Four stars for Nouvelle Vague (see previous ramble) in today’s Friday review. Expect to hear it at a dinner party near you very soon. Another track has made it online. Copy Right? has their version of the Dead Kennedy’s Too Drunk To Fuck
We talk a lot in this digital age about how we get re-united with the favourite music of our youth. We buy the remastered CD. We rip it. And then, all of a sudden, it pops up on your iPod when you least expect it.
But, I’ve been thinking a lot recently about those who failed to make the crossover. The albums and singles that were a huge part of your life but either never made it when you switched from vinyl to CD, or never got ripped.
They’re not the greatest bits of music you ever owned, but you loved them all the same: and now you seem to have left them all behind.
My collection (well, those I can remember - and in completely random order) is a strange and varied bunch.
- Pete Townshend and Ronnie Lane: Rough Mix Don’t quite know why I liked this album so much. My thought process probably went: I’m a mod. The Who is a mod band. Pete Townshend is in the Who. I should like his solo album. Strange because it was really a slice of gentle 70s rock and blues. It was really the slightly epic (well it had strings on it) Street In The City that I played over and over again. Recently I was reunited with another track when I downloaded My Baby Gives It Away on KaZaA (go on, arrest me), which is actually a better track. Although it’s one of those songs that makes you dance around like a sad middle aged man, so best played when you’re at home.
-Working Week: Companeros I think I picked this up because they looked quite cool on the cover. It was a bit of deadly serious 80s jazzy stuff lead by Simon Booth and Larry Stabbins. At 17/18 I thought I was very cool by just listening to it. Came during my Oxfam suit period.
- Chapter and Verse (can’t remember the title): The key track here was Black Whip. I thought I originally heard it on a Rebirth of The Cool album, but no trace. Did I buy the album, or just the 12 inch single? There was a rapper (who Kirsty MacColl says in this interview was called Madison). It featured guitar by Ivan Boogaloo Jones, and it rocked.
- Pink Industry: This is the end. A fantastic piece of depressing early 80s synth, with a dead simple bass line and slash-your-wrists lyrics. ‘Is this the end/Or just some game we play/ I never thought/ It would end this way.” Don’t know whether this was before they became Pink Military or after. I had it on 12 inch, and my version had a slight scratch on the start which meant it always played with a crackle, that to me is part of the song.
- LL Cool J: Bad I had this on the turntable while I was a nice middle class student (Bristol 85 - 88) wearing a little too much tweed for my own good. For some reason however, I was also very happy jumping round my room shouting the words out in my best Bad Ass accent. You’ve just got to love the lyrics: “If you think you can outrhyme me, yeah boy I bet/ Cause I ain’t met a motherfucker who can do that yet/ Trendsetter I’m better my rhymes are good/ I got a gourmet plate that says I wish you would”. Eric B and Rakim stuck with me. LL Cool J remains lost on the vinyl shelf.
- Salif Keita: Soro My world music phase was short-lived. But this, I seem to remember, had the most beautiful, haunting opening.
- Generation X: Shakin All Over. OK, I’ll stop now, as I’m starting to embarrass myself. But the single of Valley of the Dolls (on a sort of murky brown vinyl) was all right. But the b-side had a version of Shaking All Over on that was just brilliant. Somehow, I never felt the urge to buy Billy Idol CDs.
OK - that’s enough nostalgia. Now, when are my new CDs coming?
Originally posted as part of a comment on my little rant about music we like but not as we know it, you really have to listen to Rodeohead by Hard n Phirm. Mere words can’t do it justice.
Four news items over a couple of days.
1. Motorola puts iTunes on mobiles
2. Real’s store will sell files that will work on the iPod
3. Woolworths to launch a digital music download service (Music Week, sorry, no story link, but trust me..)
4. iTunes sorts out rights deal with indies
I don’t want to go into too much detail on this, but does this mean that
- Anyone who wants to set up shop is going to be selling every bit of music ever created (rights resolved/ white label offerings/ all music digitised).
- Everything is going to be able to be played on every device. (or at the very least there will be hundreds of different suppliers for every device)
- You’re going to be able to buy/ download whatever music you wnat wherever you are through your mobile or some such wirelessly connected device.
Sounds like fun.
I was sort of joking about setting up CD groups similar to reading groups, but someone has mailed me to say that by co-incidence they’d been invited to a CD group (or some such name) just before they read my post. Expect style mag feature on new social phenomenon soon.
(Note for the uninitiated. One event is enough - in style mag terms - to be called a ‘trend’ - especially if it’s in Islington or Notting Hill; two is ‘a craze’; three is a ‘phenomenon’; any more, and it’s practically suburban, and therefore no longer worth writing about)
I’ve ordered ‘Is it Rolling Bob?‘ , a reggae tribute to Bob Dylan, which got quite a nice write up in the back of last week’s Friday Review, although I’m waiting till I hear it till I pronounce judgement (old fashioned, I know, but there you are).
