mercury music prize: 2009

Noms announcement today!

La Roux, Doves, Florence and the Machine and the BBC's Sound of 2009 winner, Little Boots, have all been tipped for this year's shortlist.

The award, now in its 17th year, aims to promote the best British and Irish albums of the last 12 months.

Florence and the Machine have been making waves since their debut single Kiss with a Fist in 2008 and won the Brit Awards' Critics' Choice prize for best rising star.

Little Boots' debut album, Hands, which was released in June this year, peaked at number five in the UK chart, while La Roux's Bulletproof is currently number two in the singles chart.

Presenter Lauren Laverne will announce the contenders at The Hospital Club in London just before midday.

Bookmakers have listed Florence and the Machine as the favourites to be included on the list at 4/1, with Doves, Little Boots and Bat for Lashes all at 7/1.

Here are NME.COM's 35 contenders - not counting the traditional folk, classical and jazz entries:

Bat For Lashes – 'Two Suns'
Bombay Bicycle Club – 'I Had the Blues But I Shook Them Loose'
Camera Obscura – 'My Maudlin Career'
David Holmes – 'The Holy Pictures'
Doves – 'Kingdom Of Rust'
Florence And The Machine – 'Lungs'
Friendly Fires – 'Friendly Fires'
Gallows – 'Grey Britain'
Glasvegas – 'Glasvegas'
Graham Coxon – 'The Spinning Top'
Jack Penate – 'Everything Is New'
James Yorkston – 'When The Haar Rolls In'
Jarvis Cocker – '"Further Complications"'
Kasabian – 'West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum'
La Roux – 'La Roux'
Late Of The Pier – 'Fantasy Black Channel'
Lily Allen – 'It's Not Me, It's You'
Little Boots – 'Hands'
Manic Street Preachers – 'Journal for Plague Lovers'
Maximo Park – 'Quicken The Heart'
Micachu – 'Jewellery'
Monkey – 'Journey To The West'
Nitin Sawhney – 'London Undersound'
Oasis – 'Dig Out Your Soul'
Peter Doherty – 'Grace/Wastelands'
Robert Mitchell 3iO - The Greater Good
Roots Manuva – 'Slime And Reason'
Stuart Murdoch – 'God Help the Girl'
Take That – 'The Circus'
The Horrors – 'Primary Colours'
The Hours – 'See The Light'
The Phantom Band – 'Checkmate Savage'
The Week That Was – 'The Week That Was'
White Lies – 'To Lose My Life…'
Wiley – 'Grime Wave'

Patrick Wolf apparently submitted his own application

los campesinos!!!!!!

James Blackshaw as token folky blokey would be cool.

out of that list i would hope for friendly fires or maybs late of the pier

i bet bat for lashes wins tho

someone at the announcement ceremony will break the news first on twitter:
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%22mercury+prize%22

who will get the scoop, apparently ilxor Mitchell Stirling is there

according to twitter irish lassie Lisa Hannigan nominated for Mercury Prize!

and The Horrors! Nominated for the Mercury Prize

Glasvegas - Glasvegas

Bat For Lashes - Two Suns

Lisa Hannigan - See So

The Horrors - Primary Colours

Sorry that was an outburst. So… Glasvegas, I mean really? They’re a poor man’s Twilight Sad. Like a Lidl JAMC. Or should I say Wembley Market offcuts ott-reverb.

Kasabian - West Rider Lunatic Pauper Asylum (is that what it’s called?!)

Led Bib - something unknown?!

The Invisible - The Invisible

La Roux - La Roux

The Invisible is a massive surprise! Great news. They’re playing ‘London Girl’ as a highlight, my favourite track. Kasabian though?! Woah.

Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires (hurrah!)

Sweet Billy Pilgrim - Twice Born Men

Speech Debelle - Speech Therapy

friendly fires have the best album easy

I count 11 there?

and Florence and The Machine - Lungs

oh dear

Led Bib are jazz-rock types a la Polar Bear FYI

Have liked the descriptions I've read of Sweet Billy Pilgrim, haven't enjoyed what I've heard very much though (live stuff on YouTube).

Mercury seems to be anti Lily Allen and Patrick Wolf, and Doves just too boring

Glasvegas - there is always one big turkey, like a bloated helium balloon full of hot air

I thought Led Bib included some American musicians

A helium balloon full of air?

Wouldn't that technically be an air balloon?

it's not as if i can think of many better UK albums from the past year...just the following 4. and roots manuva if i was being generous, it's a ton better than the shit on the actual shortlist at least. i don't care enough to be outraged tho.

http://musicvideos.su/Album6/This_Is_UK_Funky_House_Vol.1.jpg
http://cdn.7static.com/static/img/sleeveart/00/003/446/0000344657_350.jpg
http://cdn.7static.com/static/img/sleeveart/00/004/619/0000461999_350.jpg
http://www.egothieves.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/donaeo-party-hard-album-cover-front.jpg

big and bloated from the outside, puncture the balloon and what happens? there is nothing of any substance

Final list sans comments:

Bat For Lashes – 'Two Suns'
Florence And The Machine – 'Lungs'
Friendly Fires – 'Friendly Fires'
Glasvegas – 'Glasvegas'
Lisa Hannigan – 'See So'
The Horrors – 'Primary Colours
The Invisible – 'The Invisible'
Kasabian – 'West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum'
La Roux – 'La Roux'
Led Bib – 'Sensible Shoes'
Speech Debelle – 'Speech Therapy'
Sweet Billy Pilgrim – 'Twice Born Men'

I never know whether I'm offended or not by DJ Martian's need to explain every metaphor and simile to us as if we're retards.

Bat For Lashes/Florence and the Machine two horse race I think.

Can anyone even tell the difference?

BFL maybe a little bit less major-label in terms of aesthetic. But only just.

bat for lashes = rejected kate bush demos, florence = c-rate sophie b hawkins

probably the best on the list tho, along with the mediocre and bafflingly popular speech debelle, who i guess is this year's token 'urban' nomination

Oh it nearly always goes to a debut doesn't it? Florence then. I actually quite enjoyed that album when I listened to it but it's so obviously being positioned as this year's Mercury winner in waiting.

wait for the Simon Frith soundbite for this year....

A quote from Simon Frith, Chair of Judges: “There are seven fine debut albums on the list and five outstanding records from more established acts, all marking out new ground. What most impresses is the imaginative verve with which British and Irish musicians continue to explore musical possibilities, push musical boundaries and refuse to be pinned down by genre”.

just to give credit for Muso Guide, for scooping the announcement - just to clarify the source of the cut and paste info i posted earlier was from Natalie Shaw @ Muso's Guide
http://musosguide.com/barclaycard-mercury-prize-nominations-revealed/6082

this is so funny:

http://twitter.com/Gigwise/statuses/2756475784

Oasis Fans 'Outraged' After Band Are Shunned By Mercury Prize Judges: This morning...
http://bit.ly/1bshqd

Oasis fan Wilkopops told Gigwise he was “outraged” by the band's omission, adding: “'Dig Out Your Soul' was class.”

Another fan, Bob, was also surprised: “This is a travesty.”

gotta be a woman - La Roux or FAT M

This is a dreadfully boring list, even for the Mercury. I mean, really. How boring can you get? Christ, maybe you could get some cream coloured paint and watch the fucker dry.

Anyway, Bat For Lashes wins because socially awkward music writers would like to fuck her/token female voting committee members still live in the past.

Oasis fan Wilkopops told Gigwise he was “outraged” by the band's omission, adding: “'Dig Out Your Soul' was class.”

Yeah, and it was Ace. and Skill as well.

They should have brought in Oasis or The Manics to liven up the nominations. Who's going to give a stuff what the boys from Glasvegas have to say?

Patrick Wolf is not happy

http://twitter.com/pw_official/status/2756455635
Mercury Prize has consistently snubbed ALL FOUR of my albums. why? is it my face? my sex? my fucking queer agenda? fucking conservatives x p

Dearie me. The Horrors might be my favourite. Not that I've heard many of these, but still.

Christ, even "media personality" Lily Allen could have at least got people talking about what is an almost meaningless prize.

fucking conservatives

On a "quite interesting actually, well whaddya know?" indie tip, I'd like to have seen Jack Penate and Bombay Bicycle Club on there, if only so as not to see the wasted choices of Bat for Lashes (NO WAY is she close to winning, new album's half as good as the first one and that didn't win amid some fairly shoddy competition) and fucking Kasabian instead.

Kasabian will of course win, now I've said that.

Heartened to see The Invisible on there, what I've heard of theirs is grand, so. No Leisure Society?

The more Patrick Wolf goes on there the further he gets away from the answer

have heard one Bombay Bicycle Club song on Spotify and loathed it

Seven indie labels out of 12, that's good.

Anyone here heard the Sweet Billy Pilgrim record then? Keep reading comparisons with Talk Talk, was wondering if it lived up to it.

This must be a new definition of "good". (xpost)

I think it's pretty obvious Bat for Lashes will win it. Not a bad thing though.

talking of fucking conservatives, the torygraph's Q reading U2 fan Neil McCormack never fails to bemuse me

http://www.neilmccormick.co.uk/?p=552

"Even Kasabian, the biggest name band on the list, last seen performing to rapturous stadiums with Oasis, have a musical adventurousness that belies their laddish image. Their space age, club and dub inflected Britrock certainly deserves its place."

they are turgid tossers

I'm about to listen to the new Kasabian on Spotify, so God help me

the scummy Sun backed Kasabian
http://bit.ly/cdfBP

Results 1 - 10 of about 208 for kakabian. (0.59 seconds)

Opening track is exceptionally bollocks.

Why were Late Of The Pier snubbed? Their album is approximately 3829743749x better than anything on the actual list.

should be best torrent.

of abuse? martian every year

should have been on the shortlist:

The Week That Was
http://www.myspace.com/theweekthatwas

Friendly Fires >>>>>> Late of the Pier

in what sense are La Roux "leading" the list of nominees if they're not even favourites? idiot beeb

Possibly by being the biggest pop act.

I'll listen to Friendly Fires and tell you why you're wrong, Matt

First I have a Kasabian album to get through

quickest to type maybe...harsh on Led Bib tho xp

worst list ever

Friendly Fires LP is what 'Stuart Price producing The Killers' should've amounted to instead of v boring 'Day And Age'

i just sugbanned britain

i wish it was like the shortlist in the US where it had to be a low selling album. kasabian dont need to be there. or la roux (even though she is good). but then ive not been interested in the mercury for years.

newham generals' generally speaking should have been in there.

well i never, i learnt something from this thread.
musos guide is back.

