Rock's Carcass

"But pop and rock belongs at the end of the 20th century, in a structured, ordered world that has now fallen apart."

Paul Morley (via Retromania)

Whilst I believe this is true for rock I'm not convinced that this is the case for pop. Pop has had a pretty good run since say Britney's Baby,One More Time. Rock though that's another story entirely. Just the notion of a rock band seems antiquated doesn't it? It seems absolutely absurd that anyone would be hauling this old carcass around in 2014. Moribund ideas are still being thrown at us as if it's supposed to be authentic man. Surely we're all over and done with rock in the new millennium.

Ah...but herein lies a paradox. Our thinking might be ahead of our actions ie. our listening habits. I made a list some time ago of my top 50 albums of the 00s. There are 19 or so rock records. Grinderman, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Rowland S Howard, The Drones, Yawning Man, Dungen, The Flaming Lips, Ooga Boogas, Boredoms, Deerhoof all of whom you would say were ROCK. Then there's the in between like Sun Araw, Fabulous Diamonds, Broadcast, Ducktails, Gary War, Lamborghini Crystal, Gang Gang Dance and Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti. I mean are that lot rock? In very broad terms you would have to say they were, wouldn't you? So actually rock hasn't fully finished for me in the new millennium despite thinking it's a rotting corpse. It has definitely dropped off in the 10s though with only Swans, Dave Graney & The Mistly, Ooga Boogas and Beaches appearing in my end of year lists. But hang on, then there's Human Teenager, Rangers, Metronomy and Peaking Lights! Are they rock bands? Sure they're not of the White Stripes variety but they have some roots in rock don't they?...or shhh.... maybe Post-Rock. I even thought I was done with psychedelia after Dungen's 2004 classic Ta Det Lugnt but what are The Focus Group's Elektrik Karousel and Belbury Poly's The Belbury Tales if not late in the epoch psych classics? Sure Belbury Poly aren't sitting in tour buses snorting coke off groupies breasts, at least I don't think they are (I kinda wish they were now). I can't think of one rock LP of 2014 that I'd rate although I haven't listened to Scott Walker & Sun O)))'s record yet (I'm psyching myself up for that).

Jeezy feat. Future - No Tears 

A Top Tune From 2014 

So rock's sun is finally setting but that doesn't mean, like Paul Morley, that I'm about to get into ye olde classical music. Current rap, ratchet, trap, bop, r&b/rap interzones, electronic music, experimental and pop still hold sway with me in 2014. As well as old stuff from soundtracks, library music, reissues/compilations (Soundway, Trunk, Finders Keepers et al.),Belgian, Dutch, British and German 90s hardcore (the dance music variety), 90s Memphis Rap to Bowie etc. I think the furthest I've gone back in time, music wise, is like the 30s and 40s with the blues and early electronics. I like the ye olde electronic music but I think that's my cut off point as far as classical music goes. I don't feel the need to go back centuries in time for my music needs. As a youngster I recall thinking by the time I was 40 I'd be a jazz connoisseur and right into my classical music phase but I don't think it's gonna happen. That's for other people. The Person I didn't become. In fact I think my tastes are becoming less sophisticated as the years go on. Rock'n'Roll was about instant gratification and mayhem and that's the way I still like it.

*Ha....I do own a copy of Switched On Bach which I rather like.

Books That Should Be Written

After reading David Stubbs Future Days I was left with a feeling of "Is that it then?" Perhaps it wasn't a book for me, I mean I knew all the records mentioned and the bands. I'd read most of what was in the bibliography. I didn't find out much new. This is not to say it's not a worthwhile book but maybe it's for new comers. Why didn't he write it in the 90s when Krautrock was Tres Hot? Perhaps he saw a gap had opened up in the market due to the never to be reprinted Krautrocksampler by Julian Cope. What it did make me wish for was a comprehensive book on German Post-Punk aka Neue Deutsche Welle like what Simon Reynolds did for British and American Post-Punk in his great Rip It Up And Start Again book. Stubbs covered a little bit of the NDW scene in a slight chapter towards the end of Future Days. Come to think of it there may be a German book on this topic from maybe 15 years ago (I have a vague recollection of this, maybe) but obviously it hasn't been translated into English, unless I missed it.

