Charts Tease Buddy & Busey

I spoke about Portland band Charts some time ago, when they brought out their Birds And Bees EP. Well now another EP is on its way called Tease. Below is the instrumental title track. I love the doo wop nature of it. I recently watched The Buddy Holly Story from the 80s, when Gary Busey played him. Gary Busey killed it. My girlfriend wants to get a dog and call him Buddy Holly after Buddy Holly, but I've convinced her to call it Gary Busey after Gary Busey. I don't want anyone mistaking our dog as being a Weezer fan anyway - urgh...

Charts - Tease

The Books I Enjoyed Most in 2011

I was going to a best books of the year list, but since taking on the degree work and simultaneously trying to work through the 1001 list, I have read precious few novels in the year of their publication.  Here instead then are the books that gave me the most reading pleasure last year.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest - Ken Kesey 10*

Quite wonderful, highly enjoyable, both laugh out loud funny and achingly sad, Kesey's best known novel is a near perfect work.

Address Unknown - Kressman Taylor 10*

A Jew betrayed by his German-American business partner sets about gaining a measure of justice, or revenge, in a cunning literary manner.  Published on the eve of WWII, Taylor's novel was banned by the Nazi's.



Cover of The Burial at Thebes



The Burial At Thebes (Sophocles Antigone) - Seamus Heaney 10*

Long poem or short novel in the style of a poem ? Heaney's translation is flowing and exciting.  He has a most special gift for language.



Appreciating Art - Diana Newell 10*
I bought this to help on my pre-degree course and what an excellent guide it is.  Newell explains clearly, and with lavish illustrations and reproductions of famous art works, how Western Art and painting in particular has evolved from 1400 t the present day.

Attention All Shipping - Charlie Connelly 9*

Radio 4 and the Shipping Forecast are two small parts of what makes the British British.  Connelly explores the physical areas of the Shipping forecast, encountering the people who live in or by them, and uncovering a trove of fascinating shipping and weather related lore.

Surface Detail - Iain M. Banks 9*


Hell is real if you believe in it, or rather if your culture wants or demands it.  Banks has a serious look at one aspect of belief in amongst giant space ships with weird names, death and technological resurrection and a a world sized weapons factory that might threaten known space.  Banks' Culture novels are still the cream of contemporary space sci-fi.

The God Of Small Things - Arundhati Roy 9*
Roy's complex weaving of the lives of a Indian family, told largely through the eyes of one of a pair of twins takes in diaspora, love, passion, the changing political landscape in India and has always at its heart a terrible tragedy that is hinted at in the earliest pages but only is only truly made clear as the novel draws to a close.  Intelligent, passionately enthralling and brilliantly conceived, Roy shows deep understanding of all the many kinds of love.

City Of Thieves - David Benioff 9*


Cover via Amazon



Two men fall foul of the Communist authorities in besieged Stalingrad and are sent on a bizarre mission to find a dozen fresh eggs for a wedding cake.  It sounds bizarre, but Benioff makes his idea work beautifully.  Yes it is really about the horror of war and man's inhumanity to man, but there is scope for friendship and laughter amongst the bleakness of life in a city at war.

Under Fire : The Story Of A Squad - Henri Barbusse 9*
Translated from the French, this really is the horror of.  Barbusse holds nothing back as he describes the living hell the French troops endured in the trenches of WWI, all based on his own experiences as a soldier. 

Doctor Faustus - Christopher Marlowe 9*
Was Marlowe a better playwright than Shakespeare ? Faustus certainly shows him as a man with of inventive, acerbic wit and a sharp turn of phrase.

The Great God Pan - Arthur Machen 9*
Classic horror, pre-Lovecraft and very much of the same style that H P would later employ.  Only really a novella, but well worth searching out.  Stephen King says it is perhaps "the best horror story in the English Language."

Terra : Four Events That Changed The World - Richard Hamblyn 9*
Hamblyn takes us on a tour of almost apocalyptic natural disasters, always emphasising the human cost.  The section on the Lisbon earthquake - which was followed by firestorm, aftershocks and tsunami - is particularly gripping and well written.

