Mick Lewis’s Top Ten — May 14

by Mick Lewis
14 May 2006

1. Keane – “Is It Any Wonder?”
   ... that a guitar-less band finds a way to make vintage synths sound like screaming guitars on its great new single? I’ll say it is—new LP due in mid-June!
2. Grant McLennan – “Haven’t I Been a Fool”
   The second track from Watershed, it has always a been favorite of mine, and I have been playing it on guitar all week. Certain lines give me the chills especially now—“Tell the funeral man I don’t like powder on my face” and “I thought by now, we’d be on, we’d be further on.” R.I.P., Grant.
3. Go-Betweens all week long…
   I’ve been listening to a lot of their demos and lives shows that I have—unfaillingly great.
4. Art Brut play Knitting Factory this Wednesday & Thursday!
   Top of the Pops! Rumor has it that Art Brut 47 (a “scientifically”-inclined NY band) will be playing at both shows. The first part of my extensive interview with lead chanter Eddie Argos and guitarist Jasper Future will be up soon!
5. Getting my copy of new Big Takeover Issue 58 in the mail!
   It, too, could soon happen to you!
6. Belle and Sebastian to play free NYC concert in Battery Park on July 4!
   And hundreds of people who paid more than double the face-value on Craigslist for tickets to the Nokia Theatre shows in March suddenly feel quite had.
7. My Name is Earl and The Office season finales
   Each series capped off highly enjoyable seasons with worthy final episodes, especially The Office’s cliffhanger.
8. Prefab Sprout – Town & Country Club, Leeds 2000; Reading University 1986 (Internet bootleg)
9. The Long Blondes – “Separated by Motorways”
10. Maximo Park – A Certain Trigger (Warp)
    I’m getting more and more into this remarkable debut.