Somewhat belatedly, we now have an answer. According to a survey carried out by Ipsos MediaCT (catchy name folks) more 15-24 year olds in the UK watch music videos on YouTube than on TV. Other results point to 69% of those still in education watching YouTube music channels, but that older people still watch more via television.
So at a time when people are directing more of their attention to online video, YouTube removed premium music videos from UK viewers, because they couldn’t reach agreement over licensing fees with the PRS for Music. The PRS were demanding rises in fees “many, many factors” higher than the previous agreement. Yet the Music Publishers Association joined them in petitioning Google (which owns YouTube) to reconsider because “Music publishers are in the business of getting their music heard by as wide an audience as possible.”
The unwritten caveat to that sentence should be “So long as we get plenty of dosh for it because there’s all this nasty piracy going on and no-one is buying recorded music anyway.”
They fail so obviously to appreciate and realise that back when MTV launched in 1981, video was a promotional device. It still is, but it’s probably even more valuable today - we have the interwebs! Reducing the exposure of artists through monetary greed hurts everyone and makes the music industry even more wobbly.
In honour of this insanity here’s an unofficial video of a favourite song of mine from The Brooke (A Tiny Ocean):
It is one of my life’s great ironies that during my time spent at university in Manchester, I was too busy being involved in the indie and goth music scenes to appreciate and value what was going on in the other reaches of Madchester. Whilst I spent much time weeping into my bottles of Newcastle Brown at The Banshee or bouncing off the walls at The Boardwalk, others were nearby at FAC 51 The Haçienda, dancing the night away - an oversight which has caused TheYank to yell at me about on more than one occasion.
It’s even more ironic that upon the cusp of leaving Manchester, a flatmate of mine began listening to 808 State’s Newbuild LP, and through that I entered the world of house, techno, trance etc. For almost 10 years thereafter it became my staple diet of music.
Mike Dunn was one of many DJs who became involved in the Chicago house scene in the mid-eighties, before it evolved into techno at The Warehouse nightclub (a sound and style that was later to migrate to Detroit.) So Let It Be House was released in 1988, and it bears the marks of that time: minimal crisp drum beats, acid squiggles and soulful vocals (and as such leads a path to what became known as deep house). It’s just made to make you move.
I’ll just do this point by point so I can get to bed before TheBrit wakes up:
1. The 30 year anniversary concert was a mess, a disaster and a disgrace to the Woodstock mythos.
2. Live 8 was also a disaster — the concept of “free tickets” (as what Lang wants to do) backfired when they were being scalped. The charities did not get the monies promised, the so called “reduction of carbon footprinting” that Lang also claims he wants to make happen was also a huge disaster for Live8.
3. Which brings me to Live Earth. Someone please explain to me how flying from one far flung location to another somehow makes you globally conscious and environmentally aware? Someone also please explain to me how the so-called green intiative that LiveEarth promised were never followed through? Meaning that stories were cropping up that the waste and trash left behind, most of it was not recycled nor was it disposed of properly.
The Woodstock era is gone. I hate to break it to the Boomers, but it’s gone. Just let it go. This is not an era of free love, radical politics, and stopping a senseless war in Vietnam. This is an era of a senseless and POINTLESS war happening in the Middle East, our economy is starting to resemble that of the Depression era, we have people who are homeless, jobless and hungry. Unemployment continues to grow, companies are going under and you want to fucking fund a fucking “free” concert to help continue on the mythos of the Woodstock era using technologies and methods that have been tried before and failed? You want to waste more money and put stress on a city (NYC) that is barely keeping it together? Are you fucking kidding me? You, Mr. “clearly I’m not out to make a quick buck out of this somehow” Lang can go fuck yourself with piece of charred wood. Use that $10M dollars to fund worthwhile projects like music programs for underprivileged kids or start a foundation or give scholarship money to help for school. Help build community support for kids and teens to build into future musicians, artists and creative sorts. Don’t waggle “free concert” with additional bonuses under our noses — that’s just plain mean and downright rude.
