You Just Keep Me Hanging On

I recently moved in with my girlfriend Vicky, and of course The Album Wall - or The Album Series of Boxes, as it might more accurately be described right now - came with me. Five stout containers' worth of CDs (plus a few stragglers, which I stuffed into a carrier bag) were packed away and shipped to their new home, which has just about managed to accommodate all of them.

Nevertheless, the current transitional stage seems like a good opportunity to separate some wheat from some chaff and - horror of horrors - downsize my library a little bit. As I knelt on the floor of my old place, filling box after box with the fruits of a decade of frenzied CD shopping while Vicky looked on in bemusement, it became embarrassingly obvious that I could stand to lose a few albums. It's sobering to wonder how many of the discs that entered the flat a couple of weeks ago will never be heard by me again, whether I keep them or not - better to fill a few charity shop shelves with my unfavoured and/or forgotten acquisitions than to senselessly hoard them for the rest of my life without ever actually listening to them.

Memories of Green Men Past

Tomorrow, I'm heading to Brecon for my first Green Man Festival for three years. I attended Wales's pre-eminent hootenanny every year from 2009 to 2012, and having missed the last two festivals for various reasons, I'm excited to be back in the shadow of the Sugar Loaf, watching set after set of great music, old and new.

Left: Me at Green Man 2010. Right: Me (and others) at Green Man 2012.

While I worry about what to pack, here - in no particular order - are a few of my favourite moments from the Green Man Festivals I've attended in the past:

Wilco (2009)

Wilco headlined the last night of my first Green Man Festival, and they were easily the best act of an already stellar weekend. Highlights included Spiders (Kidsmoke), I'm the Man Who Loves You, and the crazy noisy part of Via Chicago.

It was crazier and noiser live.

The Flaming Lips (2010)

I've gone off The Flaming Lips in recent years (largely because of the circumstances surround Kliph Scurlock's sacking from the band), but back in 2010, they were still one of my all-time favourites, and boy was I thrilled to finally see them live. All of the awesome stuff I'd heard about - the laser hands, the confetti cannons, the giant hamster ball - was present and correct, and singing along to Do You Realize?? was easily one of the best live music moments I've ever experienced.

July Playlist: Sing My Song to Me

I've spent a lot of July looking backwards, musically speaking, and that's reflected in my playlist for this month. Only three of the ten songs below were released in 2015; the others all come from bygone years, whether it's 2014 (Living Solar Panels) or 1967 (Jackie).

So I invite you to twist your neck around, gaze into the past, and enjoy the songs that I've been stuffing into my ears this month...

1. Ist Das So? - Wir Sind Helden

(from Die Reklamation)
Guten Tag is the Wir Sind Helden song that I blogged about earlier this month, but this fast 'n' furious opening track may be even better.

Wilco: A New Hope

Upon discovering that Wilco were giving away a surprise new album for free this morning, my first thought was: "Why the heck have they called it Star Wars?"

Having downloaded the album and listened to it twice, I'm still none the wiser on that front. Perhaps Jeff Tweedy is just really, really excited for The Force Awakens.

However, titular concerns aside, I'm pleased to report that Star Wars is actually a dang good album - certainly better than a free giveaway has any right to be. When I heard the news, I kind of assumed that this would just be some undercooked, mostly improvised 'gift to fans' that wouldn't really count as a proper Wilco album, but happily, Star Wars is a million miles from the tossed-off rubbish I feared it would be.