August 20th, 2010

(08/17/2010)

-

Hey Hipsters …There’s a fucking Rock n Roll Show Going On!

I’m not going to whine about the sorry state of rock n’ roll or anything like that. Record sales are down, concert ticket sales are down. radio sucks, MTV hasn’t aired a video in God knows how long… Yeah, yeah, yeah. Boo fucking hoo. I actually don’t think any of that necessarily reflects the quality of music being produced right now. Sure, the signal to noise ratio has obviously taken a hit. According to Nielsen Soundscan 98,000 albums were released in 2009 – 98,000, that’s a staggeringly large number (only 2.1% sold over 5,000 copies, though, and that 2.1% accounted for 90% of all record sales in 2009). If I’m doing my math right, and the average running time of those 98,000 records is an hour, it would take you just about… oh, 11 fucking years to listen to them all! 11 years. Now the majority of those 98,000 albums are probably dogs, and there’s no reason to listen to them even if you had the time, but if even only one percent of them are in some way worthwhile, that would amount to almost 1,000 quality records released in 2009. Who the hell has time to listen to even that many? In any case there’s probably just as much “good” music, however you want to define that term, being produced today as there ever has been… and going by the numbers probably more than ever. There’s just a lot more for this good music to compete with these days both in terms of consumer’s entertainment dollar and time, and unfortunately a lot of the good stuff is drowned in the vast sea of mediocrity and dogshit that is endemic to post-whatever 21st century pop culture. My point is there’s good stuff out there, if you’re willing to look hard enough. And if you’re not, the fine folks at Live4Ever World Headquarters are here to help! (Like how I threw that in there, Mr. editor? And I managed not to mention any of our competitors’ sites like Pitchfo@#%$^&#%!!!…. Ouch. That hurt.) All of that’s just my way of saying that I’m not here to lament the decaying fortunes of rock n roll. Cause they ain’t decaying.

Directed by L’Oeuf Sacre

The London apartment resided in by Jimi Hendrix and his girlfriend Kathy Etchingham in 1968 is being granted public access to mark the 40th anniversary of the legendary guitarist’s death.

In today’s Soundbites, our quick take on news, reviews and tabloid gossip, Britney Spears is put under instruction to scrub up better, the V festival has some promising weather news, and Courtney Love settles yet another Nirvana dispute. There’s also news of a supergroup split, Russell Brand loses a MTV gig, and a new album from Noah and The Whale.

Here’s our round-up of the latest UK tour news announced this week, with full ticket details available through our Box Office page.

After the runaway achievements of their debut ‘Lungs‘, Florence & The Machine could be forgiven for enjoying the fruits of success while recording their new album. However, according to band leader Florence Welch, they are going back to the ‘banging pots’ approach of their first record during the new sessions.

Kasabian brought the most successful period of their career to date to an end last night, playing the final show of their ‘West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum‘ tour at London’s Brixton Academy.