Posts
All Comments
A band that wasn't on Spotify is now on Spotify. Experts say this event is culturally significant, as it means that the digitally savvy ones in the family are now going to have to spend most of tomorrow explaining why Apple Music isn't iTunes.
Eurovision happened and we went to the punk exhibition in Seattle.
A Russian politician described U2's 'free' album as gay pornography, which suggests Alexander Starovoitov is using some awful porn. Meanwhile, Bono tried to make us think that his tax avoidance is business rather than greed.
Someone threw sugar at Adam Levine while Brandon Flowers demanded respect.
For Taylor Swift, being a pop star is as great as we've always suspected. That still doesn't excuse Katie Price having another go at it.
Charlotte Church was on the barricades after the Tories got back in as Andy Burnham hoped Morrissey was the key to the Labour leadership.
Dolores O'Riordan was facing charges following a fracas with an air steward and Rihanna went to war with Batman.
Spotify got obsessed with running.
Neverland was back on the market, presumably after a deep clean.
Absolute Radio was kicked off a farm and Sarah Brightman remained on Earth.
Jack White wrote a song called Music Is Sacred.
Going solo: Bob Collins
Closing: Grooveshark
Axed: Never Mind The Buzzcocks; American Idol
Part of 15 Step
March
The time of year so magical that you find yourself applauding Justin Bieber:
so for 1 week it's ok not to be #1. Let's do the right thing & help them win. It's Christmas. @Choir_NHS good luck https://t.co/ORCtFY1k4i
— Justin Bieber (@justinbieber) December 23, 2015
April 9th was officially Riot Grrl Day.
Hey kids, going to Coachella? Leave everything at home. This might be why Charli XCX pondered sleeping in a bin.
Morrisons overhauled their in-store playlist.
For a price, Don Mclean was prepared to reveal the meaning of American Pie.
The remaining members of GWAR found themselves at war with Dave Brockie's family and Justin Bieber can never go to Argentina again. Or to school proms.
Mumford And Sons can't stand the name of their own band.
Rita Ora changed her hair a bit and MTV literally couldn't recognise her, but Paloma Faith's snake was quite a big deal.
Pink issued a big fuck off to people snitching about her weight and Lauren Mayberry did the same to rape theats.
Labour lost the support of Mick Hucknall which was less surprising than the Rifles coming out for UKIP.
Joni Mitchell was unwell, but not as ill as some thought.
Steve Albini wasn't buying in to Tidal and Courtney Love had trouble with publishing.
Brandon Flowers was concerned at what a bad Moromon Mitt Romney is and Cumbrians were worried Sandi Thom was tardy paying bills.
Returning: Kate Jackson; some watered down version of Crystal Castles
Splitting: Noah And The Whale
Going solo: Tom Chaplin
Part of 15 Step
March
It's that time of the year when magazines, websites, podcasts, television shows, groups, bloggers and Facebook Marketing Entities hand out 'best of the year' accolades.
Billboard has done a list, and amongst the winners this year is Joss Stone.
Joss, it appears, is the Reggae Artist of the Year.
You're surprised. How do you think the Jamaican Observer feels?
Puzzled, the paper has dug into the Billboard archive to see if it had somehow missed Stone being hailed as the greatest modern reggae act. It hadn't:
The album did not impress Billboard magazine writer Steven Horowitz who described Stone’s ‘reggae experiment’ as “unconvincing”.Makes you wonder what the guy at number two must be like. Some chap called Bobby Marley.
He added: “For more than a decade, Joss Stone has been a serial genre-hopper. Switching from R&B to blues, funk to rock, the 28-year-old Brit has powered six albums with soulful vocals beyond her years. The songs are technically impressive, as expected from Stone, but unconvincing.”
