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Although the Brit Awards are quite laughable for who gets which awards and how the verdict of the so-called BIG awards, are tarnished with big corporate brushes. But, there is a best new band category and in my mind, there is only one band deserved of the award, for best new indie band (I won't go into the debasing of the word independent here). And that band is MUSE. If you agree already then click here to vote but if you need some persuasion, let me give you my argument - whether you agree is irrelevant grin.
Lets weigh up the competition:
Toploader, Badly Drawn Boy and Coldplay: Three bands passionately hated! Me included. Yet they are three bands liked by many, well, loads of people. Enough people to create chart success that is almost certainly determined by the support of the 'people', the media and marketing campaigns. In my eyes the latter two m-words over-ride the reasons why people bought the records. Is it really because they searched out other records, maybe even some Stevie Wonder or Jeff Buckley?
I once had the misfortune to once meet the guys from Toploader, they were, in all honesty, arrogant and over-confident; not to mention the fact they ridiculed a small questionnaire I gave them which was meant with the intent to help them. Yes, I may have only had the power of a small drip in the ocean, but, if you can't respect a drip, how can you respect the ocean? Then there's the fact they have been paid to support (as most support slots come about because of money) the likes of Paul Weller, Bon Jovi and too many other washed up or should-be-shot suburbia coffee table types - that they have now, as planned, become. Pollution of minds with nothingness has ensued. Great..
Badly Drawn Boy and Coldplay have been wiping their brows of award love juice far too much lately. Do they need the benefits of being plugged in the frontrooms of many real-life Royle Families!? Do they really need any more attention? Do we need to hear Mr.BDB telling us how he doesn't deserve the award? They both stand for fuck all in my view, they just spew out dull tunes with the intent to sell records to fill holes in pine CD stackers between Oasis 'Whats the story' and The Verve's 'Urban Hymns'.
I've given Coldplay and BDB more than a few chances to impress me, yet every time the emotion seems contrived. If their records didn't sound as passionate as kissing my wrinkly old great-gran on the cheek because she gave me some socks for Christmas, then I could understand them "credibly" getting somewhere. I realise this is very much a personal reason, but then I'm obsessed with things which feel real and leave me shaking.
Death in Vegas, admittedly, I have no gripe with them, except the record didn't really grab or thrill me. It's kinda like voting for the extreme underdog by voting for Death in Vegas. Respect to them, but realistically, they don't seem to have enough love to win. And weren't they voted for this year??
Now Muse on the other hand, are something else. For me, they've always been something special that I have wanted everyone to see, hear and feel(anyone who used to read The Last Resort will know this..). Yes, there are lame comparisons with them and Mr.Yorkes crew. Muse do, do loud. They take as much from the Deftones, Primus and RATM as they do from Buckley, Waits and Nina Simoné. It's these two spectrums of sound, which make Muse different. Something that erodes the feeling of mediocrity and sleepy Sunday mornings. They don't just spew 1D acoustic accompaniment to strawberries and champers; they pour their soul out in the hope that it reverberates around your room to awaken your sense of being. Matt may sound like a whinging kid who has had his glass heart smashed, on a cynical first listen atleast. Maybe it's because I've had the benefit of speaking to them, but they genuinely and passionately feel that the world live in is without sufficient feeling. Ring any bells?
Why has no one noticed that we're being desensitised? Why? It is hard to create feeling, apparently, although Muse seem to do it with ease. Why were Nirvana so special? (this question is so simple that this has to be said, so it is not overlooked) They voiced how angry they felt and it sounded so unique to other sounds in the land of pop, that their success has changed the face of the modern day music world(see: the nu-metal movement of the late 90's/early noughties). Were Nirvana the last ditched spin of the wheel of revolution... this is a frightening consideration.
Coldplay, Toptossers and Badly Drawn Boy; these three bands have the fanbase to win, I'm not doubting that and I realise it's the volume of votes which matter, which is why I'm urging you to vote if you would not usually or to change your mind about voting for the chart kings and queens. What is more important: helping the rich and successful, become richer and more successful or would supporting bands who effortlessly glide against the grain and promote the kind of music that the underground strives to promote. Plus, they happen to be genuine and talented people. I wouldn't say they're the last chance the world has at change, but they aren't so stylistically extreme that their thoughts and themes will be disregarded yet they're not so boring that they will send the minds of the masses to sleep. If nothing else, Muse could be an instrumental theme to metaphorically open the door for us to walk through in the future (think Matrix and that makes sense!)
It's upto you. Take the easy path to letting the predictable win or help this effort by getting everyone you know (you don't have to like them) to vote for a band who can evoke this much passion in me, just think what they could do if they were in the record collections of millions who'd recollect catching their name between Sporty and Britney, one February night on channel three.
Enough rhetoric and rhyming. Get your mouse to: http://www.brits.co.uk/vote/vote.html
[note: we're gonna stop the Coldplay bedwetting vibes, from now on, I for one am starting to get sick of it, to the point that the meaning is becoming lost and blunt...well, urm, maybe that says something about the DiS army?]
