I’ve had my ear to the ground for this for a year now, when rumours of the product first started to surface. By all accounts the service has been ready to launch for quite some time and it has been reaching deals with the labels which has held back the announcement.

Here’s an overview of Music Beta from Google:

The service will be available to users by invitation only at first, and it may still be some time before it’s available in the UK.

It certainly looks good and given Apple’s failure to provide a cloud based Itunes service, I have a feeling this is not going to be another unsuccessful launch for google.

Good news for Android users, but the question remains: Will we ever see it on Apple devices?

I hope so.

Google announces ‘Music Beta’ cloud based service. is a post from: evenflowdave.com

Not like Steve Jobs to Present a shit product.

Last week, during a presentation to the Media by CEO Steve Jobs, Apple unveiled Ping, the star feature of the latest version of their Music and Media Management Software, ITunes 10. I watched the presentation live and I have to admit to a bit of scepticism as I was watching, although I decided to reserve judgement until I had at least played about with it a bit over the weekend.

Having done so, my verdict is as overwhelming as to most the presentation was uncharacteristically underwhelming:

Ping is SHIT!

Let’s take a look at the seven reasons why, I think, Ping is so totally SHIT…

1. Ping does not take into account artists in your music collection before recommending artists to follow.

After downloading the new version of Itunes you can access your Ping profile by following the link under that of the Itunes Store, start adding personal details, and start following other users as well as artists.

But Ping does not look at what artists are in your music collection before making recommendations. Instead promoting the likes of Lady Gaga and Taylor Swift to everyone, regardless of music taste.

2. Ping recommendations don’t get any better even after you have started following your favourite artists.

This might be down to there still being a limited amount of bands with public profiles only a few days after the network’s launch, but come on Apple… Shakira? You already know that I am into Nine Inch Nails and Soundgarden…

3. You cannot connect to Facebook to find your friends there…

Now, to the fair to Apple, this was one of the features, which unfortunately got removed after a day due to Apple and Facebook failing to agree an arrangement to use the service. It’s not the first time Facebook has cut off an application from the Facebook Connect API. Sites with a lot of users do require a special agreement.

Had I been quicker in downloading Itunes10, I would have been able to connect to my Facebook Friends who are also on Ping, and might have felt slightly different about it.

Until Apple are able to get this back on, and that’s a big IF, I will not be moved from my stance that Ping is a load of crap.

4. There is also no other way of finding or inviting your friends in bulk.

Come on Apple… do you really expect me to type all of my friends email addresses, one by one, so that I can connect or invite them to join? Maybe in 1998, but with the portability API’s out there today, why should I?

Even if Facebook isn’t playing ball, you can still use OAuth to let me find my Twitter connections. Or at least let me import my email contacts!

5. You can’t send updates out to Facebook or Twitter.

You cannot call an application Social, if it is not going to allow it’s users to communicate with their friends where they happen to be, and for most people that will be not be in Ping, but in Facebook or Twitter.

It’s as simple concept, and the reason music applications like Spotify, which are truly Social, are so popular.

You are missing a big trick there Steve-O…

People aren’t about to ditch their online hang-outs to go chill at your shop. But let them bring their Facebook and Twitter conversations to it, and you might just bag a few new customers.

Spotify lets you find your friends on Facebook, share tracks and playlists and send updates out to Facebook and Twitter.

6. (This one has less to do with Ping itself, and more with Itunes) Still no Music Locker!

Late in 2009 Apple acquired Lala, an online music service with the technology to allow users to scan their music collections and access all those songs on Lala, from whatever web connected device they chose. Anywhere!

In May Apple closed down Lala, prompting speculation that they were about to add their technology to Itunes, and that Iphone and Ipod touch users would soon be able to access their music collections from the cloud…

Alas, we are still waiting for that.

It isn’t clear yet what Apple’s objective was in this acquisition. Were they genuinely interested in their technology, or were they just eliminating a potential competitor?

Either way, it looks like Apple is  siding with the major labels, who do not like the idea of users being able to access one copy of their content from multiple devices.

