Thursday, December 15, 2005
Last night (Wednesday December 14th) on the way home from work, I was listening to Johnnie Walker on BBC Radio 2 and he had Nizlopi on as guests (their site doesn't quite work properly on the Mac for some reason (grrr), but persevere; you can still use it).
I've been banging on to my mates about The JCB Song by Nizlopi for a couple of weeks now, since I first heard it on the radio, but hearing them play it live on Johnny Walker's show proved to me that these guys can really do it - the performance was superb.
Anyway, the other really interesting thing I picked up about them was that they are a small outfit, on their own label, managed by one of the guys Dads. I love this, because they've bought out a really great song and will almost certainly hit the top ten this week, if not number one by Christmas. This should send a message to the fat cats at the big labels - their days of controlling the record industry and sales are numbered. If you have talent, a good song and some smarts then you don't need a deal from Sony/BMG or Warner to get started any more. Hopefully, if you continue to produce good music then you don't need them to keep going either.
So, do yourself a favour and buy Nizlopi's work. I can't vouch for the album as I haven't heard it yet, but it's on my Christmas list. In any case, you'll be getting a great song at the very least and you'll also be supporting a small music enterprise in a land of giants, which is a good thing. You can buy the music from a couple of the links above, from a record shop or from the iTunes music store.
Oh, and if you have broadband, check out the JCB Song video - it's ace.
Also, check out Steadman, who are another British band trying a different approach to the music industry. I haven't listened to much yet, but what I have, I like.
I heard Simon Steadman being interviewed briefly on TWiT a few weeks back, and apparently Paul McCartney rates their album "Revive" quite highly (details on their site).
Anyway, these guys have got so fed up with the big labels (they have had two deals in the past) that they're going it alone, and have put all their material on the net for free download. As they say on the front page; "We decided to give so much away simply because we’d rather our music was out there being listened to than not. New songs will be made available soon. Make some room on your hard drive, tell your friends and neighbours. ".
So I have :)
