For anyone that cares, this incarnation of Solutions For Clean Living is more or less defunct. SFCL will be returning as a radio show in September. More to follow.
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Comebacks are all the rage.
The only thing hipper than going on hiatus is coming off it again. I am convinced that Pavement only broke up so they could get back together again a few years later after everyone had been able to step back and realise exactly how amazing they really were. And what better reason to end a hiatus than heartbreak? Heartbreak makes the world go round, and is the number one source of hip artistic inspiration (ahead of marijuana at number two and love at number three) in the world. Just look at Dashboard Confessional: I finally understand what he was going through when he wrote the classic ‘Rapid Hope Loss’, and completely get how he can be so prolific.
Going on hiatus is not just acceptable but expected.
Creative people, particularly bloggers, cannot be expected to be creative at all times. Ennui, apathy, and even just generally having better things to do are all natural parts of life for the cutting edge blogger.
Going on hiatus is the only answer. That way, people know you’re not just being lazy, you actually have a good reason for not updating: your hiatus.
Good people currently on hiatus include: Godspeed You! Black Emperor, TV On The Radio, Elvis Presley and Sparta.
Whilst on hiatus, I may occasionally post updates on the status of my hiatus, or occasional regular posts, but it is important to not get your hopes up, despite the sole aim of my posts whilst on hiatus being to get your hopes up.
I wear obscure badges on the pocket of my skinny jeans.
Suggested by Matt Waring, the only guy in Huddersfield with hair better than mine, via FormSpring. And he raised a really good point. Most clothing serves some kind of purpose or fulfils some kind of need. But skinny jeans have no purpose other than style, and badges have no other purpose other than showing off how many obscure bands you have heard of. Combine the two and, boosh, you’ve got a winning combination.
Oliver Postgate was a televisionary.
Suggested by Walter The Cat via FormSpring. And he’s pretty smart for a cat. Oliver Postgate was a television visionary. A televisionary, if you will. Bagpuss and the Clangers were alright, but his real finest work was on Ivor The Engine and Noggin The Nog. Scores that were heavy on the bassoon, talking trains, dragons, easygoing vikings and endless amounts of charm. Ivor The Engine was a particular favourite as a youth, and even today, thanks to it’s home-made, watercoloured style.
TV shows for adults aren’t as good as TV shows for kids, and kids TV shows today aren’t as good as vintage kids TV shows. The world still has a lot to learn from Oliver Postage.
I write for a student newspaper.
I go to Huddersfield University, where I do a media degree. This is because I one day hope to become an even more integral part of the media than this blog allows. This year, I started contributing regularly to my university’s student newspaper because I felt it was important for people I didn’t know to read my opinions about things they had never heard of.
The best thing about a student newspaper is it gives you so much more freedom over what you can write. Whilst the NME is a slave to outdated fashions and one or two overhyped things at a time, a student paper lets you write on the real cutting edge every month. I love it, and hopefully I’ll get to be on the editorial staff next year. That would be so rad.
Top 10 Records Of The Decade.
In some kind of vague, but not particularly rigid, order:
Radiohead - Kid A
Whoah, Radiohead really caught us off guard with this one. The future of rock music is here! we all cried. It has synthesizers! Thanks to this we now have Justice and MGMT and parties have never been the same.
Arcade Fire - Funeral
Beautiful party rock for the end of the world. So epic that U2 used Rebellion (Lies) as their entrance music. The way the violins drive this record along means it never stops moving, like a road trip to New York.
Sufjan Stevens - Illinois (or: Come On Feel The Illinoise, as it is ACTUALLY called).
A concept album about the great state of Illinois, with amazing song titles like The Black Hawk War, or, How to Demolish an Entire Civilization and Still Feel Good About Yourself in the Morning, or, We Apologize for the Inconvenience but You’re Going to Have to Leave Now, or, ‘I Have Fought the Big Knives and Will Continue to Fight Them Until They Are Off Our Lands!’ Seriously, that is just one song. A gorgeously twee baroque pop record about serial killers and esoteric contextaul references.
Why? - Alopecia
The best hip hop album of the decade is so good that people can’t actually decide if it’s a hip hop album or not. Fog joins the Why? band for their second collaboration which blurs the line between hip hop and indie pop, stuffed full of smart lyrics.
The Strokes - Is This It
Year One for the new wave of garage rock, and everything that came after could only be labelled as Post-Strokes. With hardcore gone, the rich kids took punk rock back and it was like a breath of fresh air.
Wilco - Yankee Hotel Foxtrot
The epitome of vaguely-folkish-alterna-rock, Reprise Records originally refused to release this, and let Wilco return to the bosom of the indie community, where they belong. Reprise were fools: this album is so full of substance that it’s blinding, and you can’t actually pin down what the substance is. I guess it was just too smart for ‘The Man’.