One of the great things I love about the internets is that you find great sources of archival material that you never would have thought would have been captured. Take, for example, the follow video of Hüsker Dü playing in 1981. I was nine when they recorded this (while TheBrit was in secondary school as he is, you know, OLD!), but I like how you can hear influential they would go on to become because you can hear where bands like The Killers, Nirvana, Pixies, Supechunk (and a gazillion others) would pull traces Hüsker Dü’s signature sound.
If you missed it, the song is internal monologue of a serial killer while he is stalking his prey. Nothing like a little rape and knife play to get all warm and fuzzy. Plus I’m greatly enjoying the headband action and pogo’ing of the audience.
Ever since musicians made it onto the internet I’ve often been frustrated that many don’t leverage it to their advantage. My particular pet peeve is with blogs. Few musicians appreciate the value they give to fans by telling them what is happening. A timely, regular stream of blog posts, followed up by replies to comments is better than heaps of press releases. It’s better than a Facebook fan page too.
But this is old news, because while blogs are still crucial, there’s something around that’s more organic and immediate. Twitter is where it’s all happening now. Oh yes. If you’ve read our About Us page, you’ll know already the benefit it’s brought to our lives. Musicians, as it turns out, are discovering it too.
Whilst Twitter started out as a simply way of telling everyone “what are you doing?” users quickly discovered that were actually no rules to what you had to post in 140 characters of less. The social media gurus who try to formulate policies, laws and etiquette haven’t a dingbat of a clue about Twitter. So we can ignore them and move on.
Musicians therefore started to use Twitter as a means of posting quick updates, regarding songwriting, upcoming releases and tour dates. Others began to incorporate their life outside of music. This aspect is crucial because fans like to know everything. I’m particularly fond of all the weird and daft things that Kristin Hersh’s family gets up to. It’s all about providing a connection - to feel part of an extended family.
if you want what i have to offer, great.
if you don’t, great. there are people who want it.
i don’t need to make you love me anymore.
which sounds awfully like what I wrote here. (By the way, there’ll be more from her later in this post.)
She’s already been using Twitter to give free tickets away to gigs, to organise impromptu meetups, and most importantly, pillow fights.
Back to Kristin Hersh. A couple of days ago she asked “Could you share some of your experiences and opinions re: live music?” and, based on the replies she received, it appears that there’ll be things afoot regarding rebuilding live music “from the ground up.” This indicates the immediacy and the value of connecting with fans. Fans know what they want. Simple.
I promised more Amanda Palmer, didn’t I? Well, yesterday whilst on the way to the WorkPlay Theatre in Birmingham, Alabama, she became bored with van travelling and decided to hop onto Twitter to answer questions. Here’s a picture taken by Kim from Vermillion Lies to prove it.
I fucking love the future. Fuck everything. Fans => twitter => artist => twitter => fans. End of story.
I am of course disappointed that she didn’t answer my question (which was all intellectual, naturally, and about her lyrics - mopey sod that I am) and that she uses a Blackberry because she couldn’t type fast enough on an iPhone, but I’ll still love her way after my bones turn to dust and the sun dies. Why? Because she gets everything about music and Twitter is just one more way of channeling her passion.
So, if you’re a musician tempted to try out Twitter, or you’re one already on Twitter, but not using it too much, give it a proper try and embrace your fanbase. Furthermore, because Twitter grows personal networks, your fanbase is likely to grow too. It’s daft not to.
A couple of years ago, whilst dating a very mopey boy, I made him a 130+ mp3 mix CD entitled, “Cheer The Fuck Up!”1 The point of the disc, at the time I thought, was to showcase that being upbeat and happy isn’t necessarily a bad thing — you know, it’s kinda of fun!2 Over the years, I would create various and similar themed discs for others and myself, music designed to get fists pumping and car dancing as one drove about town, across state and various points in-between.
When TheBrit and I discussed this week’s theme to coincide with the spring solstice, it seemed fitting that we’d pick songs that would make one want to pump fists in the air, car dance, dance with sheep and just generally get the legs and body moving. Choosing only five songs, with the repertoire now much larger since twee is snarling to be in front and power pop getting more air play, has become that much harder than it was four or five years ago when I made the behemoth 130 song disc. For those of you who know me, a couple of these songs may not surprise you and I think that is because a really good pop song never dies, it just gets remixed and refreshed for the next generation.
