fear and loathing
Profile: Junior Bill & The Scallies
nostalgia dance party: compiled between 22:56 and 23:05 - 04/05/13
- Bottle Rocket - The Go! Team
- Daft Punk Is Playing At My House - LCD Soundsystem
- Yeah Yeah (D Ramirez Radio Edit) - Bodyrox fear Luciana
- Eple (Original Edit) - Royksopp
- Robot Rock - Daft Punk
- Weapon Of Choice - Fatboy Slim
- Frontier Psychiatrist - The Avalanches
- Sexy Boy - Air
- Karmacoma - Massive Attack
- Missing (Todd Terry Remix) - Everything But The Girl
Spotify link: fear and loathing 3: nostalgia dance party
Youtube link: fear and loathing #3: nostalgia dance party
fear and loathing - update 26/04/13
turn closed captions on, it’ll help, sorry about the audio
fear and loathing - update (16/04/13)
There’s a certain frustration within various local music scenes at the moment. With a new age of availability via the internet, there has been an explosion of new music and through this of course, and to mirror this an onslaught of media interest in the ‘new’. Some might argue that the re emergence of older, long thought dead bands counters this, but the old is definitely being overwhelmed by the new.
With this focus on the new, there have definitely been some triumphs in really helping new acts to find their way to wider notice a lot quicker. However, with this freshness there is always going to be acceptance and rejection, and that’s where many bands are losing their way. With the new music industry model of hoping to be accepted by your audience to gain recognition comes a stagnation of ideas. Bands are no longer forming to be something new, bands are forming to sound like the new emerging artists, so quickly rocketing to fame.
A&R at labels are no longer seeking something new, DJs at Radio 1 are no longer thinking for themselves and playing the stuff they like. They’re going for the stuff that sounds like it should be fresh and exciting, but it’s what we heard ten years ago, or they’re going for bands who are so middle of the road it’s frustratingly sickening to hear. Bands are starting to care about their music being tailor made to their audience - they shouldn’t be. They should be playing something fresh, something that speaks to them and sounds different to them. Everyone is influenced by their musical heroes, but emulating them directly is leading to a major originality drought.
Stop perfecting your guitar sound to sound like your favourite band, stop writing riffs that are two notes off of your favourite riff and most of all stop trying to sound like anything you’ve ever heard before.
Bo Burnham - Nerds
There’s always a strain of music that you don’t play at parties, don’t let your parents hear and definitely isn’t played on the radio.
Whether that be Mindless Self Indulgence or the harder refrains from Nine Inch Nails, too laden with puerile or heavy imagery respectively, it’s the sort of music you tend to listen to via headphones and share with friends who won’t judge too harshly.
However this doesn’t come across as much in comedy, and is openly embraced as fresh, new and exciting. Music and comedy have tended to cross over, whether intentional or not, or just as a part of creative witticism (see The Smiths or comedian turned rapper Childish Gambino).
Someone who attempts this regularly and is often slammed for gimmickry or copying his peers is Bo Burnham, but like very few comedians of his time carries a very interesting intelligent subtext to his frequent cursing and sometimes grotesque humour.
A song he created has recently become available after being featured on tour but not on his recent live album ‘Words Words Words’ and it’s entitled Nerds. Being a young starter (playing Edinburgh Fringe at 20) he grounds part of his act in high school memories. Nerds highlights the underbelly of school and the lower rung of the social ladder.
Opening with “I’m a faggot, I’m a retard, I’ve got a girl’s bag and a v-card” you wonder if its likely that he’s speaking from his own experiences but follows it up with a snappy comeback “Your life peaks at graduation, well congratu-fucking-lations…” turning an inward look into an outward anthem.
Melding in his personal mind melting lyricism which requires multiple listens to fully comprehend to a musical backing composed probably initially on piano and then enhanced with modern production to mirror the popular music that antithesises the underground music popular amongst ‘nerds’.
The anger and frustration in Burnham is palpable even out of high school, as well as the sweet relief of leaving “at 3pm I pause (bell rings) that shit sounds like applause”. The song’s bridge takes a dark turn, criticising high school further “loved art but the budget got cut… then she got numb and she only felt when she knelt and cut.”
Like that music you’d never let your parents hear however, there’s always a solidarity and familiarity for those feeling the same way, especially when Burnham sings the line “I got your back kid…”
why high school sucks - part 2: don’t become like me
why high school sucks - part 1: I am not a number
- John Hurt - Does It Offend You, Yeah?
- Hook Line And Sinker - Refused
- Kidney Thief - P.O.S.
- Panic Switch - Silversun Pickups
- Rich - Yeah Yeah Yeahs
- Catacombs - At The Drive-In
- Killdozer - Young Legionnaire
- 60 Feet Tall - The Dead Weather
- Killed By An Angel - Sunny Day Real Estate
- Shelter Your Needs - Juliette and the Licks
Spotify link: fear and loathing 2: break stuff
YouTube link: fear and loathing #2: break stuff
due to lack of interest in the videos, here’s all my top stuff for this year.
Albums:
1. P.O.S. - We Don’t Even Live Here
2. Deftones - Koi No Yokan
3. Grimes – Visions
4. Marina & The Diamonds - Electra Heart
5. Bloc Party – Four
6. Jack White – Blunderbuss
7. Coheed and Cambria - The Afterman: Ascension
8. Future of the Left - The Plot Against Common Sense
9. The xx – Coexist
10. Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles III
Album Songs:
1. Rosemary – Deftones
2. Get Down - P.O.S.
3. Freedom at 21 - Jack White
4. Circumambient – Grimes
5. Bubblegum Bitch - Marina & The Diamonds
6. We’re Not Good People - Bloc Party
7. Beneath The Waves An Ocean - Future Of The Left
8. The Afterman - Coheed And Cambria
9. No Rest - Dry The River
10. Fire Fire – Flyleaf
Non-Album Songs:
1. Telepathy – Crosses
2. Nobody to Love - Josh Homme
3. Nocturne – Tesseract
4. She Crows - Los Campesinos!
5. Follow Me - Chaos Chaos
EPs:
1. EP Two – Crosses
2. S – Chaos Chaos & An Omen – How To Destroy Angels
Gigs:
1. Refused - 12/08/12 - HMV Forum London
2. Johnny Foreigner - 05/10/12 - Gwdihw, Cardiff
3. The xx - 11/09/12 - The Coal Exchange, Cardiff
4. Coheed And Cambria - 07/11/12 - KOKO, London
5. Jack White, The Kills - 03/11/12 - Alexandra Palace, London
6. Vessels - 25/11/12 - Buffalo Bar, Cardiff
7. Exit_International, The Guns - 18/05/12 - Bogiez, Cardiff
8. Marina & The Diamonds - 27/06/12 - The Coal Exchange, Cardiff
9. Future Of The Left, Kutosis - 12/12/12 - Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff
10. Bloc Party - 18/10/12 - O2 Academy Bristol
Special mention:
At The Drive-In, Foo Fighters, Coheed And Cambria, Bombay Bicycle Club, Crystal Castles, Los Campesinos! Eagles Of Death Metal, Band Of Skulls, The Cribs, The Black Keys, Pulled Apart By Horses, 24-16/08/12 - Reading Festival
Films:
1. Team The Best Team
2. The Cabin In The Woods
3. Ruby Sparks
4. The Hunger Games
5. Looper
