Parallax View Albums Of The Year 2009

The usual disclaimers apply: we can't pretend to have heard every single new album released in the UK between January 1 and December 31 of 2009, but of those we did, these were the best, and in this precise order.

1. SILENCE IS WILD - FRIDA HYVONEN
2. Fever Ray - Fever Ray
3. Bitte Orca - Dirty Projectors
4. I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose - Bombay Bicycle Club
5. Thunderheist - Thunderheist
6. Veckatimest - Grizzly Bear
7. The xx - The xx
8. Union - The Boxer Rebellion
9. Bird-Brains - Tune-Yards
10. It's Blitz! - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
11. Guns Don't Kill People, Lazers Do - Major Lazer
12. 'Em Are I - Jeffrey Lewis and the Junkyard
13. See Mystery Lights - YACHT
14. Logos - Atlas Sound
15. If You Were Fruit - The Lovely Eggs
16. Farm - Dinosaur Jr
17. Hospice - The Antlers
18. Post-Apocalyptic Love - The Very Sexuals
19. My Maudlin Career - Camera Obscura
20. Still Night Still Light - Au Revoir Simone
21. Blue Roses - Blue Roses
22. The Floodlight Collective - Lotus Plaza
23. Tear Ourselves Away - LoveLikeFire
24. Get Guilty - AC Newman
25. Face Control - Handsome Furs
26. Varshons - The Lemonheads
27. A Man, A Woman Walked By - PJ Harvey and John Parish
28. Survival Strategies In A Modern World - Liechtenstein
29. Me Oh My - Cate Le Bon
30. I'm Going Away - The Fiery Furnaces
31. Embryonic - The Flaming Lips
32. I Feel Cream - Peaches
33. Dance Mother - Telepathe
34. The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
35. Julian Plenti is...Skyscraper - Julian Plenti
36. II - Desire
37. Fight Like Apes And The Mysteries Of The Golden Medallion - Fight Like Apes
38. Polly Scattergood - Polly Scattergood
39. Fine Fascination - Red Light Company
40. Fantasies - Metric

Use the comments box for any gripes, observations and linklove for your own year-end lists. Happy New Year to all our readers, hopefully this site will be slightly more active in 2010!

Half-Term Report

Here lies Parallax View's pick of the best albums released for the first time in the UK in the first six months of the year. While we can't pretend to have heard all of the qualifying records (in particular, we resisted The Horrors, because we can't bear to have to say anything nice about them), of those we did, these were the best, and in this precise order.

1. SILENCE IS WILD - FRIDA HYVONEN
2. Fever Ray - Fever Ray
3. Bitte Orca - The Dirty Projectors
4. Thunderheist - Thunderheist
5. Union - The Boxer Rebellion
6. Guns Don't Kill People, Lazers Do - Major Lazer
7. Veckatimest - Grizzly Bear
8. The Floodlight Collective - Lotus Plaza
9. Em Are I - Jeffrey Lewis And The Junkyard
10. Get Guilty - AC Newman
11. Face Control - Handsome Furs
12. It's Blitz! - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
13. Farm - Dinosaur Jr
14. Tear Ourselves Away - LoveLikeFire
15. My Maudlin Career - Camera Obscura
16. Post-Apocalyptic Love - The Very Sexuals
17. I Feel Cream - Peaches
18. A Man, A Woman Walked By - PJ Harvey & John Parish
19. Still Night, Still Light - Au Revoir Simone
20. Fantasies - Metric

Records by Experimental Dental School, The Lemonheads, Red Light Company, The Wind Whistles, Telepathe, Polly Scattergood and The Joy Formidable narrowly missed out but are all also worth exploring.

...And Now The Gloves Come Off

We haven't done a Parallax Jukebox for a while, which as good a reason as to do one now as any, headed this time round by our favourite new band, from Portland Oregon, it's The Dirty Mittens, who produce the most delicious sound since someone last said they loved us.

1. The Small Things - The Dirty Mittens
2. Young Adult Friction - The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart
3. Bugs and Flowers - Jeffrey Lewis and the Junkyard
4. 18 Wheels - Evening Magazine
5. Beeline - Sky Larkin
6. April - John Parish and P J Harvey
7. A Song For Our City - We Are The Storm
8. Yours To Share - Moofish Catfish
9. Jazz Serenade - The Artisans
10. The Sweetest Thing - Camera Obscura
11. Dull Life - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
12. Doubtful Comforts - Blue Roses

Dirty Mittens, then: who knew fun without fingers was so easy?

Beware The Ideas Of March

We interrupt this deadspace to give you a brief rundown of some of our favourite choons we've been listening to this year that we've hitherto not referenced on this 'ere blog. Most of these tracks are available through the usual download/retail outlets - use and enjoy.

1. 1901 - Phoenix
2. World News - Local Natives
3. Seven - Fever Ray
4. Enemy Within - Frida Hyvonen
5. Anti-Valentine - The Very Sexuals
6. magicweather - Alessi's Ark
7. Snore Bore Whore - Fight Like Apes
8. San Francisco - Jill Sobule
9. Outlaw Pete - Bruce Springsteen
10. The Last Of The Melting Snow - The Leisure Society
11. A Threaded Needle - Lotus Plaza
12. Flicker And Flutter - Future Islands

More updates soon (famous last words, we know, but...)

Parallax View Albums Of The Year 2008

Further apologies for the recent gap in transmission, but to get things moving again here's our rundown of the best albums released in the UK for the first time in 2008. We can't pretend to have heard all of the albums released in the time period, but of those we did these were the best, and in this precise order.

1. VELOCIFERO - LADYTRON
2. Stainless Style - Neon Neon
3. Santogold -Santogold
4. Fed - Plush
5. Stay Positive - The Hold Steady
6. Youth Novels - Lykke Li
7. Alas I Cannot Swim - Laura Marling
8. Hold On Now Youngster - Los Campesinos!
9. Dear Science - TV On The Radio
10. You & Me - The Walkmen
11. Fleet Foxes - Fleet Foxes
12. Seventh Tree - Goldfrapp
13. Alpinisms - School Of Seven Bells
14. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
15. We Are Beautiful We Are Doomed - Los Campesinos!
16. Only By The Night - Kings Of Leon
17. Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires
18. In Our Spacehero Suits - Those Dancing Days
19. "Couples" - The Long Blondes
20. Kensington Heights - Constantines
21. Neptune - The Duke Spirit
22. Ladyhawke - Ladyhawke
23. Fortress Around My Heart - Ida Maria
24. For Emma Forever Ago - Bon Iver
25. Box Of Secrets - Blood Red Shoes
26. El Rey - The Wedding Present
27. Knowle West Boy - Tricky
28. Blood Looms and Blooms - Leila
29. Thomas Tantrum - Thomas Tantrum
30. Oceans Will Rise - The Stills
31. Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!! - Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds
32. Oracular Spectacular - MGMT
33. Reality Check - The Teenagers
34. Chemical Chords - Stereolab
35. Waited Up 'Til It Was Light - Johnny Foreigner
36. X Marks Destination - The Whip
37. Nouns - No Age
38. HLLLH - The Mae Shi
39. Rosie and the Goldbug - Rosie and the Goldbug
40. Falling Off The Lavender Bridge - Lightspeed Champion

Feel free to use the comments facility below to vent your spleen or link to your own list(s).

The Eighth Annual Parallax View Premiership Predictions

1. CHELSEA
2. Manchester United
3. Arsenal
4. Liverpool

5. Portsmouth
6. Aston Villa
7. Tottenham Hotspur
8. Everton
9. Manchester City
10. Sunderland
11. Blackburn Rovers
12. Newcastle United
13. Middlesborough
14. Fulham
15. West Ham United
16. Wigan Athletic
17. West Bromwich Albion

18. Bolton Wanderers
19. Stoke City
20. Hull City

Talk your own balls in the comments box provided.

Manic Mondo

Because the internet would just be boryn without a bit of Robyn, we start off this Monday mini-mitherpiece with some self-styled self-regarding nonsense from the suddenly big and bossy Ms Wilder. Titbits include revelations about wandering through London with her blouse undone to the waist, but it's not just blogging ninja divas who suffer from wardrobe malfunctions, as Rihanna shows in this set of dubious-safety-for-work photos, proving that not even an umbrella (ella, ella, ella) could hide your blushes when it's that nippy out.

