Yes, I too like Aimee Mann. I have recently purchased the soundtrack from 'Magnolia' on which she sings about 95% of the songs -it's a fantastic soundtrack and well worth getting if reasonably priced, although everywhere seems to be selling it for something ludicrous like 14.99 or something

Neil Innes appears on her I'm With Stupid album, apparently.

>Neil Innes appears on her I'm With Stupid album, apparently.
(supply own joke here)

I like her too. She's on the Sliding Doors soundtrack. She's got something Ben Folds Five about her in my opinion.

>Neil Innes appears on her I'm With Stupid album, apparently.

No apparently about it. Glenn Tilbrook and Chris Difford too. You've made me want to listen to it now. Gotta love any album with the opening line "You fucked it up". And also any album where the words used in the lyrics appear on the inlay booklet as one long alphabetical list.

ben folds has a new solo album out.
it's got guitars on it.
tres pop.

she's wonderful. bachelor no 2 probably her best, followed by whatever, followed by magnolia and i'm with stupid.

glen tillbrook, chris difford, neil innes (as ron nasty) AND bernard butler on i'm with stupid. roll up.

all worth buying.

>ben folds has a new solo album out.
>it's got guitars on it.
>tres pop.

Is it out already? What with the new Nick Lowe this is turning out to be a good week.

Anyone here got Fear of Pop? Strange and lovely.

>glen tillbrook

Does your copy have the hidden track? "Play that guitar..."

>all worth buying.

Aye. Probably mid-price now too.

L (who has just gone from Yellow Hill by Loose Tubes to the sublime Jazz Couriers tear-up of Cheek to Cheek)

Do you guys use Audiogalaxy? Better than Napster I reckon. I own Magnolia and Bachelor, but I've downloaded practically everything else she's done this weekend, plus Lisa Germano, Helen Love - though I can't find Denim's Fell of the Back of a Lorry, which is a shame.

audiogalaxy! pah! calls itself the hosting blah blah blah for musicians and doesn't have a mac software download. tarts.

I'm going to see her in a few weeks - very excited.

The new Ben Folds album is apparently absolutely brilliant (I haven't heard it myself, but it's supposed to be the best yet), but Sony are treating it like leprous matter.

Expect to see it launched with minimal publicity and fuss. (Their management company are VERY pissed off about this. Typical - these days great albums are buried as often as their praised.)

Ah! Speaking of being shafted up the arse by your record label, back to Aimee Mann. She's the Sheryl Crow it's okay to like. A bit like Liz Phair. Play it to anyone who's not a fan and they turn up their noses, assuming you're quite a big Leanne Rimes fan too...

Always a problem (Liz and Aimee are two of my favourite artists of any kind, and it's hard work converting the unbelievers...)

Oh! Just remembered. hazeley's got a good "Aimee Mann not getting signed" story. I wonder if he's in the area...

>The new Ben Folds album is apparently absolutely brilliant (I haven't heard it myself, but it's supposed to be the best yet),
>

Is it out yet? I couldn't see it in Virgin at lunchtime.

>but Sony are treating it like leprous matter.
>

Quelle fucking surprise.

>Expect to see it launched with minimal publicity and fuss. (Their management company are VERY pissed off about this. Typical - these days great albums are buried as often as their praised.)
>

Aye. Obviously typing quickly there, so I'll let you off.

I was pissed when I saw Magnolia (seen it again since and it's a great film) and so couldn't remember anything about it, and I'd never heard Aimee Mann's music before. In a moment that was almost Magnoliaesque, I was in the Virgin megastore, and they were playing a tune as they do, and I started a noddin' my head and tappin' my foot a la High Fidelity to it(oh dear) - the chanteuse in question was of course the delightful Aimee singing Save Me. I go to the section to check it out, and there's another lost soul there who's surely gone to investigate purely because she's just heard the tune being played. Our eyes meet. We smile. That's it. Mind you, she was as rough as a badgers arse, but that's not the point, is it?


I think it's a bit rough calling her the Sheryl Crow it's okay to like - I prefer to think of her as the Morrissey who's not a twat (even though some of his songs are quite good).

The Sheryl Crow thing just proves how hard it is to be a female singer songwriter without getting lumped in with every other female singer songwriter. I don't think she's even remotely Crow-esque (ditto Liz Phair) but that's the reaction you get when you play their songs to people.

"Ohh, this is a bit like that All I Wanna Do woman, isn't it?"

Favourite songs, anyone? I think you've got to go a long way to beat "I've Had It" which sends tingles up and down my spine evry time I hear it.

