I didn't sleep with your brother
I only let him stay the night
I didn't sleep with your brother
I only held him very tight

..well, reallyrather for one is inclined to believe you, Tara. She being Tara Simpson, winningly unschooled singer with unabashed Belfast popheads, Language of Flowers. The first weeks of '05 finds rr catching up with stuff missed in '04 and if there's more out there as enjoyable as Songs about you it may be a while before any new stuff gets a look in.
You want angst, depth, darkness? What, in January? Nah.. tunes please, big, bouncy & gloom-defying which is mostly what LoF serve up, 80s-style. Pitched somewhere between The Primitives and, say, Kirsty MacColl's New England, but thankfully without the vacuum-packed, all-tucked-in-for-radio production, this sounds like a band actually playing and a singer singing how she can.
And what she's singing about, all the (bloody) way through [add/delete according to taste] is girl's-eye-view stuff about a relationship with some totally unworthy type who just doesn't seem to know when he's well off, quite frankly. Evocative tunes on the radio, places they used to go, etc.. wistful, commonplace ruminations on the entrails of a break-up on song after song (at least one too many, really) most of which skip along brightly. Lashings of spangly, jangly guitars with a fuzzy underfelt, to-the-point drummin' and - you want 'em, reallyrather wants 'em - tambourines and handclaps-a-go-go.
Where you belong, If it's not you, Who you're with, Botanic Gardens, She's gone away - all channel pure essence of romantic jangle. The guitars thicken up nicely in the middle of Summer's been and gone, disappear altogether on electro-pop cracker Christmas while a few Smiths-coloured clouds hover over Tara Mascara. Lovelorn but pretty relentlessly perky, if you've got a sweet spot, even only a very, very tiny one, Language of Flowers will hit it...
Language of Flowers / Label / Tara Mascara mp3

So then Andy Gill of The Independent, all those improbably approving reviews of US hip-hop acts and the like are (just about) forgiven by today's awarding of 5 stars (as in five out of five, totally perfect, essential listening, etc) to Rilo Kiley's More adventurous! 'A hugely impressive set that should figure strongly in the "year's best" lists', he concludes. Hmmm.. pay attention at the back there...

..or else you'll also miss out on their London show with Bright Eyes in March. Doh! Too late, you already have...

No real excuses for missing out on The Magic Numbers' biggest show to date though as the still-no-records-yet band headline The Forum (cap. c.2000!) on May 12. They hope to at least have a single out on general release by then, if not an entire album, but no promises...

And also stepping things up a notch are the equally discless-but-utterly-fab Pipettes who will adorn the Bush Hall quite perfectly when they headline on March 4 (with support from dubiously garbed prog minstrels Circulus)...
The Pipettes / Londonist band feature / Bush Hall

In a shock development, the well-ordered pillowy twang that is Hem's Eveningland notches 8.1 over at indie mavens Pitchfork...

Hey, Toboggan put out a new record last October and who told reallyrather? That's right, no-one. Back in Oct02 this blog was rather taken with this post-rockin' Swiss trio's set at the (much missed) Arts Cafe in east London; debut Picket fences was patchy but promising. Does the follow-up Still gleams on hummocks - look, hummocks matter in Switzerland - deliver on this promise? No idea, still figuring out how to buy the thing...
Toboggan / band modelling album cover

Check out MySpace.com, lots of folks are pitching camp there these days. Root around and you'll find stuff like
--Brent Rademaker on a new record being made by brother Darren's band The Tyde: "Michelle and I happened upon a mixing session for the new Tyde LP the other night and we were BLOWN AWAY...Darren along with Ann, Ben k & Rob have really outdone it this time....classic Tyde even a little Further flashback"

--and great unknown pop like Daisy Fuentes pictures by Nashville's Imagine Asians...

Ooh err, etc.. reallyrather wonders if there hasn't been some terrible blunder by whoever books gigs for sweet 'n' lovely Scots combo Aberfeldy [site]. On Feb 19 they're apparently playing the Underworld in Camden, more commonly home these day to bands with names like Pungent Stench, Bleeding Through and Endless Torment [!]. Of course, it's always possible Riley & co. have thrown politeness, melody and the xylophones overboard in a bid for 'true doom metal' glory. Be there and find out...

