unpopular

Words on music. Does anyone actually read them?

Are there any decent blogs about music these days? I mean, aren't all music blogs these days just people posting YouTube clips and download links for songs and mix tapes? Is anyone actually writing about music any longer? More to the point, is anyone reading?

I am not sure why I stopped writing about music. Actually maybe that should read 'I am not sure why I stopped writing'. When I brought my old Tangents site to a shuddering halt back in Midsummer of 2007 there were all kinds of reasons not fit for airing in public. Or even in private. Call it a mid-life crisis. Call it exhaustion. Call it the creeping realisation that Work was taking over from Non-Work. Call it the victory of the call of the bicycle over the call of the typewriter. Outdoors versus indoors. 

Maybe too it was giving into the inevitable: even in 2007 the days of websites where words were the dominant media were distinctly numbered. And the number was small.

So, does anyone write about music any longer? Ironically the question is on my mind more because of Work than Non-Work (it's not just me, you want to go and listen to Broadcast now too, don't you?). A colleague asked ages ago if I could recommend some blogs and/or books about music for a Year 10 boy who doesn't really like reading. Typically I have forgotten about it/put it off for far too long. And now it is a summer half term with clouds threatening outside and this is an avoidance technique through which I can put off any number of other tasks, not least of which would be the pile of marking. Anyway, I ask again: does anyone write about music any longer? And if they do, what could I possibly recommend to a year 10 boy?

See, here's the thing: I don't really care about tapping into what any teenager might be listening to in 2013. It is many years since it made any sense to me whatsoever. One of my colleagues said he was interested in 'challenging expectations' in his lessons, and I can relate to that. I think that's what we should be doing as teachers. Kids want to listen to the latest Radio 1 X-Factor whoever, fine, sure, let 'em do that. I'm not judging. Really, I'm not. But in MY class? You'd listen to *insert name of random Unpopular artiste* or nothing at all.

Anyway. Recommendations. For what it's worth, this is what I'd read if I had the time:

Everett True's 'Collapse Board' would be the obvious place to start. There are some great writers here. Period. They write about music, but they don't really. I mean, no-one who really writes about music in any interesting way actually writes about music, do they? The music is incidental. Just like war or fishing or hunting or bullfighting is incidental with Hemingway.

Louder Than War. If I could really find the energy to care much about 'Punk' and such like I might like Louder Than War more than I do. I still find John Robb amusing though. 

Your Heart Out. Not really a blog at all, but Kevin Pearce's project of downloadable pamphlets is astonishing in its breadth and depth. Your Heart Out takes the initial premise of Tangents (tangential connections and pathways) and takes it into uncharted territories. If I was a teenager I'd probably be overwhelmed and confused, but if that's not the definition of being a teenager I don't know what is.

And can I just point you at the archived Tangents site, gathering digital dust way over here? Sometimes I sneak a peek myself and amaze/depress myself at the amount of words we used to write.

As for books, well, you asked for it (actually YOU didn't, but you know what I mean):

Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung - Lester Bangs
Sure, it's obvious NOW, yes, but man, just imagine reading that as a teenager. Imagine you never heard 'Astral Weeks' before reading Bangs. Imagine you never heard Lou Reed before picking up on Lester…

Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom - Nik Cohn
If you can read this and NOT: 1. Fall in love with the immersive power of rock'n'roll and 2. Despair at how tragically rock'n'roll went off the rails, then hey, you have no heart, soul, imagination, optimism or cynicism.

Something Beginning with O - Kevin Pearce
If you could find a copy without needing to take out a mortgage you would know… You'd just KNOW.

Uptight: The Velvet Underground Story - Victor Bockris & Gerard Malanga
Okay, here's the deal. Choose a hot summer's day. Lie out in the sun with your Raybans on. Read 'Uptight'. Reflect on the fact that life will never be the same again.

From the Velvets to the Voidoids: A Pre-punk History for the Post-punk World - Clinton Heylin
Because the US punk scene was always immeasurably cooler than the UK punk scene.

England's Dreaming: The "Sex Pistols" and Punk Rock - Jon Savage
But Jon Savage had a pretty good go at making the UK punk scene seem interesting...

Ask: Chatter of Pop - Paul Morley
If you can remember the '80s you weren't there.