If you're anything like me, you'll have been hoping for a comprehensive guide to Throwing Muses' discography to reveal itself. It looks like there's been a great one on the web for a while:
CAD 2013 _Red Heaven_ produced by Throwing Muses with Stuart Boyer
1992 furious / firepile / dio / dirty water / stroll / pearl //
summer st / vic / backroad / the visit / dovey / rosetta stone
/ carnival wig
Leslie Langston plays bass. Bob Mould (ex Husker Du) sings on
"Dio". A bit less stunning on the songwriting front, but at least
it still proved that the band were still alive. Initial UK CDs
(CAD D 2013) came with...
The one thing that might have been interesting about Five Seconds Of Summer isn't, while Justin Bieber wanted to cling to purity.
Ed Sheeran and Sam Smith had a weight loss contest, like they work in a office or something. But that wasn't the dullest pop story of the month. This was.
Noel Gallagher did the I don't want my kids talking like Ali G thing again; got a free pass on that again.
Shirley Manson didn't call Kanye West "the loudest clown in town", but Us magazine couldn't quite come to believe that and The Independent struggled with how memes work thinking Britney was writing them herself.
Armani insisted that Madonna didn't know how to use a cape safely. Britney, meanwhile, couldn't even cope with hair extensions.
A court decided that rape anthem Blurred Lines was ripped off Marvin Gaye, apart from the rape bits. Didn't stop Thicke from being invited to an HIV fundraiser.
James Bay is just a hat.
Conor McNicholas is getting Barclays to tweak its comms department a little. He might want to help out Toyota, who aren't that good at social.
Indiana legalised homophobia; Wilco shunned Indiana.
Someone out of Nuclear Hellfrost did something to Dimebag Darrell's grave, for no obvious reason.
ElectroVelvet were chosen to lose at Eurovision.
You know what was rare at Reading/Leeds? Women on stage, that's what. Some people thought that Glastobury's bill had too many Kanye Wests in it. And everyone except the council and promoters knew that T in the Park was in the wrong place.
Taylor Swift bought the perfect domain for hosting hardcore Taylor Swift porn, but won't be using it.
Madonna thought that it was unfair she was missing from Radio 1, but with less live music on the station, maybe her records will be needed to plug the gaps.
The World Health Organisation suggested, to protect your ears, you should only spend 28 seconds at any gig. Fewer, if it's Coldplay.
Closing: Holy Moly; Manchester Roadhouse
Launching: Tidal, the "artist owned" streaming service
Merging: Sparks and Franz Ferdinand
Quitting: Zayn Malik, and Iggy Azalea quits social media. For about ten seconds.
Resurrected: New Wave version Ministry
Returning: Daphne And Celeste
Sam Smith might have won Grammys, but Shirley Manson and Taylor Swift won the Grammys. While Kasabian opened the BAFTAS like a broken sewer enhances a river.
Paloma Faith was prepared to beg to land the 007 soundtrack. She didn't beg enough.
If he didn't take medication, Noel Gallagher would drop dead. Really, or are you just trying to cheer us up, Noel? Or have you gone and spoiled it all by putting a price on an Oasis reunion?
Tyler The Creator launched a TV network which turned out to be a website.
Sly Stone was awarded five million in back royalties.
Yahoo adding a simple 'download audio' button to Tumblr caused nightmares for some users.
Zane Lowe heard Apple Music calling and quit Radio One. Fearne Cotton followed him out the door to spend more time making panel shows for ITV2, probably. More fundamentally, the shift of release days to Friday meant the end of the Sunday teatime chart show.
Jack White's rider included a recipe for guacamole. When people found out, they giggled a bit. Jack White doesn't like being laughed at.
The Tories had a silent auction for a photo of Suggs, which seems odd with him being very anti-Tory.
Streaming data was added to the album charts, which wasn't as unexpected as Australia being added to Eurovision 2015.
The Liverpool Lomax closed in a druggy haze.
It's okay; Azealia Banks can't possible be a homophobe as she has a vagina, and All That Remains don't understand why people are upset with the word "faggot", cause it's just a word, right?
Who could explain Parental Advisory stickers and the vinyl resurgence? Step forward, Gennaro Castaldo.
