geekish fun

Not the usual blog post from me this time round. I don't usually go for cheap innuendos but the geek inside me did chortle one hell of a lot at this. I hope you all agree and that my previous life as a chemist has not left me blinded by science humour.

Thanks to Improbable Research for this. And yes, this is honestly from a real life, genuine, chemical research paper, published et al by one of the more prestigious journals of the scientific world, Inorganic Chemistry.

>> {trans-1,4-Bis[(4-pyridyl)ethenyl]benzene}(2,2'-bipyridine)ruthenium(II) Complexes and Their Supramolecular Assemblies with -Cyclodextrin",” Sergio H. Toma, et al., Inorg. Chem., 43 (11), 3521 -3527, 2004.

Dynamic equilibrium is a phenomenon that occurs in reversible reactions: both sets of species (in the above case: i) the two structures on the left and ii) the complex on the right) are always in existence and are continuously rearranging themselves to become either set, i.e. the forward and backward processes are happening at the same time, a moving "dynamic" equilibrium. Looking at Toma's work this would mean that the long, thin (some would say phallic but certainly not me) is continuously moving in and out of the ring structure. This amuses me.

Yes I'm sad I know. But I don't care.

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Today I'm listening to: Bonde Do Role's With Lasers (on Domino). It's good. Trancy CSS like things. Needs a few more listens before I can report back properly tho.

i'm on your side

Since I last found a small moment when I was wasn't i) exhausted, ii) in a another country, iii) homeless, or iv) all of the above, many many things have happened in my life, all of which are worth "blogging" about (anyone else hate that verb?), so I guess they deserve at the very least a little summary. Let's see...


1. SXSW:

The first half of March saw me flying for oh so many hours over to Austin, Texas for the now legendary "music conference" that is SXSW. To be honest it didn't exactly overwhelm me. Growing up as an avid music fan I'd always expected it to be the mecca of music, the holy grail of new and exciting artists. How could I have been more wrong? Any hype that was going around was about already well established artists such as The Good, The Bad & The Queen or - dare I even mention her - Amy fucking Winehouse.

Bands that did appear everywhere and were good but - with all due respect - not that special, were Foals, Gallows and Boris. Bands that I enjoyed where the ever chipper Polyphonic Spree (who have now exchanged their ceremonial tunics for a strange almagamation of military costumes), the drumming sample-looping duo Berg Sans Nipple and the bloody awesome Austin-based Octopus Project who I have previously wittered on about at length.


2. Arcade Fire:

>> (c/o www.iknowhtml.com)

Arcade Fire (and of course the unforgettable Electrelane) happened to be playing in Stockholm's Cirkus the weekend of my birthday so what else was a girl to do? I hopped on a budget aeroplane across the Scandinavian fjords and found myself in the city of islands. The venue itself was a beautiful centuries-old wooden building in the middle of the city's largest park. Highlights included watching members of Arcade Fire cutting each other's hair in Electrelane's dressing room aka the venue's hair salon. I kid you not.


3. Nintendo Wii + DS:

For my pre-mentioned birthday, I was also lucky enough to be given a Nintendo Wii! Oh the joy. If anyone out there is sitting on the fence still contemplating whether or not you should buy one, for god's sake just do it! Tennis, bowling, all jolly good fun. Must be said that my favourite so far is riding a cow to knock down scarecrows yes yes yes.

In other Nintendo-related news, I remain in love with my DS Lite and have now moved on to the ever addictive Theme Park (a game I was once enamoured/addicted to on the PC in my teens).

And I'm still waiting for Sim City... come on people, get it together...

(should I be worried I appear to be turning into a gaming nerd? damn you nintendo)


4. Records:

>> Brinkman - I Wish
>> Electrelane - No Shouts, No Calls
>> Whitest Boy Alive - Dreams
>> Modest Mouse - We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank
>> Sigur Ros - Takk
>> Soy Un Caballo
>> Tenniscoats - Live Wanderus


5. Camden Crawl
It's got to be said I don't really remember all of this night (I only went to Thursday) and it hadn't been something I'd been particularly looking forward to, more dragged into. Saying all that, I had a bloody good night (possibly aided by the numerous double dark rum and cokes?) and saw at least two bands that I can honestly say I enjoyed.

