Judes control international media: the jumped up little shits on ILX discuss the Guardian music pages in 2009

http://www.elearningadvisor.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/debate.jpg

Rob Fitzpatrick, I will deal with your TV On The Radio cover-piece for The Guide...tomorrow, when I have restored faculties and the burning zeal of the newly-woken

I know the original thread title contained a biting Mikey Hann reference, but the Trades Description Board demanded a thread title edit for the benefit of all posters who will have to look at this on New Answers every Friday.

Here's hoping this thread throws up anything half as good as "DO YOU RECKON YOU COULD HEAR AUTECHRE AND LIVE, BECAUSE I DON'T", because if it does, we've got a winner on our hands here.

Is there any way to move this thread to facebook somehow, I wonder.

looooooool

Hey Pash:

http://www.elearningadvisor.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/debate.jpg

As long as you don't mind me changing this thread title on a weekly basis, you are welcome to debate away.

btw Dom you forgot "YOU WOULDN'T EVEN SURVIVE ORBITAL AND I CAN DANCE TO ORBITAL, YOU FUCKWASTE"

ahh good times.

here's hoping for more balanced, incisive criticism come sunrise!

As long as you don't mind me changing this thread title on a weekly basis, you are welcome to debate away.

― Matt DC, Sunday, 11 January 2009 01:54 (46 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Can we change the font for the thread to comic sans?

^^^^^this

Not worth it tbh. There's a couple of promising sentences about coolness and the shallowness of the 19 year-old musician but really the talking is largely left to the band.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jan/12/beyonce-single-ladies-economic-downturn

we all remember the famous crash of september 1985.

a) Sean Michaels is the pits
b) I think he posts here actually or at least used to on the Chris Hansen-baiting Teenpop threads
c) Word in the street is he actually has no interest in music whatsoever and only set up his MP3 blog so he could leverage his way into a book deal
d) This is gonna be the big problem with dead tree moving online: that's not quite a blog piece, but it's not quite a "straight-up rewrite of some shit off the wires to fill space". It's kinda lingering halfway between.

that maybe, but the guy sure knows what's poppin in the 09:

Six months ago, Annie seemed on the verge of superstardom. She had recorded with Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos, feuded with Girls Aloud, and the Guardian spent almost 1,500 words profiling the "proper pop star".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/jan/13/phil-collins-non-ironic-revival

VanDenHauwe

13 Jan 09, 4:55pm (about 2 hours ago)

Do you like Phil Collins? I've been a big Genesis fan ever since the release of their 1980 album, Duke. Before that, I really didn't understand any of their work. Too artsy, too intellectual. It was on Duke where Phil Collins' presence became more apparent. I think Invisible Touch was the group's undisputed masterpiece. It's an epic meditation on intangibility. At the same time, it deepens and enriches the meaning of the preceding three albums. Christy, take off your robe. Listen to the brilliant ensemble playing of Banks, Collins and Rutherford. You can practically hear every nuance of every instrument. Sabrina, remove your dress. In terms of lyrical craftsmanship, the sheer songwriting, this album hits a new peak of professionalism. Sabrina, why don't you, uh, dance a little. Take the lyrics to Land of Confusion. In this song, Phil Collins addresses the problems of abusive political authority. In Too Deep is the most moving pop song of the 1980s, about monogamy and commitment. The song is extremely uplifting. Their lyrics are as positive and affirmative as anything I've heard in rock. Christy, get down on your knees so Sabrina can see your asshole. Phil Collins' solo career seems to be more commercial and therefore more satisfying, in a narrower way. Especially songs like In the Air Tonight and Against All Odds. Sabrina, don't just stare at it, eat it. But I also think Phil Collins works best within the confines of the group, than as a solo artist, and I stress the word artist. This is Sussudio, a great, great song, a personal favorite.

illhaveyoubutler

13 Jan 09, 5:03pm (about 2 hours ago)

@VanDenHauwe

Do you realise how much that little speil of yours sounds like the one Patrick Bateman (or Christian Bale if you like)has in American Psycho. I believe shortly after that he brutally "offed" some poor woman. He also had appaling taste in music and that little case in point proves thats not good for the psychie..

Excellent review of the new Springsteen album by the great Richard Williams.

Always one of my favourite music writers and in my view wasted writing about sport - this piece is evocative, intelligent, loving but objective and makes me want to listen to the record immediately.

Here's a valid link to that review: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jan/23/bruce-springsteen-working-dream-review

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jan/30/lily-allen-koko-review

could have own thread rly but: examples of the newspaper giving a high star rating that does not reflect the contents of the review.

On the surface, rock and pop in 2009 doesn't seem radically different to rock and pop four years ago

....really?

I mean, to my parents, or anyone else over the age of 40, that's probably right, but in terms of being "accurate", no.

we didn't even have soulja boy then.

Plus, didn't her album come out in 2006?

Yeah, July 2006, so actually two and a half years rather than 4 years as he's trying to make it look.

I noticed that but didn't want to mention it.

xp

Seriously though, the subbing on the Guardian's musical section is a fucking disgrace.

This was a worse gaff by Simon Price in the Independent at the weekend:

(Roger McGuinn's) guitar skills are equally well-preserved: on "Eight Miles High", one of several Dylan songs he covered with the Byrds, his fingertips are a blur.

the subbing on amirite

Shouldn't need to be subbed on that one. Should have GOT IT RIGHT IN THE FIRST PLACE amirite?

To be fair, the sub could have changed it and fucked it up themselves.

I don't know much about GhostBox but that Petridis review this week piqued my curiosity and displayed how much better he is writing about things he's enthusiastic about than half-arsedly taking the piss out of whatever big release he's obliged to review that week.

Manages to get in the obligatory Stereophonics dig though.

If he's reviewing something 'weird' he'll always do a "this is no Sterephonics!" move, if he's reviewing something 'normal' he'll always pull "it's not exactly Laurie Anderson!" or whatevs.

haha

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jan/30/leeds-grunge-scene

It's hard to tell if it's the fault of the subjects or the writer but this is pretty cringeworthy stuff - probably enough standout lines in here for the next HMHB 'epic'

Never heard the songwriter as player-manager analogy before.

"I didn't have a dad, so I listened to Dave Grohl." ;_;

Which of those bands sound the least like My Vitriol are worth listening to then?

