tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-373170432024-03-19T04:56:24.911+00:00BrokenFMSucking out the choicest juice from the fruit of music. And spitting out the pips here.Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37317043.post-71974065038098413402008-04-03T00:16:00.000+00:002008-04-03T00:17:51.871+00:00Exciting News For All Readers Inside<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/2008/exciting.jpg" /><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">We were going to write a lengthy introduction to this statement, but as we're so dispirited by our failed quest to find a picture advertising the merger of one IPC comic with another, we can't really bring ourselves to type a lot here. Really, you'd think Flickr would be awash with scans of the least unpopular characters from School Fun wandering across a schoolyard to meet the main characters of Whizzer and Chips, but it isn't. Bah. There's not even a record of which became ones became Chip-ites and which joined the Whizz-kid camp. Did Young Arfur make the cut? We don't know! You've failed us, science. We've had to improvise, quite badly, as the hastily assembled jpeg just up there will attest.<br /><br />Anyway, seeing as how BrokenTV's sister blogs, BrokenFM and Booked (Dissent) are currently seeing less action than, oh we don't know, Peter Crouch or something, we're going to include any musings we might have on football or music on BrokenTV. It'll save the hardy crew of our most loyal reader (no typo, there) having to click on different bookmarks, if nothing else.<br /><br />So, erm, consider this a 'BLOG CLOSED' notice for BrokenFM and Booked (Dissent), and expect slightly more regular updates to BrokenTV in the near future. But it's not all bad news! As everyone knows, the first post-merger edition of a comic has to include a SUPER FREE GIFT FOR ALL BOYS AND GIRLS, and we're no different. Click below to recieve (i.e. visit) your FREE! BrokenTV mixtape (muxtape.com mix), lovingly compiled (illegally uploaded) by BrokenTV's Mark X (erm, or not him, if you're the BPI).<br /></div><br /><a href="http://markx.muxtape.com/" target="_blank"> </a><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://markx.muxtape.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/2008/mixtape.jpg" alt="If your free tape is missing, contact your newsagent" /></a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Groovulous!<br /><a href="http://markx.muxtape.com/" target="_blank"> </a></div></div>Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37317043.post-19457754525346024752008-03-22T14:58:00.002+00:002008-03-22T15:02:59.790+00:00Something Written For Somewhere Else, Then Plonked Here<p>As we're stuck inside waiting for our new iPod Touch to be delivered (which is looking less likely by the second. If they meant next *working* day delivery, why did they say 'next day delivery', stupid bloody... no, it's not about that), here are some quick music recommendations. Click the pictures for the YouTubely goodness.<br /></p><strong>Robots In Disguise: We're In The Music Biz</strong><br /><p><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51R8bIsX1pL._AA240_.jpg" alt="51R8bIsX1pL._AA240_.jpg" /></p>'The most unsuccessful duo the UK has never known'<br /><p>A super album, a true step up from their enjoyable but slightly patchy eponymous debut. Like a compilation of the very best bits from Chicks On Speed, Peaches and Electrocute, reworked to ramp the catchiness up an extra couple of notches, and to pack in nicely self-effacing dumb pop lyrics. ("Look at us dead drunk Brits deep in the shit/Kicked out of a cab miles from the hotel/My purse empty no money in it/Can we cadge a lift on your beat up moped?"). Pop gold, right there.</p><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MoqThhEAzN0"><img src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/MoqThhEAzN0/default.jpg" alt="default.jpg" /></a><br /><br />(YouTube video for The Sex Has Made Me Stupid)</p><p><strong>Vive La Fete: Jour De Chance</strong></p><p><img src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41f47DndGHL._AA240_.jpg" alt="41f47DndGHL._AA240_.jpg" /></p>The best noise to come out of Belgium since Front 242 hung up their wires. Fantastic electro, with the occasional peppering of guitars, as might be expected from a band co-founded by Danny Mommens, formerly of Deus. Marvellously catchy at their best, largely down to the gorgeous voice of other half of Vive La Fete, Els Pynoo, even if all the lyrics are in French, which we can't actually speak. It's even more proof of our pet theory that French is by far the official language of Good Music.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWErZql4E68"><img src="http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/160/2361.jpg" alt="2361.jpg" /></a><br /></div><p style="text-align: center;">('Aventures Fictives', which there isn't actually a video for, but it's worth a listen anyway.)</p><p><strong>April March and Steve Hanft: April March and Steve Hanft</strong></p>At last. After what seems an age, during which her music has been used to provide the best bit Tarantino's disappointing Death Proof, April March is back. Her new album, created with Steve Hanft, is more of a return to 60s-style French pop than her last album, and all the more welcome for it. Slightly annoyingly, it isn't available in any physical format yet (as far as we can tell), but it is available through their <a href="http://www.myspace.com/aprilmarchstevehanft">MySpace page</a>. And best of all, thanks to the current crisis in the American economy that will see us all eating out of bins by the end of 2008, it's less than £4.50 in our money. A Pyrrhic victory for music lovers everywhere!<br /><p style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xw312ZPpewg"><img src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/xw312ZPpewg/default.jpg" alt="default.jpg" /></a><br /><br />('Attention Cherie')</p>Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37317043.post-42500797667766795142008-03-12T17:20:00.001+00:002008-03-12T17:24:06.697+00:00Smash Your Radio: Part One<div style="text-align: justify;">Mainstay of the office radio 6Music recently announced their plans to increase the proportion of women listening to their radio station. Their research has shown (somehow) that one thing that really annoys women who listen to the radio, is when they play that modern pop music. They'd much rather hear inane deejay banter. Look, the research consultants probably have a pie chart proving this. And pie charts were invented by Florence Nightingale, who was basically the best woman ever, which possibly counts for something.<br /><br />So, how best to arrest this lady-ear deficiency? Well, there are several ways, but probably the worst possible approach would be to shove Gideon Coe (amenable presenter who knew that the tunes should always take priority of inane banter) onto a graveyard show, and give his slot to a self satisfied alpha-male who thinks playing annoying samples of children's TV programmes from the 1980s every three minutes is preferable to being any good, and who comes with a braying 'posse' of hangers on, including the token woman who everyone else talks down to when she gets something about football wrong. So, step forward George Lamb.<br /><br />Three solid hours of reading out texts from sycophantic listeners requesting they be played one of the show's three annoying soundbites (the battle cry of early 1990s homosceptic Shabba Ranks, an Irish stereotype shouting, and something from Thundercats), sneering at those horrid working classes (generally by snorting "haw haw! That is straight estate!" at mention of a tattooed woman shopping for lager at Netto), year-old internet memes (Chuck Norris facts, anyone? No?), and if there's time, a song or two. But quite often the songs are interrupted by sampled soundbites from The sodding Goonies or Wayne's World.<br /><br />Quite excrutiating.<br /><br />All the more so when you consider that 6Music is meant to be a radio station predominantly based around - as you might expect - music. Not tedious alpha-male posturing.<br /><br />For once, it's not just us piddling into a maelstrom of indifference. An online petition has been started, with a website to match. At the time of typing this, <a href="http://www.getlambout.org.uk/">Get Lamb Out</a> is nudging 2000 votes, just ahead of a similar petition to keep him in (sitting on around 1900 vote). All the more notable considering the latter petition receives a number of rallying calls on a nationwide radio station, while the former have thrived solely on electronic word of mouth.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.holymoly.co.uk/g/corner/george-lamb-64847.html">Holy Moly</a> referred to him as<br /><blockquote>[a] gibbering, self obsessed, coke addled, sniggering twat of the highest order has single handedly fucked BBC6 up the arse and reduced what was a great morning show under Gideon Coe down to the equivalent of a Timmy Mallett name dropping wank session in which he says 'ladies and gentlemen' over and over again</blockquote><br />A poster on feminism website <a href="http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/2008/02/bbc_6_music_chi">The F-Word</a> opined:<br /><blockquote>Try listening to Lamb and try not to be offended. He persistently objectifies women, especially "boss-eyed birds". He treats talented female musicians with contempt, eg Cat Power, who he persistently asked had she been "tonguing" an actor. He spent his whole interview with Duffy amusingly confusing her with Buffy the Vampire Slayer. See what he did there?</blockquote><br /><a href="http://www.thelipster.com/articles/2943839">The Lipster</a>'s Rebecca Nicholson had her tongue in what we're almost tempted to claim is her pretty little cheek (luckily we're above that sort of thing) when she said:<br /><blockquote>It’s all for you, ladyfolk! He’s a dreamboat! Maybe, if he talks even slower and drops in a few references to Heat magazine, Loose Women and chocolate, we might start to understand this “music” lark properly.</blockquote>There's a <a href="http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8275056046">Facebook group</a> dedicated to having the Lamb put down, and even <a href="http://www.newstatesman.com/200802280035">The New Statesman</a> are getting in on the act, with Lynsey Hanley writing:<br /><br /><blockquote>In appointing Lamb, Douglas has alienated not only many female listeners, but also an awful lot of men who can't stand his boorish arrogance and transparent lack of interest in the station's remit.</blockquote>All of this led to BBC Radio's Lesley Douglas defending Lamb in an interview with <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2008/feb/18/bbc.radio">The Guardian</a>, basically claiming that we're all wrong, and everyone does like him especially women. Given that a lot of the dissenting voices (including the three we've just quoted above) are coming from women, we suspect she's wrong. If nothing else, it's caused BrokenFM's Mark X to stop listening to 6Music at work between 10am and 1pm, meaning their female audience has gone down by at least the two women he works with. Look, he paid for the radio, so he gets veto, and there's nothing sexist about that.<br /><br />LADIES! Want to make the point that George Lamb actually isn't the dreamboat likely to make you tune in breathlessly every morning at ten? Print out the image below, cut it out, iron it onto a T-Shirt (not that we're associating women with ironing, heck no), and wear it outside Western House.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/2008/r6lam.jpg" /><br /></div><br />But. much like it's sister blog BrokenFM, if there's one thing BrokenFM is about (it clearly isn't writing about music very often), it's about bringing in the love. So, here's something positive about George Lamb: he really does put all the other daytime jocks into perspective. Let's take a look at some examples.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Shaun Keaveny</span><br /><br /><img src="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/2008/r6sh.jpg" /><br /><br />BEFORE GEORGE LAMB:<br /><br />Another in the long line of infuriating Boltonian DJs, proving that it takes more than the right regional accent to be the new Mark Radcliffe. Forever spurting insipid whimsy when the listening dozens would rather be listening to another White Stripes record. If only Phill Jupitus had never left.<br /><br />AFTER GEORGE LAMB:<br /><br />Affable northerner who politely eschews the tired zoo-radio format to offer up quickfire uncontroversial observations on the matters of the day. Plays lots of good records, and while his delivery often fails to bring the best out of his material, it's certainly preferable to the following few hours of aural anguish.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Chris Moyles</span><br /><br /><img src="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/2008/r1moy.jpg" /><br /><br />BEFORE GEORGE LAMB:<br /><br />Boorish, loud-mouthed, self-satisfied, annoying, keeps talking about how great his is with his paid hangers on instead of playing records. And keeps going on about things from the 1980s, even though that's pretty much a reference point the target demographic for the station won't give a toss about.<br /><br />AFTER GEORGE LAMB:<br /><br />A driven, confident personality, who constantly displays a genuine affection for the world of radio. Not as bad as everyone says he is, and at least the 1980s references are likely to be of the more interesting variety, such as Wizbit or The Paul Squire Show.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Jo Whiley</span><br /><br /><img src="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/2008/r1jo.jpg" /><br /><br />BEFORE GEORGE LAMB:<br /><br />The mainstream-friendly face of alternative music, who'll try her utmost to appear credible despite being able to promote the latest release from Westlife with whatever the audio equivalent of a straight face is. And then say it was 'fantastic' straight afterwards, without even the merest hint of irony.<br /><br />AFTER GEORGE LAMB:<br /><br />Still preferable to George Lamb.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Nemone</span><br /><br /><img src="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/2008/r6nem.jpg" /><br /><br />BEFORE GEORGE LAMB:<br /><br />Perennial Radio One up-with-the-Partridge slot jockey cum emergency fill-in DJ, promoted out of her depth into a 'proper' daytime show.<br /><br />AFTER GEORGE LAMB:<br /><br />Actually, she's really rather good. She doesn't spend to long yapping away about What Celebrities Have Been Up To, keeps interaction with the listening public to a pleasant minimum, and plays an enjoyable and eclectic selection of records (such as Miss Kitten, Minnie Ripperton, The Fall, or Mgmt), which is after all what the station is about. Pretty much what we're looking for in a daytime radio DJ, really. When is she on air? Just after George Lamb. Boh.<br /><br />Hey, maybe Lesley Douglas should spend more of her time trying to attract an increased female audience to 6Music by bigging up Nemone's contribution to the station, eh?</div>Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37317043.post-79985078262882743672008-01-06T14:28:00.000+00:002008-01-07T22:54:42.212+00:00BrokenFM's Album of the Year 2007: Round One<div style="text-align: justify;">It's that time of year, where music blogs like to list their favourite albums of the year. BrokenFM is no exception to this, even if we are an exception to the principle of updating regularly. However, because we're so achingly different we're going to treat it slightly differently. And not just because we're a bit annoyed upon discovering the albums we've possibly listened to the most over 2007 - by Silversun Pickups and The Hold Steady - were actually released in 2006, preventing us from doing a normal Top Twenty. Bah.<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/fm2008/title.jpg" /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">How it works:</span> We select the sixteen best albums of 2007. We 'draw' the first round, with each album 'seeded' by the number of plays of the most popular track has in our iTunes playlist. The respective merits of the most-played song from each album are compared, with the winner going through to the next 'round'. However, after being used in battle, that song must 'sit out' the rest of the tournament. Still with us?<br /><br />The seeding format favours the albums we've liked since the beginning of the year, but the lower seeds are likely to be freshest in our memory, and we really do get bored with things quite easily. As Booked(Dissent) will attest. We realise this means an album only needs to contain four great songs to stand a chance of winning the tournament, but it's very rare we'll really, really like more than three songs on the same album. We're very picky.<br /><br />The first round.<br /><br />After whittling our list of albums down to sixteen (which took a while, we hadn't realised there was this much music we really liked this year), we've arrived at the following list. In order of seeding.