One was a great little Australian band, "Magic Numbers for the New Rave generation" I overheard one label executive call them. They had poppy electro songs that made you dance, but with a violin, and did a fantastic cover of Shirley Ellis' 'The Clapping Song'. Genius. Now I only have to find out what their bloody name was.

Second was Goose, a band I've been meaning to check out for a while now, mostly based on the raving reviews that Leaf Label kept dropping by me. I have not danced like that in years, not perhaps since insanely jumping at the front of Orbital at Glastonbury a few summers ago. If you want to jump, to dance, to wave your arms about in a mad and certainly unattractive manner go for it - I'll definitely be looking into their record. Brilliant stuff.

I should probably also mention that to my shame I did something I haven't done since I was about 15 years old. I stage invaded Xerox Teens. Oh the shame. And don't ask me if they were any good. I don't know.


Which more or less brings us up to present day.


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This morning - still homeless may I add - I wake up on a dear friend's couch, roll over and fall off, clutch an aged but much-loved laptop close to me and go about searching the interweb for some feelgood tunes. Good Hodgkins (a blog I should pay more attention to) has put me on to Walker Kong.

>> Walker Kong

mp3: Walker Kong - 'Andy Warhol & The Honey Bees' (Magic Marker Records link)

For more of their happy-go-lucky jangly pop, check out the always classic MySpace address.

hipster bingo

Flicking through the many blogs as I do on a daily basis - some would say I spend too much time online, but not I oh no - one thing on The Catbirdseat actually made me stop, look, read, laugh out loud and distribute among my friends and enemies.

Hipsters are one of the evils of my life. They walk around with their asymmetrical haircuts and 80s oh-so-cool-cos-we-look-wank lanky t-shirts and ridiculously tight jeans (though perhaps this is a heaven send, perhaps no child hipsters will be brought into this world) and look down on us mere mortals while we all stare and shake our heads and pity their misguided foolishness. Or at least I wish I did. I don't pity them. I just store up rage that I wish I could vent on them but can't since it apparently isn't acceptable in modern day society. Basically they make me feel bad when they really shouldn't cos they're losers.

Disclaimer: I don't really feel like that. Well perhaps I do. But just a little. But the hipster kids stare back at me like I'm nothing and this makes me miserable. BOO HISS. You know the score. You've all been there...

Rant over. Honest. Well for today at least.

Point is The Catbirdseat have provided this oh so handy Hipster Bingo card to take with you on your trips about town, be they to clubs, north london supermarkets or saturday night hellholes.



To play, and I quote: "Print this out and take it to the next show you go to. When you get a bingo, scream "BINGO!" at the top of your lungs, then break a bunch of beer bottles on the floor and get thrown."

Naturally timetogiveup does not condone the breaking of bottles, be they glass or otherwise. Although I can understand how hipsters could drive you to it. I think almost anyone could.


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On a musical note, I was digging the Jarvis album today. I saw him a few months back at Koko for the terrible Channel 4 Album Chart Show. Bad show but bloody brilliant set. He may have even beat the performance that Lemar put on. May have I said.

Listen to his musak upon the usual suspect, MySpace/JarvSpace (see what he did there).
Buy his fantastic and very Pulp-like (no bad thing in my book) album here.

hail the land of the free

Can I just say how out of sync it is that costs me the same amount (nay slightly more) to order an album and have it sent from a shop not five miles away from this very household than to gain two juicy full-length albums all the way from sunny Austin in the old U S of A. Madness. But thanks be to Peek-A-Boo Records who poked me with a gentle e-mail reminder of their incredible stock of musical treats.

I have now ordered myself up the twin delight of the following:
The Octopus Project + Black Moth Super Rainbow
- The House Of Apples & Eyeballs
Peel - Peel

Both a little later than I should have but I will never catch up with the multitude of music that's out there.


