i thought i'd do my own music awards show this year. waheyyooehiio! -well, i'm sure it'll be a bit long & boring at times + i'll probably end up writing about other things than music. but i want to make it like the real thing on telly! -well, nothing as xciting as britney & madonna snogging, though.

FAVOURITE ALBUMS OF THE YEAR:
* M83, dead cities, red seas & lost ghosts
* Mew, frengers
* Matt Elliott, the mess we made
* Pretty Girls Make Graves, the new romance
* Bang Gang, something wrong
* Tindersticks, waiting for the moon
* Murcof, ulysses ep
* Robin Guthrie, elemental
* Magyar Posse, we will carry you over the mountains
* Acuarela Songs 2 (3 cd's compilation, not an album but what the heck!)
* Broken Social Scene, you forgot it in people
* Rachel's, systems/layers
* Mogwai, happy songs for happy people

and the winners are: Mew!
Mew play melancholic & yet hopeful pop with wings that makes you want to go out in the sunshine & love every bit of it. tunes that put your heart on fire & your mind on ice. a great pop record!

SONGS OF THE YEAR:
* Lady & Bird, la ballade of lady & bird
* Mojave 3, bluebird of happiness
* Radiohead, where i end & you begin
* The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band with Choir, sow some lonesome corner so many flowers bloom
* Ladytron, evil
* Mew, she came home for christmas. ('half the world is watching me' version)
* Arab Strap, the shy retirer
* Cranes, adoration (from the 'live in italy' cd)
* McLusky, to hell with good intentions (that's from 2002 but I discovered it this year, so it makes it okay!)

and the song of the year is: -oh, we have 2 winners! how fantastic! Mew & Lady & Bird!
both have got angels running through their veins, really.

GREATEST SONG OF THE YEAR: (-don't ask what's the difference between "Song of the year" & "Greatest song of the year". there just is.
* Black Box Recorder, these are the things

BBR make caustic, bleak, wicked & at times extremely funny songs about english culture & english domestic life. 'Sun' readers would probably burn BBR records. -yes, their songs are that great!
"oh to be in england on a sunday/dear old dismal england on a sunday".

MUSICAL DISCOVERIES OF THE YEAR:
* Calla
* Explosions In The Sky
* Magyar Posse

and the winners are: Magyar Posse!
'We Will Carry You Over The Mountains', their 1st album, is quite extraordinary & does exactly what it says on the tin.

FAVOURITE GIGS OF THE YEAR:
* M83 @ some place in le bois de vincennes
* Godspeed You! Black Emperor @ le cabaret sauvage
* And Also The Trees @ la locomotive
* Sigur Ros @ grand rex
* Radiohead @ popb
* Broken Social Scene @ la boule noire

and the winners are: Go! d! speed You Blac! k Emperor!!
well, they're just the best in the whole wide world, aren't they?

oh & i just want to say that i saw The Rapture playing live this year at a parisian all-nighter type of music event & that i had a great time. -especially since i drank champagne all night long. (-the drink & the music got along perfectly well, needless to say.
unlike most of the audience, i didn't spend 10 minutes every hour in front of the toilets' mirrors checking my hairdo & my model look, though. no, sir. it took me 8 minutes & a half each time. -yes, i'm very cute too, thank you.

FAVOURITE RECORD COVERS OF THE YEAR:

and the winners are: Tindersticks!
well, their covers are the best in the milky way, aren't they?

RECORD I MUST HAVE PLAYED A 1,000 TIMES THIS YEAR:
* Alain Bashung, l'imprudence

'l'imprudence', the latest bashung album, is one of my favourite french record in the galaxy along 'l'espoir' by léo ferré
i've always been drown to people who are able to turn their inner demons into something heartfelt & poetic. it's hard work to write music, & especially poetry, out of both dark & full of anger matters without sounding like a complete prat. it's very, very hard.

bashung is a rare artist in that he & his collaborators write violent & full of anger lyrics that are beautiful & heartbreaking.
& his work speaks mountains to me because i'm tired of the people who tell me that anger is a negative feeling that you're supposed to get rid of as you grow older.

it is true that most people are shit with dealing with their own anger. it is also true that most of them will never turn their pain into art but just be violent arses towards their family, employees, colleagues, post office clerk etc...

i know too many people around me who repress their dark sides & force themselves to be happy. result? they are fucked as hell & see psychologists. well, the ones who don't should.
see, it's no good to force yourself to forget that you have a very complex mind with a great deal of dark shit in it. your boss & the media might tell you otherwise but it will fuck you up to become a happy robot, you know.

the worse thing to say to someone who's full of anger towards the society or whatever is "shut up & grow up!".
if you decide that you've had enough of listening to your friends' pain because it fucks you up, then change friends & go for some happy-go-lucky ones. but don't tell them to shut up. tell them to take a pen, a brush or whatever thingy that might turn their negativity into something heartfelt.

there are countries where pretty much everyone is a poet, a musician or a painter. there are countries where people make heartfelt things with whatever material they can put their hands on. these are countries where people aren't told that all they are good for is work, bring up kids & pay taxes.
i have no doubt that these countries are amongst the most peaceful on earth.