Musos Guide certainly outperformed the likes of BBC and The Guardian - and showed how to do live-blogging and using twitter to get the scoop first

why does lauren laverne have to do everything music related on the beeb?

(prob the same reason kermode does everything film related i know)

because Jo Wiley was on Radio 1

Natasha Khan pic at the Nominations ceremony

http://bit.ly/1rdnwU

lol british music.

gave up on the kasabian album fwiw, couldn't take it

shit no i cannot admit failure...back to the front, soldiers

actually i do wanna hear The Horrors (Geoff Barrow produced you say?) and The Invisible now

and Speech Debelle. i'm sure Lisa Hannigan is pleasant and serviceable (i even sort of like that Damien Rice song she's on - Volcano?) yet unbearably dull.

profiles up on the beeb site

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Mercury Prize 2009: The nominees
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/8159078.stm

Speech Debelle - as featured on the front cover of Plan B magazine

djmartian where is your 12 alternatives shortlist to the Mercury Music Prize?

"We're trying to make pop music like it used to be in the '80s. It was so epic in the '80s and no-one makes epic otherworldly pop music any more," Jackson says.

jeez you really seem to have fucking failed miserably at this, to the extent where it's hard to believe it was ever your intention

Does anyone know what the Sweet Billy Pilgrim thing sounds like? Whoever wrote the BBC profile clearly doesn't.

djmartian where is your 12 alternatives shortlist to the Mercury Music Prize?

you want it published?, maybe later

Sweet Billy Pilgrim's Twice Born Men was recorded on a laptop in a garden shed.

what a fucking character. you can really hear the shed acoustics i'm told. so real and organic and smelling like mildew and compost.

Actually sounds kind of intriguing, but then so did The Invisible.

Any more luck with that Kasabian album? Its fucking awful... and I'm one of those idiots that actually liked some of the debut.

I thought 'Cutt Off' was a good song then and maybe still do! I haven't gone back to it just yet.

Does anyone know what the Sweet Billy Pilgrim thing sounds like? Whoever wrote the BBC profile clearly doesn't.

Gave it a v.superficial listen at lunchtime. Bits were good, lots of subtle detail in there, but it all felt rather adult to me, not really my thing. Here and there it sounded like bits of Elbow, David Sylvian, the Blue Nile, the Czars, that sort of sad bloke vibe.

Definitely a record you could love if you were that way inclined though.

Haha yeah I saw a review compare it to David Sylvian, Talk Talk and the Beach Boys and thought "well Southall will probably like it at any rate".

which of these are worth hearing

Friendly Fires
Bat For Lashes

actually i do wanna hear The Horrors (Geoff Barrow produced you say?)

previously unlistenable comedy band do not-horrible krautrock pastiche, people wet themselves with surprise and confuse this for enjoyment. how this could possibly be worth more than 5/10 or why you'd listen to it instead of actual krautrock is beyond me.

and Speech Debelle.

sounds like a bunch of tracks that a moderately promising and very, very raw, unfocused talent would come up with...the first time she ever set foot in a studio. not hating on her b/c it's hardly terrible and i think she has the potential to be v good at some point, but that point is still far far far away. really baffled as to why it's gained so much critical traction - maybe the worthiness of it.

speech debelle's tracks are also v unmemorable btw.

Beach Boys comparison has put me off Sweet Billy Pilgrim... Isn't Billy Pilgrim a Vonnegut character?

The Invisible enthralled me for a weekend, maybe a fortnight, but ultimately voice & lyrics lost the battle for me. Some of the music's pretty cool, but no.

it can't be that Krautrocky if there's nothing over 8 minutes

debelle is shit.

but i dont like very much of big dadas output sadly, apart from roots.

well not shit, just way too wordy/boring. needs an editor.

There is an 8 minute track though! Okay, 7:59, but still. Of course it isn't as good as an old Can record or whatever, but I think they have an interesting contemporary take. But I think the vibe is closer to krautrock filtered through echoey, chimey 80s britpop like Echo.

just what krautrock needed, to be filtered through britpop

it reminds me of Interpol a bit

Ok, not "Britpop" in the traditional sense. But gauzey type 80s stuff is closer to it. But whatever, the kneejerk response is to hate The Horrors for their "comedy band" first album and I'm not going to bother defending them to people all set to hate 'em. I don't know about Mercury Prize worthy, but I think they've managed to put together a solidly enjoyable album.

despite cringing at the "punk jazz" tag...this led bib is pretty good!

Led Bib's first album didn't do much for me; must relisten. Vaguely hoped Troyka might make the cut but probably not tuneful enough.

Yeah someone recommended them to me a few weeks ago and my quick listen suggested it had merits. What are they to win? 1,000,000,000,000/1?

Led Bib include an American and are on a niche avant/ prog independent American record label - so I was very surprised to see them nominated

Whenever this comes round I get a mental block and can't think of any other British albums at all. Er what were they? The good ones?

I saw the Invisible live quite by accident, and they were really good. Guitar FX overload!

I've only heard the Horrors album in my sister's car, but it sounded pretty good. More mid-period MBV than Kraut as far as I remember, but with v mannered deep vocals. I keep meaning to get it.

Problem with the Horrors album is that the best bits are the parts that Geoff Barrow has lifted wholesale from the last Portishead album - ie the second half of Sea Within A Sea or whatever. That said I think Dan may like the whole thing.

The whole thing may be a routine 2-0 win for Glasvegas, who I keep forgetting are on the list due to there being nothing interesting to say about them.

is Conor "the Petrolhead & landfill indie merchant" McNicholas still on the mercury panel? that will account for Glasvegas

Whenever this comes round I get a mental block and can't think of any other British albums at all. Er what were they? The good ones?

i posted them upthread. crazy cousinz, toddla t, geeneus, donae'o. maybe wiley* and roots manuva too.

*race against time obv, not see clear now

isn't the Crazy Cousinz thing a mix compilation? /rockist

one cd a mix of their own remixes, one cd a "best of funky" mix

i dont consider cc or the geeneus cds albums really. more just like roundups. newham gens should have been in here.

Yeah the Crazy Cousinz isn't really an eligible album really, it's a compilation albeit a fantastic one.

Half expected the Toddla T one to be in there. The very idea of Newham Generals appearing is hilarious.

i like the idea/fantasy of newham gens attending the ceremony.

Bell Dem Slags would go down really well on the highlights programme.

'lauren laverne, i know you got them links for me mannnnn'

Bell Dem Slags segue into Violence. Broken Britain.

i say i don't care about the mercury noms, but it's been fairly depressing today to see people making an active effort to check out albums on the shortlist that they haven't heard, which presumably they won't for newham gens/toddla t etc

^^precisely. how the fuck do fucking la roux and fucking KASABIAN need anyone checking out their albums?

id personally like mercury to do a singles prize. then i could finally see tempa t getting the award hes owed for next hype.

i was a bit surprised that the list features artists i've never heard of other than the token jazz and folk

...climaxing in a performance like the video where he bounces around the dinner hall spitting the lyrics into peoples faces doing that arms aloft sort of thing he does.

lol it should go on the popjustice singles prize, can you imagine

i was surprised that popjustice didnt even know about do you mind.

i wasn't. fear of urban innit

oh they did briefly acknowledge crazy cousinz by way of slagging little boots off for commissioning "trendy" remixes that "only 6 people in london care about"

fucking whatever m8

Wow, that's a dull list. Really, I cannot find it in me to give an iota of a fucking shit about the Mercury any more, and to be honest I worry about anyone who can.

My top 12, or the Quietus' at least.

I would have had the Crazy Cuz one if it weren't a comp.

The Newham Generals smacks a bit of reaching down toward the bottom of the barrel. Bell Dem Slags indeed.

The Horrors one is the only duplicate. The Krautrock thing is a red herring. One song sounds like a Can/Portishead/Jamie Principal mash up, and the rest of it is a blend of reverb heavy shoey gothness.

The Horrors one is the only duplicate

See, I quite like that album, but the idea of giving it -- even considering giving it -- any kind of award seems peculiarly far-fetched. (I'll also admit I really quite like that Florence and those Machines -- like I said somewhere else before everyone else started it, they remind me of vintage Toyah -- but in this instance the idea of giving her the Mercury seems to be nothing more than a sorry sop to unthinking mainstream-music-hackery.)

Fucking hell, I promised myself I wouldn't post any more on this thread.

so only 2 of those albums are worth hearing?

Ach, no, I wouldn't say that (he says, still posting). Also: I've not heard The Invisible, and they sound like something I might think was OK. Again, though: from what I've read, I'm really not expecting to be blown away.

It's not like I'm mortally offended by anything on the list -- even Glasvegas, who I find it hard to hate as much as everyone else. It's just ... really bloody dull. But then IT'S THE MERCURY, WHAT DO I EXPECT?

I quite like the Horrors album, and Doran is right to say it's not actually Krautrock except during The Rip-Off. Fantastic as SWAS is, my favourite song is "New Ice Age" which is also one of my tracks of the year. A raucous, apocalyptic wig-out that sounds about as cavernous as the inside of Heathrow Terminal 5 at midnight, with a stone-cold classic intro, not to mention a wonderfully disorientating middle-eight.

The rest of the albums here don't interest me.

wow i am officially totally out of touch with British pop music, i think i only heard 3 of these (Bat for Lashes would be my vote) and from these 3 i only vaguely recall Friendly Fires.

Led Bib? La Roux? Speech Debelle?

(if these are all rappers i guess i am just out of touch with the grimey guys)

La Roux is massive at the moment and she's pretty good as well but as someone above said, it's only just the sort of thing I'd shell out for, not something that deserves a low rent OSCAR.

even Geoff Barton @ Classic Rock magazine slates Kasabian:
http://bit.ly/16yQ7c

Fey, faux-psychedelic indie rock’n’roll, listening to this had us eyeing the office Kalashnikov with murder and mayhem in mind.
Should you check them out? An unequivocal NO

Title-track of Primary Colours is pretty darn good as well, as is I Only Think Of You. Those plus the two I mentioned earlier are very good songs.

oh shit i totally forgot that the john parish & pj harvey album was even released and i'm a longtime pjh stan. i don't think it's much more than a curio in her career, i guess, seeing as i FORGOT ABOUT IT i can't claim that i love it or anything, but it's a damn sight better than 100% of the shortlist. even pj harvey at her most obtuse has more vision and cojones than those quirky chicks up there.

