Corporate rock sucks #12: It wasn’t supposed to happen so quickly…

Posted on June 5th, 2007 by Andy

Less than a week ago I whined about the very lovely last.fm becoming a media corporations trendy new lapdog rather than trying to go it alone and expressed just how unlikely it was that I’d be prepared to shell out money to them. This morning my blue icon had gone grey and my last.fm page was sprinkled with ads and I was unable to snoop on who’d been viewing my profile. As of today I’m no longer a “subscriber”, I’m just a “user”. I was looking forward to coming to terms with last.fm’s decision - having time to ponder what they had done before I had to make the “do I stump up the cash” decision.

When I first paid money to last.fm/audioscrobbler I was unaware of the perks (maybe there weren’t any) and the site was unreliable and the charts were infrequently updated, but I LOVED the concept and was happy to give up my money because when it worked it was beautiful, clever, useful and (for the stats obsessed) a hours of fun.

Last week they got $280 million - I think they can live without my 18 quid.

Posted in corporate rock sucks, idle nonsense, last.fm | 3 Comments »

66 Love songs (or grrr Windows Media Player)

Posted on June 4th, 2007 by Andy

I listened to the whole of 69 Love Songs last week - although Windows Media Player just doesn’t want to scrobble the first track of any album I listen too…

Thanks for the offer David - but this one is a keeper

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Sparklehorse + The Dead Texan

Posted on June 4th, 2007 by Andy

I’m sort of embarrassed that, until last night I hadn’t seen a Sparklehorse show. I’ve been a fan pretty much from my first listen of Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot over 10 years ago but for some reason just never got around to seeing them live. I saw Mark play a short but excellent set at Howe Gelb’s Upside Down Home show at the Barbican back in 2001 but apart from that it’s been a sorry state of affairs.

So last night I fixed that. moley75 cried off so I went on my own (so many gigs on my own lately, it really is quite sad). Support act were The Dead Texan (who is Adam Wiltzie of Stars of the Lid and video artist/musician Christina Vantzou) they played an excellent set of gentle electronic and analog drone in front of a screen displaying Christina’s animations.

Sparklehorse for the evening were actually The Dead Texan (noise and animations) with Mark Linkous (some of the noise and all of the beautiful songs). The setlist was superb - it could have been hand picked for me…(in no particular order except how they’re coming into my head right now)…Saturday, Homecoming Queen, Painbirds, Weird Sisters, Heart of Darkness, Gasoline Horseys, Sea of Teeth, Saint Mary, Hundreds of Sparrows, Spirit Ditch, Babies on the Sun

- oh and more…and all of it was just perfect.

I really ought to have made the effort sooner…

Downside 1: Forgot my camera which was a shame because I’d have loved a pic of those boots Mark was wearing.

Downside 2: The ridiculously rude staff/security - and why can’t I buy a plastic bottle of water (£1.95!) and get to keep the lid of the bottle - what sort of security issue does a blue plastic lid pose???

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Corporate rock sucks #11: Last.fm succumbs to the desire to be a small fish in a big pond…

Posted on May 30th, 2007 by Andy

Once again it’s sad to be reminded that the Internet is nothing but a bunch of sharks cirlcing every promising start-up with a desire to “buying credibility” rather than establishing it. Last.fm have now succumbed to the desire to be a part of something bigger rather than carrying on being something special and unique in their own right. Like the lovely Flickr before them (and countless other websites I don’t love as much) they have snapped up that lovely big cheque that was waved in front of them and suddenly, rather than having the feel of a community owned (spiritually if not financially) website it is now nothing more than a marketing arm of a corporation.

I was happy to regularly donate to last.fm but I suspect I won’t be stumping up cash to CBS and you know what, I’m not sure they’d care because they don’t care about the user - they care about the money they can make and 20 quid a year (or whatever) from me is not where the money in last.fm is to be made. That money will be made by selling chart data, and demographic data, and listening behaviour, and the myriad of other ways of exploiting what the last.fm community has built.

Shame on you last.fm, or maybe just shame on me becaues I believed (just like I believed with Flickr before you) that you were maybe different.

