And So It Begins...

Hey,

Thanks for making it this far and stumbling onto the blog. Essentially, after the Easter break I’m going to be leaving the familiar world of music journalism and selling my soul into ‘lifestyle’. This blog therefore, represents my 3am light bulb idea of a final hurrah before moving into greater readership / intense self-loathing. The aim is to keep the blog as far away from self-indulgent preaching as possible but should you find the idea of my musical advice the source of no little merriment, you may be surprised to know I do have some expertise in this area. So far, I’ve edited the Entertainment channel of a national webzine, won a couple of prizes and bagged work experience for Q, MOJO, NME and Music Week publications.

“That’s all very well”, I can hear you mutter in mild consternation at your computer screens, “but what’s the content going to be?” Well I’m glad you asked...

1. Interviews – Starting with the corker that is Franz freakin’ Ferdinand, over the next few weeks expect chats with Glasvegas, White Lies and (less impressively) Kid British to pop up.

2. Gig/Record Reviews – I’m going to be checking out a fair few bands over Easter, so tune in to read reports on the fortunes of The Maccabees, Peter Doherty, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Virgins, Foals, Little Boots, The Enemy and, last but by no means least, the Jersey Boys musical.

3. Personal Pick – Each week, I’ll be highlighting a band that aren’t flavour du jour and haven’t made any ‘all time greatest’ lists but still deserve your attention. Expect this feature to cross the decades in an effort to expand your musical horizons.

4. New Bands – Because to be truly pretentious, you’ll need to slate a band before anyone else has heard of them, this weekly feature should push you further forwards on your journey to becoming a total knob.

5. The Weekly Mix – Every Friday I plan to produce a 15 track mix tape along a certain theme for your own casual consumption. Currently, my intention is to manufacture a physical copy (complete with artwork and linear notes) as a special thank you for reading, available to anyone who wants it. For those less interested in junk mail, there’s still going to be the more convenient, less special mega-upload option.

6. Assorted Comment – The life blood of any decent blog, I obviously can’t predict what nuggets of opinion will be popping up throughout the coming month but I’m currently reading ‘Rip It Up and Start Again’ and ‘The Severed Alliance’ so you can expect those two to feature at some point.

Again, thanks for taking the time to trawl down that list, hopefully you found something you liked. Please, please, please let me get what I want and post some comments of support or general abuse over the Easter month.

Peace,

Rob

PS. If you’re wondering about the slightly emo sounding URL, I was listening to ‘Grace Under Pressure’ by Elbow at the time of setting up this blog and apart from seeming strangely appropriate, I am still juvenile enough to find the idea of someone dropping the ‘f bomb’ into their address box amusing.