50 quid bloke

I’ve started a new, work-related blog at SimonWaldman.net. Newspapers, new media and beyond….if you’re into that sort of thing.

..The execution of all things by Rilo Kiley. Another top recommendation from Steve over at Really Rather. [Not new, but they’ve got a new one out in the new year]. I’m not going to go into great detail, but it ticks the ‘Intelligent’ and ‘Melodic’ boxes. So, I recommend it.

Top of the Pops moves to BBC2: queue standard 30/40-something reminiscing from Stuart Jeffries.

Those weren’t the days. Bohemian Rhapsody was number one for 12 and a half years. Every few
months, I would stare sidelong at my schoolmates for three minutes
while holding an index finger above my upper lip in homage to Ron Mael
from Sparks. Visually challenged DJs who called themselves things like
the Hairy Cornflake, Kid, Diddy David and (worst of all) Tony Blackburn
surrounded themselves with oestrogen-charged pubescents while they
introduced each new act, in order to act out fantasies that would never
transfer to reality.
It’s funny how our generation really think that we ‘own’ things like Top of the Pops and Blue Peter, and that later generations have only ever been drinking from a greatly diluted cup of youth TV.

Anyway, I think the last time I watched TOTP, Mull of Kintyre was number one. These days my encounters with the charts tend to be when driving back from somewhere on a Sunday afternoon listening to Wes on Radio 1 (who must be worried about his new TV competition). Obviously, the entire top 10 is normally populated by huge stars I’ve never heard of. I am turning into my Dad.

Turned up at the cinema last night hoping to see the Incredibles. Thanks to my usual organisational flair, I’d failed to notice that it wasn’t actually starting till the weekend. Fortunately, Bad Santa was on…and most excellent it was to. Go see it…the perfect antidote to It’s a Wonderful Life.

Being nosey, and always eager to discover that being a popstar isn’t as much fun as it seems, I’ve always been eager to know about band finances. I love a good, ‘We were top of the charts for fifteen years, but all we could afford was Pot Noodles with cold water’ story. Especially, when it’s someone I’ve found quite annoying.

However, it’s quite a shame to read a story in today’s Guardian about The Beta Band and their financial woes as they go on tour for the last time.

All quite a shame really from a Band who’ve produced some pretty decent albums and put on one of the best gigs I’ve seen in the last few years (two/three years ago, Shepherd’s bush Empire..). Highlights of their tale include

- First album dismissed as ‘crock of shit’ by the label, so they were sent out touring Europe

- Being split between Portsmouth, London and a remote Scottish village, while having a manager in Los Angeles

- Steve Mason suffers from depression, takes a lot of acid and mushrooms (really? you’d never have guessed from the on stage visuals)

- £4,000 velcro suits they wore on stage being lost on the Tube

But there’s some fascinating points in all this. They play gigs in the same size venues as Kasabian, but their album goes in at 19, while Kasabian’s goes in at four. They get rave reviews for their albums…but don’t get any radio play. I feel like buying their albums all over again as an act of benevolence. I probably won’t..but I feel like it..which shows my heart’s in the right place, I think.

A few days after I discover (many years too late), The Decemberists, from Portland, Oregon, I get an e-mail from Greg Borenstein, which goes along the following lines

“My name is Greg Borenstein, and I play with the Portland, Oregon band “At Dusk” (the quotes are meant to indicate title, not irony, for the record). We have been based in, recording in, and playing around Portland for a couple years now, although we’ve known each other since the glorydays of adolescence. We recently finished our first successful cross-country tour, which took us as far afield as New York’s Mercury Lounge and Toronto’s Wavelength.

I am writing you because I’ve been reading 50 Quid for some time and it occurred to me that you might like our music. It falls somewhere on the exciting indie-rock-to-post-rock spectrum, influenced in turn by Philip Glass, Sonic Youth, Romanian Gypsy Music (not a joke), Pavement and The Byrds. In terms of a direct comparison, our closest fellow travelers are probably Mission of Burma, Unwound and Blonde Redhead – but with more West Coast harmony and less East Coast angst.”

