Another cracking cover from Katsen

It's not the mind-melter that the album cover was, but it still gets filed under 'Messed up'. The new extended version of Florian is very nice, too. It's out on the 15th of Feb, look for it in the shops. You won't have to look that hard, obviously.

I'll give you a tip + True Widow

Never tie your shoelaces in a revolving door.

Also spotted these on Twitter via a Rough Trade retweet.

http://www.myspace.com/truewidow
http://www.aquariusrecords.org/bin/search.cgi/exkeyword=truewidocd

They're fucking excellent. Crunchy, drone heavy guitars, solid melodies, indecipherable lyrics.
A little bit psych, a little bit post-rock, but not really falling into either camp. Formerly described as Sonic Noir, a phrase so staggeringly pretentious that i may have to start using it myself.

Free track, Duelist, on this MASSIVE label comp

Free track I.N.O, from Last FM.

Get stuck in!

Hole - Back in the UK - February

Hole have announced their first UK date since I was a little lad, 17th of February at the Shepherd's Bush Empire. I have tickets and will be writing it up for someone. Before we get too excited, let's remember the last outing from Miss Love was America's Sweetheart, an album that had three good tracks on it and a shitload of filler.

Before that, Hole's last official outing, 11 years ago. Remember how they reacted to the jock-ism of Nu Metal by, err, making their guitar sound really Manson-ish and muddy, and soundtracking a movie about American football?

I remember how fucking great Hole were, though, and have spent my last penny making sure I could get tickets for this show. If you can, do. The o2 presale is still up, and the general sale starts on Friday. Get clicking.

Pavement Comp

I'm not the first but I won't be the last blogger to embed

Brad/Satchel Playlist

http://open.spotify.com/user/teepee_uk/playlist/2NzIqjyouro1J9fINttN5u

I hear they're looking for UK dates. More news when I have it ;)

The sound of Commerce

It's a beep, beep sound as thousands of pounds pass before your eyes. From the door alarm, from the scanner. Christmas songs, potentially until you die. The tills are playing up, the queue is out the door, I've personally fucked up many simple transactions, and have cost customers valuable quality Xmas time with family members. While looking like a spastic. Is it OK to use that word? No? Spasticspasticspasticspastic.

Despite all this, I really like the new job; and would love to make it permanent.

"Su-Bo is outselling everything. EVERYTHING. All that stood before her is crushed and scorched by the wayside. It is over, Earthlings. Over. 10:47 PM Dec 15th from web"

Still true. The Buble (sp) is doing well too, might have actually kept up today. Will Young also battled bravely, but there is no stopping the Titan, the Mecha Godzilla, Cthulu levels of might Su-Bo wields.

Front line retail

is all about the detail, apparently. I'll be able to see it in it's full glory as of 12pm today, when I become a HMV Christmas staffer. This means blog updates will be a little irregular til the new year. There'll be the now obligatory best of lists, and a sneak peek at the new column I'm starting for the 405.

Wish me luck. I'm going in.