Chimpomatic

Where The Buffalo Roam

(dir. Art Linson)

"I hate to advocate weird chemicals, alcohol, violence or insanity to anyone... but they've always worked for me."

Rambling attempt to convert the "legend" of Hunter S Thomson into a lightweight Bill Murray comedy. Nothing approaching the hallucinogenic quality of Terry Gilliam's later Fear And Loathing ...but Murray fans should find something to enjoy here. It's loose in a way that mid 1970s and early 1980s films were, and modern films aren't - floating from one episodic wacky incident to another: watching his attorney try to start a banana republic, interviewing Nixon on the 1972 campaign trail (in the loos), shooting his telex machine etc.

Murray handles the mumbling dialogue well - lots of laconic one-liners for him to reel off - but even though he's chomping down on booze and drugs for the entire film you never really see him go either up or down, which makes the tone a little flat. Bruno Kirby plays his stressed out editor waiting for copy to mysteriously appear when Hunter's decided he's done (and not before), and Neil Young did the soundtrack - nice version of Home On The Range in the opening credits ("where the deer and the antelope play" etc), and he gets a little cameo too.

Overall, not essential, but a pretty affectionate attempt - worth catching if you're a fan of the late Gonzo genius, or Murray, and you're in the mood for an imperfect culty outing that moseys along, taking its time.

#Film
#chimp71

30th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

young v bush

neil young's taking on bush on his new album

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Living With War

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30th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

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I Heart Huckabees

(dir. David O. Russell)

How am I not myself?

Billed as an existential detective comedy, Russell's film errs on the side of wackiness, but works on the whole. V enjoyable performances from Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin as the detectives investigating eco-activist Jason Schwartzman's psyche and a string of coincidences that may or may not be meaningful. They make a great couple - you kind of wonder why no-one's paired them up before. Some nice fantasy moments where corporate man Jude Law gets hacked by a machete.

Floats along without hitting that Wes Anderson groove where an offbeat world really kicks into its own gear so that you don't worry about the self-conscious goofiness. The sort of film you can be fond of without really loving, which is a shame as I had higher hopes. Good character performances from Naomi Watts, Isabelle Huppert and Mark "don't call me Marky" Wahlberg.

#Film
#chimp71

29th Apr 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

The Broken Family Band

Balls

Please refer to everything I said about this band in the review of their previous album but just add balls. This album keeps us guessing even more. The opening track lets us know that this ain't gonna be another straight-up country offering. It’s pure rock, and kicks things off nicely. It’s another hate filled masterpiece that has it’s grubby little fingers in many genres. Fantastic stuff.

28th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

The New Pornographers

Twin Cinema

I really can’t understand why everybody is wetting themselves over this album. Pitchfork gave it 9/10. That means it’s one point off Wilco’s A Ghost Is Born. No chance. It’s so flat and unoriginal. Vocals are uninspiring and, as CSF rightly pointed out, songs like My Street sound like an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical, and not even a good one like Starlight Express, which ruled. I am however reserving judgement and if I come around to popular opinion then I will rewrite this review but until that time the official statement from Chimpomatic HQ is that it sucks.

28th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

Various (Domino) Artists

They’ll Have To Catch Us First

Though nowhere near as comprehensive as 2003's Worlds Of Possibilities this is nice little update on the goings on at Domino. Not many surprises as most of the best bits I already have but a stand out track from Archie Bronson Outfit and Clearlake make it all worthwhile. Old favourites include Tortoise and Bonnie Prince Billy, The Kills and Sons and Daughters. All in all a good listen and some future avenues to pursue.

28th Apr 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

The Broken Family Band

Welcome Home Losers

This band is great and they really shouldn’t be. They just don’t stick to the rules and that pisses me off. I first discovered them on a Rough Trade ‘Country’ compilation and that’s where you would expect to find them, not in Cambridge which is where they are from. But they sound so damn country, and what pisses me off more is that they make great country music. This record is packed full of sadness and bitterness and delivered with such irony that it is surprisingly upbeat. It is tongue-in-cheek like The Hansome Family and sounds like the secret diary musings of a man who has had so much crap dumped on him from various relationships that he is left with no other option than to see the funny side of life. I suppose this is their English side coming out. Bravo.

28th Apr 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

summer must be here

…big brother's back in may. help. apparently a dalek auditioned this year.

Click here for 'mugison', the top search...

28th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

New(s) Search

Chimpomatic news and reviews are now searchable - buy using the bar on the left.
Enjoy finding lost articles from ze early yearz.

