Excuses came there none...

Avast ye, er, catchy indie-pop chappies. Common Sense is another prime slice of Swedish drollery from Salty Pirates, just the sort act that should be added to the End of the Road Festival 2008 which, so far, could do with a bit of lightening up...
[salty pirates]

reallyrather first caught our own Pete & the Pirates there last year. On early in the Big Top on the Sunday, this blog was instantly taken with the (mostly unfamiliar) tuneage they rattled off. A rammed Barfly show a few months later was distinctly less jolly (Roger) so maybe it had just been the cider after all. Happily, no. The debut album Little death is a peach. Those knocking it as safe indie-pop, unadventurous and unnecessary, are just curmudgeons. Here be tunes aplenty (13 in 36 mins, triple bonus points already), finely turned and whacked out with distinctive British lustiness. Does anyone else hear the Arctic Monkeys in the closer? Whatever, Little death is a little cracker and this blog is already lamenting the Mercury Prize nomination it probably won't get...

And there's certain to be barrel-loads more catchiness and pop smarts on Pershing, second album from Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin, if this track and DIY debut Broom are any guide. Their Barden's Boudoir show in Stoke Newington last summer was just about the best five quid this blog spent all year...

The spirit of Carole King's '60s songwriting, the singing styles of Mama Cass, Linda Ronstadt et al are all over the Zooey Deschanel/M. Ward collaboration She & Him Vol.1, just out [it's all hear]. A mix of originals and covers, loads of old tunes come to mind as you listen. How about a slowed up, creamy cover of Cat Stevens' Here comes my baby for Vol.2, Zooey?, Matt? You know it makes sense...

Actually, that tune would slot easily into The Boy Least Likely To's set, this blog has no doubt, remembering the half dozen or so shows seen over the years. Sadly, thanks to scooter-thieving swines, these don't include their recent London resurfacing at the Water Rats but hey!, they'll surely be booked for The End of the Road (nudge, nudge, wink, wink). The second album's imminent and new song Balloon on a broken string sounds like another bouncy kinderpop belter to file alongside I see spiders, Rock upon a porch, Apple Wagon, etc etc...

Producer-of-the-moment Bernard 'Duffy' Butler has his hands on NZ upstarts Cut Off Your Hands as we speak. The debut 'will be mostly new songs' which isn't such great news round here as reallyrather is definitely still fond of, er, Still fond. Last seen at Ginglik with Dananananaykroyd, that tune alone will be worth the admission on Thursday night at the My Ex-Boyfriend's Records night at The Old Blue Last...
[cut off your hands]