Every Music Documentary based outside London
Narrator: Here there is a 100% unemployment rate, the people are exceptionally ugly and the only factories are used to incinerate old disused smokestacks. How did such beautiful music come from here?
Musician: Ahderrwuznuddingtodoinnit?
Cover to the Better than Ezra single for “Good”
Thirty-one years ago today, the New Orleans-based alternative rock band Better than Ezra released its hit single “Good,” marking the first-ever Good Friday, which has now grown into a major holiday celebrated throughout the world.
There is still two days left of the poll to decide what the next episode of my new series, Alt Hit Wonders, will be. Will it be "No Rain", "Brimful of Asha", "6 Underground", or something else - you can decide
If you want to support the channel and vote please check the link below:
NEW VIDEO: Pretty much the video that made me on YouTube was a bit of a throwaway, a look at some songs that might or might not be aimed at Hole singer Courtney Love. It still has the most views on the channel by a lot. So about eight years later, here's a sequel!
youtu.be/3YpLo0FGaBU
Anyway. I have long argued that Eminem is Mario and Kid Rock is Wario (septic and libertarian), but by the same token Macklemore is Eminem's Luigi - the diminished, more dreamy, more cowardly, but more human version.
The Waluigi is Machine Gun Kelly
oh no, it works a little too well
NEW VIDEO: R.E.M. spend their 80s going from a bunch of barely competent college students to the biggest thing in US alternative rock. Michael Stipe was not a born frontman, shy, awkward and often unwilling to explain himself, this enigmatic behaviour drove their cult appeal.
youtu.be/Snd8klIZjAE
Trash Theory short documentaries are a perfect treat with a cup of tea.
I've truly enjoyed ones about bands I'm not particularly interested in, and the ones about music I love are absolute treasures.
There's some conjunction of deep research and real heart to them.
youtu.be/ZQqXF0ZybT0?...
![Ocean Colour Scene: Always On The Outside ["The Riverboat Song"] | New British Canon](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:u5iuf5w566lhswytxaabqwcc/bafkreigsiaxbpw5reuquooulltqd3yq7r7wtoqferv7yn43bn5p3i36mrq)
NEW VIDEO: Though a critical punching bag, Ocean Colour Scene were huge in Britain, adopted by the Oasis-loving masses as their second favourite band, their 90s anthems imbued with equal parts nostalgia and sadness. But their most lasting legacy may be a specific critical barb aimed their way.
Hey! So I wrote and voiced an audio tour of Birmingham, UK. It's a leisurely two hour headphone-based walk-and-talk around the city centre, talking about the city and its place in rock and metal history, the venues, bands and songs that make it so important. Link for more details:
NEW VIDEO: A potential start to a new series, a look at the hows and whys of oddball 90s modern rock hits. This time a dive into the Swedish band Whale, their wordily titled Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe and its unforgettably weird music video. Take a look!
youtu.be/6ANdT88ToIo
NEW VIDEO: A potential start to a new series, a look at the hows and whys of oddball 90s modern rock hits. This time a dive into the Swedish band Whale, their wordily titled Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe and its unforgettably weird music video. Take a look!
youtu.be/6ANdT88ToIo
NEW VIDEO: Britpop was a weird moment. Indie music was topping the pop charts. Bands were newly fascinated by Britain’s pop history, magpieing the best bits and reshaping them into anthems. But it soon became tired, with an overemphasis on the union flag. Here is who to blame.
youtu.be/_WQBHboYFj4
NEW VIDEO: Britpop was a weird moment. Indie music was topping the pop charts. Bands were newly fascinated by Britain’s pop history, magpieing the best bits and reshaping them into anthems. But it soon became tired, with an overemphasis on the union flag. Here is who to blame.
youtu.be/_WQBHboYFj4
I had assumed no one was listening anymore now that there's episode specific playlists. It has now been updated
NEW VIDEO: Circa 1995, Tricky was perhaps the coolest individual in Britain, separate from the retroism of Britpop, but getting glowing press, dating Bjork and having David Bowie himself gush over how awesome he is. The reason for all this was his debut, Maxinquaye. Here is its story:
Did you watch the last video I put out? As comparatively few people watched its possible it got restricted - maybe Mr Blobby is just too raw for YouTube. It's a good time! If you haven't already, give it a watch, share it about. And new video out tomorrow!
youtu.be/YYDv6uHNv6Y
NEW VIDEO: The second in the series of weirdo UK chart-toppers, here is a look at the 90s. Elsewhere there was the mainstreaming of grunge and gangsta rap, but in the UK we had the giant pink and yellow pear-shaped thing that scared children and other odd things. Take a look!
The demo version is on YouTube:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmze...
Sabrina Carpenter is a gen x lounge singer trapped in the body of a Polly Pocket. Sabrina Carpenter is countryfied britpop. Sabrina Carpenter is a paper maché Ann Margaret. Sabrina Carpenter is David Foster Wallace in a peignoir set. Sabrina Carpenter is postmodernism itself. Sabrina Carpenter is.
NEW VIDEO: After MySpace, but before Spotify truly took hold, a bunch of waistcoated indie folk groups were stomping, clapping and hey-ing their way into our hearts. Just over a decade later and it's considered the worst thing to happen to music since Simon Cowell. Here is who to blame.
NEW VIDEO: Do you ever think about how aggressively uncommercial In The Air Tonight is? It's glacially slow, its first lyrics don't appear until a minute and a half in and its powered for the most part by a drum machine: yet debut single of perhaps the most famous drummer ever.
youtu.be/U0kCxNj_4hs
NEW VIDEO: If you were a US punk band in the 80s, you weren't doing it for the money. Punk rock was a calling. There were no material rewards. And that's what The Offspring thought too... until they became one of the biggest selling rock bands of the 90s. Hear their full story:
youtu.be/Pfi8iX3Y938
NEW VIDEO: Have you ever wondered how Shaddap You Face got to number one in the UK? How about the electro-documentary of 19, or the wonderfully goofy Star Trekkin'? Here are the "how" stories for these songs, plus 7 more. The Most Bizarre UK No.1s of the 1980s. Check it out!
from the writer of GUY RITCHIES ALADDIN
GUY RITCHIES AMADEUS
Jason statham: name's salieri. famous fucker, me. until - *freeze frame and record scratch on mozart* this precocious prick plonked his arse at the piana fuckin forte
NEW VIDEO: The B-52's are known for many things: Wigs, Rock Lobster, that Tomacco episode of The Simpsons where they reworked Love Shack into Glove Slap. This might make you think them slight, a novelty, but they are more important than you think.
youtu.be/YN1quwTNPLo
The second instalment in the ‘alt-rock horror comics’ series - Mudhoney’s Touch Me I’m Sick.
NEW VIDEO: My timing is terrible. TEN DAYS AGO The Cult's unifying rock anthem She Sells Sanctuary had its 40th birthday. YESTERDAY was World Goth Day. Either would've been a great day to release this video. Instead it's National Taffy day, watch a video on The Cult.
youtu.be/LEuRBQo-QEY
The 7 inch sleeve of The Cult's She Sells Sanctuary
The 7 inch sleeve of The Cure's Inbetween Days
The 7 inch sleeve of The Jesus and Mary Chain's Just Like Honey
The 7 inch sleeve of Killing Joke's Love Like Blood
What is your favourite British "alternative" single of 1985?
May 10th 1994
One of the greatest days