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- Forget television – the gig scene is live and kicking online
Far from killing live music broadcasting, the internet is saving it with Bandstand Busking and The Mahogany Sessions
What was the most exciting thing about this year's Mercury prize? The guy from Biffy Clyro turning up looking like a cross between former Liverpool player Abel Xavier and a feral Kurt Cobain? No, it was the fact that it represented an increasingly rare opportunity to watch live music on TV.
Watching the awards from my sofa this year made me realise television doesn't really do live music any more. The Word and Top of the Pops will join space-hoppers and SodaStreams on future "I love waffling on about the past" nostalgia shows. Where did it all go wrong for live music on the box?
Beyond Andi Peters's nail-in-coffin stint at the helm of the good ship TOTP, the only obvious reason I can find is the rise of the internet. Why sit through a programme that contains five acts you hate when you can watch five you like on YouTube? However, saying the internet is ultimately to blame for the death of music TV is only a step away from shouting at lightbulbs for being a good idea, or embarking on a Camille Paglia-esque rant about young people having fun and stuff. Which is to say, pointless.
I propose that, far from killing live music broadcasting, the internet is actually saving it. Last week, Belle and Sebastian announced the online broadcast of their own show. It's 30 minutes of music and chat (and some outstanding tank tops, obviously) and if you like the band you've probably stopped reading this and are watching it already. It's akin to a budgeted, wilfully indie take on the cable TV stations set up by Manchester United or Chelsea where, if you support the team, you can watch content about them all day. I'm looking forward to the day when Slayer follow suit.
What's most exciting about music TV on the internet is that it gives a platform to voices that would normally never get within a mile of the Television Centre. I was incredibly excited a few years back by the creation of Welcome to Our TV Show, a DIY zoo-format production brought to YouTube by Jeremy Warmsley (now of Summer Camp, then of his own folky leanings) that invited the likes of Mystery Jets and Laura Marling round to his kitchen to play their songs. Until Jeremy broke up with his girlfriend and had to move out, that is.
But a tonne of shows have followed in Welcome to Our TV Show's wake, such as The Black Cab Sessions, which takes the likes of Daniel Johnston and Final Fantasy, puts them in the back of a black cab, drives them around the block while they play a song, then pays the cabbie and uploads the footage on YouTube. It does exactly what it says on the tin – if the tin said: "This contains a really good idea."
In a similar vein are Bandstand Busking – which recently put Of Montreal in the middle of a public park, confused the heck out of some pigeons and gave them an outlet that wouldn't exist to them otherwise – and The Tunstall Hill Sessions, on which you can see Barry from the Futureheads playing Kate Bush's Hounds of Love on a Jew's harp on top of a hill in Sunderland. I've never, ever seen Jools Holland do that.
Best of all, however, is The Mahogany Sessions, which features up to seven sessions a day, seven days a week, of musicians mucking about in an east London backyard. I was lucky enough to accompany Les Savy Fav to said yard last Saturday afternoon. In between stripping the owners' trees of pears and feeding them to their dog until it was sick, singer Tim Harrington was heard to exclaim: "I wish they had this sort of thing back home in the US."
So yeah, they had The Tonight Show With Conan O'Brien, but we've got The Mahogany Sessions. Inspired? Then pick up that camcorder ...
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds
Переслать - Music Weekly: Janelle Monáe
We kick things off this week with a few wise words from Janelle Monáe, the futuristic chanteuse behind one of this year's most impressive albums, The ArchAndroid. Monáe spoke to Ben Beaumont-Thomas about blurring boundaries between musical genres and what it's really like working with Diddy.
Ben joins Alexis Petridis and Rosie Swash for Singles Club, where the panel discuss Rihanna's new club belter, Only Girl in the World, Tame Impala's Why Won't You Make Up Your Mind, and UFO, a rereleased lost classic from 70s singer Jim Sullivan.
Finally, the Feature With No Name returns so that Rosie can froth about why she fell in love with Washington DC trailblazers Fugazi.
That's all for this week. As always, we'd love to hear your thoughts in the space below. And do come and say hello on Facebook or Twitter if you fancy.