I've heard a couple of Bat For Lashes tracks and thought they were pretty good.

oh shit i totally forgot that the john parish & pj harvey album was even released and i'm a longtime pjh stan.

You're not alone. I still have yet to properly get the darn thing (but what I've heard was good).

I certainly saw it like Lex when it came out (probably because it has some of her freakiest stuff for years on it like the Nick Cave bating title track and a wide spread of styles) but when I was listening to it today, I realised that I was singing along to all the tracks, totally into it, which I can't say about that many rock records these days. Ditto the Manics one. Best mainstream rock record in years.

That Kasabian album is laughable. I can't believe the record company didn't make them rerecord it.

Baiting, sp.

I would have expected one or more of Depehce Mode, Jarvis Cocker, Manics, PJ Harvey or Empire of the Sun to make it onto the shortlist.

i thought the PJH was an interestingly tangential record when i first heard it and assumed it would grow on me. then, i forgot about it. maybe b/c of the hot weather? i'll give it another spin imminently. i do remember that the closing track is BEAUTIFUL.

It all seemed to gel today. The berserk Birthday Party vocals "I want his fucking ass!", the hide and seek second track . . .

I found DM and Jarvis to both be just OK and I'm a dyed in the wool fan of both.

i thought empire of the sun were australian?

I fucking love the first half of the DM album. It starts to peter out somewhat around "Peace" and "Come Back" and "Corrupt You" are really the only songs in the second half that have any real bite but MAN that first half is amazing.

i thought empire of the sun were australian? correct

Okay I am hating Florence and the Machine so fucking much it isn't even funny. This particular song ("Hospital Beds") basically sounds like someone who has just discovered PJ Harvey and decided to imitate her with all of the vulnerability and charm stripped out of the vocals, leaving nothing but strident honking.

(the backing music was pretty good, though)

i thought empire of the sun were australian? correct

correct

I don't know if "Quicksand" is a good indicator of what La Roux is all about but, if it is, wow why can't she sing?

I can totally get behind Friendly Fires, though!

Hearing that Aeroplane remix of Paris before hearing the original kind of fatally weakened Friendly Fires from the start for me.

Dan have you heard the Telefon Tel Aviv album? much more what i'd like DM to sound like now (totally different vocals tho)

So long as you're not saying bad things about Dave Gahan's vocals now, blueski (if you are, I stab you).

no if anything i think his vocals deserve better richer backing music than what i've heard of SOTU

My alternative twelve:
Bellowhead - Matachin
Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
Donae'o - Party Hard
Geeneus - Vol.1
John McCusker - Under One Sky
Keaver & Brause - The Middle Way
Late Of The Pier - Fantasy Black Channel
Lone - Lemurian
Mary Hampton - My Mother's Children
Mulatu Astatke & the Heliocentrics - Inspiration Information
P Brothers - The Gas
Smith & Mudd - Le Suivant

Okay, I'm 70% haven't-a-clue on that list.

Well I would have had either Geeneus or The Heliocentrics but the first is a comp and the second is really the vision of a guy from Addis Adababa so would they count?

Addis Ababa, sp.

Yeah I love the John Parish & PJ Harvey, it's like this awesome progression of utterly batshit voices and characters. The Nick Cave-aping title tracks is probably my favourite though.

geeneus isn't really a comp? it's a normal album w/a bonus mix cd

Yeah, a quick breakdown of what those are like would be good, Mike. Is the Mulatu album a Shuggie Otis concept album?

I'd have loved to see Patrick Wolf, Micachu, and SFA nominated. Camera Obscura would've been good too, like wise PJ; yes, love the voices, but also love the little mental codas on a few tracks too.

May finally fold and buy Horrors album; presumably it'll be cheap soon due to nomination.

Kasabian are most hateful band in the world.

i didn't see this upthread

Patrick Wolf is not happy

http://twitter.com/pw_official/status/2756455635
Mercury Prize has consistently snubbed ALL FOUR of my albums. why? is it my face? my sex? my fucking queer agenda? fucking conservatives x p

what a little brat. mercury prize redeems itself ever so slightly

He is a fucking brat, absolutely; a diva, one might say, Lex. I still think he's an absolute musical genius, but god, he needs a manager / PR guy / something to make him more palatable, otherwise he's gonna rub so many people up the wrong way.

yeah he needs to stfu

isn't it at least a triumph that no one thought to consider the third razorlight album?? maybe kasabian will be toppled by #4

"gonna"? from what i've heard there's no future tense about it.

a diva, one might say

no. would you catch mariah pitching a twitter tantrum over something like this?

Considering Patrick Wolf funded and released his own album, perhaps he just forgot to enter it. Which would make the "is it because I is gay?" hissy fit even funnier.

yeah wolf is just a brat - throwing shit at his touring band members and shit

xp i read that he submitted a form

i think in that post that martian links to waaay upthread they mention it

yeah wolf is just a brat - throwing shit at his touring band members and shit

wtf really?!?!

that...is not the first story i've heard about him + shit. worrying.

Results 1 - 10 of about 17,700 for "patrick wolf" + "tantrum". (0.31 seconds)

Mariah would get someone else to write her hissy fit and send it to a magazine. Patrick's a microcosmic diva.

I do feel genuinely sad that he rubs people up the wrong way; I love his music, obviously, and I've interviewed him and he was a sweetheart; really friendly, passionate, and idealistic.

I know he hit his drummer onstage once (because his drummer was out of it and fell asleep at the kit), but I've not heard about him literally throwing shit at people.

Hitting your drummer onstage for being shit sounds fair enough.

There's actually no difference between Patrick Wolf and Mariah Carey, both are over-entitled brats with no self-awareness.

looks like it's not only Patrick Wolf going through "hard times"

Lily lashes out at Mercury Prize snub
http://bit.ly/DGtvP

A pal told the Daily Mirror: "Lil was genuinely fuming by this. She has worked so hard on this album and everyone thought it was a dead cert that she would be in the running."

"It was like a kick in the teeth when she found out the night before the official announcement that they had ignored her again. She went down the pub with some mates to drown her sorrows."

One of her eagle-eyed Twitter followers spotted her in the pub and commented that she seemed to have a look of "bewilderment" in her eyes.

Mariah would get someone else to write her hissy fit and send it to a magazine. Patrick's a microcosmic diva.

So you're saying Patrick's better because he writes his own tantrums? What are you, Geir Hongro?

She went down the pub with some mates to drown her sorrows.

One of her eagle-eyed Twitter followers spotted her in the pub and commented that she seemed to have a look of "bewilderment" in her eyes.

this is pretty much lily 5 days a week (tho).

"I'm like Gazza, the judges hate me but the people, dem love me,"
"I'm like Gazza, the judges hate me but the people, dem love me,"
"I'm like Gazza, the judges hate me but the people, dem love me,"
"I'm like Gazza, the judges hate me but the people, dem love me,"
"I'm like Gazza, the judges hate me but the people, dem love me,"
"I'm like Gazza, the judges hate me but the people, dem love me,"
"I'm like Gazza, the judges hate me but the people, dem love me,"
"I'm like Gazza, the judges hate me but the people, dem love me,"
"I'm like Gazza, the judges hate me but the people, dem love me,"
"I'm like Gazza, the judges hate me but the people, dem love me,"
"I'm like Gazza, the judges hate me but the people, dem love me,"
"I'm like Gazza, the judges hate me but the people, dem love me,"
"I'm like Gazza, the judges hate me but the people, dem love me,"
"I'm like Gazza, the judges hate me but the people, dem love me,"
"I'm like Gazza, the judges hate me but the people, dem love me,"
"I'm like Gazza, the judges hate me but the people, dem love me,"
"I'm like Gazza, the judges hate me but the people, dem love me,"
"I'm like Gazza, the judges hate me but the people, dem love me,"
"I'm like Gazza, the judges hate me but the people, dem love me,"

Fuck all this Patrick Wolf stuff, Cuneiform Records have their first ever MMP nomination!

http://twitter.com/lilyroseallen/status/2743216185

:D

is it wrong that i'm really coming round to lily allen now?

(btw who is gazza?)

I reckon Wolf & Allen should team up and make an album

I said nothing about the relative merits of Mariah or Patrick's hissy fit habits or authenticity of emotion / delivery of said hissy fits!

The Lilly Allen album is pretty good, but compared to her debut it sounds like it's had a lot of personality sucked out of it. It's well crafted but tepid.

YOU ARE LYING ABOUT GAZZU SURELY TO GOD

There's actually no difference between Patrick Wolf and Mariah Carey, both are over-entitled brats with no self-awareness.

I have always thought Patrick Wolf sings too many notes.

The Lilly Allen album is pretty good, but compared to her debut it sounds like it's had a lot of personality sucked out of it

really? i was a big lily hata for her 1st album but 'the fear' is the first thing she's done where she really conveys a personality as opposed to a boring schtick. sadly this isn't the case for the rest of the album, but 'the fear' alone puts it above 100% of the shortlist

is it gazza or gazzu? i'm not lying!

Of course you're lying.

http://www.wearebored.com/gallery2/d/10655-2/Gazzu+Energy.JPG

Looks like a can of filthy cider.

Lex revealed as Justice Harman!

Gazza = 90s children's TV presenter Gaz Top

pretty sad how much some artists seem to need to rely on making this shitlist for a sales bump

Unusual details in Wikipedia articles:

His seven year old nephew signed a contract with Newcastle United F.C. after he scored 22 goals in 30 minutes for Rutherford Swifts F.C. in the Gateshead Youth League.

so what, is Pat Wolf's career basically him triumphantly coming out of the studio every two years, convinced he's finally hit on the exact combination of quirky-but-middlebrow needed to finally win the Mercury

Dan have you heard the Telefon Tel Aviv album?

I have not! I will check it out.

oh if you like the moderat you'll love telefon tel aviv. it's not a very summery album tho

so what, is Pat Wolf's career basically him triumphantly coming out of the studio every two years, convinced he's finally hit on the exact combination of quirky-but-middlebrow needed to finally win the Mercury

He's never mentioned it before, as far as I know, but every two years I say "oh, Patrick's got to be nominated this year" due to him being British, "genre-defying", young, bit flamboyant, bit mental, very musical, etc etc.

it's not a very summery album tho

it transcends the seasons like most good albums

Unless you happen to be Pad's hairdresser, drummer or personal assistant what's the problem with his brattishness though? I mean, none of the cuntery affects how good his music is (and I happen to think it's more hit than miss).

Point taken about Geeneus.

