Paul Draper formerly of Mansun has a new album about to drop called ‘Cult Leader Tactics’ about the music industry, and this song recorded in lockdown with Steven Wilson of Porcupine Tree summed up my current feels – love the footage from Pripyat (Chernobyl) also – must have been fun shooting that with recent tensions in Ukraine! Love the reference to Omega Man too – very timely.
The title track has the classic Paul Draper touch with the line ‘We’ll monetise these classics / Until your streaming farm crashes’ – given my streaming has gone so badly recently, Saturday was a bit of a disaster and reminded me why I don’t really stream my podcasts, despite requests. (It’s Schroedinger’s Podcast – like my artwork the very nature of the solitary creation is changed when observed and I struggle to keep it’s identity and the quality level on the little I have.)
Anyway the whole drive to stream and cash-in on past art and music for me seems very pertinent to the criticisms in the song. Must we stream and monetise everything? From cryptoart to crap direct to your home, nostalgia gamified for your entertainment, niche marketed for demographics who never demonstrate. Reality stars living in this unreal time, especting blockbusters when the block is an empty lot.
More humorously you have the video for ‘You’ve Got No Life Skills, Baby!’ in which the band seem more interested in playing domestic appliances than their instruments…a very creative video for a very uncreative sounding problem. And yes, ‘Never Be An Artist’. Poor Bay Tree though!
Leave a Comment! Be nice….