Council House

Fed up now of this infernal weather - and it's July! I've been into town to buy jeans this afternoon (not my favourite of jobs) as it's too wet to go dig weeds today and I don't want to show Beck up at a wedding 'do' we're attending at the weekend...

Had a break from Can yesterday (and today, as it panned out) to listen to the 'Local Information' album by The French (good luck googling that!) The bona-fide genius that is Darren Hayman produced this item in 2003 (along with "John and a dog", apparently), after his band Hefner broke up (they were nineties-indie Peel-faves about whom I Know nothing, so I really should rectify that...) and before he formed The Secondary Modern and produced the truly fabulous 'Pram Town' album. 'Local...' is a bit of an odd one because it's got all these kind of eighties sounding electro-pop, squelchy noises all over it that, whilst initially distracting from the songs, become increasing essential to them over repeated listenings (it's almost like one of those cutesy J-pop groups, Like My Little Airport, but with vocals by a slightly cynical Essex boy.) The songs themselves are great, though, and well worth the effort: 'Wu Tang Clan', which was covered last year to great effect by Allo' Darlin', is a fabulous ode to the redemptive power of listening to loud music on your own (I may already have raved about that one elsewhere) and 'Porn Shoes' is a witty, 'Girl Afraid' type drama of miscommunication based on a difference of opinion over the titular "gold shoes, with diamante/Like Kylie's on the TV", but I'm sticking with 'Gabriel In The Airport' for now because I find the bit where Darren challenges the ex-Genesis mainman to "say/that you never thought about Kate Bush in a dirty way" particularly amusing!. Ironically, the only version I could find on the 'net is a very good peel session version without the aforementioned electronic gubbins.