And v. sad about Telefon Tel Aviv chap dying. Great album.

This Zomby record is amazing. Cheers Doran.

That Sweet Billy Pilgrim album is pretty fucking nice btw. Too good to win this shite, anyway.

That's up after Telefon Tel Aviv.

Napster account + Sonos = A+++ evening.

I have not! I will check it out

Do, aye: I think it's right up Dan Street.

Kasabian are most hateful band in the world

I spent far too long last night trying to work a passing reference about their (almost; see below) unmitigated shiteness into a review of the Reverend and the Makers album. Gave up because a) I needed all the space I could spare to make sure nobody wastes their cash on the album in question; b) it's like shooting a pod of whales in a barrel, isn't it? Anyone in any doubt just needs to look at the expression on the cunt at the front:

http://www.100xr.com/100_XR/Artists/K/Kasabian/Kasabian.jpg

Has ever a look said "loathe me" more effectively?

(I'll still rep for Empire, the single, but that just compounds the general awfulness of everything else they do.)

Is the guy on the left Paul McGann?

L-R: Alan Davies, Nob, Dick, Cunt

Musically they're of no interest to me, but Tom Meighan did give me his last cigarette once and was all-told a pretty pleasant dude. Pretty sure their cuntish public persona is all front. At least, it was then.

Dang I hate it when peeps in terrible bands turn out to be perfectly pleasant human beings.

It's like finding out Richard Ashcroft does a lot of voluntary work for charity or something.

It's the other side of the coin from Pad Wolf isn't it? Their niceness doesn't or shouldn't come into it. Well, for me anyway.

I only recently listened to 'The Magic Position' for 1st time and I liked it more than I thought I would (I thought I would hate it). not something I could love tho.

Yeah, Wolf's stuff that I've heard seems like the definition of "pleasant, inconsequential".

xpost Totally agree that it's irrelevant to the music, it just makes me feel a slight heel everytime I do a joke about how terrible the music is.

Tbh this was a while ago. Pretty sure he's a complete cunt these days.

Patrick Wolf

re: "fucking Conservatives"

that torygraph music writer, Neil McCormick includes Patrick Wolf on his alternative mercury selection list and lily allen too
http://bit.ly/9XDh9

12 BRILLIANT ALBUMS YOU WON’T FIND AT THE 2009 MERCURY AWARDS

Little Boots: Hands (Atlantic) Irresistible synth pop, from a one woman Girls Aloud
The Doves: Kingdom Or Rust (Heavenly) Man sized, mournful soundscapes, like a post-Britpop 3 piece Pink Floyd. They were the bookie’s favourites, you know.
Lily Allen: It’s Not Me, It’s You (EMI) Smart, funny, modern, accessible. What’s not to love?
Depeche Mode: Sounds Of The Universe (Mute) Their synths are all over the La Roux and Little Boots records, so why not go back to the source?
The Manic Street Preachers: Journal Of The Plauge Lovers (Sony) Intense, glorious, blackhearted, highly strung return to form for the polemical Welsh rockers
Roots Manuva: Slime & Reason (Big Dada) Godfather of the Brit rap pack, this fierce wordsmith lets loose over squelchy electrofunk, encompassing hip hop humour and philiosophical dread.
Late Of The Pier (Fantasy Black Channel) (Parlophone) Unbelievably overlooked, possibly because they are part of the same scene as Friendly Fires, this is the most ideas dense, wildly creative British album of the year
Golden Silvers: True Romance (XL) The 80s distilled and upgraded in one sublime slice of leftfield dance pop
Dan Black: Un (Polydor) Electro hip hop indie singer-songwriter with real lyrical intelligence. Surely such albums are made for the Mercury?
Jack Penate: Everything Is New (XL) Absolutely delightful scruffy disco featuring philosophical songs about love and death. Such a strong record, I can only imagine Penate was excluded because XL already had two candidates on the list.
Patrick Wolf: The Bachelor & The Conqueror (Bloody Chamber Music) Actually two albums from one of the most extravagantly creative characters in modern British music
U2: No Line On The Horizon (Island) Well, if Lisa Hannigan can get in … Ok, if I can’t have that one how about …
Madness: The Liberty of Norton Folgate (Lucky Seven) Witty, convincing return to form for the Nutty men with London based concept album. And imagine the controversty about putting that bunch of old codgers on the Mercury Prize list.

That manages to be worse than the actual Mercury shortlist.

Mostly because of Madness, to be fair

Somebody told me that Madness album was really good yesterday but I'm not allowed to listen to them cos Suggs is a Tory or something.

btw holy shit @ Telefon Tel Aviv

Had you never heard them before, Dan?! I'm honestly shocked.

I stopped trying to hear EVERYTHING sometime back in 1994!

These guys are heavily reminiscent of a New England band called Certainly, Sir that I'm pretty sure I babbled a lot about circa 2002: http://www.myspace.com/certainlysir

Dead thread! And the announcement is tomorrow...

It'll be Flo, wounnit?

do you honestly care (tho)?

If I were a betting man, I'd say Bat For Lashes.

Dunno...

It'd be good if someone like The Horrors got it, because it's supposed to be amazing. Most of the others it won't make any difference to.

(yep, not heard most of the albums nommed.)

If I were a betting man, I'd say Bat For Lashes

yes, odds too low for a bet tho

"Florence out front but this is an outsiders' game."

http://betting.betfair.com/specials/mercury-music-prize/mercury-music-prize-odds-florence-out-front-but-this-is-an-o-070909.html

My tenner's on The Horrors, so that's them fucked.

I can't imagine preferring anything on this list to the Horrors album tbh, and they were good live as well

I put some money on Bat for Lashes. Not saying they should go by demographics but on a list with this many women, coming after the Artics/Klaxons/Elbow run, another male indie band would seem very narrow. If not Lashes, maybe Speech Debelle, though it's not a great record.

of course they shouldn't go by demographics! ever! if they choose the wrong male indie bands then that's their problem

there's no way they've not giving it to a woman

too early to bet on the xx for next year?

the xx would be a perfect choice. sufficiently banal, and yet they give off an aura of self-importance, while writing 'serious music' which will sell copies

The xx and Richard Hawley are already certs for the shortlist imo.

they were just aggressively unengaging and aloof, really nothing memorable there...although i'll have to give the album a listen in case it was just an off-day

the xx totally ftw in 2010.

(if speech debelle wins i'm, er, leaving the, er, office for a bit. man alive, it's just not very good)

I'm hoping the embarrassment over Ms Dynamite - great broadsheet copy, good PR for multi-culti Britain, weak record - won't be repeated.

the ms dynamite record was good! uhh about a third great and two-thirds boring but as mercury shortlisted albums go that's a decent strike rate

similarly the s.debelle record isn't very good but it's definitely better than most of the shit on the list

better than the embarassment of klaxons tho eh xp

given that fucking boring, useless acts like ELBOW and GOMEZ and PULP and BADLY DRAWN BUSKER have won this in the past, it's hard not to look back on the triumph of an album which contains songs like "dy-na-mi-tee" and "it takes more" as pride-saving rather than embarrassing

if klaxons hadn't won in '07, the infinitely superior late of the pier might have been nominated in '09 ;_;

lex i think there are better targets than those bands out there

I had an awesome night out listening to some Campaign for Real Rock dude whining into his beer the year M People won it.

i say this as somebody who likes most pulp, likes a great deal of elbow, and likes some gomez, because all three, to a greater or lesser extent, achieve excellence of musical narrative, and succeed in original aims

None of them deserve to win. All pish.

I maintain that the Horrors album is good.

Plus noone ever wins because it's the best record, it's all political or "it's that genres turn to win" Mercury Music Price is worse than the Brits.

the ms dynamite album is quite easily the 5th best mercury winner in its history. (dizzee > portishead >>> pj harvey > roni size >> ms dynamite >>>> m people >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> who cares)

i still rep for about a third of that talvin singh album loool

Still pissed off about that Talvin Singh record cos I had it as the logical bet that year but couldn't convince myself that it would actually win, so I didn't put any money on.

yeah i predicted it would win but i've never put money on this shitfest

I cleaned up on New Forms but since they swopped the Indie/Dance/Indie alternating routine for Indie/Indie/Indie I wouldn't risk a punt.

kinda surprised lex hates pulp!

anyway just going by the NME contenders or whatever upthread, lily allen should have been nominated. isn't james blackshaw a lolbrit? actually he should win then

James Blackshaw is way too good for the MMP

"it's all political or "it's that genres turn to win""

It used to be, which is why it was easier to bet on. But since Dizzee it's been wall-to-wall white guys.

i don't hate pulp as much as most of their peers but they're sooooo overrated - they're not actively awful but they were never more than mediocre, and j.cocker is unfathomably lionised quite some way beyond what he should be.

Tsk.

But since Dizzee Conor McNicholas has been on the panel it's been wall-to-wall white guys.

I was pretty happy when Antony and the Johnsons won in 05 actually because it didn't feel like a particularly cynical or political choice. I suspect this year they'll give it to one of those fashionable 'women' things I've read so much about.

It's probably political correctness gone mad or something.

Plus noone ever wins because it's the best record, it's all political or "it's that genres turn to win" Mercury Music Price is worse than the Brits.

― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Monday, September 7, 2009 5:14 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Not to defend this prize which IMO has never had an iota of artistic value, but I've never seen anyone make a convincing case for this idea - the notion that there's a demonstrable pattern to the 'type' of acts who win year on year is a boring challop which doesn't stand up to any kind of scrutiny

i think there used to be a pattern based on some sense of equal representation but that did dissolve earlier this decade

then it will probably come back this year

but noone wins it because it's the best record. The best record are usually not in it for a start.

what is the "best" record and how could the best record win this kind of thing anyway (as opposed to the winner being the one which the voters find most agreeable, common denominator etc.)

hipster's choice? *runs away toot sweet*

Victoria Derbyshire on 5 Live had a discussion about the Mercury Music Prize this morning, which reminded me it was on. One of the guests was some Guardian / New Statesman critic who is one of the judges, and for the life of me I can't remember who it was. She had a Welsh (I think) accent - might have been Rosie Swash? It might be worth tracking down on the 'listen again', if only for Derbyshire interviewing a clearly very embarrassed Jamie T in the style of your elderly aunt talking to one of your teenage schoolfriends. I think they'd prepared for an interview with Preston Out Of The Ordinary Boys, only he hadn't turned up.

it would've been jude rogers. she is great.

If I was Jamie T I'd be embarrassed.

