Anthems for a seventeen year old girl

I've not bored you all with music for awhile so let's do that. What's new, what's new.

After seeing the name Ladytron turn up in ticket emails a ridiculous number of times (They are playing the ABC in November apparently) I thought hey, why not listen to them because you can't fault them on taste (Roxy Music if you didn't catch the reference because you didn't grow up on glam). So I am listening to them right now and I am enjoying the various noises.


I found a girl called Esperanza Spalding which first off is a great name and then I saw her and I had to check her out. That hair! She's Latiny jazz and it's all very pretty.

I've been listening to a lot of silly French sixties pop including an album from April March who did Chick Habit (which is a cover of a french song) and a whole bunch of other chirpy nonsense. I also managed to track down Roller Girl which was in the video with the socks! and quite frankly is a fantastic song to dance to while you wait for the kettle to boil. I also found a french cover of Paint it Black which amuses me.

I tried to gather some sort of reasonable jazz collection. My dad was very unhelpful, claimed he knew nothing about it and that I should 'pick an instrument I liked and then look up who was great at it'. So I just went with names I recognised. It's only after I'd done so that he tells me he has John Coltrane records in the attic somewhere and Miles Davis on his ipod (some huge album thing were his words) and a bunch of others. See I knew he had Coltrane, I knew I'd seen the name in our house before but any CDs that got my hopes up turned out to be John Cale (an entirely different John.) So yeah there was that.

From there I found the aforementioned Esperanza, a frenchie american called Madeleine Peyroux who sings like Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday so I'm happy. I moved onto Dustin O'Halloran who plays these heart twitching beautiful piano solos and was in the Marie Antoinette soundtrack.

I found a band called Eskimo Joe. Their music is alright, nothing hugely exciting, but they covered the Pixies and they're called Eskimo Joe. They are Australian and their wikipedia page tells me their music is 'frequently played in the background of Home and Away'. Good for them.

Oh, I checked out the Mountain Goats after seeing their name bounced around a few places. He is fantastically depressing! Seriously I managed to pick up the album about his abusive stepdad but the music is good. I also got the Verve's new album because I thought why not? I haven't listened to it much but I keep tuning out their new single and hearing Love is Annoying. Not great.

The Dirty Pretty Things new album is fucking awful.

And finally this is the most beautiful version of the best song about other people's fluids. And while we're on her subject I like this better than the original.

I've been trying to find new bands you see. All the ones I like either don't tour because they're collectives or whathaveyou, dead or split up or are currently recording new stuff that I must wait for. I haven't been to enough gigs, guys. I've got terrible cravings so I may just start going by myself again. Also the Kills are playing the same night as Dylan Moran. Come on! Why can't the things I like space themselves out better!

Oh! I forgot Stars. Very pretty band, dreamy female singer. I've been listening to In Our Bedroom After The War. I am perhaps drawn to names but hey that's how I find some of the best bands so it's all good.

A great black wave in the middle of the sea

Death Cab for Cutie are not terrible. I'm tempted to go so far as to say they are pretty good but you see I have to pretend I'm listening to some other band to like them due to associations with hearing the name over and over and over again. But I listened to a whole album without paying attention and I enjoyed it.

Also as much as I want her to be good this girl right here:


is terrible. Not even in a so bad it's good way, not in a tolerable way. A damn shame.

Also Rob I haven't yawned yet. It's like I'm determined to make you wrong that my body has broken itself. I very much want to and I haven't.

I don't know what I'm doing still here

Scarecrow and fungus, they ran through a stop light but it was ok because nobody was there.
Scarecrow and fungus, they ran through a stop light but it was ok because they were on foot.

One day I will marry this woman.


Free music so you can learn why.

Bones sinking like stones

I had an epiphany today. I think it was due to a lack of food and sleep and spending too long in a warm coffee shop talking too much but it was an epiphany nonetheless. I stood in the train station and I knew what the fuck I was doing.

But it was gone when I got off the train.

Having listened to two of Coldplay's new songs I have to say I'm cautiously optimistic about their new album although I wished they had chosen one name. Viva la Vida or Death and all his friends is so bloody pretentious. I don't mind long titles but pick one! Death and all his friends is a great album name! It's not like I was ever a huge Coldplay fan. I could listen to Don't Panic forever though. If I died with that song on I would not die unhappy. As long as that exists I cannot hate Coldplay. Plus Parachutes was one of those albums I owned like The Man Who or No Angel that I got in America and was a different colour to the UK version or Left of the Middle which I bought for a fiver the very first time I went to Fopp in Byres Road. Albums that became soundtracks and meant something to me and I wrote terrible, terrible little stories in my makeshift room in amongst all my little dramas.

Anyway I did not listen to X and Y because Fix You was awful. I mean how how is I will try to fix you romantic in any way. Fuck you Chris Martin I will fix myself. I dunno basically Fix You rubbed me up the wrong way and maybe I shouldn't project my own issues with men onto a band.

But I do like their single although I was pretty influenced by the video and that piano ending being so damn pretty and the itunes song is also pretty good so maybe it will not be bad? Yay for Brian Eno? We shall see.

Also I really, really fucking love Bjork.

The fairytale was climbing up a mountain far too steep

I like reading other people's books, especially my dad's. He goes through reading periods and then never finishes any of the books he starts. There's about six or seven books next to his bed that he's reading at the moment. My mum complains, he explains that he feels like reading different things at different times which I totally relate to and she whines that he isn't the one having to lift them up to clean underneath. I say clean around then but apparently this is not the attitude of a cleaner who wants to keep her job.

