Buy Nothing Day...

Tomorrow might be 'Black Friday', a desperate attempt to persuade us to buy crap we don't need that's no cheaper tomorrow than it is on any other day of the year, but it's also International Buy Nothing Day too. I know which I prefer. Anyway, above are two rather fine songs to soundtrack all of your non buying...unless you end up purchasing the albums they come from...but that's allowed.

Elton John - Are You Ready For Love (2003 remix)

Picked up a mint CD single copy of this track over the weekend for roughly 33 and a third pence. Nothing remarkable in that these days but the original price sticker was still on the cover...£3.99...blimey you could buy a house for £3.99 back in 2003. Incredible to think that we've gone from a time when people would part with four quid for a single track to a time when we pretty much expect music to be free. Kids today, mutter mutter, grumble grumble etc etc...

PS: Just in case you think I'm getting mellow in my old age I picked up System Of A Down's Chop Suey too. Hell yes.

Marc Almond - Toreador In The Rain

Given the kind of rainfall that would keep Noah awake at nights that we're having in the UK right now lets enjoy a lovely stripped back version of Almond's Toreador In The Rain, taken from the (in my humble opinion) somewhat overproduced Enchanted album. I much prefer this take on the track...

Uffie - Pop The Glock

Blast from the past time courtesy of 6 Music this morning. I seem to recall discovering Uffie through Pig Radio and/or MySpace waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in 2006/7 when the world was still relatively sane. Ahhhhh happy days. After a bit of a hiatus (maybe her glock was popped?) Uffie stated releasing new stuff back in 2016 and came out with this (Ed) banger back in 2018.

Matthew Sweet - Come To California

My seemingly insatiable appetite for buying CDs shows no signs of waning. A few weeks ago I saw four albums by Matthew Sweet in a charity shop, a name I kind of recognised but couldn't recall ever listening to. I suspect he's better known in the US of A than he is over here which is a shame as he sprang from the same fertile ground that spawned REM (in fact Sweet and Stipe were briefly a duo called Community Trolls...who knew eh?). Anyway, at the time I didn't buy them but at the weekend I popped back in and there they were...so I took that to be a sign. I've yet to listen to the albums (now there's a surprise eh?) but I came across this track on You Tube and if it's anything like the rest of the stuff at £4 for the lot that's a pretty sweet deal eh?

PS: Here's another goody...a little light grunge meets REM and Teenage Fanclub.

La Roux - International Woman Of Leisure

Now that's the job for me...International Woman Of Leisure...I've sure got the boobs and ass for it these days. Anyway...good to have La Roux back channelling her inner Glenn Gregory on this video (no?...just me then). Trawling through The Hearing Aid archives I was staggered to discover that I first saw her live at The Rainbow (Digbeth) waaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in February 2009. Good grief.

Better Being Lucky - The Wonderstuff

There are a handful of bands from the 80s, 90s and 00s that I genuinely think produced some truly classic music that's sadly criminally ignored these days and The Stuffies are one of 'em. Perhaps splitting at arguably the height of their power and fame wasn't the smartest career move but as I'm sure Miles Hunt (The Wonderstuff's lead singer and driving force) would say, since when has music been about a career eh? Anyway, they're back with their fifth album, Better Being Lucky, since reforming back in 2000 and you can cop a listen of the whole glorious shebang on t'You Tube.

Vivian Stanshall's Big Grunt - 11 Moustachioed Daughters

I heard a version of this on 6Music earlier in the week but this visuals take it to a whooooooole new level of wonderful weirdness. Apparently this was filmed and broadcast in the year (maybe even the month) I was born...which explains a lot. There must have been something in the water back then.

George Michael - This Is How (We Want You To Get High)

First and I'm guessing last new material from George Michael and it's a blend of his more ballad style stuff with a bit of a Fast Love dancefloor chorus. A touch autobiographical too maybe?

Not sure how complete it was when he sadly went to that great gig in the sky but it's still great to hear something new from an artist whose true value and loss still ain't properly appreciated.

What's even sadder is that he sounded like a ruddy nice bloke too, giving away millions and popping down his local for a few cheeky drinks...no doubt searching for the normality, stability and love that seemingly eluded him down here on planet earth.