2002 artist favorites

top 10 albums for 2002…
Sleepy Township “All These Records”
Razorcuts “R is for Razorcuts”
Stephin Merritt “Eban & Charley”
The Salteens “Let Go of Your Bad Days”
Aden “Topsiders”
Boyracer “To Get A Better Hold, You Have To Loosen Your Grip”
Apples In Stereo “Velocity of Sound”
Darren Hanlon “Hello Stranger”
Jonathan Richman “Her Mystery Not of High Heels and Eyeshadow”
Currituck County “Unpacking My Library”

Best things from 2002:
Roddy Frame ‘Surf’/ live at the Minx Club
Brendan Benson ‘Lapalco’
Edwyn Collins ‘Dr Syntax’
Chris Difford ‘I Didn’t Get Where I am’ – I know, I’m getting old.
Jimmy Tassos’ patience
Newcastle United in the Champions League
Only breaking one bone…
…and something good on May 11th, can’t quite recall!

Top 10 (anythings) for 2002, in no order:
1/ Love at First Sight – Kylie (single)
2/ 24 Hour Party People (film)
3/ 24 (TV)
4/ The Last Broadcast – Doves (LP)
5/ New Order and the Bunnymen in the rain at Finsbury Park (gig)
6/ Pro Evolution Soccer 2 (Playstation 2 game)
7/ Beckham’s penalty sinking those dastardly Argentinians (moment)
8/ The Strokes in the rain at the Leeds Festival (gig)
9/ The Scientist – Coldplay (single)
10/ Bowling for Columbine (film)

top 10 being-driven-around moments of 2002:
1. Gail O driving 3/4ths of the wbgs from dc to nyc after the last chickfactor soiree. Sang froid through sheets of torrential rain, and how did she manage to do it in !!!2 hours!!! I’m booking my lessons with this lady.
2. Greg W taking some little street urchins through Hackney to a few galleries in the cold dark of November after meeting at the Chapman/mcdonald’s show. What can I say, stylish guy, swanky vw bug, plus hey, lots of art, much more than if we’d left it to walking.
3. Guille Milkyway driving yours truly plus pipas twin b from the St Cugat train station to the lovely house in the suburbs. Through all those narrow little subdivision roads, who coulda thunk we’d get to see the official annika recording studios! Dreams do come true. Plus then he drove us back into the splendor of barcelona late at night, it was late june but once again none of us went skinny dipping.
4. Kristian leading the kru known as aerospace, plus two major moochers, from Kalmar to Stockholm near midsummers time. He even took us to a rest stop. Swedish donuts. Some Danish pastries too. Somebody say hotdogs? Yesh Kristian!!
5. Anon.: Letting a crazy friend of a friend drive my humble self plus disturbed date on an easily-rented car to a wedding in wales in late august. he wanted to avoid the stink of Cardiff. Well, the sheep were cute but far too close during a few of those turns. We just got the bill and warrant for arrest. I hope he’s reading this. Oh, it was fun anyway!
6. Taking our sweet little time with Jeff and Josh, aka Arno Kleni the ones and onlies, who very ably drove us from Queens to East Philly via hoagies at Princeton! Whatta tape deck too! i swear i’ll get over the rollings one of these days, but not yet.
7. David who drives around in Glasgow I believe, and was so kind to drive the pidg and me over to Bush Hall back in September. Took a risk for us, that man! How can we ever thank him? He even took us on a detour so we’d see the Horse Show in Clapham Common. Well, we got stuck in traffic, so we didn’t go inside. But I think that was one of the best rides. My brother locked up in the back, you bet! No guilt, he said he liked it.
8. Driving back in the mongo taxi after our first show, in March, at Pam Berry’s stylus off Oxford Street. All our neighbors piled in, everyone from all floors of the building, how was this possible? Spent all the money all of us had, and it was sooo worth it. Thanks to that cabbie for letting us all squeeze in.
9. the sweet taste of another free taxi ride, from Euston to South London post Winchester Club, all prepaid by that guy who owns Virgin. He’s a friend of Mark’s.
10. Test driving my dad’s new car very stealthily. Um, to continue one of these days I promise. but don’t tell him ok?

