I knew something didn’t add up. The BBC 6Music kerfuffle drags on and on – with more and more music fans, politicians and BBC bigwigs all competing to see who can yelp their opinions the loudest.
And yet, all along, something just didn’t seem right. How could the BBC continue to make slack-jawed idiot-vision programmes like I Believe In Ghosts: Joe Swash and Hotter Than My Daughter, whilst cutting 6Music because of budgetary constraints?
Ahhhh. I love this.
When Jenny Tuite of the Dirty Dishes emailed us at Artrocker.com, there was no extended press drivel or desperate pleadings for promotion, just a simple "Hey there! Review us? Hope you dig it." along with a download link. Beautiful.
This could have gone either way mind you - such confidence is usually an indicator of an arrogance that often comes along with crap music. Occasionally though, it’s from people who know what they’re doing is damn good, who won’t be all that offended if you don’t want to have a listen.
Not Squares
From: Belfast, Northern Ireland
On debut single ‘Asylum’ (Richter Collective) Irish punktronic (we really do love inventing these meaningless genres !) trio Not Squares sound like they’ve been wired directly into the national grid. It’s a bundle of nervous energy, a frenzied four and a half minute sensory assault that sounds like Liars after a red bull overdose. While the lyrics won’t win any literary awards when the sound’s this infectious who’s got time to read the lyric sheet?
There’s a tiny town to the north-east of Paris called Peronne.
It’s in the Somme, so it rains a lot, and both the buildings and surrounding countryside are deeply gashed with marks from the two terrible world wars that were fought there.
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(Photo: Christian Haag)
If there’s one thing central to the Passion Pit M.O.–aside from that falsetto–it’s their transfusion of weightlessness: synths seemingly overloaded with helium, drums blasting like air cannons, the whole amalgam sounding like one giant ball pit rave.
For a scale-skinned, fire-breathing beast, Radiant Dragon sounds awful nice: Larry swooning, hushed, about "London, ice and thinking about home" over the sort of slow, suburban waltz Bradford Cox might sustain one of his lullabies with. I think this is the best thing Larry’s ever done; musically speaking of course. "Frost Satellite" is so obviously in love it’s hard not to blush.
Whenever I see another of Lady Gaga’s increasingly out-there stage shows or videos, two thoughts cut through the sick green fug in my mind.
The first one is usually incredulity that the public at large have accepted a pop star who is just so determinedly outré; and secondly, I wonder just how hard Fischerspooner must be kicking themselves, having pioneered the same camp-electro/showtime/weirdness shtick about ten years ago.
I recently saw this video by the Christian Rock band Final Placement. At first, the internet music fan is ’sucked in’ because it sounds like Pavement/the Dirty Projectors, but then it degenerates into post-Modest Mouse post-Lifehouse Nickelback hopefulwave Christian High School rock. It seems to have ‘gone viral’ because it is ’so terrible’ and ‘totally rips off the modern crappy rock band aesthetic.’ Since they are a Christian Rock band, there is also an added element of ‘EPIC FAIL’ according to mainstream internet users who process memes as either ‘WIN’ or ‘FAIL.’ While this meme does a good job of tapping into elements of high-level unintentional comedy, it seems like the meme might have larger ramifications for the indie music sphere.
iLiKETRAiNS DEMO OF THE WEEK:
ISTVAN & THE KOSMAS / DISCO CLUB IMPERIAL
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Read the review of the night...
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Placebo pictures: just in - some photos of Placebo and Brian Molko from last week’s gig at the Glasgow SECC.
Also check out the review here
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