I have a new (fortnightly) column in the Guardian – the first instalment is here. I posted that link on Tumblr last night and The Lex left an interesting comment, which I’m going to excerpt:
“Illegal downloading is v much an elephan[…]

“There was a monster party and all the monsters dancing. The green monsters were nasty, them called Doctor Who ‘idiot’. At the end him not Doctor Who anymore, him a different person. I love Doctor Who, can we have it on DVD?”[…]

(This review, of my favourite song of the decade, was originally written for The Pitchfork 500, which I recommend you own a copy of. Oh, and happy 2010!) (more…)[…]

Well, that’s that: the machine has been given a good beating and we can look forward to “Bulls On Parade” on the festive Argos ad next year. I will admit I didn’t think the RATM crew could do it: I was wrong. But as the dust s[…]

What does it mean to buy 10 copies of a CD? It means you have 10 copies of a CD to deal with. What does it mean to “buy” 10 copies of an MP3? You have the same file sitting on your hard drive 10 times.
In one sense there’s no differ[…]

One of the many arguments offered as to why The X-Factor is a Bad Thing for pop is that Simon Cowell has taken the fun out of the race for Xmas No.1. It strikes me that this is a little rose-tinted – was anybody really that enthused with said &[…]

One of the things that’s fascinating about the UK Top 40 is that a device designed to be a pure expression of popularity also works as a reflection of so many other things. People buy songs: if enough people buy a song it gets into the charts, […]

Another in our series of posts about the ghost stories of MR James. You can find this story here.
“Oh Whistle” has the reputation of being one of MR James’ most chilling and effective stories. It’s also – not coincidentally – one of his […]

My list of my songs of the 00s is still counting down at @freakytrigger. Because it’s mostly YouTube links some of the tracks aren’t available to everyone looking, so here’s the first 50 on the list in raw form. (more…)[…]

At Poptimism last night we held the draw for the 2010 Pop World Cup. If you’re playing, and would like to know who you’ll be managing, details are below! The names – where I don’t know you already – are drawn from the or[…]