Top bands/songs/shows
* out hud
* brigitte fontaine opening for stereolab at the royal festival hall. Herve getting totally fetishized by Brigitte in front of all of our eyes. Mary Hansen’s smile.
* can’t get you outta my mind, by kylie
* farah, by action biker
* the pines at bush hall
Number 1: The last days of august, by airliner. Hands down!

Top Ten tunes from 2002:
1) Hold My Hand – Kimya Dawson
2) Barbapapa – Pipas
3) Mission Bells – The Aislers Set
4) Back When I Was 4 – Jeffrey Lewis
5) I Got Knocked Down (But I’ll Get Up) – Joey Ramone
6) Seattle Part 2 – The Legend!
7) I Don’t Love You – Free Loan Investments
8) Doris Daytheearthstoodstill – Future Bible Heroes
9) Let’s Give It A Shot – Dorotea (Viktor is here! duck!!)
10) In The Art of Stopping – Wire

& Top Five other things it would be entirely inappropriate not to mention:
1) Chickfactor Weekend at The Fez, NYC
2) Bowling For Columbine – Michael Moore
3) Mitt Basta Liv Festival, Kalmar, Sweden
4) Aerospace at Track & Field, London
5) The Butterflies of Love at La Tazza, Philadelphia

Highlights of the Year:
The Liberty Ship’s first Matinée release
The Office (series 2)
Peter Kay live
Gigs with a real drummer…thanks Steve
A car with a CD player
Lion’s Sports Mixture
Roddy Frame live
The World Cup finals (despite the disappointment against Brazil)
The wonder of DVD!
Clearing the bottom of the garden

May 2002, USA tour – the drive of my life, so far
The meeting of Sweeney and Robert Pacitti, my queer comrade
pvi collective crew and a boy called Christopher in Perth whose lips I’m still yet to kiss (it’s only a matter of time…)
Wagga Wagga, NSW, Australia – oh, how it changed my life
Finisterre LP: SAINT ETIENNE – “this is our wall of sound”
Neon Golden LP: THE NOTWIST – the soundtrack for May 2002
Moving to Brunswick, VIC, Australia
Jimmy and Mary visiting Melbourne, despite me being ill for most of it
Donnie Darko – thank goodness for the likes of Drew Barrymore getting behind films like this these days…
Bowling for Columbine – Michael Moore’s heartfelt and devastatingly brilliant film
The Tracker – an Australian cinematic event, the most poignant and subtle piece of filmmaking to come out of Australia since ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock’ and a stark reminder of the violence and utter brutality committed against our indigenous people.
Activists and protestors around the globe continuing the good fight

pipas “a cat escaped” cd (matinée)
harper lee “everything’s going to be ok” cd (matinée)
arvidson cd (firestation tower)
would-be-goods “brief lives” cd (matinée)
radio dept “against the tide” 7″
kelly slusher “rocks and tears” cd (elefant)
brideshead “in and out love” lp (apricot)
the streets “original pirate material” lp (atlantic)
acid house kings “mondays are like tuesdays, tuesdays are like wednesdays” cd (labrador)
nixon “november 1985” cd (strings of nashville)

the lucksmiths “requiem for the punters club” (best thing to be released on Matinée)
kathryn williams “old low light” (best lp of the year)
r is for razorcuts (nice, but the 7″ version of “I’ll still be there should have been the first track!)
gene clark “wall around your heart” (a little too country-ish for some tastes but still a beautiful song)
jonathan,karl and richard (for joining kosmonaut and putting up with me and geoff)
buffalo springfield “do I have to come right out and say it?” (never heard this classic until this year, shame on me)
the flying burrito brothers “wild horses” (better than the rolling stones version)
the go-betweens answering my question on their web site (shit question, but what the hell)
the tasty gig with the liberty ship and the cluny gig (I enjoyed both, not so sure the audience did)