7. No Music Sharing.

Ok, I might be asking for a bit much. Sharing links to tunes is something that is possible on streaming services like Spotify, Last.fm and Grooveshark because there is a per play royalty involved. And the labels are still very weary of these, as there is only a fraction of the money in per play royalties as there is in CD and download sales.

But who is to say that there isn’t  a feasible business model for a controlled sharing of owned copies of songs? If you can share CD’s with your friends, then why the hell should you not be able to share a link to a tune, which your friend can listen to, say once or twice before access expires?

If I was an artist (or a label executive for that matter), I like to think that I would be quite happy if people were able to share my material freely. I might get a lot more fans, and ultimately paying customers, than I might otherwise.

Of course, for that to happen there would have to be a music locker on the cloud in place first… and for that to happen, Apple will likely require the approval of the major record labels.

So the question really is… Will the labels ever see this opportunity, or will they continue to protect their old publishing interests?

I suspect they won’t see sense any time soon.

So… Do you think Ping is shit?

7 Reasons why Apple’s Ping is totally SHIT. is a post from: evenflowdave.com

How the mighty fall. MySpace was not so long ago the go to place for social networkers. But that was an age past in web trend years. Facebook, with it’s simple and unclutered design and intuitive features is now the place to be.

But MySpace was never really invented with Social Networking for the masses in mind, so should they be disappointed to have lost the Social Networking crown to Facebook?

Sometimes you have to remember where you came from and return to your roots. And for MySpace, that is Music.

Since their new CEO,  Owen Van Natta, took over last year, it has been clear that is exactly what MySpace are doing. Their new focus… to be the undisputed online platform for Entertainment.

They have definitely been making some very clever decisions, like bringing Gaming into the Mix and implementing Facebook Connect. The latter is further proof that they have given up on competing with Facebook in the personal profile space and instead opted to focus on music, films and gaming and leverage Facebook traffic to bring consumers into MySpace.

But they are missing a massive trick….

What is the single best feature on display in a MySpace page? The thing that we all go straight for when we click through to a bands profile… The Music Player.

That MySpace Music Player is to music, what the Youtube Player is to video. With one massive difference. You can take the Youtube Player with you into Blogs, Websites, Facebook, MySpace… everywhere, but the MySpace Music Player is not embeddable!

MySpace, are you mad?

I’ve been getting asked to write quite a few band reviews recently, and the place I generally go to to get a feel for their music is MySpace. Yet when it comes to giving my readers a sample within the post, it is services like Sound Cloud that provide me  with the ability to embed tracks onto my page.

Why would you not want to make your best feature available outside of your site, MySpace? Don’t you want traffic from blogs?

The best thing about MySpace, which doesn’t exist. is a post from: evenflowdave.com

I think just about everyone accepts that, with virtually unlimited supply, there was never going to be as much money in it. That is, not enough for Rock Stars to live the “Rock Star” lifestyle that so many dream about.

But could it be enough for those who have genuine passion for music to make a living from it?

This info-graphic by the guys at informationisbeautiful.net is quite interesting, but while it shows how difficult it is for bands to make money online (from the perspective of a traditional business model), it does not represent the opportunities and hopes of the many artists who, in my opinion, will make a living from music online.

The graphic represents how much artists are making from soft sales compared to physical media

This is the image that the big record labels and traditional media corporation are trying to sell to the content creators and consumers, through initiatives like their campaign to have the Digital Economy Act (#DEACT) passed through parliament.

But it is not as simple as this. The business model that the big record labels had always operated under is one where there was very little competition, replication could only be done by professionals (without losing too much sound quality) and that because of that they could make massive amounts of money from the few artists they decided to back.

Fast-forward to 2010 and competition is (or should be) endless, as bands can very easily record decent material from their bedrooms. Replication is quality-perfect and songs and playlists can be shared with all your friends through social media – in seconds.

So what the old-guard are trying to do is say: ‘Hold-on, technology and innovation are not good for our business, therefore development and the openness of the web must be reigned back’.

But shouldn’t the message be that the music industry, as we know it, is dead, and we need to invent a new music industry… one that is aided and not hindered by technology and the spitit of a free and open web?

