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This is an old archive. You can find the blog at https://www.redpenguin.net - and I am updating it again!

NME's inexplicable Primal Scream fixation continues

The end of decade charts are starting already:

1. The Strokes - Is This It
2. The Libertines - Up the Bracket
3. Primal Scream - xtrmntr
4. Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever to Tell
6. PJ Harvey - Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
7. Arcade Fire - Funeral
8. Interpol - Turn On the Bright Lights
9. The Streets - Original Pirate Material
10. Radiohead - In Rainbows
11. At The Drive In - Relationship of Command
12. LCD Soundsystem - The Sound of Silver
13. The Shins - Wincing the Night Away
14. Radiohead - Kid A
15. Queens Of The Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf
16. The Streets - A Grand Don’t Come for Free
17. Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise
18. The White Stripes - Elephant
19. The White Stripes - White Blood Cells
20. Blur - Think Tank
21. The Coral - The Coral
22. Jay-Z - The Blueprint
23. Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future
24. The Libertines - The Libertines
25. Rapture - Echoes
26. Dizzee Rascal - Boy in Da Corner
27. Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
28. Johnny Cash - Man Comes Around
29. Super Furry Animals - Rings Around the World
30. Elbow - Asleep In the Back
31. Bright Eyes - I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning
32. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
33. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible
34. Grandaddy - The Sophtware Slump
35. Babyshambles - Down in Albion
36. Spirtualized - Let It Come Down
37. The Knife - Silent Shout
38. Bloc Party - Silent Alarm
39. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles
40. Ryan Adams - Gold
41. Wild Beasts - Two Dancers
42. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend
43. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
44. Outkast - Loveboxxx/The Love Below
45. Avalanches - Since I Left You
46. Delgados - The Great Eastern
47. Brendan Benson - Lapalco
48. Walkmen - Bows and Arrows
49. Muse - Absolution
50. MIA - Arular

It’s very NME, so full credit to them for that.

The only ones I genuinely like are Bloc Party, the 2 Radiohead ones and the Blur one.

Glastonbury 2009 MP3s

I've ripped all of these from digital TV so the quality should be pretty good.

Bloc Party - Banquet
Bloc Party - One More Chance
Bloc Party - Song For Clay (Disappear Here)
Bloc Party - Two More Years
http://rapidshare.com/files/249602686/bp-g09.zip

British Sea Power - Canvey Island (acoustic)
http://rapidshare.com/files/249602687/bsp-g09.zip

Franz Ferdinand - The Dark Of The Matinee
Franz Ferdinand - No You Girls
Franz Ferdinand - Do You Want To
Franz Ferdinand - Turn It On
Franz Ferdinand - Michael
Franz Ferdinand - Walk Away
Franz Ferdinand - Bite Hard
Franz Ferdinand - Take Me Out
http://rapidshare.com/files/249602689/ff-g09.zip

Friendly Fires - Jump In The Pool
Friendly Fires - LoveSick
Friendly Fires - Paris
Friendly Fires - Skeleton Boy
http://rapidshare.com/files/249602690/fires-g09.zip

Jarvis - Pilchards
Jarvis - Angela
Jarvis - Slush
Jarvis - Homewrecker
Jarvis - Fat Children
Jarvis - You're In My Eyes (Disco Song)
http://rapidshare.com/files/249602692/jar-g09.zip

Little Boots - Stuck On Repeat
http://rapidshare.com/files/249602693/lb-g09.zip

Maximo Park - Graffiti
Maximo Park - Girls Who Play Guitars
Maximo Park - The Kids Are Sick Again
Maximo Park - Going Missing
Maximo Park - Acrobat
Maximo Park - Our Velocity
Maximo Park - Questing Not Coasting
Maximo Park - Apply Some Pressure
http://rapidshare.com/files/249610299/mp-g09.zip

Specials - Gangsters
Specials - Ghost Town
Specials - Rat Race
Specials - Too Much Too Young
http://rapidshare.com/files/249602694/sp-g09.zip

Two Door Cinema Club - Something Good Can Work
(Zane Lowe introduced them TWICE as Two Doors Down, the FOOL)
http://rapidshare.com/files/249602696/tdcc-g09.zip

Whip - Blackout
http://rapidshare.com/files/249602697/wh-g09.zip

White Lies - Dancing In The Dark
White Lies - Death
http://rapidshare.com/files/249602698/wl-g09.zip

Oh yeah and please don't complain that some of the sets aren't complete, this is all I did!

Are the two possibly connected in some way?

From Chris T-T's blog

My other big fuck-off headache right now is the PRS, the Performer Rights Society, which is the agency I belong to, who are supposed to collect royalties for me whenever and wherever my songs are performed or broadcast. Over the last few months I’ve gone back through my PRS payment statments for more than five years and can’t find a single payment for Frank Turner singing The Huntsman Comes A-Marchin’, not a single one.

If you know Frank you’ll know he played the song fucking loads between 2005 and 2008 and you’ll also know he’s a 100% honest guy and would’ve written the song down assiduously on PRS forms, including at festivals and on big tours with The Automatic etc.

