Woo ! Cavalera Conspiracy To Tour UK ! "The wait is over......the long awaited reunion of Max and Iggor of the legendary Sepultura" Tuesday 17th June - London Astoria And that's it. That's not a tour lads. Thanks a bunch.

Excellent, the Unthank girls can clog dance as well.

Album Review : Cruel Sister***** & The Bairns***** - Rachel Unthank and the Winterset The Bairns was released last year, Cruel Sister (the debut album) in 2005. I do like a bit of folk inbetween my usual diet of thundering guitars and singers screaming in apparent extremis. Rachel Unthank's voice is bewitching, defiantly British and with the lovely flat vowel sounds of Northumbria, with sister Becky, Niopha Keegan and pianist Belinda O'Hooley she creates a mesmeric, enticing and scintillating sound. There is are some wonderful songs on both albums, I love the wry humour of 'On A Monday Morning' on Cruel Sister, a sorrowful paen to the joys of the weekend, you can't help but smile as Rachel croons "If only the sun was a party giver, if only someone else could have me liver". On The Bairns the band describe humour of the blackest kind in 'Blue Bleezing Blind Drunk' as the song's protagonist bemoans her lot in life, she's married a man for his money, but he's a drunk and a wife beater. On both albums Belinda O'Hooley's work at the piano is restrained and balanced, it provides a counterpoint as the Unthank sisters weave their voices together, Niopha Keegan's fiddle work provides a similar supporting role, never obtrusive, always part of the whole. I'm in love with these albums because of the girl's voices, all of the songs are driven by the vocals, the various other instruments provide some depth and roundness but all the way though it is the glorious, slightly breathy, vocals that make the songs into something truly special. It is widely said that Fairport Convention's 'Liege & Lief' was the most important folk album of it's generation, if that is so then both of the Winterset's releases are its equal, possibly with Cruel Sister containing a larger body of strong songs. I can't say that these albums will make you love folk music if you don't already, I'm quite picky in the folk field myself, there are an awful lot of acts currently performing who are dull and formulaic and who do not not seek to add anything new to the genre. The Winterset do push at the accepted boundaries though, from quickies lasting less than sixty seconds to eight minute epics they show restless invention and creation. Some songs are what anyone would pin down as 'folk', 'The Greathem Calling On Song' for example, sounds as folksy as anything, but it is also a wonderful, quirky, oddball little tale of entertainers plying their trade, it also features some of the male members of the Unthank clan providing supporting vocals. Other songs like 'Raven Girl' for example, an up tempo accapella piece which is alomst pop-ish in it's approach, shows off the girls breadth of songwriting and performing ability. If you fancy something a little different, then go out and buy both of these albums, you shouldn't be dissapointed, they are packed with talent and magic and beauty, voices to enchant and beguile, songs of charm, wit, life and loss, two absolute gems from an inspired and original group, listen and fall in love. N.B. I don't have then ecyclopaedic knowledge of folk that I have of obscure metal bands, I am informed that most of the songs on these two albums are interpretations of old folk songs, but the music is none the worse for that.

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New-ish Music, 10 Good Songs To Look Out For 1) Dig !!! Lazarus Dig !!! - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!!) 2) The Greatham Calling On Song - Rachel Unthank and the Winterset (Cruel Sister) 3) Blackjack - Airbourne (Runnin' Free) 4) She Is The New Thing - The Horrors (Strange House) 5) Casino Bay - Ginger (Market Harbour) 6) Redneck - Lamb Of God (Sacrament) 7) Who's Got A Match - Biffy Clyro (Puzzle) 8) A New Begining - La Ventura (A New Begining) 9) Trophy - Bat For Lashes (Fur And Gold) 10) Ramble Down - Stonerier (Three Legs Of Trouble)

Album Review : Runnin' Wild - Airbourne**** A quick question, and then the review is nearly done. Do you like AC/DC ? If you answered yes, then you're really going to like Airbourne because Joel O'Keeffe's metal outfit are AC/DC reborn. They play exuberant riff heavy songs with old school titles like "Stand Up For Rock And Roll" and "Cheap Wine And Cheaper Women", they play them really well and they sound like they're having a hell of a good time doing it. If you answered no, oh come on, what's not to like about AC/DC ?

System Of A Down - Spiders I love this video, it's a real shame that SOAD won't be making any more music.

