Griff says; Here is the soundtrack!

It has been a recurring feature of these blog posts for both Gordon and I to ask; where is the soundtrack? ; specifically, where is the angry but expressive and meaningful music that articulates the feelings of a disaffected, disenfranchised youth during this time of ideologically imposed austerity for the weak, the poor and the powerless. We've asked, or alluded to, this question ‘here’, ‘here’, ‘here’ , ’here’and ’here’ in the last six months, and for a while we began to suspect that we might not get an answer and that we would have to fall back on the classic protest songs of our youth. I had previously hinted that the great white hope (if you'll excuse the term) might just be Scottish, outsider hip-hop crew, Stanley Odd (seen ’here’ recently on The Streetlamp). Their 2010 debut album, Oddio, had the beats, and the street-sharp lyrics were full of facetious scorn for vacuous modernity. Even when front-man Solareye reaches a pitch of righteous indignation, as evinced on songs such as Think of a Number (video below) and Winter of Discontent, there’s a certain quick-witted, measured coolness to it; this looked like the band I was praying for, but I had to be sure. Well folks, last night I went to see Stanley Odd playing live at the The Captain's Rest in Glasgow and now I am sure.



Stanley Odd could be the band who define 2011 in Scotland; and the beauty of it is, is that it will be on their own terms. This band are confident, bold and politically aware but, above all, they strike me as being fiercely, willfully independent. I may well be praying for a band who are just as musically righteous as they are politically but I strongly suspect that Stanley Odd don't play any one else's game but their own; and that's just how I'd want it to be. Live, the band are tight beyond belief, Solareye is all wiry, gallus energy; as eloquent and charismatic as you'd expect. The real revelation is Veronika. Her soulful vocals have always been the sweetener to Solareye's scathing rapping and, in a live setting, she really pulls it off; hitting every note, CD perfect, while playing the crowd to perfection with sweet smiles and cheeky winks. And this is a band who really engage with the crowd. For a moment, as we bounce madly along to their classic outsider anthem Ten to One, we really feel that we are 'all in this together' as the hideous Cameron might say. Well, fuck Cameron and fuck 'the new politics' of Clegg; we've got a new voice to rally behind.



So, do you want to get in on the ground-floor? Stanley Odd will be releasing a brand new EP Pure Antihero Material through Circular Records on Monday 21st February 2011. This is just the first of 3 EPs to be released in by the band this year, and will be available as a limited edition CD as well as a digital download. It can be ordered ’here’.
The track-listing is:
1. The Oddyssey (the video for which we featured previously ’here’)
2. SONARcotics
3. Winter of Discontent
4. The Controller
5. Letter to a Critic

These are five magnificently infectious grooves, fleshed out with some hard-riffing, sugared by Veronika Elektronica’s soulful vocals and absolutely bristling with pointed social and political commentary. As usual, the band manage to avoid falling into the trap of 'preaching' and the songs are all leavened with Solareye's trademark sly wit. My own favourite is undoubtedly Winter of Discontent (below) in which Solareye raps:

Listen, we’re in trouble kid,
In recession, and how did we discover it?
We were told by a Conservative government,
To take our worst expectations and double it.
Loan sharks circling and hovering,
Social unrest is bubbling,
Maggie’s back in Number 10,
And check the cold facts,
All we’re missing is the shoulder pads and the Poll Tax.
Nae jobs, thousands gettin’ laid off to save costs,
I’m wanting back to the future, Great Scott!
How do I know the economy’s affected?
For the first time in a decade we’ve got £10 eccies,
And to a government voters in the South elected,
We’re a nation of Begbies with wrecked teeth and webbed feet.
Park overnight and win four flat tyres,
As we tell stories round the chip-pan fires,
The economy’s two years behind the UK recovery,
It’s not feeling very Summery,
In summary; we’re heading for independence,
The election handed the union a death sentence,
If the SSP and Solidarity intervene with the SNP and The Greens,
Then its seems four weddings and a funeral for the Union Jack.

Amen to that!





The band will be touring Scotland and the rest of the UK throughout February. Catch them if you can, you will not be disappointed. Confirmed dates can be seen below; however, more shows are still to be added, so check the band’s website for the latest info.



You can download an MP3 of the song mentioned above, Ten to One, ’here’courtesy of The Streetlamp. I'm making this available for promotional purposes. As usual, I hope you'll like it enough to support the band.

