Blur

[aylee]

Apart from a few tracks, I never really got Blur and this opinion was confirmed when I saw them at Reading one year .... it really did nothing for me.

Alex James' book was good though.

 

[stavros]

"Blur" was the first CD I ever bought, although I'm more likely to listen to the first three albums these days. In terms of Blur and Oasis, the former were more consistent, whereas the latter did one very good album before spending the rest of their careers trying to do it again with ever worsening results.

 

[trashpony]

They were very nice when they played a teeny tiny secret gig at my bf's club (capacity ca. 100). And I am going to see them in the summer. We are hoping for snogs

Oh have just noticed ninja is banned again

 

[DJWrongspeed]

Blur and Oasis are primarily responsible for obscuring really great music of the mid 90s. As we watch 90s nostalgia kickin it becomes a media illusory story of britpop which diverts from all the 90s greatest music. Both bands put out a load of balls around 95/96 let's not forget. (yes, 'country house'). I'm not really knocking the bands but the way that history is written by lazy journalists. Both have recorded great music I won't deny.

 

[cliche guevara]

A friend met Graham Coxon in a coffee shop last week (he was there with Pete Doherty apparently, fact fans...), and asked him if they were planning any low key gigs around Essex. Graham told him they wanted to play in Chappel, as that was where they did their first ever gig. This is Chappel, as seen on googlemaps:

It has a population of 'approx. 400" acording to Wikipedia. I'd be suprised if it were that much. I told my friend that Graham was pulling his leg

This turned out to be true. Fan club only.

They're playing at the Railway Museum, where the annual beer festival is held. That place is tiny, 200 tops. Jealous.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/music/newsid_8003000/8003817.stm

 

[pootle]

"Modern Life is Rubbish" was one of my favourite albums as a youth. I remember buying it on vinyl from a record shop in Camden when I was on a girl guide exchange trip and marvelling at how very cool I was

What album is "End of a Century" on?

Hmm - might have a bit of a Blur day today. Am going to see them in the summer too!

 

[Crispy]

end of a century's on parklife

 

[D'wards]

I always thought Dave was a throughly nice bloke- he's an absolute arsehole (I'd like to think if Graham was still in the band he would have stopped this nonsense)

 

[Ming]

I always thought Dave was a throughly nice bloke- he's an absolute arsehole (I'd like to think if Graham was still in the band he would have stopped this nonsense)

Yep. I’ve seen that footage. Definitely dropped my opinion of them as people. Pure bullying.

 

[SheilaNaGig]

That’s horrible. I couldn’t watch all of it, it gave me the rage and made me shrivel up a bit.

So I googled for more, because ffs. And apparently Rowntree owned it as bullying and apologised. Blamed it on his coke addiction.

Coke brings out the wanker for sure, but there has to be a wanker in there for it to be brought out.

And no mention of the way the others just let him carry on.

Blur's Dave Rowntree Apologizes for 2003 Attack Against Nardwuar

 

[londonkid]

song 2 is my favourite pull my self togethrr song ever

Agreed love that one

 

[ska invita]

Yep. I’ve seen that footage. Definitely dropped my opinion of them as people. Pure bullying.

I may have got this wrong but isnt NArdwuar a deliberately at times annoying comic character a la Borat, who no doubt before this clip starts had already been riling them?

 

[Yossarian]

I may have got this wrong but isnt NArdwuar a deliberately at times annoying comic character a la Borat, who no doubt before this clip starts had already been riling them?

This writer calls him "the most revelatory interviewer of musicians in the world."

"One of the most interesting things about watching a lot of Nardwuar’s interviews (and if you watch one, chances are you’ll end up watching a lot) is the way that they tend to reveal aspects of artists’ personalities that we’re not accustomed to seeing. His aggressive uncoolness—the silly hat, the grating manner, the relentlessly pursued obsession with minutiae—amounts to a kind of challenge. The respect he gets from people like Big K.R.I.T., Grimes, Brother Ali, Pharrell, Snoop Dogg, Joanna Newsom, El-P, Questlove, and Ian MacKaye reflects the extent to which these people are, in their different ways, smart and empathic enough to see past the geeky, gimmicky surface to the value of what he’s doing.

But that uncoolness brings out a lack of basic decency—a shabbiness and stupidity—in others. A 1991 interview with Sonic Youth, for instance, was especially difficult for me, a Sonic Youth fan, to watch—first for how it reveals their stunted and clichéd conception of what it means to be a bunch of cool people in a cool rock band, and then for how it reveals them as just standard-issue schoolyard bullies. Lee Ranaldo breaks a rare 7-inch record Nardwuar has brought them, and then he and Thurston Moore (then age 33 and 35 respectively) grab him and pull his T-shirt over his head as he struggles and shouts. “You idiot!” he screams at Ranaldo. “You fucking piece of shit!” It’s a grim spectacle, but worth sitting through as a reminder of how shallow and transparently fraudulent the performance of countercultural cool can often be.

The World’s Best Pop Music Interviewer Is Named Nardwuar

 

[danny la rouge]

Never heard of him. Nor have I watched the video. But perfectly prepared to accept that Blur are twats.

 

[Ming]

I may have got this wrong but isnt NArdwuar a deliberately at times annoying comic character a la Borat, who no doubt before this clip starts had already been riling them?

