Counterforce

Well, here it is, kids. The long and winding road of Britpop week has lead us here and what a long, strange journey it’s been. And if I could’ve packed that sentence with more references and cliches, then by God, I would have. But for our conclusion, I (Marco) think Lollipop and I would like to kick it old school (like we have all week, really) with just a few more of our favorite songs…

And I’ll let my co-blogger kick it off. Lollipop?

Lollipop Gomez: Yes, we are finally fucking done with London. We have no money, we’ve already gone through every flavor of potato chip, the novelty of buying diagonally cut sandwiches from Tesco for 98p has worn off, Yorkie candy bars no longer make us laugh (yeah we get it they’re not for birds. Shut up!), we no longer jump onto the Tube when she tells us “Mind The Gap!”, and we wear so much black we’ve been asked for directions from 4 different earnest Americans already, so we kind of, sort of feel like we are one with London. It’s time to move on, one last hurrah, one last cup of tea, one last English breakfast, one last curry, one last pack of Silk Cuts.

“Ask” by The Smiths.

Marco Sparks: Women, women, women. I think I’ve had probably more failures in romance than I have had successes (especially circa the Britpop era) but I did have one English girlfriend a long time ago and, I’m not going to lie to you, my friends (if I can sound like John McCain for just a moment there), this song…

…more than reminds me of her. That’s “Female Of The Species” by Space, and having never seen Space before watching some of their videos just now, I never knew what chavs they were. But damn talented chavs, for sure.

Lollipop: Like Marco, I haven’t done very well with ladies either. Maybe that’s because I date men. I was dating a man when I was in London. Traveling with someone you are in love with is simultaneously the best and worst thing you can possibly do for your relationship. You’re far away so you feel so close to this person, but you’re also spending every waking minute with them and you want to push them into the River Thames. Or you just want them to leave you alone as you check your e-mail at Burger King (which for some reason, has Internet). But, as you walk through Covent Garden or the cute little shops of Notting Hill or you sit in a basement eating fish & chips with the one you love, you can’t help but feel mostly love. Love that they’re there, love that you’re sharing this experience with them, love that they’re drinking that gin and tonic and they light your smokes in the pub and you can’t help but feel the way you did when you first  met…which is like this song (“Temptation” by New Order):

Marco: Another excellent choice there, Lollipop. Much like the reader, I’m following along on your vacation with you, not so much a tourist in the sense you are, or were, but more voyeuristic, like a tourist on vacation in your memories. I love that you used “Temptation,” an excellent song, and I’m going to use one by the same band that makes me think lyrically of similar experiences to the adventures in your continuing travelogue.

“Ceremony” cover by Radiohead on their “Thumbs down” webcast on November 9, 2007.

This is from the last batch of songs that Ian Curtis wrote before he died when the band was still Joy Division and thus it became the first New Order single. It’s an amazing song from a band with a full catalog of amazing songs and I really like cover by the experimental one hit wonder band that went on to have a few more hits and experiments, Radiohead.

Lollipop: I love New Order so much as well as Joy Division that I’m going throw it back, Sparks and give you a little bit of Joy Division. On those nights at karaoke when I’m crying into my Jack Daniel’s, there is no better song to sing than this one. And in any case, it’s so true, love will tear us apart. Again and again and again.

“Love Will Tear Us Apart” by Joy Division.

Marco: And now it’s become my duty to cheer up Lollipop. Love will tear us all apart, bit by bit it’ll devour our hearts if we let it. But you have to. You have to make yourself available to the cannibal urges of romance, because that special love, that something perfect will only find willing victims and will never, ever sniff it’s way to the carefully guarded cautious boring types. You can’t stay still, you always have to be ready to move again, to get back on that metaphorical dance floor…

“Ready For The Floor” covered by Duffy.

