According to Wired, the American rights organisation ASCAP wants to collect royalties from the US Government for music played over and over to wear down detainees at the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison. The song of choice has been David Gray’s “Babylon”, a choice about which Gray has been very upset.
There is a precedent in that some collection agencies deem nursing homes, hospitals and prisons to be “public places” and therefore liable to pay royalties on any music played on those spaces. Whether the Government would even consider paying is not known.
Read the full story here.
Wednesday, 9 July 2008
Tuesday, 1 July 2008
Scarcity Part 2: Gang of Four & The Tom Tom Club
The Gang of Four are belting out a funky tune called “Love Like Anthrax” – whose chorus goes“Love will get you like a dose of anthrax/
And that is something I don’t want to catch”
And that is something I don’t want to catch”
and I start thinking that perhaps this isn’t an appropriate message for the two teenage girls standing next to me. Another chorus goes
“I’m thinking that I love you/
But I know it’s only lust”,
But I know it’s only lust”,
and it dawns on me, since the girls are wearing Access All Areas passes, that maybe they’re watching their parents on stage. Now that must be weird, especially if Dad is happily married.
When Dave Allen left Gang of Four back in the early 80s in the middle of a US tour, the band found an incredible bassist called Busta Cherry Jones to help carry on. When Dave and drummer Hugo Burnham left this time, a few weeks before their Meltdown Festival appearance, it made me wonder what rabbit would be pulled from the hat. The sight of a female skinhead entering the darkened stage and I knew it was okay – Bowie bassist Gayle Ann Dorsey was on hand. New drummer Mark Heaney matched her in elegant intensity.
As singer Jon King said, Gang of Four don’t play very often, so the crowd was immediately on its feet and cheering from the get-go. When they first appeared almost 30 years ago their sound was unique, yet another fresh route careening away from the main road of punk, a compelling drive of funk rhythm, keening chords and feedback sandpapering against desolate lyrics. Not a combination to conquer the charts; even at their peak of popularity it felt like a special club. Only in the past few years have we learned that those funky rhythms have inspired many a modern Ferdinand.
The band mostly played from their first album, ‘Entertainment’. Maybe it was a subtle message. The later highlight was “I Love A Man In A Uniform”, Jon revealing that the US Air Force had wanted to use it in a recruitment ad, showing that the military is, as expected, free of irony. The rhythm section was finely tuned and powerful – perhaps it helps to dive in at the very deep end. Jon and Andy played only as people who’ve been together a long time can. It probably helps that they haven’t played the songs to death.
Over 25 years you can forget the details of what a band can be like on stage. I remembered Andy Gill staring at the crowd as he Fendered huge chunking chords and painful feedback attack, but I’d forgotten what a lunatic Jon King is. In the course of the night he used three different mic stands, jerked in a floor-clearing dance, and lost the buttons on his shirt. No surprise then when he got out a baseball bat and demolished a microwave oven to the beat.The Tom Tom Club was a rhythm section spin-off from Talking Heads, popular at the same time as Gof4. Their take on bootylicious rhythms, however, had a very different effect. “Genius Of Love” immediately spawned a number of 12” spinoffs, including the equally cool “Genius Of Rap”. Mariah Carey built one of her biggest hits around a sample of its hook. Tonight, they dropped it halfway through the set. It has one of my favourite lyrical hooks: “He’s the genius of love/He’s so neat.” (Bet Mariah couldn’t write that innocently.) The place went mental because it still sounded so damn fresh. They followed it with their first hit, “Wordy Rappinghood”, a paen to their favourite dance artists and another trove of clever words. From there on it was a big party. They encored with “Take Me To The River”, and while Tina Weymouth would hate to hear it, Talking Heads used to do it much better.
Thursday, 26 June 2008
Scarcity Part 1: Yellow Magic Orchestra Live In London
Sometimes I stay awake at night worrying about the important stuff in life, things like: do the Japanese have heritage acts? I’ll sleep easily tonight; they do!
