Aug 27, 2004 · 2 minute read
I Am, I Feel
Alisha’s Attic
Mercury
Released: August 1996
Highest UK Chart Position: 14
Available on: Alisha Rules The World
As Pop as Spice, as Punk as The Sex Pistols, as Britpop as Sleeper, as English as scones, as Germaine as Greer, as Sisterly as a convent.
Alisha's Attic were the missing link between Bananarama and The Spice Girls, if you were looking for such a thing, with self-penned songs to appeal to the indie set. After spending several years attempting to get a record deal, the two Poole sisters (Shelly and Karen. No, not Alisha) somehow came onto Dave Stewart's radar. Now, to be fair, Mr. Stewart, once half of the Eurythmics, is probably a perfectly respectable gentleman, but he comes across as someone you wouldn't leave in the company of two young women. I'm just saying. My other completely fabricated rumour involves Liam Gallagher and a five-foot plunger, in case you're interested…
Anyway, I Am, I Feel was Alisha's Attic's debut single. In common with many records of the 1995 era, it sounds very Pop, yet is devoid of the heavy production associated with, say, Bananarama or The Spice Girls. Electronic whistles, harpsichords, and a simple drumbeat dominate the song, with the ubiquitous-in-this-era guitar coming along for the ride. Pleasant and inoffensive. I suppose that you could try and tie this song in with Scarlet, but here the character singing the song seems less secure; while she talks a good game: Like, I wanna smash his face in / Yeah, that’d be fun, the chorus suggests that she'd stay with this slug of a man if he showed even a little compassion. It's not as self-assured as Ginger Spice, or even Kylie's Stock, Aitken, and Waterman phase; the character retreats into fairy-tale imagery (I click my heels together three times / They sparked a little but nothing happened) even as she uses violent fantasies to try and escape from the man's label of 'angel'. It's a little confused. But possibly more realistic, in that both sides of her are conflicting.
It may surprise you to know that Alisha’s Attic recorded three albums before Mercury dropped them. It certainly surprised me. I assumed that after the initial success of their first few singles, they faded away into obscurity. But no. Three albums on Mercury, plus a self-published fourth album sold to their committed fans. Shelley is now pursuing a solo career, while Karen has written songs for Blue, Dannii Minogue, Holly Valance, and Amy Studt.
Aug 26, 2004 · 2 minute read
In helpful visual form; the bigger the text, the more popular the word (I strip out the 50 most popular English words):
aid
million
still
gandhi
deutsche
flight
pinochet
death
shrine
immunity
crown
germans
top
into
del
china
police
weer
de
darfur
plane
teenager
billion
return
temas
los
less
yesha
haifa
400
terrorism
men
la
weapons
condor
food
next
off
push
deal
free
prison
big
continues
nothing
happy,
harry
ap
radical
abu
job
iraq
firefighters
missile
mosque
sudan
families
ad
inside
draws
thatcher
internacional
cities
business
power
stripped
attack
airport
se
no
afar
talks
children
day
break
74
agree
pc
manhunt
american
26,
residents
et
threat
reporters
execution
shiites
für
disarming
van
results
noon
gets
crash
chile
wont
bullies
culture
iraqis
ready
amelie
...
fire
news
russia
blast
najaf
do
voor
wins
says
ipo
coup
archos
longlist
world
medaillewinnaars
nacional/españa
action
air
road
abuse
para
give
afp
iraqi
act
may
ii
u.s.
porn
german
thu
southern
family
case
gcse
&
un
boosts
booker
say
protesters
/
política
sistani
palestinians
extra
crashes
security
over
later
wages
operation
wound
arrives
law
pay
returns
aug
under
held
home
koningin
ire
killed
force
strips
strike
peace
gmini
living
recorders
son
record
internet
russian
general
after
hoger
scandal
heart
boscastle
india
gaza
looms
teenage
germany
al
leave
pakistan
takes
terror
attacks
street
medal
new
service
en
continue
ambassador
states
huldigen
rebels
gold
two
kerry
flock
israel
loses
attacked
forces
calls
it
first,
plot
lessons
mccain
march
father
us
block
ghraib
not
double
quits
premier
ayatollah
live
robert
more
year
gives
reuters
op
bush
high
help
first
cleric
currently playing: The Sundays — A Certain Someone
Aug 25, 2004 · 2 minute read
After reading about how Warner Music recently sent out a track to various MP3 blogs, which seems to imply some grudging approval of the format, I sent an email to the BPI, asking if they knew that one of their members was supplying blogs with songs. I also asked if there was a way for me to continue operating, considering that nobody else seems to have received one of these notices.
I present the response from Matt Phillips:
Hi Ian
I can't really offer you any legal advice on this matter as I don't know
the detail.
Basically it's about using music with permission.
Generally speaking - if you're making copyrighted music (anything
released by a label) available to share with other people without the
permission of the copyright owner you're infringing copyright law and
come on to the radar of our anti-piracy unit.
My advice would be, if in doubt, don't do it.
If you have any further queries, please contact our legal department.
Thanks
Matt
Hurrah for substance-filled replies. I understand he was probably making the general case, but labels do release public domain songs, and any song is protected by copyright, not just those released by labels. Plus, the label would also have to be a member of the BPI to come onto their radar, I assume?
Anyway.
currently playing: New Order — The Perfect Kiss
Aug 24, 2004 · 3 minute read
The latest ad from the Swift Boat Veterans.
