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Watching an industry die

June 16, 2007 on 9:27 pm | In Uncategorized |

It must be the weekend! How do I know? Because my newspaper is bigger than usual, with restaurant reviews, and feature stories about people of whom I have never heard but who are apparently celebrities, and columns that against all reason are meant to be taken seriously in which degenerate men recommend that you eat warm otters’ nose salad with the wine of the week, and the latest critics’ thoughts about music.

Thoughts in which the critics, for about the 344234th time this century, refer to The Go-Betweens with phrases such as ‘the musos’ musos’ … ‘criticially acclaimed by the media … but without the album sales to match’. No I won’t give you a link, if you want to read this tedious crap yet again go and find it yourself.

I’ll tell you why the Go-Betweens’ album sales were less than impressive: it’s because their music was shithouse. One of the album sales was mine unfortunately, conned by the avalanche of ‘critical acclaim’ into believing that if only I played the bloody thing often enough, I would recognise it for the masterpiece that it was.

Unfortunately it never happened. No matter how often I played the piece of shit plastic I heard the same thing: booooring songs. But still the up-themselves elitist critics keep congratulating themselves on their superior taste in being Go-Between Groupies while the other 99.99999% of the population ask “The Go-Whos?”

The Go-Betweens are of course just one in a long line of awful acts that got adopted by the critics for no reason that any normal person ever worked out, and that still get trotted out at regular intervals as acts that have been ‘influential’ on everyone who ever picked up a guitar since. If the critics are really pompous and writing in an adult publication, they’ll describe their fave act as ’seminal’.

Who are some of these grossly over-hyped acts? Here’s a list of the first ones that spring to mind:

Bob Dylan - wrote some decent songs (and a bigger number of pretentious repetitive ooordinary songs) but as a performer would be booed off the stage of the local RSL club and rightly so … one of the most unattractice, whiny voices you would ever hear.
Radiohead - did I just use ‘pretentious’? Who cares, I’ll use it again. Why did people treat these dudes as if they were the second coming? Tuneless songs and deeply meaningful (viz meaningless) lyrics don’t make a great band … oh wait, Thom Yorke went to university and used computers, that was enough to cause the British pop press to commit collective premature ejaculation.
The Sex Pistols - only the Brits would be idiotic enough to wet themselves with excitement at the concept of a band that couldn’t sing or play instruments or even participate in normal social interaction. They were a comedy act who deserved 15 minutes of fame and not a second more - only deranged music critics could still be citing them as an important musical influence 20 years later.
Nirvana - Kurt Cobain was a drug-fucked nut-case. If he hadn’t killed himself he would by now be enjoying deeply-deserved obscurity along with the even crazier Courtney Love. Come on, hands up if anybody’s played Nevermind in the last 5 years? Thought not. If anyone was an influence on other bands it was Pearl Jam but Eddie’s mob had the common sense to live reasonably sane lives so now they get dismissed as ‘rock dinosaurs’.
The White Stripes - ummm Jack, other people own Led Zeppelin albums too you know.

Anyway time to see what else is being reviewed in today’s SMH … uh huh, there’s Nick Lowe, he’s about as cutting edge as pop could be … ooooo a feature article on Jeff Buckley, who’s only been dead for 10 fuckin’ years … and a review of another album by Richard Thonpson, now there’s another ’seminal artist’ who belongs in the list. Come on, name a single Richard or Linda Thompson track that you can hum … HA! Thought not.

Oh great goddlemighty here’s a review of a CD where people are singing Will the Circle Be Unbroken …. do these people live their entire lives in the 19 fucking 70s???

No wonder anybody interested in contemporary music has pretty much abandoned the ‘music industry’ in favour of the online scene. The problem is nothing to do with piracy, it’s all to do with the musical ideas of corporate executives, stuck in 20th century amber.

Paul McCartney, anybody? His latest exciting CD is reviewed on page 13 of the SMH Spectrum.

