The Wateracre Pretrospective - stream and download

The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed that I have jigged around the website to include a link to my Bandcamp site.

I've also released a live album recorded in 2007, featuring fourteen songs (and a fifteenth if you buy it on download!), from a show called The Wateracre Pretrospective.

I'll be releasing more on Bandcamp in the future.

That's all for now!

An Open Letter to the people of Kingston and Surbiton

I was brought up in Surbiton, in Surrey, and born in Kingston Hospital. I don't live there any more, but I recently wrote an email to my friends and family who still do. This is what it said:

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Dear Surbiton and Kingston folk -

I don't live in Surbiton any more. I live in East Dulwich, in South-East London, under a Labour MP who lives in North-West London. That's not important right now.

What is important is that I would like to do some tactical petitioning. I've signed this thing which sends an email to my MP protesting against the Health and Social Care Bill and cuts to the NHS, and I wondered if you'd do likewise.

My MP will argue against it because she's on the opposite side of the House, and that's how our screwed up, fiercely partisan Parliament rolls, but if you could send dear Mr Davey MP a reminder that he shouldn't be kow-towing to mandateless hooligans intent on turning over our beautiful, free, envy-of-the-world NHS to changes even the British Medical Journal has argued vociferously against (http://www.bmj.com/content/342/bmj.d408.full), that would please me no end.

http://saveournhs.com/

In return, I promise I will harangue Tessa Jowell MP about whatever you'd like. Lord knows I email her almost weekly at the moment anyway, but a little guidance on that would be most welcome. Maybe you want her to change the colour of her suit, or live in the constituency she claims to represent... It's all fair game.

For what it's worth, I like Ed Davey a lot, and think he's brilliant at his job of representing the people of Kingston and Surbiton, but if he can't see the irony of saving Kingston Hospital from closure only to lose 20% of its staff (http://www.edwarddavey.co.uk/web/?q=node/336) and thinks that inviting privatisation into any part of this mess would improve it one jot, then I think we ought to let him know that.

If you think I'm being an East Dulwich-living interfering git who ought to keep his nose out of Surbiton business, then I understand your position and respectfully ask you to delete this email. It is lovely, though, Dulwich. You can get really good sandwiches.

Much love,
Tom

Tom's Highly Unscientific Top Ten of 2010!

As you may remember from either last year, or the year before that, I'm building a masterpiece in my iPod, currently 26,611 items occupying 131.35 GB.

Each year, I make an unsatisfying auto-playlist of the songs that are dated 2010 in my iTunes, and rank them in order of most listened to. Here's this year's list.

1) Ready To Start - Arcade Fire

2)= Drunk Girls - LCD Soundsystem

2)= Tightrope - Janelle Monae

2)= Cousins - Vampire Weekend

5) The Suburbs - Arcade Fire

6)= Zebra - Beach House

6)= I'm Not Living In The Real World - Belle & Sebastian

6)= Trouble Come Running - Spoon

9)= Shutterbugg - Big Boi

9)= Anyone's Ghost - The National

I think there have been many many strong albums this year, a million times better than 2009's lacklustre crop. As well as the nine albums represented above, there were strong showings just outside the Top 10 for the Scott Pilgrim soundtrack ("Threshold" by Sex Bob-omb), Sufjan Stevens (his "All Delighted People" ep in particular), and the Hold Steady's "Heaven Is Whenever". Good job, 2010! Keep it up, 2011.

And here's my all-time Top 10 on iTunes, with previous year's placing following it.

1) Finer Feelings - Spoon (non-mover)

2) Actor Out Of Work - St Vincent (new entry)

3)= Friends - Led Zeppelin (last year's number 9)

3)= You've Done It Again, Virginia - The National (last year's number 3)

3)= The Lost Art Of Keeping A Secret - Queens of the Stone Age (non-mover)

6)= Romantic Rights - Death From Above 1979 (new entry)

6)= Blood On Our Hands - Death From Above 1979 (last year's number 2)

6)= I Want This Cyclops - Destroyer (last year's number 8)

6)= Florida - Modest Mouse (last year's number 4)

6)= You Got Yr Cherry Bomb - Spoon (new entry)

6)= Don't You Evah - Spoon (new entry)

6)= Company In My Back - Wilco (new entry)

6)= Good - Ghostface Killah (new entry)

See you next year, pop pickers! (Fingers crossed that the R.E.M. album will be any good!)