Kim Fowley's 10 Commandments

Kim Fowley's 10 Commandments for Rock'n'Roll success:

ONE
Believe in your own dreams.

TWO
When you've learnt your craft, keep your mouth shut.

THREE
Never give a straight answer to anybody - they'll use it to kill you.

FOUR
Upon having record success, keep your head and remember you're human.

FIVE
Remember you're not unique; your music can be duplicated overnight.

SIX
Nothing is permanent, exept death and Texas - so make the money while you can, but don't let it take over.

SEVEN
Don't make records for your friends - make them to suit the andience, because they're the ones who need music.

EIGHT
Don't take yourself too seriously.

NINE
Remember there is more to life than the Speakeasy, dope, sex, long hair and trendy clothes.

TEN
Allow yourself to grow old gracefully, and read "Future Shock" at least once a day to understand why you can't be a phenomenon for ever.

Definitely insightful... thanks to TwilightZone

Paste magazine

...must be my favourite US music zines.

Of course, I go through phases of Mojo and Uncut, and of course when they're good they're very very good (although recent redesigns take a bit of getting used to). But Paste I just love for its total lack of pretension.

Grant McLennan is dead

Remembered your name

Evidently, you've forgotten mine.

How sad to hear that Grant Mclennan, singer-songwriter with the legendary Australian band the Go Betweens, has died in his sleep at home in Brisbane at the tender age of 48.

As a tribute, here's a great Go Betweens song (lyrics by Robert Foster rather than Grant, but no matter)

• The Go Betweens - Draining the Pool for you

Read the story here

Avant garde and Outsider sounds and visions

Two brilliant sites that could keep you engrossed for hours:

• WFMU's Beware of the Blog

is the most amazing collection of obscure, avant-garde and down-right weird, whether it be 37 cover versions of Stairway To Heaven (almost all universally bad - although I have a soft spot for the cheesey lounge-gore versions from Pardon Me Boys and Richard Cheese "scoobee-dooobee-dooo...."), the anti-Baez strumming humming anti-communist folkie Janet Greene or Jesus Christ superstar in Japanese. There really is too much to take in, all of it pretty extra-ordinary in a Songs-In-The-Key-Of-Z sort-a-way (also now available in a bargain price 2CD package).

and then, for the more serious avant amongst us, there is

• UbuWeb

a phenomenal collection of audio and video from the 20th century avant-garde, such as William Burroughs' cut up movies, Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter plays, a range of short fluxus films from the likes of Yoko Ono and John Cale, Abbie Hoffman's Wake up America LP, Jean Genet poetry, a Derek Bailey interview, Susan Sontag on the aesthetics of silence

Phenomenal.

Things My Girlfriend and I have Argued About

"Things My Girlfriend and I have Argued About"

by Mil Millington

was probably the best column in a national newspaper ever (the Guardian, a couple of years ago) and made a pretty funny book. Now you can read stuff on line, buy the book, and even subscribe to an occasional email from Mil.

Go here.

Music sources

This Observer article - 25 essential music websites - is a decent summary of where to find music to download and to read about today. Not comprehensive, but wide-ranging. But skip iTunes and head for the Hype Machine, Myspace and CD-baby! (the last isn't on the Observer's list)