Stereo Jealousy

Kicking off my run down of the best independent places to spend your hard earned is a Brighton institution – Rounder Records. Nestled away in the famous Lanes, Rounder (like all the best record stores) is a hive of local scene activity – stocking tickets for Brighton’s vibrant live scene along with a choice selection of vinyl and CDs. Record stores have a reputation, mainly deserved, for being fortresses of snobbery and sneer – and a lack of that is what drives Rounder into my Top 5. It’s a thoroughly pleasant place to spend time – light, airy and not overstocked, and perhaps most importantly staffed by pleasant folk. In my experience of the shop not once have I seen someone talked down to, dismissed or ignored – and despite often being rammed there always seems time to discuss the latest and greatest with the bloke behind the counter. From Blackalicious to the Bad Seeds not only has there been knowledge, but interest too – a proper two-way conversation. A key factor in their 43 year history, surely?

Star Find: Back in 2004 when The Killers weren’t a band of language manglers (or maybe they were, but I was younger then…) there was a limited edition light blue vinyl of Hot Fuss that I had trawled most of London’s stores for, chain and independent. I’d driven my lady insane with this wild wax chase, and we’d probably escaped to Brighton to get away from record shops. Wandering past Rounder I couldn’t help but notice that they’d assigned LCD’s seminal Yeah one of their singles of ‘03 – I had to go in, and there it was, no. 2919. Done.

The Killers – Mr Brightside

Photo: Brighton Photo Daily

Our second stop on the Aural tour of the world brings us to the hometown of Blood Red Shoes, Brighton. A lovely town on the south coast of England, Brighton has a great recent history in music. Socially and politically, the town is quite liberal; promoting art, individuality and performance at every turn. Not only does the town have a lively music scene (venues, record shops, labels as well as bands), the music it produces is pretty damn good.

Bat For Lashes produced one of the albums of the year in 2006, with Fur and Gold, heading to Mercury and Brit nominations. Brighton features heavily throughout my collection, British Sea Power’s Open Season is a particular great, The Go! Team’s debut Thunder Lightning Strike is great fun, as is Brighton don Norman Cook’s Halfway Between the Gutter and the Stars. Cook is one of Brighton’s favoured sons, with nearly a quarter of a million folk turning up to see his last beach set in 2002. Electrelane, too, make superb electronic music, 2004’s The Power Out is my choice of their back-cat. Not featured in today’s audio selection are other fine bands such as Electric Soft Parade, Brakes, Clearlake, The Levellers, Maccabees and retropop funstrumpets The Pipettes.

So today’s audio choices are all quite modern, and all pretty enjoyable, and demonstrate the variety of the Brighton scene…

Fatboy Slim – Weapon of Choice
British Sea Power – True Adventures (Live in Columbus, Ohio): Thanks to ThaBombShelter for this!
Bat For Lashes – Prescilla
The Go! Team – Fake ID
Electrelane – To The East