Coldplay (aka “Radiohead for bed-wetters”) are getting a lot of radio play. Too much. Even on ‘alternative music station’; BBC 6music, they pop-up a surprising amount. Like they were/are with the iPhone, the BBC are currently in a multi-media Coldplay-luvy blitz (although the ‘toys out of the pram’ moment that Chris Martin gave Radio 4 is pretty funny). We’re told repeatedly how big they are. They’re so big because we’re constantly told about them! It’s a vicious circle. With the new album, ‘Viva la Vida’ (aka “The beginners guide to raising your bittorrent ratio”) it’s just more evidence of ripping off others for fun and profit (mainly profit, actually).
Now indie band the Creaky Boards are claiming that they wuz robbed. Sure, this could just be coincidence and a bit of cheeky publicity grabbing from the ‘Boards, but remember this is Coldplay we’re talking about. This is the band responsible for ensuring that any time Kraftwurks gentle Computer Love is played, the younger members of the beige-Mondeo owning public cry, “isn’t this a Coldplay cover?”.
It’s not just melodic piracy either, it struck me that the current visual style Coldplay have recently adopted closely parallels that of teenage-angst mongers ‘My Chemical Romance’. I’m not the only one to notice this.
In short: Music by the numbers (lead by what the market deems profitable, as opposed to musical integrity) : Still tedious.
The iPhone3g has just been announced, and it’s allegedly going to cost us $199. Interesting. I’m going to wait until the fight has died down and for now, stick with some old skool tech.
The James Lavelle posse are on tour again. We went to see them in Sheffield and it wasn’t what we expected. There was less emphasis on the turntables and much more on the full rock band that basically drove the show. What we expected was more DJ Shadow, what we got was more 65daysofstatic. Guess we should have listened to the last album before we went to see the show. None of this is a complaint, however.
Things should move on. I liked Psyence Fiction, but I don’t want to see it again and again. The last UNKLE album; War Stories isn’t very ‘them’, but it stands well on it’s own and the show definitely reflected this. One thing that has stayed constant is Lavelle’s leaning towards collaborations. What made the 1st album great was that they got people like Mike D and Thom Yorke involved and the new album has guest appearances by people like Josh Homme and one of my personal favorites; the Duke Spirit. I heard that the London show featured appearances by Ian Brown, Badly Drawn Boy and others. Up in Sheffield of course, we didn’t have such treats. The stand-in vocalist was good, but we were left wanting Ian Brown, I think. Still, a good show and the album is worth checking just as long as you’re not expecting another Never, Never Land.
Happy new year. Lets ring in the new year with a short documentary about 39 year old piece of music that changed the world. A tale that highlights the ridiculousness of copyright law. That said, I don’t agree with what the narrator says about Squarepusher!
Texan band Spoon have caused the old ears to prick up now I’ve heard their new album; Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. It’s a definite contender for my album of the year. It’s certainly in my top 10 (sorry, M.I.A., not this time!).The whole thing is just so chilled, relaxed, yet funky and without filler. A little Beck-esque in humour and manner, yet without quite as strained nuttyness. Slap it on and be taken away like it’s not even trying. Maybe they’re not. This is the 6th album from Spoon and from what I’ve heard; the greatest.
Sad news this weekend as cancer finally claimed Tony Wilson; son of Manchester and focal point of the ‘Madchester’ scene. Okay, cards on the table; he was a bit of a wanker (in his own words!), but he was such a likeable wanker. He was there in the thick of such great things like Factory Records, The Hacienda and Joy Division. He could have made a lot more money out of it all than he did, but he didn’t. Manchester is my favourite city in this country and has seen a lot very positive development over the past decade. I think the music scene is in no small way responsible for this and Wilson’s contribution to this was not inconsiderable. He talked in a way that to some was not especially likeable, but he wasn’t afraid to rock the boat. I remember seeing him on telly, defending his city to a mocking London-centric media snobs. He spoke well about the talent available in Manchester and I certainly agreed with him when he spoke about such things.
As a result he was not only an asset to Manchester, but also to the North as a whole. He fought in our corner. He’ll be missed for more reasons than simply being remembered as managing the Happy Mondays.
I’ve been learning to draw with a tablet now my scanner’s completely cacked it. I’m not packing my day job in quite yet.
It was tempting to use MS Comic Sans just to excite Ian’s irrational hatreds, but I swear I’m not certain how much he’d take these days before neighbourhood pets start going missing.
I’m not sure what to make of Mr. Spector’s trial. It seems pretty open-and-shut guilty, but then my information is passed through the diseased kidney that is the mass media. I suppose I’m just quite glad that since I’ve not had much exposure to his work I honestly don’t care all that much. All I’m prepared to express is that if I was on trial for murder, I’d possibly put a little more effort into looking less like Mr. Burns’ evil, eccentric twin.
I watched about as much as I could stand on television last night. Did anyone else find even mildly amusing to see bands playing to a crowd of thousands and a message scrolled behind them on a video wall that gave advice on saving energy around the home. This on a stage backed by a enormous wall of dazzling lights (the sun was still out) and amplifiers. Highlight of the whole thing was definitely Metallica playing ten-year old songs (because everything they’ve done since the turn of the century is pretty much unlistenable to) backed by imagery of an elephant and then a Jumbo jet. JUMBO jet. Get it. ahahah oh wow.
