Three from 2006 that I didn't give a fair chance to

There are some albums that I bought this year that I'm sure are really quite good if I could ever motivate myself to get into them. Here they are in no particular order. 1. Muse - Black Holes and Revelations Knights of Cydonia and its accompanying video totally kick it from it the get-go (if you haven't seen the video you ABSOLUTELY MUST WATCH IT NOW), but the rest of the album needs some attention to get into ... attention that I haven't been able to give because of all the other crap I've inundated myself with. 2. Neko Case - Fox Confessor Brings the Flood I've warmed to this one a little more than the BHaR, but it's still not something I actively want to listen to. 3. The Gossip - Standing in the Way of Control This one is a bit more of a wild card. It might just be that I won't like it even if I give it chance. It does have potential though.

Matt's Top 10 of 2006

The title's a little misleading ... it's really more like a top 7 with 3 thrown in there to round it out, and even that 7th spot is being generous. 1. Pearl Jam - Pearl Jam 2. Swollen Members - Black Magic 3. Sloan - Never Hear the End of It 4. The Tragically Hip - World Container 5. Thom Yorke - The Eraser 6. Sam Roberts - Chemical City 7. Audioslave - Revelations 8. Yellowcard - Lights and Sounds 9. Snow Patrol - Eyes Open 10 G. Love - Lemonade

top 10 camouflages

i LOVE camouflage. the wu tang wear it, so everyone should wear some. here is a quick top ten of my favourite camouflages. 1. british dpm (just a shame most of the british army clothes are badly designed and cheap) 2. flecktarn (it's not just for goth kids) 3. polish splinter pattern 4. swedish m90 splinter pattern 5. swiss alpenflage red pattern (it's got red on it and is being used by supreme alot) 6. US tiger stripe 7. US night time desert grid 8. waffen SS 'peas' pattern 9. east german NVA 'line' pattern 10. mo'wax arts futura atoms camouflage (though it isn't a proper camouflage) again, i should point out that these are not in order, but i hope that you found this interesting. i was going to post up examples of the camouflage, but i couldn't find images of them all.

apologies

i like typing in lower case, so there are no capital letters in this post, unless i am trying to show that i am excited. my cds will go out this week. i've phoned in sick (thanks adam and joe for your guide to phoning in sick), so i am just testing my compilation just now and they will go in the post this afternoon. my comp is SICK! very me, if you know me. kind regards, andrew l

subo`s top ten

unashamedly cheesy and in no particular order: singles (not all from 2006) 1 bye bye red sneaker - polysics 2 promsicuous - nelly furtado 3 supermassive black hole - muse 4 valerie - the zutons 5 my alcoholic friends - the dresden dolls 6 nine million bicycles - katie melua 7 juicebox - the strokes 8 i don't feel like dancing - the scissor sisters 9 this cocaine makes me feel like i'm in this song - system of a down 10 blueberry hill - fats domino.

i hate you! by slick

i'll give you a song that i hate. i've thought about it andcould give you probably about a good 50-80 songs i hate and bam me up thewrong way. i tried to get it down to one song but i just could nae do it so i'm going to cheat if you don't mind? with all the songs i could have picked like the eagles hotel california to a cheap and easy pick like rem everybody hurts (fucking hate those songs) i decided on picking a label that has been linked to the songs that i despise. so here i go, see these fuckers that just crush me evey time i hear them these "singer song wrighters" every one of these depresing bastards from damian rice to that crazy rock and roller dido everyone of them. i mean danial powter, james"dick" blunt, sandi thom,again damian rice and dido. i could name about another 10 of these depresing pricks as jo whilley says there all a rare talent..................................bollocks!!!! if they were that rare why is there a huge abundance of these fools attacking the air waves? plus don't even get me started on jack "i've got a small" johnson honestly they ain't blitzkrieg bop, rebel rebel, rock n roll star,poison, debaser, race for the prize or sloop john b, so you asked me for a song that i hate i could give you a simple answer like dj sammy boys of the summer or alanis morrisette ironic. i could leave it at that but thats to easy and obvious cause every one hates these songs and if you don't well fairplay thats your taste and everyone is aloud to have there own taste. as i was saying you asked me for a song i hate but i've chose to give you a lot of artists i hate so i hope thats alright? and i've chose these singer-song writers cause to be as famous and sucsesful as these people are i honestly think each and everyone of these depresing life crushing kill a party way one song singers are i think at one point in there depreasing life's each of them at one point have "SUCKED SATENS C**K!!!!!!!!!!!!"