Griff
xx

Griff says; The Odd Angry Shot

Prepare to be amazed. Not just by the excellent music that I'm about to unleash on you but by the fact that I'm about to write about a hip hop band. Yep, a 'Griff says' piece about hip hop and not a mandolin or ukulele in sight; whatever next? Still, it is a Scottish hip hop band so it's not quite going to be NWA, thankfully. But before I begin I'd like to just establish my (ahem) hip hop credentials. 'What credentials?', I hear you snigger as you mentally run through the Griff back catalogue of 'the whitest music imaginable'. Well, although I concede that my musical tastes now seems largely to consist of twee-pop and indie-folk it wasn't always thus. You see, Gordon and I were young and happening during the 'Golden Age of Hip Hop' in the late 80s and naturally we did take an interest in, what was undoubtedly, the most creative and influential music form during this period. Like most music fans at the time we were at first intrigued and then excited by the angry and cerebral street-music of Public Enemy with its overt political, social and cultural themes. At the other end of the scale I, in particular, loved the psychedelic, jazz influenced music of De La Soul, which was gentler but no less intelligent. Hip hop at that time was so innovative and and creative that it looked like it was going to sweep away all before it. So what happened? The crass violence, homophobia and misogyny of Gangsta rap happened and any wit, quirkiness or earnestness was suffocated under a tide of exaggerated, comic-book, thuggery and sexual boasting. Goodbye art, Hello commerce. The intelligent and discerning music fans were, thus, largely lost to the genre and have never returned.



So, why am I telling you this? Well, lately I've become aware of a Scotish hip hop band 'Stanley Odd' (pictured) whose music reminds me of all that I liked about hip hop around about 1989. The rhymes display the sort of wry humour and clever wit that I would associate with a band like The Just Joans. That's not surprising, I suppose, when you consider that lyric-writer and rapper, Solar Eye, hails from the same gritty Lanarkshire heartland where, I suppose, a certain cheeky gallusness is de rigeur. The band also diplay a refreshing sense of being 'outsiders', which is well summed up in this short 'manifesto' from their Youtube channel:

"Music for people that get tongue-tied talking to girls; clumsy people that dance awkwardly in their bedrooms; people that are generally uncomfortable in social situations; those for whom fashion-sense is an oxymoron; avid readers of science fiction and comic books; girls who drink tonic wine; anyone who prefers literary figures to viewing figures; disciples and architects of counter-culture. Stay Odd. "






Ah, yes; they're definitely talking to me. This droll, dissident attitude can be found too in their lyrics. Here's a sample from the brilliant 'Ten to One', track 1 of their debut album, Oddio, released last year in the UK on Circular Records:

"I make rap hits for fat kids
And awkward cats with bad skin
And no sense of fashion.
I rap for asthmatics
with hand me down gym-kits
and NHS glasses"

Oddio really is very good; fresh, playful and stimulating by turns; and I suggest that you purchase a copy of it to see what I mean. If you need further convincing, you can download an MP3 of the song mentioned above, Ten to One, 'here' courtesy of The Streetlamp. I'm making this available for promotional purposes as the Stanley Odd free downloads on bandcamp, which I intended directing you to, seem to have reached their limit. I hope you'll like it enough to support the band by purchasing the music or going to see them live. They gig regularly in Scotland and are playing within the next week at both King Tuts in Glasgow and Duke's Corner in Dundee. See 'here' for more details.
The other appealing aspect of Solar Eye's lyrics, which is continually bubbling under the surface, but which I'd love to see made more explicit, is a vein of social, and dare-I-say it political, commentary. I mentioned in a previous Streetlamp blog 'here' that perhaps the music which was really documenting the social and political unrest in the country at the moment was happening away from my gaze in the world of hip hop and other urban music forms. I'm beginning to think that I may have been correct in that assumption. To see what I mean check out this cracking video, a parody of a news report, made for their song 'The Oddyssey', a track from the band's forthcoming EP 'Pure Antihero Material', out February 2011. Check out the band website for more info.



Stanley Odd have strayed into this sort of territory previously. Here's a sample of the lyrics from 'Get Out of Bed', track two from Oddio:

"Anyway, until my shelf-life expires,
I'm gonna do my best to help light some fires.
All those corporations think that they can buy us,
Seems to me this country's being run by low-lifes and liars.
Change gonna come let me tell you this,
I'm gonna raise my fist and stay rebellious,
I need to get up, get out and do something,"

I may be barking up the wrong tree here but I get a sense that it's precisely music like this; contemporary, street-smart, invigorating and a little bit unconventional that could provide the perfect soundtrack to 2011. And if the worst happens, well, we won't have a revolution but we will get to dance. Brothers and Sisters, prepare to mobilise!

Griff
xx