It got me thinking of some other books on music that are yet to be written. A definitive book on Australian Post-Punk would be a prime example of this. I'd also love to see a book on the mid 90s Memphis Rap scene. Information on that topic seems thin on the ground and somewhat confusing. There was an incredible amount of excellent music made in Memphis at this time, so shedding some light on it would be great. Is there even a book on 80s underground New Zealand music? Surely there'd be a market for that. I mean there's been like 3 books on the No Wave scene. A book covering Japanese music post Julian Cope's Japrocksampler would be great ie. Noise, Merzbow, the P.S.F milieu, Otomo Yoshihide, The Boredoms and whatever else happened. I could go on - Italian Soundtracks and composers, Belgian electronic dance music, a guide to Library Music or like a top 100, Gabber, Sweden's 1960s experimentalists Parson Sound and their following web of groups into the 70s etc. I always thought Simon Reynolds could expand his chapter from Rip It Up & Start again on San Fransisco's proto-post-punk scene and turn it into a whole book

Remember they used to do books on current cultural activities? Someone could probably do something on the topic of Atlanta Rap or the current state of music in general. Anyway just a thought......

Young Thug

Stop The Music

Tune!

Uh...Hold on to the love...wicked!

PCP Sub-Labels Mix

Here's a mix I only just discovered on the youtubes. I've road tested it and it goes well on me bike. DJ Djero's got a whole other bunch of mixes that look like they're worthy of checkin out as well. This one features Dr Macabre, Rave Creator, Pilldriver etc. Stuff from Power Plant, Cold Rush, Kotzaak Unltd. etc.

More Downer Euphoria/Party Hauntology/Nihilism

I'm not even sure I like this but it really captures that downer euphoria vibe so well (it hit me in the stomach) ala post Burial, Drake, DJ Mustard etc. This track/video is almost too much, too real, too sad/euphoric etc. The sadness in this video isn't hidden like it is other tracks, it's up in your grill. Mark Fisher would call it it (perhaps a crass version thereof) party hauntology. I really get the sense of the emptiness but also the necessity to keep going despite the pointlessness of it all. Isn't that nihilism?

Future Days Part 3 - Eroc

Not mentioned in Fututre Days: Krautrock And The Building Of Modern Germany by David Stubbs (well in the index at least I'm only up to page 327) is Eroc's classic Eroc 1. What happened there Dave? No lost Krautrock classics eh?.......

Funnily enough a band Eroc (Joachim Heinz Ehrig) played drums for during the 70s Grobschnitt get some coverage in the book for all the wrong reasons. Stubbs gave Limbus (another obscure act signed to Brain) a listen but failed to check this treasure out. Recorded between 1970 & 75 and released on Brain records in 1975.

Future Days...again.

Something is really irking me about the cover of Future Days by David Stubbs. It's the faux fadedness of the background colours. Should this book go with my mock 50s radio, my new retro toaster and my brand new football shirt that looks like I've been wearing it since the early 80s? Faux fadedness is something I've come to detest particularly in fashion, art and furnishings. In the case of Future Days it feels like a crass statement of "Yes these were once Future Days but... ha... now everything is old even the ideas and music contained within this book." The thing with this music, modernist architecture and some other Avant Gardes of yesteryear is that some of them still have a shiny futuristic relevance. I haven't seen a David Bowie book come out looking old already, so it does seem peculiar and something I'm surprised Mr Stubbs let slip by him. I would have had the cover as modern as possible in the spirit of the music being covered in this tome. They got the graphics and cover art sort of right. Musicians in 70s Germany weren't dreaming of shabby chic as the future though were they?

*Note to future editors of future editions: Fix up the future bloody cover.

Raven Felix - Valifornia

Happy to see this at DatPiff late last night. I don't really get the economics of music now though. She's givin this away so how's she gonna get the green she's talkin about? Or is this just a taster to an upcoming cd/download that costs money? Also I can't believe the sexist shit lady rappers have to still put up with ie. see comment "sorority girls will love it." Over at The Guardian this year one of their own writers was sexist, bitter and nasty about Iggy Azalea. Some of you patronising boys sound a bit threatened that 'oh no' a woman has got more talent than you.

