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One of the great things about being very interested in music is the self gratifying snobbery that exists within it. Musical snobbery , disguised as 'taste' or justified as 'better knowledge', is perhaps the thing that puts people off musical discussion more than anything else. It is what being a musical hipster is all about.

I am as guilty of this as most of you reading this. Maybe more. In my defense, and I guess by extension, in yours, it is hard to listen to some music knowing that what influenced it was much better. Knowing there is so much better music out there. Knowing that what was originally ground breaking, has become a sanitized corporate output.

This is how it works.

Great bands, have some, or a lot, of success with an original sound or concept. The music industry says to itself, that is where the latest trend is, quick, we need bands like that, but a bit more radio friendly. Bang, 10 bands sort of the same come out and the public, like the musical sheep they are, lap it up like nice fresh juicy grass.Then something else comes along and they jump to the next thing. Here is a song about it:

There is also another kind, and this is perhaps more the domain of the hipster, snob, geek whatever you want to call me / yourself. . . I call this the ' I was there first' hipster.

Generally what happens here is that a band or artist , comes out with a first album, EP or something similar, and you love them. Something like this

or this:

In both of the above cases I claimed to love the band. Great band, what cool music.

Then, horror of horrors, everyone agreed. Great band.

It can be passed off, they don't really understand, they aren't as clued up, they just like the melody. So by the time the second album comes around, they are the main stream. Think also - Guns'n Roses.

You can't like the same thing that everyone one else does!

Are you mad???

So the second, 3rd, 4th, albums are decried as derivative, nothing like the first one. Success made the band lazy and they lack the punch they had to start with. The thing about this is that most people don't care. It is a little like protesting New Year's Eve and not going out because it is meaningless. The people out enjoying themselves don't care about your protest. For the most part people don't really care about other people's music taste . So you write a blog trying to convince them of how much you know . . .No seriously, when people engage you on it you have to then say, 'Yes, but they were so much better before . . don't you know, I have their first EP. Which I bought at their first ever gig, which was before half of them had met, indeed I introduced them and actually played on this' . . or other complete rubbish . . .

Sometimes you are right. In fact, there are very few bands whose later albums are better than their first few. There are some very notable exceptions. Like the album this comes from:

or this:

Anyway . . . the thing about all of this is despite the front that is shown to the world, you still know, deep inside, that you love the first album. Certainly in the case of Pearl Jam, Oasis and Guns'n Roses I do. So you come back to it after a certain amount of time, sometimes 5 years more likely to be 10 or in fact nearly 20, and you realize that it is still great. You realize that it is alright to love one album and not others. Sometimes you even begin to explore the rest of a catalogue and find some other stuff you like.

No, actually that rarely happens, because they did become lazy, but certainly you listen to the second album. Which is never as bad as you remember it to be, actually it is quite good, but your prejudice got in the way.

The point of all of this is that you believe that you managed to keep your credibility intact. But really, you just managed to convince yourself that you were special, and actually you aren't.

This is a little darker than I usually write, but it is an interesting part of becoming older and looking back. Love for music doesn't change, but your attitude to how it defines you does.

Isn't that interesting.

(Just a quick word on that Tool song, last listed in the you tube links. Listen to the whole thing.  It is a song about the singer's devout christian mother who died after living for 10,000 days with severe complications after having a stroke. Whether you are a musical snob or not that is a powerful song.)

New Music (for me) Bibio

The great thing about music is that you haven't listened to all of it. Not even close.

You can try, and waste a lot of your life trawling through dirge, the pop hit wanna-be's and the artistic noise makers.

Sometimes, though, you stumble across something that makes it all worth the while. last week I found something worthwhile and I thought I would share it with you if that is alright?

Bibio - The Green EP.

Here is a taste.

And here is another

Here is their website, or at least the record companies so you can get a feel for all of their stuff.

http://warp.net/records/bibio


I love the green EP because it is at once, quiet, but complex and somewhat mournful. While not being sad.

Which is quite an achievement.

Let me know what you think.

Surely there is an alternative? part I

Another post inspired by a documentary and a request. I guess they are the best and if it helps me to put something out there then it should be encouraged. So if you have a question please feel free to ask, and I will try and relate it to music somehow, or I will just make up some stuff.




I was watching a documentary about American Rock and Roll. It was and is pretty good. Looking at the music of the 60s 70s and 80s and relating to various aspects of society at the time(s). There was a quote in it, which went along the lines of, when the music industry sees something succeed they will produce copies of it, until it fails. Which we all know to be true, and quite depressing. This coupled with a conversation I had over the holiday period with a friends son about alternative music means that it is time to look at some of the music that inspires the copying.

This is from my experience and so, well, lets be honest here, it might be a bit dated, none the less and as has been commented on before, great music doesn't date.

So before it becomes a 'trend' or new style, there has to be someone who forged the way first. From my experience, these bands tend to not be as successful, well known and the music tends to be less polished, than the people you have heard of. That's kind of how it works, because improving on an idea is a lot easier than coming up with one yourself.

So let's start with the obvious. The Pixies basically led to to Nirvana and grunge. Here is a Pixies song, a great Pixies song

here is another

That video was done by the same guys that did Gorillaz and is the same story as Monkey Magic, the Japanese TV series of the late 70s. Cool.

The Pixies reformed in the early 2000s after splitting up for 11 years or so. They are great once again, although to be honest I prefer listening to their old stuff rather than anything new. But for all of you older fans. There is a new pixies album released last year.

Another band that has to be said to have had a large influence on people such as the 'Punk' scene that came through America in the 90s and 2000s is Sonic Youth. I am not sure if it is fair to say that they were perhaps a little more well known than the Pixies. I guess it is because when their music style was more accepted in the main stream they were still together. They split in 2011, after Kim Gordon and Thursten Moore announced their marriage of 27 years was over. (wow by the way, just wow)

It is perhaps true though that you cant draw a direct link with Sonic Youth and other bands that have copied them, mainly because they are so hard to copy, with various different emphasis's of style running through their music , no one band can really be said to be an imitation, although I guess most alternative bands are in some way. Their music ranges from the quite pop oriented, through punk and then to new or even no wave styles.

They are definitely worth checking out though. Here are a couple of my favourite songs. First a Rock style

yes that is Chuck D from Public Enemy

Here is something else

There is so much Sonic Youth stuff that I really do not know where to go. I recommend their albums, Goo (my favorite) Sister (everyone else's favorite), Murray Street, Dirty. As starting places. I have been meaning for years to put together a Sonic youth playlist of my favorite songs and play that.

If we look at 'Emo' and specifically My Chemical Romance. A good band and the best of their generation of bands. Sorry to say though not really a new concept, 'emotional' music put to guitars. Not to detract from their music though. The Black Parade particularly is a favourite album of mine and always worth a listen.

their spiritual fathers are perhaps the guys from Fugazi and Husker Du.

here is some Fugazi

I must admit, that Fugazi were a band that passed me by a little bit. I had a very cool 'I'm in on the kill taker' T-shirt which was always met with a little bit of skepticism by people who weren't aware of what it was. I would search around a little bit in their albums as it is worth the effort.

Here is some Husker Du

That is taken from the album, Candy apple grey and that is a bit of emotional roller coaster ride. It is fair to say that they may have had a larger influence of Green Day than MCR, but definitely give the album a listen.

Four bands worth checking out. I like this topic and so I am going to do a few more of them. I have concentrated on the a very small section of the music styles that I personally like and so there is a lot more to write and think about.For example, the new age of metal has some very obvious links, as does R&B as well as the indie folky sounds that seem so popular again.

As always, if you have any comments please feel free