Mika sticks it to the man

Yesterday morning MSNBC news anchor Mika Brezezinski refused to report on the lead story of Paris Hilton being released from jail, attempting to burn the paper on which the story was written in a defiant protest against celebrity culture.

Saying "I hate this story and I don't think it should be our lead", Brezezinski was teased by her co-anchors who joked that she "changed the world" as she fed the paper into a shredding machine live on air.



It's a bizzare piece of footage, some people believe it was staged.
Although she is completely correct and justified in her opinions, neither Brezezinski nor her co-anchors seemed to be taking it very seriously at all.

Anyway in the words of Kent Brockman, that's my two cents. I promise that this blog will return to being about music and less about other stuff soon.

Shameless self promotion [do the locomotion]

It's fun to rhyme.

Meanwhile, back in the real world, I make music.

As I complete my new CD, this blog seems as good a place as any [i.e better than myspace] for some shameless self promotion. I like to think that my music is un-pigeonhole-able, but it could probably be very easily pigeonholed as acoustic alternative something something.

Last year I made an album called 'Sunshine In Your Veins':


This cover was designed by Birmingham based artist Jessica Ashman, and she is currently beavering away on the new artwork for my new CD, 'Losing You, which should be ready to send to people within the next couple of weeks. If you're interested, go to www.myspace.com/samblackledge and check out the tunes. If you want a CD, drop me a line.

And just for you, because you asked so nicely, here is a freebie from the new album.

Sam Blackledge: Magicians

Non, je ne regrette rien

Yesterday I saw La Vie en Rose, the life story of french singer Edith Piaf. Marion Cotillard plays the lead role, and she is absolutely stunning. The film itself is overshadowed by Cotillard's incredible performance, which should gain her an Oscar nomination if there's any justice in Hollywood. Which there isn't, of course.

Anyway the point is that Olivier Dahan, the director, chose to use the original recordings of Piaf singing in the film, and to great effect. She really did have a truly original voice which only got better with time.

Here is the real Edith Piaf back in the day:

If you want something done properly, do it yourself.

It’s an admirable ethos, but one that’s unlikely to win you many friends. That doesn’t seem to bother Phill Wilson, however, as he makes his way as one of the most intriguing solo artists to grace Hull’s open mic scene for quite some time. Going under the name of MyOneManBand, Wilson defies labels: onstage he is a shy, shambling mix of Damien Rice and Jonny Greenwood, using delay pedals and sample banks to expertly loop his performance in real time, literally a ‘one man band’. ‘I’m a failed epic artist, because I don’t have the band behind me,’ he laughs. ‘The electronics and samplers are my way of trying to be me but more so. Trying to layer me upon me until you’ve got a band’s worth of me.’ Off duty, Wilson is much more forthcoming than his stage persona, holding forth on everything from the current music scene to the first time he picked up a guitar, a story which will be familiar to any music fan who grew up in the ‘90s. ‘One of my friends got a copy of (What’s the Story) Morning Glory? and an acoustic guitar, as everyone does, and that’s what got me into it really.’

Born in Beverley, Wilson is a fiercely loyal Yorkshire lad, and despite having spent three years at university in Carlisle he knows where his roots are. He describes the frustration of not being able to fully experience the Hull scene when he was younger, and is at pains to champion up-and-coming bands like The Holy Orders and Alison Angus, who he feels would be closer to breaking into the big time if they were based in a bigger city. ‘The one thing that I don’t like is the sheer apathy that the majority of Hull still has about music,’ he says. ‘There’s so much going on, there are people who if they were in Leeds, Manchester or Sheffield, they’d be followed, and they’d have people who wanted to see them make it. Here, you can promote and promote, and you’re still performing to a handful of people.’ It’s a view that all bands in Hull would surely endorse, but Wilson himself tries to use it to his advantage. ‘I largely play to other people’s audiences; part of the fun for me is being the support act, and turning other people’s crowds around to me.’

The way that Wilson works is nothing new – the use of delay pedals to create a fuller sound is becoming increasingly common – but behind the pedal board and layers of loops, he is not averse to writing a bloody good tune. He pens fragile fragments of desire and heartbreak, subtly enhanced by his technical skills. ‘The Boy Meets Girl Song’ is a particular highlight among his newer material, starting off as an understated four-chord ballad, growing into something more substantial as Wilson harmonises with himself without losing the song’s original simplicity. It may sound like typical music geek talk, but it’s rare to be able to identify all of the separate fragments of a song working together, and this is exactly what MyOneManBand manages to create.