I can’t remember anything about 2002 so here is my list of top ten berries:
1. Tomato-Berry – everyone knows by now that a tomato is not a vegetable
2. Raspberry – yoghurts or anything
3. Blueberry – mostly in smoothies for me, thanks
4. Pamberry – the recording artiste
5. Bury – in Greater Manchester, England, I’ve only been there once but my football team won 1-0 so I like it.
6. Beret – no.5 was “where”, this is “wear”, on your head
7. Cranberry – everything else on this list could be classed as “wares”, as in “fair maiden, let me taste your wares”, except for 4 and 8, which are “whos”
8. Chuckberry – the historic pervy recording artiste of yore
9. Blackberry – yoghurts again in a fruits of the forest scenario
10. Gooseberry – deceptively named – no actual goose in it
Strawberry didn’t even make it. Controversial. But I’d much rather go to Bury with a beret on my head to see Pam and Chuck sing a duet than eat a strawberry. Especially these days, they’re all big and red but they forgot to put the taste in. OK as a synthetic flavour I suppose, although I am fundamentally opposed to the concept of mass-produced flavoured comestibles, especially crisps. But yoghurts is OK.

Disregarding releases on Fortuna POP!, here is my top ten of last year in no particular order:
1) Pipas – A Short Film About Sleeping (Single)
2) Bearsuit – Stop What You’re Doing What You’re Doing Is Wrong (Single)
3) The Ladybug Transistor – Galveston (Live)
4) Homescience – Songs for Sick Days (Album)
5) The Aislers Set – Mission Bells (Single)
6) Badly Drawn Boy – You Were Right (Single)
7) Jeffrey Lewis (Live at the Spitz in London doing a song I don’t know the title of but was about fans trying to give him acid because of his song ‘The Last Time I did Acid I Went Insane’. It may have been called ‘No, I do not want some acid’)
8) Sportique – Modern Museums (Album)
9) Saturday Night Fish Fry (New Orleans Funk and Soul compilation on Soul Jazz)
10) Y Tu Mama Tambien (Film)

top ten places to fly a kite:
1. Truleigh Hill
2. Devils Dyke
3. Seaford Head
4. Camber Sands
5. Beachy Head
6. High and Over
7. Stanmer Park
8. Winchelsea Beach
9. Ditchling Beacon
10. Hove Lawns (in winter)

(compiled by Dick & Ally New Years Day 2003)

Top ten Smiths single cover stars:
1. Jean Marais
2. Sean Barrett
3. Truman Capote
4. James Dean
5. Candy Darling
6. Shelagh Delaney
7. Avril Angers
8. Terence Stamp
9. Pat Pheonix
10. Yootha Joyce

(compiled by Keith and Dick December 30th 2002)

After due procrastination, I have arrived at my Top Ten Books I Read Last Year
(If you could include an apology for the masculinist bias, that would be great):
“The Corrections” by Jonathan Franzen
“A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius” by Dave Eggers
“Word Freak” by Stefan Fatsis
“Atonement” by Ian McEwan
“The True History of the Kelly Gang” by Peter Carey
“The Body Artist” by Don DeLillo
“Underworld” by Don DeLillo (second attempt)
“The Adversary” by Emmanuel Carrére
“The Blind Assassin” by Margaret Atwood
“How to Be Alone” by Jonathan Franzen

Since the bestest, biggest charity shop in Crystal Palace burnt down late last year and money’s too tight to mention
(cutbacks!) I can’t offer a top ten fave thrifted things just yet for 2003 like I did in those heady days of 2002. Feels like
so far in the new year I haven’t done too much besides work, so my top ten is job-related, and I threw an extra one on
the fire for good new year’s luck. These are the top eleven subtitles, in random order, that I’ve happened across in the
last week whilst subtitling or reviewing someone else’s subtitles from Psycho, The Great Outdoors, a corporate video
about to be an effective charity board member, Reader’s Digest’s History Happened Here and The Parole Officer.
1. Wow. It’s hot as fresh milk.
2. if only he could stay away from the macaroni
3. The endless flow of history touches us all.
4. She don’t know why there’s fish everywhere.
5. Bring back your friends for a ride in Suck My Wake.
6. Look at Al Pacino. You’re just a dwarf with a calculator.
7. (Imitating fan noise)
8. (George) ‘Crikey. He’ll be needing some crisps.’
9. Well, it wasn’t her usual doctor and he did have a beard.
10. – Why didn’t she move the pig?
     – Piss off!
11. Lowery, I am dying of thirstaroonie

my top ten shows of the last year, in descending order of age of artistes (I note that all the women are younger than
almost all the men. That’s the story of rock’n’roll!)
8. Lee Hazlewood (Royal Festival Hall, London)
6. Eddie Palmieri (Royal Festival Hall, London)
9. Arthur Lee (Brooks University, Oxford)
10. The Masonics (Metro Club, London)
5. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds (The Chicago Theatre)
1. Future Bible Heroes, Pipas, etc., Chickfactor tenth anniversary shows (Bush Hall, London; Fez, New
York; 9.30 Club, Washington DC)
7. Nina Nastasia (Knitting Factory, New York)
2. Neko Case (Dingwalls, London)
4. Laura Cantrell (Borderline, London)
3. Clinic (Zodiac, Oxford)