OK, up periscope, let's see what's out there...

'The new Norfolk & Western record is almost done. Mixing will take place in mid January and it will be available online and at shows in March. The tentative tilte is If You Were Born Overseas', the band reports, adding that Adam & Rachel have been asked to play drums and bass (and other sounds) for M. Ward on the upcoming 2005 tours for his new record..

..Transistor Radio which, of course, we're all already queueing for, no?

And Adam Selzer and Rachel Blumberg also lend a hand on the next release due from KEEP Recordings, Anamude's Pentimento, just as they did on Shelley Short's uber-engaging Oh' say little dogies, why? from the same source...
Anamude / KEEP

'Meredith Bragg and The Terminals play acoustic indie-rock to those fortunate enough to be in earshot,' says The Kora Records of their new signing. The debut's not around 'til early summer but there's a couple of sample tracks that are well worth checking...
meredithbragg / Kora Records

While it's just great to see Rilo Kiley splashed across a page-and-a-half of the latest edition of The Word it does serve to point up their slightly schizophrenic appeal. Long feted (or dismissed) as archetypal indie kid fare they now find themselves championed by a mag with probably very few readers under 30 years of age. The same applies to Bright Eyes with whom they tour the UK in March - fun for all the family then...

And who will The Word, ahem, 'discover' next? Maybe it'll be matt pond PA but only, of course, if someone finally gets together a UK release of Emblems. A new mini-LP Winter songs (featuring instrumentals and covers of songs by such as Richard Thompson, Neil Young and Neutral Milk Hotel) will surface at the end of this month via Altitude Records. The label's only other act at present is Alaska! who should also have an album ready soon...
Altitude Records / Alaska!

Back in May 03 reallyrather murmured approvingly of the indie-rocking chimes to be found on Cedarland by Palaxy Tracks. Their follow-up is slated for April 25 and will hopefully be a touch more inspiring than it's rather underwhelming title, Twelve rooms...
Palaxy Tracks

Wait, there's more...

'As of January 1 2005, Denison Witmer will be heading into the studio with producer and friend Don Peris (Innocence Mission) and various musicians [inc.Sufjan Stevens] to start recording next LP titled Are You A Dreamer? This record will be a mellow one... vaguely similar to the first release Safe Away and will be released in Spring 2005 on the California based label The Militia Group.' Woo, not to say Hoo!
Denison Witmer / The Militia Group

Denison's actually over playing some dates in Europe this Feb but none (as yet?) in the UK. Rather impressively, he seems to be headlining a little festival in Holland, Peacedog's Fred Festival in Ede. Next on the bill is a local act called Brown Feather Sparrow and yes they sound just as nice as you'd expect with a name like that...
Brown Feather Sparrow / Try to float mp3

And what's this? Another troubador bearing news: '"The album is pretty close to being finished. It will be called Town Feeling and should be out in May through Badman as usual. Just working on the cover now', reports James William Hindle...

The Magic Numbers' Bush Hall show on Feb 4 sold out pretty swiftly. For the latest news, gossip & random stuff about the swoonsome foursome the place to go is Iseeyouyouseeme. So what chance The Magic Numbers winning the Mercury Music Prize this year? Slim, though the debut album should make the shortlist if it's out in time as will the legions of Razorlights, Kasabians et al. But they might just all be trumped by Morrissey if the powers that be decide to make a 'body of work'-type gesture a la P J Harvey in 2001...

And will The Pipettes even get to make a record this year? With less tedious r'n'r attitude than The Long Blondes and way better tunes than The Schla La Las, let's have a whip-round and make it happen...
The Pipettes (groovy new site!) / pics via underexposed

And finally...
Apologies to the Canadian Broadcasting Co., they do have an archive after all and a rather terrific content-enhanced one it is to boot. So we all get to hear Julie Doiron playing some of her songs with Radiogram (mmm, Snowfalls in November) and read Ken Beattie's session notes. Go here (then to Table of Contents down the left-hand side)...