I don’t normally like to discuss these things, as by doing so makes me acknowledge that they exist (which I wish they didn’t), and also by seriously considering their existence gives them a gravity they do not warrant. I assure you that I would prefer not to talk about it as I believe that if you ignore something, it will eventually go away (I am sure that this current fascination will soon wither, as these things do not have enough substance to last long).
Susan Boyle’s rise to fame is the model every undiscovered musician the world over wishes for. After decades of singing to yourself and a small select group of friends, you are given a break. In the past this break came from either your demo being picked up by a record company or their A n R man showing up at your gig with a contract. This kind of break guaranteed nothing really, not even an audience, but this was very desirable and it was a seemingly attainable goal, because it was based on your own belief in your talent (however deluded that may be).
Now imagine you enter a talent contest and your break happens before millions of people. Consider that you can sing, but look like you really can’t. With an audience’s collected expectation at its lowest, you sing well and the perceived skill you have is suddenly magnified a thousand-fold. You couldn’t ask for more.
Added to this is the backlash of pure sympathy from the initial cutting remarks. Sympathy plus the misjudged perception of your ordinary talent, makes you out to be prince of princes, when you are really just a nice frog who can gribbet with the best of them.
Fantastic.
However, add into this fairy story the devil incarnate, Mr Cowell. Not a talent scout, not an artist, but a business man: a banker in every sense of the word. I would be happy for Ms Boyle if it wasn’t for the fact that for every halfpenny she makes, you can guarantee Mr C is making a pound sterling. He gets richer from every sympathetic download and has milked this opportunity for everything he can. From the initial staged ugly duckling to swan routine, to opening doors in America.
I guess the important thing to remember is that when people are buying the CD, they are buying into the story not the product itself. Ms Boyle can sing, she can hold a tune, she has a voice unquestionably. But it is not really that special. What has captured the imagination of so many is the way her story has unfolded, and unfortunately this is wholly manufactured. It is fake, it is part of Mr Cowell’s unstoppable marketing machine. It is manipulative and it is ugly. And worst of all it serves only Simon Cowell. The public seem quite content making his pile of money larger, as the rest of us suffer the worst depression in decades. I still wonder why this is. I do not really believe that the record buying public are really that blind to Cowell’s sleight of hand.
I wish Ms Boyle happiness. I wish for Mr Cowell the fate of Mr Scrooge before his redemption… the money boxes and chains being forged for Mr Cowell would stretch around the world many times, weighed down by every plastic disc of poor quality he helped manufacture. Merry Christmas.
Tuesday 1 December 2009
Wednesday 25 November 2009
Work is the scourge of the working class
Remember when you left school or college with dreams? Can you recall the mountain of applications you made for jobs you wanted? How long was it before the rejection letters piled up along with the household bills, and you considered getting a temporary job to tide you over? Remember telling yourself that you would continue to apply for jobs you wanted around this temporary job? The first few weeks you would check the papers and tear out any possibilities and put them to one side. Remember thinking you would get around to sending off for the application forms? Remember coming home from your temporary job every night too weary and discouraged and disillusioned to do anything but watch TV?
And then ten years go by, fifteen years fly by and your temporary job is now permanent. You are comfortable. You can pay your bills and go on holiday. You can buy a flat screen tele even though your old one, although enormously fat in comparison, was perfectly fine. You don't look for those jobs you wanted any more.
And one day, quite by accident, a job advert catches your eye. It is one of those jobs. It asks for someone with 10 years experience in that field. You think to yourself, if I hadn't spent my life working all that time, I could really have made a concerted effort to get that job I wanted all those years ago... and now it is too late.
Experience is everything. Make the right choice and remember when you make a decision that you will not have any regrets.
Regret only not making a choice.
And then ten years go by, fifteen years fly by and your temporary job is now permanent. You are comfortable. You can pay your bills and go on holiday. You can buy a flat screen tele even though your old one, although enormously fat in comparison, was perfectly fine. You don't look for those jobs you wanted any more.
And one day, quite by accident, a job advert catches your eye. It is one of those jobs. It asks for someone with 10 years experience in that field. You think to yourself, if I hadn't spent my life working all that time, I could really have made a concerted effort to get that job I wanted all those years ago... and now it is too late.
Experience is everything. Make the right choice and remember when you make a decision that you will not have any regrets.
Regret only not making a choice.
Tuesday 17 November 2009
The fucking NME
NME Editor Krissi Murison said this week about their current issue that contains the ‘best 50 albums of the first decade of the 21st century’: "This (list) is the definitive word on the greatest albums of the 00s - as voted for by everyone who helped make music brilliant this decade."