Jude Rogers is on the panel for the third year in a row? You'd think this country only had three pop critics or something.

And one presenter (Lauren)..

Florence And The Machine Lungs 3/1
Bat For Lashes Two Suns 6/1
Speech Debelle Speech Therapy 6/1
The Horrors Primary Colours 6/1
Friendly Fires Friendly Fires 9/1
Lisa Hannigan Sea Sew 10/1
La Roux La Roux 10/1
Glasvegas Glasvegas 14/1
Kasabian West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum 20/1
Sweet Billy Pilgrim Twice Born Men 33/1
The Invisible The Invisible 40/1
Led Bib Sensible Shoes 40/1

right, so Flo will prob win, The Horrors will be the good outside bet, and hey if you want to earn and have funds to waste, Led Bib.

Boy that's a crap name!

What's the history with the favourites actually going on to win it, though?

I might shove a tenner on Friendly Fires.

iirc Franz and Arctics both won as favourites. Betting was easier a few years back when the bookies weren't clued up and therefore made Coldplay or Radiohead the favourites while giving long odds to critically adored stuff like Dizzee and Antony. Now I think they actually monitor reviews.

I just can't see how it could be Florence & the Machine. The album's dismal - way behind the La Roux and Little Boots efforts in the Quirky Girls of 2009 stakes, even though it has bafflingly outsold both of them - and so surely that silly Brit award was more than sufficient reward for her mediocrity? Whereas a win Bat For Lashes would neatly reference the Quirky Girl theme, while standing at one remove from it: a Quirky Girl for discerning sophisticates, or some such.

the florence album is so weirdly divisive. "rabbit heart" was a surprisingly decent single, albeit one which inspired me to listen to sophie b hawkins again rather than investigate fat machine any further, but she's not awful! and no way is she is aggressively annoying like la cunt, or hacky like little boots.

god i had forgotten about la roux for a week there. HOW IS ANYONE OK WITH HER IN ANY WAY, SERIOUSLY, AAARGH.

Yeah; I haven't really listened to the Fat Machine album much, but it hasn't offended me overly.

Florence and the Machine would be better if it wasn't for her braying voice when she's in full-on belter mode. That said, the album's pretty decent, they certainly know their way round a good euphoric build.

Pretty sure she's outsold La Roux and Little Boots in the album stakes because FATM are the act with the old-fashioned ground level fanbase.

Still looking for that elusive mechanical piano house remix that will make the original Rabbit Heart redundant, mind.

Speech Debelle, in yesterday's Metro:

Music is healing. The best example of that is Michael Jackson, the late great. To me, Michael Jackson’s story of his life is very similar to the story of Jesus. This young guy who, from when he was very young, showed signs of being exceptional. Jesus went around preaching the gospel and touching people to make the blind see and making lepers better. Michael Jackson’s gone around the world and done that – he might not have literally touched someone and made them see but, apparently, I don’t know if this is true, there were kids around him who had cancer that didn’t have cancer any more.

I believe Michael Jackson did literally touch people but not in order to make them see.

Fuck Pope John Paul II, let's canonise St Michael of Neverland.

Bye bye Speech's chance of winning.

Recent years have seen the panel in a much more conservative mood culminating in last year’s triumph of The Seldom Seen Kid by Elbow, a dog-eared Northern band, who’ve been together since long before the Mercury Prize was inaugurated. While there was general satisfaction with the result, some thought it was more of a recognition award for having plugged away for almost two decades with such limited commercial success. Certainly, Elbow’s triumph over the more obscure and much more thrilling Untrue by Burial was unfathomable to this critic.

...says the Daily Mail

when are Florence's legs going solo?

I wonder if The Horrors would put "a gang of Southend-on-Sea goths whose Primary Colours was a bracing blast of epic rock" - Daily Mail on their posters.

Personally rooting for Speech here, due to her being the only one of these artists to have left a comment on the Jukebox. Swiftly followed by her producer leaving a comment, too. Plus her IP address suggests she's from Croydon, too, so, y'know.

...so she's probably a Palace fan?

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51bpghLLQ8L._SL500_AA240_.jpg

Oh fuck, I used to have a playlist called exactly that.

None of those artists were on it.

LIAR ;-)

I just can't see how it could be Florence & the Machine. The album's dismal - way behind the La Roux and Little Boots efforts in the Quirky Girls of 2009 stakes, even though it has bafflingly outsold both of them

I don't hear anything quirky whatsoever in Florence's music though! She's as mainstream as they come - a one-woman Texas, '80s Fleetwood Mac, Kate bleedin' Bush with the edges sanded off and then re-added with blu-tak and balsa wood.

NB get used to her - she'll outlast everyone else on this year's list...

Kate bleedin' Bush - fixed

I just don't buy her. When I saw her on the NME tour, she came across like a performing arts student doing a creative project - assuming a self-consciously "dramatic" performance style for the duration of each song, then snapping back out into golly-gosh ditziness at the end (*). And I do realise that this might be a bit rich, coming from someone who enjoys listening to La Roux's dodgily pitched screeching, but there's something about Florence's voice that really, really grates on me.

(*) I used to level a similar criticism at Kate Bush, so this might not be altogether fair!

Kate bleedin' Bush with the edges sanded off

This is Mercury Music Prize not Antichrist.

Guys, you're doing it again.

that daily mail articles short summaries of each album is pretty otm (apart from debelle - shes a rapper so asking for memorable tunes is a bit weird).

"hummable tunes" is def a weird way of putting it but it doesn't have anything particularly memorable by rap standards either - hooks, lines, production &c

Lex, have you seen Speech Debelle live? She really bloody grated.

yeah. she was...raw, let's put it that way. but she didn't grate particularly?

Yeah, if La Roux wins I will be mightily miffed and simultaneously not give a hit.

Freudian slip?

i have a freudian lip.

(it was speech labelle. hooray for girls!)

That was a terrible speech, Speech.

Cue tabloid writers everywhere racking their heads for 'Speech Therapy' puns for their headlines.

(obv I meant de not la)

Conor McNicolas isn't on the panel anymore, right?

He's now judging 'Best Twat In A Car' for some awful BBC magazine.

News at Ten boring winner who makes boring music wins boring music prize.

Daily Telegraph currently deciding whether to run with photo of Florence or Lisa Hannigan on the front page.

My friend just texted me 'After show she's going to celebrate with some acid smooth stabbing'

Now I'm going to listen to Sweet Billy Pilgrim and The Invisible.

I would have liked Sweet Billy Pilgrim to win, given that Friendly Fires finally started boring me this afternoon.

Quick, let's cash in.

About four minutes into the SBP album and *fuck* this is promising

after years of problem free status, ninjatune.net hits a go-slow due to thousands of people going "who ?"

Still can't believe a) Friendly Fires were nommed ahead of LOTP and b) ILX seems to be comfortable with this

Can't believe nobody has asked a question about it in Parliament. What's wrong with this country?

Still can't believe a) Friendly Fires were nommed ahead of LOTP and b) ILX seems to be comfortable with this

― kevision questler (country matters), Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Probably because Late of the Pier are *zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz*

Shouldn't that £20k prize have gone up a bit after 18 years?

You can level several accusations at LOTP, but boredom categorically isn't one of them

Should be £28,272 with inflation.

You can level several accusations at LOTP, but boredom categorically isn't one of them

― kevision questler (country matters), Tuesday, September 8, 2009

As they're a weirdo cross between Nitzer Ebb and Orgy with MGMT hair and glitter, I don't see how boredom is anything other than a first reaction.

Toddla T wuz robbed

Louis. Perhaps you will find the Drowned in Sound forums more to your liking, as LOTP have just won their little WAH WE WANNA HAVE AN AWARD FOR WHITE MALE INDIE BANDS TOO award.

oh you are all such cool cats with your dismissive references and your racial/gender profiling

It's fine to like them, Louis. They just don't deserve any awards.

perhaps I was merely suggesting they should have been on the shortlist ahead of a similar but much more boring band :p

i heard that the CIA invented Speech Debelle to keep the black man down

DiS forums are full of useless twats with unoriginal perspectives, so I should fit right in!!! amirite

ILX just doesn't care about UK music much. Even you Brits seem to have a hard time finding something that more than two of you can agree to tolerate.

# of Friendly Fires songs I like = 5 (or thereabouts)
# of LotP songs I like = 0 (no budging)

ILX just doesn't care about UK music much.

Weird, too, because I think in general the last 12 months have been outstanding as far a new UK-based music goes... but nothing anyone ever wants to talk about (Ebony Bones, Marina & The Diamonds, Esser, thecocknbullkid, etc).

(Golden Silvers and The Joy Formidable too, lest they be forgotten.)

...and in the blue corner, Youthmovies, Oceansize, Chrome Hoof, Thomas White, The Twilight Sad...

Ebony Bones are one of those bands that I'm completely mystified why they are not more popular and more critical darlings. They're great, they put on a fantastic live show, and they've worked harder than the vast majority of British musicians - yet there seemed to be narry a bite.

I'm far more "boo hoo hoo" over their continual omission than LOTP (who, admittedly, I utterly love - but really 1) don't see them as Mercury fodder and 2) it's hardly like they're ignored by the press/music industry considering how much they get feted as NME darlings)

Ebony Bones are one of those bands that I'm completely mystified why they are not more popular and more critical darlings.

because they have been about for ages and still no album?

hmm interesting that debelle won in the end. sort of warming to her more but her albums still not as good to listen to as her interviews. and its easy to say its boring/sleepy etc but well it makes a change for an 'urban' artist to be like that so in a way shes actually kinda challenging. still sounds like something from 94 though.

Is the physical album still not out? It was supposed to be out at the end of June! (not in the US though, of course... but advance copies got leaked)

I think I first heard "We Know All About U" in February of 2008, but I reckon it's even older than that.

The Sweet Billy Pilgrim album sounded really good until the second he started to sing. But really this was a shortlist so dull it seemed actively designed to offset the kind of equally tedious handwringing we've had in previous years.

don't Marina & The Diamonds sound an awful lot like FAT M (as the name similarity indicates)?

SBP album didn't quite follow through on initial promise but was still pretty good. Will be listening to The Invisible soon.

Florence has a more rock undercurrent whereas Marina is more a bedroom pop project. Both are influenced by Kate Bush though, regardless of what they may deny in interviews. xp

LX just doesn't care about UK music much.

This is one of the odder claims I've ever seen on this board. Perhaps if everything (the poster) had inserted the word "current" before "UK", an argument could be made, but ILM seems very pro-UK music, particularly toward post-punk and shoegazery type stuff, with everyone from MBV to the Cure to New Order to Talk Talk to Eno to [fill in to your heart's content] getting mad props here.