Iggy Pop - Lust For Life
Like most of those of my generation3, I fell in love with this song when it was used as the opening theme for the dreamy Ewan McGregor movie, Trainspotting. Of course when the song was originally released, I was five years old and was all about Electric Company and Sesame Street over drugs and flesh machines. But there is something about this song, even with its so vigorous nod to Motown, that over 30 years later it stills sounds remarkably fresh and contemporary. I’ve always had a thing for Iggy ever since I read an article about him in Stuff Magazine in which he talked about the secret for staying so young was daily copious amounts of steak and sex. Plus the song was co-written by David Bowie, so you know it has some street cred and you can’t help but want to start doing the white guy head bob when it comes on the radio, er mp3 player.
When we began hammering out the details of TBaTY, TheBrit and I decided not to confer with each other on our lists because we wanted to be surprised as to what the other would pick for their songs. Given, however, our similarity in musical taste, I wasn’t too terribly surprised to see Republica’s Ready To Go on his list and neither was he surprised to see this particular song on my list. “That’s a really great song!,” he said. “I know,” I typed smugly. Because why else would I have chosen it if it were not?
I’m not terribly sure how I got into Supergrass but I do rather adore them. I love how they do not take themselves too seriously, think Art Brut crossed with Flight of the Conchords. It was a toss-up between this song and Alright on my short list and I knew that a Supergrass song had to be in the top 5. I went with this song namely because they switch between “Humping” and “Pumping” in the song and the video has their disembodied heads on muppets. But again, the white guy head bob and fist pumping, if I could pogo in my car when this song is playing, I would.
Black Kids - I’m Not Going To Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You
Discovered this band via NPR’s All Song’s Considered, which has become one of my mainstays of new and upcoming music. I Just. Couldn’t. Get. This. Song. Out. Of. My. Head. I break into spontaneous dancing when the song comes on! It has become my default ringtone on my cell! Take a bunch kids from Florida with an obsession with Robert Smith, Morrissey, cheeky nods to double entendre and tight lyrics and voila! you have the Black Kids. Formed in 2006, self-produced their first EP in 2007 and discovered via MySpace, these “kids” have been making the rounds with their cute, cleverly wordy, overly catchy pop songs. While this song continually makes “Best Of” lists, chances are that unless you are listening to college/alternative radio, you probably haven’t heard of it. Catchy and approachable, Black Kids have not yet made it to mainstream America.
XFM Scotland did a very clever one take video of the station lip synching the song.
Yes, that Kelly Osbourne — daughter of Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne. That Kelly, infamous for her straight shooting mouth which constantly got her into trouble, Osbourne.
The Osbournes was the only reality television show I watched from start to finish, and really, the only reality television show that I even really liked. It didn’t seem too much stretch of the imagination to discover that Kelly was interested in a pop career or that she was interested in making a name for herself outside of the family. The thing that did strike me as the most surprising is that she would keep at it, releasing vaguely decent albums that would run the gamut from originals to covers. Kelly is never going to be a great chanteuse, mind, but she does have chops to make a somewhat successful career with what she does have. If she stays out of rehab and stops bitch-slapping gossip columnists around London that is.
One of the many reasons why I love this song is that Kelly has, even at the tender age of 18 when the song was released, never censored herself or her words and for that, I will always respect her.
I had originally envisioned when writing this blog that dashing these entries out would be cake — but rather, they take rather large amounts of time between choosing the songs, to what you’re going to say and then hunting down the links to go with the words. And often, in a case like this week where I had to narrow the list from hundreds to dozens to five songs, I spend an inordinate amount of time listening to the same songs over and over, figuring out why I love X song more so than Y song.
TheBF works from home and as I had spent most of the day listening to music with my headphones on making these harsh cold decisions, he had no idea what I was up to musically. Once he was off his gazillion hour conference call, I pulled the plug on the headphones and let the sound of The Tings Tings filter through our apartment. “Hey!” he said, “I rather like this song.” I looked at him in surprise. TheBF and I are as far away from each other musically as humanly possible — he likes Bob Dylan, Afro-pop and Jazz while I lay money down on Brit-pop, shoegaze, post-rock and twee. For him, happiness is a bluesy song about a guy who is bitching about the loss of his cattle to poachers; while to me, happiness is a new Interpol album.
