Hello, hello, hello. I hope everyone is well.

I promised Debby that i'd check in to mention when a new article in the series i've been doing for The Guardian is up. There was one on Russia today.

The 'Spill has moved!

The 'Spill has moved!

Please go to thespillblog.co.uk

for all the usual fun and debate!

See you over there!

Blimpy

The 'Spill Admin.

x

Little Miss Indie

buy

Another Beerplease

Little Miss Indie was the indiest person you've ever met in your whole life.

She looked indie because she was indie, in everything she did.

You could always tell where Little Miss Indie had been because she left a trail of indie records wherever she'd been.

Oh yes, Little Miss Indie was indie by name, indie by nature!

Little Miss Indie lived in a particularly indie looking house.

Posters of Damon on the walls.

7" singles spread out on the floor.

Fan club membership cards held together with hair clips in a secret drawer.

You know what she looks like don't you, because you've seen her picture at the start of this story... watching Gorillaz in a little indie club.

how happy was Little miss Indie


oh well - I can't post on the new one - it sends me straight to other things I'm working on - so if anyone see this enjoy.. (or does it redirect?)

The 'Spill Has Moved!!

The 'Spill has moved!

Please go to thespillblog.co.uk

for all the usual fun and debate!

See you over there!

Blimpy

The 'Spill Admin.

x

Bouncing Round An Empty House

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Look which squatters are moving in ...

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DarceysDad passes the last cardboard box of LPs out of the door for ejaydee to put it in the removal wagon. He watches as Ed passes the heavy box up to gremlinfc, who says "Don't Drop'box, Frenchy!" as he takes it off him. Gremlin then flicks it nonchalantly up into the last bit of space on the pile. “Top corner: get in!” he cries, pulling the front of his Sheffield FC top up over his face. He then pulls the van shutter down from the inside, and Ed walks around to the passenger door, where he climbs in next to sonofwebcore. As tincanman grinds the gearbox into first (“Bloody manual box, ayh?”) and pulls away, the three of them wave at DsD and gordonimmel, who salute back from the porch. Inside the house, ToffeeBoy brushes the cobwebs off the front of his Aztec Camera T-shirt, and reaches three bottles out of the coolbox that Abahachi & CaroleBristol had filled up earlier, and sits down on the hall stairs.

As he wipes the melted ice off the outside of the bottle of Lovely Ginger Beer, he looks around him, at the now empty interior of No.1 Spillers Way, Bloggerville. He's not sad to leave town: since those bleedin' Google police moved in at the top of the hill, it hasn't been the same. This happy communal house that’s become a home, on the other hand ….

He runs his fingers over the nick in the banister that saneshane made (when he got over-boisterous with the flying monster steenbeck had sent the Z-boy), and blinks his moistening eyes rapidly.

“You getting all sad about leaving here, mate?” asks DsD as he opens a bottle of Sheppy’s. “Or has StripeyBrat been on the phone again about her child support payments?”

gordonimmel sighs as he opens the last bottle of ‘Spill ale. “Haven’t you had enough foot-in-mouth disease this month, Richie? Ignore him, TB.” But as he takes a long drink of Abahachi’s finest, there’s definitely a tear and a faraway look there too. The memory of trying to figure out how to explain the definition of ‘dond’ to debbym in German takes Gordon back, and his eye is inevitably drawn through the doorway to the music room, where he can see the jarringly unfaded rectangle of wallpaper, exposed now that nilpferd’s House Rules And Definitions poster has been taken off the wall.

A loud bang from behind them makes all three men jump. An unmistakable French/Geordie accent exclaims “Merde!” They look around to see frogprincess emerge from the kitchen holding a LeCreuset pan handle in each hand. Unfortunately there’s no pan left between the handles! “I’m afraid the leftover Pork Filet in Roquefort Sauce is off the menu, gents.”

“Never mind” calls TracyK, her voice muffled as she reaches into the back of a cupboard, “I’ve found a packet of Vesta Chow Mein that treefrogdemon’s forgotten to pack. Put the kettle on!”

As the boys play rock/scissors/paper for who has to tell Tracy not to bother, they’re distracted by TonNL coming in the front door. “The newsagent wasn’t very pleased at getting no notice to cancel the papers” he grins. “He asked what the hell he was supposed to do with 77 copies of today’s Grauniad! I’ve told him it was all double Dutch to me, and to put them on Brian Speng’s account …”

Their laughter almost drowns out the sound of a Jonathan Richman ringtone, but whilst Toffee looks quizzically at his mobile, sourpus walks down the stairs talking on his phone. “It’s Blimpy”, he says to the others, “He wants to know how long we’re going to be, only SatanKidneyPie has to hand in the keys for this place, and sign off the contract for the new place in Wordpreston by noon. He’s tried ringing Japanther to get SKP’s direct dial, but the little swine must’ve sloped off to that underground vinyl emporium again, because his mobile’s coming back as uncontactable.”

