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The last time I saw Iggy Pop live, he was performing with the reformed Stooges at Glastonbury festival. Halfway through the (great) set, he suddenly implored the crowd to invade the stage and jump up and down with him.

The crowd did exactly as he asked, and the gig continued whilst hundreds of people jumped up and down on stage with Iggy.

Then he asked them to leave the stage. They did not do exactly as he asked, and kept on jumping around.

In an era of faux-authenticity, watching Iggy’s genuine encouragement of rebellion was refreshing. I guess this is why Sailor Jerry has used Iggy and The Stooges’ classic “TV Eye” to soundtrack their new Outside The Lines film, which celebrates living a life less ordinary — the ethos of Sailor Jerry.

Tattooist Norman ‘Sailor Jerry’ Collins — the man the rum is named after — was also a rebellious, independent spirit, and the new Sailor Jerry video is appropriately stuffed with archive footage of like-minded outsiders. It’s a blur of saturated colours, spinning wheels and a reminder that life is worth living without regrets, all to the raucous noise of “TV Eye”.

Iggy’s also collaborated with Sailor Jerry to create an exclusive range of clothing-‘The Flash Collection’.The theme of The Flash Collection by Iggy Pop is probably best exemplified by its denim vest with the words “Death Shall Triumph” in three-inch high lettering emblazoned on the back: over-the-top and to hell with the consequences.

Visit the Sailor Jerry site to watch the Outside The Lines film, and an exclusive video with Iggy Pop himself — or check out their Facebook , Twitter and Instagram for more Iggy Pop/Sailor Jerry shenanigans.

Sleaford Mods are simply the best band in the UK at the moment, in my extremely humble opinion.

“Big up the riots!”

They’ve been around for a while, and I missed the boat, although I remember hearing one of their songs last year about austerity and loved it, and then somehow forgot about it.

It’s hard for me not to wax lyrical too much about this band. Everything is wonderful: the basic loops of sound, the angry, vicious lupine-howl #issues – but actually, it’s hard to look past the astonishing delivery of frontman Jason Williamson.

He’s brilliant. Just watch this video of them gigging on the street outside Rough Trade. He starts by getting into a fight with a weirdo, shouting “Come on then!” as he’s led away, and then doing the most electrifyingly spasmodic performance you could imagine.

Really, when was the last time you saw a band as believable as this?

TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST TEST

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(Image Source: Sony Website)

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Yesterday I was on a plane home from Berlin. I generally loathe plane flights, as much due to the rank boredom induced as much as the fleeting moments of terror when you realise that 30,000 feet really is a long gap between your bottom and the floor.

Anyway, after the initial tedium/panic dichotomy began to subside, I slipped on my headphones and scrolled through my iPod.

After I got over the ego-pricking realisation that I have become one of those people who mainly owns music from the decade of their teenage years, it dawned on me that listening to music through headphones is pretty much my main manner of consuming music these days.

It didn’t used to be so: I was, for a long time, the kind of turn-up-the-amp-to-11 neighbour from hell, but I suppose age mellows us all, and now my conscience, as well as convenience, points the music directly into my ears.

One of my bugbears is audio snobbery: that music should only be played on the most expensive hi-fi, through the most heavy-duty speakers, and not through headphones or via small laptop speakers.

This is pure nonsense: generations of teenagers thrilled to the sounds of the Beatles, Motown, the Pistols, The Smiths, et cetera ad infinitum played via AM radio, which has the same sound quality as a baked bean tin and a piece of string – and yet the quality of the songs shone through regardless.

That said, if you’re going to wear headphones, wear good ones. And these new MDR-1 Sony headphones are pretty much the business: some serious thought has been put into how to make sound that appears a centimetre from your ears sound like it’s filling the room.

So the designers asked a few people who know about making a noise, including Magnetic Man, and so these are headphones that not only sound good if you’re listening to both tinny pop music and bowel-worrying bass music; but also (incredibly excitingly) come in a wireless version that works over Bluetooth, finally proving that we’re in the future, and that flying cars are only a step away.

On top of this, there’s all kinds of clever algorithmic jiggery-pokery that means that the headphones actively cancel out 99.7% of background noise energy. It’ll possibly be some audio snob complaining that you’re not listening via speakers, so you would have a perfect opportunity to both prove him wrong, and blank him out.

Even if you don’t want the Dj range you can invest in a pair of the Prestige In-Ear range in order to escape from the rest of the world and the noises around you whilst on the go. Or if you like to break a sweat at the gym without having to listen to social natterings in the background, their close-fitting sports range allows you to maintain motivation by blocking out your surroundings with a comfortable fitting.

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In an age when vinyl and CDs are not only defunct, but actively being cannibalised, re-shaped and re-used as fruit bowls, beer mats or as sparkly things to scare off birds in the garden, it’s not only charming to see people hoarding and treasuring LPs, but downright life-affirming.

However, this retromaniacal devotion to old technology has physical problems, especially if your collection really runs away with you.

People like musician and vinyl junkie Harry Love own more LPs than he’s had hot dinners, and so to stop them filling every available crevice in his home, IKEA offered to rearrange his record collection.

They then make a video of it, so that his family can use it as blackmail next time he starts squeezing vinyl under the staircase again…

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2013 is the Year That Guitar Music Rises From Its Grave In A Blaze Of Jangly Indie Glory. It’s going to happen whether you want it to or not, simply because a whole host of respected media outlets – all entirely coincidentally, of course – have announced that that’s what will happen in 2013.