Although Wonderswan wear the check shirts of their American counterparts - all these bands wear unfeasibly tight trousers

I'll have it known that Mark Arm used to wear the tightest black jeans known to man. Saw Mudhoney in Manchester at the height of baggy and they were totally pro-skinnies. Even changed the words of 'Touch Me I'm Sick' to 'Lemme See Your Pants'.

"If you're involved in the music scene in Leeds, you get it rammed down your throat that the Kaiser Chiefs and the Pigeon Detectives are your legacy"

http://www.capitolnps.com/images/img-head-desk.jpg

Don't get me wrong, I'm not indiephobic, but...

I saw Wonderswan play in Sheffield and they were pretty crappy and self-regarding. They sounded a ot more like a 'noisy' post-Pavement act or some Merge also-ran band (complete w/feedback 'freakout' end to set) than grunge.

Think I'm going to see Pulled Apart By Horses tomorrow night with Sky Larkin and Cowtown (the Hyoo Stee-vuns tour). Their guitar-whirling and such can come off a bit try-hard, but their songs are a pretty decent amount of fun.

(The Kaiser Chiefs thing isn't entirely inaccurate, mind - there's a fucking huge wall mural of them by the escalator in HMV doing their bored-as-shit faces, and the drummer one's reading The Beano like Eric Clapton did that one time and grrrr)

That Kaiser Chiefs/Pigeon Detectives thing sounds entirely accurate to me. I doubt the people trying to sell X New Leeds Band give a second thought to the Wedding Present or the Sisters of Mercy.

God I fucking hate that Kaiser Chiefs drummer

> Sky Larkin

Are this lot any good? They're doing an instore in town here later today, not sure whether to bother or not.

Do you like noisy shambolic female-fronted Steve Lamacq indie from, I dunno, any time between 1993 and 98? I quite like them.

It's probably a sign of how little I go out these days that I've only seen Sky Larkin the once (and never seen Dinosaur Pile-Up, which is bizarre given just how bloody often they gig around here). Wasn't really blown away, though I was probably having a strop at the time, but I really liked the single they had out at the back end of last year hell of a lot. I'd say worth it.

What, like um Tampasm? (x-post)

My favourite Leeds band at the minute are Two Minute Noodles, tho. Who it would be fair to say sound absolutely naff-all like grunge. I can't remember the clips on their Myspace being entirely representative of how skillz they are live, though, so you may have to just take my word for it that they are excellent.

Dinosaur Pile-Up

This is a good example of how to do the Google-friendly band name properly.

Two Minute Noodles

This really, really isn't.

It's a bit late for Petridish to get on the GhostBox ambulance and his review is typically misleading, preferring to do a Brodies Notes summary of tedious '70s nostalgiauntology memes whereas what Belbury Poly (sp. Guardian subs) etc. actually sound like is Vangelis circa 1978 with the studio mike left open to pick up the chatter of dinner ladies.

MEMO TO GUARDIAN EDITORS: STOP TREATING YOUR READERS LIKE IDIOTS WHO DON'T KNOW HOW TO READ REYNOLDS AND K-PUNK

YOURS,

MARCELLO CARLIN

Unfortunately it is necessary for readers unfamiliar with the music the critic is supposed to be describing to describe it accurately. If, for example, Shed were compared with Shed Seven, this would result in multiple refunds having to be made to disgruntled customers.

I assumed it sounded a bit like Boards of Canada, which isn't an enormous leap from "sound like is Vangelis circa 1978 with the studio mike left open to pick up the chatter of dinner ladies".

Vangelis circa 1978 with added chatter sounds brilliant by the way.

If Boards of Canada were the Pistols then GhostBox would be hauntology Oi!

Excellent point well made. Let me know when you manage to apply that kind of discerning ear to grime.

I've applied it for the best part of a decade.

When it's good, I enthuse about it.

When it's bad, I don't.

Simple, really.

and if anyone else likes it, that's a bonus

At the end of the day Neil, music was the real winner.

After a late own-goal from the music critic XI!

It's the story of the season.

If Boards of Canada were the Pistols then GhostBox would be hauntology Oi!

Haha aaaand that's just sold it to me!

look to your laurels, tony naylor.

there's a new blog in town.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/feb/02/fanzine-simon-reynolds-blog

It makes sense that today's mouthy-git critics serve their apprenticeship on blogs, often graduating to intermediary webzines like The Quietus, Pitchfork or the late lamented US outlet Stylus: online publications that tend not to pay much (or anything) but compensate by conveying cool status, access to a large readership and relative freedom in terms of word count and style.

cough, splutter, etc.

the lol of this is that grimey's article is FAR TOO FUCKING LONG to be a blog post. perhaps that's the point he's trying to make.

I know when I wrote for the late, lamented US outlet Stylus I felt the warm glow of cool all around me.

It's all well and good lamenting Stylus now, but where was Grimsim when that magazine's writers needed defending from Tori Amos fanatics?

Hatemailing Passantino along with everyone else, I guess.

<img src="http://www.wiccankitchen.com/symbols/swedjat.jpg";>FEEL U.

Was Carlin sincere about Richard Williams on the Boss?

Yes.

http://www.insidesocal.com/prepsports/coin%2520flip.jpg

carles unmasked:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/feb/06/simon-reynolds-animal-collective

Poor old Grandpa Reynolds, still trying to stir unstirrable things up. Someone fetch him a hot towel and a cup of decaffeinated cocoa.

I just find Animal Collective averagely boring. That's it, I'm afraid. No manifesto. There are better musicians about and better records to spend your money on.

Grimey Simey said something about Stylus having the best new music writing on the web, at the time

And better books than Totally Tedious: Post-Punks Interviewed By A Plank.

a nice namecheck for the local garda in that reynolds piece.

Tim Jonze sticking up for Grimsim in the comment section of a blog attached to a national newspaper: truly, this is how it ends, not with a bang but a whimper.

*Raises eyebrows at 'Bromanticism'*

surprised by the cynicism and negativity of the comments tbh

been forwarded that AC thing twice already, haven't read it, get the impression it is a 500 word version of http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd120/hipsterrunoff/animal_collective-pic-by-adriano-fe.jpg

Summed up my views on it here: http://ichlugebullets.wordpress.com/2009/02/06/a-thoughtful-and-reasoned-discussion-on-the-blog-hipster-runoff-its-wider-significance-in-the-blogosphere-and-the-recent-interview-with-its-founder-carles-by-rob-harvilla-in-the-village-voice/

^^^ surprised by the cynicism and negativity of the comments tbh

xpost Great comments on that post.

