More MIA

[Woebot]

i like the video.
the song seems dated though.
like how kasabian sounds like unkle or something from the late 90s.
its odd people are already doing stuff that sounds like that.

i know what you mean about that and the prodigy dance-rock thing that someone mentioned earlier BUT i think they're reaching for something a bit cooler - and truthfully they're nearly (but not quite) there. but close enough for it not to matter. the presence of MIA on this track is the first time i've thought she actually works in a songs favour - cuts against the grain in a meaningful way.

i suppose another *nearly there* thing was the chemical brothers with that 23 skidoo sampling thing. the problem with that, and with a lot of the rock-sampling dance stuff is that it goes for "avin' it" - and it comes over really embarrassing. like the two modes of behavior don't actually match - the dancefloor (or the dancefloor in one's mind) always requires GROOVE first. but there is rock in which groove is key - the best rock imho. the true rock.

kasabian were a band i *nearly* rated actually. nearly quite good. but not hip enough. as for the late unkle - again this was someone who didn't actually understand what rock was - looking at it from the outside, clumsily grasping at certain things without actually realising their synthesis.

before people melt down and accuse me of being a trad git they should (i think) consider that a great proportion of the actual yoof think that Indie Rock is where it's at. and actually it's the whole insectoid "we are modernists" (groan) intellectual dance thing which is the historical throwback. i think the idea of annexing the NME audience is a really exciting one - and i wish mia the best with this one.

 

[woops]

What the hell is the name of the film this video rips off?? 'Freedom park' or something? The early 70s one where hippies are kidnapped, set free in the desert and hunted by the police and army?

Its driving me mad.

Punishment Park!

 

[droid]

Thank you Woops.

 

[zhao]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/jan/24/gingerism-ginger-prejudice

http://www.youtube.com/user/jennywicksrootginger

The girl's interview is very funny.

thanks for the links... i honestly had no idea that this issue was so... serious. or even that it was an issue at all, despite the fact that i've been living with one for over a year now. (i had actually never heard the word Ginger used this way before, who knows why).

GF tells me redheads have the least skin pigment of all, um, genetic types (?) and are the most pale... and the freckles... i think it's lovely. especially with green-ish gray eyes.

 

[mms]

its really bad i had no idea that ginger people were being treated this way, thanks for this documentary mia.

personally i find it horribly embrassing - firstly this kinda po mo idea of cool by association and the daft lyrics literally makes me duck when i hear her tracks and this is most extreme example of it, its the kinda thing the really dumb juves from judge dread would dance too, and that was always a bit embarrasing.

under what circumstances could kasabian be almost good - i think the difference is a kinda noise - for rock to rock it has to revel in a certain amount of noise a kind of sound of excess body hair and sweat, really flaunt it, whilst groove is kinda different too refined for anyone to notice the sweat.

 

[gumdrops]

there was one track on the first kasabian album that sounded like something from the first unkle album. not great, but almost good. everything from them since has been pathetically limp.

 

[Woebot]

under what circumstances could kasabian be almost good - i think the difference is a kinda noise - for rock to rock it has to revel in a certain amount of noise a kind of sound of excess body hair and sweat, really flaunt it, whilst groove is kinda different too refined for anyone to notice the sweat.

oh there was one track i really liked, where they went "uh huuh...uh huuh".

tbh i think your idea of rock "revelling in a certain amount of noise" is the exact pitfall dance people make when they address rock. that idea of rock being about noise was surely birthed in about 1986 (circa the JAMC) just when every rock band forgot the importance of a good rhythm section (and this was reflected in the mixing of tracks too). and its acquired a telelogical significance this idea that it's all about feedback.

so indie bands eternally work this equation sweet harmonies + feedback = rock.

rock was actually 99% about groove. all this semi-silly thing going on between impostume/blissblog right now is very relevant to this. all those boogie rock riffs. feedback was always just the fairy dust on the cake. even something as radically as about feedback as the jimi hendrix experience - truly it's about the rhythm of those noises more than anything else.

 

[Woebot]

actually most of the things that people call electronic music are actually rock.

case in point is kraftwerk. kraftwerk were a rock band.

they played synths yes, but they were a rock band.

 

[mms]

oh there was one track i really liked, where they went "uh huuh...uh huuh".

tbh i think your idea of rock "revelling in a certain amount of noise" is the exact pitfall dance people make when they address rock. that idea of rock being about noise was surely birthed in about 1986 (circa the JAMC) just when every rock band forgot the importance of a good rhythm section (and this was reflected in the mixing of tracks too). and its acquired a telelogical significance this idea that it's all about feedback.

so indie bands eternally work this equation sweet harmonies + feedback = rock.

rock was actually 99% about groove. all this semi-silly thing going on between impostume/blissblog right now is very relevant to this. all those boogie rock riffs. feedback was always just the fairy dust on the cake. even something as radically as about feedback as the jimi hendrix experience - truly it's about the rhythm of those noises more than anything else.

thats not really what i mean, i'm not talking about indie feedback. - i mean riffs and rhythm but it has to come wrapped up in sweat and hair, which constitutes a kinda noise, in that rock n roll sounds like sweat and body hair, to be really rocking its got to have that kinda thing.
soul kinda groove doesn't really have that amount of actual fuzz, it's cleaner, grooves are more pronounced, rock riffs are guitars as machines, iron man, jugganauts and motorbikes, that kinda noise.
i'd entirely forgotten about that indie noise which is at its worse just a boozy fug. yuk

 

[outraygeous]

Doesnt MIA just come along, jack a style.. change it a bit and then the media praise her for being original?

just a question, i dont like her work

 

[petergunn]

before people melt down and accuse me of being a trad git they should (i think) consider that a great proportion of the actual yoof think that Indie Rock is where it's at. and actually it's the whole insectoid "we are modernists" (groan) intellectual dance thing which is the historical throwback. i think the idea of annexing the NME audience is a really exciting one - and i wish mia the best with this one.

