Music Opinion Blog

Opinions and occasional rants about the state of the music scene. The views expressed are entirely my own, and do not represent those of any artists or publications with whom I may be connected.

Shocked to find Genesis aren’t awful after all

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Tim Hall

Selling England by the PoundThis is comedy gold. A punk-era NME-style music journalist straight out of Central Casting writes about Genesis’ “Selling England By The Pount”.

He starts out dismissing their music using as many tired clichés as a bad Pendragon album.

And Prog Enemy Number 1, chief target for my scorn, were Genesis. Bloody Genesis. At least Pink Floyd had the saving grace of Syd Barrett who seemed pretty cool until he had to take a load of drugs to cope with being surrounded by the rest of Pink Floyd. But Genesis? Hackett, Gabriel, Collins, Rutherford and Banks? Just look at them. Not a saving grace in sight.

Before admitting tthat he’s ever actually listened to them. So he goes and plays the record…

And you know what? It’s not awful, some of it is actually really good and a lot of it, even though Banks tries his best to spoil everything, is genuinely brilliant. It’s sort of Merrie English folk mixed with a Lloyd Webber Musical which I know you think is a genre that you don’t think you need in your life but it is. It honestly is. Look at the end for the mark I give it out of 10 if you don’t believe me.

So this is where I am. I really like an early Genesis album, I really like Selling England by the Pound.

All of which rather reinforces my suspicion that a whole generation of music writers have been dismissing an entire genre of music based purely on other people’s second-hand opinions, and haven’t actually listened to any of the actual music.

I’m reminded of tthe time when The Guardian’s Alexis Petridis reviewed a Genesis box set and was amazed to find it was full of tunes.

If you are a grown adult, and you don’t question every single cultural prejudice you held when you were 17, you not only risk being a fool, but you will also miss out on much great stuff.

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Mark Kozelek, Bellend

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Tim Hall

From The Guardian, “I interviewed Mark Kozelek – He called me a ‘bitch’ on stage”

Last Monday (1 June), Sun Kil Moon played at the Barbican in London. During the encore, Kozelek introduced a snippet of a new song he had apparently been writing. I wasn’t there, but a friend/colleague was, and phoned me after the gig. I’ve since heard the audio and it made me feel sick. “There’s this girl named Laura Snapes, she’s a journalist. She’s out to do a story on me, has been contacting a lot of people that know me,” he told the sold-out, 1,900-capacity room. Then he started repeating the line: “Laura Snapes totally wants to fuck me / get in line, bitch … Laura Snapes totally wants to have my babies.” The audience clapped and cheered

Too many people buy into the mythology that being an asshole is a fundamental component of genius. The reality is it’s more a case of genius letting them avoid the negative conseqences of being an asshole. We should stop them getting away with it.

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Into The Sausage Factory

Posted on June 3, 2015 by Tim Hall

A couple of Tweets from my editor at Trebuchet Magazine set off a discussion:

Anybody who actually follows any grassroots music knows most “appears out of nowhere” narratives are bogus, and any million-selling act who wears “authenticity” on their sleeve is probably not as genuine as they seem. Nobody becomes famous overnight without serious PR money behind them. But what makes the hype industry pick one busker-level talent over 1001 others? Is it purely random who gets the hype?

It can be depressing when you see talented musicians slogging away for years and never getting beyond a devoted cult following, while Ed bloody Sheeran ends up headlining Wembley Stadium.

But mainstream music is really more part of the celebrity industry than anything else. Sometimes the actual music is an afterthought; Look how Mumford & Sons threw away their entire identity and invented a new one when audiences had become bored with it, or how chancers like Brother kept trying to reinvent themselves by jumping on different bandwagons.

I can understand why so many real musicians making real music don’t want to be part of that circus.

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Progzilla and their Problematic List

Posted on May 28, 2015 by Tim Hall

Heather Findlay of Mostly Autumn at The Met Theatre in Bury, June 2007

Progzilla Radio have done a countdown of the Top 100 Modern Prog Classics.

Unfortunately, the list is, as the saying goes “problematic”.

While all lists of this nature are subjective and shouldn’t be taken too seriously, this one is especially bad. The way the same half-dozen bands appear multiple times suggests that the voters’ listening isn’t terribly broad; have Transatlantic really done that many classic songs?

Far worse is the near absence of women on this list. The sole song with a female songwriter and lead singer is Mostly Autumn’s “Shrinking Violet”. There is no mention of Magenta. Or Panic Room. Or any incarnation of Karnataka. There isn’t even room for anything from Kate Bush’ magnificent “Aerial”. And don’t say “Kate Bush isn’t proper prog” when the list has Radiohead on it.

When the competent but unremarkable Lifesigns, who have just one album to their name, can manage no fewer than three songs in a list that has no room for Magenta, Karnataka, Panic Room or Kate Bush, it’s hard not to conclude the list has very a bad case of sexism.

It’s true that progressive rock is still predominately male. But it’s not exclusively a boy’s club, especially in recent years. Look at the pages of Prog magazine, or the festival bills of events like HRH Prog or the Cambridge Rock Festival and you’ll see a significant proportion of bands with at least one woman in the band.

Therefore I have to conclude that a list of “greatest modern progressive songs” that’s 98% all-male bands is in fact a load of sexist bollocks.

(edit – Changed “compilers” to “voters” to make it clear it’s a listener’s list)

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There are critics that help you improve, and critics that don’t

Posted on May 28, 2015 by Tim Hall

LOFPThere is a very valuable quote at the end of an interview with James Raggi, designer of Lamentations of the Flame Princess for ConTessa.

