Nomad Radio

Unsigned Goodness – Pablo Diccie Posted by Gargleman

Pablo Diccie are two young lads from the Welsh borders with a love for post-rock, skating and really dodgy cover versions.

As a sign of the times, there’s a Pablo Diccie Blog, a Pablo Diccie youtube channel and a Pablo Diccie last.fm page, but no myspace. No myspace – I guess I’m thoroughly old and out of date if bands no longer need a myspace…

But Pablo Diccie’s music shows also shows a lot of maturity for a seventeen-year-old and his mate. Their best track is probably Satellite, which is slow-burning and atmospheric, and their best video is the  endearingly daft Bats and Dolphins.

They also seem to enjoy creating dodgy cover versions: their youtube includes them playing variations on Greensleeves and the theme from X Factor. Stick to the post-rock, lads. I’m off to get my pipe and slippers for a nice sit by the fire.

Mind On Fire vs The Pinch Posted by Badger Von Winklebaum

Mind on Fire, purveyors of the latest podcast “A Handful of Diced Carrots” put a night on at the Deaf Institute yesterday. It was good. You should go to the next one.

This time they featured live sets from Sirconical and Kelpe, with visuals from Cycloptic – one of my favourite VJs. He does this crazy thing where he projects through cubes made from mosquito nets. You can’t really see it in this picture, but hopefully I’ll find one where you can soon.

Stop These Cunts Before It’s Too Late! Posted by Badger Von Winklebaum

Those UK/EU government types are trying to screw up the internet again. They want to abolish net-neutrality, record all your private emails and ban you from the net if you download pirate movies.

Without net-neutrality, your internet provider could turn round to you and say “Sure you can look at britneyspears.com for free. However if you want to look at nomadradio.fm, that’ll be £50 please – Because they didn’t give us the EXTRA FUCKING CASH!”

Honestly, this is so important even if you’re not a geek. The Internet is the last place we can have free speech. You can’t see these erosions of liberty happening like you can the security cameras and the protesters being beaten up, but they’re happening.

It’s so important in fact, that I’ve just started donating a fiver a month to The Open Rights Group. A fucking fiver! That’s how strongly I feel! That’s, like, more than a pint costs. I feel more strongly about it than beer. You should too. Please sign up.

Watch this: Newswipe Posted by Gargleman

Caustic TV critic, journalist and writer Charlie Brooker started out as a cartoonist for PC Zone magazine, before going on to create the wonderful TV Go Home website (and book) and then become a minor TV personality and Guardianista celebrity, who has apparently dated the very reality TV stars he publicly mocks.

This is all fairly well known.

Less well known is that Charlie is short for Charlton, which › Continue reading

TV in the Peer-View Mirror – Generation Kill Posted by Gargleman

Generation Kill does for US Marines and the Second Iraq War what The Wire did for drug dealers and Baltimore – but in just seven espisodes, rather than five seasons.

Generation Kill boasts a starring cast of 28, including that chap who played Ziggy Sobotka and several other Wire alumni, and comparisons with David Simon’s other shows don’t end there.

The first episode is fairly baffling, as like The Wire, Generation Kill seeks to recreate its subject matter as accurately as possible, complete with initially indistinguishable characters, mumbling dialogue, background noise and technical jargon.

› Continue reading

Cooking with love (juice) Posted by Gargleman

If you’re stuck for that special birthday present, or want to find that Easter gift for a loved one who hates chocolate, why not get them a copy of fantastic new cookbook Natural Harvest?

It might appear to be a joke at first, being, as it is, a book about cooking with seminal fluid, but it does actually contain over 60 pages of stomach-churning recipes like Spoon-n-Toss Cookies, drinks like Almost White Russian cocktails and special delicacies like Man Made Oysters.

If that wasn’t enough to put you off your food for the rest of the week, did you know that semen can be stored in a freezer for use later, or that it’s cooking properties are remarkably similar to egg-whites?

So, next time you’re visiting those weird friends of yours for dinner, and you spot tupperware containers by their bed, or containers of unidentified substances in the ice-box, stay the hell away from those extra-creamy crepes!

Never Meta Man I Didn’t Like Posted by robsteranium

Why should music lovers care about tags? Because they act like thousands of tiny little signposts directing you on a journey to better music!

You can use tags to help you:

• find similar artists – pick an artist then listen to similar music on the mighty Last.fm radio for free. The last.fm player relates tunes to one other though tags. The tags are marked automatically by scrobbling your listening history (iTunes etc) and tracking whether you heart/thumb-down what you’re hearing. You can also manually tag tracks so those marked “UK” & “Hip-Hop” can both be distinguished from and related to tracks marked “US” &”Hip-Hop”.
• pick tunes to suit your mood – Musicovery asks you to define your mood: dark vs positive, energentic vs calm, dancier, faster? There’s 18 genres and a time line too.
• predict my future posts – my StumbleUpon music related favourites! Slightly off-topic but at least it demonstrates my point: tags can help you gather-up tunes that might not otherwise be filed together (e.g. in a record shop). The page linked above, for example, combines an advance warning of the new Burial DJ Kicks Album and rendition of the Imperial March (from Star Wars) done on a Floppy Disk.

Disclaimer for tech-heads/ cyber-pedants: yes, I realise that I’m using the word “tag” where the term “meta-data” might be more appropriate. Shut up and Dance!