Both of them are from Australian IPs!

i wonder who that could be

dude with a cape IMO

PhD in stating the bleeding obvious goes to me!

a nice namecheck for the local garda in that reynolds piece.

The Underworld reference was made on the ILM thread yeah? And/or somewhere else?

Just there I think.

http://www.woodenstilts.co.uk/images/animations/clown_waving_hc.gif

I actually spoke to SR via email briefly and I reckon he used it after that.

Bring it. http://shallowrewards.blogspot.com

An industry that is responsible for Phil Collins' version of "Tomorrow Never Knows"

woah woah

tl;dr (assuming, probably rightly, that I don't need to go beyond line two of para 1 to know what this is about)

"In the past there was no need to muddy music's sheen with troubling biographies and sociopolitical depth. You would never look to pop music for social currency of that kind with Boy George on the radio. I mean you get near to addressing real issues in your music, you're Midnight Oil, and you're boring the ass off everyone."

Wow. Where do you begin explaining everything that's wrong with this generalisation? On the other hand, why bother?

"it wasn't true then!"

Weren't we doing the Chris Ott zings in a different thread?

I've just read it in full. Journalistic conscience; more fool me.

It's kind of like the old "Neville Baker-Street" thing on NME minus the funnies.

who writes footnotes to their blog? jesus.

But, you have bothered, Dorian. Don't you see that?

Joe, you are correct - I believe Jesus did as well.

[1] "jesus" here is used as an exclamation of dismay, rather than as an answer to the preceding question.

And the people rejoiced.

every year there are a handful of records that make everyone stake out a stance. They're not consensus records in the sense that everyone thinks they're great; the consensus here is simply that this is worth getting worked up about. We literally agree to disagree. Merriweather is this year's first discursive flashpoint album. Last year we had Vampire Weekend, Portishead, Lil Wayne, Kanye West; if you look at the past five years, MIA defeats all-comers in this category.

100% pure BS

well, it's just unverifiable. who is 'everyone' in this word-cluster? who is 'getting worked up'? who is 'we'?

if he means, 'people who follow the writings of simon reynolds', he is correct-ish on that score.

but im not sure the majority of guardian readers, still less non-guardian readers, will assent.

it's not so much BS as just evidence of how narrow an audience Reynolds is writing for (what he writes there will ring true for most of "them")

really cool that they covered baby guts who are an awesome band and nice folks

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jan/30/baby-guts-first-sight-michael-hann

doesn't he basically mean the internet/music blogosphere audience (which he's writing for on the Guardian BLOGS). statement makes perfect sense in that context.

doesn't he basically mean the internet/music blogosphere audience

you'd know better than i, but surely this corner of cyberspace -- ilxor, your blog, simon reynolds's -- is quite a small one, as stevem says?

or is this it?

erm...yeah the animal collective record is only being discussed on my blog and on ilxor...

seriously open your eyes? it's the big net hype record of the year...everywhere.

the only question is how many people are that "internet audience", in any case if you read the piece SR explicitly acknowledges the argument that "nobody is actually listening to this".

not saying it's only being discussed on yr blog and on ilxor, but it's a big internet out there. what do you mean by 'everywhere'?

xpost

ok so if he's admitting that (it was tl;dr tbh: blogs r supposed to be pithy), why say 'everyone' is talking about it?

if you think "the blogosphere" is a narrow audience in 2009 then I'm v surprised by that, it is so big as to barely mean anything.

almost any music resource I read has given a mention to that AC album and that includes German techno mags like De:bug etc, or Resident Advisor. It's plainly a big crossover record.

If by saying "everyone" he means the blogosphere for whom, as a blogger, I assume he's writing, ie people who learn about music via blogs, then I think it's perfectly valid to use the term. A record reaches a critical mass where people who would never have heard a band listen to them and form an opinion about them.

I'm living proof of that with AC but there are plenty of people who'd be in the same boat.

If you want to vainly praise yourself for not caring then very good. But "internet music" is a genre in itself now...and has a specific "everyone" all of its own.

im not vainly praising myself; ur just being defensive. saying 'everyone' to mean 'the blogosphere' is silly, though, if you step away from the internet for a minute. lol jokes coz im saying this on ilxor to someone mentioned in reynolds's post, but it is a big world out there.

keep reaching for that rainbow

Most people I know have never heard any of those records. Possibly most people I know have never even heard of them. I think I've heard snippets of one of them (Vampire Weekend).

So clearly it's not true that 'everyone' is talking about them. OK, accept that as hyperbole. Is everyone on the internet talking about them? No. Is everyone who loves music talking about them? No. OK - but surely, at least, everyone who writes or reads dedicated pop websites and blogs is talking about them? ... No. None of the sites I look at (which are written by quite expert, knowledgeable, niche-specialist sort of people) talk about them at all.

This doesn't mean they're bad or uninteresting; just that it's obviously dumb to say everyone is talking about them. Not just dumb, it's obfuscatory and self-defeating: it's so untrue that it kills whatever argument he's actually looking to make.

'Internet music' cannot possibly be a genre. That's like saying 'TV music' or, wow, 'radio music'. The www is just a technical tool on which music is heard, discussed, disseminated etc; there are as many genres on it as anywhere else in life, and most people into one or two of those genres don't hear much about most of the others.

Only a fool would waste time arguing with you on this thread.

OK - go ahead!

I'm not reading this whole thread, but I think we can all afford to let people slide on the (very common) use of "everyone" to mean "a lot of the audience I'm addressing and the limited world we're talking about, which there's no point wasting time delineating specifically."

(Yeah, sometimes it's embarrassing when someone clearly thinks their "everyone" is a bit bigger than their "everyone" actually is, but the use of the term that ways is not exactly a big deal, is it?)

