The Afterword

Musings on the byways of popular culture

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Politics, eh?

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I caught a bit of Tim Farron and Nick Clegg on the radio. It sounds like they have both decided that what the populace wants is more of the policies that lead them to the edge of extinction last time (cozying up to the Tories whilst tutting loudly). Given that the Labour Party has decided that the major problem with Ed Miliband is that he wasn’t left wing enough, that the SNP thinks the answer to everything is Independence, and UKIP see the refugee crisis as proof that they are right… the only party flirting with change is (amazingly) the Tories. Who are busy trying to steal old New Labour policies and UKIP ones at the same time, which is tricky but at least a recognition that they need more voters.

Paul Weller – NPR Tiny Desk Concert

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Paul Weller has done a Tiny Desk Concert – available as a podcast. I’m not a big fan, but this was probably my favourite thing I’ve heard from him for a decade. He does look rather old though – which probably means I do to. Maybe best to just listen not watch?

http://www.npr.org/event/music/426740545/paul-weller-tiny-desk-concert

http://www.npr.org/event/music/426740545/paul-weller-tiny-desk-concert

Velvet CD swap

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So last year one of the Afterworders introduced me to the Velvet CD swap programme. Like all of us (I imagine) I am desperate to find new suckers on whom to inflict my mix tapes. This swap programme allows you to bombard three totally random strangers with your musical tastes and whimsies. It allowed me to promote the joys of Juliana Hatfield’s Nirvana (“makes me wanna go fuck shit up” – was ever truer musical criticism set to music?) – see rather dodgy new video below All it costs is your time, some postage, 3 recorded CDs and of course, willingness to receive 3 tapes in return. I mean CDs. It was quite a laugh – if surprisingly time consuming. Still with a shed load of work to write and incredibly tight deadlines, what better use of my time could there be? http://velvetcdswap.com/sign-up/

http://velvetcdswap.com/sign-up/

Ask the Massive: gaming PCs

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The newly teenage son wants a gaming pc to suplement his xbox. Last time I played a PC gane it was Half Life, which is what ten years ago. Any ideas in the siort of spec we should look for in a budget system? Ta.

Amazon Prime Music

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So, that ramps up the battle quite a bit. Do you want to pay £10/month for music at Itunes or Spotify, or £6/month for music, films and free delivery at Amazon? The ability to download albums and and play them off line is a bit of a boon – can you do that with Itunes? I know you can with Spotify premium.

I’ve got free Spotify, Netflix, and Amazon prime for the delivery mostly. This probably stops me upgrading Spotify or going to the Itunes subscription, even though it has only 1 million tracks which is less than Spotify or Apple music

Price war coming?

Google Play cheapies

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Google Play are selling a bunch of new(ish) albums for £1.99, including the new AC/DC and First Aid Kit albums. Also Mark Ronson’s new one, and Version for 99p.

Amazon seem to have stopped running such offers. No free singles at ITunes either. sob.

Still a thing of great joy

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In the gym in a disappointingly futile attempt to hold back the ravages of time (why yes, old school friends have just cropped up on Facebook) I was delighted that the ipod cheered me up with two delightfully joyful and silly songs. Thou shall always kill by Dan le Sac and Scroobius Pip and Formed a Band by Art Brut. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nek-YO7v3Yw Nice way to start a Friday. Better than being in the gym anyhow.

Bingley Music Live

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I keep whittering on about the election, so as a corrective can i say how much I am looking forward to BML. Largely because it is cheap and walking distance.

http://www.bingleymusiclive.com/

And here is Hookey proving he cannot sing.

Raiding the archives?

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James Blast’s info about Frank Zappa boots got me thinking. (FZ is not really my cup of tea). The average Frank fan must surely be in his/her 50s. The average is only going to go up. At the moment we fans are in work so we have money, but in a decade we shall be retired and may be more careful about spending. And in a decade a lot more of these boots will be about on t’interweb. Given that lots of bands have loads of stuff in their archives, why are they not emptying them now?

I don’t mean these deluxe editions with out takes and stuff, I mean everything they have. Why isnt every Single track and live show available for purchase? The value of them can only go down in time as the audience shrinks. You might say it would swamp the market, but will there BE a market in ten years? Will it all be streams?

any thoughts?

Is this a record?

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I’m moving office which has lead to me moving some CDs, which has obviously lead to a lot of listening to things I’d forgotten. One I’d not quite forgotten is Brutal Youth by Elvis Costello. I still have not got round to listening to it though. I bought it because I saw them play 13 steps lead down on TV and thought it sounded good, but obviously not good enough for me to listen to the thing. As I load it into Itunes I realise I have had it for 20 years (since 1994) without playing it. Is this a record? (no, a record is the black vinyl thing, boom tish).

Kendal Calling 30th July 2015

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Line up looks pretty reasonable at £135- Elbow, Snoop Dogg, Kaiser Chiefs, James, Billy Bragg, British Sea Power… We went in 2012 and it was very good apart from missing Roddy Frame, and it being bleeding freezing (they don’t mention quite how high up it is, which is nice until you are trying to sleep in a tent and the wind is whistling).

Ok, no real reason for posting this apart from – “You are back!”. Thanks. Missed it.