Now there is a fair chance that he’s written to about 500 bloggers substituting the relevant name each time. But I’m nowhere near cynical enough to think that. So, I took a trip to At Dusk’s site (Where Greg keeps a blog, among other things), and downloaded some of their music; and you know what - very fine it is too. I included Greg’s description of their music to save myself from having to come up with one myself (or just copying it out and pretending it’s all mine): but it pretty much does what he says.

Rather like The Decemberists, they sound incredibly English, so I’ve got it into my head that Portland - which I’ve never visited - is some sort of shrine to English indy pop where cool kids take ‘mockney’ classes at highschool and young couples - either that or some smart UK entrepreneur has set up an indy music outsourcing operation in Oregon, because it’s much cheaper there than Manchester, where the price of wannabe popstars has frankly got ridiculous.

They also have a bit of that folk music/ psychaedelic thing going on (hence the reference to Romanian Gypsy music, I think) - it’s not quite as effective as the Coral;/Zuton way of doing things, but it stops their music getting boring.

Greg - if you’re reading this, leave a comment! Any more Portland band suggestions welcome…

…which, frankly, I don’t do enough on this blog…this week’s Private Eye has a fantastic spoof ‘Billy Bragg’s Revised British Songbook’ in its Diary column (as written by Craig Brown). Sample lyrics include

Are you going to Scarborough Fair

Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme;

Remember me to one who lived there

Cos Thatcherism brutally socialised her into a

life of inner-city crime

Steve Mc over at ReallyRather  gave me three tips in my recent request for new albums to love. Rilo Kiley’s More Adventurous, Darby & Joan by The Gentleman Reg band; and Emblems by Matt Pond PA.
The Rilo Kiley album isn’t actually out till Jan, but their earlier effort, The Execution of Things, is in the post. The Gentleman Reg album has to be bought from Canada (although you can try some MP3s here) which I might, or might not do.
However, Emblems has arrived, and very, very fine it is too. Mellow, intelligent, indie pop (in line with most ReallyRather recommendations), that manages to avoid being too whiney and melancholic. Anyway, it’s actually their fifth album: and you can sample MP3s from some of their previous efforts (the full Matt Pond site is here - with all the usual Flash nonsense).
Yes, I know it’s actually six months old. But, yet again, I’m happy catching up.

….Ted Leo and Pharmacists? Imagine, how embarrassed I felt when I read Information Leafblower’s excellent, Top 40 US bands according to Bloggers and I realised I didn’t actually know the one that had come top. Terrible. I hold my head in shame. Fortunately, this being the net, I have been able to quickly mask my ignorance thanks to (the ever wonderful) Epitonic  and some free MP3s on his site  (have taken it out the the frame, in order to link easily). I am now an expert. Go on, ask me. Information LeafBlower (ILB to friends) says he’s a Billy Bragg for our times. And he’s sort of right. Ish.

After my grumble last week, that I was running short of new albums to love , several people very kindly gave me tips on things to buy. So I’m now wading my way through John Cunningham, Matt Pond, Bob Scheider and the last Delgados album, to name but a few. Full reviews to follow, but Matt Pond, in particular is sounding good at the moment.
One tip, however, came from within the Guardian, via e-mail. ‘Get into the Decemberists‘ it said. ‘Intelligent, folky and practically Dickensian’, it said. Who am I to argue. So I bought up their two albums, Castaways and Cutouts (from 2003) and Her Majesty the Decemberists (2002)’.
How did I miss out on this? With all the whizzy music match software I’ve played with, and all the blog browsing … the name Decemberists had completely passed me by.
Anyway, it’s very fine. Can’t believe they’re from Portland Oregon, as they sound much more like they’re from Liverpool/ Manchester. A slightly more intelligent version of The Shack, even. Of course, you’ve probably known about them for years…but me, I’m happy to play catch-up. (There’s a couple of free MP3s here if you’re even more backward than me).