Okay, it's Monday morning, far too early, I've been at work for quite a while now, wish I wasn't. The weekend was pretty good, me and the Lady spent a lovely evening watching (500) Days of Summer on Friday, and I made dinner again. I quite like making dinner, although it only adds to my man-failure. I don't like sports, I'd rather go shopping and watch ANTM and make food. Penis, you might as well drop off now... Saturday was spent getting very drunk, to the point of passing out on the Lady's lap for a good while, but that was nice because I got to have a bit of a cuddle (apparently, I've little to no recollection of any of this). No more Rodneys... EVOR. Sunday was spent at my dad's house. The usual routine: kids act up, step mum moans, dad moans about step mum moaning, step mum moans about dad moaning about step mum moaning, I play Sims, sister watches Hollyoaks omnibus. Good quality family time, in which very few polite words are exchanged, and my veganism is cruelly mocked at least twice by my step mum. Bitch.
Anyway, another musiccy blog for you aujourd'hui. This is just going to be about a couple of bands I've been listening to recently, no particular genre or era guidelines.
Sonic Youth are my favourite band, by miles. Yes, it's mostly noise. Yes, it's a little bit artsy fartsy. And yes, they should probably be called Sonic Middle Age by now. But they're better than any of you will ever be at anything ever. EVOR. I first heard them when I was about twelve and didn't have any friends (I was short and chubby and had glasses and liked science fiction, so it's hardly surprising) and just used to spend Saturdays in HMV going through their two for a tenner deals and buying everything, in the desperate hope that buying lots of CDs would make me cool. Anyway, I saw Daydream Nation on the shelf, and thought the candle on the cover was shit awesome, so I bought that as well as a Soundgarden album (which was probably wank, as I can't remember the name of it or any tracks from it). I've loved Sonic Youth since the minute I heard the opening bars of "Teenage Riot", and seeing them at the Roundhouse was probably the best gig of my life.
Listen to: "Teenage Riot", "Starpower", "Incinerate", "Candle", "The Diamond Sea"
I've also been listening to some of my favourite old 60s bands recently, namely the Who, the Kinks, the Rolling Stones, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, the Doors, and Cream. When I was about fourteen I stopped listening to anything new for a while (again because I didn't have many friends and thought that being a classic rock snob would make a decent USP) and devoted my entire iPod to the 50s, 60s and 70s. I had long hair, a Fender Stratocaster, and an endless supply of band t-shirts. In my mind, I was like the love child of Hendrix and Morrison, if said love child had been raised by Clapton and the Davies brothers, before being taken away by social services and fostered by Townshend. Of course in reality I was just a pretentious cunt. Anyway, these are by far the most awesome bands from by far the most awesome era of music.
The Who wrote the most anthemic rock songs of all time, providing the perfect soundtrack for anyone's teenage years (anything from Quadrophenia proves this), and still had a great sense of humour about the whole thing (as "Boris the Spider", "I'm a Boy" and the front cover of The Who Sell Out show). And they did it all whilst maintaining a very distinctly British sound, never "doing a Beatles" and falling over themselves to gain approval from the American populus.
Listen to : "Pinball Wizard", "I Can't Explain", "Baba O'Reilly"
The Kinks pretty much invented that suit-clad swagger that countless indie bands these days attempt (and fail) to duplicate, and Dave Davies' racous guitar riffs layed the foundations for rock 'n' roll's transformation into rock, brother Ray's idiosyncratic vocal style making every song sound crisp and stand out from the other bands on the scene at the time. And they wrote a song about accidentally hooking up with transvestites. Win.
Listen to: "Lola", "Everybody's Gonna Be Happy", "All Day And All Of The Night"
The Rolling Stones are possibly the greatest band of all time, and whilst they did get a bit (or a lot) shit in the seventies when they tried to be a funk band, the pouting, strutting majesty of "Gimme Shelter", "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "Under My Thumb" cleanse them of all wrong doings. Without Mick Jagger's snake hipped lyricism and Keith Richards' "I really couldn't give a fuck" style of guitar playing, music would probably be shit now.
Listen to: "Under My Thumb", "Gimme Shelter", "Jumpin' Jack Flash"
Jimi Hendrix was always the coolest motherfucker in the world, but this was never truer than in the early days of the Experience, when psychedelia was still young and you could get away with saying "dig, y'all" an awful lot. He did things with a guitar than no one had done before, or has done since and whilst he's often imitated, no one will ever be better. If a guitarist says they aren't at all influenced by Hendrix, they're a lying cunt. Jimi invented the concept of lead guitar, everything before that was just a few scattered licks in a Chuck Berry song, or Scotty Moore squeezing in a few hammer-ons betwixt verses on an Elvis track. Unfortunately, whilst very good at guitar, he wasn't so good at not drowning in vomit...
Listen to: "Bold As Love", "3rd Stone From The Sun", "Foxy Lady"
The Doors were pretty cool too, but in a very different way. Jim Morrison was never a great singer, he basically just read poetry over the top of Densmore, Manzerek and Krieger's incredible instrumentation. But he was one hell of a front man, and he did get his cock out on a couple of occasions, which is so rock 'n' roll it defies belief.
Listen to: "Touch Me", "The Crystal Ship", "The End"
And Cream were good as well. The superest of the super groups, they mixed blues rock with psychedelic themes in a way that was effortless and unmatched, until Hendrix came along and put out their bonfire with one simple act of fretboard gymnastics. Still shouldn't be forgotten, though, as Cream served as a launch pad for all three members' solo careers, as well as providing us with some killer tunes.
Listen to: "SWLABR", "Crossroads", "White Room"
I've also been listening to a couple of relatively modern bands in amongst this oldschoolery. Fight Like Apes remain one of my favourites, and one of the most undervalued bands today, seamlessly blending punk, synths, waltzing (yes, motherfucking waltzing) and good old fashioned nonsense like no one else can. Live, they smash chairs on rails, dive through their own keyboards, belly flop into the crowd, and puncture their amps with screwdrivers. Genius.
Listen to: "Jake Summers", "Something Global", "Snore Bore Whore"
The Twilight Sad are Scotland’s best new band in my humble opinion, with a beautiful noisy sound and gorgeously heart-wrenching lyrics. They’re still relatively unknown but I predict big things for them once people pull their heads out of their collective arse and realise that Kasabian and the like are (and always have been) absolute shit.
Right, that’s your lot, I’m off to ask Africa about a little puma…
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