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少年ナイフ a.k.a. Shonen Knife played 7th Street Entry last Friday. It was the most fun show I've seen in a long long while.

7th Street Entry is a very good place to see Shonen Knife. It's a fairly small club with a low close stage. Unless you flew to Japan or something, you couldn't do better for seeing them.

The Blind Shake

The Blind Shake were great. They are a local band. They are, simply, a great high-energy live band. I'd definitely go see them again. They addressed this issue after coming onstage and before starting up: "We're from here." (Translated: come see us!)

They are a sort of loud aggressive stomping garage rock, with a pretty fierce preciseness to how they played. I loved their double detuned Danelectro guitar sound. This video conveys them well, though the sound muddies up in the louder parts.

Heavy Cream

There has been an interesting similarity in some recent shows I've seen. A distinct contrast between a formidable and intense frontwoman presence during songs…

Amen, Leeds
Austra, Cardiff
Babybird, Birmingham
Bat for Lashes, Birmingham
Betty Curse, York
Bonobo, Birmingham
Caroline Weeks, Birmingham
Cate le Bon, Cardiff
CocknBullKid, Birmingham
Electric Eel Shock (x 2), Cheltenham & London
EMA, Bristol
Erasure, York
The Faint, Leeds
Flyin' Ike, Swindon
Frank Turner, Gloucester
Godhead, Nottingham
Goldfrapp (x 2), The Eden Project & Birmingham
Hafdis Huld, Birmingham
Hole, Birmingham
Isolated Atoms, Birmingham
Janelle Monáe, Birmingham
Jens Lekman, Bristol
Joanna Newsom, Birmingham
Kid Ego, York
Ladytron (x 2), The Eden Project & Nottingham
Lanterns On The Lake, Bristol
Little Fish, Birmingham
Little Hell, Leeds
Lizzy Parks, Birmingham
Martina Topley-Bird, Birmingham
Massive Attack, Birmingham
Nightwish, Bradford
Nine Inch Nails, Nottingham
Onetwo, York
Patrick Wolf, Birmingham
Placebo, Leeds
Plaid, Birmingham
The Pop Group, Manchester
PsychoFags In BinBags!!!, Cheltenham
QwEEK¬ (a few times), Cheltenham & Swindon
…

Kelley asked me for some Shonen Knife (少年ナイフ) album recommendations earlier today. I figured I'd share them with the rest of the group:

1) "Shonen Knife" - a compilation CD of their early EPs. It's fun! And they were really kind of cute back then. Couldn't play their instruments too well but wrote catchy pop rock tunes with odd lyrics. And word about this album popped up in the oddest of places. My buddy Ken once gave me a photocopy of a review of album which he had found in a HI-FI/audiophile magazine. This album was released by an indie label called "Gasutanku Records" so it may be tricky to locate. The EPs which make up this album, "Burning Farm" and "Yama no Attchan" are available on the iTunes music store.

2) "Pretty Little Baka Guy + Live In Japan" - the first CD of theirs I listened to. A friend gave it to me for Christmas. More kooky fun. The live tracks are very primitive recordings dating back to the mid/late 1980s if I recall correctly. …

Sorry for the lateness... Christmas always seems to mess me about; at least I've had enough time off to get most of this list sorted!! Anywho, enough rabid transgressions, please avail yourselves of positions 50-26 of my year end chart!

50. Love King by The-Dream
http://pixhost.info/avaxhome/e6/79/001579e6_medium.jpeg
Superstar R&B singer/songwriter/producer strikes again with another album of luscious, sensuous, state-of-the-art slow-jam grooves that even at their absolute nasty-filthiness are shot through with enough intelligent sexiness for you to at the very least nod your head in appreciation. Following through on sophomore album Love vs. Money's themes of love, sex and wealth as well as further establishing his persona as the, well, "love king", but without such an epic narrative throughline, the Prince influences in particular have never been so pronounced as before, but the fact that Terius Youngdell Nash aims so high and still manages to pull it all off for most…

The idea is for a journal for every month listing new albums I listen to and what I think so that when I review the year's music in December, I will have a handy reminder. I will add to this as the month goes on. Suggestions welcome.

