New to NA: Hitsujibungaku

The algorithm served this track up to me on some social media or other and it caught me off guard. It's Addiction by Japanese indie band Hitsujibungaku. I like this, I thought, it reminds me a bit of... who? Lush, maybe? Curve, more likely? But who else?

I gave up thinking about it in the end, content to enjoy the 90s crunchy guitars and chugging rhythm. No idea what the song's about, as only a couple of lines are in English. If Google Translate is to be believed, there's a verse that includes the lines "So take me somewhere, Preferably off the phone-screen, Because I want to feel alive." And that's something we can all get behind, I'm sure.

I've got a feeling this might become tiring if listened to too much, but that might be because I'm a terrible curmudgeon. What do you think?

The literal translation of Hitsujibungaku is "sheep literature", for what that's worth.

Oh, and do you think the drummer took their look from the girl who crawls out of the TV screen in The Ring?

Where you stop and the world begins

I found this picture earlier this week, whilst doing a little housekeeping/pruning of my phone's camera roll:

The date and time on the picture tell me that I took it in Aarhus, Denmark, at the tail-end of August 2024, and given that these are some of artist Jenny Holzer's Truisms, it was almost certainly taken in ARoS, a brilliant modern art museum (and very cool building). Whatever, you might say that these truisms feel a bit like ... (drumroll) a design for life.

Yep. That's how bereft I am of blogging ideas.

Obsolete Monday

This has been in my YouTube Watch Later list for ten years, waiting for me to do something with it. God knows what I've been waiting for. You've probably all seen it already, it's had 10 million views after all. But who doesn't want to see someone playing the saw?

Whatever, here's Orkestra Obsolete, hitting all the right notes with their 1930s instrumentation.

TLAP: Old Speckled Hen Zero

At the end of the year, I'll do a chart rundown. Better get a few more reviews in then...

Old Speckled Hen Zero

What's it like? Well, this is an interesting one. Back in our younger day, The Man Of Cheese and I had many a happy but spectacularly hammered night out that involved significant quantities of regular Old Speckled Hen. Although not the strongest ale (nor the weakest, in our defence), it seemed able to generate disproportionately large hangovers. I was curious to see what I'd make of the neutered version, then, and the news is good: it's alright! The twin malt four hop brew delivers plenty of flavour, and you actually feel like you're having a beer when drinking it - this sounds obvious but so many alcohol-free ales seem to have overlooked this crucial element. Not too sweet either. As a result, this is right up there in the top quartile of alcohol-free ales, in my view. Footnote: I even felt slightly sub-par the morning after drinking this, but that may just have been a deeply-engrained Pavlovian response.

Would I drink it in a pub? Yes.

Would I drink more than one? Yes.

Would I drink it all night? Quite possibly.

Stats: 0.05% ABV. Calories 12 kcal/100ml. Currently a steal at only £4 for 4 x 440ml cans, from Morrisons

Stars: ★★★★⯪

Old Speckled Hen is produced under the Morland Brewery name (though that is now owned by Greene King, and Zero is brewed at GK's excellent Bury St Edmund's site). But anyway, Mor(e)land gives, gives, gives me more, more, more...

Homonyms #9: Come Together

For the purposes of this blog, homonyms are different songs with the same title. And for the purposes of my sanity, I'm limiting each post to two songs, however many there may be that fit the bill.

Today we examine two different takes on, ahem, unity. Of sorts.

Our first Come Together is by Blur, from their oft-maligned debut album, 1991's Leisure. I say maligned but, thinking back, I seem to recall most people (myself included) were just a bit disappointed that it wasn't all as good as There's No Other Way. In fairness to Damon et al., they set themselves quite a high bar there. Anyway, here's their very-91 offering.

I usually write something here along the lines of "there's always a bigger fish" ... and so it is today, for this is the brilliance of Come Together by The Beatles, a popular Scouse beat combo who I feel may go far.

Poor Blur, I've just lined one of their lesser moments up against one of the greatest moments of the biggest band of all time. Anyway, other acts who also want you to come together include Primal Scream, The Internet, Spiritualized and, er, that's about it, I think; everyone else just covers The Beatles.

So, do you want to come together, or do either of these drive you apart?

Buried answers

The answers to last week's logic problem:

Blogger	Radio station	Format	Decade
Andy	Radio 3	Spotify	60s
Bob	Radio 1	Cassette	70s
Charlie	Radio 4	MP3	80s
Debra	Radio 2	Vinyl	00s
Erica	6 Music	CD	90s

Don't know what Bob is doing listening to Radio 1, given his preference for music of the 70s. Also, if I was a single man, I'd probably want to meet Erica...

