I Keep Forgetting To Post This

Hola!
Yet again, plans to write in here more often have been ruined by life getting in the way. I thought once autumn had turned into winter that I’d have more free time to partake in activities like writing this witless shit. But, even though the garden is asleep for a month or two, I’ve effortlessly managed to fill the hours that a comatose garden has freed.
Like, I actually wrote most of this in December but still haven’t posted it up. I just forget about things, not through the onwards rush of Alzheimer’s but as I generally have a brain filled with things more important to me than updating a blog read by nobody.

One of the things I’ve been doing is making my own alcohol. Most people taking up home brewing after a gap of, hmm, at least 10 years, would have just made one thing, tested it and gauged from there if they were going to bother persevering with it. But I’m not like most people, and lack the patience to wait three fucking months before sampling my first efforts. So I ran ahead and made some more, all of it sat in the garage waiting to be drunk (one of the things I’m actually most proud of in 2008 is the fact that I cleared the garage out. I did almost kill myself doing it by dropping a hoe on my head – I wandered around dazed with blood flowing from my noggin, until Hannah patched things up).
First tasting times are as follows:

Indietron Apple Wine made with genuine Plungington-le-Ribble apples – end Jan.
Indietron Canadian Style Lager Beer – start Feb
Indietron Strawberry Wine – mid March
Indietron Cherry Wine – mid March

All offer something different. The apple wine is the most exciting because it involved me whacking apples off next door’s tree, stood on a step ladder and wielding the aforementioned hoe. I then boiled it all down, strained the produced apple juice (which smelt magic), and then added yeast, sugars and various other things. Then strained, filtered, bottled, and stuck out in the garage for three months.
The strawberry and cherry wine smelt really nice as I bottled them, the bit I tasted was alright as well. Let’s not go into the fact that I don’t really like wine.
The lager is fascinating, though I’m sceptical about whether I’ve made it right. It looks okay, stands at 5.3 % but is it fizzy enough? Hmm. We’ll see.

The biggest life time consumer (well, you know, alongside WoW) is the radio show, now up to show 15, with 24 whole hours of material spunked out on the airwaves by a man with an odd voice, accompanied by a friend with a droll delivery. I hate my voice. Which, may prove to be a problem with the – admittedly fairly exciting – things mentioned to me about the show.
I know it doesn’t sound like it but the whole rigmarole of sorting out guests, setlists and banal features is rather time consuming.
If you listen to the radio show you’ll kind of know which records appear in my top 10 of 2008, but we both know that you don’t and the reasons why. So, this will be a surprise to you. It’s that time of the year again!

Tip Top Records Of The Year 2008

I appear to have enjoyed 16 records this year so that’s what we’re going to have. A top 16. Onwards…

16. Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - Angles
15. Late Of the Pier – Fantasy Black Channel
14. Roots Manuva – Slime & Reason
13. Hot Chip – Made In The Dark
12. TV On The Radio – Dear Science
11. Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid

10. Mystery Jets – Twenty One

There still seems a place in my musical diet for good guitar pop.

9. Wolf Parade – At Mount Zoomer

A shame, I expected higher but there aren’t enough peaks.

8. Black Kids – Partie Traumatic

This is ridiculously fun.

7. Crystal Castles – s/t

I’m probably too old for this.

6. British Sea Power – Do You Like Rock Music?

As with Wolf Parade, I expected my socks to be blown off and was slightly disappointed when they remained on my feet. I enjoyed it more when I lowered my expectations later in the year.

5. Fuck Buttons – Street Horrrsing

Again, slightly disappointed at first but is amazing to drive around to.

4. XX Teens – Welcome To Goon Island

The best album The Fall has made.

3. Neon Neon – Stainless Style

Heh, made out of the purest eighties, Gruff Rhys has a canny way for mining melodies.

2. Glasvegas – s/t

Bleak, grey, bleak and grey. There’s hope for us yet if such a downbeat slab of music can sell so well.

1. Lightspeed Champion – Galaxy Of The Lost

If you’d told me when I picked this album up at the start of the year that it’d be my favourite of 2008 I’d have scoffed in your stupid face. Ha, I only bought it because I’m addicted to buying records. You fool!
But, as my Indietron review says in far more words than necessary, it has a brilliant flow to it, sounding like a great album rather than a great bunch of songs.