So when either of us says we like a song that is from a genre we don’t normally dip our toes into, we tend to confirm that indeed said choices are superior.4
The Ting Tings, power-pop/dance duo from Salford, Manchester, UK. One could argue they are Joy Division crossed with Britney Spears — at least as far as influences go. The whole album is filled of similar simply written, catchy pop tunes that make you want to dance — which is their intent. They will never be accused of putting together overly complicated songs that take ages to decipher - which is also their point. But Katie White has an intelligence on her that one doesn’t normally find in dance pop tunes, which makes them a bit different. Either way, I adore them and am vaguely upset they are not coming to Detroit in their current US tour.
1. I seem to have a penchant of attracting mopey (meaning introvert, philosophical, insightful, awkward) boys, romantically and platonically. I also find it ironic that what tends to cure them of their mopiness is hot sex and not necessarily with me. Does Conor Oberst know about this cure?
2. The whole wallowing in self-pity, woe is me crap drives me insane. TheBF is the king of curmudgeons and yet, around me, he’s all about peeing rainbows and shitting leprechauns. See 1.
3. Generation X, of course!
4. When, however, he discovered the name of the band was The Ting Tings, TheBF said he wanted to go vomit because he couldn’t believe he could like a band who called themselves “The Ting Tings.” Yeah, I don’t get it either.
What does Spring mean to me in respect of Music? There’s the literal interpretation, which just sounds a bit too dry to me - do you know any songs about crocuses? And there’s the figurative representation of it being about renewal, emergence and growth. I think we decided to go a third route (although you’ll have to see the column right to confirm that, I could have gotten this completely wrong.) To me, this alternative means the energy and life that some music can bring out of us to make us feel joyful and expectant. Perhaps hope is an appropriate word here too.
Spring is also a striking contrast to the gloominess of Autumn and Winter, two seasons that very much invoke depression. I can be a bit of a mope at times - and there’s an awful lot of mope-worthy music in my collection - perfectly summarised within the opening lines of High Fidelity: “Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable, or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?”
For this theme, therefore, I’ve chosen songs that give me that fist-pumping impetus, that give me a natural high, that make me deliriously happy to be on this planet, that I love listening to when out and about, walking. Believe it not, extensive trawling through my collection revealed there to be at least thirty candidates, which for a miserablist like me is quite staggering. Here are, perhaps, my top five.
Love Corporation - Love
Just look at that cover. Ed Ball, musical polymath and one time executive at Creation Records wrote this first Love Corporation album, which he delightfully calls “the 2nd Acid House album” on his MySpace page - just in case you didn’t deduce that from the cover. It was released in February 1991 towards the closing months of the Second Summer of Love.
Love is the opening track and it’s all about the piano. Unusually, it begins like a coda. A simple but melodic, jaunty housey piano dominates. Its pitch flitting amongst the soft shuffling beats and acid squiggles. In effect a summary of all the dance music that appeared during those years. Then just when we’re becoming accustomed to its prettiness, the tune turns darker through hanging squalls and delays.
But that exists only to highlight the elated conclusion where the piano lead occasionally sprouts bluesy chords and we discover that this coda was actually just the beginning of a much longer sequence. Whether Love is composed or improvised doesn’t matter, it’s lovely.
It’s difficult to imagine this song existing without its accompanying videos - there are at least three of them. In fact, were it not for those videos, the song might not have the energy it does. One time N-Joi singer Saffron does her blokish ladette impression, in an extreme sneering example of what’s now called Mockney. She happened to do that on all of Republica’s songs, not that I’m complaining. So when she sings “I’m standing on the rooftops ‘aving it!” you know and feel exactly how she feels. Sure, there’s a darkness behind the exuberance of the song, but that’s not stopped it featuring on hundreds of (mostly football) compilation CDs.
Ready To Go was released in 1996 as the forerunner to their eponymous debut album, although two other singles had arrived two years earlier, including Bloke - which was part of my answer to TheYank’s curve-ball question last year “What Republica song are you?”