Lamentations of the Flame Princess is a horror-themed fantasy RPG which has garnered both strong praise and severe criticism in equal measure. Here’s what James Raggi has to say about how to respond, especially to the negative criticism that questions his work’s right to exist.

Do exactly what you want to do and how you want to do it. Spare no expense, cut no corners you do not absolutely have to. Make it reflect what you want, not what you think a customer might want. Be proud of it.

And when you get criticism, remember there are two kinds. There is the criticism that helps you improve what you want to do, and there is criticism that does not help you do what you want to do.

That second group of critics, you want to run at them naked, middle fingers extended screaming [EXPLETED DELETED] because their rage will behave as beacons that are better than any marketing for letting people know that you even exist in the first place.

Remember, hugely successful musical acts like Justin Bieber and Nickelback have their own hordes of professional haters, so worrying about it or trying to avoid it is not only foolish, but impossible.

The quote is about games, where the “perpetually outraged” are exceptionally loud critics of anything they don’t like. But it applies across any genre of art. Some people just aren’t your audience.

I wonder what category of critic I fall into when it comes to the likes of Eschaton or Black Peaks?

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The Eurovision Song Contest

Posted on May 22, 2015 by Tim Hall

I’m at a gig this Saturday, so I’ll be missing the Eurovision Song Contest. But here’s Lithuania’s entry for 2006, the same year as Lordi won for Finland.

The brief instrumental break with the dancing William Hague look-a-like is the best bit.

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Black Sabbath: 10 of the best

Posted on May 15, 2015 by Tim Hall

Black SabbathThe Guardian have just published a piece I’ve written in their “Ten of the Best” series, about Black Sabbath.

The task of choosing ten songs to tell the story of the most influential metal band on the planet wasn’t an easy one. Listening to all their albums, especially the early ones, showed Black Sabbath’s remarkable consistency. For every song I eventually chose there were two or three others that would have been equally valid. At one point my draft list said “Something from Master of Reality”, and I could easily have chosen almost anything from that album. That my final list didn’t have space for “NIB”, “Paranoid”,”Iron Man”, “Children of the Grave”, “Spiral Architect”, “Neon Knights” or indeed anything at all from “Volume 4″ says it all.

One dilemma was whether to base the list around the obvious standards that everyone knows, or highlight some of the lesser-known gems. In the end, I went for a bit of both, including defining classics like “Black Sabbath”, “War Pigs”, “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” and “Heaven and Hell” while leaving room for atypical songs such as “Air Dance” or a representative of the often-overlooked Tony Martin era.

Speaking of the Tony Martin era, one of the constraints I had to work to was that all the chosen songs had to be available on Spotify, and unfortunately neither “Headless Cross” nor “Tyr” were there; the only album available was “Eternal Idol”. Hence the last-minute substitution of “Glory Ride” in place of Tyr’s “Anno Mundi”. Which makes the comment that it was a great list except then “Anno Mundi” should have been there instead of Glory Ride spot-on. Little did he know.

Some of the other comments are amusing; there are clearly a few people who don’t like anything beyond the first four albums and lost it with “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath”. As as for “Too much Dio”, there is no such thing as too much Dio. But that’s Guardian commenters for you…

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Farewell, The Top Rank

Posted on April 19, 2015 by Tim Hall

The former Top Rank Suite in Reading. Venue for my first ever gig, Hawkwind in 1980.

The sad sight of the long-closed Top Rank Suite in Reading being demolished.

It was the venue for my very first gig, Hawkwind on their Levitation tour, with Ginger Baker on drums, and NWOBHM power trio Vardis as the support.

Another memorable gig was Gillan and Budgie a few months later. Gillan are one of those bands music history seems to have forgotten; though their albums were often patchy and always sounded rushed, they really came in to their own live. And at that gig Budgie’s performance was closer to that of a co-headliner than a support.

Those were the days.

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Farewell to Childhood?

Posted on April 7, 2015 by Tim Hall

So, Fish has announced that he will follow his festival appearances celebrating 30 years of “Misplaced Childhood” with a UK tour in December, in which the album will be played in full.

Much as I’m a big fan of Marillion and of Fish, I think I’m going to give this one a miss, unless the support act is a must-see.

Fish has been a great live act in the past couple of years promoting his excellent and moving “Feast of Consequences” album. It’s no secret that nowadays his voice today is not the voice he had a generation ago. His upper register is gone, and older numbers need to be played in a much lower key and be rearranged to avoid the high notes. He’s fine on the more recent material, which is written for his current vocal range, and he can get away with a few reworked older numbers thrown in for old times’ sake.

When he last toured Misplaced Childhood in the 20th anniversary in the mid-noughies, the first half of the show consisting of more recent solo material was the better half. The re-tuned Misplaced became dirge-like in places and actually dragged towards the end.

Hearing both the Steve Rothery Band and Marillion themselves tackle pre-1988 material towards the end of last year was an eye-opener, or rather an ear-opener; Steve Rothery’s emotive and lyrical guitar playing is as central to the music as Fish’s vocals, and more significantly Steve Hogarth, as a technically better singer proved capable of taking the songs and making them his own.

If I was to hear the whole of Misplaced Childhood live, I’d rather hear the current incarnation of Marillion play it. But maybe Fish will prove me completely wrong and the whole thing will be a triumph.

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Deeply Symbolic of Man’s Struggle Against His Socio-Political Environment

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Tim Hall

It didn’t take very long after someone pointed out that The Teletubbles looks deeply scary in black-and-white that somebody would create video mashing up monochromatic Teletubbies with Joy Division. It had to be done, really. This is the sort of thing that makes me love the internet.

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