However, it’s set me of in search of music we know, but not as we know it. Did you know, there was a string quartet version of Radiohead’s OK computer? If you did, I’m sure you’ll also remember the utter joy that was Acid Brass? (yes, a Brass band playing Acid House classics).
A few months ago, there was quite an uproar about the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain, and their album, The Secret of Life, which has covers of - among others - Miss Dynamite on it. (I think they also performed Anarchy in the UK..but I might just be making that up).
All this is quite topical at the moment, because we’re all desperately excited about the new William Shatner album, (produced by Ben Folds) which if it’s anything like his previous work, will be utterly unmissable. His version of Common People (follow link above for a sample) has to be the errrr most distinctive thing I’ve heard in a while.
Most exciting of all in the radical cover version market is Nouvelle Vague who are busy doing new wave in lounge style (which, when you think of it gives ticks with ease those essential, 30-something boxes of nostalgia, easy to listen to, and suitably cool.) . That link gives you a very relaxed version The Guns of Brixton, but the album looks set to be a classic. I’ve already stumbled on their version of ‘This is Not a Love Song’ (sorry, can’t find a link at the moment) which is just lurvely. My tip for the dinner party hit of the year.
Ironic that while every ‘next big thing’ in town is currently showing their startling creativity by aping every type of 80s band, the only things that sound vaguely different and original are those doing covers.
..however, they come out as the most played band on my Musicmobs profile (it’s because I spent an afternoon playing the album again and again at the office trying to convince myself that I liked it: nearly succeeded).
I am, however a major fan of MusicMobs which you import your iTunes library into, and then it shows you similar users (we’re back on that thing of being like everyone else again).
It’s particularly good for me as I’ve never managed to get Audioscrobbler (which I think does a similar job) to work for me in the office (where I actually listen to more music than at home).
The more intellectual among you will see this as a social software phenomenon, and will want to discuss with the likes of Clay and Tom.
Me, I just say: ‘cooool’ and isn’t it strange that the second most played John Martyn track is Go Down Easy. (which I think has some of his most gorgeous lyrics)
Everyone is gushing about the Futureheads at the moment. And, yes, it’s a pretty good album in a very post-punk kind of way. It lacks the sort of melodic hooks that made bands like the Buzzcocks and XTC really stand out against a sea of noise, but, hey, they’re young - they’ll learn.
But, here’s the problem though: where does a 30something bloke with a partner listen to this sort of frantic, scratchy stuff?
I can imagine they’re great live. That’s no problem. But, I’m busy that night. I can imagine if you’re a record reviewer sitting at home playing CDs all day it’ll sound wonderful compared to much of the samey nonsense you get sent (not to mention remakably reminiscent of the music of your youth). If you’re a teenager who wants to lock himself in his room and jump up and down in anger at everything, then it’s heaven.
But what about the rest of us? It’s not going on after work (too noisy after a hard day). It’s hardly dinner party stuff; and you can’t listen to it in the gym (unless you’re bouncing up and down on a trampolene). You might just be able to play it in the car - as long as you’re by yourself. You can’t play it at a party as it will have everyone running to the other room. You could put it in your ears as you walk the streets, although I sense you might start punching things or at least jumping up and down suspiciously.
I suppose you could invite a gang of male friends around, drink cans of lager, turn it up loud and all bounce around in a huddle - but that stopped being my idea of fun quite a while ago.
So, I own it. I’ll say I quite like it. I’ll rip it and have it on various devices and hard drives . But will I listen to it and love it? Unlikely.
In Word this month Lauren Laverne said her favourite album ever was Pretzel Logic by Steely Dan. She said (something along the lines of) ‘whatever mood you’re in, they’ve got a song for you’.
I took this as an opportunity to have a bit of a reappraisal of a band I’ve never really got. So, the CD arrives. I listen. I listen again. And again. And guess what: I still don’t get it. I means and does nothing to me. It has that rare ability to sound instantly familiar but be completely forgettable at the same time. It’s the musical equivalent of Teflon.
So what is all the fuss about? Why do musos gush about them and treat Donald Fagen like a god? Why are there more than 20 Steely Dan fan sites? What was Lauren Laverne thinking? Am I too old? too young? Oh well, at least I tried.
Anyone want to buy a 2nd hand copy of Pretzel Logic?
MP3blogs.org is less than a week old, and I’ve given it no more publicity than a couple of e-mails and a single post on here and it’s already doing about 3,000 pages a day, or, to put it in context, about 10 times this site. It also has nearly 50 links to it, according to technorati, again well ahead of this. Which only goes to prove the following
- Smart code wins over average content every time
- Things work best when I stick to admin, and leave the creative stuff to those who really know how.