Anyone who frequents the Adelphi’s legendary Monday night open mic session will be familiar with Wilson’s unique style – dressed in a waistcoat, jacket and red cravat with hair somewhere between Adam Ant and Pete Doherty, he looks like a Dickensian character who has stumbled into 2007 and found that he is still cool. He is refreshingly matter-of-fact about plying his trade around the various musicians’ nights, despite the growing interest in his work. ‘As far as I’m concerned, I wouldn’t have been able to do what I do now without open mics. They provide a forum for you to come and test out new stuff. Every time I write a new song, it’s a case of coming back to an open mic, and getting feedback from an audience that really have no expectation of you.’ The downside of performing regularly in such a small musical community, he says, is the danger of overexposure. ‘There is that risk of overplaying yourself, and you often see the same people playing the same songs.’

The days of being just another unknown open mic hopeful may soon be a thing of the past for MyOneManBand, however. He recently had support slots with Windum Earl and one-man band hero Thomas Truax, and hopes to build on this growing promise over the next few months. He expresses a desire to begin releasing records, but there are no plans to add to the members of the group, preferring to keep the creative differences inside his own head. His lack of technical knowledge restricts him in terms of forming bands. ‘I have no musical background, I can’t read or write music, so presenting my ideas and working with other people was always difficult.’ Wilson describes himself as ‘an introverted show-off’, which seems to neatly sum up the mass of contradictions which make him such a fascinating musician. He recalls the teenage phases he went through, from Britpop to metal (‘there was a dangerous time when I could’ve turned out like a little rave kid’), but these days he doesn’t fit neatly into the ‘scenes’ so beloved by music journalists. The fickle nature of fashion is a constant source of amusement to him. ‘Going out in Hull, you do see all the kids that used to bully you at school who’ve now bought the tight jeans and the pointy shoes and they’re out there with you,’ he says, ‘which is simultaneously uplifting and morbidly depressing.’ Judging by the increasing flow of positive comments doing the rounds, it may be the one man band that has the last laugh.

www.myspace.com/myonemanband

This article was published in the June edition of Sandman music magazine.
www.sandmanmagazine.co.uk

This is what you get when you mess with us

Note to self: build time machine. Go back 10 years. Buy OK Computer again.

If you know me, you'll know how much of a Radiohead fanboy I am. So I won't go on about it. Suffice to say OK Computer, which was released 10 years ago tomorrow, is one of the greatest albums of all time by a band at the top of their game. They haven't matched it since. But then nobody has. When I first got it, I played it on my dad's old stereo system through big headphones and hated it. Then I realised I was wrong. Then I loved it.

The end.

With a hey, and a ho, and a hey-nonny-no...

Ah, folk music. Beards. Tweed. Old men with beards and tweed. Right? Yes. But not always. Kate Rusby is just one of a handful of young mainly British folk artists who have slowly but surely made the genre semi-cool again. The Barnsley lass has released seven albums, which I am excitedly planning to rediscover over the next few months, starting with 1997's Hourglass, made up of both traditional folk songs and Rusby's own compositions.

And speaking of 1997, this is yet another classic album from that year, all of which celebrate their 10th anniversary this year, so I am planning to construct a post based around this fact. Stay tuned. In the meantime, break out your bodhran, dust off your dulcimer and enjoy the opening track from Kate Rusby's debut album.

Kate Rusby: Sir Elgamore

Plus, Ain't she purty?

You might miss me more than you think you will

Wine then cider then beer then wine then beer ... and you'll be fine. Or not, as the case may be. The end of uni binge has finished and all we're left with is awkward man hugs and empty rooms with blu-tac stained walls.

There's only one thing for it - a goodbye mixtape.

Some of these songs are personal favourites which hold memories of the last three years [although most of my current music collection has been acquired over that period], and some are just sad songs to say goodbye to.

The Postal Service: Sleeping In

Sparklehorse: Don't Take My Sunshine Away

The National: Brainy

Yo La Tengo: I Feel Like Going Home

Jon Brion: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind



By the way if you like the picture above, go here.

You don't know how lucky you are . . .

As I approach the final days of student life, nostalgia is the order of the day around campus. This theme has extended to my itunes library. As the saying goes, the old ones are the best, and I have rediscovered the very best of the old ones. The Beatles' The White Album [1968], and Joni Mitchell's Blue [1971] - are surely two of the greatest albums of the last forty years.

The incredible thing is that they're still going - Paul McCartney's new album comes out on June 5th, and Joni has a new one coming too, due in the autumn. Or 'fall' as my crazy American friends would say. I think you'd get pretty long odds on The Arctic Monkeys lasting quite so long. They don't make 'em like they used to.

Anyway, here are two of my favourite tracks from the respective albums.

The Beatles - Back in the U.S.S.R

Joni Mitchell - A Case of You