We’ll get everything back in place as soon as possible!

I’m sure if any of you are in the UK, or tuned in to UK-based music news at all, you’ll have heard about the threatened closure of the BBC’s 6music digital radio station. I was hugely disappointed when the closure plan was announced back in March, having just recently started to get back into listening to radio. I used to listen to 6music online, a little every day, to find out what was new, but I’d gotten out of the habit and it took a couple of years to get it back.

(Which is, of course, when the proposed closure was announced. Figures.)

It’s funny that it took me so long to get back to listening to the radio, especially since aDawgg had spent most of that time trying to convince me I needed to listen to the radio more. (He’s a big radio fan and is always trying to spread the love.) But now that I think about it, I’ve been a radio listener through most of my life, and that blip without was actually pretty unusual. I remember listening to Casey Kasem present the Top 40 on Sunday mornings, and even taping favorite songs from the radio for mixes. Remember making radio mix tapes? No, probably not, actually – I bet a lot of you are too young for that. Sigh. Trust me, it was great – it took a lot of patience and sometimes you had to do recon the week before so you knew when to get ready for the real taping, but it was totally worth it when you wanted those favorite songs but had only so much allowance money to go around.

Anyway, I learned what was popular in Europe by listening to Dutch radio when I moved to Holland as a teenager. And then I listened to 6music online once I got into more alternative music during university and wanted a place to hear what was new. Not too much has changed – other than a few trusted bloggers, there’s nowhere else to easily hear new singles, find out about new releases, hear favorite tracks that – let’s face it – I’m never going to hear elsewhere. At least, I don’t know anywhere else I’m likely to hear De La Soul’s “Me Myself and I” and Dan Sartain’s new, not-yet-released single on the same show.

What a big fat bummer it would be if the 6music closure went through. I can’t even say how disappointed I would be. I think my recent return to radio listening is mainly responsible for the frenaissance I’ve been having with music in general – I’d been a dip but lately, I can’t get enough. I’ve been eating up new singles and new releases and I have to thank 6music for giving me to the chance to hear new stuff and remind me of what I’d been missing.

There’s a bunch of things we listeners can do to help out, but I’m later than late to mention this, so I’m just going to point you over to our friend Joe at Music From A Green Window who already wrote a post linking to all the different places to check out. I’ll also point you to the Save BBC 6 Music blog, with another list of places to read and write about this issue. The BBC will make their final decision about the fate of 6music on the 25th of May, so there’s still some time to get your opinion heard. And definitely, definitely take some time to listen to the station itself and remind yourself, like I did, how enjoyable good radio can be.

Tipped off by The Music Slut this morning, I’ve just read about The Rakes’ split. This is a seriously sad day for me – I’ve been a little bit nutty about The Rakes since the first time I heard their “22 Grand Job” demo. They are (were, I guess) one of my very favorite bands to see live – the Tamboosh can confirm that they brought out a special kind of geekiness in me the minute they came on stage. And Capture / Release, perhaps one of the most relatable albums of all time (for a lot of those in my generation, anyway), is – without a doubt – up there with the very best the 00s has had to offer.

Bummer.

(Read more about their split on their official site.)

No fair!! The world is teeming with new bands that leave me absolutely cold and of course they’re planning to stick around FOREVER. Glasgow based The Royal We are amazing, they make beautiful melodic pop music with an edge, they’re unique and they’re supposedly only planning on making one CD. Just the ONE! I was delighted and devastated all in the same two minutes. You cannot dangle such a juicy, sugar-coated carrot in front of me and then tell me I can only have a nibble. That’s mean and more mean. Set for release on the 24th of September, you can pre-order the wonderful single “All The Rage” from their upcoming one and only album over at Domino Records. They are also going to play some farewell shows, so catch ‘em while you can. I doubt they’re coming my way, so let me know how it went. Lucky bastards.

Here’s the bloody video for “All The Rage”:

Arrogant before. Now on the verge of losing his mind.

Drowned in Sound reports Robbie Williams is planning on making a hip hop album.

Perhaps this is just a prank.

Speaking of pranks and dumbassness, according to the recent scientific poll at Byron Crawford 50 Cent’s upcoming Curtis is more anticipated than Cam’Ron’s diss Courtesy Curtis. People anticipating Half-a-Buck should be sent to the Arizona prison in the desert where they make you where pink and live in tents.

I’ll take a recording of Cam’Ron’s telephone calls laid over a Casio samba beat before I consider anything new from Fiddy worth actually anticipating.

Almost a year ago I wrote about Crash Convention for New Band Day and today I learned they’re splitting up! Didn’t they just get together?!? Well anyway last year I said I was undecided whether I like the band or not, thinking I had plenty of time to make my mind up. I do know that I adored “Part Two” and “Obviously Apparently” even then. In spite of my reservations I did join their mailing list and I have to say that they were one of the most fan-friendly bands I’ve ever come across. They regularly posted new recordings on their members only page and the more I heard the more I leaned towards liking them. It’s sad they didn’t stick around long enough to prove my initial doubts wrong. I hope they continue making music somehow, so I’ll definitely keep an eye on any projects coming from the individual members of the band.

Here’s how they broke the news to their fans.

