December 2009
“I sense that in the long run there is a greater value for humanity in empowering...”
– David Byrne, Art Funding or Arts Funding?
Totally agree with this. Enable people to create art, get rid of the stupid classist ideas of “high-brow” and “low-brow”, and appreciate all forms of art instead of arguing about whether something is art or not. Get the creativity flowing.
(via...
more Lady Gaga discussion...
themerchgirlnet:
Hello from the original poster! Just on a note: I’m of Bangladeshi heritage, but I was born & raised in Malaysia and live in Australia now. But the note about being more acutely aware of racial issues is true. I didn’t mean “just make traditional music” - I meant more the idea that if she was, say, a South Asian who involved the smallest bit of the harmonium or tabla, she’d...
The Problem With Feminism
themerchgirlnet:
themarriageofadeadblogsing:
Blah blah blah, original long post.
Dude, your inability to use Google isn’t a failure of feminism. Feminist bloggers aren’t here to write for <i>your</i> entertainment. You want a back door? Find it yourself.
Your entitlement complex is showing.
I’m always worried about writing about politics, for this exact reason. I’m...
thesefewpresidents:
See, I was with her when she said ‘imagine Lady GaGa looked different’, but when she also effectively said ‘imagine she didn’t make pop music’, she lost me. Of course Lady GaGa wouldn’t be as popular if she worked in another, less accessible/established/trendy genre of music; that’s an entirely separate issue to that of race. Sure, Lady GaGa wouldn’t be as popular (or...
Albums Even I Forgot About
Ok, I’m going to claim that I was saving the best for last, and you’re all totally going to pretend to believe me and turn a blind eye to this (up until now) shameful omission. Believe me, I have already sufficiently berated myself for this.
19: Konono no1 - Congotronics
Before we start, I’d like to point out that I’m not a dickhead who likes to stroke his beard and talk...
themerchgirlnet:
How successful would Lady Gaga have been had she not been an Anglo-looking American pop star?
Imagine if Lady Gaga had looked more like me for example - curvy, very obviously South Asian, wavy hair, kinda stocky. If she had dealt with experimental or traditional music instead of the pop/dance scene. She may still be talking about the same things - fame, celebrity, peer...
More Albums People Forgot About
17: The Dresden Dolls - The Dresden Dolls
Not so deep down inside of me there’s an overweight 14 year old girl called xxrAVEN~of~solituDExx23 waiting to get out. Thankfully the only outward signs of this are a wardrobe full of corsets and stripy socks I picked up in Camden Market and an unhealthy obsession with The Dresden Dolls.
But then again, everyone should love The Dresden Dolls, no...
4 tags
I made this as a Christmas present for Maebh from...
WatchI’ve only just discovered Tom Zé, and he’s presently the only thing keeping me sane this Christmas. I wish more protest songs were this much fun.
“Girl with an American accent: Do you have any Lil Wayne?
Me: No.
Girl: How...”
– I was DJing last night, but for some weird reason the bar was filled with dickheads. A little note for future reference: If you’re in a bar and the DJ is wearing a dress and playing Punk music, asking for shit rap is probably not going to get you very far.
How Come ...
I still don’t think that’s a flaw though. These writers are still popular, in fact they’re held up as the epitome of what one should strive to be as an artist. Yet they cover exactly the same ground as Hip Hop does. Though, obviously, they had their detractors when they first started, they were embraced far more readily than Hip Hop ever was.
Or, if you want to put it into more...
Before I moved to London my Dad bought me a rabbit skin hat because he thought it looked hella cool. It’s sat at the bottom of my wardrobe for the past year, because I found it impossible to reconsile being a vegetarian with wearing a dead rabbit on my head. But fuck that, it’s cooooooooooold today.
Albums From The 00's No One Else Gives A Shit...
11: Venetian Snares - Winnipeg Is A Frozen Shithole
Picture the scene. It’s early 2006, and I’m sitting in my friend Emmas front room. Now, Emma was pretty. Like, seriously fucking pretty. Not a being polite because she has a boyfriend and you don’t want to step on anyones toes kind of pretty. She also liked Feminism and read Camus, but I didn’t hold that against her.
...
How Come ...
Leonard Cohen can write about recieving blow jobs from anonymous women in hotel rooms, Johnny Cash can boast about going to prison after killing a man just for kicks, Bob Dylan can extol the virtues of smoking illegal drugs and Tom Waits can make an entire career out of writing songs about hustling, yet Hip Hop catches all the flack for only being about sex, violence, drugs and money?
Oh sorry, I...
1 tag
Whilst I was walking home the other night...
The Police had cordoned off the road that leads to my flat. People could still walk through though, it was just for cars. Anyways, halfway down this road, a car is stopped, and the police are tearing apart the insides and pulling out huge bags of Cocaine.
I guess it won’t be snowing this Christmas after all!
More Albums From The 00's That No One Else...
Fuck. It’s 3 a.m and I’m wide awake. Fuck you freaky bar hours.
10: Selfish Cunt - English Chamber Music
Selfish Cunts debut album, No Wicked Heart Shall Prosper, sounded a bit like Queen Adreena and Suicide in the middle of a “who can make the most fucked up noise” contest. For this, their second album, they expanded to four piece and dropped the uncomfortably racist...
There will be more of this, I’m pretty sure I have at least 20 amazing albums that didn’t get mentioned, and that’s before I start doubling up with Tom Waits and Venetian Snares albums.
But right now it’s 20:45 and I’ve been doing this all day and really I just wanna go see my girlfriend and watch some TV and chill out before she goes home for Christmas.
Top Albums Of The 00's (the alternative version)
I’m 23. I can trace the exact moment I discovered music that was my own. It was in 1998, and it was the first time I heard Pretty Fly (for a white guy) by The Offspring. Not the most auspitious of starts I’ll admit, but still. My parents hated it, I loved it. This is how my love affair with music began.
I mention this only as context. I was 12 when the decade changed. More or less all...
I've Suffered From Depression Since I Was 14
Sometimes it makes me a little grumpy. Sometimes I cannot leave my bed. Occasionally, I want to die.
All the same, I’ve always found myself in good company.
4 tags
A track I finished a few months back, I’ve...
Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed,...
Something Old: This Is Our Emergency by Pretty Girls Make Graves
This time last week I was hanging out with my manager at a friends house. We got chatting about music and we both admitted to a great love for early 00’s emo. When I got home (and came down) the next day I looked up all the bands I remembered like Saves The Day, Jimmy Eat World, Glassjaw and Rival Schools. The one that really...
I'm Going To Start Trying To Do This Again
Right, so this whole blogging thing kind of died a death for me. Mostly because I moved in with my girlfriend “whilst I got myself sorted”.
Pretty soon I realised I was living somewhere nice and it was close enough to still be useful for work. I also wasn’t paying rent, and the people I was living with were friendly and I really enjoyed their company. Best of all, I got to come...