>> The Octopus Project

The Octopus Project are a band I fell in love with about this time last year with the catchily titled 'EEEAAASSSEEE BAAACCCCKKKKK'. Listen to more of their material at MySpace or check out their crazy website. Peel are a band new to me (yet more shame befalls me) but are damn fine and well worth checking out on their MySpace or indeed their own little site. Pay the good folks at Peek-A-Boo Records a visit purchase your own fine copies by clicking here.


>> Peel by Peel

Quite excited by the fact that The Octopus Project and The Black Moth Super Rainbow are playing together at SXSW at which - did I mention - I will be attending. God damn I will so surely be queuing up at that show. Yes, "show," this is what they call gigs in America I am told.

mp3: The Octopus Project - 'The Adjustor'

yet another spin-off

This weekend has been a hectic one; full of haircuts - always a terrifying constantly on-edge experience: will it be alright? will it be what I wanted? will I get laughed out of town? - delving into the depths of 75% off sales rushes and a manic attempt at two club nights in one evening.

One such club night was run by the ever-aspiring members of imperial college. They've had a small group of indie kids there for a while, naming themselves the alternative music society, and while I'm really not the biggest fan of social gatherings forming around academia, they're really trying (bless 'em) to make South Kensington a happening place (someone bloody should). Kids Will Be Skeletons has been going for about two years now and is finally gaining the recognition it has so long deserved. This Saturday was definitely a highlight for the gang that run the night with a packed out venue, fantasticly friendly atmosphere and even - shock horror - celebrity spotting opportunities (I see you, Mr. Mystery Jet you).



I rocked up to KWBS just in time to catch the headliners, Restlesslist. Yet another offshoot of Brighton-based Electric Soft Parade, they put on a surprisingly good show, especially considering only two thirds of their line-up bothered to show up. They mixed Blur-esque circus pop tunes with some block rocking beat samples, interspersed with some appalling but endearingly try-hard stand-up. Didn't persuade me to go check them at the Water Rats next week but did make me wonder where in fact their third member was and why he couldn't be arsed to show his pudgy little face. Tom White of ESP fame couldn't make it as he - reportedly - had two Brakes gig to perform at during the same week.



Poor Tom, isn't his life just so hard and stressful? I don't dispute the fact that he may wish to recuperate, save his energy to put on some fantastic Brakes nights in the forthcoming week, but why - oh why - do people insist on taking part in a multitude (and I mean multitude - I can name three off the top of my head) of semi-decent side projects that they never really ever bother with, and were probably half-arsed/baked when they agreed to it in the first place? Maybe this doesn't bother anyone else but if I've paid to see a band I do expect said band to be there. Is that really too much to ask?

Made me laugh anyway.

But I digress. Restlesslist are actually worth checking out and I look forward to following them closely, with or without token ESP member.

You can hear two of their tracks streaming away on the MySpace page.
The official page should hopefully be up and running soon.

KWBS often work with the trouble twosome of A Badge Of Friendship and it would seem that next month's events combine these two upstarts with the launch party of a new DVD magazine, Constant Replica (and yes I too have never heard of this but am mightily intrigued). Maybe see you down there!



Wow, what a lot of pictures for one post.

why is life unfair

It's not really. Life, unfair I mean. It's actually really good. Dream job, great flat in north london, not alone as I trundle on and for god's sake I'm even off to SXSW this year (oh yes). So what could it be then you ask? What could possibly make me sulk, bottom lip stuck out, evil eyes staring at my computer screen, toes clenched up at the unfairness of it all.

The answer would be this:


(c/o Muzzle Of Bees, and I'm guessing the official Coachella site if I could ever get it to work)

Now I've never really been attracted to Coachella, not even as one who has friends that go every year and tirelessly preach about just how bloody great it really is and just what I miss out on each and every year. But this time... well let's just say that this year I'd better not get the same lecture or I may have to punch said friends in their respective cakeholes. Grr. Arcade Fire? Sparklehorse? Jarvis? Gogol Bordello? Bjork...?

Stupid Atlantic Ocean.

And yes, the more observant of you will have noticed that none other than Rage Against The Machine are playing - now apparently reformed, but surely not for once festival alone? Who knows.

