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Thursday, March 30, 2006



I know it really isn't important to anybody else but I really have to post my weekly Last FM chart, just be thankful it's only the Top 5 and not the Top 20.

At number 1 this week are The Sounds, unsurprisingly. I'm a little bit bored of them right now though.

At number 2 are The Chalets, um because I like them and I only really took them in after I saw this PUNKCAST (scroll down a bit).

At number 3 it's Missing Persons, wooooo! Well I had to really didn't I what with all the The Sounds comparisons and whatnot.

At number 4 is well, Throwing Muses. I like 50 Foot Wave (free music!), see, and wanted to listen to some old Kristin Hersh.

At number 5 is The Pretenders a band I still can't get into despite numerous attempts to do so. Is there something wrong with me? (Admittedly it was a singles compilation and I am a bit of an album track person).

Right, play out is Missing Persons - Walking in LA.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

dire things about media no.1: The Observer Music Monthly


Life is a pain. It means I end up updating my blog with something I experienced almost a fortnight ago. And this isn't the first time, as any one who has read any post here has noticed the events I record tend to be posted sometime after the event.

Some particularly keen bloggers actually write their stuff as the event happens! I can't multi-task like that though...

So, yeah the Sunday after last's Observer Music Monthly was yet another work out in middle-aged befuddlement of the kind even Q or Mojo would shy away from. But this one outdid itself in the 'out-of-touch' stakes in just two sentences:

"Thanks to the success of the Arctic Monkeys, there's barely a soul who hasn't heard of MySpace. You'd be hard pushed, however, to find many over the age of 16 who actually know what it is"

WTF!? Anybody who has even heard of Myspace knows that there are quite literally millions of people over the age of 16 on Myspace, in fact for work I had to interview a bunch of 11 year olds and none of them had even heard of Myspace.

The remainder of the OMM's Top Five snippets of stupidity include:
2. An interview with Sh**ne W**d
3. An interview with Sh**ne W**d (sorry couldn't resist)
4. Putting James Bl**t at the top of the 'uppers' - I'll never tire of hating him and all he stands for.
5. Miranda Sawyer admitting to never having used her iPod - buy a fricking Zen moron, you don't need iTunes (actually, just buy a new computer).

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Love Life set list 20th March 2006


About 2 hours 20 mins here, a new world record for me......

Miss Kittin – Happy Violentine (Michael Mayer remix)
The Left Outsides - Leaving the Frozen Butterflies behind
Ellen Alien/Apparat – Way Out
The Robot Kraus – After Laughter Comes Tears
Aluminum Babe – Little Girl
Arcadia – Election Day
Dead Disco – The Treatment
50 Foot Wave – Hot, Pink, Distorted
The Veronicas – Revolution
Dark Throne – Love in a Void
Justice – One Minute to Midnight
Dynasty Electric Duo - Hourglass
Beangrowers – I like You
Buck 65 – Kennedy Killed the Hat (MSTRKRFT remix)
Sahara Hotnights – Alright Alright
Lita Ford – Blueberry
Mount Sims – No Yellow Lines
The Fitness – Day Job
Kiona – In This Car (remix)
Magneta Lane – Broken Plates
The Knife – Silent Shout
Datarock – Computer Camp Love
The Long Blondes – Autonomy Boy
Cansei de Ser Sexy – Meeting Paris Hilton
New Young Pony Club – Jerk Me
Lene Lovich – New Toy
The Sounds – Painted By Numbers
Cat5 – Play it Loud
Kudu – Magic Touch
Stereo Total – Everybody in the Discotheque (I hate)
Services – Element of Danger (MSTRKRFT remix)
W.O.W. – I Love Sex (& RnR)
The Vibration – 87
Pro Forma – Lapses in Diction
The Ettes – Dirty on the Inside
Duchess Says – Black Flag
Au Pairs – Inconvenience
Morningwood – Jetsetter
The Chalets – Love Punch
Wolfmother – Woman (MSTRKRFT remix)
White Rose Movement – Love is a Number (Black Strobe Remix)
Cansei de Ser Sexy – Lets Make Love and Listen to Death From Above
Hot Chip – Over & Over

Testicicles – What’s Your Damage (Alan Braxe and Fred Falke remix)
YYYs - Honey Bear

Apologies for all the MSTRKRFT remixes, there's no excuse, but there is a reason - this blog

Pick of the evening ?... well I'm really into 'Painted by Numbers' by The Sounds, but I reckon every music blog ever will have that song on at the moment. So I'm putting up The Vibration and Kudu - bitching tracks

The Vibration - 87

Kudu - Magic Touch



Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Excellent Things about Music No. 2: Miss T & The Japanese Tourists acoustic set at Madame Jo Jos Thursday 9th March


Okay so this post is 2 weeks (and a day) after the event, but I've been busy and blogger was playing up, so...

