Gary Barlow day is ruined

The BBC - presumably sensing it was sailing towards a rerun of the U2 at the BBC disaster - has suddenly got cold feet over Gary Barlow Day.

The day's original plans have been scaled back. These included numerous appearances across Radio 2, along with Gary's face being superimposed on BBC One's swimming hippos; a special edition of Bake Off where contestants had to create cakes shaped like Gary Barlow; Gary dancing in the background of the News At Six; the entire BBC website having every word changed to GARY for ten minutes; Gary doing the travel for BBC Lincolnshire and Barlow running up and down the stairs at New Broadcasting House wearing the skin of Lord Reith.

Now, showing some restraint, the day will instead consist of Jason Orange doing Ken Bruce's popmaster with one question having the answer "Gary Barlow".

When is a Mandela joke not a Mandela joke? Stop asking and just say you're sorry

Simon Amstell was on Radio One yesterday morning, and made a joke at the network's expense:

Amstell said: "What is going on? We're next to 1Xtra, it's so white in here. Mandela would not approve of the situation at the BBC."

When Nick Grimshaw asked why, the guest replied: "Look at all these people in here." Grimshaw answered: "There's a lot of people."

The comedian then said: "Yeah, but look at the segregation that's happened."

He then laughed when the producer of the Breakfast Show, Matt Fincham, said: "I don't think that's the right thing to be saying right now."

Amstell added: "Well, someone had to say it. Mandela would say it if he was here."

Apparently, this silly joke about how the BBC created a station for black music was offensive, somehow, so Amstell has been made to apologise:

"It may have been unclear this morning, as things often are but what came out of this mouth today was silly. Apologies to everyone involved."

Twittergem: Charlotte Church

From Charlotte Church last night, following the news of the death of Nelson Mandela, came a perfect retweet followed by a perfect tweet:

Pygmies of the left so predictably embarrassing yourselves, know this: not a one of your leaders will ever be globally mourned like her.

— Louise Mensch (@LouiseMensch) April 8, 2013

How wrong Louise Mensch was.

— Charlotte Church (@charlottechurch) December 5, 2013

Listen with No Rock: Warpaint

Warpaint are sharing out a free track from the new album. And it's a Biggy. As in that's what it's called, and also how large it is:

Matt Goss hopes sounding kinda stalkery will help the comeback

With that much-promised Bros reunion still very much an unwanted puppy left in the window of a pet shop on Christmas Eve, Matt Goss is trying to keep things moving by sharing a tale about the time his life briefly intersected with that of someone famous:

He told BANG Showbiz: "We had a lunch with her back in the day and it was an extraordinary experience.

"You had a sense that she knew she had a beautiful presence. When you looked into her blue eyes it was very hard not to blush.

"She had that intensity that a woman should have.

"I'm a hopeless romantic, I was flirting with her, of course I was, I tried my best. I like grace and femininity in a woman."

Where do you even begin? If Diana had flirted with you, that might be an anecdote. "I flirted with someone at a dinner thirty years ago" just sounds a bit creepy. Especially when you say you "tried [your] best", like you were attempting to win a goldfish in a fairground.

But I wouldn't worry about coming across a bit creepy, Matt, as the "intensity a woman should have" and "I like grace and femininity" stuff is more than quease-making enough in its own right.

Spotify simultaneously incredibly generous, unbelievably mean

Brilliant news, everybody: Spotify are pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into rights' holders pockets:

According to Spotify, its new site is designed to provide additional insight into its operation through the use of data and business analysis. As part of that, Spotify said on Monday that it has issued $1 billion in royalties since its inception in 2009. At this time last year, its total royalty payout was at $500 million, meaning during 2013 alone, Spotify has coughed up $500 million in royalties.

On its new Web site, Spotify also tries to make the case that it's exceedingly generous with artists. The company claims to pay nearly 70 percent of its revenue in royalties, adding that "we believe that this is the fair approach to take."

That's excellent, right? Especially since a lot of that cash would never have been handed over in the past, as people would have been simply sucking the tunes off the internet.