I <3 it when the zingfox turns up

When would that be?

http://healthcare.zdnet.com/images/spanish_inq.jpg

the *whole* thread is about general Guardian pop stuff, I think.

re the SR article: Nabisco's point is fine in general. We all use words imprecisely but practically, in particular contexts. But what SR was worse and dumber than that, because the size or nature of the group in question was the very subject he was talking about. The question: what has become of the middlebrow or middle ground? what kind of consensus can we have; what shared public space or knowledge exists, in this differently mediated era? - is genuinely interesting, and even important, and he does address it here to an extent. But you totally short-circuit that question by lazily translating your usual small audience into the whole world - that kills the question before you've had a chance to ask it properly.

Only a fool would waste time arguing with you on this thread.

that was meant to be crossed through, of course. so this would make me the fool.

I think the Pinefox is not usually to be considered an authority on whether or not a record is popular, or widely discussed, or whatever, but he's basically right here. Animal Collective mean nothing to the majority of this country, MIA and Vampire Weekend less so but the debate about bands (unless they're, like, Oasis or something) is very rarely something that carries over into the 'national conversation', in the way that other subjects like TV or sport or even books do. I'm not even sure that the Guardian blogs audience is similar to that of 'the blogosphere'.

the good honest people who have their dinner in middle of the day care nothing for this nonsense

Kinda wasn't wanting to bump this thread ever but this is a piece of work and a half.

Obama belongs to a tradition dating back to slavery that includes the likes of Frederick Douglass, WEB Du Bois and Martin Luther King

Kenyan slavery?

I wasn't gonna post it considering who wrote it but it's worth knowing what people out there think I guess.

appalling

Unibrowed Evening Standard hack has opinions4u, story at 10.

illuminateme

13 Feb 09, 3:38pm

we see all the ppl that actually know sumting about Hip-Hop are sayin the same thing about this JOKE of an article- seriosly the writer of this must only listen to the NOW! albums go back to writing for Smash Hits magazine you absolute SHAM!!!

as for the ppl that disagree with me or every1 on here with some sense, dont even bother writing here because your opinion IS WRONG!!!
just a bunch of Toff's that cant relate to anything that is in danger of opening your minds, go back to ur game of Croquette ye posho's

<3 the use of 'ye' in this one

criquet

Homie, don't do that

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/mar/27/45rpm-vinyl-singles

Not irritating so much because its in The Guardian or badly written or whatever, but just because... well, how many more articles where a middle-aged man fetishes vinyl can there possibly be to be written?!

See I have nothing against Bob Stanley or obsessive vinyl nerds in general but I really would have expected him to have enough self-awareness to read over something like

Listening to Kid Cudi's Day and Night on Spotify just doesn't give me the thrill of taking the record from the sleeve, placing it on the deck and guiding the arm into what RCA Victor called the "microgroove". Scouring the internet for contemporary pop 45s by, say, Girls Aloud or the Sugababes, is a miserable experience; the fact that Push the Button and The Show were never even issued as 45s I find profoundly sad

and think to himself, come on now Bob

Profoundly sad indeed.

It's kinda weird how this thread shows up in my bookmarks with it's original, unaltered title:

Judes control international media: the big men on ILX discuss the Guardian music pages in 2009 has new answers

Site New Answers

Judes control international media: the jumped up little shits on ILX discuss the Guardian music pages in 2009

i didn't even know it was called that originally. much funnier.

i guess hardmatt dc didn't get the reference?

jumped up little shits is funnier tbh

If I were under 30, attuned to CDs, then Napster, then Spotify, I probably wouldn't give two hoots. And yet ..

To me it seems like he's acknowledging that it's a predictable stance to take for someone his age, but that doesn't make what he feels any less real. But then he contradicts himself by suggesting that Top 10 singles should be issued on limited edition 7-inch vinyl, when he has already pointed out that the core demographic for those singles has no interest in the 7-inch single as a music format, which would make it a pointless exercise, sales-wise.

yes that Stanley para is very lame

Knowing I can't, and that Push the Button was only ever issued digitally, sets me on the edge of a panic attack.

you're lying

Come the punk era, 45s were broadsides to the next generation from the suburbs, on a back-to-basics, prog-trashing, R'n'R format, and too fierce for airplay. In the 80s there were the Smiths singles, so perfectly packaged, so aesthetically desirable next to the straights' music of choice - Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms on a compact disc.

GCSE level cliché

(A-level cliché might be to say that Dire Straits were actually quite alternative? I'm not sure)

Stanley's crap was written in 1 minute flat and sent in unchecked and published unread by anyone with any taste

next to the straights' music of choice - Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms on a compact disc.

The assumption is that early take-up of the CD format was among 'What Hi Fi' (and similar) readers (males in their 30s and up?), and that Dire Straits would be a good example of the kind of music such people would have liked at that time. But is that actually true? I certainly remember talking to people like that in the early '80s, and quite a few of them did express a liking for Dire Straits (along with things like Phil Collins), but I'm not sure if they embraced the CD or still preferred vinyl.

It's a good thing that Saint Etienne never released their work on CD, and don't have, gosh, 6 CDs' worth of material available on Spotify.

I like some Dire Straits songs better than some Saint Etienne songs
I just about like a few Saint Etienne songs better than some Dire Straits songs
I like just about Smiths song better than every DS or SE song

just about EVERY

basically I don't really that Bob Stanley is in a very good position to attack Dire Straits

in fact I imagine he quite likes some of their records, or maybe I'm being too generous to him in imagining that

don't really THINK

I don't know why all these words keep vanishing

I think Bob Stanley is erasing them.

are you in a good position to attack Bob Stanley?

have you seen his article?
after that, anyone is in a good position to attack him
for writing such a load of garbage

he even got paid for it, probably

so, Yes
I am

likewise anyone can say Dire Straits were shite

I don't really like any Dire Straits or St Etienne songs much, to be honest. 'Sultans of Swing' is quite sprightly, rhythmically, and pleasant to listen to, as is 'He's On The Phone' but that's as far as my enthusiasm goes. Apart from anything else, I don't think I like the vocalist in either band.

i think the article is an elaborate joke or something.

A joke that's not funny?

Hi-Fi buffs would definitely have got Brothers In Arms on CD, cos it was something like the first fully digital album available.

I am not sure the Pinefox is really in a position to attack anyone for making glib comments about music they don't like.

Dire Straits were not very good.

Brothers in Arms was one of the first albums to be directed at the CD market, being the first full digital recording (DDD) released, although not the first recording digitally recorded and mastered. It was also released on vinyl and cassette.

