music

Joe Talbot is the best one doing it (in my opinion)

ALL HAIL THE MIGHTY IDLES!

Idles singer Joe Talbot appears on CBeebies Bedtime Stories

On the Idles website they have a t- shirt that says ‘ Hard rock for Pussies’ with a picture of a leaping tiger surrounded by bolts of lightning. This feral illustration sums up Idles beautifully.

In my opinion, Joe Talbot is the best frontman doing it. He may be the only one doing it right now.

If you Google best Frontmen of the last ten years the Gemini AI overview answer includes names like Harry Styles, Kendrick Lamar and Taylor Swift. Taylor Swift is… Yes, confirmed… a woman and if you want to consider One Direction a band go ahead. For me I don’t think they fit into that definition.

Sorry Harry, I do love your solo stuff.

The mighty Idles band from Bristol lead by Joe Talbot is at the forefront of the modern punk revolution. Tearing down the standards of old outdated ways of thinking and closed mindedness. The opposite way of what you might think this type of music is really saying. With the release earlier this year of their 5th studio album Tangk (Fantano didn’t give it much love) Idles, already a voice for the disillusioned, has become a voice for love in a way that is not conventional for an album of love songs.. They are not afraid to tell you how they feel.

With Joe Talbot’s energy, rawness, and courageous song writing Idles cuts right to the chase challenging toxic masculinity (damn maybe Harry is a frontman after all) with songs like Colossus and Never Fight a man with a Perm and societal norms with lyrics like “The best way to scare a Tory is to read and get rich!” While giving love songs a new look.

Idles’ music is a collision of noise, energy, and emotional intensity—and at the heart of it is Talbot’s voice.

For someone like me who is now a father to a daughter, the opposition to toxic masculinity and support of feminism in Talbot’s lyrics is stimulating and maybe even a little helpful? Listening to Idles sort of has this cheat code-like feel. It smacks you in the face and brings up your adrenaline to Limp Bizkit Woodstock 99 type levels. It will make you want to jump around the room and destroy your house. But underneath all of that there is a tenderness, empathy and love there that tugs you back and says ‘Hey brother this is all love no need to destroy. Let’s dance and have fun.’

At its core, this way of thinking is what Punk is truly about. Challenging the status quo and opening your eyes to different ways of thinking. Joe Talbot embodies this ethos but in a way that is unique to the social landscape. Vulnerable and with political fierceness Talbot and Idles is reinventing punk for a new generation.

In his interviews and especially while promoting this recent record Tangk, Talbot has said he has had to challenge himself more and to step out of his comfort zone. Look inward and dismantle old patterns and thoughts. Through his music and his words Talbot offers us something rare in the current cultural climate: the belief that we are all connected, that our struggles are not isolated, and that transformation is always possible.

In a world where so much feels fractured and divisive, Joe Talbot’s work with Idles is a call to arms for kindness, solidarity, and defiance. He doesn’t just critique the status quo; he reimagines it, urging us all to speak, and feel — without apology.

WE’RE NOT THE FUCKING JONAS BROTHERS!

LOVE IS THE FING!!

Oasis is getting back together. Music Rules

The Town Mile is out in middle America so our Wifi is a little spotty so news doesn’t travel as fast to us as it does to everyone else. Sorry if this is old news to some of you.

Admittedly I don’t know much about the band.

I was only 3 or 4 when Oasis’ Definitely Maybe was released and in kindergarten in 95 when Morning Glory? shot the band into superstardom. They weren’t playing Acquiesce at the end of episodes of Barney. So the recent news of their reunion tour didn’t hit me quite like it did with some of my elder millennial friends. Even their tour name sounds good LIve ‘25.

Yes, Of course I know who Oasis is. Obviously I’ve listened to Wonderwall and Champagne Supernova. If you ask some people my age they might refer to those classics as “good karaoke” songs. And yes I know about the power and beauty of Knebworth ‘96. Brit pop has made its way back to us and the power of nostalgia has once again taken over our consciousness with this news and I felt like I wanted to be a part of the conversation.

Reunion tours have always been a thing. I don’t know what anyone else thinks but has the reunion tour has become more of a thing recently? Maybe not. It could be when I was younger I just didn’t notice it. I don’t know, you tell me. There are usually a few reasons for these last hurrahs. Maybe the band just wants one last tour before truly calling it quits or maybe the front man just knocked up someone 20 years his junior and needs to make some extra cash for another trust fund and maybe his grandkids need to go to private school, or maybe they do it just because they need to and they love it so much. I think that’s why Bruce and the Stones are still doing it. They just love it.