They all look at each other, as it dawns on them that this really is the end of a chapter, an era even. No-one wants to say it, but they all know it’s time to leave. So in a symbolic and emotional last act here, the first house they got together after fledging from their Guardian mother[ship], they go out into the garden to join Chris7572 & Mnemonic by the flowerbeds over the cats’ final resting places. Chris presses ‘Play – Shuffle – Repeat All’ on the 80gb iPod (the one with the broken case that goneforeign has loaded up with reggae, dub, jazz, every Nina Simone record he could find … and one other tune), and pushes it into the crevice under the deckboards of the patio. He plugs it into the extension cable that barbryn ran out from the house, and turns up the volume.

As they all turn and walk away towards the bus stop, a familiar refrain sounds gently from their now ex-home . . .

"All together now ..."

;o}

The 'Spill has moved!

The 'Spill has moved!

Please go to www.thespillblog.co.uk

for all the usual fun and debate!

See you over there!

Blimpy

The 'Spill Admin.

x

The 'Spill Blog - Housekeeping & Housemoving

Hi 'Spillers - we're moving house!

To get away from G00gle's clutches and for a general shift to something a bit more modern, The 'Spill is migrating to Wordpress.

If you have a look at the new site here you'll see that it's pretty much the same, with all the old posts and comments in place.

I'm in the process of inviting all 77 authors to contribute, this is taking a wee while so don't worry if your invite hasn't shown up in the mail yet. Once you're added as an author, I can change the name associated with your past posts (they all say Ed at present, but won't always)

***update*** all invites have gone out, if you've not got yours please let me know!!


I also intend to buy a domain name for the new site, so if anyone has any objections of me using a small bit of 'Spillharmonic cash to do this, please let me know asap.



***update*** I've purchased the www.thespillblog.co.uk address!! we'll have a 'proper' web home very soon!


Cheers!

'Spillharmonic Records - Update!

There's no turning back now 'Spillharmonic Shareholders cos I've ordered the sleeves!!

"The Arigato Pak! is a Stumptown Printers original. This unique structure doesn't require adhesives for assembly, has four spines (approximately 3/16" thick), and finished dimensions 4 3/4" square. Made of thick (18pt.) brown 100% PCW recycled chipboard. Ready for your custom silkscreen/stamp/label/stencil artwork. Shipped to you flat with folding instructions"

600 of these beauties are in the post, and I''ve got my eye on a local artist who has been producing some top notch hand-printed art cards of late!

Suggestions for a striking cover image in the comments please!

Every Thing But The Frog?

Big Question. Are these sound effects or alternative instruments? Pretty catchy earworm & addictive visually. I'm on my 4th viewing. Also proves Nilpferds' point that sometimes a video works with the music. If anyone here has already seen this I apoligize. I've looked for a frog to no avail. The link goes to you tube HD version (recommended) or you can use the small player.


OK Go - This Too Shall Pass

C is for Conquering Animal Sound

Euan at mini50 records mailed me about a band called Conquering Animal Sound from Edinburgh, so, they're filling the "c" slot in the A-Z of Scottish Indie. Though I don't think they sound Scottish - more like a beautiful broketronica Bjork and amazing with it.

Very promising indeed, hopefully I'll get to see them if I get to the Meursault album launch. The song "Alice Shoes" is for sharing, and if you go to their myspace here you can hear a song called "Giant" which I think is fab and is going to be on the single that's about to come out. The other tune on their myspace is "Maschine" which is even better still!

Exile on Sao Paulo Street

Say you've got a bit of a band going. You've done a couple albums and they've sold so-so. The alt-country/blues/rock field is crowded these days. Reviewers say you can sound a bit like mid-70's Stones, which is great 'cause you loved those albums. So when someone - and we don't know who; it's not like minutes were taken - says maybe we should try and sound even a bit more like the Stones, no one puts their hand up and says ''surely you're taking the Mick.'' Someone else, maybe even the same person, says why not have a go at making a record that sounds like a follow up to Exile on Main Street? Or the missing tracks fromwhich thereby?

Now, would you do it?

Woulda ya?

Would ya have a go?

The Deadstring Brothers have, and its called Sao Paulo.

There's nothing wrong with the album. It's capably done.

But would you have done it?

Would I?

Well I picked Smile as the representative sample because it's the shortest song on the album. You've got stuff to do. I've got stuff to do. We're all busy.

New Fannies!

Teenage Fanclub are back, after what seems like eternity, such a long time that it feels weird that they even have a website. I feel weird looking at their website, but I don't however feel weird listening to their music.