UK FUNKY THREAD!

In context, "current" was a given.

"It has a joy and vitality and passion about it that it really does share with the previous winners
Jude Rogers"
Mercury judge

though uk funky (and the general dub-related archipelago) apart, i don't find much to be excited about in the uk, give or take a roisin murphy here, the xx there.

Yeah, I meant "current" UK music. Even an truly amazing band such as Chrome Hoof or Ebony Bones have almost no presence on ILM. Maybe one thread with about 20 posts. There seems to be a lack of interest in repping for current UK bands (notwithstanding the enthusiasms of a few posters eg. Masonic Boom and Country Matters, who nevertheless seem to take a lot of stick for it).

imo if all of brit ilx attended a chrome hoof gig, they'd become more or less the house band

"It has a joy and vitality and passion about it that it really does share with the previous winners
Jude Rogers"
Mercury judge

― pfunkboy (Herman G. Neuname), Tuesday, September 8, 2009 11:16 PM (14 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

What are you trying to say by quoting this?

the ONE Ebony Bones single to date was good. seems the album came out in Japan in June but no release here yet.

i would probably like Chrome Hoof altho i don't rate that remix of SMD's 'Clock' much tho others on ILM do

Okay, just peeped some Chrome Hoof on youtube. I could see that being great fun to see/hear live, but I'd never want to listen to it at home.

dudes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsbXIERktOQ

the studio take of 'tonyte' is probably one of my 20 or so songs of the decade, and the rest of the album's not far behind

Guessing that Ebony Bones got swiped from Sunday Best by a bigger label after the single for The Muzik was released but before the album was, hence the delay?

Louis, you keep going on about Chrome Hoof, but do you ever listen to Leo Smee's main band?

lol why weren't esoteric and electric wizard nominated for the '08 mercury amirite :p

Okay, fair enough, didn't catch the implied "current" to be honest. But anyway, does it seem that Limey ILM and Septic ILM have diverged to a greater extent recently? Converged? Remained relatively the same?

one more for luck because you suckers deserve it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BQG0XlfwPg&feature=channel

really annoyed they played offset '08 but not '09. can't have everything. drum eyes and cold pumas brought some righteous fucking noise in their stead

hm turns out i don't really like chrome hoof but good effort jaggalo

I don't think it's a case of the UK posters vs. Rest of the World, since very few of the UK posters seem to be really into a lot of new music, specifically new UK music. I may be wrong about that but it seems that there are fewer and fewer threads about current UK bands that make it past 6 posts, unless it's of the "look at these twats" variety.

or it's me posting over and over again while DJ Mencap is all 'yeah they're ok'

Got you, everything; I'm a little dense today. Yeah, it does seem that little is actually going on over there, compared with other eras. I wonder if this is a UK thing or just an everything-is-fragmented-because-of-teh-internets thing.

Valiant attempts, lj, but I'm not feeling Chrome Hoof, either.

The fragmented internet thing is definetly part of it. Late of the Pier being NME darlings is pretty irrelevant when no-one cares about the NME anymore, right? Speaking from Canada, there is as much enthusiasm about UK bands as ever. Maybe more than ever, which is reflected in the impressive efforts of UK bands to traipse here to play to relatively tiny venues. And there are quite a lot of great acts. But I don't see that fact reflected on ILM. It's occurred to me that some British people are guarded about declaring their passions because everyone takes the piss (I'm one of them). Especially on a message board where you can revive the thread two years later and get all "LOL, you liked Calvin Harris".

Last thing for now. You'll probably hate it but I find it pretty exciting. Especially as it was recorded entirely by one bloke in his girlfriend's basement.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylpDKswi8lc

Mr Everything is wise and ought to be heeded. If he says you should listen to a band, you should probably get him to airmail you copies of all their albums. You never know, they might turn out to be your favourite band or something.

Okay, that Thomas White song is pretty deece.

Speaking from Canada, there is as much enthusiasm about UK bands as ever [...] But I don't see that fact reflected on ILM.

Yeah, as a fellow Canuck, I think this was the disconnect I'd noticed and was confusing me. It's also weird being a former Brit and having hung on the NME's (and the Melody Maker's, and Peelie's) every word how much those influences have waned (obviously, for different reasons). I know back in the day I repped for some acts that are now (probably) embarrassing. Seems sad that nobody wants to stick their neck out any more, though.

...nothing anyone ever wants to talk about (Ebony Bones, Marina & The Diamonds, Esser, thecocknbullkid, etc).

Started a thread on thecocknbullkid ages ago which had zero replies, maybe when she gets the album out perhaps?

Yeah it's a bit early for threads about any of them really - there's a thread for Ebony Bones which is short but almost entirely positive, but god hurry up and release an album already.

Still, the idea that ILM doesn't rep for current UK artists is nonsense, but I think ILM has existed during the worst period for British guitar music in pop history, which probably has some bearing.

Anyway in the spirit of repping I should point out that Lady Leshurr's mixtape from last year knocks Speech Debelle into a cocked hat several times over.

it REALLY does. god how i wish someone as ridiculously talented as leshurr would get half the attention as debelle has, esp as i gather from her twitter that she's not exactly coining it.

seriously: anyone tempted to check out debelle on the basis of this, fine, but you MUST d/l that leshurr mixtape too.

Some classic "lol hip hop" bullshit on the Guardian thread:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/sep/09/alexis-petridis-mercury-speech-debelle?commentpage=1&commentposted=1

ugh are those people for real? surely not?

d/l leshurr instead of arguing w/them!

My favourite Guardian blog comment:

to Paul MacInnes on behalf of all the press photographers at the Mercury Prize - thanks for making our jobs such a difficult one by insisting on sitting obstinately in the one spot on the balcony where we could get a decent view of the stages, just so you could 'watch' the show! Have some consideration next time for the photographers who actually provide pictures for your newspaper the next day...

(wow, "black", edgy, crime, homeless - but now redeemed and saved from darkest east dulwich). Not one journalist has asked her if she ever tried getting a job (and/or why not) for example.

Always wondered why scarequotes were called that

Oh god, those comments made me feel ashamed of my twitter cynicism last night. Here I am accusing Mercury Prize of box ticking and then realise that there really are people outraged that a prize could be given to a black woman. The cover of the Metro this morning - Debelle won, but there's a picture of Florence on the cover like a non-threatening quirkygirl.

There's a difference between "hrmm, this isn't a particularly envelope pushing album" and a surge of thinly veiled racism and sexism, but I can't find it right now.

Is the Mercury Prize actually give to the "best" of those artists or the best of those *albums*. Because I rate Bat For Lashes hugely highly but Two Suns hasn't grown on me the way the first album did.

also. re: lack of British enthusiasm for UK artists. I don't know. I do look at your caveats ("except for MB and LJ") and think that wow, those are also the two Britishers kind of *known* for oversharing. So the oversharing of enthusiasm for music is probably symptomatic of a more general porous attitude towards emotion.

I get frustrated with the UK culture sometimes though. No one wants to be the first person to stick their neck out and rep for something in case the NME and the blogosphere gets on it and ruins it. Or maybe not even that. Maybe it's that awful side of Viz Comics Culture to the UK. That endless sneering sarcasm about *everything* - it's not like the studied jaded ironic distancing of the "Hipster" straw man. It's something different, something much more like tall poppy syndrome - that wanting to rip the piss out of everything as a substitute for any emotional depth. That attitude really scares me in UK culture sometimes.

Sorry this post is a bit disjointed and all over the place. These are random thoughts before I've had my tea.

There's truth in that last paragraph there (and elsewhere in that post), but informed earnestness will get you further than it may at first appear. Brits like to mouth off, but what will prevail isn't the snark, it's some sort of intrigue. Why DO they like that band so much? Deep down, I'd like to think we're an inquisitive, slightly geeky people.

"Oh god, those comments made me feel ashamed of my twitter cynicism last night. Here I am accusing Mercury Prize of box ticking and then realise that there really are people outraged that a prize could be given to a black woman."

otm

I think it's because in this day and age, nothing is actually "baaaaaad", but some things might be deemed 'medi-ochre'.

(except for deluded Xfactor auditionees, perhaps)

In my defence, my cynicism last night was more about the "five more years of white male indie bands again after this..." than about the actual choice. I really desperately want to be proved wrong on that score.

Ha ha, I'd like to see Chrome Hoof win next year and their heads explode.

Chrome Hoof: white male/white female indie-rock-metal-disco-classical band fronted by black woman and 10-foot mecha-goat = BOOM

CANNOT COPE...SYSTEM FAILURE...

Chrome Hoof are beyond race and gender. They are from SPACE.

(putting on my Daily Mail Island hat again, black women are OK if they make Urban music, so we can pidgeonhole them into tidy categories, but put a few of them into a prog-disco-dronerock-space-gospel-metal band and people just don't know *what* to make of that. Chrome Hoof suffer from just not being pidgeonholeable enough. Kerr likes them as a metal band, I like them as a space disco band, Louis likes them as a microprog band)

(OK, and also, if Ebony Bones still haven't got their album out, I feel less bad about the infinitely delayed Shimura Curves album - though also kind of outraged at how long it's been)

I like them as an unpigeonholeable band, actually. It's one of the higher compliments I can pay. It's not about the prog, it's about the joyful, stimulating, kinetic musical narratives they conjure. Their metal is great and their space disco is also great, but greater still is the way it is all mushed together.

and yes they are from SPACE, not disputing that one. they are from the space that is humanity. open-minded. inclusive. many different talents combining into an awesome whole. they are derived not from linear strictures. but from a far more mercurial sense of art.

Would I like Ebony Bones?

I think you could argue that that benefits Chrome Hoof as much as it holds them back? I mean I like em and all but it's hardly an inevitability that they're going to make some sort of breakthrough

xxp

Listen and find out:

http://www.myspace.com/ebonybones

We Know All About U was the single, I think?

Yeah, where the rhythm and the chanting kicks in about 1:30

LJ, where do you stand on Micachu & The Shapes?

Don't know 'em! Heard good things.

They play the vacuum cleaner!

ooh it's like MIA if MIA was good! :D

(amirite lazy comparison lol)

but seriously, this is decent stuff. I can see myself getting behind it in an argument.

Lazy comparison. There's so much going on in Ebony Bones, musically. But again, not exactly pidgeonholeable - though perhaps moreso than Chrome Hoof because she can sort of fit into the Shoreditch high art/style thing (not an insult, BTW in this case) in a way that CH can't.