Three lovely songs:

   Crash Convention – Part Two
   Crash Convention – Obviously Apparently
   Crash Convention – Leaving Rose
]]> http://onehundredb.com/2007/04/09/crash-convention-split-up/feed/ 2 Tam http://onehundredb.com/2007/01/27/100bummer-chaos-at-100b/ http://onehundredb.com/2007/01/27/100bummer-chaos-at-100b/#comments Sat, 27 Jan 2007 14:37:00 +0000 Julie http://100b.wordpress.com/2007/01/27/100bummer-chaos-at-100b/ ]]>
It seems things are just falling apart here at 100b. Poor Tam has found herself suddenly internet-less, so aDawgg and I were taking over her posts until she got that all sorted out. But when I tried to post my Soundtrack Day post yesterday, Blogger freaked out on me. It just refuses to post what I wrote. We seem to be having a problem posting anything over a paragraph long, which is infuriating, especially since the problem (which has been described by several other people on the Blogger Help thingy) isn’t getting much attention from the Powers That Be. 100b may be a little chaotic for a while, but we’re doing what we can to sort it out. I’ll get Soundtrack Day posted on Monday, when someone can help me out. In the meantime, here’s an awesome song just because it’s awesome.

   Interpol – Evil

]]> http://onehundredb.com/2007/01/27/100bummer-chaos-at-100b/feed/ 0 Bean http://onehundredb.com/2006/05/05/soundtrack-day-soledad-brothers-rip/ http://onehundredb.com/2006/05/05/soundtrack-day-soledad-brothers-rip/#comments Fri, 05 May 2006 11:50:00 +0000 Julie http://100b.wordpress.com/2006/05/05/soundtrack-day-soledad-brothers-rip/ ]]>

So, is it true? Are the Soledad Brothers no more? This would be very upsetting news if I could confirm whether it’s true or just some cruel rumor started by someone trying to break my heart. The rumors are all over the place, pointed out to me by my good friend Tam, but I can’t seem to find anything even remotely official. I’ve checked all the major music news outlets, stereogum, The Modern Age, all of the Soledad’s labels, their official site, google searches, and various forums and myspace pages. Several posts and blogs mention the break-up rumors, but the closest thing to official that I can find is on the lovely Ben Swank’s myspace page, where he’s posted, “i need a band. email me if you don’t suck.” Hmm, it sure don’t look good.

100b loves the Soledads. We love them. We’ve been fans for a good long while now, and we’ve been to see them twice, thrice? I’m not sure. No matter who we go see, and how great their shows are, the Soledads will always be one of our all-time favorite live bands. The foot-stomping, heart-pumping feeling you get from them is like nothing else. As amazing as their albums are, they’re nothing compared to these guys live. If this break up is real, it will be crushing to know that we’ll never see them play again. I could go on about this for a long time but if you’ve seen them, you already know what I’m talking about. And if you haven’t, I don’t want to make you feel bad.

So this is my wee tribute to the greatness of the Soledad Brothers. If you’re out there fellas, know that we love you. We hope this all blows over, but you all rock anyway.

Check out the video for “Good Feeling” (their last single?) on the Bomp Records site, or download this classic and remember the good times.

   Soledad Brothers – Prodical Stones Blues
]]> http://onehundredb.com/2006/05/05/soundtrack-day-soledad-brothers-rip/feed/ 0 Bean http://onehundredb.com/2006/02/02/into-the-dark-rip-the-needs/ http://onehundredb.com/2006/02/02/into-the-dark-rip-the-needs/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2006 18:07:00 +0000 Julie http://100b.wordpress.com/2006/02/02/into-the-dark-rip-the-needs/ ]]> I know It’s not exactly breaking news anymore, but I was pretty bummed out when I saw that Special Needs / The Needs are no more. Since they only released three singles, the panic isn’t exactly widespread, but it should be. But then again, why should we pay attention to a band that actually sounds a little different? Not when we could spend more time kissing the Editors’ ass, even though they totally ripped off Interpol.

Sorry, I got distracted. Anyway, The Needs (though I have to admit, I like Special Needs better) did this garage-meets-50s-pop thing, and it was fabulous. It sounds like they had some seriously good reasons to split up, though:

“[Guitarist Andrew] Pearson said: ‘There are so many reasons for this and this is only my version of why we have finished. There obviously were some problems within the band between members. This is not anything to do directly with why we have done this, and we will all be friends I’m sure. A dark collection of individuals stopped me wanting to do this, namely the fucking drugs wankers and stupid people who think they’re Nancy Spungen. And everything went rather grim since we got signed for whatever reason.’”
(quote from nme.com)

Well, I’m not sure exactly what that means, but it can’t possibly be good. I hope they’re all happier now. And I hope they all move on to bigger and even better musical endeavors.

However, I’m calling for The Needs’ album to be released anyway. We need a petition or something. It won’t do any harm to let us hear how great it is, will it? In the meantime, go check out The Needs’ possibly official site, scoop up the mp3s they’ve got over there, and make yourself a fake Needs CD.
]]> http://onehundredb.com/2006/02/02/into-the-dark-rip-the-needs/feed/ 0 Bean