Welcome to 2015, it was around this time last year I foolishly declared that I wasn’t going to buy any records during 2014 … 83 LPs later, I feel slightly like I’ve eaten 4lbs of butter in one sitting. No grand declarations, but that can’t happen again.
2014 was a good year for new music I think, all manner of stuff excited me and very little of it seemed to be on major labels this time around. I didn’t pick my 11 fave records from independent labels just to be cool and edgy*, that’s just where the stuff seemed to be that interested me this year; although almost all the older music I bought was on major labels, maybe that tells a story of bigger labels being a)Far more conservative than they once were and b)Less influential outside of pop and rereleases.
It wasn’t all unalloyed success by any means I picked up a few duds, although Mr Spotify and Mrs YouTube help me to avoid too many of these. For what it’s worth my top 3 duds this term were:
- Radio Moscow Magical Dirt. Note to self, the term ‘stoner rock’ on a sticker is not in itself a badge of quality. No tunes.
- Mark Lanegan Band Phantom Radio. Sorry J, but I just couldn’t hear anything in this and Mr L is off my ‘auto-buy’ list.
- Black Keys Turn Blue. I was so excited to get it early but it’s a two, maybe three song LP for me.
With Christmas over and done I can finally catch up on blogging and, more importantly, reading everyone else’s work properly too. I just seem to get so little time once we career past 20th December every year, my incredibly selfish family just seem to demand all my time – like Christmas is some kind of family holiday or something! Pah!
As always you only have yourselves to blame for my continued existence on your event horizon, all of you who read, comment and like stuff here give me the fuel to carry on typing nonsense about dodgy rock LPs no-one else seems to properly remember / got conned into buying 25 years ago. To all my Crüe and in particular (in order of shoe size): Mike, John, Scott**, Bruce, Aaron, Sarca, Geoff, Deke, J, Ray, Michael D, Rich, MrBeatShoes^ and Mr Blunder as well as anyone I may have very rudely missed out, thank you one and all – partly for coming here, but mostly for producing such interesting stuff yourselves.
Just think, I’ll be a third of the way through the 1537 in only 25 records’ time. This year I have photographed more shiny things at night than I thought possible, recorded myself reading poetry for you, been mentioned on Canadian radio^^, took pictures of my lawnmower at 11:58pm, actually met a real fellow blogger in the flesh, been to a few gigs and actually interviewed someone I admire – It’s a gas, gas, gas!
487 Down (still).
*I’m currently wearing red pyjama bottoms with reindeers on them – yup, that’s how MF edgy I am!
**source of all the Blackfoot LPs I could possibly need this year, many thanks for your generosity.
^’scuse the abbreviating.
^^thanks LeBrain!
Shame you didn’t find anything in Phantom Radio to drag it from the depths of duddery. Although somewhat underwhelming, It’s really grown on me a helluva lot. Still, I trust he’ll come up with the goods next time.
Anyhoo, looking forward to seeing what delights you shine light on this year!
Actually I like ‘Torn Red Heart’ quite a bit now. You were right, when you bullied me into buying ‘No Bells On Sunday’ that was a better record.
That’s how it starts! Torn Red Heart gets ya and suddenly you’re caught in the Phantom Radio web!
… as for No Bells On Sunday: glad you’re digging that one. Also, consider that payback for bullying me into buying Replicas and The Cars!
Weirdly it’s been quite sunny up this way. No light dusting for us! Horns up for another year of your fine posts. Hope the Blackfoot is still making you feel manly.
Thanks to you I am even more manly than I used to be – something most commentators said was impossible. Grr !
I’m pleased about the weather, I wouldn’t wish that kind of devastation on anyone.
Thanks. I live on a hill (on a Battlefield, remember?) so if there’s any snow (or frost) we all get stuck up here. Unable to traverse the hazardous slope to the library and the Co-Op until the helicopters come to rescue us. Which they usually don’t because it’s snowing.
Does that mean you have to resort to forming primitive tribal alliances, reverting to the auld religions of Scotland, cannibalism and watching crap on TV?
Yes that’s exactly what happens. That also happens in the summer though if it’s at all hot. And also in the Autumn if it’s too wet. And in Spring if it’s too… Springlike.
Happy holidays and new year to you and yours! I’m glad you had a good time. Our was kids mayhem, great food, and quite a bit of good scotch.
Snow? Haha that’s a reasonable facsimile, to be sure! We’ve had a dusting here in the past few days, too. In drifts as high s the top edge of my snowblower. But it’s OK, I remember you UK folks in the wintertime. I understand what happens when you get occasional snow. We just live in very different places!
Any snow deeper than a cigarette paper and our whole great nation lurches into chaos and devastation.
Oh I know. I once caught a 3 a.m. bus from Oxford to Gatwick for a flight and the driver wouldn’t go because he saw three snowflakes in 2 minutes. I said “Buddy, I am a Canadian. I will tell you when it is snowing. Right now, it is not snowing.If you don’t drive this bus I WILL.” He drove. And we were fine. Wimp.
So glad to have you back from the great holiday bliss of 2014. I too have survived and am ready to return to my previously muscular blogging form.
We are expecting 3 to 5 inches of snow tomorrow night, and possibly even more. Welcome to midwest dusting. Happy New Year friend!
3 to 5 inches?! Child’s play, let’s see how you cope with up to 1/2 an inch – that’s the true measure of a man – I think Patton may have said that.
Jimmy Carter, actually.
I always get those two mixed up.
I appreciate the butter comparison – in that timeframe after Dec. 20th, I’ve eaten an obscene amount of nanaimo bars (a delicious layered dessert with butter on every layer) that I ought not to repeat in 2015.
The more dodgy-record nonsense typing the better, says I!
Two thumbs up for nanaimo bars!! Oooooooo…
Delicious yet not remotely nutritious!
And, by the way…how did you know I have big feet? (I do, actually. They’re boats.) 🙂
Legend has it your tracks were the cause of the recent Sudbury Big Foot sensation.
Bwawa tracks around the big nickel, perhaps?
Haha my Mom always called my shoes gunboats too.
Happy New Year, Joe! Ahem*, I mean Mr. …1620? LOL
I’m rockin’ the Cookie Monster pj bottoms!
Great photos of what you call “light dusting”.True confessions: there was a tonne of snow up North in my hometown of Sudbury, ON, but K and I drove back to our town of Stouffville to find ZERO snow. It had all melted! Today, however, we have a snowstorm, so we’ve gotten dumped!
Hope you have had a lovely Christmas with your family!
Thank you, thank you.
We did manage to have a lovely Christmas despite the life-threatening snow. Over a week later and some communities still haven’t been accounted for! It’s up there with the slightly warm spell of 2001 in terms of devastation.