Kids these days...

Had a very weird experience at the cash-point last night. I'm waiting in the line when on of the guys in front of me turns around and gives me 'a look'. He's about six foot something, maybe 20 years old, clearly drunk, and points at me then at himself. I brace for impact and ask him 'what?' in a nice, calm tone as he's just still looking.

He points at me again, "Skrillex" he says and I realise his pointing at my t-shirt. He points at his own t-shirt and says "Led Zeppelin". "Best band ever, way better than anything he's ever done" he says, and then walks off with a smug look of aggression on his face.

And I'm just standing there, happy that nothing kicked off and trying to understand what happened. I'm wearing the t-shirt of, arguably, the biggest name in music of his generation and he's spouting the virtues of a band that were, arguably, the biggest name in music of my dads generation. Kids these days, they just don't know they weren't born then.

5 Rules of Popular Music

1 - The current charts will always be filled with crap but in 10 years it will have been the "Golden Age".

2 - Every good band will "change the face of music" by doing exactly what all the previous good bands have done before.

3 - The new thing you love will never become the "next big thing" whilst that thing you heard but didn't think was that awesome will "conquer the world".

4 - There is no such thing as retro, there are only bands you haven't heard of yet & won't get to in the next couple of years.

5 - The day you stop checking out new acts is the day you stop being into music.

The Secret History of Rock'n'Roll - Christopher Knowles

Christopher Knowles has a theory: that the various forms & traditions of rock music can draw their heritage, aesthetics, and concepts back to the mystery cults of antiquity. After 4,000 years of human existence mankind is rocking out in the same way that the Bacchanalian, Korybante, Isis,Puritan, and Orpheus cults (to name but a few) have been and that distinctions like thrash, punk, glam, or AOR are less useful than the intent & style of the performance. This is a highly intriguing theory that mixes history with anthropology and rocking out. Potentially pure gold, however the execution ranges from never getting beyond intriguing to frustratingly underdeveloped. The first section sets the scene for a fall with a 94 page, amazingly readable, romp through the various mystery cults (secret religious organisations with exclusive memberships & spooky rites) of history. The Jungian archetypes come thick and fast, laying down a template of "nothing new under the sun" and setting the stage for an exploration of modern music. Sadly the second section fails to cash in on the promise as rather than going into any detailed exploration of the premise you get a brief overview of a cult, a quick link to some of the bands from 1960 to 2005 that tie into it and then a potted history of their career. It's far too brief, highly scatter-shot, and under-develops the concept beyond "I have a neat idea". It's not clear as to the reason of this shortfall, as Mr Knowles clear knows his stuff. Maybe it was an over-zealous editor wanting to keep it under a word-count or maybe the net was cast too widely to be able to cover all the potential topics in time. Whatever the reason it just falls short and leaves the reader wanting more. This is not to say that it isn't worth giving it a read as it is honestly enjoyable, just that you'll have to fill in half the content for yourselves.

How to be a Rock DJ

So I've never been able to find a guide to being a rock DJ. All the guides out there focus on dance music, the technicalities of beat-matching and the artistry of live mixing. They are great and informative but it made it look like Rock DJing is easy or somehow invalid as there was nothing on the subject. After 15 years of learning the art of Rock DJing I can say that isn't the case, so I decided to write a guide. It's on wikihow, so anyone else can help improve it (cause I don't even pretend to be the authority on the subject). If you could pass the details of it on to anyone who is either thinking about becoming a rock DJ, or who is a rock Dj and can help add to it, that would be great.

Setlist - 26/08/11

As played at the rather excellent Psycho Candy, possibly the best alternative music club in Cambridge.

9pm - 10pm
So What – The Anti-Nowhere League
People are Garbage – Anal Babes
Die when you Die – GG Allin
Hobbit Motherfuckers – Turbonegro
Electroglide in Blue – Guana Batz
Big Brother Muscle – Screaming Blue Messiahs
Escape Ferocity – Man or Astroman?
Pipeline – Anthrax
Surfin on the Planet Zorch – The Meteors
Let’s Get Fucked Up – The Cramps
Gothic Surf-a-Rama – The Vampire Beach Babes
Gates of Heaven – Batmobile
A Hard-Earned Thirst Needs a Big Cold Beer, But I Drink to Get Pissed – T.I.S.M.
Summer Time – Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince
Steal my Sunshine – Len
Hey Ya – Lorene Drive
Encore/Numb – Jay-Z & Linkin Park
Don’t Trust Me – 3OH!3

12pm - 1am
The Only Living Boy in New Cross – Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine
Kill Your Television – Ned’s Atomic Dustbin
Just a Day – Feeder
Pretend we’re Dead – L7
On a Rope – Rocket From The Crypt
Self-Esteem – The Offspring
DJ DJ – The Transplants
Na Na Na – My Chemical Romance
Feel Good hit of the Summer – Queens Of The Stone Age
Run to the Hills – Iron Maiden
Just Say Words – Paradise Lost
Smart Dressed Man – ZZ Top
Smooth Criminal – Alien Ant Farm
The Power – H-Blockx
Crazy – Mushroomhead
All my Best Friends are Metalheads – Less Than Jake
The Impression That I Get – The Mighty Mighty Bosstones

Three new finds

First up we have The Detroit Cobras, a covers band who do a mean bit of garage rock with that tang of a modern twist. I'm not normally a fan of an all covers band, unless its doing something outragious like the Gimmie Gimmies, but this has so much style to it and anything that can help bring back that proto-punk rock-and-roll-gone-bad sound is fine in my books.


Following that we have a (possibly leaked) track from the upcoming Steel Panther album. As ever the Panther's continue to produce parodies of 80's glam metal that are so close to the bone that you will never be sure if they stole it off a Motley Crue out-take or not. The first listen will have you laughing along at the outrageous posturing audacity, the second will have you singing along as the urge to join in on the joke gets too big to suppress...


And finally we have Stephen "Thundercat" Bruner finally getting around to releasing a solo album in the form of "The Golden Age of Apocalypse". Yes folks, it's final proof that after conquering the world as the bass with the mighty Suicidal Tendencies the only logical next step is to release a near perfect space-jazz / soul-fusion album.

Bad Brains

What happens if you take the energy of Punk, the musicality of fusion-jazz, and spirituality of reggae with just a sprig of soul singing thrown in for good measure? Well the answers is Bad Brains, and they have been ripping things up for the last 24 years whilst influencing bands such as Rage Against The Machine, Red Hot Chili Peppers, and the Deftones. They have also been bringing racial unity/indifference to the hardcore punk scene by being on of the first black bands to play it fast, loud, and aggressive. And, because these guys have a lot on their plate, they also helped put the aggression into rap with H.R., their energetic back-flipping frontman, spitting out lyrics at a velocity that is still barley touched these days.

An important band, to say the least, but the fact that you quite possibly haven't heard of them has more to do with them being almost utterly uncommercial in outlook, and H.R. being utterly bug-house crazy (but then again he encouraged Ian MacKaye to invent Straight Edge and Henry Rollins to become a singer so he can't be all that bad) and quitting the band every 5 minutes. To say they have had a very stop/start approach to their music making is an understatement but 8 albums later and they are still going strong, producing records that continue to be as musically diverse as from the day they started.

Anyway, enough from me. here's something from the band themselves!