Can you believe the arrogance of this deluded journalist? She uses words like "definitive word" and "everyone who helped make music brilliant". Does she really believe ‘everyone’ is actually included? I just cannot express fully my disgust. The music press’s denial that any music of any quality is created that they do not know about, is unbelievably narrow-minded and short-sighted.
Now don’t get me wrong, it is not the chart that I find so distasteful, it is the way they feed it to us. We all know that these lists of best ofs and greatest of all times, are just horseshit, and no-one will ever be fully satisfied with the entire list (I for one cannot believe Tricky is not there, 3 truly original albums and not a sniff; Kate Bush’s wondrous return in 05 not mentioned; no Tokyo Police Club or Bombay Bicycle Club; no Art Brut, no Frank Black, no Aimee Mann, no Born Ruffians, no Red Light Company, nothing by Sigur Ros, no Modest Mouse; did I dream that Kings of Leon released 4 albums that didn’t make the list?; Antony and the Johnsons anyone? Gilbert O’Sullivan? And these are the bands you will know.. there are dozens more that are ‘very’ independent and you will never have heard of them)…
I’m sure you will all have a list longer than this with missing persons (why not comment below to vent that anger?). However, this is not my point. The problem I have is that ‘they’ think they are the dictators of good taste, that their ears are permanently tuned into what is great, that they are somehow contributing to this current cultural renaissance we now all enjoy (!). They haven’t got a clue, it is just business, it is just money, sometimes, somehow something good will see the light of day, but that is not by their judgement. They are so busy trying to create the scene, that they do not really know what is going on at all. They are like a freight train, full of their own self-important faulty produce, stuck on a predetermined course, unable to move from their tracks – great things are happening on either side but they cannot divert from their destination, so instead of stopping and listening, they plough on… and as they have the loudest voice (their steam whistle is heard for miles) everyone is forced to listen to them, but their voice is shrill and painful now. So you know what, I am putting my hands over my ears and going la la la la la la la la la.
From their list, I have left the ones I have enjoyed over the last decade below. By the way I am not saying that the other artists that made the list and I have deleted are not worthy (these things are of course very subjective), but I do object very strongly to being told that everyone who helped make music brilliant this decade, voted for this list: the BBC says that "Bands such as Radiohead (at number ten and fourteen) and Arctic Monkeys (at number four), plus record producers and label bosses were among those who cast their votes." Oh that’s right, ‘the business’ voting for themselves, holding each others’ willies as usual. Step out of the light ladies and gentlemen, you are standing in puddles of your own piss and you stink.
Remember that me and you helped make music brilliant this decade and always have done, the fact that most people will never hear what we do or say does not make it any less interesting or worthy. I have said it before and I repeat, stop buying into the false values perpetuated by the media and the music business! We will always be here and we will always write and play and sing. They will wither and die when we stop paying attention.
Edited top 50:
1. The Strokes - Is This It
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell
7. Arcade Fire - Funeral
13. The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
17. Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise
30. Elbow – 'Asleep In The Back'
31. Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
32. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
43. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Can you believe the arrogance of this deluded journalist? She uses words like "definitive word" and "everyone who helped make music brilliant". Does she really believe ‘everyone’ is actually included? I just cannot express fully my disgust. The music press’s denial that any music of any quality is created that they do not know about, is unbelievably narrow-minded and short-sighted.
Now don’t get me wrong, it is not the chart that I find so distasteful, it is the way they feed it to us. We all know that these lists of best ofs and greatest of all times, are just horseshit, and no-one will ever be fully satisfied with the entire list (I for one cannot believe Tricky is not there, 3 truly original albums and not a sniff; Kate Bush’s wondrous return in 05 not mentioned; no Tokyo Police Club or Bombay Bicycle Club; no Art Brut, no Frank Black, no Aimee Mann, no Born Ruffians, no Red Light Company, nothing by Sigur Ros, no Modest Mouse; did I dream that Kings of Leon released 4 albums that didn’t make the list?; Antony and the Johnsons anyone? Gilbert O’Sullivan? And these are the bands you will know.. there are dozens more that are ‘very’ independent and you will never have heard of them)…
I’m sure you will all have a list longer than this with missing persons (why not comment below to vent that anger?). However, this is not my point. The problem I have is that ‘they’ think they are the dictators of good taste, that their ears are permanently tuned into what is great, that they are somehow contributing to this current cultural renaissance we now all enjoy (!). They haven’t got a clue, it is just business, it is just money, sometimes, somehow something good will see the light of day, but that is not by their judgement. They are so busy trying to create the scene, that they do not really know what is going on at all. They are like a freight train, full of their own self-important faulty produce, stuck on a predetermined course, unable to move from their tracks – great things are happening on either side but they cannot divert from their destination, so instead of stopping and listening, they plough on… and as they have the loudest voice (their steam whistle is heard for miles) everyone is forced to listen to them, but their voice is shrill and painful now. So you know what, I am putting my hands over my ears and going la la la la la la la la la.
