1. Rihanna - 'Umbrella'
2. Kate Nash - 'Foundations'
3. Enrique Iglesias - 'Do You Know?'
4. The Enemy - 'Had Enough'
5. Lee Mead - 'Any Dream Will Do'
6. The Hoosiers - 'Worried About Ray'
7. Jack Penate - 'Torn On The Platform'
8. Kelly Rowland ft Eve - 'Like This'
9. Calvin Harris - 'The Girls'
10. Reverend and the Makers - 'Heavyweight Champion Of The World'
What is this you ask? The top ten worst songs this year? The ten artists Brad would most like to exterminate to make a better world?
No, inevitably it's the UK chart top ten. Now, everyone knows the singles charts mean NOTHING anymore. So why the hell have I posted it up here like it's all significant and interesting?
Well, because the NME told me it is. NME.com to be precise. I'm told by those wise people that this is "an exceptional week for the DIY London scene".
Erm.........okay. Kate Nash (villified and lampooned in that extremely worthy effort 'LDN Is A Victim', justifiably) and Jack Penate are from London. That's it. Is THAT an EXCEPTIONAL week for the LONDON DIY SCENE? What the FUCK is the London DIY scene anyway?
They cite The Enemy, Reverend and the Makers and miss out The Hoosiers entirely. Despite the fact the first two acts are two of the worst, most tedious boring acts I've ever heard come out of this country.
This is not exceptional. This is a travesty. To report that there are ANY acts involved in ANY London DIY scene in the chart is bad, bad journalism. This actually makes me furious. On this showing (and I will admit that the NME really does know better) it seems as if these news writers wouldn't know DIY if it painted their entire fucking house. There is a huge amount of bands in London that have trudged across their home city and the rest of the UK playing to anyone and no one, putting on club nights of their own for other bands to play, playing free shows, playing (on rare occasions when promoters are utter cunts) pay to play shows, recording their own demos/EPs/singles and releasing them with money saved from part-time jobs and not eating. There are fanzines promoting these bands, bands that have been playing for YEARS, where mainstream magazines (or elitist, sniffy websites) won't promote them because, well, they weren't fucking looking hard enough.
THIS is DIY. Hell, I'm not gonna come across all high and mighty and list them, because, frankly, I don't try hard enough either. All I know is that Kate Nash and Jack Penate have nothing to do with DDD, Tim Ten Yen, Popular Workshop, Bolt Action Five, Das Wanderlust, Fight Like Apes, Cuckoo's Nest, The Sailplanes, Untitled1961 etc. (yes I know not all of these are London bands, and also know these are all pretty popular - yet THESE bands/artists are more indicitive of a DIY scene than those in the chart).
What would be truly exceptional would be if Popular Workshop's 'William, It Was Really Something' hit the Top Ten in October. Then we could all celebrate.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Well said Brad. To be honest I think a lot of this has to do with the London psyche itself. Londoners are deeply cynical when it comes to new music- with 1.5 million bands can you blame them? So bands without significant management or label backing (I know the excellent Das Wanderlust and somewhat overrated Popshop have these now, but that's probably beside the point) have to try so much harder than bands fostered in supportive regional scenes like Nottingham, Oxford and (less-so) Brighton.
As you mentioned, the chart is irrelevant now- everyone knows this- but there's no financial gain for the NME in admitting that fact. They need to ringfence and commodify music in order to sell their product. I probably won't win any friends here, but the same is true of Artrocker and Plan B- publications my band has been knocking itself out attempting to prove our credibility and worth to for the past couple of years.
We're off now though, to concentrate on making music in Berlin for a year at least. The London scene just got us down...
Tim sailplane
Of course, it is true of any magazine that wants to sell those all important copies. Artrocker most definitely has grown more commerical conscious and Plan B is surprising me each time I see. The Wire on the other hand..now THAT's credibility! :P
Berlin is a great move. Liars have made two amazing albums there and obviously there have been several excellent, world-ending albums/bands that have recorded or relocated there. I wish you all the best - frankly you'll be missed by at least one London-ite music journalist!
Ah. I've just found out Artrocker hasn't even published the review of our album. Sometimes I really wonder why we bother.
You're right about Wire, but if we can't even get Artrocker and Plan-B to take us seriously there's not much hope for us here :-(
That's a shame. However, I have to at elast point out the obvious - it's bloody hard to squeeze in a review of every album you want. It was hard enough in a magazine of 200 pages let alone one consisting of a max of 40.
I don't think it's that Plan B or Artrocker don't take you seriously, it's just that other acts take priority. Not much you can do about but plough on with that determined look on your face that says: "We're trying even if no one cares."
Post a Comment