'Peace-loving, pot-smoking, porn-watching, lazy ass hippy like me!!'

One of my favourite things when I go and see a band or artist live is being presented with a story alongside the songs. 

Now pretty much every singer and band in a smaller setting than an arena, at the large arena type venues it becomes more of a spectacle than an interaction in my opinion, they will generally interact to a certain degree with the audience maybe tell you a bit about the song but that's it.

I like a reeeeeal story.

Some artists, and in my experience it tends to be those of an alternative country rock/bluegrass/folk type background, really engage with the audience between songs and I find these stories absolutley fascinating. This little glimpse into a totally different world.

As a writer I love stories of fact and faction. I recognise a good turn of phase and who better to regale you with a tale than a songwriter who not only crafts poetic imagery for a living but has a wealth of weird and wonderful life experience behind them to draw from.

When I went to see Steve Earle play at The Sage in Gateshead, UK a few years ago, 2009 I do believe, I was captivated by his stories about being nurtured in a group of musicians and his relationship with the late great Townes Van Zandt. 

It just strikes me as being the perfect way to live, this idyllic world where you could be living off nothing but you've got your friends and a few guitars so it's all good.

One particular story involved him playing a song and it striking him all of a sudden that he wanted to find the origin of this song, so he went to the person who taught it to him then the person who had taught it to them and so on and so fourth following it it right back to it's roots. This journey took him across states and introduced him to more interesting music and people.

I definitely have inherited this hippy-esque, wandering spirit who just thinks 'hell yeah, don't have a job just wander round and meet people and fill yourself with life experience' though it's weighed and balanced with a sensibility to actually ensure I can clothes and feed myself and not live in uncertainty. Damn my reasonable side!!

But anyway stories like this really strike a chord with me and  sets the scene for an artist's set and illustrates the importance of their art.

I couldn't find that particular Steve Earle story online but the video below is a different tale he told in the show, it has nothing to do with music, it's just an enjoyable little story.

Now this might have something to do with my choice of music. I have severe distain for the mainstream world even if I do occasionally get draw in by it. I, much like my fantastic male parent, like music by artists who are just normal guys and girls who just want to play.

They are 'special' in their talent to play or coin a phrase but generally they are normal, down to earth people who love what they do and want to share it with y'all.

The best example of these fantastic storytellers is well known for his fantastic stories and the way he tells them. It has to be the great Mr Todd Snider.

This is a brilliant little story, again just giving a little insight and context to himself and his music.

The way Snider tells his tales adds such brilliant comic value I'd often rather listen to some of these than some professional stand-up comics.

I have not had the fortune to see Snider live, truth be told I do not have the greatest knowledge of his music even though my Dad would no doubt educate me. However i'd pay just to listen to these tales.

His stories have become such a huge part of his shows and the audience seem to wait for the next story just as much as you would for your favourite track to be played. In this next video you can hear the excitement and joy from the crowd as he offers up a tale to them and his acknowledgment of his infamous inability to not tell a story as he jokes that it would take an hour and a half. He in fact asks the permission of the crowd to tell them another story.

The title of the post comes from this video as he describes himself as a 'peace-loving, pot-smoking, porn-watching, lazy ass hippy' which the crowd acknowledges with a huge cheer.

I think it's a real shame that in popular and mainstream music as soon as bands get out of small intimate venues they tend to lose their stories, explanations and thorough introductions in exchange for hyping the crowd up with 'We love you (insert town here)' or something to that effect.

Fans always want more, they want the full story, not just in interviews and magazines but as part of the act so they feel they're part of it.

After all that creates the joy and special nature of live music, it should be a very different experience than just putting on a CD even if it is a live CD instead of a studio version.

I feel fortunate that my preferred music genres include this as an almost integral part of the gig, but it's a pity some miss out. Come on and tell us a story! You write songs, you have a way with words so give us something more!! Music and musicians today are always vying for the top spot, trying to get a jump on the competition and display originality. I think telling stories and inviting your fans into this world would create a stronger more loyal and involved fan base and set more mainstream artists apart from what, in my bias and humble opinion, is becoming a very humdrum and 'samey' experience that relies on fashion rather than their craft to set themselves apart.

