The Mighty Maximo Bag

The mighty Maximo Park are returning in renewed glory on 19 March with a new single, 'Our Velocity'. Their new album, 'Our Earthly Pleasures,' is released on 2 April. Excited? Wey aye man!

I am still ticketless for the Astoria show next month but, luckily, a full UK tour will be announced shortly. Me Geordie lads are back! ... well, almost...

True Grit

I had an odd experience walking down Mitcham Lane in the freezing breeze this evening. The gritters were out. Of course, the news has been full of a change in the weather and it looks like winter is finally arriving - that's generally a good thing in my book, since I like winter. I like all the seasons (we're so lucky in this country to have four of them) but I like them to act as they should - summer hot/winter cold sort of thing. Not the murky, damp squib we've had so far this winter.

What I don't understand is why the gritters were only sprinkling the grit at bus stops. What's that about?

Still, it's a suitable sign for me to get out my big clumpy shoes from Toronto - they're the best slip-proof shoes I've ever had and I'm not risking anything with the state of my back.

Surprising

Walking up Streatham High Road the other evening I noticed that Lambeth Counil had taken down the Christmas lights and replaced them with colour banners reading, 'Welcome to surprising Streatham'. What's so surprising about Streatham? What am I missing? I must investigate this further.

Records

After my expereince with Steve Treatment - assuming none of his work would be released on CD and then finding almost a full back catalogue had been released on a double CD in America - I should probably assume that every piece of music has been released somewhere in the world. The fun is in finding it. In the meantime, of course, one can always 'tape' old records and magically digitise them courtesy of new-fangled technology.

I'm currently listening to 'New Wave', a collection of (largely) American punk or proto-punk from 1977 or 1978. It's great to hear it in its entirity again. Some of the tracks are, of course, available on CD, such as the two New York Dolls tracks, the glorious 'Piss Factory' by Patti Smith and 'Love Comes In Spurts' by Richard Hell and the Voidoids (I've eyed his 'best of' CD a few times recently). But what about the rest of this hotch-potch of a collection? What about 'Horror Movie' by Skyhooks? 'All This And More' by the Dead Boys? 'All Or Nothing' by Little Bob Story? And for some obscure reason it also includes 'Lookin' After Number 1' by the Boomtown Rats.

I'm enjoying strolling down memory lane at the moment.