Real Ale and Big Beards ...and that's just the women ! Seriously though, my friend Chez laughs at me because I like a bit of folk music, but here are 10 songs to demonstrate why folk music is brilliant..... 1) He Was My Brother - Simon & Garfunkel If you've ever pumped your first to Rage Against The Machine's 'Killing In The Name Of' then here is a song with the same anti-racist sentiment, a short human rights story beautifully sung. 2) Winter Song - Lindisfarne Left wing politics and religion in a minor key, wonderful. 3) The Mariner's Revenge Song - The Decemberists A long and violent tale of a scurrilous gadabout and his eventual fate in the belly of a whale, darkly humourous. 4) Reynardine - Fairport Convention From the album Liege & Lief, described as 'the most important folk album ever released'. "Her eyes were blue, her lips as red as wine", beautiful, just beautiful. 5) 1952 Vincent Black Lightning - Richard Thompson Biker boy meets red headed leather clad girl, falls in love, gets shot when commiting an armed robbery, easily Thompson's best solo song. 6) Raven Girl - Rachel Unthank & The Winterset The Unthank sisters put their lovely voices to great use on this multi layered almost pop song. 7) Blowin' In The Wind - Bob Dylan I think Dylan's got to be compulsory on a best of folk list. 8) 5 Feet High And Rising - Johnny Cash Never was lsoing your livelihood to flood water made so much fun. 9) Letter From America - The Proclaimers The Reid twins debut single does it all, wonderfully accented voices and run through with the stubborn Scots pride that colours so much of their work. 10) Not A Pretty Girl - Ani DiFranco This is folky, but with more of an Alanis Morisette attitude to it. I'm not saying these are the 10 best folk songs ever, they're just 10 folk songs that I like a lot, if you think you don't like folk try downloading them and have a listen. Or sign up for Audio Scrobbler and you can probably listen to most of them for free. Any other great folk songs I ought to have mentioned ?

Album Review : A New Beginning - La Ventura**** For Fans Of - Evanescence, Within Temptation, Lacuna Coil Sometimes you try to indicate what a band will sound like to someone by comparing them to similar sounding bands, thus I might try to advertise Coheed & Cambria by saying that they might appeal to fans of Rush. That said, if you like either Amy Lee's, Sharon del Adel's or Christina Scabbia's outfits, then you really are going to enjoy La Ventura. The band are from the Netherlands, and their name means 'luck' in Spanish, eh ? Dutch band, Spanish name, sings in English, ok, so they're cosmopolitan Europeans. Musically then they are solidly in the goth metal camp, or perhaps goth metal dungeon. I did think on the first few listens to the album that perhaps they were a little too generic, a little too close to 'The Open Door' and 'Karmacode', but after I've heard the album over and over it has really grown on me, I would even say now that it is a better album than 'TOD'. Singer Carla Douw has a really good voice, soaring, swooping and crystal clear, and she is ably supported by a polished and tight band behind her. I think the band could stretch themselves a little, they have a fine guitarist in Sascha Kondic and it would be nice on future releases to allow the guitar to come to the top of the music for a couple of songs. It would be good if Carla as well would try something with a little more punch just once or twice. I don't want this to be a whinge though, I have given the album four stars out of five so I must think it is pretty good right ? The songs are well written, really well played and the production on the album is top notch, as this is an album made without record company assistance it is a really good effort. The band have signed a distribution with US label Renaissance Records so the album will be released in the USA, Canada and Mexico in mid March. At the same time the album should be available from internet retailers. If you want to get hold of a copy before that, try contacting the band through their MySpace. There are three tracks that I think stand out on the album, 'Cry', 'Trefoil' and 'A New Beginning', but there are no tracks of the 10 that you could describe as fillers, it's all strong, well crafted material put together by accomplished musicians. There is a huge market for this type of metal in both Europe and the States at the moment, I know it is very hard for one small band to get themselves heard above the masses of new music that appear all the time, but if La Ventura get just a bit of the luck they have named themselves after then they could be following fellow countrymen Within Temptation into serious album sales.

"In art or theatre or literature nobody says, 'I'm sorry pal, you're 45, you've got to spend the rest of your life reading the same book or seeing the same film or going to the same play...'" - John Peel on being asked why he bothered keeping up with new music.

New Music - La Ventura La Ventura are a gothic metal band very much in the Lacuna Coil / Evanescence camp, they have an album out called 'A New Begining'. La Ventura MySpace They have four sample tracks to listen to on their MySpace page, I'll do a proper review of the album when I've given it a few more listens.

