My Top 6… bands of the last 6 months

I just checked my last.fm charts and was surprised to discover just how much my listening has been a wallow in nostalgia over the last six months - here are my top 6 artists for that period with a few thoughts on each...

1. Galaxie 500 - of course. I'm fairly certain that I've barely gone a week without listening to Galaxie 500 since I came across them back in 1989!

2. Joanna Newsom - no wallowing in nostalgia here - just another perfect album which has had plenty of spins.

3. The Wedding Present - a kind of nostalgia, although I only really fully realised my love for TWP after Cinerama

4=. Teenage Fanclub - with the arrival of the new album, and my first Fannies gig for nearly 20 years I went back and loved those first three or four albums. The new one is not a match (and their gig wasn't as great as the olden days either) - but both were just good enough.

4=. Motorhead - Surprised to see them so high - but I do turn to loud music at certain times and when I do I invariably turn to Motorhead.

6. Big Star - Alex Chilton's passing obviously contributed to this - I spent the week after his death listening to very little else.

I'll mention that in 7th place was Nina Nastasia because she has a great new album, a great back catalogue and because the top 7 were a fair distance ahead of the rest of the pack and it seems a shame to not recognise that just because of the arbitrary "6" I picked a while back.