Heard

Steve Mason & Dennis Bovell – Ghosts Outside . Delightful, delicate dub. It’s the sound of summer for me. I’ve also really been enjoying J Mascis’ solo album, Several Shades of Why – mostly acoustic guitars, and he’s singing at the top of his game. And Dave Alvin’s Eleven Eleven – a rough, tough band playing a great collection of songs that reflect years on the road, listening to bar-room tales. It would be great to see them in a bar somewhere.

And this has also been on regular repeat - Kelly Hogan & The Pine Valley Cosmonauts - Papa Was a Rodeo

Read

I’ve been re-reading the Dortmunder series. Wry noir tales of guys scuffling around the edges, funny in places, dark in others. London Noir is an anthology of dark stories around crime and criminality, edited by Cathi Unsworth. Not all the stories work, but there are several excellent pieces in there – recommended to any noir fans out there. I see that there is a series of these books – I will be looking out for Manhattan Noir, which is edited by Laurence Block.

And the best book that I have read in ages is B-sides and Broken Hearts by Caryn Rose. It’s a love story, really about a fan’s love of music and the journeys that she takes following that, and it’s beautifully told. The detail is spot-on (which Stones bootlegs, which Zep bootlegs, which band t-shirts), the enthusiasm is infectious – I’ve dug out quite a few albums that featured in the book, including Let It Be – and I heartily recommend it to the Massive.

Seen

Nothing of any note

AOB

Two things :

1) we had a big family birthday party for my lovely father-in-law's 90th. He's still in fine fettle and it was great day and a reminder of the things that matter in life. 22 of us back at the house, ages from 5 to 90. I hope that I have his enthusiasm and vim when I'm 90!

2) Tomorrow I am going to see this exhibition on New York Abstract Expressionism – I am very excited. http://www.ago.net/abstract-expressionist-new-york

One more week of that and then I'm off for another two weeks of holiday, culminating with a weekend at the Popaganda music festival.
But this was July:

Read:
I'm currently re-reading one of my favourite novels, The Little Friend by Donna Tartt. That's on my busride to and from work, at home I'm dipping in and out of a collection of essays about - botany. Plants and flowers in nature, history and litterature. I got it more or less by mistake, but it turned out to be strangely fascinating, even though I got an overdose of nature as a child and spend my adulthood avoiding it as much as possible.
It's Swedish, so no use recommending it really...
Another Swedish book that I read and loved this month was Beate Grimsrud's En Dåre Fri. An inside perspective on schizophrenia, very poetic and very moving.

Seen:
Very little TV ( but I've been enjoying Australian Masterchef, better than the original... ) but I saw a very funny comedy on DVD the other night. I had very low expectations but It's Complicated made me laugh out loud throughout the entire film ( well, the ending could possibly have been a little less cute/bland ).
Meryl Streep and Alec Baldwin as an ex-married couple who after ten years as divorced end up having an affair with each other. Highly recommended!

Heard:
Just bought a new batch of albums last week and thanks to working a lot I really haven't had time to form any opinions yet.
A mixed bunch of genres; hip hop, electronica, folk, rock'n roll, blues, dubstep, funk, singer-songwriters and a few things that I frankly wouldn't know what to call if my life depended on it...
In the next Word Of Mouth I promise that you can look forward to my reviews of several Swedish hip hop albums! ;) No, sorry, you'll just have to wait for it a little longer...

Heard

Not too much new stuff in the last month. Been enjoying the Gillian Welch album and there's also a couple of really good podcasts with Welch and Rawlings on (Fresh Air and Q from CBC). I also really enjoy the Brett Dennen record Loverboy, it's just a great sounding summer pop record, as is the Yacht single Shangri-La.

Seen

Not seen too much tv. Am enjoying The Killing despite everyone telling me it's not as good as the Danish version. Also enjoying The Good Cook with Simon Hopkinson. It's refreshing to find a tv chef with no pretensions to be anything other than just that. He makes food that's simple to make with recipes that are easy to follow and ingredients that are easy to find. That's pretty much all I want from a cookery programme.