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Apples In Stereo - New Magnetic Wonder</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">They Might Be Giants - The Else</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Kylie Minogue - X</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">M.I.A. - Kala</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Justice - Cross</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dinosaur Jr - Beyond</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Girls Aloud - Tangled Up</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Blonde Redhead - 23</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Go! Team - Proof of Youth</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Pepe Deluxe - Spare Time Machine</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Malcolm Middleton - A Brighter Beat</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Vive La Fete - Jour De Chance</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Abdominal - Escape From The Pigeon Hole</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The High Water Marks - Polar</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Stereo Total - Paris <> Berlin</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Polysics - Polysics Or Die!!! Vista</span><br /><br />After painting the numbers one to sixteen onto some ping-pong balls and flinging them into BrokenFM's Mum's tumble dryer, we arrive at a set of fixtures. And here they are.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">-- ROUND ONE --</span></span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/fm2008/alb1.jpg" /> - <img src="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/fm2008/alb16.jpg" /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Apples In Stereo - Sunndal Song</span> vs <span style="font-weight: bold;">Polysics - I My Me Mine</span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">You could make a case for Polysics being 'cup tied' for this tournament, what with their debut on MySpace Records essentially being a 'best of', but we don't care because they're ace. Not that it matters too much, because the Japanese art-electro-punk-popsters are blown away by the majesty of the Apples' uplifting Sunndal Song. With vocals from the departing Hilarie Sydney (off to become player-manager of The High Water Marks), this track is so wonderful it could lift the spirits of Morrissey, on the same day a massive family of foreigners move in next door to him. And that's the sort of thing he'd really dislike, of course, the overrated curmudgeon. A resounding victory to the <span style="font-weight: bold;">Apples In Stereo</span>, then.<br /><br />Oh, and we're going to be using a lot of FA Cup references in this update, just so you know.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/fm2008/alb2.jpg" /> - <img src="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/fm2008/alb15.jpg" /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">They Might Be Giants - I'm Impressed</span> vs <span style="font-weight: bold;">Stereo Total - Miss Rebellion Des Hormones</span><br /></div><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>The top two bands in BrokenFM's <a href="http://www.last.fm/user/Mark_X/">Official</a> LastFM Profile Page in a massive Liverpool versus Chelsea-esque clash. Will it be the John's catchily sarcastic critique of The War On Terror, or Les Total's catchily song about something that's in French that will prevail? It's not as much of a titanic battle as you might expect, with the new Stereo Total album being a little bit of a let down, to be honest. You could come up with a tortuous analogy about </span>Françoise and Brezel employing a rotation system when it came to selecting the songs for their new album if you like, but it's certainly <span style="font-weight: bold;">They Might Be Giants<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span><span>who'll be in the next round.</span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/fm2008/alb3.jpg" /> - <img src="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/fm2008/alb14.jpg" /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Kylie Minogue - Sensitized </span>vs <span style="font-weight: bold;">The High Water Marks - Song For Emigrants</span><br /></div><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>Kylie's back, and she's in no mood to dick around. X (or Kylie X, if you're being formal) is a real return to form, not least on this Gainsbourg-sampling slice of pop gold. We can't even bring ourselves to scoff "MC Solaar did it first", as it's the best thing she's released since Come Into My World. Brilliant stuff. In stark comparison to the media frenzy that accompanied Kylie's comeback, it seems that the first announcement of the release date for The High Water Marks' second album was when someone from the band replied to BrokenFM's Mark X on the band's MySpace page, with a message along the lines of "Oh crikey, it's out tomorrow, we'd forgot about that". Song For Emigrants sees Hilarie Sidney offering up an especially syrupy vocal performance, with the sort of track we could listen to all day. It's a tricky call, but it's <span style="font-weight: bold;">Kylie </span>who sneaks through after a replay. </span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/fm2008/alb4.jpg" /> - <img src="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/fm2008/alb13.jpg" /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">M.I.A. - Paper Planes</span> vs <span style="font-weight: bold;">Abdominal - Radio Friendly</span><br /></div><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>The BrokenFM Album Of The Year equivalent of Manchester United vs Aston Villa. Abdominal's first solo effort is really rather enjoyable, but not quite up there with his material performed alongside DJ Format. Pick of the album is Radio Friendly, which is about swearing and the stuff that makes Abdominal swear a lot. However, this all comes to naught when Ab comes up against the <span style="font-weight: bold;">M.I.A.</span> juggernaut, especially considering Paper Planes is the best song released in 2007, without a doubt. </span><br /></div><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><img src="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/fm2008/alb5.jpg" /> - <img src="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/fm2008/alb12.jpg" /></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Justice - D.A.N.C.E.</span> vs <span style="font-weight: bold;">Vive La Fete - Aventures Fictives</span><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>Ooh, cripes. The album that we spent the entire summer listening to pretty much non-stop, versus that latest offering from the band we've just fallen head over heels in love with. It's like having to choose between your mum and your girlfriend. Not in a sordid way. This must be how the gushing proto-celebrities on Big Brother Hijack must be feeling when coming up with nominations of the people they've just met and aren't annoyed by yet. Taking the two songs on their own individual merits, we're going to have to plump for <span style="font-weight: bold;">Justice</span>, on the basis that D.A.N.C.E. is one of the best pop songs of the last five years.</span><br /></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span></span></div><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><img src="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/fm2008/alb6.jpg" /> - <img src="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/fm2008/alb11.jpg" /></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dinosaur Jr - Almost Ready </span>vs <span style="font-weight: bold;">Malcolm Middleton - We're All Going To Die</span><br /></div><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>Another all-Premiership clash as far as the BrokenFM Awards are concerned, with Dinosaur Jr's first album in ten years showing they're as good as ever. It's not often a band we like can take such a hiatus and come back so strongly, unless you're the Go-Gos (shut up, we're right about their comeback album). Almost Ready is only a whisper away from being as superb as 'Freak Scene', and it's certainly superior to 'Feel The Pain'. Despite being tarnished slightly after being championed by Radio One's Scott Mills (in that annoyingly "I'm being ironic, me" fashion that he employs so annoyingly), We're All Going To Die is the best noise we've heard coming out of our radio in many a December. It's a very close call, but considering <span style="font-weight: bold;">Malcolm Middleton</span> has come up with the best album cover of the year, it is he who wins on penalties. </span><br /></div><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><img src="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/fm2008/alb7.jpg" /> - <img src="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/fm2008/alb10.jpg" /></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Girls Aloud - Sexy No No No</span> vs <span style="font-weight: bold;">Pepe Deluxe - Pussy Cat Rock</span><br /></div><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: justify;"><span>Having had the misfortune to be party to plenty of sexual no-nos in it's prime, BrokenFM was only to pleased to hear that the experience has been a much more uplifting one for the Aloud Girls. This track is a thunderously enjoyable companion to Something Kinda Ooh in the GA canon. It's not easy to match that, and while Pepe Deluxe give a good go of it in their great feline-themed tribute to glam rock, they're no match for <span style="font-weight: bold;">Girls Aloud</span>'s 2-3-5 attacking formation.</span><br /></div><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><img src="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/fm2008/alb8.jpg" /> - <img src="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/fm2008/alb9.jpg" /></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Blonde Redhead - 23</span> vs <span style="font-weight: bold;">Go! Team - Doing It Right</span><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">The title track from the American trio's seventh album is a delightfully dreamy affair. All over MTV2's 120 Minutes like some sort of lovely hypnotic rash, this is the sort of track that would have got into shoegazing as a moody teenager if it had been released in 1990. And we hadn't been too busy listening to the Pet Shop Boys. Meanwhile, the Go! Team (pop fact! Over 2% of Brighton's population are now members of The Go! Team) had us leaping across the BrokenFM radio in glee every time the track was played on the office radio. Tough call, but <span style="font-weight: bold;">The Go! Team</span> take it.<br /></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Next Update: The Second Round.</span>Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37317043.post-28888958726093717342007-12-28T22:28:00.000+00:002007-12-29T01:09:02.369+00:00We're Back. Again.<div style="text-align: justify;">Here's an ace thing. Not us finally posting an update to BrokenFM, but rather something mentioned on the BBC's <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radiolabs/">RadioLabs Blog</a>. LastFM profiles have been set up to capture every track played by Radios One, Two, 1xtra and 6music.<br /><br />This makes it very easy to nab all sorts of data about each station. For example, who are the artists played most often since the LastFM accounts were set up? We shall see.<br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.last.fm/user/bbcradio1/charts/?charttype=12month&subtype=artist&range=156">RADIO ONE</a><br /><br />1. Arctic Monkeys (359 Plays)<br />2. Kaiser Chiefs (331)<br />3. The Killers (325)<br />4. The Enemy (312)<br />5. Fall Out Boy (304)<br />6. Justin Timberlake (302)<br />7. Klaxons (293)<br />8. Mika (285)<br />9. The Pigeon Detectives (278)<br />10. My Chemical Romance (275)<br />11. Hard-Fi (258)<br />12. Kanye West (254)<br />13. Razorlight (251)<br />14. The Fratellis (244)<br />15. Rihanna (243)<br />16. The White Stripes (234)<br />17. Foo Fighters (231)<br />18. Jack Penate (228)<br />19. Linkin Park (226)<br />20. Gym Class Heroes (225)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.last.fm/user/bbcradio2/charts/?charttype=12month&subtype=artist&range=156"><span style="font-weight: bold;">RADIO TWO</span></a><br /><br />1. KT Tunstall (196 plays)<br />2. Mika (164)<br />3. Amy Winehouse( 162)<br />4. Take That (152)<br />5. Amy Macdonald (147)<br />6. Maroon 5 (146)<br />6. Bruce Springsteen (146)<br />8. James Blunt (142)<br />9. Kaiser Chiefs (134)<br />10. David Bowie (133)<br />11. Elvis Presley (128)<br />12. Stevie Wonder (123)<br />13. Kylie Minogue (121)<br />13. The Beatles (121)<br />15. Eagles (120)<br />16. The Rolling Stones (112)<br />16. Ben's Brother (112)<br />16. Madonna (112)<br />19. Travis (107)<br />20. U2 (103)<br />20. Michael Bublé (103)<br /><br /><a href="http://www.last.fm/user/bbc6music/charts/?charttype=12month&subtype=artist&range=156"><span style="font-weight: bold;">6MUSIC</span></a><br /><br />1. Bloc Party (293)<br />2. Editors (282)<br />3. Manic Street Preachers (258)<br />4. Kate Nash (254)<br />5. Arctic Monkeys (245)<br />6. Kaiser Chiefs (244)<br />7. Interpol (243)<br />7. Pigeon Detectives (243)<br />9. Super Furry Animals (240)<br />10. Maximo Park (236)<br />11. Klaxons (232)<br />12. Amy Winehouse (222)<br />13. The Go! Team (213)<br />14. Calvin Harris (210)<br />14. The White Stripes (210)<br />16. Reverend and The Makers (209)<br />17. Kings of Leon (206)<br />18. Siouxsie Sioux (203)<br />19. Coral (199)<br />19. The Cribs (199)<br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.last.fm/user/bbc1xtra/charts/?charttype=12month&subtype=artist&range=155">1XTRA</a><br /><br />1. Dizzee Rascal (280)<br />2. Kanye West (258)<br />3. Ne-Yo (209)<br />4. Amerie (189)<br />5. Charlean Dance / Gappy Ranks (169)<br />6. Beyoncé (168)<br />7. Collie Buddz (164)<br />8. Jay-Z (162)<br />9. Mr. Vegas (155)<br />10. Lloyd (152)<br />10. Ny (152)<br />12. Kano / Craig David (151)<br />13. Roll Deep (145)<br />14. Timbaland / Keri Hilson / D.O.E (143)<br />15. Justin Timberlake (139)<br />16. Akon (134)<br />17. T2 / Jodie Aysha (133)<br />18. Nas (122)<br />19. Taio Cruz (119)<br />19. T2 (119)<br /><br />Using <a href="http://anthony.liekens.net/pub/scripts/last.fm/compare.php">Anthony Liekens' LastFM compatibility script</a>, we're able judge precisely how suitable each station is for our delicate ears. Slightly surprisingly, it's Radio One that comes out on top, even though we only really like one band from their top twenty (we like a total of five from the 6music list):<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Radio One </span>- 79.94%<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">6Music</span> - 73.42%<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Radio Two</span> - 51.25%<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">IXtra</span> - 25.01%<br /><br />We're assuming the matches between Radio One and ourselves are the records played at night. Which we don't listen to because they've got Zane Lowe and Colin Murray in between them.<br /><br />All this doesn't really go anywhere, so in lieu of a conclusion, here's a picture of France Gall, and if we've worked out how to do it right, the chance to listen to our Tune Of The Week - the wonderful Dady Da Da. So jolly it could even cheer up the residents of Albert Square.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.brokentv.adsl24.co.uk/images/dadydada.mp3"><img src="http://xs322.xs.to/xs322/07526/france.jpg" /></a><br /></div>Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37317043.post-45939154567648520332007-10-21T11:12:00.000+00:002007-10-21T11:57:51.392+00:00Shut Up, WFMU. Shut up to heck.<div style="text-align: justify;">Your <a href="http://blog.wfmu.org">blog </a>may be one of the best ones on the internet, but you're quite wrong about <a href="http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2007/10/fuck-everything.html">Finding Tatu</a>. It's almost 20 years since It Couldn't Happen Here was released, so what better time to bring out another underrated film about a pop group that no-one else likes apart from us? We'll certainly be going out and buying the DVD. When it reaches £3.99 in an HMV sale. As it surely will, about two months after release.<br /><br /><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-07249809525637442 visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/hkjheB42kAo"></a><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-07249809525637442 visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/hkjheB42kAo"></a><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hkjheB42kAo"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hkjheB42kAo" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />Although there was <a href="http://blogfiles.wfmu.org/KF/tATu_-_How_Soon_Is_Now_STRETCH.MP3">this</a> rather odd (not to mention glacially slow) remix of Tatu's How Soon Is Now on the same page as their story, so some redemption there.<br /></div>Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37317043.post-62198374559245351202007-10-08T16:20:00.000+00:002007-10-09T22:24:49.090+00:00BrokenFM's Recommendation BoothHere in the BrokenFM office, we don't often go out of our way to recommend new music to our merry gaggle of viewers. After all, it's the internet. If you want to find out if you like a band or not, you don't need a rarely updated yet frequently disappointing blog to tell you. You can just type it into iTunes or 7Digital or MySpace or YouTube or SoulSeek or pretty much anything. If you want to look for a band you don't know about yet, you can look at some of your LastFM neighbours and see who they're listening to. Or you could just post on Your Favourite Band's forum, and see who else people are listening to. You don't even have to invest any notable amount of time doing so, what with your modern Broad Band Inter Nets and all.