and it's a fucking night club! Other than that I really like Drummonds. You get a crowd that's so mixed it often borders on surreal. They occasionaly play brilliant music, even if it is deafening. And you can almost always get a nice comfy sofa during the week. Oh and the 2-tone/ska nights are brilliant! p.s I'd like to echo Christy's comments about Premier Artist Birch, they are great kits. I played one for years and it was a joy.

Surely Drummonds has a higher capacity than 300?

I also echo the pro-Montrose statements. I have a friend who is a huge Montrose fan and I enjoyed the thought of his beaming smile at a Montrose victory

I have to say I took quite a degree of satisfaction in this result after Ayr going 2-0 up against Caley last week only to end up with a fucking 3-3 draw. Still, solid 2-0 victory over Morton today and Tam 'best loan signing ever' McManus just rattled in his fourth goal in five games. Going to be gutted to see him go at the end of the season

The Shop Assistants were amazing, great drums. They actually had a third female drummer when they briefly reformed I think but it was a very brief reformation. A lot of my favourite bands have girls in them but there are very few I've ever seen/heard around this area, the 'scene' up here does seem like a bit of a boys club. I saw a brilliant band in The Tunnels a few years ago who I think were from this area but possibly from Glasgow called something like Beard or The Beards and they had a brilliant girl singer. They were a bit like The Yeah Yeah Yeahs doing early Rilo Kiley, never saw/heard anything from them after that gig but they were superb.

Not exactly an inspiring first attempt from Levein but beating Czech is nothing to be scoffed at, even if it was a friendly. Some shite performances, some ok performances and a couple of really good ones. On a side note, Craig Gordon is a fucking great keeper. I can't think of many keepers I enjoy watching more. He deserves all the praise in the world. Fast, smart and unbelivably gutsy, he just throws himself full throttle into everything. I don't think anybody can underestimate quite how important it is having a keeper of that calibre in the Scotland team.

Joanna Newsom - Have On On Me Fionn Regan - The Shadow of an Empire The Housemartins - London 0 Hull 4 Sigur Ros - Me Su I Eyrum Vi Spilum Endalaust The Pogues - The Best of the Pogues

Brilliant reference This story is fucking rotten Man fed live kittens to pitbull - UK News - MSN News UK Seven months for FEEDING LIVE KITTENS to a dog. Unbelivable. Not that I advocate guerilla violence in any way but it really wouldn't be that bad if the Animal Liberation Front got a hold of this guy's address.

People with ridiculous drinks orders in clubs. Absolutely infuriating. The amount of times recently I've been stuck behind some cretin ordering stacks of drinks for everyone they know, then forgetting what they want and having to scream across the bar to their friend, then pass all the drinks back, then decide to get some 'shots' and drink them at the bar. Idiots. It's even more of a nightmare in your more upmarket clubs, because everyone seems to order some ludicrously complex cocktail named after a Bill Hicks gag or a Hunter S Thompson book or something like that. Then some poor guy at the bar has to spend about 2 hours knocking up five of these things and I'm just waiting for a pint. Just all drink pints, even if you dont like beer it's easier for me and thats what matters.

Air Alpes - Reveals What You Value 1. Skin o' My Tooth 2. Grafton Hill 3. Amerton 4. Hans Von Milde 5. Red Warbler 6. Femina Miss India 7. Little Dieter Needs to Fly 8. Saint-Paul-du-Bois 9. Snow White and the Madness of Truth 10. Dry Fork (Tug Fork) 11. Nine Elms Pastoral 'folktronica', somewhere between Kings of Convenience and Gravenhurst with the odd trip-hop beat wedged in.

Owen Pallett - Heartland \ Mm - Finally We Are No One

Oh yeh definitely, on a global scale Camera Obscura are far bigger than Twilight Sad. They're pretty massive in Spain and South America also. My only real point was in Scotland itself there wasn't a major difference in popularity between Camera Obscura and The Twilight Sad. Saying that, last time I saw Camera Obscura they'd pretty much packed out the Barrowlands so I guess they've slowly got pretty big here to.

Granted, you're definitely more likely to hear Camera Obscura on the radio. With stuff like press coverage though, I saw loads of interviews with The Twilight Sad in things like The Fly and The Skinny etc when their new album was coming out and there was very little of that kind of thing in the UK press for Camera Obscura's last album. I guess thats a lot to do with the target audience of those kinds of magazines though?

I forgot how absolutely massive it was in there, those pictures are great. Opening a restaurant in there will absolutely bomb, I've seen 3-4 restaurants open and close in that area since I've been working at the cinema. Skippers is now gone as well. Anybody travelling down there will stick to what they know and go to TGI's/Chiquitos/Frankie and Bennies/Jimmy Chungs. Totally pointless venture IMO. Any nightclub going in there would have to be pretty fucking special to get the crowds down. Nobody wants to walk down to the beach to get stuck at one club for the rest of the night nowadays when towns absolutely filled with bars/clubs. An ABC style club/venue would be great but it's never going to happen The only thing thats going to succeed in that place would be a decent department store or something. Nobody will leave town for a restaurant/club etc.

Seconded. If we're talking purely about bands output in the 00's then CO would definitely top my list. I suppose the reason they haven't made this list is that they are simply not well known enough in their home country, which is particularly strange as they've had some pretty incredible success abroad.

I remember them as being called Cartoonies when I was younger, I assume they decided animals were a big seller and just stuck to that theme. They used to have all manner of weird and wonderful things printed on them.

Massively excited about this one. She played a new song when I saw her in 2007 and it was absolutely stunning, been waiting with huge anticipation for the new record. Also looking forward to the new Fionn Regan in Feb and Belle and Sebastian which should be out this year as far as I'm aware. Would absolutely love something from The Concretes, I know they were writing last year but still to hear anything definitive about the release date.

Ah good, I wasn't sure if you knew who I was 'on here'. It was a pleasure, minus the drunk, dancing man at the front licking my ear.