Hyping up Hype Machine

Yeah so I'm still a pretty poor blogger but I'm trying as of now!!

I've used lots of musicy websites. My first was Pandora, which I loved, I was on it constantly then they changed it so you can't listen to it from the UK which sucks big toes! Then got into Last FM which I know is pretty much exactly the same but something about the interface and the adverts meant it never appealed to me in the same way as Pandora.

But I have recently been reunited with hype Machine through Last FM so it suppose it has its uses.
I apparently joined Hype Machine in 2009 but i can't really remember how or why.

So ok, you don't get music generated to suit your tastes but you search an artist or a song you like or are curious about and you can find fantastic, obscure covers or new material when you though you'd heard it all. Being able to spy on what other users are 'loving' and being able to keep tabs the the most popular music is a nice feature but I don't think I'll ever properly use it. I've found some fantastic bits to keep me entertained without that for now.
I see Hype Machine as a Spiderweb of blogs taking you from something you know you like to find something else. You have a music library full of things you enjoy, pop a song you like into it and you listen to a cover of that song, that takes you to another artist and their own songs or covers of their songs or collaborations.

To say the least I'm having great fun with it, and it will defiantly fuel my blog  and hopefully make me slightly more competent at this.

Aye it's a pretty boring one but more to come!!

This is a song a discovered on Hype Machine last night and kinda fell in love with it
Matt Hires-State Lines

“The FCC won't let me be”

I remember the first time I watched the film Footloose, I laughed at the idea of being told what music we can or can't listen to, I believed it was just some notion that was dreamt up for the purpose of this fantasy world in the film. It never occurred to me that it used to be an everyday issue, particularly in 50's and 60's America, and is still, to a lesser degree, practised today.

There are obviously current day examples of extreme music censoring around the World such as in North Korea where music is only considered worthwhile if it praises the leader. And until recently , under the Taliban's rule in Afghanistan, musical instruments were banned and hung from trees as effigies as it was believed this was a distraction from the teachings of the Koran.

In the UK have the watershed that means Cee-lo Green's song 'Fuck You' will be played in it's original form after about 8/9pm but before this will magically have changed to 'Forget You'.

Many artists employ this form of self censoring by recording an alternative version of their songs if they contain obscenities, it's like they've created extra hassle for themselves by including 'inappropriate' language and then not standing by it.

Other options include bleeping it out, discounting the word all together, looping a different part of the track or adding extra sounds to hide this or just distorting the word for example 'shit' often becomes 'shhhh'. It's more of a case of money than anything else, if they refused to bleep out or rerecord this song it would only be played after the watershed and so not be making as much money.

Surely they should have more conviction in what they are trying to express in their music than how much is going into their wallets?

What really gets me though is that these words are bleeped out but inappropriate phases are allowed before a watershed. I don't believe in music censorship but I also don't believe in the double standard, if I didn't want young children singing 'fuck you' I also wouldn't want them singing ' I want to have sex on the beach', 'I touch myself' or 'Chains and whips excite me'.

I think that if these are allowed to be heard prior to the watershed then a few swear words wont do any damage as long as children are told that it is wrong to use these words themselves, just as they would be if they used such phases picked up from songs. After all they will hear them already in the playgrounds and it is part of our up bringing that we are taught what is and what isn't apprpriate to say.

I am shit at this blog malarkey

Right, so...I haven't blogged in an age!
I have no excuse other than I am a procrastinating plebeian.

In order to keep myself blogging and getting into a routine I am going to do a few blogs in the style of the Facebook '30 day song challenge'.

First up the interweb is telling me to find my 'favourite' song. YIKES!!
Favourite ever song?!
That is a tall order.
iTunes tells me
that my most listened to song is Rosie by  Young Rebel Set

It's a good song even if it spreads nasty rumours about someone who shares my name, but it's definatly not my favourite of all time. I would get tired of it after a while.

My favourite song would have to be timeless, have brilliant lyrics as well and a fantastic tune and conjure up positive emotions/thoughts etc.

