Week Commencing: 24/5/04
By: Toby L
Howdy Amigos,
Enjoying the sunshine? Cretins! Don't let it detract from your gig-going schedule - some shows we've attended in the last week have been as barren and desolate as a Welsh graveyard (not down to the performers' efforts, mind you), i.e. just not busy enough. Screw the sunshine; that's not gonna go - but good bands and good times will (N.B. rockfeedback cannot guarantee the welfare of the sun, or that good times will, indeed, ever go).
The Issue: Last week, we asked of you - effectively - are festivals now stale due to their big-brand partners? Answer from the majority of you that responded - not really. As some of the following moods prove.
'Your inference that festivals are beginning to suck because of corporate bolt-on's is a load of tosh (we didn't infer that festivals were sucking, but were instead displaying both sides of the argument so as to trigger such debate - Political Ed). Without the funding needed to source out some of the better acts to be checked out at this summer's festivals, you wouldn't be able to see such big names in the first place... I mean, for f**k's sake, Pixies wouldn't play Chelmsford if they weren't getting paid a stupid amount of cash, would they?' Tammy Winworth, Somerset, UK.
Bloody good point. Black Francis and co. wouldn't be caught dead in Essex (no offence, Essexers) if they weren't being paid quite a lot to be there. Another viewpoint:
'The fact you guys can even complain about the standard of festivals makes me envious beyond all degrees imaginable. I live in Chicago and we get no such luck of even one festival - all we're awarded are just huge gusts of wind and bad jazz.' Steven Johnson, Chicago, USA.
True - better to have too many than too few. And much better having festivals rather than 'bad jazz' (perish the thought). Last but not least:
'We're all corporate whores at heart in a hopelessly consumerist culture (Yay! - Sell-Out Ed). The beauty of free living is just that - freedom, that we can make our own minds up as to whether we purchase a product or not, even if it is associated to something as sacred as music. Companies have products to sell, and marketing-budgets to utilise - if that common evil can be put towards such a positive artform as furthering music, then so be it.' Richard Parkinson, Wolverhampton, UK.
My oh my, you are an intelligent bunch. I was expecting a series of self-righteous, snotty, student-esque sensationalist rants along the lines of 'F**K THE CORPORATIONS - ROCK RULES!' but barely any; in their place: eloquent reason.
But what about this week's The Issue - major record-labels. What with the likes of some of the UK's most respected and successful rock-acts - Hell Is For Heroes, Hundred Reasons - getting dropped by the majors, what hope is left for music? Where next? Are major's doomed, due to their negligence to embrace the wonders of downloading technology even sooner than they (finally) have? Will the indie-labels - a la Domino, Fierce Panda, Rough Trade - continue to rule the world? Your thoughts: theissue@rockfeedback.com. More random comments of yours on the matter will appear here next week.
Highlights for rockfeedback in the last seven days: more mad gigging - we can still taste the remnants of alcohol cascading against our ulcer-ridden mouths - namely thanks to Bloc Party and The Magic Numbers rocking the Queens Of Noize night at the Barfly @ Monarch on Friday (rockfeedback was so psyched-up that, on a freshening-up visit to the toilets, we got ensconced in a one-hour debate of all things musical, and didn't think even once of moving the conversation to the less infringing confines of, say, the bar... how homoerotic of us); selling singles on behalf of The Rakes on Monday, whose own Barfly effort was admirably frenetic, splenetic, urgent, tuneful and eccentric in equal measure, and rather apt for shaking a leg to; speaking of which - our last thrill of la semaine was breakdancing once more during the acoustic-set performed by site-scribes Tom Hannan and Kevin Molloy in a student-hall (one onlooker was heard to say of the shapes being thrown, 'I thought it was the Second Coming...' OK, so that's a lie).
Alt UK chart-action: Last week, we got bitched against for our incessant Morrissey shout-outs - we shall not apologise for our love of the big-quiffed nutbar, for he has once again scored a hit... His comeback album 'You Are The Quarry' has infested the hit parade by going straight into the top-three (two), while ahead of it remain Keane at #1 for a second week. Ash snatch up a respectable number-five placement, and The Charlatans disappointingly slump in at fourteen with 'Up At The Lake' (shame; it's a better record than many have provided it credit for). Graham Coxon goes in at 19 with 'Happiness In Magazines', meanwhile. Singles-wise, Brand New are in at 39, Muse are 16 with their ballad 'Sing For Absolution', PJ Harvey is 28 with 'The Letter', Nick Drake is 32 with 'Magic', and Poptones' latest - The Others - just miss out on the top-40 by entering at 42 (d'oh!). Somewhat most gloriously of all, though, Sting goes in at a shameful 60. Muhaha. Other cool, but under-achieving indie-bands: abrasive emocore-ravagers Million Dead are 72; weirdo popsters Agent Blue are 71; and Wichita rockers Cribs are 75.
Gigs this week, London: Tonight (Monday 24th May, 8pm, £5:00), rockfeedback's own Clara Burtenshaw is promoting Ric A Rac's line-up at the Metro, featuring up-and-coming tykes, Ludes + New Rhodes + The Fades + Mystery Jets (FYI: the latter are a spiralling prog-rock band comprised of impossibly young kids and, erm, a man in his 60s - we salute them!); Tuesday (25th, £7:00) sees legendary Japanese surf-punk-rockers Guitar Wolf return to the UK at long last for a stupidly rare one-off set at the Highbury Garage (you know they were signed to Matador once upon a time, right?); Wednesday promises another scarce show, with unique visuals, from moody performance-artist-cum-epic-dancesters Demeter, who are getting a huge buzz - view website (Union Chapel, £6:00, 8pm); and finally, Thursday is rockfeedback's own Basement Club, featuring Loog/Polydor's The Duke Spirit, Domino's Archie Bronson Outfit and our current office-faves, The Magic Numbers, alongside guest-DJs (27th; £6:00 - more info here). After all these, why not recover?
Current rockfeedback playlist: the saxtastic TV On The Radio (it's cosmic, man) with their trippy, debut UK LP, 'Desperate Youth, Blood Thirsty Babes'; as ever, Regina Spektor's 'Soviet Kitsch' (you know it's finally getting released properly in July, right?); Gordon R's Black Light album - whoa, now that's what we call space, baby; Liars' scary 'We Fenced...' EP; and the rusty, but loveable demo-recordings of Nine Black Alps, the UK's most in-demand, unsigned act (it's got a charm, alright, ranging from the loud-slow harmonics of grunge, through to the vocal and melodic lilt of The Beatles; a few potentially corking anthems - 'Shot Down', 'Ilana Song', 'Not Everyone').
Out now: Tortoise's 'It's All Around You' is available, and it's yet further lounge-schlock bliss, and more out there than anything we know, or would care to know; Blonde Redhead's compelling 'Equus' is now available on ultra-limited silver vinyl and costs an arm and a leg (around £7:00 - but worth every penny); and Hope Of The States' 'The Red, The White, The Black, The Blue' is at last with us.
Cheers, peeps. More in seven days. Keep that correspondence coming.