BTW, I think knowledge of her travails at the hands of the record industry adds poignancy to everything she writes. The sense of abuse and disappointment you can hear in her lyrics just wouldn't work if she were being marketed like David Gray.

>>The new Ben Folds album is apparently absolutely brilliant (I haven't heard it myself, but it's supposed to be the best yet),
>>
>Is it out yet? I couldn't see it in Virgin at lunchtime.

No, that's what Sony are making their minds up about right now. Clueless twats.

>
>>Expect to see it launched with minimal publicity and fuss. (Their management company are VERY pissed off about this. Typical - these days great albums are buried as often as their praised.)
>>
>
>Aye. Obviously typing quickly there, so I'll let you off.
>

Er... That made sense to me. Sorry. I meant the chances of you hearing the greatest albums being released this year are quite slim. Record release schedules and budgets are so tight these days that little, old fashioned factors like whether an album is heartstoppingly brilliant pale into insignificance against what release date can be squeezed in between marketing campaigns for boy band spin offs. The Ben Folds album might be one of the best this year, but it won't necessarily be marketed as such. You might find it slipping out unnoticed, dropped into record racks at a time that just happened to suit Sony's global marketing strategy. Hence "buried as often as praised".

He meant your misuse of the word their when you meant they're, I think.

>Er... That made sense to me.

It make perfect sense to me too. I was just being a cunt and picking you up on the their/they're thing.

Fave tune is Build That Wall I reckon. I got quite emotional listening to Mr Harris the other day, what a big jessy I am. Can someone tell me where I can get a cheap portable mp3 player? I am fucking livid that on the Audiogalaxy page there's a banner ad (first time I've ever clicked one) showing a player for 99 US bucks, but try to buy it in the UK and it's about £200. Out-fuckin'-rageous.

Jesus. I hang my head in shame. That's a terrible slip up. Sorry, everyone. I'd like an otherwise impeccable grammatical record to be taken into consideration.

(Their their. That's better.)

Oh, and I've just had a word with someone in the know, and the terrific, radio friendly new Ben Folds single has as much chance of being A-listed at radio one as it has of turning into a delicious pie.

all I know is, the Ben Folds single was meant to be out on August 27th (and obviously wasn't) and the album is ace, but patchy (as all BFF's stuff was) and is extremes of everything (in my opinion) - i.e. the uptempo funny ones are funnier and bigger and the slow emotional ones are even more emotional. That's sort of what I said in my review anyway. It's more listenable than most recent releases despite its flaws.

>I am fucking livid that on the Audiogalaxy page there's a banner ad (first time I've ever clicked one) showing a player for 99 US bucks, but try to buy it in the UK and it's about £200. Out-fuckin'-rageous.

is it not possible to buy it direct from the U.S. then?

on the subject of Ben Folds i don't think he's ever matched 'underground' which is sublime. the new single is fantastic, one day they'll be a national radio station which puts stuff like that on heavy rotation.

Nah, same company charging double the price. Cunts. No way round it cos they don't deliver to the UK except through the UK branch.

more than double the price, $99 is about £70, bastards.

And a US DVD player would be designed for their electrical system and their TV format, wouldn't it?

About as much use as a chocolate fire engine.

The shitty little players that Dixons knock out for £100 can be region cracked from the handset, and work far better than you'd expect. Or you could always go to Richer Sounds and pick up a decent, pre-cracked multi-region player for £200-ish.

but, my dear butler, no one mentioned dvds. unless i am very much mistaken we were talking about mp3 players.

I really like Aimee MacDonald.

i really like ronald mcdonald.

>i really like ronald mcdonald.

Ronald MacDonald. Farmer MacDonald. Farm. Cow. Butter. Stutter. Lisp. Crisp. Salt and Vinegar. Mmmm. Donuts. Cake. Fake. False. Memories. Theakston. Jamie....

Aimee!!!

*head hurts*

Bollocks. Sorry about the Dixons Ad. Wrong thread.

(wanders off muttering) They were talking about DVD players somewhere round here...

Don't think it's been mentioned before (and I'm too lazy to check):

Aimee Mann (plus guests)
Thursday 11th October
London Astoria
157 Charing Cross Road, WC2
Tickets £15

www.meanfiddler.com / www.ticketbastard.co.uk

Or buy tickets at Waitrose (honestly)

Oooh! Birthday present.

>Oooh! Birthday present.
Yes, thats the name of our new supergroup readers! Look out for our top new single, out on Monday, catchily entitled " I'm So Sad Cos My Girlfreind Left Me, Well I Murdered Her And Dumped Her Corpse In The Nearby Pond, To Be Honest"