4-26-06 Sleep Time With Michael Charming!

Industry - State of the Nation
Vacabou - Life as Interference
Hooverphonic - Battersea
Morrissey - Suedehead (Sparks Remix)
My Life Story - Sparkle

Caroline - Bicycle
BabyBird - If You'll be mine
Spearmint - A Trip Into Space

South - A Place in Displacement
Maximo Park - Graffiti
AC Acoustics - Stunt Girl
Mansun - Wide Open Space

Pizzicato Five - A Perfect World
The Clash - Hitsville UK
Big Audio Dynamite - E=MC2

Nick Heyward - Whistle Down The Wind
The Concretes - Chosen One
New Order - Run
Tigercity - Time Card

Editors - Munich
The Railway Children - Consider
The Smiths - Work is a Four Letter Word
Morrissey - To Me You Are A Work Of Art

The Style Council - A Solid Bond In Your Heart
Madness - It Must Be Love
The Trashcan Sinatras - It's A Miracle
Aztec Camera - Oblivious

Hard Fi - Move On Now
Embrace - Gravity
The Verve - The Drugs Don't Work

Bis - Kandy Pop
Helen Love - Does Your Heart Go Boom
Supergrass - Caught By The Fuzz
Disco Pistol - Saturday Everyday
Speedy - Heard Seen Been Done

The Ropes - Kill Her Off
Minipop - Fingerprints
Trembling Blue Stars - Letter Never Sent
The Submarines - Hope

Shed Seven - This Day Was Ours
Placebo - Drag
Mando Diao - Clean Town
Voxtrot - Four Long Days

Pulp - O.U.
Catatonia - You've Got A Lot To Answer For
The Charlatans - Can't Get Out Of Bed
Linoleum - She's Sick

4-19-06 Pizza Time with Michael Charming!

The Style Council - My Ever Changing moods
Phoenix - If I Ever Feel Better
Tahiti 80 - Heartbeat
Hard Fi - Hard To Beat

South - Up Close and personal
Spearmint - The Beautiful Things
The Supernaturals - The Day before Yesterday's Man
The Trashcan Sinatras - Who's He?

Alphaville - Forever Young
Soft Cell -Say Hello, Wave Goodbye
The Cure - The Walk

Erasure - Spiralling
The Divine Comedy - Vapour Trail
Ride - Twisterella
Mark Gardener - Magdalen Sky

Love Like Fire - Spoiling Afternoon
Menswear - Hollywood girl
60 Ft. Dolls - Stay
Cast - Alright
The Hybirds - Seventeen

Goldfrapp - Number one
Ms. John Soda - No. One
Bittersweet - Dirty laundry

Morrisey - In the Future When All's Well
Gene - Let Me Move On
Suede - Whipsnade

The Blow Monkey's - Digging Your Scene
Terry Hall - Ballad of a Landlord
Pulp - Underwear

Sondre Lerche - Once in a While
Everything But The Girl - Each and Every One
The Beautiful South - Pretenders to The Throne
The Ropes - Not Technically alone
The Sounds - Queen of Apology

The Concretes - On the Radio
Rialto - Dream Another Dream
The Submarines - Peace and Hate
The Radio Dept. - Pulling Our Weight

Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs - The Kids Are Alright
Kirsty Maccoll - He's On The Beach
Billy Bragg - Sexuality
Nick Heyward - He Doesn't Love You Like I Do

Saint Etienne - Fascination
Tiger Baby - Chinese fairytale
Annie - Me Plus One
Felix Da Housecat - Ready 2 Wear

Can You Feel It? Rockin' the City!

Hard-Fi – Stars of CCTV



Whoa! I wasn’t expecting this at all!

Don’t be fooled by their lame band name. This is REALLY good!

A little bit Clash, a little bit early Joe Jackson, a splash of Arctic Monkeys and a sprinkle of Coldplay.

What really makes Hard-Fi stand out though, is the quality of the actual songwriting and the overall production on the album.

“Cash machines” sounds like a “This is Radio Clash” interpretation of “Break It Down Again” by Tears For Fears...

“Move On Now” is the best song that Coldplay NEVER wrote...

And “Hard to Beat” is one, groovy, upbeat number in the vain of Phoenix’s “If I Ever Feel Better” or something by Cut Copy and wins my early award for "Single of the Year!"

What a treat.

It’s nice to be truly excited about a UK band again.

Get on the bandwagon now, while there’s still room!

Morr-iss-ey -Celibate Free!

Morrissey - Ringleader of the Tormentors



If I had to choose a previous Morrissey album that “Ringleader” most resembles, I would have to say “Your Arsenal,” though not nearly as good.

Still, it’s better than his last few albums.

“Ringleader” kicks off with “I Will See You In Far Off Places,” which sounds like “Shoplifters of the World” gone Bollywood! It is followed by the sexually suggestive “Dear God Please Help Me,” that pretty much sounds like a drawn out “I Know It’s Gonna Happen Someday.”