Can music artists make a living from online downloads and streaming royalties? #DEACT is a post from: evenflowdave.com

Campaigning against a Tory government, shortly after campaigning against the Digital Economy Bill (#DEBILL), which was rushed through parliament during a wash up before the general election.

There was a lot of talk before the election about whether this would be an “Internet election”. Whether it would follow the precedent set by last year’s American presidential election which was fought and won online, thanks to a colossal Social Media Strategy.

It was clear very early on, however,  that TV and printed media are still the election deciders here in the UK  - and Rupert Murdoch’s media properties fought hard for a conservative government.

Not an “Internet election” in that sense then, but it was to me in another way.  The Digital Economy Bill got everyone online hooked on politics.

The controversy surrounding draconian measures that could see ISP’s, at the request of copyright owners, disconnect you from the web if your network was found to have been used to download copyrighted material illegally – even if it wasn’t you who did it….

The revelations that, the prince of darkness, Lord Mandelson, the man putting all his political might behind the campaign to get this legislation passed had been wined and dined in a yacht in Corfu by music industry execs, and that the Tory shadow chancellor, George Osbourne, was there too….

The fact that the first draft was so one sided, that it might as well have been written by the Music and Movie industries….

To us internet geeks, this was more compelling than an American conspiracy-action-drama. And all of us that care for internet freedoms, pushed along by great campaigners like 38 degrees, got involved by making sure that as many people as possible knew what was going down and lobbied their MP’s to oppose this bill.

But, on this first round at least, we were fighting a losing battle. The DEBill was voted through and became DEAct (Digital Economy Act) after a second reading.

How could this happen?

Too many of the MP’s who are elected by us to represent us in parliament, simply do not understand the digital world. Some of those who understand a bit more felt pressured by their party leadership to vote for the passage of the bill during the second reading.  And those who are knowledgeable about the online world and the need for it too be freed of creative restrictions, were simply too few and struggled to make their voice heard.

One MP who does know about digital matters, and fought to make it a fairer act for the people was Tom Watson, former Minister for Digital Inclusion. This is what he had to say after the passage of the bill….

With the DEAct, and the grossest lack of democracy witnessed by most of us out of the way, the election campaign was next.

The vast majority in the UK won’t have followed or been concerned by the DEBill and instead gathered their views from publications like the Sun and broadcasters like Sky News, not from blogs or twitter.. which is possibly the biggest reason that we now have a Conservative lead government.

But online, the Liberal Democrats got their biggest gain. Partly because of Nick Clegg’s performance on the televised debates, but mostly because of their opposing of the second reading of the DEBill (even though they initially backed it and caved in to public pressure later) and their stance on the matter during the campaign.

This is what Nick Clegg said about it…

Had the election had been up to the web. We might have had a Progressive alliance. Here is the outcome that Dave’s poll had predicted

So where are we now with the Digital Economy Act?

The fight is not over. Many politicians are hoping that we will forget about this. But people are campaigning hard to have this Act repealed.

The Lib-Dems have apparently voted almost unanimously within their party to push to have the DEAct repealed, but the Tories and most of Labour won’t want this. That is why it is important for everyone to put pressure on their MP to push for repeal. You can lobby your MP through the Open Rights Group site here. It only takes two minutes.

Here are some of the reasons why I think the Digital Economy Act is Bad…

1. The DEACT serves only to protect the status quo and old business models. It is a block to creative development and creative business models of the future. For example, I have a vision of the music industry becoming a much more open marketplace, in which fans have a much greater choice and many more artists are able to make a living.

2. Future business models will involve free content and monetization through merchandising, touring, sponsorships.

3. There is absolutely no point to the TV and Radio digital switch-over (especially not Radio which is 4 years away). Focus on building the infrastructure to deliver super-fast Internet to every home in the country, and IP will become the standard for TV and Radio.

4. If, with all the bureaucracy and legal advice, the political parties can get caught up in copyright infringement when replicating images in a creative way, then what chance have the rest of us got?

Do you have any thought about it? Are you for or against? Please leave your views in the comments….

UPDATE:

New culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, who lead to Tory efforts to pass the bill, has today said that the coalition government will not be repealing the DEAct. That means that it is now even more important that as many people as possible put preasure on their MP’s to push for this to happen.

