Radio 2 ≠ Middleage

Realisation hit me last night at the pub quiz with the question “Who replaced Chris Evans on the Drive time show on Radio 2?”  The answer is Simon Mayo.  I only know that because I listen to it.  I realised that I may be turning middle aged.  I am not 30 yet, a few more months to go, but not just yet. 

 

Now, I only really listen to the radio in my car as my CD player doesn’t work properly, and I don’t listen to Radio 1 as Chris Moyles is on in the morning, and I can’t stand the man.  I would listen to 6 music but you don’t get that on old school radio. 

 

Anyway, it has good music on, yesterday I was listening to the Doors on the way in, The Cure today.  The downside is that they play awful lot of rubbish.  Especially during the day, when they had in Interview with Jedward and then played their horrific version of Vanilla Ice crossed with Queen.  On the flipside (ooh listen to me with my youth vernacular) they had an interview with Lloyd Grossman, the TV chef and pasta sauce creator, who also plays in a punk band. You don’t get that sort of thing on Radio 1.  You also don’t get classic tunes from Curtis Mayfield, Johnny Cash and Pink Floyd.

 

Anyway,  I have had my quarterlife crisis (its a real thing, google it) and I am not really that fussed about turning 30, but then again, what is wrong with turning 30 anyway.  Most of my friends are now either married or having kids, so is that what it means?  Is it having a good job and a nice car, because I am not there yet, and won’t be for the forseeable future.

 

I don’t feel 30, so I know what I will do…carry on as normal and go to gigs and listen to Pendulum in the car.

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End of the Deacde

As we get to the end of the decade, people are starting on their countdown lists, and Music seems to be the one thats getting the most already.

I started with the Telegraph list, which annoyed me.

Then I found a guy on here who is doing his own list where he is counting down every day until Christmas Day.

This then led me to Pitchfork, who have done a top 500,  and I have to say that its one that I can see the sense in which is  good.

The thing is, nobody will get it right, its too subjective, and anyway, who else would pick Pack of Wolves by Nightbreed.

Alternatives

I own about 700 albums, and I wouldn’t say that any of them were what would e socially thought of as “Pop” music. In my eyes there is a time and a place for Pop music and it is at 14 year old girls birthday parties. But there was a time when it meant popular. This was back when the charts meant something, when you had to sell more than 4 singles to get in the charts. A time when Top of The Pops got 8 million viewers a week to see all sorts of bands, making music that was popular, it didn’t matter whether it was rock and roll, disco, or blues it was popular and people wanted to see it.

Now would you call The Killers “Pop” I guess not, how about Kanye West, that would be a no too. Going back a few years would anyone describe Radiohead, Oasis or Blur Pop, I don’t think so. How about Nirvana or even the Sex Pistols. All of these have had number one albums that have sold millions of copies, but none of them would be described as “Pop”. Kurt Cobain would probably turn in his grave if he though his music was “Pop”. The second highest selling album of all time is Back in Black by AC/DC. I am one of the 50 million people that own this album and its not pop.

The alternative to Pop is, well, Alternative. Its everything not popular, it’s supposed to be the stuff that that the fat beardy muso’s listen to in the bedrooms of their mums houses. But it’s not, genre’s are where its at now.

For some reason genres have taken over and bands are being pigeonholed into smaller and smaller genres.  Take Metal as an example, as a genre you could say that this is pretty easy to define, but you can break this down even further into many different genres.  Death Metal, Nu-Metal, Hardcore, Darkcore, Thrash, Stoner, Folk, Glam, Industrial, Extreme, Progressive, Alterative to name but a few, and thats not even going into the crossover genres.  It seems that every band is trying to carve out their own niche and now this meansd inventing a new genre.  Next time someone tells you they are “like, well into avant-progressive rock”  (i.e. Animal Collective), tell them to fuck off as its alternative.

Summer Burn CDs

I am going to start with a quote from Nick Hornby, courtesy of the brilliant book High Fidelity:

Rob: “To me, making a tape is like writing a letter. There’s a lot of erasing and rethinking and starting again. A good compilation tape, like breaking up, is hard to do. You’ve got to kick off with a corker, to hold the attention (I started with “Got to Get You Off My Mind,” but then realized that she might not get any further than track one, side one if I delivered what she wanted straightaway, so I buried it in the middle of side two), and then you’ve got to up it a notch, or cool it a notch, and you can’t have white music and black music together, unless the white music sounds like black music, and you can’t have two tracks by the same artist side by side, unless you’ve done the whole thing in pairs and…oh, there are loads of rules.”

So here we are, earlier in the year Mack had asked via the power of Facebook for people to make up a CD full of Songs that they like to hear in Summer. Then to send 2 copies to him where he would distribute them amongst the people that were doing it and you would get 2 different CDs back. I did mine and thought it was quite good. One of the others that I got back was excellent, it had Bands like Dashboard Confessional and Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly! on it.

Rob: Now, the making of a good compilation tape is a very subtle art. Many do’s and don’ts. First of all you’re using someone else’s poetry to express how you feel. This is a delicate thing.

The second that I got back was a nightmare in terms of a mix CD. Firstly there was 2 songs by The Beautiful South as track 1 and 2, then there was a whole section from the Now Thats what I call Music! CDs from the mid nineties.

The Outhere Brothers- Boom Boom Boom

B*Witched-

Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince – Boom Shake The Room

and

Jimmy Nail- Shes Lying

There was some good stuff on there too, like The La’s and The Wonderstuff, but all in all not great.  Maybe however these are that persons favourite songs for summer, but my guess would be that they found a Now CD from when they were young and remembered a care free summer.  To he honest it should have had PJ and Duncan on there…Mind you, mine did have 99 Red Balloons.