Sleaford Mods

and yeah again this is not a dis on their tunes which sound like bands i've liked

i had a pretty negative reaction to smug retro-post-punk stuff like art brut and lcd soundsystem on first blush, but eventually found their humor and hooks so i'm not assuming these guys aren't similarly capable

Yeah I unfollowed him on Twitter pretty quick and I'm a sympathiser

he's certainly assiduous in re-tweeting praise for the band

I believe he was a big Oasis fan and spent the 90s and on doing rock bands the whole minimal loop thing was at least part in being frustrated & sick of it

cool

There's some 10 minute or so minidoc where he said basically got sick of working on these songs trying to make them "good" and sending pro sounding demoes to indie labels this was more like we can make a song in 5 minutes with words and a cheap loop

I like these guys, but this Guardian rant isn't saying anything more than 'commercial music is shit nowadays'. Jaded middle-aged punker types have been saying exactly this for decades. His argument runs into problems in that he gives no back-up examples.
By 'Samey Winehouse', I assume he's talking about a particular brand of UK popstar, the the kind who makes appearances on Saturday Kitchen, gets nominated for a Brit Award and is marketed to people who like Amy/Adele but ultimately lacks the ingredient that made these unique. By 'rock'n'roll', I assume he means a particular brand of swaggering post-Britpop UK rock, the kind the NME and the rest of the music industry have been hanging their hopes on since at least 1998. This is what I assume he's saying. It's all an assumption. But because he mentions, like, three examples, one of whom are Scouting For Girls (who haven't released anything since 2012), his attacks come off as arbitrary and not a little bit rockist in places.
Fact is, I am also going to assume his argument comes from the right place. I'm inclined to agree there's been an ongoing and growing problem with the UK music industry in the notable lack of risk-taking since the economic collapse. This has led to a lot of bland, easily categorisable music being pushed to wide customer niches - you go in the Razorlight box; you go in the Dizzee Rascal box; you go in the Adele box etc... Careers being built on the backs of others. In some ways it's nothing new - this is marketing after all. But as I think someone a while back on ILM said, we're a far cry away from the days when a modestly successful UK pop-rock band like XTC could be granted the studio time to record a '60s psych-influenced vanity spin-off project.
It's not like the US. You guys still have GOOD 'rock' bands, many of whom get decent coverage around the world, play cool festivals and don't just sound like staid cut'n'pastes of something that was popular 15-20 years ago. That's not to say the UK doesn't have exciting bands who do sound unique, fresh, innovative or exciting. Save just a handful of exceptions, the majority are touring a batch of clapped-out toilets in commuter towns trying to scrape a living off selling a batch of handpressed CD-Rs. They're not being interviewed by Pitchfork. They're not playing Coachella. They're not even playing Reading Festival or appearing on Saturday Kitchen because they haven't got a record label. While the music media bemoans the death of Britpop, it forgets the real reason UK music felt so alive and fertile at that time: chances were being taken on acts like Portishead, Aphex Twin, Tricky, the Chemical Brothers, Radiohead, Suede, Massive Attack and countless others. I can't even imagine a band like the Manic Street Preachers getting as popular now as they did in the 1990s. The majors wouldn't sign them and the indies just don't have the platform they might once have, and that's all down to money I guess.

Saturday Kitchen! i wish i had a show named Saturday Kitchen.

that's some old-school stuff from dog latin right there. you'd think this thread was ten years old.

His argument runs into problems in that he gives no back-up examples.

sadly that's not where his argument runs into problems

it's weird to hear him sing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cE0QC9nFrDE

track 4 on the new album by The Prodigy
'Ibiza' feat. Sleaford Mods

I'm looking forward to this (is it out?).

released in May I think

mostly pro-mods still, but:

he's certainly assiduous in re-tweeting praise for the band

soref otm, find the stream of 'AT LAST, real music with real attitude' retweets coming from them a bit dismal. The swagger-of-oasis satisfactions for 6Music culture-class.

& re:swagger, recent tweets say they're on The Who's support bill this summer, just above slydigs:

a mix between The Stone Roses and Primal Scream with the swagger of Oasis

I see that a lot on Twitter. Honestly, the fans like it as much as the artists; it's a mutual appreciation society.