Remember, they are elected by us to serve us!

Follow this link to the Open Rights Group site to send an email to your MP and ask him/her to join a cross party group set up by Eric Joyce, Falkirk MP. Details here.

The Digital Economy. How our leaders Stitched us up #DEBill is a post from: evenflowdave.com

So, basically at MyBandStock.com you register for a virtual share of your favourite band, participate in site activity by submitting music, videos and photos and the most active users are rewarded with virtual band equity and a bigger chance of getting to win prices and interact with the bands through online chat sessions, back-stage meets, etc.

At least that’s what I make of it – a lot of it is still quite vague.

(Come on MyBandStock… give us a more comprehensive view.)

Not sure how successful this will be. If you need 1000 fans to register for a single band, then the site has alot of work to do before contacting their first artist (the one with the most has 50 shareholders).

Of course, 1000 is not a lot, but unless mybandstock has the funds to advertise this through mainstream media, then they are going to rely on fans crowd-sourcing their promotional efforts.

For me, interacting online with Pearl Jam (or a number of other of my favourite bands) would be awesome, winning back-stage passes would be out of this world. So here’s my contribution.

I’m only the third PJ share holder so far

As much as I like the idea, I do believe that this kind of effort to bring the fans closer to the artist has to be adopted more by the artists themselves…

It’s a tough market, anyone can make music very easily now and competition will be what makes the music business a lot more personal again.

This has reminded me of last years Josh Freese’s (formerly of Nine Inch Nails) album promotion, for which he offered the following packages…

$7

* Digital download of Since 1972, including 3 videos

$15

* CD/DVD double-disc set
* Digital download

$50

* CD/DVD double-disc set
* T-shirt
* “Thank you” phone call from Josh for buying Since 1972. You can tell him what you like about the record that you purchased, or what you thought sucked. Ask whatever you want, like “Is Maynard really THAT weird?” or “Which one of Sting’s mansions has the comfiest beds?” or “Are Devo really suburban robots that monitor reality or just a bunch of dads from Ohio?” or “Why don’t the Vandals play more stuff off the first record?” It’s your 5 minutes to yack it up. Talk about whatever you want.

$250 (limited edition of 25)

* Signed CD/DVD and digital download
* T-shirt
* Signed drum head and drumsticks
* Go on a lunch date with Josh to PF Changs or The Cheesecake Factory (whatever you’re into)

$500 (limited edition of 15)

* Signed CD/DVD and digital download
* T-shirt
* Signed cymbal and sticks
* Meet Josh in Venice, Calif., and go floating together in a sensory-deprivation tank (to be filmed and posted on YouTube)
* Dinner at Sizzler (get your $8.99 steak and “all you can eat” shrimp on)

$1,000 (limited edition of 10)

* Signed CD/DVD and digital download
* T-shirt
* Signed cymbal, drum head and drumsticks
* Josh washes your car OR does your laundry … or you can wash his car
* Have dinner with Josh aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, Calif.
* Get drunk and cut each other’s hair in the parking lot of the Long Beach courthouse (filmed and posted on YouTube, of course)

$2,500 (limited edition of 5)

* Signed CD/DVD and digital download
* Get a private drum lesson with Josh, or for all you non-drummers, have him give you a back and foot massage (couples welcome)
* Pick any 1 member of the Vandals or Devo (subject to availability) to accompany you and Josh to either the Hollywood Wax Museum or the lunch buffet at the Spearmint Rhino
* Signed DW snare drum
* Take 3 items of your choice out of his closet (first come, first serve)
* Change diapers and make bottles with him for an afternoon (after hitting the strip club)

$5,000 (limited edition of 3)

* Signed CD/DVD and digital download
* T-shirt
* Josh writes a song about you and makes it available on iTunes
* Co-direct a video with him for the song about you and throw it up on the YouTubes
* Josh gives you and a friend a private tour of Disneyland
* Get drunk together. If you don’t drink, we can go to my dad’s place and hang out under the “Tuba tree”
* Stone Gossard from Pearl Jam will send you a letter telling you about his favorite song on Since 1972

$10,000 (limited edition of 1)