<br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />All music criticism is pretty much invalid, basically. Which is why anyone who still buys the NME, with actual money, is a bit of a daftie.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">STUPID HYPOCRITE</span></span><br /><br />Having said all that, erm, recommend some music to you is precisely what we're about to do (in our lovably ramshackle way) on the other side of this full stop: .<br /><br />Pop quiz, hotshots. How many of the following things do you like?<br /></div><ol style="text-align: justify;"><li>Electronic music of both the Pet Shop Boys / Depeche Mode / Client variety, and of the lo-fidelity early-Baby-Bird / Lamb variety.</li><li>Chris Morris' Blue Jam (when it was on the radio and good, not when it was on television and not good).</li><li>Video games.</li><li>Funny things.</li><li>Free things.</li><li>Bands that are quite a lot like Sonic Youth circa Kool Thing.<br /></li></ol><div style="text-align: justify;">If you answered "yes" to the first five items, then the next bit is for you. If you answered "yes" to the last two things, the bit after that bit is for you.<br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">THE FIRST BIT</span></span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.onelifeleft.com/">One Life Left</a> is Europe's only FM-broadcast videogame radio show. It drops English every Monday night on London and the internet's <a href="http://www.resonancefm.com/">Resonance 104.4 FM</a>, except it isn't doing that for a bit, as it's not on right now. Keep checking that website for updates.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">(A FEW HOURS TOO LATE BREAKING NEWS: The new series of One Life Left actually started earlier tonight at 9pm. Luckily, it continues every Tuesday from now on, with a similarly nine-o-clockly starting time, each week for the next 24-or-so weeks.)</span><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://xs220.xs.to/xs220/07412/1LL.gif"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer;" src="http://xs220.xs.to/xs220/07412/1LL.gif" alt="" border="0" /></a>However! Each episode thus far can be nabbed from <a href="http://onelifeleft.libsyn.com/">here</a> in podcast form. Best of all, our favourite bit (and if you've read this far, soon to be your favourite bit) goes by the name of Free Market Economy. It's a series of monologues, songs and musings from the mind, mouth and fingers of Derek Williams. If you like the idea of hearing a market stall holder riffing on the theme of unsold second-hand copies of Xbox 360 Football Manager 2006, the Game/Gamestation merger or <span class="postcolor">City of Heroes to a variety of musical stylings, then this is for you. If you don't like the idea of those things, you're wrong and you should.</span><br /><br /><span class="postcolor">Don't take our word for it (oh, you weren't? Bah). You can soon find yourself downloading it by clicking on <a href="http://media.libsyn.com/media/onelifeleft/fmemix.mp3">these words here</a>, then make your own mind up. After listening to it. And that.<br /><br />You should be able to subscribe to OneLifeLeft's podcast from iTunes once the new series begins. Until then, go </span><a href="http://onelifeleft.libsyn.com/">here</a> for previous episodes.<br /><br /><span class="postcolor"><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">THE OTHER BIT</span></span></span><br /><br /><span class="postcolor">Now and then, BrokenTV TV (which once made it into the "Top 100 Most Viewed : (Today) : Comedy" section of YouTube for about an hour) receives a friend request from someone else. Usually, these are merely automated offerings plugging godawful Country and Western music, or right-wing American conspiracy theorists. Recently we got one from someone worth actually adding to our 'exclusive' 'friends' 'club'. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=filthytongues">Isa And The Filthy Tongues</a> sounded a bit like they might be a performance art troupe that blurred a line between 'art' and 'filthy porn'. In actual fact, they're much better than that. They're, as our pre-amble suggested, quite a bit like Sonic Youth circa Kool Thing, only not quite as good.</span><br /><br /><span class="postcolor">Lucky, Not Being Quite A Good As Sonic Youth Performing Kool Thing is still a very good thing to be. And so here are a couple of their videos.</span><br /><br /><span class="postcolor"><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-05309945806832003 visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/6Vt9c54Tf0w"></a><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-05309945806832003 visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/6Vt9c54Tf0w"></a><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-05309945806832003 visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/6Vt9c54Tf0w"></a><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-05309945806832003 visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/6Vt9c54Tf0w"></a><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-05309945806832003 visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/6Vt9c54Tf0w"></a><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-05309945806832003 visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/6Vt9c54Tf0w"></a><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-04652334333726683 visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/6Vt9c54Tf0w"></a><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/6Vt9c54Tf0w"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/6Vt9c54Tf0w" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></embed></object></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;" class="postcolor">"EDUCATION"</span><br /><br /><span class="postcolor"><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-05309945806832003 visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/ee0ShAlU2lY"></a><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-05309945806832003 visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/ee0ShAlU2lY"></a><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-05309945806832003 visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/ee0ShAlU2lY"></a><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-05309945806832003 visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/ee0ShAlU2lY"></a><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-05309945806832003 visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/ee0ShAlU2lY"></a><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-05309945806832003 visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/ee0ShAlU2lY"></a><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab-04652334333726683 visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/ee0ShAlU2lY"></a><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/ee0ShAlU2lY"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/ee0ShAlU2lY" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></embed></object></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;" class="postcolor">"FINDERS FUCKERS"</span><br /><br /><br />Both good, and as far as we're concerned "very much worth it, gov'nor".<br /></div>Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37317043.post-13627149996409216532007-09-24T16:11:00.000+00:002007-09-24T16:19:34.955+00:00"It's Music For Thick People"<div style="text-align: justify;">Only a few months ago, BrokenFM was loudly pondering to anyone within a fifteen metre radius about how annoying it is that the entire genre of 'indie' music (or alt. rock, or whatever The Kids are calling it these days) is taken up wholly by interchangeable Jo Whiley-approved white male guitar bands. We've just clicked through pretty much the entire iTunes top 50 alternative chart, and as far as we're concerned about 75% of it could have been performed by the same band. 'Band' with a silent 'L', there. Oh, how we longed for that to change, how we longed for the days when the monthly Indie chart on The Chart Show (when it was on Channel Four, natch) would contain bands such as The JAMMs or The Sugarcubes, as opposed to sodding Razorlight, the flipping Arctic Monkeys or the chuffing Pigeon Detectives, all plopping out the same old tunes that your Dad probably quite likes too.<br /><br />Granted, there are tons of brilliant acts making music right now, such as The Go! Team, The Hold Steady, Bonde De Role, MIA, but it's never any of them that seem to get played on the radio we've got to listen to in work. Sadly. Which is just one of the reasons we really chuffing well hate our job right now. And that last past is worth saying, because we're guessing the head of the HR department from Associated Chocolate Ice-Cream, Cake And Puppies Incorporated reads this blog.<br /><br />Now, in the modern space age days of September 2007, the music world is a very different place. Now our radio doesn't spurt out endless hours of dull white man rock music that your Dad quite likes. Now there are two acts that feature annoying women pretending to be cockneys on vocals instead, and as a result we now want to start hurting ourselves with knives.<br /><br />Reverend and the Makers. Kate Nash. Go away. You're making Baby Jesus cry. If anyone actually relates to the fact that "'e sed to Keeley 'e finks Oi'm spesh-ul", or they think rhyming "bittah" with "fittah" is a good and clever thing, they'd be better served by having bricks thrown at them. It's music for people who pay £3 for a small section of a song as a ringtone, when they could get the full song for 99p anyway.<br /><br />That's why today BrokenFM is starting a new campaign. Cut out the badge below, and proudly wear it at all times. With any luck, the campaign will be up there with the Dennis The Menace Fan Club and Blue Peter in the badge ubiquity stakes by the start of November.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://xs319.xs.to/xs319/07391/nocockneys.png" /><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">At least Lily Allen uses her 'telephone voice' when performing a song that lots of people are going to hear.</div>Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37317043.post-82067199087071131952007-09-09T21:54:00.000+00:002007-09-09T22:30:23.864+00:00Good News, Bad News<div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Good News!</span><br /><br />There are two (count 'em) previews of the new <a href="http://www.highwatermarks.com/">High Water Marks</a> album on their <a href="http://www.myspace.com/thehighwatermarks">MySpace </a>page.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bad News!</span><br /><br />Their new album ('Polar', on the brilliantly named <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Happy_Birthday_To_Me_Records" title="Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records">Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records</a> label) doesn't seem to actually be coming out any time soon. And if that weren't a kick in the swingers enough, when BrokenFM tried to post a comment on their MySpaceBlog, we had to sign up especially to do so. That's something we've been putting off for ages, because we really don't care in the slightest about having a MySpace account. The worst part is, not only is the internet now MOCKING US MERCILESSLY for having no friends, some bloke called Tom is laughing at us for having no friends. It's too much for a fragile blog such as BrokenFM to handle.<br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCwGUJPVEhbKTKJHXFIJP6BZ401d_DyNkAZrmVuRnMxPLWV2V15Adwa70lwxuEKxfyNzh6p-a5UvCKpODR9tBImZ93xGW-5sg5lZDcmHqYF5iq9wLIV5JBN8m1SLYGzcQTkEJFbQ/s1600-h/brokenspace.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCwGUJPVEhbKTKJHXFIJP6BZ401d_DyNkAZrmVuRnMxPLWV2V15Adwa70lwxuEKxfyNzh6p-a5UvCKpODR9tBImZ93xGW-5sg5lZDcmHqYF5iq9wLIV5JBN8m1SLYGzcQTkEJFbQ/s400/brokenspace.png" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5108331038499533970" border="0" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Yes yes, all very witty, but who the buggering fuck are The High Water Marks? </span><br /><br />Cripes, you're very terse for a heading. Well, you know the Apples In Stereo? And you know the way some of their songs are sung by a lady with a swoonsome vocal delivery? Well, that's Hilarie Sidney, that is. And now she's left the Apples In Stereo to devote herself full time to her other band, The High Water Marks. That's a shame, as it means Sunndal Song isn't likely to become a proper single by the Apples (and therefore it won't take its rightful place as the best-selling single of all time ever). And it's more of a shame because despite their second album seemingly being completed for ages, it's still nowhere near a shop.<br /><br />So, until that situation is remedied, which we'll do the utmost to hasten while we've still got breath in our gin-addled bodies, we'd recommend you check out their first album, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songs_About_the_Ocean">Songs About The Ocean</a>. There are two tracks from it on their MySpace page, although clumsily they've not chosen the best ones. Far better to check out the standout track, Feel Everything, which we've handily posted the YouTube video for just below this sentence.<br /><br /><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" title="Block this object with Adblock Plus" class="abp-objtab visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/y7D3LL7FoxM"></a><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/y7D3LL7FoxM"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/y7D3LL7FoxM" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br /></div></div>Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37317043.post-19765148075350422952007-07-10T00:17:00.000+00:002007-07-10T00:50:14.738+00:00The Day After Live Earth, We Chopped Down a Tree*<span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-size:85%;">(Legal notice: Heavy use of sarcasm ahead. It may be best to wear or hat or something.)</span><br /><br />MUSIC SALES AT LOWEST SINCE RECORDS BEGAN</span><br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article2045335.ece">http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article2045335.ece</a></span><br /><br />Meanwhile, in other news:<br /><br />ELTON BUYS INTO EXCLUSIVE SUNSET TOWER<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/elton%20buys%20into%20exclusive%20sunset%20tower_1026829">http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/elton%20buys%20into%20exclusive%20sunset%20tower_1026829</a></span><br /><br />SIR ELTON BUYS RUSSIAN .("Pawn" - ed). PAINTINGS<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/sir%20elton%20buys%20russian%20.porn.%20paintings">http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/sir%20elton%20buys%20russian%20.porn.%20paintings</a></span><br /><br />MADONNA BUYS SIXTH LONDON HOME<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/madonna%20buys%20sixth%20london%20home_1035189">http://www.contactmusic.com/news.nsf/article/madonna%20buys%20sixth%20london%20home_1035189</a></span><br /><br />McCARTNEY BUYS BATMAN HOME<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/mccartney%20buys%20batman%20home">http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/mccartney%20buys%20batman%20home</a></span><br /><br />FAITH HILL BUYS McGRAW LOVE JEEP<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/hill%20buys%20mcgraw%20love%20jeep_08_02_2006">http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/hill%20buys%20mcgraw%20love%20jeep_08_02_2006</a></span><br /><br />DESTINYS CHILD STAR BUYS BASKETBALL TEAM<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/destinys%20child%20star%20buys%20basketball%20team_10_03_2006">http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/destinys%20child%20star%20buys%20basketball%20team_10_03_2006</a></span><br /><br />MARIAH CAREY BUYS MARILYN MONROES PIANO<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/carey%20buys%20marilyn%20monroes%20piano_26_04_2006">http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/carey%20buys%20marilyn%20monroes%20piano_26_04_2006</a></span><br /><br />NELLY BUYS BASKETBALL TEAM<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/nelly%20buys%20basketball%20team">http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/nelly%20buys%20basketball%20team</a></span><br /><br />ROBBIE WILLIAMS BUYS A LUXURY YACHT<br /><span style="font-size:85%;"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/williams%20buys%20a%20luxury%20yacht">http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/williams%20buys%20a%20luxury%20yacht</a><br /><br /><span style="font-size:100%;">Stuff and nonsense aside, should one decide that one really needs to buy an album from a megapopular recording artist, the following steps should really be carried out:<br /><br />STEP ONE.<br />Find out how much Megapopular Recording Artist's new album costs.<br /><br />STEP TWO.<br />Find out the name of a band on the same label as </span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Megapopular Recording Artist who have just released a debut album, or have yet to trouble the chart compilers of the UK. This band's album should not be advertised using television adverts, or in newspapers.<br /><br />STEP THREE.<br />Buy the album by the new or unpopular artist</span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:100%;">.<br /><br />STEP FOUR.<br />Go home. Fire up Mininova. Download the album you'd originally wanted by </span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:100%;">Megapopular Recording Artist. Illegally.<br /><br />STEP FIVE.