RUSSIAN CIRCLES - ENTER - (5/10)
Hmm, i thought this was very average.  Never really got me going.  Musically competent, but severely lacking.

THE MORNING AFTER GIRLS - SHADOWS EVOLVE - (8/10)
THis album really sneaked up on me.  I didn't like it at first, but because i got no new music for about a week, i ended up playing it more than i meant to.  Now i love it.  Incredible hooks that suck you right in.

CARLA BOZULICH - EVANGELISTA - (410)
Hmm, a little too experimental for me.  I couldn't seem to get past all the erraticness of it all.

THE LONGCUT - CALL AND RESPONSE - (6/10)
I really enjoyed their Transition EP.  However i found this very tedious and boring.  Too samey for me.

MUSE - BLACK HOLES AND REVELATIONS - (4/10)
Found the entire album a load of boring wailing toss.  However the final track 'Knights of Cydonia' is a real barn storming kick as track.

TV ON THE RADIO - RETURN TO COOKIE MOUNTAIN - (6/10)
Opening track is fantastic and it really raises your expectations.  Sadly, the rest of the album doesn't quite live up to the hype.  None of the further tracks stood out for me. Average.

THE KNIFE - SILENT SHOUT - (8/10)
Brilliant.  Great for a party, great for chilling, great for while you work, great for when you eat, great for driving.  Just GREAT!!

GREGOR SAMSA - 55_12 - (9/10)
WOW!!! Thanks Lyle.  Amazing collection of songs.  My hairs were stood on end on a few occasions.  Get some really good headphones, turn out the lights, kick back and enjoy this utter masterpiece.

The Delgados - Hate (7/10)
Forward Russia - Give Me A Wall (4/10)
The Futureheads - News And Tributes (7/10)
Howling Bells - Howling Bells (9/10)
The Mountain Goats - Babylon Springs EP (8/10)
Beirut - Gulag Orkestar (9/10)
Jon Auer - Songs From The Year Of Our Demise (6/10)
Shogun Kunitoki - Tasankokaiku (7/10)
Psapp - The only thing i ever wanted (7/10)
The Russian Futurists - Me Myself And Rye (7/10)
The Sleepy Jackson - Personality (5/10)
The Replacements - Don't You Know Who I Think I... (6/10)
Lauren Hoffman - Choreography (9/10)
Sol Seppy - The Bells of 1 2 (8/10)
Final Fantasy - He Poos Clouds (4/10)

Ladyfuzz - Kerfuffle (7/10)
Alamos - s/t (8/10)
The Beauty Shop - Yard Sale (7/10)
Casiotone For The Painfully Alone - Etiquette (9/10)
Espers - II (7/10)
Josephine Foster - A Wolf in Sheeps Clothing (8/10)
Loose Fur - Born Again in the USA (3/10)
Magenta Skycode - IIIII (8/10)
Mogwai - Mr Beast (6/10)
Mono - You Are There (8/10)
Morrissey - Ringleader Of The Tormentors (8/10)
Nightmare of You - s/t (7/10)
The Raconteurs - Broken Boy Soldiers (8/10)
Two Gallants - What the Toll Tells (6/10)
Dirty Pretty THings - Waterloo to ANywhere (2/10)
The Radio Dept. - Pet Grief (5/10)

A pretty average month really.  The highlight being Casiotone For The Painfully Alone.

Albums in late Feb and March that I have been listening to and how I've rated them:

Hank Williams III – Straight to Hell (10/10)

The Black Heart Procession – The Spell (8/10)

Broken Family Band – Balls (8/10)

Darren Hayman – Table for One (6/10)

Destroyer – Rubies (6/10)

Fickle Public – Bucko (5/10)

Kepler – Attic Salt (4/10)

Liars – Drum's Not Dead (5/10)

Polysics – Now is the Time  (6/10)

Ryan Adams – Heartbreaker (9/10)

The Singing Adams – Problems (8/10)

Tarantula A.D. – Book of Sand (7/10)

