Regiments of the Blanked Army,

I will indulge in the kind of white-belt musicology that has become my trademark, maybe by the end of this article; I will have been promoted to the prestigious yellow belt. It’s the kind of promotion I’ve been dreaming of, the kind of promotion that would allow me to pour scorn on others and my dislike of Oasis, Billy Ocean Colour Scene, Stere-off-onics and the Charlatans would be justified by my status alone and not by reasoned argument.

One of the factors in my opening riddle yesterday was the inquisition following the arrival of two large envelopes through the famous green door addressed to me; one was the part of the much discussed Grandaddy prize and the other was the equally well-documented Archie Bronson Outfit Der Dang Der Dang album. Jason Lyttle is one of those people who draw a small picture next to their signature – a cloud with some form of precipitation. I will have to think of something to embellish my signature which is rubbish, I’ve never believed in them so I don’t try. Some football players add their shirt numbers to their signature and some people add religious insignia, maybe I will add something like a flying saucer as some sort of antithesis.

Purchased for only £7, with 50p postage and packaging, directly from Domino Records, the album arrived with the kind of gubbins that are basically worthless to Domino but are likely to amuse the white belt musicologist – a mini promo poster, some badges, promo postcards featuring delightful artwork, an Arctic Monkeys sticker and some badges. I’ll try to buy direct from Domino more often if they’re going to give away badges. The badges will be added to the Sheep of Badges, which now has 5 badges.

The album itself is perfectly named Der Dang Der Dang, firstly, it’s a great name and secondly, that’s how it sounds. Archie Bronson Outfit have a raw, hard, rocky edge. They sound similar to other new bands like Sons and Daughters and My Latest Novel, this is a compliment. In essence, the Archie Bronson Outfit sound like a band who’ve been told not to make a noise, they don’t care, they play on regardless in the most attention-grabbing way they can.

I also have been lishening to Ten Silver Drops by Secret Machines. The pigeon-holers have called this “prog rock”; I don’t know what that means. The first question involves the fact that there are only eight songs, have I been given a bogus copy? I am not really bothered; this album is a perfect continuation of the magnificent second album Now Here is Nowhere. The band have defined their music as “space rock”, I can’t argue with that, their music has an beautiful cosmic strength and versatility, I believe it can suit all moods simply by adjusting the volume of the CD player, Ten Silver Drops can be easy going and chilled but an increase in volume enhances the “space rock” grooves and melodies. I have one gripe with this album and it’s the vocals on Track 2 “All at Once”, they are either by a different singer or in a completely different style, they’re jagged and not as relaxed as usual and they don't fit the album or this track is certainly are not well placed in the opening 3 track segueway. The usual vocals on the Secret Machines songs aren’t really sung; certainly one of the main vocalists really just speaks in a voice that I’d have to visit the doctors to acquire. I end up more ill and phlegmy when I come back from the doctors than when I go, it’s from sitting in a waiting room with a cast of invalids who are all inevitably named Agnes or Jock

Finally, from a favourite music blog, I encountered a recommendation for a song called “Start of Something” by Voxtrot. As forewarned, the equipment used to record this song is poor but the song itself is magnificent, there’s something of “There is a Light That Never Goes Out” in it. I wonder if this was polished by hi-tech equipment whether it would it lose its charm. It’s an amazing song and I’m unlikely to hear a better song for a while. I have posted a link to the band’s myarse.com site. I’m not sure if I agree with MySpace; I first encountered the phenomenon much later than everyone else when it was listed as the site for an artist called Cherry Ghost, an excellent session guest on 6music’s Rocket Science. I assumed MySpace was for smaller artists who perhaps did not have the capital to have their own flashy website, but it turns out everyone has a plot of land over there from Morrissey and Simon and Garfunkel to Joe Public who gets to a write a blog. Some artists surely don’t need MySpace and Joe Public can go elsewhere. It’s great to use it for its finer features but I’m not won over by it yet.

Today's picture is of a lovely texture created by a close-up photo of some bare jaggy bushes.