Sometimes I read my dad's books and tell him what they're like. I did that with FIght Club since he read a third of the way in and then piled other books on top and forgot about it. I'm tempted just to claim it as mine but I figure if he ever reads it and likes it he will buy more Chuck Palahniuk and I will reap the rewards. I'm holding his copy of Breakfast at Tiffany's hostage until he finally gets around to reading The Motorcycle Diaries since he finally watched it, not my dvd that I lent him for a year and then took back but on tv. At the moment I'm still trying to find the time to finish On the Road. I'm in the middle of the last journey down to Mexico now and by god is it crazy. He picked it up from the pile next to my couch and thumbed through it to work where I was. Hugely excited he asks if I've read the bit about Jazz yet. I argued the whole book was about Jazz and he shook his head.

"I mean the crazy bit where they're in the Jazz club and they're all mad on amphetamines."

I was not aware there were amphetamines to be honest. Lot of marijuana and having to remember that tea is slang for marijuana and not laughing at the idea of them getting excited over actual tea. Then again I read far too fast, means I can read something several times over and I never get bored but I forget little details. Somehow this lead to a conversation with my mum about drugs that end in zepam and how they make me think of marzipan and so then whenever I'm reading about crazy or depressed people or what have you I get hungry. Hungry for cakes.

The Last Shadow Puppets that I talked about earlier are awesome, I decided this yesterday on the bus. I didn't want to like them much but dammit if they don't sound like a more polished version of the Libertines which is funny because so many bands came out trying to sound like the Libertines and I hated them. Like the View. Oh how awesome you've worn the same jeans for four days now. This is not even anything worth mentioning. It's not that long a time.

Invoke to no reply

I spent a day burning cds. I have to clear out my itunes regularly because I have very little memory left and music is the easiest to delete. I have far too many files and pictures and documents that I don't actually need but always think I might want at some point in the future. Then there's my Stuffs folder. I haven't looked through it in a long time but it holds about 60 items and four of them are folders full of more stuff. Anyway so I make playlists by looking up amazon and working out tracklists and making sure all of them play right and burn them. My speakers are still acting up but I'm pretending it's fine, just like I'm pretending my dvd player hasn't broken. It means I get music, burn it onto a disc, delete the music, realise I haven't put any of it on my ipod so I have to upload the music again and rejig the music on the ipod because it's full and then delete the music all over again. My parents criticised me for not doing anything but I pointed to the stack of cds on my desk. Whole days work. I need a job.

The worst part is I'm running out of blank cds so I try to cram as many albums on one as I can without splitting tracklists. So one Cd has both Wincing the Night Away and Oh, Inverted World because then I can have Chutes Too Narrow on its own because it's my favourite. It's a lot of organising, though my parents still don't count it as productive. It doesn't always work, especially with longer albums and a lot of the shorter ones wouldn't work so well playing together.

The real problem lay with the Mars Volta whose albums I had never got around to burning for some reason and so now I can annoy my neighbours since his office is right next to my room and the speakers are against the adjoining wall. It is heaps of fun. But while I managed two albums fine their newest one took an awful long time to initialise and by the time I had made lunch and sorted dirty washing I returned to the box telling me the album was too long. I had to put the last three tracks on a cd by themselves because I had already burned the other ones and I had nothing appropriate left to fill the space. I'd be pissed off at them but they made the song Agadez. I cannot hate them. I'm just sad I didn't listen to it when it first came out but that's my own fault for being convinced it came out in May.

Music in adverts is always fun to look up. I looked up the song in the upside down deodorant advert. The singer is Gabriella Cilmi but I wasn't much impressed by the rest of her stuff. It's terribly retro pop. One song is like a bad Blondie. The ad song is so very catchy though, I can't get it out of my head. I also found The Cold War Kids because their song was used in the depressing Scrubs ad. They weren't bad, Julie liked them, but I found them a bit samey. I think it's because these bands get played so often, when you try and listen to them properly the meaning's gone. I found that with Feist who I found when Mushaboom was used on a fabric softener ad, least I think it was for that. Then suddenly she was being played in Starbucks constantly and Apple used her in an ipod advert and I can't be bothered listening to her anymore even though her albums were fairly pretty to listen to. I can't even do the indie whine because I found her through an advert in the first place, albeit a few adverts before other people started talking about her.

Oh! and I got the Amelie soundtrack. It's so very pretty,it makes me want to be in Paris so badly. You can listen to some here.

I am having a terrible time other than music. Like my brain shut down and all I can do is get pissed off at all the wrong things. Like the Metro. And the lack of revolutions. I want something to happen. I just don't want to be the person that makes it happen. It all started on Friday really when I had to interact with a guy who made me so very aware of the fact that I was female, in a bad way, and kept calling me sweetheart. And then some guys at a fight in my bus stop and the woman next to me decides to start shouting at them to stop it and then got on a bus just as she's attracted enough attention in my direction. It's times like that I wish I hadn't put a skirt on. I just feel so terribly like a girl that it drives me crazy.

Levitate Me

I haven't had a good music day in months.

Music days are when I trawl the internet, the depths of music television as in MTV2 when they have a good run and Q at the right time of day, and my general knowledge and see what I can come up with. Lots of trying things out on lastfm and myspace. Last time I did this was around Christmas and with the exception of a couple of albums most of those ones grew boring after a few listens. So once more I try and you are invited to come with because I am really fucking bored.