Raising our eyes from the gutters to the stars somewhat, Warren Ellis gives a sceptical glance back at speccy sci-fi boffin Joe 90 (via LMG) and Carl Hiassen's Lucky You is being adapted for the British stage. Elsewhere, various bods recall this year's Indietracks; On Dancefloors is a Bristol music blog with a funky attitude; In Pictures: Kate Bush is 50 and, remember Cardiff pop kids, Tell The Police The Truth.

Bloggers don't so much fade away as they do diversify, a case in point being Creepy Lesbo's Slash Media (NOT SAFE FOR WORK) in which she samples some of modern pop culture's gashtronomic delights. Skin Flicks is much more safe for work, although as he considers himself to be a very angry man and is found pleading for fallen women to be shown to him, maybe due caution should be shown after all.

Meanwhile, the undisputed star of Bristol's Dot-to-Dot, the inimitable Big Jeff, has MySpace.

And wherever else your browser points you, remember, Jesus Can See!

Summer Night City

Richard Prince: Continuations @Serpentine Gallery, Hyde Park, London, Sunday June 29 2008, 11am.
Female Agents, Odeon Covent Garden, Sunday June 29 2008, 6.25pm.

Spent the first weekend in a while down in London, the first couple of days mainly taken with meeting up with and getting to know a certain voluptuous Brazilian online friend of mine, who, amongst other things, introduced me to the delights of pacoquinha, an intensely sweet hit of peanut taste textured somewhere between biscuit and fudge, good with tea or coffee as long as long as you have a sweet tooth!

Sunday represented an opportunity to soak up some culture, and went along to see the Richard Prince exhibition Continuations at the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park. Prince may be best known to alt.music fans for providing the striking sleeve art to Sonic Youth's Sonic Nurse, but, although there were a few of his nurse paintings included, as well as a drumhead autographed by Thurston, Kim and Lee from SY, the exhibition presented a broader overview of his work that spans over four decades.

Just as the nurse pictures are appropriated images from pulp novel covers subverted and fetishised by Prince, much of the rest of his work involves customising found objects such as car hoods, and in one stunning case, an entire Buick adorned with objectified images of naked women. Elsewhere, there are a series of photographs of cowboys and biker chicks, and Prince isn't even beyond appropriating other peoples' jokes, with stylised paintings featuring looped one-liner gags. The result is an impressive, arresting collection worth a half-hour's browse for anyone in London with an interest in modern art.

Then headed off on the District Line to Brick Lane, where visited Rough Trade East for the first time, renewed my taste for octopus, wine and chocolate dessert at a tapas festival and wandered into 93 Feet East where there was supposed to be an all-dayer happening, but found no punters to be seen or music to be heard!

A quick change at the hotel later and then into the West End to see Female Agents, which follows in the sly, saucy footsteps of Paul Verhoeven's Black Book by looking at the derring-do of undercover female resistance agents in World War Two. In this case, Sophie Marceau's crackshot recruits/conscripts some dodgy distaff divas into the SOE's female operative branch (known as, we shit ye not, FANY) to distract the Nazis in France long enough for them to help the escape of an Allied geologist doing important groundwork paving the way for D-Day.

It's fairly derivate stuff, suffering from some erratic levels of characterisation that means you don't always care as much during episodes of jeopardy as perhaps you ought, but it says much for the zip of the production and the committed performances from the game, gallic cast that, despite some obvious flaws, the resulting film manages to be thrilling and poignant for the most part, particularly recommended for filmgoers with equal levels of passion for wartime heroics and the female form.

Turned out to be a bad time of it for Germans all round, as got back to the pub beneath the hotel in time to watch the second half of the Euro2008 final in which Spain vanquished the 1996 champions 1-0 to become worthy winners of a surprisingly entertaining competition, a particularly welcome result given that many of the bar's patrons seemed to be Spanish or Portugese speakers.

Parallax Premiership Review

Have a bumper batch of gig reviews to catch up with, and some essential computer maintenance issues to contend with, so progress here at Parallax View will be steady and relentless but possibly not at the pell-mell pace you'd prefer. Just time tonight for a quick consideration of the Premiership season just gone, an exciting one for the neutral, and stuck in neutral was exactly how it felt to us West Ham fans, with the Irons forged to tenth spot for the last three months of the season. A term of stability was what was required after last season's legal turmoils and close-run relegation scrapes, but we'd forgotten just how tedious stability can be.

Still, we finished two places ahead of where Parallax View predicted at the beginning of the season, and finished above 'bigger' clubs like the Tottscum and the Toon Army. To see how well we fared in terms of predictions compare the final table with our pre-season punditry. We got the top two wrong way around, slightly underestimated Wigan and Villa and overestimated Spurs and Newcastle, but got two out of three relegated clubs right (Reading and Derby) and overall we were more right than wrong (particularly regarding the more things change the more they stay the same mantra regarding the likes of Spurs, Newcastle, Citeh and West Ham).

Which begs the question, is the Premiership getting all too predictable?

How Soon Is Nou

Keef's Stag Weekend, Various Bars, Restaurants, Football Stadiums, Clubs, Barcelona, Spain, April 4-7 2008.

One of the reasons for a quiet time here on Parallax View earlier this month was that your esteemed entertainer's presence was required on Keef's stag weekend in Barcelona. It seems rude to visit a new city and not post about it, although as is the normal way with stag weekends, events tended to proceed in an in-the-moment blur of food, alcohol, casual tourism and lively behaviour that prohibits too much in the way of detailed recollection.

Overall, the experience of Barcelona was a positive one and it's somewhere your jaded journeyman would definitely consider visiting again. The weather helped, bright sunshine throughout accompanied by a pleasing breeze, temperatures of around 20 degrees celsius contrasting with sub-zero conditions and three inches of snow back home at the time. Aside from the weather, however, the visit was distinguished by some fantastic tapas (including octopus!); some fascinating Gaudi architecture; meeting some lovely young women (including a gorgeous Asian girl from Brighton and a lovely lass from near Aberdeen) and a trip to the Nou Camp.

The weekend co-incided with Barcelona's home game with Getafe, for which we managed to procure tickets. On collecting the tickets the team coach roared past, too fast to clock individuals that well, although the overall impression was that all the players looked freakin' miserable. The Nou Camp (or should it be Camp Nou?) is an impressive stadium to be sure, but the match itself was an anti-climax, Ronaldhino and Messi were out injured and Thierry Henry looked far off the sort of form he showed during his Highbury heyday. Certainly nothing contradicted the notion that we were witnessing the tail end of coach Frank Rijkaard's controversial tenure.

Getafe dominated possession and chances during a dismal first half, but things picked up after the break although the home side's more fluid passing failed to trouble the scoresheets and the game ended 0-0. It would have been good to witness (and join in) some local goal celebrations but it wasn't to be, and it was still a good feeling to watch a match in such a famous stadium, particularly a domestic game that, at that stage, still had a possible bearing on the final outcome of La Liga.

Still Smokin'

StrangeTime, The Rainbow, Digbeth, Birmingham, Friday March 14 2008, 9pm.

This is your bashful blogger's first venture into The Rainbow since staggering in for some much needed grub during the Supersonic Festival back in 2005. It's a longer walk from New Street than remembered, so just as well there's long-suffering Toon Army trouper Ben along for company during the hefty stride to the venue. It's a big sprawling pub that's had something of a makeover in the intervening three years, and the bands play in what clearly used to be a backyard with a new roof, with an adjoining can bar and an open-plan kitchen area where burgers and other hot sundries are being cooked.

It is, of course, not just the beef patties and onion strips sizzling once Kate Finch and StrangeTime arrive on stage in bold, if slightly belated, fashion. Technical issues with distortion pedals are brushed to one side as they launch into 'Profile' (aka their 'MySpace song' with the lines 'so you've guessed/I'm self-obsessed') from their new ep, and yet as technically impressive as some of their new songs are, it's one of their oldest tunes, 'Ex-Boyfriend', given an extra roar of feeling tonight that someone's ears must be burning (and we don't mean from the barbecue smoke, either) that seems to get the neutrals right behind them. Our normally reliable source, the good General Hubbub, advises us the band have won quite a few new friends tonight with no prisoners taken (including John's drumstick at one point) during a feisty, fiery set.