Brothers in Arms was the first album to sell one million copies in the CD format and to outsell its LP version. A Rykodisc staffer would subsequently write, "[In 1985 we] were fighting to get our CDs manufactured because the entire worldwide manufacturing capacity was overwhelmed by demand for a single rock title (Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms)."

(from wikipedia)

There you go. Oddly though, I think that Mark Knopfler would probably feel much the same as Bob Stanley about 45s going down the tubes.

He's exactly the sort of guy who would drone on about the romance of buying your first seven-inch.

its about time someone had the courage to stand up and speak on the democratisation of the music industry brought about a 45 of 'how much is that doggy in the window'. The musical and politcal landscape of of the country shifted beyond recognition.

oh and everyone know the real punk was on tape

It's about time middle aged hacks stopped going on about how much better everything was in their day.

Yeah, newspapers didn't used to be like that did they?

I know, a vain hope.

Do the Guardian even know there's a reggaeton revolution going on? I don't think so.

Not to mention the hot, hot sounds of aquacrunk.

i dunno if they should be talking about that stuff anyway

I was joking.

Presumably blueski was talking about the promotion of ketamine use

Meh, its a very lazy piece, it was more complicated than that.

Brothers in Arms may have been optimised for the *sound* of CDs, but as an object, it wasn't designed for the shape and form of the CD, otherwise it would have had a better cover.

The punk needed a single track format because most of the new bands didn't have an album in them (yet, and sometimes, ever) it would have been even better if there had been MP3s (and the stuff to play it on).

Counter example - 'Prove It' (one of the first green vinyl 12" I can recall) had very little connection with the impact (or lack of it) that Television had.

Besides, the 45s real heyday was mid Sixties and (in the UK) the 70s glam rock.

Petridis on Dylan today: spends ages, takes up most of available wordage, talking about how other people are going on about it and that annoys him - JUST LIKE HE DID LAST TIME 3 YEARS AGO, when he again didn't bother listening to or talking about the record

god what a useless prick

he's the new / old Tanya Gold!

I had no idea that there was any notable groundswell of excitement about this album until I read that review - thank goodness I did

I have set my hair on fire and started running around the office, I'm so excited.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/may/22/female-solo-synthpop-stars

Williams sees this avalanche of new female talent not just as a "backlash against lad rock" which has been dominant for several years, but also as testament to the enormous influence of two recent musicians: Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen, whose catalytic effect on this generation of performers could be compared to that of the Sex Pistols and the Clash during punk.

nice crepey strapline: "Paul Lester investigates new young women artists"

depressing

as testament to the enormous influence of two recent musicians: Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen, whose catalytic effect on this generation of performers could be compared to that of the Sex Pistols and the Clash during punk.

Wish I had the afternoon off so I could peel away the thousands of layers of awesome that this line is.

can we stop comparing things to punk plz kthnxbye

even seasoned music business insiders are surprised by the huge number of young women currently getting record deals. It's like riot grrrl actually happened.

Guardian links to Carlin post on ILX:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/may/29/terri-hall-foot-in-mouth

However, unfortunate stage comments are usually a lot less serious. Geographical confusion is a common theme. Judas Priest were booed offstage when supporting Led Zeppelin in 1977 after singer Rob Halford told 60,000 Californians, "Hello San Francisco".

hang on...

Terry Hall making a daft football comment is hardly equatable with Clapton urging his audience to vote for Enoch.

Also if the writer had bothered to check his own links he would have known that the Dixie Chicks made their remarks onstage at the Shepherd's Bush Empire, not in Texas.

But who needs journalistic standards - it's a GOOD STORY!

Oh god. Of all the threads they could have linked to.

xp it wasn't a particularly good story IMO.

in uncut magazine this month one of groove armada says we're kowtowing to europe and should pull out of the convention on human rights.

i'm boycotting their new album. oh wait.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/jun/02/scene-and-heard-hardcore

Yeah that was pretty unreadable

and self-confessed hardcore lover, Gavin McInnes

^^^this really boils my piss when people do this - "self-confessed" doesn't fucking work as a term when it's referring to something most people would consider perfectly acceptable

black hardcore greats like Bad Brains

Presumably the numerous other examples were left out for space reasons amirite

It's awesome the way the whole article is about race and then the punchline at the end.

The music sounds either tinny or hoary and it's packed with utterly forgotten names - who today holds a torch for Marion or Salad or Echobelly? Even the artists who have survived into the Noughties have done so in weirdly diminished circumstances: Oasis may still be packing stadiums...

lol britpop

but seriously, dude, STOP MENTIONING OASIS!!!!!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/jun/27/music-writing-bangs-marcus

http://www.imasuper.com/myuploads/2009/03/release-the-hounds.jpg

Polemical headline.

Doesn't mention Parkes, Kulkarni, Finney, Sherburne, Host.

Granted this was from a few months ago and was only ever meant to be a puff piece but WTF.

I found that after searching for info/evidence for prosecution after seeing this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSJEf1cF6pY

There was a time when I was at the job centre! Trying to get a job - in music! And they couldn't even get me a job in one of the record stores!

These guys are the new Palladium then?

The new Gay Dad surely?

ned is their street team.

Most likely to: Swagger like Jagger.

Louis, presumably?

Vengeance is Sony's. The pricks.

Perhaps hoping Rhodri will write a story about it?

You never know. He just mentioned on Twitter that he'll have a blog post soon, at least...

What was it when it was at home?

A hapless band, best ignored (though ned was a fan).

They entertained me in ways few bands have.

Anyway, here's Rhodri's blog piece on it:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/aug/04/raygun-sony

Wow. It's been a long time since I saw a boy wearing that much eyeliner.

This is a parody, right?

Go nuts:

http://www.myspace.com/raygunofficial

No, seriously, this is like Shut Up Bands has put together a compendium of all the stupidest things that bands say and do in press kits and made a movie about it, right?

Here, have a mojito.

errr... MAYBE coz I can't say no coz I'm too scared... on facebook... A HA HAHAH.

It's kind of alarming when a band's image makes me want to crack wise about 19th-rate late 90s Stay Beautiful bands and then their music makes me wish they actually did sound like that (not a wish I'd ever previously have thought possible)

I find Raygun's latest Myspace blog to be curious:

August 4, 2009 - Tuesday

Le Weekend
I've spent a lot of my weekend watching you tube. I blame Cody High school for this because he posted a link to a video on my last blog and that turned out to be like crack to me. It resulted in me getting very into watching conspiracy theory videos about the Illuminati. They passed the time excellently. When I got over my fear of the end of the world I decided to go out and watch Moon, which by the way is excellent. Highly recommended, I'll say no more.

