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Wednesday, December 12th, 2006 I know it's been terribly long since I added anything here, but at least I've been sort of keeping up getting reviews done. I am hoping to balance my schedule and life better in the new year so as to be able to do reviews on a more regular basis but of course as you all know that's the line I feed you every december.... But this time for sure Rocky! Since it's the end of the year I am sure you'll all be clamoring for a top 10 list. Well, you'll have to wait. The things are pointless anyway (If you want to know what I liked, read the reviews!) and in any case a ton a shit came out in the past 2 months much of which I have not even gotten yet. So I am not prepared to make any list, good, bad or otherwise. I will however try to get one together by new years. In case you hadn't noticed there's big news in the Popsicle shop with the addition of new albums by Daniel Saturn and Moi Caprice! On top of that, in a day or so I'll be listing both the new and 2nd Moi albums in vinyl! That's right, Luke scored some copies of both albums in 180g pressings in gatefold sleeves (the 2nd is even a double album) and like always you can only get them here. On top of that we still are the only place to get the brilliant Billie the Vision and the Dancers albums which have simply rocked my world. It's all good, and even more things will be happening in the new year with lots of great new albums and other exciting news, so to all of you may you have a very Merry Christmas and a joyous new year, and I thank you all for your patronage and for using my little resource here. I hope I am still of some use to you all. Cheers. Saturday, September 23rd, 2006 All right, where the hell have I been? It's the age old dilemma of boy needs to make money. I do wish to stress that even though I have been doing this six years I have no plan to quit. The value so many of you place in the site and what you've written to me means a lot so I will keep it going for as long as I can. However to make money I have been taking my woodworking on a different avenue which has required a lot of my time. (more soon as it will be featured here) On top of that my father in law broke his hip a year to the day his wife did last month, and that has been eating up a lot of our spare time. So I'm sorry for the lapse. (even T baby gave me crap about it, like he does anything) You know how it is, you get busy and time flies.... I will endeavor to do smaller amounts of review more often until years end in an effort to catch up on my backlog. I'd really like to get to the point I had nothing to review. (LOL, yeah right) The next batch will feature some good stuff as well as new additions to the popsicle shop. Hopefully then as I catch up and get my real life on some kind of schedule I can finish some of the rehab I started on this site in early summer. Thanks for your patience, and enjoy autumn, the most wonderful of seasons. Wednesday, July 26th, 2006 Reviews and the radio have just been updated. You may notice that the first few albums reviewed are all instrumental. When I noticed a few months ago that I had a few piling up of that variety I figured it would make sense to do them all at once. They get overlooked a lot and instrumental albums can be quite excellent. A lot is going on behind the scenes to bring you some really great stuff in the next few months, both review wise and in the Popsicle shop, so autumn should come in like a lion. Monday, July 17th, 2006 I know, the reviews are due and should be in sometime this week. However instead of doing that I started "consolodating" the site. There will no longer be a new reviews page and reviews archive etc... you will simply go to one page where you can access anything. That's the way it should have been to begin with. I have not changed the buttons on the main page yet but they will take you to the right place regardless. In other news the Popsicle shop has gotten a number of new items including the Annabella, and should get even more soon. Otherwise not much going on except I got to see the Acid House Kings and Legends not once but twice! You can read about both shows and see pics by clicking here. Tuesday, June 20th, 2006 OK, the polishing to the site hasn't happened yet, but a bunch of new reviews are in and the radio has been updated. On top of that the Popsicle shop has been stocked with lots of new goodies, and the Mocca and Annabella albums will be listed there soon as well. In fact I am wrangling with Luke and we should be stocking a lot of really special goodies there soon, so keep it tuned. The next batch of reviews feature a number of albums that are entirely instrumental. I should get to them soon and will then have a new batch of a lot of new releases you should know about. So keep it cool and stay out of the heat! Oh hell, I almost forgot. I actually got to see Annabella live and it was great! Those of you smart enough to go see them know the treat you got, and as stated above Popsicle will be selling both their albums as well as their new album due this fall/winter! Finally, as someone asked why, I did change the pics on the main page for the "what's been on my..." to actually reflect the gear I own, as before I just chose those pics for looks, but I figured my stuff looks good