Ben and your hurrying hack then need to make a fairly hasty exit to Wok'n'Roll, a cosy, boutique Chinese restaurant with a karaoke adjunct, to say a boisterous bon voyage to Alison who's escaping her role as occasional gig-going companion to your socially-challenged so-and-so for a new life in Bristol. We hope the local shops have had advance warning to stock up on Haribo!

Now we know what you're thinking, it's all very well for Dead Kenny to go on hobnobbing hi-jinks in intimate, fashionable ethnic eateries, but what about the other bands on the StrangeTime bill that we've casually left in the lurch of potential internet obscurity? Luckily then for your unreliable uberpundit the good Baron has swooped into view to review the whole fandangle and ensure the completists aren't hard up for comprehensive content. Huzzah!

Parallax Jukebox

Ten tunes to cool the embers of Camden Market -

1. She Dares All Things - Panda Riot
Bold, shimmering standout from Chicago shoegazers.

2. Time To Pretend - MGMT
Electro-pop genius from forthcoming Oracular Spectacular.

3. Ex-Guru - David Byrne
Byrne's bright on this Fiery Furnaces cover.

4. Midnight Surprise - Lightspeed Champion
Sprawling epic from surprisingly good debut album Falling Off The Lavender Bridge.

5. Oneitis - StrangeTime
Sly, dry break-up song from their upcoming EP.

6. Men Not Worth Their Weight In Words - Beestung Lips.
Scathing highlight from their Songs To And From The Iron Gut mini-album. We hope it's not about bloggers. Or maybe, we hope it is.

7. Pop Kids Of The World Unite - Horowitz
Re-released on heavy yellow vinyl as AA-side to Tracyanne, this is the Stoke-On-Trent outfits' finest recorded moment to date, a call to arms for the army of twee, recorded, appropriately enough, in a bedroom. Live review to follow shortly.

8. Yes! You Talk Too Fast - Johnny Foreigner
The JoFo MoFos support Los Campesinos! at Birmingham Academy 2 on Wednesday 13th.

9. All My Friends - Land Of Talk
Sleek but straight-taking pop-rock from the Montreal trio's Applause Cheer Boo Hiss album.

10. A Trip Out - British Sea Power
BSP broaden their outlook and expand their sound on new record Do You Like Rock Music?

The Keys To 2008

22 days into the New Year, Parallax View presents 21 bands to unlock sonic delights in 2008.

We start in an appropriately biblical sense with an Adam. Adam Kesher that is, a French band whose gallic drone-pop deserves some cross-channel contemplation.

If Beestung Lips can translate half the energy and spite they mustered live at Supersonic last year into their recorded output they'll be one of the bands of the year, for sure.

Emerging from Crouch End, Highgate and Tufnell Park, young Londoners Bombay Bicycle Club are similar enough to what's going around to ride the charts high, but have a lead singer with distinctive enough vocals to make us care.

Bugners Eye is urban slang for flapless female genitalia but you wouldn't go round calling this ferocious Birmingham blues band pussies as their pulsating pubrock takes no prisoners.

Gorgeous Emmy The Great seems to have been around for ages now, but her guest backing turns on the raved-about Lightspeed Champion record may sufficiently raise her profile for deserved success when her debut album finally surfaces later this year.

We saw Johnny Foreigner support Los Campesinos! last March, and will do so again this February, because we liked what we saw and their mini-LP 'Arcs Across The City' has whetted our appetites for more of their stroppy, sarky take on US alt.rock.

Another band to leave their calling card late last year were Montreal's Land Of Talk whose 'Applause Cheer Boo Hiss' channelled the sounds of Howling Bells and Metric into something sleeker, sexier but equally demanding of attention.

Leila isn't exactly a new name, but since it's been eight years since her last record, news of an imminent release in 2008 is worth flagging up for your attention.

Gothenbourg's Liechtenstein are an all-girl pop group who hail The Modettes as a primary influence, what's not to like?

Brooklyn's MGMT administer surprisingly thoughtful electropop that's smart enough to make you want to dress to impress. Album 'Oracular Spectacular' is due out in the UK this week.

Californians The Mae Shi have been around for a few years but a new poppier sound sees them sounding like The Go! Team trying on The Polyphonic Spree's tunics for size and having a lot of demented fun in the process.

Make Model seem to have been overlooked by the pundits for this year's predictions, but the anthemic punch of last autumn's single 'The Was' suggested the Glaswegians have what it takes to construct a viable future.

Cardiff's The School bring a DIY aesthetic to some zinging pop choons for adorable results. Recently signed to Elefant Records this is a group you'll never want to forget.

StrangeTime won't be new names to Parallax View readers either, but the spiky threesome who were too sexy/scary for Walsall look destined to rattle cages further afield with a new ep out soon and Sky TV starting to pay attention.

The Ting Tings won a coveted Parallax View Single Of The Week last May with 'That's Not My Name' and things are continuing to ring loudly for the Salford songsmiths as they've gotten themselves a slot on next month's NME tour supporting The Cribs, Joe Lean and The Jing Jang Jong and Does It Offend You, Yeah?.

Back in the West Midlands The Voluntary Butler Scheme looks set to put Stourbridge back on the map serving up his eccentric but decidely dreamy folk-pop ditties.

Manchester's The Whip should have a cracking start to 2008 unless their fun brand of danceable electro-pop suffers as a result of the inevitable nu-rave backlash, of course...

Thomas Tantrum are another band who emerged last Autumn with spiky pop splendour and a Parallax View Single Of The Week (for 'Shake It! Shake It!') and our expectations for further brilliant output has yet to be tempered.

Imagine TV On The Radio if they decided to just sit back and relax in the sun for a while and you get somewhere near the sound of Brooklyn's Yeasayer whose 'All Hour Cymbals' came out the back end of last year and looks set to be one of this year's sleeper breakouts.

If 2007's taste for genre fusions continues in the New Year then Telford's You And What Army? look set to profit with their rap/trance/prog/metal shenanigans regularly causing a live stir.

Finally, it's back up to Glasgow for Zoey Van Goey whose offbeat take on West Coast pop could charm the scarves and knives off an Old Firm derby crowd.

That should keep you going for a while, but remember you can use the comments to register your outrage, point out the glaring omissions and broken links, and hawk your band or blog.

Parallax View Gigs Of The Year 2007

What makes a great gig? The tunes, the chutzpah, the charisma, the company, or the ambience? Or maybe a combination of all those factors? But in 2007, many promoters hit upon a cunning ingredient: just let 'em eat cake...

1. BEESTUNG LIPS! @Supersonic, Custard Factory, Birmingham (July)
2. Rilo Kiley @Carling Academy 2, Birmingham (August)
3. Interpol @Carling Academy, Birmingham (August)
4. Los Campesinos!/Sky Larkin/Johnny Foreigner/Kate Goes @Barfly, Birmingham (March)
5. Mika Miko/No Age @Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham (June)
6. StrangeTime/Cellardoor/Sub Rosa @Actress & Bishop, Birmingham (October)
7. The Cribs @Carling Academy, Birmingham (October)
8. Monarch! @Supersonic, Custard Factory, Birmingham (July)
9. Emily Haines @Glee Club, Birmingham (June)
10. I'm From Barcelona @Carling Academy 2, Birmingham (September)
11. The School @Island Bar, Birmingham (November)
12. Kings Of Leon @Birmingham NIA (December)
13. Maps @Summer Sundae, Leicester (August)
14. The Fiery Furnaces @Barfly, Birmingham (November)
15. The Whip @Summer Sundae, Leicester (August)

Parallax View Films Of The Year 2007

Our pick of what we saw that was released in cinemas for the first time in UK in 2007.

1. CONTROL (directed by Anton Corbijn)
2. Black Book (Paul Verhoeven)
3. Zodiac (David Fincher)
4. Inland Empire (David Lynch)
5. Dans Paris (Christophe Honore)
6. Hallam Foe (David Mackenzie)
7. The Lives Of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmark)
8. The Walker (Paul Schrader)
9. Blood Diamond (Edward Zwick)
10. Eastern Promises (David Cronenberg)

Parallax View Albums Of The Year 2007

Kings Of Leon become the first act to get the coveted nod of Parallax View Album Of The Year twice (following on from Aha Shake Heartbreak in 2004) in a year which, on reflection, was of pretty solid vintage.