First thing I found out was The Last Shadow Puppets are not at all bad considering my indifference towards The Arctic Monkeys (and their first single is intolerable to me for reasons inappropriate for the internet). I would go so far as to say they are pretty good and I may admit I was attracted by the very large picture of the album cover in the window of Virgin. I can't say why exactly since the girl is not attractive herself but whatever. So yeah I've listened through the album once and I enjoyed it. Hurray for them.

I found Margot and the Nuclear So and So's after I read someone compare them to The Shins. The two aren't really that similar. I mean they are both kind of folky but not really, both have that sort of soft male vocal but the overall sound is nothing alike. Not bad though nothing new. In fact the vocals could be female and it would become very generic very fast I think but that might just the song I'm listening to now. They have a song called Paper Kitten Nightmare. I have not listened to it but I had an image of a cat dressed as a ghost using a paper bag. There's another song that goes Jen is bringing the drugs/she wants to get real fucked up but it's sung over this acoustic guitar all nicelike. I can't decide whether it's good or look I am singing bad things nicely! I'm leaning t'wards the latter. Oh god he just said love is like an inkless pen. In fact the more I listen the more I dislike which is a shame because the first track I listened to was pretty good. Bleh he's singing about getting drunk on cheap red wine in paper cups now. He does not sound like he has done these things. Moving on time!

To Goldfrapp! I never thought I'd be listening to Goldfrapp seriously. I mean she rides a gorram discoball horse. However she's kind of attractive in a trashy over the top kind of way but I never felt the urge to listen further than ooh la la. Their new album attracted me with the album cover again and is completely different. It's all acousticy and has some of these really gorgeous songs to play in the dark. Total surprise, very happy I am.

I read somewhere that Pixies fans can be split into two groups: Those who think breakfast consists of black coffee prefer Surfer Rosa/Come On Pilgrim and Doolittle, and those who think breakfast should be cake prefer Bossanova and Trompe le Monde. Rarely do these ridiculous claims actually apply to me but I realised I only ever have coffee in the morning and the two albums I own are those I am supposed to like. Not to be categorised I immediately looked up the other two. They are pretty much what you would expect from the Pixies: freakin awesome although yes I concede I do prefer the original two. I guess he was right whoever he was?

Browsing through Lastfm I listened to T rex, The Sugarcubes, The Velvet Underground (who sing the I'm sticking to you/cause I'm made out of glue song, did not know that), a Roxy cover by Melissa Auf Der Maur and a Metallica cover by Bif Naked.

Did you know Scarlett Johansson made an album? Did you know she sings like a man? I want to like it but it is difficult. It's some sort of Tom Waits cover album. Hmmm.

Lastly I listened to Death Cab for Cutie which must be about my fifth attempt only this time I actually listened. There was a girl in my Spanish class, really great girl she taught us all some card game that I won but lost because she hadn't taught me how to declare that I'd won. One day she hadn't listened to any music made in her lifetime the next she had the tshirt, every album and had seen them live. All we ever heard was Death Cab this and Death Cab that and I couldn't go near them. Prompted to read the Metro article on them on the bus ride home prompted me to actually try and yes they are good. It helps that I can't really remember what she looks like. I mean considering I like The Postal Service at least I already knew I wouldn't hate his voice.

I lied they aren't last. I also listened to another Broken Social Scene album that I hadn't listened to before. It was also very good and I will keep going on about them until someone acknowledges this. I mean how can you not love a band that can write a song about blowjobs and make it so pretty?

Now I'm done.

Case in motherfucking point:

It's a freakin orgasm of a track.

Perhaps I am too easily excited by music.

I do not care.

I'm sick, you're tired, let's dance

I don't get people who don't care about music. The vague lesbian has pretty good taste I have to say ignoring that time she paid money for System of a Down and My Chemical Romance (and yes I did go to their concert but that was ironically, although that poor little girl was terrified when I told Gerard Way to get his dick out but in my defence the way his speech was going I thought it was appropriate) but she cares not a whit about music and never knows the names of anything. The loveliest girl is always willing to listen to new things but views anything she doesn't hear on the radio as 'alternative' and 'something maybe Catherine would know'. My best girl loves the Germans and the Viking Epics which I can listen too but I lose interest rapidly. I've never minded that most of my friends don't know the bands I like nor do I only listen to obscure bands in a tragically hipper than thou manner. It does mean I miss a lot of concerts since I'd only go to one alone if I was desperate to see them but I suppose in my financial situation it's for the best.

There's pretty much no time when I'm not listening to music. I write to it, I study to it, it's the only thing that keeps me sane on the endless bus journeys. The day I woke up from my pretty little teenage bubble and formed my own tastes my dad rejoiced and sat me down and gave me a history of guitar noises. Sadly a very annoying bitch of a girl snapped me up and tried to mold me in her gothic image. That didn't last long when I pointed out that all Marilyn Manson songs were the same and Nirvana got rather boring after a while and would she please shut Rape Me up. It wasn't shocking anybody. Every guy I've been out with, no matter how short the time, has pushed his music onto me. I'm pretty open. I'll listen to most things of any genre as long as it's good. I'll even listen to crap music if I can enjoy it without taking it seriously (see the emo wail of MCR above) but I drew the line at watching AC/DC concerts and I'll never forgive one of them for making me sit through some awful film the Ramones did about high school or whathaveyou. I will admit that the only mix cd that someone made for me I gave back when I ditched him 2 weeks later because it was full of music I'd already told him I hated. Half of it was just bad screeching and others were pathetic singles from bands such as the Rasmus. Broke his heart so his annoying little friend likes to remind me.

