Paul Haine | Tales from the city
Music & stage
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Snap, crackle and pop
I was in a pub the other day that had a record player behind the bar. On it was playing an old Ella Fitzgerald album, and it had all the hissing, bass and crackle on it that vinyl aficionados harp on about. It was nice. It lacked the pristine sound quality of digital music; its analogue nature told a story.
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Why BBC 6 Music matters
BBC Director General Mark Thompson has recommended to the BBC Trust that digital radio station 6 Music be closed down. As someone who has religiously tuned into this station since it first started broadcasting a decade ago, I’m a bit upset by this.
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I went to the theatre
Recently I wrote about how the theatre was this odd, unfamiliar world, so full of strange terminology and mad prices that it left me cold and confused. In the name of investigative journalism I decided I should at least give it a go before writing it off. I ponyed up the extortionate ticket price for a front-row seat at Breakfast at Tiffany’s and off I went.
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I don’t know how to go to the theatre
Going to the theatre isn’t something I’ve ever done in any major way. I think the last time I went to the theatre was to see Blues Brothers: The Musical six or seven years ago and I ended up walking out during the interval as my spider-sense had picked up on the audience participation that was due in the second half.
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Death of an iPod
Three years ago when I bought my first iPod, the message printed across the screen-protecting film simply read “enjoy”. Now, on iPod number two, the message reads “don’t steal music”. It is, I suppose, a sign of the times.
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Cost and Effect
It has been an exciting week; not only did Nintendo finally release the launch details for the Ww…for the Wwww… for their new console, but Apple also updated each of their iPod lines and also revealed a new iTunes and something that is hilariously codenamed as ‘iTV‘. How will my wallet fare after all of this? Let’s find out!
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The Decemberists
My feelings on The Decemberists have changed over time. I used to associate them with the sort of American teenage hipster crowd, all drinking skinny milky lattés in Starbucks and nibbling at giant muffins and enthusing over MySpace and wearing stripy socks and owning iBooks. That hasn’t changed. What has changed is that I’ve grown to really like the band, so much so that I went to see them at the Zodiac last night.
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Hello Mojo II
Although it may be a little too early to call, I’m willing to bet that the song that will have annoyed me the most during 2006 will be Crazy by Gnarls Barkley. It’s not a bad song, by no means, but Christ, it’s everywhere, and infuriatingly catchy. So, I won’t be mentioning it here, of that you can be sure.
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Hello Mojo
Once upon a time, I had an idea for a music website, which had to be put on hold due to the sudden arrival of some employment, annoyingly. That website is still in a state of non-existance, to the extent that I’ve even now lost the domain name, so until that Lottery win comes along, an occasional collection of music snippets will appear roughly here.
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iTunes Revisited
Back in July, 2004, I had my first iTunes Music Store experience, and it was mostly negative. The tempestuous youth that I was, I vowed never to buy from there again. Obviously, that’s not how things have turned out, because I discovered that it had two uses for me. One use was allowing me to quickly grab loud and fast single tracks for use at the gym, and the other was saving me a fortune on entire albums, by putting me off buying them.
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Louis XIV
It’s been a while since I wrote about an album. In fact, a look at my archives reveals that the last one was The Beautiful South’s Golddiggers, Headnodders and Pholk Songs, and that was back in — Christ! — March. It’s time, I think, to get back into the swing of things, and what better way to do so than with a bit of glam rock?
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Mercury Prize, 2005
What I like most about the Mercury Prize is that there’s something there for everyone. The 2005 nominees were Antony and the Johnsons, Bloc Party, Coldplay, The Go! Team, Hard-Fi, Kaiser Chiefs, KT Tunstall, The Magic Numbers, Maximo Park, MIA, Polar Bear and Seth Lakeman. If this was the beginning of somebody’s first ever record collection I’d say it was a pretty respectable beginning, though I’d have to take them aside at one point to explain to them — perhaps with diagrams — exactly why they should have stopped liking Coldplay after their second album.
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A Musical Baton
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The Beautiful South
There comes a point in any long-running band’s career when they make an album of cover songs. There can be a number of reasons; perhaps they’re contractually obliged to release something before they can get out of their contract, or perhaps they’ve reached some sort of creative plateau and just want to get something out to remind their fans that they still exist. In the case of The Beautiful South I think that the reason is ‘for a bit of a laugh’.
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The Brits, 2005
Ah, The Brit Awards. Once a year, we can all gather around the campfire and exchange bewildered and incredulous looks at one another as the results come in. Join me, if you will, for a staggered and stunned look at what terrible, terrible wrongs have been wrought.
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Minnie Driver
When you tell people you’re going to a gig, they tend to ask you who you’re seeing. The usual reaction I get when I tell them is a blank stare, or perhaps a confused “who?” as the bands I like — The Raveonettes, Aqualung, The Polyphonic Spree — don’t often register in the collective mind of the general public.
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Copy Protection
This news doesn’t appear to have been made particularly public — or perhaps I just missed the whole thing. Various sources (Mojo magazine, and Digital Media Europe among others) have reported that Sony and Phillips have dropped the much-maligned “copy-protection” systems from their CDs. I have serious doubts that these limp, easy-to-get-around systems ever did anything more than annoy legitimate users, and I don’t believe they ever had the slightest effect on piracy as generally you could get around the protection by just not allowing the CD to autplay, so this is good news.
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John Peel Night on Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 will pay tribute to the late John Peel through a night of live music to be broadcast on Thursday 16th December from 7pm.
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Band Aid 20
Take an existing, terrible Christmas song. Admittedly, having the words ‘Terrible’ and ‘Christmas song’ in the same sentence is a bit redundant, but you see where I’m going with this.
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Devendra Banhart
Not all music can be listened to at any time, or in any place. For example, you can’t listen to Dodgy unless it’s the summer, you can’t listen to Radiohead when you’re in love, and you can’t listen to Snow Patrol unless the Valium has kicked in.
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