Everything Else

If you Google “hard working band”, it’s no surprise that two of the first 10 results are Irish. We are a Catholic country, and it’s a Catholic meme.

Don’t you dislike it though? Personally I can’t stand this romantic idea of “the hard working band” or “the hard working artist”. Firstly, it is not actually “hard work” to be in a band. Not relatively. If anyone thinks so, try being a nurse, or a doctor, or cleaning toilets, or driving buses, or flipping burgers. What job do you do? Maybe you’re there right now. I’d wager whatever it is, it’s probably harder than being in a band.

Now don’t get me wrong, a band on the up may indeed be working hard, just as anyone who is trying to succeed at their career is. Indeed many bands or artists may rehearse a great deal and put in a lot of work. In fact, every band probably does. That’s why it’s irrelevant.  If a band or artist doesn’t give you a creative output you enjoy, then who cares how hard they work? You don’t hear hard work when you press play, nor should you.

The reality is that for a band or artist to really move us, they must create something we love or feel strongly about. That creative process does not necessarily include any “work” whatsoever. It may do, but it’s not a key component. I mean, if Paul McCartney had decided to add a long rapidfire guitar solo to “Yesterday” it may have been harder work, but would it actually have made the record sound better?

Creativity is what matters. Ideas are what matter. Work is just the realisation of both. Can we end this fetish once and for all?

From the Limerick Leader: “Audience walk-out at ‘offensive’ rapper”

MCs ‘Nailerz’ and ‘Pobs’ did their best to shock the audience. A particularly menacing looking Nailerz lyrically documented several feud-related incidents that have taken place in Limerick, as well as documenting his own brushes with the law and reserved much of his vitriol for crime journalist Paul Williams who he claimed “put a picture of my three-month-old daughter into his book”. Naillerz subsequently claimed that he is to sue Mr Williams.

This is a weird subculture isn’t it? Nailerz (above) is affiliated with Stab City Records, who have a host of Limerick accented rap tunes on their Bebo page. I don’t even know what to say about this except that it makes you realise the value of offensive rap music where the people are skilled at rapping. When people condemn rap music they often act like the songs are not music at all, but gigantic stark signs that read “I hate women”, or “Fuck the police”.

I can sort of understand that viewpoint since if the music doesn’t move you that’s how it may seem, a worthless exercise in hatred. I like plenty of rap music that people might dismiss for this reason. But that is a bit how I feel listening to these Irish rappers. It’s two dimensional, there isn’t really any personality to the tracks, just anger and swearing. The point seems to be anger and swearing more than music.

On the other hand, I think that if these guys are spending time making music they probably aren’t all that bad. Plus it goes without saying that this Irish rap is frequently hilarious too. I mean, beyond the analysis it’s just bizarre hearing a thick Limerick accent rapping over beats. “Stephen Carey…used to drink a flagon with him every Sahirday night”.

Ultimately I don’t know if they’re lying about their violent exploits, but either way I wonder if myself or anyone reading this blog has anything in common with these guys and girls. I mean, isn’t there just some gigantic divide here that you can’t comprehend?

Here’s the only video I could find:

I wouldn’t take the above advice if you’re making a mixtape though. Unless you have met someone who likes Haddaway and 2pac and Gram Parsons and the Pet Shop Boys, in which case please have them email me.

After the Phelps version, I had to go and check Jay-Z’s original “Big Pimpin” again. Definitely one of the best songs of all time. If this makes you think “this vulgar consumerism is a total fagfest” then I think you’ve been reading this blog too closely!

I know I shouldn’t compare the Westboro Baptist Church to some Irish band called You’re Only Massive. But they do sound alike.

Except it would be unfair to the Church really, their flow is a lot better. And if you’re going to steal someone else’s track to rap over then at least the WBC knew to start at the top, with “Big Pimpin’”.

Seriously though, it is kind of catchy, I guess you can’t ruin a good beat! Fans of Uffie will love this. Apart from the whole “every human being is a fag” feeling that’s lightly hinted at, erm, once or twice.

If you’ve never heard of Reverend Phelps and his strange family (whose theory really is that everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY is a “fag”) then Louis Theroux has done a good documentary about them which you can watch below. (Their other material is a bit more folksy. I didn’t like it.)

PS: I just realised I posted the above video without adding: WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON ON PLANET EARTH WHEN THIS KIND OF CRAZY SHIT CAN EXIST?

He really does like to move it!

(Sorry for reminding you of this)

 Crispian Mills has nothing on this guy.

“I find no problem with baring my soul to the extent that people know I want to compose for gamelan.”