The Vines – Vision Valley (3/10)

Weezer – Pinkerton (4/10)

Euros Childs – Chops (9/10)

Giant Drag – Hearts and Unicorns (8/10)

Hot Chip – The Warning (5/10)

Mystery Jets – Making Dens (4/10)

The Research – Breaking Up (4/10)

Scott Biram – The Dirty Old One Man Band (7/10)

Wayne Hancock – Wild, Free and Reckless (8/10)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Show Your Bones (7/10)

Dale Watson - Dreamland (6/10)

I'm one of a dying breed.  Us remaining Thethe fans are dwindling fast.  Matt's output over the last few years has been pretty non existent.  Infact he seems to have vanished.  Last heard living the life of a recluse in Switzerland somewhere.  Over the last couple of years I have created at least 5 new Thethe fans.  This needs to increase.  His work cannot be forgotten about.

Anyway…

I could and probably will waffle on for an age about them.  The word 'them' when used with Thethe has always troubled me.  Thethe for all intents and purposes is the musical outlet of one man, namely Matt Johnson.  There is no band at all.  He plays nearly all instruments on ALL his albums, writes ALL the music and lyrics.  Yeah sure he has got a band together when touring and there was that time he enlisted a few buddies (Johnny Marr being one of note) to help him out. But that was for a relative short time.  But Thethe are A ONE MAN BAND.

It also troubles me when I hear Thethe being pigeonholed into the genre Electro Pop.  Yeah, SOUL MINING can easily fit into that category and I'm happy for it to be there.  But… that is the only Thethe album (out of 7) that could fit into that genre.  The rest are… shit I'm waffling, sorry!

Tese are his (imho) most important and best albums:

1. SOUL MINING – It's the most easily accessible and the most poignant.  Matt was obviously very troubled during writing this album. It is littered with stories of a lack of self worth, zero confidence and personal torture.  Matt is in a world of pain.  This isn't your usual 'lost love or troubled relationship' fayre.
   
2. INFECTED – This album followed SOUL MINING but is far far removed from it.  This is an aggressive political look at Thatcher Britain during 1986.  It was an incredibly inventive album for it's time.  Pompous and OTT, Matt never lets up on this rollercoaster ride from start to finish.
   
3. DUSK – A stripped down bare bones album that once again looks at the soul of Matt Johnson.  A return to form after the (imho) slightly disappointing MINDBOMB.  Glossy, glitzy, seedy and provocative.  Matt croaks his way through some of his best tracks ever.  An incredibly personal album and a fantastic statement.

Every one should own these three albums.

0-7 THE BABY YEARS (1970-77) - I seem to remember using my parent upright hoover as i kind of microphone stand. I would perform Elvis and Jim Reeves (miming all the words) hits for my family.

8-10 THE EARLY YEARS (1978-80) - My older sister rought home a new boyfriend in 78.  He was a punk rocker.  WHenever my sister was babysitting me, her boyfriend would come armed with a bunch of 7" singles.  These included Sex Pistols, Ramones & Stiff Little Fingers.  This was to be a key moment in my road into music.

11-13 PUNK, NEW WAVE & POP(1981-83) - This was a really cool time for me.  I was mainly listening to Madness, Adam Ant, Bad Manners, Specials, Undertones and Buzzcocks.

14-17 THE BOOM YEARS part 1 (1984-87) - Things really took off here.  I got into loads of new music, especially indie and goth during this period.  Bands like Bauhaus, Joy Division, Sisters of Mercy, Pixies, Throwing Muses, Thethe, Soup Dragons, Cocteau Twins and The Birthday Party.  I was buying CD/LP's every week.  More and more all the time.  I couldn't get enough.

18-20 THE ROCK YEARS (1988-90) - I was still listening to tons of Indie, Punk and Goth.  However i got into a lot of classic rock during this period and started hanging out at rock clubs.  Bands i got into Led Zep, Deep Puple, Sabbath, The Who, Lou Reed, Stooges, Velvet Underground, Jefferson Airplane, Rolling Stones.