Exhibit A: The Sadistic Mika Band. In the mid-70s they moulded an obsession with Roxy Music, David Bowie and shopping on the King’s Road into a delightful output of songs that often included “boogie” in the title. They went through seven variations before calling it a day. But a quick search on YouTube shows them back at it in 2003 and again in 2006. Is this relevant to my story? It is for their drummer Yukihiro Takahashi. He was – is – also a member of…
Exhibit B: Yellow Magic Orchestra. Yes, Yukihiro drums in two heritage acts, plus he’s a solo artist – that’s one better than Phil Collins! YMO don’t have song titles with “boogie” in them; their most obvious influence is Deutsche knob twiddlers Kraftwerk. Except for one album. By 1983 it was plain that being arty and singing in English wasn’t going to make them a major act, so they did a cool album of cheeky J-pop and cleaned up. They called it ‘Bad Boys’. Then film directors knocked on poster boy Ryuichi Sakamoto’s door and a few high-profile film soundtracks later YMO was just an entry in their musical resumes. But after twenty years to temper their mutual dislike they played at Live Earth and again last year. Did they complete their ascendancy to heritage godocracy? Check the global library that is YouTube and, yes they did; they made a Kirin Beer commercial.
Just look at this photo. Do this look like a heritage act to you?
Of course it does! Three grumpy old men having to stand next to each other for publicity.
They’re not topping up the pension fund by actually touring though. Asked by Massive Attack to play at the Meltdown Festival at Royal Festival Hall, they’re managing one other gig in Spain. That’s it for Europe.
The three of them spanned the stage, standing behind small instrument arrays. Behind them were three supplementary musicians working laptops, downing them to play heavily treated guitar and mandolin, and flugelhorn. They didn’t talk. To each other or the audience. Black clothes and silver hair, black synths and silver MacBooks….it looked cool.
In a situation like this, there’s always the possibility that the evening will be a wallow in nostalgia. Not here. The songs were from all over the back catalogue, run through a blender of what’s tickling their current artistic itch. Basically, they’re into static and pre-Cambrian sounding electronic music sounds, layering them into and over the music. At times it clashed and at times it flowed, at times you wanted them to stop (now!) and at times it sounded very special. Where some of the music pieces originally were quite repetitious, now the rich texture of sound often progressed in micro-variations that made me think someone has Terry Riley’s ‘Rainbow In Curved Air’ in Most-Played on the i-Pod.
Playing “Riot In Lagos” in 2007
Each of the trio had moments of musical bravura, but for me the starlight of the night was Yukihiro. Halfway through he moved from his electronics to a drum kit, proving to be a snapping funk drummer. But on one of the dancier numbers, besides the bootylicious beat, throughout the song he kept moving the snare beat around so that by song’s end he’d put a pattern on every beat in the bar. Phil Collins would be jealous.
Check out Yukihiro’s chops on this cultural collision: YMO on ‘Soul Train’ in 1980 doing a unique interpretation of “Tighten Up”.
Exhibit A: The Sadistic Mika Band. In the mid-70s they moulded an obsession with Roxy Music, David Bowie and shopping on the King’s Road into a delightful output of songs that often included “boogie” in the title. They went through seven variations before calling it a day. But a quick search on YouTube shows them back at it in 2003 and again in 2006. Is this relevant to my story? It is for their drummer Yukihiro Takahashi. He was – is – also a member of…
Exhibit B: Yellow Magic Orchestra. Yes, Yukihiro drums in two heritage acts, plus he’s a solo artist – that’s one better than Phil Collins! YMO don’t have song titles with “boogie” in them; their most obvious influence is Deutsche knob twiddlers Kraftwerk. Except for one album. By 1983 it was plain that being arty and singing in English wasn’t going to make them a major act, so they did a cool album of cheeky J-pop and cleaned up. They called it ‘Bad Boys’. Then film directors knocked on poster boy Ryuichi Sakamoto’s door and a few high-profile film soundtracks later YMO was just an entry in their musical resumes. But after twenty years to temper their mutual dislike they played at Live Earth and again last year. Did they complete their ascendancy to heritage godocracy? Check the global library that is YouTube and, yes they did; they made a Kirin Beer commercial.
Just look at this photo. Do this look like a heritage act to you?
Of course it does! Three grumpy old men having to stand next to each other for publicity.
They’re not topping up the pension fund by actually touring though. Asked by Massive Attack to play at the Meltdown Festival at Royal Festival Hall, they’re managing one other gig in Spain. That’s it for Europe.
