Absolutely mind-blowing gig from the Beths tonight. Just an incredible live act, fully cemented Straight Line Was a Lie as my album of the year. I feel like I could punch God. Damn.

if you read one thing today, make it this absolutely devastating piece from a fact-checker who quit the New Yorker bidoun.org/articles/hou...

the UK's new anti-trans rules are indefensible & will make global fascism stronger my latest with @liberalcurrents.com www.liberalcurrents.com/britains-bat...

At this point I'm basically just screaming incoherently about this to random platforms in sequence, and it's Bluesky's turn now: The Beths have delivered their masterpiece. Straight Line Was a Lie has shot straight to the front of the running for album of the year.

Really didn't expect we'd get anything near this good of a response from CGE. Probably the best possible result in the circumstances. Great to see.

Quite impressed to see I've been blocked by whatever automated method CGE has been using to block people critical of its Potter Codenames announcement, despite never having taken part in the conversation on this platform. I must be doing something right.

in unrelated news: if you bought hogwarts legacy you’re a twat

May or may not have done a tiny little cry at a bus stop in Derby to the new Beths song.

Really glad this review convinced me to take a chance on this record; it's fascinating and delightful. Strong recommend.

Saw MJ Lenderman last night - predictably, I enjoyed his drawling jams more in person (and his band brought a lot of personality to it). Wristwatch and She's Leaving You predictably killed.

Hello clocktower friends! Starting my own stream www.twitch.tv/allabouttheb... which will be Sunday evenings. Sunday 1st June will be the first stream - 3 games - 7pm UK start - going until 00:00.

Lovely little treat seeing Samia do some acoustic versions of songs from new album Bloodless, which I'm super-excited to dig into.

Cis friends in the UK – I spent my morning writing to my MP to demand action after the EHRC published explicitly segregationist guidance last night essentially banning trans people from any gendered public bathroom. Please do the same. They need to hear outrage from cis people about this.

Welcome to Dorley Hall, "Wes"

A bunch of shit is infuriatingly fucked but, on the plus side, Tunde Adebimpe is the saviour my 2025 in music was crying out for.

It’s worth noting that JK Rowling is not only funding meritless legal challenges against trans people until they can appeal up to the court that will back them, she openly gloats about how this is where her money is going. This is what the Harry Potter TV show is bankrolling.

yeah there's a direct through line between this ruling and anyone who bought that hogwart's game that trans people got screamed at for suggesting we boycott

Rowling is actively using the money you send to her for HP stuff to demonize trans folks and take away their rights. No ethical consumption etc but the calculus on this one seems pretty easy to me

awful fucking country

The Gen Con clonk group is on the move - VODs from recent games, including this banger, will start appearing on YouTube here:

Lots of the new album releases I've picked up so far this year have been things I've broadly liked but not wholeheartedly loved. I sort of get the impression that CMAT might end up carrying 2025 on her back. I'm really ready for something triumphant.

You get *one* hangover and then your YouTube feed is just livestreams of fish swimming in aquariums forever, huh.

Tier-ranking all the Blood on the Clocktower demons came up in one of the servers I'm in today, so here is the correct ranking.

If you only share one thing I have ever written, let it be this. Right now there are people planning to go stealth, to try and fit in, to wear a uniform both in order to survive and to help others survive. But the longer you wear a uniform, the more it can become a part of you. Just ask Major Kira.

Spending a lot of time this week with This Is the Kit's Moonshine Freeze. I'd heard Kate Stables' later work first and liked it, but this is the first album of hers I've fallen in love with from head to toe. The guitar and percussion textures are just sublime, giving her folk songs teeth and depth.

My 2024 in music listening stats! Somehow I managed to cram in over 10,000 more plays than last year.

Reposting so it's not at the end of a 70-skeet thread: I wrote some words about my top 10 albums of the year!

How many identical tedious centrist Resist grifters posting the same five images on repeat do I have to mute before Bluesky gets the idea?

Shroud Waving: new essay on trans death, callousness, ancestors over at my substack. valleyofthed.substack.com/p/shroud-wav...

Playing Raj's spicy Yaggababble script on Gen Con now!

I made it a personal project this year to buy as many new album and EP releases as I could, with a mix of artists I had and hadn't tried before. It was, unsurprisingly, very rewarding. Ranking art is stupid but ranking things is fun, so I ranked all 70. Counting down over the next couple of weeks!

Last gig of the year was a banger - Nilufer Yanya delivering moody, shoegazey delights. Her new album My Method Actor is one I like in the studio but liked a whole lot more live, with some deliciously atmospheric transitions between songs that made the whole set hit harder.

Come hang out with me at noon GMT today as I take over Arif's stream to play then ST some Blood on the Clocktower! twitch.tv/arif_a_

About to go live with the Gen Con crew playing Clocktower on Arif's stream (as Jams is away this week). twitch.tv/arif_a_ After that, I'll be on the first two games with TPI!

It’s really cool to be able to go to genius.com and not just see the lyrics of a song but also read analysis written by people experiencing concussion symptoms and/or carbon monoxide exposure

Great night out seeing Porridge Radio, whose new record Clouds in the Sky They Will Always Be There for Me is a post-punk delight full of break-up anguish that's pretty much all killer no filler. Then came outside afterwards to discover a beautiful snowy night!

New track from the deluxe edition of the year's best album is, predictably, a banger. Telenova are too good.

Lovely to see the Clocktower crew (and many others) migrate over here. Might even have to start posting more than once every six months.

Wrote about 10 albums that I loved from 2023. Pretty banging year all round, honestly.

How many critics are going to be brave enough to put Tom Cardy and Brian David Gilbert's Beautiful Mind on their Best of 2023 lists? It should not be 0.

Cracking night out seeing Weyes Blood, who I like plenty on record but absolutely adored on stage. Nobody's voice should sound this good outside of a studio. It's inhuman. I forgive her for hitting me in the face with a flower.

Extremely worried that I might have to consider actually posting if I want to contribute to this place actually taking off. Hopefully not.