Song of the Day No 3: 'Mare of the Night' by Magneta Lane

Yeah, that's right it's a 'modern song', not some nostalgia riddenth 80s rock tribute, so.

When I first heard their EP late last year I liked what I heard, it was pretty ballsy, I was expecting some indie-whinge fest thanks to my narrow minded preconceptions, but I couldn't pick out a stand out song. But now that I've heard 'Mare of the Night' about 6 times in the past few days in preparation for a set I can safely say this is my favourite from the album. And I don't care about the hype that surrounds them in the US, they deserve to be hyped, way more than most of the 'serious' guitar music that the the music press have taken to tremblingly fellating, metaphorically speaking.

In fact I would go as far as saying that new music by new female bands (see Von Iva and The Soviettes) kicks the shit out of the blokes (see The Lost Patrol Band and The Ponys), who are too busy trying to come across as 'sensitive and intelligent' to bother to remember that they're fricking rock bands. The balls are firmly in the girls camp on this one.

I like the fat, heavy drums the warbly melody and the fuzz of the guitars and her voice is the best I've heard since that woman who fronts the Detroit Cobras. And the song isn't really obvious, which is why I probably shouldn't play it in my set, but I like it. They're also Canadian and the singer is called Lexi Valentine which is up there with the Belladonnas of this world.

Genrefication: part 2

So based on a bit of thinking and the minimum of research I've come up with the following genre categorisations:

1. RELATIONAL
This is a category of genres the name of which arises from their relationship to other music forms, typically their chronological relationship. For example classical music, traditional music and any genres with 'post', 'new' or 'neo' prefixes. Relational also includes genres such as 'alternative', 'progressive', 'avant garde' or 'hardcore' that are defined in opposition to something else. Some people probably think this is the most lazy way of titling genres, but I think it makes music sound more serious, like in history and archaeology where they refer to periods like the Post-Roman or Pre-War. And although it doesn't really explain what the music sounds like (often because it's quite heterogeneous) you can have a fair guess what it doesn't sound like.

2. MOVEMENT
Genres with names that relate to the way in which people moved to the music, such as Rock 'n' Roll, Swing and obviously 'Dance' music. My general feeling on this is that this was preferred nomenclature for early music genres, although obviously not the case for Dance, although I think that name might have been used in the early 20th Century too. Don't know why moving was so important for early genrefication, maybe because of the name of the dance pre-figured the music with which it was associated. Will have to research this a little more.

3. TECHNOLOGY (using the term anthropologically)
Genres with names derived from the kind of technology and instruments used to create the music. This can range from very generic genre titles such as 'techno', 'electronica', 'lo-fi' to genres with more specific reference to the instruments used such as 'Drum and Bass' or 'Rap'. This category has some overlap with the next one SOUND. This one seems to be quite recent, perhaps something to do with the tangible difference in the sound of music when it broke from using traditional instruments.

4. SOUND
A fairly self explnatory one really, this is for genres that are named after the way they sound, e.g. 'minimalist', 'glitch', 'speed metal' etc.Obviously 'Drum and Bass' and 'Rap' fit into this category to some degree too. Another quite recent one I think, linked to those reasons given above. I guess 'heavy metal' would come under this one too.

5. PROVENANCE
Musical genres the derive their title from the region, country or loale where in the past they became associated with. Examples include, 'Americana', Honky Tonk', 'Madchester', Kraut Rock', 'Merseybeat', 'Latino', Arena Rock' etc. Personally I think these are the least imaginative of all the genre categories. But they are the most easy to imagine. I suppose technically alot of these ones are linked to 'scenes' so you can automatically conjur up images in your head that are associated with them

6. SUBJECT
I can't think of that many genres that fit this category, but I guess 'Emo', 'Death Metal', 'Blues' all qualify.

There is also a seventh category which I'm struggling to come up with a name for. It's quite heterogeneous, but aren't they all a bit. This as yet un-named category covers those genres named after the people who make and listen to the music, that can be characterised by specific attitudes and sometimes ways of dressing. This includes 'Goth', 'Punk', 'Riot Grrrl' etc. The problem is where does 'pop' fit in? It's certainly a way of defining artist and audience, but the audience is often very varied and the artists aren't always technically popular.But then again that's the problem with music, it's always changing. You could argue that 'pop' is a sound that is devised to appeal to as many people as possible, that would put it in the SOUND category, funny that today's pop doesn't really appeal to the masses. Maybe the should re-name it Teen Music.

Song of the Day No.2: 'I Hate Myself for Loving You' Joan Jett & the Blackhearts

"Ooh, didn't she do that 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll' one, that Britney did a cover version of?" Not an actual quote, just one I made up in my head. A slight variation on the 'band everyone has heard of but not many people have actually heard' (see Song of the Day No.1 'Caught in a Mosh' Anthrax), this is the band everyone knows one song by but hasn't actually heard anything else they've done. I seem to remember 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll' getting played by 'trendy' Radio 1 djs a good few years before the whole rock 'n' roll thing took off again and along with the video it does have a certain iconic thing going for it, but it's appropriation by overdressed, sullen teens and trustafarian hacks like the Queens of Noize has depreciated its value somehwat.