I'll go and make dip. We'll have dip and pie to celebrate, right?

Hang on... you look quite glum, Music Week:

As part of a new site specificially built for artists, the company reveals that it has recently paid out an average of $0.006 and $0.0084 per stream to rightsholders.

That figure is presumably a mix of streams on its premium service (thought to be around $0.01 per stream) and its ad-supported free service.

Maybe no pie, then.

Of course, much of this money will, anyone, end up in the key-locking cashbox of labels rather than going towards artist's desire to purchase food and soap.

Spotify reckons that its royalties are roughly double those of YouTube, and more than treble those of Pandora, on a like-for-like basis; it also suggests that a "niche indie album" could earn about three thousand dollars a year. This obviously raises a question of what they consider a niche indie album to be - to me, that sounds like something in the area of a death metal band covering Trembling Blue Stars, but I suspect they could be thinking of something a bit more Primitives-sized.

It's not terrible money, but you really wouldn't be giving up the day job on this alone.

Reggaeobit: Junior Murvin

Junior Murvin, the reggae singer whose Police And Thieves, about Jamaican turf wars, became a soundtrack when the policing at the 1976 Notting Hill Carnival led to a riot, has died.

Murvin's first attempt at music didn't quite work out - a rastaman called Mr Sunny advised him to attend an audition, but his mother, unimpressed by the enthusiasm of Derrick Morgan, Roland Alphonso and Desmond Dekker, called him back home. Luckily, opportunity knocked again, and Murvin started back-up singing - first for Sonia Pottinger, and then for Derrick Harriot.

A return to his birthplace saw him join the band Young Experience, but their lack of a van scuppered them. Three weeks after the split, though, Murvin wrote Police And Thieves - an impressed Lee Perry played the track to an even more impressed Chris Blackwell; a release on Island later, and Murvin had an international hit.

Talking to UnitedReggae last year, Murvin talked about Police And Thieves being covered by The Clash:

I wouldn't even say Police and Thieves is a song. I would say it has moved from a song to a proverb. A proverb is greater than a song, I would put it that way. Music doesn't carry a grievance to nobody. It's just in the lyrical content. Music only talks to you when you play it. Music can't say "hey no play me"". Music can't do that! So as long as the man them sing the conscious things we can uplift the nation with it. But if you deal with violence, violent and downgrading lyrics that call the woman "Gyal" and that sort of thing there "Gyal yuh underwear" and "siddung pon it" I have no business with it.

Murvin was 64. He died from complications from diabetes on Monday 2nd December.

His UnitedReggae interview ended on what sounds a bit like a epitaph:

Tell my fans I wish the best for them and love them and I will always sing until my eyes are closed.

Robbie Williams: I am the 49%

And while we're going through the pile marked "people saying stupid things about homosexuality", it would be wrong to let any more time slide by without recording Robbie Williams' contribution to sexuality studies:

In an interview with the Daily Star, he said: "I love musical theatre and a lot of the other things that are often associated with gays. I am 49% homosexual and sometimes as far as 50%.

I know what you're wondering: How come Williams doesn't score any higher?

However, that would imply that I enjoy having a particular sort of fun, which I don't.

I believe some straight people have expressed surprise at this discovery that the final exam before you get your gay certification works like this, but it's true. Growing up, we've all, surely, had to comfort someone who had put in the hours rimming, cruising, fisting and bitching but failed to get a pass mark because they did poorly on the Rogers And Hammerstein paper. "Sorry, Tom, you know the rules - you might have aced the practical, but if you can't remember the order of the Favourite Things, you're not gay-worthy."

Robbie: Being gay isn't about "liking musical theatre". God only knows what you've got on your list of of "other things associated with the gays" are, but I don't think it matters. Like rimming, cruising, fisting and bitching, those activities like musical theatre and those other things in your mind? They're things that some gay people might do - equally, they're things that some straight people do. Bisexuals do them, too. And pansexuals. But they don't define your sexual orientation.