I have to admit that I do still stump up cash to Yahoo for Flickr and maybe, like Flickr, they may be able to cling onto the part of them that does make them unique - but I shan’t love them the way I used to…just like I don’t love Flickr any more…

It seems a shame that I seem to write one of these posts every few months.

Posted in Music, corporate rock sucks, idle nonsense, last.fm | No Comments »

Just dug this one out… #5

Posted on May 25th, 2007 by Andy

Flare - Bottom

I’m not sure how I came across Flare, I suspect it was on the Low or Galaxie 500 mailing list many, many years ago. But having heard a little I rushed out and bought pretty much all that was available at that point which was this, their debut album, Circa an EP, and a couple of 7" singles. Everything was superb but Bottom was just so beautiful (there should be some words telling you just how beautiful but I couldn’t think of anything worthy enough).

And then, like so many albums in my collection it sort of got lost in the filing and drifted out of my consciousness…I quite enjoyed last years LD & The New Criticism album which inspired me to revisit Flare and then this morning I grabbed a pile of CDs from the ‘f’ section and I just fell in love with Bottom all over again…

Confession time…

Despite my love of this, and my appreciation of the various and varied works of Stephin Merritt I have never owned 69 Love Songs. I did order it once but something (I can’t remember what) went wrong and it never arrived…and I just never got around to following up on it. Maybe because by that time it was getting so highly praised that the snob in me felt the need to resist.

So I was never able to fully appreciate davidjennings’s wiki dedicated to the album (I wanted to call it a love-wiki but it didn’t sound as hilariously witty when I read it back to myself) and I’d sort of mumble incoherently and try not to give the game away whenever it got mentioned.

I’ve listened to The Magnetic Fields Get Lost this week as well as Flare so I was inspired to fill this hole in my collection this afternoon.

Posted in Music, just dug this one out, last.fm | No Comments »

My Top 6…last.fm rolling three months chart

Posted on May 18th, 2007 by Andy

I’m too tired and old to think of a clever My Top 6…so here’s a dull one instead…

1. Low
   I’m actually a little surprised to see Low up here…I know I listen to them a lot and they have released a very good new album recently (Drums And Guns) out which certainly would have bumped them up my chart - but not to No.1 - I suspected that place was destined for…
2. Joanna Newsom
   I suspect that the only reason Joanna is at No.2 is because the amazing Ys only has the five tracks on it. If last.fm did charts based on the amount of time I’d listened to an artist Joanna would be miles and miles ahead of the rest of the pack.
3. Galaxie 500
   No surprise here - I listen to a Galaxie 500 album at least once a week - not through any sort of religious requirement but just sometimes I look at my library and can’t help myself.
4. Britta Phillips & Dean Wareham
   When L’Avventura came out I loved it to pieces and it didn’t bother me that it was so different from what Dean was doing with Luna because I knew there’s be another Luna album. Things are different now, I do love Back Numbers but maybe not as much because I miss Luna and the music Dean & Britta are making is such a long way from Luna (and even further away from Galaxie 500). Still I’ve been listening to it a lot which I guess proves that I’m perhaps not that bothered. (Luna would be in this list if it was titled my top 7
5. Stereolab
   Stereolab have a huge and rich back catalogue, and while I’m not the biggest fan of their recent releases it doesn’t stop me from periodically having Stereolab days which normally feature a couple of the albums I love mixed up with one that I’m not that keen on in an attempt to try and come to terms with a band I love a lot making music that I don’t love that much…they’re in My Top 6 this time because I’ve obviously had a few days like that this time around.
6. Espers
   Another surprise but I guess they may be becoming a band, like Stereolab, Low and Galaxie 500 that I just dip when nothing else taes my fancy because they suit almost any mood…

One thing that occurred to me as I rattled this out is just how much I still listen to albums. moley75 often mentions how she listens to her music on random, and a coupe of other friends have mentioned similar behaviour. I almost always listen to complete albums. Maybe my next step into the brave new world should be to try and take my music out of the context in which it was (for the most part) created.

