October 2010
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The X-Factor Live Shows Week 4
Hallowe’en theme! Plenty of fun had by the make-up department, less by the performers, most of whom had competent but not spectacular weeks. Any exceptions? Let’s see. Readers of a nervous disposition should note that this week’s round-up contains guarded praise for Matt Cardle.
MARY: Taken out of her comfort zone with “Could It Be Magic” and a pair of hen night...
A Suddenly Noisy World →
At my editor’s suggestion - thanks Scott! - this month’s Poptimist is about the Walkman. It was written in a great hurry but reading it back I’m pretty pleased with how it’s come out.
Related
“The most productive kind of serendipity is when the fighting turns into flirting, where the surprise isn’t the meeting but the liking.”
(One of my old columns)
(Mark S told me that the proper fancy word for what I’m talking about in this is HETEROTOPIA! Which doesn’t mean the Playboy Mansion.)
naming blogs is easy: On eyes, jumps, and split... →
maura:
While reading, say, a newspaper, a person’s eye can fall on something and just land there; there’s no discrete action required in order for said person to, say, read a story or look at a picture that’s on the same page as what is currently being read. However, when said person is looking at a Web site and presented with a sidebar of related links, actuallyreading the content at said link...
Why Bryan Ferry's new album trumps Brian Eno's →
rocketsandrayguns:
Nifty Tom Ewing piece comparing/contrasting the new Ferry and Eno albums.
I haven’t heard the Eno yet, but the the Ferry is very good.
Titles such as Alphaville or Heartache By Numbers are pure Ferry, but while it’s as knowing as ever, this is a twilit record, its atmosphere one of ever-encroaching regret. Ferry’s voice is now weaker and more querulous and, set in the...
1 tag
O brave new world →
‘You seem to be enjoying your little bits there,’ prompted the press conference moderator, after the group didn’t show any apparent desire to mention their little bits, ‘Tell us about the link up with Samsung.’
At this point Williams, while staring at his Galaxy Tab like he was holding a fish, delivered the comment: ‘Samsung is great. And we’ve always done it. It...
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Oh Hey There: words wholly unrelated →
ragbag:
pig & piggy bank
!!!!! OMG
No, Minister →
A Treasury source says the policy is “unenforceable” and likely to be ditched before its scheduled introduction in 2013. Another source at the heart of government says the expectation is that it will eventually not happen. Elsewhere I hear that it is “panic stations in the Treasury.”
At root is a problem that should have been apparent to those designing the policy, if detailed advice had been...
Criminal Tattoos of the Soviet Union →
“The grin is a bravado thing,” Murray says. “Tattooing was illegal in prisons, so prisoners made tattoos by melting down boot heels and mixing the solution with blood and urine. Having an anti-Soviet grin was a way of saying, ‘I’m the toughest guy around.’ A lot of these guys knew they would never be released from prison, so they couldn’t care less...
jakec asked: What do you think about writers injecting elements of autobiography into their music writing?
o-song asked: I'm still looking forward to you commenting on the Matt Le May Art v Content article - is that still in the pipeline?
Ponzi!
yvynyl replied to your link: How Many Paid
So genius. So sad. Wait, did you pay?
I’ll tell you for $0.25
How Many Paid →
There is a kind of dreadful purity in this idea.
An Open Letter to Cursor →
charmian:
quotes:
“….strong peripheries tend to take over the center, paratext becomes text and side businesses crystalize into the actual thing. Look at what happened to music (certain genres) : participatory practices have cannibalized pop music, they are pop music now. Remixes, fixes, mash-ups, fan-made videos, leaks, in some case the record itself is difficult to locate. The...
67seven52 asked: Hey Tom, is there somewhere we can hear your appearances on Resonance FM, if we can't tune into the live broadcast? Thanks!
“The iTunes version of 4’33” offers all three movements, a snip at $1.99....”
– Marginal Revolution: Rip-off (via jonathan-deamer)
There was an article long ago in the days of Napster which made the wonderful claim that of all the versions of 4’33” to be found on the service NONE OF THEM were 4 minutes and 33 seconds long.
Searching For The Young Soul Rebels →
Rowland’s artistic breakthrough came in applying the lessons of punk to the ideal of soul: If soul was a feeling, an inner fire, then the technical limitations of the singer were simply irrelevant. If you believed in yourself, your soul and the purity of your self-expression, you were a soul singer no matter how gulping and agonised your actual voice was.
Review of Dexys Midnight...
