Podcast#4: It's complicated!

This podcast is about love. It's something I don't really talk about much but indiepop songs help me figure it all out - how teenage of me. It's true though: I am a pretty simple person and love still bemuses me and makes me hysterical and helpless. Some of the songs on this podcast mean a lot to me (like 'The Red Door') and others are there because their viewpoint surprised me (like 'Fun to Pretend'). I love you, I like you, I fancy you, I miss you, kisses, let's have fun, it's fine as it is, it's not enough, I am lost, I am so happy, mmm sex, you broke my heart, this is it, long-distance, domesticity, lovers or friends, security, cuddles. It's all in there, in one hour of lovely pop. It sounds so simple, doesn't it? I wish it bloody was.

Download it here or here (53 MB)

Tracklisting (60 mins)

Boycrazy - Bad things
The Airfields - Yr so wonderful
KateGoes - Heartbeat
Figurine - Let's make our love song
The Happy Couple - Another sunny day
Slow Down Tallahassee - U R Grace U R
La Buena Vida - Dulce y callado
Aerospace - Summer days are for ever
The Positions - Bliss!
Blueboy - The joy of living
The Deirdres - Fun to pretend
The Orchids - If you can't find love
The Frost - A song about us
Frànçois & The Atlas Mountains - I'm so glad I met you
The Aislers Set - The red door
Comet Gain - Don't fall in love if you want to die in peace
Rocketship - I'm lost without you here
Trembling Blue Stars - Missing the moon

Thanks for listening to it.

Perfect right now

Hee! Aw, Peggy...

Our split single is officially out in a couple of weeks but we've already sold almost half the copies on pre-orders and at the Pobpah popshows. I am deliriously happy. Not because they are going so fast (I can't keep up, make it stop) but because I've just lived through that excitement and I know every single pixel of it, I know where it comes from and where it's going. Seeing everyone from Atomic Beat Records play together at the Betsey on 23rd February made me realise just how easy it is for brilliant things to happen. OK, so it's stressful for five minutes - but I didn't really do anything and yet something extraordinary happened which involved having three seven-inch singles on a table by the door and four sparkly bands playing music on stage at the other end. Somewhere in the middle, there was a confused, amazed and happy me grinning my head off.

The last Pains of Being Pure at Heart show at the Buffalo Bar last Friday was life-altering in a way that made me think that absolutely anything is possible and that fuzzy guitars, pop vocals, moshpit dancing and explosive drumming can save the world. And although my night ended eating Marshmallow Fluff out of the jar at 3am and passing out with my clothes on at 5am, nothing ever made more sense than this last week because everything we do we mean it and our hearts are pure, our minds filthy and our bodies filled with the joy of living.