<br />Make yourself a nice cup of tea. After all, you've just made the world 2.4% better!<br /><br />Sorry everybody, but all the reports of how <span style="font-style: italic;">well </span>the likes of Madonna and the Red Hot Chili Peppers did by managing to go without helicopters, champagne and pheasant soup for a couple of hours on Saturday kind of pissed us off a bit.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">A LIST OF BANDS YOU SHOULD BUY ALBUMS FROM INSTEAD OF CERTAIN MEGAPOPULAR RECORDING ARTISTS AND STILL KEEP YOUR CONSCIENCE CLEAR. </span><span>Unless any of the bands we're listing turn out to be NRA supporters or anything, because we really haven't bothered researching this very well. We're already starting to regret this update, to be honest.</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Instead of buying a Madonna album, why not buy one from the following artists on the same record label, then just </span><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.mininova.org/">download </a><span style="font-weight: bold;">Madonna's album illegally instead?</span><br /><br />FAMILY FORCE 5<br />IDIOT PILOT<br />MUTE MATH<br />TEAM SLEEP<br /><br /></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-size:100%;">Instead of buying a Metallica album, why not buy one from the following artists on the same record label, then just <a href="http://www.mininova.org/">download </a>Metallica's album illegally instead?<br /></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span><br />EBN OZN<br />OLD 97'S<br />YEAR OF THE RABBIT<br /></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-size:100%;">Instead of buying a Red Hot Chili Peppers album, why not buy one from the following artists on the same record label, then just <a href="http://www.mininova.org/">download </a></span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-size:100%;">the Red Hot Chili Peppers' </span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span></span><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-size:100%;">album illegally instead?<br /></span></span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><span><br />MELISSA AUF DER MAUR<br />KING BISCUIT TIME<br />KARY NG<br /><br /><br /><br />(*That bit is true, although not strictly related.)<br /></span></span></span>Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37317043.post-67694346662347292192007-05-28T17:01:00.000+00:002007-05-28T17:07:53.487+00:00While We're At It...<div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://xs215.xs.to/xs215/07221/ethicalvhs.gif" /><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Similar to what we said about that mp3 below, but inserting the following facts into the correct places.<br /></div><ul style="text-align: justify;"><li>Video clip</li><li>Bootleg of Nirvana live in San Diego in 1993 that we picked up at a car boot sale</li><li>Come As You Are</li><li>Shaky camerawork and less than perfect sound, but still well worth it</li><li>We were going to YouTube it up, but it'd only be taken down, so we're Rapidsharing it instead</li><li>More tracks to follow, we shouldn't wonder<br /></li></ul><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://xs215.xs.to/xs215/07221/nirv1.jpg" /><br /></div><br /><a href="http://rapidshare.com/files/33898613/Nirvana_-_Come_As_You_Are__Live_.zip">Get the clip here</a> (25,225KB)Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37317043.post-52352177762172891372007-05-28T15:55:00.000+00:002007-05-28T16:48:27.499+00:00The BrokenFM (Morally Ethical) Flexidisc Collection: Part One<div style="text-align: justify;">First update for an age, we know. Sadly, the decision to build ourselves a gigantic media rack out of chicken wire, reinforced cardboard and Cyan-Taque (the non-copyright infringing local discount supermarket equivalent of Blu-Tac) was a catastrophic one, and as a consequence we've spent the last ten weeks digging our way out of the pile of Pet Shop Boys reissues, bootleg Depeche Mode tribute albums and Carter USM promos we'd amassed over the last 20 years. Still, we've now recovered and can begin to offer the music opinions that almost dozens of readers have come to expect.<br /><br />Of course, the massive flaw in simply writing about music on the internets is along the lines of "why should we listen to you? Granted, you've been empirically correct about every single one of your end of year Best Of 2006 lists, but without listening to the tunes you're championing, how do we know we'll like what you're talking about?" Well, we're a highly principled (i.e. scared of being killed by ninja lawyers) blog, and don't want to be a party to the 21st Century home taping that is giving away MP3s. That said, we do like the idea of more than 3 people bothering to read this blog, and so we present a happy medium.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://xs215.xs.to/xs215/07221/ethicalmp3.gif" /><br /></div><br />Yes, that's right. Doing what everyone else does, but pretending we're somehow justified in doing so. First up, an alternate version of Love Cliché, by Bran Van 3000.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Who?</span><br /><br />The ones who did Drinkin' in LA, a pretty big hit in 1999, after being a smaller hit in 1998. It became a bigger hit after being used in a not-very-good cider advert that was pretty much an ad-friendly remake of the Smack My Bitch Up video. That was taken from their critically well received album Glee, which, despite containing at least six slices of SOLID POP GOLD, wasn't plundered for any more singles after Drinkin'... became a top three smash. Although the BBC did use some of the track Gimme Sheldon in a trailer for some golf.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">So this is from that album?</span><br /><br />Nope. After Glee, the band sat around until 2001, by which point they released the follow-up Discosis. Not quite up to the standards of their debut, it was still enjoyable enough, with the highs (Astounded, Dare I Say, Rock Star, Love Cliche) more than making up for the lows.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">So, this is from that?</span><br /><br />No. After first single from the album, Astounded, featuring the late Curtis Mayfield, received a decent amount of radio airplay, the decision was made to put out the wonderfully bouncy pop song Love Cliché as a follow up. In the same vein as Len's Steal My Sunshine, it would have been the perfect compliment to any summer. Unfortunately, the band's US record company Grand Royal went out of business before the release of the single, despite promotional copies being sent out containing the song itself, and an alternate guitartastic version of it.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">And this is that?</span><br /><br />Yes. Given it doesn't seem to crop up on eBay very often, and there's no other way you can legally get hold of the track, we feel morally justified in offering the following.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://xs215.xs.to/xs215/07221/bv3.jpg" /><br /></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://rapidshare.com/files/33886777/The_Morally_Ethical_Collection_1.zip">GET IT HERE (5,432KB zipped)</a><br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">Well, that wasn't too bad. Look out for more, very soon. Probably.<br /></div></div></div>Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37317043.post-78452590570130339782007-03-06T17:35:00.000+00:002007-03-06T18:04:09.259+00:00The Man 1, The Pixies 0<div style="text-align: justify;">One of the fundamental rules of The Internet goes something like this; if Bill Hicks said it, it is therefore gospel, and Unquestionably The Right Thing To Think. One of the things people like to link this to most often is his "you do a commercial, you're off the artistic roll-call forever" statement from Rant in E-Minor. Now, despite the fact that he only brandished his statement at celebrities who already have too much money, people like to throw this in the face of anyone involved in an advert, ever.<br /><br />BrokenFM would like to stop slurping from a bottle of Orange Drink™ for a moment, and introduce it's own stance on the matter; IT'S OKAY TO 'DO' AN ADVERT, AS LONG AS IT ISN'T A REALLY, REALLY SHIT ADVERT. So, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie escape punishment for their old Alliance and Leicester adverts, as they were quite good. Armando Iannucci gets a suspended sentence for directing at least some of the Mark Benton Nationwide adverts. Mitchell and Webb serve a couple of months remand for "I'm a Mac" "I'm a PC", but are subsequently allowed a return to society.<br /><br />But, and it pains us to say so, The Pixies might not be so lucky. When watching a VHS recording of the enjoyable John Simms drama Never Never from space year 2000, we stumbled over a prime example of a Smug Advertising Spunkwipe, advertising Smirnoff. The soundtrack? Tame, by the Pixies. Proof? Here:<br /><br /><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 15px ! important;" class="abp-objtab visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/vxE69fzw6PY"></a><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/vxE69fzw6PY"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/vxE69fzw6PY" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></embed></object><br /><br />Well, clearly it doesn't diminish the quality of their recordings, and this is hardly a revelation as we remember the advert going out at the time, but it still hurts. Especially as time had made us forget exactly how annoying that advert is. You can just picture an Advertising Suit sitting just off camera, ticking off all of the key demographics the advert is hoping to appeal to, probably whilst being lightly fellated.<br /><br />The only thing that is getting us through the whole experience are the probabilities that:<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">(a) </span>The Pixies themselves had no idea their music was being used in this way,<br /><br />and<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">(b)</span> The Stupid Smug Megatwat who 'stars' in the advert ended up auditioning for the role of monkey-faced-Lee-Evans-type-bloke in Torchwood, and failed miserably.<br /><br />We can but hope.<br /></div>Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37317043.post-91431970545649973042007-02-19T00:24:00.000+00:002007-02-19T00:28:05.245+00:00The Cheapest Brilliant Music Video Of All Time<div style="text-align: justify;">The thing is, Velouria just <span style="font-style: italic;">works </span>as a pop video. It's clearly rubbish, and yet, it's utterly great. But what does it look when run at 'proper' speed? As ever, YouTube has the answer:<br /></div><br /><a style="left: 0px ! important; top: 0px ! important;" class="abp-objtab visible ontop" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/y1CO84MKQ38"></a><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/y1CO84MKQ38"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/y1CO84MKQ38" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></object></embed>Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37317043.post-5048909733451378042007-01-30T23:40:00.000+00:002007-01-30T23:43:11.408+00:00How Much Does BrokenFM Like The New Apples In Stereo Album, Then?<div style="text-align: justify;">Well...<br /><br /><img src="http://xs411.xs.to/xs411/07053/hitparade07-1.gif" /><br /><br />The High Water Marks being a sort of spin-off band from Apples In Stereo, of course.<br /><br />(Sorry, everyone. We'll try and do a non-rubbish update sometime soon.)<br /></div>Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37317043.post-91166149461043380182007-01-05T04:54:00.000+00:002007-01-05T05:04:07.787+00:00So, What *Is* The Greatest Song Ever Written In The History Of Music, Then?<div style="text-align: justify;">Well, according to the listeners of Virgin Radio, it's... Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol.<br /><br />No, really: <a href="http://www.virginradio.co.uk/music/charts/top_500/index.html">see</a>?<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://umusicimages.ca/snowpatrol/microsite/info1.jpg" /><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br />They're right of course, and we full expect to see it remain in the top spot of next year's annual chart rundown of the greatest pieces of music ever composed. Unless David Gray or James Blunt bring out a new record before then, of course.<br /></div>Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37317043.post-30549870763357498272006-12-31T17:59:00.000+00:002006-12-31T18:06:52.724+00:00The BrokenFM Awards 2006: Part Two<div style="text-align: justify;"><img src="http://xs310.xs.to/xs310/06520/20albums06.jpg" /><br /><br />The BrokenFM list of our Top 20 Albums 2006. Written quite stupidly in a massive rush, because it's 6pm on New Years Eve. Well, like the Iraqi Prime Minister, we said we'd get it done by the end of the year, and hang the consequences. Eh? Oh. On with the chart, then.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">20. Cat Power - The Greatest</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000DXSDM6.02._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" /><br /></div>Pop fact! We always used to get Cat Power slightly confused with Beth Orton, and weren't sure if they were a band that Beth Orton was in. Yes, we are idiots.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">19. Adam Green - Jacket Full Of Danger</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000EDWL14.02._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V54644584_.jpg" /><br /></div>Not as tops as his last few albums. Yes, it had Nat King Cole, but that's no Jessica or Dance With Me, is it? (No, it isn't.)<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">18. The Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000FS9L2K.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V60712266_.jpg" /><br /></div>If all the tracks were as good as Pull Shapes or We Are The Pipettes, this would be nudging the small numbers at the top end of the chart, but as it is, there were just too many faintly annoying tracks to see us putting any higher than this. We'd hope<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">17. Jarvis - Jarvis</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000JMKCU2.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V36690601_.jpg" /><br /></div>Hurrah. We were suspecting he's change direction into a properly 'serious' (i.e. dull) artist and then not sell many records, but this is a great album. It's even shifting a few copies. Shows what we know.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">16. The Sounds - Dying To Say This To You</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000ENWKO2.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V64439298_.jpg" /><br /></div>Sneaking under the wire at the end of the year, because we've only just started listening to this album properly, and it's a grower. In fact, we've just moved it up several places in the list after a few listens to Painted By Numbers and Night After Night.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">15. Pet Shop Boys - Fundamental</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000EZ8OHM.02._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V54729121_.jpg" /><br /></div>A welcome comeback, but despite a few standout tracks (I'm With Stupid, Numb), while it's certainly better than Release, this isn't a patch on Nightlife.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">14. Ben Kweller - Ben Kweller</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000H7ZZYM.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V41360740_.jpg" /><br /></div>More top tunery from the ever reliable Mr Kweller. It's be better if he collaborated more often with fellow Ben, Ben Folds, mind.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">13. Hot Chip - The Warning</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000EF7W3O.02._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V55484766_.jpg" /><br /></div>Mmm. We quite fancy some chips around about now. What do you mean, shut up and talk more about the records?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">12. Elke Brauweiler - Twist A Saint Tropez</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000J0SVD4.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V40634293_.jpg" /><br /></div>A nice little collection of French language cover versions, including great ones of Laisse Tomber Les Filles and Joe Le Taxi. Pop fact! April March would be in the top three albums of this year, only we've discovered her Chrominance Decoder album about eight years too late. There's nothing like a good sense of timing, eh our petit amis?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">11. Camera Obscura - Let's Get Out of This Country</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000F4MP9A.02._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V54442776_.jpg" /><br /></div>A rallying cry for the likes of Davidson and Daniels during the pre-election part of 1997. If David Cameron wants to win the 2007 election, he should get them to say it again, only for the Tories this time!!!!1 Sorry.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">10. The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000EGDNCW.02._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg" /><br /></div>The Lips are back. And while they're performing at slightly less than a Yoshimi level of form, this is still very good indeed. Plus, their drummer wore a T-shirt with 'Cymru' written on it on the Jay Leno show, so bonus points for that.