Spotifriday (On Monday)

I meant to do this with the posts on my favourites of 2009, and then before the weekend - and then I got prodded by a few friends, so here we are - a selection of Spotify playlist links to keep you entertained over the festive periods:

Albums Of 2009

Tracks Of 2009

and finally, here is the link to a playlist with stuff I'm listening to at the moment. This will change over time, possibly bite me on the arse, and be forgotten about at somepoints. But for now it might make some interesting listening

whiskas playlist (Dec '09)

Soundtrack to this post: Jay-Z, Olfar, Maccabees

Tracks Of 2009

Hello, and welcome to the first of a few posts where I tread the well travelled 'best of' path. To follow are my favourite albums of the year, my favourite albums of the decade - and then the compulsory 'tips' for 2010 - hopefully. These are all subjective of course, one man's gravy is another man's porridge and all that.

I wasn't gonna write some bunf about each song, but I wrote that were the same "great song, had it in my head all year" - so I'll just leave you to listen

Without further ado, here are my Top 10 tracks of 2010:

1. Phoenix - 1901

Download 1901 from RCRDLBL.com here

2. Dirty Projectors - Stillness Is The Move

Download 'Stillness Is The Move' from RCRDLBL.com here

Watch 'Stillness Is The Move' on YouTube here

3. Animal Collective - My Girls

Listen to 'My Girls' on Spotify here

4. Grammatics - Double Negative

Listen to 'Double Negative' on Spotify here

5. Florence & The Machine - You Got The Love (XX Remix)

Download 'You Got The Love (XX Remix)' from RCRDLBL.com here

6. Grizzly Bear - Two Weeks

Watch 'Two Weeks' on You Tube here

7. Three Trapped Tigers - 6

Download '6' from NME.com here

8. Sometree - Conundrum

Listen to 'Conundrum' on Spotify here

9. Wild Beasts - The Fun Powder Plot

Listen to 'The Fun Powder Plot' on Spotify here

10. Sunset Rubdown - Idiot Heart

Download 'Idiot Heart' from RCRDLBL.com here

Close but no cigar: Editors - Bricks & Mortar / The XX - Crystalised / The Antlers - Two / School Of Seven Bells - Iamundernodisguise / The Maccabees - No Kind Words

And, finally, looking at my ever interesting Last.FM stats, my actual most listened to tracks released in 2009, are the following:

1. Local Natives - World News

2. Phoenix - 1901

3. Grammatics - Murderer

4. Animal Collective - My Girls

5. School Of Seven Bells - Iamundernodisguise

6. Passion Pit - Better Things

7. The XX - Crystalised

8. Dirty Projectors - Stillness Is The Move

9. The Horrors - Sea Within A Sea

10. Swan Lake - Spanish Gold, 2044

See more here

Soundtrack to this post: Shearwater, Karen O & The Kids, Japandriods

Honour Before Glory in Germany - Day 4

It was a pretty relaxed journey to Stuttgart, and everything was done with a decent amount of time, checking into our hostel and loading the venue - the veritable maze of rooms.

While Sometree soundchecked I went for a walk around the city, which is supposed to be one of the richest in Germany - so lots of boutiques, and it's always cool to see a totally pedestrianised city centre.

The funniest thing for me though, was seeing a German Christmas Market, selling the kind of Bratwurst and Gleuwien found in Leeds & Manchester city centres every year. The Sometree guys found my amusement pretty funny - it's just that it was exactly the same as we have in Leeds. Surely there's no 'novelty' in having it in Germany?

The gig was a really good one tonight, the crowd came down early and were really kind to me and seemed to listen so I felt a bit more confident. Sometree got an amazing reaction tonight, even getting two encores and vinyl and CDs were being signed for quite a while after

This morning we had a lazy morning, with breakfast and internet check-up, before the light drive to Frankfurt. The gig that was supposed to be in Frieberg has been cancelled unfortunately, so we have a day off - but it will be valuable rest as we have to traverse the long journey into Austria on Thursday!

Soundtrack to this post: Grammatics, Throwing Muses

My Leeds Festival 2009

This year I've felt a little too self absorbed to induldge myself in Leeds Festival properly. I spent the Friday & Sunday bed down in House Of Mook perfecting the mix for You Animals forthcoming opus, and setting up for recording some Honour Before Glory tracks on Monday

I did have a great day in attendance on the Saturday, though as usual it was the social aspect as much as the bands that made it the occasion it was.

I started the day watching The XX, who's album has quickly become a bit of a favourite of mine. It was an odd entity live, I wasn't expecting it to be that much more than it was, but I still thought it was a shame there wasn't more to it. Still, it's made me listen to the album today and I've enjoyed it all the more.

After The XX, I wandered around the site a little bit and checked out the BBC Introducing Stage, caught a little bit of ex-Loiner Anna Prior in Metronomy, before watching the Grammatics in the Festval Republic tent. And very good they were too

Later on, we camped out on the main stage to catch Vampire Weekend (who reminded me more than ever of Gracelands), bits of Bloc Party (very festival) and then Radiohead.

