Abba: Are they reforming?

I can smell it. ABBA, Swedish super popster, are going to get back together. It's a hunch, sure, but I can almost taste it. Dig. Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus have confirmed that they'll be taking part in a concert later this year called, predictably, Thank You For The Music: A Celebration Of The Music Of ABBA. The group stopped making records in '82, but never officially split up. Surely time has healed the wounds enough for one last blow-out gig? Don't be surprised if there's a residency at a huge venue akin to the one Michael Jackson was set to do.

It Felt Like A Kiss: Adam Curtis takes you through time and scares you witless

Adam Curtis is a genius. He's been making documentaries for television and leaving all destroyed in his wake. He's given us The Century of the Self, The Trap - What Happened to our Dream of Freedom, the incredible The Power of Nightmares and provided a short documentary which appeared in Charlie Brooker's News Wipe. Now, along with the Punchdrunk Theatre Co, he's made a spectacle so dazzling, so mind-frying, that you might never quite think the same thoughts again.

Kraftwerk at the Manchester Velodrome - the shape of things to come?

I was going to write an in-depth gig review of the Kraftwerk/Steve Reich gig at the Manchester Velodrome, but decided against. For a start, there are numerous review already in the mix (including some that might have been written by people who didn't actually go). And of course, as we couldn't get press passes (and had to pay our way in), why should be spend our time lauding it up? Saying that, there are some things we couldn't resist commenting on.

New York Dolls back for one more London gig

Not sure how I feel about the New York Dolls these days - sure, they're one of the most influential bands ever and Johnny Thunders was one of the coolest dudes ever to hold a guitar. But he's long dead and just two of the original five remain. If that's enough 'doll' for you, you can catch the reformed band once again in London - at the HMV Kentish Town Forum on Friday 4th December 2009.

David Johansen and Sylvain Sylvain will be joined by newbies Steve Conte (guitar), Brian Delaney (drums), and former Hanoi Rocks bass guitarist, Sami Yaffa to rip through material from ‘New York Dolls’ (1973), ‘Too Much Too Soon’ (1974), and ‘One Day It Will Please Us To Remember Even This’ (2006), not to mention recent Todd Rundgren-produced studio album 'Cause I Sez So’, all for an admission price of £22.50.

See below for tickets and if don't own those first two albums, more fool you.

Gig tickets for New York Dolls in London

Bughouse Scratch DJ Coffee Table - home decor for vinyl addicts

If you love your vinyl, you'll love the Bughouse Scratch DJ Coffee Table.

No, it doesn't spin your discs, but it give you a place to store two of your favourites within, your prize vinyl then protected by a glass top, perfect for showing off rarities to your crate diggin' mates. The DJ 'console', as you might have guessed, is an image transfer, printed onto pine laminate.

Pine sides and brushed chrome legs finish things off, with the whole thing selling for $850, which works out at around £515. See over the page for a close-up look.

Bughouse Art & Design

Audiobooks hit the Spotify website

All that time on the PC doing damage to your reading? No worries, you can now mix the two - with audiobooks now available for your reading/listening pleasure on Spotify.

Well, we say 'audiobooks', but we mean 'audiobook' - just one is there as a trial right now, Chris Anderson's Free: The Future of a Radical Price, which also hits the traditional bookshelves this week. The book itself is narrated by the author and 'considers a brave new world where the old economic certainties are being challenged by a growing flood of free goods – newspapers, DVDs, T-shirts, phones, even holiday flights.' Not exactly Harry Potter, but what do you want for nowt?

To be fair, it's probably in tune with Spotify and by all accounts it's a decent read - so check it out for yourself if you fancy giving your brain a workout. If all goes well, more audiobooks will follow. Hopefully something a bit lighter.

Spotify website

Viva hits DVD - Russ Meyer for the modern era

Remember Viva? We reviewed it on Cinedelica some time back when it was doing the rounds of the arthouse circuit, but now the movie has finally made it to DVD in the UK.

Check out the full review or let us tell you that Viva is a take on the Russ Meyer/Herschell Gordon Lewis-style exploitation flick of the late 60s and early 70s (think Beyond The Valley of the Dolls), with director Anna Biller heading up the cast as a bored housewife looking for kicks in 1972 LA - model work, call girl, stage star etc etc. It's very good, but don't take our word for it, check out the review and numerous others that give the movie the thumbs up.

You can pick it up from 6th July 2009 for just under £10 from Amazon via the Cine Excess label. Not heard of that? Well, you soon will do - a collaboration between Brunel University's Cult Film Archive and film director Roger Corman, it promises to offer some never-before-seen movies from the cult movie man's archive for the first time in the UK. We don't now what as yet - but we're already seriously excited about the prospect.

Find out more about Viva at the Amazon website

Thoughts on playing popular music

I'm a DJ. Now to some, that really means something. It promises untold cool. People look at DJs and imagine a glamorous world filled with hip-cats, all discussing cool, obscure records. They hang in hip bars that no-one else knows about and get free coke in the back room. Mostly, that isn't the case at all. Far from it.

ZX Spectrum: Play online for RSI fun!

