An Absolutely Cuckoo Valentine's Day

Yesterday was Valentine's Day, and to mark the occasion, a few of us got together at Gwdihw and covered our favourite tracks from 69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields.

Me (as Shiny Tiger) performing some Magnetic Fields song, probably

It was a slightly bizarre experience, to be quite honest. Listening to an album - particularly an album like 69 Love Songs - tends to be a very private experience, and so it was strange to hear those gorgeous Love Songs in public. Finding myself surrounded by people who knew all the words to Absolutely Cuckoo and Washington, D.C. was something of a revelation; until last night, a small part of me suspected that I may have just imagined 69 Love Songs, because surely if those songs were real then everyone would be singing them?

Let's Pretend We're Stephin Merritt

What are you doing for Valentine's Day this year? Catching a film? Enjoying a romantic candlelit dinner? Jetting off to Paris for a long weekend in the City of Love?

Well, whatever you had planned, cancel it, because you're coming to this instead:

Click here for Facebook event page.

Remember when, a little while back, I convinced a bunch of talented people to cover their favourite tracks from 69 Love Songs by The Magnetic Fields? Well, many of those talented people will be getting together in Cardiff on the 14th of February to perform their covers live and pay musical tribute to Stephin Merritt and his magnificent three-disc masterwork.

Sad Songs (Guest Post)

Happy September everybody! Today's blog seems very appropriate for the end of summer - Joshua Price, a.k.a. SCRIBER, has very kindly listed a few of his favourite sad songs. What better way to kick off the cold months?

Hi. My name is Josh and I write and perform in a band called SCRIBER. As he may have previously mentioned, Joel plays drums for us. He's very good. [Aw, shucks! - J]

The music we play is pretty sad and quite bleak. I have a song called Hopeless Lost; some of my songs have made people cry at gigs. After seeing me perform for the first time, my girlfriend asked, "Are you okay?"

As a person, I'm relatively happy and chirpy, but the music I listen to could certainly be shoehorned into the boxes marked 'Depressing' and 'Sad'. So, here are ten of the best sad songs I could think of:

The Spirit Was Gone by Antony and the Johnsons

Antony's voice truly is one of the most upsetting things to listen to. I mean that in a good way, kind of. He really resonates a kind of unique pain that I hope I never feel.