"The smell of piss is so strong it smells like decent bacon" has to be one of the alltime best one-liners.

Tiswas EP is really good, they slowly seem to be moving away from the more garage rock sample beats, within their very limited minimal thing

ive no interest in the 'music' produced by these guys but I'm a fan of their analyses

would you particularly rate the observation that placed next to scouting for girls dollar sound like led zeppelin

Why are all their cultural reference points so ancient: Tiswas, Oompa Loompas, Buzz Lightyear, Touche Turtle, etc. Is it some kind of deliberate throwback to the days of Atilla the Stockbroker or whoever? Like Pulp singing about lyrcra and woodchip?

they're old tbf

I do not know dollar but have heard some led zep

Ha I don't understand like 75 percent of the references so they could be old or new English indie baseball angry man talk whaddya know

I do remember that in the mid-80s Dollar were the assumed to be the epitome of lightweight MOR fluff. Had a Dollar poster on the wall during my student days actually - partly ironic for them being so universally mocked, partly genuine because Trevor Horn connection validated my liking of some of their singles. Feels like you have to be mid-40s to make any sense of this.

deems I'm not the biggest led zeppelin fan, louis is more your man for that sort of raucous experimental uk prog-folk but fwiw this is my favourite led zep song

Sleaford Mods 30+ years behind Tracy Ullman.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GgkoaXWdXc

sorry wins i dont take candy from strangers, money from friends or music tips from internet message board i love music

they're playin' in fuckin' 'itchin tonight!

I do remember that in the mid-80s Dollar were the assumed to be the epitome of lightweight MOR fluff.

Not sure how true that is, Paul Morley never stopped going on about them so they were popular with the New Pop wing at the NME.

"mirror mirror" is an interesting tune.

"hand held in black and white" is pretty good too. Dollar were like Trevor Horn's pet project (before FGTH arrived)

I do remember that Dollar were assumed to be the epitome of mid-80s lightweight MOR fluff.

Fixed.

It was Trevor Horn's work with Dollar that got him the gig with FGTH/ ZTT I think? Certainly not his stint as Jon Anderson as Yes.

It definitely got him the gig with ABC for The Lexicon Of Love; Martin Fry's on the record about that.

"Ibiza" - The Prodigy ft Sleaford Mods - https://youtu.be/guUHZnbWoyo

a testament to Andrew Fearn's importance to the band

yep

wait, don't prodigy already have a ranter? what happened to their clown?

oh shit, did the clown die?

rip prodigy clown

Bad move for the Sleaford Mods to hitch their wagon to such has-beens.

xpost. As far I know, Trevor Horn only produced four songs for Dollar. The ones mentioned by various people upthread of course. Those songs are lauded retroactively by eg. ILM types for being Trevor Horn productions, not because they are Dollar songs. Most of their hits were produced by others.

wiki says keith flint (the funny hair prodigy shouty guy) is alive and well and still in the band

Bad move for the Sleaford Mods to hitch their wagon to such has-beens.

hey now the prodigy sound like aerosmith when placed next to newton faulkner

there I said it

Dud.

Don't know who Newton Faulkner is. But both the Mods and the Prodigy sound really old-fashioned right now. Their gigs are full of dudes in their forties. Not that there's anything wrong with that. Went to a couple of Exploited gigs in the 90s that were great fun.

I had to strain pretty hard to dredge up a target that would be as laughably "who? oh right, them" as SFG tbf

is that dog latin post real, the side comment about the US having REAL rock bands made me wonder if he was trying for his own ranty over music career

I never said anything about 'real' anything.

I apologize, you said GOOD

:)

Anyway, that Prodigy thing is really really terrible. may as well have got Keith Flint to shout 'oibeefa! Wass 'e fackin' doing?' over that sad excuse for a beat and saved Williamson the trouble.
enjoyed seeing them the other night at a packed out local show. surprised that the average age was, yes, about 45 or perhaps more. kind of expected there to be a bit of a hip, younger contingent but not really. spoke to the dad of a friend outside who was enthusing about them. then had to endure some grumpy bugger i know who hates everything go on about 'they're good but they'll never last unless they get a proper band together' which was pretty lol.