Blogs You Should Be Listening To
2 weeks ago
Wednesday, 22 December 2010
Sunday, 6 June 2010
The twenty-seventh of May and the fourth of June, 2010
When you were satisfying your thirst for success
And you looked older than I did,
I didn't think that that was you at your best.
We were only lonely little kids
Amidst stacks and stacks of slacks and black platform shoes,
We were little kids.
And you could say sorry ten billion times,
But sorry didn't do what you did.
I threw myself at you and I threw myself away
Amidst stacks and stacks of slacks and black platform shoes.
Johnny Cash died today and you say, you say things,
Lovely things, to lovely other people,
And I'm not invited.
But I love the back garden at my parents' place,
And I love the view out of my Glasgow window,
And I love waking up on the floor of a flat in New York,
And you don't know any of these things.
And I've seen you selling shoes but you've never heard me sing,
And I used to hate your boyfriend and the things you did.
Somehow I found out and I was disappointed,
But I don't need therapy because I have cigarettes,
And I don't have any bad memories only bitter regrets.
Johnny Cash died today. And I could take a train
And take an hour to think on the way of what I would say when I saw you.
And I could walk into the shop and buy myself some black platform shoes;
Talk to all the other girls and just ignore you.
Or I could rush into the shop and tell you that I adore you,
Because I adore you.
Johnny Cash died today and you'd say, you'd say
"It's not like Elvis though is it?"
And you would be right
Wednesday, 16 December 2009
They won't do what you tell them
There's been a great deal of eye-rolling in certain quarters lately regarding the campaign to get Rage Against The Machine's 1992 single 'Killing in the Name' to the U.K. number one spot in time for Christmas. The push is less to do with the band or single itself, more a reaction The X Factor's perceived stranglehold over the Christmas number one spot. Despite the 'protest vote' nature of the movement, the song itself unfortunately presents an easy target for smart-arse music journalists in all sorts of ways.
Firstly, 'Killing in the Name' is, and always will be, the angsty schoolboy tirade par excellence ('Fuck you I won't tidy my bedroom' etc). Everything about it screams melodramatic, testosterone-flushed door-slamming. Which is fine, were it not being held up as a genuine pillar of rebelliance against the current pop establishment - unarguably represented by The X Factor - as if a seventeen year-old song about racist authorities could somehow remedy an entire generation's renewed embrace of pop music as light entertainment.
The other, by now much-vaunted problem is that Rage Against The Machine are signed to Epic, a subsidiary of Sony Records, who also own Simon Cowell's SyCo label. Therefore the perceived middle finger raised to corporate pop is dealt something of a blow by lining Sony's pockets in the process, just as purchases of The X Factor's winning artist do. So pop critics get a field day pointing out just how deluded the Rage-downloaders are in thinking that their plan is subversive, and pat themselves on the back.
I took this line of thought myself originally. After all, the only thing more depressing than the steady thrum of repetition is the squeal of false rebellion, and there is something nauseating about the thought of hundreds of thousands of bum-fluffed adolescents feeling smug about sticking it to The Man. But no one's actually listened to what the people downloading 'Killing in the Name' are saying, and, in a way, they are doing just that.
A quick glance at the responses to blogs on the subject reveals a pretty unanimous school of thought. One NME blogger, Luke Lewis, wrote a piece entitled 'Rage Against The Machine For Christmas Number One? Who Cares?' which basically puts forward the points argued above: namely that both acts are ultimately owned by Sony, the band did very well commercially first time around, and that 'Killing in the Name' can't possibly beat X Factor winner Joe McElderry's single to number one because of the relatively small numbers in the RATM Facebook campaign group (the group number doubled quickly). While a small fraction of the responses fall into either the 'Intellectual Pop Critic' or 'Dunderhead' category, the majority are people who have downloaded the Rage Against The Machine song, and wanted to explain why.
