Welcome back from holidays, everyone. Unless you’re still on holidays, in which case a pox on your house.

Poptones poses their always entertaining Questions Of Doom to “indie-chanteuse” (their words, not mine) Rachel Goswell. She talks about the recent Catch The Breeze anthology, the transition from Slowdive to Mojave 3 and what’s been spinning on her stereo lately (Jesse Sykes and Drive-By Truckers!). There’s also this slightly older but much longer and in-depth interview with Penny Black Music that covers almost the entire history of Slowdive and M3, including the admission that “A lot of Slowdive’s lyrics were rubbish. Why do you think we never printed the lyrics on the sleeves?”

I have to admit, when her long-awaited solo album Waves Are Universal came out last June, I was a little disappointed. The weight of expectation was pretty heavy, what with her vocal contributions on Spoon & Rafter being pretty minimal and her one lead vocal on Excuses For Travellers’ “Bringing Me Home” being so sublime. Hell, even the lead-in EP The Sleep Shelter was pretty good. Yet Waves somehow left me feeling disappointed – it was so delicate and so fey. I guess I was looking for something with the haunting power of the best Slowdive tracks or Ask Me Tomorrow, not the mainly acoustic, pastoral record that I got. However, with time, I’ve been able to appreciate Waves for what it is – a very pretty, if still somewhat slight folk record. I guess there’s something to realizing that her singing Neil Halstead’s songs are something quite different from her singing her own songs. Still, I hope that we’ll be hearing more of her on the new Mojave 3 record due out sometime this year.

MP3: Rachel Goswell – “Sleepless & Tooting”

Filter is streaming the new Doves single, “Black and White Town”, taken from the new album Some Cities out March 1.

The Secret Machines play the Mod Club on February 2, and I’m not just telling you that because Warner Bros. asked me to.

I said I wasn’t going to link any more 2004 posts, but when they’re as great as Brooklynvegan’s best shows of 2004 (complete with photos and live mp3s), I have to make an exception. Just another reminder of why I would probably die of exhaustion in under a month if I lived in New York City.

I went rock climbing last night for the first time, and while I don’t necessarily hurt as much as I’d expected, I am concerned about the fact that my hands are fucked up. There’s little gripping strength in either this morning, which is fine, I expected that, but my left middle finger has no strength in it whatsoever and I can’t even bend it all the way in. There’s no pain or anything when I try, it just won’t do it. Typing is a little hit or miss this morning, but considering I also call my left hand my fretting hand, I’m a little panicked. Someone tell me this will get better in a day or two. Seriously.

This is what I get for trying something new.

Update: I have slowly been getting mobility in my finger back over the course of the morning. Thank GOD.

np – Swervedriver / Mezcal Head

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