James Arthur makes watery prime-time sort-of apology

So how would ITV square inviting unacceptable rapper James Arthur onto the channel after sacking unacceptable rapper Chris Fountain?

By getting Arthur to mumble something which sounded like it might have been an apology. DigitalSpy was watching:

Speaking to Dermot O'Leary on tonight's show, he said: "It's been an amazing year for me. There's been incredible highs paired with some terrible lows. I've made a few very silly mistakes.

"I just want to thank all the people who are still supporting me and especially The X Factor for giving me the opportunity to do my dream job.

"Above all, I'd like to say sorry for abusing my position as an X Factor winner, because I owe everything to this thing."

First of all: "abusing my position as an X Factor winner" - that's not even a thing, James. It's not like you're the chair of the Co-Op Bank, or Cabinet Secretary. Nobody thinks your homophobia would be okay if you'd not made it through to Boot Camp.

Secondly: Even if it was a thing, that's not what you should be apologising for, and not who you should be apologising to.

No indication that he understands why what he did was terrible; no suggestion that he shouldn't have said those things. ITV have managed to make things worse.

Soukousobit: Tabu Ley Rochereau

Soukous pioneer Tabu Ley Rochereau has died.

During the period of Mobutu Sese Seko regime, Tabu Ley spent years living in exile - including a spell in Southern California - before returning home in 1997.

He'd first became famous after singing on Indépendance Cha Cha, which celebrated Congolese independence from Belguim:



He stayed with Africa Jazz for a few years, before founding first African Fiesta National and then Orchestre Afrisa International. En route, he helped establish the careers of Papa Wemba, Sam Mangwana, Faya Tess and M'bilia Bel. The latter would also become his wife.

As well as pretty much creating soukous, the Congolese musician also had a political career - he eventually became vice-governor of Kinshasha. He also, apparently, found time to father 68 children and write over 3,000 songs.

Tabu Ley suffered a stroke in 2008, from which he never recovered; he was receiving treatment for the after-effects when he died.

Here's just a couple of those 3,000 songs:

Miley Cyrus ruins anniversary; apparently shows how lovely she is

This piece from ContactMusic reeks of a press team rushing a story out to avoid the risk of someone else getting there first:

Miley Cyrus paid for a couple's meal after she disturbed them in a restaurant.
The 'Wrecking Ball' singer was reportedly noisy and caused a scene when she and a friend went into an upmarket eatery in New York, but after a couple complained, she immediately went over to apologise.

A witness explained to the National Enquirer: ''She went over and apologised and told the folks, 'I'm sorry, I've just had too much caffeine today.' Then she asked the couple about themselves.''

The pair were celebrating their second wedding anniversary, so generous Miley left $100 to cover their bill and posed for pictures with them.

Miley may be famous for her risqué outfits and twerking dance moves, but many people are surprised to find she is actually very down-to-earth and polite.

Yeah, because what could be more down-to-earth and polite than ruining someone's wedding anniversary, throwing money at the problem to make it go away and then leaking the story to the papers to show how great you are?

This week just gone

The most-read November stories:

1. Ian Watkins changes his plea to guilty
2. James Arthur returns to Twitter to defend his homophobic asshattery
3. Simon LeBon worries about filth being flung at pop kids
4. BPI, RIAA ignore licence terms on software
5. Video: Tori Amos - Jackie's Strength
6. Tony Hall has big plans for Radio One
7. Britney Spears has come to save music
8. James Arthur: It's not homophobic if you're talking to a straight guy
9. Buy an indie compilation; help the homeless; see a picture of Grant Shapps in a sleeping bag
10. JFK-related pop music special

This week's releases sound kinda interesting:


Shearwater - Fellow Travelers

Download Fellow Travelers



Brendan Benson - You Were Right

Download You Were Right



Darkside by Tom Stoppard

Download Darkside



Various - Love, Poetry and Revolution

Venuewatch: The Hydro

There's trouble at the Hydro, the music venue spin-off of the SECC in Glasgow. A few weeks after it opened with a Rod Stewart gig, the manager has quit. There's a lot of politeness about it public:

The SECC said: "John believes this is the natural time to take on his next career challenge and allow a new successor to consolidate the potential of the new, expanded SECC campus and enlarged business. He will announce his future plans at a later date."

