So that’s it, the first decade of the century down and what do we have to show for it? This half arsed semi-functional blog-come-website that more than a few people read, but few care about?
A sad state of affairs indeed . . . but if you’re in need of some time to kill you could do worse than to read our decade postscript of sorts below or to peruse our tunes of the decade list that has finally reached completion – just in time for you to be sick to the stomach of decade, or even year, related lists. Perfect.
Except our list hasn’t quite reached completion – and the Biz is fucked off about it. Something is still missing. As our list was constructed over the course of six months, and we are lazy, unscrupulous people, we couldn’t even be bothered to put it in any order of particular significance, so we need you to do it for us. Click here, scroll down below the final entry and cast your vote . . . all you need to do is pick the (up to) ten best tunes of the decade. Either that or you could base the votes on our attempts to justify selection. Hell, why not just do it here – no links required. Make your vote count – The Grain needs you . . .
Read the rest of this entry »
Dear Grant,
Such a funny thing for me to try to explain …
I can remember coming back from our half-year in Russia and hearing ‘Crazy in Love’ on Radio 1 for the first time. I couldn’t believe it. This tune felt like the one we’d all been waiting for, a tune that sounded totally of the moment, yet suggestive of the future: danceable, yearning, innovative. It seemed like a song that had stepped straight out of pop mythology, a vindication of the belief that magic can be unearthed in the unlikeliest of musical places. I listened to it over and over again throughout the summer, and for the next couple of years. At terrible, terrible club nights during my university years, just one play of this tune would be enough to salvage the entire evening. In poetic terms, I thought (and still think) that if ‘Crazy in Love’ were a physical substance, it would be liquid gold. It was the last CD single I ever bought.
I know our Tunes of the Decade list isn’t in any particular order, so ‘Crazy in Love’ isn’t technically our number one tune of the decade. I know you think Amerie’s ‘One Thing’ is the better tune, and you might have a point.
But for me, this has got to be the last tune on the countdown, the final word on our cack-handed, seven-month-long attempt at micro-macrocosmic cultural summary.
A conclusion then, of sorts.
The Tunes of the Decade countdown, and the website as a whole, has been terrifically important for me, and I really hope it has been for you too. This year hasn’t been a walk in the park for either of us, but when all is said and done (and at the risk of sounding like a sentimental gobshite), Read the rest of this entry »
Thats right, its here!
The Grain has launched with our explorations and misinterpretations of independent music and popular culture, and like our boy Biz Markie says, we got what you need . . .
. . . updated on the regular so bookmark us and check back.