Me. I was a ZX Spectrum kid. I had a Commodore 16k, but it was rubbish... even then. Other kids I knew had Commodore 64s, Amiga CPC464s and Atari somethingothers with cigar shaped joysticks, but for me, Spectrum Was King. I graduated to a Spectrum 125k with a built-in tape deck, so I didn't have to much about with the volume on my separate when the line of tippex had worn off. It came with a James Bond pack and a gun. It was amazing. Saboteur, Jet Set Willy, Footballer of the Year, Jetpac and Fantasy World Dizzy set my world on fire. Now, those games are so crude and small that mobile phones are standing around in the showers, towels poised and ready to gloat. Yet still, the birth of the home computer grips some of us with a fever that's hard to shake. The thought of those rubber keys make us sigh with nostalgia. Now, you can play pretty much every game online without downloading a damn thing.

Click here to roll back the years

Michael Jackson... wait... here us out

Okay. A million words have been written about Michael Jackson, most of 'em complete junk. However, amongst the unreasonable criticisms, the sickly fawning and overplaying of His Last Ever Performance, there's a few good pieces. One such article that's definitely worth a read is on the Koax Koax Koax blog. You might not agree with it all, but it's definitely worth your time.

Only Fools and Horses prequel, or Before The Glue Boilers

You remember Only Fools and Horses right? I mean, there's that one where Del falls through the bar. There's that one when they ran through fog as Batman and Robin. That one where Del fell through the bar. "Bonjour". That one where the Peckham Spring Water fell through the bar at Bruce Wayne's mansion. That one where Bruce Wayne had a bottle of Peckham Spring Fog in that bar and Uncle Albert told that war story about that time when Rodders was replaced with a spring. Well, it's back... but not as you know it.

Blur accidentally prompt the death of the review

Ironically, after saying 'Sorry bub, things keep getting in the way, back soon', I stumble across something that made me want to vent a little. Of course, it being a topical story in the world of music, it could only be about one of two things: Michael Jackson's death or The Blur Reunion. It's the latter. And the NME.

Dig Fuzz.

Have you dug our man Paul 'Super 8' Fuzz's blog. He's been writing away over there, looking at ER thinking "Shit. These swines aren't paying me in nuthin' but uncomfortable hugs... I may as well stick to my own".

Fair and true.

His great little articles will be sporadically appearing... HERE. So pay him a visit at What Would Jesus Blog? and read about pinball machines, hot air balloons, NASA and more. In the absence of me being able to get things together any time soon, he's yer man.

*UPDATED* Michael Jackson RIP

*Michael Jackson has died after paramedics were called to the singer's home around midday local time on Thursday after he stopped breathing and suffered a suspected cardiac arrest. He was rushed by ambulance to a local medical centre, but his death was announced shortly afterwards.*

The article written before the news was confirmed is overleaf.

From Jazz Funk & Fusion to Acid Jazz - The History of the UK Jazz Dance Scene

It's been 10 years in the making, which just might give you an idea of the depth of From Jazz Funk & Fusion to Acid Jazz - The History of the UK Jazz Dance Scene.

The work of Mark 'Snowboy' Cotgrove and designed by one of our favourite artist/designers Swifty, this 290-page book looks at the evolution of black music and clubbing in the UK from the early 70s to the mid-90s, taking in the all-dayers, weekenders and clubs, including The Goldmine, Chaplins, Lacy Lady, Berlin, The Central, Chaplins, Crackers, Electric Ballroom and The Wag.

Swells RIP

 

There's a lot of people out there who think they're good enough to be a rock critic. 'I can write a bit and I totally like loads of bands! I'm always talking about music!' And so, 99% of music writers are the dullest people on Earth. It suits, because rock musicians are just as boring. They tangle up in some beige heap, all trying to cop a feel of each other. However, all the best people churning out words into the music press void weren't too fussed either way... they'd pretty much write about anything but music in their work. One of my favourite music writers who ever lived, criminally underrated too, is Steven Wells (aka Swells)... or should that say was? Because the mighty Swells passed away to cap unofficial ER Death Day following Sky Saxon and Farrah Fawcett to the dirt.

Farrah Fawcett RIP

The last of the truly great pin-ups has passed away. RIP Farrah.

What did LPs look like in Communist Russia?

Dear Anorak

Sorry for stealing a picture that you used on your site. Fact is, we needed something to illustrate an article we're linking to. An post you've done. It's pretty cool. That's why we're linking to you.

Hope you don't mind.

The Roulette Idiots.

Click here to see a load of cool album covers from commie Russia.

The Gories. You like 'em right?

Sometimes, the story just isn't worth writing. I mean, someone else already did it ten times better than you ever would, with proper research and funnier jokes. Hell, they'll probably spell things right and use proper grammar and all that junk. With that, if you dig The Gories, then you should click the link below and read an article way better than anything us dopes could ever think up. Or sumpin.

Click here to read the Metro Times article.

Sky Saxon RIP

Sky Saxon, vox-ace and genius behind The Seeds has passed away. Sky's partner, Sabrina broke the next on Facebook saying "Sky has passed over and YaHoWha is waiting for him at the gate. He will soon be home with his Father. I'm so sorry I couldn't keep him here with us. More later. I'm sorry."