I only faint for trains and Buffy

I'll tell you what, kids. If you want to have a go at being romantic, don't start hanging out on railway platforms on cold winter mornings for longer than what is absolutely necessary, or you might end up spending your entire Christmas holiday passing out in the bath, with a body temperature of over 40°C, mind-blowing hallucinations, no food and, more importantly, no pop. It's my fourth day of being really bloody poorly today, and the first whole hour I've spent not lying in bed. I am on my way back there now. Dammit.

Still, my hallucinations were Buffy-related. Silver linings, eh? Yeah, I can hardly stand up but I did totally dust those vampires, baby.

Podcast #2: Pop of the shorts

On Friday I was standing on a cold platform in Hertfordshire waiting for a train to London when I burst into tears. Then a Royal Mail train whizzed by and dried my tears away, bless its lovely red carriages.

In less geeky news (but only just) this is my second podcast, made up with popsongs that last 70 seconds or less. It has moments of loudness, moments of fun, moments of perfect anticlimax and sadness. But they're just moments and they leave me breathless. Download it here (25 MB). Apologies for the rubbish sound, again.

Tracklisting (17'46")

Hello, How Are You? - Mad giraffes
Talulah Gosh - In love for the very first time
The Budgies - Winter depression
The Happy Birthdays - Wasting my time
The Motifs - The song that made you sad
Electrophönvintage - Break my heart again
Pipas - The conversation
The 10p Mixes - Silly boy
Colin Clary - Fuckinrighthandman.com
Aventuras de Kirlian - Ayer hice una casa
Henry's Dress - Sunshine proves all wrongness
The Aislers Set - The Train #2
The Orchids - [Untitled]
The Receptionists - Spradley
The Cat's Miaow - One of us is in the wrong place
Marine Girls - Day/Night Dreams
Rough Bunnies - Last night I dreamt I screwed a hen
Girlfrendo - Kisses in the nursery
* surprise song!*

This is totally unchristmassy of me, I know. But Matt over at Skatterbrain has done such a brilliant job with his Christmas mix, so you'd better go and download that as well. Ooh, and the new Pocketbooks Christmas song 'Christmas in your sights' is a real treat. It's got the best 'wooooohs' ever. Mmm.

It's a gift from above

Me and Mr Honeypop often have cute rows about music. We start talking about a band and this will sometimes evolve into a plate-throwing, divorce-inducing, full-blown fight about what indiepop means. For years and years, there was no question that what brought us together was our shared love for the genre but as we've been together forever, we are now finding that there might be types of indiepop that one of us don't like while the other will be crazy about. "Give over!", you might say. "This is human nature. You can't always like the exact same things." Yeah, alright, fair enough. But there is something that came up the other day which made me think (woh!).

I have been going slightly crazy about The Deirdres lately. I've always loved them but having finally seen them play live two days in a row a couple of weeks ago, it occurred to me that they are one of those bands that come along while no-one's looking and create something so honest and heartfelt that you can't but notice and gawp at and follow. When I saw them at Christmas Twee the other week, Keir Deirdre came to me at some drunken moment and said "Oh God, people say they like us because we are so twee. We hate twee! I mean, I know you like it and all that, but we don't understand it". Well, if you have seen them on stage you'll know that Keir's word don't make any sense. The Deirdres are the quintessence of twee. And yet, as I found out, they don't even know what indiepop is. They are completely unaware of the scene and the history of it, which is not only strange but also brilliant and fascinating. Because essentially it means that indiepop (and that's exactly what The Deirdres are) exists regardless of the scene and the history. As much as I love indiepop musicians who are also indiepop nerds, The Deirdres' innocence is so refreshing. Mr Honeypop thinks that it's suspicious and maybe they are not indiepop. I wonder if anyone sees my point though.