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Not really a Review: Low at Koko, July 26th.

Performing Things We Lost In The Fire as part of ATP’s Don’t Look Back 2006 season. And being totally sweet. I’ve never really made lists of my favourite things before but I now have a list of favourite gigs. So far it has this on it, at the top, and that’s it. They were that good.

Koko is a fantastic venue and I was right at the front. And on the way home a drunk got his head trapped in the doors of the Northern line. Which could have been awful, but everyone pitched in to prise them apart and he seemed all right, so I guess laughing wasn’t that bad.

Photos here.

Review: Farewell Kingdom, Dream’s End Come True and The Lie Lay Land — World’s End Girlfriend.

Japanese post–rock. Sounds a bit like Venetian Snares meets 90s demo scene music meets, er, whoever did the music for Taito’s platform games in the 80s. Or like a giant made out of synthesizers beating a video arcade to death as a string quartet plays for it a requiem. Or like a lullaby.

It’s pretty amazing.

Noble got this all the way from Tokyo in a week without even one of the little CD–holding tabs breaking off, joining the ranks of excellent foreigners showing up British record shops who often can’t manage the same from just down the road in less than a month without breaking all of them.

Review: The Hunted — Bad Animal.

Bad Animal, kind of like Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, is just one guy (Shawn Gallagher) and his keyboard. Or maybe keyboards. I don’t know that much about keyboards. He makes slightly twee electro–y pop music. Actually, more than slightly twee. I think it’s probably a little weak next to even early Casiotone — his voice isn’t nearly as strong as Owen Ashworth’s — but it’s still a highly promising collection of songs, and well worth $7 if it sounds like it might be your sort of thing even if it turns out not to be.

Also, I really like the homemade packaging of this CDR. It’s a sweet touch.

Review: Johnny Boy — Johnny Boy.

Your Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes And You Get What You Deserve is one of my favourite songs ever, so the fact that the first time I heard their much–delayed album was one of the most disappointing thirty minutes of my life isn’t necessarily the indictment it might be.

But still, it’s really, really disappointing. The best tracks — Formaldehyde, Bonnie Parker’s 115th Dream, Johnny Boy Theme — have mostly been floating around in various live versions since You Are The Generation before released. It’s great to have properly produced versions, but it doesn’t bode well for any future releases.

I bought this from megastore.se. I couldn’t find it anywhere in the UK. They were pretty speedy.

Review: Show Your Bones — Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Karen O sings more and shouts less, they’ve slowed it down a tiny little bit, they sound like they threw away half their songs and worked a bit harder on the better ones that were left, and no two songs sound so alike that you wonder why they both exist. I like this better than their last one.

Still nothing to match Maps but I really like Cheated Hearts.