because the night's too young for punk rock kids like us to grow old

At Zanzibar on Thursday (28/07/11) I saw an amazing new band going by the name of Stealing Sheep on the advice (and thanks to the ability to drive me there) of a good friend. They didn’t disappoint. Supporting Hot Club de Paris (a band who don’t get nearly the level of recognition they deserve – for their witty Liverpudlian repartee if nothing else - and whom my friends and I misspent many a youthful evening following round the country) at the ‘It’s Miller Time Presents …’ the all-girl trio had a laid-back, D.I.Y feel and echoes of Best Coast in their sound. Officially genred as ‘Psych-Folk’ – not a bad label for all that it means – they do represent the rise and potential quality of modern, popular English folk music. Placing them, in my mind, alongside Florence + the Machine and Patrick Wolf (though with a less ‘folktronica’ sound than Wolf) whose fourth and fifth albums (The Bachelor and Lupercalia respectively – much more than a one-hit-wonder many suppose him to be) deserve more recognition than he usually garners and whose recent appearance on 4Play (available on 4OD) I would recommend all to take a look at. The almost drums-led sound of the band and delicate, harmonious vocals make for an eerie, often haunting presence. The lyrics are often delicate and highly feminised giving them a unique beauty. I keep listening to ‘I am the Rain’ on repeat for the singular line:

“make it through the rain/I am the rain. If I dry will I be/what will I be?”




The frail insecurity of the lyric speaking to a depth of youthful indecision at a crossroads.

More of this please Liverpool, and Britain generally, I don’t think this specific sound (despite some Californian flavours) could come from anywhere else. Recommendations of similar acts I might well enjoy are more than welcome on the comments (in fact they are thoroughly encouraged).

Not so GaGa

Can't decide what to think about GaGa's latest offerings. Upon first hearing both 'Born this Way' and 'Judas' I was relatively unimpressed.  They seemed to lack a certain something that made both 'The Fame' and 'The Fame Monster' (with their respective singles  and 'Just Dance', 'Paparazzi', 'Bad Romance' and 'Telephone' in particular) excellent pop music albums. However, since they have got stuck in my head and I've began to like them more.  My problem is if it's a case of them being justified in my affections.

'Judas' without doubt seems a little unfinished and unrefined in a way not true of her earlier work. At times it feels like two different songs pushed together.  Whilst I have no illusions about the limits of GaGa's artistic merit and talent, 'Paparazzi' had a lyrical complexity and sincerity ("I'm your biggest fan i'll follow you until you love me" creating a recognisable image of youthful infatuation) that 'Judas' doesn't.  Even it's extended syllables, "Papa-papa-razzi", seem to have more purpose than those in 'Judas' which feel more filler.

  Similarly I felt the emotion in 'Bad Romance' - "I want your loving and your lover's revenge" spoke to me of a dysfunctional relationship you couldn't give up, crescendoed with the cry "I don't wanna be frieeeeends!!! - want your bad ro-mance!" a desperate plea.  In comparison 'Born This Way's' affirmation of self love and respect felt flat.  I certainly appreciate the sentiment, and its purpose as an anthem for gay pride but feel it's just a generic gay disco track.  Good to dance to but without the flair and depth (as deep as any of the relatively superficial issues she deals with can be) of her earlier work.  

I heard a clip of her proposed third single, 'Hair', and loved it instantly.  Nevertheless it's counterparts in self-reflection -'Brown Eyes' and 'So Happy I Could Die' as I see it - on her other two records have something that 'Hair' lacks in approachability and relate-ability.

All the same I am at least left with "ooh oh oh oh, ooh oh I'm in love with Judas-ah-as, Judas!" on a loop in my head and it doesn't feel so bad...

You rang m'lord?

I fear that the debate on the House of Lords is going to go the same way as the referendum on AV, being reduced to in-fighting between the Tories and the Lib Dems rather than an actual consideration of the position of the Lords.  It particularly concerns me as both this and the issue of electoral reform are some of the most galvanising issues for young people of my generation.  Whilst I was out of step with most of my peers in opposing AV (and generally supporting first past the post rather than a PR or hybrid system) the issue was one on which there was some serious consideration by many of my friends and acquaintances.  I don't personally subscribe to the view that my generation is apolitical or largely apathetic (indeed even the proposition of cuts demonstrated how active people of my age bracket can be - interestingly enough both for and against) - but it pleased me to see so many engaging with the issue where they might  not with others. 

