The Poptimists Advent Calendar Day 20

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I chose today's song on the basis that I'd probably have a thumping hangover and should select something soothing. As it turns out I feel tired but intact as the work do was a bit of a damp squib. But you get the soothing wobs song anyway:


Bob Atcher and the Dinning Sisters - "Christmas Island"

Naming coincidence allows Bob Atcher to indulge in a mildly exotic reverie, from the Ultra Lounge 'Christmas Cocktails' series.



Oh look, it's another smiling cowboy!! Apparently Bob was known as "top hand of the cow-hands" and used to MC something known as the 'National Barn Dance'


In non-Christmas, non-pop news, what odds would you have given on the highest UK album in this years Pitchfork Poll being by ARSE BRUTE??!!

Comments

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

i'm reeling from the shock of seeing Our Kate place so low. it's KATE BUSH! she's a living legend! who has made an album on another plane of existence to 99% of these lists! these american indie people should show some respect.

i think reading the ilx thread on aerial convinced me that the entire world had acknowledged it as a work of genius.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I still haven't heard it.

I haven't read any of the big ILM album threads either, without wanting to sound like an old hippy the place is too cynical for me nowadays.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

the aerial thread will restore your faith in the place! (until you read other threads.) it is excitable and enthusiastic and wide-eyed in its glee, and it's got lots of tim f and jody and other people saying wonderfully intelligent things.

i'm surprised you haven't heard it! it's seriously incredible. the last. three. tracks.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I think I might be getting it for Christmas, so I've avoided buying or dl'ing it. If I don't get it for Christmas I'll go and buy it at the first opportunity.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

ah that's understandable then. only a few days to wait now!

(i didn't expect it to be special at all, i mean the woman hadn't made a great album for 20 years, but but but it is.)

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

TOP OF THE POPS!

marvellous, there.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

I didn't realise the horror of Art Brut had spread overseas. I thought it was confined to some mildewy corner of Buckinghamshire and that that was it. Or does it just speak for the dearth of interesting indie bands this year? Mind you, my two fave indie rekkids this year, Hold Steady and Spoon, placed higher and lower, respectively, than I would have guessed. Go figure.

[pot80.livejournal.com]

I maintain that the lot of you just don't get the appeal of Art Brut simply because of the fact that you are from the same country as them.

[pot80.livejournal.com]

It's a pretty new album, Alex. Most people who voted on that list either a) haven't gotten around to hearing it yet or b) were never familiar with Kate Bush because the last record she did came out when they were ten years old and she has virtually no presence in American pop culture.

[pot80.livejournal.com]

But the Art Brut record has really good songs on it! Really good, fun, funny songs. I don't get what you all find so objectionable about that.

[pot80.livejournal.com]

Hold Steady are like Art Brut without catchy tunes and with an American accent!

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I think "Formed A Band" is OK but the other stuff I've heard from them has been pretty awful. The Pitchfork blurb seems more interested in using AB as a stick to beat other stuff with than in persuading me to hear them.

[byebyepride.livejournal.com]

I believe carsmilesteve has a public soft spot for them, so it's not all of us. But yeah it's possible that familiarity has bred contempt etc. One man's charming eccentric quirks = another's exotic other = another's 'jesus enough already you twee-ist shitehawks'

[pot80.livejournal.com]

"Emily Kane," "Good Weekend," and "Modern Art" are the really good ones if you ask me.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I feel browbeaten by their aggressive sincerity.

[pot80.livejournal.com]

I know how it is. Like, if all of you decided to embrace Bowling For Soup or something, I'd understand even if I was wondering all the while "them?"

[pot80.livejournal.com]

They are sincere?

[pot80.livejournal.com]

Dude, "aggressive sincerity" would be like Bright Eyes or something.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Yeah, two out of those three I heard as part of the Stylus UK jukebox. "Emily Kane" was sort of like a more bearable Helen Love but still didn't do anything for me. "Good Weekend" was terrible. So not for me, basically.

I saw them live at Glasto and liked their look and attitude but got bored quite quickly.

[chezghost.livejournal.com]

the Pitchfork list really isn't worth talking about this much. i mean, no RACHEM no credibility.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Bright Eyes is sincere?

[pot80.livejournal.com]

Oh God yes.

[jeff-worrell.livejournal.com]

The PF singles list is "better" (tho' TWO Arse Brutes place in the mid teens!)

But the yawning gap between what the PF writers consider are "albums acts" and "singles acts" gets wider every year - I've never understood this.

[(Anonymous)]

I guess; in the UK there's been a pretty massive reappraisal this year wherein she's no longer just some mad, kooky 80s singer, but Proper Member Of The Canon. And the release of Aerial was quite the press event, and not just the music press.

Also I am guessing that the vast majority of both Pfork and Stylus lists have zero presence in American culture! And I was 10 when the last Kate album came out.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

that would have been me.

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

which is the nauseating "i've seen her naked TWICE" one? that was creepy and disgusting.