The typical RATM supporter doesn't give a flying one that their band share a mother label with the X Factor contestant. They don't even care a great deal about the song or its message, other than that they think it's better than 'The Climb'. They're just sick and tired of The X Factor contestants being a shoe-in for Christmas number one every year, and they want to try and do something about it. The CD release of Joe McElderry's single will inevitably boost sales, and if it swells to anything like Alexandra Burke's 576,000 last year than the opposition probably won't have a chance. But the facts are that, as I type this, 'Killing in the Name' is ahead of 'The Climb' in the midweek charts. Laugh all you like, but this is people power in action.
Jeff Buckley fans gave it a good shot last year, but if fans do propel Rage Against The Machine to Christmas number one, it will be a historic event in pop music. Of course there have been word-of-mouth hits in the past, but nothing that quite demonstrates the game-changing power of a new internet generation, whose access to such vast amounts of information means they increasingly need not rely on advertising campaigns being forced down their throats to make consumer decisions. If nothing else, it would amount to a genuine, public-fuelled challenge to The X Factor's tedious commerical hegemony. And whatever he says to the contrary, it's hard to imagine Simon Cowell wouldn't be galled to see his enterprise come second.
The victory would not be one against pop music, or Simon Cowell's personal bank balance, and the fans are well aware of all that. The 'fuck you' is aimed squarely at the assumption that utterly mediocre pop singles can dominate the charts every year because of their patronage by ITV's Saturday night light entertainment froth-fest, and I for one would be glad to hear it ring out on Christmas day.
Firstly, 'Killing in the Name' is, and always will be, the angsty schoolboy tirade par excellence ('Fuck you I won't tidy my bedroom' etc). Everything about it screams melodramatic, testosterone-flushed door-slamming. Which is fine, were it not being held up as a genuine pillar of rebelliance against the current pop establishment - unarguably represented by The X Factor - as if a seventeen year-old song about racist authorities could somehow remedy an entire generation's renewed embrace of pop music as light entertainment.
The other, by now much-vaunted problem is that Rage Against The Machine are signed to Epic, a subsidiary of Sony Records, who also own Simon Cowell's SyCo label. Therefore the perceived middle finger raised to corporate pop is dealt something of a blow by lining Sony's pockets in the process, just as purchases of The X Factor's winning artist do. So pop critics get a field day pointing out just how deluded the Rage-downloaders are in thinking that their plan is subversive, and pat themselves on the back.
I took this line of thought myself originally. After all, the only thing more depressing than the steady thrum of repetition is the squeal of false rebellion, and there is something nauseating about the thought of hundreds of thousands of bum-fluffed adolescents feeling smug about sticking it to The Man. But no one's actually listened to what the people downloading 'Killing in the Name' are saying, and, in a way, they are doing just that.
A quick glance at the responses to blogs on the subject reveals a pretty unanimous school of thought. One NME blogger, Luke Lewis, wrote a piece entitled 'Rage Against The Machine For Christmas Number One? Who Cares?' which basically puts forward the points argued above: namely that both acts are ultimately owned by Sony, the band did very well commercially first time around, and that 'Killing in the Name' can't possibly beat X Factor winner Joe McElderry's single to number one because of the relatively small numbers in the RATM Facebook campaign group (the group number doubled quickly). While a small fraction of the responses fall into either the 'Intellectual Pop Critic' or 'Dunderhead' category, the majority are people who have downloaded the Rage Against The Machine song, and wanted to explain why.
The typical RATM supporter doesn't give a flying one that their band share a mother label with the X Factor contestant. They don't even care a great deal about the song or its message, other than that they think it's better than 'The Climb'. They're just sick and tired of The X Factor contestants being a shoe-in for Christmas number one every year, and they want to try and do something about it. The CD release of Joe McElderry's single will inevitably boost sales, and if it swells to anything like Alexandra Burke's 576,000 last year than the opposition probably won't have a chance. But the facts are that, as I type this, 'Killing in the Name' is ahead of 'The Climb' in the midweek charts. Laugh all you like, but this is people power in action.
