Even Better Than The Real Thing? Or "Authenticity..."

For those who don't know me, I like record reviews. I don't think they should dictate anyone's taste, but I find them interesting to read. Anyway, I was reading a review of one of my new favourite records- "The Creek Drank the Cradle" by Iron & Wine, and the second paragraph went like this...

"Not so for Sam "Jim" Beam. He makes bare-bones music that constantly nods to musical periods long since passed, perhaps the earliest being the 1920s of Blind Lemon Jefferson. In short, Beam makes roots music with southern themes, though to end there would do him a disservice. But now knowing this, you may be wondering: What are his qualifications? Is this guy authentic?"

The writer (Ryan Kearney, of pitchfork.com - in case you couldn't tell) then goes on to decide that actually, he is "authentic" and it is a good album after all- a sentiment that I heartily agree with, but that's not the point.

The point is, does authenticity really matter? What does it even mean? I don't think I am authentic- a British, slightly middle-class, soon-to-be music student who writes slightly angsty folk-pop - but does this mean my music sucks? Even when my music does suck (which, to be fair, it definitely does sometimes), I'm pretty sure that isn't the reason.

Don't get me wrong- I am all for honesty in music, and I seriously dislike pretentiousness. Absolutely. But does "authenticity" mean that only Americans are allowed to play banjos? Or that only kids are allowed to use kiddy musical instruments? Plenty of British indie-alt-folk-whatever acts would disagree with the former, and er- Sigur Ros would disagree with the latter. I know, a slightly less effective piece of rhetoric there, but you get the idea.

My point is this- I believe that if music is "good"- if it appeals to my taste in lyrics, musicality, content, whatever, then surely it is "good," regardless of how "authentic" the artist is.

Do you agree?

About the hiatus...

So, just got back from Germany concert tour yesterday, and wasn't able to blog while I was there. Before I went there were a few gigs that I didn't mention as well, but luckily for you I promise not to blog on absolutely everything...

So, in a nutshell, sorry for the delay and expect a few new posts, but I promise not to bore you with every detail of every moment of every concert.

That's what twitter is for... http://twitter.com/dandanglover

Back home!

Hello again, I'm still not entirely sure whether anyone on the planet is actually following my blog, but if you are, sorry for the lack of posts over the last two weeks. I intended to write something from Florida, but never got round to it, so I'm sorry!

Though I did buy a rather nice maraca while I was there. I also tried to buy a ukulele, but the one I wanted was out of stock although, for my family's sake, maybe it was better that way.

I must doubly apologise because this post isn't going to be particularly substantial either, but I promise that after my exam on Thursday I will make an effort to write something decent. As for now, I should really be off studying. Peace out!

P.S. If anyone is actually reading anything on this blog, I would love it if you felt able to comment somewhere, or drop me an email telling me how much you love/hate it, as I'm getting a bit of a complex about the lack of followers... That cool?

You critics know nothing!

Sorry, did I say that aloud...?

In what will surely be the first of many non-music related posts, I think it's time that I took a stand. On Saturday, I received my new toy - a T-Mobile G1 (that's a "google-phone" to those who aren't sad enough to read techie blogs. 

Wait a minute...), and in short - I LOVE IT!!!

Except I have read far too many reviews which criticise frankly silly things such as lack of video recording (which is coming soon anyway), lack of headphone jack (let's face it - who doesnt own an ipod these days, anyway?) and - wait for it - "keyboard position." Pah. So it is for that reason that I took this opportunity to put in my shout for such a clever, exciting and, frankly, hi-tech device.

And what's more, it is built on a principal of "open architecture!!" Those non-techy minded amongst you may not get the significance of this, but it means that anyone can pick a bit of the phone's operating system that they don't like, learn the code, and fix it! Though so far, there haven't been many things I have wanted to fix.

Seriously, there has been no point throughout my G1 experience (so far... touch wood) during which I have thought "Oh that's annoying, why did they do that?" I may be biased seen as I have always been a big Google enthusiast, but I just love the synchronisation and the sheer usefulness of my new phone.

I'm afraid I can't really pinpoint any favourite features, since I love it all (though if I had to, the notifications, menu, home screen and general user interface is just perfect), but my whole experience with the G1 has been brilliant - I love the way it "just works."

So there you have it, my shout for the G1. Yeah!