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28th Apr 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Green Street

(dir. Lexi Alexander)

Or what Frodo did next. Tired of mixing it with Orcs and the like, it turns out he decided to test his skills against an altogether different fighting challenge; the football hooligans of England.

Promising journalist Matt (Elijah Wood) gets set-up and thrown out of Harvard, so he heads to London to catch up with his sister. Thanks to her brother-in-law, he wastes no time getting in with a West Ham ‘firm’ and into a series of pitched battles with rival supporters. When I say he wastes no time, literally on the same day he sets foot in Heathrow he later has his teeth knocked out by a Birmingham City thug.

It’s an interesting idea, what attracts young men to the world of football violence, but I’m sure it has been done better elsewhere. The shoe-horning of an American tourist into the story doesn’t sit comfortably, it feels that the desire to get a Hollywood name on-board comes at the expense of deeper analysis into the minds of the gang members.

The supporting chavs are believable with special mentions to Mark E. Smith lookalike ‘Bovver’ and Geoff Bell, who gives another fine display of London menace (as previously seen in The Business). However, the film is let down by the casting of the leads. Considering he has a psychotic aversion to ‘Yanks and Foreigners’ the leader of the gang talks like a South African Tim Westwood and Elijah Wood looks as lost as, well, as an American trying to understand the offside rule.

Certainly not a date movie and probably more suited to a well-scripted TV drama, it’s better than a kick in the teeth and there are certainly plenty of those in the 90 odd minutes.

#Film
#chimpovich

28th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

virtual dead drop

more news on those pesky cheating terrorists. now they're not even sending their email, just writing everything in draft mode. ctu's chloe needs to get on this

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don't press send

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28th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

oil be damned

another we're living in the world of the onion moment

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halleloiljah

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28th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

lost on demand

c4's doing an online download thing for lost and desperate housewives… full details in comments. looks like it's windows only so far

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more lost

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27th Apr 2006 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

code read

the judge in the da vinci code case has slipped a code of his own into the verdict.

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decode

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27th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

more jam

yes, you wait for years and then there's a jam overload. c4 are getting in on the act 6 may, 1:25am 4MUSIC: 4PLAY: PEARL JAM. it's only ten minutes long though.

27th Apr 2006 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Surveillance

The art of Surveillance is ever-progressing, with some of the upcoming Nokia phone sporting 3.2MP cameras and capable of recording 'DVD quality' video at 30 fps.

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PC Pro

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27th Apr 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

The Dude Abides 2006!

more Lebowski-fest action at Streatham Megabowl (Streatham Hill rail station) on Friday 5th May from 8pm-1am - you get Unlimited bowling from 9pm - 1am, free White Russians, entry to the Larry Sellers Homework Competition (every lane will be given a real piece of homework done by a real-life 15-year-old brat to correct), plus The Big Lebowski Quiz, Shoe Hire, and a free meal from the Megabowl cafe.

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dudes

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26th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

friday night with kiefer

jack bauer's taking time out to talk to jonathan ross march 5, 10.35pm, bbc1

26th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

The Business

(dir. Nick Love)

If Goodfellas was a painting it would be a Masterpiece. Now, imagine you reduced that painting to a line drawing and invited a load of 6 year old Peckham school kids to colour it in with their crayons. Chances are you’ll end up with The Business. With it’s rise and fall of a gangster story, voiceover and freeze frames, it throws much more than a cheeky wink in the direction of Scorsese’s classic.

Back in the Thatcher years, scoundrel Frankie gets in a bit of trouble with the law and heads to Spain’s Costa del Crime to lay low for a while. On arrival he quickly aquaints himself with the neighbourhood villains and embarks on a sun-filled life of birds, drugs and crime. As he makes his way up the ladder, our man Frankie wears a permanently confused expression; whether taking his 6th line of coke of the morning, having a shotgun pointed at him or being explicitly propositioned by the pretty femme fatale he constantly looks as if he is trying to make sense of Hebrew. It’s somewhat suprising therefore that Frankie eventually becomes Mr. Big, with a direct link to Colombia. The 80’s were indeed ker-ayzee! He’s surrounded by equally wooden pastiches of Sarf Landan gangsters, so much so that I was expecting Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse to turn up and launch into a routine “You Slag!” “You Muppet!” “You Slag!”etc, etc.

The attention to detail with the costumes and music is a nice touch, and to be fair ginger-haired gangster Sammy does come across as properly hard. But this is a bad film. So bad, that it is completely watchable, if you know what I mean. Luvverly!

