Tuesday, February 5, 2013

To take a break from the Best Of lists...

Mind you, it's not like I've got anything now beyond covering what films jazzed me last year. But, now that I'm back to being a full-time freelance rock journalist with a part-time job, it looks like I'll be blogging like I used to, even in the days of the old MySpace blog. Just to keep my writing chops up - part of my daily routine.

And there's lots to talk about. For one: Reg Presley of The Troggs passed away yesterday in his UK birthplace of Andover, 71 years old, following a battle with cancer. 71...you can't say the guy didn't live a long, full life, outside of producing some of the most Troglodyte riff rock of the '60s and all time with his aptly-named band. I mean, "Wild Thing!" C'mon! Pure, savage, artless art there, man! "With A Girl Like You": The most brutal slow dance track written and recorded. "I Can't Control Myself," a song both Buzzcocks and The Hormones covered. (Might have to revive that arrangement!) "Love Is All Around," a tune The Angry Samoans covered live at one point, reportedly to Mohawked slamdancing youth that'd merely slow the slamming to the song's pace! According to both the obit Reg's hometown newspaper posted (and hyperlinked above with his name at paragraph's beginning) and in John Robb's own obit at Louder Than War, the guy had a lunatic interest in crop circles, and apparently spent much of his makings from The Troggs researching them. That is hilarious! Thanks for producing some of rock 'n' roll's most brutal pre-punk, Reg. Rest in peace, hermano....

Been listening to a stream of Pissed Jeans' newest at Spin magazine's website (which is all that remains of the mag, now that they've ceased doing print editions). The site's prose on it ("The Philadelphian post-hardcore slashers' fourth album, in its sweaty entirety," "Better to piss your jeans than to fade away") reminds me why I fucking hate how Spin progressed from its beginnings - supercilious, self-satisfied, mock-clever know-nothingness is infinitely unattractive. Still, the record's a rockin' bit of post-Damaged sludgecore, furious and propulsive. It can be heard here....

Interesting piece in The Guardian concerning pirate download sites. The title says it all: "Pirate sites are raking in advertising money from some multinationals." Subhead: "Illegal music download sites pocket large sums of ad revenue without investing in the content's development." Basically, the very tool that decimated the music business as we knew it insisted musicians' work, now basically paid for out of their pockets (rather than through record company financing), be made available on the internets for anyone to download without recompensating artists, all in the name of "freedom." Yet the sites are making huge profits off banner ads, frequently from evil multi-nationals, gambling, and dating sites and the like. Sure, the old biz model was a feudal system in many respects. But it at least offered the possibility of trade for work. This reduces creative types to hobbyists, while a handful become wealthy off those artists' sweat and toil...that they're paying for. Sounds more like "freedom to join the 1% through robbery," to me. This really gets you thinking....

Fuck. Miles more to go, before I have to leave for my part-time gig. 'Til next time....

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