Whilst I understand that the allegations leave this sour disgust when his music comes up, I feel censorship is always a tricky line to take in these cases.
Firstly, people are going to seek this kind of stuff out even more than if you'd never even said anything. Now it's BANNED, I feel there's going to be a lot of people watching it more, especially online. Which kind of defeats the purpose. Though, I understand the makers not wanting the royalties money they'd probably get through such a piece of media.
Secondly, it sets a dangerous precedent. What happens to the films of Polanski, Spacey, Weinstein? The music of Little Richard, Presley, Led Zep, The Stones? Hell, even Bowie. How about the art of Gaugin? It's a tricky line to tread and what if society or the government decide a certain idea needs censoring, instead of an individuals actions? How about The Jackson 5? Was that ok because he was a kid then and hadn't started being an abusive adult? It's so bloody complex!
However, I understand the reasoning behind it all and accept and understand if people want to avoid his music from now on. It just is all too complex...
While we're on the subject of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory, does anyone remember 'Wonky Beats' from Darwin Deez, an odd selection of 'covers', takes, remixes and whatnot from the Willy Wonka soundtrack featuring the likes of Das Racist & Dev Hynes? I kind of loved this thing and feel like no-one really heard it. It's still available to download online I think as a zipfile...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=594ofaA4T0s
I only just discovered it was about him and, actually looking at the lyrics, just ugh. I often forget that lyrics are often about REAL stuff for the artist, unless I'm in the right zone to do that with a song or band. Might have to start engaging more...
I honestly had no idea the Wurzels were copying something. Today I've heard a song for the first time and realised the original was not about a combine harvester. This feels like the time I thought the Bee Gees were covering Feist for a split second when I heard 'Love You Inside Out' on the radio, before realising Feist was not around in the 1970s.
Man, I'm sick of these abusive guys who manage a successful career and can't manage to keep control over their penis. And yet I know how sick and tired and gross I feel at the whole mess is NOTHING compared to all the women that have to deal with this shit. Bloody hell.
Also interesting that Bridgers hinted VERY HEAVILY at this in May last year and nothing came of it.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/music/interviews/phoebe-bridgers-interviewryan-adams-got-together-40th-birthday/
As a British guy who has lived in the midlands, the South, London and spent some short time up North (Bradford area), I feel class is such an odd thing in Britain today. We definitely still have the upper class squelching about with Eton emblazoned on their foreheads to ensure they get ahead in life easily. However, I feel working class and middle class have become very muddled over the last decade or two. I have family who would probably be catalogued as 'working class' based on income and jobs but they own a house, go on holiday and have expensive technology surrounding them. I know money isn't the ultimate signifier of class but what is then nowadays? Background? The way you talk? The job you do? I think it's too complex to simply distill down to 'they aren't working class' or they are middle class, so their voice isn't authentic.
Also, I'm definitely 'middle class'. Well-to-do parents. Mum's a nurse. Dad's in marketing. Went to Florida as a kid. Had a couple of cars in the driveway of our three bed semi-detached. I'm working as a teacher now in Brighton and Hove. HOWEVER, I still am pissed off at the rich ruling our country. I still am struggling to buy a house or settle down due to the cost of renting, life, bills, travel. Why assume Idles are angry as 'working class' people by attacking the 'Tarquins' of the world? I'm angry as a middle class man at them for the way they treat EVERYONE below them. I can see they are ruining lives of those with barely any money or those with disabilities or those with any true struggle in life. However, I also feel they don't care about me and my future. I have no idea if I can ever afford kids. I don't know what pension age will be for me at this rate. Why can't 'middle class' and 'working class' all be angry at the richest who stab downwards and take everything they can for themselves?
First you came for Chairman of the Board with a 4/10 and I said nothing (though I actually kinda did say something in the comments).
Now, you come for Carole King with a 5/10 and I am saying something.
And that something is SHAME.
Chairman of the Board's soulful pleading, aching, begging 'Give Me Just A Little More Time' as a 4?! A FOUR?!?! How dare you! It would be an easy 9 for me. I always go back to Chairman to remind me of my dad as when we used to drive to and from football practice and games on a weekend, there was a good year when a Chairman of the Board Best Of was constantly on rotation in the CD drive and I learnt every damn song off by heart singing along with my dad....
A FOUR?!?!?!
I wish he had released a studio version of this so badly. Stevie could turn this saccharine sweet pop into a wonderfully realised despairing robot wailing his poor metal heart out.
Also, check out the guitarist almost forgetting he's meant to be playing at 0:36....
My former teenage indie self was very much in love with this version of Flesh Failures by Lightspeed Champion, aka Dev Hynes when he was still in indie pop transition.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBhqavEw1qA
Agreed with the above comments that Herb just brings NOTHING to this track that needs charisma and a 'voice'. There are lots of much better covers but my favourite is this one from Sammy Davis Jr who just rubs his charm all over it on stage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-xCTaDhYWQ
His last album was such a pleasant surprise for me. I was sent it in an email as I used to write for a few (very tiny British) blogs and fell in love with his voice almost immediately and his lyrics kept grabbing me the more I listened to the LP. Excited to absorb this over the next couple of weeks...
