Welcome to my World
Remembering Vexed Generation
Filed in Welcome to my World by Tom Artrocker at 12.26pm on 03 February 12Artrockers,
Pre-Artrocker I worked for a couple of years for a clothing brand called Vexed Generation. I ran the shop in Soho's Berwick Street. Many of our customers were from the world of music, off the top of my head I recall Ian Astbury, Ian Broudie,Michael Stipe, Marc Almond, even a certain Mr Bowie, but he sent his PA into the shop while he waited in the car... the list is a long one. I particularly remember Mr Stipe's visits, he'd slip in quietly, pick out the best stuff and queue to be served like he was a normal human being or something. Which, of course, he is.
Occasionally there'd be a dark haired young man, looking for Vexed's riot wear I have no doubt, chatting on a mobile. He was clearly somebody, but I didn't know who 'til I asked a colleague: 'That's Alec Empire'. Of course I knew the name, in fact I owned some Empire records (this was in my Techno period and Alec was banging out some of the best). The circle was completed when Artrocker presented Atari Teenage Riot at The Academy, and now we're doing it again, this time at The Garage on Feb 29th - FOR A FIVER!! I'd get your tickets sorted now if I were you. Just click HERE.
Atari Teenage Riot are a stylish bunch, maybe Alec still wears his Vexed parka or Ninja fleece, I'll ask him on the 29th.The same cannot, in all honesty, be said about The Black Keys. If they'd walked into the Vexed shop it would have been for the T-shirts, not the high-end fashion items. Black Keys don't really care about how they look, they break the second law of rock'n'roll (the look is as important as the sound) with impunity, and they've paid the price for their cavalier attitude by becoming enormous all over the world. We catch up with the sartorially challenged duo in the new issue of Artrocker - having promoted their first London gig eight years ago we've always felt a parental pride at their success, a success born of quality, no BS and a clear sight of what is and what isn't rock'n'roll. We love them, we always have, and maybe they have a little affection for us - we got the exclusive after all as you'll see in the brand new issue out today.
By the mag here, get your ticks to ATR here, watch out for the snow, keep your nose clean and love your mother.
That's all you need to know really.
Tom Artrocker Editor In Chief
.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)Anti-social Networking
Filed in Welcome to my World by Tom Artrocker at 11.34am on 27 January 12Artrockers,
I have dabbled with Facebook, well you have to at least have a go, see what the fuss is about. I don't like it. The first rule of emailing was established some time ago, and it is this: Do not hit reply until you've thought about it, maybe had a cuppa. Many friendships have been destroyed by not following this rule - here comes my reply, Snap, here comes my reply to your reply, Snap, and before you know it a mate has become an enemy, all because that original mail was mis-read or badly phrased. No such caution operates in the world of Facebook, in fact for some it is a wonderful excuse to be rude, hurtful and simply unpleasant. And it's out of your hands, you're not in control of who might be posting on your page, sure you've invited your friends and colleagues, people you can trust, you believe, but along with them come their friends, or 'friends' (Facebook has done much to devalue the word) over whom you have no control - you didn't invite them but there they are, urinating all over the carpet. And there seems to be competition to have the most friends, which means that quality control goes out of the window, come one come all, make me look better, I don't care who you are, what you have to say or whether, in fact, you're simply an anti-social troll hiding behind an assumed identity for the simple purpose of upsetting people with whom you have no connection.
It was experiences like these that have made me turn my back on Facebook, I'm not crazy about being insulted by gutless sociopaths who hide behind PC consoles, so why would I open myself up to it by playing the Facebook game?
Colleagues who know about this sort of thing assure me that Facebook is a busted flush, headed to the exit marked my-space, and that Twitter is where it's at. Well, maybe, but Like Kate Moss I don't get it. It appears to be the digital alternative to scribble on the toilet wall, some of which is quite amusing for the duration of ones poo, but is forgotten by the time you get to the hand dryer.
Or maybe I'm missing the point?
