Sprezzatura

I hate the 1975. If you follow me on Twitter you already know that, but it's been a while since they've done anything and it always bears repeating. The only good attempt at a defence of The 1975 I've read came from, I think, Steven Hyden: the 1975 are important because there need to be big, fun, hateable rock bands. I see the logic in that: people have to play SOMETHING at parties, and weirdo kids like me need SOMETHING to rebel against. But do them Wilmslow cunts fit the bill? Big - probably the biggest in England, only Arctic Monkeys could really fight them on that. Hateable - my lord, yes. But fun? If I'm remembering rightly, two of the first three songs on their recent album Notes On A Conditional Form  are a plodding orchestral overture and a song where Greta Thunberg tells you to stop littering. Not exactly Van Halen- or Aerosmith-esque party animal good times. And I'm pretty sure Guns 'n' Roses never released an eighty-minute double album full of UK ...

I Lads. I've got a scoop. This is the big one. This is what catapults me into the major leagues. I'll have NYT articles casting me as the doyen of the new 'roadman left', which is exactly the same as the regular left except sometimes we say 'pussyhole'; it's all very vulgar , in both senses of the word, and VERY subversive. We're really shifting some paradigms out here. I'll supplant Ash Sarkar as the official one (1) Commie of Colour that you're allowed to see on the TV. It's gonna be a madness. Anyway. Listen. Here's the tea, sweeties: Brands have co-opted Pride in order to sell shit. I know, I know. "How did you figure out something so incredibly not-obvious? No one's been pointing that out on Twitter???" Well, my dears, it all came to me last year. I was invited to spend Pride with my friends in Bristol. I'd never been to a Pride event before, and I wasn't really sure what to expect. I was aware that it p...

I think I said in an earlier post that Gamergate was when everything fell apart. I was wrong. It was Atheism+. I'll be honest, this article is only tangentially about Atheism+, because I can't really begin to bring myself to read up on Internet drama from 6-7 years ago, let alone make you lot read it, but does anyone else even remember this shit? Or is it just me? I Let's backtrack a second. I'm not particularly religious. I make the odd reference to the Bible from time to time, and I say masha'allah and oxala too (at the end of the HSBC post , for example), but that's not because of strongly held beliefs - it's just the culture I was raised in. I think Quakers are pretty cool (they seem like the least problematic sect of Christianity at least, and we all love oats, sweets , and not going to war), and Laughing Stock is definitely the greatest album of all time; I suppose all this makes me culturally Christian, but you still won't catch me in c...

I'm reviewing a couple of projects from the local record label Trickhouse in the modern critical style - think Pitchfork, Stereogum, etc. First up, it's the debut EP from the indie project Sweet Embrace. Isabelline by Sweet Embrace In case it isn’t clear from the black nail polish and eyeliner he insists upon wearing at appearances, London-born, Lancaster-based Phillip Johnson is an emo at heart. It’s clear in the over-reliance on proper nouns ( Mitcham ? St Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham ?? The IJsselmeer ???) that we so detest here, it’s clear in the rapid time-signature changes and histrionic coda of “Isabelline” ( cribbed directly from Sunny Day Real Estate, natch ), and it’s clear even in Johnson’s choice of alias (his full webpage title reads ‘Sweet Embrace… of Death’ because of course it does). Most importantly, however, it’s clear in the fact that the entire project is misogynist garbage. You know, like his heroes make ! Opener “Isabelline” starts off strongly enough...

Wow, I love Banksy This new HSBC ad campaign? It's Not Good . Let's go through why, step by step. Think of this post like an expanding brain meme in essay form. Here's the actual ad, by the way: Broke: "The ad is good because it's against Brexit!" Let's get this out of the way: "That's the bad argument? Yikes, fam, didn't realise you were a Brexiteer..." I'm not a Brexiteer. I know I said I was against globalisation in the last post , but I'm not particularly opposed to the sentiment expressed in the adverts. I like chicken tikka masala (and sweet and sour chicken, doner kebabs, etc.), I enjoy a continental lager from time to time, and the only reason I don't currently support a Belgian striker is Benteke 's injured and Freedman won't pull the trigger and bring in Batshuayi . I may have my reservations, but I also accept I live in a thoroughly globalised world and that isn't going to change anytime so...