There was a new movement thrown together years and years ago called poptimism to semi-ironically combat rockism. Basically, as the afterword to Phonogram states, it was just an excuse to dance, which is something you never need an excuse to do. Right now dancing makes me think of Hot Chip, (I feel honor bound to mention that the singer dresses up like the Joker in that bizarre video because the lyrics refer back to Jack Nicholson’s portrayal of the character in the 1989 Batman movie) and gets me thinking of this song, of which I actually prefer the cover by Duffy. Duffy (whose producer on her debut was the guitar player in Suede, thus buying her ample Britpop cred out her Welsh wazoo) is unabashedly an attempt to cash in on a little of that Amy Winehouse train wreck vibe, but personally, I’m okay with that since I’m not really that in the Winehouse club (she looks like something that goes bump in the night, honestly)(bumping for crack!). Duffy strikes me as just as talented, but more enthusiastic about music (despite very talented singers like Estelle and Allison Goldfrapp slagging off on her), and a hell of a lot better looking with a tinge of a young Brigitte Bardot thing, which is never a bad thing.

Lollipop: I’m going to have to disagree with Sparks, as the original version of “Ready For The Floor” is way better. I do an excellent version of it at karaoke (no video exists, but ask me after next Saturday, I may be
able to reproduce it). One way to combat rockism is with hot synthesizers and very few do it better than Dave Gahan and Depeche Mode. Continuing our la-la-la love fest, here is a song about giving in to sin, because well, you have to make this life liveable.

“Strange Love” by Depeche Mode.

Marco: Not surprisingly, Lollipop goes and ups the ante on me. But am I scared? No, not at all. Marco Sparks always has an ace up his sleeve. Or, barring any sleeves, he has one somewhere in a pants pocket. And here it is:

“A View To A Kill” by Duran Duran feat. Mark Ronson.

I do sometimes have to question if Ronson deserves the level of attention he gets, but another thing you should know about me is that I love Bond films. And as a non-limey, how can you talk about British music/culture and not talk about how the Bond phenomenon has impacted both? I love this live version of one of my favorite Bond tunes (to one of the most ridiculous of the movies) because it’s a wonderfully fresh take on the tune and is preceded by a fancy little Bond theme medley. This is me dancing into the fire and all over Lollipop’s face.

Lollipop: Get your dirty shoes away from me, bitchface! My next song is Pulp’s “Common People” which I stole from Marco by pointing at a shiny object in the opposite direction. It works every time. I stole the song, he started to cry, I slapped him for being a little bitch, he kept crying. I play the song as loud as possible. It’s so good!

Marco: And there’s Lollipop, yet again, trying to use me as a toilet. And using one of my favorite songs to do it. Sigh. You have to admire Jarvis Cocker as a musical icon, despite his essentially having Brando’s voice but with an English accent tacked on, just because he is so very professorly sleazy smart. Plus, there’s the weirdness of “the Michael Jackson incident.”

But I guess that leaves me to end it, and on somewhat of a high note, if possible. Bloody hell! We hope you enjoyed Britpop week as much as we did and are left drooling madly at what new, weird shit we’re cooking up in our sodding TARDIS. Well, as the British would say, Piss off!

…with a great song: “On And On” by The Longpigs.

Britpop week nears it’s bloody and gruesome ending but before our final post, I wanted to, as Peanut so wonderful put it, shoot our load one last time on some Britpoppery…

IGN’s Top 25 Britpop albums.

The 100 greatest Britpop artists?

Live Forever: The Rise and Fall of Britpop (part 1):

Kieron Gillen’s treatise on the beauty of Kenickie (“A bunch of fuckwits”). Especially fascinating since Kieron wrote an excellent graphic novel called Phonogram about magicians who root their magic in the power of music, and in the case of the first volume (“Rue Britannia,” which has an introduction by Luke Haines of The Auteurs), in Britpop. It’s very informative and beautiful researched and helped me fill quite a few gaps in my memory about Britpop and the world of Cool Britannia. If you’re looking for Hellblazer, just a little more and quite possibly a little less sleazy. You can read the entire first issue online.

There’s a volume 2, entitled “The Singles Club” coming out and I’m excited.

“Come Out 2Nite” by Kenickie.

“What Do I Do Now?” by Sleeper (which featured Louise Wener, the Keira Knightley of Britpop).

“Reaching For Heaven” by Heavy Stereo.

“Everything You Say Will Destroy You” by The Auteurs (live on Jools Holland).

The Verve and bittersweet success.

Beware those indie britpop kids out there.

Here’s the front man of Suede (who I should really say more about, except… I’m not all that crazy about them) saying that Britpop was horrible and “a whole boozy, cartoon-like, fake working-class thing” and that his band wasn’t a part of it. Except that they were. They were also the original blueprint for Placebo in a lot of ways.