Anyway, that was alright, wasn't it? And here's I Buried All The Answers by Fink, which seems appropriate. I know nothing about Fink, having only found this by searching for songs about answers. Seems he's from Cornwall, is in his mid-fifties, and has pivoted in an acoustic direction after a 30-year career focused on electronic music and DJ-ing. Really, where have I been?

My freedom's a delusion

From every-home-should-have-one Songs From Northern Britain, this, for me, is ultimate form Teenage Fanclub.

Your sadness don't lie
Your feelings can't hide
You always know why
But your reasons are sly
You never deny
What you feel inside

I, I disappear when you're not here
In my life

I can't slip away when I see your face
I lose my confusion
Your love is the place where I come from
When I'm on my own I'm lost in space
My freedom's a delusion
Your love is the place where I come from

My sadness don't lie
My feelings can't hide
I just can't deny
What I feel inside

I can't slip away when I see your face
I lose my confusion
Your love is the place where I come from
When I'm on my own I'm lost in space
My freedom's a delusion
Your love is the place where I come from

I can't slip away when I see your face
I lose my confusion
Your love is the place where I come from
When I'm on my own I'm lost in space
My freedom's a delusion
Your love is the place where I come from

"Logic is the beginning of wisdom..."

"...not, the end." So said Mr Spock in Star Trek VI. Notwithstanding that, I used to love logic problems as a kid, and would spend hours putting ticks and crosses in little puzzlebook grids. So here's one I made just for you.

There are five bloggers: Andy, Bob, Charlie, Debra and Erica. They each prefer different radio stations - Radio 1, 2, 3, 4 or 6 - and they each prefer to collect music in different ways - cassette, CD, MP3, Spotify playlist or vinyl. Oh, and they each blog about the music of a different decade: 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s or 00s.

The clues below are all you need to work out who likes which station, which format and which decade, just with logic - no guesswork is required. Here are the clues:

1. Charlie blogs about 80s music; his preferred medium is MP3.
2. The blogger who has embraced Spotify also loves Radio 3.
3. Erica blogs about 90s music.
4. The vinyl collector (who isn't Andy) loves Radio 2 and blog about 00s music.
5. The CD collector loves 6 Music, but not 60s music.
6. Bob (who doesn't listen to Radio 4) blogs about his cassette collection of 70s music.

And here's a grid to help organise your thoughts. Use ticks to mark intersections you know to be true, and crosses to mark combinations that are definitely untrue. Easy, right?

And another grid for your answers:

Blogger	Radio station	Format	Decade
Andy
Bob
Charlie
Debra
Erica

And (don't groan) here's The Logical Song (sorry!) to listen to whilst you think...

New to NA: Ghostwoman

Let's be honest, I'm in the second half of middle age. My finger can still feel a pulse, but it is nowhere near on it. That's just the way it is, and also right and proper.

Lucky for me, then, that I still get exposed to plenty of new music, courtesy of Amusements Minor. He's an avid user of Spotify, and has invested enough time and effort in it for the algorithm to have a pretty good symbiotic relationship with him. And, by extension, me.

All of which is longhand for saying that I heard this from AM's Spotify playlist, and rather took to it. That out-of-time chiming guitar line hooked me, the minimalist backbeat and bluesy vocal reeled me in. This is The End of a Gun by Ghostwoman, about who I know very little other than that they are from Canada (I think), this was on their second album, 2023's Anne, If, and they are worth investigating further.

This is their Bandcamp, if you want to hear more. Why wouldn't you?

Oh, and I'm too tired to make a joke about a song that's already three years old being new to me, but you can make your own, I won't be offended...

Monday long song: You Are The Magic

You may have seen in the news that an auction of Johnny Marr's guitars at Christies last week raised more than £3.6 million. Incredible. One guitar, a 1982 Rickenbacker 330 Jetglo, sold for £358,400 ... but then it was used on This Charming Man, Still Ill and What Difference Does It Make? so that's probably fair enough. Spoiler alert: I didn't buy it.

There were also some charity lots, mostly Smiths-era tour posters, and 100% of the sale proceeds of these went to The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association and The National Autistic Society. Which was nice.

What you might not know is that the Christies auction brochure was wonderfully detailed, and makes a lovely PDF for those who can't afford Marr's Guitars. If you missed it, don't worry, I didn't, and will make my download available here until someone tells me off for doing so.

Anyway, here's You Are The Magic, a lovely, low-slung piece of lazy haze from all the way back in 2003 when Johnny was still plying his trade as chief Healer.