I'm rather fond of their new single Dance At My Wedding, which you can hear on the link below. It's their first single but they've been about for a little while. Acoustic folky rootsy pop with lots of harmonies, a ukulele in there somewhere, and an ex-member of Kenickie for good measure.

http://www.myspace.com/thecornshedsisters

There's also a few live performances on Youtube. I suspect they'll go down well with a few of the Word blog regulars.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2086509/Stalker-flew-U-S-broke-K...

I wonder how many people around these parts are aware of this US Bill that is currently being considered.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act

There's has been something of a news blackout about it in various places, and over here in the UK it may not be getting as much coverage as it should because it's seen as 'American'. But if passed it will have far reaching effects, not just because a lot of the world's most used sites are American.

There is a proposed internet blackout scheduled for the 23rd of January by companies opposing the bill. This may mean sites such as Twitter, Facebook and Google will be out of action for 24 hours in protest.

Sam, ex Tunng, now working under the name Diagrams, has a new album out next week. It's called Black Light and I've heard it and it is bloody great. There is a youtube page by the record company with some 'trailers'. I've put the link to the page below, but here's one of the trailers as an embed.

If you're a fan of his work in Tunng, or of the Beta Band/Super Furries you'll probably enjoy this.

Bugger, here's hoping the year hasn't peaked already!

http://www.youtube.com/user/FullTimeHobbyRecords

My wife got herself a shiny new Iphone for Crimbo. Quick question: is there a quick and easy way to move her contacts from her old Nokia onto the shiny new thing?

My Ipod was playing up, crashing after every two or three tracks played. Apple first told me I had too many tracks on the machine, and not enough free space. The 120 gig version apparently works best if you keep the music under about 85 gigs, according to the lovely people at Apple.

So I began the Great Ipod Prune of 2011 and finally got it down to about 83 gigs of music from 97 gigs. Was fine for a while, but then the crashing returned. Apple recommended this time wiping it, factory resetting and then reloading my music. So I hit the button marked 'reset' and then worked on my library to keep the songs below 80 gigs, which was good because I managed to get rid of about 7000 songs from the library that were duplicates, either same song/different album or exact same file copied in twice by accident.

Took 3 days to sort out, but when it was finished played fine. No crashes whatsoever. Until yesterday. When I put the first playlist on there. Admittedly a big playlist, about 150 songs. But the same old problem returned. Crash every two or three songs. I've deleted the playlist today and again no more crashes.

Is there a known problem with playlists on the Ipod? Or is it simply that my playlists are too long?

Nice little piece on this on the Guardian website today. For those of you who don't know it's a recognised condition where you might experience two or more senses at once. So you may see colours when you hear music for instance.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2011/dec/05/synaesthesia-hearing-...

Anybody on these blogs experience this?

I have always associated certain sounds with colours, for instance saxaphones are purple and silver, strings in an orchestra are white and shaped like the feathers on a dove's wings; synth bass is dark blue, going dark red when squelchy. However I don't think I have this condition, because I have a sneaking suspicion that the saxaphone for instance was depicted blowing purple and silver notes in a cartoon I saw.

But I am interested after reading the piece, because the songwriter in the piece describes how she sees things and it rang a lot of bells. Anybody here know anymore about it, like how it can be tested for? I'm quite happy if it's just my imagine, but it would be nice to know for sure.

Was listening to Big Star on my way home tonight and realised that my power pop was very thin on the ground. Recommendations please ladies and gentlemen.

Bit of a wide ranging one here. I'm looking for recommendations for instrumental piano music. Any type of music, but it must be instrumental, and preferably only be piano, perhaps with some trumpet, and I'll stretch as far as a rhythm section possibly.

So I guess I'm not really expecting anything other than jazz, new age or classical out of this.

Oh and no Clayderman please. No really, please no.

I'm working from home. Yes, I know, I'm not working right now. But I am legitimately working from home when I've finished this cup of coffee!

Now I'm aware there are probably a few people whose workplace is across the landing in the spare room on the Word blogs. I'm having a little problem.

Well easily distracted is one of my problems, but music. I like having music on to work too. The radio has too much talk to work to so the Pod is plugged in. I've had an 80s playlist on, some Mahler and general random mixed play. What is currently working really well is Underworld, something about the repetitive beats really works well when I'm writing a report that is very dull and repetitive!

But I'm finding it difficult to stick with one thing. It's stopping me from hitting a groove workwise. I'm tempted to settle for silence, but one of the neighbours is out front and I need to block out the voice.

What do any of you workers from home do about music?

Well not exactly bad covers, just numerous covers....

I saw the tracklisting to the new Nicola (Girls Aloud)Roberts album and there in the midst of it is a cover version of The Korgis' Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime. I don't get this song at all, doesn't do anything for me, I find it really draggy. And yet cover after cover of it over the years; sometimes I feel like it's the same song playing continuously since the 80s...

Can I just say NO! but also...why!!??!?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everybody%27s_Got_to_Learn_Sometime

New series on BBC3, that channel that I'm supposed to be too old for probably. I'm not going to chuck any spoilers in here, but if you're a fan of Joss Whedon and horror and the good Doctor you'll probably enjoy this. I did, it was nicely creepy, with some good dialogue and casting.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0151prg/The_Fades_Episode_1/

Imagine this thread is your old school notebooks, or sportsbag or lapel covered in badges. List the bands and singers/songwriters/guitarists/albums that you love. Lets avoid the things we don't like, or snippy arguments if we can.

Mine in the comments...

In light of the events unfolding in the last week I thought some people may like to revisit (or visit for the first time) Hugh Grant's article on his meeting with Paul McMullan.

http://www.newstatesman.com/newspapers/2011/04/phone-yeah-cameron-murdoc...

http://www.nme.com/filmandtv/news/mad-men-actress-wanted-for-wonder-woma...