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...