Darren

I saw Petrol Girls tonight at the Bodega in Nottingham. Absolutely brilliant, political, angry and incendiary but tight and quite complex almost proggy punk. The room was packed and they did the whole “women and non-binary people to the front, cis blokes to the back and sides” thing which meant it had the most civilised and fun mosh pit I’ve seen in ages. I hadn’t even heard of them until this afternoon, now I’m a dedicated fan.

It’s a grower. I was underwhelmed at first, but it really grabbed me after a few listens. And hearing them play most of the album live sealed the deal. Anyway, my next recommendation is Petrol Girls. I hadn’t even heard of them until today, but saw them live tonight and they were great. Kind of prog-punk, in that it’s basically punk but with lots of weird time signatures to confuse everyone trying to pogo.

At lunchtime I had a delightfully bonkers A3 Ironclad run. I got Snecko Eye as the random starting relic so all bets were off right from the start. I somehow managed to get all the way to the end of Act 3, even (unusually for me) picking up the three keys on the way and starting to think I might even have a chance of going all the way, before Clock Sucker laughed at my presumptuousness.

I'd completely forgotten the joy of owning a new record just as an object. It's been so long since I changed to CDs that I'd forgotten how nice it is to hold and look at the cover at full size. And since giving up on CDs and going all digital I hadn't realised how much I missed reading the credits and acknowledgements, scanning the thanks list to see if I recognise any names from other bands. This is a single album in a gatefold sleeve. So the only reason for them going to the extra trouble and expense is whatever they include in the gatefold. Which is this: (Sorry for the crap picture, I've got it in a PVC sleeve so there's a bit of reflection.) You just don't get that with a thumbnail on Spotify. Oh god, this is going to cost me a fortune isn't it.

And also out last week was The Archer by Alexander Savior, who I discovered through Spotify's excellent recommendations algorithm. This isn't really rock, it's more of a Portishead/Lana Del Rey sort of vibe, but since when was that a bad thing?

2020 is off to a good start for new albums. First up, The Big Moon, who I'm pretty sure I discovered via this thread a couple of years ago. Their second album Walking Like We Do came out last week and is quite a progression from their utterly brilliant debut Love In The Fourth Dimension. Where that was pure guitar-based indie rock/pop, this time the sound is bigger and wider, with lots of keyboards, and even flutes and brass in places. I saw them live last night and amazingly they're able to perform this stuff live. As they said at one point between songs, "it's our second album, so it's time to show off!" I'll admit I wasn't convinced by the singles on release as they're such a departure, but the album has grown on me over several listens and hearing these songs live sealed the deal.

Went to my first gig of the year last night - The Big Moon album launch at Rough Trade Nottingham. They were great as is their new album - it's a bigger, lusher sound than the pure indie guitar based stuff of their first album, but they're good enough musicians to be able to pull it off live. Lots of instrument swapping, all four of them sing so there are lots of harmonies, and during one song there was even a trumpet solo from the drummer while keeping the beat going on bass drum and hi-hat, which is a first for any gig I've been to. They've set the bar high for everyone else I see this year.

I did something tonight I’ve not done since I was a teenager...

I'm very gradually getting better at this, possibly more by luck than judgement. Last night I beat Ascension 2 with the Ironclad due to randomly swapping my starting relic for one that made all Elites drop 2 relics each. So I went Elite hunting which just made me get exponentially stronger as I went along. Towards the end of Act 2 I got a relic which meant I could ignore paths for the next 3 floors, which meant I could zig zag around for even more Elites and even more relics. I was so powerful in Act 3 that I just carried on going for Elites whenever possible. By the time I reached the boss I was basically unstoppable.

That sounds brilliant.

Shhh! Nobody tell him!

It's not strictly 2000AD I know*, but the first volume of Pat Mills and Carlos Ezquerra's Third World War is out now. Apparently it's the first time it's ever been reprinted since its original publication in Crisis, 2000AD's attempt at a more mature comic, in the late 80s. The first issue came out in September 1988 just before I started university so it's very strongly associated with strident student politics for me, helped of course by Mills' "you can never be too on the nose" writing. I haven't started reading it yet but just flicking through takes me right back. https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/1781087512/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 *it kind of is though, because one of the main characters in this story later showed up in his own (not especially good) series in the prog.

No, nothing was explained, nothing made sense. I'm struggling to choose a worst moment but I think it might be "the good news is this tunnel takes us back to the base, the bad news is... it goes straight through the baddies' nest!" If you told me it was written by an 8-year old who won a competition on Blue Peter to script an episode, not only would I believe you, I'd be quite relieved that it's actually a plausible reason for how it ever got made.

Which was a fairly accurate reflection of the viewer’s experience by that point.

Oh dear, after a promising start to the series that was possibly the worst episode ever. And not just of Doctor Who.