City council chief executive George Black said: "Having driven this complex and successful project to completion, I wish John well in his future endeavours."

Mr Sharkey said: "It is undoubtedly a massive privilege to have had the opportunity to see the SSE Hydro from its gestation through construction to its successful opening and now it's time for me to take on another challenge."

According to the Herald, though, behind the scenes there's been a hell of a battle over the size of salaries being paid by the project. Not to everyone, of course. Just to the management.

HMV pulls Lostprophets from the shelves

I suppose, pragmatically, there's not a person in the country who would want to buy a Lostprophets record in public now, and in that sense HMV's decision to remove their records from stores makes sense.

On the other hand, it's an interesting precedent that HMV has set, now it's decided that conviction for some child abuse crimes makes an artist's work unacceptable. But only some - Roman Polanski's drugging and rape of a girl, for example, is not a a bar to the chain selling his work; and their Gary Glitter artist page even mentions his convictions while still offering a chance to buy his tracks.

I don't think it's a bad move to have a policy on this. It's just not clear what HMV's policy is.

Pixies split again

What is it with bassists called Kim and the Pixies?

They've just lost the second one in a year. Kim Shattuck posted this to Facebook:

Super disappointed to learn that my time with the Pixies ended today. Amazing experience. Looking forward to focusing my attention back on the Muffs and our upcoming new album. All the best to everyone.

This shouldn't be too much of a surprise - if you had suspicions that she was being viewed as hired help, Tom Howard's Pixies piece in the NME last week would have confirmed it. The manager wouldn't let Howard talk to Shattuck; when he asked Black Francis why, he was told to ask the manager.

Lawson suddenly care what other people think

It's about other people:

Lawson want Rita Ora to be in their next video but are afraid of annoying her boyfriend Calvin Harris.

Oh, Lawson, everything you do annoys Calvin Harris. And anyone else who has ears. Why suddenly start worrying about that now?

ITV apparently OK with James Arthur's homophobia

Here's a surprise: homophobic tosser James Arthur is due to appear on The X Factor this Sunday, and ITV are okay with that:

A spokesperson says, "Both Itv and the producers of The X Factor would like to make it clear that in no way do we support, condone or share any form of homophobia or discrimination.

"Following his comments James has since apologised last week, making it clear that he did not mean to cause any offence and explaining the context behind his remarks."

Yes, ITV seem to be endorsing Arthur's tortuous 'it's not hateful providing you know the guy you're calling a fucking queer is straight' logic.

The odd thing, though, is that when Coronation Street's Chris Fountain was revealed to have pushed an ill-advised rap video to the internet, ITV were less forgiving:

An ITV spokesperson said: "Chris Fountain's contract with ITV has been terminated as a result of the unacceptable comments he made in a number of online clips."

But Chris Fountain also "explained the context", said he didn't mean to cause offence and apologised profusely. He was still sacked.

Not quite sure what the difference is, unless ITV really is so scared of Simon Cowell it's quite happy to apply double standards. But it couldn't be that, right?

Only fools and horses: Dappy takes a tumble

I'm sure all our thoughts and prayers are with Dappy, who cannot ride a horse:

Dappy's representative, Terry Mills, says, “I can confirm that my client was involved in a horse riding accident at home where he fell from his horse and was subsequently kicked in the face.

“Dappy was rushed to hospital where he received medical treatment and is now recovering.”

It does appear that, although Mills doesn't make it clear, Dappy's face-kicking came from the horse; it's not like someone saw him fall off the horse and thought 'well, that's an open goal'.

No word on how the horse is.

It's unclear if this is going to cause Dappy to have to cancel any work he has coming up. Actually, it's unclear what Dappy is actually doing these days when he hasn't been kicked in the face by a horse.

