Authenticity in music is hard to define. But maybe not that hard.
My wife went through a short period of watching “The Voice”. Are you familiar? It’s a show in which ‘industry heavyweights’ – e.g. Jesse J, Boy George, Delta Goodrem - sit on a panel and decide whether would-be singers have the vocal chops to become a star.
If they do, they’re taken away and moulded into chart material. My wife thinks this is heartwarming. It certainly fits into the contemporary “You just have to want it enough” ethos. While I have nothing against the people on the show, I dislike the premise behind it.
On the podcast attached to this blog, I doubt any of the bands ever thought they’d get stadium-sized. And I imagine that most didn’t want that either. But their music – independent, authentic, ‘thrift-store’ if you like – is magical, gossamer-like. It captures the transitoriness, the profundity, the delicacy of youth. You can’t get that in an anthem.
I once saw Belle and Sebastian and Stuart Murdoch commented – “The trouble is there’s poetry or there’s money”. For a band to survive and thrive, they do need some money. But spare a thought for the bands that never did have the big hit. I won’t say they never “sold out”, though others might.
There is a new documentary Stewart Lee has put together about Robert Lloyd of The Nightingales – “The Jarvis who never made it” as The Guardian headline has it. It’s worth quoting from him.
“I don’t know this group at all, I’ve never heard a single song, but I’d like to be like Grandaddy. If you want to tour Australia someone will book it, if you want to do an album someone will pay for it, if you play in Wolverhampton a thousand people will turn up but if you go in the local Wetherspoons then nobody will know who the fuck you are. I couldn’t deal with fame and people knowing you down the chip shop. I mean, when was the last time Bono went to the chippy?”
Probably been a while. All the people in this podcast, lovingly curated by Tara Needham, who features in several of these bands from the 90s/00s New York/Long Island scene, can still go down the chippy, or whatever it’s called in their area. That’s worth celebrating, as is this marvellous music.
Tracklist:
Circle, Versus
Long Division, The Aislers Set
Flash, The Chandler Estate
To live and die in the airport lounge, Teenage Stride
October, Poconos
The happiest days of my life, My Favorite
Our lady of Stalingrad, The Secret History
False start, The Reverse
Say goodbye, Nilla
Seven sisters, Bell Hollow
Heartworm (ooh ooh song), Four Volts
Soren loved Regina, The Receptionists
Bird on the make, Garlands
Little friend, Hundred Watt Heart
One way to see a quasar, Porcupine 9
Super-8, Mad Planets