Kanye West - Graduation
Kanye is the true pop star of this decade, calling out George Bush, disrupting that phoniest of practices, the MTV awards, and making a selection of killer records. To not realise the greatness of Kanye West is an insult to the creativity within hip hop, and Graduation is where everything came together just right. No one else can quite touch it.
Neutral Milk Hotel - In The Aeroplane Over The Sea
Although technically released in 1998, it seems like it took us all about three or four years to truly start to understand this record. Many of us needed it explained to us, whereas some just needed to let it sink in before we could formulate our true opinions on it. The influence it holds over so many of the decade’s greatest bands is staggering.
Interpol - Turn On The Bright Lights
The 00s was the decade of nostalgia, and Joy Division were one of the best bands to look back fondly upon. From Donnie Darko using Love Will tear Us Apart for one of the greatest scenes in film history, to Control, the black and white masterpiece that truly helped us to understand Curtis, Joy Division were one of the decades biggest bands, and Interpol did the best job of keeping their spirit alive. This record really brings the grit of the late 70s to life.
Animal Collective - Strawberry Jam
After they stopped being too weird, and before they became too mainstream, Strawberry Jam stands as Animal Collective’s defining work. Warped pop sensibility that you can’t help but say you love, even if you don’t know why.
What a decade!
Internet campaigns are a positive force for change.
So the internet, led by Stephen Fry, successfully gave some money to charity, but more money to Sony, by buying an old song with ‘fuck’ in the chorus for no particular reason that is of any importance to anyone concerned with the key things in life, like photography, fair trade, deciding which t-shirt to wear to a show, or claiming things are of no importance and then blogging about them.
While I probably shouldn’t care, I can’t help but feel proud of the internet for successfully rallying around something, i.e. real music, that isn’t a picture of a cat with its mouth open.
That said, I can’t help but wonder what real music is. The X-Factor single is real music in the same way that Killing In The Name is real music. They are both closer to real music than a lot of what John Cage was messing around with, but for some reason, John Cage is studied in schools whilst Miley Cyrus’s song writer isn’t. I have to wonder which one Pitchfork would like more.
Unicycles are a great way to travel.
Suggested by Amanda-Jane Newing and lived by Ed Garner. They are both right. Unicycles are like bikes, which are amazing anyway, but a little bit more underground and out of the ordinary. I wish I lived in a world where we had unicycle lanes on roads. I should learn to unicycle.
A lot of people see them as gimmicky and circus-related, but those connotations do not always apply. And what’s wrong with the circus anyway? I like elephants, and clowns have a certain charm to them. Juggling is pretty cool too.
This was suggested through the awesomely hip FormSpring, and if you suggest something that I agree is equally as hip as/more hip than unicycles, I will blog about it.
Everyone hip uses formspring.
I have already confessed that I can’t always keep up with everything that is hip. That is ok. I have come to accept that. I have a hat with ear flaps and I drink White Russians and I own more than one camera, so I think I will be ok.
However, as much as I like him, I cannot rely on Aaron Hunt to be my one and only tastemaker. I need your help. As the readers of Solutions For Clean Living, I would really appreciate it if you would click here and fill out my FormSpring form on what’s hip. I will then research your suggestion, and if I agree that it is indeed hip, I will post an entry on that suggestion, crediting you as the setter of said soon to be trend.
Thank you for your co-operation and help.
Christmas is a good holiday.
I like Christmas. For one thing, Jingle All The Way usually comes on TV, and it’s easily Arnold Schwarzenegger’s best and most ironically enjoyable role. He really wanted that guy to put that cookie down, and I can respect him for that.
Also it is good to come home and see your family. I can’t live on the cutting edge of Yorkshire all the time, it would be just too exhausting, so I really love coming home to relax and enjoy great home made food rather than spending too much time hunting down a good vegan curry at 10PM at night.
I know there’s controversy surrounding the holiday, seeing as some people aren’t Christians but celebrate Christmas anyway, justifying themselves by calling it Xmas. Even though I’m not a Christian, I don’t like Xmas. It has too many Hardcore connotations, and Christmas sounds more retro-hip.
Having facial hair is the best.
I usually rock a pretty fierce full beard, but as a Christmas present to my girlfriend, it will be gone for the festive season. Until I actually go home, though, I’ve taken it down to a moustache. In many ways, moustaches are a whole lot cooler than beards because, despite your face being cold, it shows that you are actually dedicated to facial hair, rather than just being lazy. Also, less people have them, and you get told you look like a porn star more often.
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