Great news for all SOIWT readers: as of this week, my chum Harriet (that’s her, up there, a lot) will be joining me (Richard) on the writing duties – Monday Musics, new-band blogs, the works.  She writes brilliantly and is suitably strange, so there’s lots to look forward to.  She also lives in Clapham and likes bananagrams, but no-one’s perfect.  From now on, look out for the name at the top of each blog to see who’s writing it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

That was my 2011 in a nutshell; I hope yours was no less exciting, but happier overall.  Thanks to every reader I had in the last 12 months; Some Of It Was True! will get bigger and better in 2012.  Happy New Year and lots of love – Richard.

Hi everyone – hope you’re all winding down for the Christmas period now, holed up cosily at home.  I sure am.  Before 2011 becomes 2012, I’ll put together, as usual, a playlist of some of the year’s best songs and some predictions for next year’s star turns.  Hopefully I won’t get all maudlin as New Year approaches.

Before all that, I’m only just up to speed on the latest ‘YouTube sensation’ – unsigned London singer Alex Day, whose song Forever Yours looks set to land near the top of the Christmas charts after viralling its way to over 2.5m views.  Partly this seems to because of its funny zombie video.  The song doesn’t seem much cop to me, anyway – a fairly plain pop ditty.  See what you think, though:

Click here to view the embedded video.

More serious fare to return from tomorrow…

I once met this girl, and we were supposed to go on a date where we’d play conkers, just to be bonkers.  I spent the prior afternoon kicking around a little garden of horse chestnut trees that I know, scouring the floor with competitive intensity for the best specimens.  I was excited by the girl, but at the time my glee was more a simple one: just the easy pleasure of kicking through the grass, of returning to a childhood game, of doing something so cheeringly innocent and uncomplicated.

Listening to brilliant new London act Orlando Seale & The Swell gives me a similar pleasure.  It’s not that the ten-strong emsemble’s music is simple, not at all, but rather that that listening to it is simply enjoyable and simply uplifting; nothing more, nothing less.  Be it ‘Love You Forever’s gentle ditty feel, a euphoric orchestral-style hullabaloo such as ‘These Streets’ or rockish rip-roarers like ‘Dance Little Man’, there’s a basic purity of sound here to be relished.  Basic, that is, until you hear some experimental arts-accompaniment style magic in the form of ‘Master & The Puppet’ (at the foot of this post).

Intrigued?  I am.  Which means it’s good news that Orlando and gang are launching a new single at Favela Chic this Thursday (10 November). More info here – it’s FREE ENTRY, and promises to be a great night.

My laptop died last night, so I might be quiet over the weekend.  Please excuse the silence if so, and have a good one… Richard.

This one goes out to the one I love.

METRONOMY – THE BAY (CLOCK OPERA REMIX) by clockopera

New single Lesson No. 7 has seen London act and long-Some Of It Was True! faves Clock Opera ascend to the fringes of genuine fame. Hailing from a forthcoming Moshi Moshi album, it’s meatier and murkier than previous releases, and a bit more straightforwardly-rock, albeit still with the wild histrionics we’ve come to expect. Tom Vek’s remix, meanwhile, his first ever, provides a sparser version.

Clock Opera – Lesson No. 7 (Full Version) by clockopera

Lesson No.7 (Tom Vek’s Tripping Mix) by clockopera

SOIWT is off today to In The Woods, a one-day, 500-person festival in a secret Kent forest location.  In its sixth year, the bash is organised by London band Laurel Collective, and promises to be excellent – so excellent that there’s an outside chance this will be the last-ever SOIWT post.  My fellow Richard’s driving is so bad as to also threaten that fact, while we’re at it.  But let’s hope I make it through somehow.  Here’s a recent video from the Laurels to tide you across the weekend:

The playlist over there on the right should now be working.  There’s still lots of things we’re working on concerning SOIWT’s new look – fixing new pages, adding additional sharing options, display issues – but it’s steadily coming together.  Thanks to everyone who’s said they like the makeover!

Apparently hot London property Maverick Sabre‘s the new Plan B.  Hmm – that’d be true only if Plan B was cloned with Aretha Franklin, listened to Smooth FM and started wearing M&S cardigans.