Recommended viewing: Searching for Michael Peterson

Littoral Records is your home of what we like to call the “Coastal” genre of music - something that has a relationship with the sea and the surf and the sun. In that vein, you should definitely check out a new Australian documentary about an enigmatic, controversial Australian surfing champion from the 1970s, “Searching for Michael Peterson”.

As a lad I was just old enough to know a little of his infamy though nothing about the circumstances behind his disappearance from professional surfing and the strange direction his life took.

This film answers those questions and it does so with an awesome soundtrack that’s available for online purchase in MP3 on Vitamin Records - you should definitely score that too.

Here’s the trailer for the film, including a little of the music and some great retro footage.

Searching for Michael Peterson Trailer from jolyon hoff on Vimeo.

Best of 2008 from Last.fm

Social music service Last.fm is my online radio station of choice. The Last.fm ‘scrobbler’ patiently notices all the music I play on iTunes and on my iPhone and makes recommendations I should listen to when I’m playing my Last.fm radio at my desk. If there’s stuff I’m listening to that I don’t own and want to buy, Last.fm makes it easy to buy a track or an album from iTunes Store. If the Last.fm recommendations aren’t exciting me today I can tune in to the tracks being played by people ‘like me’ on Last.fm.

So here’s a great idea: the best music of 2008 as scobbled by Last.fm users (well, minus the final few days of the year I guess.) Well worth a listen if you need to keep up with what Kids Are Listening To These Days.

Last.fm knows what all the young knob-twiddlers are into

The Last.fm Best of 2008 has introduced me to my new favourite band of the week: Glasvegas, who I’d describe as a mix of Futureheads and Teenage Fanclub with Phil Spector doing the mix.