WHUT

Top 10 Album - The Cure - Disintegration Book - Haruki Murakami - Norwegian Wood Film - Kiss Tomorrow Goodbye Videogame - Mario 64 Clothing - Visvim City - Tokyo Store - The Hideout Food - Yakiniku Drink - White Russian Possession - Vaughn Skeletons Well, since Niall beat me to admitting a fondness for MC Skat Kat and Cliff Richard, I’ll have to include even more embarrassing tastes... Batman - OST This film was generally considered as the best superhero movie since Superman, but having rewatched it earlier this year I am appaled I ever liked it. It sucks tremendous amounts of noodles... though ‘Trust’ is slamming. One of the first records I ever bought (along with Mistletoe & Wine and the Run DMC Xmas record). Warren G - Regulate I was a very lame child. Boney M - Nightflight to Venus In my defense, the title track is classic. FACT: The international fanclub for Boney M is in Glebe, Washington in Tyne and Wear. Venom - Black metal Actually, I am not even ashamed of this... Geordie metal!!!

Niall's Skeletonia...

I'm rubbish at making my posts and text colourful (unless you consider sweary words colourful)(and for rubbish read incapable) so you'll have to make do with plain old black and white. And maybe some sweary words. Consider it straight talking, aye? Paula Abdul & Mc Skat Kat- 2 Steps Forward One Step Back. Purchased when I were a lad, I nearly wore this tape out. It was amazing, I'd play it on my sister's Matsui stereo at full blast until either a) my mum told me to turn it down or b) my sister had a hissy fit that I was playing such shite on her beloved plastic cacophonium. I may have made that word up after thinking of the opposite of a harmonium. Cliff Richard- Mistletoe & Wine. I remember playing this badboy at full blast when it came on MTV and singing away at the top of my voice until my mother came through from our next door neighbour's to tell me to a) be quiet (as you can see I was a loud child) and b) take the remote off me and back through next door with her so I couldn't repeat my endeavours. Oops. This song still brings a tear to the eye. Of my mother probably. Elton John- Made In England. Anyone that doesn't believe me now when I say I exhausted my little ears of The Beatles (who oddly enough are playing as I write this) need only look to the limited edition digi-box release of this song which I bought. Why? On the b-side was John Lennon performing with Elton John in his last ever public performance before he was deaded doing a version of Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds if I remember correctly and another one that I don't remember correctly. I was moved to buy an Elton John single because of this. One lyric particularly sticks in the head "I was made in England, like a blue [Ford] Cortina". Worst. Lyric. Ever. This song makes me shudder and shake at the thought of having to listen to it again. It's appalling. I can still smell it. It stinks. Of shit.

Bon Jovi- any album really, Jon Bob Jovi- Young Guns 2 OST. These quality pieces of soft-rocking kept me awake during my early teenage years getting up at 5.45am to do my paper round. I used to have each album on a 90 minute tape in my personal stereo and deliver papers to houses all around the creator of this blog's house, but not his. Cheppy bastard. Although I do hold him directly responsible, with another member of this community who will remain nameless (Slick), for my access to said albums. Johnny used to work on the docks, the union went on strike, he's down on his luck, it's tough. Good old Jon and his social commentary there. Who knew who he was a secret Scouser eh? Or Weegie? In fact he could be an number of different ex-dock workers from all over the UK shipbuilding industry couldn't he? No he couldn't. He was a buffon haired moron who got lucky with a couple of hair-albums. That were amazing and kept me awake at ungodly hours in the morning as I traipsed around a remarkably uniform housing scheme formenting my dreams for world domination. And imagining myself swanning around New Mexico with a big hat on on and a manky set of leathers chewing straw and shooting bad guys as a REVELATOR! Wooooooo! Yeeeeee Haaaaaaa! That's enough spilling, I now need to go research on early 20th and late 19th social policy on urban dispersal. Which holds absolutely no interest for me whatsoever but does go some way to keeping the wolf from the door. Much like Johnny after the union went on strike. It's tough. Soooo tough...

