In memoriam: DJ AM

I was trying to think of an analogy in music to AM and the only group I could really think of is the Beatles. Everything the Beatles did, they knocked down a door. Every year there was something new, whether it was what they were recording or the technology and techniques they were employing. And it’s kind of like that with AM. He knocked down and opened so many doors that had never even been knocked on by DJs. These doors might be open but there’s no one that can walk in them right now, and who knows if there will be? He was a singular talent in that way. DJ Stretch Armstrong

Noel Gallagher has left Oasis

He was the one who was always pretty sound in interviews, right, on some “lol Jay-Z/Bloc Party/Coldplay/all American bands fucken suck” tip, right? Rather than the one who wanted Damon Albarn to get the AIDS. Anyway, the only decent Oasis song is “Whatever” so we won’t be paying any tribute to the band via MP3s. Instead, we’ve got the following for you:

Let’s all buy some shit Conor McNicholas doesn’t want or need

Brand-aware multimedia platform behemoth Conor McNicholas tragically lost his brave three-year battle with Hodgkins’ Lymphoma this morning, and has died aged 36. Either that or he’s finally left his position at the NME to take up the reins at Top Gear magazine, one of the two.

Clash Magazine: still worth every penny of the taxpayers’ money

Those of you with a long memory, or just a love of classic IchLugeBullets filler material, will remember our delight last year when the Scottish parliament decided to hand £230,000 to mediocre go-nowhere magazine and website Clash Magazine.

Of course, in the interim, the Scottish parliament has been busy playing cosplay at being a real country by releasing a terrorist for shits and giggles, so I’m unaware of whether or not they’re still getting this coin or whether saner heads have prevailed. Still, who can put a cost on journalism like this?

How the internet ruined Slaughterhouse for me

So for the past 15 months, for the first time in my career, I’ve been regularly discussing football at work with colleagues who support the “big” teams (for the purposes of this argument, a “big” team is any one that has more prestige, history or fanbase than, say, Plymouth Argyle. High standards, I know). And you talk to these champagne charlies, and you realise they’ve missed out on a lot from not following football at the sharp end. You miss out on local radio personalities hosting the half-time raffle while a crowd of 3,912 vocally questions their sexuality. You miss out on all that time you spend pestering your mates who went to legal school for what the various stages of administration are, and at which one you become 100% fucked. You miss out on the amount of fag ash they include in the hotdogs at the Kassam Stadium. And you miss out on the chance to drink in the same bars as your squad’s first time.

Post-midnight MP3 filler: Francisco Canaro – San Benito De Palermo

Palermo 2 – Napoli 1

(Cavani 45,  Miccoli 75 pen) (Hamsik 73)

That’s what you get for taking the cocaine trade from us, you poorly hygiened motherfuckers.

Francisco Canaro – San Benito De Palermo (MP3)

Remix for MP3

That works as a pun, right?

Old musicians were shit, imo

Maybe I’m going to the wrong pub quizzes, but how come “What is the only UK #1 single that Tony Iomni and Cozy Powell played on?” isn’t generic street knowledge trivia these days?

thelondonpaper RIP

Farewell Kirk Blows, we will never know if you were related to Vikki.

Not that I’d dream of telling Alex Roots’ PR agency how to do their fucking job…

…but if I was marketing a new artist, I’d say actually using the phrase “feistiness of Katy Perry, hook-driven sugar-punk of Avril Lavigne” in the title of my first YouTube video stank of desperation. Just to reiterate, this is a video, on an official channel, that has taken a quote written by a bored intern in the Q offices and plastered it all over the video title, in the same way that you or I might add “PS3 WII XBOX IPOD BLACKBERRY” to the product title of the old baby clothes we’re trying to sell on eBay.