Jeff Buckley fans gave it a good shot last year, but if fans do propel Rage Against The Machine to Christmas number one, it will be a historic event in pop music. Of course there have been word-of-mouth hits in the past, but nothing that quite demonstrates the game-changing power of a new internet generation, whose access to such vast amounts of information means they increasingly need not rely on advertising campaigns being forced down their throats to make consumer decisions. If nothing else, it would amount to a genuine, public-fuelled challenge to The X Factor's tedious commerical hegemony. And whatever he says to the contrary, it's hard to imagine Simon Cowell wouldn't be galled to see his enterprise come second.
The victory would not be one against pop music, or Simon Cowell's personal bank balance, and the fans are well aware of all that. The 'fuck you' is aimed squarely at the assumption that utterly mediocre pop singles can dominate the charts every year because of their patronage by ITV's Saturday night light entertainment froth-fest, and I for one would be glad to hear it ring out on Christmas day.
Sunday, 27 September 2009
R.I.P. Sugababes, 1998-2009
On a related note, am I the only one who thought Siobhan Donaghy's solo stuff was brilliant?
Yes. The answer there is yes, isn't it.
Wednesday, 23 September 2009
There's a pretty young thing in front of you
I'd forgotten how good Rilo Kiley are. I mean, the last album was a bit Fleetwood Mac, but you know.
Perhaps one of the most brilliant moments of my life was Rilo Kiley related. I was dancing at Manchester's best 'alternative' nightclub (or as my friend Joe more correctly terms it, 'pub with a disco upstairs'), the Star and Garter. 'Portions For Foxes' came on and I went a bit mental. About halfway through it must have become apparent that someone else was also singularly enamoured with the song, and was bouncing about in my general vicinity. There must also have been some kind of mutual recognition because, without warning, at the moment Jenny barks '... C'MERE!' we both grabbed each other by the collar and yelled those words at each other, then fell apart laughing. It sounds impossibly twee to recount, and close friends are probably sick of hearing about such a seemingly inconsequential event. But the spontaneous joy of it stayed with me.
I couldn't find the PFF video though, so you're lumbered with this rather tacky yet endearing early video for 'The Frug'. The song's a bit lightweight but it's interesting to see (a) a young and ever-beautiful Jenny Lewis, and (b) how incredibly '90s' the whole thing looks.
Thursday, 17 September 2009
Pavement Reunion / World Tour Announced
'Shit just got real.'I've banged on about Pavement way too much over the last month or so (albeit not in great detail), and if you're reading this there's a good chance I'd be preaching to the converted anyway. But seriously... World Cup + Pavement = 2010 already shaping up to be a corker, no?
Wednesday, 9 September 2009
The sound of your own heart
Los Campesinos! have released a new track, 'The Sea Is A Good Place To Think Of The Future'.
The group are audibly maturing into the kind of band I always thought they were capable of being. Not that I don't adore the yelping, sugar-rush pop of their first record, but it sounded a lot more refined on We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, with hints of darker sounds as well as a greater focus on Tom and Harriet's songwriting and arrangements. It also started to align with the more complex sounds of some of their primary stated influences.
This is certainly the darkest thing they've done, and possibly the best. I'll be going back to my seaside hometown this weekend, and this shall certainly be on heavy rotation. Download from their equally brilliant website.
The group are audibly maturing into the kind of band I always thought they were capable of being. Not that I don't adore the yelping, sugar-rush pop of their first record, but it sounded a lot more refined on We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed, with hints of darker sounds as well as a greater focus on Tom and Harriet's songwriting and arrangements. It also started to align with the more complex sounds of some of their primary stated influences.
This is certainly the darkest thing they've done, and possibly the best. I'll be going back to my seaside hometown this weekend, and this shall certainly be on heavy rotation. Download from their equally brilliant website.
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