Tourism campaign makes poor choice of singer

There's no shortage of poorly-chosen music-related advertising and marketing campaigns, but the people attempting to turn Ebril into a tourist hotspot have managed to bounce themselves to the top of the list. This constitutes some sort of clanger being dropped:

One of the most recent triumphs for authorities in Erbil, the capital of the semi-autonomous region of Iraqi Kurdistan, had was getting their metropolis named Capital of Arab Tourism for 2014. A schedule of events to draw more attention to the city and to attract visitors has been launched, as has a promotional campaign. But the latter has already run into some controversy.

Local officials have brought in Moroccan-born singer, Samira Said, to perform a song called “Erbil”, in which the musical star, who’s well known throughout the Arab world, praises the locale for its beauty.

Apparently Said was chosen, in part, because she is one of the nominees in the Monte Carlo-based World Music Awards, where best selling artists in each region and in various categories are given prizes. Said has been nominated for her single, “Mazal” and she’s also up for the Best Female Artist prize.

Now, so far, that doesn't sound so bad - Samira Said, with something of a global profile - coming over to sing a song about the joys of Iraqi Kurdistan.

What could possibly be wrong about that?

The same singer, Samira Said, was employed by Saddam Hussein to sing hymns to his regime, the same regime that tried to exterminate Iraq’s Kurds.

Yeah. That's taking "ill-judged" to a new level.

Beyonce banned from graves, only not really

The Mail has glossed the results of Beyonce's bad behaviour at the Pyramids:

Beyonce 'banned' from Pyramids by Egypt's Indiana Jones after her 'stupid and rude' behaviour

By "Egypt's Indiana Jones", they mean "an Egyptian archaeologist who loves himself a bit", Zahi Hawass. And by "banned", if you read the Independent version, it turns out they mean that he withdrew an offer to show her around:

"She said she would come at 3pm but she came late. I said 'You have to say I'm sorry I'm late'. But she didn't open her mouth," continued Dr Hawass, credited with modernising the management of Egypt's ancient sites and who claims to have repatriated 6,000 artefacts "stolen" by Western powers.

"I brought a photographer and she also had a photographer and a guard. When my photographer started to shoot, he said 'No, Stop! I am the one who says yes or no, not you.' I said 'In that case since you almost hit my photographer and you are not polite - out! I am not giving you the privilege of having you on my tour.' I said Beyoncé was stupid and I left."

Actually, "Beyonce told she is stupid" is both a more accurate and more interesting headline than the suggestion that she has somehow been "banned" from the World Heritage Site.

Bad times for H

It's not just the Ian Watkins whose Twitter name is an underscore away from the Lostprophets' child-raping singer. Ian H Watkins out of pantomime, mostly, has also been targeted by people who can't tell the difference between Lostprophets and Steps.

Still, at least there are proper entertainment journalists who won't make that mistake, right?

Yes, that's the entertainment experts over at E!Online confusing the two Watkins.

The Mirror says that H is considering legal action over the error, although their actual quote:

When asked if the Steps singer was considering taking legal action, a spokesperson replied: "We're not sure at this point."

... doesn't quite say that so forcibly.

Billy Joel might have made first contact; possibly cured cancer; could steal moon

The world, and all seven billion people upon it, are expected to fall silent next week, as our new leader Billy Joel will address us:

Billy Joel just announced that he will hold a press conference at Madison Square Garden on December 3rd to make an "exclusive and historic announcement." Neither he nor the arena have given indication of what they are going to announce, but the moment will be broadcast live on Fuse, the MSG Network and BillyJoel.com.

A historical announcement, eh? There's no way that's just going to be a few extra gigs, because nobody would attract attention to such a 'man does job' press conference in such terms, would they?

My guess is that he's pulled off cold fusion. I literally cannot wait for this moment of unprecedented import in our planet's story.

They've made Robyn into a robot

How about watching Robyn meet a robot that's been based on her?

The robot is able to detect music and make rudimentary dance moves, giving the appearance of some sort of emotional life. Which already makes it more than qualified for a role in Little Mix.

