Wed 20 Jun – The New Pornographers, The Little Ones

I almost didn't make it to this one. After a long day and rubbish day at work, coupled with the late news that I would actually be seeing the gig on my own, I spent a fair amount of time wondering whether I could be bothered with it or not. (Plus I was already pissed off at missing the Smashing Pumpkins at Shepherds Bush the night before, thanks to yet another case of most tickets being bought purely to be resold on eBay for five times the original price. Still…

I'll probably write more on this in a few weeks when I've heard the new album, but I couldn't not say something right now.

I've just listened to Tarantula, the new single by The Smashing Pumpkins. It is fucking awesome.

The intro is breathtaking - a long but energetic drum roll accompanied by a Zero-ish harmonic run that has you bouncing excitedly in your seat after only a couple of seconds. Then it launches - explodes - into the first verse with a brilliant guitar riff and the most enthusiastic vocal Billy Corgan's delivered in a decade, which…

Thu 15 Mar – The Arcade Fire, Patrick Wolf

Ok, first up, a complaint. Brixton Academy is an absolutely fantastic venue and I really like seeing gigs there, but it's a shockingly badly run place. Considering that it's owned by a beer company, they could improve the bar quite substantially (£3.30 for one beer? From a can? Gee, thanks mister!), and the security is just crazy. I've checked into airports with less security checks than Brixton Academy. My friend inexplicably had his pack of chewing gum confiscated at the door, but was allowed to take in his fags and…

So last night I went to see Graham Coxon's gig at the Opera House in Bournemouth (incidentally, it's nice going to see a concert when the venue is only a ten minute drive away. Makes a change from travelling to bloody London). I'd been wanting to see him in concert for years, since the end of 1998 when I first heard his debut solo album.

(Technically speaking, I DID see him in concert in 1999, but that was a Blur gig, so it hardly counts. Good show, though.)

The support band were The Switches, who are apparently one of "the…

Just checked the UK singles chart for the first time in about 7 million years just to see where Wigwam ended up.

Number 60.

I give up - the charts get more and more full of manufactured and bland pop, and then when a pop song appears that's actually good (well, fucking brilliant actually, but we'll get to that in a second), nobody's interested. It can't be because of the image - have you SEEN pictures of Betty Boo recently? She still looks about 25. It can't be because of the song, I honestly can't recall a catchier tune since…