Yep, while I'm not going to overly dwell on a landmark reached, it was still pleasing to log into my analytics software earlier today to find that over 200,000 of you have visited this blog, either to swipe the tunes on offer or (more strangely) to read the witterings on offer.

If you've not heard, Rage Against the Machine are headlining Reading and Leeds. Wow. I want to go now. If any of you reader sorts out there have a spare pass with a plus one to give to a blogger, hit me up. And now, here's something completely unrelated.

MP3 Sam Sparro - Black and Gold

Readers of my new blogging venture will have already heard this, so I'm afraid it's not as exclusive as it might first seem. In any case, it's the new Shoplifters mixtape, mixed by me, so either have a listen here, or download for your commute to work or uni tomorrow.

Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly - D.A.N.C.E
Arcade FIre - Black Mirror (Quarterbar Remix)
Vampire Weekend - Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa (Superprince Edit)
Whitest Boy Alive - Golden Cage (Fred Falke Remix)
The Ghost Frequency - Never Before Have I Seen A Man Alive That Looked So Exactly Like A Skeleton (Zombie Disco Squad Remix)
The Count & Sinden - Beeper (Fake Blood Remix with Kid Sister)
Kanye West - Flashing Lights (Diplo Remix)
Midfield General - Disco Sirens (Them Jeans Edit)
Curtis Mayfield - Move on Up (DJ Ayres Remix)
Black Kids - I'm not gonna teach your boyfriend how to dance with you (The Twelves Remix)
The Wombats - Bleeding Love

Apparently, I'm a miserable sod. I moan and groan through my days, and I'm really grumpy. Imagine my (near) enthusiasm when !!! offshoot Free Blood released a track called Grumpy. God, I'm even boring myself. Here's a cello-tastic remix from Found anyway.

MP3 Free Blood - Grumpy (FOUND's Blood Donation)

You might have heard that the Raconteurs released a new record today. For what it's worth (it was sent to me over the weekend) I rather like it, in fact, I really quite like it - it's sort of everything that Broken Boy Soldiers wasn't, in a retro rock perspective. Maybe it's age, maybe it's good, or maybe I've been so pissed off lately that the blues is just my thing, but whatever, it's sounding good at the moment.

MP3 The Raconteurs - There's so many shades of black

After 2 years, I have finally been able to sort my blog template out, which now means that you can leave a comment on one of my posts should you decide to. You might also note there's a new bit of navigation in the top right - should it start looking shit please feel free to drop me a line.

It's taken me all bloody day to get this done, as basic as my CSS skills are. To help me through the day, I've listened to:

- Midnight Boom by the Kills
- Benga's new album
- Twenty One by Mystery Jets
- The new Raconteurs record

Here's something from the Mystery Jets anyway.

MP3 Mystery Jets - Flakes

You might remember a couple of weeks ago I've gave you all the chance to come and watch Supergrass with me in Liverpool. All you had to do was drop me an email telling me why I should take you, with the most witty response winning my plus one. Now, either you don't like Supergrass much, or the thought of going to Liverpool with a blogger you've never met before didn't turn you on much, as NOT A SINGLE ONE OF YOU ENTERED. Not one - not even half an entry for crying out loud. So anyway, I took my mate Tim, and while it was something of a mission, it was absolutely well worth it.

Fresh back from Gaz and Danny's quick tour as a two-piece, Supergrass kicked absolute ass. While you'd never turn around and say they're you're favourite band, to see them so on form playing so many tunes you know, it's hard not to have a good time. Looks like you all missed out really, doesn't it?

Catch them on their April tour:

11 Apr 2008 Carling Academy Birmingham
13 Apr 2008 Northumbria University
15 Apr 2008 Nottingham Rock City
16 Apr 2008 Leeds Metropolitan University
17 Apr 2008 Engine Shed Lincoln
18 Apr 2008 Manchester University
20 Apr 2008 Carling Academy Bristol
21 Apr 2008 Norwich U.E.A.
22 Apr 2008 London Astoria
23 Apr 2008 London Astoria

MP3 Supergrass - Diamond Hoo Haa/345 (Diamond Hoo Haa Live Version)

PS - The shockingly awful picture above was taken by me and yes it is of the band. I was drunk and I'd changed a setting on my camera and didn't know how to turn it off. Pathetic I know.