Thus I was sad to read online that Clegg's unveiling of his reform package was already dogged and dominates by conflict within the coalition. It seems that the issue may well fall onto to sane ground as AV with Tories scoffing at the proposals as some Lib Dem nonsense destined to fail  as the Lib Dems themselves use it as one in which to distinguish themselves from their coalition partners and try to offset their deteriorating public image.

The truth is, the position of the House of Lords within our legislature and constitution is an important one.  It is without doubt one of the major potentially anti-democratic elements within our system. A vestige, and testament to the classic Whig narrative of slow evolutionary change over revolutionary change.  Personally I don't find an unelected upper house particularly offensive to my democratic ideals - The Parliament Act and Salisbury Convention seem to offset the worst of it's position and leave it as a largely advisory body - if a conservative block on radical policy.  Obviously the presence of hereditary peers and the bishops is a particular problem and potentially undermines the democratic nature of our system.   Nevertheless I feel the other issues are up fit grabs and - much like electoral reform - have not been widely debated. 

What we need to decide is what we want from out second house. Or indeed if we want one at all. There seems to be a consensus, in the Commons at least if not countrywide, that we don't desire the Upper House to have a mandate of it's own to challenge the Commons, and indeed much like the house of representatives in the USA that the Commons should ultimately have predominance over the budget and taxation legislation. But what do we want from our second  house? A discussion chamber? A house able to propose its own legislation wholly independent of the government in the Commons? How will it be elected - by what system and with what relationship to constituencies, if it has constituencies at all?  It is these questions that should be widely debated and, I would argue, put to public referendum so that we can get what we really want out of 'the other place'. 

I realise that it is necessary for governments to have concrete policies for the Commons to debate (such broad debate proposed above is obviously not suitable) and that the parties have considered what they want to some extent.  However, even the Liberal Democrats who have most ire as a collective for the current state of the Lords only had a vague manifesto commitment of a fully elected House. Furthermore as elections are seldom won or lost on the issue (the economy dominated the last and I personally remember only cursory reference made to the Lords) it needs more consideration.  Rushed policies - based on a compromise which few end up enthusiastically supporting - will see the issue founder on the same rocks as the  debate on electoral reform. The issue will end up not being the Lords but the position of the coalition, its partners within it and the future and character of the Liberal Democrats.  Lords reform is an important issue for the future of our democracy and deserves thorough consideration rather than being used in political point scoring or to save the position of one man and his party. 

Skool Daze

It has been an inordinate amount of time since I last posted. To be honest the blog kind of fell by the waste-side what with third-year and the general feeling that I was merely talking to myself. However, now that I have more time on my hands and very little intellectual or spiritual expression given my bar-job and waiting out the six months I have until I go travelling I thought I'd start it up again, particularly as I have more time to discover new music and also to discover (and get angry about) new depths of the ConDems' pitful attmepts to run the country. They've been in power for about 100 days and yet have had SO many awkward 'climb-downs' even a jaded Labour supporter like yours truly is dumbfounded.

As if the Queen's Speech wasn't vague enough they keep releasing (potential) policy and then rescinding it - graduate tax anyone? The tax is a particular bug-bear as it's essentially a lifestyle tax, something imposed to curb certain socio-cultural practices (i.e. smoking, drinking - both of which carry their own taxes). Apparently education and attmepting to better oneself, whether in terms of affluence or enlightenment is something parts of the coalition thouroughly disagree with. However, when it comes to education it is their ideas for schools which concern me most. I wasn't greatly in favour of the Labour's 'Academies' or their support for 'faith schools' but at least the former were only designed to bring new energy to the lack-luster results of deprived areas (though i'm always suspicious of pirvate-sector involvement) it was not intended as a scheme to be rolled out everywhere merely to increase the disunity in our current education system and its standards. This is all predicated on the ridiculous idea that parents know better than professionals what their children should be learning. The truth is that most of them have forgotten the lager-part of what they ever learnt at school and that they are more likely to be prejudice as to which subjects should be taught. This for me means the disappreciation of the Arts and what they have to offer becuase they don't have an immediate use or demonstrate a strong connection with one particular career; securing a career for 11 year-olds seems an oddly prevalent obsession of the middle-aged,(ok so I'm an Arts graduate myself and thus prejudiced but what is politics if not a game of interests?) becuase they don't have an immediate use or demonstrate a strong connection with one particular career; securing a career for 11 year-olds seems an oddly prevalent obsession of the middle-aged. What's more is that PSHE and Citizenship (and their ilk) will inevitably be further down-graded. No matter how much I loathed and ridiculed the latter two whilst I was taught them they have an important place. If nothing else teenagers and young-adults have the right to full access to information concerning sex, beyond scientific reproduction, the potential health risks and indeed the emotional side of conjugial relations. As our society becomes more bureaucratic and as community ties are understood less and less in terms of geographical position, young people need to be taught about the legal and politcal systems and more importanty those liberal democratic values (the various freedoms, sexual equality etc etc) that underpin our society. Their rights and responsibilites in a society dominated by electronic communication (look at me ranting over the internet ffs) need to be outlined. No matter how lame the videos are.

