Nice, indeed...

pics swiped from http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beatenberg/166509122974?ref=ts

"We used to be called Nice" says their myspace page. What an opener. It's a line that'll cull many a boring intro interview. Beatenberg is was and always will be a three-piece from the Southern Suburbs as sweet as they are sarcastic, as grounded as they are talented.

That word again. Talent. because of an abundance of fair bands in the fairest Cape it's somewhat overused, i'm glad to say. But don't for a minute think that just because there are lots of boys (and one or two girls) making a pretty noise in our pretty city that talent is something to take for granted (take the mountain for granted, that's ok. Just don't throw your forking cigarette onto it half stubbed). First of all it takes blood, sweat and tears to turn talent into something finish and klaar, something consumable, something worthwhile. And second, if we start resting on our laurels before they've even grown, we're fucked. No rest for the wicked, is my motto. Now go be wicked.

So Beatenberg. Once was Nice. New songs. New name. It's something you can afford to do when you're just getting started and you know what you believe in.

I believe in them.

Face the music

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Beatenberg/166509122974?ref=ts

Myspace the music

http://www.myspace.com/beatenberg

and watch out for them live. They're Nice.

Possibly politically incorrect band names

Especially for the oversensitive, newly oppressed amongst (and if we’re going to split hairs, I’d like to remind you that of all the arts, music stands testimony to having no colour or creed)

• The ancestors
• Bed on bricks
• Taxi violence
• Desmond and the Tutus

conFusion

it's becoming clear, as we near
2010 (which is irrelevant, except that the one half is twice the other)

that most music being made is some kind of fusion. alright. it's the next generation of audio evolution. but. we are still stuck in the naming and owning epoch. you know, that one where science rose up as the beast of all access (they conveniently forgot to point out that all scientific theory is, uh. theory. We're just lucky that some of that theory works. for now. though if the petrol price keeps rising and carbon emissions keep migrating for aMOREica, they'll need new ones fast or we'll fast be done in and poorly so). erm. so my point is that we're still compelled to name things, and genres are spared no mercy.

i'm guilty of it too. and i'm sorry, i'm on my knees, and upto my gills in alt-Pop-Metal-Rock fusion . and it just won't do anymore.

the idea that there are traditional schools of sound might be true in some senses, but in a passage of time, it is so very relative. once we had Pop, Rock, Jazz, and Classical. life was simple. or so they say. i was small. i can't remember. then Indy-Pop, Pop-Rock, and Rock-Jazz fusions came along. music morphed. Now everyone is mixing their metaphors with their music, and the proliferation is almost impossible to classify.

good! so let's stop pointing at and pointing to, and start clapping. what's in a name?

a successful Pop-Country singer-songwriter, (izzie aussie or yanki? and does it matter?>), Keith Urban, said something quite clever. He said, at the end of the day, it all boils down to whether or not you like it.

remember that.