niall`s top 10 (in no particular order)

1. Arbor Day- Butcher Boy 2. Bones- How To Swim 3. Why I'm So Clever- Luxury Car 4. Ymfld- Giant Drag 5. Dirty Robot- Arling & Cameron 6. He War- Cat Power 7. Largs Hum- Swimmer One 8. Young Folks- Peter, Bjorn & John 9. Chicago- Sufjan Stevens 10. Saeglopur- Sigur Ros

graeme`s skeletons (one of five)

not just a skeleton... also the first album i bought, and kind of fitting for this exchange really: jive bunny and the master mixers! the glenn miller sampling `swing the mood` was huge when i was 10, but i didn`t hop on the bunny bandwagon until `that`s what i like` hit the airwaves. but how did i hop! my school books and room were plastered in badly scrawled images of that cheeky rabbit... it was my first taste of artist merchandising and the street cred owning it can bring. at the time it was the coolest thing i`d ever heard, only later did i realise it was some balding south yorkshire social club dj and his dad making a big mash up of dodgy cop show themes and chubby checker. i guess the smog bellowing music factory on the cover should have clued me in really...

mitch`s skeletons

the records i'm most embarassed to own? if it has to be an album i actually bought, i would have to go with dave matthews band. first album. it eventually started to skip - probably because i took it in and out of my disc man so many times. michael showalter says that he labels dave matthews under 'sufjan stevens' in his ipod to hide his musical preference. it sounds like a good idea.

as for albums i didn't actually purchase myself, but was standing next to a good friend when she made the purchase and i supported it: the franz ferdinand guitar tribute. it's an album that has all the songs from their first album (without lyrics) played on an electric guitar, 80's butt rock style. if i remember correctly, the same person engineered the album, played the instruments, and designed the cover.

graeme`s top 10 2006

1 the cure - the head on the door (reissue) 2 the delgados - the complete peel sessions 3 the yardbirds - the bbc sessions 4 doddodo - donomichi 5 ochre - lemodie 6 ecd - crystal voyager 7 colleen - mort aux vaches 8 tokyo jihen - otona 9 various artists - ryoondo tea: an electronic evening (live at hyonen-in) 10 luke haines - off my rocker at the art school bop

daniel`s top 10 2006

1 joanna newsom - ys 2 tv on the radio - return to cookie mountain 3 the low miffs - demos 4 edith frost - wonder wonder * 5 belle & sebastian - the life pursuit * 6 brian eno - another green world * 7 espers - ii 8 arthur russell - first thought best thought 9 yo la tengo - i am not afraid of you and will beat your ass 10 vashti bunyan - lookaftering * * not a 2006 release but a great discovery * always a good year with a new b&s record * again an oldie but was compelled to hear it after reading jonathan lethem's 'fortress of solitude' * 2005 release but bought after seeing her captivating set opening for b&s

andrew l`s top 10 2006

1 fujiya & miyagi - transparent things 2 thom yorke - the eraser 3 the emperor machine - vertical tones and horizontal noise 4 park attack - half past human 5 errors - how clean is your acid house? (ep) 6 james yorkston - year of the leopard 7 voice of the seven woods - the firefly dusk (7" single) 8 yeah yeah yeahs - show your bones 9 rekid - made in menorca 10 cut chemist - the audience's listening

international mix tape exchange

welcome to the blog for the international mix tape exchange! i hope this blog will grow along with the exchange. in the future i hope to include: tracklists, artwork, top tens, and interviews with members about their mix tapes / favourite songs etc. if you have any suggestions for the blog, or the exchange, send me an email! cheers, g.