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Underground > Radio & Music >

One small piece of good news from yesterday...

  
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
13:25 / 12.09.01
PJ Harvey won the Mercury Music Prize.

Yay!
 
 
agapanthus
17:50 / 12.09.01
Flyboy,
What is the nature of this prize?
Judged by peers? previous winners? criteria?
 
 
Our Lady of The Two Towers
18:20 / 12.09.01
It's cursed, all the bands that received it in the past have either split up or had a difficult time of it for several years afterwards.

It's judged by a band of industry toffs and the only people that take it seriously are the shops who can shift a few more copies by marking the CDs 'Mercury Music Prize'. Can't think of a band who have ever really been that pleased to win it, Pulp donated theirs to War Child and I think both Roni Size and whoever that Asian guy who won it last year (damn memory, sorry) made clear they weren't impressed but said it would be good for 'their type of music'.

But how seriously can you take an award that's been given to M People?
 
 
Spatula Clarke
18:33 / 12.09.01
It's judged, if I remember correctly, by a mixture of record company execs and journalists. Prize is a wad of cash.

Got off to a flying start with the first annual award going to Primal Scream's Screamadelica. Hopes high that this would be an award that had some basis in reality.

Second year, the prize went to Suede's debut album. Good though it was, it wasn't anywhere near to being the best of the year. The judges simply seemed to get caught up in the wave of hysteria that the group's first three singles generated.

From there on it was downhill all the way.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
12:39 / 13.09.01
Rather distrubingly, listening to Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea this morning, I realised that a few of its central themes are New York, violence, war, the end of the world... "this city's ripped right to the core"... there's even a song called 'Kamikaze'... Yikes.

quote:I'm watching from the wall
As in the streets we fight
This world has gone to war
All I need is you tonight

And I draw a line
To your heart today
To your heart from mine
One line to keep us safe

- 'One Line'
 
 
Cherry Bomb
12:46 / 13.09.01
See, now I had always viewed that album as more about falling in love than anything else. It's always seemed like a very romantic album to me. And that particular "I draw a line..." is one I have thought of in particular.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
12:59 / 13.09.01
Oh, it is. But it's about love in the face of all kinds of bad things going on (in one's own life and/or the world), and in a geographical context that's pretty specific (lots of lyrics about New York rooftops...). I'm not saying "wooo, spooky" so much as realising that I now won't be able to listen to it in quite the same way again.

But still, the bits quoted were meant to be vaguely reassuring... Sorta.
 
 
Seth
13:11 / 13.09.01
This is a very sad admission, but I’ve spent hours rehearsing exactly how I will turn down the Mercury Music Prize.

I am such a twat.
 
 
Cherry Bomb
13:16 / 13.09.01
quote:Originally posted by The Flyboy:
I'm not saying "wooo, spooky" so much as realising that I now won't be able to listen to it in quite the same way again.



See, now I feel that way about that Soul Coughing song: "A man... drives a plane... into the... Chrysler Building.... A man... saws in half.... just like he... snaps a pencil.."
 
 
Cherry Bomb
13:17 / 13.09.01
quote:Originally posted by expressionless:
This is a very sad admission, but I’ve spent hours rehearsing exactly how I will turn down the Mercury Music Prize.

I am such a twat.

That is HILARIOUS, expressionless.
 
 
Seth
13:21 / 13.09.01
It’s not funny! It’s my life! How can you laugh at my life??
 
 
Cherry Bomb
13:22 / 13.09.01
It's CUTE funny and you know it.
 
 
Seth
13:23 / 13.09.01
 
 
mondo a-go-go
17:56 / 13.09.01
pleased as i am that peej finally won the award (she's only been nominated for three of her five albums!), it's not like the competition was very high. three whiny male angst bands (elbow, turin breaks, and that solo male guitarist) whose singers all ape the vocal style of tom yorke...and radiohead were nominated anyway.

i watched the ceremony for light relief last night, and was slightly sickened by the fact that it had been recorded on tuesday. considering how many other people have cancelled or postponed things because of tuesday's events, i'm disgusted that the british music industry decided to go ahead with a back-slapping drinking binge. >sigh<

that new bassment jaxx video was fucking creepy too. but i dug the goldfrapp performance: he looked like some mad german professor and she looked like some teutonic harridan. ironic when they're both so very english really.
 
 
Regrettable Juvenilia
18:10 / 13.09.01
"Obviously, due to today's tragic events, PJ Harvey is in Washington." - Zoe Ball

Zoe, take less coke.
 
 
rizla mission
20:10 / 13.09.01
quote:Originally posted by The Flyboy:
"Obviously, due to today's tragic events, PJ Harvey is in Washington."

Playing a vital role in emergency cabinet meetings no doubt.
 
 
Spatula Clarke
09:00 / 14.09.01
To be fair, the Ed Harcourt album isn't really whiney male angst music.

That's not to say that it's anything like one of the ten best albums of the last twelve months, though.

[ 14-09-2001: Message edited by: E. Randy Dupre ]
 
 
mondo a-go-go
09:00 / 14.09.01
no, ed harcourt played piano (i know he plays guitar too). i meant the other young middleclass angsty white male who played guitar.
 
 
The Return Of Rothkoid
09:00 / 14.09.01
Guitar-playing middle-class angsty white males are out?

Great. Now I'll never win the fucking thing.
 
 
mondo a-go-go
09:00 / 14.09.01
naw. they're just "out" for me coz i'm bored of that shit, but they are apparently still very popular elsewhere (ie. awards ceremonies, charts etc)
 
 
Opalfruit
09:00 / 14.09.01
Nah. What you need is Sack Trick. Their last album was about Penguins. They want to live on moon. Penguins Build Rocket. Peguins go to Moon. Penguins live on Moon. Penguins miss the snow. Penguins go back home to live in the snow. It's fantastic....
 
  
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