But the main point is that I actually like 'I Hate Myself for Loving You' better than 'I Love Rock 'n' Roll'; it's like the smarter, prettier sister who doesn't get the attention she deserves just because the less smart/thicker sister dresses like a slut. My technical knowledge of music can be located somewhere between zero and 0.0001, so I'm not going to try and prove anything I say on that basis, but IHMFLY sounds like a more full song, with more parts and more variation and better harmonies or something. If I'm really honest I think it just deserves to be played in public a little more (which doesn't necessarily mean the public deserve to hear it more). Then Joan Jett will be known for 2/3 songs (I think 'Bad Reputation' has also been played a few times in films and stuff) which can only be good.

Postnote: What the hell does Britney Spears think she is? She doesn't look sexy at the best of times, the best being compared to a chubby faced under age Bratz doll, but in that ILRnR video it's like watching a ropey Thai transexual attempt to convince you that he is genuinely female through a combination of excessive pouting and the rubbing of non-existent or, more alarmingly, incorrect reproductive organs. If covering a classic rock song was designed to lend Britney a touch of credibility they could at least have left her out of the video. It definitely didn't improve my experience of Brussels airport.

Genrefication: Part 1

'Genres' are the kind of things people in blatantly generic bands and poncy music journalists claim to hate. I can easily picture an interview in the cursed NME, where some nob journalist who thinks he's doing the world a favour through his choice of career is interviewing an utterly shit band, like Razorlight, and says something like 'you've been compared to 'X' in some of the reviews of your latest album, what are your thoughts on that?' and the singer, who takes himself way too seriously, says in a really self righteous manner 'Well, it's good to be compared to 'X', they're a band we really respect, but we don't like to be pigeon-holed, on our next album we're going to be experimenting with some new sounds'. 'Like what?' the journalist says. 'Well, like, on one of the tracks we've dropped in some Gamelan drums... etc.' And you really really want the journalist to say 'Shut up, you nob! You're just another band on the Fordist line of bandwagon-jumping 'garage rock' wannabes who mistake their tribute band level talent for musical genius. You look like 'X' and sound like 'X', the only difference between you and 'X' is that you're about a millionth as original cos they did it years ago. The only reason anyone buys your stupid records at all is because, we put a drug on the pages of NME that can be absorbed through the skin that makes teenagers think whatever we say is the absolute truth'.

I on the other hand, think genres are one of humanity's best inventions. I love them because they represent the epitomy of humanity's desperate struggle to categorise everything regardless of how difficult an undertaking it is, resulting in some truly remarkable genre names, like Symphonic Viking Metal and Intelligent Dance Music (the ones with three or more words are the best). People who are averse to genrefication are standing in the face of millenia of human behaviour at it's most pedantic. Humans love to create systems out of randomness. But all our systems have an in built logic no matter how obscure they appear from the outside (see Mary Douglas's attempt to understand the categorisations in Leviticus if you're a geek or alternatively think about how we categorise fruit and vegetables and still don't quite believe that a tomato is a fruit). The question is; how does the genre system work?

This is an ongoing project of Genre Recognition, so here's my first stab at it and it isn't easy. Over at www.allmusic.com they have a section that lists all the genres they could think of this total comes to over 1000, counting only a few overlaps. Now some of these are hybrid or hyphenated genres like 'electro-acoustic' or 'neo-traditional', but they still count. In fact one of the coolest thing about genres is that they are almost limitlessly composite. But, back to the basics.

Firstly where do genres get their names? This is really complex, as genres seem to get their names from loads of different things. My head really hurt working out this, and there are probably some I've missed out or got a bit wrong.
See part 2 for the results of my labour.

Song of the Day No.1: 'Caught in a Mosh', Anthrax

This is the first in a series of songs that get stuck in my head, that I intend to use next time I 'dj'*
Anthrax, like many heavy metal bands with cool names, are on of those bands that everyone's heard of, but nobody's heard. Ok apart from 'Bring the Noise' but that was with Public Enemy, so it doesn't count. Part of my 'dj'* manifesto is to complete listeners knowledge of music, and the best way to do that is through a song that fully captures what a band are about.

Anthrax were the least serious of the Thrash 'Big Four' (the others being Metallica, Slayer and Megadeth) and to the untrained ear their early stuff has all the hallmarks of a faster Spinal Tap. The benefits of which are reaped by the quality of cover artwork, as seen here on the right for their first album 'Fistful of Metal', which I think is a severed head through which a fist has been punched and has emerged through the mouth, at a weird angle, kind've from the side. (The cover for the album from which Caught in a Mosh was part (Among the Living), is actually a real letdown in the cheesy metal artwork stakes (although the cover for 'I'm the Man' (Anthrax's first attempt at 'rap' is quite funny)).

Anyway, 'Caught in a Mosh' apart from being one of the best thrash songs displaying the use of a verb as a noun, is a classic workout. It has a shouty, tunless, uptempo bit and a melodic chorus thanks to their singer who at the time was Joey Belladonna, which is an even better name than Quorthon, from Bathory. Even though it's not literally about being caught in a mosh it has some of the best 'weird lyrics', like - 'Shut up, shut up, I don’t wanna hear your mouth', 'Cold sweat, my fists are clenching / Stomp, stomp, stomp the idiot convention' and finally 'You’re always in the way, like a beast on my back / Were you dropped as a baby, cause brains you lack' - and seeing as i don't know how to post mp3s or if it's even legal to do that, lyrics is the best you're going to get.

The question is what do I play to the fore and aft? Not something to rocky, it'd be overkill, not something completely different cos it would sound too weird. Maybe I should just wimp out and play 'I'm the Man' or even worse 'Bring the Noise'. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

* This term will get an entry to itself, because it's a vile, ugly acronym.