Topic: The Music Thread

@nessisonett I think the trope is less "black people can't play the guitar" and more "rappers can't play guitar" which kind of links to what @jimmer-jammer said where there's people who are willing to put in the work and those that aren't and it's really really hard not to view much of the hip hip community* as mostly uninterested in "the craft" of it all, so not really trying to put in the finger-bleeding hours it takes when they can make way more money mumbling out half-assed bars over well produced beats.

Edit: probably don't need to say this but in the interest of civility I'd like to clarify that I know we're talking about a very diverse community of artists and I don't mean to paint them all with the same brush.

@Jimmer-jammer I didn't take it that way but then, it wasn't directed at me.

I'm somewhere in the middle here where I could see there being a 'rappers aren't guitarists' trope but not one based solely on race. I mean there's Gary Clark Jr, Michael Kiwanuka, Leon Bridges etc. But then it'd be a tad disingenuous to act like there's not a racial slant to even the modified trope I proposed.

Guess I mean I don't see any harm in bringing it up.

@Jimmer-jammer I think you’ve somewhat misunderstood my point. The Lil Wayne thing was 13 years ago and people still bring it up. There does exist a level of derision aimed at primarily black rappers who crossover into rock and metal. When you correlate that with the continued success of NSBM and people like Phil Anselmo being overtly racist at a bloody memorial concert of his bandmate of all things, it’s very hard to not be suspicious of intent. The Kid Cudi thing is a separate point, in that artists branching out into genres that they’re passionate about is surely a good thing, even if the resulting product isn’t perfect by any stretch of the matter.

Like to point out too that I’m absolutely not speaking about your intent specifically, but more the way that Lil Wayne especially is still brought up by ‘the wider music community’. I really don’t have any problem at all with what you’ve said.

@Jimmer-jammer yeah fwiw I haven't taken anything to be rude. I'm not typically too stressed out about anyone's opinion (or approach for that matter). But yeah I kinda piggybacked off your comment and probably shouldn't have. Your words being yours and mine being mine.

I feel like I've stirred up enough trouble so I'll shut up and let nessi weigh in should they want to.

@Jimmer-jammer Honestly, it’s hard to really get across basically anything online. Probably a lesson for me to learn in articulating myself better!

There was one guy I remember seeing at a charity all-dayer in London about 10 years ago who was ace called Random Impulse.

He used to do loads of “refixes” of songs and I always liked his version of Fell in Love With a Girl (I can only find this acoustic version).

When I saw him, it was only him playing and he was just awesome. This song I remember as it was just damn catchy.

I have a couple of his EPs which were really good but I don’t know what happened to him. I think he changed his name and went more down the straight grime sound.

A quick google and it seems he was still going as “Jovel” until a year ago. And still doing refixes.

@Thrillho It’s always interesting to have that one person who you’ve seen and were brilliant live but nobody else has seemingly heard of them. I’ve seen loads of support acts for bands who were really quite great but unfortunately I have no idea what they’re called.

I listened to Modern Life is Rubbish by Blur. It’s alright. I love the more psychedelic songs like Miss America but the album does tend to drag a bit.

@nessisonett Yeah, I used to go to a LOT of gigs when I was at uni in London and came across some great bands as support acts or at some of the free shows I used to go to.

There was a great place in Notting Hill that used to do free gigs every week with a good array of bands. I think Pulled Apart By Horses were probably the ones that went on to be most well known.

As for Blur, I never really got into them. I think I own 13 which was a present when I was young and then only have Think Tank. Both have a heavy input from Graham Coxon so are a bit more out there. I find it a little funny that he had that influence on the band when his solo stuff was so pop punky.

To bring the post full circle, I saw him live in London and he really is a great guitarist.

@nessisonett @Thrillho When I was at school it seemed to be that people fit into one of two camps, those that liked Blur and those that liked Oasis. As I didn't really appreciate Oasis I guess you'd say I was in the Blur camp even though they weren't really someone I'd generally listen to anyway. Eventually I got into them a bit around the 13 and Think Tank albums so said I'd go and watch them with a mate.

While they were enjoyable to watch as a band they must have played 3 - 4 tracks that we knew, the rest being some heavier stuff from earlier albums that we didn't really know, so felt a bit deflated by that.

@Thrillho @render See, I have the benefit of hindsight which means I fall firmly in the ‘Pulp are better than both Oasis and Blur’ category! I probably prefer the Welsh scene at that time as a whole though, they had a brilliant group of bands around.

@Thrillho @nessisonett You are lucky to realise that now as I wish I had at the time. My mates girlfriend and some of her friends were very much into Pulp so they were a band that we listened to but just didn't appreciate until we were much older.

Pulp are my favourite band of the '90s.

@nessisonett @render @johncalmc I very nearly posted “at least you’re not one of the people who says Pulp when asked whether you prefer Blur or Oasis” earlier.

I did love Oasis at the time though. I still think Slide Away from the first album is a really underrated song of theirs.

My wife wanted to watch that film “Yesterday” recently about the guy waking up in a world where the Beatles don’t exist and I did like the dig at Oasis as they no longer existed either..

@Jimmer-jammer What have you been listening to recently? I've mostly been sticking to my jazz guitar heroes - John Scofield and John Abercrombie. I played at a jazz jam last weekend and was trying to channel their abilities, playing at another one soon and I hope to continue to develop my skills, jazz can be a life-long obsession, despite what I said about returning to rock, jazz has captured my heart and playing in the novice rather than the intermediate group this time around has designated less significance to theory-based playing and more of an emphasis on feel and improvisation, which I feel is all jazz should really be about, how is your own piano playing going?

@Jimmer-jammer How did the rest of 'Show Your Bones' by the Yeah Yeah Yeah's play out? I quite liked Maps by them, back in the day. Do you know that song, also? What are you listening to over the weekend? @render @nessisonett t What music have you been listening to recently?

@TheBrandedSwordsman I’ve been listening to Richard Hawley. He’s basically what ‘easy listening’ should actually be. Good stuff.

@Jimmer-jammer I was listening to this album:

Let me know what you think!

@nessisonett Listening to Standing at the Sky's Edge now. Captivating thus far. When you say it's what easy listening music should actually be like, though, isn't it a bit too rocky for that?

@TheBrandedSwordsman That album specifically is quite rocky yeah but albums like Coles Corner, Lady’s Bridge and his self-titled album are more what I was referring to.

@nessisonett Listening to Coles Corner now, definitely easy listening - great stuff.