The Go-Betweens - David Nichols
Because everyone needs to read a book about The Go-Betweens. They just do.

Positively George Street: "Sneaky Feelings" and the Dunedin Sound - Matthew Bannister
Because everyone needs to read a book about Flying Nun and the New Zealand music scene. They just do.

Live Through This: American Rock Music in the Nineties  / Nirvana: The True Story - Everett True
Because I understand a lot of young people are still into the whole Cobain/Nirvana thing. Even though they all actually just listen to Foo Fighters and don't know who The Vaselines were. Oh, plus I got a thanks in the intro to 'Live Through This'

"Radiohead" - Welcome to the Machine: "Ok Computer" and the Death of the Classic Album - Tim Footman
I personally have zero interest in Radiohead, but Tim says nice things about my own book in this, so it's in...

Hickory Wind: The Life and Times of Gram Parsons - Ben Fong-Torres
Can't imagine many teenagers these days being even remotely interested in Gram Parsons, but sheesh, if I had my way…

Hotel California: Singer-songwriters and Cocaine Cowboys in the L.A. Canyons 1967-1976 - Barney Hoskins
I guess the whole Laurel Canyon story is more likely to appeal to forty-something burnouts than anyone under the age of twenty, but meh, if I met my eighteen year old self I'd foist this on him (and he'd throw it back in my face and call me an old hippy).

Sway - Zachary Lazar
A novel loosely wrapped around facts, but if I was going to read any book about The Rolling Stones this would be it.

And can I finally be cheeky and recommend my own (now ageing) slim collection 'Young and Foolish: A Personal Pop Odyssey'? You can get in on Kindle you know. Complete with typos and bad grammer and everything. There's a whole section in it dedicated to the Belle & Sebastians when they were whippersnappers don't you know.

I'm sure there is a load of on-line and off-line stuff I've forgotten/don't know about. Leave a comment if you want to recommend something/someone... comments will be open for a week or so.

Mentalettes, Spectrum and Soundcarriers

 

The multicoloured octagon sleeve is the one hundredth release on Great Pop Supplement and contains a 7" featuring tracks by Spectrum, Spacemen 3 and MGMT. It's beautiful. Apparently it has now been 'officially' postponed until later this year due to 'contractual discussions' with Sony, so I guess I'm one of the lucky recipients of the copies that did get released into the wild. The other 7" is by the very fabulous Mentalettes who you may have caught on their recent tour.

The LP that looks like some 1970s 'Music For Pleasure' charity shop find is in fact the new long player by Soundcarriers on Great Pop Supplement. And a very fine listen it is too.

 

Old Man, Don't Waste Your Time

 

Yes, it's the latest two releases on the WIAIWYA series of seven inch singles for 2013. Complete with plectrum and letterpress beer mat. Quality. But you grabbed the recent Unpoular mix so you already knew that, right? Right.

   

Cosines and Reverieme

 

   

Diseases Of England

 

The third and final instalment of The Indelicates' 'Diseases of England' arrived recently. You may also have been one of the backers of the project, in which case you will also have received your three CD EPs and cardboard slip case. If you weren't a backer however, fear not, for you can pick up your copy of the whole album on on CD or slinky vinyl. Alternatively you can pick up the download from the Corporate Records site. It's ace.

 

TV Girl on the radio

It is just over two years since TV Girl first cropped up on an Unpopular mix. I would have to admit that in the intervening months TV Girl have become firmly ensconced as one of my very favourite Pop acts. In a previous lifetime I would be scratching my head and telling you that for the life of me I cannot understand why they are not globally massive, why their infectious tunes are not soundtracking a plethora of adverts on telly. But then I guess that's the curse of petty much any group that get the Unpopular stamp (or curse) of approval. Unpopular by name, unpopular by nature. Sorry folks.

But seriously, how can anyone resist TV Girl? Sassy, smart Pop collages that make all the right kinds of nods and winks. Musical magpies stealing the finest melodies. Hip Hop ripped apart and fed through a blender filled with '50s/'60s bubblegum Americana. 'Nothing Can Stop Me' era St Etienne on Mulholland Drive. You don't think that sounds heavenly? You can listen to 'Benny & The Jetts' and NOT grin like a loon dancing around the living room? Man, you've got no heart.