What really gets me annoyed about this advert is the implication that John Kerry failed his fellow soldiers by giving his testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It glosses over the fact that he was right. Or are supposed to believe that this, or this, or this, or this did not happen? It did, and Kerry was only telling the Committee what other veterans had told him. America committed war crimes in Vietnam. But some people refuse to accept this fact.
There's a worrying development in some parts of America, a belief that it has done no wrong, ever. Admittedly, at the moment it seems confined to crazed right-wing authors, but they're not bearded militiamen writing screeds in linseed oil inbetween preparing for the End Times; they're successful media figures. Aside from the Swift Veterans, last year saw the release of Ann Coulter's Treason, which attempted to rehabilitate Senator Joe McCarthy (yes, she's insane. But many people think she's wonderful. I despair), and Michelle Markin's In Defense of Internment has just been released, doing well in the Amazon rankings.
I just can't wrap my head around it. What next? Why Dred Scott Is Misunderstood and Reasons Why The Confederacy Should Have Prevailed? Markin's book is particularly offensive; I've been around the Smithsonian exhibit, I've read about the issue, and there is just…no excuse for rounding people up on the basis of their race and putting them in concentration camps. Malkin bases her argument on the theory that FDR had secret information that no-one else knew (the MAGIC decrypts of Japanese communications); the problem is that these messages have been known about for years, and the closest they come to calling into question the loyalty of the Japanese immigrants is a commnique to an embassy that says it might be a good idea to set up a spy ring (and specifically mentions that using non-Japanese agents would be preferable). The Japanese did not know that the Allies had broken MAGIC, so if such a ring did exist, you would expect information about it to flow across channels. None does. Plus, the people who pushed hardest for the camps did not have access to MAGIC. Even Supreme Court Justice Scalia thinks that the Supreme Court decision that upheld the detention ranks alongside Dred Scott as one of the Court's biggest mistakes. But don't just take my word for it — Eric Muller, a UNC Law School professor is currently discussing Malkin's book and shredding her arguments one by one. But he isn't in the Top 100 Amazon bestseller list, so his voice isn't going to be heard as much as a media figure who makes regular appearances on Fox News and MSNBC.
It worries me — a nation that believes it can do nothing wrong can be easily led by its leaders that its actions are right simply because they're doing it. No country is perfect; they're all done horrible things in the past (for an Empire nation, Britain probably comes off better than Spain or Portugal, say, but we still invented concentration camps, we firebombed Dresden into ashes, we carved up Africa with the rest of Europe, and we made a mess of Ireland). Patriotism should never be blind.
currently playing: The Knife — Heartbeats
Aug 23, 2004 · 1 minute read
If anybody has tried to contact me in the past 24 hours, I probably didn’t get your message. It appears my host is having a few problems. In the meantime, messages can be sent to ianpointer at gmail dot com if you need to get in touch with me. (please do! ;-))
currently playing: The Concretes — Seems Fine
Aug 22, 2004 · 1 minute read
Dick van Dyke: CG Artist?
currently playing: Saint Etienne — Saturday
Aug 20, 2004 · 2 minute read
I can still remember the first time I heard Le Tigre’s Hot Topic. Lauren Laverne was filling in on the Evening Session, and playing live tracks from Hole’s glorious 1999 Glastonbury set; I was working on something, perhaps trying to rewrite a grammar so it could be parsed by a LALR(1) parser (it’s best not to care, really), when it started playing. I stopped, enthralled by a song listing feministic icons to a bubblegum beat. As I heard the first words “Hot Topic is the way that we rhyme”, I knew that I had to add it to my collection. A quick trip to Piccadilly Records later, and I was listening to their eponymous first album. It was everything you could have hoped for; arch-political garage pop that lurched from assaulting Rudy Giuliani’s career (My My Metrocard) to the joys of being in a band (Let’s Run). Fabulous.
The second album, Feminist Sweepstakes wasn't as good as the first, but still had rather enjoyable songs, in particular LT Tour Theme and Fake French. Three years later, they have signed to Universal Records and are about to release a new album, This Island. This is the new single:
Le Tigre — New Kicks
If you put your ears to the speakers and listen closely, you can hear my heart breaking in the first thirty seconds. It's a protest record. About the Iraq war. Well, for a start, it's about two years late to catch that bandwagon. But I can forgive that, truly I can. What I can't forgive is three minutes and thirty seconds of unimaginative sloganeering, a backing track that appears to have died thirty years ago, being played through the use of zombie magic, and the complete lack of, well, any semblance of a song.
"This is what Democracy sounds like!"
That's Le Tigre, making a constitutional monarchy sound more attractive with every passing second…
(to be completely fair, I am hearing that some of the new songs they've been playing live are fantastic. Which makes bobbins like this all the more puzzling.)
currently playing: Le Tigre — Hot Topic
Aug 19, 2004 · 1 minute read
The Senate Judiciary Committee heard this morning from one of its own about some of the problems with airline “no fly” watch lists. Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., says he had a close encounter with the lists when trying to take the U.S. Airways shuttle out of Washington to Boston. The ticket agent wouldn’t let him on the plane. His name was on the list in error.
currently playing: Bis — Detour
Aug 19, 2004 · 1 minute read
You know, when you get to make a press statement like this:
"I certainly trust the people of Illinois to choose who they want to represent them in the U.S. Senate," he said. "That is the very basis of our democracy."
(in response to this bit of inspired lunacy)
It's probably time to consider taking a holiday for a few months. At the rate Alan Keyes is going, Barack Obama could sit in a basement for two months picking lint out of his belly button, and he'd still beat him by thirty points on November 2nd…
currently playing: The Concretes — Say Something New