Slow Thrills

The end of a dark, tired year
Yeah, the new Piano Magic album summed 2003 up pretty well. Unfortunately it arrived too late to feature on any end-of-03 charts, so hopefully those people who evaluate and score their musical listening behaviour in 12 month intervals won't forget it when compiling their lists next time.
As I said elsewhere, I didn't get into the whole list-making end of year frenzy this year. Instead I've just listed my favourite albums and gigs off the top of my head with disregard for release dates (Broken Social Scene was first released in 2002, as was all the material on Wire's 'Send', and I'm not sure if the Sun Kil Moon album has seen a UK release yet). Here ya go....

Albums...

1. Sun Kil Moon Ghosts of the Great Highway
2. Sufjan Stevens Greetings From Michigan
3. Belle and Sebastian Dear Catastrophe Waitress
4. Cat Power You Are Free
5. M83 Dead Cities, Red Seas and Lost Ghosts
6. Broken Social Scene You Forgot it in People
7. The Clientele The Violet Hour
8. Yo La Tengo Summer Sun
9. Radiohead Hail to the Thief
10. The Fall The Real New Fall LP (formerly Country on the Click)
11. Wire Send
12. The Shins Chutes too Narrow
13. Lightning Bolt Wonderful Rainbow
14. Tindersticks Waiting for the Moon
15. Four Tet Rounds
16. Silver Mt Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band With Choir "This is our Punk rock" Thee Rusted Satellites Gather + Sing 
17. Manitoba Up in Flames
18. The Postal Service Give Up
19. The Strokes Room on Fire
20. Arab Strap Monday at the Hug and Pint
21. Massive Attack 100th Window
22. Dean Wareham and Britta Philips L'Avventura
23. Mogwai Happy Songs for Happy People
24. The Rapture Echoes
25. Erlend Oye Unrest


Gigs...

1. Radiohead, Belfast Waterfront, May
2. Patti Smith, Belfast Art College, May
3. Massive Attack, Dublin Point, August
4. The Strokes, Belfast Ulster Hall, November
5. Manitoba, Belfast Art College, May
6. American Analog Set, Belfast Orpheus, June
7. Yo La Tengo, Dublin Ambassadors, May
8. Calvin Johnson, Belfast Duke of York, September
9. Torgas Valley Reds, many venues thoughout the year...
10. Tracer AMC, Belfast Auntie Annies, August
11. David Kitt, Belfast Empire, March
12. Teenage Fanclub, Belfast Limelight, January
13. Billy Bragg, Belfast Art College, May
14. Mogwai, Belfast Mandela Hall, October
15. Black Eyes, Belfast Front Page, December
16. Somedaysbetter, Belfast Giro's, April
17. Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, Belfast Art College, May
18. Acid Mother's Temple Soul Collective, Belfast Auntie Annies, June
19. Malcolm Middleton, Belfast Katy Daly's, August
I cannot think of a 20th - I hope that'll change at the end of this year!