The best X-mas present in the world....ever!

My nervous wait has paid off. Woke up, checked my bank account....all is good...

I'M GOING TO GERMANY TO SEE THE SOCCEROOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The best Chrissie present a boy could get. Watch out Brazil and Croatia!

Merry Christmas y'all!

Here's some presents from me (via Bedroom Dancing & Music For Robots ) to you....

Erland Oye - Last Christmas

Low - Just Like Christmas (the best holiday song ever....)

We be giggin'....Major Leaguer Top 10 gigs of 2005

As promised, here are the top ten Major Leaguer gigs of the year (in no particular order). Ticket stubs not included.

Slint @ The Forum (Mar)
Pelican @ Scala (Dec)
LCD Soundsytem/Soulwax/The Go! Team @ The Astoria (Feb)
Clor/Absentee @ Barfly (May)
Maximo Park @ ULU (May)
Willie Mason @ ULU (April)
Of Montreal @ Spitz (Nov)
Cut Copy @ Big Day Out, Sydney (Jan)
Sleater Kinney @ Koko (Sept)
Brendan Benson/HAL @ Electric Ballroom (April)

* Congratulations to Silvia and Joe who had a bouncing baby boy yesterday!! Super fantastique, and certainly an excuse for me to post snaps of my favourite Spanish/Swedish homeboy Xander. Nice hat boyeeee.



* Major Leaguer Playlist highlights @ Edinboro Arms (16/12/05)

Nostalgia 77 - 7 Nation Army
Derrick Laro and Trinity - Don't Stop Till You Get Enough
Ghostface - Be Easy
Blackalicious - Alphabet Aerobics (Cut Chemist remix)
Nine Inch Nails - The Hand That Feeds (DFA remix)
The Presets - Girl And The Sea (Cut Copy Mix)
Annie - Heartbeat (Phones Maximo remix)
The Rapture - Out Of The Races And Onto The Tracks
Gang 90 - Jack Kerouac
Franz Ferdinand - The Fallen (Justice edit)
Jay-Z - Izzo (Hova)
Stars - Fairytale Of New York

Pardee! / Schwab / Who wants Donuts?

Whay-hay! I've now officially got time off work for a possible three week holiday in Germany next year. Oh yes. Now I've just got to get those tickets sorted. Fingers crossed....

* Thanks to the folks at The Space Between and Corbet Place for the swell pardee on Monday night. The mag looks great, brandy was drunk, and records were spun. Tune of the night? Close run thing between The Long Blondes 'Giddy Stratospheres' and the Tom Middleton Cosmos vox remix of Schwab's DJs In A Row (yes, apparently it's featured on the 'It's All Gone Pete Tong' soundtrack but don't let that put you off. Jon Spencer style vocals throughout, while Mr Middleton brings the breakbeats in. A winner every time). Special shout outs to Julieta and Daughters of Kaos too. Now, pass the brandy...

* Next week - Major Leaguer Gigs of 2005. Now where are those ticket stubs again? (I saw The Wurzels too. It was very, very scary)

* Rumour of the week? Everyone's favourite Canadian indie band of the year jumping ship to a major in 2006. I didn't start the fire.....(puntastic)

* New J to the Dilla out in February! Jay Dee's first solo album for Stones Throw, Donuts, will hit stores on Feb 6. Let's hope he gets well soon so he can play some live shows in a better state than this ....

The Space Between launch pardeee tonight!

Beer. Beer. Vodka. Hangover. Ow.

Ahem.... The Space Between Magazine are having their launch party at the Old Truman Brewery in Shoreditch....TONIGHT. Come along. I'm gonna play some rekkids. Then have me some vodka. Beer. Beer. Oh dear (it's been a bit like that this week).

No Crazy Frog in this here chart....

Major Leaguer stereo selector Dec 11

Tiga - Far From Home
Goldfrapp - Slide In (DFA remix)
Cut Copy - Going Nowhere (Digitalism remix)
Rex The Dog - Frequency
Franx Ferdinand - The Fallen (Justice remix)
Annie - Me Plus One (James Iha remix)
Mylo feat. Freeform Five - Muscle Car (Tiga remix)
Wolf and Cub - Thousand Cuts (Phones Slasher remix)
The Esso Trinidad Steel Band - I Want You Back
The Strokes - You Only Live Once

Bowl-a-rama drama

'Come bowl with me, let's bowl, let's bowl away...'

Yes. Bowling is the new black. Or summin' like that. The folks at Rock'N'Roll Soul are having an early Christmas shindig tonight at The Tavistock Hotel featuring non-stop bowling, DJs and a very special live performance from The Pipettes. Lovely. More info here.

