Each and every year I look through the Mercury Prize list and tally it up with the list I have in my head. Sometimes the list is good and includes virtually everything that I too considered to be the best of that period. Other times, and particularly in recent years, the list seems to consist of two groups: the year’s big financial hitters and some seemingly willful curve balls. Continue reading »
The Wireless event (still loathe to call it a festival…!) has attracted some big names over the past few years, even coaxing some back together and out of hiding. Two of their biggest draws have been the reformed Britpop behemoths Blur in 2009 and just this last weekend, Pulp continued their comeback with a blistering show.
Can they continue to pull in these big comebacks every few years? Will the nostalgia for the era of Britpop and beyond continue for much longer? Certainly Wireless has consistently succeeded in pulling the most varied line-up together this side of Glastonbury, stranding their days into broadly pop, dance and rock groupings. The mix of acts and the superb location make the event an attractive proposition to the more casual gig-goer, and the undercard often plays host to acts that’ll entice the more picky. It is the event’s penchant for huge comebacks or exclusives that keeps pulling me back though.
So who is still out there, spitting venomous snippets at each other via the media? What are the chances that money (and of course, the joy of performing together again…) can heal the wounds – and would they be able to draw the kind of crowds that Blur and Pulp have enjoyed?
I’ve been away for a while. Now I’m back to bring the blogging back to this here blog. I’m going to try and take a different approach to this in 2011, make it a bit more flexible, give it some variation beyond reviews of gigs and albums. Have some fun. Sure, there’ll be shows and records. I’m not buying a t-shirt though, I’m a bit past music t-shirts. We’ll see how it goes. One things for sure, I’m excited about what the year has to bring to my ears, and here’s my Top 5 things that are tickling my fancy.
Sat in the sunshine at my local station this morning, listening to my ‘new favourite band’, Washed Out, I got to thinking about how I got into music. I still remember, as I’m sure many of you who read this post will, what my first album was. Now, I’m going to hit you straight – no lies to retrospectively cool-up myself, no altering of history. Boss Drum by The Shamen.
It was on tape, bought from the Longton branch of Woolworths. I was 10. I was a pretty naive ten year old too, for I’d wanted the album due to the amazing performance they’d given of Ebeneezer Goode on Top of the Pops featuring a crazy man in a cape – a band miming to a track about ecstasy. My parents did not approve, my mum tried several times to change my mind, and I wasn’t allowed to listen to it in the car home. I’d only got my own tape player the Christmas before, along with a copy of Now 23. Boy did that tape get hammered.
I remember taking in each track of the album, being utterly bewildered by the last track – an eight minute spoken word epic about, well, I’m still not entirely sure. I was also confused by the long sleigh bell infested intro to Ebeneezer Goode – it didn’t sound like the version on telly – or the version I’ve now got on CD (wikipedia suggests it’s a different mix). I listened to it over and over again; bounced around to Phorever People and Comin’ On. I was slightly bemused when my older cousin told me about the meaning of Ebeneezer Goode one day, and even now I relate the track to odd men dancing round in top hats rather than drug culture – maybe I’m still naive.
Whether or not this was a great bearing on my future musical tastes is easy – no. Although I remained partial to mainstream dance until it became intolerable (or I grew up) in about 2000, it never became my thing entirely – Britpop and the indie boys were but two years away. I do however still pull Boss Drum out from time to time, watch the awful videos to later Shamen singles (Check out Destination Eschaton for a prime example) on Youtube. I still like it. Allmusic certainly do; they give 4.5/5!
With today’s music consumption less about the ‘album’ and more about tracks I wonder if this piece of memory will still apply in ten, fifteen year’s time – it’d be a shame if not. It’s a memory that so many of us share in our own way, like your first kiss or favourite t-shirt as a kid. Or maybe it doesn’t matter, another rose tinted nostalgia trip, designed in one’s mind to escape the present and reinvent the past.
So readers, share yours – embarassing or cool.
The Shamen – Phorever People (mp3)
It was Record Store Day this Saturday. A serious lack of moolah in the Jealousy wallet meant no new purchases for me this year, but there was some great stuff available; Blur, MGMT, Foals, Black Keys etc. Most of it you can probably find for a fortune on Ebay, not that it was that cheap to start with! Not that this is going to be a rant about the somewhat backwards nature of RSD, it being backed by major labels and such…
There is however, something you can get for free! Pitchfork are showing, for a solitary week only, the documentary film I Need That Record. Subtitled ‘The death (or possible survival) of the independent record store’ it deals with the usual suspects; chain stores, the internet, record store owners being twats, apathy – but it does it with a fair wash of charm and some big names. You’ll find Thurston Moore, Ian Mackaye, Mike Watt, Glenn Branca and even Noam Chomsky alongside record store owners, past and present.
Go watch it, but remember – the future isn’t as bleak as this film makes out, at least not here in London. Our record shops are making a defiant stand against the high street hegemony of HMV! I really hope that when you hear about great music on this and other blogs that you head out to your local shop and support them – mine is Banquet Records down in Kingston and not only do they rock but they had their busiest day of trade in over ten years on RSD. The thing just might work…
Watch I Need That Record on Pitchfork
Buy I Need That Record on DVD – with added Thurston!