It was a deliberately lazy comparison. There's WAY more going on here, and it's very engaging, crafty music. I've listened to a couple more tracks now and found them very enjoyable, especially wrt rhythm.

haha she uses THAT sample from Network XD

Oops, I was wrong. The Muzik is the single - it's on iTunes.

...never mind that in the movie, Howard Beale is treated with equally satirical treatment as the rest of the TV business...or at least, he's FAR from being the voice of reason/hero...

it is a movie of rousing speeches, but these speeches are rousing because they represent a sort of futile arousal

My immediate thoughts were threefold; "we've given it to a woman so we don't have to do that again for a while", "we've given it to a black person so we don't have to do that again for a while" and "we've given it to someone 'jazz' so we can fend of accusations of tokenistic genre nominees who stand no chance of winning for the next two years".

I really don't want to have to read comments bitching about a hip hop / black / female artist winning it instead of a white indie band. Bitch about her being boring, yes, if you think so. I've heard a few tracks and nothing's made me want to listen to anymore.

Fat Machine (great nickname) really is the acceptable face of kooky-unkookiness, isn't she?

As much as I'm bored by her music, the epithet "Fat Machine" makes me really, *really* uncomfortable here.

Fat Machine vs. Rat Machine

If Florence had won the Graun blog comments would have filled with FIX! CRAIG BROWN'S NIECE!

I've been trying to think what makes me so uncomfortable about Sick Mouthy's post above, considering how close it was in form to my own cynicism on twitter last night.

And I've come to the conclusion that it's that tiny, subtle change of focus.

My thoughts were "They won't BOTHER to give..."
While his thoughs are "We don't HAVE to give..."

A change of pronoun, a change of focus, and therein lies the entire problem?

Considering the amount of weird shit people are willing to put up with in their art, films and even food, there's nothing about Chrome Hoof's aesthetic that strikes me as particularly far out or terrifying. It says more about the conservatism of the music industry than anything else, probably in part because no one is buying records any more.

Actually I'm pretty sure you could put Chrome Hoof of any West End stage and call it a musical and the British public would go and not bat an eyelid.

If Florence had won the Graun blog comments would have filled with FIX! CRAIG BROWN'S NIECE!

And since Laroux didn't win, obviously that woman out of The Bill doesn't play as large a part in the New World Order as we thought.

When you put it that way, sure, they're less "far out" than, say, Starlight Express or something, ha ha ha.

But is this conservatism really down to "no one buying records any more" (even though the music industry as a whole is supposed to be raking in more cash than ever in history?) - didn't it predate this?

and even food

XD

you're probably OTM about the musical bit, mind, although the audience would be strangely compelled to mosh at points

Hello, I dense.

Who is Fat Machine?

Florence And The Machine, I presume.

Oh right, dur me.

Fat Machine, sounds like some early 70s prog/metal band.

kevin ayers all dosed up on lard

Thank you, this thread, for finally prodding me into listening to Chrome Hoof. WOW :-)

Speech Debelle? I arrived at work this morning to find that someone had stuck an "I'd rather be listening to Speech Debelle" sticker in the middle of my monitor, after I had had a little rant about her lack of flow yesterday. Had another go at the album this morning and by and large it sounds like Day One, without any memorable melodies. And her voice is just tiresome, and her lyrics are childish (not childlike) and extremely forced.

Not for me, then...

Meanwhile that guy from Glasvegas disappears:

http://www.nme.com/news/glasvegas/47207

My friend just assured me that the Invisible album is great. Will verify shortly.

Oh okay duh, he's back again:

http://www.nme.com/news/glasvegas

London Mayor Boris Johnson has congratulated Speech Debelle on winning the Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize last night (September 8).

The politician praised the rapper on his official Twitter accounting for representing the British capital.

"Congratulations to Speech Debelle on the Mercury Prize!" he wrote at Twitter.com/MayorOfLondon. "Great to see a south Londoner showing off the amazing talent in this city!"

Speech Debelle's sound has been described as urban pop, she's been compared to Lily Allen, has won the 2009 Mercury Music prize, and has been called the lovechild of Biggie Smalls and Joanna Newsom.

whenever I load an entire thread it crashes my browser so has anyone linked this Telegraph blog piece yet: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/culture/lucyjones/100003048/was-mercury-prize-winner-speech-debelles-album-the-strongest/

Kate, just to clarify; the bits in quotation marks in my post are meant to be in the 'voice' of the judges. Lest anyone mark me as a racist, misogynist, jazz hater.

dammit *starts erasing marks*

One thing that DOES interest me about Debelle, is how focused she seems to have been, prior to nominations being announced even, on winning this prize; like she set out to make 'a Mercury winning album', or was training like Usain Bolt or something.

Perhaps you could have said "my thoughts on what the judges were thinking..." rather than "My thoughts..." would hvae been helpful there.

Yeah, I should have been clearer on that; my apologies.

I dunno, I think the idea that the judges consciously decided to give it to a black woman, any black woman, this year is kind of offensive and almost certainly bollocks. It's more likely they gave it to her because it's worthy but blandly inoffensive. It has 'compromise option' written all over it.

I'm not suggesting that ws said explicitly round the table for a minute, and I have got my absolutely most cynical head in the world on, and I'm not suggesting that there's a cycle or rota or means of predicting who will win based on patterns, but those three boxes, black, female, genre, are all pretty comprehensively ticked by what seems like an otherwise pretty unremarkable record.

Couldn't all the nominated records be described as "worthy but blandly inoffensive", though? In which case fuck it, all things being equal they felt they might as well give it to the black woman who produced a decent jazz record?

I think the idea that the judges consciously decided to give it to a black woman, any black woman, this year is kind of offensive and almost certainly bollocks

what about just a woman any woman tho. i already said as much - it just seemed really obvious that there was a little agenda in this respect. i don't have a big problem with that all things considered. obv that risks patronising the women nominated and judges involved and is horribly cynical but it's hard not to see this in that way as it's been several years since the last non-male non-white winner and sooner or later you surely do have to recognise this and act accordingly...and yeah considering the winning album is thought to not be a good example of the genre(s) it's tagged as. i feel that way about it but also think debelle probably "deserves" it as much as anyone else (nb not heard a note of her music ha).

basically because there is even such a thing as 'quirky girls' that people keep talking about, it's entirely understandable how that might affect the choice in such a media/industry love-in (but also understandable that they'd be reluctant to award the obvious/more successful choices). if a lot more people were actually excited about debelle this may be different but they're not.

I don't think any of them 'deserve' it any more than any other, bar the fact that I really like a couple of FF tunes.

Couldn't all the nominated records be described as "worthy but blandly inoffensive", though?

Not sure that 'worthy' or 'inoffensive' are exactly words you could easily apply to La Roux but yeah point taken.

Just wanted to be clear - I don't believe that tokenism guided the *choice* this year. Compromise option, yeah. The list this year wasn't a case of "favourite" but of "least bad".

But my cynical kneejerk reaction was that tokenism will come into play in FUTURE choices - i.e. in the future for the next few years, they can go back to a string of dull as toast, safe, musically conservative records by boring bland white male indie bands, without worrying about being seen as sexist or racist. This year's choice will be seen as justification for future omissions.

REGARDLESS of whether it just happens that most amazing and best record of next year is put out by a woman or a black person or, you know, the 90% of the world that isn't white male indie bands. (Which, just through statistical likelihood, it probably will be.)

I KNOW that that makes me a bad and cynical person to have that come out as my first thought. But it was.

You know me, cockeyed optimist, etc...

But seeing as how the boring bland white male indie bands have done so unremarkably over the past few years (Arctics exempted, they actually excited people...), makes me think that in the future, there will be *less* of them.

Well, we will find out for sure..

this is gonna sound CHALLOPS but i bet that elbow are less musically conservative than speech debelle, if not necessarily on their mercury-winning album

mind you, that ebony bones stuff is looking like a CONTENDER for next year, and it will be interesting to see how she fares

'boring bland white male indie bands' is a reduction i am uncomfortable with

I'm listening to dead White millionnaires rip off black music from fifty years ago so WTF can I say.

Unsure why iPhone capitalised white.

racist apple

is nothing sacred

I KNOW that that makes me a bad and cynical person to have that come out as my first thought. But it was.

Well it's hardly a big deal but you seem to be saying that you don't really believe it so I dunno what your point is exactly...?

("hardly a big deal" = I don't think it makes you bad and cynical)

"best and most amazing" is a weird and incalculable quality that I admit, isn't dictated by race or gender or even by musical conservatism or not.

However, my brief burst of tiny statistical analysis reveals that given the majority of inhabitants of the British isles are not white males in guitar bands, the likelihood that white males in indie bands will produce the "best and most amazing" album of the year is kind of slim without some kind of bias towards them. PROVEN BY SCIENCE.

x-posts

The three winners before this year were the only three-year stretch of lol wite indie (YMMV as regards Klaxons as well, I dunno) - like I said back there there's no real pattern that's worth attaching any meaning to IMO

I don't think the Mercury's "job" is to find the best and most amazing record of the year. That's why none of this matters one iota, because the act that wins the Mercury prize is always gonna be a Mercury prize-ish act in the same way that the Best Film Oscar never goes to the craziest avant-garde freak out of the year.

lol what about Hamlet

lol white MALE indie - let's get the right red flag issue with the right ILX0r pls.

xpost

It's like people whining about the NME tho like it's a fucking Newspaper of Record or something. Get one sense of demographics ffs.

i am still uncomfortable with this blanket damning

Blanket damning is of course silly and rong but it's not nearly as insidious and pervasive as blanket praising, still, in the actual mass media.

yeah, people here worry too much if the artist is white or/and indie or/and male and forget about the music

Anyway. Aren't these Beatles remasters awesome?!

the music is pretty forgettable to be fair

Beautiful Steve, beautiful.

bland boring white male indie innit

it is in all of us

but... but... white male indie bands make such DULL music. That's the point of the blanket damning. It is, at its core, not a political decision but an aesthetic one. Which gets lost in the political murk.

Now I am going to stop before I turn into The Lex. Who has been curiously absent on this matter. Is he on deadline or something?

white male indie bands make such DULL music. That's the point of the blanket damning. It is, at its core, not a political decision but an aesthetic one. Which gets lost in the political murk.

why must we lose ourselves in definitions and labels? your argument is reductive and it implicates a great deal of extremely good music

upthread, you praise LOTP to the skies! are they not indie? or more electro-prog? and does it matter?