* The Space Between magazine are having their launch party this Monday evening (12th) @ Corbet Place in The Old Truman Brewery, Shoreditch. I'm spinning records from 7.30pm until 9pm, and then will proceed to get very merry so come down, have a drink and shake a leg. The Daughters of Kaos (Club Motherfucker) will be closing the night so it should be a good'un.

* Japan? Croatia? Brazil? No sweat.

Yes, it means 'light skinned boy' in Mexican slang. No, it's not a taco.

For more design lovlieness, check out Ilisu's blog

So, like every other music blog out there, I've thrashed out a Top 10 albums of 2005 list (as previously mentioned). The man above unfortunately didn't make the cut, but I still thought Guero was a good album, despite the likeness to Odelay in parts. What I don't understand is the way in which critics thought it was a 'return to form'? Does this mean Seachange was rubbish? Has Beck ever really had a creative rut, or did some critics turn on him because he stopped being the whacky guy with two turntables and a microphone, and beared his emotions to the public on an break-up album full of sombre, yet beautiful accoustic songs? You work it out.

Anyway, here's the Top 10 in order (if you want rhyme and reason then mosey along to the full article at Subter)

1. Sleater Kinney - The Woods
2. The New Pornographers - Twin Cinema
3. Low - The Great Destroyer
4. Isolee - We Are Monster
5. Sufjan Stevens - Illinois
6. Common - Be
7. Bright Eyes - Digital Ash
8. Brendan Benson - The Alternative To Love
9. Maximo Park - A Certain Trigger
10. Vitalic - OK Cowboy

* Larry Bird, Tom Waits, Eli Wallach, Noam Chomsky and myself are going to go out drinking tonight to celebrate our shared birfday. I just hope Noam doesn't repeat his antics from last year (the bouncers certainly didn't appreciate his loud opinions on syntax and semantics, especially when he presented them to the hen's party across the room whilst stripping down to his Calvins...sigh. You can't take those linguistics professors anywhere....)

New Belle and Sebastian?

No, it's certainly not here. Oh no. Nope.

Too cool for school (NB. Kids - stay in school, OK?)

Ah, I love lazy Sundays. A big thank you to all that came out last night to the first Through Being Cool night at The Orwell, and special props to the posse representing all things Nice. For those that couldn't make it, well you'll just have to wait until January for the next one. Watch this space for for the why's and where's, or sign up to the Through Being Cool Mailing List at throughbeingcool@hotmail.co.uk

Before that though, there's the small matter of December 31st. Looks like I'll be here.....will you?

So how what did this lazy Sunday consist of? Well, after a long lie-in, I set to work demolishing pastries and the weekend papers (hey, The Observer provides important ruffage ok?) before settling down to some Jack Sparrow shenanigans in preparation for July 6 (take a sneak peek here). Yo ho ho.

* Sign the petition to get Marty McFly's Nike Air's on the market!

* Remix of the year? Well, Koushik's re-rub of Four Tet's A Joy, featuring Stones Throw dynamo Percee P, is certainly a contender. Or perhaps the Justice overhaul of Franz Ferdinand's The Fallen? (Ta muchly Razorblade Runner)

* Highlight of last night, sans deck buffonery, was Nathaniel from My Two Dads showing us a sneak peek at this year's Christmas TV highlight

Jacques Lu Cont is remixing in my house, my house.

Well, his remixes have certainly been in most of my ramshackle sets this year, as well as regularly seeping through the tinny speakers of my laptop. The latest two that I picked up today are yet more evidence that he's a sheer bloody genius.

First up is a storming take on 'A Pain That I'm Used To', the first track from the latest Depeche Mode album, Playing The Angel. Lu Cont, a.k.a Stuart Price, takes the original and turns it into a peak time anthem with whirring noises all over the shop. Listen to a snippet here, along with the Goldfrapp and Telex mixes (thanks to Quiddity). It's out on December 12.

If that doesn't sink your slipper, then Lu Cont's remix of the new Royksopp single might be more up your alley. Sure, the album it came from, The Understanding, may have been a bit vocal heavy but 'What Else Is There' was one of the hidden gems, featuring the vocals from the lurvely Karin Dreijer from The Knife (whose track 'Take My Breath Away' also got the special re-rub treatment earlier this year from Mylo - another of the year's best). While the original is a dreamy yet somber affair, the Thin White Duke rub (one more of Price's various monikers) is sunshine in a record sleeve, with the words 'euphoric crowd sing-along' written across the front with a big black marker pen. A summer classic if ever there was one, it's a shame it's hit stores in the UK in dreary wet November instead of sunny July. You may just hear this one later on tomorrow night at Through Being Cool (no, JLC won't be spinning it himself, but you get the picture). 'And the flashlights, and explosions...'. Get your mitts on it now.

* Oh, it's the end of year time and what better place to start than Subter.com. Some guy called Euan has listed his top 10 albums of the year. Yeah, what does he know....