Lily Allen - Guess Who Batman (Fuck You Very Much)

This track is ironic pop at its finest. In an ordinary song I can't help but get a cheap childish laugh when a singer uses expletives; in such a happy sounding song as this I literally laughed out loud. Thank you Lily Allen: you make me lol. This is basically a rant at small minded racists and homophobes. Again, thank you Lily Allen.

Lily's second album, the fantastically titled Stuck On The Naughty Step is forthcoming. She explains here: "In England, when kids are naughty, they get sent to sit on the naughty step. Like a timeout, you know? I feel like I'm stuck in a hole where people say, 'Lily, you're bad. Go think about what you've done." What excites me muchly is that she co-wrote the album with Greg Kurstin of the brilliant band The Bird And The Bee. The first single off the new album will be "Everyone's At It" and will be released next month.

Lily Allen - Guess Who Batman (Fuck You Very Much) (alternative download location)

Thanks to Alors, Vraiment?

Cara Beth Satalino - Can Kicker

I HEART Cara Beth Satalino. She writes songs that are witty and wise and just plain beautiful. Here's another gem - Can Kicker.

Cara Beth Satalino - Can Kicker (or here if that doesn't work).

Leerone - Care For Some Whisky (video)

Isn't that just the juciest jumble of joy you've seen all July? Damn, it's August.

It might as well be J for January here in Wales - the rain has been continuous for about a week and it doesn't seem to be about to end any time soon. I'm sorry for not having posted for a while. I got a new computer and installed Oblivion onto it to see how well it would run. Well, let's just say it's been running pretty well constantly for the last four days. What can I say - I'm a geek.

Leerone is a nice Jewish lady from the US who pays an enormous amount of attention to her music (which, to be fair to her, she's fully aware of - her label is called "Fussy Music"). She also conceives and designs her cover art, snaps some of the photographs featured on her recordings, and designs her own stage attire - I think there maybe something a little OCD about it. If she was involved in creating that wonderful video then kudos to her.

Ace Bushy Striptease - Mervyn and Isaac Find A CD

The idea that "Wednesday is mental day" started off as a bit of a joke but for some reason every Wednesday for the last few weeks I've been grabbed by a song which I can legitimately describe as mental. This week is no exception.

Ace Bushy Striptease - Mervyn and Isaac find a CD

Alternating thrashy eukele driven shoutalongs with an utterly random spoken argument, "Mervyn and Isaac find a CD" is as much pure unadulterated fun as putting pop-rocks in coke.

Ace Bushy Striptease are from Birmingham, have been playing together for about a year, and they have a beautiful website on which you can download some trackz and read a fairly lengthy and wonderfully rambling self-penned biography.

Ben Folds Five - Underground (live)

Though you wouldn't necessarily be aware of it when listening to some of Ben Folds' recent solo efforts, he has a deserved reputation for being a great showman. Going to see him live is fun, pure and simple. His banter is witty, he makes songs up on the spot, he gets you singing the brass parts for "Army", he plays pretty much all of his back catalogue but best of all, he's a phenomenal pianist to watch - incredibly fast and incredibly accurate.

This'll give you some idea. Underground is a track on Ben Folds Five's exuberant self-titled debut album; this live version is taken from a b-sides and live album titled Naked Baby Photos. There are some other great live tracks I could have posted (Ultimate Sacrifice and Satan Is My Master are particular favourites) but I just love what the guy in the audience shouts out.

Ben Folds Five - Underground (live) (alternative download location HERE)

Ben Folds has a new album called Way To Normal out on 30 September in the US and on 29 September here in the UK. Tracklisting below:

1. Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hit His Head)
2. Dr. Yang
3. The Frown Song
4. You Don't Know Me (featuring Regina Spektor)
5. Before Cologne
6. Cologne
7. Errant Dog
8. Free Coffee
9. Bitch Went Nuts
10. Brainwascht
11. Effington
12. Kylie from Connecticut

Jens Lekman - I'm Leaving You Because I Don't Love You

Romantic Swede Jens Lekman makes sample heavy pop with witty, knowing lyrics. Here jangly jazzy piano chords bounce around in the background as Jens narrates the end of a relationship. The music is far too happy for the lyrics, it's all the wrong way round, but that's why it works.

Jens Lekman - I'm Leaving You Because I Don't Love You

Gwilym Simcock - Sneaky

I don't often watch the Proms but last night Prom 31 was on the TV and it caught my ear so much that I stopped everything I was doing and just watched as the dinner went cold and the family went hungry. There was a premiere of a piece by a young British composer and jazz pianist called Gwilym Simcock which just blew me away. The piece married Gwilym's jazz trio with a full on orchestra, and flipped between beautiful, colourfully orchestrated modern classical music and fantastically creative jazz. Some of the piano solos were just mind boggling. I wish I could post it here right now. You can listen to it on the BBC iPlayer here but only for a week (it starts at about 9 minutes and 30 secs).

What I can post is a track from the jazz trio's debut album, Perception. As you can tell by how much jazz I've written about in previous posts, I haven't been listening to jazz very frequently for quite a while (the Wynton Marsalis post earlier this week is only an exception to the indie-rock/pop rule), but this really gets me going. Imagine this kind of fascinating jazz combined with an orchestra and you'll have some idea of what last night's piece sounded like. It's basically a wide-eyed OH MY GOD moment.

Gwilym Simcock - Sneaky
(still having issues with hotlinkfiles.com, if that link doesn't work, try here).