Best Music of 2007 The Top Ten Albums 1)Good Apollo I'm Burning Star IV Vol 2 : No World For Tomorrow - Coheed & Cambria Claudio rambled on and on about all the new musical influences he was going to demonstrate on the new album, then you slide the cd into your player and it's just like they left the studio at the end of recording 'From Fear Through The Eyes Of Madness' and then five minutes later they walked back in and started on this one. It is classic C&C, prog with a hard rock edge, improbably high vocals, a couple of stomp and sing numbers, incomprehensible lyrics, lots of nods to Pink Floyd, stunning. 2) Back To Black - Amy Winehouse What a fantastic voice, although Winehouse seems to be sticking firmly to the Wildhearts career plan, her second album was awesome, a big and rich jazz voice that's just perfect for her drink and drug soaked lyrics. 3) The Wildhearts - The Wildhearts Without a proper record or distribution deal, Ginger put out a storming Wildhearts album on his own label. The Wildhearts self titled effort was a back to 'Earth Vs' and 'PHUQ' styled release, big riffs, and then some more big riffs, and then just enough space for some more big riffs all backed up by CJ & Ginger's wonderful melodies. Still the best British rockers around. 4) Life With You - The Proclaimers I love to hear different accents in music and I have always had a soft spot for the folksy Reid twins. In 'Life With You' they have produced a mature and thought provoking album, politics run rife whether it's the anti-sexism/stupidity/rap of Here It Comes Again or poking holes in the egos of establishment 'punks' and 'rockers' on In Recognition, the music is great, their accents are a joy. 5) Saints Of Excess - G U Medicine Holy mother of all things very heavy indeed !! G U Medicine's second album is an absolute rip snorter, heavy as really heavy things falling from a great height, but really tight and well played, there's even a solo or two for old school metal afficianados. 6) Music For Lapdancers - The Fighting Cocks Why arn't this band huge ? Oh, perhaps it's because they can't be arsed, perhaps they swear too much, but with their chaotic fusion of dance / rock / gypsy / electronica they are very much first in a field of one. Eclectic, bonkers, mad grin inducing. 7) United Abominations - Megadeth Megadave might have made a complete tit of himself when he appeared on Metallica's 'Some Kind Of Monster' documentary, but in United Abominations he has pulled the band back in musical terms to their finest hours (RIP, So Far So Good). Of course Dave is the only remaining member of the original 'Deth, this is because if left alone in a greenhouse Mustaine would soon be fighting with the potted palms, and his lyrics still display the same sort of dismal political ignorance that GW Bush pushes on the world but at least the new musicians have produced a damned and well controlled speed metal fest on this album. 8) Super Taranta! - Gogol Bordello Eugene Hutz and his merry alcohol fuelled band of gypsies released another storming set of laughs and dances. Not since Hawkwind warbled on about 'Quark, Strangeness and Charm' have particle physics and left field music been blended so seamlessly and hilariously, all together now....."My brothers are protons, my sisters are nuetrons..." 9) Hessian Mercenaries - Vallenbrosa Along with GU Medicine, Vallenbrosa represent a weighty return to form for real muscular British heavy metal, well structured songs, meaty riffs, listenable vocals and impressive solos to set your fingers twitching, powerful stuff. 10) In Requiem - Paradise Lost Another old school metal band returns to form, Yorkshire gloom and doom merchants Paradise Lost produce the finest and heaviest slab of undiluted misery since their stunning 'Draconian Times' album Just missing out on the top ten, Grinderman - Grinderman, So This Is Great Britain - The Holloways, Black Rain - Ozzy Osbourne, Elect The Dead - Serj Tankian, Yoni - Ginger. Just Not Cutting The Mustard Sorry to be not creaming my pants over Gallows, I've listened to an awful lot of hardcore and although Gallows might have got themselves splashed over every music mag from Kerrang to NME to Q, they just don't do all that much for me. The Arctic Monkeys, again I may well be in a minority but I thougt their second album was very dissapointing, it just seemed to lack some of the verve, passion and dry laconic wit that made their debut so fantastic. Avril Lavigne, as she gets older, her music takes steps backwards. This album may have been a commercial success, but so is McDonalds. Radiohead, I paid 10p for the download only album and it was 10p wasted. Dreadful, just absolutely dreadful, music for the deaf. 30 Seconds To Mars, Madina Lake, Circa Survive, Paramore and a hundred other pop punk / rock bands all doing the very same and it is all very, very dull indeed. Best Live Act I didn't see a lot of bands, but you just can't beat The Wildhearts. GU Medicine and Vallenbrosa also stood out. Worst Live Act I used to be quite keen on a local all girl band called Blood Sundae, then they changed their name to Severed Heaven, got rid of a singer who could really sing and employed one who sounds for all the world like a duck in extreme pain. We paid four pounds to four bands on this night and we should have demanded our money back.

