Blogwatch

Minor 9th is back - be there!

Loads of great music writing to note this week, particularly:

on The Pill Box, where Ian Penman has been discussing irony and the way that the ubiquity of certain records leads to brainwashing and the subsequent purchase of aforementioned records - even still, I think buying Alanis Morrissette's 'Thank You' may have been a step TOO far;

on Stylus, where Karim Adab and Nick Southall have dissected the mystique and greatness of Jane's Addiction in conjunction with new album Strays, where Killian Murphy has been brutally frank about the Thrills album, and where Andrew Unterberger has reimagined New Order's Movement as a great album;

on Badger Minor, where the new Neil Michael Hagerty album is described as "like His Satanic Majesty Exiled On Main Street's Fun House";

on No Matter What You Heard, where Steve is wondering whether the increasingly corporate and decreasingly alternative Lollapalooza festival is losing its way;

and on Parallax View, where Dead Kenny offers his views on Martina Topley-Bird's Mercury-nominated album Quixotic.

In other news, Alex is working hard on developing a computer game which successfully combines "lateral thinking and extreme violence" and which will thus be of great interest to Tim Bisley of C4's 'Spaced'.

And finally... Pete has had the misfortune to find in his email inbox what he suspects is Jamie Oliver's forthcoming cookbook, in its entirety. At the moment, it seems it's mishaps aplenty for the wide-tongued one - only yesterday I read he'd been knocked off his bike while out doing the photoshoot for the book's cover. Apparently, he only suffered bruising and a cut lip - presumably, had he been recognised by the offending driver, the injuries sustained would have been much more severe, if not fatal. We live in hope.