enough, so.... The pics are not my actual gear but what I have. The player is a Lector 7T and the table an AR-ES1 which isn't modded that way but soon will be. OK, now on your way.... Monday, May 23rd, 2006 In brief, new reviews are in, the radio is updated and sometime in the coming week this site will get a small, well, lets call it a polishing, and the popsicle store will be stocked with new things to it's bursting point. I left some of the newly reviewed items off the radio. They got played last time and frankly didn't deserve a second cut. I did put an extra Stallastarr track in to make up for it missing out last time. Hopefully it won't be too long for the next crop of reviews either as the backup is getting enormous and T-baby found a whole new batch of other crap I have to look into. I'm busier than a japanese beaver. As far as the next interview, i was supposed to do the soho dolls and then the scarboro aquarium club but they take so much time I am considering not doing them anymore. We'll have to see. Monday, May 8th, 2006
 Part Company The Spinzone is saddened to report that Australian singer-songwriter Grant McLennan, co founder of the brilliant band The Go-Betweens has died at his home in Brisbane at the age of 48 this weekend. Initial reports say he died in his sleep after not feeling well all day, but no further info is available. As a long time fan of his music, he will be very much missed, but will remain very much appreciated. As for other news, I am busier than Japanese beaver but I do plan on getting more reviews up as soon as I can. In the meantime, Annabella are embarking on a mini US tour and you should try to catch them if they play near you. The dates are as follows:
Tuesday, April 25th @ 7pm: Carousel Lounge - Austin, TX Monday, April 22, 2006 - OK, where to begin.... The Punkys Dilemma got added as a last minute thing, and while it is not in the store as we speak, it will be possibly by the time you read this. In other words, any second now.... I am going to be making a few changes to the site layout. Some things don't work for some people and others simply can't find things no matter how obvious I think I made it. Can't say when it will happen, but the main page will not change, just some of the directories. There is going to be a boat load of stuff coming in to get reviewed. I have been trying to keep after it, but owing to real life work I have not gotten to my interviews. I think from now on they are going to be pared down much smaller to frankly not at all. There simply is not enough time. Also the archived ones may get reduced to simply text pages, no glitter or pics etc... we shall see. Finally (I Think) there are no clips for Stellastarr on the radio. Why? It is a major label disc (they sent it to me) and it has the god damned encryption crap on it. I can't burn it without loading a program I know not what does and at that it will graciously allow me only so many copies. They (the label) can get fucked. You must all know there is no more stolid anti piracy champion than me, and that I badger you all to do your duty and support the artists by buying the music and not stealing it. But I believe when you do that, it then belongs TO YOU. The label doing that would be like Van Gogh telling me where I can and can't hang a painting I bought from him, or who I can show it to. No fucking way. I will not stand for that crap. If the band supplies me an mp3 in the meantime I'll put a clip up when it gets reviewed. Otherwise you're on your own, and so are they. Sunday, April 09, 2006 - A snap of early spring came recently here and I was so busy taking care of outside things that I sort of neglected getting to my work here, but the new reviews are in and the radio has been updated as well. Luke tells me he is THE man in the UK right now and he's going about setting up Norway nights, playing gigs opening for rock stars etc... but in this flourish of activity he's finding all these new scandi acts (or so he claims) and the store should see an influx of new material sometime in the next few months. In quick news if you liked Annabella they will be doing a tour this spring, so go to their website to check if you're going to be close, and I understand from Adriano that there is a good chance Postal Blue will finally come to the US and tour the east coast this summer. Look for details here. Thursday, March 16, 2006 - Well, it appeared that the site that supplied the code for my old radio went kaput, so I took matters into my own hands and purchased a streaming radio program to use. I only managed to get it up and running. In time and after much pain I should be able to configure it to be a bit cooler but it serves the purpose for now. Am I thoughtful to your needs or what? (yeah, what, I know....) Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - A slew of new reviews are in, most of them from submitted artists. I will get to a crop full of new major indie releases next time. Also of note is the radio has not been working. To work it must link back to the company that designed it and their site has been down, so therefore the radio will not play. If this is sadly permanent I will try to arrange an alternative. Tuesday, February 28, 2006 - First, let me congratulate my Swedish friends on their ice hockey gold. However, I was rooting for the Finns, and losing on a broken play from a broken stick that caused a bizarre 4 on 3 ten seconds in was not the way it ought to have ended. Such is life.... New reviews are in and they all feature the bands of a fairly new label called So Sweet who have managed to steal some of the best new UK bands as well as having an interesting assortment of west coast US bands of their own. You can check them out and purchase items here. I've also just interviewed one of those star bands of theirs, New Rhodes from Bristol UK and that review can be read here. They are rising stars and make no mistake. Next time (and that should be soon) will feature a whole slew of submitted discs, including the rapturous Annabella. I'm going to do my best to dig my way outta this reviewing pit I'm in. Sunday, January 29, 2006 - Added some extra tracks to the radio today. They were culled form various EP's and as I have a penchant for not getting round to reviewing that sort of thing I included them so you can hear the bands for yourself. Not all should be new to you but it's all pretty good stuff anyway, so put it on and enjoy! Saturday, January 28, 2006 - First off yes, this page got updated. While I did like the Simpsonesque cloud montage it was getting dated and it didn't help make it any easier to read. I went this way not that I like blogs, (or even see the point in them) but the plain news like visage seems appropriate for what is a news page. I kept the angels who's clever witticisms will now change, instead of them just being sinister all the time.... On to business, man do I have a TON of crap to tell you all about. I have so much stuff to review it isn't funny, and I will try to be as dilligent as possible about it. A new crop of reviews are in, and the radio has been updated as well. I will no longer run 2 programs on the radio as I am tired of fighting with the code. If I include 80's songs they will simply play after this months new songs and if you want to start with them simply click the song you wish to begin with. Next time I will feature the output of a new US label called So Sweet, and among their stable are New Rhodes and the Soho Dolls, two of the biggest names to come out of the UK this year most likely. Keep it tuned, it's going to be very busy! Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - Italiani di attenzione! For as long as this site has been up, Americans make up the bulk of it's viewers not surprisingly, with Sweden always coming in second except for perhaps one month a year. However, an odd trend has developed in an unexpected place, Italy. This is a country I'd be lucky to get even 2 hits from in any month in the past, but just this december they outed sweden as my number two hit getter for the month. As of today they are again ahead of Sweden and in second place for this month as well. What happened? If any Italians read this, please contact me if you have any insights into why this is happening, or how you found your way here. Grazie Wednesday, January 4, 2006 - Happy new year all! OK, so what have I been up to? Well, I had my Thanksgiving dinner at the home, and with a guy named Jack Daniels no less who it turns out hates alcohol and another guy in a suit with a bow tie who puts vinegar on everything he eats because he heard it kills germs. That's right, on turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce and even his pumpkin pie. I was told he puts it in his cereal too.... but the worst part is it wasn't even balsamic.... Beyond all that I don't care much other than all the holiday stuff is over, 2005 is dead for good and things are already looking better. I would like to take the time to thank the countless people who wrote me thanking me for the site and expressing how useful it is to them. I was overwhelmed and I'm going to try to do some extra special stuff for everyone this year. At least that means be prompt and get reviews done! There is a lot of stuff T baby got last year I still have not found out about from him. The problem was he lived next door but he moved away last fall. I am going to have to go raid his larder and let you know what it is he's hoarding. I have learned among other things there is a new Fugu album out, this spring will see a new Daniel Saturn album but the new Leslies album is on hold as they're too lazy or something. I will motivate them, don't worry.... I also learned from Johan Angergεrd that his moustache is the new indie "look". We'll see if we can't squash that as well. Finally we'll be showcasing a new US indie label this month with a bank of reviews of their bands as well as some interviews. The popsicle shop might be getting some special new stock and I also plan on getting some work on the site done as well so it's promising to be a great 06, a fact which is already breaking the mold, and lets hope so. Finally, I'll get the radio updated asap, and will get some 80's stuff on as well. On top of that I'll include a short clip of the new Dive single Stars. It's taken from a soundtrack to a new Finnish movie and I'm only including a clipped version of it as I'm not giving it away, go buy it you cheap bastards. (and I say that with love) For more on that topic visit my rants page where I have removed all my old diatribes for good and have written my first new one in some time. It's lovingly titled I Pod - My God. |