Favourite Artists Quilt Another widget from Scrobbler.

New Music - Angtoria Before any music fans jump on me, it might just be music that is new to me, OK ? Angtoria have been going since about 2001 and have released an album 'God Has A Plan For Us All' on Listenable Records. Angtoria are fronted by the delightfully named Sarah Jezebelle Deva, who I think has contributed vocals to Cradle Of Filth, but don't let that put you off. Angtoria are symphonic metal, for non metal fans this means softer metal with classical overtones where you can actually hear the singing. Deva sings well, and fans of Nightwish - Tarja Turunen - Theatres Des Vampires and anything else with a gothy feel to it will probably enjoy them. You can find 4 songs to listen to and download from the band's website, you can also search for them on Scrobbler and download a track from there.

The Chistmas Number 1 Well, my Christmas no.1 anyway, being the song that I have listened to most times (according to Scrobbler). Where The Wild Roses Grow - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, featuring Kylie Minogue It's a love song, girl meets boy, boy and girl fall in love, boy takes gir to the river to show her the beautiful red roses, boy bashes girl's head in with a brick. In fact, nearly all of my most listened songs are a fiantly, or largely, disturbing in one way or another.... 1 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – Where the Wild Roses Grow 2 Madness – Lola Naive boy leaves home, has never even kissed before, falls in love with strange girl, discovers that strange girl is actually a man. 3 The Clash – Rudie Can't Fail Who knows, what the hell was Joe Strummer on when he wrote this one ? Rudie drinks beer for breakfast, refuses to get a normal job and drinks "sky juice at 10 cents a bottle", how odd. 4 The Clash – Spanish Bombs Strummer takes us on a blood drenched lyrical tour of the Spanish Civil War. 5 The Clash – London Calling We're all DOOMED, but we don't care. 6 Toots and The Maytals – 54-46 Was My Number Toots points out that although he was arrested, tried and imprisoned for the crime, it wasn't him wot done it guv. 7 Rage Against the Machine – Killing in the Name Of RATM's sweary anthem, Zack de la Rocha hits out at the prescence of KKK members in the police. This is the best song to get drunk and shout along to, ever. 8 Simon & Garfunkel – Richard Cory S&G are depressing sods (as must have been Edward Arlington Robinson) who wrote the poem on which this song is based), here a factory worker in one of Cory's plants bemoans his lot in life and wished that he could change places with his employer, the song is double edged, even after Richard Cory kills himself the worker still wants to be him. 9 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – The Curse of Millhaven 14 year old female psycopath butchers her way through large parts of her hometown's population in a variety of violent and gory ways, after being caught does she show remorse ? Or course she does, there were so many more still left to kill. 10 The Specials – Too Much Too Young Based on Lloyd Charmer's song Birth Control, Jerry Dammers upped the tempo and made this sad tale of a young, ill educated single mum a ska classic.

Are You Troo ? There comes a time in every man's life when he must turn inward and look deep inside himself and ask the most searching of questions to reveal the ultimate truth of what he is as man, you must ask yourself, are you a troo varrior of metuhl ? So here is my current TAO (Top Artists Overall) from Scrobbler, what does it reveal, am I a troo varrior of metuhl, or do I fall somewhat short of true Nordic, facepainted, long haired, leather wearing manliness ? 1 The Beatles 678 2 Muse 642 3 The Wildhearts 638 4 Marillion 634 5 Coheed and Cambria 601 6 New Model Army 588 6 Pink Floyd 588 8 Simon & Garfunkel 545 9 The Clash 530 10 Gogol Bordello 468 11 The Beach Boys 463 12 Metallica 450 13 Siouxsie and the Banshees 422 14 Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds 421 14 Led Zeppelin 421 16 Madness 402 17 The Damned 389 18 Adam and the Ants 378 19 Sepultura 377 20 Magnum 372 21 Queensrÿche 368 22 Status Quo 359 23 Paradise Lost 357 24 Aerosmith 355 25 Megadeth 352 26 Rush 349 27 The Proclaimers 335 28 Placebo 328 29 Lindisfarne 327 30 The Decemberists 316 30 Georg Friedrich Händel 316 32 Rage Against the Machine 311 33 Iron Maiden 309 34 Little Angels 308 35 Marilyn Manson 306 36 Tiken Jah Fakoly 305 37 Richard Wagner 284 38 Johnny Cash 279 39 Bob Marley & The Wailers 277 39 Devo 277 41 Desmond Dekker 276 42 Lucky Dube 273 43 Toots and The Maytals 268 44 Ramones 265 45 HammerFall 262 46 The Specials 259 47 System of a Down 253 47 The Fighting Cocks 253 47 Ginger 253 50 Biffy Clyro 252 Oh dear, it would appear that my TAO is only about 28% metal, and that's if I shoehorn bands like Rush and Biffy Clyro in to make up the numbers. It does include Hammerfall though, and they're so metuhl that they should count twice. A rocker perhaps, although the lines with metal can be blurry, but with the likes of Aerosmith, Quo, The Beatles and Placebo making up this broad church, 18%. Am I perhaps a solid crusty punk then ? Nope, the list is about 18% punk, including The Fighting Cocks as otherwise they would be stuck in a bizarre little category all of their own. Prog then, I must be a pantalooned, beardy (well, yes) worshipper of eighteen minute harpsichord solos ? 6% only, but in terms of listening time, 38% and a cod on a bicycle. Folk music of all things, I'm 10% real ale drinking, cardigan wearing, beardy (again!) mandolin appreciating head nodding bloke in the far corner of the tap room. Country, 2% and that's Johnny Cash, apart from The Man, country can drop the o. 12% reggae and ska, 4% classical, 2% pop (The Beach Boys). 28% Metuhl!!! 18% Rock 18% Punk 12% Reggae / Ska 10% Folk 6% Prog 4% Classical 2% Country 2% Pop Eclectic then, that'll have to do, and I'm not a fanboy. How wide is your listening spectrum ?