NME sales were now half what they were for the Melody Maker when it closed; they carried on doing their doings, though, giving Suede a godlike genius award and then undoing the goodwill by giving everything else to Kasabian. People started to suggest the NME was heading for freesheet status.
Madonna falling over at the Brits was the talking point of the evening. Unless you read The Times.
Slayer fans got so out of control, Tony Araya told them to back the fuck off.
Katy Perry shocked to discover the music industry isn't like she thought it would be when she was nine.
Splitting: Steve Forrest leaves Placebo
Reuniting: Blur
Part of 15 Step
January
February
Starting our annual month-by-month review of the year...
Madonna attempted to use Martin Luther King and Nelson Mandela in a promo campaign for her new record. Her explanations made it all worse. Meanwhile, Isreali police found time to investigate leaks of Madge tracks.
Dears forced Deers to become Hinds.
James Blunt had a hissy fit when Chris Bryant suggested he might have found it easy being a musician having come from a family wiht a few quid behind it; in US politics, John Boehner tried Taylor Swift gifs to communicate with the public.
Brian Harvey announced he was carrying out his own investigation into child abuse. It's unclear if he started with the Sia video.
Wes out of Puddle of Mudd got "confused" rode a luggage carousel at Denver airport.
Tesco flogged Blinkbox to TalkTalk, and they double-pinky swore it wasn't cursed in any way. Sony finally admitted that Omnifone had been a dead end.
Sarah Brightman planned to go into space, and Michelle Keegan planned to go into pop.
Sam Smith turned up to work for SeaWorld. Australian seaworld, which, as Smith pointed out, doesn't have Orcas. It just imprisons dolphins and polar bears. Didn't hurt him when the Brits shortlist came out. Nor did ripping off Tom Petty, come to that.
The Canadian copyright police turned out to be helping themselves to other people's content.
Together at, um, shall we say last? Rita Ora and Charli XCX.
Splitting: The Black Crowes, Ryan Adams and Mandy Moore
Reforming: Babes In Toyland
Part of 15 Step
February
Normally, when you hear from a doctor to a pop star, they'll be sat in a wood-panelled room, sweating a bit and trying to explain why the signature on the barbiturate prescription does, indeed, look like theirs.
So it's nice to hear a positive story for a change. In fact, "positive story" is probably underselling this one. It's more like a Christmas Miracle wrapped in a tale of human endurance.
It's the story of Darragh Mulrooney, the dentist who gave Shane MacGowan back a mouth full of teeth. The Independent has saluted this extraordinary work:
Shane recorded most of his great works when he had some teeth to work with,” Dr Mulrooney says. “The question on everyone’s lips is how it will affect his voice. The tongue is a finely attuned muscle and it makes precise movements. We’ve effectively retuned his instrument and that will be an ongoing process.”(Does MacGowan have a reputation for having gold teeth?)
MacGowan’s new teeth make at least one concession to his notorious reputation. A single gold tooth was added to his smile at the singer’s request. Asked what he thinks, MacGowan, a man of few words, says: “I’m getting used to them … it’s good to have teeth again. I feel better about the way I look.”
If you're on probation, and have to submit urine samples to convince the court you're keeping to the terms of that probation, handing over cold water instead of piss is probably a stupid idea.
Didn't stop Meek Mill doing it though:
Mill failed check into court every 60 days to have his travel approved, while a urine sample he submitted was in fact reported to be cold water, although Mill says he did not tamper with it.Yeah. Taking it straight from the tap doesn't make it any better, Meek. The judge isn't annoyed that she thought you'd put it through a Britta Filter.
From MTV:
Gwyneth Paltrow shared a video of her daughter playing the guitar, proving she's inherited dad Chris Martin's music skills.
While Liam battles on, something of a sign of hope in a miserable world - last night, for the first time in two decades... well, this happened:
Yes, Ray and Dave Davies, on stage, together, doing a Kinks Song. Without anyone getting punched at. This was at the Islington Assembly Hall.
It's perhaps inevitable that Liam Gallagher has been involved in an empty spat - he and Nicole Appleton have burned through £800,000 on divorce lawyers to end up with a judge saying split everything 50/50.
