50 quid bloke

You can only listen to people playing guitars and singing deep and meaningful lyrics for so long. Every so often you need some good old fashioned repetitive beats and piano breaks. So it’s off to the DJ mix counter we go.
Somehow these I never quite have the right time and place for two hours of northern european banging techno (the gym, maybe - but that’s another matter). So, what you want is something a little more subtle.
Tom Middleton’s 3 CD The Sound of the Cosmos is now a few years old but was probably the best DJ mix I’ve bought. Still has pride of place in the car stereo.
Anyway, he’s got a (not so) new one out: The Trip which mixes up in his word “electrohopsoulhalljazzpunklounge’n'basscovers“. Two CDs: one party; the other chill with everything from Pigbag and the Thompson Twins to the Theme from Star Wars and Vangelis. All mixed effortlessly. DJ magazine named it their album of the month: but don’t let this put you off…oldies will appreciate it too. If anything, it’s a little too 80s for my taste…at times it feels ever so slightly “Stars On 45″. Still it’s perfect for parties. If you ever go to any.
Also in this vein, if you can get hold of any of the Eskimo mixes from Belgium - well, just do. Again lots of 80s/90s stuff all mashed up. I’ve just ordered Eskimo 4 (only a year late). It’s normally better to try Tunes as they tend to have them in stock while you can be waiting weeks for Amazon to deliver.

Sometimes you don’t really notice profound change until it’s all happened.
I realised the other day, that I haven’t bought a CD from a bricks and mortar store since a last minute splurge at Xmas. And before that, well, frankly I can’t remember.
At the same time, I’m now probably buying more CDs than at any time in my life (doing the 50quid bloke’s demographic duty of keeping the industry alive).
For a huge chunk of my life, buying music was a favourite leisure activity. Saturday afternoons were meant for hanging out in record shops. In Liverpool, the place to be was Probe, as House of Neil remembers:

Every town had a place like that: the independent punk record shop that became the hangout for all the hardcore. It was the first one to ell punk stuff, and it sold t-shirts, fanzines: the works. It was a rite of passage to go there. The place was always packed with all kinds of unsavory characters. Pete Burns the singer from Dead or Alive worked there. It took balls to go in the first time, but I did, and bought “King Rocker”, the new Generation X single, “Sound of the Suburbs”, the new single by The Members, and the coolest Clash t-shirt you could imagine.

I went to college in Bristol, went to Andy’s records (and another slightly smaller, cooler shop that I can’t remember).Then it was on to London and we all got into Dance Music which meant going into little shops again only this time to wade through 12″ singles and buy a bundle without really knowing what I was getting (because I was too frightened to ask).
Anyway, that’s enough nostalgia. I don’t want to get all Nick Hornby on you. This is all gone; gone; gone. These days it’s click and buy. It’s Amazon (like you need the link) - especially their marketplace for back catalogue stuff - or CD WoW (which is cheaper for chart stuff, but I’m sure is unethical in one way or another) or Tunes for dance music.
It’s so simple. I can be sitting at home reading reviews, grab my laptop and have it ordered without standing up.
A friend swears by Disque in Chapel Market, Islington. And where I live, Stoke Newington, there is Totem records which I still stumble into occassionally while my wife is shopping for clothes (and I found a much loved 12″ of Farley Jackmaster Funk’s Love Can’t Turn Around there, for which I am forever grateful).
Sometimes, if I’ve got time to kill in the West End (like once a year) I mooch round a Virgin Megastore and Fopp is cheap and cheerful.
But, the thing with visiting record shops is a bit like making your own pasta: yes, it’s probably better to do it, and I know purists prefer it…but frankly, who can be bothered?
Online shopping is just so much more, well, efficient. All those recommendations. The ability to compare prices instantly.
The thing is: when did this change happen? I can remember in about 1995 poo-pooing the idea that anyone who lived in London would want to buy their CDs online. The next thing, I’m a 1-Click addict and eagerly awaiting this week’s corrugated cardboard package. I’m not a mad downloader bringing the industry down (well, not since the demise/ legalisation of audiogalaxy, anyway): I’ve just given up going to record shops . It’s like I still believe in god, but I’ve stopped going to the synagogue.
It was an article in Business 2.0 that got me thinking about this. In it, Paul Keegan asks ‘Is the Music Store Over’ (quick answer: ‘Yes’…to save you the sub you need to read it online). They talk asked retail guru Paco Underhill (you really should read his ‘Why We Buy‘) to conceive the music store of the future: and sure enough it’s more of a digital entertainment theme park than a traditional shop. Tattoo parlours, DIY mix booths, coffee galore. Retail as an experience: you know the sort of thing. It’ll probably be called Tunetown or something. For teenagers perhaps. Meanwhile…my sofa awaits my latest shopping spree.