The three of them spanned the stage, standing behind small instrument arrays. Behind them were three supplementary musicians working laptops, downing them to play heavily treated guitar and mandolin, and flugelhorn. They didn’t talk. To each other or the audience. Black clothes and silver hair, black synths and silver MacBooks….it looked cool.
In a situation like this, there’s always the possibility that the evening will be a wallow in nostalgia. Not here. The songs were from all over the back catalogue, run through a blender of what’s tickling their current artistic itch. Basically, they’re into static and pre-Cambrian sounding electronic music sounds, layering them into and over the music. At times it clashed and at times it flowed, at times you wanted them to stop (now!) and at times it sounded very special. Where some of the music pieces originally were quite repetitious, now the rich texture of sound often progressed in micro-variations that made me think someone has Terry Riley’s ‘Rainbow In Curved Air’ in Most-Played on the i-Pod.
Playing “Riot In Lagos” in 2007
Each of the trio had moments of musical bravura, but for me the starlight of the night was Yukihiro. Halfway through he moved from his electronics to a drum kit, proving to be a snapping funk drummer. But on one of the dancier numbers, besides the bootylicious beat, throughout the song he kept moving the snare beat around so that by song’s end he’d put a pattern on every beat in the bar. Phil Collins would be jealous.
Check out Yukihiro’s chops on this cultural collision: YMO on ‘Soul Train’ in 1980 doing a unique interpretation of “Tighten Up”.
Friday, 6 June 2008
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss – Live In London
You want to know why Zeppelin isn’t touring this year? Because Robert Plant has a hit album! He’s always been one to experiment, but winning platinum for an album of country music made with Alison Krauss and T-Bone Burnett is pretty leftfield. Defining this work as ‘country’ is, of course, relative. It’s probably more accurate to call it American music; not rock and roll American music, but what was there before, a much older expression of the country’s inner soul.
The band started low-key, sounding a lot like the album, then three songs in came an intro full of chords strange though familiar; only when Robert parted his smiling lips did we know which Zeppelin song had been hot-rodded. You haven’t heard “Black Dog” until you’ve heard it done psycho-country. One of my few problems with Zep is that the lyrics often sound like irrelevant add-ons, but in this haunted musical setting of banjo, fiddle and stalking bass Robert’s young man lament had found its home.
“Black Dog” in Cardiff.
Now the band was awake. There were three guitarists and they played in that peculiar southern-American style of looking half asleep on their feet while regularly dropping startling interpolations and lead runs into the rhythms. The drummer had an ancient looking wooden kit with a snare sound like no other. If drummers can play a drone he did it, beating repetitive patterns on the kit while the stand-up bassist happily watched the tom foolery.
It got louder and louder and the guitars started to drone in a manner and intensity unlike anything on the album. I kept thinking that if the Velvet Underground had been formed in Texas or Tennessee, this is what it would have sounded like. It was that weird. T-Bone Burnett directed proceedings from the side of the stage, his high-necked grey waistcoat and black frock coat making him look like a preacher – a preacher of sin. During the solos Robert walked into the centre of the band, listening with contentment to the intricate volume-dealing around him, a man who feels happiest with the wind of a speaker cone against his back.
Alison Krauss had her share of the spotlight, playing both songs from their album and her own work. Notable was a haunting version of “Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us” and a spectacular “Down To The River” from Oh Brother Where Art Thou. Then T-Bone got up to play “Bon Temps Roulez” as though heavy metal had been invented in New Orleans.
“Down To The River” in Amsterdam
Robert has said in interviews that he had always thought that white American music was a poorer version of black music. Then T-Bone showed up with an armful of records. “How wrong I was.” It seems to have inspired him, a deep music that’s new but recognisable from the English folk music from which it grew, a connection made clear by dropping Sandy Denny’s “Maddy Grove” into the middle of “In The Mood” and in how some other Zeppelin songs were rearranged. But in the end he’s a Wolverhampton lad so even c&w needs some volume and edge. Think of it as two galaxies colliding. One is bluegrass and American earth music, the other is a city-size sound of factory-made riffs and earthquake drums. In the centre are “Black Country Woman” (banjo and fiddle), “When The Levee Breaks” (drone plantation moan and a verse from “Girl From The North Country”) and (a given when you have Alison Krauss to your right) a blinding country-metal version of “The Battle Of Evermore”, on which Sandy Denny originally sang.