RIP Lucky Dube You may never even have heard of him, but Lucky Dube was a South African reggae star who sang in English, Afrikaans and Mbaqanga. Last week whilst he was taking his children to school, a group of men attemptd to carjack him, Lucky tried to drive out of trouble but was shot in the chest and died almost instantly, in front of his kids. Lucky Dube sang songs of hope and freedom and peace and love, yet his death was pointless and evil. If you like a bit of reggae, check him out, it is good music. Rest in peace big Rasta man.

Radiohead Album for 10p Well, Thom Yorke's probably got plenty of dosh, there was a 40p service charge though. Radiohead 'In Rainbows' Site - Pay what you want, really.

Wannabe Black Metal ? Hi YS! Hello little Timmy, what can I do for you today ? I Want to be a black metal star. Oh, right, well for starters then, can you TALK LIKE THIS ? LIKE THIS ? No Timmy, this is Emo, THIS IS BLACK METAL LIKE THIS ? NOT BAD TIMMY, NOT BAD AT ALL, NEXT THEN, YOU NEED A NAME What's wrong with Timmy. IT SUCKS, TRY CALLING YOURSELF VOGROZOL But it sounds like a brand of suppositories. HEY, IT WAS YOU THAT WANTED TO BE BLACK METAL Ok, Volgrozol it is then, don't think Mum's going to be happy though. NOW YOU NEED A BAND NAME Done that, it's The Happy Rainbows. HUH ? NO NO NO THAT WON'T DO AT ALL, YOU NEED SOMETHING EVIL SOUNDING, SOMETHING BRUTAL AND SATANIC Er, how about Death ? TAKEN Decapitated ? ALSO TAKEN Goreguts, Cannibal Corpse, Vomitory ? IMPROBABLE AS IT MAY SOUND, THOSE ARE ALL REAL BANDS Do you have to keep talking like that, the dog just wet itself ? YES Oh, how about Enslaved Souls In Bondage To The Dark Lord ? SOUNDS LIKE A CRADLE OF FILTH SONG, BUT IT WILL SUFFICE. NOW YOU NEED A LOGO THAT NOBODY CAN READ Why ? BECAUSE THE WORSHIPPERS OF SATAN DON'T LIKE NON-CONFORMITY, ODD THAT NOW FOR SOME SONG TITLES We've written a song, it's called Dancing In The Sunshine CHANGE THE NAME TO 'ROTTING IN THE MOONLIGHT' but JUST DO IT TIMMY, OH, I MEAN VOLGROZOL What musicians should I hire ? NONE, BUY A DRUM MACHINE AND SET IT TO 'BLASTBEAT', AND GET A GUITARIST WHO CANNOT PLAY, BUT WHO CANNOT PLAY REALLY QUICKLY Ok, and lyrics ? LYRICS ? YOU COULD SING THE CONTENTS OF YOUR MOTHER'S SHOPPING LIST AND NO-ONE WILL NOTICE Anything else ? YES, PAINT YOURSELF WHITE AND PRETEND TO BE FROM NORWAY, AND GET A PET I've got my poodle. POODLES VOLGROZOL, ARE NOT REPLETE WITH SATANIC IMAGERY, BUY A GOAT But what if it eats Mum's petunias ? BY THE POWER OF ALL THAT IS EVIL, YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE BLACK METAL, WHY SHOULD YOU CARE WHAT YOUR MOTHER THINKS ? I'm not really sure about all of this, I might try Emo instead. ALRIGHT THEN, I'll fetch the razors

