Also, one listen in mind you, I am thoroughly enjoying the new Steve Kilbey record (not sure if that link will work, but it's on Rdio is the point).   The man should be more renowned than he is.

I do recall the conversation Brian, however, you were, at the time, wrong!

I may have gone on record as saying they were "done" after Is This It.   Hmm, I can't recall.  Stu, Derek, do you recall? 

I'm liking the new Beach Fossils quite a lot.  Real ear-candy for those of us of an age where The Cure meeting mid-period Sonic Youth is sweet bliss.   

Also enjoying the new Bettie Serveert, under-recognized since their brief period of popularity in the grunge era, though they've put out a lot of solid records since.  The new one has four or five excellent songs.

What’s with the Strokes ....Comedown Machine? ....more like LetDown Machine! ...Tap Out? ....Tapped out indeed! 

you can find Suuns on rdio, I see they just came out with a new album on the 4th ...fuckin intense live show ...check out Gaze and Arena from Zero QC ...not sure how it translates if your first intro to the band was not through the live show.  Turn it up loud and make your ears bleed!

In response to Brian...yes all the music i see live sucks and yes of course I did not pick this show.....because all the music i choose to see live...................well they suck.....

twas my friend who knew of them.....The band Marc is the Savages ... We did not stay to see the Suuns...

Just learned that another beloved artist has passed away...jason Molina; AKA magnolia electric co.  also aka songs ohio  has died at the WTF age of 39...mainly due to booze     his music certainly reflected a disturbed guy and his heartfelt music will be sorry missed... he has a neil young acoustic and a contrasting crazy horse feel to it...but his music is perhaps even more wothout hope then mss Young...as is evidenced  most definatively here

Fill me in ...i'm confused ...the show looks like it was billed as Suuns and Savages ...is this the Suuns out of Montreal ...were the Suuns opening for Savages or vice versa? were they playing together?   (Savages are not a very unique name as a web search reveals but Suuns is a little more so)  ..the music sounds pretty similar from description.  I saw the Suuns a little over a year ago at the Silver Dollar and brought the CD to a spin session we had ...if it is the same band i'd be interested to hear what you thought of them as well.

I don't often say this about music events that you go to Stu, but that looks kind of cool.   I'll check them out.

P.S. Did you discover this band yourself?  he asked skeptically?

Granted i am usually a little on the hyperbolic side, but Saturday night at Lees palace i saw the best live show since Arcade Fire.... Im not sure whether that will translate to their soon to be released album and they may well crack under the pressure of being the perennial  next "greatest band out of the UK"...but The Savages hour long set was loud , raw, extremely angry, but also with great songs with hooks and with a suitably captivating if creepy lead singer who had the kind of stage presence I have only seen rarely in bands like Arcade fire..  The lead guitarist also had this manic anger that  makes you wonder if they will eb around for long or are they too disfunctional......
...dont miss them when they return to tour the first album.....which i know nothing about as they only recently finished recording it.....
here is the only review i can find but it has a photo that kind of captures the moment ......

I like the idea too Mike.    If you're up for it, why don't you kick it off and we'll see if there's any life left in this thing.  

I like the idea Mike. 

Stuart, thanks for the post.  Not always my cup of tea but it's always enjoyable to be nudged to listen to something that someone else digs.  Ergo, my liking Mike's proposal.

Thanks for that, Stuart.  I had never heard of Kevin Ayer.  Reading the description of his work in AllMusic, he sounded a bit like Stephin Merritt.  I'm listening to him as I type this and I wouldn't say that comparison is particularly apt.  Less whimsical and musically much more rock and roll.  I can't help marvelling at the amount of music that is out there.  AllMusic lists 20 albums from  between 1969 and 2007, and in all the time that I've been listening to music and associating with people like you whose combined knowledge of popular music history is truly vast, I can't remember his name ever coming up (I confirmed with a search of Metabeats that had but a single result).  And I like what I'm hearing.  This is clearly the kind of music that I should have come across by now, given my preferences and predilections.

I've also been thinking of posting something for a while - for the interminable period that Brian's challenge for us all to produce our 2012 lists sat there at the top of the pile while the virtual crickets chirped.  So I've developed a concept designed to compel us all to contribute a little more regularly, and also (hopefully) to benefit more directly from this forum.  Here it is for your consideration and refinement (or rejection):

I suggest that each month, on a rotational basis, one of us is responsible for choosing a single album that we want everybody to listen to.  It could be something familiar that we want to create a discussion around, or it could be something more obscure that we want to introduce.  Either way, that person must identify the album  early in the month along with some reasoning for its selection.  The rest of us must commit to actually listening to the album in its entirety at some point during the month and then sending in our own comments.  We can simply say why we like it or don't like it very succinctly, or we can offer a track-by-track review.  But we all have to commit to writing something honest about our reaction to the chosen album.

I'm not suggesting that the blog be limited to this concept - any and all posts about music should be welcome as before.  But this will drive at least 6 posts each month, and more importantly, it will force us all to actually listen to each other's recommendations, and collaborate in a shared experience at least once a month.

What do you think?

I was looking up Kevin ayers on Allmusic to see what other records of his might be worth exploring while listening to joy of a toy.   Somehow I got an alt site stating that he died feb 20.  A shame. He was a true eccentric from the Canterbury music scene that spat out mike old field and Robert Wyatt. He was a founding member of soft machine and he released a fantastic quirky late career cd a few years back that I play a fair bit.  R I P.