2007-07-31

(no subject)

I have a new Pitchfork column up - inspired indirectly by Frank's series of columns, and directly by conversations with people here, and by conversations ON here dating from ages and ages ago. The column is nominally about the Smiths but not really (also the summary on the front page misunderstands it, so I wonder if it isn't very clear what I'm getting at).

It's also worth having another look at yesterday's Pop Open thread, where an interesting chat has got going between

cis and

koganbot and a couple of other people, on the subject of...well, depending on what you think about the topic you might call it "indie trying to be pop" or "perfect pop" or "revivalist pop". Follow-on post action here may yet occur.

best bit = green day

boo the simps movies suXoRed a bit :(

i. beavis and butthead had LESBIAN SEAGUL and the savage pencil PEYOTE SEQUENCE
ii. South Park had all those songs and a real OMG WTF drive to the silly beyond
iii. it just felt like it was colouring within the lines the whole time

Entry tags:

open

The Pop Open Group F: RELIGION

Here's the final group in Round 1 - RELIGION. You know the drill by now - listen to the tracks, pick your favourite two, vote in the poll before next Monday noon. Zipfile (28Mb) is here: http://www.sendspace.com/file/t0tk21 and the tracks are streamed here: http://freakytrigger.co.uk/ft/2007/07/pop-open-week-8/

[Poll #1030830]

Thanks to blue_russian, inhibitorylinks, justfanoe, umlauts, and zenith for their tracks this week! Reveals up on Thursday or Friday - if you'd like to write the reveal reviews, let me know.

And - what would YOU have entered?

Entry tags:

number ones

I Love #1s - 1956

Aeons ago, the 1998 poll saw a suprise victory for Cornershop's 'Brimful Of Asha' with 39 ticks under its belt, whilst Boyzone were down in the dumps with just one measly tick. This week we trundle back to gentler times... Or are they?

[Poll #1030879]

What is the sound of now?

In yesterday's conversation about Pizzicato Five and pop, Cis drew a kind of distinction between pop which obeys current sonic rules and pop which refuses to (apols if my precis loses a lot of subtlety).

This interested me and got me thinking what the current rules of pop might be - not just in terms of sound, but attitude, look, emotional content, trends, etc.

What characterises late 00s pop? What is happening now which wouldn't or couldn't have happened before? What will allow a kid in ten years time to identify music from now? (in the way that a music fan who had never heard records or seen pictures of Suzi Quatro, or A Flock Of Seagulls, or Ned's Atomic Dustbin might be able to put them in place and time)

Cained

Is this an old April Fools joke that's reappeared?

http://uk.news.launch.yahoo.com/dyna/article.html?a=/31072007/397/sir-michael-chills-0.html&e=l_news_dm

"Screen legend Sir Michael Caine has compiled a selection of his favourite chill-out tracks on a new album called Cained.
...
Cained - The album, which will feature artists such as Chicane and Nina Simone, will be released in September"

???