Well I'm going to SXSW so na na ne na na.

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If you now need a soothing, calming environment, then perhaphs visit MySpace and pick up some soft Scandinavian pop shoegaze in the form of Mixtapes And Cellmates. The Swedish collective are soon to release their first album - due any time now so we're informed! If their debut EP, If There Is Silence, Fill It With Longing, is anything to go by, it should be a warm pop fuzz delight immediately conjuring up images of snow coated mountains, ice melting by the sun up in the blue, blue sky. Aw.



Listen to 'C: You D: The Road Home' on MySpace here.
For news on the upcoming release, visit their offical page here.
Buy your very own copy of the M&C EP at DotShop here.

giant hamster balls

Today has been a mixture of good and bad events. Firstly I woke up to hear 'Stay Golden' by the lovely Au Revoir Simone girls on 6music's breakfast show (Phil Jupitus is the perfect voice for early morning). Secondly I saw a dead rat on my way to the local tube station, slap bang in the middle of the pavement, which brightened up the darling grey sky of London town. And thirdly I heard the new Go-Betweens people solo albums (re-released in the recent future) which I'm still undecided about.

The one thing that did make me laugh was this comic by the talented Randall Monroe, in which Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne is kidnapped and whipped away in a van. Hahahaha.



For more fun delights see the full xkcd website here.

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Music-wise not that much new springs to mind although I did come across a little indie label a few months back that I do believe deserves some attention. Afternoon Records from Minneapolis has a selection of bands from across the indie genres, and decent ones at that. Be bop bluegrass? Sure. Indie college rock? Of course. Biffy-mclusky-esque rock? You bet. Plus they're giving away free mp3 from each and everyone of them. Here's a selection of my favourites.


mp3: One For The Team - 'Take Cover'
mp3: The God Damn Doo Wop Band - 'The Rooftops Of Bangor'
mp3: Hello Blue - 'Celebrate'


God I'd love my own giant hamster ball.

free music for kiddies! truth.

Someone once said something to me that made me despair; despair of the someone, despair of the music industry, despair of humanity and ultimately, my life. The fact that this someone was from a (some would call) "cutting edge" record label made the event perhaps a little sadder. The something said started with, "Wow, so-and-so have 15000 friends, they must be amazing," and ended with the possibly even more depressing, "You know it really is important to have lots of friends on MySpace if you're going to be popular, it's something we should do with all our acts."

Hmm. Cue despair.

Luckily there is hope. And I have proof. The incredible and how-has-noone-heard-of-him? question-inducing Blackball False! Truth when I signed on less than two months ago had four friends. Ha beat that. At the time of press this has increased to a grand title of twenty-one, twenty-one I tell you.



To weather away at the usual route to becoming "popular," said artist has also gone against the tide and given his entire album away for FREE, I kid you not. Upon his website you can download the entirety of Auks, a whole seven tracks waiting for music lovers to just come along and discover. Nice.

Auks could be described as a concept album, every track centered around the repeating theme of penguins. I hear that BFT aka malmo is now looking for inspiration for a second album - a walrus perhaps? Or perhaps a manatee?

Here are two of my favourite tracks from the album but oh my lord it was difficult to choose.


mp3: Blackball False! Truth - 'Auks'
mp3: Blackball False! Truth - 'Girl Penguin, Come Back Goddamnit!'


For the entire album visit his website.
To offer a friendly (hand) shake, check him out on MySpace.

summit to enjoy the whole year thru

The Annuals are yet another group of individuals being name dropped right, left and centre across the cyber world and it's not hard to see why. The lazy reference of Arcade Fire, while not being totally inappropriate, is perhaps a little off the mark. While the same energy and screaming vocals are observed in the latest offerings from the band (and yes I realise this is stretching at similarities), they definitely hold their own with use of electro oddities, louder loud bits and much quieter quiet bits.



Not to take anything anyway from the aforementioned Canadians, but this ensemble is somehow much sweeter, more hearts on sleeves with giant arrows pointing at their giant love muscles. But with noise. You'll see.