Probably the best thing I saw in the last month was a youtube video of Howe Gelb talking to students about how to make it in the music business. Absolutely fascinating to see someone who has been around the block and probably doesn't sell huge amounts of records but is resolutely chipper about his lot. No complaining or moaning about the internet or downloads and a fine example for everyone. Very funny too.

Saw The Head and The Heart again and they were great. Surprised they haven't caught on yet in the same way as Fleet Foxes or Bon Iver did.

Read

Only thing I've read in the last month was A Visit From The Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan. It was terrible. The first couple of chapters are OK, but there are a couple of chapters that are awful and the structure of the book is just showy and doesn't allow any characters to develop properly. And like 99.9% of writers her writing about the music business isn't very convincing.

I haven't read or seen a lot of late, but I've been very much enjoying Kaputt by Destoryer, Zeroes QC by Suuns, Tweak Bird's latest untitled album, Grown Unknown by Lia Ices, Other Lives EP by Other Lives and a whole load of Iron and Wine.

Still on my The Wire re-watch and introduction to the FPO (who didn't see it the first time). We're on series 4 now and I think she is coming around to the idea of it being the best thing ever.

I'm going through a classical phase. I got a rather good CD of Erik Satie piano pieces recorded by someone called Peter Van Leeuwen which sent me back to Glen Gould's recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations. All rather nice. Apart from that I got a reminder yesterday about how good Gillian Welch is when Time (The Revelator) appeared on shuffle which had me eagerly playing all of it. I will need to give her new album a proper listen I think.

Seen!
HP7B. I really enjoyed it, not much more which I can say really.
My FPO is finally watching The Wire so we're half way through series 1. I suspect she isn't enjoying it as much as me which saddens me.

Read!
Heaven's Command - Jan Morris
A history of the early days of the British Empire and the first part of a trilogy about it's rise and fall. It's a bit like reading a completely factual version of the Flashman books and I'll definately persevere with the rest of them.

What Becomes - AL Kennedy
Collection of really quite Raymond Carveresque short stories. Reading this, it struck me how little contemporary fiction seems to be set in contemporary times, it felt like a breathe of fresh air.

The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
I had to read it at school and hated it on the grounds that I couldn't understand why Gatsby could be obsessed with someone as annoying as Daisy. Coming back to it as a grown up, the actual writing and my greater awareness of the larger themes of the book made that less important. But still not totally unimportant. The book shimmers as you read it then afterwards, when you start taking the plot apart, you wonder how good it actually was really.

AOB

A combination of work and poverty has meant that social life has been quiet. However I did get lost walking through the New Forest last week. That wasn't much fun really.

Read

The second volume of Chris Mullin's diaries 'Decline & Fall' show a committed MP whose journey to retirement becomes increasingly disillusioned, echoing the fall of Blair and then Brown.

'Moneyball' by Michael Lewis is something I've wanted to read for ages. The story of how a major league baseball general manager in charge of one of the poorest (in monetary terms) teams consistently beat the big boys by focusing on discarding old wisdom about what makes success. Catch it before the Brad Pitt movie comes out (although I suspect it may come straight to DVD here).

Pro cyclist David Millar's autobiography, 'Racing Through the Dark' is utterly compelling. The story of a talented rider who drives himself to the brink of, and then right into, doping. You can completely understand when reading it the choice he made and it makes his ultimate redemption so praiseworthy.

Oh, and I had my second article published in When Saturday Comes this month, so I've been reading that while beaming with pride.

Heard

The Great Wilderness EP, 'Rest' is a sleepy, atmospheric set with more than a hint of that Portland sound about them. Anyone who liked Lullabies for the Working Class will adore.

The Low album, 'C'mon' is fantastic. 'Done' especially hasn't been far from my ears recently. It's one of those 'happysad' songs.

Danny Baker on DID was as ever we thought he would be, and 4Extra's Saturday night stand-up has given me Robin Ince and Stewart Lee in successive weeks, with Josie Long to come this weekend.

Seen

Very little, although I echo the compliments about The Good Cook. Watched a lot of baseball and the trailer for the 2nd season of Walking Dead has been replayed more times than is healthy.

this is the first time I've done one of these

Heard:
The past month has been dominated by females with Imelda May's, Mayhem; The Pierces, You & I; and the magnificently powerful Anna Calvi on rotation. These have been interspersed with The Leisure Society's, second album, Into the Murky Water and, ahem, an Iron Maiden compilation I picked up in Sainsbury's for a couple of quid.