The team at Sweden's KTH University plan to have the robot completed early next year.

Ian Watkins changes his plea to guilty

I suspect this isn't the greatest day to be called @ianwatkins on Twitter - an underscore away from being the child-raping lead singer of Lostprophets, @ian_watkins.

This, though, is a pretty astute point:

Pop media demonises *former* child Miley for "sexualisation" of youth over Lostprophets' male heartthrob who raped *actual* children.

— Ms Slide (@sliderulesyou) November 26, 2013

...but I guarantee that he won't be brought up as an example of "sexualisation" of children in the same way Miley Cyrus is.

— Ms Slide (@sliderulesyou) November 26, 2013

It does look from the evidence reported in court that Watkins used the band as a way of persuading young women to do things that were criminal. The biggest risks aren't the ones on stage.

Shirley Manson: Cyrus c'est moi

There's been an interesting contribution to the chatter about Miley Cyrus from Shirley Manson:

Manson said: “I disagree in some ways with how Miley has been castigated. I think it’s a very complex issue.

“But put it this way - when I was starting out with Garbage in the 1990s, I wore see-through dresses, and I used to grab my crotch and my boobs.

“Nobody batted an eyelid at the time. Nobody castigated me. But she has been treated like the antichrist.

“Artists make their own decisions and know there may be repercussions. It is up to them.”

It's tempting to say 'well, it's not quite the same', but there's a chance that what I mean is 'that was okay because I like Garbage'.

Even allowing for that, though, there's surely some differences, not least of which is the sort of image Shirley and Miley had. Sure, Shirley had a strong, sexual image - but would you have seen her doing Robin Thicke's rape song with her ass in his groin? Would you have given much for Thicke's chances if he'd even asked?

There's a risk in assuming that there's just sexual and not-sexual, rather than a range of different motivations, audiences, messages and attitudes and trying to use a binary filter leads you into the sort of on/off switch of David Cameron's porn filter. It's possible to defend Cyrus' right to artistic self-expression while still not being convinced that it is self-expression.

If Cyrus is delivering her own vision, there's surely a strange coincidence in how much that vision looks like it's the next step in a sideboob arms race with Katy Perry and Lady GaGa.

The wisdom or otherwise of Shirley's suggestion that Miley knows what she's doing, and knows the potential repercussions - well, we'll find out if that's the case over the years to come. Let's hope she's right.

Public Service Announcement: Stay in your homes, disconnect all electronic equipment

Scientists have warned that a dangerous new strain of half-arsed pop has been created, with a strain of X Factor makeweights crossing over into second-string reality television:

Gaz from Geordie Shore has made a record with The Risk.

The surprise? It's actually rather good.

Sorry, that should be, it'd be a surprise if it was actually rather good. It isn't. It sounds like something that Craig David might have done if he'd had a bad cold one day.

However, there is some fun to be had, watching the room-meat dancing in the background, and counting the number who are desperately trying to look like they're enjoying themselves, against those who can't even be arsed to pretend any more.

2013 Steps To Nowhere: Other people's choices

Being a sampling of best of, highlights, sales charts and other cumulative gatherings of lists of the best of 2013.

Part of 2013 Steps To Nowhere

Last updated: 21 December 2013

Brian Brehmer, NME reader: His musical highlights of the year:
The Replacements getting back together
The Songs For Slim project

Glamour's song of the summer:
Blurred Lines - Robin Thicke

Drowned In Sound's Top Tracks:
5. Ya Hey - Vampire Weekend
4. The Throw - Jagwar Ma
3. Reflektor - Arcade Fire
2. GMF - John Grant featuring Sinead O'Connor
1. Mirrors - Justin Timberlake

