Tag Archives: musicians
When I think about kids watching a TV show like American Idol or The Voice, then they think, ‘Oh, OK, that’s how you become a musician, you stand in line for eight fucking hours with 800 people at a convention center and… then you sing your heart out for someone and then they tell you it’s not fuckin’ good enough.’ Can you imagine? It’s destroying the next generation of musicians.
Musicians should go to a yard sale and buy an old fucking drum set and get in their garage and just suck. And get their friends to come in and they’ll suck, too. And then they’ll fucking start playing and they’ll have the best time they’ve ever had in their lives and then all of a sudden they’ll become Nirvana. Because that’s exactly what happened with Nirvana. Just a bunch of guys that had some shitty old instruments and they got together and started playing some noisy-ass shit, and they became the biggest band in the world.
That can happen again. You don’t need a fucking computer or the internet or The Voice or American Idol.
Happy Friday, peeps. Did you notice it hailed yesterday? Nice job, spring, you’re really living up to your name so far.
Anyway, I’ll be heading to my first horse race this weekend to write an article about this first time experience for a national mag, so I’m pretty excited about that. I am doing my best not to re-read Hunter S. Thompson’s The Kentucky Derby Is Decadent and Depraved until after I’ve finished the piece.
Now for the links:
- VICE interviews the guy who’s Slagging Off The Canadian Music Industry The obsession with Paul’s honesty continues to grow, and I love watching it unfold.
- An Open Letter to Paul Lawton (the man behind the “SLAGGING OFF” blog). Dan Mangan wrote a strong letter to him mostly because that VICE chick randomly said he sucked (and I adore what he wrote about VICE in return), and in it he eloquently took on the issues with Paul’s Factor post I mentioned last week. Dan’s on a role here, but Paul responded on his blog and that’s definitely also worth a read. Both these guys are incredibly smart.
- Morrissey Praises Margaret Thatcher in Reverent Statement — Just Kidding!. I really dislike Morrissey, but I definitely understand his feelings about Thatcher’s death.
- Thatcher’s Detractors Came From All Classes.
- How to Become a SoundCloud Superstar, One Fake Fan at a Time.
- Get Your Friends To Fund Your Life. If you’ve been considering doing a Kickstarter or something to crowd fund your art, this is well worth a read.
- When Employers Ban Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pandora, Spotify. I’m so glad my jobs always require access to these networks.
- US inventor develops an electric guitar that can send EMAILS. Stupidest invention yet?
- The Real Sounds of Hearing Loss. Let this scare you into popping those earplugs in at shows. I notice I am beginning to suffer from the first kind of hearing loss listed there already – when in loud situations where many people are talking I am always saying “WHAT??”. I always have earplugs on me at shows but they are so huge/uncomfortable and I can’t hear anyone talking to me when I have them in so I hate wearing them, and people always seem to comment on them which makes me feel like a lame-o, but I need to get over it. Hearing loss isn’t fixable they way our eyes are.
- Broken Social Scene- “Deathcock” free download! Go get it.
- 10 Music- Inspired Beers. Haha.
- 23 Music Festival Hacks that will make your experience way more fun. Found a few tips I hadn’t thought of that I will put to use at my next camping festival – shower wipes and a portable phone charger. Vital.
- Justice for Rehtaeh: Demand an independent inquiry into the police investigation. Go sign this petition, it’s disgusting that this unfolded the way it did and the police should be ashamed.
- Finally, spend your weekend dancing like this for a guaranteed good time:
How awesome is this?! To celebrate the return of David Bowie, Castle Cover made this incredible interactive timeline which you activate on their website by literally dropping the needle on the record, and it takes you through each period of his career both style wise (as seen above) as well as musically – but only if you are somewhere that has access to Spotify – AKA NOT CANADA! Boo.
But still, it’s awesome to go through even without the music sync. It is a detailed and fascinating look into one of the most creative and diverse music careers in human history. Just looking at the way he changed his personas over time and influenced fashion is mind blowing enough on its own.
What was your favourite Bowie period? I have to be boring and go with Ziggy, but Berlin also ruled.
The 50th anniversary of the Beatles debut album, Please Please Me, just passed, and in honour of it, Pop Chart Lab (whose work I’ve featured before) made these incredible prints (click on each image to make it larger) you can buy, that detail who played what on every Beatles song ever released. It’s quite a feat, considering how complex their instrumentation became as the years went on.
I think Volume III is my favourite, both for the songs featured and their look during that period.
The urge to express myself was my strongest desire, and my siblings were my first eager coconspirators in the harvesting of my imagination. They listened attentively to my stories, willingly performed in my plays, and fought valiantly in my wars.
With them in my corner, anything seemed possible.
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