Seen:
No music this month but there was the following assorted TV recorded over the last year including the Swedish Wallander, Egypt's Lost Cities, re-runs of Sherlock and the hugely enjoyable Olympic 'mockumentary', TwentyTwelve.

At the cinema, the month couldn't pass without seeing the final Harry Potter instalment, which whilst enjoyable didn't match the bleakness and isolation of Deathly Hallows Part 1.

Read:
As a hangover from my studies I continued reading both the Penguin Book First World War Poetry and Forgotten Voices of the Great War which threw up some extremely moving images away from the front line.

With my 'To Read' pile growing where better to start on a fine sunny day than with the cynical manipulation of mankind in Huxley's 'Brave New World', which I found equally invigorating and depressing. I countered this with Stevenson's romp around the tropics, Treasure Island which I last read as a child. By 'eck it's fun.

Finally, I've taken periodic dips into Pepys diary and was reminded that twentysomething men getting paralytic and screwing around is not a modern phenomenon.

AOB:
After six years of part time study I received my degree result this week, achieving a 2.1. The celebrations have started.

I can thoroughly recommend Anna Whitelock's book on Mary Tudor as a cracking good read. Very entertaining and I learned a lot.

Heard
North Sea Radio Orchestra's I a moon is my first full-length acquaintance with the group, who to these ears sound like the intersection between Kate Bush, Philip Glass, and Ronnie Lane’s proto Raggle-Taggle, another subject of investigation this month.

Syreeta’s Syreeta / Stevie Wonder Presents Syreeta goes for silly money on Amazon so I nearly yelped with excitement when I found a used copy. Syreeta has wonderful Minnie Riperton-esque voice and the albums were produced by then-husband Stevie Wonder in the flush of his imperial period.

The roots of rock 'n' roll : 1946-1954, a 2004 Hip-O Records set, may contain too much joy to experience in a single sitting; even the names Disc One MVPs Stick McGhee & his buddies and Louis Jordan & his Tympany Five bring a smile to my face. Surely the remaining discs will serve as an excellent soundtrack for an August road trip.

Read
Kristin Hersh’s Rat girl – her memoir’s North American title – reveals the astonishing background of her visceral songs: car accidents, incidents of synesthesia, and full-blown auditory hallucinations all figure. Admirably, Hersh never plays the victim, even while living under some astonishingly compromised economic circumstances.

In the city: a celebration of London music may be the perfect music book. Paul Du Noyer draws you in under the guise of a familiar tale well told, but reveals far more. I knew the Small Faces’ Up The Wooden Hills nursery-rhyme roots, but who knew Vera Lynn had a song of the same name? Bowie’s Anthony Newley mimicry is rock hagiography, but Newley’s clever, energised material may have influenced the Dame as much as his vocal mannerisms.

Seen
Midnight in Paris may be another example of Woody Allen’s sad decline. For a film supposedly so enamored with Paris to rely so heavily on stock footage (not to mention some woeful performances) reveal how dependant Allen’s best work relied on cinematographers such as Gordon Willis. In Word blog terms, perhaps it’s time for the wooden man to follow Billy Joel rather than R.E.M.

Glee Season 1
All television programs fall into one of two categories: soap opera and Teletubbies. In the latter, everything ends more-or-less as it starts (see also any dancing, home repair, or Gordon Ramsey shows), the former has proven mythically durable, from The Archers to Oz. Glee is definitely a soap opera, but with some affecting performances (kudos to Kurt's father, Mike O'Malley, a great TV dad), the raw power of Jane Lynch, and likely prompts some generation-spanning pop appreciation. Youngsters might encounter Silly Love Songs for the first time here, and I can attest to considering Florence & the Machine and My Chemical Romance differently after their inclusion in more recent episodes.

AOB
Oh, yes. I saw U2!

