Sanctuary Records continues to corner the market as the official archivists of anything Creation. After releasing compilations for Slowdive and Hurricane #1 (?!?), the next Creation acts to have their respective vaults raided are Liverpool’s Boo Radleys and Oxford’s Swervedriver. The Boos’ Anthology and Swervies’ Juggernaut Rides will both be out on February 28 in the UK, and presumably follow the pattern of including both singles and rarities.

If you were to draw out their respective styles Venn diagram-like, they’d both intersect the shoegaze circle, but the Boos would also have a foot in the Britpop grouping while Swerverdriver had a fair bit of rock in their recipe. Even their common ground was pretty different, the Boo Radleys trading in melodic pop wrapped in walls of fuzz, Swervedriver in a leaner, more driving psychedelic sound. Both had brief windows of success (Giant Steps and Wake Up! were critical and commercial hits, respectively, and Swervedriver’s Mezcal Head is fairly essential), but never quite managed to establish themselves as much more than also-rans in the annals of music history. Which is a shame, cause they both had some great tunes – mayhap the compilations will earn them some critical reappraisals. I may look to pick up the Swervies one if they become available over here – I’ve only got Mezcal Head and their other albums are somewhat difficult to find. The Boos, I’ve got loads of their stuff already, don’t really need any more to be honest.

Neither act is currently active, the Boos officially disbanded and Swerverdriver on indefinite hiatus. Since the Boos split, guitarist and songwriter Martin Carr has been plugging away under the name of Brave Captain while Swervedriver frontman Adam Franklin now operates as Toshack Highway. Oh, and if you wanted some Swervedriver stuff, they’ve got live versions of all their albums available to download, gratis, on their website.

The New York Times tries to figure out just who Nellie McKay is. Via Pop (All Love).

TTIKTDA offers up an aural history of Colin Meloy. And for everyone who’s been trading leaked copies of Picaresque, Colin is very very disappointed in you.

Moving Units will be supporting The Secret Machines at the Mod Club February 2, and Autolux should also be on that tour but I haven’t seen them listed for the Toronto show yet. Also, Hood from Leeds, England are at the Drake on March 15, tickets $10. Either of these shows worth my attention?

NME lists off some of the confirmed acts for SXSW this year. Getting tingly!

According to this Chicago Sun-Times piece on the massive tastemaking influence of Pitchfork (read in as much sarcasm as you see fit), Arcade Fire – the darlings of the indie rock world and the most hyped act since, um, The Beatles, have sold a whopping 28,000 units in the USA. I don’t really have a perspective on what is and isn’t a lot of units sold, but that seems awful low to me. Like, Britney Spears probably sells that many from a single Wal-Mart store.

Nominations for the 2005 Bloggies are open. You’ll note they’ve folded several categories, including “Best Music”, into a new single category, “Best Entertainment”. I’m not gonna be all disingenuous here and pretend I wouldn’t like to be nominated again – I’m itching for a rematch with Moby. However, with the broader category definition, I imagine there’ll be tougher competition for nominations let alone prizes. Oh well, we do what we can do. You know, looking over the nomination form, I realize just how few different blogs I actually read. Sad, really.

np – Interpol / Antics

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