…and other such wonders. Courtesy of Tiny Mix Tapes automatic mixtape generator.
You type in your mood/ moment…and they send you a suitable mix tape [via Rock and Roll Report].
Now, if they could find someway to (legally) also send you the music…that would be a service.
There is a serious point to be made at some point about the resurgance of mix CDs and the amateur repackaging of music: but not here, not now. Actually, if you subscribe to The New Republic, the whole issue of CD mixes and iPod playlists and their impact on the creative side of the music industry is discussed here in detail by David Hajdu.

I know nothing about classical music. And enormous ignorance combined with huge choice makes me a very nervous buyer indeed. However, have managed to end up buying a series of quite wonderful classical piano CDs through the following chain. And I can recommend all to all.
1. See The Pianist.
2. Decide this is quite good, so buy the soundtrack.
3. Decide I like Chopin’s piano work - so ask someone at work who knows about these things what the best Chopin piano thingy is: he recommends Martha Argerich playing Chopin’s Preludes.
4. Decide I like Martha Argerich playing the piano, so click around through various recommendations on Amazon to find Martha Argerich Live from the Concertgebouw 1978 & 79 playing Bach, Bartok, Chopin and various others. Fantastic.
6. Buy the sequel: Live from the Concertgebouw 2. Excellent.
Now, for the idiots among us: Who is Martha Argerich? and Where/ what is the Concertgebouw?.
Incidentally, according to this book review, Vladimir Horowitz once observed that there were three kinds of pianists — Jewish pianists, homosexual pianists and bad pianists. I don’t know which category Agerich fits into.

My obsession with the O.C. continues. As ever, someone has gone to a huge amount of effort to put togehter a fan site (complete with campaign to get it back on air in Australia) - most handy of all is an episode by episode list of the music. Very handy: and any teen show that features Jeff Buckley’s Hallelujah; and where the kids have poster of the Jam in their bedrooms is all right by me.

The Archers hasn’t quite been at it’s finest recently, and the sudden appearance of a gay story line along with a fire is a rather blatant introduction of two soap stand-bys in a series that should know better.
However, the scene where Brian and Ian were waiting for Adam (Brian’s step son and Ian’s boyfriend) was deliciously awkward. I paraphrase:

Ian: I’ve bought a CD round for Adam…
Brian: Oh, you might want to look through our CDs in case you want to borrow some. We’ve got some Liza Minelli…

..according to Akin Ojumu in the Observer who saw the Who at the Forum this week. Turns out the reasons there were no reviews during the week was because no press tickets were given out. It was only a warm up. Seems they’re having difficulty adjusting to stage life after John Entwistle:

“Daltrey and Townshend stand upstage and although they are a few feet away from each other, their body language, or rather lack of it, is telling. It’s as if they are leading two bands or still battling for leadership of this one. I can count on the fingers of one hand the amount of times they turn and face each other, let alone trade smiles.”

Novelist Tim Lott (that’s quite a flattering photo) on falling in, out and back in love with music . I share the sentiment - if not his musical taste. Acid rock. Please.

…when I should have been out watching Laura Veirs. According to the review in today’s paper, it was really rather special:

For most of the evening, the audience is entirely quiet, rapt, a rare thing for a London show, but no less than these entirely wondrous songs deserve. When Veirs finally leaves the stage, you feel as if you’ve witnessed some strange phenomenon, not entirely explicable by earthly means.

Oh well, next time, perhaps.

Thanks to NME.com for pointing out that you can get a download of Jack White and Bob Dylan performing Ball and Biscuit live in Detroit last week from The White Stripes site. What broadband was invented for.