1. Because Of The Times - Kings Of Leon
2. Under The Blacklight - Rilo Kiley
3. Mens Needs, Womens Needs, Whatever - The Cribs
4. In Rainbows - Radiohead
5. Our Love To Admire - Interpol
6. Let's Stay Friends - Les Savy Fav
7. We Can Create - Maps
8. Neon Bible - Arcade Fire
9. The Dreamer Evasive - Apartment
10. The Deep Blue - Charlotte Hatherley
11. The Besnard Lakes Are The Dark Horse - The Besnard Lakes
12. Grinderman - Grinderman
13. Icky Thump - The White Stripes
14. Knives Will Have Your Back - Emily Haines And The Soft Skeleton
15. Without Feathers - The Stills
16. Widow City - The Fiery Furnaces
17. Citrus - Asobi Seksu
18. A Weekend In The City - Bloc Party
19. The Kissaway Trail - The Kissaway Trail
20. An End Has A Start - Editors
21. I'll Sleep When You're Dead - El-P
22. A Brighter Beat - Malcolm Middleton
23. Myths Of The Near Future - Klaxons
24. White Chalk - P J Harvey
25. The Fragile Army - The Polyphonic Spree
26. Love's Miracle - Qui
27. Watch The Fireworks - Emma Pollock
28. Person Pitch - Panda Bear
29. The Bird Of Music - Au Revoir Simone
30. Wincing The Night Away - The Shins
31. Magic - Bruce Springsteen
32. Hey Trouble - The Concretes
33. Cheap Demo Bad Science - Serafina Steer
34. No Shouts No Calls - Electrelane
35. The Body, The Blood, The Machine - The Thermals
36. Sermon From Exposition Boulevard - Rickie Lee Jones
37. Made Of Bricks - Kate Nash
38. Wait For Me - The Pigeon Detectives
39. Late December - Maria McKee
40. The Secret Sickliness - Piskie Sits

Best compilation: Weirdo Rippers by No Age.

Best re-issues: Dead Men Tell No Tales by Monarch! and Eat To The Beat CD/DVD by Blondie.

As ever, use the comments box to vent your spleen, point out the glaring omissions and/or hawk your blog. Then it starts all over again in 2008 with the release of the new British Sea Power record in the second week of the New Year.

Fierys Excel Live!

The Fiery Furnaces, Barfly, Birmingham, Friday November 9 2007, 9.15pm.

The last time your crocked correspondent saw The Fiery Furnaces his arm was in a sling in what was then a fashionable wrist fracture. Tonight the limbs are all cosily correct and present, and have the added company of Ben, Jenni, Alison and The Prykemeister, for a gig that's perhaps not been as hotly-anticipated as expected given the sparse attendance which gives the Barfly tonight a cold, cavernous feel.

So maybe there's a touch of sarcasm in singer Eleanor Friedberger's voice when she advises that this could be the best night of her life, though there seems genuine warmth when she invites the collected audience to get right close to the stage so she can see our smiles. Thus the thrill of a packed house is replaced by the sensation of implied intimacy, something that no doubt would appeal to the average Fiery Furnaces fan given their cultish allure.

Eleanor and brother/songwriter/keyboard player Matthew are accompanied by Jason Lohwenstein on guitars and Bob D'Amico on drums and between them they manage a phat and feisty groove that helps propel their perverse and skittish material into the live arena. Eleanor's vocals are a large part of the band's appeal on record even if that isn't always reflected in the production mix, but in the flesh she dominates attention from the word go. All fringe, nose and jaw she's physically a curious combo of Zelda, Ringo Starr and Patti Smith and yet so much more compellingly attractive than that hotch-potch collage might sound. If she's pissed at the turnout it doesn't show in a performance where she seems at once lost in the music and yet passionately embracing every opportunity to connect with the audience through her smiling eyes and bewitching enthusiasm.

The first half of the set is almost exclusively taken from this autumn's Widow City collection, arguably their most consistently pleasing effort since their barnstorming debut Gallowsbird's Bark. Album opener 'The Philadelphia Grand Jury' is also used here to get things going, slowly but surely weaving the listener into their weird and twisted world, while there's also strong showings from 'Navy Nurse', 'Right By Conquest' and 'Restorative Beer'. 'My Egyptian Grammar' puts the high into hieroglyphics, while even the curious omission of the keyboard motif can't put your home-loving hack off his favourite 'Japanese Slippers'. Further into the set there's room for a couple of tracks from the unfairly-neglected 'Rehearsing My Choir', 'Single Again' morphs in and out of 'Don't Dance Me Down' (or is it the other way around?) while a call for requests elicits perhaps their best-known song 'Tropical Iceland' to be extracted from 'Gallowsbird's Bark'.

After the show, Eleanor is in engaging form with the fans that hang by. The Prykemeister tells her she's going to be a big star one day and gets his photo taken with her like the prime schmoozer he is. This just leaves time for a quick pint in The Anchor before catching the train, a brief but memorable Eruption* courtesy of the buxom barmaid giving full and satisfying meaning to the term 'restorative beer'...

*calm down, dear reader, this is simply a guest real ale courtesy of the Salopian Brewery!

Nobby Style

Derby County 0 West Ham United 5, Pride Park, Derby, Saturday November 10 2007, 3pm.

The last time your sheltered scribe ventured into Derby he was but a young pup in the backseat of the family sedan while his parents had a row due to becoming quite seriously lost in the city's road system. Today am on safer ground hopefully with the rail station depositing your curious correspondent just a short distance away from The Brunswick Inn where meet up with Dave R, Big Ray and Brighton Ben and enjoy a couple of pints of Triple Hop which is brewed on the premises of this big, sprawling, quality boozer which appears to have become victim temporarily to a friendly Hammers fans takeover. It's then a quick fifteen minutes' stroll to the ground where we meet up with the lovely Jo, a friend of a friend of a friend of Dave's whose supplying me with a last-minute ticket following a dropout.

Jo, a telecom sales rep from Bedfordshire, seems to take having the company of a random blogging scamp in her stride as we take our seats for kick-off, and there's plenty of opportunity to get talking during a scrappy, edgy first twenty minutes or so with neither side distinguishing themselves in a period marked by the early departure of Hammers' left-back George McCartney through injury. Lucas Neill shuffles over to left-back to allow sub John Pantsil in at right-back, an introduction greeted with some excitement by Jo which one suspects isn't entirely down to his footballing ability. A free-kick from Nolberto 'Nobby' Solano bounces off the crossbar just before the half-hour but apart from that nothing much to report in a game that has 0-0 written all over it until Lee Bowyer pounces on a ball in the penalty area and slots it past ex-Irons keeper Stephen Bywater just before half-time.

As the second half starts Jo's feeling anxious about the scoreline, and tells me she wants at least two more. Your jaundiced journo keeps his doubts to himself at this stage, a wise move as West Ham step up a gear after half-time and Derby's abject failure to respond is pitiful. There's a couple of close calls with the front two pairing of Luis Boa Morte and Carlton Cole beginning to show confidence and understanding, yet it's a combination between Lee Bowyer and Matty Etherington resulting in the latter neatly dispatching the ball past Bywater into the net, that opens the floodgates.

The relief this cushion provides gives way to hilarity a few minutes later when a hapless County defender gets the ball caught under his feet on the line and only succeeds in tumbling it over to make it 3-0. Jo, being of the fairer sex, feels sorry for the Derby dunderhead but your guffawing guide is too busy laughing to feel similar sympathies. 'Same old West Ham, taking the piss' roar the crowd as our second-string midfield seem able to pass and move at will, Lee Bowyer helping himself to his second and the team's fourth with a piledriver finish to a clinical move. Nobby Solano caps a fine personal display full of wit and guile with an exquisitive free-kick that loops over the by-now-bemused Bywater into the net. Your tee-heeing tinker is now officially too busy giggling to report further on proceedings, but 5-0 remains the result at the end of the game.

It's difficult to see where Derby go from here but down back into the Championship. You get the sense from everyone at the club that they've pretty much accepted that this is the Premiership nightmare they must automatically endure as penance for last term's dream season. A shame, because Pride Park is a stunning stadium, the club has a fine tradition and there's clearly a sizeable fanbase here which should be sufficient to fuel a top-flight business enterprise. However, inadequate investment in playing staff in the summer seems inevitably to require at least one step back before they can again move forwards.

