Skummy

I have done, but the Mercury Music Prize is supposed to be about originality, and they're hardly breaking any boundaries. They're good, but nothing new and innovative. That said, it's going to the Kaiser Chiefs or Bloc Party. They always choose one more commercial band/artist (KT Tunstal), and choose a couple of more uncommercial albums, but they never win, it's always the middle-ground, the art-rock indie student bands. Last year Franz Ferdinand beat The Streets and The Zutons, which I fought was an awful decision. The Zutons are interesting and genuinely innovative, and love it or hate it (I vehemently dislike it), The Streets album is one of the most original of its type in several years, but that probably says as much about the dismal British rap/hip-hop/whatever scene as it does about the album in question, whilst Franz Ferdinand are just the new romantic Interpol. My money's on Bloc Party, but I'd love for it to be The Futureheads or Maximo Park.

Seconded. Channel 4 News' headline was "Scotty gets beamed up". I didn't know what emotion that was supposed to invoke. I still don't. But...damn. R.I.P.

As I revealed only days ago, I'm loving Madness at the moment. I never really gave them much thought until I caught "Shame & Scandal" on the Radio the other week, and really loved it. I'm not overly knowledgeable about them, but they're great. Same goes for The Specials really, I love them, but I don't really know a lot about them, I just know that I enjoy what I've heard. Roxy Music I'm not really in to, but I'm aware of as one of my friends adores them. I absolutely love The Jam, I think they're brilliant. I saw Paul Weller live earlier this year, actually, and it was incredible.

Please tell me you are referring to the brilliance of Bill Bailey....if so Of course I am Bill Bailey > * ← Pssh, Bill Cosby....nothing on The Bailey.... So as to add a point, I got some Bill Hicks stuff, and to be honest, I wasn't impressed. I laughed about twice during an entire hour set. It...it was funny, just not funny enough for me to laugh at. Plus the amount of 'clingers-on' there seemed to be in the crowd dampened it a little too. ← As was mentioned earlier by pigeon, Bill Hicks' strength wasn't from his stand-up but rather from his overall social commentary. As funny as he was, historically he should be remembered much more as a political/social analyst, as that's what he was good at. His views on religion are what turned me on to him, and it's that kind of thing that I like him for. He's in a totally different category to the likes of Bill Bailey, and I'll admit that I'd laugh much more at a Bailey show than a Hicks one. That said, Izzard > Noble > Bailey.

Damn you beating me to this joke! Try Little Fish by Dope or Delivering The Goods and/or Freewheel Burning by Judas Priest.

Battle Chess reminds me of a cartoon my friend made for his animation project last year. It was detailing the concept of "lifesize chess". It was all quite how you'd expect, with knights fighting each other etc., and then it got to a scene with a bishop in a church giving a sermon, and suddenly a castle just flew through the wall and knocked him flying. I thought it was funny. Anyway, yeah, Battle Chess is great. The Apple chess game is also rather excellent.

First Blood. It must be done. Failing that, Demolition Man. I'm a Stallone mark.

To bring back the whole "children/adults" debate about this, I'll admit that I'm not a big reader any more, especially not of fantasy, but I've hated Harry Potter since it first came out. Maybe it's because by the time it came out I was already a devout follower of the Discworld series, but I just saw it as a load of over-rated nonsense. It's fantasy-by-numbers, there's nothing remotely original or imaginative about it at all, it's a crap coming of age story with magic grafted on top to sell it to kids. I admire the fact that it's got more children reading, but only a fraction of them, in my experience, ever read anything else. And when they do, they compare it to Potter. There was an interview with Terry Pratchett where he said that ever since Harry Potter came out, he's been accused of ripping off JK Rowling because the Discworld series has a school of wizards in pointy hats, despite the fact that the first Discworld book was written over twenty years before the first Potter book. So...yeah, my main gripe with it comes from it's simplicity. If it makes you happy, or gets kids reading, then hurrah for Harry Potter, but all the extra crap that comes with it can fuck right off as far as I'm concerned.

I still reckon "The Sting" should have been the final episode.

Do you know who Children of Bodom are? If so, then how can it not be? If not, then I suggest you find out. Either way, the fact that a metal band is doing a cover of Britney Spears is funny. Maybe not to you, but then again, to each his own. ← Yes, I know who they are, I was saying that it's hardly original or funny to do "ironic" covers of Britney Spears songs, or pop songs of any nature, any more, it's been done to death. See: Mr. Bungle, False Alarm, Travis, My Gay Uncle, Sugacoma, Reel Big Fish, Marilyn Manson, Reach The Sky, Ten Masked Men, Nicotine, countless others. ← To each his own then I guess. But I hardly find Children of Bodom in the same category as the rest of those people, MAYBE barring Manson. I just find it funny myself that a metal band such as Children of Bodom are doing it. Back on topic, I think she's going to name it Justin... ← I wouldn't but Bodom in the same category as any of them either, they're much better than anyone there but Mr. Bungle, but the idea is much the same, it's "Haha, wouldn't it be funny if we cover this?" And, on topic, who cares?

God, how did I forget Cabin Fever?! "Why do you shoot squirrels?" "Cos they're gay..." "It's for the niggers..." Classic stuff.

The entirety of the first Batman film is comedy gold, I'm trying to track down the DVD at the moment because apparently the commentary is absolutely hilarious.

Do you know who Children of Bodom are? If so, then how can it not be? If not, then I suggest you find out. Either way, the fact that a metal band is doing a cover of Britney Spears is funny. Maybe not to you, but then again, to each his own. ← Yes, I know who they are, I was saying that it's hardly original or funny to do "ironic" covers of Britney Spears songs, or pop songs of any nature, any more, it's been done to death. See: Mr. Bungle, False Alarm, Travis, My Gay Uncle, Sugacoma, Reel Big Fish, Marilyn Manson, Reach The Sky, Ten Masked Men, Nicotine, countless others.