From their list, I have left the ones I have enjoyed over the last decade below. By the way I am not saying that the other artists that made the list and I have deleted are not worthy (these things are of course very subjective), but I do object very strongly to being told that everyone who helped make music brilliant this decade, voted for this list: the BBC says that "Bands such as Radiohead (at number ten and fourteen) and Arctic Monkeys (at number four), plus record producers and label bosses were among those who cast their votes." Oh that’s right, ‘the business’ voting for themselves, holding each others’ willies as usual. Step out of the light ladies and gentlemen, you are standing in puddles of your own piss and you stink.
Remember that me and you helped make music brilliant this decade and always have done, the fact that most people will never hear what we do or say does not make it any less interesting or worthy. I have said it before and I repeat, stop buying into the false values perpetuated by the media and the music business! We will always be here and we will always write and play and sing. They will wither and die when we stop paying attention.
Edited top 50:
1. The Strokes - Is This It
5. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Fever To Tell
7. Arcade Fire - Funeral
13. The Shins - Wincing The Night Away
17. Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise
30. Elbow – 'Asleep In The Back'
31. Bright Eyes - I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning
32. Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Show Your Bones
43. Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
Friday 13 November 2009
Advice for younger writers
When you write something and give it to someone else to evaluate, if you are told it is not good enough, write something better.
It is easy to take criticism as a fault of the reader, that they don't 'get' your work. You can end up in a viscious cycle of giving out your work, getting bad reviews, blaming the reviewer, sending out the same work, getting bad reviews, blame the reviewer.
Stop it.
Learn from what you have created and move on; re-read your work. If you can't do any better then chances are, you are really not that good.
If you write more and receive more criticism, keep writing. One day you will have two things: a mass of work, and a plotted history of how you got where you are today. This is very important because it proves that you never gave up, and probably that work number 1 is not as good as work number 1000. You will see your progression and your improvement. This is your life lesson and it is something you taught yourself... if you still are a struggling unknown, consider the lesson you have given yourself your prize. Consider also that you really are a writer.
If you gave up at number 1, you are not a writer and were certainly not good enough.
Success is the point at which you creat something that speaks to someone else, even if that is just one person. Feel happy with what you have made, because no-one in the world could have done it but you. Never judge your own success in terms of who 'makes it', their work is no better than yours, it just landed on the right desk... a desk owned by someone with no real idea of what is good or bad, just what can sell.
If you only write to sell, you are not a writer, you are a salesman. This is fine as long as you are honest with yourself about your true intentions.
Now write something good.
It is easy to take criticism as a fault of the reader, that they don't 'get' your work. You can end up in a viscious cycle of giving out your work, getting bad reviews, blaming the reviewer, sending out the same work, getting bad reviews, blame the reviewer.
Stop it.
Learn from what you have created and move on; re-read your work. If you can't do any better then chances are, you are really not that good.
If you write more and receive more criticism, keep writing. One day you will have two things: a mass of work, and a plotted history of how you got where you are today. This is very important because it proves that you never gave up, and probably that work number 1 is not as good as work number 1000. You will see your progression and your improvement. This is your life lesson and it is something you taught yourself... if you still are a struggling unknown, consider the lesson you have given yourself your prize. Consider also that you really are a writer.
If you gave up at number 1, you are not a writer and were certainly not good enough.
Success is the point at which you creat something that speaks to someone else, even if that is just one person. Feel happy with what you have made, because no-one in the world could have done it but you. Never judge your own success in terms of who 'makes it', their work is no better than yours, it just landed on the right desk... a desk owned by someone with no real idea of what is good or bad, just what can sell.
If you only write to sell, you are not a writer, you are a salesman. This is fine as long as you are honest with yourself about your true intentions.
Now write something good.
Monday 12 October 2009
Post holiday trauma
It's always the same after a period away from normal life, when you return, everything feels tougher than it was before you went away.
A holiday, far from making you feel refreshed and renewing your enthusiasm for life, serves only to show you a life that you can never have. This is the scourge of the working classes.
Essentially this small depression in the normal flow of life at elementary recordings is the result of a break from the norm. Such a great time was had by all that no one wanted to come back. This glimpse of how the other half live is sitting like a tonne of bile in my gut this week, and I am sickened by that laughing, drinking, swimming, dancing, sweating man I was last week, he seems to stick two fingers up at me now as I sit behind this desk with nothing but a mirage of memories.