Переслать - New music: Dominique Young Unique – The World Is Mine
She has an amazing backstory and sounds like an arcade game imploding – watch out for this 18-year-old rapper
Dominique Young Unique has the kind of backstory you'd expect in a rags-to-riches movie. Born in the poorest part of Tampa, Florida she was forced to live in a car after her mum lost her job and briefly stayed in a casino hotel until her mum's credit ran out. Rapping since she was 12, a demo tape eventually found its way to Yo! Majesty producer David Alexander. As if that wasn't enough, her current home is situated next to the MacDill Airforce Base (ie the command centre for US operations in Afghanistan, which inspired her track War Talk). Unique's style is, well, unique, with complex rhymes tumbling out over Day-Glo, arcade-game beats that take the Timbaland/Missy Elliott template to the next level. There's a raw, DIY edge to The World Is Mine, both musically – it's basically a Super Nintendo game imploding – and with the video, which has a charming awkwardness.
Download the Domination Mixtape for free.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - A Turner prize for new music?
The £50,000 PRS foundation prize for new music has been awarded to the Organ of Corti, an intriguing project that recycles environmental sound. But does the prize have a future?
The winner of the 2010 Performing Right Society foundation prize for new music is... the Organ of Corti. Named (I think rather beautifully) for that part of the inner ear that contains auditory sensory cells, the project uses sonic crystals (marvellously sci-fi, this) to "recycle" existing sound.
As described by the creators, David Prior and Frances Crow, when the Organ of Corti is sited near somewhere rich in broadband noise – whether, say, traffic, a waterfall, or wind – the device will filter the sound, creating subtly shifting harmonies that reflect both the original sound and the position of the listener. The judges were impressed by the quiet purity of the idea: an idea that does not add sound to the (already noise-saturated) environment, but reuses what is already there. They felt it was a discreet, gentle project that draws attention to the art of close listening.
I chaired the judges – an excellent panel consisting of pianist Joanna MacGregor, composer Michael Finnissy, critic Paul Morley, artist and composer Martin Creed and singer/songwriter Bishi. It was a long and intense discussion that led to the decision, with all the shortlisted entries given close consideration (and congratulations to them on getting so far) but in the end the decision was unanimous. The chair's casting vote was not required.
The biennial prize, now in its third edition, has provoked a certain amount of controversy. My colleague and friend Tom Service has railed against it in an interesting dicussion (also featuring Morley and Miranda Sawyer) on the BBC Review Show. There (about 25 minutes in, if you are interested) Tom said that the prize will "never achieve the same as the Turner or the Mercury" and that it was simply an award for sound art. "It's über-niche", he said. He also got off the fence on his blog:
Collectively, however, the vision of "new music" the PRS advocates on its shortlist is just plain weird: a range of inoffensive, mostly genreless sound-art and new-instrument ideas that will upset no one, that ticks boxes marked "politically correct" and "innovative", but that will sadly end up making as much difference to the media and musical culture as a wet sock on laundry day.
This is all interesting stuff (and frankly, the idea that such a prize is provoking any kind of discussion at all is a good thing). To be clear, though, it is not an award for sound art. Any genre of music is eligible. Including the kind of "new music" that I suspect Tom is thinking of. I think behind Tom's remarks is a similar sentiment to that which one of the judges expressed during our final meeting: "Wouldn't it be great if one of them had said that they would produce a bloody great piece of music for the concert hall?"
It wasn't that the judges ruled out vast numbers of such submissions. The shortlisted works broadly reflected the flavour of the submissions as a whole. It is true, however, that one can see the difficulties of providing a written pitch for a highly abstract, complex piece of concert hall music, just as you would not expect a poet to be able to give a pitch a poem. None the less, it would be great to see more "concert hall music" (gruesome shorthand) entered. This is purely my personal opinion, but to encourage this, it may be that the nature of the written submission required should be loosened up by the organisers. At heart, this is a fantastically good-natured prize: its organisers want it to allow original pieces of work, that might struggle to be realised otherwise, see the light of day. They do not wish to see it confined to any one genre of music.
Tom's charge of political correctness... Well: in the judging session, a view was expressed that we would have enjoyed reading more uncompromising, more rebarbative pitches. For the most part, the submissions – and this of course is entirely understandable – seemed almost too ready to please, to show exactly how accessible and user-friendly they were, in a way that might (one suspects) not entirely reflect the no doubt seriously uncompromising artistic concerns of the creators. But I think it's unfair to suggest the intended artworks themselves are politically correct. Perhaps artists are so used to living in a world where they must translate their aims into "grant-speak" that it seeps (unnecessarily) into forums such as this one.
