I'm bored. There appears to be nowt worth buying at t'mo. I recently discovered Midlake's Trials of Van Occupanther, which i adore, and I bought the new Stars album today, which I'm about to listen to, but I need some recommendations. Shimmery guitars with ace lyrics and soaring guitars preferred, but I know there's no new SS album due just yet!

Save an ageing former Genesis and ELP fan from terminal boredom please. Post your suggestions below!

I'm not sure if it's the sort of stuff you like, but I like the new single by Maps, I think it's called We Can Create. Their album is good too. I'm currently listening to their set at the BBC Electric Proms, t' single is about 15 minutes in I think.
www.bbc.co.uk/electricproms/2007/artists/maps/

Some of Githead's stuff is good. You can listen to their new album, Art Pop, in full on Lastfm; www.last.fm/music/Githead

The Stars album is about 50 good, 50 average for me (that's it, there are 100 songs on it!).

The recent album from Jackdaw4, the band fronted by Willie Dowling (formerly of Honeycrack) should do nicely...

http://www.jackdaw4.com/
http://www.myspace.com/jackdaw4

Dan says:

BLOOD RED SHOES

new single is wicked

eres the video

Dan is right. I saw them earlier this year (supporting The Young Knives) and they were great. My second encounter with them was rather more bizarre.

I was watching The Little Ones (who are ace) at Reading and could feel someone pushing up behind me. Then in a gap between songs one of the people shouted "Spring break!" and threw a beachball at the stage. Turned out to be a Blood Red Shoes beachball and both of them were stood next to me. They obviously know each other because the singer said "Who loves Blood Red Shoes?" and asked for a big cheer for them. I told them something like "your band is good" then we watched the rest of the set.

My copy of this has now finally arrived, after over two weeks lost in the post. It's fantastic! Enough to make me book tickets for their album launch show (in Soho) and return coach tickets from Bristol. Can't wait...

I was looking forward to the Jackdaw4 album, but then didn't like the new tracks that were posted on the MySpace much. The album is still on my wishlist, just a little further down...

Oh man - you have to hear the record. It's kind of crazy in places - the first one was like the first Jellyfish record and bits of the second one are uncannily like the second Jellyfish record. It's great.

I've ordered it on your recommendation, so it'd better be good!!!! :(

I am very confident.

I heartily recommend J4 (although I don't have the new one yet!) and especially going to their gigs. They are hardly ever in the same room together so to have them all in the same room together and playing a gig, is, well, er, like gold dust. i'll see everyone there who's going!

In an actual reply to the topic, um, i'm rather liking The Dead Texan album, as well as Clearlake, Devics, Duke Special, Four Tet, Stephen Fretwell, Paul Steel (HOW GOOD is he?!), Disco Inferno and The Field Mice. (please note that none of this is new music!)

Paul Steel's pretty new...

We'll see you at the Jackdaw4 gig then!

Never heard of that Clearlake lot you mentioned though. Are they any good?

Bought the Hoosiers tonight, I'll stick it in the car and let y'all know what I think!

Hoosiers - quirky, English, good tunes, interesting, 3/5, not everyone's cup of tea.

Still waiting for Jackdaw 4!

I've not been entirely convinced by what I've heard of the Hoosiers; and they've got an awful name!

The Hoosiers aren't everyone's cup of tea! they're never going to make millions, but neither are Jackdaw 4

Speaking of quirky.....

Mrs Nick & I listened to this last night. Definitely 70's in origin, though we couldn't quite work out who it reminded us of. Mrs Nick was leaning towards early 10cc, whereas I'm going to have to tighten the belt on the Rega Planar 3 and get out the vinyl this weekend and check out some pre punk 70's stuff.

Thanks for the recommendation Damian. I'll give it a blast when I get my new amp wired up on Sunday - can't wait!

The new Jackdaw4 video is pretty good. :D

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...ideoid=26747441

It's the best song I've heard from Bipolar Diversions, I think I'll have to buy it.

I got an invite to be in that video (well, you just had to be on the mailing list) - I really wish I could have made it...

Alex - buy it, you won't be disappointed!

Damian - I wish I was as handsome, then I'd get invited to be in videos too. Smart Arse!

I could kid myself, but I've taken part in videos for Soulwax (7 hours on set) and Clearlake (10 hours) and been in the videos for half a second (not counting crowd scenes) and two seconds respectively!