For encores they raided the oldies cupboard, first with a rollicking “One Woman Man” with Robert sounding like a male Wanda Jackson, then sending us into the night with Alison and Robert in perfect harmony on a near-accapella “Your Long Journey”.
“Gone Gone Gone” in Bergen
The band started low-key, sounding a lot like the album, then three songs in came an intro full of chords strange though familiar; only when Robert parted his smiling lips did we know which Zeppelin song had been hot-rodded. You haven’t heard “Black Dog” until you’ve heard it done psycho-country. One of my few problems with Zep is that the lyrics often sound like irrelevant add-ons, but in this haunted musical setting of banjo, fiddle and stalking bass Robert’s young man lament had found its home.
“Black Dog” in Cardiff.
Now the band was awake. There were three guitarists and they played in that peculiar southern-American style of looking half asleep on their feet while regularly dropping startling interpolations and lead runs into the rhythms. The drummer had an ancient looking wooden kit with a snare sound like no other. If drummers can play a drone he did it, beating repetitive patterns on the kit while the stand-up bassist happily watched the tom foolery.
It got louder and louder and the guitars started to drone in a manner and intensity unlike anything on the album. I kept thinking that if the Velvet Underground had been formed in Texas or Tennessee, this is what it would have sounded like. It was that weird. T-Bone Burnett directed proceedings from the side of the stage, his high-necked grey waistcoat and black frock coat making him look like a preacher – a preacher of sin. During the solos Robert walked into the centre of the band, listening with contentment to the intricate volume-dealing around him, a man who feels happiest with the wind of a speaker cone against his back.
Alison Krauss had her share of the spotlight, playing both songs from their album and her own work. Notable was a haunting version of “Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us” and a spectacular “Down To The River” from Oh Brother Where Art Thou. Then T-Bone got up to play “Bon Temps Roulez” as though heavy metal had been invented in New Orleans.
“Down To The River” in Amsterdam
Robert has said in interviews that he had always thought that white American music was a poorer version of black music. Then T-Bone showed up with an armful of records. “How wrong I was.” It seems to have inspired him, a deep music that’s new but recognisable from the English folk music from which it grew, a connection made clear by dropping Sandy Denny’s “Maddy Grove” into the middle of “In The Mood” and in how some other Zeppelin songs were rearranged. But in the end he’s a Wolverhampton lad so even c&w needs some volume and edge. Think of it as two galaxies colliding. One is bluegrass and American earth music, the other is a city-size sound of factory-made riffs and earthquake drums. In the centre are “Black Country Woman” (banjo and fiddle), “When The Levee Breaks” (drone plantation moan and a verse from “Girl From The North Country”) and (a given when you have Alison Krauss to your right) a blinding country-metal version of “The Battle Of Evermore”, on which Sandy Denny originally sang.
For encores they raided the oldies cupboard, first with a rollicking “One Woman Man” with Robert sounding like a male Wanda Jackson, then sending us into the night with Alison and Robert in perfect harmony on a near-accapella “Your Long Journey”.
“Gone Gone Gone” in Bergen
Tuesday, 3 June 2008
Bo Diddley – Called to Heaven
One of the true originals has died at 79. Let us pause and remember him with the beat that defined him:
bomp ba-bomp bomp, bomp bomp
It’s a beat and a riff so essential that it helped fuel the careers of both Buddy Holly and The Rolling Stones. Quicksilver Messenger Service practically built an entire career on it. Bo was also instrumental in inventing the use of tremelo and vibrato. A Rock God in other words. For a good obituary, go here.
Along with Chuck Berry’s signature intro, rock and roll was built on this beat. Show any musician of a certain age this album cover and they’ll get all misty-eyed. They all learned to play from hearing it.
His influence was so deep that even actors wanted to pay their respects; Dan Ackroyd put Bo in both ‘The Blues Brothers’ and ‘Trading Places’, where Bo memorably lorded it over the pawn shop.
Bo’s live show was centred around Jerome Green his maraccas player and The Duchess on bass. Want to see how good they were? Here’s Bo doing “Road Runner”:
Why was that riff so damn good? Because it was made for dancing:
Buddy Holly lifted The Beat for “Not Fade Away”, but he was cool enough to give props by recording “Bo Diddley”.