#Film
#chimpovich

26th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

Later With Jools

Team Chimpomatic were at the taping of the new series of Later with Jolls Holland last night. Pearl Jam, Zutons, Spinto Band and the (er) 'mighty' talent of Jamie Foxx and his entourage. He single-handedly managed to lower the bar beyond my wildest expectations - and made Miami Vice the 'must miss' movie of the summer.... even though I had been looking forward to it.

Pearl Jam were given centre stage and were clearly who everyone was there to see. Kicked off the great show jam, then did World Wide Suicide, Severed Hand and finished with Alive.

Check out surveillance for a video clip.

26th Apr 2006 - 9 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Pearl Jam

London Astoria

As one of the last gigs on my list of all-time favourite bands, having not seen these guys had always nagged at me. I had been too poor as a student, out of the country for one tour and then after the death of some fans at the Roskilde festival in 2000, Europe had been off rotation for the last couple of Pearl Jam world tours. I was resigned to eventually seeing the band at the enormo-arena-dome some time past their peak - and convincing myself that I wasn't disappointed.

Recently, things started to look up. A well invested fan club membership led to a great 7 inch single, but the golden ticket was a heads-up on this one-off warm up show at London's Astoria. Chimp Jnr managed to snag the tickets, which sold out in 1 minute and ended up going for £450 on eBay. It crossed our minds to cash them in and fly out to Seattle, but even there a 20,000 seat Arena could not offer the same opportunity as a 1600 seat venue on home turf.

The gig had a quick turnaround and before we knew it we were queuing down the side of the Astoria, round Soho Square and back onto Oxford Street. Some of the eBay tickets had apparently been confiscated, so some persistent fans did get a chance to get last minute surprise re-sale tickets on the door. The touts dropped their tickets to £250, while security guards checked the ticket numbers as some fakes had been circulated.

The atmosphere in the queue and inside the venue was electric. It obviously wasn't just us that had been holding out to see them, and when the band came out the place went crazy. A quick acknowledgment that it had been a long time set the scene, and then we're off with new single World Wide Suicide. As noted, this is a bad title, but as a song it was a great start - thundering, off new album Pearl Jam, but still one that the fans could get into. That was followed by Life Wasted and Severed Hand from the new album, which subdued the crowd slightly as they are still relatively unknown.... Two more new songs followed, but these were current b-side Unemployable and Christmas b-side Gone, which is already one of my current favourites. So things were picking up, and then they really took off with Even Flow.

From then on things only got better and better. The band pulled highlights and rarities from their 15 year back catalogue, such as Sad, I Am Mine, Leavin' Here and Given To Fly mixed in with a couple of the new tracks. There was a healthy dose of revived songs from black-sheep album Ten (which out sold Nevermind for you haters out there) including an awesome ramped up version of Why Go? The Indie Goth Revival is over, long live Grunge.

The highlight had to be an impromptu sing along to Betterman, where Eddie Vedder literally hardly sang a word. The entire crowd took over in a spine tingling moment, reminiscent of Black on the Benaroya Hall album. Visibly moved by the crowd response, the band came back for two encores until finally the end had come, as Mike McCready plucked the opening notes of traditional set-closer Yellow Ledbetter. Everyone sang along and the band even dropped in a few notes of Nobody's Fault But Mine as a nod to Robert Plant, who was in the crowd with his son. After a bow the band started to leave the stage, before the overwhelming reaction from the audience genuinely changed their minds. Eddie Vedder called them back for one more... a storming rendition of Alive. As one of their only UK hits, this is often how they are perceived by those who know little of their later work. It was an unashamedly 90's moment, and I realised that after 15 years of progressing onwards they are now looking as much like the grunger's of the early 90's as ever.... and I love it.

All in all it couldn't have been a much more satisfactory conclusion to my quest.... although thanks to a man on the inside we are off to see them taping Later with Jools Holland tonight.

#Music
#Gig
#CSF

25th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

ibbc

more plans from the bbc to open all their shows up, let you download stuff up to 7 days after broadcast, and get hold of archive material etc. sounds like they're really going for it

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download bbc

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25th Apr 2006 - 3 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

oh lordi

finland's going with a death metal act for their eurovision entry this year

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nül pöints

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25th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam have a knack of sounding like a muscle car cruising down an empty road in Montana. Masters of the key/pace change, they often shift up and down gears, speeding up and slowing down but always sticking to the road.

While Life Wasted and World Wide Suicide are great openers (except for the title "World Wide Suicide" - definitely a case for 'keep the title out of the lyrics') rocking all the shift change tricks, it's not until six songs in that we get a real change of style - with Parachutes. Similar in tone to the Stones' track of the same name, this great little number is much more in the vein of 1996's No Code.