Play the radio: My Gang Featured Albums 10 http://static.last.fm/matt/tinyradio.gif

January | February | March | April | May | June |
July | August


w/c Mon 30 August:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41y0yAX-v5L._SL160_AA115_.jpg Jenny and Johnny - I'm Having Fun Now
Rilo Kiley's Jenny Lewis teams with her boyfriend Jonathan Rice for this album. (Spinner) Cheerful, upbeat and good fun.
We7 | Spotify | MySpace

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/613geY%2BT-KL._SL160_AA115_.jpg Neon Indian - Psychic Chasms Possessed
The chillwave act's debut LP gets the deluxe treatment with nine new tracks. (Spinner) Nothing grabbed me. Experimental lo-fi electronic.
We7 | Spotify | MySpace

…

As another scrobbling session draws to a close, I've exceeded 50k in listens, and here are some milestone breakdowns from the last 5 years:

Last.FM Milestones

1st track: (23 May 2005)
Alice in Chains - Dam That River
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/252/313433.jpg
1000th track: (02 Jun 2005)
The Smashing Pumpkins - Spaced
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/252/299075.jpg2000th track: (28 Jun 2005)
Queens of the Stone Age - Go With The Flow
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/252/267928.jpg3000th track: (25 Jul 2005)
Liz Phair - Johnny Sunshine
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/252/3625312.jpg4000th track: (13 Aug 2005)
Liz Phair - Sometimes A Dream Is What Makes You A Slave (Demo)
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/252/3625312.jpg5000th track: (01 Sep 2005)
The Smashing Pumpkins - Sun
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/252/299075.jpg6000th track: (16 Sep 2005)
Jack Johnson - Taylor
http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/252/3148499.jpg7000th track: (13 Oct 2005)
Madonna - Human Nature
…

ARTISTS
1. The Smashing Pumpkins - 3,794
2. Liz Phair - 1,306
3. Veruca Salt - 954
4. Silverchair - 905
5. Soundgarden - 893
6. Foo Fighters - 871
7. Nirvana - 841
8. Madonna - 715
9. Heather Nova - 657
10. Queens of the Stone Age - 629
11. Alice in Chains - 600
12. Kittie - 573
13. Catherine Wheel - 544
14. Helmet - 535
15. Unwritten Law - 523
16. Hole - 495
17. Jawbreaker - 436
18. Magic Dirt - 426
19. Michael Jackson - 421
20. Radiohead - 405
21. Tool - 396
22. Everclear - 348
23. K's Choice - 343
24. Type O Negative - 335
25. Killing Heidi - 329
26. Zwan - 306
27. 少年ナイフ - 289
28. KoЯn - 281
29. The Breeders - 274
30. Stone Temple Pilots - 260

SONGS
1. Catherine Wheel – Black Metallic - 52
1. Unwritten Law – How You Feel - 52
3. Jawbreaker – Into You Like a Train - 49
4. Billy Corgan – Hammer And Nales - 45
5. Moby – My Weakness - 44
5. Liz Phair – Gunshy - 44
7. Star 69 – Burning Down The House - 43
8. Billy Corgan – Mina Loy (M.O.H.) - 42
8. VNV Nation – Darkangel (Gabriel) - 42
…

Recently I hit '1300' artists in my library, so I thought I'd make a list of them all for posterity! Of course, I already removed one of those artists frmo my library during this process (it was my music, but under the wrong name...) and there are others I can probably get rid of immediately. But I want to take care in doing so.

Anyway, without further ado...this is the result of coming on up 5 years of scrobbling here at Last.fm, and away from it (on iPod). There have been times when I wasn't able to scrobble, so a lot of data wasn't recorded then. But other than those times, this is what we have...

A
* A Camp (7s)
* A Perfect Circle (210s)
* A Streetlight Song (1)
* Abbe May (88s)
* Abbe May and the Rockin' Pneumonia (5s)
* Abra Moore (7s)
* Ace of Base (2s)
* AC/DC (64s)
* Adam Cohen (2s)
* Adele (2s)
* Aerosmith (8s)
* Afghan Whigs (1)
* AFI (29s)
* Aimee Allen (22s)
…