War Of The Worlds If you are a bit of an old prog fan like myself, you probably have a copy of Jeff Wayne's War Of The Worlds tucked away in your vinyl collection. There is, or perhaps was, a cgi version of the album in production, here is some test footage of a martian walker. There is also a live tour of the show this December, but, £39.50 a ticket PLUS a £4.50 booking fee for each ticket, wow, perhaps I'll just get the DVD.

Just For A Moment, I Was Ritchie Blackmore It was early in the kitchen, I had opened the doors to the club, propped the kitchen door open to allow a breeze in, and then rammed up the volume on the i-pod base. On comes Stargazer, Cozy Powell hammers out that drum intro, and then Blackmore and Carey start the atmospheric then riffing guitar and keyboard section, Ronnie James Dio begins his usual sword and sorcery influenced and mostly incomprehensible lyrics and with no-one around I launch into the guitar solo. For just a moment I was Ritchie Blackmore, the sell out crowd were watching awestruck as I moved the plectrum over the strings, my face contorted with concentration as my fingers ripple up and down a fretboard that only I can see, the notes soar out, perfect in their clarity and I walk back across the stage, right hand raised in a salute to my legions of fans. And a voice says in broadest Yorkshire...."When you've finished love, can we have four cups of coffee and a toasted t-cake." With my cheeks burning a goodly shade of red I serve the early customers. "We did't like to stop you," she says. "You looked to be enjoying yourself, but we're due on the tee at 8 o'clock." "No worries," say I. "Call back later and I'll do Stairway to Heaven for you."

I'll Sell My Soul For Rock 'n Roll Or yours, or your children's, or I'll sell my waiting staff into slavery, I'll sell my Grandma, your Grandma and the Grandma's of people that I have passed in the street, the reason ? Led Zeppelin are reforming. It's on the 26th of November this year. no no no no Noooooooooooooooooooo. I'm going to be on holiday. In the USA. Do you think Mrs YS will kill / divorce / do unpleasant things to me with a variety of kitchen utensils if I cancel the holiday ?

If Your Scrobbler Won't Scrobble i-Tunes released a new build last week that seems to have stopped last.fm's i-sproggler from working, if you are trying to scrobble your i-pod and it won't handshake with i-tunes any more, try Yamipod on the link below. Yamipod doesn't load onto your i-pod so there will be no problems with your current pod operating system, and so far it seems to be working fine for me, automatically scrobbling my pod when it is plugged in. I've lost about a week's worth of 'songs played' info for the tracks played prior to loading Yami, and I'm slightly annoyed that nobody at (subscription based) Last.fm has even bothered to reply to the forum support threads, but now that it's been snapped up by the hyper globals I suppose the level of service will go the same way that blogger.com's did, mostly downhill. Yamipod i-pod manager

Portly German Tops Chart Top of my Scrobbler weekly chart this week is the German composer George Friedrich Handel, and I must say that he pretty much kicks arse, in a very beautiful way. I like to continue to expand my musical borders, I have listened to quite a lot of Mozart, Wagner, Chopin and Stravinsky over the past few months and when I saw a copy of Handel's Messiah going cheap I thought I would plunge in. Handel isn't easy classical, by that I mean you can get right in to Wagner's big lietmotif themes, or Tchaikovsky's brilliant and easy to remember tunes. Handel though is more like Stravinsky, he's at least a Grade II composer, more complex, more subtle, requiring more attention and perseverance. Messiah in particular is made up of numerous small pieces of music and song which don't run together in a coherent style, although feel free to tell me I'm wrong about this if you're a Handel uber fan. With the benefit of modern equipment, particularly a decent sized amplification system which raises the voices of sweet little choristers far beyond anything they could expect to reach in real life, you can really get into him. The good citizens of Ilkley usually have their ears pummelled by the likes of Motorhead and Metallica as I drive through town, this week though they have been treated to the aria 'O Though That Tellest Good Tidings To Zion' and the chorus 'For Unto Us A Child Is Born'. Any form of classical music (with the exception of Wagners Ride Of The Valkyries, which all the staff seem to think is from Star Wars) is still the most unpopular stuff I inflict on the staff at work, I receive less complaints about Arch Enemy, The Exploited and Sepultura than I do when when Beethoven, Vivaldi or Berlioz make an appearance on the kitchen i-pod. My weekly Scrobbler list is as eclectic as always, lower down the chart are Paradise Lost, a Yorkshire doom metal act who have been largely ignored in the UK for the past 20 years but who are very popular indeed on the continent. Only last week I discovered that singer Nick Holmes now lives in lovely Ilkley, I'll have to keep an eye out for him when I'm out and about. So there we are, fat dead Germans and gloomy Tykes, viva eclecticism.