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[petergunn]

oh there was one track i really liked, where they went "uh huuh...uh huuh".

tbh i think your idea of rock "revelling in a certain amount of noise" is the exact pitfall dance people make when they address rock. that idea of rock being about noise was surely birthed in about 1986 (circa the JAMC) just when every rock band forgot the importance of a good rhythm section (and this was reflected in the mixing of tracks too). and its acquired a telelogical significance this idea that it's all about feedback.

so indie bands eternally work this equation sweet harmonies + feedback = rock.

rock was actually 99% about groove. all this semi-silly thing going on between impostume/blissblog right now is very relevant to this. all those boogie rock riffs. feedback was always just the fairy dust on the cake. even something as radically as about feedback as the jimi hendrix experience - truly it's about the rhythm of those noises more than anything else.

there is a lot of truth to this... honestly, the majority of my record collection is probably rock when if you count punk and post-punk as rock as well...

the problem with non-rock people getting into rock is they invariably get into the WORST bands and the WORST styles... witness Lil Wayne's "rock" album...

"i like a lilttle rock, you know, like Creed, Stained, and Disturbed? then, when i'm feeling sensitive, i'll throw on a lil Counting Crows or Dashboard Confessional...."

i am not saying that everyone needs to be all record collectory about it, but if every act trying to go "rock" were given copies of the following, things would be better:

Jimi Hendrix- electric ladyland or cry of love
Pil= Metal Box
Rolling Stones- Sticky Fingers or Flowers
Kinks- Something Else
Black Sabbath- We Sold Our Soul for Rock and Roll
Black Flag- First 4 years
VU- White Light/White Heat
Bowie- Greatest Hits

 

[mistersloane]

Doesnt MIA just come along, jack a style.. change it a bit and then the media praise her for being original?

just a question, i dont like her work

That's the point of her though, eh? It's P-Diddy via Berlin/Shoreditch, the idea that you listen to it and think "Oh, I had that idea", "I could sing better than that" etc whilst being sold her vicariousness. It's quite Adam and the Ants really. I really liked Paper Planes. And she's very good live. Best of a bad bunch by a long way.

 

[Martin Dust]

Chrome Plated Platitudes (copyright 1988 Paul 777)

 

[Martin Dust]

Bowie- Greatest Hits

This should be an arrestable offence.

 

[mms]

before people melt down and accuse me of being a trad git they should (i think) consider that a great proportion of the actual yoof think that Indie Rock is where it's at. and actually it's the whole insectoid "we are modernists" (groan) intellectual dance thing which is the historical throwback. i think the idea of annexing the NME audience is a really exciting one - and i wish mia the best with this one.

do you really think that, i dunno nme seem to be indifferent to indie rock right noe, that times passed in a way, whether that means nme sell less copies i dunno, anyway mia's always been down with t'nme , i dunn understand what the we are modernists intellectual dance thing is really what are you gitting at?
yoof want somethng else frm their indie crock, it's not whats in the charts.
when was the last time you saw a big indie rawk band on nme's cover?
turn on yr telly and there is damon albarn and his guys doin it over an eddy grant nick (favrit of levan) pon grandpa's favrit the jools holland showw

now albarns waving a white flag while a syrian orchestra play behind bashy and kano!
oh es lovely, i'm looking forward to his hauntology side project.

 

[mistersloane]

SouthPark way got there first with the Gingers though.

 

[petergunn]

This should be an arrestable offence.

not open up a can of worms, but i guess this relates to MIA, in that, really no artist hopped from sound to sound better than 1970-1982? (whenever Ashes to Ashes and China Girl came out...) bowie... always a poseur w/ zero commitment, yet made great records...

 

[mms]

i dunno it doesn't sound like prodigy or anything, it more or less sounds like a pretty bad mid 90's digital hardcore type thing with a little bit of homework done on 'famous acts who's gigs caused riots'.
and the video is the kinda sensationalist stuff that annoys daily mail readers, like his previous videos the justice one stress which is young black kids from estates going on a violent spree and another french one which is young arabs from estates burning people, really just nihilistic and exploitative, bit like this, well shot aggy stuff.

 

[mms]

i the dancefloor (or the dancefloor in one's mind) always requires GROOVE first. but there is rock in which groove is key - the best rock imho. the true rock.

haha i like the way you and blissblog and your hauntology mates have turned yr blog world into thursday night at the olde english real ale pub lol

i do agree about rock n groove, there was of course that big sacha frere jones thing about indie rock being so white ages ago which seems to relate to this subject a bit, also if you go back to all the old disco guys they'd always play some pretty funky rock pon the floor.
if you go back to the roots of heavy metal etc, something like alice coopers welcome to my nightmare is super funky.