I know this might make the phrase "Liam Gallagher is living off royalties for Never Ever" slightly a stretch, but... Liam Gallagher is living off royalties for Never Ever.
Only just heard that Kelvin Knight, drummer with the superb Delta 5, died at the start of the month.
Perhaps the best telling of the Delta 5 story was Kelvin's own account, which he wrote for Lounder Than War a couple of years back. It's a great telling of a turbulent tale, of which this is just a taste:
And any band worth their salt at some point find themselves playing on the back of a flat bed lorry as did we as part of the protest march against a bill being introduced in Parliament on abortion law (it never got anywhere near the statute book thankfully).
The march set off from Hyde Park corner and would pass the Houses of Parliament but a mixture of traffic lights and strange policing left us cut off from the march and going round Piccadilly Circus still playing much to the amazement of pedestrians, car drivers and people on buses!
Most popular stores with Christmas in their titles:
1. Salford Lads Club want to reunite The Smiths
2. BPI claim dodgy CDs mostly a front for terrorism
3. Shane McGowan duets with a whale
4. That time the Radio One DJs had their Christmas lunch at Grey Gables
5. Robbie Williams ruins EMI's Christmas
6. What The Pop Papers Say at Christmas
7. The 2nd half of Sounds Top 10 singles of 1987
8. Larks a plenty: Biffy Clyro release a single on Christmas Day
9. Marr doesn't write to Mozzer that often
10. ITV spam X Factor voters phones
These were the releases trying to cut through the Christmas clamour:
Angelic Upstarts - Bullingdon Bastards
Download Bullingdon Bastards
Lush - Chorus
Fleur East - Love, Sax And Flashbacks
Download Love, Sax & Flashbacks
Rock City - surely the leading light of UK venues which smell of pickled onions - has just turned 35, and to celebrate, the Nottingham Evening Post has compiled a list of favourite memories. Like this one:
Tara DunneThis is a story which should be told every Christmas.
The Comsat Angels, Wall of Voodoo and U2 for two quid. Bono climbed the speaker stack into the lighting rig while singing and got stuck up there. They had to stop the gig and get a ladder to rescue him. The 40 or so people that were there gave him 20 minutes of verbal abuse and I guarantee he heard every word.
The story of Oh My Girl being detained at LAX sounds, at first, like something gone terribly awry:
The eight members were travelling to America for an album cover shoot but were detained for 15 hours in customs.That's quite a terrible thing to have happened, and to be held for 15 hours because border guards thought photoshop props were somehow sex toys (what sort of photoshoot was this?) is outrageous.
A statement from the group's record company, WM Entertainment, said authorities held them after going through their costumes and props.
"They seem to have mistaken them as sex workers," said a spokesman.
The record company also said there might have been an issue with the type of visa the band members presented.Oh. So it's not so much "immigration mistakes pop group for sex workers" as "band management screws up visa application, attempts to spin story to deflect attention", then.
There's a couple of reasons why Taylor Swift trying to own 1989 is disappointing.
First of all: you can't trademark a number. You can't trademark a year. To be fair, Swift wasn't quite trying to claim ownership of that, just 1989 scribbled down, but it's the same thing. Even at his worst, Billy Corgan never tried to command how people might use 1979, even in his favourite font.
Secondly, and what's more strange: Taylor Swift (or Corporate Taylor Swift Inc.) knew 1989 was going to be a big deal; didn't it occur to them that the best time to try and trademark something might be before signing the exclusive special edition deals with Target and launching the product?
In other odd Taylor Swift news, somehow I Knew You Were Trouble appeared on Spotify but credited to Lostprophets. Yeah. Lostprophets. In terms of 'making a prank as uncomfortable as possible' that's up there
Spotify's response was "someone gave us it like that" and a swift (ho-ho) pulling of the track.