Of course, Buddy wasn’t so cool that he wrote the song – Bo wrote it as his first single. (Nothing like advertising your own brilliance.)
The Animals weren’t content just to cover a song about Bo Diddley – they wrote one of their own. “The Story Of Bo Diddley” is the kind of history lesson they should teach in school.
Bo Diddley aka Ellis McDaniel – born Dec. 30, 1928, died June 2, 2008
bomp ba-bomp bomp, bomp bomp
It’s a beat and a riff so essential that it helped fuel the careers of both Buddy Holly and The Rolling Stones. Quicksilver Messenger Service practically built an entire career on it. Bo was also instrumental in inventing the use of tremelo and vibrato. A Rock God in other words. For a good obituary, go here.
Along with Chuck Berry’s signature intro, rock and roll was built on this beat. Show any musician of a certain age this album cover and they’ll get all misty-eyed. They all learned to play from hearing it.
His influence was so deep that even actors wanted to pay their respects; Dan Ackroyd put Bo in both ‘The Blues Brothers’ and ‘Trading Places’, where Bo memorably lorded it over the pawn shop.
Bo’s live show was centred around Jerome Green his maraccas player and The Duchess on bass. Want to see how good they were? Here’s Bo doing “Road Runner”:
Why was that riff so damn good? Because it was made for dancing:
Buddy Holly lifted The Beat for “Not Fade Away”, but he was cool enough to give props by recording “Bo Diddley”.
Of course, Buddy wasn’t so cool that he wrote the song – Bo wrote it as his first single. (Nothing like advertising your own brilliance.)
The Animals weren’t content just to cover a song about Bo Diddley – they wrote one of their own. “The Story Of Bo Diddley” is the kind of history lesson they should teach in school.
Bo Diddley aka Ellis McDaniel – born Dec. 30, 1928, died June 2, 2008
Friday, 28 March 2008
Baby Scratch My Back
As cool rocking names go, Slim Harpo is in the freezer. His sonic stylings are just as frigid. A narrow minded man would say he sounds too much like Jimmy Reed. An eloquent man would talk about his lazy-sounding vocal style, the sinewy guitar, the backbeat you can drive a Cadillac through, how less is most deliciously more. But I’m neither of those.Instead I’ll mention some titles: ‘I Need Money’, ‘Shake Your Hips’, ‘Baby Scratch My Back’….What economy and directness. The lyrics are just as straightforward, stories of simple pleasure that often contain well-observed truth.
Did he make this up right before the tape rolled? --
Ohhh, I dig those crazy clothes
Let me feel those fishnet hose
Cut low at the top
And high at the bottom
In fact, I don't see
How we ever did without 'em
Slim is from Louisiana. Maybe that explains his magic.
“Baby Scratch My Back”
The British beat guys dug his sound. Slim recorded this song as “Shake Your Hips”.
On ‘Exiles On Main Street’, the Rolling Stones did it as “Hipshake”. I like the version on record because about halfway through they noticeably speed up.
The Stones on Beat Club in Germany
Slim’s most famous song is “King Bee’. The Stones did it of course, but let’s hear Pink Floyd’s version. Syd Barrett’s solo is a perfect filter of Slim Harpo through Wind In The Willows.
Pink Floyd – (I’m A) King Bee
Tuesday, 4 March 2008
Channel 4 Executives Split Over Future Of Digital Radio
When I wrote on the future of the music business for The Word, I wasn’t expecting how fast some of the predictions would become reality. It was clear that digital radio was in for a rough ride, but events are snowballing. Since January Virgin Radio and GCap Media have both pulled the plug on some or all of their digital stations. In today’s Guardian it is announced that Channel 4 executives are effectively split over the broadcaster's digital radio venture and whether to invest further.
The UK government is committed to switching off analogue radio within a few years, but the public isn’t buying into it. Nor, it seems, are private investors.
The Guardian, 4 March: Digital radio rift at Channel 4
The UK government is committed to switching off analogue radio within a few years, but the public isn’t buying into it. Nor, it seems, are private investors.
The Guardian, 4 March: Digital radio rift at Channel 4
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