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">9. Headlights - Kill Them With Kindness</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000G8O2AK.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V41222014_.jpg" /><br /></div>In a year without albums from The Postal Service or Ms John Soda (that we can blimming well get hold of, anyway), this isn't a bad alternative at all. One of our most pleasing accidental eMusic finds of the year.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">8. Various - Pop! Justice: 100% Solid Pop Music</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000JCESCU.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V36966063_.jpg" /><br /></div>Empirical proof that Pop! (always include that exclamation mark) is back, and better than ever. Yes, we know compilations shouldn't be included here. What are you, Gallup?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">7. Chick Habit - More! More! More! More!</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://www.revolver.nu/bilder/album/chick_habit_more_more_more_more220.jpg" /><br /></div>Excellent! Loud! Shouty! Girlpunkpop! From! Stockholm! Yay!<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">6. Grandaddy - Just Like The Fambly Cat</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000EU1LGS.02._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V54269200_.jpg" /><br /></div>And with that, they were gone. Four (proper) albums in nine years, but four of the best albums in BrokenFM's collection. And what a way to go out.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">5. The Russian Futurists - Me Myself & Rye... An Introduction To The Russian Futurists</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://ec1.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000FAO9S4.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V40873951_.jpg" /><br /></div>We weren't expecting much (we'd heard the song Paul Simon in passing, but didn't know who it was by), until this turned up as part of a bargainous 'five random albums for a tenner' from their record label. And even though it's a "Catching Up With..." style compilation of their earlier work, it counts. Not just because it's ace. Well, mainly because it's ace, to be fair.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">4. Graham Coxon - Love Travels At Illegal Speeds</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000CBVMHW.02._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V55708263_.jpg" /><br /></div>Its loudness is matched only by its goodness. His best waxing yet. By this rate, he'll have an album containing twelve tracks every bit as good on Song 2 by 2009, and he'll conquer the world.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3. Babybird - Between My Ears There Is Nothing But Music</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000H5UKGC.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V39823169_.jpg" /><br /></div>A wonderful return, with an album arguably stronger than any of their previous ones. Yes, including the lo-fi solo stuff, because Stephen Jones always spent too long singing in his 'tiny' voice on most of them. What with the entire marketing budget for the album amounting to a ten minute session appearance on 6Music, no-one bought this. We don't think it even got a review in Word. Or a shamelessly crowbarred plug in VideoGaiden. For, as we so often say in such circumstances, shame.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2. Cansei De Ser Sexy - Cansei De Ser Sexy</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000FOPROA.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V36943769_.jpg" /><br /></div>Might even have been number one if Art Bitch wasn't so utterly shit that it drags the rest of the record down with it. That's the harsh reality of the BrokenFM Good-o-meter.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1. Metric - Live It Out</span><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://ec2.images-amazon.com/images/P/B000FVGMAQ.01._AA240_SCLZZZZZZZ_V63964860_.jpg" /><br /></div>Yes, look surprised that we haven't made The Best Of Tatu our album of the year. Metric get in there with a record we've been listening to almost non-stop since the summer - it's only the fact most of that was done illicitly at work has prevented it from sweeping the board for BrokenFM's LastFM data. A pacy, tight album of indie rock tunes, it has an accessible and immediate feel without feeling too throw-away, to blatantly steal a quote from Amazon. Well, we've nicked all the cover images from them, so why not, eh?<br /><br />To think we were thinking of doing full Good-o-Meters for each of these albums, eh? Here's to next year, when Tatu probably will be number one of our best of 2007 charts. But until then: toodle-pip!</div>Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37317043.post-8405701004883221682006-12-31T17:20:00.000+00:002006-12-31T17:32:16.332+00:00The BrokenFM Awards 2006: Part One<div style="text-align: justify;"> <img src="http://xs310.xs.to/xs310/06520/20songs06.jpg" /><br /><br />With YouTube links where possible, so we don't have to bother telling you what each song actually sounds like. Technology benefiting the endemically lazy, there.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">20. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_M22STINYw">Jarvis - Running The World</a></span><br />To get the list going, here's a pop song with the word 'cunt' in the chorus. All very good, even if the track doesn't appear on the download versions of Jarv's debut album (and only as a hidden track on the 'proper' version). We'd still kind of like to approach the Cockmeister and ask him why he technically recorded a single calling Nelson Mandela a lady's part, though, just for a laugh.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">19. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d808dcKhCiY">TV On The Radio - Staring At The Sun</a></span><br />We put our TV on our radio the other day. One broken £950 LCD set and a squashed Binatone later, we saw the folly of doing so. Lucky we hadn't been listening to Death From Above, like CSS suggested to us, eh?<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">18. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmkKG7WDdig">The Sounds - Painted By Numbers</a></span><br />A late entry to the chart, we're listening to their album as we bash out these words in a pre-new year hurry. Which is why we can't think of much interesting to say about them.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">17. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DcWMBVeDr5M">The Pipettes - We Are The Pipettes</a></span><br />One of the highlights of the first episode of Torchwood was the scene where a massive pub brawl takes place as this song is playing on the jukebox. We could make a point about pub jukeboxes never having any songs as good as this on them, and they only ever contain Coldplay and Now 764, but nowadays there are plenty of massive hard-drive based ones, so we can't.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">16. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHB9F8tvGVM">Hot Chip - Over and Over</a></span><br />We make a comment here spelling out a phrase like "we really like this record it is good" one letter at a time, like they do in this song. But it wouldn't work in print. We do, of course.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">15. Babybird - Lighter and Spoon</span><br />They're back. And they're good. And this is the best track on the album, we reckon. No video evidence of the song available, so you'll have to go out and buy it.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">14. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WPzzBg51TU">DJ Yoda - Wheels</a></span><br />This stays in the chart, even if it does kind of remind us of that shit "DJ Santa on the wheels of steel" advert that has been on for the last few weeks. Hardly DJ Yoda's fault, to be fair.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">13. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nk6v6JYZ_OA">Graham Coxon - Standing On My Own Again</a></span><br />Why is Graham Coxon not more famous? Oh yeah, because society is fundamentally flawed, and most people would rather listen to Snow Patrol. *Sad smiley face*.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">12. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3r46hDe6lI">The Flaming Lips - The W.A.N.D.</a></span><br />This might have been The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song, only we used it as a ringtone for about two months, and duly got very sick of it.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">11. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BzoBeD61NY">Flatpack - Sweet Child Of Mine</a></span><br />A great cover version, and not just because it'll probably really annoy po-faced fans of Guns And Roses. Well, partly that. Because we hate Guns And Roses. So much, we can even be bothered typing their name in correctly.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">10. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hcZCbvhq1CI">Grandaddy - Jeez Louise</a></span><br />Standout track on their final album, and not even released as a single. We'd like to think this is because the band know it's a song far too good for radio 'jocks' to witter over the end of, and more likely because it's too loud for them to force their inane chatter over the top of.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">9. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TiR__3g3dU">Beth Orton - Shopping Trolley</a></span><br />Beth Orton had been off our personal radar for quite some time, until we'd heard this. It's stupidly good. A pity she'd spent so much time on underwhelming collaborations with The Chemical Brothers it took her this long to product something so wonderful. Still, better late than etc.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">8. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeuU3C-P2Uo">The Presets - Are You The One?</a></span><br />Also the recipient of BrokenFM's Best Pop Video Of The Year award, this excellent slice of electronic goodness had us dashing to the shops (ie. looking to see if it was on eMusic. It was!) for their album. Which is a bit of a let down. Oh well.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">7. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zKqcNeS328">Camera Obscura - Lloyd, I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken</a></span><br />Great song, coupled with a interestingly grumpy performance in the promo video. Cheer up, you've made one of the best tunes of the summer. Tch.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">6. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=af70bHwX4oY">The Russian Futurists - Paul Simon</a></span><br />We've looked on YouTube to see if there's a clip of this song being played along to Stephen Colbert dancing behind the back of a grumpy Congressman. There isn't. There should be.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">5. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYde-hphl1M">Cansei De Ser Sexy - Let's Make Love and Listen To Death From Above</a></span><br />The problem is, Death From Above 1979 are rubbish.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">4. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fc5C7p3euHs">Justice vs Simian - We Are Your Friends</a></span><br />Kanye West doesn't care about collaborations between... oh, you know where we're going with this.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">3. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKbzSc436gk">Girls Aloud - Something Kinda Ooooh</a></span><br />It's been a good year for pop, as the entire contents of the Pop Justice album prove, and as far as manufactured pop goes, this is up there with Daydream Believer. No, really. Really.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">2. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXcEbEKwHWc">Robots In Disguise - Turn It Up</a></span><br />More textbook pop. The last rock song in this list was all the way back at number ten, you know. And that was from a band who don't exist any more.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">1. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj7dEkMoPws">Pet Shop Boys - Numb</a></span><br />Oh yes. By far the standout track on their comeback album, and quite possiblty the best thing they've ever recorded. The soundtrack to a nation's <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZByrHy7nrE">misery </a>(and the soundtrack to another three smaller nations' Celtic smirking) as England got dumped out of the World Cup in front of the years' biggest TV audience. So, with classic style, they waited another five months to release it as a single, and ruined it by bunging a load of extra vocals on top. Tch. So good, the new year celebrations in Sydney have just been on, and this was the song used to welcome 2007 to Australia. And quite right, too.<br /></div>Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37317043.post-9194888114134277692006-12-28T05:36:00.000+00:002006-12-28T06:09:50.014+00:00It's A New Find (and an otherwise half-baked update)<div style="text-align: justify;">Cripes. We've done a YouTube search for different cover versions of Laisse Tomber les Filles (we were hoping there's a version performed by Serge Gainsbourg out there somewhere, but can't find one just yet), and ended up discovering the wonderful band <a href="http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=61175886">Chick Habit</a>. Presumably named after April March's excellent English translation of LTLF, they very much kick the arse part of our bodies, and luckily their début album is only £7.99 on iTunes. Unluckily, we can only find it on iTunes (stupid DRM), but we've bought it now.<br /><br />A shouty girl punk band from Sweden, their influences are listed as "Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Arcade Fire, ARE Weapons, Death From Above 1979, All Girl Summer Fun Band, Cat Power, The Cure, Holly Golightly, Interpol, The Kills, Mikabomb, RTX, Sister Vanilla, Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo [and] Wolf Parade", which is fine by us. But why take our word for it? Here is the proof that they've just knocked Action Biker into the number two position of The BrokenFM Top Ten Of Great Swedish Gands That No-one Has Heard Of.<br /></div><br /><br /><a class="abp-objtab" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/IRvpfX9KYBs" style="padding-left: 0px;"></a><a class="abp-objtab" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/IRvpfX9KYBs" style="padding-left: 0px;"></a><a class="abp-objtab" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/IRvpfX9KYBs" style="padding-left: 0px;"></a><a class="abp-objtab" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/IRvpfX9KYBs" style="padding-left: 0px;"></a><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/IRvpfX9KYBs"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/IRvpfX9KYBs" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></object></embed><br />"Doris Day"<br /><br /><a class="abp-objtab" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/JeZyCqRmGZk" style="padding-left: 0px;"></a><a class="abp-objtab" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/JeZyCqRmGZk" style="padding-left: 0px;"></a><a class="abp-objtab" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/JeZyCqRmGZk" style="padding-left: 0px;"></a><a class="abp-objtab" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/JeZyCqRmGZk" style="padding-left: 0px;"></a><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/JeZyCqRmGZk"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/JeZyCqRmGZk" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></object></embed><br />"Rule the World"<br /><br /><a class="abp-objtab" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Na17YpLQ5wU" style="padding-left: 0px;"></a><a class="abp-objtab" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Na17YpLQ5wU" style="padding-left: 0px;"></a><a class="abp-objtab" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Na17YpLQ5wU" style="padding-left: 0px;"></a><a class="abp-objtab" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/Na17YpLQ5wU" style="padding-left: 0px;"></a><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Na17YpLQ5wU"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Na17YpLQ5wU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></object></embed><br />First single "Bullshit Radio"<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">A resounding "hurrah" for shouty girlband guitar pop! Hurrah! It'd be one of our albums of the year, except it isn't from this year.<br /><br />You know, despite, well, all of our updates thus far, we don't listen exclusively to female fronted pop bands, it just happens that the only albums we feel compelled to post about fall into that category thus far, given that the Graham Coxon album we've been listening to all week came out too long ago to bother with now, and the Gruff Rhys album we want to write about isn't technically out for another month.<br /><br />Meanwhile, here's our top three versions of 'Laisse Tomber les Filles':</div><br /><br /><a class="abp-objtab" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/e4lFJrpYYMc" style="padding-left: 0px;"></a><a class="abp-objtab" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/e4lFJrpYYMc" style="padding-left: 0px;"></a><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/e4lFJrpYYMc"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/e4lFJrpYYMc" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></object></embed><br />3. The original version, by France Gall.