* Signed CD/DVD and digital download
* T-shirt
* Signed DW snare drum from A Perfect Circle’s 2003 tour
* Josh gives you a private drum lesson OR his and hers foot/back massage (couples welcome, discreet parking)
* Twiggy from Marilyn Manson’s band and Josh take you and a guest to Roscoe’s Chicken ‘n’ Waffles in Long Beach for dinner
* Josh takes you and a guest to Club 33 (the super-duper exclusive and private restaurant at Disneyland located above Pirates of the Caribbean) and then hit a couple rides afterward (preferably the Tiki Room, the Haunted Mansion and Tower of Terror)
* At the end of the day at Disneyland, drive away in Josh’s Volvo station wagon. It’s all yours … take it. Just drop him off on your way home, though, please.

$20,000 (limited edition of 1)

* Signed CD/DVD and digital download
* T-shirt
* A signed drum from the 2008 Nine Inch Nails tour
* Maynard James Keenan, Mark Mothersbaugh from Devo and Josh take you miniature golfing and then drop you off on the side of the freeway (all filmed and posted on YouTube)
* Josh gives you a tour of Long Beach. See his first apartment, the coffee shop on 2nd Street where his buddy paid Dave Grohl $40 to rip up tile just weeks before joining Nirvana. See the old Vandals rehearsal spot, the liquor store he got busted at using a Fake ID when he was 17 (it was Dave from the Vandals’ old ID). Go check out Snoop Dogg’s high school. For an extra 50 bucks see where Tom and Adrian from No Doubt live. For another $25 he’ll show ya where Eric from NOFX and Brooks from Bad Religion get their hair cut.
* Spend the night aboard the Queen Mary and take the “Ghosts and Legends” tour. (Separate rooms … no spooning.)
* Josh writes 2 songs about you and both are made available on iTunes and appear on his next record (you can sing back up on ‘em, clap, play the drums, triangle, whatever)
* Drum lesson OR foot and back massage (once again … couples welcome and discreet parking available)
* Pick any 3 items out of Josh’s closet

$75,000 (limited edition of 1)

* Signed CD/DVD and digital download
* T-shirt
* Go on tour with Josh for a few days
* Have Josh write, record and release a 5-song EP about you and your life story
* Take home any of his drum sets (only one, but you can choose which one)
* Take shrooms and cruise Hollywood in Danny from Tool’s Lamborghini OR play quarters and then hop on the Ouija board for a while
* Josh will join your band for a month … play shows, record, party with groupies, etc.
* If you don’t have a band he’ll be your personal assistant for a month (4-day work weeks, 10 am to 4 pm)
* Take a limo down to Tijuana and he’ll show you how it’s done (what that means exactly we can’t legally get into here)
* If you don’t live in Southern California (but are a U.S. resident) he’ll come to you and be your personal assistant/cabana boy for 2 weeks
* Take a flying trapeze lesson with Josh and Robin from NIN, go back to Robins place afterwards and his wife will make you raw lasagna

(via mashable.com)

Now that’s what I call revolutionary

Have a piece of your favourite band is a post from: evenflowdave.com

The people 1 The X Factor 0

This Christmas, music fans (the real music fans) have an early gift. The people united have stood up to and defeated the capitalist, manufactured pop establishment.

It’s a victory for Music.

And against all the odds.

The people, armed only with the internet, 0 marketing budget and one rebel anthem on download only, against the x-factor with their several month long TV programme, unlimited marketing budget and the distribution clout of Sony BMG.

Rage Against the Machine’s ‘Killing in the Name’ Is the Christmas number 1 for 2009 ahead of the X Factor monopoly.

History has been made.

Over 500’000 sales in one week, just from downloads. The most the UK has ever seen.

Congratulations to everyone that got involved promoting the campaign and a massive thank you to John Morter for starting the Facebook group. You have made this a memorable year!

So we won the Battle. What now?

>>An Open Letter to Simon Cowell, The Music Industry and The Media<<

Please share it with everyone you know.

See you at the free gig comrades!

The people have spoken: Anarchy for Christmas 2009 :) RATM4XMAS is a post from: evenflowdave.com

RATM v XFactor

I’ve been out of the country for a few days. I had to get away from the X Factor final hype nonsense.