This is worse than New Years Day.
Remember this: never go on holiday. Next year I have decided I am not going to come back.
A holiday, far from making you feel refreshed and renewing your enthusiasm for life, serves only to show you a life that you can never have. This is the scourge of the working classes.
Essentially this small depression in the normal flow of life at elementary recordings is the result of a break from the norm. Such a great time was had by all that no one wanted to come back. This glimpse of how the other half live is sitting like a tonne of bile in my gut this week, and I am sickened by that laughing, drinking, swimming, dancing, sweating man I was last week, he seems to stick two fingers up at me now as I sit behind this desk with nothing but a mirage of memories.
This is worse than New Years Day.
Remember this: never go on holiday. Next year I have decided I am not going to come back.
Wednesday 19 August 2009
DIE SON DIE - The motion picture
This is a link to give information about the screening of a film I produced:
http://www.thepublic.com/index.php/events/detail/die-son-die/
It is about post-punk-21st century misfits Miss Halliwell (for Misfits see Arthur Miller and the film starring Norma Jean, Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift).
It is a film called DIE SON DIE
It is being screened/premiered at The Public art gallery in West Bromwich on 10 Sept 2009.
It is unmissable.
http://www.thepublic.com/index.php/events/detail/die-son-die/
It is about post-punk-21st century misfits Miss Halliwell (for Misfits see Arthur Miller and the film starring Norma Jean, Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift).
It is a film called DIE SON DIE
It is being screened/premiered at The Public art gallery in West Bromwich on 10 Sept 2009.
It is unmissable.
Monday 17 August 2009
Twitter twats
Apparently some genius in the US of A has been studying Twitter and found that 91% of its content is meaningless shit. I'm glad there are people out there who are around to state the fucking obvious.
What did amaze me however, was that only 6% was self-promotion (ie people in my position trying to advertise the wonderful artists on its label). I had it in my mind that there were more of us pointlessly posting blogs and tweets in the hope that someone out there gave a fuck.
Deluded aren't we?
No one is listening.
But still we continue, otherwise there really would be nothing of any value out there at all.
This is the 21st Century
I still can't believe sometimes, that it is possible to make and record a film and a live album, put it in web-shops on the w.w.w., so everyone from Melbourne to Seattle can hear and buy it.
When I was young, you made a plastic disc and would have to physically get it into shops by driving around and delivering them. If you were lucky people would go to the shop and buy it. Today it is very easy to produce a product.
This, I suppose, is good.
However, because it is so easy, everyone is doing it. Before it would take more effort and a lot of people would just give up. There would be less product and the only records available were there because someone broke their back to make it happen. Today you can click a few buttons, send a few emails and there it is. And here we are, now everyone has a record out.
So it takes the customer longer to sift through mountains of shit. But it can be worth it, if you have the time.
If you want a signpost, just look at the stuff we produce and distribute.
Today you can buy DIE SON DIE. This is a good place to start. It was made by people who would not give up, despite many piles of vomit placed there by people with no creativity in them and little imagination. MISS HALLIWELL have overcome the shit and made a beautiful piece of music and film.
You just have to type Miss Halliwell into a search engine and there you are.
No more wandering down the high street; we have brought it to your door.
The 21st century is a wonder to behold.
When I was young, you made a plastic disc and would have to physically get it into shops by driving around and delivering them. If you were lucky people would go to the shop and buy it. Today it is very easy to produce a product.
This, I suppose, is good.
However, because it is so easy, everyone is doing it. Before it would take more effort and a lot of people would just give up. There would be less product and the only records available were there because someone broke their back to make it happen. Today you can click a few buttons, send a few emails and there it is. And here we are, now everyone has a record out.
So it takes the customer longer to sift through mountains of shit. But it can be worth it, if you have the time.
If you want a signpost, just look at the stuff we produce and distribute.
Today you can buy DIE SON DIE. This is a good place to start. It was made by people who would not give up, despite many piles of vomit placed there by people with no creativity in them and little imagination. MISS HALLIWELL have overcome the shit and made a beautiful piece of music and film.
You just have to type Miss Halliwell into a search engine and there you are.
No more wandering down the high street; we have brought it to your door.
The 21st century is a wonder to behold.
Saturday 15 August 2009
Miss Halliwell - Die Son Die
The most exciting artistic release by a band is happening this Monday, the 17th August 2009.
DIE SON DIE is a film and an album by Miss Halliwell. You can download it from iTunes from this Monday or direct from the band if you want an actual package including a CD and a separate DVD.
It is stunning. It is unmissable.
see here:
the E.REX blog
Maximum saturation.
That's what it is all about.
We will be heard. We will be hard. We will be.
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