Back!

Back after my month of graduate application madness!

here are two songs I was reminded of after looking at my Minidisc collection.

Two late 90s less known stormers.

Albums (lots of)

Im considering an interesting musical project, whereby I write a review of every single album I own, either alphabetical or roughly chronological order.

Would be a fascinating thing to do for me, and I hope provide interesting reading.

Just need to find time to do it... dont hold your breath. (yet)

The Best Comeback Since Lazarus

Now this is what its all about. Reminding me both of why Serj Tankien is great, and why System of a Down were so amazing.

This might just be the best video of the year so far. Few points for subtlety, but maximum points for message.

Currency Change and the Basildon Bond

I cannot stand 50 Cent. And that is for one reason and one reason only. He is a shit rapper.
Eminem wasn't great, but 50 Cent makes Eminem look like Dizzee Rascal.

But, I love the new track Ayo Technology. Again, thats not because of 20 Pence; but because of the wonderful production and track by Timbaland. I dont care that Timbaland is even worse at rapping than 2 Euros, he produces amazing tracks day in and day out.

I like it partly because the icy cold synths with the Sid chip style LFO (If you understood that sentence you rock..fact) remind me of not only the C64, but possibly my favourite track by Depeche Mode, Ice Machine:

Boney M vs The Smiths

My bread has certainly been buttered on the Smiths side of things in the great Boney M Smiths war taking place in the blogosphere.

But one thing I must admit, is that Boney M have FAR better cover versions.
Check out this gem, and then the type of rubbish the Smiths end up with...



[smiths cover to follow when I can find it!]

Lethal Weapon

Its quite strangehow Lethal Bizzle has become the next big thing in indie. But following his excellent single with Gallows, and their joint tour; he seems likely to fuse Grime and indie just as well as Dizzee before him.

Music!

Hopefully this will let you hear my tracks without the need for Murdoch owned grubbiness...

..King ell...

So. 30 years since 'the king' died.
Yet oddly, yesterday was a day that suddenly made me realise just how much the exaggerated perceptions of Elvis and his hardcore of crazy fans have prevented me ever giving his music a fair chance.

At the My Brain Hurts ad meeting last night they played a whole CD of early Elvis, and I really enjoyed it. It struck me how I have always so put off from ever listening to him just by the associations that would bring. All those obsessives and "Elvis is the best thing ever" messages force fed to us all the time completely removed any joy I would have found in listening to him.

Its like being told George W Bush likes your favourite band. You just can't stomach it.

Yet when his music was there, unaccompanied by impersonators or cries of "THE KING!", or "Best song ever"; it still stood up on its own merits. Which, in a way is the best compliment you could pay to music over 40 years old.

New songs

I have added two new demo songs to my Myspace page.
If you are so inclined please let me know what you think!

Is all new music rubbish?

No. Of course not.
What a bloody stupid question.

But I hate the assumption that it is.

Why am I talking about this you ask...

Well. Firstly a great VH1 Classic promo tagline that says "Absolutely none of todays best hits"; and a Classic Gold (I didnt choose it, but it plays Beach Boys so its not all bad) promo that implies all that is old is good, and all that isnt, well...isnt.

Do new bands automatically pale to old bands? Of course not, every bit of music has to be judged on its own merits; yet people so often decry modern music without ever hearing it.

I recall a local tosser (ignorant, racist, annoying, obnoxious) who went to see Iron Maiden and complained the support band Bullet for my Valentine were "todally rubbiish". But you knew it had NOTHING to do with their performance or music, it was simply because it was new that he felt such a passionate hatred of it. Are we as a nation THAT scared of the new???

I understand these channels are appealling to older people; but does an artist's work automatically become rubbish as they get older?Is Homer Simpson's cry of "No new crap, just the hits" really how people think? Is Prince new cd terrible purely because it isnt 10 years old yet?

As much as a lot of modern music is crap (we are looking at you Westlife, 50 Cent, any one of 20 million dance-pop acts), we only have to look at Muse, Battles, Blood Brothers to see that good music exists. Rhianna, and to a lesser extent Lily Allen and co show that not only is good music alive, but good POP music is still out there; and it still sells.

Rave Against The Machine

As both a metalhead and an electro dance nut; I have to be controversial and say I love this remix. Its seen big pools of hate, but its just brilliant.

The video has NOTHING to do with the song, its just the only place I can find it to show you.

Mr Oizo - Killing in the name of

Lock Stock Barrel and Waterman

Yes, I know the late 80's were a pretty deserted output for good music.
Yes, I know that the vast majority of the music put out by Stock Aitkin and Waterman was complete throwaway rubbish.

But i'd like to offer two things:

1. A defense of some of their better work.
2. A comparison with what is going on right this very second in music.

So here goes.

1. Stock Aitkin and Waterman DID produce some great music. They had a knack for catchy tunes and especially, they were masters of the pop bassline.

Listen to Spin me Round by Dead or Alive, Venus by Bananarama, they are funky and memorable; much more so than much of the music around in the mid 80s.

The thing to remember about SAW was that they came out of the discos and clubs. A lot of their output was designed for nightclubs and for people to dance to. Which brings us to point2.

2. Has anybody actually noticed the completely shocking state of popular dance music. Im not talking about the resurgence of indie dance and the terribly named "new rave" scenes. But your average club dance music.

Every single fucking dance song on music tv has 10 girls (usually ugly girls with bit tits pulled from a total pool of about 15) running about in as skimpy clothing as possible. Not just some videos... they ALL have it. Im fucking sick of it. Even decent dance tracks like Freddie le Grand have it.

Yet even then it gets worse. Cascada. Casbloodycada. The most inane shockingly bland and mind numbing dance music ever. It has no soul, no passion, no talent whatsoever. It makes 2Unlimited look like Pink Floyd. Fuck, at least 2 Unlimited had a grasp of making decent tunes.

Oh yeah, most of these dance tracks with identikit videos are just samples or edits of 80s/90s tunes. I mean there are HUNDREDS of them. For fucks sake, what is the world coming to when people want to sample ROXETTE?!

Were SAW worse than any of this? Not really. They got blander and worse over the years, but they just gave people what they wanted. And as the state of dance music right now shows. People want shit.

This is exactly why I get so angry about music.

Right. Action.

I started my "a band a week" blog to provide NP with some new listening; but I felt it difficult to constrain my musical rantings to that area. So after much pondering I have decided to take my personal music output blog, and turn it into something much more ranty...

So. Welcome, I have picked two choice subjects to start off with; which I hope will cause a bit of argument (if anyone will actually read this).

Rob / FireFlower