This is getting to the stage of the truly absurd now.

seriously who gives a flying fuck about the mercury prize? the description of this album makes it sound horrendously boring anyway, "it's hiphop but it doesn't SOUND like hiphop." OH MY MIND IS BLOWN, PERHAPS THESE LYRICS HAVE A POSITIVE MESSAGE.

great. I'm going to make a bacon sandwich that tastes like an apple now, washed down with a cup of tea that tastes like a shot of sambuca.

Wd drink.

tbh that's just how I spending all day boozing and eating bacon sandwiches

how i rationalise

qed

The Chrome Hoof Diet - a shake for breakfast a shake for lunch and then 18 proper dinners

WHY MUST PEOPLE PREFER ONE THING TO ANOTHER WHY CAN WE NOT JUST FLOAT IN THE ETERNAL LIMITLESS NOW?!?!?!?!?

Got to be at work in the morning.

cos full of bacon/sambuca

The sambuca tea thing is totally doable if you put enough aniseed in there.

Would applesauce work in a bacon sandwich or would that just be disgusting?

once it wasn't made with boring white bread

white MALE INDIE bread. get it right.

Yeah it's Warburtons or nothing.

I've seen that Warburton guy on the telly, he's definitely a white dude.

OPPRESSED BY YOUR GENDER ROLLS

http://www.adverblog.com/archives/img/bread_life.jpg

Kingsofleonmill

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3207/2303458521_7768de8571.jpg?v=0

XD at this thread since my last post

GIS for "vaginal bread" isn't really that rewarding.

keep it up my white male indie brethren (and kate)...we'll rival the '08 mercury thread yet

However, my brief burst of tiny statistical analysis reveals that given the majority of inhabitants of the British isles are not white males in guitar bands, the likelihood that white males in indie bands will produce the "best and most amazing" album of the year is kind of slim without some kind of bias towards them.

Just to back up on this one for a second, shouldn't the pool be reduced from all of the people in the British Isles to all of the people in the British Isles who are releasing albums with a wide-enough distribution to be considered for the award? That's going to account for a good amount of yr bias right there.

Okay carry on with the sambuca tea and oppressive buns.

xxpost

Try a GIS for "vaginal muffin", though not if you're having your tea.

Vaginal Muffin the Mule?

why on Earth would I GIS "vaginal muffin", that seems destined to end in tears

gis results for vaginal flapjack kinda dull

xpost Surely that's never stopped you before?

vaginal flapjacks are so white-indie

Should've gone with "flapsjack" amirite?

Results 1 - 7 of about 5 for cumpernickel. (0.37 seconds)

um

Results 1 - 10 of about 962 for vaguette. (0.24 seconds)

Results 1 - 2 of 2 for "frottage loaf". (0.22 seconds)

Your search - "pain au cockolat" - did not match any documents.

Results 1 - 10 of about 323 for "cunt bread" (1.03 seconds)

i'm gonna try bacon with the apple sourdough they do at waitrose

" Results 1 - 2 of about 0 for "phallo pastry". (0.36 seconds) "

Results 1 - 10 of about 77 for fuckaccia. (0.34 seconds)

Results 1 - 10 of about 1,350 for "sausage baps". (0.29 seconds)

Results 1 - 4 of 4 for "sexism sandwich". (0.33 seconds)

Results 1 - 4 of 4 for "sexism pizza". (0.25 seconds)

Results 1 - 7 of 7 for "sexism burger". (0.25 seconds)

Results 1-10 of about 6,000,000 for "poppage seed bloomer" (0.15 seconds)

for the healthier minded

Results 1 - 8 of 8 for "sexism salad". (0.63 seconds)

Results 1 - 7 of 7 for "unleavened vagina". (0.23 seconds)

Results 1 - 10 of about 327 for "vegan sexism". (0.65 seconds)

x-post lol

Calling a foul on the stats for "poppage seed bloomer".

Results 1 - 1 of 1 for "sexism sandwich" "racism on the side". (0.22 seconds)

Your search - "knob cheese twists" - did not match any documents.

Results 1 - 2 of about 0 for poppagedom. (0.61 seconds)

Did come across this tho: The popage rate was outrageous and quality was vary poor! They
provided us with twice the balloons we needed, but because of poppage we
barely had enough balloons, and it took 3 hours longer than planned.

OK, ENOUGH.

This is the problem with ILX. Something that is funny the first or second time ceases being funny the 473rd time.

Results 1 - 1 of 1 for "unfunny" "racism pizza". (0.61 seconds)

Results 1 - 10 of about 252 for "funny" "racism pizza". (0.44 seconds)

Results 1 - 2 of about 0 for poppagedom. (0.61 seconds)

leave your own sordid fantasies out of this huh

hahahahahaha xp

Results 1 - 10 of about 356 for "suggest bun". (0.29 seconds)

Your search - masconeic boom - did not match any documents.

Your search - "problem with ilx" "racism" "pizza" - did not match any documents

My missus's mum had a phrase when she was growing up: "First time funny, second time silly, third time slap."

Results 1 - 2 of 2 for "masonic bloomer". (0.21 seconds)

night night.

Your search - "first time pizza" "second time burger" "third time racism" - did not match any documents.

No results found for "naan evil 9".

Results 1 - 10 of about 452,000 for crumpet. (0.10 seconds)

No results found for "zuton croutons".

Your search - "chapati in my pants and everyone's invited" - did not match any documents.

Results 1 - 10 of about 127 for "pitta andre". (0.26 seconds)

Results 1 - 1 of 1 for "kuchen balls". (0.21 seconds)

Results 1 - 10 of about 841 for "rolling scones". (0.27 seconds) <<< they are an actual tribute band

This is the problem with ILX. Something that is funny the first or second time ceases being funny the 473rd time.

the problem with ilx is not being funny the 1st or 2nd time either :(

you don't think anything is funny tho

The tennis thread refutes that statement!

No results found for "speech bagelle".

The tennis thread refutes that statement!

right, i guess i meant 'anything intentional'

i'm always laughing (tho)

http://thequietus.com/articles/03024-florence-welch-interview-rage-against-the-machine

harsh

but fair

WHY HAS NO ONE DONE ONE OF THOSE TO LA ROUX YET

hahahahaha even this woman was like "La Roux is completely terrible but at least she's an entertaining interview"

Really not a big fan of the tactic of leaving all the ums and ers in as an attempt to convey inarticulacy. I'd call it a dick move, in fact

― Turbohongro (DJ Mencap), Wednesday, 21 October 2009 16:10 (52 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

(posted on the other, less noticed thread as I didn't know they were bumped for the same reason)

As someone who is completely annoyed with the pauses that have crept into his speech patterns as he's gotten older, I think it's the best dick move ever and should be done at every opportunity.

it's her "entertaining interviews" which make her an even better target - she's said shit which she actually needs to pulled up on, as opposed to florence, whose music is bad but inoffensive and who just seems a bit inarticulate. (of course, the marketing and media positioning of florence as a smart, original, quirky artist is a different matter...)

Really not a big fan of the tactic of leaving all the ums and ers in as an attempt to convey inarticulacy. I'd call it a dick move, in fact

― Turbohongro (DJ Mencap), Wednesday, 21 October 2009 16:10 (52 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

agreed

― DavidM, Wednesday, 21 October 2009 16:12 (23 seconds ago)

leaving in the "ums" and "ers" in when you want to portray someone in a bad light w/o going balls out for a full-on trashing is a classic strategy - when the point of the piece is to trash so comprehensively, it's kinda unnecessary. but still fun!

if you're a dick

on the unpleasantness scale it comes in wayyyy below what elly jackson says

on which note did everyone see tulisa from n-dubz going innnnnn for her today??? amazing http://bit.ly/10Bl5A

"Where was she brought up - in a barn?"

thats a pretty cruel article

― Bobby Wo (max), Wednesday, October 21, 2009 12:13 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

nah i don't think the target quite deserves it this time, but i'm all for more unalloyed hate in the music press, especially when directed at any of the fauxteurs running rampant at the moment - i hate how a certain type of "artist" can end up getting a free pass whenever they're mentioned

but theres a big difference between taking on a fawning music press with its head up its ass--and issuing a brutal takedown of an artist whose only crimes seem to be inarticulacy and being too-beloved by UK media!

yeah, that's why i'm not cheering this particular piece, but the author makes it clear that she thinks florence herself is a fake and a hypocrite - that she really isn't the kooky artist she likes to portray herself as. which is fair enough. but i totally think that someone who's been an ignorant dick in the public arena herself would be asking for this - would you think it was cruel if it was on la roux?

haha welllll to put all my cards on the table i have absolutely no clue who la roux, or florence and the machine are, and im willing to admit my feelings about this kind of journalism would be different if i did

"But I can't fucking work iPods, any kind of technology past the 90s seems to break on me."

You don't need the ums and ers to show how retarded she is.

xpost -- Well then, enjoy:

http://www.myspace.com/florenceandthemachine

"I think now the boundaries between popstar and musician are becoming blurred, and I think that's a really good thing because it allows you to experiment with like, a look, or a style of performance, but still retain your musical integrity. You don't have to have one or the other now, you can have both."

Um, and this is laughable how? Because it used to be like that in the sixties?

And while I'm at it:

http://www.myspace.com/larouxuk

SHE DID A COVER OF "YOU'VE GOT THE LOVE"????????????????????????

leaving in the "ums" and "ers" in when you want to portray someone in a bad light w/o going balls out for a full-on trashing is a classic strategy - when the point of the piece is to trash so comprehensively, it's kinda unnecessary. but still fun!

― lex pretend, Wednesday, 21 October 2009 16:14 (13 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

YMMV but it strikes me as similar to if I said your post was invalid because you didn't write it using capital letters

SHE DID A COVER OF "YOU'VE GOT THE LOVE"????????????????????????

Haha here we go.

All of a sudden the f2k speculation list will take on new entries.

ha i love it when someone suddenly comes over all KILLLLLLLL

(the xx have remixed florence's "you got the love"! it's really good b/c they basically remove 99% of her vox and sing it themselves, so it's basically their own cover)

the f&tm stuff isnt totally offending me

ill admit to having heard the leo zero edit of rabbit heart and really digging it. his version is better than hers.

(the xx have remixed florence's "you got the love"! it's really good b/c they basically remove 99% of her vox and sing it themselves, so it's basically their own cover)

Hahaha I was just about to mention this because it's the second track on her Myspace page and about a bazillion times better than her original version.