!!! ‘AM/FM’

Ever on the musical pulse, !!! slow it right down to a baggy, mid-paced Monday’s sounding spit’n'groove.  Did I say yesterday the 90′s revival was on the way?  I was actually speculating yesterday, so now I’m reinforcing my claims.

Get the new !!! album in August…23rd I think.

Long Live 6Music

There’s not much out there for music fans these days, on the radio that is.

When I moved to London in 2003 I discovered digital radio, and very quickly the BBC’s digital music station 6Music.  It was to stand me in good stead for the duration of my stay in the UK, and was a bitter loss when I moved to Dublin to find it unavailable on the digital dial (I know I can stream it online, but it’s not the same!)

So I was overjoyed, and my faith in the system somewhat restored when I heard the station has been saved from closure.   After much rallying and protest from the fans, and musicians who have I’m sure come to rely on the station as the only light in an otherwise dark music-radio landscape, the BBC seem to have realized that 6Music is what the licence fee is for.  Specialism, quality, and not in any way compromised by the pressures of commercial advertising revenue.

As a former commercial radio station employee, I can vouch for the amazing work those stations do just staying in business, no small achievement I assure you.  However, the mainstream is very well served by those stations, because their survival depends on being very firmly planted there.  They know it, they work hard at it, and it works well.

But the BBC addresses the balance of commercialism with 6Music, and because of that it’s our comfort blanket.  When something like 6Music exists, the world isn’t all bad.

You’re not alone, and that’s a very important thing for a person to know.

6 Months In Indie Rock’n'Roll…2010

Wow, July already, where the hell did that 6 months go!

So what have we got to show for the first 6 months in indie rock’n'roll?

You all have Spotify right?  Put your favourite tracks of the year into this Best Of 2010 playlist, and start sharing the love!

The 90′s Revival Is Here

Well, you knew it was coming.  But the 90′s revival is well underway. With a move to the sweet beach sounds of the 60′s by Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti (album of the year? Maybe), and Wavves to name but a few, lo-fi and feelgood are gradually replacing the sharper synth lead 16/4 beat sounds that have all but dominated the past decade.

Ask anyone and they’ll tell you the 90′s were a bit, well – embarrassing really, apart from that early stuff (Monday’s, Roses et al). However, people also said that about the 80′s, before Franz Ferdinand co. resurrected the cooler edge of post-punk and new wave.

So to mark the beginning of the next revival, and get you on your way, here’s a large playlist of the bits that really didn’t suck.

90′s (Spotify playlist)

Blur ‘Fools Day’

It’s amazing that Blur still have it, but they do. Graham Coxon’s guitar parts are just genius.