Pleasure City Hip Parade, November 2010

Bad kitty!

The Pleasure City Hip Parade of most-hummed tunes this month could quite easily have exclusively contained twenty tracks by Orange Juice, as I was fortunate enough to receive the Coals To Newcastle box set for my birthday. However, The Notes' Wishing Well has also been much-loved in November (possibly a coincidence, but the words "the notes" feature in the opening couplet of this month's number one tune. I wonder if that's where they took their name from?).

Bearing in mind Edwyn Collins's love of our feathered friends, I have compared November's top five songs to birds:

1. (-) Orange Juice - In A Nutshell (a perfectly-plumed pair of puffins, cuddling up for warmth in a remote island burrow)

2. (2) Betty and the Werewolves - Should I Go To Glasgow? (a splendour of summer swallows, swooping for pond insects)

3. (4) The Notes - Summer Love (a gaggle of gorgeous gannets, divebombing for fish)

4. (-) Orange Juice - Dying Day (a bashful spoonbill)

5. (-) Dum Dum Girls - Throw Aggi Off The Bridge (a flotilla of frustrated winter pochards, milling around waiting to be fed by snowbound humans)

6. (-) Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes - Laughing And Smiling

7. (6) The Notes - Dancing Shoes

8. (-) Orange Juice - Consolation Prize

9. (7) Dum Dum Girls - Stiff Little Fingers

10. (-) The Notes - Those Days, Those Nights

11. (20) The Go-Betweens - Casanova's Last Words

12. (13) Darren Hanlon - All These Things

13. (1) The Go-Betweens - Wait Until June

14. (-) Orange Juice - Three Cheers For Our Side

15. (5) Darren Hanlon - House

16. (-) Orange Juice - I Can't Help Myself

17. (3) The Maladies Of Bellafontaine - Black Biro

18. (-) Househunters - I Am A Mole

19. (-) Fabienne Delsol - Take Your Seat

20. (-) Associates - Nude Spoons

I had Coals To Newcastle on my desk at work recently, when one of my colleagues came up to me, picked up the box and said "ooh, I didn't know you liked George Jones!" Noticing my blank stare, he looked at the cover again and said sheepishly that he...er, didn't have his glasses on.

Will Orange Juice dominate the charts again in December?

Pleasure City Hip Parade, October 2010

Number 1 this month: a 22-year-old B-side!

It's time for the Pleasure City Hip Parade! My twenty most-hummed tunes from the previous month, collected together in one place for the delectation and delight of my regular readers.

Like every other site on the 'web, I have random readers that arrive here via searching for key words, and yes, there is a tab on Blogspot that tells the blog author what search terms people have been using when they come to their site. Possibly unsurprisingly, the most-common search term for arrivals at this blog is "The Maladies of Bellafontaine" - what with them being a talented new band that very few other people have written about yet. Of more concern is the second-most common search, which is for South Today weather girl Reham Khan! (Incidentally, Reham was poorly today and couldn't do the weather).

To boost reader numbers, I may start adding hidden random keywords within each article from now on...

Anyway, on with the main item - this month's chart:

1. (10) The Go-Betweens - Wait Until June (I've played a LOT of Go-Betweens this month. This was one of the B-sides to Streets Of Your Town, and is what they call "a lost classic". Well, I've found it again!)

2. (1) Betty and the Werewolves - Should I Go To Glasgow? (She's always been a Celtic fan - any football reference in a song makes my ears prick up)

3. (-) The Maladies of Bellafontaine - Black Biro (Any mention of a string of sausages in a song makes my ears prick up)

4. (-) The Notes - Summer Love (Did I mention that The Notes sound like the exact moment before anything is possible? Don't think I did)

5. (-) Darren Hanlon - House (Wherein Darren returns to his old house, looks inside and sees that everything has changed. This was a recurring dream for me when my parents moved for the first time, so it resonates strongly)

6. (4) The Notes - Dancing Shoes

7. (-) Dum Dum Girls - Stiff Little Fingers

8. (8) Jesse Garon & the Desperadoes - The Rain Fell Down

9. (7) The Maladies of Bellafontaine - Long Socks

10. (-) The Go-Betweens - You Tell Me

11. (-) Rote Kapelle - Preacher Man Aural

12. (11) The Dole - New Wave Love

13. (-) Darren Hanlon - All These Things

14. (-) Navvy - Letters

15. (-) The Notes - Awake

16. (6) Withered Hand - New Dawn

17. (-) Twa Toots - Yo Yo

18. (2) Best Coast - Goodbye

19. (4) Betty and the Werewolves - Purple Eyes

20. (-) The Go-Betweens - Casanova's Last Words

Lemon sprinkles.

Pleasure City Hip Parade, September 2010

Betty and the Werewolves enjoy a nice cup of tea

It's high tea for Betty and the Werewolves, but the bearded one doesn't look like he wants to join in! Never mind - he can cheer himself up with the thought that he contributed to my most-hummed tune of the month!

Here is the Pleasure City Hip Parade for September:

1. (-) Betty and the Werewolves - Should I Go To Glasgow? (Obsessions over the past year or so: Vivian Girls > Wetdog > Dum Dum Girls > Best Coast > Betty and the Werewolves. Spiky, independently-spirited pop)

2. (1) Best Coast - Goodbye (still rockin' my world!)