If you want a stereotypical example of how all house piano sounded during that time, this is it - Love Corporation’s piano isn’t full enough, which is why the US-centric rock mix of this song is so disappointing: dropping the piano and Garbage-ing it up with extra grinding guitar riffs, thereby removing much of its cheerfulness.
Such is my love of the videos that I had to include one here. This, I think, is the second version that was made for the UK market. It’s longer than the original and is special because, well, Saffron’s pink jacket is just gorgeous:
Don’t get me wrong, I love Canada. Some of my favourite people are Canadian. But it’s so underpopulated that anyone who makes music ends up winning a Juno Award at some point in their career. Tiga James Sontag is no exception, winning the 2007 Dance Recording of the Year for the ‘concept album’ that is Sexor - from which this song comes.
This is ideal strutting (not walking) music, in an “opening scene to Saturday Night Fever” kind of way - although have you noticed that in the Bee Gees’ video they just amble? What’s that all about? One listen to the dot-dot dot–dot dash bassline will get you moving, especially when Tiga’s vocals join in so percussively. His fairly nonsensical phrases are usually delivered in a call and response fashion, building and releasing tension several times a measure. As with all good dance music, this is as much about the space between each sound as it is the music itself.
Once you’re hooked into the song through those rhythms, Pleasure from the Bass stays interesting by adding synth lines which mirror or complement the bass, becoming more acidic as the song nears its conclusion. Elsewhere there are builds through the introduction of other percussion - in particular the surprise arrival of lightning handclaps, which serve to defuse then reset expectations. Tiga’s monotone vocals playfully turn into melodies at unexpected moments to increase the brilliance of this track.
Last year’s Cut Copy album is the one that LCD Soundsystem should have made back in 2005, instead of the tedious techno trudge that James Murphy ended up releasing (and, yeah, maybe I was the only person on the planet not to be impressed, but still). In comparison, In Ghost Colours is a neon rainbow, burning out retinas through its palatial indie-dance - and it’s proof that Australia does have some musical talent.
Lights & Music, positioned as that all-important third track, is a homage to thrill of dance, played out through the eyes of illicit or unrequited love - of what exactly we’re never told: “Lights and music are on my mind. Be my baby one more time,” and as such could be a companion piece to its predecessor Out There on the Ice.
In contrast to Tiga’s song, this works through multiple layers of sound, shifting sublimely from verse to chorus, break and drop. There’s no rush to get to the rush: that’s why there are two opening stanzas, occupied by bass and lead guitars, achingly kept apart by just that bassline and a shimmering synthetic haze, When the chorus does arrive a full two minutes in, it’s via a two-dimensional swept riff, a rollercoaster teasing us before the fall. Then - just to mess with our heads - Madonna-esque chords teleport us back to the Eighties.
“Because I’m stuck in a groove, I didn’t hear what you said. Because there’s too many tunes going round in my head”
And lookie here: another Melbourne-ite. Josh G. Abrahams’ second collaboration with fellow Australian Amiel Daemion was less successful than Addicted to Bass, which had reached #2 in the UK in 2002, three years after its Australian debut. Stuck in a Groove is however the far more accomplished song, although it only reached #26. A sure sign of a one hit wonder.
I’m soft on songs about music, even if they start with a sleepy R&B acoustic guitar cut-up and the most trite lyrics - as this one does - because once they filter away, Amiel’s dryly processed spoken / sung intro is beguiling. Behind this, the backing revs up towards the chorus. When that hits with its power chords, sparkling keys and pad bass (think Hybrid), it’s a direct reminder of all the incredible things that music can do. Then, just to the strengthen the point, it’s re-interpreted, stripped down and bettered on the short break just before the close.
My next door neighbour often wonders why I frequently ignore her when she passes by me, out and about in Inverness. She needs to listen to this song.
Looking back at these five songs, three of them have some bearing or relationship to music. Not surprising really since whenever I’m out walking - and I prefer to walk anywhere than use transport - I’m plugged into my iPhone. Obsessed, me? Yes, and I love it.