As for West Ham, 5-0 away victories in the Premiership are once-in-a-lifetime experiences so can feel fortunate as a part-time paying punter to witness a thrilling second-half display. While there's no doubt Derby are a poor side at this level, the size of the margin and the manner of the victory is heartening when you consider this was near enough our reserve midfield and fourth and fifth choice strikers playing. Matthew Upson looks increasingly imperious at the back while Solano and Boa Morte had their best games for the club since joining the East End outfit, so gaffer Alan Curbishley may be posed some interesting selection questions when the injured players hobble back into contention.

So, all in all, a thumping Hammers away victory, the pleasure of the company of a lovely young woman and the discovery of a great pub means that your philosophical penpusher at last has some happy memories to take away with him from Derby...

West Ham Parallax View Player Ratings: Green 6; Neill 7, Upson 8, Gabbidon 7, McCartney 5 (Pantsil 6); SOLANO 8, Spector 6, Bowyer 8 (Collins 6), Etherington 8; Boa Morte 7, Cole 7.

Jeremy Gawp

Maps/Jeremy Warmsley, Carling Academy 2, Birmingham, Saturday October 6 2007, 7.30pm.

In what is becoming something of an increasingly self-referential Parallax View trend your chaotic correspondent arrives at the venue just as the first support act finish the last song of their set. All we can relate is that there are quite a few of them and they made a pleasing post-rock din but due to the on-the-go demands of the weekend (the gig is sandwiched in between the Villa v West Ham game and going to see the Ian Curtis biopic) don't get the chance to do the research to find out who they are. Parallax View is very, very sorry.

There's something naggingly familiar about the second act as he makes his meek but quietly assured way to the stage, and your hapless hack lets his face drop slightly on the realisation it's Jeremy Warmsley again, who we've seen twice before (at Summer Sundae and supporting I'm From Barcelona) in the last seven weeks. Now the problem with the fact that there's a sparse attendance so far at the venue is that you're a little exposed to the artist and embarrassingly Jez seems to clock my aghast expression and keeps a close eye on me for the rest of the show.

If this ensures your busted blogger remains on his best behaviour the same can't be said for a young man at the front who'd obviously started the pre-gig celebrations a little earlier than perhaps he should, and is sadly making a bit of a dickhead of himself. Warmsley asks him to behave himself and then heads to the barrier and has a quiet word in his ear while keeping an eagle eye on your studious scribe at the same time. We called on our lip-reading expertise and can advise with no degree of certainty whatsoever that what he said to the unfortunate young man in question was 'see that bloke over there, you're going to end up in his blog if you're not careful'. These wise words don't appear to do the trick, however, and Jez justifiably drops his calm reasonableness for a marvellously stroppy 'oh, just FUCK OFF!' instead, before finally security takes the matter out of his hands and escorts the nuisance off the premises.

Perhaps it's the distracting circumstances making us more pre-disposed to giving Jezza a fair hearing, but we find ourselves enjoying his show a bit more at the third time of asking. He seems to get the balance right between the slower and jauntier numbers, but does frustrate us with telling us there's a good joke hidden in the lyrics of one of his songs, because your attention-deficited amateur just can't concentrate for long enough to get it.

Troubling eye contact isn't an issue with main act Maps as they make the sort of symphonies that induce your blissed-out blogger to close his eyes and wig-out to the pulsating waves of sonic splendour. There are people who get paid decent money for writing about music who'd have you believe that Maps can't cut it in the relatively uncharted uncharted territories of the live arena, but take it as read from this Parallax Viewer these idiots don't know what they're talking about. If tunes like 'Eloise' and 'It Will Find You' can inspire this unco-ordinated upstart to shake a limb then these rhythms are chancers that will prove that fortune always favours the brave. Top marks for the roadie wearing a Medium 21 t-shirt as well - further proof that not everything coming out of Northampton is cobblers.

Related Link: Sweeping The Nation's Friendly Chat With...Jeremy Warmsley from last year. He's had a haircut since then, mind.

The Wrong Kind Of Leaving

The Departure/The Brite Lites/Guile, Barfly, Birmingham, Tuesday October 2 2007, 8pm.

As your garrulous guide makes his way to the Barfly venue his thoughts are occupied with one question: does anyone remember The Departure anymore, let alone care? Their debut 2005 platter 'Dirty Words' garnered many a play on our mp3 player, so much so it made Parallax View's Top 30 for that year, but it was a notable commercial flop which led to the sudden exit of the band's lead guitarist and questions asked as to whether they'd be dropped by their label.

Surprisingly, then, find that the venue is fairly heaving, possibly tempted by the fact that the first 50 punters through the door got themselves a free 7", or maybe drawn in by two local bands playing in support. Cannock's Guile make a pleasing drone-rock racket as we weave our way to the bar, but sadly this is the last track of their set so we make a mental note to be Guile-d in more detail at a later date. Birmingham's The Brite Lites immediately get your lank-locked layabout worrying - to wit, surely it's not time again so soon for crew cuts to be back in fashion? There's something short-back-and-sides about their radio-friendly sound too, sounding like Ryan Adams attempting to plagiarise the Radiohead back catalogue, and the result is intermittently interesting and foot-tapping but towards the end you sense the interest around you starting to dim.

The Departure bound on stage in confident mood, and the new, almost impossibly fresh-faced, guitarist seems to settle down well enough in a set that is liberally sprinkled with tasters from their new album (due early 2008) plus the best stuff from 'Dirty Words' like 'Lump In My Throat' and 'Talk Show'. The new material sounds interesting and immediate, and there may yet be commercial mileage in their more accessible take on regurgitating the early 80s sound - in truth, they probably owe more to Depeche Mode than they do Joy Division and that could be an important distinction when trying to find their niche. The show seems to go down well with the crowd, anyway, so all the more curious that the group dispense with an encore despite hoarse entreaties to get themselves back on stage. Curfew or fuck-you issues? We're not entirely sure.

Still, have a bit of time to spare before the last train to sink down another pint as the Barfly club night slowly but surely whirrs into a flurry of activity. Upon leaving, however, your conscientious correspondent finds himself walking behind the band as they lug their equipment up stairs. It's clearly your helpful hack's seasoned roadie reflexes he falls back upon when one of their cases slips off and he picks it up in one fell swoop with a cheery 'whoops!'. Clearly overwhelmed by their evening's performance the band don't skip a beat, presumably having lost count of their number and mistaken your nonchalant nincompoop for a fifth member. At the top of the stairs, the singer turns with some bewilderment to find the said case handed over to him by a bemused blogger rather than a recognised compadre. Congratulating him on a good gig, we return his changed expression of utter disdain with our own practised shrug as we pace off in to the distance. We may have only been a member of The Departure for about seven seconds but we still know how to make a sharp exit.

Spanish I's Are Smiling

I'm From Barcelona, Carling Academy 2, Birmingham, Monday September 10 2007.

Maybe it's 'cos it's Monday, maybe it's 'cos your mardy mitherer is a misanthropist at heart, or maybe it's 'cos your late-running linkdumper's tragi-comic lack of organisational skills sees the last conceivably viable train streaked with the scrapings of the skin of his teeth, but your jaded jobsworth has definitely felt more up for a gig than tonight, despite our lingering love for last year's long-player 'Let Me Introduce My Friends'.

Wander into the venue in time to catch the last few numbers from Jeremy Warmsley but sadly we haven't warmed to his wannabe-Wainwright warblings any more than when we caught his show at Summer Sundae last month. It's all very technically proficient but leaves us colder than a frigid igloo, so it's lucky the half-empty venue means at least we can get served our beer much quicker than normal.

This might have just as much to do with the fact that many attending are clearly better prepared for the I'm From Barcelona live experience than your clueless correspondent, because from the moment the supernaturally splendid Swedes burst into 'Treehouse' on stage, the barrage of balloons and confetti released in the Academy is best enjoyed as 'hands-free' entertainment. Even a lithe leopard like your supple scribe struggles not to spill his beverage while flicking a balloon up with one foot and punching it into the air with his fist in a dizzying display of dexterity doomed to descend into dampness.

No such squibs on stage with your unusually curmudgeonly correspondent eventually bullied into bonhomie by the band's good-natured banter and stout-hearted harmonies. Ginger-bearded singer Emanuel Lundgren bemoans the fact that the Birmingham crowd are balloon-murderers but a look around at the grins and bouncing limbs of the crowd and it's clear that the burst vessels are more to do with the Academy's low roof than any murderous intent amongst the mild-mannered massive. Lundgren dedicates 'Oversleeping' to the next morning's hangover, there's a mirthful mosh to instant anthem 'We're From Barcelona' and an impromptu kazoo orchestra corralled on stage for the contagious 'Chicken Pox', all making for a memorable evening from initially less-than-promising circumstances.