This time it’s a little different.

I know about the years of feuding and bad blood between brothers Noel and Liam Gallagher. That bitterness ultimately led to the band’s inevitable break up in 2009. There are always many factors especially with celebrity being at the forefront that can lead to fighting within a band. One reason could have been how their mother describes it. In the A24 doc Supersonic there might have been a little brother chasing older brother type mentality going that finally escalated to the point where Liam was chasing Noel around with Noel’s guitar backstage at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris. They are also part Irish. I think that reason speaks for itself. But that’s why this tour is so huge. The brothers are getting back together.

Oasis was as big as you can get in the world of music and pop culture back in the mid to late nineties. Pioneers of the now Lad Core fashion trend and at the forefront of the BritPop movement. Also I’m into Lad Core. I dig it. Windbreakers cinched at the waist, Soccer kit tops, shoulder bags, mullets and maybe some ciggys for later. But the nostalgia this music brings to people is something that can’t be beat.

After reading the handful of articles that I did about Oasis getting back together, the one thing I love and that always sticks out to me are the stories people tell and how they can think back to the memories of the time when they bought their favorite record or saw their first show. It’s that special thing music does. It stands the test of time for people. The drama only adds to the appeal and mystique.

Now I’m not an idiot, we all know that this tour is going to rake in the cash for Oasis. And we know that the Gallagher brothers are pretty blunt and crass.. almost to a comedic level with how they talk and act, so for me to say that the power of music has brought them back together after all these years would be stupid.

Oasis is a band that is the elder millennial generation’s Beatles. A second coming of the British Invasion. They are responsible for introducing a new genre of music and inspiring artists and bands after them. According to Dua Lipa her latest album was heavily inspired by Brit pop.

Oasis isn’t the first band and they won’t be the last to have a bad breakup, or have a reunion tour, or inspire a generation but for me not knowing much about them has gotten me excited to be apart of their second act and to see what will happen next with the band and the brothers Gallagher.

Music rules.

Also….

Check out this Vice video of Liam Gallagher from 2016 reviewing new music its hilarious.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZqZa3-24Gro?si=jlS8vUCQ3z9SWLDo

Ludacris’ verse on Conway the Machine’s Scatter Brain

“ Oh Shit! Was that Ludacris?!?” Is what I exclaimed while I was driving around in my 2015 Ford Focus hatchback after hearing the bars Luda laid down on the track Scatter Brain.

Ludacris is now a mega star. He is one of the biggest stars to emerge from the Atlanta hip hop scene, one of the faces of the Fast and Furious movie franchise (a binge that I’ve been wanting to tackle for a while now) and the most recent celebrity to be in a State Farm commercial. He really has no business being a part of this song. But he is. And I’m very happy about that fact.

Scatter Brain featured on the 2021 album La Maquina from Griselda’s Conway the Machine, Ludacris puts the finishing touches on a song that attacks you with lyrical violence. Conway, JID (also featured) and Luda “got reasons, million reasons’ ‘ why that violence is warranted. Their scattered brained thoughts about drug talk and gun violence are going to leave your brains scattered after you listen.

With references to Creed II and Rick James in the verse…Ludacris demands your respect by saying “ bow down to raps dignitary, Luda has always been a visionary” Exclaiming that he is a symbol to the rap game lyrically and for his contributions he has made over the years. As it is with pop culture, an older generation will try to gatekeep what they think they feel they are responsible for ushering in to the zeitgeist. To the younger listeners of hip hop now I hope you listen to this song and this verse piques your curiosity a bit and takes you down a Ludacris rabbit hole.

For my generation (now 30 somethings) Ludacris was an artist you would listen to make yourself feel cool and an artist that would maybe piss off your parents. Shouting Roll Out and Move Bitch! was as Mid 2000s as an Abercrombie tight fitting polo. Those songs have become anthems of my generation and made a star out of Ludacris.

What I’m getting at I guess is that every once in a while with music you hear someone you grew up listening to come back on a feature or drop a new track, or a new album and they remind you what they do best and why you liked them to begin with. This verse reminded me of that. Ludacris might be standing in a flooded kitchen in a wild outfit in State Farm Commercial now but don’t forget he can bring it in the booth when he wants to.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=M6qBhi6FBe0%3Fsi%3Dc6Be_yp2UCo2QokD