Not quite as deep as some of these but my favourite of hers that is relatively not heard as widely as it should is 'Baby, Baby, Baby' from I Never Loved A Man...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n99NQ02Y7BE
Great tune but WOAH Gameshark takes me back to being a lil' kid when my buddy had one bought for his Playstation when we were like 8, sat in his front room, scrolling through all these crazy cheats for each of his games. Nostalgia flashback title.
I CANNOT WAIT to hear this thing in full, on vinyl, with a bourbon in my hand. Just feels right.
I first saw him when I saw Kendrick at a London day festival and he was on a smaller stage. I had heard a few bits but went to check him out and the whole show just blew my mind. I scraped together my pennies and bought The Epic on vinyl the next day.
I also really kinda hope he gets to have a go at a soundtrack for something sometime soon. I think that could be reaaaaally interesting...
Me and my missus spent an enjoyable ten minutes waiting for a band (Peaness for those that care) thinking about what bands/artists are yet to have a musical created for them, who probably will/should in the next few years.
Bowie hasn't had a BIG ONE but there was Lazarus a couple of years ago (which was just alright TBH, although I was sat next to PJ Harvey, which was exciting).
Fleetwood Mac was one we thought would make a good musical. Rumours, in itself, would be a great story.
Any other ideas?
I mean, it's really shitty when something like this happens to a young, evidently-troubled dude.
But, honestly, I kind of don't care. I'm not sure if that makes me shitty but there are refugees struggling to survive, kids being locked up away from their parents, slaves dying whilst being forced to build giant stadiums in Qatar. I know sympathy and sadness isn't a finite thing but THAT SHIT is the stuff that gets my angry, depressed and disturbed. A piece of shit person who happens to be a rapper with a decent flow and musical ability, who, at 20 years old, made the conscious decision it was cool to abuse a pregnant woman and commit assault on his girl.
Sure, it' sad but I kind of don't care. Does it make me a little shitty? Maybe. I think I'm ok with that though, especially after seeing friends come out of abusive relationships and girls that I teach in schools facing abuse at home.
The Beachwood Sparks version of this was me and my wife's first dance at our wedding. Every time I hear it, I think of dancing like a fool around our living room trying to perfect some 'movement' with my gazelle-like uncoordinated better half.
It's always bugged me how Kendrick rapped lyrics like 'show me somethin natural like an ass with stretch marks', then shows finely photoshopped, ideal women in his videos, in lingerie, hanging around a bed he's lying on.
100%. I love Kendrick's music so much but, just like with any of these celebs, as soon as they start showing a side of themselves that seems to promote or push shitty actions or ideas, from abuse to harassment, then we have to question them as 'fans' of their art.
I think I can still separate the 'art' from the 'artist' BUT it doesn't mean we can't ask our artists to hold higher, better, kinder values.
Stumbled accidentally into a show of hers at the Great Escape in Brighton last weekend. Was meant to be seeing a band next door but the sound system went bust, so me and a buddy headed in to see her, which was a blessing in disguise.
About 30 seconds into the first song and I thought 'Cranberries'. I'm a big fan of The Cranberries, so I was instantly smitten. Love this new stuff too.
I was only young when he died but, when I discovered him as a teenager, he soundtracked every broken heart and lost love I had from the ages of 16-20. Any emotional setback and out came Buckley.
So, rather than refute the claims, he's stating that the media should have called him out as an abusive, rapey, manipulative piece of shit years ago (therefore, making the point that he is these things).
Well, whilst I kind of agree with the abusive, rapey, manipulative piece of shit on this matter, still, he should piss right off.
I'm digging this track a fair bit. However, I'd like to use this forum to suggest that Tyler and Kali Uchis release an album together, like Marvin Gaye and Diana Ross did in the 70s. I'd buy that thing ten times.
Personally, no cover can be bested if Louis Armstrong has already performed it. The guy always makes me feel like I'm in a super twee 1960s romantic adventure.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fd_JDrnBMMA
This whole debacle of singing this word still confuses me. I agree that singing it out in public, driving around town shouting the lyrics out of your car window, is pretty horrifying. I see you guys claim it's ok to sing along by yourself but plenty of people really seem to disagree with this too.
I understand the use of it in some art forms, especially some hip-hop. However, so many hip-hop artists throw it in to choruses as a catch-all term. It becomes too 'unimportant'. It appears in big pop songs and smash hits, so millions of white people sing along constantly.
It's a horrific term with horrific origins and I understand the argument that it's being 'claimed' by the black community. However, when a rapper is chucking it in a chorus about having sex, then I feel it's lost its power in some way.
It's a confusing mess that I know we won't solve in the Stereogum comments. However, I teach English and read To Kill A Mockingbird with classes. I've read it in a very ethnically diverse classroom (albeit in the UK) and a very white classroom. Both times I've used the word in reading BUT I always made sure to explain and discuss the history, meaning and context before we read. It makes for fascinating discussions and the class are always very engaged. I don't know what this adds to the debate but I find it interesting to engage with the word so my students know it's history and intent.
As a nerdy British teenager when these guys came around, they were my 'indie' friendship groups go-to-pre-drinking tunes for quite a while.
Personally, I'd add in Down With Prince somewhere, along with Colours and Look After Me. That was prime Hot Chip nostalgia for me, however.
As a Cardi B critic previously, I have somehow fallen in love with her in the video to Finesse. She looks & sounds like she's having a ball and I dig that so much.
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