Owl 'n' Belles

Part Three of a Set of Three reviews from the Summer Sundae Weekender 2007.

Summer Sundae Weekender, DeMontfort Hall and Gardens, Leicester, Sunday August 12 2007.

Has the last day of the festival come round already? 'Fraid so, but your chipper correspondent is in surprisingly bouncy form this lunchtime, as are Leicester's Toy Heroes, their arrival marked by the drummer shouting 'YEAH!!!' and the singer/guitarist declaring their intention to 'burn this fucken house down'. Fortunately for the health and safety people the group deliver much more pop than they do the snap and crackle of burning canvas, pretty tunes containing rather lovely harmonies, diverting hooks and some pleasing rumbling rock touches. The band all wear shirts with the names of their favourite cartoon characters and for some obscure reason the one your hypnotised hack focuses on is the 'Danger Mouse' tee worn by the female keyboard player/singer, and we get to thinking if DM's sidekick joined up with them they could call themselves 'Penfold's Five'...

Toy Heroes are clearly doing something right as they hold our attention until the very end of their set, meaning we miss the first ten minutes of The Lea Shores over on the Indoor Stage. This London band are touted as being at the forefront of a shoegazing revival, but with their shamanic lead singer and dancey vibe they owe as much if not more to early Verve than they do the likes of Slowdive and Chapterhouse. They're none the worse for that, though, and there's no doubt the tambourine-shaking frontman is a real find, visually a cross between Mad Richard Ashcroft and the comedian/bon viveur Russell Brand. Musically there is perhaps a slight lack of variety to the sound (excusable at this early stage of their career) but there's enough melodies in there with the attitude and reverb to mark them out as ones to watch.

On record The Strange Death Of Liberal England find it difficult to escape comparisons with Arcade Fire, but playing live over on the Rising Stage they offer a more distinctive identity, interchanging instruments with brio and communicating with the audience between songs via placards only. The lead singer's high-pitched yelps are perhaps an acquired taste and the overcrowded tent sees a few folk leaving in a dazed fashion and scratching their heads as to what the fuss is about, the answer being some of the weekend's best moments in 'A Day Another Day' and 'An Old-Fashioned War' leading up to the chaotic climax and post-rock squall of 'Summer Gave Us Sweets But Autumn Wrought Division'. Good to see a band at Summer Sundae with such fire in their belly, and they also provide us with the most stunning band member of the weekend to date in Kelly Jones - no not that berk from Stereophonics but this one as well as the landmark visual prop of the fest in the 'Get Your Owl Out' banner that is purloined by a punter at some stage during the show.

Was looking forward to seeing Cherry Ghost on the main stage, but they are a bit deflating - pleasant enough in a radio-friendly fashion, with some good tunes but too much of their set is uncompelling middle-of-the-road mulch. Pop back in to the Rising Tent to check out the gorgeous Stephanie Dosen and her equally-stunning backing musicians. Dosen has an unusual voice and her ethereal tunes are in direct contrast to the earthy humour of her between-song banter. She's impressed with TSDOLE's placards and suggests they'd be a good idea for porno, before getting her own owl out - the feathered delight of 'Owl In The Dark', you doity birds!

Given that Koop's beats-culture jazz schtick is almost entirely sample-based, it's intriguing to see how they present it live. The two Swedish gentlemen are at the back of the stage twiddling their knobs in their trademark strappy dresses, but they are upstaged by the Norwegian chanteuse Hilde Louise Asbjornsen, who's like Doris Day infused with the va-va voom of Jessica Rabbit, wearing the most fantastic dress that accentuates every curve as she sashays and flirts while the trombonist frenetically extends his instrument. Retro glamour, musical improvisation and surreal visuals all combine for a pretty good way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Decide to put my feet up in the seats of the Indoor Stage to watch a bit of Spoon whose rather formal take on indie-rock moves leaves me sadly unstirred. Much less clever but heaps more fun are The Pigeon Detectives on the main stage with their daft-but-definitely-loveable take on proto-Strokes pogo-pop. The lead singer spies the 'Get Your Owl Out' placard amongst the crowd, grabs hold of it and leads an audience chant. Watching on to our right are The Strange Death Of Liberal England themselves, your cuckoo correspondent finds himself gazing over at Miss Kelly Jones but Dead Kenny decides he'd be a twit to woo...

Catch a bit of the Gruss Rhys on the Indoor Stage, his impressive set design seeing him framed inside a giant TV set, but his cacophonous caterwauling isn't what we're looking for at this stage of proceedings. Echo and The Bunnymen running through their greatest hits back outside is much more in order, though nothing lasting forever sadly extends to Ian McCullough's voice which is more ragged than glorious these days. Over on the Rising Stage, Polytechnic start off bright and lively but as their set goes on the lack of an extra-curricular spark becomes ever more apparent.

And, finally, ladies and gentlemen, we have Spiritualized headlining the Outdoor Stage, with Jason Pierce given a fantastic platform to deliver his 'acoustic' take on old Spiritualized and Spacemen-3 numbers, albeit backed by a mischievous three-piece gospel choir and a mini-orchestra. Perhaps not the most rousing finale to a festival ever, but on the whole Dead Kenny endorses a chilled and enchanting endpiece although as ever with Spiritualized am left with a sensation of wanting that little bit more from them, not in terms of quantity or volume, but in terms of epiphany - a rapturous climax agonisingly just out of reach. Was it ever thus?

In summary, however, this year's Summer Sundae Weekender can be considered a resounding success - brilliant weather, good organisation, fine company and a more satisfying range of acts across the musical spectrum than in previous years all combining to impressive effect.

The Seventh Annual Parallax View Premiership Predictions

Given that West Ham's Premiership status remained under at least perceived threat throughout much of the close season, we never quite got round to a review of last term's campaign. Perhaps in hindsight the least said the better, particularly last year's predictions which were atypically poor (Liverpool as champions, Reading bottom, anyone?) with only the no-brainer of Watford's relegation completely spot-on.

A lot of money has been spent in the close season, but we could be faced with a situation of 'the more things change, the more they stay the same'. Can Darren Bent and a whizkid full-back really see the Tottscum bridge a huge gap between them and the big four last season? Are there really revolutions going on at Newcastle, Villa, West Ham and Man City or will all four again flatter to deceive? So your far-seeing football pundit had a bit of a think about it and came up with this shake-up -


1. CHELSEA

2. Manchester United
3. Arsenal
4. Liverpool

5. Tottenham Hotspur
6. Everton
7. Portsmouth
8. Newcastle United
9. Blackburn Rovers
10. Aston Villa
11. Manchester City
12. West Ham United
13. Sunderland
14. Bolton Wanderers
15. Fulham
16. Middlesborough
17. Birmingham

18. Reading
19. Derby County
20. Wigan Athletic


Hmm...seems we've still got it in for Reading.

Half Term Report

Later than usual (and we're usually late) here's the official, exclusive, Parallax View selection of the best albums released for the first time in the UK in the first six months of 2007. To clarify, Editors album which was released on June 25 came under consideration, but the Interpol record, released on July 2 was not (fear not, Carlos D & co., the end-of-year lists are more nigh than ye think).



1. Mens Needs, Womens Needs, Whatever - The Cribs
2. Because Of The Times - Kings Of Leon
3. The Dreamer Evasive - Apartment
4. The Deep Blue - Charlotte Hatherley
5. Neon Bible - Arcade Fire
6. The Kissaway Trail - The Kissaway Trail
7. Grinderman - Grinderman
8. Without Feathers - The Stills
9. A Weekend In The City - Bloc Party
10. Knives Don't Have Your Back - Emily Haines And The Soft Skeleton
11. I'll Sleep When You're Dead - El-P
12. Icky Thump - The White Stripes
13. The Bird Of Music - Au Revoir Simone
14. An End Has A Start - Editors
15. Hey Trouble - The Concretes
16. No Shouts No Calls - Electrelane
17. Wincing The Night Away - The Shins
18. Sermon From Exposition Boulevard - Rickie Lee Jones
19. Wait For Me - The Pigeon Detectives
20. Late December - Maria McKee

With honorary mentions to Piskie Sits and Panda Bear, whose efforts 'The Secret Sickliness' and 'Person Pitch' respectively, just missed the cut.

