new mj hibbett album

i like the bit at the end.
i went to the launch of this a couple of weekends ago, as a family thing with rachel, brother dan, brother's femme maria. rachel and i had already been out to see the bfg at hackney empire that evening, grabbed a plate of vietnamese noodles and jumped on the bus into town; a proper night out, and first time i've been to a proper gig for a while. it was such fun; hibbett is one of those performers with a true cult of personality; it's really him that makes the songs so fun. like chris t-t of half man half biscuit, part of the experience is the excellent banter and stage presence. you have to go along way to get me to appreciate simple chord-based pop music, and hibbett, like a few others, but not many, many, many bands, totally succeeds
hibbett's incessant happiness is almost nauseating, but ends up missing that and ends up infectious. he always turns everything into a life lesson, and you can't help but smile along a boogie a little bit to his classic, unpretentious indie vibe. and by the way, i've got a nice little hibbett-esque life lesson from the gig.

for my second-to-last birthday, some friends clubbed together and bought me a pair of 'no sweat' trainers, which are very cool; you can see them in this photo:

they're on the left.
they're very nice, comfortable shoes. but you might be able to see what i had a problem with; they look almost exactly like 'converse all stars', a very popular 'cool' brand of shoe. and i was afraid that by wearing them, people would think i wanted to be included in the number of people who thought that cool shoes were something a person should wear. see, i wouldn't want to be seen making a fashion statement; and yes that is a statement, but it's not a fashion statement. don't get tricky on me.
so i would wear them out sometimes, a little self-consciously, and if i would be at a bus stop and there would be someone wearing a pair of all stars, i'd worry that they'd think i was in some sort of club with them, wheras actually i thought they were brand obsessed type who thought you could buy indie cool by wearing the 'right' shoes, although it always amazes me how companies can get themselves associated with scenes.
anyway, so there i was at the validators gig, and there hibbett was, with his all stars on. or maybe they were just look-alike shoes like mine. and if someone as unpretentious as him can wear those shoes, surely i can get away without worrying about all of the above, because they're just shoes innit. or something. maybe i'll try and make this more sense later.

btw, over there: twitter.