Kathy Iandoli contributes a piece on the lost art of cratedigging, which you can read over at Medium:
So what’s the point, right? Well, there is a utility for cratedigging that dates back decades to the earliest days of hip-hop production, because records were the raw materials for hip-hop tracks. The art of sampling was awesome albeit arduous. A producer would find a “breakbeat” (an instrumental section or drumbeat) or a snippet of sound from a record that they liked; play the vinyl on a turntable; and record that piece of music onto a sampler or a sampling-enabled drum machine where it could be replayed and layered in conjunction with other sounds in the beatmaking process.
To acquire the vinyl, they would hunt. They raided record stores and hit record fairs in the early morning hours to scour through crates and crates of wax. The Roosevelt Hotel Record Convention on E. 45th Street in New York City was a big one. Dealers would gather and legends of hip-hop’s Golden Age would arrive and peel through the layers of vinyl to find what they needed.
It's been a grim few months, so it's a lovely change to hear about someone doing something really nice.
Bipolar Sunshine got a Black Nandos card, and rather than just eat all the chickens, he shared the chickens out:
Bipolar and Jazz took the card on tour with them, handing out chicken to homeless people across the country.This is a brilliant story for two reasons - first, it's a lovely thing to do in its own right.
"We were just coming over, just being honest and saying, 'Look, we've got this card, this is what happens, we can get a free meal.'"
Even if you're in Motorhead, even if you're Lemmy, being asked if you're about to shuffle off the planet must be a downer:
"I'm sick of the fucking, 'Are you going to die?' line of questioning. It's getting really old, that question. I’m alright. I'm going out there and doing my best.Even if you weren't talking to Lemmy, asking any guy in his 70s if he thinks he's got long left seems incredibly rude.
"I have good days and bad days but mostly I've been doing alright. The last tour of the States was very good."
Most read this week:
1. Tony Hadley rushed to hospital
2. They're bringing back Top Of The Pops (perhaps)
3. Taylor Swiftonomics
4. The Paris attacks turn out to be about Morrissey
5. The last Mark & Lard show
6. Wendy James comes back
7. Other people's 2015 lists
8. Mercury Music Prize 2015
9. R Kelly tries to ignore his brother
10. Barack Obama works with Coldplay
These were the interesting releases last week:
Placebo - MTV Unplugged
Download Unplugged
Ty Segall - Ty Rex
Download Ty Rex
The Telescopes - Splashdown
Download Splashdown
One of the saddest things about music commentary are those deaths where you hear the news, and don't feel even a sliver of surprise. So it is with Scott Weiland, found dead on his tour bus, outside a motel, at the age of 48.
The BBC might need to think of a different way of describing how Twitter reacts in circumstances like these:
Tributes have been paid to US singer Scott Weiland, former frontman with Stone Temple Pilots, following his death while on tour in Minnesota.Neither of those, strictly speaking, are tributes. Kushner's tweet is half a step away from being "Kushner marked a news story about Weiland as 'read'"; Slash's is an acknowledgement, but barely more than that.
Slash, with whom Weiland performed in rock supergroup Velvet Revolver, wrote on Twitter that it was "a sad day".
"RIP Scott Weiland," said Dave Kushner, another Velvet Revolver member.
As far as Velvet Revolver goes, I'd love it if it happened. But it's not something I can count on, and it's not something that I can control. If it happens, it'll happen. It would be a great thing. I know the fans would love to see it, but I respect that Slash has a solo career and he wants it to succeed the same way that I would like my solo career to succeed. Having said that, whether things work out in a timely fashion, and if it's quarterbacked right by the team and we all work together . . . it's all very sensitive right now, but I'd like to do it. It would be fun.... his BBC obituary recalls a different story:
Set adrift, he recorded a well-received solo album, 12 Bar Blues, and joined the rock supergroup Velvet Revolver - later admitting he did it for the money. "I can't call it the music of my soul," he told Spin magazine.
In aid of the UN Refugee Agency, K Records are offering a pay-what-you-want-sampler. Snaffle it down right now.
