Thou Shalt Not Quote Me Happy

Bit of a curveball this week, I had something else all lined up then I was forwarded a link to a certain MySpace and finally got round to checking it out. I'd heard of Scroobius Pip and Dan Le Sac via such esteemed internet agitators as Music Like Dirt and The Daily Growl (the best British music blogs out there, if you ask me). But it wasn't til today that I finally listened to Scroobius Pip vs. Dan Le Sac, a track that's just been released and is blowing up on shows like John Kennedy's and Rob Da Bank's. It's Thou Shalt Not Kill, basically a rant delivered by the bearded, be-capped Scroobius Pip in his Stanford-Le-Hope brogue, against the tackiness of modern life. It's devastatingly accurate to the point where as switched-in as you think you might be, you're bound to find yourself in there somewhere.

Thou shalt not take the names of Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer, Johnny Hartman, Desmond Decker, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix or Syd Barret in vain.

Thou shalt not read NME.

Thou shalt not question Stephen Fry.

Thou shalt not watch Hollyoaks.

Thou shalt not return to the same club or bar week in, week out just ’cause you once saw a girl there that you fancied but you’re never gonna talk to.

Thou shalt not put musicians and recording artists on ridiculous pedestals no matter how great they are or were.
The Pixies? Just a band.

When I say "he say, she say, we say, make some noise" - kill me.

Thou shalt think for yourselves.

Good grief yes.

And am I in there? Sigh, of course I am. I say "is it" all the time. This is a searing portrait of British life at the moment, even more accurately, of the elitist, smarter than thou indie scene. Not just that, but of anybody that thinks they're better than that. It's not railing at a scene, or scenesters, it's railing at everyone, pretension in general, and everyone's guilty of that.

Plus it rocks.

Some of it is so accurate - one line perfectly encapsulates what I've been thinking this week: Thou shalt give equal worth to tragedies that occur in non-English speaking countries as to those that occur in English speaking countries.
It's so true: look at all the coverage of the VA Tech shootings, horrific as they were: then compare TV minutes/column inches to the well over a hundred dead in Baghdad just a day or so later. Thirty die a day in Iraq, yet we skip over it with not a thought to it.

Listen to Scroobius Pip and learn about yourself a bit. Plus it rocks. I'm not going to post the track, go buy it you cheapskate, but watch the vid at least...


Buy it from here.