3. (17) Tender Trap - Do You Want a Boyfriend? (One of the brainy Amelia Fletcher's finest moments. Up there with Oh Katrina and C Is The Heavenly Option)

4. (-) Betty and the Werewolves - Purple Eyes (at last - someone else who doesn't understand the appeal of The Libertines!)

5. (-) The Notes - Dancing Shoes (Awake and Summer Love also recommended)

6. (8) Withered Hand - New Dawn

7. (3) The Maladies of Bellafontaine - Longsocks

8. (7) Jesse Garon & the Desperadoes - The Rain Fell Down

9. (10) Rote Kapelle - Sunday

10. (-) The Go-Betweens - Wait Until June

11. (-) The Dole - New Wave Love

12. (-) Mathew Sawyer and the Ghosts - Revenge of the Extra from Zulu

13. (6) Helen & the Horns - Freight Train

14. (5) Best Coast - Happy

15. (2) Liechtenstein - Passion for Water

16. (-) Best Coast - Wish He Was You

17. (-) Fabienne Delsol - Come Away

18. (12) Heavenly - Wrap My Arms Around Him

19. (-) Shine! - I Just Can't Celebrate Today

20. (4) Rote Kapelle - These Animals Are Dangeroos

Nine new entries over the course of a month would mean approximately two per week if I did this weekly (which I won't). Seems about right.

Pleasure City Hip Parade, August 2010

The sun has got his hat on, hip hip hip hooray!

Now, there's a song I've been humming to myself for the past several decades at regular intervals...

However, the Pleasure City Hip Parade records what's been tootling around inside my head over the previous month. And this month, I have mostly been tunelessly warbling...

1. (-) Best Coast - Goodbye (in which the singer wishes her cat could talk - I understand 100%!)
2. (18) Liechtenstein - Passion For Water (in the absence of a Mo-dettes reunion, this will do very nicely! A "grower", as they say)
3. (2) The Maladies of Bellafontaine - Longsocks (would have been a shoo-in for the Festive Fifty number one in Peely's day - my tip for a high placing in Dandelion Radio's version this year)
4. (9) Rote Kapelle - These Animals Are Dangeroos (the highest "old" song this month - I only need two more Rote Kapelle singles to complete my collection!)
5. (6) Best Coast - Happy (the illustration is from the CD version of the Crazy For You album - I was standing just to the left of this photo, unless it was taken during the soundcheck, in which case I was probably about two miles away on the number 17 bus)
6. (1) Helen & The Horns - Freight Train
7. (-) Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes - The Rain Fell Down
8. (5) Withered Hand - New Dawn
9. (3) Best Coast - Far Away
10. (-) Rote Kapelle - Sunday
11. (-) Best Coast - Boyfriend
12. (-) Heavenly - Wrap My Arms Around Him
13. (-) The Chiffons - When The Boy's Happy (The Girl Is Happy Too)
14. (13) Jesse Garon & The Desperadoes - I'm Up Here
15. (4) The Farmer's Boys - All Of A Sudden
16. (-) Betty and the Werewolves - David Cassidy
17. (17) Tender Trap - Do You Want A Boyfriend?
18. (-) Bubblegum Lemonade - Caroline's Radio
19 (-) Summer Cats - Pinhead
20. (-) Misty's Big Adventure - There's Someone At The Window

Ten new entries! 50% turnover in a month! 60% "new"/40% "old" songs! It's a statistician's dream!

Pleasure City Hip Parade, July 2010

The NME has done it every week since 1952; Paul Heaton has done it every week since 1980; this chap does it most weeks on his blog...now it's my turn!

What's a blog for if you can't publish your own charts from time to time?

And why Hip Parade? Because I spent my entire childhood mis-hearing the word "hit" in "hit parade" on the radio!

So, here is Pleasure City Avenue's first monthly hip parade - a list of my most played and most hummed tunes of the month for July 2010, some old, some new, but all swirling around inside of me at some point:

1. Helen & the Horns - Freight Train (a 99p Ebay win a few weeks ago - cowgirl indiepop)
2. The Maladies of Bellafontaine - Longsocks (creepy and fascinating, like sugar mice coming to life at sunset - reminded me of the first time I heard Birthday by the Sugarcubes - and they called me a lovely fellow on their Myspace blog! Physical release on September 8th - I can't wait!)
3. Best Coast - Far Away (fabulous singalong 7" bought at their Joiners gig in May)
4. The Farmer's Boys - All of a Sudden (better than anything The Smiths ever did - not taken seriously at the time of release because they were marketed as bumpkins)
5. Withered Hand - New Dawn (new to me - I'll be checking out more of this lo-fi loveliness)
6. Best Coast - Happy
7. A Place To Bury Strangers - Exploding Head
8. Dum Dum Girls - Oh Mein M
9. Rote Kapelle - These Animals Are Dangeroos
10. The Pastels - Stay With Me Till Morning
11. The Magnetic Fields - The Nun's Litany
12. The Chiffons - Oh My Lover
13. Jesse Garon & the Desperadoes - I'm Up Here
14. Best Coast - Crazy For You
15. Johnny Burnette & the Rock n Roll Trio - Train Kept a Rollin'
16. The Sandwitches - Back To the Sea
17. Tender Trap - Do You Want a Boyfriend?
18. Liechtenstein - Passion for Water
19. Blanketarms - I Love Your Guts
20. Dum Dum Girls - Yours Alone

There, that was random! But I like it!