These things are lost in faith schools and I feel would be further jeopardised by so-called 'free schools' over which the state would have limited control of the curriculum. Now I realise that my Napoleonic vision of a centralised school system where all kids learn the same thing at the same time is probaly out-dated and unrealistic but schools of whatever colour need the impartial, independent scrutiny of the state and to ensure that, no matter how uncomforable priests, parents or imams are made by it that kids get the proper access to information ranging from contraception, the rights of the individual to a proper understanding of the theory of evolution. The Channel 4 programme 'Faith School Menace?' which aired last night was a thought-provoking one. I personally disagree with Richard Dawkins over many things, but he's got it baout right here. If we are going to have state-funded faith schools (or 'free-schools' God forbid) they need proper regulation, something that is clearly not happening given the science teacher's inability to field questions about evolution (I haven't studied science in about 5 years but still know that the theory holds we didn't evolve from chimpanzees themselves but the both of us from a comman ancestor!).

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This is totally stolen from Joe Oliver byt the way but I love to see that Judas Nick Clegg get his comeuppance:

http://politicalscrapbook.net/2010/08/nick-clegg-childrens-centre-visit-video/

I hate the Lib Dems even more than the Tory's because either they're deluded and believe that all these cuts are necessary or they are just too afraid to out themselves as Neo-Thatcherites like Gideon and the Gang.

the end is nigh...

Not posted in an absolute age, so I thought it was about time to. usually i have a very well thought-out and written piece to post (i'm pretty pedantic at times..) but this time i thought i wing-it so i apologise in advance if this is a bit ramble-y and will probably contain like 100 typos...

anyway i was struck the weekend past by how much the Christmas no#1 still motivated the British people's imaginations (and their vitriol) what with the Joe McElderry vs. Rage Against the Machine chart battle. Though overcome myself, as many of my friends were, by a sense of apathy over the fight and result I thought it a little bizarre how much people both wnated to show their rejection of the domination of reality TV, and Simon Cowell over their musical culture. Perosnally I wanted Joe to be number 1 both becuase i'd watched x-factor and thought he was adorable and because new music, however weak and soppy (though I have shamefully identified with the lyrics of 'The Climb' in times past...)should surely be given a chance, no-matter how strong a musical hertiage we have. In the end, however, I didn't really care as I never actually listen to the chart during the rest of the year. As such I found it weird how much attention it got. Aren't we living in an essentially post-genre, post-chart musical culture that makes the official chart more or less redundant as an indicator of what the most popular contemporary music is? People, including members of Rage, claimed that they were sick of being spoon-fed ballads at the hands of Simon Cowell and his ilk. This to me seems a bizzare argument to make, no one was foricng anyone to watch the x-factor, listen to Joe McElderry or buy the single and I have never exactly found it an onerous task to find out music that speaks to me. Thus opposing Joe McElderry on an anti-corporate front doesn't seem to make much sense to me. If anything myspace, facebook, online downloads have torn down the monolithic power of the singles chart (and the big companies) and has made the music industry more accessible. If anything a meritocracy has been formed through these new methods of breaking into the industry so why the hubbub over the domination of the 'manufactured' over the Christmas singles chart? If artists can now make a living through making 'real' music surely it doesn't matter that pre-packaged pop still rides strong at Christmas?

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It's New Year's soon which I always find one of the most anti-climactic holidays, so in an attempt to curb this i'm having a house-party at my student residence and me and my mates are inviiting some of our home friends up which should be fun.

