I always come late to the party as far as cool new bands go.  So, perhaps inevitably, I am telling you all things you already know, but these guys are brilliant.  There is a real movement abroad in the semi-spoken music genre.  Its not really rap; its certainly not on the major theme or rap, which is primarily concerned with sex, power and wealth.  Or as rap puts it: Bitches, Guns and Bling Bling, Barrp!  No, this music comes from poetry.  There are numerous spoken artists out there I really like.  For example Ernie Cline is a brilliant, erudite and very funny artist of the spoken word, and some artists have gone in this direction; forsaking any music.  Their words become like a tirade against whatever it is they do not like.  Another example is Denis Leary who steals the jokes/wisdom of the great Bill Hicks and speeds them up, speaking very fast into the mike so that we the listeners are saturated in words we can in one sense tell are important, but we cannot focus on before being splashed by the next sentence.  The movement has also split and gone another way.  It started with musical artists in the UK taking US rapping and flavouring it for England.  Perhaps the inspiration was the mighty Eminem, perhaps not.  Nevertheless, English bands started with lyrics about life in the UK, which was spoken over music and beats.  The early successes I listened to were The Streets (Dry Your Eyes being one of the most moving songs I ever heard), but of course this great band have been all but eclipsed by the amazing and talented Arctic Monkeys, who combined the words with much more than just beats, effectively (to my ears) being a modern interpretation of Madness (who I saw live two weeks ago and still rock hard).

Anyway, like I said, I am hardly an expert on music.  As others might say of art, “I don’t know music, but I know what I like!”.

I like Scroobius a lot.

I came across this song on You Tube and it immediately grabbed me.  I post the lyrics here, which are very good and I have bought all the available tracks from iTunes.  I will buy more when they make it onto there.  They are much more irreverent than The Streets and not as mainstream as The Arctic Monkeys (although AM’s second album was a terrific and welcome surprise), the words are clearly spoken and offered with no philosophical explanation as to what they mean.  That is for you to work out.  The truth of the words is in the end not in what they are saying, but rather in how they are saying it.  The truths you tell yourself to keep living a sane and happy life.

The video:

The CD cover:

The lyrics:

Lyrics for “Thou Shalt Always Kill”
————————————-

Thou shalt not steal if there is a direct victim;

Thou shalt not worship pop idols or follow lost prophets;

Thou shalt not take the names of Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer, Johnny Hartman, Desmond Dekker, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix or Syd Barrat in vein;

Thou shalt not think that any male over 30 that plays with a child that is not their own is a paedophile, some people are just nice;

Thou shalt not read NME;

Thou shalt not stop liking a band just because they have become popular;

Thou shalt not question Stephen Fry;

Thou shalt not judge a book by its cover;

Thou shalt not judge Lethal Weapon by Danny Glover;

Thou shalt not buy Coca Cola products;

Thou shalt not buy nestle products;

Thou shalt not go into the woods with your boyfriend bestfriend, take drugs and cheat on him;

Thou shalt not fall in love so easily;

Thou shalt not use poetry, art or music to get into girls pants……use it to get into their heads;

Thou shalt not watch Hollyoaks;

Thou shalt not attend an open mic and then leave as soon as you have done your shitty little poem or song you self righteous prick;

Thou shalt not return to the same club or bar week in & week out just because you once saw a girl there that you fancied that your never going to talk to anyway;

Thou shalt not put musicians and recording artists on ridiculous pedestals no matter how great they are or were;

The Beatles.
Were just a band.
Led Zeppelin
Just a band.
The Beach Boys.
Just a band
Sex Pistols.
Just a band.
The Clash.
Just a band.
Crass.
Just a band
Minor Threat.
Just a band.
The Cure
Just a band.
The Smiths
Just a band.
Nirvana.
Just a band.
The Pixies
Just a band
Oasis.
Just a band
Radiohead.
Just a band.
Bloc Party.
Just a band.
Arctic Monkeys.
Just a band.
The next big thing
Just a band.

Thou shalt give equal worth to tragedies that occur in non-english speaking countries as to those that occur in english speaking countries;

Thou shalt remember that guns, bitches and bling where never part of the four elements and never will be;

Thou shalt not make repetitive generic music;
Thou shalt not make repetitive generic music;
Thou shalt not make repetitive generic music;
Thou shalt not make repetitive generic music;

Thou shalt not pimp my ride;

Thou shalt not scream if you wanna go faster;

Thou shalt not move to the sound of the wickedness;

Thou shalt not make some noise for Detroit;
When I say “hey” thou shalt not say “ho”;

When I say “hip” thou shalt not say “hop”;

When I say, he say, she say, we say “make some noise”…..kill me;

Thou shalt not quote me happy;

Thou shalt not shake it like a Polaroid picture;

Thou shalt not wish your girlfriend was a freak like me;

Thou shalt spell the word phoenix : P-H-E-O-N-I-X not P-H-O-E-N-I-X regardless of what the oxford English dictionary tells you;

Thou shalt not express your shock at the fact that Sharon got off with Brad at the club last night by saying “is it?”;

Thou shalt think for yourselves;

And thou shalt ALWAYS kill.

Images:

The Website:

http://www.overviewland.co.uk/scroobiuspip/index.html

Conclusion:

I can’t wait for more!

Basho

Basho & Cesca are traveling with:

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