The original Batman film, although that does most of it's work for me, Hawk The Slayer, The Boy In The Plastic Bubble...I'll make fun of pretty much any film or TV program, to be honest, but those are the classics.

I also have Travis singing "Hit Me Baby One More Time", and Gay Uncle, and Mr. Bungle, and False Alarm, and Sugacoma singing "Crazy". Seriously, it's not funny any more.

Does the world really need more "ironic" Britney Spears covers?

I've only heard their cover of Breaking The Law, but it's awesome. So yeah, I'm willing to agree somewhat.

That tends to happen to most songwriters, though. A writer will write with one meaning in their mind, whilst the listener will be given an entirely different mental image. It is much more prevalent with classical music, but still very much noticeable in modern music. The meaning may not have been intentional, but sometimes the meaning found by the listener is what it will take to make a song seem more than it actually is. For example, Chris Cornell wrote Audioslave's "Like A Stone" to be about waiting for death, whilst Tom Morello interpreted it as a love song. On face value, that would mean that Morello is wrong. But maybe to Cornell it's a song about death, whilst to Morello it's about love? I find it an interesting discussion, and is most of the reason I love cover versions, as it's interesting to hear different takes on the same lyrics.

True. As I said, the only reason I can think for disputing the "punk-ness" of The Clash is through limited exposure, and only hearing there more reggae-tinged material and assuming that that's all they are. The only reason I can think for disputing the "punk-ness" of the Sex Pistols is by going down the "manufactured band" route, but I doubt the MSN girl in question is aware of that. Sounds to me like you're dealing with a moron.

Well....I get back from London looking for a topic to vent in and look what I stumble on to? The Sex Pistols are pretty much synonymous with the word "punk", moreso than any other band in history, although some would argue that they are not in fact a punk band themselves, for reasons I will expand on later, not for the seemingly non-existent reasons of our misinformed young MSN girl. I can understand how someone could assume that The Clash aren't a punk band. Especially in the later days, The Clash sounded nothing like the "punk" music around today, or the original "punk" music they once played, due primarily to their large reggae influence, they had effectively drifted into an entirely different genre, and could only truly be classed as punk because of their roots. If they relased "Rock The Casbah" before "White Riot", I doubt they would be labelled a punk band quite so readily. Now The Sex Pistols I believe are punk in many ways, but in some ways not so. I'm not going to say I entirely agree with this argument, because I don't, but there are elements to it that I do agree with. A lot of older "punks" I know discredit the Sex Pistols influence, due to them being very much directed to make such an influence. They weren't like The Stooges, The New York Dolls or The Ramones; they weren't out there making entirely new music, they were essentially cobbled together to cash in on the "punk" scene, and quite expertly so. But then we get back to the great genre debate. Where does "punk" end and "punk-rock" begin? Punk is an attitude, a do-it-yourself, raw, powerful energy, whereas "punk-rock" is more about musicianship. Ultimately, both the Clash and the Pistols are punk, but that's my opinion (and, presumably, the opinion of many more people too), but arguing over who is and isn't punk is fairly futile, everyone seems to have their own terms on which to define the word.

It's not really Europop in the truest sense, but get yourself some Freezepops. Juvenile cheery synth-pop wonderfullness at it's very best.

I don't really know much of rap, so I can't really comment that much, nor am I really a fan of Thursday, but the presence of Minor Threat, Black Flag and MOTHERFUCKING Gackt more than makes up for that! Mind Forest is a quality song, as is TV Party and My War. Here's mine: Dresden Dolls - Girl Anachronism Jeff Buckley - Everybody Here Wants You Public Image Limited - Death Disco The Jam - In The City Rufus Wainwright - Gay Messiah Carnival In Coal - Fucking Hostile Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Sufi Qawwalis Nancy Sinatra - Let Me Kiss You The Beach Boys - Cabinessence Pink Grease - The Nasty Show The New York Dolls - Jet Boy Fairly eclectic, but there you go....

Jerry Cantrell is also in a covers band called Cardboard Vampyres with Billy Duffy from The Cult. Zack De La Rocha was working with DJ Shadow last I heard of him, but that was a LONG time ago. I don't think we'll see any solo material from him for a while, and it will only disappoint when we do, in my opinion. It's on record that Audioslave have written more songs since they've been together than Rage ever did, which I'm assuming is primarily down to Zack, so I'm guessing he's a perfectionist. I'll still be interested to hear it, though.

I have to disagree. The only Geldof's solo song i've really liked was Scream in Vain and while i think the last Rats albums aren't that great as a whole i think in noway does Geldof's solo work compares to the first couple of Boomtown Rats albums. ← I dunno, I just prefer the more sort of folk-ish direction that Geldof has gone in. I think "Sex, Age & Death" and "The Vegetarians Of Love" are more complete albums than anything the Rats ever did, and that's not taking away from the Boomtown Rats, who were an utterly excellent band. I think the Boomtown Rats had individual songs that were far stronger than anything Geldof's done, but as a whole, his solo work is more complete. Stuff like "Crucified Me", "Room 19", "Skinny White Girls", "Inside Your Head" and "The Great Song Of Indifference" is worth a listen either way, though.

She's So Modern Diamond Smiles, Elephant's Graveyard Rat Trap I Don't Like Mondays Banana Republic Mary Of The 4th Form Joey's On The Street Again Whilst you're at it, check out some of Geldof's solo stuff, I've always found it far superior personally.