Map Of His Head Mad as very mad person indeed, Matt Bellamy was wittering on in last month's Q magazine, during the interview he mentions that he has bought the house that once belonged to Vincenzo Bellini on the shores of Lake Como. Apparently Matt likes to try and commune with Bellini's dead spirit by playing his arias in the small hours of the morning. Later in the interview he admits that he has found it difficult to keep a steady girlfriend. Now Matt love, it's obvious to the rest of us that..... a) Being a rock star nutter and playing loud classical music at 4am and b) Having your bird leave you for a plumber may not be entirely unconnected. Mind you, Matt also believes that the US government are beaming signals directly into our brains from a top secret base. I dread to think what evil the Bush administration might be beaming across the world, 'Drink Starbucks' ? 'Watch Hollyoaks' ? Matt says - "Wash with new Muse Darkshines soap, it will wash the truth into your eyes and allow you to see the real world as I do, oh, hello nurse, is it time for my tablets ?"

Punk A Porter There are now more mock punks wearing Misfits shoes than there are people who have ever bought a Misfits album. Fashion punks, meh.

Gig Review - Sepultura / The Inbreds / Vallenbrosa / Mishkin - Leeds Rio's 18/08/07**** We arrive just as Leeds band Mishkin are onstage, they sound decent enough, perhaps slightly guilty of trying to ram too many time changes / riffs / styles into each song, but hell, who writes really good riff driven songs anymore ? To answer that question, Vallenbrosa arrive in a big welter of riffage, with well constructed songs, and, hello old friend, solo's, quite a lot of solo's actually. This is proper heavy metal with big catchy hooks and the sort of songs you can get into right away. Singer Nik shouts out that Vallenbrosa are "From the dirty, dirty South, but please don't hold that against us". They play some good music, a few heads are being banged and they get the thumbs up all round from P, Chez and myself. The Inbreds are another set of Southerners, 6 of them this time. As I watched the array of guitarists squeezing themselves onto the none too large Rio stage I was a little worried that this would be a muddy wall of noise, but apparently I've lived long enough for real metal to have come back into fashion again and we get treated to another good set of proper songs and tight riffs. Frontman Joseph Smith has a bit of attitude and star quality, he's mouthy, sweary and obnoxious, excellent for a metal band then. The band crunch through their set, I can't remember any of the titles except for 'Pocket Full Of Mindfuck Drugs' due to Joe's rambling introduction to it, but again it's a good set. What a result, 3 support band and all of them pretty good. Headliners Sepultura, well, there are exactly half of Sepultura here now the Igor has followed brother Max into Soulfly, set the crowd off. A moshpit of dickheads erupts behind me, I can't figure some people out, if you want a fight then piss off onto the streets with all the other drunken tossers, as for the bloke who was deliberately kicking people, well you do understand why I reacted quite angrily to this don't you ? Arsehole. Right, the Seps then, Derrick Green is a good vocalist, but I can hear him when he's talking, when they get into the songs I can hardly hear a thing, it just sounds a bit mushy. They play quite a lot of stuff from their past few albums, which is fair enough, bands have to progress. There is a shout of "I'm over 25, play some of the good stuff" from the back, I sort of agree, I would have liked to hear some more of the Max era Sepultura, I think it had a more defined sound. We do get 'Roots Bloody Roots', 'Arise' and 'Troops Of Doom', the band throw in a mid set intro quiz of old numbers, how annoying, just when you think you're going to get a song they swap into something else. Still, it's a pretty good set, well received by the crowd. The ticket price tonight was £18 plus the ruddy booking fee, but I feel it was a good value night out. A couple of week ago P and myself went to a 4 band death metal night in the downstairs room here and thought we'd been badly done to by having to pay £4 for the privilege. Mishkin Website Mishkin MySpace Vallenbrosa website Vallenbrosa MySpace The Inbreds website

