Music Plus One

It's frustrating when time just seems to disappear and you never get the things done that you wanted to. It's also frustrating when you spend most of your time dithering around trying to remember what the hell it was you wanted to do. Furthermore, it's frustrating when your sister telephones you in the middle of Cardiff with "important news", only to gloat that she's off to see Oasis tomorrow and that you could have come but, oh yes, you're working. However, none of this probably comes close to the sheer tragicness of trying to organize your shopping with the time(s) the attractive cashier is likely to be working in Sainsbury's. Who says us SF fans have nothing to think about and have slight stalker-esque character traits, eh? Last time I was in there, her name badge said 'Gareth'. I really should have made a joke of this, but then again I'd have probably come across as a bit of an idiot. Anyways, if that is her name, it's a bit of a turn-off.

In the absence of much Who to think about, my attentions have turned back towards music, and it was much to my surprise when the other nite I finally started to make some inroads into my Dire Straits songbook. Sharp intake of breath I know. Why, dear sentient beings, do I own a Dire Straits book? Well, a) it's for Brothers in Arms, which I view as one of my favourite albums of all-time, and b) it's pretty complicated! One of the main problems I have with buying indie bands music books is that they're all pretty standard three or four chord runarounds with the occasional nice twist. The exceptions to this rule being the Bluetones and Idlewild, who seem to like to do things a bit differently. I'm yet to assess bands like Razorlight, Kasabian etc on these criterion, but watching them play live it seems they're more about attitude and ambiance than wierd timings and playing in odd keys. Yes, you could probably level exactly the same criticism at the Killers, but the bands formely mentioned haven't written anything as glorious as Mr Brightside or All These Things That I've Done.

On the subject of new bands though, I've stumbled across a couple of oddities. Firstly, there's My Chemical Romance, who seem, by their videos and press, to be the kind of band that I should have gotten over whilst I was in puberty. However, I really like the singles by them and am considering their album. It could well be a case of Evanesence and Linkin Park all over again, as I always get "Dude, what are you? A sixteen-year old Goth?" when confessing to liking these bands. Granted, they'll probably never ascend to the heights of the House, or write a Distant Sun in that respect, but they're pretty scathing about contemporary society.

Secondly though, there's Hard-Fi. A band that, by their very look, should be the type of band that I instantly despise. Let's look at the evidence: they're from chav-centric Staines, their current single sounds like the kind of riff you dismisively bash out when having your first jam with a band, and their singer looks like a gimp whilst the rest of them are just wallpaper. Yet for some reason I like the track and I don't really know why. There's a certain simplicity about the whole thing, both musically and lyrically, that makes you think that maybe you're making your own life a little too hard on purpose. Bloody hell, I bet they never thought when they wrote the track it'd be used by somebody to assess their stance on life. Or am I just subscribing to the chav mentality?!? Ugh, the very thought makes my skin crawl! Whichever train of thought wins, whoever decided to include JD Sports in the video is just asking for trouble.

So, as I sit here desperatly trying to make my mind up what to vote for in the DWM magazine poll, I'm left with the following questions: Did I really enjoy Boom Town more than The Parting of the Ways, Dalek and The Doctor Dances? Do Father's Day and The Unquiet Dead deserve to be so low in the rankings? Who was better as a co-star: Simon Pegg or Shaun Dingwall? Were the Reapers better than the Daleks? And what did I really make of the trailers?

Decisions, decisions. Good job I've Senor Corgan's new opus to help pass the time...