do yourself a favour
Music
1:24PM Jess McGuire | If you’re having a half-arsed Friday and need some sweet tunes from yesteryear to help you get through it, may I suggest listening to John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Cherry Bomb”? More »
John Cougar Mellencamp – “Cherry Bomb”
1:24PM Jess McGuire | If you’re having a half-arsed Friday and need some sweet tunes from yesteryear to help you get through it, may I suggest listening to John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Cherry Bomb”? More » 
Charlotte Hatherley Appreciation
11:53AM Jess McGuire | I’m not sure how many of you dear readers were/are fans of Irish rock pop ensemble Ash, but when I was a kid I was thoroughly obsessed with them. Seriously, I’d never felt such feverish passion for a band in my life, and it seems unlikely I ever will again. There’s just something about the hearts of fourteen year old girls, you know?
Anyway, when I fell in love with Ash, I had two dreams. The first was to marry front man Tim Wheeler. I truly thought this would happen. When I went to Ireland as a fifteen year old and visited their hometown of Downpatrick and didn’t run into them and therefore failed in my plan to make Tim fall in love with me, I felt genuine disappointment and grief. The second Ash-related dream? To join the band as their teen chick guitarist and travel the world. Sure, being in a band with my lover might be difficult at times, but we’d manage. It all seemed so inevitable.
And then those bastards recruited a teen chick guitarist and she was not me and I was absolutely furious. I swore I could never love Ash again. How dare they do something like that to their biggest fan/future wife? It was cruel and hurtful.
So imagine my surprise a few years ago to find myself very much enjoying the solo works of aforementioned teen chick guitarist, a lass by the name of Charlotte Hatherley. Her download only single of 2004 “Kim Wilde” was on high rotation at Chez Jess for a loooooong time.
For some reason I thought of her again today and trawled YouTube to see what she’s done since. I appear to like her later works as well, so I’ll have to track down a copy of her last record. In the meantime, would you like to hear some nice girl poprock? More » 
‘Lay Lady Lay’ By Magnet (Featuring Gemma Hayes)
2:33PM Jess McGuire | I don’t really know why I’m posting this… It’s not a new song – this Bob Dylan cover was released back in 2004 by Norwegian musician Magnet (real name Even Johansen) and features the vocals of lovely Irish singer Gemma Hayes. It also appeared on an episode of The O.C. But for some reason, I’ve just gone completely mad for it over the past couple of days and when I played it last night on my radio show, I got a couple of calls about it so I figured hey, you lot are like friends. Let me offer this to you as a gift and if you’re not already aware of its existence, I hope it pleases you and ends up becoming a part of your music collection.
More » 