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   Wednesday, December 18, 2002  
The usual seasonal stuff forcing matters musical into the background, updates may be (even) sparser than usual...

'Tis the season of 'Best of' lists:
The Flaming Lips top the Uncut tree, to reallyrather's complete non-surprise whilst Mojo's annointing of Solomon Burke leaves this blog singularly nonplussed. The NME's nomination of Coldplay is just plain provocation and reallyrather refuses to rise to it.
A couple of shop lists: the Polyphonic Spree are just beaten out of the top spot by a Brit-folk debut in Rough Trade's 100; UK folk/twang retailer Fish Records has it whittled down to 12. TinyMixTapes has an interesting (and expansive) ongoing Top 20 - nos. 20 down to 5 revealed so far - while the perennially chortlesome Onion's writers give us their most and least essential records of the year...

The heroic endeavours of the likes of Richard Hawley, MullHS, Arnold, etc nothwithstanding, it's true that the majority of acts mentioned across these columns are American, but any impression that it's some kind of musical paradise over there would seem to be misleading:
'One thing that struck me after just one week in the country was that my impression of England as being more into music seemed to be true. It's not that every British citizen is a paragon of good taste. Far from it, as the British hit charts are dominated by as much fluff as ours. Some might argue more. It's more a matter of priority. You see it in the newspapers, you see it when you walk through the corridors of the underground, you see it on the television.'
Read more of powerpop maven Mike Bennett's November in London here...

Months on the road backing Shannon McNally has led Neal Casal to put together a new three-piece rock and o'roll outfit, Hazy Malaze, with a couple of other guys from SM's band. There's already an album available; Casal tours France solo in January supporting a new 19-track compilation but seemingly no UK plans as of this moment...

The Loose Fur album review below should, of course, have been headed 'Mega World Exclusive!!!'...
   posted by SMc at 6:05 AM |