Live Forever, part 2:

Here’s I am fuel, you are friends talking about the Live Forever docu.

The Trainspotting soundtrack. I really should mention that this is somewhat of a milestone of the Britpop era. And there’s even a volume 2!

Oh, and I should probably mention something about lad culture, which started to go hand in hand with British music in the 90′s. Also, apparently “the toilet because the golf course” since that’s where all the deals were being done. And what were they doing? A blizzard of cocaine.

Britpop: Where are they now?

Completely unrelated: A British couple got sentenced to jail time for having sex on a beach in Dubai.

The Wombats – “Let’s Dance To Joy Division” (mp3)

So, stay tuned as Lollipop and I wrap up Britpop later today, and until then… Go do great things, everybody.

BritPop week continues, whether you like it or not. Let’s continue our tour of London.

There are a lot of museums in London and for the most part, they are all free (their government actually values their citizens obtaining cultural literacy and being able to visit museums without worrying about a huge donation fee, fancy that!). If you are interested in remaining friends with the person you are traveling with (and lord knows, I wasn’t), you will only attempt to visit two because they are the only ones worth going to. The first, the National Gallery of Art. It’s old art, so there’s a lot of creepy giant paintings of women, like this one:

Kitchen Scene with Christ in the House of Martha and Mary', probably 1618

Sunflowers by Van Gogh is also here and you should see it here and NOT in Amsterdam. You probably think it’d be a totally awesome idea to check out Van Gogh while tripping on shrooms. How wrong you are, little traveler. See it here. The National Gallery is a big, cavernous, echo-ey space with so many intricate, larger than life pieces that were so painstakingly done, when you walk out, you feel a little spaced out, a little high, the way I feel when I hear this Cure song…

The Cure, How Beautiful You Are

You can have your very own independent movie with dreary, old architechture London in the background to that song. When you keep walking, and walking, and walking only to be caught in the motherfucking rain once again, here’s what to do: you find a pub, you get a cottage pie and a beer (if you order a cocktail, they will make you mix it. If I wanted to make my own drink, I would have stayed in my hotel room and watched Skins!) and you pretend to be totally into the soccer game everyone else is watching. It kind of sucks, to be stuck in this stupid pub, but hey, you’re on an international vacation. Suck it up, partner. You are very, very lucky:

The Verve, Lucky Man

If you’re going to hit up another museum in town, make it the Tate. The Tate is modern art, so by its very definition, full of bullshit, but the building itself is really fucking cool: it’s a renovated power station. My favorite piece? Jackson Pollock’s Summertime 1948. I even hate to put this pathetic picture in this post, but this up close is the reason you even bother to deal with a museum.

Most people are so used to seeing reproductions that to see something like this upclose, not that re-print you bought at the poster sale your freshman year, makes dealing with getting here worth it. And Tower Bridge is super close. Seeing a Pollock up close and Tower Bridge, such iconic London will get you out of your rain induced malaise and almost make you forget the dollar is worth 50 cents. Yay!

Republica, Ready To Go

Britpop week continues with a hard, nasty vengeance!

Lollipop and I’ve talked a little bit about Britpop and British pop with you in our previous two installments, but tonight, let’s chat a little about the inspirations of Britpop…

And who better to start with than the original Oasis vs. Blur battle?

“Real Love” by The Beatles.

The John Lennon demo that was jumped upon by the three (then) surviving Beatles as part of the Beatles Anthology back in 1995. This is probably a horrible example of the essence of the videos, but at the same time, I think you could make an argument about it getting to the very core of what the Beatles were, a certain kind of gentleness, a simple sense of love, and a fun atmosphere, all of which were easily swept up into Britpop. That, and it’s just a really nice tune when you sit down and enjoy it.

Here’s the boys from Liverpool with the radiant Dusty Springfield, whom I’ll talk about in Friday’s post and here’s Dusty performing on her own.

And on the flip side of that, we have:

“Sympathy For The Devil (Neptunes remix)” by The Rolling Stones.

Honestly, what can you say about this song that hasn’t been said before? It originally appeared on the Stones’ classic 1968 Beggars Banquet album, while it’s primarily a Mick Jagger composition (and not a wholly original one in places, drawing ideas from Baudelaire and The Master and Margarita) but you can’t dispute it’s place in history. Of course there’s Altamont, and of course, “American Pie.” And then there’s the covers of it (GNR!).