Point is, music can make or break a moment. And let me set this straight, asking 'what kind of music are you into?' is the most annoying question and nearly always degenerates into a listing of bands until you both find one you like or feel like talking about, which is fine if it happens quickly but when you're shouting a list of names that mean nothing to the other person that's not conversation and make outs are not happening any faster.

Whew that was a bit of a rant there. You know what's the best though? Rediscovering a band you forgot you loved. Even better: rediscovering a band, looking up their back catalogue and finding new related bands. This happened to me today. I asked my little silver rectangle who I was going to fall in love with today and it offered Metric who are freakin awesome and you should listen if you have never done so before. From there I looked up their 2 previous albums and found out Emily Haines had done solo stuff and sang in a band called Broken Social Scene and since I recognised the name I looked them up too. They were one of those bands I'd heard a lot about but never actively listened to, much like Modest Mouse and Arcade Fire when they first came out, and like both of them I really should have because they rock.

One last thing, I know I'm a day late but I didn't look at it yesterday. Sometimes I read a little comic called Pictures For Sad Children, maybe you've seen it? It's pretty rad. For Valentine's Day the creator made a thing.
This is the thing:

♥

God Save Strawberry Jam

I'm aware I just updated and having more posts than there are days in the month is quite frankly embarrassing but fuck it all, I'm proving I'm not a miserable git.

This is Kate Rusby and I just found her 5 minutes ago. She does a cover of a song called The Village Green Preservation Society by The Kinks, who are freakin awesome and you should agree with this because it is fact. She is lovely. I want to hug her.

Ok bedtime now.

Sunday Shuffle

It's a risk setting your ipod on shuffle. You don't want to have to keep flicking through the songs you forgot were on it but you're too asleep to even know what music you want to listen to. Choosing an album by yourself is almost as daunting as the task at hand (there's a face print on the glass door. I mean come on, that's not how to open a door!) Press the button, take the glass cleaner and away you go.

1) On the Other Side - The Strokes Fan-freaking-tastic, we start with something I can growl to like the New Yorker drunk I'd like to be. I hate myself for hating them. I'll drink some more, I'll love them all. I'll drink even more, I'll hate them more than I did before Mr Casablancas is a god and I worshipped him after throwing my boyfriend off my back. There was dancing to do, and I didn't need his hands acting as a bra. I pushed and shoved my way to the front, ignoring the screams of the uncomfortable made up little dolls who were already whining that they were getting crushed. At a concert of all places, how unseemly! I want them to hurry up and come back. I don't care if I have to go myself, I wanna see them again. That's this side of the door clean. Next side, next song.

2) L'amour ne dure pas toujours - Feist My face sets itself into my French pout. The one that I last used yacking on about the negative influence of media on les jeunes until the very bored young guy interrupted with: "euh, in France nobody would say that". I felt like staring him down and telling him I wasn't in France and I didn't speak French and couldn't we just skip all this crap since I didn't even need the grade. Not like he would have cared anyway, he looked half asleep. Apparently he spent most nights in clubs with his 2nd year class. When I finally muddled through, he smiled and pronounced my name perfectly. Take that stupid Olivier! It is too possible to say my name properly with a French accent. Called me Catrine all year and I never answered to it. The song itself is pretty but the pronunciation is funny. Like 'je pensuh' and 'silencuh'. There are no uhs!

3) NYC - Snow Patrol Ahh I love this. I toddle down stairs to get a bucket of water to wipe down the desks (always coffee everywhere) and just beam when this comes on. There's not enough love for old Snow Patrol, as in before everybody played them on the radio until I flinched every time that bing bong of Chasing Cars started. This song has four lines: Is this on? I am so too. I could take you there but I don't know how to get there. I could take you there but I don't know where to go. Some girl sings along too, I dunno who she is. All I know is I can shut my eyes, shout along as I weave in and out of the desks, knocking computers out of idleness and brushing papers to the ground and I'm happy.

4) Might - Modest Mouse Tidying up the mess Snow Patrol left behind I amuse my mum with my singing as she pops in looking for her screwdriver. I might, and you might. But neither of us will though. "Ok, then" she says before disappearing to the studio to finish the soundproofing. There's a little sneer that crops up when Isaac Brock lisps and shouts in my ears countered by the giggle when I think of Joe complaining that he doesn't like Johnny Marr.

5) First It Giveth - Queens of the Stone Age Lip throbs as it reminds me I got kicked in the face seeing them the first time. Boob throbs as it reminds me a guy tried to use it as some sort of boost to jump higher the second time I saw them. I get a shock when I change the bags in the wire mesh bin. Seriously you gotta be strong to listen to Josh Homme.

6) GODDAMN THE STROKES? THAT AINT MUCH OF A SHUFFLE. Lotsa wriggling in my jeans to hit the button and skip. I like variety when I'm cleaning, thank you very much apple. I even pressed the 'lets make it really random and not play 3 songs in a row by the same artist' button last time I changed settings.

6) Black Tongue - Yeah Yeah Yeahs Not a song to sing when people are around. Uh. Uh. Oww. Boy you just a stupid bitch and girl you just a no good dick First concert I went to by myself, first time I went out after David left me for a smaller woman. I wormed my way through the crowd, danced like a fool and screamed every orgasmic scream right along with Karen O while some random girl held on to my arm and laughed. I moan away, safe in the knowledge that the gate is locked and should any of these messy fuckers arrive I'd know.

