bygjohn's blog

I've recently bought a load of vinyl-replacement CDs (as I'm at home anyway and here for delivery men, it seemed a good time to hit Amazon with an order). Which is fun anyway, rediscovering stuff you haven't played for a while (even though I have a turntable I rarely use it these days - mostly listen to the iPod, truth be told). But also this batch in particular has been a reminder of friends who first introduced me to various artists/records. In this case especially my friend Gaz, who I met at college, who introduced me to a whole range of music including Joy Division/New Order, other Factory acts such as the Durutti Column (well represented in this batch of CDs), Simple Minds (again, lots in this batch), The Cure (more in this batch!), plus whole genres eg P-Funk. So if you're reading this, hi, Gaz! And thanks: these records mean a lot to me and frankly are way better than most of what's around at the moment.

That said, there is some good stuff around at the moment. The new Nine Inch Nails album is great and worth $5 of anyone's money for the download version. And there's been some excellent stuff on Jools recently, such as The Imagined Village doing Cold Haily Rainy Night which was absolutely breathtaking, and the satisfying noise of the The Kills. Steve Earle's Satellite Radio was pretty good too, and I was mildly impressed with Vampire Weekend.