<br /><br /><a class="abp-objtab" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/66NW-PB6UhQ" style="padding-left: 0px;"></a><a class="abp-objtab" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/66NW-PB6UhQ" style="padding-left: 0px;"></a><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/66NW-PB6UhQ"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/66NW-PB6UhQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></object></embed><br />2. The second best version, performed by Elke Brauweiler, isn't actually on YouTube, so here's another cover version by "Violett ft M$B", which probably clocks in at number four.<br /><br /><a class="abp-objtab" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/co1Nkkdi1tE" style="padding-left: 0px;"></a><a class="abp-objtab" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/co1Nkkdi1tE" style="padding-left: 0px;"></a><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/co1Nkkdi1tE"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/co1Nkkdi1tE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></object></embed><br />1. The April March version (without an actual video, and sung in English, but what can you do).<br /><br /><div style="text-align: justify;">See, just doing an update on cover versions of Laisse Tomber les Filles would have been rubbish. Hurrah for Chick Habit. Oh, and if anyone could flipping well tell us why Blogger keeps removing the /embed tags from our embedded YouTube links meaning we've got to keep manually re-adding them, that'd be dandy. Thanks.<br /></div>Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37317043.post-33575732283478114642006-12-24T01:13:00.000+00:002006-12-24T01:43:39.513+00:00They Never Seemed To Select The Moneybags Icon<div style="text-align: justify;">Here's something we were thinking of doing for a while. Remember <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_chart_show">The Chart Show</a>? The pop video showcase that used to be on Channel Four in the 1980s (and then on ITV, where it wasn't anywhere near as good)? Repeats of old episodes are now running on Sky Digital channel The Vault on Saturday mornings and Thursday afternoons. It'd be handy to capture one of those, and bung it up onto YouTube so everyone can see it, we reckon.<br /><br />Well, what with us being as endemically lazy as ever, it's quite fortunate that someone else has done just that. Except, even more excellently, they've uploaded an original Channel Four broadcast of it. So, with thanks to the enigmatic (well, we presume so) <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/JamesTV2001" onclick="_hbLink('ChannelLink','Watch');">JamesTV2001</a>, here it is in full colour. Now we can all sit back, watch that cutting edge Amiga 500 graphicry, and hope that the specialist chart rewinds to one of the songs in it that we want to see,<br />even although it hardly ever bloody did:<br /><br /><a class="abp-objtab" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/AvMFbcjoWqs" style="padding-left: 0px;"></a><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/AvMFbcjoWqs"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/AvMFbcjoWqs" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></object><br /><br />Part one. "Everything Good is Bad" by Westworld, "Burn It Up" by The Beatmasters with PP Arnold and "Why Are You Being So Reasonable Now" by Wedding Present.<br /><br /><a class="abp-objtab" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/41OxwpmfntQ" style="padding-left: 0px;"></a><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/41OxwpmfntQ"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/41OxwpmfntQ" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></object></embed><br /><br />Part two. "The Garden Of Eden" by The Garden of Eden and "Copperhead Road" by Steve Earle.<br /><br /><object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/UPU7D2W_ESY"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/UPU7D2W_ESY" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object></embed><br /><br />Part three. "Please Help the Cause against Lonliness" by Sandie Shaw, "Valerie", "Don't You Know What The Night Can Do", & "Roll With It" by Steve Winwood. Before somebody stuck a drum machine behind the latter and then claimed it was their own song.<br /><br /><a class="abp-objtab" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/U1v4oMJUbVY" style="padding-left: 0px;"></a><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/U1v4oMJUbVY"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/U1v4oMJUbVY" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></object></embed><br /><br />Part four. "Harvest For The World" by The Christians, "Don't Cry" by Boy George and bloody "Orinoco Flow" by bloody Enya.<br /><br /><a class="abp-objtab" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/S9yKgC6ysHE" style="padding-left: 0px;"></a><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/S9yKgC6ysHE"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/S9yKgC6ysHE" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></object></embed><br /><br />Part five. "Ordinary Angel" by Hue & Cry, "True Love" by Glenn Frey and "Riding on a Train" by The Pasadenas.<br /><br /><a class="abp-objtab" href="http://www.youtube.com/v/GD-A6DXzCRc" style="padding-left: 0px;"></a><object height="350" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GD-A6DXzCRc"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GD-A6DXzCRc" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" height="350" width="425"></object></embed><br /><br />The final bit, with "Desire" by eighties band U2.<br /><br />There's a heap more Chart Show goodness from the same Tuber <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/JamesTV2001" onclick="_hbLink('ChannelLink','Watch');">here</a>. It includes the last ever episode from 1998 (which includes a superb montage of all the Chart Show graphics over the years) and a special from 1986. Both of which we probably would have been better off posting here, but what can you do, eh?<br /></div>Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37317043.post-34692970943368686672006-12-13T01:15:00.000+00:002006-12-13T01:32:26.288+00:00It's the most sought after consumer product this Christmas. It's the most popular, yet most difficult to actually buy games console of all time. We have got one. And what have we been doing with it? Creating low quality Mii versions of our favourite pop duos, that's what.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">It's Stereo Total!<br /><br /></span><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><img src="http://xs110.xs.to/xs110/06503/wii_stereo.jpg" /><br /><br />Well, our Françoise Cactus probably passes muster, just, but we're not too happy with how Brezel Göring turned out. We just couldn't get the jagged face right. <span style="font-weight: bold;">5/10</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">It's They Might Be Giants!</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br /><img src="http://xs110.xs.to/xs110/06503/wii_tmbg.jpg" /><br /><br />Flansy: Easy. Quite large face, parting, glasses. And even then, we've still got it wrong. Linnell: Nothing like him. Trying to employ the 'cheekbones' option quite utterly failed to convey his scrawny look. <span style="font-weight: bold;">4/10</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">It's Tatu!</span><br /><br /><img src="http://xs110.xs.to/xs110/06503/wii_tatu.jpg" /><br /><br />Look, we've looked up their names from Wikipedia and everything. They're probably the only ones here who anyone might be able to guess correctly, even without the correct hair for Lena. Chances are, this is because we've looked at more pictures of Tatu than Stereo Total and TMBG. Even so, we really need to brush up on our Mii-ing skills. <span style="font-weight: bold;">6.5/10</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Want to see these legendary figures on <span style="font-style: italic;">your </span>Mii Parade?</span> Our Mii code is 6585 9853 0847 1206.Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37317043.post-29783627522297784442006-12-02T20:57:00.000+00:002006-12-02T23:25:19.003+00:00THE BROKENfm GOOD-O-METER™: 2. Tatu: The BestHonestly, we're not going to be all Popjustice "hey, bet you didn't expect us to like <span style="font-style: italic;">this</span>, eh?" every update, it's just that the last two albums we've bought have been Girls Aloud and this. And anyway, shut up. So, Tatu. Currently ahead of Metric and Stereo Total in BrokenFM's, er, <a href="http://www.last.fm/user/Mark_X/">LastFM</a> most favourite all-time bands of all-time page, even though they've only done two albums. Well, make that three, because here's their Best Of. And it's twenty songs long. And they've only done two albums. Going to be rubbish, huh? Well, just to be on the safe side, they've chucked in a free DVD including several videos (only one from the first album, mind, so BrokenFM's copy of the Screaming For More DVD won't be seeing eBay any time soon), and it's in a gorgeous rounded-corner double disc type of jewel case we've not seen before. Pity they've used an old picture of them for the cover. Surely they could have dragged them in front of a camera for a new shot. After all, we've already got that picture in the special Tatu shrine in our cellar.<br /><br />BUT WHAT OF THE MUSIC?<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="http://xs410.xs.to/xs410/06486/goodometer_tatu.jpg" /><br /></div><br />Displaying their typical Moscovite cheek, they've tried their best to break the Good-o-meter, by forcing us to cram all their good stuff towards the 'good' end of the scale. We've had to redesign it specially for them. And we didn't even include all of the tracks (there are three Russian versions of songs already on there in English, which would have got the same score). And now they probably want us to spend ages writing about each song and video individually.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Each Song And Video Commented Upon Individually:<br /></span><span style="font-size:85%;">(In decending order of superbity)</span><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Loves Me Not</span><br />Best of the bunch, with guitars and synths having a great big fight in front of Dark Haired Tatu and Ginger Tatu's vocals. Yes, we're going to continue saying we can't remember their names (mainly because we can't, except that one of them is called Yulia, but we're not sure which one).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Friend Or Foe</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">[Reads liner notes]</span> Noooooooooo! We absolutely love this song, and it's only now we find out it was co-written by bloody Dave "I'm Having My Lion Hour" Stewart. <span style="font-style: italic;">[Looks on Wikipedia]</span> Nooooooooo! The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Fof1.jpg">artwork</a> for the single was shot by Bryan Adams. Oh. And Sting played bass on the song, but at least he was good as a guest on The Smell Of Reeves And Mortimer, so we can live with that. Against all odds, it's still an ace song <span style="font-style: italic;">[checks Wikipedia to ensure Phil Collins wasn't playing the drums on it]</span>.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">How Soon Is Now</span><br />Better than the original, and we're only partly saying that in case it annoys any passing fans of The Smiths. Stupidly, unreleased as a single in the UK. We do wish record companies of bands we like would consult us about picking which songs to release as singles.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Cosmos (Outer Space) (She Wants Revenge Remix)</span><br />They miss a bit of a trick by not using the album version of this, which would be battling with Loves Me Not for best track on the album. It's all very good, but it loses something when you can't quite hear the excellent breathy Russian accents on the first verse properly.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Not Gonna Get Us</span><br />Their second single (at least it was over here), and it's better than the first. Only it didn't sell as many copies of the first one. Which kind of buggers up the point we were making for the previous track.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">All The Things She Said</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"OMFG Teen Russian Lesbians Ban Them Now (And They Probably Want To Come Here And Claim Benefits Too)"</span> quoth the Daily Mail upon the release of this. Which would make it worth buying on principle alone, but luckily it's also an excellent song. As you'll already know, as this is the only Tatu song everyone knows.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Loves Me Not (Glam As You Mix Radio Edit)</span><br />We weren't going to list the remixes, but this gives us an excuse to say if they wanted to put on a Glam As You remix, they really should have used the one for Friend Or Foe as well, because that's even better. Mind you, we think this one is exclusive to this album (apart from rare promo copies), so it's very welcome.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Null & Void</span><br />The sort of slightly haunting pop song that only really grabs you after a few listens, a bit like Nelly Furtado's 'Maneater' (only not quite as good).<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Show Me Love</span><br />This might very well be relegated to much lower on the Good-o-meter scale, were it not for the excellent lyric "like a game of pick up sticks/played by fucking lunatics". Well, it sounds better in a breathy Russian accent.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Gomensai</span><br />Released as a single as soon as all of the Not Enough People Are Buying These Excellent Jaunty Pop Singles Put Out A Ballad Now sirens went off at Tatu HQ. It's not great, but it'll do.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Perfect Enemy</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ne Ver', Ne Bojsia</span><br />The former, a passable enough way to spend four minutes of your life, the latter their Eurovision entry from 2003. We don't understand any of the lyrics (obv), but it's a safe bet to say it's better than the next five British Eurovision entries are going to be. It came third, by the way, in the same year Jemini, y'know, 'happened'.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Ludi Invalidi</span><br />The Russian language version of Dangerous And Moving, and quite different it is too. A pity, as the English language version is fantastic, and not on here. DO YOU SEE GIRLS ALOUD? TATU COULD PUT OUT A 'BEST OF', AND LEFT ACE TRACKS OFF OF IT, WHEREAS YOU HAD TO GO AND STINK YOURS UP WITH THAT AWFUL VERSION OF 'I THINK WE'RE ALONE NOW'. Tatu are getting <a href="http://www.tatu.ru/en/feedback.html?id=437&page=0">sued</a> over this song, by people who don't get the point of, well, anything.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Craving (Bollywood Mix)</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Divine</span><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">30 Minutes</span><br />Are all songs on this album. That we can't be bothered writing about.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">All About Us</span><br />No sir, we still don't like it. Which makes it quite mystifying why they (well, the marketing department of their record company) keep proclaiming it as their 'flagship' track for the compilation. Of course, it's the last track of theirs to get in the top ten in the UK (ever, despressingly probably), and the only one we hear in pubs, so we seem to be in the minority here.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">And What About The DVD Extras?</span><br /><br />The <span style="font-weight: bold;">live performance</span> is very good. There's an interesting anime video for <span style="font-weight: bold;">Gomensai </span>that we were tempted to do a 'comedy' update pointing out all of the plot holes in (except it would have been a pointless reference no-one would get). The <span style="font-weight: bold;">Ludi Invalidi</span> video is the girls at their censor annoying best by including background orgies. The <span style="font-weight: bold;">How Soon Is Now</span> video is a quite rubbish 'what we did on tour' camcorder zero budget job. The non-animated <span style="font-weight: bold;">Gomensai </span>video is really boring (and we've just noticed we've spelled 'Gomensai' incorrectly in that jpeg). The <span style="font-weight: bold;">remix videos</span> are what you'd expect.<br /><br />Lastly, the <span style="font-weight: bold;">TV spots</span> aren't, as we were hoping, specially shot "Hello Britain! We're Tatu! Buy our album!" adverts, but bog standard 'clip from the video with League One level radio DJ voiceover' adverts. And there's no chance of seeing the cringingly awful interview on The Frank Skinner Show which was, to us, like having your best friend from work meet your best friend from outside work for the first time, and end up not quite getting on in a way that makes you feel quite uncomfortable. Which, for some odd reason, we'd quite like to see again.<br /><br />Summing up time.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">In one sentence: </span>It's really, really good, and everyone should buy it.