Yeah. They definitely didn't know who he was at all. And their behaviour is completely justified. And the apology was completely sincere. And they definitely weren't on blow.

 

[Ming]

I may have got this wrong but isnt NArdwuar a deliberately at times annoying comic character a la Borat, who no doubt before this clip starts had already been riling them?

Why are you attempting to defend this behaviour anyway? It's obviously disgusting regardless of whether the interview is joke or not.

 

[D'wards]

Nardwuar isn't really annoying. He's known to do extensive research on his subjects and gives them obscure gifts based on their influences and what they are into.

Check him out on YouTube, his interviews are great. The Wu Tang one is good too although the rest of the Clan are a bit Rowntree apart from RZA who proves why he is the ongoing success story of the Clan

 

[strung out]

Dave Rowntree is a Labour councillor now isn't he?

 

[ska invita]

Why are you attempting to defend this behaviour anyway? It's obviously disgusting regardless of whether the interview is joke or not.

Trying to understand the context

 

[Ming]

Trying to understand the context

Got the wrong end of the stick. Apologies. Thought you were trying to defend them.

 

[kittyP]

I may have got this wrong but isnt NArdwuar a deliberately at times annoying comic character a la Borat, who no doubt before this clip starts had already been riling them?

I know nothing of the interviewer and also have no natural affiliation to Rowntree but it looked like the interviewer was being perpously antagonistic, like a Dennis Penis type.

 

[ska invita]

I know nothing of the interviewer and also have no natural affiliation to Rowntree but it looked like the interviewer was being perpously antagonistic, like a Dennis Penis type.

yes thats my impression of Nardwuar...its a very different character to Dennis Penis who by contrast flat out insults people to their face...Nardwuar goes down a seemingly innocent often-adoring geeky path, but the effect can be the same, and he's looking to provoke reactions. Often people being interviewed know its an act and know the things he does to rile are deliberate
Looking at the wiki it mentions that...

"....he has been attacked verbally, physically threatened, and intimidated by people such as Sebastian Bach of Skid Row (who stole Nardwuar's tam o' shanter [15]), the band Quiet Riot (who chased Nardwuar and crew down the street), Sonic Youth and Dave Rowntree of Blur. Alice Cooper, Henry Rollins, Travis Barker, Lydia Lunch, Harlan Ellison, Beck, Nas, and others have hung up on him or been verbally combative in interviews.[16] Chris Fehn of Slipknot, Kid Cudi and Lil Uzi Vert have left midway through an interview. More often the experience confuses the celebrities. Members of GWAR tried not to laugh while in character.[citation needed] Jello Biafra was impressed with his guerrilla interview style, but became noticeably angered in a 2000 interview when Nardwuar began to discuss former Dead Kennedys bandmates' lawsuit against Biafra.[17] Dave Rowntree of Blur apologized to Nardwuar in 2011 for his behavior during a 2003 interview, calling it "one of the things I'm ashamed of" and classified his actions as "bullying". Nardwuar accepted the apology via Twitter.[18][19]"

That doesn't excuse people from getting overly riled by him, but I think it does change the context a lot. I've seen his interviews a couple of times back in the day and he managed to annoy me!

 

[salem]

Yeah maybe I'm missing the joke but the interviewer just comes across as an unfunny bellend. Maybe they were supposed to be in on the joke but I found the bloke grating and while Dave didn't come off amazingly it just seemed like being caught by someone acting a tit when you're having a bad day.

 

[SheilaNaGig]

Yeah maybe I'm missing the joke but the interviewer just comes across as an unfunny bellend. Maybe they were supposed to be in on the joke but I found the bloke grating and while Dave didn't come off amazingly it just seemed like being caught by someone acting a tit when you're having a bad day.

I agree that the joke is juvenile, deeply annoying and not funny. But you can get pissed off and riled and lose your temper without shoving them around and taking their glasses off them, even if the person is an irritating bellend.

 

[Buddy Bradley]

I liked his Kendrick Lamar interview.

 

[D'wards]

This is the perfect example of one of his interviews- starts off weird but then he totally wins them over with his questions and research and knowledge of them

 

[rutabowa]

nardwuar is the don. it is easy to think he is just intentionally annoying if you just watch one interview, but actually he is a really odd but very passionate and obsessive music nerd.... so he totally wins over other music nerds who he interviews (and gets things out of them that no other interviewer could), but he massively irritates those whose egos are a bit inflated. To be fair tho the early interviews from the 90s were before he was known and no doubt punk bands were used to interviewers who were actually just trying to take the piss out of them, so were a bit on the defensive. nowadays he interviews all the young rappers and gets a lot of respect from 90% of them for his massively impressive research and enthusiasm, so just the longevity of his career shows he's no joke, he is an important part of music culture in his own right now.

 

[rutabowa]

Famously Snoop Dog loves being interviewed by him... Wacka Flocka Flame gave him his chain... Pharell said it was the best interview he would ever have... there is loads more too him than the wacky voice etc.

 

[D'wards]

Famously Snoop Dog loves being interviewed by him... Wacka Flocka Flame gave him his chain... Pharell said it was the best interview he would ever have... there is loads more too him than the wacky voice etc.

Asap Rocky gave him a chain too - put it over his head during the freeze part.

The Cardi B one has the best freeze response of the lot - hilarious