7) Miserlou - Dick Dale and his Del-tones Pulp fiction! Danny in the cupboard playing something crazy and claiming it was this. Standing on the tables at lunch and dancing. I steal Licorice Allsorts from Licorice Media and stuff my face fulla the little bobbly round ones. A little stale but it's free, whadda I care. It makes crawling on the floor picking up elastic bands a lot more fun. I pocket a couple more for later.

8) Ex-Girlfriend - No Doubt Ah Gwen. Her voice rushes over the sound of the hoover. Why did she have to have a solo career that really was rubbish when she could have made more No Doubt records and me and the Lovely Lass wouldn't be waiting impatiently for them to tour again. I'm another ex-girlfriend on your list but I should have thought of that before we kissed. Man, kissing is the best. Hell with relationships, lets just all kiss each other kay? It will be fun. Except not you. Yeah you kinda smell, go way.

9) Here's Where the Story Ends - Tin Tin Out and Shelly Nelson Aww I got this from a Top of the Pops CD my dad got free from the BBC years ago. In fact the album name tells me it was 1998. It's a pretty song. Everyone I've ever played it too has always said so and thus it must be true. I never should have said the books that you read were all I loved you for It's too pretty to mop to, I wait a little and drink some water from a rather expensive looking bottle but it was all there was in the fridge.

10) Sister Ray (film edit) - The Velvet Underground "Edit? You can't edit Sister Ray. It's a duel between John Cale and Lou Reed. A battle of organ and guitar. Edit. What's the point?" "Dad, calm down. It just plays over the credits of a film you'd probably really like actually, we should watch it sometime. And I don't have the room on my ipod for a song that's 17 minutes long. Duel or no." "Pfffft"

And then my ipod died just as the Dandy Warhols bragged that they 'had known love like a whore' and I was left in silence scrubbing Buckfast off the front steps. Another week completed.

"I am half sick of shadows," said the Lady of Shallot

Yesterday, despite feeling like my face was slowly being crushed by some sort of giant vice I got up, got dressed and sat and watched the clock as I realised I was ten minutes early. Mama came through and asked if I was going in to which I intended to say yes but instead said nah. Half an hour later I was curled up on my sofa, checking my emails (and shouting I am not a number, I am a free man! everytime I had to trot out my matric number) and there's the Histoire secretary with yet another red coded envelope flashing away in my inbox. She sends so many. My eyes scanned the paragraph of notices and noticed that wonderful phrase: "lecture cancelled". Ya beauty.

Feeling much better I proceeded to spend my free morning watching Who's line is it anyway since it seems to be on constantly now and there's only so much Judge Judy one girl can take. I contemplated the several films I have recorded but half of them are french and the other half are black and white, both of which require glasses which involves getting up. My pen burst whilst I was scribbling over Joe's second chapter but somehow the ink stayed inside and just left little constellations all over my hands. Combined with the edges of the Union stamp on my hand that I haven't scrubbed off yet I look like I wrestled a squid. Well, the sailor look is very in so the lady in topshop told me. I was like no kidding, is that why you've slapped anchors over everything. I like going into topshop and giggling. I mean they picked a coked up model who thinks Pete Doherty is husband material. Not so smart.

Also in my inbox were several emails from bands I haven't listened to in a long while. Like Hot Hot Heat, who are rather like the Kooks only with better lyrics and music and accents. Apparently they have a new album out but I couldn't be bothered checking it out. Then there was We Are Scientists. Now I love this band but their music is kinda boring. I mean you can listen to them a couple of times and think yeah, pretty good, might see them live (I didn't) but then you skip them when your ipod does a shuffle. Their email begins thusly: You Androgynous Amorists, The pre-sale has ended, and general sale has begun, for The Back In Style Tour -- and if you have ANY intention of EVER seeing We Are Scientists again (this spring in the UK) and paying for it, may we POLITELY SUGGEST that you sort yourself out. Hee thought I. And I popped their CD on for all of five minutes when I then got bored and changed it back to that crazy Icelandic lass that everybody slags me off for liking. But then I remembered their website full of 'advice'. They answer submitted questions which sometimes leads to comedy results or at least kills an hour reading. For example: query: how can you understand poetry?
Ah, but that is the point of poetry: to narrowly skirt the line on whose other side lies total gibberish. A poem should suggest meaning, but you should never be sure of what it's saying. A poem that you fully understand is a terrible poem that fails in poetry's one objective: to mystify the reader.

I thought I may as well see if the idea that had struck me at 1 in the morning was workable, especially since it was task orientated and that way I'd be hitting 2 goals. Course I had to wait for my dad to return before I could fill in most of the blanks, I don't trust Wikipedia so much when it comes to religion, and luckily saying the words "Hail Mary?" led to him reeling off the prayer as fast as he could with a little bow of his head at the word Jesus. God bless him. I shan't tell him what I want to do with it but then he won't ask. I told him once that if I had been a religious girl I would have been a Catholic and now I can ask him anything I want. When anybody else makes reference to the fact that he is religious he gets all defensive. Probably because Julie treats Catholicism as this strange and weird thing, which is the school's fault really.

So I wrote a little, I was reminded of Tennyson so I read the Lady of Shallot again, the vague Lesbian relented to my complaints of being dirt poor so we're staying in tomorrow night instead and the boy who thinks he's in love with me told me he wanted to 'sex me up' and then went back offline. All in all, not a bad Wednesday.