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Average Good-o-meter Reading:</span> 17.1<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">This Album Is Final And Conclusive Proof That People Who Whine On About All Manufactured Pop Being Rubbish Are:</span> A big bunch of cocks.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Can We See That Interview With Frank Skinner On YouTube At All? :</span><br /><br />Yes: <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=P9C-PX-WGUY"><img src="http://sjc-static12.sjc.youtube.com/vi/P9C-PX-WGUY/2.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=NjOL4vF-OVs"><img src="http://sjl-static4.sjl.youtube.com/vi/NjOL4vF-OVs/2.jpg" /></a>Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37317043.post-69129620972033349152006-11-18T06:35:00.000+00:002006-11-18T09:29:44.895+00:00THE BROKENfm GOOD-O-METER™: 1. Girls Aloud: The Greatest Hits<div align="justify">Having always utterly hated the whole Pop (Stars/Idol/Factor) reality show thing*, BrokenFM had never seen fit to go anywhere near a Girls Aloud album, but always quite liked most of the singles it'd heard on Tinpot Local Radio. Therefore, on a daft whim (and ignoring the dull whine of any Aerosmith fans snorting "they've only been going ten minutes, and they've got a greatest hits album!"), it wandered along to Tesco and bought their Greatest Hits. And what did it think? Well, unveiling BrokenFM's REVOLUTIONARY (at least we haven't seen anyone else do it, although they're probably bound to have) Good-o-meter™, here's a track by track guide**...<br /><br />* Although crucially, never having anything against 'manufactured' pop. It never did the Monkees any harm, and a world without Kylie's Come Into My World is a world we'd rather not be a part of. 'Manufactured' pop that happens to be utterly rubbish can piss off, mind.<br /><br />** At this point, if you're thinking "but what about judging how the album gels as a cohesive whole?", you might like to fling yourself off the top of a high building. An album has songs on it. The more good songs it has, the better. That's what albums are for. You cohesive hole.<br /><br /><br /></div><p align="center"><img src="http://xs109.xs.to/xs109/06466/goodometer.jpg" /></p><div align="justify"><br /><br /><br />Those track by track details in full, in descending order by quality:<br /><br /><strong>Something Kinda Ooh</strong><br />Pop single of the year? Could be! We're not quite sure why they've only got until three o'clock, though.<br /><br /><strong>Sound of the Underground</strong><br />The most surprisingly non-rubbish Christmas number one of modern times.<br /><br /><strong>Love Machine</strong><br />At least eight times better than the 'ironic' cover version by the Arctic Monkeys, clearly. Take that, 'proper' music.<br /><br /><strong>The Show</strong><br />Textbook pop that could even bring a smile to the face of Alan Hansen, we reckon.<br /><br /><strong>Wake Me Up<br />No Good Advice</strong><br />More quality pop music, even if we can't think of anything especially interesting to say about them.<br /><br /><strong>Long Hot Summer</strong><br />Spirited stab at another 'Love Machine', but not quite there. Not that bad, and worth a go.<br /><br /><strong>Biology</strong><br />Almost good, but takes a while to get going, and then really wasn't quite as good as you thought it was going to be.<br /><br /><strong>Whole Lotta History</strong><br />Bog standard interchangable ballad that everyone's mum would probably quite like. We reckon there should be a law that unless it's going to be at least 65% as good as Numb by the Pet Shop Boys, you're not allowed to release a ballad as a single. Which is probably why we're not involved in politics, to be fair.<br /><br /><strong>Life Got Cold</strong><br />A generic offcut seemingly rejected by the Sugababes. At least it's not a cover version, we suppose.<br /><br /><strong>Money</strong><br />Ooh, no. And that woefully bad pretend-Mexican voice near the start doesn't help any.<br /><br /><strong>See The Day</strong><br />Of the covers on here, easily the least bad, but there's no real reason for it to exist.<br /><br /><strong>I'll Stand By You</strong><br />Why bother to make a cover version that's just like the original, only not as good?<br /><br /><strong>Jump</strong><br />Or one that's way beyond your abilities?<br /><br /><strong>See The Day</strong><br />Like all of these?<br /><br /><strong>I Think We're Alone Now</strong><br />Oh dear. Oh deary deary dear. No. Of all the disappointing cover versions on here, this one displays the greatest gulf between the cover and the completely ace original. Awful. Not quite Jennifer Ellison Baby I Don't Care awful, but very, very close.<br /><br /><strong>Summary:</strong> Thanks to only having a producer and writer on a time-share basis with other bands, a worrying amount of the album is taken up with rubbish cover versions. Do you see? You should only do a cover version if you can either do it better than the original (cf Johnny Cash, Hurt), or take it in a different, interesting direction (most good cover versions ever)? Of course, they still sell, which is kind of the point for most pop acts, but seeing as the Girls Aloud project is able to produce pop records nearing perfection, it's annoying to see their puppeteers plumping for cashing in on versions of other people's classics when they're so nearly capable of coming up with their own.<br /><br />We get the feeling that if they'd waited a couple more years, they'd have been able to put out an absolutely ace 'Best of' album full of their original tracks, and another easily-avoided one full of their cover versions, but they're not so sure they'll be around for that long, so have chucked this out now while the going's good. Hopefully, given that the whole group is greater than the sum of it's parts, none of them will go solo, and sometime in 2008 there'll be an excellent 'The Actual Best Of Girls Aloud' to look forward to. </div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify"></div><div align="justify">Also, it's remarkable acheivement putting out a record that contains both the best and worst pop singles of the year.<br /><br /><strong>Average Good-o-meter™ Reading:</strong> 13.6. Should have been much better, but good to see the whole range of the Good-o-meter™ getting a work out on its debut.<br /><br /><strong>But! Is it as good as Tatu's Dangerous and Moving?</strong> No.<br /><br /><strong>Or Tatu: Best?</strong> No.</div>Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37317043.post-47978263092526551502006-11-10T23:38:00.001+00:002006-11-12T04:29:14.605+00:00<p>Hello, and welcome to BrokenFM. Which is like BrokenTV, but about music.<br /><br />Back in space year 2005, stumbled across a compilation project by Stu “TV’s Mr Crisps” Campbell, listing a total of one hundred songs could be crammed onto a standard 80 minute CDR, entitled Big Songs For Small Attention Spans. It was so good, BrokenFM’s Mark X cobbled together his own counterpart, the not entirely snappily-titled Gone In 48 Seconds* (*On Average), which was quite good. Then BSFSAS2 appeared, and it was also good. Then: nothing happened. At least, nothing in the world of compilations containing ludicrous numbers of songs.<br /><br />Then, BrokenTV’s Mark X noticed how easy it is to sort all your songs by duration in iTunes, and an idea was born. Well, revived. See you at the bottom of the list where there might, just might, be some sort of download link. If you're good.</p><p><br /></p><p align="center"><img src="http://xs308.xs.to/xs308/06456/99tracks.jpg" /></p><p><br /></p><p><br />Ninety-nine songs that can fit onto a single CD. Not a hundred, because track numbers only go up to ninety-nine. And just to make it a bit more interesting, we’ve set ourselves the following rules: </p><ul><li>No more than two songs by the same artist. </li><li>No using You Suffer by Nepalm Death, the official shortest song in history. That would be too easy. </li><li>The same goes for They Might Be Giants’ album-within-an-album Fingertips. </li><li>No more than two songs that were on Big Songs For Small Attention Spans or Gone In 48 Seconds* (*On Average), they have to be ‘fresh’. </li><li>Only things can be properly classified as songs. No spoken word only tracks, or dialogue clips from movie soundtracks. </li><li>And get that hair cut. You look like a hippy. </li></ul><p>With that in mind, BrokenFM set off, CD collection and track-ripping function of iTunes at the ready, to come up with the following list…<br /><br /><strong>1. Luscious Jackson - Intro</strong> (0.05)<br />And we’re off. And breaking two of the golden rules straight away. Eep.<br /><br /><strong>2. Joby Talbot - Blast Off</strong> (0.16)<br />From the soundtrack of the largely disappointing HitchHiker's Guide To The Galaxy movie. Are far we were concerned, the best thing in that movie was the laser that slices bread, cooking as it goes, making instant toast. Excellent. Although it does mean the side of the bread still attached to the loaf will be toasted, even though it's going back in the bread bin, thereby causing staleness and a wasted slice-worth of bread next time round. So, even that isn't very good.<br /><br /><strong>3. Arm of Roger - Counting to Zero</strong> (0.49)<br />From their excellent 'The Ham and Its Lily' CD, which anyone lamenting the end of Grandaddy should investigate.<br /><br /><strong>4. Arling & Cameron - Olympic Intro</strong> (0.18)<br />We’re quite disappointed A&C have yet to release an album called “I’m Arling, and he’s Cameron”, you know.<br /><br /><strong>5. Clap Your Hands Say Yeah - Sunshine and Clouds (and Everything Proud)</strong> (1.01)<br />This is a great tune, plus you could use it as a ringtone that would really annoy the sort of people who like what they’d probably call ‘proper music’ like Razorlight.<br /><br /><strong>6. The Fisticuffs - Don't Play In Old Refrigerators</strong> (0.29)<br />From a compilation album called 'Til Someone Loses An Eye, which has a selection of tracks dispensing advice to children. A bit like that Charley Says DVD, but in music. Anyone remember the pre-Neighbours voiceover warning about the time Joe Mangel’s son clambered into an old fridge? Just us, then? Oh.<br /><br /><strong>7. Blur - We've Got A File On You</strong> (1.00)<br />Nice to see Damon’s set up another side-project to get all of those dull songs out of his system, hopefully ensuring the new Blur album will be full of ace stuff like this.<br /><br /><strong>8. Fear of Pop - Interlude</strong> (0.21)<br />Also known as Ben Folds, as a side project from the days when he still had his Five. The self-titled album containing this track had Folds’ first collaboration with Bill Shatner on it, called In Love, which is every bit as tops as the cover of Common People, you know.<br /><br /><strong>9. Ben Kweller - Jerry Falwell Destroyed the Earth</strong> (1.21)<br />From the commie pinko terrorist liberal MoveOn.org fundraiser album Future Soundtrack To America, which is home to all sorts of good stuff. Like this.<br /><br /><strong>10. Pitman - Food Interlood</strong> (0.24)<br />Probably all you need to hear from Pitman, really. Once you’ve heard this track, you kind of get the ‘joke’, and don’t need to listen to anything else from him. Not necessarily bad, just a bit one-note.<br /><br /><strong>11. Freeland - Physical World</strong> (1.17)<br />Talking over music counts as a proper song, by the way. After all, that’s what our dad says rap music is.<br /><br /><strong>12. The White Stripes - Passive Manipulation</strong> (0.34)<br />A lot of people like to slag off French & Saunders these days, but given the fact they used a good five minutes of a BBC One Christmas Day special doing a sketch about Meg White’s drumming, they’ll always be alright by us.<br /><br /><strong>13. Pavement - Serpentine Pad</strong> (1.16)<br />Is there a British Pavement tribute band called Sidewalk? Because there ought to be.<br /><br /><strong>14. Ben Folds Five - Dick Holster</strong> (0.28)<br />If we were ever going to become an actor in ‘adult’ movies, we reckon a good name to use would be Dick Holster. It’s better than Buck Naked, anyway.<br /><br /><strong>15. Nirvana - More Than A Feeling</strong> (0.56)<br />From the Lost and Found rarities album. “You’re been a great audience! Stay in school! Hi there, you remember my wife?”<br /><br /><strong>16. Radiohead - At Ease</strong> (0.30)<br />Not actually by Radiohead, but from a remix project called Me & This Army. As we’re not sure who did this, we’re attributing it to Grumpy Thom and friends. And are we the only people in the world who think Fitter Happier is one of the best tracks on OK Computer?<br /><br /><strong>17. Front 242 - Geography II</strong> (1.10)<br />Early phase 242, and while it’s not a patch on last-but-one album ‘Off’, it’s better than most of the tracks on the last-but-none album ‘Pulse’, which we’d hotly anticipated for ten bloody years, only for it to be rubbish. Gah.<br /><br /><strong>18. Them Ickies - Don't Sit Too Close To The Television</strong> (0.29)<br />Another public information song. Don’t sit too close to expensively bought large LCD televisions, because you’ll realise that Freeview channels look really crap on it in close up. Nine hundred and fifty bloody quid!<br /><br /><strong>19. Free Kitten - Secret Sex Friend</strong> (0.41)<br />We wish we had a secret sex friend. (nb The previous sentence should be read in the voice of Mark from Peep Show episode one, lamenting his lack of a Fuck Buddy.)<br /><br /><strong>20. Dungen - Tack Ska Ni Ha</strong> (0.31)<br />One of the albums was received as part of a lovely “get five random albums for £10” online offer was this one. And it’s very good. Although we don’t know much more about it, so that’s all we can offer for this track. Look, all of the song titles are in foreign.<br /><br /><strong>21. Super Furry Animals - Chupacabras</strong> (1.26)<br />You know, we’ve never managed to see SFA live, and the one time, the ONE TIME they come to our home town to play a gig, Liverpool were in the Champions League final, so went to the pub to watch that instead. As anecdotes go, it’s not very good, but it has used up some space.<br /><br /><strong>22. Lost Soundtrack - Run Away Run Away</strong> (0.32)<br />Just when you’re really enjoying this album and are looking forward to a sequel, Sky are going to open up their own music blog, then put it on there, and you can’t listen to it unless you pay them lots of money. Okay, that reference isn’t actually very good or makes any sense, but we’ve got a lot to get through.<br /><br /><strong>23. Shonen Knife - Tortoise Brand Pot Scrubbing Cleaner's Theme</strong> (Green Tortoise)<br />(1.22)<br />One of the reasons we stopped buying the NME (apart from the fact it had clearly gone rubbish by then), was when they headlined an article on the musical recommendations in the late Kurt Cobain’s diary with “Who The Fuck Are Shonen Knife??”. Ingrates.<br /><br /><strong>24. MC Solaar - Aubade</strong> (0.35)<br />We love French rap music, us. If we can ever find our audio recording of the night of French rap MTV2 played one night (when it was still good), that’s a future upload right there, we reckon.<br /><br /><strong>25. Cake - Race Car Ya-Yas</strong> (1.21)<br />Cake: they released loads of albums, and yet we’ve only ever heard a few songs by them. This is one. Of them.<br /><br /><strong>26. Tied & Tickled Trio - Radio Sun 1</strong> (0.35)<br />T&TT play Donkey Konga, and record the results onto tape, then put it on their album.<br /><br /><strong>27. Tiga - Who's That</strong> (1.12)<br />We’re glad this track is by Tiga on his own, because we can’t spell Zygtherious.<br /><br /><strong>28. The Beastie Boys - Country Mike's Theme</strong> (0.35)<br />As close as we’re ever likely to get to liking a country and/or western song.<br /><br /><strong>29. Baby Bird - No Children</strong> (1.08)<br />Babybird are back, by the way. Their new album is utterly splendid, and should be all over the radio like a groovy rash. But, the entire world is rubbish, so it isn’t.<br /><br /><strong>30. Ben Folds - Radio Jingle for Tokyo's Inter FM</strong> (0.53)<br />It’s got jam on it.<br /><br /><strong>31. Takako Minekawa - Flash</strong> (1.21)<br />An excellent track, and one that reminds us a bit of the intro sounds to the lake level in WaveRace64. Ah, happy days.<br /><br /><strong>32. The Flaming Lips - Michael Time To Wake Up</strong> (0.31)<br />From back when they were experimental and not quite as good as they are now. We command everyone to watch their Fearless Freaks film next time it crops up on Artsworld, by the way.<br /><br /><strong>33. Family Guy - The FCC Song</strong> (1.20)<br />From the only brilliant episode of Family Guy since it rose from the dead, which means we have to keep sitting through every new unfunny-cutaway-pop-culture-reference-joke-packed episode, in case another good one happens. We’re still waiting.<br /><br /><strong>34. Field Trip - Don't Run On The Side Of The Pool</strong> (0.28)<br />More advice for wayward American children.<br /><br /><strong>35. The Damned - Stab Your Back (Peel Session)</strong> (1.03)<br />Replete with introduction and, er, outroduction from The Peel himself. Tops.<br /><br /><strong>36. John Linnell - Proccessional (3)</strong> (0.36)<br />The Gospel ‘Accordion’ To John. Ha ha! (Sorry, everyone.)<br /><br /><strong>37. Moldy Peaches - Grayhound Bus</strong> (1.15)<br />Despite the name, they’re not from Mold at all. They’re from somewhere in America. Good, because Mold is a rubbish place with too many roadworks and no good pubs*. (*Reference local to North Wales. Apologies to our viewers in other regions.)