Season’s Greetings.

This week, I was supposed to be doing a recording session with Mo and his drums for what will form our first proper release of 2018 (more information on that in due course) but Mo ended up really busy! Yep - congratulations to Mo and Katy on the arrival of Baby Orla! So instead, for my own personal amusement, I bashed some recordings out, open-mic style. I wouldn’t usually make such things public but seeing as it's Christmas I thought I'M GONNA DO IT. And besides, these four songs represent some of my all-time favourite indie bands - bands whose lyrics in particular I admire. Also, they are all acts I have been to see perform live in the last thirteen months. So, Merry Christmas y'all (Hail Satan!)

OKKERVIL RIVER - www.okkervilriver.com
Red. Written by Will Sheff of Okkervil River taken from their first LP, "Don't Fall In Love With Everyone You Meet" (2002) - Cristina and I went to see them play at Gorilla last November and they were playing in support of “Away” in lush cosmic mode but I can never get enough of their early, fiery stuff where the words, often intricate stories, come hard and fast without time for breath. I owe this Okkervil River for one of my other all-time favourite bands, Shearwater, who formed essentially as a side project but have long since been a fully-fledged thing of beauty.

THE MOUNTAIN GOATS - www.mountain-goats.com
The Best Ever Death Metal Band Out Of Denton. Written by John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats and taken from their LP "All Hail West Texas" (2002) - Cristina doesn't like these guys so I had to go and see them at the Brudenell on my own. Their latest LP "Goths" is a masterpiece but they still found time to play some older songs like this one and the whole room hailed Satan together.

THE FELICE BROTHERS - www.thefelicebrothers.com
Wonderful Life. Written by Ian Felice of The Felice Brothers and taken from their LP, " The Felice Brothers" (2008) - The most recent gig Scott and I attended, just last week, again at The Brudenell in Leeds to enjoy Ian Felice on his own supporting his amazing new solo album, "In The Kingdom of Dreams".

BRIGHT EYES (or CONOR OBERST if you like) - www.conoroberst.com
When The Curious Girl Realizes She is Under Glass. Written by Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes and taken from the LP, "Fevers And Mirrors" (2000) - Cristina and I saw Conor Oberst play twice this year, once in Manchester's Albert Hall playing a duo in support of his acoustic "Ruminations" album, and then again in Liverpool's O2 in support of his country rock soup album "Salutations" with The Felice Brothers as his backing band for a double whammy!