Filthy

 

This was the sorry state of my bicycle yesterday, after a week of commuting. To be fair, most of the filth was collected on Friday's ride home in a thunderstorm. At least I only had to ride 18km... and I didn't have a chest infection. 

 

Monument

If I can't be perfect at least make me good.<Download link for the whole mix. Right there. Right now. Available until it isn't. (It isn't)

Just A Ghost - I Am A Man With A St Tropez Tan (from 'Just A Ghost')
Michael Collins - The Boy Least Likely To (from The Great Perhaps)
She Didn't Want Me - The Almighty Rhombus (Soundcloud)
Magpies Eyes - Sea Pinks (Bandcamp)
Sorry or Something - Reverieme (Bandcamp)
Bill Drummond - Wake The President (YouTube)
Misguided Tour - Skelocrats (Soundcloud)
Do What You Want, Always - Bored Nothing (can't remember where I got it from but it was free...)
Tonight You Belong To Me - Beat Radio & Sarah Wood (Bandcamp)
Skin - Mount Sharp (Bandcamp)
Monument - Sleuth (from 'Nine Months Mix')
1-2-3-4 Get Fucked - Movieland (Bandcamp)
Let's Get Educated - Sourpatch (Bandcamp)
Engineer Man - The Young Sinclairs (Bandcamp)
∞ - Gal Gracen (Bandcamp)
Surrender - Lockets (Bandcamp)
Cruel - GERMANS (Bandcamp)
Silver - Tyrannosaurus Dead (Bandcamp)
Hey Sailor Boy! - Cosines (Bandcamp)
Ride - Shy Boys (Bandcamp)
Arabesque Bedouin - RADSTEWART (Bandcamp)
I Don't Want To Get Used To It - Darren Hayman and the Long Parliament (Bandcamp)

If I can't be good, at least make me okay.

Confessions of a Shambles

 

I am not sure if I have shared this information in the past, but here is a snippet you may find amusing: In my days at the Glasgow School of Art my friends in the studio called me 'Shambles Al'. It was all down to my love of the jangling Pop groups of the time, many of whom were somewhat disparagingly described as 'shambling' by the music press. Hence 'Shambles Al'. 

You can imagine my delight then at discovering the artist known as Shambles Miller. How could I resist? And how too could I resist a song with a line like "There was something between the two of us that was never going to work / I always thought your time travel theories were pretty absurd / How on earth would we have raised the kids? / Would they be Tardis or De Lorean?" Not to mention the David Bowie impersonation. No, the world doesn't really need another break-up song but when it's this fine we can make an exception.

Now more mature readers (by which I mean readers who have been following this blog for more years than is probably healthy for them rather than age or the degree of their seriousness) will know that I rate 'Freaks And Geeks' as the single most important cultural event of the past few decades and possibly ever. Okay, maybe that's overstating the case, but it's certainly the best telly show of all time, bar none. So no surprise then that whenever I see a reference to the show a grin breaks out and I find myself inexorably drawn in. So it was with ONSIND and their inspired 'Kim Kelly Is My Cognitive Behaviour Therapist'.

I tried ONSIND a couple of years ago and didn't really get on with what I heard so it is likely I would have let their 'Anaesthesiology' set pass me by if not for the Kim Kelly reference. I'm glad I let myself be intrigued too, for it really is a fine record filled with sharply observed politically charged snapshots of contemporary British society. And the Kim Kelly song? Nothing to do with 'Freaks & Geeks' at all, but a smartly focused piece about the outrageous Tory assaults on the National Health Service.

If I were to be horribly critical I might raise an eyebrow and wonder if some of the energy expended in righteous indignation might better be channeled into devising well crafted policies that encapsulate what the opposition DO believe in rather than endlessly shouting about what they don't. But then I'm no longer an angst-ridden twenty-something marching the streets of Glasgow with banners held high, and if you can't do righteous indignation at that age, when can you?

 

A song for the colour yellow

 

This past week I have been photographing the colour yellow. The obvious song of choice for this post therefore would have been Spearmint's very excellent 'Song For The Colour Yellow'. Except it's not on Spotify and it's not on YouTube so therefore clearly does not officially exist. The Twilight Sad should never really be described as second best, but um, this time they are.