Here’s the trailer to Godard’s 1968 film Sympathy For The Devil (originally entitled One Plus One by the director). Oh, and here’s the Stones playing the song at Altamont. Oh, and if you’re wondering why I used the Neptunes remix of the song here, it’s because, well, I just happen to like it. Suck it.

A brief interlude: Yesterday Lollipop posted my favorite Blur video, “Coffee and TV,” and since I just talked about the original Oasis and Blur’s, two bands that were inspired by old American Bluesmen, I thought I’d share this excellent clip about the Oasis vs. Blur war:

I swear to God that Noel Gallagher should be a spokesperson for political candidates. When asked about whether the Blur vs. Oasis conflict was really about middle class vs. working class, he said, “Not to say that the dirt under your fingernails is some sort of badge of honor, you know, it’s not. It’s just a fact. They never had a paper route, you know. I had a milk route and stuff like that. I worked on building sites. That fundamentally makes my soul a lot purer than theirs.” Brilliant.

I should say one more quick thing about Blur here, in particular one of their influences being a 60′s mod group called Small Faces, witnessed in the song “Lazy Sunday.” Continuing on…

“For Your Love” by The Yardbirds.

It amazes me how much when we don’t talk about The Yardbirds when we talk about influential British groups from the 60′s. Especially when we talk about it’s place in history as the launching pad for three of England and rock in general’s most prominent guitar players: Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Jimmy Page. Also, when The Yardbirds broke up, there was still some touring commitments in other parts of Europe and since Jimmy Page was the only member left, his manager and he put together a new band, originally called The New Yardbirds, but who then evolved into a little known band called Led Zeppelin.

Here’s The Yardbirds doing a cameo in one of my favorite movies, Antonioni’s masterpiece, Blow-Up.

Moving onto my final song and band for today, I’ll go back again to Blur. In 1993, Damon Albarn was asked if Blur was an “anti-grunge” band and he replied, “If punk was about getting rid of hippies, then I’m getting rid of grunge.” But from grunge, Britpop then started going after grunge’s cousin on methaqualone: shoegaze.

It wasn’t long before shoegaze bands like Ride and Slowdive and Spitfire were being attacked by Britpop artists in the press along with the American grunge groups, with the exception of Oasis. Not only did Noel Gallagher eventually bring Andy Bell from Ride into Oasis, Noel said in 1996 that Kurt Cobain was the only songwriter from the last ten years that he had any respect for and that their music was similar enough that Cobain probably could’ve written “Wonderwall.” Lush and The Stone Roses also got somewhat of a free pass as well, as did our last artist for the night…

“Sometimes” by My Bloody Valentine.

I could probably go on forever about MBV, so I’ll have to restrain myself a bit, only to say that thankfully they’re back together now (in some form) and just as loud. This is easily their best known song and using the clip from Lost In Translation has to buy me intense hipster cred, yeah? Regardless, if you don’t have their classic album Loveless, then go get it now. It’s essential. Here’s a link to MBV doing one of my favorite songs, Louis Armstrong’s “We Have All The Time In The World.”

Lollipop will be back tomorrow with even more sweet tunes for you, so I’ll leave you with this quite frankly hideous photo of Dusty Springfield that she’s demanded I use:

I’m tired, the same kind of tired you feel when you get to London, jet-lagged and wanting to cry from the complete ineptitude of Heathrow, and you finally figure out which Tube to take, and you sit your tired, recycled-air ass down, as your body, previously running on adrenaline, starts to slowly run out of that particular chemical and one need takes over: you must get to sleep, and you must get to sleep now.

flickr.com/photos/simonbleasdale

But, you’re an hour from the city, so you sit. Quietly, not wanting to be a loud American. And so you try to stay awake and you listen to the accents of everyone around you. They’re real and they’re beautiful and they signify one thing: you’re not in the USA anymore. It sounds obvious but you don’t really get that you’ve left, that you’re far away, until you hear the accent and all of a sudden, you’re the one talking funny.  But hey, you’ve made it across the ocean and you’re ready to drink some warm beer.