I'm really torn this morning. I could go take a healthy dose of as many vitamins and pills as I can swallow and go back to bed or I can pull myself together and go to Archaeology. The timetable says we're doing Archaeology and Lawyers. I don't know what the hell that can even be about. Bed seems to be winning. A day in bed with poetry, Catholic doctrines to rip apart and soup. That's a pretty good Thursday.

For a minute there I lost myself

"I just want simplicity. No more convoluted situations, no secrets I can hide from some, lie barefaced to others and throw heavy-handed at an unlucky few. I'm tired and I can only sustain selfishness for a short time and then it all comes tumbling down on me and I have to care about everybody else. I do my best to speak plainly, tell people what I think with a degree of tact. Yes, I lie. Yes, I reshape history, omitting certain truths or at most telling them so off-handedly that I think I sound like I don't care. Sometimes I don't remember what is real and what I imagined. In the end what I'm trying to say is when are you going to stop pretending. I am half-sick of shadows."

But the kittens have lost interest and the music changes. Goddamn Radiohead. Sheet music is before me and my beautiful neglected acoustic in my hand. The neck fits so well in my grip and I wrap my body around its own. I remember Em and Am and Bm. You can't play a Thom Yorke song without a hearty dose of the minors. I remember smiling when the other girl thought C was a stretch. I remember being happy there were no bar chords because I was terrible at them. And I remember being glad I didn't have to read tab despite being told that anybody can read tab. It messed me up. I blamed my tutor. He had spent a year and a half teaching me classical fingering. I had just about mastered a Malaguena when he changed his mind and handed me a sheet of chords to learn. I'm gonna brag here and tell you that I was the only girl still taking guitar and I was the only one who didn't mess up the practical exam. My ex boyfriend freaked out and my soon to be current boyfriend fluffed his 2nd song. The music department took care of me. I was the token female guitarist and sound engineer. It meant I spent time in the cupboard with boys who at first tried to feel me up but soon accepted me as one of them. We did things like write Gibson and Fender on the school guitars that had more holes than strings, and folded every piece of paper into an aeroplane. We also shunned the Viking and the wandering minstrel and invented our own tunes slagging off the waster that nobody liked and was the only one who still called me a frigid cow even when it stopped being relevant. The only lyrics I remember are "Why is Glenn standing over there? Because he's a fucking idiot." All of this floated through my head as I sat in the bar full of kittens and performed.

I woke up half-way down the stairs and flinched as I realised I'd been dreaming. I stumbled back to my bedroom and wrapped a blanket around my freezing legs. Maybe Freud could tell me why I keep having conversations with kittens, or people who turn into kittens. The internet (which is much quicker than finding a working flux capacitor) tells me that "To dream of kittens, denotes abominable small troubles and vexations will pursue and work you loss, unless you kill the kitten, and then you will overcome these worries." But the same site tells me that if I dream of "kissing a strange woman, denotes loose morals and perverted integrity" and come on, no it doesn't. If anything it says I have latent lesbian tendencies, durr hey. But the site is the reproduction of a book written in 1901 and I don't care enough to look at others.

You know when a song is just perfect and life is good for 3minutes 40seconds?

Well it means I can take a break from being pissed at myself for not studying at all and beginning something that is begging for me to stay up all night and write when I have to sleep. Seriously brain, WHY DO YOU FUCKING TORMENT ME SO? I'd include a link so you could hear this but all I could find was a godawful art school film and one live performance where the sound was iffy. I mean Julian Casablancas is mumbly enough without adding bad sound to the mix. I need The Strokes to come back to Glasgow, goddamn are they ever hot live. I hit so many stupid girls and danced with so many pretty indie boys that night...

Modern girls always have to go (you were right)
Old-fashioned men always want a mistress (right on time)
Modern girls always get their way (you were right)
Modern men dream of what they can't say (I was wrong)

Best part about the song? It features Regina Spektor, who I'm sure you know I'm a raving lesbian for by now. Second best part? It's called "Modern Girls and Old Fashion Men".


Aw crap, history. I can blag history right? Dates and names won't feature at all or nothin'

I'm screwed.

Mais j'etais trop jeune pour savoir l'aimer

I'm dreaming away the days. I have to keep reminding myself that it will be January soon and after the Old Firm match on Wednesday I have no more holiday plans. I'll have to start dragging myself to the West End again and study. On the plus side I only have two exams, both in the same week but spaced apart. The bad news is the first is the 14th and I have done nothing. I haven't even looked at my notes and suddenly I've forgotten what it was I actually studied this semester. Something about old dead guys. I'm not panicking, I know I can pass them but I want to do really well. Prove to myself that I made the right decision to add another year to my education.

It's hard to care too much at the moment. I'm only dimly aware that it is now the weekend and if it wasn't for Emma texting me a couple of days ago with a countdown or my gran asking me what I had planned I wouldn't be remembering my birthday is in 2 days. But that might be because I'm not looking forward to it. I prefer other people's birthdays to my own. Not that I'm saying I don't like the attention, I love it. Everyone should worship me every day of my life if they knew what was good for them. But neh there's something about my birthday I don't like.