AAAARRGH!!!

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“Oh great goddlemighty here’s a review of a CD where people are singing Will the Circle Be Unbroken …. do these people live their entire lives in the 19 fucking 70s??? ”

Good point. But it’d be a better one if you seriously think anyone will be able to remember, let alone sing, pretty much anything off the current charts in 30 years’ time. Pink? Britney Spears? Wolfmother? Anything - absolutely anything - rap or so-called “r’n'b”. I doubt it.

I just bought the CD/DVD of Traveling Wilburys. It’s still miles ahead of most contemporary music, eg I bought Arcade Fire’s Funeral, OK but nothing brilliant. Maybe too quirky - hah!

Comment by phil — June 17, 2007 #
I sympathise with your overall point, but with respect, you are wrong about some of the artists mentioned. Ok, most of them (although agree about the sludgy Zepellin rip-off that Jack White has been getting into lately).

Just because professional wank-meisters list Radiohead or the like in their ’seminal’ lists, does not make those bands bad. Now, if you personally detest the music, that’s fine. There is a lot I detest, some of it much-hyped (see for example the appalling Arctic Monkeys).

And the Arcade Fire album was great, and their new one is better in my opinion. No living in the past here.

Comment by Kieran — June 17, 2007 #
‘The current charts’? Phil you’ve missed my point. Charts are just one more sign of the way the music industry is stuck in the last century when pimply-faced kids spent their pocket money on 45s.

Like I said, ‘No wonder anybody interested in contemporary music has pretty much abandoned the ‘music industry’ in favour of the online scene.’ Who cares if anyone remembers anything in 30 years’ time? Pop music is a perishable good, just like prawns. It should be allowed to go off like nature intended instead of freezing it in ‘golden oldies’ type radio stations and the reviews of ageing music critics.

Comment by Administrator — June 18, 2007 #
I thought the last ‘Go-Betweens’ album was pretty good. I didn’t take to much of the earlier stuff tho. I was more of a Church fan in those days. But some people reckon’ they are the bees knees…that’s cool. I thought the best Radiohead was ‘The Bends’. They are way too hyped in the media & can be quite grating at times. Dylan is an acquired taste…my faves being ‘Bringing it all back home’ & ‘Highway 61 Revisited’ from a long, long time ago. Another over-hyped & opportunistic artist. Nirvana’s ‘Bleach’ is rawer & has more integrity than the over-hyped album ‘Nevermind’.
I have most of The White Stripes lps & generally can take or leave them…some works…some doesn’t…I prefer the likes of Led Zep, Black Sabbath, Eric Clapton & John Mayall’s ‘Bluesbreakers’, Hendrix for that kind of rock bluesing…but like i said, they have their moments, as does Wolfmother, Black Mountain & The Black Keys.

From this year, I’m enjoying:

‘Boxer’ by the National
‘Person Pitch’ by Panda Bear
‘All of a Sudden I miss Everyone’ by Explosions in the Sky
‘Cassadaga’ by Bright Eyes
‘Are the Dark Horse’ by The Besnard Lakes
‘The Adventures of Ghosthorse & Stillborn’ by CocoRosie
‘Woke on a Whaleheart’ by Bill Callahan

Not a big fan of charts…I read reviews at Pitchfork, Time Off & Rate Your Music & either download at EMusic…or grab at shops like Rocking Horse here in Brissie.

Comment by nasking — June 19, 2007 #
add:

Deerhunter: Cryptograms
Snowden: Anti-Anti
Malcolm Middleton: A Brighter Beat
Stars of the Lid: and their Refinement of the Decline

the other LPs I can’t stop playing:

Sufjan Stevens: Seven Swans (2004)
Ulrich Schnauss: A Strangely Isolated Place (2003)
Jeniferever: Choose A Bright Morning (2006)
The Durutti Column: Tempus Fugit (2004)
Johann Johannsson: Dis (2005)
Workhouse: The End of the Pier (2005)
Butterfly Explosion: Turn the Sky (2006)

Comment by nasking — June 19, 2007 #
OK, well will the ‘alt’ stuff listed be stuck in your brains in 30 years?