But I was pumped to learn of the campaign to get ‘Killing In The Name’ to Christmas number 1 ahead of  the X-Factor winner’s song.

The ideal band to topple capitalist music execs and their manufactured pop ballad bull crap.

Congratulations to John who started the facebook campaign for the buzz he has managed to build around it. I wish I would have thought of it.

I already owned all of Rage’s stuff, but I have just downloaded the single again, a couple of times. I urge everyone to do the same.

Nothing against Joe McElderry, I heard him on the radio today and he comes across  as a nice enough lad. Good singer too… Congratulations on becoming British Karaoke champion.

I’m sure your granny will love all your stuff.

I’m sure a lot of the British public will think the song is really good too…

In the same way that most twelve year-old’s think they know about life…

If you’re into that kind of  mass produced garbage, maybe you need to wake up to the fact that x factor hits are never remembered past the holiday period. And rarely are the “artists” that produce them.

The music of artists like ‘Rage Against the Machine’, whose intentions and legacy go way beyond just fame and fortune, is written in history.

If you read this blog at all, you will know how much i hate the Xfactor. For the BS so called “music” the program puts out; for how it successfully manipulates the nation into tuning in, dialling in, paying out; and for how people are deliberately humiliated on the early stages, in the name of entertainment.

As innocent as the contestants might be in all of that, do you think that the corporation responsible for all that deserves to top the charts at Christmas?

We are a long way yet from toppling Simon Cowell and the X Factor. The franchise does after all have the head start of a several months long prime time TV marketing campaign…

Please download Killing in the name from Amazon, or from Itunes …. even if it is just to F*UK Simon Cowell off.

Oh – and if you haven’t already seen it, then you really want to watch Rage on The 5 Live breakfast… http://www.bbc.co.uk/5live/

The revolution will not be silenced or censored… not even by the BBC!

F*UK you Simon Cowell, I won’t buy what you sell me! RATM for Christmas No1! is a post from: evenflowdave.com

I’ve watched this Sky News Interview a couple of times now and each time cringe at – not just his ignorance about the web and the role of a search engine in delivering traffic to websites – but that this ignorance comes from Rupert Murdoch – one of histories greatest business men who has built a global media empire through his ruthlessness and being able to predict trends.

To claim that Google is robbing him, by bringing visitors to his websites for free – the visitors you need to justify your advertising rates – is like a theme park telling the bus companies that bring visitor to them to “fuck off – we don’t want your people thank you, your making money by bringing people to us and that’s wrong”. WTF!?

Ok – so his argument is that a more viable business model for him would be to charge for all content and not have to rely on volume of visitors for advertising revenue.

He already does that with publications like ‘The Wall street Journal’, and you know what: for that type of site that’s fine. If I want that kind of specialist financial content, or specialist whatever, I’m happy to pay for it.

For everything else though, why would I pay for it when I can get it from a thousand other sites for free?

What I’d like to know is who the hell is going to pay to read ‘The Sun’ or ‘News of The World’ online?!

Not me.

So you’re welcome to put up your pay wall Rupert. And give Microsoft exclusive rights to index your sites, see what it does to your readership numbers.

And while you’re at it, have the courage of your convictions… tell your web managers to put these two lines of code in your robots.txt  files to stop google indexing your sites and “stealing” from you:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /

That’s all it takes. Surely someone in your organisation must have let you know… with all the time you’ve been moaning about Search Engines. Why haven’t you done it yet?

Maybe it’s about time for the likes of Rupert Murdoch to accept that it isn’t the 80′s anymore, and that with all the competition in the web, maybe Newscorp needs to content itself with a fraction of the profits it has enjoyed in the old media days.

But Rupert would tell you that if everyone was allowed to have a slice of the pie, the quality of news and content would suffer…

That news reporting should be left to the elite few professional journalists of the newscorp organisation. Because the quality of the news depends on it…

Lets have a look at some examples of the quality of newscorp’s journalism…

This next one was a fake story created as a piece of Buzz content for site money.co.uk by Lyndon Antcliff. Fox news picked up the story and reported it as fact!

