Michael Jackson died two days ago, so this is going to be a bit of a personal post. Feel free to skip it if you’re not in the mood for a spot of rambling, nostalgic, borderline weepy sincerity.
For me, loving music has always gone hand in hand with loving Michael Jackson. I can’t remember the first time I listened to him - he’s always just been there. And he always will be. His death won’t alter the fact that millions of kids are going to grow up listening to him, because their own parents grew up listening to him.
The last couple of days have felt quite surreal, with every shop and passing car blasting out MJ songs, and everyone I’ve spoken to talking about him. I can’t think of too many other singers whose death would inspire such a reaction, if only because there are so few acts out there who are so universally loved.
Time for a lick of guest-blogging, don’t you think? This despairing little despatch is from Nik Johnson, who writes angryfunny things on the reglear at his site Shouting at Cows, and every darn day on Twitter.
So, Nik - what do you think of Radio 1?
I somewhat frequently blog about how I receive regular, wearying reminders that I’m getting old. This particular reminder has snuck up on me gradually over the last few months: I’ve just noticed that when I turn the radio on, I automatically switch to Radio 2, and not Radio 1.
As a child you’re hardwired to listen to Radio 1, mostly because your parents don’t like it and they play popular music. And when you’re a kid, that’s a good thing.
Nowadays, a regular commute to work sharing lifts with a Radio 1 devotee is on the verge of causing me serious mental health problems. It seems to me that forty-five minutes a day of Chris Moyles, and another forty-five minutes of Scott Mills (or Greg James when either of them are on holiday), is too much for even the most mild-mannered person to cope with. Continue reading »
Posted by
Stuart Waterman on
Friday June 26th, 2009 at
8:30 am
This is Skepta’s “Disguise”. It nicks the Transformers theme and is all about how some men dress up as ladies and attempt to trick other men into going home with them. This has never once happened to me, so I’m not sure where Skepta and his pals hang out.
There’s a line in there about having “no qualms with [transvestites'] sexuality”, which, while it might confuse pre-op transsexuals with transvestites, is at least a bit more enlightened than you might expect from an urban “joint”. It’s clearly there so you can chuckle along without feeling like a big old bigot-head, which is thoughtful of those involved.
It’s from his album Microphone Champion, tracks from which you can purchase at 7digital.
Proof-pudding time is about to arrive for Passion Pit, with several European festival appearances lined up over the summer.
Amongst the enormo outdoor festival shows they’ll also be appearing at east London’s Vibe Bar as part of the latest Levi’s OnesToWatch 5 Night Revue. Unsurprisingly that gig’s already sold out, but tickets are available for other shows during the impressive-sounding week in July.
The full line-up goes thusabouts:
Tuesday 7th July: Dananananaykroyd + The Late Greats + Romance
Thursday 9th July: Hockey + Chew Lips + Trouble Andrew
Friday 10th July: Everything Everything + Post War Years + Special Guests
But that’s only four nights!?!?!?! WTF?!?!?!!
Calm head - apparently a fifth night of shenanigig will be announced in due course, with extra special guests. My money’s on Stavros Flatley, but I’ve been wrong in the past.
This video of music critic Christopher R. Weingarten from the 140 Characters Conference is priceless. It is precisely the opposite of what you expect from anything with the word “conference” in it. It is impassioned, funny, insightful, angry, honest and bullshit-free.
That it also effectively tells any aspiring music journalists to give up now due to the onset of Twitter & social media is kind of a shame, but he’s just calling it as he - and a lot of other people - see it.
I think we can agree that the 80s revival is getting just a wee bit old now, and while the early 90s is being represesented by various rave-influenced types, it’s only a matter of time before the decade as a whole comes into vogue.
That time could well be now, a mere ten years after it ended, if DJ Spinbad has anything to do with it. His new 90s megamix is preposterously good fun, mixing up music from the time with TV and film clips to create 80-odd minutes which are pretty much guaranteed to stick a grin on your mug.
I’m not even going to go into what the highlights are, because it’s pretty much all gold.
OK, the OJ / Chris Rock / Smack My Bitch Up / Thong Song bit deserves a special mention.
Can you imagine how great it would be if Ladyhawke hooked up wih Girls Aloud producers Xenomania? If your brain isn’t up to such popmath, fear not - there’s a song on Cicada‘s new album Roulette which shows exactly how great such a pairing would sound.
It is called “Psycho Thrills”, and if whoever makes such decisions for Cicada doesn’t ensure it is released as a single toot bloody sweet, they ought to find themselves languishing in a dole queue for the rest of the summer.
Slap my wrist for such harshness, but if you give “Psycho Thrills” a listen below you will surely come to the same conclusion - this, amongst an album of splendid electro-pop, is surely a numero one single (despite something in the synths reminding me of Eric Clapton’s “Behind The Mask (?!)).
Graham Linehan posted this video of a lady called Sara Carlson on a 1980s Italian variety show to his blog with the headline “Whatever the opposite to ‘aroused’ is, prepare to experience it”. I’d say that’s a little unfair, particularly since the best thing about this performance is not how libido-reducing it is, but how utterly mental it is. It’s from a show called Al Paradise, and if this is the opening I can only imagine how amazing the rest of the show was.
My favourite bits are Sara’s frantic elbow-flapping, her un-moonwalking, the scuttling crabmen and the respectful bursts of applause that just randomly appear throughout.
If you’re still wondering whether to bother watching “Fly To Paradise”, I’d respectfully direct you to this comment from YouTube:
When’s the last time someone said that about a video from, say, The Enemy?
Did you watch the live feed of the Download Festival at the weekend? I watched the odd bit, but to be honest I didn’t really need to because I had arranged something far better.
Using cutting-edge 21st century technology, my friend Clive agreed to contact me regularly with text messages LIVE from the scene! Why watch the event from the comfort of your own home when you can have someone in a field, getting progressively more drunk, sending you pithy live updates?
Nile Rodgers is brilliant. Along with Bernard Edwards he’s left a body of work which is almost beyond compare, with one of his biggest successes being Diana Ross’s disco-infused comeback album of 1980, Diana - still her biggest-selling studio album.
Diana featured “Upside Down” - which is in my top 10 songs ever ever ever - as well as the Notorious B.I.G-sampled “I’m Coming Out”. Listened to now the latter is obviously as gay as a window, but Nile somehow managed to convince Diana Ross that he was oblivious to such connotations. This is him at the Music Matters conference, telling the tale of how he got the idea and how he got away with it…
Michael Jackson died two days ago, so this is going to be a bit of a personal post. Feel free to skip it if you’re not in the mood for a spot of rambling, nostalgic, borderline weepy sincerity.