It's a busy week for us this week, it being single release week. Lots of interviews today and tomorrow and then a gig at the Water Rats on Thursday - I expect to see you all down the front.

Yesterday we worked up a little surprise cover for attendees of the show we're playing at G-A-Y on Saturday. I'm not gonna reveal what it is but it was sounding good yesterday and as long as we still remember it on Saturday night at 1am after several fizzy lemonades all will be good. Now then, G-A-Y?! Do real gay people actually go to G-A-Y? Or is it just straight people wanting to have a night out going gay clubbing? I guess I'll find out on Saturday.

Next week we're off to Malaysia. We're playing a show on MTV Asia with Kasabian and All American Rejects. It's a hard life i know but someone's got to do it.

Oh and I nearly forgot to say that this week on Friday we'll be in Westfield shopping centre in Shepherds Bush playing a couple of sets at 3pm and 7pm so if you want to see exactly what kind of a mess we're in then come and say hi!

See you there!

Adj

P.S. i just realised we've put up a video game on our myspace, it's particularly good because I get to crash the car and kill Ray whenever I want, it's even got blood!

Sorry, I didn't actually notice the music at all, it left utterly no impression on my ears. None at all. That's actually really quite curious. I can't remember if I hated them or not. The songs just slid off my ears without leaving a trace with only their abject stupidity (wrapped up in the wide-eyed innocence that they clearly thought they were being very clever) to remember them by.

Wait, that picture of that singer with blond hair. They've been around a long time, haven't they? 8 years, they said? I've run into them before in some dingy toilet venue.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/sep/11/muse-the-resistance-review

Seems slightly odd to use a clarinet solo and "singing in French" as examples of Muse being on the verge of tipping over the edge into self-parody and musical excess in a week when The Beatles are going to top every chart in the world ever, doesn't it?

four stars? it doesn't read like a four-star review.

Maybe they're four asterisks?

everything in the latest Observer Music Monthly gets three or four stars, except the new Editors song

3 and a half?

2. feel the fucking burn tom whateveryoursurnameis.

Joy Division knock-offs not up to scratch shocka

Everything getting 3 stars / 4 stars is one of my biggest annoyances in music criticism; if you look down the lists at Metacritic it makes music journalists seem like a joke - every other medium critic, film, games, TV, whatever, calls shit when they see it, and you end up with a healthy amount of yellow and red boxes. But so many music reviews are so magnanimous that everything ends up green; this could be down to every album really dividing opinion, of course, and getting loads of high-scoring reviews and loads of low-scoring reviews, but by and large it's not (the averages are too high for that to be the cause in any case). It's no wonder that people don't give a fuck about music anymore when even the critics are just shrugging and going "it's alright if you like that kind of thing".

The OMM has actually grade deflated - it used to be universal 4 and 5 stars.

I suppose the editor would say something like "We only review the best 50 records of the month, so of course they all get at least 3 stars - if they didn't, we wouldn't feature them!". Except, if that is the case, they only really need a two star rating system **=Absolutely superb, *=Just fantastic. Or maybe just one star - which would be reserved for the absolutely superb.

Seems slightly odd to use a clarinet solo and "singing in French" as examples of Muse being on the verge of tipping over the edge into self-parody and musical excess in a week when The Beatles are going to top every chart in the world ever, doesn't it?

Uh... it's MUSE, dude. Context is everything.

four stars? it doesn't read like a four-star review.

It's a classic Petridis "I am obliged to give this a good review but I want you to know that really I think it's shit". See also that Primal Scream record from a few years ago.

I'm not in the least bit surprised at Muse singing in French or using a clarinet. Which may be the point, but I'm not convinced by the delivery.

Yeah but singing in French and using a clarinet would make total sense and sound natural and possibly pretty good if you are The Beatles or, I dunno, Yo La Tengo or Hope Sandoval or someone, but if you're Muse it's bound to sound ridiculous.

Perhaps; my immediate reaction was that, of all the things that Muse could do to tip themselves over into outright unbearable pomposity, clarinets and French seem pretty tame.

Making the CD / MP3 explode inside your CD player / iPod the moment the album finishes, for instance, would be more on the mark.

Or maybe just one star - which would be reserved for the absolutely superb.

Melody Maker used to do this, it worked well I think

the Michelin guide to music

which I guess makes Youthmovies the choco-camembert tilapia of music

I think by and large music review sections are slightly different than the others Nick cites in that albums are generally done by a large pool of writers who do one or two things each, as opposed to having the 'in-house film critic' or whatever? Reviewers tend to end up getting stuff that they actually have an interest in

That's a very good point, Mencap. Which is the best way of doing things, do people think?

the Michelin guide to music

what a disaster for momus

if you're Muse it's bound to sound ridiculous.

indeed.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/sep/11/the-unthanks-heres-the-tender-coming-review

Mad that this, "haunting, original, and magnificent", gets the same score as Muse, "not all of it is palatable".

I dunno, does it matter?

I mean, your concern over the ratings seems to hark back to some pre-00s idea of marks out of five as part of a Buyer's Guide that's no longer necessary when the vast majority of Guardian readers are going to be able to easily hear both albums in their entirety before they buy them. If they buy them at all.

I don't quite get why the Guardian is persisting with it other than out of force of habit.

If the majority of any publication's readers can access music online, why write reviews in the first place at all? Besides force of habit. And if you are going to write reviews, I'd like them to be a bit more useful.

i think the grau should sack the lot of em

the vast majority of Guardian readers are going to be able to easily hear both albums in their entirety before they buy them.

The thing with this is that there are LITERALLY MILLIONS of albums you can hear in their entirety on line before buying them these days, and it would help if you had a handy guide to which ones you should listen to first, before not buying them.

Of course I never or hardly ever read any music criticism so my opinion is rather useless.

Yeah but there's a difference between a descriptive review that filters the mind-boggling amount of stuff out there gives you an idea whether you're going to want to take the time to listen to it, and a mark out of five that tells you virtually nothing.

i noticed that the graun has "music newspaper of the year" on the front of the review section, but not how/why they got this

I think they got it by having a typesetter pick out the appropriate letters.

