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New Season. Same Humiliation

To the Table of Dreams! …on Friday lunchtime. It’s been a while since we played an outdoor game of wiff waff. I’m calling this VERY early, but spring is starting to shoot up around us. I’m looking forward to hopefully nine months or so of outdoor table tennis, no wind, no rain.

And yep, we’ve had bloody loads of rain over the past few weeks. Just ask my roof - assuming ti could talk - and the repairs that are now needed. The positive effect of all the downpours was that The Table of Dreams was clean and almost looking box fresh. GAME ON.

We were both a little distracted with other shit going off around us at the moment. Which meant that concentration when it came to scoring was all over the bloody place. Let the record show that I was BATTERED 5-0. I’m always battered 5-0 tbh. But the odd point here and there may have gone a little astray.

The FUCK OFF dog that was out for his morning constitutional was most certainly not a little astray. What a unit! I’m not sure of the breed, but I’ve never seen a dog as large as this. He wasn’t fat, just big. The very friendly owner assured that he is still a puppy. The current daily diet is eight cans of food. TUCK IN, Bonzo.

The game of table tennis continued. But it was still a stop / start affair. I was caught short. I had to have a mad bathroom break to the nearby public toilets midway through one game. I returned more at ease with myself, but still lacking in skill.

Album of the Day: The Birthday Party - Junkyard

A very dirty album. It sounds like there’s a lot to be said, but I’m not quite sure what the overall message is. It’s a rambling mess. Tunes are absent. The production is deep and fuzzy. It leaves you feeling as though you need to scrub your nails after listening. Old Nick has mellowed in the years that followed.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Album of the Day: The Sonics - Here Are the Sonics

Energy! Rawness! Rock ‘n’ Roll with cardigans! The Sonics were a new one for me. It’s quite a find. It’s an album that’s impossible to sit still whilst listening. I bet the live experience is where the real action was. It’s no masterpiece in terms of production, but that’s not the point. The Sonics sound like they genuinely believe in what they’re doing. Half an hour later and I was a convert.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Back on Planet Sleaford Mods

Another day, another new drop from Sleaford Fucking Mods. They’re rinsing all they can out of the new album which lands on Friday. I make this the fourth song that has been released across various platforms with half decent videos to match. Back in the day and we would have called these singles.

And so here we Sleaford Mods featuring Aldous Harding with Elitist G.O.A.T. There’s a real band feel to this one, including a boss baseline riff that kicks in mid-song.

I don’t know much (OK, anything) about about Aldous Harding. But Sleaford Fucking Mods seem to be on a run of form when it comes to picking collabs.

The Postman Delivers:

The Triffids' The Black Swan album, from 1989. I’ve not heard a single track from it previously. But I became pretty obsessed with the 1987 release Calenture, towards the end of last year. I thought I would give The Black Swan a punt.

I knew noting of the Aussie band, until the 1,001 Albums list served up Calenture one morning. Ah, I remember that song, Bury Me Deep, with endless radio play back in ‘87. The rest of the album totally immersed me. In the end I had to force myself from listening to it each day.

Maybe the same fate will await with the Black Swan; I might possibly play it, and then realise that Calenture was an outstanding one off. But I do like the intrigue of hearing an album for the first time.

This was the way I use to listen to music, pre-digital days. I’d often buy albums, and then allow them to grow with me. Streaming has made it all so disposable and instant.

I admit that my pile of To Play CD’s now takes up the best part of eight shelves, and is stretching to almost 800 new albums for me to experience.

OUCH.