Plenty of food for thought. I hope and trust that the prize is not, as Tom suggests, a dead end. The Turner prize took years to find a successful format: its early history was of chopping and changing until it settled, a number of years down the line, into a workable pattern. For instance, in the early days there wasn't always an exhibition, or even a shortlist, and even now, with this week's announcement that the prize will move out of London in alternate years, it is changing with the times. And as we know, that prize has always been highly contested and debated. It is early days for the PRSF prize – and I am sure, with the right kind of flexible thinking and care, it will go from strength to strength.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать - Readers recommend: songs about fate and destiny
Last week was all about committing the perfect rhyme. Now it's time to spin the wheel of fortune
Shall I compare thee lot to a summer's day?
Though art also troubled by wasps and possess
the odour of barbecued sausage.
There's a reason I never made it as a sonneteer I guess, but what a joy it was to see all that enthusiasm for and knowledge of poetry pouring out on last week's thread. As with other topics that have worked the grey cells a little, there was a deluge of top music, 20 tracks from which I have selected for this week's lists.
Here's the A-list [and a column that details the choices]: Iron Maiden – Rime of the Ancient Mariner; The Fugs – I Saw the Best Minds of My Generation Rot; Van Morrison – Rave On John Donne; Björk – Sun in My Mouth; Vic Chesnutt – Stevie Smith; Syd Barrett – Golden Hair; Jah Wobble – Lonely London; Ladysmith Black Mambazo – Music to hear; Stereolab – Enivrez-Vous; Benjamin Britten – On a Poet's Lips I Slept.
And without
further
ado ...
The B list
Ghetto Defendant – The Clash
Well it features poetry, as read by Allen Ginsberg, but I would suggest the broader sentiments and modes of expression suggest similarities between the Beats and Joe Strummer too. In other news, the percussion on this track is fantastic.
Douglas Traherne Harding – Incredible String Band
Syd Barrett made the A-list and this piece of psych-folk is not entirely dissimilar. Referencing 17th-century poet Thomas Traherne, it also contains unusual melodies and philosophical expressions of oneness. What else do you want?
Blake's View – M Ward
This song fits the theme most thoroughly. Inspired by Blake's The Grave, and its portrayal of death's door, M Ward huskily ponders the transience of earthly discomfort and the possiblity for restitution on the "other side". Generally, I think he thinks it'll turn out OK ...
The Dangling Conversation – Simon and Garfunkel
I'm really into Simon and Garfunkel at the moment and while this song is inspired by poetry in general rather than specific works, it contains more poetic qualities than most ("Like a poem poorly written/ We are verses out of rhythm/ Couplets out of rhyme/ In syncopated time").
Ca' the Yowes to the Knowes – Joanna Newsom
Nothing particularly unusual or unlikely about this Robert Burns adaptation but it's still wonderful; poised and delicate at the same time.
My Foolish Heart – Bhundu Boys
From a poem by Hugh McDiarmid that, according to legend, the Zimbabwean band first encountered pinned to the wall of their manager's office in the 80s. Another beautiful composition.
Because I Could Not Stop for Death – Natalie Merchant
A ballad simply constructed on guitar with occasional flourishes of piano, this contemplation of mortality becomes something approaching a love song. Which perhaps it is.
Poppy Day – Siouxsie and the Banshees
A war poem/dispatch from the underworld. I like the guitar tone and love the vocals.
Welcome to the Pleasure Dome – Frankie Goes to Hollywood
"In Xanadu did Kubla Khan a pleasuredome erect," sings Holly Johnson and I think we all know what he's up to there (in Coleridge's original, in Xanadu a pleasuredome was the result of a "decree"). A good chance to roll out a pop classic.
A Living Dance Upon Dead Minds – Thrice
ee cummings again (as with Björk), and what fantastic accompaniment it makes to angsty rock music. Love and death and thrash guitar. A timeless package
Here's a Spotify playlist of (just) 12 of the top 20.
A poetic staple has its moment in the sun this week, as fate and destiny spin their wheel in our direction. I want songs that contemplate whether you are, in fact, my destiny, my one and only, as Lionel "Walkers Crisps" Richie once sang, or if free will is just so much bunk. So while fateful events are to be encouraged they only really count if they're described as such. If you insist on nominating moments of serendipitous coincidence, meanwhile, then your justifications had better be good.
The toolbox: Archive, the Marconium, the Spill, the Collabo.
The rulebook:
DO post your nominations before midday on Monday if you wish them to be considered.
DO post justifications of your choices wherever possible.
DO NOT post more than one-third of the lyrics of any song.
DO NOT dump lists of nominations – if you must post more than two or three at once, please attempt to justify your choices.
Finally, let's treat each other as if we were all the fruit of the same tree.
guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More FeedsПереслать
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