Think the Daily Express or something had been saying it's Newspaper Of The Year for about five years.

Sure, I agree. I'm just disputing that a mark out of five as a Buyer's Guide is no longer necessary.

Well, admittedly the word necessary is perhaps not the write one.

xposts

write?

what the hell.

I've been to the pub, sorry.

They really have a song called "Exogenesis: Symphony" ?!?!?

That's... that's... you know, if Chrome Hoof or Litmus were to release a song called Exogenesis: Symphony, I'd think that was the most fantastic thing ever. But it's *because* it's Muse that it's so freaking hilarious. I want to hear this song now.

Putting the 'Genesis' into Exogenesis: Symphony.

Many xposts

Mencap OTM. I get sent 4-5 albums to cover each month and I get a vague choice of what I'd like to cover, so while I'd love to do 10 or 0 star reviews, it's rare that I end up with something I hate landing on the doormat (at least since those trick-or-treaters from last year finally gave up on us). Similarly, 9 or 10 star albums are also pretty rare and don't crop up every month. I'm never going to give, for example, The Orb's new album a 10 star review even if it is pretty good.

The other danger is hyperbole for hyperbole's sake - hating something just because you're in a bad mood, or not the right mood at the time of writing to fully appreciate "DJ Turntablepsycho's Greatest Gabber Nosebleed Bangers". More importantly, the reviewer might be sent, for example, a prog-house mix which might work as well as any other prog-house mix but being another prog-house mix warrants neither a yay or nay.

With books, movies etc opinions seem a lot more immediate. This is because one is unlikely to come back to these media more than maybe twice at the most whereas people will listen to a bought CD many more times. However I cringe at the number of albums that I've given 8 star ratings to that I know I'll never listen to again, and yet rated well because they do have good qualities.

yeah er way to misread, southall -

"Almost inevitably, the listener will arrive at a point during Muse's fifth album when they are gripped by the absolute certainty that some kind of limit has been reached, that the trio simply cannot continue further on their current trajectory without succumbing to self-parody, and making a record of such high-camp ridiculousness that the only response is to laugh at them. Perhaps that point will come during the three-part orchestral work called Exogenesis: Symphony. Or I Belong to You, a song based on a Saint-Saëns aria that features frontman Matt Bellamy singing in French – plus a clarinet solo. Or perhaps the title track, on which Bellamy becomes the first non-Daily Mail reader in years to use the words "thought police", apparently in all seriousness"

— unless "michelle my belle sont les mots c'est tres bien ensemble" is actually a transliteration of part of the Ring cycle or something the comparison doesn't really hold

search guardian.co.uk

‘"thought police"’

173 results

ahahaha

It was more the clarinet solo than the singing in French bit I was bothered by - the fact that it was added after a dash like it was the straw that broke the camel's back, when, y'know, it's a clarinet.

Clarinet solos remind me of my dad seeing Captain Beefheart live in the 70s: apparently when he embarked on a solo with said instrument the whole audience went to the bar.

Talking of whom: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2009/oct/14/simpsons-atp-matt-groening?commentpage=1

Argh this is just one of those pieces that seems harmless but gives you a little paper cut with every sentence

Groening is also a member of the all-author band the Rock-Bottom Remainders and a keen player of the cowbell, though we'd much rather see the return the Dismemberment Plan and !!! than cowbell-botherers like Led Zeppelin or Guns N' Roses.

Pretty sure that !!! have more cowbell on one album than the entire careers of Led Zeppelin and Guns N' Roses put together.

The third comment down is from an ILXor.

Just read this before coming across to ILX to look up this thread. Very annoying.

Can, Minor Threat, the Teardrop Explodes, the Smiths and At the Drive-In anyone?

Um I'll take 4 of those 5 thanks.

Did Led Zep or GNR actually use a cowbell at any point? I can't think of any obvious songs but maybe i'm being dense.

Who cares when you can go and see the Dismemberment Plan, right kids?????

I thought that Wire article was pretty silly actually...there have always been poppy bands at ATP and always experimental stuff.

At the one in 2000 ATP had Snow Patrol and Super Furry Animals. Whereas at christmas we just had Bernard Parmegiani, and Steinberg & Winant playing Stockhausen with a quadrophonic system, and at New York the other week Oneida doing a 10 hour jam with shitloads of improv people...and ATP has never claimed to be an uber uber experimental wank fest anyway.

The article just read like he was told he had to write something about ATP and couldn't bring himself not to be critical and Wire-ish. But then it is The Wire.

xp GNR were all about the cowbell on Appetite... A friend of mine has a theory about how they lost it after Stephen "Popcorn" Adler left the band.

ah shit yeah remembering the intro of nightrain now...

Let's just hope we don't get Nancy Cartwright singing Do the Bartman

LOL!?!>!>>!<!??!>>?!?>>>>>!!!!?>!?!>>>!?

Jamie, I don't think the criticism was against poppiness at all, but rather the conservatism inherent in booking the same acts over and over and over again, and also being responsible for the whole reformation culture that is poisoning music right now.

reformation culture?

What's that

Oh, indie bands reforming.

Its true you know. We phoned up Carter USM last week and bunged em a tenner, next thing you know Omar Souleyman had shot himself :-(

By the way, Jamie, I love ATP, I think it is still pretty bloody awesome after all these years, some of the more recent ones *have* been better than some of the older ones, etc etc. However, that doesn't mean that these criticisms should be dismissed - or, in fact, misinterpreted so that you can argue against a straw-man instead of the actual criticism, which in your two answers so far you seem to be doing. In fact, dismissing them out of hand would be much better than utilising philosophical fallacies.

Sorry i guess it was a bit off handed, but when you make a statement with as much hyperbole as yours above (and clearly i'm not on the only person who thought it was pretty ott given its launched another thread), sometimes that what you'll end up getting. People seem to get very very angry about reformations or don't look back shows or us booking older bands, and i'm always at a loss as to where the nger comes from. Part of it maybe because the record industry/press/music geeks have an eternal tendency to always want the new and to be in there with the latest thing, and so will deride anything that looks backwards...