God help us if our idea of helping climate change is listening to Keane tell us about keeping a low carbon foot-print at a concert that “will produce about 74,500 tons of the gas“. I’m not sure if that includes the carbon produced by the movement of everyone driving and flying to and from the concerts. All I know is that someone, somewhere, has completely missed the point.
On Sunday, it was brought to my attention by a friend that once a year, the kindly folk of Haigh Hall throw a free music festival for those in the area, presumably by way of compensation for them being in Wigan. I rolled up half smashed to find out what was going down with my homies.
Haigh Hall is a genuinely beautiful place, and I’ve come to the opinion that all music festivals should be held in the grounds of stately homes if simply for the reason that, surrounded by two or three square miles of semi-landscaped woodland, there was no problems with the toilet arrangements.
Everyone should be pretty much aware of not only the musical Genius of Mark E. Smith, but his unwillingness to co-operate and knuckle down for (usually feckless) presenter-led interviews. This Guardian arts blog round-up of the most horrid interviews is a perfect way to celebrate. It includes, of course, the infamous Newsnight appearance after Peel died.
One of my favourites is a recent interview by the lovely, if not a bit soft in the head, Lauren Laverne. So uncomfortable, yet enticing, to watch. Her poor treatment wasn’t very surprising. She introduced him by reciting the same old boring tale that the Fall wouldn’t have been stirred into action, were it not for the famous Sex Pistols Manchester Free Trade Hall gig in 1976. Shockingly, there was actually music in the North of England before the Sex Pistols came to play to a couple of hundred Mancunians. So I heard anyway.
That’s not a typo. This is a new comedy about a folk-pop band composed of two New Zealanders in New York. Wikipedia tells me that the act was created before the HBO show, but it’s so hard to tell what’s genuine these days isn’t it? I blame the internet. You can see the 1st full episode in lovely streaming flash video here. It features the oldest Fleetwood Mac joke ever, mockery of the New Zealand tourist board and peripheral ‘Peep Show’ actor Rachel Blanchard. Watch for hipster-friendly music references and cringe-worthy relationship development and a promise of Welsh legend, Rob Brydon.
It’s been low-blog count limbo round here for a while. I’ve been over-rung with websites to maul at work so I’ve been somewhat terrified to even look at a TinyMCE text entry box. What else have I done? Well, I’ve been all the way to Westminster in London Village to try and help raise some more funds for soon to be internet-sensation Catch21 Productions. Well, we hope. We’re certainly going to try. I reckon we could do some pretty exciting stuff with it anyway. More on that, hopefully much more, later in the year.
I’ve also been to a wedding, a stag do, paintballing (ouch), go-karting (crunch) and to see some downright awesome bands like 65daysofstatic (for the 4th time!) and A Silver Mt. Zion (for the second time, but this time wasn’t half as good - slackers). I went to watch ‘28 Weeks Later‘ which was disappointing, but not surprisingly so. I just loved the prequel far too much and naturally the usual disappointment in a sequel followed. I also watched the start of Big Brother UK Series 384, but I’m too ashamed to talk about that…
BBQ this weekend down ’sarf. Maybe next week I’ll reveal some shiny new website designs I’ve been working on. Oh larks oh lawdy! Hurrah!
I’d sworn to myself that I’d get round to seeing Mr. Scruff; DJ, artist and all round leg-end. Fortunately, last week a friend invited me back once again to Hull to see him at the uni. What a brilliant night. Such a fun DJ! Plenty of people dancing, very early in the night and such great visuals from the VJ as well. Lots of fluffy animals. Lots of pie. He drew everyone into it with some of his classic tunes, a drop of tweeness, a bit of a Rooty-toot Manuva, some more bass and then British geek-anthem, Ug. Go to a party where Mr. Scruff is playing. It will make you very, very happy.
(p.s. big thanks to Jon for basically driving me and my kit round all weekend)
Coldplay (aka “Radiohead for bed-wetters”) are getting a lot of radio play. Too much. Even on ‘alternative music station’; BBC 6music, they pop-up a surprising amount. Like they were/are with the iPhone, the BBC are currently in a multi-media Coldplay-luvy blitz (although the ‘toys out of the pram’ moment that Chris Martin gave Radio 4 is pretty funny). We’re told repeatedly how big they are. They’re so big because we’re constantly told about them! It’s a vicious circle. With the new album, ‘Viva la Vida’ (aka “The beginners guide to raising your bittorrent ratio”) it’s just more evidence of ripping off others for fun and profit (mainly profit, actually).
The James Lavelle posse are 
Texan band 
Sad news this weekend as cancer finally claimed Tony Wilson; son of Manchester and focal point of the ‘Madchester’ scene. Okay, cards on the table; he was a bit of a wanker (in his own words!), but he was such a 
I’ve been learning to draw with a tablet now my scanner’s completely cacked it. I’m not packing my day job in quite yet.
On Sunday, it was brought to my attention by a friend that once a year, the kindly folk of Haigh Hall throw a free music festival for those in the area, presumably by way of compensation for them being in Wigan. I rolled up half smashed to find out what was going down with my homies.
Everyone should be pretty much aware of not only the musical Genius of Mark E. Smith, but his unwillingness to co-operate and knuckle down for (usually feckless) presenter-led interviews. This 
I’d sworn to myself that I’d get round to seeing