VT’s Music Chat

[chrisp65]

Talking of industrial socialist heritage, I buy fancy cheese in the same shop as JDB.

 

[sidcow]

Pretenders easily the best performance I've seen, although I enjoyed The Manics a lot. 

Chrissie Hynde can still belt them out.  I wish Debbie Harry could sing like that, I love Blondie so much but it's hard listening to them at times. 

I'm no musician but James Walbourne seems a pretty bloody good guitar player. 

 

[Marka Ragnos]

11 hours ago, chrisp65 said:

Yep, too devout to accept anything that wasn’t fresh and raw from punk style stuff, two tone, mod, 60’s. Basically anything that didn’t sound like clever posh boys in gold capes noodling away on an arena tour. It was important back then to grab it all back off the university educated old farts. It did the world a service

Took me quite a while to be able to listen to anything outside my approved list. Even now, I still can’t stand the majority of that U.S. rock pap, or those ridiculous pompous 70’s superstars. All that stuff, from Genesis to Kiss, Queen, Yes, Pink Floyd.

But access to music now is so much more democratic, it’s better now than it’s been for a very long time. I miss the art of the mixtape, but other than that, there’s far far more good stuff now. 

I feel you. Things did get so self-indulgent, and the old record companies had a stranglehold on talent and taste.  I was a delinquent back in the prog days and Pink Floyd for me was a big teenage stoner experience as much as music -- from what I struggle to remember. But I love when the indie record industry awakened. That was such a great era.

Disagree with music -- at least pop music -- being better today. It's so shit, and so manipulative. The loudness wars, Max Martin, the dishonesty in so much production -- I actually find a lot of pop music almost physically painful to listen to these days lol. But I'm weird: I haven't been able to cope with Radiohead for at least 20 years. I would agree with you that when it comes to some select music on the fringes and in some developing countries -- I mean, who's not amazed by KOKOKO? Who doesn't love Turnstile? -- things are better.

Not sure democracy in music is a great idea, or that there is all that much real democracy.  It's good that anyone can set up a studio in their bedroom, yes, but there's also a lot of shite being produced and good stuff no one ever really hears. And what ends up on Spotify makes music by Yes and Genesis sound like Raphael versus spillages of urine. The corporate control of things is arguably worse today than ever when it comes to streaming control. A lot of interesting music doesn't make the artists a dime either. Being a talentless influencer with a shit dance beat on YouTube ... oh, gawd, I'm on a rant now. What was the question? 

Edited June 24, 2023 by Marka Ragnos

[Seat68]

13 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Pretenders easily the best performance I've seen, although I enjoyed The Manics a lot. 

Chrissie Hynde can still belt them out.  I wish Debbie Harry could sing like that, I love Blondie so much but it's hard listening to them at times. 

I'm no musician but James Walbourne seems a pretty bloody good guitar player. 

 

Her voice is excellent. Really surprised by how strong it is now. 

[Seat68]

I am watching Young Fathers set for the second time. It's excellent. 

Los Bitchos were dull. Billy Nomates was good. 

Now watching Hot Chip. 

Edited June 24, 2023 by Seat68

[foreveryoung]

Shit me, that Lewis Capaldi set was a bit heart felt. Don't think he could sing the last song, his touretts seemed to be getting to him an the crowd sang the rest, pretty amazing 

[picicata]

4 minutes ago, Seat68 said:

Her voice is excellent. Really surprised by how strong it is now. 

Saw them at a little festival called Bearded Theory a couple weeks ago and was genuinely blown away by how powerful her voice was. I've seen quite a few older artists and been quite saddened by the quality of the vocals so was a very pleasant surprise.

[Seat68]

1 minute ago, picicata said:

Saw them at a little festival called Bearded Theory a couple weeks ago and was genuinely blown away by how powerful her voice was. I've seen quite a few older artists and been quite saddened by the quality of the vocals so was a very pleasant surprise.

BT is my usual go to festival. Sadly not this year due to a wedding. 

[Seat68]

I am dipping into last year's Glastonbury coverage. Particularly the Joy Crookes/Self Esteem episode. 

[chrisp65]

9 minutes ago, Marka Ragnos said:

I feel you. Things did get so self-indulgent, and the old record companies had a stranglehold on talent and taste.  I was a delinquent back in the prog days and Pink Floyd for me was a big teenage stoner experience as much as music -- from what I struggle to remember. But I love when the indie record industry awakened. That was such a great era.

Disagree with music -- at least pop music -- being better today. It's so shit, and so manipulative. The loudness wars, Max Martin, the dishonesty in so much production -- I actually find a lot of pop music almost physically painful to listen to these days lol. But I'm weird: I haven't been able to cope with Radiohead for at least 20 years. I would agree with you that when it comes to some select music on the fringes and in some developing countries -- I mean, who's not amazed by KOKOKO? Who doesn't love Turnstile? -- things are better.

