Fugu Fugu Fugu Fugu
This morning I received an advance of the new CD from Fugu. This fella will need no introduction to chiff_chaff (I hope things are well with you in Houston right now, but I imagine you have more pressing issues than reading livejournal. Hope all friends & family are safe and coping well), but in a nutshell: a series of 45s from the early-to-late-90s released on a variety of indies & self-financed labels, all of which sounded unique and none of which sounded like the prior release. And yet there was a unity of feel; a desire to push things forward a little, but in an ultra-melodic, super-harmonic yet willfully uncommercial way. They sounded like how you wish those awful Elephant-6 bands would sound. An LP finally emerged in 2001 to what the press term "little fanfare"; perhaps it was held back by a slightly-too-obvious Stereolab influence.
This new record though...ohmygod it's just super. A little more pop-structured than the previous records (ie it has VERSES! and CHORUSES!), but whew, all those arrangements and hooks from his past are all in place and all over the place, and Mehdi's super-smooth soft-rock falsetto harmonies just ooze over everything. Reaching for comparisons, I suppose it's a bit like Air if they wrote pop songs, or Phoenix if they weren't so worried about being cool.
Yeah, he's French.
Favourite record this year? Well I've not bought the new Sigur Ros yet, but..hmm.. quite possibly...

In the oddest move in an career full of odd moves, Brian Wilson (or melinda, or whoever) has stumbled upon a great fund raising idea for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The premise is this: you send a donation of $100 or more to Brian's manager (to pass on to the Hurricane victims), and Brian will match your donation and (here's the thing) GIVE YOU A CALL AND ALLOW YOU TO ASK HIM A QUESTION!
While the intent is admirable (and the fundraising seems to be going moderately well up to now), I can't help feeling that this is belittling both Brian's talent and the issue itself, and not dissimilar to the auctioning of tickets to the meet-and-greets on the US tour (and how scummy was that?). Don't forget, Brian, you're an artist, you're not a call-centre monkey (apologies to all who work in call centres).
Actually $6000 is a pretty meagre sum: that's, what, thirty takers max? Well, don't look at me...