More importantly i'm looking forward to what 2010 will bring, totally does not feel 10 years since the turn of the millenium. I remember 'celebrating' it at one of the most dull-dinner parties I have ever been to (ok i was 11 and at my mum's friend's house and i've not been to all that many dinner parties but...) the end of the night could not coem quick enough and frankly all the millenium-bug hysteria had come to a big-fat and rather unexciting nothing. the potential apocalysm of the moment was not lost on me and a morbid part of me would quite liked to have been at the edn of time...

anyway it's not really new year, as i will be continuing on my third-year of my degree after it, which hardly feels like a departure at all, not least as the season shall be spent (or should anyway) going over notes for my 'special' (history dept. words not mine) subject and my dissertaion both of which carry into the next semester, a semester that my house-mate happily worked out for me would see me tested on 100 credits (i take 120 over the year) of this year... joy

BUT 2010 does hopefully signal some interesting times, Lady GaGa pretty much has 2009 sewn up will she last? (I hope so i've got tickets for March) I wonder who'll dominate the scene? The next UK General Election is due which will lead to all sorts of excitement. I'm largely a Labour supporter and no critic of Brown's - he's had to make some tough choices and some he's got some right and some wrong - he was probably the best man for the job. Personally I think Labour would do well to get David Milliband to lead the party, they might secure mroe than a hung Parliament that way and save us from Cameron's lack of direction. However, he might be reluctant, a failure in his first run could signal the end to his hopes of ever becoming PM, or so it seems to go these days...

a few thoughts...

I absolutely love this song at the moment and am listening to it non-stop:



It's the catchiest tune I’ve heard for a while and an phenomenal sample of Echo Beach

I also adore the new album from the Gossip, Music for Men. Beth Ditto once again fuses dancefloor pop-punk with a political message without coming over at all heavy-handed or preachy - a talent that no doubt made Standing In The Way of Control a favourite of the otherwise largely politically apathetic 'Skins generation'. The album's larger objective is to expose the privileged position that white, middle-class, straight men enjoy in our society (it goes deep kids, fight the power), but it is in the second single Love Long Distance and the phenomenal Vertical Rhythm that the Gossip's talents are best demonstrated. I always felt that Ditto's voice was the most distinctive of my generation and her soulful, strong-yet-world-weary vocals on both tracks allow the listener a level of empathy that is reminiscent of Dark Lines on the Standing in the Way of Control LP and as ever accompany the thumping beat perfectly to make it a thoroughly danceable tune if nothing else! Some have seen the Gossip as merely 'one-hit-wonder' but this follow up to their 2007 release (which is one of my favourite albums) surely discredits any such notion.

Along with Ditto, Lily Allen is holding the flag for the sisterhood with her latest single 22 and somewhat predictably I am rather taken by this little number too. Her vocals well reflect the sense of despair and injustice with which women yet to have bagged themselves a husband/long-term partner face when approaching 30; no longer considered prime-stock for the marriage market but also supposed to uphold a facade of strength in a society which with tells them they are to be iron-women of industry and independence whilst it worships still at the altar of the cult of motherhood and female domesticity. The lyrics are witty and well chosen, amongst a follow up album which hasn't as of yet grabbed me to the extent that Alright Still did.

Singles in my line of fire at the moment are Battlefield by Jordin Sparks and Soulja Boi’s Kiss me Thru the Phone. Sparks' comparison of love with war has to be the most contrived pop-music simile to date and frankly a little part of me dies when she suggests her boyfriend-come-nemesis should ‘go and get your armour’. What does that even mean? There’s more depth to your standard under 5s paddling pool than to this song, so I was very surprised to find it among this month’s Attitude magazine’s ‘Turn-Ons’, surely even the most stereotypically shallow of my brethren couldn’t actually enjoy this song, even on a level one might enjoy Britney etc. As for Soulja Boi’s Kiss me Thru the Phone here is a song that sounds like it was merely written so it could sell its own ringtone. I haven’t got anything against personalised ringtones, I don’t have one myself because I’m a bit of a miser, but at the risk of sounding middle-aged this merely appears to be a rather cynical commercial exercise, but then maybe it's a reflection of the extensive use of communication technology in our culture... no I’m not convinced either. I also take issue with the line ‘Baby I know that you like me, you my future wifey’. I sincerely hope that 'wifey' was only employed for reasons of poetic convenience; otherwise it is almost too offensive to countenance.

Something about being back at home politicises me, maybe it's the Daily Mail culture in my home time or maybe i have too much time on my hands left to thinking which turns me into a PC bore...


anyway kids that's all for now =)

Agnes Release Me

Absolutely LOVING this song at the moment, it was released last November apparently but I only recently heard it featured, as it was on a dance compilation, that I don't necessarily recommend. However this little gem is a ball of eurodance loveliness and has a bit of a 'Cher' feel to it (something I mean as a good thing - honest). It's set to become a dance classic I’m sure and would make an excellent summer #sigh# anthem (the term ‘anthem’ is SO overused I know). Anyway I recommend you take a listen as I can't get it out of my head!