No commercial potential

Some of you may remember this post from some time ago about a great band, called Sawyer, with whom I was (very briefly) involved and - more accurately - a big fan of.

In the original post, I made mention of the fact that I may embed some Sawyer mp3s if I got permission. Well, my good pal - and former Sawyer vocalist - JM gave that permission almost immediately, but for some reason, I never really got round to posting those mp3s.

Well, I'm delighted to say that your wait is now at an end. Thanks to an eager anonymous poster who left a comment on that original post today, requesting to hear some tracks, I have been spurred into action! And so... by the magic of embedded music players, here's the opportunity to evaluate the might of Sawyer for yourself. These tracks come from Sawyer's 1994 EP.

Sawyer - Ghetty Chasun


Sawyer - G.M.


Sawyer - Torn


Sawyer - Guy


For further information on Sawyer, have a look at this Wiki page dedicated to them.

Home of the hit men

Love lost. Fire at will. Dum-dum bullets and shoot to kill.


Now that my super duper, souped-up PC can play Grand Theft Auto IV, I've spent the past few days immersing myself in its incredible online multiplayer modes.

As I've mentioned previously, although I quite like Max Payne series, the GTA franchise is my one and only proper concession to PC gaming and GTA IV really is something else. There are a number of online multiplayer games, but the ones most users seem to play are Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch.

Essentially, Deathmatch is every player for themselves; kill or be killed. The one who pockets the most money wins. Team Deathmatch is pretty much the same, but with up to thirty-two players split into teams. It's fucking ferocious. Sometimes it's so unrelentingly brutal, I suspect some users may be using cheats.

Anyway, I know it all sounds very "boys and their toys", but frankly, I don't give a shit. GTA IV multiplayer is dizzyingly addictive - no matter how frequently you get peppered with machine gun fire.

All good, clean fun. Whatever that means!

Birdie num nums

There's a crow up there that keeps going, "Fuck!"

Love 'em or hate 'em, you've just got to admire crows' balls, haven't you?

Not literally, of course; I mean, their spirit - not their 'nads (if they have any, that is). Even by avian standards, they're not exactly blessed with looks, or even charm, but for fuck's sake you've just got to take your hat off to their balls-out, couldn't-give-a-shite attitude. Hey, they're the Ronnie Wood of the bird "world".

Why, only this morning, I saw one "feasting" upon a fresh, roadkilled seagull. I must admit, my stomach almost momentarily churned, but not quite. Then I felt not quite so bad as I remembered the time I saw one "noshing" on a discarded doner kebab in the street...(and let's face it, who doesn't empathise with that? Come on... if you've woken up next to a doner and then not felt the urge to eat it, then you're not being honest to yourself).

And then... even that paled in comparison to the time I witnessed a veritable "melting pot" of sparrows, tits (fnarr), magpies, robins and seagulls playing the pipes of peace; putting aside their differences to gorge themsleves on some bloke's (because you just know he must have been male!) puke. Yes, the communal pavement pizza is the milkshake that brings all the boys to the yard.

Damn right, it's better than your's. I can teach you, but I'll have to charge.

Miffed to say the least

Oh... Stanley, Wiggs and Cracknell... why do you continue to do this to your most loyal of fans?

Another re-release of your brilliant debut album, Foxbase Alpha, only this time remixed/"re-produced" by Richard X. We're sure it'll be great and everything, but you just know that - after all your endless compilations and deluxe reissues in recent times - the only folks who will be buying Foxbase Beta will be those - like me - who continue to pay through the nose (whatever that means!) for this kind of exclusive content. As I said... it'll be fucking great, but you have got to be taking the piss.

For fuck's sake, Saint Etienne. Is an album's worth of new material really too much to ask for?

Going blank again...

Very unusual indeed for me. A day off sick. The culmination of days' worth of increasingly feverish build-up.

As ever, I won't bore you with the symptoms (as most bloggers are want), but I do feel ever so inexplicably out of sorts...

...bed at 1530 yesterday afternoon... dreamt I got an arse tattoo... woke up at 1810 not knowing where I was for what seemed like a good five minutes... staggered about, fell over... went and made dinner... went to bed at 2200 last night... awoke at 1400 today... 090909... Shooting Stars... Derren Brown... 2... 11... 23... 28... 35... 39... oh no... I'm... going... blank... aga...