THE SIGNAL

It’s been a while since the last update from Signal Towers – yet again real life escapades get in the way of making updates here and shouting loud and proud about the new sounds on Radio Magnetic.

The latest show is in preparation and should be recorded and uploaded soon – this time out featuring new tunes from Long Blondes, Ladytron, XXteens and Black Kids amongst others.

In the meantime I’ve been to a few gigs since the last post – the brilliant Foals who are sensational live and well worth checking out, and the brilliant Holy Fuck whose somewhat cumbersome moniker may prevent the easily spooked from hearing their extremely groovy brand of choopy guitars and funky keyboards.

Lined up for the next few weeks are live experiences with The Fall (as John Peel said they are always the same and always different), and in a few weeks from now I’ll be knee deep in ATP.

Listening-wise, the last few weeks has seen me revisit a few old favourites courtesy of some deluxe re-issues.  These are a nice idea for hardcore collectors, but I’m wondering how many times I have to buy another edition of The La’s album.  By my reckoning the new edition makes it the fourth for me : a cassette verson in 1990, a CD when I became a teenager with pocket money, then a CD re-release a few years ago with B-Sides, and now another edition with demos and original takes!  Even the recent release of Beck’s landmark Odelay, which promises remixes, a terrific update on the cover and additional B-Sides manages to balls it up by leaving off Diskobox from the original release!  What’s that about?

Much more satisfying is the new version of the ever shiny, sunny, summery pop classic that is It’s A Shame About Ray by The Lemonheads.  This set manages to include loads of demos plus a DVD of an Australian road trip documentary which includes plenty of the original videos too.  Recommended!

So – a new Signal soon.  Meantime stay tuned!