So did PV exclude your favourite? Splutter your indignation in the comments box provided.

Jet Set Go!

Supersonic Festival, Custard Factory Complex, Digbeth, Birmingham, July 13th/14th 2007.

With the festival running until 3am both nights, a hotel stop is required for your decadent correspondent, and a good deal via laterooms secures a berth at the newly refurbished Paragon Hotel in Alcester Street. The room is small with a barely functioning toilet but has a funky 'boutique' feel, plasma TV, chocolate brown blankets, thick curtains and, most importantly, members of Wolf Eyes queueing behind your quaking hack at check-in. The devil is truly in the details.

Queue in the rain with Cardiff scenester Ben for about twenty minutes but get to The Medicine Bar just in time to catch the beginning of Monarch!'s reign. Their music builds slowly and intriguingly, interspersed with stunning surges of guitar squall and an elfin chanteuse releasing her demons with growls that seem to come from somebody else's body entirely. The result is as dramatic and startling a live performance as Dead Kenny has witnessed during his Parallax View years and a hell of a start to any festival.

Elsewhere on Friday, Fuck Buttons are let loose in The Kitchen, resulting in cacophany, samples, hiss and beats. Some of their songs seem to go on for way too long but they leave more of an impression than Kling Klang back at The Medicine Bar, who seem like Mogwai only less so. Feeling frazzled and sleepy-eyed by the time Wolf Eyes hit the stage, which may possibly account for the fact that your pooped penpusher finds them neither as scary or interesting as had been led to believe. There's a lot of noise, plenty of attitude, an overload of pantomime but an apparent loss of point now the novelty's worn off.

Monarch! having blown your woozy webslinger's socks off the night before, Saturday afternoon is spent trudging the streets of the suddenly sunny Second City for replenishments. A bumper pack from Gap or Next would have been sensible and good value, so inevitably end up in House of Fraser's sale emerging with a Paul Smith pair in West Ham colours instead. Perhaps, though, this indulgence is just reward for earlier escorting a visiting Japanese academic to New Street Station (yes, you're right, she was hot, your garrulous guide may be virtuous but he ain't dull...).

Retail therapy thus completed, head back to the Custard Factory where catch the last quarter-hour or so of Crippled Black Phoenix underneath The Arches, who sound like Mogwai playing tiddlywinks with mid-period Manic Streets Preachers, umpired in a slightly officious manner by Soundgarden, and the result is as intermittently interesting and bombastic as that sounds. Meet up with Ben again to watch Voice Of The Seven Woods who are a bit dull until your bored blogger says so out loud, at which point they buck their ideas up somewhat and start giving it some overdue bollocks.

Back in The Arches, three people are staring at their laptops in deadly seriousness to apparent disinterest from the audience. These are Migrant, who make some nice noises here and there, but perhaps need to lighten up. Back over at The Medicine Bar, Calvados Beam Trio contrive a brand of math-rock considerably less than the sum of their constituent influences, so your fickle furtler leaves Ben with his calculator to make acquaintance with a lovely lady with a harp, namely Serafina Steer who can be simplistically described as an entertaining collision between Kate Nash and Joanna Newsom, so we'll leave the intellectual descriptions to others with more time on their hands.

Back at The Medicine Bar, Beestung Lips are doing what had hoped Wolf Eyes might be capable of: they're tearing your discombobulated dimwit a new arsehole with their terrifying and genuinely confrontational brand of jagged-bottle-up-your-rear-end rock'n'roll. An excited young woman is pushing and pulling your stunned scribe as he tries to make some sense of it all. Little change there, then.

It's back to kids stuff over on the Main Stage as The Modified Toy Orchestra make like Hot Chip let loose in the kindergarten wearing Primark suits. Diverting enough, but the lure of Qui (a band recently joined by David Yow from The Jesus Lizard) underneath The Arches, not to mention the need for some nutritional supplement, pulls us away. Yow's lost his passport but none of his balls during an entertaining and uncompromising set which augurs well for the new album due out in stores imminently.

Chrome Hoof's novelty factor proves popular with the crowd, but strip away their party attitude, silver-foil costumes, erotic dancers and multi-genre fusion feel and you're left with a band who could be playing until Supersonic 2017 and they'd still never hit on anything remotely resembling a proper tune. Back out to The Arches, then, but find Om a bit um, so queue to get back in for Mogwai, watch Serafina Steer being interviewed in a room opposite and spectacularly fail to get her attention (stopping just short of singing 'Hey Serafina!' to the tune of Macarena) while everyone wants a piece of Qui's spaced out guitarist Matt Cronk who always seems to be lumbering nearby.

Headliners Mogwai were Mogwai and if they're not careful they could turn into Mog-why???!!!. The music is pretty enough in parts, but there's not enough genuine substance and epiphany to bolster a set of this length, leaving even hardcore fans feeling a little underwhelmed. Maybe, like Wolf Eyes, they're just a band that's run its course, ending not with a bang but a tinker. Do bump into Pete Ashton at this point, however, who is in engaging and informed form in his official blogging capacity and flickring presence, and advises of a rare prior sighting of the owner of the Russ L brand on the festival site.

It's now getting quite late, have bid Ben adieu, but it's not over until the mad French bloke stops banging the drums, so circle in on Duracell a one-man act who programs his drums to generate old-skool game beats in a brilliantly barmy fashion, sweaty lunatic bravado that deserves a hearty bravo! But it's now 3am, there's no sign of Eternal, so your dazed dunderhead heads his satiated way home...

Related links:

Parallax View at Supersonic 2005.
Pete Ashton-collated Supersonic 2007 Collective Memory.
Ben's Supersonic 2007 review.
Russ L's Supersonic 2007 experience.
The Fuck Buttons verdict.

And You Will Know Them By The Trail Of Dead Kenny

The Kissaway Trail/Envy And Other Sins, The Buttermarket, Shrewsbury, Thursday July 12 2007.

We don't often get decent gigs down Shropshire way, so perhaps we shouldn't complain too much when things don't start off on time. But when the posters advertise 8pm doors, it's not unreasonable to ask questions when you turn up at 8.25pm to be told they're not ready yet and could you pop round the Britannia for 15mins while they set things up? Still, not being the complaining sort(!) your correspondent does indeed investigate said pub, settle down with a pint of Youngs's, and sample the best of the pub jukebox to while away the quarter-hour experiment -

Parallax Real-Life Jukebox, The Britannia, Shrewsbury, 12/07/07

Golden Skans - Klaxons
Country Girl - Primal Scream
Pacific State - 808 State
All Around The World - The Jam
Dakota - Stereophonics

Do the best of a bad job there, reckon, so duck and dive past postal workers drifting in off the picket line to wet their whistle and head back to The Buttermarket where the KT standstill is over, the doors are now open but the Caffreys casks are empty so Guinness it is. First band don't make it on stage until 9.10pm and your blackstuff-imbibing hack doesn't quite catch their name but they're from Birmingham, the lead singer is trying his best to sound like Ray LaMontagne, they have a cute cellist and that's about as much as can think of to say about them at this point.

Next up is another Brum-based band, Envy And Other Sins, a stylish quartet picking up a fair amount of momentum at the moment it seems, and the group members seem to have very distinct looks/personalities which may help them in the long run. They peddle a polite form of keyboard driven pop-rock, which while occasionally diverting, only really comes to life in the more rousing numbers that bookend the set. That said, they have the potential to be moulded into a chart-troubling post-emo pop act with the right guidance, and, after all, the green-eyed monster is never far away, n'est-ce pas?

By the time The Kissaway Trail find the route onstage your timetable-consulting scribe is already having concerns about making the last train home, but such anxieties are nearly immediately allayed by the impressively dark pop noise they create. Imagine Interpol and The Monkees exchanging secret sonic handshakes at a mountainside spa resort while The Wannadies tend the bar under the watchful gaze of Wayne Coyne as Maitre'D and you've at the very least taken a mazy meander inside Dead Kenny's imagination if not been given an exact aural interpretation of the wares on offer. If you require something less verbose it's bloody good stuff to bounce up and down to after a few pints of Guinness, with 'Smother+Hurt=Evil'; 'Tracy' and 'La La Song' amongst the standouts. XXX marks your hack's spot sufficiently that he doesn't buy the company as such (relatively old and greying compared to our last Salop gig) but instead resolves to purchase the band's self-titled debut with appropriate speed and elan.

