Retail therapy at lunchtime netted me Pere Ubu's The Modern Dance (I've given up thinking about the boxed set, I may as well work out if I like them first), and something by The Ex, at last.

Apart from that, I've really been enjoying Interpol, lately. The album's due here soon (another week or two - same with the new Ladytron album), but in the meantime if you're liking this post-punk resurgence I highly recommend at least trying the two tracks from Matador's website, which gets you 2/3 of the EP, as a matter of fact. See also Splendid's Interpol interview, which raises a good point at the start -

I liked the album's post-punk sound, but its reliance upon tried and true riffs and rhythms meant that repeat listens yielded diminished returns.

- it's the old "it sounds so good because it sounds so familiar" thing (eg. the almost-instrumental last 90 seconds or so of PDA, which doesn't go on long enough to let you really soak in it), but I know this is enough to make me buy the first album anyway.

On Saturday I bought, mostly for amusement, something by The Faint, called Danse Macabre. The guy in Raoul suggested Depeche Mode style new-wavity and such, but I reckon maybe it's that plus a tiny bit of Gary Numan, heading towards Cleopatra Records territory (just when I thought I'd put those days behind me), especially with the faux-Cyrillic lettering and techno-angst lyrics. Still, it's a bit of fun.