You would think since I'm refusing to acknowledge time I might have got some stuff written like I keep threatening. And I have but none of it is very, well readable for lack of a better word. I have snippets of pieces of stories I could write and I jot them down for later but there's something bigger waiting. Fluttering away at the edges of me is a story I wrote last year on the back of some particularly pointless English Lit notes. A dark piece about the literal delivery of an aborted child to the father. I don't know why I wrote it. I'm not sure if I should have written it, it disturbs me. I'm not even sure I kept the draft but I know it word for word, burned in my mind. So many times I have sat with my book before me and a pen staining my fingers as I fidget and turn every attempt into an abstract portrait of beautiful girl. Or I'll start waxing lyrically on how trumpets can turn me on. My latest try resulted in an all-time low when I drew BatPope instead. He can give mass upside down! I will write it one day, I know I will but damn if it isn't determined on driving me crazy first.

In other news Santa also brought me Regina Spektor in the form of an album called "Mary Ann Meets the Gravediggers and Other Short Stories" and dear god do I ever love this girl. I mean I am actually in love with her and I don't care if you call me a lesbian for saying so. It's that New York accent of hers and the fact she's Russian. When you throw in the huge amount of talent she possesses (and those lips), bout near drives me insane. It's a really sweet album even though I already had a couple of the songs. Most songs are really stripped down with most of them just her and a piano and it has been the soundtrack of my past few days. You need her in your lives.

Un, deux, trois! Dis miroir noir

This will probably be my last post before that big celebration bout that bearded guy. I am rather exhausted having slept through 2 phonecalls and waking up a couple of hours later hugely confused and having to be sympathetic yet uplifting through text rather than calling since my family would not be pleased. I'm not entirely sure of everything I actually said but I do remember talking about hiding sweets in my bra to lure men. I don't know how that was supposed to be comforting.

Anyway here is Miss Kitty's top 5 albums of the year that she actually listened to before December.

5. Smashing Pumpkins - Zeitgeist Myspace Link

Yes it's only half of the band and yes it's no Mellon Collie but it's a good comeback album and I'm always happy to listen to more Smashing Pumpkins. They were one of the few decent bands I listened to when I was young and easily amused by girlbands. Had I bought more albums that were released this year this would have slipped down the list and I was actually going to write about Charlotte Gainsbourg's 5:55 but it came out this year in America and 2006 here and thus didn't qualify. That's The Way My Love Is and Doomsday Clock were the tracks that stood out for me and the last track has the word Pomp in it. Solid but could have been more.


4. Lavender Diamond - Imagine Our Love Myspace Link

I have to have at least one band here that nobody's probably heard of. I found them through a webcomic artist's blog. He saw them live and raved about how every man there fell in love with the singer, who is quite cute. Her voice is just as cute. These are songs to cuddle up warm to. Favourites are I'll Never Lie Again for it's sleepy piano, whispered lyrics (simple though they are) and the hints of a bigger sweeping string section that is never fully fleshed out. Open Your Heart granted is made up of a lot of "oh oh ohs" but the strings are gorgeous. It's a swayer.

3. Arcade Fire - Neon Bible Myspace Link

What can I say about Arcade Fire that hasn't already been said by more eloquent music journalists? They turn me on. Neon Bible is not better than Funeral but still it's fantastic. It's frantic, sweeping and a little bit epic. Intervention is perfection, especially good to shout along to dramatically while Antichrist Television Blues contains my absolute favourite lines: "I'm through being cute now I'm through being nice tell me oh Lord am I the antichrist?" The new version of No Cars Go is bigger and bolder. Neon Bible is an album to believe in. Their live set was almost religious so if you haven't listened to this band yet for the love of Win hurry up and convert!

2. Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank Myspace Link

I've always been aware of Modest Mouse but never actively sought them out. Round about the time their latest album was coming out I amused myself with reading the online indie community repeat those dreaded words "sold out". I read rant after rant about how the band had lost its way with Good News for People Who Love Bad News and the news that Johnny Marr had joined the lineup split them in two. After finding the same fuss on more than one forum and hearing that James Mercer was also involved I had to check them out. Boy am I glad I did. Favourite tracks are Spitting Venom for "you were talking soda pop" and We've Got Everything for James Mercer and "Tony got all messed up spilt his lip chasing cheap perfume." Awesome album but not as awesome as James Mercer's own work which is my number

1. The Shins - Wincing the Night Away Myspace Link

Since I watched Garden State and Natalie Portman promised New Slang would change my life I have adored this band. It didn't but it helped. Wincing the Night Away is simply fantastic. I could say more but I would only rave like a squeeing fangirl and nobody wants that. Favourite tracks Australiawhich never fails to get me dancing and A Comet Appears.

So yeah, that's me done. Now that it's holiday time I might have a chance to write up the three or so stories I've got lying around my bedroom floor, see how that goes. Ideally I want to finish at least 25 good stories so I can start sending them off places in the new year, you know take an active role in my life for once instead of staying still and dreaming.

Making love with her indie rock playing on her stereo

I love the end of the year. Never mind all that raaa christmas so much to do raa stuff. There's the sense of wrapping up the year, looking back on it and being all nostalgic even though it maybe wasn't that exciting but best of all it's the time for definitive lists. Top ten albums of the year, best songs, best films, best performances, best moments. I love all that shit. I read them all every year and look at all the stuff I missed and catch up in the last couple of weeks in December. It's a flurry of checking out bands with a pile of blank cds by my side and my trusty but leaky CD-R pen. So here are Miss Kitty's top five albums of 2007 that she just got round to listening to:

5. Bat For Lashes - Fur and Gold Myspace Link

I was watching Gonzo's definitive lists on MTV2 (I know man, so mainstream!) and the video for What's a girl to do? was one of their top 5 videos or something. The singer seems to be some sort of crazy hippie and slightly more attractive version of Lily Allen in looks only. She speaks like Charlotte Gainsbourg and sings very dreamy. Had the album on while I printed off some things and fiddled around amateurly with Photoshop and her songs were very pretty. Aside from the aforementioned single I recommend Prescilla.