Obviously this is kind of nonsense having been a great fan of the mix tape in the past so maybe it’s less about the album and more about not wanting to deal with randomness…

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Seefeel

Posted on May 14th, 2007 by Andy

I just noticed that Seefeel’s very excellent Quique is getting a luxury release with an extra disc of rarities which inspired me to dig out my Seefeel discs which I haven’t listened to for far too long…

I’ll probably download the bonus disc (if it gets a digital release) because I’ve decided that buying music I already own is a silly thing to do and I won’t do it any more!

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A Hawk and a Hacksaw @ The Bush Hall

Posted on May 14th, 2007 by Andy

It pissed with rain on my cycle in to see A Hawk and a Hacksaw at the Bush Hall, I arrived late and drenched. The venue was ridiculously hot which scuppered any chance of me drying out but just made me wetter…I missed all but the last few minutes of Jack Rose, which might have been a shame except that the talking in the hall pretty much drowned out that last couple of minutes so had I seen more I would have just got grumpier!

20 minutes into A Hawk and a Hacksaw (playing with with the Hun Hangar Ensemble) I was just about ready to go home. I’d written this post in my head, whinging about how I didn’t feel involved, how the music I generally love is something that takes me out of the crowd and leaves me (when it works) alone even in the biggest of venues and A Hawk and a Hacksaw were very much about being a part of something.

I went to the bar, got a pint of fizzy water, cooled down a little and went back in and watched. It was getting better, but I suspected that was the water and the cooling down that made me feel like that. They then went off for a ten minute break to "get some wine" and I moved forward into the spaces created by all the folk heading off to the bar of the lavs.

When the band returned, it all changed. Maybe it was being closer forced me to be a part of the event, or maybe it did just get better. But it did get better and better and by the time they left the stage at the end of the show I wanted them back for more as much as anyone in the place.

The rain had stopped when I left and as I unlocked my bike outside, someone walked past and described the show as a "Hungarian cockney knees up" which may have been disparaging or may have been affectionate but may also have been spot on…but probably not. I think I do still prefer to love my music on my own but it reminded me of how I could enjoy being a part of something fun (like all those The Pogues gigs of years gone by).

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Is vanity the driving force behind last.fm?

Posted on May 14th, 2007 by Andy

Ugh! I just noticed that Macho Man by Village People has been in my recently played tracks list on last.fm for more than 24 hours - I won’t bother trying to explain how it got there, although it just might have something to do with this. But it highlights one of the dangers of last.fm in that I can’t help but be aware of what I’m listening to and how it might colour other peoples perception of me. Of course it’s just vanity, nobody really cares that much - but then is vanity the driving force behind last.fm?

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Can you hear that sweet sweet sound…

Posted on May 9th, 2007 by Andy

–:–
(see more of my pictures from the show on flickr)

I love Low - I guess there’s a clue in my last.fm charts with only Galaxie 500 and Luna being above them (and suspect Luna will be overtaken in the not too distant future // nothing will ever overtake Galaxie 500!).

There was a time when I cooled - I wasn’t a big fan of Trust and even less of a fan of The Great Destroyer - but I kept buying the albums and kept going to see them and I don’t ever remember being too disappointed - well maybe when I last saw them at The Shepherds Bush Empire back in not sure when…long time ago…it was the first time I’d seen Low in a big venue and it seemed really wrong…but I got over that.

Last night’s gig at The Shepherds Bush Empire reminded me just how much I do love them. The new album, Drums And Guns is, by my reckoning a major return to form and it sounded fantastic live and even the tracks they played off the albums I was cool on sounded great (although if I was cool on the album Trust I was never cool on (That’s How You Sing) Amazing Grace, it ranks up there among Low’s very best).

So I love the new album and I’m happy to declare that I probably do love the albums I thought I didn’t love but the real highlights for me were the older tracks. Over the Ocean was gorgeous, Two Step turns my knees to jelly when Mimi starts singing and those are the two tracks that I’ll hear when I close my eyes and think about this show…

I love Low, I love them live, and now that I can be comfortable with their popularity (and their religion) I can just sit back and enjoy being in love with Low.

A bit of video of Over The Ocean from last night…

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