THE PLACID CASUAL

Listen to THE PLACID CASUAL by Super Furry Animals.

Here are two things I'm not: Placid and Casual. Maybe once upon a time, or maybe even next weekend, but not right now. At the moment, I'm wound pretty tight. There are few more boring things than talking about work (except maybe throat-clearing introductory phrases about how you're not going to talk about work), so let me tell you about my weekend in Chicago without talking about why I was there.

It went something like this: terminal, bus, car, (traffic), hotel, (look at documents), restaurant, small talk, work talk, (look at more documents), go to bed, wake up, lie back down, get back up, go on a walk, lie back down, get up, breakfast, work talk, go to big office building, sit in conference room, small talk, work talk, nervous talk, (sit in other conference room), impassioned talk, sit in conference room, waiting, history talk, work talk, eat lunch, waiting, talking, waiting, talking, go back to hotel, go upstairs, go back downstairs.

Okay, that wore me out just typing it out and I'm only at 5 PM Friday. The rest was a little more fun but no less tiring.

The Placid Casual shouldn't be new to many of you, but hopefully you'll greet it as a long lost friend, which is always a nice thing to do.

YMAELODI A R YMYLON

Listen to YMAELODI A R YMYLON by Super Furry Animals.

Why don't people talk about Mwng more? I mean, stupid question, it's all in Welsh, but for me, it's Super Furry Animals' second-best album after Guerrilla (you can't argue with all of that, but whatever). Less argument that this is the catchiest, poppiest track on Mwng. That ascending chorus still gets me every time.

'Y FERCH AR Y CEI YN RIO'

Listen to 'Y FERCH AR Y CEI YN RIO' by Acid Casuals.

Today's song is a blast from the recent past. We featured a song from this project a couple of years ago, and I still enjoy the album as much now as I did then. The quick summary:

Mae'r Acid Casuals yn grŵp amlgyfrwng sy'n cynnwys aelodau o'r Super Furry Animals a Big Leaves. Wedi ei leoli yng Nghaerdydd mae'n nhw'n ymwneud â'r byd cerddoriaeth, ffasiwn a'r celfyddydau. Dechreuwyd label ffasiwn AC yn 1997. Agorwyd galeri AC Capsule Gallery, yn Stryd Siarl, Caerdydd yn 2002.

(And if you can't read Welsh, try this!)

Side projects as a rule don't get the respect or attention they deserve, so there's no sense complaining, but this is undeniably quality music. And a bit of a chillout ahead of the weekend. See you around!