The preview track from their new LP is called"Baby Lee"

I love Teenage Fanclub and have loved them since I was wee.

If you want to know more about the new record and the tour you could go to their website by clicking here

I'm sure there's lots of Fannie fans amongst us 'Spillers, so let's try the impossible and pick our favourite song by them please, in the comments!

Dream-Folk Radiohead

Regular readers with a vaguely unhealthy interest in my musical preferences will know I consider Gillian Welch's version of Radiohead's Black Star to be one of the most beautiful things in the history of beautiful things.

I came across this while trawling YouTube the other day. It's not quite in the same league, but it's still rather beautiful.



My wife was asking for a definition of "ethereal" recently; I played her a Marissa Nadler song.

Next week: Beach House do Idiotecque, Fake Plastic Trees by Alela Diane and Joanna Newsom's Paranoid Android...

For those who like to play....

This is a very new media player called MusicBee. It promises so many things that it all sounds too good to be true, but I've been using it for 2 days now and so far it's kept its promises.

If you are looking for an application geared toward managing extensive music collections, easy to use and with a comprehensive feature set - MusicBee is that application. MusicBee makes it easy to organize, find and play music files on your computer, on portable devices and on the web.

The screenshot above is Shane's spillpost. When you load any web page, a list of song files on the page is generated and you can listen to them as you read, download and/or add them to your library - all at the same time. There's also a lyrics/song info box. You can see the whole width of the web page - I just collapsed it in a bit for the photo size

Plays all formats, converts between formats, and if you search for a song you don't have, it will supposedly (haven't checked this yet) look for it on last.fm and play it from there for you.

It isn't the fastest player to load, but its faster to use than other players with browsers built in. It says it can sync with all sorts of portable media players and allows drag and drop updating, but I haven't had the courage to plug in my iPod yet.

I'm not endorsing this as something to switch to. Early days yet. But the guy doing it has been very responsive to suggestions, and if you want to be the coolest kid in your class, I'd check it out. (For those who follow these things, the long-promised songbird is emerging ... from someone else)

O is for Over The Wall

I never knew there was a video for this bit o' Scots indie, but there is, and it's a good place to start.

Owls, live

Shoot, I can't seem to embed the right code, but this is a live owl nest box cam. It's beautiful, you can see her breathe!

New "Four Lions" Trailer

Ho boy, that was funny - and I never thought I'd be happy to hear a song by Toploader in my life. . .

Marling Monday / Songs About Shagging

I think you all know how much I like the music of Laura Marling. Her debut was in my top 10 of the 00s, and its very likely the follow up will show highly in this years top ten.

Marling has taken the folk-pop songs of her past and given them a 4000volt-mumfordite shock, boosting them into the realms of the unreal, like at the 1.20 mark of the song above when things really go stratospheric. The closing song of the LP "I Speak Because I Can" is so emotionally charged that it quite took me aback the first time I heard it.

I couldn't post the official video for "Devil's Spoke" but this recent live session version is very good. Why is it that when women write songs about shagging it turns out awesome, but when men do, it turns out Def Leppard. Answers on a postcard, please, or a blog comment.

Trip-Hop Ping-Pong Sing-Song

This - I'm sure - doesn't really fit this week's RR topic, but for those who haven't heard it before, see what you think: is that percussion the sound of someone on the table tennis table in the studio back room, or what?!

;o)

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I've got a....

and just like my artwork.. if you've got some F/X .. why don't you use them?
Bathtime In Clerkenwell - bubbles
Mashin' On The Motorway - my bad
Looks Like We're Shy One Horse - Shoot Out- yes it's got horses
Terrible Angels - piggies.. so many piggies.. all those piggies

Loose Fix (Perfecto 12" Mix) -anyone seen my dragon?
Purrfect- you want cats, I'll give you..... footsteps.
Close (To The Edit) -and the kitchen sink - really.. if I could find Max Headroom... altogether now "where's my teasmaid"
The North Wind- papa 'wots that sound?' 'that's a typewriter boy' 'wot's a typewriter..wear do they keap da spelchek?' ''how do I save" "arrrggggggg"

Sea Swells And Distant Squalls - it sounds....(well, like the GLOVE - Sex-Eye-Make-Up).. not a bad thing.. just a thing... like a lost thing thats just been found, but isn't really in the right place.

Relax (Club 69 Future Anthem, Pt. 1) if you are going to have a sound effect - let's get spunky! hit me with those lazar beams - why don't ya.
Groovejet (If This Ain't Love) - it's touchdown in Ibiza circa 2000..whoosh. sing posh blue peter daughter sing.
Kik Off - did I fit in the bells.. well here's the whistles.