4. New Pornographers - Challengers Myspace Link

Another band I'd noticed before but never done anything about. Listened to their album when my internet broke down and I had to spend half an hour prodding the wireless pod thing until it behaved again. Good tunes, sort of poppy folk indie. With the band name such as it is and one of their tracks called "Entering White Cecilia" it's a right old laugh looking them up but definitely worth having a listen. Challengers and Myriad Harbour were the tracks that stood out for me while I prodded but I need to give it a few more listens with my full attention to appreciate their pretty sounds some more.

3. Spoon - Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga Myspace Link

Having heard much fuss about the band by indie people on the internet I thought I'd check them out. And I was not disappointed despite their rubbish band name. Nothing that'll stop you in your tracks but good to tidy up to, gets your hips moving. Julie enjoyed Don't You Evar and had a little boogie with me. Don't Make Me A Target and You Got Yr Cherry Bomb very good too.

2. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah! - Some Loud Thunder Myspace Link

I've had mixed feelings about CYHSY! I remember when everybody was raving about them and they blurred into Godspeed You Black Emperor! or wherever they're putting their exclamation mark these days, in my mind purely because of the punctuation. So upon hearing they had a new album (almost a year late) I thought I'd try again with them. A few of their songs are a bit incomprehensible. Lots of nice tunes, shame about the whiney voice who seems to be trying to cram too many words into the music and the first track is dire. However, they are one of the few albums I had a chance to listen to more than once and I was impressed. Highlights include Goodbye to Mother and the Cove with it's almost Pokemon in some sort of a cave tune twinkling and Mama Won't You Keep Them Castles In The Air And Burning Bit weird, bit mad but overall very funky.

1. The White Stripes - Icky Thump Myspace Link

Everytime The White Stripes release a new album I go ooh I like the White Stripes and I think about buying their album and I listen to each new single and get excited and then I lose interest and forget. I have yet to buy an album of theirs. So while I was bored and MTV was blah blah blahing away in the background I looked up to see Jack White flirting with a bull before it gouged him to death. And the song was fantastic. So for once I checked out the whole new album I didn't know they had released. It is pure rock. Great guitar work and songs that instantly stuck themselves firmly in my head and this is the one I've listened to all day and sung along to while I dried my hair. I love it all. Absolute favourites are You Don't Know What Love Is (You Just Do What You're Told), A Martyr For My Love Is You and Icky Thump.

A special mention goes to A Fine Frenzy Myspace Link because she is ginger, beautiful and sings like an angel but I've only heard a few of her songs. Her myspace has a cover of Let It Snow which borders on the cheesy but she's pretty so we'll let her off. Definitely listen to Almost Lover, tis divine! And thus concludes Miss Kitty's albums she almost didn't listen to in the year 2007. Will I do one for the albums I actually knew about and bought at the time they came out? That will depend on whether anybody wants to read my opinions on The Shins, Modest Mouse and that French chick I have a bit of a crush on but her music was iffy.

Grand ol' team to play for

I was tired and my throat was still gunky. Classics had just been more information on Greeks and their little slave boys and rules on who was allowed to get aroused and who wasn't. My archaeology teacher had made the mistake of proposing a debate and putting me on defence of crazy theories. I don't think I've ever spoken so much in a tutorial before. I had a lift at the writer's group since they liked my story about blind lesbians but the long cold night ahead was daunting. Why did Uefa decide hey now everyone's used to football on wednesdays, a day that everybody is happy with, let's move it to tuesday when everyone has busy days? Grr.

After a few shots leading nowhere half-time was drawing near. Aiden McGeady, teeny little scottish guy who got bullied last season by a big fat ginger Irish player had a shot but I didn't stand up, I thought it had missed. It wasn't until the man next to me grabbed hold of my elbow and lifted me up that I saw the net swoosh and I realised we were winning. So thank you very much man next to me, next time could you not keep trying to hold my arm even when I pull away several times? Yeah? Good. Just glad it wasn't my dead arm, oh how I would have raged.

And so we won and actually have a chance again to progress further, which means more games and more mini-holidays :D

It was freezing though. I knew I should have worn a jumper but my classes are always far too warm. Total mistake, I was shivering for ages when I got home. This is how colds happen, Catherine, you should know this by now!

I was in fopp the other day where I parted with money for cds! Not done that in a while. I was browsing through the so-called 'alternative' section which is just rock music made in the last 2 decades really. I bought a Regina Spektor and a Modest Mouse album but this is how I made my choices:

Dum dee dum ooo stuff's a fiver. Fiver's cheap. I have a fiver! It's a sign! Holy crap she's hot:

Purchased.

I'll have a quick look round first, ooh they've got The Shins, aw too expensive, put it back. Ooh, The Decemberists oh no there's none here just the sign, grumble grumble. I own this cd! And this one! That one's crap, why do people like them? Aw well, I'll just go pay...ooo Modest Mouse and it's pretty and blue and a fiver too. Let's see what songs are on it: Jesus Christ was an only childThat's a great title!...Purchased.

I am a master of killing time. I'm a time assassin.