Zane Lowe's 100 hottest records:
Wild For The Night (feat. Skrillex) - A$AP Rocky
Attracting Flies - AlunaGeorge
Echelon (It's My Way) - Angel Haze
Afterlife - Arcade Fire
Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High - Arctic Monkeys
Love More Worry Less - Bipolar Sunshine
Carry Me - Bombay Bicycle Club
Shadow Moses - Bring Me The Horizon
Carry Me On (feat. Chrom3) - Brookes Brothers
Rango - Catfish And The Bottlemen
Be Your Toy - Cerebral Ballzy
Lost And Not Found (feat. Louis M^ttrrs) - Chase & Status
The Mother We Share - CHVRCHES
Get Away - Circa Waves
You & I - Crystal Fighters
Human - Daughter
Baby I Call Hell - Deap Vally
White Noise (feat. AlunaGeorge) - Disclosure
You & Me (Baauer Remix) - Disclosure
Earthquake (feat. Dominique Young Unique) - DJ Fresh & Diplo
Bloodsports - Drenge
Headlights (feat. Nate Ruess) - Eminem
Alive - Empire Of The Sun
The Paddington Frisk - Enter Shikari
The Phoenix - Fall Out Boy
Awkward - FIDLAR
Recovery - Frank Turner
Cool Like Me - Fryars
Hate Or Glory - Gesaffelstein
Ready For Your Love (feat. MNEK) - Gorgon City
The Wire - HAIM
Call Me In The Afternoon - Half Moon Run
Isis - Hot Natured
Messiah - I See MONSTAS
Man I Need - Jagwar Ma
What Doesn't Kill You - Jake Bugg
Retrograde - James Blake
Holy Grail (feat. Justin Timberlake) - Jay Z
Run (feat. Pusha T) - Joel Compass
My Yout (feat. Maverick Sabre) - Joey Bada$$
Love Me Again - John Newman
The War - Josh Record
Crying On My Own - Katy B
Easy Easy - King Krule
Beautiful War - Kings Of Leon
EDM Death Machine - Knife Party
Master Hunter - Laura Marling
Calling - Lewis Watson
Salient Sarah (feat. Sampha) - Lil Silva
Strong - London Grammar
Backroads - Lonely The Brave
Bring The Noize - M.I.A.
Oblivion - M84
Beggars - Mallory Knox
Bath In Black - Marika Hackman
I'm Aquarius - Metronomy
Don't Forget Who You Are - Miles Kane
Panic Station (Madeon Remix) - Muse
Come Back Haunted - Nine Inch Nails
There Will Come A Time - Noah & The Whale
I Found Love - Palma Violets
Follow Baby - Peace
Entertainment - Phoenix
Chain My Name - Poliça
My God Is The Sun - Queens Of The Stone Age
Waiting All Night (feat. Ella Eyre) - Rudimental
Walk Like A Man - Ruen Brothers
Young Blood - Saint Raymond
Nirvana - Sam Smith
Too Much - Sampha
She Will - Savages
Reload (Original i.e. Non Vocal Version) - Sebastian Ingrosso & Tommy Trash
Booyah (feat. We Are Loud & Sonny Wilson) - Showtek
Elastic Heart (feat. The Weeknd & Diplo) - Sia
Rollercoaster (feat. Sam Frank) - Skream
Turn It Around (feat. Kele) - Sub Focus
Get Down Low - TC
Chocolate - The 1976
Fly - The Child of Lov
Shot At The Night - The Killers
Hearts Like Ours - The Naked And Famous
One Way Trigger - The Strokes
Blue Collar Jane - The Strypes
Melody Calling - The Vaccines
Kiss Land - The Weeknd
Your Body Is A Weapon - The Wombats
Sunset (Jamie XX Edit) - The XX
Fragment Two - These New Puritans
Children Of The Sun - Tinie Tempah
Hold Me - Tom Odell
Holding On To You - Twenty One Pilots
Changing Of The Seasons - Two Door Cinema Club
Diane Young - Vampire Weekend
Love Is To Die - Warpaint
There Goes Our Love Again - White Lies
Afterglow - Wilkinson
Blackout (feat. Shakka) - Wretch 33
Sacrilege - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Lived A Lie - You Me At Six
Middle Sea - Yuck

New York Times Artsbeat year of Kanye West:
Is it possible to compare yourself to god in a comfortable, non-weird way?