Anyway back to the tape I dunno if there's anything as good as the original bangin Girl single from late last year/earlier this year, which turns up in remixed form here. Actually I bought that on itunes so I guess she's got some money to buy her groceries.. She adds some singing and a rap to Schoolboy Q's 2014 classic Studio as well on Valifornia. On 6 In The Morning Felix takes a line from Snoop Dogg's Gin & Juice in which she places herself as a character inside that song. She states "got my girls in the living room gettin it on and we ain't leaving till 6 in the morning." She even gets Snoop to guest on the tune. She's put herself in another song and re purposed it with a somewhat reclamation/feminist message. Snoop must be the most often re quoted rapper in rap. I assume it was he who said "I got my mind on my money and my money on my mind." originally (correct me if I'm wrong). I mean I still hear that phrase or some kind of rephrasing of that line almost daily in hip hop trax. Actually now that I think about it there was a white lady rapper, Lil Debbie or something like that, who also used that 6 in the morning lyric a year or 2 back.

Rustie - Green Language

Now, I paid money for both Skrillex's Bangarang and Rustie's Glass Swords back in 2011 because they were both awesome. I listened to Skrillex's new one, can't even remember the name of it now, a coupla times and thought it was shite. So there was no trip down to the record shop for that one. I was worried on the first 2 listens of Rustie's Green Language. I thought maybe it was a vibe migration thing, you know his time was up and we'd all moved on. And what are these bloody rappers doin on it? A few more listens in and I'm thinkin maybe I am gonna make it down to the shop for this one. I really wanna hear Raptor and He Hate Me in their full digital aural splendour. I'm lookin forward to that. I'm even starting to like the tunes with the raps. Can't imagine though giving that Skrillex album another go though. You win some, you lose some.

How good is that? Bringin back memories of listening to Glass Swords on train platforms and being unable to control myself in its blissfulness. It also made me think of other stuff from that time that I loved - Emeralds and their side projects etc. Might even pull out Bangarang.

Strange Collaborations

Well I've been noticing in the last few months some strange musical collaborations happening but this one has gotta take the cake - Scott Walker & Sunn O))). I mean I love me Scott Walker and we all know he's a little strange and a little cheeky but what? I think it's as strange as the pairing of Lou Reed & Metallica, no definitely stranger. I must admit I haven't listened to that and some people rated it quite highly? I mean I'm big on Lou and have been known to enjoy Metallica amongst friends ie. I never bought a Metallica LP in my life but my friends did and I didn't hate them. It's a bit like Sunn O))). I enjoy what I've heard on the radio but never bothered to investigate them any further (It's been in the back of my mind to check em out....but....). Maybe not quite as strange but Royksopp & Robyn? Now I can't think of the other ones that I've seen and thought what? Maybe though its a better collaboration if you are stylistically further from one another. Nick Cave & Kylie Minogue was superficially a bit weird but if you think about it they are both pop singers, entertainers, song and dance people. Now Kylie & Stockhausen would have been weird but probably not as weird as Cave & Stockhausen, at least Kylie would be considered electronic rather than rock. Now this all reminds me of French musique concrete composer Pierre Henry collaborating with British proggers Spooky Tooth, a bit weird?. Kate Bush & Peter Gabriel normal. Nirvana & William S Boroughs a bit strange but not really. 

Coldplay & U2, now that'd be fucked up! Only one band would have to turn up. Would you have The Edge from Coldplay or U2's Edge? What about Taylor Swift & Burzum? Pharell & Earth? Evan Dando & Diamanda Galas? That one kinda sounds like it might be alright, it's hard to know. Nickleback & The Wiggles? The Mrs offers Allanis Morrisette & Coldplay. You could play this game all day really and somebody probably already has on Twitter. Then there's the whole alive/dead thing. Nicki Minaj & Ian Curtis anyone up for that? What about Kermit The Frog & Townes Van Zandt? Elvis & Bieber?