Hmm, I've got a slight problem. A few months ago, one of the guys at work gave a presentation on Twitter, and over the course of the presentation convinced me that I should sign up. Anyway, I haven't got many music buddies on there - everyone is sort of techie - so if you're a Twitter user, come and hit me up to be your friend/follower, and at least that way I'll receive a tweet about something other than the latest iPhone update.

MP3 Tweet - Oops (Oh My)

MP3 Ercola (feat. Annie) - Follow Me (Lifelike Remix)

If you're not there already, tonight Farringdon club Turnmills is closing it's doors for the last time. I haven't a clue why it's closing (I heard about it on George Lambs show earlier in the week), but it's always been a club I've had a right laugh in, even if I haven't been for about 5 years. Turnmills was one of those clubs I used to read about in Mixmag when I was a lad in the West Midlands. When I moved to London (about 10 years ago) it was one of the first places I headed for, where I could be found dancing to the sound of the Heavenly Social (later Jukebox) and Headstart. I even stuck around a couple of times for gay night Trade, once the straight nights had finished. While it wasn't the tidiest of clubs, it's heart was in the right place, and they've played host to many a dance music luminary, including the Chemical Brothers, Fatboy Slim, Underworld, Faithless and various DFA'ers. It's a shame to know it won't be there anymore, so if you're off there tonight, have a dance for me too, OK?

MP3 The Chemical Brothers - Elektrobank

On 7th March, this blog was 2 years old! That's right, 2 years of grammatically incorrect ramblings about music. Wow. Here's a re-up of the first track I ever posted, and it's still a belter. Here's to many more eh?

MP3 Nelly Furtado - Maneater

Hey all, Happy Dead Jesus Day for yesterday. I would have posted up a selection of tunes to soundtrack the day, but I forgot. Never mind. I should really be posting these up on the Shoplifters blog, but I can't keep throwing all the remixey goodness over in that direction, can I? First up, Moby continues to show how much he's got his groove back after 10 years of rubbish with a Jacques Renault remix; Mystery Jets get a Shoes makeover which I've not listened to yet (so apologies if it's rubbish), and the Twelves get their hands on a Black Kids track, and turn it into something you can play outside of an indie disco.

MP3 Moby - Disco Lies (Jacques Renault Remix)

MP3 Mystery Jets - Young Love (The Shoes Remix)

MP3 Black Kids - I'm Not Going to Teach Your Boyfriend to Dance with You (The Twelves Remix)

I really don't want to come across as some kind of Zoo/Nuts reader, but there's no denying THIS IS THE BEST VIDEO EVER. Yup, MJ, QOTSA and even Eric Prydz have got nothing on this. NOTHING. Even chicks dig it in exactly the same way as boys. Enjoy.

Here's as appetising Optimo remix of the Shortwave Set. It's alright y'know.

MP3 The Shortwave Set - No Social (Optimo Remix)

I've been getting a lot of hits for this recently. Loads of you have come here looking for this track, only to be confronted with 'Devil in a Sports Casual'. There's a story going round that because Damon did some work with a band called Justice, and helped put a song out that you might have heard of called 'D.A.N.C.E', they offered to co-produce this as a returned favour. Whatever you think of the Frenchness and sireny-ness of the whole thing, you can't deny that we're all going to be mighty sick of this come the autumn. This is HUGE.

MP3 Midfield General - Disco Sirens

It's been a little while since Mick has sent me anything, but after popular demand here's his latest post about a Detroit classic. This time, it's Little Stevie Wonder...

Remember to go out and buy the new Dirtbombs Record - it's ace!

"Everybody knows what they'd do if they had a time machine, right? We all have our ideas, so whenever the subject comes up, we tend to limit it to things like 'If you had a time machine, and could only use it the one time, what live show would you go see?' Again, everybody has their idea of who and where, and even I can come up with more than one, but if I had to pick ONE:

10th March, 1963, the Regal Theatre, Chicago, Illinois. 'Little' Stevie Wonder starts a riff on harmonica that doesn't sound like much, but the rhythm section starts to cook behind Stevie's manic playing, and after about three and a half minutes, when he yells out 'Everybody say Yeah!', the joint is jumpin'. Two and a half minutes later, three thousand teenagers have been driven into an absolute screaming FRENZY by a 12-year-old kid.

The 'Watusi' drumbeat, which had been finding its way into rock'n'roll records since its introduction to Westerners via the independence of the Belgian Congo in 1962, reached its apotheosis in 'Fingertips': the call of the drums in those seven minutes is frightening in its intensity and sends chills down my spine even now, and I've been hearing this record my whole life. It never gets any weaker; time does not dilute it. This record hits with a sharpness and purity that is painful in its beauty.

