Snappy Birthday To Me

(Photo by mira mira on the wall)

You know, if you've ever looked through the Betty Archives over on the right-hand-side there, you'll notice that today is the one year anniversary of this blog. It's been a busy month for that, I've noticed a few birthday specials (The Daily Growl, for example, who celebrated his birthday with a great Jeremy Warmsley/Absentee review). I didn't know really what to do today though, to celebrate, so I thought I'd better just post some great music.

It's tipping with rain outside. I've just heard the biggest thunderclap I've ever heard, and the skies opened. I thought the sky was falling on my head, by Toutatis. Some rain music then?

Kristin Hersh - Cold Water Coming (from Strange Angels)
Tanya Donelly - The Storm (from Beautysleep)

Kristin Hersh pretty much defines what good music is for me. Emotional; beautiful; subtle; uplifting; deep. But the more I think about it, there's no reason why her half-sister shouldn't be just as revered. I'm seeing Kristin live in January (very exciting indeed), I've seen her solo twice before (three times if you count Fifty Foot Wave), but I'd put Tanya Donelly at Bush Hall a couple of summers ago as possibly my favourite gig that I've ever attended. The two are quite different now: Kristin is more confessional, more heart-on-sleeve, more... fractured maybe. Tanya is easy-listening by comparison, but for all the lightness of the songs, there's genuine beauty and meaning there. The Storm for example - I first heard this song in acoustic form at that concert, and wow. Biggest goosebumps ever.

Hood - Still Rain Fell (from Outside Closer)

I haven't posted any Hood for a while. This is classic Hood, with the forefront acoustic guitars, the drawled, unison vocals, the pastoral feel. It kind of does feel rainy, it fits in well with today's overcast atmosphere and, I guess, the band's native Leeds, Yorkshire having something of a damp reputation. "Round here, the walks... the walks are so long..."

Ryan Adams - Damn Sam (I Love A Woman That Rains) (from Heartbreaker)

Mr Adams in introspective, poetic mode here. So much of me wants to look at Ryan Adams' Heartbreaker album and see Bright Eyes' acoustic emo, overwraught alt.country, but this short song sums up everything that's good. Adams can get away with "I'm as calm as a fruit stand in New York, and maybe as strange," because he sings it like he really means that. "I ain't never been much for sunny days." This is a future classic album, I have no doubt of it. It's so, so good.

Pixies - Stormy Weather (from Bossanova)

I've managed to select a few of my favourite artists here, and although these days I can't often listen to the Pixies (burnout maybe), there was a time when this band was everything to me. In my final year of university I worshipped the ground the Pixies walked on, and at the time, seeing their show at Brixton Academy for the first reunion tour was the most exciting thing ever. Like, ever. So, a nice track from Bossanova here, one of the more atmospheric in the band's canon, along with others like Havalina from the same album.

I could post loads more, but I'll refrain for yousendit's sake. I hope you enjoy not only listening to today's music, but also reading You Can Call Me Betty (almost) every day as I much as I enjoy writing it every day. Thanks for all your comments and to all the cool kids out there that have made blogging such a fun process, I thank thee all, and to all a goodnight.

Buy 'em all: Amazon

Meat Is Murder

Morrissey, yesterday

I'd like to think I was immune and wise to the sales charms of major supermarkets. I'd like to think that my level of cogniscence, my basic-but-savvy understanding of the principles of marketing, my keen intellect would cut through the simple schemes designed to draw in the slow-witted and the terminally stupid.

And yet, I find myself in a supermarket aisle surrounded by meat discounted by 25% and I get a little over-excited. This is economics at it's most basic - the further down the price axis, the higher the demand will be - and also pretty basic marketing theory: get people in the shop for one thing, they'll likely buy some more. I did my Economics A-level (despite the best efforts of certain teachers), I understand these things. And yet I get sucked in by the TV advert, and what happens? Not only do I buy a freezer-full of meat, I also buy the chocolate biscuits I never intended to, an A-Team DVD which was cheap-ish, and a bargain 3CD Johnny Cash set.
I must have been in a gullible mood recently, as I've also been suckered by Amazon's Super Saver Delivery: not only does this mean I get my goods slower than I would like, but I also end up spending too much to qualify for the privilege. Those two Nick Cave albums that were such a bargain are suddenly not so good value when you put on top of them a full-price CD that you've been meaning to by for ages.


However: it does mean you get a veritable feast of mp3s today:

Johnny Cash - Get Rhythm! In keeping with the Walk The Line theme of recent days, this is from the Complete Sun Recordings box that set me back a very reasonable £5.97 in Colney Hatch Tescos. It's one of the songs featured in the early part of the film, if I remember, it's the one which follows Jerry Lee Lewis saying "nobody follows The Killer," proving himself both technically and artistically wrong, as this is an ace cut.

Adem - Statued This was that album which bumped me over the SuperSaver mark on Amazon. Adem was a member of Fridge with Keiran Hebden of Four Tet fame though, the chances of this being a wasted purchase was pretty slim. I didn't realise just how good a record this was going to be though. This song, the opening track, caught my attention straight away.

The Smiths - Meat Is Murder This has (probably unintentionally) to be one of Le Moz's funniest ever songs - his lecturing reaches a peak on this track, including the immortal "And the flesh you so fancifully fry, Is not succulent, tasty or kind." Also notable for, "Do you know how animals die?" Well, yes I do actually, I grew up on a farm, my mum used to butcher pigs on the kitchen table. I make sure that the meat I eat is of good provenance therefore, and justify my carnivorism the Fearnley-Whittingstall way.