Things Of Interest

Just a quick note to update a few things…

First, the good people at [sic] Magazine recently posted an interview with yours truly about the Two Hands label; which you can read here if you want to know some of the reasons behind the decision to launch the label and what our goals are. Much thanks goes to [sic], and Rob Gannon for that.

Second, you know I love Her Name is Calla, and while I don’t have a ghost of a chance to see them live any time soon, I’ll be pledging my support for their tour campaign currently being run via Indie GoGo so’s I can at least nab one of the postable perks. Check ‘em out, discover an awesome band (if you haven’t already), and drive me mad with jealousy if you go see one of their shows.

Last, a recommendation I should have made already… Back in March 2009, I picked up the rather good Daytrotter Session by Golden Ghost. It took me a while, but I recently bought the album the session songs came from. RIYL Dark Dark Dark, Lotte Kestner, The Sandwiches, Bad Braids, Tiny Vipers.

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S4E

Wanted: Rooftop Shouters – Must Have Own Passion

Most regular readers would be aware by now that I also write for the independent music site [sic] Magazine. It’s important to me here at S4E that I have the freedom to talk about what I want, when I want, and my purpose is not quite to tell the world what I think, what’s good or what isn’t, why someone else should or shouldn’t like something… What drives me, and every thought behind what I post, is the hope that I’m able forge connections to music, either specifically or in general, by showing people how I connect to it.

I write for [sic] because they allow me to do much the same thing.

It’s like being able to shout from two different rooftops at once – an action that can be a cathartic thing, but as those who also shout are probably aware, as much as doing so might get people to stop and stare, the greater purpose is to ensure that they listen, that the message is heard as far and wide as possible. Over time I have received some wonderful and deeply appreciated compliments for the way I write about music, both here and at [sic]; what I love (if just a smidgeon ) more, is finding out someone else discovered something new that they love just as much as I do after reading something I’ve written.

That’s also why I gravitate towards writers and blogs that talk more about how an album or song has affected the writer as opposed to adopting detached objectivity and trying to tell the reader why they may or may not like it; which is always harder for me to relate to when I’m reading about a release I haven’t even heard – they don’t know me, and I don’t know what they’re talking about.

So, why am I telling you all this? Because I want to see a site like [sic], which favours truth, passion and individuality both in music and its writers, thrive and grow. As an independent site, [sic] aims to give an extra voice to those that sometimes struggle to find them. There is room to spare on this rooftop, and the more voices we have the better.

If you have a similar passion for music, if you can’t shut up about your latest discovery until all your friends, family, co-workers and strangers on a bus know about them too, and think you can translate this into the written word, consider taking a platform where even more people will be able to hear you and the music you love.

For more information about [sic] Magazine, as well as contact information if you are interested in writing for them, just click here.

 

S4E

[sic] Magazine Writer Top Tens

For those who may have an interest, I recently contributed my list of Top 10 Albums of 2010 to [sic] Magazine, along with several other members of the team. If you’ve read the Favourite Albums list that I compiled for S4E, it is essentially the same, with a couple of subtle differences and one glaring alteration.

The first difference is that I applied rankings to the albums. This wasn’t exactly necessary and quite a different tack to simply putting them in alphabetical order as I did here, but I did so for a couple of reasons.

Primarily, I just wanted to see if I could. It is something I have always resisted applying to previous lists, and I maintain that it can be a counter-productive thing to do in some circumstances (hence why I chose not to use a ranking system for my personal favourites here), but I also see a certain value in the challenge (by which I mean the conversations I had with myself, during which the justifications  and rationale for having a certain album ranked at a certain position were fairly interesting – to me, anyway).

That being said, while the order of the list isn’t exactly arbitray, I didn’t agonise over what to put where, either. Some of the decisions were a little tougher than others, granted, but there is no significant importance behind the how’s and why’s something was placed – more specifically, I do not think any less of the album placed at #10 than I do the album at #1 – they are, after all, my top 10 out of everything I listened to this year.

And, of course, the biggest difference is the exclusion of Dark Night of the Soul by Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse. Obviously, the primary reason I did that was so that I could include the album by Murmuüre. I chose DNotS specifically to leave out for two key reasons – It technically, though not officially, was released last year, and because it was the subject of debate when I was deciding which ten albums to feature in my original list.

I wanted to include the album by Murmuure purely because it’s amazing and would have made it into the S4E list anyway if I had only heard it a couple of weeks earlier than I did.

So that’s that.

S4E