Music Category
Music news and reviews, music videos and tittle tattle, with a lingering look at the past from Anorak. A source for rock, pop, album and live music, new releases, artist interviews and features.
Miley Cyrus: Shock as pop star dances provocatively in bikini
EVERYONE is talking about Miley Cyrus today. Why? Well, in a move which is incredibly unusual for pop stars, she danced provocatively while wearing not many clothes while singing a song.
Astonishing, huh?
Her now notorious performance at the MTV VMAs has, mystifyingly, drawn complaints… especially from a parenting pressure group over in America.
The Parents Television Council (PTC, who never complain about anything, honest) issued a complaint against the channel over the 20-year-old’s routine and said that the show should not have been rated as suitable for 14 year olds, adding: “Heads should roll at MTV.”
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Posted: 27th, August 2013 | In: Celebrities, Music | Comments (2)
What rhymes with Robin Thicke’s ‘hug me’? Stop trying to drug me and more answers
SO. What does rhyme with Robin Thicke’s question of the summer: “What rhymes with hug me?”
REVEALING THE MYSTERY BEHIND THE SONG OF THE SUMMER.
WHAT RHYMES WITH HUG ME?
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Channel 4 turns One Direction fans into its latest freak show
NO-ONE loves music more than teenagers and, no-one loves One Direction more than teenager girls. With that, Channel 4 decided to air a documentary about 1D’s fans, painting them in a less than flattering light. That’s Channel 4’s forte at the minute, mocking people who need a council house, can’t speak English, are part of the travelling community and people on benefits.
If you’re working class or foreign in Britain, you can thank Channel 4 for turning your social media feeds into something akin to a UKIP rally.
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Posted: 17th, August 2013 | In: Music, TV & Radio | Comment
Rappers love Jewish lawyers – black singers pay tribute to the legal tribe
SO. You’ve got the beats. You’ve got the rhymes. You’ve got the money, What you now need is nice Yiddisher lawyer to look after you. Rappers love Jewish lawyers:
50 Cent and others summon the “Jew-Unit”:
Spotters: @Slacktory , @jasonrnewman
Posted: 8th, August 2013 | In: Music | Comment (1)
Incongruous Songs – when the music of rebellion is used by the wrong people
A FLASHBACK about Incongruous Songs. The music of rebellion adopted by the wrong people at the wrong place and the wrong time. Look what they’ve one to my song, ma.
In 1976, a Mancunian punk band called Buzzcocks borrowed £500 from friends and relatives and recorded and released the Spiral Scratch EP (Print run: 1,000 copies). 
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Posted: 6th, August 2013 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Music | Comment
One Direction fans threaten to rape, stab and kill everyone at GQ magazine – the pick of the Tweets
A ONE Direction Fans writes in response to the article on the band in GQ magazine:
@trxpicalouis’ “whAT THE FUCK THEY MADE LOUIS LOOK LIKE AN ASSHOLE I S2G HE IS A FUCKING ANGEL I AM GOING TO FIND GQ AND FUCKING BOMB THEM SEE YOU IN JAIL”
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Posted: 30th, July 2013 | In: Key Posts, Music | Comment (1)
Thom Yorke and Johnny Lynch entirely misunderstand Spotify and online music
THIS is one of those newspaper pieces where you have to check that the people are still living on the same planet as the rest of us. They’re talking about whether Spotify is paying enough in royalties to the musicians who produce the work. Yet they manage to miss the most basic point about the whole subject:
Spotify is selling a lie, though. In this post-Napster world, the pressure is on for new independent artists to have their music sit alongside massive acts – but we’re not getting anything back. We are told that it’s good exposure, and will lead to increased album and ticket sales, but this simply isn’t the case.
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Posted: 26th, July 2013 | In: Key Posts, Money, Music, Technology | Comments (3)
Classic movies sing Ice Ice Baby
LIKE classic movies? Like Vanilla Ice’s Ice Ice Baby? Of course you do. You’re not an idiot.
Well, how about both at the same time, with a fun mashup which gets Ghostbusters, Howard The Duck, Conan The Barbarian and more, rapping along to the famous hit?
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Spotify is overpaying Thom Yorke and The Bleaters
THE latest is the row about how the royalty streams from Spotify are too low turns up in The Guardian. As you might expect from that paper there’s a great deal of indignation and not a lot of light and sense.
As background, Thom Yorke has demanded that Spotify no longer play his songs as he thinks they offer a really bad deal to musicians. So, The G went out and found someone who agreed:
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Cocksucker Blues – Groupies sex and shooting up heroin: The Rolling Stones epic and banned documentary
IN 1972, long before The Rolling Stones were pop’s Establishment act headlining Glastonbury and making Prince Harry and smug BBC DJs dance in their yurts, they were rebellion personified. It was the year Robert Frank created the documentary Cocksucker Blues. When they saw the film shot on tour, some of them hated it enough to block its release.