21-26 THE WILDERNESS YEARS (1991-96) - Due to peer pressure from a few friends i took an E and went to a rave all-nighter. Well this kinda took over my life for a while and i stopped buying NEW guitar based music.  All i could think of was rave tapes and rave music and raving on a weekend.  I even became a DJ/MC for a couple of years.  Towards the tail (94/95) end i stated listening to a lot of HIP HOP like NWA, Icecube, ICE T and the Notorious BIG. 

27-30 THE HORRIBLE YEARS (1997-2000) - I had problems in my personal life and was recovering from my Rave/Hip Hop years.  I just couldn't seem to get into anything new at all.  This was a very depressing period both personally and musically.  I just played all my old CD's.

30-35 THE BOOM YEARS part 2 (2001-06) - THANK FUCK FOR THIS PERIOD.  Someone lent me the White Stripes album 'White Blood Cells' and order me to play it.  I did and fell in love.  That was the moment i had been waiting for. I've bought more CD's during this period than my whole music buying carreer put together.  I'm into more diverse music than ever before. I don't think there is a single genre that i don't like.

I know everyone is entitled to their own opinion and all that crap.  But sometimes I think people like to make statements just to appear hip or cool in front of their contemporaries.  What I'm talking about is the forthcoming Flaming Lips album At War With the Mystics.  It leaked on the internet last week and within a few hours people were posting derogatory crap about how it was just an OK album, but littered with FILLER.  How can anyone possible deduce that from a single, or possibly two listens?

The Lips are not an immediate band.  Meaning it takes a while to absorb their material.  It is simply not possible to make a statement like the above (FILLER) without listening to the album at great length.  Through my own personal experience I have come to the conclusion that it's the 'hard to penetrate' music that has the most longevity. EG – Tom Waits, Nick Cave, Patrick Wolf, Cocteau Twins, Mountain Goats etc.

This isn't a fucking Arctic Monkeys album or other such shite.  Do people really think that The Lips have spent the last 4 YEARS writing a load of fucking FILLER.  They're accomplished artist who IMHO are still at the top of their game.  I mean what did you want them to do? Play it safe and release the same sort of thing as before? This is a band that likes to push boundaries and produce the unexpected.  They have NOT failed.

The Album is as follows:

1. The YeahYeahYeah Song

2. Free Radicals

3. The Sound Of Failure / It's Dark

4. My Cosmic Autumn Rebellion

5. Vein Of Stars

6. The Wizard Turns On

7. It Overtakes Me / The Stars Are So Big

8. Mr. Ambulance Driver

9. Haven't Got A Clue

10. The W.A.N.D

11. Pompeii am Götterdämmerung

12. Goin' On

Now please, I have a question for all you cynics…

WHERE THE FUCK IS THE FILLER BECAUSE I AIN'T HEARING IT?

This might change from time to time.  There are a few that i fought over and others that i missed out.  These fights could swing another way in the future.

1.  Thethe – Soul Mining

2.  Led Zep – I

3.  Joy Division – Closer

4.  Thethe – Dusk  

5.  Throwing Muses – House Tornado

6.  Saul Williams – s/t

7.  Rage Against The Machine – s/t

8.  Thethe - Infected

9.  Nick Cave ATBS - Abattoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus

10. The Mountain Goats – The Sunset Tree

So far Febuary has been a great month for music for me. January was a pretty poor month with only a couple of CD's attracting me.

Aimee Mann - Magnolia (Soundtrack) (8/10)
Archie Bronson Outfit - Derdang Derdang (9/10)
Mary-Jane - What I Came Here For (6/10)
Quasi - When The Going Gets Dark (9/10)
Regina Spektor - Soviet Kitsch (8/10)
Safety Scissors - Tainted Lunch (7/10)
The Spinto Band - Nice And Nicely Done (8/10)
Volcano! - Beautiful Seizure (8/10)
South - A Place in Displacement (Single) (7/10)
Devics - Push the Heart (8/10)
The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics (9/10)