beer telescope

am working the winning streak from yesterday..

I won tickets to go see Malcolm Middleton (he of Arab Strap fame) at the electric circus so took my brother Dom who updated me on his latest escapades, which included breaking into my Mum and Dad's house using a new method (he's the only one of the ten of us to have thought to us the basement and found an escape hatch). We also discussed the finer details of rock and roll stances - Nick Cave at the piano a la Grinderman won out.

MM was there in two guises - Human don't be angry (his guitar + sound effects + repeater project) and as himself - the moaniest sh*te in musical history. He will make your inferiority complex feel very inferior indeed, but very unjustifiably - he's fairly incredible really, in a honest as a knife stabbing your heart in a bath of acidic self despair kinda way. Real emotion accidentally splurts out between the vice like grip of sarcasm, honesty, loneliness, depression, deteriorating health, modern malaise and self loathing, what escapes feels pretty heartfelt - that's right blippers he's Scottish.

Live, he was amazing - fairly skilled on the ol' geetar, his new material after a two year song strike is lush and even sometimes gut twisting funny ("the whole world's gone to f***" says it all really..)

Despite only furtive glances up from his cap he was on top form, even battling down some heckling homecoming chat about the worthiness of his next album. He offered 50p off.

think we all have our cold winter moments.. and recently I've had loads of these angel/devil shoulder chats

course there's the famous Christmas single.. he said he's rewritten it recently. He removed all the question marks. There's less uncertainty now.