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1973: Jimmy Savile hid in a Womble suit on Top of The Pops to leer at young girls
OPERATION Yewtree calls The Wombles.
Mike Batt wrote their music. He went on the record:
In 1974 The Wombles were the biggest selling act in the U.K. It all came about by my being hired to do the music for this little TV series, five minutes long, that the BBC did. These funny little puppet things being stop-animated into rather twee adventures picking up litter on Wimbledon Common. Instead of getting the £200 fee for it, I asked if I could have the character rights to the music. That was worth nothing, because there was no band or anything, so they gave me that instead.
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Posted: 13th, July 2013 | In: Flashback, Music, TV & Radio | Comments (5)
The Daft Punk Get Lucky condom contains no hidden message
WHERE JLS lead, Daft Punk follow. Behold the Get Lucky condoms. Daft Punk’s message is just about having sex. JLS wanted their Johnnies to alter our minds:
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In 1978 Sex Pistol John Lydon told the BBC he’d like to murder Jimmy Savile (audio)
IN October 1978, when Jimmy Savile was in his paedo pomp, seducing kids on the BBC with the vow that Jim’ll Fix It and spinning the discs on Radio 1, Johnny Rotten wanted to murder him. In this clip, John Lydon talks about killing the protected Savile.
The interview features on Public Image’s album Religion Attack. This part about Savile never did make the Beeb’s final cut for broadcast:
Posted: 7th, July 2013 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Music, TV & Radio | Comments (3)
In 1984 Morrissey ordered Smash Hits readers to execute Staus Quo
BACK in 1984, Morrissey worked as a record reviewer on Smash Hits to review the week’s singles. Was he full of praise, saluting the singers’ guts, with plus points for effort and likability? Not quite. Pass the caustic soda. And get a him a gun to shoot Status Quo:
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How would John Lennon & Bob Dylan fare on The Voice?
PEOPLE who sneer at shows like The X Factor and The Voice often wonder how singers of the past would fare. Would Screamin’ Jay Hawkins get Simon Cowell’s approval? Would someone like Nina Simone stand a chance against Olly Murs if it all went to deadlock?
The fact of the matter is, no-one should really care because the 60s were a completely different time where record companies had loads of money to take loads of chances and, most importantly, X Factor is to music what WWE is to sport – it’s just telly!
Either way, over in the States, The Voice USA have made a video where John Lennon and Bob Dylan appear… and you know something? It’s funny than 99% of the jibes spat out by detractors!
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Posted: 26th, June 2013 | In: Music, TV & Radio | Comment (1)
The Banana Splits beat The Beatles and the Despicable Me Minions to No 1 in the Top Ten Banana Songs of all Time
TO promote the film Despicable Me 2, the Minions are singing the Banana Song. It’s fun. But it’s not as good as the ultimate banana song.
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Miley Cyrus: 10 insane and inane Gifs from We Can’t Stop video
THERE is something of the Bangkok LadyBoy about Miley Cyrus, formerly the world’s biggest-ever teenage star. Not so much the face of the future or the now, Cyrus is the reminder that trying to escape a hyper-controlled past can be tricky for your future career. In these 10 Gifs from her new song We Can’t Stop, Cyrus approximates sex appeal and kookiness without ever coming close to nailing either. She slices off her fingers, frots a massive teddy bear, twerks, engages in a spot of lipstick lesbian, rubs a slice of white bread over her face and smooches a Barbie doll. Naturally, in this check box approach to outrageous pop antics, she alludes to drugs use. In courting controversy, Cyrus manages to come across as remarkable uncontroversial, overly contrived and conservative. Still, at least she’s having fun. Beats working:
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David Bowie mural in Brixton shows the cover of his 1973 album Aladdin Sane
A NEW mural painted on a Brixton wall by James Cochran aka Jimmy C shows the image of David Bowie from the cover of his 1973 album Aladdin Sane.
David Robert Jones was Brixton born in 1947.
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Kanye West: ‘I got the answers. I understand culture. I am the nucleus’ and other self-deprecating funnies from his NY Times interview
IS Kanye West a work of parody? These are highlight of his interview in the NY Times:
On Justice:
Anytime I’ve had a big thing that’s ever pierced and cut across the Internet, it was a fight for justice. Justice. And when you say justice, it doesn’t have to be war. Justice could just be clearing a path for people to dream properly. It could be clearing a path to make it fair within the arena that I play. You know, if Michael Jordan can scream at the refs, me as Kanye West, as the Michael Jordan of music, can go and say, “This is wrong.”
On Heroics:
I remember when both Gnarls Barkley and Justin [Timberlake] lost for Album of the Year, and I looked at Justin, and I was like: “Do you want me to go onstage for you? You know, do you want me to fight” —
On Heroic Justice:
I am so credible and so influential and so relevant that I will change things. So when the next little girl that wants to be, you know, a musician and give up her anonymity and her voice to express her talent and bring something special to the world, and it’s time for us to roll out and say, “Did this person have the biggest thing of the year?” — that thing is more fair because I was there.