No, I confess, all us boomers are stuck in the 50s-70s (except that I also love big bands, for which you’re talking 30s-40s, that’s worse). And the blues, always the blues….

Comment by phil — June 19, 2007 #
Phil, I think so, I’m a late boomer, born in 1961…stuck in my memory from the 60s are the 13th Floor Elevators, The Byrds, The Doors, Hendrix, Jefferson Airplane, Cream, Pink Floyd, Miles Davis, Love, Quicksilver Messenger Service, The Velvet Underground, Frank Zappa, Tim Buckley, Nick Drake, early YES to name a few… from the 70s there’s Genesis (w/ Peter Gabriel), Can, Neu, Brian Eno, Tangarine Dream, Funkadelic, Patti Smith, Hawkwind, King Crimson, Robert Wyatt, Joy Division, Television, Talking Heads, Suicide, Muddy Waters, Magazine, …80s The Fall, Teardrop Explodes, Julian Cope, The Durutti Column, Dead Can Dance, Morrisey, the Smiths, The Cure, The Church, early REM, Psychedelic Furs, The Birthday Party, Echo & the Bunnymen, John Cale, Lou Reed, Cocteau Twins, The Chameleons, Sonic Youth, David Sylvian, Tom Waits, Jesus & Mary Chain, Spacemen 3, Laughing Clowns, Not Drowning Waving, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, Died Pretty, Throwing Muses, Pixies, Talk Talk, The Wedding Present, The Bats, Galaxie 500, Mudhoney, Jane’s Addiction, American Music Club, House of Love, Stone Roses, Julee Cruise, Nine Inch Nails (early stuff), Bob Mould…& the 90s: Pavement, Sebadoh, Ride, Verve (early), Blue Aeroplanes, Pale Saints, Slowdive, The Waterboys, My Bloody Valentine, Primal Scream, The Orb, Swervedriver, The Cranes, Catherine Wheel, Spiritualized, Stereolab (early), Paul Weller, Tindersticks, Massive Attack, Tricky, Lisa Gerrard (w/ Pieter Bourke), Flying Saucer Attack, Arab Strap, Mogwai, Godspeed You Black Emperor, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, AMP, Low, Smog, Tortoise, Angelo Badalamenti, Kitchens of Distinction, The Necks, Dirty Three, Lou Reed & John Cale, Piano Magic, Yo La Tengo, Slint, Soundgarden (early), Temple of the Dog, Mercury Rev, Loreena McKennitt, Codeine, Mark Eitzel, Red House Painters, Morphine, Sugar, Guided By Voices, Grant Lee Buffalo, The Aints, Brad, Crow, Ed Kuepper, Lisa Germano, Autechre, Yume Bitsu, Surface of Eceon, Mark Lanegan, Will Oldham (& various Palace associations), Sigur Ros, Elliott Smith, Bike, D.J. Shadow, 16 Horsepower, Boards of Canada, Silver Jews, Calexico, Songs: Ohia, Codeine, Luna, Bardo Pond, Mazzy Star, Steve Kilbey, Pedro the Lion, Kristin Hersh, Idaho, Paradise Motel, The Hummingbirds, The Clouds, Big Heavy Stuff, Glide…

And of course there’s plenty of more popular bands/artists I like…

I’ve been listening to most of these bands for at least a decade…some up to 30 + years…& they all still sound fresh & as inspiring as ever…if not better…& plenty are what some would consider ‘alternative’…but they live in my head & when I play music/sing/write songs they flow thru it continually…:)

recently i’m trying to get into Chet Baker.

cheers

Comment by nasking — June 20, 2007 #

Watching an industry die

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