Heard

I haven't listened to all that much music as I've been reading a lot, but I have been enjoying a few things. I discovered an absolutely fantastic compilation, Jumping The Shuffle Blues: Jamaican Sound System Classics 1946-1960, which couldn't be any better suited to my current musical tastes. Big Jay Shuffle by Big Jay McNeely is my new top tune.

In my dreams if not reality I have been skanking like a bastard. As is usually the case in the summer months I revisit Young, Gifted and Black, one of Trojan's classic reggae collections. And I bought The Good, the Bad and the Upsetters by The Upsetters which is fabulous.

Last but not least, The Harrow and the Harvest by Gillian Welch is wonderful.

Read

I'm going through a phase of reading a lot of political and social history books. Loved State of Emergency, Dominic Sandbrook's authoritative look back at Britain under Edward Heath's government of 1970-1974.

Nearly as good was Rejoice! Rejoice!: Britain in the 1980s by Alwyn W. Turner. He really made sense of the whole era and writes well. Less accomplished but still very enjoyable was No Such Thing As Society: A History of Britain in the 1980s by Andy McSmith. He did a good job of explaining what happened in that tumultuous decade but it felt a bit cobbled together from numerous sources instead of a flowing text.

I would also recommend Real England by Paul Kingsnorth, a well-argued account of the erosion of individual identity in England's towns. And Welcome to Everytown: A Journey into the English Mind by Julian Baggini, a fascinating investigation into the "folk philosophy" of the English.

Seen

I had next to no interest in politics when I was a teenager, so I missed out on Yes Minister. It certainly deserves its exalted reputation; brilliantly observed and superbly written.

Finally got found to watching Tony Palmer's All You Need is Love. I was aware of the series' legendary status, but I have to say that I found it staggeringly inconsistent. I really enjoyed some of the early episodes (music hall, vaudeville, big band jazz), but those on the 1960s and 1970s were incredibly infuriating. The latter were devoid of clear narrative argument and seemed thrown together in the most haphazard of ways. When the last episode opened with Black Oak Arkansas (!) I really did start to question my own sanity. And then a bizarre sequence in which a voiceover from Lester Bangs bemoaning the sterility of the mid-70s music scene accompanied stunning footage of Bob Marley and the Wailers. Bangs' argument was effectively nullified by this juxtaposition and yet there was no mention of reggae providing the kick up the arse for which he longed. Very strange. Something I noticed was that the later episodes didn't have a credited writer, so perhaps that was why they seemed so meandering and lacking in focus. All things considered, I think the series is not all it's cracked up to be.

... have been re-listening to Bowie's "Heroes" - excellent. Also Circuital by My Morning Jacket - not sure about this yet. Bjork's new single/app thing - is she saying "Octagon Pony Gun"?

Watched: The American - I thought it was shit.

Reading: The Man on the Balcony (3rd in the Martin Beck series) - very good.

Heard Loving Gillian Welch's new one. As good as her others, and possibly my favourite. Also enjoying Yacht's Shangri-La (I originally put this the other way around. I very different record that would be) and finally got over my problem with the name and bought tUnE-yArDs W H O K I L L for £3, which is very good. Finally listened to Band On The Run all the way through (for the first time ever). Some good, some OK, and one completely rubbish track. It's nice but don't think I'll ever be able to love it. Listened (for the first time unbelievably for a soul girl like me) to Syl Johnson courtesy of Mr Malo of this parish. Sublime. Also listened (again courtesy of a thread here) to some radio shows: James Addyman's Down In The Grooves on BBC Leeds which is brilliant. Rediscovered Gilles Peterson's Radio 1 show too.

Also bought a few things that I've not got round to listening to yet.

Seen Gilda. Again. This time on the big screen. I genuinely believe it is one of the high watermarks of human achievement. Went to the Proms and watched piano prodigy Benjamin Grosvenor, aged 18 (actually he may be 19 now). He's quite good, you know. Also watched some of the other Proms on BBC4 and 2. Particularly enjoyed the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France's beautiful Brahms' Double Concerto and Stravinsky's Rite of Spring so far. Saw the Unthanks with the Brighouse & Rastrick Band at the Barbican. Brass bands make me cry and I was weeping within two minutes. A lovely gig.

