Jemblog

I like Jem

For ages I've been slightly miffed that someone has had the fucking liberty to appropriate my well earned moniker and sell it on to americans and everything attached to some very diluted singer songwriter pop. Couldn't Jem have turned out to be truly outrageous in real life too ?  As is the way though I'd just heard of her. I'd not actually heard her. But that wasn't to last was it. And there she was. Floating about on a tropical Hawiiaan beach singing this bit of froth. Well who can blame the poor lass ? I love this single. Its ludicrously out of time of course summoning up the cliff/elvis travelogues of the sixties, and with a swirly pop sound summoning up nothing more challenging than the lovely Emma Bunton. And whats wrong with that. Wish i will get to about No.8 in the top ten and the album will creep back into the upper reaches of the charts in time for christmas. I've always liked a happy story.

Guilty Pleasures

Ok when I'm down the pub and Dale or George or Richard say what you listening to then of course i drone on about  Bill Fay, Saturday Looks good to me, Tales from Turnpike House, Maria Taylor and anything that seems to turn up on Tangents or Spolit Victorian Child. and loads of others.

But, of course I'm actually listening to these. A lot.

1. 1. Nine to Five -Ordinary Boys feat Lady Sovereign

I saw this first on MTV2 and only looked up as the video seemed to have been filmed in Super 8 and was inevitably set on Brighton beach, underneath the West Pier. The 'normal' version with 19 year old Lady S is a no no and its only the boys Bad Manners skapop version thats worth trying out. A great rip off of some Ghost Town high pitched la la las and the obligatory nice button down shirts. As 9-5 goes then better than Sheena Easton but not as good as Dolly Parton.

2. Fix You - Coldplay

I'm so very very very sorry. But I love this.

3. The Importance of Being Idle - Oasis
Oh dear. Oh dear. But I love this too. I'm a sucker for a falsetto which also explains

4. This town ain't big enough for the both of us - British Whale.

A terrible terrible cover version of the 1975 Sparks No.1. But the Pinky and Perky nonsense of lead singer Justin Darkness is good enough for me. Steve Wright loves this record. How low can i sink ?

5.One Word - Kelly Osborne

Pastiches of Visage in 2005. Kelly's no fool. Glorious Propaganda fuelled pop in admirable attempt to distance herself from the disastrous avril lavigne rawk of the first album. A triumph. and i even have a sneaky preference for that Bad Day one too.

After all that. I feel terrible. I'm going out to buy the news that new Lucksmiths album and Decemberists albums to make amends for these outpourings.

C86, Folksonomies and Information Architecture

C86. I can't stop myself. The wonderful Tangents website is run by the very fine Alistair Fitchett who on his blog the other day, published some honest answers to a questionnaire about the C86 "movement" for a Swedish guy who is doing a thesis on Bogshed or something. Sensibly enough both Alistair and Everett True (who also filled it in) were circumspect about categorising music from this period in this way, arguing that the labelling was inaccurrate in most cases and that, in the end it was just a marketing exercise by NME. I then posted a rather pompous comment to the post arguing that C86 (like "queer" presumably) had been reclaimed by the kids as a bottom up term and was now being used to help people sell stuff on eBay. I'm not certain what C86 has to do with folksonomies as it turns out (as George was quick to remind me). Too much time on Flickr has frazzled my brain. However, it is true that for some reason C86 is the term of choice to shift any of this old nonsense on eBay at the moment being attached to currently 128 items by not just the Shop Assistants, Mighty Lemon Drops and the like but (ropey) old singles by Revolving Paint Dream, Ride, Slowdive and even SWPopsters; The Redskins.
It could be worse. My mate's band the other day were dubbed, of all things; mumblecore, by the bloomin NME. Can't see theses on that in Swedish Universities in 2016.