“the first thing I did when I got off the plane was head to Harvey Nicks and shout ‘get me an amazing, fuck off pair of boots’”

“I mean, in the sense that I wanted to be grouped within this sonic aesthetic, then of course it’s imperative we sound like Razorlight! I want to sound like Razorlight and the Strokes and Bloc Party. But we don’t actually sound like any of them. We’re broader than that. I want to make music that a tribe in Papua New Guinea can relate to.”

“I hate actors. Vapid, ambitious little creatures…”

“My voice was trained when I was six, because I’d go to youth groups. That was what you did when you lived on a Brixton council estate, to keep you off the streets.”

“I feel all this hype does is expose the conglomerative, sadistic nature of the music industry. Like, when I read ‘this band are going to be big’ I just think ’surely that’s just anti the whole concept of taste and palette ?’”

“Every B-side we ever do, we’re going to choose a genre that isn’t us, and then have a musical theory lesson with a scholar of that genre, work out the rules and then compose a piece. It’s an excuse for us to develop as composers.”

“I want to promote the escape to the mind’s antipodes! I want to be like silver surfers flying through space on biscuits hitting you in the tits!”

Pauline Murray and the Invisible Girls released one album on Factory Records in the early 80s, which I’ve been listening to a lot lately.

In the first video above, Martin Hannet is on bass and Vini Reilly is on guitar, at least according to the comments. Even with crap sound quality it still sounds amazing to me, Hannet’s brilliant dub influenced production makes a charismatic and twisted pop song seem even more vitall. His production had so many layers to it. It wasn’t just bleak or brooding, though he invokes those feelings so easily in so much of his work.

But it’s the ethereal, otherworldly nature of Hannett’s production that really grabs me. The records still sound like they’re hacking away the sonic cobwebs that clog up so much bad music. All of Hannet’s records are lean. And almost 30 years after their release they still remove you from the moment you’re in and drag you into this vast ice box of sounds. A lot of Hannet’s work with John Cooper Clarke and Pauline Murray seems to have the optimism of the 80s pop music that came afterwards, albeit tempered by a more frugal sonic edge.

Sometimes it just sounds literally frugal, like the instruments used in the early 80s cost less or weren’t as “good”! It’s also a marvel that Hannett brings elements of electronic disco, dub, and funk to these records yet they remain so quintessentially British sounding. It’s like the sound of a British future that never happened, almost more European.

Both tracks above, “Mr X” and “Dream Sequence 1″, are from this album which I’ve been listening to a lot lately. Perhaps whatever it costs on Amazon is exorbitant. It was for me, so I downloaded the record. Shame on me! If you want to hear it, and share the shame, I suggest using P2P or failing that drop me an email. Or if you want to do the right thing, pay the 35 pounds for a very rare CD and a slightly clearer conscience!

Okay these are funny, but after a few listens I think they are something more than funny too. I wouldn’t really bother listening if funny was the only point of it all.

Edit: just added his third video here too. For more Devvo go here.

Okay, so who started this dense “before you die” meme? Who can shoulder the blame? This website? This series of books? Oh look, the Guardian has recently got on board the meme that seems as quintessentially British as Wimpy Burger.

When did life become so trite that on our deathbed we cry out in vain: “oh no I just realised, I haven’t seen ‘Il Postino’ , nor have I heard ‘Tour De France’, damn you cancerous cells!” Well my life isn’t that trite and neither is anyone else’s, if they’re honest. Art is invaluable, but the idea that there are specific works which are mandatory for one to claim to have lived a fulfilling and valuable life is absurd.

A life is an incalculable amount of feelings and experiences, an endless stream of events. No two lives are the same, yet these master list books attempt to claim some mortal importance. For all I know, bad art has taught me as much about myself as good art. I’d like to think that when I am on my deathbed, the experiences in my life will be innumerable and impossible to sum up. And I think now that dying is the last thing I will think about then. That in the final times “before I die” I will try to make sense of death as much as life.

Of course, like anyone who’s ever written about music (or cares about music writing) I’m well aware of the futility of using one art form to describe another, but a book about 1001 movies, or worse, a book about 1001 books seems an even bigger waste of time than a record review. Here’s a crazy thought, instead of reading this gigantic compendium, why not go forth and find the books that really do affirm YOUR character and YOUR life.

I mean, honestly, books about books! Books about books some of which may reference other books. We will drown ourselves.

What’s several thousand times more enriching than doing that is to attempt to know yourself and read, listen, or watch with that goal always at the forefront of your mind.

Afterall, when you (or I) read a list like this and then think “b-b-but my favourite album isn’t there” or “there’s no Elliott Smith!“), that’s the little voice inside you that wants you to ignore this tepid and centralised passion, the voice that knows you don’t need this crap because you have opinions of your own. And your opinion is worth more than anyone else’s.