Loose Fit (The Grid Remix) - Happy Mondays

Listened to Happy Mondays Pills, Thrills and Bellyaches last night (on CD of course) and came across this remix today from The Grid which expands one of the album's highlights into a spacier almost 8 minute groove. One for the Bez-heads. 

Spinning Wheel - Blood, Sweat and Tears

Spinning forward 30 years from the last post here's another recent CD related purchase, Blood, Sweat and Tears seminal (as if there weren't enough bodily fluids flying around) Spinning Wheel, which seems kind of appropriate for the state of the world right now. 

Big Butter and Egg Man - Muggsy Spanier & His Ragtime Band

Picked up a load of old jazz CDs this week including a Muggsy Spanier compilation. Listen to the piano break around a minute in and you can hear the early stirrings of rock n roll and later in the track 'ol Muggsy (I'm assuming it's him) gets particularly excited. And all this waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay back in 1939. Apparently Muggsy was rather familiar with the mobsters that were around in Chicago at that time, most of whom loved jazz including, presumably, a certain Al Capone, which probably explains why Muggsy's band were so shit hot. Ahem. 

Managing Mula - Springbok Nude Girls

Picked up another great pile of random CDs from our recent Bristol trip includes a brace from Springbok Nude Girls, a South African alt rock band from the '90s who seem to have been a big thing over there for a while. Perhaps uniquely this track fuses jazz trumpet, grunge and a bit of a Red Hot Chili Peppers rap rock vibe. 

Tyler Boardgame / Truman Sinclair @ The Fleece, Bristol – Sunday April 26th 2026

 

First time at The Fleece in Bristol, a pretty legendary gig venue by all accounts, and it has that nicely lived in feel of a place that’s seen more than its fair share of blood, sweat, beers and, quite possibly, many other fluids over the years.

Despite being a young ‘un (hell, most people are young un’s compared to me these days) opening act, Truman Sinclair’s clearly experienced his fair share of life’s ups and downs too, all documented in a fine selection of songs sung with the kind of passion and feel that would send AI into a meltdown if it tried to recreate it. A Dylan for the 21^st Century? Could be…

Tyler Boardgame’s rise continues and tonight’s show sold out months ago with a bigger tour and a return to Brizzle already in place for later this year. With a voice like Presley, Orbison and Nilsson’s lovechild Tyler and band delivered the kind of spotlessly polished set that you’d expect from a collective on its 21^st anniversary tour. The hits (well, they deserved to be hits in my book) hit all the feels (as those young ‘un’s might put it) but the highlight for me was an inspired ‘where the hell did that come from?!’ cover of Can’s Vitamin C, which perhaps points to a slightly more experimental direction for Boardgame’s next move.  

Out Come The Freaks - Soft Cell

Somehow I missed this when it popped up on You Tube last month, Soft Cell covering Was Not Was with added Nona Hendryx from their very last album (RIP Dave Ball), Danceteria. From the sounds of this Cell's swansong sees a bit of a return to the Non Stop Erotic Cabaret era (quite possibly one of my favourite albums of all time). Awesome stuff, just a shame Dave won't be here to see how well it goes down. 

Going Shopping - The Strokes

Autotune-tastic new track from The Strokes. Can it really be 25 years since Is This It was released? Good grief.