But by having a curator it sometimes means we will have the same bands, and also it means that curators might pick old bands (and sometimes we're lucky and they reform - sometimes with good results and sometimes bad). If you were asked to present your record collection as a live mixtape, would you only pick things from the last few years? doubtful. You'd probably pick things you've loved regardless of 'relevance' (whatever that's meant to be).

Nobody's forcing anyone to see the Don't Look Back shows, and it's not as if ATP only books bands for these shows and nothing else. Just about every band we ask to do a dont look back we support by promoting normal shows - because they're our favourite bands and the DLB shows celebrate our favourite records. On the other hand ATP always champions up and coming music both at the events and through the label so the Wire painting the place as some sort of mid 90s nostalgia trip isn't really fair.

That's not to mention the fact that some of the reformations we've had recently, like Sleep or the Jesus Lizard, have been some of the most vital performances i've seen in my life, or the fact that Dinosaur Jr and Polvo are putting out records now that are just as good as they were back in the day.

Yes it may mean that other promoters will copy the dont look back thing and... put on Carter.., and yes thats happening a lot right now...but then you dont have to buy a ticket.

My post wasn't meant to be particularly vitriolic, rather a summary of the two big problems that people have with the ATP brand now (actually, there is also a third problem most people I know have, and that is the ever increasing number of events - I can definitely see a couple of defences for this, but for most of us lay-people who are big ATP fans it seems just like squeezing extra money out of us).

Anyway, thanks for your reply, and yes, a lot of it is perfectly understandable. I do think that 'if you don't want to see it then don't buy tickets' is still missing something, though. Each individual instantiation of reformation or repetition isn't really a problem in itself, and no, nobody is being forced to attend a Don't Look Back or a Carter reformation. The anger (or annoyance, or miffedness, or whatever) really comes about from the way in which these things operate as a whole, and change the general discourse of the musical environment. That is something that can't be stopped by non-attendance at a show. It is also something that can't be blamed upon one promoter putting on some people that they like. So... an impasse, then.

Well regarding the first point; nobody is asking anyone to attend every ATP event; clearly thats not possible for most people.

As others have stated, other than in increase in other promoters doing DLB style events, i wouldn't agree that is has much of an effect on the musical environment; for me there's just as much exciting new music now as there ever has been, if not more. They're not changing the general discourse; they're adding something to it.

The people who ruined the decade

Named and shamed: the famous folk who make us glad to be leaving the noughties

* Pete Cashmore, Will Dean, Grace Dent, Priya Elan, Andrew Emery, Rob Fitzpatrick, Stuart Heritage, Malik Meer, Rebecca Nicholson, Alex Rayner, Steve Rose, Sam Richards, Richard Vine

DON SIMPSON Failed to keep Michael's heavy artillery at bay

The producer of Top Gun, Flashdance, Beverly Hills Cop, Bad Boys etc died in 1996 after ingesting half a pharmacy, which left his partner, Jerry Bruckheimer, looking for a new partner in crimes against cinema. Enter Michael Bay, whose inane new flavour of action movie has stomped across the 21st century like a monster truck in a model village – with Megan Fox at the wheel in a stars-and-stripes bikini. The THX crashes and IMAX bangs of Pearl Harbor, Bad Boys II and the Transformers movies have bludgeoned us into brain death. All of which makes Top Gun look like high art by comparison.

SEE ALSO McG (Terminator Salvation), Timur Bekmambetov (Wanted), Louis Leterrier (The Incredible Hulk, Transporter 2), Paul WS Anderson (Resident Evil, Death Race)

simpson co-produced 'bad boys' and 'the rock' you ignorant fucking cunts.

it doesn't mention the rock or bad boys tho?

"The producer of... Bad Boys"

He co-produced it you idiots, don't you know anything?

their idiotic argument is that don simpson is bad for dying and leaving "his partner, Jerry Bruckheimer, looking for a new partner in crimes against cinema. Enter Michael Bay...".

leaving aside that he died four years before this cursed decade began, this is patent nonsense because don simpson helped fucking discover michael bay and co-produced two of his films. bruckheimer did not need to cast around for a new "partner in crimes".

the point is anyone who contributed is a dick. we knew that -- it's the guardian guide -- but at least get basic things like "facts" and "arguments" right.

ah see i thought i was being dense hence the question marks.

High Concept: Don Simpson and the Hollywood Culture of Excess is one of the worst written books i've ever read but entertaining as all hell.

In my days of drug-taking a particularly large line was known as a Don Simpson :'-( RIP big man.

Can't be arsed to start a Graun zing thread for 2010 tbh, maybe someone else can. However:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2010/jan/06/gallows-great-rock-n-roll-swindle

Perhaps Warner Music was expecting a new Green Day or My Chemical Romance – inoffensive pop-punk for pre-pubescents – but those in the know recognised a great rock'n'roll swindle on a par with Malcolm McLaren's manoeuvring of the Sex Pistols through deals with EMI, A&M and Virgin over 18 months.

Spiritual forefathers such as Black Flag, Crass and Concrete Sox

shaking my head here

The article kind've ignores the fact that they won't have got all their one million advance if the band got dropped before they made all their contracted albums.

"a fold-out poster of a Carter painting featuring masturbating clergymen, anal fisting, vaginal mutilation, pigs in police uniforms and dripping entrails."

Brilliant. If Frank Carter was 13.

Grown-ups just go with a nice bowl of flowers and a moody sunset.

"a fold-out poster of a Carter painting featuring masturbating clergymen, anal fisting, vaginal mutilation, pigs in police uniforms and dripping entrails."

Jim Bob and Fruitbat upping their game here.

Nice bowl of flowers, moody sunset, and a little bit of anal fisting. Best of both worlds.

"pigs in police uniforms" - THINK ABOUT IT

In other news, the year planner on the wall to the right of my desk informs me that we are taking on Laura Barton for work experience in April.

The sheer cartoon blatant early 80s nostalgia vibe of the image is why it makes me grin a little bit rather than engage the "Watch Out, Banksy's About" cannon.

Warner Music, meanwhile, has emerged with egg on its face and, no doubt, a large debt to right off

Right on.

In other news, the year planner on the wall to the right of my desk informs me that we are taking on Laura Barton for work experience in April.

― the chance to act like a drunken whore (DJ Mencap), Monday, January 11, 2010 4:04 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

there are probably brighter and more deserving 17-year-olds out there.