Top 50 songs of 2012: 10 to 1

10. Buke & Gase – Misshaping Introduction

Buke & Gase have more potential than any act I’ve heard all year. Their last album was startling, if not quite classic; their next should dispel all doubts.

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#musicmonday : Future of the Left

I’ve mentioned Future of the Left a couple of times before, but this is the first time I’ve sat down and listened to The Plot Against Common Sense. It’s stupendous! A little-used word for a woefully neglected band, though they do appear to have a certain measure of popularity. They just need more. 

Reinspired Year 2 mixtape

It’s been exactly two years since I started this blog and the difference it has made to my life has been remarkable. Not the writing part; I’ve always done that. Even when I wasn’t writing for publication, I was wittering away on internet forums or clogging up Facebook with my rantings. No, it’s the inspiration. It’s like being in love. You know, the butterflies-in-the-tummy feeling you get that makes you feel like you’ll just burst if you don’t shout it from the rooftops – that’s how I feel when I hear a great song. It goes far beyond just transforming my mood or giving me an idea. The word “inspiration” is related to breathing, and that’s how essential and natural this process is. I might have a conscious discipline to blog every day, but that just facilitates my discovery of these wonderful tunes – the words that appear on the screen are just a manifestation, a by-product of the process. If I couldn’t write, I’d just have to speak about it, and if I couldn’t speak I’d grunt and gibber. I’d point. I’d take you by the hand and drag you over to the record player. This. Hear it. Now.

These are just a few of the songs that have inspired me in the past 12 months. You can hear them as a Youtube Playlist (click to stream). Enjoy!

How to blog about … SXSW

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The wrap party was yesterday, so most of what will be written about the world’s hippest festival has already been tweeted live, but there’s still a day or so to get your thoughts down.

The Tone

If you were there, ladle on the smug like a Yummy Mummy with a brand new SUV. The Telegraph has the right idea, even throwing in self-righteous indignation for good measure, though you may wish to avoid writing like an eight year-old’s What I Did On My Holidays report.

If, like the rest of us, you missed it, lace your bitterness with a note of contempt. Or you could be a little more constructive, like The Guardian, who took the same line as Reinspired and blogged their picks of other people’s ravings.

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Future of the Left – Sheena is a T-shirt Salesman

Oh, this is fabulous! It’s broadly fuzzy punk noise, but there’s something Cardiacs-y about the chord progressions. It’s Song 2-style shoutiness with Strapping Young Lad’s catharsis. Love, love, love!