unholy substitutes for muzak: #1&2 (my local) pret and (my local) somerfield
ok my local pret — the one in angel — generally plays reasonably demanding jazz (ie hard bop mostly not “smooth”): this seems to me quite a daring move, given that (surely?) more ppl willingly dislike jazz than like it? (at least to me hard bop always seems like a music most people don’t listen to in a background-y don’t-mind-either-way kind of a way?)
as for somerfield: before xmas i found i was strangely heartened that they were playing “best of elton john” (the “future of rock’n'roll” ©j.lennon c.1970?) on endless loop — i don’t know why i wz pleased, it just suited my mood always to be surprised at this… however today it was “once in an lifetime” from tolkien and his headzes’ remains and lights LP, which surely means simon reynolds’s work is done here!
pˆnk s lord sükråt cunctør in FT • Pop • 461 views
Still doesn’t beat Chippy’s in Toronto…the Sunday we went there they were playing “I Wanna Be Your Dog” followed by the entire Lullabye Arkestra album which I bought about half an hour later.
Britain needs GIMME AVANT-INDIE ROCK chip shops NOW!!
what type of shop is chippy’s? (obv in certain brit emporia the choice of music is very much “LOCAL SHOP FOR LOCAL PPL plz to NOT BROWSE IF YOU HATE MY TASTES”)
Er, it’s a chippie. I was surprised to find any in Toronto but I’m not complaining.
Before Sam Smiths instituted its no music policy I enjoyed a pint or three one afternoon in the Blue Posts to the accompaniment of all of Tago Mago.
Thus was Tom’s early attempt at Wyatting (Czukaying?) nipped in the bud.
Oh, I was in Debenhams just before Christmas, the strains of “Forever Changes” came over, thought I was imagining the tune, but no.
Not especially left-field, but unexpected all the same.
ts: wyatting vs browsing a chippie
The last time that I was in Debenhams in Staines they played ‘Not So Manic Now’ by Dubstar twice within the space of one hour.
dubstar i hear a lot*! = hipster muzak i fear (the real full-on bingo here wd be young marble giants TESTCARD EP)
*well at least twice but i forget where
I have encountered that Dubstar track recently ‘in the wild’ too – wonder if it was on a comp album or soundtrack recently.
A few years ago I used to hear a lot of Radio KwikSave, which seemed to consist of about 100 songs and Value Alert!s, played at random – that always seemed to feature ‘Jump To The Beat’ by Stacey Lattisaw, ‘Big Love’ by Fleetwood Mac and… ‘Elevator Song’ by Dubstar!
Indelible memory of a fast food in Bologna c1989, finding something oddly familiar about the music and then thinking “hang on, that’s Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds”…
I was surprised to hear the whole of Joe Jackson’s “Look Sharp!” LP played while I was eating a hot dog in Hot Doug’s in Chicago a couple of months ago. OK, OK, two hot dogs. And a big pile of fries.
I was even more surprised to realise that I know the whole LP really well, despite not having knowlingly listened to it these twenty years.
Stats suggest that Joe Jackson is one of those rare acts who was equally successful both sides of the Atlantic. I wonder whether he is, however, more fondly remembered over there.
I think the American’s like him as the only sane member of the Jackson family.
That is a terrible slur on poor Leon.
Bizzariest music in a shop choice = the whole of Bowie’s Jungle rec while browsing at Waterstone’s in Charing X (a few weeks after my ILM thread on it) (I still haven’t heard it)
there are several axes of variation here aren’t there?
i: mood-music lifestyle-as-branding
(hard bop = “a latte and a hot duck hoisin wrap”)
ii: music to make the punter a happy and eager shopper
(elton john = “mmm let’s splash out and buy ‘fresh baked’ croissants as well as binbags and Sunny D”)
iii: music bcz i am boss in these four small walls and you peons can suck it up
(merzbow = “i only sell my comics to THOSE WHO RESPECT MY BRAIN/UNDERSTAND MY PAIN”)
any others?
ie:
i. narrowcasting
ii. broadcasting
iii. anticasting
[oops repeat post of the above]
iii isn’t ‘anticasting’ at all, the 50 or so people that find their way to the four small walls are going to like that stuff in the first place.
Anticasting would be playing Merzbow in a shopping centre or bouncing pop in the four small wall box.
well i’m making a distinction between “small attractor” (music of elite elective affinities: we the lovely club of the discerning) and “even smaller repellent” (music of elite disaffective self-loathing: my great soul vs the HATEFUL PUNY HUMANS)* — so yes maybe merzbow is not a fair example here (esp.in a world where i would argue that metal machine music is oh so shiny pretty-pretty pop!)
er howabout:
iii: g.g.allin :D
*yes of course this shop exists (or used to) — it was a small airfix models and wargaming miniatures shop on castle gates in shrewsbury in the 60s and 70s, tho instead of the music i’m suggesting the shop-owner relied on a BALEFUL GLARE
Derek B reckoned they should play free improv over the tannoys at railway stations to pass the time while people are waiting for trains since it would be a new ingredient in the environment rather than just being reminded of something they already knew.
then everyone would miss their trains bcz they’d be dawdlin to see how it ended!
DB: “you’re talking about applying endgames to something which to me has no end.”
Thus no one moves, country stops, compulsory restructuring of society etc. DO YOU SEE HIS CUNNING PLAN?
I used to always bring a portable music player when I went shopping at our cavernous locally-owned 24-hour grocery store, but then I realized I was missing out on a lot of soft-rockin’ hits of the 1970s. Now I’m free and easy, and I look less of a jerk, and all I have to do is soldier my way through a lot of James Taylor and Dan Fogleberg.
On the other hand, our local Whole Foods has great mixtapes. Reggae Day is always the best day to shop; they have a song on there for which I’ve been searching for years, but I can’t figure out which employee to ask for a tracklist. I’ve been hoping it’s Cute Hippie Girl, but then I get afraid that it’s Bite-Sized Smirky Manager Boy and I lose my nerve.
The oddest music I heard in a shop was when I was in Matalan (a cheap clothing store in the UK) a few years back and they played a wonderful song I’d not heard before, so I noted down the lyrics and asked the good folks of ILM what it was. Turned out to be “Lady day and John Coltrane” by Gil Scott-Heron – very unexpected and rather cool, and not at all what I expected to hear in Matalan.