You would think the professional reporters at Fox would check the facts of a ’13 year old goes on video game and hooker binge with dad’s credit card’ story  before going on air with it, wouldn’t you?

Would you pay for content on Newscorp websites?

Rupert Murdoch wants you to shut up and pay up, cause he knows best for the internet. is a post from: evenflowdave.com

Cracks me up every time, but jokes aside, that means that a bunch of poncy pop wannabes will be destroying some classics – and in some cases trying to pass off some lame pop anthem with a hint of a guitar through it, as a rock tune.

To the rock fans across the pond, The X-Factor is the same as your American Idol, only shittier. At least some of your guys are moderately talented, and you get a bigger share of hot chicks.

I found myself watching it last night for the laugh, and I’m pleased to report that not too much damage was done. There was one girl that sang “sweet child of mine”, and an interesting rendition of Queen by two identical weasels, but nothing that’s never been destroyed a million times before.

Funniest thing was a Zac Efron lookalike doing Katy Perry’s “I kissed a girl and I like it”….

You don’t say?

Even if I ignore for a moment that Katy Perry is as Rock’n'Roll as Snoopy is a Pit Bull Terrier, the only thing that makes that song interesting is that a girl kisses another girl. Take that out of the equation and you’ve got the lamest bit of TV ever seen.

But nothing was as interesting as watching Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh quarrel over who has the most knowledge/experience in rock music….

The guy responsible for the ‘Telitubbies’ and ‘Power Rangers’ soundtracks and the man that made his fortune from putting baby faced teenage heartthrobs in tail-coats and singing 60′s ballads, arguing about who is the biggest rocker.

The fact that the judges think this guy is a rocker says it all…

Message to Simon Cowell: Real Rockers and Real Musicians don’t go on the X Factor, or American Idol.

The guest on tonight’s programme is Bon Jovi, so logically the contestants will be destroying his songs. But that’s OK, with respect to Bon Jovi, his stuff is a bit too mainstream and girlie for real rockers to care much.

Sorry girls, but it is!

My mission: to put together a spotify playlist of REAL ROCKERS. A list of 18 tracks so removed from the commercial mainstream that the X Factor and American Idol will hopefully never touch.

It wasn’t an easy task. I sampled many great grunge albums to narrow this list to 18 tracks. Through the night and to backing vocals from the missus screaming to “turn that horrible noise down”.  But here its is…

If you have Spotify, you can get the playlist here. If you don’t have Spotify yet, you really should You can get it here (Unfortunately, Spotify is not available outside Europe yet).

The 18 tracks I hope the X Factor and American Idol will never touch.

1. Mayonnaise   –  The Smashing Pumpkins
2. Fell on black days  -  Soundgarden
3. Would?  - Alice in Chains
4. No end in sight  - Mudhoney
5. Smells like Teen Spirit  - Nirvana
6. Bullet with butterfly wings – The Smashing Pumpkins
7. Alive – Pearl Jam
8. Come as You are – Nirvana
9. Black Hole Sun – Soundgarden
10. No excuses  - Alice in chains
11. Like a Stone  - Audioslave
12. Do the Evolution  - Pearl Jam
13. Plush  - Stone Temple Pilots
14. Nutshell  - Alice in Chains
15. Tonight Tonight  - The Smashing Pumpkins
16. Hunger Strike  - Temple of the Dog
17. Black  - Pearl Jam
18. Where did you sleep last night  -  Nirvana (MTV unplugged)

The more educated rockers will notice a Grunge flavour to this list.  Best musical era – ever. Unrepeatable.

There are a lot of really great songs that didn’t make it into the list, but I had to keep it to a reasonable length and wanted to give some of the bands on it a mention. Some of the tracks are also there for what they symbolise. I can think of many better Nirvana songs than ‘Smells like Teen Spirit’, but how could I have a Grunge list without the anthem that swept across the world announcing the breakthrough of all this great music.

You might be thinking that this is a very arbitrary selection, based on the authors personal taste, and you’d be spot on. This is my list and my blog. If you don’t like it, you can piss off  and make your own.

And once you’re done please share it in the comments

18 rock songs you will never see on the X-Factor or American Idol is a post from: evenflowdave.com