Ever wondered what Taylor Swift takes home from a live appearance? Quite a bit:
One thing that is clear is that the concert appears to have made money for everyone involved.That's what everyone else made, of course. Swift would have made at least four million dollars by pocketing the full revenue from the tickets - or, at least, the Corporate Taylor Swift.
The show earned $843,947 that will be split between the authority — hence taxpayers — and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Bucs get half of the profit under the team's stadium agreement with the authority.
Swift's fans bought $40,784 in merchandise during the show. They sipped and gobbled $244,626 in drinks and food at concession stands. The parents of fans and those old enough to drive paid $124,798 in parking.
@texalese I doubt it Alese. TBH we're losing money on every show we do this way so we have to keep the tour shortish.
— Mat Osman (@matosman) November 14, 2015
Just returned from Milton Keynes Theatre District where, as part of the switching on of the Christmas Lights, they had an Olly Murs tribute act.
Odd, though, I found myself thinking. He doesn't look much like Olly Murs. In fact, he could just be any old bloke who has got up out the crowd to sing a few songs with warmth more than talent.
In other words: it was one of the most accurate tribute acts I've ever seen.
And so we turn once again to Morrissey, who has somehow managed to turn the murders in Paris into a thing about him. True To You, the fanzine which effectively functions like Pravda to Morrissey's Kremlin, published this email:
Universal Music, the approach made to David Joseph, since denied by David JosephIt's an odd situation to be in, feeling sympathetic towards a major label, but... actually, their line of "it's too soon to do something like this, but let's talk about doing something" seems to be more appropriate a response than an email going "we should be number one by now".
On 18 Nov 2015, at 15:29, Boz Boorer -------------------- wrote:
Dear David,
My name is Boz Boorer and I represent all of the musicians who played
on I'M THROWING MY ARMS AROUND PARIS (Morrissey).
We are shocked that you have made no move this week to promote the
above song (download/special 7-inch/special CD) to support the people
of Paris. Any other artist would be number 1 with this song RIGHT NOW.
Why are you doing nothing? There is no other song in modern music that
aptly supports the people of Paris.
Most sincerely yours
BOZ BOORER
JESSE TOBIAS
GUSTAVO MANZUR
MATTHEW IRA WALKER
MANDO LOPEZ.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
From: John Reid --------------------
Date: November 19, 2015 at 6:39:51 PM GMT-2
To: Boz Boorer --------------------
Subject: Re: Paris
Dear Boz
Thank you for copying your email to me.
I think we all know that this would be an appropriate and compelling gesture.
I spoke with David Joseph today. His position is that owing to Universal having a very close connection to the events, much as they see your point, they are not intending to release any records in response to the tragic events of last Friday. They feel it is too raw for them given the death of one of their staff members and instead they are going to show support and solidarity in other ways, including concerts in Paris later this year by some of their artists.
However, I believe that Universal would licence the song back for eg a release for proceeds to relevant charities (which I assume would be the plan). In short there may be a possibility here but it would have to be a release via a third party. Personally I think there could be a very forceful statement to be made. It will of course require M's input. Have you discussed this with him - I assume so.
If you want me to pursue this, please let me know. Time inevitably is of the essence.
Yours sincerely
John
John Reid
Partner
Russells Solicitors
There is no other song in modern music that aptly supports the people of Paris.Not "this song is a love letter to the people of Paris". Not just "this song aptly supports the people of Paris". Not merely "we believe this there is no other song that supports Paris as aptly."
The most-read November stories:
1. Mercury Prize 2015
2. RIP: Brandon Carlisle
3. This isn't a post about the Bataclan
4. The ticket resale enquiry
5. First homophobic Eurovision contestant announced
6. Mark Seymour tells racists to not use his music
7. Video: Little Joy
8. 15 Step: Other people's best-ofs
9. The 2015 uberpost
10. Clive James on Chvrches
These were this week's interesting releases:
Smoke Fairies - Wild Winter
Download Wild Winter
Ringo Deathstarr - Pure Mood
Download Pure Mood
Beat Happening - Look Around
Download Look Around
The Comsat Angels - Sleep No More
Download Sleep No More
