Monday 26 February 2007

Dong Gook debut - What Do You Think?

It's Lee Dong Gook / Dong Gook Lee's turn to get a hammering from the Boro Six this week.

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Monday 19 February 2007

Yakubu's penalty form - What Do You Think?

The form of Yakubu falls under the spotlight of the Boro Six this week.

I'm with Elaine Hunter; where is our Korean all-star?

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Wrestler with no arms or legs

Dustin Carter, who doesn't have much in the way of limbs, is a high school wrestler from Hillsboro, Ohio, who just made it all the way to the state wrestling championship.

Embedding has been disabled, so click here for the video

Thursday 15 February 2007

Album Reviews: Reformation Post TLC

Perhaps taking the title of 2005's excellent Fall Heads Roll literally, Mark E Smith made the entirely expected move of firing the entire band - except wife and keyboardist, Elena Poulou - before embarking on their 28th year of recording.

Members of Los Angeles bands Darker My Love and The Hill form the latest iteration of The Fall and the opening track, Over! Over!'s, mantra of "I think it's over now, I think it's ending. I think it's over now, I think it's beginning" could easily be a slogan for the band's revolving door recruitment policy.

Even for Smith, Reformation Post TLC is a uniquely bilious album. A version of Merle Haggard's White Line Fever recalls the kind of mangled country and western that Smith clearly finds so fascinating, while Insult Song - where Smith adopts a redneck accent to spin a silly tale about Captain Beefhart - veers between the inspired and the baffling.

The Wright Stuff allows Smith to offer his take on I'm A Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here, while Das Boat's nine minutes of electronic commotion and muttering demonstrate the knotty, cantankerous and perplexing side of Smith's persona.

Duly disorientating and typically slanted, Reformation Post TLC is the equal of anything in The Fall's gargantuan canon.

Album Review: Glitter In The Gutter

Having firmly readjusted himself from the outrageous punk role he concocted with his old band, Degeneration X, and honed his singer/songwriting talent with his two previous albums The Fine Art Of Self Destruction and 2004's The Heat, Jesse Malin all but perfects the art with this, his third album.

As ever, Malin writes locally but thinks universally and by recording an album - at least in part - outside of New York, Malin's experiences on Glitter In The Gutter create an even more global connection. Malin's desire to celebrate the underdogs, the social outcasts and the blue-collar workers has earned comparison with that other champion of the down-trodden, Bruce Springsteen. In fact, such is the nexus between the two songwriters that Springsteen sought Malin out after hearing him perform perform Hungry Heart on an Uncut cover-mount CD.

And it's inevitably the Springsteen duet, Broken Radio, that will engender the most interest in Glitter In The Gutter. The song is pure Malin poetry: a woman searches for salvation across the car radio dials. It's a song that is easily the equal of Malin's most poignant moment to date, The Fine Art Of Self Destruction's Brooklyn, but there's no denying that Springsteen's world-weary vocals add a degree of gravitas.

Springsteen's not the only notable musician to put in an appearance; Josh Homme of Queens Of The Stone Age adds some typically dissident guitar to Tomorrow Tonight, while the Foo Fighters' Chris Shiflett fires out some robust riffs on Prisoners Of Paradise and Jakob Dylan adds sweet harmonies to Black Haired Girl. Long-time friend and collaborator, Ryan Adams also appears on a number of tracks, playing electric guitar on Broken Radio, Little Star and In The Modern World, and offering acoustic guitar and back-up vocals on album closer, Aftermath.

Elsewhere, new single, Don't Let Them Take You Down, is Malin's most impressive rock number yet and there is a piano-led, plaintive version of The Replacements' Bastards Of Young, while Since You're In Love from The Heat gets transformed into Happy Ever After.

Glitter In The Gutter is Malin's finest work to date and proof that, three albums in, Malin remains a captivating and fearless storyteller.

Album Review: All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone

Explosions In The Sky's track record of creating mesmirising sonic violence is almost unparalleled, but one thing that has eluded the band - until now - is the ability to translate the majesty of their hypnotising live shows to record.

All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone changes that, marking as it does a huge leap forward for the band, ditching the somewhat crystalline production of its predecessors in favour of broader instrumentation and more focussed, asperous production. With increased intensity than even its ferocious predecessor, The Earth Is Not A Cold Dead Place, All Of A Sudden I Miss Everyone almost completely blurs the lines between Explosions' recorded output and their extraordinary live shows.

The Birth And Death Of The Day clashes and coruscates like not just the beginning and end of the day, but the beginning and end of the universe. It's Natural To Be Afraid roars with a fierceness that few, if any, bands can match. The addition of piano on So Long, Lonesome and What Do You Go Home To? creates a beautiful, meditative picture, while the machine-gun snare on Catastrophe And The Cure is nothing short of incendiary.

Proving once again that bass, guitars and drums still allow for infinite possibilities, Explosions In The Sky manage to speak with more emotional resonance than a million bands with singers ever could.

Monday 12 February 2007

Gibson backs McClaren - What Do You Think?

Steve Gibson's defence of Steve McClaren has got the panel talking this week.

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Monday 5 February 2007

Anti News under new management

After creating the column and writing it since the inception of ComeOnBoro.com, I won't be responsible for the Anti News any more.

I'm definitely going to remain involved with ComeOnBoro.com but, right now, I'm looking at other pieces that I can produce regularly and enthusiastically.

Toby Higgins is taking over the column and I'm sure, under his watch, it'll be (nearly) as good as it ever was.

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Massimo savages McClaren - What Do You Think?

The panel give their thoughts on Massimo Maccarone's widely reported fax to The Times.

Georgina Cole wins for me this week.

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