Skip The Budgie

It's been a while since I actually wrote any songs, but here's all the stuff I recorded along the way... There are a few different genres and some of it is pretty ropey, but hey some of it is also great (If I do say so myself)!

So here it is, my little bit of musical evangelism for August!

And so it starts... my fancy 'new' (ie. I finally got it to work!) posting from Flickr - to save all that tedious messing around with cut and paste.

This is my first foray into the Compilation Swap Group on Flickr, where we are randomly paired up to swwap compilations with other group members each month.

This guy in Denmark has sent me my compilation and I've done his, I just need to get my arse in gear and actually post the bugger! There is some weird stuff on there - yes even some Sheryl Crow (Lord help me) but also some great songs by people I've never heard of!

-- from Sprake - (?)

My Compilation on the other hand, is half local people from Bristol and half songs I really love. I'll add the playlist later, when I've actually sent the disk!

Just thought you should know, these lectures on music are pretty interesting and they're all available to download from the Radio 4 web site...

In this year's Reith Lectures musician and conductor Daniel Barenboim discusses the interplay between music and society.

The guy next to me is having popcorn for lunch. It crunches.

I have the funny rush you get when some anonymous person has a go at you for something you know other people quite like. That light-headed, tense feeling. Like writing. I think my writing has been improving. I'm certainly not going to take writing tips from someone who can't spell "you're" (it's YOU ARE). Of course I can't say that because then they'll turn out to be dyslexic and then I'll look bad. Of course they might read this, just hand me the shovel.

And this is the problem. Like that person who called me a C U Next Tuesday because I didn't like Ivory Springer, who I later grew to like, a bit. Or the guy who called me arrogant and said that if I like Kristen Hersh then Nina Nastasia is beyond me.

It's why writing about things often gets dumbed down, why people who want to say that they think something is awful end up watering the sentiment down and just say "well, I like the drummer" or "it's not my cup of tea". It may well NOT be your cup of tea, as with Fsck Buttons but at least have the cohones to say that, and if you do, try to say why.

It's a bit annoying that such a shabby piece of writing gets such a strong reponse. I imagine if I'd said good things, or thought up an imaginitive exciting sounding description like "all the musical worth of some rocks in a cement mixer" and "like a bunch of 5 year olds who got a drum for christmas - except you know their mother isn't going to come upstairs and take the sticks off them" (thanks Adz), they would perhaps think it was hilarious, but no.

Reading too much into it? Probably. It was an entertaining couple of hours certainly, one thing came out of it all that made me think:

Basically you can do and say what you like, but it will be apparent to people who understand the music that you don't [understand the music]. Which isn't to say that you need to like the music - you can, and probably will, still think it's rubbish. You might even disagree with their aesthetic criteria, but that's a very different thing from not having a clue what their aesthetic criteria are/not understanding their aesthetic criteria.

So don't worry, I'll just try to be a bit more articulate next time.