On Being Mr Kim, Kardashian:
I’m like, the anti-celebrity, and my music comes from a place of being anti.
The iKanye:
I would hear stories about Steve Jobs and feel like he was at 100 percent exactly what he wanted to do, but I’m sure even a Steve Jobs has compromised. Even a Rick Owens has compromised. You know, even a Kanye West has compromised. Sometimes you don’t even know when you’re being compromised till after the fact, and that’s what you regret.
On His Music:
Creative output, you know, is just pain. I’m going to be cliché for a minute and say that great art comes from pain. But also I’d say a bigger statement than that is: Great art comes from great artists. There’s a bunch of people that are hurt that still couldn’t have made the album that was super-polarizing and redefined the sound of radio.
On Scots:
The idea of Kanye and vanity are like, synonymous. But I’ve put myself in a lot of places where a vain person wouldn’t put themselves in. Like what’s vanity about wearing a kilt?
On The Wonder of Me:
I sat down with a clothing guy that I won’t mention, but hopefully if he reads this article, he knows it’s him and knows that out of respect, I didn’t mention his name: this guy, he questioned me before I left his office:, “If you’ve done this, this, and this, why haven’t you gone further in fashion?” And I say, “I’m learning.” But ultimately, this guy that was talking to me doesn’t make Christmas presents, meaning that nobody was asking for his [stuff] as a Christmas present. If you don’t make Christmas presents, meaning making something that’s so emotionally connected to people, don’t talk to me.
On Working:
I would rather sit in a factory than sit in a Maybach.
I want to tell people, “I can create more for this world, and I’ve hit the glass ceiling.” If I don’t scream, if I don’t say something, then no one’s going to say anything, you know? So I come to them and say, “Dude, talk to me! Respect me!”
On You:
I think what Kanye West is going to mean is something similar to what Steve Jobs means. I am undoubtedly, you know, Steve of Internet, downtown, fashion, culture. Period. By a long jump. I honestly feel that because Steve has passed, you know, it’s like when Biggie passed and Jay-Z was allowed to become Jay-Z.
I’ve been connected to the most culturally important albums of the past four years, the most influential artists of the past ten years. You have like, Steve Jobs, Walt Disney, Henry Ford, Howard Hughes, Nicolas Ghesquière, Anna Wintour, David Stern.
I think that’s a responsibility that I have, to push possibilities, to show people: “This is the level that things could be at.” So when you get something that has the name Kanye West on it, it’s supposed to be pushing the furthest possibilities. I will be the leader of a company that ends up being worth billions of dollars, because I got the answers. I understand culture. I am the nucleus.
On confidence issues…
Posted: 12th, June 2013 | In: Music | Comment (1)
In 1989 The Stone Roses Ian Brown and John Squire were interviewed by Music Box – it was brilliantly awful
IN 1989, Ian Brown and John Squire of The Stone Roses were interviewed for Music Box. It was awkward. The interviewer comes across like a therapist or headteacher talking to naughty teenagers. Brown smiles warmly:
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Posted: 12th, June 2013 | In: Flashback, Key Posts, Music | Comments (4)
Photo: June 17, 1986 – Boy George appears in an episode of the A Team
FLASHBACK to June 5 1986: Boy George is on the A Team.
The original AP caption runs:
Boy George on the Range in The A-Team. British pop star Boy George, left, guest-stars as himself at Saugus, California near Los Angeles, United States, when Faceman (Dirk Benedict, center) inadvertedly books his Culture Club band into a town or rowdy cowboys hankering for some down home music and Hannibal (George Peppard, right) tries to give ’em what they want, in ‘Cowboy George’ which will be broadcast on NBC/TV’s The A-Team on Tuesday, June 17, 1986. Mr. T., second from right.
Posted: 11th, June 2013 | In: Flashback, Music, TV & Radio | Comment
Culture Club reunion photos: Boy George, Mikey Craig and Roy Hay hook up (Jon Moss is away)
CULTURE Club’s Boy George, Mikey Craig, and Roy Hay posed for a photo posted on The (Nice Yiddisher) Boy’s Facebook page today.
Jon Moss was not there.
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Posted: 11th, June 2013 | In: Music | Comment (1)
Policeman sings the hits of Oasis
POLICEMEN can be a bit dour, but one PC in Birmingham decided he’d liven things up by singing the general public some songs. Regrettably, he chose the songbook of Oasis.
A passer-by filmed PC Ian Northcott’s performance of Wonderwall and the policeman said: “It was such a lovely day, everyone seemed happy, it just felt such a natural thing to do.”
“Noel would have been proud I hope.”
PC Northcott’s impromptu gig wasn’t his first, he added:
“I’ve got to know a few of the city’s buskers and have joined them before to play. We are always looking for ways to break down barriers between the police and the public and this was certainly one of them.”
Next step: 21 Seconds by So Solid Crew.
