Cheersgiving

Although I live in the UK, I'm an American by nationality and therefore today I'm celebrating Thanksgiving (or "Cheersgiving", as it's the name of the party I'm attending tonight). Besides stuffing our faces and watching (American) football, some people actually do think about what they're thankful for! This is my list, regarding music & art:

♥ The fact that the Manic Street Preachers finally released an album with lyrics left from their departed friend and bandmate Richey Edwards. Journal for Plague Lovers is not only arguably their best album since 1994's The Holy Bible, but they managed to pull it off with class and as a testiment of love toward both missing and celebrating their old friend.

♥ That I got to see The Big Pink perform at the tiny venue of King Tut's Wah Wah Hut just at the moment they became a "well-known" band (at least within the UK indie community)

♥ In 2009 there can be pop stars like Lady Gaga, who are so pretentious and over-the-top being "arty", that it goes full circle into becoming absolutely ricdulous (see the "Bad Romance" video for an example). To clarify, I do like some Lady Gaga tunes...and I'd probably like her more if she wasn't everywhere....I also think that if Andy Warhol was alive today, he'd love her.

♥ 2004 Turner Prize winner Jeremy Deller and film-maker Nicholas Abrahams will begin screening their new Depeche Mode documentary, The Posters Came From The Walls, on December 1st in selected UK cities. I especially find this clip from the documentary really fascinating in terms of band fandom...and it's pretty cute!



♥ That I'm able to express creativity in my band Factory Kids and that we just got an album review in US magazine, The Big Takeover!

♥ The NME this week (with Florence + The Machine on the cover) includes an interview with Jason Pierce of Spiritualized (I'm a huge fan) and also a great review for the new album by The Brothers Movement, a Dublin-based band that's worked harder than most and definitely deserves recognition.

There's much more I'm thankful for today....but I'll leave it with that...

Happy Thanksgiving! x