Things get more more varied on what would have been side two in the vinyl days, with Gone being the gem on the album. It's Pearl Jam at their best, using a simple quiet start to build up the emotion and sound into an awesome wall of noise.

Army Reserve is one song that doesn't quite click, somehow sounding like the U2-style jangling guitar was written separately from the lyrics, but the album finishes with two excellent tracks. Come Home sounds like a cover of a lost classic by Smokey Robinson or Otis Redding and is the band at their best. Inside Job, written by guitarist Mike McCready, is a moody slow burner. Staying just the right side of Dire Straits, the song would fit well on a movie soundtrack and brings the album to a worthy close.

The album is definitely a democratic effort and the input of the entire band leans the sound down the more conventional end of the Pearl Jam spectrum - generally sounding more like Yield or Riot Act than Vitalogy or No Code. That's never a criticism with these guys however and although not as lyrical as some of their work it's a solid, thoroughly enjoyable rock album from a band totally assured of their craft.

#Music
#CSF

25th Apr 2006 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

grayson

following on from batman: dead end, here's grayson, another superhero fan film. batman's dead, robin's out for revenge with the help of wonder woman, superman, green lantern etc etc.

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robin's revenge

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25th Apr 2006 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Spank Rock

Yoyoyoyoyo

I am all about Baltimore at the moment. Granted I am three seasons late, but The Wire is rocking my world and so is this album. Baltimore’s Spank Rock are the new signing to Big Dada and they have gone and made the most exciting hip hop I have heard since the last Anticon offering. Unlike the Anticon posse it doesn’t take itself seriously at all. It sounds like a cross between Tag Team’s ‘Woop there it is’ Antipop Consortium and a fair dose of 2 Live Crew. It’s low down and it’s dirty.

MC Spank Rock’s chief concerns here range from the contents of a woman’s biker shorts to his less than admirable intentions as to what to do with said contents once he has acquired them. Song titles like 'Back Yard Betty','Coke & Wet' and 'Screwville, USA' tell the whole story yet despite this it is a very intelligent piece of work with amazing production. It is very tongue-in-cheek (which cheek? I hear you ask, and you would be right to) but not in a gimmicky Darkness way, more in a Licence to Ill kind of way.

To put it bluntly it’s just really good fun and the beats alone will get you stripper dancing in no time. So lets all repeat after me “Tap dat ass, c’mon Tap dat ass.”

24th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

Jel

Soft Money

It’s great to see someone who is constantly helping out everyone else finally do something for themselves. And that is exactly what we have here. Having created the beats for some of the most memorable Anticon records including Subtle and Themselves, Jel now gives us his first solo LP. And it’s good.

I have read comparisons to DJ Shadow and even Massive Attack, but that is to misunderstand this album. It has a totally different agenda. At heart it is a straight up hip hop album - the beats are rich, heavy and hold your interest long after many other instrumentalists have lost it. You really come to understand just how Anticon can make such beguiling music when all the vocals have gone and the beats stand alone. And stand alone they certainly do, especially on WMD, one of the few vocal numbers. As you can guess, this is an anti-Bush barrage of abuse but the beat is so damn fine that even Dubya himself would find it hard to keep his foot from tappin'.

24th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

This album took a few plays to really get it but then it just seemed to click and I went from finding it slightly annoying to thinking it was the greatest thing I had heard for ages. And it is. Granted it starts off bad but the second song gets the greatness well under way. A lot of bands have emerged recently that quote Talking Heads as their main influence but none sound as similar as this one, yet despite that it is one of the most original records to grace my eager ears. Details Of The War was a stand out track from the start. As is quite common throughout the album the song construction is the interesting thing with its lack of any verse/chorus/verse structure and the lazy ‘I really can’t be bothered’ vocals building up slowly on a rolling bass line to a fantastic peak. The Skin Of My Yellow Country Teeth follows on nicely. It has a certain nostalgic sound to it with a very New Order bass line and towards the end it threatens to disappear off into a mammoth Wedding Present style guitar solo but sadly not many bands have the balls for this.

I really could go on to talk about each track as there is something to note about every one but I may as well skip to the last one as it simply rules. Upon This Tidal Wave Of Young Blood is an awesome piece of work. It starts off with a guitar strumming pace that will get every head nodding and foot tapping in audible range. Alec Ounsworth’s vocals glide in with expert ease and we are off. The pace stays the same to the very end as the vocals trail off into what should be a very grating repetition of “child stars, child stars, child stars…” This song sounds like it could go on at this pace for another 15 minutes at least and really it should but instead it stops abruptly as if your mum has come into the room and can’t stand any more of this guys voice and pulls the plug.