Ten good things from 2002:
1. Being re-united with my favorite person.
2. Writing and playing with my friends.
3. Indoor rock-climbing.
4. Walking around Melbourne.
5. Getting my shit together financially.
6. My ace new (second hand) parka and being able to walk around in it all winter.
7. Generous people.
8. Many quiet hours on my own with a coffee, pen and paper or a newspaper.
9. Having my own room in a little wooden house.
10. Drinking chai out of my granmother’s cups, watching Aussie-rules football.

Top eleven songs not released on Matinée:
1. Corduroy Utd. – Behind My Back (Summersound)
2. Avocadoclub – Too Much Space To Walk Away (Firestation Tower)
3. The Pines – Milk Bar (Annika)
4. Airliner – Trying To Be Clever (Labrador)
5. Trembling Blue Stars – It’s Easier to Smile (Shinkansen)
6. Free Loan Investments – I Don’t Love You (Shelflife/WIAIWYA)
7. Corduroy Utd. – Little Elvis (Labrador)
8. Tender Trap – Oh Katrina (Fortuna POP!)
9. Pet Shop Boys – Home and Dry (big major label)
10. The Liberty Ship – Cabin Fever (Sunday)
11. Hellfire Sermons – Best Laugh I Ever Had (Bus Stop)

and six films that made me smile:
Amelie, Talk To Her, Y Tu Mama Tambien, Ghostworld, The Good Girl, Lovely and Amazing

Top ten cds for 2002 (In alphabetical order):
Apples In Stereo – Velocity Of Sound (Spinart)
Boyracer – To Get A Better Hold You’ve Got To Loosen Yr Grip (555)
Deathray Davies – The Day Of The Ray (Idol)
Masters Of The Hemisphere – Protest A Dark Anniversary (Kindercore)
Milky Wimpshake – Lovers Not Fighters (Troubleman)
Of Montreal – Aldhils Arboretum (Kindercore)
Plastic Mastery – In The Fall Of Unearthly Angels (Magic Marker)
Rat Cat Hogan – Vitamins & Calcium = Health & Happiness (Elsinor)
Revolutionary Hydra – Knockout To Dispense (Elsinor)
Track Star – Lion Destroyed The Whole World (Better Looking)

Runners-up:
Free Loan Investments – Ever Been To Mexico? (Shelflife)
Kind Of Like Spitting – Bridges Worth Burning (Barsuk)
Mates Of State – Our Constant Concern (Polyvinyl)
Pipas – A Cat Escaped (Matinée)
Poundsign – Underneath The Marquee (Fantastic)
Spraydog – Mint Hand (Stupid Cat)
Superdrag – Last Call For Vitriol (Arena Rock)

Best comp of 2002:
Dreaming Up The Perfect Pop (Planting Seeds)

Top ten cd reissues/singles comps:
Bob Hund – 10 Ar Bakat & 100 Ar Framat (Silence)
Boyracer – Bsides and Besides (555)
Death Cab For Cutie – You Can Play These Songs With Chords +10 (Barsuk)
Fall – Totally Wired – The Rough Trade Singles Anthology (Castle)
Jawbreaker – Etc. (Blackball)
Josef K – The Only Fun In Town / Sorry For Laughing (LTM)
Lucksmiths – Where Were We? (Matinée)
Razorcuts – R Is For Razorcuts (Matinée)
Tree Fort Angst – Last Page In The Book Of Love (Foxy Boy)
Velvet Crush – Melody Freaks (Action Musik)

Runner-up:
Mountain Goats – Protein Source of The Future… Now!/Bitter Melon Farm/Ghana (3 Beads Of Sweat)