Weekender : known knowns

CHART OF DARKNESS: The Soul Machine and, erm, The Mouse hang on in there singles wise for a sixth week, the longest for a debut since Wannabe, which managed seven. You'd imagine it'd be a new entry that's going to knock it off unless LL Cool J's relatively low-key release with Jennifer Lopez, and there's two artists who rack up the top ten singles without many noticing or indeed caring, climbs from its download position of 15 or the Chili Peppers or Beatfreakz make up their one and two positions respectively. Notably we've hit the sticky patch of the Michael Jackson campaign as Remember The Time only makes 22 - and this is with In The Closet and Jam up next - one behind We Are Scientists. Sigur Ros make number 24, probably quite some way down on where it could have been had their label been quicker off the mark when the Planet Earth adverts were on. Captain, whose Broke everyone except us seems to love - it sounds like Deacon Blue! - is at 34, six ahead of ¡Forward, Russia! Entries further down of note are Big Brovaz' comeback stalling at 57, with what we chart scientists call the Mark Morrison Comeback Effect, and Jim Noir at 65 with a song that isn't the one briefly featured on the Adidas advert.
Snow Patrol cement their position as the people's Travis as Eyes Open hits number one, and we're campaigning for the track that namechecks Sufjan Stevens to be the next single. A big hurrah for the rock fanbases as Tool land at 4 and Pearl Jam, apparently now led by Justin Lee Collins, at 5. Nina Simone's new best of finds the least welcome of hooks to be released on but still manages 20, while at 24 UMTV go for a spectacularly facile spoiling tactic by bringing out a new Best Of Scott Walker And The Walker Brothers a week before Walker's latest industrial magnum opus. Nothing from Tilt on it, no. You know, by the way, how Kanye West's greatness has been laid out by the press as being proved by his live show? Late Orchestration, the string section Abbey Road gig much dreamy-eyed over, snuck out as an album last week and lands at 59.

FREE MUSIC: To us the first few months of the year has been lacking one of those albums that comes out of nowhere full of goodness and picks up praise as the year goes along and word of mouth spreads. On June 5th it seems that one might just be delivered in the shape of seasoned Glaswegian indie dreamers Camera Obscura's Let's Get Out Of This Country. Like a Spectorised Belle & Sebastian or a downbeat Concretes it's perfect for those lazy sunny days like the two we had last week. D'oh! See what you think with I Need All The Friends I Can Get and the title track.

HEY YOU GET OFFA MYSPACE: Last year at Summer Sundae one of our great self-kicking moments was arriving at the Rising Stage just in time to see Leicstrians Redcarsgofaster's last song. Luckily they've been put on the main stage this year so we've got less excuse. Not that we'd have missed them in any case on the evidence of the new songs they've put up, melding the melodic post-emo of a Jetplane Landing with the dark post-punk of the Interpolites and a very obvious sense of why they were picked for the last Dance To The Radio compilation. We've just noticed the singer has the same name as Jamie of Runout Groove fame. That'd be too much of a coincidence, wouldn't it? Wouldn't it?

VISUAL REPRESENTATION: Sometimes these videos defy even our attempts to explain or categorise. The Road To Oranges & Lemons History Of XTC Puppet Show, for instance, Andy Partridge, Colin Moulding and Dave Gregory themselves in 1989 pissing about with dolls and potatoes for almost ten glorious minutes.

FALLING OFF A BLOG: Always good to see a newish blog that, like ourselves, eschews the quick and easy pleasures/getout clause of the advance mp3, so hello to Music Like Dirt - reviews, conjecture, rantage and, most vitally, a Pipettes piece featuring three photos of Rose. Those are going on the spare room wall for sure.

EVERYBODY GET RANDOM: Again, words are turning to ashes in our mind. For a few days more, You Ain't No Picasso houses We Are Scientists covering Sigur Ros

IN OTHER NEWS: And special news now for everyone finding the site via that Fyfe Dangerfield interview we did. That's you, last.fm forum. As we kind of expected everything Guillemots-wise has been moved backwards, with Made Up Love Song now out at the end of June and the album currently slated for 10th July. MC Lord Magrao's managed to get a trademark guitar-plus-drill onto the single reworking, inevitably. Plus they've covered the Streets' Never Went To Church for the B-side of that single.