And really that is what we should all be doing but we aren’t. We love it despite our brains yelling how annoying it should be. This band has received so much word-of-mouth hype and for once it is all well placed. Clap your hands and say fuck yeah. (sorry for the cuss word but I feel it was necessary..)

24th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

Ocean's 12

(dir. Steven Soderbergh)

After bad guy Andy Garcia tracks down the crew who robbed his casino in Ocean's 11, Danny Ocean (George Clooney) and pals (plus one extra person - get it?) stage a series of robberies to raise the money to pay off Garcia. Problems come in the shape of a French master cat burglar (Vincent Cassell), who revels in beating Clooney's gang to the punch, and an Interpol agent how had a fling with the cheeky Brad Pitt (surprisingly likeable here).

The film is very stylishly done, shrugging off the glossy style that you would expect for so many huge names and instead using a low-key European-looking documentary style (a bit like the excellent Bourne Identity), with editing and simple trickery to keep the pace moving. Straight off the bat however, the script is so engrossed in its own cleverness that it is instantly hard to follow. Little attention is given to setting up the characters - which is fine for Clooney, Brad Pitt, maybe Matt Damon - but the rest of the supporting gang were not that memorable in episode 1 (or 11). A potential clever twist with Bruce Willis where Julia Roberts' character is mistaken for actress Julia Roberts is so smugly done that the actors practically wink at the camera...

It's watchable, but unless you're flying long haul don't bother.

#Film
#CSF

24th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

Bear/Chimp

Hats off to our recently prolific reviewer bear/chimp for scoring letter of the month in The Observer for his thoughts on the Morrissey/Coupland show down.

24th Apr 2006 - 7 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

86 The Onions

Make your own burger here.

24th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

dj bob

now bob dylan's going to be a dj

Some great snaps here.
Independent Review
The Sun

23rd Apr 2006 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Pearl Jam

Last night's Pearl Jam gig at London's Astoria lived up to expectations. A huge queue snaking round to Oxford Street, a few surprise tickets being released at the last minute on the door, touts dropping their prices to £250, Robert Plant in the crowd and more. Some new favourites, Betterman, Given To Fly, Even Flow and so on. Plus a little snip of Nobody's Fault But Mine in one of three encores. Full report soon.

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21st Apr 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Adam Green

Chimp74 has wired in some photos she took at last night's Adam Green concert. See surveillance for more.

21st Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

world at your bleat

not impressed w embrace's dreary world cup effort. (like there was a chance we would be…) just hoping there's an inverse correlation between the shitness of song/ability to shoot goals

your whole life has been leading up to this point

21st Apr 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

donny miller

the prawn showed me this guy in hk… like jenny holzer w better graphics.

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20th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

get lost

lost series 2 starts tuesday 2 may 10pm, with a double on c4, third ep on e4 for those of you who aren't already acquainted w the dharma initiative… still not sure about the whole double/triple bill thing - great for one week, but then you've got to stay up later for the e4 one every week after surely?

19th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

brian k vaughan

been enjoying brian k vaughan's graphic novel series Y: The Last Man and Ex-Machina recently, nice to read this interview over at chud. hope the Y film comes off

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y
ex

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18th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

scale on tour

tour dates up for matthew herbert's scale project - monday may 29 at the ica looks like the only uk date so far

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ica
other shows

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18th Apr 2006 - Add Comment - Tweet

DeLorean vs. A-Team Van

Spotted this non certified weather experiment in New Cross recently.... followed by a sighting of the A-Team at Leyton Homebase. Probably picking up some garden furniture to finish off a tank conversion.

beatle balls
deaf karaoke

17th Apr 2006 - 2 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

juggle mac

yup this just proves that the macca revival is still intact…

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later w eddie
rollingstone.com

17th Apr 2006 - 4 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

later jam

just got confirmation of the pearl jam on later… appearance for the vedder fans among you. 5 may, 11.35pm, bbc2. sounds like they're the featured band of the night: "viewers can expect a couple of new tracks, along with one of their classics."

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13th Apr 2006 - 4 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

isnip

the backlash begins…

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isnip

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13th Apr 2006 - 1 comments - Add Comment - Tweet

Chimp v6.0

You may have noticed that we've started to overhaul the look of chimpomatic this week. As well as a new photo-heavy style we'll be bringing in a few new features - such as the ability to leave comments on reviews.

Other suggestions welcome.