It’s not money Frank pays, it’s money the venue pays for their entertainment licence, which then the PRS should pay to me because my song was performed in the venue. Simple. But can they find it anywhere? Can they fuck!? Did they try!? Well someone looked it up on a computer and sent me a thing saying I’d been paid £43.50 since 2005 for six performances. I checked the performances, they were my own fucking performances! Frank? Nada. When I first flagged it up with them, I provided a massive gig list, a pile of Youtube links and links to print and web reviews where the performance of the song got mentioned. By which I mean I did their job for them (this is what they tell you to do). They are a collections agency. Well go collect! It’s not about the money, honey. But it fucking is.

Anyway, even thinking about that makes me angry, the deeper I dove, the more confused I got – most recently discovering I have two separate IDs as a songwriter with them, even though I only ever registered one. Their website, and in particular the interactive database where you can check claims and make claims, is a total fucking mess. Frustrating.

From today's BBC News

The PRS collected a record £117 million in the first three months of 2009.

Katie and the Ayres

Fans of PJ Harvey and Echobelly should love this band, who come from just down the A127 in Southend on Sea.



The comparisons are admittedly lazy (female vocals, strong voice, indie guitars), but the 90s-tinged music is still great to listen to. Saw them last night at the Hermit Club in Brentwood and you can see more at http://www.myspace.com/katieandtheayresuk.

TRP Eurovision Betting Guide 2009

Like horse racing and baseball, some things are only worth watching if you have a bet on it. As I'm not planning to go out tonight I will no doubt end up catching bits of Eurovision, usually the bit where everyone votes because that's the best bit, isn't it? You only have to listen to one song that way? AND there's no Terry Wogan, so in the words of MJ Hibbett, that's DOUBLE EXTRA MEGA WIN!! According to the bookies at the moment, the likley order of the result is:

1. Norway
2. Greece
3. UK (they have GOT to be joking)
4. Turkey
5. Azerbaijan
6. Bosnia and Herzegovina
7. France
8. Iceland
9. Ukraine
10. Estonia

You may know that Google has been running a Eurovision predictor based on searches that people in the voting countries are making on the finalists from other places and not their own country, which sort of makes sense. They are going for:

1. Turkey
2. Norway
3. Greece
4. Sweden
5. Ukraine
6. France
7. Russia
8. Switzerland
9. UK
10. Azerbaijan

Unofficially I am supporting Iceland because I had a nice holiday there last year and I'm also a fan of those crazy Icelanders such as Hafdis Huld, Eliza Newman and the Sugarcubes, all of whom would make the event worth watching if only they joined in.

So I am trying to make some money by putting my faith in technology by having an each way bet on three of the favourites. I'm not betting on Norway because they are ODDS ON (what's that all about?) but numbers 1, 3 and 4 in the Google list are long enough to almost get your money back if one of them reaches the top 4 and to make a small profit if they win. I found £20 in my Betfair account and £15 in my Paddy Power account, just as luck would have it. So I am blowing the whole 35 quid as follows:

Betfair - to reach the top 4
Turkey - £10 with odds of 2.64
Greece - £5 with odds of 1.82
Sweden - £5 with odds of 14

Paddy Power - to win
Turkey - £5 with odds of 11
Greece - £5 with odds of 6.5
Sweden - £5 with odds of 51

The odds are decimal and include the return of the stake. So 11 is really 10/1 and 51 is 50/1, etc.

I do have form - the last time I had a bet on the winner was in 2006 and Lordi came in at around 20/1 for me. I should point out I haven't listened to ANY of the songs, just like I don't read any of the form when I have my yearly bet on the Grand National. And fingers crossed I won't have to listen to them either ...

Tweets of the week: robots, lemon meringue and crisps for breakfast

A possibly irregular feature although there is a lot of appeal in other people writing your stuff for you.

what a neat few days...lovely drake event yesterday... have run out of clean socks.. wheres the marks and sparks in nottingham!?
Posted by Graham Coxon

If someone spots a big bird with concussion Essex way... that'll be the one that just flew into my bedroom window.
Posted by Imogen Heap

If anyone in Australia finds a pair of brown glasses in a black zip up case, they're mine. And I need them to tweet w/o getting a headache.
Posted by The Grates

i keep thinking its monday
Posted by Mike Skinner (The Streets)

Ha Ha. Wow. I'd forgotten that I bought a robot earlier. What a lovely suprise.
Posted by Eddie Argos (Art Brut)

Just rescued a bumble bee , I think summer is finally here in Ice ! yessss
Posted by Eliza Newman

Hey men of twitter! Its national "pull your trousers&pants down to your ankles when you go for a wee like when you were a child" day! Enjoy!
Posted by Scroobius Pip

I WANT TO BUY A LEMON MERINGUE AND FEEL LIKE A MAN
Posted by Calvin Harris

George Lamb didn't like us! DOUBLE EXTRA MEGA WIN!!
Posted by MJ Hibbett

Whatever happened to magic eye pictures? Ross
Posted by The Cribs

Breakfast 1 salt & vingar french frie crisps, packet of salad peanuts, chicken tikka sanwich & another packet of ready salted Hula Hoops.
Posted by Dominic Masters (The Others)