After some mysterious disappearing tour dates I finally caught Miss T & the JTs only to find that their drummer was ill meaning we were to be treated to an impromptu acoustic set, which was jolly decent of them given that they were toying with the idea of cancelling altogether.

A short but very sweet set followed and we were mightily impressed with the guitar skills and vocal prowess of the boys and girl on stage and are now all the more enthused to go see them at the Garage on 31st March. Favourite song of the night had to be 'Little Girl'. Why aren't they signed??

And another thing: Miss T has totally got the Stevie Nicks look down which is so cool, Stevie is way too overlooked.

Amazing things about the Internet No 1: Last FM

Who needs another virtual social space on the fricking internet? Not me, unless it compiles my own personal hit parade, which is the thing I love about Last FM.

I've long since outgrown the misguided belief that just because someone likes the same band as I do we're destined to be the best of friends, but I do love seeing what I've listened to on a week by week basis, even though I do listen to loads of stuff on my Zen that audioscrobbler will never know about (it's like having an affair).

I'm so excited about the egotistical nature of my own Top of the Pops style profile that I'm going to share it with everyone right here, together with an exhilirating commentary.

Hmm, maybe Top of the Pops could take a leaf out of my book and incorporate a kind of readers chart based on their LastFM profile. That would be way better than showing random 80s music videos.

According to LastFM I didn't listen to any music last week, but it reliably informs me that the week before The Like were at number 1, probably because I was going to see them live. At No 2 there was a surprise entry from Lucinda Williams who hasn't been in my charts since about 1999! At No 3 another surprise entry from Emmylou Harris. Boy, are those country girls making a comeback. At No 4 we have Datarock doing their weird thing and finally at No 5 we have Dynasty Electric Duo whom I know absolutely nothing about excpet I like one of their songs.

And to play us out here's Lucinda Williams with the title from her classic 1998 album - Car Wheels on a Gravel Road

Excellent Things About Music No.1: The Like live at the Barfly sunday 5th March



As much as I love Terminator i always find myself cringing during the nightclub scene because as far as I'm concerned clubs just don't look like that and neither do the people who frequent them. Then I go to Camden and realise that they do and there are people who look like that, even on a Sunday afternoon.

The first point being that I think, along with (almost) everybody else over the of 18 that Camden is crap. The second point being that The Like made my trip there worthwhile despite this.

Even though they only look about 16 and their instruments look a bit too big for them they were damn tight, like way tighter than most bands of a similar age. And their songs sounded even better live than they did on album.

Hopefully The Like will inspire more girls to be in bands because I'm bored shitless of overly sincere unoriginal boy-indie. Just because you have a really long scraggy fringe doesn't make you a rock icon!

I always go on about this don't I.

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Amazing things about computer games No.1: The Dark Mod


As an earlier post has revealed I'm not ashamed to admit that I like (maybe even love) computer games, especially the Thief series (yes, even Deadly Shadows, which to those fortunate enough not to be initiated is the one all the people who loved the first two Thief games hate).

So I almost, but definitely did not (just assuring my girlfriend), wet my pants when I discovered the Dark Mod.

They're in the process of converting the Doom 3 engine into a Thief-like stealth game, which is actually way way more interesting than it sounds. The graphics look really nice and creepy and the characters have that wonderful dead look (the most realistic computer game 'skin' looks like a dead body's skin). Just look at the picture.

They haven't finished it yet, so perhaps my 'amazing' rating is a bit premature, and I will have to buy a copy of Doom 3 to play it, and then third party computer games geeks will have to make levels/campaigns, but I'm sticking to my bladder muscle exercises in anticipation of this one.

BJDI new index system

Seeing as this blog is called 'The Bjorn Dow Jones Index' it seems weird that there isn't actually an indexes, because the Dow Jones Index has loads, look.

So from this day forward I'm introducing the pateneted BJD Index system by which the subjects of my blogging will be categorised, i.e. music, computergames, internet, random cultural things and suchlike, and rated, i.e. amazing, excellent, good, OK, so so, shitty, dire etc. This terminology will probably change, but in the mean time it will suffice.

At the end of every month(ish) an index will be published showing which categories have been the most 'amazing' and the most 'dire' etc.