Picky picky.

The Glasto line-up just got better*


* Worse?

That's such a weak line up. The only good one is Shakin Stevens, for comedy value alone.


What age is he now?

The Glastonbury line-up has always been a mixture of amazing acts and loads of "meh" acts. It's still a great experience regardless of who plays.

I'm envious this year because I reckon Gilbert O' Sullivan and Shaky will be fabtastic in front of a festival crowd.

And let's face it, the notion of seeing Jay-Z take a bottle of piss to the head is a tempting one.

I had 'Alone Again (Naturally)' as my myspace song for months.

It's pretty much my favourite song about suicide.

History will judge him as a fine singer songwriter. He's a good choice for the Sunday morning comedown slot.

Has history judged him otherwise? I've always thought he was ace.

Not news as such, but I was intrigued to note that one of the covers Prince performed at the Coachella festival over the weekend included 'Creep' by Radiohead. Just reminded me of his corking version of Foo Fighters' 'Best Of You' at the O2 last year. Ace. The clip of Prince's performance of 'Turn It Loose' on last Friday's Tonight Show with Jay Leno has already been taken down at YouTUBE, but it was smokin'. Da little man sho nuff knows how to jam.

Rua, I envy your June gig tickets already.

Seriously, I'm crapping myself with excitement about that week.

Prince at Croker then My Bloody Valentine in London. 5 days apart.

I'm a happy camper.

Oh dear.

Radiohead album stunt 'a one off'



Nothing to do with your record company not liking this, then.

That's fair enough though, isn't it? They aren't a charity.

Totally - I thought at the time that the 'honesty box' idea was worthy, but very naive; give people the choice, and they don't really want to pay for stuff.

I took it one step further and didn't even download the album. That's magnanimity for you.

I read this as "people who like Radiohead are cheating tightarses". Harsh of me ... but what else can one say? I bet they even steal sugar from Costa because they don't want to pay for sugar. Arf.

Really? You should.

S'wicked. There are at least a couple of tracks on there I guarantee you'll like. I reckon 'Reckoner' would be up your street.

EDIT: I didn't pay for it, but I hardly pay for any music. Home taping is killing music, kids

It's pretty good.
Not as good as Radiohead fans think it is, but still a worthy listen.

I thought it was brave of them as opposed to niave & a nice statement to make. They've sold millions of albums & will continue to do so, one going for 'free' wasn't going to kill them (considering artists make less than £1 per album generally from sales).

Is it harsh? I mean, the facts are there. Most people didn't pay for it.

I don't feel bad about doing Radiohead out of a quid.

If I see Thom, I'll buy him a pint.

I have a vague amorphous interest in Radiohead but only own one or two tracks from iTunes. I'll look into it, I liked what I heard of The Eraser, which I also mean to buy.

Music piracy annoys the tits off me.

I mainly like to listen to new music via blogs (and then myspace) and download the tracks I like, then if I really like it I'll buy the album. I don't really think of it as supporting piracy. Up and coming bands really benefit from blog buzz (like recent darlings of the blogiverse Vampire Weekend) and the word of mouth it generates. Most music bloggers put a disclaimer on there saying they'll take any tracks down if the record company/band request it. This means any tracks from big recording artists vanish very quickly, but the smaller/newer acts seem perfectly happy with the system.

I use Hype Machine and Elbows, sites that collect music blogs together.

If the post sounds like something I'll like, I click through and listen. I've found loads of great music this way, and introduced others the bands too.

Radio is shit these days.

You made it sound like you pirate whole albums. Sampling one or two tracks isn't quite so bad, so long as you do buy the album when you like the music.

I know too many people - one I work with in particular who is brazenly piratical to the point of resenting legal music purchases - who take downloading for granted.

I wouldn't even know how to get a full album, except for the Radiohead one, which was offered for free.

To clarify, I don't always buy bands albums after downloading a couple of tracks, only if I really like them after a few listens.

I don't consider this 'bad' at all, and I'm pretty sure most of the acts concerned would feel the same, they're not big names and many get no radio play, so how else would I hear them? I'm not in a position to buy albums on spec on the odd chance I'll like them.

The acts I get behind get played to anyone who'll listen, and I know at least a couple of people who've bought albums based on acts I've recommended in this way. Music is art, and should be for everyone to enjoy. I'm not saying that bands shouldn't get money for their hard work, of course they should, and I appreciate the industry needs people to buy records to keep going. However, every free download people make does not represent the loss of a physical purchase, for many people it's a suck it and see thing. And even if I don't end up buying the album, I don't feel guilty about it, and don't believe I should.

Next time I'm in a record shop, I'm going to get the Swell Season album, after listening to three of their songs (downloaded from a music blog) for two days non-stop. I'll play it to my folks on Sunday, and I can almost guarantee they'll buy it too.

Absolutely, downloading from MySpace or whatever is just the same as hearing something on the radio in the distant past. If you don't like something the band isn't 'losing' your potential purchase because you never would have bought it otherwise. The internet just makes it easier to sample music you might not have. So, I lift the burden of guilt from your head and send you back into the world.

Anyone who rips off albums wholesale and never buys anything (including films!) I hereby declare you a bad and immoral person.

Here is a song about them.