Civilisation has been in a downward spiral ever since."

MP3 Little Stevie Wonder - Fingertips (Part 2, Live) / Mirror

BONUS - Here's a live video. Its all scratchy and 60's, but sounds great.

So low are the Irish sperm bank levels at the moment, they've made a Europe wide plea for men to come forward and help restock their supplies. In return, you'll get a ticket to a European Festival of your choice. Called 'Sperm for Tickets', though I think we could all come up with a wittier name for the campaign: What about 'Spunk for Punk', or 'Jizz for Jazz'? Here's a slow jam to get the juices pumping.

MP3 Next - Too Close (Extended Version)

Yup, you could be forgiven thinking that Kieran "Four Tet" Hebdens re-version of 'Cassius' by Foals sounds a lot like something Battles would do - maybe because he'd been listening too closely to them when doing his mix of 'Tonto' last year. In any case, both are wicked, with the former being a delicate math-stomper while 'Tonto' turns up the juice on the original. Check 'em out.

MP3 Foals - Cassius (Kieran Hebden Version)

MP3 Battles - Tonto (Four Tet Remix)

Erol Alkan seems to have reinvented himself as a producer. Following on from a few decent remixes, he's been working with the likes of the Long Blondes, Late of the Pier, and Mystery Jets. Quite when he decided to start producing I'm not sure, given that his first few stabs at remixing weren't so hot, but good luck to him anyway. The new Mystery Jets stuff is sounding rather good, and their new single featuring Laura Marling has a nice hint of summer to it. Check it out.

MP3 The Mystery Jets - Young Love (Feat. Laura Marling)

It emerged yesterday that the French entry for Eurovision this year will only be Sebastian Tellier! The gallic eccentric responsible for the classic 'La Ritournelle' will be contributing a track from his latest album, 'Sexuality'. If you're a betting person, I recommend popping to your nearest William Hill this morning and putting a fiver on Tellier taking the title back to France, as hipsters throughout Europe will be putting patriotism aside and voting for this dude. Just look what happened to Lordi.

MP3 Sebastian Tellier - Divine

This week, my blagging skills returned with an absolute vengeance. I've been the lucky recipient of:

1) Lots of free beer at the rather ace new Deaf Institute bar and venue in the southern parts of the City Centre. It's a dead good place to drink you know.

MP3 Queens of the Stone Age - A Song for the Deaf

2) DJing at an opening party for the new ABode Manchester hotel. It was the quietest disco set of my life, but a couple of mates got to join me for a free 4 course meal.

MP3 Estelle - American Boy (feat. Kanye West)

3) Independiente sent me the new Topley-Bird 7 inch, which is OK, but not like, totally awesome. Check out the video here.

MP3 Martina Topley-Bird - Soul Food

4) A pair of tickets (courtesy of the lovely Katherine at EMI) to see Supergrass in Liverpool next week. All I've now got to do is find someone to go with. If you fancy being my plus one, then drop me a line telling me precisely why you should come along instead of my girlfriend, and we'll take it from there. The best answer wins.

MP3 Supergrass - Some girls are bigger than others

PS - The new Portishead album has leaked. It sounds like an old friend who's just returned from travelling abroad. Look and ye shall find...

I've been working from home today as I've had a load of shit to do that I couldn't complete in the office. I also gave an interview to the lovely peeps over at Blog Fresh Radio, where you'll hear me in their next podcast wittering on about why I like that Little Boots tune so much. The Black Keys new album fell into my lap this week, bringing with it my long standing fear of Danger Mouse. As with his previous production that I've been scared of, he's actually kind to the band, and doesn't drown out their precariously organic nature with anything, well, too producery. Worth checking out, and be sure to catch them on tour in May.

MP3 The Black Keys - Psychotic Girl

Yep, here's some more hot new goodness. I've been told today that my posts are too negative at times, so I won't mention any such things while I talk about this track by These New Puritans, a band I'm not really too fond of. Still, the premise is good; They were asked to write a track for a fashion show, did so, it was 17 minutes long, and then Tim Goldsworthy (aka the Loving Hand) let rip with a ploddy disco remix which chopped about 5.5 minutes off the originals running time and is actually damn good. Phew.

MP3 These New Puritans - Navigate Navigate (The Loving Hand Remix)