After all, music soothes even the savage beast.

Wotcha!
I've been thinking a lot about music recently. The topic of conversation has run from the classic questions such as "Beatles or Stones?" to those questions you never really answer truthfully:

"What's your guiltiest pleasure?"

That is a though one to answer. I mean, I've got some real shockers in my CD collection not to mention that one Twisted Sister LP, But where do you draw the line?
Some opinions are that to have a true guilty pleasure you have meet the following criteria:

1) Own at least an albums worth.
2) The artist in question must be timelessly crap with 100% of output being awful.
3) When asked the question: "What's your guiltiest pleasure?" you might be compelled to look at and shuffle your feet, slowly swing your arms and mumble aforementioned artist's name under your breath.

Now I'm not completely convinced that the above is true. For example I own a few singles that I would've named a guilty pleasure but according to the above rules are not as they are only singles. For example I own a copy of "My Own Worst Enemy" By the band Lit and a copy of "Britain Is Shit" / "Fuck the Poor" By the band Selfish Cunt.
For audio-snobbishness® see the picture below:

Are these two items significant? No, in the grand scheme of things they are two singles releases by completely different artists with the intent to cater for completely different demographics.

But then, I've always hated that kind of industry slang.
In my humble opinion both of these releases are aimed at one very important fan...

Me.

You see whatever people say music is still merely a matter of subjectivity, it is, in the truest sense, an art form.
The quiet truth that we all won't 'fess up to is that some records we absolutely adore but for some reason we readily accept, without asking, that others will deem them as total poops on sticks. Why?
If you were to ask me how I personally feel about my own guilty pleasures, I would tell you that I have a few of them. None that I wouldn't mind someone taking a picture of me squinting whilst pressing said records to either side of my head. Does that not, quite instantly make them non-guilty pleasures in that I will publicly share them in glorious .JPG format with the Internet at large? Let's face it, it contradicts rule #3 from the list above at the very least.

During sessions of the home of Internet swearyness you may well hear some of the finest tunes from people we feel are making music in a similar way that we ourselves make the show. Making music because it's fun and different to what people may have heard before.
For example, I have known B-Sydes since 2000:

He's one of my favourite performers, I love his vocal style and I know that a good percentage of what motivates him to travel the country playing shows, recording E.Ps and working out songs is down to a sense of legitimate enjoyment for doing so. How many artists can you really say that about? Do Coldplay or Adele feel the same way now that they're contractually obliged to produce X amount of sales and tours? I don't know, I've never met them.
But I've met Ben and I know that he loves what he does. I couldn't imagine what he would sound like if you took that enjoyment away from him.
Nothing like this I bet:

In Confidence by B-Sydes

I feel it may well be all about how the artist and audience perceive the art itself in question. Again the world's most drunk and sweary podcast is made for two people and two people only. I'm sorry if that sounds selfish but we make it for our own amusement, but could you imagine if we didn't? Let's say we signed up to a large podcasting service that perhaps had feeds to digital radio stations. Poor old Brommers would have to cut 90% of what is said by virtue of the language content alone! Let's go one further and say that we got picked up by Auntie, they've sacked people for drinking whilst on air. Imagine that! I've spent the last two years recording radio almost exclusively hammered. Take away my "confidence juice" and I may not be able to make that one gold crass joke that makes Dazzer produce a near perfect spit-take with his beer... or in the case of this hypothetical scenario, his barley water or whatever the damn kids at the beeb are swigging these days.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you want to make something cool, enjoy it and have lots of fun!

Now, believe it or not, this post has taken quite a while for me to type up. Due to my out of control OCD it will never really be finished in my head, but I like to get everything that I type as close as I possibly can to what my perception of completed is.
I started this on Friday night. It's Sunday now and during the time between me finding the inbed code for In Confidence (I know there's a lot of links to Ben's site but I really love his new E.P Wrecked Vessels. Check it out yeah?) and now, we have received a reply to an email that I sent out at the start of the month. I sent a list of three questions to a band called The Wild.
I won't put the whole email up here, just part of their response which I feel highlights exactly what I am talking about (Willis):

"Thanks for the kind words about
'Set Ourselves Free.'
I'm really glad you like it
and it feels great to hear
that it means something to someone!"

Who does that? I'll tell you who. Someone that has a passion for the art that he makes with his friends. Not a record label guy sending out a generic if not automated response. A response on a personal level. Fantastic!
Thanks Witt, I think I love you little bit more now.

So what's this all about? I guess there is no such thing as a guilty pleasure when it comes to music. Enjoy it if you enjoy it, don't if you don't.

In my humble opinion though, It's next to impossible to not enjoy any of the guys and girls on this list.

Thanks to all of the good looking and talented folks that let us continue to play their music and make us smile!

Cheers!


C.J xoxo