NME Top 10 albums:
1. AM - Arctic Mokeys
2. Yeezus - Kanye West
3. Like Clockwork - Queens Of The Stone Age
4. Holy Fire - Foals
5. Silence Yourself - Savages
6. Random Access Memories - Daft Punk
7. Reflektor - Arcade Fire
8. Push The Sky Away - Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
9. Once I Was An Eagle - Laura Marling
10. The Next Day - David Bowie

NME sleeve of the year:
You're Nothing - Ice Age

NME EP of the year:
Tally All The Things That You Broke - Parquet Courts

NME Mixtape of the year:
Acid Rap - Chance The Rapper

NME video of the year:
Nerve Endings - Eagulls

NME book of the year:
Autobiography - Morrissey

NME Tracks of the year:
1. Get Lucky - Daft Punk
2. Reflektor - Arcade Fire
3. Do I Wanna Know? - Arctic Monkeys
4. Disclosure featuring AlunaGeorge - White Noise
5. Sacrilege - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
6. Avant Gardener - Courtney Barnett
7. Xanman - Pond
8. My Number - Foals
9. Royals - Lorde
10. Black Skinhead - Kanye West

Markos Papadatos' Top chart-topping country track:
I Drive Your Truck - Lee Brice

Pretty Much Amazing's best songs of 2013:
1. Step - Vampire Weekend
2= Reflektor - Arcade Fire
2= Play By Play - Autre Ne Veut
4. Song For Zula - Phosphorescent
5. Get Lucky - Daft Punk

Ben Ratliff of the New York Times' songs that transcend the tricks:
1. Womanchild - Cécile McLorin Salvant
2. Sunbather - Deafheaven
3. Coming Apart - Body/Head
4. Mestres Navegantes: Edição Cariri
5. Craig Taborn Trio - Chants

Speedy Ortiz's collective favourite part of the year, via Brooklyn Vegan:
Exploding In Sounds Records

Stereo Sanctity blogs the best live performances of the year:
Helen Love, Indietracks

2013 Steps To Nowhere: The year in review

No Rock And Roll Fun is coming to the end of the year - I suppose everyone is - and that means it's time to gather the best records, in ours and others' opinions, review the year in a twelve-part canter through the months (that's coming closer to Christmas), and remember those who've died over the year.

This post, though, doesn't do much beyond provide an index to all these endeavours. It will grow as the days pass.

Other People's Choices

Most read on No Rock 2013

January in review
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

Best releases of the year
Valete: A year of obituary pieces

Eurovision 2013 - full coverage
Glastonbury 2013 - full coverage
Brits 2013 - full coverage
Mercury Music Prize
NME Awards

Beastie Boys try to shift themselves back onto wrong side of history

It's easy to forget these days that when they first burst into the world, ripping VW badges from cars and putting women in cages, the Beastie Boys weren't universally adored.

So discovering that GoldieBlox have taken one of their shittiest, most sexist moments and turned it into a girl-positive, pro-engineering advert is going to be embraced by the band as a chance to further distance themselves from their youthful missteps, right?

Oh... apparently not:

Along with Universal Music, the Beastie Boys sent a letter to GoldieBlox threatening a copyright infringement claim. GoldieBlox decided to strike first, and has filed for a declaratory judgment in California, saying that their version is a parody and it's protected fair use.

You know what? If I owned the copyright on a song which suggested a woman who wasn't interested was "probably gay" and dreamed of "girls to do my laundry", I think I'd be delighted to see that someone had come along and fixed that for me.

Twittergem: Gary Kemp

In its eulogy for Tie Rack, BBC News compared the chain and rival Sock Shop with some New Romantic heavyweights.

This sort of thing doesn't go unnoticed:

So Spandau are Sock Shop and Duran Tie Rack. White towelling, in that case. http://t.co/1RmegHahiv

— Gary Kemp (@garyjkemp) November 21, 2013