<br /><br /><strong>38. Pizzicato Five - Pizzicatomania</strong> (0.36)<br />No relation to Ben Folds Five. Well, obviously.<br /><br /><strong>39. Mercury Rev - Moving On</strong> (1.20)<br />Around the time of Goddess On A Hiway, you couldn’t move for people praising the Revs. Then, for reasons that escape us because they’re still excellent, everyone stopped. We can’t help but feel that if they’d changed the band name to The Revs, they’d still be massive in a post-Strokes musical universe.<br /><br /><strong>40. They Might Be Giants - Call Connected Thru The NSA</strong> (0.37)<br />Specially recorded ringtone track from The Giants, socking it to the man. And it’s the only track by them on here*, because using lots of Fingertips would have been too obvious, and we’re trying to make it more difficult for ourselves. (*Apart from the John Linnell, Mono Puff and John Hodgeman tracks, but we’re hoping you won’t have picked up on that.)<br /><br /><strong>41. Ramones - R.A.M.O.N.E.S.</strong> (1.24)<br />BrokenFM remembers the time Tim Lovejoy was wearing a Ramones T-shirt on his Sky One chat show, and was challenged by Martin Freeman to name two of their albums. The best he could come up with was “erm… the Best Of The Ramones?”. Hah. No, don’t think you can try that same trick on us to see us swinging from our own petard, because we haven’t got a Ramones T-shirt. And anyway, Rocket To Russia, and Animal Boy. Hah!<br /><br /><strong>42. Faithless – No Roots (Introduction)</strong> (0.28)<br />Mass Destruction is one of the ten greatest pop songs released so far this decade. Fact. And this is off the same album. Another fact (just not a very good one).<br /><br /><strong>43. Clint Mansell; Kronos Quartet - High On Life</strong> (0.11)<br />From background-music-in-edgy-documentary mainstay Requiem For A Dream Music From The Motion Picture.<br /><br /><strong>44. Run D.M.C. - Son Of Byford</strong> (0.27)<br />Things that annoy us, number one: having to listen to tinpot local radio in someone else’s car, then get quite pleased when the local DJ says “and after another track from sodding Texas, one from Run DMC”. And then our smile turns to a frown as we realise it’s going to be Walk This Way, because even though we love Runny DMC, we hate Aerosmith almost as much as we hate Texas. This is usually followed by us leaping out of a moving vehicle.<br /><br /><strong>45. John Hodgeman - Campaign Ad #2</strong> (1.06)<br />“It’s time to rebuild.” It’s the bloke off of The Daily Show, those Apple adverts, and a TMBG DVD, if you weren’t sure.<br /><br /><strong>46. The Go! Team - Air Raid Gtr</strong> (0.38)<br />We’ve named our workplace fantasy football team “The Goal! Team” in tribute to them. And only one year after it would have a clever thing to do.<br /><br /><strong>47. Chris Morris - Whiley Sting</strong> (0.13)<br />If we’re playing Six Stages To Kevin Bacon on ourselves, we can use Chris Morris as step three, meaning David “Day Today/Mission Impossible” Schneider is step four, meaning Tom “A Few Good Men” Cruise is step five, with Kevin Bacon. That’s right, look impressed. We’re not going to bother telling you step two, though.<br /><br /><strong>48. Grandaddy - Oxygen-Aux Send</strong> (1.08)<br />We’re kind of hoping their split is only a KFMDM-type hiatus, and they’ll soon be back. If The bloody Verve could do it, why can’t more bands we actually like do it?<br /><br /><strong>49. Pizzicato Five - Readymade FM</strong> (0.13)<br />We’ve just thought of another P5 song we can use on another upcoming secret BrokenFM Special Edition. Hurrah!<br /><br /><strong>50. Manic Street Preachers - Glory, Glory</strong> (0.35)<br />From the new special edition Everything Must Go including all the stuff out of Nicky Wires’ bins. See how up to date we are, and how Sony’s lawyers are about to kill us with knives for including this.<br /><br /><strong>51. Tassilli Players - Russia</strong> (0.42)<br />From their An Atlas Of World Dub album, which we only bought because there’s a song called ‘Wales’ on there, because we had some spare eMusic downloads for that month. It all a bit like this, really.<br /><br /><strong>52. Peter Sellers - Peter Sellers Sings George Gershwin</strong> (0.16)<br />Does what it says on the tin, certainly.<br /><br /><strong>53. Ersatz Glow - Don't Pet Wild Animals</strong> (0.28)<br />More advice. And one of the better tracks from it. You can find the whole album for legal download on the internet somewhere, by the way. It doesn’t get a bit wearying listening to it all in sequence, though. There’re about forty tracks on it, for flips sake.<br /><br /><strong>54. DJ Tall - Tout a 10 Balles</strong> (0.09)<br />It’s the Argos Kid Koala!<br /><br /><strong>55. The Breeders - Roi (reprise)</strong> (0.42)<br />We’ve just got into Last Splash, you know. Only about thirteen years too late, we know.<br /><br /><strong>56. Stephen Jones - Intro</strong> (0.43)<br />From his Almost Cured Of Sadness album. You’ve got to admire the fact he made an entire album of disturbing pop songs, then got most of them played on daytime Radio One when Ugly Beautiful came out.<br /><br /><strong>57. Slurp Deluxe - Stop, Drop, & Roll</strong> (0.29)<br />More advice. We’ll stop using these for the next compilation, if there is one. The songs are still quite good, mind.<br /><br /><strong>58. Brainstorm - Chinese restaurant</strong> (1.02)<br />Off the Lumines soundtrack. We’re not buying Lumines 2 until we see it in a sale, because it can hardly be that different to the last one, can it?<br /><br /><strong>59. Action Biker - Gothenburg, Sweden</strong> (0.28)<br />Reasons Sarah Nyberg Pergament is excellent, one: She named her band after the Mastertronic game of the same name, which even all the more wonderful because it wasn’t even a very good game. It’s - at best – merely the third-best crisp tie-in videogame! Reasons Sarah Nyberg Pergament is excellent, two: when she replied to BrokenFM’s email about where to get hold of some of her tracks, she’d not only replied telling us just to nab them off Soulseek*, but she’d opened her email with a Day Today-esque “Hello you”. Excellent. (*We’d already got them from there, but would have been happy to pay for them on ‘proper’ CD, as is our policy. We can’t imagine U2 saying the same to us if we’d asked them, mind.)<br /><br /><strong>60. Whale - Born to Raise Hell</strong> (1.12)<br />Completing our list of our top two all-time Swedish bands (here’s a quick recap for you all - two: Action Biker, one: Whale), here’s Cia Soro and friends, with their musical manifesto. Their second album sits proudly in our top ten of all time, and Hobo Humpin’ Slobo Babe is one of the greatest pop songs of the ‘90s, but try to tell that to people and they just stare at you nervously. Society, eh?<br /><br /><strong>61. Múm - Sleep/Swim</strong> (0.50)<br />Despite the title, this isn’t from ‘Til Someone Loses An Eye, about the dangers of sleeping whilst swimming.<br /><br /><strong>62. Bis - Black Pepper</strong> (0.54)<br />Bis: ace. That is all.<br /><br /><strong>63. CunninLynguists - Where Will You Be?</strong> (1.03)<br />Our favourite rap album of the last year, apart from the DJ Format one, even though they were probably both out last year anyway. At least our finger’s somewhere near the pulse, you’ve got to give us that.<br /><br /><strong>64. Lemon Jelly - It Was</strong> (0.24)<br />We wish we’d had room for All The Ducks Are Swimming On The Water, that’s an ace record. Oh well, this’ll have to do.<br /><br /><strong>65. The Shirehorses - Sheena Easton (Punk Rocker)/Joe's Fucked Off</strong> (1.05)<br />From The Worst Album In The World Ever, which was great. You don’t see any Chris Moyles compilation albums in the shops, do you? At least, we hope not. We haven’t looked.<br /><br /><strong>66. Frank Sidebottom - We Will Rock You</strong> (1.20)<br />Sticking with people from Radio Five’s Hit The North programme, here’s Big Frank (and Little Frank) with a stab at the Queen classic. Has one of the best endings of any cover version ever.<br /><strong>67. Jurassic 5 - J. Resume</strong> (0.38)<br />J5 on the microphone, there. To be honest, we’re running out of steam for writing these descriptions.<br /><br /><strong>68. Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band - Joke Shop Man</strong> (1.23)<br />We should do a compilation with the lowest possible number of tracks on it. Track one: Blue Room, by The Orb. Or not. Here’s some Bonzos.<br /><br /><strong>69. Ciccone Youth - Hi! Everybody!</strong> (0.58)<br />Sadly not featuring Dr Nick from off of The Simpsons.<br /><br /><strong>70. Yellowcard - Three Flights Up</strong> (1.23)<br />A beautiful track, which really should start a whole ‘lovely chillout moods’ segment of the compilation…<br /><br /><strong>71. Half Japanese - Face Rake</strong> (0.59)<br />…oh well.<br /><br /><strong>72. Super Furry Animals - The Sound Of Life Today</strong> (0.21)<br />Second track from the SFA in here. Unfortunately, our strict ‘nothing over ninety seconds’ rules prohibits God! Show Me Magic from getting in here.<br /><br /><strong>73. Sonic Youth - Nic Fit</strong> (0.59)<br />Can you believe we’re still waiting for Richard Clayderman to do a cover version of this track? We know, it’s astonishing.<br /><br /><strong>74. Pop Will Eat Itself - Poison To The Mind</strong> (0.57)<br />Younger viewers might be surprised that this track features the same person responsible for track 98. Mind you, we might be surprised to learn we had any younger viewers.<br /><br /><strong>75. Joy Zipper - Drugs</strong> (0.25)<br />Tabitha Tindale and Vincent Cafiso. How come Joy Zipper get better band member names than every other band in the world, eh?<br /><br /><strong>76. The Hotel Alexis - Broken Sparrow</strong> (0.49)<br />Ah, kick back and relax to this with a nice cup of hot Vimto. Or Ribena if you must. What? Well, we like hot Vimto. (Yes, we’re still struggling to come up with decent descriptions.)<br /><br /><strong>77. DJ Shadow - Why Hip Hop Sucks in '96</strong> (0.43)<br />His new album – not great is it? If we didn’t have a policy of hating emoticons, there’d be a sad smily face right about here.<br /><br /><strong>78. Goldie Lookin Chain - Eggsies Lament</strong> (0.43)<br />From the olden days, when they gave all of their albums away for nothing over the internet. Back then, they were just about worth it. Now they cost money and have Nick Cotton advertising them in the ad break on Emmerdale, we’re not going to bother any more.<br /><br /><strong>79. Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine - The Wrong Place At The Wrong Time</strong> (0.55)<br />Opener on their final album, which is all wrong, as it should clearly have been the finale. This is what happens when people don’t consult us on records before releasing them.<br /><br /><strong>80. April March - Resume</strong> (0.46)<br />Pop fact! Elinor “April March” Blake was once principal animator on Ren and Stimpy, and sang Don’t Whiz On The Electric Fence. And she’s the best thing we’ve found on eMusic since rejoining it. Yay for her.<br /><br /><strong>81. A Hawkshaw - Dave Allen At Large Theme</strong> (0.47)<br />Best. Theme. Tune. Ever. Interesting show to see repeats of, too. The sketches were quite informally weak, but Dave Allen’s stand-up (well, sit down) comedy in between was rarely less than wonderful.<br /><br /><strong>82. Bikini Kill - Star Fish</strong> (0.51)<br />Is the Bikini Kill woman the one out of Le Tigre who looks a bit like Cheryl Hines, or the other one? The other one? Aw.<br /><br /><strong>83. Bangs - Fast Easy Love</strong> (0.47)<br />Shouty rock music songs by girls with guitars clocking in under a minute is our 17th favourite thing ever, in between pancakes and My Name Is Earl.<br /><br /><strong>84. Client - Cracked</strong> (0.48)<br />Client are wonderful. If it was still 1997, they’d be all over the airwaves like Dubstar were. It isn’t and they aren’t. We’d like to blame Colin Murray for this, for no particular reason.<br /><br /><strong>85. Stereo Total - Push It</strong> (0.59)<br />One of those cover versions that pees all over the original. Because we can’t stand Salt “And” Pepa, and adore Stereo Total.<br /><br /><strong>86. Richard Cheese - Milkshake</strong> (0.48)<br />All you ever need to hear from Richard Cheese, what with him not being anywhere near as good as Aussie ironic cover merchant Frank Bennett, who was doing that sort of thing fifteen years ago. And was much better at it, too. Still, this track is in and out of your head quick enough. We’re not selling some of these songs very well, are we?<br /><br /><strong>87. Plus-Tech Squeeze Box - CartooomTV</strong> (0.56)<br />Remember that odd band who cropped up in the final episode of Adam And Joe Go Tokyo? With the backing dancers with boxes on their heads? Who were ace? Well, this is off their second album, which BrokenFM had to go to the trouble of ordering from Japan, because it’s not out over here, and you can’t buy it on iTunes in the UK, only from iTunes Japan, which you can only buy stuff from if you live in Japan, because Apple hate us all.<br /><br /><strong>88. Duncan Disorderly - Don't Play With Matches</strong> (0.28)<br />Last track taken from 'Til Someone Loses An Eye, which some listeners might very well be glad to hear by now. We still like it, though.<br /><br /><strong>89. Half-Handed Cloud - Tongues That Possess The Earth Instead</strong> (0.51)<br />Lo-fidelity pop music at it’s best.<br /><br /><strong>90. Tatu - Dangerous and Moving (Intro)</strong> (0.49)<br />The start of BrokenFM’s favourite pop album of the decade, and very good in it’s own right. Even if, as it’s an instrumental, it doesn’t feature vocals from official BrokenFM pin-up girl, The Dark Haired One Out Of Tatu. Or the ginger one. No, we don’t know their names.<br /><br /><strong>91. Monty Python - Penis Song (Not The Noel Coward Song)</strong> (0.46)<br />A little number Eric Idle tossed off recently in the Caribbean. And is still churning out at every opportunity to extract money from Americans, we shouldn’t wonder. Ooh, get us.<br /><br /><strong>92. Clinic - DJ Shangri-La</strong> (0.52)<br />Do they still have photos taken in surgical get-up? Bet that’s annoying in summer.<br /><br /><strong>93. Mono Puff - Nixon's the One</strong> (1.06)<br />First album finale from the self-styled "alt. rock supergroup", with a tribute to what, contrary to popular opinion, BrokenFM considers one of the less bad Republican presidents.<br /><br /><strong>94. Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players - Why Did We Decide To Take This Decision To You?</strong> (0.54)<br />Ladies and gentlemen, the longest group name and song title combo ever, beating the record previously set by The Pet Shop Boys' with Where The Streets Have No Name/I Can't Take My Eyes Off You.<br /><br /><strong>95. Cub - Mom and Dad</strong> (1.28)<br />It’s a nice version of the song coming up 58 seconds after the end of this one. There should be a birthday card with a tinny electronic version of this tune for Mothers or Fathers Day. Speaking of which, we’ve got a joke about a gangsta rapper phoning his mum on ‘Mother***ing Sunday’, if Saturday Night Live want to contact us about our rates.<br /><br /><strong>96. Bran Van 3000 - Highway to Heck</strong> (0.57)<br />From their criminally underrated album Glee, which had at least six songs on it every bit and good as Drinkin’ In LA, and they still remained one hit wonders by not bothering to release any of them as singles after hitting the top ten. Those crazy Canadians.<br /><br /><strong>97. Sarah Silverman - You’re Gonna Die Soon</strong> (1.30)<br />Her ‘Jesus Is Magic’ DVD was a bit of a disappointment, we’re saying. Way too much of a reliance on ironic racism and ‘shock’ humour. This bit was quite good, even if it’s not as good a song as the ‘Jewish People Driving German Cars’ song from the DVD which doesn’t make it onto the CD.<br /><br /><strong>98. Clint Mansell; Kronos Quartet - Winter Overture</strong> (0.19)<br />From, of course, the soundtrack to Requiem For A Dream, the source for trailer background music for about a trillion over films since then.<br /><br /><strong>99. The Beatles featuring Morecambe and Wise - Moonlight Bay</strong> (0.49)<br />What better way to round off the compilation with The Beatles performing a classic, replete with comments from Eric and Ernie, performed on their 1960s ITV show? None better, is what. </p><p><strong>Total duration:</strong> 79 minutes, 36 seconds.</p><p>--<br /><br />So, there you go. A stupid amount of time writing a load of guff that’ll take as long to read as it would to listen to the album. Meanwhile, an amazing thing has happened. Someone has only gone and collected all of those songs, in the exact same order, and placed them in a zip file, and uploaded it to Rapidshare, so that anyone reading this could download the songs and hear them for themselves.<br /><br />Of course, doing so would be horribly illegal, and so we must ask all our viewers not to download the zipfile available at this link: <a href="http://rapidshare.com/files/2880422/Minisongs.zip.html">here</a>, because it really oughtn’t be there. Tch. Nothing to do with us, honestly guv. We wasn’t even here. When someone else was uploading all those songs. Those songs that are available from that link. Up there. You know, <a href="http://rapidshare.com/files/2880422/Minisongs.zip.html">this link</a>.<br /></p>Mark Xhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08568170388731350030noreply@blogger.com