Tom Artrocker
ps. Apparently not - THIS is from The Telegraph, Friday 27th Jan.Stuck On Repeat
Filed in Welcome to my World at 10.18am on 20 January 12Artrockers,
Having been laid low with a nasty bout of flu since Christmas I find that trying to write something entertaining and pertinent is something of a challenge when my recent experiences have been restricted to pillow-plumping and channel hopping. Make no mistake, I can give you a detailed critique of day-time TV should you be interested, a deconstruction of Flog It and Homes Under The Hammer reveals that day-time TV is, in fact, absolute crap. And the evening fayre isn't a great deal better; repeats at prime-time of programmes first aired the day before seems to be the norm, generally 'comedies', or the panel shows that now pass for it. We've always had repeats of course, but there used to be a respectful gap between the first and second airing, a year, maybe two. Now it seems to be the next day. Imagine if Radio was run like that - what am I saying, it is. In fact The BBC has an entire channel devoted to playing the same old Radio 4 shows over and over again, seven times in fact, until you want to take Rambling Sid Rumpole round the back for a good kicking, a life-time addict to Round The Horne, the Goons and Hancock, I now leave the room as soon as I hear the theme tune. And what could be more entertaining than a News Quiz from 1995? A News Quiz from 1996 perhaps.
All of this 'classic' TV and radio programming is sloshing around like a worn out pair of jeans in the tub, sooner or later the seams will give way and we'll be naked from the waist down, not a pleasant prospect.
Broadcasters should learn from the music biz, we never repeat...Oh, hang on a minute...
Tom Artrocker
As Hi as Fi Will Go
Filed in Welcome to my World at 11.37am on 16 January 12Artrockers,
I don't do New Year's Resolutions, but I have decided that this year I will reinstall a proper hi-fi in my living room / lounge. It all started on a visit to my local Heart Foundation shop. I was in there on the perennial search for a decent sofa at a decent price. I've been down the Land Of Leather route, bought a 3 piece suite and watched it fall apart inside 12 months, so I'm not falling for that again. I want a Heal's quality sofa at DFS prices and that means used, and that means Heart Foundation. Actually I have found my sofa, stylish, built like a tank and only £200. I digress. A whole wall of the shop is dedicated to electronic stuff, 90% of which is VHS players for a tenner a touch. One day I happened to spy a pair of speakers with the Leak logo, I pounced and got them for £15, Leak Sandwiches, very nice! I had absolutely no use for them, I simply couldn't resist. So here they sit, two bloody great lumps of wood, waiting for me to breathe new life into them. Older readers will know that I now need an amplifier and a turntable, youngsters will have no idea what the hell I'm on about.
I just got back from my weekly Heart Foundation trawl, where I was frustrated to find a Kenwood power amp bundled up with an FM tuner and a twin cassette deck for £60. Now, I might be up for a hi-fi but I can foresee absolutely no circumstances in which I'll need a tuner or a cassette deck ever again. I offered them £20 for the amp but they weren't having it, all or nothing, so it was nothing.
But I will have a new hi-fi, it may take a while, the 5000 or so vinyl albums and 10,000 singles that fill my upstairs cupboards stand in mute rebuke and demand to be played, my wife stands in less mute rebuke, demanding that I get rid of 'all this rubbish'. So if I don't complete my hi-fi and start playing my treasures again I have a funny feeling that I'll be bumping into my record collection again, in The Heart Foundation shop.
Tom Artrocker
Who Needs Greatest Hits?
Filed in Welcome to my World at 12.22pm on 18 November 11Artrockers,
We have long held this truth to be self-evident - that you don't release a new album or single in November or December. 'Nay lad' the old timers will tell you: 'That's when the big boys release Greatest Hits collections and the radio is dominated by this year's X-Factor winner, so don't bother'. And they've always been right, until now. Maybe I've been looking the other way but where are this Christmas's Best Of comps? The Pet Shop Boys are releasing a collection of B-sides I notice, but that's hardly Greatest Hits.
Could it be that the download has killed the Best Ofs? After all, why do you need somebody else to create it for you? Simply head over to the digital store of your choice and download your favourites, we can make our own Greatest Hits whenever we like, Best Ofs are no longer only for Christmas.
Which makes me wonder, who hasn't released a Greatest Hits but should, who's Best Of would be top of my Christmas list? Well, I'd pay good money for The Best Of Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and The Strokes Greatest Hits. How about you?
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