The following were also excellent...
Lord of the Rings Trilogy - J R R Tolkein 10*
Three Men In A Boat - Jerome K Jerome 9*
AA100 Reputations - Ed. Elaine Moohan 9*
Making Sense Of The Arts - OU Course Team 9*
The Time Machine - H G Wells 9*
Of Human Bondage - W Somerset Maugham 9*
Ilkley Revisited - Mike Dixon 9*
The Storyteller's Tale - Omair Ahmad 9*
VSI English Literature - Jonathan Bate 9*
A Month In The County - J L Carr 9*
A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens 9*
The Graveyard Book - Neil Gaiman 9*
Forgotten English - Jeffrey Kacirk 9*

Last.fm Stats 2011 - Most Listened to Tracks

John Lee Hooker

1 Professor Elemental – Fighting Trousers 39

1 Professor Elemental – Sweet Cold Coalition (feat. Miss Sadie Bell) 39

3 Professor Elemental – Animal Magic 38

4 Datsik – Swagga 37

4 Datsik – Firepower 37

6 Professor Elemental – CUP OF BROWN JOY (Tea Bag remix) 34

7 Professor Elemental – Splendid 33

7 Black Stone Cherry – Blame It On The Boom Boom 33

7 The Bronx Casket Co. – Antihero 33

Linton Kwesi Johnson

10 John Lee Hooker – Boom Boom 32

10 Professor Elemental – Fete Worse Than Death 32

12 Dessa – The Crow 31

12 WTF Vs Dead Pres – It's Bigger than Hip Hop Uk (Full Vocal Clean Mix) 31

14 Mumford & Sons – The Cave 28

14 Therapy? – Bad Excuse For Daylight 28

14 Stacie Collins – Cool 28

14 Professor Elemental – Elixir 28

18 Million Dollar Reload – International Anthem 27

18 Enter Shikari – The Jester 27

18 Dessa – Into the Spin 27

18 Professor Elemental – The Quest For The Golden Frog 27

18 Professor Elemental – Steam Powered (feat. Mr. Jon Clarke) 27

23 The Pierces – Secret 26

23 Million Dollar Reload – Livin' In The City 26

23 Florence + the Machine – Kiss With A Fist 26

23 Stacie Collins – Lend The Devil A Hand 26

23 Professor Elemental – Penny Dreadful 26

28 Bob Dylan – A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall 25

28 Madness – The Prince 25

28 Dessa – Matches to Paper Dolls 25

28 Stacie Collins – Little Things 25

28 Alex Vegas – Muslamic Ray Guns (The EDL Anthem) 25

33 Creedence Clearwater Revival – Bad Moon Rising 24

33 Million Dollar Reload – Goodnight New York 24

33 Unruly Child – Show Me The Money 24

33 Stacie Collins – Don't Doubt Me Now 24

33 Nick Jaina – The President of the Chess Club 24

38 The Clash – The Guns Of Brixton 23

38 Linton Kwesi Johnson – Inglan Is A Bitch 23

38 The Duckworth Lewis Method – Jiggery Pokery 23

38 Dessa – Alibi 23

38 Port Isaac's Fisherman's Friends – Bully In The Alley 23

43 Led Zeppelin – The Battle of Evermore 22

43 The Pierces – Boring 22

43 Manu Chao – 13 Dias 22

43 Black Spiders – KISS Tried To Kill Me 22

43 Stacie Collins – Hey Mister 22

43 Stacie Collins – Tied To You 22

43 Datsik – Hydraulic 22

50 George Thorogood & The Destroyers – Bad To The Bone 21

My most listened to tracks were obviously doninated by the bands that appeared highest on the acts chart, plus a few acts from which I loved one or two songs but wasn't moved much by the rest of their output ; the dubstep artist Datsik and quirky folk musician Nick Jaina fell into this category.

Flippin' Through Some Old School Charts

Let's start afresh, shall we? Its been a few days since we posted, I apologise. So let's get reacquainted over a new band that revels in the old school house of rock, shall we?

Charts are from Portland, a rock trio that love their rock pretty olde. And their EP Birds And Bees is as indebted to Buddy Holly and the Modern Lovers as it is to Thee Oh Sees; to Eddie Cochran as it is to Black Lips; to to Arthur Lee as it is to The Dirtbombs. This is moreso a garage rock revival sound than most of the current movement, and is refreshing because of this. Six slices of 60s inflected chugging rock n roll - its a hell of a lot of fun, I highly recommend it!

Grab Birds And Bees here.

Charts - The Birds & The Bees
Charts - Slow Down Tiger