Radiohead was a bit of an odd one as not the set per se, but the whole set-up seemed very hard for a casual observer to 'break through' - and what I find odd, is why a band that was doing a sponsor-less tour in their own tents, was headlining such a 'corporate' festival?? With the 'arty' set up of video screens and lighting it was hard to connect from a distance, so I lost interest. I'm sure if I'd have been in the mood for an intense Radiohead set it would've been outstanding. I guess it was the festival equivalent of The Wire - not one for the casual observer. But that's what I go to the festival to be.

Two brief links / mentions:

1) To the festival volunteers who are actively getting involved. Great work if you can get it:

http://festvolunteers.blogspot.com/

2) Check out highlights of loads of bands on 'death of independent journalism' website the BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/readingandleeds/2009/videos/

Keep an eye out for Faith No More covering the Eastenders theme

Many thanks to the kind people at Festival Republic though for letting me attend again. Hopefully next year I can do something worthwhile to attend

Soundtrack to this post: Wilco, Fever Ray

Mercury Music Prize 2009

Yesterday NME and numerous others published a selection of odds for this years Mercury Music Prize, and the 'tipping' world went into meltdown. And who am I to buck the trend - there's something intriguing about the composition and perspective winners of said prize. View said list of odds HERE

Here's some thoughts from the whiskas camp. Check out my thoughts on the matter last year HERE

This year is the year of the female solo artist, with Little Boots, La Roux, Bat For Lashes, Lily Allen and Florence & The Machine all in with a shout for the overall prize

Florence seems to be the most media praised, so I'd expect that to get in, I also have a feeling Ms Allen may get in if she stays out of the media limelight. Her proximity to winning 2 years ago, may count against Bat For Lashes

It would be ace to see wild card Blue Roses (Shipley's Laura Groves) in the shortlist, but I suspect she would be one too many female solo artists, while I also expect her label to be too busy pushing Friendly Fires and The Horrors to give her the media 'face' time she'd need. Those later two though, should be among the strong favourites for my money

Other local potential wildcard Grammatics have been present on the latest list of odds, which I'd see as massively encouraging, Alongside Fanfarlo and The Leisure Society, they may provide one genuine independent act in the shortlist - the latter, Ivor Novello in hand, might have a real chance of making the short list. If Beggars didn't have so many priorities you could probably add Broken Records to that list

As for the winner, past form dictates that this year's winner will come from leftfield, and The Bug may be the one - although if you'd predict any band in Britain to "do an Elbow" it would be Doves

Other names worth a mention are The Noisettes, who I think will make the shortlist, as well as Pet Shop Boys for the well recieved 'come back' (did they actually go away?). Patrick Wolf would add to the eclectism of the list, while Red Light Company may make a less bombastic mainstream inconclusion than White Lies. Neither can obviously shake a stick at Kasabian who will bump up the mainstream quota in lieu of a Coldplay, Oasis etcetera. The Enemy better not be anywhere near the list

The Maccabees, Jack Penate, Marmaduke Duke would all be worthwhile inclusion of the list, but I suspect they will fall slightly between "genuinely exciting and different" and "mainstream and popular." Glasvegas? Maximo Park? Paulo Nutini? Prodigy? Bloc Party?

It's hard to predict the 12, as there's a few slots that could be filled by numerous capable artists - aka too many indentikit artists! There's no fun without a prediction though, so here's my 12, with a proviso that at least one band will come completely out of leftfield

Florence & The Machine

The Noisettes

Kasabian

The Bug

Doves

The Leisure Society

The Horrors

Friendly Fires

Lily Allen

A Seb Rochefort Jazz Band

An unheard of folk band (possibly the new Seth Lakeman)

A band with a classical tinge

Having changed that list numerous times, I concede - I've no idea. I find it hard to imagine no White Lies or La Roux / Little Boots. But the above seems to sit nicely

For the diary, nominee's are announced on July 21st, with the winner revealed on September 8th. As usual if we were in the US, the answer would be a simple two way tie between Grizzly Bear & Animal Collective. Alas, we are not

Soundtrack to this post: Sunset Rubdown

London Shuffle

I've been in london again, to see some friends, with some forward russia stuff tagged on the end. But anyway, my friends work in showbiz, and the talk inevitably turns to what's hot in Leeds, and it's been pretty to say

Walking around London with my iPod shuffle opened my eyes (or my ears?) to I guess, how much Leeds music I listen to.I got these 5 in a row at one point, and it made pretty good listening

GRAMMATICS - Myspace / Last.FM

RECORD DEPARTMENT - Myspace / Last.FM

I CONCUR - Myspace / Last.FM

DINOSAUR PILE UP - Myspace / Last.FM

THIS ET AL - Myspace / Last.FM

Soundtrack to this post: this and that