(The crafty among you may find this to be an appropriate time to use free voucher codes to get discounts on instruments at Amazon,then to form your own band and capitalise on such temperate musical climes.)

ANBAD would never sanction such ruthless, lucre-centric behaviour, but couldn’t blame anyone who did. If the predicted rise of any musical movement seems so carefully predetermined, why stick to your guns when cynicism forms the start, middle and end points of the alternative?

There is, unusually, an important point here, and it all boils down to artistic value, personal fulfilment, and – ha! – money. Moreover, it all has to do with which order you rank these closely connected (and yet seemingly aeon-distant) facets.

So, while the rise of guitar bands this year might mean a glut of gigs, allowing you to find great deals on gig tickets, you may also ask: at what wider cost?

Guitar bands are potentially hugely lucrative to muzik bizniz people. The Arctic Monkeys et al have historically made shedloads of cash for all involved. It’s easy to see why the music biz, wizened and dazed, is keen to make guitar bands the focus again.

But it does smack of falsehood, of minor desperation and of one last roll of a battered dice: it’s harder to monetise, on a grand scale, the brilliant music that is flowing forth out of laptops all over the world – and straight onto Soundlcoud and Bandcamp, as opposed to the old label-distributer-high street system.

Guitar bands fit that system – however broken or archaic – better.

Now, guitar bands aren’t going to vanish simply because a few pasty music bloggers have mooted the feeling that everything new that can be done with a guitar has now been done, yeah?

People still love guitar bands and demonstrate this love via their wallets (dig out Paramore’s gig ticket receipts from 2012 and prepare to set your mind to ‘boggle’).

So, caution should be exercised by all, but especially from new artists tempted to put down the laptop, pick up a knock-off Gibson SG and join in, just because there’s a nagging feeling it’ll make them more likely to appear on Radio 1.

And here’s that cautionary tale you were waiting for, in the form of 2010’s most unknown band, Wu Lyf – a guitar band who had hype galore, tours, limited edition vinyl, expensive merch and appearances on Letterman, for God’s sake – and then who fell apart at the seams before they even released a second album.

They appeared to be a group for whom being a guitar band was just part of the package. And why not? But the facade – their look, their hype – was front and centre. Where would they be if they’d followed their hearts? Or did they?

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I meet a lot of bands. And they all have one thing in common: they’re all smart people. Yes, even the drummers.

Intelligence takes a bunch of different forms: David Beckham, for instance, is widely mocked for being slow-witted, but his true intelligence emerges via his right foot, albeit a lot slower than it once did.

Thus it’s possible to appear a bit dim and yet – because intelligence is not really a measurable trait – still have a solid career in the most creative of bands: see Bez “Bez” Bez of the Happy Mondays, whose position in the group as provider of “vibes” was never under any doubt, despite much face-palm-inducing behaviour over the years.

The other single trait that ties all the bands together that I know is money, or rather, the lack of it. There is no easy route to filthy lucre in music  – although if you’re bright and hardworking you can make, frankly, an easier go of it in the ‘real world’.

So if you’re smart, tight on money and yet as committed to solving problems as Bez was on swallowing anything pill-shaped that he could get his hands on, you might be interested in what GCHQ, who are the focal point of the British Intelligence arm that doesn’t include any members of the Happy Mondays, and who have an HQ shaped like a doughnut, have to offer.

Their Apprenticeships are a focussed alternative to simply going to University and getting drunk for three years, and it’d still allow you time to work on that proto-nu-post-dubstep-core electronic music project that will definitely change pop music.

Hey, let’s face it, you’re using your computer all evening to transform that sample of Gangnam Style into a proto-2-Step bassline, so why not transfer those beat-beat skills into code-breaking? Or your ability to hunt and download cracked copies of Fruity Loops into hunting cyber criminals?

And I have it on excellent authority that an endless stream of white label Four Tet remixes are piped into the office 24/7, so all’s good on the vibes front (OK, Bez?)

More Here: GCHQ Apprenticeships

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Remember last time I asked you to check your pop calendar?

It was just before Christmas, and you’ll fondly remember how we all marvelled at the fact that not only was 2012 close, but how the BRIT Awards 2012 were also agonisingly within our collective grasp.

Well guess what? The UK’s annual musical blowout is now within spitting distance, arriving on February 21st.

Not that you’d want to expectorate anywhere near it of course; what with our aunties’ favourite rambunctious autobiography-shifter – that’s James Corden, of course – hosting an event that promises glamour, spectacle, celebrity, sponsorship by MasterCard and maybe JLS, who’ll probably do backflips whilst rubbing their abs a bit.

Well, by the time you read this, the Brits will have trotted out their nominations, which, let’s face it, will probably feature the part-rap, part-indie, all-scallywag Ed Sheeran in there somewhere, Adele (inevitably), and possibly even the bewilderingly unsmiling US blood-obsessive Lana del Rey.

But just watching this all take place might not be enough. Some of you want something more. Something special. What you want is Something For The Fans, which gives you the chance to win a Priceless Duet with one of music’s biggest names, including JLS, Emily Sandé and Labrinth. All you need to do is enter online and you too could be nervously duetting with them on national TV.

And whilst you’re dreaming of duetting with your squeaky-clean popstar of choice (Lemmy from Motörhead is sadly unavailable), Mastercard users can use their Priceless London service to help make slipping in and out of the capitol as easy as pie.

So hurry along and apply, and you could be tunelessly wailing along with JLS so soon, it’ll make your head spin. (Or that could just be Aston from JLS doing flips again.)

Viral video by ebuzzing