There’s a couple of new things at Tangents – an article on grammar pedants, and an interview with Fosca which admits from the outset it’s not that interesting, and I have to agree. But there’s also a front-page piece by Alastair talking charmingly about yet another in his endless series of lost 80s indie bands, so go and read that at least.
More links to the usual people: April flouts indie pop orthodoxy by admitting that she ‘doesn’t get’ Stephin Merritt. HOW DARE SHE!. Oh, Okay, quite easily then. I can see where she’s coming from on the voice, though frankly the deeper he gets the more tingly I feel. As for the songs, I admire their simplicity and also the way he’s actively trying to write ‘standards’, rather than writing from a more personal point of view. Though this, and his ‘cleverness’ is what puts a lot of people off, maybe her too.
Meanwhile, NYLPM regular Robin Carmody has written a long piece on analogue pioneers the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. What’s important about the Workshop is the way they worked experimental and avant-garde sonic ideas into the everyday life of Britain in ways that dwarf the achievements of experimental popularisers both high and low, in the same way as Hollywood film scores introduced modernist musical tropes into cinemas worldwide. None of which made any difference to the fate of modernist and experimental music in performance, but why should the fate of music rest on performance, anyway?
If you want my take on the Ronan Keating single, you can read it at Steal This Blog. And finally, Happy Birthday Kathleen!. Have a great one.