Second single from Röyksopp’s forthcoming album Junior, features Swedish Goddess Robyn on vocals. It can therefore do no wrong. Despite its bouncing bass-heavy synth lines and pads which tend to mask her voice too much, it is a lonely heartbreaking post-eighties sci-fi triumph, even though it plays the Kleerup strings card as a main feature of its coda.
Junior is released on 23 March 2009, but available for listening on their website and on Spotify now. It also features guest vocals from Karin Dreijer Andersson and Lykke Li.
Maybe it was the weight of expectation that led me to conclude that Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ previous album Show Your Bones wasn’t worth many repeat listens. That expectation had come in the form of the explosive lead single Gold Lion, which I played five times in a row after I downloaded it. But I have a saying: “Always be suspicious of albums that begin with the lead single.” Not very catchy, I’ll admit, but I refer you to Madonna’s album American Life for proof that I am right. (Die Another Day doesn’t count, by the way.)
Except that I’m wrong with respect to It’s Blitz! because whilst they have played the same lead single trick here (with the shivery dance of Zero), the rest of the album matches, if not surpasses it. Their identifiable sound is still present, but fused to an electronic backbone accompanied by driving percussion and unashamed use of synth pads. Or so it may appear on casual listen, because instead they’ve gone in the opposite direction to Ladytron (who turn synthesizers into guitars) by mutating the sounds generated by their physical instruments and shipping in the widescreen electronic soundscape that made Ladytron’s Witching Hour so powerful.
The overall effect when it works best is therefore nothing short of overwhelming. Skeletons’ shimmering bagpipe ballad for example, and its schizophrenic successor Dull Life, which plays the soft / loud card very effectively. By the time the opening piano of Runaway appears, you can make sense of why Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ ended up sounding like this and it suits them perfectly. Karen O’s voice has the power and range to stand out against Nick Zinner’s keyboard and guitar backdrops and Brian Chase’s drums decorate, drive and tumble as required. And, for TV on The Radio fans unconvinced by these guys - you know who you are *wink*, Tunde Adebimpe provides backing vocals to Dragon Queen.
I’m not sure this is enough to make me go back to reconsider Show Your Bones, it’s probably best for me to leave that one alone, but this is a leap forward in their sound and their ambition. One of the best albums of this year, so far.
Every year, millions of people grab whatever small sliver of Irish identity they have (or just simply fake it) to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day. While the origins of the holiday have now been Hallmarked and Guinness’d1 to death it is the biggest bar night (week, month) of the year with the national past-time of fending off drunken fake Irish girls with cheaply printed pins that say, “Kiss me! I’m Irish!” to crappy Celtic bands that think that by adding “Mc” to everything it’s suddenly Irish.
With that being said, when it became clear that our launch date was to be a week before St. Patrick’s Day, obviously the songs we picked must reflect that spirit and mood. At first we were going to attempt the idea of picking songs that were traditional Irish drinking songs sung by contemporary artists with the sub-rule that the band themselves had to be non-Irish AND were not Dropkick Murphy’s, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Flogging Molly or the like. Needle in a haystack people, needle in a haystack.
Thus, while TheBrit was getting lost in his cups over moody music (and yelling at me that I could not use Scottish-Celtic influenced bands, the bastard!), I took an alternate route – finding songs that celebrated the modern holiday spirit of St. Patrick’s Day – which of course, is drinking and more drinking, getting drunk and passing out. And with the following bands, everyday is St. Patrick’s Day – and you know what? I’m totally okay with that.
Dropkick Murphy’s – Dirty Glass
I broke my first rule, but you know what, so what? I love this song. I love the slow build up, the call and response between Murphy and Darcy. I love the fact that I want to either get up and start jigging on top of tables, drink whiskey and crash the empty shot glasses to the floor or just basically make a general fool of myself when this song comes on. I adore how the music crescendos back and forth and back again. It’s poppy, it’s fun, it’s light – you know, like the fake drunken Irish girls you’ll meet at the bar this weekend. Is the song about Murphy and Darcy’s relationship as lovers? As drunk and barmaid? Both? Neither? Do we care? Probably not, but one thing is for certain, put on this tune and you’ll want to jump into the fray.
