Feel good hits of the 1st September

1. 'The Wagon' - Dinosaur Jr
2. 'Siren Song' - Bat For Lashes
3. 'Cheerleader' - Grizzly Bear
4. 'Russia Is HERE' - Oxes
5. 'I Knew' - Lightning Dust
6. 'Out In The Streets' - The Shangri-Las
7. 'Golden Phone' - Micachu & The Shapes
8. 'Southern Man' - Neil Young
9. 'The Graveyard Shift' - Friendship
10. 'Lion In A Coma' - Animal Collective


Notes:

1. One of the highlights of their recent gig in Oxford, the first of a European tour (review to follow shortly), which had me listening to Green Mind pretty much non-stop for the week after.

2. I wasn't quite sure about Two Suns before Glastonbury, but that Other Stage set really brought me round. It's a toss-up between this and 'Glass' for my personal favourite.

3. Ditto, pretty much. Veckatimest took a while to bed in, but it's been working its oh-so-subtle charms for a while now, to good effect.

5. The album Infinite Light is a bit of a mixed bag, but I can't get enough of Amber Webber's vocals - her relatively minimal involvement on the last Black Mountain record was arguably its biggest disappointment.

6. About time I invested in a Shangri-Las best of. OK so it's clear as day where The Raveonettes took much of their inspiration, but am I alone in being able to hear early Bananarama too?

7. It's pop, Jim - not as we know it, but pop all the same.

8. Listening to After The Gold Rush, which I now own, is a real nostalgia trip, taking me back to the days and nights of rambling articles, punning headlines, cold pizza and no sleep in the university magazine's windowless bunker in the basement of the Student Union building. Happy days...