Local Bands at the Summer Ball
Posted 13th June 2008 at 12:23pm by M1ke, tagged as Music | Commenting Closed
At our Summer Ball on Tuesday there were two great local bands playing. The first one I saw were the Small Screen Light Show, who despite most of the audience being crap were brilliant. Ruth and I showed everyone how it was done and danced the whole way through the second half of their set. We even got given free badges by the band at the end (and Ruth knew the singer from school).
The other band (whose singer came and chatted to me and Christophe outside as they spread the word so people would come watch them) were the Little Comets. Now I'd heard of these guys before, by strange means. I was cycling home from lectures before lunch time one day and got a call from Scott as I approached town. He told me that he'd been in the café in the Calman Learning Centre (fancy name for a big biscuit tin full of lecture theatres) and a band had just wandered in and played a few songs. I pretty much forgot about it after he told me in more detail later that evening, but when he saw the name on the Summer Ball events line-up he recognised it and told me. So today I searched for them on Last.fm and found their YouTube link. They seem to love playing random gigs (even getting kicked off the Newcastle Metro for it) and here's a video of them doing just that for a day out in Durham.
Kaiser Chiefs at the MEN
Posted 17th January 2008 at 11:21pm by M1ke, tagged as Music | Commenting Closed
Back in December I saw the Kaiser Chiefs when they played at the MEN Arena, supported by the Pigeon Detectives. The show was brilliant, with both bands being good showmen as well as belting out some great indie-pop to dance about to. The Kaisers performed three new songs, which I recorded and intend to get onto the net at some point soon. Until then, enjoy some nice photos from the concert.
Proprietary Formats Suck
Posted 25th October 2007 at 12:06am by M1ke, tagged as Music | Commenting Closed
Despite it being something that most fairly computery people have known for years, formats like WMA and AAC are a bit pants. Paul Thurrott, despite being a bit of a Microsoft fanboy, has written a nice simple article which neatly explains the two competing proprietary formats and how MP3 beats both of them.
Win Supersite: MP3 , One True Format
Admittedly he goes on to say that FLAC and OGG (open source, powerful but poorly supported) formats are to be avoided which is something I disagree with. I would take the stand that these formats are exactly what they appear to be - specialist formats that those who know about them properly will find a use for, wheras those who don't know about them would find no reason to use them anyway. It's unfair to just say that everyone should avoid them - just treat them like heavy machinery. Except you can listen to music drunk. Operating a crane under the influence would probably be a bad idea.
Steven Lynch
Posted 14th September 2007 at 9:13pm by M1ke, tagged as Music | Commenting Closed
I posted a Lynch video just before my blog died, and in the intervening time I've made the effort to search and compile pretty much every video of him live (except for the radio apperances) and stick it in a YouTube playlist. What this should mean is that I can embed a flash thing that will just allow you to watch them all, without playing them through YouTube itself (which seems to stop cycling the playlist after 5 videos).
Old Music vs New Music: Why It's Stupid
Posted 11th September 2007 at 11:29pm by M1ke, tagged as Music | Commenting Closed
In any group of friends there are likely to be differences in music taste, but none is more apparent than the split between those who prefer new music and those who prefer old music. The new music crowd is generally into the live scene, will describe bands with just one album as "legends" and have no idea that not all their songs are original genius. The old music fans will generally refer to their favourite bands as "classic", dislike anything from the past 10/20 years and maintain that all new music copies the old stuff. Both of these camps are full of fools.
The simple fact is that music, like most things related to our favourite squishy ape descendants, is progressive. If there's one thing we are good at it's trying to get as far from the ape ancestors as possible (though watching Big Brother...) and we do that through learning from successes as well as mistakes. However amongst people with opinions, learning from successes is often incorectly views as plagiarism. The simple point is that nothing we do is original, and no matter who you claim to have "started" something there will be someone behind them waving grumpily. However that doesn't mean that influences should be forgotten just because they are essential - anyone who thinks that Oasis forged ahead on their own are mistaken and deserve to be force-fed half the bands from the 1960s, 70s and 80s. What that doesn't mean is that we have to like the precursors to our favourite bands. Whilst we may be partial to some Foo Fighters it doesn't mean we must praise Nirvana. At the same time anyone who ever complains about new music copying old music should be made to sit through a few days worth of baroque music, or go watch as Chuck Berry and Elvis stole the blues from the American black community.
Music is music and everything draws influence from everything else. If you wish to hear originality, breed yourself a kid, stick them in a house without a computer, radios or a television and give them a guitar. Maybe you'll get lucky and hear something new, but there's more chance they'll just come up with the Status Quo chord progression and be done with it.