Things pick up after that with the “You Have Killed Me” single. What “kills me” is that Morrissey doesn’t have more songs like this! Next up, Morrissey is joined by a bratty kids choir on “The Youngest Was The Most Loved.” The kids are useless, sound terrible, and ruin what might have been the best song on the album.

“In the Future When All’s Well” returns Morrissey to form. Some splendid harmonies make this song an album highlight. But a lowlight follows with “The Father Who Must Be Killed.” Lyrically the song is compelling enough, that of a girl who kills her molesting Step-dad and then herself. The problem is that the music doesn’t fit at all. It would have played much better with a “There Is A Light…” or an “Angel, Angel…” background.

Unfortunate, as I like the words.

“Life Is A Pigsty” has a “Seasick, Yet Still Docked” feeling, but drags on... Fade out already! ”I’ll Never Be Anybody’s Hero” starts off promising enough with a “Jack The Ripper” beat, but the Scott Walker-esque chorus is WAY over the top… to the point you’re ready for the song to end as Moz whines on for far too long.

He redeems himself with the poppy “On The Streets I Ran” despite the lame “til the day that you croak, it’s no joke” line. “To Me You Are A Work Of Art” begins sounding a lot like “How Soon Is Now” but comes into its own with one of the better choruses you’ll find on the record. “I Just Want To See The Boy Happy” is similar to “Tomorrow,” but the chorus is practically nonexistent and there’s a lame horn solo to end the song.

The album ends optimistically with “At Last I Am Born” as Morrissey rejoices in finally getting laid and leaving his celibate existence in the past. This will piss off some Mozzer disciples, but he won’t lose his Hispanic greaser gangster fan base until he finally comes out of the closet once and for all!

While “Ringleaders” doesn’t break any new ground musically, Morrissey proves once again he is not a “Dead Star…” and this album is still better than the Johnny Marr and The Healers album.

Take that, Mr. Smiths Ruiner!

Scooter!

Teatime Playlist - 12 April 2006

The Boo Radleys - Wake Up Boo
The Mike Flowers Pops - A Groovy Place
Blur - Tracy Jacks
Maximo Park - Isolation

Rialto - Untouchable
Dodgy - Good Enough
The Stone Roses - Mersey Paradise
Editors - Lights

Love Like Fire - The Contest
Spacemaid - The Girl Who Sold The World
Echobelly - Great Things
Sleeper - Delicious

The Magic Numbers - Forever Lost
Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs - Different Drum
Tracy Ullman - They Don't Know
Girlfriendo - Make Up

The TrashCan Sinatras - Obscurity Knocks
Pulp - Babies
Arctic Monkeys - Fake Tales of San Francisco
Dipsomaniacs - A Million Miles Away

The Wannadies - You and Me Song
The Concretes - Chosen One
The Cardigans - Rise and Shine
The Sounds - 24 Hours

Archie Bell and the Drells - Tighten Up
The Jam - Smithers Jones
Saint Etienne - Nothing Can Stop Us
Saint Etienne - Stars Above Us

Ash - Girl From Mars
Shed Seven - On Standby
Marion - Sleep
Gene - Your Love It Lies

The Ropes - Kill Her Off
Minipop - Fingerprints
The Primitives - Crash
Transvision Vamp - Tell That Girl To Shut Up
Bittersweet - The Mating Game

Goldfrapp - Ooh La La
Dubstar - Elevator Song
Ivy - I've Got A Feeling
Stereolab - Ping Pong

Sondre Lerche - (I Wanna) Call It Love
The Style Council - Paris Match
Sandie Shaw - Heaven Knows I'm Missing Him Now
The Smiths - Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now

The Sundays - My Finest Hour
Bloc Party - This Modern Love
Radiohead - Fake Plastic Trees

The Chosen Ones...

The Concretes - Chosen One (Single)


I Love Swedish Pop!

I missed The Concretes the first time around in 2004, but after hearing the Chosen One single, I'm going to run- not walk to my nearest friendly neighborhood record store and pick up their self-titled debut album!

The Concretes are a sacchariney sweet pop group in the tradition of Camera Obscura... you know: girl vocal, jangly guitars, hummable melodies... in other words: perfect!

The title track's hooky chorus instantly reminded me of a folkier version of New Order's Run! I dare you not to be won over and dancing around your room by song's end when the breakdown builds back into the chorus!

Track two :Reverberation is delicate in a Billy Bragg sort of way, with Victoria Bergsman's fragile vocal accompanied by guitar. Hauntingly Lovely.

And the final song Postpone It is a sixties inspired piece sounding like later Red Sleeping Beauty covering a Waitresses song!

You can find them on Myspace too!

I don't know what it is with these Swedes... maybe there is something in the water, but they just keep churning out great band after great band.

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And let's not forget they brought us Pippi Longstocking as well.

Viva Sweden!