X-Factor Live Shows Week 3
This was “Guilty Pleasures” week, a theme most acts ignored completely (by “changing their songs at the last minute”). Even so it was inevitable that somebody would do an sensitive acoustic cover of a pop smash and equally inevitable that said somebody would be Matt Cardle. How bad was he? Read on.
PAIJE: Poor old Paije - they seem convinced the way to go for him is the...
“The fact that a single numerical score can reduce a musician’s body of work to...”
– Living in the Age of Art vs Content @ MBV by Matt LeMay
This piece is an utter must-read, sums up very succinctly a lot of wot is wrong with music at the moment.
(via seaninsound)
Worth reading, and a kick in the arse for me to write something in reply. (Here’s a Poptimist column from...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-10-17) →
Buggles (23)
Dexys Midnight Runners (20)
Salem (11)
Steely Dan (9)
Fleetwood Mac (8)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
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X-Factor Live Show Votey Things Week 2
I missed all but the last 15 minutes of this, which meant I got to see BOTH live performances (so back-loaded is the results show in terms of the ‘competitive’ content). But I did not see Storm’s shiny forehead crumple in sorrow as he was evicted.
All Simon’s other groups are going to be out of the competition within a week or two, leaving him time to concentrate on One...
1 tag
X-Factor Live Shows Week 2
Some got better, some got worse, though the ones who got better were mostly the ones who were worse last time… er, anyway, it’ll be a close-ish call tomorrow. Unless it isn’t.
STORM: Did a pub rocker version of “Born To Run”: felt vaguely embarassed when he was straddling a motorbike that was too big for him, then VERY embarassed when he got off it. “Creepy but...
Why pop music makes you remember things wrong →
New Guardian column, about pop, memory, history - all the stuff I like writing about. As such I was pleased with this!
This is the Adam Curtis blog post (and film) I was writing about. The stuff about history-as-experienced also chimes with the Philipp Blom book I was talking about here. And obviously I’m in the middle of my own attempt at a pop history of sorts - just finished the 80s.
“We were casting our film version of the Chilean miners story yesterday, somewhat...”
– Piratemoggy on LJ. If at least some of this doesn’t come true I will be amazed.
10-Year Old Ghanaian-Glaswegian Twins Covering ESG →
via Matt DC. Even men with steel hearts etc.
Never Understand
thevidsarealright replied to your video:I just wrote a blog post about spending New Years…
Bwahahahaha Jesus and Mary LOL more like
It does rather appear that the searing nihilist noise inferno of the JAMC failed to translate to television, yes.
“A ridiculous non-word made up by marketing people who think the term ‘e-mail’ is...”
– Urban Dictionary: e-blast (via jonathan-deamer)
The New Ruins Of Great Britain →
A very interesting interview with Owen Hatherley about his new book. Worth reading all of it, but here’s the music bit:
I was quite keen on making these references, because I find it curious how little those interested in music are interested in architecture, and are perfectly prepared to be philistine about it; so often you’ll find someone who would baulk at ‘that’s just noise!’ talking...
"Don't be fooled" →
Before the end chorus, Bowie moves to free time and sings, suddenly all alone, “Ain’t there one damn song that can make me…break down and cry?,” the last four words a jolt up to a high D, then a slight descent to a run of high A notes. Bowie’s become Johnny Ray, who, as Dexy’s Midnight Runners sang, once broke a million hearts in mono. Bowie, interpreting black music, crafting it with...
Hip-Hop, Copyright and Cultural Legacy Part 1 →
Most Black music tends to fall behind the copyright fences about 10 years after it’s been released.
There’s a cycle that happens to Black music. About 20 years after the music has been released, hipsters and DJs rediscover the music–and champion it once again, oftentimes rewriting the history that comes with it. It happened with jazz, the blues, soul, free jazz, funk, fusion, and now it’s...
“What bothers Albini about corporate encroachment is … how it corrupts the very...”
– And you may find yourself…: In the Logic of the Market, the Market Is Always Right
Interesting thought here in a response to Eric Harvey’s great post last week. Basically, the blogger above argues that Eric and Albini simply have very different views about music’s role. One of the people I tend to...
"Disruptive Change"
“With the invention of refrigerated ships (the first, the SS Elderslie, was constructed in 1884), meat and dairy products from Australia, New Zealand and Argentina opened this British market to international competition. With less than a third of its workforce in agriculture, Britain was the only European country to elect not to protect its farmers and landowners by import tariffs; in...
My Top 5 Artists (Week Ending 2010-10-10) →
Buggles (26)
Dexys Midnight Runners (24)
diskJokke (8)
My Chemical Romance (7)
Black Box (6)
Imported from Last.fm Tumblr by JoeLaz
