Imagine you’re a cock-rocker. You’ve got the crazy hair, the pout, and most importantly the legs to pull off those sewn-on faux snakeskin trousers. You’ve nailed that look, FUCKING NAILED IT.
However, you find yourself in a difficult situation. You’re passe – a one-trick pony taken out to pasture – and what’s more, by a chunky-looking farmer with one cartridge in his shotgun and a determined look on his face. Your one-hit-and-run-wonder has long been locked away, and possibly executed for Crimes Against Music.
What now? Where’s that market ?-That niche in the musical echelons with your name wedged in it?
I’d rather listen to human nails being dragged down a blackboard on a loop than an entire album of Tom ‘Squarepusher’ Jenkinson’s slap bass improvisations, but guess which one Warp Records has decided to release? I’ll give you a clue. It’s not Nails Down the Blackboard: Volume One. Instead, Tom’s ‘excursions as a solo bass virtuoso’ are being immortalised on the forthcoming album, ‘Solo Electric Bass 1′*.
If ever you wanted proof of the pernicious effect of London on the cultural life of the nation, Jack Penate is it. In any other town in the country, Penate would be condemned to a life of spirit crushing toilet venue anonymity until he finally jacked it in and got a job in a call centre instead.
A recent Guardian article drew the attention to this.
A comprehensive guide to the Britpop years. Hey, everybody! Remember ‘Britpop’? Crap, wasn’t it?
“Well, that depends”, you may respond, “on whether you construct a picture of an era from various sell-through compilations and poorly-recalled media events or whether you maintain a vivid, quasi-synesthetic recollection of the era in your own imagination.”