Therefore I have chosen a song that was released in 1968 by the Small Faces on the Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake concept album. The album is without a doubt my favourite album of all time and this song just simply makes me happy. You can't help but dance like a cockney geezer to it and I defy anyone to not find it gets stuck in your head.

The b-side, which holds my song of choice, is a fantastically crazy and humourous fairytale about the adventures of Happiness Stan. Combined with the accompanying narration delivered in marvelously crafted gobeldegook by Stanley Unwin, it is something I never tire of.

Without anymore gushing about it, my favourite song is 'Happy Days Toy Town' by the Small Faces

'Life is just a bowl of All-Bran
You wake up every morning and it's there
So live as only you can
It's all about enjoy it 'cos ever since you saw it
There aint no one can take it away.'

"Nothing great in the world has been accomplished without passion"

The quote I have used as the title for this post is from German philosopher and inventor; Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)

It is true for every aspect of culture throughout time, half arsed jobs are rarely those great works that are remembered and revered, but, in today’s fast paced attitude toward churning out new content and product, is passion being forsaken for the sake of quantity over quality?

One of the big album releases of this year is Elbow's 'Build A Rocket Boys!' set for release on the 7th of March. There has been, almost exactly, a 3 year gap between this album's release and the release of their previously acclaimed 'The Seldom Seen Kid' which reached #5 in the UK chart.

In the case of most popular music today an artist must be seen to be constantly at work, whether it be touring or recording, or they risk becoming over looked or even irrelevant, with a lot of artists releasing albums annually (and in some cases more frequently than that), with multitudes of singles released throughout that time.

Before the single 'Neat Little Rows' was released 28th Feb this year, their last released single was 'The Bones of You' released 29th Sep 2008. Yet this silence does not seem to have diverted their fans' interest in any manner.

I myself often find a song from their back catalogue popping up on shuffle from my music collection and don't enjoy it any less because it's a few years old. After all these are songs that had real work behind them, you can hear the thought and construction within both the lyrics and the music.

Any 'great', well crafted song that has had passion in its corner during it's conception will generally be timeless. Artists like The Small Faces, Metallica, Jonny Cash and other such icons are enjoyed by members of generations way after those in which their songs were created and will continue to be listened to still.

Some popular music today which is churned out quickly and with little craft behind it, despite being popular today, will no doubt struggle to stand the test of time.

Elbow are a band that first played together in 1990. They are a well oiled machine when it comes to working together and have described  this upcoming album as the album they have been aiming for their entire careers so far.

If three years of work isn't passion enough to make this album of interest a quick listen to the song 'Lippy Kids' performed live is definatly something to convince you to look forward to this next album release and to illustrate the difference between truely crafted work and that which is churned out or the sake of having huge volumes of work.

Listen on youtube here > 'Lippy Kids' - Elbow

I can't wait to get my hands on this album and let you know if the passion in it can be felt. 

WHY!? The Blog Maifesto

So...
I'd like to start my blogging life by saying that I dislike blogs. I love magazines. Real glossy publications you hold in your hand and really get into.
However, I don't remember the last time I felt like that with a music magazine, they're generally pretty boring and uninspiring.
So here I am, it's not a new, revolutionary, fantastic music magazine but it's a step in that direction.

So that goes someway towards explaining my choice of title for my blog, it is also a lyric in the 'song' (though that word doesn't quite seem 100% appropriate) Thou Shalt Always Kill by Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip.

This duo is a personal favourite of mine, I am, after all, a sucker for well written, witty lyrics against a beat that you find yourself moving to. They almost defy being handed a set genre, my iTunes has them listed as 'Electonica', 'Hip Hop/Rap', 'Pop' and 'Alternatywna' whatever this might be.

That is what I set out to do with this blog, it will be music based with some random pieces thrown in for good measure, it will be an eclectic mix of all sorts of music styles included.
For anyone who has appreciation for music in general, I'm talking real music not that X-Factor churned out fake shit, I will hopefully keep you relatively entertained and provide you new bits and pieces to keep your ears amused.

Let's do this thing!