Dear Sepultura, We are coming to see you tonight and if you could play all of the following songs it would be quite mosh-tastic..... Refuse / Resist Territory We Who Are Not As Others Chaos B.C. Sepulnation Ways Of Faith Roots Bloody Roots Straithate Rattamahatta Cut Throat Yours, Yorkshiresoul, aged forty and a bit

5 Year Plan A business model for rock groups. Year 1) We host a massive signing party filled to the brim with D list celebrities, other wannabe rock stars and the drummer from Kasabian.*1 You drink copious amounts of Cristal champagne *2 and at the end of the night we sign your management contract. The rest of the year is spent touring, recording and promoting the 1st album. The band sleep in the van with the gear, I will be sleeping in a B&B. This is because people expect bands to be crumpled, dirty and smelly, whereas the manager must be well rested, showered and smart, we have important business things to do. We have many aftershow parties filled with more Cristal, birds, dope and White Lightning Cider (for the drummer). *2 Year 2) With the release of the second album the band undertake a headline tour of mid-sized UK venues, with the band now generating enough money to be able to stay in a B&B, but still travelling in the van with all the gear. The manager is now driving a new Mercedes *2, after all, I must look smart when representing you in business meetings. We have many aftershow parties filled with Cristal, models / groupies, skunk and Tennant's Extra (for the drummer). *2 Year 3 ) After the success of the Christmas single we rush out an EP in late January and embark on a Europe / USA / Far East stadium support tour with Muse. The band is removed from the US leg of the tour after the drummer is caught in possession of cocaine at LA airport. The band's image is further enhanced by support slots at some of the major UK summer festivals and we receive great tv coverage by appearing second on the bill at the Wembley Kurt Cobain Memorial - Samaritans Fundraising gig. More headlines are made when the drummer gets into a fistfight with Girls Aloud, and loses. Although the band are still living in the same filthy squat you were three years ago, the manager has put down a large cash deposit on a nice detached house. There are many parties involving Cristal, prostitutes, cocaine, ketamine and pints of sherry (for our drummer) *2, and the drummer from Kasabian, who we can't seem to get rid of. Year 4) After a Spring setback, when in a state of some confusion, the singer (who is to coin a phrase, "smacked off his tits") walks on stage at the new Marquee Club and urinates on the front row of the audience, the band bounce back with the release of the third album. The album goes platinum across Europe, within weeks of its release the band are on a major headline tour and Download, Lollapalooza and Ozfest are all begging you to headline. This year there is so much Cristal at parties that we're forced to bathe the call girls in it. Year 5) Back down to earth. The drummer spends 3 months in rehab and on coming out has a 50/50 chance of either becoming a Buddhist monk, or spontaneously combusting. *4 Recording the new album goes on forever. The guitarist insists on recording each part a hundred times, the bassist leaves the studio in May and was last rumoured to have been seen working as a petrol pump attendant in Macedonia. The new album is released to a poor reception, and a world wide headline tour collapses after the singer is arrested in Thailand for offences relating to drugs, ladyboys and a golden retriever. The band breaks up, those that are not in prosin / rehab / run away to Macedonia, return to life in a filthy squat. The manager, who last month bought Bedfordshire so his children would have somewhere to exercise their ponies, now has properties in London, Paris and Los Angeles and is taken to work by own personal pilot. 10 Years On ) The band, rehabbed and drug free (except for the drummer who has now taken to drinking diesel fuel siphoned from the tour bus), are now trying to overturn a High Court decision which confirmed the original contract they signed with the manager. The band were surprised to learn that they did not in fact, and in law, own any of the rights to their first four album, and that they had signed away 50% of all t-shirt sales and internet revenue in perpetuity, The band now make a living gigging in Macedonia and Uzbekistan where their music is still very popular. At home in the UK their most recent album peaked at # 72 in the charts. The manager now has a controlling interest in the combined EMI - UMG group and lives a happy and tax free existence as President ( and rumoured owner) of the Turks and Caicos Islands. *1 - It being well known that drummers will lig at anything. *2 The cost of which will be deducted from your advance. *3 You discover later that Muse have deducted all of this from your tour wages. *4 No-one knows why drummers do this, they just do.

Doom & Gloom I spent a large chunk of last week listening to morbid tales of murder, death, suicide, metal illness and depression, that's right, I was listening to Johnny Cash and Simon & Garfunkel. I hadn't realised before just how many tales of misery S&G had penned, and as for Mr. Cash, well if he starts a song with with "Let me tell you story of Billy Joe" well you just know that poor old Billy Joe isn't likely to survive past the second verse.

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