Dirty Glass was not released as a single but it can be found on their album, Blackout, which was released in 2003. While it was their third studio album, it is the first one to chart at #83 on the U.S. charts and they would later have bigger success with later albums.
CANADA’S PREMIER IRISH PUNK BAND! Why does it always make me giggle when one adds “Canada” in front of anything? And the worst part is – not only am I a Yank, but I’m also a Canuk!2 Either way, fronted by a real Irishman (Drats! Broke another rule!), this self-penned song is styled in the way of traditional Irish drinking songs – man loves his pints, woman threatens to leave, man continues to go to the pub, woman leaves, man goes to the pub and finds his woman with his cousin! But it’s an upbeat tune complete with tin whistles and fiddles, so you know that in the end, everything will be fine (and as long as your having a pint, cheers to Finny!).
Drunken, Lazy Bastard was originally released on The Mahones first disk, Draggin’ The Days, which is now out of print. You can find the song on Irish Punk Collection, available via Interpunk or on Paint the Town Red, which is available on amazon.com and .co.uk as an import.
The problem, admittedly with a lot of sub genres of music, is that if the lead singer sounds remotely at all like another lead singer, often there will mismatched and incorrect tagging of the initial band’s song. This is the problem with the song, Fuck You, I’m Drunk which is being purported to have been written and sung by a Chicago-based blues-Celtic band Bondo with apparent evidence going back to 1999 of them singing the song in a bar on their (I think?) website. I say purported and apparent because this IS the Internet and I could crock up a webpage declaring that I wrote War and Peace, but you know what? I want to believe that this little band that no one has really heard of outside of Chicago wrote a song memorable enough that it was apparently covered by bigger and more well-known bands. I like the idea this is the little song that could.
P.S. If anyone knows what happened to Bondo, can you let me know? The information on their garageband page is haphazard, at best.
P.P.S. While the player says “Dropkick Murphy’s,” it really is Bondo as confirmed by numerous people and the recording below is directly taken from their first album, Fistful of Biscuits.
I’ll admit that I’m a lazy bastard (but unfortunately, not a drunken, lazy bastard at the moment) and when I chose this song, I based it on a quick listen and the title alone, thinking, “Hey! I can research this later!” Of course later, now that I have started writing everything out, I discover this is not a song about drinking and trollops, rather it’s a memorial to Dee Dee Ramone who died of a heroin overdose in 2002.
At first I thought it was a response to Adam Ant’s, “Goody Two-Shoes,” but you know maybe in a way it is; just 20 years down the road. For this song, pour a small bit of your Guinness on the ground for the dead Ramones and other homies.
The song appears on the band’s 2005 album, The Valley of the Shadow of Death. The Tossers are currently on tour.
One of the reasons I like Los Campesinos! is that they don’t take themselves too seriously and how can you not love a band that has a song called ...And We Exhale and Roll Our Eyes in Unison? I bring this up because when searching the internets for material for this week’s column, the song Token Celtic Drinking Song kept popping up and attributed to various bands all over the place. Any band that uses the word “token” in their song title has sold me (much how LC! sold me on their elite titling powers). And even though 90% of the attribution went back to The Pogues, I decided that as long as it was not Fairytale of New York, I’m totally within my rights to use Token Celtic Drinking Song this week for the theme.
And yet, it turns out that in another case of mistaken identity, Token Celtic Drinking Song has been mistakenly appropriated to The Pogues even though when listening you can clearly tell that is not Shane MacGowan singing. The song, in fact, belongs to a long–defunct Canadian Celtic punk band3, Jimmy George. While the fans discussions over at The Pogue’s fan forums clarifies some of the misunderstandings and but yet, DAMN YOU INTERNETS! Start tagging shit correctly!
The lyrics, are definitely unintelligible (and from research, this is apparently the album version of the song by Jimmy George) and are also not cataloged. The song is fun to listen to and has all the elements of an Irish drinking song including (but not limited to from what I could figure out): the copious mention of whisky, drinking, working class, union cards, women, and I’m sure some fighting is going to happen at some point or another.
TheBrit and TheYank's theme posts are usually added every other Wednesday. Individual posts are added whenever we feel like. If you have an idea of a theme you would like for us to tackle, email us.