Not sure democracy in music is a great idea, or that there is all that much real democracy.  It's good that anyone can set up a studio in their bedroom, yes, but there's also a lot of shite being produced and good stuff no one ever really hears. And what ends up on Spotify makes music by Yes and Genesis sound like Raphael versus spillages of urine. The corporate control of things is arguably worse today than ever when it comes to streaming control. A lot of interesting music doesn't make the artists a dime either. Being a talentless influencer with a shit dance beat on YouTube ... oh, gawd, I'm on a rant now. What was the question? 

When I was a kid, on the school bus, the sixth formers would have biro logos of bands on their school bags. Rush, Camel, Santana, ELP. I remember thinking there had been a shift, a change, and these guys were really unlucky cos they’d already missed it.We used to think it was quite funny.

I don’t have Spotify, or Apple Music, and I don’t use google music or listen to commercial radio, so I guess I’m not getting quite so exposed to what ‘the man’ is pushing this week. So I’m hearing bands on little local labels, or promoting local gigs. I’m going to a gig in a couple of weeks, local guys and it’s a fiver to get in. Their album was £14 and they produced it themselves, partly at home. Back when I was a kid, I’d have had record shops and music papers. The internet has, I think, utterly democratised it. I can here of something, listen to 40 seconds and know whether to move on or stick.

[picicata]

15 minutes ago, Seat68 said:

BT is my usual go to festival. Sadly not this year due to a wedding. 

Only been the last two years but absolutely love it, top little festival

[sidcow]

32 minutes ago, Seat68 said:

Her voice is excellent. Really surprised by how strong it is now. 

Not enough harmonica these days either. 

[Marka Ragnos]

11 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

When I was a kid, on the school bus, the sixth formers would have biro logos of bands on their school bags. Rush, Camel, Santana, ELP. I remember thinking there had been a shift, a change, and these guys were really unlucky cos they’d already missed it.We used to think it was quite funny.

I don’t have Spotify, or Apple Music, and I don’t use google music or listen to commercial radio, so I guess I’m not getting quite so exposed to what ‘the man’ is pushing this week. So I’m hearing bands on little local labels, or promoting local gigs. I’m going to a gig in a couple of weeks, local guys and it’s a fiver to get in. Their album was £14 and they produced it themselves, partly at home. Back when I was a kid, I’d have had record shops and music papers. The internet has, I think, utterly democratised it. I can here of something, listen to 40 seconds and know whether to move on or stick.

Ah, yes, the logo drawers! And KISS ARMY stickers, etc. I remember it all so well, really.

The thing is, you don't have to listen to or subscribe to streaming services to be "victimised" by them indirectly, notwithstanding how completely boss and admirable it is that you support local labels and artists -- you're a patron, really, bless you.

The big streams are great homogenising forces that make it very hard for independent artists to really get up and make a living of some sort, and I feel like we all lose out because of that. I think John Seabrook used to have some interesting things to say about it all. All I'm saying is that some of these artists deserve corporate support, too. 

Quote

All of these trends would seem to be democratizing the industry, but what’s actually happened is that the major labels have r  eacted to this by trying to create a system that only the major labels will be able to control. Look at the rise and promotion of all these ‘super producers’ – it’s guys that only major labels can afford to hire. It’s as despotic as it could be. And in terms of how the songs make their way into the world, one thing the labels still have a lot of control over is terrestrial radio, particularly the Top 40 pop stations. So they focus their resources on the kind of stuff only they can do.

 

[tonyh29]

Mrs H sitting in front of the TV like a 6 years old on Christmas morning waiting for Guns and Roses …. I caught 15 mins or so of Rizzo whilst she waited … I appreciate I’m not a gay teenage boy or a lesbian so I’m not her target audience , but how does that pass for music ( yes yes I know I’m old ) 

[bickster]

4 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

Mrs H sitting in front of the TV like a 6 years old on Christmas morning waiting for Guns and Roses …. I caught 15 mins or so of Rizzo whilst she waited … I appreciate I’m not a gay teenage boy or a lesbian so I’m not her target audience , but how does that pass for music ( yes yes I know I’m old ) 

WTF are you doing watching Grease you saddo  

[chrisp65]

I wonder what the Kiss Army think of The Demon needing to sit down whilst he sings about how he **** all night long.

[tonyh29]

3 minutes ago, bickster said:

WTF are you doing watching Grease you saddo  

Never seen it so that’s lost on me I’m afraid  

[sidcow]

Leftfield. How can anyone bear to listen to that awful noise? 

[sidcow]

2 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

Never seen it so that’s lost on me I’m afraid  

 

[bickster]

2 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Leftfield. How can anyone bear to listen to that awful noise? 

I'm a fan, the latest album is a return to form too. Looking forward to watching that at some point.

Up there with the Chemical Brothers for electronic artists in my book, how can you not love this?

Or this

Or even this off the new album