Time Flies...

Well, who knew, riding out another year of pandemic, graduating from university and starting full time work really keeps you busy! However, if a hiatus and August 2022 return is good enough for Yeah Yeah Yeahs then it is certainly good enough for me. I am now back and (hopefully) better than ever with big plans for Katie on a Mission on the horizon.

It’s been a great summer for music with my latest finds playlist currently bursting at the seams. New tracks from The Big Moon, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Black Honey have been sound tracking my past few weeks alongside some great new bands such as Sell By (look out for their introducing feature coming up shortly), She’s in Parties and Prima Queen.

There’s lots of exciting content to come as we move away from festival season and back into the ‘do I need to take a jacket to the gig’ season. Make sure to stay tuned for more reviews, features, interviews, and more!

You just haven’t earned it yet, Baby

Every music lovers favourite day of the year, Record Store Day is upon us once again. For those of you who have avoided being dragged around various record shops across the country to find a niche 7” (sorry Mum) this day will not be of much significance so let me explain. Record Store Day (RSD) started in 2008 with the aim of promoting independent record stores with many artists releasing unheard recordings, test pressings, special editions, and remixes of their songs to be bought in record stores on the day.

Now, one might assume that as a music fan I would have acquired many records on Record Store Day and would have a whole room dedicated to limited edition vinyls (my dream if I ever make any money out of this journalism lark) however, my own experience of this day is slightly more complicated. Due to a lack of record shops near me I have always struggled to buy any Record Store Day releases, a few years ago I found myself in Brighton on Record Store Day and felt very optimistic about my chances of acquiring some new vinyls. However, due to delayed trains, some sightseeing (I just can’t help myself) and getting lost all the record shops I went in were cleared out by the time I got there. I was laughed out of one particular shop when I asked (rather naively) if they had the new Wolf Alice release in the most hipster bullying incident ever to happen that hasn’t been recorded by The Guardian. Needing to bolster my indie credentials after such a humiliating defeat I ended up stumbling into a vintage clothes shop in a basement off The Lanes which can only be described as a charity shop edition of Silence of the Lambs. Needless to say I returned home slightly flustered and without much to show for my efforts aside from nice photos of Brighton beach.

Fast forward several years, a few ill-timed university holidays and lack of Midlands-based indie revival later and here I am in 2020 still RSD record-less. However, this year I was feeling very optimistic and felt sure my RSD luck was about to change. Due to UK lockdown and social distancing guidelines Record Store Day was going to be a primarily online affair with shops selling their limited-edition stock on their websites. I had my heart set on Black Honey’s special edition release of Corrine and Mothership on green, heart-shaped vinyl (an essential I’m sure you agree). Setting my alarm for 8am in plenty of time to finally break my RSD bad luck that has plagued me all these years. Unfortunately, a faulty phone battery led to my alarm not going off and me waking up to find out that all the Black Honey records had sold out 10 minutes before.  Why change the habit of a lifetime I suppose!

Hopefully you all had better luck than myself this Record Store Day. If not, here’s to 2021, I’m sure I’ll have better luck next year….I think.

Everyday is like Sunday

Many times before I have quoted Morrissey whenever an ounce of tedium crept into my life (which unfortunately seems to be quite regularly). However, I feel that lockdown really is the time to embrace a bit of Mozzer’s characteristic pessimism, if you can’t sincerely quote him in a worldwide pandemic then when can you?

As UK lockdown progresses into it’s eleventh week it really does feel as if everyday is Sunday, I’ve lost all sense of time, date and purpose hence the creation of this (hopefully interesting) blog/website in an attempt to reclaim some structure and purpose into my ever extending, empty days. After commenting on “what strange times we’re in” and questioning “when will it get back to normal?” asking what day it is has taken over approximately 99% of the conversations I have had since March. Asking for the day is normally met by people proclaiming in a strangely proud fashion that they don’t know what day it is or feeling the need to offer what day they believed it was before they checked. I’m not ever so sure of the helpfulness of this but have found that a mildly enthused “oh really” seems to be an adequate response irrespective if they though it was Monday, Tuesday or the last day on Earth.

I have tried to take up some new lockdown hobbies to help add some structure into my life. But after completing what feels like every home workout under the sun to disappointingly minimal results, making a pretty disgusting banana bread and finally getting round to watching the ridiculously compelling Tiger King I have well and truly completed all lockdown activities known to man just shy of giving myself a haircut and taking approximately 25% of all my personal belongings to the tip. As the old adage goes, when one is tired of Joe Wick’s workouts and banana bread they are tired of life.

Now, time for me to watch how to give yourself a haircut on YouTube and decide which of my belongings spark joy, what day is it again?