AND NOW, THE LOSERS OF THE YEAR!
* most boring gig: Grandaddy @ elysée montmartre (i thought that they'd have improved since 1998. but no. some bands are as boring live as they are good on record.
* most boring album: Swell, 'whenever you're ready' (obviously, there is much more boring than this one but i love them so much. they broke my heart.
* fuckwit of the year: our world is full of horrible men with great powers. but as much as i'd love to be original & all, let's face it, our cowboy is one hell of an arse. (-he could catch all the dictators in the world that he would still be a horrible man. -i just don't like his middle ages ways to make it happen.
-how comforting it is that we have a bully as president of the most powerful democracy on earth in 2004 &.. for 4 more years, without a shadow of a doubt.

in this oh so glorious new century of ours, it disgusts me that a guy who stood, if my sources are correct, over 145 executions in the 5 years he was in office as governor of texas, can still be 'elected' president of a democratic country & REPRESENT a nation when abroad on official trips. there's something seriously wrong with that.

'L'Express', the oldest & one of most respected french newsmagazine, put bushypie on the cover a couple of weeks ago with the caption 'the man who spoiled 2003 for us'. (-& no doubt he would still have spoiled it had hussein not been caught.
according to L'Express, the man sounds like he has a 'messianic vision of its presidential mission'.
i had noticed that too. prayers, speeches filled with religious expressions etc... that might sound absolutely not shocking to many americans but it does not sound okay at all to many of our ears, over here.
can someone tell this guy that he's the leader of the most powerful DEMOCRACY on the planet & that his evangelist speeches alone, -& don't get me started about the rest-, worry most of the rest of the world?
when i think our friend georgio & his cronies want to save us all from evil. the man has got a wicked sense of humour, really.

in the late 80ies, as he already envisaged a governor's candidature, w. bush became one of the owners of the baseball team the texas rangers. at that time, his mother was asked by the national press what she thought of her son's political ambitions. her answer: "he'd better dedicate himself to his baseball team".
if only.

SOME OF THE WEIRDEST EXPERIENCES OF THE YEAR:
* not watching any telly at home at all. -strangely enough, it didn't make me any more clever. so, don't believe the hype!
on the other hand, it gave me loads of free time to read history books & history stuff on the net. i used to hate history at school. now, i realise that it is a very good way to comprehend the grand scheme of things.
maybe, i'll send a few of these books to bushypie for xmas. i mean, the man does not seem to have a clue about history at all, does he?
* making some new & very good friends. that is very weird indeed.

WHAT THIS LIST DOESN'T SAY ABOUT ME:
* one day soon, i'm gonna stab one of these parisian music fundamentalists. i'll probably choose an electro fundamentalist. the worst of the lot.
* i'm evil.
* i don't want to give up cigarettes in 2004.
speaking of which, what is going on? it seems that i'm more & more told not to do this & not to do that & blah cos it's no good. no good at all. even without telly anymore, they are still after me. help!

it also came to my attention that i'm more & more told not to think this or that because it's just so not on. not on at all.
is it just me? am i being paranoid? i don't think so. they just want me to be a good little soldier. i know they do.
well, i've got news. with your permission or not, i'll do what i want to do & think what i want to think. you can stick your politically correct stew up your bium bium bambalo for all i care. & understand that this has got nothing to do with being rebellious but with being alive. alive! alive as opposed to being an ugly & bitter piece of half decomposed brains with 2 neurones left trolled around by the whims of corporations of every kind.
i'm just trying to keep my sanity, my humanity & make the most of every single day, okay? so get out of my way!

2004, then: i'm planning on going on living (just to piss my dark sides off), on doing immature funny things & to cultivate my contradictions. (not that i can help it, really. but the immature bit will piss my adult sides off anyway & it will get me elected for another year 'weirdo of the family'.

i've often been told that i never set myself proper goals & challenges; that i'm not ambitious.
well, first of all, i consider that being elected 'weirdo of the family' is, in many ways, one hell of a success. sure, it depends on how fucked your family is. and since mine has many extremely good competitors, i consider it a success. waahey!

right. as for the rest, let's be fair: mainly half dead &/or full of shit 'gucci little piggies' need goals & challenges. -maybe, if they had brought a bit of their formative years freshness & craziness into their adulthood, they wouldn't NEED to set themselves an endless succession of goals & challenges in order to feel worth a quarter of a nut.

[the black heart procession, 'hearts & tanks" cd cover]

-----------

right. a merry xmas & a beautiful new year!