Related link: The Prykemeister's 2005 impression of Moseley's Envy And Other Sins (need to scroll down a little).

Uncool List

First up, congratulations to my brother Mark and his wife Gabrielle on the birth of their daughter, making Dead Kenny an Uncle for the very first time, as Madonna might once have sung. In honour of this occasion, here are some other pressing deliveries...

Russ L on The Spotted Dog's spot of bother.

Ben fills his blogging boots with a Glastonbury 2007 diary.

The new Interpol record is a new Interpol record, and thus a mighty thing of wonder indeed.

Hitflip sent me a nice t-shirt.

Billy Bragg's doing his bit for jailhouse rock.

A new Peter Greenaway film is imminent.

Ambition novelist Nirpal Dhaliwal on Emily Parr's 'David Brent moonwalk'.

Robyn's still blogging. This makes us happy.

Simone Radway is a photography graduate based in Birmingham looking to assist fashion and portrait photographers.

This is where your correspondent will be at this weekend.

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The new Paul Schrader film, The Walker, opens in the UK on August 10. Looks like a modern riff on his American Gigolo with Harrelson getting Wood-y as a gentleman escort.

Fingerjig is an online typing game (via Graybo)

Still game? Pac-Man's skull found.

West Ham Till I Die is Iain Dale's West Ham diary, getting a reputation for reliable pre-press scoop. This close season has been a little too close for comfort, if you ask me.

Drawing things to a full circle...10 things to do before you die.

Bling The Noize

Mika Miko/No Age, The Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham, Saturday June 23 2007.

Your correspondent has previously heard dark mutterings about the denizens of The Sunflower Lounge: that there is terminal trendiness therein, a tendency to sneer down upon anyone not wearing the right sort of retro trainers and an atmosphere more cliquey than a posse of paparazzi let loose on a Paris Hilton prison shower lesbian love-in. On the three occasions Dead Kenny has previously ventured there he encountered a Fatty Arbuckle-style Wild Party, a clumsy girl in piratical attire and the unalloyed joy of The Clash's 'Tommy Gun' blaring out at top volume (after the Emily Haines show at the Glee Club), so it's with an open mind that your intrepid hack enters the bar for his first proper gig at the venue.

The gigs are held in the downstairs area, with a 'Staff Only' sign on top of the door cunningly designed to repel those not in the 'in-crowd'. How exciting it is then to see through this ruse and get to spy on the sartorial secrets of the Second City's hip and happening citizens at close quarters. Your furtive scribe first sees the girl taking cash on the door, and she's...well, not wearing very much, actually. But then hot girls in summer dresses is a look that never goes out of fashion, n'est-ce-pas? Elsewhere, silly hats are de rigeur, and there are various sightings of over-sized specs (blame Hot Chip); flip-flops (someone very confident about the state of the loos, clearly) and (we shit ye not, Sherlock) this season's most happening fashion fusion to wear at an underground rock gig - a Melt Banana t-shirt bedecked with a gaudy gold bling necklace! You'll all be wearing it next summer, or my name's not Trinny and Susannah.

And yet my nascent career as a fashion detective is put on hold with the emergence on stage of No Age, two dudes from the City Of Angels intent on making heavenly noise from their drums/guitar axis. Dean Spunt (stop spluttering at the back!) bashes the skins and sings his heart out, while Randy Randall (his real name...we think!) concentrates on churning out the chords as well as helping out here and there with the vocal duties. The result is a really very impressive noise but with enough pop sensibility (they cite Squeeze amongst their influences) to come on like the adorable lovechild consequence of The Beach Boys climbing Brokeback Mountain with Fugazi (erm...time to resit your Biology exam, methinks - Ed.). Their songs sometimes hit grooves that other bands would luxuriate in for extended breaks, but these No Age fellows keep everything commendably brief, leaving the audience always wanting something more, so think of them as the My Bloody Valentine that wouldn't have brought Creation Records to their knees and seek out and worship the best new band of 2007 to date.

It isn't Mika Miko's fault that their nominally headline set feels like something of an anti-climax, just a reflection that their entertaining high-energy cocktail of riot-grrl and shouty punk-funk lacks the explosions of epiphany that peppered their support-act's set. They seem like fun girls with the right sort of attitude (when your clumsy correspondent accidently nudges the bassist's breast as she makes her way towards the stage he is met with an amused smile rather than a stern lecture on how the angle of his drinking arm was a subconcious reflection of sexist attitudes in a masculine society), with some good songs and a neat gimmick (one of the singers yelps into a mic that's been converted from a bright red telephone receiver, giving a distorted effect). Constantly watchable and with an enthusiasm that's genuinely infectious all they really lack is one or two songs that could really raise the ante amongst a consistent set of material that on this showing doesn't quite catch fire.

This doesn't stop some of the youths in the audience play-wrestling near the front, although we trust their retro trainers didn't get too scuffed, and the guy with the flip-flops escaped without having his toes fractured. As for your correspondent, he enjoys the show so much he buys a bandana, as the nu-rave disco blares out on Mika Miko's departure. Everybody's getting down, and these cool cats may wear some crazy clothes but the inclusive and fun atmosphere engendered makes for one of the best value gigs in the Parallax View calendar year so far.

Tiswas

Various fashion, music, multimedia retail outlets, Birmingham, Saturday June 2 2007, 11am-4pm.
Lisa Milroy/Steven Shearer, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, Saturday June 2 2007, 4.15pm approx.
Zodiac, Cineworld, Broad Street, Birmingham, Saturday June 2 2007, 5.15pm.
Actress and Bishop, Birmingham, Saturday June 2 2007, 9.30pm-2am.

Having stopped overnight in Brum following the Emily Haines gig and with only the vaguest plans for meeting up with people this evening, your correspondent finds himself in the unusual but not unwelcome situation of having some time to spare to mooch around the Second City at leisure. With payday just having passed, this inevitably means checking out record shops, in this case picking up the debut album by The Pigeon Detectives (as big, dumb, and fun as you'd ever want a big dumb fun record to be) and the latest by The Cribs (better than we'd ever have given them credit for being capable of achieving) and searching for that perfect pair of trainers that probably only exist inside our own twisted imaginations.

Then take a stroll alongside the canals in the glorious sunshine before popping into the always civilised prospect of the Ikon Gallery. Lisa Milroy's exhibition is pleasant enough but in your philistine hack's view her art would be better suited to posh greetings cards than prestigious galleryspace. Canadian Steven Shearer's exhibition on the top floor was more involving, kind of like Tracy Emin had she been brought up an androgynous metalhead in 70s Canada with a Lief Garret fixation. The photocollages are a bit like browsing a schizoid's scrapbook, which is probably what all modern art should be like, don't you think?

Head to the Cineworld with a bit of time to spare for a drink but find the bar upstairs closed, so have to queue up for half an hour for an ice-cream while a disorientated woman gets personal tuition from the bemused attendant on how to write a cheque before discovering she doesn't have a relevant bankcard. This for £12's worth of chocolates and fizzy drink! So end up only just getting into the auditorium on time to see David Fincher's Zodiac which follows the investigations by detectives Mark Ruffalo and Anthony Edwards plus maverick journalist Robert Downey Jr and geeky cartoonist Jake Gylenhaal into the identity of a serial killer in the late 60s/early 70s. Fincher makes an avowed point of not exploring the motivations of these clearly obsessed individuals in favour of meticulous attention to the details of this fascinating case that was never properly resolved. His direction is less self-consciously edgy than previous efforts like Fight Club and Se7eN but this more straightforward mise-en-scene only accentuates the creepy and cold-blooded nature of the murders, making for an utterly engrossing thriller that'll keep you properly gripped throughout the epic length.

Get some food on the go before heading back to the hotel to freshen up then meet up with Ben, Jenni, Alison, Kirsten, Jim, Adam and several other fine people, for drinks outside the Actress and Bishop, during which time your swaying hack gets everybody's names mixed up (even inventing a few) and stabs a hole right through Jenni's foot with a metal chair. Then most of us head chez Kirsten for drunken karaoke, at which point Dead Kenny would like to say if you were woken up near Birmingham in the wee small hours by some berk bellowing Chesney Hawkes' 'The One And Only' and/or Rick Astley's 'Never Gonna Give You Up' he's really very, very sorry.