1. Blur, “Coffee & TV”

Coffee in London is not like it is here. The tea is better and you can go to little Middle Eastern kebab shops to get it where the owner will dress it for you, full of milk and sugar. When the going gets tough, the tough go to Starbucks.

2. Oasis, “Don’t Look Back In Anger”

The Parliament, or Big Ben is the most beautiful structure I have ever seen up close. You never realize how much of a kid the United States is, until you go elsewhere and see how fucking old everything else is. I’d like to tell you my boyfriend did not have me wait until 4:20 to snap a picture of Big Ben, but then I’d be lying.

3. James, “Say Something”

British people don’t talk on public transit. The most gauche thing I saw someone do was eat a candy bar.The loudest ones are the kids and the Americans, acting like complete dumbasses because you’re on a double decker bus (OMG IT’S LIKE THE BUS TIMES TWO!) and it is taking you two whole hours to get from one end of Oxford Street to another.

4. Jesus Jones, “Right Here, Right Now”

I’m going to step out of my “narrative” here and say how surprised I am to see that Jesus Jones is listed as Britpop (thanks wikipedia!). But, this song is truly wonderful and pretty much cements the early 90s for me. Except let’s never go back to being 12 years old again.

5. Coldplay, “Trouble”

Is it Britpop? Is it British music that is also pop? Yes. I think I win this one.

London is really expensive and almost entirely like America. But, I love it, the same way I love to hate this horrible, melodramatic song.

At this point, you’re in your hotel room, it’s 11am and even though you vow that you’re going to push through, stay up until a normal time, get on the British schedule, what ends up happening is you lay down on the bed and you are gone, out until at least 9:30pm. And then you go out, utterly confused by what time it is, and you find yourself a nice old pub to sit in. Until they kick you an hour later. It’s okay, though: warm beer doesn’t really taste that good.

Till next time…

Counterforce After Dark

Welcome to Britpop week here at Counterforce!

Originally I approached Lollipop about doing a joint Counterforce After Dark post on our love for 90′s British music, but it turned out we loved Britpop quite a bit. That combined with our (my) ability to talk way too much… Well, it’s a lethal and sexy combination, to be sure…

Britpop (“the scene that celebrates itself“), as it’s commonly known, is simple little genre, referencing the 60s and early 70s British guitar pop and reacting against the growing music trends of the late 80s and early 90s, in particular the American invasion of grunge. The emphasis, refreshingly, was on fun, with a tendency towards catchy hooks and lyrics relevant to the working-class British youth of the time period, much like it’s non-psychedelic 60s ancestors. Something way too easily parodied.

Spewed out of the same homegrown talent factories such as the Swinging London acts and the Madchester scene that manufactured Britpop also came a lot of sub-genres and criticisms, such as rockism (even though it had been around since the early 80s), but you also had a larger culture movement across the pond: Cool Britannia.

Cool Britannia (besides being a Ben & Jerry’s flavor), put simply, was cultural movement, much like an update of the swinging 60′s London, and combining the britpop at the time with a fashion sense and even a lifestyle sense. And of course crystallized by a fresh new feeling of change that was erupting with the rise of Blair’s New Labor party.

Well, that’s enough of a primer to Britpop for now, especially with the whole week ahead of us, don’t you think? Let’s look at some videos and talk about some actual music…

“I Wanna Be Adored” by The Stone Roses.

The Stone Roses, along with the Happy Mondays, were at the forefront of the Madchester scene that preceded and informed the Britpop era and it should also be noted that they were motherfucking awesome. Don’t believe me? I’ll administer them instant hipster cred by sending you to this video of Death Cab For Cutie covering this song back in 2000. Not enough hipster cred for you? Lead singer Ian Brown of the now very defunct band loves Jay-Z! Here’s the official video, which I’d love to show you if it weren’t for it’s embedding being disabled.

“Alright” by Supergrass.

Supergrass hailed from Oxford and this song was released in 1995, two years after their formation, and was used in several TV shows and movies, including Clueless. While I don’t hate this song, I do have a kind of so so relationship with the Supergrass catalogue as a whole, though you could easily call this song the anthem of young ridiculous Britpop at it’s height. So much so that the band retired it from their live perfromances in 1999, because it just no longer applied to their lives at that point, joking that if they did perform it again, they should change it to a minor king and change all the lyrics to the past tense.

