Monday, January 29, 2007
I'M FROM BARCELONA
Not me of course. And not the band either, it transpires. Read my review of their ULU gig here
Sunday, January 28, 2007
WHAT THE WORLD'S BEEN WAITING FOR
Exciting developments from the home (counties) front comes with this email from Greg, the Chris Lowe to my Neil Tennant...
"Only six years and seven months after the formation of Wrong Angle, our first demo...still some technical issues, but i think the Wrong Angle sound is established, along with the principle of using french language sociology texts with no relation to the song's subject for the coda - i don't think this has ever been done before, so a good six and a half years' work."
Have a listen to the Wrong Angle prototype here. Here's hoping it doesn't sound too much like Jeremy and Superhans band in Peep Show.
"Only six years and seven months after the formation of Wrong Angle, our first demo...still some technical issues, but i think the Wrong Angle sound is established, along with the principle of using french language sociology texts with no relation to the song's subject for the coda - i don't think this has ever been done before, so a good six and a half years' work."
Have a listen to the Wrong Angle prototype here. Here's hoping it doesn't sound too much like Jeremy and Superhans band in Peep Show.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
THE 'METHOD' TECHNIQUE
Great story in Uncut magazine about Jared 'Jordan Catalano' Leto:
"Aside from promoting his new musical project, Leto is currently filming the role of Mark David Chapman, in new film 'Chapter 27' about the John Lennon assasination.
The actor has reportedly gained 62 lbs in weight for the role of the killer by eating cocktails of Haagen Dazs ice cream with added soy sauce and olive oil!"
"Aside from promoting his new musical project, Leto is currently filming the role of Mark David Chapman, in new film 'Chapter 27' about the John Lennon assasination.
The actor has reportedly gained 62 lbs in weight for the role of the killer by eating cocktails of Haagen Dazs ice cream with added soy sauce and olive oil!"
Saturday, January 20, 2007
FEELING JADE-D
Resistance is futile. Obviously Big Brother is all anyone really cares about anymore and Jade Goody now vies with Nick Griffin for the title of Britain's most notorious racist. If you really care what I think, read it here. But for my money Simon Hoggart gets the balance just about right in his article in today's Guardian.
Simon's one of my journalistic heroes: his parliamentary sketches are brilliantly droll and insightful. When the press rumbled his affair with Kimberly Quinn it threatened to derail his career for good, but he handled the situation with enough humility and contrition to win back some of the respect lost. I guess being at the centre of one media shitstorm probably enables you to take a more generous line on someone else in a similar situation, no matter how unsympathetic a character they appear to cut.
Simon's one of my journalistic heroes: his parliamentary sketches are brilliantly droll and insightful. When the press rumbled his affair with Kimberly Quinn it threatened to derail his career for good, but he handled the situation with enough humility and contrition to win back some of the respect lost. I guess being at the centre of one media shitstorm probably enables you to take a more generous line on someone else in a similar situation, no matter how unsympathetic a character they appear to cut.
Monday, January 15, 2007
MORE BLOGGING MADNESS
We've launched our News Blog at work, yet another platform for me to rant about things I know nothing about. Take a look and please post your comments, if only to save us from the hate-fuelled moron brigade who invariably take these things over (Will has already been accused of being a threat to democracy for having the audacity to suggest that people who voted for the BNP were a bit dim).
Sunday, January 14, 2007
THE NINETIES +10
So I went to a party last night which had a nineties theme. Post-modern or what? When asked why I hadn't come in fancy dress, I replied with the not unreasonable explanation that as I pretty much dressed the same now as I did during the nineties anyway I didn't see much point. I really can be quite a curmodgeon when I put my mind to it. I was later informed that there were people at the party who were actually born in the nineties, which made me feel postively ancient and not a little grubby (the majority of people were well into their twenties, mercifully).
Anyway, my flatmate Charlie played a 1995 'Greatest Hits' set, and it reminded me what a great era for singles the mid-nineties were: not just the obvious stuff like Common People and Girls and Boys, but the less celebrated songs too such as Ladykiller by Lush, New Generation by Suede, Trouble by Shampoo, I'm Not So Manic Now by Dubstar, etc. I've spoken about my desire to write a Britpop musical on here before, but I feel the climate could be right, now This Life +10 has made nostalgia for that era officially acceptable. A nationwide hunt for someone to play Crispian from Kula Shaker surely awaits.
Anyway, my flatmate Charlie played a 1995 'Greatest Hits' set, and it reminded me what a great era for singles the mid-nineties were: not just the obvious stuff like Common People and Girls and Boys, but the less celebrated songs too such as Ladykiller by Lush, New Generation by Suede, Trouble by Shampoo, I'm Not So Manic Now by Dubstar, etc. I've spoken about my desire to write a Britpop musical on here before, but I feel the climate could be right, now This Life +10 has made nostalgia for that era officially acceptable. A nationwide hunt for someone to play Crispian from Kula Shaker surely awaits.
Saturday, January 06, 2007
DON'T BELIEVE THE TRIPE
If there's one thing that vexes me more than those smug, self-congratulatory end-of-year critics' polls, it's the same critics' self-serving predictions of musical 'ones-to-watch' in the forthcoming 12 months.
Don't get me wrong, I like a good list as much as the next mildly autistic beta male, even if I find the whole Nick Hornby schtick slightly tedious in polite conversation. The problem is that it doesn't take Nostradamus-like levels of prescience for music journalists to predict what's going to be big in the next year when they're so obviously instrumental in setting the musical agenda.
So when the NME tells us that the Klaxons will be big in 2007 (and against my better instincts I actually quite like the Klaxons, even if their new single does sound like Spandau Ballet) , it's an entirely self-fulfilling prophecy, as their young and hugely impressionable readership will lap up whatever's thrown at them, so long as it's cutely-packaged with good hair. And why shouldn't they? This is exactly what I did when I was 16. The Internet may have allowed people to be more discerning in their tastes, but never underestimate the pull of the well-oiled media hype-machine when it comes to dictating musical trends.
Don't get me wrong, I like a good list as much as the next mildly autistic beta male, even if I find the whole Nick Hornby schtick slightly tedious in polite conversation. The problem is that it doesn't take Nostradamus-like levels of prescience for music journalists to predict what's going to be big in the next year when they're so obviously instrumental in setting the musical agenda.
So when the NME tells us that the Klaxons will be big in 2007 (and against my better instincts I actually quite like the Klaxons, even if their new single does sound like Spandau Ballet) , it's an entirely self-fulfilling prophecy, as their young and hugely impressionable readership will lap up whatever's thrown at them, so long as it's cutely-packaged with good hair. And why shouldn't they? This is exactly what I did when I was 16. The Internet may have allowed people to be more discerning in their tastes, but never underestimate the pull of the well-oiled media hype-machine when it comes to dictating musical trends.
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