Read Oh God. Every month this year I have said that I must read more books. I used to love reading, but it's all newspapers, magazines and the internet. So, mainly, I have been reading all about phone hacking this month. But I did manage ONE book this month. I have read Caitlin Moran's How To Be A Woman. After the pre-publication hype and marketing, I almost wanted to hate it, but it is brilliant, and articulates almost exactly how I feel about being a feminist in 2011. Excellent read.

Got a few of Beryl's novels for my birthday and was taken by the title of this one (I thought it would make a great name for a cardigan-and-specs indie band).

I'd never read anything by her before and Bottle Factory Outing is unlike anything I've read. It's full of eccentric characters and farcical scenes recounted in a deadpan style. Like Alan Bennett, Beryl relishes certain words and phrases.

Seen
For the time ever, I've enjoyed a series of Torchwood more than a series of Dr Who.

No, no wait - put down those stones, stop shouting: 'Death to the unbeliever!'

At times Torchwood has approached 24 in thrills - the race to save Capt Jack on the plane, for example. It has a great storyline about the apparent end of death and explores its consequences as much as the cause. I like the central characters Jack and Gwen and cheered when she cried: 'I'm Welsh' before biffing a baddy. Barrowman is the right size of cheesy as the hero, although he sometimes seems on the verge of bursting into song.

The only awkward note is the storyline about the child killer as someone sort of visionary. It just doesn't work.

The last Who, by contrast, was disjointed in parts and failed to thrill.

Mostly old stuff - The Pogues box set (takes me back and the set has some fine new songs I had never heard and jolly instrumentals. They were a hell of a band in their pomp), bits of Tom Lehrer (a bit smug but still very funny), Kinks and finally, for sheer joyousness, the complete introduction to Northern Soul set. I just can't get enough of this type of music.

Seen: The Hours which is a disappointment overall. The performances are good enough but it just doesn't ring true for me, particularly the dialogue and petty though this may seem, I don't believe BBC reporters would have been allowed to present with a tie undone in the 50's. Still, it's followed by Twenty Twelve which is still as hilarious as ever even on second viewing.

Read: Just finished the new book by Sebastian Barry - On Canaan's side - which is good enough and has some fine writing but overall a bit of a disappointment. Nowhere near as good as The Secret Scripture or A Long Way Down. Also, Orpheus by Ann Wroe which left my head in a spin. It's about the myth of Orpheus and the way it's been seen and used in the past and present. She writes very well but I need to read it again in order to fully appreciate it.

AOB: Went to see the exhibition of Thomas Struth's photographs at the Whitechapel Gallery. I had seen some of his photos of cityscapes a while back and loved them. I would recommend this, there are some stunning photographs though £9 is a lot to pay. Afterwards, walked through the city, watching city drinkers in the sun looking forward to the weekend. Bet it wasn't that way yesterday.

Heard: Much back catalogue stuff this month. Got the Pentangle Light Flight anthology and brings back happy memories of the Transatlantic compilation of theirs that I had on vinyl many years ago. This has more tracks and I cant believe how good the interplay is between Renbourn and Jansch. Also Paul Simons debut solo album which was missing from my collection.
Something I have had for a few months but just got off the shelf again is the Dylan LeBlanc Paupers Field album which is really wonderful.
New stuff I have enjoyed is the Horrors Skying album which has psychedelic moments and also the Vieux Farka Toure album The secret which includes a rather wonderful colloboration with Derek Trucks on one track.

Seen: Not much on the screen - Creep which my daughter persuaded me to watch which was truly awful.
On stage - The Pyjama Club - they kicked up quite a funky racket and the new album will be very good indeed if it replicates the live energy. They remind me in concept to Tom Tom Club in as much as they are looser as an offshoot. Almost like it is a fun side-project.

Read: Dont want to stir up a hornets nest again but No Off Switch by Andy Kershaw is very very good. He is witty, articulate, knowledgeable and above all very entertaining. His passion for music was always going to make this book interesting for me.

AOB - Just got back from Berlin and as much as I love the city I get some amusement from the music they cling too - Radio Spree was playing stuff like Mike and the Mechanics, Alan Parsons Project and China Crisis like they were legends of our musical past.