Music & Politics Just Don't Mix

Jarvis pens tunes for Wes Anderson movie.

Plus mentions of his plans for his second solo album.

Radiohead deny claim they've written the score to Choke.

Shame. I thought that would have been interesting.

After waiting ten years to release an album, Verve put out this crap.

Isn't one U2 enough?

Even that's too much.

Why couldn't the Soviets have shot that U2 down?

Music tastes link to personality.

I like the Indie and Rock entries!

Music news only of interest to me and Sostie...

New Lil Chris tunes here

And he continues to be fab. His cover of Clothes Off is a genius choice.

Only just happened across this item from a few weeks back:

Barenaked Ladies' lead singer survives plane crash

6 Music poll results of the 10 most overated albums


1. Nirvana - Nevermind

"One great single maybe but the rest is irritating second rate rock with mindless whining that had, has been, and is being written everywhere by admittedly less pretty and tragic characters."
Greg Spellman, Northamptonshire

"There were many better bands - Dinosaur Jr, Mudhoney, The Pixies - who came before. Nirvana just came along at the right time and captured that Zeitgeist and then became the marketing mans dream."
Ewan Swain

"Whilst I quite enjoy "In Uetro" I can't see what all the fuss about 'Nevermind' is about. Other than "Smells like..." there really isn't a decent tune on there."
Chris, Birmingham


2) COLDPLAY - X&Y (2005)

3) THE LIBERTINES - THE LIBERTINES (2004)

4) OASIS - DEFINITELY MAYBE (1994)

5) U2 - THE JOSHUA TREE (1987)

6) RADIOHEAD - OK COMPUTER (1997)

7) THE BEATLES - SGT PEPPER'S LONELY HEARTS CLUB BAND (1967)

8) THE BEACH BOYS - PET SOUNDS (1966)

9) SEX PISTOLS - NEVER MIND THE BOLLOCKS (1977)

10) THE SMITHS - THE QUEEN IS DEAD (1986)


The inclusion of 8, 9 & 10 is a travesty

and 6.

Spot on with 4 though.

I really fucking hate Oasis.

I wasn't aware that this was rated.

I always find peoples reaction to overrated material funny, in that because it's overrated it means that it's actually shit. Feast or famine with some folk.

Won't be buying tickets for that tour then.

Totally agree.

Surely the following quote can be said of almost all of them and is possibly one of the main reasons why they are not necessarily overrated, and definitely why they are all so popular?....

That's like bacon and bread reuniting without HP Sauce.

Not so much news as a general concern, regarding Men Without Hats. Does this include Hard Hats?

If so, they are clearly flouting Safety Dance regulations.

Britney's new single may be banned from the airwaves
I'm not really bothered so much by that, but I've tried saying the song's title really fast and it still doesn't sound like **** me. I feel cheated.
Must be the way she says it.

Either way, the song itself will probably sound like Essay Chi Tea.

Music-News.Com (rated the most visited/searched on-line music site in the UK by Google & many other search engines) Best gigs of 2008

1 The Godfathers – Forum
2 The Gaslight Anthem – LA2
3 Snow Patrol – Bloomsbury Theatre
4 Devotchka – The Scala
5 The Police – Isle of Wight Festival
6 Metallica – 02 Arena
7 TV on the Radio – Cargo
8 Foo Fighters – Wembley Stadium
9 Dodgy – Barfly
10 Bruce Springsteen – Emirates Stadium

just outside the Top 10 included:

....Gallows – 100 Club/Pretty Things & The Malchicks – 100 Club/Rasputina – Royal Festival Hall/Eric Bibb – Cadogan Hall/The Subways – Brixton Academy/John Mayall – Jazz Café/Seckou Keita – Jazz Café/Melody Cardot – Bloomsbury Theatre/Dirty Pretty Things – Mean Fiddler/Old Crow Medicine Show – Shepherds Bush Empire/Nizlopi – ULU/Athlete – Soho Revue Bar/The Music – ULU/Wakestock Festival/Less Than Jake – Bristol Academy/Kimmie Rhodes – Hammersmith/The Glitterati – Purple Turtle/Radiohead – Roskilder Festival/Angus & Julia Stone – Scala/Jay-Z – Glastonbury/My Morning Jacket – Glastonbury/Neil Young – Roskilder Festival/Nada Surf – 12 Bar Club/Radiohead – Victoria Park/Lupe Fiasco – Glastonbury/Rage Against The Machine – Reading Festival/Stevie Wonder – 02 Arena/Team Waterpolo – 93 Feet East/Fleet Foxes – Shepherds Bush Empire/Manu Chau – Forum/Leonard Cohen – Glastonbury/Minus IQ – Camden/ The Music – Roundhouse/My Bloody Valentine – Roskilder Festival/Forget The Down – Dublin Castle/The Spice Girls – 02 Arena/Slipknot – Hammersmith Apollo/Coheed & Cambria/Frank Turner – 100 Club/Mystery Jets – Scala/Edwyn Collins – Shepherds Bush Empire/Ladyhawke – Camp Bestival/New Model Army – Astoria/Metallica – Reading Festival


I only went to one of these...No 1.

Check out Hexstatic's latest mix:
Fight!

I like it.

New Divine Comedy album in 2009

Eeeeexcellent.