“End Of A Century” by Blur.

I really should talk about Oasis vs. Blur here, shouldn’t I? Well, I would (it was musical Ragnarock!), but I’d also much rather pass that off to Lollipop to enjoy (but for good measure, I will link you to a clip of Liam Gallagher calling George Harrison a nipple, a nip-ple). Instead I’ll say that this single, by a band that started as a indie dance answer to the Madchester scene and slowly morphed into retro-modtastic Britpop at it’s finest, is one I enjoy very much even though I enjoy a good number of Blur’s singles (having shared a few before), comes off their 1994 Parklife album. I mention this because I really should’ve used something off their previous album, Modern Life Is Rubbish, but I’m less enamored with it than I with with Parklife and everything after, so… there you go, yeah? A shame though since I feel like Modern Life Is Rubbish is so iconically britpop, but then again, so is there fued with Oasis. Lollipop?

For the next band I want to talk about, I think I’ll first just share with you a line from their first major single: “I laughed when Lennon got shot.”

The band is the Manic Street Preachers and it’s become something of a cliche to talk about them. But Marco Sparks eats cliches from breakfast and he’s a fan so suck on it. As with a lot of britpop of this time, and especially the Manics (who, in a response to Cool Britannia were supposed to, along with the Stereophonics, sound the call of Cool Cymru), as they had also been known, it became a question of authenticity. What was real and what was bullshit. The question of rockism again. The Manics thought they were real. They wanted to be loud, nasty punk and still be anthemic and reach everybody. They wanted to put out one album and have it sell 16 million records and then disappear in a fiery explosion. And they got their wish, minus the 16 million records and the explosive send off.

You can’t talk about the Manics without talking about their co-lyricist and rhythm guitarist, Richey James Edwards, who preferred to be called Richey James, or even Richey Manic. Richey had talent as a lyricist and poet, but seemingly none on the guitar, frequently miming the art of playing guitar in concert. In 1991 Richey Manic got into an argument with NME (a publication that must truly love the taste of Damon Albarn’s penis) journalist Steve Lamacq about The Manics’ lack of authenticity and anything passing for real values. So Richey decided that if realness was what he was lacking, then realness is what he could give the world and he proceeded to carve the phrase “4 REAL” into his arm with a razorblade that he just happened to have on him at a gig.

Richey Manic disappeared on February 1, 1995, the day that he and James Dean Bradfield, the band’s lead singer, were supposed to fly to the U.S. for a tour. Richey’s car was found 13 days later, the battery dead and evidence that the car had been lived in, parked in close proximity to the Severn Bridge, just north of Bristol. The Severn was apparently widley known as a nice place to kill yourself in the past so given Richey’s very depressive state at the time (a bit of status quo for him), it was widely believed that he had jumped off the bridge there, though his body was never found. As with all makings of history, the police investigation into his disappearance was shoddy as hell. In the weeks leading up to Richey’s disappearance, he had taken out quite a bit of money from his bank accounts, as if stockpiling it, and had made visits to the local passport office. Since his disappearance there’s been numerous “sightings” – a hippie market in India, on the islands of Fuerteventura and Lanzarote – but nothing conclusive, nothing definite, nothing proved “real.”

“If You Tolerate This Then Your Children Will Be Next” by the Manic Street Preachers.

From their fifth album, This Is My Truth Tell Me Yours. Here’s the actual video, which again, Youtube just doesn’t want to let me share with you here.

And our last video for tonight, but certainly not least…

“Stutter” by Elastica.

Formed in 1992 by the two Justines (Frischmann, ex-Suede guitarist and ex-girlfriend of Damon Albarn and Justin Welch, ha ha, ex-Spitfire and Suede drummer), this song is from their first album, which will always be there best. Of course, you know them for their song “Connection” which got played to death in America (imagine how bad it was in England) because of it’s use in that movie Hackers, starring Angelina Jolie and Johnny Lee Miller. Other than his marriage to Jolie, Johnny Lee Miller only went on to play Sick Boy in Trainspotting and be in Eli Stone, which is somehow still on the air and seems to be obsessed with the ouevre of George Michael.

Well, that’s it for tonight’s journey through the time machine back to the britpop era. Come back tomorrow night when Lollipop lays some more sweet tunes upon thee.