Happy New Decade From The Devil

And so another year draws to a close and a new one begins. A year in which we all, with the exception of MPs with their hand in the till and bankers with their hand in our back pockets, became a little poorer, a little angrier and a little more pissed off.

It's also the end of a decade, the so called Noughties. A decade which has changed the music industry. At the start of the noughties music was mainly sold on CDs and you had to go to a shop to buy it. As we end the decade music is no mainly sold digitally via the internet and most of the shops where the CDs were bought have disappeared. Despite the format change the overall quality of the music has declined. The charts are full of manufactured, computer generated dross from an interchangeable sanitised selection of puppets and X Factor karaoke clones. Music, once the authentic voice of rebellious youth, is little more than a commodity used to sell everything from Tampons to Toothpaste. Band's write a marketing plan before learning to play their instruments and recruit a PR man before a roadie! The once mighty NME reduced to an indie Smash Hits.

All of this and the frightening prospect of a Conservative government in the UK! As Paul Weller once hollered the public get what the public wants and if this is what they want then god helps us all!

I'm going underground!!

But it's not all bleak and depressing here are some reasons to be cheerful as we enter the Teenies:

1. With the once mighty NME turning into Smash Hits thank God for magazines like Artrocker keeping the Peel fires burning;

2. Bands that demonstrated that it was possible to balance commercial success with artistic integrity The Whites Stripes, Klaxons, Radiohead, The Arctic Monkeys, The Horrors, Wild Beasts, Morrissey, Franz Ferdinand, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Kings of Leon providing examples to young bands the world over;

3. The blogosphere - the blogosphere is one bright spot in an otherwise fairly bleak decade for music. Yes sometime enthusiasm overrides quality and the blogosphere is partly responsible for the inexplicable popularity of the execrable Vampire Weekend but the bloggers keep the music scene fresh promoting and supporting real band's and artist's denied the oxygen of publicity. This is despite the overlords of the music industry and Google constant biting of the hand that feeds them by constantly claiming copyright infringement even if no copyright has been infringed;

4. Rage Against The Machine smashing the X Factor juggernaut in the race for Xmas number 1. There's hope for us yet.

The Devil's wish for 2010 is that people power, as seen in the amazing grass roots internet based campaign to keep X Factor from hyping their way to another Christmas Number One in the UK, can sweep away the complacent major record labels ushering in a new era of independence!

To celebrate the end of the decade and welcome in the Teenies here are a couple of relevant bands, tracks and videos...

Go Try

MP3 - New Years Revolution 5,000 Miles (Proclaimers Cover)
MP3 - New Years Revolution - This Place Is Fucking Hot
If anyone from the IFPI is reading this track is linked direct from the New Years Revolution Last.FM site and is therefore already freely available so please refrain from alleging infringement of copyright.

Go Visit

New Years Revolution - Myspace // Last.FM


Go View

Baby New Year
Oh Sweet Meetings



The Walkmen
In The New Year




Rachel Unthank & The Winterset
New Year Song




The Residents
Mr Skull's New Year's Eve Song



Death Cab For Cutie
The New Year