Oh God, NME Tries To Start Yet Another New Movement ..... SHROOMADELICA - The music movement that will 'weird up your head',

Do you reckon my time with Uncut might be coming to an end?...I'm now on the payroll of Time Out, and John Lewis seems to be a million times more open to my ideas. So I'll probably take my Earlies rave review there.

x-post, oh dear lord...

marcello, don't stress and have fun. that's the advice. otherwise 'comes from a dark place'

Actually Kate, d'you fancy doing the Rollers review? I've tried my best with them but even I can't rehabilitate every doe-eyed bubbleboy from the '70s!

You agreed with me when we discussed this IRL.

1) All of the above is nice when it's in regard to music that you love and actually want to rave about. But 90% of the music that you will be asked to write about is boring, souless, vapid stuff that inspires no passion, either way. I just can't fake passion I don't feel.

2) It's the "when what you love becomes your job" dilemma that I've suffered with regards to music for quite a while. When it's something fun that you do every now and then for the sheer enjoyment of it, it's great. When your fun-thing hobby becomes your WORK with all the pressures and strains that that entails, what do you have left to kick back and enjoy yourself?

so so so so so so so so wrong... am hearing a couple of new records a day, at the moment, that are blowing my mind.

But 90% of the music that you will be asked to write about is boring, souless, vapid stuff that inspires no passion, either way. I just can't fake passion I don't feel.

if you pitch for ideas as opposed to being offered them, this isn't the case. i write *a lot*, and i still only really write about the stuff i like, unless its a singles review. i don't really enjoy writing lukewarm/negative reviews - if i dislike something, it goes in the To Sell bin and i move on.

yeah, wot stevie said.

This is a lovely ideal, but the reality is that no matter what you actually end up writing about, you still have to wade through a gigantic fucking shitpile of mediocre demos, CDs and (this is the clincher) awful awful dull gigs to get through to the good stuff - that's the thing that constantly threatens to kill the love for me, and that's what I think Kate's referring to in her first point.

Also, Doomie you're spot-on - Kathryn Williams album's magnificent...

it just seems to me, *any* job will get boring, if you let it. for me, as a freelancer, every day is different, every piece is a fucking *challenge* to be better than my last, to achieve some impossible goal of perfection. and i still really really really enjoy writing, and music. i don't think i'll ever tire of either, so to be working with both is a treat.

doomie otm.

This is a lovely ideal, but the reality is that no matter what you actually end up writing about, you still have to wade through a gigantic fucking shitpile of mediocre demos, CDs and (this is the clincher) awful awful dull gigs to get through to the good stuff - that's the thing that constantly threatens to kill the love for me, and that's what I think Kate's referring to in her first point.

charlie sorta otm, too... (and it was great to finally meet you at ATP, when my girlfriend was whupping my ass at airhockey)... i mean, listening to wave after wave of crap can be pretty disheartening, but i fight against that by slamming something 100% assuredly GREAT after listening to lotsa crap (MC5's '66 Breakout' or Duke Ellington's 'Money Train' or anything by the Posies seems to do that at the moment). I mean, being confronted with crap is a downer in any sphere, be it watching movies, reading books, listening to the radio. you just can't let it dowse your essential enthusiasm. i mean, i know that's a danger, but you just *can't*.

I'm just *not* a music journalist, it's not my calling, I've never wanted to be one, yet loads of other people have consistently told me (for over ten years now) that I should be one. It's irritating feeling like I have to justify not being one.

Anyway, back on topic... shroomadelica. It's really kind of a cop-out isn't it? Cause, like, Shrooms are the "legal loophole" psychedelic for those too scared to take hardcore, illegal psychedelics.

(I mean, that's not even getting into the stupidity of glamourising hardcore, illegal drug use, but that's another story...)

It perfectly encapsulates the NME mentality, doesn't it? Let's peddle a nice, safe, watered-down, legal version of an already exisiting genre. Sigh.

i love psychedelia.

i love illegal drugs.

hey. tailor made!

am listening to kw right now.

x-post - captain beefheart!

Bods have often said "hey mark, you should have been a journo for a music mag", all said bods not being writers (or even readers) of music mags. Its no put down, but as far as writing about stuff (check my "Laugh I almost bought one" marissa marchant piece/thread here, my critical facilities run only as far as "It's interesting/I like", "It's a bit dull/It's OK" and "Its Rubbish/I don't get it". I just can't quite get into florid hyperbolae. I can write around things, but to hit it directly...

I did write 'audition' pieces back in the day, of the Primitives second album. I finished it, read it, and realised I'd written a rave review of an album I didn't think was that great. (never played it again anyhow. The first album I think is still a classic, but that's by the way)...

This is going to be so xpost, it's not true... (xpost, yup!)

Can't we have a Proper Daft Clever Pop revival now? Saw David Devant last night, fucking brilliant.

Music recorded by people actually on psychedelic drugs sounds more like the Grateful Dead, i.e. terribly dull and tedious for anyone *not* on psychedelics.

Chop-chop!

So many of the people I've known who made really psychedelic music were the way they were a long time before they ever took drugs.

jesus, this was one of the most horrific shows i've seen all year... like a bunch of hoxton hairdresser born-again christians rocking through the soundtrack of Hair while pulling painful Radiohead faces. one of the guitarists wore the band's own tee shirt too. Icksville, Tennessee...

ha ha ha! cross that with a pop-prog monkees and you've got it. rocking!

They are? I hadn't noticed (which is quite possible)

me too.

doomie was from Hamilton?

I think this was the worst 'scene' that NME ever tried to create. ESOJ OTM upthread

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/mar/17/romo-skunk-rock-shroomadelica-music-genres

yeah yeah.

i will defend regular fries no matter what micro-genre they get lumped in with.

they were connected, the records were really well produced, had some amazing remixes by the top names of the day, and made tripped out psych-funk-hip hop-rock records.

if, you had no idea re their NME connection, i would suggest that in 10 years you would be hailing them as classics CS

I heard them at the time and thought they were crap.
Also I dont remember the term 'skunk rock' they got called in that above article.

i genuinely believe that if you heard the fries debut without any prior knowledge you would enjoy ..

but i heard them on the evening session before i read about them. I think i got a 12" of theirs for 50p in Impulse Records in Hamilton when it came out.

There was an attempted NME scene called 'stool' possibly late 90s. Don't think it ever caught on cos it's a shit title.
Despite the crap pun that is true. Think it was singer-songwriter plus band stuff.

was that the taking the piss out of noel rock thing?

yeah, stoolrock was Noely G-based

also Lo-Fis were great, Regular Fries were good, and if the first Campag album stopped after 45 minutes it'd be a lot better

despite the ILM consensus 'sic' tells the truth.

also, the second campag velocet album is a lot better than it should have been ..