:: original music
Watching "4music" this Friday night I can get quite depressed. I've just listened to some live recordings of Team Waterpolo, a new band from Preston. The guitar riffs are so Kaiser Chiefs, the lyrics are Shed 7 and the tunes are Franz Ferdinand. The latter probably first to blame for the upsurge in guitar-wielding revolutionaries that just aren't revolutionary. The difference that Franz Ferdinand made seven years ago wasn't their being fresh either. In reality, they did the opposite by being a clean cut band, a bit like the early Beatles. The bands that sound like them, such as the Wombats, the Kooks, Kaiser Chiefs and Team Waterpolo, are inspired on this preppy look and pretentious lyrics. Of course, I like some of their tunes.. But I am aching for a pop genius to shake it up.
Unfortunately while Duffy, next on 4Music tonight, could be regarded as a genius, she's no better. Songs like 'Rockferry' and 'Mercy' send shivers down my spine, but I can too easily picture her performing at a club in Blackpool in 1964. She wouldn't blow away Nina Simone (or Amy Winehouse) either. Has music not changed since the Sixties? It certainly sounds more crisp and is more easily available to massive audience, but real innovations in music are hard to come by.
I wonder if, when I was younger, I was lucky to get accustomed to musical genius and innovation in so many musical genres.. Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Therapy? picking up where the Doors left off and revitalising punk rock, Limp Bizkit (whom I loathe) having a go at combining this with hiphop.. Hiphop and rap itself reaching new heights with among others Eminem at his peak, making Grandmaster Flash proud.. Then also Pulp having a look at suited-up Beatles and Pet Shop Boys and very creatively building themselves a reputation of their own. And the Manchester scene with Joy Division, Stone Roses and later Oasis keeping the indie rock alive and kicking, with a bite. Faithless and the Chemical Brothers grabbing the dance scene by the hand and elevating it.. Girls like Alanis Morissette, Ani DiFranco and Heather Nova, each in their own way, taking femrock and shoving it up guy's airses with new gusto.. Perhaps there was too much going on at the time even. Part of me wanted to become ingrained in the 'alternative' scene, dress in a black trench coat and kick purple Dr. Martens at the establishment - but another part of me wanted to shave my head and get high on Portishead and Tricky.
I feel sorry for the bands in the current scene in a way, and sorry for students at university too. Life in your teens and twenties should be about finding your voice and making it fucking heard too. On the other hand though, you can't expect anyone to listen if all you're saying has been said so many times before. I do not know if I would have been equally lyrical about current music if I had been ten years younger - perhaps I am just a cynical bugger - but I do know a musical genius is required to break open a new sound. Not to break open a new excitement about music, as that will always be there, but something truly different.
In the meantime I have to appreciate the new Portishead album "Third". And I do, though despite the rave review let's be honest - it is dated. And it's so sad, so very sad that it is, as we've not moved on really.
Unfortunately while Duffy, next on 4Music tonight, could be regarded as a genius, she's no better. Songs like 'Rockferry' and 'Mercy' send shivers down my spine, but I can too easily picture her performing at a club in Blackpool in 1964. She wouldn't blow away Nina Simone (or Amy Winehouse) either. Has music not changed since the Sixties? It certainly sounds more crisp and is more easily available to massive audience, but real innovations in music are hard to come by.
I wonder if, when I was younger, I was lucky to get accustomed to musical genius and innovation in so many musical genres.. Nirvana, Pearl Jam and Therapy? picking up where the Doors left off and revitalising punk rock, Limp Bizkit (whom I loathe) having a go at combining this with hiphop.. Hiphop and rap itself reaching new heights with among others Eminem at his peak, making Grandmaster Flash proud.. Then also Pulp having a look at suited-up Beatles and Pet Shop Boys and very creatively building themselves a reputation of their own. And the Manchester scene with Joy Division, Stone Roses and later Oasis keeping the indie rock alive and kicking, with a bite. Faithless and the Chemical Brothers grabbing the dance scene by the hand and elevating it.. Girls like Alanis Morissette, Ani DiFranco and Heather Nova, each in their own way, taking femrock and shoving it up guy's airses with new gusto.. Perhaps there was too much going on at the time even. Part of me wanted to become ingrained in the 'alternative' scene, dress in a black trench coat and kick purple Dr. Martens at the establishment - but another part of me wanted to shave my head and get high on Portishead and Tricky.
I feel sorry for the bands in the current scene in a way, and sorry for students at university too. Life in your teens and twenties should be about finding your voice and making it fucking heard too. On the other hand though, you can't expect anyone to listen if all you're saying has been said so many times before. I do not know if I would have been equally lyrical about current music if I had been ten years younger - perhaps I am just a cynical bugger - but I do know a musical genius is required to break open a new sound. Not to break open a new excitement about music, as that will always be there, but something truly different.
In the meantime I have to appreciate the new Portishead album "Third". And I do, though despite the rave review let's be honest - it is dated. And it's so sad, so very sad that it is, as we've not moved on really.