GLAM!

Boredom at work can result in many activities, most of which involve the internet in some way - by far the easiest to fall into and undoubtedly the least rewarding is to randomly click your way through the profiles of strangers' 'friends' on Myspace.

On this occasion however I uncovered a whole cross atlantic 'glam metal' (not 'hair metal', that term was invented by a journalist who wrote for The Face in 2001. No wait, according to Wikipedia it was in fact invented by MTV in the 90s. Whatever.) scene, that seems to have its dual centres in Hollywood and Stockholm, pretty weird. I also have reports from the ground that the same thing is happening in LA. I want to go.

This guy sums it up pretty well, as does his friend Marky de Sade. It would be too easy to put the boot in and slag them off but being intrepid and open-minded I listened to some of their stuff and, oh shit, I even liked some of it. Especially these - Starlet Suicide - Try to Break Me. They kind of sound like The Sounds mixed with The Runaways but with some metal style twiddly bits (not The Killers), but words are as nothing to the sound. These ones have actually captured the most authentic glam metal sound I've heard so far, which they should be both proud and ashamed of. Problem with most of these bands is that they want to do a GnR and mix sleazy hard rock with punk so most of them end up sounding like Green Day (yuck). Think these guys have kind've nailed it (Twisted Sister?) but their sound is so bad it's hard to tell

I think there is actually a small scene in the UK (well, 2 bands anyway) one of whom I saw in Camden about 2 years ago, but I can't remember their name. Something about prostitutes.

Here's Metal Rules Top 50 Glam Metal bands of all time. Now they've put Love/Hate at no. 37. I personally believe it was a bit of a master piece, listen - Love /Hate - She's an Angel (for the 'mommy took the strings off your bass / so you don't hang yourself' line alone). I also preferred Slave to the Grind by Skid Row, not that that will mean much to anybody.

Buy Love/Hate - Blackout in the Red Room

Buy Skid Row - Slave to the Grind

Buy Starlet Suicide stuff

Indie KIDS

Oh look Hanson have gone indie! No wait that's actually Panic! at the Disco

Normally I'd say I was getting old, but that isn't enough to explain how fresh faced these little critters look. Look at their little pink cheeks and fluffy hair. Aw, and they've got a big orange ball, I bet 'catch' is their favourite game.

Thursday's 'Adventures in the Beetroot Field' at Fabric (yes even Fabric want a piece of the indie pie) merely confirmed my suspicions that indie-style nursery rhymes are just round the corner.

It was rampant with the under age who got under foot, overexcited and on my nerves, throwing up after one too many (actually just make that one) vodka and cokes. I actually envy them that bit because beer cost £3.90 a tiny bottle and spirit and mixer over £4. Frick. It reminded me why I hate Fabric.

Indie has always had a rather large fey side, but even when kids were doing it they were slightly shabby looking not pre-pubescent public school boys (I blame Busted/McFly etc.)

At this stage I'd say thank the lord for indie girls showing the boys how to do it properly, but my water tight argument sprung a leak after hearing The Organ (memorise the city). They sound like the girl version of Coldplay/Keane/Coldplay/wet indie band etc. Actually that's really harsh, they're not that bad, in fact they have the jangly 80s indie sound down pretty good.

Anyway here's some grumpy / noisey / grubby girl indie. First The Vibration - The Violets - Hiero who promise lots of new MP3s on their website. And finally The Demolition Doll Rods -

A Quiet Week

I don't really have much to say, but feel compelled to write something because of this things (my blog) existence.

The reality is that some weeks music is really important, other weeks it seems to be less so and while admittedly this blog purports to do more than talk about just music , in reality that is what the subject usually is.

So, although no-one can see from the position of this post (I really have to sort out the stupid columns so the one on the right isn't squashed underneath the middle one) I have my Last FM weekly chart on display for all the world, or rather potentially all the world to see. Which could make null and void my weekly 'Top of My Pops' post. On second thoughts, I think I'll carry on doing them anyway, mainly because I want to. Guess I better get to work on it.

Other Things: Saw some god awful band called CLECKHUDDERSFAX at Bardens Boudoir re-opening night. Both the opening and the band were shambolic in every way, which I think the organisers actually encourage in a vain attempt to appear anarchic and well, 'Dalston'. Most of their set sounded like Black Dice's out takes (look, Black Dice have no fans and weirdly, or perhaps not so weirdly, no friends) and their singer was rude to my friend and had the cheek to do it while wearing a stupid orange vest thing.
BJDI Rating = SHIT

Good Other Things:On Sunday night we saw Shimura Curves at somebody's, er, unit next to London Fields. They were much, much better than Cleckhuddersafax and weren't rude to anyone. In fact they were pretty damn brave to do a gig in someones living room eyeball to eyeball with their friends. In that context friends are way more intimidating than strangers.
BJDI Rating = REALLY GOOD

ONe More Thing: Another thing I did was put together a BJD demo, a process that consumed about 1000 times more of my week than I had planned for, partly because I'm an anal perfectionist and partly because my mouse pad is oversensitive. I haven't tried to find out what she really says, but the second line of Morningwood's 'Jetsetter' sounds just like 'I'm weeing in my cups'. I just checked, apparently she's saying 'I'm ennui and in my cups' which makes less sense, because ennui is a noun, right?

UPDATE: I've fixed my blog so it doesn't look so weird anymore