Five Star Day

Dear James,

One of the many joys of Pandora.com before it got taken away from non-US users was finding bands no one had ever heard of and which you never then heard of again in any media. Such is the case with Aqueduct, whose Wikipedia page reads like it was written by David Terry himself, and the band is so obscure that Wikipedia hasn't bothered to look into it. I downloaded their "I Sold Gold" album nearly three years ago and I haven't heard them mentioned by anyone else anywhere. They'd be my favourite band ever if it wasn't for the fact that the album isn't all that great shakes, and I've spent the last three years listening to my other big pandora find, Dr. Dog, over and over again.

As a Wilko fan you'll know that all average albums by average American indie bands have one great song. Yankee Hotel Foxtrot has Jesus, etc. and I Sold Gold has Five Star Day. I worked out how to play it on the piano the other day, and it's really easy, to the extent that I've now completely gone off the song and have nothing to say about. Instead I'll tell you about the film "Five Star Day", about a man who sets out to disprove astrology, like you do, by getting together with three people born at the same hospital and on the same night as him. It's a promising premise, but the execution is poor and the trailer looks like a cheese-fest made by a first-year film student.

Interestingly, the first line of Aqueduct's "Five Star Day" is

I don't believe in astrology
but you can read me your horoscope
I like to hear your voice.

which as far as first lines go is write up there with Heroes and Villains.

Fate

Dear James,

Speaking of Dr. Dog as you were before, it turns out that while I wasn't looking they went and released two albums. I saw this video a few months ago and didn't think much of it. A few months on, I still don't. And yet there are people out there who claim their Fate album is the best they've heard in ages. That's all very well, but I still cant' see it comparing to this



or this



Someone prove me wrong...

Dear Daniel,

You were clearly out of sorts last night and incapable of listening to any music for more than one minute on the crappy speakers at home. In the stereo-enhanced aurality of the studio, you see the error of your ways and post this nice video with bits from the Life Aquatic. Bit boring, but still nice.

Song of the Year (Daniel)

Dear James,

Well, what with you in Dorset this weekend and me off to You're A Guy on Wednesday, it's that time to put on your nostalgic thinking cap and decide what was your song of the year. It doesn't have to be a song released this year (God knows, I haven't been aware of a song released in the same year since 1991), just the song that means the most to you now at this juncture in the light of the events of the past twelve months.

First of all, special mentions for also-rans Don't Stop Me Now, Potential Futures, The Power of Love and Everybody needs Somebody, special last-minute guests at your wedding; to Cold War Kids' We Used to Vacation, still top of my i-tunes pops but strictly speaking, last year's song; and especially to Andrew Bird's Heretics, a song that was with me for much of the duration and which i-tunes says is my most heard song of this year.

But in 3rd place, and also a contender for best cover that was better than the original, Love's My Little Red Book. The perfect break-up song, and the (hopefully) first song in the film, Songs of Bacharach and David. Here's the Manfred Mann version. Love supposedly worked it out after seeing the film just twice. And Burt Bacharach hated them for it, partly because they turned it into a minor key. Doesn't the original sound kind of minor? And if not, is this the first picardy third over a whole song and its cover version?

In 2nd place, While You Were Sleeping by Elvis Perkins. The night Josefina came round for the second time, she was late as usual and I was killing time scouring youtube for new things to listen to. I came across a Cold War Kids interview where they recommended two acts: Dr Dog, the band through which I got into Cold War Kids, and Elvis Perkins. I'd just started listening to this video when the doorbell buzzed, and there was Josefina. James, I lay with her that night, for the first time. We didn't sleep together, I had to go and catch a flight to Rio at 4am, but there was definitely a fair bit of sex there. And not for the last time.

And in 1st place, and here we get soppy, Postcards from Italy by Beirut. Josefina and I sang this together lots on the ukulele. In a parallel universe, there´s a video on youtube of us singing this at my birthday party, because in this universe the batteries ran out in my camera at that precise moment. If and when we get married, this will be our song.