Gossip Rubs Journalism’s Face in Dirt

Michael Jackson is dead, and if you’re honest, there will be a time in the past few years where you labeled him a “sick paedo”, so don’t go feigning sadness, yeah?

Now, I couldn’t give a toss about the man, and it’s not his death which interested me. It was the coverage. As a Journalism student, it made me feel incredibly uneasy to see the leading news agencies in the world running around like blue arsed flies; chomping on the recycled scraps of information left to them by celebrity gossip blog TMZ.

I may be getting well ahead of myself, but I can see a future where Kate Adie and John Simpson stand shoulder to shoulder with Perez Hilton on the front line; a world in which a representative from E! quizzes Ahmadinejad on his country’s high gender bias. Scary, no?

This isn’t the first time TMZ have beaten multi-national news corporations to scoops on celebrity deaths. Both the Steve Irwin and Heath Ledger spectacles were leaked first to this L.A based Blog, one of which happened the other side of America, and one of which happened the other side of the world.

I’m well aware of a gaping hole in this, the little voice in my head screaming “these are all celebrities, and this is a specialist celebrity blog!”. Well yes, that is true, but the fact is inescapable that the largest news agencies in the world, lost out to an online tabloid journal run by a Law graduate with no formal Journalism training.

Aside from a more than casual flirtation with facts (and a penchant for hyperbole) there is a much darker side to the celeb infatuated gossip mags and blogs. In Guardian scribe Oliver Burkeman’s “The Brangelina Industry“, he is told by head of X17 (one of the world’s largest Papparazzi agencies), that “there is this idea that there is only one truth, and that you have to stick to it. But maybe not.”. Come again?

Further damning of the industry comes from publicist Huvane (responsible for Gwyneth Paltrow, Demi Moore, Meg Ryan, Julianne Moore etc etc etc etc…). “If you co-operate with one of the magazines, their competitors become vengeful and attack clients… There is no upside to working with them … Their tactic is to make up stories that are so damaging, in the hope that we would engage in a dialogue that gives them access to the talent.” Lovely.

So here we have a biased industry, known to fabricate stories on the personal lives of celebrities (”[the story] can come from a genuine tip, or a photo. Or it can come out of our ass.” - anonymous celebrity weekly editor), at the forefront of international Journalism.

Sleep Well.

Celebrate Yourself - The Return of Shoegaze

18 years after My Bloody Valentine's Loveless, arguably the greatest album of the 90's, the Irish/American noise-poppers are back touring. This is a good thing. They're also recording a new album. This is a bloody good thing. They're even curating gargantuan hipster circle jerk All Tomorrow's Parties this winter. That's a fucking awesome thing.

The influence of this album can be seen in so many places, but it would be an act of monumental ignorance to hammer on about it, and ignore all the other bands that made this short-lived scene such a beautiful thing.

There was Lush and their spiky, angsty fuzz-pop, the trickling melancholy of Slowdive, and Ride's swirling psychedelia. Then there was Curve, Swervedriver, Spacemen 3...

So, that's the old guard. That happened then (admittedly, some of it is still happening with reformations from Swervedriver and MBV), but what the frick is going on now?

Well, two London club nights have been keeping the spirit alive. Club AC30 and Sonic Cathedral have been putting on the new wave of Shoegaze bands for some time now; as well as releasing singles by both stalwarts and newbies.

One of these bands is Spotlight Kid. Taking MBV's wall of noise sound and the Cocteau Twins' love of electronics, Spotlight Kid sidestep the dirgey pitfall that many bands fall into by upping the tempo and giving their noise a massive kick in the arse. Their one album to date, 2006's Departure is a gorgeous collection of summery fuzz-pop tunes which will make those drives down to the beach all the more giddy.

Going North of the border, we meet five fiery Celtic drinkers, The Twilight Sad. Spouting loner's poetry in the broadest of Glaswegian brogues, James Graham is an aesthetic and vocal representation of the brooding, rumbling, lush noise created by the band. Nothing like those other Scot noise-mongers Mogwai, they have more in common with a Jesus and Mary Chain that can program more than the beat from "Be My Baby". Expect sorrows being drowned by 9 pints of Tennant's Super and crescendos that will make your heart pump blood through your nose.

An offshoot of Shoegaze, Metalgaze seems to be a product of metal heads deciding things sounded a lot better slower. I'm guessing a shitload of grass was involved in this decision. Jesu (AKA Justin K Broaderick of defunct metallers Godflesh and grindcore heroes Napalm Death) make sludgy, hypnotic stoner rock which will most likely give you a hernia at high volume. 9 minute motorik drone workouts and pounding bass are the order of the day, with those gorgeous not-quite-there reverberating vocals merely another instrument in the great wall of sound.

Finally, a band getting slightly more attention in the media, French kitsch-poppers M83 (warning: video contains graphic scenes of rollerblading). Taking their cues from 80's Brat Pack cinema and the original Gaelic sex-pest, Serge Gainsbourg, you couldn't find a cooler band. Their 5th album proper, Saturdays = Youth was released last year to critical acclaim, landing them a support slot with MOR hounds Kings of Leon. Personally, I couldn't imagine more of a clash. M83's joyous, youthful synth-pop is leagues away from the stale, corporate music of some inbred rednecks with seriously burned cocks.

So go ahead, decorate your feet, they have to be interesting if you're going to spend a long time looking at them...