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#070. Backyard Babies – Stockholm Syndrome (2003) [spotify]

Backyard Babies - Stockholm Syndrome

When I think of Swedish rock, this is who I think of. While I wasn’t really a fan of their first two albums Diesel & Power and Total 13, it was their awesome 2001 release Making Enemies is Good that really grabbed me – more on which later. This followup from 2003 does feature one really irritating (to me, anyway) song in “Pigs for Swine”, but that is far outweighed by awesome rockers like “Minus Celsius”, “Song for the Outcast”, “Year By Year”, and the splendid “Friends”. This is gritty hard rock done properly and  you should be listening to it right now. SO WHY AREN’T YOU?

TOP TRACK: #2 “Minus Celsius”.

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…long live Twitme.

I used to use Twitter Tools to notify Twitter when I posted to this here blog, but it just packed in working one day. I fiddled with it, uninstalled and reinstalled, and next time I posted it worked. This week it packed in again. So fuck it. From reading forum posts and FAQs I’m sure it works fine for the developer, and for x other people, but that just doesn’t wash when you’re one of the people for whom the product fails, so bugger it.

Twitme to the rescue – if you’re having similar problems with Twitter Tools, you can find Twitme in the WordPress plugins search page, though be sure to uninstall TT first if you’re going to switch – they don’t play together.

And if you’re using TT and it’s working fine, great! Stick with it! For me, it broke, so I replaced it. YMMV.

–c.

EDIT: Scratch that, Twitme didn’t work either. Does anyone know of a reliable Blog->Twitter WordPress plugin, or am I just running up against Twitter’s innate flakiness here?

I’m actually playing a gig! Last year the first line-up of Thunderhead played exactly one (1) gigs, and promptly exploded.

This year we are back with a new line-up (in actual fact it’s the line-up that used to be Panik Attakk), and this coming Saturday we will play as many gigs in one day as we did all last year. Yes! One!

We’re opening for Hastings stalwarts of old, The Lost Boys, at Phoenix Arts Centre in Hastings. We’re first on of three bands, and we’ll be kicking off around 8:30pm.

Should you be in the area and wish to come along, get advance tickets here and find the venue here.

It has literally been a long time since I rock and rolled, and I for one intend to have a fucking blast.

Get on it,
–c.

Quelle heure et-il?

#080. Racer X – Getting Heavier (2002)

Racer X - Getting Heavier

If you’re anything like me – and I know I am – then you first became aware of Paul Gilbert‘s pyrotechnic (such a cliché to use that word in this context, but when it comes to Pablo it really is appropriate) guitar playing during the Mr. Big era, circa 1990 or so. At the time, reaching into his back catalogue and dipping into the older Racer X albums was a bit of a painful experience, to be honest. Dude – so not cool. But in 1998 they got back together and stuck their tongues properly into their cheeks, releasing the awesome Technical Difficulties in 1999, followed by the  if anything more amazing Superheroes in 2000. But I’m featuring Getting Heavier here, purely because I personally like it more, and hey! It’s still MY chart! Fab tracks like “Go-GG-Go”, “Lucifer’s Hammer”, “Dr. X” and the track which named my podcast “Bucket of Rocks” are not only shredmungous, but will also put a smile on your face. Get thee behind me, po-faced widdlers!

TOP TRACK: #6 “Heaven in ’74″.

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