While their official page still has far to go with photos and such like, you are able to promptly find three tracks from their new album Be He Me available for streaming with another two up on MySpace. It would seem the band are busy touring round the states at the moment but fingers crossed for european dates.

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hasta luego simona

One (of many) band(s) I keep stumbling over just about everywhere online is that of the name Au Revoir Simone. Three girls from Brooklyn, New York, they put together fuzzy electro-indie-pop, like a female Postal Service (apologies for the obvious reference) with just that extra kick of twee - in my book, never a bad thing. They appear to be releasing a new album quite soon through the lovely people at Moshi Moshi in the UK. I must confess that much joy was felt when I discovered that the beautiful ladies will be visiting our shores in just a few weeks hurrah! They play London Hoxton Bar & Grill on the 26th Feb as part of a huge European tour, one not to miss I presume.



The fantastic blog that is Off The Record announced the release of their forthcoming album The Bird Of Music (out Feb 14th aw) and posted some heart-warming mp3s here including an Au Revoir Simone remix by The Teenagers. For more streamed material (my current favourite being 'Stay Golden'), check out their MySpace page.

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Meanwhile tonight I saw one of the best 1950s B-movies I have endured in my relatively short life. The Killer Shrews is the tale of a research group trapped on a remote island in the middle of a hurricane. When a science project to solve overpopulation - and involving the shrinking of us human beings - goes hideously wrong and produces wolf sized shrews instead, the group can do nothing but try to avoid the monstrous beasts as they tear each other limb from limb. But what will happen when the killer shrews start realising that meat can be found on people? DUM DUM DAH...



I particularly love the blatant use of dogs in afghan rugs to cleverly give the impression of giant killer shrews oh yes.

Check it.

back to business

If I were ever to actually follow this godforsaken practice of making new year's resolutions I guess that 2007 should really include paying some actual attention to this damned blog. It's not that I don't want to blog. It's just that... cue excuses excuses, I don't bloody know. I guess I will write small things and hopefully it will grow and grow from there, becoming ever more pretentious and yet in touch with "the kids." Ha.

Not that anyone even reads this anyway so it doesn't really matter when I actually think about it. Down to business...

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Christmas treats 2007:

What did I receive over the winter break? Exactly what I asked for actually. A big thumbs up to Sir Nicholas up in Legoland, sorry Lapland (former is surely much more interesting).

1. The Gossip - Standing In The Way Of Control
2. Starless & Bible Black - Locust
3. The Beatles - Love
4. Tunng - Comments Of The Inner Chorus
5. Sparklehorse - Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain

Comments on all of those should follow but I'm not promising owt. Let's just say 1, 4 and 5 all lived up to expectation, 2 was a tad disappointing to be honest (I've just heard it all before) and 3, well 3 I never really asked for and was, quite frankly, The Beatles. Take that as you will.

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I managed to sneak into the somewhat secretive Kristin Hersh gig in London town last night. It was in a considerably tiny theatre slap bang in the middle of Soho and golly darn gosh it was good to go to a sit-down gig again. Having never seen her live and only hearing the bare minimum of her material (mostly the up-coming album if I'm honest) she blew me away. She has a awesome voice, be it even terrifying at times, eminating from her minute china doll figure. The crowd scared me half to death, being completely comprised of hard-core 4ad fans, who spent the after-show discussing extremely rare setlists from 1987 and that time when they could have almost sworn that she glanced their way. I kid you not. Was somewhat unnerving when Kristin thanked the audience for coming along and not one - the usual overenthusiastic, slightly debriated oddball - but the entire forum all answered in unison, "No, thank you." Hmm.

But what can I say, I was impressed and I really would genuinely urge anyone with a love for female rock-like singers (think PJ Harvey for one) to check her out for FREE at Tottenham Court Road's Fopp on Tuesday!

Stereogum reported the soon to be released new album, Learn To Sing Like A Star (out next month), from Hersh back in December. A lovely little report and mp3 of 'In Shock' can be found here.

Said EP In Shock can be purchased from the usual outlets.